Peachtree 2.0

Just got back from our staff retreat. Was a great time! We need to hang out more together. Our staff are the greatest servants I know and they are some of mine and Katie's best friends!

After reading Simple Church this year, we have just revamped how we communicate our mission. Everything we do is about leading people to C4:

Celebrate Jesus' glory and grace.
Connect to Christ's people
Contribute to His Kingdom's cause, and
Call others to follow Jesus.

We built the calendar and budget around these four elements of discipeship. It was cool how quickly we put things together when everybody is on the same team.

I also led the staff to "upgrade" our systems (how we do things). 2008 is going to be our best year yet!

Money...for Dummies

We've got some great things going this month that I am so pumped about!

Our Money for Dummies series kicked off today, and I shared with the congregation one of my greatest dummy mistakes in money (I bought $2000 of Cisco stock at the highest price it's ever been and sold it three years later for $450).

Then we looked at Matthew 6 and how Jesus told us he wants us to submit our finances to the rule of God and he will give us everything we need (without bondage to debt or worry).

I am praying that our congregation will get this truth in a big way.

We are bringing in Joe Sangl for one of his Financial Learning Experience seminars on Sunday, December 9 5-7pm. That should be cool!

Heroes of the Week! - Work Day Servants

Wow!

I can’t believe how much we got done today at our Church Work Day at the new Peachtree! It is awesome. We had about 30 people working today.

The entire nine acres is cut and weed-eaten.

Much weeding and landscaping and transplanting was done around mailbox and in the courtyard outside the theatre.

Billy McLemore is doing AWESOME on the floors…bathrooms, office hallway, and nursery hardfloor is done and must dry and then get two coats of a sealant. They are putting the chips down for all of of coffeeshop floor today.

Ronnie Savoie is going heighten the posts for the permanent PCC sign, take off the scaffolding around the sign, and put up posts to do current series sign.

A lot more paint touch-up was done in the theatre and middle room.

Two Codys painted gates black.

The preschool walls were painted today by Sheila, Cody, and others.

Theatre chairs arrived on site today courtesy of Candace & Mickey (they also got our 250 worship center chairs earlier this week in ONE LOAD!)

Mickey bushhogged by the road, filled in the craters in the lower playground area (left when swings sets were dug up by former owners) and spread wood chips around the riverbank.

What a fun and productive day!

Thanks to everyone of you…you are loved and appreciated!

Get Ready for the Fall

Hey Peachtree,

Guys, I’m fired up from our study of Exodus, and God has definitely set me free from some fears I’ve had about leading our church (humanly speaking, I’m staying true to my commitment a few weeks ago to let Christ lead His church)

This Sunday, you’ll hear from my heart where we need to go this Fall. We’re going to faith-risk to see people far from God connect to Him MORE THAN WE EVER HAVE BEFORE! We have a $1 million tool in our hands (the new building) and we’re going to put all the energy of the church into leveraging that tool to reach MANY more people for Christ from now until Christmas. We have a strategic window this Fall to impact West Georgia, and we must have all hands on deck.

Also, this Sunday, you’ll see some never-before-seen photos of the new building and a great testimony of lives changed at Peachtree!

DO NOT MISS this Sunday! I can’t wait!

Villa Rica Fireworks

Flickr: Photos from reidbook70

Wow, what a great night!
For those unable to make it: PCCers met at the north end of the football field right under the fireworks.
We brought a cooler of water and about 20 popsicles from our freezer and they went over great with our people.

At 8:00, we organized a low-pressure blitz of flyers through the crowds, and I heard several positive reports of conversations. I had several good conversations with our people in our community, and Tandy knows of several families who want to come Sunday. We gave out all 500 flyers. I’m sure we’ll see from fruit. It was awesome to see our students reachig out. This was our very first stab at this as an outreach (this was only the 2^nd year VR had fireworks). We all agree it would be so much easier to invite people if we were also giving out popsicles or glow sticks.

PCC kids were having a blast climbing on the goalposts (is that wrong?)

The fireworks were AWESOME! Everyone said they were the best they had seen even from cities much larger. And everyone also commented that this was the closest they’d ever been to them. They had an incredible finale and really, really loud ones.

Afterwards, all PCCers waited for about an hour for traffic to clear out, but the kids were playing and everyone was talking…it was great.

Ideas for next year:

1. We bring coolers of drinks for PCCers (bring your own picnic food or buy from the booths they have)

2. Hang out from 7:00-8:00

3. At 8:00, we hand out popsicles or glow sticks/loops, frisbees or small beach balls (Stephanie Cartwright’s idea) along with a flyer/postcard/You’re invited businesscard

4. April had the idea of red, white, blue “Freedom in Christ” shirts.

Basically, we make it a fellowship/outreach.

Hope to see you guys we met on Sunday!

Thankful for the God of Freedom

Last summer, I read John Adams by David McCullough, the biography of our second president and one of the Founding Fathers.

What struck me was how tenuous the whole founding of America was:

• Getting agreement of leaders of the colonies (many of whom were loyalists),


• the harsh circumstances the Fathers endured to hash out agreement (John Adams was separated from his wife months and months at a time while she endured tremendous hardships including loss of a child)


• the gathering together of an army to go against the British


• the incredible circumstances which allowed the Americans to prevail againt a vastly stronger nation


• etc.

The more tenuous the situation seems, the more God’s hand is evident.
For America to exist, there were many “If God doesn’t show up, we’re sunk!” moments.
It seems that’s what God loves to do.
And He uses faithful men and women who are willing to risk it all to accomplish what He wants.
I am thankful for His perfect strength and timing.
And today, July 4^th, I’m very thankful for all the brave men and women who serve on our behalf in uniform.
Thank you, God for freedom in our country.  May You bless those who protect it!

 

 

Exodus, Above and Beyond

We're in a series on Exodus 1-15 called the Great Escape: Breaking Free from the Things That Keep You Enslaved.

When you're teaching through a book with a firm date to start your next series, you have to pick and choose what you're going to cover which is sometimes hard since it is all inspired and has meaning.

Two people in my congegration noticed I skipped over this little gem in Exdous 4:24-26 (Thanks for being in your Bible, Jeff Lynn and Sheila Whitworth!)

Exodus 4:24-31

24At a lodging place on the way, the Lord met Moses and was about to kill him. 25But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son’s foreskin and touched Moses’ feet with it. “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me,” she said. 26So the Lord let him alone. (At that time she said “bridegroom of blood,” referring to circumcision.)

Then in verse 27-31, it goes right back to the story of Moses and Aaron getting together with the Israelites (above).

So, what are verse 24-26 about? I actually thought about preaching it as one of the messages, but it didn't quite fit with the theme of Breaking Free as well as everything else does.

First, since the passage (3 verses) doesn't have a whole lot of detail., most of the commentaries I read "supposed" a little of the situation.

Basically, ever since Genesis 17:10-14 God had told Abraham for all males who believed in God to be circumcised.

The Bible Knowledge Commentary summarizes the point of this passage best:

In his years in Midian Moses had neglected to obey God’s command (cf. Gen. 17:10) to circumcise one (or both?) of his sons. So God was about to kill Moses, perhaps by causing him to be gravely ill. Zipporah reluctantly circumcised her son with flint and then God healed His prophet. Her touching Moses’ feet with the son’s foreskin was possibly a symbolic act of substitution, in which obedience was seen as replacing disobedience. Zipporah called Moses a bridegroom of blood. The meaning of this phrase is unknown, but some say it was used in a derogatory way to suggest that she did not favor the rite. (Yet she did it to save her husband’s life.) Others propose that she saw in the act a sort of redemption by which the blood of the youngster restored Moses to the Lord and also to her as a new bridegroom.

At this time Zipporah and the sons may have returned to Jethro (18:2-3). Moses’ sudden illness was a warning that he must obey God wholly and fulfill his mission.

Walvoord, John F. ; Zuck, Roy B. ; Dallas Theological Seminary: The Bible Knowledge Commentary : An Exposition of the Scriptures. Wheaton, IL : Victor Books, 1983-c1985, S. 1:115

Had I preached it, the point would have been: We must get right with God if we want to do His work.