.Real.Greg.Lee.

There are a few things I love doing for fun andone of them is on the horizon…Fantasy Football. 

I have 3 leagues…one with a friend from college…one at Suncrest…and my favorite one: a mix of family and old friends where I’m the commissioner of the league. 

We had our draft today in Bloomington, IL at my brother’s house (7 of the 8 of us made it to the all-day party and the 8th was on speakerphone).  Except for the host all of us drove over an hour…most of us over 2 hours to get there.  Crazy, isn’t it?

Now in our 8th season with 7 of the 8 original peoples still playing, I named the league “Lee Brothers and Others” with the tag line “because that’s the order we finish in.”  That has mostly been true.  After the draft today, here’s my picks on our order of finish.

1.  Me (I always pick myself to win, but never have won this league).

2.  Ben Lee – my younger brother

3.  Tim Lee – my older brother

4.  Dave Burger – Friend from college in ministry in Catlin, IL

5.  Matt Schmidt – friend from HS, now the news anchor on WGEM in Quincy, IL

6.  Andy Royalty – my brother-in-law

7.  John Walter – friend and one of my coaches in HS

8.  Jim Caler – friend from college now in ministry in Springfield, IL

The best part of Fantasy Football is the chance to give each other a hard time.  The 2nd best part is that the season will still mean something to me after the bears start 1-3.

Posted in Suncrest

We had our fall leaders training for community groups on Saturday.  Our groups ministry has been a powerful force over the last few years as we progressed from being a church who had a few groups to it being the norm of your suncrest experience.

This training was prepping us for a fall all-church experience cenetered around “The Life You’ve always Wanted”

Mary Beth and her team did a great job Saturday — and the energy in the room was remarkable.  We had a guest from another local church sit in to observe our process and we got this very cool note back from her…

I enjoyed being a part of your training.  You and your leaders definitely have “it”, as Craig Groeschel would say! 

Posted in Suncrest

We kicked off a new series Sunday called “My Story” and I asked everyone to take an hour this week to really reflect on how the story of their lives was intersecting with the story of God…and especially the theme of God’s story.  That theme of redemption is all about putting the world back together.  It’s more powerful for me when I think about how I could have a role in “putting someone’s world back together”.

There are so many broken people who cross our paths.

This morning, I opened my email and had a note from one someone who was here Sunday and talking about her “My Hour” experience.

“I have briefly shared the story about my dear friend who spends all of her days in a nursing home.  I felt I was doing as much as I could to help her, but it wasn’t until after the sermon on Sunday that I realized I wasn’t really doing all I could, and even though in my mind my heart would break for her it wasn’t breaking the way God really wants it to…I know we will all grow from this, but what’s more important is the blessing that will come to those we are reaching out to.”

Posted in Suncrest

…actually, I mean it is still a must-read for me.

I agreed to post a review of Mark Batterson’s Wild Goose Chase here by today.  They did give us an “out” since the books got out so late that if we absolutely could not get it read, we could just post some info about the book and do the review soon after.

One thing I hate is “false praise” or empty praise, so I’ll wait until I’ve read it to give you my honest and candid take on it, but here is what I can say…

1.  Mark Batterson is worth reading.  He’s inspiring and insightful.  Best of all, he is challenging.  He has a way of lifting you up with his writing instead of “drilling” you…so it is a welcome challenge.

2.  The book is NOW available.  It’s pretty much everywhere.

www.amazon.com

www.barnesandnoble.com

www.borders.com

www.cbd.com

www.familychristian.com

www.parable.com

3.  There are additional personal resources like Mark’s 10 Steps to Setting Life Goals at www.chasethegoose.com

4.  Also, for church leaders out there, there is some great companion materials for small groups, etc.  You can find it all at www.chasethegoose.com

Posted in Suncrest

We’ll launch the east campus in 47 days at the new Showplace 12 movie theater right by the major mall of NW Indiana.  It’s going to rock.

I got a lot of updates today from Doug on the finances for it (looking strong), the plans for the video capture of messages (details most people would never think of), and the progress on our volunteer matrix (it’s the big thing right now, as it should be).

But my favorite part was this…I was walking out of our business team meeting a little before 10:00pm and I ran into Mike Fortner.  Mike works downtown, but does a ton of stuff around our church.  He was here tonight because he was practicing on the drums.  We need all kinds of musicians for our new campus and Mike was spending time on his own here tonight help fill a key role.  Why?  He loves being part of church that really cares about reaching people.

I’ll never be able to get enough of people like that.

Posted in Suncrest

I just got Mark Batterson’s new Book Wild Goose Chase in the mail.  I’m supposed to read it and write a review on my blog here before Friday when it is released in stores.  Mark has been a great influence on me and my ministry since I have been reading his blog – Linked in the right column here on my blog.  

I gave his first book –  In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day – to all of our ministry staff and elders for Christmas.  We used it on our elder retreat and it hit all of us in powerful ways. 

Wild Goose Chase takes builds on some of Marks theme of life being a spiritual adventure.  The name comes from the concept that Celtic Christians called the Holy Spirit “The Wild Goose”.  Can’t wait to read it.  I’ll have a review by Friday right here.

Posted in Suncrest

This weekend marks the end of my 4 weeks out of the office.  It’s been really good, especially in terms of refreshment and family time.

I itch to get back for various reasons, but on the ministry front I have a lot of confidence that our staff and volunteer leaders don’t skip a beat with me gone.  I read the notes from the past two weeks staff meetings and here’s a sampling of what happened while I was out…

*        Thirteen people went on the Indy mission trip on Saturday – it was a great trip. 

*        Four people attended the baptism class on Sunday; all four will be baptized.

*        WorldChanger event was fun – approximately 50 children attended.  Fred Ewing, and Lonnie and Tonia Marsh were a great help as were several new parents. 

*        CIY was awesome.  Four students made the decision to be baptized, 6 decided to go into ministry, and 4 made the decision to be kingdom workers. 

*        We sent a team for Children’s Ministry to Impact on Sunday.  We had a good response from our contributers and Suncrest family to help out.  Area churches go there once a month to help out in Children’s Ministry. 

I love our staff!

Posted in Suncrest

Jared (our youth guy and my Cardinals com-padre) and I got to see a game last night that probably was a good microcosm of the Cardinals season.

-they won…they’ve done more of that than they should this year.

-their bullpen blew a lead in the 9th

-Ryan Ludwick and Albert Pujols hit homeruns (which they repeated tonight!)

They went into extra innings and had 2 rain delays.  That was OK…the temp went from 93 to 73 and after the 2nd delay, we walked down form our seats about 15 rows up (the pic is from here) and sat in the front row for the rest of the game. 

Jared took me to a cool place to eat in the city called Crown Candy Kitchen…The sandwich was good and I couldn’t finish the milkshake.

And best of all…my Ebay purchased Honda Civic got 37 mpg cruisingat 79 mph with the AC on and two big guys inside.

Posted in Suncrest

I seriously love living by Chicago.  It’s a world class city with everything you could want.  I love going downtown just for the feel of it.

But…I was through the city on Friday (Soldier Field), Saturday (family gathering in Evanston), and Sunday (Cubs Game).  And I’m ready to hang out in the suburbs for a while (after I make an O’Hare run later today!).

Besides spending 9 hours on the road/in traffic, it was also hard on the wallet…

Tolls for three days (stinkin’skyway): $27 

Parking for two events:  $38

Gas, food at the games, tolls for the van using my other I-pass: too much too think about.

Posted in Suncrest

OK, I’m learning a few things while on this time away from the office.  Some are about myself.

My default is “go”.  I like to work hard.  I like to play hard.  I don’t sleep much, but Jenny will tell you that when I am asleep, I even sleep hard.  I don’t do very well with down time unless it is active down time where I can do something.  Our elders grant me time off each summer and my mind immediately goes to how I can fill it up with things I don’t have time for in the daily grind.  It’s part of me…and it has baggage.

Is it possible to “Reflect Hard”?  Yes and no.  On one hand, my mind is always reflecting/analyzing.  Instead of segmenting it to a slice of life, I think it’s helpful to integrate it with all of life.  On the other hand…some things (actually, the most important thoughts) only come to mind when I quiet myself and reflect.  When I’ve done this over my break, I’ve found myself to be “antsy” for the first 30 minutes or so of it and then I do start to feel the enjoyment and power of it.  And it has been in these times that God has kind of rocked my world with a specific next step that I need to take personally or that Suncrest needs to take.

I just looked at my calendar for the rest of my time away from the office.  After getting back from a two week trip early Wednesday morning, I had a great day to decompress and get caught up.  Now I’m looking ahead to the next week.  The schedule is almost full, but it is at least full with some good things. 

I’ll be at Soldier field with my kids, Wrigley Field with 25 members of Jenny’s family, Busch Stadium with our youth pastor, and U.S. Cellular with one of our favorite friends – Vickie Graziano!  I’ll make a couple of airport runs, go to Evanston for a cookout with family, and unfortunately have an emergency elders meeting.  Next weekend I have a wedding for Rick Barker and this is a special one since Rick means the world to me, I also did his sister’s wedding, his mom is my assistant, and his dad is one of my best friends.

In there…I will also find time to reflect.  I need to.

Posted in Suncrest