.Real.Greg.Lee.

Speaking at CIY was great.  So much energy in the room.  I’d been praying for the students all week and we had a ton of people come forward.  I challenged the students to 3 things: specific repentance (instead of a more generic “re-dedication” or “re-commitment”), giving their life to ministry or missions vocationally, and specifically following through on the ministry plan they formed earlier in the day (more than I can explain here).

Nate Kearnes (conference director) and I talked a little bit afterward and he sensed the same thing I was feeling – that decision time at CIY is good and valuable, but a flood of kids come up every night.  This isn’t a bad thing.  They are praying and repenting and making decisions about their futures.  When as many come forward as are left in their seats it’s kind of hard to sort it all out when it comes to what decisions are really being made and who is really making them (a lot come up with friends for support).

I thought Nate did a great job wrapping up the week at the end of the service when students were back in their seats.  He got very specific in asking students about the decisions they made – gave everyone a chance to see who they were.  There were hundreds and hundreds who were repenting from something specific and setting a new course.  I’d say there were dozens who made the decision this week to go into ministry or missions.  It wasn’t part of my message, but over the week they were also challenged to give their heart to Christ for the first time and there were a number of those who were acknowledged too.

Thanks for those of you who were praying for me on this.  I do my other on July 18 in Tennessee so keep praying.

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It was a really cool experience to hang out with the CIY team in Colorado.

Speaking was great and I’ll post on that separately, but what was just awesome to me were the people who work with CIY.  From the time I landed at the airport yesterday to the time I got dropped off this morning, they were full of hospitality, support and professionalism.  About a half dozen of them stopped to pray with me one-by-one before I spoke.  The Matt Bayless Band was awesome at leading worship and genuinely humble.  The production teams love what they do and work their tails off – and it is quite a production.

I got to tear down with them Friday night after the session.  In 2 hours they transformed a room like I have never seen and loaded it all on a truck.  Pizza and pop afterwards was cool, but it was midnight (1:00am to my body) and I had been up since 4:15am so I did cut out after grabbing a couple pieces.  My alarm went off at 4:30 this morning so I could catch my flight out.  I’ll be sleeping on the plane and doing final prep for tomorrow’s sermon.

Posted in Suncrest

My wife, Kim and I have been married 30 years and have two children, Luci, who is 22 years old and Lawrence, who is 18.  We started attending Suncrest in the fall of 2000 after relocating here from Florida.  We have a large number of relatives in the Chicagoland and Northwest IN area which is why we moved back to Indiana.

Kim and I own two Ballroom Dance Studios; one in Schererville and one in Tinley Park, IL.  My occupation requires that I stay reasonably fit so exercise is part of my weekly schedule; however I truly enjoy my downtime with my family.  Kim and I like to watch a movie each week as well as go out to dinner as regularly as we can; we started this “date night” when we were raising our children.   

I also had “Daddy daughter outings” with Luci and still enjoy them though they’re not as regular as they once were.  This year she would like to do one of the following, Segway tour of Chicago, City bike tour, kayak tour or schooner sailing. 

My son and I have always seemed to have different interests, but when I explored his I found an exciting new outing called Paintball, which is a blast!  I have learned to appreciate different kinds of music through him and have the pleasure of having him work with me in our business for the past year.  He was kind enough to start golfing with me, however he’s stopped now but I still enjoy it anytime I can.

Since coming to Christ in 1983 many people have had an influence on me – pastors of the churches we’ve attended, friends we made through community groups, and family members, especially my brother Jack.

Reading God’s Word every day keeps me in touch with Him and a little less in touch with the world.  I also enjoy reading Christian books with my Saturday morning men’s group.  We’re into books by Lee Strobel right now; we just finished “A Case for Christ” and are currently reading “A Case for a Creator”.  After my Saturday morning Men’s group, I look forward to listening to “Wait, wait don’t tell me”, a weekly hour-long quiz program on National Public Radio.

Being used by God to change lives is truly the way I see Suncrest in words and deeds.  We continually reach out to our community and beyond.  Our commitment to reach and save the lost is kept in the forefront of what we do.  It is a priority as it should be with us all.  I am privileged to be serving as an elder at Suncrest I have found it to be humbling, rewarding, and spiritually developing.  I am honored to be serving with the men I serve with and am looking forward to serving with others.

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Big thanks to our Student Life Pastor Jared Mehrle for letting me speak in our Student Life Worship services this week.  I’m serious about that.

I’m speaking at a High School Christ in Youth Conference called “Move” this Friday night in Colorado and it has been a while since I spoke to students.  I asked Jared about the potential for me to speak in their worship service (to be reminded how out of touch I am!), but I didn’t want to disrupt the plans they already had together.  Not only did he give me this Sunday, but he even let me do my talk for the conference.

We’re fortunate to have Jared.  A few things I love about him…

1.  He does a great job leading our student ministries.

2.  He’s a Cardinals fan.

3.  He met me today for an early breakfast to give me great feedback on my message…even though he is out at camp.

4.  Like most youth pastors, he’s gives almost 1/2 the summer to be away 24/7 on trips.  I’m so glad that is over for me.

5.  He has a great sense of the fine line betweent creative and cheesy when we are programming things.

6.  He got away with saying “crap” in his sermon a few weeks ago.  I never would…even if I could.  But there is something about his personality and his position that lets him get away with things.  I’m jealous.

7.  His teaching gift is strongly developing…he’s hit a home run the last few times he taught in adult worship and we are going to use him a bit more as Doug goes to launch the east campus.

Posted in Suncrest

I’m not claiming that this is near equal or anything, but Jenny has had a run of things going on that has given me more chance than usual to hang out by myself with the kids (usually, she’s the quasi single parent with my schedule).

Wednesday night she had a soccer game (first game of her summer league).  Thursday night she was programming mediashout/powerpoint at the church.  This morning she went to the morning part of a worship team gathering at the church, had a baby shower in the afternoon and a children’s ministry trip to Naperville tonight.

I have such a great appreciation for what Jenny does day in and day out.  Today we did everything from puzzles to a post office run with late Father’s day creations for their grandpas to a walk around the block and cleaning up some things in the yard (hence the above picture).  Bedtime is supposed to be 8, but tonight it was 9, after baths.

I love flying solo with the kids, but also glad when it’s done (or they are in bed!). 

Posted in Suncrest

My wife, Cindy and I have been married for 25 years.  Our daughter, Tara, is married and lives in Lafayette with her husband, Lorenzo.  They are expecting our first grandchild in October.  Our son, Rick, is a student at Ball State and is engaged to Jen Hubbard.  We are all looking forward to their wedding in August.  We have been attending Suncrest since the fall of 1996.

I became a Christian at 19 after being raised in a good, but non-Christian home.  When Cindy and I moved to Milwaukee for my job, we fell away from church and stop attending for almost 10 years.  When we returned to Indiana in 1996, we knew it was time to get back to what we knew was right.  Like a lot of people, we were motivated by the desire for our kids to know about God.  And also like a lot of people, this desire has meant as much in our lives as it has in our kids.  Suncrest was the first church we visited and we have never left.

It may sound kind of strange but one of the people who has had a major impact on my spiritual journey is a radio preacher.  During our time in Milwaukee, I drove to Illinois to work for several years.  During the long hours on the road and out of sheer boredom, I surfed into a radio program called “A New Beginning” with Greg Laurie.  I learned a lot of what I know about faith and the Bible from listening to him on the radio.  The program is still on the air in Chicago, AM1160 at 7:00am.  This prepared me for Suncrest, where I am learning what it means to be a true Christ-follower.  Since then I have been influenced by my wife, my kids, fellow youth leaders, kids from the youth group, and the other elders but mostly by my friend, Greg Lee.  God has shown how he cares for me by placing Suncrest and Greg in my life.

I believe in Suncrest’s ministry because of changed lives; mine, my family’s, and many others I have had the pleasure to get to know.  Suncrest has always presented God’s word in a clear, understandable, personal, and relevant way.  Hearing and understanding God’s word is the only way for someone to experience true, eternal change.  I love the way we meet people where they are and then expose them to great Bible teaching in a casual, friendly environment.  This is a good combination for people to give God a chance in their lives.  

Posted in Suncrest

Just tweaked the teaching plan we’ve been working on for Sundays at Suncrest in the coming year.  Right now we are planned through mid-August 2009.  That is the furthest ahead we will ever be…and there will no doubt be plenty of revisions between now and then.  Two months ago, we were only planned through August 2008 with framework ideas for the fall.

The themes…Most people ask where we get the ideas for what to teach on.  For me, they come from a variety of sources.  I think what is taught is defining for a church.  It definitely tells people a lot about the values of your ministry.

In my role, my two major responsibilities at Suncrest are teaching and leading so I have the final call on what our themes are, but I’m always asking the other teachers on our staff for their input/insight — I just keep learning that “our ideas are always better than my ideas.”

-some are from our collaborative relationship with New Thing Network (we’ll develop the sermons together)

-some are inspired by what I have heard other guys teach on (you have music on your ipod, I have hundreds of sermons on mine!)

-some were ideas given by Suncrest poeople when we ask for input.  This partially generated the “afterlife” series, a series this summer called “Everyday People”, a series next spring on listening to God/finding the will of God, and next summer on the fruit of the spirit

-Every year we make sure there are messages about our 4C’s in one form or another and we usually devote a whole series to one of the C’s (Cultivate this fall!)

-We like to do some “fun stuff”.  This past year we did “Mix Tape” and “What would Jesus say to _____?”  This fall we will do “God @ the Movies”

-Every year we do at least one series on Jesus, one series on money (since the bible tells us it is the leading spiritual indicator in your life!), one Christmas series (always challenging to be fresh on this!).

-And…I think this is one of suncrest’s hallmarks…we want to do multiple series that are ultra-practical for every day life.  Marriage, relationships, money, fears, etc.  As an example, we have a series planned for next year about faith in the workplace.

-If any of you ministry guys who read this want a copy of the plan as an idea generator, just email me or leave a comment.  I’m all about resource-sharing and I’m happy to send it to you in our spreadsheet form.

Posted in Suncrest

A few weeks ago we did a survey to find out who would be the 3rd personality of our series on What Would Jesus say to ________?  We gave 6 options that I thought were interesting and diverse…and a number of them got lots of votes.  People also got creative with their write in suggestions.  We had people suggest…

What would Jesus say to….

-Ted Bundy

-Mother Theresa

-Tom Cruise

-Hannah Montana

-Roger Clemens

-Greg Lee (thought about doing that one, but it would be a LONG sermon!)

-Paris Hilton

-Stephan Hawking

-Reverend Jeremiah Wright

-The Pope

-Me/Average person (We are doing a series in July that hits this theme.)

-George Bush

-John McCain

-Hillary Clinton

-Barack Obama

In the end, we actually had a “write in” candidate win – none other than Barack Obama.  (He started really strong…then Hillary surged…but he held on in the end.) 

If you’ve been around Suncrest long, you know this isn’t a “political” place, so it will be fun and challenging to tackle it.

At this stage, I’m looking for some help.  What are your suggestions?  What are people’s Sensitivities?  Curiosities?  What should I avoid?  What can’t I avoid?  Leave the replies in the comments below.

Posted in Suncrest

Abby turned two today.  We had a great night.  Just our family at home for a quiet celebration.  The big extended family party will come over July 4 weekend, but we’ve been so chaotic lately that is was nice to be home with just the 4 of us. 

We wrapped it up with cupcakes out on the deck for this beautiful night…and invited our neighbors over for that part.  A great night to hang out a little bit.

Here’s my quick thoughts on Abby as she turns two…

-I’ve never seen anyone — anyone! — with the range of demonstrative facial expressions she has.

-She has a ready answer to any question — quick on the trigger.

-My favorite song to sing to her:  “Some Kind of Wonderful” (inspired by Fred Ewing singing it at Suncrest)

-Best expressions…In frustration she used to say: “Oh Pickles”  Now when things are OK, she says “Oh-Tay”

-She’s blessed to have a big brother like Jack and likes to “keep up” with him.  Here’s a picture of the 2 of them.

-She is beautiful like her mom.

-She leads our prayer at the table once a day with “Open, Shut them”

-I love pushing her on the swingset.  Her favorite way to have me push her usually comes as a grinning command, “Pull my legs off.”

-Having a daughter makes me think all kinds of thoughts.  Mostly either about being a good protector or a good provider.

Posted in Suncrest

I know I’m late to the party for reflecting on Tim Russert, but I didn’t want to let the chance slip away.  I mentioned in an earlier post that I’m a political junkie and that was Russert’s forte.  Of course, his show was on Sunday mornings so its not the best time for me.  🙂

Here’s how much of a nerd I am though…We went without cable for the first 10 1/2 years of our marraige.  When we got it last January, I found out that Comcast had a number of shows that were availabe  on-demand after their original airtime.  And guess what was available to watch at my convenience…”Meet the Press”!  I watched every week…and DVR it now that we switched to dish. 

Anyway…My appreciation mirrors what everyone has already said about him — He was not mean or fiery, but he got to the truth.  He was a good critical thinker as he forced people to think about opposing positions.  Actually, it seems like a good model for preaching/teaching…and life.

Cool side note for me…I got to meet Tim Russert while I was in New Hampshire on the day of their primary in the year 2000.  I was basically kid in a candy shop in the hotel lobby where all the networks do their shoots from.  To call it a conversation would be a stretch, but Russert had a warm smile and firm handshake.

It was the same day I almost met John McCain, but instead met some of John McCain’s security detail.  That’s a story for another day.

Posted in Suncrest