Suncrest Black 14 – Suncrest Red 5

•June 23, 2007 • Leave a Comment

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Last night was a big softball showdown.  This year we expanded to two teams and no longer play in a church league, but in a Rec League instead.  Imagine our surprise that the 2 suncrest teams are at the top of the standings.   Last night, with both teams entering the game undefeated, the two Suncrest teams battled it out and Black came out on top. 

As you might guess (since I’m giving it this level of attention), I’m on the black team.  Coach Kevin McHugh has us playing together and pitcher Don Book was player of the game last night.  Our team has a few new guys, but most of us have played together for a number of years.

The Red team is the newer (read “Younger”) team.  The best part about beating them is that our Student Life Pastor Jared Mehrle loves to talk smack and is on that team.  Now he doesn’t have anything to talk about!

Posted in Suncrest

Weekly Suncrest Update

•June 21, 2007 • Leave a Comment

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Tonight is the start of “Simplexity” our Summer Study of 1 Corinthians — should be a great chance to dig in to a very interesting book of the Bible. Be here at 7:00pm — childcare provided!!

This weekend two of our summer mission trips take off that our Missions Team has coordinated. We have one of our largest groups ever going for our 6th trip to relief work in New Orleans. Also, we have a team traveling to help one of the new churches we started in Salem, New Hampshire do an awesome summer camp called “Camp Create.” Part of God’s plan for your life is that you contribute by serving…Pray for those that are serving in this unique way.

This Sunday we complete the “Pause” series.  Should be another introspective time to see how temptation plays with your future. We will watch a clip from an interesting interview that was done with serial killer Ted Bundy hours before his execution. It isn’t graphic, but it is revealing about how temptation spiraled in his life. We’re mixing up the service order a little bit too and think it will help create a powerful worship time.

The following Sunday we begin a new series that Doug and I are really excited about called “Things I Wish Jesus Never Said”. While I’ve never read words that were more encouraging or comforting than the ones Jesus used, he also spoke some challenging truth at times…Some of that tough advice we all need to hear. And….Bobby Jackson will lead us in worship this Sunday! It’s been great having him in the office this week. We’re going to enjoy having Bobby lead our worship ministry for a long time. Be there Sunday to welcome him and his family!

Posted in Suncrest

Two Mentors in one Day

•June 20, 2007 • Leave a Comment

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I have lots of satisfying relationships.  Some are mutually fulfilling.  Some I feel like I give more than I get (which is usually OK).  Then there are a few people who have poured way more into me than I could ever give back to them.  There are at least two of those — My Dad and John Wasem (our founding pastor).

 Yesterday was a great day because I got to have breakfast with John (who now lives 11 hours away) and play golf with my dad (who was in town for Abby’s dedication and Birthday).   Whenever I’m with either of these guys, I just keep trying to soak up their wisdom.  Here’s some of my tidbits from yesterday…

John keeps teaching me about church leadership, church planting, coaching people to get the best out of them, and he still understands the nuances of this church with tremendous insight.  We talked about how Suncrest can keep growing it’s church planting vision in some pretty practical ways.  We talked about our kids (and now a granddaughter for John!) and his leadership at Emmanuel School of Religion and how he has now completed the coursework for his PhD in Organizational Leadership.

I love talking to my dad about fatherhood, the stock market (he’s taught me everything I know about money),  running a successful business (lots of parallels to church), the St. Louis Cardinals, and any number of other topics.  I beat him by one stroke yesterday…though neither of us were impressive and we had a 2 hour rain delay after 8 holes at White Hawk.  The picture above is one from Dad at the Master’s last year getting Jack Nickalaus’ signature on a practice round day! 

Posted in Suncrest

Weekly Suncrest Update

•June 15, 2007 • Leave a Comment

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Just a brief note this week…I feel like I’ve already written a lot to you, but it was in a church-wide letter you’ll get next week in your real mailboxes.  There’s some great info in there that brings us up to date on finances, projects around here, etc.  From my office, I have the perfect view of the second entrance being constructed on our campus…gravel is going down right now!  Get the full update in that letter, including some neat news about our neighbors donating some land to us. 

Sunday’s beginning to the “Pause” message series was challenging wasn’t it?  It was to me.  I know I’ve had a lot of feedback including some very delicate and some very powerful struggles with temptation.  I got an email last night that I’ll share in part, preserving his/her anonymity… 

“…You see, I am a ‘minimizer’.  If I can think up some of the, what I call, “really huge sins” that people commit, it can make some of my sins seem much smaller.  It’s really a great tool and I use it quite often.  After the sermon on Sunday, with much meditation and self examination,  I came to the conclusion that the sin which I chose to focus on during this series and with God’s help remove from my life, that I have always considered not so huge,  is very, very huge.  And the reason that I finally came to confess that it is so huge is because it owns so much of me.  I know it’s going to take time, and much prayer and trust in God to believe that it can be removed from my life, but I am going to put my faith to great testing and truly believe that with God all things are possible.” 

This Sunday we will have a candid interview within the message about the obvious and not-so obvious effects that come from our falls to temptation. 

On a more upbeat note, it’s both Father’s Day and a Baby Dedication Sunday with about 2 dozen babies dedicated over our three services.  Benjamin Gamble, Gibson Mehrle, and our own daughter, Abby, will be among them (our staff is just trying to do our part to help this church grow!).  Sunday is also Abby’s first birthday, so we have plenty to celebrate…and a lot of family in town! 

See you Sunday…

Posted in Family Stuff, Message Reflection, Suncrest

Praying for a miracle…Part 1

•June 13, 2007 • 1 Comment

MiraclesLast night I went with our elders to pray for a woman to be healed.  Nancy Sanasack is one of my favorite people in the world.  She is graceful and gracious and generous and grounded.  She has been a true leader in our community for years as the principal at Kolling Elementary School.  In semi-retirement, she and Ken now operate an insurance school and my wife is one of their instructors.  My kids love her.  In the last month, she’s been diagnosed with and entered agressive treatment for ovarian cancer.

As elders, we don’t do go to pray as a group like this often, but we do as it is requested in the most serious of situaitons.  James 5:14-15 talks about the power of this.

It got me thinking about two huge things I’ll post on in the next few days…First,

1.  I sat there with Nancy and had the experience of personally “pastoring” someone at an intensely personal and uncertain time in life.  I love that opportunity and it really stirred some old feelings about why I got into ministry in the first place.  I definitely do a lot less of this now that the church has grown so much.  I think that is both good and bad, which I’ll explain later.

2.  When I prayed for Nancy, I asked God to heal her miraculously.  Some of the other elders did the same.  Some asked God to heal her “if it is His will.”  Others asked God to work through doctors, medicine, etc.  Do you ever pray for miracles?  Do you do it with high expectations or low expectations?  With hesitancy?  I’ll give you my 2 cents on this sometime soon.

Posted in Uncategorized

Suncrest Update

•June 8, 2007 • 2 Comments

Most every week, I write a brief email update to the church family.  I’ll post them here when I do them for now.  Probaly before long, I’ll just post them here and let everyone come here to find them.

Our teen band did a great job Sunday, didn’t they? And Jared was right on with his teaching. Our student ministry is stronger than it has ever been at Suncrest thanks to his leadership and some outstanding volunteers! We are starting a new three week message series this Sunday that I’ll be teaching through. We all face temptations (and we all give in to them!). This series has the real potential to help us tackle those struggles. I’ve really resonated with the passage I’m teaching from this week and I think you will too.

PAUSE

6/10 – Resisting the Urge

6/17 – A Victimless Crime?

6/24 – An Honest Assessment

Can I brag on all of you for a moment? I tell everyone I meet how cool it is to serve a church like Suncrest. My favorite parts…Great people…Big Vision…Willingness to try new things…and (best of all) it’s a church that really cares about people far from God. So I came across this report some time ago and thought it would be worth sharing with you. It’s not really good news for churches in general.

Only 22 of the 43,000 (about 0.005%) churches studied (southern baptist in this case):

  • Baptized at least 26 people per year for 10 consecutive years
  • Experienced overall worship attendance growth during the same 10 years
  • Had a membership to baptism ratio of no more than 20 to 1.

On the positive side, Suncrest, you meet that criteria…and put yourself in pretty elite company! It’s an awesome reflection of our staff, ministry and group leaders and everyone who serves to make suncrest what it is! If you are interested in more on the study, you can click here.

Posted in Uncategorized

The Value of Assessment

•June 8, 2007 • Leave a Comment

 

I got back into town tonight after being out of town for three days as an assessor at CPAC.  Suncrest has used CPAC a number of times to evaluate candidates as we plant new churches, but this was my first experience in person.  I’ll say I’m thankful I was an assessor and not and assessee!!  The process is challenging (I think I heard “brutal” more than once)…in both preparation and for the 60 hours you are there in person.  But I believe it is truly beneficial for everyone there…it is affirming to your giftedness, eye-openieng to blind-spots, and gives the true gift of critical feeback…that we all need to hear, but rarely do in a supportive way.

Doug Gamble (Associate Pastor) and Jared Mehrle (Student Life Pastor) were there being assessed for some unique ministry opportunities Suncrest may have as explore where God is leading us in the future.   I’ll write more on that sometime.  Both of these guys are top-tier as pastors and the roles they fulfill at Suncrest make a difference in people’s lives everyday.

 I’m thinking about having all new ministry staff hires go through the process becasue it is so comprhensive.  It would be so insightful.  Jon Ferguson from host Community Christian Church has a great description of it’s value on his blog.

Posted in Uncategorized

A quiet entrance to blogging

•June 7, 2007 • Leave a Comment

I’m giving in to the pressure…to begin blogging.  But I’m not announcing it.  I probably will at some stage, but I first need to see how it really will go and if I actually do it with consistency.

 A lot of people have suggestted I do it…as a way to stay connected with Suncrest (as it grows), other leaders (as we collaborate). 

Some friends and family can stay in touch better too. 

So, we’ll see… 

Posted in Church Planting, Family Stuff, Message Reflection, Suncrest, Things I'm learning

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