Today Jessica Newton (not related to the Sir Isaac Newton, but related to an Isaac Newton) and Chelsea McCartney (not related to Paul MacCartney but talented nontheless) arrived from Knoxville, TN. Jessica will be coming in May to begin leading worship for rH on regular basis. Until then she is coming once a month and will be back with us on Easter Sunday. I'm really excited to have such a talented sister-in-law who truly has a heart for worship and wants others to experience that same heart for the way of Christ.
Tomorrow morning we have two talented chic's leading us in worship. So if your near and searching we hope you stop by to little place we call realHope, a place where you can come as you are, a place we like to call home...until we all get home. Worship - 10:30 am.
My MOM! So yesterday my mom was great and took Luke for the day and to spend the night with them. That in itself makes her pretty tough. But after three boys of her own who would expect anything less, right?
So, they went to work over at church with Papa, and as mom and Luke were getting ready to leave my mom got held up! A young kid came right up in her face and told her to give him money or he was going to kill her! So my mom, looked him in the eyes and put her arms on his arms and said, "Luke, go get your Papa inside."
The young kid told her to get her arms off him and not to touch him. Then he took off running!
The police came, found the kid, and my mom felt so bad for him getting arrested. All I got to say is my mom is tough, and this is exactly why I never gave her too many problems growing up! Way to go mom!
Seriously, why are weekend only two days. I have so much more I need to get done around the house. Christie has created a 'honey-do' list and I only got one thing crossed off! (And this is not because I just wasted away my weekend) Between church and two active kids, everything else sometimes feels like mission impossible to complete. I'm just thinking we've got it backwards. Maybe it should be more like Monday - Friday off, work Saturday and Sunday. Awe, well Monday is here before you know it...hope your week turn's out good!
realHope Christian Church (rH) continues to take bold steps forward and anticipates 2008 to be a year of significant growth both spiritually and numerically. rH’s mission to reach people with real concerns and provide real answers to live a real purpose as Christ followers focuses us on our missional purpose as a church.
rH’s growth strategy will be supported with strategic outreach events, beginning of home groups, addition of leadership, and leveraged with new marketing techniques through mass emails, traditional mail, and web-site enhancements. Growth will rely on owners committing to spiritual growth with renewed focus on personal and corporate prayer life. Our vision to respond and release people into God’s freedom will continued to be reached with people becoming new devoted Christ-followers.
Strength in our current ownership (our word for members) will help increase our community awareness and outreach opportunities. Together rH will become a leading church in the community that provides a culture where people can come as they are and find life change in the body of Christ.
Our milestones will include:
Grow ownership to 50 people; average attendance 100.
Discover and develop community partnerships.
Complete building changes to facilities by end of Q1.
Recruit worship leader to start by Q2.
Participate in Fuquay-Varina spring festival (Q1) and fall festival (Q3).
Develop leadership infrastructure with new management team members and additional staff members.
Establish annual growth budget with support plan.
Revise vision plan to reflect current position and support future plan.
Develop guest connection process to ownership connection process.
Simplify administration data and communication processes.
Develop outreach events for Q2 & Q4.
Redesign prayer and supporter communication lines.
Design online giving web portal.
Simplify website to support current needs.
Develop and initiate home groups (Q1).
Join us this Sunday night at 6 PM for dinner. Come dream, plan, and pray with us as we seek out God's direction. All of the above will be discussed as we being a new year.
Ok, sorry it took me a little longer to get the good news out. Many of you already know and if you are a reader of my wife's blog she already blogged about in our Christmas letter to family and friends. Yesterday I formally signed on to be the new Operations Manager for the recruitment center at Headway Corporate Resources. I'm really excited about this opportunity to lead such an outstanding team that is at the HRC. I also get to continue to work with Paulette who was the former Operations Manager - she's now moving to Directer of Recruitment, but her office will still be at the center. The HRC has had its bumps in the road, but I'm confidant we can take it to new levels in 2008. My boss, Suzanne will continue to give great leadership as we move forward. I truly work with some great people!
And...we broke another attendance record at church. This Sunday night is our first Owner's dinner & meeting of the year where we are kicking off our 2008 theme and plans for the year - Reveal. I truly believe this is a year where God is going to reveal some amazing truths to our church and reveal His way to our community through rH.
And...my dad comes home Friday. I cannot tell you how much I've missed his encouragement and support and love. He never stops giving it even through dealing with his own things and far away, but his presence on a Sunday morning when I feel like quiting or the moment I'm going crazy trying to balance the bivocational life of work, family, and the church - well, he keeps me going and it will be good to seem him home.
And...our church sign should be done and up on the building in about two weeks. We have to get a building inspection but it should be no real big deal (please pray that it does not become a real big deal. Friday - Inspection - Prayer)
And...I'll have some other great news by the end of the month. It's even better than all the above! Really, I mean it!
So, reader, if close by come be my guest on Sunday at 10:30 am at rH. Come as you are...and don't worry, we don't allow perfect people.
Well, life as been busy adjusting with a new addition to the family. Christie, Luke, Julianne, Soleil, Xander are all doing well. I have some good news on the horizon that I will be sharing with you over the next two weeks. So check back...just a little teaser for the good news coming!
This was a rough week. I work for the recruitment center where we staffed 35 employees and on Monday we had to let go 15 of them. Wednesday I encounter one of my famous headaches and found myself out for the next 15 hours sleeping it off. I woke up Thursday morning at 5 am feeling like I had just woke from hibernation, hungry and strangely refreshed after so much pain. I had to manage the recruitment center Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday by myself. I have great support from my boss and colleague and hope I managed it as well as they would have.
The good news I went to the Doctor on Thursday and got medicine to help me through January. We are working at scheduling surgery for me in the new year so the headaches can go away. It's all an insurance issue right now but hopefully this time it will all go through.
Today the recruitment center seem to be starting to return to normal. I went and got a cake to celebrate November birthday's. If you know me, I'm the guy who hides in my cube during these office rituals. But nonetheless, I felt we all could use the pick me up. I cleaned out everyone's desk who had left. It was cleansing and now I feel we all can start moving forward. The team work hard this week to meet one of our client's deadlines.
We keep moving forward at church. It has turned out nothing like I thought, but I'm grateful for that. I could never return to ministry as I once knew it. This has change my life and perspective of how God intended the church to be. I look forward to working it without the other jobs some day and not feel so divided between work, family, and what God has called me to do. On the other hand everything is so intertwined that I can only expect great things to take place as I walk this journey. I pray that God will just continue to send us people who need a place where they can come as they are and find the way of Christ.
We had a couple of fires in the fireplace already has the weather changes. Tomorrow Luke is going to help me plant the fall/winter plants. And if we are lucky Julianne will decide to show up.
I stood in this one!
So this evening I decided since I've been working so hard (yesterday was a very long day!) that I needed some fresh air and something fun to do. It was moderately fun but would have been so much more fun if my wife and son were along. I went to Pier 39 where I enjoyed some ice-cream, a magic show, sea-lions (boy were the loud!), overlooked Alcatraz Island (I really wanted to go see this but they didn't have an evening tour tonight...ahh well), watched the cable cars, looked at the sail boats, and then enjoy a quiet dinner at the crab house. I sat in front of a fire which is the first time I have felt warm in California! So it was all ok but when you are far away from the ones you love most...well...it sucks. However, please enjoy the pictures!
So I’m on my way to San Francisco, California, and it’s a long flight. So I thought this would be a good opportunity to update you all on things that have been going on lately.
I’m going to San Francisco to recruit people for jobs. This was a last minute trip decided on Wednesday because we had somewhat of a crisis on a current project. And so I was asked to make this trip to provide the leadership needed. My boss has call me her ‘star performer’ which I have to admit is always nice for the ego…however big responsibility and sacrifice seems to follow it.
I’d prefer not to travel and be gone for another week from Christie and Luke. They both are very strong and supportive when I’m gone. But today before I left I got to play with Luke and his balloon and well it’s those moments that make it really hard to go do your job.
And this is the first time I’ve flown Southwest and wow I’ve never seen people herd to the gate to get their preferred seat like that before. Lucky me got a window seat with no one beside me!
We had our first baby dedication service at rH. It was really great…it was super! Scott and Jen DeVarne dedicated their child Steven. We had 30 people come and well, yep our building was really crowded. A lot of great connections were made and it was so good for our community to experience the body of Christ together like that.
We have so big outreach events coming up this month and next. We are going to have a booth at Fuquay’s downtown festival where over 10,000 people come. Then in November we are doing another International Quiz night. We are looking for a local bar or pub to sponsor it at. Right now we are searching for a worship leader or least some people who can play instruments to help out our worship. Once we have that in place we are going to look at doing a bigger marketing campaign in the community.
Honestly there are nights I lay awake thinking this will never happen. There's not enough time in the day to get it all done. And somewhere in all of these rushing thoughts of things that I need to do for work, church, and family it all hits me - I can not do it all. And this truth is really quite a relief once you accept it. It's just getting to that point.
There is a lot going on this week. This Sunday we begin Sunday morning worship services at 10:30 AM, we have a cook out this Saturday, and there are so many things that need to be accomplish for both of those things. The good thing, is there is a good team of people at realHope that are ready to work hard to make sure things are ready. It is nice to know that when I realize I can't get it all done, they have already realized that weeks before I do. So everyone is busy getting things done this week and working hard.
If you are in the area I hope you will join us this Sunday morning at 10:30 AM. It will be a great time of worship and fellowship. And I promise you'll find more than just a church, you'll find a family.
