Archives for December 2008

• I’m feeling really good this morning…spiritually, physically, relationally and emotionally I’m in a good place.
• I’ll enjoy it while it lasts because the bible tells us that “in this world you will have trouble”.
• I guess the question then becomes how do you deal with trouble?
• To me I see it as a positive thing. 
• Just like when you lift weights, the muscle is built by the resistance of the weights, spiritually speaking, we grow the most when were pushing through a time of resistance.
• However, I’m still going to enjoy today.
• Guess yesterday’s news means I’m no longer in the running for the Senate seat in the state of Illnois.  :)
• If you haven’t yet checked out the pictures from Sunday, especially the ones from the child dedication, make sure you do. 
• As of yesterday, the Contagious Christmas Challenge total stood at a little over $9100.  I know a few others said they keep forgetting to bring their money so we might make our goal of $10k yet.
• Yesterday I had a meeting with Jenny Shifler who has been handling the adminstraitve side of things for this and I was able to read for the first time some of the stories of families that are in need.
• Wow it breaks your heart what some families are dealing with, but going back to the beginning of this post, I’m praying that through it all they would come into a relationship with Christ or continue growing their relationship with Him.
• Got a busy day ahead of me, so I’ll stop now…hope to see many of you tonight at church for the various classes that take place.

• Ok, one thing I do legitimately hate is snow and ice.
• Too bad the bad weather kept some at home this morning…you missed a good one.
• This is the first time that we actaully had different things scheduled for each Experience. Becuase of child dedications and more people that normally attend the 10:45, we had to plan differently to account for the response time at the end.
• However we miscalculated and the 9:15 was done 10 minutes early.
• So we added back in some of the stuff we had planned to cut at 10:45.
• That was good, becuase I know Aaron enjoys doing “Sweep Me Away”.
• Wow…7 kids dedicated today!
• Usually if I’m really pleased with the message at 9:15, I don’t do as good at 10:45.  Today though was different…reallly enjoyed the 9:15, but then thought I did even better at 10:45…yeah God!
• We’ll post the video of me beating the snot out of the Christmas tree in the next week or so.  Couldn’t believe how many people thought that was the coolest thing they had ever seen.
• Glad you enjoyed it…I’m not sure who won…the tree or me.
• I’m still sore and bruised from filming it on Wednesday night.
• Had quite a few people tell me that they were skeptical when they saw the name of the series but were really changed by today’s message.
• Loved seeing everyone respond to the message by decorating the trees with “their Bethlehem’s”.
• I’m praying that God would give you a stress free holiday season.
• Loved Hannah’s rendition of “O Little Town of Bethlehem” while people were responding…in fact I let it on the recording of today’s message if you want to have a listen.

• Enjoying my day off!
• It was much needed…I’m beat up and bruised from a film shoot we did on Wednesday.
• Just finished hooking up a replacement unit from Direct TV for our up-stairs TV’s since it stopped operating the one in Lisa’s office.
• Getting ready to hook-up Lisa’s new work computer.
• It’s only been a month since we bought it and it’s still sitting in the box.
• Oh well, better late than never.
• Tonight we’re going to go see the movie “4 Christmases“.
• I’m really excited about this weekend…don’t let the series name fool you…the I Hate the Holiday’s series should be really impactful!
• Yesterday during staff meeting, Dianna’s cell phone took a picture of the inside of her pocket…don’t know why but we found that really funny.
• Also, we decided to have our staff Christmas party in January.  Earl wanted to know what we wanted to do about gifts and someone suggested we do White Elephant gifts.  Others were confused by that until it was explained to which they then said, “Oh you mean Dirty Bingo”.
• So since we couldn’t agree on a name, I nominated that we call it “Dirty White Elephants”.
• With deeply theological conversations like that, it’s a wonder we get anything done!
• Ok, off to my next project…see you on the weekend!

Got an up-dated number yesterday on the Contagious Christmas Challenge.  So far, with one week left to go yet, you have donated $6228 to help needy families!  Think about that…that means that so far 25 families in our community will have a little brighter Christmas because of YOU!

If you haven’t yet donated, please bring in your money this week so we can reach our goal of $10,000.  Also, we are still accepting recommendations for families that are in need.  If you would like to nominate a family, please e-mail their name, and other info to us at ccc@unitedworshipexperience.org.

I’m proud of you for being so generous, but even more so Jesus is smiling because you’re doing your part to make someone’s life a little easier during what for many is a stressful time of the year.