It begins in roughly 18 hours

I have been waiting for tomorrow for about 6 weeks now.  It is the beginning of something beautiful for my life, for trinity church and for our city.  I am anticipating great things in the days to come.  Tomorrow is the beginning of a new Lead pastor at Trinity church: Scott Marshall will teach for the first time!  It would be great to have you there to welcome him to our family, but also to hear his heart and what God wants to do in us and through us.  Go visit his blog and welcome him "home."

Soles4Souls Shoes Collection

On December 7th I challenged the church to begin looking at the Christmas Season differently.  I asked them to consider giving less to the people they know....the sweater nobody likes or the gift nobody needs and to give their money, time and energy to those who may need it.  So...we collected shoes throughout the month of december and collected over 250 pairs of shoes which will be sent to a company called Soles4Souls.  They will send the shoes all over the world...thanks for being the Church. 

Hidden Valley Ski Trip

We had a great time at Hidden Valley, although there wasn't a lot of snow...mostly ice and mud (which aly found).  We had a couple of first timers and they stuck with it and did awesome.  Can't wait to go back again!

It's Been a Long Year

According to this article, they will be adding a second onto this year! I don't know if we will notice or not, but it will happen. It may have felt like a long year with the economic conditions, the transition out of one pastor into another and many other things, but it has been a good year!

My daughter turned 3 and is going on 13
I accomplished my goal of reading 20 books (actually read 23)
We found out the good news that we are going to have another baby!
Had two great weeks of mission trips serving with college and high school students
Had one of my favorite vacations as a family so far

There are many other great things we experienced as a family and I had the opportunity to do as well. What about you? When you reflect back on your year, what do you remember?

Hidden Valley Ski Trip

Come join us next Sunday the 28th as we go to Hidden Valley to ski, snow board and hang out.  We will eat lunch together after church (pizza on us) and then leave church around 1 and get back late that night.  The cost is $40 if you need to rent equipment, $30 for a lift ticket only and FREE to just go and hang out.  This will be a great time of hanging out and enjoying each other.  If you plan on going please leave a comment on here!

Book Review #23

This book is on the top of my list of best books in 08!  It is a follow up to Rainer' s book "Simple Church."  In this book they interview and question 1000 church "dropouts" and find out why they left the church or what brought them back to the church.  It is full of data...which is hard to get through at times but I believe this book is extremely helpful and understanding why they have left but also what can happen to get them back.  

They look at 4 main things:

Simplify - develop a clear structure and process for making disciples.

Deepen - provide strong biblical teaching and preaching.

Expect - let members know the need for commitment to the congregation.

Multiply - emphasize evangelism, outward focus, and starting new churches.

Do you believe that the church is essential to your life?  I hope we are getting to a point where we find community, a place to belong, and a place that enable and encourages us to be the hands and feet of Christ.  I hope that you begin to see that you are essential to the church and the church is essential to your life!

Learning from an Atheist!

what if we listened and learned from someone who was not "one of us"! I am challenged...hope you are to. Please feel free to comment how you felt and what you think about this video.

Christmas Movie Poll

No Christmas Party Gathering Tonight

We will not be having our christmas party tonight due to the sickness I caught! We will do white elephant gifts and the ugly sweaters at the New Years Eve party at my house from 7-1.

Again the reason no party is because my house is like this video right now!

Last Weeks Gathering

Last week we transformed our "sanctuary" into an area that had interactive prayer stations.  I wanted to share a few pictures from that night.  I think it was a great night for our students.  "Church" is often a time where we go and act as an audience, however I believe for our faith to become real and active we must participate in it.  How do you participate in your faith?  By serving, by singing, through prayer, etc?  I challenge you next time you enter a worship service, don't view your self as part of the audience but has an active participant in the service.

This has been a tough one

I usually wait until I have finished reading a book to give an overview of what I read, however, I feel this book can't wait. Randy Pausch was a professor at Carnegie Mellon University and was diagoned with Pancreatic Cancer which included 10 tumors in his liver. He delivered his "Last Lecture" to his students and it has now become a book. He was a husband and a father of three and seemed to love them very much.

I believe I am a pretty happy person and very optimistic person, however, life is been pretty good to me. I wonder how I would respond to something so difficult. I would like to believe that my faith would be bigger than an obstacle in my way, but I am also honest enough to know it would be hard. I don't know what you situation is like or if you are facing difficult days ahead, but one thing I am learning from Randy Pausch is you can't always control what comes your way but you can control how you respond to what comes.

May you live life today to the fullest, no matter what you are facing.

Online Mission Trip?

This is kind of interesting...I will be following it to see how it goes and what it is about. What is the most creative thing you have seen done online to reach people with the love of Christ? Have you ever tried to witness through the internet?

Love with Action: Shoe Collection

Throughout the month of December we will be collecting NEW and gently used shoes for Soles4Souls. They distribute the shoes around the world to those who need them. Please check your closet and bring in shoes starting this sunday! You can also help by donating money to help ship the shoes to Soles4Souls...it cost around $2 per pair of shoes we collect. Send a check made payable to Trinity Church attention Kyle to 3515 Shackelford Rd. Florissant, MO 63031

Crisis Nursery Family

We have adopted a family for the youth group this year. We will be providing some basic needs for this family but also some wants. The family consist of a single mom, a 5 year old girl, a 3 year old boy and a 7th month old. You can click here to see what they need/want. The deadline to donate is December 11th.

My question for you is...Who are you giving to this Christmas Season? Is it only those close to you? Those who you know are going to give something back to you? This sunday I will be talking about the "not so commercial" christmas. I would like to challenge you now to start thinking about who you can give to that really needs it. The one that may never know it was even from you!

Thankful

Pretty simple post...What are you thankful for?  I will post later!