Over the past few months God has been teaching me some of the greatest lessons of my life. I feel like my life has been a broken record of the entire chapter of James 1. Over and over, lesson after lesson and time after time God continues to make Himself known. I am excited about the incredible things that God has planned for The Crossing, and I can’t wait to see what God has in store as we let Him take total control.

I read this post the other day by Steven Furtick out of Charlotte, NC, that explains a lot of the thoughts I have had as well. Take a look, maybe it can challenge you as well.

God has been so good over the past few weeks. I’m really not even sure where to begin. Over the past 4 months we have seen 45 people make a decision for Christ, as well as a number of other amazing miracles take place. Everyday I’m learning more and more to fully trust in God and know that “Everything is in His Hands”. What an awesome feeling it is to sit back and watch God take control realizing that how blessed I am to be apart of great people doing everything they can to make an impact in this world. 

Although there are times we reality sets and you begin to give in and begin to look at things through a different lens, it always pays to refocus and know that this mission is far more than me or anything I can do, I have to rely of Him.

This morning I had the privilege to be with my great friends and team members Tommy and Lindsey as little Seth got tubes in his ears. When it was nearing time for them to take him back the gave him some medicine or go go juice to make him loopy so he wouldn’t know what was going down. I am here to tell you it was Hillarious watching it take effect on him. He began to blow on his arm making noises that don’t come from your arm, and then would look at you and laugh really hard. To say he was a bit goofy would be an understatement. It’s amazing how when you are under the influence of anesthesia you true emotions come forth. It’s as if the mask that you put on is instantly ripped off and you are exposed with out the ability to do anything about it. As I watched him it made me think of how so often in our world and culture we do this everyday trying to show everyone that we are doing great even if we are not, but what’s funnier than that is we do the same thing to God, as if He doesn’t know who we really are. What would happen in your life and mine if we could drop all masks and be who we really are, you know who God created us to be. I wonder if your mask was dropped what emotions would creep out of you? Do you know?   

Luke 6:45 says “The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.”

So what’s in your heart, what is your True Color?

There are moments in our life whether we want to or not we get disappointed about the way something turned out. At these particular moments we tend to question all the practices that we feel could have caused the outcome we experienced. However, I think the most important factor that we fail to include is the Sovereignty of God. Remembering Jeremiah 29:11 or applying Proverbs 3:5-6. With this we can remind ourselves that what may seem as a disappointment was actually divine. I think it’s safe to say that all of us have had moments in our life, when allowed to look back, we can see this principle applied. So, why don’t you take a second and reflect on your life and see how many of your disappointments were really divine! 

Ok, so one of the major lessons God has been teaching me over the past couple of weeks is that I can’t do this….. ALONE!   This is one of those lesson you talk about all the time and sound great in discussion or teaching but is much different when you actually do it. The reason for this is it is our nature to try to accomplish everything on our own, and even though we may say with our mouth we want God to be in control our actions often times say otherwise. 

One of the scriptures that has been resounding in my heart is: Zechariah 4:6  ”Not by might, nor by power but by My Spirit, says the Lord Almighty.” Notice is says by My Spirit, not by my abilities,or creative gifts, or anything I can contribute, only by His Spirit.  No matter how hard I try or how well I plan if you take out the key component in that equation, then you have a recipe for disaster. Don’t get me wrong I do believe you need to prepare, but when your preparation begins to supersede your prayer life and dependence on God you need to step back evaluate what your purpose is.

One thing I have learned and know for sure from this point on, prayer is going to be a priority at The Crossing and in my personal life.  I will have a commitment to and dependance on seeking God and giving Him total control.

Today was a great day at The Crossing, we moved into our new facility at Kids R Kids in West Frisco and saw God do incredible things. Here is a few of the highlights.

> Today we had one commitment to Christ! That’s 25 in the past two months!!!

>The team did an excellent job of adjusting to a new location and setting everthing up.

>Worship did a great job it’s  awesome see God using Pastor Lanny as he continues to seek God.

>It was awesome to be able to set up on Saturday, since it was our first service in there.

>I love the feel of the new room, it makes it feel a lot  closer and not so far detached.

>Had a great time of prayer with the leaders and volunteers before church.

>Saw God do some great things in the altar that I can’t wait to hear the testimonies from.

Overall it was a great day and I am excited about what God is doing as we draw closer to Him and seek His face.

What in the world it has been over a month since I posted last?!!?!!  I guess this seems to be a reoccurring scenario for me, but I did say to bear with me when I first started this journey. Let’s  just say I was on a blog fast like others have said that way I don’t feel guilty or anything. HA!  

Well a lot has gone on since the last post, God is doing great things, since we began we have had 24 people make a commitment to Christ isn’t that awesome, we are also moving locations beginning this Sunday. We are grateful to the school for allowing us to meet there but it was costing us $922 a WEEK!, and to put it lightly that is a little to high for us at this point, but we know that all things happen for a reason and we believe we were supposed to be there for the short time we were. 

Beginning this Sunday we are moving to a Kids R Kids day care in west Frisco on the corner of Main and Teel St. We are excited about the opportunity to use this facility as we continue to and let God change the lives of the people in this area. We have learned as in every facet of life there are seasons and times when you need to shift to move to the next level God has for you, and that is simply what we are doing. The most awesome thing about the church of Christ is that we are not confined to a building but we are the church, and the bible is clear that when two or more people meet together in the name of Jesus Christ he is with them as well. Let’s continue to pray and watch God do incredible things, See ya on Sunday!

Ok, I’ve done it, I have to admit it, there’s no denying it, I’m not sure how it happened I swore I would never do it, but the peer pressure was just to great. It seemed like everywhere I turned I was reminded of how bad I thought I needed it, but the underlying question was always is it really a need and is it as good as everyone said it is? 

After doing I have to tell you it is every bit as good as everyone said, and I am proud to say I have converted to  a Mac! I have the new mac book and I absolutely love it. Although there is some adjusting at first I must tell you it blows the PC away, and I know what some of you are thinking because I thought the same thoughts, but I can now say I love my mac! My first experience with apple was the IPhone after I dropped my MotoQ in the water, and I have genuinely grown to love that Phone, so I decided I would try the Mac book as well and I don’t regret it one bit. I guess the old saying is true “Once you go mac, you’ll never go back.”

Wow it’s hard to believe that we are into our third consecutive week and the final wrap up to the Stressed Series. What an awesome three weeks, God is so faithful! Here’s a recap of the service today.

>Another successful day 1 more commitment to Christ!!!! That’s a total of 19 since we started!

>We had a good crowd despite people being at work and out.

>Worship went great and there was an awesome presence of God there!

>Set up and tear down went great, it’s nice to finally feel like we are getting into a groove.

>Had a glitch with the Children’s sound/video but the team did great getting it fixed before service started.

>We are seeing families return and experience Christ and become committed to Him.

>It was good to see the families that were out last week back. 

>Told a funny story on Pastor Lanny at the beginning of the message, you’ll have to go to the podcast and check out in the next day or so!

>Love all the people that are helping volunteer and make this thing happen.

>Can’t wait for the “Power of One” coming up next week, it’s going to be awesome!!!! 

>Love how people who have been coming are now starting to invite friends and family members!

God has got big things in store for this church and this city and I’m glad He has allowed me to be a part!!!

Ok so over the past year we have prepared in every aspect for the beginning of this launch. However, we learned quickly that it doesn’t matter what plans you have, because when God is in control and His timing is all that matters. We had every intention of launching come September, with preview services preceding it beginning three months prior to launch, but God had other plans. As many of you know we had a number of setbacks with the location in which God worked out in His TIMING. Due to this situation we found ourselves launching in a period of time that is not necessarily know for planting a church; considering it is the end of the year and not typically the time people are looking to start or change something in their life. 

There are a number of different ways to launch a church as a matter of fact the books on this issue are growing in number on a daily basis and if you talk to any church planter they all seem to point you in the direction they went. We followed the model of having previews and launching as large as you possibly can, and this is a great model that has been used effectively by a number of different churches. Yet in the process of following this model we found a few flaws that we were unsure of so we still continued the path we were on, while the whole time in the back of my mind searching about the way it should be done. 

During this process one of the flaws I had noticed as well as others on the team was brought out to us when we were challenged at Elevation Church in Charlotte. While I am in no way bashing this model of church planting the question that kept looming and that was asked is this: What happens when all the “well wishers” are gone and the real numbers show the next week? Which in my opinion is a good question. In other words, what if you have 250 at launch day if only 70 return the next week? Will it hurt you or help you?  Which the goal of this model is not only to launch large but in the process of previews and the large launch you add people that buy into the vision and help you further. I understood the principle, I was just unsure if people could get over such a big difference of numbers. When you launch large it includes a number of friends and family and people from other churches that come and help inflate you numbers to make it full as possibly can be, thus showing people that are visiting that something good is going on. 

Originally we had every intention of making a big push for all of our family and friends to show up but God in is His infinite timing helped us out, because by pushing our dates further and further back it virtually eliminated those that had planned to make the trip, not that we didn’t want everyone to celebrate with us, but we were unsure of what it would look like the next week. After the trip to Charlotte we didn’t make a big push and as a result just a few close family members showed up, and the cool thing is it didn’t over inflate our number thus we have maintained an average of just over 75 people on a weekly basis, but as I stated in previous posts it also caused us to focus on the fact that 18 people have made a commitment to Christ during that time, and that is the sole reason we are here as our vision is “To help people become fully committed to Christ”. God is so awesome, and I look forward to the many more life changes to come as we continue to grow in Him and through Him. Thanks to all who have made this possibly through prayer, finances, and love shown during this time, you have a part in what God is doing right here in Little Elm, Texas. Look out devil God is just getting started here with The Crossing and we can’t wait to see what all He has in store. Matthew 16:18 … upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.