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?

It’s been really busy over the past couple of weeks and I am now starting to get into somewhat of a routine now that things are on a weekly basis. So, with that being said here is a review over the past couple of weeks!

>Over the past two Sunday’s 12 people have made a commitment to Christ!

>Super excited that we have finally launched and are already seeing life change!

>Worship team has done awesome the past two weeks I’m really proud of them.

>Set up keeps getting better and better. It is absolutely amazing that you can set up an entire church in an hour and a half with only a handful of people. 

>More people have been added to set up team each week.

>Already hearing awesome stories of people who have been out of church, coming back and loving the service.

>I work with the best staff in the world!!!!

>Showed up last Sunday and the parking lot was packed on the back end with two fire trucks and an ambulance next to the building, while guys were running toward the building with a hose and I thought dear God we have caught the place on fire!! Turns out the were just using it for a practice, but there were a lot of people that saw there was a church meeting there if they didn’t already know it.

>Since we started 4 services ago we have had 18 commitments to Christ!

>It was good to have some of the families back who were out last week for a number of different reasons.

>I am amazed how every person gone makes a huge difference at this stage.

>Newly committed Christ followers are excited about serving in any capacity needed, they understand that it’s the purpose that matters, not a position.

>We had a soft launch, which I believe will be a good thing for us. I will write more about this later.

>No matter how you slice it God is in control and He knows exactly what you need and when you need it.

>I love the new series on Stress and applying how we can deal with it according to the word of God.

>I can’t wait for the next series “The Power of One” you don’t want to miss this!

>Every week is getting easier as we get a handle on what we are doing.

Attention All Church Planters! Nelson Searcy is going to be teaching a live seminar on his book Launch September 30, 2008 at Avalon Church, 1467 HWY 20 West Mcdonough, GA 30253 (Greater Atlanta Area).  If you haven’t read the book I highly encourage you to do so, it has incredible information that is vital to being successful in Church Planting. So what could be better than reading the book and applying the principle? Well, That would be a live conference that he is teaching along with Bob Franquiz. This is the only Launch Conference he is teaching this fall and you don’t want to miss it. If you are anywhere near the conference I highly encourage you to attend. I have attended one of his assimilation conferences as well as been to his church and I promise you this guys the real deal. This is a powerful conference that has helped hundreds of new churches Launch Large, and we have personally experienced these principles work for us as well! If you need help financially just call the office below and they will try and help with maybe a partial scholarship.

Here’s a link to check it out if your interested:

https://nelsonsearcy.infusionsoft.com/cart/store.jsp?view=4&i=p235

Right now, the per person investment is only $89 (early bird rate).  Group rates
are also available; just call Cristina in the journey office at 212.730.8300 x212.