Okay, so after Sunday’s message where I called for everyone at BridgeWay to take ½ a day and evaluate their steps from the past year, and see where God would have them to make adjustments. I thought it would be fun to compile a year end list for myself…so here goes!

Top Sermon Series of 2007
This was a tough one. Every sermon series was powerful in one way or another. Still the number one sermon series of the year had to be Makin’ Noise! With the Bless Back Project, and the overwhelming financial commitments that were made by our congregation, my faith was expanded in ways that I had never experienced before. A close second place tie to that series was our Q&A series and our iLife series. The Q&A series had to be the most fun series I’ve done since we launched BridgeWay. While the iLife series helped to cast the vision for everyone of us having a specific vision for our relationship with God and with others. Overall, it was the most intentional and powerful year of teaching I have ever done. I grew so much as a communicator and a leader in 2007. I’m pretty excited to see what God does this year at BridgeWay.

Worst Sermon Series of 2007
Okay, so while I think we really hit the mark in 2007, one of the highlights of the year was also one of the worst sermons I preached this year. This summer we had planned for a major outreach event called Praise in the Park. Due to bad weather we had to reschedule the event for early fall. The weather worked out great, but my message that day kind of fell flat. This was the second year that we’ve done an open-air service in the park. While it is a lot of fun and a great outreach event. It is the hardest place I’ve ever preached. So many distractions, and I feel like everyone is just waiting for me to get done preaching so they can eat…oh well…it was still a great day!

Favorite Song We’ve Sung on Sundays in 2007
Wow, this is a tough one. Our worship bands do an amazing job of leading worship every week, and this year we sang some awesome songs. One of my personal favorites has been a song called “Mighty to Save” by Hillsong Untied. I’m not a huge Hillsong fan, but the United stuff is amazing. The really cool thing about this song is that it is almost 5 years old. Some close seconds would be “Come and Listen” by David Crowder, “Go Tell It on the Mountain”, and Chuck’s original song “Are You With Me”. Chuck wrote several new songs this year for use in our worship services. I’m always inspired when he comes to me and says, “God gave me a song this week as I was thinking about your message from Sunday.” Wow, how cool is that!

My Favorite Road Trip of 2007
Steph and I took our first vacation with just the two of us since our honeymoon 10 years ago. We traveled to Cincinnati for a weekend and watched the Reds and Padres play…Jake Pevey was pitching and it was a great game! To top that off, following the game Mercy Me did a 1 ½ show for about 15,000 people…we didn’t know they were going to be there, so the concert was a complete surprise to us. It was one of the most powerful worship experiences of my life… I knew there was a close connection between worship and baseball!

Following that weekend, we headed to the Smokey Mountains for 5 days in a private cabin in the mountains with a beautiful view! We went whitewater rafting. Checked out the Dixie Stampede. And rented a Jeep and went driving through the Smokey Mountains for a day…one of the most fun things I’ve ever done! I love my wife and I love the time we got to spend together this summer.

What a year! I can’t wait to see what God does this year in my life and the life of our church!