It's been an exciting week for me as a pastor. Everyday has been filled new stories of how God has been at work in the life of our church. God has been teaching me, stretching me, and growing me in ways that blow my mind! With all that said, here are my reflections on today. (with a little from the week thrown in)

• God is really blessing us with new people who are looking for a place where they can find a safe place to explore faith and to share their faith with others. We had over 20 first time guest today! I pray that we can be a church home for many of them.
• The spirit of worship was contagious today. The band was fantastic, and the people really sang out to God!
• We were in week 3 of our God at the Movies series, and used the metaphor of "binding" from Spiderman 3 to talk about how sin binds itself to us. It was probably the most direct message I ever preached on sin and how to break free from it's power in our lives. Lots of stories of people getting help.
• We had 220 in worship today! That's up almost 70 over the same week last year! Praise God for what he's doing! (sorry for all the exclamation points)
• I loved the band's version of "East to West" by Casting Crowns.
• It was freakin' cold this morning in our main auditorium! 52 degrees when we got there. 60 degrees at the start of the service. 66 by the end of the service. Thank God for body heat!
• The Giants-Packers game was great! I told Greg Scott this morning that the Giants would win on a late turnover by Brett Favre...hmmm...how did I know???? Wouldn't you like to know.
• I'm really excited about this coming week! I'll be praying a lot about two major decisions. Would you join me in praying that I would be able to clearly discern God's direction in our hiring process for the Equipping Pastor and Children's Pastor roles at BridgeWay?
• Our small group was really great tonight...good discussion....great people...and good fun!