• Great morning at BridgeWay!
• We kicked off a new series today called "Lie to Me"...and to say the least I think it's going to be a great series.
• Here's a link to the roll-in bumper.
• In case you missed it...Dave Craig kicked off the series today with a message on the lie that "we have to clean up, before we show up".
• Some of the key take-aways for me were:
• Shame is the source of most religious lies.
• We try to cover our shame in one of two ways: Religion or Excuses.
• We can never clean ourselves up enough to be acceptable to God, but through faith in Jesus we can all be cleaned up by God from the inside out.
• True life change happens when I trust in Jesus and allow him to clean up my life, and stop playing the religious game.
• The illustration of Dave wearing a suit and then taking it off was really strong...if not a little creepy ;)
• The band was smokin' today!
• Great spirit in worship in the congregation as well...you guys sang really loud both services!
• If you were not there, Dave will be joining our staff as a part-time staff member in April in the areas of volunteers, local & global missions, and pastoral care.
• Some of you asked me today about my experience getting stuck in Chicago last night...I was coming back from a Church Planter Assessment Center in Michigan, and due to ice on the interstate, I successfully turned a 6 hour trip into a 10 hour trip!
• Right now I'm on a flight from Atlanta into Sarasota to spend 3 days with my grandfather before coming back and hitting it hard in preparation for Easter!
• Met a really talented artist on the flight named Jamie Kirkell...check his work out here!
• Last thought...we saw over 500 people in worship today!  I think around 520!  Wow...just wow!
• That's great, but what if we all determined to invite someone to come with us next Sunday too!
• Don't miss next week!  Matt Robinson will be back and trust me he's gonna be a lean mean preachin' machine!
• Have a great week church!

• Sorry this is a day late...I crashed after church yesterday and didn't wake up until our friends came over for the Superbowl last night.
• It was the first Sunday afternoon nap I've taken in 2+ years...crazy!
• I needed it.
• Pretty crazy week/weekend...between our shingles getting torn off the house, a ton of counseling and meetings, and hanging with my buddy Jeff Dill working on Helena's room (he did most of the work), and no sleep Saturday night...I was shot...not complaining, just explaining to quote a mentor of mine.
• We kicked off a new series called "Mentor Me" on Sunday!  We're really going to see some great things come out of this series...lots of God stories happening in our church with people mentoring others.
• I'm convinced people are hungry for mentors who will believe in then and help them accomplish God's purpose for their lives.
• I shared about how what mentors do...
• They help us hear God's call on our lives.
• They help us see God's plans when we can't.
• They help us to sense God's presence.
• They help us to remember God's faithfulness. 
• The band did an amazing job with an acoustic cover of "My Hero" by the Foo Fighters...great stuff!
• At the end of the service we celebrated some really cool things...you can hear about them here!
• One thing we celebrated was the completion of the cases for our equipment...we even showed one off in the service...at 11am when I opened the case Kevin Grose just happened to be inside...hilarious...I lost it!
• We definitely missed Matt, but our teams did a great job leading, and Matt had done a great job building teams that can be counted on.
• Big week this week...I'll be meeting with the board of ministry all day on Thursday interviewing ministers for licenses and ordination...say a prayer for us on Thursday.
• Also, pray for Connie our Pastor of Family Life as she will be interviewing for ordination on Thursday!
• Have a great week church!

This Sunday we'll be kicking off a new series called "Mentor Me".  Talking through the message with a LifeGroup, or even your family is a great way to help you turn what God says on Sunday into action steps throughout the week.  These questions are for our LifeGroups, but they also are a great tool for you to use with your family over lunch or dinner on Sunday...or at halftime of the big game.

1. Who is someone that believed in you and encouraged you while you were growing up?  How did their influence help shape what you've become today?

2. Read Acts 13:36.  This passage talks about David accomplishing the purpose God had for his life.  Mentors are simply coaches who help us to accomplish God's purpose for our lives.  Who are some people that have not just influenced your life, but helped you to accomplish God's purpose for your life?

3. Describe a time that someone took a chance on you?  How did you grow from that opportunity?

4. Read 1 Chronicles 28:9-12, 19-20.  David is nearing the end of his life, and is investing in mentoring his son Solomon.  From this passage, what are some of the things that mentors do to help us accomplish God's purpose for our lives?

5. Who is someone you are currently mentoring or influencing?  What are some of the positive things you are adding to their life?  What are some of the things holding you back from being the type of example God would desire you to be?

6.  What individual or group of people is God calling you to influence in a positive way?  What next step do you need to take to carry out that calling?

As always, close your time with prayer for the people in your group.  Focus especially on praying for the people you are influencing, and the people God is calling you to influence.

Several of our LifeGroups will be launching this week!  If you're not in a group, I hope you'll take the step to get into a group this week.  You can register online at www.bwcc.tv by going to the "Get Involved" link.

• First of all...sorry this is a day late, but it was a pretty crazy weekend.
• I'll try to keep it short.
• Very strange, but powerful Sunday at BridgeWay this weekend.
• If you don't know we meet at Tremont High School for worship.
• This weekend Tremont HS was rocked by a tragic bus accident that involved another vehicle driven by students from Tremont HS.  
• Two students in the other vehicle lost their lives, with two other passengers severely injured, as well as a dozen or so more minor injuries on the bus.
• To say the community was in shock this weekend would be an understatement.
• Knowing that we would be having worship services the day after such a tragedy at the High School was humbling and a heavy responsibility.
• This was especially true because in this same service we were commissioning our team that is being sent to plant a new church in Fishers, Indiana.
• So trying to address both the tragedy and the celebration of a new church plant in our services was a challenge, but it was one that I feel that we lived up to...God definitely helped us.
• It was awesome to see five families from our church who are leaving houses, careers, friends, and extended family to follow God's call to plant Second Chance Church in Fishers, IN!
• We are seeing some New Testament type stuff at BridgeWay!
• It was also Matt's last time teaching as a staff member at BridgeWay, and he did a great job!
• I'll definitely miss getting to work so closely with someone who's become a great friend and ministry partner over the past three years.
• If you call BridgeWay your church home, or you are a friend or fan of the Robinsons...please come help us celebrate and say goodbye to the Robinsons this Sunday at BridgeWay!
• At the end of the day...we saw our largest non-Easter attendance Sunday with just shy of 500 people in worship!  
• Lots of new faces, and lots of God moments in the service.
• As I said before, God was definitely with us.
• Today I spent the morning with several area ministers from Tremont and counselors from the area at Tremont HS talking with grieving students and staff...lots of tears...and lots of God moments...a very powerful time.
• If you think about it would you be praying for the Honan and Estes families who lost children this weekend, the Tremont HS faculty and students...as well as for the Robinsons as they prepare their move...and one last unspoken request...thanks.
• Praying for you this week church!

• I'm loving this Plan B series...great topic, strong messages every week, and some of the best worship sets we've done.
• The band was great today covering, Natalie Grant's "Held"...and doing the full version of "Glory to God Forever by Fee...as well as "Everlasting God" and "Never Let Go"...great stuff.
• Matt preached for me this week...just to be honest...I was supposed to preach, but had several meetings and unexpected situations come up and so he preached and did a fantastic job.
• Some of my takeaways from this Sunday's message:
• Sometimes it's hard to see God's perspective through our pain.
• Make sure that your god is God...lots of us worship things like our health, families, jobs, or finances; and if they go bad so does our faith.
• God sees the eternal, we focus on the temporary.
• My favorite takeaway was, "God loves people so much that He will allow people who he loves very much to experience pain, so that people who he loves very much who do not know Him, can spend eternity with him."
• Matt's also on the slate for next Sunday...as we'll be commissioning our Fishers, IN church plant team...very exciting stuff!
• If you have been impacted by BridgeWay, and/or Matt's minsitry...please don't miss next Sunday!
• The Bears play at 1pm CST...so no excuses for not joining us next week! ;)
• I was actually slightly surprised that we had as strong of a crowd as we did today with the Bears playing at noon...but both services were really full and we probably saw around 450 in worship again.
• We kicked off our "I'm a Christian Now What?" class this past Wednesday...if you didn't get into this first group...be sure to sign up for the next one this summer!
• LifeGroups are kicking off in February...if you're not in a group yet, be sure to sign up online at www.bwcc.tv by clicking on "Get Involved".
• Looking forward to getting alone with God on Thursday and Friday this week for a time of prayer, planning, and sermon preparation...I'll be working on my teaching calendar for the rest of 2011.

• Great morning at BridgeWay!
• Week 2 of our "Plan B" series and a lot of God moments in the services today!
• Just an amazing worship set by the band this morning...loved the scripture reading from Zephaniah 3:17-20!  Bet you didn't know that was the passage that inspired "Mighty to Save".
• Rhonda did a great job on covering "He is With You" by Mandisa...and Chuck brought a great spirit to "God Who Answers Prayer" by Elevation Worship...both songs really fit the day perfect!
• I preached on the life of Joseph from Genesis 37-41...yup that's a lot of scripture...you'll have to look for the video later this week to see how we got it all done.
• A few of the principles from today:
• What would happen if you believed that God was present with you in your pain, and that you could trust him?
• Is it possible that the pain of your present disappointment can be overcome by the pleasure of God's purpose and the power of His presence with you?
• God is most powerfully present even when it seem that He is most apparently absent.
• Don't be afraid to be embarrassed publicly to maintain your integrity privately.  
• Disappointment with your dreams often leads to compromise in your character.
• You may have signed a contract stating you'd follow God as long as everything goes as planned, but God never signed that contract and never will.
•  Closed my message with the video of Ted Williams' interview from the CBS Morning Show this week.
• Great crowd today...sounded like we had around 450 people join us for the second week of Plan B...why not invite someone else to join you in worship next Sunday?
• Crazy full week this week with several pastoral appointments and meetings all day on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday...and a ton of writing and prep to do in there somewhere.
• Looking forward to meeting with my "Fight Club" guys tonight...gonna be a great one!
• Have a great week church!

• Great Christmas Eve Worship Experience at BridgeWay last night!
• Even with 5-6 inches of snow and terrible road conditions, we saw around 350 people join us for worship...and at least 2 people make professions of faith!
• About 2 hours before the service I looked at Matt and said, "do you think we should just move this whole thing to Sunday?" It was snowing that bad and the roads were slicker than a college football recruiter.
• Obviously, we didn't reschedule...and I'm glad we didn't...but if we'd had good weather, we'd have been in big trouble with seating.
• Huge thank you to all of the volunteers who helped make the service happen...especially the set-up teams and parking teams who worked extra hard to make it all come together!
• All of our teams work so hard to create a great worship experience, and I'm proud to be apart of such a great team!
• The band did a great job on Christmas Eve Sarajevo, and having the Treasure Quest kids help lead "All Creation Sing/Joy to the World" was a highlight of the service for me.
• Loved the video clip we showed from St. James Church in New Zealand...you can check it out here...just absolutely priceless retelling of the Christmas story.
• After worship we headed out on the road to spend Christmas with our family in Michigan...a tradition we've only missed once or twice in 13 years of marriage.
• Unfortunately, driving at night with a half-foot of snow on the ground is not a lot of fun.  We successfully completed a 4 hour trip in just over 7 hours and got in around 3am...oh joy!
• Looking forward to taking the final week of 2010 to rest and relax with family and friends...hope you get to do some of the same over the next few days!
• Have a great week...and Merry Christmas!

• Great day at BridgeWay today!
• I've really enjoyed our Christmas series this year...while it's not be a normal or traditional Christmas series...it really gets to the heart of the gospel and challenges us as a church to be the body of Christ.
• Great spirit in the room given the heaviness of the sermon today.
• I preached on the question, "Are you a follower of Jesus, or are you a fan of Jesus?"
• First service when I asked the question there was an audible gasp from some people in the congregation...the self realization happening in the room was really strong.
• God's Spirit was definitely moving...love it!
• I gotta say though that sermons like that take it out of me, and I was tapped by the end of it, and still had a big lunch meeting, and a discipleship group meeting tonight...I'm getting sleepy.
• The band did a great job today with Revolution by the Beatles to open the service and closing out with "I Surrender to You" by Camp.
• Our Guerrilla Lover's Food Drive was today and we filled one of our 14ft trailers!
• Huge props to everyone who helped make this happen!
• LifeGroups canvased neighborhoods. 
• People got their whole offices and workplaces behind it and did a food drive in their offices!
• One guy Dave got his whole workplace involved and the owners of the business made significant gifts to help fill the trailer!
• Just a great picture of what the church should be doing!
• Excited for Christmas Eve worship this Friday night at 5pm at Tremont High School!
• Get their early to get a good seat!
• Be praying about what God would have you to give as a part of our Guerrilla Lover's Offering...we set a goal of $15,000 and I believe if we all bring our best gift to Jesus this Christmas we can hit the goal of investing in global missions, local missions, and planting a new church!

• Probably the worst weather we've had on a Sunday in the last couple years.
• While there was no snow when we started setting up at 6am...by 9:30 we had snow flying and near whiteout conditions.
• Matt and I were talking before service guessing if we'd see over 200 people come out for worship today...the average guess was about 170...at the end of the day we saw 207 people join us for worship on a pretty awful weather Sunday.
• Even with the bad weather, we didn't have any call-offs on set-up this morning, and our volunteers straight rocked it all day!
• We've only canceled church one time in our history, and that was for over an inch of ice on the roads and a near skating rink in the parking lot.
• Just so you know, we very seldom cancel church, and if we do, we post it on our website, WCIC, and local television stations by 8am in the morning. 
• Great worship set today by the band...The Time Has Come, We Unite, and Til' I See You...and a great original song by Dave Gama that he wrote...I believe that God's got a story he want to write through your life if you'll let him.
• Matt did a great job preaching today on the parable of the Good Samaritan. 
• If we want to truly be love revolutionaries we've got to have the compassion of Christ along with a commitment to offer God our everything!
• Looking forward to finishing out our Guerrilla Lovers Christmas series next Sunday, and our Christmas Eve service the following week.
• Still got a few Christmas Eve tickets available...pick them up at the office or next Sunday at church.
• Have a great week church

• Pretty pumped about the second week of our Christmas series "A Guerrilla Lovers Guide to Christmas".
• We're going all out this Christmas to impact the 67 and the 20!
• That's the 67% of people who are disconnected from Jesus globally and the 20% of people living in extreme poverty...many of them right here in central Illinois!
• Tons of cool stuff happened at BridgeWay today...if you missed it trust me when I say, "you don't want to miss another service this month."
• Great version of "We Unite" by band to kick off today's service!  Love love love that song!
• Really strong worship set today as well...man people were really singing out both services during "Son of God" and "Our God"!
• Anytime you can include clips from "Blues Brothers" in your service you know it's going to be a good day.
• Loved getting to share that another church in Texas has joined in the Guerrilla Lovers Revolution this Christmas.
• It was great having Sheree Lyles from Southside Mission with us for both services.  You can find out more information about Southside Mission on their website.
• We closed out both services by doing our 3rd Bless Back project...we gave the equivalent of our first offering ever as a church back to our congregation and challenged them to invest the money over the next few weeks and to bring what they raise back on Christmas Eve as a part of our Guerrilla Lovers Offering....looking forward to hearing the stories from this one!
• If you haven't signed up for the daily Guerrilla Lovers Challenges you  can be a part by texting "GUERRILLA" to 313131...cool stuff.
• Be praying about how you can be a part of our food drive to benefit local food banks on December 19th...lets load at least one trailer for these guys!  Last year 17% of people in central Illinois experienced a food crisis and 32% had at least one week where they didn't have enough food available to feed their family that week!
• Make sure you get your Christmas Eve tickets next Sunday!  We've got 500 or so seats available and already have over 350 gone!  Be praying about who you can invite!
• Christmas Eve service is at 5pm on Christmas Eve at Tremont High School and you do not want to be late...trust me!
• Lastly, be praying about what God is asking you to give as a part of our Guerrilla Lovers Offering on Christmas Eve...we're sending 1/3rd of the money to local community service organizations, another 1/3rd to global missions, and the final 1/3rd to our team that we're sending to plant a new church in Fishers, IN!  Let's give our biggest gift to Jesus this Christmas to impact the 67 and the 20 this Christmas!

1. You'll get to hear about some exciting Guerrilla Lover's News!
Some really cool "movement" type stuff happening that I'll be sharing with you.

2. You're kids don't want to miss Gorilla the Guerrilla!
I'll let you figure that one out.

3. You'll be a part of something historic at BridgeWay!
That's pretty much all I can say. You'll have to be there to be a part of it...trust me you do not want to miss it!

• Another great day at BridgeWay!
• Seriously...this Dream Job series has been an absolute joy to lead our church through.
• Not so much because it's fun stuff to preach, but because it's stuff that moves people forward towards God's purposes for their lives.
• The band just killed it yet again...
• "Working Man" by Rush was off the charts...
• I know sometimes people (usually Christians) don't understand why we do "secular" songs to open services, but a great example is today when a guy in his mid 40s came up to me after worship to say, "Just wanted to introduce myself...I've been the past few weeks, and I love you're church...I've never been a "religious" guy, but I love the band and I'm a huge Rush fan, and I feel like this is a place I could belong."  Love it!
• The closing song "While I'm Waiting" could be one of my favorite songs of the last couple years...and it was dead on for the service today.
• Big shout out to Jesse and Larry for helping me out today by being "the waiting room guys" for my sermon illustration.
• I got pretty emotional at 9:30 when I was preaching about my own personal waiting room experience...I think this one hit home for a lot of people.
• I hate to see this series end, but end it must...don't miss next week's last message about "Balancing Home and Work"...great week to invite someone to come with you.
• It was great to get to celebrate my 35th birthday this weekend with some great friends from college...
• Steph invited our friends the Coles and the Williams to come to town to for a surprise birthday celebration...extremely cool stuff!  
• We love these guys and it was so cool to get to hang out after not getting to spend more than a few hours together for almost 4 years!
• Couple that with a great weekend worship experience...
• A Wolverines win on Saturday...
• A DeeMack Chiefs playoff win on Saturday...
• A Bears win today...
• And a great Fight Club group tonight...
• It's been a pretty great weekend!

• Pretty great day at BridgeWay today!
• But seriously, when isn't it a great day at BridgeWay?
• I'm loving this DREAM JOB series!
• Every week of the series we've promoted a book that will help you to apply the message to your life.
• I think we've sold out of every book we've promoted every week of the series.  
• Today's book was "Live Your Calling"...all gone after first service!
• The bands have just been killing it every week of this series!
• Great worship set today, and a really cool version of Blind Melon's "Change"...complete with harmonica, slide guitar and mandolin!
• I love music that makes you feel something, and Shannon Hoon's music certainly did that for me.
• Not sure I ever thought we'd be doing it in church, but man it fit perfectly.
• Pretty pumped for next Sunday's message on "What to do when you're in a job you hate"...that's not actually the name of the message, but it's the topic I'll be addressing...invite a friend.
• Oh yeah and we're opening the service with a killer Rush song to boot...so don't be late!
• Man the 9:30 service was packed today!
• The extra hour of sleep from DST and an early Bears game is my guess for how that happened.
• We had our largest non-Easter worship attendance today with 470+ in worship today...our volunteers are just nailing it every week...thanks for working so hard to see Jesus change so many!
• Matt did a really great job of giving a 3D process for decision making and making job transitions today.  I'm sure he'll blog about it later, but some of my take-a-ways were:
• I should make decisions in 3D rather than 1D or 2D.
• 3D decision making means I "Look Up", "Look In", and "Look Out".
• I'm pretty good at looking up and out, but not always so good at really looking inside before I make decisions.
• Great tools on how to Pray, Fast, and Look In using the SHAPE tool...hope you picked one up today!
• Challenged people who are looking at making big decisions to spend time in prayer and fasting, and for people who have friends who are making big decisions to pray and fast for their friends.
• Really enjoying church at Tremont High School.
• I miss the intimacy of the theater, but gotta say that the other improvements more than make up for the change.
• We used a different chair layout today to try to make it a little more intimate and create better sight lines...I liked it...if you were there...what did you think?
• Busy week this week with meetings everyday, and birthday parties this week...Brenna (our middle daughter) turns 8 on Thursday.  We share a birthday so it's kinda cool (also means I lost my birthday several years ago).
• Got a pretty sweet early birthday present from Steph and the girls on Friday night...a custom University of Michigan cornhole set!  Awesome! (shout out to Jesse Miller for the great work)
• Also loved the high scoring UofM vs Illini game on Saturday...and a Bears win today...wow!
• Really great weekend!
• Have a great one church!

Dream Job Week 1 - Identity from BridgeWay Community Church on Vimeo.

Reason #5 - You Plan to Cannibalize Other Churches


It's bound to happen, you plant a church and new people begin to attend.  Some of them will have little or no church background, while others will come from churches where they are dissatisfied with there experience.  While your church should be open to people who are coming from other churches, if you plan is to build a church for Christians who are dissatisfied with their church, be prepared for them to be dissatisfied with yours before too long.

I've seen several strong churches (100-200 people...some as large as 600 people) close there doors after loosing large (70-80%) numbers of people to the new flavor of the day church plant in the community.  Sorry guys, just seems like pretty bad missiology to me.

Reason #4 - You Do It All Yourself

• I'm loving this series!
• It's great to get to speak on a topic that is core to who I am and to who our church is...this is really the heart of our mission as a church...that God has a plan and purpose for our lives and we can know it!
• The band absolutely killed BTO's "Takin Care of Business" to open both services!
• Did I mention it's great to have Steve back singing after back surgery!  That guys was made for the kind of songs we've done the last couple weeks!
• Also great to have Justin and Lorie Robins back on the stage too!
• I've enjoyed the video bumpers that Jake and Nate have put together for this series...but I gotta tell you...DO NOT MISS the next 3 weeks...they are all beyond hilarious!
• I love talking about God's purpose for our lives...some of my favorites from this morning were...
• Happiness is a moving target.
• Happiness is the sedative we use to numb the pain that comes from being disconnected from God and God's purposes in the world.
• I've never met a person, who was living God's purpose for their life, who said, "I just want to be happy."
• Four places we try to find purpose that leave us wanting more: Projects, Possessions, Power, and Pleasure.
• Until you root your purpose in relationship to God and God's purposes in the world you'll always feel frustrated.
• The purpose of your work is not PROFIT, it is PEOPLE.
• People are the only thing in this world that are eternal, everything else will eventually cease to exist.
• If you want your life to count invest it in making an eternal impact in the life of people.
• Four P's for discovering your purpose: Population, Place, Problem, and Process.
• Population - who has God called you to reach?
• Place - where has God called you to do it?
• Problem - what problem that has resulted from the fall has God called you to solve?
• Process - how are you going to bring your gifting to bear on the other three questions?
• Excited to announce that we'll be meeting in Tremont at the High School for at least the next year!
• We were maxed at about 400 people at the Theater, but this opens the door for us to reach around 800 people!
• Much better environment for our children and for people to connect after worship.
• Excited to announce a new initiative called "Git R Done" this morning...we're challenging people to make a commitment to help us "Git R Done" in reaching people in Tazewell county, relocating to Tremont, and caring for our set-up/tear-down teams.
• I love our Set-Up and Tear-Down guys and gals!
• They make about 70 trips each to get our equipment in and out of the building...as a part of "Git R Done" we'll be building them road cases for all of the gear and get it down to around 25 trips!  Want to make this happen before the snow starts flying!
• Excited to see so many new people the past few weeks...got dinner tonight with a few of them...fun stuff!
• Have a great week church...I'm honored and humbled to get to be your pastor!

Okay, so I started this series and called it "5 Bad Reasons to Plant a Church", but the real question my friend asked was, "Give me 5 reasons I shouldn't plant a church?"

Yesterday I posted Bad Reason #1 that people plant churches, and today's follow-up probably should have been Bad Reason #1.

Bad Reason #2 - Because You're Bitter

People plant churches for all kinds of reasons, but one of the worst is because they are planting out of bitterness or because the existing church just doesn't get it (and of course they do).

Often this happens when people become frustrated with the established church and out of bitterness they decide to start something new with people of "get it".  While sometimes their motive is about reaching people disconnected from the church, the danger is that they are driven to prove to the people who don't "get it" that they are/were wrong, and that the planter is/was right.

The problem here is that anything that is birthed out of bitterness, anger, or pride is fighting a loosing battle.  Jesus never promises to bless those type of attitudes.  In fact the work of the Holy Spirit is to eradicate these very things.