ChurchPlanters.com "Giving You Permission"

Does God Really Answer Prayer?

Good News...I finally heard from my son who is serving with the 82nd Airborne in Afghanistan.  It had been 4 weeks.  He told me that he had a dream the other night where he heard a voice say, "Call home".  Any way I'm not much of a signs and wonders kind of guy, but he did call home and that's pretty neat...At the same time...I do understand that God  can do whatever he wants to do...bottom line my son returned back to FOB Waza Khwa after being out for weeks and gave me a call...he will leave again in a couple of days...I will continue to pray for him and expect God to speak to him in some really unusual and neat ways...please join me in praying for all the troops in Afghanistan and Iraq...david

Back to Normal

Whatever that is means...thought I would spend a couple of moments just updating you on what my life looks like right now...there is a lot going on...

1.  I'm home by myself....Tami left for Europe for two weeks...she will be traveling from London to Rome...I hope she has an awesome time.

2.  Amanda is finishing up her last week of school...she will be home soon...it will be good to have her around for a few weeks before she is off and running on her next life adventure. 

3.  Dave is still in Afghanistan somewhere?  He call four weeks ago to let me know he was headed out on a "Top Secret" mission.  I haven't heard from him since.  What I do know there is a lot going on over there right now and he is in one of the hottest places in Afghanistan.  I really do appreciate your prayers.

4.  Shawn and I just arrived back from the National New Church Conference.  We had a blast.  A special thanks to Casey and Kacie Graham, Dave Isbell, and Carol Jones.  We couldn't have done it without them.  I have two highlights...1) getting to go off on discipleship in my last session on Rethinking Discipleship, 2) Kicking everybody's butt on the go-carts...at least until some kid hit me in the back going about 50 mph.  It was an amazing time...Todd Wilson did a great job.

5.  We are in the last week of W0W...this weekend we will worship together under a tent...first time all the MLC crew has been together since the early days...We had our Leadership Commitment Dinner where our leaders committed $2.8 million.  Not bad for about 300 people.  This weekend is going to rock!!!

6.  I have three months to finish Breaking the Discipleship Code...I've got to really get to work. 

That's about it for getting back to normal...david

Where Did All the Blogsters Go and Merry Christmas to You!

One of my compulsions is to go online and check out what's happening in my little corner of the cyberworld.   One of my favorite little cyber tools is the google blog search.  It's one of the ways I keep track of what people are saying or not saying about things like...my book, Breaking the Missional Code.  I also like to keep track of whether or not people are reading our blogs.  Well guess what?  Traffic is down.  That's a good thing.  People are unplugging from routine and plugging into family and friends.

So here's what I'm going to do, wish you a Merry Christmas and unplug.  I will see you after Christmas when Shawn and I will post some really worthwhile or maybe a few worthless bogs. 

Here is what you can expect...1) lot's of neat updates and info about our upcoming ChurchPlanters.com Redone Conference.  It is really going to be cool. 2) I will be teaching on the weekend of December 30-31 in our four weekend worship services (Happy New Years)...so I will being doing part one of a two week series called Minimum...expect a post or two on what I'm learning...it is really cool.   3)I have got to get busy writing the sequel to Breaking the Missional Code.  My publisher has been dragging his feet, but I anticipate they won't want me to drag mine.   So expect alot of blogging on thoughts and ideas about the book.  By the way, it is going to be a really cool book on Rethinking Discipleship.  Right now it is called Breaking the Disicipleship Code: When devoted followers become missional in their communities. 4) Shawn and I will be finishing up Best Practices of Church Planters...expect alot of best practices and tell us about yours. 

Anyway, I've got to unplug...Tami is giving me the eye.  I've been off most of the week and by next Wednesday I am going to be ready to rock and roll. 

Don't forget to sign up for our church planting conference before January 7th to get the early bird discount.  We can't wait to hang out with you on February 26th and 27th. 

Finally, Jesus rocks my world!  These are the words you will find painted on my truck these days.  We gave 800 markers out this past weekend and MLC people have been putting this and similar statements on their vehicles.  My daughter went crazy on several selected vehicles, including mine.  Anyway...Jesus does rock...Merry Christmas...Peace...david