Last year Jennifer and worked on a church planting project in the worlds northern most capital, Reykjavik, Iceland. We spent 4 months in this amazing nation. You can read of our daily adventures in Iceland at THIS BLOG or you can watch the update videos I made HERE. Over the past several weeks we have been preparing to send another team to Iceland. My great friend Colby will be planting an international church in Iceland’s capital. He and his family deploy in August for training at IMB the head off for the coldest winter of their lives. Colby is pictured to the right with Siggi, a friend from Iceland on the left. Siggi is working with SALT, a church we helped plant during our stay in Reykjavik last year. Please pray for Colby and his family as they set out on this journey.
Monthly Archives: May 2008
JD & ED
Bill Jessup and I spoke a pastor’s conference for missions today in Richmond. JD Greear and ED Stetzer were also there speaking. It was my first time to meet JD and I was really impressed with his leadership at Summit Church. He challenged me to continue on the path we are currently headed down as a small church planting other churches. Ed spoke about the separation of evangelism from worship in our churches. The whole day was challanging and comfirming for me.
Jihad On Our Website?!
Tonight Keilan called me an said that he went to our church website and found that some of Allah’s messengers had waged Jihad on our piece of cyber real estate. I did a little searching and found out that this group had hacked into hundreds of websites and replaced their content. Our web guy is working to pull it down as quick as possible. Until then their’s not much I can do. Below are a few of the insanities on the site.
Think not that Allah doth not heed the deeds of those who do wrong. He but giveth them respite against a Day when the eyes will fixedly stare in horror. “Until the USA occupied to Iraq Iraqi people have to fight with blood,tear,unemployment and difficulty. Or do you think that you shall enter the Garden (of bliss) without such (trials) as came to those who passed away before you? they encountered suffering and adversity, and were so shaken in spirit that even the Messenger and those of faith who were with him cried: “When (will come) the help of Allah?” Ah! Verily, the help of Allah is (always) near!
The Great Pop-Off
My wife and I are participating in THIS against THIS FAMILY. I’m pretty sure we are going to do THIS to them.
Date Night is Great Night
Dirty Clint Fact #321: Ed Stetzer once made fun of me because I told him that I appreciate good poetry.
It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Jennifer Leigh–
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.
I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea,
But we loved with a love that was more than love–
I and my Jennifer Leigh–
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.
- adapted from THIS
My Boy!
For the first time since becoming a dad (almost seven years ago) all of my children are out of diapers. This is my youngest, Isaiah, learning to pee standing up. I love my kids so much. They are becoming little people and teaching me more about Jesus than anyone every has. I never could have guessed how much my children would influence me. They have changed my affections, my theology, and my perception of myself and my appreciation for Jennifer. This morning I learned of a fellow church planter in Indonesia whose daughter was killed in an accident on her bike. My heart broke for him and I couldn’t stop hugging and kissing my kids today. Pray for this family who cannot be named for security purposes.
Hood Rats
My bother in law, Jared, sent me this Bit of Local News from Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. I’m not sure rather to laugh or cry.
Bye Bye Big Ben
Yesterday I went to a little going away lunch for church planter/whiteboard session founder Ben Arment. Ben has been a friend since I started planting in Virginia in 2004 and an influence on my ministry through his Blog. In late May Ben is skipping town to go to work for the catalyst conference. Ben told the story today of how God led him to resign from his church, start a very unique conference, and then go to work for a major conference. It was a really good time of sharing around the table with a crew of like minded church planters all striving to please God with his actions. Daniel Floyd talked about the challenges of leading a fast growing church and the rest of us talked about the struggles of leading slow growing ones. Chris Rodenhiser hosted the event at his church’s new warehouse (a very cool pad). Get Ben’s take on the meeting HERE
Pillar Summer Movie Series
Planting a church in NOVA is hard. Where I grew up you could open a church and a certain number of curious people came to the church. This is not true in NOVA. For three years we have prayed and worked and worked and prayed to see people come to our church plant with the belief that God would allow us to introduce some of them to Jesus. Last year we tried a few nutty projects to meet folks in our community… we rented a kiosk at Potomac Mills, and we showed a Disney film on a BIG screen outside under the stars. We were amazed that nearly 300 people showed up to the movie and a handful of them visited the church. This year we are stepping the movie idea up a bit and offering a series of Disney films. Check out our promo cards!
