• We had a great time this past weekend at the Parade. There’s nothing like being able to praise God before a few thousand people. Oh, and we won 2nd place in the float competition.
  • There were 300 people at Essential Church on Memorial Day weekend!!! Are you serious??? Normally that’s one of the lowest attendance days for a church. To put this in perspective, Easter which was our biggest day ever, was 315.
  • I want to thank our intern Chris for organizing all the special activities for the weekend. He’s doing a great job, if you see him this week thank him for all his hard work.  I also want to thank all of you who helped out at the parade and the picnic. You are Essential!!!
  • If you haven’t gotten a chance to download the free audio book Forgotten God, by Francis Chan… What are you waiting for??? It’s free and there’s no strings attached.
  • I read a great book this past week on church planting called, Church in the Making by a friend of mine (Ben Arment). He’s the one who helped design our worship center with the big screen.  Anyway, after reading his book I must say that I agree with all of his observations about church planting. The crazy thing is, that based on his research and everything else I’ve read about church planting, Essential Church never should have gotten off the ground. I don’t know why God has chosen to bless what we are doing. It’s clear he has and is. I am thankful to be a part of it. By the way, the story of how we got started is mentioned in the book as well.
  • I read this in a blog post last week. The context was, Why is it that you think God can’t use you? Think about who God’s used in the past: Noah was a drunk, Abraham was too old, Jacob was a liar, Leah was ugly, Joseph was abused, Moses had a stuttering problem and committed murder, Gideon was afraid, Samson was a womanizer, Rahab was a prostitute, Jeremiah and Timothy were too young, David had an affair, Elijah was suicidal, Isaiah preached naked, Jonah ran from God, Naomi was a bitter widow, Job went bankrupt, Peter denied Christ, The Disciples fell asleep while praying, Martha worried about everything, The Samaritan woman was divorced more than once, Zaccheus was too small and hated by everyone, Paul was a violent man, Timothy had an ulcer, AND Lazarus was dead! Tell me why it is that you don’t think God can use you?