Dessert

Dessert
Originally uploaded by travis spencer

Dessert

Ah... Thanksgiving!

Love this Day: watch parade, eat, watch football, eat.



Old Thanksgiving Posts
2007 Tomorrow is Thanksgiving.
2006 Thank You UPDATE 1.2
2005 That dirty ol' plunger...
2004 I'm going to the woods with a gun...

Doodle Expressions From Sunday

All I know is that our peeps at First Assembly did a great job expressing their thoughts during the Sunday talk. I have tons of these. I just grabbed five.

Where the seeds were planted

Last night was somewhat of a surreal speaking moment.

I spoke from the same stage that I was a lead role in a children's church play in the 1980s, as well as the same church that I was water baptized in in the early 1980s.

First Baptist Church was the church I grew up in. All my toddler years and early elementary years took place in this church. It seems like a blur, but I have a few fond memories in my heart.

- Kids Choir
- Celebrating the 1985 bears at a church party.
- Lighting candles at the beginning of Sunday service.
- Being Baptized
- Playing with a Flinstones toy phone. (The one with a horn as the receiver.)
- "Aiming" at bugs in the men's urinal. *debated on taking this out...but what a fun memory that no one (until now) really knew about.

Last night, 20 years after really being involved in that church, I had the humbling opportunity to speak on the same stage at the community Thanksgiving service. Someone looked at me before service and said, "You look tense." I was.

Not sure why. I've spoke in front of thousands in Latin America, I spoke in front of hundreds in school assemblies here in town, have done weddings, funerals, and even taught a class on writing research papers to 6th graders in the public school system.

But coming back to the roots was a little intimidating. And still, as I type, I'm not sure why. I guess the magnitude of realizing God's hand in my life can get a little overwhelming.

All I know, is that I'm thankful for a church that invested in me. I'm thankful for parents who got me involved in the ministry there. I'm thankful for the teachers and volunteers that had no idea they were teaching a Bible story to someone who would become a pastor 23 years later.

I look back at the seeds that were planted in my life and become humbled and in awe of God's plan for people's lives.

May we continue to plant seeds. Someday those little, chubby trouble makers grow up. And some of them might just be leading life-giving churches.

It's worth the investment.

Saturday Things-To-Do List

1. Clip.


2. Hunt down clippings that shoot across the room. (If I have time.)

Previous Post issues

I really liked the embed for Hillsong London in my previous post.
- great music
- great look
- great videos

But I deleted it.

...music started automatically, thus, when you went to my blog, music played.
A little too Myspace-ish for me.

All my "in the office" blog readers were forced to listen to music as my blog opened.
Not good.

So, if you want to check out the Hillsong London embed, go HERE. Music will play.

A Thankful Heart

Last night I asked some of our 60s Plus group to share something they were thankful for.

One response:
"I'm thankful my grandson invited me to church."

priceless....

Express Yourself bumper video

express yourself into from firstassembly on Vimeo.
{RSS peeps - video}

This will be a short intro video as I go up to speak. It set for Nov. 23, 30.

Sunday reflections

Another great Sunday at First Assembly.

Some highlights:

- We wrapped up the God of this City series. People responded by writing their names all over a piece of mosaic art we have been creating over the past four weeks. This time, their names symbolized a willingness to sacrifice anything to carry out God's mission for His Church. Pretty powerful moment in the service. (I'll blog about this whole four-week process of tiles, the cross, names, and mosaic art later this week.)

- Brian Williamson (H.S. student from Neoga) did a good job rocked the house singing a Brandon Heath song called Give Me Your Eyes.


- Everyone was challenged to lay down their fear and invite spiritually disconnected friends to experience God at First Assembly. We gave everyone one of these cards.

Read about our cards at Evan's Blog.

- We continue to have new faces each week. Really excited about families coming and checking us out. We hope they find First Assembly as a place they can connect to Jesus and be inspired to live life to its fullest.

- We celebrated over a very meaningful Thank You card we received from a group of recovering meth users that use our facilities each week for a gathering place. What a great way to help out in our community!

- We announced next week's series: Express Yourself. It will be another great Sunday next week! (Artwork will be posted this week.)

Express Yourself....coming soon!

So I found this little comic-making site. And I tried it out. And yes... I am not an artist. Enjoy. Let the doodling begin on Nov. 23!

Let's be honest with God

Dear God,

All I know is that I want people to give their lives to you. I know as a pastor I have influence in people's lives to help make that happen. I simply need to know HOW to make that happen. I assume more prayer is apart of it. I know helping people look past themselves is a part of it. But what else?

Too many people around here are going to hell. I know no one likes to talk about that. I know that's not PC. I know that is not "relevant" language to use. I know this may offend someone. But... I just want people to know You. I want people to experience your joy, your mercy, your love, your hope.

What should I do? What should WE do? How can they experience your love?
My heart is yelling this out...

(That's my gut-honest prayer today.)
What's your prayer?

Family Day: Operation Cupcakes

Take a look at Operation Cupcakes.







What did you do on Veteran's Day?

Sunday reflections

Sunday was a great day.

• Had more new faces to check things out around here at First Assembly.
• I wrestled through God of this City: Week 3. We looked at "What is it going to take?" Using Acts 17, we need to Reach out to people disconnected form Jesus, Reshape the perceptions of Christians, and Relate to their world. (Three Rs...very Rick Warren of me.)
  
• I watched Brian Williamson steal the stage in his lead role as Curly in his High School play Oklahoma.
• I hung out with great friends for lunch and a day of high school theater.
• I popped in and watched our Kids Factory work on their Christmas musical.
• I popped in and got killed at Rock Band with Pipeline peeps. My drumming skills are dead.
• I prepped for a little 6 a.m. discussion on the Holy Spirit.
  
• I watched five episodes of The Office on www.hulu.com with my wife before calling it a night.
  

God of this City: Part 3

SUNDAY: We're gonna wrestle with what it's going to take to reach people are are disconnected from God.

This may hurt a little...

Take-Home Thoughts From Related Leaders

Scott Hodge tells it like it is: taking a church that has plateaued or is in decline to a level of healthy growth will be painful. Some people don't like change. Some people like church to meet all of their needs. Some people like it small. Some people like it the "old way" because it's their style. So transitioning a church into a healthy missional church will require sacrifice, a season of pain, and focusing on what really matters: people disconnected from God.

However, the reward of a transitioned church is worth it all.

Instead of blogging all the notes from the one-day conference (I'm sure others will...you guys can throw out you blog address in the comments), I decided to just write down some personal take-home thoughts from the event.

• First Assembly will not make consumer Christians. It's not about them getting, but about them giving of themselves to others.
• Our needs will be met when we meet the needs of others.
• There is a HUGE gap between Jesus and people following him. First Assembly needs to help close in that gap. The world takes note of this gap everyday.
  
• We need to identify what is sacred in church, and what is not sacred. Then we can examine what is really important.
• I need to re-read all the blog posts from Andy Stanley's catalyst session.
• We must tackle our assimilation/fusion process of taking a first-time attender to becoming a committed follower of Jesus.
• Love this quote from Hodge: "If you want to reach people who have never been reached before, then you need to do things that have never been done before."

My next 36 hours

I'm looking forward to hear more challenging and innovative ways to help lead a church in reaching out to the spiritually disconnected people in our community.

Scott Hodge has been a huge help to me personally through the transition of our church. He's traveled the road which we just got on.

I'm looking forward to the next 36 hours.
Wanna Go?

My one political post!

Thanks for the reminder, dad!



(RSS peeps: video embedded)

preparing the place

As a church, we will be focusing attention on preparing the place for the spiritually disconnected guy who comes to check us out. We have to relate Jesus' powerful message to people who are not use to being in a church.

We have to be intentional in our planning.

Here's a great video that helps spur on some thoughts.


Find more videos like this on Creative Worship Tour


Check out Scott Hodge here.

Check out Mike Jones here.