Year in Review

It is amazing how much life takes place each year. Each year moves at the speed of life. It feels like the older you get the faster the year goes. In the Bousa family, 2007 has been action packed with some major transitional moments.

Transitions:


Sold my car (Volkswagen Corrado) to pay for graduate school (Jan. 2007)
Graduated from Valley Forge Christian College (Phoenixville, PA)
The birth of the church and coffee house idea (June / 2007)
Start Blogging in May/2007
Moved to South Hamilton, Massachusetts
Began and completed our first semester at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary
Conducted 3 Biblical Relationship Seminars w/ wife
Joined a church plant launch team (scheduled to start on Sept. / 2008)
Signed up for an Intermediate Greek 2 Class at Harvard Divinity
Began working on a book (COSMOS: Bringing Order to the Overlooked Areas of Discipleship)

Still Thinking!!!

Beauty and the Beast

I went to a dinner theater production of Disney's Beauty and the Beast last night with the wife and In-Laws. Great show. Amazing how many older adults filled the theater to see a such a classic fairly tale. I think it is healthy for adults to revisit the stories they grew up on or their children. It fosters creativity. It sparks the part of the brain that operates our imagination. You will either do life from memory (life side of the brain) or from imagination (right side of the brain). If you notice that life has become routine, a whole bunch of rituals, then you are probably just living from memory. Just doing things just because. The same boring food, the same boring schedule, what a boring life. I want to suggest that the most creative people on the earth understand that they must be intentional on finding space in their life to dream, imagine, and invent. I am not saying you have to invent something for the world. What I am saying is to find ways to change your personal world. Be creative, try something new. Think inside and outside the box. Don't let routine run your life, but dream big dreams. Sometimes we limit our life we because our thoughts. Don't let what seems as an obstacle keep you away from fulfilling a dream. Think Big. If you want to do things you have never done before you have to think in ways you never thought before!! Think Bigger. Dream Bigger. Imagine Bigger.

Random Acts of Kindness (RAK)

I was challenged by someones blog to buy somebody you don't know dinner while out to dinner. I loved the idea when I read it, but didn't know how it would turn out. There is no how to book on being kind!!! So we were out to dinner in Washington DC in Union Station at Uno's. When I went to the bathroom, I noticed a family sharing a meal. I came back and the idea came to me, so as we were leaving I stopped at there table and I did it. They probably thought I was crazy. Who does those things? I never have. I learned that kindness is not something you learn in a book, on TV or in a classroom. It is learned by doing it. All I really did is obey Jesus' command to love our neighbors. It is really that simple and I don't know how much of an impact it made on their lives. It could have been a lot or a little, but one thing I do know is that in the end times, when the Lord Jesus comes back and all people stand before Him to be judged and He says the words, He does in Matthew's Gospel, "When I was hungry did you feed me. . ." I can say YES, because Jesus who is the king will say, "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me" (Matthew 25:40).

Loving our neighbors is loving Jesus.

Family Traditions (Cont.)

Before I leave the Blogosphere for the day, I wanted to show you the end results from our ginger bread house contest. When families are around, you know there is competition so here are they are. What one do you think is the best? What one do you think is mine? One of them is the prototype for a future cafe, JOKING!!!!

Family Traditions (Cont.)

One of our family traditions is to plan and participate in an activity together. Last night, we went to Washington D.C. to see the White House Christmas Tree! They also have a fire that burns for 30 days straight which has been a custom since 1923. We missed the musical because of the weather. Family is strengthened by each person's presence. Money can't buy your presence! Here's some pics!

Christmas Traditions

Other than Jesus (the real reason for the season), I think the best part of the Christmas season is not presents, but family traditions. Since Liz and I were married, we have tried to adopt new and continue old Christmas Family Traditions. Here are a couple:

1. Read the Christmas story in the Bible together on Christmas eve and pray together!

2. Buy one new ornament each that means something from the past year. I got a Starbucks ornament this year (Hence the picture) and Liz got a flying pig named, "Olivia"!!!

3. Buy new pajamas to wear on Christmas eve and Christmas day. I get a T-shirt since I don't wear pajamas! Last year I got a "Rocky" T-shirt and this year the shirt says, "Think Outside of the Box."

4. On Christmas eve we are building ginger bread houses as a family.

5. We are going to watch home video's on Christmas eve.

6. We watch a Christmas movie together.

7. Buy somebody we don't know Christmas presents.

8. Go on a Family Activity together.

There is no substitute for family traditions. All the presents in the world mean nothing compared to being with family on the Holy days. Jesus came to the world to bring heavenly joy. I think we get a taste of that joy when we come together as a family on Christmas.

New Year's Challenges

With a new year around the corner I thought I would share my thoughts on setting new year challenges. I like to call them challenges not resolutions because I like to set goals that are a challenge, not something easy to reach. This is the year of challenge! This is a rough draft, so everything is up for change with further thinking.

3 Personal Challenges:

a. Spiritual-Prayer and Fasting: I am challenging myself to fast (no food, just juice) and pray one day a week (probably wednesdays) for 52 weeks.

b. Intellectual-Reading and Writing: I am challenging myself to read 52 books including school books and complete a writing project I recently started. I feel called to write books just as much as I do to pastoral ministry and college level teaching. So I started working on a book on SEX from a Biblical perspective. I will blog about it soon.

c. Physical-I want to work out 3-4 times a week, 30 minutes each time. I am still thinking and praying about something else. I will update when I figure it out.

Sharing a Book

One thing my wife and I do every year is share a book on marriage. We read out load a chapter together and talk about those things that stuck out. We are reading, Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas. In chapter two, he compared man centered marriages to God centered marriages. A man centered marriage is maintained as long as our desires, comforts and expectations are being met. You can see how this sets up marriages for failure. What happens if both spouses have a bad day on the same day? But in a God centered marriage, we preserve our marriage because it brings glory to God and points a sinful would to a reconciling Creator. The Goal of marriage is to Model God's Love for his church to the World. Marriage was created to please God, not you. I will close with this quote in reference to divorce: "How can I tell my children that God's promises of reconciliation is secure when they see that my own promise (to my spouse) doesn't mean a thing?

Ask yourself what I ask myself, how can I representative of Christ to the world, when I can't represent Christ to my wife/husband?

New Research

In the book, The Houdini Solution, the author made a point I wanted to see if it was true. I conducted two tests. My ginini pigs were a 2nd grader boy and a woman in med school. I asked them to draw the coolest thing in the world. There was no limitations. Whatever! There was no right or wrong answer. They drew and reported back to me. The 2nd grader drew the UNIVERSE with the all the planets, shooting stars, the sun, etc. The med-student drew a person, a micro-small house and a rainbow. The results proved the theory right!

The younger we are the bigger our imagination (the universe). As we get older, we tend to limit and restrict ourselves (the person).

Keep dreaming big dreams, be creative, think both inside and outside the box, don't allow limitations on your ideas, and instead of asking, why? ask why not?

Every area of life can benefit by creative thinking: work, ministry, family, church, relationships, etc.

Church Planting Promo Video

This video is hot off the press! The video is like a documentary of the community, Garden City Church, a new church that will be coming to Beverly, MA in Sept. / 2008. I have the privilege of assisting the lead pastor. We are like batman and robin!!! We tried to capture the heartbeat of Beverly, MA in this video. We hit all the hot spots. The video was used in a service, where Pastor Rich casted vision to the church that will be supporting the start of this new church. The video put faces to statistics. We actually showed the church the people we are targeting. Check it out, you even might see me!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HpP6ebfWdE

Book Reflections

I just finished the book, The Houdini Solution, by Ernie Schenck. Ernie is a co-founder for an Emmy Award winning Advertising Agency.

The main idea of the book is based on the secret behind Harry Houdini's magic and performances. It is simple, he worked best in tight places, inside the box. He did not allow his mind to be consumed with the problem, he directed all of his energy toward solving it. For instance when Houdini was bound and locked in chains. He was lowered upside down into a glass box filled with water. With only minutes to escape. What would you do? Would you allow the hopelessness of the situation dictate the the outcome, which would be death? Or like Houdini would you accept the circumstances? Accept the box. Accept the chains and the locks. And begin to think inside the box. The bottom line is this: the biggest secret of truly productive creative people is that they embrace obstacles like Houdini, they don't run from them. Look at setbacks as opportunities and limitations as chances to excel.

Are you going to let your box set you back or set you up for your best performance ever? Working inside the many boxes of life might limit the time we have to get out of the box, but at the same time it will maximise our ability to be creative and innovative.

Jess' Believe or Not!

Did you know that Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, did not invent the MP3 Player? The MP3 player was released by a company in 1998, but they had lots of problems with it. It did not hold a lot of music, etc. Apple reinvented an old idea and came up with the IPOD. I heard it said before, "There is nothing new under the sun." That is true with ideas. Very few ideas are great ideas. Take an old idea, reinvent, repackage it, and maybe you to, can be like Steve Jobs!!

Harvard Here I Come!

Its official! I am officially signed up for a grad school class at Harvard--Intermediate Greek 2. They actually pronounce it like this: "Ha-vad." They forgot the "r." The school is beautiful. My wife and I took a trip down there today, toured the library and sneaked a peak at the classrooms. Actually, as you can see in the pictures, they asked me to teach a class. Just joking!!! Maybe one day!!

Misquoting Jesus

My master piece is done!! Finished!! Complete!! It is my final paper for "Interpreting the New Testament" class. I uploaded to my personal open source. Check it out. I took a not so conservative view for once in my life on a passage in the New Testament I am arguing was a well know passage for scribal alterations.

The Main Idea: Jesus did not permit divorce on any grounds (not even fornication), but commends permanence in marriage. Jesus' message on marriage was permanence, just God instituted in the Garden of Eden when He created man and woman. Jesus reestablished the standards God set in the Garden, by reinterpreting Moses divorce concession with God's original standards for marriage.

The paper took me three months to write, it should only take you 30 minutes. Let me know what you like or hate!!!

http://myopen-source.blogspot.com/

Home Improvement Ministries

I just got home from the marriage and family training, my wife and I attend twice a month. The goal of the training is to learn how to implement a marriage and family ministry in the local church, so since we are in striking distance with a new church that we are helping to started in Sept. 08, this info is going to be helpful.

We focused on Communication. "Truth telling trumps peacekeeping." Couples tend to fudge the truth to keep the peace in their homes. Fudging the truth is lying. What this does to any relationship is stunt its growth. "One can only experience intimacy to the degree one is expressing honesty." Honesty is always the best policy when done in love for the other person's benefit. Always use words that build up not tear down. Always choose your words carefully.

Don't do this: A woman was looking at herself in the mirror and she said, I am so fat. She then told her husband to say something nice, to be honest. So he thought, and thought some more and said to his wife, "You got darn good eyesight!!!!!"

The moral of the story is "Always speak the truth in love."

CheeseCake Factory

I cracked the code. If you buy a $25.00 gift certificate at the Cheesecake Factory you get a Cheesecake Factory Teddy Bear with Velvet bag. I learned as I was waiting in line to go eat and I saw someone buying gift certificates. I ended up putting two and two together and we bought the gift certificate on the way in, got the bear, then paid our bill with the gift certificate. My wife got the bear and I was the hero. You too can be a hero. Try it. I dare you.

Updated-My-Open-Source

I just updated the blog I created, doubling as an OPEN SOURCE, with a paper I just finished. I have been working on it for 3 months. If you are up for some deep theologically deep stuff (its pretty deep) take a stab at it. The title is "MISQUOTING JESUS." Check it out.
http://myopen-source.blogspot.com/

Leaving a Legacy

I just learned about breaking news, actually it was breaking news in 1988, where the USA Olympic team was in a record breaking pass running the 4 man relay and when the last man went to pass the baton to his partner to seal the deal and beat the world record, not to mention to win the gold medal. He dropped it.

“Every Christian must see themselves as the link to the next generation,” writes William Barclay.

We need to practice the hand off.

Looking at the life of Jesus and the legacy He left, I cannot get past this one thing. Discipleship!! Jesus lived and died to pass the baton to His disciples. He showed them, modeled for them, taught them, and lived with them, all for one purpose, to make them into disciples.

The greatest legacy you can leave your family, your community, your generation and your church is Christ followers.

Ask yourself, as I ask myself, are we leaving a legacy our generation can follow that leads them closer to God or have we drooped the baton and got off track?

LAST CLASS

It's a wrap. Today, I have my last class for my first semester here at grad school. 4 more semesters left. Time is flying. I have Intermediate Hebrew!! Almost finished with my two final papers, I have been working all semester on. They will be posted on "My Open Source" blog next week some time, if you want to see what in the world I am doing!! Let me know what you think.

My Best Leadership Decision I Ever

I recently watched a conference session from the Catalyst Conference. The speaker was Andy Stanely. He is the pastor of North Point in Atlanta, GA. He titled his talk, "My Best Leadership Decision I Ever Made."

He found when starting a new church that there was not enough time to be a leader because of leadership and there was not enough time to get done what God wants him to get done. He said, what we do is cheat our families when we are in a crunch for time, not the church. He said, we tend to cheat towards those things that show progress and also we cheat because we are afraid. We are afraid. We think, "If I don't. . . It won't."

The biggest leadership Decision he made was that if he was going to cheat something or somebody out of time, he was going to cheat the church not his family. The Bible commands us to love our wife's not the church. Church growth does not rest on any pastor, but on Jesus. Jesus said, I will build my church . . "

I totally agree with his decision. I have made the same decision. How about you?

NEW IDEA

I got a new idea. I have decided to create a second blog site, doubling as an OPEN SOURCE site, so that I can upload all the paper's I write at GRAD school, sermons I preach, church planting materials I gather, seminar notes I put together, books I review, or whatever else I write. You have FREE access to all these materials. HAPPY READING!!! The link is on the left of my blog, titled My-Open-Source.

http://myopen-source.blogspot.com/

Angel Tree Ministry

Another thing my wife and I like to do around Christmas is buy a family Christmas presents who can't afford them. This year our church has partnered with Prison Ministries. Prison Ministries goes into prisons across the country and shares the good news of Jesus Christ. During the Christmas season all the inmates both women and men who will not be home with their children and involved with the prison ministry in their jail can give their children presents through the giving of people like you and me. My wife and I were privileged enough to purchase the gifts for an 8 year old boy and a 9 year old girl.

If you want to check out this ministry, here's a link to their promotional video:

http://www.angeltree.org/generic.asp?ID=2570

Jesus could not have been more right when he said, "It is more blessed to give then to receive."

I define success by how much you give away, not how much money you make. How do you define success?

The Health Benefits of Martial Sex

My wife came across this research, I thought you might like to see it. I bet you never knew sex has health benefits that is of course with in the context of marriage, (but outside the context of marriage, sex actually heightens the risk of acquiring STD's, HIV, etc.)

Read carefully and practice regularly!!

1. Scientific tests find that when women make love, they produce double amounts of the hormone estrogen, which make hair shiny and skin smooth.

2. Gentle, relaxed lovemaking reduces your chances of suffering dermatitis, skin rashes and blemishes. The sweat produced cleanses the pores and makes your skin glow.

3. Lovemaking can burn up those calories you piled on during that romantic dinner.

4. Sex is one of the safest sports you can take up. It stretches and tones up just about every muscles in the body. It’s more enjoyable than swimming 20 laps and you don’t need special sneakers!

5. Sex is an instant cure for mild depression. It releases the body endorphin into the bloodstream, producing a sense of euphoria and leaving you with a feeling of well-being.

6. The more sex you have, the more you will be offered. The sexually active body gives off greater quantities of chemicals called pheromones. These subtle sex perfumes drive the opposite sex crazy!

7. Sex is the safest tranquillizer in the world. It is 10 times more effective than Valium.

8. Kissing each day will keep the dentist away. Kissing encourages saliva to wash food from the teeth and lowers the level of the acid that causes decay, preventing plaque build-up.

9. Sex actually relieves headaches. A lovemaking session can release the tension that restrict blood vessels in the brain.

10. A lot of lovemaking can unblock a stuffy nose. Sex is a natural antihistamine. It can help combat asthma and hay fever.

Don't tell kids this stuff!!!

Whose Kingdom are you building?

There is a story in the beginning of Matthew's Gospel that speaks of Jesus being tempted three times by the devil himself. The first two temptations set the scene and build up to the third which is grammatically the climax of the story.

In the final temptation, the devil takes Jesus to the highest point of the city where they look out over all the kingdoms of the world. And the devil challenges Jesus to bow down and worship him and he will give Jesus all the kingdoms of the world.

Now think about this for a second. If Jesus accepted Satan's challenge and bowed down to him, He would have eliminated his death on the cross. He would not have suffered a criminals death.

Instead of building Satan's Kingdom, Jesus stuck to God's plan, made his way to the cross, conquered death, and flipped the script because now Jesus is challenging us to partner with Him in building God's kingdom. God's kingdom is built one person at a time, one church at a church.

I asked myself, who's Kingdom am I building, God's or Satan's? Do you accept his challenge?

Spiritual Pilgrimage

I made a spiritual pilgrimage to a place I haven't been in five years, a place I owe my new life to, a place called Syracuse-New York-Teen Challenge. (Teen Challenge is a Christian Discipleship / Rebab). My wife and I had the privilege to do ministry in the very place I was ministered to. It brought back a lot of memories when I stepped into the building for the first time. We spoke on Dating, Sex, and Marriage from a Biblical Perspective. We challenged the guys to make a commitment to stay sexually pure till marriage. They all signed commitment cards. We had a great time, but nothing could be better then speaking to an audience that included my brother, Luke. He has been there for 6 weeks and told me he is going the distance, completing the program. He also said, he feels like God is nudging his heart in the direction of ministry!!!

Video Shoot

Yesterday, myself, a church planter, and a film guy and his son went out and shot the city of Beverly in preparation for a service where we will be showing a video of our filming to a song. We got to meet a ton of people. We actually were blessed with a great day for filming since the city of Beverly teamed up with Salem to have a parade. So we blended right in with our camera. Residents and visitors probably thought we were from a TV channel or something. We got to interview people who helped us find data about Beverly. We asked what is one need a church can meet? We got answers like children's and teenagers programs, soup kitchens, homeless ministry, etc. You can't beat first hand knowledge from actual residents who know the community better then any research or statistics you find in a book or on the Internet. The people of Beverly were extremely friendly. The city is known for being on the ocean coast, one person said. When the video is finished, I will try to post a link. Stay tuned for it.

One thing I learned is that starting a new church does not begin by implementing some program another church might have had success with, but it begins with building relationships with people. If people can't trust you, they won't trust your program. A church is started by building bridges of trust to the churches programs and services, not vice versa. Can't wait to get back out there to meet more people.

Thanksgiving Reflections

Here's the blog you have been waiting for!! My Thanksgiving day blog!! First, let me preface this by saying my family, who I love dearly, puts the "Dys" in Dysfunctional and we lived up to that this Thanksgiving. I realized that when we sat down for dinner and someone began blasting Led-Zepplin and banging on what seemed like a pillar in the basement that was holding up the floor which we were sitting on, but I can testify we didn't fall through. And I was thankful for that.

I realized something though in those moments. I wouldn't trade my family for anything in the world. We are who we are, with all our warts and all. Family is family, regardless how we act. We are family forever. We only get one family. I would not mind having that same thing happen again, and again, because if you can't love your family who you can see, then how can you love a God, who you cannot see. I believe that and live that out and thank God for my family.

Mission Crisis

Had my weekly meeting with a church planter who I have the privilege to help start a church from scratch. We are trying to get to the core of why the church exists? What is the mission of the church? We believe the mission of the church is simple. To lead people to become fully devoted followers of Christ. What this means is that each person who comes to faith in Christ, must then learn what it means to be a disciple and then reproduce themselves. Each disciple must disciple somebody. The Church is making disciples, but the disciples are not reproducing themselves.

I believe that every person in the church must disicples somebody in their life. Mom's should disicples their chidlren, dads their friends, husdands their wives, children their friends, etc.

Disciples of Christ make disicples.

We ended our meeting today in frustrated that we have not been doing this in our own lives. We beleive that if the church we start is going to disicples disciples, then it is going to start with us. We are going to step out of the boat and make disciples that make disicples. Stay tuned for what is to come with the church plant.

Home Improvement Ministries

Liz and I had our 4th training session with Home Improvement Ministries yesterday. The topic of the night was SERVING. If you can't serve your spouse (from a Christian standpoint) then you really must check your Christianity. Jesus told us to love our neighbors and our enemies so our spouses fall somewhere in between there, Serving your spouse is not an issue of personal happiness but an act of obedience to Christ. So if you flip the coin, not to serve your spouse regardless how she/he treasts you is an act of disobedience.

I want to suggest marriage will not make you happy all the time, but it will sure make you Christ-like all of the time. Jesus said it best. He didn't come to be served but to serve. I believe that you haven't loved somebody till you have served them!

Remember The Titans (did not remember the Facts!)

I talked to somebody who attended TC Williams high school in VA the year the Remember the Titans movies was based off of. It was the year of 1970-1971. Three high schools integrated that year, so three varsity football teams joined forces. She said that year high school foot ball was a joke, no one had a chance against there team unlike the movie which made it seem like every game was a struggle to win. And also even more of a bummer was she was best friends with Gerry Bertier the linebacker who supposedly got into an accident with a drunk driver during his final season at the time of state championship which made it harder for them to win. UNTRUE!! He did get hit by a car, but it was not until Feb. after football was over in the last Nov. He didn't get hit by another car, it was a single car accident where he hit a tree. He did die though years later by a drunk driver. All in all she said the movie was 50% correct. The moral of the story is be careful how much stock you put into those movies that profess to be inspired by a true story!

Prepare-Enrich

On Friday, Liz and I were certified in administering a PREPARE/ENRICH, a pre-marital and marriage assessment tool. It is the most power assessment tool out there. It takes a photograph of your relationship and then shows you your strenghts and growth areas as a couple. Most assessment tools just focus on the individual. This one takes a cat-scan of your relationship. It can predict marital satisfaction with precision. I would suggest everyone who is thinking about getting engaged to be married or if you have been married for 50 years to take this assessment to see where you are in your relationship, so that you could strive for satisfaction.

Behind the Scenes

I want to give you a little behind the scenes action on a church plant I have the privilege to help start. Today, we had our weekly BIG IDEA meeting. We planned a service, we will be putting on at the church he works for which is the church that will be mothering the church plant.

Here's our tentative order of service for Dec. 9, 2007. It might be a little out of order, but we are still working on it!!

Service Prep.
Theme: “LOST”

Matthew 28:19-20

Worship:
Song changes, no horns, etc.
Hill Song (The Stand), etc.

Video:
Song to Pictures of Beverly!

Goal is to put faces to the Lost in Beverly.
Begin taking pics.,
Casting Crowns (Doesn’t anybody hear her?) as the background song.

Welcome:
Briefly explain what we did and what we are doing.

Announcements:
Minimum Announcements

Prayer:
Short and Sweet, to the point, not long

Offertory:
New song,

band with guitars, etc.

Video:
Intro. Video
Rich/Jess, causal conversation,

shoot in coffee house in Beverly,

get camera,

schedule time

Message:
Lost Theme
Power Point
(1) Make a Confession:
Confessions of an Associate Pastor
Practical Atheism:

Believing God exist, but doing the work of ministry as if God doesn't exist!
(2) Make a Challenge:

Compelling Challenge
Find a time to meet after to share info.

MISC. Details:
No one on the platform
No huge pulpit, use music stand,
Countdown clock

Bulletin
Garden City Church
Simple Bulletin, Lost theme, Outreach.com
Cores Values, Mission statement, etc.
Time to meet to talk about the church plant, just come, etc.

(Got the LOST image above from Lifechurch.tv)

Satan's Top 10 Lies about SEX

My wife and I are doing a seminar on Dating, Marriage and Sex in light of God's Word. The reality is, Satan does not have a better alternative for sex, but he tries to get us to think, he does. God’s plan for sex, as we will see is absolutely the best, we have, but since Satan has got so many people living lies, we have a hard time sorting out, what is God’s truth about sex and what are Satan’s lies? Here are his TOP 10 LIES! If you can think of anymore let me know!!!

Satan’s Top 10 Lies Our Culture Believes Are True

10. THE LIE: Satan created sex!
THE TRUTH: God created sex!

9. THE LIE: Christians are not supposed to talk about sex!
THE TRUTH: Christians have words from God about Sex!

8. THE LIE: The more sexual partners before marriage the better!
THE TRUTH: The less sexual partners before marriage the better!

7. THE LIE: Premarital sex prepares a couple for marriage!
THE TRUTH: Premarital sex sabotages your marriage!

6. THE LIE: Live together before marriage!
THE TRUTH: Live together after marriage!

5. THE LIE: The Grass is Greener on the other side!
THE TRUTH: Fertilize your own soil!

4. THE LIE: Marriage will solve your sexual problems!
THE TRUTH: Marriage intensifies sexual problems!

3. THE LIE: Sex is a woman’s top priority!
THE TRUTH: Sex is not on the top of their list!

2. THE LIE: A satisfying sex life holds a marriage together!
THE TRUTH: A satisfying relationship holds a marriage together!

1. THE LIE: Sexual sin does hurt Your relationship with God.
THE TRUTH: Sexual sin directly affects your relationship with God.

Orphan Annie!

I have adopted! Not a child, but a PUG!! We were able to rent-a-pug for a 4 days while home on a Reading Week Break. She is the best pug I ever met!! We named her Annie for orphan Annie!! And Olivia for Olivia the pig, so she is Olivia-Ann.

You can see her and even buy her @Howling Hill Kennels LLC. Alvin and Emma Brenneman http://www.howlinghillkennel.com/ 540-788-4046

These people are top notch. They will fly you your pug to wherever and whenever, just contact them! Check out there site. You won't be able to shut your computer without thinking about buying a PUG.

LOST

A church planter and myself are planning a service, a group of us are going to do at his church. The goal is to cast vision for the church plant to see if anybody wants to partner with us to start a new church in Beverly, MA.

We got thinking and came up with the theme, LOST. We figured out that out of the 40,000+ people in Beverly where the church is going to be planted, 74% or approximately 30,000+ people are not meaningfully connected to a church family and half of those don't have any kind of connection to God whatsoever. THEY ARE LOST!!

Our goal is to higher the percentage of those people who have no relationship with God to people who are actively engaged in a church. Our goal is to lead people to become fully devoted followers of Christ. We want to partner with God so that the LOST become FOUND.

I will keep you updated as this unfolds!

Thanksgiving Tradition

I want to share a family tradition my wife and I created a couple years ago. Around thanksgiving time, we find a family who can't afford to buy a thanksgiving dinner, and we bless them by paying for their meal. We do it, solely, to show our thankfulness to God for what He how he has provided for us in miraculous ways through the year. Today, we are excited because we located that family. I love what Jesus said about giving. I wish I knew know to get our culture to believe and practice this, "It is more blessed to give then to receive."

GIVE

I am convinced that one of the greatest joys in life is to GIVE. I feel like the more I can give the more successful I will be in life. Success is not getting as much stuff and keeping it, that's greed, I define success as giving as much as you can get. That is called, LOVE.

LOVE ALWAYS GIVES!

The reason I say that is because I am fortunate enough to support one of my best friends who is in Africa sharing the Gospel with people who would not have heard it if it was not for he and his wife, to give their lives for the mission of Jesus Christ. You want to talk about giving, I don't even know what it is, compared to what Jerry and Paula gave up to live in AFRICA. So I once a month, my wife and I GIVE them money to help support them.

Checkout their site: www.jerryandpaula.com

You might want to GIVE!!!

Crazy Christian Doctrines

I got to go to Harvard yesterday with Liz to hear one of my prof's speak on the bodily Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Before, I get to the teaching, got to say that the campus of Harvard is like Heaven!! The library looks like the White House, seriously! Every building is massive, reaching to the Heavens, well not quite!! I love it.

The teaching was stimulating and extremely interesting:

The main idea of the night was that the bodily resurrection of Jesus has opened the door for those who believe in Him to have access to the New Heavens and the New Earth where our present bodily will be meaningfully related to our glorified bodies (or you can just say, the bodies we will have in Heaven).

Did you catch that "meaningfully related?" Not the same.

What we do in our physical bodies is going to have eternal consequences. Yes, that is true. The work or lack of work, one does will effect our eternal residency in Heaven. Works don't get us into heaven, only God could engineer that process, if you don't believe me just try to raise yourself from the dead!! We can't do it ourselves, but our works are the result of the hope we have in the bodily resurrection.

Heaven, the Bible depicts, is a lot more then clouds and harps! Everything on earth that is tainted by sin will be renewed and everything, believers have done with the right motivation will be better, if that was not the case, then why would have God given us the command to fill the earth and to exercise dominion over it, and the Jesus command us to love God and our neighbor? We have these commandments because what believers who are following Christ do while in their physical body directly effects eternity when we will be in our heavenly body.

If our life work did not mean a thing for eternity, God would have no grounds as a just and loving God, to judge us on the day of judgement when every man and woman will stand before God, and give an account for their life work.

He ended his talk with an admonishment, to the students of Harvard, not to be scared of good works, because the apostle, Paul says that is exactly what we were created for and James the brother of Jesus, says, without them your faith is dead, but do good works out of our love for God.

Halloween!!!

I want to share a concern of mine. Why is the church absolutely silent when HALLOWEEN comes around? If it is on the minds of every person, why not talk about what people are thinking about?

If Jesus asked us to be Salt and light in this world, then why are we not shining our light on one of the darkest days of the year?

Happy Reformation Day

On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther (not Martin Luther King, Jr.) a Catholic teacher, pinned the 95 Thesis (basically things he noticed the Catholic Church was doing that were not found in the Bible, etc.) to the door of a Catholic Church.

That act evolved into the Protestant Movement where the Catholic Church spilt and today every Protestant Church is direct result. Just Google his name and go to Wikipedia and you will see the details.

So, Happy Reformation Day to all!!

Guess who I Know?

It is amazing the people you meet in life. Recently, Liz and myself have been attending a marriage and family training on how to start a marriage and family ministry in your church. It just so happens to be at the home of the person who created Ms. Pac-Man, among other things, like TV guide, yes, in 1993, he created a box that went on top of the TV that programed your TV to have a TV guide on the screen, even though this is extremely common today, it was before the time, but eventully someone bought his idea, etc.!!! And the guy who leads the training meets with the New England Patriots every Thursday night to teach them about being a married. Isn't that cool!

Moving to the Land of the Unknown

I think most of you know that after grad school Liz and I will be moving somewhere to begin the church planting process. Now, we don't know exactly what that looks like, but we know we might be moving to an unknown land to reach a community we don't necessarily know. What an exciting thing yet scary at the time.

I was reading in the book of Acts (Book in the Bible dedicated to church history) and the apostle Paul on a whim went to Athens. The Bible said he spoke to the people who were around him about Jesus day in and day out. I noticed something I never saw before, Paul didn't have a specific audience when he went to Athens, he was faithful to the people who were in the area, but then God opened the door to a very specific people group. Paul got to go inside to the heart of their culture where the philosophers hung around all day sharing ideas. His audience all of sudden went from whoever was around to the elite and intellectuals of Athens. He got inside.

I think there is a lesson for me as well as any church planters or anybody who will make a move to an unknown land to fulfill the call of God on there life, even if the people you are reaching is not specific, go, be faithful to the people in front of you, then somehow or another, you will get inside and be standing in front of that specific audience God has prepared for you to serve and love.

Church Planting in Beverly

I think the most exciting thing, other then my wife and family is talking about church planting. Church planting is heartbeat of God in action. The heart beat of God is "to lead people to become fully developed followers of Christ." That is the mission of the CHURCH in general and the goal of each person who comes into a relationship with Christ. Each person's goal is to help fulfill that in someway, shape or form. Everyone who accepts Christ as their personal Lord and Savior, has one mission to do. We must reflect the image of Jesus. We must act like Jesus acted and do what Jesus did (WWJD). That, I would say is the HEART BEAT of GOD. God's greatest joy comes when human beings who HE created, imitate Jesus. Even though I am not a father YET (my wife would say), I am a son of my dad, here on earth and I know this, his greatest JOY is for me to follow Christ. So, if that is the way my earthly father feels, then what would you think, our Heavenly Father feels? God's greatest joy is when, we, His children, have a relationship with Jesus, nothing more and nothing less. It is that simple, but people, including myself tend to make it a lot harder, would you agree?

Meet the Parents

NO, this blog is not about the movie MEET THE PARENTS, even though that is one of me and my wife's favorite movies.

Today, I learned two of my friends got engaged this weekend. I want to share one of their experiences.

So the reason I wrote this blog is because I think engagement stories are so cool.

The day before he popped the question, he took her parents out to dinner, asked them first. AWKWARD!! I don't think there is a more awkward moment in Life then asking the parents to marry their daughter. Would you agree? For me asking the parents was more nerve racking, then getting down on a knee and popping the big question.

So, the day of, he told her they were going hiking, they got up to the mountain 4:30AM, hiked to the top, and then as soon as they got to the top, the SUN was rising, he got on his knee, took out the ring, with the SUN as the back drop, and asked her, Would you climb mountains with me forever? (Actually, that was not it, but it sounded something like that he told me) and she said, YES.

Great Job, MIKE, I am excited for you!!!

80/20 Rule

I learned a great principle to apply to marriage from a movie my wife and I went to see on our date night.

It's called the 80/20 Rule. This is how it goes. . .

In marriage, your needs will only be met 80% of the time. The best your spouse can do, even if they are giving their all, is meet 80% of your needs. Just remember, every marriage is made up of, two imperfect people, so I think 80% is a fair estimation. . .

The problem comes when one partner in the marriage begins looking for that other 20%.

Since the 20% might look appealing from outside of a relationship, one spouse gives up their 80% for that other person who at the best can only give you 20%.

The moral of the story is don't go fishing for the 20% when you have 80% of your needs being met. The grass is not greener on the other side, take care of your own grass, because it is a product of your own doing. Always give 100% of yourself in your marriage and you won't ever have to worry about %'s.

Thought you might like that!!!

What does a church need to be a church?

CONFLICT. You might have thought I was going to say LOVE or something. Yes, for a church to be a church, it needs LOVE, but it also needs CONFLICT.

Conflict is healthy.

We see Paul in a conflict with Barnabas. The ISSUE was should John Mark go with them on their missionary journey or not?

Paul felt he should not and Barnabas believed he should, but in the end, after a sharp disagreement, they parted ways.

So now, there is not one team, but two teams who went out to share Christ. The amount of people who were ministered doubled because of a disagreement. Looks like God turned a bad situation into good.

Conflict does not always end in destruction, but when handled properly, it can be constructive.

CONFLICT was a part of the first century church, and it is still alive today.

I learned that in one of the apostle Paul's letters, he ended it by giving John Mark props.

Cafe-Church Website

A future church plant and cafe, a group of us is going to launch has a website and no its not called, Cafe-Church. It's free on GOOGLE, so I thought I might play around with it.

http://jjbousa.googlepages.com/

You can visit, it will be forever under construction as I think of new things. Going to try to channel all the ideas I have on this site.

The rule of thumb is this: Everything on this SITE is subject to change with further thinking & prayer!

My goal for this site is that anyone who wants, can track with us as we play, prepare and pray for the next two years or so until we start.

Church Planting in Beverly

Today, I met with a future church planter who will be launching a church inside this next year. We were struggling with the vision statement, mission statement and core values.

Before a church is a church, it is a vision. The vision must be articulated in such a way that people devote their lives to the mission. That is not an easy thing to do. It really good having two people present when constructing these statements because one person can always bring the other person back to reality. Dreaming can get addicting!!

One thing we are thinking of adopting as the mission/purpose statement is the mission statement for Lifechurch.tv "to lead people to become fully devoted followers of Christ."

That is the bottom line. The church plant will live and die for that mission. It is a mission that has lasted over 2000 years since the time Jesus commissioned His disciples.

I know the church I start will not stop until we have made every person in our sphere of influence a fully devoted follower of Christ. Next to having a healthy family, I will be completely satisfied dedicating my life to facilitating that mission statement.

Teen Challenge

My brother is going to Teen Challenge, a Christian Drug and Alcohol program that I went to five years ago that saved my life and helped me to see the importance of having God in your life. I would not be alive today if God did not open the door for me to go to Teen Challenge instead of jail for 3 years.

Today, my brother is making the pilgrimage to the same Teen Challenge I went to in Syracuse, NY. I am excited for him. He is open to what God wants to do through the life of a person who wants to follow Jesus.

Can't wait to see what God has for my brother.

Marriage Matters

I have been disconnected from the Blogosphere for sometime. I have three exams this week, but I wanted to check back in for a minute to share with you a couple of thoughts from the marriage seminar my wife and I just got home from.

We are in a 16 session training on how to start a marriage and family ministry in the local church.

For those who are marriage and who are going to get marriage one day will appreciate what I am going to share:

The strongest marriages and families are marriages and families who model their marriage after the Godhead. The Godhead is the trinity, which is Father God, Jesus, the Son of God, and the Holy Spirit who is God.

The Godhead operates in complete unity. Marriage couples must strive to imitate their unity, even though we will not be perfect, it must be our goal.

The Godhead operates even though their is diversity. You never see in the Bible, God the Father barking out orders to God the Son, Jesus. They all have different roles, but they embrace their differences to strenghten their relationship. We must celebrate our difference. God created your spouse for a unique purpose. They can do things for you that no one else can do, not your best friend, your parents, not even God. Our spouses are different for our benefit not our detriment.

I am excited for the next trainings. I think this is going to help my marriage more then others. I know I have to be intentional in being marriage or I will be a bad husband. Marriage is hard work, but a noble task.

If I can enhance the glory of my spouse in my life, I succeeded, but if I neglect my wife for work, ministry or whatever, I will have failed.

Why not a church building?

I am always asked, are you ever going to build a church building after your church gets off the ground?

I would rather build a coffee house, rec center for kids, etc, but this weekend I met somebody who made me feel even stronger for not intending to ever build a church building.

He shared with me a time when he was a altar boy for a Catholic Church where he was molested. This has destroyed his view of the church. He told me, he would never again step into a your typical church building.

But a coffee house disguised as a church would be alright.

That is just one reason why I will not build a church buidling.

God-Father

I though the title might be catchy, but NO this blog is not about the movie the Godfather.

I wanted to DEBUT my god-son's first B-Day, my wife and I attended this weekend while in NJ.

Here is a link to see and hear him sing without words!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXvbAdmCNAs

Monday Night Football

While in New Jersey, I got to see some old friends. It's funny how much you reflect on the past when you are with old friends. We told war stories, high school stories, and any other story we could think of while watching the Dallas vs Buffalo game.

How about those COWBOYS?

(From the Left, Shawn Culleny, Jess Bousa, Luke Bousa, Matt Gurant, Joseph Bousa)

The Power of Presence

I just got back from visiting some friends and family in my hometown. I couldn't believe my eyes as I led someone to the Lord while sitting next to my dad and wife. While outside my brother was making arrangements to go to Teen Challenge so that he can learn what it means to follow Christ at the same time he is getting clean from drugs. Plus, one of our best friends who would be the last person in the world to go into a drug program broke down and decided he too needed to go to Teen Challenge. He is actually there as we speak.

Some people say miracles don't happen in the 21st century, but if what happened in front of my eyes were not miracles, then I must be dreaming. God was moving in and through me as I just placed myself in the right place at the right time.

I learned that sometimes, just being present when people are going through the storms of life will make all the difference. I didn't have to beg or coerce anyone to make the decisions they made. They made the decisions on their own and I was just there to facilitate their choices.

30 Days to Live

I heard something a pastor said that rocked my world. He said, "Would you do the things that are on your schedule, accept invitations for this thing and that event, if you only had 30 days to live?"

Talk about messing somebody up. This is got me thinking about my life. I am asking myself, am I doing the things that really matter? Is my family first? Do people know what I would live and die for?

Hopefully this question messes you up as much as it did me!!!

IF YOU HAD 30 DAYS TO LIVE WOULD YOU DO WHAT YOU ARE DOING?

Rodeo Reflections

I have to give props to the guys at the Topsfield State Fair who were in the rodeo yesterday. They were inches from death many times as the bulls threw them off only to be stepped on. The bulls feet were inches from the cowboys heads. These dudes are crazy, but exciting to watch.

What if Christ followers risked it all for their Faith like the cowboys. What if we didn't care what people would say if we shared our faith and just risked it all, got in the ring, and put our best game on and did it?

I want to suggest that Christ-Followers might have to operate a little more like cowboys who don't care about the consequences, just the fact that they get to play the game!

Just look at Jesus, He got in the ring and risked it all for you and me!

Urgent Video

Pastors, church leaders, or anybody who wants to learn innovative ways to reach people for Christ I would highly recommend this video. It is a session from the BUZZ Conference National Community Church held in Washington D.C. last June/07.

I will promise you this, session 3 with Pastor Craig from Lifechruch.tv will rock your world and challenge your philosophy in serving people.

http://buzzconference.com/media/

(Watch Session 3)

Don't put this off, do it now!

Home Improvement

My wife is going to be happy, I blogged about marriage two times in a row!!!

My wife and I just went to a marriage seminar a couple put on at our seminary (grad school). I wanted to share one of their points with you. It is actually their marriage mission statement that my wife and I are adopting as ours as well.

"The Goal of Marriage is to reflect the glory of God and to enhance the glory of your mate." (author of the book, Intimate Allies, said this)

Marriage should reflect the relationship between God the Father and God the Son, Jesus Christ.

We can do this by striving to have:

1) Ultimate Commitment

2) Extreme Submission

3) Unconditional Love

If we do these three things in any relationship not just marriage, we will bring GLORY to GOD and we will enhance the GLORY of OUR MATE/SIGNIFICANT OTHER!

Weekend to Remember

I got the best wedding gift you can get for somebody either before or after their wedding. At least I think so!! In this case, it was before. The GIFT is two tickets to a marriage conference. My brother and his fiance went to Family Life's, Weekend to Remember marriage conference this past weekend in Fort Myers, FL.

Both of them agreed that it has saved their marriage. The conference is designed and taught from God's perspective on marriage. I think that is the best place to start and end since God is the author and creator of marriage.

My wife and I went to that same marriage conference a little over six months of ago and have been impacted to this day from what we learned from that conference.

My wife and I have made a commitment to each other that for the rest of our lives we are going to attend at least on marriage conference a year!

We have realized that if you invite God into your marriage, He will help you get through the bad times and make the good times better.

I would highly recommend this conference to those who are not yet marriage to those who have been married for 30 years.

Check out their site: www.weekendtoremember.com

"If you want your marriage to work, you have to work on your marriage." Jimmy Evans

Purpose for Pain

It's funny how God takes the lowest times in our lives and turns it around to help others who are at the same exact low points.

Today, the mother of one of my best friends from high school called me crying because she had no one to talk to0 about her son who is addicted to herion and who just got arrested.

I was in the same exact situtation on Febuary 10, 2002 when I was arrested. That was the last day I did drugs in my life. Instead of going to prison for what I did my dad got me into Teen Challenge which is a Christian Drug and Alcohol Rehab and today I am doing a Dual Masters Degree Program at Gordon-Conwell Theoloical to prepare to start a church.

Now that I have been to the gutters God can use me to help those who are stuck there. Its funny how every calls me when they are introuble with drugs. God has set it up that all I have to do is make one phone call and on the spot I can get somebody into rehab.

God has purpose for our pain. He can turn our misery into our ministry. I am not ashamed for my past, but am excited to see how God will continue to use it.

Church Consulting

I got an interesting call from a fellow graduate of Valley Forge Christian College (www.vfcc.edu) who is pursuing the call of God on her life to plant a church.

Her church consists of herself and her daughter. That's it.

She is confused and upset and everything else one might feel in her shoes. Her parents are against her, the two women who did attend have left her, and now she has no one accept herself and her daughter, but she is faithful to her church. Every Sunday, she worships, prays and preaches.

You want to talk about commitment and diligence. Try that on for size!

What do you say to someone like that?

I felt like I was doing a little church consulting. I tried everything I knew and I don't think it was good enough. I said, why don't you restructure or partner with another church to help you and on I went, but I think the most important thing I did was pick up the phone when she called.

She said the last person she called hung up on her because she was too busy, but I picked it up and she was so excited about that, probably even more excited then what the things I said!

What do you say, when you don't know what to say? How about, NOTHING.

I learned to Listen, Listen and Listen some more!

Three Relationships from Anybody

Did you know that you are only three or four relationships from anybody in the world? If you know me then you are four relationships from the president of the United States. Since I know someone who knows someone who knows George Bush.

I was just reading the passage of scripture in Acts 8 where Philip, a follower of Christ, had a little bible study with an Ethiopian Eunuch who was traveling. I learned that this particular Ethiopian Eunuch was a servant of a king. Now think about this. The Bible tells us that Ethiopian Eunuch accepted Christ in his life. So now since he is the Kings right hand man, the Ethiopian Eunuch now has access to the king and can share Christ with him where that would have been next to impossible for Philip the man who shared Christ with the Eunuch.

We will never know who we are indirectly influencing when we share our lives, our story's and most important Christ with others.

Make it a point today to share Christ with someone, maybe not through words but through the way you live your life!

Maybe you can influence a king!

Life Experience

I had the privilege to sit among three couples who are in full time ministry. It was a forum for married students in seminary to dialogue with a church planter, pastor, and professor and their wives. They were asked all kinds of questions like, "What does a pastors wife do? What are your boundaries? How do you keep you marriage vibrant? How do you keep a budget? Plus lots more.

The one thing that stood out to me was the way they lived their lives in regard to budgeting. The prof with his doctorate said till he came to GCTS his family of 6 never lived on more then $18,000 a year. They were very creative in ways they made and saved money. They emphasized that you don't need much to live on. You don't have to have what everybody else has. You made the most with what you have and you will get by and be happy.

I was amazed. They all said the same thing in different ways and they were all happy and content.

Today's culture is the extreme opposite of that kind of lifestyle. Today's culture is so invested in material possessions that happiness is not an option but an illusion.

I think living within your means, not your dreams is HAPPINESS.

The apostle Paul was a man who had a lot, power, fame, and wealth, but in comparison to knowing Jesus, He counted it all a lost.

May we live like Paul to invest our lives in knowing Christ, not material things that have no eternal value!

Cracked the BEST BUY code

I learned how to save money at Best Buy. I cracked the code this weekend and guess what? I am not even going to charge you for this info. Here it is. Once you found what you want to buy, ask the sales associate to see what it costs on line.

I went to buy a digital camera that was displayed as being sold for $229.99. But since they didn't have a pink one, don't worry it was for my wife, he went on line, and the same camera was $206.99. They have to give it to you for the lowest price, so I got the camera for about $25 bucks cheaper!!! WOW!!

You can do it too. Just ask to see what it costs on the Internet, on line @ their site and you to can save money!

So in the end I got the PINK camera!!!!

Spying Out Peet's Café @ Harvard Square

Yesterday my wife, her mom and myself took a trip to Boston, MA for the day. We hit a lot of the tourist spots, but I think one of the highlights of the trip was our discovery of Peet's Cafe. You probably never heard of Alfred Peet, but I am sure you heard of STARBUCKS. To make a long story short, Alfred Peet brought the passion of quality coffee to America, started a couple cafe's that latered branched off to what we know as STARBUCKS.

Checkout his story @ http://www.peets.com/

First, I want to say the Vanilla Latter I drank was the best Latte I ever had in my life.

Peet's Coffee and Tea uses a system like McDonalds, so when you order your drink at the register, the order is then sent to a computer screen @ the LATTE machine where up to 2 people can work, and the barista(s) makes the drink then hits a button which moves him/her to the next drink and on and on they go.

Also, the labels on the pounds of coffee they sell inform consumners how to make a quality cup of coffee.

The store had a lot of room for people to sit back and relax, study, read, connect with friends, etc.

Stoned!

I thought you might like the title of this blog, or not!! But I have a question for you, who in the Bible was stoned? Paul was stoned, now I don't mean as a result of doing drugs, but with ROCKS!!

As the story goes Paul healed a man, then those who saw wanted to worship him as a god, so as Paul explained to the crowd it was Jesus not him who healed the man and it is Jesus who you should worship, not him. The crowds started to go crazy, a riot broke out and as a result, PAUL was STONED.

Then the Bible says, "But after the disciples had gathered around him, he got up."

Did you catch that? Paul almost died, and his friends gathered around him and he got up. I am convinced that if his friends did not surround him, the story would have turned out differently.

If Paul didn't have friends, the stones that were thrown would have kept him down. That is true life when people throw stones at us, I find that having friends around help repel those stones and when a stone gets through, they are there to pick us up so that we can move on.

Did you know that PAUL immediately got up and went right back doing what he was doing?

We must always keep close friends around, so that when stones are thrown and we are down, we have people right their to pick us up!

Keeping the Main Thing, The Main Thing

A church is not a church unless it keeps the main thing, the main thing.

In Acts 6, early followers of Christ in the 1st century church understood that if they must not let the urgency of needs hinder them from doing what they are suppose to do. They were preaching and praying, so when important some administrative issues arose, instead of neglecting their primary mission, they selected others to do what they didn’t have time to do.

The needs were important, but followers of Christ like myself have to be careful we stay on task and do what we are called to do, what we are most passionate about, what we are the most gifted in, what makes us tick, etc.

Sometimes the urgency of others can take us out of our game and make use drift from doing those things we are most passionate about and gifted in to things that we can do.

I know I hate doing something I hate to do even though I can do. I love finding people who love to do the things I hate to do. Believe me there are people who love to do the most simple of things like file stuff, my wife loves it but to me, its just a job.

Keep the main thing, the main thing!!

My Mother-In-Law Arrived!

MY Mother-In-Law is HERE!

I don’t know about you, but I think Mother-In-Law’s are a gift from God. I’m not lying when I say this, but if it wasn’t for the support of my Mother-In-Law I would not be in grad school today. She goes above and beyond, above and beyond!! I want to share a quick story about the blessing it’s been to have a Mother-In-Law who is led by God.

It was my freshman year of college, and I was trying to get my license back. In my B.C. (before Christ) years, I racked up over 30 traffic violations and lost my drivers license. I had fines every where in NJ, so after paying millions of dollars to everyone and their grandma, the day arrived and I went to the Dept. of Motor Vehicles in Wayne, NJ. Stood in line, met with a worker, and she crushed my dreams and said, you still have a $1,200 fine. I was devastated, left that place in tears (not really)!!! I called my wife who was my girlfriend of two months, told her the bad news and I hung up. Not to long after I hung up, she called back and said, she told her mom what happened and said, she had $1,200 put aside for someone to go to Bible college who is not going and she feels led of the Lord to give it to you. So from Virginia she wired me the money and a couple other miracles happened and I got my drivers license that day.

I have to confess my mother-in-law is the best mother-in-law in the world!

What would the world do with out Mother-In-Laws?

Church Investigation

I learned that one of the ten rules the CIA teaches spies is to Gather Intelligence and that is exactly what we did!
We are trying to find a church we will call home for the duration of our grad school experience! So we went deep undercover, I mean deep.
We found the church on the Internet. We didn’t cast lots or anything or just let the spirit lead us, but we did what your typical SPIRITUAL American does, we went to GOOGLE!
In our Google search, we looked at many church sites and this particular churches website caught our attention. It was one of the most innovative websites I ever saw. And what really caught our attention was their sermon series pages. You actually interacted with the site.
So don’t hate on websites, most Americans read them more then newspapers, books, TV, etc. You name it! This showed me the importance of a great website. Most Americans will judge you on your website, so before they ever hear the pastor preach or even be greeted by a greeter, they will see your website. A website is the church FACE. It better be pretty.
So we got there, one thing we found challenging was the directions and map-quest. We got lost! My wife is my GPS device and she never gets lost, but when signs don’t match up, there is no telling where you end up. I would suggest, like my home church in PA, all churches need directional signs that are close to the church that lead the people through the town to the church. If I wasn’t a follower of Christ, I will be honest, I would have quit the first turn. If anybody is listening to this, make sure you put signs out and about. And my wife thought of driving through the town, finding all possible entrances and writing out detailed directions with road marks (women don’t do north, south, east, west) they do turn at this store or that hair place, so land markers will work great. I put this down on my list of things I am going to do for the future church plant.
This church was from the mainline denom’s but missional in function. It was a smaller church less then 100, but the pastor said, the church has doubled in the last couple months. The church met in a school auditorium. It was a younger crowd. A couple seminary students.
Putting the church in context with their denomination, the worship was contemporary but not in terms of what I’m use to. At my church in PA, we have a full band that leads worship with drums, guitars, bass, a couple singers, but today they had one guy with one guitar. Don’t get me wrong, he did a great job. So this caught us off guard.
Something that I loved was when they took the offering. Everyone who gave walked to the front and placed their tithe and offering in a basket and at the same time it was a meet and greet for the church to connect for a couple minutes with each-other. The only thing is he didn’t give us any time to think, he announced and everybody did their thing. Liz and I, were caught off guard for a moment, but we met a really cool couple from New Hampshire.
That spoke to me a lot. This couple was from another state, over an hour away, and they drove all that way to come to this little church. I wrote down in church “If you church is on fire for God, people will come from miles away to watch it burn.”
The sermon wasn’t preached by the pastor but a grad student. Wish I heard him.
The pastor then led the church in communion, but I like how he did it. The one man show (worship leader) led us in a song, and people went up when they were ready, after they spent a moment with God, then brought the elements (bread and wine) back to their seat. Li z and I went up. After everyone were back in their seats. The lead pastor led us with no notes in the scriptures with his own little twist on it. He did a great job.
Following the service, I was stacking stairs, helping tear down, as Liz was standing by herself, the lead pastor introduced himself to her, he said, I haven’t seen you here before, and then I came over and we all talked. He was extremely nice, he shared his heart on being a pastor and his testimony, he then asked the million dollar question, what are you doing after grad school, so I let him have it! Church planting! I shared a little of my heart and vision.
We ended by him telling us go to as many churches as you can, if you want, we would love to have you!

So till next week.

Confessions of a Church Planter

I just created our first “Vision Cast.” I uploaded it on YOUTUBE. It’s a 6 minute long!

Here’s the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nceon7fyFGw

Once a month, I will share my the vision I have for a future church plant. The church plant is a couple years out, but I thought this would be a cool way to channel what I’m reading, thinking, designing, praying about, who I am talking to, and so on so that you can see first hand. Let me know what you think!! Check us out @ www.cafechurchlive.com as well!