Love is in the Air

The past few weeks have been saturated with romance...it seems like everytime I turn around, sombody else is falling in love!! I did a wedding last weekend, I'm doing 2 this weekend, and I'm scheduled to do another next weekend. My daughters insist on going with me to every wedding I officiate. They are "star-struck" over the bride and are captivated by this invisible, magical, Disney-like, princess dream. I enjoy watching young couples grow and develop in their love for each other, but I'm having a hard time convincing my girls that they need to stay home with Mom and Dad until they're about 40 years old. We've taught them that boys have cooties, but Alexa recently came home from school and told me, "Circle-circle, dot-dot, now I got my cooties shot." At this point, Mikaela believes that if she ever kisses a boy, she will turn into a frog...I'm not telling her any different for a long, long, long time!!

Summer Slam

The speed of life in ministry can at times be breathtaking. If you're into casual Sunday afternoon drives and lazy days at the beach, you'll be thrown into a panic while hanging out with me. The spring semester is gone, students are graduated, the summer heat is already here, and there is no time to waste...it's time to hit the ground running.

We normally think of summer in terms of going to the beach, relaxin', chillin' and grillin', taking time off, hangin' out at the pool. But as a former athlete, I was always told that the "off-season" is the most crucial part of your training regiment. The ones who work hard, sweat, and sacrifice when it doesn't count will see the biggest results when it does! In prayer this morning, I felt God speak the same principle to me in spiritual terms. The harvest of the fall season is being determined by what we do now. God will enlarge our capacity for the harvest as we commit ourselves to seeking Him today.

The best way to avoid the "summer slide" is to get a vision of where God is taking you. The sacrifice of today is not just for today. Where do you want to be in 3 or 4 months? What commitments do you need to make now in order for those dreams to become a reality? If you're like me, you've asked God for a lot of big things in the future--you must be willing to do now what He's asking of you, otherwise, it's just wishful thinking!

The summer is here...it's time to start steppin'!

Late Nite...After Hours

It's past midnight, and I'm sitting in my computer room enjoying the afterglow of an incredible Late Nite service. My body is absolutely worn out, but my spirit is so alive right now. I just finished off some leftovers Rachel set aside for me in the refrigerator, and I cannot stop thinking about how amazing God is. J-Dawg and the band hit it out of the park--we have the best praise and worship in the country, bar-none! They set the table for me every week and make my job of preaching so easy. It truly is an honor to be part of such a talented and committed team. The series "House: the cure for the common church" has been a lot of fun for me--especially tonight...I've been looking for an excuse to get rowdy and make a royal mess in church without getting in trouble all my life! I hope it has ignited a fresh fire and an intense desire in you to be fully committed to what God is doing through His church. By the way, if you didn't get your sword and body armor as you left the service, be sure to talk to Terry Olivier--I hear he's making his own custom HPC whips and weapons of war! Protect the house, serve the house, commit to the house and you will experience the blessings of the house. I hear my pillow calling out my name for now...until next time.

The Buzz in D.C.

Last week I had the opportunity to travel to our nation's capitol with Dan, Lance, and Marc to attend a "Buzz Conference" hosted by National Community Church (Pastor Mark Batterson) in Washington DC. Their church meets in several theaters and a coffee house in the metro DC area and has creatively been reaching out to their community for almost 10 years. The idea of the meetings centered around how to create "buzz" for our churches, echoing the words of Jesus in Luke 14:23 "Go out into the country lanes and behind the hedges and urge anyone you find to come, so that the house will be full." The word urge means to demand attention--to stop and take notice.

In the media craze our culture has created, we are blitzed with over 3000 marketing advertisments every day. Commercials on TV--billboards while driving down the road--You can't even use the bathroom without being bombarded by some form of advertising...isn't anything sacred anymore!! I believe the Good News ought to make the news, and it should spread like wildfire. The church has the best message on the planet, and our worst fate is to be ignored.

Amazing enough, when you consider the life of Jesus, He should have lived and died without even being a blip on the radar. He was born in a barn with a bunch of farm animals. He grew up in an obscure part of Palestine as a carpenter's son. He never traveled more than thirty miles outside of his own home town. He died a criminal's death and was even buried in a borrowed tomb. Yet, as ordinary and insignificant as all of this seems, Jesus started a radical movement that millions of us follow still today!

We now have an ancient mandate from our Savior to "urge anyone we find to come so that His house will be full." This Spirit-empowered, word-of-mouth revolution must continue in our communities today. How is the "buzz factor" in your own personal life? How well are you connecting the cause of Christ with your own friends, neighbors, and circle of influence? Are you confronting your fear of the unfamiliar and putting yourself in the shoes of the unchurched? Ask yourself the tough questions, have the courage to answer them honestly, and start creating life-changing "buzz" all around you.

Kickball Battle Royale

It's 5 o'clock right now on a Tuesday afternoon, and I have been runnin' and gunnin' since early this morning. After a crazy day of meetings, appointments, decisions, and ministry planning, the highlight of my day is just around the corner...a little backyard kickball! One of the best decisions I've made in the past 7 years, is to invest in a kickball at Toys-R-Us. Since I'm surrounded by women (Rachel and my two daughters), all I've known is playing dress-up, Barbies, babydolls, Pretty Pretty Princess, and everything fru-fru. I've been needing to rediscover my macho-masculine side--I have faint memories of its previous existence!

Alexa and I have been in some heated battles over our backyard kickball games. I warn the neighborhood kids and all the little "mama's boys" to stay at home at watch from their windows. My competitive streak has been ignited once again--finger-pointing and running my mouth has always come second-nature to me. They don't call me "the Hamanator" for nothing! Rachel says this competitive drive needs to be crucified...I suggest it only needs to be sanctified.

So if you're in the neighborhood and you're up for a little challenge, bring your running shoes... becuase when I kick it, you're going to be running for a long, long time!

Giving Him My All

Today in church, we were singing a song with some incredible lyrics--"With all of my heart, I'm reaching for You--all of my life, I give to You." What a powerful declaration and an awesome way to live--completely surrendered to God! I thought about how easy it can be to say those words on Sunday and how challenging it can be to live those things out on Monday. If you're like me, you can surrender many things to God's care and yet reluctantly hold on to some things for yourself (finances, children, job, relationships). It's ironic, but the stuff we hold on to will be the same stuff we worry and stress over. If it's in our hands, then the success of it will depend on us--but if it's in God's hands, it's future success depends on Him. When you make a decision to trust everything to God, placing your entire life in the hands of Omnipotence, there is absolutely nothing you can do to improve on that! You can be free from anxiety today by trusting every detail of your life to Him!

One Day at a Time

This past Saturday was a huge "win" in the life of our church. Dr. Gary Chapman, author of The Five Love Languages, made us laugh and cry at our own relational "hang-ups" and challenged us to grow our marriages in the spirit of Christ. I was so glad Rachel attended this conference with me...she has a lot of issues that I've been trying to help her with for a long time now--I made sure she took good notes! I even took notes for her! Is it totally obvious that I'm teasing? Rachel consistently reminds me that I married Ms. Right...I just didn't realize that her first name was Always!

Sunday I traveled to our Healing Place campus in St. Francisville and enjoyed being a part of what God is doing there. We had so many new families in attendance (almost 180 people total), and the energy in the gymnasium was incredible. Mike Haviland did a great job leading worship--I think it's because he has a fresh revelation of grace: he's a newly-wed and has married way out of his league! At the end of the service, 4 people went public with their faith and were baptized in a horse trough behind the school! Don't you just love it when people pledge their allegience to the One who gave Himself for us? The Apostle Paul said, "For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; it is the power of God unto salvation..."

Monday is supposed to be considered my "day off." Yeah right! Rachel woke up early that morning, motivated to clean the entire house, and she was quick to recruit help: Me! It's funny, but the things that motivate her seem to irritate me--can't she wait until I get out of the bed before she starts making it!?! She reminded me of all the great notes I took at the marriage conference, all the sermons I've preached on serving, and the example I must set for our children. Isn't accountability wonderful fellas? Needless to say, our best sermons are not the ones we hear but the ones we see. Thank God for a great wife and a clean house!!