I am in Kansas City and ready to come home. This is the last visit here for quite awhile. We are in the middle of Tornado Alley and right now we are under a Tornado warning. Nobody here seems overly concerned so let the show go on. Once again, I have been blessed to work with eight couples this past week and I believe all of them will make a major difference in their communities as they start new churches in the next couple of years. They have come to this assessment from FL., PA, MI, IL., IN., TN., and NJ. I look forward to watching God work through them.

Sunday is going to be a serious call to discipleship. I look forward to being at church as always.

I'm back from a quick trip to Central Pa. I really don't know of a more beautiful spot in America than this. I know beauty is in the eye of the beholder but the mountain ridges and valleys of this area are hard to beat. Thankful for a couple days away. Glad to be able to reach out to a friend in need. Spent some quality time at Kuhns Bros. Log Homes. I am glad to be able to call these two men my friends. Thanks Steve for making this trip with me. Hopefully a little bit of Jesus and a lot of hope was shared.

The next few Sundays at Newark Naz. should be awesome if you like hearing from the word of God. Can't wait to share and to promote spiritual growth. For years we got sucked in as churches to the church growth movement. We fell hard for the shallowness of numbers. For those of us who have numbers we realize if we are honest that quality is far more important than quanity in the real world. Numbers are nice for egos but there is no substitute for a handful of fully devoted Christ followers.

Oh yeah, found a sweet truck. . . I guess I better start rolling more quarters a little faster!

I am home and I am really glad to be back in Newark, Ohio.












Be it ever so humble, there is no place like home. Thanks for the pictures Levi.

I find myself in a meeting that has gone on all day in Kansas City. Whoever invented meetings anyway? The guys in the picture went to Kansas City and they also changed the culture. Arguments could be made that their influence was not all that healthy. I only hope that these meetings produce more positive results and influence than these boys were able to have. Good music for the most part but not so good influence in other ways.

The point is that we are all influencer and must take time to assess our influence. I hope that you will find your place and the plan of God for your life and that you will embrace it.

It's still very hard to believe that I have a child in college. Levi left to go back to Trevecca University today. While I am able to control my emotions a little better, it is still very hard to watch him drive away and know that there will be months of absence. It's not that we spend hours and hours together when he is home it's just having him around that matters. I know that the goal of life is to raise your children and release them into adulthood. I certainly want to do that but from a human perspective it feels like a long-term project. I can't imagine having both kids gone but that will be the case in another year. Nothing like having a piece of you somewhere else.

Church went well today. It is my prayer that we will respond to the call of God everyday by living with integrity and balance in our lives that will in turn make us winsome and useful.

Well, tomorrow I will be back in front of people expecting something from God's word. It's an interesting thing to have to come up with something that touches so many different peoples lives. It is always interesting to have people from extremely different walks of life come out of the same service having heard something meaningful to them personally.

Without God's help preaching or teaching would be useless. Being a "voice" for God or godliness and righteousness is a challenge both in and out of the pulpit. All of us are a "voice" for God. We are His voice, hands, feet and. . . we are His body! We the church and individual Christfollowers are to be His presence on earth. It's nice to know I'm not the only one representing God. Welcome to the club.

I have been thinking about things a lot lately. It makes me wonder if I am on the verge of some kind of a mid-life challenge. I know people can tend to do some pretty dumb stuff from time to time but I don't see myself engaging in any deviant or weird behavior. I just know that life is moving on and I am in the middle of defining moments. The ministry that God has chosen for me to lead is facing its own defining moments. My family is changing and in the next year will change completely with both kids being out of the house and on to better things. I am trying to lose weight because I know I need to but it has been extremely hard and very challenging this time. I am slowly making progress but I have thirty five more pounds to go.

I have decided that red sports cars, open (unbuttoned shirts) with gold chains or other mid-life kinds of things are not for me. In a perfect world I would drive the above truck to work every day with a dog as company. I don't know if this will ever happen but dreams produce hope and hope is what keeps us going. This is a very selfish centered post but hey it's my blog.

Someday when colleges have been paid off I'll drive the truck and maybe even the dog will get to go along.