This explains alot about Monday night’s game…M

Posted: September 17th, 2008 under Sports.
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Anybody that watched the Eagles/Cowboys game last night got a treat…a really great shootem up game. Although my “Iggles” lost, I saw some bright spots that lead me to believe that this year should be a good one.

My wife never really understands why an Eagles loss really bothers me. You think she would be used to it since we both were raised in South Jersey. Eagles wins/losses affect the area pretty hard. It’s amazing how much different the South Jersey/Philly area is the day after a game. All those stories you hear about Eagles fans are true. We are crazy people. We love our team, but we also hate them. It’s a true love/hate relationship. But with any great team, you got to ride out the bad with the good. Today is a sad day, but in the same sentence, it’s a good sign of things to come. 

I could easily break down the game for you, but this isn’t a sports blog. So let’s leave it at this…We look forward to the rematch on Dec 28th in Philly. I hope T.O. brings the popcorn…

M

Posted: September 16th, 2008 under Sports.
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One of the most important things we can do, as people, is build relationships. Building the right ones can shape us into success stories. The wrong ones can lead us down the wrong path and a life of ruin. I find the more we build with God in mind, the more we consider others and how we can help them. Ideally this is the very reason why God created us…for relationship. He desired to not only have a relationship with us, but also to share His love and blessings with us.

On Sunday we talked about 2 types of relationships…Vertical (with God) and Horizontal (with each other). Both are important and we really can’t have successful Horizontal relationships without getting our relationship with God (Vertical) in order. Some people even have that reversed. Essentially God desires us to have both in order. I know personally that without both, life is meaningless. Most Christians spend time working on one or the other without trying to obtain a balance of both. See God has mention of relationships all throughout the Bible. Even at the beginning He mentions the very first relationship between Him, his Son and the Holly Spirit (the trinity). Instead of just saving the world God sent His only Son into the world to have relationship with us, and then to die for us. Everything God does is birthed out of relationship. Are you getting the “theme” here?

Just like the labels we wear to announce our name to others, Jesus desires us to be looking for opportunities to tell others about who we are, what we hold dear and why we do what we do. Out of relationship comes opportunities to help, love and build up one another. But remember, just like God built relationships first, we must first build trust with one another before we try to help. Once again, we need to model what God did for us before we try to go out and “save the world”. Jesus spent 30 years on the earth building relationship before he even did His first miracle. Talk about taking your time!

Our slogan at SouthView is “People helping people follow Christ”. It’s not people “forcing” or “making” people follow Christ. When you “help” someone, you do it out of relationship with them. There’s a time spent with them before you can come in and really help do something to impact someone’s life.

With all of this said, my challenge to you is this…Pray that God will bring to you opportunities to build relationships with people. Pray that God will bring divine relationships into your life that will cause you to give of yourself in a way that will change someone’s life forever. Just think, if God didn’t desire a relationship with you, where would you be today?

M

Posted: September 13th, 2008 under Culture/Society, Leadership.
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What happens when you put your heart and soul into something that has literally taken years in the making (atleast in your heart) and a bunch of hard work from an amazing team of people? You forget your camera and take no pictures of it….man. Can you believe most of us were so concentrated on making that day special that we forgot to document it in pictures. But hey, we weren’t there to take pictures. We were there to worship God and love on some people.

Luckily Dave Belt took a few in the beginning of the service so we can atleast say it happen and we have proof. Here’s the evidence…

M

Posted: September 10th, 2008 under Church info.
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What a great day…just a quick update on a few things:

-We had 50 adults and 20 kids! Great turn out for a new church.

-There was a great mixture of old friends and new faces.

-Our leadership team is TOP NOTCH. No way LeeAnn and I could have done this without them. Props goes to them.

-God was in the house. Worship felt good. I missed worshiping with all my “family”.

-Props also goes to Debbie and Mark from the Fun and Party Zone. They did a great job helping us make our first service a success. Infact they stayed around for our service and it was great spending time with them.

-I do believe our kids had the most fun. How cool was it to hear screams of joy from our kids as they played on the bouncy things in the next room. I know our kids had a ton of fun.

-The theme of the day…..REALationships. Real relationships and building friendships in our community.

-I’m so looking forward to Oct 5th already. Although we are still in the season of preview, I can’t wait to do this every week. It feels great to be back.

-NEXT UP – our Men’s, Women’s and Comeback Event…all in September. I’m looking forward to it…hope to see you there!

God is SO GOOD>

M

Posted: September 7th, 2008 under Church info.
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