July 11th Preview Service

We were so blessed on Sunday July 11th 2010. I never, ever want to forget the journey that God has us on at this point in our lives. People have been so incredibly patient, and kind, I can't express my gratitude. On Sunday we talked about "Walking 10 Miles In Someone Else's Shoes" Check out this quick blooper real taken from the 10 mile walk:



4 things to remember as you consider walking a mile in someone else's shoes, here they are -

1. Walking Our Own Shoes Is Comfortable, and we love comfort!

2. Walking in someone else's shoes means that we sacrifice our comfort for someone else's discomfort.

3. Help By Gaining Perspective! When we gain perspective, we understand someone else's situation with clarity. There is no more room for Scepticism, Speculation, or being Judgemental

4. Walking in someone else's shoes is a Heavy Honor. When you intentionally choose to walk in someone else's shoes you will most likely feel a Spiritual Heaviness, Mental Heaviness, or Physical Heaviness.

Walking A Mile In Someone Elses Shoes

We have all heard at one point in our lives, this phrase: "You'll never understand a person until you walk a mile in their shoes." Going along with that there is another phrase I found that is probably even more familiar. "Before you criticize someone walk a mile in their shoes, that way when you do and they get angry you will be a mile away, with their shoes." That one made me laugh...
It is undeniable, we live in a culture where our lasting opinions of someone are often times formed by our first impression of that person. In a simple first impression we form a lasting opinion. Some of you even today, may have walked into work and spotted the new person, maybe didn't even talk to them, you don't know anything about them, but in your mind you have a lasting opinion be it right or wrong of that person, simply by the first impression glance.
I want you to think about something for just a quick second. If we were to go and talk to your roommates, or co - workers, or family, and ask them what their impression about Christianity was, based on the way you live your life, what would they say? What would their lasting opinion of Jesus be? I will be speaking on Walking 10 Miles In Someone Else's Shoes, Sunday July 11th, 10:00am at the Sauk Rapids Rice Middle School.

CityPoint Church Preview Service #2

Finally a little time to sit in a quiet place and write. Seriously, it feels awesome to type out some thoughts. We had our second CityPoint Church Preview Service on June 13th, and it was awesome to have people show up again. I had the opportunity to talk with some incredible people, and I am so excited about where God has us in this church planting experience. We played some loud music and talked about "Moving Beyond Good Intentions." Over this last week I have moved beyond some of my good intentions and I have had some breakthroughs that have changed my life. I want to say thank you to everyone who came to the service, and encourage you to pray that God continues to guide the church in a way that is pleasing to Him. Also I want to invite you back in July on the 11th. If you haven't been to CityPoint, come check us out. Here is the website that will help with directions. www.citypointchurch.com I hope you all had an amazing weekend, and I look forward to writing soon again. God Bless!! - Kevin

Taking Time With Tator!

We call my six year old Kaden, Tator, and today I learned an extremely important lesson. If your kids are strongly desiring your time, stop whatever you had planned, and be with them! This morning was a normal morning. I woke up and helped my 8 year old get on the bus for school, made breakfast, changed my little girls diaper, and was heading out the door to go to work. As I was almost out the door, my Six year old was in tears saying, Daddy I Don't Want You To Go. I thought I would be able to counter by saying, "When I get home I will spend time with you, and do whatever you want." But it totally backfired as he broke into tears and said, "All I want to do is spend time with you today." At that point I realized that Tator (Kaden) was strongly desiring my time. So today I cancelled everything to be with my son, and it has been awesome. We haven't really done anything super cool, we went to the gas station, ate a couple donuts, washed the windshield of the van, ate Jimmy Johns for lunch, watched Tom & Jerry, and visited my wife at work. Tator looked at me after eating lunch and said "Dad I Love You Bigger Than Anything." I think it was well worth cancelling everything to be with my son who strongly desired my time. I can't wait to see what else we do today.
PS. The only reason I have time to write this right now at 1:21pm is because he is totally obsessed with one of his favorite cartoons.

CityPoint Church's First Preview Service!

We had our first Monthly Preview Service Sunday May 16th! I have to brag on it just a little bit because I had such a fun day. We arrived for set up bright and early 7am! The 30,000 watt sound system was already being unloaded into the Sauk Rapids/Rice Middle School.

Around 8am our inflatable for CityKids (our kids ministry)arrived, and we hauled it into the middle school commons. As it was blowing up I thought we were going to have to raise the roof off the school just to get it to fit, but all stress was relieved when it fit perfect! When the kids entered the area, a smile instantly showed up on their faces. It Was Awesome!

At 9am 30 volunteers showed up! This was AMAZING! The best part was, they were smiling and stoked to help welcome people as they arrived to check out CityPoint for the very first time. Now all we needed was for people to actually show up. AND THEY DID!

At 10am people were actually walking in! I was so excited! Being with every person there was an incredible blessing! It was so awesome to meet people from the community and the surrounding area. I was able to catch up with some old friends, meet incredible new people, and also be surrounded by family, and a team of people who are dedicated to Consistently and Intentionally helping people Find and Follow Jesus Christ in Simple and Practical ways. Here is just a glimpse, I will be posting more updates and pictures as they come available! Thank You To Everyone Who Helped, Prayed, and Attended!

Forgotten

I just read the latest MSN post in regards to Tiger Woods. Here are some of the quotes that were included in the post. "He was so great, we bought it." "Golf needed Tiger more than Tiger needed golf." "He had a monopoly on greatness." I started to look at all these statements, and even though Tiger is still alive, these quotes are all in past tense. As if he is not to be counted any longer. In fact this next quote included in the MSN post kind of surprised me. "This past weekend we saw greatness, but not from Tiger, the cad missed the cut and I was glad." I do not consider myself a Tiger Woods fan at all. However I am a fan of people. This post about Tiger insinuates that he has been counted out, and almost borders on the line of "Tiger Is Forgotten." I have done a ton of things wrong in life, and it may come as a shock to some of you critics, but I will make more mistakes, but I am thankful that God has not forgotten about me. I want to encourage those of you who feel like you have been forgotten. My heart bleeds for you at this moment, and I want to let you know that God Thinks About You Daily! Who gives a rip about the critics that try to make you feel like you have been counted out, know today that you are still in the game, and another opportunity will show up. God Bless You Guys!

A Scene From The Cross

"I Am Thirsty" (John 19:28) Jesus is a man, He is still human, and He was thirsty. So He announces it, I Am Thirsty and a Roman Guard lifts a Vinegar Soaked Sponge up to His lips. I have always read that and thought to myself that was an act of kindness and mercy in the midst of some horrific stuff, but I was reading a commentator that brought a very interesting perspective to all of this. He said these were the same Romans who just tortured Him and Crucified Him in such a way that He wouldn't die quickly, but His death would linger out for a significant period of time. It's not like these individuals are going to have a change of heart and say "Oh your thirsty, you want a little drink?" He said more than likely what was happening was this. In the ancient world, when it came to public restrooms, they didn't have stalls like we do today where you went in the private. You basically just kind of lined up outside the areas where people would go to the bathroom, and when they were done there were areas where you could dip you hands in water, to sort of clean yourself. Slaves realized that they could take a sponge, dip it in water, put it on a stick, and they could make a few cents by cleaning up for you after you were done. So that could have been what was happening. More than likely what was going on at the crucifixion was this. They took a sponge that had been used basically as toilet paper, and the way they would clean these sponges, is that they would put vinegar on them, so the sponge could remain usable longer, they would hold it up and it was basically like holding toilet paper up to his mouth. In fact when you look at the original language in Mathew 27:48, the tenses used basically show that this attempt to quote "give Him a drink," was either unsuccessful, or it was repeated again and again. So here is Jesus in this incredibly vulnerable moment, who thirsts, and more than likely what's happening, they are sticking toilet paper up in His mouth. And Jesus thirsted, so that we wouldn't have to. He suffered and struggled so that we could be forgiven.