Dave’s Weblog

First, let me apologize for not blogging for quite a while.  I am such a turd sometimes (can I say turd?).  Anyway, I am off to do some visioneering this evening.   I had a chance today to look over CrossPoint Church statistics from 2004/2005 and wow!  We are on track to possibly blow those numbers out of the water.  Those were some huge increase years as well as 2005 being a plateau year.  We ended the year without a new vision that would carry us into 2006 and by looking at the statistics you can tell that we had lost some of our momentum (or what many people like to call the big MO) in 2005.  I am convinced that we’ve got the big MO back and we are going to see some true sky rocketing this fall. 

The Contageous Christianity teaching in Septemberr and October as well as the THIS I BELIVE series of teachings that are coming in November will rock our world y taking people deeper in their faith and making all of us stronger in our witness to those around us.  I am so stoked!  I’ve had several people tell me that they can fell the big MO growing.  How cool is our God! 

Shine On!
Dave

I’ve been catching the Olympics from time to time.  It means long nights and early mornings.  Uugh.  Next week we’ll all get caught up on sleep.  But, this week it’s all about the gold and the race to the podium.  Wow!  If I see people falling asleep on Sunday morning I knowo that they were watching the games! 

Shine On!
Dave

One of the most difficult things leaders have to accomplish on a daily basis is making decisions.  Leaders are called to make decisions the chart the course of their cause every day in large and small ways.  I like to see what I do as the vision pastor of a multi-site church as much akin to the captain of a ship.  At times the captain gives gentle commands to those who stear the ship that will offer slight adjustments which in the long run will bring the ship on course with the larger plan.  Gentle adjustments bring course change over time and distance. 

There are other times when the captain has to pull in sheets and make ready the ship for a storm.  Been there, done that.  The storms that rage demand snap decisions and quick thinking that comes from maturity and years on the seas with the King of the Oceans and the One who walks on water.

At times, the captain calls all hands on deck because there is an outside danger and everyone is needed.  Enemies and pirates will sabatoge the mission and vision of a church like that can a ship. 

Still, there are those moments when the captain has let things rest for a while and then calls the crew to the task of setting things right and getting underway. 

Leaders make the call from the quarterdeck and the ship responds…there are plenty of days when that is how I feel.   There is something overtly biblical about the whole analogy that keeps striking me.   Funny thing that Bible stuff  :&gt

Shine On!
Dave

Wow!  What a weekend.  There’s actually too much to tell.  We brought in a possible new addition to our worship leading team.  It was a great but whirlwind weekend.  Firday evening he (Stephen) and his wife arrived after a drive in from Ohio.  After supper we sat a talked about the vision of CrossPoint Church for the next four years.  Stephen was pretty excited and Saturday’s leaders gathering took things to a whole new level.  We had a great lunch on the deck at Morgan’s on North Front Street (if you’ve never been there you need to check it out).  We sent Stephen and his wife to Hershey Park for the rest of the day so they could just have some fun in a very busy and stressful weekend.

Meanwhile I went back to the church to record the weekend message for broadcast on Sunday.  We had an awesome evening as I sat and talked for over an hour with two other guys about the things of God and what He’s doing in our lives, our families, our friends and our church. 

On Sunday morning Stephen led worship at our Vessel Youth Service and our PRISM contemporary service.  He did a great job of leading poeple in true worship of our God and rockin’ out.  After a long lunch gathering to debrief the weekend we sent them off to drive back to Ohio to think, talk, pray and decide and I went home and crashed. 

I love this kind of stuff…it means that we can take things at CrossPoint to a whole ‘nother level! Exciting stuff.

Shine On!
Dave

I spent part of my day last Saturday at one of the Habitat for Humanity sites that CrossPoint Volunteers signed up for.  What a blast.  The work was at Habitat’s large building on 13th Street in Harrisburg.  They plan to make this building their new headquarters and wearhouse all in one.  It’s a great old building that needs a ton of work (that’s a bit of an understatement).  We got the opportunity to lay flooring on the first floor as well as do some demo work that needed done.  It was awesome to work along side of a great team of volunteers and to stand back see what we got accomplished.  Thanks Ken for putting everything together and thanks to everyone on the team from CrossPoint Church who volunteered last Saturday.

Want to do some work for Habitat?  The web site is: http://www.harrisburghabitat.org/

Shine On!
Dave

I’ve been spending the past several days doing some writing about the many adventures of CrossPoint Church where I am the vision pastor.  It’s been mind bending to write about all of the things we’ve been through.  The decision to go multi-site, to drafting a new vision, to the death of the previous lead pastor, to launching the vision and two new campuses all within 9 months.  WOW!  Would I got back and do it all the very same way as we did?  Nope.  That would be stupid.  I would have slowed down a bit, I would have valued the grieving process a bit more, I would have thought some things through a bit more than I did, I would have read more books by people who had done great things.  I find my self playing catch up on occasion and yet, here we are…and God is good! 

Okay, back to writing…

Shine On!
Dave

The weather today in Pennsylvania is fantastic.  I rode my motorcycle today.  What a fun way to go!   Heres a pic of what it looks like.  Zoom Zoom!

Shine On!
Dave

I was reading through my year long devotional book this morning and WOW!  Thomas A Kempis blew me away.  Listen to this about love:

 Love is watchful. Sleeping, it does not slumber. Wearied, it is not tired.  Pressed, it is not restricted. Alarmed, it is not confused. Love is swift, sincere, kind, pleasant, and long-suffering.  Love is never self-seeking because in what ever a  person seeks for himself, there he falls from love.  He who is not ready to suffer all things and to stand resigned to the will of the Beloved is not worthy to be called a lover.  

I am an feeble lover at best when I use this as the mark, and the bar and the test.  I Need to learn how to love more tomorrow than today for today I will surely fall short…but, by faith I have hope for tomorrow that I might be called a lover.

Shine On!
Dave   

John Adams

                                  For several weeks I’ve had people ask me if I’ve seen the HBO mini-series on John Adams.  The answer is yes!  I actually called Comcast and got HBO just so I could catch it on it’s opening night and for the following six nights.  A lot of people know about my love of history and that I am a colonial reenactor.  What people don’t know is that I can be found on IMDB - the Internet Movie Data Base.  If you go to:  http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2370998/ you can find me.  Because of my back ground and experience doing some film work, I was called to be a part of the John Adams movie.  In the early Spring of 2007 I went to Colonial Williamsburg with a few film friends and spent a day being a part of the shooting of a scene.  The scene is in part two and it is when Washington and Adams are walking through the soldier camp outside of Boston in the winter of 1775. 

The scene was shot in front of what is known as the Public Hospital at Colonial Williamsburg and I am sitting on the steps of that building.  While I was there most of the day and there was a great deal of activity in front of me, I only appear in the movie for a split second…no really - a split second.  The day was great and I got the privilege of meeting and talking with David Morris who played Geo. Washington.  Those who do this kind of were thrilled when we heard that Tom Hanks was going to be the producer because we knew he’d do a great job based on his past work.  He is supposedly is working on David McCullauh’s book “1776″ which will be an excellent film if it works out. 

The John Adams work is fantastic work and is worth the watch.  It will astound and amaze you that our nation was founded at all considering the monumental size of the task that was laid into the hands of men who were only in there 30’s or 40’s.  So, rent it, ask me to borrow my copy - what ever, but see this series. 

Shine On!
Dave

• Life is an endurance thing.  The Tour de France is three weeks long and almost 2000 miles long.  It’s not about one day but, about the long haul.  So it is with life.  Today might be a bad day but, it’s not just about today but about the long haul and making the needed corrections ad adjustments that will get you where God wants you.
• Mountains happen.  There are lots of places along the journey of life when it seems like everything is an uphill climb.  The best riders of the tour are not those who are squirrely or erratic but, those  who stay the course and keep a steady pace.  So it is with life.  Keeping a steady pace and not being erratic in life always gets you the lead
• Crashes can really mess things up.  I’ve crashed plenty of times in bike races.  I ended up in hospital once after a crash at 30 miles an hour getting gravel scrubbed out of large stretches of road rash.  What I discovered is that life’s crashes can take you out or motivate you. The only race I won was one I crashed in.  I was bloody and banged up but, that crash released energy that moved me to the front and away to win the race.  So it is with life.  Crashes happen…you can choose to allow them to put you out of the game of life or you can allow them to motivate you to rise up and be a winner. 
• Coaches are necessary.  Everyone who is trying to achieve and succeed in life needs to have someone on the sidelines giving advice and encouragement.  So it is with life.  Who’s encouraging and coaching you?  Make sure you have someone who is challenging you on, giving advice and yelling for you to win!

Catch the Tour if you get a chance.  But, more than that, catch LIFE every day!

Shine On!
Dave