OK, so this will be the last of a slew of weekend post.  Sorry for loading you up with things to read.  But READ THIS!  Especially the last part.

Today was the wrap of a 'Summer of Surrender' sermon series at church.  Its been an interesting group of sermons as today was the first time the minister has preached in a month. 

He was sporting a black eye, says it was from moving furniture.... I have my doubts as his wife seemed awful happy about it.

Then the end of the sermon came, in our church setting the end of the sermon is always the invitation.  An invitation to come forward for prayer. An invitation to come forward for salvation. And an invitation to come forward for membership.  Saw all three today.

First some friends from our first church came forward to place membership.  Can't say I expected that to happen just two weeks ago.  Though I was tipped off that it was going to happen during our Saturday morning breakfast with the guys.

Next the youth ministers son came forward to be baptized.  The dad cried like a little girl ;-)  But I know he was proud of his boy, as I will be when that day comes.

Finally came the truly inspiring part.

There is a man in my church that needs a kidney transplant.  A lady in the church (and also a long time friend of this mans daughter) is giving him a kidney.  I've actually debated this before... would I be willing to give a kidney to somebody else?  Would I have the faith in God to allow one of my perfectly functioning kidneys to be given to somebody else?

But here she is, giving her kidney to help another man (not a young man either) live a better life.  THAT is an inspiring faith.  It is things like this that separate the church from the world.  Its days like this that make staying faithful EASY.

Oh, about forgot the new name of the church is official.  It passed 68 to 17.  Many more no votes than I anticipated, but a pass is a pass.  So now I officially attend LifeStream Christian Church.  The Batavia Church of Christ is no more.

Well church has been interesting!  If you know me you know that I have been a member of the Batavia Church of Christ for about a year, and have been attending there for about a year and a half.  As of June 1st, 2008 that all changed.  I decided to not attend the Batavia Church of Christ anymore.  Just kidding, we changed our name.  We are now LifeStream Christian Church.  

Was not my first choice by any stretch of the imagination.  But in the end it is just a name and any <insert name> Christian Church name is better than <insert name> Church of Christ.  The Church of Christ name has a well deserved black eye and some of the fruits of that is the dying of using that name.  To many church splits over stupid stuff.  To many 'crazy relatives' that attended them... just really spoiled the name of a great movement.

To say this period in church history has been smooth for LSCC, would be a great misstatement! I may be speaking out of turn here... but here goes!  During this period the bylaws were also being put of for a vote to be replaced.  Bylaws are an interesting thing... not 100% scriptural, but the Bible says that Christians should follow the law and the law says, have bylaws.  So in the end they are very much scriptural.  But we have been operating under some bylaws passed in late 2002 that have a good chunk of archaic information in them.  The proposed bylaws were very much streamlined, but there were a few things in them that made some people question if these were the right things to replace the archaic ones.  Then comes the almighty vote... 65% for, 35% against.  Passed?  Well initially this was the thought, but the thing with bylaws is that once you set them in place you are bound by them and the old bylaws stated a 66.6% majority is needed to pass bylaw changes.  So in the end the right, and ethical, decision was made to count the bylaws as failed.  So at some point in the future we will be voting again on new bylaws.

If you recall on June 1 at 6:45PM I posted a thing about leaders and how it appeared this was going to be a time of learning.  I knew by time I made that post that the leaders of LSCC had a situation on their hands and I knew by their handling of this situation I would learn a lot about them.  I am very proud to say that after a week of great personal heart burn they did the right thing.  I REALLY did not want to face the alternative.  While this was not a fun time I will say that God was glorified in it all.  There is still a long road to travel as LSCC continues to transform but we are certainly making great progress.

The Bible is very clear.  Men should lead the way in the church (and in life really).

I've been very encouraged in my church as the men's ministry, called the Trailblazer's, has stepped forward and started fulfilling that role.

Over the past month we have been blessed to see four men give their life's to Christ.  If you recall from my previous post my church recently had a men's retreat.  Going into that the leaders actually had a specific goal for two young men.  They are key parts to the men's ministry, but we also knew that they hadn't taken that next step.

A week or two after the retreat these two men gave their life to Christ.  I'd be silly to say that the credit belongs to the men's ministry.  But I am glad that the men's ministry did have a role in this process.

Then the next week another man, who also has been a very big part of the men's ministry came forward and unknown (suspected, but not confirmed) to me hadn't yet taken that next step and gotten baptized.  Last week that was taken care of.  I actually know this guy pretty well and I've seen him grow over the last year as a man.  Both in the church and in his family.

Then this week a young man I first met on the men's retreat, came forward and gave his life to Christ.  Before the retreat I did not know this guy existed.  He was fully in the youth ministry (he turned 18 the first day of the retreat).  He has since become a great part of our men's ministry.  It has been a great pleasure of mine to get to know him as a fellow brother.  He is actually going to Cincinnati Christian University to become a minister!  He and his family have been through some hell over the past few years and the fact that this guy is as mature and put together that he is, is a testament to God's grace and his mom's perseverance in loving her children.  I had planned on having a conversation with this guy about his conversion, due to some conversations we had.  But it seems like things were pricking his heart and he made the right decision on his own.  Again just a testament to the kind of guy this young man is.

Its been great to see the men of my church step forward and lead the way.  In a day and age when men are disappearing from the church, it is something special to sit back and watch the men of my church do what they are doing.  Just glad to be along for the ride.

Well the clock is ticking on my time as a member of the Batavia Church of Christ.

Looks like it is time to change direction and be a member of a different church.

Well, not really.  My church is on the verge of changing its name, June 1st... three options.

Pathways Christian Church
Life Stream Christian Church
Journey Christian Church

Have a favorite by far... but won't go into that on this post (maybe on June 2nd).  The church is also proposing a change to its 'constitution', basically its bylaws.  Not sure how I'll vote for that issue as of now.  May be a 'game' day decision. 

I've added a way for people to give feedback from the web site; so go give your opinion.

Well had a moment this morning to do a recap of the men's retreat.

Two of the three leaders (the third is visiting his dad in Florida) were up front talking about the retreat and the men's ministry as a whole.

We also took the time to have some fun at the expense of a few other guys.... however one of them got me pretty good in this clip.

So I just got a call from one of the two other co-leaders of the men's ministry at my church.   Said he spoke with Joe Kearns. For those that don't know, Joe is a man that has been in the ministry for 58 years.  Married for 61.  A man's man.  Somebody whose life I've always respected since I met him just over a year ago.

What did Joe say to my co-leader?  "Best retreat I've ever attended."

This is a man with 58 years of ministry under his belt.  Has likely been to more retreats then I am years old.  You can't ask for better words of praise.

Bad part of it all?  Now we have to live up to it again next year!! 

What a weekend!  Going into this weekend one of my primary concerns was that conversation wouldn't happen and that we just had way to much time set aside for discussion on each topic.

Was I ever wrong... handed out a survey after the retreat and the number one 'complaint' was that we didn't give enough time to talk!!! 

I got to meet a few new faces from my church.   Men that I didn't know much, if at all, going into this weekend. 

I saw men make new connections on serious issues. 
I saw men have fun.  
I saw men cry.
I heard men laugh.
I heard men confess.
I heard men encourage.

The real impact of this weekend won't be known for a while, but the early returns are promising. 

There were two things about this weekend that I personally enjoyed.  I saw my friend Tom make new friends and open up like he never has before.  I met a young man from my church who has lived through hell.  But has his head on strait more then many men I know. 

There was more said, witnessed and experienced, but one saying that was prevalent this weekend is; "What happens on retreat, stays on retreat."

Wow.  Sitting here watching tonight's episode of American Idol (on DVR) and love the fact that they are singing Shout to the Lord.  Just cool when Jesus can be praised on the public scale.

But onto the reason for this post.  I am disabling all comments for the weekend.  Leaving Friday at 3:30 PM to head to a men's retreat sponsored by my church.   Real Life Issues with Real Life Healing.  Will touch on the topics that men deal with the most, Anger, Insecurity, Low Self esteem, Lust, and unfaithfulness.  Then we will wrap the weekend up with a message on grace and a message on what it means to be a man. 

We have a special video planned that will be for the eyes of the retreat attendee's only. 

Pray for the 26 men that will be there this weekend dealing with the issues that we men do fight with.

Well on Saturday my church had a fundraiser that directly benefits my family.  Two of my children and my wife are going to York, PA (with 12 other folks) in the summer for a short term mission trip.  The cost is far from cheap $450 per person, so for my family that cost $1350. 

So on top of some payments we have made, we have had two (a third will happen soon) fund raisers.  The first was a P&G product testing which raise $600-$700, the next was the one on Saturday.  A pie/cake auction.  Basically we asked our church family to make pies and cakes for free, then we asked them to pay an inflated price for them!  Needless to say I had very little faith of this doing much, and I know I wasn't alone... there was talk that we wouldn't be able to sell all the pies that were made and that we would have to try and sell them the next morning at our Easter breakfast... were we ever proven wrong!

47 Pies/cakes, $1050 raised!  Two items went for $100 each!  Pictured above is one of the 'lucky' winners of a $100 cake.

But this is just a testament for a loving church family.  They didn't buy these pies because they were worth the value they paid, they bought these pies as an added bonus to helping a few 4th and 5th graders go learn how to serve the world.

What a church family.

Well got to address the church and invite the men to the men's retreat

One of the issues we will be dealing with is anger.  If you have known me for any length of time, you know that anger is an issue I struggle with.  I am doing better with it, but it still is a large part of who I am.

You can hear what I shared below. 

After service a young man (7th grader) was baptized.  This young man made the decision in spite of some opposition from somebody close to him.  Very cool.

Also revealed video number three from our commercials.  Will be taking a week off for Easter, but the last two are something special :-)