Powerful Phrases of Positive People

Read an interview this morning with Rich Devos , 73rd wealthiest American, founder of Amway, and owner of the NBA's Orlando Magic. The whole interview is great but one thing really caught me. Rich is 80 years old, a devoted Christian, and working on a new book, Powerful Phrases of Positive People. Here are a few phrases:

I'm wrong.

I'm sorry.

I trust you.

I'm proud of you!

I luv ya!

Don't you just love learning about the life approach of successful people? I do. Good stuff!

Relationships

Yesterday was one of the greatest days for me in recent memory. Monday is our weekly pastoral staff meeting, and we decided to do something a little different than assemble around a table in my office.

Since the remaining hot days are numbered, we had a pool party! That's right, a working pool party. I grilled hamburgers, brats, and hot dogs. Combine that with potato salad, baked beans, watermelon, a little Ricardo music and... come on! We ate together, and then went through our staff meeting--poolside.

Later, our families joined us for fun in the sun and more food. Smith, Ethan, & Joe had water wars. Braeden practiced his underwater somersault. Brock & Brody had fun on the slide. None of us can figure out why Pastor Ryan didn't get in water. We shared, laughed, teased one another, prayed and ate... lots. In short, we made memories. Later on that day, I sat back and watched the team God has assembled. And I was thankful for their devotion to Christ and to the people of our church. I thought about their faithfulness and hard work, and was reminded how important relationships are in life and ministry.

Nothing of value is created by a team of one. The Bible places high value on relationships. Moses had Aaron. David had Jonathan. Jesus had an inner-circle of Peter, James and John. And Paul may have developed the most meaningful and lasting relationships of all (see Ro. 16:1-16).

Ministry best happens in the arena of close and personal relationships. Developing people and sharing life together are more important than simply "doing church" together. I love our staff and thank God for allowing me to serve with them.

Selfless

This weekend, August 24th & 25th, we were privileged to have David & Gina Hanley speak to the worship team. They are the Executive Associate & Music Pastors at the LA Dream Center with a gigantic heart for people! The Hanleys shared from David's book Worship 23.5 Hours about what it really means to worship and to be on a worship team. It can be summed up in three ideas:

1. Worship is Selfless

2. Worship is Selfless

3. Worship is Selfless

Whether we are singing, playing an instrument, controlling the sound, or setting the mood with lights, everything we do is all about someone....and it's not us! Our commitment, service, energy, and hard work is all about connecting to and reaching the lost. Thanks for the inspiration and motivation David & Gina! You're awesome!

If you are interested in joining the worship team or in getting a copy of David Hanley's book, please contact Pastor Ryan Elrod.

Mark Batterson at Englewood

Well, I've had 2 days to process Mark's "Chase The Lion" message from Wed. night. Maybe somebody smarter than us can get it available for audio download here in a few days so check back (we're baby bloggers w/limited abilities!). I guess you could say we're Chasing The Technology Lion. :)

Having already read "In A Pit, With A Lion, On A Snowy Day," I found myself equally intrigued by the content and conviction. Content was awesome, conviction was palpable. Palpable is defined as "capable of being touched or felt." Mark has done "Chase The Lion" all over the country, but he puts it out there in such a way you feel you can touch your dream.

It was so great to hear Mark in person. He even flew in early Wed. to spend time with our pastoral staff and some key leaders on "The Big Idea". Brian can blog about that soon. By the way, I think we must have set a record for number of books sold at Englewood in one night. We went through almost 4 cases of books at 24 per case!

That probably speaks for itself, but tell us what you thought of Mark's message, give us a testimony, or let us know how you were challenged. You can post a comment by registering here (it's painless, really) or shoot us an e-mail at revross12@comcast.net.

Looking forward to this Sunday's kickoff of our "Chase The Lion" series!

Backsack Sighting

Just got a call from my son who spent the night with a friend. They were on their way to school down Truman Road in Independence when they spotted................3 RED BACKSACKS! They were 3 of 200+ Englewood Back to School Outreach backsacks given away Aug. 5.

The kids were being walked to school by their Mom. What a blessed phone call! Joe was so excited and so was I. I didn't really even have time to think, but the words just came out of me "See Joe, God blessed that family through us. What our church did that day made a difference!"

Acts 20:35 says, "...by working diligently in this manner, we ought to assist the weak, being mindful of the word of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive." Has anybody else out there seen an Englewood backsacks?

22 First Days

Today was the first day of school for Joe (6th grade) & Braeden (Pre-K) at Englewood Christian Academy. Joe is bummed; Braeden had a short cry. Our summer was busy with little league, t-ball, swimming, Royals games, staying up late, mini-golf, trips to Tropical Sno, kids camp and more Royals games! We had a great summer. Sad to see it end!

I was thinking this morning as the kids left for school with Brian, I hate to see the kids go. I actually enjoy having them home in the summer (of course, there are days.....).

I guess I was getting a bit sentimental (mark that) and I remembered a Broadway play by Billy Crystal called "700 Sundays". It's about the time he spent with his father before his father died when Billy was just 15. So, I sat down and calculated how many "First Days of School" Brian and I would actually get to savor with the kids (pre-school thru 12th). It was kind of cool. Here's my findings:

• As parents, we will have 22 First Days with one or both boys.
  
• The boys are 7 years apart, so that's 7 years of each individually, and 8 overlapping years.
  
  So thankful for our school and teachers. Here's to First Day # 9.

Staff Meeting with David Crowder

To start, David Crowder wasn't in our staff meeting! For the past several weeks, we as a pastoral staff have been learning from a Catalyst workbook. Today's lesson was from an article by David entitled "Praise Habit: Becoming Who We Are." I thought I'd share highlights with you. (Click on the graphic to check out David's book).

David insists that praise is something we all do. In fact, we are wired for it. We instinctively praise something, a favorite toy, certain food, an athlete, or a celebrity. He writes, "Remember how effortlessly we sang the praises of things we enjoyed? It was so easy and fluid and natural. What if this kind of praise freely leaked from us in delightful response to God?" Good question!

Our life should be filled with the presence of God upon us, which causes people to take notice. Because our Great God promises to "in-habit our praise(s)," the core of our existence should be to priase Him naturally and habitually. "A habit is an act aquired by experience and performed regularly and automatically...and involve no conscious choice among alternatives," Crowder says. Meaning, we as Christ followers have no other choice but to develop our "praise habit", and allow no distractions to interfere with our meeting time with God!

Even so, "praise habits" can become stale and require constant monitoring. Therefore, "we must continually seek ways to place ourselves in this (His) embrace."

Our personal praise habit is to literally put on Christ every day, so that the culture we live takes notice of Christ in us and reacts with unbelievable awe and holy reverence. David describes it this way, "To wear the rescue of Christ into every moment is for every moment to become alive with the possibility of revelation... our habit is the Christ. He covers us. He is what identifies us. We wear Him into every moment, and when we live with this awareness, we praise Christ."

Did you put on the "garment of praise?" (Is. 61:3) today? Is it showing in your actions and attitude? Why not take time right now to get fully dressed.

Marty Pattin

I was born in Charleston, IL the home of the Eastern Illinois University Panthers. As a kid, every once in a while my parents would take us to get pizza at a place called Marty's.

Marty's was located across the street from the University and was always hopping with activity from the college students. It also had pinball games and a jukebox. I loved going there! Marty's also had a lot of baseball memorabilia from a guy named Marty Pattin. He played high school baseball in Charleston. He later played at Eastern Illinois, then went pro. At this time in my life, this was about as close as I had been to anything or anyone famous. So I thought this place was "pretty cool."

I didn't realize then that Marty Pattin went on to pitch in the Majors from 1968 - 1980. You might remember him, because he also pitched here in Kansas City for six seasons (1974-1980). However, you might not know the "rest of the story" as Paul Harvey says.

As I remember the story, Marty grew up in difficult times, and at one time lived out of his car. A family heard about his plight and reached out to him to provide some stability as well as a place to live. The only catch, he had to maintain a "B" average, which he was able to do. They would later introduce him to the head baseball coach at Eastern Illinois, in hopes of a college scholarship. He was eventually granted a scholarship. Marty earned both a Bachelor's and Master's degree from EIU, and the rest is history.

Who could know that two boys from Charleston, IL would find their way to Kansas City. Since he was also the head coach at the University of Kansas, we also cheer for the same college team. Go 'Hawks!

And by the way, the family that reached out to Marty Pattin in his days of need? They also taught me Sunday school when I was in first grade. Small world! Reach out and make a difference in your world today.

General Council Leadership Changes

Every two years the Assemblies of God holds General Council. This is where credentialed ministers from within the Assemblies of God come together to handle the business of the church, hear from our leaders, as well as worship.

This year seemed to be the most important Council I have ever attended. We, as a body, elected for the first time an African-American to serve us at our headquarters in Springfield, MO. Zollie Smith was elected as the new Director of U.S. Missions. My heart was filled with emotion as the voting members of the Council stood upon his election for three to five minutes in ovation.

It was also a privilege to hear the opinions of men of God from our movement. There was dialogue about important topics such as: unity, relevancy, community and doctrinal identity. God is blessing the Assemblies of God, and using us to reach more unchurched and unsaved people then ever before. PTL!

Here are the newly elected leaders and their positions:
General Superintendent: George O. Wood
Assistant General Superintendent: Alton Garrison
General Secretary: John Palmer
Director of US Missions: Zollie Smith
Director of Foreign Missions: John Bueno (re-elected)

For more information, there is a great blog with incredible information at http://futureag.blogspot.com/ or ag.org which is the official web-site of the Assemblies of God. There you can watch the evening services and get additional information.

I count it an honor to be a part of this wonderful fellowship called the Assemblies of God. No other fellowship or denomination has such an incredible heritage. I love and respect our history and those who "blazed the trail" for us all today. We have weathered many storms in our nearly 100 years, and God has been faithful. As we continue to become people of the Spirit, while maintaining an openness to new methods, God will continue to be faithful and give us souls. It is His message that is sacred, not the method. Let us seek him with all of our hearts!

Videos

Back Home Again in Indiana

This past week I was "Back Home Again in Indiana", attending the 52nd General Council of the Assemblies of God in Indianapolis. I grew up about 45 minutes north of Indy in a town called Frankfort. Yes...I was a Frankfort Hot Dog! (no, really). Believe me, it wasn't easy being a wiener :) I had a few open hours between meetings and a friend suggested we check out Indianapolis Motor Speedway. I hadn't been there in years and looked forward to seeing it again.

When I was a kid, Indiana was all about Hoosier basketball and the Indy 500. My favorite driver was Mario Andretti. Every year on the last Sunday in May, we would gather with friends, cook out, and listen to the race on the radio. They blacked it out from TV in Indiana.

The race track will be 100 years old in 2009 and has experienced multiple changes over time out of both necessity and technological advances. As culture changed over the last century, Indy owners sought to keep their product relevant by creating a place on the infield for the cars and crew to work (Pit Row), revamping the infield with a golf course and hotel, adding additional seating and luxury box suites, rebuilding the historic Pagoda building at the start/finish line, etc. Each time, the changes brought people back to the track where today more spectators attend the Indy 500 than any other racing event. It is the "greatest spectacle in racing." In reality, the track's long term success lies in the owners' ability to recreate and welcome change.

This is a lot like the challenges that many in the church world face today. There has been a serious cultural shift away from church, which many believe has become irrelevent. In some cases, they may be correct. In order to continue to experience success in reaching people for Christ, we have to be willing to change the way we embrace the lost and answer their questions about life, faith, and purpose. We can take a lesson from the ol' Brickyard. Let's be willing to improve our reach, embrace creative change, and win The Race.

Allegedly...

Heard a rumor that we ran out of snow cones for the kids on Sunday. Seems it was pretty hot and some of the adults started cutting

in on the action. Hmmm...

Happy Birthday

August 9 is Sarah Elrod's birthday!! Sarah is the wife of our Worship Pastor, Ryan. She doesn't like attention but we are so glad Pastor Ryan & Sarah are here at Englewood. They are true servants and are a gift of God to our church. Happy Birthday!

Carpe Digital

I thought this was so good I wanted to post it here too. This is from Mark Batterson's blog evotional.com He spoke this week at the Assemblies of God General Council in Indianapolis. By the way, Mark will be at Englewood on Wednesday, Aug. 22 at 7pm, so don't miss it. Here is his session:

"I shared a session called carpe digital at last night's leadership seminar. Thought I'd share the main thought.

In 1893, a ten thousand dollar Congressional appropriation established RFD or rural free delivery. Up until that point, rural Americans had to ride their horse into town to pick up their mail at the general store. RFD provided mail service to rural residents for the first time.

Two entrepreneurs named Aaron Montgomery Ward and Richard Sears spotted a business opportunity. They saw a new distribution channel for their products. They produced so many catalogs that they were the second most widely read books in the country behind the Bible at the turn of the 20th century. They redeemed a new medium--rural free delivery--and turned it into a distribution channel.

That is what podcasting and webcasting and blogging are all about. Jesus told us to go into all the world, but he didn't specify how. It used to be traditional modes of transportation--ships, horses, and airplanes. But digital technology is a new mode of transporation, a new distribution channel, a new medium. We've got to redeem every technology and use it for God's purposes! The message is sacred, but the medium isn't.

I talked about a few distribution channels last night:

Podcasting is circuit riding at the speed of light.
Blogging is digital discipleship.
Video technology turns screens into postmodern stained glass.
Websites are virtual front doors.
Email is word of mouse.

As new technologies emerge so do new distribution channels for the gospel.

What a time to be alive! Our generation has greater potential to fulfill the Great Commission than all previous generations combined.

Carpe digital."

Back to School Outreach

What a great day for the Kingdom and a great day for Englewood! There's always something special about an outreach day and this one was was no different. Our annual Back to School Outreach was a great success. In large part because of the nearly 50 volunteers who arrived early and stayed 'til the end. Thank you for all you do in helping us reach souls for the Kingdom. Your faithfulness and dedication to God is always inspiring to me and many others. We have a church filled with Barnabas'. May God richly bless all of you.

On outreach days, we try to do church in a relevent, creative and practical way. Everything is pre-planned and organized to help draw the unchurched and the unsaved to Christ (I'll talk about our illustrated message later this week). This year was no different, and what success the Lord allowed us to share in! We had 74 salvation cards turned in (who knows how many raised their hands to accept Christ, but didn't come forward). The entire front of the church was filled with those surrendering their hearts to Christ.

We were also able to give out 200+ backsacks filled with school supplies with our church logo displayed on the outside which were a big hit with the children. All of our invited guests received lunch (hotdog, chips, and drink) along with snow cones. Because of the heat, this may have been the most popluar item. I thank God for a church that allows us "to go into all the world and preach the Gospel." Let's keep winning souls for the Kingdom!

Elvis/Playing The Fool

I've always been fascinated with Elvis Presley. Anybody else? '68 Comeback Special is my favorite "version" of Elvis! He's just one of those personas that has a sort of magnetic pull. He's also one of the few people that I can actually answer the question to, "where were you when Elvis died?" (in the car, returning from picking apples with my family in Grafton, Illinois).

Last month we did an illustrated message "Elvis, The Ultimate Urban Legend", as part of our Urban Legends series. We attempted to answer the question, "Was Elvis a Christian"? We discovered Elvis had a solid Christian upbringing and really always wrestled with his spirituality. Of course, the truth is, only God knew the condition of Elvis' heart at his death; we must all examine ourselves to make sure we are in a right relationship with God.

Part of the message was the appearance of our pastoral staff in various Elvis costumes. Epic hiliarity. Big-time foolishness. We try to make church relevant, creative, fun, and meaningful. Our friend, Mark Batterson, talks about The Importance of Looking Foolish in his book IN A PIT WITH A LION ON A SNOWY DAY. He says, "...maturity does not equal conformity. In too many churches, holiness is equated with cultural conformity. A dress code or verbal code becomes the measuring stick of righteousness." So, we can Play The Fool and escape the version of Christlikeness that can be way too civilized and sanitized. In 2 Samuel 6, recently crowned and dancing fool King David proclaims, "I am willing to act like a fool in order to show my joy in the Lord. Yes, and I am willing to look even more foolish than this." By the way....the altar call for the Elvis message saw around 20 people give their hearts to Jesus!

Closer To God

"Mom, I think we're sitting by God!" That was our 4 year old son Braeden's observation a couple of weeks ago at the Royals v. Yankees game. One of the good things about not having a winning baseball team is that it's rarely sold out. In fact, it is our family policy not to sit in the upper deck :) . Anyway.... due to ticket procrastination, we found ourselves so high in the stadium Braeden thought we must be close to God. Hilarious! It got me thinking about what it takes to get close to God. Braeden's thinking is an illustration of the Old Covenant. Before Jesus' sacrifice, the priests had to physically position themselves in the Holy of Holies. I'm thankful for God's gift to us, the Holy Spirit, that leads and guides us in positioning our spirits closer to God.

Back To School Outreach

This coming Sunday is our Back To School Outreach. I think it's our 8th annual (?). I'm excited! We've had a few variations over the years but the basic foundation is always the same: Free school supplies and clothing to families in the community. This is a fantastic way to reach out to the unchurched. Our Outreach Pastor, Brad Oyler, and all of our volunteers do a tremendous job and we're looking forward to seeing many people come to Christ on Sunday morning. This day is neck and neck with Easter as the highest attended Sunday of the year. We expect to hand out over 250 backsacks containing school supplies after the morning service. Everyone will also receive a free lunch and opportunity to shop for clothing. During the service we'll do an illustrated message and give away a car. Our church really has a heart for outreach and so these big days are always high energy. It's funny but I love driving to church with the kids on an outreach day. We're usually listening to worship music and there's just this kind of holy anticipation in my spirit....and I can't wait to get there and see what God is going to do.

Minneapolis

Made a quick trip earlier this week to the Twin Cities. Thought it would be cool to take our son, Joe (11), up north for a double dose of Chiefs & Royals. Made the 6+ hour drive Monday and saw the Royals play the Twins Monday night. Watched the Chiefs a.m. practice in River Falls, WI on Tuesday morning and then drove back to KC. Whew. But Fun! If you have a boy who loves sports-and a mom & dad I guess :), there are just some things you should do while it's still cool for him to ride 13 hours in a car with you. Here are some pics. Very weird feelings when we heard about the bridge tragedy since we were just there the day before. Our prayers definitely go out to everyone involved. Chiefs fans will enjoy the fresh pictures of Priest Holmes. Not in pads yet, but looking good!