"Chasing The Lion" @ Disney

Brian took these vacation pictures while we were on the Kilimanjaro Safari ride at Disney's Animal Kingdom. Although we've been on this ride several times, we've never seen a lion quite like this (you know, they sleep most of the time).

We spent the rest of the safari trying to think of a cheesy saying like, "In Disney World, With A Lion, On A Hot & Humid Day..." Corny, I know. But our kids laughed! Vacations are perfect for accumulating experiences.

By the way, if you haven't gotten around to reading In A Pit, With A Lion, On A Snowy Day yet, I would challenge you to do so. You won't be sorry! Click here for the Lion Chaser's Manifesto by author Mark Batterson that we handed out to conclude our Chase The Lion series.

Beth's Personal Pink Impact

To conclude our recent series, "Chase The Lion" (adapted from a book by our friend Mark Batterson), we passed out the Lion Chaser's Manifesto. One of the edicts of the manifesto is to "...worry less about what other people think and more about what God thinks."

Beth Wagner, who is part of the Wed. night worship team @ Englewood, and leads worship @ Eastpoint on Sundays, participated in a hair show on Saturday night. She, along with brother Lance, walked the runway for B Vogue Salon. She was definitely living out that part of the manifesto!

Courage is a wonderful thing. Did I mention it doesn't wash out?? A very personal "Pink" Impact! :)

Got Questions- Part 1

We began a new teaching series yesterday called, "Got Questions? Get Answers." People had the opportunity to submit questions for me to research and answer. We got a lot of good questions, many on "grey" areas of Christianity, such tattoos, social drinking, etc.

This Sunday, we began with the following questions:

• What happens when you die? Do you go to heaven or a resting place?
• Why does hell exist?
• How many layers of hell are there?
• What will hell be like?

Sounds a little dark--but I felt like it was a gentle reminder of the truth. The format was a good change of pace. I also sensed people were receptive and interested. We had a great altar call for salvation and Pastor Ryan and the worship team did a fantastic job yesterday!

I can't wait to tackle next Sunday's questions!

Sunday night I went over to Eastpoint. Pastor Claude brought a great word and there is such an air of genuineness and fellowship. I enjoyed myself and it was good to see those I don't get to see as often anymore.

Lion Chaser's Manifesto

Quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death. Set God-sized goals. Pursue God-ordained passions. Go after a dream that is destined to fail without divine intervention. Keep asking questions. Keep making mistakes. Keep seeking God. Stop pointing out problems and become part of the solution. Stop repeating the past and start creating the future. Stop playing it safe and start taking risks. Expand your horizons. Accumulate experiences. Consider the lilies. Enjoy the journey. Find every excuse you can to celebrate everything you can. Live like today is the first day and last day of your life. Don't let what's wrong with you keep you from worshipping what's right with God. Burn sinful bridges. Blaze a new trail. Criticize by creating. Worry less about what people think and more about what God thinks. Don't try to be who you're not. Be yourself. Laugh at yourself. Quit holding out. Quit holding back. Quit running away. Chase the lion!

Author: Mark Batterson

Who Painted The Trees?

This is the typical Midwest fall view we returned home to out our backyard after vacationing in Florida (88, sunny....ahhh). Braeden (4) ran to the back windows and shouted to his Dad, "Whoaaaaaaaah! Dad! Dad! Come here right now! Someone painted our trees!"

Braedenology.

Remember Jeremy Affeldt?

The last couple of days we have been watching former Royals player Jeremy Affeldt fulfill an awesome dream. He has pitched twice in the World Series! Jeremy's a genuine Christ follower who went to a small Christian high school and made it all the way to the big leagues.

About 2 years ago, Jeremy came on a Sunday night to speak at our church. He did an incredible job. I still remember the message: "The Heart of The King".

He used the movie BraveHeart to illustrate that when an opposing army would kill the king, the king's soldiers would cut his heart out and carry with them to the front lines of the war. The battle cry then became "Follow the heart of the king!"

If we're going to win our battles (personal, relational, financial, spiritual), we must pursue God's heart with a relentless passion. Here's a little William Wallace for your weekend:

Aye, fight and you may die, run, and you'll live... at least a while. And dying in your beds, many years from now, would you be willin' to trade ALL the days, from this day to that, for one chance, just one chance, to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take... OUR FREEDOM!

Like A Good Neighbor

We all know this tag line/song by heart. It's meant to invoke a feeling of security. No matter what you're going through help is on the way. We had a great service tonight where I taught out of Luke 11. *Click here because you need to read this cool version!

Sandwiched between 2 famous passages on prayer, Jesus tells the parable.

The point I brought out tonight was that the need was met due to the neighbor's boldness. Remember, Jesus was in the middle of teaching on prayer. Sometimes our own lack of boldness keeps us from seeing our God-given dreams fulfilled and our prayers answered.

Is your lack of boldness with God delaying your dreams? Have you stopped praying that one big prayer just because you're tired of praying it?

Just like the good neighbor in Luke 11, we can boldly approach his throne of grace!

Tony G and The Wilsons

Favorite Chiefs player: Tony Gonzalez. Has been for a long time. Good to see him break the record for most career TD's by a tight end.

Got to see that piece of history take place while watching the game here in Orlando. We were hanging out at the home of our good friends, and NFL Sunday Ticket subscribers, Johnnie & Jamee Wilson. We all went to college together and the Wilsons became our link to ending up at Englewood. Great people, good times! They even have a dog named "Chief"!

Johnnie is one of the best youth pastor's in the country, not to mention the funniest. In a weird twist of fate, he will be speaking at Englewood this coming Sunday morning, Oct. 21 while we're down here in Orlando. Don't miss it!

tpc makeover '07

This is Pastor Kevin (who?) from Turning Point and I am invading your blog today. Jennifer asked me to share with you about our latest Extreme Makeover project. I'll keep it as condensed as possible.

This year's project home belongs to Wanda Patterson. Wanda is a wonderful lady in our church who lost her husband last year. When I made my first visit to her home, I walked away nearly in tears. I told myself over and over again, no person, especially a widow in our church should have to live in a home like what I just saw. It was literally falling down around her from so many years of damage. James tells us "true religion that God accepts is to look after the need of widows and orphans in their distress." So even though the project in the natural seemed overwhelming, we trusted God.

The first day was demo day where we literally had to tear down part of the house and gut 80% of the rest to even begin renovation. For seven days we watched prayer after prayer being answered.

One of the great blessings of this endeavor is the effect it has on the neighborhood. For example, there had been a lot of tension between the next door neighbor due to a tree that had fallen partway and no one claimed ownership. So one day we took the tree down and cleaned up all the debris around his house. It changed the whole neighborhood. From then on, people from all over the area began to work on the house with us, bring us food, equipment, anything we needed. It was incredible. I could go on and on with the miracles that God provided such as favor with businesses and how he always had the right people show up just when we needed them.

The project was completed at 5 a.m. 6 days later. On Sunday after church, Wanda was picked up in a limo and brought to the revealing. Needless to say, her life has been changed. The longer I am the pastor here, the more I realize I do not deserve to lead this group of people. This church is made up of a group of people with selfless attitudes and a willingness to follow the heart of God. They preached a message to a community every day for seven days of this project with their sacrifice. I am humbled to work beside them.

Jennifer asked me to post some before and after pictures of the house, I am still trying to track those down. However, if you would like to see the video, you can go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rj9oWXx7j6o.

Vacation

The Ross family is on VACATION! We're in Orlando for a few days (shocking development), just the 4 of us.

We used to take a lot of trips with other families and friends,and still enjoy doing that. But as life gets more hectic and the kids get older, we have found a haven in getting away alone.
Check back this week, if you're interested, and I'll try to post some fun stuff about our vacation. Otherwise, have a great week!

True Colors

Just returned from our "Pink Impact" ladies retreat. We had 50 ladies attend Friday & Saturday. I won't bore you with all the details, but everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves and had a good time.

We had some wonderful times of fellowship, great giveaways, fun games, and of course FOOD! Friday night Heather Baker led us in worship and I spoke on "6 Steps to Restoring Relationships":
1) Ask God for help -Job 22:23
2) Affirm Value- Phil. 2:3
3) Acknowledge Your Responsibility & Sin- Gal. 6:3-5
4) Allow People to be Human- Eph. 4:2
5) Adjust to Their Needs-Phil. 2:4
6) Give Up Your Rights- Gal. 5:13-15

We stayed up LATE Friday night hanging out---Room 422 was out of control! I know this because I had the adjoining room of 424.

Saturday morning we had a cool panel Q & A with the pastor's wives and then Bonnie Cowan brought a great message on maintaining your "covering".

I just felt like everybody was relaxed and could really show their True Colors and let people get to know them. We all need times like these to know and be known!

New Frontline CD

Just got word of a new Frontline CD (Phoenix Master's Commission) that either has just been released or will be soon. Click the picture (to their MySpace) or the link (to their website) for a 4 song preview. They were awesome at Englewood in Summer '06. Can't wait for the whole CD!

Amazing Love

God's grace & His love are simply amazing! We used this video recently as a "bridge" between worship songs, leading into the song "Amazing Love". Angela is part of our worship team and God has worked mightily in her life.

Amazing love, how can it be
That You my King would die for me
Amazing love, I know it's true
And it's my joy to honor You
In all I do, I honor You

Watch Angela's testimony of where God has brought her from.

Fire Away

We have a Prayer Partner ministry here at our church that meets rotationally during the Sunday morning services. Each week a team of people, led by a Prayer Captain, pray over the service, guests, and church family. This ministry is so vital to everything we do.

One of our prayer captains, Keith Prince, gave me his team's strategic prayer sheet. I was so impressed with the content, I'll post it in segments. (Most of the content comes from the book God's Armor Bearer).

Today, I want to share with you the illustration on Strategic Prayer. Strategic prayer is likened to firing a rifle and Common Prayer to firing a shotgun. The results vary greatly. Both can get the job done, but a rifle shot can travel a greater distance and has a powerful impact on a specific target. Also, rifles have the ability to rapid fire multiple shots. With a shotgun, you point and spray, hoping to get a few pellets into the target.

While shotgun prayers have their place (when we're in a hurry, emergency, or simply don't know how to pray), rifle prayers have the greater impact. Knowing what you're aiming for and firing in the same direction will yield powerful results. Fire Away!

Lights Out

The Chiefs had a "lights out" performance against the Chargers yesterday. It's about time! There was also a little "lights out" action for the Ross family yesterday. We were invited to some friends' house to watch the game and.....the lights went out! A storm came through at halftime and with one crack of lightning that was it. As much as we stared at the big screen TV, the power never came back on.

Brian gave us a play by play through his phone by candlelight. Thank God for Blackberry's!