14 things I love about my wife Jill

 Family  No Responses »
Jun 242009
 

14 years ago today I exchanged holy vows with Jill Sammons.  I love her more today than I did then.  I am so thankful for her.  Here are fourteen things I love about Jill:

  • I love her unashamed passion for Jesus Christ!
  • I love her unwavering commitment to God’s Word and living it out in her life.
  • I love the way she serves and loves me unconditionally.
  • I love the way she mothers and invests into the lives of our children.
  • I love the way she laughs. (Loud)
  • I love her commitment to the local church, the body of Christ.
  • I love her passion for building relationships with people in need of a relationship with Jesus.
  • I love her hospitable spirit toward the people with whom she crosses paths.
  • I love the way she sings.
  • I love her legs.  (I have to be honest)
  • I love her passion for educating our children.
  • I love how she overlooks my shortcomings and hardheadedness.
  • I love her beautiful smile and perfect teeth.  (That happened to be in braces when we dated.)
  • I love to go to bed and breakfast inns with her.  That is where we are now! June 24, 2009.
 Posted by at 7:58 pm

Friends helping Friends

 Community, Faith, Family  No Responses »
May 152009
 

One of my great friends is Steve Williams.  I have known him and his wife Janis for a long time.  Steve and his family have been through a lot of tough times in the past couple of years but he is the type of man that understands that God is in control and that something BIGGER is at work through our circumstances.  As a response to that, he and his family look for opportunities in the midst of their obstacles. 

Steve’s twin brother Scott passed into eternity a little over a year ago after a lengthy battle with cancer and in honor of Scott friends and family have launched a yearly bar-b-que fundraising event for raising funds for the purpose of supporting families needing help with their medical bills. 

If you can be a part, I encourage you to drive down tomorrow (Saturday May 16, 2009) to the Social Circle North end bypass between 11am and 2pm for some great bar-b-que and to support a great cause.  The Scott Williams bar-b-que is for a good cause and worth your time.

 Posted by at 9:28 am

Spring Cleaning and the Passover Seder

 Culture, Faith, Family  1 Response »
Apr 012009
 

Yesterday was a great day for a number of reasons.

I actually took the day off and spent some great time with the kids.  In the morning, I was able to work on cleaning out the basement with Jill and I took a huge load to the land-fill.  By the end of the day Jill had totally cleaned out and organized a major portion of the basement.  It was so refreshing to have cleaned out so much in just a day.  It felt good at the end of the day. 

Jill and I took the kids to a “Seder” meal on Thursday and we were led through the “Seder” experience by a Messianic Rabbi named Derek Leman.  The “Seder” always takes place during the celebration of “Passover”which takes place during the yearly festival called “The Feast of Unlevened Bread”.  Passover initiates a seven day period where Jews would not eat any bread with yeast and would only eat unlevened bread.  The Unlevened bread initially was a reminder of the original Passover experience where the Jews would not have had time to put leven in their bread because of their hasty departure from Egypt following the night of the Passover.  Leven has also become a symbol of sin in the lives of Jewish people and is representative of the fact that it only takes a little leven (yeast) to impact the whole and similarly it only takes a little sin in our lives to impact our entire life and relationship with God. 

Jews have been known to sweep up every crumb of levened bread during this festival and take it out of their house and burn it as a symbol of getting rid of sin from their household.  The apostle Paul referred to the impact of a “little” sin in our lives in his letter to the Corinthian Church.

1 Corinthians 5:6 (NIV)
6 Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough?

As we approach Easter, it may be good to remember the Jewish feast that is almost simultaneously taking place.  It may be a good time to do some “Spring Cleaning” in our lives and make ourselves available to God in a new and fresh manner. 

It may be refreshing!  What are your thoughts?

 

 Posted by at 5:06 pm

Church planters and The Circus

 Church Planting, Culture, Entertaining, Family, Jesus, Leadership, Missional  No Responses »
Mar 102009
 

Last Thursday was a crazy but great day! 

The first Thursday morning of the month I get to spend my time with about 15-18 crazy guys who have either started churches or are looking to start a church.  They are insane!

It is an honor for my friend Chip Wheeler and I to help plan and lead these Church Plant Network Coaching events.  I love hanging out with guys that want to reach people and transform a community utilizing the best strategy that exist today on the planet–Church Planting!

We meet at FBC Conyers, GA and spend time in prayer from 7:30am-8:45am.  At 9am we have a guest speaker that leads us on a specific topic related to church planting and pastoring.  After our speaker leads us in a Q & A time we break out into coaching groups where we can apply the learned lessons to our specific context.   It is a blast and another way to broaden CATGrove’s Impact in the world for Jesus!

Circus

Thursday evening Jill and I took the kids to the Big Apple Circus that was showing at Stone Mountain Park.  I know it may seem funny to mention church planting and the circus in the same blog post but they do have a lot in common especially when you think of how church planters and clowns……………..well, I won’t go there!

It was a blast!  The clowns are my favorite part of the circus!

Here is the deal!  We all need to laugh.  Life is just hard at times and the recent pressures in our culture necessitate us find an outlet to relieve the pressure.  Church planting is a lot like the circus!  The Pastor and staff could possibly be confused with the ringmaster and some clowns.  The circus tent is always full of a bunch of hungry animals and people waiting to be entertained! Ouch, did I just say that!  Yep!  I’m sorry, I just needed to relieve some of the pressure from running a circus. 

I don’t know why I thought of writing a post on church planting and the circus, but somehow they just seemed to go together! 

Be Blessed!  And laugh a little this week.

 Posted by at 6:34 pm
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