A very good day. However it was balanced with good and bad. I’ll try to make this a report of what God is doing more than a rant.
Attendance was good. I don’t know what the count was but it looked good in both services. The attendance in second service looked better than normal.
The people who attend second service are crazy! They shout, clap their hands, stand up spontaneously, and get into church! I was ready to have an altar call and lay hands on people today.
Today was Alex Casey’s last day with us. He is the college aged kid who plays in our band. He can play several instruments (bass, saxophone, drums, etc, almost anything), and has been an enormous assets to PCC and our worship band. He also wears cool hats on stage sometimes, and even looks cool when he does it. Plus he has a true servants heart. He is moving to Mississippi to attend college. We are going to miss him. I hope he comes back.
After church today we took Alex and a few of his friends out to lunch, along with some of our staff. We wanted to honor him in a proper way, and had a lot of fun together.
A lot of people spoke to me about the morning message. I mean a lot. Apparently it was very encouraging for some. I must confess that it was encouraging to me as well. Sometimes when I teach I am doing so simply because that is part of my role at PCC. At other times I’m preaching it to myself just as much as to anyone else. Today was one of those days; I’ve lived it, experienced it, it was alive to me. Just like you.
Some thoughts from the day……
The newness wears off. It’s then that you have to dig in and see your commitments through.
There comes a time in everyone’s life when quit looks good.
Some of you are probably on the verge of the greatest years of your life, but you’ll never know if you run.
The second half of the wall is harder to build than the first half.
The second half of your life can be better than the first half.
Trust God, He’s great and awesome (v.14)
Fight for your families!
Get involved in a ministry of serving others.
When I get to church on Sunday mornings I never turn on my computer - never, ever, ever - for the simple reason that there might be an e-mail waiting for me that will rattle me just before I walk onto the stage. I don’t need that kind of distraction. Well, Gene Tharp opened his e-mail today and, you guessed it, there was an e-mail there written by some unhappy person who felt the liberty to slam everything good about PCC. It came in through our web site. To Gene’s credit he did not tell me about it until after church. I asked to read it. Then I had Gene forward it to my e-mail account and told him not to worry about it because I will handle it, The nerve of some people.
Here are a few comments from facebook about today’s service:
Marueen B. said, The Lord is good and worthy to be praised!!Great God, Good church, good friends and LOVE the men in my life! Jesus Christ and Ronald!
Kim U. said, Church was so AWESOME today. I've been a Christian for a very long time and today I felt like God and I were having a one on one conversation. Sooo close to leaving some walls half finished. Now, I'm rethinking.
Christa C. said, The message today was super interesting!! Talking about overcoming discouragement, which I have been facing some of that lately!! He even talked about how sometimes we just want to bail on our lives; I so get that!! I have thought about running away many times!! I won't, I will stand in the face of adversity and decide that the second half will be harder but better than the first!! Thanks Ron!!
Another lady wrote Renae a long e-mail this afternoon expressing her thankfulness for today’s service. She was driving around aimlessly in shorts and flip flops, drove by our church, felt that she should attend here, so quickly drove to the dollar tree and bought a pair of pants to wear to church. She said the message was exactly what she needed to hear since she has been having a long battle with discouragement. The content of her letter made my spine tingle.
You know what? God does things like this; He actually sends people to places where He knows they will receive help.
Vacation Bible School was totally amazing last week. I’m not sure of the numbers, but this first night was over 70. I think it might have actually increased a couple of night from there to. Most impressive to me were the VOLUNTEERS who did such an amazing job. I was totally impressed with their selfless service. I especially like seeing so many of our teenagers involved in teaching, serving, and stepping up.
I love it when God confirms things… and He’s been confirming some things recently.
There are a lot of things that need to be fixed and/or improved at PCC. Some of our systems are not working well. After meeting with a group of people this week we are beginning to get clarification about these matters. We are going to refocus our efforts on what’s most important and will be ruthless in keeping the main thing the main thing. Over the years we have become too diversified but now we realize that we need to get back to the basics.
For the last couple of years we have been stuck at the halfway point of building this wall. Now it’s time to build the second half…. and it’s going to be greater than the first half. I think we have to the people and the plan to make it happen.
If you have an interest in the future of your church, log on to this blog – I’ll be writing about these events as they unfold. I’ll be sharing the specifics.
Dang! I’m excited about PCC.
Attendance was good. I don’t know what the count was but it looked good in both services. The attendance in second service looked better than normal.
The people who attend second service are crazy! They shout, clap their hands, stand up spontaneously, and get into church! I was ready to have an altar call and lay hands on people today.
Today was Alex Casey’s last day with us. He is the college aged kid who plays in our band. He can play several instruments (bass, saxophone, drums, etc, almost anything), and has been an enormous assets to PCC and our worship band. He also wears cool hats on stage sometimes, and even looks cool when he does it. Plus he has a true servants heart. He is moving to Mississippi to attend college. We are going to miss him. I hope he comes back.
After church today we took Alex and a few of his friends out to lunch, along with some of our staff. We wanted to honor him in a proper way, and had a lot of fun together.
A lot of people spoke to me about the morning message. I mean a lot. Apparently it was very encouraging for some. I must confess that it was encouraging to me as well. Sometimes when I teach I am doing so simply because that is part of my role at PCC. At other times I’m preaching it to myself just as much as to anyone else. Today was one of those days; I’ve lived it, experienced it, it was alive to me. Just like you.
Some thoughts from the day……
The newness wears off. It’s then that you have to dig in and see your commitments through.
There comes a time in everyone’s life when quit looks good.
Some of you are probably on the verge of the greatest years of your life, but you’ll never know if you run.
The second half of the wall is harder to build than the first half.
The second half of your life can be better than the first half.
Trust God, He’s great and awesome (v.14)
Fight for your families!
Get involved in a ministry of serving others.
When I get to church on Sunday mornings I never turn on my computer - never, ever, ever - for the simple reason that there might be an e-mail waiting for me that will rattle me just before I walk onto the stage. I don’t need that kind of distraction. Well, Gene Tharp opened his e-mail today and, you guessed it, there was an e-mail there written by some unhappy person who felt the liberty to slam everything good about PCC. It came in through our web site. To Gene’s credit he did not tell me about it until after church. I asked to read it. Then I had Gene forward it to my e-mail account and told him not to worry about it because I will handle it, The nerve of some people.
Here are a few comments from facebook about today’s service:
Marueen B. said, The Lord is good and worthy to be praised!!Great God, Good church, good friends and LOVE the men in my life! Jesus Christ and Ronald!
Kim U. said, Church was so AWESOME today. I've been a Christian for a very long time and today I felt like God and I were having a one on one conversation. Sooo close to leaving some walls half finished. Now, I'm rethinking.
Christa C. said, The message today was super interesting!! Talking about overcoming discouragement, which I have been facing some of that lately!! He even talked about how sometimes we just want to bail on our lives; I so get that!! I have thought about running away many times!! I won't, I will stand in the face of adversity and decide that the second half will be harder but better than the first!! Thanks Ron!!
Another lady wrote Renae a long e-mail this afternoon expressing her thankfulness for today’s service. She was driving around aimlessly in shorts and flip flops, drove by our church, felt that she should attend here, so quickly drove to the dollar tree and bought a pair of pants to wear to church. She said the message was exactly what she needed to hear since she has been having a long battle with discouragement. The content of her letter made my spine tingle.
You know what? God does things like this; He actually sends people to places where He knows they will receive help.
Vacation Bible School was totally amazing last week. I’m not sure of the numbers, but this first night was over 70. I think it might have actually increased a couple of night from there to. Most impressive to me were the VOLUNTEERS who did such an amazing job. I was totally impressed with their selfless service. I especially like seeing so many of our teenagers involved in teaching, serving, and stepping up.
I love it when God confirms things… and He’s been confirming some things recently.
There are a lot of things that need to be fixed and/or improved at PCC. Some of our systems are not working well. After meeting with a group of people this week we are beginning to get clarification about these matters. We are going to refocus our efforts on what’s most important and will be ruthless in keeping the main thing the main thing. Over the years we have become too diversified but now we realize that we need to get back to the basics.
For the last couple of years we have been stuck at the halfway point of building this wall. Now it’s time to build the second half…. and it’s going to be greater than the first half. I think we have to the people and the plan to make it happen.
If you have an interest in the future of your church, log on to this blog – I’ll be writing about these events as they unfold. I’ll be sharing the specifics.
Dang! I’m excited about PCC.
1 comment:
Sanballat & Tobiah were enemies & trouble makers of Nehemiah who did not want him to build the wall. The Sanballat's & Tobiah's who are against the good work that is being done by PCC will never, ever win. God's work will be accompolished & they might as well get used to it. I am astonished @ those who have never led a termite out of a paper sack somehow become an authority on how to run a church.
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