Success!!

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Yard sale today was a success. I consider $300 a good profit for a yard sale! And I certainly consider getting loads of clutter out of our house an exceptionally good thing.

I also had a great time meeting neighbors today. Invited several people to church (ran out of business cards). I expect to see a few of our neighbors at church soon (maybe even tomorrow). I even had the privilege of praying with one neighbor that has bad prognosis in her battle with cancer. I love to connect with new people and share with them the reason for the hope that lies within me.

On a not-so-good note...Tricia and Davis are both sick! My heart breaks for them. I wish I could take it from them...and I probably will!

--Nite!

Sleep is Optional

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We think that Davis is teething....breaking through the top now. So, when you are teething, sleep is optional. He has either woken up in the middle of the night or very, very early in the morning every day this week. Well, Tricia usually gets up with him...she has the touch. But, tonight it's my turn. And he's up! So, Davis and I are up hanging out right now. And it's 11pm. Hopefully we are not fixing for an all-nighter. We have a Yard Sale at our house tomorrow morning and will be up early.

Living Room Staff Meeting

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Had an off-site living room staff meeting today at our home. These are always beneficial times together as a team. It allows us the freedom "keep on talking" about whatever it is we are talking about. It allows us to exhaust topics instead of just scratching the surface. I thank the Lord for the great team that he has assembled in our staff.

What did we talk about today? Well, I can't share it all, but let me share some. As a team, we are exploring how we LIVE OUT OUR PURPOSE? How and when do we get people involved in ministry at CCF to be committed and sold out to our purpose? If indeed our purpose of loving God, loving people and living as disciples AND we believe that it is lived out through large groups, small groups and partnership...

How do we lead people into faithful commitment to large group weekend services?

How do we lead people into faithful commitment to a small group?

How do we lead people into a strong partnership with CCF (3 M's: membership, ministry and money)?

When should it become an expectation that all people in ministry at CCF support our purpose and are committed to it by attending a small group?

Your comments are welcomed!

--Noah

Today, Tomorrow

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Today, our staff took the afternoon and moved Pastor Mike, Kelly and Chase into their new place in Bowie. Record time to unload a 27 foot truck...4 people, 50 minutes! They have a great place.

Tomorrow, I will be in back to back meetings in PA. Pastor Nelson has several meetings as well and is coming along. Looking forward to good times together in the car. Always value 5 hours in the car with a friend and team member. We are leaving at 6am. Heading to bed!

--Nite Nite

Visual for Vision

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While re-reading sections of "Simple Church" this evening, I ran across this statement: Vision must be visual! The authors proclaimed that churches must find visual, creative, simple and attractive images that explain their purpose and their process.

I agree! Some churches use baseball diamonds, others use living rooms and kitchens, others use circles, triangles, etc. I look forward to establishing a visual for our vision!

The good news is that we know the content! The hard work is done. The effort, energy, time and prayer has been invested into discerning our WHAT and our HOW!! Now, we just need to talk about it lots and live it loudly!

What (our purpose): Loving God, Loving People, Living as Disciples!

How (our process): Large Groups, Small Groups, Partnership!

Any ideas for the visual?

Living our Purpose

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My mind is strongly focused these days on how to lead Capital Christian Fellowship toward LIVING out it's God-ordained purpose! Having a purpose is a great first step. It is awfully difficult to move toward a destination that you never determined. If you don't set a target, you can be sure you will never hit it.

We know that our purpose is to be...

Loving God, Loving People, and Living as Disciples!

So, now, how do we live that out? And how do we see it manifested? How do we measure it's results? These are the right questions to be asking these days. I know this much...In order to be successful in living toward our purpose, it will require sacrifice and commitment...from all of us! So here are a few core convictions that I am thinking through these days:

  • If it's too easy, it won't be too meaningful!
  • If we don't expect much, we won't get much!
  • If it's worth doing at all, it's worth doing right!
  • I am beginning to think that church doesn't matter much, because church doesn't matter much!

Chew on these statements. Test them Biblically. And get ready for great days ahead where we as a community get serious about our purpose and God gets serious about showing up among us!!!

--Noah

Swinging in the Yard

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I have been doing lots of stuff around our home these last few days. My Brother-in-law Randy has been very helpful. Hanging lights, painting, cleaning, fixing things that have been broken and starting to get the yard landscaped. This evening, we cleaned out the attic and hung a tree swing for Davis. He loves to swing so we have been wanting to get him one for our yard. Here is the picture of him this evening.

So fun being a Dad to this little bundle of joy!

My Day, My Week

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Had a morning full of administration and tasks and an afternoon packed with meetings. Good day in the office. This week is going to fly by. Tomorrow I work half day and then the staff is taking the afternoon away from the office to help the Rosado family move in to their new home in Bowie. Wednesday, Pastor Nelson and I will be in PA for meetings all day. Thursday we have an all day off-site Staff Meeting for the Pastoral Team.

I will share more about each of these things as the week unfolds. It is going to be a different week, but a good week. It will fly by though...of this I am sure!

-Noah

A Broken Record!!

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International Sunday was a gigantic success!!! Awesome, awesome service all the way around. Quality media, excellent and inspiring worship time, loads of energy, beautiful outfits from around the world, three great speakers, and food from many different nations!!

It was truly wonderful to see the volume of people involved with helping make this day a success. Man, I saw people moving tables and chairs and taking trash out whose names I did not know. That is saying something.

Parking was insane. People were double parked and triple parked and parked at the liquor store and grocery store next to us. These are great problems to have.

A final highlight of the day was the broken record...highest Sunday attendance in the history of CCF!!! 515 people were at worship this morning breaking our record high of 505. We thank God for that and are really excited about it! Remember, numbers don't count like people do! And numbers are not the vision, but we believe that they are a product of the vision.

Many thanks to Pastor Nelson and a team of close to 30 people that together made this a very special day!

Parenting Skilz

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I read this on Mark Batterson's Blog this morning. I though it was really well said. Maybe a few of you need to hear this today. I know I did!

One of the things I'm learning as a dad is the value of one-on-one time. It's a whole different dynamic than when we're together as an entire family. My goal as a parent is to keep the lines of communication open so my kids feel like they can talk to me about anything and everything, especially when they get into some things that are over their heads!

Nothing like quality time with your kids. And I think the only way to have quality time is quantity time. I often feel under-qualified and over-whelmed by the changes my kids are going through. I feel like I need more parenting skilz. You know what I mean? But one thing every parent can do, no matter how skilled or unskilled, is just spend good old-fashioned one-on-one time with their kids.

My deepest desire as a dad is to see my kids grow up to love God and want to hang out with us when they are old enough to have a choice. But I think they'll want to hang out with us then if we hang out with them now!

Yard Saling Season

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We got up this morning at went yard saling! Bowie is great for yard sales. We hit about 5-6 good ones this morning and we are just at the start of the season. After we buy enough, we have our own and sell it back to the world. Ridiculous, huh?

Doing a million things around our home today....painting, repairing, cleaning, organizing, throwing....home ownership is such a joy, but such a big job as well. I thank God today that we have a lovely home to be doing work on.

Have a good friend of mine coming to spend the evening with me. He will be at International Sunday tomorrow. hbhjljkxZNKxasioJKX,klj,.NMXZNMMCZXHJKASC

Davis just climbed on my lap and started hitting keys. He says hi!

--Bye

On the road again

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Pray for me today. I am traveling again to see my friend in PA state prison. This is always a meaningful time well worth the investment. But it is 600 miles in the car and a 3 hour visit...draining no matter how you slice it. Takin the ole Avalon....approaching 150,000 miles. Always crosses my mind now whether this thing is ever going to take a rest on the roadside one of these days. I am glad that my sister, Selah is traveling with me today....this buddy of mine was like family to my family. Selah hasn't seen him in 5 and a half years!

--Noah

Shout to the Lord-- Idol Edition

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Wildest thing happened....last night at the end of American Idol (Idol Gives Back), the 8 remaining contestants closed the show by singing the Hillsong worship song "Shout to the Lord". Pretty amazing. But, they left the name of Jesus out. They sang, "My Shepherd, my Savior...."

Tonight, they opened the show with the same song. The full song. And they put Jesus back in!! It was a fascinating thing to watch. Tricia and I just stared and smiled and looked at each other. I wanted to cry. We did'nt really know what to say. It was almost as if we did not have a basket to catch this in. 30 million viewers, saved and unsaved singers, national TV...it was moving and encouraging to watch. Praise the Lord. I hope millions of seeds were planted.

I googled it and read some reactions. After reading the first 20, I got pretty disgusted. If you want to read what I am talking about, Click here.

My Bucket List

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I often say to people…KEEP DREAMING! I believe in dreaming and setting goals. About 7 years ago, while in college I started a list of things that I want to do before I die. I have been adding to that same list for years. It recently reached 50. I hesitated sharing this with you…

I feel a little vulnerable sharing these goals because they are so personal. And I realize that some of them are subject to interpretation. And some of them could be perceived as selfish in nature. The question that we need to keep asking ourselves when we dream is “what is the motivation behind the goal?” Oftentimes, we have weird goals with purer motives. I guess what I'm getting at is this: the motivation behind the goal is key. If your motivation is wrong, then you'd be better off not accomplishing it.

I tried to set these goals in the context of my faith. So I honestly see all of them as spiritual goals. Even the travel goals. Travel is one way to worship God. The more of creation I experience the more I appreciate the Creator! Man, has that proven true for me!

OK, Enough disclaimers.

My primary motivation in sharing this list is that I hope it inspires you to come up with your own list of life goals.

  1. Plant at least 25 churches
  2. Finish my Masters (almost there)
  3. Get a Doctorate
  4. Play in a golf tournament (and place)
  5. Write at least 10 books
  6. Take each of our kids on a mission trip
  7. Cruise the world
  8. Own a big honkin’ RV
  9. Do a Forty Day Fast
  10. Be a multi millionaire by 55
  11. Teach at a college
  12. Go on a missions trip to 5 different continents (3 down, 2 to go)
  13. Go on a cross country trip
  14. Go to China
  15. Go to Japan
  16. Go to Africa
  17. Drive the Audubon (rode on it, but didn't drive it)
  18. Travel the entire Silk Road
  19. Trace at least one of Paul’s missionary journeys
  20. Go to Switzerland
  21. Go to Austria
  22. Go to the Holy Land
  23. Take Tricia on a Romantic Italian Vacation (hopefully for our 10th)
  24. Go to Alaska
  25. Go to Australia
  26. Go to Hawaii
  27. Give back to Valley Forge Christian College
  28. Give back to Lanham Christian School
  29. Speak at a college commencement
  30. Be in all 50 states (28 down)
  31. Be a Father
  32. Pay my kids college
  33. Be a Grandfather
  34. Be a Great Grandfather
  35. See my children serve the Lord
  36. Trace my father’s genealogy
  37. Pay to take my entire family on a cruise
  38. Pastor a Mega-church
  39. Impact/Lead a denomination
  40. See many lives saved
  41. Own a Mercedes
  42. Drive a Tour Bus
  43. Drive an 18 wheeler
  44. Ride in a cockpit of a large jet
  45. Ride on a high speed train
  46. Run a mile
  47. Reconcile with Rich
  48. Be in great physical shape
  49. Pastor Pastors
  50. Serve as a Pro Football Team Chaplain

Notice that I leave the ones that I accomplish on the list to remember the realized dreams!

--Now, get dreaming. Make your list!

International Sunday is THIS SUNDAY!

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Who are you BRINGING to church this Sunday? Remember, bringing and inviting are two totally different things. Bringing means that you are honking the horn in their driveway....and building relationship in the car ride! Remember, part of our purpose is LOVING PEOPLE!! Love them enough to bring them to church this Sunday! It is gonna be a great day. You should have seen all the people in the building last night printing signs and preparing decorations and paving the way for a great day this Sunday!

Our average attendance has been spiking high (just under 400) these last 4 weeks. Let's all do all that we can to keep it that way.

--Noah

A Vague Sneak Peak

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I am really excited about some things that have been coming together over the last few weeks. As you know, we have finally landed on an official Purpose Statement at CCF...Loving God, Loving People, and Living as Disciples. That has allowed some other things to get in motion now.

So often there are things that go on in my life and at the church that for many reasons, I cannot throw out here on my blog. However, tonight I want to give you a sneak peak of some things to come...

  • Now that we have a clearly defined purpose, we can explore how to live in and toward that purpose. We have been doing a lot of that these days as a staff!
  • So, just how do we do that? How do we live in and toward our purpose? The staff is working at providing leadership for this. You have actually heard it over and over....can you guess? More to come. I will be doing a series in May on our "Commitments to our purpose".
  • There are several improvements to our weekend worship services that we will be implementing by the end of 2008. Details to be unveiled soon. Very exciting stuff that will make CCF an even better place! (I really want to say more because I am very excited, but I will show restraint.)
  • New ministry qualifications will be unveiled soon. We are going to be stepping it up a notch at CCF! If you are in any form of ministry at CCF...I would encourage you to join a small group and attend Discovery 101 to become a member (if you haven't already). If you do, you will have a jump start on the things to come!

There is your vague sneak peak!

--Noah