Two weeks ago between our two church campuses we had almost 2,000 people in attendance.  I remember when we started attending FOTP Keller just litlle over 2 years ago, we walked out on the first Sunday and talked about how there were 1,200 people in attendance.  The growth is truly an amzing thing.  More importantly, the number of lives being transformed is such a blessing.

This afternoon, I wll be preaching at the two Saturday evening services at Keller and then will speak at the four Sunday services.  It will be the first time in my life I will have spoken at 6 services in a weekend.  The fact is there are very few people who ever get to experience anything like that.

Doug Walker our senior pastor will be speaking at our two services in Grapevine. 

Our Life Groups are taking relationships at our church to a new level.  Between the two campuses we have almost 800 in Life Groups.

In a few minutes I will leave to go to the Keller campus, I plan on spending the drive worhsiping God and thanking Him for allowing my family to be a part of such a wonderful church.

This past Sunday at FOTP Grapevine we covered the second purpose for our lives – We Were Formed For God’s Family.   We looked at the four levels of  fellowship God wants us to experience. 

At the end of the service I confessed to our church that in my 55 years of life I have never experienced the depths of relationships that I am experiencing at FOTP Grapevine.  Part of the reason is because I am a person who knows hundreds of people but rarely have I ever taken the opportunity to know them well – to really share my life with them.

Purpose Driven Churches like FOTP Grapevine (we are not the only one) make it possible to have many rich relationships for those who choose to do so.  It is a part of the process.  It is absolutely fulfilling and really hard to describe. 

My prayer is that everyone who reads this is in a place to experience what I am experiencing.

We are going through 40 Days of Purpose at FOTP.  I was reluctant to lead our church through this series because it is has been around so long.  The series is based on Rick Warrens best selling book, The Purpose Driven Life.  I had read the book when it came out and while I enjoyed it, it was not life-changing in any way.

We are two week into the series which includes the Sunday morning messages and the video lessons our Lifegroups are going through.  It has far exceeded my expectations.  For some reason the whole thing makes much more sense now.  I am so excited about what God is doing in my life and the life of our new church campus.

We had over 70 people in our Lifegroups last week which does not include our young adult group Generation Now which meets on Thursday nights.  They had over 30 in attendance.

More importantly, I can see people who are getting it.  They are finally connecting the dots in their lives spiritually.  The leaders at the Keller campus said that when they went through this series 6 years ago, it was a time of growth spiritually and numerically.  I can see that happening at our campus for sure.

On a side note, between the two campuses we were 8 people shy of having 2,000 in attendance.  When my family went to FOTP Keller two and a half years ago we walked out the first Sunday amazed that they had almost 1,200 in attendance.  God is truly moving at Fellowship of the Parks and my family is so very blessed to be a part of it all!

According to the Global Language Monitor, English adds another new word every 98 minutes or about 15  a day.  I don’t think they ever kick any old words out so we now have 1 million English words.  That seems like a waste.  That is a lot more words than we need.  The typical American only knows about 20,000 words and only uses about 7,500 of them in a given day.  So we have a lot a valuable brain space occupied with words we don’t use.

I don’t know what the solution might be but when we have way to much stuff at our house, we have a garage sale.  Maybe we could have a garage sale to some other countries that don’t have as many words.  We could price the words very cheap.  As the day is winding down if we still have lots of words left, when someone buys one word we could give them two or three more – that’s what I do at our garage sales.  Then at the end of the day what ever words are left, let’s just throw them away.  We will probably never miss them.

My experience has been that you have to have one of these sales every year or the clutter will build up again.  I think we need to get moving on this as soon as possible.

I enjoyed this book very much.  I had seen it and had put off reading it simply because I just thought it would be another book about a Christian athlete/coach.  I had met Tony Dungy when he was the coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.  I did a chapel service for the team and spent a few minutes with him after the service. He is a humble, genuine Christ follower.  I should have known that the book based on his life would be worth reading and it was.

Being a football fan, it is always interesting to read about the inner workings of the game and the teams.  Beyond that it was just refreshing to read about someone who has been solid in their faith from their childhood.  The book simply affirmed what I had observed in those few minutes when I met him – Tony Dungy is the real deal. 

The book is not only inspiring from a spiritual stand point, it is a good book on leadership.  Tony Dungy is no doubt a great leader.

I recommend Quiet Strength to any football fan who wants to be encouraged to life out their faith in a way that makes a difference in this world.

We had 150 in attendance today!  For the first time our two primary parking lots were filled and we had to use our third lot. 

We launched 40 Days of Purpose and had our first new Lifegroup tonight with 7 couples in attendance.  I wrote notes to 7 first time visitors tonight!

"Come near to God and He will come near to you." - James 4:8

As a church we want to keep coming nearer and nearer to God and see what happens as he comes nearer and nearer to us.

This is still more fun and exciting than I ever imagined it would be.

This Sunday we will begin 40 Days of Purpose.  My message will be "What On Earth Am I Here For?"  I am praying that many people will come to realize God's purpose for their lives during this time at FOTP Grapevine.

"Christ is more of an artist than the artists; he works in the living sprit and the living flesh; he makes men instead of statues." - Vincent Van Gogh

Sunday was one of those watershed moments in the life of FOTP Grapevine.  I had been praying that we could see 150 in attendance before Easter.  Sunday we had 148 in attendance incluidng several new families.  We are beginning to see more young families come to our church. 

 We all sensed God's presence in our worhsip services in a powerful way.  It was an incredible experience.

This Sunday we begin 40 Days of Purpse emphasis.  This is a great time for new people to get plugged in. We already have over 70 people signed up for Lifegroups!

 God is moving at FOTP Grapevine!