I would ask all of you who visit my blog to pray for Fellowship of the Parks Grapevine.  We are now six months old.  This has been the most exciting, rewarding 6 months of 27 years of ministry. 

I would ask you to thank God for what He has done - for the lives that have been changed and for the incredible leadership team He has given us.  Also pray that God will help us to step out on faith as we cast the vision for raising the funds for our own place.  We know we are at least a year away from that step but we want to start preparing now.

"Faith is a free surrender and a joyous wager in the unseen, unknown, untested goodness of God." - Martin Luther

This is one of those books that has a limited audience but for someone starting a new church or church campus, this is an excellent book.  It is simple, easy to read and very practical.

The Journey Church in New York is a testimony of the fact that what is taught in this book works.  The author Nelson Searcy is the founding pastor of that church and has taken it from a handful of people to over 1,000 members in about 6 years.

The book gives  a Biblical foundation for making church guests feel welcome.  We are reminded that we have about 7 minutes to help a first time guest make up their mind about our church.  The motive behind all of this is not to get more members but to give people an opportunity to hear about God’s love and grace.

I was encouraged that much of what we do at FOTP is on target.  We are very intentional about getting first time guests to return.  Once they return we want to help the build relationships and at some point to take on a responsibility.

I really enjoyed this book.  For those of us in church work it is a good read.

This Sunday we will begin a new series at FOTP - Live It Forward.  Live It Forward is the theme we chose for the three year emphasis that we began two years ago at the Keller campus.  We based the theme on the movie Pay It Forward which was a movie about a little boy who did random acts of kindness and simply asked people to pay the act forward by doing an act of kindness in someone else's life.  Live It Forward is a way to encourage those of us who have been blessed to be a part of FOTP to help others experience the same in the future.

The growth Fellowship of the Parks has experienced in this two year time period is incredible.  Our average attendance was about 1,200 when we started and our average attendance including both campuses is now over 1,800. Our attendance has been close to 2,000 on several occasions in the last few weeks.  Many lives are being changed.

At our Grapevine campus we will be looking at our next step as a church.  Many people have asked about our future and over these three weeks we will discuss what we believe God has in store for us. 

This all comes at the perfect time having just completed 40 Days of Pupose where we focused on God's purpose for our individual lives.  Now we will look at our purpose and mission as a church.

Just yesterday, Pat and I were discussing how being a part of FOTP Grapevine has changed our lives.  We simply want more people to experience what we have as we Live It Forward.

Who switched off my brain – the author of this book about 20 pages into it.  I had seen her interviewed and thought the book sounded interesting.  I ordered it over the internet.  One of the disadvantages is that I can’t look at the book.  I can usually tell if I am going to read a book by reading a few pages.  I would not have purchased this book if I could have read a few pages.

The first part of the book was overly complicated and hard to grasp.  The explanation of how my brain works made my brain hurt.  The second half of the book dealing with how to detox your thoughts was over simplified and nothing I had not heard before.

In addition, the author seems to claim that there is no need for drugs such as anti-depressants.  I think this is a dangerous position to take.

There are very few books that I just totally do not recommend.  This is one of them.

This book is the story of the forgiveness extended by the Amish community in Nickel Mines, Penn. in the wake of the murder of 5 of their school girls in the fall of 2006.  Charles Roberts who killed himself after killing the girls lived nearby.  Immediately, the Amish people reached out to his wife and family.  The story of those acts of love is very inspiring.  The fact that the Amish see this type of behavior as simply what Christians should do is refreshing.

The second half of the book, deals more with the motive behind the forgiveness.  The authors are all professors who have studied the Amish for years.  They make it very clear that the Amish forgive so that God will forgive them.  This is the part that was somewhat disappointing.  As Christians, we should forgive because we have been forgiven -  out of an overflow of gratitude for our own forgiveness.  The authors also point out that security of the believer (once saved always saved) and being certain of one’s salvation is foreign to the Amish.

Even with these theological views in mind, the book is still very inspiring and a good read.

I spoke at our Keller campus last week.  It was the firs time I have ever spoken at 6 services in one weekend.  While it is stretch, I am so grateful to be a part of a healthy, vibrant church. 

I missed being at FOTP Grapevine and can't wait to see what God is going to do tomorrow.  We will look at our fourth purpose for our lives as Christ followers - We Are Shaped To Serve God.

 I am reading a great book, Amish Grace.  It is the amazing story of the school shooting incident that took place in Nickel Mines, Penn. in 2006 and the immediate, complete forgiveness the Amish families extended to murderer and his family.  I will write a review soon.

Jim Griffith and Bill Easum the authors of this book are experts on this subject having both planted several churches and having made lots of mistakes.  One of the things I enjoyed about their book is its simplicity.  They have brief introduction chapter followed by chapters on each mistake.  They do not write more than is necessary or do an overkill on the subjects.  I am tired of reading books that could be much shorter if the author did not feel it was necessary to have more pages in order to sell more books.

Now being in our sixth month of planting a new church campus I can testify to some of their findings.  As they say it is easy to neglect the great commandment (to love God and others) in pursuit of the great commission (reaching new people).  I feel we have kept this in balance but it takes focus to do so.  Also, they point out that one of the mistakes is failing to take opposition seriously.  We have not faced nearly the opposition that some church planters face but we have in fact faced opposition particularly in the realm of spiritual warfare.  In fact, I don’t know that I have ever been engaged in a greater spiritual battle.  The intensity as we began to meet with our core team this time last year was much greater than anything we face today.

Not many of you will want to read this book simply because it is not applicable to where you are in life but for those who are involved in a new church plant it is a great resource.  On a side note, now that I am a church planter so to speak, I can honestly say nothing is more exciting and rewarding.  In recent weeks we have had a young man commit his life to Chirst, an elderly lady did the same and two children accepted Christ as their savior recently.  In addition, we have had several others who have recommitted their lives to Christ.  I am firm believer that we need to start more new churches and church campuses.