A big congrats to JR Lee and Freedom Church. They had their first official service this morning. Read here for the details. JR and the guys are part of the Ground Level Network. We’re privileged to be connected with so many great partners in Christ. Looking forward to catching up with ya’ll. Way to go Freedom!
Archives
All posts for the month January, 2008
I’ve never used iChat for more than a two person conversation. Tonight Robby, April, Randy, Jennifer, Anita and I talked for about an hour. If you’re not using iChat (Apple) or AIM (PC) you need to. If you’re still paying for long distance phone service…you’re stupid and need to get Skype.
I’ve been very tired tonight so I’ll give a nice update tomorrow on how freakin incredible church was today.
Peace.
Today Anita is with Dawn and some of our High School girls at the Revolve Tour. Back in the day, Anita was a pretty phenomenal High School small group leader. I’m thankful she had the chance to get out and enjoy herself today. Of course that puts me on Daddy Duty for the day.
God smiled down on me this morning making the girls sleep until around 8:20am. This in itself is nothing short of a miracle. Savannah Grace has an average wake up time of about 7am. For the most part things have been rather quiet and easy. Rylee is finally at a developmental stage where she really wants to play with her big sister. They’ve been playing upstairs for most of the day. With the occasional rescue and clean up my day has been rather relaxing.
I love my girls. They bring me so much joy and it’s amazing how much love they give when they allow me to love them. Being a dad is so much fun.
One of the families last night at baby dedication brought me a little surprise. I love being the resident Notre Dame fan. Along with catching a lot of flack during last season, there is the occasional perk. For instance, how do you like my new hat? I make this look good.
Call me a Biblical moron if you like but the picture below is cool. I’m visual. This is an amazing and overwhelming picture of what scholars already know because they study things like the connections of references in Scripture. At any rate, check out the other diagrams on this site.
The other day Anita and I were were watching the high quality movies that are shown on basic cable. The movie we were watching was starring the very talented "Al Pachio." Are you not familiar with this actor? Perhaps you think I’ve misspelled Al Pacino’s name. No, no, no. You weren’t thinking that because you know how dear Mr. Pacino is to me due in part to my love for Mafia movies.
If you’d really like to know who "Al Pachio" is, you need to ask my lovely wife. She will go on to tell you that he was a very famous 1980’s movie star. A teen heart-throb actually. You know, the star of movies like Karate Kid and Karate Kid 2. Or the movie we were watching that day, Karate Kid 3.
Most of us know this extraordinary actor as Ralph Macchio but to Anita he will always be "Al Pachio."
Tomorrow night we’re having our first official Baby Dedication service for Elevation Church. We’ve had a couple of other dedications as a part of services but this is our first full blown "Baby Dedication." The whole idea of baby dedication is a little odd when you first hear of it. I’m sure for most people they get images of Catholic christening ceremonies. That’s not what this is.
Baby dedication isn’t even really the right name for the purpose of the service. In truth a baby dedication is more for parents than anyone else. It’s a moment for parents to publicly declare their intention to raise a child up in a family that is pursuing God. It’s not a statement of belief or perfection as parents but an indication of intent.
The trick to these kind of services is to make sure it’s an event worth the time and effort of the families involved while being careful to make the length bearable for the small children included. I’m excited about what we’ve come up with to make this a truly memorable experience for each family. My Family Ministry team has really come together to bring the best ideas to the surface. I’m sure in the future our Baby Dedications will look different as we learn and come of with new ideas but I can’t wait to share in this special moment for the life of our church.
Anita and I lead our old small group in Atlanta and developed strong relationships with the people in that group. It was hard saying good bye when we moved. Before North Point Community Church we had never been in a small group. And by small group I mean a scheduled weekly meeting time with structured relationships. Sounds inviting huh? The truth is we grew to not only enjoy our small group but depend on it.
Since moving to Elevation Church we had not been able to attend a small group until last night. You don’t realize just how much you miss or need something until you go with out it for a season. I have to say we loved our group time last night. We walked into a group that had been meeting together for some time now. But I felt not a single person was less than overjoyed to welcome us to the group. Our Community Groups Pastor, John Bishop is leading this group right now and did a great job of allowing people to share while getting through some of the points we needed to hit and not going over time.
We may have come off a little eager but when you haven’t eaten in a while there is a tendency to "pig out" a little the first time you see food. We ended with an incredible prayer time where the group actually prayed specifically for Anita and me. Needless to say, I can’t wait until next week.
If you aren’t in a small group you need to seek one out. If you here in Charlotte or Atlanta or anywhere else in the country you might be you need to find a group of people that will encourage, challenge and commit to praying for one another. Small group really is church. We miss our Atlanta group and loved getting the prayer requests from you last night. And to our new group, thanks for welcoming us so well last night.
I’m not making a political statement. I am however, laughing my head off about this video. It reminds me of when I fell asleep in Baptist History while sitting right next to my dad. Good Times!
After watching American Idol for an embarrassing number of years now, I finally have a dog in the fight. Or a horse in the race. Or whatever you want to call it. I’m officially rooting for Carly Hennessy. She’s an Irish gal who’s been put through to Hollywood for the second time in AI’s history. She is a former MCA recording artist. Long story short, she’s in this year and I’m picking her to win. Write it down. Phillip McCart is predicting Carly Hennessy to win American Idol 2008. She’s in it to win it.
phillipmccart.wordpress.com 