Flying High

I got to fly an airplane yesterday. I went with a friend who has a private pilot's license. We were up there and he said, "It's all yours," and just let me take it. That was pretty fun.

I took some aerial photos of the lot where the church's new Life Enrichment Center (LEC) is going to be built. You can see the church building on the upper right of the picture. The gray building across the street from the church is going to be torn down today, and that whole lot is going to be where the new building goes.

Foto Phun 2

We had another snow last week. The first pic is with a long exposure and no flash.

Baby Bass 2

Emily is pregnant. Due date is Sept. 16th. That's 3 days before Luke turns 2.

Desiring God Pastors Conference Recap

I just made it back to the metropolis of Smithville a few minutes ago. I have been at the Desiring God 2007 Conference for Pastors since Sunday. It was a fantastic time of worship, and hearing encouragement from the Word of God, and buying books, and a million other things.

I got to meet and talk with John Piper. He's the preaching pastor at Bethlehem Baptist Church and the founder of Desiring God ministries. I've read several of his books but it was cool to get to meet him.

Okay...it was really, really, really cold in Minnesota. It got down to -20 degrees at one point while I was there in Minneapolis. And during the day when the sun was out warming things up...the temperature rose all the way to -3 degrees. When I got back to Tennessee tonight and it was in the +20's...I thought it felt rather tropical.

A Few Random Thoughts Coming Away from the Conference

- I really enjoy preaching. It is a great honor to be a pastor and have people give me 30 min. of their time every week. I don't treat that lightly.

- I really do deserve hell. Something inside us kinda feels like we were worthy of a little grace...that heaven wouldn't be quite as good if we weren't there...that we're not really THAT bad so that we deserve eternity in hell for our sin. God is obligated to give us a shot at heaven isn't he? Yeah right. We demand that God be fair and just with us. If God were fair and just we'd all be hell bound. These thoughts on hell come from studying about the holiness of God for the past several days.

- God is big. Exalt God in your life and watch what happens. God intensely desires that he be glorified. Live your life to glorify your big God!!!

Train Them Early...

Foto Phun

It snowed today in Smithville. All of these are near our house.

Latest Luke

Here's some new Luke pics.

Our son is really good lookin'...













Wearing Scout's Christmas scarf...













Latest big boy hair cut...

New Blogger

I have arrived. I just switched to the new blogger. It's very nice. Now I sign in with my gmail account instead of a separate blogger account. Everything's all together. You see, that way Google can track my internet use easier so they can advertise to me more effectively. Isn't that great...

Smithville Walmart Now Open

Smithville is moving on up in the world. Our Walmart opened today. Man, life is good. Emily went there this morning. I went there this evening. I must say it is the nicest Walmart I've ever been in. Very clean and no buggies all over the parking lot. I guess I should just wait a month.

Peyton is going to Super Bowl XLI

I can hardly stand to watch these playoff games b/c I want him to win so bad. Here's his chance. I'll be at a pastor's conference in Minnesota when the Superbowl is played Feb. 4th. I hope I can still catch a glimpse.

Some Pics...

"Is that your pastor and his wife in blue jeans?"
YES. I love my blue jeans.

The bottom pic was going to be our Christmas card, but we couldn't get a close up of us and still have the church name in the picture. Notice the snow.

On the FBC 2007 Horizon

Here's a few things on the books for First Baptist in 2007...

Vision Sunday, January 7th 2007 – I will be sharing what God has placed on my heart for the future of First Baptist. I want to give the people something to grab hold of and work towards.

Deacon Family Ministry – This ministry of the deacons will be a great aid to me and will help us close the “back door” of the church by keeping in better contact with our members. All the church members will be assigned to a specific deacon who will be responsible for maintaining the relationship and meeting any needs they may have.

Construction of the Life Enrichment Center – We will see the LEC completed by the end of 2007. This has been a long-term dream for our church, and it will be wonderful to see God bring it to completion. The LEC will be a fantastic way for our church to reach out to the community. It is a multi-function building with a gym, stage area, classrooms, and a kitchen.

Membership Discovery Class - We will be working towards the development of a membership class that would be a prerequisite for joining the church. In this class we would share our beliefs, what it means to be a church member (expectations), how the church operates, and how a person can be involved. I think this will be a definite plus for the church when it comes to the commitment and retention of new members.

I've got a few other things in the works that I'll share with you as the church works through them.

I'm signing off for this year...See you next year.

Christmas and Pastoring

You'd think these two things fit very nicely together. And they do. I only have one question though. How in the world do you go thru the Christmas season as a pastor and not gain 20 pounds??? I've really lost track of how many Christmas parties I've been to. Every group in the church has a party and they all expect you to be there. They also expect you to eat. A lot.

Let me guess...that's what new year's resolutions are for...

Church Signs

This page is really great. I've wasted hours just looking at all the really stupid messages and slogans that get put on church signs.

The church I pastor has a church sign that has interchangeable letters (so we could conceivable put those great messages out), but we only put the service times and pastor's name (like that's really important) on the sign.

Scout is here...

We got our new pup. We named her Scout. Here's some pics...

It's Snowing

Today is November 20th, and the snow is pouring down outside. This is fantastic. I haven't seen snow in a long time. We've lived in Dallas the last 4 years and I think we only had one snow in 4 years. Last year at Thanksgiving time it was about 80 degrees in Dallas. I love living in Tennessee where it snows at Thanksgiving.

Humanity never changes

I watched the 4th quarter of the Chargers-Broncos last night after our Community Thanksgiving service. As a side note, when Emily saw the team initials "SD" beside the Chargers' score on the TV she said as serious as could be, "What do all those football players do in South Dakota when they're not playing football?" I just said, "I guess they go hang out in San Diego."

Back to what I was going to say...The Chargers were up by 8 points with a little over a minute remaining and Denver had the ball on their own 4 yard line, so they have to go 96 yards for the touchdown and score the 2 point conversion. Practically impossible, but the Broncos got a big play and move the ball out to the 40, and then one of the Chargers defensive linemen got man and started punching a Broncos player. That got him ejected and gave the Broncos another 15 yards on the penalty.

Who's team is this guy playing on? It's not about his petty revenge on some other player. It's about the team winning. When will we ever figure out that everything is not about us? For that guy it was about his team winning the football game.

For Christians out there...this whole thing is not about you. It's all for the gospel of Jesus Christ. Get over yourself and starting playing for the team. Let go of grudges and forgive.

Community Thanksgiving Service

I was asked several weeks ago to preach at the community wide Thanksgiving service this Sunday night (19th). I feel this is a great honor and opportunity. This will probably be about the largest group of people I've ever gotten to preach for, except for that time I filled in for Billy Graham during one of his crusades and the Sunday last year when Charles Stanley called me to fill in for him while he was on vacation.

You can pray for me. The Billy Graham and Charles Stanley things were no prob, but I'm a little nervous about this one.

Later folks...

Toilet Fun

You read that right. I found Luke hanging over the edge of the toilet today with both hands just splashing away.

Adventures in Home Ownership

Emily and I are about to finish our second month as home owners this week. Here's some of the joys we've experienced so far...

1. Our house has a built-in grill on the back porch. The first time I went to use it I found a mouse nest with a mamma mouse and 3 babies inside our grill. So I ran the mouse off (unsuccessfully tried to kill it) and gave the grill a good cleaning. A week and a half later I went to grill again and the mouse had come back in the grill and rebuilt the nest!!! This time the mouse did not escape. Victory was mine.

2. I use those glue boards in my garage to catch insects. Here's the list of things I've caught on the glue boards besides insects. 2 birds (they get in the garage and try to eat the insects but get stuck on the glue board), 1 snake (this was a nice catch), 1 mouse.

3. Our house is two stories. Luke has fallen down the stairs.

4. We've been rolled twice.

5. Life is great and God is so gracious. I'm glad to have a house.

Later folks.