ACC - Leadership Online

Looking out onto my deck, I see that most of my potted flowers are in distress. It’s been a few days since I watered them. Even a good, thorough soaking on Friday doesn’t do any good by Monday.

It reminds me of the children of Israel being fed manna. It was an everyday thing (except on the Sabbath) – to try saving any for the next day was futile – it would be rotten by the next morning. Fresh manna each day – that was the ticket!

So it is in nurturing our souls. We need fresh flowing water of the Word. We need fresh Bread from heaven each day. We can try being irregular but our soul suffers – it dries up, wilts – dies if neglected long enough.

Are you tending to the needs of your soul? When is the last time you got off by yourself? Spent time meditating on his word? Prayed to the Father like you really cared to spend time with him?

I’m going out to water my flowers right now!

Peace,
Dave

Two important things that you need to know:

1. This Sunday, August 1st we begin a new teaching series ONE HIT WONDERS. Think “Kung Fu Fighting” – “Earth Angel” – “Funkytown” or “Achy Breaky Heart”. Awesome, very well known songs but it’s the only chart topping hit that the band (or singer) ever had; thus the song is a ONE HIT WONDER. Our 6 week teaching series will look at the 5 one chapter books in the bible – small but awesome! Can you name all five? Get ready for this Sunday by taking three minutes to read Obadiah.

2. Last Sunday at the beginning of my sermon I interviewed our worship team’s most excellent guitar player – Brian Sherrill. The lesson Brian taught us is that while he makes guitar playing look easy – the truth is it is not easy at all – his expert playing represents literally hours of diligent practice, lots of hard work. We cannot learn to play guitar by trying hard, we learn by training – practicing. That is how it is to live for Christ – the key is not trying harder, the key is to training. That means committing ourselves to regularly practicing the spiritual disciplines. Anyways…in our interview I promised to give you the link to Brian’s cool website – you can take guitar lessons from him! Check it out: http://www.activemelody.com/

See you Sunday!

Peace,
Dave

Yesterday morning at ACC we received a great challenge from James and Jana Gunn. They took about 20 minutes to teach us what God has been teaching them about the spiritual discipline of giving. Good stuff!

One principle that both James and Jana emphasized was that God should get “first dibs”. It is the idea that God gets paid first – before our electric bill, phone bill or mortgage; before going out to eat or buying a new iPad. The first check written is to our home church and everything else comes after that.

Is that hard? Is that a step of faith? It is. Yet it is within that type of obedience and faith that God generously provides for our needs and blesses both us and our church.

You have probably noticed – great things are happening at ACC: growing attendance – so many new families, 4 mission teams sent out in the last 9 months and lives being changed by the good news of Jesus Christ. It is all very encouraging and exciting!

This is exactly why we do not want money to get in the way of ministry. We want to move full steam, ahead – to take advantage of every opportunity and impact our community for Christ. We are all challenged to do all that we can – and then a little more!

I shared some of the following facts:

• Last fiscal year’s target offering: $7,700 per week
• We had to reduce our budget to: $7,150 per week
• What we actually received: $7,000

It doesn’t take a CPA to see we ended in the red.

Now for this year:
• This fiscal year’s target offering: $8,100

Our current reality:
• Average weekly offering per giving unit: $42.50 per week or $170 per month.

What this means:
• We need each giving unit to increase their normal monthly giving by $20 per month.

God can and will provide – through his people. Please join me in praying that money will never get in the way of doing ministry at ACC!

Peace,
Dave

Friday was a great day. My twin brother and sister-in-law (Nick and Amy) were in town and helped with our youth group trip to Six Flags Great America. I really enjoyed having them on the trip. I think the students did as well - I know they heard a few embarrassing stories about me growing up and had fun with the whole twin thing.

Yesterday ended up being a great day for a trip to Great America. We got rained on a bit and it was hot and humid (not as bad as it was here), but that also meant not many people at the park. I think we waited a max of 20-30 minutes for a ride and that was only a couple times. Most of the time there was no wait at all.

Most of the day, our group was all together. We gave them plenty of opportunities to split up and go different directions to cater to their personal ride preferences, but they didn't seem interested in that. Again and again they chose to stay together, even if that meant they were going to wait with the group and not ride the ride.

Nick, Amy, and I talked about this a bit at the end of the night. I thought they had some great insight. They thought that was indicative of the value our group places on community. That the students so valued being together, that they were willing to put aside their personal preferences to go along with what the group wanted.

I think that's a great picture of community and a great reminder of the importance of being in community. I've been told that I'm a pretty particular guy, that I have strong opinions...polite ways of saying I like things my way :). Being in community helps me put things in perspective. It's good, I'd even say necessary, for me to put my personal preferences aside and be a part of the group. It can certainly be challenging, but I know it's a tool that God uses to smooth out my rough edges and make me more like his Son.

Grace,
Chris

1. People who think you are unloving simply because you disagree with them.
2. NBA players making oodles more money than teachers, cops and firemen.
3. Food I like the most is really bad for me.
4. Store cashiers that make no attempt to be friendly or say thank you.
5. Christians who are convinced that Jesus must have been a white, middle-class Republican.
6. Coffee breath.
7. Crunchy peanut butter.
8. Oprah.
9. Little yappy dogs.
10. Liberal theologians and pastors.
11. Drivers that can’t be bothered to use their blinker.
12. Litter bugs.
13. Christian TV.
14. The ACLU.
15. Anything involving a dentist.
16. Weather forecasts that are nowhere close to being correct.
17. That creepy old, bald guy in the Great America commercials.
18. Neck ties.
19. Church hoppers.
20. My tendency to live independently from God.

How about you?

Peace,
Dave