Verse of the week...

Psalm 103: 11 "For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him;" Oh, man...what great words...what encouraging words! We cannot out run, we can't get away from the love of God. He loves us all the way up to the heavens...he loves us infinity x2. (That's how my kids would say it!) Feeling discouraged today? GOD LOVES YOU! Feeling like your world is falling down on you? GOD LOVES YOU! He really does...now go live in victory today!

Life is a distance race not a sprint

I have been thinking about this a lot this week...often I want to see things happen in my life or in the life of our church RIGHT NOW...no process, just instant change. Just like a sprint, I want the race to get over quickly and to see the results NOW. Often, reality is that life is a distance race...there are times for bursts of speed, but the key is to know when to push ahead and when to lay back. I often have to remind myself that lasting change takes time...it's a process...

My boy is 5!

My son Jaden turned 5 today! He is growing up sooooooooooooooo fast...he spent the whole day today acting out Star Wars with his friends! I love that boy...looking forward to Friday night and his b-day party with friends...you guessed it...Star Wars theme...that will be COOL!!

Hobbies...

Ron Boehm is the midwest director for church planting for Go-2 Church Planting and I was at a conference with him last year. Ron has been a HUGE mentor in my life and ministry. He asked me at that conference how healthy I was...not just physical health, but spiritual and personal as well. Ron hammered home the point that if I am not taking care of myself...if I'm not passionately in love with Jesus-totally connected and loving my family-AND finding fun things to do for me...I will not be healthy.

Then, he asked me a simple question: "Tim, what hobbies do you have?" I wanted to say playing basketball, but I hadn't played consistently in over a year... I got back from that conference and knew that I had to find an outlet that wasn't ministry related...

THEN CAME THE "amazinGrace." A 5K run that our Goshen campus puts on...I HATED TO RUN, but was challenged to run in the race by our led pastor Jim. (He has a way of doing that!) Let me tell you...I have found my outlet!! I ran in 2 races last year...lost 20-25 lbs...and it really has helped my focus and health...running really clears the mind...and I love competing and trying to improve my times!

So, I have been running for about a year now and I just started an 8 week training program for another 5K race...my goal is to run a 21 minute 5k...my fastest time last year was 22.59.99 minutes. You got it...just under 23 minutes but it still counts!!!!

Hey...thanks to Ron and Jim...you guys changed my life last year!

Mind Blowing....

God is truly amazing...I feel like I got a taste of what the 1st followers of Jesus experienced in the beginning of Acts. On Easter Sunday our campus saw 16 people express faith in Christ and our Goshen campus had 175...WOW! GO GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I cannot express to you how amazing it is to see God move like this...Incredible...

Moving forward...

Yes, my Buckeyes are moving on to the final 8 in the NIT! They are just proving again that they should not have been overlooked for the Big Dance...GO BUCKS!!!!

Cool to see...

I think our church thinks I'm crazy, but I LOVE being portable and I love setting up...it is a great chance to get to know people and fun to work together. As we were setting up at the movie theater for our services and the egg hunt, I was really moved. I realized that everywhere I looked there were people giving their best...setting things up...standing in the cold putting out easter eggs...setting up tables...making coffee...getting the kid's areas set up...setting up the auditorium...Soooooo many people made yesterday happen...why go to all of that work???? God gave his best, Jesus, AND PEOPLE MATTER TO GOD! That's it...the people that we were able to touch yesterday because of everyone's hard work makes it all worth it...

Let's make sure that we are always a church that pours ourselves into people...

BTW...we set a tear-down record yesterday...in 15 minutes we had EVERYTHING in the hallways and both auditoriums torn down...then we got to go Egg Hunting! GREAT JOB TEAM!!!

WHAT A MORNING!!!!

Wow...Wow...and WOW! That is all I can say about our morning...We started a new series call "The Final Four" and today was called "On The Bubble." Jim had a clock ticketing through the WHOLE SERVICE and just put it out there that we MUST give our lives to Jesus while we are still alive or we have no hope. Then at the end of the message we invited people who prayed to accept Jesus to come down and shoot a basketball to make the statement that "I'm In!"...12 adults did that for the first time today! And others came up and shot to make a statement that they love Jesus. HOW AMAZING IS THAT!

Other cool stuff this morning...
-The helicopter delivered our message from our Goshen Campus' 1st service on time...(the message at our church is often on video!)
-230 kids came to our Easter Egg Hunt! (We had 90 last year!)
-We had our largest attendance ever, that didn't include a lot of people from our Goshen Campus.
-And did I mention that 12 people gave their lives to Jesus!

Ephesians 3: 18-20...God DID more than we could ever ask or think...THANK YOU JESUS!!!!

I Can't Wait for Easter!

I am soooooooooooo excited for our Easter service. Between our Goshen and South Bend Campuses we have already seen 13 people give their lives to Christ! God is really moving and I look forward to seeing what he does through our services and the egg hunt tomorrow...

Have to say that I'm praying for more sun and NO MORE SNOW! We have 2-3" right now but the sun has finally peeked out...Here is a pic from last years hunt...best thing is that the kids don't care about the snow...it's fun no matter what!!

My bracket...

Yes...I picked 13 out of 15 last night...good night for me! Glad to see the hometown Irish get a win and have to confess that seeing USC lose at anything makes me happy! I am in a smack talk email "thing" with Kelsey's family in Cali...GREAT TO SEE THOSE BOYS LOSE! Hey...my Bucks are alive in the NIT baby!!!! And my Irish looked good!