Here’s the Slideshow from today.
In a change from last week, I was clean shaven and no longer sunburned. As a result, Quality of Life on this Sunday is much better than the last.
Jesse, Chris, and Kelly have the first wrap-ups out. It’s Kelly’s Sunday Wrap-up debut so tell her hello. For whatever [...]
July 6, 2008
Categories: Uncategorized . . Author: travjohnson . Comments: 1 Comment
Kelly and I had been married for less than a year. We had just moved to Chicago to start a church. I stopped by a public housing project to visit a guy I had met shortly after moving to Chicago. After walking into this guy’s apartment with my wife, I looked at [...]
July 6, 2008
Categories: Uncategorized . . Author: travjohnson . Comments: 1 Comment
We had a little shindig at my house yesterday for dogs and eats. Reina hooked me up with some seriously good home made salsa. We played Apples to Apples. I found out that James likes to win and he’s fairly expressive. Fun.
Then, we got out the Wii and boxed, played Tennis, [...]
July 5, 2008
Categories: Uncategorized . . Author: travjohnson . Comments: 4 Comments
Kelly does a great job keeping a journal of our lives. Kourtney and McKenna already enjoy looking back to see what they used to look like and to see things they’ve done. Blake? He mostly drools on the keyboard.
Her blog is a treasure. I love this video she put together that tracked her day. Really [...]
July 3, 2008
Categories: Uncategorized . . Author: travjohnson . Comments: No Comments
We refuse to connect a phone line to our TiVo. We refuse to have a home phone. So far, the TiVo police haven’t arrested us. Thanks, babe for the proof that we are living on the edge.
July 3, 2008
Categories: Uncategorized . . Author: travjohnson . Comments: 1 Comment
Ed Stetzer is one of my favorite speakers/writers on the Church in America. He and Troy Gramling have a great podcast here on the challenge of the Church to remain faithful to the Gospel while remaining flexible in our presentation of the Gospel. Great stuff.
June 30, 2008
Categories: Uncategorized . . Author: travjohnson . Comments: No Comments
I’m listening to “Rapper’s Delight” by the Sugar Hill Gang on a way cool tool called Tiny Song. Listen to just about any song, build a playlist, etc… I already love Pandora, the Music Genome Project. This will compliment that site nicely.
June 30, 2008
Categories: Uncategorized . . Author: travjohnson . Comments: 2 Comments
Tomorrow, I’m teaching on humility. Ben Franklin said that humility was the one virtue he was never able to attain. It’s a message I’ll be listening to more than I’m teaching.
That’s one of the challenging jobs of being a pastor. You’re called to share enourmous truths from a holy God. Leadership requires you to take [...]
June 28, 2008
Categories: Uncategorized . . Author: travjohnson . Comments: 3 Comments
“MAN RULES” is a 3 week series we’re working on for the fall. We’ll be dealing with topics of Biblical Masculinity. This image is a rough idea to be used for a mailer, slides, etc… Do you have any thoughts on the images or creative ideas for the series?
If you click on any of the [...]
June 26, 2008
Categories: Uncategorized . . Author: travjohnson . Comments: 3 Comments
Check out this Miami Herald article about Melvin McCormick, one of our city councilmen. Then, check your heart and see if you want to be a part of something significant in our city. If you do, you’ll find me there.
June 25, 2008
Categories: Uncategorized . . Author: travjohnson . Comments: 2 Comments
According to C.S. Lewis, there are two kinds of people in the world:
Those who look to God and say, “Thy will be done.”
Those whom God looks to and finally assents, “Thy will be done.”
In the battle of the wills, you can beat God…if you will.
June 25, 2008
Categories: Uncategorized . . Author: travjohnson . Comments: 2 Comments
We love pipe and drape. You can use pipe and drape to hide stuff, to create walls, and to right size an auditorium. One of the worst uses for it is to limit faith.
After getting a handle on our auditorium size, we somehow had gotten hung up on making sure our pipe and drape was [...]
June 24, 2008
Categories: Uncategorized . . Author: travjohnson . Comments: 3 Comments
BAPTISM SLIDESHOW
Sunday was a defining day in the life of our church. A lot can be said. I’ll sum it up in five statements:
I didn’t get arrested.
The baptisms were amazing.
Life Pointe has guts.
You guys love to be with one another.
You represented Jesus well.
I’m very familiar and appreciative of the stories behind a [...]
June 23, 2008
Categories: Uncategorized . . Author: travjohnson . Comments: 10 Comments
Sunday was a great day that topped off a busy weekend (a quince, birthday party, baby shower, three services, a picnic, and a baptism). Chris, David, Marcela, and Bill can tell you about it. I’ll give some pics from the baptism and a bit of a wrap-up a little later.
In the meantime, check [...]
June 23, 2008
Categories: Uncategorized . . Author: travjohnson . Comments: 2 Comments
Check out this really cool little old lady that “loves God and man with reckless abandon.” Thanks to Josh Lane for the link.
June 21, 2008
Categories: Uncategorized . . Author: travjohnson . Comments: 3 Comments
From time to time, Chris Elrod picks a cyber-fight with me. Unfortunately, he tends to show up with enough intellectual fuel to barely power a moped half-way around a BB.
No doubt, his lovable antics are a display of his former days as a comedian…and possibly my posting of this picture of him wearing a [...]
June 20, 2008
Categories: Uncategorized . . Author: travjohnson . Comments: 5 Comments
Our air conditioning was down for the count 3 nights this week. Our response was to move a mattress downstairs and sleep in the family room (coolest room in the house). We moved the girls into our bedroom (2nd coolest room in the house) which they loved.
We sweated to death but made some [...]
June 19, 2008
Categories: Uncategorized . . Author: travjohnson . Comments: 1 Comment
This morning, I was boarding a flight on Southwest Airlines to Tampa. While standing in line, I texted this to my Twitter account. Then, about an hour ago, I boarded Southwest Airlines from Tampa to Ft. Lauderdale and said this, this, then this.
Apparently, Southwest Airlines actually gives a rip. They twittered this [...]
June 18, 2008
Categories: Uncategorized . . Author: travjohnson . Comments: 1 Comment
…and that’s how I ended up wearing parachute pants, suspenders, and a football helmet.
June 18, 2008
Categories: Uncategorized . . Author: travjohnson . Comments: 4 Comments
If the Presidential election doesn’t hurry up and get over with, I think I’m going to…
June 17, 2008
Categories: Uncategorized . . Author: travjohnson . Comments: 16 Comments
As our church grows larger, it has to grow smaller. That’s what Rick Warren says at least. I agree. But, maybe it’s more than just that. Maybe, growing with one another in community is simply an act of obedience to the Scriptures. Showing generous hospitality, giving and receiving, and living [...]
June 16, 2008
Categories: Uncategorized . . Author: travjohnson . Comments: 9 Comments
Happy Father’s Day! (aka Man Day)…got killed in Guitar hero out in the lobby by James.
In addition to “Man Day: Guitar Hero edition,” we celebrated by dedicating 5 kiddos in the 9 am service.
The 9 am service is now officially the larger service! Awesome.
Last Summer, our crowds dropped by 25%. So far, our [...]
June 15, 2008
Categories: Uncategorized . . Author: travjohnson . Comments: 6 Comments
Father’s Day…doesn’t evoke the fondest memory in every heart. Some Dads are pretty lousy. If that’s your memory, my heart hurts for you. It shouldn’t have been that way.
May dad is a good dad. Some of the things he did to be a good dad when I was a young pup were:
He called me Big [...]
June 14, 2008
Categories: Uncategorized . . Author: travjohnson . Comments: 6 Comments
Chris Day, is our Follow-up Director (and King of all Excel Lovers) at Life Pointe. He’s been a part of our church for somewhere under 80 weeks (he’s got it on a spreadsheet somewhere). He’s been following Christ for under two years and has a great faith story to watch. He is what Life Pointe [...]
June 12, 2008
Categories: Uncategorized . . Author: travjohnson . Comments: 15 Comments
The following questions were some questions I was unable to get to on Sunday. They all represent excellent, heartfelt questions. One is deeply personal. I’m very appreciative for the great thoughts and questions.
QUESTION: How do you know when you found your partner ? How do you know it’s a gospel partnership?
RESPONSE: When you set out [...]
June 11, 2008
Categories: Uncategorized . . Author: travjohnson . Comments: 1 Comment
Yesterday, I shared how important our guests are to us when I was writing about our Follow-up Process. Today, let’s look at our Numbers vs. People.
PEOPLE COUNT
The first person I ever heard give a good defense of counting people in a succinct, powerful way was Tommy Barnett, pastor of one of the most caring [...]
June 11, 2008
Categories: Uncategorized . . Author: travjohnson . Comments: No Comments
I’m getting my haircut today. It’s going down in the office. You decide. Make your case for how I should have my mop carved up. I’ll post the results tomorrow.
June 10, 2008
Categories: Uncategorized . . Author: travjohnson . Comments: 7 Comments
We value our guests as one of our top priorities in our church. This priority is embodied in our singular combined mission/vision statement: “Loving God and man with reckless abandon.”
Over the past couple months, we have nearly exclusively focused on the follow-up process during staff meetings. Chris Day, our director of this ministry [...]
June 10, 2008
Categories: Uncategorized . . Author: travjohnson . Comments: 5 Comments
Luci is a new addition to the bloggers that give a Sunday recap. Chris, Phil, Ritz, and Jesse should have some thoughts up soon too. On to my thoughts…
Here is the audio from today.
Woke up at 4 to get ready like I’ve been doing the past few months.
That tradition may have to change. [...]
June 8, 2008
Categories: Uncategorized . . Author: travjohnson . Comments: 2 Comments
Right now at Life Pointe, we are working to reduce the number of people in our 10:30 service. We’ve passed the 70% capacity ceiling and are very close to 80% which we believe is a ceiling that will deter people from coming back. I think that the only people that like 100% capacity [...]
June 4, 2008
Categories: Uncategorized . . Author: travjohnson . Comments: 1 Comment