Watch Out for the Horns

Kevin Durant and the Longhorns are making their run toward March Madness next month. After a slow start, the best Freshman class in the country is making their mark. Go Horns!

Remember Yesterday...New Single by David Story

David has released his new single entitled "Remember Yesterday". You can hear it here. David is doing phenomonal work leading our worship on Sundays with the rest of the band.

Coming to a Theatre Near You...

This Sunday we start a new series looking at the DNA of a true Jesus disciple. I am pumped about this series. Jason and I will be tag teaming this month, with Jason speaking on the first and fourth Sunday, and with me speaking on the second and third Sundays.

I believe that we all need to have a proper understanding of what true discipleship is all about. I'm praying that God will open my eyes and the eyes of the people of StoneBridge over the next few weeks.

David did another great job with the graphics. Pray for him as he heads to Beckley for a couple of days to continue recording his upcoming CD release.

Posting MP3's?

Got my CD's in the other day from the Organic Church Movements conference I attended in Long Beach in late January. Reggie McNeal gave a powerful talk on Missional Leaders that I would love to share on this forum.

Does anyone know how to post an MP3 on blogger? Is it possible?

Organic Church

I am nearing the end of my journey reading through Organic Church by Neil Cole. This has been a transformational read and I am trying to wrap my arms around what is being said, and how it affects my calling. I'll post a book review soon and share some insights from the book.

Why Me?

This morning I was taking Belinda to work when I rear ended a car at a difficult intersection in Morgantown. Two roads intersect at a sharp angle. I thought the lady in front of me had proceded to pull out onto Beechhurst, when in reality, she just eased up about 10 feet. I had turned my head around to look for oncoming traffic and rolled right into her pickup. I tore up her bumper pretty good, but at least didn't do much damage to my Jeep.

I'm praying that her repairs won't cost very much, because I have a $1000 deductible. This comes at a bad time, because it's time to pay Uncle Sam and things are tight. Pray for me.

West Virginia Highlands Snow Trip

Today I took the crew to Blackwater Falls State Park and Canaan Valley for a fun day in the snow, including a 2 hour tubing session this afternoon. Over the last two days, the Thomas/Davis/Canaan Valley area received 20 inches of new snow! We had an awesome time, and Ryan and Janna enjoyed their first tubing expedition ever.

Crazy Snow Day

We woke up this morning to several inches of new snow and I almost didn't make it out of the driveway in the Toyota. It was a game time decision whether or not to proceed with our worship gathering today. Jason made the tough call to go ahead with our service and we ended up having a great crowd in spite of the weather. Jason knocked the message out of the park talking about real discipleship Jesus describes in Luke 9:57-62.


We got home this afternoon to find about a foot of snow on the road leading up to our house. I was in the Toyota (2WD) with Ryan and my nephew Andy, so we had to park the car and walk up the road to the house. Belinda and the girls came later in the Jeep and made it up the road through the deep stuff.

Right now we're getting white up blizzard-like conditions and are supposed to get 8-10 inches. Like Aaron, I'm sorry to keep posting about snow, but this is crazy!

Snowed In

We're getting a good pounding from this latest storm. Our whole family is home early today, and I'm loving it.

Happy Valentines Day, Mom and Dad

I believe that we learn how to have healthy relationships by observing healthy relationships. I was blessed to watch true love in action growing up in our home. Chivalry lives. To this day, Dad still walks Mom out to the car each day when she leaves for work and always opens doors for her. They don't parts ways for the day without a good smack on the lips. (Gross...I don't like to kiss before 9 AM) Thanks Mom and Dad, for building a loving atmosphere for your boys to grow up in, and modeling Christ-like love over the years. Happy Valentine's Day.

Happy Valentine's Day, Belinda!

I want to publicly wish my sweet woman a very Happy Valentine's Day. Belinda and I have been married for 12 years (hard to believe). They have been the 12 best years of my life. She is my soulmate, and a great partner in our life adventure. Our love for one another has grown exponentially over the years..it's amazing how little I knew when I said "I do".

Thought I'd share a picture of us before we left for our first date. Notice the starched Wranglers on me and Belinda's big hair. Classic.

Kicked Out of Mosaic

Gotta share a funny story from my LA trip...On Sunday night after the conference was over, all 8 of us crammed into the Expedition and headed from LAX to downtown LA to check out Mosaic. Well, it was an incredible experience and was great to hear Erwin McManus begin his message series on "Soul Cravings". He gave away a free copy of his new book to all the guests in the house, so we all walked away with the book.

We were about ready to leave after the service when my buddy Jeff decides he wants to meet McManus, who is in an area on the 2nd floor set up for counseling. Well, Jeff goes up and shakes his hand and tells him who he is and Erwin waves him off and says, "Hey man, this is for people who don't know God".

Well, we all laughed at Jeff pretty hard and are still giving him the business for that one. Had to share that. Sorry Jeff for busting you in the blogosphere. I've got one coming.

At least you got to shake his hand.

Someone Pass the Hawaiian Tropic...

Got into Dallas yesterday and I can say with enthusiasm I am enjoying the weather! 71 degrees and sunny. Yesterday day at lunch I hit an old favorite restaurant with Mom and Dad, eating at Abuelo's. Today, I am heading down to Timpson, Texas to visit one of our supporting churches there.

Off to Tejas

Tomorrow morning I'm flying to DFW to visit several supporting churches and pastors over the next few days to say a huge "thank you" for the cash that's been sent to Morgantown since 2003. I am looking forward to eating some world class barbeque and fried catfish and hanging out with family and several pastor friends in the area. More details coming soon.

The Rest of the Story...on David Story

My man David Story is back in the blogosphere. David is the chief musician and worship leader at StoneBridge. I'm really pumped about his new recording project which is in the works and will be released later this year. His blog will follow the progress of his recording efforts, which should be an intriguing read if you're into that. Our church is getting behind this and is trying to fund as much of this as possible.

If you would like to support David and receive a free autographed copy of his upcoming release, go here.

Hawaii, Anyone?

This morning I got up and helped Belinda get out the door for a business trip to Avis, PA this morning. I looked on weather.com and saw that our current temperature is -8 degrees with a windchill of -23! Yikes!

Why We Do What We Do

Today reminded me why I do what I do...we had an fantastic day of worship and celebration. This morning we kicked off our "God in Your iPod" series with Jason hitting a home run with "Waiting on the World to Change" by John Mayer. He look at the world changers in Acts 17. I especially love verse 6, "Those who have turned the world upside down have come here too." I long for the day when people can say that Morgantown has been turned upside by followers of Jesus.

At 4PM, we gathered at Morgantown Bible Church for a time of worship and celebration. The highlight was seeing Christa and Stephen baptized. Christa is a WVU varsity cheerleader and has been hosting a small group in her apartment since September. She has a passion for following God's plan for her life and is really seeking what plan will be. Stephen is a student at Fairmont State who accepted Christ a couple of years ago. He is being salt and light to his unbelieving friends and family. He was so excited about being baptized that he really pumped me up and made my week.

Book Review: "Present Future"

On Monday I read "Present Future" by Reggie McNeal during a cross country flight from LAX to Atlanta. I heard Reggie speak on the topic of "Missional Leaders" last Friday night at the Organic Church Movements conference in Long Beach and was intrigued to buy his book in order to dig deeper. Several assumptions long held by many in North American churches are challenged such as: "If you build the perfect church they will come", "Growing your church automatically makes a difference in the community", "Developing better church members will mean better evangelism", "The church needs more workers (for church work)", "Church involvement results in discipleship", and "Better planning will get you where you want to go (in terms of missional effectiveness)".

"The current church culture in North America is on life support." This is the first sentence of the book. McNeal is not saying that the church is about to die, but that the unique culture that we know as "church" is an endangered species. He makes the assessment that our church culture over the years has become confused with biblical Christianity.

McNeal identifies six wrong questions that we have been asking for years, and replaces them with six tough questions that we need to ask to fulfill our missional calling. This book will make you think and might cause you to reevaluate many areas of church ministry.