Here a just a few of the highlights from the day!

• We had students and folks in the courtyard with face paint waving signs for all of our guests as they approached the school.
• Our parking team was meeting guests at their cars with boxes of Krispy Kreme doughnuts!
• Our tech team put together a hilarious pre and post game show complete with a player interview and a breakdown of my preaching mechanics.
• The highlight of the day was baptizing 34 followers of Jesus!
• We had students receive Jesus on Thursday night at our student ministry and then get baptized on Sunday!
• I was totally moved by the stories of the folks getting in the baptistery!
• I took a left hook to the nose while baptizing the last guy.  He came out of the water so excited that he threw his fist up in the air and clocked me!
• I preached on being a “WHATEVER IT TAKES” Church!
• We saw 7 people respond to the Gospel and get saved!

I’m sure there are tons of things that I am overlooking from the day so feel free to chime in with your thoughts in the comment section.  I’d love to hear from you!

Happy 6 Years Lifepoint!

We’re throwing a party!  SUPERBOWL STYLE!

This Sunday marks our sixth year as a church.  What we’ve seen God do is truly remarkable.  Here are a few really important things you need to know:

• Service times are 9:15am and 11:15am at Roland Grise Middle School
• Arrive 10 minutes early for the Pre-Game Show.  Trust me, YOU DO NOT WANT TO MISS IT!
• We are baptizing new believers.  If you have not been baptized please contact info@lifepointnow.com for more info!
• Wear you favorite football team jersey!
• Bring somebody!  This will be a great time to bring a friend!

Spread the word!  See you there!

SIX YEARS!

Watch this video and get ready for an incredible celebration!

(for the record:  It sounds like I say we are not nearly as excited about our birthday as we are the Super Bowl.  Sometimes my words don’t come out correctly!  We are SUPER excited about our BIRTHDAY!)

Lifepoint Family,

This year is starting off fast and so is the renovation of our new home. I wanted to touch base with you and let you know how the Greater Things initiative is going. Here are the highlights and I have also listed at the bottom of the page how you can participate in the project further:

•Demolition is complete!
•Framing of all new walls is almost complete!
•Drywall is up on one side of each wall!

We have 3 financial goals that we are running towards:

•Phase One – Walls and Chairs $200,000
•Phase Two – Children’s Ministry $50,000
•Phase Three – All other equipment $100,000

So far we have all partnered together to kick this project off strong and as of right now we have given $166,764.49!! This makes me very proud to be your pastor because I know you are sacrificing a lot so that people in this city will find hope!

Keep up the good work and finish the race!! I’m praying Ephesians 3:20 over each of you that have pledged money for the next 6 months that God will blow you away at how He not only provides the funds to fulfill your commitment, but He will do immeasurably more than you can even dream of!

If you have not had a chance to give to Greater Things, pray about what God would have you do and let’s join together to make an even bigger kingdom impact!

Serving the World together,

Pastor Jeff

*I would also like for us to show our construction team the love of Jesus by providing lunches on site. If you are interested in participating in this please email us at info@lifepointnow.com and we will give you details!

Here is the details:

• This is a 100 day reading plan from Genesis to Revelation
• We will begin this reading plan on Monday and finish it by Dec. 31.  This will allow approximately 10 grace days during the plan.
• This plan does not cover every verse, chapter, or even every book.
• You will gain a good overview of the story of God through the lens of Scripture.
• For those that twitter, we will use the hashtag @blitzthebible to gather our thoughts.
• I have set up a Facebook page where you will be able to download the reading list and share your thoughts.
• I want to thank Newspring Church for designing this plan.

I am very excited about how God is going to use this next season at Lifepoint to grow us in our walk with Him.  I have had a burden on my heart to challenge people to dive into His Word like never before.  The rest is up to Him.

Thanks for joining me.

Have you ever thought about reading the Bible from cover to cover?  Have you ever felt like you could use a spiritual kick in the pants to get you started?  Well, put  your pants on cuz this is your kick!  I’m looking for some men and women that want to spend the next 100 days “Blitzing the Bible” with me.

Here’s the deal…

I stole this 100 day reading plan from my friends at Newspring Church and I think it is just what the doctor order for us.  Beginning on Monday, we are going to spend 100 days reading many of the key stories and passages from Genesis to Revelation. The daily reading averages out to approximately 2-3 chapters per day.  You can do it!

I will publish the reading list here on the blog over the next 2 days.  Right now, I’d love to know who is in.  You can leave me a comment below or throw something out there on twitter or Facebook.  We will use #blitzthebible as the official twitter hashtag.

I’m excited to take this journey with you guys!

It was Thursday afternoon when we received the email informing us that we would be unable to use the Middle School to hold our worship services.  In 5 years we’ve never had to cancel a service.  The news was a massive bummer.  This was going to be the first Sunday since UNCW students returned and I was planning on preaching a much needed message about Weird Sex.  We had an awesome Sunday Morning service planned and I really wanted to see it happen.  We had to pull the plug!

We also had plans to have a worship night and ordination for my awesome friend Hal Griffin on Sunday that was no longer going to happen if we couldn’t find a location.

Somewhere in the mix of the weekend my hot water heater busted and started leaking through my daughters ceiling…that was fun!

Recap:  Can’t meet in school.  Gotta find location for Sunday night.  Attendance is going to be down.  Finances will probably be down.  Busted Hot water heater.

Let me tell you what happened.

There was nothing we could do to make Sunday morning happen so our team set up the camera in the office and I preach the SEX message to an empty room.  It really was WEIRD but then isn’t that what this series is all about?  Amazingly, a whole bunch of people must be interested in the topic because its getting a bunch of views online.  You can check it out here.

We managed to pull off the Worship Night.  Praise God for Life Community Church and Pastor Tim Blevins.  They immediately opened their facility to us on Sunday night for what was a great time of worship.  Being there showed me the benefit of having a permanent facility.  It was so cool to see Lifepointer’s just hanging out talking with each other rather than setting up and tearing down.  We also had 11 first time guests which was incredible!

Over the course of the weekend, God taught me a valuable lesson.  Yes attendance was down.  We had about half of our church come to the worship night on Sunday night.  And yes, the finances were down.  We received less than half of what a normal weeks tithes and offerings would be.  There was no way that we were going to be able to meet budget for the month of August.  Unfortunately, just because you don’t have church one week doesn’t mean you don’t have bills.  They still show up.

Here’s where the Insane God story takes place.  I was texting back and forth during the morning with a great friend, mentor, and pastor of mine.  He sent me a text on Sunday morning that said, “ Hey man…r u guys good? What is your biggest need at this point?” I responded back and told him how bummed I was about not being able to meet on Sunday morning.  Eight hours later as we were getting ready to start our Worship night I received another text from him that said, “Hey man…we r sending u  guys a check for 10k this week to help out…we love u guys!” Yes you read that correct!  I nearly flipped!  When all was said and done God provided exactly what we needed for this week.  Yes our normal offering was less than half but God knew that already and He provided anyway.

God totally rocked my world through this weekend.  What’s more is that I had been reading 2 Corinthians 1:9 which says, “ “We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life.  Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death.  But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on god who raises the dead…” This was definitely a weekend where we did all we could and in the end we had to rely on God.  He is faithful!

I want to thank all the Lifepointers who changed their schedules to make Sunday night happen.  I want to thank Life Community for generously opening their facility.  I want to thank all my ministry friends for the prayers and encouragement throughout the weekend.  I want to thank those Lifepointers that honored God with their tithes even though there wasn’t a Sunday Morning worship service to attend.  Most of all I want to thank God who knows our every need and provides in a way that only He can.

Oh yeah,  I also want to thank Tim Baker for helping me get my water heater replaced!

Due to the storm, we have had to make some changes to our worship service plans this weekend.  We are unable to use Roland Grise Middle School on Sunday and therefore will not be able to hold our worship services at 9:15am and 11:15am.  Yup, I’m bummed about that.

But… Our good friends at Life Community Church have graciously opened their facility to us on Sunday night at 6pm!  This makes me very excited!  I think this is a great opportunity for us to come together after one crazy weekend to celebrate our Awesome God!

I need your help.  Making a change like this requires tons of coordination and work getting the word out.  I’m calling all facebookers, twitterer’s, texter’s and pretty much everyone out there to help us spread the word.  Here’s what people need to know:  Lifepoint Church’s Sunday morning services are being moved to 6pm at Life Community Church.  Life Community Church is located in the Sears wing of the Independence Mall.

Thank you so much for adjusting your schedules and helping the spread the word.

I look forward to worshiping with everyone on Sunday night.  See you then!