Yesterday we wrapped up our East to West series at Fellowship Church. I have so enjoyed this series. Forgiveness is something that we all wrestle with on a daily basis. It is a continual battle to forgive or not to forgive. Forgiveness frees us from living as a prisoner to our past. East to West hit a nerve with a lot of people and it is great to see people doing business with God.

Check out this brand new song by Sanctus Real entitled “Forgiven”

Wow, it has been a long time since I have actually “Blogged”. It’s not that I don’t like to blog, it’s just that the season I have been in for the past six months has been a personal journey. I have heard rumors about me which frankly I would be proud of if they were true. One such rumor was that I was leaving with one of my band members to go start our own church. Although that would be cool, it is not true.

What is true however is that the past 10 months of my life have been such a hard part of my own journey. I have remained silent to you, the public about the events that have occurred through out the year. They were painful and and I withdraw when I hurt. God moving John & Michelle on was painful for us all, but especially painful for those who went into spiritual battle with Him day in and day out. It hurt and I withdrew quite a bit.  Fast Forward!!

Here we are 18 days until our new pastor Eric Koehler delivers his first message as the lead pastor of Fellowship Church and I can honestly tell you that I am more excited about Fellowship Church than I have ever been before.

God has done some incredible things through Fellowship Church in the past, but I believe that it doesn’t compare to the things God is going to do in the future in our lives, church, & community.

My family and I just returned from one of the best Holiday vacations we have ever had. We went to Dayton, Ohio to be with my sister & brother in law, their 6 kids; my other sister & brother in law & their 3 kids, my parents, and our family. All in one house mind you. Now the first thought is not how much fun that sounds like but it really was the best Thanksgiving we have maybe ever had.

One of the reasons why it was so special is because of two little boys from Haiti, Aaron & Jordan. They are twins that my oldest sister Julie & her husband Rob adopted. They began the process of the adoption 3 years ago when the boys where just 6. They finally came home to live with their new family 4 weeks ago now at age 9. The adoption was a grueling process for them full of excitement and disappointment. But we got to meet these two boys for the first time last week.

We walked in the door and two bubbly little boys ran over and tackled me while saying “Uncle Jeff” in broken up English. It was the coolest thing ever! I had never met them. Within a few minutes they had captured my heart! Our family is so truly blessed!

Mason had the best time playing with all of his cousins and it was so hard to leave them all knowing that we only see them once a year. As we left I promised we would try to come visit this summer. Outside of Jesus, family is the most important thing in the world to me. I love my family!!

I know this is getting long but I want to share one other thing before I get back to working on Christmas. I think I am officially tired of Christmas and it’s only Dec. 2. But I get to have that attitude since I have been working on Christmas since Sept.

Anyway…as we just finished celebrating Thanksgiving I came across a verse which has impacted me in a profound way. It puts my whole perspective of life back into focus.

Proverbs 30:8-9

give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me,
9 lest I be full and deny you and say, Who is the Lord? or lest I be poor and steal
and profane the name of my God.

That is my prayer.  I don’t want to have too much that I don’t think I need God.  And I don’t want too have too little that I resent God.  I want what I need so that I can be most useful in His Kingdom.

So for this Blog…it might be a little thin until the new year.  But know that I am excited about what God is doing!  And begin inviting people to our Christmas Services.  It is going to be a worshipful event as we focus on “That Night”!

Just in case you missed it here is Eric’s introduction video we showed at Fellowship Church this past Sunday.  We are so excited to spend time with he and his family this week & weekend!  Make sure you make it a priority to be there Sunday morning as Eric preaches and then Sunday afternoon for a town hall meeting with him.  Greater things are yet to come!

Introducing Eric Koehler from Fellowship Today on Vimeo.

I am at home enjoying my day off. I just got the boys down for their afternoon naps and thought I would get on here and blog a bit. It has been a while since I have blogged. Things have been crazy busy for the past few months. We have been in the process of trying to sell our house. This past week accepted an offer and we should be closing on the house in December if everything goes as planned. We are also looking for a house to rent so if you know of anyone looking to rent out a house, please let me know.

Yesterday was an exciting time for Fellowship Church. We announced that Eric Koehler will be presented to the church as  our potential new pastor.  Having met him last Tuesday I am personally so excited for what God is going to be doing!  We have been believing that greater things are yet to come and we now are seeing some of that come to fruition.

Yesterday was also the worship ministry’s first annual open house which was a big success.  As a result we have seven individuals that have signed up for audition times.

Continue to pray for the leadership this week.  It is a monumental and pivotal weekend in the story of Fellowship Church.  Thanks for all your encouragement & prayers.  We are exited to see what God has in store.

This weekend we wrap up our series entitled “Made”. Our Director of Student Ministries Ryan Geiger has done an incredible job challenging us to be molded into Christ’s image.  If you missed any of the messages be sure to watch or listen to them here.

As I think about this series I can’t help but think of the word “journey”.  Being made into the image and likeness of Jesus is a journey that lasts a lifetime.  Hopefully we are daily becoming more like Him.

This morning as I sat in my office listening to worship music the song “You are here” came on.  The phrase “The same power that conquered the grave lives in me, lives in me” was sang over and over.  It not only moved me but it reminded me of a I Corinthians 15 when Paul talks about the resurrection and how it drives everything he does.  I love how the Message paraphrases this.

^30-33And why do you think I keep risking my neck in this dangerous work? I look death in the face practically every day I live. Do you think I’d do this if I wasn’t convinced of your resurrection and mine as guaranteed by the resurrected Messiah Jesus? Do you think I was just trying to act heroic when I fought the wild beasts at Ephesus, hoping it wouldn’t be the end of me? Not on your life! It’s resurrection, resurrection, always resurrection, that under-girds what I do and say, the way I live. If there’s no resurrection, “We eat, we drink, the next day we die,” and that’s all there is to it.

The resurrection is not something that should be reserved for Easter.  It is the driving force behind us being MADE into His image.  So when you think you don’t have the power to change, remember that you by yourself do not.  But if you have the same power that raised Christ from the dead living in you,  life change really is possible.  So rely on His power.  Remind yourself that His power is your power.  It is the power that changes life and turns death into life.  And it’s all yours!