So today My 6 year old, Audrey,  took a math test and the question was do you put a “brief” or a “macron” over this? Audrey said, “Daddy, I didn’t know so I stopped and asked God…” I said…well what did God have to say. She said, “He said it’s a “brief”…He was right.”

This is an actual Christmas decoration. Here’s the story from the guy himself.

“Good news is that I truly out did myself this year with my Christmas  decorations. The bad news is that I had to take him down after 2 days. I had more people come screaming up to my house than ever. Great stories. But two things made me take it down.

First, the cops advised me that it would cause traffic accidents as they almost wrecked when they drove by.

Second, a 55 year old lady grabbed the 75 pound ladder almost killed herself putting it against my house and didn’t realize it was fake until she climbed to the top (she was not happy). By the way, she was one of many people who attempted to do that. My yard couldn’t take it either. I have more than a few tire tracks where people literally drove up my yard.”

I know…probably not the safest thing…but sure is awesome right?

This is the full story over several months so I’ve included blog entries to catch you up on the whole story.

I Saw God Today…and Met Harry. April 4th, 2009

So in my quiet-time this week as I read I felt certain God gave me “a word”…ONLY IN COMPLETE SURRENDER WILL YOU EVER EXPERIENCE THE SUPER-NATURAL. (All caps is for the big “God Voice”.)

Here was the conversation in my head…

God: “Jerry, there’s the word I’m giving you…write it down…memorize it…

Me: But God, you know I’m awful at memorization.

God: Well that’s why I made it short Jerry. Don’t forget those words

So I wrote it down and kept it nearby. I had a few thoughts on who this word may be for but I just figured I’d know when the time came. So I kept it on the down-low…inner circle with God.

So tonight I had to run up to the office and thought I’d stop by McD’s and at the last minute felt like I needed to go to Subway. Didn’t really want Subway, but in a mindless trance as I usually am when I drive, I ended up at Subway. No one was there. The guy helping me was being very polite and business like but he had this relieved smile on his face…and kind of looked at me weird. I paid and as I was walking out he followed me outside. When we got outside, he says to me. “Uhhh, I don’t know how to ask this…and I don’t want to seem weird…or supernatural BUT…I feel like you’re supposed to tell me something. I feel like you know something about my life and were sent here to tell me.” Chills.

I told him…well I was given a word this week that I was supposed to share with someone so I’m going to say that I do…why yes, I do have a word for you. So I tell him, “ONLY IN COMPLETE SURRENDER WILL YOU EVER EXPERIENCE THE SUPER-NATURAL.” It was like an epiphany for him. A light appeared in his eyes.

We talked a little and he told me him and his wife had been out of church for a while and that’s just what he needed to hear. He was in control of his life…well life was in control of him and he needs to change. Harry, that’s his name, will be in church on Easter.

I saw God today.

Harry Showed Up April 13, 2009

Harry from Subway came to church this morning. Pretty cool!

Harry and his Wife Got Baptized Dec 2009

Harry’s been coming to church every Sunday since our meeting at Subway. He has been bringing his wife with him as well. They’re a precious couple! There has been a change in Harry…and finally, last Sunday Harry committed his life to Christ!! So very exciting! We were having a baptism service after church…so Harry came out and signed up to be baptized right after he committed his life to Christ. He and his wife were baptized together! It’s pretty amazing how God chased after Harry…I was so thrilled to just be a part and can’t wait to see what’s next for Harry and his wife.

Lives are being changed at GFC. I’m so glad I get to be a part of it!

Audrey went fishing with Pastor BJ and definitely made the video cute in all the right places.

These sheep herders took filming, fast motion and sheep herding to a whole new level!

As a Pastor over an area of a church we all have an enormous umbrella of responsibilities. Here are some ideas of ways you can broaden your umbrella while doing less.

1. Make an “organizational chart” of what you think you’re department should look like on paper if you had “employees” filling each position. (Best thing we ever did)
This will show you that you are most likely wearing too many hats in the department and should “recruit” or “promote” volunteers to do some of the things you’re doing. You may need to “promote” someone to be a director over something you’re currently directing but shouldn’t be, because you’re also directing 3 other things. I say “recruit” volunteers for something very easy and “promote” volunteers that are already there to something at the next level. (EX: “Recruit” a new camera person and “promote” an experienced camera person to running the video board.)

2. Go through your typical week in your mind and ask why do I spend time doing that thing? Can someone else do that thing? Is that thing really important in the big picture? We quit doing some of those “things” and it freed up an entire extra day to focus our attention on the “things” that were most important.

3. Ask yourself, “what are the most important things I need to be doing?” Are our hours in the work week focused on these most important things?  Spend your energies and time on these…the most important things.

4. Lastly, this is for the over achiever…namely me and my 2 staffers. We put due dates on our work. We found that when we did this we wouldn’t piddle with it forever. Yes! We can make this video amazing, but we can also finish it. We need to be done with this video by 5PM Thursday. Done. Not…this video needs to win awards at a film festival for it’s crazy After Effects tricks.