Friend & Family Day 2011 @ Victory Church

We often say things like...that was incredible or it was amazing BUT Sunday @ Victory Church was a day that was simply PERFECT. God is blessing our church and today I am reminded of a favorite verse of mine: Praise the Lord all my soul and forget not all his benefits - Psalms 103:2

There are so many snapshots of Sunday that I'm replaying today and we are putting together a highlight video for this Sunday. I hope you'll be able to make it back this week as we continue our Christian Atheist series.

Here are a few Sunday highlights:

• Over 25 1st times guests
• 5 raised hands for salvation
• 7 baptisms
• Perfect weather
• Over 300 hamburgers/hot-dogs eaten (Thanks D.O.C. Short)
• 261 in attendance
• Some incredible pics of people riding the mechanical bull

Victory is growing and it's exciting to be a part of it!

Victory Church - summer updates

Growth! Believe it or not Victory is growing during the summer - it's so exciting to see the incredible favor of God on our church. Acts 2 says, the people were 'praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to the church those who were being saved.' I am confident as we continue to invite those we have influence on and ask God to direct our day we will continue to see our loved ones, co-workers and neighbors come be a part of a new victory

Golden Mic

Today my beautiful wife, Beth spoke at Victory Church. She did an amazing job. I'm so honored to be her husband and I'm blown away at the gift God has given me.

Today, we set another attendance record (non Easter crowd) so I will be presenting her with a Golden Mic next Sunday at church.

Congratulations Beth!

Faith

To say I'm excited about this week would be an understatement! Last year at this time I had just quit my full time job at a local college and was trusting God that He would supply the Warren's needs as I became Victory's full time pastor. Now one year later, Victory Church is growing and we're seeing new faces and families each week.

I believe that sometimes God blesses our lives and we become the beneficiary by just being. But then, more often than not, God will ask us to take a step of faith and trust Him with our lives. To be honest, often we wish, God would just take care of all our needs with no activity on our part.

The problem with that kind of faith is it's circumstantial. As long as God does what you think He's supposed to...everything is OK.

Taking a step of faith and trusting that God would supply my families needs took just what I typed - FAITH.

Faith is not a mystical force or a good luck charm. It's simply believing that God is who He says He is and will do all that He has promised to do.

Is there an area of your life that God is speaking to you about that needs to take a step of faith? If so, take some time and have an honest conversation with God about it and see what He wants you to do. As I sit here today, ONE YEAR LATER, I'm so humbled by the hand of God on my life.

Easter 2011

Sunday @ Victory Church was incredible!

It's so exciting to be a part of what God is doing. We had more people serving than we did attending six months ago. As I stood back and watched guest after guest walk through our doors I couldn't help but smile.

Each week people walk in and say the same thing: Is this church? I believe that the local church should be the place where grace is on display the most. When that's happening, people will be attracted to the church.

We set a new attendance record with 260 people and look forward to what God has in store for the future.

Expert

So we are in the process of updating our master bathroom. A few weeks ago we found a leak(s) and it was obvious that change needed to happen.

Now, being 'unhandy andy' I knew this definitely was not a job for me.

Today I met a friend of mine today at the hardware store. It was amazing walking around the store with him.

We were picking out tile, flooring and other things that I had no idea existed in a bathroom.

Being with an expert provides such peace and confidence.

That same peace and confidence is available to us when we connect with the "Great Expert" for our life.

Are there areas in your life that are leaking and it's obvious change is needed?

expectations

Nothing good ever happens to me.
It's just not in my future.
Why should I get my hopes up?

These are a few of the comments I've heard people say about their life.

They are expecting negative.

When we expect negative things it's a pretty safe bet that negative things will happen.

The word expectation means to anticipate or hope.

Whenever I read the bible I see that there's a pattern of how God wants us to place our expectation (anticipation or hope) in Him.

And as I read the bible I seeing a pattern: sometimes God doesn't intervene until it's looks like it's too late.

Why? God loves impossible odds and God loves getting all the credit.

Maybe our expecation should be to trust God no matter how impossible the odds are.

And remember to give Him the credit when He meets your needs!