Sunday Aftermath

Yesterday, we had our 3rd service at Lakepointe Church. I was a little nervous about how many we would have in attendance. We knew that we had about 12-15 people of our core group that couldn't be there due to travel. My prayers was that we would at least maintain the crowd that we have been running in the 80's-90's. When the service started at 10:30, the crowd was low, but thankfully, they showed up and we ended with 87 for the day! Needless to say, I was excited. Here are some highlights:

• Our band was amazing! Two friends from Pensacola, Robert Gilliard and James Jernigan, flew up here to play yesterday. Robert leads the SEVEN22 band (the Tuesday night ministry that I led for 7 years), and James is a part of that same band (James also leads the Hundredfold Band). We also had a drummer and a bass player from the area that both did a great job. Our worship leader, Ben, did a great job of bringing these guys together for the first time to play on Sunday.

• Our message yesterday was about the core value of generosity. We talked about worship and giving through the story of the Wise Men and their gifts.

• As a part of the message, I gave away "one of my favorite things" (Oprah Style) - a Snuggie. (Seriously, it's not really one of my favorites. I just like to make fun of it!)
  

• We are seeing our people excited about bringing their friends to church. We had about 15 new guests.

• Our children's environments had a record high day with 24 in attendance!

• Again, our volunteers were amazing. A huge thanks to each volunteer! We cannot do church without you. Love you guys!

• A few weeks ago, our launch team made 1,000 goody bags with an invitation to our next service (January 17). We handed them out yesterday to our church and encourage them to hand these out. A few hours after the service, my associate Mark Nipper, received an email from one of our Lakepointers that their family had already handed out 45 goody bags!

• God has continued to bless us with another great offering! We also raised about $750 in Walmart gift cards to give to two family in need at Iroquois Middle School (the location of Lakepointe Church). Mark and I are meeting the families today and to give them the cards for Christmas! So AWESOME!!!

Again, I want to thank you for your prayers! Our next big event is on Sunday night, January 10 at Norm and Pam Beauregard's house. We are having a "State of the Church" address and we are praying for a large group to be a part of this night. Then our next Sunday morning service is on January 17. Have a merry Christmas!