0 God's Love Covers Your Sins

By Dale
Published on Monday, October 27, 2008 at
Sunday I shared a list called "The ABCs of Sins God's Love Covers"...obviously this was not a complete list, but was designed to help people realize that God's love covers all of our sins (with a few extra ones thrown in for good measure)...even the ones seem unforgivable.

The ABCs of Sins God's Love Covers
A: Anger, Atheism, Adultery, Abuse, Abortion, Alcohol Abuse, Arrogance, Addiction
B: Backbitting, Bitterness, Boasting
C: Complaining, Condemning, Carnality, Coveting, Cursing, & Country Music
D: Debts, Deception, Drug Abuse, Disobedience, Division, Divorce
E: Egoism, Envy, Extortion, and even Ex-fans of New Kids on the Block
F: Fear, Foolishness, Faultfinding, Faithlessness, Forgetting to put the meat on my Big Mac Friday night at McDonalds.
G: Gluttony, Gossip
H: Hatred, Hypocrisy, Harsh Words
I: Idleness, Idolatry, and Imprudence
J: Jealousy, Judgmentalism
K: Killing
L: Lies, Laziness, Lust, and even Lighting the trash can in the men’s restroom on fire when you were in college (not that I’d know anything about that)

I think you get the picture!
If I didn’t get to your sin…trust me…it’s covered!

"...love covers a multitude of sins." 1 Peter 4:8

0 Brilliant (Behind Closed Doors at BridgeWay)

By Dale
Published on Sunday, October 26, 2008 at

0 Sunday Night Reflections

By Dale
Published on Sunday, October 26, 2008 at
  • This week's theme was "Intimacy". Powerful worship experiences at both 9:30 & 11:00.
  • My favorite week of our Soul Cravings series so far...you never go wrong when you get to talk about the love of God (next week might give it some competition...you'll have to come to see why).
  • Yes that was a shameless plug for next week's message titled "Awakening".
  • One thing I can tell you is that the band will be performing "Bring Me to Life" by Evanescence.
  • Today was the first day we were able to actually get our set up done in time to do a complete service run-through using our new format...everything went great! I can really see how this is going to improve the quality of our worship experiences from a technical perspective.
  • Once the run-through was done I think everyone involved knew it was going to be a powerful morning.
  • Worship set for the day included: Friend of God, Never Let Go, The Love of God, Love Song to No One by John Mayer, and a new song called "How He Loves Us" by John Mark McMillan.
  • If you've hear "How He Loves Us" you know it's a powerful song...we did make one small lyrical change (still can't bring myself to sing "when heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss"...what is that about)
  • My favorite line in the song is "I don't have time to maintain these regrets, when I think about...the way...he loves us".
  • The band was smokin' as always...and Brit absolutely ripped up "How He Loves Us".
  • Matt did a great job casting some vision during the announcements...had some people pick up volunteer applications for Treasure Quest as a result...also quite a bit of buzz developing around our upcoming Vision Initiative "Advance".
  • Lots of requests for the "Brilliant" video we put together...Here's the link to it...it's a must watch.
  • I absolutely love talking about the love of God...I think the biggest reason that people fail to experience intimacy in their lives is their inability to truly experience the unconditional love of God in their lives.
  • I about lost it telling the story of rushing to pick up Brenna at the bus stop...great picture of doing whatever it takes to make sure that your child knows you love them.
  • One of the points I shared today was that God's Love COVERS Your Sin. While that's not all that Jesus did on the cross it is one part of what he did for us. To illustrate this I shared a pretty long list of sins that God's love covers. I'll post that in another post....had several people ask for it after both worship experiences.
  • Lots of guests at BridgeWay today. Got to meet a couple of new families and they all seemed to be visibly impacted by their experience.
  • Good crowd for both worship experiences...I was told we were just shy of 300 today...and averaged 337 for the month...definite growth issues that we will be addressing in the near future.
  • Got to go to Chipolte with our friends Kevin and Niki after church today...Kevin even spotted me some burrito bucks to help cover our lunch...thanks man!
  • Pray for me this week. I've got a couple of big meetings that could have a profound impact on the future of BridgeWay.

0 5 Things I'm Thinking About

By Dale
Published on Thursday, October 16, 2008 at

1.  I’m excited for this weekend.  I’ll be spending 48 hours with Steph focusing on our marriage.  We’ll be attending United Marriage Encounter with several other couples from central Illinois.  I really want to model the importance of focusing on your marriage for my kids and our church.
 
2.  I’m really looking forward to our next series called “Advance”.  This is our annual vision initiative and we’ll be casting the vision for the next year at BridgeWay.  You do not want to miss a week of this series!  Big things coming.
 
3.  I’m reviewing several of the applications we’ve received for our Leadership Team.  One of the biggest challenges facing BridgeWay is the need to develop leaders.  I believe that everything rises and falls on leadership.  I’m praying for wisdom and discernment in this whole process.
 
4.  I’m really pumped to get a chance to see this guy at this church at this event!
 

5.  Equally excited to be going to a couple of great churches next month to learn how to better lead BridgeWay.  Our staff will be going to this church to meet with their staff on November 19th.  Then spending the next day at this event, at this church.  Looking forward to a great next month.

1 Today's Message in Wordle

By Dale
Published on Sunday, October 12, 2008 at

0 Sunday Night Reflections

By Dale
Published on Sunday, October 12, 2008 at
  • Great start to our new series "SOUL CRAVINGS".
  • I think that everyone has certain soul cravings and this weeks theme of peace seemed to hit home...especially during the 11:00 worship experience.
  • I don't know what it was but things seemed a little off in the 9:30 worship experience this morning.
  • I had a hard time feeling like I was connecting at 9:30, but things just seemed to flow at 11:00.
  • Lots of people responded when asked if there was a sin barrier that needed to be removed in their life...blown away by the honesty and authenticity of our people...love that!
  • The band was great at both 9:30 and 11:00!
  • Lots of rockin' music this week...a whole Crowder set with: Sing Like the Saved, You Alone, and Undignified...had a handful of people checkin' us out from other churches today...you can always tell because they just kind of look at you like, "are you serious".
  • The band absolutely tore up the Altarbridge tune "Brand New Start"...Chuck's voice is perfect for their stuff.
  • The wall that we put up also threw some people (and me as well)...it was a great picture of the barrier that sin creates between us and God and us and others.  Thanks to James Flannigan for thrown down some crazy graffiti work.
  • Also a big shout out to Jeff Dill, Michael Dorsey and Matt Robinson for getting the wall moved and then set back up the right way...looked great guys.
  • It was a 4 day holiday weekend for most of the area schools so we had lots of regulars out, but still had around 290 in worship...and a lot of guests back from last week's Party in the Park.
  • My Bears are really up and down...they looked pretty good today...Orton looked really good and Forte looks like he's the real deal.  No way they should have given up a 35 yrd pass with 6 seconds left to set up that field goal.
  • Don't even talk to me about the Wolverines...maybe by next year I'll want to talk college football again.
  • Had fun at the Pumpkin Farm with Steph and the girls this afternoon...very difficult to get Brenna or Mia to pick a pumpkin and stick with their choice...must have had 7-8 different pumpkins in the waggon before we got the final two they wanted.
  • Looking forward to going to United Marriage Encounter with Steph next weekend.  I believe in taking time for your spouse and your marriage and want to model that for our church as well as my children.
  • Have a great week!

0 Soul Cravings Series

By Dale
Published on Saturday, October 11, 2008 at

Pretty pumped up about our new series that starts tomorrow morning called Soul Cravings.  I think that all of us have some internal soul cravings.  I can't wait to talk about our craving for peace with God and with others tomorrow...it's going to be great!  We've even got a giant ___________ that we're going to build at the front of the stage.  What's the __________?  You'll have to be there to find out!

0 Funny True Story of the Day

By Dale
Published on Thursday, October 09, 2008 at
At a meeting today with a bunch of pastors I asked for them to share a funny story from their ministry situation.  This one was simply too good to pass up retelling here.

"So I was at my first pastorate and was approached by a man named Sam in our church regarding a question he had for me.  I met Sam at my house and asked him what was on his mind. Sam responded that he had been reading in Acts and wondered if I could explain to him what a "eunuch" was.  I responded that I didn't know, but would find out.  

After reading a couple of commentaries I quickly found out what a "eunuch" was (you can find out here if you don't know).  I went on to explain to Sam what a "eunuch" was.  After a long awkward silence Sam looked at me and said, 'Pastor, I think God might be calling me to be a eunuch.'

A few months later, Sam approached me again.  This time he was clearly depressed and went on to explain that he was so depressed that he was driving around with a gun in his car.  Not knowing what to say, I said the first thing that came to my mind..."I think I'd keep a gun in the car too if I thought God was calling me to be a eunuch!"

True story...funny stuff....(btw...Sam got over his depression)


1 How to Deal with Opposition

By Dale
Published on Wednesday, October 08, 2008 at
How you deal with opposition as a leader will greatly impact how well you lead your organization into the future.  I think there are 5 typical ways that people deal with opposition:
  1. Become Overwhelmed by it.  Some leaders allow negativity and opposition to overwhelm them.  They replay what their opposition says over and over again in their head until they are consumed by negativity.  Usually this leads to leadership paralysis, and an inability to move the organization forward.
  2. Become Overly Defensive.  This is probably the most typical response to opposition.  Most people when under attack will attempt to defend themselves by explaining how the other party has either misunderstood them or doesn't have all the facts.  
  3. Become Overly Aggressive.  This might be a close second to becoming defensive.  Many people who are facing opposition will attempt to run a smear campaign against the opponent.  This happens a lot in the political world and far too often in the church.  Many couples also deal with conflict in this manner.
  4. Become People Pleasers.  Often times leaders will stop leading because of fear of opposition.  They will present a new plan or a new initiative and then pull the plan after it meets opposition.  Ultimately this leads to an organization that drifts from its mission and vision, and becomes a strange conglomeration of multiple competing missions and visions.
  5. Ignore It.  At first this seems to be a bad idea, but most often it is the best idea.  A great example of this is found in 1st Samuel 10:27.  Saul has just been appointed the king of Israel and some people don't like God's choice.  Here's what it says, "But there were some wicked men who complained, 'How can this man save us?'  And they despised him.  But Saul ignored them."  In the next chapter we read that Saul leads Israel to victory in a war with the Ammonites.  In a matter of days Saul's opposition was silenced and his role as leader was affirmed.  Often the best thing to do when people oppose you is to let your actions do the talking and to simply ignore the criticism.  
So how about you?  How do you usualy handle opposition?

2 Sunday Night Reflections

By Dale
Published on Sunday, October 05, 2008 at
  • Okay, seriously...no idea where to start tonight, but here goes!
  • Today was definitely one of the top 3 Sundays ever at BridgeWay.
  • If I had to rank them, I'd go:
  1. Grand Opening Sunday - Winter '05
  2. Party in the Park - Fall '08
  3. Operation Egg Drop - Easter '08
  • A HUGE shout out to every single volunteer that made Party in the Park such an amazing day!
  • I believe that we had between 80-90 volunteers serving in some capacity to make today happen...no wonder it was so great.
  • Mad props to Michael Dorsey who sat out with the pool and stage all night in the park to make sure no one vandalized our gear...that dude is an animal.
  • Could we have had any better weather for today?  They were calling for rain between 9am and 12pm, but we had clear skies all day and 81 degrees for a high...take that weather.com!
  • I figured that it took about 800 man hours to pull off today's event...Matt and I were talking about why a lot more churches don't do events like this...very simply put...it's a lot of work...and unfortunately...most people don't like work.
  • One of the two most powerful things that happened today was getting to baptize 37 people!  It was awesome to get to speak directly to each of them and share with them a word from God and to baptize them as followers of Jesus Christ!
  • I about lost it twice during baptisms...I don't usually lose it when I'm baptizing people, but today was crazy emotional.
  • About the baptism...we used a swimming pool.  We set it up the night before and the water temp was 50 degrees.
  • Michael and Kevin hooked up a water heater and we were able to get it up to 72 degrees by service time...not really warm, but way better than 50 degrees.
  • Love the song "Washed by the Water" that the band did today...Dave did an amazing job playing and singing it, and it was a great song to close out the service with.
  • I wish I could share all of the awesome stories from today, but there are too many and I don't want to violate any confidences, but lets just say that we definitely changed the way several people think about church today!  Love it!
  • Exactly how many people is still up for debate, but we know we had at least 451 for the baptism service and between 500-550 for the afternoon party...nuts...just nuts!
  • Huge thanks to Yancey and Anna Green and their friends for doing the temporary tattoos all day.
  • Several people asked, we used Fun on the Run for the inflatables...if you ever need big inflatables for an event Dave is a first class guy to work with.
  • Massive respect to Rose and her crew for all the work they did to get everyone fed today...we had enough food for 500 and still ran out...crazy day!
  • I'm pretty sure that the Johnson's and Daniel's arms are wore out after running the Snow Cone Machine all day.
  • Seriously tired...there are probably way more people I need to say thanks to, but I'm needing to veg for a bit and then go to bed...big week this week...I'm spending the week calling on people and praying for the first two hours of everyday...If you've got a prayer request be sure to e-mail me or leave a comment on here!
  • Have a great night and can't wait to see you next Sunday at BridgeWay...we start a new series call Soul Cravings next week and I'll be speaking on Peace...you don't want to miss it!
  • Yes I know I used a lot of exclamation points in this post...but it's my blog so I'll do what I want to...peace.