Jeff's Blog: Weekend Reflections

As I reflect on this weekend at Alive there are 3 things that really stood out:

1. There were 5 people who made faith commitments as followers of Jesus this past weekend. Way to go Alive, living out our mission: Leading people who are far from God to be followers of Jesus.

2. We started gathering names of people who are far from God that we are going to invite to Easter weekend so we can begin praying for them. So far we have 86 folks that we are committed to investing in their lives and inviting them to the Easter services. This is the primary weekend that friends who don't know Christ or don't attend church will attend with you if you simply invite them. Let's make the best of it as we celebrate Jesus resurrection! We will continue to get names over the next two weeks and continue praying for these folks. This is a primary way to live out our core value of Relational Evangelism.

3. Our Youth Band led worship and did a super job. I love the life that they bring to a worship service. It is so cool to see these young teens taking on the responsibility of ministry. I love that about Alive, we are always looking to apprenticing the next generation.

As we continue to partner together we will continue to make a difference in our community and the lives of those in our influence.

Jeff's Blog: Attitude Points Toward Your Horizon

Our attitude about something, anything, dictates my performance. Are there areas of your life that you would say you are under-performing in? If so, maybe it's time to check your attitude. Take a moment; how would you rate your overall attitude? Never been better? Never been worse? So-so? I like to compare attitude to perspective in painting. You see in a landscape painting perspective always point toward the horizon. In life, attitude always point toward our life horizon - where we are headed in the future.

Attitude is a choice. In the Bible we are encouraged to have the same attitude that Jesus had. (Phil 2:5) It also tells us that if we serve God with a right attitude we will please Him and that others will approve of us as well. (Rom. 14:18) Continually choosing right attitude has incredible benefits! The opportunity to change your attitude is yours alone, that is good news. You call the shots, you can choose right now.

Last weekend I mentioned during my weekend talk I mentioned that I love the moments before a service starts, those feelings of anticipation that something great is about to happen. I want to encourage you to think through your attitude as you come to each service. Are you anticipating God to do great things in your life and the lives of others? He's desiring to do just that.

This weekend we are going to continue our new weekend talk series, Whatever It Takes, with a talk titled Called To Generosity. The kick off to this series was awesome last weekend as we talked about being Called To Compassion. (Compassion, Passion what's your action?) Amazing response as almost 70 people took the next steps of compassion. Life changing!!! My expectation, i.e. attitude, is the same for this coming weekend, I am looking forward with anticipation as we talk about being Called To Generosity to seeing many life changing commitments!

Can't wait to be with you all this coming weekend. Hope you have a great rest of the week - remember your attitude!

Jeff's Blog: Big Toe Pain Means Pain Everywhere

I heard the story this week about someone stubbing their toe, really a minor injury compared to many. Yet, they felt the pain throughout their whole body. If fact as the story was being shared the description was all about how having a stubbed toe affect everything in their body!
It is amazing how one area affects other areas in our lives. This coming weekend as we wrap up the "Pure Sex" series we will be talking about how unforgiveness not only affects sexuality and how God designed it but every area of our lives. Be praying for the weekend, this will be a time of absolute freedom for many as we allow God to touch this area of our lives, and it will have a profound impact on not only the area of Pure Sex, but every area of life.
This weekend, during the worship music we will be serving communion. Always a special time at Alive. And, it is a great weekend to try Saturday night service if you've never gotten a chance, because we will be having a BBQ immediately after the service in the courtyard!
As I look ahead toward the weekend I want to also look back to last weekend briefly. We rarely have a weekend when someone doesn't make a commitment to follow Jesus and last weekend is not exception as two people made the decision to follow Jesus for the first time in their lives. I know I say it a-lot, but that never gets old!!!

Greener Grass

We've all heard the saying; "the grass is greener on the other side of the fence." The truth is, if the grass looks greener on the other side of the fence it's probably because someone is watering it! It's true in every area of life; relationships, jobs, church, and the list goes on and on.
Think about it, how many times have you heard people talk about something or someone like "greener grass" only to discover after they went across the fence they felt and talked the same way about the grass on that side of the fence as they did the previous side.
I had a friend when I was younger that always felt that way about his job. He as constantly changing jobs as a result, yet with every change he always felt that there was "greener grass" at another job, or sadly looking back at his previous job. The sad part about this mentality was the miss opportunities and lack of success.
This weekend at Alive we are going to be talking about how to make the grass greener in our relationships. Remember, if the grass looks greener in someone else's marriage, families or any relationships, someone is probably watering them!

Jeff's Blog: We Have A Winner!

It's the end of Superbowl weekend and we have a winner! Along with the N.Y. Giants winning the Superbowl (congrats!) our super youth group at Alive was the winning team at Winter Youth Camp at Prescott Pines in Prescott. Throughout the weekend camp the different youth groups compete in games and team spirit and Alive Youth won overall - way to go gang!!! (25 of our youth attended Winter Camp along with 5 Youth Leaders) A special congrats to Chad Lacy who set an all time record for the Prescott Pines campground in Snooter Shooter (you stick a Skittle in your nose and blow it out for distance) with over 40 feet! We are so proud of you Chad. It is so great to know that our youth worship leader has other talents besides being a great musician! (I'm trying to figure out how to incorporate having Chad demonstrate for a weekend talk) Parents, if you didn't know the Alive Youth group meets on Wednesday evenings at 7pm and Sunday mornings during the 11am service.

This weekend we wrapped up the weekend talk series "Unlock", with "Unlock Freedom". (Investing in others for the sake of something bigger - freedom - eternity) If you didn't have a chance to catch the weekend talk you can watch the archived version at Alivechurch.com

I've already begun preparing for next weekend and the beginning of our new weekend talk series, "Pure Sex". We are going to spend a few weeks looking at what the Bible has to say about sex. A lot of people tend to think that the Bible is silent about sex or simply just says "no" to sex. Nothing could be further from the truth. This will be a very powerful and important series. Make plans on attending this coming weekend an inviting your friends.

Have a great week - I think I will go practice my skills in Snooter Shooter and put out a challenge to Chad and the rest of our awesome youth group at Alive - the pastors vs youth!

P.S. My favorite commercial during the Superbowl was the Hyundai one with the Rocky music. What was yours?