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!