Knowin Where It's Goinin

You've seen the headlines of someone famous and rich who filed for bankruptcy and you think how could that be? And we all have the thought; "if I made that much money I could do better, I wouldn't squander it all away like they did." The truth is, it's not about how much we make, it's all about having a reference point to be balanced financially, that is to know where our money is going regardless of our income. All of the news stories of someone rich failing is simply a picture of this.

In order to have a good reference point for balancing your finances we said this past weekend that you gotta be knowin where your moneys goinin.  (Yes, I know I spelled knowin and goinin wrong!) So many of you have been tracking your money this week to discover where it's all going. You cannot have a plan to end up in  balanced financially without having a reference point first.

One of the things I was shocked to discover this past summer as I tracked my money closely was how much I spent eating out. The dollar menu at a fast food place seemed painless when I would order. But after tracking it all I discovered that I spent a lot more each time I went for fast food than just the dollar menu. One of the things I have changed dramatically is simply making and taking my own lunch. Not only have I begun saving a lot of money but I definitely make a better sandwich than most of the ones I was buying.

Don't get discouraged as you track where your money is goin this week - remember you are working to simply have a reference point so that you can develop a plan to get balanced financially over the next several weeks. Don't rush ahead and try to fix it all today - just get the reference point this week! 

This coming weekend I will be talking about Reading The Fine Print. We will be looking at developing and having a clear objective for our money.

Jeff's Blog: T.E.A.M. Starting The Fall Season With Ws

It was a great weekend for all my favorite sports teams. The U of A beat OSU and is now ranked! Jeff Gordon and the 24 team made it into the Chase on the last few laps of the Saturday night race in Richmond and Denver beat the Steelers.(And everyone thought Peyton might be to old to get er done! Way to go Manning!!!)  And to top it off their were over 90 team members from the Alive Ministry team that gathered on Sunday evening for some food and celebration. We spent a few moments talking about how ministry at Alive truly is a team effort, using the acronym T.E.A.M. Together Experiencing A Ministry, together with one another and together with Jesus. We looked at how Jesus led in team ministry and led the way for us as Servant Leaders.

 Some of our team pulled out some videos of some of our more recent bloopers during the weekend services, always a good time! It was awesome to look back and see the incredible things God has done through the servant leadership of this incredible team of people who sacrifice on a weekly basis to see people experience and get rooted in the Love of Jesus.

• Year to Date Re-dedications:  86

• Year to Date Salvations:  20

Yeah God - Yeah team!!!

We also looked ahead a little, especially toward this coming weekend as we launch our new Balanced series with the Big Event Weekend, music, food (Jimmy Johns) and the beginning of a six week talk series that will help everyone to live in Financial Freedom!!!  We are all stoked for the weekend to get hear. Through the Invest and Invite cards our team is praying for 230 names of folks that we are investing in and inviting for the weekend for the sake of eternity. Up from our At The Movies invest and invite when we had  138 names where we saw 67 of those folks come to Alive. As we invest and invite people their lives are changed as they meet Jesus - let's all be praying for this coming weekend!

So all my teams scored a big win this weekend – pretty good start to the fall season!!!