New Band Member

Just thought you would like a peek at one of the latest band members to hit the scene here at SouthPoint. He's a little heavy on the kick drum, but other than that this kid can rock!

We had a great Sunday as we kicked off our "myspace" series. It was truly a great day all together. If you wanna catch the pod cast follow the link on the SouthPoint website.

NEW BABY ADDITIONS!

Josh and Meagan - two of the finest children's volunteers int eh history of the world, have been so burdened lately to help the growth of their area of ministries that they decided to have twins! Meagan gave birth last night to two beautiful girls:Sidney and Riley. The picture is of only Sidney b/c Riley is still in the incubator for a little while longer, but all is healthy and good.

1 + 1 = 1

Once we step over the line and enter, “The Christian” world, we are bombarded with a litany of things we should do to increase or spiritual formation. Good things, things that no self-respecting follower of Christ would argue with. Bible reading, prayer, quiet time, and the list goes on. Things, that when done in a quantitative amount, add value to our lives. In fact, they don’t just add value to our lives, they actually form our spiritual nature.
In Genesis we see man being created. God formed him from the dust of the ground, and then He blew breathe into his nostrils. Amazing huh? The Hebrew word that is used for the whole ‘breath’ thing is the word that is also used for spirit. Man is the only thing that is both physical and spiritual. That’s something Angels can’t even boast.
Trees, ferns, dogs, and badgers are physical. None of these things were created spiritual, only physical. Angels on the other hand are spiritual beings. They have no bodies, and were not ‘formed’ by God. Man is the only one that is both physical and spiritual. We are the great dichotomy of God’s hand. This is why we read in scripture that when we all get resurrected in that last hour that we will get heavenly bodies. Bodies are not bad. They are part of who we will forever be.
For us, you can’t separate the spiritual and the physical, but that is exactly what we try and do daily as followers of Christ. We focus on the pillars of our Christian walk: daily bible reading, prayer, quiet time, etc. these spiritual pursuits are pushed up the scale of importance while leaving the “less important” things behind. We separate our spiritual pursuits, from our physical pursuits.
You cannot separate the physical from the spiritual. How we drive, treat our neighbor, play with our kids, and interact with our wife, are all extremely spiritual things. You cannot somehow draw a line and separate the spiritual from the physical. We are an amalgam of both. In those times when I’m angry, how I treat my wife and children are a much better litmus test for my spiritual formation than if read my bible that day.
Hopefully your mind is reeling right now applying this principle to your life. It would change everything. The bible tells us that the world is full of God (Psalm 24:1). You can’t separate it. How we dress, talk, act, interact, play, laugh, cry, and fight are all spiritual things. Spiritual things are interwoven in our lives with the physical, and whether you want to admit it or not, deep down you ‘feel’ that it’s true.
What do you call someone who reads there bible everyday, but gossips? Yup, you guessed it, we call them a hypocrite. Why? Easy. Because, that person has attempted to divorce the spiritual from the physical. We quickly call them a hypocrite because we really don’t know how else to respond. It could be that they just need to allow more of a proper spiritual formation to happen in their lives. A formation, that encompasses more than merely a laundry list of ‘spiritual’ deeds.
As we step into this ‘spiritual’ life, it’s not that we need to take up a whole new list of things to do. It is more like we need to just do all the things in our lives differently. Not making God a Sunday thing, but making Him a ‘life’ thing. It’s kind of humorous in a way when you think about it. Here we are, the created product of the uncreated-one, and we, in our infinitesimal thinking, want to take the cosmic God and isolate him to Sunday mornings (or crisis moments, because we all need God in the crisis times right?).
God is not just in the ‘spiritual things. He’s in the physical things. He is in everything. We can’t separate the two, but we do need to live out of the two. Recognizing that our spiritual walk is identical to our physical walk. If our physical walk doesn’t line up with our spiritual walk then we have no spiritual walk to begin with.

The Value of The Cup

I went into a bookstore the other day and bought a cup of coffee. Of course, not just any coffee. I was specifically getting ready to partake of the divine Starbucks. This bookstore had the signs out front proclaiming that their café proudly served Starbucks brand coffee. I’m what you might call a mild addict. Yes I admit it, I really like coffee. I even consider it a need in the hours before six pm.
So I go in to this café/bookstore and order my latte. They take my money and then they hand me a cup that says, “7-11”. I looked at it oddly and then glared up at the young girl behind the counter and said, “You’re kidding right?” She smiled and said, “No sir. We are out of our Starbucks cups and lids so we got these from a local supplier, but the coffee is still genuine Starbucks.”
I didn’t want to look like a self-righteous premadonna that was all about image, so I smiled and threw her my best, “cool,” and headed for the door.
It tasted different. I know it shouldn’t have, but it did. As I sipped my steamy hot beverage the taste just seemed wrong. It was not the same experience I was used to having and frankly I didn’t like it. I threw it away.
One of my friends worked at that same café and I asked her about that day. She laughed and said that it was a rough day. That many people refused to purchase the coffee once they found out it was going in a non-Starbucks cup. She swore that the stuff inside was the same, the only difference was the container.
I thought to myself how containers really do matter to us. We can act like they don’t, but they do. We judge so many things by their appearance when the real value is the stuff inside. I wasn’t buying a cup, but a cup of coffee. How often do we pre-judge if someone is a Christian or not based on their container. We put so much stock in the outer label and totally negate and ignore the inner worth.
If someone is dressed nice, has properly combed hair, and no tattoos then he is more likely to be a Christian than someone who is wearing ripped jeans, has a face full of metal (I’m not talking about braces), and a plethora of tattoos. We instinctively think that if our containers are not the same, the good stuff inside cannot be the same either. We look at our lives, and compare it to others. We decide, based purely on the container, if they are as good as us or if we are as good as them. In actuality neither is correct. Value never comes from the container but what’s inside the container.
A treasure chest is valuable because of the treasure inside. An oyster is just a slimy muscle in a shell unless there is a pearl inside. And we have value because of what’s inside us. It’s time to stop looking solely at the container and begin sampling the goodness of others based on the goodness that is within them. The goodness of Christ comes in many different containers. Some are black, some are white, some look like they’ve been colored on with crayons, and others may look like they fell face first into a tackle box, but those are just containers. Again, we are only looking at the outside, and when we are stuck on only looking on the outside, we might be throwing away the best cup of coffee we have ever had.

When Work Becomes Fun

Last week Barry Bonds broke one of the longest standing records in Major League Baseball. He hit more homeruns than Hank Aaron. Now the circus has come to town: The fight for the record breaking ball, and the debate whether he should keep the title because of steroid use. Yep a veritable circus.
So much hype, so much controversy. Of course, I guess there should be, after all, it is one of the most important jobs in our country. Surely you don’t disagree with that statement? MBL players get paid more than you. It’s a serious job that impacts thousands of lives everyday on a deeply spiritual level. Right?
When did the play of baseball become work? When did the metamorphosis take place? How can a group of kids playing a fun sport progress into a serious job full of pressures, deadlines, social struggles, and performance records? Do you remember when you actually thought your job was fun? Do you remember when you viewed your life as important to society? Isn’t it amazing how things can change? How our thought processes can slowly shift from one stream of thought to another, seemingly overnight, but in actuality it happens over time.
We start out doing our jobs living our lives with a little adrenaline surge. That little tickle right behind our heart that says, “Yea this is good. We are going to make a difference.” And then within a few short moments it seems our idea of fun has quickly turned into work. Well you’re not alone. I think most people have drifted into the work life as apposed to the fun life. There is an option.
My dad told me, “Son, find something you love to do and you’ll never have to work another day in your life.” It took me about fifteen years to even figure out what that meant, but it’s good, real good. Of course not everyone is able to do what they love to do. Some people have to work a thankless job just to put food on the table and keep the lights on. No passion, no fun. Never was, and there never will be. So that’s when we have to work at the fun.
The bible says that the joy of the Lord is our strength. If that’s true (which I am positive that it is), then if we are not joyful, then we are not socially, mentally, and spiritually strong. We lack vigor. I find it interesting that so many people struggle with so many things, and it really all boils down to the fact that they are weak in certain areas, which in turn shows a lack of joy.
Joy is not something you either have or you don’t. It’s not like there are some blessed people out there that have all the joy and you got the short end of the stick. No, Joy is something that you willingly tap into. The sad thing is that most people don’t tap into this supernatural joy. It’s not because they don’t want to, in reality it’s just that they are so consumed with work that they don’t take the time to find the joy that is right there waiting for them. God has made His joy available to everyone, but we have to climb out of the rut we are in and actually find it. It takes a little work to tap into it and find it. It requires a re-shifting of our thoughts, but that extra effort is the difference between a joyful strong life, and a mundane weak life, one that struggles to get over every little hump.
Once we re-align ourselves with the joy of the Lord and allow His strength to fill our lives, we quickly realize that now we can live life at the Major League Baseball level, but play with the joy and excitement of a ten year old. When we latch onto that, then our families will like us better, our bosses will appreciate us more, and our community will be a better place. Now that sounds like fun.

Common to Uncommon

“What are we going to do today Brain?” “The same thing we do every day Pinky, try and take over the world!” That is how every episode of an Animaniacs cartoon started. It was two lab rats bent on escaping from their scientific lab-rat cages to take over the world. They did the same thing everyday. Like a hamster on a wheel, but these were rats in a cage.
We tend to do the same thing everyday, especially as school is getting ready to start and our schedules find a more familiar rhythm. We jump into our well worn rut and trudge ahead into obscurity. Of course, when you read that last sentence, something inside you gets a wee-bit agitated, because you have no desire to work yourself into obscurity. Normal. Common. No, we want to be popular, well known, and very successful. So I guess the real question to ask then, is how did those truly successful people climb out of the rut of mediocrity and start running up the slippery slope of success?
What are we going to do today? Well, the same thing we do everyday, try and make a buck, feed our family, and pay our bills; That normal, common stuff. Every one of us has tasks that are common to our daily work. We don’t even consider them important, yet they are. In order to reform our ruts, we need to begin doing our common things in an uncommon way. Don’t stop doing what has always worked for you, just amp it up to a whole new level.
What separates a common company from an extraordinary one? Simple. The best companies do common things in an uncommon way. It says in the Bible that we should do everything we do as though we are doing it to the Lord himself. Now that’s a challenge.
If we take that challenge and apply it to our personal lives, then what we find is a new filter to run our thoughts and actions through. No longer can we allow our common tasks throughout the day to just be common acts. Now they must be uncommon. Extraordinary. Our days then evolve from the mundane to the spectacular.
To be honest, I’m sure this sounds as far fetched to you as it does to me, but the truth of the matter is that it really works. Over the last few months I’ve been applying this principle to my own life, and it truly changes the very fabric of my day. I take almost every event and attempt to make it uncommon. It doesn’t always happen. In fact most retain the same commonality as before, but now and then you push one of those common tasks over the bar of heightened concern and viola, your day is special. On top of that you realize that not only was that day or event special to you, it was special to someone else. Maybe a neighbor, or a co-worker, possibly even your child.
Everything we do, we should do it as though we were doing it for Jesus himself. Many times that’s just the motivation we need to turn those ordinary common tasks, into uncommon works of art. After a few years of that we’ll turn around and realize that not only have we enjoyed life to the fullest, but we’ve also decorated our communities with incredible masterpieces, that all resemble the master himself.

I'm a complete person again.

My laptop has been in the shop for an entire week. I felt lost. Abandoned. Lonely. Ashamed. Guilty - yet no reason to - sad. Depressed. I know sounds like it was a rough week. Okay actually it's been a pretty good week, but I must say it feels REALLY GOOD to be typing on my very own FIXED laptop. YEA! Who knows, now maybe I'll even write a real blog entry. :)

wanna see the video?

We baptized 15 people for oour very first baptism. WOW! It was Awesome! Wanna see? Click below.

Just a tidbit of the H2O Experience

Microsoft is still alive

You just gotta watch this. Seriously.

Discovering God's Will

If everything goes according to plan then I know I made the right choice. If all the proverbial doors swing on their well-oiled hinges, and I walk through without a hitch, then obviously I’m in God’s will. Those statements sound nice and true. We often judge how deep we are encrusted in God’s will by how well our circumstances are going. Unfortunately, external indicators are no indicators at all.
Most people that I talk to in the church realm want to know God’s will for their lives. In fact, many people not in the church realm still have this desire to do God’s will. They call it different things, but a rose by any other name…yea you get the picture. Since we want to do God’s will, the next logical question is how do we know God’s will? How do we hack into the cosmic communication network to hear and understand exactly what God wants us to do?
We hear sermons, we get advice, or we trudge it alone. But when it is all done and said we determine if we are in God’s will based solely upon the outcome of our lives. If we are successful and have money in the bank then we are in God’s will. If our families are happy, healthy, and wise, then we are in God’s will. If tears never run down our face then we have heard from God and are in the center of his will.
The last time I checked the center of God’s will is not the center of the “American Dream” will. When you pore over the Bible you find that the main characters who were absolutely in God’s will had horrible lives you begin to question the American mindset. The Apostle Paul wrote over half of the New Testament, had a personal visit from Jesus Christ, and was instrumental in shaping the church that we now hold dear. So was he in God’s will?
I would say yes, but then why was he ship wrecked? Beaten? Stoned? Ignored? Imprisoned and executed? Sorry this is not according to the good church plan now is it? Being in the center of God’s will is the most tumultuous place to be. It is a place reserved for those that are not scared of adventure. Not frightened by the unknown, and not unearthed by adversity. The center of God’s will is not a place for those who question every step of life, but are faithfully moving forward in spite of the groping darkness.
Does that mean that we are only in God’s will if things look like Hell on Earth? Of course not. In the book of John, chapter 10, it says, “A thief comes only to rob, kill, and destroy. I came so that everyone would have life, and have it in its fullest.” God wants us to have life to the fullest, but we also need to recognize that the enemy wants the opposite. It’s a balance in life. Just because things are going awry in your life does not mean you are out of God’s will, it could just mean that you are messing with the enemy and his territory. That’s not a bad thing, but a godly thing. After all, Jesus called for workers and warriors, not satisfied spectators.
So the next time you want to know if you are in God’s will, don’t just look at the ease of the journey. The trail that God lays out is not a concrete nature trail but an open terrain with obstacles, valleys, mountains, and streams. You’re not lost, you’re on an adventure.

The 'and' Factor

How big is your ‘and?’ Do you ever feel like your ‘and’ is longer than everybody else’s? You think you have it all figured out, but then something else happens, or actually something doesn’t happen, and you question it again? Sometimes the ‘and’ can seemingly take forever!
And, is a conjunction. It links two clauses in a sentence. That’s important because we read Bible passages and take two clauses and make them one, totally ignoring the all important ‘and.’
In the book of St. John it says, “Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” We read that and we get all excited and ask, and wait. Then we ask again, and wait. We wonder why nothing is happening so we dive into the bible to see if we have the right code or combination to make it all work out. Of course, after you do this once or twice, you realize that God can’t be figured out, and on top of that, there seems to be no one secret ‘code’ to make God work his Heavenly miracles. The simple truth of the matter is that some times we are just in the middle of our ‘and.’
I’m sure that tid-bit of information does not make your six month wait any easier to swallow, but if you swallow it with a dose of sand it just might. Imagine, the children of Israel wandered around in the wilderness (dessert) for forty years. To me that sounds like a really big ‘and.’ What they had prayed for in Egypt was coming to pass, it was just taking a really long time to walk through their own ‘and.’ Their long wait was based one their own poor attitude. The real trip would have only taken roughly seven days. Imagine how messed up they got in just seven days that God had to detour them from the promise land.
Realistically we need to look at our own lives as we walk through our ‘and.’ As we wait from asking, to receiving. Not all the time, but many times we will find that the waiting process is really a purifying process. God is trying to work things out in us.
Imagine if you prayed for success in a certain area. Then ‘poof’ God answered your prayer overnight. You were an instant success. You would probably thank God for the first hour, but then your human nature would kick in and you would think you had actually done something special to deserve or earn this new successful standing.
God has an incredible way of knowing what is in our hearts even before we do. He is more interested in the outcome than the time frame. He is patient; we are not. We get in our Egypt and ask God to respond now! Then he helps walk us through that big fat ‘and’, and we balk and say, “Come on God where are you?” We complain. Really, we were born complainers.
The Children of Israel were led through the dessert by a towering pillar of fire. Pretty Sci-Fi wouldn’t you say? Yet they still cried out, “Where are you God?” I read stuff like that and I want to reach into the Bible and snatch those Israelite bald-headed. It’s like, “Hey idiot! Your God is right there in a towering flame!” So obvious.
Then we turn that same intuitive gaze to our own lives and God is just as obvious. Just as present, but we are so focused on getting this one specific prayer answered that we are missing the hand of God in all the other vitals areas of our lives. We ask for something, and while we are walking through the ‘and’ process we only focus on that one thing while God is molding, shaping, and rejuvenating hundreds of other areas in our lives.
In life we all have to walk through our personal ‘and’ times, but in those times we can’t contract tunnel vision. We need to look up and realize that God is not just at work in our lives, he is leading us through those wide-open ‘and’ times.

He Looked, and it was good!

Today we baptized 18 people at our very first baptism! How incredibly awesome is that? And on top of that we had 4 million people show up to watch and participate! Yes it really was exactly 4 million people. I counted each and everyone. Of course I am a preacher and we tend to exaggerate. But we did have 18 get baptized and it was awesome! It was so neat to watch these people get baptized. Knowing that behind each dunking was an incredible story of redemption. I stand utterly amazed at how God brings everything together for such a time as this. Wow.

Wet & Holy

I am so stoked! July 8th we are doing our very first water baptism at SouthPoint! It is going to be at Kevin McCandless' house at 6PM. We are going to do the whole finger food, hangout thing. And then BAPTIZE!!!! Yea! This is going to be an awesome event that will be a major line of demarcation in so many peoples lives. If you want to be baptized you can email me for more specifics, or you can sign up in the lobby Sunday at the welcome table. of course if you're reading this blog from a different state or city, well then, never mind. But I'm still stoked about Baptizing!!!! YEA!!!!

Why Am I Here Again?

‘Why am I here’ is a very popular question. So many people ask it and even more people think it. It’s like we get our life somewhat on track and then we get hit with the mother of all questions, ‘why am I here?’ I can answer that question in six hundred words or less!
To answer it we have to answer an even bigger question that will in turn answer our question. Confused yet? Probably not, you appear to be highly intelligent. The bigger question is why did God make man? Why did this omnipotent God choose to create man? In fact, why did He even take the time to create the Earth, and the garden of Eden so that man would have a place to live? Why?
When you look at the creation account you see that God not only created everything, by calling it into existence, He did it so that man would have a place not to just exist, but to live and flourish. God’s creation was established for man, so that man could thrive. Of course that still doesn’t answer the why question. Remember I said in six hundred words or less.
So God spoke all this good stuff into existence, then God changes His tactics and bends down and creates man. The book of Genesis says that God breathed life into Adam’s still form. Imagine, God did not just say, “Let there be man.” But He took His time to create, make, and mold, man; and then breath the very creative breathe into man. This is the same creative breath that went forth to create the land, the sun, the animals, and the leaves. This breath is what invaded Adam’s body and brought him to life.
The bible goes on to tell us that God created man on the sixth day. So what did God do on the seventh day? I’m sure you already know the answer since you probably went to Sunday School, I mean why else would you be reading this article? Yes! God rested. Man’s very first full day on planet earth was spent resting, hanging out with God, the creator. You might not realize it, but I am really close to answering your big question, and I have over a hundred words left!
God created man not to perform by jumping through hoops. He did not create man to have some sort of voodoo doll where he could inflict pain at will. No! God created man so that He could fellowship with him. God created the Earth so that He, God, could have an environment in which to walk and talk with man. Our existence is summed up in a relationship with God.
Why are we here you ask? It’s actually an easy answer. We are here to have a relationship with God. God desires it. It is why we were originally formed from the dust of the ground. Why the Triune God-head knelt down and formed the first mud pie was so that we could partake of the first human – divine relationship. Of course we struggle with this assessment some what because we all know that relationships are messy. They never go exactly like you planned, some times they are uncomfortable, and some times they are a blast. When you put the two extremes together, and all the stuff in between, you have the ingredients for a relationship. And that is exactly what God is looking for. Not perfection. Just simply a relationship and that is why you are here; In less than six hundred words.

Clean or Funky?

In Acts 10:15 we find this neat little phrase,
But the voice spoke again: “Do not call something unclean if God has made it clean.”

It comes from the vision that Peter received while on the roof on Acts. If you want the whole story then crack your bible and read it. I read it this morning and I thought to myself, wow. I wonder how many things in my own life am i calling unclean when God is calling clean? How many things am I saying is unclean just because I was taught it was unclean? And vise versa. How many things am I saying is clean when it is really unclean?

It is so important in life to hear from God not tradition. It is so vital to continually have an open and contrite heart, that allows God to speak into our lives in a powerful way. Of course just like Peter on the roof, God may speak, but we are so deeply rooted in our traditions that we think God is crazy because surely he wouldn't be telling us to do that! But like God said in Isaiah, "I am doing a new thing."

Last time I checked a new thing means......NEW! No previous track record! No pre-established form! Simply NEW!

Yea I like new. I enjoy new, don't you? That shinny sparkly thing that makes everyone oooo and aaaaahhhhh!

So today I'm gonna try and figure out the things in my life that I am holding on to just because I always have. I think it's time to not only hear from God, but apply what we hear.

Man Notes - (not flatulence)

I realized just the other day that boys are different than girls. Have you ever noticed that, or am I the first person to receive this revelation? I’m sure everyone has noticed a minor difference or two if you’ve ever raised children, or if you have children, especially one of each variety, then you have undoubtedly noticed the differences as well. My girls like shiny things and my boy likes dirty things. My girls smell sweet and my son has a fragrance all his own. The most noticeable difference is that my girls are fearful to do daring things, yet my son, will jump before you even notice. He’s a maniac, all afterburner, and no rudder. Of course, those boys then grow up and become men who have children all their own.
All throughout the Bible we see example after example of powerful men leading others. Sometimes they lead them into battle, other times a revolution, but always into precarious situations. Men were created to be pioneers, Warriors, Volatile pieces of humanity. Let’s face it; boys are just different than girls.
With the subduing of the modern world, we also find the organized church trying to subdue the revolutionary spirit that is in a man. We expect men to come into our differing religious camps, get transformed, and then don the sweater vest and loafers and be nice! Above all, just be nice. After all isn’t that what Jesus would do? Actually no. Jesus was all man, and He was all God. Complete divinity in complete human form, and yet we see Him as a complete non-conformist. He didn’t do it Buddha’s way, nor did He do it Confucius’ way, He did it the Creator’s way. Through that window of time we can see not only how Jesus lived, but as men we can see how we should live.
Living life to the hilt is not just an expression; it really is a way of life. Jesus has shown men the way to live. It is not through conforming, but leading. Not jumping on the same well-worn paths of history, but forging into new areas, new ideas, and new adventures. Pushing the limits in areas that have been stagnant for decades. The primal initiative of man is to lead.
In the book of Mark, chapter 9, we find Jesus’ disciples arguing about who is going to be first. Your typical guy conversation, a little old school trash talk. You would think that Jesus would bring the heat and put them all in their place. But He doesn’t. Instead He tells them how to be first. He said, "If anyone wants to be first, He shall be last of all and servant of all."
As men we have an innate desire to be first, to be the leader, and to take other people on an incredible journey with us. We do that not by bullying our way over others, but through serving them. We lead our families by serving them not manipulating and controlling them. We serve our community not by complaining and yelling but by serving and becoming the catalyst for change.

What an Incredible Time!

Today I went and watched two of our SouthPointers in action. We went to John Wade Karate and Day camp to teach a little Bible and have fun with the kids. It was such a great time. Crystal Thompson taught the kids, and Matt Souders played some mean electric guitar for them. It was great. The kids seemed to have a great time, and I know Crystal and Matt did as well. What an incredible opportunity to share the power of God with the next generation.

If you want to get involved in this we do it every Tuesday at 10:30, so just email me or give me a call and we will put you in the rotation. Let's role up our sleeves and get involved in our awesome community.

wanna see

If you wanna see the bassinet video just click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCN36mU5Zig

I was thinking.....

I was thinking that summer was when things slowed down. I thought when school got out you spent more time with the kids. Mowing the lawn, maybe even reading a nameless magazine that has no content to speak of.....yea like TIME.

Well summer is here but I' hav'nt slowed down one bit. In fact time seems a little bit crazy. Thus the reason for no blog entries in what, like a year? I'm hoping to get my feet under me again this week and be a little more proactive instead of feeling like i'm playing catchup all the time. Sunday afternoon I realized I might need to do something since I double booked 4 appointments! ouch! I think my brain is in slight overload.

But incredible things are happening. Sunday we did another newcomers reception and had over 20 new people join the ranks of SouthPoint! YEA! What an incredible group of people. More than just their talents and gifts (which are crazy out of this world) their hearts are golden. Precious people. I look forward to getting to know them better.

If you're interested my birthday party was awesome! We had almost 100 people over to our house and it was great! We rented the big boxing ring and the 22-foot slide.....Oh what fun it was to slide on hot rubberized plastic!

farewell to Dawn - Dawn Whittington has been a part of SouthPoint since we began. She moved here from Naples, FL to help us plant this vibrant church and she has done an awesome job! She has served in any and every capacity she was ever asked with a joyful heart. WOW what a servant. Lately she has been serving in a dual capacity : Nursery and Cafe'. She rocks! Unfortunately all good things eventually come to a close. Dawn is now moving back to Florida to finish up her degree. She is leaving this week to get settled and get everything situated before classes start. in the fall. Dawn we are gonna miss you :( thank you for everything you have done, are doing and will do for the Kingdom of God. You're an awesome lady!