Clemson and Carolina Began Recruiting Him Yesterday

The future OL anchor . . .

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,413206,00.html

Going All the Way

Took some time this week to finish up a book by Craig Groeschel about marriage called Going All the Way. More precisely it's a book about how to prepare for marriage but it has some great insights about how to maintain a healthy marriage for couples. For those who are not married, I highly recommend that you read this book BEFORE you get involved in a relationship. Some of Craig's most insightful advice is about preparing yourself for a dating relationship.

Here are some quotes from the book that I thought were great.

"A good marriage is never easy. But it is absolutely possible."

"If you want something few have - genuine closeness, trust, respect, and lasting commitment - you'll have to do what few do."

"Loving the Lord first is a practical principle for getting the most out of life. Only when the Lord is in His rightful place can we move beyone the first and greatest commandment and start successfully living out the second priority - loving someone else." (My take - we know this. But there are too many times in my life when I'm not practicing this.)

"Jesus is the One."

"Sin is like a good sneeze. It feels good coming out. Then you get snot everywhere." (This was an aside in the book but made me laugh out loud.)

"God gave us those words (Song of Songs) to show us how blessed sex can be when it stays within His will. This isn't about good or bad, it's about order."

"Sex in marriage is about so much more than a pair of orgasms. It's about shared souls."

"Right after giving all of ourselves to our Savior, the married Christ follower is to give everything to his or her spouse."

"A marriage that's going to last isn't based on a one-time decision to put God first and spouse second. It requires a commitment that you affirm daily."

"Passivity in marriage is disastrous."

"Wherever sin lives, intimacy dies. And where intimacy lives, sin dies."

"Here's a more important question, and I'll admit, a more challenging one: What person do I need to become so I'll be ready for a healthy, fulfilling marriage . . . and bless my spouse-to-be?"

About thinking of marriage as a covenant instead of a contract, Craig says this, "The goal of a smart contract is to increase my rights while decreasing my responsibility. . . Think of a marriage covenant as an unconditionaly surrendering of one's rights while increasing one's responsibility."

--peace, jamie

I'm Back

I thought I would find some time over the past 10 days to do a little posting but instead spent the time hanging out in Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, eating ice cream, doing yard work, and getting crushed by my daughter in Mancala, among other things. But I'm back now and will do more posting this weekend.

Just a reminder though, that we will have a Reveal team meeting on Sunday at 11:45am. We should be done in about 30 minutes. See you then.

-- Peace, Jamie

Next few days

I am leaving for Pigeon Forge, TN in the morning. So I won't be posting for a few days. Don't forget our next Reveal Team meeting is Sunday, August 24 at 11:45am.

--Peace, Jamie

Yesterday . . . and early this morning

I learned a few things about Isle of Palms yesterday. First, it's not a long trip. It only took us about 2 1/2 -3 hours to get there. Making it even easier, it's almost all interstate driving. Second, when there's a blue flag flying, that means there are 'marine pests present.' Yesterday that meant that nasty little jellyfish were swimming around stinging people. I stayed out of the H2O. Not because I'm scared of jellyfish but I'm not that into pain and stinging especially when I'm not expecting it. The rest of our group threw caution to the wind and hopped in the water. Only two were stung. Just glad that one of them wasn't me. Third, IoP is close to Mt. Pleasant which meant that we were close to Andrew Kiel's home. Andrew's parents invited us to their house for supper - frogmore stew. More than just feeding us, though, they welcomed us in, gave us a chance to get cleaned up, to drink a lot of lemonade and chips, and to rest for a while. The frogmore stew was amazing! A few of us ate way, way, way too many shrimp. But Andrew's parents were more amazing. They told us stories about Andrew, showed us pictures of Andrew, and welcomed us like we were their own.

I walked into my house at 11:00pm and promptly fell asleep on the couch. My alarm clock woke me up at 2:01am. Why? you ask. Because the perseids meteor shower was visible in our neck of the woods from 2-5 this morning. I went outside to make sure we were going to be able to see it. I saw a couple of meteors and then woke my daughters up. For the next hour, we lay on our backs looking up at the night sky watching meteors shoot across the sky. It was cold. I was tired. It was uncomfortable. But we had a blast. We laughed and tried to see who could spot the most metoers. We decided that it was kind of like riding space mountain except there was no roller coaster, and space mountain is over quicker. If you missed the perseids meteor shower, here's a time-lapse video from 2007.

As we prepare to kick off Reveal in September with a focus on God revealing Himself to us, it's awesome to have interactions with Him through nature. The ocean waves, the starry sky, the falling meteor, and, yes, the stinging jellyfish all reveal to us a little of who God is. Are we listening? Are we watching? Are we aware that He's there?

Pray for our creative team meeting tonight at 6:00 and the band practice at 7:00.

--Peace, Jamie

End of the summer

Yep, summer is almost over. How do I know? I'm going to Isle of Palms today with about 15 college students to hang out one last time together before they start heading back to dorms all over SC. To top it off, we get to hang out at Andrew Kiel's homestead and eat frogmore stew or brunswick boil or whatever it's called. It'll be a late night. We won't be back until midnight or after.

Don't forget we have a creative team meeting tomorrow night at 6. Our next Reveal team meeting is Sunday, August 24 at 11:45am.

-- Peace, Jamie

Links

Here are a few stories/articles that I've found interesting this week.

Mark Batterson has a great post about how we often look at Scripture.

For those of us who have trouble focusing with the Outlook alert going off, check this out.

Perry Noble lost a lot of weight and has some advice here, here, and here. Yesterday at Cracker Barrel, I had two eggs and a banana for breakfast. I haven't done that in a while.

Wondering what would happen if I took a golf club to the top of a mountain and tried to knock a golf ball off the edge? Wonder no more!

I started reading these stories about the Minnesota National Guard. Carve out some time for a very compelling journey.

Finally, a book recommendation - I Became a Christian and All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt by Vince Antonucci. I finished it about three months ago.

Have a great weekend. I will see you on Sunday!

-- Peace, Jamie

Burgers

I know this has nothing to do with Reveal. However, I was listening to WBT this morning and the topic of great hamburgers came up and that gave me a chance to think about some of my favorite burger joints.

Two things you need to know. One, I LOVE a good hamburger. In fact, a lot of times I'll pass up the chicken chipotle or tex-mex steak (or whatever else is on the menu) at Ruby Tuesday's or Fridays and order a burger because I would rather have a burger than a steak or another chicken dish. Second, I'm not talking about chain restaurants like the afore-mentioned Ruby Tuesday's or Fridays. Although, those types of restaurants can make a very good burger. I'm definitely not talking about McDonalds or Burger King or Wendy's. Those are just inexpensive ways to satisfy hunger. I'm talking about the local-owned restaurant that the locals know very well.

Here are three of my favorites.

Dixie Drive-In, Greenwood, SC - I grew up in Greenwood and somehow missed going to the Dixie until I was in high school. Once I found it, I spent too much time there ordering the infamous Dixie Cheese Half and Half, which is simply a juicy cheeseburger with a plate of fries and onion rings. This was my first encounter with the local greasy spoon that made a hamburger from heaven.

The Clock, Greer, SC - This one almost doesn't count because there are at least 10 Clocks in the Greenville area. While they all have similar menus, they are all different. I've eaten at two different Clocks and neither comes close to the one in Greer. The order here is a chili cheese plate, all fries, and a sweet tea. Get the cheeseburger with chopped onions and cut in half. Marjorie, Victoria and I were in Greer a couple of weekends ago and made sure we stopped by. Yep, it was as good as I remember.

Peaches, Myrtle Beach, SC - A confession: I've only eaten at Peaches once and that was over 20 years ago. That's how good I remember the burger being. I think I ordered the cheeseburger basket. Time may have made my burger much better than it really was. But I like to believe that Peaches is so good that I still haven't had a burger that made me forget sitting at a counter on Ocean Blvd in tacky shorts, a Panama Jack muscle shirt, and docksiders (no socks) with a couple of buddies enjoying the best burger in the world.

How about you? Got a favorite burger joint? I'd love to make a road trip and enjoy a burger with you if you do!

-- Peace, Jamie

Reveal Schedule

Thanks for a great meeting yesterday. I am excited about where we're heading from here. Here's a preview of upcoming events for Reveal.

August 24 - Launch team meeting @ 11:45am
September 7 - Launch team meeting @ 11:45am
September 14 - Reveal worship gathering (for Launch team only)
September 21 - Reveal worship gathering (for Launch team only)

Beginning September 7, Reveal will be a weekly, ongoing part of our lives. It may take place as a fully planned worship gathering (as it will on September 14 and 21) or it may be a planning meeting with elements of worship and teaching (as it will on September 7).

Look for more info about our September 14 and 21 gatherings coming soon.

-- Peace, Jamie

Healthy Fast Food Restaurants

The title sounds like an oxymoron. Are there really any healthy fast food restaurants? Here's a Yahoo! article that discusses that very idea. For you to fully understand why this article interests me, I'll have to take you back a few years. Five years ago this Christmas, I stepped on the scales and my parents house and went 'whoa! Where did those extra pounds come from?' I spent the next three months playing around with exercising and cutting a few calories and pretty much got nowhere. In April, 2004, I bought a treadmill and got serious. And when I say I got serious, I mean I counted almost every calorie that went into my body. It became somewhat of an obsession to know how many calories were in everything I ate. Before my family would go out to a restaurant, I would look online to see how many calories were in each meal and decide what I could and would eat. At most sit down restaurants, I ate a chicken caesar with no cheese and dressing on the side. I cut out sweets, french fries, and, hold on to your seat, sweet tea from my diet. At meals, I would announce how many calories were in a serving of each item. I know how many calories are in a Blizzard from Dairy Queen (more than you imagine) and how many are in a Krispy Kreme donut (a lot but not as much as I would've imagined). Trust me, come dessert time, my family usually asked me to keep my caloric info to myself. For the most part, I think I obliged them. By the end of 2004, I had dropped a lot of weight and was in probably the best shape of my life. At the very least, I was in the best shape of my adult life.

Here's what I learned:

You definitely have to educate yourself. You can find healthy alternatives at any restaurant. You may have to dig for info. But there are good healthy options at any restaurant.

It costs more to eat healthy. That didn't surprise me. Buying fresh fruits and salads cost more than buying a frozen pizza or a double cheeseburger off the McDonald's value menu.

You have to be committed and intentional. When I was serious about dropping some pounds, I kept a goal in front of me the whole way. There were incremental goals but there was also one big goal along the way as well. I had to be intentional about the foods that I ate and how I ate them.

Why do I share this with you? Because during that time of my life, I saw parallels between my physical and my spiritual life. It's easy for us to get lazy and satisfied spiritually. We can become sedentary spiritually. How do we break out of a cycle that says, "I'll get started tomorrow?" First we have to realize that we need to break out of our spiritual doldrums. We have to step on the scale if you will and see where we are spiritually. Then we have to make a commitment, set a goal of where we want to be spiritually. Then we have to get active and involved. I laugh about the time between Christmas, 2003 and April 2004, because my idea of exercise was to walk two miles twice a week at a very leisurely pace. But getting started was the best thing that I could have done. It costs more to be committed spiritually. It will cost money, time, hobbies, possessions, etc. But it ALWAYS is better for you. Mark Batterson put it this way, "If we were to always act in our own self-interest, we would always obey God" no matter how much our logic, our intuition, or our own desire for self-preservation protests.

Step on the scales and let the Holy Spirit lead you into a spiritually active, fulfilling life.

-- Peace, Jamie

Launch Team Meeting

Yes, we do have a Launch team meeting tomorrow at 11:45am in the Apex. But I also wanted to give you the date for our next meeting - August 24 at 11:45am in the Apex. Put that on your calendar as well and make plans to be there. The month of August will be incredibly important to getting Reveal off the ground successfully.

-- Peace, jamie

Sunday Meeting

Once again remember that we have an extremely important meeting on Sunday, August 3 at 11:45am. It shouldn’t last more than 45 minutes. I’ve already had a few people let me know that they won’t be there because of travel plans but if it is possible for you to be there, please do.

Here’s why: We want to finalize our Launch team as soon as possible. Once we do that, we need to begin having members of our Launch team sign up to be on a support team. Ultimately, Reveal will be as successful when we have a committed core that is passionate about Reveal and what it stands for.

On Sunday, one of the things that we will do is begin putting together our Support teams. Here’s a link to a more detailed description of our Support teams. To give you an idea of how large a project Reveal will be, here are about how many adults we will need to staff an ongoing ministry at Reveal.

Band – The Reveal band is led by Will Beaty. There are about ten people in the band and we are still searching for a keyboardist.

Multimedia Team – We will have four people serving on the Media team each week (on sounds, lights, and video presentation, and a stage manager). Right now, Andrew Kiel is serving on sound, Hunter Platt on video, Ben Pryce as stage manager.

Parking Team – We will need to have 2-3 people in the parking lot every week directing traffic and welcoming people to FBC.

Greeting Team – We will need to have 4-6 people greeting people at the doors to the Rock and to the Apex each week welcoming guests and making connections with regular attenders.

Connections Team – We will need to have 2-4 people stationed at tables to give out information and answer question before and after Reveal.

Counseling/ Follow-Up – We will need to have 2-4 people each week who will serve as counselors following Reveal gatherings as well as to make follow-up visits and calls during the week.

Childcare – We will need at least six people each week to take care of children while their parents are in the worship gathering.

If my math is correct, and it may not be, we will need 20-27 people every week not including the band to make Reveal the quality gathering that it needs to be. But that’s just on a weekly basis. We will need to double that number so that everyone has a back up for those occasions when travel or illness keeps someone home.

Between now and Sunday, be praying about where God can use you at Reveal. Remember to invite anyone you think may be interested in what is going to be an exciting part of FBC life.

-- Peace, Jamie