My Year in in the Rear View Mirror II...

Today I continue my review of my year in the rear view mirror by looking over my life the past six months through the eyes of my journal. Here are some highlights and significant things God did and said in my life over the lats six months:

• Two words: ROLL TIDE!
• Started working out more religiously (P90X), and overall, I've stuck with it! The key has been working out at 5:00 WITH some members of our Ministry Team! Talk about accountability!
• Will & Nerida Henderson and the boys joined our team as new church planting residents from Australia!
• The Marriage Project. Some of the largest attendances in the history of Mountain Lake! 174 couples renewed their vows at the end of the series!
• "Give Yourself A Raise" Financial series, where we took EVERYONE in Growth Groups through a modified version of our Rethink Money Financial Planning Course.
• David Isbell, our Student Pastor felt called to a transition back into the business world in his life, and Rodney Anderson moved back over our Student Ministry!
• "Exposing The Elephant" series about tough questions for God.
• Tricia and I led SEVEN different dinner chats at Tam's Backstage, leading up to "WOW  Halftime" which marked the half way mark of our three year WOW Spiritual initiative.
• God placed on my heart the titles for several new message series for the next year, including: "The New Me"; "Button Pushers: Dealing with Difficult People"; and "Potential". Stay tuned!
• We made a tough decision to enter "preparation stage" for moving in our new auditorium this year by becoming a Sunday morning ONLY church for the first time in almost five years! Three services on Sunday mornings! Haven't found anyone else that's pulling off THESE service times: 9:00; 10:15; and 11:30. So far, so good! I'll keep you posted!
• "Christmas Rebellion" Series. Life is not about more. It;s about loving more, serving more, and giving more. Mountain Lake provided Christmas gifts for over 100 children who would not have had gifts otherwise! We donated Bibles to Iran and spread "Peace on Earth window chalk all over Atlanta!
• Significant mentors in my life this year: Dan Reiland, Jim Law, and Larry Osborne.
• Significant reads this year: Three Signs of A Miserable Job - Lencioni; Sticky Church - Osborne; In A Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day - Batterson. 
• Largest Christmas Eve Service Attendances in history of our church!
• Books of the Bible I've read completely through the past six months: Psalms, Proverbs, Matthew, Luke, John, Ephesians, James, 1 & 2 Timothy, Job, 1 & 2 Peter and 1 John. Whoa! I ought to be holy by now!
• Best quote I journaled the last six months: "I don't want to live my life in such a way that the best I can do is the best I can do." - Mark Batterson. Thanks, Mark!
• Most significant things God said to me through His Word:

1. "A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions; the simpleton goes blindly and suffers the consequences" (Proverbs 22:3 AND 27:12. I'll be talking about how I believe this passage applies to churches, pastors, and ministry leaders at our churchplanters.com conference in February. If you're in ministry, get there!
2. "For God is working in you giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases Him" (Phil 2:13).

• I made a little more progress in belonging  in a healthy relationship with God and others and becoming more like Jesus. THAT'S A GREAT YEAR! Happy New Year!

Comments

[Michael]

we do those service times (actually, all of them are 15 minutes earlier), but they are 1 hour services with 15 minute transition.

awesome!

michael