Yesterday was the 6 year mark for me at Suncrest.  This is an important milestone for me and my family for one simple reason:  This is the longest we have served any church.  There are lots of reasons for this:

• I’ve said it before and feels weird to say it as one of the leaders but Suncrest truly is one of the most healthy churches I have ever seen.  Thanks John Wasem for starting it!
• Great people to work with.  Certainly the staff has grown since I came on board and some have left the staff but along the way I have been so blessed to serve with an amazing group of people sold out to God’s kingdom.
• Great elders with servants hearts.
• Great friends.  Our best friends now live here.
• A great boss.  Talking with others who serve other churches along the way always reminds me how good of a leader Greg is.  Not perfect, just real, honest, open and desiring God’s best.

I have a ton of memories that have been created in these 6 years.  Here’s a few that stand out this morning:

• Preaching the 2nd Sunday I was here on the topic of…wait for it…LUST.  That’s right.  I have never forgiven Greg for that one.
• Jumping into a group almost immediately and meeting Dan, Lara, Kay, James, Christine, Terry and Anna.  We would continue to do life together in group for another 3 years.
• Driving Jared from the airport on his interview weekend thinking, “I don’t really like this guy.”  He grew on me.  :)
• Being known as the “loud one” when I preached.
• Having someone pass out during a wedding.  Guess I talked too long…
• Developing a friendship with Mike, Julie, Larry, Kelly, Don, Chrissy, Mike, Stephanie,  Aaron and Suzie.  Having them be among the core of the launch team for Hobart Campus and starting an annual Father/Son camping trip with the guys.
• Running the 2006 Chicago Marathon with Don.
• Baptizing Don a few months after we ran the marathon.
• Leading 3 trips to Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.  The work we did and the friendships that were forged in the wake of that destruction are priceless to me.
• Driving Bobby to the airport on his interview weekend thinking, “I really like this guy.”
• Starting a new group and having Jack, Gail and Lynn stick with us through another 3 years of life together.
• Helping Suncrest go from one site to two.  Launching Hobart campus is about 50 blog posts worth of memories by itself.
• Seeing new life in the baptisms, sharing in the celebration of the weddings and shedding tears at the funerals I have officiated.
• Seeing my family grow by 2 while living here and being blessed by so many surrogate grandmas and grandpas and aunts and uncles for my kids.

While the number 6 isn’t a big deal like 10 or 25 or 50, let me just say thank you Suncrest for 6 really great years.  For embracing me and my family and allowing me to serve God along side you.

This one is awkward to write since my boss actually reads my blog but thought this was worth writing about.  Jeff Henderson, campus pastor of Buckhead church in Atlanta first got me thinking on this.  I’ve grown in my conviction over the last several years that the best way to support your leader is to pray for them.  This is true in the church world but it is as true in the business world.  It doesn’t matter if your boss is the CEO, the Lead Pastor or the assembly line manager, praying for your boss helps them AND it helps you.  It changes your attitude toward them when you disagree.  It allows you to look at them through God’s eyes.  It helps you keep a bigger picture in mind.

Here’s how I’m praying for  my boss:

1.  Spiritual Protection – they are human and as leaders face all kinds of pressure every day.

2.  Wisdom and creative insight – they make decisions everyday for which they need God’s wisdom and then they have to communicate those decisions for which they need creativity.

3.  Help me help them – this one is about helping me be the kind of follower that makes their leadership better.

• For over 4 years I have been meeting with a group of guys on Tuesday mornings.  Actually I’m the only original member from when I first started this, but it has been such an invaluable source of growth and encouragement.  This week we moved our day to Wednesday.  We are working through the book Love and Respect.  Great book for marriage.  One of my top 3 books that every couple should read.
• Got to the St. John building and discovered several ladies already setting up for Morning Grace.  That has been a huge hit for our ladies.  Any guesses on who started it?  There’s talk of a Morning Grace – Hobart edition…
• If you have not heard Brandon Flower’s (of the Killers) Album “Flamingo” you need to.  It is one of the best of last year.  The album is some reflection of growing up as a Mormon in “Sin City.”  Really good soul searching, earthy stuff.
• I have not tried out Starbuck’s new pay with your iPhone feature yet.  Hoping to tomorrow.  Have you tried it?
• We found out Sheila’s 20 year class reunion is this July.  We are planning on going.  Man we are old.
• It’s so exciting right now figuring out new systems and processes to effectively use Hobart’s building and yet efficiently use our central support system.
• When you are so passionate about a project that it begins to consume your life, when is that unhealthy?

peace.

“If Jesus was willing to die for this troubled planet, maybe I need to care about it too.”

Richard Stearns

While I read this book a year and a half ago I never wrote about it on here.  It is a must read for anyone seriously following Jesus.  It challenged me at a depth that I had not been challenged at in quite some time.  Quite literally I was brought to tears while reading as I was on an airplane.

It is essentially Richard Stearn’s journey to becoming the President of World Vison.  More specifically it is his journey to caring about those that are closest to the heart of The Father, the poor, marginalized and lost.

What I love about this book is that it strikes a good balance between the Biblical reasons for why we should care and practical how-tos on actually being a person who reaches out to our troubled planet.  This was significant for me as someone who grew up being inadvertently taught that we didn’t need to care or bother with the poor because they were someone else’s problem.  Being a Christian meant reading your Bible, going to church, serving at church and occasionally on the “mission field” but actively working to relieve someone else’s suffering was not really the work of a Christian.  Thus I think Stearns is exactly right when he says this kind of work is the missing piece, the hole, in many of our approaches to the Gospel.

I’ve loaned out my copy several times and given away a copy.  It’s that worth it!  Please read it!  It will mess you up, but in a good way.

• Heard great things about Greg’s message at Hobart.  Heard he really fished people in on the “How to be rich” message.  Love it when he does that.
• Preaching these last two weekends in a row reminded me of how much I really love preaching.  It’s my first love in ministry.
• Had a great mini-retreat with our Global leaders and Campus Pastors.  Spent part of the day wrapping up a year long Innovation Lab from the folks at Leadership Network.  Great resource.
• Spent the night posting stuff on Ebay and playing charades with the kids.  We’re trying to purge and sale as much stuff as possible!!  Not the kids though.  :)
• Beginning to work through Disciplines for the Inner Life by Bob and Michael Benson again in my morning devotions.  It’s a classic and tremendous resource.  I will typically alternate in a year between just straight Scripture reading and some resource like this.
• Listening right now to Vampire Weekend’s Contra.  One of the best albums of last year.
• When I mentioned Charlie Talley on Sunday at St. John, spontaneous applause broke out in all services!
• On Sunday, someone offered to donate the sign for our Hobart Campus facility!  What a blessing since that was one thing that wasn’t in the budget for this year.  Makes me think I need to put together a wish list.

I preached in St. John yesterday and had a blast. It was good to be back on a Sunday and see familiar and new faces. I forgot how exhausting it is to preach 3 services! In my absence I gave our campus a video tour of the facility and the progress that is happening. It is even cool to see how much has changed since I filmed this on Thursday.

A tour of The Brick from Doug Gamble on Vimeo.

• Feels like I’m back in my routine of running this week.  Last 2 weeks have been hard to stay at.  Only 3 weeks until the next half-marathon training so got to keep at it.
• After Hobart staff meeting yesterday, I’m more confident than ever that our campus is poised for something really, really good this year.
• After meeting with Suncrest Global leaders and Campus Pastors yesterday, I’m so excited to serve alongside such great men and women.
• Disappointed that we can’t announce a move-in date for our campus this Sunday, but we are getting very close to that.
• I’m pretty much over the snow, is it spring yet?
• Excited to teach at the St. John campus this Sunday.
• Living by the envelope system is hard but fun.  No really it is.

The story of Pilar becoming Suncrest // Hobart’s Kids ministry director is truly a God-story.

She first came a few months after we launched.  She came with her sister after receiving our mailing.  They were doing recon to see if we were weird.  They liked it and Lis (Pilar’s husband joined her the next week.  They kept coming and soon began getting involved.

Over the next two years they went from attenders to volunteers to leaders.  Pilar became a coach in Kids Ministry and Les started leading in setup.  Then in February of this year they went public with their faith and were baptized.  It was an awesome celebration of new life.

Now she has taken a next step of faith for her by becoming our Kids Ministry Director.  She commented on Tuesday, her first day in that position that she had a real peace about stepping into the role and wasn’t overwhelmed because she felt as if God had her there.

I’m pumped to have her on our staff.  I’m even more excited to see how God has been working in her over the last two years.

Welcome Pilar!

doug

• Excited to preach this Sunday at Hobart.  The following Sunday I’ll be at St. John.  How to relieve stress is the topic financially is the topic.  Not sure I’m qualified to speak on it but I just want to communicate what the Bible says.
• I uncovered a U2 song I owned but didn’t know and had never heard.  It’s called “Big Girls are Best.”  I’ll leave it at that.
• Yesterday our new Kid’s Director started.  So excited for Pilar Lis to be on our team.
• 2011 is going to rock for Hobart campus.
• Found out last week that the total on the lights we had donated for our new ministry and community center is $17,000!  Wow, God…wow.
• With 5 kids I never make enough time to spend quality time with each of them.  Last night was great for 3 of the 5.  However, 1 was at student life worship and the other just joins in and doesn’t care yet because she’s 1.  Played blocks with Ben.  Wii with Grace.  And played random 80′s songs with Daisy on playlist.com.  Much dancing and laughing followed.

Thanks to a friend, I got to see Devil last night for free.  Devil is a movie from the mind of M. Night Shyamalan who collaborates with others (finally!) about 5 strangers locked in an elevator and one of them is the Devil.  Here’s why you need to see it even if you are not drawn to horror films:

1.  It’s not a horror film.  More suspense than gore.

2.  Very well written with a great dose of humor.

3.  No name actors.  I love it when some famous mug isn’t crowding out the scene.

4.  It will make you jump.  That’s always fun.

5.   Most importantly but without spoiling anything, it carries one of the most Biblical messages I’ve seen in a movie in a long time.  As we used to say in Bible college, “That’ll preach!”