FREAKY TEETH

My youngest daughter, Emma has her adult teeth coming in which is cool. The sad part is that her baby teeth have not fallen out yet so she has not collected a dime from the tooth fairy yet.

My Apologies

My Apologies

Someone told to me that they tried to leave a comment and could not because they were not a “blogger”. I did not know there was a “switch” to throw…but there was and now it has been thrown...the comments can come from anyone. Not expecting any...but it is available none the less. Sorry about that.

What a GREAT Day!!!!

Yesterday was such an awesome day! Actually, it started out as a typical hectic Sunday morning where I was running late and the kids were needing to get ready for church…but the Easter Bunny had taken precedence with his treasure filled (highly paganistic ) eggs. On top of that, there were several things that I needed to get done before church services started. So I was running around like crazy when I happen to peek in the living room and see Kurt sitting in my recliner with Emma on his lap. As I stopped for this mere moment I noticed he was reading his Bible to her…he was reading the resurrection story to her. What a sight and sound to the ears of a proud papa. All of a sudden my priorities quickly shifted…this was the start of an awesome day.

From there we all loaded up and headed to church for our Easter Celebration. It was a great morning of worship. There are so many people to thank for making this a wonderful worship experience including all the church staff and their volunteers. But I want to say a particular thank you to Jeff and Lisa Volz, Phil and Maddie Jones, and Cliff, Tracy & Brody Smith for all the extra efforts they put in this week. What they contributed to support the theme for this Easter morning at NPC was absolutely huge. It was so much fun to work with our planning team the last couple of weeks, thanks Pete, Amanda, Pam, Jake, and Dennis as well. Sunday morning was truly an awesome time to worship God on this resurrection Sunday.

After services we had a great meal with many friends at a favorite restaurant in Kenosha, Villa De Carlos, in which Emma and I got our picture taken with the Easter Bunny. We also met up with our good friends Brian and Christine Beck. It was a great time to catch up with them and hear how their ministry at Rock River Christian Camp is going. We shared late into the evening with our friends as our kids played so well together.

I hope your Easter was an awesome day to celebrate the victory in Jesus’ life.

THIS IS WHY WE CELEBRATE!

His is Risen!!!!

On a Mission from God

“On a mission from God” the infamous Blues Brothers slogan. I believe this memorable slogan…which I have always referred to as a “God Thing”… is the one thing that we must understand as we move into this multi-site venture. God’s vision and mission is the motivation that will propel us to be relentless in our pursuit to go multi-site.

Now understand, multi-site is not a new vision for NPC, but a way to carry out the God given vision that has been in place from day one. I love what Dennis Corley (Sr. Pastor of NPC) has done to hear God’s voice through scripture and the leading of the Holy Spirit and then implement that heart vision into NPC. This vision has always been to be a church that has done what it can to help people Reach Up to God, Reach Out to others and, and Reach In to nurture the church. My wife just shared with me about a conversation she had with someone on the phone this afternoon…the person she was talking to shared that NP has always been a church that has shown love and acceptance and forgiveness…what better characteristics for a church (sounds very similar to the characteristics of Jesus Christ).

My prayer is that we, with God’s Sovereign leading, can reproduce these great characteristics of NPC in another area of Lake County. In an effort to help people, particularly the unchurched, Reach Up, Reach Out and Reach In for the cause of Christ.

Please continue to pray for all the different aspects of this new venture. Pray that we would be humble and strive to understand God’s good, perfect and pleasing will.

Snow Day

What a day to live in Kenosha. At least 8 inches on the ground and it is still coming. We even had to cancel the community Good Friday Services for tonight due to the snow. It has been a good day though having the opportunity to spend the day snowed in with the family.

"life is short"

I was just talking with a very good friend today, which is something that I am so grateful to be able to do. You see, right before Christmas his brain exploded…well not exactly, but he had a double brain aneurysm. God allowed my good friend Al to stay with us a bit longer. While we were talking on the phone Al reminded me about how life is so short and how this “near death” experience instilled a greater understanding of how relationships are so important.

When we were done with our conversation, I couldn’t help but think about relationships that have been severed or hurt severely over issues in life that could have been prevented if I would have just let down my pride. This destructive behavior with relationships can happen with friends, family, co-workers, and maybe even the person we just bump into on the streets. It also got me thinking about one of the greatest relationships that has ever been broken. A relationship that was broken and now has been mended by Jesus Christ…that relationship is with God.

I am so geared up to celebrate this weekend. This time of year should be such a time of reflection and celebration for the Christ follower. This weekend as we take a concentrated time to remember the death, the burial, and most importantly the resurrection of Jesus I encourage you to thank God for mending our broken relationship.

Life is short…let’s celebrate the reconciliation of relationships this weekend. I pray that you will invite others to join with you as you celebrate.

Strange Addiction

I just returned from a meeting with a group of local pastors who are part of a growing initiative to create unity of churches in Lake County. This initiative is called CATALYST. It was a great morning as we shared many different things that are going on in each others lives and the lives of their congregation. One pastor shared his grieving process over a man he was mentoring. The man he was mentoring really began to turn his life around and surrender more and more over to God after years of drug addiction and other abuses. The pastor and this man had been developing quite a friendship and relationship with each other in Christ. This past weekend, at the age of 33, this man’s heart gave out and he past away (most likely do to the years of substance abuse).

As a group of pastors it was an awesome experience to lift this man’s family up to God in prayer and do the same for the spirit of grief this pastor was going through. This pastor could say nothing but thank you to Jesus and the rest of our group for spending that brief moment in prayer with him. I believe there was sense of relief that came in that time of prayer.

When the prayer time was done we began an interesting discussion on all the different addictions that can affect each of us. We talked about everything from lust to greed to pride that comes from “victories” in the church. But one thing that was brought up by a pastor in the group that really struck me, was the addition to negativity. I have processed this thought so many time in my life before, but to hear other pastors speak of the same issues was such a relief to me. I can understand the idea that this is such an easy slope to slide down…such an easy trap to find yourself in.

I know that there are things in life that can just complete demoralize us at times…I have been there recently myself. But I love the passage of scripture in Phil. 4 where Paul encourages the Philippian church to rejoice at all times… “4Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Our action is to lay everything we have up to God in prayer…to rejoice in Him first through prayer and petition and with thanksgiving…then we will have that supernatural peace that comes from God.

The addiction to negativity is one that I pray we can all avoid…but I think it begins with finding joy in God first and laying our thoughts and attitudes over to Him. When I am anxious and upset and nervous and think things are spinning out of control and then my joy begins to wane…that is a perfect sign that it is time to surrender more over to God.

I pray that we can all find the peace of God…even in the midst of all the darkness that seems to surround us.

Kurt's Debut

Last night Emma and I had the great privilege to go and hear Kurt (who has been learning to play an upright bass for the last several months) and over 1100 other student in the Kenosha School District Orchestra. Kurt was pretty excited about the experience and to be quite honest, even though it last over 2 hours I really enjoyed it as well. At one point all 1100 students were playing at the same time…the bold symphonic sound was absolutely awesome.

Kurt is hoping that learning the upright bass will translate over to his electric bass. Next year he is going to try out for the jr high jazz band. I think he will love that.

And it begins

Yes!!! after a long search and much prayer the exploration for our new campus pastor is over...wheewww Hoooo! Mike Foster along with his wife Eskai and their sweetheart little daughter Sarai, will be coming and ministering with us as our new campus pastor. I know that God has been preparing them in advance for the work they will be doing for His Kingdom here in Lake County, IL. There are several details that need to be worked out as they transition up here from Charlotte, NC....before all the great work begins.

As we (NPC) are heading into the new venture of the multi-site church realm, please continue to pray diligently for God's insight, discernment, and wisdom. I am so looking forward to what God has in store for Mike and his family, and how the greater Chicago Land area will be impacted for the cause of Christ.

We (NPC) are partnering with the Chicago District Evangelistic Association with this new multi-site church. I will be writing more about our partnership with the CDEA in the very near future…exciting stuff.

Mission's Trip

I am so excited about the upcoming mission's trip that NPC is about to embark upon this summer. We will be heading to Rio Bravo Christian Ministries to help out with a summer camp for kids ages 6-11. We support Todd Tate and his family who work for RBCM. This summer from July 17-24, we will be doing this mission as a family trip where parents and their children will be serving side by side. This will allow families to serve God by serving others. We had a great initial meeting last Sunday and the potential team members seem eager to get underway with the preparation. I will keep in touch as things move forward.

Welcome

Welcome! This is my first attempt at starting a blog. I have a simple reason for wanting to attempt such a thing, and here it is..it seems as though God has been doing so many great and interesting things in the life of my immediate family and church family. Therefore I want to share these exciting general revelations of God's grace with any and all who are interested. I look forward to not only sharing my simple little stories, but I also look forward to what may be shared from others in the blog sphere.
Here's to new beginnings....
pt