World Tour – Dec 4

Things are going well. We arrived back into Manila to talk with a publishing company, radio personalities and mission Board Directors. It is an official welcome to get to know each other. We met with a group of about 25 Manila Pastor’s on Wednesday to speak to them and hear their needs. We toured area churches, conference centers, etc. this afternoon for possible conference sites. For anyone who might know specifics, we are actually staying in Tagaytay City in the Province of Cavite.

Thursday we will meet with another group of about 50 area pastors to continue to assessing PEACE needs/projects. First observations are that the need is great here in the Philippines in all areas. This place will be very good for equipping leaders. They really want us to come back especially to work with the rural pastors and churches. Nelson is very influential among the Christians here. Dennis and I are still in prayer about how God is leading us here. It would be easy to go to Vietnam to do a mission as well because it’s so close. Will have wait and see we leave for Viet Nam tomorrow.

Thoughts From The Mall

Today as I was walking in the mall early in the morning, I began to pray for our church and was overwhelmed with a sense of gratefulness. God has truly blessed my life with people in this church. As a spiritual family I’m grateful to our devotion to Christ and I see that in the way we are worshipping more and more. I see it through our sacrificial giving to the kids of Meadows (over 700 uniforms) and our continual giving to the Lord through our tithes.  It overwhelms me when I think of our staff who go beyond the call of duty to serve. I give God thanks when I have other pastors calling me (like one did this week and the week before) asking for help and wanting our advice from finances to how to grow kids in the church. As I was walking I was reminded that God is moving in our students (double in small groups this year from last year). I thought of the new people who are on staff this year at Grace……. Cassy-Son City, Stacy-MDO, 20 new teachers with MDO, Ryan-Son City, Tyler-Fusion, this is to only name a few that I can remember. I worshiped God by giving him thanks for… Not Just Another Sunday….. For this past weekend when those 4 ladies sang that special before we closed our first service on our new series – Know God No Fear.

Even as I am typing this out on my blackberry, tears are coming to my eyes because of how God has blessed me.

May I encourage us all this week to take some time to count our blessings and try to name them one by one so we will be moved in our hearts to worship God through our gratefulness. And may it be seen as we come together this week as we continue to learn about our God.

Definately Not Just Another Sunday!

Wow!  What a great Sunday we just had. I have never been more exhausted from a weekend service.  I think it was due to the energy that I felt in the Big House and seeing people really get into worship. My prayer is that this year we will all come to church with the expectation that it will “Not Be Just Another Sunday” and that we will let God energize us whether that be from the worship, the message, the greeting of one another or our serving of kids, students, or adults. Here are some highlights from the series.

This weekend is our fall kickoff. I want to remind everyone that God has called us not to watch history happen but to make history – so let’s get out there and invite people to the new series – Know God… No Fear.  We will be studying the different character qualities of God in order to know him better and live more confidently in an age of fear.

Anyway have a great week and I’ll see you on Sunday with a smile on my face and a wild Hawaiian shirt on.

PG

It Definately Not Just Another Sunday

Wow!  What a great Sunday we just had. I have never been more exhausted from a weekend service.  I think it was due to the energy that I felt in the Big House and seeing people really get into worship. My prayer is that this year we will all come to church with the expectation that it will “Not Be Just Another Sunday” and that we will let God energize us whether that be from the worship, the message, the greeting of one another or our serving of kids, students, or adults. Here are some highlights from the series.

This weekend is our fall kickoff. I want to remind everyone that God has called us not to watch history happen but to make history – so let’s get out there and invite people to the new series – Know God… No Fear.  We will be studying the different character qualities of God in order to know him better and live more confidently in an age of fear.

Anyway have a great week and I’ll see you on Sunday with a smile on my face and a wild Hawaiian shirt on.

PG

I’m walking around the mall praying about my message for this weekend. I see this machine advertising proactive beauty products and as I walk a little closer I see a sign that says….. “Temporarily out of order.” It made me thank God that he isn’t ever out of order….that He is always at His best 24-7.

Anyway, I am totally pumped with all the neat-fun-new-exciting stuff that is going to happen this coming Sunday….Not Just Another Sunday. I can’t tell you what’s up…. all I can say is don’t miss it. There will be something for everyone.

Lots of Great Happenings At Grace

Sorry for lagging behind on my blog. I have been trying to catch up on stuff at church and just now feel like I am getting into the swing of things. Let me get you caught up with what God has been doing in just the last few weeks:

• Our church family provided over 500 school for kids at Meadows Elementary – we’re still taking donations, so keep them coming
• Attendance and excitement up from 1100 to 1400 (great for summer!). We had over 75 kids in middle school this past Sunday!
• Our new maturity strategy is coming together! We’ll unveil the strategy in a message series beginning October 12th. Get ready for The Journey.
• We’ve hired a new Children’s Director, Cassey Lawson who starts September 2nd.
• Our new playground has been completed. Check it out with your kids this weekend if you haven’t seen it yet.
• Our facilities are looking good thanks to our hard-working facilities team!
• We are impacting our community as other area pastors are asking us to help, mentor or train them.
• Our MDO Director has gone to teach in public school and God is providing strong candidates for the her replacement. We’ll keep you posted when we have hired someone.

These are some of the neat things that have been happening at Grace.

Let me just highlight one that is coming up that I don’t want you to miss – NOT JUST ANOTHER SUNDAY….. this will be our theme for the fall because I sense and see God moving in our services like He has never done before. This is not going to be just church as usual but rather a new experience with our LIVING God. The big kick off will happen on Sunday August 31. This is a family service unlike anything we’ve done before. I don’t want you to miss it. It will be a blast.

Colorado

I’m in Colorado enjoying my sabbatical for the 10th straight year. It’s so refreshing and renewing to my soul. There is something about being in the midst of Gods creation where there are mountains and wildlife help me see who God is and who I am. Sheryl and I have seen lots of mountains, a den of red foxes, an otter, a beaver and two elk and each time I just stared at them for as long as they allowed me to. Wow! Go God! I have spent my time going through the book of Matthew just focusing on Jesus – who he was, what he did and how he did it. One of the things that popped out in my reading was that any time someone asked Him to do a miracle He did it, He never refused them. It made me think how often do I think to turn to Jesus when I am in need of a miracle – not often enough I’m sure.

My mom came in during the last part of our time in Colorado and we took her to Santa Fe where she was raised as a kid. She hasn’t been back there in sixty-three years. It was something that I wanted to do for her.

I think what makes my time so special is not only the obvious – spending time with God – but doing it with my family. It just makes life feel close, real and empowered. This fall we are going to do something similar, something I’m calling FAMILY LIFE AT GRACE where we will experience God together in some very creative ways. As I have said before – it is better together. Mark your calendar for August 31st and plan to join us for “Not Just Another Sunday”.

See you in a few weeks!

On The Road Again

The Willie Nelson song, On The Road, could sum up the first day of my sabbatical again. My son, David came back home from seminary for a one-month break to visit us and get caught up with his friends, mostly to get caught up with his friends and girlfriend. I think I spent two days with him out of the month. I brought this to his attention, but he informed me that we would have twenty-four hours in the car together and could talk all we wanted when I took him back to seminary.

We started our road trip at 4am and drove to Phoenix the first day – a 16 hr drive. David slept the first 6 hours, so he wasn’t much company, but the rest of the trip we talked and listen to Coldplay’s new CD. (about 12 hrs of it, over and over again) I really did like it though. I listen to my kids music to build a bridge with them and have found I can relate to their souls better. Anyway David and I did get caught up from some of his ministry challenges (he is a youth pastor to kids in the inner city) his relationship with his girlfriend and how to know if she is the one. Well, after Phoenix we drove about 7 hrs and arrived in LA. Boy was that a trip! No thanks; I’m glad I live in Dallas.

I spent the night at David’s apartment and that was another trip. He was very proud of it but it is nothing like what I’m use to. I had forgotten what the living conditions were when I was going through graduate school. Anyway, I helped him get some of his apartment together before he and his roommate went out for the night. I chose to stay at the apartment and crash. I went to bed on an air mattress without any sheets, but that didn’t matter because I was so tired I fell right to sleep. The next morning I flew back to Dallas.

I enjoyed my time with David. It was good to be in his world and understand how God is raising him up to reach the next generation. Just before we left each other I asked him if after he graduates from seminary he would be interested working at Grace. I asked that question to see if he wanted to continue to be around his old man. To my surprise he said yes, that are more things he needs to learn from me. He sure knows how to make this old man feel good.

When I got back Sheryl and I left for our Colorado vacation and we are there now. I’ll get you caught up on that later.

C’mon, Let’s Grow!

For some time now, God has been leading us to work on a new maturity paradigm that we will be rolling out over the next several years. With a fresh look at how we will grow people in discipleship, we have plans in place to move toward these new maturity initiatives. We believe that our church family has a desire to grow deeper and will be excited about this new direction.

In the fall I’ll be doing a message series to kick off this plan. We will offer a personalized, spiritual self-assessment, encouraging everyone to participate. This assessment will help people more purposefully take the next step in their spiritual journey. Our programs will be targeting spiritual growth with a broader range of opportunities.

My prayer is that we would begin to grow in excitement as we move toward the future God has for us here at Grace. Go God!

Moving Day

Well, we’re on the move back to Plano and busy unpacking and getting settled the next few weeks. I’ll keep you posted on life at the Feiser’s though, so check back!