• God is obviously doing some great things in our church right now. The presence of God is real in our services...our sense of worship seems to be growing every week...people are getting saved...attendance is up considerably over last summer...and it's the middle of the SUMMER! God is up to something!

• Yesterday was week 3 of All Jacked Up. I've really enjoyed teaching through this series. It never ceases to amaze me how powerful God's word really is. And how relevant it is! The last two weeks we've seen how to keep our lives from getting all jacked up in the areas of sex and money. Could that be more relevant in our culture today?

• Had fun with the visual illustrations yesterday. Loved the look on faces when I pulled out the brownies and started handing them out to the front row. There's a reason why Jesus used so many visual illustrations when he taught. When you couple a simple visual with the inherent power of the Bible it's like a one-two punch. 

• Somebody asked me recently what I enjoy most about leading a church. My answer was simple - I love seeing life change happen! I love to see people whose lives are broken being put back together by Jesus. I love seeing marriages saved and families healed. I love to see people move from sin to freedom. I love to see the hurting find hope.

• And I love being part of a church full of people who "get it." NHC'ers understand that it's not about us, it's about Jesus and HIS mission. It's about helping others to encounter God. It's about reaching out and inviting them...welcoming them...serving them...loving them...and leading them to new life in Christ.

• Thanks for being that kind of church, NHC!

•  On another note, we also introduced our new Student Pastor yesterday. Dwayne Sayer comes to us from Lima, OH and brings almost 20 years of student ministry experience to our team. Can't wait to see  how God is going to use Dwayne to take our great Spiked team to the next level!

• I can't help but think God has even greater things in store for us in the next few months. Can't wait to see what He's up to!

I know I say it every week, but hey, it's true - it was another great day at New Horizon yesterday!

• In Pt. 2 of All Jacked Up we talked about sexual temptation. Why did we talk about sex in this series? Because we're talking about things that can seriously jack up your life and giving in to sexual temptation can radically mess up your life! Thankfully I don't know that from personal experience, but I do know it from seeing the wake of destruction left by men who couldn't keep it in their pants and women who just wanted to feel special.

• Sex is God's idea! (And a very good idea, I have to say.) He created it. He created it for us to enjoy. But he created it to be enjoyed in a COMMITTED MARRIAGE BETWEEN A HUSBAND AND WIFE. Anything other than that, and you're going to do some serious damage.

• 1 CO 6 is SO clear - When it comes to sexual temptation, FLEE...RUN...GET OUT OF DODGE!

• Why? Because your body is a very special thing. It's a temple. It's a dwelling place for the Holy Spirit.

• AND...it doesn't belong to you. Your body is not your own. You have been bought at a price...the price of redemption...the price of the blood and life of Jesus Christ.

• THEREFORE...HONOR GOD WITH YOUR BODY. Don't do something with your body that would dishonor God.

• I know some of the things I talked about seemed extreme but just think for a moment about what Jesus said in Matthew 5. He was talking about sexual temptation when he said, "If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away...And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away." In other words, do whatever it takes to stay away from sexual temptation! 

• AND...15 more people committed their lives to Jesus yesterday. Yahoo!!!

• Like I said, another great day at New Horizon!

P.S. This week our new Student Pastor, Dwayne Sayer arrives! Pumped about having Dwayne join our NHC team!

Hard to believe it, but we're halfway through July already! And yesterday was another great Sunday at New Horizon! Here are a few of the highlights...

• Hundreds of people flooded the altar yesterday as we did an old-school invitation to come back to Jesus. It was an absolutely amazing sight to see.

• Here's a a few excerpts from the day:

- Most of us don't intentionally drift away. Nobody gets up one day and says, "I think I'll start drifting away from Jesus today." We just kind of cruise along and step by step we inch further and further away and we're totally unaware.

- And yes, the driving story was true! I was involved in a double stop by a State Trooper. Me and the other guy BOTH got tickets!

- What kind of steps do we take? We usually start off by neglecting the things of God. We stop reading the Bible...we stop worshiping...we stop serving. Then we start hanging with a different crowd...the kind of crowd that is definitely not headed in the direction of Jesus! Then we start to give in to temptation. And the end result? Spiritual death...you're all jacked up!

- So how do you get unjacked? Go back...do a 180 and walk the walk of repentance.

- And no matter how far you've walked away you can always come back. In fact, the thing that Jesus wants most is to restore your relationship. He's not mad at you. He just wants you back.

• The band really nailed it this weekend! Zac's version of Use Somebody was an awesome opener for the series. And the worship set was intense! Then the acoustic version of Lead Me To The Cross just sealed the deal. (Which, BTW, was a last minute audible to make the old-school invitation work.) Every week I'm reminded that we are so blessed to have the great, flexible worship team we have. You guys rock!

• Oh, and I can't forget - professional blackjack dealers in the lobby! (All JACKED Up...get it?) I found out I'm a horrible blackjack player. I couldn't win a single chocolate coin! Guess I'd better stay away from the casino.

• Weekends like this just remind me how much I LOVE OUR CHURCH! A place where we're real...a place where we have fun...and a place where we do serious business with God. I can't think of any place I'd rather be or serve!!

• See ya' next weekend!!!

All Jacked Up...ever felt that way? The truth is, we're ALL jacked up...jacked up by decisions and experiences in our lives that just mess us up. Beginning this weekend we're going to talk about 3 really big things that will jack you up. Oh, and we're also going to talk about how to get un-jacked too!

I can’t wait to dive into this series…it’s going to be a blast…and we’ve got something planned for the beginning of the service that you don't want to miss! So get here early and bring a friend!! See ya' Sunday!!!

I don't very often get a chance to say this about a Sunday that just happens to fall directly on a major holiday, but, yesterday was an awesome day at New Horizon!!

* Yesterday was Independence Day (July 4th) and we are in the full throttle throes of the vacation season. And in the Triangle that means everyone heads for the beach. So we knew that attendance would be down...lots of volunteers would be out...and not too many guests would be showing up.

* So we made a strategic decision: rather than just give in to a down Sunday we decided to buck the trend with a baptism Sunday.

• What would have been a really down Sunday turned into an incredible one with 52 people stepping into the waters of baptism!!! Absolutely phenomenal!!!

• And it was a fun day too! We started the day with our version of Minute To Win It. Unfortunately Guy Fieri wasn't able to be here, but Jamie did a good job of hosting and giving away two $50 bills to the contestants. 

• Jon and the band did a great job of leading us in worship. Our team is really growing at this and the worship atmosphere is getting stronger all the time. There are two really huge keys to the presence of God - worship and the word. As long as we're worshiping and teaching the Bible straight up, God's presence is going to rock our world!

• Had some fun teaching on baptism yesterday. One of the most challenging aspects of preaching is to be creative with something that has be taught over and over on a regular basis. So I had some fun yesterday with the Oreos.

• And I thought jumping into the baptism pool to illustrate a point was a good idea. However, I had no idea how hard it would be to stand up there soaking wet and finish my sermon! Oh well.

• But then to see people jump up and head for the back doors for spontaneous baptism made it all worth the effort. It was great to see our teams get excited about this weekend and making it into what it became. I've said it before, I'll say it again - we have the best volunteers in the world at New Horizon!!

• NHC'ers...NHC Staff...and everyone who was involved yesterday - THANKS FOR MAKING INDEPENDENCE DAY AT NEW HORIZON A GREAT DAY!!!

• Cant' wait to kick off our new series next weekend - All Jacked Up. And whatever you do, don't miss the opener. We have a very special treat in store!

I know, I know...I'm a day late. Sorry. But here's a few thoughts on the weekend...

• Fun wrap up to the Crush single's series! Any time I get to drive a Porsche 911 it's a fun day!! And getting to drive it onto the stage and use it as a prop to illustrate the sermon is more fun than I should be allowed to have!!

• We wrapped up with Junk In The Trunk (hence, the car onstage). Everyone has junk - junk from our past...from our sin...from our relationships...and if we don't drag it out of the trunk and deal with it we'll just drive right into our relationships with it. And no matter how "high performance" your relationship might be, if you're carrying around a bunch of junk it will seriously drain the horsepower from your marriage.

• We kind of took a risk with this series. Sometimes when we do a targeted series like this there are folks who think, "This isn't for me," and they bail out. But we didn't see that happen with Crush. In fact, we got a lot of positive comments from married couples and parents, as well as singles.

• Oh, and by the way, we saw almost 20 people commit to Christ this weekend! And some of them are already signed up for baptism this coming weekend! Now that's what I'm talkin' about!! It just goes to show you that when God's word is preached, no matter what it is about, God's word always accomplishes its purpose.

• And speaking of baptism, DON'T MISS THIS COMING WEEKEND, as we celebrate our Freedom with the celebration of baptism. July 4th is usually a bail out weekend for lots of folks, but I want to encourage you to put the cookout off for a few hours and join us as we celebrate changed lives at New Horizon. 

• If you want to be baptized you can still register here. 

• See 'ya July 4th!!

Yesterday was Father's Day. Not one of my favorite days on the calendar, for obvious reasons, but yesterday was a better one than I've had for the last few years. Here's a few thoughts on the day...

• Lots of folks out for the weekend. I think it was a combination of things - first full weekend after school was out and Father's Day. Another pastor commented on his blog that on Mother's Day moms drag the whole family to church. On Father's Day dads try to get everyone to stay home or go to the lake or skip church. Sad, but true.

• BUT...in spite of that we launched our new single's series entitled Crush yesterday and it was a blast!

• Why are we doing a single's series? Two reasons: 1) We have a lot of singles in our church and we want to make sure we are speaking to the issues that they face and deal with. 2) Because we want to make sure we all understand that singleness is a season that God may have us in for a reason.

• Yesterday we talked about the fact that if we're in the season of singleness we need to "Chill." Too often singles get so focused on what they don't have (someone to date, marry, etc.), they do anything and everything to "make it happen," when what they really need to do is "chill." Let God lead you through the process of finding the right person. The best thing some singles and engaged couples could do is SLOW DOWN...CHILL. Time is your friend not your enemy.

• Chilling out also gives you time to get clarity from God. One thing is sure - God wants you to get this right. This is the second most important decision you'll ever make, the first being your decision to follow Jesus. But the second is who you are going to spend your life with?

• We also did the "sex talk" yesterday. It was fun and tense at the same time. I had one mother who was sitting next to her teenage daughter tell me that when I asked how many married folks love sex and she raised her hand, her daughter grabbed her arm and held it down! Now that's funny!

• But here's the deal, singles - if you're involved sexually outside of marriage, you're just stunting the overall growth of your relationship and adding confusion to your decision-making process. AND IT'S SIN! (Don't want to forget to throw that in.)

• Finally, we talked about the fact that we all need advice from time to time and who we need to talk to at those times. Singles, whatever you do, DON'T GET ADVICE FROM YOUR SINGLE FRIENDS!! Find a man or woman who is older than you, loves Jesus and is committed to their spouse.

• Overall, lots of fun yesterday with a serious topic.

• AND...this proud grandfather has to say something about the feature song yesterday!! Arianna made her big church debut yesterday with the Taylor Swift song, "Love Story." I saw two things yesterday: First, I saw a lot of her mom in her, which was a good thing for me on Father's Day. Second, I saw her being herself. She's not a carbon copy of her mom, she's herself. And I'm very proud of who she's growing up to be.

• Looking forward to Pt. 2 next week - Junk In The Trunk. We're doing something next week that will be off-the-charts fun...something that some of you have never seen in church before...you don't want to miss it.

• Let me challenge you to get your friends here...single friends...married friends...teenage friends...student friends...'cause we're going to have a little something for everyone!

And you don't want to miss this Sunday at New Horizon!

We're kicking off a new single's series called Crush and it's NOT a series designed to make you feel inadequate or as if there's something wrong with you just because you're single. We're going to unpack the scriptures together and find out how to move beyond the crush into enduring love that will rock your world.

And if you're married, DON'T THINK YOU DON'T NEED TO BE HERE! As usual, we're going to make sure we throw in something for EVERYONE!

I can't wait to dive in this weekend. It's going to be a blast! AND...we've got some things planned for the next two weeks that are OFF THE CHARTS FUN!!

So, GET HERE THIS WEEKEND! GET YOUR SINGLE OR MARRIED FRIENDS HERE! GET YOUR TEENAGER HERE! It's gonna rock! See ya' Sunday!!

I know I said I wouldn't be blogging this week, but I've got some BIG NEWS! Our church grew today...by one. Mason McDonald arrived on the scene today, with a lot of help from Lauren and virtually no help from Jamie. (Just kidding Jamie!) But as far as I'm concerned that's big enough news to break the blogging black out for the week. BIG CONGRATS TO JAMIE AND LAUREN!!!

And, while I'm here, let me remind you that Sunday's comin' and it's gonna ROCK! (I know I say that a lot, but trust me, Bridezillas is gonna rock!) 

And we've got something planned for the beginning of the service that you DON'T WANT TO MISS. So get here on time...get in your seat...and be ready for something you've never seen at a wedding before.

I can't wait!!