Another problem is that I’m having a hard time getting a target to write to for this blog. Without a target, we aim all over the place, unsure if we’re actually accomplishing anything. That’s how I’ve been feeling.

I’ve thought about directing this blog in a few directions. Maybe men, maybe parents, maybe leadership, maybe social justice, or maybe just at church leaders. But, it’s not clear right now.

So, until I get a good target to shoot at, I’m going to keep up with some mind dump stuff. Here goes:

– I think that I pinched my sciatic nerve. It hurts. I biked 28 miles and ran 6 on it on Saturday and was okay. I ran 6 today and was limping as I ran. I even yelled out in pain. I’m still not calling this an injury, but I’ve been asking a bunch of people about what I can do to fix it.

– The NLC team that went to the Dominican Republic got back yesterday. I talked to Lindsay Kistner, who led the team, and she said that it was her favorite team to date because how God moved in their lives. It was pretty drastic. That led to a lot of life change in the DR too.

– I’m going with NLC to Kenya the first 2 weeks of September. I’m pretty pumped about it and also intimidated by it. We’ll be training pastors while we’re there, which will be amazing, but I don’t know what to expect, so it’s a bit intimidating. The missionaries there are awesome, so I know that it’s going to be an amazing trip!

– I’m still laughing at Scott Drummond’s #1 picture from the top 10 Vintage Pictures that we showed on Sunday. If you weren’t there, check out my facebook in the next few days and I’ll have them up.

– Annie’s more than half way through this second pregnancy. One of my favorite things is to lie with her while she sleeps and feel the baby kick.

– We still don’t have a name for the baby. We’re open to suggestions…if they’re good. Jack and Harry are out.

– I joined a new gym last week. I’m hoping that it’s a good one. We’ll see. They call themselves the, “Judgement Free Zone,” although I feel that they’re more judgemental. It’s kind of weird.

– Yesterday we showed a video for service with Craig Groeschel. It was awesome. Video church definitely works.

– Yesterday, we had a celebration for all of the people serving the community through nlc’s connection groups and other events. It was awesome to see so many people who are giving their lives to serve the community!

– I take Fridays off. I’ve thought of taking Mondays off, but I don’t think that it would work. I acquire a to-do list on Sundays that I need to work on right away…that would make my day off ineffective.

– Youth camp starts this week. Will Hutcherson is doing a great job as NLC’s youth pastor…he’s one of the most gifted youth pastors that I’ve ever met.

– I’m glad that I’m not going to youth camp. The one time that I did go was for a short stint where I was the youth pastor at NLC and I led the charge to pull pranks on different students. The manager at the place where we were staying told me that because of that, we were one step away from getting kicked out. I don’t do a very good job at being as strict as I need to be.

– Half of our staff is out of the office this week. I’m anticipating a lot of work getting done.

– Scott Drummond and I weighed in last week at the same weight: 205.1 lbs exactly. I think that he’s got me this week if we weigh in. He’s an animal!

– It is stupid hot outside and the humidity is brutal. I went running at 6 a.m. this morning and I sweat a lot.

– My battery on my car is almost dead. I need to run and get a new one.

– I feel like my marriage is as strong as it’s ever been. I’m having so much fun with Annie. She’s a great wifey.

– Karston is huge. It’s hard to believe that we’re going to have 2 kids in October. Can’t imagine what that will be like.

– I did a half-ironman a few weeks ago. It was pretty awesome and hard and great and horrible. It took me 6 hours and 26 minutes. I was 26 minutes slower than my goal, but I’m surprised at how much it doesn’t matter. I’m really just glad that I finished. I’m surprised at how it was like a marathon in that way…it’s just good to be done.

– Scott Drummond just bought a road bike. He’s going to give triathlons a shot…I hope that he likes it. He sold his motorcycle to buy the bike.

– We’re having a BOY! Annie is 18 weeks pregnant and we found that out today. Now, it’s time to find a name.

– It’s awesome to see God open doors for us to invest in church planters. There were 10 church planters and most of their wives in town for r9 last week. It’s a week of intense teaching and training with future church planters.

– Karston is huge. He’s growing up too fast. I feel like I need more time in the day, just to spend time with him.

– I wonder how long before the fad of Twitter falls to the wayside. What is next?

– I’ve been thinking a lot about how we can unite churches in our community to meet the needs of those in the community. How do we do it nationally? How do we get the walls to break down enough with pastors and denominations to make it happen? I’m thinking a lot about that right now.

– I think that local churches have individual callings as a whole. I think that a church in town has the calling to give a ton of money away in missions and send out a lot of missionaries. Another church’s calling is to unite the local churches in this community. I think that our calling is church planting. This is all just a guess though.

– I need to get more sleep. I’m not doing a great job at that now.

– This economy is putting a magnifying glass on marital problems in our community. This is going to be a time where marriages have to confront mediocrity and focus on getting strong.

– The 30 day challenge of eating well went pretty good. It was harder than I thought it was going to be, but I stayed pretty close to what I was hoping for. I traveled 6 days during the month and that’s where I strayed the most.

– Eating 7 times a day is pretty difficult.

– Matt Keller is seriously one of the coolest guys I know. His heart for helping church planters and pastors across the nation is amazing. God’s going to use him and NLC to impact thousands of people.

– I had coffee with a guy yesterday who said that he wants to help 1 million people know Jesus in his lifetime. We’re teaming up to make that happen and work to solve some of the world’s big social justice issues…pretty amazing.

– I’m going to Kenya in September with NLC. We’re going to be training pastors there on community outreach and general church stuff. I’m pretty excited about it.

– LeAnne is 13 weeks pregnant. Her due date is October 30. I think that we’re more excited about this pregnancy because we’ve realized how amazing being a parent is.

– Scott Drummond and Will Hutcherson are both on twitter. Follow them if you’re on. They are @scottdrummond1 and @will_hutch. I’m @nextlevelmike if you’re not following me.

– I had one of the most amazing days on Monday. As a church, we prayed and fasted together, and I feel like I connected with God on a deep level. It was great and I needed it a lot.

– I really think that God is bringing Summit Church and NLC together in a cool way. I have a feeling that there is a lot more for us in the future together. The leaders of Summit are amazing guys.

– I’m doing a half-ironman a week from Sunday. I have a wedding the night before, so I have to drive to Orlando in the morning, back to Ft. Myers, and then back to Orlando that night. It will be a lot of driving. Hopefully it helps to rest my legs.

– r9 starts next Friday. A bunch of church planters are coming to town for 7 days and we’re going to download everything that we can about church and church planting into these couples. I had a guy from last year’s r9 say that it was the event that has helped their church be what it is today…pretty cool.

– God is moving in a big way at NLC…I can’t shake the feeling.

Sarah Keller developed this diet for me…she’s lost 25lbs since January 5th.

Here it is

Menu
5 a.m.
Fiber One Bar or Protein Bar (with Protein and Carbs)
–    At least 6 Grams of Protein and less than 35% fat
Banana

7:30 a.m.
3 Eggs (2 Egg Whites, One Yolk)
Breakfast Meat (Turkey Bacon or Lean Sausage) – this was mine, Sarah didn’t tell me to add this
Whole Wheat Toast
Vegetable (in eggs) or Fruit

10 a.m.
Cottage Cheese
Fruit or Vegetable
Kashi Cereal (Go Lean) – Protein of 9g and Fiber of 9g+

12:30 p.m.
Chicken/ Salmon/ Turkey
Brown Rice/ Whole Wheat Bread/ Whole Wheat Pasta
Vegetable: Broccoli, Lettuce, etc.

3 p.m.
Yogurt
Kashi Cereal (Go Lean) – Protein of 9g and Fiber of 9g+
Or EAS Drinks

5:30 p.m. –ish
Chicken/ Salmon/ Turkey
Brown Rice/ Whole Wheat Bread/ Whole Wheat Pasta
Vegetable: Broccoli, Lettuce, etc.

8-9p.m.
Almonds
Cottage Cheese or String Cheese
OR
Apple or Banana with Peanut Butter
OR
Bowl of Cereal and Peanut Butter – this is mine, not Sarah’s

Rule: Stay away from “bleached” or “enriched.”

So, for the month of March, we did a spending freeze. No spending on extra. That was the goal.

I’d like to say that we stuck with the challenge 100%, but we didn’t.

What we did find out, though, is that it changed the way that we thought about spending money. We found that we were way to lackadaisical about the way that we would spend. I would go to Starbucks or lunch somewhere without thinking about the money that I was spending. Doing the spending freeze forced us to PAY ATTENTION to the money that we spent.

The 30 Day Challenge, more than helping us to save in a month, changed our hearts. It made us look at the way we spent and the way we thought about spending and why we felt the NEED to spend and as those things were revealed to us, it was as though God was able to work on them.

I liked that 30 Day Challenge so much, I’m doing another:

THE NEW 30 DAY CHALLENGE

For the month of April, I’m eating healthy. That’s right, no ice cream every night (just during the 1 alloted time during the week) , no fried food, and no doughnuts on Sundays at NLC. If you know me, you know this is kind of a big deal. I am very disciplined in exercise, but not in eating.

I have a daily menu to help me to stay on track, and I’m going to stick with it through April.

My hope through this is that the reason for my NEED to eat bad stuff will be revealed to me and as that happens, hopefully I will be transformed by God.

If this works like the financial challenge does, there might be something to this.

If you’re on the fence, we need you to get off the fence on get on board! Jump on over to this side and do a block party!

Leave a comment on here if you want to do a block party with your e-mail address and I’ll e-mail you all of the details!

Also, go to http://www.feedingfortmyers.com for the details!

We’re going to host 100 block parties across SWFL and collect cans to donate at each block party. The goal is to collect AT LEAST 10,000 cans! That alone will feed thousands!

If you didn’t sign up for a block party, do it this Sunday!

We need more of you to host a block party! Go to www.feedingfortmyers.com for more details.

Together, we’re going to impact SWFL in a huge way and show the love of Jesus in a real way!

Here are the details, in case you missed it or want to review:

– We want 100 people to host a block party throughout SWFL in their own community on April 4. By block party, we mean a ‘party’ where you invite all of your neighbors on your ‘block’ or neighborhood.

– At the block party, we want you to cook out/have food, hang out, and get to know your neighbors. This is just a cool way to know who you live around and really connect with them.

– We want all of your neighbors who come to the block party to bring CANS – lots of them. Our goal is to have each block party collect 100 cans. If we do that, we will raise 10,000 CANS to help feed the people of Ft. Myers and the SWFL Region!

– On April 5th, we’re all going to bring the cans to church to collect them and then give them to the Fort Myers Soup Kitchen, where 10,000 cans will feed the people there for almost a WHOLE MONTH!

So, here’s what we want YOU to do:

– Pray about hosting a block party in your neighborhood. If you don’t get a CLEAR yes, then I’ll clarify for you and say that the answer is probably yes because the very heart of this is so close to God’s heart!

So, here’s what WE’RE going to do:

– Make it EASY for you to host a block party. THIS Sunday, we’ll have Host Kits for you to pick up at the resource table. We’ll give you EVERYTHING that you’ll need to plan your Block Party!

– If you will have a hard time financially, we’ll tell you this Sunday about a way that we’ll help to off set the cost!

– Tomorrow afternoon, www.feedingfortmyers.com will be up and running – check it out for more info.

By doing this, NLC has the potential to impact the lives of THOUSANDS of people by meeting their need on a very practical level. Also, it’s going to give all of us an opportunity to meet and connect with our neighbors and include them in something HUGE! Not only that, but it will provide all of us an opportunity to invite some of our neighbors to experience the Sunday morning environment at NLC that so many of us love which will hopefully spark their interest in going deeper with Jesus!

This is going to be awesome!