blog.arrowheadchurch.com

Good day today. Started the new series today we’re calling txt. I love talking about what God intends the church to be and so I had a blast today.

• Started the series in John 13. We’ll only carry out the Great Commission by serving one another and setting personal preference aside. Lots of people are stepping up to volunteer around the church right now, and to me, that’s a sign that God is at work and we are responding to Him. I love it.
• People actually texted in their questions! I wondered if you really would, so I didn’t shorten the message much. Next week I will! (If you missed church today, bring your cell phone for the next 6 weeks and you’ll get a chance to Q&A with us.)
• Got to brag on Tyler a little bit today. I said it in the service and I’ll say it again here: Arrowhead Church would not be where it is today without Tyler Patterson. Last fall, at a time when we had no idea who would lead us in worship, Tyler  stepped up and took the reins. His attitude has always been that he’ll do anything behind the scenes that’s needed. An attitude like that can open the door for a public platform. I’m thankful for him.
• Newcomer Lunch today! About 50 new people stuck around to get to know each other and hear about the church. The Lord is sending great folks to Arrowhead from LOTS of different backgrounds.
• Announced today that we’ll be doing some Sunday night hang out and get to know each other times this summer on Sunday nights. The first one is May 31. Then every-other-week after that. We’ll eat together and then take some time to talk about how we can all come together to serve this fall. Things will change up a little beginning in August and we need to be prepared.
• Eli is starting to have a little separation attitude (I’d say anxiety, but it’s attitude!) when he gets dropped at ArrowheadKids. Not good when the pastor’s kid cries when he gets left! Parenting tips anyone???
• Setup and teadown is tougher when there are other things going on besides the service, but so many people help out and do such a great job. Thanks to you if you’re one of them!
• Off to Innovate this week thanks to my old pals at SHBC. It’s gonna be a good time to pull away and learn and grow and be refreshed. I know I only work on Sundays but I still need it!

Have a great week!

I am so pumped about our summer series beginning this week called txt. Don’t miss it! It’s really more than a series. It’s an opportunity for us as a church to clear up our essential doctrines and beliefs. We’ll experience Sundays together as a springboard to a week of reading Scripture together to clarify each week’s topic. And, you’ll be able to text message your questions about the topic right there in the service where we’ll answer them live. It’s a giant game of stump the chump (chump being me…).

Here’s a little reminder from your old pal Mr. T.

Yesterday I talked about the necessity of planning if you want your kids to grow and learn everything you dream of. Things simply don’t happen by accident. If you want a family dinner this week, you’ll have to plan it. If you want a vacation this summer, you better get on the ball!

If you don’t have a family calendar and a regular time to sit down and sync it up among all members of the family, let me encourage you to start. It has eliminated the tension Sara and I used to experience when I had something planned she didn’t know about and vice versa.

If you are used to using the web for several tasks, let me recommend Google Calendar. Everyone in the family can all access it and update through one common password.

Had no idea what to expect today. We wondered if everybody would go to church with their mom or bring her with them. It was a good mix of both and a great crowd.

• Happy Mother’s Day to Sara and to my mom! I am very blessed to have great mothers in my life.
• Taught Titus 2:3-5 today. I think it’s very easy for moms to get so caught up in the details of life that they can forget their impact on their kids, their husbands, and even the world around them. The world watches godly families because there are very few.
• Tyler and the band did Daughters by John Mayer today. Great song. A few new worship songs as well. Fun upbeat worship day.
• Served scones for a womanly breakfast, but I gotta admit those things are good.
• 51 people in ArrowheadKids today. Crazy!
• Jana Hodges took everybody’s picture as a family. I think people enjoyed it, but she said people thought she was charging. It wasn’t Olan Mills people!
• Really excited about starting the txt series next week. Everybody remember to bring your cell phones and come with limbered up thumbs and armed with questions.

Today I just want to encourage you to take the steps necessary to keep these issues of prayer in front of you. Do whatever it takes. Write it on a piece of paper and stick it on your mirror so you’ll see it every day. Print the last 4 posts and put them in your Bible. Think about how you can intentionally pray and plan to be a part of the DNA of Arrowhead Church.

This Sunday at Arrowhead we get our first chance to make moms feel appreciated. We’ve got some great things planned. Girly breakfast, Tyler making the ladies cry, family pictures that we’ll email to you next week, and a message on what Biblical womanhood really is. Hope you can make it!

See Monday’s post to understand what we’re doing here this week on the blog.

Today I’m asking you to pray that God would make us people of love. Most Americans live in their own little world. We want what’s best for us. We take care of #1 and as long as we’re okay, the world’s okay. It may sound harsh, but individualism is our natural way of life.

We want Arrowhead to be a place where people around the church have a genuine desire to care for one another. We want to be able to serve and meet each other’s needs. We want to experience what true Christian community is all about.

We also want Arrowhead to be a place where we are love our town and our world. There are broken and hurting people all around us of all stages of life, income level, race, religion, etc. Honestly, much of the problem isn’t with them - it’s with Christians! Pray for God to increase our level of love and concern for them to the point that people around us know that we are a church that cares.

See Monday’s post (5/4) for a look at what we’re doing here this week on the blog.

Today I’m asking you to pray for God to make us people of passion for God. There’s not much shortage of passion around Arrowhead Church right now. God is moving and people’s lives are changing, and that’s awesome. For all of us calling the church our home, we see the new faces and experience the Lord each week.

But here’s what I know: new wears off very easily. We get casual so quickly. We start to take the movement of God for granted. What we’re experiencing at Arrowhead isn’t normal, and we can’t forget that. Normal is going through the motions.

Pray for God to give us real life. Pray for Him to speak so clearly through His Word as you read it that it burns within you to be more like Jesus and to reach people around you that need Him.

See Monday’s post (5/4) for info about what we’re doing here this week on the blog.

Today I’m asking you to pray that we’ll be people equipped and passionate about serving. The nature of the beast in starting a new church is that you have to do a lot of things that you really aren’t ready and trained for. So many people have volunteered to do so much in our first 100 days, and I am so grateful.

I want us to carve out some time intentionally this summer to make sure we’re all equipped to do what God has called us to do at Arrowhead.

Pray for God to provide us with the right calling, materials, and time slots for us to come together to be not only passionate about serving others but equipped to do so.