Winter Update

From time to time I like to give my loyal readers an update on what is going on around Nativity, just to let you know what’s new, what’s next, as well as what happened.

Message Series
We are this weekend finishing up our first series for the new year, Greater Than. It has been a great series all about worry, and, as is the case with so many of our series, we now realize we are just scratching the surface of this important topic, which we will doubtless return to again at some point. Bottom line, everybody worries, it is a spiritual issue and it can be overcome. More than that, God wants us to stop worrying.

Next up to play is a series we’re calling Tough Love, which is going to try and tackle the difficult topic of love in action. This is all about how we live out our professed love for partners, parents, siblings, children, relatives, friends, and everybody else. As part of this series I am really excited that we are introducing a series of workshops focused on specific tough love challenges. We will be offering a “Care Giver” workshop for people supporting aging parents, a “How to Talk to Your Kids About Sex and Dating” for parents with teens and preteens, and a “Married Couples Date Night” for couples to spend time together and connect.

Strategic Planning/Vision Campaign
Our campus planning continues, with our most excellent parish leaders helping to give us direction. At this point we have some basic plans that we will be sharing with the parish beginning in March. The roll out will be a part of a very special message series we’re calling Vision, which will also launch our Capital Campaign, which we are also calling Vision. It will provide funding for our project. This will be an incredibly important and special time in the life of our parish. We will complete the launch of this three-year campaign on Easter Sunday, with a very special, completely unique celebration, which I will be announcing as part of the campaign.

Book Stuff/Travel
Both our books, Rebuilt and Tools for Rebuilding continue to do very well, consistently ranked as national best sellers on Amazon. Both Tom and I are very gratified and humbled by this response, as well as the various invitations we are receiving to speak around the country. We try and accept as many of these invitations as our schedule permits, though we insist on being back home for the weekend. Notably we spent some time in January in southern California, with several speaking engagements in various places. The trip also brought us together for the first time ever with one of our heroes and mentors, Pastor Rick Warren. A highlight of the trip in fact was just being able to sit down and talk to Rick. I must admit I also enjoyed stepping into his pulpit.