Satan on the economy

Craig and the team at Life Church do some pretty funny & creative stuff. I thought you might like hearing "Satan's" thoughts on the economy. Enjoy!

Ridge 1st Night of Worship

Sunday March 29th at 6pm Ridge Church will be celebrating our first "Night of Worship". This is going to be an incredible night as we come together to publicly celebrate and worship our God. This isn't just a Ridge Church deal it's a Jesus deal so be sure to invite friends to join you.

"Night of Worship" on Facebook. Sign up HERE.


Important Bullets about the night:

• Student Impact Room will open at 5:30PM for students 6-12th grade
• College Students are invited to our house (Chris and Angie) after the service from 8-10Pm for pizza. We want to get as many of you as possible together. I want to personally share our heart and vision for college students at Ridge.
• NO CHILDCARE will be provided for this event. We are asking people to plan ahead to arrange childcare for infants & toddlers so that our amazing children's volunteers can participate in this night without responsibilities!
• Morning--YES! We still have our 11am service that day. Part 2 of "He's Still* Got the Whole World in His Hands"
  

Obama on reduced charitable gift tax

I should start this post by saying that I am praying for my President. Without a doubt his task is one that requires divine guidance. That being said: In the live presidential news conference President Obama said that reducing the charitable giving tax would have virtually no negative effect on charitable giving bottom lines. Before you accept that as fact you need to consider this study by Indiana University. I can't bear the thought of how negatively this could affect churches. Many of them would likely cease to exist:

Obama Administration Considers Reducing Charitable Gift Tax Deductions

"The Obama Administration is considering reducing the deduction high income taxpayers can take for charitable gifts and increasing the top personal income tax rate.

The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University recently looked at how givingwould have been affected in 2006 (the latest year for which itemized deduction data are available) if the Administration's proposals for charitable gift deduction rates and personal income tax rates for taxpayers with income above $250,000 had been in effect at that time. The Center estimates that the two changes combined would have resulted in a reduction of total itemized giving by the highest income households of 4.8 percent in 2006, or...

a drop of $3.87 billion in itemized contributions by those households. Total itemized giving by households in the highest income categories in 2006 was $81.26 billion."

To read more click HERE

Monday Review [He's still* got...]

Great start to "He's still* got the whole world in his hands." Catch part one HERE. This is such a powerful, practical, and super relevant series. I can't think of anyone who hasn't at least been indirectly affected by the crazy swing in our economic reality. Even those who haven't been directly affected in the bottom line of their pay checks have thought or even worried about job security in ways like never before. Go ahead and make your plans and invites for part two. Here are a few pics from the day:

World out of control?

I'm really stoked about the brand new series starting this weekend at Ridge Church called "He's still* got the whole world in His hands". You've simply got to invite people to experience this! It is the topic at every water cooler and coffee meeting these days. People [churched & un-churched alike] are searching for answers. Here is a small taste of what's coming:

Be sure to join the Ridge Facebook Fan page!

Brilliant Ideas aren't enough

Before I quote him I should answer the question "Who is Guy Kawasaki?" Guy Kawasaki, former Apple executive is now a managing director of Garage Venture Technologies early-stage venture capital firm and a columnist for Entrepreneur Magazine. He is also blowing up the blog and twitter world!

Man oh man this little excerpt from Guy really struck a chord with me. I have been thinking about it since I heard it. Here it is:

"In the first part of my career I really thought that the key to my success was the brilliance of the idea...the second part of my career I've come to believe that good ideas are easy and it's all about IMPLEMENTATION [emphasis mine]. Good ideas are easy. Implementation is very hard."

Coming from a guy (no pun intended) that has been around the block a few times with success at almost every turn. This is a brilliant observation that we must consider! It's not enough to have a brilliant idea. We have to be able to bring them from concept or dream into reality. That is what the real difference makers do. I agree with Guy--"Implementation is the tough part." I've seen some brilliant ideas emerge for sure but I really love how well the leaders at Ridge Church are implementing! I'm thinking so much more but will stop here. It's a fact "most people don't read long blog posts"

Spectrum Recap

Ridge Church wrapped up our series called "Spectrum" on Sunday. It's been a great series and the response from people has been great. If you missed one you can catch up here:

Part One: Where are you?

Part Two: Polaroid picture

Part Three: Direction determines Destination

Here are a few pictures from the series

Gil and the Band bringin' the heat

Patrick Mitchell: Director of Upstreet & Student Impact

Four talks-One weekend

I will spend a rare weekend away from Ridge Church this Sunday. Since the core/formational days of Ridge Church all the way back into 2006 I have only missed one worship service. This weekend will be my second time away. My heart is so wrapped up in and committed to our mission at Ridge that it will be bitter sweet. The staff and volunteers are absolutely amazing and most won't even know that I'm gone!

Up until I really began to leverage all my time and energy into casting vision and forming a core team for Ridge Church in 2006 I maintained a pretty consistent itinerant speaking schedule. I will have the privilege of hitting the road again and speaking four times in one weekend for a retreat with the high school students of Silverdale Baptist Church. Though I'll miss Ridge I am really looking forward to hanging out with the group. Julian Drive will be leading worship for the weekend. It should be an all around great time. My hope and prayer is that God inspires and draws many students to move passionately and recklessly toward him during this time. I pray he inspires them (us) to greatness!

Change your Clocks!

Don't forget to change your clocks! Time to spring forward. It's supposed to be beautiful this weekend which will be a major contrast from last Sunday! I am praying for, anticipating, and expecting great things this weekend at Ridge. Part two of Spectrum and it all has the makings of an amazing day. Who are you inviting? Who are you bringing? AND What are you expecting? I love the fact that many of you will do so much more than just show up--you will pray up and you will expect much! BECAUSE..."[He] is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us." Ephesians 3:20

Role reversal?

This is probably an epic challenge for all of us. We must fight to keep our roles in order. I am first a follower of Jesus, second a husband, third a father, and fourth a pastor. Most of us, myself included need reminders and accountability keeping this whole deal in check. I have to be careful too not to look around and think "Well, I'm doing better than him", because we can always identify a few dead beet husbands and fathers to compare ourselves too. Scripture alone must be my standard and guide as I order and fill these roles that God has entrusted to me.

I don't frequently listen to Greg Laurie but I heard a brief clip on the radio recently and I thought it was a simple but phenomenal reminder. It was so challenging to me that I thought I would pass it along. He made the simple but accurate case that according to Scripture a man is responsible to God (at least on some level) for the spiritual life of his wife and children. Wow! That's pretty surreal and I've found myself reflecting on it for a couple of days now. If I succeed as a pastor yet fail at encouraging spiritual growth in my family I still fail. I can't afford not to be intentional in this arena and neither can you.

We talk often as a staff about positioning ourselves to do what we alone can do. Well, I am the only one who can be husband to Angie and dad to Brayden, Josie, and Maddie. I can't fail there!