Web Stats

This morning I did a little research on where www.coastlands.org is at as far as web traffic. Here's the stat summary:
I think the most important number is under the yellow column ("Visits"). For March we've averaged 136 unique visitors per day. Those visitors view 3.4 gigs of content per day. About 15 sermons are downloaded each day (10 video, 5 audio).

I think of our website as the front door to our church. In other words, I would guess that most visitors who come to a service at our church have visited our website first.

How cool that part of how our church family is going into "all the world" is through our website.

The Myth of "Balance"

Sometimes people talk about living a "balanced" life. If that's helpful to them, that's great. But to me it sounds too precarious. I don't think Jesus modeled a balanced life. He was radical. He rested when most people thought He shouldn't (i.e. in the middle of a storm) and He worked when people thought He should be resting (i.e. on the Sabbath). We're not called to be "balanced," we're called to follow Jesus.

I prefer to think of my life being in "tension" rather than in "balance." Jesus has asked me to invest myself 100% in my family, in my church, in my walk with Him, in my friendships (both in and out of the church), and so forth. Each of these act like a guy-wire that anchors me in who He's made me to be. If I let go of any, not only am I being disobedient to His call on my life, but I become unstable as a person.

Balance sounds like I'm supposed to do everything a little bit--divide myself up evenly (sounds like "mediocrity"). Tension (or "obedience," whichever you prefer) enables me to give myself 100% to what Jesus has asked me to do .

Anticipating & Remembering

One of my favorite feelings in the world is anticipation -- the knowledge that something great is coming, but I'm just gonna have to wait for it. That's why I schedule and plan vacations and date nights far ahead of time. I love looking forward to things...

I also love remembering things. I take lots of photos and videos because I want to capture the moments so that I can rehearse and savor them later. And it's also one of my motives for having a blog. Yes, it's for the people who read it. But it's also for me.

A few moments ago, I just had a breakthrough... I started thinking about what implications these passions can have for my walk with God. "Waiting on the Lord" took on a fresh meaning. I want to have the same enthusiasm for Jesus' good plans for me that I have for my own vacation and date nights!

And "remembering God's faithfulness" triggered new thoughts. I want to have the same passion for capturing and savoring His faithfulness to me that have for my photos and videos.

I love when God shows me that the stuff that excites me also excites Him...

Pizza My Heart

After work today, I took the boys down to the beach, flew kites in the stiff breeze, and then bought us Pizza My Heart for dinner. We chased seagulls in between bites.

And I felt little Larissa kick for the first time the other day! What an incredible moment!

Easter Weekend Recap

What a fantastic weekend! Here were some of the highlights for me:

• Good Friday - At our two services (noon & 7:00pm) I could feel the spiritual vibrancy in our church family. Although many of us were exhausted with hunger (fasting is definitely fatiguing), worshiping together was an electrified experience. I shared from 1 Peter 4 about how suffering loosens the grip that sin has in our lives. I am believing that a wonderful process was initiated and / or continued for many people. Specifically we prayed against confusion, addiction, and futility.
• Pancake Breakfast and Easter Egg Hunt (look for a photo album and/or summary video on our website in the next few days) - We sold 604 breakfasts and parked 452 cars. Tough to get a precise number on how many people were here... But if we guess that the average car had 3 people in it, that would be 1,356.
  
• Many thanks to the hundreds of volunteers from our church family who helped provide this wonderful time for all those kids and their families. I was so proud of the way that our church family interacted with the hundreds of guests that we had on our campus. It's always a challenge to leave the comfort of a conversation with somebody that you know to go and connect with somebody that you don't know. But I felt like we engaged better than ever this year. My guess is that this was largely due to the way that so many people gave themselves to fasting & prayer on Friday. Kind of a spiritual overflow...
• Many families have begun to make our Egg Hunt an annual tradition with their families. Fun to see grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins all getting in on the fun...
• No Services Saturday Night - Kinda weird to say that this was a highlight. But it's true. I really enjoyed having a Saturday night off...
  
• Easter Sunday - We had two services, 9:00am & 11:00am.
  
• I was blown away by our worship team. They did an incredible job both musically and spiritually. I really felt led into the presence of our risen Savior!
  
• For the sermon, I took on a big chunk of text from Romans 1:18-25. We had a lot of fun tearing it apart... I really wanted to give everyone the gift of a message that would give them something to consider for awhile.
• My only regret was that it was a little long. I really wanted to have a slightly shorter service. That's something I've been really focused on this year. They say that good writing is condensed and to the point. Getting good at writing means saying more with less. I think the same is true with speaking... and I've got lots of room for growth. *smile*
  

Reinvesting in Discipleship

For a chunk of last year, I spent a good deal of time and energy investing in getting our Children's Ministries up and going with more vision, excitement, creativity, and life. We've still got our work cut out for us. We need to stay faithful to water and weed so that we can see a harvest from these seeds we've worked so hard to plant. But I feel good about where we're at and where we're headed.

Now I feel the Lord calling us to turn our attention to our ICU's. To refocus and reinvest ourselves in the process of discipleship. I'm praying that the Lord gives us eyes to see people, to invest in them, to encourage and train them, and to release them into more than they thought possible for themselves.

Let's start living more like this:
Find somebody to get beneath and lift them up. Allow others to help you. Aspire to follow the Lord and other people into greater responsibility and service.

Now that you're done reading this, pick up the phone and call somebody. If you need help, call somebody who can help you. If you're feeling pretty OK right now, call somebody from your ICU or somebody you haven't seen around in awhile. Just ask them how they are doing. You'll be amazed at what God does when we take small steps like that...

Property Update

I just finished reading the latest news in the ongoing saga of Dominican's efforts to sell the property that we rent from them. Dominican has been very kind and generous with us over the many years we've been here. I wholeheartedly support their mission of extending Jesus' healing touch to the people of our community.

I also feel confident that the Lord has instructed us not to worry about this issue. He is our Provider and He wants us to trust Him through this process. I've blogged more extensively about this here and here and here.

Exalting Jesus Christ

“And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.” John 12:32

This verse has been on my heart for the last couple days. As Jesus is exalted, He draws people to Himself. Far more than any strategy, evangelistic effort, or discipleship program, when people worship Jesus Christ with all of their being (with all their heart, mind, and strength engaging every part of themselves: body, soul, and spirit) it produces an irresistible force. The life and power found in serving and worshiping Jesus is simply too awesome to be contained and too good to pass up.

I've been praying lately that the Lord would purify my worship of Him and intensify my experience of Him. I know Jesus. But I want to know Him more fully. I've experienced grace. But I want to be immersed in it. I love Jesus more than anything in this world. But I feel the Spirit telling me I've only scratched the surface...