Ignite!

Sorry for dropping out of the blogosphere the past few days but the weekend events and our Tuesday night Student Ministries have been keeping me kind of busy. Let me give you a quick update on what's been happening.

First, The Neighborhood Family service kick off last Friday night was awesome. Even though it was a bitter cold night, we had about 200 people show up and we all enjoyed a fantastic evening. The only thing better than the food and fellowship was the actual presentation. Tons of first-time guest families enjoyed a great night with humorous videos and dramas, along with a creative bible lesson on honesty. What a great way to spend a Friday night with your family. Pastor Josh and his team of volunteers truly did a great job and I was never more proud of all of them.

Next, the Sunday services were fantastic. We had 27 first time guest (both kids and adults) and 9 salvation's. PCC, you amaze me each weekend with your passion to bring your friends to church. It's awesome to see how God is changing lives and entire families.

And what can I say about tonight's Ignite Student Ministries service. It was off-the-chain! Even though we had to postpone our Truce Outreach, we still had over 150 people show up and the service was great. There was lots of testimonies of life change from our students, Christian hip hop music and dancing, free styling on the microphone and Pastor Danny shared his testimony through song and wrap. The best part of the night was watching 23 students stand up to make a commitment to follow Christ. God is so good. Pastor Danny and the students made the most out of a very difficult situation. Like Danny said, "Truce might not be here tonight, but Jesus is!" I believe with all my heart that our teenagers are going to "ignite" a revolution of God-honoring teenagers within our community that will make a positive impact on this mountain.

Neighborhood Family Theatre

Our new monthly family service kicks off tonight at 7pm in the Junior High School at Pocono Mountain West. Start the weekend off right by spending much needed time with your kids.

The evening will begin with a FREE spaghetti dinner (I hear there will lots of different colors of spaghetti) and Pastor Rudy and the hospitality team are making some special sauce.

Then, sit back and relax and enjoy a family-friendly service which will include: high-energy worship, dance, videos, storytelling and much more. The value of the month is honesty. The night will last about an hour and half and I'm sure everyone will leave wanting more.

If you want to volunteer, just swing by and offering a helping hand.

See you all there!

Pastor Dave

Creating Some Buzz!

Hey PCC! We made the front page of the Pocono Record today! It's our first-time ever to be on the top-fold. That's awesome. I'm so pumped up about our outreach, Extreme Home Makeover, and the buzz it is creating in our community. If you want to read the article online, here's the link: http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070222/NEWS/702220309

Let's continue to pray and ask God to use this creative outreach to bless this community as we reach out with His love in a practical way.

You're awesome PCC!

Pastor Dave

Family Day

Today is my day off. I'm spending the entire day with my wife and kids. We're going to go out to eat, tool around the mall and just relax and have some fun together. Let me encourage you to make time for the people you love. Here's how we spell love in our house, T-I-M-E. There is no substitute for abundant time with your family.

Billy Graham was once asked if he would have done anything differently in his ministry. He didn't say he would have held more crusades or written another book or empowered more leaders to change the world. He only said, "I wished I would have spent more time with my kids."

You have to chose HOW you are going to spend your time and WHO you are going to spend it with. Parents, we only have one opportunity to be with our kids when they are young. Let's make the most of it.

This dad is off to the mall.

Dave

Prayer Requests

Tonight's prayer meeting was awesome! If you missed it, let me encourage you to stand with us in prayer as we are planning some major outreaches this coming week.

First, the Family Theatre is kicking off their new season in a new venue and time. The service, specially designed for kids and parents to learn together in a family-friendly environment will be this Friday night at the West Junior Higho School and it will include a free dinner, music, dance, video, puppets, drama and more. This months value is "honesty." Come and enjoy a great night with your family. Bring your friends!

Second, please pray that we will be able to hold our student minsitry outreach concert with special hip-hop artist, "Truce". This outreach may potentially need to be postponed due to the fact that too many students may attend. Please pray for wisdom and favor with the school district.

Last, pray for our Extreme Home Makeover Series and outreach. Today the local newspaper called and interviewed me for a story on our outreach. Ask God to use this story to tell others about Jesus. Also, the local news station called and want to do an interview regarding this creative outreach to our community. God is using this series to create a lot of good buzz for PCC this month. Let's bombard heaven with our prayers for great success that God may ultimately be glorified.

In prayer,

Pastor Dave

Weekend Update

We had a great weekend at PCC as we kicked off our new series, "Extreme Home Makeover: Family Edition." Both services were packed with lots of people, enthusiastic worship, human video, humorous drama and a down-to-earth message on parenting.

Thanks so much for inviting all your friends and for serving in ministry. I'm so proud of you and our entire PCC church family. I'm looking forward to next weekend already. My message title is: "What every kid needs from a parent."

Dave

Time To Take Out The Trash

Every Sunday night I have to take out the trash. It's my job. Often times, unfortunately, I will lapse with this all too important domestic responsibility. Of course, this doesn't make my wife very happy.

I'm not proud to admit that it's been about 3 weeks since I've taken out the trash. Before you judge me prematurely, let me at least offer up a feeble explanation. First, I tried to take out the trash a couple weeks ago and the trash collector somehow missed my containers at the end of our driveway. I guess it's because we are new in the neighborhood. So, I had to haul everything back into my garage. I missed the next trash pick up day while away on a missions trip so now there is two weeks of trash that need to be discarded. Last week, I was fighting the flu and the trash pile continued to grow.

Here's the deal with trash - it stinks. The bigger the pile, the bigger the stink. The smell of rotting trash attracts rodents and other scavengers, as well. Now my wife is worried we are going to get mice in the garage and have to call an exterminator. If that wasn't bad enough, we had some friends over the other night and since we had all that snow last week, they had to come in the house through the garage and what did they see - a big pile of stinky trash. Now that's embarrassing.

I found there are a lot of similarities between physical trash and relational trash. We all have things that pile up in our relationships and if we don't take time to empty the emotional containers, stuff starts to pile up and life gets stinky. If you let stuff go too long, you might have to call in a professional to help deal with all the emotional and relational garbage. The next thing you know you find yourself in an embarrassing and seemlingly insurmountable situation.

So here's my advice, don't forget to take out the trash. Don't wait and say, "I'll do it later." Make time to keep your relationships fresh.

That's all for now. I gotta go take out the trash.

Dave

Celebrate Good Times!

I just got a call from our youth pastor, Danny, who informed me that ALL of our students who participted in the 2007 Fine Arts Festival advanced to Districts! Congrats to all our students and their parents. I'm so proud of our stundets and the fact that they are using their God-given gifts to minister to others.

I can't wait until tomorrow morning where the students will perform in both morning services their award-winning human video. You don't want to miss it.

Kudos to Ignite!

Pastor Dave

TGIF!

For those that live in the Monday to Friday grind, Friday is often the most anticipated day of the week because it ushers in the weekend. Most of my friends live for the weekends and the fun, relaxation and enjoyment it brings. Unfortunatley, I have to work weekends. Not just every-other weekend. I mean, every weekend ... for the rest of my life. My boss is relentless. Ha!

When Friday rolls around for me, it's just another reminder that Sunday is soon approaching and I've got to be ready to go for the weekend message. This week we are kicking off a brand new teaching series, "Extreme Home Makeover: Family Edition." I'm really jazzed about it because it's going to bring tons of practical, Biblical advice on parenting. If you are a parent or know someone who is a parent or one day hope to be a parent, please be sure to check out this new series. For more information on the series, go to www.poconocc.com or click on the logo to the right.

Hope to see you there.

Dave

My 35th Valentines Day!

I was born on Valentines Day in 1972. I can't believe I'm already 35 years old. What began as a special Valentines gift to my mom has turned out to be a pretty sweet life. I'm incredibly blessed to have a wonderful family, beautiful wife, two awesome kids and the opportunity to lead the coolest church in America. Thanks to all my friends and family for the great birthday cards and gifts.

Now that I am in my solid mid-thirties, it's time to reflect on life a bit. This blog will give me the chance to share what's going in my personal and professional life. Hopefully, it will add some value to your life, as well.

Here's a picture of me and my daughter, Kate, having some fun in the snow while digging out from the snow storm we had in the Pocono's yesterday.

Hope you have a great Valentine's Day filled with lots of love and laughter.

Dave