A Night of Blessing

Tonight is the culmination of our 21 days of prayer and fasting. Here's some information that you need to know:

• We are breaking the fast together at 6pm with a church family breakfast.
• Breakfast literally means to break - the - fast.
• So we will be serving pancakes, eggs, bacon, fruit and much more.
• Dinner starts at 6pm. Bring your kids and friends It's FREE!
• After dinner, we will move into the auditorium for a time of prayer and worship.
• I have a special message entitle The Blessing.
• We will be blessing men, women, families, youth, and businesses and more.
• I will teach people how to bless each other. It's going to be powerful.
• Please make every effort to be here!!!

Weekend Highlights

Here are some highlights form this past weekend:

• Despite the first snow storm in the Northeast, we had great services. It affected our attendance somewhat but not the spirit of those that made it to our worship experiences.
• The worship was off the chain. Love that new song "You are Good" by Ricardo Sanchez. The worship team simply rocked this weekend. So proud of them!
• Spoke on anger and used the Angry Birds app as the metaphor. Had a lot of fun for my message opener by launching angry bird plush dolls into the audience with a two man slingshot launcher. What a good time!
• Ephesians 4:26 says, "Be angry, do not sin and don't let the sun go down on your anger so you don't give opportunity to the devil."
• It's not a sin to be angry. Jesus was angry. It was a righteous anger (Mt.21) as opposed to the anger of man that doesn't lead to the righteousness of God (James 1:20).
• Anger is a choice. No one makes me mad. I make me mad.
• Whatever is on the inside eventually shows up on the outside.
• We need to open our hearts to the infilling of the Holy Spirit so he will exchange my hatred with his love, my depression with his joy, my turmoil with his peace ... Galatians 5:22.
• Going into the weekend we had 121 people signed up to HOST a community group this Spring for our new series, 40 Days in the Word. What great spiritual momentum.
• Really close to meeting our goal of 200 groups!
• I have a HUGE announcement for the kickoff weekend of our 40 Days In the Word weekend February 18/19. Unreal!!!
• Had a college girl ask me if she could lead a group in her dorm back in IUP. That's huge. She's already got her dorm friends and suite mates signed up to be part of her group. We will send her the material and she will host the group.
• Had another girl tell me God set her free from unresolved anger and bitterness today. She spent her entire childhood being physically abused by her father. She forgive him today and is getting right with Christ. That's awesome!
• Had another guy tell me he's tired of blowing up in his anger. He showed me his bruised and bloodied knuckles form punching things. He said he doesn't want to live that way anymore. We prayed together for God to set him free!
• Another brand new believer signed up to HOST a community group but she can't make it to the training this Saturday from 9-11. So her unsaved friend from work who agreed to come to her group is actually coming to the training! That's unreal. Unsaved people who haven't ever been to church are coming to a 2 hour training to lead a group about studying the Bible. God is moving!
• Don't miss this Tuesday Night Prayer meeting where we will break the 21 day season of prayer and fasting with "Breakfast" (literally means to break the fast) at 6pm (it's free and childcare is available) and then at 7pm we will move into the auditorium for a night of Blessing!
• We have a special presentation this Tuesday for a family in the church. We are going to give honor to whom honor is due. Don't miss it.

Are We Having Church Tonight?

YESSSSSSS!!!!!!

Tonight is going to be a great night for church. The snow storm has passed through and the church parking lot is plowed. The sky's and the road will be clear tonight.

So, if you've been cooped up in your house all day ... go shovel your walk, clean off your car and get the kids together and come on out for church tonight!

I'll be sharing a powerful and practical word on how to deal with anger!

See you tonight.

Faith and Healing Nite @ PCC

Tonight @ 7pm we will meet together for a night of worship and prayer. We welcome special guest speaker, Austin Jones, a young missionary-evangelist with a passion to reach the lost and elevate the name of Jesus.

Austin is a dynamic, anointed preacher. Also, God has blessed him with the gifts of faith and healing. If you need a miracle or know someone who does than do whatever you have to do to get here tonight.

God has been moving in a tremendous way in our church during the season of fasting and prayer.

Tonight promises to be a little time of heaven on earth. I hope to see you there.

Please come expecting God to do something big!

3 Things Every Leader Must Do

Below are 3 essential elements of every leaders life.

1. Evaluate

• leaders are responsible to ensure that the right people are in the right place within the organization
• leaders help team members to lead from their strengths and play the appropriate role that will best help the organization advance the mission

2. Equip

• leaders make sure their team members have the necessary tools to complete the task
• leaders resource their team with coaching, development opportunities, educational experiences so that they can function to the best of their ability and beyond

3. Encourage

• leaders exude encouragement into everyone on the team by believing in the people they lead
• leaders help team members build an unwavering confidence that they can fulfill their dreams and organizational goals

A Prayer For Our New Campus

PCC is launching a new church plant this year in the Stroudsburg / East Stroudsburg area. That means we are going multisite. We will continue to be one church but will meet in two locations: Mt. Pocono and Stroudsburg/E.Stroudsburg.

Here are some specific things you can pray for as we prepare for this bold initiative for the glory of God. Thank you for your partnership in prayer.

Leadership

Pray for God to raise up Godly leadership to lead this new campus: specifically for a campus pastor, a kids ministry director and a worship leader. These leaders will in a large degree determine the success of this endeavor.

Laborers

Pray for God to raise up hundreds of volunteers who will be willing to serve and sacrifice for the cause of Christ at this new campus. The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few ... So pray to the Lord of the harvest to raise up laborers.

Location

Pray for God to go before us and open up the doors for a facility where we can meet, worship, pray, grow and introduce people to the transformative power of Jesus . Ideally, we would like to rent a permanent facility. We are also exploring portable options such as meeting in a school or theater. We need God to direct us and give us favor with a facility.

Lost

Pray for God to give us a great harvest of souls for this new church plant. After all, this is what the church is all about ... people. Please agree with us in prayer for an avalanche of unchurched people to collide with love of Christ in this new church and forever be changed.

New Message Series

This weekend we kick off a brand new messages series called d"Yeah, There's An App For That..."

It's going to be a fun, practical and insightful look at the life apps God wants us to download in order to be successful in 2012.

This weekend is "You Version" and we will looking at the value of committing to a daily Bible reading plan.

You don't want to miss it! Bring a friend!

Promises, Promises, Promises

"Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, "If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples, but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen, to make my name dwell there." Nehemiah 1:8

During this pivotal time, Nehemiah reminds God of the promises He made concerning the people of Israel. What an audacious thing to do!

Does God need to be reminded of His promises? Does he struggle with amnesia? Is He a forgetful Father? Absolutely not.

But we see all the greats of the Old Testament offer these prayer-reminders to God. Abraham did it. Moses did it. David did it. All the prophets did it.

My daughter recently reminded me of a promise I made to her. I love that my kids remember the words I speak into their life. It does my heart good to keep a promise. As a father, nothing makes me happier than to bless my kids and make good on my promises.

Our Heavenly Fathers feels the same way. He's not a distant or detached father that forgets His promises. No. He's trustworthy - worthy of our trust. And He always delivers.

Did you know the Bible contains over 7000 promises from God? Claim the promises of God for 2012. Pray the promises. Speak the promises over your life, family, business and future.

Don't forget: For every problem in life, there's a promise from God.

Spiritual Emphasis Month

This January we kick off our annual Spiritual Emphasis month here at PCC. (That's not to say we don't emphasize spirituality the other eleven months.) Rather, we dedicate ourselves to seeking the Lord in a season of 21 days of fasting and prayer at the start of the year.

Here are a few benefits of Spiritual Emphasis Month:

1) Clarity - Extended seasons of fasting and prayer help to eliminate distractions and unnecessary activity. This yields greater clarity and focus for important future decisions and direction.

2) Unity - Prayer binds the hearts of people together. The church or family that prays together, stays together. United we stand but divided we fall. Prayer unites.

3) Humility - The spiritual discipline of prayer and fasting are incredibly humbling. You quickly realize just how little control you have in life ... whether its with a fork or an act of faith. God blesses the humble.

4) Productivity - Fasting and prayer brings a supernatural level of success and productiveness into your life that otherwise would be lacking. God grands success to those that seek him.