The energizer bunny….on steroids! That’s probably a fairly accurate description of Bill Perkins. We were blessed to have Bill spend the night with us on Saturday night. After 10 minutes, I knew we were in for a great day today since he was our guest speaker. And we got one. He did a great job on encouraging us as men to fight for our marriages. Quite frankly, marriage is in as much trouble in Christian circles as it is in the rest of the population. There doesn’t seem to be much difference. But there should be. And Bill gave us some real wisdom and biblical tools for strengthening the most important relationship in our lives other than the one we have with Jesus Christ - our marriages. Here are a few tips: Read the full story

Next Sunday - Bill Perkins will be the guest speaker at The Grove. Who is Bill Perkins? Here are some highlights:

• Bill Perkins is an entertaining speaker and insightful author. He has written numerous books, appeared on nationally broadcast television and radio shows and addressed audiences across the United States and Canada.
• For six years Bill wrote an inspirational guide that was distributed to almost 200,000 people a month and aired daily on 200 radio stations.
• He has appeared on the Bill O’Reilly Show on Fox News, partnered with Man in the Mirror, Promise Keepers, and numerous other leading Christian ministries.
• His seminars and training events have won consistent high praise
• Click on any of the pictures below for more info.

Bill has also been a catalyst in the men’s movement and has spearheaded a great website called Million Mighty Men. Click on the banner to visit the site.

He will be speaking at 10:00 am during the main service. It should be a very challenging, very entertaining, very helpful time of worship for us all. If you’re anywhere near Peoria, I hope you’ll drop in for a great service on March 2. For directions to The Grove, click here.

I’ve been calling these Sunday recaps “Sunday Night Reflections”, but these thought usually represent the highlights of my Sunday and what I’m looking forward to. So….I’m changing the name.

Today’s Highlights

• We wrapped up a series today at The Grove called “In The Fire”. It was based on Daniel 3 and the incredible story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
• It was an awesome conclusion to the first two months of the year. In the first two months we have:
  • Started by going B.I.G. - Having a God-sized dream that drives you throughout this coming year.
  • Continued by exploring what it looks like to pursue something more. Both of these topics coincided with my decision to start this blog, to step further outside of my box and trust God for big things. And in only six weeks this blog has reached people on 5 continents and had over 2300 hits. That’s God-sized.
  • And finally, we spent the last three weeks looking at the story in Daniel of what will follow when we decide to go B.I.G. and pursue the something more that God desires for us - we will face fire.
  • Beyond the teaching, we have seen more accomplished in the restoration of our building than we did all of last year.
  • We’ve had the second-highest 2-month period of attendance in our history, trailing only the two months we went through 40 Days of Purpose that included a public advertising campaign.
  • We’ve had one tremendous concert in our building and have several more in the possible/planning stages
  • We re-started Greenhouse Groups (our group ministry) tonight and have over 85% of our congregation committed to groups.
  • Our teens have taken it upon themselves to strengthen their group and are headed to Dare-2-Share in April.
  • And to top it off, we’ve seen one person accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
• My favorite thought from today’s message is that the one thing that is inherent in fire is that it spreads. And when it spreads, it consumes.
• My prayer for myself and the church I lead is that we will all be consumed by God’s fire in 2008 and as it consumes us, it spreads to all around us

What’s Ahead This Week?

• I’ve already mentioned the Greenhouse Groups. We are embarking on an exploration of friendship through these groups.
  • Friendship is SOOOOO important. Studies show that when guest arrive at a church, they are NOT looking for a friendly church, they are looking for friends. But becoming a friend is more skill than most of us realize. We want to move past the “friendly church” label, and truly become a place where people find God honoring, life giving, stick-with-you come hell or high-water friendships.
• Lesley and I will be attending the TEAmerica Church Planting conference in Chicago. This is the group that welcomed us with open arms and partnered with us in our launch. It will be a time of challenge, celebration, and re-focusing.
• Bill Perkins, author, speaker, movement catalyst, and former pastor will be our guest speaker on Sunday, March 2. Can’t wait for him to get here.
• Several of our men will be attending the Iron Sharpens Iron training event in Springfield on Saturday.

It’s been a great year already. There’s a super week ahead of us, and the year is just going to keep getting better as we Go B.I.G., pursue the “something more” that God has for each of us, the spread the flame of God’s fire. Buckle up!