What an awesome morning at First Wesleyan, Shippensburg! I preached a message entitled, “3 (more) Qualities of the Real Church” (sermon audio is here if you’re interested). The final quality this morning was that the REAL church has a “consuming focus”. I reminded our church that NASCAR fans have a consuming focus that we could learn from as Christ-followers!

I also laid out the vision I believe God has for us at First Wesleyan – to be about Loving God and Loving People – it’s been a theme that God has given me again and again over the past 8-years and I believe Jesus saying that loving God and loving our neighbors are the first and second ‘greatest’ commandments is reason-enough for us to adopt it as our church mission.

I closed the message with an opportunity for people to make a commitment to the Lord and we had one person do just that! I also challenged anyone else wanting to recommit their life to the Lord and we had at least 3 respond to do that! My final challenge was asking those who call First Wesleyan Church their church to take a stand and commit to have a consuming focus to Love God and Love People and nearly everyone in the sanctuary that could stand DID stand. It was another humbling, God-moment for us!

I’m so excited about our church and our consuming focus and that our people are excited about where we’re going. We have had a few new families in attendance every couple of weeks and I trust the Lord will continue to bless us as we are consumed with loving Him and people!

Please continue to pray for First Wesleyan of Shippensburg as we trust the Lord and discern His will for us. Please pray for me, too, as their shepherd that God would continue to challenge me and inspire me in new ways to lead this church to be salt and light in our community!

Customer service is “one of those things”… when you experience bad customer service you tend to tell your friends and family to NOT shop at that establishment. However, when we have great customer service, we tend to say a quick “thanks” and go about our business. (there’s a Spiritual lesson about praying here, but thats not what this is about…)

This afternoon I went to our Shippensburg Supercenter to get an oil change. It was a last minute idea and I was okay with the probable hour-long wait that I was informed about by the very-kind check-in lady, “Jessica”.

I found my way over to the electronics department (of course) and while I browsed the still-too-expensive Blu-Ray players, I remembered that I wanted to find the film “Billy: the early years” (a film about Billy Graham) on DVD. I knew that Walmart had this movie at one time, but with the constant stream of new movies week after week, it could be hit or miss whether they would still have this movie available.

I was surprised when “Jesus” overheard my title-query and offered to show me that it WAS available up at the front of the store! I walked excitedly to the bin where he had directed me but was disappointed when I could not locate the movie.

I debated for a moment on whether to just drop the idea or inquire further and looking over to the car-bay, noticed that my truck wasn’t yet being serviced, I asked “Jesus” if there might be another location. At that moment he and at least two other representatives sprung into action like I’d never have expected! They were searching on the computer, their personal cell phones, and “Jesus” even called two other stores within driving distance to ask them! I stood amazed at their attempts to find this movie for me and felt a little crooked for even calling our local KMart to ask if THEY might have the film.

When we finally located a UPC number from the DVD via a mobile Amazon.com search, they did one more in-house search and I was informed that someone would be bringing it right out to me!

“Yah, right!”, I thought awaiting some clerk to bring me a movie about Billy The Kid or something similar, but within a minute, another associate was handing me a legitimate copy of the film on DVD!  I was impressed.

During this whole ordeal I was able to talk briefly with “Jesus” and found out that he has quite a Testimony of coming to God and after exchanging contact information, I’m hoping to hear more about it! I also enjoyed swapping Android apps with another associate after we recognized each other using phones with the same OS.

My truck’s oil was being changed when the technicians noticed I had a flat tire, too. Because my tires are re-caps they couldn’t patch it for me, but they talked me through it and allowed me to plug the hole in their parking lot and even filled it back up with air for me before sending me off.

Thanks Shippensburg Walmart for definitely helping me to to “live better”! Kudos to your helpful associates, too!

I was impressed with customer service at Walmart tonight. When is the last time YOU had outstanding service like that?

If you know me, you know of my slight obsession with real-life Survivalists, Bear Grylls and Les Stroud. These guys have been challenging me from the comfort of my couch to get out and not only survive, but THRIVE amidst the dangers of the great outdoors.

Today I stumbled upon a new creation by Bear Grylls – it’s a collaborative-creation between Bear and Gerber (makers of all things ‘sharp’).

Check it out and tell me this wouldn’t be the coolest Christmas gift, ever.


Wanna buy one? They’re available at Amazon.com (of course)!

We had a groundhog tearing holes around our shed on our church property over the last few weeks. One of our trustees borrowed a live trap and captured the big guy. He stopped by the office to let me know that he had accomplished the capture and asked if I wanted to join him for the release!

We drove a few miles away to a State game land area and set Punxy Phil free to live again in his new neighborhood:

Yesterday I started a new series, “The Real Church”. It was a challenging message to prepare and deliver, but seemed to be well-received. It is a series that I believe will begin to lay out what I think is God’s vision for First Wesleyan Church and where we being led by His Spirit.

It was a special treat to have my sister in law visiting from Indiana over the weekend and she was able to put together a special song to sing with Jess AND Ella for Sunday morning! It was a very special moment for our family!