Expected to Grow

What a great day as we concluded “Solitary Confinement.” We’ve encouraged people to join community groups, but we’ve never really expected people to join.  If God expects us to grow, and he uses relationships to help us grow, then shouldn’t we make Christian relationships a priority? Versus hyping people up today and trying to get …

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Dry Erase Markers, To-Do Lists, and Unity

We just pulled back in from a leadership team retreat.  On my desk is a box of legos that were donated to my boys.  I have a list a mile long of to-dos.  I have more ideas in my head than I know what to do with. And I have a new box of dry …

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The Re-Call of Ministry

I have a theory about young men and women that are called into ministry then fall out some point along the way.  It’s what I am calling the re-call of ministry.  If there is a belief to hearing an initial call, what happens to make these people step away from that direction?  Where does the …

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Understanding Temptation

What a Sunday!  We started a new series at North Side entitled “Tempted.”  Today was all about understanding temptation.  From start to finish, it all was geared to us understanding what temptation is, how bad sin is, but how good God is to us helping us fight temptation. Jeff blew up his sermon.  It was …

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Looking to the Unqualified

Happy Father’s Day!  We had a great day celebrating fathers and the church.  Great moments: The Spearmans Testimony – So great to see a father and sons going and serving on mission together Romania Commissioning – Great time commissioning the Romania team for their trip – they leave on Saturday Worship – It was a …

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5 Websites Your Church Needs to Know About

I get to talk with church leaders a bunch about how North Side does ministry.  I would love to hire a ton of people on our staff to do all the ideas we have, but that’s just not feasible.  So we cheat a lot.  What I mean is we find good resources that make what …

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Sermon Prep (I Need Your Prayers & Help)

I’m filling in for Jeff on Sunday.  It’s always an exciting thing for me to preach, but it’s always a humbling thing to fill the pulpit for someone I respect so much.  I don’t ever want to go about preaching God’s Word in a careless way. I will be preaching the 2nd week in the …

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Public Worship vs. Private Devotion

This week’s worship training tip has to do with value #2: credibility – leading with integrity. Never let your public worship exceed your private worship. At my first Passion event years ago, I hear Beth Moore say that she never wanted her public worship to exceed her private worship.  She said that it is very …

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Who Loves the NS Worship Team?

Who loves the North Side Worship Team?  I, for one, do!  And I bet you do too. Take for instance the tech team.  Without those talented techies, you wouldn’t be able to hear or see a thing on Sundays.  They are amazing team players! Or what about the music team?  Such gifted and yet humble …

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NS Staff vs. Sonshine (The Basketball Game of the Century)

Last night, North Side’s staff took on the Sonshine ministry in what proved to be the basketball game of the century.  The Sonshine ministry is a service we do for clients from the Burton Center, a ministry that assists adults with special needs and disabilities. We lost.  Badly.  The final score is 126 to 52 …

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