What a Sunday. I am still thinking about things that God was teaching me yesterday. It was truly an incredible day. Highlights: Peak – Being led in worship by our Peak band is always a privilege. They love Jesus and it shows. CD Release – I was so thrilled to hear that so many people picked up a CD yesterday …
Yesterday was another incredible set of services at North Side. 2nd week of Now proved to be an impacting moment in the life of our church. Highlights from today’s services: Free Prisoner – Jerry Rentz has been going to the McCormick Correctional Institute for many years. In the last few years, some other guys from the church go on Monday …
We kicked off a new series this week, entitled, Now. Our staff has prayed and planned more for these next few weeks than any other emphasis I can remember. I don’t think that my mind can wrap around all the work that went into this day and leading up to this day. North Side is blessed to have a talented …
I know you get tired of me saying this, but I am sorry: wow, what a Sunday. I must say it again, because it just seems like week after week, our congregation is getting together to show Jesus how much we love him and it is overwhelming just to be in the room with it all. Jeff warned that yesterday …
Today we started a new emphasis at North Side. The next few months are going to be pretty critical times – we really feel that God is leading us to do some pretty big stuff, and the only way it can happen is if a sovereign God steps in and shows up! Jeff’s message was on “The Harvest.” We have …
Yesterday, we finished our 12-week Experiencing God series at North Side. It was a great finish to a great series, even if I haven’t heard the message yet (I was working on getting power for our bluegrass band at the YMCA). Yesterday, our church was truly offering sincere worship to Jesus in all morning long. The songs that you sang …
Another great Sunday today. We have one more week of Experiencing God after today, and this series has been huge in the life of our church. Each week, I hear more and more of all that God has been doing in the lives of people at North Side. People are truly living with their eyes wide open and God is …
For those of you who “came to church” today, I hope that God changed your mind. Hopefully, after today, we will stop coming to church and we will start being the church. As we have continued in this Experiencing God series, I thought today was so helpful to remember that we are the “called out ones.” I loved Jeff’s illustration …
Another great Sunday at North Side. We talked about the Living Word today in the series, Experiencing God. Today, we worshiped to the following songs: Forever – Chris Tomlin Holy is the Lord – Chris Tomlin Magnificent – Hillsong There is None Like You – Don Moen We Fall Down – Chris Tomlin We were supposed to talk about experiencing …
Yesterday was another great Sunday at North Side. As Jeff continues to lead us through this Experiencing God study, I am constantly amazed at what God is teaching me and what He is doing in the lives of the people in our church. I am hearing daily what God is doing Jeff’s challenge to be still and listen to God …
Jeff was away at a family member’s wedding this weekend, so I was filling in for the message this morning. He had planned out this series all the way through, but as I was praying and studying for this message, I felt like I needed to go another direction. Since Jeff did the same thing last week and the results …
I got to church before 7 yesterday morning because I wanted to make sure everything was ready to roll. I went to ask Jeff what Scripture he would be using that morning to put it in the computer, and he told me to come into his office. He said he felt like he needed to change his message and follow …
I was so excited to be back at North Side this week. I’ve been gone for too long, gone to other churches, and I was just ready to be back with our family. And it was a wonderful time today! Today, we worshiped to these songs (and boy, did the praise band sound great and led great without me today …
We got to celebrate fathers today at North Side in a fun way. At the 11:15 Obie, Cory, Cory’s son, Nate, and me started the festivities with some Father’s Day Superlatives. We couldn’t select any winners for the “Loudest Snoring Dad” award because there were too many people pointing fingers at the fathers in the house. After our time of …
Continuing on in our series, Waiting on the World to Change, our church studied what it meant to do in the area of “Practical Service” today. When it comes to mission work, I think the church (universal) has always fallen on one of two ends of the spectrum (this is the case in almost everything Christian it seems). One one …
Our world needs some changing, and God intends to change it through the family. The most critical spiritual environment is the one in which you live. As we look at these up and coming generations, we must realize that trained church professionals are not the answer to our children’s spiritual needs. Our children need their parents to live for Christ …
What a great Sunday. As our church continues to heal, it was great to come together today and sing words like, “You are my shield, my strength, my portion, deliverer, my shelter, strong tower, my very present help in times of need.” In times of need like we are going through, it is comforting to know that he is presently …
Today was a special day at North Side. It was exciting on one end due to our youth praise band leading in worship. They did a fantastic job. They sang the following songs: Salvation is Here – Hillsong United Awesome is the Lord – Chris Tomlin Mighty to Save – Hillsong How Great is Our God – Chris Tomlin I …
Today was our second week in Credit or Debit? where we focused on “The Mind of Investment.” Every spending decision is a spiritual decision. If we are to develop a mind of investment, we have to realize that everything belongs to God – even our finances. And if all our finances belong to God, we must make sure that how …
Every financial decision you make is either a credit to your spiritual life or a debit from your spiritual life. Money is one of those areas that cause many headaches in our lives, but God has many commands concerning your finances that actually are meant to free you. The heart of stewardship begins with you realizing that everything you have …
In our last week of God’s Believe It or Not, we focused on one last unbelievable claim from Scripture: believe it or not, Jesus is coming again. Concerning Christ’s Second Coming, Christians either try to figure out all the details concerning his return or forget about it altogether because it is too difficult to understand. While we will never be …
Today was week 4 of God’s Believe It or Not life focus series at North Side. We talked about whether or not Jesus truly stated if he was the only way to God. This issue is one of the most sensitive in our culture at this time. With so many different paths to God, people are very hesitant to claim …
God is a lot more concerned with your future than he is your past. Sometimes we keep a distance from God due to a sinful past. Some people keep God at a distance because of their self-proclaimed “righteousness.” But God isn’t concerned with yesterday. He’s really concerned about what you do today. That’s what North Side was all about this …
Today was the second week of God’s Believe It or Not. The service today focused on the fact that God is “In Control.” If you don’t know this about North Side yet, everything this morning was trying to lead you to that thought. It is this type of journey we try to take you through. Instead of just picking out …
I wanted to recap Easter morning at North Side earlier this week, but since we left for Submerge an hour after the last service, I was kind of unable to catch up in the blogosphere. So here, goes: I haven’t received the official count for Sunday, but I believe we had approximately 2,000 adults come and worship with us on …
Today, we finished up the Balance series at North Side. I finished with a message entitled “The Rest of You.” As we studied the church in Laodicea in Revelation 3, we saw that the people there were a lot like us. They were lukewarm. They were too far from the source. And when we find ourselves deep in sin or …
Yesterday was fun at North Side. I preached a message on the Rest of God in our Balance series we are doing now. The big idea was: To experience the rest of God, you must set apart the Sabbath. The fourth commandment is what I think could quite possibly be the most neglected commandment in the Bible: Remember the Sabbath …
We started a new series on Sunday at North Side called Balance. I got the privilege to preach Sunday the first message on “The Rat Race.” Despite numerous technological advances in our day, it seems like we are running more ragged than ever before. We rush through life and seem like we will never catch up. The tragic accident is …
Wow. I’m having to catch up on my blog posts rapidly – this has been a crazy weekend, but I want to share all that God did over the weekend. Sunday was another great day at North Side. As we concluded The Original Blues, we talked about the “Fear Blues,” the ones that cripple us due to the large circumstances …
Today was week two in our series, Original Blues, where we looked at the “Death Blues.” Most of us have dealt with the sorrow associated with losing someone we love, or we are fearful that the reality of someone we love dying is coming around the corner. If you haven’t dealt with death yet, you will. But there’s nothing wrong …
We started a new series today at North Side called “Original Blues.” So many people are dealing with depression, sadness, grief, fear, or other emotions that cripple them. The Psalms are beautiful examples of how godly people dealt with honest emotions. We worshipped to the following songs today: Blessed Be Your Name – Matt Redman Made Me Glad – Hillsong …
Today, we finished up our Satisfaction series at North Side. What a great way to begin 2008! The last four weeks, we have shown some of the areas from Solomon’s life recorded in the Book of Ecclesiastes where he tried to find satisfaction but could never find any. As we read through the book as a congregation, it was amazing …
Thanks so much to all of you who came out to our 5:00 service Sunday night. So sorry for any of you who didn’t get the news and came out this morning. Here was all the stuff that led to the decision: There was some snow, but alot of slush in the roads last night. It was going below freezing …
We are going to cancel all services in the morning due to the 21 degree iced parking lot we will have in the morning (we don’t want anyone sledding down the hill in front of the auditorium), but we are going to do a 5:00 pm service since it will be above freezing by that time. We will have nursery …
This Sunday was week two in our Satisfaction series at North Side. The whole morning focused on never-ending work. King Solomon, in Ecclesiastes 2:18-26, spoke of his disappointment with his search for satisfaction in the means of his job. He stated that he worked tirelessly to achieve contentment, but he could never attain through that work. We live in a …
We began a new series at North Side today called “Satisfaction.” The picture of Mic Jagger says it all: Mic and the Rolling Stones have been singing that song since 1965. And he is still singing it today. He still hasn’t found satisfaction. And so many of us are in the same boat. We look to find satisfaction in so …
Don’t drop your kids off at church, bring them home to it. On Sunday, Jeff and I tag-team preached on the issue of the family. You don’t have to browse too much on my blog to see that I’m pretty excited about my baby boy that is on the way. What I don’t say often enough is how scared I …
“Is Jesus Christ the light of your world?” Jeff asked that question over and over this morning at North Side. And it was the most important question that could be asked this morning. Months ago when we prayed and planned this service, we had a lot to think about. We know that the Sunday before Christmas and Easter Sunday are …
Today at North Side was week number two in our series, “Let There Be Light.” This week, we talked about the Incarnation. We talked about the darkness that we live in. We tried to drive home the fact that our sin has caused this world to be a dark place where the light of Christ is avoided. But when the …
You can’t really appreciate the light until you fully comprehend the darkness. There are warning labels on just about everything. Jeff had a bag full of items with warning labels on them. Everyone is warning us about something, but no one is saying a word about the most dangerous thing out there. CNN won’t talk about it. Schools won’t educate …
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