My Epic Journey

I love to read.  My bank account shows that.  I am constantly buying new books.  Now that school is done for me for the summer, I have time to read books that I have had pile up.  Here are some of the books I plan on reading in the next few weeks:

Simple Youth Ministry by Eric Geiger and Jeff Borton

Awaken Your Creativity by Les Christie

The Slow Fade by Reggie Joiner, Chuck Bomar, and Abbie Smith

Connect:  Real Relationships in a World of Isolation by Jonathan McKee

Are there any good books you have planned to read this summer?  I would love to see the list!!

Just finished reading a book by Reggie Joiner and Carey Nieuwhof called, Parenting Beyond Your Capacity.

I would highly recommend this book to any parent no matter if you have children or teenagers.  Here is a review of the book:

When parents work in tandem with the faith community to raise their children, they increase their parenting capacity exponentially.

Most parents have so many demands on their time that they can’t be the kind of parent they desire to be. They need to know the Orange Factor: Two combined influences will make a greater impact on kids than just two influences. And it’s true. Parents who partner with the faith community are the best way to bring the next generation into the family of God-and keep them there.

If you want to order one, you can do so HERE or HERE.

We had a phenomenal leader’s meeting last weekend with our AMAZING EPIC leaders.  I through out a quick question to them all.  What would you like to see EPIC accomplish this year (school year) and how can we do that? 

Here are their responses to the first part of that question:

• Connect the Unconnected.  We have a lot of students that are a part of Grace Point but not connected to the student ministry.  We want to simply make sure that they know we are here and if need anything we are desirous to help.
• Build Bridges.  Since our ministry hits 6th graders through 12th graders we feel we need to keep them separate for most of the time.  We have found though that they enjoy getting together occasionally.  We feel it is important to keep them separate for most of the time but also see the value of partnering up with activities.

• Think & Live "Outside the Box".  To use a Erwin McManus phrase, "we (as a church) have a choice, to either be a movement or a monument."  Often we choose the latter, and yet God setup the Church to be a movement.  We must not only THINK "outside the box" (our church walls) but also LIVE there as well.  We are desperately trying to figure out what that looks like and how we accomplish that.
• Become a True Spiritual Family.  Another thing we often forget is that God has created the Church to be a FAMILY–a living, breathing FAMILY.  We accomplish this by learning how to 1) love, 2) care and 3) value one another.  If we don’t work together and love one another then we will never be effective in reaching others.

We are still working toward figuring out the second part to our question, "how can we do that?"  But I am very confident that I have the most amazing team of leaders in the world and that together, this will be one of the most impacting years of EPIC.