Step #1

I have been known to have trouble assembling everything from BBQ grills to book shelves. Where someone else might be able to just figure out how something goes together. I don't have that skill. Directions are very important to me. When it comes to putting something together, after finding the right language I begin looking for step or diagram 1. I 'm not looking for step 2, 3, 5, or 10. It is important to have a starting point. The Bible lays out the same principle.

In I Corinthians 15:3, Paul explains that he did something first. There was a progression to the order he preached or shared information. He says, "I delivered unto you first of all." There was some life changing information he was careful to share first. This information was Jesus. How he died for our sins, was buried, and rose again. The first step wasn't a doctrinal position on a list of topics. It wasn't even baptism. It wasn't a dress code. It was JESUS. The first step is always Jesus. Everything starts with Jesus.

One way to say it might be, Jesus is the Lifepoint.

Sunday

At Lifepoint we had our 2nd weekly Sunday service. It sprinkled off and on all morning but we were still able to use the inflatables. You can see a few pictures taken after the service here. Thank you to everyone who served on one of our ministry teams. We couldn't do what we do without you.

Don't Miss Sunday

Sunday will be mark our second weekly service. We will continue our teaching series - Bullseye. This week we will look at how Jesus is the center of the Bible. After the service we will have a special connection time. We will have some pizzas to eat and we will have a moon bounce and 18 foot slide for the kids (or any daring adults). We are getting the inflatables from our friends at Extreme Inflatables. You don't want to miss Sunday. We are expecting a great day!!

This week there was an announcement article about Lifepoint in the Thursday edition of the Owasso Reporter. The paper has been really great about helping us get the word out.

Easter Sunday

We had a great Easter. It marked our grand opening service. I was able to say something I have been wanting to say, "See you next week!" We are now officially meeting every Sunday at 10:30 a.m. Here is a snap shot of the service:

• We had 40 people in attendance.
• 12 of those were first time guest.
• Not counting our launch team we have had 58 first time guest during our 2 preview services and Easter.
• One of the first time guest told me he heard about us from a flyer he received 6 weeks ago.
• We bought our own pipe and drape to use as a back drop.
• Created and used a new connection card.
• We are currently enrolling people in Life Groups that will launch in May.
• The service went very smooth.
• I almost scratched the preview services early on. Looking back that would have been a big mistake. The difference between the first service February 10th and Easter was huge.

Marnie took a couple pictures before the service started. You can check them out here.

Last night we had a new family with us at our Wednesday Night Meeting. They told us they are moving to Owasso and will be attending Lifepoint. They are good friends of ours so we are super excited to have them come be apart of the Lifepoint Team. This is awesome!!

Easter Service Just Around The Corner

Our Grand Opening Service is just over 24 hours away (oyeah!!) We will be going out to pass out some more flyers and water bottles tomorrow. Our Easter service will start something new for us. We will begin meeting weekly. I can't wait. Here are some things I think about.

1. Doing life together with the families and individuals that will be Lifepoint.
2. Preaching every week.
3. Watching God change lives.
4. Being a point of life in Owasso.
5. Beginning the next phase of this journey.
6. Starting Life Groups in May.
7. Taking a group of kids to camp I don't even know yet.
8. Dreaming about Collin growing up loving and serving Jesus with his friends.
9. A time to gather, sing, pray, connect, preach, and learn every week.
10. The challenges of setting up for a Sunday service every week.

Water Bottles

The youth group from Concord Missionary Baptist Church in Norman, Oklahoma came over on Tuesday and helped us pass out water bottles. It was great to see these guys. I hadn't seen some of them in 9 months. A big thank you goes out to Walmart. They were kind enough to let us pass out the water bottles in front of their store.

We had a lot of rain that day but we did get a 2 hour window where we were able to get 17 cases passed out. So, we gave out over 400 water bottles with our logo and information on them. It was really a great way to start conversations and make contact with our city.

Bullseye

I have always loved dart boards. Probably the first dart board I remember is that foam dart board you still see at Walrmart. You remember, it came with balls covered with velcro so they would stick to the foam dart board. I would have competitions with my brother and see who could hit the bullseye. Because it was the real target. It was the center. It was the best.

The Bible also speaks of a bullseye. Not a dart board... A person.... The bullseye of scripture is Jesus. Jesus is the center of faith, church, scripture, family, and life...Jesus is everything.

The Bible is very specific about Jesus...John 14:6, I John 5:11-12, Acts 4:12, Hebrews 10:10, I Corinthians 15:21, Romans 5:1, Romans 5:17, John 3:16

At our grand opening service this Sunday (Easter) we will kick off a teaching series called bullseye.

March 23rd - Jesus Is The Center Of Faith
March 30th - Jesus Is The Center Of Scripture
April 6th - Jesus Is The Center Of Church
April 13th - Jesus Is The Center Of Life

Community Calendars

Marnie has been working hard getting our grand opening service on as many community calendars as possible. I'm impressed. I didn't know there were that many out there.

• Air One Radio
• Tulsa World
• Hellotulsa.com
• Public Radio
• Fox 23

4th And Goal

If it was a football game, it would be 4th quarter, 4th and goal, and the 2-minute warning would have just sounded. Here’s the gameplan:

• We are handing out invite cards on a daily basis.
• On Tuesday, the youth group from Concord MBC in Norman, will be in Owasso to help us pass out bottles of water at Wal-mart. The labels on the bottles have our church logo and information on them.
• An email advertising our grand opening service will go out to over 100,000 email addresses in the area on Wednesday
• Thursday there will be an ad and an article in the Owasso Reporter advertising Lifepoint’s Easter Service.
• Thursday and Friday we hope to have a couple of radio spots on FM 102.3 during morning and evening drive time (this isn’t finalized, but we’re close).
• Saturday we will pass out more water bottles and at least 1000 more flyers.
  

We are praying God will gather a crowd, but more than that we pray that people would be filled with new life in Christ. We pray God would use Lifepoint to help people find their way back to Him.

Sending Church Pastor

I had lunch with the pastor of my sending church on Friday. We have known each other for almost 15 years. Over the last 9 months of preparing to launch Lifepoint I have been reminded of how critical it is to have a great sending church and pastor. Here are some things I love about my pastor.

• He has vision.
• He loves people.
• He appreciates differences in personalities, approach, and experience.
• He challenges me.
• He cares.
• He thinks about the future and connection between South Lakewood and Lifepoint.
• He is a leader.
• He loves Jesus.

Is Tulsa Community College Coming To Owasso?

There are talks of Tulsa Community College building a campus in Owasso. That is exciting!!

You can read about it here.

Some Notes And Thoughts From Fusion

I got up early today and drove across Dallas to Rockwall and attended the Fusion Seminar this morning. It was a seminar over the book called Fusion, by Nelson Searcy. I am halfway done with the book. I love it so far. It gives you a game plan for helping first time guests get connected. There was allot of great information discussed and I got some free stuff (I always like that). Here are a few of the notes and highlights.

...This was the outline for the seminar
I. Step #1: From First Time Guest to Second Time Guest
II. Step #2: From Second Time Guest to Regular Attender
III. Step #3: From Regular Attender to Member

Why The Pre-service Time Is So Critical?

• A guest determines if they like your church within the first 5-7 minutes. That means before the music or the sermon people have already decided if they will come back.
• Everything is speaking about your church - lawn, bathrooms, paint, signs, flyers, worship guide.

How To Get The Most Out Of The Connection Card?

• Everyone Fills out a card every week.
• Everyone places the card in with the offering
• Everyone has a next step to take every week.

1st Time Guest Follow Up
36 hours send an email (use a 30 second survey)
96 hours send thank you card in mail (include a small gift)
30 days send a follow up letter by mail
Always include a P.S.

2nd Time Guest Follow Up
36 hours send an email (use a 30 second survey)
96 hours send thank you card in mail (include a small gift)
Always include a P.S.

I thought this was an interesting way to give a picture of the process.
Step #1: Get people to stay (return)
Step #2: Get people to stick (relationship)
Step #3: Get people to serve (responsibility)

"But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen." 2 Peter 3:18

"And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." Galatians 6:9

Finally Here

Do you ever have a day when something happens and you think, "I didn't see that coming?" Normally it might be something that would happen that there is no way you could have predicted that this particular event would happen. Today, I loaded up the minivan for a short 4.5 hour road trip to Keller, Texas. I'm going to The Fusion Seminar in the morning. Marnie and Collin came along and we stopped in to spend the night with Marnie's brother Paul and his wife Nina.

Well as we were just outside Tulsa Marnie gets a call from Paul saying he has gone home early because of the weather. When she told me about the call I nodded like that makes sense. I had no idea there was supposed to be bad weather in Texas today. Well Collin and Marnie fall asleep. When I get to southern Oklahoma we are in what feels like an all out blizzard between Durant, Oklahoma and Sherman, Texas. We get stuck on the highway for around 1.5 hours. All together a trip that should have taken around 5 hours takes us 7. It was stressful. People drove to slow or to fast. There was around 5 inches of snow. A couple times when I saw all the cars that had slid off the road I wondered, "Could we be next?"

You know what is so strange? There was no reason for me not to know about the storm. It was all over the news. Marnie later told me later it was all over the weather. She reminded me the T.V was on while I was loading the van and that is what they were talking about.

Sometimes life takes us by surprise because events happen and there is no way we could see them coming. Other times life takes us by surprise simply because we aren't paying attention.

That was me today. Tomorrow I will do better...I hope.

Preview Service #2

Sunday we had our 2nd preview service. Completed the 2nd part of the seres entitled Blueprint. Our overall crowd was down from the first service but we still had 11 first time guests (3 families). If I counted right that means we have had 47 first time guests during these services. This doesn't include the launch team. We have a few weeks until our grand opening/launch service on March 23rd (Easter). We have a short amount of time to continue to meet, and invite people to Lifepoint. Everyone keep up the great work.

A great big thank you to all the volunteer/launch team who came and unloaded, set up all our stuff at 8:00 a.m. and didn't go home until 1:00 p.m. Your commitment and enthusiasm has been nothing short of amazing. After both preview services parents and kids have continued to rave about the children's environments.

Here are some of the adjustments we made between our first and second preview services.

1. We rented pipe and drape for a back drop. We use half of the cafeteria and we need something that blocks out the tables, serving tables, etc. Last time we rigged up a line and hung sheets by grommets on this line. It looked okay, but it was allot of work. We weren't sure if it would be worth the money to buy 40 foot of pipe and drape so we rented it to check it out. When we saw it we were sold. It looked awesome!! We will have our own by Easter.

2. We had some technical problems during our first preview service. We had some trouble switching from power point to our projection software, and the video we wanted to show didn't work. Pretty much an all out debacle in the area of technology. It wasn't anyone's fault. We just hadn't worked with it enough yet to know what we were doing. Everything was corrected and went off beautifully Sunday.

3. We didn't have the right software or cables to record the first preview service. We did get all the right cables and software to record the 2nd service. We had one hiccup though Sunday. Everything was recorded except the sermon. We'll have to take another look at that next time.

4. We moved the sound booth from the side of the cafeteria to the back. Everything looked cleaner and just seemed to help the over all flow of the service and use of the space.