Dara is cooking sloppy joe's in the kitchen. Max, Mary and Jack are playing with their Pez characters and running from room to room. College football is on TV. This all adds up to a great, great Saturday.

What a whirlwind two days. I'm back in Charlotte now and so happy to be home. I love Washington DC but I love home so much more.John Gum and I got up at 5am and headed to DC yesterday. The drive was absolutely incredible. Great conversation and amazing scenery with the leaves in the prime time of fall.I met with Mark Batterson yesterday and really enjoyed reconnecting. Mark has the ability to dream more than most people I've ever known. God is using him to do things that are really expanding the kingdom in new and innovative ways. I am inspired to continue to dream in a big way and let God...

The audio and video podcasts of my message from Sunday are now available on iTunes. Click here to download if you'd like to check it out.I preached a message titled "More Than Money" in the second week of our Provision series. Acts 3 tells the story of the crippled beggar that was healed. God spoke this message to me a couple of weeks ago when I was praying for our fundraising. This sentence has reverberated in my spirit for weeks:It's not about money, it's about provision. Money is fleeting, provision is lasting.

John Gum and I are headed to Washington DC tomorrow for a quick trip. We are visiting John's fiancee, Ginny Peterson. She's been working at Ebenezer's Coffeehouse for the past 2 months. I love that place.Ebz is the best example of intersecting our faith with our community that I've ever seen. It is a coffeehouse that is owned and operated by National Community Church. Their purpose is "coffee with cause". Completely fair trade coffee. And the coffeehouse is a non-profit, so all of the proceeds go back into the community and overseas missions projects.I am going to connect with Mark Batterson...

Thanks for the pic, Ginny. Worth a thousand words...

Dara and I prayed for our new President Elect, Barack Obama, last night. Before heading to bed, we prayed for wisdom and guidance to come from God as he leads this country for the next 4 years.I will never forget watching this election. There were stark contrasts between these candidates and the campaigns were run in a whole new way. From Twitter to Facebook, Yahoo! to TV and radio, everywhere you turned there was something about this election. I chuckled on Tuesday when I checked my fantasy football site and there was a presidential banner ad at the top of the page.Both men gave great...

I'm grateful this morning for living in America. No matter your political preference, we all have the privilege of making our voice heard. I'm praying that God would establish whoever he intends to lead our country. My prayer is that we would get behind God's appointed leader. Not just in words, but in heart and deed. We are so blessed. The opportunity to vote is a great example of that.God bless both tickets. May God's will be done.

Max and I have been getting into NASCAR lately. I never grew up around it, but it's literally EVERYWHERE here. Max has decided that his favorite is the M&M's car (Kyle Busch). I think he likes it because it looks delicious. Anyway, I chuckled the other day at the gas station by my house because they actually sell racing fuel at a normal Texaco. You can imagine the sheer terror people must have felt when they saw this sign. I had to snap a pic.Welcome to race country 🙂

Today was by far the most smooth service that we've had since we launched 8 weeks ago. This is the first time that we've gotten everything set up in the movie theater and ready to roll in under an hour.We had a ton of new faces today. It's so great to see the message of Hope spreading around our community. God is doing so much right now.I got to speak today on something that God has been speaking to me in a very personal way. We are in a series called "Provision" and my message was titled "More Than Money". God dropped this in my heart a couple of weeks ago when I was reading the story of...

This thought crossed my mind this week: Why do I blog? There are many reasons, but the main one is simple. I love talking to you.I don't even know who "you" may be, but that's the beauty of it all. I can communicate my thoughts with anybody in the world who visits this web page. Some trivial, some serious and others in between. I can share the experiences of my life with anyone who might be interested in reading. I never know if 1 person or 1,000 people will read each entry, but that is of no matter. I do this because I love to communicate. I do this because I love to share what God is doing...