Like the business world the church could have a laser focus on what Jesus has called them to. As a friend/mentor of my said recently, “I don’t want to be like light diffused, which has no power. Rather, I want to be focused like a laser.”

Are you focusing on what Jesus has called you to do?

For years, Nordstrom’s Employee Handbook was a single 5×8” gray card containing these 75 words:

Welcome to Nordstrom

We’re glad to have you with our Company. Our number one goal is to provide outstanding customer service. Set both your personal and professional goals high. We have great confidence in your ability to achieve them.

Nordstrom Rules: Rule #1: Use best judgment in all situations. There will be no additional rules.

Please feel free to ask your department manager, store manager, or division general manager any question at any time.

During this time, Nordstrom had the highest sales per square foot performance in the retail industry – by almost double.

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My greatest desire isn’t to see Epic Church become great; rather to be used by Jesus in a movement to see the Gospel transform the lives of all people within our city.

We are in part 2 of our Membership Series at Epic Church titled: Growing a Movement.  As I have prepared for this series it is totally humbling as I notice all my short comings as it relates to growing a movement which would transform my city and the nations.  This week is about Giving Ourselves Away.  It sounds good.  I mean it is a great title for a sermon but making it become reality is going to be HARD work.  But by the grace of God I pray the Holy Spirit will use those connected to Epic Church to transform their communities by enabling them to give themselves away.

Church Planting is hard work.  Period.  The “existing” church has a lot to be thankful for.  Mainly structure and support.  In church planting we are blazing new roads.  Many times without the support of mature Godly men and women around you.  The summer has been tough at Epic Church.  Attendance has been low with many on vacations at different times, plus the factor that Epic Church is a young generation church many have summer plans.

Tonight I started a series called: Identity.  Though then hoopla of summer struggles I have found it it refreshing and necessary to refocus my thoughts and energy on who I am in Jesus.  This extends out of the words of Paul the Apostle.  “Therefore the old has gone and the new has come.”

We are all creations of God but when we move from creations to children the miraculous occurs.  The old falls away and the new comes forth.

Have you been made new?  Do you celebrate this fact?  My prayer is this week we would experience the joy of our salvation though being made new.

I am a secret fan of Monday’s.  As a pastor most of the time Mondays are really hard.  We are coming down from a high or even focusing on a low.  Let me explain that a bit.

A high would mean that attendance was high on Sunday, or it was a good offering, or even spiritually – Jesus did something amazing.  Salvation was professed, or sin was accounted for.

A low would mean that attendance was low, the sermon was flat, not that many people pitched in to help with various projects.  Repentance was preached but no one responded to the call of God.  Well, for whatever reason it was a low.

But, Monday!  Monday is a new day.  It is wide open to possibilities!  Great things can happen and so can bad things.  You can meet new people, creditors can call, you can get into a car accident, God can show you something new from his Word.

Whatever the case, I am a secret fan of Monday.  The possibilities are numerous.  My plan for this Monday is to go with the flow.  To be responsive to God’s Spirit when he calls.

What is your plan for this Monday?

I have signed The Manhattan Declaration, have you?

Christians, when they have lived up to the highest ideals of their faith, have defended the weak and vulnerable and worked tirelessly to protect and strengthen vital institutions of civil society, beginning with the family.

We are Orthodox, Catholic, and evangelical Christians who have united at this hour to reaffirm fundamental truths about justice and the common good, and to call upon our fellow citizens, believers and non-believers alike, to join us in defending them. These truths are:

1. the sanctity of human life
2. the dignity of marriage as the conjugal union of husband and wife
3. the rights of conscience and religious liberty.

Inasmuch as these truths are foundational to human dignity and the well-being of society, they are inviolable and non-negotiable. Because they are increasingly under assault from powerful forces in our culture, we are compelled today to speak out forcefully in their defense, and to commit ourselves to honoring them fully no matter what pressures are brought upon us and our institutions to abandon or compromise them. We make this commitment not as partisans of any political group but as followers of Jesus Christ, the crucified and risen Lord, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

Here is a Southern Baptist Seminary President and member of the Gospel Collation on why he signed his name to the declaration.

I am of personal conviction it is so much better to state what I am for instead of making a case about something I am against.  This declaration is just that.  It brings about the convictions of Bible believing followers of Jesus into the culture of today.  I am laboring in my city to see her a better place.  To see her made good though the obedience of followers of Jesus.  And to that end I have placed my name on this declaration.  And not only do followers of Jesus value this three things covered by the declaration but so do many others in my generation.  It is time to take a stand and declare we value the family.