General

Wow! That's about the best way I can describe LifePoint's one-year anniversary as a new church community. In all respects, today was an outstanding Sunday. Our music was good, the atmosphere was good, and even the pastor didn't fumble around too much. One person did wonder why I was wearing a shirt with pink stripes -- but she's six years-old and lives down the hall from me.As I reflect on God's faithfulness to us, we have much to be thankful. As I look forward into the future, we still have much more to do. In some respects we are just now "getting our legs." We definitely have challenges, just as any new baby / organization / business would at one-year-old. Just trying to live and function in San Diego is a financial challenge. New churches are certainly not exempt from challenges ... in fact, they seem to attract them :-)We…

I’ve survived a few births during my life, not the least being my own. Certainly the highlights include watching my two daughters being born. Living through nine months of the first pregnancy even led me to write a book about it. Fortunately, no one has seen fit to publish it.(It was entitled "You're What! A Man's Guide to Pregnancy." I let my neighbor in Atlanta read it while his wife was pregnant and he enjoyed it. She enjoyed the parts he shared with her.)I’ve been a part of two companies during their own prenatal days. In the dot-com days, companies were being birthed from scribbles on a napkin. In medical terms, the first of those companies has expired and the other is beginning to walk after a few setbacks.Aside from the births of Hannah and Hope, nothing else could compare to the joys and challenges of launching a new church.The…

For all you aspiring artists and t-shirts designers, a great online resource for creating and selling merchandise is cafepress.com. I first became aware of Cafepress about four or five years ago. You upload your designs and they handle the rest. They stock the merchandise, print the t-shirts, and ship them to your customers. They have a base price and you are allowed to charge anything above that. When your item sells, you keep the difference.LifePoint has a cafepress store ... www.cafepress.com/lifepoint.So does CrossThreads (a little side business) ... www.cafepress.com/crossthreads.Click on the following picture if you want to learn how to set up your own free store.

Have you noticed how over the past 12 months MySpace has crept into the public consciousness? It's on a radio jingle for another company. Every aspiring musician has a "MySpace" page. We've had people visit LifePoint who first found us via MySpace. Well, today I went to pay our rent for September. Our landlord is a local realtor and I usually hand deliver the check. Not that I have to ... I just do. As we were talking, I noticed that the receptionist behind the counter was checking her MySpace page -- at work!Have you got a MySpace page? Want to be a MySpace friend? :-)

Sometimes we get so busy that we fail to slow down and recognize the many good things that God has poured into our life. There will be pessimists quick to point out the rough spots -- but I'll leave that up to them.I'm continually amazed that God saw fit to bless me with a wonderful wife and companion. It's a joy to watch her interact with our daughters and to see them adopting many of her wonderful qualities. She's also a very dedicated teacher who loves her job and the people she works with.Our daughters, Hannah and Hope, are a constant source of laughter and emotions (FYI: I'm sure there will come a time when the emotions will not be so cherished). Hannah just got braces and it's fun just to look at her. Hope's sense of humor is maturing and pretty quick. I'm just happy to be around for…