Hey gang,

Thanks for tuning in.   So last week our Service Planning Team took an off-site retreat.  That team consists of Mike Brennan, Matt Summers, Rob Merkle, Chad Hardison, Tom Pryor and myself.

We found that at our weekly planning meetings and devotional meetings we kept getting into discussions that we needed more time to complete.  Macro level questions about the direction our church was taking, stuff having to do with organizational flow, etc.

So, we got permission from a family in our church to use their summer home in Montauk and journeyed eastward for 2 days of strategy, music, planning, resting and deep conversation.  Needless to say, we had a lot of laughs too.  Also needless to say (but saying it anyway), we ate good.  Like, real good.

Tom was our chef for the weekend.  He made taco's the first night and a pot of chili that we ate for lunch the next day.  This was some seriously amazing chili.  My mouth just started watering from thinking about it.  I am now drooling all over myself so I'll stop.

He also brought a small tractor-trailer filled with girl scout cookies, none of which made it home alive.

 We did some great and sometimes heated conversing about what our strategy should look like, given our goals as a church.  We kinda boiled down our primary goal as: wanting to see everyone on Long Island glorifying God with their every word, thought and deed.    We know we need a better, more concise way to say that, but that's the idea.

So that being the goal, how do we move people through the steps it takes to get there?  What should this look like in the life of the average True North attendee?

We broke it down into three simple steps:  Honor God, Love Others, Serve All.

Honoring God begins with acknowledging Him as Lord and putting your faith in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins.  It continues in worshipping God in all things and being satisfied in Him above all things.

Loving Others involves living out your faith in community with others and the real-life application of the things we learn on Sunday.

Serving All means giving back.  Putting yourself last and taking the opportunities that God has given you to follow in Jesus’ example both at church and in other places.

It’s not rocket science.  Pretty simple really.  As is the case for many churches, you could look at it as a boil-down of the great commission (go into all the world and make disciples) and the great commandment (love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself).

Or, as something that sprang up out of Micah 6:8 (do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with your God).   Either way, it’s ours.  We own it.  It’s informing our discussions and honestly, it’s been shaping my life and thinking lately as well.

I’ve had several opportunities to make poor choices lately and by His grace, I’ve been reminded to Honor God in all that I do. 

Elementary maybe, but helpful.

And this is what’s been happening in Bert world as of late.

Thanks for reading gang.

Honor God, Love Others, Serve All.

Bert

PS – Don’t forget our weekend services for Easter!!  
    7:30 & 9 for Good Friday.  Very intense, 45 minute service.  No childcare.  Please don’t be late.
    8:30, 10, and 11:30 for Easter Morning.  We expect a full house and you’d help us out a LOT by coming to the 8:30 service.  Childcare at all three.  No Elevate services on Easter. 
    Thanks!!

Hey gang,

I'm really excited to share with all my The Right Thing readers that today I reached a significant personal goal of mine.

I am now fully six months ahead in my sermon preparation.  That's right. I've got six months of sermons in the bank, and I'm now researching material for messages I'll be preaching next fall.  This feels amazing!!  Sorry if this sounds like I'm tooting my own horn.  I've been working on getting here for the better part of a year and it's taken a LOT of effort to get out that far ahead.

It's going to allow me to proceed at a more maintainable pace, revisit the material to course correct at the three-month mark, and give our media team at True North a lot more lead time to create audio and video content to support the series'.

Six months isn't a magic number. It's just a goal I set for myself a long time ago and having reached it feels like a weight has been lifted.  Silly maybe, but I'm really excited. Booyah!!!

This will allow we to turn my attention back to my other significant goal for the year:  to lose 50 lbs.

This week's target weight:   258.0
This week's actual weight:    259.6

Blast!!!  Dang off-site meeting last week was my undoing.  A pox upon Tom Pryor and his never-ending supply of delicious girl scout cookies!!  If he didn't do such a great job preaching this Sunday I'd have to think of something really evil to do to him.

Ok, enough blame placing.  It's all my fault and I know it.

I got some serious make up work to do and I'm going to be doing a bunch of traveling in the next couple of weeks to boot, which makes it really hard to have discipline.

I'm really excited now to be giving this my full attention.  Thanks for your prayers, you guys. 

I really need them!!

Peace, out.

Bert

Here's a little treat for you 60's people out there.

Especially for fans of the 'Woodstock' era.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you – the extremely unusual Joe Cocker.

ps -  props to Brian 'the beegees' Garnier for the link.

Target Weight:   259
Actual Weight:      259.4

Bummed.  First time in 12 weeks I missed my goal.

Wedding did me in.  Plus, I was sick Sunday and didn't preach.

Whatever.  No excuses.  Gotta take things up a notch this week so I'm back on deck for next week, then try to put some margin between my target and my actual so these little slip ups don't de-rail me.