This year Elisha Scott Fowler’s voice joins ours in wishing you a very Merry Christmas and great years ahead and behind! This holiday season, we pray that God will continue to bless you with both provisions and purpose for the year ahead. There has never been a happier place for us than to be doing what He has called us to do, which has included being parents in 2014. These past nine months have made for quite the journey of growth for both us and Eli. Stepping into being a family has been one of the greatest challenges and opportunities for growth that Stacy and I have experienced. Eli is a huge blessing in our lives and one that we are so incredibly thankful for! Read the rest of this entry »

“The calm before the storm:

It’s hard to watch your wife suffer and not be able intervene. I hate being in this room as the one she depends on for comfort…I feel like I have none that I can give. I feel guilty for eating or relaxing when Stacy can’t do the same. I dislike not being able to be the one who gives, serves, and sacrifices more than her.

Sitting in the hour before the baby comes wondering if Mom and baby are going to come through this healthy…tough. Especially since I know many people who have not had mom or baby come through this in good condition

Knowing the demands that are to be made of me now–I feel so out of place, unnatural. However, these are demands God intends to use to shape me…make me a more willing, more capable leader through being a servant, and more compassionately hearted man, and more prone to respond to the need of the moment.

I am terrified.

I am ready to run.

I am afraid of the failure I know will come.

I already feel like a failure.

God is with me. God has brought me here. God will not abandon me. I hear the words He gave to Joshua and Gideon ringing in my present circumstances.”

To those who know me, it’s no secret that I dislike Mac computers for my own personal use. I find them too expensive, too restricted, and uncaring toward those who have older computers–limiting their upgrades and features to new features, new phones, and more money.

However, these arguments don’t mean that I think everyone needs a PC. There are many who work best with a Mac, and who should pay the extra money for one. That’s why I appreciate Lifehacker’s best arguments article…it reviews the advantages and disadvantages of both, fairly. Check it out here, or read the headlines from the article below:

http://lifehacker.com/mac-vs-windows-your-best-arguments-486125257

Windows offers more software

Windows offers greater flexibility

Mac’s have fewer viruses, require less maintenance

Both platforms work well for designers/video editors

Windows offers a better gaming experience

Neither OS is easier to learn

It’s been almost a year since I last really wrote to this blog…Wow. That’s a long vacation, I know. If this post comes as a surprise, then I am glad you keep my feed in your list.

It’s been a great year–and its not for terrible reasons that this blog has laid silent. However, it has also been my first year as a “pastor” officially, and that has meant a lot of change. New city, new house, new jobs, new companions to hang out with, new hobbies, and a chance to rediscover life for both Stacy and I. I confess that I am unprepared, but learning to adapt to the challenges of ministry: counseling, programming services, etc. It’s good work, but I is taking some time to adjust and develop my skills for it.

And the great news is, we are LOVING life! This journey God has us on is exciting and challenging–we wouldn’t want it any other way.

By way of an update, here are a few photos that jump out to me related to recent events. And along with that, I hope you hear the message that after a year of adaptation and consideration, I believe I’ll be adding blogging back into my routine. I hope you’ll continue to follow me.

First year as a pastor, first chance to do some very fun baptisms! Here’s Kyle Burney, a good friend, and a soldier who deploys this week. Be safe my friend, I’ll miss you on this trip of yours. It’s a tough assignment to be a soldier–I hope our church can serve them and their families well.

Here are some other friends I’ve been blessed to get to know–and then send off these past few months. It’s unfortunate, but the military only gives us a few years with most couples. Tara and Tyler are now in El Paso, TX, and Steven and Jessica Stillwill have been moving to Arizona these past few weeks. It’s heartbreaking to lose their close companionship, but exciting to send them off to new opportunities to grow. It’s because of couples like them that we have started live streaming our services at www.onechurchmedia.tv so that they can stay in touch with our church when traveling, training, sick, or transitioning to a new location and searching for a new local church home. It’s our hope that one day we will be able to prepare many of these people to plant churches in their new homes–small groups that reach their communities and grow into movements of God that reach the unreached people in their city.

One of my favorite events to program and put on as a pastor is our Marriage Ministry’s Married Life Live night. Every quarter we gather couples for a night where we emphasize one of six key marriage principles that we believe will help couples transform their marriage. Here’s the set of principles, which I hope you’ll enjoy checking out:

Follow God

I will let God direct my marriage. He has a pattern for marriage and a plan for our lives will make our lives the best they can be.

(catch God’s vision for your marriage)

Nurture Romance

I will make my home an environment that nurtures our romance: safety, honesty, respect, and trust.

“Hurry Home” – I will make quality time together a priority.

Cultivate Communication

I must seek to understand before I can expect to be understood.

We will resolve our differences in a respectful, conversational manner.

A Lifestyle of Caring (Practice Your Promise)

I recognize that my spouse has specific needs, and I try to meet them on a regular basis.

(The Love Bank – Emotional Needs)

Celebrate Differences

I will appreciate the way God made my spouse and encourage them to grow their giftedness and passion.

Fight FOR One Another

We resolve to work as a team, fighting to create systems and habits that benefit us and help us manage our family, our finances, and the mission God has called us to live out as a couple.

(Teamwork, One-ness, Financial Management, Family Issues)

Geoff Surratt recently commented on the power of Biblical community, and I wanted to pass along some of his words,

I think the mistake we make as church planters is that we try to plant a service. We hire a band, we rent a school and we put on a show. There’s nothing evil or wrong about the show, but there is no one in your city sitting at home on Sunday morning thinking, “Man, I wish there were a really good show down at the middle school cafetorium. If there were, I’d be there. And I’d give my life to Jesus if the show were awesome.”

There are, however, a lot of people in your city thinking, “Man, I wish I could find community. Life is lonely and I’d love to feel connected. If I could belong, feel like I’m a valuable part of a team I’d consider giving my life to Jesus.” They wouldn’t express it that way, but that is the longing at the bottom of their hearts. They aren’t finding that community at work, or on Facebook or at the gym. If they show up for your weekend show its only because they think they might find community.

In my heart, as I serve at oneChurch, this is what I hope for. Leaders who are so transformed by their connections in group that they continue to build more and more groups until they impact the entire city of Clarksville and far beyond. An impact that has nothing to do with buildings, parking spaces, or a highly planned 90 minute event.

How about you, what do you think?

Read more from Geoff Surratt at www.geoffsurratt.com.