Rain: We've been getting rain around here like crazy. The first 5 months of the year I think it rained only a half dozen times but since the beginning of June it's been raining almost every other day and I think today is the 5th day in a row it's rained and the past few days have been quite a large amount...and lightning just knocked the power out...again.

Launch Team: Last night was our first ever Launch Team meeting. It was a great night with people that enjoy each other and are committed to making this church a success. We talked about vision for a while and then about the gritty details that need to get done between now and February 11, 2007. That aspect is one of the duties I enjoy the most but can be the most frustrating. It's my favorite when a great thing comes together and I loathe it when I've got writers block.

Money: It used to drive me crazy the way my former ministry dealt with money but more specifically people's contributions to the church. It was this top secret hush hush thing about who gave, who didn't give. How much people gave was a highly kept secret... I used to get frustrated because we would sit around board meetings talking about bad off the church was and how we could barely pay the bills and at one point the treasurer started asking me to hold onto my paychecks till he could make the deposit because there wasn't enough money in the bank to pay me. But while budget weren't being met and ministries were suffering no one was ever asking the obvious question- are people giving their financial resources to the church? It was never asked because certain people knew the answer and then consequence to that question. That no indeed most people were not giving and that something needed to be done about that.

As a church planter I'm pretty darn aware of money. I've set out to raise $24k for the church plant this year and Heather and I give our tithe money to the church plant. I'm also aware that I'm gathering a launch team and that I need to at some point ask them to begin contributing to the church. The bible tells us where our treasure is there will our heart be also. In my language that says people give money to what they think is important.

So last night at the launch team meeting I knew I needed to mention giving to the church. I didn't have anyone in mind that needs to start giving or they are going to spend longer in purgatory but I did give an invite to our Launch Team to start giving to the church. I have to admit again it was hard to say, these people are my friends and I don't want to convince or coerce them into giving but I felt it was more than appropriate to invite them to give. At the end of the night someone asked me how they could start giving...amen!