Monday Morning Clarity

We had another great day yesterday at Sixth Street. I preached the 4th sermon in our "Amazed by Grace" series entitled "Sufficient Grace". We looked at Paul's reminder from God that "my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Doing this series has really given me a greater appreciation for God's grace and its power in our lives. I believe that most Christ-followers miss out on seeing the power of God displayed in their lives because of a misunderstanding of the grace of God. It's been refreshing for me and I think the church has really enjoyed it.

• We had another great partnership yesterday with the children's choir and the adult choir. They did "Your Love is Amazing" and Davey and Shelley Macon led in a solo. It's always great to see our children's choir on stage and the parents really show up so the crowd's better. I appreciate Carrie Keel and all her choir workers for their hard work.
• I looked out over our parking lot yesterday before the service and we have some real parking issues. If we increase our average attendance at all, we are really going to have trouble parking the cars, especially when it rains. I hope to get our frontline teams on board by the first of the year helping to solve these issues.
• I have noticed several new people each week, or at least new faces to me. I need to do a better job of encouraging them to fill out a connection card. I think we need to redo the connection card and find another way to disperse it to get information from everyone.
• One of the major tasks for 2010 for Sixth Street is to start talking about developing Biblical community and small groups. I think we have some great couples that are not connected in any way to a small group and that disconnection is showing in the congregation. We are made by God to live life in community with other believers. Expect a major emphasis on this soon.
• We are going to be having some hard talks about finances and budget planning the next few weeks. We need to find a way to balance proper stewardship of God's resources with our plans. I fully expect that the finances will get better, but we need to do a better job all around with teaching stewardship both as families and as a church family.
• We are supposed to close on our new house here soon. My lender tells me we are scheduled for this Friday which would be great! We are really ready to get settled down and get in our own place and establish roots. The move to Alex City has been good for Alison and myself to spend more time together. It's also given us more time with the kids. However, they've gotten stir-crazy without their own house. Pray that all continues to work out.
• Alison started her orientation at Russell Medical Center this week. She's excited and nervous about starting a new job.