I love to get above our Valley, see it with my eyes and pray over this broken place. I pray that God would bring revival to this place. I pray this for thousands I’ve never even met.

Sure, I’d like to see our economy flourish. I’d love to see crime and gang activity slow down to a snail’s crawl. But more than that, I pray that the people of this Valley would come to know Jesus.

I think we need to pray for our Valley as a whole, but we also need to pray for the individuals of our Valley by name: People we work with, go to school with, live near, play with and randomly intersect with.

While up on the hill one day this week I prayed for our Valley, but I also got personal:

I prayed for a 45 year lady who gave her life to the Lord while sitting in a hospital bed as she’s dealing with terminal cancer.

I prayed for a guy who’s marriage is on the brink of divorce.

I prayed for people by name who are going through difficult times and other’s who are on the edge of surrendering their lives to Christ.

Jesus talked about going into your closet or room to pray. Sometimes, this is my room…seeing our Valley so it’s continually before me as I talk to my Father.

Please, don’t stop praying for our VALLEY!

We really needed this rain!

Since I like to be outdoors, the rain can seriously mess up my plans. And again, on my day off, when I wanted to be outside, it was raining. However, we needed it, so I managed with a day indoors.

Like the rain, other things mess up our own agenda. Sometimes it’s obviously God and other times it’s life’s circumstances that God can use. Either way, while it wasn’t my plan, I’ve got to see the good that can come out of these unexpected changes.

You too have probably had these crazy changes occur that weren’t even on your radar. Like me, now maybe you can look back and now see the good that came out of that “rainy day”.

In fact, I love the perspective that comes from seeing how these unexpected events brought about some really needed changes. Then, and maybe only then, we can say…

“Thank you God. I really needed this rain!”

A couple of great ladies from Community have written a book to help others begin their journey toward getting their own books published.

I loved the layout and clarity of the steps given in The Self-ish Writer, by Debby Alten and Julie Cave. Each of these ladies, who have quite a bit of experience in the field of writing, give such helpful and practical advice.

It’s a great tool if you’ve ever thought about getting that book, that’s bouncing around in your head, down on paper.

These two, on top of doing something truly helpful, have also committed the proceeds to go towards our facility development here at Community with The EPIC Life!

How cool is that?

Great job ladies. Proud of you!

Link to e-Store: https://www.createspace.com/5217295

Also available on Amazon

FYI: it’s a way bigger royalty check from the e-Store.

If you’ve been at Community these past two weeks you know we made some changes with the way our chairs are set up in the Worship Center.

The goal is to accomplish a few things with these changes, so let me walk you through it all.

First, we had some consultants here a couple of weeks ago and one of the things they noticed was we had several aisles that were 18 chairs wide. Problem…people don’t like to crawl over other people. One more problem…most people like to sit on the aisle (so they can escape if this whole church thing gets weird).

So, we created more aisles so that more people could sit on an aisle and less people would have to crawl over other people. BAM! It works!!

Here’s the other thing we’re still trying to figure out. We are trying to maximize our space so we can get more people in the room. It’s not as simple as having 500 chairs set up for 500 people. Many people don’t like to feel squished or sit arm-to-arm with a total stranger. This ends up with a room feeling too full before every seat is taken.

If it were just up to those of us who call Community home…we’d cram in and be happy. However, we’re trying to figure out how to make more room for people who don’t already come here and DO NOT want to feel completely jammed into a seat they can’t “escape” from if need be.

Here’s how we can all help. Yes, we can ALL help. Be patient with us as we figure out the best configuration for our room. It may change again. But, more importantly, help make the people who wind up near you in a worship service feel at home and accepted. They won’t notice the change in seating arrangements…they’ve never been here before. They will, however, remember some amazing people that made them feel genuinely accepted and right at home!

Remember, growing churches grow because they’re willing to sacrifice. Even when it’s as simple as sacrificing “the way we’ve always done it” for the good of the next person…we’re making the right move.

Thank you all for your help in making more room for more people!

Bonus info: You can always help make more room on Sunday’s by going Saturday night to our 6:30 pm service! And…there’s free ice cream!!