EduConnect at Old Town Ele

Some time ago, church leaders in the Austin area began to ask city leaders what they could do to make the most positive impact on our community. What they heard surprised them… Studies show a strong link between third-grade reading proficiency and future prospects for a positive adult live. A student who moves through the 3rd…

See You At The Pole

It was a stretch to get all 5 of our kids up a little earlier today but we made it (late) to See You At The Pole. In the past, we’ve maybe made it with just a couple of our kids or I think last year we sent our older kids to it, while I…

Opening Up Space

For weeks now, we’ve been busy raising the roof… I don’t mean the dance move, I’m mean literally taking up the ceiling line in our sanctuary. The space that we lease for our church has ceiling tiles set at 9ft. For the most part this didn’t bother us much. Nice facilities are a luxury in the…

Not By Bread Alone

You can offer food, but people also have to realize they’re hungry. Just the other day, I was heading out for lunch with a friend and when I walked out of our building I saw a woman lying down in a parking spot. She was using one of the cement blocks as a pillow and was…

Turn the other Lego cheek

Midsouth Covenant Camp was a powerful experience for many kids, including mine. Not only was it fun (which would be a whole other post to share about that) but the theme of this year’s camp was Bullies of the Bible—essentially about forgiveness and loving others well. Each day was crafted around a biblical value of…

In sickness and in health

At the time I didn’t really understand what it meant. It was 25 years ago on this day—I was living in New York—and got a call from my mom. Her voice shaking, “There’s been an accident. Noe was on his motorcycle and…” For the last quarter century, my older brother has been without the use…

CHIC Day 4: Hump Day

Today was the day everyone fought being tired. Starting with the Project Blue 5k run in the morning after an especially long night created an experience for everyone, even if we all didn’t run or walk in the morning. If you’d like to pretend you came along the 5k imagine something like this:  600 people…

We were there!

Our youth and leaders who attended CHIC2015 are now back and (nearly) recovered from their week in Tennessee.   As the pastor, to be hear that stories of how their lives were shifted is so exciting because I know how much prayer and work was done in sending and covering over them. This was truly an…

CHIC Day 3: Are You Kidding Me??

ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!?!?!?!?! TONIGHT WAS OUR NIGHT ON THE FLOOR!!!!!! TONIGHT WAS THE NIGHT FOR KING AND COUNTRY!!!!! TONIGHT WAS THE BIGGEST SURPRISE REVEAL!!!!!!! Can you tell I am and we were really excited???? Well tonight as we entered early and got floor seats right next to the stage, we were ready to worship…

CHIC Day 2: Getting #Lecraed

First. Full. Day. CHIC 2015!!!! All of the students and leaders can talk about is how everything is better than they dreamed or imagined. If you ever wonder if what the Bible says really rings true in real life, well it did today for us. I was walking with a student to MainStage and I…