Three times over the past week I felt strongly to follow the leading of the Paraclete in my life. The early church identified the Paraclete as the Holy Spirit. It appears in the N.T. where it may be translated in English as “Counselor”, “Helper”, or “Comforter”. I tend to think of the Paraclete as more of a guide than anything else.
On Saturday during my run I felt so strongly to add into Sunday’s message something for just one person. I felt such a strong leading to let someone know that God truly loved them despite their imperfections. On Monday morning one of our leaders texted me saying, “I have always known that God loves me, but I really never understood His love for me. I needed to hear it. I didn’t know I needed to hear it. During worship I lifted my hands up to tell him back, “I love you too” and it was like He gave me a big giant God hug! Thank you for being a servant to Him and saying what He would have you say.”
I also stated a few other things for a specific person and got texted Sunday night, “Thanks bro I needed that”. A few blog entries ago I wrote on “I’m Waiting on You” and felt strongly to write it for a specific person. I had delayed writing that blog for several months. The next day I received a response saying, “I was the one” from a friend.
It makes me think of all the preparation put into a message or things we try to say based on our own wisdom, experience or lack of, or something good someone else said we can pass along. What if we neglected time spent in prayer? What if we neglected time in His word? In those moments is when he speaks to our hearts…… but here’s the thing I’m learning. When I neglect those sweet moments crying out in desperation for God to anoint my lips it doesn’t just hurt me from hearing something……. it costs that one person or maybe far more, perhaps an entire church hearing that one Paraclete-led word. Lives aren’t altared because of anything clever man has to say, but lives are transformed as the Paraclete speaks through man.
I’m truly looking forward to continuing to hear the voice of God. I’m also looking forward to reading a book on my list called Wild Goose Chase - all about the holy spirit.
Do you ever wander what would happen if we stopped ignoring that leading? What if we truly followed it every time we heard it? What risks would we take? What sins would we avoid? I’m thinking this is a future teaching series.

unselfish love from volunteers
gateway supporters
During the early summer of 2007 I found myself driving a pick up truck driving all over northeast Oklahoma performing routine insurance inspections. It allowed me to be away from people and be safe. I never had to deal with much conflict and it allowed me to run from past dreams, passions, and a call on my life to do so much more. I didn’t know the next step to take. All my energies were focused on triathlon because it made me feel good as I was losing weight and gave me something to be passionate about. I believe when we lose passion and our life gets put on hold we look for something else that we can live for. When I found myself driving to a church office toward the end of 2004 and seeing a 30,000 square feet student center building being built I thought that was suppose to be my dream. I found myself locked inside a “church bubble” and everyone I knew already knew Christ. We packed our bags and headed north with nothing.
How To Last in Ministry

Last week someone wrote on a communication card needing help with the air condition. Within a day calls and emails were being made, one of our groups was chopping at the bit to help this couple. Another couple is needing help with property clean-up and guys are volunteering with trailers, chainsaw’s, and lawn mowers. Our church is getting it faster than I ever thought they would. It isn’t difficult. People are tired of hearing about God’s love with mouths, they want to see it with hands and feet. It’s time – to serve our community one person at a time! You know I enjoy doing church, but it feels so much better to actually be it!



The afternoon was spent getting welts with paintballs with a group of guys I’ve grown to adore and love, even if they are physically hurting me. The evening was spent with some of the greatest team leaders and group leaders I’ve ever known. We ate together, laughed, and spent almost the entire evening celebrating stories of life change and realizing that God has truly called us to something special and that we have it and there’s some crazy love that is about to be poured out very soon on each other and this community.
I once heard some good advice from someone further down the road than me. He has pastored for over 35 years and he said everyone needs time of renewals. His formula given is: divert daily, withdraw weekly, and abandon annually. Everyone of us need times to unplug from our doing and just be. I’m thankful for the opportunity my family had to head a few hours away and do just that. It caused me to appreciate and love my wife and my boys that much more. Although staying in a cabin for an extended amount of time will press your limits – we had a blast! 
About to go over my message one last time before tomorrow and head to T-town to see Brad & Morgan tie the knot. I can’t wait to honor our father’s, as well as honor all of our volunteers. Our Gifts Director Julie will be sharing her story and her journey of involvement into The Well and it should be quite interesting. I love our church so much and was able to have a blast night with some men running around at Laser Quest. ”Mr. Clean” took over 1200 shots the last game and my trigger finger is still a little soar. If it involves a gun of any sort the men of our church come out in groves.
After about a year and a half from first stepping out to pursue this endeavor of The Well my family will be loading up tomorrow after our gathering and headed to Eufaula Lake for our summer vacation. A friend of mine awhile back told me it was the ideal place to take my little boys too. So…. we’ll be headed to see Yogi and all his friends at the 














