A few weeks ago I preached a message on partnership based on Philippians 1:3-6 NIV, which reads, “I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel…” I described our 3 part partnership. There’s God’s part, our part (the church staff and pastors) and your part (the church).

I ended with an action step or call to action. Since it was Palm Sunday and Easter was the following week, I encouraged all present to invite someone to church on Easter Sunday. I want to be clear in my intent. We don’t just invite people to church on big Sundays (like Christmas and Easter) - I hope you’ll invite people regularly.

We had over 500 people on Easter Sunday. Job well done! However, we’ve been down to just over 300…

Wow! After a fantastic warm winter (at least for those of you who don’t like the snow), we are marching through spring on into summer. We continue to pray for Joplin as we approach the one year anniversary of last May’s tragic tornado that hit our city. It is exciting, though, to see God working through His church (which is each one of us) and the many ways we have ministered to the people of Joplin and the surrounding area over the past year. God is using Forest Park in a mighty way. It was especially exciting to see over 2,800 people on all three campuses on Easter Sunday. That is an all-time record attendance!

It is also hard to believe that it is almost six months since we started the One Church campaign. We had over $2,700,000 in total pledges. Since that time we have received 28% of the…

God is moving in our midst almost daily at Forest Park Carthage. I can’t begin to tell you all the God moments, God stories and God miracles that I’ve seen and keep hearing about. We are seeing lives changed. In the last month, we’ve seen 9 people baptized on a Sunday morning. What you may not realize is the story behind each of those precious people. You wouldn’t believe what some of our people have been through and been set free from. God is moving! One day we hope to show you more details through a video, but for now - just take my word for it. It’s amazing to see how God is touching and changing lives.

We have a simple, but potent prayer that we pray every Sunday at FP Carthage. We close our services by praying Ephesians 3:20-21. You know it well. It goes like this:…

Tomorrow we kick-off our Simple series and I can’t wait! We live in a wild society. Fast food, rush hour, express lane - you get the point. We live at the speed of life and life is busy. It’s time we all took a step back and paused for a moment to “be still” and focus on what matters most. Is Jesus on the throne in our hearts? Is He first place in our lives? Does He sit at the top of our world and everything else flow out of our relationship with Him?

The Bible instructs us to “seek first His Kingdom” (Matt. 6:33). Let’s take a look at Matthew 6:33-34 in The Message Bible - it reads, “Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. Give your entire attention to what God is…

With our great new series coming up, I wanted to take some time to sit down and lay out some ways we can apply the concept of “simple” to our lives.  Since I am the Worship Pastor at Forest Park’s Carthage Campus, I thought a great place to start the discussion would be the area of worship.  What does simple worship look like?  What does authentic worship look like?  Let’s take a few minutes to delve into these concepts.

First off, let’s define worship.  If we consider where this word comes from, worship can be defined as a way to convey the level of worth we ascribe to a person or thing.  We ascribe worth when we cheer at a football game, meaning there is worship happening.  We ascribe worth when we present an honor or award to someone for a job well done.  We ascribe worth when we give…

Our One Church campaign was nothing short of a miracle. In these tough economic times, we collectively pledged more than $2.7 million dollars for projects on all three campuses over the next three years. Already more than $638,000 (23%) of the pledges have been received. We have paid back our reserves which were used (along with gifts to Generations) to purchase the former Barton’s Hardware store in Carthage. Now we are saving for the remodeling of that building which will be the new home for our Carthage Campus.

We are the One Church Follow-Up Team and will be keeping you informed as we make progress toward the One Church objectives. Those objectives include:

• Getting everything ready (remodeling, equipment, etc.) for our Carthage Campus to move into their new home
• Improving Mission Joplin for our ongoing ministry to those impacted by the tornado
• Updating the Worship Center on our Joplin Campus
…

Once again, I have laid down the gauntlet - this is The October Challenge. Once before I challenged you to get 300 people on one Sunday, but it was tough because it was Summer and people were out of town and on vacation. Now I’m offering this challenge one more time, except this time it’s Fall and it’s much easier to reach this goal. It’s simple: You invest and invite and get 300 people to attend Forest Park Carthage on a Sunday in October and if you reach this goal, I’ll get a blue mohawk (Carthage blue color, of course). You’ve got 4 Sundays left to accomplish this. You can do it!

300. it’s the perfect score in a game of bowling. It’s the name of a great action movie. It’s also the goal we’ve been shooting for all summer. It all comes to a head this Sunday, August 28. I have laid down the challenge. You invest. You invite. You bring a friend and if we reach 300 people THIS Sunday, you we will see me get a mohawk in front of everyone at church. I’m writing this blog because I sincerely believe you can do it. If each of you just invites one person, you’ll knock this out easily and my head will be shaved. Let’s do it Carthage! 300.