Today was church day with the entire church all decorated for VBS like a bayou. It looks legit. Bea has been gone all day today on a girl day with some friends. Now I’m just relaxing after a fun but exhausting weekend.

VBS is tomorrow. Let’s do this.

Today is Tuesday or should I say “Meeting Day.” Tuesday is meeting day in my life. But before my meetings I hung out with my family a bit in the morning. It was actually a wildly different morning. My kids usually wake up at 6:00am. Today they slept until 7:15 so I was able to relax on the couch with a cup of coffee and my Bible in peace. We have staff chapel at 8am, Elevation service planning at 9:15am, Strategic Leadership Team meeting at 10:30am. That ends around 12noon.
Today, I was a bit distracted during chapel because I knew we had some interviews in the afternoon that I hadn’t finished preparing for. So I was half reading some resumes/applications and half listening – which I will admit is not good, especially in my role as Exec Pastor of Ministry.

Our Elevation team meeting involves evaluating last week and doing final prep on this coming Sunday. We meet at other times to come up with cool creative elements and things like that. Overall, this past Sunday was great. Solid sermon from Brent, great worship from Victor and the band, and some funny interaction between Doan and Davis during Current Highlights (aka – announcements). We talked about having more Scripture on the screens between songs instead of song titles unless it’s a newer song. We also talked about making sure we explain the Response Stations fully each week even if it feels old. We also are really liking having two people do Current Highlights. It provides some better humor and a light feeling.

Our Strategic Leadership Team (SLT) meeting was good. We have been taking a cue from Andy Stanley and discussing behaviors and systems. We came up with a bunch of behaviors we would want to see from the people of Calvary Church. Then each week we focus on one and discuss what Current Systems we have that HELP, what Current Systems we have that HURT, and what Systems we don’t have yet that we need to start.

The rest of my day started with a quick lunch. Then we had a meeting at 1:00pm for what the promotion plan for LifeGroups will be in August/September. We relaunch LifeGroups every year near the end of September so we push hard for new LifeGroup Leaders in August and then promote the LifeGroups themselves in September. We have an amazing Communications Team and they are easy to work with.

I ran out of that meeting to head to two interviews for our High School Associate Director position that we are looking to fill by the end of summer. Interviews are an interesting exercise. You want to get to know the person but you always know that most people are going to leave the process disappointed. It’s also just a ton of pressure to hire well.

Then I finished the work day with a 4pm meeting with Matt Davis, Chris Gniffke and Trevor Behrns about the VBS Opening and Closing sessions for next week. It’s going to be amazing and INSANE!!

After work I came home and Bea had to leave to hang out with some fellow teacher girlfriends. I had dinner with the girls and then played with legos in the playroom before putting them to bed. After they went down, a friend came over that wanted to discuss some theological questions. It was a great time just discussing our spiritual journeys and some questions that he had.

That was a very full day. But also an amazing day.

Oh summer, I love you. Come quickly.

My highlights:
1. Thurston Lava Tube hike – this was an amazing short hike through some of the coolest rainforest I have ever seen and then you walk through a long tunnel that was made from swirling lava flow and now is a cool tube through the earth lined with lava rock. Bea has pics of it on her blog. This made the drive down to Kilauea worth it.

2. Snorkeling with Grace for her first time. She is so good. She was a natural at snorkeling. No fear. I was so proud of her. I felt like we were such pals out in the water. I loved it. I have video of it on my FaceBook Profile.

3. Being with my mom and dad. My mom has been dealing with some memory loss lately and I really cherished this time to be with her, for my kids to be with her and for her to spend time with my kids. I believe that this time has embedded my mom into Grace’s memory in a greater way. I’m unsure about Ella because I don’t have any memories of my life when I was two years old. Please pray for my mom and dad. Memory loss is a sad thing.

4. Mauna Kea Beach. This beach was recommended by Nicole Gniffke and I seriously loved it. It’s a HUGE white beach (which is a bit rare on the Big Island) with some fun snorkeling and perfect gentle waves for kids. I had a blast snorkeling with Grace and Bea. It was cool for all three of us to go together while my parents stayed with Ella. Ella fell asleep on my mom’s lap and I think that was my mom’s highlight. Then the gentle waves in shallow, warm, clear water was super fun to play with the whole family.

It’s great to be home. The flight home was super easy, but it was a red-eye and I’m pretty tired so I’m glad to have a day to rest before going back to work tomorrow. I highly recommend the Big Island. I was pretty skeptical going into the trip. We didn’t even get to do some of the cooler things like Waipio Valley and Captain Cook Bay because it was just too hard with the kiddos. But I still loved it. Check it out for sure!

I am very happy to spend a week with my family. We are going with my mom and dad. It will be great to spend the week with them and with Bea and the kiddos.

Have you been to the big island before? Any thoughts?

Sliders are so precious and cute. I want to eat them up. What is it about these baby burgers that makes us love them so much, makes ME love them so much. I like to make them at home with King’s Hawaiian Dinner Rolls and ground turkey with a bit of apricot jam mixed into the meat. It will change your life. I feel a little disturbed by eating them because they are so cute. It’s like eating kittens or baby seals.

However, I went to Jack-in-the-Box with this crazy, mad-scientist, genius from our church last night to try their new slider offering. The poster on the building has three of these cutie-pie burgers stacked on top of each other like three bear cubs in a circus. They didn’t look so cute when they came in the box.

Bottom-Line – they didn’t feel so good in my stomach later. Jack stinks at sliders. I will stick with the home-made version.

I have been intrigued by the ESV because it’s a more word-for-word translation but is a bit more readable than the NASB. I already have a few NIV Bibles and the NIV is great, but I have enjoyed the NASB and now I’m giving the ESV a shot. Please don’t comment with a big heated argument about translations. I’m just not up for it. I’m all for sharing what you like, but please don’t come here claiming only one is correct.  I don’t want to be a critic, I want to build the church. if you were at catalyst west coast.

I found the perfect one. It’s an ESV Personal Size Reference Bible. It doesn’t have two columns on the page. It’s all one column like a normal book. It’s light and a good novel size, but the letters aren’t too tiny. So I’m gonna take it home now and keep reading the book of John starting in chapter 6 where I left off in my NASB either with my preaching Bible at church or from my iPhone.

What’s your ideal reading Bible???

My finances are really tight and I want to trust God, but I get nervous about things more than I used to.

My schedule is busy, but I am fighting for my family time.

My friends are important to me, but I feel like I never see half of them.

I oversee a lot of ministry and people at Calvary, but I still feel like a big idiot.

I love my new job, but last night all I wanted to do was worship with the high schoolers.

I’m happier than ever, but I feel like I get emotional a lot lately.

I love preaching in Elevation, but I dread the prep week when I know it’s coming.

I love blogging, but I get super lazy about it.

I love my wife,    no but there.

I love my kids,   no but there.

I love God and I want to serve Him. Period.

Then we got our iPhones today which was pretty cool too. I love it so far, but lots to learn.

I leave for four days up at Hume Lake tomorrow. We are taking the whole pastor/director staff up there. It should be awesome!

See you when I get back.