The Mother of All Mother's Day Services!

Mother's Day is our third largest Sunday of the year at Crossroads Church! Only Easter and Christmas exceeds the crowds we draw on Mother's Day. Early on, it was actually one of the smallest attendances of the year, but we quickly figured out everyone was going to church with their moms that day and so we got really intentional and put together a GREAT service to bring one's mom to!

This year we had over 3,400 there and we really pulled out the stops! We had a super cute skit that was like a Mother's Day take on Jimmy Fallon's Thank You Card bit. Curvine Brewington wrote and directed the piece and everyone involved did an outstanding job! We had Taylor Wheeler cover the Meagan Trainer song "Mom" and I still can't get that song out of my head! The performance was complete with Taylor's mom Betsy Alleman showing up onscreen for a FaceTime conversation mid-song! 

We provided great photo booths for moms to get pics with their families (thanks Mallory Marks and company!), chocolates for the ladies as they came into the auditorium, a special gift card to NothingBuntCakes (whaaaat???) and to top it off, an incredible message from my wife Donna - the greatest mom ever! 

Another thing we do on Mother's Day is baby dedications (over 20 dedications that day) and - on a personal note - one of the babies dedicated that day was our grandson Ezekiel! What a special moment it was to get to dedicate our precious little guy! 

A Significant Platform

This past Friday, I was given the opportunity to speak at the annual conference for the Louisiana Assemblies of God network. This is my tribe! I am ordained through this network. My dad was ordained through this network. My entire ministry formulation came through this network. So having the assignment to speak to my peers was unlike any other speaking assignment I have ever been given. 

I have spoken in every kind of environment you can imagine and, by-and-large, I never get nervous when speaking - it's what I've been called and graced by God to do. But this was different! I wrestled with this assignment! Really, it wasn't until the morning after delivering the message that I finally felt like I got it right. I shared a message called, "Zerubbabel" about the governor of Judah who led the exiles to respond to Haggai's message from God to rebuild the broken down, chard, neglected temple there in Jerusalem. I was able to share with my peers that - at the end of the day - whatever office we hold or opportunity we're given in ministry, it all ultimately comes down to building up the torn down lives around us. I challenged our network to focus on soul winning like never before! 

Ruthie Oberg, one of the other speakers at the conference, used an illustration of the old bucket brigades that townships would use to fight fires back in the day. She pointed out that how one handled the bucket - ensuring the water stayed in the bucket as it was handed off - was the key to the success of those endeavors. With our network, I want to pass the bucket successfully! The bucket my dad's generation handed to my own was full! My prayer is it will be full when I hand it off to the next generation. (See picture above to get a vision of that next generation!) 

Our Network leader - my dear friend Scott Holmes - has a vision to see our network grow to 300 strong and healthy churches in the next ten years. I believe soul winning is the key to that goal! I believe soul winning is the most significant platform any of us will ever be given.