LifePointe Church had a fantastic day today. We’re still down a bit in attendance, but baseball and softball are about to wrap up. So when everyone gets back we’re going to be pressed for room. A great problem to have.

Bob, our worship leader, was out today. This left James to lead the worship. Today was his first go at it and I have to say he did a great job! With Drew on drums, there were four young ladies singing, as well as a male voice with one of our men. They all did an outstanding job. We even went ole school, singing “Victory in Jesus!” I’m proud of James, our band, and the additional voices we’re adding. The worship band future looks bright at LifePointe.

The message was the ninth in our series: Rooted. This series is all about examining and becoming aware of the basic tenets of the Christian faith. It’s been a blast to prepare for and deliver. Today’s topic was The Resurrection. The Resurrection power was present this morning. There was a great response and God is still changing lives. Some big faith decisions were made this morning. We also had quite a few first time guests today. Thanks for being a part of LifePointe today!

After the service, we had Lunch@LifePointe. There was A LOT of food, especially dessert. I may not eat for a week. Thanks to everyone who prepared food and worked to get it out for everyone this morning. Our group of volunteers are second to none.

This all comes on the heels of The Pointe’s Womanless Beauty Pagent, held Friday night. The Pointe is the student ministry of our church. They wanted some way to raise money so they could have a party for the younger kids of our church. They came up with this Womanless Beauty Pagent idea. There was a big crowd Friday night and we had about 20 “women” participate. I don’t think I’ve laughed that hard in a long time. The pagent was hugely successful. Looks like a big party is in store for our younger children.

So now I’m going to catch my breath for a few minutes they head back for our Prayer and Share Small Group Experience. I’m looking forward to that tonight.

Posted via email from RobWestbrook.com

This post Sunday Review originated at robwestbrook.com. See more like this at robwestbrook.com - adventures of a mississippi church planter.

In between services there was a breakfast buffet served and it was way good. The second service was threatened because of the band and preacher’s overeating!

The second service began with two more baptisms. There was a different vibe in the second service. I think the first service fired us all up for the second and it just rolled well. Again Jeff counted at least 130. There was definitely some overlap with people serving the first service and participating in the second, but the final count is in the 205 area, by far our largest Sunday worship service crowd.

I’m so proud of all our volunteers. We had many step up and serve, some serving in some capacity, such as our KidzPointe, for both services. The cooks, the greeters, the nursery, the LittlePointe teachers, the band, everyone really poured into this service. Thanks to all you guys for everything.

For the first time we did some direct mailing to promote our Easter service. We mailed 2000 postcards in our particular zip code. We got around 150 back or failed to get out. Our average attendance is in the 120 range. We had 85 over our average. That would be a conversion rate of 4.5%. Not bad. In addition we had 1000 personal invitations, business card-sized cards matching out mailer. These were used by our guys as personal invites. No matter the conversion rates or effectiveness, we had many new faces in the crowd and the Gospel of Jesus Christ was proclaimed and heard. Now we see if the real “conversion rate” happens, those who come to Him.

Below, you can watch our Easter service. This is the second service, with the baptism from the first service edited into the beginning. We’re still working on camera placement and blurriness. But it’s watchable. Watch the video and enjoy a Sunday service at LifePointe!

This post Great Easter at LifePointe originated at robwestbrook.com. See more like this at robwestbrook.com - adventures of a mississippi church planter.

The LifePointe Band Warms Up

We had a good full crowd and a good service. The music was off the hook. I delivered one of my most difficult messages: The Trinity. I hope it didn’t come off as a professor addressing a class. The subject matter is sometimes academic and I tried not to be too overwhelming. I personally thought it went really good.

After the morning service, a group of guys and I broke out the projector and watched the Daytona 500 in our building. We projected the race on a twelve foot wall, with a diagonal measurement somewhere in the sixteen foot range. Here’s a few pictures of our NASCAR small group meeting.

12 foot screen on right, 50 inch plasma on left

Here’s another showing our comfy setup. We dragged the couches from our lobby into the worship center and kicked back. It was great.

Mike, Vernon, Hans, Jeff, and Cory.

I left when they parked the cars because of rain and made a funeral home visit. I then went home where I played Guitar Hero III and Madden on our (to us) new XBox360. Now I’m headed to bed.

I’m already looking forward to next week. God is starting something in me right now and I can’t wait to see what He’s going to bring out of this. I’m really connecting with what I consider some possible influencers in LifePointe and God is working in their lives, too. This could be the start of something huge for us. I’ll keep you posted.

Hope to get back into the blogging frame of mind this week. I’ve been so busy the past few weeks that I’ve not had time to blog. Getting home every night at 9pm or later really curtails my time to blog. We’ll give it a try this week, hopefully.

Have a good, influential, Godly week this week.

This post How I Spent My Sunday originated at robwestbrook.com. See more like this at robwestbrook.com - adventures of a mississippi church planter.

Like Sunday.

I don’t know what it was (yeah, I do, God!) but we probably had the most first time guests in our service in months. And the service went very, very good. I think we had kind of drifted a little bit with our worship service, so we tightened it up Sunday. So good. And the final song, well, you just had to be there. It was, can I say it, awesome. We had a good response at the end of the service.

I think we got back into the groove Sunday. We’ve got to keep our focus on our reason for the Sunday service: a safe place where people can forget there troubles, worship the Lord, hear from the Lord, and hopefully for some, meet the Lord.

This post Sunday Update originated at robwestbrook.com. See more like this at robwestbrook.com - adventures of a mississippi church planter.

Very good service. Worship was awesome and everything flowed well. We’ve come a long way on the way the service flows from one element to the other. The band was tight and the songs were spot on.

My message was from Psalm 100, “Unconditional Thanksgiving.” God used the mission trip to show me many things, one being the African’s thanksgiving to the Lord, despite there circumstances and needs. The synopsis of my message was this: “We gives thanks to God for what He does, they give thanks to God for who He is.” And that’s what Psalms 100 is all about. God’s attributes are the primary motive for thanksgiving. We, evangelical, American Christians, need to make the transition from conditional thanksgiving, thanking God when He does something for us, to unconditional thanksgiving, thanking God for who He is. To borrow a line from Rick Warren, it’s not about us.

After the service we had a Thanksgiving lunch. The food was awesome and abundant.

Final count: 127, but I believe more came in a little later. The worship center was almost full.

This post Sunday Rundown originated at robwestbrook.com. See more like this at robwestbrook.com - adventures of a mississippi church planter.

I’m more impressed with our worship and worship team as every new service happens. Good stuff.

My message was centered around communion, coming out of 1 Corinthians 11. I had planned on it being a short message so that there would be more time at the end for communion. Shortening messages is not my strong suit and I’m never happy when I’m done. I think the message got across but I just wasn’t happy with it. It just didn’t turn out the way I wanted. But God was glorified and Jesus was lifted up. That’s an end result I’m always shooting for.

For the first time, LifePointe observed the Lord’s Supper. The observation was very different from anything I’ve ever done but I feel it was much more meaningful. Everyone who participated came forward, broke off a piece from a round loaf of bread, dipped it in a huge chalice, and ate. Very moving.

At the end of the service, I was surprised by the church with a very generous gift for Pastor Appreciation Day. They didn’t see it but I cried afterward. Just thinking about where we were a year ago and where God has brought us now, it’s just overwhelming. A year ago we had maybe 15-20 show up on Wednesday nights. Now we’re searching for empty chairs to put people. Of course, I didn’t do it alone. There’s such a fine group of people who ARE LifePointe, who heard God’s call to get in with this crazy, unorganized, big dreaming, fast talking guy on a brand spanking new church. And to believe they followed through. Wow, guys, look around. God’s just getting started with you.

Sunday night we held our monthly KidzClubb and this one was a good one. We’ve got some VERY talented people in our church and they really shine in KidzClubb. If you missed it, shame on you! This ministry to a very important segment of our church, our children, is so good. Look for the next one in December and make plans to be there. You will have fun and you might even show emotions of joy and elation. Yeah, I know, but you might.

Now, this week will be terribly busy. I’ve got to get all the loose ends tied up early because I’m out of here Thursday. Still got a shot to get. And I haven’t even started thinking about the supplies I’ll need to take with me. I’ll be on African soil, barring any problems, next Friday night. Our itinerary shows 50 minutes between flights in Amsterdam and I don’t know if that’s realistic. We’ll see. Nevertheless, please pray for our African team. We really want to see God do crazy, tremendous things while we’re there.

As I’ve written earlier, I’ll try to keep the blog updated while in Africa. The internet was spotty over there my last trip in 2005. It may be better now, we’ll see. I’m hoping my Blackberry has an African setting somewhere.

This post Sunday Night Review originated at robwestbrook.com. See more like this at robwestbrook.com - adventures of a mississippi church planter.

I’m really busy with some major stuff, plus trying to get everything in place for the two weeks I’ll be in Africa. Frank Vaughn will be speaking during the November 9 and November 16 services. I’ll be the second best Sunday morning preacher when I return! Frank’s great and you need to be here and hear what God has to say through Frank.

I still haven’t really had time to dwell on the Africa trip, but I can’t wait to sit down in that seat, strap on my iPod, and reconnect with the team and those guys and gals in Africa I haven’t seen in a few years. Be praying. We want to make a lasting, eternal impact for God when we get there.

I don’t know how much internet access I’ll have over there, it was limited a few years ago. But if I have any, I’ll post some stuff while I’m there. Twitter will probably used moew so keep check on my Twitter feed at the top of my home page. You can also see more entries on my lifestream page.

I’ve got to get to bed. Pray for me and the team. Can’t wait.

This post Sunday Revisited originated at robwestbrook.com. See more like this at robwestbrook.com - adventures of a mississippi church planter.

The worship part of the service was so good. The band did an excellent job. As I’ve written time after time here, the hearts of our guys and gal for Jesus are huge. Talent’s good for show but hearts are what makes worship. That’s why our worship music is always the huge thing it is. Our band just doesn’t lead singing, they lead worship of God. There’s no sense of “look at me” in our band, it’s all “look at HIM!” It’s hard not to be pumped by the time I hit the stage! I don’t see how anyone present can’t have their pulse rate go up during our singing.

My message was “Church on Fire,” coming from Acts 2:1-5. God set that first church on fire and the world’s never been the same. God wants to set our church on fire and Monroe County will never be the same. What do you need to start a fire in a church? A good wind (the Holy Spirit), a flame (the Word of God), and something to burn (US!!). God started a few fires Sunday morning. Great response at the conclusion. Attendance: 112.

Lots going on in the coming weeks. Our first communion at LifePointe will be November 2. Our next KidzClubb will follow that night. Our LifePointe-Grace Fellowship joint concert featuring Seventh Day Slumber, Chasen, and StorySide:B on Thursday, November 6. Our first Sunday morning drama coming up the first Sunday of December. Who knows what else might happen between now and January 1?

For me personally, a huge event is fast approaching. On November 6, I, along with Bob our guitarist, board the first of a series planes taking us to Uganda and Kenya. I spent part of the day today trying to make sure all my shots are up-to-date. Looks like I got two minor ones to update. I’m so busy I don’t have time to think about or even get excited about the trip right now. But a glance at the calendar quickens my pulse a little.

I want to ask a favor of all you die hard readers (all 3 of you). Please pray for LifePointe Church. The future is so bright for us right now. God is breaking through. I’ve seen so much growth and fire in our people in the last two months we no longer resemble the LifePointe of four or five months ago. Any Sunday now, I’m seriously expecting God just to blow this place wide open. I seriously go into each Sunday fully prepared for God to rip the ceiling off the place. This Sunday might be THE Sunday!

I have two prayer requests of you: one specific and one unspoken. The specific prayer request is for you to pray that God will continue to use The Pointe as a huge beacon of light in our community. The Pointe, our student ministry, is where we’re seeing God move most in our church. We’ve had at least six young people come to Jesus Christ since March through The Pointe and, as a result, their families and friends are now here, too, both Tuesdays and Sundays. Frank, who helped us get The Pointe off the ground, has now moved to Atlanta, GA. We have a great group of adults committed to The Pointe and we have a fantastic group of students ready to bust open for Jesus. Pray that there will be no drop off as a result of Frank’s move. Pray that the foundation Frank laid will provide the basis for an explosion at The Pointe.

With a new church, every decision is a huge decision. My unspoken request for LifePointe is that we always make the correct, God-led decision. Some near-future decisions are somewhat more huge than others. Our GO Team is involved in some potential huge decisions. Pray that God, and Him only, will reveal His will to us in all things.

And, one personal prayer request: pray that I don’t kill somebody soon! No, seriously, I want you to pray a dangerous prayer for me: Pray that as the leader of the church I never let anyone’s opinion trump the revealed will of God. Today Ric Warren emailed me (oh, OK, and thousands of others) this quote:

“Every day you either live by priorities or you live by pressures. You either decide what is important in your life or else you let other people tell you what is most important in your life.” – Rick Warren

As the pastor and leader of a church, there is always somebody who thinks they have a direct connection to God about my life (why they never get a word from God about their own screwed up lives and actions I’ve never understood). Pray that, by God’s guidance, I will decide what is important in my life and for our church, and act on that. Pray that I just junk all other suggestions. Thanks.

This post Sunday Thoughts originated at robwestbrook.com. See more like this at robwestbrook.com - adventures of a mississippi church planter.

The worship band picked up the pace and it was so cool. The kids were singing, the students were dancing, and everybody was worshiping. Scroll down and listen to the worship podcast. You can really hear the voices singing out. Trey pulled out one of my favorite songs, “Open Me,” by Shawn McDonald and just nailed it. I’ve gotten a lot of comments about the great worship Sunday.

My message was “Hope.” I used Mark 5:24-34, the story of the woman with the bleeding problem as a jump off point to a determined hope in Jesus. We talked about the crowd that the woman had to break through to get to Jesus. Are we sometimes in the crowd that keeps people from Jesus? Are we too busy looking inward that we miss the hopeless people on the outside trying to get to Jesus?

Looks like the final count is again 125. We’re steady.

We had our Lunch@LifePointe after the service. Good food! Somebody had a dish there with grits, shrimp, sausage, and cheese. Good stuff!

We followed up the lunch with LifePointe Boot Camp, our new members class. I love doing the Boot Camp. It always renews my vision and mission for why God has LifePointe here.

I’m writing this on Tuesday night, just getting in from The Pointe, our student ministry. Fantastic news! Three young ladies gave their hearts and lives to Jesus tonight! Tonight was also the last night for Frank Vaughn leading The Pointe. Frank and his wife, Amy, are moving to Atlanta, GA. How we got hooked up with Frank in the beginning is a God story and he’s been instrumental in getting The Pointe to where it is today. Lots of tears tonight. We’re going to miss Frank. God’s got big plans for Frank and Amy.

It’s been a busy week so far. We’ll have LifePointe Connect tomorrow night and a GO Team meeting afterwards. Then it’s Sunday all over again. Can’t wait!

This post Sunday Summary originated at robwestbrook.com. See more like this at robwestbrook.com - adventures of a mississippi church planter.

The band did a super job, as usual. Bob, our electric guitarist, was out of town so it was a simple, stripped down acoustic set. But it was a very good time of to-the-throne music, praise, and worship. The voices from the people attending almost drowned out Trey’s vocals. We’ve really seen a much more free worship style from our people in the past month, which is very encouraging. From the start we wanted to create an atmosphere where people could worship the Lord as they feel led. I looked around this morning and there were people sitting with their heads bowed, people stretching to the ceiling with their hands lifted high, and people just standing and singing with closed eyes, tears streaming. I think we worshiped the King of Kings and Lord of Lords this morning.

I made a change in my sermon this week. I’ve been doing a series called “Seriously” for the past month and intended to finish it the last Sunday of this month. But I wrestled with it all week and finally ended with a simple sermon, with the Gospel very prominent, from start to finish. I think it was the way God was leading me and I feel very satisfied that I preached the message God intended to be preached. I’m thinking that the rest of the month will be a “free-style” month, without a series theme.

Our count with our check-in system was off today, partly because of a delay caused by running out of name tag labels. We also had quite a few come in after the service started. By the time I got on stage there were very, very few chairs open. The count officially was 102 but from my memory I know there were probably at least 20 more just in the worship center. So I think we can safely say there were 125 in attendance. Several new faces in the crowd, and other faces that are becoming familiar. We’re settling in on a great, rock-solid group of believers at LifePointe.

Included in that number above was a young couple about to enter the church planting field. I had a great conversation with them and they’re pumped. They’re facing some of the same challenges Teresa and I faced early in our church planting experience. Church planters fire me up.

Don’t look now but our LifeGroups are quietly taking on some shape. We now have five groups meeting throughout the week. Our students (grades 7-12) meet on Tuesday night, 7pm, for The Pointe. LifePointe Connect meets on Wednesday nights, 7pm, where we currently have two groups. In just the past couple of weeks, a Ladies Group has formed on Thursday mornings, meeting at 10am. And our Older Adults Group (I call them the AARP group!) meets on Thursday evenings, 7pm. Small groups are a huge part of our strategy at LifePointe and I’m elated that we’ve got this many connecting opportunities already available, just 10 months in.

Personally, I’ve got a killer week ahead. Monday night is the local association meeting. The association will vote on whether or not LifePointe is accepted into the association. This affiliation really means a lot to me. I’ve worked hard for us to be included in the local association and the state convention so tomorrow night I’ll be there to answer any questions and observe the vote.

Wednesday morning Teresa and I, along with some of our leadership team, including my brother, Jeff, and Debbie, are heading over to Atlanta for Catalyst. I am stoked about going. I love these conferences. They always rekindle my fire. This is shaping up to be a really big event and I’m so ready. A few days off with just Teresa and me will probably do more for us than the conference. We’re both excited.

I will leave Catalyst early on Friday so we can make it back for a wedding rehearsal. Two of our faithful young attenders, Amanda and Brian. are getting married. So I’m there for their rehearsal and then I get the privilege of doing their wedding on Saturday. I’ve known Amanda all her life and I’m honored they would ask me to do the wedding. They’re my first wedding in my official capacity as pastor of LifePointe Church. Cool stuff.

By then, next Sunday will be here and somewhere between now and then I’ve got to prepare for the message. Oh, and we’re having LifePointe Boot Camp (our membership class) next Sunday.

Lot’s going on. But I’ll get to rest for something like 42 hours in November. That’s the approximate flight time for my roundtrip to Africa. The schedule is to leave Memphis on November 6 and after switching a few planes, arrive in Entebbe, Uganda late on the 7th. We’ll work our way through Uganda into Kenya, where we’ll fly out of Nairobi and arrrive back home on the 21st. I’m really looking forward to returning to Africa. It’s been three years and I’m anxious to reconnect with the team and our friends over there.

No complaints – God is good.

This post Sunday Postscript originated at robwestbrook.com. See more like this at robwestbrook.com - adventures of a mississippi church planter.