RobWestbrook.com

I've had a hectic but very, very good week so far. The Pointe is our student ministry at LifePointe Church. This week our youth leadership put together a Summer Camp for The Pointe. We've been at Camp Armstrong, a very nice camp in the Union Co., Mississippi hills. God has awesomely moved at the camp. For myself, I've worshipped the King like I haven't in some time. We had great speakers: Troy Comer, from the ICC BSU and Northstar Church, in Tupelo, MS, Shane Crawford, pastor of Cason Baptist Church, and Scott Carter, an old friend, former director of the NE MS FCA, and man of God. These men did wonderful jobs. If you're looking for godly men to speak to your youth, or for that matter, church, I highly recommend any of these three.

Our worship music was in.cred.i.ble! The band was FilledXStream. Probably some of the strongest worship music, passion, and leading from any band I've seen. They are mega-good, Spirit-filled, and passionate for Jesus. LifePointe has not seen the last of FilledXStream.

We had at least three decisions to follow Jesus as Lord this week. And I'm positive there were, and will be, more coming from this camp. Our kids are on fire.

Now, I'm getting ready to go off the grid. I'm participating in an Emmaus Walk, starting tonight. I don't really know what to expect, but I can't wait to get started. I've got friends who've been and are sponsoring me this weekend. No cell phones, no clocks! What can be better than that!

So, I'm off Twitter, Facebook, the blog, and technology completely until Monday morning. Have a good weekend!

It's already Thursday! Hard to believe the week has flown by so fast. Great stuff going on with LifePointe. Here's a quick recap.

Last Sunday was so good. Parenthood, our current sermon series, entered its second week. Again, it was intense, but Spirit-filled, as we looked at Parent's Unity. There are many situations where, as parents, we need to be unified, but none any greater than to be unified around one Savior, Jesus.

Our Sunday Night small group experiment is really taking off! Out of our "Prayer and Share" we're seeing unity and community emerge. There has been so many positive comments coming from people who are part of Prayer and Share. Some admit they were, at first, apprehensive about coming but now they don't want to miss. If you haven't been to Prayer and Share, you really should come and join us. It will rock your world!

Parenthood continues this Sunday and we've got a special treat for you. Michael Welch, our Youth Pastor, is going to be speaking. You don't want to miss that! Michael took over The Pointe a few months ago and God is really working in our students. Come hear what's firing them up.

Our New Members Class starts right after Lunch@LifePointe Sunday. The class is filling up quickly. If you're interested in becoming part of LifePointe Church sign up now. You can do that here, at LifePointe's website.

Right now, I'm as excited as I've ever been about what the future holds for LifePointe. Many of you, like me, are sensing a strong movement of God just about to break loose. We're seeing signs in lives everywhere. If we keep lifting Jesus up, keep loving each other, and keep those far from God as our focus, there's no limit to what God can do!

I am exhausted so I'll make this a quick summary.

What a completely awesome day! We launched our new series, ReThink Church, this morning. We talked about, and practiced, CELEBRATING. I think we shook some items off the shelves of the Dollar General store next door. Really great service. Already gearing up for next week: CONNECTING.

Everybody converged at my house this afternoon for our cookout. The weather was iffy, but things couldn't have went better. I don't know about everybody else but I had a great time. I grilled a bunch of hot dogs, polish sausages and hot sausages. We had all kinds of food and bunches of desserts. The football field I mowed in our pasture was worn out after all the football, soccer, and ultimate Frisbee. There were a few catfish caught, too. A few times I quietly slipped off alone just to take in the picture of all our guys and gals enjoying their time with each other. Moving.

I'll have some pictures later. If you were there and have some pictures or video, send them to me so I can include them.

Don't forget that our sermon series for October is Parenthood and you need to start thinking of the three people you're inviting for that series. It's OK to invite them for this series, too!

I'm about to drag myself to bed. Totally beat but couldn't be happier about what God is doing in LifePointe Church! Thank you, Jesus!

We had an excellent day at LifePointe Sunday. Here's some of the things that stick out in my mind:

• We finally finished the Kingdom Citizen series. Some thought it might never end!

• The Kingdom Citizen series lasted six months, breaking down Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. We've seen quite a bit of spiritual growth as a result.

• There was at least one person who committed their life to Jesus and many other life-altering decisions were made.

• It never gets old seeing teens praying for each other at the altar.

• The band laid it all out there for Jesus to use. He did.

• Prayer and Share, our Sunday night group, is taking off. And we took it up a notch this week.

• I'm excited about our new series starting this Sunday: ReThink Church. We're going to break some new ground with this one. You DO NOT want to miss this series.

• I'm excited about our church cookout at my house this Sunday afternoon at my house, too!

So that you can experience the great Sunday service we had, here's the video. Now with improved sound. Take some time and give it a watch. If you were there, leave a comment and tell me what you thought. I want to hear from you!

The Sunday service was wonderful. As has become our norm, ten people in the worship center at 10:28, packed house 15 minutes later! 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!