I am so thankful that I have some amazing leaders, men of God, and pastors that I have submitted my life and accountability to. I thank God everyday that I have these individuals in my life as mentors, spiritual dad’s and examples of faith! As I began the process of planting a church, one thing that I learned from them and knew for a fact would be taught and practiced in our church is the idea of “Blessing”. One truth that scripture teaches us about ourselves is that the power of life and death is in the tongue and we have the choice as to which one we are going to give (Proverbs 18:21). I personally have chosen to give life with the words that I say and I want my church to be taught that they can give life with their words too. As I previously mentioned, I have learned from some amazing leaders on how declaring these scriptural, edifying and uplifting words over people can truly inspire and motivate them to walk and live at an unimaginable level with Christ and in relationships.
My desire is to create a culture of blessing in our church. What does this mean? The word “culture” simply means, a way of life. “Blessing” simply is speaking and declaring scriptural, edifying and uplifting words over people. I want this concept of blessing to not be so much of a concept or just a practice in our church, but I want it to be a way of life! Where we just naturally flow in and initiate the power of the tongue to give life! I believe John Kilpatrick said it best, “prayer is prayer, prophecy is prophecy, and blessing is blessing”. This is not a moment of prayer as some people might think, but rather it’s a time for me as the pastor to declare God’s best over the people in my church and use the power of life in my tongue by speaking those words over them. Since this is not prayer, I ask our people to keep their eyes open, extend their hand, and receive the positive life-giving words that are being spoken. This will usually happen at the close of every service and will not be pre-fabricated or rehearsed. My wife and I will stretch our hands to the people and begin to let God inspire us to send our people back into the world with a blessing from their pastors!
We did this on Sunday and let me just say, so many people came up to us saying that they felt it was the best part of the service! That doesn’t really surprise me because let’s be honest, we hear negative and degrading words spoken to us a lot throughout our lives, don’t we? So for people to know that their pastors are intentionally declaring and speaking uplifting, encouraging, and spirit-filled words over their lives, I think let’s them know that there is someone else other than God who cares about them and their life! We want people to live a God-inspired life and this idea of blessing helps people understand how important that is!
LifeStone Church will be a house of blessing!
I have been thinking a lot about this past Sunday and what it represents for our church as we moved forward to the launch and beyond! Here are a few things I learned from our first preview service:
- God’s presence is everything!
- God’s plan is better than ours could ever be.
- When your people who are on the bus with you are all in the right seat, “greater things are yet to come”. (Thanks Jim Collins)
- Teamwork, Teamwork, Teamwork!
- Your leaders will lead effectively and at a high level, if you lead them effectively and at a high level behind closed doors. (Set the bar high for your leaders)
- Never be afraid to evaluate. Fix what what is broken and celebrate what worked!
- His Word is true, “I will build my church and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it.” (Matthew 16:18) God will build His Church!
- His Word is true, “Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain.” (Psalm 127:1) But we need to LET God build His Church!
- Speaking a blessing over God’s people encourages and empowers them to walk under the influence and inspiration of Holy Spirit as they head back into their world.
- Parking attendants are just as important in the Kingdom of God as pastors are. (1 Corinthians 12:14-20)
These are just a few things that stick out to me from this weekend that I feel are instrumental in gearing up for our second service next month! These thoughts don’t necessarily pertain to just start up services but can be relevant for anyone and any pastor in ministry! God is challenging me to not settle for the status quo in Him and not allowing our church to view it that way either. As the pastor I feel the weight of the responsibility of my leadership and I have to admit, I love it! I am so thankful God has given me the calling to lead people and set the bar high for them! If I don’t set the bar high in my own leadership and walk with God, then my church won’t either! A spirit of excellence must exist in our churches if we want to be effective to the core! Just a few thoughts!
Outside Banner
Welcome Center
Kids Life Ministries
Jack Preaching
LSC Getting our worship on!
I wanted to show a bit of what our first monthly service looked like! It was an awesome day. We had 96 people in attendance with 9 of those being kids ranging from infants to elementary age. The presence of God was in the house and the energy and excitement for how God is building His church was unbelievable! I feel so amazed and perplexed that God would choose me to do this, but I’m not complaining that’s for sure! It really does amaze me how the plan of God begins to unfold in your life when you really zero in on obedience to the voice and call of God! God has blessed us and our situation and I keep having to pinch myself because this is a dream and vision come true of mine! I also am looking forward to what the next three months of building our launch team, monthly services are going to look like!
Lord, we decrease so you can increase!!!! Build your church!!! Grow your team!!!! Inspire your people!!! Do it Lord!!!!
Most of us have seen the movie, “The Miracle”, right? This movie depicts the miraculous Olympic journey of the United States Hockey Team as they defeated the Russians in 1980. The Americans had virtually no chance to beat the Russians as they were not near as experienced and definitely not near as talented. In real life and in the movie, head coach Herb Books (played by actor, Kurt Russel) gave a powerful speech to his American team right before they hit the ice against the Russian team. Why I am showing you this video is because there is another video on YouTube where a little boy does his best as he imitates coach Brooks and I have to say, it is hilarious (he’s even dressed like the real coach). Both speeches are below but you have to watch the “Real” Coach Brooks speech first, then the kid!
Next Sunday, January 3rd is going to be a monumental time for LifeStone Church! On this Date, South Side Speaks (our outreach group) will make the big transition into the LifeStone Launch Team! This is a major thing because our team will go from just doing outreach, to also forming the structure, ministries, teams, and foundation of LifeStone. This team will hit the ground running very soon to start living out our community focus, “Bridging All Cultures to the Cross”. Also on January 3rd, we will be introducing all of our staff for the first time and all of our team leaders. Each staff and team leader will be giving a full description of their ministry and how it will assist LifeStone Church in “Bridging All Cultures to the Cross”! It should be a great night! Below is a list of all church staff and team leaders we will be introducing on that night:
LifeStone Staff 
- Associate Pastor
- Worship Leader
- Administrative Assistant
- KidsLife Director
- KidsLife Pre-K/Babies Director
- Media Director
- Assimilation Director
- Outreach Director
- LifeGroups Director (Future Ministry)
- Student Ministries Pastor (Future Ministry)
Team Leaders
- Guest Services Director
- Lead Service Host (Ushers)
- Lead Greeter
- Lead Security
- Cafe Hosts
- Sign Team Director
- Set-up/Tear Down Director
Each of these staff members and team leaders are in place, committed, and already planning/building their ministries and teams! I have been praying for the last two years that God would assemble a FULL team and staff to launch and build the church! People thought I was crazy to believe for this! Well guess what??? He did it! As I mentioned earlier, this team will be introduced on January 3rd and the LifeStone Launch Team will officially begin! I am so proud of each of these people and thankful for their servants hearts! We have the best staff and team in the entire world and I am honored that we get to assist and cooperate with Holy Spirt to build LifeStone Church together! Please keep our team in your prayers as we are “Bridging All Cultures to the Cross”!
Well, very soon LifeStone Church will be launching its website. For the last several years, the church blog has served as the online 
presence of LifeStone Church, but was never meant to become the actual website for LifeStone Church. This was an avenue to inform and present what God is doing to the online world. We will be transitioning in just a few weeks to a Launch Team that will launch LifeStone Church on May 16, 2010! How exciting. At that time, www.lifestonechurch.org will be directed to our main website, www.lifestonechurch.com. So now you might be wondering what happens to this blog. Well this blog will turn into www.lifestoneblog.com. It will remain a blog for the LifeStone staff to write, update, and share thoughts. I encourage you to continue to visit this blog although its purpose and structure will change a bit. We will also have it linked on our websites main page so you can access it from there also if you wish!
This change will happen sometime just after the first of the year! Thanks for all of the support and encouragement!
Here are some pictures of the most recent outreach we did in South Side. The South Side Chamber of Commerce asked us if we would help organize this awesome community wide event! South Side Speaks was able to connect with so many people and families during this event! We were specifically in charge of all of the kids festivities: cookie decorating, ornament decorating, and even face painting. We had 34 people from our team there serving in any way we could along with set up and tear down. We hope we were a blessing to the chamber and the community and are looking forward to next year’s Light Up Night already!!! Just a huge shout out and thank you to the Chamber of Commerce for inviting us to be a part of this great night! THANK YOU!
A BIG THANK YOU TO KIMBERLY FLEEGER FROM SOUTH SIDE SPEAKS WHO TOOK THESE PHOTOS!
I would like to welcome Jared and Heather Lanza to the LifeStone Church team! Jared and Heather have been here in Pittsbugh all weekend 
looking for a house. The great news is, they found a place! The other great news is, they will be moving here in two weeks! I am so excited for them to get here and join the team! Jared and Heather have two great kids, Autumn and Lincoln! Please Pray for their move and transition that will be coming shortly!
Just recently the Church Multiplication Network highlighted LifeStone Church’s newest “Community Focus Video” on their
website. What a great way to let people all around the globe know what God is doing in the community of South Side in Pittsburgh, PA! Check out the post here. Thanks for spreading the vision all of my friends at the Church Multiplication Network!
This weekend I will be in Youngstown, Ohio to speak at the NXL “Generation 2 Generation” Conference. I am excited to share about our vision for LifeStone Church with pastors from all over the country. I will also be sharing at Victory Christian Center in New Wilmington, PA on Sunday morning. God is opening up some tremendous opportunities for the vision of LifeStone Church to touch hearts and lives. I’m so grateful for opportunities like these!
In this video, you will encounter an up and close view of the community we are planting a church in (South Side). This is a video that explains our “community focus” and the overall structure of South Side! Our prayer is that the person who knows nothing about South Side and nothing about LifeStone Church, will not only have full understanding of both by the end of this video, but will create a place in their heart for these people and what God is doing here!
Here are some shots of our first ever South Side Kids Fall Festival. It was a HUGE success! So many kids and families came, I’m telling you, it was truly a great night! Can’t wait till next year! Shout out to Big Dog Coffee for their partnership in this event! Thank you for your support and friendship. We appreciate you guys more than you know!!!
I am excited to announce to the public for the first time, that South Side Speaks is moving FROM Bruegger’s Bagel Shop on Thursday nights at 7pm TO The Brashear Association on Wednesday nights at 7pm (Directions Here). This is a huge answer to prayer because our former venue at Bruegger’s was getting way too tight and it was hard to host a productive meeting in this tiny shop. So God has opened this door for us and I can’t tell you how excited I am about it. I feel like this is more than just a new venue, it is a representation of what God is about to do. This new venue is a banquet hall that seats up to 100 people. Everything we could need is already there and we have reserved it every Wednesday night from 7pm – 10pm. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the best part. We have been allowed to use this banquet hall FREE OF CHARGE! God has literlally given us this amazing venue and it has everything that we prayed our new venue would have!!! So excited!
This is a season during our process in planting LifeStone Church where many opportunities are coming our way. We are so 
grateful for these opportunities but can’t neglect the fact of how important they really are! All we can do is trust in God that He is in control and leading the way! Here are some opportunities that are currently in the mix:
- Building Search – We are currently searching for the building God wants us to use as our home base. This building will be used for Sunday/weekly services and hopefully (if available) office space. We have scratched our heads for sometime with this issue and a building has recently surfaced as a prime A target venue. I won’t go into the details of this situation quite yet, but I will say this, we have met with the owner and we have a very good idea of cost, etc. The owner is such a great guy and really has connected well with us. This relationship has become very important to us because this owner has undergone some recent difficult family and health situations. Our hope is that we can be a support to him through this time, and if this is the building God wants us to attain, He will make it happen as a result of relationship, trust, and partnership. We actually had a chance to pray with this owner during a meeting! Please pray for financial favor and provision. If we are going to get this building, we will need God to make it happen!!!
- Worship Leader – This week will have a very special guest with us. He is coming from out of state to participate in an informal interview for the position of the main worship leader for LifeStone Church. This is a very big week in this respect because Jamie and I have been praying about staff ever since we felt the call to plant this church about two years ago. God is providing a tremendous staff already with the Associate Pastor, Outreach Pastor, Administrative Assistant, and Media Director already on board and ready to plant this church! This position is a very big one as you might guess. The worship leader will not only lead worship in our main services, but this person will build a worship ministry from the ground up. We have been praying for the right person that God desires to lead and build our worship ministry for some time now. Again, for this very reason, this week is a very big week for us! Please keep us in prayer as we go through this process!
- South Side Speaks Venue – Our South Side Speaks group is the beginning group that will eventually plant LifeStone Church in May of next year. Our whole goal right now is to serve our community and we are doing just that. Since Jamie and I started leading this group of 4 in the beginning of August, the team has grown to over 40 people! Since it is really difficult to get everyone’s schedules to all line up on one night, our Thursday night meeting consists of anywhere between 20-30 people, even though we represent over 40. The reason I share those numbers with you is because our meeting place at a local bagel shop was great for 5-15 people, but when our team is either all there or even half there, we are busting at the seems. We have been praying for a new location to meet in that will not only meet our current needs but also give us room to grow into in the future. We have been actively searching for over a month now and it looks as if we have found a great potential spot. The only problem with this location is that we would have to move our meeting night from Thursday to Wednesday. This could be a positive thing or negative thing depending on the schedules of our faithful. Please pray that this search will come to an end very soon and if this is it, may all the scheduling work out in a positive way for the entire team!
- South Side Kids Fall Festival – This is the last major opportunity I will share with you at this time. During our
surveys in South Side several months ago, we found out that there is currently ZERO community and family events for the kids and parents. Absolutely amazing! Just picture us like Charlie dancing in the streets when he found out that he got a golden ticket to visit WIllie Wonka’s Chocalate Factory! Because there are no events and current opportunities for families to connect, we have been given that “golden ticket” to begin to meet that need. Hence, the South Side Kids Fall Festival. We will be doing this event during the trick or treat hours in South Side on Halloween night. We have teamed up with a local coffee shop whose owners are just fantastic people! They have allowed us to use their property for this event. We will be promoting throughout the entire community and hoping that the candy, hot cider, pumpkins, face painting, polaroid family pictures, cookies, and much more will draw the kids and parents are way. Our goal is to connect with these individuals and let them know that there is a group of people in this community that care about them and want to provide a safe place for their kids. This event is also a prelude to our big South Side Easter Egg Hunt/Festival the month before we launch! Please pray for relational connections with families and kids from this area!
I just wanted to give you an update as to what God is up to and many of the cool opportunities God is bringing our way! Keep praying for South Side and LifeStone Church. We need more God and more opportunities!
Welcome GABRIEL LAFORGE THOMAS!
Gabe was born on Wednesday, October 7 at 10:53am at 8lbs. 3oz. Jamie and I are so proud of him and are so excited for him to be a part of our family! Our daughter couldn’t be more excited to have a baby brother. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers during this new season of our life. We a tremendous responsibility this little guy will be, but what a great reward he is too! We are so blessed!
