This Sunday I begin a new message series “Hope For Your Life – When life is up against you, there’s ONE who is for YOU“. This is a series that will take us all the way through Easter Sunday and will show us how the power of the resurrection of Christ brings “HOPE” to the darkest and most isolated areas of our lives. Jesus is the HOPE OF THE WORLD and he is FOR your life! “HOPE FOR YOUR LIFE”. Life often times brings us to places that we don’t want to be and cause us to feel Read More →
I am so excited about the kick off of our Women’s Ministry this upcoming Wednesday at D’Amico’s Italian Restaurant in Bloomfield. It begins at 7pm! My wife is the women’s pastor at LSC and is kicking this whole thing off with some awesome relational gatherings that will go through the summer and into the Fall. This first event is a beautiful Italian dinner at D’Amico’s Restaurant! Come on out and join the ladies of LifeStone for a fun evening of good food, laughter and great connections! You will love it! Read More →
I want to take a minute to share with you something BIG that is coming next month to LSC. If you call LifeStone Church your home, I really want you to be a part of this big step in the life of our church! It’s called TEAM PARTNERSHIP. Team Partnership in other churches is often called, “Church Membership”. I personally don’t like that term because it indicates that this group is elite and extra special (like at a country club). Read More →
If you are a avid sports fan, you might remember the assembling of the greatest basketball team of its time in 1992. The original Dream Team. This was the first time that NBA players were allowed to participate in the World Olympics. You saw basketball legends such as Bird, Magic, Jordan, Malone, Barkley, Robinson, Drexler and more form the most powerful and dominant basketball team of all time (still, there is no team that compares). Read More →
This Sunday at LSC, we will be honoring and blessing all of those who are single mom’s or dad’s in our main service. What a privilege it is to stand by and honor the wonderful people in our life who are raising their children on their own! Can I just say that single moms are my hero’s!!! I really mean that. I know how challenging it can be to raise children with a spouse who is by my side and I am by hers. Read More →
I am finishing out my last day here in Ethiopia and have some
down time before I preach tonight so I thought I would share some personal experiences and things God has done/is doing as a result of this trip.
1. I have learned so much about the Ethiopian culture and what a beautiful culture it is. From the respectful and honoring greetings they give each other to the hard work they exhibit each and every day to maintain a level of consistency in life. Read More →
This morning was “Vision Sunday” at LifeStone Church. What an awesome morning it was as we also included a ministry fair after service to give people an opportunity to get information or sign up to serve in various departments of the church. We had a fantastic response of new people signing up to serve on the Dream Team and participating in the vision Of LSC. Read More →
On Sunday, March 6th, we will begin a new series entitled, “Leadership 101: Learning To Lead God’s Way”. I think if there is one
thing that the church in America often struggles with it is DEVELOPING leadership with the heart of God and humility! We are pretty good at delegating, passing the baton, even creating a tolerance for poor, unhealthy and unbiblical leadership. But actually taking the time to DEVELOP leaders in humility and submission????? Whatsoever do you mean??? Read More →
I want to take the opportunity to share with you links to those on my staff who have a blog. They are very good! I am so honored and blessed to have surrounded myself with such amazing men and women of God. I’m sure you will enjoy! Here they are: Read More →
This Sunday at LSC we will begin a brand new series called, “PLANTED”. We will be asking the question, “Why is it so important that we get PLANTED in God’s House?”. This important dynamic of the Christian faith has one and only one result. Psalm 92:12-13 says “The righteous will FLOURISH like a palm tree, they will GROW like a cedar of Lebanon; PLANTED in the house of the LORD, they will FLOURISH in the courts of our God.” Read More →
Come one, Come all to the LSC Super Bowl Party! As most of you know our very own PITTSBURGH STEELERS have made it to the Super Bowl!!! That’s right! This Sunday is going to be an amazing night in Pittsburgh as the whole city (who didn’t go to Dallas) will be out partying in South Side! That’s right! Our community will be flooded with people from all over the city and region who will come out to watch and celebrate a hopeful Steeler victory! It’s a happenin place!! Read More →
There was not one ounce of negativity in the person of Jesus. Why can Christians be so negative then? If our goal is to be more like Christ, then why do we fall into the trap of negativity with our words and actions. Well, I believe its because their is no active culture of “honor” in their life. In other words, releasing honor is a core element and value to how that person lives and interacts with people. Read More →
During the month of January, LifeStone Church is participating in a nationwide prayer and fasting movement with a partner network of ours, ARC (Association of Related Churches). During this month, I have decided to take it up a notch! Since we are brand new as a church and many of our people might not understand what prayer and fasting is all about, I decided that I would teach a five week series called (yep, you guessed it) “Awakening: waking up the spiritual giant in you”! This series has two purposes: Read More →
This Sunday as I finished up the final part of our December series, “All I Want For Christmas”, I spoke on the “Fresh Start” that we all need from time to time with God! I thought this
would be a wonderful time to share about some “New Things” that are going to be happening at LSC in 2011. Here are the three that I mentioned (there are many more, but I only chose to share these three for the sake of time):
1. Men’s Ministries and Women’s Ministries – Over the last several months, we have noticed that there have several huge gaps in the church. As LSC continues to grow, we constantly need to advance with that growth. We have noticed since our church has been growing that the need for women’s connection points and men’s connection points have been rising and rising fast. With these needs becoming obvious, we are making the commitment to launching a full functioning Womens Ministry and a Mens Ministry by the end of 2011. These ministries wont begin with services, however they will begin with consistent relational events. These are opportunities for the men and women to build relationships which will give us the foundation we need in developing these very important ministries in our church. The plan is that these relational events would lead us into serving/outreach opportunities for each ministry then will conclude with the consistent spiritual and worship/teaching gatherings. So, we are very excited to announce this development and will of course keep everyone updated on the process of these ministries.
2. January “Mid-Week Services” – During the month of January, LifeStone Church will be joining thousands of other churches across the nation in prayer and fasting for 21 days. This movement of prayer and fasting is called “Awakening”. During the month of January, I will be teaching a series entitled, “Awakening: waking up the spiritual giant in you”. I am spending the entire month teaching on the disciplines of prayer and fasting. The fast will last from January 10-31. During these three weeks, we will be hosting Thursday night worship and prayer services for all of those who want to join and get refueled by the presence of God. The service dates are January 13, 20, 27 and will be held at the Oasis Coffeehouse on Brownsville Road in Carrick. I am excited to be hosting these worship and prayer services and feel like this is where God is truly going to do a lot of the work we are praying and fasting for him to do. Who knows?!? Maybe these will eventually turn into regular mid-week services for LifeStone Church. That will remain to be seen.
3. LSC Israel Trip – The last “New Thing” I shared with the church this morning was that this upcoming October, LifeStone Church has been given the opportunity to take a trip to Israel. That’s right! This is a trip that will not only be filled with seeing and experiencing biblical history at your fingertips, but we will also be partnering with a wonderful organization called Bridges For Peace that will give us opportunities to serve the Israelites and extend the love of Jesus Christ to them through many practical “Servolution” type ways. Promotion for this trip will begin in January and February. Anyone can sign up for this trip. We dont have the exact cost but estimate it will cost between $2,500-$3,000. Our church will be providing 8-10 fundraising opportunities throughout the year for all who are interested in going to help offset the cost of the trip. As a new church just starting to make history, what a better trip to take than to go back to where history was made in the first place. MUCH MORE INFO TO COME IN THE NEAR FUTURE!
As you can see, a lot of NEW THINGS will be happening this year, along with other NEW THINGS that dont have enough detail and validity to begin sharing to everyone at this point. Not to mention all of the things that we have been doing as a church will all continue into 2011 stronger than ever before! Oh how excited I am for 2011. It is going to be a phenomenal year!!!
This is, no question, a very special time of year. In fact, it is my favorite time of the year! Fall represents, seasonal change, bright colors, Daylights Savings, cooler weather, 
drizzle, and most importantly, THANKSGIVING! I have so much to be thankful for in my life and I want to wish all of you a wonderful and happy Thanksgiving! Here are a few things that during this season I am reminded as to how thankful I really am for these parts of my life:
These are just a few of the things that I am thankful for. What about you? What are you reminded of during this season that you are thankful for?
