It’s ironic.  I have spent the entire summer trying to chase the quiet space in the house and now the silence is deafening.

I can feel their eyes on me.  I’m sitting peacefully at the desk of my home office trying to accomplish the daily task when it hits… AMBUSH!!  My thirteen year old dives at my head while my ten-year old inadvertently knees me in the worst possible place.  I scream.  I yell.  I love it!  Bodies are being thrown all over the room.  Fat lips and tickled ribs are battle wounds well deserved.  When the smoke clears and the last flying elbow drop has successfully landed I crawl back to my desk and realize that this home office thing is not working well.  I have got to find a way to get some quiet.

Summer is over and the office is quiet.  Too quiet.  I’m not complaining.  I have gotten more accomplished in the last week than I feel I have all summer.  I’m working on some very exciting things for the church and I know God has big plans for OLC this fall.  But I can’t help it.  I can’t help drifting into the slight daydream, “I wonder if I could ambush them from on top of the fridge?  Yeah!  I’ll jump down with a Nacho Libre eagle scream and scare the dookie out of ‘em!”

Like I said, it’s a little too quiet.

I can’t believe it has already been one year!  God has really blessed us on this journey.

I have to admit that there have been a few bumps in the road.  I remember starting this journey and thinking how easy it would be to get a new church up and running.  Boy, was I wrong!  While it hasn’t been an easy journey, it sure has been fun.

I hope that everything we do brings glory to God and I know that as long as we continue to seek his guidance we will continue to be successful!  God bless and keep us in your prayers.

OLC celebrated July 4th at the Huber Heights City fireworks.  It was an amazing time of sharing the blessings God has given us with our community.  We passed out over 500 bottles of water while face-painting over 400 kids!  The mission of OLC is to help people find and live out the true love of Jesus Christ.  That is exactly what we did!  What better way to celebrate our nations freedom as well as the freedom that can only be given to us through Jesus!  How did you celebrate your freedom?

Have you ever tried to make yourself sound better than you are?  Ever stretch the truth about an event to make it sound better than it was?  Have you ever boasted to a date, belittled your spouse or lied to your kids to make yourself sound, feel or appear better?

Of course you have.

When I was a kid I once spilled my pop (that’s what we called Pepsi in Houston) in the dirt under the playground.  The other kids laughed at me and made me feel bad.  What was my solution?  I told them I did it on purpose and would drink it off the ground.  Of course I had no plan on doing it.  I just wanted them to know that they couldn’t get the best of me.  Well, they called my bluff.  It was on my hands and knees licking the pop out of the sand that I realized pop and sand don’t mix!

James saw a real issue with the church.  We talked a great game, but we weren’t ready to back it up.  Why is it that men and women of faith often still use our tongues to hurt, lie and exaggerate?  Faith that doesn’t result in change or action in our lives wasn’t impressive to James and isn’t impressive to God.

Join us this Saturday night at OLC as we discuss “Taming the Tongue”.  Visit our website for directions and more information, onelovechurch.net.

This fall @ OLC we decided to rake leaves for our surrounding community.  During this amazing event I made an equally un-amazing decision to jump into a pile of leaves.  I know what you’re thinking… “What was he thinking?”

For a brief moment I had a childhood flashback.  I remember the huge pile of leaves feeling like the cool soft water of a swimming pool.  I remembered taking a huge lead and then running full force and landing a beautiful swan dive into the soft bed of leaves.  I would swim in the leaves, laugh and jump again.  My blind stupid faith in those leaves to catch my fall was obviously misplaced.  It hurt.  I didn’t remember that.  I didn’t remember the pain.  I took the huge lead.  I jumped and did an outrageous swan dive.  I laid in pain.

James writes that faith takes action.  While this leap of faith may have left me bruised and sore, I still took the leap.  We often have to put aside our fear of failure and rejection to fulfill our faith in God.  It’s not easy, but it is necessary.  Join us this Saturday night @ 6 PM as we discuss “Stupid Faith”.

OLC will be meeting at the Huber Heights Church of God (6900 Brandt Pike, Huber Heights, OH 45424).  www.onelovechurch.net

It is often said that leadership is a trait one must be born with.  If that is true then I’m in a lot of trouble!  I was quite the follower.  When I was young I once followed a friend off of a moving train only to be arrested by the “Astroworld Park Security”.  As a teenager I followed a group of friends who decided it was a great idea to vandalize a neighborhood on halloween.  Finally, as a young adult I followed a group of peers who decided the way to celebrate our pay checks every week was to blow them on the night we got them by drinking away every dollar.  Good times, right?  Not exactly!

The truth is that when God called me into leadership I understood I had a lot to learn.  I began the long process of seeking mentors, watching my elders and learning from successful leaders.  What I learned was that leaders are not always born, but developed.  After years of searching and learning from the best, and worst, there are five essential truths that I now seek to fulfill in the leadership role God has currently placed me in.

Five Practices of Effective Leadership:

1.  Model the Way – One’s values and beliefs must be transparent in how one leads.

2. Inspire a Shared Vision – An inspiring vision of the future must be attainable and appealing.

3. Challenge the Process – There is always a better, more effective way.

4. Enable Others to Act - True leadership empowers and strengthens others.  Don’t be afraid of sharing the wealth!

5. Encourage the Heart - Recognize success, celebrate victories and create a fun environment.  There is nothing wrong with a work environment that people enjoy coming to.

The journey begins!

Sarah and I both grew up in Huber Heights. It is a community that we have and will always hold dear to our hearts. We have felt over the last few years that God has called us to this community for a reason and today we begin that journey. OneLove Church is the answer to that calling. We have an unbelievable team of dedicated friends who have been diligently meeting to discuss what God’s plans are for the church. Please pray for us as we begin our preview services on September 11 @ HHAF and as we move forward to our launch date of January 8, 2011.

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