New website at church!

Check out our new website www.greenvalleychurch.com with some great new videos and features. Just launched today.

With the Watoto kids choir from Uganda

The Watoto kid's choir was at our church last Sunday. I don't stand out at all, do I?

Reverse Bus Ministry

Imagine a hundred people arriving at church like any other Sunday completely unaware of the significant impact they would have on their community before lunch. That’s exactly what happened at this morning’s service. By the end of the morning, dozens of people had rolled up their sleeves to scrub windows, pick up trash, weed planters, and spread mulch at a local elementary school. (Photos below).


All this was a part of our current message series, “Living Outside Ourselves.” At the end of today’s message, a school bus pulled up in front of our church (unannounced beforehand) and I challenged our people to consider serving at one of our local elementary schools. Arrangements had been made with the school’s principal and custodial staff. Tools, gloves, and t-shirts were provided. Approximately 35 people participated after the first service. They served for an hour and the bus returned just in time to transport another 65 who volunteered after the second service. Overall, 100+ man-hours of labor were invested all before lunchtime.

Next week, a video of our day will be shown at church, and the principal has offered to attend to thank our folks.

Years ago, many churches had bus ministries. A fleet of buses would leave their parking lot early to bring people (usually kids) to church. Today we reversed that. A bus arrived to take our people into the community. After all, Jesus said, "Go into all the world ..."

For other ministry leaders: This idea is very transferable to any church. Feel free to duplicate it. I hope many do. Do me a favor and let me know if you do. I’d love to hear your stories.

Do you blog?

If you go to Green Valley Church and have a blog, let me know and I'll create add a link to it on my page. I'll start with my new favorite GVC blogger, our worship pastor, David Toney. His blog takes awhile to load but it's worth it as you can actually listen to some of his worship songs directly from his website. Check it out here.

Singing the Songs of Revelation

OK, here's a cool thing. Our worship pastor, David Toney, has written 7 new worship songs taken directly from the songs found in the Book of Revelation. He's already introduced a few in church, but on Sunday March 25, we will sing all of them. I will also be speaking on the theme of "worship in revelation" and using it to review this amazing series we've been in.

Also, that morning the whole message series (10 messages) will be available on CD and the set will include a separate CD with David's 7 songs.

Amazing response to the Nativity movie

I can't wait for tomorrow night at the local theatre where tons of folks from GVC will attend the opening night of the Nativity Story. I've been blown away by the response. I initially (in faith) secured 200 tickets. The theater's largest auditorium could seat 300. As of yesterday we just sold 400 tickets and have now taken over two complete theater rooms. The best part is that many of those who bought tickets are bringing friends -- many of whom I think will be quite moved by this film. What a great way to start the Christmas season.