A few random thoughts from a week in the life of EBC:

Yesterday, I was sitting in a room with a couple and their three children who are giving their lives for the Kingdom in Brazil in the Amazon basin. Aaron sat in the front of our worship room and he wept for the sake of the gospel and the people that he deeply loves in NW Brazil. I love his heart. I love that God is inviting us to strategically partner in this area of the world. I am really thinking that this partnership is bigger than us. I am highly confident that it is not bigger than our God!

Walking through Colossians is incredible. Attempting to recognize the gravity and worth given for me is absolutely awesome. God has provided me with a glorious rescue. Yeah, it’s good to be free. As we talked about Lazarus, it is truly joy-filled to be called out of death. But, in Christ, it’s even better than that… Christ doesn’t just invite me to step out of death, but He brings me more and more and more alive. Christ invites me to remove my grave clothes and to run free in Him. I am continuing to allow the unfathomable work of the cross settle into my life, my heart, my minutes, my days. Daily, I have the thrill of tasting more of life and more of Christ. What a gift. Grace amazing!

As I type, I’m on the road to ATL to hang out with our family ministry team. Over the next few days, we will think “Orange.’ We will think about merging the family (red = heart) and the church (yellow = the flame), which creates a beautiful orange. We long to paint our families orange… our kids orange… our church orange as we leave greatest impact for God’s great glory. It will be a fun week.

This past weekend, I had the chance to sit in a room with a bunch of folks thinking about spiritual formation. It was so stinkin’ good to consider how to make much room for Christ to be Himself. This ‘roundtable’ was in Tallahassee and I had the chance to facilitate with a group of people from all kinds of places, with one commonality – elevating Christ. What a great discussion. Beyond that, I sat at Dick Howser stadium with my 6 year old son and watched the ‘Noles play Miami. Sadly, UM won but I still felt like I really won by getting to hang out with an amazing little dude who happens to be my son!

Hey, I love you guys and I love sharing this huge God journey with you. I am amazed by what God is doing in our fellowship. May he be free to be Himself in the life of our church.

By Grace… For Glory,
Mark