Back in August, I was invited to record a television program and shoot some video for the Assemblies of God. Both programs were videotaped at the Total Living Network in Aurora, IL.

Larry Griswold and Gary Blanchard from the Illinois District of the Assemblies of God interviewed me for the video. They then took the videos as part of a bigger program and showed it to over a thousand leaders in different meetings throughout the region.

To load them on YouTube, I combined them based on length so each video (after the introductory one) is between 5-10 minutes.

It is our 21st anniversary and we are celebrating like it was our 20th.

Last year, we were unpacking boxes on August 15th, have just moved to Nashville to work at LifeWay. So, instead of celebrating, we were organizing. Needless to say, I promised my wife a better time this anniversary.

So, I am in Chicago. We are staying in a nice hotel on the Magnificent Mile. We are sleeping late, going to movies, seeing shows, and just enjoying each other. On Sunday, we will be at Community Christian Church and grab lunch with my friend Dave Ferguson. I will stay over till Tuesday to shoot a television program with the Assemblies of God (which gave me the excuse to come to Chicago this weekend).

Donna and I started dating in High School. Donna was the first (and only) girl I dated seriously. We went to the prom, then off to college together. When we were 20 years old, she was crazy enough to marry me. So, between our Junior and Senior years of college, we got married.

She is a wonderful friend and an amazing wife.

She loves Jesus. We first met when she came to a Bible Study I was leading in high school. She had led about 6 of her friends to Christ that year.

She is not afraid of difficult things. She supported us as I planted our first church while going to seminary on the weekends... and earned a Masters degree while I was earning mine. We have planted multiple churches, worked to revitalize a few, and not chosen the easy paths in life.

I have dragged this woman to the inner city of Buffalo, NY to plant a church among the urban poor. Then, off to a blue collar community of Erie to plant again. Four months after Kristen was born, she came with me to Louisville where I taught at seminary (which was much more challenging than Buffalo!).

Once she was pregnant again, of course I dragged her to Georgia to work at NAMB and then to evantually plant a church in our free time . And, now we live in Nashville where I travel too much.

She has never complained and she had every right to. We have literally grown up together and now we are raising kids together. I look forward to growing old together.

Now, I watch her continue to grow and I see her life poured into our 3 daughters. And I am grateful every day.

So, today is her day. And, I am honored that she would call me her husband!

I just got back from Phoenix. The Assemblies of God Church Planting Summit was a great experience. The Christian Post has the story here.

On the plane back, I wrote a bit about my friends in the Assemblies of God, returning a favor from Earl Creps blog here.

The Assemblies of God has a bold vision, called MX9, that they will have 1000 church plants planned or underway by 2009. This is a great step forward... and a great increase over where they are now.

I have a long term friendship and an appreciation for the Assemblies of God leadership. Earlier this summer, I spoke at the General Assembly of the Assemblies of God in Indianapolis at the request of Steve Pike, who is their church planting movement leader (and an all around great guy, having planted a strong church in Colorado and now investing his life in planters).

Click here for more information about the chuch planting summit.

Bob Roberts, Steve Johnson, Alan Hirsch... nice.

Hopefully talking about church planting on the blog will not suddenly drop the recently increased traffic. Grin.

More soon...

It just struck me...

Today, I present on Calvinism and then stay two days to hear lots of talks on Calvinism related issues. This is an important event for my denomination.

On Thursday, I will be in Arizona speaking at the Assemblies of God chuch planting summit. Their summit may be the most significant denominationally focused church planting conferences in a long time. It is a quite a gathering. (My Assemblies of God friends will rebuke me for calling them a denomination... so please forgive me.)

That is quite a dichotomy. Wonder which one will be more exciting? Grin.

Note to self:
Don't mix up the presentations...
Don't mix up the presentations...
Don't mix up the presentations...