As a part of our Christmas Conspiracy, we partnered with our friends at Faithbridge Community Church to help out their community during the holiday season.  One of the greatest needs that was shared was the very real concerns of parents – many of whom have lost jobs this year - who were afraid that they may not have anything to give to their children this Christmas.  We shared this need with Iron City and they responded in unbelievable fashion, overflowing the collection boxes every week.

In three short weeks, we collected enough toys to fill a Honda Element and to make Christmas morning special for a couple dozen families in McKees Rocks.  In addition, we were able to tangibly demonstrate the love of Jesus to an anxious bunch of parents.  And as I watched grateful parents file in and out of the gift room yesterday I was reminded of this passage:

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.   James 1:27 (NIV)

I have had the privilege over the last few weeks of inciting a group of people to do some crazy, subversive things.  In fact, we’re all conspiring together to celebrate Christmas differently this year.  Our plan is aggressive, but viable, and the wheels have already been turning to return the JOY of Christmas, the celebration of the Presence of God, to the hearts of people in the Pittsburgh metro area.  What are you doing differently this Christmas?

You can listen to the messages from this series by clicking here.

I started a new coaching network with Nelson Searcy in New York City today. It isn’t cheap or easy to get away and get there once a month, but it’s much like the flight in tonight. As a leader, I have to be intentional about making time to look at Iron City Church from a fresh and different perspective.

Thank you God for giving me the opportunity to push away, learn from and with like-minded church leaders, and ultimately to try to see ICC the way You see her – as a force in your hands to redeem people’s lives through Christ for eternity. Help me to lead her to fulfill Your dreams for her.

First of all, Sundays are my favorite days of the week.  Yesterday, we had a decent crowd (57) at ICC in spite of a bunch of folks out for the weekend.  The “Catalytic One” (my dad, Lamar Duke, and our Catalytic Pastor) preached for us and talked about “A Lifestyle of Generosity.”  The band did a great job — started off the day with a pretty sweet version of “Give a Little Bit.”  It was a good one all around.

On top of the “good exhausted” feeling of coming off of Sunday, Mondays are great because Monday night is Date Night around here.  Amber and I didn’t really date at all before we got married.  We “hung out” a lot.  Spent a lot of time with friends.  But not much dating before or after we got married for the first couple of years.  We really made Date Night a priority when we moved to Pittsburgh and it’s been awesome.

Why date night?  Because as life gets (and stays) busy, it’s amazing how easy it is to go all week and not have much — or any — meaningful, one-on-one conversation with each other.  Marriage is work. 

Hey married guys out there — get off it and put together a Date Night.  You have to take the lead.  Give your wife a couple of days notice, pay for a babysitter, and take her out on a date.  Just the two of you.  You’ll be amazed…

I have started working part-time as a merchandiser for Pennington seed company in addition to all the excitement of ICC. Jeff is working at a local nursery too.

The cool thing about everything going on right now is that our current season of growth at Iron City corresponds with grass seed and planting season (in this area at least).

It seems like everything is growing around here all at once!

Pray that God will continue to grow this church and change lives like He’s been doing. And pray that He’ll give me the wisdom to know how best to do all the things He has set up for me to do.

That being said, after the last 2 weeks at Iron City I can’t imagine devoting my life to anything else. We’ve had a couple dozen new people at ICC for our services and a pretty decent number at our vision meeting this afternoon.

I just know that God is working to “release” many of them (and a bunch of us regulars) from the junk that is holding them back. Addictions, destructive habits, and negative attitudes are all in play.

The last two weeks have been great – the music has been kicking, the energy level has been off the charts, our people have been over the top – but I have an intense feeling that we’re entering into one of those “only God” seasons of ministry.

Transforming the Pittsburgh metro area with the love of Jesus… Only God could do that!

To begin with, we had an extra large group of folks on board planning and preparing for today.  Then this morning, setup went great and the place looked unbelievable.  We got together like we always do after setup and talked for a few minutes and prayed, then something crazy happened…

People started showing up.  And just kept coming.  When they stopped coming we had 27 first time guests and 76 total people in attendance!  That broke our high attendance by almost 50%!  The extra people in the house definitely added to the energy level.   I had a blast!

Brandon, Bob, and Ben (the Killer B’s) rocked the house, musically, and I got to kick off our new “Release” message series.  The message today was called “Power to Rise” and dealt with realizing those things that are holding us back (addictions, destructive habits, negative attitudes, etc.) and enlisting the same power that raised Jesus from the dead to help us gain our release.  It felt like the message really connected and people seemed to track with what I was talking about.

After today, I’m more encouraged than ever to keep pushing and charging forward towards our goal: to see the Pittsburgh metro area transformed by the love of Jesus.  Thank you Jesus for kicking death in the teeth and walking out of that tomb on the first Easter!  And thank you now for calling me and all the folks at ICC to be a part of your mission in the world!

That’s what this last week or so has been for me.  The tension of having a whole lot of stuff to get done AND an astounding amount of excitement about what’s upcoming.  I like to say that one aspect of the “abundant life” (John 10:10) that Jesus promises is that there’s never a dull moment!

Here’s some of what’s got me excited:

• Jeff preached on Sunday and did an awesome job talking about Naomi in our Heroes series (click here for the .mp3)
• We are getting all prepped and ready for an off the hook Easter Sunday service and the series that we’re kicking off that day
  
• I spent some time today with my father (and catalytic pastor) making plans for some of the crazy stuff we’re doing this summer (like the baddest baseball camp western Pennsylvania has ever seen – more on this later!)”
• We’re taking a team of ICC folks tomorrow down to upstate South Carolina for Thursday’s UNLEASH Conference at NewSpring Church - I am so looking forward to this!
• Dad is preaching on (Palm) Sunday about Moses to wrap up our Heroes series
• Easter is a week and a half away!!!

Then yesterday it hit 68 degrees and beautiful blue skies.  Now it’s been raining all day and it’s back down to 37 (and dropping). 

Not to mention that it’s hard to know what to wear out of the house at any given moment, this is a good illustration for what we talked about on Sunday.

I talked about how Caleb was a man of “Uncommon Courage.”  He was courageous enough to have faith in God’s promises in spite of facing giants and walled cities.  I mentioned that it wasn’t because he was delusional that he believed the Israelites could take the land.  He was realistic about the obstacles in front of him, but he chose to look realistically at the circumstances in light of God’s promises.

Too often I think that we — in spite of our relationship to the King of the universe — allow ourselves to be swayed by our circumstances, which change like the weather around here. 

We claim to believe and have faith in God’s promises to be with us no matter what, to give us life to the full, to make sure we have our daily bread, to provide wave after wave of grace and forgiveness, and (insert your favorite of God’s promises here). 

And then the weather changes…. Life happens…. Something unforeseen goes wrong…. ”Downsizing”… The doctor gives us the bad news… He or she leaves…. That loved one dies unexpectedly…. and BOOM! 

Suddenly all we can see are the circumstances (the weather) and we forget that God’s promises overshadow life’s situations.  Nothing that happens on this earth leaves God scratching His head. 

I’ll say it again: COURAGE IS DIRECTLY PROPORTIONAL TO THE SIZE OF YOUR GOD — BIG GOD = BIG COURAGE!  No matter what the weather’s looking like in your life today, God is big enough and loves you enough to follow through on His promises.  Take courage!

Should be fun for those of you from the ‘Burgh (and totally confusing for the rest of you).

Surprisingly, I scored a 97% — not bad for a southern transplant!

Comment back with your score….