It’s been a busy summer around our church.  In between serving our community and numerous baptisms (yes!), we’ve been praying, dreaming, planning, and preparing for the next chapter of Westport Church.  God has clearly shown His favor in the first 5 years of Westport’s existence:  a church has been formed, lives have been changed, a community is being impacted.

And you know what we believe?  We’re just getting started.

Two nights ago our Elder Team, Staff Team and spouses gathered together for the official “unveiling” of the vision for the next chapter of Westport.  To say there was excitement and anticipation might be an understatement! What a thrill to see eyes light up and hearts begin to beat fast at the new awareness of what lies ahead at Westport.  With great joy and with all we have, we’ve embraced the vision that we believe God has in store for us.

On September 11, we launch our NEXT series. We’ll unveil to the entire church what we believe God has NEXT for Westport.  In a word, it’s audacious! But we believe wholeheartedly that God is shaping this and will provide what it takes to see His vision for Westport accomplished. And we believe countless lives will be changed on this journey together – including our own.

Don’t miss the next few weeks. Have other plans? Cancel them. This may be the most important series we’ve had at Westport.  Yep, it’s that big.  And it’s guaranteed to make your heart beat fast.

Oh, and the pic of Mark Grover and me? Well, I’ll just say that we REALLY celebrated at the meeting.  And those of you who know Mark know how much he loves to be hugged… :)

Great days ahead!

Travel the world.  Shoot one second of footage at each location. Put it all together…and this is the result.

Amazing.

Absolutely love the creativity.

And I love to travel.  So I’m uber jealous.

Marriages.

Families.

Friendships.

Churches.

Coworkers.

Neighbors.

Teammates.

Politicians.

Countries.

Every relationship, at one time or another has conflict. It’s inevitable.  It’s unavoidable.

Conflict isn’t a choice.

Our response to the conflict is.

• Choosing steps towards restoration – or steps towards further division.

• Offering extensions of grace, honesty, openness, hope, and forgiveness – or responses of bitterness, self-protection, defensiveness, alienation.

• Seeing mistakes and brokenness – not only in others, but in ourselves.

• Identifying hurt and pain – not only in ourselves, but in others.

The response is the choice.

And the choice…difficult, easy or both – is yours.

My opinion? This may be one of the most important areas Jesus followers must wrestle with. Broken relationships are EVERYWHERE.  Painfully fractured, heals-dug-in-the-ground, kick-you-to-the-curb relationships are EVERYWHERE.  And when believers authentically choose to embrace a posture of forgiveness and restoration, they not only reflect the restorative heart of Jesus, they make an unbelieving world marvel.

The choice is yours.

You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. – Galatians 5:13-15

Something this special just needs to be shared. Mark it down…you’ll be telling your grand kids where you were when you first heard the classic “Tow Truck Paradise”.

We showed this last Sunday at Westport as part of our Soulflix series (Cars 2). Straight up – tons of fun. I can now cross “be in a cheesy 80s rap video” off my bucket list.

Huge props to Taylor “Gangsta” Grover, Devon “Mad Dog” Proctor, and “DJ Jazzy” Jamie Niebergall. Great work guys!  Oh, and my favorite – the cameo by Garrett “G man” Bell.  Watch it again, share it with friends – we’re expecting about a million hits by, oh – next Wednesday. :)

Mater would be so proud.