Keyes for the Kingdom

Me and Rich...

I had a great time yesterday hanging out with a church consultant who's a good friend of Rich Butler. This guy asked some GREAT questions! I really love great questions that make me say, "Hmmm, I don't know, I've never thought about that...." - that really starts my brain moving!

One thing Rich and I have learned recently is that we complement each other well. He's more of a visionary - there's ALWAYS plenty of vision rolling around in Rich's mind - all we need to make it all work is a lot of money and people! I LOVE Rich's heart and vision for CRCC - the other day he shared something the Lord had shown him and I went over and picked up a piece of paper - I had written down the very SAME WORD that Rich had received - a God moment? Yeah... awesome!!!

I'm more of what this consultant guy called "A Refiner" - I look at vision or anything going on at CRCC and have a 6th sense about how to make things better - what won't work, and what probably will. I even noticed  a typo on one of the consultant's papers! I notice when things aren't "right" on stage - when the service goes well and when we struggle with elements and items. That's the way God wired me and guess what? Put a visionary and a refiner together and look out!!! We're working closely together along with Pastor Brian - to have a God honoring strategy and plan for CRCC in the near and foreseeable future! I LOVE the journey!!! All aboard!!!

Desert Sands...

Last week I taught how the children of Israel wandered in the desert wilderness for 40 years - it SHOULD have only been an 11 day journey! Can you imagine walking around in circles for 40 years and as soon as you come over one dune, you see, guess what? MORE SAND! The only time I see a good bit of sand is when I go to the beach with my family. When I'm there I get sand in my shoes, my clothes, my hair...sand... sand...sand! The good news for me is that when I'm done, I get to go back to the beach house and take a hot shower! NOT SO for the children of Israel - sand, sand, and more sand.

The people did what I think most people would do - GRUMBLE and COMPLAIN - they blamed Moses (when in doubt, always blame the leader!) - These complainers were called "the rabble" in the Bible. Hmmm... I think their descendants still exist in God's family today! "I don't like the________", "Why don't we ever _____________ around here anymore?" I've learned as a pastor for many years, that anyone in your church is only one "complaint" away from hitting the door and never coming back!

Prof. Howard Hendricks from Dallas Seminary once said, "Behind every smile is a set of teeth". He also said, "Don't let other Christians ROB you of your joy you have in Jesus". I'm afraid that many times, I've done that very thing - let others rob me of my joy. We certainly won't please everyone all the time, but we can stay on misssion - stay beside our core values, and stand firm, knowing that it's not MY church or OUR church - it's the church of Jesus Christ and HE won't let the gates of Hell stop it from going forward!

Our new princess: Kariella Rebecca Thrasher

Here's a few shots of grandchild #10! Everyone is doing fine!

Check this video!

We saw this awesome short video called "Carlos" when we heard Erwin McManus speak at the Valentine conference at Ridgecrest earlier this year - watch it to the end and you'll not be sorry!!! There's a HERO in each of us!!!

Erwin @ Catalyst: “Become the Hero God Created You to Be”

We win...

Our CrossRoads golf team won the annual Southside Christian School "Church Challenge" at Pebble Creek. It was a beautiful and fun day and I so enjoyed playing alongside my buds, David Rhodes, Chad Norris, and David Reichley - our missionaries from Wayfarer ministries. We ended up shooting a 60 - 12 under par. SCS did a great job hosting us and treated us so well. I love Dr. Stephen Reel and Don Kaufman who head up the school. I get to play with this guys on a pretty regular basis each month.

The highlight of the day for me was knocking in a 25 foot put for an Eagle on the Par-5 hole number 2!

It was also great to meet a lot of other pastors from our area - all who have students who attend SCS. My three kids ALL attended SCS from K-4 - 12th grade - so we have a LOT of memories of this awesome Christian school. On each hole, SCS had placed signs telling us of the things the Lord has allowed the students there to accomplish - all for His glory! THANKS SCS for such a great day of fun for many of the pastors in town!!!

Sunday Recap...

What an awesome day at CRCC - Almost 800 people were here in attendance as we started our brand new series: Spring: Season of Breakthrough... We heard from TWO missionaries today - Paul Johnson brought a guest from Poland who shared with us the vast mission opportunities in Eastern Europe. We also commissioned our very own Sarah Meszaros, who'll be heading out in a couple of weeks to head up the summer camp ministry for orphans in Romania called, "Livada". She'll be gone for 18 months and has about 60% of her funds already raised. PRAY and GIVE to help Sarah on her way - she'll be GREATLY missed as a small group leader in our High School ministry here at CRCC.

Jessie Roland led worship, as David Walker was leading worship at my son's church in Atlanta. I always say that she sings like an "angel" for sure - we had her for lunch today and so enjoyed the time with her. Rich Butler closed out our service with an awesome vision from the Lord that he shared with our congregation - MANY people who needed breakthrough asked for prayer and prayer groups formed all around the building for ministry and intercession. We're asking God for some amazing BREAKTHROUGH in the lives of our people.

Also today was a FIRST for me: All TEN grandkids were HERE for lunch! NINE boys and ONE girl. Since 3 are babies, they didn't know they were here for lunch, but this afternoon Becky's going to try and line them all up on the couch for a "group photo" - ha, yeah right! I'm sure that'll be a piece of cake! Arghh!

New series starts TOMORROW!

YEAH - SPRING is HERE! I love it when the grass turns green and the flowers start to bloom! I'm going to head out to Heritage Park this afternoon and take my young grandsons to ride the train and play on the playground. What a great time of the year!

We're starting a NEW series tomorrow at CRCC - believing that the Spring is also a GREAT time for SPIRITUAL BREAKTHROUGH in your life! Answers to prayers, physical healings, financial breakthrough - all things that not only God CAN do, but things that God WILL do, if we trust him and have faith in his power and goodness. We'll be exploring this concept over the next six weeks, so come tomorrow and let's see God do some GREAT things in the lives of our people! Are you ready for BREAKTHROUGH? I am!

Lunch with Rimes...

I had a great lunch today with Rimes McElveen, the director of the "Mere Christianity Forum" on the campus of Furman University. I love Furman as that's the school I helped greatly to fund during my two sons attendance there... ha!

I know the importance and POWER of a strong Christian influence to students and I was so impressed with Rimes and his heart for ministry there at Furman.
Over five years ago Mere Christianity Forum started when a small group of students met together, with no agenda or pretense, simply because of their interest in discussing C.S. Lewis’ famous work Mere Christianity. The thoughtful and open discussions of theology, philosophy and culture that emerged attracted a diverse group of participants from different backgrounds including Protestants, Catholics, agnostics, and even a Muslim student.

Today Rimes has dinners and meals for students at a beautiful old house called "The Vista House" - he also has forum discussions/ conversations with tons of students about God and His word. He recently brought Leonard Sweet to town, who is one of my favorite authors and speakers. I so enjoyed hanging out with him and sharing our hearts about ministry. PRAY for RIMES and this awesome ministry out at FURMAN!!!

Dave Ramsey is this generation's financial Christian GURU - we've taken lots of people through his Financial Peace University training. I heard Dave live in Greenville a couple of years ago and he was an amazing and Godly teacher.

Tonight he's going to be sharing from his heart what WE should be doing in the midst of the worst economic crisis of our generation. The meetings will be a live streaming video over the internet at over 6000 churches across America - we chose not to offer this at CRCC because so many churches in our area ARE offering it - so let's use our "Kingdom of God" value to go to other ministries tonight and support this important rally.

Churches who are hosting the event are: Brookwood, Seacoast, Horizon, Holland Point, and First Baptist Simpsonville. I'm heading out to Seacoast on Highway 14 - venue starts at 8:00 - 9:30 - DON'T MISS THIS IMPORTANT EVENT!!!

The Princess has arrived!!!

This morning, very early, about 2:00 am, my daughter, Angela, gave birth to a beautiful baby girl:
Kariella - 9 lbs. 10 ozs. - 23 inches long - this is one BIG, FAT baby - ha! Everyone's doing fine. We're keeping Aaron's son, Nyle, while he's out in California leading worship today for "CATALYST WEST".  He's a two-year old red head - SO much fun - I get to put him to bed each night with stories, snuggle time, and singing songs. Nyle can't get his two year old mind around the idea that he has a new cousin who is a... (gasp) GIRL! With the NINE boys in the fam, this will be a new twist on everyone involved!

Angela's nursery is so pretty and girly-girl for sure! - Pink and white everywhere...

We've got babies EVERYWHERE here at CRCC! God has been so good to our families!!!