The Grace Community Church middle school camp is this week. Thanks to our family pastor Michael Bayne for letting me grab this video from his blog. (I didn’t ask permission, so I hope he’s okay with this.) Our youngest son Nate is serving as student pastor this summer and so he’s at the camp and in the video. I wish they would let me go sometime. I’d show them a water party!

I’m also reminded, however, as Memorial Day is designed to do, that many families have had to endure the delivering of their own “letter” from a fallen soldier. Today I’m praying God comforts them with the memories of happy times together and with the pride of knowing and enjoying the freedom their loved one gave his or her life to protect.

The experience with Diana reminded Cheryl and me how thankful we are for the volunteers we have at Grace Community Church. Each Sunday at least 150 to 200 people give of their time so that others can experience life change through the ministry of the church. The truth is that the structure and workings of a church are only as good as the church’s volunteers. We serve an incredibly amazing God, but He builds His church with people who are willing to love and serve others. The staff can and should do much to lead this, but regardless of the size of the church, paid staff is never enough to accomplish the mission.

Sunday at Grace Community Church is talked about two essentials to a healthy marriage; communication and honesty. You can view that message below.

In that message, I also shared 7 tips for better communication in marriage:

That’s how we planted a church. We looked for people who were influencers within a circle of friends to find a core of people to start our church and we invested in them and released them to lead in the church. We continue to invest in influencer type people that come to our church to lead our ministry. I have personally looked for influencer type people to add to our staff.

I love creativity. When we started Grace Community Church, we surrounded ourselves with highly creative minds and allowed them to dream big dreams. One thing I realized early in the life of the church, however, is that creative people are more difficult to lead.

This Sunday at Grace Community Church we delayed our series to address the issue on everyone’s mind. The flood of 2010 shook many people in our community and in the Middle Tennessee area. Fear and anxiety has been on the increase. People are seeking answers and looking for hope. That’s perfectly understandable during days such as these.

I’m so proud of the Grace Community Church volunteers. The Clarksville, Nashville, and Middle Tennessee areas experienced a devastating flood last weekend. Recovery in Clarksville is really just beginning. Grace people have been actively involved in the relief efforts. Grace is a church that truly loves our community. Here are a few pictures from the week. If you’ll notice, Jason Roy, our worship leader is in one of them. He’s a hard worker. (I interviewed him HERE.)

The biggest question has been what we are to do while we wait to respond to this tragedy. Grace Community Church is a doing church. We have serving our community in our DNA. Our people have been anxious to do something tangible. In cooperation with local officials, however, we have been encouraged to wait. In the early stages of a disaster like this, mass numbers of people are not the greatest need. The safety of people, stabilizing the community, and assessing needs of the community is where the community is focusing attention.

Do you ever struggle with questions about prayer, such as why, how, when, how much to pray, etc.? If so, you are not alone. In this message I addressed some of the main questions we have about prayer. Watch the message and see the questions below that I addressed and references I referred to in the message.