We will meet at 4909 Canyon Drive at 8:00 am this Saturday Juluy 10 to complete this work. If you would like to help please, meet us there. Feel free to call me if you have any questions.

Thanks,

Chris

1. Pray

I bet you were expecting me to say that; but, I encourage you never to forget the productivity of prayer. In Zechariah 4 the "word of the Lord" comes to Zerubbabel saying, "not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,' says the Lord of hosts." Rightfully, we quote this verse for in a lot of situations; but, contextually it was written to a man responsible for the major renovations of a ruined facility. Likewise, it is important for us to remember the spiritual significance of what we are doing in Amarillo. You can be part of what God is doing here no matter where you live. If you want to partcipate all you have to do is pray.

2. Contribute Financially

If you have ever visited one of our campuses you know that our renovations have always been done with excellence. We know that the Church is not a Building. The Building is just a facility; but, a facility should live up to its name by facilitating ministry. As we complete these renovations we will be creating an enviornment where people can find Jesus. To create that type of enviornment we do not have to be extravagant. We will be good stewards of the resources we have already saved and we will be good stewards of the resources we are given in the future. If you would like to help in this way simply follow this link to give online. You can also designate an offering to the Amarillo Campus Building Project whenever you give your regular contributions at one of our other campuses.

3. Volunteer

Even though we cannot use most people's physical help in the renovation process, completion of the renovations will create a lot of opportunities for people to serve. Every Sunday morning we will need the volunteer services of about 14 people. If you would like to know more about how you could help us on a Sunday morning; please, email me: chris@harvestchristianfellowship.org.

Thanks for reading this blog,

Chris Craig

Pastor of Central Ministries

Harvest Christian Fellowship

I also think it is amazing to watch God guide us in such "supernaturally natural" ways. Today, Father's Day 2010, in Amarillo, Curtis House was able to join us for the first time. I know that he and his family are going to fit right in around here and I am confident that there will be a "D.N.A. Transfer" to the Amarillo Campus as we get started.

Please, pray for the men of West Texas. Pray for them to find Jesus. Pray for them to find a chuch where they can be discipled as men. Pray for their families and pray for them all to become the glorious representation of His nature that God intends them all to be.

If you are a Father reading this message God Bless You. Thanks for taking the time to pray for what God is doing thru us in Amarillo.

1. We have finally gotten permission from our landlord and General Contractor to begin renovations on the facility!

2. Early this week we were able to complete the initial phase of the renovation.

3. Thursday, was our first official meeting with Curtis House. I am very please to announce that he will be the Campus Pastor in Amarillo!

4. Today we had a work day. Kevin Reed and Cody Barrett brought a construction crew and got a lot of work done on the building. Thanks a million!

5. Today we were able to make plans for the next three weeks. We will continue to meet in a LifeGroup type setting. Call or Email me if you would like more specific information.

6. Finally, we have very clear steps to take over the next few weeks. There are a lot of ways that anyone can help. If you would like to know more give me a call or send me an email.

Please, continue to pray for the Amarillo Campus, our Leadership team, and the people who will participate in services there when we get started.

Thanks,

Pastor Chris

If you are reading this blog; please, leave a comment and come back to the site soon. I try to update the blog consistently.

Have a good day,

Chris Craig

Matthew 10:5-8 - ⁵These twelve Jesus sent out after instructing them: "Do not go in the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter any city of the Samaritans; ⁶but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. ⁷"And as you go, preach, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand.' ⁸"Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give.

Here are the observations that I made from this passage.

1. In their first "evangelistic thrust" Jesus instructed His disciples to "go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." For us I think that means we should make a list of people we think are saved; but, not currently members of another church.

2. Jesus tell the disciples to tell these "lost sheep" to "repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Although I know most people have many reasons for repenting, I feel that the Holy Spirit was telling me to have us go to people who are saved but not churched and tell them that we have found what they were looking for. (the kingdom of heaven)

3. Finally, Jesus tells His disciples to "heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give." This one is pretty self-explainatory; but, I feel that it is important for us to remember that Jesus never expected anyone to believe a powerless message. Our walk has to match our talk or people should keep looking for the kingdom of heaven somewhere else. Please, pray that God will work thru us to minister to people in Amarillo in a powerfull way.

In response to these observations here is what I would like for us to do:

1. Make a List of people from Amarillo, Canyon, and Bushland who you think are probably saved; but, not attending church anywhere. 

2. Email me a copy of that list. All I need on the list is names. If we choose to do anything more than pray for these people, I will ask the people who provided the names to follow up with the people they know.

3. Pray over the list of names you compile and believe that God will minister to them in the ways most appropriate for them.

4. When our building has been renovated we will try to contact as many of these people as possible and invite them to our services.

For the last 2 month God has really been showing me a lot about His character as Our Provider. I have received some interesting insights from the stories of Joseph, Abraham, Paul, the Amarillo Campus, the Lubbock Campus and the Plainview Campus. I have also revisited the well known Isaiah 40:31. I encourage you to go back to the book of Isaiah and read chapter 40 verses 28-31. Then pray about these issues regarding the launch of our Amarillo Campus:

1.  Completion of Facility Renovations

2.  Official Selection of the Amarillo Campus Pastor

3.  Solidification of the Worship Team.

4.  Preparation of Homes for Life Groups

5.  Coordination of Volunteer Efforts

6. Blessings on all those who Help in the Process

7. Most importantly that God will be Honored in any/all of our Activities

Thank you for praying. Please, take one more step by making a post to this blog to let me know you read it. I really appreciate the feedback, it helps me to know that someone is listening.

Then he said to me, "This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel saying, 'Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,' says the LORD of hosts. 'What are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become a plain; and he will bring forth the top stone with shouts of "Grace, grace to it!"

It really is how amazing our God is! I hope you have seen His activity in your own life and I hope that you will see His activity in the church planting process for the Amarillo Campus. Please, keep praying and please, keep making comments on this blog. It really does help to see that people are reading this blog and praying.

My translation of the Bible at the time said, "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want." I studied and prayed all the time about this verse because I could not understand why David did not want the Lord to be his Shepherd. Honestly, I questioned this for a very long time. In fact I may have not understood this verse for the first 5 years of my salvation. Then one day I was walking up the stairs in the Wayland Baptist University to visit Brad r and I saw a painting that had the 23rd Psalm on it; but, this painting translated the verse to say, "The Lord is my Shepherd, I will have no needs." My first reaction to this translations was emphatically, "that is not what it says," then the Holy Spirit gently corrected me, confirming in my heart that this translation and not mine was accurate.

Today, I look back at that time in my walk and smile. When I first got saved I knew nothing about how God provides for us. Greatfuly today, I see his activity all around us. I even see Him masterfully orchestrating events I do not like or understand. Honestly, I am proud to say, "Even though I walk thru the valley of the shaddow of death, I will fear no evil; because I know that you will provide for me."

Please, keep praying for the Amarillo campus. We are facing some obstacles right now. They are nothing to worry about; but, we do not need to stop praying now. I have faith (not hope) that things will continue to go well in Amarillo. Join me in prayer for the campus.

Thanks for your help,

Chris

Several people told me they were disappointed because they were not able to come. If you are one of the ones who wanted to come; but, could not make it, I also want to thank you for your support. We will have many opportunities to gather in the future. I look forward to those times and I know that you do to.

Please, keep praying. This week is a very busy and important week. I have a very important meeting on Tuesday. We will be filming a commercial on Thursday, and we plan to start renovations on Saturday. As you can see, things are in full swing now. We need things to run smoothly, safely, productively, and efficient. Your prayers will help ensure tat these things happen.

Thank you for your help,

Chris Craig

We are plannig to have our first Sunday service on June 6th. As you know, that date is rapidly approaching. There is a lot of work to be done. Please, keep us in your prayers. Contact me if you would like more information.

If you would like to come and see the facility and pray with us on the 17th please; let me know by sending me an RSVP in response to this message. We will probably go get something to eat after the prayer meeting. (approx. 5:00pm) Abuelo's is only a few blocks away from the facility, or if the weather is nice we can to to Thompson Park/Zoo and have a picnic.

Let me know what you think,

Chris Craig

As soon as I got back in my car I started listening to the Word. When I got to the Airport I decided to listen for 30 minutes to see what it would be like. My 30 minute devotion ended with Matthew 9:36-38. They say, "Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest."

I thought this was a great reminder and I walked away convinced:

1. The Harvest is pleantiful, not only in Amarillo; but, all around the world.

2. God is the "Lord of the Harvest" and He wants the crop to come in more than any of us.

3. The whole earth is a pretty big field; so, if we are laborers it would be wise for us to pray for help.

Please, pray with me as we have been instructed that God, the Lord of the Harvest, would send out workers into His harvest.

It looks like we will be able to put about 100 chairs in the auditorium. This means that we should be able to comfortably seat about 80 adults in each service. If we have 2 services we can easily facilitate ministry to 150 adults in our current location.

Please, pray that our plans for remodeling run smoothly. I will let you know what type of help we need soon; but, until then; please, pray that we get a good deal on the 100 chairs we intend to purchase very soon.

These are just a couple of ideas. Please, let me know if you would like to participate in something like this.

Hopefully we will gain possession of the property on Monday March 29, 2010. We will have to do some minor renovations to prepare the facility for our first service. If everything continues to progress as planned we will have our first Sunday Morning Service on June 6, 2010.

Please, pray that everything go smothly in the remodeling process. We will probably extend some invitations for work crews to help complete the project. If yo uare interested in helping in any way, please let me know.

Thanks for your prayers,

Chris Craig

Wouldn't it be nice if we knew how long we would had to wait every time God was doing something in our lives?

I guess I feel this way right now because we are in the third tri-mester of waiting for the Amarillo campus to be launched. The good news is that the sonograms say everything is progressing well and we should expect to see more signs of growth as each day passes.

Please, keep praying for the Amarillo Campus and our leadership team. This week I hope to see three significant steps made:

Tomorrow, I hope to secure the lease on the first facility we plan to use. 

Thursday, I hope to hear something from the current candidate for the Campus Pastor position. 

On Thursday, I also plan to talk with Paul, Brad and Justen regarding the procedure we will take for telling people about the service opportunities in the Amarillo Campus.

All of these things need to be bathed in prayer. Thanks for your willingness to pray.

I love that quote, "the early church was not about religion but about relationships."

Please, keep our Amarillo campus in your prayers. We need to be praying that the lease be finalized and that relationships will grow as we put together the launch team.

Recently Pastor Paul gave our Pastoral team a reading assignment. While completing that assignment I ran across several quotes I want to share with you. I think they will inspire you to seek the Lord as you pray for our church planting efforts.

I am not going to give you the title of the book; because, for the most part, it is very technical and written for people who are in church leadership positions. Although you might like reading parts of the book, I doubt that you would find most of it very appealing. Therefore, I am just going to use the book to share some thought provoking ideas with you.

Here is the first one:

"In his book Revolution, researcher George Barna speaks to a growing angst regarding the institutional church. His research indicates that there may be as many as twenty million spiritual revolutionaries who no longer view the church as the locus for their spiritual experience. Church consultant Reggie McNeal states that 'a growing number of people are leaving the institutional church for a new reason. They are not leaving because they have lost the faith. They are leaving the church to preserve their faith.'"

This quote kills me since I have had the privilege of being part of a healthy "institutional" church like Harvest. I know that many people have not had good experiences at church and it troubles me that the leadership of what were probably once healthy churches, were not able/willing to correct the issues in their churches as they arose and before their churches became a place where people were losing their faith instead of growing spiritually.

Please, pray for our Amarillo campus, to be led well, and a place that shows people that the church is practical, relevant, and life giving.

1. I guess I will just have to find myself another giant.

2. Welcome to the pit of dispair.

3. Bow down to her if you want to, queen of refuse, queen of slime.

4. You guessed wrong. That's what is so funny, You only think I guessed wrong. I switched glasses when you weren't looking.

5. Fesik rip his arms off.. Oh you mean this gate key.

Trust me, I could go on and on with favorite scenes from this movie. Even so; I cannot think of a way to link it to an inspiritational thought for prayer.

Maybe you can do better than me. The best I can come up with is please, keep praying for the Amarillo Campus.

Personally that is one of my favorite parts of the movie. Well that and the "bring out your dead" scene. Anyway,  I would really like it if after reading this post, you would tell us:

1. Your Name

2. How often you read these posts

Thanks,

Chris Craig

Please, keep praying for the Amarillo campus, the acquisition of a facility, the future pastor, the leadership team, and the people who will be reached/discipled through this ministry.

If everything goes as planned we will sign a 1 year lease, start renovations immediately, and have our first Sunday morning service on June 6, 2010! In order for this to happen a lot of little details have to come together. Please, pray that everything run smoothly and that we all have wisdom/discernment/faith regarding these decisions.

Please, pray that the weather cooperate as well. There is at least a chance of snow and we don't want to be delayed or unsafe due to hazardous road conditions.

Thanks,

Chris

Hebrews 2:17-18

Today, I spent the day in Amarillo, looking at a few possible facilities. I found several prospects and will be taking a closer look at a few of them next week.

Last Sunday, I was able to nominate a candidate for the Campus Pastor Position in Amarillo. At this time the Elders all agree that the candidate would be a great choice. Now we just have to pray to discern if, how, and when we should approach the candidate and his family for an interview.

Please, keep our Elder team in your prayers. None of us want to hire someone just to check off a box on our church planting "to do list." We really are trying to seek God and His will for this effort in Amarillo.

I would also like to ask you to pray for me and my family. I need both wisdom and favor as I look for facilites that might work for the Amarillo Campus.

Thank you for your prayer,

Chris

Faith has an Origin! The origin of faith is the Word of God. (see Romans 10:17) Likewise the "prayer of faith" is one that has origins in the Word of God.

Personally, I believe that the "cries of oppression" God heard from His people were actually the the "prayer of faith" cried out to God by people who remembered God's word to Abraham.

When God's people pray God's will, Things Happen! 

Please, incorporate your study of Scripture into your prayers for our next campus. As you do, please, tell us about it. You can use the attached Bible reading plan to assist you in your study of Scripture.

Thanks for praying and thanks for telling people how they can be part of this prayer team. Your doing a great job. Keep doing it.

I hope that you have found a method for studying the scriptures that you enjoy. If you haven't I would encourage you to try this one. I call it "building a S.O.A.P. box." Basically, this method goes like this: 

S. - Study the Scripture until you make an

O. - Observation. (Read until "see" something.)

A. - Ask how that Applies to your current situation/lot in life.

P. - Then pray. Pray that God will help you to incorporate what you have seen into your daily life. Ask Him to help you put what you have seen into action.

I will talk more about this with upcoming posts; but, I would also like to ask you to do one thing for me. Please, tell two people about this blog. It is a little bit hard to find on our website; so, you might have to lead them to it. But, honestly, this stuff is to good to keep to ourselves and 1 or 2 comments per post is a little bit discouraging for me.

I honestly do not care whether or not you use this plan to read your Bible; but, I do care whether or not you read your Bible. Personally, I have always enjoyed reading the bible. Unfortunately, I cannot say that I have always been disciplined about reading my bible consistently. You, like me, might have a similar story. Never-the-less, I hope this Bible reading tool is helpful. Even if you have not been disciplined in the past, you can start devoting yourself to the Scripture again today. 

I will talk more about this with up coming posts.

After listening to the message; please, tell me which of the four points did you find most challenging? How do you think it applies to church planting, and how is that effecting your prayers for our next campus?

If you choose to particpate, this could become a fun/challenging conversation.

While thinking about t his I am overwhelmed by the persistence of God. I am thankful that He has not given up on me and that He continues to pursue me even when I run away from Him.

Some people say that His will and Grace are irresistible. I do not know whether or not that is true. Sometimes it feels like people are pretty resistant to His desire to gather them. Sometimes it feels like I am pretty resistant to His will. 

Whether or not it is irresistible; at least today, I don't want to resist Him. In fact I want to embrace Him. I am grateful for that. and I hope you are too.

This verse talks about angels and their "ministry"; but, it is in the context of several verses that were written for the purpose of telling us that Christ is vastly superior to any of the angels.

Anyway, after reading this passage, I was praying and talking to God about how I would like to see an angel. I told Him that I would like to become more familiar with their ministry and I took some time to look up some commentaries about this verse. 

As I read what other people have had to say in response to this verse, God began to open my eyes to something. Even though I "know" that there is nothing greater than God, I am prone to desire things vastly inferior to Him.

Upon seeing this, I was brought to a state of repentance, I have also had some sort of inner/personal revival. I am resolved at least while writing this post, that to the best of my ability I will seek God first and more than any other thing. I hope that you will experience the same thing.

On the other hand, my study of the scripture, in response to their messages, leads me to think that they don't have things together quite to the degree that they would like you to think.

In my opinion, the best thing I heard was from John Piper when he was talking about Romans 9. I encourage you to read that chapter and then think about this quote. 

"While studying this Romans 9 John Piper says that he heard God say, 'John, I will not be studied, examined, or critiqued! I am God and I will be worshiped, loved, and proclaimed to a lost and dying world.'"

I do not know why we think we have to explain God. I do not understand Him and I only kind of understand some of His ways; but, I do love Him. I know Him. He draws me to Himself. He teaches me. He compels me to tell people about Him simply by making me aware of His presence. 

This reminds me of my favorite verses, Exodus 15:2-3, The LORD is my strength and my song and He has become my salvation. He is my God and I will praise Him. My father's God and I will worship Him. The LORD is a warrior, the LORD is His name. 

What do you think?

God is Faithful. This morning He woke me up, I think just to spend time with Him. I have read the bible, spent some time in worship, messed around on my facebook, worked on the men's retreat, and now I am writing to you. Soon I will go to Braveheart's and later I hope to take a nap! 

As I write though I feel compelled to remind you that nothing is greater than knowing God. He is alive. He does speak. He does see us. And He knows exactly what He wants you to get from this message.

Please, take some time to seek Him today. As you do, let us know what He is doing in Your life. As for me, I will use the next couple of posts to tell you more about what He is doing in my heart right now.

Thanks,

Chris Craig

Christmas has already come and gone! I know that is hard to beleive; but, before we lose the "spirit of Christmas", I encourage you to remember this fact. When telling us about the birth of Jesus Scripture tells us that Jesus' name was Immanuel. Immaunuel means "God with us." That is really cool, isn't it?

But, scripture also calls Jesus, "The Stone which the builders rejected." That isn't cool at all! Unfortunately, history has proven that it is quite possible for "builder" to "build" the church while leaving Jesus out of it.

We must not forget that Jesus Christ is the reason behind all of our church planting efforts. Please, pray for all of us to remember Jesus in all that we do.

At this site you will find a list of 70 resolutions Jonathan Edwards made. Most of these resolutions were made 287 years ago! (1722) Once you get past the language barrier you will find that many of his resolutions are very practical for us today.

After reading them, I was inspired to create my own list of resolutions. My list is not nearly as long as Jonathan Edwards'; but, maybe one day it will be.

For the most part, I doubt that you would be to interested in my resolutions and so I will not share them with you; but, I will post one here now:

I am resolved to devote myself to the study of scripture. Not only will, I read the Bible; but, I will meditate on it and do my best to apply it to my life.

To aid me in this resolution I have created a Chronological One Year Bible Reading Plan. I have attached it to this post. If you are resolved to study the scripture, you might find this tool to be helpful.

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year,

Chris Craig

Would you be interested in going on a "24 hout prayer/fasting" retreat?

If so, I could make the lodging arragements. We coud go to Charis Canyon, or Ceta Canyon, and spend the day in prayer and Bible Study.

In his message, Paul talked about our tendency to exhaust our strength trying to do life. We work so hard trying to do great things and in the process we frequently forget God and the help He has made available to us thru relationship with Him.

Who cares what a person does in this life, if they miss God in the process? It kind of reminds me of Matthew 16:26.

Today, spend some time communing with God. Talk with Him. Listen to Him. As you do remember that you are enjoying the best that life has to offer.

"102. "All great soul-winners have been men of much and mighty prayer, and all great revivals have been preceded and carried out by persevering, prevailing knee-work in the closet."

I got it from a website that has quotes about prayer.

If you do believe it, please, keep praying that many people be saved by the ministry we do in Amarillo. For that matter, please, keep praying that souls be won through all the ministries that we do in Harvest Christian Fellowship.

Maybe prayer provided the fuel for his evangelistic engine. This quote woud at least suggest it, "Out of a very intimate acquaintance with D. L. Moody, I wish to testify that he was a far greater prayer than he was preacher. Time and time again, he was confronted by obstacles that seemed insurmountable, but he always knew the way to overcome all difficulties.  He knew the way to bring to pass anything that needed to be brought to pass.  He knew and believed in the deepest depths of his soul that nothing was too hard for the Lord, and that prayer could do anything that God could do."  R. A. Torrey (Emphasis added)"

Please, keep visiting this site, or if you know of other cool sites that have quotes about prayer, share them with us. I always think it is important for us to be inspired to pray.

What inspires you to pray?

Anyway, this quote about him was very inspirational to me. I hope it is for you too.

"Eighteen-year-old Hudson Taylor wandered into his father's library and read a gospel tract. He couldn't shake off its message. Finally, falling to his knees, he accepted Christ as his Savior. Later, his mother, who had been away, returned home. When Hudson told her the good news, she said, "I already know. Ten days ago, the very date on which you tell me you read that tract, I spent the entire afternoon in prayer for you until the Lord assured me that my wayward son had been brought into the fold." Our Daily Bread, July 19, 1989.  [Hudson Taylor (1832-1905) was a famous missionary in China.  He was founder of the China Inland Mission which, at his death, included 205 mission stations with over 800 missionaries, and 125,000 Chinese Christians.  He spent 51 years in China].

Please, keep praying for the people God will call to be part of the next campus. Who knows, we, like Hudson Taylor, may be able to look back on our lives and say that we were responsible for sending out hundreds of church planters who started hundredes of churches, and reached thousands of people!

I don't know if you will even see this post today; but, if you do, I want you to know that I am thankful for your participation on this team.

Please, keep the Amarillo Campus in your prayers. Things are progressing well. You will be hearing a lot more of the details in 2010.

Till then, God bless you,

Chris Craig

Pastor of Central Ministries

Harvest Christian Fellowship

When I post a comment, it allows you to hear from me; but, if you do not respond to my posts then we will have had a failure to communicate. Not only will this failure to communicate effect you and me; but, it also effects the other subscribers to this blog. If you do not leave a comment, the other members of this prayer team may not even know that you are part of the team.

So, here is what I want you to do. In the spirit of Thanksgiving, leave a positive post describing something you are thankful for this year. Be sure to leave your name with the post so that everyone can know who all has participated.

Anyway, I assume that you, like me, found several quotes that you enjoyed. Why don't you go ahead and share another one with us as a comment to this post.

Here is my contribution, "36.  “One day George Mueller began praying for five of his friends. After many months, one of them came to the Lord. Ten years later, two others were converted. It took 25 years before the fourth man was saved. Mueller persevered in prayer until his death for the fifth friend, and throughout those 52 years he never gave up hoping that he would accept Christ! His faith was rewarded, for soon after Mueller’s funeral the last one was saved.”

Who are you praying for? Please, keep praying for the peole who will be reached when we launch our next campus.

What ever the reason, I know that it is important for us to spur each other on as we endevor to pray for the launch of our next campus. Therefore you can imagine my delight when I found this website. If you follow this link, you will be taken to a site that has a ton of quotes about prayer.

I would like for you to pick your favorite quote and share it with us in your comments to this post.

My favorite quote was this, "19.  "No learning can make up for the failure to pray. No earnestness, no diligence, no study, no gifts will supply its lack." E.M. Bounds"

Please, pray for the people who "apply" themsleves to this venture. Many people will think it sounds "fun" to be part of something new. At times, (especially when looking back) it is fun. At other times it isn't. In a manner of speaking, the people who wind up being part of the launch team will be establishing a "beach head" in Amarillo. This type of work is hard and unfortunately there are frequently "casualities."

Please, pray for the people who will "risk it all" for the sake of Christ. (Isn't it cool to be part of a team that prays for stuff like that?)

Anyway, as I was driving around town, I found a pretty neat location. I do not know whether or not we will really use it; but, it was encouraging to find a facility with some real potential.

Please, keep praying for the Amarillo Campus, the future Campus Pastor, and the specific future location of the Campus.

When we planted the church in Lubbock I was under the impression that location was not that important. I reasoned, we are offering them Jesus not convenience and I said to myself, "If we are really developing "fully devoted followers of Christ" they can just suck it up and get to what ever location we offer.

Maybe I was right; but, boy was I foolish! We are developing fully devoted followers of Christ and that is exactly why we need our next campus to be in the right location. People need to be able to find our church. People need to feel comfortable visiting and inviting others to visit, and we need to be able to offer a reasonable expectation for the people God is calling us to reach.

First of all, pray that the Elder team continue to be unified, havin wisdom, discernment, and a clear sense of direction as we take each step while preparing to launch our next campus.

Second, pray for the people that God will use to be part of the launch team for our next campus.

Finally, pray that we have a clear sense of direction regarding the specific location of our initial meeting place.

At least three times in scripture we are told that the Righteous Shall Live By Faith. (Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11; Hebrews 10:38) I do have faith. I do live by faith. Therefore, I am righteous and so is anyone else who has faith.

Of course this faith is not the result of my "goodness." It is the work of Jesus Christ that has made me and any other righteous person righteous.

Anyway, the purpose of this blog is to encourage us to pray. Please pray that we would all have faith for the launch of our next campus.

Please, continue praying for our next campus and feel free to contact me anytime if you have questions, concerns, or insight regarding the launch of our next Campus.