A few weeks ago we had the really cool honor of praying for Lolo Jones at one of our Sunday services at HPC. Lolo is a great young woman who has been faithfully committed to Healing Place for years. Not only is Lolo the 2008 USA Outdoor Champion in 100m Hurdles, 2008 World Indoor Champion in 60m hurdles and BACK to BACK U.S.A. Indoor Champion 60m Hurdles in 2007 and 2008 but she will be representing the USA in the Beijing Olympics! She said that HPC is a golden church that deserves a gold medal - and she will get us one in China! Wow! Definitely be praying for Lolo, as she is such a great young woman with a generous heart and for the Beijing Olympics as this could be a huge opportunity for the Gospel.

In the 16 year history of our church, there are certain moments that stick out - high water marks on the life of HPC. Some that come to mind are the first Easter Sunday that we had 72 people in church, Extreme Church weekend, Beautiful Morning CD recording and the year-long, all-church focus to the people affected by hurricane Katrina just to name a few. Last weekend was one of those high water marks for us.

Chris Caine bringin’ the house down for Kingdom Builders.

It kicked off Saturday morning with our Kingdom Builders breakfast. Christine Caine brought the word from down under and really challenged us as a church to stay committed and sacrifice for the kingdom.

The new HPC Arena. So much space to impact so many for Christ.

We then got to take the first-ever HPC Arena tour as a church. Incredible! Thank you to everyone who came out on a Saturday morning and battled the South Louisiana heat for the Kingdom builders breakfast!

Cane’s chicken at the weekend services. Check out those gallons of sweet tea!

But it didn’t end there! In honor of having Nick and Chris Caine with us, we served Cane’s chicken fingers after every service. You know it’s God when you walk out of the 8 AM service and get some fried chicken and Texas toast! We served 12,000 chicken fingers over the weekend! Chicken and church. What a combo. Thanks to the whole team who put this weekend together and pulled it off. Great weekend at HPC!

I want to see Servolution (the book I’m almost done writing) be more than just a book or a trend or a fad or program. I want to see it get into the fabric and DNA of people who love Jesus and want to be God’s hands and feet extended to the lost and hurting. But also to the neighbor, to the friend, to one who may be inquiring about life and purpose.

All through serving in small ways as individuals, or in larger ways in a corporate target of serving, today’s servolution could equal someone’s salvation tomorrow!

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A quick little update for you: I’m really excited and humbled to have been invited to speak in a workshop at this year’s Catalyst Conference. I’d love to invite you to come to the conference - it’s gonna be great as always. I also wanna invite you to check out an article I wrote about Servolution that they posted a couple days ago on the Catalyst GroupZine: Servolution: Original Outreach

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Can’t wait for this weekend - Chris Caine (Hillsong, Australia) will be speaking, and we’ll have free Raising Canes chicken fingers (and sauce!) for everyone in service at all the Baton Rouge-area HPC campuses!! Bring a friend for some great chicken and for a message from an awesome Aussie.

You have to admire and love people’s trust, faith, innocence and even the raw obedience to God. Like in a note I just got from a lady yesterday. She said she’s been praying for a new position on her job, and she committed to give her entire first paycheck as an offering.

Giving is never about money - nor is it about an amount. It is always always about a heart fully alive to the great grace that Jesus has shown in our lives.

What thing today can you look at and say this about? “God, you did it again and again. I will worship and honor you in all kinds of ways.”

Joel Houston at the Hillsong Conference doing what he said he’d never do - preaching. God has a great sense of humor.

I have been in many environments and experiences where I have sensed hope and help come alive. This is definitely one of those: “Hillsong Conference ‘08 Sydney, Australia”

Being with friends and fellow ARC pastors and a bunch of Aussies and the Hillsong team has been an inspiration toward the heart of God. From the leadership aspect to the worship experience to the justice stream it has been full-on!!!!

We even had some new friends here I got connected with - some of the LifeChurch.tv boys (shout out to Bobby Gruenewald) and a whole slew of other Kingdom relationships.

So what’s been my highlight? Two things real quick:
1. Mike Haman speaking in one of the conference streams - hit a run home - and tore up the evangelism flow.
2. Whenever I get home from a Hillsong Conference, I always have a fresh love and passion for the local church and my family. I can’t wait to see them and the family of God. I’ve gotten great reports from VBS and church life at HPC.

I also want to say THANK YOU for all those birthday comments - I’m humbled and honored to serve. I pray that God will bless everyone of you and let His face shine upon you.

So walk in it today. I think I will. Thanks.

In the interests of wishing to give Pastor Dino Rizzo a unique little surprise, a few of us on his team at Healing Place Church have hacked this website while he’s out of the office. “How can hacking his blog actually be a thing of happiness for him?” you might be wondering. Great question, but a simple answer:

We just want everyone to know it will be his forty-hmmmth birthday on Tuesday and invite you to leave a comment on this post to wish him a happy birthday. That’s all. We’ll give the blog back to him later - just hurry and get your birthday wish in soon.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PASTOR DINO

[p.s. - a big thank you to the team at life church of west monroe for blazing the trail in this type of subversive activity in birthday celebration for the pastor….]