Live the Dream, the first-ever national conference at Healing Place Church is already 75% full! It is amazing to me to think how many other conferences and endeavors we have been a part of at places all over the country, and now to see so much support coming from places across the nation for our conference.

We have decided to bless everyone with a few more days to register at the $75 rate - we’re extending the deadline until midnight on the night of October 8. After that, registration will go up to $90. So if you haven’t already registered, make sure to do it before next Monday night.

Live the Dream Women’s Conference is going to be a huge win for the Kingdom - make sure you get registered before it fills up!

Jeff Rentz, Wayde Goodall, Marc Cleary and me after Life University last night

We were blessed the last couple days to have Dr. Wayde Goodall with us here in Baton Rouge. He has become a great friend to us - he is a pastor to pastors and a man of great integrity and the author of Why Great Men Fall, a book I strongly recommend. He spoke in several environments in the community during his stay, including at our men’s breakfast at Frank’s where he did a phenomenal job. And then last night he spoke a great message to Healing Place Church at Life University. The time we spent together was a blessing to me - just learning from one of the masters.

Matthew Barnett, Los Angeles Dream Center

Next Wednesday, another of the greats will be with us at Life University: Matthew Barnett. He leads the Dream Center in Los Angeles (where we sent a team from our student ministry - Refuge - this summer). Matthew is a real-deal legit servant of Jesus. His heart for the poor and hurting is the same as you find all over HPC. I can’t wait to have him with us here.

I want to encourage you if you haven’t already done it - get a Christmas card (or several) from Children’s Cup for a kid in Africa. Here’s how they’re working it: You take a card and write a note in it for a kid in Africa, then send it back to Children’s Cup with $6. They’ll take the card to one of the CarePoint kids and they’ll write a note back to you and Children’s Cup will get that note back to you. And with the $6, they’ll make sure each kid gets a Christmas gift, dinner, and a Christmas party blow-out they’ll never forget. Click here to learn more.

What a great day for Baton Rouge, for Healing Place Church and ultimately for the Kingdom - last Saturday’s Servolution event was a huge win.

Over 600 volunteers showed up to serve in outreaches all over the capital area - giving away free lunches, bottled water and gum, washing cars, and even remodeling a home for some needy people in town. It was a lot of the stuff we do all the time here, but we usually don’t do it all on the same day. It was like a huge celebration seeing everyone get together for a blow-out day of serving together.

Stay tuned to the Servolution website for an upcoming update with video and pictures from the day. Also check out these posts from some HPC bloggers on it:

serve.healingplacechurch.org
jp brumfield
tori ohlerking
carole turner
eric doucet
aimee poche

If you have a post about your experience with Servolution, leave a comment with a link to your post - I’d love to hear what your experience was.

Matt Fry and me

Matt Fry, pastor of C3 Church in North Carolina - that’s my ACC boy with a kicking church. I was with them a couple weeks back, doing a leadership deal and checking out the new building they’ve got. Matt inspires me.

Gary Clark and Chris Mikkelson at a recent LSU game

Gary Clark, the pastor of Hillsong London was here at Healing Place Church a couple weeks ago - he spoke a tremendous message to the church. He inspires me.

Rob Ketterling and me

Rob Ketterling was my college roomie, now a pastor extraordinaire - lead pastor of River Valley Church up in the twin cities in Minnesoootah. We’ve been friends 23 years now - wow that’s cool to say that. Rob is smart, sharp, and he’s a great father. Ketterling rocks! (do we still say that?) Rob inspires me.

Beautiful feet

I love the feet of those who bring Good News especially when they are wearing some sweet kicks. I took this picture of some of the early service Sunday boys who serve the people. When you start a church with less feet than there are in this picture, you live forever grateful. (Plus I like shoes.) These guys inspire me.

Thank You Jesus, for these and so many others You have put in my life that inspire me.

Baptism Service at HPC Saturday Night

Saturday night at the Highland campus of Healing Place Church we had a baptism service unlike any other we’ve ever had before. It was a live feel with 110 people getting baptized in a pool we set up in the parking lot by the HPC lake. We’ve got a gallery of pictures from the baptism over on the HPC website (click HERE to view it).

I love baptisms because they are so all about the people and who God is and what He has done in their lives. I just never get tired of the front row seat of seeing grace, mercy, power at work in people. I stay amazed. Come on old school - let’s sing it everybody - I stand, I stand in awe of You… I stand, I stand in awe of You…

The Gospel at work is amazing to me!!!

So much is going on in my heart as a leader - pastor - builder - friend - most importantly a husband and dad. In most of these areas I feel an inadequacy of some sort. The last few weeks I have been trying to just plain old hear from God. The oddest thing - I kept being led to I Chronicles 5 - simply a genealogy of some type (that could be a cool name of a new jeans company since that’s the appropriate attire of the ministry these days). So I didn’t see the “voice” there - but then I looked again and again and I saw a truth for me.

The different happening of those who obeyed with their strength, skill, life… those who didn’t - the outcome the ones who were F.D. (fully devoted) continued - those who went B.W. (buck wild) were captured and exiled. It spoke to D.R. (Dino Rizzo) to devote more of myself - so for me the next 61 days we (”we” meaning my heart, soul, strength, body - the “me” that’s like a “we”) will give more to Him.

We have a significant date coming up in 61 days. Possibly one of the most significant dates in our life as a church to this point. I kinda saw it as some little sign that it is 61 days - 40 and 21. That’s two of the numbers of days we typically fast and pray for.

So pray for me as I want to discover Him in the devotion like never before. - I will be reading in the Old Testament and trying to watch the busy-ness that I can tend to lean toward.

Thanks. Hopefully in 61 days I’ll be surrendered for the cause a touch more.

Lord knows we need it.