Personal Standard - Be Authentic

It always bugs me when I meet or interact with a pastor that comes across as less that authentic.  Sometimes they act too perfect, use so much over-the-top pastor-speak language, or they even sometimes tell stories that seem to be a stretch.

Well, this guy in Pennsylvania is another bad example of a pastor exaggerating his life story a wee bit - Check it out here.

One of my personal goals is to always be the real deal...what you see is what you get....and what I say is the truth.  I never want to stand in front of people and state untruths that would obviously disintegrate their trust in me.  Of course this is not just a pastoral goal, but I think a good goal for all of us.

Baby Dedication at LCC

Here's a picture from yesterday's dedication at LCC:

Weekend in Review

I  hope everyone had a fantastic weekend.  I hope every mom out there was treated really well by her kids!  I wish I could have done more for my wife and my mother...they are both incredible and deserve so much!  My wife had to miss church Sunday to stay home with our sick toddler...sounds like a day of mom being mom :-)

We had a great Sunday service at LCC...

• Great turnout!    
• The Baby-Parent Dedication ceremony was great.  Congratulations to the families who participated and dedicated their little ones to God.  
• Congratulations to Gwen Adams who won the gift basket in the service.  She is a mother of 5 kids ranging from age 22-28...I am sure she deserved the basket of goodies!
• Special thanks to Sherry Feehs, our women's ministry director, for preparing the gift bags for all the moms present yesterday...what an awesome, thoughtful gift!
• Thanks to all of our kids workers yesterday.  The preschool added several new kids yesterday...it was a good day!
• I'm enjoying teaching the Q & A series.  It's definitely a different format for me, but I'm liking it and appreciating the opportunity to answer the questions people are asking from a biblical perspective.  From what I'm hearing, God is using it to speak to people.  If you miss any messages, they are available online by Tuesday in audio or video format.  (on our website or iTunes podcast)
• It was great to have 3 families that visited last Sunday back again for a 2nd straight week...very cool.
• And it was cool to meet 2 more first time families!

Busy week ahead...looking forward to what God has in store!

Join us for Mother's Day at Life Community Church

This week's Q & A Message

I just finished my first draft of this week's Q & A Message.  While the questions are a little less theologically daunting, they are still excellent questions and once again, I'll be challenged to keep within my 30-35 minutes :-)

Here are the questions the congregation submitted that I'm attempting to answer biblically this Sunday:

1. How are we supposed to deal with annoying people?  
2. How should Christians deal with public schools teaching our kids evolution? 
3. Does the Bible really consider sex before marriage sinful?  
4. How can I tell if my marriage is built on counterfeit love?  
5. What if my spouse has a different level of belief in God?

Baby-Parent Dedication this Sunday

Almost every year on Mother's Day we have a portion of our service dedicated to a special ceremony for baby dedication.  This is an opportunity for parents to dedicate their babies and young children to the Lord.  What is this all about?  What does this actually mean?


It is actually more about the parents commitment than it is about the child.  It's about the parents making a commitment to raise their children to know about Jesus, to bring them to church regularly, and to pray with them and for them.  It is an opportunity for the church family to commit to these families to support them and pray for them in this incredible journey.  It's about committing to give these children every opportunity to know Jesus personally as their Lord and Savior.


The Bible says in Psalm 127:3 “Children are a gift from the LORD; they are a reward from him.  I believe that children truly are a gift from God.  God has given them to us as gifts that we must take care of and enjoy.  Because children belong to the Lord and are given by grace as gifts to parents, it is only proper and appropriate that children be dedicated back to God.  Read I Samuel chapter 1 and the story of Hannah and how she dedicated her son Samuel to the Lord.


It is always a great time of blessing to see these kids and parents in front of the church for this time of dedication.  I hope you'll be there.  And if you want to register to dedicate your children as part of our service, email me at steve@lifecc.us.


Here's the link on our website.  

Weekend Review

We had a great post-Easter weekend at Life Community Church.

Here's a quick recap (working backwards):

• The high school life group gathered here at the church office Sunday night to resume their study of the book by Frances Chan - CRAZY LOVE.  I appreciate the investment of Jeff & Nicole Keeny into our students.  It's awesome to hear about high school students talking about Jesus for an hour!
• The service concluded yesterday with 2 baptisms - John Quezada and Anthony Johnson.   John came to the Lord a few years ago in Iraq and God led he and his wife Liz and son Evan to LCC last year.  They are actively serving the Lord here now and John was excited to make his profession of faith publicly!  Anthony is one our middle school teens that Jeff is impacting for  Jesus.  It was cool for Jeff (our next generation pastor) to perform his first baptism yesterday.
• We tackled the first Q&A message yesterday...heavy stuff.  I was in teacher-mode and we covered a lot of material...thanks for paying attention and taking notes!  If you missed it,check it out on our website.
• I appreciate Josh and the band leading us in worship yesterday - great to add another new band member...Rick on the bass!
• Yesterday was Josh Einwechter's 5th anniversary of being on fulltime staff with LCC as our worship leader.  Wow...time flies!  I remember when I met him as his youth pastor in 1996 and he was in 8th grade :-)
• Great to have 4 new families visiting for the first time!  2 came via our Road sign and 2 came via internet search.  Thanks for the volunteers who stepped up to fix the road sign which was damaged in last week's storms.
• On Saturday Ed & Jane Rotchford led 2 groups of LCC people in providing meals at the SERVE homeless shelter in Manassas.  We provided lunch and dinner for about 20-30 residents at this shelter. A special thanks to all who served and provided food!
• On Friday night, our co-ed softball team kicked off the season by splitting a double-header against First Baptist of Woodbridge.  Not a bad start considering we've moved up a division from last year.  It was a lot of fun to get our there...Let's go LCC!  

I'm looking forward to a fun week of preparing another Q&A message and getting ready for our Mother's Day service.  We've got a little surprise giveaway in the service this Sunday for one special mom.  All moms in attendance will be eligible to win...so plan to bring your mom this Sunday!