stevemarkle.com

It’s nice to be blogging from my office :-)  It was great to get in here at 7:30 this morning and get started.  I LOVE this office space and appreciate all who gave to make it happen and am thankful that God opened this door for us.  In case you are wondering…there are a few items we still need that we are hoping to have donated rather than purchase:

• a vacuum - got an extra upright sitting in storage?
• a TV - we’ve got a meeting area and could use this for videos, etc.  larger than 20 inch needed

Had a great day on Sunday.  Great service. Got to meet some people who came for Easter and then came back for their 2nd visit yesterday.  Enjoyed the relationships series.

The Car wash outreach was a great success on Saturday.  We were able to touch people with God’s love in a practical way.  The look on their faces when we refused to accept their money was priceless.  We were able to take prayer requests from many and invite several to church.  We’re doing it again on Saturday, May 24th from 9:30 am - Noon.  Same location - the 7-11 Gas Station next to Smokey Bones.

This coming Sunday’s service will be exciting and very unique.  Instead of a regular message, I will interviewing 3 different individuals of LCC and they will be sharing their stories of God working in their lives.  We’ll have some great tunes mixed in between the interviews.  Don’t miss LIFE STORIES at LCC this Sunday at 10:30 am.

I haven’t even begun to prepare my message for Sunday :-)  I’m usually emailing my notes off to Josh by now for projection and for the back of the bulletin, but not this week!  OK, maybe I shouldn’t be confessing this, but no worries, I’ll be ready for Sunday.  At least I know my subject and passage…so that’s a definite plus!

Office coming along really well!

My wife’s doctor appointment revealed that she and the baby are healthy, but they are not going to let us schedule a c-section as early as we hoped.  The way it stands it’s looking like August 1st, a Friday…and both of our oldest kids leave for the youth missions trip on that Saturday, August 2nd.  So that will be quite the weekend!  I’m sure God has a plan for the timing for us and it will all work out for good.

I haven’t worked this hard (physically) in awhile…and my body is feeling it…but it’s all good!

Josh and I have been working what seems like non-stop on the renovation of our new church office space.  It’s coming together incredibly well and fast.  I remarked to him as we were depositing a pile of trash in the dumpster before leaving this evening about how amazingly smooth this has gone.  His reply was a simple “it’s obvious that God has been in this.” No snags or glitches so far.  PTL!

Special THANKS to Kristie for all her help painting, cleaning, etc!  AWESOME!  (Thanks to her husband Donald for not painting :-))

Sunday was a torrential downpour outside…but we did have a great service on the inside.

One of the moms of a new LCC families shared the story of her 2 kids receiving Christ as Savior in the past few weeks.  They are looking forward to a family baptism in the near future…awesome stuff!

Still looking for a MINI-FRIDGE to be donated for the office space…anybody have one sitting around???

Mark down May 4th on your calendar - don’t miss being at LCC that day for LCC STORIES.  I’ll be interviewing 3 or 4 people and they’ll be sharing  their story of how God is working in incredible ways in their lives.  We’ll interweave some great music between the stories.  We’ll end the day with an ICE CREAM FELLOWSHIP…don’t miss it.

A final word - A HUGE THANKS to all who have given to the 1 of 100 Campaign.  The new office and meeting space is going to prove to be a great catalyst for growth for LCC.

Big news…tomorrow we sign a 2-year lease for our own professional OFFICE SPACE!  We are extremely excited about this.  After 6 years of working from our homes, we are going to take it up a notch.  We found a great space for a great price in a great location on Opitz Blvd.

Next week we start by doing some painting and general sprucing up.  We’re getting the rest of April for free.    The space has 2 offices, 1 large meeting room which will work great for meetings, small bible studies, etc. and it has a large reception/work space area. 1,250 square feet altogether with 2 bathrooms.

The timing is perfect with my wife and kids coming home from school in about a month…and the baby coming before we know it.

We now need to furnish the office.  We did some scouting at IKEA.  For about $2,000 we can be rolling.  Maybe God will lay it on your heart to help out with a donation.

Here’s a few used items we hope to get via donation.  Email me if you have one of these items to donate: a vaccuum, a fridge (mini or regular), a microwave…probably more items that I’m not thinking of…

Funny how life gets a little hectic and blogging becomes less important. I thought I better post soon before someone thinks I’m dying or depressed. I actually became concerned over a friend who stopped blogging for a few weeks…so let me try to prevent that.

• God answers prayer. It’s amazing over the last 2 years how when we as a church have gotten focused and specific we’ve seen God answer prayer. It’s not always everything we ask for at the time we want it…but in His timing…and His timing is always perfect.
• So, it looks likes we are finally getting our own professional OFFICE SPACE! We are pumped about this. 6 years of working out of my home has been convenient, but it’s time to take it up a notch. We found a great office space at truly a perfect location on Opitz Blvd for a great price. If all goes well we will sign a lease on Friday and take possession next week. We’re going to do some cleaning and painting before we move in. But it’s going to work great for us. It has 2 offices, 1 large meeting room which will work great for meetings, small bible studies, etc. and it has a large reception/work space area. 1,250 square feet altogether with 2 bathrooms. The timing is perfect with my wife and kids coming home from school a month later…and the baby coming before we know it. I’ll be posting more about the office space and the WISH LIST to furnish it. I know somethings already we’d like to get donated: a vaccuum, a fridge, a microwave…We just need a $5,000 giftcard to IKEA
• My wife is now 24 weeks pregnant…can’t believe it. He (his name will be Nicholas) is very active. Zac and I got to watch him kicking a few days ago…amazing! Sherri is a trooper…still teaching 1st grade and doing all the other mom stuff…pray for her strength!
• Anxious to get to the ball field tonight as my son’s team has it’s first game of the Spring season…Go Dodgers. Zac is the starting pitcher tonight…I’ll be coaching 3rd base…I love it…
• Last week’s service was great…we had a new drummer and he did a great job…way to go ALEX!
• I talked about LUST (David & Bathsheba). Amazing how much is out there (web, tv, etc) to pull us off the right path. Many men thanked me for talking openly about this subject. HEY - we are ALL dealing with this…let’s ADMIT it!
• Oh yea…my Baltimore Orioles are still in first place.
• It’s TAX FILING DAY…I did my own taxes and filed online around February 1st. I heard a radio guy today saying that our goal should be to have someone else do our taxes…why? Because that proves where you are in life…you own so many properties, have to many streams of income, etc, etc…to possibly be able to do your own Yea…that sounds nice!
• Today at 3 pm is our last staff meeting at Panera. Yea, Panera is nice…but seriously? No privacy, hard to hear, squished around the table…and NO WHITEBOARD!
• Speaking of Whiteboard…looking forward to the Whiteboard Sessions on May 22nd.
• Back to my series on Relationships from David’s life…this week I’m talking about the Dysfunction in his family due to his horrible parenting. Read 2 Samuel 13 and following…OUCH! and you think your family is messed up?

On Sunday, May 4th, we’re going to shake it up a little from the norm at LCC. We’ll be in between message series and we’re going to do a service of live testimonies mixed with awesome worship. We’ll end the day with an Ice Cream (Frozen Custard) Fellowship. It’s going to be a blast.

Here’s what I’m looking for…people to share their stories…how you came to know Christ, how God is presently working in your life and maybe even how LCC has helped you on your spiritual journey. These will be done in an interview format…sitting on a stool at a table with me. We’ll just be having a conversation with the congregation watching.

Interesting in volunteering? Even if it’s a bit out of your comfort zone, maybe God is telling you to step up and share. If so, send me an email: steve.markle@lifecc.us. I look forward to hearing from you!

Wow…forgot to do my Sunday night post…a busy, but great weekend!

• Sunday worship went great.  Convicting message on jealousy.  Music was great…the 2nd set was especially worshipful.
• Great news on the worship band…a drummer tried out Sunday and will be starting next week!
• 3 new families on Sunday…which always pumps me up.
• My 7-year daughter won our family’s March Madness competition…she’s got Kansas beating Memphis tonight.  She’s won the most games while watching least (which would be none).
• My Baltimore Orioles are in 1st place and 5-1.  I may not get many chances to write this…so I thought I’d better do it while possible.
• Our 1 of 100 Campaign is steadily moving along…but it’s time to finish what we started.  We’ve raised over $20,000 for this project…we’ve got about $9,000 to go.  Our goal is to get office space by this summer.  Read more here.
• Our youth missions trip roster is now complete…we’re taking 20 teens and adults to Maine this August.  Begin praying for them now and read more here.
• Interesting trend…more people are becoming e-givers…it’s almost 50/50 now…50% of our offerings coming in the Sunday collection and 50% online…pretty cool tool.  Check it out here.  It’s pretty easy to sign-up.

Here we go again…check out this story about a high school student getting a ZERO for including this reference and a cross on an art assignment. Read the story here.

Starting my prep for this weeks message.  The topic is JEALOUSY.  Looking at the relationship between Saul and David.  I think this is a HUGE issue for all of us…especially pastors!  So I guess I’ll have probably have some extremely authentic illustrations this Sunday.  Should be a fun week…