Phase 1 Completed

Last night we finished the winter semester of Abundant Life University, which is Phase 1 of our total discipleship program. ALU was a 10-week semester in which we offered 11 different courses.

The subjects covered in this first semester were Experiencing Prayer with Jesus, How to Study Your Bible, Daniel, Survey of the Old Testament, DNA of Relationships, Rivers of Living Water, Discovering Your Spiritual Gifts, In A Pit With A Lion On A Snowy Day, Jewish Roots, Your Life in Christ and You Must Be Born Again.

We will offer the next ALU semester in the fall and phase in the other three major phases over 2008-2009. It ought to be an exciting time.

We will offer a course called Christianity 101, which will be the basics of the Christian faith. This course will be offered in April and I will be leading a small group March 30-May 4.

I've got three major projects from May-December:

We will be kicking off a Track for New Believers effective May 1, where we will offer a mentor program, special short courses, a new Sunday morning class just for the new Christian, and additional small groups. It will begin a discipleship process from Day 1 of their conversion and "protect" them for about their first six months. Then they will enter the regular discipleship emphases of our church.

The second major project will be to introduce Alpha to our congregation. This will be accomplished over the next six months before we begin our first course in September. I'll tell you about it as we go along.

The third major project will be to organize a new semester of Abundant Life University for September.

I think these three projects, plus the implementation of our new major phases of the Discipleship program will keep me busy. I am working at the church three days a week and at The Home Depot three days a week. My plate is full, but we are making inroads and we will have a complete discipleship program(whatever that is)by the end of 2009.

Jared, Tiffany, and Reid live in the adjoining subdivision. They are expecting their second child toward the end of March. Jared works for American Financial in the Woodlands and Tiffany teachers Junior High in Manvel. Reid will be two years old in April and usually spends Friday nights with us. I get to cook breakfast on Saturday mornings.

Steve and Miranda live in Lake Jackson. Steve is a Youth Pastor and Miranda is the principal of a Day School. They just had their first-born named Kasen, who was born in November. One of these days, maybe, Kasen will be spending Friday night too. That will be fun.

What do we enjoy most? Having everybody together at the same time. As I say, "It doesn't get any better than that!"

Have a great day!