Sunday Nite Speak!

* GREAT night tonight... highest attendance since we launched! Several students from Univ. of MD... and even people from our breakfast bar outreaches! All I can say is, "AWESOME... YAY, GOD!!" Stay tuned... God's not done. ;-)

* Completed the second message in our Open Before Christmas series, with Showing I Care For Those in Need: The Gift of Compassion. I struggled with preparing this week; it was a tough message for me, personally. God is definitely raising my compassion level. There are so many needs all around us... and most times we barely even notice. Or, at least, the needs don't tug at our hearts enough to drive us to action.

* I remember when we were approaching out preview services... one of my biggest concerns was how effective we could be reaching non-African Americans. The Lead Pastor (yours truly) is black, our worship leader is black, our entire launch team was black! How in the world would we reach people who look different than us?? Well, we knew that the environment we were trying to create would be conducive to non-blacks as well as blacks... especially in the music area. So that's what we've done (we've done other things, but the music is what stands out as the "most obvious"). Well, tonight we were probably 70% non-black!!! THAT'S HUGE!!!! And, I know what some of you are thinking: So, are you skipping over the African-American community?? Not at all! Here's a good example: a guy I grew up with came out tonight for the first time (with his family); to my knowledge, he's never been in a "spiritual" environment like what he saw today... he and I both grew up in an all-black community... and, sometime after high school, he became an Orthodox Black Muslim (Mike, I know that's probably not the correct term... excuse my ignorance). Yet, his response to what he saw tonight was, "D, Gina and I want to be a part of this... count us in! And we'll be bringing some friends!" So, it's not a "white" environment; it's not a "black" environment... it's a MOSAIC environment... and we love it! ;-)

* We had our first British guest tonight... love those accents!

* Lucy, it was good to see you running media tonight! I love when we get people connected in ministry! ;-)

* Introduced Peppermint-Filled Pinatas as the latest book in my Pastor's Picks! This was definitely one of my favorite reads of '07... you can read my review of it here. Hoping we'll be able to get the author, my friend Eric Bryant, to speak for us sometime this next year... stay tuned!

* My Cowboys pulled off a nailbiter today! Man! They just beat the always-up-for-us Lions, 28-27... on a touchdown with 18 seconds left in the game... whoa!!!!

* The Patriots just keep on rolling... sheesh!

* Brandon... you visited one Sunday, you're on stage with your guitar the next! What's up with that?? Haha... thanks, man... keep it up!!

* Kari and Lindsay... whoa! That's all I can say!! Uhhh, there is one thing... can you top that next Sunday?? ;-)

* Ok, ready to bust out next week's message, Showing I Care For My World: The Gift of ________. Nope... gotta wait 'til then to get your gift! :-)