BUMMED!!!

The only part about having evening worship gatherings that I don't like is that there is the occasional HYPED GAME you end up missing... like today's COWBOYS-REDSKINS game!! Augh! Today, the Cowboys will prove to all haters that they're for real... my prediction:

Cowboys 34

Redskins 13

But if I have to miss a game, there's no place I'd rather be than at Mosaic's worship gathering! I love our folk there, and today we're celebrating our Creative Ministry Coordinator's last Sunday with us after the gathering... so we'll still be enjoying ourselves...

On my way home tonight, I'll stop by a friend's house to pick up a copy of the game he's taping for me... and my evening will be complete if I can view a Cowboys victory, which - of course - I've predicted. ;-)

Let's go, 'Boys!!!!!

NFL DRAFT: Cowboys' First Round Picks...

I've been following the Cowboys' draft selections, as I'm finishing up the message for tomorrow... seems they got two pretty good first-round picks: with their 22nd pick, they took Felix Jones (RB), out of Arkansas... and with the 25th pick, they selected Mike Jenkins (CB), out of South Florida.

Two really good selections... and both should help make somewhat of an immediate impact. Now, they need to focus on a wide receiver (or two).

Back with more, later tonight...

Monday Mind Dump

* Last night's service was a little rough... I think it was a combination of things: lowest attendance in awhile (not sure why)... I think some of the lights were out, too, because Brian was literally "in the dark" on stage (must find out what was up with that). We had a few first-time guests... hopefully, they weren't scared off! :-)

* Also, I was definitely not "on point" with my preaching, either. Not sure why, but I found it extremely difficult to focus last week in my preparation. I found some solace in that a couple of the church planters whose blogs I read also confessed that their messages weren't hitting it yesterday either. But that was during their first service... they got another shot at it at the next one. Ummm... some of us only get one shot. :-) But we'll be ready next week... Breakthrough Prayer... don't miss it!

* The Cowboys clipped the Eagles wings last night, 38-17! I wish, though, they wouldn't have gotten so conservative with the play-calling in the 4th quarter... we could've scored 52 points like the Patriots did against the Redskins!! :-) Speaking of the Skins, they just barely got past the Jets... but I guess a win is a win.

* I've got the crib all to myself today... hopefully, I will finish up reading unChristian!

* Bob Franquiz beat me to reviewing The Divine Mentor... check out his review; it's good. I shouldn't be surprised he got to it before I did, though... he reads 60 books a year!

* Feeling well-rested for the first time in well over a week... or two... sweet! Keda gets on me about not getting proper rest... what would i do without her? ;-)

FLY LIKE AN EAGLE!!!!!

What a FUN, FUN game!!! :-) The Eagles tried to hang in there early... but my 'Boys were too much for 'em... and we pretty much coasted in the 4th quarter. The score most definitely could've been worse... but we'll take 38-17, any day! ;-)

Fly like an Eagle... NOT!!!!!

Monday Ramblings

* Had an awesome time away this weekend with my bride... we need to get away more often! 12 years... can't even put into words the significance of that. A few years ago, we weren't even sure we'd see YEAR TEN, but God is gracious... and powerful. I'll share that story in it's own post at a later time! ;-)

* It is a TREMENDOUS BLESSING to be able to go away (in a new church plant, at that) and know that things will be taken care of on Sunday. We don't have any preachers in-house other than myself, so we have to bring in guests whenever I need to be away (which is not often at all)... but, other than that, my "peeps" at Mosaic had everything under control! I heard that PASTOR JU did a tremendous job... but I didn't expect anything less!! He's a great speaker, and an even greater friend!

* I had my first MASSAGE this weekend... WOW! Keda is currently making reservations for me to partake of that awesome experience again next month! Can't wait!

* I think I have one of the most talented and gifted worship leaders around town! Stay tuned... because he'll be the highlight of one of D-PLUM'S posts later this week!

* John Maxwell says that leadership is "influence... nothing more, nothing less." That's pretty simplistic... but it's true. And when I hear the folks at Mosaic speaking the vision... having caught it, buying into it, getting excited about it and passing that onto others... I don't take lightly that the vision was simply a spark that God placed in my heart, and through obedience is fanning into a flame that is touching the lives of many! It's both awesome and awe-inspiring... and I love it.

* The multicultural mix at Mosaic still wows me! We're small... but what a seed to experience growth from!! A friend of mine, who pastors a large, multicultural church, once told me, "If your core is homogenous... that's how you'll grow. But if you start off visibly multicultural... keep doing what you're doing, and that's how you'll grow!" Well, we love what God is doing at Mosaic College Park... and He's growing us... I love it!!!

* The Cowboys fended off the Vikings yesterday, 24-14... but I'm SO GLAD we have a bye week this coming Sunday! Definitely some things to tune up...

* THE SOX ARE HEADED BACK TO THE WORLD SERIES... YAY, GOD!!! ;-) Seriously... somehow, I knew when we were down 3-1 headed into Game 5... but going back to Boston... that we'd pull it out, and we did!! Hopefully, we can sweep the Rockies like we did the Cards in 2004... that would be sweet!!

* Looking forward to hooking up with some of my church planting buddies this coming Thursday: Daniel Floyd, Dave and Aaron Proffitt, Paul Chipman, Jumaine Jones, Ben Arment, Tally Wilgis... to name a few. We have our Church Planters' Network meeting every 4th Thursday, so this is our week to get together. More than anything, I like hearing the guys' stories of what God is doing in their ministries... it's definitely worth the 2 1/2 - 3 hour drive!

You Just Can't Quit!!

Sometimes things happen...
The ball doesn't bounce your way.
You're off you're "A-game."
You stumble...
and stumble...
and stumble again...
and stumble some more...
and - believe it or not - you STUMBLE AGAIN!
And then you FUMBLE!! :-)

What do you do?

You do what TONY ROMO did... you hang in there! You keep fighting... and fighting...and never give up! No matter what happens... YOU JUST CAN'T QUIT!

Because maybe... just maybe... you will find yourself in a position to win. It might only be with TWO SECONDS ON THE CLOCK... but when that ball sails through the uprights, you will say to yourself, "We did it...the long, hard struggle was worth it!" You just can't quit.

That's football.
That's leadership.
That's life.

Somebody reading this is about to throw in the towel...
But remember: It's not over!
The final gun hasn't sounded...
The last chapter has NOT been written...
there's still time to win...

YOU JUST CAN'T QUIT!

Sunday Nite Speak!

* GREAT SERVICE TONIGHT!! I love our Communion services...

* Brian and crew CRANKED tonight! Well, that's pretty much every week. :-) But they pulled out two of my favorite songs, Everyday by Hillsong and Marvelous Light by Charlie Hall... great stuff!

* My man Tony Thompson was in the house tonight on the drums! Tony was the VERY FIRST DRUMMER I ever played with, back in 1993 when I was the Choir Director for New Song Bible Fellowship. Good having you in the house, Tone!

*Loving this "ALL IN" series! Tonight was "The 'ALL IN' God". Where would we be, had it not been for Heaven's Wager? Hmmm? He went "all in"... FOR US!!!

* The cultural blend was off the chain tonight! But we keep forgetting to get pics!!!!!

*We're still having technical diffulties with the laptop/projector... augh! Pray for a media-savvy person... we need somebody who can do some serious troubleshooting!

* The Cowboys went "ALL OUT" on the Bears tonight.. 34-10!! That Romo guy is lookin' good! ;-)

Monday Mind Dump!

* Good service yesterday... our first in the new location! Everyone seems to like it... it has a sort of "retreat" feel... not sure if that's good or bad, though!

* The message yesterday, Seizing Your Divine Moment (from Luke 5:1-11), seemed to connect well with people. It's easy to get caught up in the mundane, and miss the miraculous, isn't it?

* My main man Marc Ware was in the house yesterday! I've known Marc for many years... he's been a great friend! Thanks, man, for sharing your "expertise in sound" with us!! :-)

* The Cowboys won last night! I admit, they had me a little nervous... but they pulled it off... which is one of the marks of a great team (just in case some of you Cowboys haters are reading this). BUT WHERE WAS OUR DEFENSE?? Hopefully, it was just the heat...

* What REALLY was frightening was Randy Moss!! Not looking forward to playing against the Patriots in a few weeks...

* We start a new message series this coming Sunday called ALL IN... BRING A GUEST! This Sunday's message will be entitled, Everybody's Invited... you don't wanna miss it!

I've Been "Able" For WAY Too Long!

For the last several years, as a way to save money, my family and I have done without cable TV. Now, don't ask me how we've managed to keep from going loopy because we've only had about 9-10 channels to choose from... and SportsCenter wasn't one!

(Now, I must PAUSE and say that going without SportsCenter... especially during football season... has almost been hell on earth... no joke)

Our friends would ask if we'd seen a particular show... and we'd respond by saying, "Sorry, but we don't have cable... we have ABLE. Whatever channel we're able to get is what we watch!"

But now... we've broken down... we've decided to live a little... and we're going to go back to having cable. I admit, the upcoming football season might have a little something to do with that. :-) But also, the boys can have more than 3 cartoons to choose from... Keda can actually turn on the TV during the day and know that something will be on that she wants to see... and I can have my - you guessed it - SPORTSCENTER, baby!!!!

Ahhh... I can hear the crowd now: Cow-boys! Cow-boys! Ro-mo!!

(Stop hatin'...)

Sunday Night Ramblings...

* I should be tired, but I'm not...

* Led worship this morning at Montrose Baptist... they have a new pastor, Dr. Ken Fentress, and are in transition with their music ministry... so I'll be helping out a few times this summer, since we hold our services in the evenings. I felt a little rusty, but it went pretty well... it took alot out of me, seeing that I had to preach this evening at Mosaic.

* I love being the Lead Pastor of Mosaic Community Church!!

* This was the first Sunday in 6-7 weeks that we didn't have a newcomer! That sucks, man... but we'll just have to start a new streak next Sunday... :-)

* Spoke tonight from this passage, and entitled the message The Great Gamble... taking the "big risk" of investing what God has given us, in order to influence people toward a love relationship with Jesus. Next week is communion, and we finish up our Irresistible Influence series!

*Darren, Jr. keeps telling me that he's going to "whup" me tomorrow in Madden football (PS2)... ha! That'll never happen... ;-)

* Seth, my youngest, keeps telling me he's going to "bust me up"... he probably got that from his brother!!!

* We have our first Movie Night this Wednesday, as we prepare for our God on Film message series that begins on July 29. This week's movie is Transformers... should be a good one! If you're in the area and want to roll with us, hit me before Wednesday morning at mosaic.cp@gmail.com.

Can't Get Enough of T.O.

Ok... I'm getting sick and tired of all this T.O. trash-talking, that's coming - believe it or not - mainly from Cowboys fans. Don't get me wrong... I'm a Terrell Owens supporter only because he plays for the Cowboys. He has too much baggage, runs his mouth too often, and drops WAY TOO MANY passes. But, I still wear his jersey proudly... because HE'S A COWBOY!!! Everybody wants to criticize him for the above-mentioned things (and more), yet no one wants to give him his just due: 80 catches, almost 1,100 yards, and he leads the entire league in TD receptions (12)!

Well, the truth of the matter is that I'd rather have T.O. than alot of other guys out there... at least he speaks his mind... and he cares about winning! It is totally unacceptable to him for the team to be playing like it is... and he's not afraid to say it, although everyone else feels the same way... and even knowing that the media will be quick to exploit him and make him out to be as treacherous as Adolf Hitler or Idi Amin. I agree with Nick Eatman, the DallasCowboys.com journalist, who wrote,

"No one can say they weren't warned about this guy. The Cowboys, from the owner to the coaches and players, all knew what they were getting into. The fans knew what they were getting and even the media knew the baggage that comes along with this guy. He's a great player, yes. He's a piece of work, yes. With all the good, you have to put up with the mess that surrounds him. That's what we thought. That's what we've got."

But T.O. isn't the reason why Dallas has lost 2 of their last 3 games, he isn't the reason why there's only a slim chance of the 'Boys winning the NFC East title... at least, not by himself. He's had a part to play in it, just like the rest of his teammates.

He may be crazy... but he's part of the reason the team has experienced the success it has this year.

Let's keep this a TEAM thing... and not make it out to be a T.O. thing.

Still Blue

A day removed from the Cowboys getting thrashed 23-7 by the Eagles, and I'm still hot about it... How can you be a step away from clinching the division and not get up for a game of this magnitude?! Wow... such high hopes just a few weeks ago. Funny how things can change like the weather... We were all (at least, all of us 'Boys fans) riding on the Tony Romo bandwagon... ready to put him up to run for the Presidency... and Monday, he looked like the first-year starter that he is. To put it in the words of Mickey Spagnola, the DallasCowboys.com journalist, "It is what it is... they are who they are." And that's right... we're a mere little above average football team. I hate to say it, but it's true.

Of course, a blowout over the Lions on Sunday, and a huge 1st round win in the playoffs might cure me of my apostasy! ;-)

Best of Times, Worst of Times

Okay... I'll start off with the worst of times, so that I can end on a positive note. The Cowboys, my favorite pro football team, got blasted last night!! I mean, totally demolished!! It wasn't even funny... they had no answer for the Saints, who kicked their tails, 42-17. We definitely can't look like that going into the playoffs! Hope we can bounce back next week against Michael Vick and the Falcons...

Best of times now...

My family and I visited Zion Church yesterday, since we hadn't been there in awhile... Pastor Keith Battle wasn't there, but my buddy, Jumaine Jones (who has been on staff there since 2000 as their Teaching Pastor) spoke... a powerful message, on "Prioritizing Your Gifts"!! Of course, I can't cover everything he talked about on this post, but here's a couple of highlights:

He said that sometimes Christ-followers do "Sympathy Serving"... that is, they serve in a ministry that they don't like, are not seeing much fruit in, and hate every minute of... yet they keep on going because they don't want to say no... or, they're afraid to step down because the ministry might fold... or they do it because no one else will. So, they're serving - not out of a pure heart and passion for what they're doing, but from a false sense of guilt... out of sympathy... that doesn't please the heart of God. Ju also said something pretty profound: sometimes those same people are in God's way, because He wants to "kill" that ministry off, but the person won't get out of the way and let it die!!! Yikes!! TRUE, THAT!! Funny how we'll keep something running that is deader than a beached whale... in the name of Jesus, of course! And we'll be super-spiritual about it, too: "Until Jesus speaks to me personally and tells me to step down, I'm here!"

Yeah... okay... you keep on listening for that "still, small voice" that has shouted to everybody else.

Anyway, Ju did an incredible job... keep him in your prayers: he'll be launching a new church sometime in 2007... more info on that later!!

Also, I just found out that another good friend of mine, Larry Paige, is launching Oasis Church somewhere in the Bowie/Lanham/Glendale area... It's an awesome thing to see young men of God starting churches!!! Larry's going to do a marvelous job... he has an awesome testimony... and I can attest to how God has amazingly changed his life.

Can't wait to see what God's going to do with these guys!!!

Until next time,
PD

I'm not SAYING I'm a prophet...

Wow... that's not bad... 27-10... my guess was only off by three points, both ways (see previous post). We should've scored 37 points (at least)!!!! We had so many dropped balls, I was starting to think the refs were greasing them whenever we got on offense! But, the Skins definitely have some problems; so do we... I'm glad we have a bye this upcoming week...

Anyway, back to more important things... Mosaic's first Vision Night is this coming Wednesday evening, Sept. 20. I say "first" because we may do it again, sometime early in 2007 before we officially launch. Our launch team is currently made up of 10 people... I'm hoping to double that come Wednesday... at least, that's my prayer. God is definitely able!

Should be a great night... Jesus will be exalted, and Mosaic will move forward... all's well in the world. :-)

Prediction!

Here's a little pre-game prediction for the Cowboys-Redskins game: 30-13, Dallas!!

I know that's not sitting well with some of you... but, I think you'll get over it pretty soon. If I'm wrong...

:-)

dP

0-1

Here I was... excited and boastful (that was probably my problem)... I just knew that my team would come out rockin'! And, actually, they did! They were leading 10-0 in the 2nd quarter, and gave up 24 unanswered points!!! Geez! 24-17 was the final... we're 0-1... I can only hope that the 'Skins lose their opener tomorrow night. Otherwise, I'll never hear the end of it from those irksome Deadskin fans...

We'll bounce back, though!! We owe the 'Skins a whuppin', anyway!