This weekend will be earth-shattering at Keystone! We’re joining with over 1100 churches WORLD-WIDE over the next several weeks to unite under one vision, ONE PRAYER. Imagine the power of so many churches uniting together – sharing vision, resources, messages – it’s incredible!
What will this look like? Beginning this weekend, I will share my ONE PRAYER for Keystone: “God, make us __________.” Then, over the following weeks we will hear from some of the best communicators I know. I’ll tell you more about the speakers over the next few weeks. During this time, we will also have a community impact emphasis. Right now we’re working on partnering with a nearby church to do something together… It could be really, really cool!
The POWER of ONE PRAYER… Over 700,000 people will participate in this series. The power of the family of Christ unified under the banner of prayer & vision is staggering. I can’t wait to experience it for ourselves!
Since last week, I’ve heard many great reviews on the concert I attended. One thing is absolutely certain… there are those who are PASSIONATE, DEVOTIONAL toward their favorite band.
I get it. I am really passionate about great pizza (pepperoni, black olives, mushrooms), green tea (iced venti sweetened no water green tea @ starbucks), and traveling with Susan (Maui: again, please / CABO: not yet / Jamaica: heard it’s awesome… get me a beach w/ sue!). Oh yeah, I really enjoy great concerts.
But it was amazing to see how DEVOTIONAL an experience this concert was for some. One of the things we discuss at Keystone is how we are WIRED FOR WORSHIP. It’s written on the DNA strands of our humanity. You will assign worth to different things. It’s important to evaluate the things we’re passionate about and ask ourselves, “Am I even remotely this passionate about God? Worship? Church?”
That may not mean that you curse concerts forever and burn all your CDs… it may just mean that you raise your hands to the Ultimate Artist… After all, he created you!
Sunday night after the Communion Gathering, Brian & I went to the RADIOHEAD concert. It was pretty incredible. Sold out crowd… all hanging on every lyric.
As I’ve mentioned at Keystone, I love going to great concerts. This week I’ll discuss some of the great LESSONS LEARNED from a pretty incredible concert.
I’ll also show some pics… here’s one:
This weekend I challenged Keystone to really step up financially as we enter our last year of the ThinkBIG journey. Once again, God blew my mind!!!
Very few people knew that in my heart I believed that Keystone COULD give as much as $75,000 total this past weekend. I also knew in my heart that we SHOULD give around $50,000 through the weekend. I prayed for $75,000… (then asked God to do MORE than we could ask or imagine) and then we brought $80,000!!!
Susan and I joined so many who were so excited to give to God’s work through Keystone. Thanks to EVERYONE who really heard from God and cheerfully gave!We also saw many families join the Think BIG journey and commit to give over the next 12 months… UNBELIEVABLE!
I love this church!!!
I’ll give more details as they get finalized today (our staff is busily ‘dotting the i’s & crossing the t’s), but I’m THRILLED to share that Keystone was THINKING VERY BIG this weekend!!!
Some highlights for me:
- I loved the message; It is a lesson in Scripture that I have feasted on for many years
- The entire experience was OFF-THE-HOOK! The “God of the City” song was inspired!
- The giving was phenomenal, obedient, and sacrificial!!!
- The Communion Gathering was special, highlighted by our Commissioning of our new church start in Myrtle Beach with Trey & Danielle!!!
- Finally, I went to RADIOHEAD! Pics coming later!
Here is a very cool story from Jennifer (friend of keystone who commented on one of my posts this week)…
This is what I love about Keystone. You guys ARE a church of over-achievers and BIG dreaers and I love that. You are like that group of crazy Christ followers that shared all of your possessions and CHANGED THE WORLD. That group that we are still reading about and talking about today. It is so inspiring to hear. REFRESHING.And lives are changing. I’ll never forget the day I sat at a restaurant and my husband and I eavesdropped on a man sitting behind us telling his friend for 30 minutes about this incredible place where he and his family had been changed called Keystone. It brought tears to my eye then and brings them to my eyes now. You guys are at the center of God’s vision for Keller/Southlake and you are doing exactly what you are supposed to be doing. People who regularly attend Keystone – don’t forget how rare of a gift you have been given. There aren’t many churches this deliberate, this passionately visionary, this free to be who God has called you to be. Don’t forget that – don’t take it for granted.I am not a member of Keystone – except partially at heart 
. I am called to serve somewhere else. But from the outside watching, I am telling you that I love you, that I pray for you, and that you are my idea of what a church should be.
Isn’t that COOL? Jennifer is very, very kind in her comments. We’re not even close to perfect, but God is doing something really amazing at Keystone. God is doing some amazing things THROUGH Keystone!
Pray for MORE STORIES this weekend as we join together to THINK BIG!
It’s Thursday, the end of the day, and usually when a pastor is facing a big weekend, you get a sense of how things are shaping up. I don’t know what God will do this weekend through Think BIG, but I am sensing some serious MO! [momentum]
The stories are pouring in [way more than usual] and I have received a powerful direction for this weekend’s message.
How shall I say it? I’M PUMPED!!!! YEAH, BABY! [that last one think austin powers... or, don't]
BOOK CLUE: Another chapter just might be, “Event + Interpretation = Response”
Here’s my SCREAM this week… THINK BIG!!!
This is a massive defining moment in the life of our church… an opportunity to join together, finish strong and CLAIM the next 12 months as a time when we will DEMOLISH our $1.1M ThinkBIG promise (only $400k+ to go)!!!
It’s right in the nick of time… sound system needing an upgrade, running out of space on strategic weekends (like easter), etc.
We are a church of OVER-ACHIEVERS… pray about what God would lead you to do this weekend and together we’ll be THINKING BIG!
Book UPDATE: This week I will give some clues regarding the general theme of my new book…
FIRST: We need to be PUZZLE PEOPLE! Do you know what I mean when I say that? If you do, you might have some insight to one of the chapters in my new project.
This weekend at Keystone was incredible.
During our series, RICH & FAMOUS, I have really enjoyed learning how to appreciate our RICHES and leverage them to make a difference. This weekend, we took a first look at the ‘FAMOUS’ side of life. Just like riches, God grants influence and we should appreciate that gift. There’s a phrase that captures the heart of this weekend’s talk: INHALE your INFLUENCE… EXHALE its IMPACT! If you INHALE w/o EXHALING, you will ultimately ‘frustrate your fame!
‘My ‘God moment’ from this weekend: One of our Camp Keystone kids came up to me and shared how she had been saving her money. She heard about ThinkBIG and began to sense God leading her to give $100 of her saved money this coming weekend at our ThinkBIG 2 year celebration!!! I was in AWE.
I pray everyone seeks God’s voice this weekend and the ENTIRE Keystone family (and friends of Keystone) would be compelled by God to jump into the Think BIG journey!
Think BIG is a journey our entire church has taken for the past two years. May 17,18 we will celebrate the 2nd year anniversary of THINK BIG! Two years ago we knew that in order to capture God’s vision for us to move into and transform the furniture store into our new home, it would require BIG thinking, BIG praying, and sacrificial giving.
Launching this journey has been a major defining moment as a church. God gave us a vision to claim a failing furniture store and transform it into a life-giving space for hundreds of people each week!
Pray about how you can get involved in the celebration! More on that later…
As for the book… I’ll let everyone know next week where I’m headed with it. I’m pumped.
