JON ALLEN

Thanks everyone for making G.R.O.W. an unbelievable success! We had 120 people come to help and we wrote 135 letters, gave away 150 coats, passed out 23 overflowing gift baskets to the nurses stations at RRMC, and prayed intensely for everything we could think of. God was present in an amazing way tonight. Not only was that happening at the Salisbury Campus, but G.R.O.W. was happening at the Denton Campus and 6 people were baptized at the Kannapolis Campus. Keep up the good work and let the Whatever It Takes attitude be a part of your life every day.

Something crazy happened to Jess today when she went to Starbucks and I just had to share it. I will probably incorporate it into the message this weekend, so consider this a sneak-peek.

A couple of years ago I got an idea from a pastor named Steve Sjogren from Cincinatti. He said every time he goes through the drive through he pays for the person behind him too. I thought that was pretty cool so I started doing it. Particularly at Taco Bell because they have a little digital sign that says what the total is for the next car. That way you don’t get someone ordering $40 worth of tacos, of course I don’t know how that is possible because that would be like 1,000 tacos, but I digress, or is that digest, I don’t know, anyway… It’s something that Jess and I have started doing regularly to help people.

Well today Jess was in the Starbucks drive-through (somewhere we visit often) and decided to pay for the woman behind her. She drove off as usual but this time the woman followed her, started flashing her lights, and honking! Jess didn’t exactly know what to do, so she pulled over. The woman came up to her and the conversation proceeded something like this…

  Woman: “Did you just pay for my coffee?”

  Jess: “Yes.”

  Woman: “Why?”

  Jess: “I just wanted to help out and do something nice for you.”

  Woman: “Are you a part of a church or something?”

  Jess: “Yes.”

And she proceeded to tell her about how our church wants to help people. In fact she was wearing her “Whatever It Takes” shirt. The woman was blown away. You know what I love most about this story? When Jess said that she wanted to do something nice, the first thing the lady asked was if she was a part of a church. That is awesome! It means that we have a reputation of helping. Far too often Christians get a bad rep for not caring, but this person assumed that Christ was the reason. Excellent. We will definitely gain some ground when people in our community really look at Christians as loving, caring, purposeful people who have something genuine to offer.

Thank you to everyone who was a part of the High Rock worship services this weekend. I was blown away that our church family continues to grow and this weekend we had 736 people participate in a High Rock service church-wide. God is good all the time. Make sure you come check it out again next week because we will be talking about our church focus on community outreach. It will be sort of a continuation of our “Whatever It Takes” series so you don’t want to miss it. And also don’t forget to bring your winter coats so we can take them to the homeless shelter!

I asked everyone on staff to be sure and blog this week, and Doug ragged me today because I hadn’t done it yet. Seems like I am always behind. I guess I was just waiting for the right thing to prompt me. Something kind of cool happened tonight that I thought I would write about.

Jess and I went to Bailey Collins’ basketball game tonight (highly entertaining) and out to Tokyo Express afterwards for dinner. We were standing in line and a nice woman came up to me and asked “aren’t you the preacher at High Rock?”. It caught me totally off guard, but I replied, “yes I am”. She reached out her hand and had some money in it… “we want to pay for your dinner”, she told me. This surprised me even more, so I said, “really?” and she said, “yes, we really appreciate what you are doing.” I didn’t even know what to say except thanks. And then like that… poof… she was gone and I couldn’t find her anywhere.

We have been doing so much giving lately I didn’t know what to say when it was my turn to receive. Giving is really important, but sometimes we get so focused on giving that we don’t think about receiving. I know that sounds weird and some people may think it sounds kind of selfish, but it really isn’t. Normally I would have refused to accept it… but if I had done that she would not have had a chance to give. In order to have giving, there must be receiving. So thanks to the woman who did that for us and I pray that God blesses her and she continues to give.

What a weekend… clothing giveaway, gas buydowns, services, 101, so many great things! God is good!

To top it off, Saturday night Jess and I were sitting in bed winding down from the day and JD was sitting in between us in his Boppy pillow. I was about to get up and take him to the nursery when he suddenly (like he was dreaming) smiled and laughed out loud. It was the first time he has actually laughed. It was so precious, Jess and I didn’t know what to do. We just smiled. God is good and He blesses us in small ways and large ways. I can’t say it enough, God is good.

Have you ever noticed that God sends encouragement right when you need it? This weekend I needed it and God sent it… between the salvations at the Hallelujah festival, the connection with people at the gas-buydown, the connection with God during the worship, and the connection with everyone else in the church this weekend, my spirits were lifted right when they needed to be. It didn't hurt that the Bills were on today either (even if they did lose, I still got to watch them). October is Pastor Appreciation Month, but every other one should be Church Body Appreciation Month!