I spent yesterday morning with Grandma.  Had lunch and just hung out.  Went to Dad's grave.  Didn't enjoy that.  I know a lot of people who do, just wasn't me.  Living 3,000 miles from Dad's grave it won't be a problem. 
Hugging Grandma and leaving was really tough.  Probably the last time I'll hug and kiss her.  She'll be 90 this year and has led a good life.  She is ready to go home and spend eternity with Jesus.  I'll be leaving Pasco at 10:00 am and landing in Charlotte at 9:00 pm.  Looking forward to seeing my family.

Played golf Monday and Tuesday.  It was awesome.  The weather is incredible, scenery as picturesque as you'll find and actually hit the ball pretty good.  Finally beat my Aunt & Uncle for the first time ever, both days.

Growing Bigger
Last week I told you I wanted to begin giving all of us some very helpful hints on how to grow bigger. 
1.  Pray big - We must begin to pray crazy big prayers.  "God, help us do more than we've ever done before."
2.  Act as if were a church of 1,000 instead of 500.  Our church is doing exactly as we are leading it to do. 
3.  Grow the leadership of the church.  Any church can only go as far as the leadership.  It is my job to begin growing an awesome team of leaders.  Leaders that are willing to step out on faith and take our church to the next level.
4.  Dream big - If our dreams don't scare you some, there probably not God sized dreams.
Matthew 9:29 says, "According to your faith will it be done to you."
5.  I must cast the vision on a more regular basis.
6.  Get more people involved in ministries.  On any given Sunday 500 people attend and less than 100 are actively involved each Sunday.
7.  Grow our children's ministries.  They are busting out the walls already.  Changes are in the works.
8.  Invite - invite - invite.  We can never stop inviting our unchurched friends and family.  Things are going great at 5 Point but we can never get comfortable.
9.  Don't waste time arguing with people who can't understand what were doing.  I received another vicious
e-mail today.  Her complaints were:
    * we don't have Baptist in our name
    * we have a naked woman on our web-site (it is a silhoutte for heavens sake)
    * our children are involved in dirty games (this was an outdoor event with the kids getting really dirty.
       that one was really looking for something to accuse us of
    * our children had a lesson on how not to use others.  According to this woman this was absurd, we  
       should use others.
I didn't even respond to this e-mail.   What good would come from it? Just ignore this type of criticsm.
10.  Pray for me and the staff.  Pray for God to lead us every day as we prepare and lead our church.  I can't 
       ask enough for your prayers.

I gotta go pack all my stuff.  Walla Walla has been great, but I want to be in South Carolina.