Well – here we go. This is my first blog post of the New Year and my first post on my “new” blog. Actually, it’s my same old blog, but it’s my first one on my redesigned site and my first time using Word Press. If any fellow bloggers using Word Press can help me with dressing up my site I would greatly appreciate it.

I want to thank the fine folks (Shannon & Matt) at Factor1Studios for our new website design and my new blog. They did a great job and are great people to work with.

Wow! What can I say? It has been an awesome beginning to 2010! First and most importantly, let me say that 2 people got saved last night and I think we already have about 5 people ready to get baptized.

We kicked off 2010 last week with a message looking back on 2009. It was simply an incredible year of growth and change. Last week was kind of crazy at the office. We were getting ready for FUEL, a new series coming up, 47 people going on a Ski Retreat, a new semester of LIFE Groups, a new website, logo, and bulletin redesign (and then just the normal weekly stuff). It was kind of a like a perfect storm – or just life at Coastal.

Did you catch that? 47 people (I think 40 students) going on a Ski Retreat! That’s the most students we have ever taken anywhere to anything. Keep Sean and his volunteers in your prayers. They leave Wed. after school for Gatlinburg, TN and return on Saturday. And I have to brag on the generosity of our church. We simply believe at Coastal that our Student Ministry is important and we ought to give accordingly. So, we stated the need and you guys have blown me away by your giving for this trip. Sean & Melissa have done a great job. As I said on Sunday, he works MORE than full time and right now we pay him part time. That must change this year – soon!

On Saturday we kicked off FUEL for 2010. We started FUEL last year. It is our monthly gathering of Coastal Volunteers. Honestly, it kind of dwindled a bit as we closed out 2009 – we didn’t meet in November (we had the Walk for LIFE) and we cancelled December because of the busyness of the Holidays. So, I wasn’t really sure what to expect. WOW! You guys blew me away! We had 50+ on fire, ready to go volunteers! The new format (Ministry Meetings the first hour) seemed to work great! I can’t wait for next month’s FUEL! With a little tweaking, this is going to become one of the best things we do.

And Sunday was just awesome! We had 285 people last week and I could just sense that we were about to make a jump and possibly break 300 soon. Well we did it yesterday – 305! Yesterday my message was simply about our vision and mission as a church. I talked about the year ahead and where I see us going. More and more I’m understanding that even when I think I’ve shared that stuff too much, people are just beginning to see what I see. And that’s okay. Believe it or not, I’m learning to be patient. I’m sharing stuff that I think about, wrestle with, dream, plan, prepare, study, analyze 24/7. It’s my job to lead, to creatively, consistently, passionately, lovingly cast vision. It’s easy to forget that God has to slap me upside the head about a 1000 times before I just begin to get a glimpse of His plan for my life – and even then I fight Him kicking and screaming sometimes (okay, many times).

We take my daughter back to college this week. She’s had a month long break and we’ve loved every precious minute of it. We leave on Thursday and come back on Friday. I’ve got a busy week. I need to get everything done before we leave on Thursday. Membership Class on Saturday morning and we begin a new series on Sunday – “Accelerate.” Plus Wes & Sean leave for the Retreat on Wednesday.