I didn’t attend worship last Sunday at the Mars Hill Baptist Church because I was being a father.
My son Josh & I were on a requiting trip at the University of Louisville. I’m excited to share pictures of his visit to the University of Louisville. It was an exciting trip and they have a great campus, field, and training facilities. The coaches were awesome and I love that they love to develop players & WIN!!! Enjoy it!
Welcome back to my blog!
This is my personal blog. It is focused on “empowering people to live an abundant life.” My mission is to help you connect life’s dots while passionately pursuing your purpose. I write on personal development, leadership, finance, relationships, inspiration, and motivation. On occasion, I write about stuff that doesn’t fit neatly into one of these categories.
My goal is to create insightful, relevant content that you can put to work in your personal and professional life. If you are in a position of leadership—or aspire to be—then this blog is for you. I typically post two to three times a week. To make sure you don’t miss my newest posts, you can subscribe via RSS feed.
Thanks for stopping by!
Quick! How do you keep the attention of a generation of church goers eternally distracted by the internet, cellphones, and technology. You make technology your friend – you leverage it for the Glory of God.
Mars Hill – TWO Churches in ONE Location
As much as I hate to admit it, in reality, I pastor TWO distinct congregations. Since we began offering additional worship experiences, I’ve noticed they’ve morphed into two very distinct, different, and unique congregations. We’re still Mars Hill – now we’re TWO churches in ONE location. How did that happen?
8AM Classic Worship Experience
Older church goers, business-types, and families with older/adult children mainly attend our Our 8AM Worship Experience. It’s early, convenient, and 60-90 minutes long. They enjoy softer music and love to reflect on the music and message. It fits their lifestyle and they primarily want worship and the Word! Period! However, it’s quite different during our 10:30AM experience.
Today is the one of the most important holidays in the Stowers Household: Valentine’s Day. It’s importance ranks up there with July 2nd (Shauntai’s birthday), June 27th (Our anniversary), December 25th (She loves Christmas – her favorite season), and Mother’s day.
I have a 9-year-old daughter at home and Valentines Day has morphed into a silent, but friendly competition between the two. My two sons could care less. On June 27, 2011, Shauntai and I will celebrate 19 years of marriage. I still make an effort to go all out to make the days that are special to her special to me. As I grow older, so does my love for my wife. She’s my best friend, helper, cheerleader, and coach.
Here’s what I love about my wife:
Question: Have you told your spouse how much you love them?
That’s right – I’m back!
Two weeks ago I blogged on “Investigating Christmas.” It was informative, concise, and though-provoking (at least that what my readers thought). After Christmas I took a break from blogging to spend time with my family, fix a few things around the house (ok, I paid someone to do it – I supervised), and work under the hood of my blog/website.
There were several changes made to my blog (all under the hood) and it’s much faster and stable. Although you can’t see the changes, trust me: they were significant. Once again a BIG THUMBS UP to the coldest blog designers Arcane Palette! Chris really came through BIG TIME getting THIS SITE up and running in a SHORT amount of time. If you’re considering starting a blog, I HIGHLY recommend you connect with the folks at Arcane Palette.
I have the greatest members in the world!
Monday, I was in official recovery mode from Sunday’s CRAZY/INSANE worship experiences! While recovering, I received a phone call from Rolanda (a member) and she shared an amazing idea (thanks Ro). Our church’s focus this year is three. sixty. five. What does that mean? I’m challenging our members to ‘BE’ the church 365 days a year instead of 52 weeks each Sunday.
Rolanda challenged me to share an encouraging word to our members EACH DAY this year and I gladly accepted her challenge (my sheep know my voice). Additionally, I decided to use this blog, Facebook, & Twitter to accomplish the aforementioned. Therefore, if you are not following me, please do so & encourage others to do the same.
three. sixty. five. day 1
Let’s start with this premise: THERE’S NOBODY GREATER THAN JESUS!
There’s POWER in your PRAISE! Sometimes we must ‘STOP FIGHTING’ our battles and PRAISE HIM in the midst of our battles. God says, “He will fight for us and He releases His Power and Provision on our behalf.”
Have you ever noticed how circular life really is? We start not knowing anything, and enjoy it immensely (childhood). Eventually we think we know everything, but everyone else still thinks we don’t know anything; this causes a lot of frustration (adolescence, end of childhood). At last we realize…no, we don’t know everything, in fact we still hardly know anything; again, we seem to enjoy this stage, in many cases a bit too much (college and professional life, the in-between to adulthood).
The legal age for adulthood is eighteen for women and twenty-one for men (never understood that). However, we all know many enter adult well before AND after the legal age. So, when did it occur for you? When did you discover you were “good and grown?”
I discovered I was good and grown (an adult) when:
Unlock the power of gratitude and transform your life with our FREE gratitude journal!
This journal is designed to help you develop a daily gratitude practice scientifically proven to improve mental and physical health, reduce stress and anxiety, and increase happiness and overall well-being.
With our gratitude journal, you'll have a dedicated space to reflect on the things you're grateful for in your life. By taking just a few minutes each day to focus on the positive, you'll cultivate a more positive outlook, attract more abundance and joy into your life, and enjoy a greater sense of inner peace and contentment.
I hope you find this helpful. Let me know if you have any specific requirements or changes you'd like to make.