Servelloism

The day has arrived. I could hardly sleep last night. My heart is expectant and anxious to see what God is going to do. The reason why I am so excited is I see the rumblings of an incredible three days. First off, There has been more prayer than EVER that has gone into this year with many of the youth in the church fasting and praying AND even coming to the church every night for the last week to pray together! Im telling you Prayer like this only leads to one place - BIG BREAKTHROUGH. Also, the creative element of the conference is on a whole nother level for us. It should be fun! If your coming today we’ll see you in a few hours!

I did this once but somehow I deleted it.

The last post has been extremely popular. I think there are a lot of people who can relate to what Grady says in that article- Pastors in particular. Grady’s article was a personal challenge to me. If you havent seen it you can see it here. I am a charismatic. I believe in the gifts of the Spirit. I want all of what God wants for his church today. I want healing, deliverance, tongues, prophecy, and miracles. And not just because I want them, I believe we NEED them. I don’t believe there has to be a “blue coat” “grey coat” division in the body. And if that does happen, guess what? Nobody wins. I believe with all my heart the next move of God is not going to be led exclusively by Toronto, or the Assembly of God, or Lakeland, or Willow Creek, or Ed Young Jr. but by a collaboration and a working together of every movement in the body of Christ. I hate when people say this “movement” is the best or this person is the best. “Best” often comes down to a style preference. In my realm of Influence as I look at the leadership landscape in the Body of Christ, I see we need input from Power ministries but we also need input from people with the gift of leadership. Believe me. Im not super experienced but it would not be good if either “coat” was the main figurehead in the body. The point: Lets be more open. When I say open, I don’t mean take everything. I mean we take what’s good and leave what is unnecessary. We have something to learn from Todd as well as Bill Hybels, something to learn from Oral Roberts as well as Rick Warren, etc etc. One Perspective alone will severely handicap us. As I have taken this perspective, I have come under some criticism from those who believe if you are not 100% in a certain movement you are banished to the other side. This has caused me pain, and quite frankly was getting into my spirit causing me to be critical and defensive, but J Lee Grady’s article has given me new perspective. I want to be humble and loving and be a promoter of peace instead of division, love and not hate. Thank you J Lee Grady!

Its funny the things that stay with you through life. Memories that is. I have been thinking a lot about prayer lately and I thank God for my father and all the people that have been such great models of Prayer in my life. One such memory I have is from my childhood. The great apostle Reg Layzell would come and stay with us on occasion. He would stay in the guest room right next door to mine and my brothers room. I remember getting up in the wee hours of the morning to use the bathroom and sure enough his light would be on every morning at the crack of dawn and he would be praying. As I recall, sometimes it was still dark when he’d be up. He would pray and Worship for hours. The guy was intense. Although I never witnessed it myself, my father told me part of his daily 4 hour spend time with God discipline he also had a daily workout routine. He would workout his arms, not so much so he could be in shape, but so he could keep his arms in the air longer while he worshiped. Amazing. I thank God for the quality of men of God my father had around us while I was a boy and for the example they were to me even when they didn’t even know they were influencing me.

J Lee Grady just wrote an article that struck a cord with me because it clearly captures the way I feel in so many ways. In seems in the last couple of years I have been caught in J. Lee Grady’s spot once too often and have been perplexed as to why. You can check it out here. He uses the whole Lakeland meetings to make a larger point- I hope we don’t miss it because I think his point in this article could be the clearest direction for us as spirit filled christians in a while. The article also points out in a subtle way what Jesus’ desire is based on scripture rather than just a view of what we may sense may take place in the future. In light of this article, I think it is somewhat puzzling as to how much we ignore the clear teachings of scripture sometimes. Civil War amongst Christians? Are you for real? Isn’t love the defining mark of our faith?

I am excited for this years conference. There is already an expectancy in the air that’s hard to describe. Apostle C will be speaking at our weekend service and I am excited to hear the word he is going to bring. He always seems to have a pinpoint prophetic insight into our church. Our 2nd year in the Aud should be a great one.

My friend Gareth posted this on his blog. It was a good read for me and I thought you’d enjoy it too.

Im still in NY celebrating my birthday weekend here with family. Im staying here in Long Island at my aunts house. Im having a blast. I hope your fourth of July weekend was just as good. Let me tell you about a little weakness I have when I come to NY. Im Italian. I’ve been cursed with a love for food. So if you read my blog and think, “Wow, what’s this guys problem? He talks about food a whole lot.” Now you’ll know why. Like a blood hound is born with an unusual gift of scent, Italians are born with a radar for good food. Seriously, What’s an italian without a sense for food?  Well, I found two more great places in NYC that I have to share. Life’s too short to have bad food experiences. The first is GROM - the best gelato you will ever have. That includes Italy folks- Seriously! I guess they are a chain in Italy, so Im not sure if that is a totally true statement, but nevertheless finally real Italian gelato in NYC. Move over Pinkberry, someone just made a turn from healthy to not so healthy. It is a fact though that Gelato is healthier than regular ice cream. The next is The Roasting Plant. This unique little shop makes some seriously good coffee. I drove all the way uptown to get a cup of coffee from coffee shop that had a Clover machine     , but this place beats that any day. I guess the guy who developed the store was some bigwig with Starbucks. This coffee shop actually ha a patented machine that sucks the beans of your choice into a machine that grinds them fresh to make your own unique cup of coffee. If you love coffee you’ll love this place. Oh and healthy people, you’ll love this, they even have Agave nectar for sweetner.(Did you hear that Flo?) I LOVE NY.

Yesterday was my 35th birthday. Thanks to all who sent Birthday greetings via email, facebook, myspace, phone, and text…and some even an old fashioned card. I appreciate the love. I had a great day. I celebrated my birthday with a LARGE Pinkberry and a Yankees game. The only bad thing about the whole day was the Yankees lost. Did I mention I hate the Red Sox? Nevertheless, I got my tickets 20 minutes before game time from someone who had two extra tickets. Cost? Face value! That is unheard of for a Boston-Yankees game. Especially in the seats I got -the seats were between home and 3rd in the Loge section. I watched the game, kept score on my $8 scorecard, ate my $6.50 hot dog, drank my $4.75 20oz Diet coke,and just took it all in. It was my birthday so I splurged a little and Hey, Someone’s gotta pay A-rod’s salary. I love baseball. If I lived near a MLB team I’d definitely have season tickets. It was also good to see some old friends who had happened to be in the city yesterday. So all in all I had a happy 35th. 35, 5 years till 40.  Watch out.

Two weeks to lift off. Man, I am pumped about this year’s conference. I know its going to be the best year ever. Im excited to welcome Craig Groeschel and Steve Furtick to the conference this year. Craig and Steve are being used mightily by God to extend his kingdom in their respective spheres of influence. Benny Perez is back in youth ministry and tearing it up!. He took over the youth ministry in his church a few months ago. When he took it over it was about 60 kids and now they are exploding with over 200! Jude is back and Apostle C is as full of the fire of the Holy Ghost as he ever has been. I know all the speakers are coming fired up with a message for this region. If you haven’t registered yet don’t miss it! The registration fee went up today $10 but Big Deal- $68 bucks is still a steal for a conference like this. If you want you can check out the conference here.

Like i have said before, I am not endorsing Mccain or Obama, but I thought this article was interesting in light of General Wesley Clark’s recent comments. I thought it was pretty interesting regarding such a public figure as John Mccain. If you haven’t seen it, check it out here.