John Markum

What I want to say to The Awakening this morning.

Good morning church!

A few things I want to remind you about this morning as you go about your day:

  1. First of all, your pastor loves you and is praying for you today. I do not take for granted your faithfulness to our church, and to our service. The highlight of my week is worshipping  with you every Saturday night. I can’t wait to be with you all again tomorrow!
  2. Last week we gave away free Prayer Journals that we had made for everyone. They include a 2011 calendar, tips on prayer and Bible reading, pages for keeping track of your prayer requests with encouraging scriptures on each page, and space for taking notes from sermons. There are several left and you are welcome to grab one this Saturday if you missed last week.
  3. This week we’ll have Connecting Point immediately after our worship experience. Connecting Point is a short meet-and-greet where you can get connected with other Saturday night attenders. We’ll have food, a short video, and a chance for you to find out more about The Awakening and how you can get connected to what God’s doing on Saturday nights at Edgewood. It is open for anyone wanting to get more connected, whether this week is your first time with us, or you’ve been coming a few times. So invite someone to come with you!
  4. Church Business Meeting: This Sunday night at 6 pm. This is open to everyone who has made Edgewood their church home. This is our annual meeting and there are a variety of thing to be dealt with and voted upon. The meeting does not take very long (I love our church!).
  5. We want you to help us make an impact! Over the next few weeks, we want to encourage you to find a place to serve on Saturday nights. We have multiple places where you can use your talents to bless others including tech team, band, children’s service, nursery, greeting, and hospitality table. Help us make The Awakening the most exciting thing to do on Saturdays!

We continue teaching from our series, Retro, this Saturday at 6 pm, with a message from Genesis 25 on stew. Yeah, stew. Trust me. It will change your life. See you all tomorrow!

Blessings,

John

My New Year’s Resolution

So I already gave a general idea of things to think through this year. Like many of you, I’ve had to narrow that down to a few specific goals for myself. In short, here are a few of the things I’m trying to make happen in 2011:

  • Give more away.
  • Take my wife far away for our 7th anniversary sometime between March and June. Somewhere warm!
  • Attend the NewSpring Leadership Conference in Anderson, SC. I’m totally psyched about this thing!
  • Have a new, record setting year in people who come to Christ, get baptized, and make Saturday nights their church home at Edgewood.
  • Get a new Mac Pro for home business.
  • Sell home in Springfield, MO.
  • Be more Christ-like in thought, word, and action.
  • Go on a missions trip to help a close friend and church planter, Justin Banks of Audacity Church, in Wichita, KS.
  • Model the love of my Heavenly Father to my 3 children (4, by the end of the year!).
  • Get back in the gym. I’ve gotten SO out of the habit!

So what are some of your goals this year? Please share!

Blessings,

John

Monday Morning Review

Welcome back to a regular work week! I hope you all had an AMAZING Thanksgiving day with friends and family. Last week for me, our family, and church broke down like this:

  • Spent the first part of the week recovering from my trip to Indiana where I got to speak to 80 teens at an All-Nighter.
  • Shopped, prepped, and cooked Thanksgiving dinner with my family. Pics and recipes coming soon, I swear!
  • Ate food, played with kids, and spent time with my wife. So grateful for all the good things God has blessed us with!
  • Stayed up way too late playing video games as my coupon clipping, sale-hunting, savings queen-of-the-universe wife (official title) left at 11:30 Thanksgiving night to spend the next 8 hours systematically hitting the best black-Friday sales available. She spent far less than most. God loves me…
  • Took wife and kids to the Festival of Trees Saturday morning. Ran into a friend from church who gave us a $10 punch card to play the games. I love our church family! We all had a great time together.
  • Got our worship on Saturday night with a good crowd. Saw more visitors, some from out of town visiting family. We worshiped like we loved Jesus, preached God’s Word, and people gave their lives to Christ. Jesus is awesome!
  • Came back Sunday morning to see more of our out-of-town college students. I love their generation! They are world-changers… you watch and see!
  • Came home, cleaned the house from a crazy week and watched Iron Chef America with the newest Iron Chef winning his first battle. I’m a food nerd…  I can’t help it.

I hope you have a great week getting back into your routines. May you experience God’s blessings and power in your life. I look forward to seeing many of you back this Saturday for our new series “Shine.” More on that later this week!

Blessings,

John

The phrase no pain, no gain has been a mantra for athletes and fitness junkies for years. And what they understand about physical pain needs to be broadened to a much more general use in all of our lives. Pain hurts. That's the whole problem. No one enjoys it, and if someone does, we rightfully

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