Some random thoughts….

Did you hear Josh Hamilton testify during the Major League Baseball’s Home Run Derby on Monday Night? Repeatedly when asked about his accomplishments on the field, the outfielder gave the glory to God. After several of these exchanges on the air, one of the commentators for the event, Rick Reilly, responded, “It’s a bad night for atheists at Yankee Stadium tonight!” Josh Hamilton, you are my new favorite player!

We had our New Board cook out on Tuesday. What a great church board Central is blessed to have serving us! As we began to organize for the coming year, Dan Rexroth was re-elected as the Secretary of the Board and Tim Dykman was re-elected to serve as the church treasurer. The executive committee for the following year will be Dan and Tim and Missionary President David Cooper, Buildings Chairman Glenn Harding, Kent Kirby and Dr. Linda Alexander.

My son, Alex, is a new and proud employee of Chik-fil-a. But as I understand it there is no “family and friends discount.” Hmmm … that’s a bummer.

Can you believe that our kids will be back in school in less than a month? WOW! Where is the summer going?

We have extended an invitation to Rev. Carol Rittenhouse to be our new Connecting Pastor. Rev. Rittenhouse is a graduate of Olivet Nazarene (1987) and Nazarene Theological Seminary (2006). She has been on staff at Shawnee Nazarene and currently works with Mike Stipp in Clergy Services at Nazarene Headquarters. Carol will begin at Central on August 3.

I go to the dentist later this morning; I know what he is going to say: “This Prince needs a crown.” I know what my wallet is going to say: “NOOOOOOO!”

In my three years in Kansas City, I have not been to Oceans of Fun. Am I missing something?

Last night, I sat in on a little bit of a meeting (long enough to get some rice and chicken… yummy!) with our Arabic service leaders. They are a wonderful group of people that love the Lord. Keep praying for this group and for Pastor Jaime as he gives leadership to this ministry.

If I could add one thing to Kansas City… it would be a professional hockey team, so I could see the World Champion Red Wings play every once in a while. (If Karla could add anything to Kansas City, she would add a Great Lake… which is kind of hard, unless we have another Ice Age, and according to Al Gore that might not happen anytime soon. Even if Al is wrong, I think adding a hockey team might be a little easier.). Next week the Detroit Tigers will be in town… so if you have an emergency that requires a pastor, I might be a little late in getting there because there is a good chance I will be travelling to the hospital (or wherever your emergency is) from Kauffman Stadium.

Speaking of emergencies, Karla thought that I croaked the other night. Fortunately, she was mistaken. I was sleeping. Very soundly. I was not moving, appeared to not be breathing (no snoring from me, thank you very much), did not respond when she said my name (did I mention I was sleeping?), so Karla smacked me. “HEY!” was my groggy response. “I was worried you were dead,” was her answer. “Umm… I guess I’m not.”

Hey, we have a missionary coming on Sunday Night: the Taylors from the Philippines. Speaking of missions….

Did you know that over 120 Centralites have gone on a mission trip this year? It’s true. Not only that, we have several from Central going on the district mission trip to Mexico this week, and there is still time for you to go to Iowa for our next mission effort as we help the victims of the recent floods. Contact David Cooper for more info on Iowa. We are Mission Trip Crazy! I love it!!!

Of these events from the last year, what should I be more excited about?
Summer Fest (we had more people attend than ever), or
Biker Sunday (our first annual …. which got off to a great start), or
Vacation Bible School (after a two year hiatus it was back… better than ever!) or
Collide (remember last winter’s intergenerational, revival, gathering time?) or
The new Spanish Service that started in March, or
The new Arabic service that also started in March?
You’re right… I should be excited about all of these outreach ministries! And I AM excited!!!!

Have I mentioned lately that I am glad I am your pastor? I am that too!