bookbags

If my numbers are correct, we brought in 27 bookbags to give to Tyler Elementary School! That is great! Especially in such a short time frame.

Stay tuned for more opportunities to give back to our community...

ihop conversation

I had a great conversation today at IHOP with my man, Stu Ehrlich. If you don't know Stu, make sure you figure out how to meet him! He has a HUGE heart for people and for God. And he has a HUGE heart for helping people in need.

As he ingested his Egg's Benedict and I chomped down on some Harvest Nut and Grain pancakes, I came to understand even more Stu's love for helping others. The result of that conversation, Stu is going to be leading people at Haymarket in getting plugged in to service in our community.

We really want to see people serving others in our community for a couple of reasons...

1. It's biblical - we see this happening in the early church and Jesus made a life of it
2. It's life-changing - helping others helps us be different. It changes who we are as people.
3. It's part of following Jesus - in church, we focus so much on learning and hanging out with ourselves that we lose focus on the world. Jesus taught us to love others and to be a servant. We forget that.

As we head into the fall, look for more opportunities to serve. In fact, we are talking about a life group whose focus is serving.

Stay tuned...and chat up Stu when you get a chance...and let's start serving our communities!

blogging

Did I ever tell you that is hard to do this all the time? I like to do it. I like expressing myself in this type of forum. But you sometimes get behind and forget about it due to work, family and play.

I guess that's life!!!!

bookbags

This weekend is the last weekend to turn in bookbags FILLED with school supplies for Tyler Elementary and SERVE. We got started late on this project but no problem! I know we can get 50 bags for these needy families in by this week.

Plus, we are serving our community which I love and is SO Christ-like which is even better!

crazy dog

Our dog is crazy!

We are teaching our youngest, Avery, how to use the potty. The other day Avery went poop in her potty. Kara did what any parent would do, she was cheering Avery for doing #2 and helping wipe her bottom. Kara then went to clean out the potty. There was no poop! Sitting there, beside the potty, licking her lips, was our dog Myrtle!

YUCK!

Yep, she ate it.

Makes me sick to think about...

baby #3

Baby #3 is supposedly coming to the Simpkins' family within the next 2 weeks. Part of me is looking forward to it (it's a boy which is good!) and part of me is not ready for it (our girls sleep through the night - finally).

All I can say is I am ready for the snip-snip! No mas! Love my kids, kid to be, and my wife, but time to halt this baby train...I'll keep you informed...

community groups

We finished up our summer events with our community groups. All told, we had 94 people be a part of these groups! That is so cool that we had that many people hanging out this summer!

As we head into the fall, we are looking at doing another event for each group in September. Again, this is a great chance to interact with other New Lifers. So when the dates are set, make sure you come on out!

don't quit!

We started a new series this week called Don't Quit! Started out the series with the idea that we have to Quit Looking For An Easy Life. Life is hard enough so quit looking for an easy life but understand that there is hope in a tough life.

Of course, our signs have caused quite a stir! Seems that some people have taken them to mean someone is protesting New Life! Still trying to figure that one out, but good conversations are coming out of that, so who cares!

This week? Keep Your Promises is the topic. Great topic, great message, great funny stuff, great music, just great stuff!

on to west virginia!

No, we are not moving to WV, but New Life may be entering new territory there. While at a convention this summer, a new church plant came to us and said, "We are starting a church in Charles Town and would like to use your sermons." Our response? "If you want to use our sermons, you should use our creative pieces too."

As the conversation went on, a partnership was born and either we will have a new campus in West Virginia (that although a campus would be its own entity) or be supporting a new church via our 'stuff'. VERY COOL!

God is working here at New Life! Are you along for the ride?

the big idea

When I remember it is on tv, I watch The Big Idea on CNBC with Donny Deutsch. I love the show because it is all about going beyond the norm. He brings in athletes, entertainers, political people and business people to talk about how they took their surroundings and what they were given to make something great of themselves. In most instances, especially recently, he has been focusing on people who have seen a need and taken their idea and made it a million dollar business.

Although the money sounds cool, the best part is hearing the stories of how others said, "Your product won't work. It stinks. You can't make it happen." Yet, these people believed in who they were and what they had to offer and made it happen.

What would happen in the church if we actually believed in Jesus being the savior of the world? How would that change the way we lived, the way we spent our money, the way we loved others, the way we impacted our communities, everything? And through it all, we never gave up. We kept pushing because we believed he idea was worth it and knew the reward was bigger than the idea itself, so we put the time and effort into it to change the world.

So, what's your big idea?

community groups

We had our 2nd installment of community groups on Sunday night. Our G-ville and Hmkt groups met up in their respective areas (rain dates). I know the Gainesville group had a great time, great food and a great baseball game that went on (plus, my wife and I had some free babysitting ! Thanks for entertaining our kids Travis and Amanda!). Although I have not heard yet, I am sure the Haymarket group went well too.

I hope as we offer more of these events, you will make sure to be a part of them. It is a great time to connect with others from New Life who live in your area.

Just great stuff!

coaching

Last night, I met with 5 of our Haymarket people to start a journey that I hope will impact us for days, weeks, months and years to come.

One thing churches don't do well is coach people to be successful in ministry and in life. We will teach classes on discipleship and how to make our lives better but we rarely work to help people every step of the way from that class. It ends up being more about the paper than about the actions.

So our journey begins here at Haymarket with coaching. This first group is what I would call the Guinea Pig group. We are going to work on, test, try and invent this coaching world for us. My prayer is that in the next 6 months, we will be on the road to making a difference in the lives of many people in many ways!

So stay tuned...

risk

This past Sunday morning, we talked about the game of Risk. Truth is we didn't really talk about taking a risk but how to make wise decisions based on the teachings of Jesus.

The cool part to the day was the crowd. It is vacation time around NOVA and for most of the summer, we have been lower than normal. I guess many people were back here in town. I say this tongue in cheek, but the room was packed out! Great vibe in the place! And lots of visitors. I am excited to see what happens as we head into the fall...

golf tourney

Yesterday, we held our 1st golf tournament for New Life in what I understand to be quite some time. We had 72 guys come out to play. Well, 71. One of the guys who jumped in to play was a guy who lives in Virginia Oaks who just asked if he could play. Sure, we got a spot!

The winning score was 10-under by the team led by our Dulles Campus Pastor - Mike Eppes. Yes, we are sure they cheated. My team finished in a tie for 2nd at 8-under with two other teams. We lost the putt-off.

Some of our guys did a great job and invited friends to come out so there were a lot of new guys hanging with us. And other guys saw - from other campuses - guys they worked with who they didn't know where at New Life.

Very cool day (although it was WAY HOT!). Looking forward to our next one in the fall...

2 weeks

Wow! It's been almost 2 weeks since my last post. I will get back to you this week...