Pimp'n My Ride

I like my music. I like my music clear. I like my music loud! So it made sense to upgrade my factory car stereo with a better one (did you know that most speakers installed in your car from the factory cost on average of about $1).

So I bought some speakers, an amp, and a sub-woofer off the Internet thinking I could install them myself. Buzz! Wrong-answer. So I did what I always do when I start a car project and get way in over my head. I call "The Man", Bill Gibson for help!!!

Bill was his normal gracious self and agreed to help me. He had access to a heated garage in Dover so we met there last Saturday. It had all the makings of a "chop-shop". I drove up to a back alley, the shop door opened, I raced the car inside and the door quickly shut. I seriously felt like Nicolas Cage in "Gone in 60 Seconds".

So "we" got right on the job of running speaker wire to the front doors. The picture below describes my involvement best on these types of projects. I stand on watch Bill perform his magic!

Bill is a perfectionist and does the job right. In order to get the wire run from the trunk to the front doors, we had to remove the front seats. YIKES, this job is getting complicated. The next thing I know we are removing the driver-side door... I mean removing it completely!!!!

Such precise work and detail takes just the right tools!

Of course the job took a lot longer than we thought it would. I got in hot water with my wife for missing a ball game and Bill was late bring supper home to his family. But when it was all said and done, I had a kick'n stereo installed in my ride!

Many thanks go to Bill for sticking with it and doing such a great job. Oh, and also my sidekick, Jeff, was there helping me help Bill. At the very end, Jeff was inside the car sleeping while we were working in the trunk!

Big Church - Lots of Money

NOT!

Lots of people think that big churches have lots of excess money. They think that big churches have lots of people which means lots of money to do lots of whatever the church wants.

Let me share with you some reasons why this is not the case.

Big churches have big visions which takes big dollars! At NewPointe we have lots and lots of ideas about how to "Lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ". We not only have a lot of ministries happening within our walls, but we also have a lot opportunities to reach people in our community as well as in the world (i.e. Iraq and Egypt). All of these initiatives take significant funding.

Big churches are typically growing and attracting people who have never been to church before. So a good portion of the people are new to the faith and don't yet understand the spiritual discipline of tithing.

At NewPointe we are indeed blessed with an unbelievable building. It is a great tool to reach people. It also takes a lot of money to maintain.

Just like you have to watch that you don't spend more than you make, at NewPointe we do the same thing. At the end of 2007 we worked really hard on putting together a budget for 2008. Most people would be surprised to know how hard we had to cut items in the budget to make our expenses match our revenue. We manage every dollar we spend with a very critical eye.

While we work hard to manage our money at NewPointe and don't have "lots of money" laying around, we do not view money as a problem. We believe NewPointe is God's work and He will provide the resources needed to make it happen. Its really all His to begin with.

Let me wrap-up by telling you a quick story. This past year was our first year in the new building and we really weren't sure how to budget for all these new expenses. Plus, all the experts told us that our offerings would drop for the first couple of years. So even after we cut as much as we could out of the budget, we were still expecting to fall short by $265,000. For most of the year we were tracking right on budget. However in the last two months of the year God showed up in an unbelievable way. When the final offerings were tallied, we received $268,000 more dollars than we were expecting. Which meant instead of finishing in the red, we finished in the black by $3,000.

Wow! This is one of the most fantastic God moments I have ever experienced. Its like God sent us a message, "Hey, this is My work and I'll provide the resources you need. Just keep being obedient to what I am asking you to do as a church!"

God is at work at NewPointe!!!

Charlie Bit Me!

This is a family favorite that I just have to share with you. I'm not sure why we like it so much. I guess because it just "cute". See if you agree.