Dave Bowman

Weekend Rewind

I know, I know...I'm a day late. Sorry. But here's a few thoughts on the weekend...

• Fun wrap up to the Crush single's series! Any time I get to drive a Porsche 911 it's a fun day!! And getting to drive it onto the stage and use it as a prop to illustrate the sermon is more fun than I should be allowed to have!!

• We wrapped up with Junk In The Trunk (hence, the car onstage). Everyone has junk - junk from our past...from our sin...from our relationships...and if we don't drag it out of the trunk and deal with it we'll just drive right into our relationships with it. And no matter how "high performance" your relationship might be, if you're carrying around a bunch of junk it will seriously drain the horsepower from your marriage.

• We kind of took a risk with this series. Sometimes when we do a targeted series like this there are folks who think, "This isn't for me," and they bail out. But we didn't see that happen with Crush. In fact, we got a lot of positive comments from married couples and parents, as well as singles.

• Oh, and by the way, we saw almost 20 people commit to Christ this weekend! And some of them are already signed up for baptism this coming weekend! Now that's what I'm talkin' about!! It just goes to show you that when God's word is preached, no matter what it is about, God's word always accomplishes its purpose.

• And speaking of baptism, DON'T MISS THIS COMING WEEKEND, as we celebrate our Freedom with the celebration of baptism. July 4th is usually a bail out weekend for lots of folks, but I want to encourage you to put the cookout off for a few hours and join us as we celebrate changed lives at New Horizon. 

• If you want to be baptized you can still register here. 

• See 'ya July 4th!!

Weekend Rewind

Yesterday was Father's Day. Not one of my favorite days on the calendar, for obvious reasons, but yesterday was a better one than I've had for the last few years. Here's a few thoughts on the day...

• Lots of folks out for the weekend. I think it was a combination of things - first full weekend after school was out and Father's Day. Another pastor commented on his blog that on Mother's Day moms drag the whole family to church. On Father's Day dads try to get everyone to stay home or go to the lake or skip church. Sad, but true.

• BUT...in spite of that we launched our new single's series entitled Crush yesterday and it was a blast!

• Why are we doing a single's series? Two reasons: 1) We have a lot of singles in our church and we want to make sure we are speaking to the issues that they face and deal with. 2) Because we want to make sure we all understand that singleness is a season that God may have us in for a reason.

• Yesterday we talked about the fact that if we're in the season of singleness we need to "Chill." Too often singles get so focused on what they don't have (someone to date, marry, etc.), they do anything and everything to "make it happen," when what they really need to do is "chill." Let God lead you through the process of finding the right person. The best thing some singles and engaged couples could do is SLOW DOWN...CHILL. Time is your friend not your enemy.

• Chilling out also gives you time to get clarity from God. One thing is sure - God wants you to get this right. This is the second most important decision you'll ever make, the first being your decision to follow Jesus. But the second is who you are going to spend your life with?

• We also did the "sex talk" yesterday. It was fun and tense at the same time. I had one mother who was sitting next to her teenage daughter tell me that when I asked how many married folks love sex and she raised her hand, her daughter grabbed her arm and held it down! Now that's funny!

• But here's the deal, singles - if you're involved sexually outside of marriage, you're just stunting the overall growth of your relationship and adding confusion to your decision-making process. AND IT'S SIN! (Don't want to forget to throw that in.)

• Finally, we talked about the fact that we all need advice from time to time and who we need to talk to at those times. Singles, whatever you do, DON'T GET ADVICE FROM YOUR SINGLE FRIENDS!! Find a man or woman who is older than you, loves Jesus and is committed to their spouse.

• Overall, lots of fun yesterday with a serious topic.

• AND...this proud grandfather has to say something about the feature song yesterday!! Arianna made her big church debut yesterday with the Taylor Swift song, "Love Story." I saw two things yesterday: First, I saw a lot of her mom in her, which was a good thing for me on Father's Day. Second, I saw her being herself. She's not a carbon copy of her mom, she's herself. And I'm very proud of who she's growing up to be.

• Looking forward to Pt. 2 next week - Junk In The Trunk. We're doing something next week that will be off-the-charts fun...something that some of you have never seen in church before...you don't want to miss it.

• Let me challenge you to get your friends here...single friends...married friends...teenage friends...student friends...'cause we're going to have a little something for everyone!

It's Friday...But Sunday's Comin'

And you don't want to miss this Sunday at New Horizon!

We're kicking off a new single's series called Crush and it's NOT a series designed to make you feel inadequate or as if there's something wrong with you just because you're single. We're going to unpack the scriptures together and find out how to move beyond the crush into enduring love that will rock your world.

And if you're married, DON'T THINK YOU DON'T NEED TO BE HERE! As usual, we're going to make sure we throw in something for EVERYONE!

I can't wait to dive in this weekend. It's going to be a blast! AND...we've got some things planned for the next two weeks that are OFF THE CHARTS FUN!!

So, GET HERE THIS WEEKEND! GET YOUR SINGLE OR MARRIED FRIENDS HERE! GET YOUR TEENAGER HERE! It's gonna rock! See ya' Sunday!!

Hey New Horizon...BIG NEWS!!!

I know I said I wouldn't be blogging this week, but I've got some BIG NEWS! Our church grew today...by one. Mason McDonald arrived on the scene today, with a lot of help from Lauren and virtually no help from Jamie. (Just kidding Jamie!) But as far as I'm concerned that's big enough news to break the blogging black out for the week. BIG CONGRATS TO JAMIE AND LAUREN!!!

And, while I'm here, let me remind you that Sunday's comin' and it's gonna ROCK! (I know I say that a lot, but trust me, Bridezillas is gonna rock!) 

And we've got something planned for the beginning of the service that you DON'T WANT TO MISS. So get here on time...get in your seat...and be ready for something you've never seen at a wedding before.

I can't wait!!

Blog Break

Taking a blog break this week. Be back next week. Same bat-time, same bat-channel. In the meantime, catch me on Twitter at davebowmanonlin. See 'ya!