Making an M&M

I really like m&m's, especially Peanut m&m's (the plain one's are just a little too sweet). I pick my favorite NASCAR driver based on who drives the m&m's sponsored car. It might be a little bit of a stretch, but m&m's excite me, so much so that I thought it only appropriate to celebrate my 200th post by talking about them!

In the past month at Grace, M and M has a new meaning

M eeting PEOPLE where they are
M oving PEOPLE to where God wants them to be.

The new statement captures the purpose of Grace Church since it was organized back in 1970. We just finished a month-long message series dissecting what Grace Church has been and continues to be all about. If you weren't able to attend any of the services or hear the messages, you need to check them out. I keep harping on how God's doing something in our midst unlike anything I've ever seen and He just keeps adding more and more to it. Go Berean on me and check with other Grace-folk and see if it's just me.

February was a good month, but I almost forgot about the journey that started on June 20, 2006 that got us to where we are today.

Having closed on the 12.5-acre property purchase in the Fall of 2005, Pastor Scott and I had been working on creating the process we would follow to lead us in figuring out how God wanted to make use of the newly acquired property for the sake of His Kingdom. We'd recently connected with Rich, who's involved in a local ministry, helping them with strategic planning etc. and Scott asked me to meet with him. We had breakfast together on June 20, 2006.

Most of what Rich shared was a 60-minute review of my Master's program, but material that had gotten fragmented in the deep recesses of my mind. While the restaurant didn't serve any chocolate candies that melt in your mouth, not in your hand, little did I know that our breakfast would chart the course for the next eight months or the role chocolate would play down the road.