As soon as Nehemiah has spoken the words of confession in his prayer to God, he asks God to "Remember" his promises to the people of Israel that he would restore them if they returned to him. In this message, I look at why returning to God is important, and what it requires. Download Now …
Leadership Summit 2005 Day 1.1
For the past few days, my wife and I have been attending the Leadership Summit at Willow Creek Community Church, one of the largest churches in North America. I've been to four of these conferences now, and each time I go, I end up getting motivated to be a better leader, to try harder, to rely on …
Summit 2005 is over
The Willow Creek Leadership Summit 2005 is over, and I have to tell you that it was an incredible experience as usual. A little different from previous years in a couple respects, but powerful nonetheless. I promised you that I would blog my thoughts, and I'll keep my word, it's just that I need to …
Blogging the Leadership Summit
During the next couple of days, my wife and I will be attending the Willowcreek Leadership Summit in their hip, happenin', brand-spankin' new Barrington campus. I still can't believe how much we are spending for these next few days, but honestly, when I consider how much my motivation level goes …
Email Notification Updated
Well, I thought it was time to update the ol' email feature of my site. Now, you should get nice and pretty emails like this one! …
028-03b — We Seek God’s Face
_This last Sunday, I wasn't able to preach because of my trip to New Jersey; however, I prepared a small group discussion guide to help the people in my congregation think through what it means to seek God's face._ Here it is... # The Challenge I want to thank those of you who've been …
Updated Email Notification Plugin
Something that has bothered me for a while is the [email notification plugin](http://watershedstudio.com/portfolio/software/wp-email-notification.html) for wordpress not being able to handle markdown... Well, I fixed that! I also added a feature for you to create an "email template" file. It's …
Tribute To A Farmer
_My dad, Mark Mikels, pastor of [Sonlife Community Church][1] wrote these words as a tribute to my grandpa, his father-in-law._ [1]: http://www.sonlifecommunitychurch.com # Tribute To A Farmer # God must surely have a special place in his heart (and in His Kingdom) for farmers! He placed …
Grandpa Spencer died this week
On Tuesday, August 2, 2005, my grandfather, John Spencer, went to be with the Lord. He had been struggling with illness for some time, and just this last week was granted final relief from the God whom he served throughout his life. I didn't know my grandfather anywhere as well as I wish that I …
I’m pretty bad at fasting
# I'm pretty bad at fasting... # Well, today is the first Tuesday of the month, and that means it is a day for fasting and prayer. I got started off on the wrong foot completely! This morning, as is our custom, my wife prepared some cereal for our children, and by the time I made it out to …
2005-08-01
MyJournal -- 08/01/2005 For the past few days, I haven't been spending the time to do my 30 minutes a day. Oh, sure, I have an excuse or two, but they aren't really good. Last Thursday, I was leading the wedding reception for Jonathan Kaushal, and that went from about 6:30 pm until about 11:00 …
Fancy Export Plugin
I've just modified the WordPress "Fancy Export" plugin that can be found here... http://www.semiologic.com/projects/fancy-excerpt/ The plugin was working fine, but it crashed on a couple of my posts, so I've modified it. The code is here. Fancy Export Plugin (modified) ---- …
028-03 — We Turn From Sin
To listen or download this message, click here: We Turn From Sin # What's Going On? # Yesterday, I gave a message to my congregation, and afterward, a friend of mine who was visiting, said, "Jeff, you've got kahoonas!" (Can I say that on a "pastor's" website? --- yeah, sure!) It was all …
2005-07-18
# MyJournal --- 7/18/05 10:48 pm # Today God helped me to accomplish a few things for the church plant. The major thing that I was able to do was to set up a dynamic graph that will automatically display our current support level according to two .csv files on our webserver. It's something …
2005-07-17
MyJournal -- 7/17/05 10:17 pm These past few days, God has been showing me that I need to take this spiritual renewal thing seriously. I have been focusing so many of my energies on the practical aspects of ministry. What I'm doing and what the church is doing and what other people are doing and …
2005-07-22
MyJournal --- 7/22/05 8:14 pm Things have gone pretty well for me today. Since it was a day off, I didn't do that much, but I actually felt like today was just the same as any other day. In fact, I have begun to worry that I don't have enough separation between my hobby life and family life and …