Attitude

What is in an attitude? How important is attitude to how we live our lives? How do we change a negative attitude into a positive one and maintain that? These are the questions I posed to our youth last night, and one that I feel God has really put on my heart to pose to everyone who reads this blog.

Attitude is everything. It is who we are and what we are. It is what makes us...us. Next to accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior, I am not sure that there is anything more important in our walk with God than our attitude. It affects the way we worship, the way we pray, the way we witness, and the way we treat others. It is US!

Think about your attitude. Is it one that people are drawn to, or one that repels? Is it one that Christ smiles on or one that brings a tear to His eye? See God is very specific and detailed on how He wants us to conduct ourselves when in Matthew 22:37 He tells us to... "love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and with all your mind... and love your neighbor as yourself."

Is that you? Do you love your God with all that is in you? And if you have that part down, do you love your neighbor as yourself? See, that is who you are. That is your attitude.

I will admit it...I want to love and be loved. But the question is, "Is my attitude one that shows my love for others and one that others can love?' Think about that.

I love you!
Danny P

Thank You

Every year while planning Disciple Now we say, “There is no way this year’s D-Now can be as good as last year’s D-now” and every year we are wrong. D-Now just seems every year to get bigger and better than the year before. I can say with confidence that Disciple Now 2008 was the best ever. From the leaders, to the homes, to the band, to the speaker, it was all incredible. 2008 was also the biggest as far as numbers go with regards to students. We had approximately 120 students in 10 different homes form FBC alone. I want to send out a special thank you to all the families who opened up their homes to these kids. It is a huge undertaking to get things ready for that many kids to stay in your home, and it says a lot about the support our church has for our kids when families are willing to do that. So THANK YOU!
I also want to thank our youth. I hope FBC Baytown recognizes that we have perhaps the best kids on the planet right here in our church. They are amazing and teach me something new every day. These are kids that want to reach their community and the fact that so many of them bring so many friends to D-Now is a great indication of that. I love our youth so much and want to say thank you to them for making my job so much fun.
I also want to say thanks out to the co-host and Bible study leaders for each home. We had great Bible study leaders this year. While other churches are struggling to find leaders, we have abundance and that is a wonderful thing. We need young adults to show are kids the way and to teach them through words and action, how to live for Christ and the Bibles study leaders that we had in the homes this year did just that. Thanks you guys. I also want to thank the unsung heroes of D-now and that is the co-host. These folks have the job of: buddy, mentor, leader, disciplinarian, warden, and a number of other things. They are also the ones that have to stay up all night to make sure everyone goes to sleep. I want to thank these sleep deprived folks for their willingness to put themselves out there in so many ways to ensure that D-Now is safe and smooth. Thanks you all and I love you.
Now for the one that makes me look good. Jennifer, I could not do any of this without you (nor would I want to). You are my rock and my heart. I know that I get most of the credit when things go right, but I want to say publically how good YOU make me look. Whether it is being on the front line in the trenches taking care of all the organization, or sitting at home being such an amazing mother to Sydney and Quincy so that I can do the things I need to do, you are always willing and ready to serve. You keep me grounded and let me know when I am doing too much (or not enough) and I thank you so much for that. Thanks you for being so amazing and loving me so much. I LOVE YOU HONEY!
Believe it or not we have already begun to talk and plan about what we will do next year to make Disciple Now bigger and better. Some have already volunteered to be a part of D-Now 2009 and that is awesome and I thank you. I look forward to what God is going to do next year that will once again have us scratching our heads about how WE did it (Yea right…WE). May we always understand and acknowledge that without God leading the way we could do nothing. So I want to most importantly thank GOD for allowing us to do what we do here at FBC. Psalms 15:8 “Give thanks to the Lord, call on His name; Make known among the nations what He has done”.

In HIM,
Danny P.

The Swerve

It seems like I have been struggling with what to name our youth ministry that fits who we are and what we are about. We started with "Nailed Down". That is a cool name but I was not really feeling it. Then we went to "Refuge". Now that is a really cool name and says what I want our ministry to be to students, but there was something missing. So I started thinking. What is it that we want FBC Youth Minstry to stand for? How do we want it to be different from other youth ministries? THATS IT!! That's what we want it to be. We want it to be different. We want students to find help that perhaps they could not find anywhere else. We want to take them a differnet direction than the one the world is taking them.
THE SWERVE! Definition: to turn aside abruptly in movement or direction.
That is what we want to communicate to students. To turn away from the world and choose the right path. TO SWERVE! Let me know what you think of the new name!
Come see me! We love you!

Danny P.