The great American holiday is upon us and we certainly all have a great deal of stuff to be thankful for. I know I do:
~ I’m thankful for the Christ I serve. It’s not the easiest thing in the world to do… (sometimes working this closely with people can be a bit trying) but it does bring joy. In fact, Time magazine recently posted a list of occupations that bring people the most happiness and the Clergy ranked the highest with 67% saying that there are very happy each day. I think I would rank myself and my happiness much higher than that even!
~ I’m thankful for my family. I really do have the greatest wife on the planet. She’s quite patient with me and loves me even on those days when I’m a little less caring than I should be. I have three great boys. They are smart, kind, caring and fun. My extended family is a great blessing to me (most of the time). I’m blessed
~ I’m thankful for my Westbrook family. The staff that I serve with is second to none. Other Pastor friends think they have great staff… but deep down I know ours is the best. I love our church. Sure we’ve dealt with some challenges recently, but God’s grace has been sufficient for us to endure each little thing. By that same grace we will continue to march forward as we fulfill the dream that God has planted within us.
~ I’m thankful for my friends. I hang out with some great people outside of my church relationships. Some of them are very lost spiritually, but I love them just the same. What they don’t know is that I pray for them the whole time we are hanging out. I also have friends that are very spiritually in tune. My life is blessed with both groups of people!
I could go on and on… suffice it to say I will be mindful of all of my blessings today and the rest of this weekend.
What about you? What are you thankful for?

Well here I am down in Dallas at a Mosiax Global Network Founders Retreat. I’m actually sitting at a kitchen table at a remote ranch in the north Dallas area. Kind of reminds me of the old TV show of the same name. I couldn’t log on until a techie guy from Louisville turned his wireless signal into a wireless router for all of us to use. Very cool. So here I sit next to Mark DeYmaz as we listen to a bunch of passionate people talking about taking this amazing new network to the church, blogging about what is going on. One of the books that I will be pushing on this blog is Mark’s new book that he has put out with Leadership Network~ Building a Healthy Multi-ethnic church. Check it out. Mark is a great friend, a passionate and capable communicator and a great practitioner of this plea.

I’m off to Dallas for a few days to meet with the founders of the Mosaix Global Network, (see post below) Mark DeYmaz and George Yancey. The task at hand is to put the finishing touches on making this amazing new network come to life. I really believe that this budding association is going to be one of the key works of the church in the decades to come. As our country becomes increasingly more multi-cultural so must our churches. I’ll be sure to blog about this Founder’s Retreat when I get home. Please keep me in your prayers!

Here’s an issue that no one really likes to bring up or discuss but an issue of importance none the less in the Multi-cultural environment: Multi-racial dating and marriages! What is your emotion when you see a mixed race couple?
Years ago, it was certainly less prevalent than it is today and for many it was an issue that didn’t seem right. Why would a black man and a white woman marry? How did they get together, when their lives and backgrounds are so different? Shouldn’t they consider how difficult it will be for their children and the stigma that they will have to deal with?
You know, all of these concerns just never made any sense to me! I personally could never understand how people could think that way and why they believed that way. But it certainly was an underlying thought for many in our nation. In fact I remember about 11 years ago when a guy called the Westbrook office one day and asked if a mixed-race couple could come to our church. Of course my answer was – “Heaven’s YES!”. They came and today we probably 20-30 mixed race couples in our church. In fact three of our staff families are mixed – race. Listen folks, we are one in Christ, whether Gentile or Jew, slave or free, black or white. I think it was the Apostle Paul who said that. This is the world we live in and this is the world that we need to accept to be the body of Christ