Lift-Off: Reflections on the LifeGate Launch

This past Sunday we launched LifeGate Church with a bang.  Everything went smoothly.  For those of you who weren't able to be there, here are a few highlights of the day:

• 129 People in attendance
• 24 Children in our LG Kids program
• 32 Connection Cards
• 3 Brand New People who've already signed up for the Dream Team
• Most Importantly, 1 person who decided to follow Jesus and Enter a Whole New Way of Life.

It was amazing to witness a dream that I have had for 8 years unfold before my eyes.  All of the Dream Team performed at a top level.  LG Kids was a big hit with their "Rated Aaargh" pirate themed series.  It was great to see kids running around the hallways after church with their pirate eye patches.  Alea and the worship team rocked.  I got a ton of compliments on how great they sounded.  And our hospitality and usher teams were phenomenal.  

For pictures of the launch, visit the LifeGate facebook group page @ http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=65739340832

Now we get to do it all over again in 5 days.  I am so excited to see what God has in store for us.

Missionary Heroes

For those of you who don't know, one of my major fields of study in college was missions.  Since I was called to the ministry as a teenager I've felt like doing mission work was part of my calling.  For a while I thought that meant I would be living in a slum in India or some grass hut in the bush of Africa.  People who do overseas missions are some of my heroes.  Very few people have the guts to leave behind everything, immerse themselves in a strange new culture and invest their lives so that people from half a world away can know about Jesus.

My sister Sara, her husband Shaun and their daughter Abi are three heroes.  Tomorrow morning they'll be boarding an airplane in Atlanta to travel to Paraguay (for those of you who don't know, that's in South America between Bolivia, Brazil and Argentina) where they'll be managing an orphanage for the next couple of years.  I'm proud of them and excited about the work that they'll be doing.  If you want to find out more about their work you can check out their awesome blog at www.mortonmissions.blogspot.com.  

I've come to realize that all of us are called to be missionaries.  Most of us will never take the plunge and move overseas, but we can share the life-giving power of Jesus with the co-worker in the cubicle next to us.  

At LifeGate we are totally focused on the mission of Jesus to "Seek and Save What Was Lost" both here in Lexington and around the world.   We plan on sending teams across the planet to share the gospel of Jesus, sending financial support to missionaries in other nations, planting churches in the United States and encouraging you to step around the cubicle and introduce someone to the greatest news the world has ever heard.