“Good Enough” 

I loathe this phrase…good enough??? By whose standards? This is a term I have been working hard to erase from my hard drive and from the vocabulary of those on our team. The term good enough is always thrown around when you get tired of working or creating. It’s thrown around as an excuse and it is an open admittance that the task or the project you are working on will not receive your BEST effort. 

I think the church world in general has often had the “good enough” approach and it’s time for that to end…Are you settling for good enough? 

Clifton Park is starting to be a legit place to get some great food…I am loving all of the new restaurants, cafe’s and stores that are popping up! Here are some of the new one’s I am excited about!

Shane’s Rib Shack - For us Northerners this is sweet because we don’t have anything that resembles anything close to good ol’ Souther BBQ.

Five Guys - Burgers and Fries at their finest…seriously, i went there with Buddy a couple of months ago in NJ and it is unreal. My prayers have been answered with this place however now I have to add an extra day or two a week to my gym schedule. Worth it.

Moe’s - Welcome to Moe’s…enough said.

However the best thing coming to Clifton Park is coming this weekend!! Northway Church - Malta is movin in with our peeps in CP…I can’t wait to be a part of this quasi-reunion!!

Today I had the privilege of hanging out with Marty Holman. This dude gets it! It’s so refreshing and exciting to get to hear what God is doing and shaping at Fellowship Church. I have known Marty for close to 10 years now and have watched him mostly from a far as he has progressed through his years of ministry. Marty has worn a bunch of different hats, from Worship Pastor to Exec. Pastor and now he has his shot at being the Lead Pastor of Fellowship Church in Holden Mass. He is leading a church that is thriving in New England. With so many other talented peeps forgoing the Northeast for other parts of the country I am glad guys like Marty have stuck it out up here and are getting it done! Stop by Marty’s blog and give him some love!

Check out Buddy’s blog for his take on the miracle that was yesterday!

Yesterday…well really the last two days but especially yesterday were unbelieveable. It was our last weekend at out Shops of Malta location. We are consolidating Malta into our Clifton Park location for the next 18 months while we build a permanent home for our Malta location.

 This weekend was bittersweet, that space in the corner of a shopping plaza is holy ground. Peoples lives have been changed for eternity there…my life in ministry has been molded there…I have laughed, cried, and everything in between there. I am going to miss  the smell of chinese food wafting in from next door and as I am unexplainably going to miss setting up my office in the church nursery every morning.

The next chapter is beginning in the story that is Northway Church…I was talking to Buddy today about how it feels like we are just starting again. There is a refreshing sense of adventure and awareness of the presence of God amongst our community. The great Theologians Semisonic once wrote “every new beginning comes from some other beginning’send”…I remember 5 years ago and “the” beginning but I am stoked and ready for our new beginning. This past weekend was literally a miracle…I will share more about that tomorrow.

What is your favorite memory or what do you think about when you remember our Shops of Malta location?

So today I laid on a doctor’s office table and got this warm gel put on my stomach and then a nurse moved a device around my stomach…they didn’t find a baby. They did take some pics of my liver which seemed fairly interesting and I will hopefully get some positive results back that say my enzymes were just having a bad day when I had blood work done a couple weeks ago. I actually went to the doctor last week for the first time in 10 years…hence a bunch of tests and other doctor’s I have to go and visit. I will write more about that experience next week. I have a new appreciation for the stuff my wife has had to go through over the past couple of months, I’m just glad that there wasn’t a kid in there. 

I love Seth Godin’s Blog…seriously I have a problem. I am addicted to it. His quirky humor and visionary anecdotes about marketing and sales keep me coming back for more. I came across a post that I thought was definitely worth your read. The post is called “The Power of Remarkable” and you can check it out here. 

After reading the post, what is so remarkable about your company, church, or life that keep people coming back for more? Do socks really have to match? What do you think?

Last night after hitting the gym for a crazy shoulder work out and then painting a wall at our CP location (shout out to all the people making CP into a sweet looking place where people kind find God) I headed over to Buddy’s house to join a bunch of the guys from our staff to partake in our annual NBA Finals viewing. Buddy up’d the event this year by adding different Basketball events at the end of each quarter and at halftime complete with Gift Cards for the winners. Now, Buddy always claims to be undefeated at Horse on his homecourt…well let’s just say I have a Best Buy gift card that states otherwise. Yeah Baby.

I remember 5 years ago when I was talking with Buddy about joining the Northway team, I remember him specifically saying that Basketball skills were one of the requirements to be on the team…Ummm we must not be stating that in our interview process anymore because as much as I love the guys on our staff, we might have the worst collection of hoop players on any staff in America…well maybe not the worst but definitely the most humorous. I can’t remember the last time I laughed that hard. 

The Celtics looked unreal last night and I am excited for them…it was cool to see Paul Pierce win a title after sticking with the same team for all the years he has…Ray Allen is a classy dude and Garnett well he had the most interesting interview after a finals victory ever…all I could understand was something about his mom and someone named Peanut.

Tonight I am hitting up Yankee Stadium…I don’t like that Yanks, in fact I love the Sox which means that even if I wanted to like the Yanks I couldn’t. I did however want to see a game in Yankee Stadium before they tear it down and open their new park next year. 

• Friday night we went up to Lake George…I love that we live so close to touristy spots. Sometimes I take that for granted. God’s creation is unreal.
• I went golfing Saturday morning…I love golfing more then it loves me…had a ton of fun inspite of my score.
• Today is my first father’s day being a dad…well I guess it’s not really an offical holiday for me quite yet. However even though I won’t be able to hold my little girl for another month the fact of the matter is that she has already cost me a bunch of money so I think I am gonna go ahead and take this as my first Father’s Day.
• Today was awesome…steak, my wife and I both sitting on the edge of the couch as Tiger made a crazy put to force a playoff in the U.S.Open and the NBA Finals just came on.
• We continued One Prayer today and Ed Young brought it…I mean brought it…WAKE UP CHURCH…wow. God spoke to me big time today.
• My Dad freaking rocks…over the years our relationship has grown a ton. We are pretty much the same people however he’s got me on the wisdom thing. His wisdom is unreal. I love you man and I can’t wait to watch you in action as a grandpa.
• I am back to blogging this week…sorry for the break but it was needed.
• Happy Father’s Day…I really think it is the most under the radar holiday on the calendar.