I could not be more impressed with the training I am receiving from Harvest Bible Chapel. From Tuesdays - Thursdays, the other three church planters and I meet with Harvest staff from 8:30-5:30 while they impart their knowledge, humility, wisdom, practicality, simplicity, and "Harvest DNA." We have read several books thus far including Humility and Why Small Groups by C.J. Mahaney as well as Simple Church by Rainer and Geiger. After we read these, we discuss them and how to implement their big ideas. Another excellent thing we have been doing is real-life case studies, administered by David Jones and Gordon Zwirkoski, so that we can hone our shrewdness abilities with leadership and the non-voting consensus aspect of elder boards. They unveil tough situations in the church in stages and we interact and discuss what should be done, but we have to convince one another, biblically, that our suggestion is the correct one, thus, consensus. It is a very healthy way to work through difficult scenarios, and these things really happened. Another privilege has been meeting with Pastor James MacDonald on mulitple occasions as he prepares his sermons. Last week, for instance, when he preached 1 John 2:1-14, we worked with him on the outline, observing what he considers and how he structures his sermon so the text is communicated in the best possible form and with the most precise and meaningful words and illustrations. He is a great man who has much delight in pouring his experience into us young pastors.

Today, we look forward to working on sermon prep with David Jones, the leader of the Harvest Training Center for Church Planting. It'll be an all day event focused on the second half of 1 John 2. David was the associated editor on the translation committee for the ESV Bible! He's a genius and digging in the Word with him is really insightful.

The Asheville sermon went really well, though the flights there were rough because of O'hare flooding and more air traffic because of re-routed Ike air traffic. I made it though and had the joy of spending a lot of time with my parents who made the drive west. Northview Church is a great church with a great pastor, Russ Johnson, who is here with us in Elgin doing the 6-week pastoral residency program. His church, upon his return, will transition into a Harvest. I never have been at a more welcoming church. The people at Northview really love. Very compelling and certainly Christlike!

A neat nugget of Bible insight - the word for "sound doctrine" in the Epistles comes from the Greek word "hygenos" (where we get hygiene). Therefore, the word picture of clean and healthy thought about God which causes further healthiness. The opposite comes from the Greek word from which we get our word, gangrene - a deteriorating flesh disease. How's that for a word picture? Harvest Raleigh will be all about hygenos!

I hope all is well and healthy with each of you! Keep spreading the word about Harvest Raleigh (but not more than you're spreading the word about Jesus!).

Pastor mike