Anniversary number 22

So right now I am sitting in the Denver International Airport with some great friends and my best friend @susiewirth.  Susie and I are celebrating our 22nd wedding anniversary and our friends @darrenpearson and @Jplovesdp4ever AKA Julie are celebrating their 23rd wedding anniversary.This got me thinking what does an anniversary represent?  Sure they are milestones in our lives but they are so much more. Here is my quick list of things I have experienced with the greatest woman in the world, my wife of 22yrs, Susie Wirth.  I love you baby.

• 2- amazing children Ashlyn and Anthony
• 3- miscarriages (we will see each of these precious babies one day)
• 7- missions trips 
• 22- incredible Christmas vacations
• 4- different ministries all in which she supported me in a huge way
• 4- home building projects 3 of which we lived with my parents for 6 months (WOW)
• 1- almost devastating failure on my part that almost cost us our marriage
• countless youth camp bus trips that lasted hour upon hour
• 8030 amazing days
• 192720 incredible hours
• 11,563,200 unforgettable minutes
• 693,792,000 priceless seconds

With a life like this I know why the Bible say this in Proverbs

Proverbs 18:22 (NLT)
The man who finds a wife finds a treasure and he receives favor from the Lord.


I am that man.  Feeling truly bless tonight.  Can't wait to spend a week in Vegas with her celebrating.

It's Been A While

Hello Blog.  I had almost forgotten that you existed until someone recently told me that you were still around.  For some reason almost 5 years ago I started this blog as a way of expressing everything that I was feeling as a person and a church planter.  This was going to be the place that I would share with the world everything that God was teaching me as a person and as a leader, I was pumped.  But then writing everyday became difficult and then writing 5 days per week became difficult, then I said I will just do three days per week and finally I just quit.  In fact when I looked at the last time that I posted anything on this blog I realized that if I would have just waited another month it would have been 4 years since I wrote anything at all on here.  It is not as if I have been abducted by aliens for the past 4 years or something.  It is just that Life and ministry has just gotten busy and I have gotten lazy.

This got me thinking that maybe my laziness in my blogging is no different that many peoples spiritual journey.  We all start out saying I am all in for Jesus and we sign up and show up for everything.  Then we begin to sign up far more than we show up for stuff and finally church becomes something that we used to do but now it has been 4 years since we have gone and we are not sure why.  We liked going and we even liked the people but somehow life just got too busy and one week turned to one month and that turned to one year and so on.

So this post is one of questions more than answers for both my blog and our spiritual lives?

1. What are things that make a blog worth doing and a blog worth reading?


2. What do you do when you feel like you want to quit writing?

Now to the spiritual questions:

1. What are things that make following Jesus and being part of a spiritual community worth it?


2. What do you do when you feel like quitting spiritually?

Backpacks of Hope

BACKPACKS OF HOPE-

Our Backpacks of Hope campaign is in full swing and the money and supplies are pouring in right now. Just last night I received confirmation from Bic Pens that they are going to supply every child with pens and pencils. WOW! Yeah God!! Also, this week one of our member while "On Mission with God" in their work setting, told a client about Backpacks of Hope and the client was so moved that he took out his checkbook and wrote a check for $500 without batting an eye. THAT JUST PUMPS ME UP!!!! Also, last week in church someone who was a guest for the first time who is still not sure about this whole Jesus thing decided to invest in someone else and give $10 for a backpack. AMAZING!

I spoke with Mr Pepe this week at BT Washington Elementary and he was just overwhelmed that we would adopt their school this year and provide backpacks and more for every student. For those of you who do not know much about BT Washington Elementary. It is the only "D" rated elementary school in the city of Tampa, which means that most of the students are one or two grade levels behind in most of their subjects especially reading. Our goal is to develop a long term relationship with this school to help kids and families that are marginalized by society in general and help them begin to realize their God given potential.

So far we have collected about $1500 of the $5000 that we need to pay for the backpacks.

I am asking that everyone give at least $20 above their regular giving to help pay for these backpacks for the kids of Booker T Washington. If you can give more that would be great as well. You can give on Sunday in the regular offering or you can go to www.relevantchurch.com and click on the giving link and give through our secure online giving.

"VS" Update

I hope that all of you have had a great week. I am now thick in the throws of football and loving every minute of it. Sometimes as a pastor you can get caught up in the business of the church and forget that there is a whole city out there who does not connect with the church. Not because they do not like Jesus but because they have never seen Jesus in the lives of the people who claim to follow Him. Coaching football allows me to be a regular guy and rub shoulders with people outside of the religious bubble.

Last week I had a compliment from someone who was watching me coach football. This person said "Paul when you are coaching you are just a coach and you get after kids just like any coach I have ever seen". Well for me I knew what he meant. He was saying you did not have your pastor face on out on the football field but everyone still knew who you were. As a Follower of Jesus we do not have to wear the Jesus t-shirts and carry a Bible around with us everywhere we go for people to know it. Who we are should shine through in the everyday circumstances of our daily lives. The problem with this idea is that there is a battle raging within us to keep us from accomplishing this sort of life. That is what our new series has been about and that is why we called is "VS" VERSUS. Because there is always a choice in our life that we have to make as to who we will serve and the type of person we will be.

I look forward to seeing all of you this weekend as we continue our series "VS". This week we will be looking at the topic of Going to A Church "VS" Being THE Church. I think coupled with what we discussed last week about Doing Missions VS Living on Mission With God, this weekend is really going to give us some traction for where God is leading us. This series is taking Relevant to another level in our commitment to Jesus and our commitment to our community. Make sure that you invest and invite someone to come with you this Sunday.