Kevin Presseault

We're back from our little family vacation. We had such a wonderful time of relaxing and just spending time together connecting as a family. We played games, went to beach, watched movies (my kids are now Back to the Future junkies!), read books, and just enjoyed all the blessings God poured out on us that week. I spent some great time with God and I'm really excited by all that I see him doing in my life privately and what I see happening at our church. I really feel that God is going to do some great things. One of the things that hit me in my quiet time is how grateful and thankful am I of the previous church were I served as the associate pastor. While studying the book of Colossians I was reminded of one of the qualities of the senior pastor that greatly admired. He was really great at keeping us on track to love and pray for people. He wouldn't let us as a staff get frustrated and annoyed with people but always pulled us back to love and pray for everyone. I RE...

WOW!!! This was the kind of week that really PUMPS ME UP as a church leader! I was meeting with leaders from our church, leaders in the community, leaders from leading nation wide ministries, members from our church and people from the community. And all I can say about all of it is: WOW!!! God has some pretty big plans for us as a church this fall. I'm so excited and encouraged by all the wonderful comments and feedback from everyone I'm talking with. I'm so excited to put our regroup efforts into place to really help us be a church that is bringing Jesus to people! I'm so excited.... and so humbled to be part of such a loving and passionate group of people. Next week I'm relaxing all alone with my wife and kids. I'm so looking forward to just hanging and playing with them next week. Then when we get back it will be to hit the ground running! Talk to you then!

Late last night as I was sitting in the hot tube (yes... I spend a lot of time in the hot tube when I stay with my parents... LOVE IT!) all the lights were off and I was staring up into the sky. The night was perfectly clear and the beauty of the stars was just filling the sky! I could see the Milky Way stretching from one end of the sky to the other. It was just amazing to be still in the water and take in the wonders of God's creation! Then my parents and I sat back in our lawn chairs to watch a meteor shower. We only saw about 5-6 shooting stars... but it was pretty cool anyways. This week has been great for getting a bunch of writing done and sermons prepped. I was so thankful for the chance to be here and just take in all of God's awesomeness! I was reminded of this... How awesome is the LORD Most High, the great King over all the earth! - Psalm 47:2 Looking forward to heading home in the morning!

One thing about being up at my parent's place is the very weird and realistic dreams I have here. Maybe it's all the fresh country air or my blood being thinned out from all the time in the hot tube... not sure what it is but had an awesome dream the other night. I dreamed we were just about to start our Sunday celebration service at LifeSpring. We meet in the community room of a local hockey arena that can sit around a hundred. Well, in the dream, just before we started, a few guests started showing up... and then more... and then even more. While the worship team started even more showed up that I was running around setting up chairs for everyone! I was preaching on the Greatest Commandment (which I'm actually doing this coming Sunday) and during the message ALL of the 200+ visitors accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour! Then we spent the afternoon baptising all these people and then trying to get all of them into LifeGroups to meet during the week! Prett...

I'm up north at my mom's place with the kids this week... they are enjoying a fun filled week with their grandparents while I enjoy the quietness of this place to get a lot of writing done! I'm hoping to get a research paper for school finished and get a few sermons done for the spring. Both projects are a blast but are really frying my brain! :) That's why I'm thankful for the quiet, forest surroundings here... and the hot tub (which I'm going to jump in as soon as I'm done writing this!) A part of me loves getting into the books and studying some tough stuff that Scripture brings out... but there's another part of me that wants to write my own book and call it "Who Cares??" I'm writing my paper on 1 Timothy 2:12 (Google it if you don't know it and you can imagine the arguments that this stirs up!) With all the opinions on egalitarians and complementarians I just can't help but wonder if it really matters... I mean... really....

I recently read that the average church in North America allocates about 5% of their total budget on Missions and Evangelism. The rest of the money goes to pay staff and buildings and equipment and programs for church members like children and youth. I can't help but wonder what would the world look like if we flipped that around... what if 95% of our church budgets went to reaching out to a lost and hurting world? What if our programs were not just about building ourselves up but were all about teaching us to obey everything that Jesus commanded so that we would go and make disciples of all the nations? What if 95% of churches' money was being poured back into our communities through the lives of people radically transformed by the message, power and love of Jesus Christ? I wonder what that would look like... probably like the church I read about in my Bible.

Tonight I went to the funeral of a man named Bill. I didn't know him well... in fact, I barely knew him at all... just a few meetings regarding some ministry possibilities... but there was something about this guy that really prompted me to want to pay my respects when I learned that he passed away last week. I was reminded of a lot of different things tonight listening to story after story of the influence that Bill had on the lives of so many man. First, God can use anyone for his glory! Bill wasn't perfect... but he had a huge love for his Savior and Lord. That love was his driving force for seeing as many men as possible coming to faith in Christ and grow in their relationship. He knew of his own need for forgiveness and shared that passionately with others around him. He didn't have a seminary degree, or ministry training or the latest technology or ministry know how... he just loved God so much... and God has been using that love for his glory and to impact hundr...