The internet on my computer is down,but I had to find myself on another computer to share with all who will listen about yesterday’s service.  It was Fellowshipable!  Not sure if this is a word, but go with me.

Before the service I thought we were going to get hammered in attendance because so many people have been on vacation and doing their thang, so I brought a few members of the team together (Al and Billy) and told them that no matter how many people we have in this room, we will do what God would want us to do if the room was packed.  Then I prayed with them, and felt much better. 

But alas, it’s not just that the room was packed, but the spirit in the room was unbelievable.  It was electric!  Here are some of the highlights of the morning service for me:

*We finished the “One prayer” series.  This has been amazing and couldn’t have finished on a better note.
*The band, led by Al, had a smooth sound yesterday right off the bat.  They started the service with a jazzy blues jig, and never slowed down.
*Going up to welcome our attenders for that day, and just watching more and more people come in the door.  I wonder if North Point has (relatively speaking) thousands of people coming in late.  Just to let everyone know, our service really does start at 10:30 am now.
*Getting to worship (with music) without being distracted by a whole lot going on.
*The Production team played this video that showed all the churches participating in One Prayer this year. 

I have been saying all along that 1,200, then 1,300, then 1,400, then 1,500 churches were along for the ride, but seeing it scroll in front of them made those numbers come to life!

*The crowd cheering two times in that video:  When Fellowship Church’s name scrolled by, and at the end of the video. 

*Craig’s message or his prayer for the church was “Make us one” and all I can say was how it evidently impacted our church.  Even on video it connected in a way that was clear by the end of the service.

*Our church commiting in their prayer and singing to be one in heart and purpose.  POWERFUL!

*At the end of the service during the last two songs, I went to an office and knelt down and prayed for our church.  Then the band played and for the first time ever, I couldn’t hear Al and the band – only the church as a whole. 

*You need to know that several people in our church community gave up their time to serve on Saturday in the spirit of One Prayer and picked up trash to give back Tacoma St in Worcester for the kingdom of God.  We prayed together, and had a great time too.  Here are some pics:
 

So this was my weekend.

*Next week, we’ll have the “Party in the Park”.  Our morning service will be outside at 10:30 am!  Save for rain of course.  Bring a blanket or a chair, and invite some friends.  Afterwards we’ll have a potluck dinner with your choice of games or talking or whatever you want to do!

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If you’ve been reading Martyholman.com for very long (more than 3 weeks lets say), you know that I have recently changed the theme of my blog to this cool gray/white layout with disturbing bright red picture.  I like it.  I’ve received some good feedback as well.  Along with the blog change I’ve tried to make some changes on the widgets as well to best utilize my space for those who read the site.  One of the reasons for this was because I had my site graded here, and it didn’t do very well initially.  My old address did, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the reason it did well is because it’s a WordPress domain name, and let’s just say that Martyholman.com, though it has promise, is not quite as dressed up as it should be, internally and otherwise.

So I’m looking for some advice from bloggers and computer type people (this means you Eric) who will share what I might be able to do to improve the blog. 

Also, I need help dressing all my link colors in red.  I have no clue how to do this, and it appears that my link colors (the colors the words become when I link them to a site) do both red and black.  But you can’t always tell when the color is black because it’s only slightly more bold than before.  So I need all the links in red. 

Any advice anyone could give me would be appreciated.

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This weekend is our last weekend of “One Prayer” at Fellowship Church in Holden.
Tomorrow we will be going out as a church community to serve by claiming a street for the Kingdom of God and cleaning up the trash on that street.
On Sunday we’ll be hearing a message from Craig Croeschel of LifeChurch.tv, as he prays his one prayer for the church at large – “Make us One”  Here are two examples of some of the excellent things Craig has done in his community and beyond.
For those of you who have been a part of One Prayer, both at the FC or elsewhere,
I’d love to hear your thoughts on how it’s impacted you.

SUNDAY MORNINGS @ FELLOWSHIP  (10:30 am)
325 BULLARD ST.
HOLDEN, MA 01520
fellowshipthis.wordpress.com

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Carie and I love to play the game Boggle.  Okay, I love to play the game Boggle and Carie tolerates it. So I got this idea.  What about seeing who in the Martyholman.com world would win in a big nasty internet game of BLOGGLE – or the art of playing the game Boggle on my blog.  So here are the rules:

*Be the player with the highest score card at the end of a 3 minute time period.  Please keep your own time and be honest.  You score by listing words of the highest point value you can find in the four rows of letters. 

*You’ll just need to go back and forth between the comment section of this page and the letters and type your found words as a comment.

*Letters in words must always connect, although they can connect in any way possible (back and forth, up or down, etc…)

*Proper nouns (Smith, Ohio, France, Heinz, etc…) and abbreviations are not allowed.

*Point values  3 letters=1; 4 letters=1; 5 letters =2; 6 letters=3; 7 letters=5; 8 or more letters=11

*Don’t look at the other peoples answers who might have played before you!

*3 MINUTES ONLY; Be honest.

Todays Cube:

U  D  W  E
Z  T  E  H
N  C  A  E
T  D  N  K

Last week’s winner:  Jeff Campbell with 10 points.  Who can dethrone the king?

Here we go!

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I went to Pensacola Christian College (yeah, get off my back).  In retrospect, or if you’re still making this decision, which college would you go to if you could do it all over again? 

Answer here.

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Today I’ve decided to take my morning of blogging off in order to give a platform to Dionne Kane, a woman in our church who leads this amazing ministry online called “Lotsahelpinghands.com” (LHH)
Enjoy her post and please give her a shining comment about your thoughts on this incredible use of technology.  And now…….Dionne.

When I first started going to church I was pretty much of the same mindset as other newbie attenders.  What is available for me?  What is available for my kids?  What can I learn?  I also thought, whenever I saw the requests for help in the nursery or other areas, “Well, I’m too new, I need to be learning more in the regular service.”  Besides, this was a “church”… didn’t they have staff to do the work? I had a job and this was my weekend, my time, my day of rest!

That was a long time ago though.  I’m now attending an intimate church full of authentic and wonderful people, and serving has become not just a joy, but a calling in my heart. 

One thing I realized as I grew into my small group is the sometimes limited ability of a small group to meet the needs of all members.  In larger churches there seems to be a specific team that heads up collecting money, food, gifts etc for their families in need.  You make a phone call, get your name on the list, and then suddenly there appears food, money for gas, a job offer, evidence of support. 

In our church, we ask everyone to be a part.  The whole “Body of Christ” meets “it takes a village” concept.  Within our small groups though, the lifeline of our church foundation, I was hearing about need after need… new babies, illness, loss of jobs, and it seemed overwhelming to communicate the needs, organize volunteers, and to do all that with a spirit of love and grace.  It was disheartening to see the needs, and not be able to meet them.  In one of my marathon web surfing moments, I happenstanced upon a website created to do just that:  communication and organization.

I jumped right into Lotsa Helping Hands and launched our church’s own webpage called Fellowship Outreach.  On this site, our church members can sign up by entering their email and a password of their choosing. 

That “helping hand” then gets automatic emails whenever a need is expressed.  When an email goes out, it describes the need (meals, transportation, other) and who it is for (includes address, map, etc).  LHH members can respond to the email by following the link and signing themselves up for whatever day they are available or for whatever task they are available for.  It is so incredibly simple!  New mom’s are getting food, medically needy families are getting childcare and household help, and everyone gets a chance to help out in the area they are gifted in.

Speaking of gifted areas, let’s think outside the box just a little bit.  LHH isn’t just about being able to cook a meal for someone, or to go cut someone’s lawn.  It’s about being (as an active verb) part of the body of Christ – being a hand, a foot, even just one finger.

Here are some of the many ways you can help out:  order a pizza or other meal  to be delivered to someone, buy some breakfast foods like croissants and tea and fruit and either deliver them, or have them delivered, cut someone’s lawn, offer up the use of your high powered lawn mower for someone else to go mow someone’s lawn, go along with a helper and pull weeds or sweep up after to make a job easier and shorter.  If you know someone who cooks a lot, bring them a supply of disposable freezer pans or a gift card to the grocery store so that THEY can better meet the needs of providing food.  No time? Swing by after work and wash someone’s car. Now, maybe that won’t meet their specific need, but think of how surprised and happy they’ll be!  Know that there is one helper who seems to be intimately involved and feel like there is nothing for you to do?  Slip a prepaid gas card into their car, a coupon for a free coffee or snack, or bring the helper a plate of cookies and a kind word to thank them for their efforts.  No time, no money, and no idea how else to help? Make a phone call just to leave a message saying that you were thinking of them, pray for them, write a note or card, email them… seek and ye will find!

If you attend Fellowship church, you should be on the LHH website, signed up and signed in, and ready to do your part in our church body.  (Or if you don’t attend Fellowship Church, then maybe you can start one at your church.)  There are, like in any other ministry, a select few who always seem to jump on board and give.  Let me tell you, the rewards in doing so are tenfold.  
You don’t want to miss out on rewards do you?

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God, help me to care for the people you’ve put in my life.
You have been incredibly gracious, loving, loyal, forgiving, and soveriegn, guiding me and moving me.
And all I want is to surrender to You.
Unfortunately, if I was being honest, I would say that these incredible feature I have just described you as having have also made me complacent at times and unloving to others at times, not because of who You are, but because of who I am – selfish.
So with the same discipline that I must use to exercise or eat right or not waste my time, help me to love others.  Not only by the likeable qualities of kindness and peace, but also truth and faithfulness and courage.
Then, and only then, will I know what it is to be like Your Son, Jesus Christ.
And that’s what the people in my life need.

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Yes, this is true, my head feels like it’s exploding…in a good way.

I just spent some time with the guys from this church.  I used to hang a bit with this pastor from that church and all three of the pastors from the church spoke into my life today.  I feel energized and ready to go this week, and maybe this next year.  Thanks Brian, Buddy, and Nate.  Here are three lessons I’ve learned this weekend, not only from them, but also from the people around me, including Carie:

1.  Risk-taking – never get comfortable, and when you do, it’s time to take another risk.
2.  Clear expectations – “Marty, if you didn’t tell them, they might know that they’re supposed to have done that.” – uh, duh Marty!
3.  Sometimes if you want something done, you have to get dirty when you do it.

(4. Coldplay’s acoustic version of th song “Lost” almost brings me to tears. an unbelievable song!)

If you could teach me one thing right now that you’re learning, what would it be?

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This weekend my wonderful wife Carie turns another year older.  I’ll let you say “happy birthday” to her and allow her to reveal her age if she wishes.  But I will say this:  She is remarkable and I love spending each day of my life married to her!

Happy Birthday Carie Marie Holman!
Your turn.

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Since our church is participating in that One Prayer thing, I’ve been thinking a lot more about unity in the body of Christ, and also about unity in my life.  You see, I like people.  I like a lot of people. I love a lot of people. But there are some that I just don’t like - Even Christians (or should I say, especially Christians).
So then I run into this verse yesterday with my small group: 1 John 2:9-11 – “Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness.  Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble.  But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness;  he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.”

So here’s the thing – I like a lot of people, but even though I’m pretty friendly and like a lot of people, there are still some people in my life that I choose not to  be around a lot for various reasons.  I’m sure many of these people also choose not to be around me.  One might even say that I don’t like them and they don’t like me.  Simple question today for a simple Friday:

Is “don’t like” different than “hate”?

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