Jay Fuller’s Blog

Sunday’s comin… February 14, 2009

We are close to wrapping up the “End Times for Dummies” series.  Gotta admit something.  After last week, I was just about ready to pull the plug on the series.  Just felt like it had run its course.  But this week, while studying for the message on Laodicea, I just got real fired up!  Maybe it has something to do with the whole “hot/cold” thing, or the “spit you out of my mouth” part, or maybe the “stand at the door and knock” part.  Whatever the case, I’m ready to bring it on Sunday!  And then, we’ll wrap it up the next week with a look at what true worship really looks like.  Can’t wait for this Sunday morning!

Finally joined the party… February 12, 2009

After months of thinking about it and talking about it, I’ve finally joined the party on Facebook.  I’ve been on for 28 hours now.  Everything I’ve heard is right-it’s very difficult not to spend hours on this thing.  Already connected with a dude I went to high school with-turns out he lives in Locust Grove.  Who knew?  This is going to be a fun way to connect with people.  I’m still waiting on my daughter to give me the official Facebook tutorial.

In other news, I was driving by a McDonald’s yesterday and noticed on their sign that they are giving away free frys every Tuesday.  That’s right, free frys.  Now, you would think that whoever was in charge of creating that sign would have stepped back and thought “You know, I’m not sure that’s right, maybe I should consult a dictionary.”  I’m not saying, I’m just saying.  I still shake my head in disbelief when I drive in front of the Lovejoy Walmart (grocery side) and see the word “yeild” painted in front of the crosswalk.  Here’s your sign…

Sunday night download February 9, 2009

• Good day at JourneyPointe today
• Two more weeks left in the “End Times for Dummies” series.  I think I think that I’m ready for this series to be over.  Anybody else feel like that? 
• Preaching on the church at Laodicea next week.  That should be fun.
• I’m watching “Camp Rock” for the second time.  Disney absolutely knows their target, don’t they.  
• Grammys just came on-U2 is opening the show-they rock more than the Jonas Brothers.  Megan won’t like that I said that.  Whitney Houston is presenting the first award.  I’m glad to see her back in the spotlight again for something besides drug use and a bad reality show.  Jennifer Hudson just won the award.  That’s cool given the year that she’s had.
• You know what, I don’t have anything else to add, so I’m going to shut this down for the night.  C-ya! 

What in the world… February 4, 2009

It’s 9:05 on Tuesday night.  Just finished American Idol and was flipping through the channels when I came across a show on PBS called “Ferrets: The Pursuit of Excellence”.  It’s a show about people who are obsessed with their pet ferrets.  Apparently, they are preparing for the annual Ferret Buckeye Bash in Ohio.  I really can’t describe how disturbing this is to watch.  Every one of these people have won ribbons for their ferrets.  Megan says that they have OFD-Obsessive Ferret Disorder.  Just saw a dude with a “Got Ferrets?” shirt on.  Now a lady is singing a very long song about her ferret.  Is this a joke?  PBS wouldn’t air a joke show would they?  The lady is still singing.  The chorus goes “Ferret, oh ferret, when will you get enough?  Ferret, oh ferret, you have too much stuff.”  I’m not kidding about this.  I’m going to have nightmares tonight.  They are now talking about ferrets dying and going over the “rainbow bridge” where they will WAIT FOR YOU until you die and JOIN THEM.  Ummmmm…  They are now dressing them up in COSTUMES!!!  This is blowing my mind, and yet I can’t take my eyes off it.  It’s like a car wreck!

Sunday night download (Tuesday morning edition) February 3, 2009

• Attendance down a little bit this past week-gotta get that momentum back!
• Thought the band did an EXCELLENT job on leading worship-hearing “Come In” will never get old to me.  And it’s not just because Tracey wrote it-I think it’s an amazing worship song, and it really fit with the series.
• Week 4 of the “End Times for Dummies” series.  I preached on Revelation 2, looking at the churches in Ephesus, Smyrna and Pergamum and how they relate to today.  Does our church look like either of those?  Maybe we’ll see something this week…
• Praying and contemplating extending this series one more week.  Would make it the longest series we’ve ever done.  Don’t know if I can include everything next week that I want to.  Need prayers for guidance and direction!
• Second week in a row without rain on Sunday.  Good thing/bad thing.  The sun was so hot coming through the big window that I think I got a tan while playing drums.  Just on my neck, though.
• Ken was out sick, and we really missed him, but Clark stepped up to lead “God With Us” and did a great job!  Love the flexibility and talent of our team.  I remember a time long, long ago when I went into panic mode when any one person from the team was going to be out.  JPC, we are extremely blessed with the level of talent on our worship team.  Don’t ever take that for granted.
• This past Saturday night, we had our first singles/college small group.  Went to Arby’s to eat (because we had coupons) and then went bowling.  Yes, it is true that I bowled two games and never broke 90.  Tracey “I have beaten my husband 95% of the time in bowling since we’ve been together” Fuller dominated the bowling match (or whatever you call it when you bowl).  My score for two games didn’t equal her score on her first game, and the girls beat the guys with much room to spare.
• By the way, I appreciate the fact that my horrendous bowling ability was the topic of conversation in Danny’s Sunday a.m. small group.  I’m just glad that I can make everybody else feel better about themselves!!!
• The Super Bowl was NOT the greatest of all time.  I thought it was sloppy with too many penalties, but there were some good plays and a good 4th quarter.  The commercials were funny for the most part.  Can’t believe that it cost 3 million dollars for a 30 second spot.  Wow!  I never hear what kind of return these companies get on their investment…
• Had our first small group at the Kilgore’s house and ate WAY too much chips and queso dip and drank one too many Diet Mountain Dews.  Although it did help me stay up when I got home to watch the hour long “Office” episode which followed the game.  The Kilgore’s are great hosts, by the way.  If you’re still looking for a small group, this would be a good one.
• Gotta go and get to work on February’s prayer guide and everything else on my “to do” list.  C-ya! 

Blame it on spiritual warfare… January 30, 2009

I’ve talked this week with some people at church about the heaviness of spiritual warfare.   Been feeling it since last weekend actually, and it hasn’t really let up much since.  Thursday is normally my big study day, and I had a headache from about 3:00 on that just wouldn’t go away.  Maybe I should have taken more Aleve, but I just wanted to see if it would go away on its own.  It didn’t.  Then I woke up last night (this morning) at 3:15, still with a dull headache, and stayed awake until at least 4:30 (that was the last time I remember seeing on the clock).  So, I’m a little behind on sermon prep today.  With all the extracurricular stuff going on, looks like Sunday is going to be a great day!  Can’t wait!

Powerful prayer time January 27, 2009

I had a pastor’s prayer time/lunch today at 11:00 a.m. at the HBA.  After hearing a short devotion from Mike Smith (Oakland Baptist) on Moses and the burning bush, we went around the table sharing prayer requests and some things that our churches are doing to be “pro-active” in this sorry economy.  An hour and fifteen minutes later, we were done sharing the prayer requests.  I guess there were about 15 of us in the room.  Wow, so many hurting people and so many tough situations in our churches!  One pastor shared that he had lost a son back in 2003 to an unknown heart condition.  Didn’t know that!  It was a real gut check to hear some of the things that we’re all dealing with.  Then, before we ate the traditional Chick-fil-A boxed lunch, 4 of our pastors prayed some of the most powerful and heartfelt prayers that I have ever heard.  Unbelievable!  Felt like a revival meeting.  Seriously.  Anyway, after the weekend I had it was much needed and much appreciated.  Just what the Doctor ordered, if you know what I mean…

Sunday night download January 26, 2009

• Good, not great day at JourneyPointe today.
• Attendance was down a little, didn’t get the totals yet
• Had a great sound check, then a demon got into the sound system during the first two songs.  Kudos to our media team for getting it fixed and the worship team for getting us back on track.
• Also having problems with the video feed.  The picture was lime green this morning.  Yuk.
• Continued the “End Times” series.  Talked about camoflage trucks and Alpha Bits this morning in the intro.  Trust me, it relates.
• The custodian at the school got there at 7:40 this morning.  It’s always a relief when I see him pull up, because he’s the only one with the key.  Allowed us to get a jump on the load in which normally begins at 8:00.
• Next week, we’re talking about the first 4 churches mentioned in Revelation.  THAT should be fun! 
• Tracey shared a testimony this morning in the service about how she’s been “blessed” by reading through Revelation in the past.  Three different occasions.  And I was one of them.  Neat.  She’s the bomb.
• Anybody else feel like spiritual warfare is alive and well?  Man, I feel like I have 1,000 pounds weights on my shoulders.  I guess it’s because I’m preaching on the end times, and Satan knows that at the end of that book HE LOSES!!!  Must not sit well with him.
• We were talking about ministry at the dinner table tonight.  Out of the blue, Trey says “Dad, you’re like King Roland (from the Wii game “My Sims Kingdom”), you’re a kind and fair ruler who gets easily distracted by cupcakes.”  Funniest thing I’ve heard all week-he cracked the whole table up.  Then he got up to put his plate in the trashcan, slipped on the floor and sent French toast flying into the air and into the apple container beside the table.  Hysterical.  Needed that laugh tonight.
• Excited about small groups starting next weekend.  Tracey and I are hosting a singles/college age group this Saturday.  It’s been a long time since I’ve been either one of those things.  Hope I can relate. 
• I’ve developed some weird preaching quirks recently.  Find myself saying things like “Look at this”, “watch this”, “I want you to catch this”, “Don’t miss this”, “Listen”, and stuff like that.  Don’t plan on saying them, they just come out.  Who am I starting to sound like?
• Gotta go-talk to you later this week!

Sunday Night download (a day late) January 19, 2009

• Great day at JourneyPointe yesterday!
• Had 46 in attendance, our highest so far at the school
• If all our members and recent visitors had been there, we would have busted 60!
• I think I counted 10 visitors?  Love seeing that!
• Dennis, Amanda and William Gustafson joined yesterday.  I’m looking forward to getting them plugged in.
• Taught part 2 of the “Are We Living in the End Times?” message with some real practical application
• Told the story of when I was in sixth grade and my teacher caught me pulling a chair out from under one of my classmates.  Since we were studying the judicial system, my class put me on trial and found me guilty!  I lost PE for like two days.  I’m still bitter about that!
• Why am I so bitter?  Because I was the “teacher’s pet” and thought I might get the benefit of the doubt.  Didn’t work.
• My sixth grade teacher had the ultimate teacher’s name-Mrs. Loving.  I made her a Christmas present that year.  What a brown-noser.
• The band did “I Wish We’d All Been Ready”, made famous in the 90’s by DC Talk.  Very effective and very well-done.  I love the talent in our band!
• It rained again yesterday.  It’s rained all but two Sunday’s since we’ve been at the school.  Trying to do our part to help the drought.
• When I got to the school, noticed that our cones and a sign had been knocked over.  One cone was absolutely destroyed.  Those teenagers…
• Was praying for a $2,000 offering yesterday and brought in $2,100 which allowed us to get caught up on some bills.  Thanks JPC for stepping up!
• Next week, I’ll be preaching through Revelation 1 and will spend the next 3-4 weeks after that going through Chapters 2,3 and 4.  This might be our longest series ever, but I’m stopping at Chapter 4!
• Not bragging, but I predicted an Arizona/Pittsburgh Super Bowl.  Of course, I predicted it yesterday, so it wasn’t that difficult, but still…
• Very excited about the momentum that we have right now!
• Had an outside pipe burst at the JP house over the weekend.  Glad we’re on a well so we won’t have a huge water bill. 
• Inaguration Day is tomorrow.  Regardless of how you voted or who you supported, it’s still pretty cool to witness the transition of leadership from the outgoing president to the incoming president.  Love watching all the pomp and circumstance.  I’m a history nerd, what can I say?
• Really wish we didn’t have to bring the dog in when the temp drops below freezing.  He doesn’t like being inside and gets out of whatever way we put him on the leash.  Gotta say, he is one smart and stubborn dog.
• Had too much Mexican food over the weekend, but Andy Kilgore makes the best fajitas!
• Gotta go-talk to you later in the week!

Sunday night download… January 12, 2009

• Pretty good day at JourneyPointe today
• Crowd was down from last week, wondering if people were out sick
• Kicked off the “End Times for Dummies” series
• Asked and answered the question “Are we living in the end times?”
• So much information I wanted to get in today, but decided on Thursday to make it a “two-parter”, so I’ll finish answering the question next week!
• Thought the band ROCKED today!  Have been wanting to do the song “Hosanna” for a while now, and we finally did it today.  Off the charts powerful!!!  Tracey really nailed it. 
• Feels a little weird talking about how the band rocks, because I’m playing the drums in said band.  But I really think that the group we have does an excellent job week in and week out leading us in worship.  I LOVE playing with this group! 
• If we can somehow fit Trey into the band, then we’ll have all four family members in it.  Maybe he could play tamborine, oh wait, that’s Courtney’s instrument.
• I think we had 11 in preschool and KidsChurch this morning!
• Kudos again to everyone on the set-up team!  Had some major issues with sound during practice but Daniel got it headed in the right direction and it sounded great. 
• More kudos to Daniel for putting together the series intro video.  Loved the fact that AC/DC was the background music!!!
• There were about 24 customers at the Sand Trap restaurant after church, and we were about 20 of them! 
• Monster Jam was fun last night.  The only bad part was that we were there with 72,000 other people.  When 72,000 people funnel towards two exits, it’s not a good situation.  Plus it was raining and people wanted to stay inside as long as possible.  Took us 50 minutes to get from our seats to our car.  Did get plenty of sermon illustrations!  My head was spinning trying to process all of them!
• The best part of the night were the “trailer races”.  Maybe I’ll talk about those next week!
• Go Steelers!  Looks like a Pittsburgh-Arizona Super Bowl?
• Had dinner with my dad and step-mom tonight.  My dad was wearing cowboy boots.  Can’t remember the last time I saw him in cowboy boots.  He wore them a lot when I was little.  The only problem was that he was wearing straight leg jeans, which everybody knows is just wrong.  Told him he needed to get some boot cut jeans, and he just laughed at me. 
• Megan won first place in middle school at the NCC science fair yesterday!  So proud!  Reminds me of when I won first place in a 4-H competition when I was around her age.  My project had something to do with model rocketry, which basically gave me an excuse to put bigger engines in the rockets than were called for.  Lost at the regional 4-H competition.  Hope that’s not a bad omen.
• Got to go and get kids ready for bed.  Want to start the week off right!