I was in Dallas all day yesterday at our GuideStone Financial Services Board of Trustees meeting. We have three meetings a year. GuideStone is at the present time a $10.4 billion entity that serves ministers and their families in retirement, investments, and hospitalization. It is being led by Dr. O. S. Hawkins, a gifted and influential leader. We topped off the long day that began with meetings at 7:00 a.m. and ended at 9:00 p.m. celebrating Dr. Hawkins 10th anniversary as the President and Chief Executive Officer. He and his wife Susie are friends, and it is a pleasure to lift up their arms as they provide leadership for this ministry.

After I conclude meetings this morning, Jeana and I will drive home. We are going to have a brief lunch with Nick, Meredith, and Reese Caroline, and hopefully arrive home early evening. Please pray for our safety.

Have a nice Tuesday. Off to meetings!

I am in a meeting all day today, so I will be back with you tomorrow. Enjoy this beautiful Fall day – the colors are beginning to shine! God has given us so much to enjoy and be thankful for.

Have a wonderful day.

Just imagine – you only have 61 days left in 2007 and in 62 days, you will be entering 2008! This means Thanksgiving is almost here and Christmas is just around the corner. This provides us time with friends and family. The final two months of this year, what will be your priorities? Let me suggest the following:

1. Evaluate where you are with the Lord, and strategize to take a quantum leap in your faith in the year 2008.
2. Assess your relationships with family and friends and plan now how to experience special moments with them over the next 61 days.
3. Consider your relationship to your church in every way and insure that before the end of the year, all matters are right with others and with God, including the decision to honor God financially through your church with at least one-tenth of all God has given you in 2007. You have 61 days to insure rightness in at least this one area of your life.
4. Examine your vocation, career, and calling in life, making a commitment that in 2008, you will seize the opportunities God affords you to experience.
5. Bless the Lord by doing something that will stretch you in your faith in the year 2008 . . . for example . . .

• A trip to the Holy Land with Jeana and I on March 11-20 and/or
• A mission experience across the seas or even somewhere here in North America and/or
• A radical commitment to service right here in your local church’s ministry that goes on in Northwest Arkansas

Are you ready to prepare to enter the next year of your life? Life runs so fast these days that if you delay some of those thoughts and decisions, you will look up February 1 and think, “Well, I missed it again.”

Let’s get with it these last 61 days of 2007, so we can explode spiritually in 2008!

Jeana does not have to have the platform; in fact, she prefers letting someone else have it. Yet the release of her book, An Uninvited Guest ‘One Woman’s Journey from Cancer to Hope,’ has thrust her into a little spotlight.

Jeana has done book signings, regional and national radio interviews, as well as some television interviews. Of course, I do not have the fortune of listening to her interviews, but I am confident she has grown through the process. The person doing the interview is the key to a great interview. Their own energy, enthusiasm, and questions serve as key ingredients in the process.

Jeana will be on the DAYSTAR TELEVISION NETWORK (Channel 6 in NWA) on Thursday morning at 11:00 a.m. on the Celebration Show hosted by Marcus and Joni Lamb. I am confident she will do well. The show will run again sometime in the evening as well. I hope you will watch or encourage others to watch the interview. Please pray for Jeana. DayStar is the second largest Christian television network.

Jeana also appear on our “Night of Worship” service that will air on the Trinity Broadcasting Network in the near future. We will let you know when it airs on TBN, the largest Christian television network. I hope you will encourage others to embrace this book project, which is already helping so many people. Great doors will open for ministry in the future.

Whatever a person’s problems, this book can help them so much.

Last night I preached at the Pastors’ Conference of the Mississippi Baptist Convention.I arrived in Jackson and was greeted by my dear friend for almost 20 years, Buster Pray. We visited for a while in the afternoon and the evening. I was reminded of the blessing of Buster in my life for so many years. He and Martha ministered beside us for 18 years of ministry. He loves his new fellowship at Crossgates Church in Brandon, Mississippi, a suburb of Jackson.

I was also reminded last night of my desire to help, encourage, and minister to pastors. This neglected group of leaders need continual encouragement in the days in which we live. So many of these men and their wives are under continual spiritual attack. Pastoring a church in America today has changed so much even within the last five years. We need to pray for the pastors in the churches of America and across the world.

I was also reminded of the state of the denomination in which we are affiliated. Years ago, church leaders would flock to the various annual state pastors’ conferences. Today, they are attended, but not with the same numbers of people as years ago. Equipping, training, and inspiration for church leaders can be received in many places today. Following the conclusion of the meeting last night, the great, warm people of Mississippi were so very kind to us with their words of appreciation and testimony of how God spoke to their lives. The hunger is there among some. Praise the Lord for it.

I was also reminded of the transitional situation that exists not only in churches, but also denominationally. Change continues with both. Strategies to adjust to these transitional days is what both churches and denominations must have. Yet it all starts with leaders. The leaders of our churches.

Pray for the leaders of our churches across our nation today.

Last night was a truly profound evening for our fellowship. We enjoyed a NIGHT OF WORSHIP that will be aired sometime within the next month over the Trinity Broadcasting Network, the largest Christian television network in the world.

Our combined choir and orchestra-band from both campuses was incredible. It was obvious that much work and preparation was done to prepare for it. Kim Noblitt, Josh Stanbery, and their staff teams including our technical crews on both campuses, combined to do something special and great for God.

The evening was filled as well with testimonies and encouragement from Jeana, Don Soderquist, and Ed Stetzer. Yes, this was a super night! If you attended, thanks for coming. I really do appreciate it.

When I got up Sunday morning, I really felt bad physically. I have only missed one Sunday due to illness in 21 years of being here. I was really close to staying at home, but I knew the importance of Sunday morning, but also this profound Sunday night experience. The attack was fierce and I felt it was related to all God wanted to do on Sunday night. So, if you think about it today, pray for me.

Pray for me this evening as I preach to the Pastors’ Conference of the Mississippi Baptist Convention. As I fly into Jackson to conduct this evening, I will need your prayers to get me through. I preach around 7:00 p.m. this evening.

Launch from this profound night and experience a power-packed week!

When we have seen God work in the past, it gives us hope He will work in the future.  For example, this week has been a great week of evangelism in our church.  It all began on Sunday morning with our Friend Day, then accelerated with various meetings with our students.  Because I have seen God work some mighty miracles in the lives of people, I can have faith and hope He will work again.  I do not have to wonder, but I can know He will work.

There is no telling what God will do this Sunday morning.  Are you ready? Are you praying? Are you bringing or inviting someone to come this week?  What are you asking God to do?  Personally and in our church?  Know that God is going to do something great.

There is no telling what God will do on Sunday night with our special "NIGHT OF WORSHIP" that will be aired in the coming days across the world.  You talk about a huge choir taking place on Sunday night . . . it will be very, very special. Testimonies and preaching will be challenging.  Prayer and ministry moments will connect us to our Lord powerfully.  Be assured, God will work among us.

There is no telling what God will do in your life today or this weekend.  Each day is a new day.  Each day presents opportunities and challenges.  Interweaving into your life will be people from all walks of life, what may God want you to say or do with those people.  God may really show up as you read the Bible or pray or share Him with others or simply care about someone else.  Look out today and this weekend.

God will do something in your life.

Dr. Floyd invited me to be a guest blogger for today and share our first hand experience of the Southern California Forest Fires.

My family and I arrived in San Diego this past Saturday after a wonderful send off and great trip across the country to launch San Diego’s newest church, Cross Church San Diego. First Baptist Church of Springdale and The Church at Pinnacle Hills are our lead sponsor in this project. However our welcome was not at all what we had envisioned over the last 12 plus months of preparation. On Sunday night we were told the forest fires in Malibu, over 100 miles to the north, had jumped to San Diego. My neighbor received a reverse 911 call to evacuate and our home was placed in the evacuation zone. We quickly decided not to enter our home and stay longer at our hotel. A few hours later the evacuation zone encompassed our hotel as well. We then accepted Scott and Deanna Grimm’s gracious offer to stay at Deanna’s parents home in Oceanside, about 19 miles up the north coast. We were finally allowed back into our home tonight with parts of our community still under mandatory evacuation. No homes in our development have fire damage but there are many within a few miles north and east of us that were lost. Our moving truck with all our furniture arrives tomorrow, that timing could not have been better.

More than once this has been called the worst fire in California history and the greatest disaster in San Diego. At least 22 fires have spread and at times combined to torch over 420,000 acres (and counting) of Southern California prime real estate. Over 1,000,000 people in Southern California have been evacuated and displaced, with over half of those in San Diego County alone. In San Diego County over 1200 structures have been burned, 1000 business have been lost, and that does not include the damage to nature and wildlife habitat. As we walked around today we had to wear a breathing masks to prevent inhaling smoke. But now the winds have died down and the many brave Firemen are beginning to contain the fire.

We have learned two valuable life lessons through this fire: First, we can accomplish more together than we can alone. Under Scott Grimm’s leadership and contacts with Deanna’s Father’s company and church we were able to distribute food to 3 evacuation centers. We did this without advertising, branding, or promoting the name of our church. When you give without regard of recognition that leaves the burden of reward on the God and not man. Bryan Claypool, FBCS short term missionary to Cross Church San Diego, has been an incredible help with this.

Second, we have learned to be sensitive to change during times of crisis and challenge. Some of our plans and steps have been changed due to these fires. Our first ministry is now compassion, our worship service options will be altered, and our community groups will be tailored to fit our communities needs. Pray for us in the coming days as we seek to minister to the real needs of our neighbors and new friends. Pray we miss no opportunity to share our faith and experience God. It will be years before the people of San Diego recover from this fire. Their is much to do here, please continue to join us in prayer, and in person when possible, as we seek to start new churches that will bring people to the Cross.

Brad Graves
Cross Church San Diego

We have been asked to do, "A NIGHT OF WORSHIP", this Sunday night at 6:00 p.m. at our Springdale Campus, that will be broadcast several times over the Trinity Broadcasting Network internationally. There is no Christian television network and only a few major networks, with the reach of the Trinity Broadcasting Network. This is not a show or a production, it is us being us, worshiping our Lord Jesus Christ, and then what is done is taken and used all over the world.

Why are we doing this? Our mission is to reach Northwest Arkansas, America, and the World. This is our motivation for engaging and embracing this visionary event. At no cost to us at all in any way, we must press towards fulfilling our mission globally.

TBN has asked us to have guests of our choice in a two hour worship venue format; therefore, the following people will be helping us on this evening:

• Jeana Floyd, my wife and author of her new book, An Uninvited Guest.
• Don Soderquist, former right hand man of Sam Walton in the building of Walmart, who is now training and equipping leaders in the business world through the Soderquist Center for Leadership and Ethics.
• Dr. Ed Stetzer, Cultural and Research Expert, who is being used powerfully to proclaim God’s Word to the church of America.

Each of these we have invited to join us as we share the message of God’s hope, love, and power with you.

The real highlight on this evening will be the combined choirs and orchestra-band of both of our campuses, with worship being led by both Kim Noblitt and Josh Stanbery. This will be a night of worship, you will not want to miss. We will see God move among us mightily. We will experience some great moments with our Master and Lord Jesus. His Spirit will envelope this place and people in a supernatural way.

What about your children? We are taking care of your children through grade five, providing entertainment, snacks, and games for them. Therefore, there is NO REASON you cannot come and be a part of this special Night of Worship. Satan will try to talk you out of it in every way possible, using your job or even your children of "why you should not do it." Well, stand in his face in the name of Jesus denouncing him and announcing to your family and friends, "We are going to church on this Sunday night!"

Bring your friends … encourage Christians from other churches that may not meet on Sunday nights, to come and join us … Help us get the word out for this great, "NIGHT OF WORSHIP!"

We need prayer this week for so many things that are happening. As a Pastor-Teacher, there are times in your life when preparation really demands your highest commitment. This week, that is my calling. What am I preparing for?

Preparing for Sunday Morning Message: I am continuing the series on 1 John, moving towards the completion of the series. This is a powerful passage, and I want to do it the highest justice.

Preparing for Sunday Night Special that will be aired on TBN across the world: This preparation involves preparing for major interviews, plus my preaching responsibility on Sunday night. This involves not just me, but Kim Noblitt and Josh Stanbery.

Preparing for speaking at the Summit Business Persons Luncheon this Thursday: This is a unique assignment, so please pray for me.

Preparing to speak for the University of Tulsa Chapel prior to their game against SMU: This is my first Tulsa game in several years.

Preparing for next Monday night, October 29; a speaking engagement for Pastors in Mississippi: I leave next Monday morning for an overnight engagement in the state of Mississippi. This is a great opportunity and I pray for its success.

If God brings us to your mind and heart, please pray for us.