therstblog

Had an opportunity to preach @ Epic Village this past Saturday. I debated and debated about posting, but know that there are some of you who wanted to be there but couldn’t, and well some of you are just nosy… so i have decided to post the video… I hope you enjoy, but more importantly I pray that you hear something that resonates with your heart concerning His love for you and His desire for your life…

PS- it starts midway into my intro, so forgive me in advance for that…

the power of one…. from lloydowens on Vimeo.

This past Saturday I had the opportunity of sharing my heart with the Epic Village family. It was an amazing night of Worship!!!

Needing your Help!

John Hope Elementary School has grown near and dear to our hearts. It is a school that has seen much change and yet has persevered and is doing everything in their power to create a class A education in Old Fourth Ward. Since our first visit there we decided emphatically to ADOPT this school. That is why i am issuing a call for your help. The fifth grade is schedule to go on a field trip next month, but were not going to be able to because there are NO funds to rent the buses for the kids. Yeah, times are that hard in GA education! SO, we have stepped in and are wanting you to partner with us for both this trip and an end of the year trip, but we want to get this one out of the way first!

So, come give a helping hand to a group of Fifth graders who need it. Exposure to life outside of the finite circle, the four block radius of their neighborhood, is important to a child. It is just as important as reading and writing, and without it how will they ever know the full potential that they have?

Help us to send these fifth graders on this one of two filed trips planned for them this year. We have a small goal for this upcoming field trip of 500.00 and need the monies by the end of the week. This will cover the rental fee for the buses as well as a lunch option for the kids, that is actually a surprise to both the kids and the administration!! I just believe in BIG, not in just enough, my God is an abundant God and I want these kids to know that we care!!!

Join us in serving the community of Old Fourth Ward with $5, $10, $20, or even $100 to help with this effort.

Your donations may be 100% tax deductible.

To donate simply click here.

in about 8 hours we are going to hit the streets of Old Fourth Ward, and serve those standing in the very long lines ice cold bottled water. Some have suggested serving snacks, but my paranoid mind wont allow me to open the door to some sick individual seeing a green light to hit the lotto at our expense. I can hear the lawsuit now, we served them chips, a chip got caught in their throat, you know the rest.

Our goal is simply to share. Share the love of Christ, share from our hearts, and share our peculiarlove (will tell you about this very soon) with the future guests and partners of peculiarplace.

After missing the deadline to order custom bottled water, I thank God we missed that deadline, we bought water at a local store, ordered labels from these guys, I designed the label and printed them. I paid Tyler 10 dollars to take the labels off of the bottles, then my awesome crew/team placed the new labels on. We saved almost 450.00 by doing it ourselves!!!!

I also designed the tshirts we are wearing on tomorrow, pictured above.

Later that evening Jim Akins, Todd Magouyrk and myself will be hitting the road, traveling to Lynchburg, VA. You know im nervous right. I told Esther that if Obama is winning and we happen to stop in small towns, i am not getting out of the car. I am allergic to trees and ropes!!! I will not go without a fight!!! LOL!!!

Goodnight! Im so glad to be back! I missed you guys a great deal!!!

the more i ponder the thought of the current state of our educational system in the Atlanta Metropolitan area, I become indignant! I look at all of the churches in this city and it surrounding suburbs, not to mention all of the churches that have schools themselves and wonder, is anyone out there thinking like me? Has this been done before, has it been tried and everyone scrupulously fell asleep at the wheel or met their demise at the behest of an atheist, separation of church and state flag waver?

Before I go any further, let me say this… NO! emphatically no i am not trying to get prayer back in school, although we do need it, and NO! this is not a marketing ploy for apeculiarplace!!!! This is something God has been keeping up at night with, it has been running through my mind so much i cant think of much else. Not to mention the thought of so many churches with schools, and the pastors kids don’t even attend the very school the church runs. THAT IS TOTAL BS!!!!

What if with genuine concern, the love and compassion of Christ, the desire to see lives changed and a hope for a brighter tomorrow were all it took to achieve what God has placed in my heart?

Where do your kids go to school?

Are there enough computers? Any kids who don’t have school supplies? What about the kids whose parents could not afford “NEW” school clothes? Talk about a self esteem serial killer!!

What drives me crazy is that, probably for a fraction of the cost, we, THE CHURCH, could invest in a NEEDY school in our community, and if your schools are all that and a bag a chips, i am sure there is a NEEDY one somewhere… but for a fraction of the cost to start”Our Own Schools” we could invest.

Instead of looking to create revenue streams we could give, sow, volunteer, create, build, changes lives for the Kingdom of God…

I thinking out loud… so please feel free to jump in at anytime…