“We are left with indefinite adolescence and a Peter Pan Syndrome epidemic where men want to remain boys forever.”

This Sunday I will preach on Love. This word is one of the most widely misused words in the English language. We use it to describe an assortment of feelings from food, to our God.

When a word is used in so many different ways, it becomes less effective, especially when you want it to convey something special. This Sunday we will focus on the kind of love Christ has for us and in turn the kind of love we all need to exhibit. Sounds impossible to me, but when God gets ahold of a situation then the impossible becomes very possible. My goal in preaching about love is to expose the love of Christ for His church and encourage all of us to do the same and to follow through with each other in honest love. My prayer this week, as I prepare, is to look into my own life and find the corrupt love that I have for people and things - and for God to expose it in my life so I can move past it and truly love others the way Christ loves me. My prayer for the church is that God may work in us a newfound love for others so we may work together and reach people with the gospel of Christ.

Here are some areas I am working on:

• Loving my God with my WHOLE heart.
• Loving myself even when I MESS things up.
• Loving my wife with HONESTY and selflessness.
• Loving my Children through a Godly EXAMPLE.
• Loving my church as CHRIST loves the church.

I pray this week God shows up in a huge way in your life.

See you Sunday. God bless,
Derek

I just got back from a successful mission trip to Belize where 15 wonderful people were unified for a common goal, Christ and the Gospel. Central Baptist Church and The Vine Community Church were training teachers and building a stage for a school among other things. There are so many things that stand out on the trip, but I must say the best thing for me was to see how you could bring people from very different walks of life together and unite for something bigger than themselves. It was great to bear witness to that. And from there, I got to thinking about our church, it hit me, this is what we do here in Clovis, NM. We all have these lives during the week, we live, we laugh, we cry, we get frustrated, we have success, and we have sorrow while all along we pray and encourage. Then we come into worship on Sundays and talk and meet and laugh about all the things God is doing in our lives and reconnect with each other. Then some of us even take a step further into accountability through a Community Group. There we open dialogue about God, life, Scripture and prayer. All of us together make up the body of Christ. We make up the church. Sometimes we do this well and other times we struggle with its identity while all along God understands it all.

I am so glad that I am your Lead Pastor. As I look back on the past year I marvel at how God has brought His vision to the forefront of what we are doing and has allowed us to thrive within our church. I want to encourage you to come to church as we continue our study in 1 Corinthians “The Church United” and also on Sunday September 12th as we celebrate Year One in our church.

I believe this next year will be a year to remember as we spread our wings and take hold of what God has already promised. May your week be blessed and my you allow God to speak His promises into your life.

God bless,
Derek Osburn