Mike Edmisten Follower of Jesus. Husband of Nicki. Father of Ryan & Brock. Communicator of the Word.

Weekend Recap

Wow! That's the word that keeps coming to mind as I review this past weekend at ACC.

I've already written about our self-esteem seminar for our ladies on Saturday. The comments from Saturday were still rolling yesterday. It was awesome.

Yesterday, our services were off the charts! Melissa Moore was baptized in first service. Phil Prather was baptized in second service. Two baptisms are guaranteed to make it a great day!

The conclusion of our Confessions of a Pastor series rocked the house on Sunday! I was overwhelmed by the number of comments from people who were moved by the message. I'm still getting emails today telling me how much the message meant to different people. Remember ACCers, let's not just be Christians…let's be Christ! Our community is watching!

For Women Only Recap

What a day today! Charley Gerber came to present a session called "For Women Only: A Christ-Centered Self-Esteem." The challenge is to see yourself through God's eyes instead of listening to the media and what other people say.

Man, Charley flat out brought it today! I ran his sound and video media, so I was the only other guy in the room. Kinda felt like I was spying on the enemy. :o)

It was awesome to see a cross section of ages in the ladies that attended today. We had teenagers and seasoned citizens. We also had a great mix of ACC veterans and ladies who are new to our church. Great to see the fellowship and the getting-to-know-you that was happening today.

Here are some random things that I took away from Charley's presentation:

1. The media is the number one influence on our self-esteem.

2. 85% of Hollywood female body doubles have had breast implants.

3. Boys get their self-esteem from their moms. Girls get their self-esteem from their dads.

4. During first grade, 80% of students have a high self-esteem. By high school graduation, 5% have a high self-esteem.

5. I would never recommend a lady read Cosmo or Glamour. The lies about body image in these rags are staggering.

6. If you have a low self-esteem, you have a low view of God because he created you in his image.

7. We need to read the Bible personally. Instead of just reading "for God so loved the world," we've got to read "for God so loved me."

This is just a sample of stuff that I took away from today. It was truly a first-class day for our ladies.

A big thanks to all the guys that helped make this a success. All the food was made and served by our fellas.

Huge props to Jeff and Rhonda Deatherage. They put in hours of work behind the scenes. They're really the ones that made this day happen. Awesome stuff.

Preaching Ideas

Listen up ACC! I need your help. I'm in the process of planning my preaching schedule for '08, and it would be very cool if you would be involved in the process.

Is there a topic that you'd like us to address? A particular book of the Bible or a specific Scripture that you want to dig into? Something that has confused you and you'd like to hear God's truth on the issue?

If so, then email me.

I always want to be sure that my preaching is hitting people where they live. I'm not sure who said it first, but the quote is true. "The church can be very good at answering questions that nobody is asking."

God's Word is relevant. It is living and active. I don't want to make it go stale by talking about the same stuff all the time. If Subway can bake fresh bread for my sandwich, then surely the church can serve up the Bread of Life hot and fresh every week.

If you're going to send me some suggestions, there are a couple of rules.

1. You can't get mad if we don't hit your topic next year. It might be that we've already covered it recently. It might be that I can't figure out how to make it fit into a sermon series. There are a lot of different reasons why we can or can't do something.

2. Please don't send me a ton of emails. If you have ten ideas, please don't send me ten emails. Send me one email with ten ideas.

There you go, ACC. Let the email ideas flow.

Prayer for Today

I read through the Old Testament book of Habakkuk this morning. There's a prayer from the prophet, Habakkuk, in chapter 3 that grabbed me. The prayer is thousands of years old, and yet I can't think of a more relevant and timely prayer for us today.

LORD, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O LORD. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known… (Habakkuk 3:2, NIV)

Amen.

Good Advice

When we left the house this morning, Ryan told me, "Don't bump into any other cars, daddy."

Driving, from Ryan's perspective, is a simple activity. Get from point A to point B, and don't run into any other cars along the way.

Nothing like a three-year-old to remind you not to overcomplicate things.

Get on the Swing

My little boy is a strange mix of bravery and fear. In some activities, he doesn't know the meaning of fear. When he's wrestling with me, he'll come flying off a couch or he'll tackle me at a full sprint. No fear at all.

And then, inexplicably he seems to be scared to death of other activities. Like swinging on his swingset. We got him a small swingset for his birthday back in June, thinking that we were great parents who got the perfect gift for our son. He wouldn't swing on this thing for the entire summer. He'd go down the slide, but that was it. Anything else scared him so much that he wouldn't even try. I tried being the tough dad. I tried to force the issue, thinking that if he'd just try it, he'd get over his fear and be fine. I think I ended up making it worse.

But this past week, he started swinging. It came from out of nowhere. He just decided to do it, and now he's loving it. As I watched him swinging this evening, I felt a sense of pride that my boy had faced his fear and fear lost big time!

This mixture of courage and fear is how we often approach our lives. It's easy to look courageous when you know you're relatively safe. When Ryan is wrestling with me, he shows no fear because he knows I'm looking out for him. I'm there to protect him. It's easy to be brave in that scenario.

When we're in familiar territory, it's easy to look brave. It's easy to act with perceived courage.

When it comes to Ryan's swingset, he's on his own…and he knows it. Fear comes into the mix because there's a possibility that he could fall and I wouldn't be able to catch him.

When we feel like we're working without a net, it's easy for fear to rule the day. But one look at Ryan's face tonight told me that fear is worth staring down. It's worth conquering. That's when you truly feel alive. That's when you can accomplish something big for God.

Anytime someone in the Bible accomplished something significant for God's Kingdom, there was a risk involved. There were no guarantees, save one: God promised that he would be with them. And that's the only guarantee we have, too.

Will your new business venture succeed? I don't know. Will she say "yes" if you ask her to marry you? Couldn't tell you. Will your new ministry flourish? Who knows? Will you find a publisher who likes your book? I have no idea.

I can tell you this, though. You'll never find out if you insist on playing it safe.

Get on the swing.

Sunday Night Randomness

I try not to do these "mind dumps" too often, but my brain is such a swirl of activity right now that I just need to unload. So here are a few random thoughts that are taking up my limited cognitive space on this Sunday evening.

1. God is blowing my mind with everything he's doing in our church. Seriously, it's unbelievable.

2. Ground Floor is supposed to be over now, but it's not. Our group is so hungry for God and so filled with questions that we've extended it for another session that will happen in two weeks. It's going to be a no-holds-barred Q&A session. They can bring any question that's burning in their minds, and they have a bunch. Pray for me. :o)

3. Dusty Baker is the new manager for my Reds. Not sure what to make of this move. I'm trying to take a "wait and see" approach.

4. Our Confessions of a Pastor series has been an awesome experience for me. I actually took more of a backseat today as Brian brought the bulk of the message. He did a great job. I've enjoyed the synergy that we've had in this series. Got one more week coming, and you don't want to miss this one.

5. Any day we have a baptism at ACC is a great day. Props to Justin Kelch for his decision to make Jesus the Lord and Savior of his life. I didn't win any style points on the baptism, though. As I was baptizing Justin, I whacked his head on the side of the baptistery. Oops. Sorry man.

6. Gotta love Pastor Appreciation Month. A big thanks to our church family for the generous gifts Brian and I received this morning. Let's just say that now I can hit Starbucks…A LOT!

7. The Bengals…what's wrong with this picture? Actually, what's not wrong with this picture? At least my Colts are still 5-0.

That's it for now. My mind is officially clear.

Goodnight John Boy.

Who Dey?

For you non-Bengal fans, the "Who Dey?" chant is short for "Who dey think gonna beat dem Bengals?"

Answer: just about anybody.

Halftime

My weekend has reached halftime. What a day today.

We had a great time at Jarman's Greenhouse. Seriously, if you live on the east side of Cincinnati and you have young kids, you need to take them on a Saturday this month. It's worth the short drive out to Felicity. All the staff at Jarman's are awesome. Super nice and super accommodating. The day costs next to nothing and it's a ton of fun. Ryan loved the straw maze, the hayride, the cow train (that is awesome!), the farm animals, etc. It's proof that the simple things in life are some of the best. We ate some hot dogs, brought a pumpkin and a few gourds home, and just had a great time!

Click here for a map to Jarman's Greenhouse.

And then this evening it was Matt and Michelle Basler's wedding. It was really a cool affair. A picture perfect fall day for an outdoor wedding. I don't do weddings very often, so performing the ceremony is somewhat outside of my comfort zone. But it felt like everything clicked. Most importantly, it seemed like Matt and Michelle had a really special day. Congrats guys!

Time to unwind before I crank it up again tomorrow morning.

Busy Weekend

I've got a pretty full plate this weekend.

First of all, a little family time this morning. We're taking Ryan to Jarman's Greenhouse for their kids day on the farm. They're running it every Saturday in October. We went last year and had a blast.

Later on today I have the honor of performing a wedding for Matt Basler and Michelle Wehrmeyer. It's the first time I've performed an outdoor wedding. Should be fun.

Sunday will be a full day, as always.

All good stuff. Just really busy.