Tag Archive - magic trick

TWO ZAKS

June 3, 2008 in Creativity, Life Change, The Connection Church with 2 Comments

I know, the title of this post has you wondering. Read to the end to find out.

This Sunday, I get to start my first message series since I have been at The Connection Church. It’s called “Illusions: Stepping In to the Light.” The series is all about how we can stop putting on this fake image of ourselves and start being the person that God made us to be-the person that Christ died for.

Cole is going on a two week vacation, which is well needed and deserved. Sure, it is only a two week series, but I am pumped and ready to go.  Both messages are written and ready and this week I am working on creative elements. Be sure to invite your friends and family!

You can see more about the new series HERE and send EVITES HERE.

Don’t miss week two especially! That is Father’s Day and we will be doing one of the COOLEST creative things we have ever done.  All I will say is this: there will be TWO ZAKS preaching that day…that’ll get you curious.

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Bryan Geiger – the NEXT CATALYST SPEAKER

October 7, 2007 in Leadership with Comments Off

Bryan Geiger, husband of Frances (our kids ministry director), went with us to Catalyst at his own expense. This guy is a leader and I see some BIG stuff in his future. Upon our return, he sent the letter below to his Connection Group. Man, I FEEL CHALLENGED BY THIS! Bryan is also our Ministry Director…he has a passion to get people connected to our ministries. He just started this job a few weeks ago. Read what he wrote if you dare:

I had a life changing/AWESOME time at Catalyst, We (I) can no longer sit ideally by and hope for our church to grow. We can no longer pretend that our current actions are going to be enough to reach a dying nation. It is time for us to stand up for what we believe and live it. It is time for us to reach out to our community and extend GOD’s glory and redemption. It is here and now that we must draw a line in the sand, Romans 12:6-8 says In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. 7 If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. 8 If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly.

Our Church’s Vision is:

  • Connect with God
  • Connect with Others
  • Connect others with God

I feel that as we move into the Season of “Something So Big”, we have an opportunity to seriously impact our community. That can only be done by EVERYONE taking on a servants heart and LEADING this community in to the future.

We must SERVE somewhere in order for that to happen. Every Ministry, the Church is actively supporting today is in need of help, We MUST find the resources to succeed. In a couple of weeks we are going to have a Service centered around Ministry and Serving.

I challenge each of you to make the time to serve. I know that there doesn’t seem to be enough time in the week to get all the things completed you would like, but true giving of our TIME will be a sacrifice.

I believe in the vision of SOMETHING SO BIG.
I believe it is a commitment worth giving.

The three points of this Campaign are easy to remember.

  • Life long stewardship (for you and your family)
  • Campus with 25 Acres of land and the buildings to support our ministry
  • A Regional Church; meeting the needs of and providing services for the people between Austin and San Antonio


 We must own this campaign
We must lead our families first
We must Pray
We must believe
We must walk a Christ like life

We will start with our families
We will add value to our neighbors
We will add value to every person we touch

If we do this I believe that this will be the result

We will develop an environment that transcends age and culture
We will start a cultural shift that impacts every part of our lives
We will raise up a generation of leaders that will take action
We will birth a culture that impacts every generation to come

God bless each of everyone of us. Keep our hearts and minds centered on God, we know that there will be attacks but in his name we will be triumphant.

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Catalyst – Patrick Lencioni

October 6, 2007 in Leadership with Comments Off

Day one of Catalyst, Patrick Lencioni spoke.  It was an incredible speech about job misery.  I have heard Patrick speak a few times and even though he is completely ADD, ADHD, and INSANE, the content is great.  Check this out:

Anonymity - All humans have a need to be known.  If no one knows you you’ll end up in misery.  This means WE MUST BE INTERESTED IN OUR STAFF and OUR TEAMS.  The power of getting to know people is INCREDIBLE.

Irrelevance – People need to know that they are making a difference in other people’s lives.  As a Pastor, I need to constantly remind people that we ARE changing lives.  Not just making videos, filing papers, mailing letters, designing mailers, making phone calls, managing web-sites, etc…RATHER, CHANGING LIVES.

Immeasurement – Everyone needs some form of measurement.  We need to measure what we do that is relevant though.  Everyone needs to be able to say “this is my job, this is what I do, and this is how WELL I do it.”

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