Curt Seaburg.com

Water Baptism - 3-30-08

Sometimes, we can blow in and out of church (or wherever) and never really get to know people.  Baptism always gives us all an opportunity to know people.  It allows us to hear their story.  Behind every set of eyes, there is a story … a beautiful one of redemption.

Today was one of those milestones in our church’s short history.  Jeff Bender, one of our key people at Victory, said it best when he mentioned, “Today, we are putting a stake in then ground.” I had the privilege of baptizing 12 candidates.  To hear their stories was very moving.

Back a few months ago, we felt it was time for us to purchase a portable baptistery.  We threw out the need to our congregation, and they responded in a beautiful way.  We purchased the portable tank and promoted our first indoor baptism.

Hearing their stories was very moving for us as a congregation.  Many tears and a whole lot of cheers for people going public with their faith.  It was a beautiful day!  God was glorified and magnified and Jesus was lifted up. 

Today, there guys got baptized:

1. Tanner Beaman
2. Talia Stem
3. Kaleb Berkich
4. Clayton Steele
5. Lily Esh
6. Michelle Zerbe
7. Karen Minnick
8. Angie Lefever
9. Amber Bubb
10. Shawn Blake
11. Michelle Blake
12. Tom Mason

Wow!  What a day!!

Our Kids ... Growing Up

While in the beautiful city of Dallas this week, we've been staying in our good friends home, Jeremy and Amy.  They are blowing it up for God in the Dallas metroplex and they have two of the cutest little kids, Chloe (age 3) and Ethan (age 1).  We really enjoy their little ones, and Pam & I loved that season of our life, but we're glad to be out of the "little kid" era.

Perry Noble's recent post on "Top 10 Things I'm Thinking About" got me thinking about my family.  We have four of the most beautiful kids to ever discover planet earth, and they are all teenagers!  They are all so beautiful ... and so different.  Same parents ... same home ... totally different.  One thing they all have in common is they all love Jesus with all their heart.  I never want to stop being a good dad and a great father. 

Our oldest daughter, Elissa has been in charge of the house while we have been away preaching at a youth conference.  We're so proud of her.  It is so cool to get little text messages of encouragement from our kids.  Things like, "I love you dad"  "I'm proud of you, daddy."  "Preach hard!"  "I miss you."  I absolutely love the season of life we are in.

• We can celebrate with our oldest, Elissa (age 18) - Just finished chorus and ranked #2 in the entire public school systems in vocals.
• We can encourage our 17 year old to take on a ministry internship at a church that is awesome because Kiersten is so edgy.
• We love the words of affirmation and encouragement that Courtney (15 years old) brings to our family.
• We know the man-child (Drew, age 13) is holding down the fort in prayer.

As our kids grow older, each 'season' becomes our favorite.  What about you, what season of life are you in and how are you embracing it?

First Night in Dallas

I am a TRUE SILVER AND BLUE Dallas Cowboy fan. You can imagine my joy being in the "Big D." Landed last night and we went to a Mavericks game (we beat the Clippers). Saw my boy Dirk, on the bench :-(

This morning we got up early and went over to the new Cowboy stadium. We swung by Valley Ranch (our practice field) and then took the rest of the afternoon to prepare for the yuth conference.

The room was packed with 100's of teenagers. When their worship leader (who they all Pastor Elmo) hit the stage, man he lit it up! So talented and so humble. I watched how all these volunteers from techie people to prayer warriors were doing their thing. All serving God.

I preached out of Joshua/ I did my best to drive home the point, "You'll never know how great God is until you give Him a chance." Great response at the altar call.

Tomorrow night is an evening speaking to leaders. I;m amp'd about it!

Easter Sunday Mind Dump 08

What a day!  I love our church.  People are warm and welcoming.  I get many emails each week from visitors that are blown away by the authenticity of our church.  Big time props to all our volunteers.  Can't do it without them.  Before I turn in for the night, here's a couple of thoughts:

• If I have one more piece of chocolate, I'll throw up.
• I always preach in jeans, but today I preached in a suit jacket and dress pants ... I did it for my wife ... good move on my part.
• Saw almost a dozen people come to faith in Christ this morning.  What a day to get saved!
• The Lord gave a BEAUTIFUL weather for our Easter Sunday service.
• We put out every available chair we had (487) and we needed just about everyone of them.
• I'm still pumped that Steve Fee (worship leader extraordinaire) commented on my blog last week. 
• Proud of our youth pastor (Chris Wallace).  He's doing a great job loving and leading our students.
• We are in need of additional staffing.  Church is in a crazy momentum mode, tomorrow I'm going to call VFCC to see who is coming out of college that we might be interested in.
• Our youth group was at youth Convention 08 (check it out on YouTube)  Michael Gungor and one of my best freinds on the planet, Pat Schatzline, were there to light up 5000 teenagers!!!
• Spoke last week to 400 men at Men's Frat at LCBC.  We are going to link up with LCBC and start a Men's Frat on our side of Lancaster to reach out to men in the east and southern parts of Lancaster County.
• I wonder if we should've had 2 services scheduled this Easter Sunday instead of one?
• I wish I would've gotten golf carts to drive people to the front door so they wouldn't have to walk so far.
• Saw a lot of people that brought a lot of friends and family to church.  Will try to get pictures up this week.

Praise God for another very cool Easter service.  This week is a very busy one for me.  I'm off to Texas to preach to youth and youth leaders.  Keep our family in your prayers as we travel.  OKAY, I'm wiped out.  Good night!

Good Friday

Well, today is the day.  Even though I know how it'll turnout on Sunday, I always think about the price Jesus paid for my sins ... TODAY.  So does our culture.  Have you seen the shows, specials, ads?  People WANT to have the spiritual conversation.  It was around 9AM that they nailed Him to the cross and about 3PM is when He died.  I am so grateful to Jesus for paying my price for forgiveness.  If He stopped there, forgiveness would have been mine but I would still be spiritually dead.  Ah, then comes the resurrection.

Because Jesus rose from the dead, I am NOW spiritually ALIVE.  I love Steve Fee and his song:  All Because of Jesus:

It's all because of Jesus I'm alive

It's all because the blood of Jesus Christ

It covers me and raised this dead man's life

It's all because of Jesus I'm alive!!!

Thank You Jesus!

82%

Hey, Easter is coming this Sunday.  I just heard that researchers have determined that 82% of the people you invite to an Easter service WILL come.  This week our services are at 10AM.  Our regular Sunday meetings are maxing out.  I often thought over the past 2 weeks that we should've opened this up to 2 services.  Taken the plunge ... just did it!  It would've been a great time to experiment ... but ... alas, this Easter came so fast.

I'm talking about the change that the resurrection brings to all.  The death of Jesus forgave our sins but we were still spiritually dead.  But Jesus didn't come to just die for us so that we could go through rituals and religious tradition.  He came to bring us BACK to right relationship with God the Father.  The resurrection of Jesus made us ALIVE spiritually!  I LOVE EASTER and the hope it brings!!

Anyway, get out there and invite somebody.  Doesn't take much effort, just SOME effort on your part!  You and they, will be glad you did.

Monday Morning Mind Dump - 3.17.08

What a fantastic day.  My GREAT day started actually on Saturday night.  I got a voice mail from one of the guys in our congregation.  He, by his own admission, hadn't been a good dad and husband for years.  His wife said their marriage.  He told me, "That was the bottom for me."  He got his life right with the Lord, got involved in volunteering in the church.  He knew that the Lord gave his precious bride of over 20 years to him as a gift.  He repented for the way he had treated her and became accountable to a group of guys in our church.  He began the long road to romancing her.  For months, I mean months, she wanted nothing to do with him.  It was difficult, but he remained true.  After not knowing if he was coming or going in the relationship, he invited her to a get-a-way.  She said, "YES."  The call on Saturday was to tell me that the Lord had done a miracle.  She stopped the divorce proceedings.  They are on the road back!  All glory to God!!!!!!!

• Sunday was another full house.  We're in a series.  We talked about FAITH when it comes to the miraculous and answered the question, "If I can easily pray for someone else in their time of need, why is it so difficult for me to believe God for help in my time of need?"
• We had our 1st Water Baptismal class in our new building.  15 candidates, including my neighbor, are going to be baptized on March 30th.
• Pam (my lady!) led worship - good grief, she can flat out sing and lead a congregation in WORSHIP!!
• Saw some old friends in church today.  Great to see Lou!
• Great response to the altar as many came for prayer in very specific areas.  God's gonna due miracles!
• Youth group is rockin for Jesus!  They met on Sunday and they are breaking all the rules.  Chris Wallace is a diamond in the rough.  Can't wait for him to come on staff full-time.  (need those non-tithers to start tithing!)
• Annual Stewardship Meeting.  Steve Brubaker knocked it out of the park ... again!  He does a wonderful job as the church treasurer.  God has blessed us with GREAT people who have filled that role.  2007 was a great year!
• 2008 is already looking like our best year ever.

This Sunday is Easter.  Researchers say that 82% of the people you invite to church on Easter WILL COME!  Do it!  Invite someone to church this week!

Don't forget to keep those miracle testimonies coming in.

I'm So Mad At Perry Noble

Good grief, me and Matt Weidman headed to Anderson, South Carolina (where RADIO was filmed) to be a part of a one-day conference called UNLEASH.  I thought it was gonna be some, nice little conference.  I mean, 20 years of ministry, I've been to a lot of conferences and not much surprises me.  I admit, I DID go with an open heart.  Everything was fine until the first main session.  Did I say THE FIRST?  Right out of the gate, right out of the box, God wrecked my life through a message by the Senior Pastor of Newspring, Perry Noble!  I was so mad!

I was fine, stressed out, a little miffed by some recent happenings, overwhelmed by the weight of ministry ... you know, typical ministry stuff.  But then it happened, BAM!  God slapped me up side the head, He got my attention, and then God loved on me.

I needed that.  I didn't think I did, but I needed that.  I learned a lot from the executive pastor, Jason "big guns" Wilson.  Learned a lot about "staffing issues.  Learned a lot about me.  The church (over 500 volunteers on that day) were all so kind, so pleasent.

Will I go back next year?  You better believe it.  I'm buying 20 tickets for our staff and Advisory Team.  I want God to wreck their lives as well.

Over the next several days, I share some of the things the Lord showed me about me.  It'll be scary!

Thanks Perry, for punching me in the throat!!   I'm so mad at you!

Reflections on the Sunday Service = 3.09.08

We're in the middle of a series called "MIRACLES." (Today, it was the feeding of 5k ... way cool story.)   First of all, you got to know that I'm a TYPE A personality.  I like things organized and done just the right way.  If you don't know what to do, I'm quick to show you ... (maybe too quick.)  As I sit here (before bed) and reflect a little bit on the service, I am blown away by what God did and is doing in our church.  Today seemed to be going long, and I was starting to get a little concerned.  Those dumb thoughts of, "What will people think?"  "People aren't gonna come back."  Just dumb stuff.  But , then I felt a settled peace.  Anyday with God's people is a great day! 

Back in January, we sent 15 guys on a missions trip.  One of the things we did today was to celebrate the team that went to Mississippi.  They went there to help those who were STILL devastated by Hurricane Katrina.  One of the guys, Andy Germaine, did a crazy good job at capturing the events of that trip back in January.  After that, we talked briefly about a WORKZONE our church is doing this month,  (side note; WORKZONES are outreaches we do into our community.  We typically pick an organization that ministers to the needs of the less fortunate and we tell our congregation what the needs are.  For one month, people can drop off items at the office and we take them to the group we have targeted.  It's very cool.) then we talked about an Easter Outreach.

Then, a couple in our church, Jesse & Abby Myer, shared their miracle testimony of the birth of their baby girl ... driving home the fact that God is STILL in the miracle working business.  Jeff Bender, one of my favorite speakers, preached on the ingredients to a miracle.  Many people responded to the 'call to action' at the conclusion of the message. 

I'm telling you that the Lord was lifted up today and God was praised!  It was a great Sunday.

Hey, if you have a miracle, send it to me.  We want to begin collection the miracles and then we want to put them in a book. It's just our little way of KICKING THE DEVIL IN THE BACKSIDE!!

MIRACLES - Reflections

This week, we started a brand new series called: "Miralces."  In the gospels, Jesus performed at least 35 miralces.  This week, we talked about one of my favorites ... "Jesus Calms The Storm."  I love the fact the Jesus never panics.  What miracles have you experienced?