Kirk Bowman's blog

This Sunday is going to be awesome!

We are launching a new series on dating and marriage - "More Than A Feeling"

For the next month we are going to explore how to build marriages that are fun, fulfilling and lasting.

Suzette and I are going to teach together - for the first time ever. Should be a great experience. Who knows what will happen - or get said.

We've been very happily married for 26 years and looking forward to sharing our hearts and God's word on marriage. We aren't perfect but we do have a few ideas that have worked for us.

We're believing God for His touch on marriages - both existing ones and ones to come.

Also, get ready for a little 70's rock this week!

The creative pieces of this whole series are going to be a lot of fun.

Suzette and I went down to Atlanta this last weekend to give a little support and encouragement to Tim and Andrea Skinner.

They were both part of our staff for several years and are now launching a church in north Atlanta.

We had a great dinner with them on Friday. I remember when we first started our church. I would've loved to have someone take me out the night before we began and express their support.

It was an excellent first meeting. Awesome band for worship. Good feel to everything. A bunch of guys from our church drove down to show some love to Tim and Andrea.

I loved the "rawness" of something brand new starting up. It is such a cool thing.

If you know anyone who lives in the North Atlanta/Mall of Georgia area, send them over to Church In Motion.

Tonight we're having the first of this year's four quarterly Leadership Rallies.

I am so pumped about the direction we're going this year. Lots of great plans, ideas and creativity flowing. Can't wait to get with our leaders and worship, share vision, pray and connect.

The journey to become all God has called us to be is amazing. There are lots of great people I'm thrilled to be doing life with.

Jim Rohn says:

"Each of us has two distinct choices to make about what we will do with our lives. The first choice we can make is to be less than we have the capacity to be. To earn less. To have less. To read less and think less. To try less and discipline ourselves less. These are the choices that lead to an empty life. These are the choices that, once made, lead to a life of constant apprehension instead of a life of wondrous anticipation.

And the second choice? To do it all! To become all that we can possibly be. To read every book that we possibly can. To earn as much as we possibly can. To give and share as much as we possibly can. To strive and produce and accomplish as much as we possibly can. All of us have the choice.

To do or not to do. To be or not to be. To be all or to be less or to be nothing at all."

I like the second choice. For me and for our church.

Went with a bunch of friends to experience David Crowder a few nights ago.

David is a most unusual looking fellow. Tall, very thin, big, big hair and an over the top goatee. It all comes at you at once when you first see him.

Then he starts playing music. Wow! Amazing songs. Some of the best lyrics imaginable. After just a few minutes you completely forget what he looks like and get lost in his amazing music. It was a total worship experience.

I liked DCB before - Now I am a total fan.

I loved the intelligent lights and some of the set up. I'd love to do our church worship more like that. Like a big U2 concert with all attention aimed at glorifying God.

A lot of things around the concert were a bit off, though. Whenever I go anywhere, I am always observing attention to detail. This concert was no different for me.

Nobody to help us with parking. No ushers, hosts, people to smile at us. One very plain, small product table manned by a couple of unfriendly people.

It made me appreciate our amazing guest services team.

Is. 43:18 Forget about what’s happened; don’t keep going over old history.
Is. 43:19 Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new. It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it? There it is! I’m making a road through the desert, rivers in the badlands.

Something about rehashing the past continuously is not healthy for any of us.

There are lessons to be learned (and remembered) from our past and there are great memories worth holding on to. But digging up the past over and over is not really a great way to march into an amazing future.

This guy has an a amazing ability to remember all the details of every day of his past. Perfect autobiographical recall. One other lady is known to have the same "gift".

It seems both of them struggle with having this ability. To be able to recall too many things could be an emotional overload.

Some things are worth forgetting.

As we march into our future, let's not carry too many pieces of baggage from our past.

Great days are ahead!

Just returned from visiting my family and friends in New Orleans. Suzette and I grew up in N.O. so we both have an appreciation for the unique culture of that city.