Lakeview is apparently trying to fit an entire year of ministry milestones into a couple of weeks. Last Sunday they sent out Cross & Crown Church, and this Sunday they broke ground on a brand-new children’s building. Tim is riding a pretty incredible wave of momentum, although at this point the wave may be mostly caffeine and exhaustion.

Meanwhile, Andrew has somehow become the official prayer guy for the City of Safety Harbor. If there’s a microphone, a city official, and something happening downtown, apparently somebody has Andrew’s number.

Tim is also discovering one of the realities of preaching verse by verse through Exodus: eventually you have to preach the parts nobody puts on a coffee mug. We’re talking about what to do when the next passage is important, inspired, and, if we’re being fair, a little boring.

And a few weeks after Safety Harbor paid off its mortgage, Andrew finally gets to tell the story of the actual mortgage burning, complete with flash paper and his brief career as an amateur magician. Because apparently simply saying, “We paid off the building” wasn’t dramatic enough.

It’s groundbreaking, church planting, civic prayers, difficult texts, and lighting things on fire in church. Just another couple of weeks in ministry.

Tim was there for a big milestone yesterday as Cross & Crown Church held its very first Sunday service. After watching the church move from an idea, to a launch team, to being commissioned and sent out from Lakeview, they are officially gathering as a church.

At Safety Harbor, Andrew made a slight adjustment to the sermon calendar. After spending eight weeks covering the major covenants of Scripture, the church is now slowing things WAY down and spending ten weeks in a single chapter. Apparently pacing is relative.

Tim also got stood up for a lunch meeting this week, and Andrew is trying very hard to be sympathetic. Unfortunately, Tim has flaked on Andrew enough times that this mostly feels like justice.

That leads into some ministry shop talk about preaching. How do you adapt a sermon when you love the idea, but the original style is not yours and the context is a bit different? And how do senior pastors intentionally make room in the preaching calendar for other voices without feeling like they have to preach every Sunday themselves?

It's church planting milestones, radically different sermon pacing, missed lunches, and learning that sometimes good ministry means adjusting the plan and giving someone else the microphone.

Football season is officially here, and apparently both of our churches decided to celebrate with big Sundays.

Safety Harbor held its annual fantasy football draft after church, and this year's turnout was the biggest yet. What started as a fun little church league has turned into multiple leagues, a packed fellowship hall, plenty of football food, and way too many people convinced they can draft a championship roster.

Over at Lakeview, they had a big Sunday of their own with a record-breaking new members class. Tim also managed to have what we're calling a 20,000-word Sunday, between preaching, teaching, meetings, and everything else pastors somehow agree to put on the same day. At some point, your vocal cords should qualify for overtime pay.

And we're officially entering full-blown sports dad season. Practices, games, coaching, driving kids everywhere, and trying to figure out how all of that fits alongside an already full ministry calendar.

It's fantasy football, new members, marathon Sundays, and the annual realization that the fall calendar has absolutely no respect for your free time.