“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen” (Ephesians 3:20-21).

Without bounds.  Unable to be contained.  Beyond our wildest expectations.

Our God is able to do immeasurably more than all we can think to ask.  He exceeds our most vivid imaginations.  When we think we’ve exhausted every possible angle, conceived every possible solution … God stands there and says, “You’re just getting started.”

The Westminster Catachism explains the ultimate aim of every Christ-follower in this way: “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.”

The church was designed to bring glory to God.  As we trust in God to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine — and watch as he does it — we bring glory to him.

I like reading Ed Stetzer.  I first came across Ed’s stuff when I was in the beginning stages of planting a church.  My wife and I had just been hired by Stadia and were sent back home with a stack of books to read.  One of those was a book on church planting by Ed Stetzer.

Ever since then, I have tracked Ed via his blog and Twitter (@edstetzer).  Here are excerpts of a recent post entitled, “Church Birth Control.”

Seems to be that churches must be on some powerful birth control. They are not reproducing. And I don’t get why.  It’s natural. It’s normal. It’s essential. And we all know how to do it. But somewhere along the way, church reproduction and multiplication became unusual or strange in North America. And I am not happy about it.

What’s the most effective? Church multiplication movements. When churches plant lots of other churches, our witness advances exponentially. The Gospel goes viral. We need that kind of movement today. One that cannot be controlled, confined or contained.

Yet I feel like a tired husband in yet another round of false labor. Everyone is talking reproduction, but not enough churches are having babies.

By our definition, a church multiplication movement happens when churches:

-Multiply at a 50 percent rate (100 churches one year become 150 the next year) -Reach 50 percent of their new people through conversion (they are reaching the lost)

-Multiply to the third generation of churches (parent, child, grandchild)

We kicked off a new series this weekend at Mountainview called “Chase the Lion.”  It’s based on a book by Mark Batterson that features an obscure character from the Old Testament – Benaiah.  I had the privilege of kicking off the series with a message entitled, “Defying the Odds.”  The basic premise was this: your view of God will determine the size of the challenges you tackle.

Our creative arts team did a fantastic job of designing the stage.  Our music was good, as it always is.  At our second service I had the opportunity to baptize a young lady into Christ as her mom stood near by.

Tonight we hosted “Laugh All Night,” a Christian comedy concert to benefit mission efforts in Haiti.  It was very well attended and everyone seemed to enjoy it.  I was a bit disappointed that there was no open mic … but that’s probably for the best!

And to top things off, today (March 7) is our daughter Hope’s tenth birthday. We took her and several of her little buddies to Benihana’s for lunch.  It’s hard to believe our little baby is now ten years old.  Time flies.

All in all, what a great day it was!

How many things might we improve if we learned to ask the right questions?  Here’s an example of one powerful question we ought to ask when considering the tasks, jobs, and dreams we’re trying to accomplish:

“Is there a better way?”

I enjoy being around church planters.  This morning at Mountainview our guest speaker was Todd Sinclair, a church planter who started Life Church in Aurora, CO.  Todd challenged us to think of our journey with Jesus as participating in God’s story.  He also challenged us to think relationally.

After starting a new church in San Diego (LifePoint!), I can honestly say that starting new churches is the single most effective way to reach people disconnected from God.  Those four and a half years with LifePoint were wonderfully challenging but wonderful nonetheless.  We saw people discover God for the first time sitting while sitting on one of our couches.  That’s a thrill that’s hard to describe but it’s addicting.

If you are a pastor of a medium to large church, I want to encourage you to begin praying about how God might use your church to start new churches.  It may be planting one of your own or partnering with another local church to provide the money and team.  If we can begin to think in terms of net Kingdom gain rather than individual church attendance, we will see the Kingdom expand like never before.  Which would you rather have: one church of 500 or two churches of 400 and 200 respectively?

If you a person who is considering planting a church, pray hard that God will light a fire in you for church planting that nothing else can extinguish.  Meet with church planters in your areas.  Go to their worship services.  Read church planting blogs (see below for a sample).

Simply put, go for it!

Church planting blogs:

Ed Stetzer

Mark Batterson

Dave Ferguson

I love great titles (and subtitles, for that matter).  Blogger Scott Ginsberg comes up with some of the best blog post titles.  Here are a few samples:

• 8 Ways to be More Sought-After Than The Jonas Brothers at a Middle School Sleepover
• Now You Can Become as Trusted as Oprah without Resorting to Brainwashing or Jedi Mind Tricks
• 8 Ways to become More Buyable than a Bottle of Viagra at a Boca Raton Bingo Hall

I once read something Jim Sheppard wrote about how our money goes to three basic places: giving, saving, and living.  We either give it away, save it away, or spend it away.

When it comes to stewardship, the order of these three are very important:

“A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the LORD; it is holy to the LORD” (Leviticus 29:30).

God is clear that he wants us to be generous first.  The concept of the “tithe” is that the first ten percent of all we have belongs to God.  Before we offer the service of our hands, God desires the giving of our heart.

After giving should come saving.  Why?  Because if we don’t save, we’ll spend it all on living!  Many Americans, including American Christians, find it difficult to save because the impulse to buy is so strong.  We’ve become accustomed to lifestyles that only two incomes can sustain.

What if we determined that we would only live off 70 percent of our income?  Imagine what we could do with the remaining 30 percent!

Giving, saving, living.

Wolfgang Dircks was dead for five years before anyone knew it.

He was divorced, a former toolsmith, and disabled.  Other residents in his Hamburg neighborhood knew nothing of the reclusive 43-year-old man.  Many had never even seen him.  Dircks’ landlord went to his apartment after the bank account from which his rent and bills were paid ran dry.

Dircks was in front of the television with the lights on his Christmas tree flashing beside him.  More precisely, his skeleton was in the chair — with his TV listings open on his lap to the page for December 5, 1993.

Last, but not least, the class I’ll be teaching in our next E4U session.

Equip Track:  Philippians

Teacher: Ken Hensley

Course Description: Just about everybody wants to find true happiness — but life guarantees emotional ups and downs.  In the book of Philippians, which is actually a letter that Paul wrote while in prison, the key words are “joy” and “rejoice”.  Paul knew the secret of inner joy that doesn’t fade when things go wrong.  Come share in understanding what true joy looks like, and how to keep it alive during life’s trials.

Teacher Bio: Ken is the Pastor of Spiritual Formation at Mountainview.  He came to Highlands Ranch after starting a new church in San Diego.  He and his wife, Tonya, have been privileged to serve churches in San Diego, San Francisco, and Atlanta.  The Hensley family includes two daughters — Hannah and Hope — as well as two cats who wish to remain anonymous.

Cost: $20

Register online.

This class will be great for parents of teenagers.

Engage Track:  Age of Opportunity (Parenting Through the Teen Years)

Teacher: Bill Provo

Course Description: Are you hoping to merely survive your teenager?  This class will look at the heart issues affecting families during the often chaotic adolescent years.  Gain assurance of God’s provision for parenting success and discover ways to seize the countless opportunities to deepen communication, learn, and grow with your teens.

Teacher Bio: Bill has ministered to teens and their families for twenty-five years as a public school teacher, soccer and track coach, Young Life director, and pastor to High School students at Whittier Hills Baptist Church in Whittier, CA.  He and his wife, Debby, live in Highlands Ranch and have two children.

Cost: $20

Register online.