Our goal is to create a comfortable, family atmosphere that will make it easy to invite our friends and family who haven’t been to church in years or have never been to church.

Did you know that:
- Most people come to church because of a personal invitation
- 7 out of 10 unchurched people have never been invited to church in their whole lives

This is a great time for ALL of us to invite our friends and family!!! We have a lot of exciting things planned but the most exciting thing of all will be the opportunity for our friends and families to hear the gospel.

Billy Joe Daugherty, my pastor, during the time in the early and mid 80′s, died early Sunday morning and entered Heaven.  He and Sharon dedicated our building in Winamac when it was built.  He has spoken here in Plymouth at our conference.  Billy Joe is well known through his television programs.  But again that is not the reason for this blog.

HE WAS A SPIRITUAL FATHER TO ME.  It has been surreal this last two days.  My wife and I have been greiving as though we lost someone in our family.  Not in a bawling way but anytime I take time to ponder or reflect, I weep on the inside.  This has been strange because we haven’t seen each other that much the last few years. 

I believe it is because of such life he awoke inside me.  I owe my very life and existence to him.  Just thinking of him has convicted of my personal discipline in the word and prayer.  That is the power of a spiritual Father.

The words “My father who art in heaven” has dual meaning to me.  My heavenly father and my spiritual father who are both in heaven.

See you soon, Father Billy Joe.

I was following  behind John Duhnovsky, Jim Howard, and Gary Leary and enjoying the hills and curves.  I was so impressed with the foliage, the corn and bean fields and all of the beauty that was around me.  I was thinking how crazy evolution is that says somehow this just happened.  I started to thank God for the enjoyment of the bike ride in such an awesome setting.  THEN IT HAPPENED, THE WIPEOUT.

It is not what you think.  The Holy Spirit must have jumped on my bike.  He just wiped me out.  I was overcome with joy and emotion.  I was so overwhelmed with what God has prepared for us.  We think of God as the Creator from the book of Genesis.  He impressed on me that even the machine that I was on and the farmer’s combine and the houses that I saw were all a part of His creation. 

His Wisdom is so creative and available to man.  Even those who have taken the glory for the inventions were under his creative Wisdom.    He has done this for us because He loves us.  We want to think how good we are at something when actually we are only tapping into God’s Wisdom.  He is still Creating; beautiful cars, homes, jobs, people, children, nature, machines and everything that we see, feel or smell.

We could be unsaved, reject Christ, and full of self and still tap into His Creative Genius because He still loves us.

Yes this was probably the biggest motorcycle wipeout I have ever had and I have had my share.

Brad sent me a great note back saying that he moved to PA when he was in highschool.  He went on to college at Pitt, did medical research and ended up a Christian Lawyer.  He is now married and has two boys Joshua and Caleb.  Wow, was I excited to reconnect with that little boy who was impacting his area For Christ.

This is not the greatest high point for me.  Here is a qoute from his Facebook response, “I thank God every day that my family had your family during a difficult time in our lives. Even though things did not go well in the end my Mom fondly remembers your family and was thrilled to hear that I was able to talk to Heath again.  Like I said to him, it is truly amazing what we can do today with communications. Just to think that not so long ago people like us would probably never have the chance to meet again on this Earth…..what a blessing.”

The exciting thing for Sandy and I was an update on some counseling and encouragement we gave to a hurting mother over twenty years ago.  Even though the marriage didn’t survive, Bradly did and has a great future.

Here is the take away.  Leaders and Christians don’t feel like you efforts are lost when you help or reach out and the results don’t look so victorious.  We found out 25 years later that we had a very small part, maybe significant part, in shaping the future of a great young family.  If not for Facebook we would have never known the end of the story.  Be encourage, what you do for Christ is eternal and never wasted.

Wow what a week at Church of the Heartland.  Thanks to all who have helped us be able to make the move next week to our NEW SANCTUARY.  Here is a recap.  KWAM doesn’t just have a new room.  It is not only updated with the lastest technology,  it is fun and inviting.  We truly love children and this room shows that love.  THANK YOU HEARTLANDERS who helped Pastor Chris pull off this miracle.

The sanctuary has all new ceiling and lighting.  We have installed the latest lighting control system that control all 72 new recessed ceiling lights.  The new stage lighting is awesome.  Check out the awesome sound both.

Things are also different as you enter the church.  First if you enter the door on the right, you will enter our new coffee lounge.  We expect ministry and great fellowship to take place in this new comfortable lounge.  Check out the new banneres, chairs and tables.  The coffee lounge is called Ugly Mugs Extention.  It is patterned and named after our successful coffee shop at our South Bend Campus.  We will be serving Ugly Mugs great coffees like its Kona.  Ugly Mugs Extention will be open one hour to before and after service.  Come check it out.

Oh, by the way,  every wall has been painted with such sharp vibrant colors.  It truly says, “Let’s do life together.”

Thanks Heartlands for pulling this off.  What a miracle.

Church of the Heartland is gearing up for Back to Church Sunday: As millions of Americans head back to school, organizers of a new faith-based outreach campaign hope that millions more will come back to church as well. The “Back to Church Sunday” campaign makes it easy for church members to invite their friends and family by creating a worship service specifically geared toward visitors.

The program kicks off with national “Back to Church Sunday” on Sept.13 aimed at reaching the “un-churched” and “de-churched”- people who used to go to church, but don’t any more. The campaign is based on a simple idea. If you ask un-churched people to come with you to church-mostly likely they’ll say yes.

LifeWay Research found that 82 percent of un-churched people surveyed said that they’d be open to visit a church, if a friend or family member invited them. Unfortunately, said Thom Rainer, president of LifeWay, few church members invite their friends and neighbors. “Only two percent of church members invite an un-churched person to church,” he says. “Ninety-eight percent of churchgoers never extend an invitation in a given year.”

Come on Church of the Heartland – let’s all invite someone on September 13th!

Hemi took us on the most awesome ride through great scenic area of Marshall and Starke County.  The games played at Bass Lake was like playing like a little kid but using motorcycles.  Would you believe Playing Cornhole using a motorcycle?    I was just blown away with the Motorcyle Museum at Kerstings.  I figured it would be rinky dink.  It was amazing.  I guess he has over 2 to 3 million dollars worth of antigue bikes.  I could has spent the rest of the day there.

Now top this off with more games, hog roast, live band and skeet shooting. 

THANK YOU BIKER CHURCH OF THE HEARTLAND.  YOU ARE A GREAT GROUP OF AWESOME PEOPLE.

Gary Leary wrote;  I am revisiting a spiritual landmark that I was challenged to study way back in 1997. It is called the “Gateways”, and the Lord has challenged me to revisit this area again.

I was blessed to have a friend and evangelist from Hastings, New Zealand bring this teaching to the church I pastured in Torrance California. Ian Clayton broke this teaching during a conference we were hosting, and it struck a resounding chord in us all.

I took several days away to really study this out, so I made a mini retreat for myself, and for three days, it was just me and the Lord and Ian’s teaching notes. And I came away from that retreat time a changed person.Like everything else, if we do not guard our spirit, some things tend to slip from the forefront of our attention, without us even realizing that we have drifted in our focus. So, the Lord has gently reminded me that I need to once again take the time to make this an integral part of me. 

The difference this time around is that I feel directed to embellish the Gateways with a in-depth study of the basic fundamentals behind each gateway. So, this is what I will do. 

Simply put, we are a tripartite being, like God in His trinity. The difference is where He is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we are body, soul and spirit. Each one of these aspects have gates through which we perceive the world and God. If our perception is wrong, then our view and understanding of God is wrong. If we start from the body, our senses mess up our knowledge of Who and what God is. It also confuses our soul, and skews how God can work in and through us, minimizing our impact with those around us. 

If we start with the Spiritual Gateways, then we can see things more from God’s perspective than from a worldly perspective.Our body (soma) gates are the five senses.  Our soul (psueche) gates are such as our conscience, our mind, our emotions, and so forth, and are more geared toward how we think and respond.  The Spiritual gates are such things as our revelation, our faith, our hope and prayerfulness, and have an influence on how our spiritual sensitivity to God and people is tuned. 

So, I am excited about what the Lord is again leading me into. I hope that He is leading you to drink anew of Him and that it excites you as much as this excites me.

Thanks Gary for some good insight.  Herb