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Here are some pics of Brittney, Brandon, and Brooke. Thank God school starts back soon.

Brittney graduated from High School and she will be a freshman at Georgia State University in August. I took her to Paris and London for her graduation present. Here she is asleep in the Louvre Museum in Paris. When I took this picture other people started taking pictures of her too. She was totally embarrassed.

Brandon evidently thinks jumping off of buildings and structures is good entertainment. He calls it “free running.” I call it a soon-to-be visit to the emergency room. He went to camp with a friend about four weeks ago and told everyone that he feels like God has called him into ministry. I am pumped. He will be a senior.

Brooke is very friendly and seldom meets a stranger. She starts seventh grade in two weeks and she has spent her summer swimming, getting a suntan, and taking pictures of herself. My house has been filled with middle school girls all summer.

If you attend Avalon Church you know that we have had an awesome summer. We were a part of the One Prayer series and we heard Craig Groeschel, Wayne Cordeiro, Ed Young, and Perry Noble. I have not spoken at Avalon in four weeks and I am pumped about being able to talk to you this weekend. Over the next few weeks I will share what God has been speaking to me about this summer. I can’t wait! I hope I don’t explode before Sunday.

This Sunday, in all three morning services, we will have communion. This is always a big deal for us. Also we will have a giant tail gate party at 6:00 pm on Sunday and we will baptize outside. It is going to be lots of fun. By the way, bring your own food for the tail gate party and I hope lots of you will enter the barbecue cook-off.

Peace. Ritchie

Next week many of our teenagers will head out for a week of summer youth camp. I love camp for the fun you have and the friends you meet, but I really love camp because of the lessons you learn.

I learned that leaders have to think outside the box.
The very first time I went to Christian camp was when I was seven years old. I did not realize that I was a budding young leader but I learned some valuable leadership lessons anyway. I learned that leaders – problem solvers – have to think differently sometimes. I was presented with a problem; my counselor told all the boys that we had to keep our bunk area clean. That meant no unmade beds, no dirty clothes lying around, and no wet bathing suits hanging off the end of the bed. That can be a big problem for a seven year old that is used to his mom’s maid service. So in my best out-of-the-box thinking I solved the problem. Maybe I should say out-of-the-suitcase thinking. I decided to let my suitcase do all the work. Since we swam every day there was no need to take a bath or change clothes. In fact, I did not even feel the need to brush my teeth. That involved too much opening and closing suitcases. And on the first night, when the counselor told ghost stories that scared me so badly I threw up all over my sheets, I did not panic. I just put the sheets in the suitcase. It was a nice warm place and now I did not have to make my bed. One more problem solved! When swim time came I stuffed my “everyday clothes” in the suitcase with the vomit sheets and the clean clothes. When swim time was over the wet swim suit went back in the suitcase too. It was a beautiful system. I will never forget seeing my mom at the end of the week – wearing the same clothes I had on when I left. She did not seem very enthused about my growing leadership potential.

I learned that it is always about the girl.
I know that you probably thought since I am a pastor that I always thought about spiritual things, even as a teenager. Wrong. I went to camp as a teen because of the sports and the girls. Mostly the girls. Sweet summer romance. Lots of kisses. Hiding from the counselors. Getting preached at and told that kissing was wrong and then sneaking out into the woods with a different girl after each service. Learning that God designed me to be a warrior at heart with a beauty to rescue and a battle to win as a Christian, a husband, a dad, and a pastor. Priceless.

I learned that it is always best to listen to Jesus.
It was at camp that I surrendered my life to become a pastor. I will never forget what that felt like as a sixteen year old boy. Like many young people will be next week, I was afraid of what my life would be like if I gave it all to God. I feared for my future, my friends, and my finances. I thought if I said yes to God that I would be giving up my future, my friends, and my finances. Boy was I wrong. You see, it is always best to listen to Jesus.

I hope you will join me in praying for our teens as they and thousands of other kids go to camp next week. I believe that many will have their lives changed forever. Let’s pray that they have the courage to say yes.

Peace. Ritchie

I have a tendency to drift. I am not being poetic, just honest. ADD has been my friend for a long time. By the way, did you hear the prayer of the ADD pastor? He started out, “Our Father in heaven, thank you for this beautiful — Oh look, a bird!” See what I mean?

I have a sneaky feeling that I am not alone in this penchant for going off course. While not everyone has a hard time focusing on just one thing, we all tend to leak. We leak vision, we leak enthusiasm, we leak spiritual commitment. I think it is a part of the curse of sin. Nevertheless, when it comes to staying on course with our mission in life, our relationships, and our walk with God we need a stopgap. We need something that fills us up again and again with purpose.

We need focus.

Focus will keep you on course, it will keep you in love, it will fire you up, and it will keep you hot for God. Without it, we drift from project to project, we get discouraged, we stop pursuing our goals, or worse; we feel like we are stuck in the mud spinning our tires but going nowhere.

Here are some important things I have learned about focus. They are not deep but they are life-changing. I have put them in a list for all of the linear thinkers who read this. (The non-linear folks probably don’t read my blogs anyway. They just watch the video blogs.)

1. Begin each day reading the Bible and praying. I MUST do this if I want balance in my life. I have to hear from God and be mentored by the Holy Spirit. I think it is the most important thing I do.

2. Start each day with a “Thank You.” If I start by thinking about and thanking for the many good things in my life it gives me a perspective that I would otherwise miss. This totally changes my attitude and my mood.

3. Celebrate throughout the day. We tend to focus on the negative. Try celebrating even the minor things and watch how much better you feel and how much more focus you have. Celebrate others and make it a habit to point out something they do well.

4. Keep it in perspective. End your day with evaluation and then look at things through God’s eyes. This keeps us from freaking out and it helps us to depend on God. After all, He is in charge anyway. Right?

Peace.

Ritchie

Hey guys! I hope that you are having a great week. Ritchie asked me to be a guest blogger this week, so here it goes. For those of you who do not know me, I am the A+Kid’s Children’s Pastor as well as the Director of Finances here at Avalon. In addition to those two things, I am also the Director of HOPE.

This Saturday, July 19th, we will be having our annual “backpack” giveaway. Registration starts at 1pm, and only the first 500 kids will receive a backpack. Then at 2pm we will have Kidz Blitz live on stage. This is an interactive program that targets kids, but is fun for all ages. Your kids will have a blast, while learning about Christ. Ok, enough with the formalities, now for the fun part. Whatever kid brings the most guests with them, will get to “POOF” my husband. I am not sure what a “POOF” is, but I am sure it will be funny.

I am so excited about what God is doing through our Children’s Ministries and Avalon Hope. Seeing people’s lives changed makes my job so rewarding. Thank you to the hundreds of volunteers that makes every Sunday happen. You guys Rock!

Hello and bartle-doo to one and all! My name is Kirk McDonald and I am the student pastor here at Avalon church. Ritchie being a great and wonderful boss asked me to guest blog today so here it goes.

I have the privilege of working with and serving a great group of students. I am constantly challenged, pushed, stretched, and I love it. The students I work with are different from those of the previous generations. They have a world of opportunity at their fingertips and are filled with great potential to succeed at life. The down side is that today’s student has a higher level of stress, anxiety, and pressure. The family structure in America is declining; half of students will see their parents breakup and of these, close to half will see the second marriage fail. The sexual revolution has taken its toll as well. By the time they are seniors, 64.9 percent of high school students have had sex.
Think about this; by the time a student graduates they have seen an average of 23,000 hours of T.V. but will only have spent 11,000 hours in the classroom. You might ask is it really that bad? According to a study by the American Psychological Association 1 in 12 students are threatened and or injured with a weapon every year. In the next 24 hours 1,439 teens will attempt suicide.

In hearing all of this, people with a heart for students become paralyzed with fear and don’t know what to do or where to begin. We see this massive problem with our culture and we feel as if there is nothing we can do. You might feel like you don’t know the music or understand the clothes, but the truth is at the heart of a student they are looking for some one to love them.

You can make a difference! The Israelites looked at Goliath and said, “He is so big how can I win” but David looked at him and said, “My God is so big how can I miss?” The reality is our God is big enough and with His help we can make a difference that will last an eternity. We make a huge mistake in thinking that someone else will meet the needs in the life of a student. If we all think that, nothing ever gets done. Together we can slay the giant of influence and reach students for Christ.

I would love to talk with you so come by the youth room and say Bartle-Doo!

Much Love
Kirk

One Prayer has been a HUGE blessing to Avalon Church. This Sunday our guest preacher will be Perry Noble. Perry is the founding pastor of Newspring Church in Anderson, SC. The church started as a Bible study for college students in 1999 and has grown to over 8000 people every weekend. Perry is straightforward and you are going to love him.

Here are some facts about Perry that will help you get to know him.

• He is married to Lucretia
• She is a medical doctor
• They have a baby girl named Charisse
• Perry LOVES sweets
• He is 6 feet 6 inches tall
• He is a workout fanatic
• He is the founder of Unleash

Perry will speak on the subject, “God, Make Us Dangerous.”

Ladies and gentlemen, you are going to be FIRED UP after hearing Perry.

Ritchie