As our church continues to grow so do the daily demands.  As we continue to see lives changed Satan's hatred towards our church grows.  When a church is dead and not making a difference Satan doesn't pay much attention.  But when life change is taking place every week, I can promise you, Satan is becoming upset.

I received this e-mail this morning and wanted to share it with you.

Dean,
God has laid upon my heart strongly that you need prayer. I even dreamed about it the other night. I really wish I had written my dream down in the middle of the night when I awoke, but I didn’t and couldn't remember all the details the next morning! The Lord was telling me about 5 Point and what we needed to do in order to get our new building. That same night, I had just finished an awesome book entitled, The Divine Revelation of Spiritual Warfare. There was a chapter about Pastors in particular and testimonies about the warfare that some of them endure because of who they are and what they are doing for God’s Kingdom. It was pretty intense and scary. Anyway, that night, God really impressed upon me to pray for you as our Pastor: for your spirit to be renewed daily, your vision for 5 Point to be clear and unwavering, continued passion for Jesus and the strength to withstand the “fiery darts” of the evil one. I spend quite a bit of time in prayer daily – it seems to be my “niche”. I will continue to pray these things and more for our church.

Unless your a pastor you'll never understand the stress and pressure being a pastor brings.  You'll never understand the heart ache for the people God has entrusted you with.  You'll never understand the attacks from Satan.  I love being the pastor of this church but with it comes some ugly stuff.  So in saying that, if there is one thing I could ask from the people of our church it would be your prayers.  I covet them.  I beg you for them.  Lift me up to our Savior on a daily basis.

Some things you can pray for me:
* my family
* vision
* boldness and courage
* that I will never screw up and destroy my witness for Jesus.
* leadership
* wisdom for all the decisions I make that effect so many people
* every time I speak God uses me
* message prep - every message will be a message straight from the heart of God
* true burden for this city

If you would pray these things for me I would appreciate it more than you know.