On Easter Sunday, I got up very early (of course) to get ready for the Sunrise Service.

As I made my way into the kitchen to prepare my English muffin (with honey, thank you) and hard boiled egg, I noticed a small piece of scratch paper on the kitchen counter.

On the paper, I saw the chicken scrawl that passes for my 18 year old son Riley's handwriting. So I read it.

It was a note to me. It said, in the sort of earthy vernacular of high school football players, what might be delicately translated as "break a leg for Jesus today."

Now that's not what he wrote, but that's what he meant.

I was pretty grateful that an 18 year old would recognize the ministry importance of Easter Sunday for his preacher dad, and then take the time to write a note spurring me on.

And the day just got better from there.

Perhaps it was the fact that the weekend came so soon on the heels of the Labor Day holiday.

Or maybe it was because the weekend was full of both down time and up time.

Or even the fact that I spent some time getting over an infection brought on by my days at high altitude in Utah.

But it seems like a lot happened just since Friday. A sampling . . .

• Riley's Charlotte Christian School football team won its Friday night game 50-14 and now stand at 3-1. They were ahead 41-8 at half time and game officials mercifully had the clock run continuously throughout the second half.
• I officiated at a wedding on Saturday afternoon.
• Grew despondent watching Roger Federer lose to Novak Djokovic in Saturday evening's US Open semi-final. Federer had two match points yet Djokovic came back. This was the third match Federer has lost this year after holding match point, though of course the other two didn't hurt nearly as much as this one.
• Decided I couldn't quite stomach the novel I'd started so ditched it in favor of an easy-to-read sports book. See "Books I Like" to the left.
• SMU beat UAB, 28-7.
• Saw that Princeton's women's tennis team has received an NCAA reprimand. Seriously?
• On Sunday morning, our scheduled bass player had a car wreck on the way to church. He had X-rays in the ER but was released to home. Here's what's doubly interesting. Chris Macedo subbed at the last minute on bass . . . yet he played the bass guitar part on a keyboard. His high tech synthesizer has a bass guitar effect, so he simply played that part while looking for all the world like he was playing keys. Amazing.
• Launched Sacred Marriage. It's an honor to teach on such important material.
• You can still sign up for the Sacred Marriage Pathfinders Launch here.
• Also started a new prayer ministry on Sunday morning called the Altar Prayer Ministry. We now have a group of trained prayer guides available for prayer and conversation at the conclusion of each service. I was glad to hear that several Good Shepherd folks took advantage of it on the very first Sunday.
• Started something else on Sunday: Pathfinders Espanol. Our own Sammy Gonzalez now leads a Sunday morning Pathfinders group in Spanish. They had to bring in extra chairs for the first meeting. Dios le bendiga!
• Continue to write a lot of notes to first time guests each Sunday night. Don't know why we've had an uptick recently. That note writing is long but rewarding work.

Last Friday, I posted about my son's first game in his senior season on the football team at Charlotte Christian School.

They won that game 14-13 and Riley played extrordinarily well.

So we're on it again tonight. I'm learning why parents make such a big deal over high school football.

I'm even wearing school colors.

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Servolution comes to Week Four on Sunday.

I think this one is the most surprising message of the bunch. I believe it will help a lot of people.

The our Servolution Celebration -- complete with some surprises of its own -- happens on Sunday night from 5-7 p.m.

See you then.

I'm really excited about tonight, the first Friday night of the school year.

Because I'm gonna go out and party?

Not really.

Because high school football begins tonight in the Carolinas. And my son Riley begins his senior year on the team at Charlotte Christian School.

He's worked hard and changed a lot and we're really proud. He's playing a combination linebacker/safety in a 4-2-5 defense.

I'm not sure exactly what that means, but I know they play it at TCU, so it's OK with me.

And why did I add the title "Teamwork" to today's post?

Because tonight while I'm at Riley's game, Ron Dozier of Good Shepherd will teach the first part of our First Step membership exploration class.

I'll return to teach the second part of it tomorrow morning.

You can still sign up for First Step here.

Here are the five top things I like about serving as the pastor of Good Shepherd United Methodist Church:

1. Studying for, preparing, and delivering Sunday morning messages.

2. Conceiving and then carrying out an entire series in which we take a fresh look at an ancient subject. By working with a team on such projects, the end result is far beyond the initial concept. The ones I feel best about are There's An App For That (the book of Proverbs), Rubber, Meet Road (the book of James), and Oddballs (a series on holiness).

3. Making videos like the one posted yesterday.

4. Walking with people in times of grief. I don't like it as in, "hey, this is fun!" but as in "this is what the church is all about."

5. Old-fashioned pastoral visits. There is still nothing quite like sitting in someone's family room, finding out about their life and what brought them to this church, and then praying together. It's the kind of treat that is increasingly rare as the church grows and life speeds up.