Building Remodel Update

Lifepoint Church of Ruston is right in the middle of a complete remodel of our facilities. This is a video update to serve as a reminder of how much God has done in such a short time and what is going on right now. Many thanks to all of the wonderful people who have volunteered their time, skills, money, and prayer. We are eternally grateful and are expecting God to do even great things in the future!

A Real Failure

Have you ever been reading a book or listening to a presenter and all of the sudden this one thing that they say just hits you right in the gut? Recently Steven Pressfield did this to me in The War of Art.

(Check out this excerpt)

The first professional writing job I ever had, after seventeen years of trying, was on a movie called King Kong Lives. And I my partner-at-the-time, Ron Shusett (a brilliant writer and producer who also did Alien and Total Recall) hammered out the screenplay for Dino DLaurentiis. We loved it; we were sure we had a hit. Even after we’d seen the finished film, we were certain it was a blockbuster We invited everyone we knew to the premiere, even rented out the joint next door for a post-triumph blowout. Get there early, we warned our friends, the place’ll be mobbed.

Nobody showed. There was only one guy in line beside our guests and he was muttering something about spare change. In the theater, our friends endured the movie in mute stupefaction. When the lights came up, they fled like cockroaches into the night. Next day came the review in Variety: “..Ronald Shusett and Steven Pressfield; we hope these are not their real names, for their parents’ sake.” When the first week’s grosses came in, the flick barely registered. Still I clung to hope. Maybe it’s only tanking in urban areas, maybe it’s playing better in the burbs. I motored to an Edge City multiples. A youth manned the popcorn booth. “How’s King Kong Lives?” I asked. He flashed thumbs down. “Miss it man. It’s terrible.”

I was crushed. Here I was, forty-two years old, divorced, childless, having given up all normal human pursuits to chase the dreams of being a writer; now I’ve finally got my name on a big-time Hollywood production starring Linda Hamilton, and what happens? I’m a loser, a phony; my life is worthless, and so am I.

My friend Tony Keppelman snapped me out of it by asking if I was gonna quit. No way! “Then be happy. You’re where you wanted to be, aren’t you? So you’re taking a few blows. That’s the price for being in the arena and not on the sidelines stop complaining and be grateful.” That was when I realized I had become a pro. I had not yet had a success. But I had had a real failure.

At 33 I can't say I've had a lot of successes but I've realized that that's not really the point. Instead, what we should ask ourselves as we inventory our journey is "Have I had any legit, honest-to-God, failures?" If the answer is "no", you probably haven't even started the game. I don't want to turn this blog into a cheesy, self-help speech but seriously, don't let fear paralyze you to the point that you never move out of your tracks. Get out there and fail and fail big! Fail in front of peers, friends, and total strangers. Get engaged in "doing what you've always wanted to do" even though you don't even know how yet to do it.

I started my church planting journey over four and a half years ago and have been trying to figure it out ever since. Let's just say I've crammed a lot of public failure into just four short years. Is the humiliation of failure fun? Absolutely not. Do I regret any of it? Not on your life.
What does make me break out in cold sweat, however, is to think of how petty and insignificant my life would currently feel had I not dove in with both hands and feet into what I felt I was called to do and began experiencing failure...REAL FAILURE.

God Bless,

Jathan

Catching Up

Happy Fall season to everyone! Not much cold but a whole lot of rain here in Ruston, LA. I've posted more pictures below to show the blessing of God upon us over the past few months at LifePoint Church. Continue to pray that God will use us to be a blessing to this community.

Baptism

Last Sunday our church family was able to share in the baptism of Jack Phillips. Jack has quite a story that includes coming to know Jesus Christ for the first time at age 68 and recovering from a near death experience during a heart operation just a few months ago. "God is good" is not just a worn out cliche.



Wild West Harvest Fest

Due to the steady rain throughout the week we had to move the Harvest Fest from the Chandler home to our church parking lot this year. Thankfully, the weather was good the day of the shindig and we had a great turnout of about 140 people. The children enjoyed the games and we old people enjoyed the food and music.
















New Pulpit

A huge "Thank You" to Rev. Gordon Poe and his Times of Refreshing family including Jerry Denkens and Kelly Poe pictured below. A few months ago, upon viewing a picture of one of our church services, they noticed that we did not have a pulpit. They called me and asked if they could build and deliver a pulpit to us. I'm still wondering if that was a trick question. Not only did they custom design and build the pulpit out of Beaded Birchwood, they also drove from Longview, Tx on a rainy Friday afternoon and delivered it. On top of all that, they gave us an offering. Although I say it often, it continues to be heartfelt, we would not be where we are without the generosity of people like Gordon Poe, Jerry Denkens, and Kelly Poe and many others who support us in so many ways.






Our First Missionary Service

What a joy it was to have our first missionary service! Jonathan and Darla Sherry, missionaries to Vanuatu blessed our church tremendously. Help us pray for their ministry and that they will be able to raise the funds very quickly and get back to Vanuatu.



Heritage Day

Our Heritage was also very well attended this year. About 70 people showed up to attend church as a family, hear classic, old school gospel music, and to enjoy a fine meal. This service provided a nice moment for us to honor our family and Christian heritage while remembering to give thanks for all that God has done for over the years.







Jathan Scotte Maricelli, II enjoyed it.
Back to School Service-FROG (Fully Relying on God)

Ministry to children continues to be a priority at LifePoint Church. FROG was a great day of fun and ministry for children. The adults had a great time as well.












Candy Rain!
The LoCascio's
It was a treat to have our great friends, the LoCasios, visit and minster at LifePoint. They are fellow Home Missionaries that are starting at church in Wheaton, Illinois.



Peach Festival
Being a street musician at '09 Peach Fest was not without great cost! It was hot.

Alan wouldn't let his pastor go down in flames alone.