why i’m taking my 6 & 7 year old to guatemala

Monday, April 25, 2011

In just a little over a month school will be out and my wife and I will be climbing onto a plane with our 6 and 7 year old daughters to take them on their first international mission trip to Guatemala! After spending time on mission trips together all over the world, Lisa and I are excited that we finally get to expose our children to something that has been such an important part of our lives, marriage, and ministry. We are thrilled about the opportunity to be working with some friends of ours (Lee & Angel Radford) who help run an orphanage in Guatemala and who have children at similar ages to ours. We’ve been waiting for this day, and below are 10 reasons why.

Posted in Family, Spiritual Formation

3

I’m starting a new job!

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

I’m excited to announce that I have recently accepted an invitation from Sun Valley Community Church to join their Executive and Teaching Teams. So that means the Alexander Family is officially moving back to Arizona!

Posted in Family, Leadership

8

Stupid things christians say

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Some years ago after my family had gone through a relocation we hadn’t lived in the house for 15 minutes before we met our new next door neighbors, the Abbate Family. We would quickly learn about the loss of their son Luke, who was a sophmore at Harrison High School when he passed away 5 years ago as the result of being a passenger in tragic car wreck.

Before moving to Atlanta, we spent the previous year walking with some dear friends as their 5 year old daughter battled for her life against cancer. In fact I have previously blogged about the ongoing story of Kate McRae and her family.

More recently my family has been going through our own little mini-crisis, as out of the blue we discovered that we were going to be transitioning and have been looking for new job. Hardly comparable to the thought of potentially losing one of my children.

Through all of these moments and more what has amazed me is how inept so many Christians seem to be at expressing real heartfelt love and concern. I mean of all people who should know how to walk with and care for the hurting and the suffering it should be Christians right? I’m not saying they don’t care. And I’m not saying there haven’t been moments of genuine and at times even extravagant expressions of love poured out. But the reality is a sad majority of Christians honestly just don’t know what to do when others around them are going through crisis, and so they do nothing. Or worse they say something stupid. Here are my top 5:

Posted in Family, Leadership

0

I used to beat my brother up

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Today was one of the coolest moments I’ve ever been a part of at a Church. Because today, I had the privilege of speaking at my brother’s Elder Installation at Genesis an Acts 29 Church Plant in Boston. For a guy who is used to speaking in front of large crowds and generally pretty good at keeping my composure…today with a heart bursting with love for my brother and for the Church I couldn’t keep it together…I lost it. Below are some thoughts from the charge that I gave to my brother, and to the Genesis Community. Granted this was a very personal day for me, so this may be a longer post than normal.

Posted in Family, Leadership

1

creating memorable moments

Monday, February 28, 2011

Life is defined by moments, especially the ones that we don’t see coming. It’s those surprising moments and how we respond to them that have the potential to shape the entire trajectory of our lives. And while life-changing moments may surprise us, they don’t just happen. More often than not, they come as the result of great planning and hard work. They come from a series of decisions, and doing the right things…or the wrong things, over an extended period of time. Eventually, in a moment, it shows up. This principle is true of companies, churches, and families. In fact, this past weekend we created a memorable experience for my daughter’s 7th birthday. Creating memorable moments can be an art, and all take the following into account:

Posted in Family, Leadership