I flew to Calgary, Alberta Friday afternoon and went to the ordination service of my friend Eddie. The service was very good as one would expect from an ordination service.

For me it was very good to see many friends from the past and to get reacquainted with so many people. I was only in Calgary less than a day but saw so many good friends.

Calgary as usual in June is beautiful! Everything was very green and the air was crisp and clean. My hotel room faced the Calgary Olympic Park, ski jumps and ski hill. Very nice!

Wish I had more than just a dozen waking hours to spend with my friends, but it was great to get at least that much time.

Some of the boats in Libya are so colorful and fun to look at. There are hundreds, possibly thousands of these around Libya.

As you can see I have updated the website that past 30 or so days. I do expect to finalize the major changes soon and then it will only be minor updates.

I hope you like what has changed. I have tried to get a format that is easy to get the information my fans need. Yes I wrote fans, that is you!

When I am finished with the main updates I will most likely delete previous posts and comments. The reason for this is the drastic change in the site format and goals of the site. The previous content does not fit.

Please visit the other external sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr. Exciting things to come!

Making some changes to the way Jake Rinard.com operates.

Today was my birthday and it was a pretty fun one. My brother and his wife and their new baby are here from Idaho. Also my sister from San Diego drove up. We hung out most of the day and played some cornhole! We went to Lamppost Pizza in Corona for some pizza and trivia!

My wife made a wonderful pumpkin cheesecake! It was delicious. Tomorrow or should I say in 4 minutes is Thanksgiving.

I am thankful for another year of growth, not as thankful for the physical growth, but the growth towards one another.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Easy question, don’t you think? Easy answer, right? Of course, everyone replies. Simple question, simple answer. Let’s dig deeper.

If you think your church should grow, tell me why. Why should your church grow? Don’t just give me “the great commission”. I know this, you know this. Give me reasons on why your church needs to grow.

If your church closed its doors tomorrow, would the community around you notice? Not such a simple question. Dig deep into this question. Don’t stop with no, or yes. You need to know why you answer the way you do.

If you believe your church should grow, then you can probably give me a list of 10, 20, 50, 100 things on why your church should grow.

This is a powerful tool. Take some time with the leaders/staff in your church to list 50 reasons your church should grow. Once you get 50 now list 50 more reasons on why your church should grow.

Work on this list. Dream about it, grow it, live it. Why should your church grow?