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Pastors Life Group

Written by admin on . Posted in pastors, Staff, thank you. 1 Comment on Pastors Life Group

The picture above is of one of my two life groups. These men are the Pastors of the church although several of them were absent when this picture was taken. I want to tell you and the entire church that I could NOT do my job without these Godly men. Together they set the foundation for a wonderful church staff.

These men are extremely supportive and loyal and I am blessed to serve and lead such a tight knit group of men. I want to express to each of them my love and appreciation and I will never adequately be able to fully explain how much they mean to me.

Being a Pastor of a large church it is critical that I have a team of committed Christlike men gathered around me. And God has certainly brought such a group to help serve Shepherd of the Hills Church. Please take a moment to thank the Lord for these godly men.

I recently received the following email concerning these men:

Hi Pastor Dudley!
I’ve been involved here at SOTH for about five years… and I just want to tell you how much I love the Shepherd Pastors (yourself included). Let me tell you why:
1. They love, love, love.
2. I’ve never heard a cross word from their lips.
3. They laugh at themselves.
4. They work together in unity even when there are glitches in the plans.
5. They show respect to everybody without exception or favorites.
6. They are full of humble grace and truth.
7. They stop to talk to us, even if they are in a hurry and going somewhere.
8. They make us grow.
9. They encourage without pushing.
10. They keep the Big Picture as the Big Picture.
11. They love, love, love.
12. They let us fail sometimes and don’t beat us up, but give us a hand back up.
13. They see the beauty in us when on a bad day or when no one else does.
14. They let us ask questions.
15. They listen before they give answers.
16. They bring life and joy to our lives.
17. They don’t act like they are working hard or stressed out, even when they are.
18. They don’t ask for attention or kudos.
19. They honor the Lord first.
20. They stand together and honor each other.
21. They smile a lot :-).
22. They are intense & caring in their love for the lost.
23. They encourage us step-by-step without rigid performance expectations.
24. They teach from the Word, not from their opinions.
25. They are openly human and solicit feedback/improvement.
26. They may sometimes be forgetful like all of us, but they don’t forget the important things like love, love, love!
27. They don’t give up when it’s tough.
28. They absolutely shine with hope and faith & redemption.

I could go on and on, Pastor. The relationships I have with the pastors at SOTH are changing my life. I’ve been a Christian since 1975 and have never been so blessed with such wonderful models to follow.

Thank you, Pastor Dudley, and please pass the word to the other SOTH staff that you guys really are Jesus incarnate and encouraging us to be the same!

Love,
Lisa

Looking back over 2006

Written by admin on . Posted in baptism, beach, prayer, satan, thank you. 2 Comments on Looking back over 2006



It’s been a remarkable year at Shepherd of the Hills Church.

Where do I begin?

First and foremost our theme for the year…HOUSE OF PRAYER.

I look back over all the sermons, the Pillars of Prayer, the Church having daily devotions going through the book… “Romancing Royalty”, and who could NOT put at the top of their list the “Day of Prayer” where over 1000 people gathered at the church and spent the entire day in worship and prayer. Truly an amazing day that I will never forget and in my opinion the greatest day of my Christian Life.

And a close second would be the Beach Baptisms where over 200 people were baptized into Christ. There is a video we showed regarding the beach baptisms on October 30th, 2006. (Just go to that date on our blog and you can view the video.)

Next would be our two new Church plants, Chris Stevens at “Come as you are Church” and our grand opening of our Westside Campus. http://www.mywestsidechurch.com/

And I was told tonight that during 2006, we’ve had 654 Baptisms, which is another banner year for us. Looking back we have had a remarkable year and I just want to thank the LORD GOD for His blessing and I want to thank EACH of YOU for your willingness to be used of God.

One of the pictures above are of the four pillars that are standing tall in the foyer of our church and the other picture was a creation and gift of my dear friend Bob Hastings. Bob works for Salem Communications, does some sales work for KKLA and his wife is the Administrative Assistant for Lloyd Ogilvie. Bob took this picture at our “Beach Baptism” day and then super imposed the “Declaration of Satan” that we used in a sermon recently. Mr. Hastings is always trying to encourage me in one way or another and this picture actually sent chills up my spine.

Bob, Thank You for your gift that will always help remind me of what an incredible year we’ve had here at Shepherd. Every year I say the same thing that I’m about to say right now. “I can’t imagine how next year can be as good as this past year has been.” And yet EVERY YEAR Gods blessings go BEYOND my imaginations.

Looking forward to sharing with you the Plans for 2007 on the weekend of the 7th.

Staff Christmas Party

Written by admin on . Posted in Christmas, Staff, thank you. 1 Comment on Staff Christmas Party

WOW…. Yesterday the Judge gave us 15 extra minutes for lunch so I was able to run over to our staff Christmas Party. The last several years we have taken the staff to Outback Steak House for lunch. We are always delighted because usually this particular restaurant is closed during the lunch hour.

We currently have more than 100 people on our church staff, so we feed them lunch and get them a small gift as a token of our appreciation. This year we gave them sweatshirts with “PROPERTY of SHEPHERD” written across the front. Looking back we should have written “PROPERTY of THE SHEPHERD” across the front.

If you had been at our staff luncheon yesterday you would have realized, like me, that these are some of the hardest working people on the face of the planet. They work and serve behind the scenes, many of them you wouldn’t even know. Yet, they serve so faithfully and diligently. They don’t get a lot of applause, and most of them could make a lot more money if they were out in the business world, but they would rather work for the KING and store up heavenly rewards for a future payout.

Would you take a moment to pray and thank God for the many men and women who loyally serve here at Shepherd? I hope you’ll take a moment and just thank the Lord for the team he has gathered to lead us here at church.

STAFF, I LOVE YOU AND AM SO THANKFUL FOR EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU.

In love,

Pastor Dudley