"Our desire, as your people is to do what You want us to do Lord, and to be who You want us to be. We place ourselves in Your hands and we long to be used by You."

Are you praying that prayer?

Do you pray with urgency?

I am more convinced than ever, that we need to pray that prayer and we need to pray with urgency.

Last week I had a chance to get away on a personal mentorship retreat with Bob Russell. Bob Russell was the long time pastor of Southeast Christian Church in Louisville Kentucky. I've known him for about 21 years. Our paths have crossed a few times, and he even came to Hopkinsville to speak at New Work Fellowship in 2008.

There were just eight pastors, all near the same age, all pastor of churches about the same size; and the eight of us spent the better part of four days with Bob Russell and other speakers he brought in.

It was rich. It was refreshing.

It was just what I needed.

It brought me back to this simple prayer that I asked you to pray a couple weeks ago.

In just a week and a half, we'll join together in a special worship service on June 3 to celebrate all that God has done in and through the "R U CRAZY?" emphasis that we as a church have been through over the past 18 months.

As your pastoral team is preparing for that special worship celebration, it is so exciting to see all that God has done. It has stirred up a deep confirmation to me that all of this has just been the foundation for what God is up to.

The time of refreshing that I enjoyed in the retreat kept coming back to one thing over and over that I sensed God speaking into my heart. And while I kept hearing this message for me, I think there is direct application for New Work Fellowship, as well.

This is the message I kept hearing echo in my heart: "The next ten years are the best ten in your ministry." I don't have any tool to measure that. It wasn't about numbers. It was just a peaceful confirmation to me that all that God has done in the past, all that God is doing in the present, will be surpassed by all God has promised for tomorrow.

I've sorta made that my prayer since last week, "may the next ten be the best ten".

I can't help but believe that even this incredible celebration that we are about to share is just the beginning of what God wants to do. Would you pray, "may the next ten be the best ten"; it's not about surpassing, it's about becoming who He wants us to be. And that's what this prayer is all about: "Our desire, as your people is to do what You want us to do Lord, and to be who You want us to be. We place ourselves in Your hands and we long to be used by You."