Might have not been my most exciting year of life; but it was jammed packed with great memories and experiences! Now releasing:

Top 25 Adventures and Life Stories of 2017

1. Another year of following Jesus and seeing where he leads us

2. Amber and I experienced our 5th year anniversary and first monumental point, we are halfway to our 10th

3. A fun year with many stories of being a dad and spending time with Nathaniel 

4. Being part of the staff at South Haven. Working with great leadership and people that want to share Jesus and invest in the community. Seeing 25 decisions at VBS and being slimed for seeing 200 kids, 35 baptisms, Love Loud, and so much more 

5. Finishing another year of seminary and experiencing Midwestern. I ended with a 3.6 gpa, wrote my all-time favorite paper on George Whitefield and had an amazing semester of Greek. Now I can officially be admitted into a doctorate program 

6. Buying our first house which was probably the hardest commitment that I have made

7. Moving to Kansas City after living six plus years of ministry and life in Green Bay, WI

8. Having family and friends visit us in our new home

9. Might have not been a joyful experience, but 5 days in the hospital with a very sick kid. He survived and we saw so much love from friends. We also love Children’s Mercy and all the leaders there

10. Being treated wonderfully by First Baptist of Arnold as they invited Amber and I to be part of the Young Leaders Encounter. Those two days were encouraging and uplifting as they invested in us as leaders

11. Attending the For the Church Conference and gleaning much leadership wisdom

12. Preaching two services in one morning. I wasn’t sure how it would go, seeing in the past, one sermon wiped me out. I was sure tired and hungry, but was so blessed to be able to share a message twice and have the energy to do so

13. The many meaningful conversations I had, but one sticks out the most. A girl with a bottle and a countenance that spoke, there is no hope. A conversation that I was able to have with her as she explained about the suicide of her friend and the brokenness in her life. The ability to encourage and pray for her. Chelsey, her name, is still etched in my brain and I sure hope that she looked to God and pray that God keeps putting believers in her life

14. Visiting another baseball ballpark. I was able to experience a Royals game, meet Salvy’s family and eat a delicious bbq delight out of a Royals baseball helmet

15. Experiencing the solar eclipse where it was at it’s strongest

16. Winning my fourth straight year of fantasy baseball and second year of fantasy football

17. Experienced my first Kansas City BBQ (previously I had Birmingham, Carolina, St. Louis) and now I have had Jack Stacks, BB Lawnside, Joes and Sneads

18. Almost dropping my first online class, Hermeneutics. I put my head down, caught back up and finished with an A

19. Visiting the Kansas City and the St. Louis zoo for my first time

20. The ability to train leaders for VBS at the Blue River Association VBS Training 

21. Leaving St. Louis early in the morning to beat out a major ice storm

22. Experiencing Fritz Railroad Restaurant where your food is brought to you by trains

23. Taking Nathaniel on trips to the Deanna Rose Farm

24. Home projects on the house. Installing a tv on the wall, light fixtures, smoke detectors and a variety of first time homeowner projects and things I have never experienced before 

25. Baking and decorating my first creative cake for my wife’s birthday

If I wrote a Babylon Bee Article...

Church Discovers a New Impressions Approach While Keeping their Beloved Foyer Coffee

A church in the greater Kansas City area is making great strides towards first impressions. Their biggest contribution to excellence is their approach to distribute coffee to their first-time guests. As guests flood their building and make their way to the foyer coffee there is a covert team that does it’s best to distinguish the newbies and motion them to a secret area. The area is an old abandoned coat closet that been developed into a hidden coffee paradise. The guest has the opportunity to choose fresh coffee from Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts, and Caribou coffee before continuing their journey to the Worship Center. 

We interviewed a few individuals to see how this creative approach was working:

A recent guest shared their experience saying, “We have attended many churches and have had our share of foyer coffee, but this church was a keeper because of their first time experience.”

One long-time attending church member shared with us his experiences of foyer coffee. “Every Sunday, I show up and expect no change. I take one sip of coffee and I am comforted that the coffee still takes like the first cup I had twenty-seven years ago when we first started to attend.”

The pastor shared that it is a win-win situation. The members are comforted that we will never change and the guest are comforted with great tasting coffee. When asked about the transition from guest to church member, the pastor shrugged and said: “Since we started this strategy three years ago, we have not had that transition happen.”

Michael P. Ott