Daily Thoughts

Flight to Australia

Almost 15 hours after leaving Los Angeles we are close to landing in Sydney. I am so full of expectation as to what God is going to do not only in this conference, but in my own life as well.

I will be speaking on the subject of evangelism at the most amazingly missions minded church I have ever heard of, ‘Imagine Nations Church’, pastored by Jack and Carol Hanes.

On this flight I’m sitting across from a very young child. I can’t help but think about my youngest daughter, Hannah. She’s such a lioness! She always makes us laugh and her creativity is amazing. Here’s a pic of her so you can get an idea of what I am missing so terribly bad on this trip.

Daily Thoughts

Let the Training Begin

Now with fall almost approaching, we are putting aside the ManBox 360 to begin preparation for football. Here’s a pic someone took in New York of Paul making a typical LSU/Saints catch. Yes, he’s a beast!

Daily Thoughts

Early Morning Ramblings

II Thessalonians 3:1-3 (The Message) One more thing, friends: Pray for us. Pray that the Master’s Word will simply take off and race through the country to a ground-swell of response, just as it did among you. And pray that we’ll be rescued from these scoundrels who are trying to do us in. I’m finding that not all “believers” are believers. But the Master never lets us down. He’ll stick by you and protect you from evil.

I woke up early this morning feeling prompted to pray and get into the Word. I felt led to this passage and right off the bat I again remembered that the most important prayer we can pray is that the Word will go forth with passion and authority. Some preaching today requires no real response, because it is not really the proclamation of the Word, it’s merely a bunch of ‘words’ but not ‘The Word’.

This morning I’m praying that the Word of the Lord will ‘simply’ TAKE OFF and RACE through South Louisiana to a GROUND-SWELL (surge, rise, increase, outbreak, outburst, wave) of response! From New Orleans to Mandeville, Springfield to Slidell…let the Word of the Lord go forth!

Daily Thoughts

Family Portrait

I’m so very excited about our new series beginning this weekend! We’ll be looking at various aspects of the family, beginning with the Church. We’ll be ministering along the lines of marriage, dating, men and women, and even parenting. I believe it will be life transforming!

Daily Thoughts

WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF…

I recently found this in my documents. It is a copy of a portion of what I typed up and communicated in our home at our first ‘Connect Church’ home meeting when we moved back to South Louisiana. What a night that was!

WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF: we planted a life giving church that was so:

1) Powerful that when people came it altered their lives forever, where young men get saved, teens get saved, broken women get healed, men get saved and their families change…

2) Enjoyable that when it was over people would say…”I wish we could stay longer” “it’s over already?”  “Some dad says…baby I wish we could have stayed 5 minutes longer…it wasn’t that way for me when I grew up in church.” Jesus was so enjoyable to be around that thousands of people would come from everywhere to be around Jesus and especially children.  Children have a radar and know who they want to be around…

3) Authentic that people aren’t afraid to open up and be transparent and say “this is who I really am.”

4) Practical that people knew exactly what steps to take on Monday through Friday…

5) Relational that people found a herd, a flock that they want to do life with…raise kids with, live with, deal with, laugh with, die with.  The average American today has only one friend

6) Radical that God had us on the cutting edge to change the world…even if it costs me everything I’m going to pick up my cross and follow Him.  We exist to be radical.

We can wrap up the mission of our church with this VISION STATEMENT: TO CONNECT PEOPLE WITH JESUS, HELPING THEM BECOME FULLY DEVOTED FOLLOWERS OF HIM.

WE CAN DO IT!!!

Daily Thoughts

GEARING UP FOR AN AWESOME YEAR!

Hello! Wow…blogging really takes discipline! With 4 children and a new church plant…finding time to write is harder than you think, at least for me!  I’m so grateful for Twitter!  Here’s a looong blog to make up (at least a little bitty bit) for NO real posts in 2009!

Going into 2010 and I can surely say that I am more focused than ever. With an awesome wife and wonderful children, the home front is great! Becky and I celebrated 15 years of marriage last September.  She is so steady and faithful, full of integrity and virtue.  If you want to know more about her, read Proverbs 31.  Alyssa is growing up more and more everyday, and she turns 13 in a couple of months. I can’t believe how much of a young woman she already is (This is where I put a sad face). She has decided that Softball is her sport of choice and she is an avid lover of LSU and the N.O. Saints. I’m a proud father! Her love for Jesus grows stronger and stronger everyday. Paul, 10, finally got to play tackle football and lived a dream…playing quarterback. I’m so proud of him. He threw his first TD pass and I was able to video it with my iPhone. This year Alyssa and Paul will read through their One Year Bible for the first time! Our younger two are cuter than ever, Victoria (7) and Hannah (5). Victoria loves to write and sing songs! Here’s a video of one of them (she snuck the camera in her room and didn’t know I’d find it!). Hannah is the youngest but definitely the strongest willed!  She looks like a miniature Alyssa.  Triple D’s (Daddy Daughter Date’s) for Hannah consist of anything plus Dunkin Donuts.

I can’t talk about family and not talk about the wonderful people that make up our team.  They are our family as well and we love them dearly and could never do what we do without them. I’ll mention just a few of them here:

Josh and Emily: Our Children’s Pastors. They have done an exceptional job with our children. I believe with all my heart that they are the best in the nation. It is so much easier as a parent to have such an awesome couple pour the Word of God into your children week after week in such an exciting and fun way!  Emily ministered to an average of 1,000 children each week in New York!

David and Sara: Our Youth Pastors. I first met David close to 6 years ago while speaking at a youth rally in Los Angeles, California. He has an amazing testimony and a heart that burns for God. His wife Sara was a part of a radical youth ministry in Washington State, serving under a good friend of mine. She is highly relational and has begun building strong relationships with the girls. They have high expectations for what God is going to do with the youth of South Louisiana. I will be working close with them in 2010.

I’ll give shout outs to the rest of our mighty team as this year progresses.

Some people have asked what my Bible reading plan is for this year as well as what books I am going to read. My Bible reading plan this year is going to be my funnest and most challenging. I am going to do B90X on my iPhone, which is on youversion’s app. It’s an intensive 3-month through the Bible plan. I will also be going through the One Year Bible. My goal is to read through the Bible 4 times this year. In addition to this, I will be reading the One Year Bible to all of my children this year. I would encourage father’s to consider doing the same. Turn off the TV’s, Xbox, computer, sit down with your family, and simply read the One Year Bible to them. Take time to answer questions and explain where you feel it’s necessary.

I will post a booklist within the next couple of days.

Thank you to all who have continued to support the work that God has called Becky and I to.  Your prayers alone have strengthened us and God’s favor has never been so rich as it is now!  We are more excited than ever and believe that 2010 will be your best year and our best year yet!!!

‘Til He comes,

Randy Goudeau, Jr.

Daily Thoughts

After a long hiatus my blog is…

After a long hiatus my blog is back up! Still working on some parts of it. Videos and blogs. http://www.randygoudeau.com Check it out!

Daily Thoughts

Back Again

After a long blogging vacation, I am excited to be back again! Much thanks to Chris Foster of 985 Media Group for the exceptional work that he has done and is still doing not only on my personal blog, but also on www.connectchurch.tv

I will be putting a lot of video content on this blog so check often.  There are 2 videos on here already.  One is titled ‘Youth Explosion’ and was put together by a dear friend named Wolf Soto for a large youth conference in Queens, NY.  The other video is a cute one of our third child Victoria.  She took our digital camera and snuck it to her room so she could record herself singing.  She didn’t realize that I would find it and then…publish it!