Back from the Mountain

Man I was reminded these last two days how good it is to just get away and out of the normal routine of life. It was restful and God is just so much louder when we are in a different pattern of life.

I got to spend the last two days with people who really are becoming my best friends and I love them more and more. Getting to be a part of this team lets me experience some of the greatest relationships of my life. On the way home an over anxious driver sped by Rodney so me and Todd wanted to grab the guy and give him a good old fashioned Georgia talking to. It is great to feel that way about people and know they feel that way about you too. I love this team!

Retreat

I am fired up. I am going on my first Pastors and Wives retreat at MLC. I love the team I work with and I am looking forward to resting and relaxing with them. See you this weekend for Move, do not miss this first week.

Oh and don’t forget our video contest where we are giving $250.00 to the winner(s)

Move….toward the heart of God

We have created tons of ways to move and can go any direction in our life, but the only significant direction we can move is toward and with the heart of God. This is something that God is yelling into my heart and I feel that this is going to really flesh out into our ministry over the next few weeks.

We are starting a new series this weekend called Move and I don’t think I have ever been as excited as I am about this series. We are going to talk about what it looks like and why we should move with the heart of God. I feel like God is all over this thing (mostly because I did not get arrested shooting a video for this series) and that our student ministry is never going to be the same. Pray for this series and our ministry as God is doing something that I can’t explain but I know that I am about to bust.

So don’t miss a week and allow God to move you.

Dress for where you are going..

Steven Furtick did an awesome job at the Evolve conference during his break out and it took me a couple of days to really process what he said. He was asking if any of us ever had to get dressed up for a wedding or some event, but had to stop for gas on the way. He expressed the awkwardness we all feel as we pump the gas and feel the need to explain ourselves to everyone that we are going to an event that requires us to dress this way. We feel silly and are sometimes even made fun of for how we are dressed at the gas station. His point was that we need to dress for where we are going, not the gas station.

He told this story in the context of the story from the bible where a woman owed a lot of money and Elisha (II Kings 4:1-7) told her to go collect jars and start pouring the little oil she had in them and then sell the oil to pay the debt. I am sure you know the story, but the woman filled all the jars, she collected. No more, no less. If she had gathered more jars she would have filled more up right. I bet her and her son felt pretty silly collecting jars from all their friends, but they would only be able to go as far as there “silly faith” would take them.

Today while meeting with my Middle School volunteers God smacked me in the face with what he has been doing for last year in our ministry. He has been creating jars. We look really silly right now having 5 services for 120 kids, but God has created those jars because he wants to fill them up. I don’t care what we look like right now at the gas station, because I know where we are going. We are headed to a place to be with God and engaged in worship of the creator of the universe.

Man I am fired up and I am praying like crazy that God begins to fill our jars. I know that he is moving and I see that it is by his hand we have come to place we are. He is rocking my world

Man what a week

There is no way to express all the stuff I learned this week. God is rocking my life and giving me thoughts that I don’t even know where they are going. I am so excited right now about ministry and life that Casey Graham asked me what was up. I told him that Jesus was messing up my life and it was great. So here is a recap as best as I know how:

1. God wants to reach disconnected people through our ministry and he wants to use students who worship him to do it.

2. I want to be a giver. I want to use every aspect of my life to add value to other people.

3. I need to move faster and work harder. God wants to move and I am slowing him down by not spending the time I need to with him and learning from other people. I am moving my alarm clock back one hour.

4. Activity is no replacement for God moving.

5. Health is necessary for me to do what God has called me to.

6. I love coke, cherry or otherwise

7. I am beyond excited to be on the team I am a part of. I was honored to represent Shawn and David at the Church Planters conference.

8. I want God to use me so much that I can never look at any aspect of my life and steal his glory. He will be worshipped in my life and ministry.

9. We have awesome volunteers at MLC, you guys really make it worth it.

So don’t miss this weekend. We have some huge announcements and fun stuff as well as a great Ampd meeting on Sunday. See you on the weekend.

God is moving

Guys I hate to keep putting it off, but I just am slammed right now with stuff to get ready for the weekend. God is moving in my life and my ministry and I can’t even process it all to put it into the bold, so hang in there it is coming. You need to be at Shift this week as one of my best friends is Buck Webb is teaching and I am excited about closing out the Busy series. But, we are going to go crazy with our next series so don’t miss out.

Evolve Conf

Man that was awesome, we had some great speakers and some great break outs, but the best was our volunteers. I had a great team of hosts who took excellent care of our speakers. I will post some thoughts tomorrow when I get a chance, but it was a really great conference.

CP Evolve Conference

Hey guys we have the churchplanters.com conference starting tomorrow and I am stoked. It is going to be awesome, but I won’t be posting until Wednesday unless somehow I get some time. So find me at the conference or hit me on Wednesday. BTW – The Go-Giver is a great book. 

Remember what you were

I am really being challenged right now with 1 Cor 1:26-28. The most sobering phrase in there is the very beginning when Paul writes, “Brothers and sisters remember what you were when God called you.” That sentence sends me back to when I first realized that God had called me out and set me apart for ministry. I was an unqualified, self serving, directionless mess. I had zero talent and less biblical understanding than even my volunteer status should have allowed. But what I did have was a willingness and and a passion to see disconnected people come to Christ. It has been a long ride over the last 6 years of student ministry as I have tried endless schemes and ministry models and God has brought me into an amazing place of influence. He has grown my leadership and my heart to understand that worship should be the goal not just salvation. But I cannot express the value in remembering the heart and the passion I had in the beginning. The humility that fueled my desire to learn, the servant’s heart that God had cultivated so at the moment he needed I was ready to step into the life he created me for. All of that is worth remembering and I am amazed and humbled that God chose me. My prayer is that I will remember what I was so that I will always know who God is making me to be.

Worship

God is really speaking into my life right now about my personal worship of him. I had a great lunch yesterday with Dave McNeeley from Perimeter Church who is one of the smartest guys on the planet and we spent a little while diving into the idea that we need to create a culture of worship among our students. But what Dave pointed out is that worship only comes out of a heart of repentance. Humility and worship and recognition of sin are all connected. I am not sure where all of this is going in my life, but I know that God is moving and working as I need to have a heart that humbly realizes my sin and is motivated to worship the one true GOD. I am pumped about where God is taking me.