We move with him. I know that God is moving in our minstry right now. We are expereincing some great things and it is only by the hand of God who can move the human heart. I am so thankful for our leaders and the students who are giving so much of themselves right now to reach people who do not know Christ.
If you are expereinceing God moving right now in your life in this ministry let me know it. I would love to hear the story.
I love to cut my grass. I have a riding lawn mower and for about an hour I get to just drive around my house and think and dream uninterrupted. It is a mindless activity that lets me connect some thoughts and with God. I think about how much I love my family and my house and the life that God is building for us here in North Georgia. I think about students and how to reach them and how much I love being a student pastor. I think about friends and family and who I need to call just to catch up with when I get done with the yard.
All in all it is a way for me to relax and just decompress from a long week. We all need to have at least one thing that lets us rest our minds and hearts. Getting to just push thoughts out of my head is what I need to unwind. So anyway, here is to the first cut of the season and I look forward to MANY more.
Well guys it is time to turn our eyes to the summer and make sure we have our spot at camp. It is going to be awesome and you do not want to miss out. We will be going to Flat Rock, NC June 2-6 and the cost until March 31st is $350.00. You need to get your paperwork and deposit in by the 31st to ensure the discounted price. We also have a limited number of spots so don’t miss the first year of Fuel.
In case you are wondering this is going to be an experience in the way of building relationships and making some lasting memories together. If you are looking to get to know some people and have them know you then this is the place. So grab a friend and register on-line or get some paper work at Amp’d or Shift.
Well, we just finished our spending plan for month number 2 after our ReThink Money class taught by Casey Graham. Let me just say that my wife Farah is doing an awesome job managing our budget and even taking huge chunks of money out by being more intentional about what we buy. We are eating better for cheaper for instance and it feels great that we are no longer eating our retirement. We are looking to kill $4100.00 worth of debt this month as well as get our emergency and vacation fund built. We have almost gotten our spending plan into a place where we can live off of my salary and use Farah’s income to keep paying off debt. If you are needing some help to get your fiances under control, please take this class at MLC. We were not that bad off, we were just unintentional in our financial plan and wasting money.
I have seen God move in our finances more in the last month than ever before. He has provided because we are seeking to honor him with what we spend and give. I want to get to place where we are no longer paying a debt service other than the one we owe Christ for life and purpose to our existence.
Onward…
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!
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
