One of my favorite times of the day is when my wife and I get the opportunity to share in a time of spurring one another on spiritually. Right now we are going through the devotion book that goes along with Dallas Willard's book Renovation Of The Heart. Last night we were reading and answering questions about hearing God speak to us and what that looks like. Side note here: my wife hears the voice of God on a regular basis. I am jealous of that and long to hear his voice more...I love that she is the woman that God has blessed me with for life...Back to the story: Laura had this moment where she was almost distraught and frustrated by how she hears God. She was frustrated by the point that in the moments that she tries to get still and really focus on hearing she can't. She even went as far to be say that she felt like the harder she tried to get still, the less she heard God. However, she said that when there was complete chaos around and it made no sense for God to speak and she … [Read more...]
WHAT IF YOU BELIEVED THE GOSPEL COULD CHANGE THE WORLD?
My good friend and ministry partner Blaine Hogan produced this video for Mars Hill Graduate School in Seattle. More than promoting a great school I think it asks a great question and I would love to hear your answer to "what if you believed that the gospel could change the world?" mhgs what if no. 1 from blaine hogan on Vimeo. … [Read more...]
BLUE GRASS BEATLES AND CHURCH
Last night we had our second community outreach event for the area we are about to launch our fourth multi-site campus. Our event was one that we have been planning for the past month. We brought in an incredible band that plays Beatles music bluegrass style called Beatlegras. We also booked our good friend and worship leader's band The Robert Gotcher Band. All the wheels were in motion. We had sound, light and staging lined up and ready to go. We rented the public pool for the community to use and set the concert up outside of. However, this past week we had all sorts of hurdles to get over. On Tuesday the city almost tried to shut down our event...well...one guy from the city tried to shut down our event. For whatever reason he did not. We were fearful that he was going to come out last night and shut us down. We prayed all week and all day for that not to happen. Turns out he was not even working last night and the guy that was wanted to come watch the bands. God answers prayer … [Read more...]
CHILDREN WHO BUILD CITIES
Here is a portion of the letter that I wrote to our launch team of our new multi-site location that opens in 6 weeks. Isaiah 58 really rocked my world. So did 57 and I will share more of that later, but I would love to hear your thoughts on 58. Please read and enjoy: I want to share with you some thoughts from the Word of God. If you would turn in your bibles to Isaiah 58(I am such a preacher at times). No really, open your bibles right now. If you don’t have it in front of you read it when you get home. Ok, here we go. There are a couple of things I want to share with you in regards to this passage of scripture. One of the very first things that sticks out is in verse two where he says, “yet they act so pious! They come to the temple every day and seem delighted to hear my laws. You would almost think this was a righteous nation that would never abandon its God.” I read that and my initial thought was that I did not want God to look at me or our team and say that you would … [Read more...]
QUOTES TO DWELL IN TODAY
Here are a couple of quotes from Francis Chan in his new book "Crazy Love". I would love to hear your thoughts on these: "True faith is loving a person after he has hurt you. True love makes you stand out." "The person who is obsessed with Jesus knows that the sin of pride is always a battle. Obsessed people know that you can never be "humble enough," and so they seek to make themselves less known and Christ more known." Wearing The Hearts Of Others On My Sleeve!!! … [Read more...]
JUST DO YOUR JOB
Over the past couple of weeks there have been some things that have troubled me. They have troubled me because I feel that if you are working at something you should take responsibility for your actions. In other words, just do your job!!! The bigger issue for me is that these that are supposed to be responsible for their jobs are within the church and they are dropping the ball all the time. Why is it that when we are given the greatest calling on the planet we have a tendency to slack and hope someone else will pick up the ball and run with it. Don't get me wrong I think we need to help one another, but at some point you need to take responsibility for your own job and actions. If you are not doing what you were designed to do, then figure out what that is and stop doing the the other. I know it is not that easy, but at some point we need to do our job and do it well. If we cannot do that then we need to find another place to plug in and serve. I am blown away time and again when … [Read more...]
LET'S SOCIALIZE