Justin Deweese

The Staggering Stat of Discipleship

2012-01-20T18:49:00.001-05:00

We live in a day and age where consumerism defines us. We want what we want when we want it. Most times we will get it. Think of a 30 second big mac commercial from McDonald's. You see it, you have a desire in you to get it, so you go and get it. Its just that easy. We constantly press our Easy Button and our desires are magically fulfilled. Alan Hirsch has a 2 minute video that is worth watching.

The problem with consumerism is that it has infected our churches. Instead of obeying Jesus last words of "make disciples" we have created attractive programs and events that have served as our recruiting strategy to fill our pews and chairs. But if people come, then we are a successful church. Let's put it this way: Good programs and Events = Vision of many/most churches. Yes the gospel is shared in those context, but is it lived?

So, what do we do? We change the vision. God can do anything including working through our programs and events, but call me old fashion, what if we just made disciples? To make a disciple means you are involved in shaping someones life. You help shape their worldview and character. I do not know anyone who can do that through a program or just 45 minutes of Sunday School. It takes time and relationship. Below is a model that has not been tested, but I am in the works of building for our youth ministry. Its not the model itself that is great, its making disciples that is the goal. Maybe this model will change the stat of the 10 people that I have talked with and only 2 being discipled that have grown up through our church and are now out of youth ministry.

(2211) The 2211 is a set up and a structure for our youth ministry. Each of our youth leaders will take their students (their small group/Sunday school class) per semester and Have 2 get togethers, 2 Community Involvement projects, 1 one on one with a student and meet with me once per semester.

2 - The two get togethers are just activities that the groups do as a group (not the whole youth group, your small group and/or Sunday school class). This shows students you care about them enough to get together with them outside church times. They start to trust you and build a relationship with you. Many more implications.

2 - The 2 Community Involvement Projects show the students that community is important. Students get to work together and with their leader. They learn about service and community. This could be as simple as a Community Kitchen type of event or just raking leaves for an elderly neighbor. The point is: they are serving together.

1 - One on one. This could be anything from having the student come and eat dinner with your family to go to a park and pass a football. The point is: the student has your full attention and you have theirs.

1 - Meet with me once. Although I will have constant conversation/aid/accountability, with our leaders through meetings and e-mail, we still get to meet one on one together. We chat about youth ministry, but its not all business. We can chat about life, family and more. (I meet with the 2 female leaders).

This blog post is not to sell anyone a discipleship plan, but just to encourage to change current models that may be built on consumerism, good programs and events. Outside this model we have a Sunday night meeting with small groups after the message, Sunday School, Worship Service and our The Well.

To make a disciple, you have to ask yourself what is a disciple and how do I make a disciple? Start with the Bible, its a great resource. Then get a game plan together and do it. I pray that many disciples and world changer would grow up out of our youth ministry. It would be tough to know the stats on how many people are actually being discipled in churches, but I pray that we would let consumerism take the back seat and follow Jesus in making true disciples.

12 Goals of 2012

2012-01-08T08:23:00.003-05:00

My 12 Goals of 2012

The difference from a vision and a new years resolution is that a vision is a life long goal that can be broken down each year to fulfill the overall vision. A new years resolution is mostly intended to try something different or try to change something. Some of my goals relate to the vision that God has called me to and some are resolutions. As we all know, most people make goals and keep them for about 5 days. I hope to keep many of these goals at least past January, ha. So here they are:

1. Make a proactive choice to make Jesus Lord daily.
2. Win: Share my faith as often as people exist.

3. Build leaders: Students and adults.

4. Date my wife more.

5. Paint all rooms in my house.

6. Get Blue Belt in Jiu Jitsu.
7. Workout often

8. Invest in kids school, hobbies and lives.

9. 10 Outreaches at Hixson High/Middle School with follow up Discipleship

10. Grow deeper in my relationships.

11. Grow: Read more books and meet with mentors more.

12. Keep house clean.

Here are last Years Goals: Last Years Goals

What are your goals??

Christmas- Who is coming?

2011-12-19T09:39:00.001-05:00

CHRISTmas represents the Savior of the world coming to rescue a depraved humanity of its sin. Not just anyone arrived. He arrived. It was God in flesh. It was Emmanuel; God with us. He is the Messiah that was prophesied for 1,000's of years. He came to give of life. He taught us how to live and He taught us how to die. He went into heaven and is coming again.

The Holy Spirit. God is in us. God is with us. Jesus promised He would come. Inside of our souls, our lives, we hold, we own the power of God. In the midst of worldly propaganda He still reigns. Although we may suffocate Him, He still lives. Although we choose our choices, He does not hide. God is in you. Confess sin, retreat from worldly desires and grab on to the life giver, the freedom giver inside of you. The hope for humanity dwells within you, within me. Let us not just speak of Him, but show Him with our lives that have been laid down for the gospel.

This Christmas we own the Holy Spirit, but is He owning us? Through our discipline and obedience, let us ask God to move this season.

Back in the Blog

2011-12-06T23:33:00.001-05:00

Well it is good to be back on here. Life has been very busy. I bought a house, bought a dog, sold a dog, started an interim position, got the full time position, bought a truck, started P90X, lost the remote, and am now back to blogging.

The first blog I want to write about is about what students want in student ministry. I will share a few things that I have found that they want/need. I did not find out by blogs, books or any other source. I tried something innovative. I asked them.

From programs to small groups to pizzas and campus time, there are a lot of things that make up a student ministry. There were several things that I heard from my students and I will just share two. Here they are:
1. I want to know you care 2. I want to be heard. There are many ways to do youth ministry and many different personalities in it, but at the end of the day what matters is that students know that you care and you listen. We lead them to Jesus when they see Jesus in us. Jesus cares and Jesus listens.

Do you care? I asked many of my students several different questions just to see what they were thinking and how they were feeling. I believe that if I am a youth pastor (and I am), then I should... pastor. You can not pastor, lead, Shepard people if you do not know them. If I were to Sheppard sheep and did not know much about sheep, they would all probably run away. If I am ignorant of sheep and I do not know how they act, think (do sheep think??) and respond, then I am probably up the creek. The same with youth. Asking them questions, getting together outside church and asking about their lives are just a few ways to show you care.

Do you listen? It is good to hear from middle and high school students. Its good to see where they are in life. As I ask questions, I love to hear the comments that come back. I know that I cannot implement everything they tell me and that is not the point. The point is to just listen. It's to hear their heart. Listening shows them that I care.

So I write this blog to share ministry life with you and maybe even encourage you in your life. Are there people in your life that need to be heard and cared for? Just sit with them. Listen.

God is King! I thank him for my family and all he has provided. For my loving church, great staff team, killer youth group, caring youth parents, and an awesome youth leadership team. God has blessed me. I continue to look forward in seeing what God has planned.

New Start, New Chapter

2011-07-25T14:03:00.004-04:00

I love how people have new beginnings. I think of the word redemptive and the power that that word holds. Think of Saul. What if that dude did not get a new start. He would totally be messed up, but God had a plan for his life. He blinded him, humbled him, changed his name and called him. He became a phenom in the missionary world. He wrote 2/3 of the N.T. What a new start.

Faith and I are in a whole lifestyle change as we begin our new start. We just celebrated 7 years of marriage and I just turned 30. Crazy! We were talking about all the things that happened in life when I was in my 20's. I got married, graduated college, had a couple of kids, lived in 8 different places and had 9 different jobs. I wonder what God will do in my 30's. So far, we bought a house and are starting a new job next Monday. I get to be under a pastor that I really respect, go to church with one of my closest friends and mentors and am able to go back to my heart of heart in serving youth.

Life can be interesting as different and weird things can come our way, but in the end God is glorified and works all thing out for the good for those that love Him and live according to his purpose. Keep pressing on in your journey. Persevere through the tough times, enjoy the blessed times and continue down the road less traveled whatever may come your way.

Awaken: The Final Chapter

2011-05-15T15:59:00.012-04:00

Family and friends, things are coming to a close at Awaken Community Church. This blog serves as a purpose to celebrate the lives that God has changed and what God will do in the future. We feel like God has done what He wants to do through this local church and we are now transitioning into other churches in our community for further growth and community.

On December 8, 2008 Awaken had its first core group meeting with 17 in attendance. We met at my friend Brian Curriers house. We had set out on a journey to bring people to God and back to God and bring people into meaningful relationships with one another. Many lives have been changed since the conception of Awaken. Listen to these stories.

Brian Currier... Brian was my right hand guy at the start of Awaken. We gave ourselves cute little titles and his was program director. Brian ended up meeting the love of his life, Laura, within the first couple of weeks of starting Awaken. He also met an acquaintance, Janie, that lead him to his current job. Brian and his wife now serve the Lord and attend Calvary Chapel downtown.

Bryce Patrick.... Bryce used to play X-box up to 8 hours a day. Tony invited him to Awaken and Bryce found more fulfillment than Halo could offer. He started serving like crazy. The first time I met Bryce was the first Sunday he came to Awaken. The dude was scrubbing our bathroom toilets. Those were the famous toilets that peed back on you. Talk about a servant! Bryce was with us over a year and has been called into youth ministry and is in the process of getting married and is open to God using him in the mission field.

Barry Underwood.... Barry was lonely and did not think anyone cared about Him. He craved Christian community. Barry came to Awaken and started to come alive with the gospel. He shared the gospel at the Rush and invited friends every week to Awaken. If we made an award for most invites, it would for sure go to him. He met a homeless guy named Gene and moved him into his house, bought him clothes and helped him get a job. Gene ended up being baptized at Awaken.

Adam and Dana Wyatt.... Adam hated church people. He is a drummer that loves his music and likes to be real and honest with people. He found for the first time, real Christian community at Awaken. Dana was still kind of new to town when they came to Awaken. She had not been able to meet a lot of people so she hung out with all of Adams friends. She ended up meeting and keeping meaningful relationships at and through Awaken.

I could go on and on with stories from Sam and Lindsay who were burnt pretty bad in ministry and wanted to quit forever. They were with us for a season and now back on their feet serving as worship leaders in Chicago. My family, who were not in church, are now active in church. There are countless lives that were changed and encouraged along the way. The majority of our core group was dechurched at one time and now God is leading many of them to their next step in life in serving Him.

Although Awaken as a church is coming to an end, the people who made up the church have come alive. Our goal was to reach the dechurched, nonchurched and bored at church to show them that the God of creation wants you to come alive and awaken to what He has for you.

I praise God for the opportunity and privilege of starting a church to reach the one. I am not sure what the next chapter is for my wife and I, but we are open to what God wants to do. I want to thank my family and friends for your prayers and support for the past two and a half years and let you know that it was all worth it.

I would like to invite you to celebrate what God has done over the last several years by attending an evening service on Sunday night June 5th. We will meet at 6:00pm and have an open mic for folks to share. It is a time to get together, celebrate Jesus and what He has done through Awaken.

The Art of Organization

2011-05-04T10:34:00.004-04:00

I am A.D.D. Not officially, but my brain seems to goes in every direction possible. Not sure if you can relate, but if you can, then you know that it can be frustrating not to have organization in your life.

I recently found a few things that I have added to my life that have helped me. 1. People 2. A Calendar 3. Communication.

I notice that if I can take out a little time to add these things to my life it can save me a lot of stress. It is kind of like disciplining a child. A parent can either stay on top of them when they are young and make sure the child does not rule, reign and run the house. If a parent actually parents the kid when they are young then it saves them a lifetime of being ruled by the kid. If a parent does not discipline, then the child rules the rest of their lives in many different areas and many different ways and the parents are frustrated. The point is this; take out a little bit of time to parent well and it will make life a lot easier. I am finding it is the same with organization. Take out a little time to organize and everything will be easier.

In leading a church, I have put two other men by my side (people). We meet weekly to talk about the direction of the church (communication) and plan out where we want to go and what we want to do to get to where we want to go (calendar).

The same with my home life. Faith, my wife, and I are still working at this, but I will meet with her (people) and talk through things (communication) and write them down (calendar). Here is a perfect example. Right now we are working on moving into our new house! So that is exciting, but it takes a lot of work. We are working now with getting people to help (people), getting dates set to move (calendar) and getting a list set up for what people can do when they get here (communication).

I am not an expert, but this is where I am and what I am learning. I hope this can help you.

I Can See Clearly Now the Pain is Gone

2011-04-30T00:34:00.006-04:00

Wow. I can finally see clearly now that the pain is gone. Do you have a kid or know someone that has a kid that made a mistake? At some time they were told, "No", for something, but it was just one of those things that they had to learn by themselves. I remember the other day when we told Kylie (4) not to jump off of the helicopter at the playground. The helicopter is the tallest toy at Northgate Mall playground. You see, Kylie had jumped off the rest of them and had to jump off this one. We told her no several times. With her cute, "Please Daddy" look she conned me into holding her while she jumped. Within 5 times of jumping she talked me into letting her do it by herself (sly little thing). She is the negotiator in our family. She is four years old and the CEO of the Deweese clan. Well, she jumped, and you guessed it; she hurt her ankle. Through all of the whining and "daddy pleases" she got her way and got hurt.

I recently got hurt trying to do church by myself. My prayers were to God and my heart was for God, but I was doing it my way. I have been through a lot of pain the last couple of months. There have been several times that I have been close to saying "I Quit". (That is where the logo from LifeChurch.tv comes into play. nice plug huh?). I had put the pressure of growing people on my shoulders. Thats right, for some reason I thought it was my responsibility to grow people in Christ. I guess when you are so caught up in wanting to jump off of the helicopter, what once seemed clear is now a blur.

I talked with some men in my church and a buddy/pastor Mark "show me some" Love and they were all a huge encouragement to me. They helped me through the pain and see a little clearer. I went through some pain and the main thing that I learned is that I need to quit. Not my job, but quit taking Gods job. This had messed me up so bad that we made sure we put it in our vision statement to make sure we do not go back to it again. At Awaken we have divided the vision into two parts. Awaken: The Organization and Awaken: The People. Awaken Organizations responsibility is to simply lead, aid and equip the Awaken People. Notice I did not say grow. The role and goal of the Awaken People is to grow in Christ, Connect people to Him and live in Community together. I feel free now, but it took having to go through the pain to live in and experience the freedom now.

Well, Kylie's ankle is better now and so is my focus. Hopefully we will both gain some wisdom and avoid our falls next time around.

One of My Biggest Mistakes as a Church Planter

2011-03-07T08:27:00.006-05:00

Well, before I start, the only people that may relate to me on this post could be church planters. Not sure if your experience is like mine, but if it is, then you feel like you are always failing.

This is such a hard job and I now see why that when I started many people said if you can do anything else in your life but plant a church, then do it! You have to be called to this stuff. This is tuff.

Well, the bottom line is that I messed up the vision. Yeah, the vision. Yeah, the number one thing that everyone in the church planting world tells you to keep at the front of all things and do not let go of. Some even saying, "Be mean about the vision". Well, let me tell you how I messed up and maybe it will give you a wake up call, or maybe not. Maybe you will fail too and it will take you failing for God to bring you where He wants to bring you.

I had the vision. I spoke the vision. Over and over again. My people knew it. Great!, Right? No.... People started to get tired of the vision and some even left. Disheartening, but God is in control when we are weak and even foolish. So, what was my problem? For the last serveral years, with my core group and even after we launched the church, I was preaching the vision and kept pointing our people toward the vision. It looked like this: our people ----> VISION. Right? That is what I learned. But the problem was that I was pointing people to a mirage that did not exist. I was pointing people to great words of unfulfillment. Tragedy. God has taught me that the vision is not: our people ---> VISION, but OUR PEOPLE <----- vision. The vision of Jesus Christ was to come and save a depraved, broken, helpless world. To give us hope and life. Paul says in Ephesians that we are to equip the Saints for good works, not point the saints to a non reality.

You see, I was saying "Hey guys, lets do this and this". "Hey guys, what if God did that?" But none of this and that ever happened. The saints were not equipped.

Now, once the Saints are equipped, then you can point them to what God has called your church to do. Also, make sure the visionary has people around him to help organize and layout the vision in a calendar where you can see the vision in ink and what it looks like detailed out through a year. That has been another problem in our church. I preached the vision, but people did not see it played out. The vision was words, no one experienced it in reality. Now we are heading into a season where we have the vision, the Saints are equipped and they can see the vision. God is in the organization and clarity.

For some reason, although I have failed badly, God has kept people in our faith family and they have come around me to support me. I have a renewed passion. Now the goal is preaching the vision to our people and having them catch it and role with it this time around. This is tuff, but worth it. This is still my calling and I pray that God would use my weakness to make His name great. The challenges of church planting! Wow, what a ride of faith and failure.

My 11 Goals of 2011

2011-01-06T10:10:00.003-05:00

The differenece from a vision and a new years resolution is that a vision is a life long goal that can be broken down each year to fulfill the overall vision. A new years resolution is mostly intended to try something different or try to change something. Some of my goals relate to the vision that God has called me to and some are goals that I have. Most people make goals and keep them for about 5 days. I hope to keep many of these goals at least past January, ha. So here they are:

1. Keep house clean
2. Buy a home
3. Give my life to the gospel
4. Get a blue belt in Gracie Jujitsu
5. Develop closer relationships with my family and friends
6. Read more books
7. Watch less TV
8. Eat healthier
9. Learn to live on less
10. Work hard at work
11. Date my wife more

What are your goals this year?

Relationships Matter

2010-12-10T11:08:00.003-05:00

I just spend an hour and a half deleting over 1200 Facebook friends. This probably doesn't sound like the perfect sentence to start off a blog titled "Relationships Matter". The point is, is that I have a lot of relationships, but I do not have a lot of meaningful relationships.

The last few months have been good with my wife. I have been spending meaningful time that with her that counts.

At church, I have realized that we have a lot of stuff to do and not enough people to do it. And all pastors said... "Amen".

I am thinking and praying through my life and focusing my time on relationships that I can build into. Anyone that knows me knows that I love people, but may also know that it is hard for me to go deep. I can go into deep conversations, but that is different than going into deep life together. I now have 301 friends. Maybe some more of those need to be deleted. My goal is to try invest well into people God has close to my life. I am not hating those I deleted, just trying to focus on people that are currently in my life to some degree.

God tells us to love Him and to love others well. I have been so spread thin, that neither have been done well. Hopefully through obedience and faith that will continue to change.

The Old School and New School Gospel.

2010-11-23T10:12:00.001-05:00

I spoke at Student Venture, Chattanooga last night. I always enjoy being with that group of believers. The staff walk by faith and challenge the kids to share their faith and disciple them.

I compared our cultural gospels (which is really no gospel at all) to the true gospel of Christ. We talked about the Old School Gospel and the New School Gospel. Here is how I broke them down:

The Old School Gospel says" What You Do" gets you to heaven. Read your bible, pray, don't cuss, quit dipping, pull up your pants and go to church. This is a more legalistic or Pharisaical type "gospel". How good can you look and be, determines if you can go to heaven, and then they add Jesus. This is not the gospel, but a man made attempt to get to heaven and add Jesus name to it.

The New School Gospel says "How You Feel" gets you to heaven. You see this in our culture and many churches when you hear an alter call and someone says to you, "You don't really want hell do you?" Then the person says, "No, of course not" Then the preacher or whoever is getting ready to lead them into a man centered "gospel prayer" says ok repeat after me and then proceeds to lead the person in a felt need prayer that has a lot to do with the persons emotions and little to do with the King Jesus. They just Him on.

The Biblical gospel says that salvation has nothing to do with you. The Bible speaks that we are dead in our sins (Romans 3:21-23), but God has given a gift of life. He actually became our sin. It has nothing to do about what we do or how we feel, but who He is.

If you have lived or are living in the Old School or New School Gospel, I pray that you would leave it and turn to the true gospel. If you are a pastor, church planter or a spiritual leader, lets keep the gospel about Jesus and not what we can do.

Can You Play Poker at Church?

2010-11-15T07:21:00.003-05:00

Top 10 list on why we can play poke at church:

10. To engage our community.
9. Wings!
8. Men need a time for healthy community.
7. Prizes are involved.
6. Change peoples mind's about church and God.
5. Wings!
4. Men have a competitive nature. Why not fulfill it with the gospel in mind.
3. I will beat down CaseyB in this tournament.
2. Church is not about preaching at people, but being real with them.
1. Men can finally tell their wives that they are going to church.

You are invited tonight to Awaken Community Church to play Texas Hold'em. No sign ups, just show up around 6:00pm. Those who place in the top 3 will win prizes. We have the cards, chips, prizes, drinks and food; you just show up.

Located at 8609 Walnut rd Hixson, TN 37343. email justin@awakencc.org for ?'s.

Community Now: "Show Some Love Week"

2010-11-09T08:05:00.003-05:00

If you think about the American life and the American dream, they both have an "I" right in the middle of them. Your American dream is about you, your car, your house, your family, your money, your stuff. Most of us live life for us. It is just natural; I live for me. But what if a culture changed? What if a whole culture changed the way that they lived for something bigger than themselves? It is hard to imagine, because again, "I" would not be in the middle.

The gospel of Christ calls us to give up our lives because He gave up His life for us. As obedient believers in Christ we should Enjoy what God has done for us; given us grace, but we should also be extending His glory to the nations like He commanded. (Matthew 28:18-20)

Awaken Community Church is getting ready for a blitz in our community. We want to open our doors and also be out in the community to get to know people. November 14th -22nd we will have a week long community focus. The goal is to target people that may be sketchy about church and therefore they do not go. Here is the lineup:

Sunday the 14th - Community Wide Coupon class
Monday the 15th - Community Texas Hold 'em - There will be wings there!
Tuesday the 16th - Community Raking Leaves. We will rake your leaves. Just ask!
Wednesday the 17th - Craft Night.
Thursday the 18th - Community Open Mic Night - Show off your talent: song, poem, comedy..
Friday the 19th - Family Movie Night. Bring the kids to this one!! Big screen and food!
Saturday the 20th - Hungry? - Thanksgiving dinner for anyone in the community.
Sunday the 21st - Community Town Hall meeting. What do you want to see happen in the community?

Church address is 8609 Middle Valley rd. I hope to see you there one night. Its about getting the focus off of us and reaching out to others.

reFocus: God and Your Job

2010-10-11T20:19:00.002-04:00

For some reason it seems odd to hear a sermon about God and your job, but the reality is, is that your job consists, for most people 1/3 of your life. If you are an entrepreneurial or a stay at home mom, then even more time. There are many observations that you can have concerning God and your job, but we focused on three. They are:

1. Your job is not about your job, but God's glory. We exists to enjoy Gods grace and to extend His glory. This includes work. Work is not about the check, the promotion or any kind of status, but about the glory of God.
2. Your job is not about your job, but responsibility. Even before sin entered the world, we were required to be responsible with work (Genesis 1). Then we sinned (Genesis 3) Now work will be tough, but the responsibility is the same.
3. Your job is not about your job, but relationships. Consider the people you work with. Your buddy, the guy that gets on your nerves and the girl that joins you in conversation as you both make fun of the guy that gets on your nerves. All of these people matter to God and should matter to us, even if they are just our "co-workers".

God ultimately challenges us to carry our cross's for His glory even in work (and school). I hope this encourages you to reFocus your job.

No More Pressure

2010-09-25T17:57:00.003-04:00

Well I wish this post was completely true, but is seems that there is always some kind of pressure in my life. I am the kind of guy that will put the world on his back and want to change everything. Trying to work out of this mind set will make you go insane, frustrated and very tired. I am reading "Radical" by David Platt and it is rocking my world. He writes the goal of Christianity in one simple phrase: Christianity is to "Enjoy His grace and extend His glory". Enjoy and Extend. Grace and glory. What that does for me is life changing. It says Christianity is simply about enjoying God's grace for me and as a result I will extend His glory. Its about God and not me. The pressure is off.

My life and church life is usually tied up in programs or preaching. Having the next biggest or best thing. Well, the Bible says that life does not have to be about any of that. No more Pressure. Its not about you and it is not about me. Its was and is about Jesus the whole time. Enjoy Gods grace today and extend his glory.

How are Your Relationships?

2010-09-21T08:18:00.003-04:00

Life gets busy. As a pastor I have to continue to remember to be with my people. I have a deep desire to preach truth with passion, creativity and with excellence. I have a desire to make sure our church greets people with love as they enter the foyer. I want to go to the next conference and learn a lot and come back and unleash on my city. I want to change the world! I can have all of these things, but if I do not have love, I have nothing. If I do not love the people in my church, then all of this is in vein. If they are not sitting in my living room playing with my kids and eating off my table, then what am I doing?

I am in the middle of rethinking, reFocusing and reanalyzing my relationships. I am beginning to pour specifically into a few leaders at my church. My goal is that my family and I would love them, mentor them, equip them and lead them well. The goal is that they would do the same to the people serving under them. If this is a trickle effect, then I believe God will use this to change our city. The neat thing is I did not even come up with this idea. I read the Bible. This is how they set up church: The pastors (apostles, elders) prayed, preached and equipped a leadership team. The leadership served and took care of service needs in the church.

Who is in your life? Who is mentoring you? Who are you pouring into? Lets not get caught up in all of the "stuff" of ministry and forget the people. Invite someone over this week to eat with you.

Dancing in the Club

2010-09-17T17:20:00.005-04:00

So, I was driving back from a conference today scanning through the stations. I found the beat. I do not know what it was, but it had "the" beat. My wife was dead asleep, I was cruising about 78mph and started the head nod. And then it hit me... I need to go to the club. What club? Its doesn't matter. I started to think of the social scene in a club and how everyone wants to stay fresh and act like they're somebody. I thought of grabbing my boy Joey and heading to the club one night. We could get some 80's clothes on and crash the party. It would be fun. Make some people laugh while the cool cats role their eyes. It would be a great way to build relationships and conversation. Bringing Jesus to the club in 80's fashion. What do ya think? Anyone want to go to the club? Will you be there? You know Amber will be.

Awaken's One Year Anniversary

2010-09-13T07:55:00.003-04:00

We just celebrated our one year anniversary yesterday from when we launched Awaken. It went well. We had many people from our community come and had a record attendance of 80 people come out. It was also just our third meeting in our Middle Valley building.

Church planting can be a love/hate relationship. At times you wonder if this thing is really going to work even at one year in. At other times you cant believe what God is doing and the relationships that you have built. Yesterday was a good day. So excited to see what God wants to do. We know that we are in this thing for the long haul.

reFocus

2010-09-08T07:32:00.005-04:00

Do you ever get tired of your life and how you are living? If you are living away from God, you probably are because ultimately, He is the only thing that can fulfill your soul. If you are living half for God, you are probably feeling the same thing.

For God to love the world and for the world to hate God is pretty ironic, but in reality, it is who we are. Let us be honest, if we are not walking with God, then we are enemies of God. The Bible speaks of the true followers of God are on a narrow path (because it takes giving up everything) and those who are not His are on a wide path. So many tend to make up a middle path. This is the path of justification, deception, trickery and lies. This is the path that says do what you want in life as long as you prayed a prayer and asked Jesus to help you go to Heaven. This path does not exist. It is a false religion that says I can just acknowledge that Jesus is real and I go to Heaven. It's a mirage leading many to death. I have seen too many on this path. This path is just another mirage from the wide path, it just has a "Jesus" twist to it.

It is time for Christ followers to reFocus every part of their lives around, in and through the gospel of Christ. We have lived in crap called "Christianity" that breaks the heart of God. Its not Christianity. Let's us refocus, read the Bible and do what it says.

reThink

2010-09-03T09:13:00.005-04:00

I am going throughout my life with my faith family, Awaken, I am being challenged to give my life completely up to follow Jesus. It is weird saying that because I thought that I did that when I became a Christian, but as I continue to read the Bible, I am finding that my life looks less and less biblical. I guess in my discipleship, no one really told me or more importantly showed me what that looked like. I saw good things happen, but for some reason still hanging on to the things of me. As I was thinking through what it looked like, it meant that I had to take every area in my life and reThink on how to live it out. Here are several areas that I have been picking apart and thinking through in my life and will be teaching on over the next several weeks at Awaken. We will be rethinking through our thoughts, time, treasures, relationships and school and work.

I want to invite you to come to Awaken and visit our faith family and become apart of what we are doing. I want to invite you to give up your life and take up your cross and follow Jesus with us. www.awakencc.org

Our New Location.... Middle Valley.

2010-08-27T15:30:00.003-04:00

Mid September will be the one year anniversary for Awaken Community Church. God has given us a little present as we turn one; a building.

I look forward to see what God will do in the lives of people in Middle Valley. I am challenging our church to meet people in the area, get gas in the area, eat at restaurants in the area and yes even move to the area. Why? Because if we really want to see the gospel of Jesus spread in our city, then we should start in the areas where we live. Many of the people in our church live five minutes or less from the new building. Jesus said to the apostles before he ascended into Heaven, "Go make disciples... into Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the utter most parts of the world". Middle Valley is our Jerusalem. Many of us are already gathering creative ideas to influence and help our community.

I would like to invite you to our service on Sunday morning at 10:30 am. There are many ways to get involved; Sunday morning, small groups or serving. We would love to meet you, be a part of your life and encourage you to give up everything to follow Jesus. Our website is www.awakencc.org

The Shocking News of Ananias

2010-08-18T15:09:00.003-04:00

So, in Acts 5 a man and his wife are struck dead by God in front of other believers. The Bible sometimes speaks of things that I do not want to hear. Sometimes its tough for me to hear that God in His power would do something like this. As I grab a text like this and study more in depth I can see more into the heart of God. God is often in the details.

Here is what happened. Ananias and his wife were "together" in mind and in heart. But this was a different mind and heart that Luke speaks of in just verses prior (Acts 4:32) of believers being together for the common good. This husband and wife were out for their own common good of their reputation, self-trust and selfishness. They were anything but honest.

As many other believers were sacrificing all that hey had, Ananias and Sapphira pretended to do the same, but lied about giving a certain amount of money. Peter called them out on it, God killed them and the men carried them off to be buried.

Why? The reason why is because this couple had wicked hearts and were in the midst of what God was doing. If God worked in the same way in today's church, we would have more gravediggers. We live in a generation and a culture that is all out "getting ours" just like Ananias and Sapphira. God is not for the proud, selfish, self seeking. Scripture says that God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

I wonder how many pastors would be dead right now if God acted in the same way today. I wonder how many church folks would be six feet under. This powerful text should call us to humility before the cross of Christ and empty us of any pride, so we can be honest before one another and God. God help me. Help my generation and guard and protect us of such pride.

Second Year, New Building?

2010-08-10T21:50:00.004-04:00

Awaken is approaching its second year. God has done so much in the life of our church. It is amazing to read in Acts and see how they started the church out of nothing. We are starting our second year as a church reaching a dechurched/searching generation in Hixson, TN.

We have an opportunity that has come our way to rent a building at a stupid, cheap price. It is interesting to see what God has done in my life, my wife's life and through Awakens life even in the last few months to build character and responsibility in pruning us to get us ready for a building. It will take more leadership, giving, responsibility, faith to enter the building and hopefully will produce more dechurched people coming back to Jesus and finding hope, the lost having a Savior and our faith family being excited that we have a building where the urinal does not pee on you (our current building has some issues).

A lot of times in considering a new place, it becomes about the "New Place". I am trying to lead our church in our thinking that this New place is not the end of our vision, but just the next step in fulfilling our vision. I have heard horror stories of body of believers getting the building and then things start to go down hill.

"God, be our vision and lead us to build believers in Christ and reach a community far from You, for your glory". Amen

Giving up on Life?

2010-07-07T09:48:00.006-04:00

Last July was the worst month of my life. I was going through a lot in my marriage and family. This post was saved as a draft since then. It was saved in my drafts and am now posting it. I hope you may find truth and healing from what I went through and my thought process through it all... It seems that we are less eager to accept grace and mercy when we are strong, but when we are weak, well, that is a different story. When a man, or woman, has been stripped of everything that they have, they will become utterly dependent on one of two things. They will either pursue themselves and their selfish desire to deal and heal their pain, which ultimately will never truly heal their hurt or their pain. The second is they can turn to God, which is hard to do as well. When you feel that no one loves you or wants or can know the real you, then the only thing to naturally turn to is yourself. When you turn to yourself, however, you will turn to a humans perspective on life, which will lead to some sort of destruction. When you turn to God, if you can turn to God, you will see life, truth, freedom and light. The reason that I say "if you can turn to God:, is because our pride can still be strong in our weakness. That is why it takes one more ounce of faith to believe God can heal. That is why you must muster up any hope and trust that may lye somewhere inside you. Freedom: Although it may not seem clear at first, following God's path is the only path that will lead to anything beneficial for your life. While on this path as you deal with yourself, your struggles and life, make sure you pray. Pray to God and confess out loud the things that are bringing you down, then confess what is true about you in the eyes of God; how you are loved, adopted by God, a child, a saint and all other phrases that scripture speaks about those who are Gods children. Then quote the scriptures so you can hear, walk and live by truth instead of lies. I hope this blog of weaknesses that I have experienced in my life and how I dealt with them may help someone out there who may happen to scroll by my page.

9 Months After Launch

2010-06-17T11:54:00.004-04:00

Well, we have finished up our eighth month and heading into month nine into our church plant. In this blog, I would like to catch family, friends and supporters up on whats happened and also encourage and maybe throw some ideas our for other church planters.

Here is my blog for month 5 of the plant and I will just pick up from there.

We have leaders set up in each of the following areas:

Creative Arts - Brad Bennett
Connections - Brenda Haustein
Community Involvement - Dana Wyatt
Finance - JJ Jackson
Children - Brandi Jackson
Community Groups - Tony Holland

Tony, Awaken's Executive Pastor, oversees all of those groups and meets with each leader monthly. We are also start a bi-monthly meeting soon where all leaders meet together to evaluate church structure and systems.

It has been a great 9 months and especially the last few. We have had so many people stepping up and taking on roles, so that we, as a church, can fulfill the vision that God has given us; to change the Hixson/Soddy Daisy area because God is working radically through us. Each leader in the areas above are over a team and are in the process of working out systems and strategies to ultimately lead others closer to Christ.

We expect to have over 100 people meeting weekly in the Fall. With all of the relationships being built and the community that is happening, we are preparing and getting ready for the Holy Spirit to work in and through us.

Please continue to pray for us daily that we may submit our lives to Christ and follow the great commission in our city. Pray for a new building. We are growing out of our current one. Pray for the believers here to deepen their walk and commitment to the gospel, and pray that we would relentlessly take the gospel to our city and to the nations.

Stuck, with the Gospel.

2010-05-26T08:37:00.003-04:00

I feel like I am stuck with the gospel. What I mean is that I live in a very traditional and religious city and when I talk with church people about the gospel, I get a half-hearted smile and head nod as if they have known it their whole life. Yet there is no movement or passion in their eyes, much less their lives. Then I have the world that is hurting, yet many seem like they know they are hurting and open to truth, but are not ready to get over their lives to take on His life and His cross.

I think there are some stuck like me. Here is my encouragement to us. Be real, honest and open to the church people and the lost. Maybe by our lives and the genuine relationship with Christ in us, they might be moved. And two... live by faith. Going to church is not faith, its habit. Meeting someone and knowing their name and sharing hope is faith. Trusting in God that He would use you to change someones life for Him, is faith. Let's not walk by sight because it can be very disheartening in our city, but walk by a different life and different calling, a calling from up above. Make a difference before you die and do not let your life pass you by without having God moving radically through it. On our knees praying, soaking up God words to us and walking by faith. Lets do it.

The Role of the Holy Spirit

2010-05-24T11:49:00.004-04:00

It is amazing all of the views that people have of the role Holy Spirit. Some people do not know much about the Holy Spirit simply because their church does not teach on the subject and they do not read God's word to seek to see what it says. Others take on a role and view of the Holy Spirit and start "making" the Holy Spirit do things that in reality it is what they want to do. You see this in a lot of churches or tv that abuses the role of speaking in tongues. How about this one: Have you ever heard someone say that "God told me to do ____". That is a statement that I would encourage people to rarely or never say. God tells us what He wants us to do through His Word.

We live in such a prideful and self seeking society, that we could do things and say it was the Holy Spirit. That is very dangerous for us to do what we want to do and call it God or place His stamp on it.

God clearly gives us the Bible to read and study it so we can grow in our faith and seek to know Him more. In doing that, we can get to know different parts and different things about God, including the act and the role of the Holy Spirit.

Read John 14-17 and read through Acts to start a study. John and Luke write these books and describes the role of the Holy Spirit. There are other passages, but this is a good start. Think clearly and think biblically and see what God wants to do through your life through the role of the Holy Spirit.

The Move

2010-04-15T15:27:00.006-04:00

We finally moved to Hixson. It feels good to follow where God leads. I honestly thought if God called me to do something great, then it would be to raise a bunch of money to go to Africa or some far away country, but He didn't. He called me to go back to where I grew up to start Awaken Community Church.

We sold our house in 10 days and found an apartment in the area. We had family and many people from our church come and help us move. We have already met some neighbors in the neighborhood and around the complex and have had premarital counseling with two couples in our new living room. God is already at work in the new place.

We have laid our lives open before God to do what He wants us to do. We look forward to see what and whose lives He has in mind for us to be apart of.

God called me to plant a church. What has He called you to be apart of? May be you need to move on. Maybe its away from something or to something. Follow God, it may be tough, but follow the vision that He has placed on your life; it will be worth it and more fulfilling than anything that you will ever do in your life.

What Makes You Come Alive?

2010-03-11T08:52:00.007-05:00

It is interesting how all people are created differently. All of us have a different fingerprint and a different tongue. Although some similar, we all have different personalities and temperaments. We also have things that will set us off and things that will make us come alive. Unfortunately we forsake time on the things that make us come alive and spend a lot of our lives on things that waste our time. God has given us all a God given passion that makes us come alive. Two of my passions are relationships and preaching. Food and ping pong are a close behind.

God called me to start Awaken Community Church which launched this past September. I have had to get people around me to help the church function in all different areas. The two things that I am good at and must focus on are preaching and building relationships. I find that when I spend time focusing on all of the other details and do not spend quality time developing those areas, I get weak and burned out, however when I am meeting new people, disciple, share my faith or just have a guys night at my house, I come alive, because I was meant to develop relationships and influence people. Same with preaching. When I spend a lot of time praying, reading, watching other preachers, reading commentaries, doing observation through a text of scripture, studying the culture and the context of a book or a chapter and I preach it, I feel so alive. I expect lives to change on Sundays through the preaching, so I better focus on the pouring time into preaching and not into my personality.

What is your passion, talent and love for life? What makes you come alive? Try to focus your time and dedication to those few things so you feel alive and accomplish what you were meant to accomplish. Maye you should focus more time on being the best mom, organizer, planner, encourager, leader or giver. What makes you come alive? What are you passionate about? Allow God to use that gift that He has given you.

Connecting with Jesus

2010-03-08T08:12:00.006-05:00

Life can get so busy that we forget about our purpose and reason for living. I love looking at the life of Jesus, because as I observe the way he lived, I notice that He always had time with His Father. He had to, it was a priority and a necessity. Jesus was fully God, but also fully man, so He had temptation to do thing on His own strength. He never did, because His focus was always on what God had for Him to do each day and each hour.

I have noticed that in the midst of school, work, family and all of the business of life, it is easy for us to crowd out God with our stuff. He becomes a mere option rather than a necessity. That is a dangerous road that many of us go down daily and the road has become all too familiar to many of us. Followers of Christ need to repent and realize that Jesus really is our life, not our Sunday satisfaction. Jesus didn't die to be an option in our life, but to be the center our life.

I encourage you to make Jesus more real to you and spend time seeking Him daily and hourly. Change your schedule, priorities and your mind. This life was not meant to live alone. Connect with Jesus.

Summary: Song of Solomon Chapter 2

2010-03-01T08:26:00.002-05:00

Chapter 2 of Song of Solomon is made up of two main conversational pieces: Connection and Conflict. Those are two necessities to make any relationship work well.

Connection: You can tell that this couple is deeply in love with each other. (2:4) "his banner over me was love". Banner was a military term. When soldiers were on the battlefield and all scattered out, one of the men would raise a banner so all of the soldiers could come together and meet under the banner. It represented safety, security, unity and hope. The men would fight there way to get back to the banner. Men, are you man enough to be the banner for your marriage? If you can't keep a job, clean your room or have any gas money, then you are not ready for a wife... not even a pet. Allow God to take you through life and produce character in you to prepare you for marriage. Instead of strong banners we have deflated balloons out there. Application men, connect to a good church, get a job and repent of your sins. Women, don't settle, connect with a real man, a real leader and get a good banner.

Conflict: (2:15)"...catch the foxes, the little foxes that spoil our vineyards". I remember my first year of marriage lying on the hardwood kitchen floor crying my eyes out and feeling numb. It was so bad that I was even drooling on the floor. What happened? The little foxes destroyed my marriage. It was the first and only time that divorce was heavily considered. In the day of Solomon they would spend a lot of time cultivating their vineyards. After hours, days, weeks and even months, foxes would get in and jack the whole thing up by stealing the fruit and destroying the vineyards. Make sure that in your relationships that you have open, clear communication. Confess your weaknesses and sins. Walk upright and never lie to your spouse.

There much more to unpack in Chapter 2, I thought that I would throw out a few highlights. We are starting chapter 3 at Awaken this Sunday at 10:30 at the YMCA in Hixson. I Hope this was helpful and you could benefit from Song of Solomon.

New Series: Bringing Sexy Back

2010-02-08T22:39:00.004-05:00

This week at Awaken we are starting a new series entitled "Bringing Sexy Back". As far as I know Stephen Furtick was the first to start this series at Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC. I like being original in ministry and do my own thing, but this was one series title that I had to steal.

Basically, Tony and I thought through what direction that our church needed to go as far as teaching and we thought that there was nothing better than SEX that would attract a church with an average age of 24. This is a great series to start especially as we had a record crowd of 70 last week. We are at a time where people are coming back to church and finding freedom in Christ and His followers and figured we would teach a sexually active culture and generation what God says about SEX.

I would like to invite you to join us for the rest of February as we teach our new Series "Bringing Sexy Back". We still meet at the YMCA in Hixson at 10:30am.

Five Months of Church Planting

2010-01-24T18:02:00.003-05:00

Today I realized how much I love my job. We launched Awaken Community Church five months ago and it is going strong. We had one of the highest attendances this week (around 65) and at least ten new visitors. The two main groups we are trying to reach are the non Christians and the de-churched. These are people who grew up in church and for whatever reason, they were done. Here is what I have been learning to do lately:

1. Delegate and follow up with those who are taking on new responsibilities.
2. Always cast vision and actively do the things it takes to fulfill it.
3. Meet with leadership weekly.
4. Ask everyone committed their gifts and get them plugged in.
5. Make sure your main leaders are not getting burnt out.
6. Meet with people in your church weekly.
7. Always try to have a visitor over to your house to get to know them.
8. Focus on your strengths and fill your weakness when people come to fulfill them.
9. Be in the community meeting people and challenge your church too as well.
10. Develop leaders that develop leaders.

... And Their Wives Left

2010-01-18T17:29:00.007-05:00

One guy was stuck on porn and his wife finally found out his grueling secret. He was so addicted that it meant more to him than she did. After eight months of battle she left.

Seeing it from his father, Jim bullied his wife; cutting her down in front of his friends and so on. She cried at night while he slept beside her. After 12 years, she left.

Everything looked fine in public, but behind the scenes he really did not care. She cooked. She cleaned. She got the kids ready. She taught the kids. She paid the bills. She even changed the oil. Once all five of the kids were out of the house, she left after 32 years.

Bars, beer and the night life filled his life. It was like that before they got married, but she thought it would change after they were married. It didn't. After 3 short months, she left.

The divorce rate in America sucks. It seems and looks as if no one knows about commitment, love, loyalty, sacrifice and selflessness anymore. A lot of them never had a role model, mentor or even a clue. Around the country though, things are starting to change. There are men of God and churches of God leading healthy marriages, because they are reading and living what the Bible says.

We will talk about the roles of the husband and wife in their roles at Awaken January 24th and 31st. We meet at the YMCA in Hixson and are currently at once service that starts at 10:30am. www.awakencc.org

Wake Up Christians

2010-01-17T07:55:00.005-05:00

Acts is my favorite book of the Bible. I like it so much because it is so action packed. Think of all of the action packed movies that we all like: Braveheart, Gladiator and Lord of the Rings just to name a few. All of these movies made a lot of money and are famous for being action packed and great war scenes. Many of us, especially men, cannot get enough of these kind of movies because we love action, adventure, passion and challenge.

This is a lot like the book of Acts. There was a lot of action, adventure, passion and challenge. In Chapter 2 and 3 over 5,000 people give their entire lives over to something that will out live them. They gave their lives over to a higher calling and purpose in life. They gave their lives to God. Take 5-6 minutes and read Acts chapter 2-3.

Christianity today in my city looks absolutely nothing like Acts... and that is a problem. One of the main reasons is because we are all distracted. We are distracted by our pride, selfishness, money, family, hobbies etc.. When will we wake up and realize this life is not about us? I need some men to join beside me to become a church like Acts 2-3. We should wake up and lead ourselves, our families and our community to the feet of Jesus. It is not about the tradition and programs in our churches, but about the blood of Christ and the depravity of humanity. We have a huge mission. What day and hour will we wake up? Will we ever wake up? I am challenging you to wake up now and come with me to seek God and change a city. We are going into war.

I am sending this out to some men that are on my heart. Send me a message or leave a comment below. It doesn't matter where you are at in life at this point, it just matters that you act now and let God do the rest. I would like to meet with many men in our city in the next few weeks. Send me an e-mail to justin@awakencc.org. Thanks for your time and lets Let God be the God of our city.

Cute Little Christians

2010-01-09T13:07:00.002-05:00

If you have grown up in the Christian life, you may not realize it, but many of us have grown up with a cute little Christian life. We listen to our Christian music and wear our Christian T-Shirt while driving in our car with our Christian bumper stickers. Pretty cute huh? "Not really" says the world. What is Christian about that. The world needs and wants to interact with real people. People who cuss and cut. People who struggle with their marriages and their money. In our "cute" little lives it can come across like we are perfect inside and out. The world see's us as phonies. So what do we do?

Try this: Be real. Get help where you need it, because even though you may be seen as perfect, you know that you are far from it and have so many areas where you need to be fixed. Interact with people. Get out of you comfort zone and go talk to people who may not look, smell, dress or act like you.

Notice Jesus. He was anything but a cute little Christian. He was a man, a radical, associated with sinners, prostitutes and scum of His day. And what do we do? We go to church.... are you kidding?? Seek Jesus, not tradition and change Christian. If you are not a Chritsian, I would like to appoligize for my life and the lives of many Christians or "Christians". I hope I would change and start to be more real and honest with God, myself and you.

What is a Family?

2009-12-30T14:28:00.003-05:00

What is a family? It seems like there use to be an obvious answer to that question, but in this day in and age people see a different answer to that question. Some say specifically a man and a woman that are married with kids. Some say people who live together. Someone you care about. Man with man. Woman with woman. Blood relatives. People who love each other. Many opinions.

It is astonishing how many definitions, values and beliefs that people put into what they think a family is. If you are a follower of Jesus, then you look to the Bible for that definition. If not, then you can look to whatever or whoever you want to and hold whatever kind of beliefs you want to. As a follower of Christ, the Bible lays out the best definitions of what a family is and how it should function.

In the month of January we will talk about Family and the roles in a family at Awaken.
01/03 - What is a family? What is a family not?
01/10 - Role of the wife...
01/17 - Role of the husband....
01/24 - Role of the kids....
01/31 - What is your Vision for you family?

What does a family look like to you? Come join us in January and get you family back on track. This will be an encouraging series. We hope to challenge to live out a biblical family, see husbands mature and become men and Biblical leaders, wives encouraged and lifted up and learn how to raise kids.

Here are a few definitions of family: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/family

A New Year, A New Life

2009-12-22T21:27:00.004-05:00

A New Year, A New Life.....

Faith and I just watched a movie called “Couples Retreat” and I was challenged to change my marriage. Don't get me wrong, it was not a life changing movie. It was a Hollywood movie, but it made me think. I was challenged to put more time, energy and creativity into the relationship with the woman I devoted to spend the rest of my life with. So off I go.

This is not a spontaneous change, but a change that makes me think. The movie showed four different marriages and all of the problems in the marriages. It showed the things that they fought about and how they handled conflict and confrontation. Of course at the end, everyone was happy. Unfortunately most people do not work at marriage hard enough and quit. My challenge is to take our marriage to the next level.

This Sunday at Awaken Community Church, we are going to be challenged on how to have a new life this next year. Maybe some people need new marriages (not meaning get divorced, but renewed =-). For some it may mean to balance their finances or for others to stop watching porn. There are so many things in our lives that we are lazy with or we do not do well. It is time to make some small goals (take out the trash without being asked), medium goals (take more time daily to seek the Father), large goals (Take a nice trip with just my wife this year) and God goals (that God would fill Awaken with 200 people by the end of 2010 of lives that would be challenged and changed).

What are your goals? Take a minute and think of some small, medium, large and God goals for your New Year. Start 2010 off with a bang. A New Year, a New Life.

Thoughts on Church Planting

2009-12-10T14:21:00.007-05:00

We launched our church in September and we are entering into our fourth month at Awaken. Here are some thoughts so far:

1. Must make time to pray.

2. Must make time to study.

3. Most things I have planned have not worked out the way I thought... different, better. Before you plan your church, become your church.

4. Give lots of money and invest lots of time in the community.

5. Family first.

6. If Jesus is not leading, I should not be going.

7. Always.... Always cast vision. Don't just cast vision, fulfill it.

8. Preach with the power of the Holy Spirit with confidence.

9. Be you, not the church down the street or on the internet.

10. Preach series, topic or verse by verse depending on your style and where your church is and what your church needs.

11. Build people not numbers.

12. Need to start baptisms and communion.

13. 65 people strong! - lots of responsibility.

14. Delegate, even if you can do it better.

15. Accountability and mentors are good to pray with and to gain wisdom, insights and share mistakes and successes with.

16. Find your identity and be you.

17. Never forget vision.

18. Be in the community, always meeting people.

19. Be with your church always mentoring someone. Set up leaders in your church to mentor others.

20. Get good small group leaders.

All or Nothing

2009-12-06T18:31:00.004-05:00

DREW BREES: It is amazing to see people who are good at what they do. For example; Drew Brees is the QB for the New Orlean Saints and he is also my favrite football player (and won me my FF league last year). He has been the best QB in the NFL the last few years. What makes him good? The time he puts in to what he does and the passion he has for the game. It is amazing to see how all in he is at what he does.

STORY: I often think of people that I admire and why I admire them. Today at Awaken we looked at the rich young man passage found in Matthew chapter 19. This man was wealthy and maybe even well educated and probable had many people admire him, but there was one thing he did not have; a relationship with God. He obeyed the commandments, but by the end of the story we see that he could not go all in and sell everything he had to follow Christ. On the other hand, as the passage continues, the disciples gave up everything to follow Jesus. Results: The rich man walked away sad with his temporally wealth while the disciples are getting blessed with 100 times and eternal life.

ARE YOU ALL OR NOTHING: In my city their is a lot of religion, tradition and obeying commands, but I wonder how much of giving up everything there is in my city. Do you control most of you life? Your time, money, thought and plans or have you given that to Jesus? He doesn't just want us to obey commandments, but to give up everything in our lives. I think Christians should seek the Father so much and be so passionate about what he wants for our lives, that people see that we are all in.

PEOPLE I ADMIRE: The pastors that I have looked up to in my life have carried these attributes in their lives. Here are a few people that I admire and listen to: Matt Evans, Mark Driscol, Francis Chan, Stephen Furtick and John Piper.

FINAL THOUGHTS: The more you have, the less you need to depend on God, but the less you have, you find that your dependance has to be on God. Go all in.

I Love my Church

2009-11-28T20:39:00.003-05:00

I love my church. I have been attending churches most of my life and have been a Christian for 11 years now and I can honestly say that I LOVE MY CHURCH. I have liked many of my churches in the past, but I love it here at Awaken. Here is what I love about it:

1. The Gospel: It is preached; not weak or watered down, but just truth.

2. Music: I can relate to the music and worship God with songs that are relevant, meaningful and true.

3. The People: The people here at Awaken are awesome. Everyone is caring and real. They are the church, not a club.

4. Community Groups: I can meet with people every Tuesday night with laughs, food, the Bible, maybe tears and come away feeling like I furthered my walk with Christ.

5. The Place: We meet at the YMCA in Hixson. The Activity Center is where we meet. There is nothing amazing about it. It is small and old, but it is us.

6. Age: Most people that do not go to church are between 16-29. We are 93% 29 and under. We are reaching the ones falling away. With that said, we need people 30 and above for leadership and wisdom.

7. Mike Lamb: Mike Lamb goes to our church. Thats all that needs to be said.

8. Church Plant: We are a church plant, which means we can have new creative things that change the way people think and feel about church.

9. Love and Honesty: Everyone loves and is honest about who they are.

10. Giving: Half of our money goes back into our community and missions.

I hope you have a church and love your church. If not, come become apart of us. If you do not live in Chattanooga I can network and find a church in your area.

Get Your Mind SET!

2009-11-01T21:43:00.003-05:00

So I just started P90X this past week and its kicking my butt. I threw up 20 minutes ago because I had acid reflux coming up. I guess I need to learn not to eat pizza and drink coke and hour and a half before the workout.

My goal is to change my mind and set my mind for action. I am trying to set out an hour - an hour and a half each day to do this workout. I obviously learned that I have to change my mind about eating as well. Someone said workout is 20% and eating is 80%. If I do it right, then by day 90 I will be healthier and ripped!

I think about my life and how I live. Just as I have to get my mind set on my workouts, I have learned that I need to get my mind set on life as well; on my relationship and time with God. I have been growing a lot with my wife lately by spending time with her and hanging out. How much more time should I spend with the God that made me. Whenever I get a lot of time in with God, the more I have joy, peace and love.

Not sure if you have these same struggles, but if you do join me and change your mind about how you do life and what you set your mind and your time on and in the end our God will say to you "Well done my good and faithful servant".

What You Can Do With Your Time?

2009-10-28T22:56:00.003-04:00

A lot of our lives are consumed with our wants, desires and our world to TAKE UP OUR TIME AND ATTENTION. You agree? We are thrown a lot of things our way that make us lazy/self-centered creatures. Take TV for example. They go out of their way to make a good show that will make us turn on the TV every Thursday night at 8 just to watch "the show of our week". Facebook takes our minds and thoughts (at least for me) and captures my attention enough to tune into it a few times a day.

What can we do in life to make more of it? Not sure if you are a Christ follower or not, but if you are, we should focus our lives on what we can do with our time. In 1Peter chapter 1, Peter talks a lot about time and the coming of Jesus. We are not promised tomorrow here in this world, so what can we do tomorrow? What will you do with your tomorrow? More TV and Facebook? Maybe, but what about more serving the poor, loving our wives, taking out the trash, inviting a neighbor over for dinner, spending reserved time with just God, encouraging someone, showing love, hope and patience to others. Tomorrow is yours, you can use your time wisely or waste it. What Can You Do? What Will You Do?

If tomorrow is given to you make the most of it. What Can You DO?

$2 a Day Results

2009-10-24T10:17:00.003-04:00

This last week I ate off of $2 a day. I did it for a few reasons. 1. To be thankful for what I have. 2. To save money.

Well, I did it. It was encouraging to have a goal like that and complete it. I am more aware of saving money and living life more simple. People even gave me free food and coupons during the week. Not sure if you have taken a challenge like that, but I recommend it.

What You Want is Not What You Always Get

2009-10-21T08:34:00.006-04:00

Do you ever think that you have everything figured out about a goal or a dream and then not all the things that you put together turned out the way you thought? Maybe you had goal to workout and you bought all of your workout clothes, got your food list and set off on your journey, but you got busy and life crowded out your goal. Maybe you had a dream for a job or going to school and what seemed like a good idea seemed to fade away because time and life crowded it out.

I worked my tail off studying church planting and networking to launch A waken Community Church. Not much has worked out the way that I had planned. It is for better and for worse. Worse - because I had all of my goals put into place, but other things changed the direction in where we went. Maybe it just hurt my pride and plans. For better because our team, our church, is loving one another and we are developing who we are; our DNA and identity. Because we are coming together, we have different thoughts and opinions that are making who we are. "I" launched the church, but when people came, "WE" became the church and now "GOD" is growing His church. It was all about God in the first place and we just had to play our roles to get where we are.

Now that we are 5-6 weeks in as a church, I can't believe where God has brought us. We have 60-70 people interested and coming off and on to Awaken, over 120 people attend since we launched and out of that group we have about 30 strong that are committed to grow in their faith and reach their community. I think 30 people excited about the things of God and people can change a city.

Sometimes when things don't work out the way you want, you find in the end that although it worked out differently, it worked out better.

How to Eat Off of $10 in a Week

2009-10-16T18:30:00.004-04:00

On Monday October 19th I will embark on a one week challenge to eat off of just $10 for a work week. Below is the breakdown. By the way, shop at Aldi's; great prices. The goal is for me to be more grateful for what I have. Over half of the world lives off of $2 a day. Come join the challenge.

$10 budget

2.49 - Turkey

1.89 - Ramen Noodles

1.39 - Bagels

.99 - baby carrots

.89 - Cheese

.79 - white bread

.40 - eggs

.15 - 1 bowl of cereal

.8 - 1 apple

= 9.16+ tax

-----------

$ 9.98

Monday

Breakfast: Bagel and 2 eggs

Lunch: Ham, cheese and carrots

Dinner: Ramen Noodles

Tuesday

Breakfast: 3 eggs

Lunch: Ham, Cheese and carrots

Dinner: Ramen Noodles

Wednesday

Breakfast: Cereal

Lunch: Ramen Noodles

Dinner: Ham, cheese and apple

Thursday

Breakfast: Bagel, egg and cheese

Lunch: Ham, cheese and carrots

Dinner: Ramen Noodles

Friday

Breakfast: Bagel ham, egg and cheese

Lunch: Ham, Cheese and carrots

Dinner: Ramen and carrots.

A Challenge That I Bet You Wont Take.

2009-10-14T19:04:00.008-04:00

Did you know that over half over the world lives off of $2 a day? $2 a day!!! That is it! That is nuts! I cannot even eat off of $2 a day.... wait, I cant even eat off of $2 a meal or can I?

I want to throw out a challenge to you but let me tell you why first. I have been thinking about life and what's important to me. I have been thinking about everything; my wife, kids, bible study, work, food, time, money, friends, prayer, cleaning, free time, hobbies and more. I started to think about all of these and how I approach them in my life. Am I more concerned about games and free time than my family? A lot of times I would say yes. Am I selfish? Yes. Am I spoiled? Yes. Am I rich? Yes. Starting next Monday I am attempting to strip away many things that are not as important to focus on the things that are for one week. I hope the results will make me more grateful for what I have.

One of the things that I am doing and that I would like to challenge you to is is I am going to try to eat off $2 a day. Thats kind of crazy when you think about it. But then again, think of the rest of the world; $2 a day is what they make to cover everything. You up for the challenge? Let me know if you are by leaving a comment below. Click "post a comment". For me it will be tough, but the goal is that I need to be thankful for what I have.

By the way, I am asking Faith if we can have our whole family eat off of $2 a day. I will let you know what she says. Leave a comment below so we can see how many people are up for the challenge. Let's do it.

People are always searching...

2009-10-12T17:01:00.001-04:00

http://bit.ly/bMoWJ

What if I Could Change My CIty?

2009-10-09T16:35:00.004-04:00

Not sure if you ever dream, but I would encourage you to start dreaming about something. Some people reading this may have a dream to just get a girlfriend. Others may have a dream that their kids would grow up an be successful, while others just have a dream to get a job.

Here's my dream.... "I want to change my city". I know its kind of big, but I believe it can happen. I do admit I cannot do it myself, I will need help, but I believe it can be done. I am confident in that. So, what does it take? Networking. First of all, networking with God and being led by Him is my first and foremost goal. Without Christ I am on my own. My life is His, so I will remain in Him. Second of all I need Christians. I need followers of Christ to join me to change my city. What are we changing it for? To help people. Feed the poor, help the drunkard find life without alcohol, encourage men to be faithful to their spouses and vice-versa, help porn addicts keep their eyes on their wife or future wife. All of this is to bring God glory and help change lives in my city. People are desperate without God

So why does all of this matter? I believe because God has hope for all humanity, but humanity does not see hope in God. I am a follower of Christ, so I am on the team to bring people back to God and back to a life worth living.

Here is my plan: 1. Pray, 2. Live what I say, and 3. start a church and get family and friends on board to buy into a dream that will change lives and change a city. What are your dreams? Do you have a plan to fulfill it? Want to join in and help me with my dream to change a city? Let me know. Lets do it.

Easily Forgetful

2009-10-01T22:34:00.003-04:00

I hate it when I lose the remote or my car keys. Its so inconvenient. I have to stop and retrace my steps. Sometimes I find what I was looking for, but sometimes it can take a few days or even a few weeks. Take the remote for example, we lost it 3 days ago and just found it tonight. Where? Right behind the cushion, where else? Go figure.

Not sure if you have heard of the children of Israel. They were God's chosen people in the Old Testament. They followed God and many times rebelled and went against God. God would bless them at times and also discipline them at times, just as earthly fathers have to do sometimes with their kids. But the real kicker is the Red Sea.... God parted a sea. Are you kidding me? For me it takes faith to believe that, but for the children of Israel they actually walked through it. They experienced one of the coolest miracles of all times and yet they still forgot Gods promises and set their eyes back on themselves. They easily forgot about God.

As I think through that I wonder, "Wow, how could you turn your back on God after a miracle like that" and then I think of my life and the miracles God has done for me. It's easy for me to forget as well.

As I have been doing this church plant, Awaken, I have been doing a lot of ministry on my own strength. Today I was talking to a fellow church planter, Ryan, and I was amazed to see what he doesn't do with his time. He is more laid back and does a few things well and he lets the details work themselves out. I learned a lot today because I have been anal and stressing about all of the details that "need" to get done as we have launched our church. Today I feel like I have been set free from "doing ministry" and have peace, freedom and trust to let Christ build His church and I can be faithful with doing a few things well and let the rest work itself out. Not sure if you are a perfectionist or are anal about getting many things done, but I encourage you to let a lot of it go and just breathe and relax.... it feels good.

Is Jesus Really Real?

2009-09-22T18:08:00.005-04:00

When you think of Jesus, what is he first thought that comes to your mind? Is their an image? A thought? A word that comes to mind? I know we know a lot of Bible answers and maybe history answers, but what does that really mean for your life. He claimed to be the Savior of the world. Either He is God and made the biggest impact in the history of the world, or He is the biggest cop-out and impostor that has ever lived. Lets get real: He claimed to be God. People don't just claim to be God and if they do you can tell by their lifestyle and nature that they are not God. But Jesus, what about Him? Was He really God? Is He really God?

Now, some say yes and some say no. If you say no, then I believe that there is no hope for humanity and life is void and pointless now and in the end wen we die. If He is real, then I believe that their must be an evidence and a radical life change in the lives of His followers. Do you see it? Are His followers different? Do they encourage, love and give their lives to people in their communities or are they annoying, bad tippers and just want to convert you? We need to reTHINK CHRISTianity and what it means to be a follower of this man, this God named Jesus.

This week at Awaken we are talking about "Engaged in Christ". We will talk about who He is, Biblically, and why He is God and worth following. If you do not go to church anywhere or are bored to death in church, then I would like to invite you and challenge you to be engaged in Christ. We meet at the Hixson YMCA and meet from 10:30-11:45 on Sunday mornings.

Do Oprah and I Believe in the Same God?

2009-09-14T20:52:00.002-04:00

What is your view of God? Is He real and if so who is He? How do we know who God is? There are so many religions, who's right? Oprah has a view that she shared with her followers (below). How do you know who the real God is? What tells us? Our parents, teachers, feelings mentors? Do peoples thoughts, emotions and ideas make up God who God is or does something tell us?

I believe the Bible tells about the true God. Join us at Awaken this Sunday as we open up our "Engaged" series.

Week 1 Engaged in God

Week 2 Engage in Christ

Week 3 Engaged in Church

Week 4 Engaged in Community

Oprah's link -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JW4LLwkgmqA&feature=fvw

Awaken and the YMCA

2009-08-29T21:30:00.004-04:00

We have our first practice service at the YMCA tomorrow morning. I am stoked. We are doing a run through with the greeting, kids and the main meeting. We want to make sure we work hard to make it easy for people to come and be loved at Awaken. Many people will walk in the door being very sketchy about God, church, Awaken and who we are. Many people will come to church one final time before they call it quits. What do we have to offer them: A program, tradition or love and compassion? We want to make sure we do a great job in our preparation that it seems effortless when people come and attend Awaken.

I always like to extend an invitation for people to come to Awaken because I truly believe everyone needs a real relationship with God and people. We want to provide that at Awaken. Come to the YMCA in Hixson on 9.13.09 at 10:30 and start over in life.

Family

2009-08-26T20:39:00.003-04:00

Just chilling with my family on vacation. Life has been pretty busy so its good to just lay back and take it easy for a week. Pretty fun vacation so far. We kicked it off with a staff retreat and after everyone left we have been hanging by the pool and the big jacuzzi tub. I take my family (especially my wife) for granted a lot. I have a sweet, beautiful wife who loves me and supports me in everything I do. Kylie, 2, is so sweet and is learning a lot. She asks lots of questions. She just nailed down her months of the ear and is now working on the days of the week. Abigail, 1, is a mess! She is the sweetest/cutest thing around, but is so bad and has a strong wheel. She's a mess.

I thank God for the blessings that he has given me in my life. I hope this week will help me be mindful of my family throughout my days, weeks and years to come. I pray that I can be the biblical husband and father that I need to be.

Why the church in America will continue to die...

2009-08-16T10:07:00.005-04:00

There is bad news. Although many sit in church and may close their eyes and praise God and maybe even shed tears, the reality is that all churches and all denominations are declining or heading for a decline. And the real bad news is because it's not even that Satan is a work (although he is), but is is because the church is turning people off and away. The population continues to grow rapidly, but the church is decreasing rapidly.

A study done among 16-29 year olds states that the reason that most of this age group does not go to church is because it is judgmental, anti-homosexual, hypocritical, boring, irrelevant and using words like insensitive to describe the church.

Now one question to ask is, would you go to any business or spend any money or even attend anything that was lead with these characteristics? Why does Wal Mart strive and succeed? They have everything you need (relevant). Why are bars flooded every night of the week? People at bars are (non judgmental) and people accept you. Why do millions of people scream and yell and get excited at Football games every week? Because they're awesome and anything but (boring). You getting the point? Why are Wal Mart, bars and football better than Jesus? They are not, but the church makes it look that way.

Listen, if you do not go to church, I can totally understand why, but I also want to challenge you to find a place where you can go and worship the God of the universe, because He is the One that longs to be with you. If you are involved in a church or have a leadership role, I challenge you to make some drastic changes if you want a younger generation to follow Jesus, because currently they are all going away. Be like Christ, not Pharisee's. Stop judging people in bars when your 95lbs over weight. Don't look down on the pot head while you are looking at porn when your wife is not looking. Stop judging someone that listens to "bad" music while your judging them for listening to it. What we've done church, is that we have judged the non Christian while in the mean time we have not judge ourselves and held one another accountable. The church must change or the church in America will continue to die. Lets get started.

SEX

2009-08-10T17:16:00.007-04:00

Listen, many people are curious when they hear the word sex. A simple, yet powerful three letter word; S.E.X. You see it on TV, many people like to have it and it catches your attention really quick.

Is sex for everyone and anyone?? Well it depends on who you ask and their view on sex. There are many different ways and methods, but is there a right way and a right method and even for the right person?

Biblically, sex is great and meant for marriage. Many people in life don't mind sleeping with... well, anyone, but they miss out on "the one" for them. If you are not a Christian that may not make sense to you, but if you are a Christian, then Biblically you need to wait for your husband/wife.

Sex is a very, very touchy subject. Many have had unpleasant and even fearful experiences when it comes to sex and they need to deal with it. We are getting ready to launch a church. Its called Awaken. We are teaching on things like marriage, sex and a distorted view of sex called; porn. We are not afraid to open up and talk about the big elephant in the room. Jesus talked about the things that were relevant to the culture in which he preached. This Wednesday from 6:00-8:00pm we have a community group meeting and we'll talk about sex. Come with questions. Contact me if you are interested in helping us launch Awaken or if you wish to come and check it out. We just want to be real with God and each other. justin@awakencc.org

What do you think about sex?

PS I could write volumes on this subject, so this is simply a quick overview to get people thinking. We also look to launch a series about sex in the Fall at Awaken.

Community Group -Wednesday 6:00-8:00
Sunday Nights - 6:00-7:15
info@awakencc.org

Love and Marriage

2009-08-08T14:48:00.005-04:00

I am doing my first wedding/marriage in September... well performing my first wedding/marriage as a pastor. It is interesting hearing peoples views on marriage. Many say its "finding the love of your life", "your second half", while others say "just finding my old lady(maybe not as respectful)".

While all of these are peoples personal view points, what really is the point of marriage? Who tells us what the point of it is and why we do it? Why no just live together, why get "Married"?

Many people have different ways of looking at the world whether they realize it or not. Its called their worldview, meaning, the way they look and view the world. Each person has a set of things they value, which determine what they believe, as a result they behave according to their values and beliefs. I try to follow a Biblical worldview for the things I value.

God created marriage. It is set up to show Christ's love for His church. "What? What does Jesus have to do with marriage? you may ask". In the book of Ephesians in the Bible, Paul shares that the point of marriage is to show people how much Christ loves us. He says men are to lead and love their wives like Christ loved the church, even the point of giving Himself up for her. Men, we have a huge job. The women are to submit, help and respect their husbands. If a man does his job, then its easy for the woman to do her job. Unfortunately there are few men worth submitting to, helping and much less respecting.

So where do we start? First you need to give your life to the One that created you and realize His purpose(s) for you (this is not just believing in God, but following Him). Then follow Him and surround yourself with people that follow Him. Those people are called Christians. The word Christian has been watered down because we have had many claiming to be Christians and show the love of God, but it is merely with their words that they do so.

This week at Awaken we are talking about Biblical truth and how the Bible should guide our lives in all things, marriage just being one of many. If you do not belong to a church, find one... a good one. I would like to invite you to Awaken this Sunday night. What is your view of marriage? What is your marriage like? Thinking about getting married? Make sure you realize the point of one of the biggest decisions of your life.

Ready.

2009-07-31T20:41:00.002-04:00

Finally ready. Its almost here! We are just six weeks away from launching Awaken Community Church at the YMCA in Hixson. We are pumped to see what God is going to do in our city. Continuing to think of marriages finding freedom, the addicts healed and many coming to know the reason for life; Jesus. Jesus is not just a noble guy or a man that came to do some good in the world, but the Son of God who came into the world to give hope and life to depraved people in their sin.

Many of us find something to put our hope, worth and significance in, but it all is a waste without knowing the one who made us. Its not just believing in God, but truly knowing Him and having a relationship with Him. We look not to bring tradition or legalism to our city, but to bring hope, love and serve our community just like the church of Acts (in the Bible) did.

If you are "de-churched" (seperated from church) or just not sure about God and life, I would love to invite you to Awaken. We are launching Spetmember 13th at the Hixson YMCA. Pray for us as we seek to see a community changed forever.

28

2009-07-21T05:57:00.004-04:00

Well, today I turn 28. They should call it 29 because I lived a whole year before I even got a number. Kind of a rip off. Here are random thoughts that come to my head over the last 28 years.

puke baby got beat up by brother socks in my face bb gun wars
cheeseburgers taco salad riding bikes basketball latchkey kid
cool dudes playing cars GI Joes black eye parents divorced church basketball friends neighborhood middle school high school friends CROAM workout tennis dating follower of Christ life change purpose mentor Faith School bad marriage degree job friends God Kylie job Abigail Church Planting friends good marriage 28.

These are just a few random thoughts from my 28 years. I look forward to the purpose God has created me for through the rest of my life. Thank you for everyone that has been apart of my life.

Days without God

2009-07-20T05:42:00.004-04:00

Sometimes I get so focused on my life (wife, kids, job friends and more) that I live days without God. Yeah, God has put these blessings in my life, but they should not replace the One that created me. Have you lived days without God? What about weeks, months or years? What about ever? People today are more open to spiritual things than ever. There is a God-shaped whole in all of us that can only be filled by....guess who? Yep God.

At Awaken we are starting Community Groups. Community Groups are groups of people that meet in homes throughout the week where people "do life" together. We eat, hangout, be real with one another and ask questions, read the Bible and learn more about the God of the universe. We realize that no one is perfect, so no one has to act perfect. Hangout with a bunch of single people or maybe honestly your marriage sucks and you need to "do life" with other married people. We all mess up and need to lean on one another.

Live life with God and bring other people along with you. Your life was never meant to be alone. Even with just you and your family, you need people to come beside you and "do life" with you. Let me know if you are interested in a Community Group and we'll get you plugged into one.

$1,000

2009-07-13T18:14:00.002-04:00

What would you do if someone just gave you $1,000? Would you pay bills, eliminate debt, blow it on whatever you want? What if someone gave you $1,000 and the only restriction was to spend on someone else. Would you help someone buy groceries, fix a water heater or just bless someone, leave someone a fat tip at a restaurant?

At Awaken we have committed to giving half of our money away that comes in through the giving on Sundays. We have just reached $1,000. We have many ideas and some things already in place. We look forward to taking up money each week, because we can literally see how much is going back out to connect with our community and make a change in peoples lives. Some ideas people mentioned last night are: Hospital bills, the homeless, a neighbor in need and more. We look forward to seeing what God is going to do in our community.

If you are reading this and you live in Chattanooga, we invite you to join us as we are forming Awaken Community Church. We launch September 13th, 2009.

Community Now...

2009-07-06T15:46:00.002-04:00

We are starting a four week series called "Community Now" this Sunday at Awaken. I am so pumped about what God is going to do. This past week we had 40 people come and experience Awaken. Excited to see who God brings our way.

Can Christians Hangout at Bars?

2009-06-28T11:16:00.007-04:00

So, for the first time in my life I hung out at a bar. It is funny because every time I looked at "bar people", I thought of wasted lives and drunk people. It is so funny how I am easy to judge. I went with a friend of mine this weekend and mainly observed people and how that acted. Although some do waste their lives and just go to get drunk, many go for a different reason. Here are a few things I observed:

1. A need for Relationships
2. Need to have a Good Time
3. Community desired.

Pros of a bar: 1. Relationships, a good time and community are a few pros to going to a bar. People seem more real at a bar than at church. You are not judged. Everybody seems to be open to meeting everybody, it does not matter sex or race, cool or dork. Many cant build those kind of relationships at church, but can at a bar. Some people at bars are Christians that have not found community in a church.

Some Cons - Although many find relationships, some still do not have a relationship with the God that created them. A good time with other believers with prayer, learning Gods Word and changing a community are missing; which is ultimately what we were created for. One guy asked me if I go to strip clubs. I wanted to say "No, but I do go to church", but I think that may have severed that relationship. He was new to town and said he would like to hang out with us next week. Nice guy, drove a nice Chrysler 300 with a hemi, talked about his kids and mine, owned his own business, and was there looking to meet people.

Do you think it is good to go to bars so you can build relationships and lead someone to Christ or do you think it is sin and we should not go?

*If you have a problem with absorbing too much alcohol and it is an addiction, you should probably refrain from going.

People with No Hope

2009-06-23T09:21:00.004-04:00

I used to work at a great organization called the Hopeline. It was one of the best jobs I have ever had. I would answer calls from teenagers and young adults all around the country and talk about anything from dating to suicide, from self image to porn addiction. The more I spoke to all of these people I realized that there are people like this filling my city. The only difference is that the people calling in finally got desperate enough to call and talk to someone about it.

If you are stumbling upon this blog and you realize that your life may feel hopeless, I want to encourage you that you do not have to feel that way. The purpose of your life is to get to know the One that created you. God created you for a purpose and as soon as you get to know God you will be able to serve your purpose. It's all about a relationship with Him.

We started Awaken Community Church to help the hopeless and those needing to find a purpose in life. The truth is that we are all ultimately hopeless until we are following Christ. It's
not to late to start over.

Finish Well

2009-06-17T10:03:00.004-04:00

"Finish well" is a phrase that I've heard a lot in my life. It means more to me now then ever. It's very tough for me to see friends who have abandoned the faith. Many still believe in God and even Jesus, but their lives are not in His hands. They do not follow Him or obey Him with their lives of actions. My prayer is that God would bring an awakening to my city that that people would come to really know Jesus, that they would really know what it means to be a follower of Christ. If you have abandon your faith, I pray that you would consider coming back. Become a follower of Christ. The One that made you, loved you and gave His life for you. It is the only life worth living.

The world and all of its stuff and desires will soon fade and only Christ will matter in the end. Get plugged in to a good church where people will love you and hold you accountable. Start over, Christs love is sufficient for all who have fallen and messed up in life. If you are a Christian, continue to press on and finish well. Fight the fight and finish the race. If you are not a Christ Follower, follow him and finish well with the rest of your life.

Failures

2009-06-15T12:32:00.003-04:00

The more that I look at my life, the more I realize that I have to trust in Christ. I mess up a lot. I fail a lot. I try to be a solid Christian, Husband, Father and Pastor, but many times I fail. I am continuing to realize that I will not be perfect in any of these areas and that I need to trust in Christ to help me be the man I need to be. The more I am seeking Jesus the better I do at these things and the more I stop wasting my time on things that do not matter. Its almost a formula for me: Trust in Christ = do things well and efficient. Don't seek Christ and waste time on meaningless things.

I have been really busy in life the last few months and have taken the latter part of that "formula". This past week I have been seeking Christ more and I can tell a difference in my life.

True Faith

2009-06-11T10:11:00.004-04:00

I was talking to a friend the other day about religion. We were talking about God, Jesus, personal faith and more. Although we do not have the same beliefs, we shared in a productive, non threatening conversation. One thing she said about Christianity is that she respects the religion, but not the church. She said that so many people claim the name of Christ, but do not live it. She has her beliefs and she lives them. This is a huge problem.

Many people in our traditional, religious city of Chattanooga believe in God or "god". Many even believe or acknowledge Jesus, but the problem is that many do not truly know Jesus, they know about Him, but do not know Him.

True faith is truly having faith, period, not just claiming it with words. Not just an acknowledgment, but it actually changes the way you live. Its real. It is your life. Many should stop calling themselves Christians or Christ followers unless they are. Its not about being perfect, because everyone fails and will let you down, but its about giving your life up for something that will outlast you. The God of Heaven, Creator of heaven and earth, came into the world in form of a man called Jesus. He lived, loved, taught, impacted and died for the forgiveness of the sin of humanity. He rose again the third day. He ascended into heaven where we who have faith in Him, will join Him one day. This is the gospel (good news) of Jesus Christ. No one like Him has ever lived or will ever live again. He was God and He was with us. We should follow him and claim him or continue to deny Him with our actions and stop claiming Him. Too many "Christians", are making the bride of Christ look like a whore and turning away those who may possibly be interested in Jesus because of the actions of His "followers". Lets embrace the good news of Jesus and allow Him to impact our lives, friends, church and community.

Awaken's New Location

2009-06-07T10:06:00.005-04:00

Awaken started in a house with a good core group. After just a few weeks of meeting together we grew out of it and God opened up a door through pastor Mitchel Reaves at North Side Community Church. We have enjoyed our last few months worshiping together there. We have been praying that something would open up in our target area, and now it has.

Starting today, June 7, 2009 we will be meeting at Middle Valley Baptist Church from 6:00-7:15. The address is 7901 Middle Valley Road - Hixson, TN 37343.

Over the next few months we hope to meet new people that are not plugged into church. We will meet at Middle Valley until the end of August, then we move into our new location and launch Awaken Community Church to the community.

Life and Awaken Update

2009-05-27T10:22:00.004-04:00

It has been awhile since my last post. Life has been pretty busy. Here's whats been going on lately:

*Just started working at T-Mobile call center.
*planting trees in our yard.
*been hanging with the family a lot lately.
*Getting ready to move locations for Awaken.
*Ready for Mark and Michelle (worship leaders)
to get in town (around June 8) so we can finally meet and hang out.
*(June 1st) see if we get a grant for Awaken.
*still selling cars to make some $ on the side.
*Need to spend more quality time with Jesus.
*Many people committed to Awaken and plugged in already.
*Abigail should be walking in the next few months.
*Kylie is crazy as always and has been dancing to funny songs.
*Faith's getting out more hanging out with friends.
*Ready for Awaken hangout at Chester Frost this Sunday.

Bipolar Church Planting

2009-05-10T03:46:00.007-04:00

Sometimes I feel bipolar when planting Awaken Community Church. I go back and forth with my emotions. One day I am exhausted from all of the long hard hours not to mention the spiritual, physical and emotional stress it puts on me and my family. The next day I envision families and generations changed because there was a church that reached out to them one day and loved them. It is day to day on how I am feeling and which way my emotions are swaying. I just have to trust in God and be under His leadership and protection to get through each day.

It takes faith and a lot of prayer to plant a church. I am also convinced that you have to be either crazy or called to plant a church. I praise God for what He has put on my heart and how He wants to use an average neighborhood kid like me to be a part of changing a city.

Please pray for me, my family and our core group as we continue this radical, faith building journey that God has put us on. Pray for patience, endurance, clear direction and an open heart to God and people. Pray for yourself to see if you should join us in anyway to be apart of this movement. To God truly be the glory for who He is, what He has done and what He continues to have in store for His church.

Such a Great God

2009-05-04T00:03:00.003-04:00

Tonight at Awaken I taught out of Romans 7 on how law does not conquer over us and the grace of Jesus Christ forgives us of all of our sins. Such a great truth. Such a great God.

Let us not focus on the law and how we may be perfect, but realize that the law was meant to show us that we are not perfect. The only perfect one was Jesus and He makes us perfect in God's sight. Such a Great God.

Free Money!!!

2009-04-27T09:58:00.007-04:00

We had a great meeting last night at Awaken where we announced some big news. We are giving half of our money to our community and to missions. If you visit and give $50 to Awaken Community Church, $25 will go to help someone and advance the gospel. If you give $200, $100 will go out for life change. Think about this, if we grow and become a church with a million dollar yearly budget, that means $500,000 a year will go to our community and missions. That means an average of $10,500 a week will go to change our city!

Many may say that this would not be smart as a business standpoint and although I agree, we are not a business, we are a church. I understand that it may take me longer to get on staff full time, but the church should be about change in our community. We hope to bless single moms with groceries, give kids that do not have much some backpacks or shoes. There is so much we can do! When you think of Jesus and the way He lived his life, He had nothing. This is a challenge not only with our money, but also with our lives.

My wife and I are trying to eliminate all of our debt besides our house in the next couple of years. We want to honor God with our money and give to people in need. I challenge you to think through what you spend your money on and think about others and changing a community.

If you live in Chattanooga and have not found a church, I would like to invite you to our next Awaken meeting. I would love for you to become apart of a life changing and a community changing church. This Sunday we meet from 6:00-7:15 at 819 Mississippi Ave Chattanooga, TN 37405. Hope to see you there.

Churches Have to Change or Die

2009-04-21T01:33:00.004-04:00

Most churches in every denomination have been declining for years now. Not good. Obviously if the population keeps growing and churches keep declining, then less and less people are going to church each and every week. Something must change.

This Sunday Night at Awaken from 6:00-7:15pm as we go through our "Identity Series". We are going to talk about our Christian Worldview and how Christians and Christian churches, for the most part, have not lives out a Christian Worldview. I believe for this reason the church is in decline. It has become about programs and not people. It has become about lists and not love. Join us this Sunday Night as we seek to do something different in and to our culture to make Christs name famous by living out a true Christian Worldview.

Identity Crisis

2009-04-20T00:59:00.003-04:00

We just started our first series for our core group last night. It is entitled "Identity Crisis". We asked the question "What Happened?". We looked back at Adam and Eve and saw how from the beginning when they chose to sin, our identity was lost. Join our core group over the next three weeks as we look into at "Identity Crisis".

Abigail Dancing

2009-04-15T17:01:00.002-04:00

Debt

2009-04-15T14:16:00.003-04:00

There is an annoyance, a disease, a plague that has been in my life, the lives of my friends and family, my nation and our world. It name is Debt. It is amazing where you place your mind and heart, stuff follows. For example, if you are focused on things and want things, you will spend your time and money getting those things.

We "had" to have a 2005 Toyota 4-Runner a few years ago, so a cool thing happened and we got it. The nice people at the Toyota dealership were kind enough to let us finance for 6 years so we could make our monthly payment of $515 a month. Wasn't that sweet of them? So we got it and we were happy. We had always wanted a 4-Runner and finally had one. A weird thing happened though. A few months after owning it, we thought it was weird that our rent was $500 a month and our car payment was $515. The 4-runner was not that cool anymore.

Well along with the 4-runner we had credit cards, baby bills, eating out (ouch!) and more and more debt. Our goal was on stuff, so we got stuff... cool stuff at that.

We introduced our credit cards to a friend named Mr. Scissors. Mr. Scissors and our credit cards entered into a one round battle where Mr. Scissors came out the victor.

Faith and I have lived pretty tight for the last few years because of the mess we got ourselves into. Next month we will have all of our debt besides our House, van and school gone. We hope to get rid of the van and school debt over the next 2 years leaving us with just a house payment.

I encourage you if you have sucked at money or have blown it and find yourself in debt, take action and get rid of it. Go ahead and cut up some credit card and sell your car if you have to. We lost $4,000 in the deal with the 4-runner, but a few years later, with our choices and sacrifices, all of that is now gone. I turn 28 this year and hope to be debt free besides my home by the time I am 30. Make a goal, set it and do it. Do not let money and stuff rule your life. Think about it, what is life really about? Not money and stuff. Honor God and kill your debt.

God Knows

2009-04-07T12:12:00.005-04:00

It is a mind blowing concept that God knows everything. I can't even remember my second grade teacher and to think God knows everyone and their thoughts and actions before they happen (Psalm 139). My mind can only hold so much and to think that God knows everything. That is incredible for me to stop and think about.

As I am on this journey of church planting, I continue to meet people and think about their lives. My heart is that people all over my city would give their complete lives over to becoming faithful followers of Christ. We have a lot of good/moral/religious people here, but that is not what I am talking about. I am talking about people who truly want to glorify God in every area of their lives and help change their community. Who are they? I do not know, but God knows.

I pray that God would continue to raise up faithful followers of His to come along side us as we launch Awaken Community Church in August 2009. If that is you and you are interested in joining us to change our city then send me an e-mail to justin@awakencc.org or contact me on Facebook.

People Matter

2009-03-27T20:51:00.006-04:00

People matter to God, therefore people must matter to me. If I do not like people and never want to be near them, then I probably need to check myself. If the greatest commandment is to love God with everything we have (heart, soul, mind and strength) and the second is "like it" as the Bible says, which is to love our neighbors as ourselves, then this means we have a whole lot of loving to do.

The reality of this is sad. Sad for my life and the lives of people in our busy world. While there are some who truly take their time to love others daily, the reality is that the majority of people don't. In our fast pace society we are concerned about ourselves.

This afternoon my brother came over with my nephew and of course we fought each other, since he is a 4 year old boy. I had a blast playing with him, beating him up, letting him beat me up, beating his daddy up, letting him beat me up and so on. I sent them a text 2 hours after they left that said "Tell Malakhai that I had fun playing with him and tell him that I cant wait to play again next time". I want my nephew to love his uncle Justy (as he calls me) and I want to be an encouragement to him.

This is not just the case in Malakhai's life, but every one's life. I am starting to really think about people that I am close to and take a little extra time to go out of my way to help encourage them. Philippians says that we should not only look for our own interests, but also the interests of others. Who could you pour your life into? Could you just send someone an encouraging text right now? Imagine all the people. Take out time and invest into people because they matter.

Wasting My Time

2009-03-23T15:24:00.004-04:00

I have the potential to waste a lot of time. Well, we all do. I have been thinking lately how I can be more effective with my time and and taking action. Here are a few things that I am doing. Maybe if you are bad at time management some of these points may help.

I thought through this question: "What are the top 5 things that are important to me" Here they are and how I will rearrange my time to be more effective through my days.

1. Love relationship with God: This means I will take time daily and get to know the one that created me. Search Him out, study Him worship , adore and get to know and trust Him more.
2. Love my wife: Practically this means cleaning the house. She lives with 2 babies all day and can get depressed if the place looks like crap. I am taking action to help more and more.
3. Love my family: This means come home everyday and have designated time for them. Not for facebook, twitter, TV, Blah blah blah, but time just for them; laughing, playing, loving, teaching, leading and hanging out with them.
4. Loving people: Daily I think how I can love people. Now I will stop thinking and start doing more. Loving, encouraging, meeting and giving to different people daily and Speaking into their lives.
5. Loving My job: I need to plan out my week. I usually get up, do my thing, go to work and pick up one of the 25 things that I know needs to get done and start working on it. Instead of this A.D.D, ineffective method, I decided to plan out my days.

This is not just a good idea that I have had, but what God has been teaching me. Now I am changing things around so I do not waste my time.

The Gospel Apathy

2009-03-18T20:39:00.006-04:00

Growing up going to many churches, I heard the gospel. The pastors would share the same message about Jesus and throw in something a little different to "spice" things up every now and then; it was boring, stale, dry. I actually think that hearing it over and over kept me from coming to Christ. It was to "traditional". It was too "what you are suppose to do". Because of this I knew about Jesus but I did not know Jesus. I never saw the love and truth of Jesus.

To engage in today's culture and churches, we must preach the full gospel of Jesus Christ. That God came into the world and submitted Himself, as a man, under the authority of Roman officials to be brutally beaten, scornfully scarred and unmercifully murdered. This same God, Jesus, died, was buried and resurrected (if He did not rise, then we would be apart of the most embarrassing religion of the world).

If you call yourself a Christ follower, I encourage you to preach the full gospel, in love to people. Love them, engage them and lead them to Jesus. Many believers never engage in a relationship, conversation or even show care or concern for an unbeliever. I look at my life and it doesn't look like I have it all together either. Get rid of any apathy you may have. Embrace Jesus. Meet people. Share Jesus.

How to Start a Church

2009-03-15T14:11:00.009-04:00

There are 3 areas that we are currently focusing on during this season at Awaken. They all gear around Sunday morning and they are; Connections, Program and Children. As I have been studying church planting, I have realized that these three areas must be done well or you will just have a mediocre church. (there area more areas, but these are our current focus)

Connections: Connections is connecting people to our church. What are you first thoughts on a church when you walk in? This has much to do with the Connections Ministry. Here are some questions we are thinking about: Do you have greeters in place? Do you give something to first time guests? Is what your giving them good enough? Is it too much? Do you greeters walk people to the worship service, kids area or the students area? Do we buy umbrellas and meet people at their cars when its raining or get a golf cart (that would be fun)? Do we have a follow up plan? DO we show love to the people that are walking through the doors? Do we have greeters that know how to greet or just let anyone who is willing do it? Much more...

Program: How is the service? How does the opening of the service work? Does the pastor welcome everyone or does another leader in the church welcome? Who leads worship? What kind of songs? How many songs? When do you do the songs; before, after preaching; both? How does the pastor communicate? Is the message thought provoking, funny, engaging, use object lessons, relevant, good, helpful, applicable and more? Do you have someone give a testimony, use media, play a special song, and do you have a reflection time? Much more...

Children: You could have the best welcoming/Connections team in your city and have a phenomenal program, but if you do not take care of peoples kids, then you have failed. Are our kids safe, have fun, creative, prepared? Have we done background checks, made T-Shirts, have a follow up plan? Are good effective people that love children in place to serve? Much more...

This is just the beginning, the tip of the ice berg. We are going to churches on Sunday mornings and studying these things. If you want to be a loving church that does things well, then you must make sure a lot of time and thought goes into each area of ministry. These things must be done well and have leaders that do them well. Poring your time into the things that matter show people in your community that you care about them. These are just a few things that we are looking into to start our church.

Take note: We have not launched our church. These are just observations that I have learned through study, asking questions to church planters, reading blogs, prayer, the Bible and more.

Take a Dump on You

2009-03-14T00:14:00.005-04:00

OK, I know the title is a little "Middle School" like, but hey it got you here didn't it?

Imagine someone came into your life and just "dumped" a tone of resources onto your lap. Just say someone walked up and gave you a check for $50 and said I just wanted to bless you. Would that $50 change your life? Probably not. It may however, make your day or maybe even your week, but I will guarantee you this, YOU WILL NEVER FORGET THE PERSON THAT GAVE IT TO YOU.

At Awaken, we want Jesus to look attractive to people. We want our community to see the love of Jesus. I was talking to a few people tonight at work about targeting a Trailer Park in the area where we are looking to plant our church. I said what if we hung out there for a few weeks and started to get to know some of the people. After a few weeks, we put on a little carnival for the children in their community. Get inflatables, icee's, funnel cakes, hand out t-shirts and love on them. Finally we give every family a gift card to Wal Mart.

We also will build relationships with the people in the community and start a small group Bible Study. We start to target and pray for each home in that community that is far from God and pray that God would change their lives.

After talking about this I asked some of the people that I was casting this vision to, "Why wouldn't it work?" This really started getting me excited about my purpose in life and the purpose for Awaken. Would all of these people come to our church? I am sure some would, but that is not point at all. The point is just to love them. Most of them probably believe that Jesus exists, but have just not seen His love through His followers. So we are going to do it.

What are some creative ideas that you have wanted to do, but just have not had a chance to do it before?

Identity Crisis: Jean Calude Van Dame is my Hero.

2009-03-10T11:11:00.006-04:00

This morning Kylie, our 2 year old, had a great idea to make up a game. She started calling Faith, Mary and called me Carson and called herself Halle. Mary is my sister-in-law, Carson is her husband and Halle is their daughter. She liked to play and have fun with the thought that we were them. She thought it was funny. She made us, them

I remember being in Middle and High School wanting to be like someone else. It could have been a famous musician or and athlete or it could have just been someone I looked up to in my school. Don't laugh, but I remember wanting to be like Jean Claude Van Dame when I was 11 and I liked Deion Sanders. My favorite number is still 21.

I think many churches and church plants have an "Identity Crises". There is a great network within the church planting world. There is also a lot of copying. I see a lot of churches doing the same thing. That is not the total problem, because I can understand borrowing a series or two from time to time or using a good community outreach idea, but many have lost or never had their own originality and own identity as a church.

Many people want to just be like Furtick or Stanley(two of my favorites by the way), but do not want to do their own thing. One thing we have to do before we launch Awaken in August, is to make sure we are who we are and that we are not anyone else. We need to be who God has called us to be.

Practical, this Sunday Night

2009-03-09T08:56:00.007-04:00

We are excited about this Sunday night. We have an opportunity that most church planters may not have the chance to do. We get to be apart of helping another church plant and launch their church to their community. Origin Church is planting a church about 25 minutes outside our plant in Ringgold, Ga.

Jeff, Origins Executive Pastor, will be coming by to train us on how they want us to work with Greeters, Children and lights for their launch on April 5th. We will be able to take invaluable experience through this process. We will be apart of a launch team before we launch our church, we'll be able to bless and help Origin Church, see some pro's (things that Origin does well) and hopefully few cons. I think Shane, a seasoned pastor, and his crew have things very well planned. If you are interested in seeing what they are doing or even live in the Ringgold area, I recommend you stop by the church. Here is Shane's blog.

Too Much Study

2009-03-06T02:22:00.004-05:00

In church planting, there is a lot of studying to be done. I mean, come on, you are basically starting a business. Sorry for those who do not see it like a business, but on the business side of things, it is a business. So from demographics of your target area, to books on how to put together small groups; church planting is a huge field and there are lots of things to be covered.

The last few days I have thought to myself, "I have I studied too much?" Here is what I mean by that... I talk about reaching people that are not interested in church and maybe even not interested in God. I want to connect with those people. I want to serve them and show God's love to them. So, what have I done? I have studied many ways on how to reach them. There is one problem... I have not been with them. I haven't been in the bars, chatting with people at Wal Mart or Intentionally having the same waiter at Chilli's or changing my oil at the same place for the sole purpose of building relationships. There are so many relationships to be built.

Will I stop studying? No, because I need to know my culture and the people that I am reaching. But I will say that I need to take a break and go and be with them. I do not think Jesus read 7 books, 3 blogs, watched 4 sermons and prayed 6 hours before he went and spoke to the woman at the well. He just went. So should I. Studying; good, life on life, better. I encourage you to do the same. Go build a relationship with someone for the purpose of loving them and showing the love of Jesus to them.

Is Satan at work or do we just live in a sinful world?

2009-03-02T19:53:00.005-05:00

Is Satan at work or do we just live in a sinful world? Well both are true, but I am trying to figure out which situations in our lives are because we live in a sinful world and which are from Satan and his demons.

I was in a wreck today; a guy ran me off the road. My Jeep might be total. Here is the kicker, the knife in the back, the irony of it all. I actually had a good friend and one of our supporters for Awaken tell me that he wanted to buy tires for my Jeep. He already had a few price quotes. I was thankful for the offer. Then got in a wreck. Praise God that I am alive after spinning out through three lanes of traffic on hwy 153. No one was hurt. God is good.

So, is this because of Satan and/or his demons or just from the reality of life in a sinful, fallen world? Many people blame things on Satan, but fail to realize that sometimes life happens and that we just live in a sinful jacked up world. Others blame everything on a messed up world and fail to realize that Satan really is prowling around like a roaring lion looking to destroy our lives. And his purpose in coming is to steal, kill and destroy.

What are your thoughts? Did Satan cause my wreck or was it just life? Tell me about a situation in your life. Did you struggle with why some things have happened the way they did?

Planting a Church

2009-02-23T00:53:00.003-05:00

Planting a church is one of the hardest things someone can do. I know people do not like to hear it in this sense, but you are starting a business. There is a lot of work that goes into it. I am going to a church planters conference in the morning called churchplanters.com. This is just one of many ways I prepare to plant a church. I believe you need to be familiar with systems, what works and doesn't, you need church planting mentors, spiritual mentors and more.

I am excited about the conference and bringing Tony and Allen with me. It is cool to dream with these guys. I believe anyone that feels called to plant a church or even start a business should be called, qualified and equipped to take on such a huge task. Surround yourself with the best people and resources. These are just a few thoughts to think about when it comes to church planting.

A city wasting its life.

2009-02-18T21:27:00.003-05:00

I think many people in many cities just exist and do not really live. I honestly believe that Awaken Community Church will change the Hixson/Soddy Daisy Community because we will focus on really living.

We will talk about things that matter in life. We will address tough issues such as homosexuality, sex, porn, anger, finances, family and more. We want to encourage people to know why they are here and Who to place their identity in.

All of this will happen through real relationships. Real Relationships are the key to our church and how God will change our city. I am a dreamer and trying to be a realist, but the goal of Awaken is that the Hixson/ Soddy Daisy communities would be different because we exists. We do this by being real, following scripture and giving God the glory.

So, I pray as we give this church to God, He will lead us.

So much to say...

2009-02-16T17:51:00.003-05:00

I usually have a lot to say in my blogs. A lot has been going on in my life and I have not had time to say it. Here is a breakdown of whats going on in my life:

1. Getting more more valuable time with family.
2. Just had 5th Awaken meeting. 6 more guest.
3. Getting ready for 3 church planting conferences in a row. (Nashville and ATL)
4. Looking at hiring another Pastor at Awaken.
5. Getting more workouts in. push ups and running.
6. About finished with "Vintage Church" by Mark Driscol. Good Read.
7. Staying busy and have a desire to Love God and a lot of people.

So much to say...

New Meeting Space

2009-02-11T18:06:00.004-05:00

God is continuing to do amazing things in and through our church. We have gone from 12-18-24-27 people in our four meetings. Our last meeting we were out of seats and many were sitting on the floor. God has provided us a new location.

Mitchell Reaves, lead Pastor of Northside Community Church, has opened up their church basement to us. It has everything we need: meeting spot, kitchen, nursery and more. The address is Northside Community Church 819 Mississippi Avenue Chattanooga, TN 37405

God is continuing to be faithful to our church as we seek to be faithful to the work and person of Jesus Christ. We look forward to our new location as our core group continues to meet.

The Awaken Women

2009-02-10T23:04:00.003-05:00

During my days I do a lot of church things. One of the things I love to do the most is hang out with the men of Awaken. We get together, chat about life and grab lunch. One thing that I do not do is meet with women. Why? No not because I like men, but rather, I am married. Listen all married men: DO NOT GO DO ANYTHING ONE ON ONE WITH A WOMAN. Hopefully that was clear. I want to respect my wife and be wise and not put myself in any sketchy situations. Because of this we invited some of the ladies from Awaken to our house.

We had a great night. The smell of $5 Little Caesars Pizza's (church planting food) filled the room as we chatted about life and got to know one another better. We wanted to open up our home to allow the gals to get to know our family better, as well for us to get to know them. That is how we want to do church; build real relationships with the people in our church and teach them to do the same. Obviously when the church gets to be too big where we cannot invite everyone over, we hope that we have modeled hospitality the right way that our people invite others over to their place. Great night. A lot of fun.

4th Awaken Meeting

2009-02-08T21:47:00.004-05:00

We just finished up our fourth Awaken meeting tonight. It was incredible. We saw many new faces and worshiped together. Of course we started with a game of Catch phrase (one good tradition to keep). Chris Moerman led the music. The singing was flippin phenomenal. It is great to hear gifted musicians and singers lifting their voices to God. I spoke on one of our core values: true transformation. We looked at Acts 2 and how the first church started and observed what we could do to make our church Biblical and Christ centered.

We had 27 people that came out to experience Awaken. I am excited about the future leadership of Awaken. I wonder who God will bring to us as an elder/pastor to help lead the church.

Good news and bad. Sad to say that this was our last meeting at Brian's house. It has a nice/cool/ intimate feel being in a house, but we are excited about the future. We are moving to North Chattanooga to a church basement that was offered to us. They have a nice set up and will accommodate our group.

We continue to pray that God would transform our lives and our city. Please pray for me as I continue to meet with people and cast the vision of Awaken Community Church.

What I do Everyday.

2009-02-05T20:31:00.003-05:00

On my blog, I talk about my life, family, things in my mind and a lot of things about church and or church planting. I do not think I have made a post on what I do everyday. So here is what I do.

During my days I get stuff together for the church so we can legally and efficiently function as a church. I have to get all legal documents for the state and the IRS turned in. I think through worship services and what I will preach during our meetings. I look for locations to meet in (found one: Northside Community Church). I meet with pastors and church planters to disciple me and to keep me in check to make sure I know what I am doing. Just to mention a few of these guys Mark, Heath and Matt. I raise money so I can feed my family as well as the church. I work on all things such as logo's, series titles and more. The list is never ending.

One of the main things that I do and love is to meet people. I meet with people in my flock for lunch or coffee and talk about life. I encourage them and we talk about life and how we can become more like Jesus. I also meet people and talk with them about joining our team at Awaken and I cast the vision of our church to them. If they like what I say, then they come and see if Awaken is for them. Some of these people are leaders that could help start the church with us and others are people that do not like traditional church and want something different or people that do not go at all. I usually post what I am doing throughout my day on Twitter.

That is a little of what I do during my days. I work during the week at night and we also have people that support our family. I usually work about 12-15 hours a day. It is tough work, but this is totally what God has called us to do, so we follow. This is a little about my life and the life of our church planting family.

Staying busy: Update on life.

2009-01-30T14:15:00.004-05:00

I am usually a daily blogger, but have taken a few days off because I have been staying busy.

Family: Our family is doing well. Faith is getting out of the house more which is good. It gets lonely being in the house with two little kids all day. I am glad she can get out a little more and have some freedom. Kylie is speaking a lot and singing songs that I have never heard before. She is going to the potty a lot always making us laugh. Abigail keeps growing teeth (is that the right phrase?) and being sweet as ever. I have been able to spend a little more time at home the last few days which has been so refreshing.

Church: Awaken is going extremely well. Still looking for our next location since we grew out of the house we were meeting in. I get tempted to go to weekly meetings, but need to be patient and see how things go.

Job: I am in the interview process at a job and hopefully we can get on there so we can pay our bills.

God: God is doing some amazing things in the life of my bride and me. He keeps drawing us closer to Himself in a way that has never happen. We look forward to see what He wants to do with our lives.

Kylie Singing

2009-01-26T19:20:00.002-05:00

3rd Awaken meeting

2009-01-26T01:20:00.004-05:00

We had our 3rd Awaken meeting last night. It went very well. Kyle and Lon lead us in some praise and worship and we played some catch phrase as well. I spoke about our DNA as a church and how each person helps make up our church. We talked about how we can build the church with our time, talents and tithes.

It was a great meeting. We had 24 people attend and I think 6-7 people were new. We are excited about our core group growing and curious to see what God has in store for us. Including a few that missed last night, we have around 30 people and are already looking for a new place to meet. We have had two offers for potential places. We'll see what happens. God is continuing to move.

Meeting with Men

2009-01-25T15:38:00.003-05:00

I met with some of our leadership team from Awaken today for lunch. We were discussing how we were going to do things as a church (programming, teaching, worship and so on). As I think through each of their lives, I think about their future. I am glad to see that they live their lives for Jesus and I pray for their future wives. I hope as each one of these men continue to grow closer to God, that God would continue to reveal more of Himself to these guys.

Brian, Joey, Allen, Kyle and Stephen, I love you guys and I am excited to be in this journey together.

I hope to continue to meet with these men and talk about how to be a man, raise a family, balance a budget, love your wife, flee from temptation, get a good job and more as we "do life" together. Men should be the leadership of their families and lead their families in a God honoring way. I hope to play a role in their lives and be an example and encouragement to them.

What If People Quit Church?

2009-01-23T12:14:00.005-05:00

What if people quit church? Well the reality is is that they do. So the question should not be "What if people quit church", but "Why do people quit church". I did my own little survey with some family and friends. I always read and heard people just did not go to church because it was judgmental, hypocritical and so on (negative thoughts). Although those topics probably lead the way for reasons people do quit church, I found another answer.

I asked people and they just said, "I do not know, I just quit". I asked was it because it was hypocritical, judgmental and so on (negative thoughts)... but they said " no, I just quit".

I think one question pastors, church planters and the rest of the body should ask is "Is our church helpful?". I think if we were really helpful and impacted peoples lives, they would stay. Words like hypocritical and judgmental are negative words. The people I asked did not go to a negative church, but did not go to a helpful church either. I think if we implemented ideas like being relevant, engaging, funny, thought provoking and more, in our messages, small groups and in our church atmosphere and environments, we would probably keep people's attention and be helpful to their lives. We need to be real with people, love them and relate to their lives.

We shouldn't only be asking ourselves defensive questions like "What do we do to be non hypocritical and non judgmental" But proactive questions like "What are we doing to be helpful"

I don't know. These are just some thoughts. What do you think?

People That Inspire Me

2009-01-22T22:49:00.003-05:00

People that inspire me.

5. Francis Chan. Francis is a great godly pastor. I was able to fly out to CA to meet with him a few years back. I am thankful that he took out that time for me. He is such a passionate man of God.

4. Hung Thach. Hung has been my mentor for 10 years and has been so influential in my life. He encourages me to walk by faith. I always feel like I could change the world after we meet.

3. My Mom. My mom has worked so hard her whole life to provide for my brother and me. Thank you for all of your years of hard work mom.

2. My wife; Faith Deweese. She is very wise and thoughtful. She is beautiful and sweet. You are the love of my life Faith.

1. Jesus Christ - what a life to be able to imitate. I am thankful that I have a reason to live and something to live for because of Jesus.