Do we still have the ability to feel?

Do we still have the ability to feel?

I just read the following verse in the scripture and thought, do we/I still have the ability to feel?

“When He saw the crowds, He felt compassion for them, because they were weary and worn out, like sheep without a shepherd.”

We live in such a “Me, Myselfie and I” world that sometimes I believe that we/I lose the ability to feel.

It’s worth noting that the first thing Jesus did not do was speak. He felt before He spoke. That’s a good question for me to ask myself, “Do I think before I speak? Do I feel before I speak? Can I even begin to grasp the reality of the sorrow of peoples lives to the point that compassion overflows my soul?”.  Theologically I would agree that I should, but have I placed the time to think on these things? To think about people? That was Jesus’ whole focus on coming to earth and as a follower, I “can’t find the time?”. Again, I believe we should reach to lost, hurting, wounded and I do. I believe local congregations should, and ours does. My point is, do we/I do it because we are just suppose to or because we /I understand the heart of the gospel and have compassion for people?

Of course we have the ability to feel, but what are we feeling and who are those feelings directed towards? I often live such an inward life which focuses all or at least most of my emotions on me. Work as a pastor can sometimes become a good project that needs to be accomplished instead of a people that need to be healed. I pray that I would stop and I would think through what it looks like, feels like, is like to walk in the shoes of those in my church and in my city who are weary and worn out. To feel for them and walk with them. 

I’ve been reminded of two of the basic spiritual disciplines of faithfully reading the scriptures and staying in tune with God’s heart through prayer. Something else that has been huge for me is meeting with a small group of guys and hearing their hurts and wounds and walking with them through life. 

All in all I must abandon the “Me, Myselfie and I” culture and pursue the grace of God so I am able to “Stop and Feel”. That is what Jesus . Over 40 something times throughout the gospels you would see Jesus sneak off to pray and seek the Father and that is where he received the compassion and strength to love the world. 

Mormons. Kony. Belief. Action.

Do you really believe what you say you believe? That is a very interesting question. If you really believe, then what? What do you do with it? What do you do or say or how do you act on what you say you believe? I was challenge by this article about Mormon belief. In one part the author shares how there is a huge emphasis on working your way to get to God within this religion. Therefore part of the belief of this religion is heavy on works. This article started to get me thinking about what it means to believe.

If you believe in a movement does that mean you follow it? For example Kony20112 is a huge movement in the media and blowing up on Twitter, Face Book and You Tube.  Its purpose is to stop a leading terrorist of child abduction. The mans name is Joseph Kony. Many people hear the video and believe. So how would you define their belief? I would say by action. People support, pray and promote the cause to stop Joseph Kony. Others have other opinions about the topic and even different ways on how to go about stopping him. An interesting thing that I have noticed in many of the replies on YouTube, is that some people are against the video, but have no response or action on how to change anything. So even though they do not agree, they have no action to their belief and what they are saying.

Lets flip it around on Christianity and the Bible. Many say they believe. Many have walked an isle and said a pray, but now what? How do you keep up a lifelong belief and movement in and about Jesus? How do you keep following the Bible and Jesus teachings? I would say that the answer is not just a lifelong record of showing up at church, but more of a biblical worldview of giving up our lives for the gospel and loving our neighbors as ourselves. See, we go to church, but we also should plan as a church. The church is not an hour or a building, but those that believe in Jesus. As we believe, we should lay our lives down, share our faith and disciple believers and start a movement. Belief should cause an action.

Sometimes because we have the knowledge and scriptures memorized, we think that equals belief. But the church should be a movement not a monument. We should not just be an organization, but an organism that moves and promotes change for a life of freedom and purpose.

So what do you believe? What do you say you believe? Do you really believe it? Put it in action.

The Staggering Stat of Discipleship

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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?

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"

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

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

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?

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

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.