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.

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.

The Shocking News of Ananias

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?

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

What Makes You Come Alive?

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.

Summary: Song of Solomon Chapter 2

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.

... And Their Wives Left

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

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.

A New Year, A New Life

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.

All or Nothing

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.

Get Your Mind SET!

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?

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

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.

How to Eat Off of $10 in a Week

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.

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.

Is Jesus Really Real?

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. 

People with No Hope

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.

True Faith

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.

Debt

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

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.