Far from God

Just for the record. You have never locked eyes with a person who did not matter to God. It doesn't matter who they are, what they look like, what "religion" they choose to follow or not follow, what movies they watch, what songs they listen to, where they spend their weekends, what parties they attend, how drunk they get, or what job they have - People matter to God. All people, not just some people, or the people that are like you and/or like me. Everyone matters to God. Those who are close to Him - and those who are a little further away.

I want to be a person that reaches those who are far from God. I want H2O to be a place that is consumed with reaching those who are far from God. We want the students that other churches don't want. Send them to H2O on Wednesday night. They can come and be themselves. We don't force them to be religious - we allow them to be real. That should be what modeling Christlikeness is all about. We make the purpose of our life and ministry the purpose of Christ's life and ministry...to seek and to save that which was lost.

On a side note....It has been raining here for many days - and that makes me very sad.

Smiling Sammy

Todd and I just got back from the incredible adventure that is driving through the booming metropolis of Millington, TN. On our way back from lunch we decided to drive through the new apartment complex down the road from the church. As soon as we turned into the apartment complex parking lot - we noticed a man riding his bike. He was probably in his 50's and you could tell that he. had a very special relationship with his bicycle. Once he heard my car driving up behind him - he turned around - gave us an extra special grin - and proceeded to nod his head repeatedly. I could only see part of his head as this man apparantly loved his mother very much and still chose to listen to her when she told him to wear his helmet. It was a nice helmet that I am sure had been an incredible gift to "Smiling Sammy" at one point in his life. So, if you ever happen to drive through the apartment complex in Millington, keep your eyes out for Smiling Sammy. He is sure to put a smile on your face.

H2O

Getting ready to go to Starbucks for our creative meeting as we get ready for the next several weeks. It still amazes me that Millington has a Starbucks. We are officially moving up in the world!

H2O will be incredible tomorrow night. I am pumped about the message and the music will be bueno!

Over My Head (The Fray)
Take My Life (Jeremy Camp)
Time Has Come (Hillsong)
Awesome God (Hillsong)
Jesus Blood (Delirious?)
What the world will Never Take (Hillsong)

If you ever need a band to do any kind of event in your community or at your church - let me know. H2O has the best Student Ministry band on the planet. Thank you Jeff, Josh, Brent, Justin, and Carmen. You guys (and girl) are awesome!

Here we go again...

For the third consecutive year I will coach a high school rec basketball team after promising myself that I would never do it again. I have a love/hate relationship with church basketball. Here is why.
1. Showing any emotion at any time is considered blasphemy and automatically means that
you do not love Jesus.
2. Winning by more than 2 points is considered poor sportsmanship. Allowing that to happen is
against the "church league code of conduct" and also means that you do not love Jesus.
3. Talking to referees is strictly prohibited. If this is ever done - then plan on being
excommunicated (not from the church - from Christianity as a whole).
4. It's not about winning - it's about having fun....I wouldn't have a problem with this except for
the fact that it is much more fun to win.

Since I have such a love/hate relationship with church basketball, I have decided to coach both the guys team and the girls team. Yes - I will show emotion. Yes - I will try to win every game (hopefully by more than two points), and Yes - I will probably point out to the referee's the proper call that should have been made. I am sure I will get frustrated. I know for sure that some of the people from other churches will wish that I would just sit down in my chair and not say a word. Why put myself through this? This is gearing up to be a very interesting season. Besides, our guys have a championship to defend.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

The race went very well. I finished somewhere around 330th. That sounds absolutely ridiculous; however, with close to 4,000 runners - I will take it. I saw a guy dressed up like Elvis, a banana, and a turkey. I also saw a couple hundred men wearing spandex. As a result, I will have to go to counseling for quite some time.

Have a great day and a great weekend. God has given us all so much to be thankful for.

Gobble Jog

Justin (brother in law) and I decided to run in a 5K called the Gobble Jog this morning in Marietta Square. This will be the first race I have run where the temperature was below 90 degrees. It will only be a few degrees cooler as the weather guy just said it would be around 37 for race time. This should be a great race as over 4000 people are already registered. The race starts in a couple of hours....I will keep you posted.

Commentary from a Starbucks in Roswell

As I type, I am waiting to meet with a friend of mine in Roswell. I am sitting in Starbucks, with a nonfat White Choc. Mocha, while reading The Deity Formerly Known as God. So far, I am loving the book. Great quote from just a moment ago, "God is not dead, but you'd never guess it by going to church. In fact, there are times when church feels like nothing more than a funeral service. Everyone dresses up and is on their best behavior, because he would have liked it that way. A pastor gets up and says something like, "Brothers and sisters, we have gatthered here today to remembr the lord. For he hath done great things." Anyway, on a differrent note. Here is the real reason I decided to write. Immediately to my right are two people (guy and girl) sipping on "double" hot chocolates. The guy is wearing a beanie on his head that continues to travel about 9 inches higher than the top of his head. The girl (probably 18) looks like a spokeswoman for denim and likes to talk to her friend like he is in another time zone despite the fact that he is only 2 feet from her face. She is not into racing even though her dad is and the Russian police have apparantly begun torturing crime suspects which greatly upsets her. She is wearing a promise ring, but has explained that it only means that she will only date guys who her parents approve of. I recommend that she amend the promise in order to include the fact that any guy that she considers dating had better come with the built in equivalent of an anti-hearing aid. She has just explained to beanie head that the reason that she is cold is because of the low temperature that exists outside. I am thankful that Jesus loves her very much - because she is annoying me greatly....

Couple days off...

Late this afternoon we will leave for Woodstock, GA to hang out with family for a few days. I love going down there and spending time with everyone that I rarely get to see. God has been very good to us by giving us an incredible family. Everyone actually gets along and even likes each other. The three families (mine, Devins, and Justins (sisters husband)) all get together to celebrate Thanksgiving at my parents house and have since before we were even married. Gotta love that as it makes life much for enjoyable, not to mention convenient.

I look forward to a few days away to read, unwind, and get ready for an incredible season of ministry at H2O. I can't wait to see what God has in store for the next several weeks...

Pilgrim update

The pilgrim mystery from Thursday has been solved. Apparantly, it was not a pilgrim at all, but rather just a person who felt the urge to dress like one for all to see. Oh well, pilgrim searching was fun while it lasted...

Went down to Beale St. with Devin on Thursday night. We definitely had an interesting time. Tower Records, Starbucks, the Peabody Lobby (with the world's oldest piano player), and walking up and down Beale trying to avoid any kind of wierd confrontations was very exciting. We almost made it 5 minutes without me having to say something to two morons. who had decided that they both wished they were me (or at least wished they were with the person I was with). It ended up being all good and we had a great time.

Side note...A church needs to lease the space that Tower Records is moving out of at the Peabody. It would be an expensive place to start a church - but it would be an incredible location!

Babies and a wandering pilgrim...

Mark and Heather (brother-in-law and sister-in-law) are getting ready to have a baby here in the next few moments, days, or whenever the little kid decides he is tired of being trapped in a warm, wet bubble. The timing is pretty good from my perspective because we will already be in town celebrating Thanksgiving. Good job Noah (new kid's name), you already passed the first test.

Last night went great. We had a good crowd, Jeff and the band were on it as always, and the message connected as well. I have already received great feedback from people and we had a girl accept Christ for whom many had been praying for several weeks. We have the week off from H2O next week and then we have 3 more weeks to build momentum getting ready for the new year.

As I type, I am pretty sure I just saw either a real pilgrim walk past my door or someone who is pretending to be one. I looked outside and didn't see anything that resembles the Mayflower or Plymouth Rock (unless you consider one of the many rocks that fill our wanna be softball field) so I assume that it is just someone who has their dates mixed up regarding Halloween.

Bathrooms and Fried Chicken

Yesterday was my day to make the rounds at the local hospitals visiting people who go to our church, have ever gone to our church, might one day go to our church, and/or are a relative of someone who might fall into one of those categories. Memphis is the hospital capital of the world and as a result I had to drive for 231 years criss-crossing the city trying to get to all of the hospitals on the list. Because I drink so much stinking water (about 100 oz per day - give or take as a I am not a water nazi), I had to go to the bathroom at every hospital I went to. This is a little wierd but I noticed that each hospital has their own "bathroom smell". In case you want to know - here is an update.
Methodist Central - Pretty clean bathroom but it smells like citrus sewage.
Baptist East - Smelled like a kid who had been playing in the mud for 3 days with no shoes.
Methodist Germantown - Smelled like most people's grandmothers. (Not a bad smell - just kinda wierd)
Crosspointe BC- Our bathroom smelled crazy yesterday. I walked in and immediately thought of Fried chicken. I didn't know whether to do what you normally do in the bathroom or just stand there, close my eyes, chew, and pretend that I was eating.

Moral of the story? I think I am going to invent air fresheners that smell like fried chicken. Just a thought.

My life stinks...

My Life Stinks is the title of the message we are doing on Wednesday night at H2O. You can check it out here. Should be a great week.

God has been so good to us. It blows my mind how much He is doing in the lives of our students. Here are a couple emails I received the other day from two of our students...

Before I began a real relationship with Jesus I lived my life however I wanted. I did what I wanted to do when I wanted to do it and didn't really care what other people thought about it. All that changed the night I accepted Christ into my life at H2O. Since that time God has given me a passion for my friends and has given me a purpose for living. I know now that I am on the right path as I seek to follow after the heart of God. Nick

Another one...

I've always believed in God and until i turned fifteen i thought that was enough. I went to church every sunday, said my prayers, and read my bible sometimes. I was never a "really bad kid" but i knew i was making a lot of wrong decisions. Moving to Tennessee would forever change my life. I'd been living here for four months when the Cheerleaders were invited to perform at h20. afterwards i listened to the message and it touched me so i let Jesus into my heart and asked him to change me and use me in anyway he needed me. And that happened, this year i've built an amazing relationship with him, I've learned to completely trust in him and be thankful for each day. I've also learned to look past the bad in everyone and to spread the word that God is amazing and loves you no matter what He's not some big guy that will stomp on you and dislike you for making a mistake. Being saved made me a much happier person in every aspect of my life, I've learned to resist a lot of peer pressure that teens face today by praying for strength and I just know that even if i feel like i'm alone and nobody is here for me, I can always turn to Him. I'm happy to know i'll spend eternity in heaven. Dawn

That is what it's all about!

Blogging...

Writing your thoughts on a daily basis can become quite the adventure. What to write about? Does it really matter? Should it really matter? Those are just some of the thoughts that go through my head sometimes as I am writing.

I figure, that if nothing else, this blog will remind me of the journey that I am currently traveling. Knowing that there are things I wish to write; however, knowing that now is not the time. Knowing that I am learning things about life and ministry that I would love to share; however, doing so would cause even more questions (and probably even more to write about). Questions are not bad - in fact they are good. Without questioning - things simply stay the same. Over time, most things that stay the same will die out. I am thankful that God has given me more questions than answers. It is through the questioning that the answers become so meaningful and life-changing. I am also thankful that we serve a Savior who is big enough to answer and not shy away from the questions.

Just a thought...

H2O went very well last night. We had a great crowd of around 250, the new lighting worked and looked great, several sets of parents were in the audience to see what their kids are always talking about, and we had some people accept Christ as well. I say this all the time, but I serve with some of the most incredible students, student leaders, and adult leaders on the planet. They do so much to pull off that ministry every single week. I definately couldn't do it without them.

Had some pretty interesting feedback from many of the adults who came last night. Several of those who came do not normally attend church. They came up to me after the night was over to tell me that they didn't realize that church could actually be exciting. They said that they now realize why thier kids come even though they do not make them. While that was exciting to hear it was sad at the same time. The church should be the most exciting and engaging place on the planet. Reality = this is not the case in most places. My personal opinion on this is pretty simple. I believe it is a sin under God to take the most exciting book on the planet and make it boring, mundane, and irrelevant. The Bible is full of life - it is the average church that does it's best to try and kill it.

Funny

Todd and I were working on some stuff today for a message that we are doing and he stumbled upon one of the funniest video's I have ever seen in my entire life. You gotta check it out here.

I have had some incredible feedback from several of our students over the past several days. I will post some of their comments soon. It is incredible to hear stories about how God has changed their lives. I never get over that and if I ever do - just take me outside and shoot me in the face and kick my butt out of ministry because I have no business being there. If we ever forget what it was like to not have a relationship with Jesus Christ than we will become stagnant, stale, and useless in carrying out God's plan. Too bad many of our churches are already there.

It is official...

The Miami Hurricanes are terrible! We have the talent to compete for a national championship but we lack the chemistry and coaching to get us where we need to be. I assure you that the search is already underway behind the scenes. There is always next year!

Getting ready to meet with our creative team for the message and events that will happen on Wednesday night. I can't wait! We also just got the print material back for the MY LIFE STINKS series that we will be doing in the next couple of weeks. It looks great and the Myspace site is getting there as well. Im not going to post the Myspace site because we are using it as a test run to see how much "buzz" our advertising pieces will generate. All that being said, I am very excited about everything happening in the student ministry over the next several weeks. Pray that God does His thing and lives are changed!

Basketball is back!

Duke is back! I am excited that the season kicked off last night with an exhibition game against Shaw University. Obviously, Duke won convincingly. That is not what I am the most excited about. I am excited because all indications are that our point guard, Greg Paulus will be ready by the season opener. This article here told the wonderful news.

By the way, I hate fabric stores. I am trying to get some stretch fabric for the new lights that we have bought and the people that work in these places are about as helpful as a penguin in a suit store. I won't mention the name of the most ridiculous fabric store on the planet - just know that their name rhymes with pancock. Just another indicator on why a guy should never be caught in a fabric store for any reason.

Oh my.....

Our new lighting equipment came in yesterday and we are installing today. It is going to look unbelievable!

Hanging out tonight with Devin. Tomorrow we are having a garage sale (never have really understood these things but I guess that is beside the point) in the AM, and tomorrow night I will cheer on the Miami Hurricanes as we try our best to not get embarassed in the Orange Bowl against Virginia Tech.

Sometimes you come across something and you don't know whether to laugh, cry, or just question the intelligence of the human race. This is one of those moments. I saw this on Perry Noble's blog and had to post it. You can see it here.

Worship Leaders

One of the greatest frustrations among student pastors across the country is their inability to find and/or keep great worship leaders. Usually the struggle goes like this...
Talent + Lack of Dedication/Integrity = Frustration
Dedication/Integrity + Lack of Talent = Mediocrity (at best)
It is hard to find someone who has both of these characteristics and the leadership ability needed to lead a band. I have experienced this frustration over and over again throughout my time in student ministry. We have experienced everything from people not showing up to practice to a lead singer who smokes crack (yes - literally). No worries - the rehab center needed a musician and we were happy to refer him.

That being said - for the past 2 years I have had the incredible privilege of having Jeff Hill as my worship leader. He is definitely the total package when it comes to ministry. He has grown so much in the past couple of years and I know that God has great plans for him and the entire band. He has surrounded himself with great people who also happen to be incredible musicians. So to Jeff, Carmen, Brent, Josh, Justin, David, and Scott - you guys are stinking awesome! It is a pleasure serving with you every week and there is no one I would rather have on our stage. You rock!

Shortest Post Ever...

Excellence is in the details... Not paying careful attention to the small things will sabotage your efforts every time! Churches miss this point more often than any of us would like to admit. Excellence - it is worth the extra effort.