Christian Music

So… I have grown up listening to Christin music and I have heard alot of people say that the quality just isn’t very good. Watch this video below. If music was still made like this, I think people would look at it differntly.

what i am learning….

I have been thinking about alot as of late. Here are some of my thoughts…

• Wife: My wife is amazing. I am so proud of her and she has grown so much. I have never been as excited about my marriage to her as I am these days. I love her more and more every day. She is a better person than I am.

• Job: The students I work with have changed my life over the last 10 months. I really thought I was just coming into this job to help these students. But this is a two way street.

• Change: Some people just don’t want to change. They want to complain about how things are in their life, but are not willing to do anything to change it. There is nothing I can do about it.

• Authenticity: People are craving authentic relationships. Where the fakeness is gone. Where transparency is visible. Relationships where authenticity is not involved, the authentic one was move on. I only want to be part of authentic relationships in my life.

• Friends: I am friends with some of the most amazing people I have ever met.

• Ownership: Some people just aren’t willing to “own” their crap and until they are things will never change for them.

• God: I can’t imagine where my life would be without God in it.

• Reconciliation: is a beautiful thing. Broken relationships being repaired. Amazing.

• Running: If you run from your problems or from people, there is a reason.

• Crying: I have cried alot over the last month for some of the students I work with. They have some very difficult circumstances in their life. Many of them are hero’s to me.

• Work: I am a work in progress. I screw up. I let people down. But with Christ in my life, I have a purpose.

and finally…..

• Fulfillment: I am fulfilled. I am following after God’s will for my life and I am fulfilled. There is not other place I would rather be.

So, a buddy of mine told me about this church called Liquidchurch a while ago. I started following them and these people are the REAL DEAL! They are making a difference in their community and around the world. I have copied a blog from their Lead Pastor Tim Lucas about their latest project. Make sure to check out the video as well. The website is www.liquidchurch.com. Find the video about giving gas away for .99 cents.        It ’s a great one.

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20. 100. Boo-ya.

The totals are in and I am– in a word– speechless.

20 wells.

$100,000 dollars sacrificed in Christ’s name.

That’s 80,000 men, women, & children in sub-Saharan Africa whose lives will be forever changed because of what GOD DID through our church this summer!

Just incredible.  If you were at our “Party with a Purpose,” you know what happened.  Water was the theme.  And God obliged.  The skies opened up 10 minutes before the party, soaking us all.Then the sun came out.  And so did the people.  Over 1,000 people in the city center of Morristown “walking for water”… partying with a purpose.

631 people took our Third World Water Walk… and then God touched down once again to do “immeasurably more than we could ask or imagine.” (this is a recurring theme in our church

Water + Liquid + God = A generation of lives forever changed. Both here.  And in Africa.

The stories of how Liquid peeps sacrificed to invest in the lives of “the least of these” continue to pour in.  Here are 2 recent ones:

• One couple ditched their home renovation plans to drill a well in Ethiopia instead.  $5k

• One man donated the ENTIRE down payment he’d saved to buy a Harley-Davidson this summer.  $5k

Speechless.  When a guy gives up his Harley for a freshwater well, you know God’s up to something BIG!  So he won’t have a cool ride this summer… but an African village of 400 will drink cool, clean water for the next 20 years instead.

I would call this a true downpour.  A downpour of compassion– a tidal wave of Christ followers literally cashing in their chips to bring “up there, down here.”

This is just the beginning, friends.  The start of something very, very special.
What’s your story?

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This blog is borrowed from Tim Lucas. Check out his blog here

follow these people

A few weeks ago I told you about some amazing people who are starting a church in Chapel Hil, NC. Matt and Sarah LeRoy moved to Chapel Hill because God laid it on their heart to start a church there. I directed you to their website lovechapelhill.com. 

I love blogging and I love to follow other people’s blog. Well, Matty Lee as I call him has a new blog for their church. Check it out and follow the ministry these great folks are engaging in. Check back regularly to see how you can be praying for them.

lovechapelhill.wordpress.com

Great Leaders

Last week I had the chance to go the New Worker’s Orinentation for the Christian and Missionary Alliance. I have to admit that I was not overly excited about going to these two days of meetings. I have been on the road so much this summer, I was just tired of being away.

WOW! is all I can say. God knew what I needed more than I did. These two days turned out to be amazing. Sitting under our District Superintendent Dave Klinsing and being with some of the newest leaders in our district was an experience I would not trade for anything. We dreamed, discussed and prayed together.

I think what I loved the most about these meetings was that each one of us at the orientation were very different from each other. But we all had the one common goal of leading people into an amazing relationship with Jesus Christ.
Here are the faces:

So glad my wife is home!

So, my wife has been gone to New York for a few days celebrating the wedding of one of her close college friends leaving me to fend for myself.

I thought I would take this chance of being on my own to try out some new cooking techniques. I headed over to the grocery store the day Bekah left to see what I could do. I moved through the produce section and I wasn’t feeling anything there. So I moved to the meat section and had the same result. Finally, I walked through the frozen food section and there is was! 5 frozen pizzas for $10!

Over the next 3 days I consumed all 5 of those pizzas.  I shared my eating habits with people over the last couple days. I received the following response many times, “That’s so gross!”

Well, I sure am glad my wife is home!

disconnecting

I have spent alot of time out in the wilderness over the last month and one of the things I have truly loved about my experiences have been that I have been totally disconnected from the world in terms of technology and electronic communication.

Starting at 5pm on Friday evening I will be on vacation for a week.

I am going to take this chance to disconnect from the world around me a little.

This week I am going to fast from my electronic gadgets that I have become so dependent on.

This week I am not going to:

• Text
• Check my email or facebook
• Go online at all
• Watch TV

I will have my phone on for communication but everything else will go until next Saturday morning

I will catch you next Saturday!

p.s I know you all wait daily for my blog posts and won’t have any reading material this week so let me suggest a few good blogs to follow.

www.leadingsmart.com

connexuscommunity.typepad.com

an itch

So, Brett has an itch. He wants to play again. The greatest quarterback of all time wants to play. The man who my niece called Uncle Brett when she was 3 years old wants to play again.

This man changed football in Green Bay. I grew up in Wisconsin and have been a die hard Packers fan for most of my life. I have my own cheese head!

And I am disgusted with the way that the Packers are treating him. They say they have to think about the future and invest in Aaron Rodgers. Who is Aaron Rodgers? The guy has not started a game in 4 years. But somehow figured out how to get injured twice! I am not saying that Aaron Rodgers won’t be great and that I won’t cheer for him. But he has no place in the starting role until Brett is done for good.

The GM and Coach of the packers need to find new jobs.

I can’t wait to see Brett play this year. Wherever that is.

proud

I had one my prouder days yesterday as the Pastor of Student Ministries at Centerville Community Church. I had  20 of my students volunteer to go to Joe’s Java with me in Wilmington, OH to serve lunch to between 150-200 underprivileged  people. It is not really the amount of students that showed up that makes me so proud. It is the love, compassion and excitement all these students showed to the people they were serving. I have had a number of students who have been telling me recently that their faith becomes real to them when they are serving in a way they do not experience anywhere else.

“Anyone who sets himself up as “religous” by talking a good game is self-deceived. This kind of religion is hot air and only hot air. Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this: Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world. ” James 1:26

follow up on stuff

this is what followed writing my blog called “stuff” a few days ago.

What is it? 2 large garbage bags of my clothes equalling about 2/3rds of my wardrobe.

My wife is not so sure about this one but she is rolling with it.

I have been having a great week. This picture below shows it.

again my wife was trying to take a serious picture.