Church planting is something that drives warm blood into my veins! I love meeting church planters, I love visiting church plants, I love reading and taking classes on church planting, and one day I desire to be a major influence in a church plant. Though, today, I am stoked to meet church planters and helping them in anyway I can. I desire to continue to learn off of them and let those times refuel my heart and passion for the places I am serving in. Why? Because many times when a church is established, it can become content and non-effective. Granted, just like marriage; our churches should never lose sight of it's first love and the way that it acted in the beginning!
A church plant brings us back to why the church exists. A church plant struggles and claws at establishing itself within the community. A church plant loves the community and encourages the people to be very involved within that community. A church plant is driven with passion and excitement; it has to or it will soon fade out. A church plant has vision and purpose.
Church planting is the key to the future of the church, we have far less church plants than churches that are closing their doors! If you are part of a church plant; keep plugging away, loving on people and sharing Jesus. If you are in an established church; but know of a church plant in the area, help them out in any way that you can! Pray for the church plants in your area; that they grow and point people to Jesus! Pray for our churches to regain the fire of living out lives fully devoted to Jesus; and continue to be an impact in their community! I LOVE CHURCH PLANTING!
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
Called Out Conference
Man, what an awesome weekend! A weekend that I really needed. It started off on a rough note. On the way down to the conference; we had two cars in the left lane almost run us off the road. Then we also got lost and drove all over southern Wisconsin. The rest of the weekend was amazing.
The worship team was brilliant. It was made up of two electric guitars, two acoustic guitars, two vocals, drums, and bass. The sets were energetic and heart-led. One of the songs, We Won't Relent, became my new favorite worship song! The breakout sessions were energetic and focused on Jesus and what the church is supposed to be. Nate Ray did a great job of communicating and relating with the students.
On Saturday, we visited a church plant an hour away from our base camp. Paul shared his heart and love for church planting. He sent out students north, south, east and west in the town; just to observe and report what they saw in the communities. The students did a great job of making observations and asking questions about church planting.
The week was amazing, I needed it. I enjoyed meeting come new friends from Chicago; and playing basketball with them. I needed a new song on my heart. And I needed to renew my heart for the community!
The worship team was brilliant. It was made up of two electric guitars, two acoustic guitars, two vocals, drums, and bass. The sets were energetic and heart-led. One of the songs, We Won't Relent, became my new favorite worship song! The breakout sessions were energetic and focused on Jesus and what the church is supposed to be. Nate Ray did a great job of communicating and relating with the students.
On Saturday, we visited a church plant an hour away from our base camp. Paul shared his heart and love for church planting. He sent out students north, south, east and west in the town; just to observe and report what they saw in the communities. The students did a great job of making observations and asking questions about church planting.
The week was amazing, I needed it. I enjoyed meeting come new friends from Chicago; and playing basketball with them. I needed a new song on my heart. And I needed to renew my heart for the community!
Harvest Fest: a successful community outreach!
This year we hosted our 4th annual Harvest Fest and boy was it a God led outreach! We estimate that within three hours; we had about 250-300 people at the event! On paper, the breakdown was 34 leaders and 34 members/kids; and 197 visitors that at least had registered. Then there was some unregistered people that were not on paper. What led to this? Well, lots of word of mouth, Facebook, newspaper, internet searches, tv broadcast, and the rain. Not sure how some of the word got out to the tv and other sources, because we did not contact some of those places. So between that and the rain; it was God driven!
This is monumental to our church; we are only about 6 years old and I have been only there for 3 of those years. In the history of Graceway; this is the largest outreach event/event that we have ever done! Which is good, because since the beginning of forming the church it has been slowly declining. Most of our leaders this year were new; and we even had a few children volunteers. The volunteers maintained their areas, stayed positive, and were by far the best group of volunteers to work with!
When you read the Gospels; you will see that Jesus many times fed the people or met their needs and then showed them who He was. That is what we are tying to practice in our community! Hopefully, that we continue reaching out to the community and sharing the love of Jesus!
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
A New Epic Paintball Story!
Perhaps, this newest paintball story is my best paintball story! I already have quite a few tails to tell; from shooting my youth pastor in the neck, to the time where a youth shot me in the neck (friendly fire from 5 feet away), to me taking on three senior high students by myself while my middle schoolers hid at the starting line. Though after this past youth paintball event, I might have just lived my most epic paintball story of all time!
It was a great day, we had 12 youth and 5 adults playing Sunday afternoon! We went to the backwoods course, and decided to split up teams; Adults vs. Youth. We decided to take Jaime on our team because he was a few weeks away from turning 18; so the teams at that time would be 6 adults vs. 10 youth. When the referee yelled "Go!" Mike and I went down the right side of the course while working together to keep each other protected. We started picking off the youth, and glancing over to our right they were starting to line up like trophies on the side line.
Halfway through, I started running low on paint and Mike needed me to spray cover fire so he could move up. Looking down at my gun I noticed one paintball rolling around in my hopper; I yelled over to Mike and the sideline "down to one in the chamber!" (Call of Duty reference) Looking down at my hopper, I realized that there was actually two paintballs; well, that was at least better than one! With my mask fogging up and not being able to locate my targets; I started thinking about my options. Then I heard Mike yell I'm out; oh know, I have two paintballs, a fogged up mask, and have no clue where the remaining youth were bunked down.
Then, I saw a youth jetting across the course. I aimed and pulled the trigger allowing my two remaining paintballs to go flying towards their target; unfortunately, both missed. Sinking thought, no paintballs left. I thought to myself, there is no way I am going to surrender myself and there is no way I am going to sit here. I made a quick dash and made a baseball slid behind another bunker. Still alive! After a few seconds, I took off for the next bunker. I leaped to get behind the bunker and landed awkwardly on my bad ankle that I had injured two weeks earlier playing basketball. As my ankle gave out, I fell on my back against the bunker and I heard the sideline go crazy. Well, that hurt; but at least they thought it was a good move.
Counting teenagers on the sideline, I knew there were at least two teenagers left. My next bunker had at least one of the two teenagers camped behind it. I had to make a move. Taking in a deep breath, I took off running and came flying around the next bunker. "Surrender" I yelled as I held my gun within inches of two youth! They both started yelling "I surrender, I surrender; don't shoot!" The referee yells "Game!" With no paintballs and one big bluff, I had taken out two hostiles (youth) and won the game for the adults! The rest of the youth went crazy on the sideline; as they started to tell their teammates that they had surrendered to someone with no paint! I'd say it was a pretty epic story that I am sure I will share with many teenagers and paintball players to come.
It was a great day, we had 12 youth and 5 adults playing Sunday afternoon! We went to the backwoods course, and decided to split up teams; Adults vs. Youth. We decided to take Jaime on our team because he was a few weeks away from turning 18; so the teams at that time would be 6 adults vs. 10 youth. When the referee yelled "Go!" Mike and I went down the right side of the course while working together to keep each other protected. We started picking off the youth, and glancing over to our right they were starting to line up like trophies on the side line.
Halfway through, I started running low on paint and Mike needed me to spray cover fire so he could move up. Looking down at my gun I noticed one paintball rolling around in my hopper; I yelled over to Mike and the sideline "down to one in the chamber!" (Call of Duty reference) Looking down at my hopper, I realized that there was actually two paintballs; well, that was at least better than one! With my mask fogging up and not being able to locate my targets; I started thinking about my options. Then I heard Mike yell I'm out; oh know, I have two paintballs, a fogged up mask, and have no clue where the remaining youth were bunked down.
Then, I saw a youth jetting across the course. I aimed and pulled the trigger allowing my two remaining paintballs to go flying towards their target; unfortunately, both missed. Sinking thought, no paintballs left. I thought to myself, there is no way I am going to surrender myself and there is no way I am going to sit here. I made a quick dash and made a baseball slid behind another bunker. Still alive! After a few seconds, I took off for the next bunker. I leaped to get behind the bunker and landed awkwardly on my bad ankle that I had injured two weeks earlier playing basketball. As my ankle gave out, I fell on my back against the bunker and I heard the sideline go crazy. Well, that hurt; but at least they thought it was a good move.
Counting teenagers on the sideline, I knew there were at least two teenagers left. My next bunker had at least one of the two teenagers camped behind it. I had to make a move. Taking in a deep breath, I took off running and came flying around the next bunker. "Surrender" I yelled as I held my gun within inches of two youth! They both started yelling "I surrender, I surrender; don't shoot!" The referee yells "Game!" With no paintballs and one big bluff, I had taken out two hostiles (youth) and won the game for the adults! The rest of the youth went crazy on the sideline; as they started to tell their teammates that they had surrendered to someone with no paint! I'd say it was a pretty epic story that I am sure I will share with many teenagers and paintball players to come.
Right after my epic victory!
Most of our paintball group!
Wednesday, October 16, 2013
WOW! A first for a person paying for my meal!!!
Every month, our older or should I say our mature adults meet for lunch. We call this gathering The Primetimers. Now with me being a youth pastor, I find two awesome benefits to going. 1. To communicate how and what the youth have been up to 2. To sit and learn off the many stories that arise during conversations!
Today, I got a lot of smiles when I came in carry one of my new children's church toys (Don't tell the kids, it's a surprise for this Sunday). Equipped with my new air zooka, I aimed at Pastor Rick and launched an air attack on his hair! I had everyone's attention walking in with a funny gun thing, but now that I shot Pastor...Without pausing, I informed the group that I was now Lavonne's attention getter. If someone was talking when she was, I was going to use the non-lethal gun to get their attention. Fun times!
After a great meal filled with great stories, the waitress started handing out the bills. Many times I never even see it, because someone grabs it and pays for me (which is always awesome and a blessing!); today though, I got my bill before someone could do that. I went up to the front and the manager was checking people out. She is very friendly and I have built a small relationship with her. So I decided to give her a hard time, after all, my receipt was missing the right column of numbers and it stated I owed 6.3! I asked her what they were trying to pull with hidden numbers...She smiled and then that is when she shocked me. She hit me back with this statement, "I am paying for your lunch, I like to do that for people sometimes." I thanked her right away and told her she didn't have to that. She responded back with a few thoughts and observations she had made about me and when I come and join the Primetimers for lunch.
I left excited for a new story to share. A story where the unexpected happens. A story with a twist. A story where I realize that people are watching me more than I know. A story where I find that my life style is an encouragement to others. A story worth sharing. A story worth living.
Today, I got a lot of smiles when I came in carry one of my new children's church toys (Don't tell the kids, it's a surprise for this Sunday). Equipped with my new air zooka, I aimed at Pastor Rick and launched an air attack on his hair! I had everyone's attention walking in with a funny gun thing, but now that I shot Pastor...Without pausing, I informed the group that I was now Lavonne's attention getter. If someone was talking when she was, I was going to use the non-lethal gun to get their attention. Fun times!
After a great meal filled with great stories, the waitress started handing out the bills. Many times I never even see it, because someone grabs it and pays for me (which is always awesome and a blessing!); today though, I got my bill before someone could do that. I went up to the front and the manager was checking people out. She is very friendly and I have built a small relationship with her. So I decided to give her a hard time, after all, my receipt was missing the right column of numbers and it stated I owed 6.3! I asked her what they were trying to pull with hidden numbers...She smiled and then that is when she shocked me. She hit me back with this statement, "I am paying for your lunch, I like to do that for people sometimes." I thanked her right away and told her she didn't have to that. She responded back with a few thoughts and observations she had made about me and when I come and join the Primetimers for lunch.
I left excited for a new story to share. A story where the unexpected happens. A story with a twist. A story where I realize that people are watching me more than I know. A story where I find that my life style is an encouragement to others. A story worth sharing. A story worth living.
The decisions we make today, will determine the stories we tell tomorrow!
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