Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Willow Creek this week...good start

well, Brandon and I made it to Chicago this morning. We are spending the rest of the week at Willow Creek Community Church and the Shift Student Ministry Conference. I have not been to Willow Creek in about 4 years and this is Brandon's first time here. This morning we heard Daren Whitehead speak and he really hit a home run. I am about to hear Donal Miller talk about evangelism in our culture today. I am stoked. I hope to update some thoughts about the conference later in the week.

ON another note everyone reading this little blog thing needs to buy Breaking the Missional Code by Ed Stetzer, GREAT BOOK. Thanks to my incredible pastor for getting our staff the book, it says so much of where my heart for ministry is right now.

GO God - MB

Sunday, February 25, 2007

new life...simple faith and Baptism

Well - it is Sunday and I am between services and about to go and baptize three people in the 11 Am service. I got here to church at 7:30 to baptize to people, turns out I had the thrill of baptizing a 8 year old and 7 year old bother and sister. The parents where there and the entire family was so excited. We went and got everyone ready and then went through all the training stuff we do so people know what is going to happen. When i was in the water with those kids I could not help but smile to see their joy and simple love of God as they took this step. I became a Christ follower when I was 7 so I remember what they were going through. The entire moment was a reminder of why we do children's and student ministry today. We plant seeds of faith when we teach and model Jesus Christ for kids. We reveal to them a loving God who gave His Son for them. When teens and kids follow Christ at an early age they have an entire lif ahead of them to serve the Savior. They have a future that is different from all of their classmates. They become missionaries of God's grace to their school campus. I pray my daughters see Jesus for who He is at an early age spend their lives living for the Glory of God. I pray their lives count for God's Kingdom in a mighty way.

Well - I have to go and get ready for the next service. Our God Reigns!

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Wild week...

Well - it has been a week since I have been able to get on and get some thoughts out on this blog thing. God has been so faithful this week. I was able to connect with Bethany Baptist and speak at a retreat they had Monday- Wednesday in Atlanta then fly back and speak last night at our worship service. Lots of speaking but God pured out His spirit and all was good. I was able to connect with Daniel Doss and Joe Donahue, 2 great friends and serve teens so it was all good. It is always tough to be away from my girls at home but when you sense God is with you in the time away it is all worth it. I missed 24 so I am gonna watch it right now...Chelsea just got home so I have to run. She has been at a women's gathering tonight, it gave me some sweet time with Koz and Kelyn. Got to go...

Thursday, February 15, 2007

everything costs something...

8 Physical exercise has some value, but spiritual exercise is much more important, for it promises a reward in both this life and the next.
9 This is true, and everyone should accept it.
10 We work hard and suffer much in order that people will believe the truth, for our hope is in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, and particularly of those who believe.
1 Tim 4:8-10 (NLT)

I have been thinking about these verses a ton lately. I learned a long time ago that anything worth having is going to take hard work. When I was in high school we had to work hard during summer to prepare for the season in the fall. Lifting the weights and running was worth winning games during football season. I spent time in college working at Food Lion. It was not much fun but I learned that if worked hard I would get a raise and I could buy more Mountain Dew or whatever. So God leads me into the ministry and guess what, once again the same principles apply. Work hard, plan hard, pray hard always help to bring God more Fame. God is into this work thing since he did create it!

For me I have been focusing on spiritual exercise with my daily time with God in prayer for many years. it has proved to be the constant refuge in the midst of hard times and change. God always has time for me, always cares to hear from me, and always has something to show me about life and living for and in Jesus Christ. The funny thing about spending time with God is that is takes work, it can be hard. There are days I do not want to spend time praying, looking at scripture, reading, meditating on God's word and His ways. I choose to spend time with God even when I do not feel like it. it is what is best for my life, it is what my heavenly father desires. I have made it a priority.

About a month ago God impressed on me that it was time to treat my physical life the same way. Five weeks later I have been working our three days a week and eating different. My diet has been nothing drastic, just eating less and eating better things, not eating dessert, not eating french fries, not getting the SUPER SIZE. It has just been common sense stuff and it has worked. I have dropped 10 pounds, feel good but I have about 10 more to go for sure. It will be another 5 weeks of staying on track and then a lifetime of choosing not to run to food when i am tired just to get a sugar fix (I will blog when down! Ha) It has been a good ride but the best thing is that I am doing it for the right reason. My goal is to honor God with how I look, with how I exercise, with how I eat. My goal is not to impress others but to see health in my physical life like I seek it in my spiritual life. They do go hand in hand. God is not in to laziness, god is not into overeating, God is not into food worship, and I now know God is for sure not into McDonald's (that stuff will kill you)

Just trying to honor God in all of life...serving others, living in community, seeking spiritual health, living in physical health. Balance I think is the word but balance comes with a price. Balance means we say no to things that will knock us out of balance and connection with the father. I have kept this thing about my eating quiet because it is not a diet I sense this is a way of life. Here is to eating lots of veggies, drinking diet Mountain Dew, and lots of chicken!

To end this and speaking of balance, I am taking Chelsea out on a date tonight. I know it will be great. It was fun spoiling my girls with Valentines gifts this week, they loved it. It is great having little girls. I did buy myself a Valentines gift, yes I did...Pearl Jam Greatest Hits 1991-2003, I highly reccomend it!

Friday, February 9, 2007

it is too late...

It has been a great week here in VA. God is doing so many wild things in my families life that it is hard to keep up with it all. We launched into our first Leadership Rocks experience tonight and man God was with us and did some wild things. Matt Papa Band really led the way and Dave Edwards was on target speaking and God did the work. Hope to write more about this thing but for now it is late and I have to get up early.

Tonight Koz picked her valentines cards out...she picked Madagascar cards! WOW - that movie is funny, she has good taste!

Later - MB

Sunday, February 4, 2007

Well if you read this BLOG thing you will see I picked the colts to WIN and that my score was 31-17...well I missed it by 2 points...man! We has a great party, over 160 folks watching Peyton do his thing. Got to share the gospel at halftime, that was co great. It was a good night. Oh yea a kid pulled the fire alarm at the end of the game - not good but that is my life!

GO VOLS - Peyton finally did it!

Saturday, February 3, 2007

life, stairs, superbowl thoughts...

Well, it has been a great but eventful week after a meeting filled start. Have I said how much meeting life slows my glow down. After a slow start things picked up on Wed. and God blessed me with a great week and a ton of surprises. At TSM we are closing in on a conference we are hosting called Leadership Rocks ( www.leadershiprocks.com ) go check it out. We are finishing final week details and it is all looking good. Our students will all sign up this week, they live last minute lives here. Everything is last minute. We launched out month long look at God's view of Purity for Middle Schoolers and a series called BEST SEX EVER for our High School students. God really blessed the opening message Wed. night and I think God is going to use both series to bring students to Himself. Our hope is for teens to see that His way really is the best way to live. We will see how it goes, I am sure i will have a story about some parent getting mad at us for talking about sex which God created. Our team is sick of MTV and VH1 getting the last word on what sex looks like. God has something to say...

Well on Friday we took Kozbi and Kelyn to Chuck E Cheese and it was wild. I have not been since my niece was 1 and it was so fun to see Koz and Kelyn have a blast. Koz was all about the games and the slides and all that jank. Kelyn only wanted to watch people. Give her something to shew on and let her watch all the people swirling around, she is in heaven. Let me say that it was the best 22 dollars we have spent in a long time. The girls had a blast and we got some funny pics out of it. I am sure we will be back. Koz began asking me to take her early in the week thanks to grandparents who plant these ideas in their heads. it was a good time. I always wonder why our churches do not have inviting environments like that in their buildings for parents to use in connecting with each other during the week. I have definite thoughts that will offend many church people and leaders so I will not say much BUT when I have the chance I want to help some church somewhere create an environment for preschoolers that makes every kid WISH they could live at church. Who said church had to smell like mold and be boring...

This morning was wild...Kelyn fell down the stairs...AHHHHHH she is ok but it freaked us out. She was following Chelsea around upstairs and we forgot to close the gate and down she went. She has a bump on her head and she was laughing at Koz about 5 minutes after the fall. Praise God for protection! it will make a funny story after we are over the shock...man it was wild.

Final thought before the big game - GO COLTS!