thoughts from Operation Serve...

It was so great to serve the city of Clarksville today. It was really wild for Chelsea and I because we got to serve with our girls by our side. Kozbi was on my team and Kelyn on Chelsea's. I had the chance to work on a team doing random acts of kindness and I got to see the extreme makeover team and a block party team in action. It was so great to see everyone going for it. Sunday will be amazing because we gather to celebrate what God has done and is doing. One of my key leaders at relevant and a friend was on our team and posted this at his blog. His name is Nate Edmondson and his blog is www.nateedmondson.com read this...

Today our church did an event called Operation Serve. The entire purpose behind it is to just serve the community wanting nothing in return, which is a really awesome purpose by the way. We had all kinds of projects going on from remodeling houses, to block parties, to making hot dogs for people at car washes, the bottom line is we just wanted to do something nice for people.

My job was to hand out bottled waters in a Wal-mart parking lot and help people load their groceries and put away their carts. Honestly compared to some of the other projects that were going on, I had a very small and seemingly insignificant job. That being said, it was crazy some of the responses I got. Some people were very reserved and wanted absolutely nothing to do with a total stranger handing out a potentially poisoned water bottle. Other people were very open and welcomed the help.

The most significant response to me though, was the person who simply said, "why?" Like, why in the world would a total stranger just want to come and help me put up my groceries? Like don't you have anything better to do? One guy even told me, "no thanks, I don't have any money to give your church right now..."

That is so crazy to me! How ridiculous is it that people would be puzzled by a church that just wants to be nice to people? Shouldn't the concept of a church doing nice things for people be the norm rather than a confusing gesture? The church as a whole has made so called "evangelism" so impersonal and complicated. There's this thought that the only way to help the community is to go out and hand out lame tracks, read verses to people, and ask them if they know where they're going to spend eternity. All those things would be awesome if they worked, but we're dealing with people in a Wal-mart parking lot that are surprised when I offer to put up their buggie, don't you think trying to ask them about their salvation might come across EVEN MORE intimidating and confusing?

As a final thought- isn't it possible that simply doing nice things for people could change their perception of Christians, and as a result have them open their minds to the idea of giving Jesus a chance? If Christians would just focus more time on being nice couldn't we change the entire look of the Church?

Some would call that idea "liberal Christianity", and "watering down the Gospel", I think those people are missing it.

prayer experiment, operation serve, great weekend!

This weekend around 700 people from Grace Community and other churches will spend their time energy and talent serving Clarksville. Yea we will be serving meals, giving away water, painting, cleaning, helping kids with special needs, repairing, and building stuff. As we go out and serve we go with one goal. Our hope is to share the love of Christ with our city. We can not solve all of the problems our city faces but we can serve those around us and share Jesus with those we live with. We love our city, we love we get to serve here in our city, and we pray God is the THE GOD of our city. I am typing this the night before and some teams have already started. I know God is going to use this day. I am already so thankful and OP SERVE Saturday is not even here. Thanks to our leadership team who made this happen. Operation Serve is led by an incredible team of servants, good job to all of you. If you are leading a church, business, school, children's or student ministry figure out a way to serve those around you.

PRAY 08 was an incredible experience. We gathered to pray and launch the www.prayerexperiment.com web site and prayer challenge. It was so wild to see all of our churches united as one and it was great to work with leaders from other churches. Thanks to everyone who worked to make it happen, GREAT JOB! We have had a tremendous response to our 30 day challenge to test prayer in our lives. It is so incredible to be on this journey with hundreds of leaders, parents and teens from all over Clarksville. We know praery can change us. Our hearts desire in all of this is that we will grasp the need for daily time with God. So far so good. Hope to share some stories later in the year.

Sorry so slim this week on the blog, with Op serve and Pray 08 our family has been swamped! looking forward to serving this weekend and watching my Vols and Titans thanks to DVR. It is so great that I do not have to worry about missing a game. FREEDOM... TV has no control on me! YES! DVR is a miracle! Hope everyone out there has a great weekend!

PRAY08 this Wednesday at 6:30...

This week take time to talk to a few teens or adults connected with your church about how they pray. Every time I have had the chance to talk with a teen about prayer I soon hear what a struggle it is to form the habit of taking time to pray. Not sure why it is so hard for all of us. Could be sin, could be busyness, could be that we do not trust God, or it could be that we have never really given it a shot. This Wednesday night several student ministries in Clarskville are gathering at an event called PRAY08 to help kids experience prayer. The entire night is built the idea of creating a sacred space where teens, leader, and parents can connect with God in prayer. If you are in the area we start at 6:30 at Hilldale Baptst Church (www.hilldale.org) Will this work? We have no idea! We just know that God impressed on our hearts to go in a new direction as we help teens wrap their lives around the practice of prayer. But there is more....

As we leave from the PRAY08 gathering we are challenging teens, leaders, and parents to experiment with prayer for 30 days. What happens when for 30 days straight people talk to God? We know prayer is powerful but our hope is for teens and parents to figure this out as they experience it for themselves! Again, will it work? We have no idea, but a bunch of us in Clarksville are going to try. No church or ministry gets to take credit for any of this. Prayer is God's idea and we just want to help teens go there. Different people will be blogging each day about prayer at www.prayerexperiment.com and we hope this little guidance will help people have a direction for their prayer journey that day. Go to the web site or join the prayer experiment group on facebook. It is going to be an amazing 30 days!

monday is better with a TITANS 3-0 start!

What can I say...GO TITANS!

UT vs. Florida...same story!

I got to go to Knoxville for the big UT / Florida and the best moment of the day was getting to watch the band march into the stadium. Jonathan Giles, student pastor at Sring Creek Baptist here in Clarksville, hit the game and had a great time all but the game itself. Love my Vols, will die a Vol but today was tough. Hope my Titans can encourage me Sunday. I think this pic says enough...be strong Vol nation, change is coming and every loss brings it closer.

I have arrived...

I am the guy who parks in the same spot every week at the office, when i go to a store, when I am at church. You get the idea. Today I arrived! I pulled into the parking lot at the office and what a gift. There is nothing better than a home made sign...
Yea, it is just a joke, but you have to love it! There is a ton of laughter in the environment that I work in. I think teams need to laugh, they need to enjoy where they work. Do You? Are you leading your team to have fun as they lead others? Thanks for the parking spot RON!

46 people baptized...

I am really not sure how to put into words how amazing yesterday was. We had the idea and planned this outdoor baptism 2 month ago and when we got to church Sunday morning it was very windy and very cloudy. We made the call to go ahead and run with the baptism even though the weather was questionable. 46 people were baptized yesterday at Ringold Mill here in Clarksville. 46 people let the world know about their faith in Jesus Christ. I was able to baptize 3 families where the teens and the parents ALL got baptized. Can it get any better than this? People talk about baptisms and baptism numbers alot in the church world. Yesterday we had the chance to witness 3 children and 43 adults and teens take this huge step. If you follow church baptism numbers you know how significant this ratio is. I could not help but think of how incredible it must have been for people in the days of Jesus to take this step. It was wild to think that Peter , Paul and John had helped people go to a river and take this same step of faith 2,000 years ago. There was an excitement in the air yesterday as we came together to celebrate this moment in the lives of these people. If you got to be there you know how amazing it was. We get to take this excitement back to the folks at GCC by video over the next three weeks and look for some shots of this thing on you tube SOON!

website...

We were really excited when we opened up Collide Magazine ( http://www.collidemagazine.com ) and we saw this article about our web site at GCC. Collide is the leading magazine out there talking about the church, culture, and media. In its first year it has already become one of my favorite reads. Go check the magazine out online and order it. You will love it. Thanks to Collide for props on our website!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY Grace!

Grace Community Church is three years old today! Happy anniversary GCC! It is so amazing to be a part of this movement we call Grace Community. Chelsea and are so proud to be a part of these people, this city, this staff. Thanks to all of you who serve each week to make Grace what it is. Thanks to all of you who took the risk three years ago to follow God's lead. It has been a great three years and we are so excited to see what God does next. Go check out www.gcomchurch.com when you can!

just spending time with God...

Our virtue the kids (k-5) are learning about this month in Cross Street (www.gcomkids.com) is Knowledge. Yesterday Chelsea and Kozbi were doing their GOD TIME card that Koz brought home from church and the card suggested that everyone needed to find a quiet space where they could read the Bible everyday and learn about God. Well, you are looking at a picture of Kozbi's space to read the Bible that she made in my room yesterday. She made it right by the chair that Chelsea uses each day to read the Bible. Kozbi has better taste because her space has a chair, stuffed unicorn, polly pockets, and her Bible. Pretty cool! It is amazing the loving spirit of a child. I was so reminded that God want to hang out with us each day. He is not distant; He is near. He wants to come and meet with us, hear from us, and teach us His way of living. So incredible that my girl got to teach me a God lesson this morning. Think about where your favorite place to talk to God is! Have you given God time each day to spend together? In the car, in your room, in your back yard, or in your office God wants to spend time with us. Go for it!