GOD BRINGS...clarity in the midst of chaos

Reading through the Bible in a year will lead you to some parts of Scripture that are difficult to embrace. The Old Testament is packed with moment after moment of WHAT IS GOING ON and WHO IS THIS GOD. These moments seem so disconnected from the picture of God we gain from the life of Jesus. Ok, I know I am not the only one who thinks this when reading the Old Testament. In Genesis I my attention is captured by the power of story. In Exodus the story focuses on Moses and his experience leading the people of God. The story really gets focused as God for the first time provides a framework for how to live and worship as a follower of the one true God. On this journey through Exodus I have to keep reminding myself that God is speaking to a specific group of people with their own history, culture, and view of life. These are not Americans. These people have just been rescued from slavery and the culture of Egypt and now are being led by God into a new way of life. In all of the mess of the details contained in the book of Exodus here is where my AH HA moment came...GOD IS BRINGING CLARITY INTO THE MIDST OF CHAOS. In the pages of Exodus we see God creating a culture, a new way to live, a new way to treat each other, and (for the first time) the ability for the common man to know GOD. God moves from just communicating and connecting with a few select people to an ENTIRE NATION. Sure, my cultural framework makes reading this book difficult but I am blown away by the chance to read about God creating culture. God had a plan to redeem humanity and Exodus gives us a front row seat to watch God put it all in motion. I am so thankful God stepped into the mess of humanity and made a way for us to have a relationship with Him.

BIG Cross Street Live announcement...

Cross Street Live is a family experience we make happen each month for families here in Clarksville. We have big news...we are moving the time of CSL each month to 1:30 on Sunday afternoons starting on March 14!!! We have been doing this monthly event at night since we launched but we feel like more people can connect if we move it to Sunday afternoon. Also many families in our church have community group that meets on Sunday night...this will help families be able to experience CSL together. Let us know what you think about the change...will it help...are you pumped...will you help us spread the word?

Some of you may be asking...WHAT IS A FAMILY EXPERIENCE??? Cross Street Live is a 50 minute service packed with music, video, drama, and fun where kids and parents learn and worship together. Yep...TOGETHER. Kids and parents get to connect and talk about a monthly virtue and then go home to live that virtue out together. Every parent I know is looking for things to do with their kid. Every parent is also looking for ways to teach their children important values like honesty, confidence, and loyalty. At Cross Street Live we get to have fun and invest in our kids at the same time! If you live in the Clarksville area we hope you will check CSL out.

For more info about Cross Street Live go check out www.crossSTREETlive.com

WITH not FOR

We just got finished working with Kozbi through her first science project. You can see the masterpiece above, it was good. I think she should win (if you are out there and you have a vote)!!! When I went to the parent meeting the teacher told us DO THIS WITH YOUR KID...NOT FOR YOUR KID! Science projects are meant for kids to experience science not watch their parents do all the work. This is a process where a kid gets to ask questions and explore, not listen to the parent give them the answers. The older our kid's get we have to push ourselves to do life with our kid not for our kid. When we live life with our kid we let them struggle, allow them to question, give them direction, allow them to fail, celebrate when they succeed, and point them to make the WISE CHOICE. When we we do life for our kids we keep them from risk, discourage their questions, guard them from failure, protect them from reality, and demand they make our choice...the choice we will make for them.

When it comes to FAITH one of my hopes is that parents will follow Christ WITH their kid and not FOR their kid. Faith is a process and we never fully arrive or have it all together. Parents who journey WITH their kid toward Christ don't pretend to have all the answers they just keep pursuing Christ. When we follow Christ FOR our kids we give them a rule filled, know it all faith that lacks mystery. When we pretend to have the RIGHT answers in front of our kids we show them a shallow, controllable God who is far from the God revealed in scripture. Parents...please stop pretending to have it all together and begin to live out your faith WITH YOUR KID! What they see will do so much more than saying the right things or maintaining the right image.

3 environments for teens // ONE WEEK check it out!

Ryan Millard and I had the chance to create three worship environments for teens last week...Yes I said that, 3 different environments. Thanks to the supportive teams we work at with Onechurch and Grace Community Church we were able to gather resources (lights, screens, staging, curtains, sound equipment etc.) to bring into three venue's to make three different environments happen. We also got to work with Hilldale Baptist Church and First Baptist Church, Clarksville to use their buildings for 2 of the environments. Thanks to both churches for letting us create an event for teens across our community to gather together. Here are the different rooms...

Identity Community wide Kickoff / Hilldale Family Life Center

MERGE 2010 / both REMIX locations together at the St. B Venue. Check out the environmental projection we did on the ceiling, it was GREAT!

Identity Saturday Night Community Wide Service / FBC Clarksville

MERGE 2010

We made it to MERGE weekend at relevant. We have more students signed up for this weekend than we ever have and for the first time we have both locations together for the experience. So pumped about what God is going to go! Just wanted to ask anyone who reads this blog to pray for our small groups and small group leaders as we ask God to bring our lives and God together...to MERGE what we want and what God wants into one! Look for updates at www.relevantstudents.com.

help small group leaders have BIG MOMENTS!

I think it is so important for those of us leading student ministries to help our small group leaders have opportunities to be PRESENT when teens make big life decisions. Tonight we helped sponsor a city wide student event and tons of students took the step to follow Christ or ask questions about following Christ. Of course the speaker asked student pastors to move to the back to talk with students. I decided to ask several of our small group leaders to be ready to encourage and pray with students. I was blown away, they did an amazing job of helping many of our teens from REMIX work through some big spiritual questions. Our small group leaders got to be a part of a BIG MOMENT in the life of a teen they have been mentoring. This is what being a small group leaders is about...being ready to influence when the opportunity comes. When possible we need to help small group leaders have these moments...these moments are why we invest in teens week in and week out.

why go to a conference?

Why go to a conference? Good question! The children's pastor on our team here at GCC is away at the C3 Kids conference at Fellowship Church this week and I have been reminded of all the reasons I think it is important for people leading in preschool, children, and student environments to get out and go to a conference each year. I know for tons of you out there you might have been asked why you need to take the time and spend the money on a conference so here is why I think it is important...

• To surround yourself with people passionate about the investing in the next generation! I think many times we feel alone with our passion for kids, teens, and families in our local churches. Yes, there are more people out there than you think fighting the same battles you are. Sometimes you need to spend time with people passionate about what you are passionate about.
• Evaluation...When we see what is going on in other ministries around the country it pushed us to evaluate where we are at and ask WHY WE DO WHAT WE DO?
  
• Discovery...I love learning and for me a conference is a perfect time to shut everything else out and learn from other leaders.
  
• Pause...At a conference we are engaging and learning but the best conferences give us time to pause and soak in time with God. Many of us who lead in kid or teen ministry are so pulled on Sunday's we barely get to focus on connecting with God. Making time to hit a conference gives us time to pause and worship and maybe just maybe hear from God.
• Team Building...For our family ministry staff we use conference time to just connect with and encourage each other. Our team has made some great memories as I have gotten us all lost in Atlanta looking for the Flying Biscuit to eat! Good times and good memories.
• Planning...A conference gives us a chance to get away and plan for the church that has sent us away. When we go to a conference we are being sent by our church to learn, grow, and bring something back with us to add back into our context. God has used times away at a conference to help get my mind wrapped around some big plans he had coming up.

I had "fun" today

We have heard people describe Grace Community Church as a "fun" place to go to church the past few weeks. This is how it goes...A GCC attender tells a friend that they are going to GCC then they drop the dirty word when it comes to talking about your church...IT WAS FUN! When the person hearing this description hears the word FUN they think Disney World or Chuck e Cheese because they may not have had fun at church since that 6th grade lock-in they went too 30 years ago. So, we get called the FUN church. And yes I am OK with that because I know why people who attend call going to church here FUN? Discovering the love and grace of God is amazing, finding a church where you belong is fun, being able invite your friends to church because you trust the leadership is fun, and actually engaging God in worship is FUN! Our team is excited people are talking about what God is doing in their life through GCC. Just because they do not use "churchy" words does not make what God is doing invalid, it makes it genuine.

Seeing God change lives is FUN. Seeing God repair broken lives is FUN. Watching people find a place to be real in community group is FUN. Seeing 20 people last Sunday get baptized was FUN. Getting to gather for worship with people as they hear God's word taught in a clear way so can live it out after the message is FUN. If we have to be called the FUN church for those things to keep happening I am cool with it. Let's have some FUN.

KOZBI is getting baptized!

This is my oldest daughter Kozbi (the picture is of us getting ready to go on a date and to the a local Father-Daughter Ball ) and this weekend my baby girl is getting baptized! Since this amazing girl was a baby her mom and I have been praying together that she would become a follower of Jesus and God answered our prayer over the past few months. We have been talking through what it means to follow Christ for about a year now and on her own she prayed to ask Christ into her life. It is amazing to see the joy and peace she has about her faith in Christ. It is the real deal and I am so thankful that God has brought salvation to my little girl. My biggest hope for both my little girls is that they would spend their life following and honoring Jesus in all they do. This Sunday she goes public with her faith as she gets baptized with about 20 other people from Grace Community. THANKS to all of you out there who have invested in Kozbi's life at FBC Clarksville, FBC Norfolk, and Grace Community Church. Kozbi thinks church is an amazing place to be and she loves Sunday mornings! Thanks to all of you who showed my little girl that following Christ was the greatest goal in life. Sunday is going to be a good day!

What are you doing to empower teens to SERVE NOW?

A few weeks ago 2 students set up a meeting with me and told me about an idea they had to raise money for the Red Cross and the Haiti relief effort. They needed help with sound for a concert event they wanted to do. Guess who has sound equipment...our ministry does. I helped them think though the logistics of putting on the event, gave some advice, committed our ministry to help with the sound and turned them loose to figure out a plan. They left my office and pulled the entire thing off. Two high school students wanted to do something to help, made a plan, and the event will happen on Saturday night. If you want to know more about the event just click on the logo to go to their website for basic info. I wanted to post this and simply ask those of you leading student ministries across the country...What are you doing to empower teens to SERVE NOW? This generation wants to be a part of the solution to many of the problems facing our world. Our ministries can either empower and encourage that passion or we can easily get in the way and discourage what God is doing by trying to control it. Here are some basic things we are doing to empower teens to serve now...

• Inspire >> we try to get info to students to let them know what is going on in our world and then trust God to inspire what action they take. we try to let our students know about Soles4Souls, Compassion International, World Vision, Africa for Jesus, and THEN let God direct where they take action. Many students just need to be pointed in the right direction.
• Support >> when students have an idea we try to provide them support to carry it out. Sometimes we can help students make a huge impact by just helping a little. Teens are pretty smart, if we give a little help they can make a huge impact.
• Provide Opportunity >> we facilitate a few experiences a year where teens (sometimes with their families) can serve their community. A teens life can be changed through seeing the pain in our world first hand through a mission trip or project.
• Equip and Mentor >> we train students what it means to serve by equipping and mentoring them to serve each week in many of our environments at GCC. We have teens that serve in all area's of our church and are making a difference right now. It is amazing to watch them serve in our church every week.
  

I would love to hear some ways you empower teens to serve now either here on the blog or on facebook. This generation wants to make a difference and we might be the support they need to make a huge impact.