:: Sunday night: the first official Encounter service

We had a total of sixteen people at our first Sunday night service. The presence of God was strongly among us. We began with two songs, released kids to go to their classes. We then went to a more intimate worship set. People did go to our various worship spaces during worship. We have a contemplative space set up. This night we had a pitcher of water, towels, and a basin set up with scriptures on washing ourselves and how the Lord cleanses our sins. Justin Blake hung out at the creative station during worship doing some drawing. We had a kneeling rail at the prayer station and a few stopped there for a moment.

We then went to the topic of the night which was stories. We invited people to share stories that involved their journey with Jesus. Daniel shared a story of going to a drug deal and meeting an old friend who he hadn't seen in years and years and a few months later she invited him to Hope Chapel where God encountered him. What are the chances of going to a drug deal and meeting an old friend who is going to invite you to church soon. We looked at the scripture in John 21 where John says is all the miracles of what Jesus had said and one were written they would fill all the books of the world. We talked about how this community is about telling His (Jesus Christ) story and telling how our lives are connected with His story.

We ended in praying for people. Abigail Branch came over to support us. We prayed for her and the Greenhouse, a church plant in Ft. Worth. Justin and Brandi Blake came over and we praying for God's encouragement on their new marriage. We had prayed that God would use us to encourage others and minister to them. This first time of large community gathering did that. Our prayer is that there will be a continued flow of people we can serve that God will direct us to.

:: Sunday day

As we have begun to get to know the Colony we have found a park where people hang out fairly frequently. At this park are two basketball areas, and one of these areas is a eight and a half foot goal. For those of you who are not a basketball players, an eight and a half foot goal means that short white men who can't jump can now dunk the ball.

Since our service is on Sunday night we decide that we will play basketball Sunday morning. Shane, Mark, myself, Chris, and a new friend of Chris' from the apartment complex, Jason go at it on this eight foot goal. We were a site. Shane dunks about the second play and rips the skin off three of his fingers. We looked like the walking wounded after about 12 games of 21. We did get to meet Tony who was out playing on another court. We continue to pray God connects us with people in the Colony.

:: Saturday

Saturday at lunch I wanted to connect Shane and Justin and Kelly a little better so I invite them to lunch. Shane recaps some dramatic financial blessings the Lord has brought to he and his wife in the past year. I love to hear stories of God's provision for people and how it promotes the kingdom of God. It was a good lunch, good mexican food, good fellowship.

:: Last week: Friday (joint habitat)

Friday Night
As part of our EXCHANGE weekend we had a combined meeting with Mars Hill at their Friday night Habitat. Habitat is a time when Mars Hill usually is discussing a book or topic. This night, Chris, Mark, Shane, Kelly, and Justin did some music and worship then Shane shared out of the gospel of John. Our conversation was about the glory of God and more specifically about How God gave it to Jesus and Jesus said he would give it to us. My friend Justin Nygren and his wife Kelly shepherd this group.

Afterwards a few of us went out and watched some of the NCAA tourney. We go to a local sports bar that has been recommended to us.
As we are sitting watching the game two very inebriated ladies sit down at our table across from Chris and I and begin a conversation. They find out that we are polite, but not acting like we are interested at all and not drinking anything buy tea and water and excuse themselves. I had really strong mixed feelings about this exchange. As the ladies were leaving one lady puts her hand on my head and says something in parting and it makes me really angry. That anger just built as I left. I was really offended that this lady, who must have seen my ring and known I am married is flirting with me. I had to really pursue this with the Lord because it didn't feel very Christlike to me to be that angry. I was wishing I would have had a woman at the well type of dialogue with this woman. As I prayed through it I understood more that these ladies were in great pain and were looking for love in all the wrong places. I pray that the Lord will speak encouragement to them and draw them to Him.

This story I think will bring some very interesting discussion in our small group.

:: Last week: Thursday

I enjoy blogging, so it has to be a busy week to keep me from being here. Last week was such a week. Thursday night we began a quarterly event for our community we are calling the EXCHANGE. This is a weekend where we are exchanging ideas with one another, we bring in someone outside of our community and have them exchange ideas with us, we try to join with another faith community and exchange with them, and most importantly seek God in a way that brings exchange between Himself and our community.

Thursday night my friend Shane Kuhn from Lubbock Texas joined us and facilitated a dialogue about faith from Hebrews 11. The main thread of the conversation was that God establishes markers in our lives and the lives of others that help encourage our faith. We need to remember these faith events in our lives to strengthen us to have faith in our current situations. We had our usual meal and worship also.

Chris came up with a funny analogy at our meal about the three guys that are in his head. He said there was a fast guy that retrieves information. So let's say when a person named George walks up, fast guy runs to the files and brings back the info. that this is George. Then there is the smart guy who knows how to be cool and make good conversation. Finally there is the dumb guy. Sometimes when fast guy and smart guy are on break, he gets to take over. In this case let's say George is walking up and fast guy in not there to retrieve information and smart guy isn't there to act cool. You end up saying something that may be a cross of information like Hi-Ow your doing? This is a cross between Hi and How are you doing which the dumb guy couldn't decide on. This analogy seemed to be used all weekend.

:: New tags

These new buttons are compliments of Kalsay Consulting Group. Make you own here.

:: God is not respecter of culture

Sunday morning I was invited to speak at Church on the Hill. Church on the Hill is a growing Foursquare church in Hillsboro Texas. It was an amazing morning. These people were so warm and friendly to my family and a few of the Resonance team who came in support of us.

I am amazed at how you can find the presence of the living God among so many diverse cultures of people. This morning I remembered being in Victoria, Mexico, worshiping with the saints there, and experiencing the presence of the almighty God, I remembered being in Ireland amidst Irish folk and Nigerian immigrants and knowing that same presence of God, and this morning here we are in Hillsboro in east Texas and the presence of God is here. In my life I've worshiped with the most country people you can think of, those that make chicken fried steak that melts in your mouth. I've worshiped with the most postmodern group you can think of where it was pitch dark except for candles all about the floor. I have found an amazing thing, God is no respecter of cultures, no respecter of status. Where there are people who open their hearts toward him, even in all their immaturities He shows up to fellowship with them.

These folks in Hillsboro reminded me of the small towns in Texas where I grew up. They were polite, friendly, and warm. Best of all though they loved to worship. The room that held about 100 was full. It was not only full of people, it was full of people who came to meet with God. And that was the worship song that began our time with the Lord, "I'm here to meet with you" written by By the Tree. You got the feeling that these people were not at an event but were at a family gathering. One of the most noticeable aspects of this is that 20 minutes after the service there were still people hanging out and talking with one another.

I spoke on the path of our calling. The gist of what I was saying is that our calling is not a discovery event but a journey of obedience. It is an adventurous journey. There are enemies along the way (Satan and his minions) that try to thwart our true journey. I tried to encourage people that on both Moses and Peters journey their were lessons that led them to grow in humility. Numbers 12:3 says that Moses was the most humble man. And in 1 Peter 5 Peter challenges us to be "clothed in humility". Those that God uses are those that are willing to walk humbly with their God, that means learning to lay down self effort. It is interesting that in his self effort Moses couldn't even handle one Egyptian without making a mess of things, but God in the right timing was able to wipe out the whole Egyptian army without any glitches.

One final note of God's faithfulness, we have been praying for a video projector. We believe it is important for creating an environment where people, especially this generation, can experience God. We didn't have funds for that. The folks at Hillsboro took up an offering at the end of their service and gave us $1000 to buy a projector. This was a generous gift.

:: 2nd March Fuel

Last night we were treated to homemade enchiladas from Kimberly with help from Daniel. Nothing like a good meal to encourage lively discussion. Dinner conversations ranged from high school football stories and homecomings to new cars to outlet malls to who has the most clothes in their closets, all those good interesting conversations.

After dinner we jumped into 1 Peter, we began by sharing about various times of trial we had gone through. There was so much shared, I felt like we could have gone on for hours, yet in respect of time and people getting up the next day to go to work we wound down by 10:00.

Trials we talked about were hard church situations, relationships with people, death to those close to us, times of transition that were hard, etc.
In times like these we are reminded by Peter to set our minds on the living hope we have in Christ. We truly are strangers on this planet, awaiting fulfillment of a greater hope. We have tasted of grace here, we have tasted our inheritance as children of God, but the future holds a glorious fulfillment of our salvation and all it contains.

We began dialoging about our small gathering that could quickly be too big to be a small gathering. We value small groups of people gathering for the fellowship, the availability to get to know one another, the opportunity for spiritual gifts to be expressed. It is the fiber true community is built out of. We talked about not having rigid guidelines such as: when a group hits 12 people they have to split. On the other side of things we talked about how we needed structure to function. In the end we committed to keeping a listening ear to the Lord on these matters and ask what seems best to Him for the situation.

For our own core group the discussion went two ways. There was concern that the core team would lose continuity if we opened our small gathering to others. The concern the other way was that if we didn't open this group that new people wouldn't be as easily intertwined within the community. There was some consensus that as the small gathering grows we may need to have the core team to branch out and be facilitators at other small gatherings and that our core team would maybe meet together on a monthly basis rather than weekly.

This might seem trivial to someone reading this. You might think "Hey have you looked at the local Christian bookstore, there are hundreds of books on small groups, find a method and go with it." For us this is not trivial though. This is the journey we are on, not the journey others are on. That doesn't mean we are foolish enough not to consider the wisdom or lessons others have learned, but it does mean we want to allow our journey to unfold. We want to be on the journey together and these matters are important. They are important not just for the particular method we find to have small gatherings (small groups) but the process is important for the community of faith we are in. The process is about us being community and sharing our lives with one another. It is about the gifts of creativity coming out of people and allowing people to have input and value in the conversation. As I think about it more, this is a community conversation. Certainly we are seeking God's will as our ultimate end, but the case I would make is that God's will is found in the community of faith more than individuals seeking God on an individual level. I believe the voice of God speaks to us not for our individual gain. The voice of God has inherent in it a building up of the saints. So when the Lord speaks to you, it is for the benefit of the kingdom of God and the community of God. I can see this could quickly become a paper rather than a post so I'll stop here for now.

:: Trading spaces

As we plan on our large group gatherings, we have been talking in terms of space for the place we are meeting. The space we have found to gather fits what we wanted. It is a Lutheran church with all the icons of the Christian faith within. Within that space we plan on dedicating spaces in the sanctuary there to a variety of expressions of worshiping God. We plan on having a space that is focused on prayer, a space that is a contemplative space, a creative space, and a community space. These spaces are identified so that people can worship and experience God is various ways as we gather. Our ultimate goal is creating environments where people can experience Christ.

I am excited to see how this methodology develops. We understand that the ancient truths of Scripture found in relationship with Christ are the same yesterday, today, and for all times but the containers that communicate those truths change. We want to experiment with those containers.

:: Passion bloopers on script

Here are a couple of bloopers from the Passion of Christ.

Christ, shackled to a stone, is being scourged by Roman soldiers. Blood runs down his gory back. His pain is palpable.

Jesus: [writhes in pain, hands shaking]

[Cell phone rings.]

Jesus: [hands shake furiously]

[Cell phone rings. Caviezel looks up, sheepish.]

Roman soldier: Jim? That you?

Jesus: Yeah.

[Cell phone rings.]

Soldier: Want me to get it?

Jesus: Yeah.

[Roman soldier gingerly reaches into Caviezel’s blood-soaked loincloth, pulls out phone and opens it, then holds the phone to Caviezel’s ear.]

Off Camera: [laughter]

Jesus: Hey, Mom.


via: tallskinnykiwi

:: The Art of Not Getting Embarrased at a Baptist Church

Andrew Jones had me laughing hard as I read his post on The Art of Not Getting Embarrased at a Baptist Church. Coming from a Southern Baptist upbringing I really could picture what he was saying. Here is a teaser:

- Don't drink the coffee, it comes from a large steel device from the early 20th Century called an "Urn" Go for the tea instead.

I'm thinking I could probably come up with an as equally funny set of ideas for not getting embarresed at a Charismatic church or an emerging church or . . .

:: The Passion of The Christ: an Christian artist vs an Agnostic writer

Take a look at the debate of Christian artist Peter Howson and agnostic writer Muriel Gray as they lock horns over Mel Gibson’s The Passion Of The Christ in an article from the Sunday Herald a Scottish paper.

:: Research on blogging Sociology

Read Wired Magazines article: Warning: Blogs Can Be Infectious.

:: Blogging to Utopia

Read Blogging to Utopia from the Austin Chronicle.

Here is the lead. very interesting
When the people at Pyra Labs developed a Web tool in 1999 that allowed the user to create, from any Net connection, a page that could include links, graphics, and text, the news was overshadowed by seemingly bigger Web stories: notably, Napster and the monstrously hyped idea of WebTV. Napster is history. And when was the last time someone enthused about WebTV? But blogs have entered the mainstream big time.

:: A Chernobyl Ride

A young Russian rides through the area of Chernobyl and documents her journey with pics at My Chernobyl Ride. This was really interesting link via Jordon Cooper.

:: First Fuel in March

We have shifted our paradigm of Fuel for March. We understand that we are going to be having a more open and public gathering on Sunday nights so our time at Fuel is being geared more like our vision for a small gathering. We have adopted the life - change bible study series and are walking through first Peter. Our format will be eating dinner, having few anouncements, a short time of worship, then going into a group discussion of 1 Peter. Each person has an assignment to work through 1 Peter that week. Every other week we break up in gender groups to discuss and pray together.

Tonight, we discussed our value of having the word of God as a foundation of our community. It is the centering piece in our community. Humanity is frail and we can't lean on it. But God's word is not frail, throughout history God's word has given strength and focus to followers of Christ. We recognize that strength is beyond an intellectual understanding of the Word's contents. There is something of the grace of God being given as we humbly read his word. And as someone mentioned last night, it's not so much we read and interact with the word as it is the word read's and interacts with us. We don't want to wander away from who God is calling us to be. We want to be the story that God is telling to our city. We believe the word's centrality will lend to that.

The other side of this coin to us is being open to the directing of God through the Holy Spirit. Without the Word's foundation we could drift into a fanatical emotionalism as we are open to direction through the Holy Spirit and we don't want emotionalism. We do want though to be hearers of God's voice. We realize we are strangers and aliens here on the planet. We are people of the kingdom and want to march to the beat of the kingdoms drums.

This was altogether a good night, a setting of foundations night. The journey is unfolding.

:: Emerging Church Insight

Todd Hunter and Andrew Jones have some great insight into the journey of postmoderns at Answers from the other side.

A portion from Todd

The Church and the Spirit:
I see a deconstructive reaction in the alternative church landscape to the work of the Holy Spirit. Having spent a great deal of time around classical Pentecostals, Charismatics and Third-Wavers, I can see why. But again, we are forced to ask if we are throwing out too much baby with the water. I have to come to see that the contemporary church must come to grip with issues of power and authority: who has it, how it is shared, how it is exercised with integrity, ethics and holiness. “Jesus is the head of the church” could be marked “True” on any theological pop-quiz. The same is true for “The Holy Spirit is the continuing presence of Christ in the church”. We move from theological lip service to action by actually repenting for grieving the Holy Spirit. Remember, he can be grieved as easily by being ignored as by bizarre behaviors. Then we invite Him into our communities of faith, we prayerfully listen with the intent of developing a conversational relationship with God—like the ones people had in the Bible. Last we take appropriate risks, in faith, that like a child learning to walk or speak, God will be with us to train and encourage us. Experiential religion is the Biblical norm and the only kind of religion that will fly in post-modernity.

A portion from Andrew

Check Out New Media.
This is the area where the values of emerging culture are most accurately depicted. It does not do much good to read Christian apologists from the 90's summarizing French philosophers from the 70's who were trying to explain the surrealist painters from the 20's. That is not the most direct route to understand us, and can actually be quite misleading. Check out the new media instead. In the 1990's, I suggested churches look at the postmodern subcultures and the rave scene to find emerging values and dynamics. But now i say new media. Take a look at the renaissance of writing that is happening in our current world of post-post-literacy. Christian bloggers (theoblogians) are a part of this movement. Charlie Wear's blog is a good place to start.

:: The Passion of Christ: a view from the arts

Russell Hittinger and Elizabeth Lev review the Passion from the standpoint of the arts here.

:: the Passion

1 Cor 2:7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, 8 which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

A group of us went to see the passion of Christ last night. I had a variety of expectations from reading internet articles, seeing Mel Gibsons interview with Diane Sawyer and hearing personal experiences of the movie. I'll have to say I was pleasantly surprised with the result.
For me the movie met my expectations and went beyond. I was moved by the artistry of the script and filming. I thought characters fit their roles well. Mary the mother, Mary Magdalene, John, Peter, Judas, Pilate, Simon the Cyrenian, Satan, and Jesus all fit the part well.

For me this movie wasn't an experience of evaluation it was an experience of expanding my own heart in knowing about my Lord. Stories from the bible came to life for me. Color was added to what seemed like black and white words. I have a much better understanding of how all the events of that last day transpired and were woven together.

I was moved to tears as Mary flashes back to a scene of her running to help the boy Yeshua who has fallen and from that gets the courage to run to Jesus and tell him she was there by him. My heart was stirred by Simon the Cyrenian who unwillingly gets nominated to help Jesus carry the cross and on the short journey is impacted. I wondered if I am willing to help Jesus carry his cross in the world today?

I was touched deeply by the Passion of Christ. I pray God will continue to draw my own mind from the many distractions of living in this world and to the world where the mystery of God has been shown in the Son of God being willing to suffer incredible humiliation, pain and worst of all separation from his own Father for me and all those around me.

Looking back on the film I relate with the second thief on the cross who said: " . . . for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong. Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom." I recognize that justice says I die for my sins, yet a man who has done nothing wrong died in my place so that I could come into the kingdom of He and His father.

John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.

:: last Fuel in February

Fuel began with homemade hamburgers last night. Dinner topics were "the Passion" Mel Gibson's new movie, car wrecks and other assorted stories. After dinner we went around and everyone got to tell what their musical tastes were, what they were currently listening to and what they began listening to years ago when they began following Jesus. We had a pretty eclectic mix.

We followed with some discussion on John 4 and the woman at the well. We talked about how Jesus crossed many cultural boundaries to encounter the woman at the well. We talked of how Jesus in His authenticity unmasked all the various masks of the woman. This unmasking led to a true encounter with herself and Jesus. We talked about how God not only encountered this woman but she became the vessel that would call the whole village to come and see Jesus. God uses unlikely vessels. We sang Psalm 121 and then prayed that the Lord would send us to the Colony to have encounters with the people there. We prayed that He would direct us how to serve people and how not to follow some rote pattern of reaching people. We want to be intertwined in the community there and be open to the God encounters that come. Instead of the woman at the well it may be the man at Wal=Mart, or the woman at Braums, the teen at Whataburger or the single mom at the grocery store.

Lord show us how to serve.

:: meeting with George W.

Blogger Rex Hammock tells of a recent visit with president Bush: My Warholian 45 minutes

:: church plant central gets hit next

Another blog I was experimenting with was a metablog on church planting. I have joined that back with faith stories. I am simplifying.

:: Simple faith put to sleep

For anyone that was linked to my blog simple faith. I have sent it to the great delete land in the sky today. I began simple faith as a blog to put quotes I like on, but there is not enough time in the day. I am contemplating consolidating other blogs but haven't made up my mind yet. As we get ready to have our first public gathering, I anticipate the pace picking up some.

:: Deeper and deeper still

As I think of Christianity in our culture and even of my own walk with can't help but wonder if all of us are not incredibly indoctrinated as consumers. I learn about grace one day and I am off to learn about something else the next. We have a four week sermon series on love and expect to have a proper grasp on the concept. How crazy is that. We always want to grow wider but we forget to go deeper. I want to get to know something of God well rather than knowing a whole lot a little bit.

What if . . . What if we are supposed to learn about one subject for years or a lifetime. I heard Mike Bickle talk about studying a book of the bible. He talked of people who had studied one book 20+ years then began to grasp what the book was about. I was talking to a friend from Lubbock Texas today and was reminded that we need to go deeper in what we know not broader in knowing more. Some concepts I could spend a lot of time on in going deeper is God's love, God's grace, what community really is in this walk. What is the kingdom of God really? No, not a one sentence answer that has been programmed in us like a catchy McDonald's commercial. But really what are the heights and the depths of the kingdom of God.

God, take us deeper in Christ and knowing Him that in that depth He is made known.

:: The greatest hermeneutic

Jesus never wrote a book or established a school. Rather, his legacy was a community. The greatest hermeneutic of the gospel is a community that seeks to live by it.

Leslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralistic Culture

:: Living together as brothers

“We have learned to fly the air like birds and swim the sea like fish, but we have not yet learned the simple art of living together as brothers.”

Martin Luther King

:: Combating the Enlightenment Whirlwind

Here is a great article on Christianity Today's site. It is written as Baylor University tries to adapt their vision to a postmodern culture. Below are two quotes:

The visionary changes occurring at Baylor have been met with consternation because we have dined too long at the Enlightenment table, without setting richer food alongside its meager fare. Our failure to contest Enlightenment individualism, for instance, has landed us in ludicrous heresies. Luther's classic doctrine of the priesthood of all believers is a case in point. It has been corrupted into the heretical and essentially Gnostic idea of the priesthood of the solitary believer. Instead of serving as priests to each other in obedience to our one High Priest (and thus engage in the radically communal life of the church and its institutions), each individual is supposed to become his own priest.

The Enlightenment idea of the independent, all-sovereign self therefore contravenes the fundamental Christian conviction that we are covenantal rather than contractual creatures. The triune God has revealed himself to be a community of persons who has pledged to bring us into his own life through the communal life of his people. There is thus no such thing as a solitary Christian having a purely private relation to Jesus Christ, but then joining with other Christians only for the sake of worship, missions, and other common purposes. To be "in Christ," as Paul endlessly emphasizes, is to be permanently transformed by our life in the Body of Christ called the church.

This article is a great example of a forming postmodern theology.

Found via Jason Clark

:: Tips for writing on the web

Here is an article all bloggers should take a look at. It is 10 Tips on Writing the Living Web found on A List Apart site. The living web according to the article is that part of the web that is constantly changing which a blog fits in.

found via Jordon Cooper

:: Under the weather

What a night and day. I've been under the weather. It's that stomach virus that feels like you've got food poisoning. We had FUEL last night and I was feeling so sick I stayed in bed the whole time. We had another couple that was out last night too.

I spent some time reading "The Wounded Healer" by Henry Nouwen today.

In speaking about this the younger generation in his book he says "the problem is not that the future holds a new danger, such as a nuclear war, but that there might be no future at all." Speaking about a specific young man Peter, Nouwen says "he thinks of himself more as one of the last ones in the experiment of living than as a pioneer working for a new future."

This line of thinking fits I think into the perspective a follower of Christ should have in letting his or her mind focus on the kingdom of God (life that is other than just this world). Just to live for a better future will never allow us to find our reason. But to live for an eternal kingdom gives us hope to carry on in the here and now and look forward to a future that is full. We are to be strangers and aliens here. Our primary task isn't to better the planet although we should respect the planet as we live here. Our primary task is growing toward eternity.

When the kids came home from school we watched "the shakiest gun in the west" with Don Knotts. It was pretty funny. My kids enjoyed it.

It may be the drugs (ibuprofin), I may be rambling, just couldn't lie around anymore today.

:: I am . . .

I am the Judas who betrays,
He is the Jesus who forgives.

I am the Peter who denies,
He is the Jesus who restores.

I am the Thomas who doubts,
He is the Jesus who gives me cause to believe.

I am the religious who hate, He is the Jesus who loves.

He is my Jesus who loves me.

I read this on Will Phillips blog. There are those times that I am tempted to stand in judgement of others. The truth in this poem describes my humanity apart from Him. Thank you Jesus that you are the one who forgives, restores, gives me faith, and loves.

:: walking on water, can it be done?

I was at a lunch today with a group of foursquare pastors. A bit after lunch they began to tell stories they had heard from others that cracked me up.

Story 1:
Roy Burris Senior was coming out of a couple of day fasting and prayer time where he had really sought the Lord. I guess he was thinking his faith was pretty strong. He looked off in the distance and saw a dock, with his faith being so stirred, he thought "I think I can walk on water". So off he went walking down that dock and off onto the water. Only he went right under, water engulfed all around him. As his head came above the water, he thought "at least I had the faith to try".

I totally cracked up at that.

Story 2:
A group of old time pentecostals had gone up into the mountains to pray. It was a particularly cold season as they were there. In the cabin they were staying in was a wood burning furnace. One of those with the latch door on the front. Somehow one of them said "I have the faith to touch that hot furnace, so he would go by and slap it. So far, so good. One ole boy decided "I have the faith to stick my head in the furnace." He kept looking at that furnace. In a minute one of the slaps popped the door open and this fellow says "I'm gonna do it". So he runs over and sticks his head in the furnace, only to come right back out with his hair on fire.

Man, I really laughed at that one. I have this odd "that was just crazy" and at the same time "a respect for their zeal"

CAUTION: .................Please do not try these tricks at home..................

:: FUEL 2nd Feb

Our group had a fun time eating and talking together tonight. Even visitors seemed like old friends. As we sang giving our worship to God there was such a sweet presence. It was one of those nights that just felt like God put it together. We seem to be having quite a few of those. I take this as encouragement that we are moving in the right direction.

We continued talking about grace. We read from the message where grace is gift after gift after gift. Our God often pours out from His fullness into our lives with gift after gift after gift. I was reminded of my own story and how many times there came gift after gift after gift. Gifts of peace, gifts of hanging out with Him and knowing His nearness, gifts of joy, gifts of answered prayer, gifts of serving others, and on and on and on.

With grace involved it is really hard to have a dull story. Now the story of our journey with Christ has hard chapters, painful chapters, chapters that have failure in them, but it is never a dull story.

:: Opportunities

This week I had the opportunity to go over to Christ for the Nations and speak to the third year missions students about the process of hearing God and stepping out toward that. This all came about because T.L. Garrett who is over missions at Trinity Church was invited to teach for a week. Since we are a part of the missions at Trinity, T.L. invited me to come over and share a bit with the students. I really enjoyed the atmosphere of the classroom there.

I shared some and let those guys ask me questions. At one particular point one of the girls in the class asked "I hear you say, you heard God, How do you know?" I replied that it is much easier after the fact to say I heard God. When God is speaking it is a little more tricky. I read the bible, I pray, I consult with my wife, I listen to Godly counselors and then on top of all that I hope God helps me figure it out. I have such a passion to pass on life lessons I have learned in this journey with the Lord. I am thankful for opportunities such as these to do just that.

:: Mozilla

I downloaded Mozilla about a week ago after seeing some reviews of it. This browser rocks. It has a multiple tabbing tool that makes it much easier to blog, especially for my metablog faith stories. You can just click back and forth between tabs instead of messing with multiple windows. A control click opens a page in another window.

I have been using Mozilla firebird. Firefox is the latest version of Mozilla. It was just released and I am going to try it out.

:: an emerging church

As a community of faith, we are emerging in many ways. The main one is we are about to emerge from a small community praying for God's leading into a community that God has spoken direction to on where and how. We are preparing for a gathering time in which we reach out into the community more, make ourselves known, and begin to do ministry God has called us to more specifically. We know that from recent days we are to pour our ministry into the city of the Colony. We are winding up negotiations to have a Sunday night gathering in an established building in the city. We have planned a time to just get into the community and serve them this month. We are beginning to spend time there to pray and meet people.

So Resonance is emerging on the scene in the Colony. This is a next step season for us. We believe we have established a true community of people who have heard from God to be involved, now we get to open our doors wider to a specific community. These are exciting times. My prayer is that we would have the spirit of Philip as he went and brought Nathanael to Jesus saying "Come and see". That is our desire that people would come and see the man who is the son of God, Jesus. Our prayer also is that we could serve the Colony and the other churches there and not be in any competition whatsoever.

:: Jesus makes the cover of Newsweek magazine

Mark and I went to see a live interview with Mel Gibson on satellite feed yesterday. I can not wait to go see the Passion, the new film Mel Gibson has done.

Here is an interview by James Caviezel on being picked for the part of Jesus in Newsweek.

:: First FUEL February

Dinner was a bring your own and hang out. The Texas Barbecue Potatoe from Jason's Deli was incredible. We did a short worship set. Gods presence was very real. Our conversation tonight was about grace. We talked about the definitions of grace we had known, the most common being "the unmerited favor of God". We walked through the epistles of Paul and saw that how in each of them he speaks grace in the opening and the closing. Grace is central in Paul's teaching to the church.

We talked how we are containers and vessels of God's grace. God uses us in the workplace to be distributers of His grace. We looked at John 1:16 where Jesus came to give us grace upon grace. We talked of how all of God's resource, all He is, is a part of grace. How God's grace is an ocean where waves splash on us. We continue to receive God's grace. It is so vast wave upon wave come to us. It is an endless sea.

We are just beginning this dialogue about grace. I look forward to exploring it much more in fullness.

We divided into groups and prayed for one another, for others we were aware of a need for, and for grace to be extended to us and through us in coming days.

:: Stories better than Hollywood

As a young man I can remember a particular night that in my heart I made a commitment to follow Christ. It was in a little Baptist church in small town Texas. There was an Irish evangelist that was telling Gods story that night. I remember praying God let me return the favor someday. Two summers ago our outreach pastor invited me to help him lead a trip to Ireland to encourage a church planting team. He asked me to speak on our Sunday there. I thanked the Irish people for sending someone to tell me Jesus story.

I share this because it is my story. The story that God tells through us in Christ is beyond what any Hollywood movie can come up with. There is adventure, drama, beauty, pain, trial, tears, laughter, mystery, surprise endings, this list is endless. I have been thinking of the community of faith lately and wonder if it doesn't boil down to a gathering of people who are bringing the story of Christ to light. We are testifying with our mouths, with our actions, with our lives about our great God and the good news of him loving us so much He stepped down into our existence so we could understand the story of Him better.

:: First favorite book I've never read

I have been reading some blogs this morning and keep coming across Misrov Volf quotes. They are from his book After Our Likeness: The Church as the Image of the Trinity. You can see a couple more of his quotes in my other blog faith stories.

Here is another:

"Every genuinely Christian speech act is, at least formally and implicitly, an act of confession. Thus, for example, a preacher can proclaim Christ as Lord only if the activity of proclamation is accompanied at least formally by the activity of confessing faith in him. Without this confession accompanying and supporting the proclamation, there is no proclamation. By confessing faith in Christ through celebration of the sacraments, sermons, prayer, hymns, witnessing, and daily life, those gathered in the name of Christ speak the word of God both to each other and to the world. this public confession of faith in Christ through the pluriform speaking of the word is the central constitutive mark of the church. It is through this that the church lives as church and manifests itself externally as church. Although such confession is admittedly always a result or effect of the 'word', just as faith, too, is a result of effect of the 'word' (see Rom 10:8-10), the 'word' is proclaimed in no other way than in this pluriform confessing. The confession of faith of one person leads to that of others, thereby constituting the church."

If this is true then there are dramatic implications for church leadership. The implication is the key factor in being a church is the proclamation of our faith not those giving the proclamation. Read on:

"If one takes the communal confession of faith as the basis of ecclesiality, what, then, is the significance of office and of the sacraments for the being of the church? Since the only necessary intraecclesial condition of the constitutive presence of Christ for the church consists in people gathering in the name of Christ to profess faith in Christ before one another and before the world, the presence of Christ does not enter the church through the 'narrow portals' of ordained office, but rather through the dynamic life of the entire church. The presence of Christ in not attested merely by the institution of office, but rather through the multidimensional confession of the entire assembly. In whatever way 'office' may indeed be desirable for church life, either in apostolic succession or not, it is not necessary for ecclesiality."

In other words church leaders are not a necessary element to be a church, but rather the dynamic life of a community is what makes them a church. True food for thought.

:: The dream

I was answering some questions on the Allenon website tonight and the question of what you dream about asked. Here is my answer:

I dream of communities of people who recognize that this walk with God is a journey. It is a journey that is best traveled in community. It is a journey that is not polished, one that can't be marketed and sold. It is a community that suffers. It is a community that has the primary task of extending the kingdom of God on this earth.

It is a community that finds Gods grace given freely, that freely given grace then flows out of people as they become containers of Gods grace, these same people meet together as distributors of grace to the community of faith, and are able to model and serve others in their journey to become grace receivers and grace givers.

My dream is to serve giftings of other people (a Barnabus heart) to serve other churches in fulfilling their journey. Most of all my dream is being a man who sits at the feet of my Savior Jesus Christ often bringing others to sit with me and soak in His goodness and love.

:: FUEL end of Jan

We decided to do guys cook and clean night at FUEL. So we made spaghetti, salad, and garlic bread. All which was pretty stinking good. Chris was a natural in the kitchen. We invited some other friends over and played cranium. The highlight of the night was Marks imitation of the energizer bunny in a charades portion of the game.
I was thinking he looked a lot like that little monkey in toys that plays the tamborines. Everyone had a good laugh.

Times of just hanging out, eating together, and laughing help us keep balanced.

:: Comments in never never land

I found that the commenting system I had been using went down hard this week and all my prior comments have escaped to parts unknown. I am going to take that as a cue to switch commenting systems on this blog. I am going to haloscan. We'll see if they can keep those little bugger comments under lock and key and safe from harm.

:: Spiritual Formation

In my Christian existence I have found real spiritual meat in seasons where I have pursued spiritual formation through spiritual disciplines. Most of those seasons has been as I have crossed paths with someone who was into that or when reading on my own on the subject. Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster was one of the primary places that I learned more about spiritual disciplines.

Lately I have been going through Tony Jones new book: Soul Shaper. Soul Shaper is a primer on exploring spirituality and contemplative practices in youth ministry. I believe there is a deeper life of relationship with God that can be found through spiritual disciplines.

Today I ran across an article on the ooze by Richard Foster. Here is a quote:

You can probably detect that I am not overwhelmingly encouraged by the popular expressions of Spiritual Formation today. I'm not; too much is too faddish and too formulaic for me to be optimistic. And yet, we stand at a moment of great opportunity. Human need today is so obvious and so great that no honest person can deny it. People stagger under the burden of human wickedness. Evil is an open, oozing sore. Therefore superficial, half-answers will not do. Not anymore. Today, there is a great new fact in the contemporary interest in Spiritual Formation. And I view it as a source for enormous hope. This great new fact is the widespread belief that we can no longer bypass authentic, pervasive, thorough transformation of the inner life of the human being.

Read more

:: The foot of the cross

Sunday night a group of the res crew went over to the Colony to pray over the city we believe God is leading us to.
We prayed in the parking lot of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church. Good Shepherd is a place we are negotiating with on using their facility on Sunday nights.

In prayer we heard and prayed:
Let songs of worship be raised to heaven. This will impact what happens on a spiritual level in the Colony.
We are to be good shepherds to this community. Show us how to serve.
God is asking that we pursue pure hearts, not that we are perfect, but in pursuit of pure hearts.
God would encourage the wives in our community.
We are to serve other communities of faith. It's not about us. It's about the kingdom of God.
It is time to get going. The time of seeing other communities is done.

At the end of our time in prayer we noticed we had been right in front of a large cross in the yard. It seemed significant to us that our first prayer time in the Colony was at the foot of the cross.

:: A trip to Mars Hill

After Brennan Manning on Sunday we dropped by Mars Hill to lend some support to our friend Justin Nygren and the folks in their community.

I was so tired from the road trip from the weekend, staying up all hours in Lubbock and talking, then getting up early Sunday morning to get everyone to Argyle. I still enjoyed being there.

Mars Hill has an inviting environment. The room is filled with couches and loveseats making for a very intimate setting. The lighting is down low. Around the perimeter is art that was birthed in the community there. The seating all directs toward one corner of the room that is set up like a mini stage.

Kelly led some songs of worship and then Justin talked about Acts 2 which was pertinent for where their community is on the journey. They are looking at the basics and where to go next.

We all went out and ate at a Vietnamese place afterwards.

:: Thoughts from Brennan Manning

A group of us went to Argyle to hear Brennan Manning Sunday morning at Crosstimbers church. Here are some thoughts from his talk.

God loves stories. That's why he made each of us, so He could have so many stories.

Our perspective about the kingdom of God
We think people who go to church, who read the bible every once in a while, and pray every once in a while, and take a strong stand on abortion are real kingdom people. But really they are people who keep their distance from God. We want to get close enough to be warmed by the fire of God but not too close that we become consumed by the fire.

Did Jesus die so that we could attend a service on Sunday?

No Jesus died that we would be prophets, and lovers, and human torches on this world. We should be in awe of the cross. Let's marvel at the cross.

Will we dare to trust that God loves us as we are and not what we should be. The popular myth is: If I change God will love me. No, we come just as we are. The truth is: God will love us and because of His love we will change.

If Jesus walked up to the front of this building this morning, looked over the crowd, and then walked straight to you and looked you in the eye, What would his face reflect, his voice reflect. Would it reflect "Your not working hard enough, your not meeting the standard, I am so disappointed in you." No, it would more than likely reflect "thanks for coming here this morning in search of me, thanks for helping that lady out this week, thanks for a heart that wants to know me." Jesus wants to know us.

Is your Christianity a moral code or ethic or a love affair?

I was ambushed by Jesus . . .
told some testimony about his six months living in a cave in the desert. He was encountered by the love of God one night while in prayer in the cave.

Most Christians God is way too small - the God of the word is way larger

True words from Christ are those that are burned on your heart. Words from Him burn on your heart.

On the day you experience the love of Jesus Christ, nothing in this world will ever be as beautiful, no man or woman can touch that love.

Nothing in this world can compare with one true touch from God. It was a good morning and a time to refocus on the incredible love of our incredible God.

:: Ambassadors

This weekend Chris, Mark, Justin, and I made a roadtrip to Lubbock to pick up some furniture. We hung out at Shane Kuhns Friday night and Saturday. For lunch we went over to Rosas and had a colossal amount of chicken and beef fajitas. As always good food seemed to ignite some really good fellowship. I have a suspicion good food is linked to Holy Spirit inspiration, but its just a theory.

Our conversation turned to being ambassadors of Christ. Shane was sharing how we are not at home here on the earth but are ambassadors. This seemed to spark much conversation. We talked of how ambassadors are not at home where they are at (they are strangers and aliens there). They are emissaries for another country. As followers of Christ we are not to be at home here on this earth. Our allegiance is to our home country (the kingdom of God). We are to represent our home country where we are at. The laws we are under are not the laws of where we are stationed but the laws of our home country.

We talked about how this relates to the Lords prayer. In our a united states vernacular if we were talking about being an ambassador to Ireland we might read.

My President, who resides in Washington, we honor your name. Your kingdom (the u.s.) come, your will be done in Ireland as it is in the States. Give me today what I need for my task. We are committed to keeping our hearts upright to serve our country. Help me to keep my countries interests at the forefront of my energies, help me not get distracted by the matters of Ireland. Deliver me from my enemies. For the states is the honorable place, with all power and glory forever and ever.

We realized afresh that we are stationed on the earth to represent the kingdom of God. Jesus said "seek first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added to you". Our allegiance is to our home not to this earth.

:: Grace

Mike, Chris, and I met today to do some planning with what God is showing us in mind. For all of us grace seemed to be at the forefront of our thinking. For Chris it was extending small graces to people in our everyday lives. For me it was preparing to bring the ministry of grace to those who visited our community. And for Mike it was thinking about how we could equip others to be instruments of grace wherever they are at.

We have decided to dedicate February to talking about, studying, writing about, praying about, just focusing on grace. What is it? how can we be instruments of it? What is Gods grace like?

We want to be containers of grace sloshing out everywhere we are. We realized we are a community of grace.

:: Fuel 3 Feb

Tonight we had our meal together. It was baked potatoes with all the fixins (thats a true Texas word for all the extra stuff you can have). We had communion at the end of our meal. I asked people some things about Jesus suffering on the cross that they appreciated. We truly remembered the enourmous sacrifice he made.

Some comments were:
"Its good to know His motivation was love for us, not I have to go save these dang humans out of a big mess, be back soon"
"He didn't talk back at those who were cruel to Him. I hope to attain that someday."
"The story about Him is so authentic, it talks about how ugly it was and all He had to endure."
There were others that I'm not remembering. We then tore a piece of the bread and ate in remembering and then drank juice remembering His brokeness and pain and love and compassion. It was a sacred moment.

Our conversation after dinner was one of how does God speak? how do we hear him? what are some misconceptions about His voice? and what are obstacles to hearing God?

We spent time praying and then ended our evening.

:: I like my kids

You know before your a parent you think: What if I don't like my kids? Wouldn't that be odd. I was thinking today how I really like my kids. Of course I love them, but beyond that I like them. There personalities are unique and I like that.

Ethan is an amazingly creative thinker. The questions and observations he has make me think. Whether its his seeing glimpses of heaven in the clouds or his Dad did you know? Those did you knows have wonder in them.

Callie is incredibly sharp academically but also thinks about real life issues at 9 years old. She also articulates what she thinks well verbally and on paper. I think she writes as well now as I did beginning high school.

Yea, I know some of you are thinking "Don't they irritate you sometimes?" yea sometimes they try my patience. That is probably more my struggle than theirs though. And yea they do immature things that need some correction and training, but I still do also.

But most of the time it is a wonderous thing to me that I really like my kids. I have this suspicion that God is like that. Sure, we do immature things sometimes, but I think mostly He likes us and looks forward to spending time with us.

Thanks father God for reminding me that you mostly look forward to spending time with me and that you like me.

:: Approaching a large gathering place and time

We understand that church is not an event or place, it is a community of Jesus disciples going forward in extending the kingdom of God. Our goal in starting Resonance is not to only have times in peoples homes but to have a large gathering where we create an environment for people to come and experience the presence of God.

We are actively pursuing a place to create that environment in the Colony. Sunday nights is the time we have chosen to begin. I am hopeful we will find a place to meet at the front end of February. Our prayer is to use a church building that is not in use on Sunday nights and that we can bless the congregation of people who we connect with.

:: What theologian are you?

"Sin is incurable by the strength of man, nor does free will have any validity here, so that even the saints say: 'The evil which I do not wish, this I do.' 'You are not doing the things which you wish.' 'Since my loins are filled with illusions,' etc."

You are Martin Luther! Yeah, you have a way of letting everyone know how you feel, usually with Bible quotes attached, and will think your way through the issues, although sometimes you make no sense! You aren't always sure of yourself, and you can change your mind about things, something you actually consider a strength. You can take solitude, especially with some music.

What theologian are you?

A creation of Henderson

:: Fuel 2 January

Tonight we discussed some biblical postures of worship. Even that the most important posture of worshiping God is the posture of your heart. Authenticity is when our heart is saying "yes" to God and our outward actions are mirroring our heart.

We also talked about how coming to God to worship Him with our hearts is about community, not about a bunch of individuals worshipping. There is a different perspective for each of us as we realize we are coming to Him as community and our worship is about the whole community coming before His presence, ala Psalm 95.

Chris took us through a movement in Isaiah as we focused on coming into Gods presence. We sang with interludes of Isaiah 6 being read between songs. During that time we wrote out those obstacles that kept us from seeing God on a piece of paper and then put them in the fireplace. The fire was about us giving these items to God and then allowing Him to work in them. It wasn't about them being instantly gone. We recognize this is a journey we are on and along that journey there is wrestling that happens.

Mike also had a dream he felt was from God and shared it to our community. I ask him to send me a copy and will post it at some time.

I am privileged to have some people around me that are committed to this journey and most of all a God who is king of every king and over every other god. (psalm 95)

:: Indie Allies

Indie Allies seems to be growing some momentum in Dallas. Twelve of us met last night at Insomnia coffee bar. We had Kelly from Journey community, Kelly from Mars Hill, a few of us from Resonance, Abigail from the Greenhouse in Ft. Worth, John who is pastor of Axis a young adults group at a local church, Kevin, Erik and Heather, and other friends.

We talked about the heart of evangelism: authenticity, sincerity, and a heart to serve others. Discussion went many different ways. We actually had a couple of prayer requests at the end, people not only prayed but gave pertinent scriptures to those involved. There was a good sense of Koinonia as we headed out.

:: mission - community - mayhem

mission . community . mayhem was a conference for the emerging church held in the midwest. Take a look a some of the conversation on Jeremiah Smiths weblog.

Here is a statement from Brian McClaren at the conference:

I became a Christian in the Jesus movement days. I’ve come to know a lot of Jesuses through the years. A Calvinist Jesus. A TV preacher Jesus. A Pentecostal Jesus. A CBN Jesus. A big Republican Jesus. I haven’t seen a democratic Jesus in a while As a kid I remember the picture of Jesus embracing all the different kinds of kids (Black, Asian, Native American, etc.) I feel like as an adult I’m trying to learn who that Jesus is. Ever feel like you need to unlearn about 2/3 of what you know? I’d like to start a new movement called Fundamentalism. There are only two fundamentals. Love God and Love your neighbor.

Wow, what a statement? What if these two fundamentals became our ecclesiology, our doctrinal statement and were what all our values were centered around?

:: Missional communities: the dancing hand of God

I was reading an article on Allelon called leadership within missional communities by Todd Hunter tonight which is a great read by the way. Anyway Todd reminded me of something John Wimber spoke of. In 1 Corinthians 12 the word manifestations which is the greek "phanerosis" can refer to the dancing hand of God.

That is such a beautiful picture to me that these gifts of the spirit or graces that God gives manifest on people as God hands dances around the body of Christ. There is a flow and a gracefullness to that picture. It is as if God is creating His own movement within His people and imparting portions of grace.

My thought was toward our emerging communities being missional. I know God extends his grace in the context of the community of faith, but I also contend that God uses this community as it goes into the world (workplace and marketplace) in the very same way. His dancing hand wants to use us to impart grace upon those we are around every day. We are part of Gods creative movement on the earth.

I liken this with a play that has two acts. For a complete story you have to have both parts. For us as the community of faith we come together and experience Gods presence. This is act 1. In it He gives us encouragement, love and empowerment. Act 2 is the natural progression of the story. We then go and extend this love, encouragement and empowerment to a broken world that has not experienced His love.

May we not only be the recipients of God dancing hand, but the vessels through which God works in our generation.

:: Blog census

Take a look at various blog information on the NITLE Census News. One interesting graph shows what percentage of bloggers are male, what percentage female, a group, or unknown.

:: Bloggin connections

I got to hang out with Chris Marlow today at Starbucks. Chris is another emerging foursquare church planter who is about to plant in Raleigh North Carolina. Chris and I met through bloggin. I think we have alot in common and may even work together on a church planting bulletin board. It is interesting to me, there seems to be this grassroots thing that God is doing all around the U.S. that involves people from all denominations and no denominations that call themselves emerging. I see it as God moving on the hearts on men and women to reach a generation for the kingdom. I pumped to have met and connected with yet another kindred heart in the kingdom.

It was cool to hear about Chris vision to not only plant a church but plant a church that plants churches (say all that fast five times).

:: Fuel moves into 2004

Tonight at Fuel we ate dinner together.

After dinner we went over our calendar and then began to talk of what God was doing among us.

As Resonance moves into 2004 the Lord is giving us some simple guidance and encouragement:

1. Simplicity:
In a world that is busy and noisy we are to simplify. Simplify our lifestyles so we can embrace being disciples of Christ and embrace being on the disciples journey with a community of faith.

2. Prayer, Praise, and the Word are to be a centerpiece at Resonance.
This may not happen in exacting slices like 20 minutes for prayer, 20 minutes for the word, and 20 minutes of praise. We think God is going to be creative and meld these three. The form that takes may be different each time we meet. But these practices of touching the eternal God are primary in our ecclesiology.

3. God is going to give us a second wind
As we have made this transition and began this new journey there has been much pruning in our lives. We believe there will be some fresh wind that catches our sails and helps us get to Gods desired journey. Zephaniah 3:14-21 outlines: God will take away your judgements, He will rejoice over us with gladness and He will bring exiles to us.

4. We are shedding old skins and putting on new clothes.
Leaving our lives of last year have been tough, especially the things we loved about them, but we hear God is helping us shed old skins that we might embrace a new time and fresh clothes that will be a blessing to the kingdom of God.

5. The message of God's incredible love at the cross is what we are to preach.
We are pretty sure that today if the gospel was packaged the Ressurection would be in bright colors and in bold glittery print. There might be a small tagline on the back of the package in letters hard to read: to get ressurection you must first go to the cross. Yet it is the cross that is significant in showing us how much God loved us. In the cross there is great sacrifice, their is pain and suffering, there is incredible servanthood. It is at the cross that Gods love for us shines the brightest.

:: devotional life

I have decided to begin to use innerterranova as my devotional blog this year. I will then have thoughts, images and unlearning as my primary thoughts and faith stories as an emerging church expo. My desire is to stir the word in my heart this year in blog form.

:: Kansas City

I just got back from my yearly trek to Kansas City for the "One Thing" young adult conference. Shane, Chris, Justin and I made the journey this year. As always the Lord met us in some dramatic ways while there. There is no way you can be in 24 hours of worship, have hours to sit in the IHOP prayer room, and listen to God speak to you to a variety of ways and not be different in some way.

The "one thing" conference is set up with three major sessions each day. They lead off with about an hour to two hours of worship, ministry time, and a speaker. It seems there is musician after musician that come from the IHOP group themselves that are very gifted but at the same time have a heart for worship that lead the worship times. Of course Charlie Hall, Delirious and Jason Upton also took us into the worship of the King. There are so many times in worship at the conference that I would stop worshiping because God was either speaking something to me in my heart or He was having me just be still before His awesome presence.

Then there are the prayer rooms that go on while the conference is going. Since IHOP has 24/7 prayer and worship, they move the prayer times to the convention center while the conference is going on. The prayer room has a worship team leading prayer and worship musically. You see hundreds of people praying, reading their bibles, or just resting in the presence of God in the prayer rooms. I found myself just hanging out and praying this year there often. I think our whole group was like that.

More later . . .

:: The end of a year

The wife, kids, and I went to look at Christmas lights last night. I enjoy riding around and just spending some time with the family. Callie and Ethan both enjoy all the unique ways that people decorate their places on Christmas.
This was the first year in a while that it was just us on Christmas day. Christmas was very simple for us, opening a few gifts, sharing what we were thankful about in 2004, and remembering why God called us to come to North Dallas. We then hung out at the house drinking our hot chocolate, orange crush, and eating cheese cake and lemon chess pie. I am so going to need to hit the work out trail again soon.

As we approach 2004 a plan is materializing for our community structure. We are really deepening our relationships with the core team and now we want to reach more into the community. In January we will put some a bit more detailed structure into place. Mind you when I say structure I use that term loosely. We also want to be organic in letting God do what He wants.

I am looking forward to 4 days in Kansas City at the "one thing" conference. It will be an opportunity to set aside 4 days of hearing from God. I also will look forward to the trip to KC with Shane, Chris, Justin, and myself. There will be much time to toss around ideas and share about our journeys. I anticipate coming back from the conference with a fresh heart that will help propel me into 2004.

I've been contemplating and evaluating my own spiritual walk lately and have come to the conclusion that I am too heavy in the learning area and not heavy enough in a devotional bible intake. I want to build in my schedule a healthy dose of both learning and devotional life. When I begin reading and learning too much and not have enough devotional time, I begin to get dry spiritually.

:: What Christmas is all about?

Hear Linus tell us what Christmas is about: linus.wav

:: An Aussie Christmas story

I ran across this bit from Lukes gospel on Richard Botts blog. It is from the new Aussie Bible. Enjoy!

When Libby was six months gone, God sent the same angel—this Gabriel bloke—to a backblocks town called Nazareth, in Galilee shire, to a nice young girl who was engaged to the local carpenter, Joe Davidson. Her name was Mary.

The angel said to her, “G’day Mary. You are a pretty special sheila. God has his eye on you.”

Mary went weak at the knees, and wondered what was going on.

But the angel said to her, “Don’t panic, don’t chuck a wobbly. God thinks you’re okay. You’re about to become pregnant, and you’ll have a son, and you’re to call him Jesus. He will be a very big wheel, and will be called the Son of God Most High. God will give him the throne of his father—your ancestor—King David, and he will be in charge of the whole show forever.”

“But how?” said Mary. “Joe and I have done the right thing, we’ve never ... well, you know. I mean to say, I’m still a virgin.”

The angel answered, “Leave the mechanics up to God. This is heavenly stuff. God’s Spirit will come upon you, and the Big Brain behind the Big Bang will manipulate the necessary molecules to make it happen ... Look, even Libby, your old cousin, is preggers—at her age! God can do these things ...”

“God’s in charge,” Mary answered. “If that’s what God wants, then it’s what I want.”

Then the angel nicked off and left her alone.

(Luke 1:26-38 as retold by Kel Richards)

:: Weblog glossary

Take a look at the weblog glossary in Gaurdian unlimited. Many people use language that is common only to bloggers.

:: The pain of grace

When Jesus extends grace to us, it is an amazing grace. Grace gives His unmerited favor. Not only do we not merit that grace because of our sin, but we deserve justice. I get overwhelmed when I think of the boundless grace that God pours out to me. He pours when I am doing "well" and He pours when I am doing "poor". I am so thankful for the reality of grace.

Yet when that reality of grace needs to come from our end, it is not an easy process many times. It requires a pain extended when you need to give grace and it is unmerited. I appreciated Jordon Coopers honesty in his post called "the pain of the longview" as he wrestles with giving grace when it is not necessarily deserved.

I have read Jordons site for years and continue to read there because of the value of the content that embraces a wide scope of life.

:: Dude, somebody stold all my old shoutouts!

Hey,
Anyone out there know how to get back all the old shout outs I lost. I don't know where they are or where they went.

:: Death, where is your victory?

My grandmother died this week. My emotions are very mixed. The one side of me is deeply sad. Sad that I will not be blessed with living life with my grandmother anymore. I will certainly continue to be blessed by the character she portrayed in this life. She always had strong boundaries and a sense of right and wrong. She was very family oriented, always wanting the whole family to be together at holidays and special times. She was always taking care of me, my sisters, her own kids, and great grandkids.

I will miss the house at 1804 N. Ave G in Haskell, Texas. The place that has always been a refuge for me my whole life. The only place I am connected with that has always been there. But no longer, it will be sold now. I have so many memories in that house. Even though it is an inanimate object made of wood and brick, I feel my life is interwoven in its fiber. So there is loss this week in my soul.

Yet at the same time there is great rejoicing in my heart knowing that my grandmother is in the presence of Jesus. I partnered with a local pastor in her funeral and I told the people my talk about grandmother being with Jesus was not pie in the sky that I hope would console us all. No, it is more a reality than what I can touch, smell, hear, or see. To quote an old hymn "My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness". In other words there is a solidity in my trust in Jesus that goes beyond my own senses and my own reality of this world.

It some ways, I am jealous of my grandmother, being in the eternal presence of the saviour of my soul. The Bible says that heaven is a place where there are no tears nor pain. It tells me Jesus went before me to prepare a place. It says that there are mansions up there. I will look forward to a future day when I will again be in the presence of my grandmother and we will be in the presence or our Lord.

:: Sheep comics

I ran across sheepcomics as I was looking at reading Marc van der Woude's blog. Take a look a sheepcomics. This particular one should be read by anyone who has gone to seminary.

:: Indie Allies

About eight of us met at Standard and Pours last night in Dallas. It was an enjoyable evening. Erik from Harbor Point joined Mark and I for the drive over. We caught up with the goings on in our communites. We also dialogued about what it takes to make a church or a community of faith and a bit about just the evil or good of advertising. We took a tour of the art gallery around the corner, a very cool place where an emerging group called linc meets for their corporate gathering. Rolando Diaz had some of his work on display.

:: Deconstruction takes work

Derridas ideas about deconstruction are so relevant to the conversation in the emerging church. We have methods, habits, and language that is burned out, so burned out it is becoming useless. So somehow as a new generation finds Christ, we (Christ followers) have to find ways to communicate the authentic gospel and authentic Jesus again. We have to deconstruct what church has become, what love has become, what the whole church culture has become and find a freshness in the reality of being a Christ follower.

About six years ago I began reading and dialoguing with others about postmodernism. I went to some conferences about postmodernism in the church and began to pick up books on the topic especially Len Sweets stuff. I even visited some new communities trying to deconstruct old models and try new ones. There were so many things about postmodernism and how those making this postmodern transition thought that connected with me. It is not like I learned about it and decided to try it. It is more like I learned and realized this fits who I am better than a lot of modern paradigms.

Here is my struggle now. I do believe culture is in a postmodern transition. I think God has called me to be a bridge from modernity to postmodernity. I think God has called me to be a part of communities that are making changes on the journey to become the voice of God in this new evolving culture. Yet now I am seeing the other side of the coin called me. I still have a whole lot to deconstruct. Even though I desire newness and freshness, I am steeped in modern ideas, methods and habits.

I've realized this journey I am on will take work and intentionality if I really want to go there. And then a thought takes me to the reality that all of our journeys with Christ should be like this. Christ in us is deconstructing old ways, old methods of living, old and burned out language. Yes, I need to be intentional about following Christ with all the struggles that are inherit with that journey. The cool thing is, there are a ton of real people who are on the journey with me.

I embrace the journey of deconstructing and letting Christ reconstruct in me.

:: FUEL 2 December

Tonight was good conversation over good food. I am realizing how important food is to community dynamic. Why is it we seem more relaxed when food is in the equation? There may be a grace that flows from food. We spent some time speaking what we appreciated about others in our community. We are truly becoming a team before our eyes.

I appreciated how everyone had not only involvement in the conversation but insight into what God is up to among us.

We talked tonight about how Monday night FUEL had evolved more toward a core meeting and now we need to look at how we can add the time where visitors connect with our community. Tonight it seems organic and good.

Sunday we are taking the whole morning for prayer, planning, and discovery.

:: Slammed

Have you ever been in a football game and gotten blindsided. It basically happens when you are runnnig one way and right as you change directions some other drooling player from the opposing team hits you. Usually because its not expected and you are not preparing to be hit, this tenancious maneuver puts you on your backside feeling like you were just in a car wreck. When this happens you spit the dirt out of your mouth, pull the grass out of your facemask, and check to make sure there are no major body parts missing or severely damaged. Then you fight back the pain and try to look tough because your playing football and everybody knows football players are tough. And if the other player smacked you good, your breath has mysteriously gone out of your body and can not be found momentarily. You have to wait for that breath to mysteriously come back.

That is what yesterday afternoon felt like to me. Emotionally it was like somebody blindsided me. It came out of the blue and knocked my breath away. For about eight hours I tried to find my spiritual breath and emotional strength and found it not. I can't help but wonder if this was spiritual warfare. I have been reminded today that prayer is not just about me and God having a great relationship. Prayer is about being prepared for the slams of the enemy. Reading Gods word is not to learn about what not to do, but as a preventative for the hurdles of life that come our way. I was reminded today that there is no cruising in this Christian life. No, I'm not saying you can't have fun. I am saying that not seeing the seriousness of the cosmic battle going on for men and women is a grave undersight.

Lord, we are strangers and aliens here. Help us to have a divine perspective. Our existence on the earth is about extending your rule and reign. Continue to remind us who we are and why were here.

:: Fuel 1 December

Group dynamic seems to be the forefront of this months FUEL. In the past week and a half we have become a community. In previous FUEL meetings there was the feel that there was a group of people new to each other meeting together. All of the sudden our core people feel like a core. There is ownership of the vision from others beside myself. It is an exciting time. The other side of things is a caution in myself that we keep a heart to welcome anyone and everyone who comes through our lives.

There is a sense down deep in me that it is a time for us to shift. I cast the vision of our community again Monday night. In this preparation I also cast vision for what we are not. We are not called to be a network of house churches. We are not called to be a small group bible study. There may be small gatherings in the overall picture but that isn't our main purpose. We are called to create environments where people can encounter the living God.
We are praying about places and times to transition to. We our already outgrowing a small apartment especially with kids to think of.

:: Community Dining

Yesterday after the services at Harbor Point the Res community all brought food and had lunch at Chris and Kristis' house. It was a good time of fellowship and laughter. We are going to begin to do Sunday lunch on a consistant basis.

:: The Call Dallas

I was able to get over to the Call Dallas Saturday for a few hours. It was encouraging seeing so many young people with a desire to seek after Gods face. One young man spoke of how the enemy had tried to destroy a godly generation through the agency of aborition. This is a generation that God has called to impact the world. This particular young man said he had a vision and in that vision the voices of the aborted were crying out, give my gifts and calling to those still on the earth to fulfill the kingdom purposes in this generation. They cried give it to that one Lord, give it to this one Lord.

As we worshipped at the cotton bowl, I found myself praying that God would show me how to serve this young generation. I desire to lift them up and help them see Gods manifest purposes fulfilled through there lives.
I also began to offer myself up to God. I thought God I don't have extreme gifts and talents but I have a willing heart. I give that willing heart to you God. I know I have feet of clay, but I give it all to you God to use for your glory.

:: the three false prophets of modernity

I read a sharp article on the importance of community from a biblical perspective. The article was put together from a series of messages at the Vineyard national conference last year by Berten Waggoner. Read Building a Community of Hope in a Despairing World pt 1.

He said there was a trinity in modernity that was the ultimate in presumption. You had science promising to rid the world of disease. This false prophet told us given enough time even death would be conquered. Then you have technology which promised that any problem could be solved given the right tool, method, or technology. Then there was education. Education boasted that as ignorance was removed evil would be eradicated on the earth. After half a dozen wars, 9-11 and other terrorist acts, AIDS, weapons of mass destruction, poverty, and evils growing all over the world, it is obvious to this generation that the promises of these three were greatly exaggerated. They were in fact false prophets basing there pompous promises on the wisdom of men.

Berten proposes that the community of faith is the way to showing a despairing world there is hope in Jesus Christ.

Check out Bertens full article on the front page of Vineyardusa's site.

:: the move

Saturday, Chris and Kristi made the big move over to this area. The Lord has blessed them with involvement with the Apartment Life ministry. Basically they get their rent paid by Apartment Life to be activity coordinators for an apartment complex. We believe this is an awesome place for a church planting family to be.

I am glad Chris is a former youth director. We had lots of help on the move.

:: Fuel 3 November

Monday night was the next step for our community. On all our journeys there are identifying points along the way. With your kids your remember first steps, first words, particular Christmases. I will remember last nights FUEL as the first cohesive coming together of the people in a community with a common sense of purpose. It is not that community hasn't happened before now, but there was some dynamic that has happened among us that has solidified this call of God from a vision God gave me to plant a church to a community God has brought together to pursue this purpose.

Mike did a good job of teaching no the life of Paul. We looked at the many influencers in Pauls life early. Stephen when he was stoned and asked the Father to forgive those involved. Paul was there watching Stephens Christ-like character. Ananias was obedient to God to go and pray for this controversial character recently converted named Saul of Tarsus. Then there was Barnabus, who risked his good reputation to bring Paul into the community of faith and stayed with Paul encouraging Him. Our lives are not to be to promote our individual ministries or even our community of faith for that matter, but to be those who will serve to see the kingdom of God extended whether through us or through others.

The aftermath of FUEL went into our next step as a community. We want to let people know we are here to gather people in, but at the same time don't want to lift our name up. We want Jesus to have the high place in all our doings.

On a practical level Mike pointed out how I might be too cautious in wanting everything to be just right and that we need to jump out and take some risks. I agree totally with this and am thankful as a community we already are seeing various people take roles that will see the whole community blessed.

As one old friend encouraged me at the beginning of this journey "Enjoy the ride". I like this ride called church planting, it is definitely an e-ticket.

:: Developing friendships and theology

As Shane was here this week, it seems we have had so many conversations that went toward our understanding God and His ways. There were many differing combinations of people and dialogues.

Shane and I have had long discussions this week on what are the basic elements of a church. We realized we both came at the subject from different ways. My way was to see the church as the people getting together and what they did. His way was more looking at the God purposed structure of a church to define it. We both gained a better understanding of the concept of the church as we discussed this for a couple of hours.

We also have been talking about our completeness in Christ and how that works out in our lives. It is that we are already complete in Christ but not yet. It is done. It was finished as Christ died on the cross, but we are still working out our salvation with fear and trembling. It is the already, but not yet of the kingdom that we currently live in.

Dialoguing with Shane this week has given me a much better view of where we are at as a community. We have equippers, worshipers, people who love children, people who are encouragers. I like the community God is building. Not that it really matters that I like it or not, but it is nice to be community with fellow travelers who work well together.

:: Fuel 3 November

Three guitars creating a very calm worship ambiance was a highlight of Fuel 3. It was a worship unplugged evening. We also were blessed with our friend Shane Kuhn joining us. It was a God send night. Shane brought a prophetic word to our budding community. It was centered in that our primary purpose needed to be listening for God and what God was up to and not taking the latest strategy we had read about and adopting it. I'll blog more in depth later on the prophecy.

Our discussion came from Luke 10 revolving around the story of Mary and Martha. It was a joy to hear many people fill out what God was saying to us through His word. We talked about possible obstacles for both Mary and Martha in sitting at the Lord's feet and focusing on Him.

:: Indie Allies

The Independent Christian thinkers meeting called Indie Allies was Tuesday night in Dallas. The meetings are made up of many emerging church folks from all over the metroplex. We have met people from existing emerging churches, traditional churches that having meetings that fit more of an emerging church environment, and people who just want to be in the dialogue.

Tuesday night we were at Standard and Pours coffee house in Dallas. Mark and I made the journey over. They make an awesome chai tea. I think Mark went for the frozen expresso with caramel and chocolate. Our conversation went many different ways, but we did rest on postmodern evangelism for a while. I think all of us agreed that relationships were primary. We also talked about how we live in community and how we live out the faith together is crucial for pre-christians. Pre-christians may even become part of the community before they embrace following Christ.

I have found Indie Allies to be not only a good dialogue but an important one as our community connects with the larger community of Christ in this area.

:: Fuel 2 November

Chris and Mark facilitated last weeks Fuel while I was away coaching church plant teams. It was our largest group yet. Chris directed discussion on worship and how our lives are wrapped around that concept.

This week we had basically our committed core. Our conversation went toward what we hear God saying to us. Much of our dialogue went toward the concept of community and how important that was. Chris came up with a great illustration. We have been talking about HOC lanes (High occupancy community). The freeways here have HOV lanes (high occupancy vehicles). Chris gave the analogy of these lanes. When you are in community you are moving much faster than the rest of the traffic. When driving alone you are stuck at a slower pace. We realize as we all are just moving here and forming our lives we have an opportunity to mold community in a way that God is calling us. We are not all stuck in the traffic of busyness that happens so often in our society. We are looking forward to see how God unfolds community for us.

Another concept that was brought up last night was the importance of inviting people we meet into relationship, not into an organization. Church for us is a web of relationships. Each person who we encounter is a possible relationship for us and or for our community.

Our prayer: Lord direct us in this postmodern age, this pre-Christian society to be the community of Christ followers you would have us be.

:: Church planter fever

Last week I had an amazing opportunity to be a coach at a Church Planting intensive put on by the Foursquare denomination in which we are part of. There were seven teams from this part of the country. I truly had the sense of serving other people who are partnering in the harvest. Jesus said the harvest is plentiful and the workers are few.

I appreciated Foursquares balance of the practical and the spiritual. Each team had times to discover the vision God had put in their heart, the values that were within them, the mission God had for them, and practical ways to reach others with the gospel. We also had times of worship and prayer. God showed up in powerful ways, speaking encouraging words to the planting teams, empowering them, healing them.

I consider it a privilege and an honor to be able to be involved in this opportunity. I pray even with our small community as it grows that we will never lose sight of serving other communities of faith in their attempts to spread the gospel of our Lord.

:: Themes forming

As we learn to navigate living in a large urban area like the Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex some themes are coming forth for our community.

The first is that of community itself. We understand that it is not enough to have a series of events each week to be a church. A true church is a true community where people are involved with one another and truly on this journey together, rejoicing with one another and crying with one another.

It seems to be community in this place we will have to eliminate busyness and other activities that keep us from community, we will have to consolidate our time with others who are in community. If you can travel with two, it is much better than traveling with one because community is happening. If your kids can participate in activities with others in the community, the community becomes stronger.

Inviting people into community is not inviting them into an organization. It is inviting them into friendship. Friendship with the community and friendship with our God.

Another them that is key is worship. Worship is a gateway to connecting with the kingdom of God here on the earth. Jesus asked us to pray "Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven". It is our design to be those that extend the kingdom here on the earth and worship is a gateway that connects us with that design. Worship empowers us, encourages us and moves us. Most of all worship connects us with the maker of the Universe and invites our maker to direct us in His purposes.

:: Church Planter training

This week I will be an assistant trainer at a church planter training. It feels a little premature considering we are just a couple of months old and still in initial birthing stages, but I really sensed God saying go when the opportunity presented itself. Anyway we can encourage the extension of the kingdom of God fits for me.

Anyone that read this pray for 6 church planting teams that will be trained this week, that they would hear God and clarify their callings.

:: Garage sales: divine appointments

God continues a trend for us in touching the community. This week I spoke with Ann Moore, she invited us to meet people at garage sales at her appointment complex which she was coordinating. We never know what relationships will develop from meeting various people. We pray God leads us and connects us to people who are not in the kingdom or are hungry for more of the kingdom of God.

My deluxe purchase this week was a stuffed quail. It may make a great Christmas present for someone. Don't tell if you read this post. We also found some CD's we liked for .75

A new suggestion to all Garage salers: put signs out somewhere beyond your property, preferably on major thoroughfares if you want people to come.

:: Fuel 4 Oct

At Fuel our conversation went toward brokenness and pain in our lives. We read a portion from Henri Nouwen. The overview was that as followers of Christ we should embrace our brokenness and part of our existence. It is easy as a follower of Christ to push down any pain and brokenness in our lives and act like life is okay and we are okay when in reality we are wrestling.

Life is journey, and on the journey there is pain. It is inevitable. The world is not a redeemed world. It is still full of its own brokenness and sin. God is there though to guide us in our pain. Jesus even identified with all the sufferings that we deal with when He was on the earth.

I know in my own journey a welcome healing from pain and brokenness comes as my heart is turned toward God in worship. There is an encouragement that comes from Him in that time and space. Many times there is a calm that comes when I can worship Him admist the pain. A calm that doesn't take away the pain, but a calm that seems to say "It's okay, I'm there".