A New Event JAM-PACKED with Fun and Purpose

That’s right- “If and overnighter and a retreat had a baby, this is what it would be.”

We are really excited to be taking 100 Senior High Students and Leaders on what should be one of the coolest, most jam-packed overnight trip to Ft. Wayne… EVER. It all takes place on March 9-10 and you really don’t want to miss it!

During our worship times and group times, we are going to be taking a serious look at Matthew 5:16 and focus in on these words: “Let Your Light Shine.” Come join us!

Here’s how it works:

  • Friday Night: Komets Hockey Game, Food, Worship, Stay in a Hotel
  • Saturday Morning: TAWG, Food, Laser Tag
  • Saturday Afternoon: Food, Worship, Jesus
  • Saturday Night: Jesus, Food, Jesus
  • Home by 8:30pm.

This might be the best event for $42 if you sign up by Sunday. The Final Deadline is February 26 and the cost goes up to $50. We are staying in a hotel and it’s going to be an awesome time to bond together and have a ton of fun. If you have questions, email me or send me a facebook message!

Helping a Student Know

Last Wednesday, Derry, at the end of the message portion, offered students the opportunity to respond, by standing, to their recognition of what God was doing in their heart. Many stood in response to the two different opportunities, whether that was to accept a relationship with Him for the first time or to reaffirm a relationship and not the standards of religion. Afterward, I had a leader ask me how to revisit the night, and those decisions, in their small group the next week. I gave her three pointers. Continue reading

What If You Stopped Thinking About It?

Psalm 37:4-6 says,  ”Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun.” I guess I just wonder what it would mean to commit our ways to the Lord, to trust in him, to take him at his word. To allow him to shine on us and reflect His Glory, reflect His Power, His Presence, shine to all those around us. Continue reading

Friday Feature #2: New Crowder Epic Album

Is it really over? If you can believe it, the David Crowder* Band has performed their last concert and they have produced their last album. And this album is absolutely epic. One of the most creative albums I have ever listened to by one of the greatest pioneers of creative music in Christian music (still not sure what that means).

In other words, this is 34 tracks of absolute greatness. I might be biased as this is probably one of my favorite bands of all time, but seriously, it’s like the guys just said, “We don’t care. It’s our last one. And we are gonna just do whatever!” It’s awesome. They even have a number of songs that are straight bluegrass and best-of-all they are hymns!

Favorite song(s)[In Order of Rank]: After All (Holy); Let Me Feel You Shine; Oh Great God, Give Us Rest; Leaning on the Everlasting Arms/Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus (Medley)

Definitely worth check into. They have even jumped to #1 album on iTunes and remained there for at least 2 days!

Friday Feature #1: PROMISES Blog

Wanted to let you know about some pretty cool things that are out on the web that YOU can check out:

My church has organized a fantastic effort to share stories, scripture, and unite the family through a little blog called “PROMISES.” Each day, I think, there is a new post that goes up from someone inside the Church. It’s pretty cool and I love what it does for connecting our church body. If you are a part of that NMC family, be sure to check it out and maybe even share your own!

Getting Ahead of Life

I was working through a rough season in my life where I had the hardest time figuring out a funk that I was in and could not shake. Allow me to define “funk” real quick. See a funk is a moment in your life, a vapor if you will, where us over analyzers find themselves unable to explain the bottle of emotions and feelings that we feel. For me, it seemed like everything I would do, I would find myself second guessing everything that I was trying to undertake.

I began to question many things, but quickly realized that if you ask a bunch of questions without answering any of them, then all you have is a bunch of questions and no answers. I also came to realize that when you are in a funk, most times it comes when the reality that is your life does not line up with our desired reality. We find ourselves in a perception of reality that is not true and typically could be best described as some sort of a “dream world” of ideology and, ultimately, ignorance. We get ahead of our life.

Sure, there is a time to dream and allow ourselves to dream a bit; get a grip on what our passions are and what we want our lives to describe when we arrive at certain points in those lives. However, there is something paralyzing when we don’t come back to the hard work of reality and the ultimate need for discipline in the hear and now.

In Matthew 24, Jesus is teaching his closest disciples about His second coming and the events that would lead up to the ultimate end of the current age and the dawn of a new, permanent season of holiness and righteousness that will come about the earth. After taking time to lay all of that out, in verse 25, “See, I have told you ahead of time.” Jesus then goes on to describe how many will come and try and convince the disciples that they are the Christ and that the Second Coming had taken place. And he says what he says in verse 25 so they can be prepared.

There are some things that God implants in us to help guide us into his ultimate Will for our lives. Some of these things are events and opportunities that will happen in the near future. Still some of them are more distant things; things that are far from our grasp right now. But these things are not put in us to paralyze us from the current realities that are our lives. Instead of focusing on the next step or the 14th step in the process that is my life, I need to be vigilant in pursuing the next step, the immediate next step, for my life.

The future will come. The plans that he has for us will produce fruit. In their time. He tells us these things so that we can know what is coming up and we will know that it is his will. Let’s not forget the dreams that he has for us for today. Let’s not miss what is in front of us today.

New Year starts with Jesus

The first time I went to this conference was in 2010.

It was very obvious to me that Jesus was there. I was able to confirm a few things that week in my life that have remained true of who Jesus had created me to be.

I am blessed to be going back this year. This time as pastor with the goal of exposing some students to a movement that is incredibly influential in the life of 18-25 year olds across the globe. I can honestly say, I’m probably more stoked for this year’s conference than when I went the last time because I get to share it.

The fact is, we come together for the sake of Jesus. We sing because of Jesus. We go to meet with Jesus. We go to hear from Jesus.

I’m really excited for this year’s conference and can’t wait to see how Jesus meets with all of us this year.

The awesome thing about this year is, YOU CAN FOLLOW ALONG! Passion is awesome about trying to extend the experience to you. Check out this page and follow along starting at 7pm on Monday Night!

I can’t wait and I can’t wait to hear from Jesus.

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Fuse Your Life

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A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.” Jesus was indignant. He reached out his hand and touched the man. ”I am willing,” he said. ”Be clean!” Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed. Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: ”See that you don’t tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.” Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere. – Mark 1:40-45

I have fallen in love with this story. It is absolutely amazing. I’m going to talk about it more tonight, but I am amazed about one not-so-obvious observation that is very clear in this situation.

The moment that Jesus says, “I am willing,” He makes a decision to do many things, one of which is to heal the man and completely change his life forever. But he does something that is so incredibly profound and it isn’t even something so supernatural that you need to be God to do it. Continue reading

Be Truthful, Not Nice

My buddy, Joel Runyon, wrote a post a few weeks ago called “Nice People Don’t Change the World.” It got me thinking about something similar but connected to the relationships we have in our lives.

So often, most times in romantic relationships, we find ourselves trying to be “nice” when trying to express something that might be difficult to understand, hear, or accept. So, we sugarcoat whatever we are trying to say but not being completely truthful or not revealing all that needs to be shared. And this creates more problems than it resolves. Continue reading