The Sunday Takeaway

Thoughts...behind the scenes...bloopers

Love the set this week...so much joy.
First song was new. No idea what it was called but it was awesome. If I were a bettin' man I'd say it was called Deep Waters.

Child Dedications in the morning were awesome. So much new life in our church...love it.
Something special about the Stirring surrounding these families committing to be a part of the journey for these little ones!

I got up and called a bank shot! That was crazy. I had a dream the night before and then God started speaking to me about what he wants to do and the dreams he has for us as a community. We are preparing for $145,000 offering to pay for some of the expenses in our new space and it was clear that God was saying we weren't dreaming big enough. $145,000 is a manageable and well thought through amount, but I was reminded that God's dreams don't have budgets! So we're asking for the whole thing. Let's pay off the whole building before the first day we move in. Nothing is impossible with God. 2.25 million. I'm calling it...bank shot! We need more testimony of God doing the impossible not people celebrating manageable budgets.

Nate's message was so needed for our community. We are trying to build a culture where every dating and married couple are surrounded in community, covered by older couples, and have a plan. I think it created great language for us to ask every couple that comes into our church. Don't disappear in your dating. We don't want a like, unlike option to your engagement on facebook or an invitation to your wedding as an event. We want to be a part of the journey.
From the first date to the final breath couples should be deeply planted and protected in community. (that's without my notes but I'm pretty sure after 3 gatherings I have it memorized :)

Funny moment: Nate talking about the next series we're starting and he says the church is in Deep Shift! Everyone is cracking up and he's playing it straight like he has no idea...classic.

Favorite moment of the day: Josiah leaving his keyboard at night, grabbing his mic and gettin' his joy of the Lord on! It was awesome. He brings much needed joy to our church.

What a great day.
I'd love to hear your takeaway!

The Sunday Takeaway

I started a consistent Monday post last week about my Sunday Takeaway.
I spoke this week so I'm not going to do a takeaway on myself...that would just be weird.
Emily wrote a blog with a pretty sweet recap...check it out.

So here's some behind the scenes madness from the day:
- if you didn't notice we crammed 3,498 things into each gathering
- worship, offering, covenant, Barbers, Kingdom Healing conference, We love campaign w/ video, me speaking, and Aaron sending out. It might not seem like it but we work really hard to be clear and flow. We cut 17 things out. It's a busy season for us.

Funniest moments:
- Luke came up to me at the end and told me it wasn't my sweatband or orange shorts that were distracting...it was my crazy white legs! Amazing.

- Comments my beard left about my message on Facebook. I have no idea who started a profile as my beard. Little creepy, kind of hilarious.

- Giving a message on stage with a "Club Cougar" sign behind me...awkward.

Greatest moment of the day:
- Got a facebook request from someone I just met yesterday. This was her status today: "I made a public commitment to God, Jesus and The Stirring today! I feel so fantastic and I’m so excited to be part of this family!"

I'd love to hear your takeaway! Long live the roosters!

Speaking on Sunday

So I went running by myself on Wednesday morning in the complete darkness on the Clover Creek trail. I was terrified.
God showed me some things.
I talked about those things with Nate.
Now I'm gonna share those things on Sunday at the Stirring.
Here's a hint in the form of key words...
Friends, elderly women with dogs, roosters, machete's, 9 irons, and experience
Come to think of it, that's a great title for the message.
If you want to know more...show up Sunday.
Life Together.
Running in the dark...

The Sunday Takeaway

I'm working through consistent posts that I'd like to become staples for the new blog.
I'm thinking about a weekly post about our Stirring gatherings...don't hold me to it.

- The Sunday Takeaway: I sit through 2-3 gatherings every week for the Stirring. We put a lot of time and prayer into what happens on a weekend. The Sunday Takeaway will be the notes in my moleskin that have stars next to them, or something special that God did, or a behind the scenes look at something that went down, or something hilarious that happened that most people didn't see. Here's my takeaway from today...

Jenna and Ashley did a great job leading worship. Ashley shared a testimony of God healing her legal blindness at the 11am gathering...super powerful...felt like it built a ton of faith in our family.

The funny moment of the morning was Nate backing up and almost bailing over the stool that we always set up in the middle of where we speak. I sit up front and watch Nate dance around it every week. This week his calculation was a little off. He played it off nicely :)

Nate taught on hearing God's voice in community. Encouragement, wisdom, words of knowledge, and prophecy. He's taught on spiritual gifts before and I think he has given the most solid teachings on the subject that I've ever heard. Here's the quote in my moleskin with the star next to it. It context of talking about words of knowledge, Nate said, "God gives us words of knowledge for people because He wants them to know that He knows." That was really powerful for me. Something I shared at the end of the gathering is a prayer that I made at the beginning of the year. I told God that I wanted to be faithful with every word that he gives me this year. Even if it terrifies me I want to be obedient when God gives me his heart to share with others. One thing I know about the kingdom of God is that when you are faithful with a little you can be entrusted with more. I want to be faithful with every prompting of the spirit in my life.

At the end of the gathering I prayed for a man that I met last week that is deaf and has brain cancer. It was an amazing moment to join his wife in tears and translation as we brought his situation before the God of the universe. Nothing is impossible with God.

Great Sunday.
I'd love to hear your takeaway.
Until next week...

My life right now

Schedule....schedule....schedule.
Times, dates, subs, volunteers, meetings, design, budget, finishes, sound, lights, video, kitchen, seating, concrete, toilets, sinks, colors, lights, signs, landscape, communication, fundraising, strategy.
Lately I feel like I'm going a little crazy.
I just feel like someones going to come into my office one day and I'll be covered in sticky notes, with string and notes posted over every square inch of my office like in Beautiful Mind. I'll be in the fetal position in the corner sucking my thumb.
If that happens please don't take a picture and post it on Facebook...that would be a bummer.
What's your life like right now?

18 peeps in my living room

I love the first night of a Life Group.
Who's gonna show up?
How many awkward moments?
Is anyone gonna show up?

18 amazing people came through the door tonight...I'm stoked.
This next season of my life will include getting to know these peeps more.
We have singles, students, engaged, married, married with kids, and a retired couple.
Community. I can't wait to see what happens.

We just wrapped up a series on discipleship at the Stirring.
I asked our group how many of them are in discipleship relationships right now and almost all of them said they were. Amazing.
WE LOVE. WE MAKE DISCIPLES.

It's been quite a summer

Today is Labor Day...my last post was Fathers Day...oopps
Sometimes you need two and a half month breaks from things in your life...like exercise!
Here's my summer in bullet points
- In-laws visit Redding...got a ridiculous amount of projects done
- Lake Siskiyou with the Gafners...amazing
- Mom came to town...Alyssa and I got away to Sac to celebrate being married for 10 incredible years.
- Camping in San Simeon with great friends that are now spread up and down the coast
- Went to Indiana for a week to hang at a lake house for a huge family reunion. All of Alyssa's side lives out there.
- Came home...Zeke started first grade
- Staff retreat on a house boat
- Mo's almost walkin'...Sof is almost making sense when she talks
- It's a good time to be alive
- See...now you're all caught up.

In the midst of all this my job has changed significantly. I now oversee our staff at the Stirring and define most of the systems that we operate under as a church...I love it.
I still speak about once a month and lead worship here and there but I also hire and fire and figure out how we will retire. I've also been known to change a mean tire :)
In the midst of the job switch the Stirring was presented with a building that we are praying about purchasing. Because I've owned more homes than anyone on staff I'm the "experienced one" when it comes to these matters so I'm leading the way in figuring all that stuff out...it's been an adventure.
I love my church...I love our team...I love what God is doing in Redding and around the world.

It's been a great summer...I'm back.

Shoes

Thanks for the pic Brent...I stole it.
Today we finished off the last of the handing out of shoes at Cypress Elementary School. If you didn't know we raised money with a music, art and film festival called Erase the Dark, and we took the proceeds to put shoes on all the kids at the school. We handed them out last Wednesday and the kids flipped. When we left we got an order for 28 more shoes. Kids that had transferred in late. We got those to the kids today. All in all we handed out over 250 shoes! As we walked through the halls today I saw our shoes everywhere on kids feet and I couldn't stop smiling. Thanks to everyone that helped make this happen.
This is my 900th post. I've been doing this for a while.

Easter

Amazing

Busy weekend

Sorry for the blog silence.
Saturday was an amazing day.
Got up...helped Patrick and Bethany move...came home...dug out 5 stumps in my backyard...went to Sean's house...climbed a 75 foot tree in his front yard with a chainsaw and cut it down.
Not gonna lie...some of the most intense moments of my life...I captured some pics on my phone that I put up on Facebook.
Yesterday I led worship with an amazing team for all three gatherings...the Heaven series has been great!
We also finished up the caulking and painting of the pantry...Thanks Eric...it looks awesome!
More to come. I'm gonna enjoy a Sabbath with the fam today.
I preach this weekend at the Stirring...Salvation is the door...that's all you're gonna get...you gotta be there or grab the podcast :)
Shalom.

Erase the Dark

This is my life for the next two days.
Please come out and support.
The films will blow you away.
The performing artists are the best Redding has to offer.
And bring money because you will want the art that is being auctioned off in your house.
Let's raise a ton of money for Cypress and put shoes on half the kids in Redding!
Can't wait.
There's new surprises this year that I can't tell you about yet...you've gotta come to experience it.
Friday, 7pm, 10 bucks.
Come early...we might have to turn people away because of lack of oxygen in the room.

The silence

It's been almost a week.
I never do that.
I'm still trying to figure out facebook but I have to admit that it has stolen some of my social networking affection. It's quick and I can manage it on my phone in seconds...I'm lazy...sorry.
God is teaching me a ton right now.
Don't know if I could really articulate it in a blog so I wont.

This week...
Nate had his baby
My in-laws came to town
I spoke at the Stirring about Jonah.
God uses Jonahs...and Dan Lances...unbelievable!

I'm having a great Sabbath.
Life is good.
Shalom!

Thoughts on Sunday

Go here to check it out.

Long day

Do most people go to church on Sunday's from 7:30am -10:30pm? Is that weird? There's a feeling my feet have at the end of every Sunday that is hard to put into words. Does my chin really look like that or is it just folded because of my hand? So many questions.
I'm leaving for our district conference with Nate tomorrow for three days. Goin' to bed.

The joy of speaking

You prepare all week to say something.
Friday you put the finishing touches together.
You say it out loud and realize you have no idea what you're talking about.
You pray. You get up Saturday and change everything you prepared.
You put finishing touches together. Say it out loud.
This time you're ready to go.
Why does God have you spend a ton of time preparing a message through the week that you'll never speak to another person. I'll never know.
It's humbling.
I'm speaking about honor.
Maybe I should of expected that!

Speaking on Sunday

I'm speaking on honoring each other this Sunday.
Romans 12. This passage of scripture blows my mind.
Honor is humility in action.
Honor is loyalty when it's tested.
Honor is a posture that brings life.
In a world that fights be the greatest, Jesus says, not so with you.
I asked a random guy at Starbucks today what someone could do to make him feel honored. We talked for over an hour.
What could someone do for you to make you feel honored?
It might just end up in a sermon.

Thoughts on Honor

We started a new series at the Stirring.
Honor...the lost virtue
Posted some thoughts here
I speak in a couple weeks about honoring each other
Romans 12:9-16
If we could only read 7 verses out of the bible these would be my 7.
Don't think you know it all...classic!
What's your favorite passage of scripture?

OUCH!!!

Smashed my head on the corner of the door of the car today...good times! Shaving around the wound was not fun.
We had a little family Christmas this morning...it was awesome.
Dollar store gifts for the kids and Alyssa made these sweet towels with hoods on them for when they get out of the bath. Zeke's has a Z on it. He thinks it's a cape.
Gettin' ready to leave for Riverside. We're gonna take off Monday morning at about 3am...good times...drive while kids are sleeping.
I'm leading worship tomorrow at the Stirring. Nate called me tonight and feels like puke so there is a possibility that I'll have to speak tomorrow. That would be interesting!
Let's pray for Nate.
Last blog till Riverside.
Pray there is no snow on the grapevine...chains are not my friend!

Staff Christmas Party

We leave in about an hour.
Last year this party was one of the first things I did in Redding.
Moved into our place...bought some toilet paper...went to a party.
I got to meet the team that makes up the Stirring leadership.
I remember leaving the party so excited about this new adventure.
I had no idea how amazing this year would be.
It was about this time last year when I was I-chatting with my wife back in Riverside and she showed me a positive pregnancy test...what a crazy year!

New series

We're starting a series called Simple at the Stirring.
I spoke yesterday to kick it off.
Matthew 13...the weeds...Worry and Wealth...God has a better way.
I really desire a simple, focused, single-minded life.
I want the life that is truly life!
Go check out the podcast. It should be up in a day or two.
I'd love to hear thoughts.
Had a great Sabbath today.
Slept in...time with fam...worked out...amazing food...time with friends...Heroes...amazing!