Goodbye to my Grove peeps

Today we had lunch as a staff and they all said their farewell's to my family. It's crazy that this is actually happening. There are some people on staff that have known me for my entire 31 years of existence. There is something really weird about leaving the familiar. I'm always up for change but it is going to be crazy figuring out how to do life and ministry in a new place. I'm planning on a couple huge melt downs in the next month or two. I'll be up in Redding for 17 days without my family starting Friday so you can bank on a huge panic attack coming soon. Stay posted.

7 more work days...what the heck!!??!!?

I looked at the calendar today. I have 7 more days in the office till I'm off to Redding...crazy! I'm in Monday and Tuesday of this week then off to Redding to find a place to rent. I'll be back in the office Tuesday and Wednesday of the next week, then we're off for Thanksgiving. The week after I'm in three days and then I leave for Redding on the 30th of November. That's the day I drive the Uhaul up there with all our stuff. I'm flying back on the 17th of December to be home for the holidays and then we leave as a family on January 2nd. When I fly home for the holidays I won't be going back to work so that only leaves me 7 days in the office...It's starting to set in that things are winding down...it's pretty crazy!
I told the young married group today that we were going to be leaving. I've really enjoyed being a part of seeing that group become a reality.
Starting to process through the keyboard.

THE FUTURE OF REV ROCK...

Here's the bomb drop...prepare yourselves...

About two months ago a very close friend of mine asked me to come on staff with him at his church in Redding California. His name is Nate Edwardson and he is one year into a church plant called The Stirring. (www.thestirring.org) Nate and I started a ministry 8 years ago when I was living in Redding called Celebration. That ministry has slowly evolved into this church that he is asking us to join. I have never worked with someone in ministry that I am more like minded with. Alyssa and I have accepted this position and will leave to start this ministry in January of 08. This has been an extremely difficult decision for us as both of our families live here, along with many of our friends and we are leaving a church that we love dearly.

I was born on a Wednesday and started attending VCC (now the Grove) that following Sunday. That puts me as part of this church for 31 years! I feel like I have 100’s of parents and grand parents that have looked after me here since I was old enough to start getting into trouble. The Grove has been an amazing place to call home and I have 1000’s of positive memories here. I have nothing but love and respect for the Grove and for my parents as they lead this church. I wish the Grove continued blessing as they strive to make the reality of Gods kingdom alive here in Riverside. We feel 100% convinced that this is the right move for our family at this time in our lives. We have spent time in prayer and have sought counsel from the people closest to us that know us the best in making this decision.

The Stirring has grown from 80 last summer to over 600 this summer. Nate is in desperate need of help on his staff as he is the only full time employee at the church. The Stirring is committed to being and making disciples and living out the way of Jesus in Redding and the world. My job will consist of sharing the load of teaching and leading worship along with other pastoral duties, but the majority of my time will be spent modeling and training others in how to live out the teachings of Jesus in covenant communities throughout the week.

Alyssa and I love Redding and we will always have room for visitors if you are ever headed north for any reason. If you have any questions I would love to spend time talking to you about the journey that has brought me to this place. We will miss all of you greatly so feel free to take us out to lunch or dinner in the next month and a half :)

Bomb officially detonated!

May his kingdom come...

Camp was really good

Having some time in breathable air with the back drop of beautiful trees, good friends, cool students and a chance to shoot people with large amounts of paint balls was great fun. I really enjoyed my time at camp and felt like I made the most of my two days up there. We were talking about the story of Sampson in our morning times with our campers. So of course I thought it would be a better idea to share the story of the whole world and then see how the story of Sampson falls into that bigger story. I find myself frustrated at times with the way I learned the Bible growing up. It was similar to what we got at camp. Look at the story of Sampson and figure out how that makes sense to me...living in Riverside, CA in 2007. We tend to read the scripture through our lens as opposed to understanding what the stories actually meant to the people at the time, and then seeing if it makes any more sense to us. So I learned a lot of isolated stories within the Bible but had a very hard time making sense of how they all fit together. Yeah Sampson had long hair and his wife jacked him and he ate honey from a lion but why in the world is that story in the Bible? God allowed this judge to screw up and hook up with a Philistine (forbidden) and break every agreement of his Nazarite vow because he needed someone on the inside that could take down this great nation as God was establishing Israel as his treasured possession.
I proceeded to ask my group of 10 high school seniors (all Christians) if they had read the scriptures from end to end and none of them had. We talked about the problems with only having bits and pieces of the story and not understanding the story as a whole. I told them it's difficult to tell people you are absolutely convinced there is no better way to live than to follow Jesus when you're not even sure what all the scriptures have to say about him. I'd say it's similar to being whole heartedly behind a political candidate after watching 4 minutes of them on a youtube debate without really knowing what their history is and what they are all about. What do you think about that? Have you read the scriptures end to end?

Off to Summer Camp

So I'm gonna head off to high school summer camp tonight. I'm coming back on Tuesday because leaving the kids and Alyssa at this point for any longer than a couple days would not be good. But don't worry...I'll be pumpin' out blogs from my iphone in the woods! (that was a joke) I'm going to soak in God's creation for a couple days, and hang out with some really cool high school kids. While I'm gone go check out Aaron Ivey's blog. I just added him to my blog heads. Cool guy.

Back to work

Well after three weeks of travel, travel, travel, crying, pooping, sleeping, travel, and staying at home for a week and a couple days it is back to work for me. Sofia has been great the last couple days but tonight was really difficult. She only took one nap today as opposed to her normal three so when we put her down around dinner time she was in her crib screaming. Meanwhile Zeke was refusing to eat two bites of chicken and threw the fit of the century. Just in case you weren't sure...two screaming kids is more annoying than one screaming kid. Something I knew before this adoption but it becomes a lot more real when it's happening. Right now there it total peace in the house. The only sound I can hear is the click of the keyboard under my fingers and I am slowly regaining shalom.
In August I have two big concerts with Anthem, I'm planning on going to a couple days of high school camp (if the kids are on schedule by then), I'm putting together teachers for the new young married class, going to a Willow Creek leadership conference, doing an event with the young married group, an event with the college group, my life group starts up again, and I'm marrying Scott and Christina. Nothing like easing yourself back into the groove. And I almost forgot...Our rental house on Palm hits the market on the first and we are desperately trying to sell it. 3 bed, 2 bath, 1900 sq. feet for $349,900. If you know anyone interested let me know! If we don't sell it this month then we will probably end up renting it out again. So needless to say, my life is pretty stress free right now.

Responsibility and Dependence

The three words from Bill's sermon this weekend that are really sticking with me. Go listen to it here. (wait till later today or Tuesday so Ian can get it on line) All of life boils down to this. God gives us responsibilities in life but wants us to keep the balance of a healthy dependence on him in the process. I have a responsibility to provide shelter, food, and love for my soon to be two kids but I need to depend on God that he has a place for them in his story that is not my responsibility. Our tendency is to smother our responsibilities to the point that we don't need to be dependent on God. I can shelter my kids every move to the point that I think God is no longer needed but God's story will still unfold. Our dependence comes in knowing that his plans and ways our higher and better than ours. That's a difficult place to come to.
As I look to the future for me and my family there's a lot of uncertainty. Does that mean that I lay around and tell God to figure things out for me? No...I move forward in the responsibilities I have as a husband, father, son, brother, friend and minister in the kingdom. But I try not to hold so tightly to those responsibilities that I miss the simple life of dependence that God has for me. Eternal life...life to the full, here and now. I have a role in God's story but it's still God's story.
Anyway Bill...thanks. Sorry I never got back to you on suggestions for your sermon. You're probably better off...I think you nailed it. I think I'm applying the points you made and if I'm way off please send some correction. Anyone else have any thoughts?

Third times the charm...

So this weekend will be my third time leading worship at our new facility at the Grove. I am never sick but the last two times I led I came down with crazy colds. This morning I wake up and my through is closed...what the heck! Last time it was like Bob Dylan on an off night leading...can't wait to see what happens this time. By the way...for those of you that keep up with my blog...notice we got doors on our kitchen cabinets. We didn't have them for six months. I kind of miss the whole...no surprises...you can see where everything is look. Now I gotta tell friends where stuff is when they come over...cabinet doors are overrated. I also just noticed that I am constantly doing the three dot thing ... in posts...why is that?...I'm thinkin' it best describes how I would actually talk and that is what I'm trying to convey...this post is getting extremely random...I apologize...

Rev rock in the pulpit this weekend

If anyone cares I preached at the Grove this weekend on orphans and the oppressed. You can listen to it here if you'd like. If you own a storage unit you might not want to listen...actually, you should listen. No more apologies. I'd love to hear feedback, good and bad. I'm a big boy, I can take it. I'd love to hear if anyone is open to the possibility of bringing someone into their house.

I preach at the Grove this weekend

I'm sharing about adoption this weekend and my working title at this point is "Too comfy to consider." I'm giong to talk about how the prophets in the Old Testement were constantly reminding the Israelites that they had forgot the covenent to bless the world and turned their focus on themselves. The prophets were always yelling at them to remember the poor and the widows and orphans. They would say things like, "remember your slavery in Egypt." In other words, remember what it was like before you were adopted and loved and cared for. Why do we constantly forget these things. Could it be that we are too comfy to consider others. We know that a life of service to others would cause us to focus less on ourselves.
I ran across this quote from Mike Yaconelli who passed away a few years ago and I thought it was very telling of how I'd like to end my life. I might share it this weekend. Here it is:
If I were to have a heart attack right at this moment, I hope I would have just enough air in my lungs and just enough strength in me to utter one last sentence as I fell to the floor: “What a ride!” My life has been up and down, careening left then right, full of mistakes and bad decisions, and if I died right now, even though I would love to live longer, I would say from the depths of my soul, “What a ride!”

Bishop's in the house!

Well Daniel Bishop came by the church today for a little bit. He is taking a week off from his year long trip in Chile to come and visit. Daniel is going to be the new Junior High Pastor at the Grove when he comes back in June from Chile for good. Today was the first time he had seen the new campus. I can only imagine his thoughts as we walked around our new facility after spending the last 9 months in Chile. I'm really glad to have him around and I can't wait till he's here for good.

Jr. High Sex

Thought I'd spice up my title to get some looks...you're reading aren't you? Tonight I get the great priviledge of teaching to the jr. high on the idea of sex and dating. I'm filling in and teaching for the jr. high on some of their Wednesday nights until Daniel Bishop gets here and officially becomes the jr. high guy in June. Seriously...what do you say to a bunch of 12 year olds about sex. A strong wind can arouse the guys in the group and some of the girls in the group look like they're 7 and others look like they are 22. In jr. high the last thing in the world I was worried about was sex. Times they are a changing, and yes, I am getting very old. I'm attempting to stay away from the whole "how far is too far thing." Seriously...how many times have you heard that speech in church. I'm betting 37 times for me...how bout you?

The joy of my life...the rummage sale bins...and my disgust for storage units

Today is annually the worst day of the year for any employee at the Grove. We spend the first three hours of our day emptying out these disgusting bins that are filled with peoples crap for our annual rummage sale. 2 forty foot containers jammed pack with stuff and junk piled up around the side of them. It blows me away the amount of crap that people bring to this thing. I know this weekend pulls in a ridiculous amount of money for our church but it never helps my attitude when I'm emptying those things.
Last night at Disneyland we were talking with the Dunlaps and O'Ferrells about the ridiculous amount of storage facilities in Riverside. Can we please burn all of those down and give the contents to the poor. How stupid is it that we have families in Riverside that can't afford to feed their kids but we have people with thousands of dollars of stuff jammed into storage units that they will never open. They have them because it's the American way to have stuff and we are the experts here in so cal. (sorry for the rant...I know some people in transition need those things, but everyone else should reconsider...in my humble opinion...take it or leave it) I guess working all day with peoples stuff that they don't need can put you in a bad mood :(

HATB services this weekend at the Grove

That's right...prepare yourself for an army of 100 dudes that can't sing, gettin' their sing on this weekend. This is our annual service that we do at the end of every HATB (Hands Across The Border) trip. Testimonies, pictures, video and a 100 person dude choir. I get to lead the festivities. It's always a good time. Hope to see you there.

New Orleans here I come!!!

So I'm leaving tomorrow at 6am for New Orleans. This will be my 3rd trip and I can't wait. There are 33 of us going. This time we are going to be gutting houses, helping distribute food, and rebuilding the church that is at the center of the relief effort down in New Orleans. This picture along with millions of other great shots was taken by my friend Jim McGill. Go to his blog and check out his great work. Check out his pictures now before he's famous and you have to pay a lot of money for his work. I will try to keep up on my blog while I'm gone but I have no idea what the internet connection will be like. If nothing else I will put up a riduculous amount of pictures when I get back. The work is not done in New Orleans and it won't be for a long time...if you get a chance...go!

College Night Life

This is what we covered on our first night of College Night Life. We looked at the teachings of Jesus and decided how we wanted to practice those teachings as a group. Personally, towards our group and towards others. The first night was awesome...can't wait till next week. If you were there I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Goin' to hear Bill tonight

The Grove has "Family Night" on Wednesday nights starting at 6:45. Pastor Bill is preaching through Romans and he is on it! You can download his podcasts here. I like family night because they have stuff for my son Zeke who is three, elementary age stuff, jr. high, high school, womens bible study and we are starting College Night Life next Wednesday at 8:30pm. Something for everyone. If you've gone or if you swing by let me know what you think.

Grove young adults

We are coming up with a brochure that covers all things young adult here at the Grove. Any suggestions?

Who's gettin' organized???

That's right folks...I just purchased the Desk Apprentice. You heard me right, the one they designed on the Apprentice like 3 or 4 seasons ago. It's got fun spots for your pens and scissors, files and thumb tacks. Now I have no excuse for being messy.

Grove weekend

Another great weekend at the Grove. I didn't make it Saturday night because we had the Dunlaps, O'Ferrel's, Schultz's and Day's over for dinner...it was great times. This morning was great...this guy in our church put together this amazing video before the service for our veterans. We had all the people that have served in the military stand up and I saw my grandpa along with my friends Darryl and Bobby stand up in front of me and it really makes you appreciate the people that defend us everyday when we think nothing about it.
Then my dad gave this message on contentment (Listen to the message). I suck at contentment...don't get me wrong, I am stoked about where God has me but I find myself struggling with certain aspects of life. I'm always looking ahead, never really focused on what's right in front of me. Thinking about when my son will be five instead of three and we can play catch and have real conversations...instead of loving the fact that he's a crack up right now and he constantly says no and pulls his mattress off his bed every day and jumps on it for 2 hours before he takes a nap. Why can't I see how cool that is and how much I do love this stage of his life. I counsel people all the time and tell them to be 100% right where God has them right now but I have the hardest time doing that myself. Maybe that's because we've moved five times in the last six years...what were we thinking. I think the idea of staying put for while and knowing we wont have to move is slowly giving me a sense of peace and contentment. I take a long time to learn. Anyone else with me?