FTFO

Those are the letters on the knuckles of the dude sitting across from me right now.
I asked him about it. He said it stands for F#@$ THE F#%$ OFF
Not really sure that makes a lot of grammatical sense but we've had a pretty amazing conversation for the last hour.
He said he's tried to live like a ghost for the last year.
Completely off the grid...no connection to anyone or anything.
He got his heart broke and lost his kids...sucky situation.
I'm listening and looking.
I pray for opportunities.
Thanks for always being faithful God!
When someone asks to use your computer to charge an ipod and they look homeless...let em...say hi...see what happens.

Opportunities

Sitting with Alyssa and Moses in an office two days ago getting some blood work done for Mo's allergies. Older lady is hacking and sounding like she's on the verge of death...I'm annoyed...no compassion, no mercy, just annoyance. Holy Spirit prompts me to pray for her...really...now...I'm annoyed...that would be weird...I'll do it quietly. Walked out. Missed opportunity.

Later I'm in the office and Nicolle Garbutt comes in. She leaves for 4th brain surgery in a day. Holy Spirit prompts me to pray...I obey...bring God to the middle of the situation...his heart is shared with Nicole. I stepped in. Kingdom opportunity.

Everyday you are faced with choices to choose in our out to the voice of the Lord that directs your life. I walk away too much. Learning to choose in.

Kingdom Healing Confernce

Just got back from 3 days at Risen King...conference was amazing.
I saw a guy that I prayed for at the last conference a year ago. He's a church planter in New York. Last year he came forward for prayer from chronic pain he had in his left knee that he had for years. I prayed for him and God completely took the pain away. Year later...still no pain! God is awesome.
God spoke some pretty significant things over the time. I was really encouraged and refreshed. The whole Randall crew (minus Whitney) were there. So good to hang with Andrew and Caleb. So proud of the men they've become.
Felt like I received a ton of faith and a new desperation and expectation for God.
Looking forward to this next season!

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.

Staff meeting today

Nate and Erica had their little baby girl last night...amazing
so staff meeting went a different direction today.
We contemplated the normal christian life...
Matthew 10:7 As you go, preach this message: 'The kingdom of heaven is near.' ⁸Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.
What the heck?!?
How did normal become showing up to church and going to small groups?

I'm back

Got in at 5:30pm from our conference.
Added an hour to our trip home because I missed the 505...good times.
Listened to some insane Kris Vallotton message in the car...need more brain band-aids.
Our friends Jason and Kim Day are staying with us for a couple days...they're out from New York.
My wife went to bed at 9:30pm...something about taking care of three kids for a few days all by herself...doesn't seem like that big of a deal to me :)
Thinkin' about going to Lynk tomorrow and Jesus Culture this weekend.
Anyone else gonna be there?

And so it begins...

Tonight we start a new series.
It's actually more than that. We believe this is why God has placed the Stirring in Redding.
It's five words that we want to live out for the rest of our lives.
WE LOVE. WE MAKE DISCIPLES.
We love God
We love each other
We love the world
We love the least
Jesus said that the world would know we were his disciples by our love.
And every follower of Jesus has the call to make disciples. How? By teaching the people they're walking with how to love God, each other, the world, and the least.
We're trying to keep it real simple.
Church's can be about 4,872 things...we want to be about 2!
What are the things that make your church unique? I love to hear what other churches are doing.
You've gotta be at the Stirring tonight. Nate made a film that is going to blow your mind!

I wanna see this...

Thanks Micah

Have you been with Jesus?

Acts 4:13 When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.

Man I want people to take note of that in my life. "There is absolutely nothing special about that Dan guy but crazy stuff happens around him all the time. I've heard he hangs out with Jesus a lot." Just one time I'd love to hear that!

Peter and John had just healed this guy that was lame since birth. How crazy is that? Why can't we really feel the weight of that today. Sometimes I read over scripture so quickly that events like that don't round house kick me in the face like they should.

Have I been with Jesus?

Have I asked God for anything this week that was impossible to pull off on my own strength?

Crap!

Life Group Guy

I'm the Life Group guy at the Stirring. I think I'm gonna start going by "the LGG" or maybe "the notorious LGG"
That's means I wake up in the morning thinking about how we can put God on display in Redding by living out the radical community of Jesus.
Lots of peeps...two campuses...getting leaders...acting organized...keeping vision in front of people
We don't really do anything else at the Stirring so it's kind of a big deal.
We keep it simple...we do Life Groups...period.
It's crunch time coming into the fall.
It's pretty cool that my life has had a lot of space in it lately :)
Just feelin' it a little.
God's awesome...our groups are going to be amazing.
Can't wait to hear the stories!

Crazy Sabbath

Moses isn't sleepin' much at night.
Up in the mornin' to hand out backpacks and supplies to students and gift cards to teachers at Cypress Elementary...it was amazing...so excited about the ongoing relationship we have with them...the kids were freaking out!
Went from there to Zeke's orientation to Kindergarten...what the heck my kid is in kindergarten! He flipped out for 35 of the 40 minutes we stayed. Screaming and crying. All the other kids chill...hanging out with each other...I'm trying to shove donut holes in Zeke's mouth so he'll stop crying...hopefully tomorrow looks better.
Drove straight from there to have the end of Moses' wiener cut off at the doctors. (What point was God trying to make with circumcision?)
That was the crazy half of the day.
Got home...ate lunch...said goodbye to Alyssa's family...we all crash for nap.
Swim with Zeke.
Rosetta comes over with some pasta shells for dinner...out of this world...amazing Rosetta!
Kids in bed early.
Contemplate the severity of three kids...unbelievable!

Great conversation tonight

Last week at the Stirring I saw a guy that I've met twice before and have talked to for a total of about 4 minutes. I felt strongly like I should ask him to hang out this week sometime. So as he was leaving I asked him if he wanted to talk sometime. It was weird...I never do stuff like that.
Tonight we had coffee...talked about life, doubt, struggles, Jesus...it was awesome.
It was one of the most refreshing conversations I've had with someone in a long time.
So glad I got a little uncomfortable and actually made the effort to talk to someone I barely know. So many times we stick to the 7 people we know at church or any group setting and we forget what it's like to be the new guy in the room that doesn't know anyone and doesn't know the rules. Tonight reminded me why I was put on this planet. Not to play it safe...but to join with people in their journeys towards Jesus.
I had four amazing conversations with people today...Starbucks, Yaks, Togo's, and Starbucks. I only drank two Americano's. Today was a good day!

Let's test the power of RevRock

I've got a good handful of you comin' to hang out on my blog on a daily basis now...I enjoy the community, the back and forth, the spewing of ideas. I'd like to see if we can actually use the muscle of this blog for good.
Our church, the Stirring is launching its first church plant, hopefully in the fall. We are funding the whole plant ourselves. We'd like to cover all the start up costs by raising money from friends and family. We have 30 of us that are doing a fund raiser called Hack Fest. It's 30 dudes, golfing 100 holes, and asking people to sponsor per hole. Each person has committed to raise $1,000.00
I've already got more than that but I haven't even tapped the power of the blog world yet. There's over 100 of you out there that are going to read this today. If you each sent me $10 we'd have another $1000. If you each sent me 2 million dollars we'd have 200 million dollars!
We believe this is how God is calling our family to grow in Redding. We don't desire to grow bigger under one roof. We want to spread out through the city, empowering more leaders, sharing space, and making more disciples in the way of Jesus. One vision, different campuses. WE LOVE. WE MAKE DISCIPLES. That's what we're about!
Sound interesting...start praying for us...send money!
Make checks payable to The Stirring at 3468 Bechelli Ln. Ste E - Redding, CA 96002 and put Hack Fest in the memo. All contributions are tax deductible.
Please pray about supporting us. Thanks!

Contentment

I'm working on being content in every situation but its difficult. Here's the things on my list that I'm realizing right now I'm not content with.
1. My town house. Not because its not nice enough or big enough. Its awesome. Its almost too awesome. I'd rather be in a place that frees us up financially more to help people and buy food that isn't so crappy. (side note: why is it more expensive to eat healthy?)
2. My phone. The iphone has officially done it to me...I've got at&t envy!
I keep all my own appointments and am constantly scheduling and getting back to emails so I broke down when I moved up here and got a Blackberry. It's awesome. I could probably be getting by with my old Razor and a little organizer but how cool would that be? The iphone at this new price has me wanting to put my Blackberry on ebay and drop Verizon like a bad habit.
3. My weight. I guess its ok to want to be healthy but I'm not content in my own skin right now and that kind of sucks.
4. My job! Just kidding Nate...just wanted to make sure you were still reading this thing!

Areas I've grown in contentment
1. I love my bucket of a car! 2o00 Toyota Echo (sea foam) The air gets cold 5 minutes after you arrive at your destination...love it!
2. I love my guitar gear! That's a first. I've spent my whole life trying to acquire that next thing with guitars...I'm satisfied...my tone rules!
3. I love my family, my friends, my church and Redding. Totally content with where God has me right now...I love that!

What are you not content with right now?

Greed and isolation

I was talkin' to some dudes about Ephesians 4 and 5 yesterday and we got on the topic of greed. God is really calling us to be a family that is marked by generosity. Somewhere along the line that distinction has been really blurred in the church. When the church is really living out its call in the world it is always subverting the predominant trends in culture. When the culture is calloused and immoral sexually, the church should be showing the world through our relationships and marriages what God is like. When the culture is angry and hates and demeaning towards segments of society we should be a refuge of reconciliation and love. I think the one that's really hard for us is greed. When the culture around us is bent on more and is never satisfied we should be sharing our stuff, balancing injustice, bringing people into our homes, not living in excess, and living out of contentment.
I gave the example of the goal of our living situations in the US.
If you're poor and living in the ghetto you are most likely living in an apartment. More than likely you've got some extended family living with you to lower the bills. People are always around and in your business because of the close proximity. The goal is to move out of that situation and get into a house and to lose the extra family or friends living with you. Preferably a house with a garage that's attached to the house so you can pull in and not have to deal with neighbors. The goal after the first house is the second house that is bigger and further away from neighbors because you need your space. Then you're looking for the huge house in the gated community and now someone needs to know 4 digits to come see you and a guard gives you the "once over" if you look a little shady.
Greed breeds isolation. Our desire for more drives us further away from people. The American Dream is a joke and has nothing to do with living in the way of Jesus. Jesus said he's going to prepare a place for us in his fathers house. (John 14:1-4) That is wedding language talking of a groom that goes to add a room onto his fathers house to bring his bride back to. Only the Father can tell the son when the room is ready. Then the son goes and brings the wife to live with him and his family. Living in real community is what eternity is going to be like. I have a feeling "mansions" are going to have no place in the new heavens and new earth. I'm pretty sure we'll know our neighbors and be close to each other. Wouldn't it make sense for us to start practicing for eternity now? Just some thoughts. What do you think?

Single Mom Saturday

Saturday July 12th, 11-1:30pm
Mom's show up with their kids at 11am at the Nazarene church.
We're taking portraits of the moms with their kids that we will print off and give as gifts.
Mom's leave the kids, we have a crew that will spoil the kiddos.
Mom's carpool with another crew that is taking them to Tierra Oaks for lunch...our treat.
While they're gone we got a crew that will be washing and detailing their cars.
We have 6 moms right now and we can take around 10. Know a single mom that needs some love? Send em' our way.
I can't think of a harder job in the world then raising your kids by yourself. We want to be the kind of community that takes care of our single moms!
Our hope is that this one event will turn into long term investment in the lives of these families. We want to be a church that is known for our love...anyone down to help?

Great interview on church's involvement in politics

Christian sent me this a while ago. It's a great video with Chuck Colson, Greg Boyd and Shane Claiborne talking God and politics. If you know me I lean heavily on the Boyd, Claiborne side but there is some great discussion. Love to hear your thoughts.

Graduations

So I sat out in the sun today with my family and watched the seniors at Simpson graduate. There were three students that all came through The Grove youth group that graduated today. Tyler, Holly, and Daniel. We were also there to see our friend Trisha graduate with her masters...you go girl!
Graduations crack me up. Old people singing weird songs...choirs...outside speaker that comes in a throws out one last don't do drugs and make sure you got good friends speech.
Seriously...Is that the best we can do? Did these students spend TONS of money and four years in classes to dress up in robes and weird hats and have someone make sure they have everything checked off on their Christian checklist? (pretty sure that was a run on sentence)
Why can't someone get up there and challenge these students to change the world by loving God and each other and the world and the least? What about the emphasis that Simpson is supposed to be about...go into all the world and make disciples. Make God's kingdom a reality in Redding and the ends of the earth. Seems like the easiest platform in the world to inspire some folk. But instead they got one last play it safe speech...bummer.
Sorry for the soapbox...if any graduates are reading my blog...go out and change the world...there are a ton of people in your city that need to know Jesus. Love people in such crazy ways that the world is forced to take notice. Don't play it safe...break all the rules...don't do it the way it's always been done...we believe in you.
Congratulations!

Justice in the Burbs

I'm about a 100 pages into this book. This morning I read this portion that was in response to Matthew 25:31-46. Those who have ears...let them hear!

Jesus lives next door. He's an eight-year-old girl and her three-year-old brother. The Son of Man looks like those starving Ethiopian children. He only gets breakfast and lunch at school, when he makes it. His mama is a crack whore. Nobody knows where his daddy is. I heard his mama lets her "Johns" do things to him.
Jesus is two houses down and has six children. Now he's pregnant with the seventh. I don't know if he hasn't figured out what birth control is, or what, but how does he expect his husband to feed all those babies on that salary? And you know with all those kids the Lord of Lords can't work. That means hard working taxpayers' money has to go for Christ's food stamps! He needs to get fixed.
The Lord is a crazy man-paranoid schizophrenic . If he doesn't take his medication, he walks up and down the street cussing and spitting on everybody he passes. He's homeless. Nobody knows where his family is-if he's got one. Digs out of the trash cans for food. Somebody ought to get him off the street.
Jesus is nothing but a nuisance.
I'm starting to see the Son of God everywhere I go. He's always crying or begging or looking pitiful. Why doesn't he pull himself up by his bootstraps? This is America! Makes me mad. He's ruining our neighborhood.
Somebody ought to do something about him.
Somebody.

Work day at Cypress

This is the school that we are sending our proceeds to for our Erase the Dark (music, art, and film) festival. We painted doors, railings, cabinets, moved furniture, built shelves, sanded benches. It was a good day. Small things done with great love. We are hoping this is the start of a long relationship with this school and this neighborhood. The principal was totally pumped when we left. It was fun!