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.

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?

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!

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?

First Life Group went great

Just wrapped up our first group and I'm really excited about it. We had no idea what to expect. We had 15 total and 2 that are gonna show up next week. The group is stoked to serve together, and live out what we've been talking about at our Sunday gatherings. I think we are going to go through one of the gospels and I'm gonna supplement a bunch of context from books that talk about the political, social, and economic climate that Jesus entered into in his ministry...if you don't know...I'm a junkie when it comes to that stuff...should be amazing. I'm just excited to start living this out with a group of people. 17 groups started this week plus about 10 that aren't being advertised. I'm sharing on Sunday about God's dream for everyone to have family...especially the least. Can't wait. Hope I have a voice by then!

Today was a great day!!

Just realized I haven't posted a picture in a few posts...so you get an annoying photo booth picture of me! This morning we had 25 Life Group Leaders jammed into our front room for 2 hours. I was laying out vision and sharing my heart for where we hope our community is moving. This was the reason I was asked to come and I felt alive! We have an amazing team that wants to share the load and wants to transform Redding...I can't wait. We talked about keeping things simple...becoming family...and we emphasized the language and posture that we want to use to create the culture at the Stirring. Life Groups is our only program. We don't do anything else. It's the only funnel and I couldn't be more excited. Everyone seemed pumped and our team is awesome. God is good. I love what I get to do for a living.

New office dynamics

Here's our two room office that I'm moving into. Meghan works in the front room (first 2 pics). I'm sitting on a love seat with my mac in that first pic. That's where I've been working lately. The last two pics is of Nate's office. The last picture is a shot of my books in boxes and a chair. That's where I will end up. Nate and I are working out office dynamics. It's going to be awesome. It's crazy moving to a 2 room office from a 50 room office. We use laptops and cell phones...no network...no pc's (yeah!!!)...no phone system. Just three people in an office trying to follow Jesus. I love it!

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.

I saw Bernie again last night

Last night I ran into Bernie from Best Buy. I hadn't seen him in a couple months but he remembered my name and we had a chance to talk for a little bit and he got to say hi to my family. His leg is doing a little better but he's still inching out a living by washing people's windows at Best Buy everyday. If you're shopping there over the holidays look for him.

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...

Visitors last night

Bill and Patti came over last night and we got to hang out for a little bit. They just moved to Salinas and they are greatly missed around Riverside. They were accompanied by their lovely children: Jon, Kathy, and Heather (seriously Heather...no blog yet?), and their dogs. It was awesome to hear how great they are doing and to hear what God is doing in their community. They live about 45 minutes away from Trav and Annette now so they made things easy for us on road trips!

I forgot about this

Brian just sent me this picture from my first trip to New Orleans. This was in January after Katrina. This was taken on our tour of the devastation. I was going to take this guitar home but it was infested with termites. Little things like this really reminded me that people lost everything. Every single thing that made up who they were. If I were to lose my Tophat amp or Reverend in a hurricane I would be beside myself. And when you think of everything else people lost this is something so small. Thanks Brian for sending this to me. I have great memories of that trip. I think we really became friends that week. It's funny what happens when you rip moldy drywall out of a house next to someone all day.

What do you do...

when you're meeting with a mom that just lost her 23 year old son and you are doing his funeral tomorrow? I meet with her in 40 minutes. He was going over 100 mph on the freeway when he lost control.
God, give me the ability to see this mom the way you do and to treat this situation the way you would. Pray for this family.

So I'm thinkin' about writing a book

Working title:
Born in the pew

Working chapter titles:
Born in the pew
The youth group years
The jock turns rock star
The beauty of the F word
The college (wonder) years
Coffee, Cohiba and Newcastle
The love roller coaster comes to a halt
The rock and roll life
The Porch is born...The Porch is dead
Infertility
Adoption
Building the empire
Church Culture
Dad/Employer = weird dynamics
Awaken to the kingdom

There are two more chapters but they will remain secret for the time being.
It's going to be the story of my journey towards something real.
Would anyone be interested in reading something like this?
It will probably be more like therapy for me than anything else.

Goin' to hear Damien throw down

My buddy Damien is preaching this morning at Bridges so I'm gonna go check it out. He's got the whole John the Baptist beard thing goin' now so I'm expectin' some throw down, turn or burn material! For all of you that know Damien he is a great thinker and I am greatly encouraged by the way he and his wife Jen follow Jesus. The funny thing is that when you're a pastor and you go to another church were you know a lot of people it's always really weird. Everyone looks at you like...why in the world is he here?...Isn't he...I wonder why...I heard someone say...It's a lot of good times. I'm thinking about wearing some Grouchy Marx glasses. I'm not making fun of Damien's church, every church is like this. Why is that? Why are we so territorial? There's this feeling like, "Hey...I took a pee on this property, go back to your side or town." Who knows, I might be proved wrong. I just wish we could all get along better. I'm praying for you Damien.

Tom with an "h" and Robert the radiator guy

So this morning I'm at Shell putting gas in my Vespa. (BTW...it cost me $7 to fill up and I can ride everyday for 2 weeks before I fill up again...just a little plug for alternative transport). This homeless guy passes me to throw something away and I say, "How's it goin'?" He obviously doesn't think I'm talkin' to him but when he comes back and I'm lookin' at him he realized I was talking to him. He stops and we start a conversation about my Vespa...his need to get some kind of transportation...trying to stop smoking...trying to utilize VA benifits better to get descent housing for him and his wife...and so on. Then he starts walking away and I say, "Hey, I didn't catch your name" and he comes back at me with an excitement that was very unusal for the question and says, "my name is Tom with an "h", I'm half English. I told him I was Dan and he said, "you're with the Lord aren't you?" I told him I was and that was it.
Rewind to last week. I'm on my way home from work and I see this dude with his hood opened on the corner of Chicago and Central in the turn lane...It's 5pm and people are obviously pissed that he is backing up traffic so they are manuvering to get around him and honking and speeding off. I thought that kind of sucked so I go over and ask if I can help. We find out that his radiator hose is busted and his car has stalled out and can't start. I go grab the right hose for him and he's able to get going. Before he takes off he says, "you're with the Lord aren't you?"
Why is it that people in need know when they are around a Christian? Why is it that when we act like Jesus people know right away that we follow Jesus? Why is it we think we have to hand someone a track to let them know that we follow Jesus? Tom with an H needed someone to ask him what his name was and Robert the radiator guy needed someone to buy him a radiator hose.
Please don't comment about how incredibly spiritual I am. I suck at following Jesus...I'm just trying to get better at it and encouraging others to do the same.

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...

Where we are getting it wrong as leaders

Stumbled across this excerpt from this book...dangit...now I gotta go read something else! Jake Colsen says very nicely what I've been thinking for a long time...It's a blow to the pride of us as leadership in the church but we are called to equip fellow priests in their giftedness, not carry the load and take the place of leadership that is reserved for Jesus himself. Most pastors are scared to say this because they might lose their jobs...did I just say that out loud...oops!

On living free of dependency on leaders:

“That’s where religion has done the most damage. By making people dependent on its leaders, it has made God’s people passive in their own spiritual growth. We wait for others to show us how, or even just follow them in hopes that they’re getting it right. Jesus wants this relationship with you and he wants you to be an active part in that process.”

“But can we do it on our own? Don’t we need some help?” Marsha asked.

“Who said you’re alone? Jesus is the way to the Father. As you learn to yield to his Spirit and depend on his power, you’ll discover how to live in the fullness of his life. Yes, he’ll often use other people to encourage or equip you in that process, but the people he uses won’t let you grow dependent on them. They wouldn’t dare crawl between you and the greatest joy of this family—a growing relationship with the Father himself.”

Echo prayer

Echo prayer is this really cool program that emails you or text messages you through the day to remind you to pray about certain things. You submit a list and it sends you your prayer requests in order or randomly through the day. I heard Francis Chan talking about this and I just went to check it out. I tell people I'm praying for them all the time but forget about it or fail to be disciplined in it. I'm going to try it out for a while and tell you what I think. It's free...go check it out.

The Linda story

So there has been this guy Travis and his wife Linda (and two sons) that have been living on the campus of the Grove since we started construction. If you've been to the Grove you've seen there fenced off shanty town of campers, trailers, and quasi motor homes. This is where they live and they have been helping with security of our campus at night and in exchange we have let them live there. Well about three weeks ago Travis suddenly died from a heart attack leaving Linda and their two sons with no source of income. For us to get our final inspection signed off on the Grove they have to be completely off our property. The superintendent has given them one week to leave. They don't have anywhere to go and a ridiculous amount of stuff to move in the matter of a few days. Our life group found out that they were in need of a radiator for one of the campers so we raised some money to help Linda out. I headed over there today to talk to her and as I came up to the camper I could hear her weeping inside. She came out and continued to tell me that see didn't have the money to get gas to get her car to the mortician to pick up her husbands ern and death certificate. She told me that God must have sent me and that she wanted to pay me back somehow. I told her that the church does not exist for itself and that we should take care of the people around us that are hurting. I told her that the church had been there for me in time of need and that we will be there for her family. I walked away realizing I've been working right next to this family for 6 months and I had never taken the time to get to know them. I always talk about having the eyes to see the needs around us and I have been blind to this situation for far too long. If anyone has a couple hours that they could help this family to pack up or take stuff to the dump or bring them a gas card or food voucher I'm sure it would encourage them a ton. Linda is a great person and I'm sad it took me this long to realize it.