dream the journey

vietnam missions trip

2009-07-07T12:37:00.004-05:00

This past year Lacey and I were apart of a church planting internship in Dallas with Northwood Church and Glocalnet. It was such a great learning experience, as this is what we feel is God’s plan for our lives is in the future. Our time at Northwood was more challenging to us than we thought possible and helped us grow deeper in our relationship with God and our commitment to see holistic transformation take place in individuals, a city, and a place in the world through God’s power through the local church.

As a culmination of this internship with Northwood, I am traveling to North Vietnam this October 20-31 on a short-term missions project with a number of other volunteers. Northwood has been working in Vietnam over 10 years developing areas such as business, education, and healthcare for the entire country, while at the same time building relationships and seeing God transform lives. During our time, there will be teams working with orphanages, installing a computer lab at a school and providing training for other areas of education, and developing businesses and leaders for the country.

The need is great, but the rewards from our work will be much greater. However, this trip will also be a huge challenge. I am writing this letter to ask for your support in any way possible. I understand that support through prayer is as equally important as financial aid; so, I am asking for both. I know that my trip will be more successful with the support of family, friends and the people I love. The total cost of the trip will be $3,000, which will cover airplane tickets, housing, food, and local transportation. My first installment is due August 1 and all money is due September 5. Each donation is vitally important. Please pray and allow God to challenge you to support this trip with your finances.

Donations are tax deductible if made payable to Northwood Church. Please mail donations to Northwood Church 1870 Rufe Snow Drive, Keller, TX 76248 and note my name. It will then go towards my account. Also, remember our team in your prayers in October, as there is sure to be spiritual and physical strain on the team. Pray that this trip will be effective and purposeful in meeting the needs of the poor and oppressed, the hopeless and orphaned.

Thank you for your support and care. I appreciate your interest and encouragement. I cannot wait to see what God has in store for our team and the Vietnamese people that we will be working with.

Also, if you have not already done so, consider joining my Facebook group to follow along on this journey.

the church and the kingdom

2009-05-28T15:47:00.004-05:00

Earlier this year I wrote this about what God has been teaching me: "I'm understanding in the smallest way the Kingdom of God. God wants to enter into, redeem and reign over every person, every culture, every community, and all creation. Come thy Kingdom in my life." Personally, I don't want to reduce God to just the church, and sadly that happens all too often. While he is (and should be) greatly involved in the church, there is a larger domain - one that includes every domain/area of society, including the church. And as the body of Christ, we have been released, mandated, and commanded to carry Christ and His Kingdom into the world.

Reposting this from Alan Hirsch today.
In my writing I came across this quote today by theologian Richard Neuhaus (who died earlier this year). It is worth considering because of the implied association of the Church with the Kingdom of God.

"Alfred Loisy the 19th century historian was right in saying that Jesus came proclaiming the Kingdom of God but what appeared was the Church. The disappointment was and continues to be severe. But the great irony is that today we alleviate our disappointment with the contemporary Church by pointing back to the New Testament Church --which was the great disappointment to begin with! Our restless discontent should not be over the distance between ourselves and the first century Church but over the distance between ourselves and the Kingdom of God to which the Church then and now is the witness.(my emphasis added)" - -- R.J. Neuhaus, Freedom for Ministry, 33.

creating personal spiritual momentum

2009-05-27T09:46:00.001-05:00

This is my last set of notes to post from Catalyst One Day. I appreciate Craig’s heart and attention to this topic, especially a “leadership” conference. It really is the foundation to be used in the fullness of God’s Spirit. I’m slowly learning to put this thought into consistent practice.

“I will do today what I can do, to enable me to do tomorrow what I can’t do today.”
The long-term vision will be accomplished through today’s contribution. (While I know this is true, I sometimes have a hard time practicing this, especially when I can’t/ don’t see the correlation between now and then)
Do something to defeat your dark side.
Create artificial deadlines.
Delegate what someone else can do.
Do something only you can do.
You are the only one who can stay broken for Jesus.

busting barriers with mindset changes

2009-05-25T21:32:00.001-05:00

Organizations love to settle because it’s the easy thing to do. They settle not only in practice, but in paradigm as well. You sometimes have to change the way you think to get something different. Here are some notes from Craig Groeschel, session 2 at Catalyst One Day last week.

1. Think differently about your church culture.

If you don’t like the culture, it could be your fault. People are a reflection of the leader.
Do you need to do something privately to gain credibility publicly? (This is a principle I had to learn this past year)

2. Think differently about programming.

3. Think differently about the mission.

We can’t allow someone to hold back the mission of the church. Will we give priority to people pleasing or the mission?

4. Think differently about people leaving the church.

5. Think differently about limitations.

Old mindset-We can’t because we don’t.
New mindset-We can because we don’t.
One of the greatest gifts to your ministry may be what you don’t have.

deep in the heart of texas

2009-05-22T11:00:00.000-05:00

When I came to Dallas in 2003 to go to SAGU, I never imagined I would still be here in 2009. So much has happened that I wouldn't know where to start, but looking back I do see God's hand guiding. I didn't always see it in the moment, especially over the past 2-3 years, but I certainly do now.

In all the chaos and in all the mystery, I have found God revealed more. One of my core prayers is for God to continue to reveal the mystery of the Gospel of his Kingdom in my life. And he has done so.

This past year we have had a great opportunity to serve alongside some of our closest friends and help them start a church. When we made the decision last year to move to Frisco, we knew it would only be a short season and did our best to communicate that to them up front. Zach and Mandy have been so gracious and supportive in allowing us to discover God's immediate plan for our lives, and we wish them and The Crossing nothing but God's best.

Lacey's already written about it, but on June 1 we embark on a new journey, although it's not all that new. The culmination of preparation over the past 6 years (SAGU/ The Oaks, Harvest Time, The Crossing, and the Glocalnet Internship with Bob Roberts) has led us to this point. Through mutual friends, Nathan and Ricky, I connected with John. We will be joining the Gateway family in San Antonio/ Helotes to lead the student ministry and facilitate their new church planting internship.

What a challenge, but we are anxiously looking forward to our new endeavor. I can't even begin to wrap my mind around some of the possibilities. I would appreciate your prayers as we take the next step in our journey.

gaining and sustaining momentum

2009-05-22T09:29:00.001-05:00

The first session of Catalyst One Day in Dallas kicked off with Andy Stanley hitting on momentum. One of the things I appreciate about Andy is that his approach is both systematic and spiritual.

Momentum creates a new set of problems that makes it difficult to sustain.
What will my level of tolerance be for a lack of momentum?
Andy’s definition of momentum: Forward motion fueled by a series of wins.
Components of momentum: new, improvement, and improving.
Momentum is never triggered by tweaking something old. It is triggered by introducing something new.
People have a hard time letting go of bad ideas, so the new must be noticeably better than the old.
Good stories can support bad ideas, but everything must be evaluated, including the good and the great. The clock is ticking on its success.
If momentum is slipping, you can rarely regain it by simply doing what you did to create it in the first place.
What is God blessing and can a specific reason God is blessing it be identified?

catalyst one-day in dallas

2009-05-18T07:23:00.005-05:00

Super excited about Catalyst today for a myriad of reasons:

Andy Stanley- never heard him live, so I can't wait.
John and Drew- first time to officially hang out with them while a part of Gateway.
Steve Fee- I first heard Steve lead worship at a Passion One Day in 2003. Incredible then and incredible now.
It's in Dallas- actually about 20 minutes from our apartment. What a short trip to a great conference.
It's Catalyst. Never been, so I get a little taste today.

Craig Groeschel and Andy will be sharing some thoughts about church, leadership, momentum, and more. And Craig has bit hittin' on some core questions on his blog lately that I'm glad someone in his position is publicly asking, because a lot of other people are. I'll post some notes later.

when will jesus be enough

2009-05-11T10:43:00.003-05:00

As I sat in Bob's house for our second Glocalnet internship meeting last October, Bob was describing his story of God's work in his life. As he told us that God had asked him this question several years before ("When will Jesus be enough"), God whispered it to my heart in that moment as well.

Honestly, I knew my answer; but I wasn't completely prepared to deal with the question at that time, so I pushed it out of my mind. It just kept resurfacing though over and over again within the past several months during the course of my daily time with God.

Jesus wasn't enough for me. I wanted him to be, but he wasn't. It wasn't that I didn't love him; I did. But I wasn't satisfied with what he freely offered, grace and love. At the depths of my heart, I wanted significance, fulfilled ambition, and recognition. The irony is none of this is really free. For the first time in my life, I feel like I understand what God's grace is. Nothing I can do will ever be enough, because it's not about doing enough. I can't earn it by sinning less or diminish it by sinning more. That's the beauty of it. “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8) He already gave everything to love me at my worst, so his love for me is not contingent upon what I do or don't do. It just is. He loves me because I am his creation; he loves me for who I am.

The more I go after God, the more Jesus is becoming enough. And it’s a liberating process. E. Stanley Jones was right when he said these two things: "The very heart of the Kingdom of God was a losing of oneself in order to find a larger self," and "Self surrender is the door to abundant life, and there is no other door." I'm walking through that door.

learning to follow christ

2009-04-25T18:54:00.006-05:00

I've rarely blogged over the past few months, but it's not because I've had little thoughts or ideas. Believe me, I'm learning I'm pretty opinionated. (Still not sure if that's a good or bad thing.) It's because I don't know how to articulate all that God is doing in my life. It's overwhelming, a little scary, and kinda fun all at the same time. Here are some thoughts though from what God has been teaching me:

I'm learning in a new way my desperate need for God.
I'm understanding in the smallest way the Kingdom of God. God wants to enter into, redeem and reign over every person, every culture, every community, and all creation. Come thy Kingdom in my life.
I'm truly a sinful person without God's grace and Spirit-empowerment.
Personal holiness is a bigger deal than what most churches make of it. And not just the external, but all the way to the core of who we are.
I've evaluated my motives, disposition, thoughts, actions, and attitude and have found they all need to be redeemed by God.
I'm more thankful for God's love and grace than I have ever been before. What Jesus did at the cross is simply love.
The least I can do is give my life in return, but it's also the most I can do-I don't have anything else to give but myself.
I love Lacey more than I ever have in my life. We have grown so close to each other over the past few months. I can't imagine life without her. What God is doing in me must be evident in our relationship.
If I don't learn to truly love, than it matters little all the other things I can "do" for God.
Even in the middle of all my junk, God created me in Christ Jesus to do good works, which he prepared in advance for me to do.
God loves me not for what I can/do for Him, but for who I am. It's not perfection he seeks, but obedience.
Jesus has not been enough for me up to this point in my life, but I desperately want Him to be. I've been too busy chasing after significance in His Kingdom instead of His Kingdom itself. Isn't it ironic how we can work for God, but miss his heart? But we will never miss his heart if we seek Him.
When I don't like who I am, I'm in essence telling God he should have done better and that his creation is not good enough. What a slap in the face to him.
I don't know better than God, so I need to stop trying and just follow Him.

I'm glad God never gives up on us and is constantly refining our lives. I am a disciple in progress, but the more I submit myself to Him, the more I learn how to follow Christ.

experiencing the spirit

2009-04-10T12:11:00.000-05:00

The first Christians turned the world upside down shaking the gates of hell even in the face of severe persecution. The result: People all around “were filled with wonder and amazement” (Acts 3:10). What can give Christians today the same impact?

Henry and Mel Blackaby's book Experiencing the Spirit works around this thought. You’ll explore the dynamics of being filled with the Spirit through intimate relationship with Him, committed obedience, and radical departure from sin. Instead of considering what you can do for God with your abilities and talents, you’ll be encouraged here to seek what God wants to do through you supernaturally by His Spirit, empowering you beyond your personal competence and capacities. Release the Holy Spirit’s work at the very core of your experience of the Christian life.

Pick up your copy here.

obedience is the litmus test

2009-02-17T12:41:00.004-06:00

"In the Kingdom, it's not your IQ, but your OQ." (obedience quotient) - Bob Roberts

Courtesy of Bobby Vaughn.

did you know?

2009-02-10T16:28:00.005-06:00

Yes, I realize it has been almost a month since I last posted. Life has been busy, and there has been little to no time for public reflection.

But I "stole" this from Bob Robert's blog today and wanted to pass it on. Interesting to say the least.

Did you know that there are 200 million registered accounts with Myspace? It would be the 5th largest country in the world.
4 exabytes of unique information will be generated this year. What is an exabyte?

god's validation

2009-01-20T14:53:00.003-06:00

Read this post this morning by Steven Furtick that really resonated with me on a number of levels. I don't think I necessarily crave others' validation, but I feel in some ways like my life has been void of it. So, yeah I do want it.

There have been times in the past few years that I've felt over-looked in some situations; I've yet to understood them.

In the middle of a conversation on a drive home several months ago, Lacey hit me with this question right between the eyes, "Why do you feel the need to prove yourself or be validated by someone else?" Ouch. Talk about hard to take, even though I knew it was truth.

So, I've wrestled with this over and over again in my mind. And I know God is the ultimate answer, but it still haunts me, especially when I'm down.

Furtick says this, "The affirmation of others can make a wonderful supplement to the affirmation of God. But it makes a terrible substitute. "

Be sure and read the rest of the post here.

2008 Reading List

2009-01-02T09:13:00.004-06:00

I love to read. Always have and always will. I consider it essential for my personal development and growth. And it's also therapeutic for me at times. One of my favorite things to do is go sit at Starbucks with a book and highlighter.

This past year I was able to increase the number of books I read by 10 books to read a total of 35 books - 7684 pages.

Here is a listing of all 35.

Unchristian
Hidden in Plain Sight
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
The Five Temptations of a CEO
Planting Missional Churches
Sex God
Now, Discover Your Strengths
Peppermint Filled Pinatas
Good to Great
Core Values
Uprising
Made to Stick
Too Busy Not to Pray
An Unstoppable Force
Who Moved My Cheese
Why Men Hate Going to Church
14 Tests All Leaders Must Face
Never Eat Alone
12 Choices That Lead to Your Success
Next Generation Leader
Wild Goose Chase
The Truth About Managing People
Crazy Love
The Shack
Glocalization
The Last Lecture
The Leadership Challenge
The Divine Conspiracy
Fusion
The Forgotten Ways
Activate
The American Church in Crisis
Pilgrims of Christ on the Muslim Road
Do the Right Thing
The Practice of the Presence of God

easy faith

2008-12-30T09:29:00.004-06:00

Read this post by Bob Roberts this morning that really resonated with me.

In fact, Lanny and I have been having similar conversations over the past month.

We often debate at what level of maturity a disciple is functional. I think, frankly, that the disciples of the early church were probably far less “mature” than we would want to believe.

We debate methods of catch and release; How much? How far? In what ways? How connected do we stay with people we disciple, etc?

We debate process, methods, etc., many things about how to make disciples. We get in little groups, or one on one, or bring our Bible’s, I’m just not sure there’s any one way. I’m not sure any one approach for an entire lifetime works either. We hopefully outgrow systems, processes, and even disciplers along the way.

Click here to read the rest.

god's voice

2008-12-18T14:34:00.005-06:00

God speaks in a myriad of ways in my life, and each way means something different to me.

It's in his "thunder" that I'm reminded of his greatness and power.
It's through his silence that I'm drawn closer to him.
It's through his whisper that I find words that truly sustain me through any storm.

three years

2008-12-17T16:02:00.004-06:00

I cannot believe 3 years have gone by since Lacey and I were married! We had dated so long long distance that it was nice to know we would never have to leave another again.

Lacey is the greatest thing to happen to me. I'm so thankful to love her and be loved by her.

Since she's in the middle of giving finals this week at school, we'll go out real fast for dinner tonight and then I have a surprise for her this weekend. [Don't worry, she knows that part, but just doesn't know what]

transformation is slow

2008-12-15T08:54:00.001-06:00

There's a lot of talk about discipleship going on in the church world, and rightfully so. The Western church has traditionally done a terrible job of discipling new followers of Christ.

It's got to be more than an information transfer, though it is important to know beliefs about God. An inner transformation has to take place, and actions, character, and thoughts have to align with God.

It's not fast; it's a process. And that doesn't bode well for our "microwave" culture.

But what might happen if we were ok with God's process of change. No matter how fast or how slow, we were just in tune with God. Might it change the course of Christ's influence on society? Might it build stronger families who in turn build even stronger ones? Might it see a hopeless world see the hope of the world for a change. What would happen?

Wherever you're at, move forward in God, be open to His voice, and have the courage to live your life and ministry differently.

starting churches is easy

2008-12-12T08:48:00.002-06:00

In light of the past few months of my church planting internship with Glocalnet, I'm getting to the place where I'm almost convinced that about anyone can start a church. Maybe that's true or maybe not.

But there are so many resources with check-lists that spell out everything that needs to be done that starting a "church" is pretty simple. It's almost a "church in a box" if that make sense (and I don't mean Portable Church - ha). But that doesn't mean that that church will be a Kingdom-building, disciple-producing church.

We have to desire to build disciples who plant churches, not just plant churches who hopefully produce disciples. I'm convinced we've got to focus more on building true disciples rather than building a church. A church should flow out of the disciple work. I'm still trying to figure out what that looks like.

Hopefully, Bob will teach us. :-)

powerful and authentic

2008-12-05T08:46:00.001-06:00

Watch this. It will be worth it.

the heart is what matters

2008-11-15T10:44:00.002-06:00

I'm convinced that true discipleship is becoming more and more like Jesus [and most of us would probably agree with that].

But I'm also convinced of this: we miss the deeper level of discipleship that actually counts. Here is what I mean.

How often do we focus on changing someone's actions instead of focusing on the end result of heart change?

How many people do you know that struggle with the same things over and over because because they are only focus on not exploding with their temper or not spending money they don't have or not judging people.

Actions tend to be temporary and maybe are even forced if the heart is not transformed. More than actions have to change for a person to continually grow in their relationship with Christ.

I'll post more on this in the next few days.

shifts

2008-11-14T14:54:00.000-06:00

Got asked this question this week and wanted to post my raw response.

"So what are your thoughts on implementing a new system, in general? Abrupt change? Slow transition?"

Shifts are hard in general because they mess up everything that seems normal and comfortable. And when someone is no longer comfortable, they are no longer in control. And when they are no longer in control, people get generally get frustrated, hurt, or angry.

The thing with shifts or change is they are complicated. Why do they even take place? Generally because something isn't working now or it has a missing link or it won't work in the future. So to answer the question about gradual or abrupt, I would say it's deeper than that, so neither seem to work. Neither one set well with people.

Here why I think true, lasting change is complicated - because it requires not only a change in the system, but in the paradigm behind the system. People have to see an alternative story or alternative perspective to ride the wave of change.

But think about how powerful it is when you get people on board with change. God can do anything with people who are flexible to Spirit's dynamic movement.

too hard to formulate

2008-11-12T12:33:00.004-06:00

It's not that I've given up on blogging because I truly love to write and process thoughts here. It's just my mind is racing so much right now that I haven't been able to wrap anything around it, thus no formulated thoughts.

I am trying to figure out what it means to truly live as a disciple for Christ and how to engage the world that I live in, while developing as a leader empowered by God.

God is greatly working in my heart, so I would appreciate your prayers.

complex decisions

2008-11-06T15:17:00.001-06:00

Why is life so complex sometimes?

Does it every get any easier?

am i a disciple

2008-10-28T16:39:00.004-05:00

I've been reading The Divine Conspiracy for my church planting class this month. This book has been messing me up in a good way. It's not that it's too difficult to understand or that it's all these new ideas. It's the way it presents the Kingdom of God... simple, liveable, and inward-transformation oriented. It's eyeopening to living within the context of the Kingdom of God.

Willard dives deep into the Sermon on the Mount and dissects it down to the core. This discourse is all about Kingdom living and disciple becoming. [excuse my phrasing]

As I've been reading through the Sermon the Mount with the book, I've been asking myself, "Am I a disciple?," "What does a disciple of Christ really look like?," and "How do you make disciples?." They are challenging questions that go right to the core of who I am.

But my prayer today is, "God, you have all of me. I want you to teach me and change me until I become who you want me to become. Don't just change my actions, but change my motives and my heart. I want to become a fully committed disciple of you."