Near and Far Faith

Seriously... how far removed from reality are you to think that this works?

First watch this.



Then this.



Now go here and see why I love David Crowder - His rendition of the tune in the video above.

If anyone knows anyone that, even 7 degrees removed, is closer to the almighty because of this, please... tell someone. I'll bet anything that members of both of these bands still wear the same clothes. It was their 15 minutes - why throw that away!

Trade leadership potential for true leadership. - I know I rave about our Student Leadership Team - they rock and blow me away daily - but a hard lesson I've had to learn is to ignore leadership potential and go after manifested leadership. We can all see potential for the most part and love the challenge of building a student into a leader (like someone did for us), but there's a lot of time wasted on students that have potential but don't care. A true leader that's ready will be leading already. All you'll have to do is point them in a direction. The problem with students that have potential but no desire is that they're usually the popular ones that you think will be good leaders. They don't lead though, as true leaders create more leaders. These students simply create followers.

You can find true leadership in the students that others want to be like already. As harsh as it is, the best thing to do with students that exhibit potential is not to give them attention, as it will back fire into an attention party - pulling people away from the vision.

This is not to say that we don't make acceptions. When we do though, we are clear and strong up front with the standards. If they get off track, they're done. The true leaders that are ready for leadership are focused and remain on track... for the most part. They're still students.

Small is short lived, so love it - So our numbers dropped over the summer and for the first time I embraced it. There's a fight that rages in many of us as ministers to bring the numbers back up when they drop. Don't get me wrong - I'm all for it. For me, larger numbers means more ears to hear the Word. But God often presents us with the unique opportunity for intimacy and we miss it. There's a dynamic that, for most of us, is a season that's short lived in smaller numbers. Whether it's because of the summer, or the fan being hit by the proverbial selfish poo, I'm embracing a season of the small crowd. See, there's an intimacy that we strive to create in the small group ministry that we often miss in the small crowd.

Here are some benefits: getting to know each one better so I can speak more directly, focusing less on media quality (like graphics and videos) because those that are here are, for the most part devoted, allowing Student Leaders to learn to lead more hands on. Embrace the small crowd and don't miss the chances that are coming.

I've been so encouraged though our student ministry lately that I thought I'd take a few posts to talk about what I've been learning. I started participating in student ministry in high school leading worship, but I've been doing it for a living for about 5 years. I feel like I just started to figure out what works - after three years here in the Lehigh Valley.

Learn from students. It's a simple concept but how often can I humble myself to the point of being real with a student and saying "Thanks for teaching me that"? The past few weeks God's been reminding me of this concept over and over: that to lead by example is to truly lead like Christ. If I want them to learn from me, I need to learn from them.

A great example of this is our challenge to students to get out of their comfort zones and invite their friends to our events and to create dialogs with them about their following of Christ. We all have those students that latch on and get it... but when was the last time I latched on and shared my Christ-experience with one of my friends? Simple and basic, but profound. It's easy to know what to do. But often what we should be doing though is watching them go after a task and mimicking their results.

I love this thought from Steven Furtick. It's been on my heart for a while and he does it total justice.

Check out his post, Comfortable with Controversy

Steven Furtick came up with this idea two years ago and we jumped on board then. This year they came out with a free do-it-yourself kit. If you've never done it before it's amazing. DO IT! If you wonder why we do it, you can read a little about it on Steven's Post.

Read Steven Post about it here.

Get the kit here.

This is the first election that Cher and I are both excited about voting in. ONe of the coolest things that has been done this election year is Rick Warren's Civil forum in which he interviews both cantidates. It more than helped us choose our vote.

If you missed it...

Check out the video of the forum here.

Or come to my place and we'll watch it together on my DVR.

...stinks. I don't like it. However, Firefox 3 rocks. I like the new features and updates. If you're still using Internet Explorer, go here and get out from under the bureaucracy of Microsoft and join the independent movement... for free.

I first heard about Firefox about 3 years ago from Louie Giglio at a Passion event the we went to in NYC. I've used it ever since. they have less pop-ups and they came up with the idea of the "tab" where you can have multiple sites open simultaneously without reopening the program. Internet Explorer came out with their own version of this in version 7, but Firefox, in my opinion, has been progressing far beyond them for a few years now.

I just love seeing independants taking on giants... and winning 20% of the market . Read more about the Firefox story and one of it's creators here. It's quite interesting.

I'm in the process of writing the message for the workshop I'm teaching this weekend at Brave Generation and this morning in my devotional time I got the scripture that I'll base the teaching on. The workshop's called A Sexual Revolution and I thought I'd give a sneak peak.

Matthew 17:7-8 - Then Jesus came over and touched them. “Get up,” he said. “Don’t be afraid.”  And when they looked up, Moses and Elijah were gone, and they saw only Jesus.

After the transfiguration, Jesus' touched caused Peter, James, and John to see only Jesus.

I'm looking forward to developing this more throughout today.

So our band is playing out for the 1st time tomorrow. We'd love to have some support/fans if you're free. Check out the gig, Refuge Cafe. It's raising money for a good cause and the guy putting it together has been doing a stellar job with the monthly event. So much so that's in a few short months it's gotten a name in the community. Tomorrow is an all-day concert starting at noon with a ton of local bands. It's $5 per car load and we go on at 5 PM.

We'll be rocking our repertoire. We figured rather than doing stuff we'd have to learn, we'd do the stuff we're tight with. Hope to see you there.

Episode 6 of The Little Big Church Podcast is up. I wanted to share some of the useful resources for church development that I've come across, so that's what this episode is dedicated to. Here are the links. Check them out now or get a more in-depth view of each one on the podcast.

The Church 2.0 blog - Kevin Rush

Open - Lifechurch.tv

Open Resources

Newspring Online - Perry Noble and Newspring Church - Anderson, SC

XP3 - Northpoint's curriculum resource - ReThink - their Student Ministry Curriculum Strategy

Wing Clips - Free Movie Clip Library

iStock Photography - Purchase legal media photos

I wanted to have my devotional time in front of you today. Fact is, is a severe weakness for me - simply setting aside time to devote. So here's my accountability - an exercise in progress.

Matthew 16

What hit me today, Lord, is your contrast between vs. 14 and verse 16 - in 14 the disciples list 3 people: John the Baptist, Elijah, and Jeremiah... all who are dead. In verse 16 Peter makes a point to say you are the son of the "living God".

In my Christian experience there's always this emphasis on "life" and you conquering death. Why? I'm not saying it's not huge to conquer death, but why a living God?

This is what I'm feeling God say back to me: This emphasis is my life, not yours. Think outside of your earth and sky and think of how life was meant to be: reunited with me, love-filled, purposefully full of joy, meaning in everything, and knowledge of the true pursuit of the right - what it means and what it is. This is life. This is my breath that I breathe into you when you say "yes" to my life in you and abide moment by moment. Find death and life together and you'll find me there - building my life for you - constructing it out of the ashes of death and sin in this world. My life is full. My life is Joy and Peace. My life is what you all NEED. Only a living God can make that life.

It went great Tuesday night. One of our best events ever. I'm so over counting students, but it was a good crowd last night. I'm not totally over counting, i'm just seeing the benefits clearly of a smaller group. We miss that sometimes when we're only focused on getting out of the numbers hole we're in.

We had planned 5 events for the competition but times ran short fast and we cut it down to 3 - losing Powerball (probably for the best- it was gonna be the roughest game of the night) and Devour - the butter eating contest. The Bubbles won the Team Luncheon on Sunday and Jon Gonzales grabbed a free ride to Brave Generation by bringing five 1st-timers.

It was a long night, but a good one. Our prayer was that it will be used as a catalyst to change someone's life. Next week we start Exposed - The truth about Sex and are excited about seeing eyes opened and wills strengthened.

I feel lazy today. I typically do one wednesday's due to a 12-14 hour day on tuesdays. I was thinking of just veging when I read this post by furtick from a few days ago. It was a kick. I've also been slacking off on the podcast. I'm hoping to get back in the "studio" tomorrow and bang one out about resources.

We've been in the process of rolling out some big changes with our new org chart and we've found that when people's hearts are clearly devoted to the cause of Christ, we get huge confirmation. But when their hearts are in the wrong place - often seeking selfish gain at the core - they ask the kind of questions that reveal that heart clearly. Questions that have a lot of "me" and "my" in them - it's a red flag for turf-guarding.

What I've learned therough this is that if God's challenging me to do something, I need to go into it with my eyes atune to the Holy Spirit so I can see people's hearts. That will be my confirmation - not great success, but great buy-in. But not from great numbers - from great hearts.

I've been seeing a lot of things in our society lately - and the american church - that are done because they've simply been done before.

I can't remember where I heard this story, but it's about a newlywed couple that goes to make their 1st turkey and the wife insists that that you must cut the top half of the turkey off. After arguing for a while about the purpose for it, the wife calls her mother to ask why she always cut the top of the turkey off, since that's who had always done it. The mother-in-law couldn't remember why, except that her mother had always done and since the turkey was always so good, it must be a necessity. So they get grandma on the phone and let her know about the discussion that has held up thanksgiving. The Grandmother simply responds, "Oh my oven was always too small so I had to cut the turkey in half so it'd fit."

How much do we do at the church and in our lives with outdated purpose? We must, as leaders, be constantly reevaluating and asking "Is this still working?" We must do things for real - because they work and are effective and not energy-drains.

We're gearing up for Brave Generation - Holyfire Ministry's New Jersey conference. If you'd like to help a student get there it's $170 per person. We're suggesting getting together as a small group and all chipping in. We'll be giving away a free pass to the Student who brings the most 1st-time visitors to American Gladiators at Ignite next week.

If you'd like to tag along with us you're welcome to - though you'll have to pay your own way - only V-Staff get the privilege of a free ride because they are glory revealed. This is the one conference we'll invest in this year because we're sure of the results. And they're letting me teach a workshop too. Rock on - I'm pumped. I'll be challenging the students to begin a Sexual Revolution.

Email me for more info.

Here's one of my new favorite blogs - Church 2.0 - The Blog

I'm all about new technology and this site let's you know the latest and greatest that have uses in the church.

• Had an awesome time at jake and Trista's. heading to bed after i wash the stink off - long day tomorrow #


• Waiting in line at the bank. finishing up our ANGRY series tonight #


• Home for lunch #


• Is loving the catalyst podcast #


• Pots hot dogs and chocolate milk - man dinner #

• Why can everyone sit still in long meetings but me? where are all the other ADDers? #


• mini blog post- The problem with the SEEKER terminology is this: what about those that aren't looking for God? are we only after lookers? #


• John McCain just calle me! #


• Playin some mario party with Rory. she's better than i expected #