Chance to meet Ty From Extreme Makeover Anyone?

Very exciting weekend ahead of us here that we want YOU to be a part of!

1^st – The Journey Groups Spring Launch happens Sunday (ask everyone you see on Sunday, “So…¦are you in a group yet?”)  Sunday is the day!

2^nd – We received a call this afternoon from the producers of Extreme Makover: Home Edition for Journey Church to host a Welcome Home Rally for the Skaggs Family (with Ty & the rest of the Extreme Makeover Team!!!!!).  Not to mention the local news camera crews, the Extreme Makeover production crews, and maybe the whole community!  Here’s the SATURDAY schedule if you’d like to come out (and maybe get on TV?!?).

3:00 pm SETUP (if you want to be in on the ‘good stuff’!)

4:00 pm Doors open to the whole community

4:45 pm Ty & team & the family arrive

5:00 pm Event kicks off!!!

6:00ish – Stick around to earn some treasure in Heaven by praying for & helping us prepare the building again for Sunday!

* As you know their son received a heart transplant, so this event will also focus on the organization Donate Life, which the Skaggs family supports.

3^rd – Please make plans to join us this Sunday for Clark’s start of the MOST powerful series ever…Untamed and remember to bring your toys for the “2×4 Toy Drive” for the Extreme Makeover Family dream focus!  Can’t make it to Norman?  Give online towards the drive at Online Giving.

Lots of BIG stuff this weekend at www.JourneyChurch.Tv.  Pray for the Holy Spirit to show up at these events in a huge way so people can taste & see that the Lord is good, and brings good & perfect gifts to His people.  We are constantly amazed…

Impacting our Community!

We started today off hosting the Extreme Makeover Home Edition team for a rally prior to their big build project starting Feb. 1 in OKC, and from one family we are shifting gears to MANY FAMILIES this Saturday.

Here is a list of the LOVEWORKS projects lined up for Saturday, Jan. 30th, from 9:00am-noon.  Meet at the East Campus (1330 E. Lindsey St./ Norman, OK 73071) at 9 and we’ll go from there.  Kids are welcome on a few of the events so bring the whole family!

lThunderbird Club house- confirmed cleaning projects flexible on numbers
Thunderbird Clubhouse- Norman- This is a great opportunity to develop relationships with people living with and recovering from mental illness. We want to help meet their needs, love on each individual and establish good realtionships with them as well as helping maintain Thunderbird Clubhouse’s new facility.

East Main Place- confirmed painting project flexible on numbers
East Main Place- Norman- Here is a great way to serve the homeless community as they are recieving transitional housing and support. Each individual is being supported and aided in re-establishing him/herself, we would get to love on them in the transition process or other jobs like helping get a new house ready for those in need.

City Rescue Mission- lots of projects 30 people
City Rescue Mission- OKC- The center’s mission is for transformation… we would be involved in changing lives plagued with addiction, poverty, mental illness and homelessness, to lives filled with stability, health and hope.

Refuge- (talking with Shelby) 20-30 people
Refuge- OKC- The Refuge houses a community of believes whos sole job is to reach out to the homeless, drug-addiction, and prostitution communities in the surrounding area. We would be teaming up with different members of the Refuge team to help them around then OKC area. Tasks include yard work, moving, building, cleaning, street ministry, and more.
Adopt-A-block- (Lead:Nathan Lanham) 10-15 people

YWCA- confirmed (Lead: Allison, Selah, Allie?) 10-15 people
YWCA- OKC- Work with children and women seeking shelter, help and guidance. We will be throwing a birthday party for all the residents who celebrate their birthday that month, this will help evoke family centered activities and allow for a lot of interaction and opportunities to love on them.

If you can’t make it Saturday, please make plans to join us Feb 27, Mar 27, & Apr 17 as we SEE A CITY TRANSFORMED, ONE LIFE AT A TIME!

Sharing the Christmas Story…

Merry Christmas everyone!  As a proud dad, I am amazed at my own short-sightedness in not being ‘constantly vigilant’ for ways to bless my kids & spouse.  Luckily, my wife is amazing at it and brought back some of her Lutheran roots with our family celebration of Advent.

Growing up Baptist, we didn’t celebrate Advent…probably more to minimize my love of fire than anything else…  Anyway, what a great way to celebrate the birth of Christ for a whole month instead of just one day!  We have the advent wreath with candles & light a new one every Sunday starting 4+ weeks before Christmas.  Then we read verses together around the meaning that Jesus plays in Christmas in 4 different ways & pray together.  Advent studies abound & you can usually find one, with candles included at a local Christian bookstore or giftshop.

Another thing we’ve started to do is to READ THE CHRISTMAS STORY to our kids in shorter sections instead of all at once!  This works great for kids’ attention spans AND usually works well for your small group as well!!! (adds in discussion time on the main points)  Here is a suggested reading plan from BSF International.

Christmas Story Reading Plan for Families or Groups

A Savior King is Promised – Isaiah 7:14; 9:6-7; Jeremiah 23:5; Micah 5:2-5a

The Angel Visits Mary – Luke 1:26-38

The Angel Visits Joseph – Matthew 1:18-25

The Trip to Bethlehem & Stable Lodging – Luke 2:1-7

The Christ Child is Born – Luke 2:6-7

The Angels Visit the Shepherds – Luke 2:8-14

The Shepherds Visit the Manger – Luke 2:15-18

The Wise Men Travel to Jerusalem – Matthew 2:1-8

The Wise Men Worship the Christ Child – Matthew 2:9-12

The Trip to Egypt – Matthew 2:13-15

Enjoy the Season!

The Secret to Success… Revealed!

When I was in Jr. High I began to realize that I was not successful…and began my quest to become successful.  Fortunately, I noticed a new movie coming out called, The Secret of My Success and made plans to attend!  I don’t remember much about it now, except that Michael J. Fox was in it AND one of my favorite bands at the time, Night Ranger (don’t judge me) said the title song.  Basically it was a big let down…to quote the title song, “The secret to my success…Is I’m living 25 hours a day…”

So all these years later…what have I found to be the real Secret to Success?  I’ll get to that later…  What I have discovered recently is that EVERYONE is asking that question…especially regarding their spiritual life!  My men’s group, BSF, the Journey women’s group, our recent Storyline series (viewable online at www.journeychurch.tv, and even our newcomers class!!!  How do I find & live into God’s BIG PLAN for my life???

As a church we are answering part of the question in the upcoming All In Launch Events.  For Journey Group members we’ve got 3 times next week, Sunday (Nov 8th), Tuesday (Nov 10th), or Wednesday (Nov 11th)…all at the Loft at 7pm.  For everyone else, we have a few Town Hall Meetings on Sunday (Nov 15th) or Wednesday (Nov 18th) at the North Campus at 7pm.

Please make plans to attend one of these events to find out God’s BIG PLANS for Journey Church these next 2 years, and how YOU can be a part of God revealing the secret to success for church!

OK, back to my answer… The secret to success is simply living each day pursuing God & His revealed plans for you (in the Bible) until you look back and see what His BIG PLAN for you was.

Sleep Deprivation is Serious!

So, most of you know that I’ve recently become a dad…for the fourth time.  As you can imagine things are pretty different when you have your fourth vs. your first and one of those was the paternal stress level.  Alison had a great natural birth, Hannah came out wonderfully, and we served our proverbial 24 hours in the hospital just to make the hospital happy.

OK… so I got a  blissful night’s sleep in the hospital (jk) (especially after being up all night the previous night with labor stuff) and I felt really good leaving the hospital with my lovely wife and our 24 hour old kid at 10am…

And of course, we headed first to get some Starbucks coffee.  (the hospital had coffee actually IN a Starbucks cup, but it was terrible.)  I went in and ordered Alison’s normal decaf and, instead of my normal decaf, I ordered a 1/2 caff for myself for a little jolt on this special morning.  I get in the car, drive out of the parking lot, and head down a little hill as I prepare to get onto the main street when I realize I don’t have my coffee!

Amazingly, my coffee is still sitting on the top of my car where I left it!  Alison asks me if she should drive or if I need to go back and get an extra espresso shot or something…

The moral of the story???   God laughs at me all the time I am sure and always have people bring you good coffee in the hospital before you hit the road with your newborn!

Men’s Fraternity at Journey Church

So we started year #3 of Men’s Fraternity this morning…which means 2 things.

#1 – I’m ready for lunch and it’s only 9:00am  (alarm went off at 4:20)

#2 – It happened again.  The ‘life transformation’ that we talk about in church, in groups, in personal relationships actually shows up at 6:00am among a big group of guys that somehow feel empowered to challenge, encourage, & joke with other guys in a way that is unbelievable.  Not in a bad way, but in a way that is ‘real’ amidst our normal culture of christian fakeness.

I hope you have an opportunity to be unbelievably real with a friend or two this week.  Not only is this displaying the honest interactions described in the Bible as the ‘one anothers’…(love one another, pray for one another, encourage one another, etc…) BUT it is actually a lot easier way to live life…just be real.

Get in a Small Group or Die

Sounds abrupt, but according to an article today at Prevention.com you will live 4-8 years longer if you have some really good friends…and of course you’ll meet a number of new people in groups and some may even become lifelong friends.  Here’s the quote

“Good interpersonal relationships act as a buffer against stress,” says Micah Sadigh, PhD, an associate professor of psychology at Cedar Crest College. Knowing you have people who support you keeps you healthy, mentally and physically: Chronic stress weakens the immune system and ages cells faster, ultimately shortening life span by 4 to 8 years, according to one study. Not just any person will do, however. “You need friends you can talk to without being judged or criticized,” says Sadigh.

So…this Fall is the time (This Sunday specifically at www.journeygroups.tv) to DIVE INTO A GROUP!

Cub Scout popcorn & God

My son, Andrew, is pretty cool.  (Not because of me for sure…)  Being the first born he has always tried to do his best to meet our expectations…even when they are unreasonable.  Case in point, we had just gotten back from a cub scout meeting last week where they went over the finer points of selling popcorn.  (girl scouts = cookies; cub scouts = popcorn)

Anyway, we practiced on the way home and were ready for our first victim… (er…customer) mom.  So he walks in and rambles some about popcorn and holds the brochure casually behind his back, doesn’t look at her or really even talk to her…and then turns to me as if to ask…”Is that good enough…can I go play now?”

I was angry.  It was like we hadn’t even practiced!  Like he didn’t even care about popcorn!!! (imagine that!)  Then God says to me, ‘Andrew’s sales job is a lot like his old man’s conversations with God recently…rambling on, beating around the bush, appeasing expectations, but not really ASKING for anything.’  Matthew 7:7 says it clearly, ‘Ask – it will be given, Seek – you’ll find, Knock – doors open.’

How are you at making the big ask to God?  Or are you like me and do things on your own, or just ‘kind of’ obey…till life implodes and we come back to God?  Ask, Seek, Knock… to quote Rev. D. Ray Montgomery…”it’s like Christian magic… we say some words, and stuff happens!”

Hearing God

Our Senior Pastor is doing a series right now called “DIALOGUE” and it has been incredible to hear from people who have had some misconceptions of prayer understand that prayer is not a monologue.  You can hear the talks at www.JourneyChurch.tv and even download the small group discussion guides at www.JourneyGroups.TV.

Dialogue: Prayer is not a Monologue

In my own prayer time I have been troubled by the reality that so few christians live in conversation with God regarding their normal life, or more personally, that I don’t spend time conversing with God.  Sometimes it’s because I don’t think my request is worthy of His help…”I got this one..save yourself for my next BIG request.”  Or maybe because I think that because he’s gifted me with a brain that I should use it.  That sounds nice and makes sense for choosing my socks in the morning or other small decisions, but God desires a relationship with us…not just our todo list. Leaving Him out of our daily lives, but wanting His help on the big stuff is life is like not talking to your spouse all month long and then expecting an amazing date night with all your dreams fulfilled (not going to happen…).

…”Until now you have asked for nothing in my name; ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be made full.”-John 16:24  He WANTS US TO ASK and wants our joy to be filled to the brim through Him.

“The Lord awakens me morning by morning, He awakens my ear to listen as a disciple (student/ learner)…” – Isaiah 50:4

ASK & LISTEN TODAY!  And feel free to share any amazing stories as well!

Thoughts on a Friday night

Considering the reasonableness of not meeting expectations with my blog. I really enjoy writing & assume you enjoy reading (at least Adam Barnett reads it)…Alas, Adam you may be alone in my readership.
However, I must apologize for my delay in writing…there is no excuse. BUT if I told you I’d been abducted by aliens since my last post and that the clone put here on Earth in my place did not realize he was suppose to be blogging for me also sounds believable to you then so be it…

Here are some things that have occupied my time and thoughts since my last blog….

* Wife is having baby #4 in about 6-8 more weeks.
* 3rd trip to HHH is 8/29 and I’ve been biking like a madman this summer.
* My cohort in small group ministry left in July.
* Other staffing changes have changed my role more than expected and more to come.
* Did I mention that I’ve been biking a lot recently?
* My unread email is up to 150 now.
* The grass in my backyard was at 1ft tall until last week.

So, hopefully you’ve lived differently than I have this summer. I’m ready for the Fall and look forward to sharing more of my journey along the way.