Northern Ireland Mission Update

The Men’s and Women’s Ministry at our church put on a Valentine’s day dinner and movie night and as a fund raiser the youth served the meal for tips. There was also a silent auction where all of the items were donated and went to the highest bidder. This was a great fundraiser and the youth that participated did a great job. The fundraiser put a dent into the total that is needed and we are praying diligently that the Lord will provide the remainder because we are only a little over half way there.

From a preparation standpoint I am continuing to meditate on the things that the Lord is teaching me. This past Sunday I had the pleasure of teaching the youth about Love and Compassion. We talked about loving our neighbors and that led right into the discussion of compassion. We used the following definition:

Compassion - a feeling of deep sympathy and awareness for another’s suffering and a  desire to do something about it.

After talking for a while about the importance of having compassion as a Christian, we all agreed that it was indeed important and that it is something that we should all have.  I asked my audience if they felt a bit of pressure after learning that compassion requires action. As for me the Lord spoke clearly to me on the need to attach some real action to my compassion. I have to admit that I often use the word compassion when in reality I should be using the word sympathy. I am amazed at how we can be teaching and learning all at the same time.

I encouraged the youth to be practicing compassion at home where it is safe. Home is a place where they can be aware of the needs of their family members and immediately take action by praying or some other appropriate response. They should be practicing at home until action is comfortable for them. Following this we discussed how our youth meetings should be another safe place where they can step out and put some action into their compassion equation. The goal is that they would be so comfortable showing compassion that taking it to the streets would be a natural  next step for them.

The people of Northern Ireland are in need of a little compassion and I want our team ready and able to take action by praying and serving. As for me, I’m preparing my heart for the work ahead.

If you would like to commit to praying for our team, please let me know by sending me a message and I will send you updates on our prayer requests as we progress toward our departure. If you desire to help us financially we would appreciate that as well. You can do that by sending a check to:

Youth Ministries
Vineyard Community Church
601 South Cooper Road
Gilbert, AZ 85233

Please write my name in the memo section of the check. There is also a method available for using a credit card (In case you want to earn credit card points), contact me and I can pass along the details.

This Little Light of Mine

It is funny how God uses little things to teach us more about Himself. I had one of these little teachable moments tonight while singing to my little boy.

I was singing the song This Little Light of Mine to my seven month old little one, but I don’t always sing songs using the traditional lyrics. I often make up my own lyrics to suit my mood and honestly this does not often make my children happy, but my little one, he doesn’t seem to mind.  Tonight’s lyrics went a little something like this.

This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine
This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine
Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine

Can’t nobody stomp it out, I’m gonna let it shine
Can’t nobody stomp it out, I’m gonna let it shine
Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine

Jesus put this light in me, I’m gonna let it shine
Jesus put this light in me, I’m gonna let it shine
Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine

Jesus make this little one shine, Jesus let him shine
Jesus make this little one shine, Jesus let him shine
Let him shine, let him shine, let him shine

While singing this little song to my son… it became so very clear to me that “This little light” isn’t mine at all. It totally belongs to Jesus. Its His light! Just because its in me, doesn’t mean its mine. What is mine? If I am to decrease, so that He may increase, how should I try to claim anything as belonging to me. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me! Get that? I don’t even own my own life… my very life and every single breath belongs to him.

It is Jesus who is going to Northern Ireland later this year! He is simply catching a ride with me and the rest of the team. If it were simply us going, it would be totally in vain!

Funny how the Lord uses the little things to reach down deep inside of us to teach us more about Himself and how we also learn more about ourselves in the process.

If you want to help our missions team get to Northern Ireland, drop me a line…

Northern Ireland or Bust

In July 2010, ten teens from the Vineyard Community Church Youth Group will be headed to Northern Ireland on a missions trip. More specifically the team will be headed to the Causeway Coast Vineyard located in Coleraine on the north coast of Northern Ireland. I am excited and extremely blessed to be going with the team as a chaperone/team member but better yet I am going as a proud dad. You see, my oldest daughter Courtney is one of the teens on the missions team. This will be her first mission outside of the United States. 

The missions team will be participating in “Shine” a week long community service program. The team will be doing community service projects, delivering groceries to those in need and will be doing other things to show the community that the church is there to care for them in a real and tangible way.

The teens will have the opportunity to be stretched in their social skills by being called upon to share about their life experiences  with the local youth in Northern Ireland. They will need to adapt the social differences between the youth back here in the United States and those that they will encounter while in Northern Ireland. I expect that there will also be some learning when they come to realize that some words and phrases mean something totally different outside of the US. I am really looking forward to the growth that they will experience while on the trip.

We still have a few months before we embark on the adventure, but the team is already at work trying to raise the funds necessary to pay for the trip expenses. Each member of the team is responsible for raising the funds necessary to cover their portion. There will be yard sales, car washes and a silent auction (being held during the Valentines dinner at the church). Beyond that we are asking friends and family for support, both prayer support and financial support as both will be extremely important to the success of this mission.

If you would like to commit to praying for our team, please let me know by sending me a message and I will send you updates on our prayer requests as we progress toward our departure. If you desire to help us financially we would appreciate that as well. You can do that by sending a check to:

Youth Ministries
Vineyard Community Church
601 South Cooper Road
Gilbert, AZ 85233

Please write my name in the memo section of the check. There is also a method available for using a credit card (In case you want to earn credit card points), contact me and I can pass along the details. Please remember that all of your donations are completely tax deductable. It is a little bit of a struggle to ask for help, but I guess humility is one of the lessons that I am meant to learn.

Over the next few months as we prepare the team for this wonderful journey, I will be sharing my thoughts, feelings and the things I learn along the way.

Dear Jesus, Help me love like you do...

Dear Jesus,

Please help me to love people like you do. I really want to, or at least I think I do. It seems so hard to me... I mean, I want to love people but I see them doing things that I'm afraid will hurt them. I want to come along side of them to support them but they seem to push me away, not wanting to receive the care I have for them. I want to share with them, from my experience so that they will not have to experience the pain that I have felt. I want them to know You as I feel that I know You. I want them to trust You as I have learned to Trust you. It seems so hard to love them because its like opening up the door, the door that protects me from pain, the door that keeps me aloof and hands off. Lord, I've talked to you before about the pain that I have experienced because of opening that door... How do you do it, how do you love people when they can cause You so much pain? What about the ones who have hurt you before? How can you continue to love them.  It seems so far beyond anything that I can understand. Honestly I'm not sure I could or even want to try to understand it. Lord, if you would grant me to love like you do, would you do it in such a way that I don't have to wrestle with the intellectual side of the whole thing. Help me to love people because you said so, help me to do it because its You loving through me.... Get me out of the way and protect me from the potential pain. As I reason this out I am seeing more clearly that I simply need more of You. I need to feel You near me and moving through me. I can't do this on my own... it is so hard to admit that to You, because I am a proud man who doesn't like to admit any kind of weakness, but its true none the less. I hate to admit that I'm afraid of pain and failure no matter how true it is. Jesus, I believe... help my unbelief!

Thank you Jesus for letting me be honest with You and thank You for being patient with me.

How Do You Teach Worship

As a father and youth leader, I am always wondering and thinking about teaching kids about worship. It is hard enough to help adults understand what worship is all about, but gets tougher when we are talking about young people.

Worship to me is an extremely important expression of our Christian faith and as such, it seems like we as leaders need to be concerned about teaching this to our children. Seeing a young person engaged in worship, where they are really connecting with God is a sight that I will never get tired of.

My thoughts to this point has led me to believe that modeling worship is a good way to teach it, but I'm wondering if there is more that should be done. That is not to say that other teaching isn't taking place, such as teaching on God's character and his interaction with His creation. It seems like we have done a good job in teaching about Christianity, but have we done enough to explain that worship takes us into the courtyards of the King Himself. Have we explained that God does indeed inhabit the prayers of his people. If not, how can we really do this?

For me, worship did not come easy, in fact it took me a while to understand why people in church would ever enjoy all the singing that they did. I wanted to skip the singing and get on to the good stuff, I thought all the singing was a waste of time. It took time for God to capture my heart and for me to realize that it was happening. Worship went from singing songs to an interactive experience, where I moved closer to God and where He came closer to me. It was a place where I could be totally exposed before Him and where He could speak to me and deal with me in all the ways He desired.

In the end, I guess I am left with more questions that answers, but my desire is and will always be for more and more people to experience real worship. I want to help others to find this place, this special place where the veil between us and God is especially thin.

Master's Commission

Master's Commission led worship and ministry for the girls at a recent Friends retreat, which led to us inviting them to come to the church to speak to our youth. The girls from the Friends group could not stop talking the members of Master's Commission and how great they were. All of their talk really set the expectation extremely high and I have to tell you, Master's Commission more than met the expectation set... they blew it out of the park. I can't tell you how impressed I was by these young people and their obvious love for the Lord Jesus.

They spoke to the youth today about unity, something that has been on my heart for a long time. For me, it was so obvious that they were speaking the heart of God, that it caused me to weep many times. They spoke of Sacrifice, Honor, Drive and Glory and used skits to reinforce their message, which was more than cool. I am struggling to get everything out that I want to say... which is why this sounds like I'm rambling.

Drive = Passion + Desire

Drive is what moves us forward, it is taking the thing that we desire (our goals), fueling it with out passion and "Going For It!" without reservation.

Honor + Sacrifice + Drive = Glory

Glory cannot be seen until we begin to Honor someone, Sacrifice something and Drive towards the prize.

Master's Commission did what they called a human video to the song "I Need You To Survive". This was an extremely touching part of their presentation. They signed (sign language) to the lyrics of the song as they moved throughout the area where the youth was sitting. This is one of the times that brought me to tears as it was such a graphic example of our need for one another.

I am looking forward to seeing Master's Commission again real soon in the hope that the Lord will use them once again to speak to me.

My hope is that the hearts that Master's Commission touches end up being the very treasures that they are laying up for themselves in Heaven.

For who is our hope or joy or crown of exultation? Is it not even you, in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming?
1 Thessalonians 2:19

A very cool picture from God

There was a Worship and Ministry night at the church this evening (Thanks Kim). It was a wonderful time of being in the presence of the Lord and participating in corporate worship with a group of people I really love. During worship, I got a couple of words and God allowed me to see something very cool.

There is a guitarist in the worship band named Charlie, Charlie has a little boy named Caleb. Charlie was in the worship band tonight playing a mean guitar (Charlie is extremely gifted) and right in the middle of a worship song Caleb (who is maybe five or six) came in from the back of the sanctuary, walked right up the aisle, up onto the stage, across the stage and right to the feet of his Dad.

The Lord used this event to show me what our relationship with Him should look like. Caleb did not think twice about his dad being busy playing guitar, Caleb didn't think anything about all of the people who would see him go up on the stage, I don't even think a whole team of mules could have kept him from going to feet of his dad. To Caleb, all he saw was his dad, and he went to him as if to say... "It doesn't matter what my dad is doing, he is my dad and he will always make time for me!". It is just like that for you and I, but the difference is that we have trouble overlooking the things that Caleb didn't give a second thought to. We get concerned about what people will think of us if we run to our heavenly Father. Our God, our heavenly Daddy will always make time for us and we need to run to him without reservation.

When Caleb first went  up on the stage to his dad, it brought a smile to my face, just seeing him go. But when the Lord revealed to me what He wanted me to see, it brought tears to my eyes and choked me up. It did so several time throughout the night as I remembered the lesson. God loves us and wants us to come to Him, not waiting for a proper time, for a convenient time, He wants us to just to come!

Thank you Lord for this beautiful picture, I needed to see it and I guess I was meant to share it.