New Shoes...

Katie and I went out last weekend and we got some new clothes for the cooling weather around here. Steve Madden was having a "Last Call" sale and we both got some new kicks.
Its amazing... not that I got new shoes but after the past weekend at home, I realized that it had been over a week since I wore my Rainbow sandals. I don't know the last time that I had gone an entire week without wearing my favorite leather sandals, but I guess thats one of the changes I will have to make. The weather is cooling down here, (low 60's) and so the need for shoes is rising. It is hard to believe that in the next 3 months it will drop more than 60 degrees! Scary! Anyways, if there is any excuse any of my Cali friends can give me to come back and let me again don my Rainbows, I would be grateful! Until then, Steve and I are becoming good friends...

California Love!

Well I flew in to LAX last night from Des Moines, Iowa and I have to admit that I miss the homeland already. Not just because my beautiful wife is in Iowa, though that is the main reason... (I love you baby!) but its just hard to be away from a place that has become so much of a home for me. As Katie and I started our new lives together as a couple we have really only known Iowa as "home" and so part of me is always wanting to be there, in a space where my life is my own. I love the area, not just because of the physical surroundings or environment, because I really like the warmness of So. Cal, as oppossed to chill rushing through Iowa currently, but because of the emotional landscape of being on my own.

The new picture I have of life and new beginnings is such an awesome one, that I miss the joys of figuring things out on my own, trying new things, taking risks and living free. I was listening to the Mosaic podcast and Erwin McManus was discussing whether God cares about us or not, and it struck me that the joys of new beginnings are what drives the heart and character of God. As I travel a long way home, through Housten, Texas to Los Angeles and just seeing so many people, new and familiar, seeing each as a light and object of God's love. It is very cool to think about how many moments and and choices we have to move in a direction towards God and justice and beauty and compassion, or towards those moments that we regret ourselves and see in us the darkness that we so desparatley want to evade. The ability to start over, like Katie and my life in Iowa, to make a new step forward in a new direction towards a new goal, makes us truly the most human. Not to make this all sound contrived, but isn't that when we are most at peace with ourselves? When we are facing a new situtation and we might be scared or unsure, but have an intrinsic curiosity and anticipation brewing inside and ready to burst out with action and compassion. This is what it means to be alive. I am alive and I cant wait to be home, home is when I am with my wife, home is in Des Moines, home is where I am alive...

Holy Crud!

I am writing this bolg on my plane flight home to California. And I am just sitting here (next to a guy that kinda smells) and imaging how bad it smelled at CRUD WARS! Yet with all the smelliness and grossness of the massive food fight, I was so thanksful for the awesome time that we had and how God used it to bring new students to expereince Him through us as a church. CRUD WARS was our first really big outreach event for Jr. Higher students, and we told the students that it was $5 if you come alone, or free if they brought a friend. And the students responded! We had 73 students come out to the event and 36 of them had never been to our church before, and 4 others came Sunday morning for the first time. Super awesome!

We have set up our ministry with strategic "Wins" for each type of program that we do so that we ensure that the event is actaully fulfilling its purpose... For our Enter (Evangelism) events, our win is that a new student would say, "I can't belive I had that much fun at a church event. I can't wait to come back!" The highlight of the night for me was that 3 students that we new said our win back to us almost exactly, without knowing what they were even saying! One guy said, "I never knew churches did fun stuff like this." to which his friend who is a regular attender responded, "Yeah we do fun games and have cool music on Sunday mornigns too." His new friend then turned to me and said, "This church rocks!" It was a sweet, divine and holy moment, even if he did have pork and beans on his face, and chocolate covered noodles in his hair...

Thought this was interesting...

With all the talk about "Going Green," someone came up with a test about which type of green I am... O well. Good for a laugh I guess.

You Are Emerald Green

Deep and mysterious, it often seems like no one truly gets you. Inside, you are very emotional and moody - though you don't let it show. People usually have a strong reaction to you... profound love or deep hate. But you can even get those who hate you to come around. There's something naturally harmonious about you.

What Color Green Are You?

I dont know why these things make me emerald green, but I guess thats another deal....

Makes me think of UCSB...

I just saw this article on Jesus' face appearring "miraculously" on the froth left from a pint of beer. Sounds like something you should hear from a college student trying to justify his party lifestyle and leading a Bible study, but its actually a real story, see it here.

It is amazing how many people want to see Jesus, and we as pastors and leaders just need to learn how to speak in their language and help them see God in their own culture. It is important to remain relevant and use the tools that God has placed in our culture to speak to people a clear and compelling way to lead them to understanding Christ's love and plan for their life.

Anyways, sorry for that rant, i just turned a sighting of Jesus in beer into a spiritual conversation. I think I hear the Southern Baptists getting upset...

Camp?

It seeems like summer just ended and yet we are already thinking baout next years summer camp. Crazy! We are debating the pros and cons of driving a bus load of students down from Iowa to Panama City Beach, Florida for Big Stuf camp. Some of you may have heard of it and others are like "What?" so let me continue....

It's lilke the second best camp in the nation (only to the mighty Hume Lake, which will never be surpassed!) and its at the beach, and most notably of all, its put on by Lanny Donaho and the people of North Point! So you know its gonna be off the hook! Anyways... Thats the deal right now... Thinking... Pondering... wanting to be at the beach... stuck in Iowa... ok not stuck I actually love it hear, but I miss what water feels like...

I was just reading my buddy Jake Rutenbar's blog and he just moved to San Clemente to be the youth pastor at Saddleback's extention campus down there.... Pastoring on the beach! Lucky! At least my mansion in heaven will have hard wood floors and a movie theatre!



just kidding....

Big Week For Us...

Check this out...


This was a big week for Point of Grace! We were featured in an article in Des Moines "CityView" Magazine on megachurches in the MidWest. Jeff Mullen, our lead pastor was interviewed and there were a ton of pictures, all but one, of our church in the article. You can view the article here. Super cool!

Also, the Student Ministry was featured in Waukee Today and The Dallas County News showcasing our ministry for young families in our area. Pretty sweet for the first two months! Its exciting that the community is seeing us as a movement of hope for students and families in the Des Moines area. Nothing like some free publicity!

Life Groups

We are getting our small group program underway (called Life Groups). It has been amazing to see God just provide through all my stress... We have decided to do small groups in a different way than most and are taking some hints from Saddleback and North Point Church and moving them into homes rather than having them on the church campus. This has been an interesting expereiment, and has taken a ton of extra work and contact with host homes, teachers and small group leaders. It has been so rad as God has litterally opened doors to amazing families and homes to give students a place to connect and grow. We are so excited about our Life Group Launch on October 4th. It will be a blast with a big night of worship fun and small group connection. We are praying that we have 100 students hooked up in small groups this year, because we believe that spiritual growth happens best in that context.

We have made the Life Group program the "win" for our ministry. It is our prayer and desire that students move from casual attender to committed member of a small group, and we feel that we have not done our job effectivly until our students are "Connected in a Life group with other Christ-following students and a caring adult." That is the goal of our organization and the way we attempt to accomplish the mission that God has entrusted with us.

It is such an amazing phenomenon, as students begin to connect they are more readily unleashed to DO the work of the church. This is why small groups are so key for us, because they directly relate to evangelism and ministry. We care so much about going somewhere as a ministry and not just being a place, but a movement, that we have put all our chips on our students. It will be an exciting ride.

So here is how we are doing it: We are actively marketing this as the goal of our ministry. We are using signage and consistant publicity to give students as many entry points into groups between now and October 4th, which is our launch. We are having an entire weekend service revolving around the importance of small groups and we are creating resources to assimilate students into groups that are targeted to their age, school and specific needs. In "Creating Community" Bill Willits describes how the "closed group" model most effectively allows leaders to care for small group members and growth to happen because there exists a level of dependability among members of the group. So we have, in our own way, adopted this idea of a closed group, so as students sign up for groups, they are committed for the year, and the groups do not add members, but are closed, to provide the feeling of a family. If students want to invite friends, we encourage them to bring the to a more targeted program for their unchurched friends, such as a Reach Night or a Weekend Service. We are excited to see how God will use our efforts in this approach to help students connect to each other and grow in real fellowship and authenticity through our Life Groups.

This Weekend Was Awesome!

This weekend was a total highlight! We had over 120 students this weekend! It was unbelievable! We began our series called "The Essentials," discussing the 5 purposes on which the Student Ministies will operate. This weekend we were talking about how God wants to use us to help our friends enter new life with Christ. We used "Enter" as our student-friendly word for Evangelism. It was so exciting to see student catch the spirit of God this weekend as we challanged them to take a risk and pray for their friends and for opportunities to share their faith story with their friends. I think that students of this ministry are going to change the tide of their campuses this year through our Invest and Invite strategy. We encourage students to invest in their friends lives, to get to know them, care about them, build relationships and let them know that God cares about them. I am so thrilled to see students picking up the habits or being excited about their friend's spiritual growth, and not being selfish Christians. It is such a joy to work with them as God moves through us to change our area.

I was reading this morning on Perry Noble's blog about his take on prayer being an excuse for inaction. It was so encouraging as I read his thoughts and then thought about our students here who ARE moving and inviting their friends to come to church and to know Christ. It has been incredible to see the growth of our group in just the past two months that we have been here. I know that everyone critiques those churches that always talk about numbers as their only basis for determining success, and I agree. I hate the numbers game, numbers are not the measure of success... They are ONE measure of success because numbers are people too. I don't care if we have 120 students showing up to church. That doesn't mean anything to me. I do care that out of the 120 that came and heard the message, that almost 75 students were mobilized for evangelism through our Invite and Invite program called "Green Means Go." That is exciting! Because even if half of those 75 people bring one person to church or tell one friend about Jesus, then that is almost 40 more students in Heaven because of one week! God is good! That is an exciting stat. So yeah numbers are people, and that is why they are important.

Now, as we head into this next week of the Essentials series, we will be talking about Merge, which is our word for connection of fellowship. It will be very cool to see students hook into small groups and really develop friendships and learn how to do life together in a real and authentic way. It will be a fun series. Its only been one week and I am already stoked on what God is doing and excited about what He will continue to do in and through us. The ministry is becoming a movement and Advancing the Invisible!

Craziness!

This week has been pretty intense... We got an entire new stage set up in our youth room, with cool moving lights and fun gobos to display. Ill post pics soon. We launched, and survived our first Saturday night 42, which is our high school program. It was fun, with pizza and games and pop (which is what Iowans call soda... I still don't think I like it.) Katie spoke on Igniting creativity. It was really good. So yeah, things seem to going pretty well, but are busy.

We are working on new ways or designing our program to work within the extremely visual lifestyle and workings of the students we are trying to reach. As seen in the MTV movie awards, big screen displays are at a premium. Creativity is such an important element in today's student ministry, or ministry in geneal... visual displays are a must. You can see our video about our program change here.