Insane Campaign Explained Video...

pass this on to everyone you know by copying and pasting this link...
http://www.hurl.ws/472w

things i've learned (am learning)

a couple days ago i went through all of my journals and made a list of important things i've written down in the past 8 years or so... many are from people i look up to, some are from moments i've had with God... let me know which ones resonate with you

• callousness is the devil's home
• seek God first before everything else
• buy wisdom
• bow your soul
• submit to leadership
• be aware
• be careful about being too smart
• you don't learn grace only once
• obedience is highly valued
• God wants your character to rise to the level of your ability
• its about knowing the Father
• be genuinely interested in others
• be diligent with what is in front of you
• grow in competency 
• it takes 2 years to work your first day and 4 years to really know someone
• confess to God and man
• as soon as you're afraid to lose it, you've lost it
• be a living tool
• the sabbath is a matter of life and death
• there is peace in serving others
• God resists the proud
• structure is key
• don't succeed at something that doesn't matter
• don't ask for "staying power", but for His power
• let God do what God will do
• a fool is full of opinions
• discipline is the bridge between desire and delight
• what will your sin cost me?
• there are no such things as secrets
• all my fountains are in Him
• feelings lie
• focusing on morality doesn't produce morality
• the kingdom of God is wherever Jesus is king
• add value to people
• stay on the altar
• being a christian is about becoming
• there are certain things that will never be your role
• in the absence of leadership, lead
• do little things well
• a spiritually bored church is boring to the lost
• judas couldn't sell the perfume, so he sold Jesus...what are you selling?
• it is always good to remember what God has done
• i get to choose how i believe
• let the peace of Christ rule in your heart
• the grumbler lives in a state of self-induced stress
• there is a direct relation between how thankful you are and the strength of your faith
• am i more concerned with God's kingdom or mine?
• couch yourself as a learner
• i am here to prepare others for acts of service
• we are unnecessarily dramatic people
• grow in awareness of the impact of every moment
• all the world knows He is God
• be supportive, not suspicious 
• His words are life and breath, so breath deep
• don't go to Hagar for what is promised in Sarah
• don't live on yesterday's faith
• when we get ridiculous we see things no one has seen before
• being disciplined harvests righteousness and peace
• don't answer when not asked
• don't confuse being a witness with being a participant
• if you have a problem mouth, you have a problem heart
• we live our lives through the window of eternity because faith is what convinces us we're not crazy
• there reason some pastors don't worship is they are used to being worshipped
• the holy spirit brings rest
• integrity can be caught
• you have to be a good follower to be a good leader
• connect with God through hiddenness
• you reproduce who you are
• innocence is important
• he is not like us
• like completes love
• we don't lead people to where we are but to who God is
• you will attract more birds with bread than with stones
• we represent the Father with every moment and every word
• its better to deal with it now, not letting it define you, than to wait and always struggle
• don't worship God with something that cost you nothing
• God doesn't want our information, but our realization
• careful when "evaluating" not to be "elevating" yourself
• do your best to value the people above the process
• unity requires intentionality 
• learn the difference between the need to "confront" and the desire to "control"

imaginary lines

We draw imaginary lines habitually, like an addict distracted from what is really happening in front of us because of our internal knee-jerk need to get a fix, we draw lines.

A good example is the Insane Campaign we are doing at The Vine. I sent the support letter to everyone in my email explaining how we are trying to finish a facility to benefit the kingdom of God in the area of Braselton, Georgia. One response I got basically asked me not to send this letter to anyone from “their” church.

A line was drawn because this person didn’t understand and they have good reason to think the people from their church wouldn’t understand why a person from one church would give dollars to another church in America.

Now, that same person or same church has no problem when a missionary to another country asks for dollars to help finish a facility to expand the kingdom of God in that non-North American area. Why the line?

Think about when Paul from the Bible would go on missions, the churches he had started helped support the ones he was now starting, and they all basically would have fit within a geographic location smaller than the United States.

Can you imagine people writing Paul back and saying, “We won’t be supporting this particular venture of yours because it’s relatively close geographically. If you however choose to travel further away, beyond our own country’s border, we would consider helping.”

Lines are stupid. God didn’t put these lines here. Its ridiculous. 

and now is the time to burn

go here and click "buy now"!

help a brother out!

Insane Campaign

Call it insanity, but our church is attempting to raise

$200,000 in two months! During the two years of our existence, The Vine has been a portable church. Each Sunday, we set-up and tear-down for two crowded worship services. In those two years we have experienced God-sized growth in attendance and amazing work in the ministry of the Kingdom of God. To see the highlights of our first two years of existence, please check-out the following video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKN-kwHrkkI

It is imperative that we move to continually provide empty seats at optimum times so people can experience the love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ. God provided the ideal space for this next phase of ministry through a course of unexplained events and unimaginable timing. This new space will allow us to experience worship with approximately 400 people at a time, and within 4 miles from our current worship facility! We began our improvements during the week of May 18^th. God has already provided us with half of the improvement costs and our petition to you is for a contribution toward the remaining half. It is our desire to fund 100% of the construction costs while continually supporting local, regional, and global missions, including Meet The Need and eradicating childhood homeliness in Maputo, Africa.

We ask that you prayerfully consider the following actions:

  - Donate $10, $25, $50 or more

  - Pass this email along to family, friends, facebook contacts, people in your church, and everyone in your address book

 - Pray for The Vine, our build-out, and all of the people who will hear the Gospel in these new empty seats.

Donations can be made one of two ways:

By Paypal: http://www.connecttothevine.org/component/option,com_dtdonate/Itemid,144/index.php?option=com_dtdonate&task=pre_paypal&Itemid=144

By Check:

The Vine (designate as “Insane Campaign”)

PO Box 244

Braselton, GA  30517

Thank you and let the insanity begin!

"i resign"

and other things i've learned not to announce on a blog...

nearly three years ago on july 20th 2006 i spoke with my then pastor and told him i would be resigning as his youth pastor and moving to colorado springs, co to go to the new life school of worship.

that same day i blogged about it. i didn't realize any of the youth had my blog address and one of the youth saw it and things went relatively down hill from there.

sometimes i don't get why certain things shouldn't be said out loud, so i can tend to put people on the spot...

there are public and private sectors to all of our lives, but i wonder how much distance there really should be between the two. i learned not to blog something as "big" as resigning before filling certain people in the "real" world in about it. but the line between digital world and real world is blurring more and more each day as well. and blogging it was my way of letting the people that care enough about me to check my blog know about it.

so i am wondering out loud. is 'censoring' ourselves a way of coddling others that may not be able to 'handle' it? has 'tact' become another word for 'watering down'? would people mature more quickly if they were given the 'hard' stuff early? would lessening the line between public and private actually make us more honest people with fewer secrets, more transparency, and less to hide?

would being more openly 'critical' or opinionated actually allow people an opening to be more honest in return?

stay with me here...i'm swinging the pendulum. put yourself into one of those situations you were 'lead with a gentle hand' and imagine the same situation with a little more brutal honesty and less 'patience' and be honest with in your comments.

would you have grown more swiftly?

would it have hurt more? most assuredly. but would your growth have been greater? could you have reached a new level of growth in days, weeks or months, instead of weeks, months or years?

nothing

i really don't have anything to say lately...

i've been reading some good books, like:

rest of God-mark buchanan

secondhand Jesus-glenn packiam

question behind the question-john g. miller

re:skimming/reading:

made to stick

pursuit of God

21 irrefutable laws of leadership

secondhand Jesus

what could i possibly say that people like Eugene H. Peterson and Mark Buchanan haven't already said so beautifully about this book? i suppose all i have is what the message of this book speaks to me...

"secondhand Jesus" is one of those books you read and you think, "that is exactly what i have been feeling." with each page you read your own thoughts on the page written by someone else. in this case it is written by Glenn Packiam, a worship pastor at one of the better known churches in America...unfortunately it isn't better known for better reason as of late.

the tragedies and scandal that New Life Church has been through in the recent years has served as a catalyst for Glenn in discovering the rumors he had begun holding onto as "gospel truth". but rumors are being dispelled.

"We've been using God as just another gadget", Glenn says on one page and on another "Christ came speaking the language of His culture, fully intent on undermining it. We come speaking the language of our culture with the secret hope of being loved by it."

we live in a time of extreme dissemination of ideas and christianity and the church have not been immune to its side effects. unlike the early church, in the first centuries, how they would evaluate and challenge theological statements and beliefs beyond the surface understanding of the words, but to the bedrock, these days, the surface seems fine, therefore rumors become the rule.

Glenn leads a direct path toward the truth and with great transparency lays out his own faulty thoughts and frameworks. asking the question, "how do i get rid of God?" is not easy, but Glenn asks because truth be told, most of us have secretly asked in the secret of our own minds.

"secondhand Jesus" does a great service to those longing for more...feeling their very relationship with an infinite God being squeezed dry by misdirection and misunderstanding.

read this book and ready yourself to reinvent the way you walk with Jesus. choose to look to Jesus with fresh eyes for a fresh love. you won't regret it.

Glenn is an author to watch! he has the clear potential to be a writer known for generations as a mouthpiece for God and the calling of His people.

http://glennpackiam.com/books.jsp#chapter1 to read the first chapter for free.
http://www.amazon.com/Secondhand-Jesus-Trading-Rumors-Firsthand/dp/143476639X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243820550&sr=8-1 to buy this book.

spray on Jesus

cyndi heard God

cyndi is my wife and the most beautiful girl i've ever known. i am regularly amazed at how she loves me and i am honored to be living my life with her. years ago, before we met, cyndi had an experience in which she heard the audible voice of God. i have never heard an audible voice from God. this was a hard story for her to tell, and a hard story to hear, but the center is hearing, and hearing from God.