Full Time Ministry

Since graduating college I've struggled with the fact that I was not in "full-time" ministry, which means that I was not on a paid staff, at some church, over some dept of ministry. I have since come to realize that "full-time" ministry is about a calling to follow Jesus at all cost and that the faith of the bible shows us that it is a lifestyle and overflows into all areas of life, ie. family, work, play, etc.
To be called, means to love God and serve others in whatever context you may find yourself in, weather in a church building with a ministry or working at the local grocery store.
I am currently working a full-time job with some overtime every other Sat. and serving in the role of Family Ministries Director of an awesome church plant called Overflow in Benton Harbor, MI. With that being said I am realizing more and more that this calling on my life is not compartmentalized like I so often do. I'm learning so much during this season of life that I am in and in my walk with the Lord, it's amazing to me to see God working in my life. I fight hard to be a good husband to my wife and to spend time with her and our daughter, Olivia, because I know that I must minister to them first and foremost. And then to try to balance the rest of my time and energy where it's needed is a constant battle. But in the end, I know that what matters most is that I'm loving God and loving people, again, in whatever context I may find myself in .

1st Preview/Reheasal Service!

Well, it finally happened and man was it crazy! Crazy in a really good way. We meet at the offices to load up at 8am and had everything packed and ready to go by 8:30! The theatre that we are meeting in is less than a mile down the road, so we were all set to go. Here are some of the highlights without writing a book

• The glow and excitement was contageous with everyone.
• We out grew our theatre at our first preview! This was the smallest of all the theatres and we were more than 80% full!
• We had a total of 11 kids within SPLASH between nursery and 5th grade.
• One of the teens saw a friend coming in to see a movie and told him we just had church here! You should have seen the kids face, too funny.
• The Praise band did an awesome job and God's presence was all through that place!
• We got through some of the "hicupps" of the morning and no one walked out
• Our pastor, Brian, spoke on DNA and did an awesome job!!
• Overall the day was a success, everyone pulled together as a team!

Probably the biggest highlight for me was seeing one of the little kids during our worship time dancing between the first section of seats and the second section...he was just having a good ol time! And that is what its all about, praising God with all of our heart, mind, soul and strenght! We have much to learn from the children.

At War

Being in the trenches of ministry can get brutle from time to time, especially when planting a church. This past week has been a monster to fight, it's like you can feel it all around you. And the stories of things that happened this week already. Casey got sick a few days ago with the flew, which is not good. Oh, did I mention that we are holding our first preview service this Sunday. There's so much to do and so little time this week, but I have been encouraged by many friends this week and know that we are waging war in the spiritual realm. In spite of all this that I KNOW God is with us and that we have the victory in Him. Please pray for us as we move forward with this weekend.

Book Review

Transforming Children Into Spiritual Champions by George Barna, this was a great read...highly recommend ALL pastors to read this one. Barna basically states that after years of research on the development and growth of adults in their Christianity/Spirituality that they missed the Ocean!! He talks about the importance of investing into the next generation Christians and how it's ultimately the parents responsibility first then the churches to help educated and disciple the little ones. As I read through this book my heart became more and more aware that what Barna was saying was exactly right. I guess it just resonated well with my soul, now that I am the Director of Family Ministries at Overflow and very focused on our children's minisry right now. Whatever the case maybe, I just know that my eyes have been open to how we as a church and parents need to really step it up a notch in our discipleship to our children. We must begin to take measurable steps towards tracking the spiritual development of our children from nursery up through High School. He talks about how to go about doing this and that it may even seem far fetched for some, but don't we owe it to ourselves and to our children. Not only that but we will all be held accountable for all that God entrusts to us as stewards of all that is ultimately his, even our children. This is a must read!

Denouncing Entire Cities

So I'm reading through Matthew and come to the part in chapter 11 where Jesus begins to denounce the cities because of their lack of repentence. So Jesus blows through this list of cities that he says will decend to Hades and it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgement than for them. YIKES!!
But what I find interesting is the following verses, "I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and revealed them to infants. Yes, Father this way was well-pleasing in Your sight."
These are some pretty harsh words, don't ya think? What do you do with this passage, does this passage show election or what? What do you think?

McManus Article

"self-indulgent" Christianity. Read here.

Pressing on... God connections

It never ceases to amaze me how big our God is!! I just got off the phone with our lead pastor who was telling me some pretty amazing things and how God has been connecting people to Overflow who have connections with people who, lets just say have some pull, for now. It's really allowed me to see just how God is orchestrating this entire movement called Overflow and I'm so amazed and blessed that I get to be part of it.
Like for instance, there's a couple who have been considering joining Overflow for the past several months now and we just found out that they are committed to joining us. Looks like she will be the Director of our Life Groups and He will be helping this summer leading our Habitats project. She was on staff at Willow Creek working in the hospice area min. with young adults. Also, today we meet at the Cinemea with our Techs and things went extreamly well, looks like some things worked out for us to save some money on the front end and really max out our potential with the theatre. Another thing was meeting that happened with an individual who donated 100 bibles for the church! How cool is that? Now there are many other things that have happened and/or are in the making which i am not at liberty to share just yet, but let's just say they are all really GOD Size opportunities! Again extreamly excited about all that is taking place right now and how God's favor is with us.

Scientology What?

If you haven't seen this, you have to check it out. Tom is out of his mind, But I must say, I do like his zeal. I wonder what would happen if we viewed Christianity with this type of urgency?

Check it out HERE

Sacred Marriage

Started reading Sacred Marriage last night with my wife. The goal is to read a chapter a night and to discuss the chapter together. I must admit the first night we didn't get very far, only half way through the first chapter, we were exhausted!
But we read enough to know that this book is going to be life changing. The central theme of the book is based around one question, What if marriage was not intended to make us happy, but to make us holy? WHAT? Think about that for a minute. As I pondered this thought, it struck me that maybe that is why opposites attract so often, because we are attracted to others who are different then ourselves and as a result we are to make one another holy, of course with the help and guidance of the Holy Spirit as we both submitt to God's leading and ruling our lives as Lord we come closer with him and with one another.
More to come on this book...

Overflow Happenings

Check out all that has been going on with OVERFLOW in the past 72 hrs, here

ZEN SAYING

Discovery consists in seeing what eveybody else has seen and thinking what nobody else has thought.

Cinema Pics

Here are the pics I promised of Celebration Cinema. I'm so excited about what God is doing with Overflow and how His favor and blessings have been with us from the beginning. The manager is so welcoming of us being there, she's been waiting 10 years for a church to come in and not only that, she has lowered her price 3 times on us without us even asking!! God is so faithful and good to us.

Celebration Cinema Here We Come!

Today I got to take a look at the Cinema we will be meeting here in just a few weeks to start our preview services. The newly remodeled cinema looked amazing! Everything from the new tile on the floors to the new look of the refreshment stand. I was definitely sensing God's favor with us and his peace there as we prayed over the building. But more than anything was the favor with the cinema manager who was just the nicest person and who has been waiting for the past 10 years to have another church come in to the theatre and she's actually some one who has not been going to a church for some time and considering overflow as her church! How awesome is that! God's favor again! I will post some pics here real soon of the theatre. Please keep us in your prayers.

A Gift

"Our life is not a possession to be defended but a gift to be shared." - Henri Nouwen

Turning Point

"There is a God we want and there is a God who is. They are not the same God. The turning point of our lives is when we stop seeking the God we want and start seeking the God who is"

No Condemnation here!

God will not condemn me. "Therefore, there isnow no condemations for those who are in Christ Jesus..." (Rom.8:1)

1st Launch Meeting!!

It's official. We had our very first launch team meeting yesterday! It was so exciting to see people coming together from all walks of life, to rally towards something greater then ourselves. This is a God-size vision (Overflow) and its unbelieveable how God is orchestrating it all. We have a total of 7 Directors who are over particular areas of minisitry and last night we had approximately 30 plus people who are committed to helping launch services come mid-march.
We were also able to get an awesome resource of our Children's Min. (kidmo) to use for as long as we need. This is a huge expense that God has provided once again for us. The Children's ministry, K-LinC or Kid's LinC, (havent decided yet) stands for Kid's Life in Christ, linking with God, our family and friends of Benton Harbor.
We are so excited about all that God is doing in and through us. Please pray for us as we continue on in the journey to which God has called us.

God Dwells Within

My body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who dwells in me. "Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?... Do you knot know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body. (ICor.3:16; 6:19-20)