Passionately Following Jesus
This is an event hosted by The 410 Bridge. You need to be there!
Its going to be awesome!!!
Click HERE or the button above to order your tickets.
Lanny Donoho asked me personally via Twitter (ok maybe I wasn’t the only one he asked) to post this, you can see his blog HERE and his Twitter HERE.
See you there!
Nick
With Hurrican Ike leering on the coast of Texas I am reminded of Hurricane Katrina. I wrote in another post how Katrina not only changed the people’s lives who were effected by the hurricane, but it changed my life as well. Here is video footage from 2 of our 4 Relief Trips that our church took in the days and weeks after Katrina. Please note, this first video is 18 minutes long, but was used as a sermon filler to show the church members what people in that area was facing and how we needed resources and assistance as our church was going to adopt a neighborhood called Eagle Pointe. There is a lot of footage of the damage to homes and property as well as some personal interviews by some of the residents of the community we adopted. It has some rough spots that are very shaky, but I had to use the video available to me. This was the first video I had ever edited and made into a movie, so bear with it, it is worth the watch.
Our church was one of the first relief assistance teams on the scene. A couple of days after Katrina hit Biloxi, MS we loaded an RV up with water and as much food as possible, and 6 of us went to offer whatever help we could offer, this is what we saw and what we heard from some of the people…
Update: You may have to hit play and then pause to let it load some, the file is big.
Can’t see the video? CLICK HERE
This video footage is from trip #2 of our adoption of the Eagle Point Community. We were larger than the Red Cross; we had over 40 volunteers, two half-ton trucks, a semi-truck, two RV’s and a 15 passenger van full of volunteers and supplies for the people of Biloxi. We provided them with basic necessities and a hot meal. The first video literally took me all night to create. The next morning several local news agencies used it for their local news stories, one used it to partner with us with a program called, “A Time to Care” along with the US Army. A service rep with Purpose Driven, who happened to be in Rick Warren’s small group got the first video in his hands, he showed it to his executive leadership team, and they donated our remaining Purpose Driven Life Books to the relief effort, and credited our account for the entire balance (very cool!). We handed the books out to everyone as well as Bibles. With no power it is a perfect opportunity for people to read, and as the church lived out the Gospel, many people were interested in what God had to say to them through His Word. I never knew that video would make it so far around the nation. Video 2 was made possible because of video 1.
Can’t see the video? CLICK HERE
This was truly living out the Gospel.
I had an idea the other day, but now it has grown into a massive dream. What is it? I want to inspire student ministries all across the world to participate in the largest single day service project ever! Why? To live out the Gospel to our disconnected communities. Will this dream happen? I don’t know, that will require the body of Christ working together and being willing to unite under the banner of Christ, putting aside personal preferences, styles, denominations, number, and everything else that divides us in order to flesh out the faith we claim to follow. Here’s how this idea became a massive dream and where I would like to see it go…
I am a part of a local youth workers network that works together to promote and to host several annual activities and events for the students in our communities. One of the events we coordinate as a network is a city wide D-Now (Disciple Now) where each church coordinates a weekend of small groups that meet in homes and group activities with the students of their ministries. On Saturday evening of the D-Now all of the students who participate in the D-Now come to a central location to participate in a concert and a guest speaker. Basically it is a ‘feed me’ type atmosphere where students do no more than ‘come and watch’ a show. Our D-Now’s can bring in anywhere from 700-2,000 students depending on what band we bring in and who the speaker is, so I made a suggestion (the idea) that my buddy Shane was all about too because we have the same heart on a lot of issues…
Why don’t we (the network) capitalize on the opportunity we have on this weekend with these students to do more than ‘come and watch’ to mobilize them to ‘go and invest/serve’ in our community? 700-2,000 students from 30 + churches is an awesome time for the CHURCH to unite to make a difference in the life of those who live in our communities. So I have contacted the Mayor of Augusta to see if there is a park that needs renovating in a poor neighborhood, as well, we are looking at partnering with a local mission and/or community center to help repair, clean, and freshen up with paint and other services that can be accomplished by students. We have also discussed finding some elderly people, who are disabled or in need that needs work completed on their private homes. In one day, a whole community will feel and experience the impact of Christianity, under the banner of Jesus Christ, as represented by 30 + different churches.
So my idea blew up into a massive dream as I was taking a shower the other night. It was almost as if the Lord questioned me, “Why stop with 30 + churches and why focus locally….why not globally?” – And I personally was inspired and could not sleep, so I shot a few emails off to people who may can help get this ball rolling, if it is meant to be. My dream is this…I believe with the combination of bloggers and a few major networks of youth pastors this thing could become a reality. Each youth pastor who desires for their ministry to participate would partner with at least 1 other youth ministry and youth pastor in their area. Together these youth pastors would plan a major or a small project for their ministries to accomplish together on one day, while thousands of other ministries and students are doing the same in their communities, Saturday, April 25, 2009. In one day, youth ministries all across the globe would act out the single largest service project ever in the worlds history, all for the cause of Christ and to futher the Gospel through the example of our service.
The logo may change, some details may change, this is about 24 hours old, but my question is, why can’t it be done? I read in Ephesians 3:20 (NLT) today and it blew my mind…“Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish “INFINITELY” more than we might ask or think.”
So, are you in? What can you do? What do we need to do? I need help!!! We have less than a year, but together it can be done. We may need a website, bloggers, logos, t-shirts?, I don’t know, but maybe you do. If you have ideas or want to join in and help push this forward email me HERE or leave a comment. Kingdom Day (name may change), Saturday, April 25, 2009 (Date is Firm 🙂 )
I was wondering what I should blog about today, but after reading Pete Wilson’s post (God Bless America?) and watching the video he linked to, there is nothing more I need to say. I encourage you to go read the post and watch the video of a young boy who’s family had to give up their custody to the government because they could no longer afford to keep him. Pete’s post reminded me of a message that I heard in 2005 at the PDYM Conference by Louie Giglio called “Prayer-a-Remix” You can download the entire message for Free HERE
Warning: After listening to this message your prayer life will be totally messed up, so do not listen to it if you are comfortable praying the average cliche’ Americanized Chritian prayers and living the typical self-serving Americanized Christian life…I warned you!
Here is an excerpt from Pete, be sure to go check out the rest of his post HERE and watch the video:
I saw this bumper sticker the other day when I was walking into Blockbuster. It says, “My Pastor Says God Bless America.” Since seeing the bumper sticker I’ve discovered it’s linked to a political movement.
I want to be clear that I’m neither condemning nor endorsing this organization. I know nothing about it, but this bumper sticker just prompted the following thoughts.
I’m tired of praying “God Bless America.” Now, before you try to stone me at the county courthouse, let me clearly state, “I’m proud of our country.” I’m indebted to people who have served her to give me the freedoms I have. So we’re cool. I shoot fireworks off on the 4th and everything.
Join the Conversation, What’s Your Thoughts?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziOG_GHNVq0]
I’ve been thinking about this commercial for a while now. I have had the privilege of attending some of the greatest conferences in this Country for church leaders, yet it seems that year after year we discuss some of the same issues with ministries in the church and in the Christian culture as if nothing is changing. Research data shows that nothing much has improved. This is in no way to take away from what a lot of churches are doing, trust me, there are a lot of churches who are rocking it for God! However, we as an “unified” body are doing nothing, and it bothers me.
This post or video is not to take away from what I am learning at the Orange Conference. Some of the key words reminded me of this commercial today. “ReThink” “Programs” “Processes” “Innovate” “New Ideas” – All great terms, but meaningless unless there is substance to back them up. There was one breakout that confused me today, but that is not to take away from the conference as a whole, everything will not be 100%, but it seemed that people were sharing a lot of their Ideation, but no solid “hows” to move the Church and Christian culture in a direction to answer these issues that we are focusing on. I think there has to be a time and place to quit discussing and thinking and start doing.
I think it is time that we as the “Church” stop Ideating and start DOING! I am passionate about this, but feel I do not know what I can do to influence people to ‘do,’ except post this on my blog. Will you start doing with me? Maybe if a few of us join together we will see some changes. I heard Rick Warren say this past week that he wants to be a part of starting the 2nd Reformation of the church. The first Reformation was about Creeds (we know what we believe now) so the 2nd Reformation will be about “deeds.” – If your ministry, or if you are doing something personally to “Do” versus “Ideate” please share with me what you are doing…If you are Ideating and not doing, please share with me what you are praying God will use you to do – Then we can do it together…