Toby Mac is 44?

I was at Winter Jam last night at the Ford Center with our students and Toby Mac was performing. One of our youth sponsors, Brianne, told me that he was 45 and I couldn't believe it. Of course I had to text my brother who has been a big Toby fan ever since the debut album of DC Talk in 1989. Brent texted me back, "Wow she is close. He will be 45 this year in October." I was watching this guy rap, sing, dance, and stage dive like a guy half his age. It was amazing and a great live performance. The show was cool. I was diggin' Hawk Nelson, Brandon Heath and Toby. The show was definitely worth the $10 admission and then some.

Check out this video from Toby. http://http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=24USgRNeQxc

PAUSE

Pastor Darren is out of the country and ministering in Kenya for a couple of weeks, so this past Sunday morning I had the opportunity to preach. My message was entitled, PAUSE. The main text was Luke 8:40-48, which speaks about the healing of the woman with the issue of blood. This passage of scripture is powerful because it shows us the compassion and concern that Jesus had for this woman. Jesus was asked by a synagogue leader to come to his house to heal his 12 year old daughter who was dying. As he was going through a crowd of people this woman reached out and touched the edge of his cloak. The bible says that immediately the woman was healed and that Jesus turned around and said, "Who touched me?" Peter responded, "Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you."But Jesus said, “Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me.”

I like this passage of scripture. Jesus modeled how to PAUSE and take a look around at the needs of others. He was on his way to heal a young girl, yet someone reached out to him. I utilized the picture above to symbolize how fast life is for most of us. We have our responsibilities and priorities on our mind and we do not have anyone else’s needs on our radar. I went a little further with how our witness is modeled. We can minister to others through our compassion and authenticity.

Jesus showed his compassion for Mary and Martha after the death of their brother Lazarus. John 11:35 states that Jesus wept. I have heard various views about why Jesus wept, but I have adopted the thought that although Jesus knew that he could raise Lazarus from the dead, he had sympathy and compassion for these ladies that just lost their brother. He could have said, "Woman, why are you weeping? Do you not know that I am the Son of God and I can raise your brother from the dead?" This didn't' happen because he felt for them and demonstrated this through his tears. I personally believe that we connect better with our family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers if we show compassion during their challenges. Meaning, when a person asks us for prayer that we actually pray for them and not just pat them on the back and say, "I'll be praying for you brother." Also, when someone is hurting the problem that we have as Christ-followers is that we tend to pull out the address book of scripture and bombard them with it. I believe Jesus modeled to us in this passage through his tears that it is better to feel for them through their pain than to say, "Well you know in the bible it says..."

Paul and Silas show their authenticity through their witness in Acts 16:16-40 when they minister to the jailer and his family. Although they were put into prison and were guarded by this man, when God broke off their shackles and opened the prison doors these men didn't run out. In fact the jailer was going to commit suicide, perhaps to make it look like the prisoners escaped and killed him instead of having to comment to his superiors on how the prisoners escaped. Paul and Silas immediately minister to the man, he accepts Christ and then they go to his house and the man's family accepts Christ then they have dinner. They show their authenticity of committed believers by ministering to this man. I feel that often times we have made it so hard to minister to someone. We think that we have to do a number of steps and then close the deal. This idea was created several years ago in the evangelical church, but it does not show much commitment to the relationship or authenticity of the witness. We have borrowed from the business world utilizing the ABC's method: Always Be Closing. Yes, we must share our faith! It is a command and part of the great commission, but we cannot utilize the antiquated door to door salesman approach in the 21st Century. If you are going to share about the Lord then you must take interest in their needs just like Paul and Silas did. They should never become a notch on our belt or a check mark on our "Christian Report Card". On the flip side of the coin, if we are not active in sharing our faith then we need to realize the importance of our ministry. We all have a been given an opportunity to minister to the needs of the people within our circle. At the close of the message I utilized Brandon Heath's video, Give Me Your Eyes. Just like Jesus modeled for us when he stopped and ministered to the woman, we need to PAUSE and look around at how we can help with the needs of others. Check out this link to the Give Me Your Eyes video by Brandon Heath.

http://http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=OihvG607W-c

Katie's Bike

We recently had Kaytlin's birthday party in the Family Life Center. Janna and I gave her a pink princess bike. She rode it around the FLC and loves it. It's always cool to see your kids happy and having fun!

Family & Ministry

Kaytlin's birthday was on February 13 and she turned 4 years old. Janna and I spent the morning with her at the OKC Zoo as our little Ashley stayed with my mother-in-law. We want to make an effort to spend quality time with our kids together and individually. One of the things that I always admired about my father-in-law, David, is that he would spend individual time with Janna.

In high school and college he would take her out to lunch and they would call it their "daddy-daughter date". When she was in high school, he traveled frequently with his job and was out of town for half of the week. He knew that he wanted to spend quality time with his family when he had the opportunity so they began to develop their time together. When I was dating Janna in college, David was completing his bachelor's degree along with serving as a senior pastor and he made time for her. David still takes Janna out occasionally and spends time with her even though she is married with kids.

In 2008 I was away from Kaytlin & Ashley for 34 days on ministry related events such as a mission's trip to El Salvador, Youth Camp, I-Camp, Six Flags, National Fine Arts in North Carolina, Youth Convention and D-Camp. Janna and I also took a personal vacation for 5 days. Although I enjoy these ministry events and spending time with our students, I am not necessarily looking forward to being away from my kids this much in 2009. However, the perspective that I have on this is that as long as I make an effort as a father to have quality time with my kids when I am at home, then the relationship that I have with them will continue to grow. I am not attaining to be the guy that sits in "his chair" every night and kicks off his shoes as he reaches for the remote control to click on the television and zones out because it has been a long day at the office and is too exhausted to be productive at home. I also do not want to be the minister that puts more time and effort into ministry, the church and other people's needs before the needs of my family. I cannot be that guy, nor do I want to be.

When I was an associate youth pastor I was a single man with no kids. When I started at the church I did not have a day off for the first 3 months. The senior youth pastor was also the senior children's pastor and I worked closely with him and the associate children's pastor. We were starting a junior sports program and we spent Saturdays canvassing the neighborhoods with fliers and having some outreaches. We would be up at the church 7 days a week. Sometimes at 6 am to get the baseball fields mowed and ready for that night's sports program. Then we would stay and clean up and come home around 10 pm. I remember one time when the senior youth pastor, who was 29 at the time gave me some of his best advice. He told me I needed to guard my time now as a single man so that once I had a wife and kids then I would be able to balance ministry and family better. I do not think that I have attained this goal and I know that I am growing as a father and a minister, but I do cherish the time that I have with my children and want to give everything that I can to my family and to my church. I can go back and look at the picture of Kaytlin (located at the top right) when we went to the zoo before her first birthday and the recent picture to realize that time goes by so quickly and I cannot take a "day off" as a father.

My Circle of Influence

Our goal for 2twenty Student Ministries in 2009 is to have every student engage in a personal ministry within their circle of influence. I shared the following notes with the students during last night's message.

Who is in my circle of influence? Family, Friends, Classmates, Teachers, Teammates, Co-Workers & Employer.

The Circle of Influence was modeled by Jesus: During the earthly life of Jesus his circle of influence included his family, friends, followers and the twelve disciples. He also had an inner circle of disciples that were close to him that included Peter, James & John.

Mark 16:15 - Jesus said, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.” (This passage of scripture is our foundation in sharing our faith with others.)

When we commit our lives to the Lord we want to become his disciples. Just like the twelve gave up their time, jobs, homes, etc. in order to follow him, we give up what is comfortable to us in order to share our faith. (Luke 5:1-11 & Luke 5:27-32)

Pilcher 4 Presbyter

Last night at our Sectional Council for section 9 north in the Oklahoma A/G District, Pastor Darren was voted by his peers to serve as the Sectional Presbyter. He will be the first presbyter to serve this new section. We want to congratulate him on this high honor and we are praying for many blessings on him and his family. Who knew that our 2008 summer t-shirts were going to be helpful in promoting our lead pastor!

2twenty Student Ministries

We dropped the new youth group name in our middle school and high school services last night. The name is 2twenty Student Ministries and it is taken from Galatians 2:20. Personally, I believe that this one scripture sums up the commitment, challenge, and lifestyle of being a Christ follower. Last night I preached a four point message utilizing this one scripture. The following outline notes were given to every student in attendance to briefly explain the meaning of the scripture.

Galatians 2:20 - “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

What does this passage of scripture mean?

“I have been crucified with Christ”
Although we are challenged daily by our sinful nature, we have made a commitment to Christ by burying our sinful lifestyle.

“and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”
With a genuine relationship with Christ, we begin to develop more of a Christ like nature and our desire is to please God.

“The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God,”

We make a statement with our faith by believing that Jesus is the messiah, the Son of God and that we will live for him.

“who loved me and gave himself for me.”
We believe that Christ has unconditional love for us and that he saved us from eternal punishment by sacrificing his earthly life.

I received positive feedback from the students over the meaning of the name and the look of our new logo. I'm happy that they are excited about our new identity and direction!