Thanks for the Prayers!

In my post called 'shackeled' a couple of weeks ago I spoke about a young man that was in my youth ministry that was facing some serious legal troubles.

His mom called me last night saying that she had gotten a lawyer (one that actually was fighting for her son) and that there was a hearing today at 9AM. Since I had not talked with her for over a week she brought me up to speed. The original prosecuter has went out of town on vacation and handed this case to another prosecutor. In talking with this prosecutor, who seemed a little bit more reasonable than the previous, the boys lawyer was able to work out a deal with the new prosecutor to reduce a 3rd degree felony to a 4th degree misdemeanor.

Long story short...We went to court today and the Magistrate accepted the deal and he was released at 11:30am with no probation or anything, he simply has to go to counseling! This is such an answer to prayer! This boy just left my office and God used his time in the DH to draw him closer! It was so cool to see his genuine hunger to turn his life around and live for God!

So for those that read that post and have been praying for my student...THANKS! God truly answered our prayers and the justice system worked, not punishing a young man for something that the detectives tried to manipulate into something worse!!

Priorities

This is a very cool video that I found on Brian Eberly's blog. Not really sure where I ever ran across this blog, but it's pretty good.

This video really makes you think about our priorities around Christmas...

Gatlinburg...

This week we are in Gatlinbug, TN for our staff retreat. So far it has been pretty fun, we meet as a staff in the morning and discuss plans & direction for 2008 and then spend the rest of the day hanging out and having fun!

The scenery down here is incredible! As I type this on the back porch I look out over the mountains and the trees are beautiful! Full of color! There is something about living by the mountains that is so appealing!

Shackeled...

This was one of those HARD days of youth ministry. I got a call last night that one of the students that has been attending Axiom for about 6 weeks was in juvy. This guy had started coming and was incredibly dedicated, he was really beginning to make some great friends!

Fast forward to today...I called his mom and found out that he had a hearing today at 1pm. Unfortunately his mom (whis is single and trying to raise 3 kids) is unable to afford an attorney and the public defenders office is not much help, his lawyer didn't show up today.

As I was sitting in the lobby waiting on his mom the elevator doors opened up and a group of 5 boys coming walking out, all in orange jump suits and handcuffed at the wrist and ankles. Some of the looked really hard but a couple of them looked broken, including my student. I wasn't able to go into the hearing, but I was able to say a brief word to him as he exited. It broke my heart to see this young man who last week was in our youth service hanging out with friends, laughing and having fun and know he is setting in a juvenile jail cell across town.

This kid is a good kid! I have only heard his mom's side but if what she says is true or at least close,then this boy is just the victim of circumstance. And what really stinks is that he may get a lawyer who doesn't care and will give him bad advice. He could any where from 6 months or seven years.

Will you please pray with me that God will work on this young man's behalf. If he guilty then he needs to do the time...but if not then he needs to get back to living his life. I mean this kid ask his mom if he could go to church...he was hungry for God to move in his life and now this happens.

I will be sure to keep you up on what is happening, but please pray for my student! His family and I would really appreciate it...THANKS!

"Get used to it!"

This afternoon I had to fuel our church van so one of our ministries could take it on a trip this weekend. When I pulled up to the stoplight at the end of our street I was behind this SUV that had several pro-Bush stickers an airborne sticker and one other armed services sticker. Below all of those there was a normal sized bumper sticker that said, "I PRAY - GET USED TO IT!" I couldn't help but laugh. No wonder there are so many people out there that look at Christians the way they do...so many Christians have this 'us v them' mentality that says someone is always out to attack us as Christians.

The tone and negative feeling I got as I sat there and read that bumper sticker really got to me. It is because of this type of attitude and persona that people get turned off to the Church and to Christ...anyway I will shut up now...it is just that things like that really get under my skin!

Oh...and on a side note...when we finally turned the corner and I passed the car I looked over the lady was puffing on a cigarette...again I couldn't help but laugh...talk about mixed signals!!

Mark Batterson

Last night I had the opportunity to go to the Ohio District Council office and listen to Mark Batterson, Pastor of National Community Church in Washington D.C. It was apart of of the Ohio District's Church Planter's review. I really enjoyed finally meeting and listening in person to a pastor that I have listened to via podcast and blog for close to 4 years, if not longer.

He shared several stories and things that I have heard before through the podcast or blog, but there were a few things that he kind of rabbit trailed on that really stuck out to me...here are some of the take aways I had from his talk.

• Pray Ridiculous prayers!
• "Live my life in a way that is the best that God can do" - we have all heard or said, "I am doing the best I can do," but that should not be good enought. Mark used the illustration of tithing. If we don't tithe, then we are only doing 'the best we can do' with our money. However, when we do tithe we are allow God to do the best that he can do! He is can way more with 90% than I can do with 100%.
• Some of us need to kick off the dust of rejection...I will blog more about this in the future!
• "A leader is someone who produces more than they consume." Dr. Roden (sp?) - When he talked about this he was discussing consumerism in the church.
• The biggest thing that he mentioned just for a moment, but smacked me totally in the face was a simple statement about looking for success or satisfaction in ministry. Since he was talking to church planters, he was talking about the 'if i can just reach 100' or 'if i can just reach 300' then I will feel success or satisfaction. But this isn't just for church planters...I felt the Holy Spirit kind of smack me in the face when he said that...he called it a mirage, it will never happen. I can remember when I started in youth ministry I said if I can just have 40 kids it will be a success...I got 40 kids and nothing changed...then it was 60...I got 60 and nothing changed. I must admit that I struggle with finding success in numbers. I feel that if I have a large group that will validate my ministry...I know that it is not right, but I have not been able to break free of that thinking...but I am going to begin praying specifically about breaking that thinking in my life!

Sorry this has been so long, but I guess after 70 days I just kind of puked up all this information...one more thing...I need to thank gary fowler for his encouragement in getting me to blog...I guess if no one else does I know that gary will be reading this...later gary!

70 Days

It has been 70 days (give or take a day) since my last post. And thanks to my good friend gary fowler he has been bustin' my chops the last couple of weeks because I have not been blogging. So I am committing to gary and my parents (the only people who probably read this blog) to begin regularly blogging again...

I have to prepare for a meeting with my Senior Pastor at 11am, but I will post again about a great opportunity that I was able to take advantage of last night...