My new hero!

We just finished an incredible session @ Desperation lead by Pastor Chris Hodges (Church of the Highlands). He challenged the Youth to stop playing games with Christianity and do something extreme for Christ. Extreme Prayer, Extreme Purity, Extreme Passion with an Extreme Purpose. Jesus never did anything moderately, why should we? It’s only this radical life in Christ that will rescue this next generation from death to life!

I think what made this message so powerful was what I've experienced over the last few days @ Church of the Highlands (not necessarily Desperation). I'm realizing that he's not just sharing a "great message", he's living it, and so are the people in his Church! I want that kind of life in Christ. I'm tired of playing the games and being a "Good Christian". I'm tired of trying to convince people that Christians aren't weird... we are! I'm tired of making excuses for the Church. I'm ready to be a "Radical Christian" again! I'm ready to change the world, one day, one person at a time... starting with me!

Now if I can just keep that fire when I leave this place... ;)

Seriously though, read John 2:13-17 and tell me that's not Extreme!!!

What about you? Are you ready to be a revolutionary?

Sacrifices

I missed this tonight so that I could be in Birmingham for Desperation. Am I a horrible dad or what! At least my wife had the support of our good friends Alex & Jenn because Miles is on his team... betterthanblank --->

And his coach just so happens to be Vince...

http://www.themysteryisthetruth.com/

Looks like they had fun!

Desperation photos and stuff

Well, tonight was the first night of Desperation '07. Worship was pretty good. It seemed that there was something not quite right though. I'm sure that it was probably just the first night warm-up thing... Sometimes it takes a day or two for the kids to really get into it.

The band was smokin' though. I loved the medley they did at the end. They started Endlessly slower and more drawn out. Then they ramped it up and went into a couple of their other songs like "comin' after you" and another (can't remember the name).

Afterwards, we had late night worship with Daniel Bashta. He tore it up with all the passion he had in him. We were in the Youth Room which is on the 2nd floor. The floor was continually flexing under the pressure of 100s of kids jumping up and down in worship. What a night. And to think, it's just beginning!

www.myspace.com/danielbashta

All in all, on this trip, I feel God drawing me back to the simplicity of our faith (and ministry) We tend to make it so complex with everything when it could be as simple as this backboard that they're using for Desperation...


or this simple black and white projected on the wall... simple, but extreme!

Quest for Desperation #2

Quest for Desperation #1

This was shot 2 days ago...

COTH (Church of the Highlands) Staff Meeting this morning...

Here are some notes from todays staff meeting @ Church of the Highlands.

Chris Hodges is the Lead Pastor @ Church of the Highlands in Birmingham, Alabama. Here's some of what he had to say to his staff today.

"Success is measured by how many people are fulfilling the Great Comission (i.e. serving in the Church and the community)."

"It's not just about salvation."

We're not selling fire insurance, we're building the kingom! (that was my thought)

Team Building is the key...

"Leadership is ultimately about creating a way for people to contribute to making something extraordinary happen."

5 Great team building tenants:
Have integrity in modeling the way
Communicate the vision clearly and consistently
Allow them to challenge the process
Let Leaders Lead (the vision is non-negotiable, the way we get there is always negotiable)
Create an atmosphere of encouragement

How we make teams happen:

1. Know and appreciate strengths and weaknesses
2. Openly engage in constructive, ideological conflict (OUCH!)
3. Set goals together
4. Commit to group decisions
5. Over communicate what happens in meetings with others

My quest for DESPERATION!!!

I wanted to upload a video blog, but I'm on the Church of the Highlands wifi and they've blocked Youtube, so I'll give you a brief recap of my quest for Desperation over the last 2 days.

Well, I'm finally here in Birmingham Alabama. I flew out of Burbank airport (supposedly the airport of the stars) yesterday morning @ 9:15am (didn't see any stars!) I arrived in Dallas Fort Worth at 2:00pm (their time) for a 3 hour layover. Had a great lunch @ Dickey's BBQ and then found out that my flight had been delayed from 5:20pm to 6:30pm... oh wait, make that 7:30... no, make that 8:30pm... no actually try 6:30... AM... this morning!!!

ARRRGGG!!!

Well, not wanting to spend the night in the airport, I proceeded to get on a standby list for another flight that left @ 9:30pm. The only problem was that I was #23 on the list...! I heard another young lady state that she was just going to fly to Atlanta and drive to Birmingham. What a great idea I thought, considering that I was going to try and hit up North Point this weekend anyway.

Well, that's exactly what I did and I finally made it to my good friend Mark Peacock's house at 4:00am this morning (Central time). We had a brief hour long conversation and then hit the hay. We needed to at least get a little sleep because we had to be here @ COTH (Church of the Highlands) by 10:00am for staff meeting. Not too big of a sacrifice considering that I get to hang out here in their brand new state of the art facility. I also got to meet the wonderful staff @ COTH along with some of the Desperation Staff.

Desperation starts tomorrow and I'm pretty excited. Check back soon for more details on my "Quest for Desperation".