AC3 VB *Special* Malawi Fundraiser Ice Buckets

Don't Ask, Just Follow

Listening when it doesn't make sense. 

So there I was, managing this coffee stand at the church. Handling the tracking of money and helping with every aspect of the operation. For starters, I don't think that I should even be my own bookkeeper, it's certainly not in me to be a diligent tracker of money for an entity outside of myself. However, there I was, because God needed me to be involved. The coffee stand needed change, Creek Espresso needed management and needed good stewardship. I didn't see myself fit for the job, but God did, so I listened.

I did the best I could and prayed like crazy for God to show me the more permanent answer as to who belonged managing Creek Espresso, it certainly didn't feel like it was me. Since I joined the BAM board (Business As Mission) earlier this year, I felt drawn to this coffee stand. God was pulling me towards it to seemingly set the path for the future, much like he pulled me in to start this blog late last year. As with most things God pulls me to, there was enemy opposition. It was not an easy road but with the help of the BAM board, our volunteers and a HUGE help by our new Creek Espresso Management, Stephanie Moddison, the future is looking bright for Creek Espresso and it's efforts to raise funds for The AC3 Community Center.

The power of prayer

Like I said, the prayers were being sent up in great numbers lately about finding a solution to the problem that I was facing. I needed to step down from this role in the coffee stand, but I needed God to show me the way as surely all of this hard work was for progress in Jesus' name. 

So there I am, praying like crazy. One night, I had a good long talk about it with Bet (aka the awesomest wife in recorded history), told her I was praying about it and asked her to as well. That night before I went to bed I prayed that I'd find balance, that even if I was supposed to manage this coffee stand that I could fit it in where it needed to be fit in as I run a real estate business that supports my family that is clearly #1 on the work priority list. 

How God works in my life.

Well, in the short years I've been a real follower of Jesus, I've learned that The Holy Spirit seriously lacks subtleties when showing me the path that needs to be taken. 

So I'm moping around the house, the very next day after talking to Bet about this coffee stand/time constraint problem and Bet says, "hey honey, I found this in the bag of stuff taken out of your old car, do you want it?"

This is a press pass, made for me by one Nate Crain, an idea straight from God, filtered through Dan Hazen and myself. It was the vision to start this very blog that caused me to take up my passion for writing again, a vision that was seemingly taken from me when business picked up and the coffee stand among other things took all of my time.

At first I didn't think much of her finding the press pass and handing it to me. Then I checked my email. Within an hour of Bet handing me my press pass, I get an email from Creek Espresso's saving grace, Stephanie Moddison. Stephanie and I had been working together to manage Creek Espresso for several months. There's no way that it would be what it is today without her. The email was about how God was putting it on her heart to take over full management of Creek Espresso. How her little guy was just getting old enough where she thought she could take this all on and that her processes for the stand were ready to be in full swing. 

So, I took a step back. Thanked God for working in my life and told Him that I'm listening and that I'm His humble servant and will press forward as he's called me to do. 

Listening forward

So, I listened. Here I am, writing on the blog. I know not where I'll be led in this adventure but I know I'll be led somewhere He wants me to be which makes my heart happier than I could have ever imagined. I'm done asking questions about where He leads me, it's time to just follow because I always end up in the right place at the right time. 

I also know, AC3, that your espresso stand, Creek Espresso is in capable, amazing, loving and caring hands for the foreseeable future in Stephanie Moddison. I will be doing all that I can to support her as she takes on this challenge that God has laid on her plate. So stop in for some java this weekend at church and support the community center at the same time. 

-Jared Galde

AC3 VB28 Community Partnership *Red Curtain

Filming on location this week at the Red Curtain Foundation. Watch as Rick and Dan talk about the upcoming Cotton Patch Gospel drama being held at AC3 this August and why we partner with our community as the church. Enjoy!

"This is a busy place!"

So, I came storming into the office last night at about 6:15 to grab my pack and other stuff after spending an hour hauling compost around the A&T High School vegetable garden.

I was in a hurry, because I needed to load up some bins from Seeds of Grace and return them  to the First Fruits Co-op after they were emptied of around 50 lbs of fresh produce that were picked and distributed from the Food Bank earlier that afternoon.

I almost didn't notice the three strangers sitting in the Conference as I blew by. I reversed course, stuck my head in and introduced myself. Turns out these folks are the leaders of a new group meeting here at AC3: Families Anonymous, a support group for people who have family members trapped in drug addiction. This was their second week meeting here at AC3.

https://www.familiesanonymous.org/

We chatted for a few minutes, sharing our recovery stories (I'm coming up on 20 years) and getting to know each other. I was talking about some of the things going on around here, trying to explain why the Executive Pastor was sitting in front of them in a sweaty t-shirt smelling of compost, when one of them blurted out quite matter-factly, "Wow - this is a busy place!"

Yeah.

It is.

Before I was really conscious of what I was saying, I responded, "What good is a church that's not busy doing God's work?"

It's true.

I thought of everything going on with AC3 people on this particular Wednesday...just the stuff I could "see"... and it was pretty amazing:

• Johnna, Rick and Jeff were running around getting the Auditorium set-up for "Step into the Story".(beginning this weekend - it's gonna be SO cool!)
• Braeden and Brandon along with their crew of leaders were getting RELIC (Jr. High group) under way with a big water balloon party.
• Earlier, in the Lobby, we had hung up some amazing new art by AC3 artist Janet Myer.
• I had the chance to meet with a Seeds of Grace client looking for rent assistance AND meet with a long time counselee to talk about continuing Godly behaviors and growth in his family life.
• Julie was madly dashing between tasks all day (her usual state).
• I briefly caught a glimpse of my beautiful wife, Brenda, as she sorted food for distribution at Seeds.
• Glee, Kathy, Twila and others served a couple of dozen senior and disabled folks at Seeds.
• I eyeballed one of the doughnuts on the table; leftover from that morning's Men's Bible Study.
• Pat and Linda came in for their usual Wednesday book keeping tasks.
• Jan, Tina, Keri, Linda, Chris, Kim Greg, Tracy and I hosted a group of students from Cocoon House in Everett up at the First Fruits Farm...

Some of the Crew from Cocoon House with AC3 Volunteers

...and that's just the stuff I knew about. I guarantee there was more happening.

There are those who think "church" is a building. 

There are those who think "church" is where judgmental people hide from those they judge.

There are those who think "church" is a social club.

There are those who think "church" is where the perfect people reside.

Those are wrong.

Church without walls...wanna be a part of it?

Moving Forward: One-Way Giving to Two-Way Giving

Seeds of Grace, a compassion ministry of AC3 is changing! We will be inviting SOG clients to partner with us in our new two-way Resource Exchange option. Why? Because we believe that two-way giving, when done right, is more compassionate and healthier for all parties involved; those receiving resources and for those giving them.

Q: What’s the difference between one-way giving and two-way giving?

A: Typically, one-way giving is when someone receives something from someone else with no questions asked. Two-way giving requires a partnership of sorts, where clients and volunteers opt-in and share resources for the mutual, social and economic benefit of one another. This cooperative effort becomes a legitimate ‘give and take’ relationship. We still offer limited and one-way giving when temporary relief efforts are deemed helpful or necessary.

Q: What does this mean for me on Seeds of Grace distribution days?

A: We will be inviting SOG clients to participate in our new two-way exchange option. This plan includes wearing a name tag on ‘Exchange’ days and on a client's 5th visit, individuals will be asked and invited to:

❶ Join us at a ‘Pay It Forward’ event where a variety of Resource Exchange tasks will be completed in a team environment.

OR

❷ Sign up to chat with a Resource Exchange Consultant.

We believe everyone has been uniquely created with different passions, strengths, gifts and talents that can be shared with those around them. YOU have God-given abilities that can be used to help improve your own life's situation AND in the lives of those around you. Ask us how you can partner with us in this life-changing endeavor today!

“Regardless of ones life's circumstances,
everyone has something to bring to the Exchange.” 

 

AC3 VB18 SOG Resource Exchange *Update*

This weeks video blog is an update on what's going on at SOG Resource Exchange. Enjoy! :)

AC3 VB Series DNA Part 6 "A Safe Place"

In Part 6 of our AC3 DNA series Dan and Rick talk about creating a safe place to seek and ask questions about the gospel if you are a seeker. This is a great topic for all of us AC3ers. Enjoy!

Chazown!!!

 

Chazown class was incredible.

I can only dream at this point that every member of our church, every member of our community would find God's vision for their lives. The class is centered around the word Chazown (Kha-Zone), a Hebrew word meaning vision. For "Where there is no vision, the people perish."- Proverbs 29:18

Chazown class is centered on finding a sentence that defines you, a sentence that creates a vision for your life by looking at how your past experiences, your core values and your spiritual gifts overlap. Real stuff. Candid stuff. Powerful stuff.

The Chazown Journey

There is pain, triumph, sadness, glory, weak moments and defining moments when we look at our past experiences. As believers, we should take all of these things as part of God's vision for our lives. If you truly believe that God only gives you what you can handle, then all of it plays a part in defining who you are at this moment.

Combine deep thought and prayer about these instances in your past with prayerfully seeking to find the spiritual gifts you've been given, figure out what your core values are and you'll find something powerful, I guarantee it.

As with anything, you'll get out of it exactly what you put in to it. If you give this time to God, seek His guidance with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind, you're going to find what you're looking for. God tells us it's true and I gave it my all in listening and learning throughout the class.

Finding my Chazown

As I said before, I went in to this with an open heart, even if I already thought that God had revealed His vision for me and that I am trying to live it.

I made my timeline, wrote down every event I could point to in my past that I felt significant one way or another. Craig, the creator of the class and the man in the video led sessions will tell you to write anything that comes in to your mind about your past as it's come to your mind for a reason and may have significance if you pray and ask God for answers. So I did, there were things sharper than knives in there, things I sometimes wish I could forget. There were also things in there that I hadn't thought about in years that were absolutely incredible moments that I never would have thought significant if not for this class. All in all, the timeline was enlightening, I thought some really great things came from my past experiences, even from dreadful events.

The biggest being my inherent need to be obedient to God's calling in my life. One thing stuck with me, he implored us to think about the things that bring pure joy, unfiltered joy, but also think about the things that make us red hot with anger when we think about them as this may point to something far more significant. After all, some of the best lessons on earth come from our hardship and our mistakes.

For me, I felt incredibly angry when I looked back to the time before I became a follower of Christ. I saw the signs he'd thrown right in front of my face that I never listened to. I thought to myself, what if I'd started listening to Him then? What if I started listening to Him when that happened in my life? Maybe, just maybe I wouldn't have to overcome so many hurdles. I wouldn't have to overcome such a sinful life that this culture created within me, my life could have been filled with joy rather than chaos, could have been filled with many more meaningful relationships rather than relationships that I would need to distance myself from in order to have a more meaningful relationship with God and with my family. The need to be obedient to God is in me, it's one of the strongest feelings I've ever felt. There were more things to take from my past experiences, but this clearly stuck out.

From there, you figure out your spiritual gifts. The strongest gifts I've received are encouragement, faith, writing and leadership, "imagine that" I thought to myself. These are things I feel compelled to do yet fight them sometimes. It's the way the Christian life works for me, the "easy way" is rarely the way that I feel God is pulling me. This exercise was no different. Moving on...

Finally, we moved to figuring out our core values. Mine came down to obedience, integrity, enthusiasm, joy, family, teamwork and community in no particular order. 

How does it all fit?

Making it all fit takes prayer, discussion, quiet time with your thoughts as well as a yearning to find God's vision for your life. Craig asks you in the videos, when you die, which we all will, would you want to meet Your Maker and have Him tell you, "you did pretty good, but you missed the one true reason you were created"? This is a powerful question, a motivational question that helped me find the sentence that I believe God wants to define my life.

I did the exercises, I filled in the charts and figured out where everything overlapped. Obedience is key, so is writing, this blog was started from a call from God so it had to fit in. The other key was Jesus. I want desperately to love like Jesus does, it showed in my answers to the class' questions. So here it is. The sentence that defines God's vision for my life, for where there is no vision, the people will perish.

"God has created me with a dream for my life, and I think it might be to obey God's calling within it, encouraging others to love like Jesus, to live intentionally like Jesus while documenting my journey to inspire my community"

So here I sit AC3, heart on my sleeve, an open book on this blog and throughout my life. I want you all to know that I live to glorify Jesus Christ. I live to bring my family and my friends to a close relationship with The One who created us. To me, that involves being obedient to "the call", being obedient so that my gifts can be given to He who gave them to me and to share them with the church that introduced me to The Lord of my life.

The last part of Chazown is as powerful as all of the others. You design a plan to follow your Chazown, you set Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-Bound goals and you set up accountability to achieve these goals. A 100 day action plan to launch God's vision for your life. Mine starts tonight, here on this blog and every one of you who has read this far in the post is my accountability partner on this blog. Let's talk about it, if you see me at church, let's get real about things happening within our walls, things you think need mentioning on here and I'll pursue them.

The next Chazown class.

Our church body needs your gifts. That's the intention of this class. Our God given gifts are meant to be shared with the community to make sure we continue to make this the safest place possible for non-believers like I was just a short time ago to become fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ. To light God's fire that he desperately wants inside you. Going through the motions, being lukewarm on God is no longer an option, we're called to more, all of us. Don't miss the target that God has set for you, He wants more impact for your life than most of us are willing to admit.

Here's the first video in the series, I encourage you to open your eyes and your heart to what God is calling you to do, your church needs your gifts I can assure you.

The Story, From the Inside

In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God and the Word was God.

 

Our Christmas service at AC3 this year will feature 'The Story', an awesome, modernized musical rendition of the Christmas story. In true AC3 fashion it's imaginative, creative and filled with talented people expressing their love of Jesus through song and theatrics.

Our ironic God

 

For years, I've known that God gave me a voice for singing but I never knew what I was supposed to do with it, and frankly, I shied away from it as I have ZERO technical training and was afraid to get on stage and sing. Well, with some pushing from my immediate family and my church family (you know who you are!), I decided I would put myself out there and see what happens.

The audition was a few months back, I received good reviews and was told that they would let me know when there was a spot for me. A few opportunities arose but there were other family events on the weekends preventing me from singing on stage. When I received that fateful email asking everyone their availability for the month, I looked at the family calendar and realized that the only week in December that was available was the week of Christmas.

This is the way God works in my life, he finds my worldly shortcomings, like this one of being timid about getting on stage, standing behind a microphone and singing and gives me no choice but to put my faith in Him and push strait through my limiting beliefs.

So here we go, a child of the one true God, not singing harmony in the background of a worship service for our church (like I would have chosen), but thrown right in to sing a lead vocal in the musical climax of our CHRISTMAS MUSICAL PROGRAM!!

Thank you Jesus and thank you AC3!

 

With 3 rehearsals in the books, I feel incredible, like I'm doing exactly what God had intended for me to do, much like loving my family, completely changing my career path and starting this blog have felt since AC3 led me to the truth about our Savior. There's no possible way that I could feel like this without the amazing production team at AC3. It's unimaginable to have a more patient, talented, loving and passionate group of people than these.

The first 3 days, there's been a lot of "hand holding" so to speak, there's no doubt I need it as this is all new to me. On day one, I couldn't find my cues, I was running in the wrong direction half of the time and felt lost yet EVERYONE stayed calm and coached me to where I needed to be.

Tonight, after day 3, I'm filled with confidence and excitement to share 'The Story' of Jesus Christ, our Savior coming to earth in the flesh to redeem us from our sinful bodies. Being a small part of this story, His story in this powerful house of God that my family calls home is a great honor and I'll be praying diligently in the coming days for strength to perform well and to honor God well this weekend.

Go, tell it on the mountain...

 

So, AC3er's and non AC3er's alike, please join us as we tell this amazing story, the story of Christmas and how Jesus came to us in the flesh to save YOU! These people are amazing and 'The Story' will be enjoyed by all.

Now go! Let's fill this house up all weekend! Make sure everyone you know is invited, in person, on Facebook or wherever else that anyone will listen, it's a story worth knowing....

Click here to go to AC3's website for details on times for encounter services this weekend.

Is Christmas OK to celebrate or does the "No Christmas" stance border on legalism?

These days, you'll get two groups of people telling you that Christmas is a sham Christian holiday, because it's origins are pagan.  The first group are the irreligious agnostics you might know who seem to take some Grinchy delight in exploding your sense of Christmas specialness.  The second group are the very religious, very rigid Christians who condemn anything that is directly or even remotely associated with paganism, witchcraft and spiritualism.  Also, the second group is often having a hyper-protestant overreaction to Catholicism.  The effect is like that of the militant ex-addict we all know, who no longer sees any difference between a beer and a binge. Ironically these two groups share arguments for completely opposite reasons, and yet the result is the same:  make everyone feel lousy about celebrating Christmas.

So is December 25th Jesus' actual birthday?  No one knows for sure when Jesus was born.  Some very creative biblical study can be done to make a case for December 25th. But after reading all the arguments for why Jesus was possibly born in December or September or even the Spring, you find all of them lack this one thing:  explicit biblical support.  They are all cases built on circumstantial evidence and Scriptural inferences.  Which doesn't mean these theories have no merit, it just means we DON'T KNOW for sure.  And that means it doesn't matter, for sure.  

Clearly, Jesus was really born.  Anyone who celebrates that event, is going to be doing so on a somewhat arbitrary date.   We celebrate the births of presidents on days that do not correspond to their actual birthday's.  It doesn't mean they weren't born (Mr Agnostic), and it doesn't mean we're being sacrilegious (Mr No-Christmas Christian).

But why on that date, and why with the trappings we do, like trees and holly are yule logs and stars?  A lot of these traditions have unclear beginnings.  It's true the Romans had a mid-winter celebration, and they lit fires and lights to Saturn.  The pagan Germans used evergreen trees at the winter solstice and yule logs and holly.  So should we assume that if these things began as part of idolatrous worship they should be forbidden?

Well, the Bible nowhere forbids people to put a tree with lights in their living room in December.  The principle some Christians imagine forbids this, is that of God's people separating from pagan beliefs and practices - in Jeremiah 10:1 for example.  This is an important Christian principle to honor.  But let us have a complete understanding of how this principle played out before we apply it to Christmas.  Jeremiah 10:2 says, "do not learn their ways".  What were those?  The same Prophet lists these in chapter 7:5-9:  idol worship, murder, infanticide etc.  Idol worship is clearly a huge concern, but are the symbols and trappings of Christmas idols?  No one I know, who puts a tree in their home or holly on their door, is doing so to appeal to a god who is not the Lord.  They don't do so to gain favor with that god and they surely don't support the immoral practices that God detests in Jeremiah 7 - which pagan idolatry did.  So the principles forbidding the occult can't apply to Christmas traditions as MOST people practice them.  

A case might be made that the commercialism we attach to Christmas IS idolatrous, since it elevates acquisition and materialism above God in our heart's affection.  There's plenty of Scriptural principle forbidding that.  And in that area, we might say Christmas gift giving can lead us into real temptation.  But in and of themselves, that, and other traditions are harmless.  As music is harmless, depending on how it's used.

Both Christian and non-Christian Christmas debunkers admit a certain amount of strategic thinking on the part of the church as it accepted and changed pagan rituals and infused them with Christian meaning.  One author claims, "the Church said, 'bring your gods, goddesses, rituals and rites, and we will assign Christian sounding titles and names to them...'".  Well, let's be clear:  the church, even at it's lowest point, never told people to bring their gods into the church to worship along side of Christ!  It did however, accept many pagan rituals.  Rather than the great compromise, this has to be seen as great genius on some level.

Without compromising the truth about Christ, it showed that the Christian message had deep relevance to the spiritual lives of pagan hearers.  It showed (as Paul did with the Athenians in Acts 17) that what they did in ignorance, the Gospel would fully explain/fulfill.

So for example, having Christmas at the winter solstice, might have been done because the Church retained a distant memory of the actual date, or it might have simply been done for strategic reasons.  But if the latter, what shame in that?  Since no one can deny it's a beautiful natural expression of what Jesus birth represents:  Light coming to a dark world.  What a great teaching vehicle!  Same with taking the German's evergreen tree and seeing in it the promise of eternal life, or taking holly and seeing the blood of Jesus and the crown of thorns.  Same with the lights and fires that point to the Light of the World, and same with gift giving showing us how God so loved the world that he GAVE his only Son.
 

In this way, the Church was saying the Gospel didn't repudiate paganism as a whole but rather FULFILLED it.  A more liberal view perhaps, but a better one for making converts, and also a view more attuned to the reality that God is the author of the Nature pagan's worship.

Yes, many perversions about God are in paganism - but it's basic instinct was to see spiritual reality in the cycles of nature the Creator made.  Well, do we think it's for no reason that Resurrection is celebrated in Spring?  The date of that event is known with certainty (unlike Christ's birth) and I see God's perfect touch in the timing.  God is a romantic!  We propose to our girlfriends in the place we first dated, or first kissed or first saw each other.  You can propose anywhere, why do it there?  Because the time and the place and the setting add weight, symbolic significance to the moment - which enhances memory and affection.  That God was raised from the dead in Spring is perfectly consistent with that same God calling for New Moon festivals, the sacrifice of animals, and who had palm trees and flowers carved into his Temple, and who created festivals around the cycles of the harvest.

We follow in His example then, when we freely use symbols, settings, and rituals to add weight to our memory of his work and his love.

Uptight Christians have this lesson to learn:  because a thing is from nature, doesn't automatically make it pagan, or demonic.  And the truth is, just because the devil will use some natural thing, animal worship or a physical ritual to imprison people to himself, or expose his power or dumb down our view of God (Romans 1:23) nature finally doesn't belong to him!!  If he is using it to promote his power or obscure God, then it is the right and privilege of the people of God to relieve him of it!  If it's the devil's rituals, they are stolen goods and we, the children of God, rightly steal them back!  He holds no ground in this world that's rightfully his.  He only perverts what isn't his originally.  Evil is a merely a parasite, as Lewis once said. 

So I would not approach the use of formerly pagan trappings with fear, cowed by their former meaning, former owner, former usage, or former evil associations.  The earth is the Lord's and I am the Lord's and so the earth is mine.  So a Yule log is mine to burn in the fireplace and my redeemed heart remembers the warmth of God's grace coming to a cold world.  A wreath is mine to hang on the door and say to my neighbors, eternal evergreen life is promised!

Yes, I think the no-Christmas stance not only borders on legalism, it marches right on in!  

One Follower of Christ's Jackpot!

A Christ Follower's reward

I heard our leader, our Senior Pastor Rick Thiessen say at the end of the night, " To you AC3 regulars, use this as your pay day, know that this is why you spend the long ours serving, giving your time and your creativity to God and to this church and let it fuel you until the next".

Amen! That's what baptism night is all about for the people following Christ, it's the reward of sharing our faith so that others may know Him and can find their own walk with Jesus and ultimately accept Him as the leader of their lives and forgiver of their sins. This is the culmination of our work in the community, changing lives for eternity through the power of Jesus Christ.

This night was more than that for me, much more... 

It all started earlier this week, I knew my Mom was going to be attending the baptism class to learn what baptism means according to the bible and according to AC3's leadership. In typical Rick Thiessen fashion, he had the wheels turning in my Mom's head when she left the meeting. She knew her heart had been changed by the Holy Spirit, she knew that she'd accepted Jesus as her Lord and Savior, but her thoughts went to how to tell the story of how God had touched her life and how she came to know Him.

Mom's Testimony 

 

I certainly wasn't prepared for the story that she would tell, Mom's a bit of a crier and knew she'd struggle with reading it in front of the crowd on the night of the baptism so she wrote it down for Rick to read.

There were four main points, the first, that my Grandma decided to break from the baptist church that she'd grown up in and let my Mom decide for herself about her religion, looking back, she was incredibly grateful for this as it was all part of God's plan to reveal Himself in her life. 

The second and third were holding the hands of two of her favorite people as they took their last breaths on earth and joined Jesus in heaven. My great-aunt passed on a few years back and my Grandma just this past February. These two ladies were the kindest, gentlest most loving people you will ever meet and both of them knew that they were headed to a room that the Good Lord had prepared for them. There is no doubt about the profound affect that these two women's faith had on my Mom, she was next to my Grandma for her entire fight with cancer and eventually watched it consume her best friend. One of the toughest people she'd ever met became as frail as could be and her faith in God never wavered.

Completely Breathtaking

 

The fourth, well the fourth was me. She said that in the past few years she'd watched me completely transform. The fact that I could even be mentioned in this testimony with two women whom my Mom loved dearly and witnessed them passing on to their eternal life is still blowing my mind as I write this.

She said that she'd watched me become a "true believer" and that the peace I'd found in my life was the final piece she was looking for from God to accept Jesus in to her heart for all eternity. My mind is seriously blown by this, all I've done is try to follow God's word. Try to be the best man I can for my family, my community and try every day to be full of faith that God loves us and sent His Son to save us. I'm certainly not perfect, my walk has had it's ups and downs like any other, sometimes more ups and downs.

Mom honored me in such a way that is unfathomable to my former self. She asked that I be the one that baptize her, that I get in the tub with her and not only witness her public declaration of faith, but to be right there with her through the beautiful display. I was infinitely blessed to do so.

There were 11 baptisms tonight, all are special, I love every one of God's children that proclaimed their obedience to Jesus today, but this one will stick with me for all eternity. The energy in the AC3 building was unlike any I'd ever felt, the music, Dan's sermon, all of it had amazing energy. The Holy Spirit was as strong as I've ever felt it at our church. Thank you for this night Jesus.

God's lesson in all of this for me...

Whether it's your Mom, a coworker, a friend, possibly a foe or just a passer by, how they see you living matters and it matters greatly. Be the light on the hill that Jesus called us to be, be the salt in the community and in our culture that desperately needs it. You never know who is watching and you just may be the reason that someone's eternal life is saved. Don't underestimate the power of just living the way God intended you to in a community that needs you.....

This wasn't your average Christian pay day, this Christian hit the Jackpot tonight!!

Thank you so much to my church family for being there to share it!

AC3 Men's Getaway - What Does Love Require of Me?

What Does Love Require of Me?

In years past, I would have thought that 18 men headed for a lodge up in the mountains would need to start with a common activity, fishing, hunting, skiing, snowmobiling, partying or maybe a mix of those in some form. The mere thought of this getaway, the fact that all of these men are here to just get to know each other better, to get to know God better and to just take a refreshing break from every day life was unfathomable for the first 30 years of my life. Maybe just weird, yeah, I definitely would have thought it was just weird.

I went anyways....

Maybe it is weird, maybe we are weird, with all of the things in today’s world that are genuinely strange and often harmful to humanity, I’m ok with this kind of weird. I’m now firm in the belief that it’s this kind of weird that today’s world lacks, desperately. The kind of weird that allows us to be different, to stand out in the crowd like the light on top of the hill that Jesus called us to be. Not the look at me, look what I’m doing and crying out for attention standing out but the kind of weird that allows time for men to grow in to the leaders that our generation is looking for, the kind of leaders God intended us to be.

 

18 of God's Men, AC3 Men's Getaway 2013

Selah....

The Selah lodge is owned by a friend of AC3, we are blessed that he opens the doors of this wonderful place to us for this men’s getaway. It’s meant to be a house where The Lord is present, Selah is used in the book of Psalms 71 times, it’s closest translation is “pause, and look at that”, or it’s referenced as a musical interlude/pause within a psalm. To me, it’s a sacred place to pause and be with God and to be with the men that God has put in my life.

Our opening prayer is to take in the name, Selah, to use this time as a pause, to take in God’s rejuvinating power and let it fuel us to lead our families better as well as our community. To me this hit as soon as I parked the truck, I don’t know about you but everyday life can at times beat me down, mentally and physically. Recharging my battery and my passion for discerning God’s will in my life are vital in my Christian walk, a large gasp of the fresh mountain air when I stepped out of the truck was all it took for me to find the peace within the weekend, before it really began.

A safe place...       

The theme of the weekend, was based on The Book of Matthew 22:37-40.

37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

The question proposed by our elders/teachers in attendance for the weekend was “what does love require of me?” This struck me, the entire weekend hung on this question, in fact, when you read the words of Jesus, our entire walk as disciples of Christ hangs on this question.

Clay’s story....

Well you see, for me, I’ve had a problem in the past with letting society’s cliche’s get in the way of me actually knowing someone. Before the trip had even started, we were all gathering in the parking lot looking to take off and I see this rough, tough looking dude, tattoo on his neck with the look of a man who’d been to hell and back on this earth. I remember thinking, “oh great, I have to spend the whole weekend with this guy”. That thought was real, it is how my mind has operated for many years, possibly my entire life. Clearly I’ve been distancing myself from some meaningful relationships due to preconceived notions that somehow I was better than this person, or in some cases, this person was better than me.

As is God’s way of teaching, Clay rode in my car on the way over and I was instantly drawn to him. Clearly God was at work in his heart and clearly he was here with us to make himself a better servant of God. As our teaching session was coming to a close the next morning, Clay told us his life story leading up to that day. I must say, some tears were shed by all. For a man to overcome as much violence and addiction as Clay had, to find redeeming power in the grace of God is absolutely nothing short of a miracle. A man that had been through more than 15 years of what would have and has killed most people whose path had crossed drugs, anger, violence and prison to be here today in the presence of God at Selah lodge, clearly God has more plans for this man. I pray that he never loses sight of the fact that God has placed him exactly where he is today to make an impact on this world, and to be a light within it.

How it hit me...

When the group separated for some free time after Clay poured his heart out to us, I wanted to grab my computer and find a quiet place to write. My instant thoughts went to the question, “what does love require of me?” and how does this pertain to Clay?

I had barely written two sentences when the door popped open and in walked Clay. He sat down on the floor below the bunk bed that I was on the top of and grabbed his iPad, seemingly to settle in for a bit like I was. We talked for more than 2 hours, I won’t divulge in to what the conversation was all about, but I will tell you that I love that man as Jesus does and as I’m called to by our Lord and Savior. The notion that there was a time in my life that I would have never known a story like Clay’s, that I would have never been around to be a friend, a brother in Christ if he needed me and had thoughts of sinking in to his old life genuinely frightens me to my core. I’m so thankful that I decided to be in that place, with those men that weekend with an open heart, God poured in his love and I’ll never judge a book by it’s cover again.

My advice...

As with most thing’s God sees as good, you have to leave the easy road behind. Think outside the box, get weird and get involved with people who will make you a better servant of God. Take a chance and go on a retreat, getaway or just call somebody and find a group that will help you grow, it’s the lone sheep that get’s slaughtered by the enemy.