Hi! Welcome...

My Worship Revolution I lead a missional community of faith in Santa Cruz, CA. I am a husband, dad, musician, speaker, performer, community catalyst and dreamer. Welcome to the conversation.

13 September 2005 ~ 0 Comments

insideworship.com

Here’s a great website for online resources for worshippers. It’s got links to some great blogs, articles, videos, etc. Check it out:
insideworship.com
[thanks Eric!]

09 September 2005 ~ 0 Comments

Speaking Christianese

Here’s a funny video on how not to share your faith put out by Igniter Media Group. Fits in great with the “Be A Link” series we recently finished up at Revolution.

Watch “Real Christians Of Genius”

08 September 2005 ~ 2 Comments

Genuine Worship

Tonight we had a great discussion as a team at the beginning of worship practice. It came out of the days reading and question from the iWORSHIP Daily Journal. The discussion centered on Matthew 15:7-9. The question attached asked what sort of things you do in worship – personal and/or corporate – that comes more from man made rules than it does a response to God.

The prominant point of our discussion dealt with clapping. Clapping during songs. Clapping after songs. Clapping after prayer as a team before the service. For many people several of these are more of a conditioned response than something that is a genuine expression of worship to God. I have to admit that as a worship leader I often wonder people’s motivation for clapping after an upbeat song. I always hope that it is a clapping for God out of a heart of worship and not clapping for the skills of the musician. I hope that it is an overflow of a joyful heart and not simply something to fill otherwise empty space between the second song and announcements.

The whole discussion was a good reminder to me to always evaluate my own motivation in my expressions of worship. I realized that I too sometimes clap out of conditioning rather than genuine worship. Next time I clap, I will be aware of why I am clapping and be intentional about it, whether it is a creator of energy and excitement in my worship or an expression of appreciation to God.

What are the things that you tend to do in worship that stems more out of man made rules or tradition rather than a genuine heart of worship? I’d love to hear your thoughts. How does God want you to respond to that realization? Does it look like changing your actions or your motivation?

06 September 2005 ~ 1 Comment

India Learnings

Well, I think I spoke a little too quick on trying to bypass that jetlag.  After getting home I don’t think I really slept well for about a week.  Life is finally kinda back to normal…at least as normal as it gets.  I’m really not one to spend a lot of time processing something after the fact, so I’ve made a conscious effort to try and spend some time reflecting on India.  I guess it helps when lots of people are interested to hear about the trip and ask about it.  I tend to do most of my processing in the midst of an experience, so most of my learnings are what I heard from God during those two weeks in India.  During that time, it was the closest I’ve felt to God for a long time.  I said in my last post that I was going to post those learnings, so here they are (in no real particular order):

  • Plant a church built on a foundation of a heart for missions
  • There are lots of poor and needy in the city of Long Beach where I can make a difference daily
  • Slow down a bit…enjoy life more
  • There is a lot of work still to be done in India
  • Start exercising and take better care of myself
  • Set aside more intentional time to be close to God
  • Set aside more time to spend with Rachel
  • The name of Jesus has a lot of power…use that power and live in it’s fullness more often
  • God has blessed you with a lot materially compared to most of the world…now use it to bless others
  • Keep God’s call and vision for my life in front of me constantly in order to stay on course

Interesting that only a few of those are really directly related to India.  A lot of them are things that I believe God has been wanting me to hear, but getting away and being more sensitive to His Spirit allowed me to hear it more clearly.  Tonight I got to share those learnings with my life group and it was a blast.  Sharing them with others has helped me to remember them and be more focused on them.  It was just fun to be able to share some of my experiences with people I care about.  I didn’t realize till I started sharing that I could probably sit and share about my experiences in India for hours on end.  Any volunteers?

29 August 2005 ~ 7 Comments

Home At Last

Well, we finally landed at LAX last night around 6:15 or so.  It’s great to be home.  Right after landing I went with Rachel, Koble, Hoff and his parents directly to In n Out!  Wow was it good!  I got to bed last night around 11 or so and actually slept pretty well.  I woke up about every hour starting around 4 am, but went back to sleep pretty quickly and I’ve felt fine today.  Hopefully jet lag doesn’t catch up to me!  Here’s a few pics to give you a small taste of India:

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Waterwell719815

Wade702920

Village756574

Mercy758914

Trees745521

For more of a taste of our trip, we’ll be sharing quite a bit at church this next Sunday.  It would be a great morning to come and hear stories, songs, and see a video and pictures.  I have a feeling I’ll be spending a lot of time this week getting that video ready! 

India was definitely a life changing experience.  It was probably the closest I have felt to God in a long time, and it was great to hear from him and serve him.  I know that he will continue to speak to me and teach me things from the trip in the days to come.  I have a list of some of the things God has already taught me as a result of India, and I will post that in the next day or two.  But in the mean time, I gotta head out to class.  Let’s hope jet lag doesn’t catch up to me during that!

24 August 2005 ~ 1 Comment

Pastor’s Conference

We’ve been back in Tenali for the past few days and wow is it refreshing.  We even have ac in our rooms!!  It’s crazy the things you take for granted until you don’t have it…like real toilets (we have one of those now, too)!  I got the opportunity to open up with the first message for the pastor’s conference we are hosting.  There were about 200 or so there for the first session and probably 400 there now.  Dave and I decided on the messages at about 1 am and I was up at 10:30, so it was a bit of a stretch, but it was a blast and God worked.

Leave it up to Revolution Church to get Indian pastors out of every comfort zone you can imagine.  At the end of the teaching we had them get into small groups to discuss some questions – think life group.  They sat there like deer in headlights for a few minutes, but once they got goin it was great.  Some of them then came up and shared about God calling them to ministry and it was pretty wild to hear these pastors stories just a little bit.
I teach one more time and that’s tonight.  I’m teaching on persevering through trials from James 1:1-4.  These pastors know trials way beyond anything we ever experience in the U.S.  Just by accepting Christ here you drop to the lowest caste and are often looked down upon by society.  I just pray that God will use me to encourage them in something they probably understand more than any of us ever will.

It has been a blast to see them worship at the conference!  Last night we come in as they’re worshipping and there is a group of pastors dancing in front of the platform.  It was hot and sticky, but before you know it, Hutton was down there dancin up a storm with em!  You’d have been proud of him Beth…he’s got some moves! ;)  This morning Dave Sloan and then Chris Hoff ended up down there dancing so I went down to get a picture of Hoff.  Before I knew it, they grabbed me and there I was dancin for Jesus.  We had a great time celebrating together.  I hope that one thing I can bring back with me is that heart for celebrating and being "undignified" through my body and my spirit for Christ.  No matter what sort of tribulations and challenges these pastors are going through there is such a joy in their lives as a result of the life they have in Jesus.  I want more of that in my daily life.  I want more of that in my daily worship.

22 August 2005 ~ 2 Comments

4 Down – 1 To Go

That’s right, tonight is the final of our 5 crusades in and around the Repalle area. Tonight I will be giving the message and Dave will call people to respond to Christ. Of course, by the time many of you read this in the morning we will be done with our last crusade and on our way back to Tenalli for more ministry there.

It’s been a rough couple days with lots of people feeling sick. I was happy to have made it through relatively unscathed…until today. Nothing to sever, but let’s just say the grape juice we had this morning didn’t stay down very long. The team went to another wedding this morning and I hung back with a few people to get some rest. I feel much better at this point.

This has definitely been significantly different from anything I have ever experienced, but I have been loving it so much. It has stretched me and I have seen Gd work in such amazing ways through myself and others on the team. On Sunday morning I helped lead half the team as we visited a church in the area. Wow, is there a big difference between the way they do church and we do church. We got there and the church was empty. After about 15 minutes, the pastor got on a mike that could be heard by the whol village and let them know church was starting. We got to meet Suresh’s brother, Sudheer, who translated for us and did some preaching. They really know how to celebrate in their worship here. After Sudheer preached for a while, Chris Hoff and Jessica Mcgrath did awesome jobs giving their testimonies. Paulaa then did an amazing job preching the word of God.

While she was preaching I went to ask one of the translators who was sitting by the pastor if we could invite people forward and pray for healing. He told me that would be fine, an oh yeah, you still have another hor you can fill. So he told me to preach and then invite people forward. That wan’t in the plan! So after Paula we sang another song for them, than I refered back to Psalm 61 which Sudheer had talked about earlier. I talked about Jesus and his healing of the paralytic, and then had a call to pray. Many came forward and our team got to work. It was an awesome morning. The morning was capped off after church when we gather to pray for a man lying on the ground. Our team stepped up to pray and we experienced a radical deliverance for this man. He was set free right in front of our eyes from demonic strongholds and it truly was a life changing experience I believe for several there who had never experienced such a thing. Spiritual warfare is a very real thing and is much more prevalent here than in our American culture.

Much of our team is beginning to feel much better. Please pray for the strengh to finish strong. As I said, it has been an awesome trip for myself, but I do miss home quite a bit. I’ve had the chance to talk with a couple guys on the trip and we shared the same difficulties in missing our loved ones back home. I look forward to seeing family and friends when I return. One thing I have learned is how much harder it is to be away now that I’m married. This is the first time doing something like this since getting married a year and a half ago, and I look forward to spending time with Rachel when I get home. I was actually surprised to hear that many of the guys on the trip who have been married much longer than me on this trip have not been away from their wives for this long either. Just know that if you are reading this and you have a loved one here, you have definitely been on their minds and you are missed.

So here we go.  Tonight we head out to save some more souls, then on to the pastors conference among other things in Tenali.  I’ll try to keep you posted!

19 August 2005 ~ 2 Comments

The Island

Have you ever told someone about Jesus and have them reply with the age old question, "What about the island in the middle of nowhere where they have never heard of Jesus?"  I was at one of those last night.  And I will visit another tonight and 2 more after that.  Yesterday, after dedicating another water well, we drove about an hour to the coast on the Bay of Bengal.  We then waded out into knee deep water with calf deep mud (at least it was kinda like mud) to get to an old motorized boat.  Most of us sat on the roof of the boat for the 45 minute boat ride.  Hoff, Sloan and I took a few minutes before leaving shore to take a little dip.  It felt great in the HOT and HUMID weather here.

After the ride we arrived on an Island with 1200 people living there.  This Island was severely affected by the Tsunami.  Many of them have truly had to start life over.  Being there was like stepping into a time machine.  Fences made of sticks.  Everyone living in grass and bamboo huts.  Very little electricity was available on the Island.  All over there were roaming water buffalo, goats, and chicken.  These people fish for a living, but their village cannot eat the fish because they must sell it inorder to survive.  We were fed an amazing meal there of shrimp and fish that were caught that afternoon.  We were then able to give a medical camp to the people, providing medicine and shots for many sick people of the island.  As they were there we were able to pray over them individually, laying hands on them, praying for healing, and blessing them in the name of Jesus Christ.

After that we held a crusade on the Island where we shared the Gospel with them for the first time ever.  Over 200 Indians accepted Christ for the first time, and that was most of the people there.  There weresome Indian pastors with us there to meet with them. These pastors are moving there to plant a church on the island and walk with these people on the long journey ahead.  We then finished the night by feeding the people of the village.  Suresh told us that it was probably the best meal they had ever had for many of them.

This is just one experience of several from just yesterday alone.  The amount of work to be done here is overwhelming at times.  There are still thousands of villages in Southern India with no good drinking water.  But for the time being, we can make a difference a little at a time.  Luke 15 makes it so clear how much God loves and pursues every individual person.  The people here are so hungry, not only physically, but spiritually for the Good News of Jesus.

Thank you so much for all of you who are praying for me.  It was so great to read your comments and to know that you are thinking of me.  I was able to have a short conversation with Rachel this morning and it was so great to hear her voice.  Please pray for her as I’m over here.  Please continue to pray for myself and the team.  Tonight I have the opportunity to call people to respond to Christ at the crusade.  Pray for the health of our team as we keep up a heavy schedule in foreign conditions.  I can feel that this has already been a life changing experience.  It is so different from anything I have ever experienced on any other missions trip or in any other country.  I look forward to sharing more as the time comes.

16 August 2005 ~ 4 Comments

India…Here We Are!

After a day and a half of travel, we finally reached our first hotel in Chenai, India tonight!  We took about a 19.5 hour flight to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia with an hour stop in Taipei, Taiwan for gas.  We got a day hotel for about 4 hours there, then flew another 3 hours or so to get here.  Tonight we are in a nice hotel and will leave tomorrow for another 10-12 hours of bus and train travel to eventually reach Tenali.

I actually feel surprisingly good after all the travel, although I think that foreign plane food is about as bad as it gets and that’s all I’ve had for the past day and a half.  I did have half of Jon Gaw’s burger at the airport in Malaysia and it’s the best Burger King has ever tasted to me!
The team is definately a bit tired after all that travel, but it’s nothing a good nights sleep can’t fix!  Already I have had moments where I sense that God is at work in me, preparing my heart for the rest of the trip.

It was pretty wild riding through the streets of India with lots of honking and crazy driving.  We passed large office buildings and small hutlike villages.  People sleeping on sidewalks and trucks, and people infected with leprosy.  I look forward to what the next 12 days brings.  Please continue to pray for us as we take this last leg of a long journey.  It’s currently a quarter to 1 in the morning here, so I better go get some rest for that journey. 
Thank you again for all your prayers and support.  I’ll keep you posted whenever possible.  Also the teams website will continue to be updated when it can be.

12 August 2005 ~ 0 Comments

India…Here We Come!

Wow, I can’t believe that in just over 48 hours I will be on a plane headed to India to stay there for 2 weeks!  Luckily, my amazing wife did lots of shopping for me this week to get me ready to go.  She knows that if it had been left to me, I’d be running all over the place on Sunday afternoon for the needed supplies!
I am so excited to get there and to see how God is going to work in the lives of myself, those on the team, and the people we will be ministering to.  Check out this schedule for our trip.  (Thanks Dave)  During our time there we will be busy!  Here are a few of the things that we will do:

  • Crusades on 5 tsunami islands
  • Host a pastor’s conference for over 500 pastors
  • Dedicate 8 water wells people in and around Revolution have funded for villages with no clean water
  • Dedicate a church those same people gave to have built
  • Provide bunk beds for Bible College students
  • Medical Camps
  • Provide food for the needy

To see a video highlighting three of the projects we raised money for, click here.

What an amazing opportunity this is going to be to see God work in so many different ways.  I have already been so blessed to see Him provide all of the finances to make this trip possible through the generosity of so many friends and family members.  I ask that all of you would keep me in your prayers in the next few days as I prepare to leave and then while we are gone.  Here are some specific ways that you can be praying for me personally:

  • That I would get everything dialed in for the next 2 weeks in the next 2 days
  • For Rachel as we’re apart for 2 weeks (and hopefully she misses me!)
  • That He would give me His heart for the Indian people
  • That he would lead me as I prepare a 15 minute message and a 10 minute altar call for the crusades
  • That myself and the worship team would be anointed to communicate Christ through our worship
  • Above all, that I would get out of God’s way and allow him to work through me

You can learn more about our team and prayer requests for our entire team on our India Update Webpage.  That page will be updated as much as possible while we are gone, and if we ever get around any computers while we are gone, I will make an effort to update this page as well.  Thank you again to all of you who are partnering with me in this through prayer, finances, and emotional support.  I can’t wait to share with you all when I return home.