Connections

We Have a Calling

2011-11-17T09:42:00.000-08:00

I believe every church should have a calling - a God ordained directive that influences its daily decisions. Without this vision in place, we naturally begin to drift into chaos. It my be well-intentioned chaos; nonetheless, it is still without direction or target.

This coming weekend, I'm excited to remind us, again, of who we are supposed to be. Connections has a specific vision. I'll be breaking it out in detail over the weekend, but I want to lay out the big picture here. This is the most succinct way I know to explain our calling.

--Connections is a Bible based community for your lost friends and family.--

We will probably never put that on our website or in our print material, but it's who we are supposed to be. All of us (and I mean ALL OF US) have friends and family who either don't believe or, more likely, have walked away from God. Maybe they got mad at Him, maybe they just drifted away, either way, we desire to see them have a strong relationship with God. I want CX to be a place where you can bring your friends and you don't have to worry about them being embarrassed or offended. We use phrases like, "Turn to page 89," instead of, "Open to Luke 9." We say things like "Right living" instead of "righteousness" and we focus on being more relevant than simply reverent. We have never taken an offering and rarely talk about finances from the stage.

This doesn't mean that we water down our messages or God's word. We say what needs to be said, but make sure we say it as clearly as possible. And we choose, when possible, to look at the positive side of an issue instead of the negative. Jesus said, "Do to others what you want done to you." Interestingly enough, most religions teach, "Don't do things to people that you don't want done to you." Jesus looks at the positive side of things. We try to do the same. We have a sermon coming soon about life. We'll be talking about the joy of life and value of life. We'll spend 30 minutes talking about it and watching interviews and never once use the word, "abortion." People will get the message.

The term evangelism means good news. Most of us have heard that before, but we need to be reminded that we're bringing people some amazing hope, not eternal judgement. That's what Connections is called to do. If you're around this weekend, we'd love for you to join us. We'll be looking at how these philosophies practically play out at CX. If you can't make it in person, we're live online at 10:30 (another easy way for people to hear about Jesus). Just go to our website and jack in!

Cheeseburgers and Christianity

2011-07-19T16:35:00.001-07:00

Let's say you're going to start a new church and right before you launch you're given a choice about the future of your church. You can choose one of the following, and only one.
1. Your church is going to make lots of money.
2. Your church is going to be HUGE! So many people you won't know what to do.
3. Your church is going to impact a ton of lives. Everyone will know what you're about.

Which do you choose? Obviously you want all three. Money supports missionaries, people do more ministry and reaching people is what we're all called to do. But if only one...?

We don't have the first two at CX. At least not yet anyway. Maybe one day we will, maybe not, but that shouldn't keep us from number 3. We can do great things with what we have.

This weekend we took over a couple of fast food restaurants, a Jack in the Box and a Burger King down the street. For a few hours we paid for all the meals that came through the line. The cashier would say the total, "That'll be 13.24." and we held out the money and paid. The results were very positive. It's amazing how few people complain about churches when you're buying their lunch. I wish we could do it every weekend. It was a minimal investment and made a great impact.

Lately it's been my goal to try and turn the tide on the reputation of Christians. Let's be honest, right now we're mostly known for hating gays and being hypocritcal. The only way we're going to overcome that is to start loving people and being generous. People in our cities need to see us investing our time and money in the community around us. They need to see us give selflessly without a I'll-scratch-your-back-you-scratch-mine mentality.

I'm proud of the church I serve with. This summer, we're doing/did free guitar lessons for a week, 2 BBQ's in the park, fixing up housing in the neighborhood behind our church, buying lunches, hosting video game nights and a few other little things. I'm praying that some of the people we hit will get hit twice and realize what we're really about. And maybe we can change a few minds and eventually a few hearts!

Baptisms

2011-05-22T21:36:00.001-07:00

Honored today to baptize 6 people. 6 different individuals from 7 to 33 took the plunge and let the whole world know they were followers of Jesus. How amazing is that!

God is moving right now through Connections. This isn't something I'm feeling; it's something I'm hearing about and seeing with my own eyes. I want to overemphasize this point. I'm in no way saying that I feel God stirring in my soul. Nor am I saying that "Great things are about to happen." What I'm saying is that lives are being changed and I'm seeing it with my eyes. What I'm saying is little revivals are happening in homes around Meridian. What I'm saying is that people are changing their habits and chasing after God. I'm honored to be a spectator and see what God is doing!

Last weekend we had a men's retreat. 12 of us invested 48 hours to see if God had something to say. Ended up He did. I believe for many of us, God has left a couple of voice mails on our hearts. And when we're quiet and listen, we can hear what he's trying to say. I was so proud of our men. We had some real heart to heart stuff happening. Guys sharing stuff that "They've never told anyone." Small groups praying together. Grown men crying (I can only confirm that with my group). God was peeling away layers and sometimes years of hurt and confusion. It was an amazing time! I can say that a number of men left the mountain top changed.

I should mention this too. It wasn't all emo. We also shot zombies, played golf, grilled burgers and did the other typical guy stuff. Favorite moment: We packed 7 full sized guys in a hot tub. I was the fifth guy in and it was already spilling over the top before I added my 270lbs. When we all got out, the water level resembled more of a wading pool and less of a hot tub. Good times.

That was last weekend. This weekend, we did baptisms. I'll be posting the videos a little later, on our youtube channel (youtube.com/connectionvids) but I was proud of our guys sharing their hearts. Being vulnerable is not something very many of us are good at. The world has taught us to build our defenses and not to let anyone in. We had 5 guys get baptized. At the end of service, I offered to baptize anyone who wanted in. No one responded (which is typical). After service, a fellow "Connector" asked if she could be baptized. I asked permission to invite everyone to sit back down and watch. She was courageous and agreed! A few people had slipped out, but 90% found a chair and we baptized one more! Jeans and all! Another revival in another heart!

God is moving. Sometimes I feel it, sometimes it's just happening. I really don't care which way it shakes down. It just feels good to be in a community where people I know and love are changing. I want in! I'm praying God continues to move in the Taylor household too. I want more God! I want more Holy Spirit moments. I want more Jesus singing in my heart all day long!

"GOD! Bring us more of these little revivals! May they stir into something great, something bigger than all of us! May You rise up in this generation, in this time! I AM LISTENING!"

God Made Yellow

2010-11-16T00:10:00.001-08:00

This week I prepared and preached a sermon about how powerful God is. And, as we all know, He is bigger, stronger, and more awesome(r) than all of us put together. There's really no adequate analogy sizing up big God to little us. In fact, we probably shouldn't even attempt to compare the two.

God's power is not just greater than ours in value, but it's conceptually different. In order to understand this, we must first grasp our own view of power. In our world, we view power as more money or success. It means that I can do whatever I want. I can boss other people around. That's power! It means that I have riches and entitlements that most others don't have. It means you have to respect me because my bank statement has a few more numbers than yours. That's power, worldly power. "Look at what I can do! I'm building my own mansion! In fact, I'm buying my own island and designing it exactly like I want. I'm putting waterfalls in the bedrooms and jumbotrons in the living rooms. I'm hiring servants and workers and personal assistants. I can do whatever I want, because I'M ALL POWERFUL!" This is the world's view of power. It's selfish, mostly sinful and very human.

Some religions even take this to the next level. They say after you leave this planet that you will gain amazing power. You can even have your own planet or kingdom. You can have 21 virgins that you lord over. Some even teach that if you handle things right you can become a god. A god that is equal to the I AM, God. That's real power.

These are all great for daydreaming. It's fun to think about designing a castle or a company or pretty much anything just the way you want. And, that would be alot of power. But does that compare to the power of God.

No it doesn't. His ways are different than ours.

I've summed up how God's power is different in three words. I'm warning you, it will seem a little odd at first, but keep reading. Eventually it will sink in. Here comes the three words . . .

God made yellow.

Kinda odd right? How is making yellow power? Well, here's the thing, He didn't find a rainbow and pull yellow out of it. Nor did He pick up a banana and say, "We will call this, yellow." Nope, He made yellow from scratch. It didn't exist and then suddenly it was there. Then he probably made red then blue. He created the very concept of visual attributes. That is power! Creating the idea of colors! Who can do that? Do you have that sort of power? What color is your planet going to be? Green and Blue? Can't have those, God made those colors. If you're going to be all powerful, go make your own colors.

God also made the distance between two actions. The space between two moments. We call this time. God created time. It didn't exist and then it did. God lived outside of time. Like existing in a time machine that is stuck in one moment, God just was. Then, He kickstarted some universal clock and everything changed. Now we have minutes and hours and days and decades. Who else can create time? Can you do that? When you design your universe, will there be day and night and stars and moons and suns? Don't plagiarize God. If you are going to be just as powerful, make up your own . . . whatevers.

God also gave us feeling. He made things like laughter and love. He gave us compassion and desires. Let me give you a quick story.

This week, my wife and my boys came up to Connections to help us build a few things (we're currently in expansion mode). While we were working my three year old got 5 cups, filled them each with water and put a straw in every one of them. Then he put them all in a nice row on a table away from the ladders and pieces of broken drop ceiling. Then, he called us over to take a break from our laboring. I was so impressed! The cups were organized in a row and after I finished mine, he took it from my hand and asked if I wanted more! I stood staring at my curly haired young man and a mixture of emotions overcame me. I was proud of this little Taylor. There was a feeling of respect and love and excitement and probably a dozen other things in me. These are feelings that God made up for us. He designed us to feel all these things! Amazing!

Our power on the other hand is so limited. I consider myself a creative. I love to write music, paint pictures, edit videos and type blogs. But even on my brightest, most creative days; even with an unlimited budget and dozens of people to boss around; even with unparalleled inspiration, grandiose visions and detailed followthrough, I'm not really doing anything new. I'm just reorganizing what God has given us. I'm stealing his colors and notes and his words. I'm robbing the shapes and textures that He himself spoke into being. I'm simply putting them in a different order. It may be a new order for us, but rest assured, I'm just playing in the sandbox that God constructed. In the words of Carl Sagan, "If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe."

I'm no where close to being a god, much less God. And I never will be. His power is not only greater, but fundamentally different than mine. His simple concepts dwarf my greatest creativity (like South America dwarfs a gnat). His ways are higher than my ways. And now, it makes all the more sense why the angels spend all their time hovering around God saying, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty."

God made yellow. It's pretty amazing. It has changed my view of God. Before I used to tell God what to do. I had all the answers and He just needed to answer my requests. Now, I'm changing. Now I'm doing my best to answer His. And it's all because He made yellow. Honestly, I'm not really fond of the color, but I do like green and you can't get there without yellow.

postscript: this was written to go with the sermon. Just some more rearranging.

Latest On The Building . . .

2010-09-30T16:01:00.001-07:00

We've signed the papers to expand our current storefront. We're going from 2800 s/f to over 4000. This is significant for us. I've been working with an architect to get the most milage out of a relatively small amount of space. Here are the latest plans. We're meeting again tomorrow to see if we can get a few more things squeezed in. Specifically, we need another stall in the ladies restroom and might shift some space out of the lobby and into the classrooms. Whatever we end up doing, this will be a huge shift forward for the way we worship and the way we work with kids!

Resources

2010-09-04T00:29:00.000-07:00

Last week I had the privilege of sharing the stage with Alan Bradshaw as we unfolded both the logical and emotional reasons for belief in a Creator. There are some great resources out there to further your study on this and/or help you present to your kids the side they probably will not hear in their secular schools. Check these out. The more you know, the more it just makes sense to believe.

Institution of Creation Research (Check out their video on Mt. St. Helens!)

'What Really Happened to the Dinosaurs?'

Creatures that Defy Evolution dvd series. (These are available on netflix instant watch - possibly hulu too)

Moody Bible Institute (These guys have great science videos)

The Truth Project (put out by Focus on the Family)

'Inherently Wind, A Hollywood History of the Scopes Trial'

'Mysteries of Creation' - super book

'Yellow and Pink' - another great book by William Steig (Shrek author)

www.answersingenesis.org

Dinosaurs & Dragon Legends (A Creation Museum Collection)

The Great Dinosaur Mystery and the Bible - Paul S. Taylor

Being

2010-08-09T10:39:00.000-07:00

"Being" can mean a state of simply existing... or it can mean "to happen." There are many opportunities in life for us to simply exist, but to happen, to be an event, well, that takes intentional action.

This last week, as a team, Connections decided to happen. We put out feelers and found places to serve in our community. We put feet on faith, to show our community and our God, that we mean what we say.

And it was, amazing! There is something so powerful when we don't just talk about what God has said, but we actually follow through and live it out. Even if no one knows who served them, even if Connections never gets the credit (which we were not seeking), I believe we are changed, and pulled closer to God's heart.

Honestly, going in, I was not sure how it would go. I had talked to some other church planters who had tried this. They said the percentage of people who show up to serve is often small. "You'll see the faithful, the core," they said. I wasn't sure what to expect.

But once again, I was humbled and blown away by our team! Our people showed up! We had more people yesterday morning that we did the Sunday before. We spent the morning with tools, sweating together to serve neighborhoods in Meridian. We mowed, weed whacked, picked up trash, cut down dead trees and had a blast doing it!

Paul's words come to mind, "In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel, from the first day until now." Philippians 1:4-5. I am blown away to be part of a team that gets it. And I know, if we keep our hearts here, humble before God and really WILLING to do what He says, we will rock the treasure valley, and be a tool of change for Jesus Christ!

Bringing In and Sending Out

2010-06-22T23:49:00.000-07:00

Every week there are new people checking out CX. I'm so proud of our people because they keep inviting. I hope we're always that church that's easy to invite to. As a church planter, when you first get started, everyone is connected to you in some way. Our first Bible study was my neighbors, some friends from Sacramento and a guy who helped me move in. And while I still invite, it's the collective community that's the growth force. God continues to bring us lost people (which I love) and strong leaders too (which we've been praying for). I talked with one of our new patriarchs the other day after CX and he mentioned that he'd basically given up on church. This is a rock solid, Bible believing Christian, but he was tired of the mess. We have a few families that have recently connected with us that have been so deeply hurt by the church in the past that I can tell they are constantly guarding themselves. They don't know it yet, but CX is a safe harbor. It'll just take me some time to prove it to them. I try so hard to keep us from becoming a political, messy, complicated church. I know, that somewhere down the road we'll have some issues. My head isn't in the sand. But, when that day comes, I hope we handle it in the light. I hope we apologize honestly for where we screwed up and I hope the offended party (or parties) gives us the same grace that we extend to our people! Sometimes messes end up doing great ministry. It's all about how we handle them!

That was a bit of rant! Thanks for hanging in there.

So we have lots of new people and we continue to grow. But we recently lost an AWESOME couple. Jeremy and Lisa Wight accepted a call from GOD to pack up and move to Thailand. They literally sold everything but about 9 suitcases worth of stuff and headed to the other side of the world. They have their visas for the first year and they're trusting God to keep things going after that. Jeremy and I have become really great friends over the last year or so and this week I have missed him greatly. Although he did great ministry with us, overseeing small groups and preaching fairly often, it's the late night brain storming sessions and Tuesday morning prayers that I will miss the most. Luckily we live in a connected world and we can still chat often. CX is supporting Jeremy and Lisa's new ministry and we're stoked to skype them in once a quarter or so for our people to hear how their doing. I want everyone at CX to know who they are, to know what their doing and to see how their prayers are making a difference. It's one thing to put a check in the bucket at church, it's another thing to put it in there knowing it's going to serious missions ministry. It just makes it that much more joyful! BTW you can watch his vid, give and keep up with Jeremy at http://www.m300ministries.org/thailand_jeremywight

Keep them in your prayers!

We hate losing people at CX, but if it's to go spread the gospel to a country that's only 1% Christian, then we'll do our best to get by without them!

This week at CX we're talking about all our summer outreach events, the reorganization of our small groups and what it's going to take for us to grow forward! We'd love to have you join us.

This Weekend . . .

2010-06-10T04:52:00.000-07:00

I gotta tell ya, I'm stoked about this weekend. Our worship leader is out of town (not why I'm stoked) so I get to saddle up behind a guitar again. It's been a while since I got to lead our people in worship and I miss it greatly. We had practice last night with the team and of the 8 of us scheduled for worship, 3 were first timers on stage! I love that. As we continue to grow, we continue get more people on the stage.

There's more great things happening around here. We got a call from the property owner this last week and he wanted to know if we wanted more space? The facility we're in has 6 bays and only three are being used (we have 2 and one other tenant has 1). For us to double our space would open up many new possibilities. The biggest win would be for our children's ministry. As of now we have 2 classrooms that are adjacent to the worship center. Our workers are having to keep the kids quiet, or at least try, while we're having service. Maybe you already know this, but kids weren't made to be quiet. But honestly, they don't bother us as much as we probably bother them. Our worship is fairly loud, so when we're singing, they are too!

Tonight we're doing a BBQ in the park. We have three of them scheduled for the summer. According to accuweather, there's a chance of rain later today. That's a huge improvement from the forecast yesterday. They were saying thunderstorms. I've been praying that we'll meet a couple new families tonight and our chances are much greater without the rain!

If you're in Boise and happen upon this blog, join us tonite at Settler's Park. Free food and live music starting around 5:30. We'd love to see you there!

Quick Update

2010-05-06T08:57:00.001-07:00

Sunday morning has been a huge success. Everyone said it would be and they were right. We have visitors every week and people seem to be sticking. This week is Mother's day. It's typically the 2nd highest attended weekend of the year. We're also doing child dedications and a number of families are coming to watch their grandkid, niece, or nephew be dedicated. We're expecting standing room only.

Next week we're adding another service. We're bringing our Saturday night back in full force. We'll be meeting at 6 on Saturday nights and keeping our 10:30 on Sunday mornings. Pray for us. The extra service puts a strain on our children's workers and worship team. And for those praying for our finances, it's working. We continue to have just enough for everything we need. Thanks for your prayers!!!

How Great is Our God! ("!" not "?")

2010-03-02T22:17:00.000-08:00

Things have been speeding up lately at Connections. Let me give you the last month or so . . .

Our first set of baptisms took place a few weeks ago. We had 4 people get baptized and share their testimonies on video. God moved.

Two weeks ago we celebrated our first year at Connections. Over the last 12 months we've given away food, free gift wrapping, coffee at a busy stop light, money on a street corner and a slew of things on a one on one basis. We've had dramas and illustrations and have edited more video footage than you could watch in a full day. We've seen marriages saved and addictions broken. Amazing how much God has used a little church with less than a hundred people and no budget. We are willing God. Let's go crazy for year two!

Last week we encouraged our people to invite their friends and family and we laid out the gospel in a crystal clear fashion. We had four people raise their hands at the end to accept Christ. Wow God!

Here's what is happening next. . . We made a call about an open facility on fairview ave. It's one of the major roads in the town we live in. We couldn't afford it, but since it was empty, we thought we'd give it a shot. We offered them what we could afford if they would let us use it 24 hours a week, from Saturday at 1 to Sunday at 1. They countered back and said we could occupy it full time and they would keep the rent at what we could afford. WHAT??? OK, I guess we can handle that. So, at the end of this month, we're moving into our first full time building. Now, honestly, it's pretty small. 2 classrooms, one restroom (ouch) and a good sized room for our service. All in all about 2500sf. We're viewing this like our first little apartment. It's a great place to grow and would allow us to have 2-3 services a week and possibly reach the 4-500 number before we need to move on. And, like I said earlier, we are in a GREAT location! This alone is a huge blessing and we'll be in by Easter! You're amazing God!!!

Here's where I need your help. We have so much stuff ready to go. Since we're a portable church, we already have a sound system and all the childrens stuff we need to get started. What we don't have is tables and chairs. We're going to need 75 chairs and 10 tables (to start). If we buy new, we're looking at 4-5k. We're also going to need an additional projector and screen. Another few thousand dollars. All in all we're going to need around 10-12k. That's minimum. They'll probably be more we need once we get started. Pray with me that we can make this happen. It seems impossible. But, so does a 2500sf facility on Fairview Ave for about what we're paying now. Show up again God! I have zero doubts!

4 baptisms. 4 Salvations. 12 months of amazing ministry. New Facility. Easter is Coming. We're no longer standing in line . . . the roller coaster has officially begun!

Baptisms!

2010-02-03T00:04:00.001-08:00

We celebrated our first set of baptisms on Saturday night! It was incredible. We had what looked like record attendance (although we rarely count) and the energy was crazy great. We put all the videos up online (with the permission of those who were baptized). Take a few minutes and watch these. Amazing!!!

The Power of Positivity

2010-02-01T12:41:00.001-08:00

Positivity?! I guess that's a word since the little guy inside my computer didn't underline it in red. I ran into this video today and thought I'd share it with you. It's Steve Jobs from apple introducing the iPad. Someone edited it down to about 3 minutes but kept all the positive things that were said during the presentation. Check it out.

Jeremiah 17

2010-01-21T20:36:00.000-08:00

I read something in my daily devotions today that was really good. I thought I'd toss it your way. This comes from Jeremiah 17. 5-8 (the message).

"Cursed is the strong one
who depends on mere humans,
Who thinks he can make it on muscle alone
and sets God aside as dead weight.
He's like a tumbleweed on the prairie,
out of touch with the good earth.
He lives rootless and aimless
in a land where nothing grows.

"But blessed is the man who trusts me, God,
the woman who sticks with God.
They're like trees replanted in Eden,
putting down roots near the rivers—
Never a worry through the hottest of summers,
never dropping a leaf,
Serene and calm through droughts,

bearing fresh fruit every season.

This passage seems pretty clear at first. Who are you depending on? Do you trust in your friends, family and other people? Maybe you trust in yourself, "muscle alone." Or, do you trust in God. Is He your source. Now we all say we trust in God. We say that because we're suppose to say that. Plus it sounds pretty arrogant to say we trust in ourselves. And maybe some of us do trust in God, but trusting in God is pretty easy when YOU have everything in control.

My middle child Drae likes to play around with gadgety stuff (where'd he get that?). If it's expensive and has a remote control, he want to open it, close it, turn it off, on, switch the channel, you name it. I will actually hand him the controls sometimes and let him play with it. I'm good with this as long as I'm standing right behind him. It's like I trust him, as long as I am really in control. Is that really trust? Maybe a little but it's not complete trust.

I think the same is true with God. When the bills are getting paid and kids are healthy and I have a good handle on my life, without a doubt I trust him. But, do we trust him when the chips are down or do we jump in and fix it our own way. I know what I do and it's usually something like, "OK God, how should I handle this? Well, I'm going to do it this way, stop me if you don't like it." I'm kinda half trusting and half in control. And what good is that? When you got two Chef's in the kitchen you end up with sushi and fritos. Not a good combination (at least it sounds gross, anyone want to do an experiment?).

What's the solution? Here's the part that is hidden in there a bit. I don't think the solution is just giving God what you already control, I mean, we should do that, but it's not that difficult. The true test of faith is doing something so big that only God could do it. Then and only then will you find yourself trusting Him. I mean, you'll have to, you can't do it on your own!

So what kind of God sized goals do you have in life? Missions work? Adopting kids? Writing a book. Starting a church? Whatever, just dive in. Start today. If God's behind it, He'll honor it, He'll help you through it. So find something worth doing with your life and bite off just a little more than you can chew. Then chew it!

2009-11-30T22:55:00.001-08:00

Hey Team,

I trust everyone had a great Thanksgiving Day! Tam and I had a great time entertaining some family and some fellow Connectors. Toss in some pecan pie (my favorite) and it as a great day!

Two quick things I wanted to toss your way. First of all, things at Connections have been really good. We had four people raise their hands to ask Jesus in their lives this last Saturday. To be honest (which means not being deceptive) I know at least one of them well enough to know that they have had a relationship with Jesus in the past, but I'm stoked their getting their life right. God is good and He is still moving. We have such a great team at Connections, our band is INCREDIBLE, our children's ministry is awesome (thanks to a 5-1 teacher ratio, one of the great advantages of a new church plant), we have two other established, successful pastors that attend and speak and almost every person at Connections has a small group they attend at least monthly. Amazing! Still, there's more to do. Here's what we could use prayer for:

1. MORE PEOPLE! I have this visual image of Connections being a small house built on a huge foundation. We've got everything in order to build a big house, now it's just inviting and loving people. Pray that our people have the courage to invite and that the invites are accepted. 2. Pray for our finances. We've had some unexpected support checks lately that have come right on time. God continues to be faithful. Another note of praise, I sold a house this week (I have a real estate license here) and it allowed the Taylor's to get caught up on some bills. He's always right on time!!!

The second thing I wanted to tell you about is a new promotion we're doing called, "I'm Not A Number." This is some of the stories from people who've gotten involved with Connections. We opened the door to anyone who wanted to share their stories. We're hoping to take over CraigsList with written testimonies and links to a bunch more on youtube and our own website. The goal is for more people to notice and check out Connections. We're launching this later this week or early next week. It's going to be a huge win. I'm including one of the stories. It's from the Emerson's. They are my neighbors from down the street and joined us when we were still meeting in our home. They've been a huge asset to Connections. They volunteer for just about everything. I can say without hesitation, CX wouldn't be the same without them!

Thanks for your prayers and support. I truly believe the cement is drying on this massive foundation and we're ready for the next level! To God be the glory.

Full Confidence . . .

2009-10-14T11:41:00.000-07:00

Do you have full confidence in God? I mean, do you believe with every fiber of your being that he's going to do what he promises? A couple of days ago in Bible time I read the, "Do not worry" passage in Matthew. As I was reading it, I asked myself if I really believed it. Do I believe whole heartedly that God is going to take care of me and my family the same way he takes care of the flowers in the field. And my answer . . . YES!!!

I do believe it. I believe it for two reasons. The first one is He said he would. That should be enough, but there's more. The second reason I believe it is because of God's history. Not His global history, but His history in the Taylor Family and in my life. God has always showed up, always right on time. I want to tell you about how faithful God has been over the summer. I think you'll be amazed!

For those of you not familiar with Connections, let me give you a couple of quick facts. We're a new church, less than a year old, reaching prechristians and young families. We're still under 100 people (but growing). I have a couple of side jobs that I do now and then when I can get the work, but mostly I put all my time in making Connections go. Financially things have been a challenge, as they are with any non-profit in this economy. But the fact that most of our people are college aged or unsaved makes it even a bit more challenging. Still God has been faithful. Here are the last few months and what God has done to save the day.

At the beginning of the summer, we needed money to pay all our bills at the beginning of the month. We prayed and God showed up in the mail. We got a 600 dollar check from our escrow account. We're still not sure if they miscalculated something (we bought this house when we moved here about a year ago), or if it has to do with a change on our mortgage insurance, but either way, we needed it.

Fast forward 30 days, same situation, just a little worse. Tammi came in and sat down with me to talk finances. "Here are our options. We can take a partial paycheck and pay the mortgage or we can take no paycheck and pay the rent for the church. What do you want to do? Oh and we need to pay our worship leader and children's worker too." As a man, that's tough, I mean, that's my main gig, providing for my family. Even more than starting a church and loving on people, I'm commanded to take care of the Taylor clan. Tam and I prayed together and the next day, in the mail box we got a support check for 1200 bucks. How amazing is that!!! We didn't ask for it, we didn't even make the need known, it just showed up.

Thirty days later, same song, third verse. This time it was a check for 1000 dollars for some work I hadn't even done yet. The original agreement was that I'd get paid after all the editing was finished. We were still a month out from even doing the shooting, much less all the editing, but I was holding in my hand a 1000 dollar check. The guy who sent it had no idea he answered our prayers.

Number 4. Probably my favorite story (that's happened so far). I'm sitting in a parking lot waiting for a lady 4 spaces up to back out so I could park as close as possible to the front door. While I was waiting, I noticed the car directly to my left was also backing out towards me. "Surely she'll see me!" I thought. I tapped on the horn a couple of times then laid on the horn as hard as I could (as if that would make it louder). I actually broke the plastic piece that activates the horn. My horn didn't stop her, but my driver side door did. She apologized and admitted it was completely her fault. My car left an imprint in her plastic bumper, "Reatta" (only backwards of course). Lucky for her it was a loaner car, hers was being fixed. The Reatta took a good sized dent up by the front wheel well. When the insurance company called me to talk about a fix they said I could just keep the money if I wanted or I could have it fixed, either way it was up to me. I still have the dent, and my house. Another mortgage miracle. I love my car (it turns 20 in January), I'm bummed it's got a dent in it, but I'm thinking about keeping it just as a great story of God's faithfulness. He always shows up.

Last month I felt God calling me to sell some things to make things go and I was faithful to that. I understand completely that God calls us to do our part too. We have to be men and woman willing to give it all up for him. We can't just stand there with our hands out all the time.

All in all the last 4-5 months have been amazing. To me it's just more proof that God is behind the ministry we're doing here. And I know he'll continue to be faithful because he has always been faithful, he has always provided.

Let me close with another verse I ran into recently. It's in the book of 1 John, chapter 3 starting in verse 21, "Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him." IF our hearts do not condemn us . . . in other words, if we are clean before God, no unconfessed sin, no baggage that we're carrying around, then we have full confidence in God! He will do what we ask, He will help us accomplish His will on this earth, He will help grow Connections and continue to provide for the Taylor family. I believe this with every fiber of my being! I have FULL CONFIDENCE!!!!

The Full Video

2009-09-16T10:21:00.001-07:00

Watch Carry-On in Activism & Non-Profit | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Opening Sequence

2009-09-11T10:59:00.000-07:00

We've posted an opening sequence of the short we're producing. It's about all the junk we carry around in our lives. It's two minutes long. Then hit comment and help me come up with a good name for the video. We don't have on yet!

Quick Update

2009-09-02T11:02:00.000-07:00

Things at Connections are incredible. We've aimed for and envisioned this community of young believers where we can gather together to Connect with God and with each other. Also, and this is key to our energy, we want a place where everyone enjoys themselves on Saturday night. We want to see smiles and hear laughs.

I believe we have it.

We had a ton of visitors this last week. I sent emails out to most of them and I got this response back . . .

"Dude, I think I'm hooked! You have a very infectious group. (I've tried other churches but) you guys have a much different energy. It probably has to do with the younger ages of people with Connections, and that helped me "connect" with the others. Nothing against the other group, but you need to find the right fit." -The parenthesis are my paraphrase.

So good! I'm proud of our teams and our families for creating an encouraging atmosphere. All we need now is a few hundred more people!

This Saturday night we're talking about our callings. Next Saturday is our fall kick off. Complete with music, videos, some preaching and a BBQ. It will be a great time!

God is in the Calories

2009-08-11T17:05:00.000-07:00

Which tastes better, broccoli or cheesecake? Easy right? How about this, if you were hungry, how would you rank these five foods in order from worst to best tasting; lettuce, bacon cheeseburger, bowl of fruity pebbles, 1 chocolate chip cookie and a cup of grapes. Go ahead . . . make your list. I'm guessing most of us would do something like this, starting with the worst . . . lettuce, grapes, fruity pebbles, cookies and bacon cheeseburger. I know, I know, someone is saying, I don't like cereal or maybe you just ate dinner and cookies sound the best, especially if my mom or wife made them (same recipe), but overall we'd all head the same direction. Now, if I made a list of which foods are best for you health wise, the list would be reversed. I once heard that lettuce actually takes more calories to eat than it has in it.

I think this is another proof of God. Everything, including calories, has order to it. If Mountain Dew and burritos were healthy, we'd have a skinny nation. If chocolate, in it's various forms, were part of a weight loss plan, I'd be the first to sign up. On the other hand, if strawberries were full of fat, carbs and sugar, we'd kill them like a weed and probably consider them poisonous.

We see this organized God in other areas too. Running and exercise are great for you. Sitting in front of the TV is not. You run a little, you get a little healthier. You run alot you get alot healthier. It's like the harder you work, the more willpower you exert, the greater you can become.

Is this true in our spiritual walks? Definitely is. These last three weeks I've been ramping up my Bible time. Everyday, usually before lunch, I spend a half hour studying God's word and praying. I have a good pastor friend who spends twice that every morning. I'm not sure God created me with 60 straight minutes worth of focus, but we'll see. I have found that for me, it helps to set a minimum amount of time. That way I can marinade in the Word and not rush through it (which I do sometimes). It forces me to slow down and listen. I'm loving it!

In what other ways do you see God's divine order? Maybe you disagree completely and think that there is no real order. Hit the reply. I'd love your opinion!

Sleeping and Eating

2009-07-10T11:50:00.000-07:00

I've turned some corners this last year on my views of creation. I have always BELIEVED that God created us, but it was all faith, not facts. I am now completely convinced, on a scientific level, that we were, without any doubt, wonderfully designed. Now, if you don't believe in God, you can think that aliens designed us or a group of gods or a former advanced race or you can even believe that we live in a matrix, either is fine. For this particular blog, it really doesn't matter. The point we have to agree on is that we were indeed designed. If you want some of my personal proofs, just make a comment to the blog and we can chat.

Once I decided that, I began asking questions about why we were created like we are. Some things make total sense. My hand is at the end of my arm. That's perfect. I can reach things. My eyes and ears are at the top of my being. That's another win, I can see and hear farther. I even think it's cool that our eye lids are about 90% opaque. Even when they are closed, I can tell whether there is light on in a room. If they were completely opaque, people could just close their eyes and go to sleep in the middle of the day. I know, I know, you and I would never do that, but the the world in general?

But what about food. Do you find it odd that we have to eat 3 times a day? Why do we have to do that? Wouldn't it make more sense to feed yourself once, early in the day and be done with it? Or you could fill up, like a car, once a week or so. Better yet, why not breath in the energy like we do oxygen. Anyone smart enough to create the human nervous system surely could figure that out!

Here's the other thing that has always bothered me. I have to sleep 1/3 of my life. They say 8 hours a day is optimal and that we get alot more than that when we're in the nursery and in nursing homes. If live to be the typical heterosexual, white, male age of 75.7, that means I will literally sleep for 25 years of my life! WHAT? 25 YEARS? That really inhales.

Well, here are my personal opinions on getting tired and hungry. We won't know for sure until we get to heaven and ask (if we even care then), but I think it's fun to speculate now. The reason we get hungry is to keep some of us from being lazy. Food's a pretty good motivator. I remember as a kid playing video games on the weekend until I was hungry. Then I'd take a break and get some grub. Some of us need that motivator to go get a job or work the field. We're pretty spoiled here in the US. I can eat as many times a day as I want, but in some, if not most nations, you want food you have to work the field.

I think sleep is for the exact opposite reasons. Some of us would work non stop without that 8 hour break once a day. I'm more of a night person. It's not uncommon for me to stay up to 2 or 3 in the morning working on a sermon or a major video project. It frustrates me that I get tired. The kids are all in bed. The house is quiet, I feel like I'm conquering the world and then . . . the Dew starts wearing off and my eyes start getting a bit blurry. I try to fight it, but eventually I have to surrender to the laws of nature and realize that I can try it again tomorrow night. If I didn't need sleep, I'm pretty sure I'd just keep on working and working and working. But, that wouldn't be healthy for me or my family.

So that's my thoughts. Hunger and exhaustion keep us balanced between laziness and workaholism. It makes sure was all have some down time and some work time. God, being all knowing, would have thought about this when he created Adam and Eve. He would have seen the big picture of a world with over 6 billion people (and growing) and made the right adjustments for us to succeed. Apparently sleeping 5 hours a day wasn't enough, and eating once a week wouldn't cut it either. He knew.

So what kind of things puzzle you about the way we're made? What would you change? Do you think 70 is a good amount of years to live on the earth? Do you think it's good that it takes two humans to make a new one? What about wrinkles and grey hair? So many things that don't make sense, but I believe there is a reason for every single one of them!

A Bit of Leadership (especially for pastors)

2009-06-25T06:54:00.001-07:00

Let's say we're about to speak at a church in front of a 1000 people or so. You and I have prepped well, practiced much and we even have a couple of sure fire jokes between the two of us to keep the people engaged. Right before we walk out on the stage, a magical genie appears (hang with me here . . .) and gives you these three choices. You can walk out on stage and be the 1. Most intelectual guy in the room. 2. The most spiritual person in the room or 3. The most emotional guy in the room. The choice is yours. Which would it be?

Do you want to know more than any other person in the room about your subject? This would make total sense, right? Why would you tell people stuff they already know? And, everyone says they want more depth. They want the original greek and the tense and historical significance and the cultural norms surrounding it all. You could give them all that if you were the smartest guy in the room. And, you could share it in a way that really connects with every one. We'd bring it "down" to their level so they could grasp these great Biblical concepts.

Or maybe we should be the most spiritual. I mean we are preaching, right? We've spent hours in prayer every day just like Billy Graham! The Holy Spirit just oozes out of us. People can see it and sense it. We have all our text memorized and look right at them while we quote the very words of God. We sense the leading of the Holy Spirit and have zero problems adding a few points that God downloads into us as we're preaching. At the end, we open the altars and loads of people come down and get right with God.

Or should we opt to be the most emotional person there? We preach with the greatest passion any stage has seen. With the smile of Joel O. and the conviction of MLK we raise our fist to the air and shout with all our might the great attributes of God. Then, in the same moment, with tears in our eyes, we tell our people how unworthy we are to know such a great God. We end our sermon with a call to action that is truly challenging. We know most of these people could never accomplish such a feat, but everyone leaves the building with boldness and courage. Ready to take on the world!

When we look at the life of Jesus, we see evidence of all three of these. Jesus the brilliant shows up when He was only 12 years old. I've heard this story so many times, it becomes a little ho hum. But, go spend some time with a 12-year-old and then read it again. Imagine this preteen, probably skinny as a rail and a little fidgety, explaining things about your ancestors. At first, it's a bit of a side show, it's just cool that someone has taught this kid all this information. Maybe you ask a question or two to see where his knowledge ends. Then, he starts making applications and piecing stuff together that you've never thought of. Maybe for a small moment you forget you're listening to just a kid and you're engaged in this brilliant message.

Jesus the spiritual giant . . . do we even need to address this? He was God! I love the stories where people approached Jesus and they just knew who He was. It wasn't like he was up on some huge stage with lights and a killer sound system. He wasn't being announced at the Staple's Center in front of 60,000 fans. He didn't even have a name tag on. Still, His very presence was convicting, or moving, or comforting. It was . . . spiritual. Matthew 8:28, "When he arrived at the other side in the region of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men coming from the tombs met him. They were so violent that no one could pass that way. 'What do you want with us, Son of God?" No one said, "Here comes Jesus! He's a prayer warrior." No one had handed out invites to the landing of this great leader. These two guys just knew. There was something great, something deep about this guy.

Jesus the passionate? Do we see that? I think we see it in two ways. We do see a Jesus who is so passionate, he turns over the tables in the temple. That's some serious passion. But I think just as important is the times Jesus stayed level headed, like when the fight was breaking out between the disciples and guards (why was peter carrying a sword anyway?) and Jesus reaches out heals the man's ear. I'm guessing Jesus' heart rate wasn't even escalated, kinda like when he slept through the storm out at sea.

So Jesus was the perfect example of the intellectual, spiritual, emotional giant. Is it possible for us to be all of those things? Can we be a smart, righteous, passionate preacher? Well, the short answer is probably. Some of us have certain limitations that we can never get past. No matter how hard we try, we'll never be the smartest guy in the room. I'm a great example of that. No matter how hard I try, or how many people try to help me, I still just don't get certain things. I miss social cues, say awkward things, and I'm great at stepping on other leaders toes. I think I'm above average at problem solving and creative solutions, but ask me to name the capital of your favorite state and you'll realize fairly quickly that my hard drive doesn't hold much. I took a semester of Greek in college with the vision of reading God's word in it's original form. How great would that be? I got a D-. I'm pretty sure I didn't deserve it. Thank you Dr. Weeter for being gracious! I tried to memorize all the words, but they just wouldn't stick. So frustrating. The good news is, I now have google and it is amazing! If you give me any subject and about 10 minutes and I'll find more information than you care to know. This is true in our sermons too. There's no excuse for lack of material. It's all out there and waiting for you. Instead of preparing a sermon, you can just spend your week listening to a dozen sermons about your topic and you'll have enough material for an entire series. Obviously you still need to listen to the Holy Spirit and see what he says.

When it comes to passion, this is easy for me. Partly because CX is so new that I'm still preaching sermons that I've been dying to preach for a while. New churches are all about reaching the lost and dechurched. I'm naturally pretty passionate about that. But what if you have to preach on something that you know God has called you to preach on, but you're just not feeling it? What works well for me is imagining someone who desperately needs to hear that exact message. How will this change their life? Will this help get them over the a major hump in their spiritual journey? Although I might not get fired up on certain subjects, I definitely get fired up about seeing lives changed. That's really encouraging. Also, and this may be a little too honest for some people, but if I'm preaching to guests (first time attenders) to CX, something in me just lights up. I feel like my messages come alive. New people energize me. The usual people still make me smile, but something about a new face walking in the door that is just exciting. If we had a room full of guests, I could get fired up about Easter Eggs (I actually did one time, listen to "Focus" on our media page).

The last question is can we be a spiritual giant. Of course we can! The challenge is that there are no shortcuts. You can't dial it up on your iPhone or order it off the internet. It can be faked, but not for very long. It takes time in the word and on your knees. A pastor I greatly respect said something in a meeting the other day that grabbed me. He said, "Do you really pray to your God? Do you get on your knees and pray?" I know, I know, we're all thinking, "We'll duh." But it's a bit of a challenge for me. The stillness the quietness, the lack of task or goal, that gets me. I need a goal, a finish line, something like . . . "Ok Dusty, you have exactly 4 minutes to pray for all 100 people that are connected with Connections, you have to mention them by name and at least one thing they need help with, on your mark, get set . . ." Then the music would come on and a big timer would appear in the corner of my room. That would be my kind of prayer time! I have a great friend who spends a half hour in prayer and a half hour reading his Bible every work day at the crack of dawn. I'm blown away by his commitment and consistency, and it gives me something to strive towards. Again, there's no way around the time, you just have to put it in!

I want to conclude with a tip on preaching. These three concepts, emotional, spiritual and intellectual, represent the people sitting in our pews and chairs. Some need proof there's a God, some need encouragement and motivation and some are just hungry for Scripture. How do we hit all three of these people every week? Honestly, it is a challenge. The intellectual loves the talk on evolution vs. creation. The spiritual want you to preach exegetically, and the emotional just want the pastor to cry. Although you'll rarely hit home runs for everyone every week, when I prepare a major sermon (Easter, Christmas, camps etc.) I use the 3 S's, stories, stats and Scripture.

Stories break down walls and if told correctly, puts everyone on the same ship. If it's a story we can all relate to, like the financial crises, it gives credibility to the speaker. "He's in the same boat we are." I love stories for two reasons. One, Jesus told a bunch of them. We call them parables, but they were really just great stories. Sometimes, he didn't even tell them what it meant. He just told stories and walked away. We should stop explaining everything to our people. Let 'em figure it out once in a while. Two, stories are engaging, even bad, stupid stories. I can be preaching about something incredible, the glory of God or the final judgement day when Satan is finally banished, and still, eventually people start to drift. Now remember, at CX, we only meet for 59 minutes, so it's not like I'm preaching for 40 minutes. Even in my 25 minute talk, I see a yawn or two, but if I say something like, "The other day I walked into the Sprint store . . ." Everyone reengages. Here comes a story, I better listen. Use more stories. Luckily the clouds are full of sermon illustrations, google it up!

Statistics are great because they prove a point outside of our opinions. I've been studying more lately about the homosexual movement so that I can defend my view points without Scripture. I read recently that more men have AIDS than women. Here's the interesting part, if you take all the way men can get HIV/AIDS besides being with other homosexuals, sharing needles, blood transfusions, heterosexual partners, and you put them all together, it only equals around 39% of the infected men. The rest is from homosexual encounters. Without the gay lifestyle, AIDS is cut by more than half in our nation. Not just because it is no longer being passed from man to man, but it's no longer being passed from man to woman. Now, I don't have time to go into the fact we do love homosexuals and we heterosexuals have temptations too etc.etc. But the point is, no one can argue with these facts. They are facts. The homosexual lifestyle kills people and in some cases babies are born with it because of homosexuality. One word of caution about statistics from the internet is that anyone can put together a website, anyone can make up a survey and get the answers they want, don't just find someone who says what you're looking for, seek the truth.

The last and most important is Scripture. I've been recommending an audio Bible lately called, "The Bible Experience." It's a very (very) well produced audio recording of the entire Bible being read by famous African American actors, actresses and pastors. I often use it at CX for our main Bible passage. It really brings things to life. I'll never understand why there is so much power in the words that make up the Bible. It's one of those mysteries. I was chatting with a friend of mine about the double edged sword passage that we all use and he made the comment that sometimes you read or hear the Word and it's more like a paper cut, you don't even realize you have it for a couple of days and then something happens and it stings you! Very well said. I have had an instance or two where I use a secondary passage of scripture to support the first someone comes up to me afterwards and tells me how much it spoke to them. Funny thing is my whole sermon was about something else, but that one passage grabbed them so much, they thought that it was the main topic. Amazing.

I hope there was something useful here. Since I don't get to preach this week, this is my release! Continue praying for CX. We're growing one family at a time. Even through the summer. God is so, so good. And, forgive the typos, my wife is out of town : )

IN n OUT and a BBQ

2009-06-23T10:43:00.000-07:00

This weekend we had a BBQ at a local park. One of our newest CX members has a facebook group that's all about bringing in n out to Boise. He has over 2400 members and invited them all to the party. Unfortunately, we had heavy rain and some serious wind. Even still, we had a great time and quite a few guests showed up from the in and out group.

Social Networking

2009-06-19T10:35:00.000-07:00

I've been connecting to our Connectors in other ways lately and not been blogging so much. For those of you that are not from the Treasure Valley, I wanted to let you in on the secrets.

We do a weekly devo and announcements on youtube

http://www.youtube.com/user/ConnectionVids

Also, I twitter (who doesn't)

CXDusty

I'll still try to get an update here once in a while, but isn't video so much better!!!

Party at Tully Park tonight. Free food, loud, live music and lots of fun. See you at 5!

The Latest

2009-05-28T18:01:00.000-07:00

Hey Team, lots of new stuff to share.

For the last three weeks we've been doing a devotional and announcement online. You can see them all here. Over time we'd like to see these happen a little more often with someone different almost every time. We keep these to 3 or 4 minutes so people can squeeze a little devotional time in their day.

We're doing a BBQ next week. We reserved the park close to us and we're giving out Hotdogs and drinks. The park is filled on Friday nights because the city does a movie at dusk. Hopefully we'll get to meet a ton of those people and invite them to CX.

We've been playing with blogtv.com and have decided to do our first set of discipleship classes live on line. We'll have people on location to ask questions, but I'm thinking most of us will connect online. We did some tests the other night and twittered to everyone that we were live on line. I got to connect with some old friends I haven't heard from in a long time. Technology is amazing! They say at the end times, everyone will know about the gospel, maybe it's talking about the internet :)

We have more stuff happening, but what I love about all these ideas is that we're getting outside the four walls of the church. You have to think a bit differently, but it's worth the effort!

New

2009-05-05T15:00:00.000-07:00

Here's a quick list of what's new with Connections.

For mother's day (eve) we're having a cook out and inviting everyone. Thus far, everytime we've had a cook out, we've spiked in attendance. It excites me to meet new people this weekend!

Tomorrow I'm meeting with some other church planters in the area. I can't wait to connect with them and hear some more of their stories. God is moving in this treasure valley. The harvest is ready!

I had lunch with a true creative today. He has all these great ideas that most churches would never consider. I think he's going to fit in well with us!!! We love crazy ideas.

We had a great leadership team meeting this week and had an extended prayer time that was really, really good. I felt like that was "church" in it's purest form. Everyone at the table has a relationship with Christ. I trust them all. We need more prayer times like that!

This is the last week for Jordan. She's been working with our kids since we were a house church. Daxton, my 5 year old, prays for dinner using prayer's that Jordan has taught him. She's had a great influence on all our kids!!! We will miss her greatly.

We put an add on Craigslist for another children's worker and I think we found one. We'll be doing an interview soon.

If you're in the Treasure Valley, we'll be BBQ'ing Saturday at 5. Come join us!!!

Easter and Our New Series

2009-04-13T16:10:00.000-07:00

I want to start by saying thanks to Reflections Church. They opened up their church to us on Saturday night. Not only that, they didn't charge us a single penny! I love their kingdom mindset.

We had a great turn out for Easter. It was our biggest attendance since our launch a few weeks ago. Jeremy and Luke did a sweet drama and as always our worship team did an awesome job!!!

This next week we're starting a new Series called Nuclear Family. John Rott, Tammi Taylor and Jeremy Wight will all be speaking during this series. They helped put together the promotional video below. Enjoy!

New Website, Easter and A Tough Sermon

2009-04-07T14:56:00.001-07:00

We just finished updating our website. www.imconnected.org. We still have a few kinks to get out, but for the most part it's up and running. You'll notice two new links. One at the top talking about our Easter service this week and another link that takes you to our media page.

This last week I nixed an incredible drama that Brandi had already memorized and dumped a video that was absolutely top rate to share some thoughts the Lord has been putting on my heart. That was tough to do, because so much time has already been invested, but the bottom line was that we as a Community have lost our focus and we needed to get back on track before Easter. As they say, we need to keep the main thing the main thing, which for us is reaching the lost and growing a church. Recently I've felt like we've started putting our attention on things that don't matter. We had 10+ visitors this last week, I hope they understood the spirit of what was being said. The sermon is on our media page if you want to hear it.

Easter is right around the corner! We're using a different facility than we normally do for Easter. It will allow us to do some things we normally don't get to do. They have some stage lighting and table and chairs and a few other things that will allow us more engaging ways to share the good news of the Gospel. If you are in the Treasure Valley, I hope you'll join us. We have a drama, some video work and killer music planned. Service starts at 6:00. At 5:30 there is a free Easter egg hunt for the kids. Make sure and bring your Easter egg basket. I hope to see you all there!

Is Evil Real?

2009-03-30T20:51:00.000-07:00

For those that were at CX Saturday night, we talked about the reality of hell. I challenged us to see our world with that in mind. Do you weep for your neighbors and friends? Do you pray for those in your family who are lost? I hope this is a life changing week for you.

I promised you a link to the debate on whether Satan exists. You can watch it here. http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/faceoff It is very interesting.

Also, start inviting for Easter! Here are the details, one more time. 5:30 is an Easter Egg hunt for all kids. At 6 we kick of our service which we're calling, "The Bridge," and then afterwards we'll have snacks and coffee like normal. Easter is a huge opportunity to invite others. Make the ask! We'll be meeting at Reflections church. It's on the southwest corner of Ustick and Meridian. You can't miss it!!!

This is what's new.

2009-03-18T22:15:00.000-07:00

Sunday night we held our behind the scenes look at Connections called, "The Tour." We invited all our new families to join us. We fed everyone dinner and spent a couple of hours talking about what makes Connections tick. It was a fun to see all the new people getting involved. We had over 20 people at our house, including the kids. Also from that meeting, we started two more Connection Groups. This doubles our small groups to four. What I'm most excited about is not the number of small groups, but the percentage of our people who are connected to one. After these two launch, we'll be in the 90% range for people being in a small groups. That's incredible. Kudo's to Jeremy who oversees our small groups. He is doing a great job!!!

Another great thing is finally happening. We've launched a new section of our website we call CXbration. It is where you can find our sermons and videos. Right now we have all the sermons since launch and a video of launch service. You can see it here. This is a great place for people who are considering checking out Connections to actually see it in person before they visit.

This weekend we're doing a big drama that will take up a big chunk of the service. I'm really excited about doing more things like this in the future. I say this often, but I think dramas and videos hit people harder than preaching does and it lingers in the brain longer too. I'm excited to have some people around me who can write, direct and act in our dramas. We're recording with two cameras this week and hoping to get a video on the website or on this blog early next week.

Lastly, don't forget that tomorrow is a big day. The beginning of March Madness! At my last church we all took our powerbooks to the back room and worked while we watched the games. I'll miss that this year.

Thanks for keeping up with us. Pray for our Easter celebration. We've hit a couple of snags on our facility for that Saturday night, but I believe it's an opportunity to do something great! I can't wait to see what God has planned. He's always up to something!

What He Opens . . .

2009-03-04T08:48:00.000-08:00

Saturday night we talked about the verse in Revelation, "What He opens, no one can shut and what he shuts, no one can open." We talked briefly about what happens when God closes a door and we go busting through it anyways and then we showed this video. Brandi and Amy did an AWESOME job acting in this video. My challenge was putting in the special effects. Let's just say spielburg won't be hiring me for the long awaited ET sequel! We ended up with a 70's sci fi show but I think the point still comes across!

DayOne

2009-02-26T21:42:00.000-08:00

This last Saturday night was a dream come true for me. Since I was in college I talked about starting a creative community. I could picture this incredible movement with dramas, videos, loud music and Jesus. That day finally came!

I think there were more people I didn't know Saturday night than those I did. We had a couple of families from out of state drive or fly in to celebrate with us. Our band did AWESOME!!! I'm so stoked to have them lead me in worship every week. John and I did a drama about Edgar Allan Poe (any poetry buffs in the house?). We had a few videos throughout service. We had over 100 in attendance. We had a couple of people get their hearts right with Jesus, and to top it all off we had a Huge cake after service was over. I can't tell you how great it is to be part of this!!! The ride has finally begun!

I've included some pictures below (click to see full size)and here's a link to the actual service. The link gives you the WHOLE service, not just the highlights, so settle in if you plan on watching it.

So, where do we go from here? Great question. I feel like all our wheels are all turning. Our children's ministry continues to grow every week. Our greeter team is fully functioning and caffeinated (lots of energy). We put together these incredible visitor packets with a DVD about CX (connections), a CX coffee mug and some freshly roasted coffee (we roast a new batch every Saturday). The big thing that's left is just inviting and inviting! I'm putting together my own list of 10 people that HAVE to come to CX. Whatever it takes, I'll get em there. I'm telling them too, "You're on my list!"

Also, we are kicking off our assimilation track. For a while it's mostly been just theoretical, a list of discipleship opportunities to help people grow in their relationship with Jesus. Starting March 15 we start putting it in motion. On that Sunday night we're doing, "The Tour." It's a 3 hour Sunday night meeting where we share the heart of CX with new families and answer all their questions. If you're reading this and you are a part of CX, you are invited. We'll be talking about things like, why we don't advertise, what our core values are and the next steps in our assimilation track (which we call, "The Circuit.")

Thanks to all those who made Saturday night a reality. It's in my top 10 favorite days. I am truly blessed, God continues to move! God continues to move!! God continues to move!!! - - !! - !!! Whahooo!

This is the way we Launch a Church, Launch a church . . .

2009-02-18T22:52:00.001-08:00

We'll, it's almost go time. in a little less than three days we'll be an official community. It amazes me that not long ago we were a Bible study with 12 people. Here's a shot from our very first meeting.

This weekend we hope to top 150 people. Granted, alot of these people will be from out of state. They're just here to celebrate the start of something major, but we're hoping to meet some new "Connectors" too. This is what we've been doing for out reach . . .

1. We gave out hundreds of postcards to out regulars. Some were already stamped. We encouraged them to mail them to their friends and family in the area.

2. We gave all our regulars cookie mix. We encouraged them to make cookies and send them to neighbors and such. It's amazing how many walls cookies break down.

3. Tomorrow night we're making even more cookies and taking them around to houses close to the church where we meet. We're just knocking on doors and telling them about launch.

4. We did this . . .

I have to send some pics to a newspaper tomorrow. Hopefully they'll run a story on Friday. I've already got an email from a guy who saw the news coverage. We're really hoping the story leads to some new people checking out a weekend service.

Thanks for all your prayers, I've encouraged our Connectors to fast and pray on Friday. I'll be spending that day as quietly as possible (with three kids around the house). I'm really excited about the sermon this weekend, and the drama and the videos that we have planned. It's going to be really great! We'll be recording the service. If you've been keeping up from the outskirts of Idaho, I'll do my best to get a version of it up so everyone can see it.

KEEP PRAYING!!!

WE MADE IT!!!!

2009-02-02T15:45:00.000-08:00

Congrats on your 21 days! What a journey for so many of us. Was it challenging? I know mine was on certain days, but it was worth it! It feels good be who you want to be.

So much has happened in the last 21 days that some of the non-idahoans don't know about. I haven't been reporting all the good things because we've been running our 21 vids in this blog. Here's a bullet point update.

We've picked up a worship leader to help us get to the next level. He's an incredible musician and even a more incredible man of God. Add that to fact that he loves basketball and video games and you realize it was meant to be.

Our numbers continue to run in the 50's.

We're officially launching on February 21!!! That's a big one. More on that later this week.

The last two weeks, we've had guest speakers. Susan Carter spoke two weeks ago about eating right. She did an awesome job. She came to my house and raided my closet and fridge and told me what kind of eating choices I should make. We put together a video of that experience. I'll toss it up at the bottom of this video.

Jeremy Higgins from Sacramento came up to share two nights ago. He did an awesome job talking about keeping our finances in line and making the most of the money we have. He also recommended a movie that I watched called Maxed Out. It's an incredible documentary that everyone should watch (it has a dirty mouthed comedian in the middle and thus the PG-13 rating. Not sure why they had to ruin a perfectly good movie like that!).

Every week, great things are happening here. Every week. I'm amazed at what God is doing! For those who pray for us often, would you begin praying for our launch. It's a big deal. We have a few families flying in to be a part of it. I want it to be impactful and fun. I want our visitors walking away thinking . . . "THAT'S a church I can get into!"

Thanks for your prayers. It's working!

And now . . . the Susan Carter Experience.

Then there was two!

2009-01-30T00:10:00.000-08:00

Does Raboni rhyme with zamboni?

Day Nineteen!

2009-01-29T00:17:00.000-08:00

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.

Day Eighteen -

2009-01-28T00:18:00.000-08:00

Day 18 was shot in Miami Florida! You'll notice it's a bit prettier than the back of my office.

Day ONE SEVEN!

2009-01-26T21:50:00.000-08:00

Can you believe it? We're almost there. Begin preparing for what day 22 looks like. Do we take a day off and dive back in? Do we change a few things and start all over? It's up to you, but be purposeful. Don't just let things happen, make things happen!

Day 16

2009-01-25T21:57:00.000-08:00

Six Days to go!

Day Fifteen!

2009-01-25T00:58:00.000-08:00

Day One Four

2009-01-24T00:01:00.000-08:00

Keep up the good work!!!

Lucky Number 13

2009-01-22T20:07:00.000-08:00

Dozen Days

2009-01-22T10:12:00.000-08:00

For some reason, I did one more day in John 11. You have to give me a break though, it was new year's eve when I recorded this one! Tomorrow is John 13, so you are on your own for the triumphal entry (john 12). Keep up the good work. It's down hill from here!

Day 11

2009-01-20T23:32:00.000-08:00

You are half way there! End even stronger than you started!

Day 10! Double Digits

2009-01-19T22:32:00.000-08:00

Day Nine

2009-01-18T22:57:00.000-08:00

All I know is I was blind . . . and now I see.

DayOcho

2009-01-17T23:02:00.000-08:00

Today starts week two!!! One down two to go. You can do it!

Ignore the skewed ratio of this video. Quicktimes not really a full video editor.

Say Deven

2009-01-16T22:44:00.000-08:00

Congrats! We've made it a week being the person we want to be. How's that feel? I'm proud of you!

Day Six

2009-01-15T23:07:00.000-08:00

Week One, almost done! Amazing team, keep up the good work!!!

DayFive

2009-01-14T22:20:00.000-08:00

I've heard from a number of people that they are doing the 21 with us! Just know you're not alone, we're walking across this bridge together!!!

Day Four

2009-01-14T08:45:00.000-08:00

This vid had some technical difficulties. Sorry about that. Most of it works, it just stops a little early. Keep up the good work!

DayThree

2009-01-12T20:08:00.000-08:00

You can do it, we can help.

DayTwo

2009-01-12T00:20:00.000-08:00

You can do it!!!

DayOne

2009-01-11T07:47:00.000-08:00

This is the first video in our series called 21. I showed this at church last night. We invite you to join with us for 21 days being the person you want to be. This video was shot 23 days ago when I started my 21 days. Also, and not in the video, let me encourage you to join me in a chapter a day in the book of John. Each day I'll post a video blog and talk about my day and make a few comments on that day's John Chapter. This vid is a few minutes long (I can get kinda preachy), but it should clear everything up! Today is DAY ONE! Here we go.

Almost Go Time.

2009-01-04T10:26:00.000-08:00

First some good news. We had our highest attendance ever this weekend. We had two first time families that some of our core team members invited. Fresh faces recharge me. I'm proud of our regulars for reaching out and inviting others. We keep track of where everyone came from in a family tree type format, and some of our regulars are starting to have their own tree!

Secondly, some good news. This week one of my neighbors, Josh, asked how he could get more involved, so he's taking over all of set up and lock up. What a blessing! We have 3 teams of 2 guys that rotate every week for set up and with Josh at the helm, I no longer have to worry about it.

Thirdly, more good news. We bought a couple more pieces of equipment this week. That doesn't seem like a big deal to most of us, but it really is. We want things to be excellent when our guests show up for our launch. First impressions are very important. With the type of creative, young ministry that we're doing, we want our sound and video and lighting to be great.

Fourth(ly), next weekend we're starting a new series called, "21." I'm convinced this will be a life changing series for many of our people. The goal is to live the life you want to live for a full 21 days. Do you wish you prayed more? Do you wish you exercised more? Do you wish you lived on a budget? We all have our list of things we wish we did more. My wife is practicing piano for 20 minutes a day for her 21. Everyone's list is different, but we're challenging people to be who they want to be, not who their spouse wants them to be or their kids or friends, not even the church. Who does your spirit (meaning opposite of flesh) want you to be?

I'm going through my 21 days first before I ask the church to join me. I'm on day 16 today. For the past 15 days, I have prayed on my knees everyday. I have read a chapter in John every day. I've limited caffeinated beverages to once a week. We are living on a budget, which means no CC's and rarely eating out (unless the grandparents are paying!). So far it's been incredible. Everyday I do a video blog talking about the journey and making some comments on that days chapter of John. When we start 21 with the church, I'll be posting one video everyday so that people feel like someone is going through it with them. Let me challenge you, wherever you may be to dive in with me. They say 21 days makes a habit, let's make some great new habits for the new year!

Lastly, the good news. We're having a cook out this coming weekend. We have a goal of having at least 65 people there. IF we do, we're setting a date to launch connections publicly. Yesterday I handed out cards promoting our 21 series, some "ivebeenserved.com" cards and cash to our people to bless someone with. Pray that people are responsive to the invites. I'm excited about what God is going to do!!!

Mary . . .

2008-12-15T05:50:00.000-08:00

I wanted to tell you guys about Saturday night. We had some great wins. First, my wife joined me in our sermon about Mary. We talked about how humble she was yet you never hear her say, "Are you sure it's me Lord? Maybe you should have picked someone else." We know so little about her, but it sounds to me like she walked the fence of being humble before men yet extremely confident in her savior. She knew if He called her to do it, she could. Tammi did a great job sharing her heart. She always does. I love teaching beside her.

Another great win is we had three new band members on stage with us this weekend. One was just filling in from another church, but a couple more will be joining us again. I've met all these guys on Craigslist. It has become a huge win for us. One of my prayers has been that we have a really energetic, young worship team and that's starting to happen. The three guys that I met on CL average 20 years old. They are all very talented and we're blessed to have them with us. I hope to get some video soon to share with the world.

In our current series, we've been studying different characters from the Birth of Christ. Two weekends ago we talked about Joseph, then Mary this last Saturday. For each sermon we've had one of our teens draw the character on our screen while we preach. I've included the two pictures. The third picture is one Zach did while we were setting up and practicing music. It's much more detailed because we preach for about 20 minutes and practice for about 40. Click on the pics for more detail. He's super talented.

Thanks for keeping up with this blog. God continues to move!

Just Keep Moving Forward

2008-12-07T23:09:00.000-08:00

A week ago we showed one of my favorite movie clips. No, it's not from National Lampoons Christmas Vacationn ("Eddie, if I woke up in the morning with my head sewn to the carpet I would not be more surprised than I am right now"), it's from the latest Rocky Movie, "Rocky Balboa." Everyone should see the movie. It's really good clean movie. And it's not about boxing. It's about a man who still has a hunger in his stomach for more of what he's supposed to be doing. We used the clip in a sermon called, Choose to Persevere. We talked about the trials and tribulations we go through in life and how you have to keep getting yourself up and pushing forward. Click HERE to watch the clip. Go ahead, watch it now. I'll wait.

We see Paul in the 17th chapter of Acts doing the same thing. It's a great read. He goes to the first town, walks into a synagogue and begins preaching Jesus. A riot breaks out in the whole city! Their version of the police go to arrest Paul and can't find him, so they arrest the guy who housed him. What's Paul to do? He sneaks out of the village, goes to the next town, walks into the synagogue and starts preaching again. Another riot breaks out. The people who are with Paul tell him to go wait in the next town while they smooth things over. Paul gets to the next town, without his posse, and discovers lots of idols. This frustrates Paul, so he goes into the synagogue and begins preaching the famous passage about the "unknown god." Amazing! No matter what happens, Paul just keeps moving forward.

Things at Connections have been absolutely great lately. Financially we've had some new givers step up to the plate and we've been able to start buying some much needed equipment. Our numbers rebounded very very well from the Holiday weekend. I think we had our second highest attendance ever. And even with everything working well, we have to keep pressing forward, never content with where we are. The minute we start looking inward we loose the momentum and begin to complain and fight and argue with each other instead of focusing on the lost. A former pastor of mine use to constantly say, "We need to be so busy fishing, that we don't have time to fight!" Very wise!

Imagine a large army that comes to a fork in the road. There are battles to be fought at the end of both paths. One path leads to the top of a small hill and the other path leads to the valley below. The general splits his troops and both go to war. After a very short period of time, the soldiers at the top of the cliff have defeated their foes, so what do they do? Do they walk to the edge of the cliff and watch their fellow soldiers fight their battle? Do they stand there and cheer them on? Or, do they march back down the hill and help in the fight? Of course they do!!! They don't stop fighting until the battle is won.

We at CX have to be careful we don't stop fighting. Every week we have visitors. This last week was no exception. But we don't stop there. We have to keep inviting, keep sharing Jesus and keep praying for God to do amaaaaazing things! We can't spend all our time celebrating our victories. There's still a battle raging on outside!

If your reading this from afar (not in Idaho). Pray with me for more families to get locked in. Pray for us to cross paths with those who are lost and ready for Jesus. And, pray that God instills the same fire in us that he instilled in Paul where he just couldn't keep quiet! He had to the Good News out!!!!

2008-11-22T22:43:00.001-08:00

First the important stuff. Oklahoma absolutely killed Texas Tech tonight. Can we win big against #12 OK State? Yes we can. Can we pass Texas in the BCS rankings . . . not sure.

Next, the answer to the balloon trivia. I found some type of black tape, kinda like skinny duct tape and a stapler. I put staples in the duct tape and wrapped it around a soft ball (not a softball mind you) from the teen room with the staples sticking out. We took turns throwing it at the balloons. When we hit one it popped 95% of the time. Hitting them was the problem. I handed off that solution and started working on another idea. We took a long needle that's made to go in a blow gun and taped it to the top of another balloon. With a very long string we let it drift up to the ceiling and we used it to pop the other balloons. This idea didn't work all the time because the strings hanging on the other balloons played defense on us and tried to keep us from getting a good shot. The two ideas together eventually cleared the sky of Joy balloons.

Church tonight went very well. Jeremy and I broke open the passage where Jesus calms the storm. We asked these questions . . . #1. Is Jesus in your boat. #2. Have you woken him up yet to tell him your problems. #3 Do we have more faith than the disciples. It's funny that we trust God with our happily ever after (eternity), but we don't trust him for the here and now.

We had 3 visitors tonight that we have never been before. One guy is interested in helping us with worship. He plays an absolutely incredible piano, I mean wow! SO GOOD. Another guy offered to help us get door hangers out for our launch. God continues to orchestrate things. Our numbers were down some, I think we had 39 or so. Funny that two weeks ago this would have tied with our highest ever. After two weeks in the forties it felt like we were down.

One other quick story . . . we've been looking for a sound system, the one we have isn't really made for live sound, but it's gotten us by. I found some speakers at a church in Phoenix Arizona and it was such a good deal I was thinking about driving down to pick them up. They had 3k worth of speakers for 800 bucks. Even after gas this was still a killer deal. I asked if they would ship them, but they didn't want to take them to the FedEx. I begged and pleaded and the lady said she'd call me Monday after her ladies retreat. I reinforced, "Please don't sell them without talking with me." She agreed. Well, Monday passed, Tuesday passed, Wednesday passed, Thursday she called and said they sold them.She robbed my joy (and made a great sermon illustration last week on my, "I choose joy" message). It was nice of her to call, but I don't understand where the miscommunication was. I left 2 emails and 2 messages. I was going to pay full price and come pick them up and all she had to do was hold them for us. BLAHHH!!! That long unhappy story ends like this, my buddy Jeff offered me two speakers from his church plant in Cheyenne. Here's a church less than a year old, in the middle of a building project and they are the generous ones (BTW - they had 109 a year ago and 544 last weekend! Zoom Zoom!). All that's left for us is an audio snake and a mixing board and we have our complete set up ready to go! The board is the most expensive things we'll buy, but I just saved 800 bucks in speakers!

One last thing. I've opened up comments to everyone. You no longer need accounts to tell me what you really think!

Saturday Night

2008-11-21T09:00:00.000-08:00

Now that we're settling in with 3 kids, I wanted to share some good news about connections. This last Saturday night John and I did a sermon called, "I choose joy." We talked about the difference between american happiness, which is usually based on entertainment or chocolate, and true Joy which is found only in Christ. We challenged people to figure out what steals their joy and try to find the antidote.

As most of you know, we consider ourselves a creative church, so we try to do things outside the norm of sing 5 songs, preach for 40 minutes and go home. We love all churches and realize we're all hitting different segments, but I just get bored too easily, so we have to mix it up. This last Saturday I showed interviews with two of the most joy filled people I know. I asked them both, "What are the keys to your joy?" They gave us some great tips!

We also handed out balloons to all the adults for service. These were regular helium balloons. At the beginning of service, John (this was his concept) encouraged them to release their balloons any time they felt joy. Some did during the music, others during the sermon or videos. It was cool to see.

There's a "B" side to this story. The ceiling in the church where we meet is 25 feet in the air. How do you get 25 balloons off a 25 foot ceiling? We had thought about this prior to service, but our original ideas didn't work. How would you get them down? Add a comment with your ideas and on my next blog I'll tell you what we did. MacGyver would have been proud. The good part was we got to hang out at the church for a couple extra hours. It was good fellowship time. Not as good as say, taco bell, but still good!

Last weekend we had 6 new people join us. The neighbors to my East have been coming to connections since our house church days, this weekend, the neighbors to the west showed up! It was great to see them. Also, we had a gentlemen who is considering doing some music with us. He's a BSU student and a really nice guy. We also had one other really friendly family come hang out. It's amazing at this stage how important every family is! Our numbers stayed up after our cookout. I expected them to drop after a big weekend the saturday before. These last two weeks we've been in the 40's. If we can see two more weeks of growth, I think we'll set an official launch date. We'll see how it goes!

So, 25 balloons . . . 25 feet in the air . . . what'cha gonna do?

25% Growth

2008-11-17T17:21:00.000-08:00

At least for the Taylor family. We had kid number three yesterday morning. Here's the dirty details.

Sunday morning at 6:05 my wife woke and let me know that she was having some pretty good contractions. They were already only a few minutes apart. We dressed and headed for the hospital. We made really good time since there's not much of traffic at 6:30 on a Sunday morning. We were pre-registered and went right up to our room. Tammi donned the infamous hospital robe and the nurse checked to see how far along we were. 8-9 cm! This was all happening very quickly. They moved her down the hall and into a delivery room.

Unfortunately, they couldn't do an epidural until the we got Tammi's blood work back. We had to wait through about 20 minutes of contractions before we got the go ahead. When we finally got it back, we decided the kid would be there before the epidural kicked in (it takes a half hour to start). Instead they did an interthecal (sp?). Basically they put a long needle in her back and numbed "everything that touches a saddle." Good description doc. In the past we've had trouble getting the meds to take on both sides. We told the anesthesiologist this as he was putting in the needle. We probably should have warned him ahead of time, but things were happening really quickly. After the shot, Tammi laid on her right side to see if it would trickle towards that direction. "It's not taking on the right side," Tammi said. I watched the doc shoot the nurse a look conveying, "that's all we can do." There was this short pause then Tammi said, "There it goes. It's getting numb." I think the three of us all sighed at the same time. The meds they used on Tam only last 90 minutes, so we had to get a move on. The doc came in, broke the water and Tam started pushing. I think we pushed through about 5-6 contractions and he was here. Born at 8:24. That's a total of about two and half hours of labor! How great is that!

They weighed him twice because they couldn't believe the first reading. 10lbs 11 oz. When we told Tammi's sister she said, "Go get that kid a happy meal." You can see from the pics he a big kid. I've been calling him Chunky-D, and will until the swelling goes away. He was 23 inches long. I went to visit him in the nursery and they were working on some "normal" sized babies. I told them not to let him too close or he might try to eat the other baby.

Unlike our first two, this kid wasn't planned. Just a little bonus from the father. Tammi wanted a name that meant destiny and we settled on Dezdin. It's our masculine form of Destiny. Dezdin Nathaniel Taylor. Nathaniel means "Gift from God." That sums it up pretty well.

Besides giving birth to a 12 month old, everything went as well as it could go. Thank you Lord. Here's some pics below and please forgive the typos above, I haven't slept much lately!

Concentrated Connections

2008-11-11T23:53:00.000-08:00

This vid is a concentrated dose of Connections. Fifty-seven minutes of worship, drama, video and preaching crammed into 15 minutes of footage. Enjoy responsibly.

Click here for Saturday night's service.

If You Cook It, They Will Come

2008-11-10T09:31:00.000-08:00

We had a cookout Saturday night and I encouraged our people to invite a few friends. The funny thing was, they did! We had about 50 people there Saturday night and we had a great time. I got to meet some really cool people.

We talked on Saturday about the Justice of God. We started a new video segment that we are going to run once a month or so called, "In the Wild." We interviewed a few people at the local park asking them what the definition of justice is. Most people answered this without a problem. We followed up with what is mercy. That's a much tougher question. The answers varied between deep and insightful to ridiculous.

We also did a drama to go along with the subject of Justice. Brandi played the part of a defense attorney giving the closing arguments to the jury. She walked down to the front and addressed the congregation like they were the 12 in the jury box. She did a great job. Toss in some great worship and I'd call it a killer service. Sometime this week I'll be putting up some highlights of the weekend. I'll put a link in this blog so everyone can find it.

This week we're starting a new series called Choices. This week is, "I Choose Joy." I think deep inside we all want to find joy and peace. Even more than that, most of us know what it takes to achieve it, but very few of us are there. If you're in Boise, come join us. We'd love to meet you.

So Much . . .

2008-11-04T20:46:00.000-08:00

We moved into a new place last week! Since I haven't blogged for a while, I should bring you up to speed. This is our second new place in 4 weeks. We spent three weeks at a charter school here in Meridian. While the location was great and the people incredibly friendly, it didn't have the room we needed for our kids ministries. Now, we're meeting at a church on Cherry Lane called, "Church of the Holy Nativity." They are letting us use their sound system, they have a fully furnished ready to go nursery, and a really sweet old gym that we all hang out in after service. Last week our people hung around for about an hour and a half after service eating cookies, drinking coffee and sharing about life. It's so great to have a place to fellowship!

This week I've encouraged our people to invite their friends and neighbors. I'm hoping to see a major turnout. This will be our first real preview service. Our band is ready to go, we made a video called, "In the Wild," and we have a drama scheduled too. Our theme is justice vs. mercy. I'm convinced it will be a great win!

One other quick note, we've started our Connection Groups. Jeremy, one of our transplants from Sacramento, is leading a group in Thursday nights. It is such a privilege to be surrounded by great ministry partners! Tam and I will be starting our group very soon, right now we're in a holding pattern waiting for kid number three to show up. He's due pretty much any time now.

I'll get back into the swing of blogging more often. Thanks for keeping tabs on us and please pray that God draws more meridians towards him!

Saturday Comes After Friday

2008-10-04T18:49:00.000-07:00

Last night was our last Friday night group. It was also are last time to meet as a house church. We had 39 people there, our largest group yet. We did spiritual gifts tests and talked about how we are all part of the body of Christ. Paul said it best, if we were all eyes, how could we hear.We all have a part to play in this new church plant!

This coming Saturday we are starting to meet at a charter school just west of town. I feel really good about the location. It's on a busy street and there are many neighborhoods within walking distance. I'm trying to figure out how to serve these neighborhoods. I don't just want to advertise, I want to serve them. Maybe we'll just make hundreds of cookies and take them around to the neighbors. Maybe.

I want to mention a couple of major praises. #1. We've been really blessed to have a couple of great musicians join us at such an early stage in the game. Finding worship leaders can be tricky. I feel like we're getting an unfair head start. Thanks Lord.

Secondly, one of our major prayers from day one has been that the Lord would bring us Leaders. We were asking for leaders even before we moved out here. When we took our gifts test last night, 75-80% of our people had the gifts of administration or leadership. So amazing!

Keep praying for us as we move into this next phase. We are still a ways from launching, but I feel like things are moving right along!

Hot Dogs And Dew

2008-10-02T09:40:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we tailgated the BSU game and planned on giving away free food to the other fans. I got there at 2:30 in the afternoon to set up our grill and stake claim to our territory. They don't actually let you park in the parking lot, unless you have a prestigious yellow pass. And, judging by the motor homes that had them, I'll probably never own one. There were tents and RV's EVERYWHERE! These fans are very dedicated. We found a great location on a corner just outside the parking lot and next to a major sidewalk.

I sat there for about an hour by myself. I know some people like to be alone for extended periods of time, but I'm not that guy. It feels awkward just sitting there while people walk by you. I began to doubt if this was going to work. I was talking with a pastor friend of mine yesterday and he said they tried it one time at a park and gave away six hotdogs. Six! I had 120 to give away. I seriously considered getting the van and going home. I'm usually the optimist in the group, but all I could think about was getting stuck with ten dozen hotdogs. I'd be eating leftover franks for a month.

At 4:00 I fired up the grill. The game started at 6 and more and more people were starting to walk by. I opened my first pack and put 15 or so pink dogs on the grill. Then I sat back down on my lonely chair. I rotated them a few minutes later and put the buns and condiments out on my table. "Please let this work!" With the first batch looking well roasted it was time to see if anyone wanted a hotdog. Three college guys were walking by, "Free hot dogs . . . yours is getting burned." I used that line alot. "Really? Free dogs? Cool." They each ate two. I had already given away 6 hotdogs! 1 more and I would break the record. Another group of guys coming by, "Free dogs!" They replied, "I'm starving, didn't have time to eat dinner" Once they were around the grill, dog in hand, I'd hit em with the surprise twist, "There's mountain dew in the cooler behind you, help yourself." If you were judging solely by there reaction, you would have thought they won some sort of prize.

It's so funny to me that a 30¢ (option + 4 on a mac) hotdog can make someone's day. Over and over again I heard people say, "I can't believe you're just giving away hotdogs. That's so nice." One student actually said, "This is the highlight of my day. Free hotdogs, that's the spirit!" A few people did push until I told them why I was giving away food. I let them know we were a church plant and this was a great way to serve our neighbors. We really want to bless our community, even if it's only with a hotdog and cold drink.

About half way through the grilling, some more Connections people showed up. We finished the last half faster than the first. We talked with people about their majors, the point spread of the game, and one person brought up the Fiesta bowl from 2 years ago (2 years people, get over it). All in all we gave away 116 hotdogs (1 accidently got left in the box and I fumbled some during the hand offs). It took about an hour and a half total. We were done before the game started.

In all a VERY successful outing. It cost us 37 bucks for the dogs and another 25 or so for drinks (we got the real stuff, no one really likes Mountain Thunder). This was a huge win for us. The next game is against Hawaii. It's the biggest conference game of the year. I'm guessing I'm going to have to be there a little earlier to get my corner lot again. And, I think I'll double the order.

The Next Phase

2008-09-30T08:32:00.000-07:00

We finally found a building where we can meet. We'll be moving to Saturday nights for the next phase of Connections. The building is in a great location and only about 7 minutes from where we live. We're hoping to be in by next weekend, but it's not up to us. There is also a possibility that we might have a place there to meet on Sunday mornings. We'll see how it all pans out.
Tomorrow night we're attempting to tail gate the BSU game. We'll see how that goes. We've never done it before, but thought it would be a great way to meet some people and give away some hotdogs. We'll get some pictures posted when it's all done.
Pray that the Lord continues to send us leaders and supporters. We're just getting started!
One last thing . . . OU is #1. Go Sooners. Didn't want to leave that out.

Now What . . .

2008-09-06T21:18:00.000-07:00

Friday night at group we did a taste test on 5 different types of root beer. The cheapest one, Albertson's, tied for the top spot. The most expensive one, Thomas Kemper, scored worst. So . . . the last shall be first and the first shall be last.
We had 34 at group Friday night. We've officially started looking for a place to meet. Our time as a "house church" is coming to a close. Be in prayer for us as we try to find the perfect place to grow through our next phase!

Moving Forward

2008-09-03T15:01:00.000-07:00

We had 26 people at our group on Friday night. This is the most we've had on a regular Friday night. We also had another first this week, Isaac Rede started working with our youth. I asked him if he'd try it for a week or two and after thinking it through for a few days decided he'd try it for a month! What a blessing! I put a picture at the bottom of some of our kids on Friday.

This week we're having a root beer tasting test to see if we can tell the good stuff from the cheap stuff. Along with that, we'll be talking about how Christ mixed up the values of Biblical times. "The last shall be first and the first shall be last." Suddenly being a servant was what carried the greatest value. This perplexed a lot of people. I wonder if Christ were here in the flesh today, would he not make the same statement? These houses, cars, fancy clothes and expensive toys, these are not worth living for, or working 7o hours a week for, it's our relationships and families, that is where the greatest values are.

Hope to see some of you on Friday!

Connections Group

2008-08-25T08:48:00.001-07:00

We capped off a week of creative camps with our Friday night Connections Group. We had two new families that showed up. A family of 6 and a family of 3. Both of these families are very musical. I think we had a drummer, keyboardist, guitarist and I'm pretty sure they all sang. We went from no band to potential full band in one setting. God continues to prepare us for what's next.

As I think I mentioned before, we hired a BSU student to work with our kids. She is doing a great job! Our next big challenge is someone to work with our preteens. We have another new family moving in this week with 2 preteen guys. Add to that 3 others that are "regulars" and one more from one of the new families and we have 6 kids between the age of 10 and 12. So add Jr. High specialist to your prayer list. I can't wait to see what God delivers!

Some Days Are Better Than Others

2008-08-19T20:37:00.001-07:00

And this was a great one. I started early this morning at, "The Griddle." Two good friends of mine and I spent our morning together coming up with creative ways to reach more people in the Meridian area. When it comes down to it, a church planters number one goal is to recruit people. We came up with lots of ways to do just that.

My afternoon was spent at our Creative Camps. We had a new student in our guitar class, a 19 year old sophomore at BSU. We've been trying to figure out how to connect with some BSU students and this just fell in our laps. She will be joining us Friday night for Bible study. That's a huge win!

At home after camp, I got an email from a gentleman. It said this . . .

Hello Dusty,

My name is (being kept secret) and my wife, daughter and I would like to come to group this Friday. I found your church in the musician section of craigslist. We both are seasoned musicians. We have been looking for a church or a group of followers of Jesus figuring out this journey. Is there a meeting this Friday. Let me know.

We sent a couple of emails back and forth and ended up on the phone for 20 minutes or so. I told him that we were a church plant and that every time a new family comes, it's like reeling in a big fish. It's not very often one just jumps in our boat! We both laughed. He's been part of a church plant before (another huge bonus) so he knows what it is like.

After all that Tam and I had a date night tonight. A famous Dave's just opened around the corner and we had enough food to last us throughout the week. Also while we were there, we bought someone's dinner, or at least most of it (all I had was a 20). I gave the, "www.ivebeenserved.com" card to the waiter and ask him to use the cash towards their meal and give them the card. Let's hope he didn't just pocket it. Who knows what will come of that, but I did what I was suppose to.

All in all, a great day. I wish everyday was this fruitful. We'd have a church-full in no time.

Let the Creative Camps Commence

2008-08-18T16:03:00.000-07:00

We started our creative camps today. For those who have no idea what that is, we decided to do free camps for our community. We offered Guitar, drama and dance all for free at the local library.

I had a great time today with our guitarists. My students were between the ages of 7 and 11 so we started with the very basics. We learned how to hold a guitar, how to sit properly and how to pluck a guitar string. Two of the moms stayed and learned with their kids. We encouraged that. I think everyone had a good time.

If you live in the Meridian area and want in on free lessons, I'll be back at the Ada Community Library tomorrow at 1. It'd be great to see you there!

A Day Off

2008-08-14T10:16:00.001-07:00

I took last Thursday off and celebrated, "Super Dax Thursday." My first offspring and I went out for a fun filled day with just the two of us. Our first stop was Boondocks. Dax and I both got the unlimited ride tickets. It's like an all-you-can-play-buffet. We were some of the first ones there and got onto the go carts almost immediately. Dax is about 2" too short to be a driver, so he had to ride shotgun with me. Since he's only 4 it's probably a good idea that he's not behind the wheel yet.

After the carts, we spent some time on the water. The first ones to be in the bumper boats that day, we raced around the lagoon and shot each other with the attached powered squirters. Dax does really well navigating these tubes. Better than his dad. Soon, others began to see all the fun we were having and joined us. Everything was great until one kid said, "Let's get this guy!" and proceeded to water down my vessel. For some reason my shooter shot up over all their evil little heads, but theirs hit me straight in the noggin. It was time to move on to something else.

Since before Tam and I married, she has always been able to beat me at miniature golf. We've played many times and I've won exactly once. I attribute my embarrassing win loss record to Tammi's near professional putting skills. After playing a round with Daxton, I realized one of two things. Either he's been blessed with his momma's golf genes. Or, more likely, I'm just a sub par miniature golfer. I was impressed at Daxton's patience, we played all 18 holes of two different courses, and he did very well at keeping his thumbs down. Mom would be proud!

After a few games of skee ball and air hockey we ate a late lunch at Taco Del Mar. At 2:00 we saw the movie, "Journey to the center of the earth." I let Dax order the snacks at the counter, "We want the biggest box of popcorn you have." The clerk looked at me and I concurred with Dax, "That's right, the biggest bucket of popcorn you have!" At the local cinema here you get to put on your own butter. We put on just enough to make it completely unhealthy and then sprinkled on some cheddar powder. The movie was in 3-D. If you haven't been to a 3D movie in a while, you should go. The movie was pretty good but the 3-D effects are amazing. More than once Dax and I both jumped out of our seats.

After the movie ended, we went back to the fun park. Dax wanted some more golf and bumper boats. I'm not big on back tracking, but it was after all, "Super Dax Thursday." Luckily we had purchased the unlimited passes.

I knew Daxton was having a great time all day, but the big compliment came late in the day. Probably around 4:45 or so Dax said, "This is the best day EVER!" Can you guess what would lead him to say that? After all the fun things we did that day, what would make him say, " . . . best day ever?" That super compliment came after we bought gas for the van and I let him have his own 1 liter of Mountain Dew. A liter for Dad, a liter for Dax. That made us both very happy.

All that was left to make the perfect day ever "perfecter" was some ice cream. We'd been planning to have ice cream since when we designed this gaming, sugar-filled adventure. We ended up at Cold Stone, a favorite of ours when we lived in Sacramento. Daxton ordered the largest mint ice cream and I talked him into adding chunks of Heath Bar so I could share too. We Sat out on the fountain and talked about all the fun stuff we'd done that day. After it was all said and done, we arrived safely at home and told mom all about it! We even shared some of the candy we bought with all the fun tickets we won in skee ball. This is what a day off should be!!!

I've Been Served

2008-08-12T13:25:00.000-07:00

This last week we gave away money to those that attended our Connection Group. Along with those crisp green fun tickets we included preprinted cards that said, "www.ivebeenserved.com" on them. I challenged our people to pay for someone's meal or part of their gas and give them one of the cards. I was thinking, if someone paid for my food and handed me one of those cards, I'd at least check out the website!

We're doing this for a number of reasons. Part of it is to the get the name of the church out there. I think people will talk about this. But, the second and main reason is to serve our community. Paying for a meal or someone's groceries is a minor thing, but the spirit of service rings loud and clear. We're not here to take, we're here to give, to bless our community!

Take a moment to check out the website www.ivebeenserved.com. We bought this domain name and hope to use it a bunch!

More Leaders . . .

2008-08-08T11:54:00.000-07:00

I met with Doug Armstrong today. He's the president and general manager of KTVB7, the biggest news channel in Idaho. Needless to say he is a very busy individual. It was nice of him to take a half hour and share with me what he sees as the most severe concerns in our area.

We both agreed that one of the major issues, not only in Boise, but probably across our nation is the technical divide between parents and kids. Most moms have no idea how to check what their kids are looking at online or listening to on Satellite radio. Most guardians do well at limiting the amount of time kids can play video games, but do they have any idea what games they're playing? What message is the publisher trying to get across?

Since Connections is going to be a fairly tech savvy place, I figure this is an area where we can help out. I'm not sure what the end game looks like, but I'm hoping to find a way to connect with parents and put some tools in their hands to help patrol what their kids are listening to and looking at. Things have definitely changed!

Bible study 8 is tonight. Hope to see you all there!

Group Last Night

2008-08-02T12:18:00.000-07:00

We had four new families at group last night. One was visiting from out of town, but the other three are not only locals, but very cool families. I must admit I tried to kill one by undercooking her burger, but besides that we had a great time.

We are a few weeks away from our creative camps. There is more information on our website. We just put up a new video too. Swing over to www.imconnected.org and look around.

The Third and Final Taylor

2008-07-30T09:31:00.001-07:00

I took Tam in for her ultra sound Monday. We're proud to announce we're having a boy. Everything appears healthy. For those who are keeping track, this will be our third boy to be brought into the world. I've been reminded that the sex of the child is determined by the Father. What can I say . . . I make boys.

Speaking of three boys, we unloaded truck #4 into storage last week. John, a pastor from southern Florida, his wife and three sons are here to help take Connections to the next level. It is SO great having an experienced pastor on this journey with us. As I've blogged before, I have so much to learn!

Also, we had 22 at our launch team meeting last week! God is blessing our efforts. Our teams is constantly inviting people to group. I probably average at least one invite a week. This Friday we're having a cook out. I'm excited to make new connections! :)

The Mayor

2008-07-19T17:24:00.001-07:00

I met with our Mayor on Friday to find out what we as a church can do to help out Meridian. The Mayor's office has already started a huge campaign for the "faith based community" to partner with them to make a positive difference in our area, but they're having a hard time getting churches involved. The mayor was very appreciative (and slightly surprised) that we contacted them instead of the other way around. I think in the future it will be very very easy to do things with and for the city.

We had Bible study number 5 last night and our biggest attendance yet, 19. I'm always hoping for more, but the graph is moving in the right direction. We finished up our study on the sermon on the mount. I challenged us to pray for something big that only God can do. I'm excited to hear about what he does.

SALVATION!

2008-07-16T10:58:00.000-07:00

I had a great discussion with a new friend of mine yesterday at the local Chinese buffet. I laid out the Roman Road and shared about Jesus' ultimate sacrifice for the forgiveness of our sins. It shouldn't surprise me that God shows up in those situations, but it still does. It was like He was enjoying the greasy spring rolls right there beside us.

After I finished, my friend said, "No one's ever really laid it out like that for me." On the way back from lunch I asked him if there was anything keeping him from starting a new life with Jesus and we decided there wasn't.

They say church plants have more conversions than established churches, at least in percentage. While that's great now, eventually we'll be the established church. Lord, help us to always value the lost! We will never be an inward focused church. There are far too many people out there that have never had it laid out for them!

Serving Meridian

2008-07-14T17:19:00.000-07:00

One of the great temptations of a church planter is to use his/her city to bless the church. You take their people, resources, facilities etc, and use them to build a church. We really want Connections to be the opposite. I tell our launch team often that we are here to be a blessing to the area, not simply the other way around.

Today I met with Meridian's Chief of police to ask him his thoughts about the city. It was extremely generous of him to share his time with me. Before I even started asking questions, he was gushing about how great Meridian is (and I completely agree). The school systems, the crime rate, the small town feel (and small town traffic) are all things that initially drew us in this direction.

He said one of the greatest needs in the city is finding events for youth during the winter. Summer holds so many activities, but winter can get long and hold fewer engaging opportunities. Also, like most other cities, Meridian has a number of underprivileged families that need help and, probably, some financial mentoring.

This is our second interview within the circle of Meridian leaders and we're learning a great deal. Once we're finished, we hope to have a clear vision of how Connections can best serve the great area. If you're reading this in Meridian and you have ideas about how to help out, we'd love your feedback.

Fourth O' July

2008-07-08T12:35:00.000-07:00

Our launch team celebrated our independence at our neighbors' house. We had 36 men, women and children! We probably had enough food for another 36. We also shot off some fireworks and an airbag. That's right, an airbag. Darla's Brother, Paul, restores cars and had one that wasn't going to be used. He attached a lengthy wire to it and after a countdown from 5 touched it to a 9 volt and POW! It shot up in the air 6 feet. I can't imagine that thing hitting your face! It is made to cushion the blow, not make it worse.

Launch team meeting is back in action this Friday night. If you're in the Meridian area please come and join us!!!

Truck #2 and counting...

2008-07-01T14:55:00.000-07:00

We unloaded truck #2 this last weekend. It doesn't seem like it's been several weeks since the Redes arrived, but here we are and our second family, the Wights, have arrived safely. We are stoked to have them in the mix

This last Friday we had our biggest attendance yet at a Bible study. Including the kids there were 15 people! It amazes me how God is already moving in such amazing ways. This coming Friday we're having a 4th of July party at our neighbors' house and plan to have a ton of people show up to party with us. It's great having such cool neighbors :)

This weekend we heard a pastor speak on "now moments" - doing what we are called to do in the time and place to which God calls us. It's awesome to know we are a part of God's call to this place in this time. We must continue to listen and hear His purpose to connect people to Himself and one another. We have to stay in his momentum...

And another moving van arrives in 2 more weeks. . .

Ummm...teacher?

2008-06-23T20:09:00.000-07:00

(original posting 6.8.08)

When a teacher gives you and assignment, be it in grade school or graduate work, you know he or she will answer any questions you might have. When you get stuck on a math problem, you raise your hand, and Mrs. Expert walks you through the details. If you can't figure out how to dissect your frog, no worries, let Mr. Genius get you headed in the right direction. It just kinda goes with territory, if they tell you to do something, they will walk you through it, instruct you at the very least.

Sometimes I wish God were more like that. I know I've followed the call of God. He's called me to pick up my family, move to another state and start a new contemporary church. "Um, check... check... and... I'm working on it." The thing is, I'm not sure how all the details are going to work out. We continue to meet people and have lunches and dinners with some really cool individuals, but I wish I could just raise my hand and say, "OK Mr. God, come show me the right answer. I need help with this one!"

I wonder if Abram felt the same way. This is a passage from Genesis 12, "The Lord said to Abram, 'Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation . . . So Abram left as the Lord told him; and Lot went with him.' "

It goes on to say that he took his wife, some of his family and all the people he'd acquired in Haran. He just packed them all up and left. I wonder what that process was like. I wonder if any of them ever said, "Are you sure this is your calling?" or at least once I'm sure someone commented, "Where exactly are we gong?" Abram handled all that pressure and did exactly what God had called him to do. Here's the point though, God leaves a lot of the details up to us. Granted there is some inner guidance, but much of the time we do what seems right. We're just doing the best we can with what we have.

And maybe there's a deeper lesson in that. There are tons of instances in the Bible when God gave people specific instructions, but there are just as many where some of those same people made their own choices. Abraham, for instance, (yah, same guy - God had just changed his name at this point) lied to the ruler of Egypt. He also took his wife Sarah's advice to have a kid with her maidservant - not the best of choices - even worse for the outcomes. So, did God simply not have an opinion on those calls? Or was it something else? Did Abraham just take matters into his own hands?

What if every new struggle came with all the answers? Would we grow much? What if each day's challenges arrived with a full-color, neatly bound instruction manual? Would we really NEED God? Would he get glory in our lives?

I'm confident in the outcome of Connections. I know God will continue to bless, and in the not-too-distant future we'll have a Godly community reaching the lost in Treasure Valley. Until then, while we figure out where we're going, I'll just keep raising my hand and asking God for a few more tips!

"You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart" (Jeremiah 29:13). "Whether you turn to the right or to the left your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, 'This is the way; walk in it' " (Isaiah 30:21.)

I have so much to learn!!!!!

2008-06-23T19:55:00.000-07:00

(original post 5.31.08)

Preface . . . I grew up in the church, I have a degree in pastoral ministry, and have been doing some sort of church ministry since I started preaching at the age of 15. Now that you know all that, let me just say, I HAVE SO MUCH TO LEARN!!!

Last weekend I got to do my first baby/child dedication. Like many who "grew up in the church," I've seen this dozens of times, but have never been the one doing it. Luckily for me it was for an awesome family. I prayed for this beautiful, one-year-old angel, then had the dad pray for himself and his wife. It was so great to see and hear this father pray for his little girl. It was really cool to be a part of something like that.

It got me to thinking about Jesus growing up. Did he have moments when he thought, "I have so much to learn"? Did He get nervous the first time he spoke in front of large crowds? Did He ever walk off the mountain thinking, "I could have done better. If I'd only used that ONE parable"? Did he ever have to review the instructions for a special ceremony? Who knows, maybe he did everything right the first time, but the Bible does say he grew in wisdom, which means at one point he had room to grow. Luke 2:52

This reminds me of the Rich Mullins song "Man Like You/Boy Like Me." You can read the lyrics here: Man Like You lyrics

Whether Jesus had to learn as he went along or had it all figured out at the age of 12 in the temple, it feels good to know that someone has walked in these shoes. Whether Jesus as a pre-teen or other pastors out there who have survived the rigors of ministry. It's good to not be alone.

"God, grow our hearts to be like the one you put in your only Son! Help us to love like He did, sacrifice like He did and, probably toughest of all, forgive like He did. I know we all still have lots of learning to do but we're working on it, thanks for being patient."

Two Weeks in Meridian

2008-06-23T19:39:00.000-07:00

(Original posting 5.17.08)

Now that we've unpacked most of our boxes and have internet working at the house I'm hoping to start blogging more. Here's an update of what's happened since we've been here:

Our real estate agent and Paul Hatfield, pastor of the Pursuit here in Boise, gathered over a dozen people to help us move in. When we arrived, about two weeks ago, it took us about 2 hours to move in. God is good!

During the unloading process, we experienced a 4-5 minute dust storm. The wind kicked up and everything beyond 10 feet away had an old school sepia tone to it. It stopped suddenly, cleared up, and then we had a couple of minutes of hall (that's frozen ice falling from the sky for those Californians reading this). It's noteworthy to add that it was probably in the 60's while this all happened. After that, it was back to the sunshine.

We've been meeting people and making connections since we got here. We've had dinner with one young couple, and have made plans for more encounters.

We also had dinner with some of our neighbors. While we were teaching them Settlers of Catan, it came out that she was a church secretary for awhile. How cool is that! They are really neat people and Tam and I look forward to getting to know them better.

I've also decided to get a job. I had originally planned on doing this for financial reasons, but the Lord is faithfully meeting our needs and those of Connections, so being bi-vocational is not my motivation. The main reason is to meet people and be part of the community. It really feels like the right decision. The job I'm looking into required a two-week class during which God allowed me to make some great connections.

I've had conversations with people about their hearts and how they view God. I really believe those discussions were ordained.

Tammi just flew home from one final job in California, during which she too was able to open doors of communication with people from the area and spark some interest - in Connections, but even more so, in Christ. I think we've met enough people to start a Bible study. We're hoping to kick that off next week.

I want to say one more time that the field is so ripe here. Everyone we talk to is so friendly and open to spiritual things. The lady who rang up my groceries the other day asked why I moved to town and told her I was starting a new church. We were finishing up the transaction and she made me wait until she could find a pen to write down Connection's web address. Again, people are hungry.

I know this entry is just a potpourri of random things God is dong, but the point is, He is moving and we are still on the ride of our life! We can't wait til next month when two more families join us!

God is Still on His Throne

2008-06-23T19:16:00.000-07:00

(Original Posting 4.10.08)

Lately God has been reminding me that He is still on His throne. He is not moved by our economy. Global warming does not shake Him, nor is He nervous about who our new president is going to be. He is the same, yesterday, today and tomorrow. God himself says this a few different times in the O.T.

Malachi 3:6 "I the Lord do not change."

1 Samuel 15:9 "He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind; for he is not a man, that he should change his mind."

God anchors our existence. he is a solid foundation. If a fickle God governed us, imagine the chaotic milieu (environment) we wold all live in! Is God interested in hearing from me? Is God listening today? Is He in a good mood? God does not change like a chameleon and He is not swayed by public opinion.

There's a great passage in Isaiah 6.

"1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: with two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3And they were calling to one another: 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.' 4At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke."

Sounds like a God who has it under control, huh?

There's a story in the NT about the first guy to die for his faith in Christ. Most of us know the story of Stephen, but look again at this one verse...

Acts 7:56 "Look," he said, "I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God."

I think it's worth noting that Stephen sees Jesus standing, not God. God was still on his throne. He was not shaken or fearful. He wasn't the least bit concerned. His control never waned.

One of the great confusions in modern Christianity is the role that God plays in our lives. Because our churches have become so seeker sensitive (which I like BTW), we think God is too. The church caters to me, gives me donuts when I get there, sings the music I like and will help me when I'm in trouble. We begin to feel like the church is at our beckon call. Hear this . . . GOD IS NOT AT YOUR BECKON CALL! He is not a puppy in the next room waiting for you to be his friend, nor is He a waiter there to serve you when your glass is half empty. We have created a false God that exists for our pleasure! In fact, the exact opposite is true.

Colossians 1:16 For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.

We were made for Him. Not the other way around We are to be at His beckon call. We are the one's that should be waiting to hear the voice of God, eager to serve and do His will!

This has been on my heart for awhile now, so long that I wrote this song about it. Listen at our own risk! This is just me and a piano. No reverb, no fixes, no pitch correction (no talent?). God is still on his throne! No matter what you are going through, bankruptcy, cancer, divorce, pregnancy, getting a new job, losing an old job or planting a church, God has not moved. He is bigger than all that, and he is still in complete control!

You Don't Need Love

The First

2008-06-23T19:04:00.000-07:00

(original posting 3.19.08)

I chatted online with a dear friend yesterday. He's another one of those all-stars who wasn't afraid to step up to the plate and do something big for Jesus. He planted he church in October of '07 and they had over 2,000 people attend a recent outreach event. It's amazing to me that a year ago they had zero influence in an area and last weekend they touched over 2,000 lives! I'm so glad he was willing to go.

He talked about the early days when he, his wife and two other couples met in Bible studies. They were starting the church with just the 6 of them and their kids. After a few weeks of that, they had their first visitor join them. He put it this way, "We thought we were taking the city when she showed up..."

I can't wait to see our "first person" get connected. Maybe someone lonely in need of friends. I can't wait for the first addict to be a full week without substances because God is setting him/her free. And, when I think about the first person who will cross the line of faith, I almost cry.

That's what the battles are for! That's why we fight the spiritual warfare we do! For those of us on our prayer team, please pray that the Lord will bring the right people our direction. That He will open the right doors for us to connect with the right people!

God is in the Details

2008-06-23T15:40:00.000-07:00

(Original posting 3.4.08)

God is in the details, the little, answered prayers that often forget.

This weekend the Taylor family traveled to Boise. This is my fourth trip and everyone else's sophomore adventure. I'm still in love with the people, the pace of life and the incredible view. I honestly didn't want to leave. There's a spiritual excitement when I'm there that I can hardly contain!

One of the reasons we went was to get our banking stuff set up for Connections. Because we don't have our non-profit status yet, this has been a bit of a hassle. But, on Friday, we met the right guy at a local bank. I don't know what he did, but I left with a Connections account and a handful of blank checks. I had wasted time worrying about it, but once I reached out and twisted the handle, the door was open! God is in the details. Contributions are beginning to come, and now we have a place for them!

We visited a young church out there called The Pursuit. They kicked off a few years ago and it is going like crazy. If you live in Boise and are reading this blog, GO CHECK OUT THEIR CHURCH!!! It's incredible. Krispy Kreme donuts were available in the atrium, the music was inspired and professional (a balance that's very rare), and Paul had a great message from Acts about holy discontent. I hope we can partner with them on some insane ministry ventures when we get off the ground.

Tam and I had lunch with Paul and Angela, the founders of The Pursuit. They told us about their first conversion, their first hire, some of the challenges they've had along the way, and how much God has blessed them. As we listened to their stories, I could hardly sit still (which is a challenge for me anyway). I'm ready to get started!

I also met a really nice guy at the mall and told him we were moving up to plant a church. He seemed receptive and open. I just didn't have a church to invite him to! It won't be long! Hopefully he'll still be there in a couple of months!

Tick off the Right Ones...

2008-06-23T15:31:00.000-07:00

(Original posting 2.27.08)

Everyone told me planting a church would be hard. No one told me that planning to plant a church would be just as difficult. Lately it seems like we've been under attack. We found out that one of the families going with us has opted out. That's a bit frustrating. My wife and I have been having similar dreams about bad things happening to our children. That's not normal. And, as I've been spending more and more time in prayer, it seems past hurts and doubts have been sneaking into my head now and then.

People ask if I think we're being attacked. Sure feels that way. I'm no expert on demons and spiritual warfare, but if it's true that they're attacking me, I'm pretty stoked about it. I'd rather be ticking off satan than God. Have you heard about the wrath of God?

Look at this verse from 1 Corinthians 10. 21You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord's table and the table of demons. 22Are we trying to arouse the Lord's jealousy? Are we stronger than he?

I don't have time to go into the context of this passage, but I like the way Paul ends this section... "Are we stronger than He?" Of course we're not! We're not even in the ballpark! So, be on God's side! As soon as you know what that is, get there and stay there! Seems easy enough.

I prayed today, with all that's going on, "Lord I need another nudge. Something that says you're looking down on me and proud that I'm following Your ways." He used some old friends to answer that prayer. We got our first financial support check in the mail today. RIGHT... ON... TIME.

Tam and I are in Boise this weekend. We're hoping to find a house to live in. Pray that everything works out to His glory. We get to be there on a Sunday, so we hope to attend a couple of church services too. It always encourages me to see what other churches are doing! Pray the Lord leads us to the right neighborhood so we can meet the right people to help Connections have the kingdom impact He desires!

If you're in Boise and you want to touch base with us while we're there, email me dusty@imconnected.org. We'd love to meet you.

God's Agenda

2008-06-23T14:50:00.000-07:00

(Original posting 2.6.08)

God has an agenda. It's not a political agenda, He's not making deals behind your back. It's not a hidden agenda, He's not keeping secrets from you. But He does have an agenda. he has a plan for your life that will help Him accomplish this massive agenda. What is it you ask? What's this all-consuming, over-arcing agenda?

I think Timothy sums it up well, "This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth" (I Timothy 2:3-4). There it is in plain sight; God wants all men to be saved. To save the world!

For me, that plan is to move to Meridian, ID and start telling people about Jesus. To start an artistic community of creatives, using their God given gifts to connect with and worship the Creative. I believe we will see hundreds of people come to know Jesus Christ in a personal and life-changing way. I'm also convinced that we'll see countless marriages saved and addicts freed. We'll see relationships restored and forgiveness found. That's a lot of stuff. That's a God-sized goal. A goal we can only attain with the help of God Almighty! Lucky for us, it fits perfectly with His agenda!

UNDENIABLE

2008-06-23T14:36:00.000-07:00

(Original posting 1.31.08)

Whenever you do something great or successful for God, there is temptation. Temptation to think somehow it's about you or your gifts and skills. "Hmmm... they really like your idea! Did you hear those accolades?" "Look at all the people who are following you. Look what you did!" It's tempting, when we've worked hard, and used our gifts faithfully, to take just a pinch of the credit. The greatest gift God can give us, sometimes, is to accomplish things completely outside our gift or skill set. This is the blessing He's giving us in Connections.

It's less than a month after going public and God has called 5 families, including our own, to this mission - 5 families, 8 children, dozens of reasons it can only be God.

1. We would never have considered Boise on our own - where's Idaho? Who lives there? Had it not been for some good friends planting the seed in our hearts, we might not have seen it.

2. The people we thought might go, don't feel called - Isn't it just like God to disappoint our tiny expectations, then blow our minds?

3. The people going don't make logical sense - these are families who are grounded where they are, born and raised, many in the same neighborhood where they now live, own businesses or are leaving behind great situations - extended family etc.

4. The stories are UNDENIABLE. Doors that should have been shut are open. Places where fear would normally be, there is only peace

We stand COMPLETELY aware that this is out of our hands, beyond our skills or gifts. This is God. And He has us exactly where he wants us.

"I am the Lord, that is my name. I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols. See, the former things that have taken place, and new things I declare; before they spring into being I announce them to you" Isaiah 42:8-9.

It feels good to be standing on the edge of this adventure and know beyond all question that this is UNDENIABLY God.