ultimate fighter

preaching again this saturday in our ultimate fighter series on 2 timothy. should be a great night so come check it out here at 5pm.

unstoppable courage

my church is taking part in this one prayer series in which thousands of churches are preaching the same messages to over 700,000 people. for our speaker this week we piped in craig groeschel the pastor of livechurch.tv. he spoke on courage and used this guy named benaiah as his example. so, if you are interested, check out some of the history and motivation for our sons name below.

about halfway in there is a moment in this sermon, one of the most real moment i have seen a pastor have...very exciting.

watch the sermon here.

building a city within a city: discovering sabbath

the sabbath was not a topic i was initially excited about preaching on, due mostly to my own misconceptions about the day, but the more i learned and the more i implemented into my own weekly routine, the more i got excited about sharing.

due to high demand :-), you can listen to my most recent sermon here. but before you listen check out the teaser video we played before i spoke below, and in my music playlist to the right you can give a listen the song i will possess your heart -by death cab for cutie, our band nailed this cover, it was awesome, they even played the four minute intro during our "countdown" to the start of service.

all in all, i felt pretty good about it, i went in about as comfortable as i ever have before, yet i left the stage about as stressed as i ever have. i actually couldn't sleep saturday night until about 2:30am, that may have had to do a little with how long it was, anyway always a blast!

whats love

most of my partners (sbux co-workers) are college students and although we are only a few years apart we are definately in different life stages. i love my partners especially since i've started working nights. the coffee business slows down a little at night and i've been able to get to know my partners more and actually talk with them instead of just asking them to get more ice! interestingly enough i've found myself very protective of my partners. when i start to hear about a new guy i'm always the skeptic and happy with them, but none the less hear myself ask the questions that a parent may ask. and i know that i am a mom now-but i realized that i am this way with my friends as well. i am very protective of their hearts and my usual gut reaction is that this person deserves better.

recently, on a night when all girls were working, everyone was sharing and pitching in on other's situations. for the most part i stay out of these conversations. i mean i definately ask questions, but my issues are not the same as theirs. (ie. how do i know if he likes me?) but one of the girls turned to me and said "we should just ask christe, she is in love! what is it like? how did you know?" i got to give my answer and gloat about my husband and since then i feel like "love" has come up in our conversations at work frequently. i've heard people say they don't believe in love, that they love their current boyfriend, or they thought they loved their ex boyfriend but now realize that it wasn't love.

so what is it really? well, in the fear that i wouldn't do an explanation of love justice i'm going to answer by saying ask me in person. :) but i am really excited for a new series we are going to be doing at our church in the coming weeks. i want a new marriage. this series will answer questions like: (taken from my pastor's blog)

how do you prepare for marriage if you aren’t married?
are there things you can do to make your marriage win if you aren’t married?
what do you do if you are in an unhappy marriage?
what does God say about divorce? is it ever okay?
what about lust, adultery?
what if i get hurt, do i need to forgive the person who hurt me, or can i make their life miserable?

if today was your last day

i spoke on elijah this weekend at revolution. started off a little shakey but i think it went of pretty well as things moved on. if your interested you can check it out here.

a "year" in review

my life as a teacher moves in peaks and contractions as far as busyness. this last year seemed to be one long peak.

i just got back from our graduation marking the end of an eventful year (sidenote, tim bee was the keynote speaker and was very good). the following are some of what filled up the last nine months of my life:

• my first year teaching high school and prepping for three different classes
• coaching two different volleyball teams
• the birth of my son in august
• joining the elder board at my church which we planted in september
• staff sponsored a christian club at academy
  
• took over running small groups along with my wife in april (sign up here).
  

overall i would say a very difficult but successful year. i made it through teaching five classes five days a week, focusing most of my energy there in planning (about three hours a day), unfortunately this left very little energy for the actual students, maybe the one thing i will regret most about my teaching year. my varsity volleyball team went 20-5-1, missing state by two points in game five of regionals, something i believe may have turned out differently if i could have mustered more energy in that area of my life during the fall.

taking care of my son was maybe the most tiring part of my year but also most rewarding. he has yet to know what it is to sleep through the night.

being on board at revolution has been amazing over this last year, planting a church in september with twenty-some people after an extremely difficult period and watching it flourish into an authentic community that broke 100 in april has been truly rewarding.

with all that said, i laugh when people say, "it must be nice having the summer off". its true, it is nice having the summers off after squeezing 12 months of work into nine and only getting paid for nine. it is nice having summers off until you realize your salary only covers nine month and you need to work over your "vacation". it is nice to have summers off because if i choose i can take a breath, and with that breath this is what i hope to accomplish.

• a quiet time in the bible five days a week
  
• read at least six book
• finish painting the guest room that has been left undone for the last two years
• spend quality time with my son
• revamp my geography class
• be as prepared as i possibly can to take my volleyball team to state and lord-willing win some games
• coach somewhere between 4-9 camps
• take two weeks of real vacation with the family in michigan
  

i learned this year that i hit a max. i learned i want to be great at a few things, my relationship God, my family, my teaching, my coaching and my church leadership. i know five things is pushing it, but i consider myself a high-capacity person. i want to be a person that can be counted on and relied upon to do these things well.

time to man up

driscoll

i am quickly becoming a mark driscoll fan. i heard about him the first time a couple years ago and much more recently as i have been attending revolution because my pastor is clearly a big fan. mark sums up theology in an eloquent way that i feel people would be stretching (a lot) to argue with, yet people do.

check this link out for a quick light-hearted discussion about sex with comedian d.l. hughley and please if you have an hour get a load of this interview where mark discusses a number of great topics such as parenthood, church planting, missions, the gospel, alcohol, homosexuality, state schools and more. obviously each topic is addressed only briefly, but i love it when people can express what i believe, only more eloquently than i can.

how does God change the world?

you will have to come to revolution saturday to find out

c u @ 5!

church, the way it should be

since i visited the church i grew up in over christmas i have been thinking about church a lot. i remember why i never invited my friends to attend with me. it was not a place that would be relevant to their lives. church should be a place you can be proud to bring your friends.

my church has gone through some major overhauls and relaunched as revolution about five months ago. it was shaky at first, there was a point where only 11 people were in the service. God is moving, not to say the only way to gauge how God works is through numbers, but for numbers people like me it has been nice to see our growth pushing 80 over the last few weeks.

about a year ago my wife asked me why we were still in tucson, it took me off guard, but as i thought it came to me that the reason we are here may be revolution. since then, i have been asked to preach three times(the third is coming next week on valentines day, i will speak on jonah 3...see above graphic). i have also joined the elder board.

as i have been thinking about church i have realized how blessed i am to be apart of a church that is both challenging to the seasoned christian while presents the gospel in a way that is relevant to the first time chruch attender. a church that calls us to live out our faith and bring people back to Jesus. revolution, in my opinion is church the way it should be.

top 5 talks

i am posting my top five talks because i realized a while ago that i never saved them to the web so when i posted links in earlier blogs...those links didn't work with out permission. i got my first request for permission to read, got overly excited, and decided if one person wants to read one maybe i'll re-post them all!

i understand that speeches/sermons/talks are always better live. honestly, if you can't hear them live, at least get the video, if you can't get the video, at least get the podcast, if you can't get the podcast...well here they are.

ok who am i trying to kid, i only really have done 6 featured talks and the one of them isn't saved to the web yet. so...my top five talks!

1. Pure Sex -
a talk i gave to intervarsity christain fellowship at the university of arizona, this is also a promo for revolution, my church, which will launch on september 13 with a series of the same name!

2. Growing Life -
my latest sermon which addressed where i felt our church was coming from, where i believed us to be currently and what i hope for us in the future.

3. 8 Goals for the Next 8 Years -
my eighth grade promotion speech for the academy of tucson (who as far as i know still doesn't have a web site!). it was exciting, delivered to the largest group i have ever spoken in front of. i think the best compliment i got for this one was a mom who said, "wow, that wasn't just for the kids was it!"

4. Should Birds of a Feather Flock Together? -
another talk to intervarsity of the u of a...they invited me back, so that's good, but from what i understand is some places wont invite you back if you are real controversial...so maybe that will be my next goal. however, i thought this talk on race was at least a little controversial.

5. A Story Like No Other -
given at revolution and from my perspective, my least effective sermon, but still a topic i see as relevant. a story like no other is based off of paul's testimony at the end of acts and it's about knowing and sharing your story.

saturday night mind dump...

• to steal a title from josh, my pastor, who i'm sure is posting under the same title as i write
• i preached tonight, i think it went well, more me than last time
• i can always count on christe to be a voice of reason for me
• it's good i didn't preach two weeks ago, i spent all day today revising
• it's time to move forward
• my brother got married last week in colorado, it was amazing, i think i'll post about our trip tomorrow
• time for volleyball, anyone want to coach jv?
• baby bash coming up, let me know if you didn't get an invite, i'll hook you up...still hard to believe i am going to be a father
• love the shorts, thanks for dinner last night!
• church picnic was good
• mmm...food
• maybe i should be lesson planning...