Launching

After building up to this point for the past few months, it is relieving to be on the opposite side of the long anticipated launch. Somehow though it has been difficult to relay in words what happened on Wednesday night. Perhaps because while it was a major climatic event for us, it was also just the beginning of long term relationship with the youth of Canyon County. It felt like the race that you train and train for and then once you finally get to the starting line you still have 30 miles to run. It was amazing to get here to this point of starting to run though. As I sat in the theatre and looked around at the youth around us, I found myself thinking about how grateful I was to be in that very position on Wednesday night. It wasn't the most perfect service ever, but I wouldn't have traded what we had in that moment for the most polished, trained team in the world. We have lots of places to grow and I found myself loving the symbolism between our young team and our relationships with the Lord; while it wasn't perfect, it was authentic and absolutely genuine!
Logistically we had 85 people show up for our launch. About 10 of those were parents who showed up to show their support, the rest were Jr High through Young Adults.
Trevin led our worship team, who were amazing for their first time leading a corporate service. Danny preached on becoming part of the NXT. He challenged our young people that they will be the next something, but it is their choice on what that next something is. Either they will be the next leaders of their generation in serving God or they will be the next drop outs or alcoholics or whatever. The young people responded amazingly. I really got a kick out of a few of them that went home and changed their My Space names to various forms of "Be the NXT". We also had a lot of opportunity to talk to people at the theatre who were just curious as to why all of us were there. We passed out a lot of touch cards for the church and youth ministry.
So here we go, we are setting in for the long haul. I can't explain how excited I am for this point. Thank you all who have been praying and supporting us from afar. Thanks especially to those who called or emailed us to encourage us this week. It has been so great to hear from all of you! We will continue to keep you updated and if you want to come and visit in person, we would love to have you!