The Giant of Idolatry

Last night we went after the giant of idolatry in are youth church. God did some awesome things in our hearts as we smashed idols through true worship in the presence of Jesus. I thought I'd share with you all some of the questions we asked to investigate whether we're really worshiping Jesus or another false god.

Questions to Investigate the Worship in your Lifestyle

1. How do you make your decisions?
1. The basis for your decisions points directly to the god you worship.
2. How do you spend your time?
1. Look at the things that take up most of your free time. There’s a good chance you’re worshipping there.
3. What are the meditations of your heart?
1. What are you thinking about? Writing about? Reading about? What consumes your thought life? It will be the thing you’re worshipping
4. What do you dream about?
1. In your sleep and during the day…
5. How do you spend your money?
1. Jesus said, where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Remember whatever really has your heart is your god.
6. How do you choose your friends?
1. The friends you picked probably give a good indicator to what god you’re worshipping.
7. What clothes do you choose to wear?
1. Your dress communicates what you value. Often times it’s an obvious indicator of what you worship.
8. What music do you listen to?
1. Music was created to carry the spirit of worship. All music is worshipping something. Something is being exalted through the message in the song. Usually you can find an idol in the midst of someone’s music collection.
9. What stirs the most passion in you?
1. What is it that you burn for? What is the thing that just set’s you on fire? Your affections will flow toward the god that you worship.

These are some questions that are worth asking ourselves due to the deceptive nature of idolatry.

What would you say the biggest idol in youth culture is?

Stir Up the Gifts - Part 2

2 Timothy 1:6-7 - Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

We quote verse 7 all the time in the church. We did a whole series on this verse last year at Family Life Church. We preached against fear. We unpacked power, love and a sound mind. It was an awesome series with some incredible revelation. But for some reason the two verses never really tied together in my mind.

The fact that God hasn't given us a spirit of fear is in the context of the gifts He's given us.

Realizing this I've come to a conclusion: The number 1 reason that people choose not to stir up the gift of God in their life is fear. Fear is what binds people up in routine and religion. It's fear of the unknown. Fear of what people will think. Fear of being wrong. Fear of failure. All kinds of fear. And all of that fear is not from God.

God instead gave you the Holy Spirit. The giver of the gifts. He has given you the ability to stir up and employ your gifts in incredible ways. They are meant to be powerful and miraculous. They are meant to be used in love to build people and bring comfort. They are meant to be used strategically and in a way that makes sense.

Next time you are headed to church make this commitment to the Lord. "I will stir up the gift of God that I've been given. I will not let fear stop me from functioning. Somebody needs my gift."

Tomorrow I will step on stage for another 2 services of leading worship. I have the choice of staying in the box and singing through a list of songs or really letting the Spirit of God lead the church freely in fresh worship. You know what tries to keep me in the confines of my list? Fear. Every time. I get afraid that it will be awkward. I fear that the band won't follow me. I fear that Pastor Steve will be unhappy. I fear that it just won't work and I'll fall on my face in front of everyone.

But no more. Tomorrow I will choose not to receive a spirit of fear from the enemy and instead stir up the gift of God that has been given to me. I'll operate in power, love and a sound mind. I'm believing God for an incredible day in His house. And as for me, my gift will be in operation.

The revelation for me in these verses is so simple yet radically life changing. We don't have to wait for the right moment, atmosphere, or worship song to move in our gift. We actually just reject fear and choose to stir up the gift - then go minister it. It's really that simple. God never takes the gifts away. There are always accessible for use to build the kingdom of God. Why don't you decide not to go another week without stirring up your gift? The world needs it!

Any stories of the gifts in operation? Feel free to drop a comment...

Current Prayer Requests

For anyone following our lives and ministry that prays, I thought I would offer up some current prayer requests that we need to focus on in prayer during this season. Feel free to pass these on to friends or family members and lift these areas before the Lord.

• Pray for continued healing in young people's bodies, souls and spirits. We've had some major healing take place lately on many levels. Pray that God would continue to pour out His healing power and touch hearts and lives.
  
• Pray for more leaders to step into leadership. We're in a season as a youth ministry where more leaders are required in order to go to the next place that God has called us to. Pray for young men and women who are faithful.
• Pray for the grace of God in the area of organization and administration. We're doing more work at a higher quality than we ever have before and need help from the Lord to administrate it all. Pray for help with accomplishing our tasks in a timely and organized manner and for excellent communication within the team.
• Pray for grace to start new ministries in 2009. We're going to be taking major steps forward in several of our ministries and starting a couple brand new ones. Especially target campus ministries. But there will be major upgrades in the areas of worship, small groups, prayer, pastoral care, video, events, and discipleship. We're really excited about our plans in these areas but need grace to stay tuned in to the will of God in every area. Pray for right timing, right leadership, and excellent implementation as the ministry moves forward.
  
• Pray for supernatural provision for Family Life Church as a corporate body as well as for the individual members. God is our source and provider and we're full of faith that as we ask Him to meet our needs that He will. When God brings a vision, He will also bring the provision.
• Pray for the activation of the gifts of God in the life of the youth church. Many young people are coming to our gatherings on Wednesday nights, in small groups, and other times. We need young people to stir up the gift of God that was given to them (part two of that post is coming soon), and activate their gift to build the local church and reach a lost and dying generation. Pray for the ability to identify their gifts, be equipped and trained in their gifts and to activate their gifts.
• Pray that young people would have the faith and determination to slay personal giants in their lives. We're in a preaching series right now called "Giants in the Land". We're attacking the giants of rebellion, idolatry, apathy, sensuality, immorality, pride, and insecurity. I'm believing God to empower young people to slay these giants in their own lives and then go after them in our youth culture at large. We need a revolution!
• Pray for our Christmas Party this Friday night (12-12-08). It's going to be awesome. Our preparations are in order. We need students to desire to come and bring many friends. Also pray for deep relationships to be established and souls to be saved.
  

Thanks so much for praying for us. We can feel the prayer support in our lives.
How about printing out this blog and praying through these things right now? It's as good of a time as any. Bless you!

Mark Thornton at Living Waters

So I'm trying to get into the video blogging trend. My new flip video camera is making that easier.



Check out these videos from Pastor Mark Thornton's concert at Living Waters Coffee Shop in Nampa. We had a good time and it was great to see people from all over the Valley show up to worship and support Mark and Capital worship team.




Mark Doesn't Apologize from Danny Schulz on Vimeo.


Kim - Holy, Holy, Holy from Danny Schulz on Vimeo.


I Will Bow Down On My Knees from Danny Schulz on Vimeo.

Yeah. Pretty sweet. I'll be trying to capture more video of what's going on here in Nampa with the youth minsitry, the whole church and of course the wonders of raising two boys. Look forward to more!!

Stir Up the Gifts - Part 1

2 Timothy 1:6 - Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.

I’m convinced that if each disciple of Christ kept their gift stirred up we would see the supernatural power of God flowing in and out of the church all of the time. Imagine your church operating like this. Every time you get together you could regularly expect prophecy, words of knowledge and wisdom, discerning of spirits, tongues and interpretation, miracles, etc. Family Life Church is growing in this, but we have a ways to go.

I think we would all enjoy our gatherings more if they were filled with Holy Spirit activity. Why doesn’t this happen more? Either God meant for the gifts of the Holy Spirit to be active today or He didn’t. I think we are often waiting on God to move when He is waiting on us to stir up our gift. It’s an interesting thought – that the gifts of God become active when we choose to stir them up. Or conversely, the gifts lie dormant because we choose not to stir them up.

As a worship leader, I think sometimes I can hide behind the “flow of the Spirit” card. You know – “The worship goes with the flow of the Spirit. Sometimes He moves, sometimes not”. Truth be told, our most prophetic and anointed worship times occur when we as a worship leaders and team members choose to stir up our gift. We don’t like to admit it because it brings accountability. But I’d say it’s true. Sometimes God surprises us and moves in spite of us, but I think most often He’s waiting for us to use the gifts that He gave us.

I’m all for waiting on the Lord – but I think that it’s the difference between actively waiting on Him and passively waiting on Him. When we “wait” biblically, we actively listen and expect Him to give instruction for how to function in our gifts. I’ve found that God is leading and speaking all the time in the context of my gift – He’s just waiting for me to stir it up and exercise it.

When is the last time you stirred up the gift of God and functioned during a gathering? When’s the last time you stirred up the gift of prophecy? Faith? Discerning of Spirits? Miracles? Sundays, Wednesdays, small groups, outreach, at work, at school, etc? I think we could make life a lot more interesting if we’d keep the gifts stirred up. I also believe that many more people would come to Christ and get planted in our local churches.

Stay tuned for part two…

Book Review : The Remnant

I just finished reading a great book by Larry Stockstill called The Remnant.

It's a wonderful book. Pastor Larry gave the book out to all of the pastors that attended this year's international MFI conference in Portland. I believe that this book is a simple prophetic word from an apostolic father to the American church. I would highly recommend this book to any pastor, leader or anyone aspiring to lead in the kingdom of God.

In the first part of the book, Stockstill brings a great perspective on the necessity of the five fold ministry in the church and its reflection in society. We're indesperate need of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. A challenging thought that Pastor Larry brings is that we should, as leaders, strive to function in every one of these roles to some extent. We can function apostolically through encouragement, affirmation and fathering. We can prophetically correct those under our sphere of authority. We can reach and disciple people and bear fruit in the kingdom. We can heal and pastor whether we have a title or not. We can know and teach the word of God from scripture. I need to grow in all 5 areas of leadership.

The last 10 chapters of the book are Larry's "10 Commandments of Ministry". If the spiritual leaders of America would take heed to Larry's commandments, we would have a future that God can bless. Here are the subjects Stockstill touches breifly on in each chapter -

1. Prayer
2. Bible Study
3. Integrity
4. Purity
5. Example
6. Relationships
7. Philosophy
8. Faith
9. Spiritual Warfare
10. Wisdom

Each chapter could be used as a guage for the health of your own personal leadership life. Like a gas gauge on a car or something. If we lived out biblical excellence in each of these areas we would be far ahead in our impact on society. Pastor Larry says that he personally disciples his leaders in each of these areas for a month at a time. I can see how affective that would be. The list is not exhaustive, but it's a wonderful start toward the core values that leaders must embrace in order to affect society and build the kingdom of God.

In a world where ministers are continually finding themselves doing foolish and embarassing things, Larry Stockstill brings a powerful and prophetic challenge. I'm recommending this book to every ministry leader I know.

Apostles and Prophets - Dedication Weekend

Family Life Church had its dedication services for our new church building this weekend. We had an amazing time – incredible worship, powerful messages, prophetic words, great celebration, laughter and fellowship. It was a weekend to remember. We had the honor of having Pastor Jack Louman and Pastor Frank Damazio both speak to our church on Sunday (one in the morning and one at night). I’ve been meditating on this verse of scripture in light of their visit.

Ephesians 2:19-22 - Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

Doctrinally, I believe this scripture means that the church is built upon the writings of the apostles and prophets – meaning the Old Testament Prophets and New Testament Apostles (i.e. the scriptures). In addition, Pastor Steve consistently applies this scripture to how we are building Family Life Church upon the ministries of modern apostles and prophets that God has given to our church body. It’s been so enlightening for me. I’ve been absolutely amazed at how healthy it is for our church to consistently receive from true prophetic and apostolic ministry.

Pastor Frank Damazio functions in the ministry of an apostle over Family Life Church. He brings a fathers heart, encouragement, correction, vision and impartation through the Word of God into our church. The things he has spoken into the heart of FLC have changed the whole church, because we receive him as an apostle and a father. Our church received an impartation to be a “yes church” that goes strongly after the youth culture including our college campus – Boise State University.

Pastor Jack functions in the ministry of the prophet. He’s definitely one of the most prophetic people I’ve ever been around. He can see where God is taking our church and comes with the Word of the Lord to challenge us to rise to the next place that God has for us. Our church is literally in a different place after this weekend. Jack’s prophetic words to the whole church and over the worship department have shifted the attention and focus of our church body.

Literally, my job is going to be different in the next 6 months because of this weekend. Jack brought a word about the sphere of our ministry expanding and growing. He said God was calling for an increase in responsibility and that God was bringing an ability to match the responsibility. Today I met with Pastor Steve about how to practically apply the word. My schedule is going to change, my focus is changing and expanding. Most of all my capacity must increase to take on all that God is calling me to do. I need more grace for the coming season. Also, I need the leaders I am training up to take the upgrade as well and step into pulling more weight in the youth ministry.

The thing that comforts me most about the ministry that took place this weekend is that it’s in the flow of what God has already been speaking. God has been speaking to leaders and they have been stepping up. God has been stirring our heart to really press forward in the worship ministry. God has been stirring up a passion to go after youth on the school campuses in the Treasure Valley. The prophetic direction wasn’t completely new – it came to confirm what God has been speaking to our senior pastor and his leadership team.

I feel refreshed and invigorated. I’m seeing the building plan for the next 12-24 months in great clarity. This morning I realized there are some things that God has been asking me to do for 5 years, but I haven’t really responded to Him. I wasn’t in rebellion and resisting the Holy Spirit. I just didn’t fully believe that it was Him. Maybe my circumstances quenched my faith. Maybe my passion to do other things kept me distracted. Whatever the case, something in the prophetic ministry that took place this weekend brought a clarity about the will of God that I hadn’t seen yet. My life is changed.

And I can’t help but have the thought – How many churches are wandering without the ministry of apostles and prophets? How foolish it is to embrace a doctrine that doesn’t believe in these biblical ministries. Pastors don’t understand how bad they are ripping off their churches. How horrible it is to succumb to the fear of false ministries and decide to stick with merely relating to pastors and teachers. The ministry of the apostle and the prophet are so critical to healthy growth and forward movement, I now can’t imagine leading or growing a church without their ministry. Yet most churches in America are struggling by on their own. My understanding of a New Testament church continues to be refined and clarified. The Bible does have a plan for us to build by.

Lord, help us to raise up the next generation of leaders that will function as 5 fold ministers. Help us grow young men and women who will function as apostles and prophets in your last days church. They are needed in these important times.

Let’s open up some discussion on this one -

What is your experience with prophetic and apostolic ministry?

Who are you voting for?

I've been asked a few times who I'm voting for tomorrow on election day. I guess it's important for a youth pastor to weigh in on the politics of his nation. Honestly, I don't believe that politics is the answer for America. I truly believe that the local church is God's plan for building the kingdom of God - not Obama or McCain. I believe that Jesus is the only savior, not a presidential candidate.

I do believe politics is important though. I do believe that we need to line up the values of those running for office with the scripture and cast our vote accordingly. And when it comes down to it, I am a voter that chooses his candidate on the basis of how they value the life of the unborn.

The decision has been pretty simple for me this year...

A vote for Obama means a vote for the most pro-abortion candidate America has ever seen. There's just no room, with a clear conscience before God, to vote in a president who will legislate the murder of countless souls. That's simply all there is to it for me. It doesn't matter how the other issues factor in - I'll never vote for a pro-choice candidate unless I backslide. And then, my friends, you have my permission to punch me in the face, drag me to the altar, and pray for my heart felt repentance. I'm not going to freak out if Obama becomes president. I do not think he's the Antichrist. I think America is going to move forward regardless of who wins tomorrow. But, without a doubt, if Obama is elected president, he will let some things into our nation that we, as the church, will have to go to WAR against. Be ready for the battle.

This post isn't really all that articulate or convincing. Truth be told, I'm not really the most educated on the political campaigns of each candidate. I have read some great posts over the last few months. Please read a couple of these. Please pray for each candidate as our nation is in a very critical spot right now. Please go to the polls tomorrow and vote.

Blog posts I have enjoyed in the last few weeks -

Jamie Schulz (first of course) - http://jamieschulz.blogspot.com/2008/11/choosing-life.html

Bo Stern - http://bostern.wordpress.com/2008/11/03/america/

Brent Earwicker - http://thefieldexperience.blogspot.com/2008/11/speechless.html

Eric Parnell - http://ericandlindsayparnell.blogspot.com/2008/10/lets-talk-politics.html

Brett McCracken - http://stillsearching.wordpress.com/2008/10/23/why-i-cannot-vote-for-obama/

Want the cheapest gas in town?

I found this website that will tell you the cheapest gas station in your area. Every little bit helps in these crazy times. As for Nampa - Costco is rocking everyone else around. Better bust out my amex.

Check it out here

Family Night Idea

The apple taste test.

Do you really know the difference between a gala, honeycrisp, and a janagold? They look the same...but how do they taste? Is the honeycrisp apple really worth the extra money?

The winner is for me............

The JONAGOLD!!!!!!

Pic of the day

Lay off me I'm starving.

Hudson is chillin

Hudson is just chillin tonight in his own little chair. He's such a relaxed baby.

Why Twitter – A Pastors Perspective

I recently signed up for an account on Twitter – yet another social networking tool. I’ve known about twitter for about 10 months but resisted signing up until now. It took me a long time to understand why I’d ever want to use it. But this thing is really growing on me and I thought I’d share a few thoughts with you in case you’re thinking about opening an account.

What is Twitter?

Quote from the twitter website – “Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?”

When my brother-in-law Joe first told me about twitter, I couldn’t even imagine why anyone would use it. It seemed like another online time waster (who needs anything else to update?). I wasn’t interested at all. Honestly, I thought, who wants to know what I’m doing throughout the day? Who cares about that?

What eventually turned me on to twitter was opening up a facebook account this year and seeing all the “status reports” updates. This has been a really fun part of the culture in our youth ministry. Most of the young people we pastor use facebook in addition to or instead of myspace. And after every youth service or event, one of my favorite things to do is check out facebook to see the response from all the students in their status reports.

“God really moved tonight”

“I’m believing in faith and crossing into my promised land”

“My body hurts, but I had the time of my life at the mudfest”

It’s great to be able to see the influence of your life on so many people…instantly and personally. But that’s facebook and this blog is about twitter.

So twitter is like just doing the status update part of facebook with one key difference – it’s made to operate and interact with your phone through text messages instead of just the internet. That is the powerful difference of twitter. While many people use the internet every day, many do not. And many are only on at certain times. Cell phones, on the other hand, are so wide spread that virtually everybody I know has one and uses texting. People keep their phone on them all the time. It’s immediate connectivity.

But the question remains – “Who cares what I’m doing all day?”

I’ve been thinking a lot about this question as a pastor. I think many people use social networking tools to say a virtual “look at me! Pay attention to me! Like me!”. If this was the purpose of using twitter I wouldn’t be writing this blog post about it. But I’ve come up with a few reasons why I think every leader should open up a free twitter account and get people to follow them on twitter. Here they are…

1. Twitter can be used as an influencing tool.

I made a decision years ago that I want to be an influencer. I don’t want to just let life happen to me, but I want to use my life to influence people all the time with the message of the gospel. Part of what I use twitter for is sending out influential reminders to all of my “tweeps” (twitter’s word for friends). I think it’s a very powerful tool to have the ability to influence dozens (someday hundreds and thousands) of other people’s thoughts with one text message.

I got a twitter message from a tweep last week that said this –

Peter makes in plain in Acts 15:11- "We believe that we are all saved the same way, by the undeserved grace of Jesus"

Sending out a unique “God thought” on a regular basis is a simple and quick way to influence many lives.

2. Twitter lets people get to know me.

This is the amazing part of the whole social networking trend. You read someone’s thoughts online and you feel like you know them. Even though you haven’t spent one minute of actual time with them, you have a window into their mind and heart through what they write.

As a pastor of a rapidly growing youth ministry, I simply do not have enough time to invest into intimate relationships with all of those who attend our youth church. I’d love to go out to coffee with all of the 150 students in the youth church every week. There’s just not enough hours in the week and the church keeps growing.

It is important though, that the young people I pastor get to know me. When a young person feels like they know me, they are far more likely to receive from my preaching, teaching and pastoral ministry. They are far more likely to trust what is coming their way from the pulpit.

It’s amazing to me – but twitter and facebook help accomplish this task without really spending time with people individually. I’m not saying that social networking should take the place of real relationships – but I am saying it does help move the process along when there’s simply not enough time for everyone.

3. Twitter helps my friends and leaders know how to pray.

Pastor Jack Louman recently spoke at a men’s ministry meeting at our church and gave us a challenge to take a step up in the area of personal intercessors. He told me that God is going to bring people to specifically intercede for me, my family and my ministry.

As he was speaking I had the thought, “Twitter is perfect for that”.

The Apostle Paul encourages us to “pray without ceasing”. Having a tool that can simultaneously text message everyone who is committed to pray for me is a wonderful thing. It’s instant prayer covering when you need it. Oh the wonders of technology.

My good friend Brent is a missionary in Africa and is on twitter. I love getting his tweets (messages) because I know immediately how to pray for him. Phone calls and individual texts cost money…but twitter is free!

Twitter has many other uses. People are using it for all kinds of things in the marketplace. These are just the benefits I’m noticing in my first month. I want to encourage you to set up an account, follow me on your phone (you have control of which people twitter texts you about) or online, and start tweeting away. God is raising up a tight knit network of believers to change the world. I believe technology has got to be a part of that.

Ready to check it out? -- www.twitter.com

My twitter name is daschulz.

What a Youth Pastor Will Do

We'll do just about anything to get young people to come to Christ. Yes - even dress up like a butt rocker. Did any young people get saved as a result of this costume...probably not. Did they have fun at Retro Night at Camp? Absolutely.

What will you do to reach a generation?

Hijacking

I'm taking over this blogging machine as my wife has decided to start her own new blog. Turns out that if you google "NXT Nampa" this blog comes up at the top of the list. Better keep it up with some fresh content for all of the millions of students that are searching for us through the internet.

Camp planning is coming together and God is on the move. Look for pics and updates from us soon!!

To Be Continued...

Summer Camp is officially upon us. For all the amazing details, visit us at the NXT booth on Wednesdays or Sundays. Don't miss it! We will be a different church when we get back!

Besides, Hudson thinks you should go. If you don't talk baby, I will translate for you... "you should go to camp. It will change your life!"

Jamie's Blog

I have a new blog. Ok, so I have had it for a while... I just gave it a facelift and started posting on it again. I know, I know, we have way too many blogs for one family. Oh well! Turns out they are free. Anyhow, you can check it out if you want to. If not, that's ok too. Turns out it is also a free country.
www.jamieschulz.blogspot.com

Life at the Schulz home

What we have been up to...Summer camp planning is in full force. The above picture is from the camp brochure that is currently being printed. Trevin did an amazing job putting it together and was even extremely patient with us during the photo shoot. A side note on camp planning... there are very few, if any, great youth games out there. Someone should invent more! If you have a thought on one, you should comment on this post.
The NXT is growing and moving towards 200 young people. We are excited to be able to look around and see testimony after testimony of how God is transforming lives in Canyon County! Our leadership team is also growing in more ways than one. I think we can all testify that God has been stretching our capacity as leaders. Thank God for grace!!!

Our boys still captivate our hearts and attention. How could they not! We are enjoying lots of time outside as a family these days as David has developed a new passion for sports. Among his favorites is disc golf and basketball. Oh yes, and track (although it is called chasing around our house.) David spends a good part of his day running from one fence to the other in the back yard. Do they have marathons for 2 year olds?
Hudson mostly sleeps and eats still, but he has made himself known as a prominent member of the family by insisting that we hold him around the clock so that he can cat nap.

Easter Sunday

Saturday David and I went to the City of Caldwell's Easter Egg hunt where David chased down eggs. Danny has convinced him that Easter egg hunting is all about how fast you can run so David passes us all kinds of eggs to sprint to the ones that are farthest away. The end result was that he didn't have a whole lot of eggs, but he was certainly happy to have spent the morning running. The above picture is Trina dressed in a bunny costume hugging David.

Easter morning at Family Life Church

Josiah and David looked pretty snazzy!

Cute little africans!

Snow Day

A combination of a lot of snow and a head cold make this the perfect day to update the blog. I have been avoiding the task list all morning and it has been going so well, that I am planning on continuing to avoid through out the afternoon. Although I would prefer not to be trapped in my house and sick, I like my plan for coping with the situation so far! =)
I know that you are all wondering about what we are naming the baby and I still don't have any news for you. Sorry! David was so much easier to decide upon since Danny had a dream that we named him that and then we both liked the name. Maybe we should start praying for another dream since Beast is starting to sound better with every passing day!
This year has started off with a bang for us... we spent New Years with the youth church at an all nighter planned and executed by Lorelei. She is developing all kinds of hidden talents these days, including event planning. Then we decided to go on a 21 day Daniel fast including media. Don't worry, I didn't make the baby fast! I fasted from caffiene, sugar and media. That was for sure difficult enough being pregnant!! I am happily eating chocolate again while drinking my coffee. We invited the youth church to join us on the fast for whoever wanted to and I honestly was surprised at how many young people fasted during the 21 days. What was even more amazing was hearing their testimonies of what God was doing in them as they gave up the tv to spend time with Him.
This last weekend we traveled over to Portland for Generation Unleashed. It was a great time of bonding with each other, stretching ourselves in our relationship with God and setting the vision for where we are going in 2008. The trip back almost turned treacherous as we diverted course to go through Bend since I-84 was closed due to freezing rain. The bus finally arrived in Nampa at 2am. It was an exciting time!
Since being back, we have been astounded at how God is moving inside of the young people. We have received numerous phone calls just in the past couple days from young people who are telling us that they are ready to stop messing around with the world and get serious about their relationship with God. The funny thing is that none of these young people even went on the trip to GU.
So, we are looking forward to a great February. We have two guest speakers at Family Life Church this month: Dennis Lyndsay from Christ for the Nations and Ken and Glenda Malmin from City Bible Church. Plus, Brent and Virginia will be back from Africa!
Oh, I almost forgot, Family Life Church now has a home! God has opened up some amazing doors for us to move into a building just off of the freeway. We are starting the building project next month and are estimating around 6 months to complete it. Exciting times!!!