This Friday 7 other staff from Colorado, Nebraska and New Mexico joined me to a simple church/movement training in Pomona, CA. Because of my bias, it well could be the armpit of California. But our trip was redeemed because we got to each at In and Out two times in 24 hours.
We went to hear Jaeson Ma (Campus Church Network) and Brad Fieldhouse (Kingdom Causes) give some simple training on how to do simple church/movements on campuses in our neighborhoods. I went with Joe Linstedt (CSU director), Christian Rainbolt (UNC director), Eric Heistand (Denver Director), Kevin Dennis (CU's new director), Amy Yablonski (staff at CU), Joe Cross (staff in New Mexico, moving to Mexico City with us) and Ethan Wiekamp (new Nebraska 
State director). It was a ton of fun, less than 24 hours in Calif, no sleeping and tons of laughing.
Friday night we jumped off the airplane at Ontario, CA, headed straight for In and Out and then off to the training. It was awesome. We walked into an upper room filled with about 80 Asian students worshipping and praising God. It was the church seeking God, desiring revival and wanting His Spirit to move in their lives and around them.
That night we headed off to Long Beach to meet my sister, Sarah, for drinks. We finally made it to Long Beach about 11pm and had a great time at the Rock Bottom Brewery. For me it was personally encouraging as I got to share with my friends the location of the Long Beach Summer project. As I knew it would, jaws dropped at the beauty of the location. Headed to my grandparents and parents to sleep for about 5 hours.
The next morning I pulled into my grandparents house to find Joe Linstedt talking with my 87 year old grandmother, Anna, and having cafe. What a site. She is a quick witted, energetic women and Joe loved the conversation. Then off to my aunt's coffee shop for breakfast and got to catch up with my mom and dad. Then dad bought us all breakfast. Too kind and generous.
The rest of the day was hearing some of the nuts and bolts that Brad and Jaeson have been practicing in reaching the lost and seeing God move in simple movements/churches across the world. If you have read all their materials and books before you probably didn't get too much more info but you sensed God moving in your hearts and realized this is more about God than methods and strategies. If God is going to move in our neighborhoods, campuses, and in Mexico City it will because His Spirit is moving, we are hearing and responding. The whole day was an eye opener.
That lunch (again In and Out) I sat with two high schoolers, An
drew and Josh, who are planting spiritual movements/churches on their high schools. Yep, that's right. They are not just youth group attendors. They are going out on the campuses, praying, seeing the Spirit moving (signs and wonders), sharing their faith and training up the next generation of missional, going for it believers. I was blown away. Their faith, expectancy of God and their boldness. Wow, if this is the future of the church, watch out!!!
Back to the airport. Sadly to say, no more time for In and Out. Mostly because of time but my gut thanks God for the quick run to the airport. I'm not sure how this weekend will play out on our campuses but I know God is working on our directors. I only have about a week of influence at CU as I'm transitioning out. But the Spirit of God is already moving and moving us to be missional at CU.
At another time and in another story I'll have to tell you about the 6 students that have come to faith in the past 2 weeks. A renewal of hearts is happening and God is starting a revival.
Categories: SimpleChurch, God, Movements
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