What does all this look like?

We are transitioning off staff with Campus Crusade for Christ to GSA at the end of the month. You might have questions about our financial support, how you can stop your auto-payments (if applicable) and where to send your new financial support in December. Within two weeks you’ll be receiving a detailed letter explaining our monthly and end of year financial needs and the process on how to continue to partner with us. We will still be fully funded and paid for through monthly individual financial support. Therefore we still need your partnership of prayer, financial support and encouragement as we continue on in full-time ministry.

GSA is a non-profit religious order with a 501-3c status and will be processing all our administration, support, and your tax-deductions.

We plan on calling you if you are a financial partner after Thanksgiving to share in more depth about our new ministry. We look forward to connecting with you.

We cherish your prayers in this time of transition. Our hearts are full of gratitude for your partnership. Thank you for continuing to labor with us in giving every person an opportunity to be part of a life breathing Christ-centered community.



Categories: Prayer, Newsletters, Family, Ministry, God, GSA

Practical Atheism

I have heard this term, Practical Atheism, in an article written by Craig Groeschel, often and relate to it, sadly, more than I want. I too am a current/recovering Practical Atheist. My biggest prayer now is that I have my one thing:

One thing I have asked of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life; to behold the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His temple. Ps 27:4

This is very difficult and often times I feel like, as I'm waiting on the Lord to do only what He can do and should do, I am a lazy Christian leader. Ouch. It took some serious pain, brokenness and time to reflect on my disease. Now I'm praying to God for a healing from this disease. He is the only one who can fix this. Maybe you're infected too.

Categories: God, Ministry, Spirituality

Needs all around us

Living in Greeley, CO we have seen a whole different way of living. We are in a much smaller community than Mexico City (28 million) and Boulder/Denver (2 million) as Greeley has about 100,000 people, half of which are Hispanic. We have enjoyed the smell of cows, the open space and the lack of cars piling up in intersections.
Steve has been coaching the boys’ soccer and football teams and has been spending time at our local rec center getting to know the people of Greeley. They are no different from anyone else. They too have marriage problems. They also struggle in finding meaning in life. They too are busy hustling kids to and from school and practice.
Yet what we observed is that there are few ministries that are serving outside the walls of the Church. Boulder and Denver are such popular places to live that many ministries call these places home. Our hearts are broken for the families, youth and neighborhoods that are not targeted specifically to hear the message of Jesus.
We feel God is calling us to start some fresh ways of expressing the grace, mercy and love of God to our community. As we walk forward in this we ask that you pray for us, support us and challenge us to follow Christ more intimately. Join with us in praying that we can be a loving presence in Greeley.

Categories: God, Prayer, Newsletters, Family, Movements, Ministry, YouthSports, Community, Kingdom

Faith - I can't quite see yet

I was reminded this morning of Hebrews 11:1 "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." The reality in our lives now is that we're not sure what the future holds for us. This may be a first in many years. Yes, we moved to Mexico and it may have looked uncertain but we had a general idea of what we were going to do. Now, we know God is leading us, calling us, growing us and pruning us for something but we're just not sure exactly what that. It is a bit more scary than before but at the same time, from what we have learned in our last 8 months being in the presence of God, having only Him as our life source and significance, this journey is exactly where we want to be and need to be.

I at times have fallen in love with the adventure of doing Kingdom work for God, fallen in love with the prestige of doing 'great' things for Him and having a position and influence for Him. What I'm learning, still in process, is that falling in love with Him and having Him be the source of all my significance is all I need. I could have preached and shared with you a thousand times of putting God first and leaning only on Him but when you're brought to the end of yourself and die to self is when you really learn that truth. I'm learning.....

Today I read this from Steve Addison that makes me want to live for Christ, trusting Him, risking for Him, and dying to self and my earthly or religious desires.

People who change the world have a cause that is worth risking everything for.
Their lives become like grains of wheat that fall to the ground and die and in
doing so produce much fruit. They count the cost but consider the rewards worth
the risk. They keep climbing the next mountain and the next. . .

Read the whole thing at : Looking Down From the Mountain

Categories: God, Faith, Ministry

No Perfect People Allowed

Well I'm sitting out on my deck, the wind is blowing my long brown hair in my eyes, the smoke from my cigar is far from making this weakling cough and I finished a good read by John Burke, No Perfect People Allowed: Creating a COME AS YOU ARE culture in the church. For you spanish speakers and readers you can read it at No Se Admiten Personas Perfectas.

At first it felt like a "Look at our church; we are perfect and follow us" type book about Gateway Community Church in Austin, TX. But soon I let that first emotion go and saw the tremendous heart that John, his staff and congregation have for the lost, broken and messed up emerging generation. It really pokes and prods my heart and our current American churches on how we are structured, thinking, praying, reaching and responding to the hurting people around us.

I first read it because the title struck me and I was at Joel and Ana's wedding in Michigan and saw it in the hotel lobby sitting around. I read the first chapter and I thought, "Hmm, I not perfect and I feel messed up and like a failure this past year. This book is for me." I didn't realize that it was for those leading and wanting to reach these type of people. But all along the way I found my heart longing for a type of church, life and ministry that reaches people in my community like they have, even though I have issues with the traditional four walls church.

Chapter 10: Tribal Truth: Creating the Culture of Incarnational Truth was worth whatever price you pay for the book. I got my local library to buy it for me so I didn't pay anything but I would have paid the $12. If you're leading a church, pray for the lost, want to figure out how to get away from just caring and shepherding Christians then you ought to read this book.

Here are a few quotes to perk your interest and give you a feel for the John's heart and maybe this will challenge you in your thinking, life and ministry.

• "Are we raising up a generation of leaders ready to lay down their comfortable lives to dive into the muck of cultural America? Or are we just playing church-developing spiritual dependants who consume the goods off whatever church shelf will "feed me," or "puff me with more knowledge," or even "feel" postmodern?" p. 20
• "We can make people conform but not become. So the better path is to help people trust God, and that's a struggle for all of us! Even for religious leaders who often struggle trying to control people's behavior, because if feels like a reflection on us. We must all let go and trust God to lead and guide us into wholeness and healing." p.157
• "Sex is a psuedo-connection for hetero- or homosexual need for intimacy." p. 162
• "We must know where to doubt, where to feel certain, where to submit." Pascal p. 167
• Truths: 1. Humble Truth 2. Practical Truth 3. Rational Truth 4. Incarnation Truth
• "Our Goal is not to get people to "convert" by repeating one prayer. The goal is to love God and people, living out of the fullness of life in God's kingdom, inviting all to come and enjoy the fruits of His life in us, because the door has been flung wide open through Christ." p. 175
• "[Most people] lead lives of quiet desperation." Thoreau p.205
• "Ours is a culture crying out for intimacy, but only able to conceive of accessing it through sex." Mike Starkey (God, Sex and Gen X) p. 223
• "...leaders can't afford to retreat into holy huddles, cursing the darkness. We must walk forward into it and turn on a light. Jesus said His words are truth that liberate--that bring life and freedom to every aspect of existence." p. 226
• Regarding the Samaritan Woman: "Jesus knew that until she had living water springing up in her soul, flowing out a right relationship with God, she would forever drink from muddy water." p. 227
• "Listen attentively to a person's story, then ask, "Which way forward from here? Help people move toward Christ regardless off their path." p. 228
• "True healing, however, often requires a lengthy process of righting the wrongs and uncovering the lies of the past. God can heal us immediately, but more often He takes us along a different path that forces us to continually depend on Him, because only in Him do we find true life. If he immediately healed us, we would immediately turn back to our independent, self-centered ways." p. 247
• "...sometimes pain can be a friend if it drives us to the end of ourselves and into the arms of God." p. 252
• "God has a plan to create a new family, a redemptive family--a family with the power to heal and restore what humanity lost by going its own way." p. 288
• "...one of the tasks of God's new family needs to be teaching each other how to enjoy life as God intended." p. 292

That's a good snippet. The book has some great personal evaluation questions after each chapter and some for your small group. I would suggest reading this with your church or small group leadership. It will open your eyes to the lost around us, what they are going through and unfortunately how the church is hurting them and missing their real needs.

John ends the book with a chapter for leaders and how we should think about our future church generations. What are we doing to raise up the next generation of church planters?

Enjoy the read!

Categories: Church, ChurchPlanting, SimpleChurch, Movements, Ministry, Leadership, Books