Surprise

Well Sunday I was surprised when BJ, Cale and Blake (Jr.) showed up at church. I was actually in sunday school when someone come and told me they needed to see me outside...I stepped outside and there they were. I was surprised (although Blake Sr. kinda let it out). Anyway, they left today after staying a couple of days.

This week has reminded me of the importance of building relationships and maintaining them. These guys are all awesome friends and their relationship means a lot to me. It was so good to see them and spend time together.

I hope this holiday you have made time (or will make time) to surprise someone you haven't seen or talked to in a while and let them know how much they mean to you.

Tough day in Student Ministry

Yesterday was a tough day for me in Student Ministry...Friday morning as I was preparing for a day out with the family I received a call from one of the workers that informed me a student had just lost her mother. It was an unexpected death. That was tough, but yesterday I attended the funeral and that was even tougher. It's like the reality of the moment really set in. It's at these moments when your faith is really put to the test.

This is the point where you want to ask God all the why questions...a seventeen year old girl and her nineteen year old brother are now without their mom...Why? In that moment there is nothing you can say...you just try and love them and care about them...and pray that God gives them strength.

My prayers go out to this family, I know God can and will do AMAZING things through this...it's just tough to see what that is right now...

Wednesday Night Christmas Service

Okay so it's been a while since I have posted and things have been crazy but I am getting a start on my new year's resolution and begin to post more often!! Anyway, the last few weeks have been filled with church work, Christmas Parties, school work, family time, a conference in Nashville, a weekend away with Holly and more and more.

But let's start with last night. We had our Christmas Service last night at the Student Ministry. Blake came down and helped me set up our stage and made it feel more like home.

We played some awesome videos, a game (Christmas Wrap) and the praise team did an awesome job with some acapella numbers. We then read the Christmas Story, with the help of some students (thanks fox and sara). Followed that up with an amazing song by our worship leader CJ.




We followed that up by showing a year end video. Then I was about to wrap up the service before Jessica Lamb took the mic and presented me and Holly with an amazing gift for our family. I was blown away. The workers and students at Metro are awesome and I am so excited about what God is going to do in our Student Ministry next year!

Of course we couldn't end the night without having milk and cookies. Holly, my wife, baked about 200 cookies and they were great!! At least Kaden thought so...



Overall, it was a great night!

Wednesday...

So last night we had another good service. Our theme was about being thankful (of course it's Thanksgiving)...When students walked into the sanctuary everything was a mess...chairs overturned etc...Once everyone was seated I came out a gave a brief introduction which lead into a drama (Forgive Me by Group 1 Crew). I came back and talked about being thankful using the passage in Luke 17 about the 10 Lepers.

Overall I thought the message went good, at the end I challenged the students to try for the next week to find at least one person a day and thank them. I brought all the leaders to the front to thank them and then as the band prepared I told all the students to find at least 1 leader and thank them. It was awesome. The band then kicked off praise and worship and did a great job!

Overall...great night...I'm excited about what God is doing and going to continue to do here at Metro!

God Moment

Last night in our service we had what I would call a "God Moment"...worship was finishing the last song and I really felt like everyone needed to push further into worship...it was a great set and awesome worship but it was one of the nights where everyone seemed to come in weighted down and not really able to worship because of what they had going on.

I came up at the last song and just challenged students to do that very thing...focus on God for a moment and set aside all the "junk" they may have been facing...Then it was like God just began to take over completely. It was a big emotional push...as a matter of fact I came back up and asked the band to all leave stage and join the rest of their peers and only CJ (worship leader) up there with his acoustic.

Needless to say, God really changed lives last night...students began to ask if they could share from stage, students were praying for students. It was a really great night...Spontaneous...definitely a God Moment!

Change...

Mentone Pictures

So here are just a few pictures from the Middle School retreat in Mentone. The theme was Kairos When time and destiny collide. Hope you enjoy the pics