iDeviate

Youth Church United

It's out now. Our new banner. Our identity. Our Mission. To be a Youth Church United.
Youth Church United (YCU) is now Living Waters youth church's umbrella name that encompasses JH (unleashed), HS (Youth Church), and Young Adults (242). I believe with all that I am that if we stand a who we are, the church, the gates of hell can not and will not be able to come against us! We are not a youth group or an organization or a click or a huddle of people. We are the church! As we live as what we already are, the church, we will see God to things in our cities that we have never imagined before.

UNLEASHED JH SERVICE | Begins Sept 12th

September 12th at 5pm UNLEASHED JH service starts!

UNLEASHED to be who God has made us to be.
UNLEASHED to change our community.
UNLEASHED to be Gods hands and feet.

Live Unleashed

Alarm...

I hate waking up! Well, to an alarm. If I could have it my way I would never wake up to an alarm ever again! I love just waking up when my body chooses to. The worst is when my alarm goes off and I turn it off with all the intentions of getting out of bed, and then I don't. I fall back asleep and wake up two hours later, late for whatever I had to be at. I think it's safe to say that no one likes waking up to or even hearing alarms. They are loud, often times annoying, and they interrupt our lives from what we are doing. But what happens when an alarm goes off in your spirit? When God sets one off in you? And no matter how long you seem to push "snooze" on God's alarms it never goes away. I think that the Holy Spirit will at times set alarms off in us for various reasons. We have two choices. Respond or Snooze. You know the saying, "if you snooze you loose!" I believe this is so true when it comes to alarms that go off in our spirit. When we choose to snooze we loose. We loose out on an opportunity to grow, to let God change something in us, to mold us, to shape us. What alarms are going off in you today? Things that you have been putting on snooze for far too long? Stop pushing snooze! Wake up! Let God do something in you and stop running! The alarm is for your good. Let's be honest, if we did not have alarms we would just sleep our lives away...

Up & Running...

My blog is up and running again...
Be sure to check in regularly for stuff seeing as I am getting married to the most smokin' hot girl in the universe in 18 days! Lots of awesome things to come!

Vision

I wear glasses. Cool ones for that matter (or at least I think so). I wear them for the reason most people do, because we need to see clearly. In my case I am near-sited, meaning I can see up close well but not far away. So the lenses that I look through give me the ability to see farther and more clearly. One of the most deadly blows to a leader can be near-sited vision. A leader that can only see what is right in front of him and has no idea of where they are leading will ultimately fail at leading. With nearsighted vision it's hard to see upcoming obstacles and by the time you see them it is too late and they cause a lot of damage. So as leaders we must ask God to give us complete and God-sized vision.

"Where there is on vision, the people perish..." -Proverbs 29:18

Without vision the people that we lead will end up wandering around aimlessly and will follow the next thing that comes around with some.  Don't have any vision? Ask God. He will give it. Be ready. Act on it. Watch God do wonders.

Leading From The Back...

This morning I was reading the story of Joseph. As you may know this guy went through a lot of stuff! There is something incredible to learn from his story. Wherever God put Joseph he served others faithfully and because of that the people who he served received blessing on their stuff and because of Joseph. Then these other people noticed this and put Joseph in a place of more authority and responsibility.

"...so he succeeded in everything he did as he served..." Genesis 39:2 (emphasis mine)

"...the Lord began to bless Potiphar's household for Joseph's sake." Genesis 39:5 (emphasis mine)

"And the Lord made Joseph a favorite with the prison warden. Before long, the prison warden put Joseph in charge over all the other prisoners and all the happenings in the prison." Genesis 39:21,22 (emphasis mine)

This illustrates such an important leadership principle. Leaders don't always lead from the front or the top, but sometimes from the back and bottom. Joseph never once asked for a promotion or a raise. He was faithful with what was in his hand and where he was and God took care of the rest. Joseph helped others win and because of that, he won. Bottom line... Joseph was blessed and taken care because he served others faithfully.

Opportunity Now...

As I was cruising through some articles and blogs this morning to catch up on things I came across something very very interesting. This article was talking about because of our economy as it is right now fewer people are getting divorces. Why? I'm so glad that you asked! This is what current.com has to say

"The recession and economic turmoil is creating a new class of casualties: married couples who can't afford to get divorced. In these tough times, many people are finding it's cheaper to stay together, even when they can't stand each other."

So people are staying together because it's so expensive to be apart. They would rather stay married with someone because the financial cost just isn't worth it. At first I couldn't believe this! But then I thought this is awesome! This is giving the church an amazing opportunity! Instead of people just getting divorced when they and they church helping the individuals with the grief afterward it's giving the church the opportunity to reach these couples and help restore the relationship BEFORE it happens! So my questions is simple, what will the church do? We have an amazing opportunity to restore relationships and save so many so much pain. What will we do?

Upcoming J12 Series

As we come to start a new I have really been trying to figure out where to take J12. After much prayer and changing my mind over and over again I now know. We will be starting the new year with a series called "Whispers". In this series we will be teaching the kids how to hear from God. Also we will be giving many opportunities for them to "hear the whispers". One of the reasons I am so excited about this series is that we are giving these kids at a young age the knowledge and opportunity to hear from their God, their creator. I am excited to hear of kids getting called into ministry, the mission field, and into specific areas of the work place. God is going to do great things! Take a gander at the video.

To-Don't List...

I would like to start this blog with a quote from an Italian proverb.
"Often he who does too much does too little."
As I am trying to take a step back and look at the ministry I lead, relationships in my life, an upcoming wedding (so excited!) and everything else in my life I started to be honest with myself, I am a busy guy. Knowing that busyness does not equal progress I am now forced to make this thing I call the to-don't list. In an effort to focus my time, efforts and energy I don't just need to make a list of things I need to to do but also a list of things I won't. It's planned abandonment. I am planning the things I won't do, that most will do, to do the best at what God has called me to do. With activities I am participating in and where I spend my time I must ask myself, "Is this contributing to the things that God has called me to do right now?" If not, it's time to start some pruning. The fact is that busyness blurs vision. I got told something the other day by my mentor Jon Cobler. He said that we can't just figure out what we are going to do, but why we are going to do it. Because if we loose the Why we do things we will become less focused on the heart of what we are doing and more concerned with just doing it. So what should be on your to-don't list? What has God called you to and what are you doing that directly impacts it? Are there things that take up time that don't impact it? What will you do about it?

The Cult of Snuggie...

I was sitting on the couch today before work and this commercial came on. I could not stop laughing! Especially the part when the whole family is at the baseball game! It makes them look like cult!