Get out of Your Box

I met a guy on a World Changers Mission trip several years ago in Atlanta, Georgia who was constantly telling his students to get out of their box during a roof project we were working on. Everything was about getting out of their comfort zones. He even told me to get out of my box on several occasions.

This past weekend we hosted 3 bands for a local concert for students around the area. Up until this weekend I have always been blessed to have someone run sound for Wednesday nights or any activity we had. So I have never bothered to learn it. Well we ended up with no sound guy for the concert. PANIC!! No one in the bands really knew how to run sound either so it was up to me. I pushed every button on the sound board and turned every knob and finally got things to work. I ended up running sound for Among Thirsty who is an upcoming band who will be playing with Toby Mac this summer. It ended up being really cool.

All this to say, it is so important to get out of our boxes. So many of us are so sheltered and afraid of doing anything different for God and because of that we miss out on all that God has in store for us. So whether it's witnessing to a friend, sharing a testimony in front of a group, going on a mission trip, taking a leap of faith into leaving your job and going into full-time ministry, or serving overseas as a missionary, we all need to be willing to risk getting out of our box for the Lord.

Great Week

This past week I had the opportunity to go up to Orange Beach, Alabama to speak at a Youth Spring Break Camp. I had a blast. The camp was for First Baptist Church of Benton, Arkansas. Clay Cunningham is the Student Minister there and is one of the greatest Student Pastors in America. I loved the students, they were amazing. God did some incredible things. Joel and Rebekah Winters led worship, they are old friends from college and they did a fantastic job. It's been a great week. Praise the Lord!!

Video of DNow 09

This is a video of our Dnow weekend. Just the highlights of the weekend. Thanks Zach you're the man.

New Orleans

Tomorrow morning I'll be flying out to New Orleans for a pretrip visit. We are taking our High School students there this summer to help rebuild homes that were damaged during Hurricane Katrina. So I am going to get an idea of what we will be working on as well as approve of the place we will stay.

There is still so much work to be done in New Orleans. There is still so much to be done physically but more importantly spiritually. Pray for New Orleans, it is a great city, but it needs God to move in an amazing way there.

Learning From Mistakes

We had an event a few days ago where we gave all our students T-shirts. I designed them and I was going for a simple look, but they didn't turn out very well, and believe me my students let me know: These were some of their comments.

"Who designed these shirts, are they on crack?"
"Why are these so plain?"
"Seriously Jeremy, just let me design the shirts next time."
"Last years were way better"
"This was a great event except for the shirts"

I used evaluation forms and everything got high marks except for the shirts. They didn't even try to make their comments sound nice they just destroyed the shirt design.

All this to say it's important to learn from mistakes. It's also important to give things away that you have no gift at doing. Our next shirt will be for Camp and I've already asked someone else to design it. That way they can get the blame if it turns out awful.

Mission Love Never Fails

If you're interested in leading a mission trip this summer or next there is still time. I came across this organization 3 years ago called Mission Love Never Fails. It's founded by Chris Lange. They do all the grunt work for your team to do missions.

They are currently focusing on New Orleans only but plan to branch out to other cities soon. We will be going to New Orleans this summer again with this organization. They are a fraction of the price that most companies charge and they organize your entire week.

Check them out at www.missionloveneverfails.com .

DNow 2009

Wow what a Weekend we had with our DNow this past weekend. This was the largest group we've had. It was awesome. We saw students accept Christ and students be broken. Thanks students for making it such a great weekend. Kelly Knause was our speaker and he did an incredible job. Chris Dick and his band let our worship and they were phenomenal. Our leaders and host homes were outstanding and our tech team was tremendous. The breakdancers "FBK" rocked our socks off. It's incredible how many people it takes to bring this all together. Thank you for all your prayers and support. Praise the Lord!!

YP Summit

I just got back from YP Summit in Orlando. What a conference it was. Here are the following speakers I got to hear:
Darren Whitehead - Teaching Pastor Willow Creek Church
Jay Strack - Founder of Student Leadership University
Francis Chan - Author of Crazy Love and International Speaker
Tim Stoner - Author of The God who Smokes
Phil Newberry - Student Pastor for 24 years at Bellevue in Memphis, TN.
Jeff Pratt - Lifeway

They all did a remarkable job. I have learned a ton and feel so refreshed. I can't wait to see all my students tonight.