Today is a great day! I am looking forward to tonight. I get the wonderful privilege to officiate my first wedding ceremony tomorrow for Mr. Kyle Bolt and Miss Sarah Rhodes. Of course, the rehearsal is tonight, which will be a blast.

I just got done reading through the wedding vows they have have chosen/written for one another. (I am trying to know them as well as possible, so there are no “mess” ups tomorrow, although I will have a book with them written out in case my minds draws a blank.) It made me think of my vows, I made to my wife on our wedding day. I made a promise and covenant that I would love her, comfort her, honor and keep her, forsaking all others and keep myself only to her. I am so thankful that I have kept my vows to wife and hers to me. Marriage is such a beautiful thing.

Also, I cannot wait until tomorrow to watch Mr. Bolt watch his bride come down the isle. You know, each time I go to a wedding, I always like to watch the groom’s expression when he sees his bride coming down the isle. There are a range of emotions that they go through. I will admit that I was so overwhelmed with my wife’s beauty that I started to cry. It was so AWESOME! I actually did not stop sniffling and letting a couple tears fall until the end of the ceremony.

It will be a great day tomorrow for Kyle and Sarah and I am so thankful that they have allowed me to be apart of their special day.

Take a moment to say a quick pray for them as they begin this journey in life together as husband and wife. Also pray for me that I don’t mess their wedding up ;)!

Lastly, if you are married, take a moment to think about when you saw your spouse for the first time on your wedding day. Think of all the emotion, the joy and the excitement that you felt. thank God for your spouse and be sure to tell them that you love them.

This morning I went and played basketball with a bunch of guys from NewSpring. Random group of guys together, but still fun to get out and run around for a couple of hours! Also ate breakfast with Stewart Hudspeth and Chris Pierce. Both guys are awesome and desire to follow Jesus, so it was cool to hear them talk about life, relationships, Jesus, and many other things.

I came home and I have been trying to help my wife straighten up the house (my in-laws are coming for dinner tonight). I looked around the house and we have clothes in the hall needing to be washed, clothes waiting to be folded, clothes waiting to be dried, rooms to be straighten up, things put away, etc.

I almost got exasperated by the amount of work to be done, which brought a though to my head. If I would just take the time to DAILY straighten up as I go along, there would not be that OVERWHELMING feeling when i try to do it all at one time.

I believe that the same goes for our spiritual lives. There are times when we all get “slack” in our DAILY times with Jesus. If we didn’t and then tried to “catch up” maybe there would not be this OVERWHELMING feeling inside of frustration and sometimes despair because of an inability to communicate.

Take the time DAILY to spend with Jesus! He loves you, He cares about you, and He has so much that he wants to tell you! God Bless…Peace!

Today, I had the privilege to have lunch with Dustin Hughes, the Student Pastor at Crossroads Community Church in Simpsonville, SC. It was a great time to talk life, family, and ministry. The great thing about the “ministry” part was that it was NOT just about numbers or the biggest event we’ve held. It was all about how to help each other, encourage one another, share frustrations, etc. In my opinion, that is what we need to be doing when we network with each other. We need to feel open enough to talk life and not just ministry.

Here is a great idea, the next time you try networking with someone do talk ministry, but not ministry in the traditional sense, ministry in the “personal” sense. Ask them how they are doing spiritually, ask them what books they are reading, ask them how they are taking care of their family. If they are doing those things well, then take that and learn from them. But in asking those questions ask in an attitude of humility and a sincere desire to learn, not a desire to hold some accountable or LORD over them so to speak.

Let’s learn from each other. Not just the latest fads or tools in ministry, but learn from our lives as well. I believe that if we focus on learning from our lives then it becomes real and the world needs more REALNESS and less tools and gimmicks.

I remember back in December at the National Youth Workers Convention, Kurt Johnston, the Middle School Pastor at Saddleback Church in California, was very gracious and allowed me to sit down and ask him questions about ministry. All my questions were asked in a desire to learn from someone who had maintained longevity and integrity in the ministry. I did not ask him,

• How many students are you averaging?
• How can I build a ministry that will be just like yours?
• How can I become a nationally known student pastor like you?

I asked him questions such as:

• How do you balance the time with your family and ministry?
• How do you balance spending time with your staff, leaders, and students?
• What advice would you give to someone just starting out in Middle School Ministry?

Let us have a desire to network, but do that with a sincere desire to learn from people’s lives and not just thier professional ministries. Trust me, when we do this we will all be more “successful” in the eyes of Jesus, the one we are ministering for anyway!

Dustin, it was refreshing to sit and talk “ministry” with you today! I will be praying for you, your family, and your ministry. Follow Jesus and do all that he tells you to do! Follow the VISION! You rock dude!

A little over two weeks ago, I went to Willow Creek Church for SHIFT Student Leadership Conference. It was a great trip and awesome time to learn from and network with youth leaders from all over the country.

During that time, there was something that was happening back home in South Carolina that I did not know about. There were some IGNITE volunteer leaders messing with my car. When I say messing with, I mean giving it some tender, loving, care. A group of about 39 or so IGNITE leaders, were taking my car to get detailed (cleaned, waxed, etc.), getting a full service oil change, getting my headlights changed, along with getting the casing for the headlights burnished.

For a long time now, my lights worked, but I could not see all the light that the headlights were given off because the casing for the lights was very foggy. A couple weeks back, I was having a conversation with a couple of volunteers and we were all talking about issues with our individual cars. I mentioned my headlights and the issue I was having with them. I said that i had gotten so used to it that there was no need to get them fixed. One of those volunteers heard that and ran with it.

When we returned it was about 1:00 AM, I could not see my car real well, but I noticed my hands were sliding on the steering wheel. I also thought that my lights were brighter, but I had been driving another car all week, so I didn’t think much about it. I got home and park my car in the garage and look at my car and it was clean and shiny! I looked at my headlights and the casing was clear. I was blown away! My wife greeted me at the door with a smile, and asked if I noticed a difference.

What a HUGE blessing!

To ALL the IGNITE Volunteer Leaders: I am still blown away by the generosity and thoughtfulness of all the volunteers that contributed to giving my car such a clean up job! You guys rock! Each week, you make IGNITE happen through setting up the stage, running check-in, setting up the chairs, straighten up the Fusebox, leading your small groups, and much more! You bless me each week by serving Jesus and serving our students, so this messes me up that you would do this as well. I consider it a privilege to minister alongside each of you! Keep rockin it out for Jesus!

Today was AWESOME! I witnessed so much today that blessed my heart and continued to build my passion for Jesus and the local church. here are a couple of my thoughts from today:

• Perry rocked in out in both main sessions.
• Tony Morgan has posted all of the points from both sessions, so check out his detailed notes over at his blog on Session 1 and Session 2. **You will get a kick out of some of the comments rolling around over there.**
• It was great to be able to speak to so many student pastors from all over the country and see the passion they had to reach the students in their community. They asked some great questions during the breakout that Brad Cooper and I led.
• I look forward to hanging out with some Student pastors from NorthPoint Community Church, Elevation Church, Brookwood Church, Ridgestone Church, Crossroads Community Church, and many others to continue to network and learn from each other!
• NewSpring Volunteers ROCK! Our volunteers rocked the house today. One frequent conference attender told me that our volunteers showed more excitement, willingness to serve, and professionalism than he has ever seen at any other conference! GO NEWSPRING VOLUNTEERS!!
• I love the staff I work with! the NewSpring Staff is AWESOME!! Everyone worked hard this week to make it happen. “Teamwork makes the dreamwork!”
• Lastly, I look forward to hear some of the things that God is going to do in the lives of some of the churches that attended Unleash. It is going to be amazing!

One of the plasmas that is running Matrix Code!

Topic: “MATRIX: TRUTH”

Student Attendance: Below Average
Volunteer Attendance: Below Average
Observer Attendance: Average
Message Length: 20 Minutes
Music: Above Average

We started a new series called MATRIX. In this three week series, we are going to be exploring TRUTH, FREEDOM, and REVOLUTION. I am really excited about this series and what we are going to be talking about.

Last night we discussed TRUTH. Here are the points from last night:

“Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes
to the Father except through me.” John 14:6

1. Truth is Unchanging

· It doesn’t change from day to day…week to week…month to month…year to year…decade to decade…century to century.

1. Truth is Universal

· Truth applies to all of us.

1. God’s Word is Truth – Psalm 119:160 “All your words are true…”

· What is says…HAPPENED (ex. Donkey Talking, Giant Killed with a Stone & Slingshot, Elijah and Fire falling down)

1. Does God’s truth apply to my life?

· Can God’s Word help me keep me out of trouble?

a) YES! – Psalm 119:9-11

· Can God’s Word give me peace?

a) YES! – Philippians 4:6-7

· Can God’s Word fix my relationships?

a) YES! – 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

· Can God’s Word make me smarter?

a) YES! – James 1:5

I will be posting some pics from last night later today! Be sure to check back for those to catch a glimpse of the stage design!