Chris Woolard

What do people want from Church?

2011-12-21T12:21:00.000-08:00

What do people want from their church? It's evident by the massive spectrum of churches that there is no generalization that can be made about this question. I think popular answers include.

I want community
I want family
I want "something for my kids"
I want music I enjoy
I want a great preacher
I want genuineness

But then there is a list of "don't wants"

I don't want to feel "judged"
I don't want people to talk about money
I don't want to commit more than about 45 minutes a week to this thing
I don't want to have to "share my feelings"

The lists go on and no-one's list is the same.

As I'm working at Kinetic I'm seeing an interesting thing. I've worked at 3 churches now. A very old church with a lot of traditional ties that is in a very established community in a simi urban area. A vey new church in the suburbs with some traditional roots that has established themselves as pretty "adult contemporary" and now an "edgy" church that meets in a school with all the trimmings of that style of church. I've loved all three experiences. Each one has presented great spiritual growth for me as well as fair amounts of spiritual challenge. They have all given me opportunities to serve Jesus within the church as well as in the community. So, this post is by no means a commentary on which way is the "right" way to "do church" In fact, the question is quite the opposite.

As I look across the spectrum, there is a common issue. Churches loose people. They just...go away. Why is that? Some of them turn their back on God. Some of them just hop from church to church looking for...who knows what? And my question is "why"?

That's all I've got for now. just the question why?

As we look forward to a new church work in the coming years I hope to understand at least a portion of this question. I don't want to pander to whiny Christians who just can't be happy. But I do hope I can better understand better how to teach people to love the church as the bride of Christ and "be" the church to the world while being way less concerned about whether or not they are getting "what they want" out of it.

Jesus is God

2011-12-10T19:19:00.000-08:00

Ok, here's a 'little' theological mind dump for ya.

How much have you thought about the fact that Jesus is God? I've noticed that the divinity of Jesus is something that is lightly discussed among Christians in the circles that I run in. Not that people deny it or don't teach it. It's just not heavily discussed.

Well, it's true. Jesus claimed to be God (John 10:30). Prophets predicted that he would be God (Is 9:6) . The Angels announced that He shall be called "God with Us". It's well understood among conservative Christianity (I know not exactly what they phrase means but I do know it to be general enough to make the point) that Jesus is considered one with God. You've probably heard a sweet analogy about the trinity being like a 3 leaf clover or like water in that it can exist in 3 states yet be one. These analogies are helpful but don't fully dive into the power that come from understanding the Jesus IS devine...Jesus is God.

Phil 2 teaches that he was equal with God yet chose to release the privilege of being equal with God so that he could fulfill the needed task of humbly coming to earth to redeem humanity. Yet in this human state he never looses the "God-ness" that makes him capable of being the savior. His miracles were a testimony to his power over nature. He claimed the power of sin and demons in a way that no-one else could. In fact, it was his very name that sent demons running. In his punishment and sacrifice durring the final days of his life he exhibited a singleminded resoluteness that is unparalleled. Even in torment on the cross he is quoted saying something that I would have never considered saying...."Father, forgive them..." If that's not the love of God I don't know what is. Sure, lots of Good men have remained composed durring torture....but then, by his own power, he rose from the dead.

I love CS Lewis (others have noted too) simplicity here. Jesus was either a Liar, a Lunatic, or Lord. In addition to that I'd say he was either a Liar, a Lunatic, or God.

Titus 3:11-13 acknowledges him as both God and Savior.

11 For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. 12 It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, 13 while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ,

Knowing more about the 1st century Jewish mind has also helped in understanding this question. The tile for Jesus, "Lord"that is often used to to translate a Jewish title "Adoni" which was the substitute name that Jews used for God (instead of the forbidden name "YHWH") becomes one of the most commonly used titles for Jesus. Our Jehovah's witness friends constantly criticize Christians for removing God's name (Jehovah) from the Bible. It is an interesting fact to note that the word Adoni (now showing up in many of our English translations as a capital LORD) is a more Biblically accurate title that even that of "Jehovah".

Jesus clearly accepted the title of God.

Charles Spurgeon said in a sermon on Isaiah 9, (or listen)

The mistake of those who profess Christ but do not call him Mighty God.
We do continually affirm that an error, with regard to the divinity of Christ, is absolutely fatal, and that a man cannot be right in his judgment upon any part of the gospel unless he think rightly of him who is personally the very center of all the purposes of heaven, and the foundation of all the hopes of earth.

He goes on to say that if Jesus were not God, he would rather become a Muslim than remain a Christian. Because that would make Jesus a liar and Mohammed a better leader of his disciples. Muslims have no question in their mind over this issue. Jesus would have been wrong to be so unclear if his intentions were not to leave us believing that he is God.

Ok...This is by no means a scholarly presentation of this thought but I hope it is helpful to you. I've been in a bit of a personal battle lately over this topic.

More Learning (Small Groups, Front Line, Early Plant Thoughts)

2011-09-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

So this past weekend was excellent. My mother-in-law came to visit. Always a welcome guest! Unfortunately I didn't get to spend a ton of time with her and the fam. Of course, I'm sure she was much happier to see the younger residents of our house anyway.

Small Group Vision Meeting

Saturday, while the kids and wife were having "Nanna-Ma" time (great matriarchal name right?) I was with the Kinetic small group leaders. It was the vision/strategy meeting for the year. Before I get to some content let me get stoked about the location for a second. We met in a board room in the clubhouse at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. That place was ballin!

It was a great environment. The director of Small groups is Daniel Perkins. Great guy! You might know his dad (Dr. Clay Perkins of MACU). He and Dave kinda ran the show but it was really a all-hands-on-deck kinda meeting. We identified 4 "wins" for Kinetic small groups (i.e. how do we know when they're working). We identified a plan for growth and retention of small groups. We also did some planning for training up new leaders. The lesson of the day was pretty clear to me. Vision is a team thing. It takes a visionary to plant a good vision but it takes a team to grow one. I saw that first hand on Saturday.

I'll be leading a small group starting in 2 or 3 weeks.

Sunday: Front line

Kinetic's Welcome ministry is called "Front Line." I'll be working front line for the next several weeks. The current coordinator is Allison Hodges. She's great....spunky, funny, and very honest with people. IT was cool shadowing her and learning her philosophy and thoughts about the importance of Front line.

Frontline arrives at 830 to set up the foyer. Coffee, snacks, breakfast bars, lemonade, and water. A lot of atmosphere stuff. Music. It's all very deliberate. Then, the teams breaks from the technical side of set up to be reminded of their purpose.

They have a phrase at Kinetic. "Vision leaks every two weeks." So, Allison takes is seriously. She has a vision meeting every week before they put on their game faces and welcome people as they come through the doors. This team may be the first faces that someone far from God ever associates with God. Impressions are made in something like the first 7 seconds. Front line does a lot to prime the hearts and minds of people as they get ready for worship.

Allison has a baby due in a few weeks. I will be doing some of her work when that time comes.

Monday:

Monday was a day for setting my eyes back on the path that I'm on. With moving and getting situated it's been hard for me to really focus and remember why exactly I'm here. Monday was a great day to be reminded of that. Dave and I met for a while to talk about some goals and purposes. He's given me a few assignments that I'm really excited about. I'll be working on a few projects and personal growth things that I can see making HUGE impact on who I am and how I think about evangelism and church work. That stuff will come out later as I work through it in the blog. Our goal for this year is to simulate as many of the things that I might experience in the first year or so of church planting so that I can have a little experience under my belt. Other than that, I discovered a really important aspect of the whole residency. I realized that this year is about so much more than ME learning about church planting. It's a chance for my family to get a taste of it too! LIndsey and I talked about this idea a great length over the last few days and it's really revolutionized the way we're both seeing the upcoming year. We see that God is going to allow growth in both of our understandings, attitudes, and philosophies of the church.

Tuesday

One of my first "assignments" was probably the biggest thing I need to work on in my Christian walk...Personal evangelism. The idea of intentionally placing myself in situations or lifestyles that might lead to me meeting and winning someone (that I dont' already know) to Christ. So, I've been tasked with doing that. Meeting people, engaging them in actual relationship and getting involved in discipleship with them. The truth is, this is not a reality show or a "game." It's real life. So, I'm not going to post a lot of detail about people and their business here. I've had many seasons of practicing personal evangelism and the truth is, it becomes easier once you know someone. So, right now I'm trying to meet someone. I'm getting out into the community some. Camping out at starbucks to see who the regulars are. I plan to hit up some music stores (since that's "my peoples") going to parks with the kids to meet families with kids. The reason this is so real is because It'll be vital for me once I'm in the church planting phase. I'll be living in community with tons of people that I don't know and I'll need to be deliberate and strategic about meeting them.

Also, I've got a big project I'm working on. I'll talk about it more once I get it fleshed out some but it maybe the definitive learning experience of this residency.

This post is getting long and I'm trying meet people so....I'm out for now.

Thanks for the prayers! See ya.

Welcome to the Residency.

2011-08-24T18:31:00.000-07:00

So, as I promised yesterday, I am back into blogging again. My purpose for this season of blogging will be to chronicle my journey over this coming year in my new role. I'm sure I'll have many of the same types of blog features that I've had through the years like movie/book/etc. reviews, rants about whatever, and quirky fun stuff. But I also want to keep a running log of my experience here.

For sake of recap...a little background. Roughly 6 months ago, my wife and I heard the clear call of God that we should work towards planting a church somewhere in a community that was lacking one. After much soul searching and counsel, I decided to first step into a 1 year leadership residency at Kinetic Church in Charlotte NC. Kinetic is about 6 years old. Their lead pastor, Dave Milam, offered the opportunity for me to come onboard as a full time staff member and work alongside him and the other church leadership. The goal is simply to see the inside of a church plant and learn a little about what's under the hood. So, here we are. Living outside of Charlotte in a town called Kannapolis.

I want to take some time to talk about what I've done so far and what It's taught me. I guess I can boil this first week down into a couple of experiences. First, preaching. I preached on my first Sunday at Kinetic. It went pretty well in terms of delivery, crowd attention, even content. But the goal is to critique and improve. So, today Dave and I watched the tape of the message. We got about half way through before our time was up but I learned a lot in the time we had. There are mannerism and habits that I can identify (some that I was aware of and others that Dave helped me see) that I can work to harness. Many of the things we do while doing public speaking are not in themselves evil. Things like pacing, hand gestures, poses, eye contact, etc. Can all be used to great effect OR when misused can prove to be distracting or discrediting. So the lesson is...watch yourself and be deliberate. Also, there are certain words that we use that are (as I heard on a radio broadcast yesterday) poor economy of word usage. Words like, "thing(s)" or "that" are often used without actually adding meat to a sentence. For example, "there are two things I want to tell you about grace" vs. "there are two principles I want to tell you about grace." Both give the same basic promise but to call the "things" "principles" adds meat to the bones.

Today I was enrolled in a stand up comedy class! Dave enrolled me to give me a chance to take an unconventional look at public speaking. I'm actually really excited about this. I won't lie, it makes me a little nervous to know that a bunch of Kinetic people will probably crash my graduation when I'll have to do a 5 minute routine. Haha..but hey, everyone's funnier in a comedy club.....right?

The second element I worked on some this week was Small groups. Over the course of this year I want to consume as much knowledge and understanding as possible about small groups. It seems that the greatest and most meaningful growth in a church can happen at this type of level. I met with Daniel Perkins today to talk about Small groups. I'll be leading one this fall. There is so much I could say about that right now but I'll save some for later. Daniel really opened my eye to some good ideas for small groups.

I've really enjoyed my first week "kinda" working here. (They've allowed me to kinda ease into the work load. I'll start full-on on Monday.) The other guys on staff (Daniel Hodges is the worship Pastor and Dave) have been great. The elders are young guys with big hearts and wisdom that is clearly seen. The ladies at the church have been all over making my wife comfortable. Lindsey has absolutely loved hanging out with them.

Tomorrow we finish watching my sermon and I'll be getting on my feet a little bit in figuring out what to do with myself every day.

We're in Charlotte

2011-08-23T07:51:00.000-07:00

Whew, what a marathon of a month. We're here. All moved in to the Charlotte NC area (Our house is in Kannapolis). I started my new job this week. I'll be more "officially" working next week. Right now they're letting me get settled in and I'm working from Starbucks this week. (Not too shabby)

I plan to get back into the blog swing too. If you look back to old posts you'll probably see that I've made that commitment more than once. Oh well.

You can get a much fuller update on the happs of the Woolard fam in our new news letter.

Silas has started kindergarden this week too! Wow. He's getting so big. We're actually home schooling this year and he's doing great so far. Svannah is just busy being too dang cute. She turned 2 last month and she's full of spunk. Lindsey is wonderful as ever. She loves it here and is really making good friends already with a few people from our new church.

So, that's me easing back into the blog world. More to come later.

Peace.

Photo Restore

2011-07-20T20:11:00.000-07:00

This week Lindsey and I were packing for our move. We found some old pictures. One of the pictures was of her mom. It is a little wallet size picture in a small glass frame. It's been there for years and years. unfortunately, the picture was stuck to the glass of the frame and has been discolored and disfigured because it was stuck to the glass. So, I took out my handy dandy ipod touch. Snapped a picture of it. Emailed it to myself. Imported it into Photoshop (a few days later) and here is the result. Im no Photo Shop tutor. I've been working on enhancement techniques but I'm more of a trial and error kind of guy. Here it is.

I went for more on a portrait look. If you know my wife and sister-in-law.... then you know that this is clearly their mom. Pretty cool.

Hmmmm

2011-07-11T20:10:00.000-07:00

So much to blog about. So many better or more important things to do. Maybe I'll do it later.

Dispatch E.P.: Beto (Beto the Pure)

2011-05-21T13:39:00.000-07:00

Taking some time to consume the new Dispatch EP! First Studio work from the guys in 10 years. It's great. Here's one of the new tunes. You can pick it up at itunes

Beto
Beto, where will you go. Beto what will you do?
Beto why don't you know (yeah) your time, your time is through.
Held all your guns, and all along the way, oh what the people say?
Beto the fury's near. Lock the doors out of here.
get out....

Maria, she said to me,
"it's so much more than rice and beans, (woah)
that I'm cookin' for you. It's how I love them true.
Bring me your brothers. Bring me your mothers.
Oh the little and the broken too.
I will not lead them. No I'll just feed them.
Let me be me and you be you."

I see all your lies.
I see all your lies.

Up on the hill top, flashing lights.
Up on the hill top, The barrels never lie.
Up on the hill top, I heard it said.
In a gunshot word that Beto the pure was dead.
Still I see him walkin' and talkin there.

I feel all your lies.
I see all your lies.

Beto, where will you go. Beto what will you do?

Beto why don't you know (yeah) this time, your eyes are new.

Hand me all your sons and all of your ways.

All of your people's wave.

Beto, the pure is here. Unlock your doors and have no fear.

Have, have no fear.

Beto why do you care?
Beto where do you stand?
Bring all your guns and your ways
Tell me what the people say

Beto the Pure
Beto the Pure

Dispatch E.P.: Valentine

2011-05-21T13:22:00.000-07:00

Taking some time to consume the new Dispatch EP! First Studio work from the guys in 10 years. It's great. Here's one of the new tunes. You can pick it up at itunes

Valentine

It's fadin' blue, into the black.
The news is goin' down into the dirt
Crushin' the white stones.
The sun expires, the wind is zipped up
hidin' fire in a tin cup.
Freeze the river. Cross out the clouds.

I bet it was a a bumpy ride. I bet it was slippin slide.
You were upside down. Rollin around. lost in time.
Ah, valentine.

So let's seal up the leaks is it really goin' down.
broken flame. bones to blame.
Ropes and flames. Kisses from the parade.
Tying ribbon of rain.
Paradise, sacrifice, lemon lips, a pyramid of apples.

I bet it was a a bumpy ride. I bet it was slippin slide.

You were upside down. Rollin around. lost in time.

Ah, valentine.

Come on, come on let's go.

We've got the car packed up.

Come on, come on let's go.

Keep my mind steady. (?)

Foot prints of forever. Suitcase in the hall.

Holdin' my hands, watchin' tears fall.

She's watchin' them fall.

Promise of another. It's better to look right now.

Scared of what we'll see. Will he have the same face as me?

I bet it was a a bumpy ride. I bet it was slippin slide.

You were upside down. Rollin around. lost in time.

Ah, valentine.

lost in time, lost in time, lost in time, ah, valentine.

Dispatch E.P.: Melon Bend

2011-05-21T13:12:00.001-07:00

Taking some time to consume the new Dispatch EP! First Studio work from the guys in 10 years. It's great. Here's one of the new tunes. You can pick it up at itunes

Melon Bend
I saw you in the moss. I see the birds up above.
You stood up with a shout and said that it's time.
We went through the old car woods,
Saw the shadows on car our hoods
swinging on the old town to phone vines (?)

Oh my Lord, I think that I could run forever.
May you stay so true. Not be lonely ever.
Now my world come right I will swim the river until my bones give up.

Said when you were born, your daddy took you home
He wispered to the ground ever softly.
Left a shovel on the stove, left the hail alone,
drove like the road to the only life to know.

Oh my Lord, I think that I could run forever

We don't stand a chance. We will run the river.
I swore on your bed I would leave her never. until my bones give up.

And the birds they land and I see both of you are there

And we are walking. We are walking.

And as you turn around I see your hands, they look like mine.

And we are walking. We are walking back. Toward the hil.

Oh my Lord I think that I could run forever.

We don't stand a chance. Oh now more that ever.
Make you stakes on you only lonley never, until your bones give up.

Oh my Lord I think that I could run forever

we don't have any plans. we will run the river

Now my girl come right I will never leave her. Until my bones give up.

Dispatch E.P.: Con Man

2011-05-21T12:43:00.000-07:00

Taking some time to consume the new Dispatch EP! First Studio work from the guys in 10 years. It's great. Here's one of the new tunes. You can pick it up at itunes

Con Man
He's just another con-man sitting on a hill
you see him at bull fight, closest to the kill
He lives up in a tower, sells dream to the poor
No matter how he gets 'em, he always wants some more

He said he was a rocker, said he was lost and never found.
Said that she should pity him after he forced her to the ground.
She lost one of two jobs lost her home too.
Yeah you're just a back home ???? and he's getting rich off of you

But the talk's so cheap. We're gonna smoke him out
But he rolls so deep, high above the crowd
And, he hide his face up high on a wall
but you just wait, one of these days, one of the con-men is gonna fall
(one of these days Mr. Con Man the con man is gonna fall)

(interlude)

Con-boy, soon to be a man
He like his toast and butter. he like his jam
He gonna make a black out but keep his collar white
he gonna bring the books to a boil and tell you it's good and fine

(chorus)

And may he likes likes his building
plans to show affection to him mate
and when he sleeps, she goes through his things
and finds it all ....cheap....(chorus)

Just another calm con man! (repeat over and over)

(Ends with some hard to understand words talking about the Con man)

We "need a good church"

2011-05-02T17:09:00.000-07:00

When Lindsey and I made the choice to follow God where ever he led us on this new journey back on Feb. 27th, we had no idea what we were jumping into. We knew that God was in control and we needed to let go and let him lead. That's all we knew too. Here I sit a short 2 months or so later with a half-baked plan to pack up my family and move 2 hours south east to plant a church. It's been quite a ride.

I've been absolutely overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and prayers from our friends and family over this decision. Even though we have barely made any "actual" steps of progress, there have already been several spiritual battles raging. Simple things like the doubt in my calling or the fear of failure have caused my heart to palpitate and my hands to sweat. Several times a week I get some message or notion from someone that "this will be the hardest thing you've ever dine!"And, though I really appreciate the heads up, it's not always a comforting message to hear. Haha. But God is good. We move forward with the solid resolve of pursuing God's heart for the people of Wilmington. Hardly a day goes by when I don't hear a story about someone's friend or relative that lives in the Wilmington area who "needs a good church." Don't we all "need a good church." The truth is, there is only one church. The body of Christ is not broken or segmented. It is whole and sanctified (even with all her warts and scrapes).

As we make this move, there are so many thoughts about HOW to do it. The church has taken on so many iterations that it's hard to recognize the true bride of Christ under all her vestments. The shrouds and veils of traditionalism, programming, funding, trends, opinions, and well intentioned bitter old ladies often cover the beautiful face of the bride. They weigh on her shoulders and bind her hands and feet to the point where she isn't able to move about freely and do the work that she was born to do.

The body of believers that I am headed to evangelize, pastor, and lead must begin with the foundational understanding that we cannot be the church unless we recognize what the church really is. To help do this I've begun reading, praying and journalling with a focus on finding the core virtues that drive the church in the pages of scripture. What I'm finding in a refreshing and unhindered church that is focused on a few simple things. As I write out my thoughts I'm seeing a few fundament keys to what it takes to be the bride. The first, is family. We are a family. We must love and serve one another like a loving family. The second is that every disciple must be a disciple maker! (It's funny, these two things are exactly what Francis Chan said at the Exponential Church Planter's Conference last week...I didn't steal it from him...I think we both found it in the same place. But it's nice to be thinking in the same galaxy as Francis.) There is no excuse for Christians who are not actively seeking to make new disciples. It's something that has been programmed out of us and it's time to program it back in. The third major key that I've been pondering has to do with community involvement. Christians should be leading the charge in the world for helping the down-trodden, the broken, the poor, the sick, the imprisoned, the elderly, etc. Jesus made a point to mingle with the marginalized and show them love. We should do the same...deliberately.

There's a lot more that I want to say on this a well as a lot more that I am learning from the Holy Spirit. But I'd love to hear what you think.

What are the non-negotiable fundamentals of the church?

On the road again: 5,951 miles this month

2011-05-02T17:05:00.000-07:00

So, last month I posted the crazy travel schedule I had. I thought It would be fun to do again. This one actually takes us through next week. This year, I will see more states than I've ever seen in my life (in one year). In June I'm also headed to Chicago to watch my all time favorite back Dispatch in concert. In October we'll be attending the Vault conference in Las Vegas.

April 8-9: a Great weekend canoeing/camping with 3 of my best friends! About 10-12 miles of canoeing @Lake Drummond in Chesapeake VA
April 11: Winston-Salem NC for a meeting for our new church plant plans
April 17-22: Spring Break Missions trip with my High School group! To Norfolk/Portsmouth VA
April 25-29: Exponential Church Planter's Conference in Orlando FL
May 9-12: CPAC Assessment in Longmont CO

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A Letter to My Christ's Church Family

2011-04-23T19:12:00.000-07:00

I posted this on Facebook last week and forgot to put it here for my blog friends.

There's a lot happening in our world. This is the letter we shared with our church family that gives a few details. We're still in the begining stages of the plans but here's some of our story.

you can also see a short video blog about it

Christ’s Church Family,

I guess the best way to start this letter is to say, God is good. nearly 5 years ago he gave me an undeniable drive and calling to come to Greenville NC and work with Christ’s Church. In that time, Christ’s Church has become home. You have become family. Lindsey and I have been so blessed to spend these years here, building community, raising our kids and learning more about our Lord Jesus by watching his people in Greenville teach by example. The purpose of this letter is to inform you all that, once again, God has seen fit for us to make a move. We weren’t looking for change, we haven’t sought opportunities. In fact we’ve quickly turned down any opportunity to move that has come our way because we felt so certain that God’s place for us was with you.

But, like a whirl-wind, God has shown us that he has plans for us to move our family and start a new church in Wilmington, NC. Please let me show you how quickly and persuasively our sovereign God acts. In the fall of last year I had made the statement to Lindsey, “I’m not sure what God has planned for our life right now but I want to commit to youth ministry for at least 5 more years unless God literally drops something undeniable in our lap.” We have been very content with this decision and have been passionately pursuing God’s heart for Greenville. Alongside that commitment there has always been an understanding between us that one day we wanted to move to a community that needed the gospel and work to establish a new church there. (This concept may be new for some of you. “Church planting” is as old as Christianity itself. And in my nearly 10 years of youth ministry, I’ve always known that it was something I would love to be a part of.) Little did I know God was ready for us to act on that passion this year.

In February I found myself in a conversation with a man named Dave Milam. (Many of the Christ’s Church teen ministry people will remember him as the speaker at CCYC 2011). Dave has planted a church in Charlotte, NC. Lindsey and I were talking with him about how God had laid on our heart the desire to be involved in a new church plant somewhere (one day). Through the conversation and a series of events, I learned that Dave was not only a church planter but an instrumental member of 2 ministries whose soul purpose was to help establish new churches: Stadia and Envision are the organizations. He knew enough about me to know that I might be a prime candidate to be the lead minister for a new work that they had planned for 2011/2012. He offered me the opportunity to partner with him and his team. If we passed their assessment process we would be able to get started as soon as the fall of 2011. Yes, it was a shocker. But Lindsey and I knew immediately that this was God’s work. There were at least a dozen reasons why “now” was the right time. Of course there were obstacles (What about our ministry at Christ’s Church? We own a house in Greenville! We love our community and lifestyle here!) But we had to answer this question, “Is God, God, or not?” If this is his will, and his time... we would be fools to say “no!”. In addition to this clarity of direction God laid an additional thought in my head. I began to pray this prayer, “God, mark me with the mark of Abraham.” God spoke to Abraham saying, “Go to the place I will show you.” (Gen. 12:1) Abraham said, “Okay.” He packed up his family and walked in faith. I didn’t know where or when or how... but I knew that God was showing me something undeniable. As I had asked, he “literally dropped this into my lap.”

A lot has happened since that day in February. Each step has further affirmed that this is my calling. It seems that God has been preparing me for this my whole life! Day by day Lindsey and I have used this as an opportunity to learn about God’s sovereignty and power. As we’ve shared the story in detail with some of our closest friends and family, we’ve seen that God has been able to use it to inspire them to look for God’s action in their lives. As we make this transition at Christ’s Church, we hope more than anything that this can a teachable moment for our family here. God is bigger than our plans and our desires. He has his own big picture. He’s also more valuable than any one of his followers. You and I are his servants...it’s not the other way around! So we are walking in faith and following his voice.

Like Abraham, each step of the way has opened our eyes more and more to “the place he is showing us.” We now feel certain that Wilmington is the place. The time is still a little fuzzy. We’ll be attending our final and biggest assessment on May 9th-12th in Denver CO. If all goes well there, we will nail down the official date that we’ll be moving to Wilmington. For now, we’re using the “fuzzy” date of August 1st. The Christ’s Church leadership (Elder’s and Staff) have been extremely supportive of this calling. They have made every effort to help me plan as well as to work out a transition plan for the ministries that I work in at Christ’s Church. They understand what it means to walk in faith. If the assessment determines that I need more training and that we will need to push back the date of our transition, the Christ’s Church leadership is willing to wait on that timeline. Meanwhile, I am still very much an active and excited member of God’s family at Christ’s Church. I have no intention of loosing that passion or getting slack.

We have built many relationships in our time here but there are none more precious than those that I’ve built with the teenagers of this body. Leaving them will be one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. I love them as my own children. I will cry over the separation. I have taught them many of God’s truths through the years. My desire, however, is that this move will not serve as a point of sorrow for them. Instead I pray that it will be the greatest lesson that I’ve ever taught them in what it means to follow Christ. Paul said, (Gal 2:20) “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Please, don’t cry for me. Cry for the lost of Greenville whom you have the opportunity to share the gospel with! Please, don’t allow any person to be the anchor of your faith. Trust in Christ alone for that! Please; call me, text me, or message me any time you ever need to. The world we live in is to small for this to be “good bye.”

I wish I could sit down and share the whole story of how God opened our eyes to this with every one of you. It’s getting to be quite a long and inspiring story. We’ve been keeping a journal of all the phases so that we can eventually post it online as a source of inspiration to others who are looking for God’s guidance. Meanwhile we want to encourage you to talk to us about this. Please feel free to bring it up, ask questions, or even vent your frustrations (if you have any) about it to us. This story is not ours alone. It’s part of God’s intense biography of which each of you has your own chapter.

To try to capture our heart for the city of Greenville or, specifically, for our family at Christ’s Church is not possible in this letter. The best I can do is express my unyielded gratitude to you for accepting us as family and making it so easy for us to call this place “home”. Our children have literally grown up here. Silas was six days old when we arrived he’ll be 5 in September. Savannah will be 2 in August. You have loved them as your own and we have loved your children. I have been humbled by opportunity to work alongside you for our Lord and blessed by your love. My wife and I cannot begin to say thank you for your hospitality, honesty, and love. You have taught us what a church can be and shown us what a church should be.

We love you all dearly,
Chris, Lindsey, Silas, and Savannah Woolard

1,700 Miles. 3 states, 8 cities 2.5 weeks.

2011-03-29T07:22:00.000-07:00

This has been a very busy couple of weeks for the Woolards,
Right now I'm in a hotel in Charlotte NC where LIndsey and I had a much needed one day getaway in route to TN. We went to Ikea (which is one of Lindsey's favorite places in the world.) We're headed to Knoxville TN where I will present my final project and take a final exam to wrap up my Master's degree. It's been a long haul! We're about to hit the road but I just thought it'd be cool to post this list and map so I can look back on this past 2 weeks and breathe a sign of relief.

Thursday March 17: Elizabeth City NC for Gospel Ralley through Friday March 18th
Saturday March 19: Home for the day
Sunday march 20: Preach @ Christ's Church and Middle School Parent Night at six78
Monday March 21: Greenville to Durham for CCYC planning
Tuesday March 22: Durham to Greenville for the "Jesus Loves Greenville" event
Wednesday March 23: Greenville (JLG)
Thursday March 24: to Yorktown VA. practice "Ground Zero" (Pre-teen conference)
Friday March 25: Lead worship at "Ground Zero"
Saturday March 26: "Ground Zero" to Wilson
Sunday March 27: Worship in Wilson @ Stoneybrook Christian Church
Monday March 28: To Charlotte NC for R&R
Tuesday March 29: To Knoxville TN for "Preaching Emphasis Week" at Johnson Bible College
Friday April 1: to Wilson to get our kids...to Greenville.\

View Larger Map

We're so blessed to have my parents and in-laws who have kept our kids for several days of this crazy time. Lindsey has traveled with me most of the way which has been great for us. God is doing amazing things in our life. I'll post more about those things later. For now, I've got to get out of this hotel room and drive some more! Pray for me if you will, Tonight I preach for a student body (of some kind...I have no idea who) as a part of my final project for school. Thursday I have an 8 hour exam/paper that I've got to write. I'm not nervous, I'm ready. By the end of the week I'll be done with school. Not too shabby...I finished at 3-6 year degree in 7 years. Haha. nice.

Peace

Update

2011-03-22T18:28:00.000-07:00

Hey guys. I'm alive (what an understatement). Life is really good these days. I've had to let the blog simmer for the last month or so while I focused on a few things. I'll have full updates for... whoever cares. Haha. Here are some highlights.

CCYC was a few weeks ago. We had over 850 people there! It was awesome. Go to www.facebook.com/theccyc to see some of the feedback from the students. It rocked for Jesus
Family life couldn't be better! Nuff said. I really could go on and on about the love I have for my wife and kids but that wouldn't be a brief update.
Ministry at Christ's Church has really taken some cool turns. We've got a "new" (it's been 2 months now) year-long intern. Many of you know Josh Curry. He's doing great and really brings a lot to the table. We've put a lot of effort into building our student ministry small groups and that's showing some fruit. There's more....but...maybe later
I've been discipling a new guy. He's on the verge of accepting Christ. Pray for him. I won't post his name on the world-r-net yet but pray for him. He's on fire for God right now but still has some basics to figure out about Jesus.
Sunday I was able to preach at Christ's Church. I always love getting to do that.
Tomorrow night is "jesus loves greenville." That's a cool new movement that some of our students have started in Greenville and their having a basic training night for students who are sick of being lazy in their faith. Cool stuff.
We're leading worship for a 4-5th grade conference this weekend (lindsey and I). It's Student Ministry's "Ground Zero." That's pretty cool because it's a little off the beaten path that I normally stick to. We're excited to rock out with some old friends (Duane Crosby and Aaron Cross) and my new staple lead guitarist (Aaron Collins)...by the way, Aaron Collins is a rock star. he's in the band "everember" you should spend money on their stuff!
Next week I finish Grad school. Yes. Finally. It's taken me 7 years to finish the 3 to 6 year program. But, I did it. It's a MA in New Testament with a focus on Preaching. You may remember that I had done all the course work for the NT with a focus on research. I'm so glad I switched. This was perfect for me.
Lindsey and I will have a semi-vacation next week. I have to go to Knoxville TN to present my final project (a sermon) and take a comprehensive exam. Other than a few obligations we'll have the week together, (ALONE!...haha, rare for parents of 2 youngins) in Knoxville. Be jealous. haha.
Savannah is trying to potty train. She's doing good. If she wanted to she'd have it by now. But she's stubborn like her daddy (er...mommy...well, she gets it honest). She pees and poops in the potty when she wants to. If not....she's cool with the diaper, the pants, the floor....whatever. She's my girl. haha.
I'm sure there's a lot more but the squiggly red lines for spell check have reached their limit for one post. So I'll sign off. It'll be a while before I'll be posting regularly again but I've got some good stuff in mind. So, see ya then!

That's My King: The Lamb of God

2011-02-15T06:37:00.000-08:00

This image is linked from www.bbc.co.uk

We're coming to a close on our, "That's My King" Series. It's been a fun journey but today's reading was anythign but fun. I was reminded today WHY Jesus came to earth in the first place. 400 years before Jesus was born, Isaiah 57 spoke of his death.

4 Yet it was our weaknesses he carried;
it was our sorrows[a] that weighed him down.
And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God,
a punishment for his own sins!
5 But he was pierced for our rebellion,
crushed for our sins.
He was beaten so we could be whole.
He was whipped so we could be healed.
6 All of us, like sheep, have strayed away.
We have left God’s paths to follow our own.
Yet the Lord laid on him
the sins of us all.

7 He was oppressed and treated harshly,
yet he never said a word.
He was led like a lamb to the slaughter.
And as a sheep is silent before the shearers,
he did not open his mouth.

Please go read Mark 15 and tell me I'm crazy for believing that a the word of God is a unique book! Mark 15 is the amazing fulfillment of several OT prophetic passages.

In this chapter we see the powerful Lord of Creation reduce himself to a meek lamb. Phil. 2 says, "When he appeared in human form,he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross." (NLT) He was unfairly arrested, mistreated, yelled at, beaten, mocked, traded for a known criminal, and executed.

3 years earlier, John the Baptist (Jesus' dear friend and cousin) introduced Jesus to the world with this phrase, "Look, here comes the Lamb of God who has come to take away the sins of the world." John never lived to see that prophetic utterance come to fruition but he knew by the Spirit of God that it would be so.

The lamb is symbolic on so many levels. Jesus was not only a lamb, but he was a lamb by his own choice. As he took on this roll, Mark focuses on a few other by-standers. I also have a few observations about them that we can learn from.

Have you been "Pilot"
First, is Pilot. We see him KNOWING that the charges against Jesus are bogus. Yet, check out this phrase.

13 They shouted back, “Crucify him!”
14 “Why?” Pilate demanded. “What crime has he committed?”
But the mob roared even louder, “Crucify him!”
15 So to pacify the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them.

Have you ever released Barabbas "to pacify the crowd?" I know I have. You know what God desires from you but the crowd is just so loud and convincing! So, to pacify their blood-lust, you compromise your integrity. Oh what a sad state. Think about what you do every time you compromise your integrity for comfort's sake. You release the criminal and crucify the king. It brings me to tears to think about it. (seriously, right now, I'm headily burdened with the thought of my Pilot moments.)

Have You been a Simon of Cyrene?
Simon was the dude that was forced to carry Jesus' cross. He wasn't expecting it, but you'd better believe that it changed his life! Sometimes the gospel just jumps out of nowhere and slaps me in the face. I'm convicted by the sight of a child loving unconditionally, I'm moved by the actions of Christians who stand against injustice, I walk selfishly into a service opportunity only to be sucker-punched by the Holy Spirit so I can see what God wants to teach me in that moment! Talk about "carrying your cross!" Simon carried "THE" cross. I pray for Simon moments in my life.

Have you been a Joseph of Arimathea?
This is guy that gave Jesus a tomb. It says

43 Joseph of Arimathea took a risk and went to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body. (Joseph was an honored member of the high council, and he was waiting for the Kingdom of God to come.) 44 Pilate couldn’t believe that Jesus was already dead, so he called for the Roman officer and asked if he had died yet. 45 The officer confirmed that Jesus was dead, so Pilate told Joseph he could have the body. 46 Joseph bought a long sheet of linen cloth. Then he took Jesus’ body down from the cross, wrapped it in the cloth, and laid it in a tomb that had been carved out of the rock.

Joseph took a risk! He didn't know what might happen if he took a stand to serve the king but he went anyway to ask for Jesus' body. It says that he was "waiting for the Kingdom of God to come." This is the phrase that Jesus preached all the time. "The Kingdom of God is coming!" Yet, at this point, Jesus was DEAD!!! It's like the people who and Tu-pac and Biggy Smalls to come back and make an album with Elvis Presley....It's not gonna happen man! But for Joseph, death wasn't really "a big deal." He was still committed to Jesus.

Do you take risks to see the kingdom come? Do you lay down your life, your reputation, your sanity for the Kingdom of God?

These three men are great examples of what happens when the King of Kings does the unthinkable. When the most powerful being in the Universe decides to become a sacrificial lamb. It changes everything. It should change you.

In Chapter 15, the king dies. He's dead. Make no mistake. They stuck a spear through his heart. He's in a tomb with a rock rolled over it.

Though the Sorrow may last for the night (in this case, about 3 days) JOY comes in the morning!

That's my king, the Lamb of God who came to take away my sins! Thank you Jesus.

That's My King: King of the Apocalypse

2011-02-10T06:00:00.000-08:00

This is "Apocalypse" from the X-Men Series
The image is from MarvelDirectory.com

Check out other "That's My King" posts.

Hollywood has glamorized the end of the world to be some weird sci-fi experience that will happen with no warning. There are usually aliens or earthquakes and typically, at the center of it, are two of America's hottest actors (in Noah-fashion, one male and one female). The idea of the end of the world captivates every culture. According to the ancient star-watchers of the southern Americas, 2012 is the expiration date. We'll know soon enough. Dozens of people have predicted the end. Dozens have failed.

Mark 13 is a section of scripture where Jesus talks about the end of the world in a way that only Jesus could. In my Sunday Morning High School class, I'm teaching through the book of Revelation. It's the second time I've taught Revelation to High School students (the first time was when I was in Norfolk). It's always funny to hear people talk about Revelation and the end of time. The "Left Behind" series did a great job of totally freaking everyone out about it. But the more I study it, the more I read the words to the believers, the more I'm comforted. The end of the world is not scary to me. It's not "too mysterious". I don't understand it all but I get the message that Jesus wants me (as a believer) to hear.

I believe one of my favorite artists said it best. "Don't worry, about a thing. Cause every little thing is gonna be alright." Thanks Bob.

There are two passages that I want to share from chapter 13. These are the messages that we need to hear. Don't freak about the weird earth crushing stuff...focus on these statements.

Jesus Is going to gather the faithful!
13:24 “At that time, after the anguish of those days,

the sun will be darkened,
the moon will give no light,
25 the stars will fall from the sky,
and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.

26 Then everyone will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds with great power and glory. 27 And he will send out his angels to gather his chosen ones from all over the world—from the farthest ends of the earth and heaven.

secondly is this very good advise

Stay Alert!

13:32 “However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows. 33 And since you don’t know when that time will come, be on guard! Stay alert!

So don't freak out. Don't fear. Study with confidence. (Maybe one day I'll post my thoughts on the book of Revelation. But don't be afraid to dive in yourself. I can recommend some great books on the subject to help you get through it.) If you are in Christ, do not fear the end. Because My King....OUR king is the God of the Apocalypse. That's my King!

That's my King: The King of Kings

2011-02-09T07:47:00.000-08:00

One of Jesus' most prolific titles is "King of Kings." We see in Revelation that he has the power to take down nations with his very words (or maybe the tongue like a giant sword is a literal description of how he's gonna do it – that'd be cool). Yet, in the gospel we see him, for the most part, as everything BUT a political or military king. He is meek and peaceful. Or is he? If you've been following our study, you know that he is no stranger to confrontation or even altercation! He'll roll if he has to.

In Mark 12 we see a glimpse of Jesus as the King of King. When it comes to tax time, Christians love to talk about Jesus' take on taxes.

Jesus saw through their hypocrisy and said, “Why are you trying to trap me? Show me a Roman coin, and I’ll tell you.” When they handed it to him, he asked, “Whose picture and title are stamped on it?”
“Caesar’s,” they replied.
“Well, then,” Jesus said, “give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God.”
His reply completely amazed them.

Jesus was being challenged and tested by the pharisees. Can you imagine how much patience it took for Jesus NOT to just slap those disrespectful men. Of course, that's not his style. He's much smarter than that. Other than the fact that his reply was brilliant and averted further confrontation at the moment, it was also Jesus' way of saying, "Psh... money? I don't need your money! George Washington and Ben Franklin can have your money! Their faces on that worthless paper. I'm above ALL that!"

We know that God wants us to be faithful with our money. We teach about "tithing" and "offerings" all the time in churches. It helps to do much of the kingdom work that we do in our age. But make no mistake. There is no currency that Jesus needs. There is no government that he owes taxes to. And there is no Ceasar, President, or King that Jesus need ever pay homage to.

My king. Is this King of king! That's my king!

Is Prayer a lost Discipline? Come join me on a journey!

2011-02-08T06:32:00.000-08:00

This post is a little long but If you want a great challenge to get your prayer life pumpin' read through and join us in a journey. 28 days of prayer.

I meet with several people every week to do some kind of Bible study or other discipleship stuff. It's something I've done for years now. I'm a full time minister at a Church, so that allows to make time for that kind of thing. I would encourage all of you to schedule at least one of these kinds of meetings ever week for yourself. Either with someone that you would like to mentor or perhaps with someone that you could pour into. Believe me, even when you are the mentor you will be fed by the encounter.

All of that to talk about this. One of my students challenged me yesterday with a question about fasting. He wanted to know why we didn't do it in our church. I was a little floored because I wanted to to say, "We do too! We fast all the time in our church!" but truthfully, it's a subject that gets little attention in most churches that I'm familiar with. Now, I grew up being taught that fasting should be some sort of secret society event. Kind of like fight club, "the first rule of fasting is, don't talk about fasting" And maybe that's true to some degree. But how can we teach something that we never talk about? Right?

Of course, prayer goes hand-in-hand with fasting. And, though I think my prayer life is "decent" I know that I could (and would love to) spend much more deliberate focused time in prayer to the father.

So, I decided to dig a little deeper. Here are my thoughts.

I fasted on the regular for about one semester in college. Once a week my friend and I would skip lunch and go pray (on our own) we kept each other accountable. Since then, I've done it a handful of times for certain specific reasons. My challenge goes deeper than fasting though. What I want to be is a prayer warrior! It's really all I've got. The sword of the spirit in one hand and the prayer of a righteous man in the other. So, what I want to do is make my prayer life more deliberate.

Borrowing some ideas that I've pick up through the years here is my plan. Each day i want to have a prayer topic, a specific thing or people to be praying about. With that topic I want to have a "most wanted" list from that category. The 2 or 3 most vital needs or concerns for that group. in addition to that. I want to have a list of dailies. A list of things that are pressing RIGHT NOW and which need daily prayer attention. I don't want to setting on my lists today. I really want to pray more about the specifics but I want encourage you by inviting you on a journey with me.

For the rest of this week I commit to praying every day with a journal. For me...the journal is more like a way to keep my mind in gear, not a place to write out my verbatim prayers (that may change, but I know myself well enough). Durring this week I will pray for the things that I know need prayer. I will begin to make a list of the things I feel led to pray about and most of all, I hope to just begin a better habit. by monday next week I hope to have a list of 7 daly prayer subjects. One subject for each day of the week. (for example: Monday, The City of Greenville; Tuesday, The Elders in My Church; etc..... I will probably focus Friday on my Wife and Saturday on my children since those tend to be my "days off of work" but I still want to be in prayer.)

My challenge for this journey is to do this every day for 4 weeks. 28 days.

Fasting?
I think fasting is a discipline reserved for specific times of prayer. For the first 2 weeks I don't PLAN to fast at all (thought I may) but instead be thinking of specific prayer that needs extra faith and attention. In 2 weeks I hope to address fasting with a more spirit-led motive.

So, the student that challenged me, (prophetically enough, his name is Nehemiah! We call him Nemo) and I will be doing this together. I want to invite you to get a journal and join us. You've got the rest of this week to get your mind in gear. Will you join us? Leave a comment below if you want to hold one another accountable. I'm game if you are. Let's do it!

That's My king: The King of the Prophesies.

2011-02-08T05:47:00.000-08:00

Like so many of the Chapters in Mark, chapter 12 is packed with snippets of information on King Jesus. For this study through Mark, I've ben trying to blog my thoughts about what Mark teaches us about King Jesus. I can see several here.

In Mark 12: 1-12 we see the parable of the Vineyard. If you're unfamiliar with it, basically it's the story where a man buys a vineyard and then moves away, leaving the vineyard in the care of few servants. These servants are wicked. When the man sends other servants to collect his portion of the harvest the wicked servants kill him. They do the same to other servants who come to collect the harvest. Finally, the man sends his own son to collect their portion of the harvest. He too is killed. Brings the story around to explain that this was all done to fulfill what had been written in scripture.
He says that the son (of course this son represents Jesus) was:

‘The stone that the builders rejected
has now become the cornerstone.

and Jesus affirms: "This is the Lord’s doing, and it is wonderful to see."

THere are many layers of understanding to this parable. But today I want to focus on something key to our faith. Jesus was not the Messiah of "happenstance" he wasn't an accidental savior. Jesus had been the plan since the fall of Adam and Eve. He was the prophesied Messiah who, for hundreds and hundreds of years, had been alluded to by various writers and men of God. Many of prophecies about Jesus were so specific that it blows my mind. His birth, life and death were so specifically described by Isaiah that you would think that Isaiah was a contemporary of Jesus'.

I'm not big on those 1-800-READ-MY-PALM prophets that are in virtually every city in the world but the prophets of God are the real deal. Their words are tested and true and Jesus is the ultimate expression of God's foreknowledge.

Jesus is the King that the prophets foretold. That's my king. The king of the prophesies.

Modern Major General....Grievous

2011-02-04T10:56:00.000-08:00

This is brilliant. If you've seen or listened to "The Pirats of Penzance" or maybe you're just into quirky old songs, You've no-doubt heard "Modern Major General" It's been around since 1879. This video is an awesome idea. Using General Grievous as the main character here is, Modern Major General...Grievous.

That's My King: The King of Confrontation

2011-02-03T07:57:00.000-08:00

So confrontation isn't easy.Some of my friends might think I enjoy it based on how often I find myself in some sort of confrontational situation. Truthfully I hate it. My stomach can only handle so much confrontation before I just have to step away. Jesus was no stranger to conflict. He was surrounded by conflict from the time the Holy Spirit conceived Him in his mother's womb until 5 seconds ago when some modern day Christian took a stand for their faith in Him. But in all of this conflict, His resolve is solid. His focus is fixed and he simply controls the situation.

Chapter 11 of the Gospel of Mark continues our series "That's My King" during which we've been looking at some of the striking qualities of Jesus as he is portrayed by Mark. In the chapter we see Jesus dealing, once again, with conflict.

There are a few stories here. Until this reading, I'd never seen all the conflict and Jesus' plan to deal with it but I think it's an interesting way to summarize the passage.
in 1–11 we see the disciples as they fetch a donkey for Jesus to use in the triumphal entry. He instructs them to get the donkey and, if any one askes them what they are doing, simply say "the Lord needs this". Awesome. I'm going to try that sometime! Haha. This very minor conflict is dealt with by confidently following the instructions of God. Sometimes we just have to say, "I'm doing this for the Lord....end of story". It may not always go as smoothly for us as we would like but I do believe that it's an excellent way to deal with a challenge against our faith.

Later we see Jesus cursing the fig tree. I've got to admit... this might be the strangest Jesus story to me. He goes to the tree looking for fruit and the text explicitly says, "it was too early in the season for fruit." Jesus simply curses the tree. A few verses later we see that it dies. Jesus' "conflict management" with this tree becomes a lesson for the disciples in faith. Go read it yourself and dig through the passage. Jesus' lesson on simply trusting God is powerful.

Alongside this story is Jesus clearing the temple. Simple enough... Jesus saw that the temple was being misused and to resolve the conflict he simply "storms the castle" and runs out the dishonest people. Sometime in dealing with conflict we just have to cleanse the temple. Stand on righteousness and eradicate the evil. Of course, Jesus has a lot more clout to push around when it comes to righteousness. I guess my thought would be that we ought to exercise "temple cleansing" conservatively until we seek strong Christian counsel and prayer.

Finally is my favorite of the set. Jesus is challenged (again) by some teachers. He is asked where he gets his authority. As is typical for Jesus, He replies not with an answer but with a questions. (maybe a great conflict management tip here too!). He asks them where they thought John the Baptist got his authority; from man or from God? Their response is deep. They say, "I don't know". So he simply says, "then I won't tell you where my authority is from. An important conflict skill is knowing when you're speaking the same language as your adversary. If I'm approached by a gun slinging drug-dealer...odds are, speaking logically about poor choices isn't going to click in his demented mind. Many times the best way to end or resolve conflict is to say, we're not doing this right now. Again, it's not always how things work out but at this point in the story, that's how my king rolls.

That's my king. The king of confrontation.

That's My King: King of Marriage

2011-01-31T07:38:00.000-08:00

Ok, today's post is heavy. It's rated PG-13 and it might hurt your feelings. I DO NOT indent that. I'm just sharing the words of Jesus and trying to figure it out myself along with you. Please feel free to comment and open some dialogue but this is not the place to get all heated and send me hate mail haha. Here we go.

Studying through Mark at this slower pace has really opened my eyes to so much of the detail that Jesus put into teaching about our every day lives. Mark 10 breaches a topic that is a little taboo in the modern church. "DIVORCE" can we just say it together? "DIVORCE". Yes, it's affected more lives than I care to count and has hurt too many. Yet, in our culture it's seen as just another inconvenient truth of human existence. Based on what I've seen, divorce seems to simply be a second option beyond the "to have and to holds"

First, I MUST give this loving disclaimer. I have many, many, many, (etc.) very dear friends who have gone through or been the "bystanding" victims of divorce. I also have friends who have gone through both ugly and generally peaceable divorces. I love those friends dearly and the following is not directed at anyone. I'm just sharing my thoughts after reading Jesus' teaching on the Matter.

In the past, I haven't been in the habit of pasting the text into my posts but today I will because I want to give you the chance easily read it with your own eyes.

Mark 10 (NLTDiscussion about Divorce and Marriage ¹ Then Jesus left Capernaum and went down to the region of Judea and into the area east of the Jordan River. Once again crowds gathered around him, and as usual he was teaching them. ² Some Pharisees came and tried to trap him with this question: “Should a man be allowed to divorce his wife?” ³ Jesus answered them with a question: “What did Moses say in the law about divorce?” ⁴ “Well, he permitted it,” they replied. “He said a man can give his wife a written notice of divorce and send her away.” ⁵ But Jesus responded, “He wrote this commandment only as a concession to your hard hearts. ⁶But ‘God made them male and female’ from the beginning of creation. ⁷ ‘This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, ⁸ and the two are united into one.' Since they are no longer two but one, ⁹ let no one split apart what God has joined together.” ¹⁰ Later, when he was alone with his disciples in the house, they brought up the subject again. ¹¹He told them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries someone else commits adultery against her. ¹² And if a woman divorces her husband and marries someone else, she commits adultery.”

God does not approve of divorce. He does not desire it. He did not design it as a way out of a bad marriage. I think this draws on a few different reasons.
1- Moses allowed it as a concession for hard hearts. The phrase, "hard hearts" in scripture is not a pretty one. Pharaoh had a "hardened heart" and thats why he kept the Israelites as slaves despite the plagues that God sent. It's seen here and in other places as the result of people turning their minds from God for so long or so stubbornly that he simply says (my words, not His) "Fine. Be that way. Have fun figuring this out on your own." Apparently that's Jesus' take on divorce.

My thoughts about this vary because it's so personal to so many people. But I can't help but think that if people were more conscious of God's will for their life or maybe if they guarded their hearts more diligently, then their marriages might work out differently. Yes, I know, this sound terrible for me to say. Especially for all of my Christian friends whom I believe "really tried to salvage their marriages". My wife and I have never even entertained the thought of separating. Sure, we've had some fights. Several that I'm ashamed I allowed myself to instigate and take part in. (that's me being transparent.) But Never once did it occur to me to say, "Maybe this just isn't working out." We made a commitment to each other and to God. There is no "out"

2-The second area that Jesus mentions is "the two are unified into one" and no one should separate that which God brings together. Wow. I don't even know what this means. You know? Like, I'm not "one" with my wife. For example. Right now, she's at home and I'm in the office. Last night, I wanted a milk shake and she did not. We disagree on things all the time. So what does it mean to me "one". Honestly, I'm not %100 sure. It's a little weird to me. But it's been God' language of choice since Creation.

I have a theory though. It's this. Sex. I think that there is something more going on in sex than meets the eye (or hormones). Sure, it's physical. But apparently there is more to it than that. 1 Cor. 6:18-20 says:

"Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies."

Something different happens with sex than with any other human activity. I think it's because Someone our spirits are involved in a very tangible way. This may indeed be the very reason we are not to have sex outside of marriage. Because in sex, our soul is somehow united with the soul of our partner. That, my friends, is a scary thought! Especially if you've had many sexual partners. It's crazy to think about. Like I said, this is my theory. I didn't make it up but I tend to find it believable. Why? Well, what is the ultimate biproduct of sex? Babies! Believe me. I've got 2 kids and there was NO stork. Each baby has a soul. Pro-creation is a spiritual event. Whether you intent it for reproduction or not, sex is that event.

Why does God come down so hard on divorce? Because he sees how all the pieces work. He knows the emotional and psychological results of immorality, and sexual sin. Jesus says, "anyone who divorces and remarries committs adultery" He's not sugar coating this.

So, a few final thoughts.

YES. God can forgive divorce. That's what grace is all about.
YES. If you've had sex outside of marriage that's a sin. NO, I don't think that makes you "married" but YES I do think that you have messed around with a sacred spiritual no-no.
Yes, I'm very aware of Paul's writings about divorce and the things he adds about unfaithful spouses and spouses who have passes away. Thank God for those teachings. Feel free to add them in a comment if you like for others to view.
Yes, I'd love to try to answer any questions you might have about divorce but NO I'm not an expert nor do I claim to be. I'm just another blogger with some thoughts. You can comment below if you'd like to have any discussion.

Whew. Thank the Lord I am not in charge of making discussions about marriage and divorce for other people. But Jesus is still the king of Marriage. That's My King. The King of Marriage.

That's My King: The King of Daily Bread

2011-01-26T06:34:00.000-08:00

By nature, I tend to be kind of relaxed. I'm a chill dude. I wish that was always my M.O. but it's not. I get worried and stressed about the mundane. I doubt my ability to be the man of God that I need to be. I fear the world that we live in for the sake of my kids. ( I don't like the idea of them having to be hurt by this ugly place.) Overall, God has blessed me with a temperament that takes life in stride but there are still many times when I loose focus and don't put my trust in the almighty.

We're reading through the Gospel of Mark with the idea of meeting Jesus anew. To say, "That's my king"

In Mark 8:1-21 we see three quick stories unfold. The first sets the tone for the second two. INn 8:1–10, we see Jesus feeding 4,000 people. Verse 2 is kinda funny to my because it says, "and the people ran out of food again" haha. I wasn't there, so I can't joke them but it almost seems like Mark is snickering a little bit. Maybe not. Either way, their desire to see Jesus far outweighed their sensible responsibility to get food. I've been in places before where food was hard to find. Like, a hotel room... you know, when you're starving but it costs $2.50 for a 20 ounce bottle of Pepsi from the machine. I've been there...kinda...but never with 3,999 other people. I bet it was "bout to get rowdy up in there." Mommas, slappin' mommas and kids crying. Hunger is a powerful thing. But Jesus wanted to avoid all of that. So, he (for the second time in Mark) preforms a miracle to feed the people. This time with 7 loaves of bread. (Previously they had 5 loaves and 2 fish). The disciples were there, they saw the whole thing. Remember that.

In verse 11 we see Jesus having a brief spat with some more pharisees (man those guys are up in his grill!). They challenge him to preform a miracle to prove that his has authority. Apparently Jesus wasn't in the mood for a fight today...so he just sighed to himself and walked away. Haha. "Hey! Jesus, don't you know who we are?! You can't just walk away from us!" ummm, yeah, he just did.

Then comes part 3. This is what I learned from today.

The disciples are in a boat. They realize they've run out of food and had no bread. There may not have been an argument or a fight among the 4,000 or between Jesus and the Pharasees, but by this point the disciples had had all they could take. They began to argue about the bread.

Have you ever argued about the bread? Live wasn't "just so" like wanted it to be. Just as you imagined it should be? So you argued over the bread. You have a bad attitude with your wife because of a rough business meeting. You take out your frustration over finance on your kids who are asking for toys. You have a bad situation in your life, so you take it out on inanimate objects like throwing your cell phone across a room (yeah, there's a good idea).

Jesus is looking at you like he looked at those men that day. He said, "Why do you argue about not having bread?! Don't you understand even yet? Are your hears too hard to take it in? You have eyes but you can't see. You have ears – can't you hear? Don't you remember anything at all!!?? When I fed 5,000 how many basketfuls where left over? When I fed 4,000 how many basketfuls where left over? Don't you understand yet? (Mark 8:17–21)

God didn't have to show the Pharisees a sign. He doesn't owe any of us an explanation. Time and time again he had proven himself to us. Don't we have eyes? Don't we have ears? God will take care of us. Relax! Trust him.

That's my king. The King of Daily Bread.

That's My King: KIng of the Marginalized

2011-01-25T06:00:00.000-08:00

Still in Chapter 7 and in the That's My King series. We see Jesus doing something that we should all learn from. He is ministering to a group of people that his society had forgotten. Right on the heals of his tongue lashing to the pharisees about serving God with their hearts, Mark shows us two instances where Jesus models his message.

In 7:24-30 Jesus is met by a Gentile woman. This woman is NOT a Jew. In other words, she is not culturally fit to be speaking with this Jewish rabbi. Yet, in faith, she approaches Jesus in behalf of her daughter who is demon possessed. The rest of the world would scoff at such boldness. A woman, despised by an ethnic group, intentionally infiltrating that group to speak to one of their spiritual leaders. Why would she waste her time? In fact, I wonder if that thought might have crossed her mind as she asked Jesus for help and Jesus' reply was, "Why should I help you? First I should help MY people....It isn't good to take food from my children and throw it to the DOGS!" Come on Jesus, that's low! Maybe he was testing the lady, maybe it wasn't as offensive as it sounds with my 21st century ears. But you've got to wonder if this lady was thinking, "shoot....this is exactly what everyone else SAID would happen." I'm sure that Jesus knew what she was thinking. Bur regardless of her thoughts, she stood her ground and showed her faith by saying, "Yes, but even the dogs are allowed to eat the crumbs that fall from the children's plates." To which Jesus replied, "Good answer, go home. Your daughter is healed."

My dad is a preacher. Both of my granddads were too. As well as an Uncle and several other simi-distant relatives. I've been in ministry since I was 19. I've seen people take advantage of the church. I think it's wise to sort out the real needs from the scam artists. Perhaps that's what Jesus was doing here. But make no mistake, Jesus served a woman who would have otherwise NEVER found a willing ear in Jerusalem. She was a SHE! A woman. And she was a Gentile. She was a marginalized person. But Jesus found need of restoring her.

Secondly, Jesus heals a Deaf man. In Mark 7:31-37 we see his doing his magic spit trick and touching the man's tongue (ew). The deaf in modern society have been left in the wings. My family has long had involvement in deaf culture thanks to my mom's passion for her many deaf friends. This is a great example of a marginalized people in our world. The church has done decent at reaching out to them but there are many who simply don't feel comfortable in our congregations.

Let's learn from the King. Love the marginalized. Who are these people in your community? Seek them out. Serve them. Love them as our King does.

That's My King! King of the Marginalized!

That's my King: King of Hearts

2011-01-24T06:26:00.000-08:00

Chapter 7 continues our "That's My King" study through Mark. I hope that a few of you have taken the time to read about our king and see things through the eyes of patient Bible study.

Mark 7:1-23 is one of the classic "Jesus vs. Parisees" moments. Have you ever felt like some holy-wanna-be is staring you down while you're trying to do your thing. Like, maybe in church someone is staring at you because of what you're wearing or because of you tattoos or hair style. I work with teens and also tend to be a bit of a die-hard grunge-rocker (fashionably speaking). Thanks to decades of brainwashing, many church goers are led to believe that "bringing your best" to God, has something to do with the way you look on sunday morning. As if, somehow, God cannot see you Monday-Saturday. Jesus is about to tackle this very same idea....but first...

A second issue. The debate goes on and on about a few taboos. Alcohol, cigarettes, tattoos and piercing. Listen, I'm really not up for any debate on this one. I'm quite exhausted with the topic to be honest. So I won't dive in very deep this time. But we all know the debate. Is _____ a sin? There are many things explicitly mentioned or implied in scripture that are definitely sinful. Lust, slander, malice, greed, hate, dishonesty, the list is easy to build. Then there are the "grey" areas (as they have been called. Those things that people will say, "I can't find anything in the Bible that says that _____is a sin". Again, I think Jesus deals with this topic in Luke 7:1-23.

As Jesus and his disciples are being creeped on by a group of Pharisees, it comes up that they (the disciples) have not been participating in a "ritual cleaning" that has been a tradition of the Jews. Basically, they hadn't been washing their hands. Now, I'm a big fan of hygene, as is God... but when the pharisees call out the disciples for their failure to stick to the tradition and wash their hands Jesus gets heated.

Jesus starts out pretty sternly, "YOU HYPOCRITES!" wow. In church yesterday, Tim (our lead pastor) made the statement that "We're all hypocrites". Which I agree with. But there is just something WAY different about Jesus calling someone a hypocrite (you know what I'm sayin?)

He says that they are the fulfillment of something that Isaiah has talked about,

"These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship is a farce,
for they teach man-made ideas as
commands from God."

Jesus is a king that knows the heart and values it over our ceremony. I'm not going to dig on the Pharisees any more. Jesus took care of that and I'm not perfect either. I just want to note the lesson for us. God has given us strict, irrefutable "laws" and guidelines for living. The New Testament is packed with useful information for living. But so often we find ourselves replacing that with something less.

Have you ever "gone to church" to make yourself feel better about sin in your life? Have you found yourself trying to appease the guilt of your sin by singing more songs or reading your Bible more? Have you ever tried to "make a deal" with God (God, If you _____ I promise to _______). Have you tries to replace evangelism with "church involvement?" Mark 7:8 says, "For you ignore God's law and substitute it with your own tradition"

My stance on all the "dress-code" and "taboo" topics above is simple. I know what God has called me to do in scripture. I've been challenged to live it out in my own life. No one on this earth is my judge and I don't answer to them. I must carefully weigh "my freedom in Christ" with "my ministry to the people I serve" and before I can point at the speck in someone else's eye, I must attend to the plank hanging out of mine.

I want to Honor my king with my heart, with my motives, with my actions, and with all my mind.

That's my king, He's the king of my heart.

That's My King: A Real Man

2011-01-19T07:23:00.000-08:00

As we continue in the "That's My King" series, we pick up in Mark Chapter 6. There we find Jesus hard at work, in high demand, and VERY busy. Chapter six is so full of lessons about our king that I will have to break it up into several posts over the next few days.

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In 6:1-6, Jesus has returned to Nazareth. Nazareth is his home town. Have you ever thought about what it would be like to say, "I went to High School with Elton John." or, "George Bush is my Uncle." How about, "Yeah, Jesus grew up next door to me....seriously, we used to play Mario 3 together." Having a celebrity status in a small town is tough. My wife and I like the movie "Hope Floats" where Sandra Bullock has to return to her home town after a nationally broadcasted breakup from her husband on a talk show. Her life is never the same, she's constantly under a microscope and rumors fly. Imagine what it would be like if if some guy from shop class came back to your 10 year reunion claiming to be the savior of the world! This is basically what Jesus has done here. Despite his widely acclaimed works and miracles throughout the region, the home town crowd was very suspicious. They say "He's just a Carpenter! The son of Mary and Joseph!" (I highly recommend Josh McDowell's "More than a Carpenter". A Great work of the person and Lord of Jesus Christ)

Of course, this is the passage where Jesus says, "A prophet is without honor in his hometown." But as I read it again this time I also heard another level and here it is....Jesus HAD a hometown. He was a real man! Jesus was guy who grew up on Nazareth next to "Mrs. Johnson". He mowed her lawn and had a lemonade stand on the corner. (Okay, I'm being way too American 1950's...but you get my point.) So much of the humanity of Christ that we talk about have to do with his physical needs. He was hungry, he was tired, he had pain, etc. In this story we see the people who knew the untold stories of Christ. What happened for the first 30 years? What kind of kid was Jesus, how did he do as he learned to read and write? What were his socially strengths and weaknesses? We get this picture of Jesus as a perfect kid but at some point the neighbors didn't immediately see it that way. In fact, I would guess that many of them remembered the circumstances of his birth and the rumors of his mother's promiscuity.

It's comforting to know that Jesus lived on this world for 30 years before embarking on his messianic mission. It's consoling to know that he really does understand community and life among other people.

Jesus was a real man. That's My King. My king came to live among the peasants those loyal and those disbelieving. That's my King. My King was a real man.

That's My King: He Changes Lives

2011-01-14T07:21:00.000-08:00

Chapter 5 of mark's gospel is an emotional roller coaster. I've read it before, but this time with new eyes. There we see 3 families, broken. I'm not sure if you've ever looked at it though that lens but for me these days, it seems like everything goes back to family.

Family 1: The Crazy Uncle
Okay, I'm not sure that the demon possessed man was even an uncle but I think that the idea of a crazy aunt or uncle is a funny stereotype..(disclaimer: we love our crazy aunts and uncles just same...haha). This guy was possessed by Legion. A whole gaggle (I think that's what you call a flock of demons) of evil spirits. He's butt 'nekid' and terrifying the neighbors. He lives in caves and is a complete mess. Jesus has a brief conversation with Legion. I find this conversation ironic and strange because I expect Jesus to cut the small talk and kick some demon tail...but first he shoots the breeze a little with Legion. Eventually, as you may know, the demons are sent into a herd of pigs who then dive suicidally off of a cliff.

Then come the most beautiful part of the story. 5:19 Jesus tells the man, "go home to your family and tell them about everything that I have done for you". Until now we only know this guy as the crazy naked caveman. Suddenly we see that he is broken. Imagine bring his family. Sad, disappointed, embarrassed, and sorely missing their son, father, uncle, dad...whoever this man was. My King Changes Lives!

Family 2?: The Lady
This one is a stretch for me to say that it has anything to do with family. (Notice the question mark) So I won't assume to know that there is family involved. The focus here should be on the changed life. This lady had been bleeding for 12 years! The medical system isn't helping her out, it says that she has "suffered at the hands of many doctors" ouch. I hope they have a lawyer. Apparently no one was able to help this lady. She'd even spent all of her money on paying the doctors back. She's ruined. Adding insult to injury....she's still go this bleeding problem.

My favorite element of this story was Jesus' attitude. We've already established that he can read minds (know thoughts) and that he's got power over healing people. But in this situation He plays the role of the "passive" healer. The lady has such faith in Jesus that she thinks that by touching his garment she will be healed. Do you think Jesus didn't know she was thinking that? I'm sure he may have chosen not to...but at any rate. She touches him and is healed. Then, I love the guy, Jesus says..."hey, who touched me? I just felt some power leave me."

This lady's life was changed physically. But I believe that her life was changed spiritually too. She was one of the few who actually "got it" that Jesus was more than a magician. He had real power. My king Changes lives.

family 3: A Little Girl Lives
This last story makes me want to cry. First, in grief. A 12 year old girl has died! This is terrible. She never had a chance. She's gone. Children dying is one of the saddest things I can imagine. I love my 2 kids more than my own life. I have been in student ministry for a solid decade and have fallen in love with so many of my "kids". I love them like they were my own. I have some small picture in my mind of the grief that Jairus and his wife were feeling.

But then I want to cry in JOY! Jesus brings this girl back to life!! When I was 16 a good friend of my died in a car accident. I've had several people close to me pass away. I've seen families struggle with the loss of a loved one and there is always this nagging thought...what if they could be brought back! Typically, it's just a dream. Jesus makes this dream a reality for this family.

It reminds me of the real life that Jesus gives to all who accept him. I want more than anything for my family and friends to know Jesus so that after we all die and move on to glory, we can all experience what Jairus and his wife experienced in Mark 5 when they say their little girl again!

That's my king! He Changes LIVES!

That's My King: Lord of Nature

2011-01-13T06:00:00.000-08:00

Still in Mark 4. We find Jesus in a boat. Possibly one of his most famous stories. Mark 4:35-41

There is a storm and Jesus is asleep. He is awakened by the terrified disciples who are freaking out....""Teaching, don't you care that we're going to drown!!??"

It's funny to me how this is so similar yet so opposite from the story of Jonah. There we find Jonah, a scrub prophet, running from God. The storm is there because he has disobeyed and he realizes that the only way to end the chaos is for him to be thrown overboard.

Jesus is much more composed than Jonah was. He rises. And you must appreciate Mark's brevity as he tells the stories in his gospel. There is no build up, no further context, just Jesus standing up and saying, "Silence, Be still!"

And wouldn't you know it. The storm ceased.

Now, I've tried to walk with a bowl of water before. I've experience a small stumble while doing so. And I know that it takes a second for the violent waters of my bowl to "silence, be still". We're talking about the sea of Galilee here. A veritable ocean! It's sloshing and slapping and spewing.... and BOOM. "Suddenly, the wind stopped, and there was a great calm." (4:39b)

Imagine being a fisherman stuck in another boat somewhere else in the lake. He was prepared to die....and suddenly...calm. Whew! Lucky him.

Jesus is Lord over nature. In Colossians 1:15-16 we read that Jesus is "the image of the invisible God." That he "existed before creation" that "through Him, God made all things" and "Everything was created for Him!" Jesus is truly Lord over nature.

Remember Jonah. What happened when he was thrown over the side of the boat....suddenly, calm. Same God. Same Lord. Same King.

That's My King!

Starwars according to a 3 year old. Enjoy.

2011-01-12T14:28:00.001-08:00

That's My King: The Patient Teacher and Story Teller

2011-01-12T06:30:00.000-08:00

As I'm reading through Mark I'm constantly being reminded of both the humanity and the deity of Jesus. A follower of Christ has to bear both in mind or he gets a skewed vision of who the savior is! In Mark 4 we get a glimpse of Jesus teaching in a way that has become a hallmark trait for the Lord. He teaches in parables. As I read and re-read this chapter I honed in on a few key observations that we can be comforted and challenged by.

First, that Jesus is a teacher:
4:2 says, "He taught them by telling many stories in the form of parables, "

I'm a teacher. It's one of my number one passions. As a teacher, I find that stories are possibly the best way to convey most lessons. Even something as systematic as addition and subtraction is taught to children through stories "Sally has 4 apples, Sam gives her 3 more. How many apples does Sally have?"

Jesus understands that we are spiritual children without him. He wants us to see the kingdom in terms we can understand so that we can seize the kingdom in our hearts and minds. So, he's satisfied using illustrative stories to get him earth-shaking messages to sink into our hearts.

Jesus is a patient teacher
Secondly, I noticed this. At first (even later) the disciples and others were puzzled by Jesus' stories. They didn't get it. So he took the time to explain it. 4:13-20 is all an explanation of the previous parable. He doesn't always do this. But for those who really want to understand, he provides understanding. I love this verse,
"To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given." (4:25a)

It's comforting to me because I'm a mechanical thinker. I want to know how things tick. The mysteries of God do not lend themselves to my mentality. But I've learned that understanding comes in the morning. When I wait, and pray and earnestly seek God's guidance.... I have always come to peace. Sometimes the conclusion is simple "you're not meant to understand this!" But when my heart is open to the Lord's patient teaching...I find peace with that answer.

Jesus wants to be DESIRED
My king isn't interested in popularity he's interested in passion. Jesus could have walked through every town in the world pulling back the spiritual veil over everyone's eyes and exposing Himself as the God that He is. Instead, he taught it parables. (4:34) "in his public ministry he never taught without using parables" but when he was alone "he explained them to his disciples."

Jesus wants to be sought after. He wants to provoke thought and reaction. He wants us to take the message home and chew on it for a few days and then come back asking for more. He's not interested in being a heal-me-fill-me buffet for our selfish whims. He wants to be desired and loved by genuine followers who understand that He is both Lord and King.

That's my King.

That's my king! : Ready for the Critics

2011-01-10T06:35:00.000-08:00

I'm starting a new series on here called "that's my king". Inspired by a sermon by Dr. SM Lockridge and fueled by my personal challenge to read the book of Mark over and over during the year of 2011, I will be highlighting moments from the life of my king...Jesus. Please enjoy and worship with me.

Jesus is ready for the critics.
In Mark 3 we see the Lord on the Sabaath. Of course, it's a sacred day anyway (especially for a 1st century Jew) and thanks to the legalism of the Pharisees of the day it was also a very good day for the self-righteous religious leaders to look more pious than the commoners. Here we find a very confident jesus. He's ready for battle. In 2 ways. Fist, he's ready to do his job as the Messiah- preach, heal, and disciple. All of which he is doing in POWER on this particular day. Second he's ready for the critics. I love what is said in verse 2. "Since it was the the Sabbath, Jesus' enemies watched him closely."

I feel that way all the time. Like someone if gunning for me. Like I'm under the radar or being watched. There are certain people who I'm sure would love to see me fail. Of course, I do fail...these kind of people love it. I'm sure it's nothing like Jesus dealt with. In fact, I don't think I have it as bad as many ministers do (Some ministers are under the gun from their church leadership in a way that it unhealthy...that's not me. I've got a great group of leaders.)

Jesus was under surveillance here. And these guys were planning the pounce on him. But he was ready. He had just proven in chapter 2 that he could read the minds of the critics (Mk 2:8) so I'm assuming he knew their plan. So, what does he do? He deliberately calls a deformed man to come stand right in the middle of the room (it says, "In front of EVERYONE") and heals him.

Jesus wasn't a coward, he wasn't the pacifist that some make him out to be (sure, he didn't slap anyone...with his hand....but he sure did give a smackdown!)

Jesus was ready for the critics and he wasn't afraid of them.

That's my King!

Happy New Year! Just some thoughts as we kick it off.

2011-01-01T19:28:00.000-08:00

Well, 2010 is gone and 2011 is upon us. It's been a quiet new year's around the Woolard house. I went to bed around 10:30 last night (yeah, boo me....I'm boring...whatever....haha) and slept in a little. We did a little window shopping since we've got some gift cards from Christmas and then headed over to help some friends move. I got to play with Silas a lot today. Built an x-wing model (Star Wars) with him. It's been a nice peaceful day.

"Perry Da Platypus!" -Dr. Doofenshmirtz

Lindsey and I did YogaX tonight (from p-90x). I Love it. It's so refreshing. An hour and a half of peacefully hurting yourself. Lindsey clarified that this was NOT a new year's resolution. Not that she doesn't want to keep working out but I think she just doesn't want to be lame and trendy. I'm with her on that one. It just so happens that our schedules have JUST cleared up again so we can schedule some better exercise time.

This is not just a pointless post though. I'm really going to try to do some more significant posting in the next few weeks. I've been working on some ideas and I just need to start writing more. I'm hoping to keep the momentum going by simply making myself post regularly. This, hope, will generate a little more excitement in me for doing it.

I'll be preaching at Christ's Church in the morning. I'm excited that this year I'll be preaching much more regularly. Tim has offered me several calendar dates to preach. In the past it's been less of that and more "fill in" or "last minute" stuff....which I'm, totally down with. But it's going to be cool to really get to develop material with him throughout the year.

Also, in 2011 I'll be finishing my MA in NT Preaching. I'm super stoked about that. It's taken long enough. I'm so glad I switched degrees from research to preaching. I hope to put my passions to good use too. I'll be speaking at several events in 2011 as well as my regular teaching. God is good. I can't believe he's filled me with a desire to do something (preach) which I used to utterly hate doing. It used to stress me out for real!

Okay, this is just a "prime the posting pump" post for 2011. We'll see how I do.

I hope you guys all had a great holiday season and plan to serve our Lord with all you've got this year.

Peace-
cw

Top 10 in 2010

2010-12-31T11:59:00.001-08:00

So, this post will conclude my series which has hopefully breathed life into my blog which has ben dormant for quite some time. In this last post I will not be doing 10 of anything. I just want to share in a public way about how thankful I am for what is easily the favorite part of my life. My family. I have a lot of family. My parents and brother and very dear to me. Them, along with my sister-in-law and niece are extremely precious to my life and happiness and I love them a lot. However, for this post I want to focus on the people who live in my house and who really are a important part of who I am.

First, My little girl Savannah.

Savannah is 17 months old and a little ball of busy. She can't sit still for anything. She's fiercely independent and imitates anything she sees. I love watching her vocabulary develop and seeing her interact with her big brother. She greats me with a smile every time I enter the room and affectionally calls me "Dad-n" (no idea why she just won't drop the "n" sound..but I'm down with it.) I didn't know how much I could love having a little girl until I had one. I won't lie, I wanted another boy. Girls scare me. I've been a youth minister for almost 10 years and a boy for almost 30 years. So...girls scare me. haha. But this one is bay far my favorite. I love her so much and can't wait to see what the future holds for this little firecracker. I call her Louise, Ethel, Fatty, Babe, Stanky, and anything that rhymes with Savannah (there are only a few words)

Second, My big boy Silas.

Silas is my buddy. We say we're "best buddies". I have learned more about God while learning to be his father than I ever imagined was possible. Words like patience, perseverance, discipline and love have such a rich definition in my mind now thanks to Silas. Silas is a dare devil and a daddy's boy. He'll try anything dangerous but it's pulling teeth to get him to try anything green (he doesn't like veggies). He is the apple of my eye but is so much more than I ever was. If I was athletic, he's an olympian. If I was smart, he's a genius. If I was caring, he's a saint. He's got a heart of gold and will of steel (he got the latter from his daddy.) I've cried at the thought of him having to grow up in this broken world but I'm doing everything in my power to teach him about the life transforming power of Jesus. He's 4. He's in preschool and he LOVES to play. If playing were an occupation, he'd be a workaholic. I call him Bill, George, Buddy, and Knuckle Head.

Last but certainly not least is my beautiful wife Lindsey.

The word favorite just doesn't describe this woman for me. Pardon me if you'd rather not read mushy stuff...go watch mysteryguitarman if it bothers you. But When I think of my wife I simply say, "wow." She's super woman. She's always prepared for whatever comes our way yet she's super flexible (which is great because I'm a "fly by the seat of my jeans kinda guy"). She's outstandingly resourceful. Lindsey is like a 17th century pioneer woman. She makes everything from scratch from food to gifts to soap to baby wipes. But she can appreciate a treat like a night out or a simple vacation. She's fun!!! My wife loves to go camping and ride bikes. We watch funny movies and tell stories together. She's a beautiful singer and my favorite duet partner. She's smart but humble. She's creative but willing to learn new things. One of things that I love the most about her and at the same time drives me crazy is that she's super stubborn! (Lindsey, I know this made you laugh). I hate it when her stuborness doesn't work out for me (duh) but's it's great when I need someone to be stable and say "no" or "yes"....she's not super opinionated but when she needs to be...she is. Another thing that is great about Lindsey is that she's tough. She once made a police officer put out a cigarette because he was in a "no smoking"area. Some people are scared of her. Which...right now...is making me laugh out loud. Because if she ever got in a fight she'd curl up in a little ball and wait for it to be over. I love that she will comfort me when I'm down and kick me in the butt when I need to be set straight. I love that she'll cry on my shoulder when she needs to but can be a rock when I need her to. You'll notice too that I haven't told you one of my favorite things. My wife is HOT! No lie. I think she gets prettier every day. Finally, (I could go on and on) there are 2 reasons why Lindsey is my favorite. 1) she had my children. Thanks. :) and 2) she'll continue to have me. We talk all the time about how lucky we are to have each other....but I'm the luckiest.

Ok..mushy rant over.

This concludes my Tops of 2010. It was fun. I look forward to 2011. Peace and Love in Christ....

-Chris Woolard

Top 10 in 2010:

2010-12-29T18:24:00.000-08:00

Okay, so 2010 is coming to a screeching halt as is my count down. Tonight's will be a little more serious than yesterday's. I may "say" that I love Google or a certain band but truthfully it's just fun and games. Nothing on this earth is worth a grain of salt in reality. I really believe that. I'm convinced that God is real and that Jesus is my savior. Not in a Pop star/rapper at the Grammy's kind of way. But in a "it alters how I raise my kids" kind of way. I've had a hard time thinking of ways to incorporate this central element of my life into something as trivial as a countdown and I've decided that one way to do it would be by listing my favorite Worship songs.

Worship is a lifestyle. It's not a schedule-able thing. Either you're worshiping or your not. But God is gracious and he gives us certain modes of life that lend themselves to focused worship. Things like spending time in nature, time with family, creating art, and YES music. Music has long been a part of how humans have worshiped the one true God.

So, without any further delay...

Top 10 in 2010: Favorite Worship Songs of 2010
My soul is often too ADD to dig a song too long. So, this list has probably changed dramatically about every 6 months. This list has some newbies and some oldies. Check 'em out and worship the king with me!

Beautiful things: Gunger
God of Justice: Tim Hughes
God of this City: Blue Tree
Yes You Have: Leeland
Heaven: Paul Wright
We are yours: Charlie Hall
Our God: Chris Tomlin
How He Loves: John Mark McMillan
The Stand: Hillsong United
How Great is our God: Chris Tomlin

PLEASE SHARE YOUR FAVORITE WORSHIP SONGS!

Top 10 in 2010: Reasons I Love Google

2010-12-28T18:41:00.000-08:00

So I've been doing my Top 10 in 2010 and decided to have some fun with this one. If you know me personally and have ever talked computer-nerd-ese with me, then you know that I'm a google fan(atic). I've loved their philosophy on technology and collaboration. Probably the thing I love most is their price...everything is free (or close enough). Unlike their technological cousin Apple, whom I also have a very special affinity for, Google is the "everyman" software. They have paved the way and set the pace for cloud computing and open source collaboration. So, today I give you the Top 10 reasons I love Google.

Top 10 in 2010: Reasons I Love Google

Google: Still the number one search engine online and the best way to find ANYTHING
Google Calendar: I wear this bad boy out! You can't go wrong with syncing your calendar online and the platform is second to non. If you don't have a google calendar, you MUST switch now.
Gmail: Hands down, the BEST email service available. I've tried hotmail, yahoo, outlook, mail, and various other rinky-dink deals...Gmail rocks the bells.
Google Chrome: Faster, smarter, better UI, and prettier than any other browser. There are still many programs and websites that need to get onboard but overall it's the best there is.
Google Maps: to me, using map-quest is like reading the KJV. Effective but archaic. NOt to mention all the special features that it gives like street view, embedding options and the best variety of trip planning abilities abilities.
Google Voice: I have completely switched my voicemail to Google voice. I also use it to make calls from the office all the time. I look forward to the innovations that it will allow.
Google Docs: This is not the best word processor there is. Pages and Word are far better. But being able to collaborate and share is vital to much of my job. Coupled with Gmail it's powerful!
Blogger: Ok. There might be better blog services out there. But I have to be faithful. I've built many websites (including this one) using blogger and all for free. It's a great service.
Google Sync: I love having my phone contacts and email contacts synced at all times as well as my mobil and online calendars. Google sync isn't the most flashy product they have but it's certainly very valuable to me.
Picassa and Picassa Web Albums: A great free photo editing software that my wife eats up and does a great job of basic editing. It makes images look professional. The web albums are also very cool for a variety of reasons.

There are many many reasons that Google is the icing on the cake of the internet. I've already mentioned Google Books in a previous list. Some other great things that you need to "google" are:

Google Earth/Mars/Moon
Google Body
Google labs (a whole world of neatness to tap into)
Google Chrome OS
Android (yet another world of awesome)
iGoogle (I don't really like it but several of my friends do
Google goggles

Honorable mention goes to YouTube. I use YouTube probably every day that I use a computer. My son loves it and it's something that I can spend hours entertaining myself and friends with. But YouTube was a but of a Google conquest. I'm sure that most google products began in someone else's mind. But YouTube was a straight up "buy out".

Fail:

You gotta love then for their persistance. It's not like everything they touch is gold. There have been many flat out flops from the Google universe such(k?) as:

Orkut (a precursor to Facebook)
Google Knol (A Wiki wannabe)
Google Notebook (kinda got drowned by Docs)
Google Page creator (Kinda got drowned by... it stunk...blogger does a better job)
Google Catalogue (Who needs online catalogues, Catalogue when everyone already shops online)

Other Awards:

The BOOOOOOO award goes to: Google Buzz. Nuff said.

Award for most disapointing Google products goes to...drum roll.....

Google Wave.... if you don't know why....just google the question, "why did Google wave die?" I'm still a little disappointed about this one. It was supposed to change the world. (haha)

Thanks Google for being so much fun.

I've had fun making this list.

Top ten of 2010: Books

2010-12-27T18:46:00.000-08:00

Here we are in day two of my top Ten of 2010. Check out my Top 10 CDs and Musical Aritists
I'm not reader. I wish I was. I would love to be. But when it comes to carving out the time to do it. I'm kind of slack. For one, Family...When I've got down time, I like to spend it with my wife. I've got a 4 year old and a 17 month old that don't like me sitting still. Secondly I'm also highly interested in a jillion other things that don't require me to read. I love Football on TV, I'm easily sucked in to high action movies and intense TV shows (which I simi-actually swore off after "LOST" ended).

NOT TO MENTION that I've been slowly making my way through Grad school for 6 years now and most of the reading I've done has been dedicated to that. I could make a list of my 10 favorite scholarly theological books but that list would be too much for me to deal with. (BTW..I will be graduating in May!!!!)

In addition to other hobbies I'm also busy a lot and on the road doing....who knows what....I know, excuses. Reading can happen pretty much anywhere and I vow to improve.

But at my heart I'm a fantasy geek and a wanna-be-intellectual. So, reading happens as often as I can make it happen. So, here is the list of my top 10 favorite books.

Top ten of 2010: Books

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader: CS Lewis (3 Times)
Irresistible Revolution: Shane Claiborne (3 times)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: JK Rowling (1 and a half-ish)
The Hiding Place: Corrie Ten Boom (2 times)
The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: John Maxwell(1 time and lots of referencing)
Out of the Silent Planet: CS Lewis' Space Trilogy (1 time)
Perelandra (also in the Space Trilogy but deserving of it's own spot) (1 Time)
The Lord of the Rings- Fellowship of the Ring: JRR Tolkien (read 1 time, listened to several times)
The Life of Christ Vol 1and 2: Mark Moore (read 1 time, taught through 2 times, reference many times)
1776 (Currently reading but I know it'll be on the list)

I want to take this time to mention "Google books". If you haven't already looked into it....do it. It's quite amazing. I wish I could somehow post my

Top ten of 2010: CDs and Musical Artists

2010-12-27T10:48:00.000-08:00

What's up internet friends? Hope you had a great Christmas.

To bid farewell to 2010, My friend Jason over at brandedwithlove.com gave me the idea for doing a few favorites lists. So, in the spirit of VH1 and Dick Clark I've decided to do a few top lists this week. You should do some too. I've got some idea:
Favorite CDs or bands, Favorite books, Favorite/ Most influencial People, Best Memories of 2010, Favorite places/experiences, Most embarrassing moments.... stuff like that.

I'll start with a fairly easy one for me... These are my top 10 favorite CDs/Bands (in no particular order). More specifically, I feel like these artists make up my musical DNA. Each one has played an important roll in shaping my musical style and taste.
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Top ten of 2010: CDs and Musical Artists

Braddigan: Customs
Dispatch: All Points Bulletin
Andrew Osenga
Jon Foreman
The Beatles: Abby Road
Pillar: Where to we go from here
Jimi Hendrix: Experience Hendrix (The Best of Jimi Hendrix)
Dave Matthews Band
DC Talk and Toby Mac (I'm cheating here..it's hard to narrow these down)
Thrice: Vheissu

Some close contenders were...

Pete Stewart and Gramma Train
Lecrae
Relient K
Skillet
Jakob Dylan
Leeland
Switchfoot (even though Jon made the top 10)
U2: Joshua Tree
Bob Marley
Brooke Fraser

Obviously, it's really hard to get this list perfect. But as I think through all of these artist I'd definately have a hard time taking anyone OFF the list.

Just for fun, I asked my 4 year old (a young rocker for reelz) for his list. Here are Silas' favorites.

Johnnie B
P.O.D.
Thrice
Skillet
Lecrae

Marching Band Animation

2010-12-23T07:03:00.000-08:00

Many of you know that I'm a musician. You might know that I'm a worship leader. Others might also know that I am also a little rock and roll. But what you might not know is that I am also a band geek. One a band geek, always a band geek. In fact, I was in the Marching band for 4 years in High School. I marched a trumpet. then a Tuba! Jr. year I was Drum Major and played pit percussion. Sr Year I was the head drum major. Yup, king of the band geeks. I even went to drum major camp at UNC-G aaaand....of course, band camp. NEVER missed a football game, parade or competition. Not only that but the year after I graduated from HS I've actually even returned to my alma mater to help with band camp and once as a substitute teacher for my band class. I was thiiiiis close to going to college to become a HS band director.

So, with this history you can understand how I and my other band geek friends would really enjoy the following video. Great marching, very entertaining.

Santa or No Santa? Is that really even the question?

2010-12-21T12:47:00.000-08:00

I wrote this post about a week ago but got distracted before I could wrap it up... But for the -15 people who are wondering... "what do the Woolards teach their kids about Santa?" Here ya go.

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Today I was reading a blog by Marl Driscoll which he had published through the Washington Post. Mark is the lead pastor at an uber-mega church in Seattle Washington and a leader of Christian leaders in the USA. It was on the question of Santa and Christians at Christmas. It's a topic that I have personally spent many hours thinking about and discussing with my wife and friends. Driscoll's article gave me some encouragement. I think we see pretty much eye to eye. You can read for yourself what Mark has to say...haha, he's welcome to guest blog for me any time he wants but I won't steal his material outright.

Here's where I am.

I have one job as a parent. To raise my kids in the knowledge and love of Jesus. There are a lot of other things that come in second and third places like, educating them, feeding them....I don't have to make a list. But nothing else can be more important than that.

So, how does Santa fit into all this? Well, despite what many of my peer-parents might think, I'm not anti-Santa. As a kid, I believed in Santa and obviously I weathered the faith and made it out okay. Millions of people have the same story as I do. But as my wife and I weighed the options it just became clearer and clearer to me that the idea of Santa (as our culture portrays it) simply places him in a higher place than Jesus in the Christmas story. It's just obvious. It's everywhere. Every movie, every TV special, Christmas parties, other kids, even well meaning relatives. (When I say "every"...obviously that's hyperbole)

I fear that there are too many parents who are focused on filling their children's hearts with "the magic of Christmas" than they are in taking this pristine opportunity to teach their kids about the sacrifice of a God who loves us.

At our house we don't completely ignore Santa. Santa's not the enemy. Even though his name IS an anagram for "satan". Haha. He's a right jolly old elf and has a great place in the tradition of Christmas (Which, let's not forget, isn't the "actual" day Jesus was born. It's just when we celebrate). And, just like the Easterbunny is a cultural icon for a major season of our year. Instead of completely ignoring him I've come right out and taught my kids that Santa is a "game we play at Christmas". You've got to wait for "Santa" to put the presents under the tree and that's where the big gifts will come from. But in the same breath we make a point to say that Santa's not real. "Mommy and Daddy are gonna be santa in this game." Which is cool because now the kids can play Santa too....they can give and give and give. Another, more important thing that we do every time we talk about santa is to reinforce Jesus. I'll say something like, "Yeah, Santa's not real but who is?" The answer you'll hear my kids "Jesus!" (well, only Silas this year- Savannah's still eating bows and trying to climb the tree). It's not awkward or weird in any way because we also make the point to talk about Jesus ALL the TIME. We want our kids to know that Jesus lives among us and sees everything we do. (Not too strange, considering many families already do this with Santa.) We also take plenty of time to teach our kids about gifts and understand how blessed we are. We don't focus a whole lot on presents (yes, we to exchange presents) but instead we take a lot of time to serve and love other people for the whole season.

Santa was embodied in a real man that we call "Saint Nicholas". As my kids get older I plan to teach them about Saint Nick's cool ministry and how he was so giving. I'm fine with them having great role models like that. A great resource for little kids is the Veggie Tales movie "Saint Nickholas".

We've already run into the inevitable issue of Silas talking to other kids about Santa. One of our good friend's little girl old him that he would be on the naughty list for not believing. It didn't phase him. haha. But I've talked to him about not being "that kid". We've told him that if other kids believe in Santa that's okay. That their parents play the Santa game a little differently. He's cool with it but he still thinks he's obligated to "preach the truth" haha. I'm not ashamed of that. For any parents that would be upset at us for teaching our kids this way...well, I don't really have any words in defense. I'm completely fine with how they're choosing to teach their kids as long as Jesus is glorified all year long.

So, Santa's not the bad guy. He can be fun. But at the Woolard house, don't be surprised to hear a 4 year old tell you, "Santa's not real....he's just a game"

Movie Review: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

2010-12-13T20:34:00.000-08:00

Throughout history there have been relatively few GREAT stories. I mean, sure, there are millions of stories and many of them are good. But if there is to be any standard of excellence, then we ought save the title "great" for the few that rise above the noise. In my opinion, C.S. Lewis' "Chronicles of Narnia" is such a story. Granted, it's 7 books. Also granted...they're small books and written for children. But in my mind they really rise above the crown in terms of genius and wonder. They also set the pace for a generation of writers. Maybe one day I'll put my pen to the review of the 7 books, which I've read multiple times, but today I want to focus on one. More specifically, the recently released major motion picture version of, "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader".

I will avoid any spoilers and try to be brief.

General Effect:
Leading up to the movie, I re-read the book with my 4 year old son. He's as much a sucker for a good fantasy and I am. We were stoked and could hardly wait for it to begin. Seeing the children (actors) a little more grown and in the WWII England was a refreshing. I like how the film added depth to the wartime undertones of the the main character's life in our realm. The books spend brief moments with these sideline plots and movies are able to establish in moments what it might take a book chapters to do.

The special effects were dazzling! (I tried to think of a better word...really, but they were simply great!) We've come a long way since the first Star Wars movies. The Minotaur and other Narnians were flawless. The Ship was more beautiful and mysterious than I imagined it and the sceneries were breathtaking. From the dry and persecuted lands of the lone islands to the whimsical land of the invisible people....I give the film making and visual effects 4 thumbs up (2 from me and 2 from my son!)

The Story
The story of the Dawntreader is what makes is so attractive. At the heart of the tale is a group of brave thrill seekers trying to explore the world. They take the role of Christopher Columbus, Vikings, and all the other brave souls who sailed into "who knows where?" in search of "who knows what?"

Another story is the story of Eustace, the brat cousin of the original Pevensie children (Peter, Edmund, Lucy, and Susan). I felt that the movie didn't do this story as much justice as it might have. In the book, Eustace's heart is shared more as we see more of the pages of his journal and as we hear his thoughts. The film didn't capture as much of this and I think it may have watered down this amazing transition story. But what they lacked in subtlety they made up for in .... BLAM....(whatever that is). The boy who played Eustace was spot on. He killed the role and was quite convincing! His face told the story.

A third story is the story of Lucy growing up in to a beautiful woman. Once again, the movie robbed the story by leaving out many of her inner thoughts and especially abreiviating and re-writing the section about Lucy's time in the magician's house. But again, they made up for it in... BLAM. haha. Lucy was a fierce warrior wielding a sword and clobbering bad guys. She was very cute and grow not playful and childish as she has been in the the other movies. She is the backbone of faith in this epic and it holds true in the film.

The story of the mouse Reepicheep was treated much as the ones already mentioned. Several scenes were left out but made up for by cinema. The same could be said about Caspian.

There are 2 stories that kind of surprised me. The first was the "green mist". I don't know where the heck that story-line came from but I thought it was a clever way to pull off some of the other story elements that they had to work with. It did a good job of tying together the story of the lone islands, the slave trade, the uncharted islands (which were kind of mixed up from the book, some were combined too), the 7 Lords, the sea serpent, even Ramandu's Island. Each of those elements could have taken a half-hour or more to develop. Instead, they let the green mist serve as an alternative way of explaining evil and the purpose of the quest. It even allowed them to bring back the creepy White which for a third time (also not in the book).

There are so many "non-book" elements tied to the green mist that it's not funny but my hat goes off the writers who were able to re-tell this epic adventure in such a creative way. "I ain't mad at cha"

The final story I'll comment on is the story of the little girl stow-away and her dad. I'm not sure what it served in the story line that something true to the book couldn't have already done. I think the story of Eustace would have been much more important to the lager story-line (i.e. the Silver Chair....which will NO DOUBT be the next movie they do....they gave us an easter egg at the end of the movie!) Hey, the little girl was cute. It added more feminine charm to the film...bla bla bla...she didn't hurt the movie at all but I thought she was unnecessary and was only there as a further justification of the green mist.

Spiritual Elements:
I have to comment on the spiritual elements of the movie. First is the overwhelming power of evil. I love that evil had no face in this movie. It was just a green mist. It wasn't a witch or a snake...sometimes it was a pretty girl! The idea that evil starts in your mind was HUGE in this movie. So true. So Biblical.

The Transformation

Secondly, I wish you would all go get the book and read the section about Eustace meeting Aslan to be transformed back to his natural shape. The movie did a decent job but I have to say that, in my opinion, this is one thing that a film would simply have a hard time duplicating. C.S. Lewis gives what might be the most beautiful picture of what it might look like in the spiritual realm when someone is cleansed by Christ when he describes Eustace's transformation! I won't say any more than that....but go read it!

Overall I give the movie and A+. It was much better than the it's predecessors and really left the door open for the release of "The Silver Chair", the hand off story from Dawn Treader. I'm curious if they will go back and do "The Horse and His Boy" or "The Magician's Nephew" before the Silver Chair....we'll see.

God is In You. A message on the Holy Spirit

2010-11-27T17:16:00.000-08:00

Recently I had the great chance to speak at a midweek chapel service at my alma mater Mid Atlantic Christian University on the Holy Spirit. Here is the podcast. My good friend Jordan clark led some worship at the beginning. Follow the link and here some great messages from other chapel speakers.

Angel Cop Helps the Homeless of Greenville

2010-11-11T12:10:00.001-08:00

HS CCYC 2010 Hostage Skits

2010-10-19T20:27:00.000-07:00

So, it's been a long time coming but I finally got these videos uploaded. Last Spring the Christ's Church teen ministry took on a very important part of the CCYC conference sessions. They did these skits as openers for the sessions. There are three skits, each one following the choices of a girl who we called "Tina". Using three songs from Skillet's newest album "Awake and Alive" These guys were great. They learned the skits and pulled it off if less than 2 weeks.

Re-watching them has reminded me how powerful the imagery was. I hope they are good for you as well. So, without any further delay.....here they are. Enoy

Session 1: Captivity

HS CCYC 2010 Hostage Session 1: Captivity from chriswoolard on Vimeo.

Session 2: Awareness

HS CCYC 2010 Hostage Session 2: Awareness from chriswoolard on Vimeo.

Session 3: Forgiveness

HS CCYC 2010 Hostage Session 3: Freedom from chriswoolard on Vimeo.

Build a Church, not a Museum

2010-10-12T19:00:00.001-07:00

God is in Control.

2010-10-04T07:29:00.000-07:00

Yesterday evening I got a call from a friend that shook me like I haven't been shaken in a long time. Through that call and a little more investigation I discovered what would soon be national news, that a student at Mid-Atlantic Christian University had been shot and killed by another student in the Presley Dorm. I suppose I'm writing this as a bit of therapy. I have uncountable connections to the University. 3 generations of my family have graduated from there. My best friends are people I know through the school. As a youth minister I've seen several students attend the school, currently I have 5 or 6 former students who live in that dorm. My brother and sister-in-law both work at the school. I've even taught one course on Family ministry there.

Police cars outside of the P.A.P. Dorm. at MACU

I'm really not sure what hurts so badly. Maybe it's my connections with MACU and the heart-ache I feel, knowing that my family there is hurting. Maybe it's because the victim was a kid I knew from the school and even taught in my class. I think what hurts the most is the presence of evil. I'm not necessarily calling the shooter "evil", though his actions certainly were. But I am calling out evil in general. Evil is a plague that penetrates our world so deeply that it is hardly decipherable. We just see it so often that we are calloused to its presence. And then... something like this happens and we're thrown on the ground with disbelief. Evil is everywhere.

Paul tells us that we are in a spiritual battle, that there are evil powers and "authorities" that attack us. He's so right. President Perkins said in an interview about the shooting, "this is a Godly place where something very ungodly has happened." So right.

What will this do to the College? What will it do for the familes involved. What will it do....? I don't know. I can't, of course. But what I do know is this. God is sovereign. I don't believe he "caused" this to happen. But I do know he "allowed" it. He could easily have stopped it but that's not how God interacts with our world. His agenda is not to create a Utopia on this planet (he already did that once and we ruined it). I'm not gonna get all theological here (frankly, it's not the time and I don't have the energy) but I want to take solace in the fact that God is in control. He's Got a plan that he's already told us about. It's Jesus.

I have a suggestion for everyone else. Mourn, cry, pray, support others, but DO NOT get caught in the evil. Don't make yourself a gossip over this. Don't judge the heart of anyone involved. Times like these are when we MUST remember that Jesus is Lord and we are to reflect his glory through our actions and reactions.

Here is a news broadcast of the events at MACU if you don't know what's going on.

I'm hoping to win a prize....It never happens to me though.

2010-09-30T19:18:00.000-07:00

Logos Bible Software is giving away thousands of dollars of prizes to celebrate the launch of Logos Bible Software 4 Mac on October 1. Prizes include an iMac, a MacBook Pro, an iPad, an iPod Touch, and more than 100 other prizes!
They’re also having a special limited-time sale on their Mac and PC base packages and upgrades. Check it out!

________________________

If you're wondering what this is.....
1) it's a shameless attempt for me to get something free.
2) Logos is a super powerful bible study software that I got for school work. It's Got several levels for the variety of bible studiers out there. Everything from simple tools to very deep and nerdy applications. I got one of the nerdier ones.... I dig it.

spacekids

2010-09-24T17:08:00.000-07:00

Here's a movie I made with my kids a few months ago (probably last winter). I finally posted it.

Must Christians Suffer?

2010-09-23T13:27:00.003-07:00

Back in the Saddle

2010-08-24T19:59:00.000-07:00

Summer is officially Gone. You know how I determine that? Vacation was the reward for crossing the finish line and now vacation is over. Leaving Summer 2010 as a distant but fond memory.

Silas at a Fountain in Knoxville
Vacation 2010

My beautiful wife has logged our awesome vacation in great detail over at the more popular blog from our household. (Honestly, my wife is a minor blog celebrity. I was in Raleigh at a conference this summer and met a person whom neither of us had met who stated, "oh yeah, I love your wife's blog") So, I will gladly bow down to the blog queen of our house. haha...what the heck was all that about? I digress greatly.

Vacation was much needed. My life gets pretty jumbled with stuff that's not the most important. For vacation we went to the Great Smoky Mountains and camped for 8 days. That's a good way to be reminded of priorities. 8 days without electricity, phones, internet, even showers (proper). I recall thinking "who cares about Facebook anyway?" I could live like that forever until I'm reminded that I was sent to serve the lost people of the world.

Savannah playing with rocks
Yes, rocks. She's also sitting
in a stroller in the middle of
a big mountain stream.

Which brings me to my post tonight. Recently I've been challenged to grow myself up a little. I was finding myself frustrated with my Christian living. Yeah, i'm a "pastor" (youth minister/ preacher.... whatever). It's easy for me to sit on my laurels and talk to our people about witnessing and serving people for Jesus. But all my life I've struggled with making that happen. I never want to be satisfied with the work I'm doing in the kingdom. And through all the "busy-work" and "church" It's easy to miss huge opportunities.

So, I made the choice about a month ago to strategically position myself for such service and evangelism. (it's not the first time I've done this but the most recent). I've been praying for opportunities, I even applied with the local school system as a substitute teacher for the High School near our house so I might meet some new people. God has begun to pour out generously from his "opportunities" pitcher.

I've had some awesome opportunities pop up in the last few weeks. I won't go into detail to protect these people's privacy but here are a few of things I'm being challenged with.

we just got new neighbors...I live in a duplex...neighbors are CLOSE
this week 2 boys from the neighborhood just "walked up" to the church and wanted to hang out in theLOFT (our student center) they've been at work with me every day this week. I've played a lot of games with them and had some serious talks too. (one of them brought me a slice of his birthday cake once..haha... awesome!) They also have friends and brothers who want to hand out. I'm trying to balance hospitality with caution here. We'll see what happens.
Silas made his first "friend" this week. Everyone Silas knows is someone that we introduced him to. But today, as he was riding his bike with his mom he met a neighborhood kid who came over to play. So far, I know enough about him to know that we could really love on his family
a man in our church lives very close to me. He is in need of some serious love (our church people love on him A LOT but I'm his neighbor too so I want to take it up a notch) I've got some very specific ways I plan to help him as the hands and feet of Jesus.
The coordinator of a Fellowship of Christian Athletes at a local High School is looking for people to come in and lead a devotion weekly on Wed. mornings. She asked me for a list of dates when I'm avaibable. I told here I could do it every week this semester if she needs me. (I'm waiting to hear back)

Naps in a tent are tough
especially with mesh-faced brothers

Pray for my diligence. Pray for my focus. Pray for ways you can serve the king OUTSIDE the walls of your church.

James 1:22-25 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.

Peace-
Chris

Perfectly Executed Video

2010-08-02T18:17:00.001-07:00

Food For Thought: Are You a Passionate Disciple of Jesus?

2010-07-15T13:53:00.000-07:00

Here's a little food for thought. More to follow.

God is Not a White Man.

2010-07-14T20:12:00.000-07:00

Doing some vacation planning with the MRS. tonight. I can hardly wait for August 8 to roll around. It seems like I've had several vaca's this year. Truth is, I've just taken advantage of several long weekends and been creative with my down time.

I'll talk more about vacation later. Camping in the Smokeys..... man, that's music to my ears. This year I'm takin my boy for the first time. It's the circle of life. (At this point, I think I'm supposed to be holding him by his arm pits over the edge of a cliff, in view of thousands of wild animals.....funny, Michael Jackson, King of Pop. does it and everyone flips out....Mufassa, the Lion King. no worries.)

Anyway..... I was doing pretty good there for a minute with my blogging. Then....camp.

I've got some good articles in mind for the near future as well as some recaps on camp and such. For now, I must share this video from Gungor. Thanks to my friend Lee for posting it earlier.

I really like the premise of this song. I'll let you enjoy it for yourself. if you don't like it....leave me a comment or shoot me an email. I'd love to chat about it with you some. But not too much...I don't have time for endless blog rants like some people apparently do (haha....man, I used to get sooo sucked into those things). Peace.

Who Are You Surrounding Yourself With?

2010-06-15T06:58:00.000-07:00

In my daily bible reading, I've been reading in 2 Samuel. I'm currently using the "Seasons of reflection daily reading bible" and only focusing on the Old Testament this year. It's been great to be reminded of all the power of the almighty God shown through the nation of Israel (often for their benefit, often for their punishment).

King David is central to 2 Samuel. His feats and accomplishments are staggering. Did you realize that the kingdom was actually split when he became king (Israel and Judah) and that it was divided once more as his son Absolam staged a coo! (This is my 3rd time through the Old Testament and probably close to a dozen times reading about David and that fact never struck me.

There was a lot that happened under the rule of David. So much, in fact, that I would wager that we only have the tip of the iceberg recorded in the Bible. Case on point, "David's Mighty Men". There are about 36 men listed at the end of David's story around chapter 23 1/2. These guys where BAD! They all had kill records like Master Chief from the Halo video game on X-box. They led hundreds of men. They were righteous and loyal to the king. My guess is, THEY were the tools of disaster that God used against the pagans in Palestine.

I encourage you to read this and notice how brief the account is. There are NO details about their families, about their sons, about their land. We have no record of anything else about them. (A few of them are mentioned earlier in the stories...Guys like Joab).

My point is this.

David was a great man but David surrounded himself with slews of other great men. It was obviously a priority for David that he multiply himself in his charter and his leadership. It's possible that any one of these men might have staged a coo against David and done quite well. They might truly have been good kings too.

So, as I wrap up, I want to ask you this question. "Who are you surrounding yourself with?"

If you want to be a man like David. A man after God's own heart. A man of great wisdom and leadership. Surround yourself with "Mighty Men and Women"

The cycle of discipleship (Part 1 of 2): Discipleship Takes Time

2010-06-14T12:43:00.000-07:00

As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him— you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 2:4-5)

Anyone who is in Christ is a part of a giant stone wall. The notion of "the church" being "the people" (rather than a building or a campus) is one that is huge to most serious evangelical Christians. It's tempting to think about the building that we meet in as "the church", especially since that's what we've called it for hundreds of years. And I 'm not one to jump down someone's throat if they slip up and refer to a building as such. It is, however, vital that we understand that WE, the people of the kingdom, are the body of Christ on earth. We are a living breathing organism. Having said that, I want to share a little of my heart of the concept of growing the church through discipleship.

Last night I had the opportunity to take part in an ancient ceremony that dates back to the time of Jesus. I played a role in the ordination of a new minister of the Gospel. It was extra special for me though. This guy was a guy that I actually disciple from childhood. Joe Cartwright was in the 8th grade when I met him. He was a punk middle schooler, not unlike the hundreds of others that I've worked with in my years in Youth ministry. But for some odd reason, God laid it on my heart to take him on as a personal "project". Once I dove into the task I learned that, like many other 8th graders, Joe was hurting. He wouldn't have told you that but it was the truth. He was from a broken family and had gotten caught up in the gang mentality of inner-city Norfolk VA youth.

Ordination of Joe Cartwright
Photo by Katie Waivers

It took a few years but eventually he let me into his life. Our first connection was music. I taught him how to play drums and introduced him to Christian Rap and hard-core (bear in mind...hard-core ain't what it used to be...haha). Joe did a lot of growing on his own. He owned his faith and chose to become a disciple of Christ and to be obedient in Christian baptism. I had the honor of immersing him into Christ!

After High School Joe chose to go to Bible college at Mid-Atlantic Christian University to pursue youth ministry. Our paths crossed again when, after having been working in teen ministry at Christ's Church, I had a one year internship to offer a College Student....Joe applied and was a shoe in for the position.

In the past past year Joe has been working alongside me as a co-minister. He's been phenomenal and I know he has personally touched the lives of dozens of kids in our teen ministry. He's not the punk 8th grader I once met. As a matter of fact, 6 months into his internship I assigned him to oversee the middle school programming of our teen ministry. He worked with about 50 punk middle schoolers and all the while poured the love of Christ in their lives. The irony never escaped my mind as I often sat back to watch him do what he does best, love kids in the name of Jesus.

Discipleship is a buzz word these days in ministry. There are so many buzz words in professional ministry that I'm afraid that some ministers are at a breaking point of confusion on what to do. This article is part one of a two part series that I want to write on the cycle of discipleship. The first point simply being this, discipleship takes time.

It's great to think we can take a person through a 6 week course or a weekend seminar and "disciple" them. But remember, life change takes time. Jesus spent 3 years with the guys he called his "disciples". Of course, the duration of a discipleship relationship is limited to the numbers minutes you might have with someone. Some people you may only get 10 minutes t influence before your paths split and others might entail a lifetime of growing together. My purpose in saying this is not to say that we should kick out all short term discipleship programs. Nay! In fact, I'm a big fan of systematic teaching. It think it brings a vast amount of continuity to the the learning process. Instead, what I'm suggesting is that it doesn't END there. Never stop the process of discipleship. The word disciple means "learner". Just as, in life, we never stop learning - in faith we need never stop discipling and being discipled.

"You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house... "

A Free Summer!

2010-06-10T14:54:00.000-07:00

So, to get back in the swing of blogging I'll journal a little.

These are not my kids... i stole the pic from the inter-web

I've got a couple of weeks of camp coming up that I've been preparing for. I leave on the 20th for them. I'm really excited about this summer. I have intentionally narrowed down my focus to only 2 week away from home. I recall having a conversation with an older minister. It was Frank Dodson, If you roll with my circle of friends, you know that we joke about him being our 'grandpa" and stuff..so okay, he's a good deal oder. But frank's been in ministry for many years. We were co-leading a team of students at camp once summer and I was contemplating my life as a new father in contrast with youth ministry. I asked him, "Frank, when do I know that it's time to thin out my summer schedule and spend more time at home with my kids and stuff?" His answer was pretty "frank" (as Frank tends to be). He said, "How old is your son?" I said, "1" (or whatever it was). He said, "and you plan to have more children?". "Yes".... so he said, "Yeah, it's probably about time to start thinning out your summers."

haha. So, I'm excited. Of the two weeks of camp, my family will be with me for one.

I'm loving life.

My wife's really loud car just pulled in the driveway and it's time for me to make smoothies. Mmmm.

Peace.

Great Video for Sr. Ministers

2010-06-09T14:04:00.000-07:00

So, I've been really slack on the whole "blogging" thing lately. (okay, for like 6 months). But here's to trying....

This video is a promo for a youth ministry conference but I think it's great for "Sr Ministers" to see. Sometimes I think the trend of youth ministry/children's ministry/ worship/preaching/...bla bla bla has led us to forget that we're all just one big family and we all have to live together as one community.

This video is awesome. Enjoy.

Protect Your Students - Get Excited about Campus Ministry

2010-06-07T12:15:00.000-07:00

Students get excited about what their youth workers are excited about. If you want to see your students get excited about something, you have to buy into it yourself! Here’s the principle: the people that you lead will be excited about the things you are excited about*. It might seem too simplistic, but in nearly 10 years of student ministry I’ve seen it be truth time and time again. Youth workers who love music typically produce a group of students who love music. Athletic ministers who gear their programming around sports will have students who are excited about sports. Youth Pastors who are serious about spiritual disciplines in their own life and communicate that with their words and actions will often find that their students are excited about a deeper faith. A ministry built solely on bowling and pizza parties will yield a harvest of... really good bowlers...excited bowlers.

One of the easiest and most organic ways to make our youth ministries thrive is for our students to see that their youth pastors and volunteers are genuinely excited about the tools and opportunities that are available for spiritual growth and cultivation. The way we show this "genuine excitement" is simple too...INVESTMENT. We, the adult mentors, invest in the things that we believe our students should invest in. It's the principle of excitement at work. Want your kids to go to summer camp? Invest in your local camp, let your kids see that it's important to you. Want your kids to get involved in an organization like FCA or Young Life; become a volunteer with one of these organizations.
An area that teen ministry desperately needs to improve in is transitioning students from High School youth ministries to “life after youth group”; namely, colleges and Universities. The statistics are everywhere. You may have heard that something like 90% of Christian kids who go to college end up loosing their faith there. It's staggering. It's heartbreaking. It's time we did something about it!

For that reason, I want to challenge you to INVEST in Campus Ministries. Virtually every college has at least one Christian ministry. They exist as a support system for college students who desire to keep Jesus in focus while in school. Do your homework, learn where your kids are going to school and help them find ministries that you can endorse. Don’t settle for a group just because they have the name “christian” in their title but learn what they value and what they teach. More importantly, actively involve (invest!) yourself in a campus ministry. Take your students to visit the ministry and meet the campus minister(s). If you live close enough, see if there is any way you can serve the ministry...take students with you if you can! They will see that being a Christian in college is not only doable but it's more fun!

An important key to staying connected to the body of Christ is community. It’s why kids love youth group. (Sorry if you thought it was because of your cool t-shirt collection. I’m sure that helps.). Campus ministry works on the same foundation. God intends Christianity to exist in COMMUNITY and your students MUST find Christian community when they go to college to safeguard their faith. Remember, if you don’t help them plug into something Christ-honoring, there are dozens of fraternities and political campaigns that will stand in the gap.

There is a lot more that we can do to save our kids and one of them is to get excited about campus ministry. Invest in it as much as you are able, and instill the importance of Christian community in your students while you still have their attention and the power to influence them!
_____
*To be fair, there are several laws of leadership at work in this principle. If you happen to be looking for a resource that will help hone your leadership skills I encourage you to read "The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership" by John Maxwell.

This article was originally written for www.theProjectEx.com

Making Room for New things at MACU

2010-05-23T12:15:00.000-07:00

Lindsey and my first house together...."Old Yellow" at MACU is now a pile of ashes.

Tick, Tick, Tick

2010-04-26T19:54:00.000-07:00

Now I lay me down to sleep.

I'm about to fall out. And what I am I doing? Posting a blog! Wha?!

I'm wanting to de better about getting in the habit again because i want to get back to a point where I'm putting up content that actually matters. I'm hoping to post a few series of teaching ideas or something....but until I get in the swing of being a regular blogger again....you get my point.

I never wrapped up my NY trip. So here it goes.

When we woke up on Sunday it was raining! Boo. So, our plans to have church at central park were shut down. We headed home. Along the way we geo-cached a few spots and ate a few meals. The adventure started when we hit VA. I didn't realize that we had to take Kevin (Tucker) home. He lives in Newport News. Like an hour out of the way. No hard feelings for Kevin, he had to get home...haha. but I just didn't know that that was part of the plan. Tick, Tick, Tick. On the way...Landon had an episode. Let's just call it "car sick" so protect the innocent. That took about 45 minutes ot resolve. Tick, Tick, Tick. by the time we got to Kevin's house it was like 10:30. (maybe, I forget exactly). An hour and a half back to EC. 12:00. I drove to the edge of town and realized I'd forgotten my headphones. I decided to just go back to my brother's and get them. 12:30. TIck TIck TIck. I drove BACK out to the edge of town and realized I was in need of gas. When I got to the pump....ooops, my money had fallen out of my bag! Shoot. Back to Jason's. Tick Tick Tick! 12:50...I get back to the gas station...it's now closed and the pumps are off! I head BACK into EC!!! Finally get gas.

Shortened version. I got home at 3am.

A lot of things are tick tick ticking for me right now. The most pressing are the 3 homework assignments I have for my preaching classes. That's what I did all day today. I took a half day off to do work. I'll probably dot he same tomorrow. Those 3 assignments will basically end school for me for the year though! Also, all I have left for my class at MACU is for my students to take their exam, turn in their final projects and for me to grade them. Tick, Tick, Tick. CCYC is May 7-9. That's a pretty big item on my plate as well. Tick, Tick, Tick.

So, Time is ticking. But right now. I'm about to fall out asleep. Goodnight.

If It Wasn't For You: P.O.D

2010-04-25T11:22:00.000-07:00

Do I believe in the resurrection of CHRIST?
And did HIS death bring forth new life?
And did HE raise up and bring back Lazarus from the grave?
And is there supposed to be a second coming?
Am I wrong because I’m wondering
why the fallen Babylon is up and alive today.
And do I really believe in the mark of the beast?
Cause he's still dwelling up in my streets,
Strapped and ready to fight this war.
And he's got more guns than you and me.
But most people don't wanna believe,
That they still prejudice simply because we poor.
Do I believe that Mother Teresa was a angel on this earth?
And thou shall love thy neighbor even if he acts like you?
Do I believe in Heaven or Hell?
Shoot, hell yeah I do, cause we alive today,
And my crew is living proof.

If It Wasn't For You
None of this would ever mean a thing
If It Wasn't For You
Tell me why else would I believe?
Would I believe?

Do I believe that the rider of the white horse,
Is coming back for the righteous?
And the morning star keeps gettin brighter every day.
Is there such a thing as good and evil?
Still division amongst the people,
And we're not all created equal just because you say.
Do I believe in the trinity, and will I live eternall?
Even though I'm not quite the saint that you claim to be.
Did Dr. Martin Luther have a dream?
Was Haile Selassie I a king?
And is it ok to sometimes feel a little bit confused?
Will armageddon never come?
I'm not perfect, just forgiven.
And I might just push back the next time you shove.
Do I believe in one God, one aim and destiny?
Just don't forget your first love,
That's what my moms use to tell me.

If It Wasn't For You
None of this would ever mean a thing
If It Wasn't For You
Tell me why else would I believe?
Would I believe?

If It Wasn't For You
Then none of this is for nothing
It's all for nothing!
****
It's all for nothing!
It's all for nothing!

If It Wasn't For You
None of this would ever mean a thing
If It Wasn't For You
Tell me why else would I believe?
Would I believe?

If It Wasn't For You
None of this would ever mean a thing
Would I believe?
If It Wasn't For You
Would I believe?
If It Wasn't For You
Would I believe?

If it Wasn't For You: P.O.D.
from "The Warriors E.P."

NY 2010 post 2

2010-04-24T21:46:00.000-07:00

Signs in Churches are helpful

Driveway Fail

So, today was a FULL day. I got a few pictues of some random stuff. Enjoy. Hopefully the captions will explain enough.

Rise and shine was 6:00 for me. We headed out to the church where the conference was being held and had to set up. As far as set up goes...things went well. One thing I can say about working with my brother is that, somehow, no matter what...stuff breaks or gets lost at the most inconvenient times. Today was no exception but the setbacks were minor and I was able to figure it out.

We were expecting about 30 teens for our sessions which were to begin at 9. At 9:05...we had exactly NONE. 0. Nada. Honestly, we were a little sad yet the possibility of not having to do our sessions and, instead, having a free day in the city was quite appealing. At 9:15 we went upstairs (to the adult session) to see if there had been some miscommunication. There had not. (haha). but we did find 2 students who were running a little late. These brothers were familiar to us form last year and we decided to make our trip worth it by doing everything to love on these two students, even if that's all we had.

Radio City Music Hall

Heading downstairs we began to develop a plan. Then, as if by magic, the flood gates opened. High School students began to come out of the woodwork. By 10:00 we had 30+. Oh well....the fun began.

I'll spare the play by play.

rockefeller plaza

Just like last year, I had the chance to meet some great students. many of which I remembered from the previous year. It's awesome to see students grow in their faith over time. Since restoration churches have a small footprint in NY city the small churches (many of them very young) have no means for things like "youth ministers". The purpose of our being involved in this conference is to get MACU involved in the NY scene. Someone told me today that the Metropolitan area of NY city has a bigger population than 40 other states combined. I can't back up that stat but if that's even close I know one thing to be true. NY city is a missions field! For MACU to get a firm hold on that area, to really get a chance to train ministers who may return to their home state....wow. What an opportunity for the kingdom.

I'll share quickly about my teaching times. I got to preach twice and do a workshop. Our theme was "Revolution". Session one, "Revolution of Christ is living a life like no-one else is living, by doing the things that no one else is doing." Of course it's a bit hyperbolic but the point was to look at Jesus' actions and teachings and ask ourselves...do we live like Jesus. Love God and Love people....that's the goal. I also uses this video of Lecrae's song, "Rebellion". It's a powerful song.

St. Patrick's Cathedral

Session 2 was "Chain Reaction". The Revolution of Christ is about a chain reaction that starts with ONE". Each person has the opportunity to impact another life which, in turn, will impact other lives with the love of Christ. The deal is, we each have to deliberately choose to evangelize to ONE person. It seems like a huge job to evangelize the whole world..but we don't have to do it alone. Actually, all we have to do is reach one person at a time.

My workshop was from Andy Stanley's "7 Checkpoint of Youth Ministry" and on his "Healthy Friendships" chapter. I'll do another post about that later.

The Organ Pipes

After the day of great worship, fellowship and moving of the spirit...we hit the town. Dr and Mrs Perkins (MACU President and Wife) joined us. I can't say enough about how much I love the city. I want to come here every year with deliberate missional work in mind. I'm not sure how yet but I think I'm well on my way to figuring something out.

So...day two is down. TOmorrow we'll hit the town one last time. I'm hoping to do some reflective bible reading or something at Central park and share communion with the guys I'm with. I don't see any need to go to "church" in this type of situation. Call me a liberal....haha.

Here are some quick words about the pics. These were ment to be tweets but I was having phone issues.

Pics

Times Square

1) This sign was actually posted in the church that was rented for the conference. It was above the "chapel" doors.

2)I took this picture in Jamaca Queens, it's about a block from where we were. I call it "driveway fail"

3) The NFL draft was the the RC Music hall this week. Pretty cool

4) rockefeller plaze. This is where they have the ice skating place that you see in all the movies (all of them .haha)

5) This is 30 Rock.

6 )St Patrick's Cathedral. Beautiful. Absolutely enormous and somehow spiritually charged. I abhor Catholic doctrine and...well, most things Catholic... but their masterfully built sanctuaries really make me think....I can't imagine heaven.

New York's Finest

7) The organ in this place! I wish the picture was better. Google it. It's huge.

8)Times Square. Nothing like it. Capitalism and Hedonism married with Tourism and over population.

9)This one's for my boy. Thought he'd like it.

NY 2010 post 1

2010-04-23T21:45:00.000-07:00

aaannd we're off.

The View out of my hotel window

I'm writing from a pretty quality Quality Inn in Queens NY. It's a nice little place with a view of the Metro and some tunnel.

This morning I got up and worked on my sermons. I'm preaching for two of the youth sessions as well as doing a workshop. I'm feelng pretty good about my preparation. They're actually modified messages from the ones I used at the CCF Fall Retreat back in November (or October?). The basic Theme is "Revolution". My Two messages are 1) The Revolutionary Jesus and 2) Chain Reaction. I may talk a little about that tomorrow.

We hit the road today at about 1:00 from Eliabeth City NC. Myself, Landen, Dave, and Don. On the way we picked up Kevin, Jason and Dad. It was a great ride up. I was the sucker with the least amount of leg room but I only complained a lot....so it was okay. haha. Don Mckinny, my brother and myself had some really good conversation about the state of the church and various methodologies and doctrines. I was surprised at how much our conversation impacted the younger guys. At one rest stop they expressed their interest in listening to "debate"....I think they thought we were fighting about something....ultimately I think I saw how important it is to discuss our theology, doctrine and methodology with other people. I believe it hones our thoughts and purifies our motives.

Don't Wake The Baby

Several times, Don took a nap. We had fun tweeting about his nap.

It was late once we finally got to the City. It's exciting to get into Manhattan. I don't care how many times I go, I think there will always be a sense of amazement and awe as I see the giant that is the Big Apple. I could live in the city. I would absolutely love to be a joe schmoe living in Manhattan, riding my bike around for transportation, meeting new people and experiencing their culture. My wife thinks that I'm out of my mind. I know that LIndsey would do great living here but she's convinced that it's not for her. So....I'll visit. I would enjoy bringing the family here for a week or so on vacation. No agenda, no travel guide...just walking and reading and talking about what we see. I think Silas would be blown away by all the.....stuff. Our little family is probably 10 or 15 years away from a trip like that. My baby girl doesn't like sleeping anywhere but her little closet at this point in the game.

Being away from home has gotten easier for me in many ways and harder in others (oh great....apparently the train next to our window is going to run all night....like every 15 minutes it comes creeking by. Maybe it'll drown out Don and Dad's snoring! haha)...but anyway. It's easier because my wife has been wonderful at letting me have this little part of my ministry where travel and experiences play a major role. She humbly and selflessly sits home while I galavant about the countryside. I miss her most when I'm away like this because I appreciate her most. Today, for example, she had to put up with Silas being a punk by herself. Of course, she's super mom and has it under control... but I know it's nice for her when I'm home. It's much harder these days though. Having my two little ones at home makes home...well, home. I dread missing the important moments when Savannah is learning to crawl and as Silas explores his 3 year-old-dom. ....anyway, I digress.

I'm looking forward to being used by God tomorrow in whatever way He's got planned. It's 12:45 and It's been a loooong day. So, for now. peace.

2010-04-22T18:12:00.000-07:00

Whew... finally a little time to blog.

I'm sitting at my brother and sister-in-law's house alone. I haven't been alone in a long time. I mean, I'm alone in the shower (sometimes. My 3 year old likes to crash my showers most mornings but it comes with the territory.) I'm alone on my 3 minute drive to work and in the 15 or 20 minutes that I read my bible in the mornings. That's about it though. You might think I'm a "be with people person". Though I don't mind people...I really enjoy being alone or just with my family the best.

Tonight I simi-officially finished teaching my class at MACU. I've been teaching a course (Family Ministry 201) that is basically a youth ministry 101 course. It's been great getting the material together and merging my experience with the theory side of things in a classroom setting. It's crazy to think that people are getting college credit for listening to me talk 3 hours a week. The final is next week...we'll see how we (Both my students and I) did.

Tomorrow I'm headed to NY for the Metro Christian Convention. You might remember me going last year. It's a small little conference and we're doing the teen programming. I'll be speaking at 2 main sessions as well as doing a workshop on "Healthy Friendships". My brother is leading worship with his band. Don Mckinney is going too. I love Don. It should be fun. AND we're meeting my Dad up there. He's in the Air Force Reserves and is serving in Maryland this weekend. We're picking him up in Delaware. I'll be posting every day about the goings on from my trip.

But, tonight I sit. Alone. in the quite house. I will be getting a lot of homework done tonight. I've got 2 projects due ...*ahem* last night. I contacted my professor last week to let him know I was running behind on some stuff and he graciously offered an extension. But hopefully I won't have to extend too much. I want to get it all turned in this weekend. (The perks of having many hours to work on a van driving to NY).

I'll miss the warmth of my wife sleeping next to me. And the unpleasant noises my 8 month old can make at 3am....or her totally awake and smiling face when she first sees me in the morning. I'll also miss the sweaty little boy who climbs into my bed each morning between 6:30 and 7:00 and his insistence that I get up and pour him a glass of milk. I'll return to all that very soon. But tonight...I'm alone.

Life is Good

2010-03-20T17:17:00.000-07:00

What a great weekend. Ever now and then a beautiful couple of days will just pop up unexpectedly. Well, for me, they were today and yesterday. To get things going...I'm fresh off of a much needed weeklong family vacation. Monday (this past Monday) was my first day back. So, my head had been in a good place...etc. Also, thanks to Gospel Rally (my MACU's homecoming and revival) I didn't have to teach my Thursday night MACU class...which freed me up considerably this week. Finally..God hath smiled upon Greenville NC and he hath blessed us with temps in the 70's!!!

So. Yesterday I got to spend all day with my boy Silas. We rode bikes (he rides in a little trailor that I pull behind my mountain bike) all over the place. We went to a playground, we just kicked it for most of the day dad and son style. I wish I had a lot of pictures but I'm not as good at capturing the moments as some people are. So I don't normally try very hard.

Some of you have enjoyed my Silas quotes on twitter. If I had tweeted all the great ones from yesterday I could write a book. It was nice.

Today was round two. The same kind of stuff. We hung out in the yard pretty much all day. I was able to go shirtless (not pretty but very comfortable) pretty much all day and Silas thought it was cool that he could too. He asked his mom why she didn't join in the shirtless fun.."hey, you gonna take yours off too?"... oh the joys of learning about gender appropriate behaviors.

Lindsey's mom came and the rest of the fam hit up the local plant nursery and did some shopping while I caught up on some homework (always nice). And tonight we grilled out some of the best dang burgers I've ever made. Silas said the Andy's was better....I can't argue with a great point.

I really love my wife. I mean really really. That's just a stand alone post. Not necessarily related to the rest of the post but certainly a contributing factor.

Currently I'm sitting on my couch. Windows are open. I'm holding my sweet little girl in my arm as she doses off....aaaand ....I'm listening to a couple of crazy neighbors scream at their dog out the window....maybe they'll stop soon.

But it's been a great weekend. I'm pumped for a little Christian fellowship tomorrow. Gettin up bright and early to serve breakfast at the Ronald McDonald house with some of the teens which is always a great time of service.

Other than that...I', just trying to get back in the swing of blogging regularly. I'm thinking of starting a few regular topical posts like my sister-in-law Teri or my friend Lauren have done.....We'll see.

Crazy Love Challenge Chapter 7 (Sacrifice, Love, Faith)

2010-03-15T17:29:00.000-07:00

What are you doing..right now... that requires faith?

This week in my small group (I meet with a group of 11th and 12th grade students once a week) we studied chapter 7 of Francis chan's "Crazy Love". (you can read most of the book here) It's been a slow process getting through this powerful book and I think we're finally starting to take a lot of his challenges to heart. I think that one day I'd like to do a chapter by chapter review of the book and work out a challenge for each one...not today though.

Chapter 7 begins with this video. Check it out.

The major point of this chapter, to me, was the fact that we are blessed with so much. We're truly rich beyond measure. Jesus calls us time and time again to not place our trust in riches but to store up spiritual treasures. He says, that we must serve the "least of these", clothing them when they are naked, feeding them when they are hungry, visiting the sick. Whatever we do for these people, we are doing for him!

Sacrifice and Love
I think the ultimate word that came out of small group tonight was "sacrifice". We must sacrifice, we must GIVE. Francis also points out that Jesus equated giving with Love which can be seen in the famous "for God so loved the world that he ____ ??? he Gave. That was the manifestation of His love. All giving is a sacrifice. Sacrifice, selfless self abandon... caring more about others than you do for yourself...that's sounds an awful lot like love to me.

1 John 4:7ff says that God is love and the only way to know God is to Love.
1 John 3:16-20 says that we should love like Jesus by looking our for our "brother in need"

Faith
Hand in hand with this idea is the idea of faith. Hebrews 11 talks about a whole list of people who, despite their personal shortfalls, where able find the grace of God. It wasn't their righteousness that set them apart, it was their FAITH. Abraham was a liar but believed God on his word, David was an adulterous murderer and a pretty unsuccessful father (on a few accounts) but his faith was seen in his loyalty to God's direction for the kingdom among other things.

FAITH- is having the confidence that God is who he says he is and that he will do what he has promised to do. (Authentic Faith, as defined by Andy Stanley). Hebrews calls faith, "being certain of what you cannot see" and notes that "without faith, it is impossible to please God"

The Challenge
So..we need to LOVE and we need FAITH.

Find something that will show your faith. Something that is unseen and requires trusting God. Don't worry about it being the "right" thing... God would rather us do SOMETHING as opposed to nothing. Some of you might be doing something right now. Props and prayers for you. You understand sacrifice. Others might not have a clue what they're doing.

This is what I want to challenge you to do:
ask yourself this question, "what is something I can do that will both let me love someone with the love of God AND place me outside of my comfort zone so that I can live a life of faith?"

Then, get started. Do it. Start big, start small, start somewhere. Don't be satisfied with "good enough" always seek to give and give and give.

Our small group has a week to decide what we're each going to do. Won't you join us in the challenge.
Leave a comment if you want in on the challenge. Let's see if we can live out our faith.

Playing With Fire

2010-03-07T19:30:00.000-08:00

I know that a handful of the people that read my blog are in some level of teen ministry. I saw this video on Josh's blog tonight ( recommend that you subscribe to it). But I just couldn't pass it up. Good resource for a lesson intro or a discussion starter.

Playin' With Fire Trailer from Mark Schreiber on Vimeo.

Have you read the bible all the way through?

2010-03-05T07:53:00.001-08:00

5 Tips About Youth Ministry

2010-02-28T12:08:00.001-08:00

Here's a video from the simply youth ministry conference in Chicago this year....I didn't go. Maybe next time.

Killer Youth Ministry Tips from Igniter Media on Vimeo.

Rockin Silas

2010-02-24T20:08:00.000-08:00

You might have caught this over at Lindsey's Blog a while back....but, THIS....is my boy! We have been loving our hang out time and, no question, he's mine. I love my boy!

I'm Brian Fellow!

2010-02-24T18:23:00.001-08:00

OH yeah, enjoy a classic!

What's New is 2010?

2010-02-08T19:04:00.000-08:00

It's been too long since I last posted. I kinda cheated for a few months with the video blogs and then after Christmas just flat out stopped. But life is good and God is great! I'd been taking the time to do a lot of devotional updates at the end of 09 and plan to continue in that soon, but here's a little life update.

My little girl turned 6 months old today! Wow...I can hardly believe it. I remember when Silas was 6 months old. It seemed like it took so long for him to get there. We were living with my parents for the 5 months in transition between VA and NC and 5 of his first 6 months were there. That seems like a totally distinct life phase for me.... In fact, I just filled out a background check form for a camp I work with each summer and had to list my parents house as one of my most recent preeminent residences... weird. But the first 6 months of Savannah's life....ZOOOOOM. Gone. Is it sad? I'm not sure? I guess it could be. It's not like I haven't been here with her every day...hmmm? The thoughts we ponder.

Silas is my little man. He's Three and a Half going on 14. He's more articulate than many High School students I teach and has the great ambition of "being a little boy forever". He's my little Peter Pan. We're keeping a book of quotes from him that I plan to somehow make web-ready. He's a million laughs.

Lindsey has made the choice to stay at home with our kids and not return to work for now. I very brave decision I might add. She's an RN and likes doing that stuff but LOVES being a mommy. And, I might add, she's darn good at it. I love that woman!

Otherwise, I'm staying busy (if that's not enough).

Sunday Mornings We've started a new Bible study "class" at Christ's Church. I'm teaching with Jeremy Jones on the Life of Christ. It's been a great little fellowship time as a handful of of young adults gather to talk and learn. It's been forever since I've taught adults...in fact, I've never really had a good chance to do that regularly. It's refreshing

Sunday Nights We've got a great "new" Middle School Program at the church called "six78". Joe Cartwright has been on staff sine May '09 as our teen ministry intern and is now running that program. He's doing great all around.

Monday Nights we have a 11-12 grade small group at our house. I love the guys and girls. We're studying Francis Chan's "Crazy Love" book. It's a great look at God's love for us and our response to that love. It's really challenged me to rethink my commitment to God's love and where to place him in my world...(or rather, where to place myself in HIS world)

Tuesday Nights are the big deal for me. It's our High School event (theWIRE). I run that and speak each week. Most weeks I lead worship. HS worshipers are among some of the most sincere. I really love worshiping with them. We have a great environment in the the LOFT for students to let loose and I find myself right in there with them.

Wednessday nights are great....I have nothing :)

Thursday Nights I have been driving to Elizabeth City to teach my first college level course at MACU. I'm teaching, "intro to Family Ministry" to 11 students. They are a great class and have been a good guinea pig for me as an instructor. (I don't get to be a "professor" until I finish my MA next spring). I plan to do more posts about this soon to get my course available on my website as a resource for anyone who might care to use it)

My brother and his wife (I had to throw them some props) have been great to let us hang out or spend the night on these late Thursday nights. Y'all rock!

Fridays have been reserved for school work. If you recall, I'm still in Grad School. I'm taking 2 courses right now (I changed degree programs and as a result halted my Thesis...whew... but Now I've got an extra 1.5 years of school left). I had planned to graduate this coming May and now it'll be next spring. Lindsey has been a huge help this semester with one particular project! We're reading this GIANT book together (she reads...I listen). I won't even go into all of that...But I've been very thankful for her in this process.

Saturday....who knows...must we plan everything?!!! haha.

aaaaand....we're back to sunday.

I'm loving life and staying in the word, it's been my strength through all the hustle. I'm also spending more time with my family than I have been able to in the past because I'm making it my top priority. Hope you're doing well too....

Now I'm gonna go enjoy some more time with my wife and a nice cup of decaf before bed.

wow

2010-01-16T18:56:00.001-08:00

Christ's Church 10th anniversary

2010-01-13T19:25:00.000-08:00

It's been too long since I posted about what's going on at Christ's Church. I guess I give an update from time to time about the teen ministry, but here's one for the whole church. This year we are celebrating 10 years of Connecting people to Christ, Church, and the Community. It's exciting to be a part of this body of believers. Growing up in Eastern NC gives me a lot of perspective on how to do church...umm..poorly...in fact, it breaks my heart ot admit that many in the region may just be doing it wrong. I won't go any deeper in to that thought but instead state this: I'm so proud to be a part of Christ's Church, one of the churches who are doing their best to do things right. Once thing we strive to do is connect people with Christ so HE can change their lives...their eternity. Here is a video of the cardboard testimony that was done this past sunday to shoe just a sampling of what Christ can do for the broken lives of those he loves. You may have seen a dozen of these...I know I had. But these are MY friends, MY family, MY Neighbors. It meant so much more this time. I had the tough task of singing a song during the testimony time...I had no idea how hard it would be to hold my composure... I also had no idea that I would sing the same song for like 9 minutes! haha. Learn more about Christ's Church at www.christschurch.cc

This one goes out to my brother and my mom...Party in the USA

2010-01-04T19:13:00.001-08:00

What You See is Not Always What You Get

2010-01-01T07:57:00.000-08:00

Vacation: Wednesday

2009-12-30T20:21:00.000-08:00

Vacation: Tuesday

2009-12-29T19:46:00.000-08:00

Vacation: Monday

2009-12-29T18:14:00.000-08:00

Vacation: Sunday

2009-12-29T10:50:00.000-08:00

This year's vacation came very late. With Savannah being born in August, which is normally a good month for us to vacay, we choose to put it off. I like the "end of the year break" but I don't think I ever want to wait this long for a vacation again...whew! I need it!

So, here's Sunday night, don't know if I'll post every day but here's one...

Faith Like That

2009-12-20T18:18:00.001-08:00

Merry Christmas From MACU! ( A Gift)

2009-12-16T18:28:00.000-08:00

This video combines some of my favorite things. Christmas, Free Stuff, my niece Ariel (Jason and Teri too) and Mid Atlantic Christian University. Pass it on!

What Are You Doing with Your 24?

2009-12-14T21:07:00.001-08:00

Been playing with some blogger features and code stuff on my site... mainly to practice some ideas before I apply them to the other sites that I help maintain (show them some love ccteens, Christ's Church and RCC). Sorry if some "filler" blogs made it into your reader tonight, hopefully i avoided that.

So lately you might have noticed a shift in my blogging. It's been a lot of video and very little (ok, none) typed thoughts. There are a couple of reasons for that. 1) It's just easier to V-log. I picked up a flip camera last spring and have just recently been taking advantage of the simplicity of it! 2) I like video better b/c I'm lazy. 3) I've had a void of thoughts when it comes to purposeful blogging. I don't want to be just another diary for people to scroll through in their reader list (by the way, if you're not using a reader, and you follow blogs... stop doing it the hard way. Look up "google reader" and save yourself a lot of time.

So, here's my thought for you to consider, it's big on my heart and bigger in my lifestyle. I once heard someone say, "Who is the richest person you can think of?",

the person answered, "ummm, Bill Gates?"

The first person said, "Well how do you suppose Bill Gates has all of his money?" ... a bit of a trick questions but I like where they went...

"well, he works hard?" said the second person.

"Do you think that we could be as productive as someone like Bill Gates?"

"I don't know, Bill has a lot of resources and staff..."

"Sure, but he didn't always. On a very basic level, Bill Gates starts each day with the same basic resource that we all have..."

"What's that?"

"24 hours"

"Huh?"

"Bill Gates has the same 24 hours each day that every healthy normal person has... it's how he chooses to use it that makes the difference..."

Sure, the story may have never actually happened but I think the point holds true and we're left with a lingering question, "What will you do with your 24 hours?"..with your 7 days, with your 52 weeks?

I want to make every second count. Jesus said that he would be coming like a thief in the night... any time might be the moment of the great return. He also told the story of the servants to whom a master gave a sum of money to hold while he was away. Upon his return, the master expected to have received interest on the sum. The servants who had invested their money wisely were praised, while the servant who did not was put down.

You may be asking youself, "what is my gift?" Maybe you're not a "teacher" or a "singer" or "athletic"; fly quotation marks around whatever title you wish you had but regardless of your opinions on your giftedness the one glaring fact pokes you right back in the eye. You have the same 24 hours as Bill Gates, or Bill Griffin (former president of MACU), or Bill Clinton (another former president) for that matter. Each Bill, contributing a different and very distinct legacy to this world. What will be your legacy? What are you doing with your 24?

Jesus, Christmas and Texting While Driving

2009-12-14T13:35:00.001-08:00

Silas ans LIndsey makin cookies

2009-12-12T14:37:00.001-08:00

'lil van gogh

2009-12-10T13:16:00.001-08:00

Thoughts on Making Deals with God

2009-12-10T07:22:00.001-08:00

Breakfasts Before Work

2009-12-09T10:35:00.001-08:00

Thankful

2009-11-26T11:07:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving...
I'm sitting here watching the traditional thanksgiving Lions Game and looking forward to the Cowboy's game later today. My belly is STUFFED with all kinds of food that my wonderful mother-in-law made. (whew, I'm almost in a sweat from eating).

I just wanted to take a second to mention how thankful I am. I have been so blessed in my life. Thank you God for everything I have and most of all for saving my soul through Jesus the Christ!

Here's my family....props to Lauren for being such a great photographer and friend.

Deck the Halls (Woolard Family Christmas 2009)

2009-11-21T21:27:00.000-08:00

3 or 4 minutes in the car

2009-11-20T17:06:00.000-08:00

United Breaks Guitars (Free Taylor Guitars!)

2009-11-16T18:04:00.000-08:00

We've all dealt with sucky customer service. I know I've had more than my fair share. I've found that if you can be intelligent enough and logical enough with enough people....and eventually get to talk to the people with actual authority... I can typically get what I need.

Here's a great story that I just heard, I'm not sure if all the details are 100% accurate... I got it in a (ahem) "email forward"....but it's hilarious to me. Here it is.

A musician named Dave Carroll recently had difficulty with United Airlines. United apparently damaged his treasured Taylor guitar ($3500) during a flight. Dave spent over 9 months trying to get United to pay for damages caused by baggage handlers to his custom Taylor guitar. During his final exchange with the United Customer Relations Manager, he stated that he was left with no choice other than to create a music video for YouTube exposing their lack of cooperation. The Manager responded, "Good luck with that one, pal."

So he posted a retaliatory video on YouTube. The video has since received over 5.5 million hits. United Airlines contacted the musician and attempted settlement in exchange for pulling the video. Naturally his response was, "Good luck with that one, pal."

Taylor Guitars sent the musician two new custom guitars in appreciation for the product recognition from the video that has lead to a sharp increase in orders.

DeadlyViper.com

2009-10-24T20:10:00.000-07:00

After all the wait...two posts in one night. I've recently had a lot of compassion and put a lot of heart into working with young men, teenage boys, and guys in general with the problems that plague them. Among the many are the big ones, Sexual sin, spiritually laziness and pride. I just ran across this video from a new site dedicated to men and building them up in the Lord. Check it out, forward it to your husband, send it to the guy at your church that does men's ministry and above all PRAY for the men of God in the world. It's a tough time to be a man.

www.deadlyviper.com

Vacation? Soon...Soon

2009-10-24T20:01:00.000-07:00

Man, it's been a hot minute since I've had a good post.

We just had a great weekend. Thursday Night we headed down to the OBX for some vacation action. I told Lindsey I was gonna pretend like it was a week long vacation even though it was only less than 48hrs. Lindsey and I had some great conversation on the way down...Silas was in and out. Even though it was 12:30 when we got there... (He was asleep when we put him in his car seat but at some point he decided to pop his head up and join the convo.

I miss the long rides thatt Lindsey and I used to take. It's where we've done some of our most serious life planning and important talking. We travel as much as ever but there are now 2 additional sets of ears in the back seat. The ears aren't always the problem. It's mostly the mouths that impede the conversation. I wouldn't trade their little mouths for the world...I'm just sayin! (Isn't it funny how we can get away with virtually any innuendo, cut down, foul mouth or inapropriate comment by simply qualifying it with the phrase "I'm just sayin".... just a thought.

Anyway. This post is nothing specific but my attempt to get back on the wagon of blogging again. I really had wanted to convert my blog into more of a video based blog. I like the format. But for some reason, since I installed snowleapard on my macbook.... I've been having oodles of problems with uploads. Nothing else, really, just uploads. But I'm talkin' email attachments, vimeo and youtube and a variety of other file sharing type uploads. Luckily my FTP is still working fine. It's how I've sent "attachments" lately...not as attachments at all...as links to Christ's Church's server space.

Firefox is great. Snow Leopard is great ( I think). It's just that I have a notebook which I upgraded to Leopard and then to snow leoapard... the recomended course of action is to do a "clean" install. Instead of an upgrade. So... I still praise thee oh Mac... it's my own fault for doing it the quick way. I need to back up my files and clean install SL.

Enough of that.

I've got A LOT going on in my mind these days. Ministry ideas, Discipleship ideas, Evangelism Ideas, Book Ideas, Non-Propfit Org ideas....God is really moving in my heart and has been for the last year. I believe he is preparing me for something huge. I have no idea what. What I do know is that I'm seeing a lot of peices come together for me. Not sure what any of it means just yet but I'm excited to be used by the maker as a Father, husband, and servant of mankind.

I've also been "convicted" lately by my friend at "http://www.brandedwithlove.com/" about the idea of using my blog/website as a more productive thing than just promoting..."me". Of course, chriswoolard.com IS kinda about "me". I just my idea was that it would be a landing pad for all of my stuff. It has become that in a way. But the idea of making it more focused and useful for something totally not self serving has been interesting to me. I mean, I post devotional ideas, ministry ideas and other useful resources amidst the family updates and personal rants but I wonder if there is a more impacting use of my time in something else. I'm not sure yet. I may keep my domain for a personal info thing and move over to blogging on a different domain....or may restructure how I do things here...who knows. Food for thought though.

Any ideas....feel free to send them my way.

I have been able to put something simi-productive together online. It's a little shabby still be the response has been good. Feel free to check out http://www.shareyouthministry.com if you get a moment. It's a social network that I set up to pull together a bunch of the Youth leaders that I have been friends with for years. The focus was to just make a place for these people to colaborate. Hopefully we can beef it up with some real content and make things happen on there soon.

Okay. I blogged. I feel glad of that. Tomorrow is a full day. Leading worship for both adult services at Christ's Church, playing a set of music at our anual "Fall Fest" (come check out Fall Fest from 1-6) asnd visitation at the local prison (pray for that one...no details needed....just). Luckily six78 is canceled for the night so at least I'll be home at a decent hour.

THat's all for now. Peace

#100

2009-09-25T12:47:00.000-07:00

So here it is. My 100th post. I'm typing on my teeny Blackberry in a
cabin at Park's Springs NC while listening to Dean Owens and Joe
Blanchard saw logs.

I'm the speaker at the Campus Christian Fellowship Fall retreat. I'm
normally not the speaker at events. At least 1 weekend a month (it
seems) I'm leading worship an Event somwhere (which I really do
enjoy!)... Last week was worship at a Biker Ralley @MACU. Next weekend
I'm in Washington NC at an event called "face the music". But I love
to preach. And would like to do it more often.

This weekend, the theme is Revolution. The idea that the Love of God
is revolutionary and we too can go against the flow of society and
turn this world upside-down for Jesus.

Jesus was a Rebel. He fought against the status quo...sin and self. He
taught us that to live a life like no one else was living we have to
do things that no one else is doing. He hugged the sick and ate with
the despised. Loving others is the key.

Tomorrow ill be talking about the change that takes place in those who
followed Christ as well as the chain reaction that followed
which...eventually led to our hearing the word!
We are called to be revolutionaries in this fallen world but going
against the flow of the dead souls who surround us and towards the
light of Jesus. All the while grabbing as many of those dead souls and
trying to convense them to join us in life.

3 more messages to go and then back to my family. I miss my boy and my
girls but its for Christ and it won't be long

Peace

#99

2009-09-21T10:34:00.000-07:00

This is Post #99at www.chriswoolard.com.
In most things there are milestones. I feel like I'm at #99 in a lot of things. Like, 99% there...but not quite around the corner yet. I have no idea what blog post #100 has in store...but we shall find out soon.

For now....peace.

The Skater

2009-08-31T05:32:00.000-07:00

I've been playing around with my Adobe CS3 package lately. You've seen some of my photoshop stuff. Yesterday I sat down with some Youube tutorials on Flash animation. Here's my fist attempt. I'm pretty proud of it.

The Skater from chriswoolard on Vimeo.

Play For Change: Love Jesus!

2009-08-29T12:54:00.000-07:00

Play for change is a great organization dedicated to breaking down the walls of race and nation and pulling people together under the banner of music. You may have seen the stand by me
video that I posted a while back. This one is another video by that organization. It's really awesome to see it all come together.

If you watch a lot of their other videos you'll see that most of the musicians do a lot of talking about love. It's interesting that God's word tells us that love is the attribute of a human that will let people know that they know God.

7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 1 John 4:7-11

Knowing God or knowing an attribute (even the most important one) of God is great. The unfortunate thing is this: Knowing God doesn't guarantee the salvation of your soul or your admittance into eternity. Remember what else the word says:

19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that–and shudder. James 2:19

Music is great for bringing people together, Love is awesome and everyone needs it. God is real and only fool deny his existance but the key to a full life and a secure eternity is JESUS! Peter and John clearly set the standard when they faced the skeptical Jewish leaders in Acts 4:

10 then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed.
11 He is
“ ‘the stone you builders rejected,
which has become the capstone.’
12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” Acts 2:10-12

Enjoy life. Enjoy Music... please, love life Jesus. But don't rest your hope on anything less that Jesus Christ of Nazareth and his righteousness.

peace.

The Devil Wears Prada

2009-08-25T05:25:00.001-07:00

This morning I was reading through Luke. It's a great gospel because of all the detail he gives. I'm a fan of detail. I've always been a meticulous person who enjoyed the smaller things in life. I noticed a small thing that jumped out at me this time in the story of Jesus' temptation in the wilderness.

Luke 4:5
5 The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world.6 And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to.

The sin often paints itself to us as something that we need or deserve. The sin that I'm thinking about at the moment is the Americanized sin of overspending. So often we are tempted to buy things with money we don't have and go into sinful debt. Other sins are similar though, we believe we are entitled to a day where we can be a jerk or a moment where we can let our guard down. Why? because the devil takes us up on a mountaintop, shows us all the kingsdoms of the world and says "all this is mine, I'll give it to you if you worship me"

Wrongo!

All of the world is Jesus. He is our Lord whether we bow to worship Him or choose to be obstinate. The Devil is a poser and a liar. Don't be led into believing the lie.

Col. 3:17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together
Matt 28:18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Peace.