Our Adoption Story thus far...

So I haven't posted to my blog in like 5 months, and since this has been the most jammed packed year of my life it may be a great time to pick it back up. If you live in the metro-east area you have likely heard the rumor that we are starting the adoption process, and it's a true rumor but very very few of you will know the whole story. So please take the time to read and maybe you will become as burdened as we are.

Our Story...
I don't know quite where to begin the story. Maybe it starts in November of last year when Gwen and I set three priorities for our home in 2009. They were to open our home, lives, and checkbook. Or maybe in late September when I preached a message on Compassion and urged Christians to begin to see the needs around them and meet the ones they could. But our story heats up in October of this year when I attended Catalyst, a church based leadership conference in Atlanta, GA. In the second session of the second day the team presented the need for Christian couples to adopt one of the 143 million orphans across the world. It hit me like a ton of bricks. But then as I sat there and watch the presentation God as clear as day asked me, "what if it wasn't one of those children, what if it was your child?" What if something happened to both Gwen and I and everyone that we assumed would fill the gap didn't? I begin to cry and would do some for about the next 20 minutes. I had been marked.

I spent the rest of the day and the majority of the ridicules drive from ATL to STL praying and asking God what I was supposed to do. But even as I prayed he was impressing upon me the call to adopt. While shopping the next day I shared with Gwen what I felt God was calling and the conversations began between she, I, and God. We have prayed and prayed and prayed. We weighed all the options but still couldn't determine what the best plan of action was/is. By about the last week of October I came to the conclusion that maybe we should wait; meet a few of our finical goals, get me done with grad school, let things slow down a bit and then maybe explore the options again. And then the next Sunday Dr. Tom Hufty, our interim pastor, preached through the first chapter of James which included 1:27 which classifies true religion as that which cares for orphans. Gwen and I had listened to it separately, and had determined we at least had to take the next step. So we've started.

Our Process...
Right now we're working with Hoyleton a organization contracted by DCFS. We are going through the process to be certified to become foster parents which could in time open the door to adoption. We believe this is the road God is walking us down and are trying to be faithful to HIS call. Everything is up in the air and we have a lot more questions than we have answers. And are having to pray through a lot! We don't know when, how, or what it all will look life, we're just trying to walk faithfully.

Our Prayer Requests...

• That God would provide clarity, if this is God's call we will be as faithful as we know how. If this is not God's call we aught not go down this path.
• That God would open the right doors, and we'll walk through and know when a door has been closed.
• For our marriage as we continue to make this decision, we need to be united upon God's call!
• For the right child, if God carries this process out to the fullest extent we want HIS BEST for our lives, even if that brings us something we weren't expecting.

Our Future...

As of right now we don't know what this will all look like in 3 months or 3 year. Sometimes I still think I will wake up and this will be the classic Abraham sacrificing Issac scenario and God will say he was just testing us. But it's our desire that we follow God as far as he will take this and it is becoming our increasing desire to bring a child into our home to join our family who needs a second shot at life.

We also hope that you will be challenged to consider your role in eliminating the massive orphan problem along with its spiritual implications for the church, I have begun to view James 1:27 quite literally!

Blessings,

Preparing Your Student for College

So obviously I don't write from personal experience on sending a child off to college and I don't understand the emotions or anxieties that you are experiencing about your child returning or going off to school for the first time. My current anxieties as a parent are focused on keeping my toddler from either flushing or throwing away my keys or cell phone. What I write comes from lessons I have learned from my time spent in both the youth and college ministry and watching how different students react to their new environments. I by no means want to come off arrogant or try to say I know more about parenting that you do, but here are a few things I have learned about parenting a college student.

1.) Don't Underestimate the influence you have on their life-Even though they are growing up and may not act like it they still want your input on key decisions such as majors, church, dating, and basically every other aspect of their lives at home and school. You may choose to hold back your feedback on every trivial choice they make but don't do this key issues that impact their future in major ways, especially when you see them walking down a risky path. You have the wisdom and experience because you have already been through this phase of life, not only do they need it but most of the time they want it!

2.) Stay plugged into their spiritual life-PRAY, PRAY, PRAY FOR YOUR STUDENT!!! College becomes a tougher environment every semester. The first key to staying plugged in is to do this very simple yet necessary act. Continue to talk to them about their walk with Christ; even if you are afraid of what the answer might be. They need your accountability to remain faithful to God. Now is not the time to pull away from influencing them spiritually.

This thought continues with impressing upon them the necessity of consistent church attendance at a Bible teaching congregation. Church attendance will not happen by accident, and you need to be a driving force in their consistency. Many parents feel the need to began to let their children make their own decisions which is good in many situations. But not this one. You must encourage your student to remain faithful in church attendance. For many college students once church attendance begins to slide teh spritaul disciplines are closely behind and moral failure is soon to follow. Don't allow this to be an area where they begin to make their own choices, church attendance is a must! To help in this process make finding a new church in their community part of your move in routine.

3.) Express unconditional Love-I once heard it said there is a time and place for everything, it's called college. From the get go continue to remind your child that no matter what mistakes and decisions they make you will love them just the same. At some point your child will most likely make a moral decision that you do not agree with and could cause you a lot of heart ache. But continue to remind them of your unconditional love, this will help create an enviroment of openness and trust. When they fully trust you and your love there is a better chance of learning about a behavioral pattern before it spirals out of control. And with an eviroment of love and trust you will still have the opportunity to speak truth into their lives and love and lead them through mistakes. You will love them no matter what, just make sure they know this.

It is not profund but foundational. I pray the best for your college student's studies but more importantly their spritual lives. With your prayers and influence your student can be sucsessful in every aspect of thier spritual lives.

Total Surrender

So this thought came to my mind about 2 weeks ago and has been there ever since. I was assisting in serving the Lord's supper on a Sunday morning and I'm listening to the other pastor teach on the significance of the elements. As Rich is getting ready to serve the bread I am reminded once again that Christ didn't hold anything back when it came to my salvation. Though He may have looked for an out when it came right down to it Jesus gave up everything for me...what if I did the same for him?

In Romans 12:1 Paul writes, Therefore I urge you, brethern, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spritual service to God. What would and what could God do through me if I didn't hold anything back from him? Though we don't counsciously choose to hold something back all of us have at leat one thing that hinders us from reaching our fullest potential is serving Christ. It doesn't have to be a deep dark sercret sin, it can be as simple as a fear, attitude, or personality trait that hinders our walk and service to Christ. I know what it is for me, I don't have a clue what it is for you. But the challenge for all of us is to allow Christ to continually prune us back so our lives can be the purest living sacrifice possible.

Ok, so I havn't blogged in forever and that pretty much defeats the purpose of having a blog. But I sit at my desk with a Starbucks and a Matt Chandler sermon playing. The pump is primed for a post.

The past few weeks Gwen and I have been on a Red Box spree. One of the movies we recently watched was Yes Man. It was crude, inappropriate, and not recommeded for family movie night. But the whole deal is to get out of a funk he has to say yes to every single oppritunity that comes his way. It takes him through Korean classes, guitar lessons, dating encounters, ect. Kind of a stupid decision making filter but none the less I'm sure someone is richer for the stupidity that was this movie. But for the past few weeks a thought has been lingering in my head.

What if I was a yes man to God?

What if every time God prompted us to action we took action immediatly? What could God do through us if we took every oppritunity he offered up? What if I quit laying awake at night dreaming about what God could do through me in the future and just did he asked of me durning the day? I try to daily lay my life down for the Christ but some days I do so little! And it is not becuase God doesn't want to use me or becuase I'm not given the opprtunities but becuase I pass up so many oppritunities that God lays out in front of me. What could God do if I simply said yes?

Who would hear the gospel? Who's needs would be meet? Who would be one step closer to Jesus? If I simply acted when God prompted what could he accomplish through me?

Life-on accident or on purpose

Last night I taught Pastor Fred's Wednesday evening Bible study, he is out of state at a conference. I actually taught on the characteristics of a missional life out of Acts 2. That's not what I'm gonna write about today; even though it is an amazing topic! But what I found as I reviewed what I taught was my consistent use of the phrase, be intentional.

I have been a Christian for almost 10 years now and what I am continually realizing is that the Christian life, or at least one that matters, will never happen on accident. Living the life worthy of the calling to be a Christ follower requires a great deal of planning and intentionality. I will be taking a look at three areas that require our intentionality.

1.) Our Devotional life. On Sunday night Gwen, Eli, and myself joined a retired couple for dinner following evening worship. As we were leaving the gentlemen commented he had to get to bed, 4 am would come early. I asked why on earth he would wake up this early as a retired gentleman, he starts the day off with an hour of prayer and Bible study. What an example. As believers we have to schedule time sacrificially to spend time getting to know the heart of God better. Or it won't happened. This is difficult to start and even harder to maintain. But the life that Christ has called us to live requires intense time spent in prayer and Bible study will which require intentional planning on our part!

2.) Engaging the local church. First in regular attendance. There is a line of thought out there that you can get spiritually feed from para church organizations and services and that replaces church. These are not what Christ established in Peter's confession. These good organizations and ministries do not cut it. I have also heard that you can maintain a close relationship with Christ or be spiritual without church attendance. Is this possible? It maybe but I have never seen it work. Church attendance is a necessity in the life of every believer. Also we have to engage in the ministry of the local church. It is simply not enough to fill a pew, or even fill a pew and give. Every attender and believer needs to in some aspect be filling some empty role in their house of worship. Churches are most effective in fulfilling the great commission when the service by their members is maximized.

3.) Evangelism. As believers we have to be looking for oppritunitiesto share the gospel with un-believers. If you are waiting for the perfect opportunity to share the gospel chances are you will be waiting for a very long time. We have to be looking for opportunities in everyday conversations to turn the encounter towards the cross. If we are not intentional about creating gospel conversations then the message of Christ will cease to be shared, at least by us.

My thought are not complex, they pretty foundational. But as Christians we are called to have a kingdom impact. But this only happens when we plan to do so, never on accident.

A year ago Yesterday

There will be 364 days in 2009 that if you asked me what all happened a year ago on that day I would have no clue. But yesterday is the exception; Gwen, Eli, and myself celebrated Eli's 1st birthday. And by celebrating I mean we went to Subway for $5 foot longs; which had a whole lot more to do with Gwen and I wanting to eat. But none the less we have all survived the adventure of our first year as a three-some; which has been the most exciting year as a family!

Eli's godfather, my best friend from college, was recently through St. Louis for a day and we got to spend some time together. Over lunch he asked me how being a father had changed my life. And it has changed every aspect of how I approach life.

Most importantly being a dad has increased my responsibility to lead a life worth reproducing. What I have found to be increasing true is how much he, Eli, watches and replicates my every move. Making it incredibly important that I am intentional about living my life in the same manner that I want him to live his. But this is true for everybody, not just parents, leaders, or pastors.

In life the generation or age group before us has got hawk eyes on our life patterns. Grade schoolers look up to middle schoolers, who are admiring high schoolers, who are replicating the lives of college students, who are adopting the life patterns of their parents. This pattern is simply inescapable. Which leads us all to ask ourselves; would we want our current life to be fully and totally reproduced and repeated in the life of someone else? Someone is watching us and will do just that.

About a month ago Eli and I were at breakfast. We were next to a table of a father and his two adult sons. Before their server had even set their plates down they were pointing out all the things she had done wrong, lead by the elderly father. No doubt this was a learned behavior. The other night Eli and I were out shopping. We had left Aldi to go to Walmat, which is simply crossing one street going straight into another parking lot. I snapped Eli into his seat but did not bother to buckle my own seat belt. As we drove I realized I would never leave Eli unsecured even for the shortest distance, but I made a completely different decision for myself. Great example Dad.

So when it comes to faith issues, where it matters more than anything else, are we living the life we want to see others live? Naturally their will be holes in our lives, but are we being intentional about limiting them? Someone somewhere is watching you as an example on how to live their life; is your life what you want them to reproduce in theirs?

The Personal Invite

Over the past few weeks God has been driving home some important, yet very simple aspects of doing church and ministry. The main one is the power and influence of simply inviting another person to church or church events. My thoughts are not new or complex, they are actually quit the opposite. This is simply some of what God had been driving home with me over the past few weeks.

It is so important but so effective to simply invite an unchurched person to church or a church related event. Yet we all too often overlook this action. A good part of me is afraid that the simple invite will in time completely disappear if we don't begin to capitalize on its effectiveness. Those saying that inviting is too invasive, ineffective, or is now taboo will eventually win out.

Last night I attended The Source, which is the weekly gathering for the SIUE Campus Crusades. As I was driving up to campus last night I realized that the reason I was going is because one of their interns invited me to come; I had been planning to attend a different campus ministry last night but a simple invite to CRU quickly changed my plans. I bet this same process would have a similar affect on a lot of our unchurched friends.

Last Friday I was out to lunch with Gwen, Eli, and my parents. The server had been really friendly and open to conversation so as we were settling the bill I asked him if he attended church in the area. He said no, but asked a few question about where I did. We talked briefly and I left him a card, encouraged him to join us on Sunday, and asked him to call me if he had any questions. On the way back to the house my dad asked me if I thought he would ever make it down to Maryville? I said I didn't know but he was 100% more likely to come now that I have invited him. The stats are staggering. A person is far more likely to show up to church or an event after we have personally extended a very simple invitation come.