New Youth Service begins in 3...2...1...

This weekend we launch our new youth services for Jr. high and High School and I am so excited!!! We will begin at our 9am service with Jr. high only and move to our 11am service with a combined Jr. and Sr. High. This weekends message is I heart people and it's gonna get rowdy, so make sure you are there!

MHS Soccer

Last night Andrew Chavez invited me to his soccer game verses Lake Stevens at LSHS. I showed up a little late because I got lost (I live in Lake Stevens, but know little of where anything is). When I arrived he was on the sideline because of a face injury. From what I gathered he got kicked in the face protecting the goal (he's a goalie) and had to be pulled out of the game for liability reasons. There was a fear that he broke his nose, which after seeing the swelling and bruising, he may have :-), better follow up with that. It was a lot of fun watching the game and with about eight minutes left Austin Cohn (Jaisa's brother) kicked the winning goal for Monroe. It was awesome kudos and congrats to Austin. The team is now 2-0-1, two wins and one tie and may be in first place.

Playing sports is an incredible experience. I played baseball for 12 years, wrestled for three and played football for one. It taught me discipline, hard work and team work. I have tons of stories and memories of wins and losses that I will cherish for a life time.

One thing I admire tremendously about Andrew Chavez is that while he lives, eats and breathes soccer, it always comes second to his relationship with God and church. I've seen Andrew show up for church and events tired and worn out from a game, but unwilling to miss what God has for him. In today's sports crazy society it's difficult to keep the proper priorities in tact, but fight for it and you'll have stories, memories, friendships and possible scholarships and the character to back all of it up!

The Retreat recap and testimonies

This last weekend we shuttled 40+ people over to Cascade Community Church, jumped on a bus (I drove down, so I could be back for service) and rode down to Camp Berachah. Along with the youth of GRID 29:11 (The Rock Church's youth ministry) we had Cascade's youth, Monroe Community Chapel's youth and Crosswater Community Church's youth. There were upwards of 150 total people at the Camp. It was an unprecedented weekend where churches put down their denominational differences and rallied around one central similarity, their love for Jesus Christ.

It was incredible to see churches mixed with churches worshiping together, eating together and sleeping in the same cabins, laughing together. It was one of the funnest youth trips and weekends I've ever been a part of.

The high point of the whole weekend for me was the last night we were there. The speaker Jeff Geise felt like God was directing us to do a feet washing and communion service with an emphasis on mending broken friendships. I couldn't believe it when students from other churches were going up to other students and repenting for having offenses. Friendships that had been broken by differences and such were mended and I truly believe God was smiling upon the unity that was produced from this event.

That night for me personally was incredible too. I had student after student come wash my feet and thank me for the impact I had in their life. I was so humbled and so honored to be able to be a part of their life. We have some incredible students and to be able to pastor them is an incredible honor. I also had an opportunity to wash Pastor Jim from Cascade Community's feet and thank him for his friendship and camaraderie in youth ministry. I had the honor of watching Jim pastor young people and I was blown away at the caliber of pastor that he is. He is one of the greatest pastor's I've ever seen in operation. I knew he was awesome, but I didn't know he was out of this universe awesome!

While at The Retreat God reminded me that 10 years ago we started praying for unity between The Rock, Cascade, and MCC and that the answer to that prayer began at that retreat. God truly does answer prayers and I cannot wait for what else God has in store for this city.

This kind of event and unity does not happen, at all, around the U.S. I've maybe heard about something like this 1 or 2 times in my life. This is the beginning of what revivals are born out of and I am expecting God to do something supernatural as a result of our obedience. It was an inspiring weekend and I cannot wait for next years retreat!

States test can you beat my score?

In 2m 54s

Click here to Play

Work Party?

I told everybody on Saturday to check the blog to see if we would have a work party this Saturday. Well... because we're gone for The Retreat and so many of our incredible leaders are going as well we will not be having a work party or Saturday night service. We will have a work a work party on Saturday the 22nd, so come with some clothes you can get dirty and lets sharpen the incredible tool we call GRID 29:11 to reach more people!

Since you're here at the blog check out some of the other posts below!

Crazy cool video

I saw this video from YouTube on another blog and I had to show it here. We should totally do something like this sometime.

Wind of Change

The wind of change has been blowing recently in my life and I can't help but think of the Scorpions song, "wind of change." It always gets stuck in my head when I think of it and pretty soon I'm singing at the top of my lungs TAKE ME TO THE MAGIC OF THE MOMENT ON A GLORY NIGHT WHERE THE CHILDREN OF TOMORROW DREAM AWAY THE WIND OF CHANGE. Then I'm whistling the tune in the song and pretty soon I'm wearing acid wash jeans and rocking the mullet! ;-)

Seriously though a ton of stuff has been changing and I cannot help but be excited beyond expression. I've been working feverishly to make some changes in the youth ministry that will cause our impact to multiply overnight. In the spirit of all this change I also changed my hair style and changed my clock forward an hour (day light savings). A whole lot of change happening and I am stoked.

I'll be writing more about it soon!

Vision

"Where there is no vision the people perish," Proverbs 29:18 (KJV)


When I close my eyes and dream out our church reaching out to youth, do you know what I see? I'll tell you! I see...

- Thousands of students gathered at the Everett Event Center once a month hailing from cities all over Snohomish County. Not just attending, but a real, passionate devotion to Christ.

- GRID Campuses in Sultan, Duvall, Woodinville, Snohomish, Lake Stevens, Everett and Marysville.

- Services happening at the same time in different cities with different worship teams and different leaders touching a generation.

- Leaders taking the role of Campus pastors and overseeing hundreds of young people.

- A momentum and synergy in the youth of Snohomish County.

- A love in the hearts of young people. A love for each other, a love for community, a love for parents, and above a love for God.

- Holiness in the midst of a culture where nothing is sacred. A generation of young people against evil, but not people, they love the people who are in darkness.

When I close my eyes this is what I see.

When you close your eyes what do you see? What do you see for your life, your kids, your community?

Friends

Yesterday Gia and I got the opportunity to hand out with our best friends, Adam and Randa. It had been far too long since we spent some time together and as I was laying in bed last night awake from the Red Bull Ak and I partook of and I thought about how fun and refreshing it is to hang out friends who have the same values, goals and vision that you do.

Adam and Randa are two of the most loving, loyal and fun people I know and I get the incredible honor of being their friends and having them involved in our youth ministry. Gia and I had an incredible time going to Borders and watching a movie with them. We then went to their house where Adam and I played Guitar Hero 3 while they made my Mom's special spaghetti, which was delicious. We all ate it while watching last weeks episode of lost (crazy). All in all one of the funnest days I've had in a while.

In this life we need friends that refresh us. We need friends that bring the best out in us and that we can let our guard down and just have fun with. Make sure you spend time with friends like these and the next time your out with them buy them dinner or a movie to say thank you for all the good times!

GRID Tonight!

We have our weekly youth service tonight and I am preaching a message titled Purity, what it is... Today also marks my two year anniversary of becoming a full time youth pastor. It has been an incredible two years and I'll try and post something about the two things I've learned in two years this weekend some time. I've learned more than two, but to keep it short I'll pick the two biggest and run with it.

Also I was up all last night sick with the same crud my wife had, but I'm feeling a little better today and will be ready to preach come 8pm!