Aug
30
2009
Confession: All week I had a strong feeling that someone or someones were going to accept Jesus at The Vine this week. Add that to the fact that I asked our staff to pray earnestly for the salvation of folks who don’t know Jesus Christ, and I was completely stoked about this morning. Turns out that the prompting and the prayers were dead-on. Our serve teams at The Vine are ridiculous. We gathered at 9:00 for prayer and asked them to pray right there and throughout the morning for people who don’t know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Well, drum roll please…at least four people recognized that they made a decision to place faith in Jesus Christ. That’s awesome! That’s why we exist! That’s why we wanted to build-out a bigger facility!
The second cool thing is that at the 11:00 service we had to bring out more chairs. That’s two weeks in a row. Just to be clear, we didn’t move back the chairs that we moved out last week. So, that means we had more people show up this week at 11:00 than we did last week. Ridiculous. If you go to The Vine, keep it up. If you haven’t been to The Vine, come and check-it-out! It’ll be worth your time I promise.
While I’m certainly fired up about what’s been going on at The Vine, I’m also fired up about what’s going on at a number of churches recently. One of my dear friends (that sounds weird) is a pastor at 12Stone. They’re just down the street from us. Here’s a quote from his twitter: “My fav way to preach is soaking wet from baptizing people the service before. Today was spontaneous goodness all over.” Apparently, over 300 folks were baptized today. What? That’s ridiculously awesome. Keep it up Kevin and 12Stone.
Add that to the people who are going to be baptized at The Vine next week and that’s a good addition to the Kingdom of God!
Need to confess?
2 comments | Tags: 12Stone, Baptism, SALVATION, the vine | Posted in Uncategorized
Jun
19
2009
I’ll never forget the Sunday we baptized Landon David Jones. Part of my remembrance of that day has to do with Landon’s middle name! After church, however, we went to the Jones’ house to celebrate. At some point within the conversation among the guys, one of the men said something about his wife thinking Jake Decker was cute. He’s cute or should I say handsome, but is life is far more attractive than his handsome good looks. His outward appearance simply lines up with his inner character. That’s why Jake Decker has made it onto my list of “young guns.”
I had the privilege of meeting Jake a few years ago. Though I knew him, I never really got to know him until we started The Vine and the Deckers came to be a part of our launch team. Jake was extremely helpful in our early days of our church and he continues to be helpful two years into our life. The first thing you notice about Jake is his willingness to help. He’s got a servant’s heart. There are so many ways to illustrate this, but I’ll simply tell you the last example of this. Last Sunday, he and I grabbed stacks of chairs and moved them from the room. That’s a small portrait of a larger portfolio of a young man who serves.
Another attractive characteristic of Jake is that he has a pliable heart. He’s willing to learn. I spent 11 days with Jake in Aman, Jordan. While we were there, Jake got sick and in the process of being sick, Jake heard clearly some convicting words from the Holy Spirit. A prideful man would’ve rejected those words, but Jake’s not prideful. He’s pliable. He continues to learn, and I love that about young leaders. I have my oldest two kids repeat this line, “The day you stop learning is the day you stop leading.” He’ll always grow as a leader if he keeps learning. The day he becomes too prideful to hear from God or from man, he’s done. He’s not done! He’s just starting.
One of the best qualities that makes Jake a young gun is his sensitivity to the Holy Spirit. As a Christ-follower, you should have that characteristic. However, as a worship leader, you’ve got to have that quality! He’s got it. I’ve been with him in worship environments where he tunes into the Holy Spirit by hanging out in a particular spot of the song, which is different from the times he gets stuck at a spot in a song! He’s a young gun.
Need to confess?
1 comment | Tags: Holy Spirit, the vine, worship | Posted in Uncategorized
