We're expecting something in the mail today.

Happy birthday Steph!

Ummm... can I borrow it? :0)

Labels: music, news

About 16 months ago, I began my relationship with Abundant Life Fellowship.
Though some would say that it was luck or chance that I even heard of the church, I know that it was God’s providence, and looking back to June of 2006, I see His fingerprints all over the time since then.

When I found out about Abundant Life and started spending time with Pastor Ted and hearing him talk about his heart and vision for the fellowship, I got really excited. Having been overseas for the previous year, I had a lot of new thoughts about what ‘church’ should be like. The thought of coming back to the tradition heavy, religious ‘south’, and leaving the small, Acts 2-esque experience of a third world was discouraging to me. After spending some time with the folks from Abundant Life, I was truly blown away by the uniqueness and effectiveness of the whole experience. This is a fellowship that is personal, committed, involved, vulnerable, and free in many ways that other groups are not.

After enduring four years of high school in Oxford without a good church home, and praying the whole time that God would raise up a good church where I could grow and see lives changed, it was amazing to have the opportunity to be involved with the very answer to that prayer.

I dove in head-first. I had lists of all the stuff I wanted to do and to plan. I started listening to a lot of teaching about church planting and youth ministry. I began spending my Tuesday nights getting ready to teach the youth on Wednesday. I got to church an hour early on Wednesday nights so that some of the youth could come learn how to play instruments, and even though it was off in the distance, I saw the possibility to have an awesome worship team of teenagers who could bless people all over Granville county. It was a really fun and exciting kick-start back into ministry after being overseas and away from everything for a year.

So of course the question is, “What changed?”

The answer is, “Everything.”

Though I didn’t know it from the beginning, this season of time with Abundant Life was only a temporary learning experience for me. From the very beginning, God has lead me away from settling in at this stage of life. Once I began serving the church, I prayed and prayed for a job that would be compatible -- something near the church that was only part-time. Weeks went by and I got deeper in debt, and the only opportunities were full-time positions far away. So I bit the bullet and took a job in Durham -- 50 hours less to work with.

My family situation got more intense. I came home to a world of changes in my family, and lots of opportunity to serve them, given that I make time for it.

Then God gave me Stephanie, and soon I had very little time to invest in the church.
Even with all the commitments and changes, I tried to force the time to do everything I wanted with the church. Even while courting my wife 200 miles away, I planned events and used our ‘date time’ to do ‘church stuff’.

Even after she had moved to Creedmoor and was living alone in an apartment, and trying to cooperate with her mom and plan a huge wedding, I was still busy and asked her to be busy with me.

Even after we were married and bought a house with grass that needed cutting and boxes that needed to be un-packed, I asked her to wait for me while I took the youth to camp.
‘Righteousness’ is the act of valuing1 rightly. My pride has led me to treat my church responsibilities unrighteously. I communicated to everyone around me that ‘my ministry’ is more important than anything else. I taught my wife that I love her and appreciate her, but she’ll have to take my word for it because I have these other important obligations. I watched my sister get married to someone who I couldn’t make the time to disciple.

On top of all this, we have really suffered for lack of fellowship our age. We rarely get to spend time with other young married couples, and it has really made our adjustment to married life stressful. Even when Stephanie asked me if we could start going to events at other churches to meet people, I asked her to ‘grin and bear it’ a little longer. I asked her to sacrifice her own walk with the Lord so that I could feel like something special.

So our decision to move on has been a long time coming, and it has nothing to do with Abundant Life. Really, more than anything, we need to be free from responsibility for a season so that we can give unlimited attention to our marriage -- to each other.

Through hard times of prayer together and apart, and even weeping at the high cost of this decision, we have learned a lot. In fact, I am certain that God planned this season in our life to teach us. In the past year and half I have become almost certain that I want to devote my life to building the Church -- in America and abroad, and I have also become confident that I’m not ready to that. I have a lot to learn. We have a lot to learn. And thanks to our time here at Abundant Life, we have a better understanding of what we have to learn.

They say that 80% of pastors don’t make it. I believe that God, in His grace, is forcing the brakes in our lives so that we will make it, in His time.

So we’re going to take a break. Take some trips. Get some rest. And then, prayerfully, we’re going to look at the possibility of me going to school for an extended season of learning.

We love the youth here. It has been a heart-breaking decision to step back from teaching them, and learning from them. And we hope that God will give us creative ways to stay involved in your lives...

Labels: family, god, introspective, news, worship

It's 6:30 in the morning and I've already been up for a while....

There are a million and one things that are in my heart and that I want to write about, but they'll have to wait until I have time. In the meantime, here are a couple of quick notes:

Today is Stephanie's birthday! Call her and tell her that you love her!

God has really been changing up our plans and our lives. It's been good, bad, and painful :0)

We're more serious than ever about the possibility of going to seminary. Right now, the most likely choice is Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Got a suggestion?



Steve Fee re-released "Burn For You" as "We Shine" on INO records. Looks like the ol' boy is hitting it big. The song list looks almost the same, with the addition of "Happy Day" (from Tim Hughes?) and "Lift High". Now they're just calling themselves "Fee". Wow. Catchy.

Been listening to a LOT of Mark Driscoll while working. I do believe that God is raising up a new generation of dudes who get it. Click here to subscribe to the podcast.

Steph and I hung out at the beach after work the other day (we're dog-sitting like five minutes away). I'm no professional photographer, but her are a few shots:

Labels: introspective, music, news, photography

J.D. Greear writes about his experience at the convergent conference at Southeastern this past weekend.

I'd be jealous if he just got to go to the conference.... but he was a speaker and got to spent the weekend with Mark Driscoll, which makes me green with envy.

He notes some really interesting and important things about the 'emerging' issues in the Church:

At SEBTS he discussed, in full detail, the emerging church movement. His perspective is unusual in that he addresses thing from the inside, having started out this process aligned with all the variant streams of the emerging church. He identifies 3 streams now...

Labels: musings, news, worship

So, I just realized something...

There are like 25 comments on this blog from the past several months, and I wasn't aware of any of them...

"Why?" you ask.... good question.

I used to get an email whenever someone, like you, would leave a comment, but I just discovered a backlog of about 5 months worth of those emails in my 'spam' box...

So, especially to Stephen and Shannon... sorry dudes. I wasn't ignoring you.

Darn you blogger! Darn you!!!

Labels: news

You've probably never heard of Keith and Kristyn Getty.



But you've probably heard of the song "In Christ Alone", which they wrote and which has become famous all over the world...

Stephanie and I went to chapel at Southeastern yesterday (that's an entirely different blog post... I'll have to keep you in suspense for a while :0), and lead worshiper went on and on about the power and beauty of the hymn-like songs that the Gettys have written. He lead us in a song called "O Church, Arise". I was blown away. You could tell me that it was written 200 years ago by Charles Spurgeon and I wouldn't think twice. When I got back to work, I immediately downloaded it on iTunes, and listened to it about a dozen times while I worked.

The chapel speaker yesterday, Dr. Akin, got me really excited when he said that every great revival in history has been accompanied by powerful, theologically sound hymns (that's the word he used, though I guess 'songs' would be more fair). He also said that a new generation of worship music is on the rise...

I think he might be right. Check out this first verse from "O Church, Arise":

O church, arise and put your armor on;
Hear the call of Christ our captain;
For now the weak can say that they are strong
In the strength that God has given.
With shield of faith and belt of truth
We'll stand against the devil's lies;
An army bold whose battle cry is "Love!"
Reaching out to those in darkness.

I would post the rest, but I guess that would be illegal, so follow the links and see for yourself.

Aslan is on the move...

Labels: god, music, musings, news, worship

There are a TON of great learning resources out there these days.

• Andy Stanley at Northpoint is doing a really powerful and convicting series on wealth. You can download or watch the messages for free here
• Shaun Groves redesigned his website and keeps a really provocative blog here. He also does a podcast, in which here recently interviewed one of my favorite musicians, Derek Webb. Get that here.
• Elevation Church in Charlotte has lots and lots of stuff available for free. Their pastor, Steven Furtick, is very young and very rough around the edges, but he's been really challenging me about what church is/can be. They have a newly tricked-out resource page where you can watch/listen to the sermons here.

I love my wife. A lot. I don't know what I did before God gave her to me.

Lost is a very cool show, and I have come to believe that a pastor could use it as his soul source for illustrations and never run short. Everyone has a story. If you believe that, it will change your life.

I really want to serve Jesus full-time.

That makes me really discontent with computer jobs.

I am now the proud owner of a very funny DMV story/experience/memory. Ask me sometime. And pray for the lady that helped me when I went to get my license renewed.

I've been really, really missing good friends. Y'all come closer!!!!

Labels: introspective, musings, news, perspective

Have you heard about Ben Stein's new movie coming out next year? It's called 'Expelled'.

If you go to the website, the flash intro has this quote:

If people think God is interesting, the onus is on them to show that there is anything there to talk about. Otherwise they should just shut up about it.

So I'm sure the first thought through your head is, "Great, another movie bashing the intelligence of those who believe in God."

But it's actually just the opposite.

It's about how people in scientific community who question Darwinism are immediately 'expelled'. Noone is allowed to consider Darwinism.

I'm really excited about it!

There's also a blog devoted to it here

Labels: creation, god, news, perspective, pray

Steph took me to the Big Apple last weekend.

Here are a few shots from the trip.

If you want the stories too, you'll have to have us over for dinner or something ;0)

Labels: news, photography

Here's a story from Forbes that adds a little perspective on where our hope lies, and gives me yet another reason that I'm so thankful to have been born and raised in America.

Zhang Shuhong ran a toy company in China that sells in America under the name Fisher-Price. Thousands of their toys had to be recalled recently because of huge amounts of lead found in the paint on the toys. The pressure and humiliation that this created for him led him to suicide.

Read the story, and as you do, ask yourself the questions:

Where did his hope lie?

Where does mine?

Labels: god, introspective, news, perspective, Spiritual Thought Of The Day

Kristian Stanfill has been a lead worshipper at 722 for a long time. It's a general rule that whichever songs he uses during worship will eventually become favorites of mine. But occasionally he leads songs that I've never heard and can't seem to find anywhere... these are usually songs that he's written himself.

When I gave up on finding them on CDs anywhere, I just hijacked the audio from the web streams and wore them out. But now there's a new EP available, and I want to make sure you know about it. It's awesome!

Go to his myspace, listen to 'Beautiful Jesus' and 'Spring of Life', and then go search his name on iTunes and buy his new EP, called 'Hello'.


Do it now :0)

Labels: music, news, worship

I'm re-designing me and Steph's "we're newlyweds and this is where we keep our pictures and tell you what's new in our lives" blog.

The current version is at http://www.therieslands.com. This address points to a blogger account that looks pretty crappy.

Apparently I'm a bad judge of these things. Steph never likes the templates I like.

I moved our stuff over to a wordpress account at http://therieslands.wordpress.com. Once I get it all prettied up, I'll point therieslands.com to that address.

Wordpress makes it really easy to switch between a lot of nice templates, so I want your opinion! Please go take a look and let me know what you think about the current theme, and in a few days I'll try a new one.

Eventually we'll settle on the one everybody likes the most :0)

Labels: news, poll

I share things with my wife that I don't usually tell people. Recently, I mentioned to her that I was always a little disappointed in college, because I went to tons of fun birthday parties, but everybody was always home for the summer when my birthday rolled around.

Well, apparently she took this information to heart... she started planning a party for me, which happened yesterday. She invited my whole family, cleaned our house from top to bottom, and made my Mom's lasagna recipe for dinner (one of my favorites... and no small undertaking).

Not only did I have an awesome time enjoying my family, but I think I can say that my loot (i.e. gifts) this year were the best ever.

I got two books I really wanted:


The title "Sex God" probably gives you a funny look on your face, and makes you wonder exactly what effect too much Starbucks can have on a soul. But rest assured, it is not a modern version of the Kama Sutra, but a masterful exposition by one of my favorite Bible teachers, Rob Bell, about how everything in life -- including sex -- was designed by God to point us up to Him. Rob's last book, Velvit Elvis, fundamentally changed my life. I read it twice, and then bought the audio book off iTunes and listened to it some more. If this is the first time you've ever heard of Rob, then you also need to know about Nooma. 'Nough said



"Blue Like Jazz", by Donald Miller, is a book I have heard nothing but great things about, and I'm excited that I'm finally going to get to read it!





I started on 'Sex God' last night, and I'll probably finish it in a hurry, but "Soul Cravings", by Erwin McManus, would have been at the top of my list if I hadn't just bought a couple of weeks ago. I'm mentioning it because you need to pick it up too :-)



I also got some new jeans (much needed), and a pair of shoes that I've been lusting over for at least a year.

As if that weren't enough to make a boy very happy, Steph made me a framed scrapbook of sorts, with pictures and articles and memories from our whole first year together, and... oh yeah, she's taking me to New York this weekend.

Y'all... God is good and my wife is the best gift I ever got :0)

Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure:

Labels: musings, news, photography

It's called 'Southern Baptists and Calvinism' and it's at Ridgecrest in the fall :0)

Labels: news

That's a quote from Piper in his sermon "Where Is God", which is a response to catastrophic occurrences like 9/11 or Hurricane Katrina.

Piper is the pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minnesota. They are so close to the bridge that collapsed that you can see the lights of rescue crews from the church.

They sent their video crews out to capture some of what's going on out there, with some audio from the 'Where Is God' sermon spliced in. Here's an excerpt:

Famines, pestilence, persecution -- these happen so that the world will see that followers of Jesus count Christ more precious than everything they've lost -- and discover that He can be that for them, because one day they're going to lose everything. Everybody loses everything on earth, some day.

Labels: god, introspective, news, perspective, piper, pray, stewardship

Read this

Labels: news, perspective, piper, pray

I don't know if you've read this anywhere, but a couple dozen Korean missionaries to Afghanistan have been held hostage for several days now, and at least two of them have been killed.

The deadline that their kidnappers gave has come and gone, which leaves their fate uncertain (from a worldly perspective).

Please keep them in prayer:

http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200708/200708010038.html

Labels: god, missions, news, perspective, pray

Check out this awesome article. It really highlights what's involved and at stake for many Central Asians.

Here's an excerpt:

When Sherzod, who recently graduated from Jacksonville (Ark.) High School, telephoned his Muslim parents in Uzbekistan to tell them of his newfound faith, his father disowned him, making it clear he was no longer welcome in his home and was never again to speak to his mother or his siblings. He withdrew all funds from Sherzod's U.S. bank account, arranged to cancel his son's U.S. sponsorship and college scholarship and even drew up legal papers declaring Sherzod is no longer his son.

As devastating as that must be for an 18-year-old, Sherzod remains strong in his commitment to Christ.

"I am not sorry I accepted Christ," he said. "I am not sorry for getting baptized. Even though my parents did that, I am not sorry for anything that happened."

Labels: god, missions, news, perspective, pray

Check out this story about a family in NJ who had a backyard pool stolen during the night.

Having a pool stolen is no big deal I suppose, but it had 1,000 gallons of water in it, and nobody can figure out what happened to it. See for yourself:

Click here

Labels: news

Here's yet another article about how oppressive things are becoming in Central Asia. I also read that reporters from two of the best news sources for the truth about what's going on there were recently arrested and taken to a military prison.

Praise God for our freedom, and pray for theirs!

Labels: missions, news, perspective, pray