We've combined all our web stuff into one totally redesigned blog:

Check it out: www.TheRieslands.com

Click here, here, here, or here!

And watch his blog get updated :0)

Yep, Wordpress just has too much cool stuff to keep using blogger, so I ported this over.

If you get here using www.ZackRiesland.com, then you're in good shape.

If you use RSS, then please update your subscriptions: posts, comments

Labels: upgrade

We're in N.Y. this weekend for Ellen and Peter's wedding. Steph is off doing 'bridesmaid duty' -- which consists of getting her nails done and going out to lunch.
In the meantime, I'm hanging out at Panera.

For possibly the first time in like a year, I have my Bible, a Jonathon Edwards book, good coffee, free internet, and 3 hours with nothing to do.

I do believe this post will get filed under 'worship'.

Today is a good day :0)

Labels: distractionary, photography, worship

So I bought Stephanie an iPod for her birthday, and she taken up a sudden interest in music.

Well... that's not really true. She's always loved music, but since we've been married, she hasn't really expressed that very much. She pretty much just listens to whatever I want, and tries to like it.
But now, all of the sudden, she's like Carson Dailey or something -- she's downloaded 38 songs from iTunes in a week!

And I love her taste and variety. Check out her picks so far (you can click on it for a better view):



Yes folks... my wife is, well, awesome :0)

Labels: distractionary, music, musings

Have a look here.

What do you think?

Labels: god, pray, Spiritual Thought Of The Day, stewardship

I completely ripped this off from one of my favorite blogs: RagamuffinSoul:

Labels: distractionary, musings

Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Washington is taking questions (see the video below) that he'll use as topics for 9 sermons and a book, beginning in January, 2008.

You can go to askanything.marshillchurch.org to view, submit, and vote on questions.

I asked the following questions (there's a really short length limit, so I didn't get to word them exactly the way I wanted):

What are your thoughts about the level of criticism between believers, and particularly church leaders? What's the balance between a desire for Truth and a bad picture of Jesus we paint to the world?

What do you think about the term 'christian'? Do you think that it has become too stigmatized, and if so, is it worth redeeming or should we change our language?

Labels: introspective, perspective, poll, Spiritual Thought Of The Day

Do you get it?

'Cause I got ticked for about 2 seconds and then I started laughing at myself :0)

Labels: musings, Spiritual Thought Of The Day

There's a great discussion going on over at the 'Shlog' about worship.

People are basically arguing about the question, "What is worship?"

This video from Sermon Spice takes a good stab at it:

Labels: god, music, perspective, Spiritual Thought Of The Day, worship

I was bored and looking around on facebook just now, a I read this in someone's profile:

I've been a Christian for 9 years. Went to church for about 8 of those years and then realized that God was calling us to something different - something out of the box. We have a small home group that meets at our house now and I don't think we will ever attend an actual modern day church again - Love Jesus just don't love what church has become.

I know this person. I know that she loves Jesus. I don't want to judge her heart or her motives. I just want to ask the question in the title of this post.

What do you think?

Labels: god, perspective, Spiritual Thought Of The Day, worship

This weekend at church, I taught about how we are free to serve Jesus because we don't have to.


...yeah, just take a second and think about that. My texts were Galatians 5 and 1 Peter 2.


I got on a social justice soap-box for just a minute.

According to Compassion International, 19 billion dollars a year could provide for the basic needs of all the poorest children in the world. To put that figure in perspective, this is about half of what Americans spend on dieting programs every year.

I told folks at the church about various opportunities to invest eternally, and this morning I began a list on the website.

What do you think should be on the list?

Labels: missions, perspective, poll, Spiritual Thought Of The Day, stewardship, worship

I was just listening to Driscoll teaching on rest and sabath.

Here are some highlights:

"Religious people freak out, because religious people want to do the work of the Holy Spirit and the conscience...
We don't like religious people because they're not any fun at all.... Religious people are the kind of people who, if you gave them a sucker, they would flip it around and stick the stick in their ear. That's just the kind of people they are. They do everything wrong..."

Labels: god, musings, Spiritual Thought Of The Day

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

I listened to a fantastic message yesterday about mommies (iTunes podcast URL here). It was the mother's day message from Mars Hill church in Seattle, by pastor Mark Driscoll, who I've been learning a lot from. It made me thankful for my mom, and excited about the future and seeing my wife become a mommy too.

Here are some photos from when we gave my mom her birthday present, Gracie.

Mom, you're awesome :0)

Labels: family, musings, photography

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