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Waiting And Winning

January 23, 2012 in Church, Faith, I'm Learning, Midtown with 4 Comments

Our church (Midtown Fellowship) has been meeting for five years. We have 450-ish members, 60-something small groups, and around 800 people coming.

And we have never (except for a VERY brief stint) had services on Sunday mornings.

Can you believe that? (Just in case you don’t know, that is extremely rare.)

We’ve begged and pleaded with God to give us a space to meet on Sunday mornings. Because that’s when most people want to attend church services. Especially older people and families with children.

But for five years He said “Wait.” He certainly still blessed us in unimaginable ways. But with that seemingly very important thing, He said to wait.

So we did. And He still blessed us along the way.

And then yesterday, we finally had our first Sunday morning service (in addition to 4 other Sunday night services).

I’ll admit, none of us thought it would take five years to get that prayer answered.

But you know what we learned through it?

That God and His timing are worth waiting on.

That He’s good in the meantime.

That you don’t have to meet on Sunday mornings to be the church.

That sometimes you appreciate things more when you have to wait on them.

That God provides for us. Even with a bunch of young people and a ridiculously shoestring budget. He provides.

So. I bet there is probably something in your life that you are waiting for. Something you are praying and yearning for.

Maybe it’s a new job. One that you don’t hate.

Maybe it’s an acceptance letter from your dream school or a contract with a publisher.

Maybe it’s a husband or a wife.

Maybe it’s having a child.

Maybe it’s ______ , one of a thousand different things.

I have good news for you.

It’s not that if you just wait long enough, you’ll definitely get _______. Sorry. I could tell you that, but it’d be a lie. I don’t know if God will definitely give you what you’re waiting for.

The good news is that, in short, He is good and you get Him. A Father who gives good gifts to His children. And He grows and changes you along the way.

That’s actually better news than “You’ll definitely get _______.” Because He knows what’s best for you. You can trust Him. And He very well may give you _______ eventually.

But it’s okay if He doesn’t, because ______ is not a cure-all and it’s not the point and you still get Him. He is the real treasure and prize, so anything else is just icing on the cake.

He would have been good if we were a “Sunday night church” forever.

And He’ll be good if whatever you’re waiting for takes a really long time, or even never comes.

Because you’ll sit there without _______ and come to realize that you’re okay without it though you once thought you’d die if you didn’t get it. You’ll see that you have depth and relationship with your Father and you’ll be resolved that the immovable peace that He brings is better than a thousand _______’s.

So. The good news is:

If you have Him, you win either way.

At The Edge Of Their Seats

December 25, 2011 in Faith, Jesus, Midtown with 0 Comments

Here is a Christmas poem/spoken word performed by my friend Ant Frederick. Please do enjoy it because it’s awesome.

 

Also, Merry Christmas!

And lastly, this:

Long lay the world in sin and error pining
Til He appeared and the soul felt it’s worth.
A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.

FTF: Tacky Christmas Caroling

December 16, 2011 in Favorite Thing Friday, Midtown with 0 Comments

My favorite thing this Friday is something I got to do Wednesday night: tacky Christmas caroling. Last year my friends Landon & Jordan Thompson introduced us to it–you just dress up in tacky Christmas attire and go around the neighborhood knocking on doors & then start singing. I honestly didn’t want to go at first last year, but I ended up loving it. I had no idea how much fun it would be.

So this Wednesday, about 60 people from our church (mine & Allen’s family groups for you Midtown peeps) went tacky Christmas caroling in my neighborhood. We handed out cookies and very poorly designed (by yours truly!) Buddy The Elf Christmas cards (picture below). People loved it. Even the old man who I thought was going to shoot me at first and refused to take the cookies…at the end he and his wife were both clapping and saying Merry Christmas.

But the kids were of course the best part. We went to one house that I didn’t know yet, and they were an Indian family with several school-age children, all wearing cartoon or superhero pajamas. And. They. Went. Bezerk. They ate it up and ran around and laughed and giggled.

Then, there was the woman who went and woke her daughter up she loved it so much. And the old woman who was on the phone with her sister, so she held up the phone so her sister could hear while she laughed and went nuts. And the little boy that was so excited he kept yelling out during song breaks…”Merry Christmas!” “Happy New Year!”

Oh man, it was a blast. Awkward at times, for sure. But a blast. And the best part is, it helped me meet some new neighbors. And I don’t think they’ll forget who we were…

What would you do if you opened a knock on your door at 8:00 at night to 60 people singing “Rudolf The Red-Nosed Reindeer?” Would that be your favorite thing of the week if it happened to you? Comment and let me know if you think it’s awesome or just flat out weird…(and as always, I’d love to hear about your favorite thing this week, whatever it is.)

Dylan Dylan Dylan

April 20, 2011 in Midtown, Stories with 2 Comments

There’s a guy in my family group at Midtown named Dylan, and he’s one of the most interesting guys I’ve ever met. For one, his name is Dylan. And that’s it. No last name. For real. The story is that his father at some point in his life legally changed his name to (I believe) Butterball, which evidently was his nickname, and dropped his last name. So when Dylan was born he therefore had no last name. I’m not joking about this either, I’ve seen his driver’s license. It literally says “Dylan, –”. Hence his Twitter name, @dylancommadash.

And to continue the aforementioned greatness of his story, God wove into his character quite an interesting mix of qualities and interests. He is an IT guy by trade, so he has all of the typical computer smarts that make normal people like me seem dumb. But he’s not your run of the mill, textbook, pocket-protector computer nerd. Nope, he also loves to dance. And I mean dance. Specifically, Dance Dance Revolution (DDR). He is amazing at it, I’ve seen it. He even has “DANCE” tattooed down the back of both of his calves, which is potentially the boldest tattoo I’ve ever seen. But it doesn’t end there. Not only is he a super talented dancer computer whiz, but he also loves the outdoors and specifically hiking. To the point that right now he is hiking the Appalachian Trail. Which seems more manly than anything I’ll ever do in my life.

So yeah, that’s Dylan. I love him and the uniqueness that God has woven into him. The reason I wanted to write about him is because he will be periodically blogging his hike, and I just read the first one and found it very interesting, so I thought some of you might want to follow along. If you so desire you can find him here.

Happy hiking Dylan! And thanks for sharing your adventure with us.

josh garrett and matt davis

April 16, 2011 in Midtown with 0 Comments

I’ve known Josh Garrett and Matt Davis since college and they are very dear friends of mine, but that is not the purpose of this post. I just wanted to drop in for a moment and tell the whole wide Internet that these two men are some of the most humble and servant-hearted guys I’ve ever met. And I don’t say that lightly. They are always serving, always working, and never looking for credit or recognition. They both model Christ-like servanthood 0ut of their understanding of the gospel, and I am spurred and encouraged by their hearts. It is a genuine pleasure to be counted as their brothers.

Just wanted to say cheers to them both, and to what God is doing through each of them.

fomo: fear of missing out

April 14, 2011 in Midtown with 0 Comments

Ladies and gentlemen, if you happen to be a volunteer at Midtown, I would like to call your attention to the Urban Dictionary Word of the Day for today, April 14th, that was delivered to my inbox this morning.

April 14: fomo

“fear of missing out”. The fear that if you miss a party or event you will miss out on something great.

Even though he was exhausted, John’s fomo got the best of him and he went to the party.

I do not believe this to be a coincidence. I believe this to be a reminder from above that you should definitely not miss Volunteer Appreciation Night tonight. Like Adam said yesterday on twitter, “It’s safe to say we are swinging for the fence this year. It’ll either be a homerun or one of those strikeouts where you fall down.”

Either way it’s gonna be funny. Don’t miss it!

thoughts and a video from #jayza2011

April 12, 2011 in Family, Midtown with 1 Comment

This weekend was an incredible celebration of Jay and Liza’s wedding (#jayza2011). It was such a blast to celebrate with them, and I’m becoming more convinced that celebrating God-honoring weddings of close friends is too good to describe. There’s just something about being at a wedding where there are no worries or reservations–where you know God is all over their relationship, the gospel is preached through their love for one another, and you feel sure they will have a long, happy life of faithfulness to each other, until death do them part. It really is an incredible thing to celebrate, and I found myself in tears during their ceremony. Thankfully, it’s not the first one I’ve been to and I hope and pray that there will be many more of these to come, where everything in me is in agreement with them and during the ceremony I’m thinking, “Yes, yes! This is good, this is right…this is so glorifying to God and is going to hold so much joy for them!”

So, a thousand congrats to my newlywed friends! And, for those of you who missed the wedding, I took a short video of the Pew Shuffle live on the dance floor if you are interested. And if you’re not interested, well, you should be. And, if for some reason you have never seen the original world famous music video of the Pew Shuffle, you can find that gem here. But know that “J Hem” is now officially off the market, forever.

#Stuckinacabin2010

February 2, 2010 in Church, Midtown with 1 Comment

It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted. I won’t apologize, because this is my “very un-daily” blog. However, I feel like a month and a half with no posts is well, a long time. And I miss it, because I love writing and sharing thoughts, so I’m gonna try to be a bit more regular, though still very un-daily.

So, really short life update: Last fall was absolutely brutal. Christmas and New Years were great, except for almost getting shot on Christmas Eve(story for another time). January was great, besides mourning the death of Kristi’s grandpa. I was ordained to be a Pastor at Midtown. I have been detoxing and learning a lot, and this Spring looks like it will be much easier. I’m in a class on the book of John and it is amazing.

Now, to the awesomeness that was this past weekend. I was stuck in a cabin in Pigeon Forge when our Midtown Family Vacation became #Stuckinacabin2010 due to a blizzard of epic proportions. At least for South Carolinians. We did some adventurous sledding on steep icy roads but thankfully no one had to go to the hospital, because we would not have been able to get there. I think Derek Jakes may have broken his elbow sledding down a hill standing up in a rubber trash can though. Bad idea, I know. Unfortunately it was my idea, but he wanted to try it first! Sara Prothro couldn’t figure out Spoon Art and it was HILARIOUS.  It was so rough, waiting out the blizzard while sitting in the hot tub on the porch looking out over the mountains…I know you feel sorry for us. Meanwhile, we shared stories of how Jesus is working in our lives and talked about being missionaries to our city. It was awesome, as you can already tell. I love love love my Midtown family.

Here’s to getting snowed in on top of a mountain. Scratch that off my bucket list.

business, or family?

June 14, 2009 in Church, Midtown with 0 Comments

I’ve always been extremely thankful that the guys on our staff at Midtown operate more like a family than a business-like team who exists only to accomplish tasks. What do I mean by that? We are actually friends. We actually like each other, and we hang out a lot. This breeds a genuine sharing of life, where we repent and confess sin to each other and we have each other’s backs. So staff retreats and meetings are hard work, but also a lot of fun. Though Midtown is the only church I’ve ever really worked at, I’ve always had a hunch that we are the exception and not the norm. I don’t want that to be true, but it just seems like it is. I came across this quote today regarding this issue and thought it worth sharing:

“Your staff culture has to represent the culture you’re trying to create in the wider church. That’s one of the biggest misses in contemporary church work. You have a business-run, top-down, bottom-line culture yet you’re trying to bring around a loving, transformative culture in your community. It just doesn’t work.”

-John Peacock leads the Axis ministry at Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois.

I hope all of our churches and staffs can hear this with humility and represent the transformed family that we are called to be.

bittersweet potluck

May 14, 2009 in Church, Family, Midtown with 0 Comments

Tuesday night we had our Midtown family(missionary members) meeting for this quarter. We have begun a tradition of doing potluck, and it worked out quite marvelously once more. Every time I am scared that its gonna blow up in our face…that we are gonna have all chips and salsa and chocolate cake or something. And so far, both times I have been amazed at how good it ends up being. And, the tables of food always look very small at the beginning of the line and I think I’m going to end up at Wendy’s later that night, but again it seems like Jesus multiplies the delicious-ness and we have oodles left over. I was so happy Tuesday because I had been craving corn bread for days for some reason, and my friends David and Alisha brought a whole pan of the delicioius southern delicacy. I think I ate half of it…

These get-togethers are always bittersweet to me. Sweet, well…because they are amazing. Hands down one of my favorite things we get to do. And that’s true because we genuinely do try to be a family. We make it a habit to live life together. During these meetings, although we are growing in number, we get to eat side by side, but soon after go waaaay deeper than your typical potluck conversation. We repent of sin against God together. We confess our sins to each other, because Scripture tells us to and we know that’s how God brings us healing and freedom. We clear up relational conflict with each other becasue Jesus tells us not to come to Him when we have junk between us. And like so we grow together, not just at family meetings, but daily. It is the most legit picture of Biblical family that I’ve ever personally seen, and I am dumbfounded with gratitude because I get to be a part of it.

However, despite how incredible it is, I always walk away a little brokenhearted. I do this because I am keenly aware of how rare this type of community is in the church of America. It kills me that many Christians do not have anything remotely near to this, even if they go to church every time the doors swing open. I hate that so many potluck conversations stay hovering around two inches deep. I am serious…this crushes me. And the crazy thing is that the things we are doing are very basic aspects of our faith. Repentance. Confession. Reconciliation. And yet, I feel that many Christians in our country would walk into our meeting time tonight and be exasperated into a statue of fear if asked to really do those things, right then and there, because they are so used to church being a country club where they go to hear an inspiring self-help sermon every week.

My heart breaks for the church in America. I pray that we, as in other parts of the world, can experience a Gospel-centered revival where repentance, confession, and true community become the norm and not the exception.

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