Vision for the City

It is said that Cleveland was the largest poor city in America before the hurricains that hit Louisianna with a vengeance. Besides our other goals for the church, we have a big heart for the poor of Cleveland. We want to start 5 church plants around the perimeter of Cleveland proper in the suburbs. Not at once, but as healthily as possible. The goal is to build a big enough financial base to be able to support work in the heart of the city. I have heard of several successful works where the finances from the dennomination or organization were pulled. The finances were cut off because the works just weren't self sufficient or the ROI wasn't great enough. This just breaks my heart! There are certain works that we can do where there doesn't have to be a financial return ... right? I mean aren't there things worth an eternal reward. If you take the light out of the darkness what is left? Certainly, no hope! We don't know exactly what this would look like yet. We do know that we want to have inner city missions trips as a part of this. People raise money all the time to go over seas and spend a week or two and learn how to reach people of a different culture for christ ... to make a difference in the lives of those who don't know Christ and don't have hope. Why can't we evaluate the needs in our back yard and take those same resources and make a difference in the lives of those in our own city or region. The idea is not to simply give to needs, but to help change the quality of life. To train, love and give hope ... to combat the darkness in society so that people can see, on a consistant basis, that Jesus is still alive and that no matter what they have done or how they are living there is a savior who isn't ashamed of them, but instead who very much wants to be a part of their lives. That anyone in America is free to dream as big you want to, and the only barriers we have are in our own minds.

We know that this won't happen imediately through the Venue Church, and that it is quite a task to take on, but it is one of the driving factors of why we feel we are going.

The First Miracle

Does anyone remember (if you were the oldest) when your mother, grandma, or uncle or neighbor would turn to you and say: "Your the oldest, so your in charge until we get back" then they would turn to the others and say something like: "Do whatever he tells you to do". Haha! That is a lot of power for a kid and way to much temptation. Now, I wasn't so bad, but my Dad had a long hallway in the house and I have a younger brother and sister that are 10 and 12 years younger than I am. I figured that it was quite fun to have them run from one end to the other to see if they could make it before I was able to launch a stuffed animal and either lodge it between their fast moving little legs and watch 'em go down ... or hit 'em in the right place in the head and have them go down face first. If I did it right, I could nail my little brother, who was a little slower and younger and then watch him bounce off the wall and into my sisters legs and watchher go down too, and all with one stuffed bunny rabbit. Then load them back up to the starting line and start it all again. Hours of fun I tell you ... I am still smiling, even now, at the thought ... and my younger siblings didn't really have to go through all that much therapy, which is always a plus. The electro-shock portion (and don't let them tell you any different) knocked years off the overall length of the therapy.

The first miracle recorded in the bible took place at a Wedding at Cana. Mary, the mother of Jesus, realizing that the wedding feast had run out of wine, turned to Jesus and then to some of the servants and said: "Do whatever He tells you to do!" Sound familiar? That sometimes can sounds like ... you gotta be kidding me! Do whatever He tells me to do? Just listen to some control mongering megalomanical Deity ... just like that. Well, in this case, He told then to take some waterpots filled with sink water, up to the master of ceremonies and have him drink from it. They did exactly like He said and when the master of ceremonies did drink from the ordinary sink water, it not only tasted like wine, but fine and extraordinary wine.

We have to ask the question. What if ... just ... what if? What if He really does want the best for us? What if he wants to take our ordinary, sink water lives and turn them into something extraordinary? What if the instructions in His word allows us to take our ordinary marriages and transform them into something extraordinary? Our ordinary money into something extraordinary? Our love into something remarkable? What if obediance to doing exactly or whatever He tells us to do, is not for Him, but to allow us to actually have the freedom to reach our greatest potential. What if He actaully does love us more than we could ever imagine.

Connect Group - Creation

We had Connect Group again. We had a discussion around Genesis Chapter 1.

This is God's grand story and we get to be a part of it. God created all that we see while man was sleeping and when he a woke late on the sixth day, he awoke to a completed world. Then God put him back to sleep and created his mate Eve. We had no input into all that we see ... it was all done without our help. Everything was not created for us, but for God Himself ... and we were able to enjoy it and keep it and watch after it and manage it for Him.

It all came down to the question that they had to answer. Do you want to have a little supporting role in the grand story of God or do you want the starring role in the story of you. They chose to be "like" God and be the stars in their own story and forfeited a part in his grand story. The thing is, even if you build a big story, get people to gather around you and cheer for you, when the last hand clap fades what is left? A small little story that will have an ending and most likely be forgotten way sooner than you would expect. This is the same question that each of us has to ask at some point as well. When do we realize that all fall short of the glory of God? That it would be much better to have the smallest role ... any role in the eternal story of God? That everything else is in vain.

You might say: "Hey man, my story is working out … I had a couple twist and turns … but I fired those people and got new ones. Why would I want to trade the starring role in the story of me … for a supporting role or just any role in the story of God?

There are 3 things I would say.
1. You are already in the story, you might as well surrender and join the story. We at point realize that we can't escape God. That no matter how much we try to have our own story apart from Him, our story is really already a part of His. This is where we realize that everything we do is to shed light on the central character of the story, Jesus. Instead of asking the Lord to make much of me, we say, Lord, help me make much of you.
2. When we do. It brings meaning to everything else in our lives. It doesn’t matter if you are a mother at home with little kids or in a cubicle, then traffic, then a cubicle, traffic, cubicle, traffic, cubicle… Everything starts to actually mean something and have purpose no matter how mundane or important our lives seem to be.
3. It replaces control with rest. If you are starring in your own role, that means that you are directing, writing the script, worried about the plot line, worried about the outcome, trying to hold it all together, you are starring and directing and it is wearing you down. This is what control does to you ... It is just too much. There is something great in giving everything over to God, When we trade our control for rest. We realize: I can’t control the plot, the script, I can’t even control what actors are in the scene, I am just available to Him to be used by Him.

God is in the business of restoring Eden and us back to the way it was meant to be. And that is really it, right. All of everything summed up right in the beginning.

The Venue's MySpace is now up.

Well we finally got a my space account up. It needs some attention, but at least it has started. Have had some good conversations already. You can find it at www.myspace.com/thevenuechurch

Evangelistic Connect Group

We had our first Connect Group on Friday. It was good. Most of those that showed up were neighbors. We talked about the reliability of Scripture and is the bible really true. In brief, it went something like this...

There are 2 billion people on earth today that "claim" that they believe the bible to be true. Are there really so many people who are so weak that they need some book to prop them up and make them feel better? That they just need some crutch to believe in, to help them deal with life? That the bible makes for an easy scapegoat to pawn things off on and have an excuse to remain ignorant? When talking to someone who isn’t even sure if the bible has any truth at all in it, I will not be using scripture to back my thoughts. That would be ridiculous, right?

Let’s take a brief cross section of the Roman history documentation of the same era. We have a couple of popular documents that are repeatedly quoted and are viewed as completely true. The Roman Empire was huge, had great power, they had vaults to hold their historical manuscripts. The writings were about Emperors and Leaders and wars and lineage, etc. I will do my best from memory (hang with me) to give a couple of details on 2 accounts:

- The Gallic Wars
There are 10 copies, the first manuscript we have dates to 900AD (the others come after), written by an employee of Caesar about Caesar’s exploits.
- Writings of Tacitus
2 copies (contains half of the original 30 volumes ordinarily written about Roman history), the manuscript dates at 900AD as well (the 2nd at 1100AD), and also written by a guy who was a Roman Empire employee who was to write about Roman history.

On the contrary … The 4 gospels are from the same era. We have hundreds of manuscripts, Fragments of John were found as early as 135AD in Egypt (great distribution for the early document) and all four gospels are found just like we have them now that are dated 250AD, they are written by 4 ordinary men about a three years span on one Jewish carpenters life (He was not a king or warring with other nations, etc) and there was no motivation. Jesus was already gone and 3 of the writers were killed because of their faith and John was boiled in water but they didn’t succeed in killing him (see the writings of Josephus – a Jewish historian who again has no motive, a Jew he didn’t care to prop up Christian doctrine but to only portray history).

Question: So why is the account where there are only a few documents, dated at 900AD, written by a guy who was an employee of the empire accepted as truth, but the account where there are hundreds of ancient manuscripts, dating as early as 135AD and written by people who were killed for their belief in the truth in their writings is not as accepted?? Some historians would argue that the bible has more documentation and truth about the life of Jesus Christ that all of Roman history of the same era. It boils down to the use of the supernatural. John’s writings can’t be true because they contain elements of the supernatural throughout them. People want to impose thier 21st Century experience on ancient history.

Let me expound … it goes something like this.
I don’t believe that the Holocaust happened!
Really?
Really!
Why is that?
Well, because for that to have happened, then there would have to exist a prejudice and hatred so deep as to want to exterminate a whole race of people. It would have to be so powerful as to convince a whole nation of people to help kill off this race of people. Listen! I have never experienced that or felt that way … my mom said that she has never hated anyone that much or had been hated like that … I asked my friends and they never experienced it either … therefore that kind of hatred or prejudice could have never existed and the holocaust could’ve never happened.
Are you Serious?
Yeah. There is no doubt that something happened. Just give me a couple of days to figure it out and I will come back with my explanation of what I believe happened.

See… that just isn’t fair or logical or scientific or …Just because we have never seen God, doesn’t mean He doesn’t exist. Just because we may not believe that the bible is true doesn’t mean that it didn’t happen the way it says that it did. We just need to give the bible the same opportunity.

Book of Hope

We had an incredible ministry (Rob Hoskins from http://www.bookofhope.net/) come in for our Wednesday night service. One definately worth mentioning. You need to check these guys out if you haven't already. They have experienced amazing favor in seemingly closed countries. They are changing generations of people.

Here is the down low from the ministry:
Missionary and evangelist Rob Hoskins founded Book of Hope in 1987 when he was asked by El Salvador’s Minister of Education to provide God’s Word to all of the country’s 986,000 school children.

The Book of Hope is a chronological and harmonized version of the four Gospels telling the story of the life of Jesus. It's the evangelistic tool we use in accomplishing our mission of reaching the youth of the world by giving Bibles for children.

To date, over 500 million copies of the Book of Hope have already been distributed to students in over 125 different countries.

In 2007, over 64 million children and youth received their copy of God's Word, the Book of Hope.

It only costs 33¢ to reach one needy child with the Book of Hope.

In communities where there is no established church, Book of Hope assists the local believers in planting a church.

Facebook ... need I say more.

Well we officially entered the facebook world a couple of weeks back. I have been resistant, mostly because of the possible time that it might suck up. While it has sucked up a considerable amount of time (you fellow facebookers know exactly what I mean) it has been totally worth it. We are back in contact with people we haven't heard from or seen in years ... in some cases nearly 20 years. It has been a really cool deal to chat with people who you thought you had lost forever. While we have tried to limit it, it is still a very addictive thing to stay away from, but as humans longing for connection ... I would think that there would be something wrong in me if I could easily stay away from the people that have been apart of my life through the years. God has created us to connect, to long for connection, to be there for each other, whether we are neighbors or a thousand miles away.

6th Street ... 'The Afters' Concert

We went down for a rare small venue event. Had a load of fun. Here are a couple of pics:

Video Venue - one little thing

So there was like 200 people already gathered in the Video Venue. It was going to be a good Sunday ... I could already feel it. We had about 5 minutes before the count down. Someone walked up from the media booth and let me know that we didn't have any audio or video feed from the Heroes building where Pastor Joe is. We delayed as long as we could, but we had to shut the 9:30 service down and send everyone over to the other sanctuary. No one could figure out what could have happened until half way through the service. The A/V Company came out to the church and we figured our that it was one ethernet cable that was in the right spot, but about a millimeter away from being plugged all the way in. When it was pushed the rest of the way in all of the sudden we had audio and video on all of the outside screens and the big 20 foot HD screen in the Video Venue. Wow! One little ethernet cable that was just a tiny bit dislodged and that was it.

Crazy though, many times it is just a little tweak and all is fixed. All can seem completely out of wack. We can be doing everything in our power to right the wrong ... to fix the problem. It can be frustrating and it can completely alter how things are supposed to work and displace all normality. When we shut up and listen, God can show us one little thing and when we plug it in to our lives, Blamm-O! Things start turning around immediately. One little thing. Isn't it funny how it is always the little things that, in the end, make the biggest differences. The apology, the right decision when no one is looking, the extra time in the word or just listening to God, the cutting off, keeping the emotions in check, the love given, the kind word, you know what I am saying. It is the little things that shape our lives and those around us.

flat tire, motorcycle cops and lessons learned

So I walked outside and saw that my tires treads were wearing thin. I got in the car to go to work and prayed. "I don't wanna pay the $250 for a new tire right now and don't feel like messing with it ... Please make this tire supernaturally last for another couple of weeks. Amen" Well, 5 minutes later I felt the vibration and it wasn't going away, so I pulled over on the highway. Yep, you guessed it, my tire was completely blown out. Arrgggg. Come on God ... I just prayed 5 minutes ago, did you hear me? You can't be serious.

Well, I started getting the "tire changing paraphenalia" out and a motorcycle cop pulled up. I was surprised that he actually ended up just about changing my tire for me. It was a good surprise. We got it all done in like 10 minutes and I was back on the road, which was good because I was already running a little late. Usually they hard nose you and make you roll on your rims to get off of the highway. Maybe Motorcycle cops have more compassion because they themselves are more vulnerable. Who knows.

When I got back in the car, I realized, that it is God that supplies our needs anyway. We honestly can't live or make it on our own without Him anyway. No matter what happens, we are in His hands, He is big enough to do it. He created all that is and sent His son to die in our place, so we could be with Him. He knew me before I was born and has gone before me and prepared a path for me. Nothing that happens shocks Him. I actually felt more secure and at peace by the time I got to work than I had been all week. God is good. It could have been a bad morning, but I was in an incredible mood when I got to work and no one could've guessed that it didn't go so well. Then again, maybe it did go well.

Garage Sales, Panda Bears and Church

So we had a garage sale Friday and Saturday. We stuck it on Craig's list and early Friday at 8:00 people were already outside, and I'm thinking you gotta be kidding, we didn't have any signs up or anything. This is like a religion for the faithful garage saler, be the first to get there and worship at the alters of other people's junk, give your offering then go to the next temple and worship some more. Like church hoppers on crack. Anyway, it was fun we met some great people, we had some ministry opportunities and met a couple of neighbors that I thought were vampires. One guy just 3 doors down lived in Cleveland for some time, he was walking by with an OSU sweatshirt and cap. We had a good conversation ... a lot better than "hey" ... "hey". So we got about $400 or so. Enough for a trip to Sam's ... woohoo.

So Saturday night after the sale we were all beat and went to Panda Express. It was good until about 2 hours later when the food poisoning set in. Faith, Me, Tim, Grace, Ian were all affected and let's just say the Alexander house got a little crazy.

Well the next morning was church and I had to do the transition between worship and offering as well as be nice, smile and make people feel welcome before service (between trips to visit my little porceline friend). In the transition I talked about God being greater than anything we could possibly be up against ... about magnifing God to make our opposition small. I don't know about anyone else, but it was what I needed to hear that morning. Overall I think people were blessed though all and the services went well in releasing the new "Heart for the House" campaign. Above all significant life change occured and many came to Christ ... what more could you want.

Video Venue / John Maxwell

We had a one day mini conference with John Maxwell this friday. It was great! He is always very inspiring. Most of these were principles that I have heard in some form from him before, but is was still very fresh and motivating. We had the hurricane go through Houston and so it messed up his charter company and so he wasn't able to come back for our Sunday Services. He will be back in November for the sunday services. We didn't even get remotely touched by any of the Hurricanes backlash. We didn't even get a drop of rain, in fact it was blue skies and sunny. We were supposed to get nailed. We had many evacuies in our services, and I hate hearing some of the stories of the devastation that took place on the Texas coast.

Video Venue went well. We had almost 450 this week between both services. We had some parking issues, because we are hitting capacity in our lots. But other than than it was relatively smooth.

Time is flying right now and I really wish it would just slow down! I have a feeling that it is just going to keep going the other direction. Sorry to be so short, I have to get back after it! Until later ...

Video Venue is now open ... Dreams?

As a part of the internship I am overseeing the opening of the new Video Venue. We had a live worship band and greeting and prayer then the video announcements. The offering and Sermon are piped in live in HD on a huge screen. Pastor Joe is larger than life. After a few minutes it is almost hard to tell that he isn't standing there. The Venue seats about 800 people per service. We started off with 2 services this past weekend. There were so many different individual elements that could've gone wrong and I have to admit ... I was running around like crazy, up until the last minute or so. Everything came togeher very nicely. The worship was incredible. All the transitions were smooth. The new series by Pastor Joe, "Questions", took on great issues and brought it home. We had about 210 in the first service and about 120 in the second service. Not bad at all for the first weekend. Next weekend we have none other than John Maxwell doing the welcome. How cool is that.

The funny thing is that I woke up Monday (Aug 24th) with a Dream. I was in a room and Pastor Joe walked by and then Pastor Paul. Paul turn to me and handed me his Blackberry and told me to print out a document from it. When I looked down at the phone and it was way bigger than i had ever remembered. The size was bigger, the keys were bigger, the screen, the functions .... everything. So, i said "how?". He said "Hit PT1 and print it I need it ... figure it out" and then he walked away. That is when I woke up. With this feeling of what am I doing? I don't know anything about this phone? It needs to get done and i have know idea where to start. When I got to church that morning, Pastor Paul caught me in the parking lot and told me that he had talked to Pastor Mel the night before and they were giving me the reins to the Venue. "Set up a meeting and make it happen." And that was it. I just think it is funny when that stuff happens. God gives you a heads up, but ... not to much ... just enough.

I need to catch up.

I really fell behind in the blog. I still love everyone. You can only use the " I have a new baby" card for so long before it runs out. Seriously though, life over took me for a while and I am trying to get my barings again. I am not going to try to catch up into the past, but just move forward from here ... more soon.

Website is Live!!!

The New Pre-launch website is up a ruuning, full force. You can get to it by www.venuechurchonline.com
www.venuechurchonline.org or
www.venuechurchonline.net

Please go to it and check everything out. It is short sweet and to the point.

Another New Baby ... Mom Krause Visits

Our fellow housemates - Faith's Brother (Tim), His wife (Marla), and now their new baby (Jeshua) help to fill our house. 10 people under one roof ... sheesh.

Tim, Me and the babies (best friends already), Ezra and Jeshua.


Marla, Faith, Jeshua and Ezra


Faith and Tim's Mom (Cathy Krause) was able to join us for like a week and a half. It was nice to have her here with us and her two newest grandkids. Nana and Papa Krause are now up to 14! Wow, we are a health bunch.

Nana Krause and Ian


More Later

Youth Camp

Ok, so Ezra is like a week and half old and I am off to Youth Camp. Again, we were thinking he would be at least 3 weeks old and maybe even 4 weeks old when I signed up. Faith really thought it was a better idea than I did to be honest. Who really has the time to take 4 days off to go off to some camp ... not me. At least not until you say yes, then you have to go. I called up Jason (who needed to know if i was still going or not, because of the baby) and tried to use the new baby card. But what came out of my mouth was try to find someone else and if you can't then I am all yours. Faith started silently praying that they wouldn't find anyone else. I guess she really wanted to get rid of me. She just felt like I was supposed to be there. So I went and i had a great cabin with 6 11th and 12th grade boys. I was seriously feeling like, man they are going to hate me, God please help me connect.

God woke me up every morning at between 6:25 and 6:30 every morning with a burden to pray for them. That real life change would occur, that they would see God like they had never knew him before. He gave me individual things to pray about for each of them. Most of the kids did not even want to be there. I found myself praying every night during worship for the hardness in there heart to be stripped out and to get a clear picture of God's love and what Jesus really did for them. Every night I was in tears (no one saw me) ... I longed for them to know Him like I do.

We had a blast during the day, we were able to connect and the relationships formed will not be forgotten easily. There is something special there that wasn't there before. By the end of the week they didn't want it to end. The Holy Spirit did incredible works in there hearts ... they just look different. Something in the eyes has completely changed. Everytime it happens and you see real life change up front and personal it is amazing. Everytime. It never gets old. It is the reason we live. To see Christ alive in others.

Things don't always happen like you planned

Nana and Papa Startcher with the kids:


All of our kids have come between like 5 and 14 days early. So we assumed that Baby Ezra would be the same. When my mom asked me what a good time to come would be we naturally thought that the week of her due date made sense. No doubt the baby would be here and by the time she left, if not before, they came. Well, they came and stayed for a week and then left with no baby. What a bummer. We had a good time, saw a movie, got some great Austin food, they helped during the days where faith really needed it. It was a blessing having them in, but you can't help feeling bad that they traveled 1400 miles, took off work, and missed their new little grandson. We made plans around the assumed definate.

They called the next morning after arriving back in Ohio and I let them know ... Hey! guess what? Faith is in Labor and will probably have the baby today. My Mom naturally thought I was playing around (no idea why she would think that), but i wasn't this time. Our baby arrived the day after our assumed last possible day. He arrived on the day that was right for him. The predetermined day that only God knew. We like to think that we have it all under control and that we can answer questions that just can't be answered by us. There are just some things about this life that we feel we have to give answers for ... that somehow we are the authority ... that we somehow hold the keys to the unfathomable. Sometimes the best answer is ... "I don't know ... I suppose we'll find out eventually, just not today"

Those last three weeks (2 weeks before the due date and 1 week after the due date)dragged on and on and on ... and on. It was tiring, everyday was THE day, it was frustrating, our world stopped. Faith and I were asking why? What can we do? Is it soon? Is it today? Getting on the labor induction sites online (wife's tales are hilarious, but you still try them anyway, haha). He's getting huge, are we going to have to induce? ARRRGGGG! That is what happens when we think we can control the uncontrolable. It gets frustrating fast. If we just rest in him, that it will all happen when it is supposed and we can take action when it is time, then the stressful becomes peace. The questions seem to not really need answered today. The waiting period becomes productive. In our weakness, we find stregnth in Him.

Baby Ezra Is Here!!

We are proud to announce our new baby: Ezra Sean Alexander!
He was born on 7/20/08 was 20.25" long and a whopping 9 pounds 12 ounces.
It has been a very exciting and eventful week or so, here are a couple of Pics to introduce you to him:

Ezra


Faith, Elise and Ezra


Daddy and Ezra


Christian and Ezra


Ian and Ezra


Grace, Elise and Ezra

The Breaking Point

This week has been quite interesting for me. I have often lead people to find out what their breaking point is. To intentionally keep taking on more and more until you break. Until the point where you are exhausted, your brain is fried, your productivity is down no mater how long and hard you work at it, your relationships are strained, etc. This may seem harsh, but you get a lot out of it. You learn what you can and can't do and how much you actually can do and still remain in good spiritual, mental and bodily health. At that point, you are also forced to evaluate your priorities and to say no those things that you want to do, but get in the way of those priorities. You also have to cut off the things that you are capable of doing (maybe even better than most) and probably enjoy doing for the sake of focusing in on God wants you to do. Even though it takes a while to see, will usually bring your life into the most fulfillment, Because He ultimately know more than we do about the fullness of our calling.

So, anyway, i have found myself there this week. I have actually been there for probably over a month and didn't even recognize it. I believe everything is connected ... our spiritual life is connected to our mental life ... our mental life is connected to our physical life ... our physical life is connectd to our spiritual life ... you get the point. For instance, if your mind is fuzzy, numb, not so clear and maybe not so diciplined, then you will usually be able to see that your body and how you feed it, how you excersise (or not) and how disciplined you keep it will also be out of wack. Which usually causes you to then look at your spiritual life and look there for where you hunger, discipline, humility, etc all land ... and usually you go, wait! My prayer life is lame, my discipline to read and study God's word isn't really there and the hunger to continue isn't really strong either. That was kind of where I was at: tired, worn out, working hard & long with less results, family time wasn't quality, motivation was dropping, mentally fatigued and fuzzy ... AARRRRGGGGGGG! I just wanted to scream to the point of bursting into a million little piece, but didn't have enough strength to get off the couch ... haha, pretty pathetic really (smile). On Tuesday (7/8/08) I was talking to my best friend Jeremy Gall (a traveling evangelist up in Northern Ohio) about all the stuff going on, about the thoughts and feelings and doubts of where I was. I remember saying: "How can I pray for God to Make me feel better, give me energy, mental clarity and get rid of all this, when it is really my fault. Say that He did make me feel better, what good would that do? The root of the problem, in my case, was deeper. My sleep habits, eating habits, work habits, spiritual habits, etc. would be the actual issue. Most of the conversation was actually very inspired, I will hit on some of those thing later maybe (not today).

Right after I got off the phone, I was so exhausted that I went right to sleep for like two and a half hours, got up ate and played a game with the kids. Then about 10:30 or so I started work and worked until about 3:00AM. It was extremely productive work on a project! Then went to bed and woke up without the alarm clock at about 8:30 and started work again. I was able to spend some time just praying and evaluating everything that I was doing and seeing what needed cut off and how to revise how I was working and blocking off time. There ended up being another short nap, good family time and long night working until like 4AM. To make this short, this week God has heard my cry even though I really see how I could pray to about something that was my fault. My life has been revised in a few short days. My work habits and schedule, my sleeping habits, my mental clarity, my spiritual habits and desires, my eating habits and hungers. I feel more energetic and alive than I have in several months. Praise God ... He does hear and answer our prayers and even has the grace to hear a prayer that was really not even "prayed" and certainly with not any faith and He give me my hearts desire ... just because He loves me.

Still no baby! - Freedom?

So Seriously ... Faith is ready to pop! She is still having contractions here and there and the nesting is about done, I think. A couple of months ago, she was always sticking my hand on her belly to feel a kick, hick up, or some little movement. And quite honestly, it isn't wasn't all that impressive, from a guys point of view. I kind of wanted the whole 'Alien' deal where you could almost see the facial features through the skin or something like that. But now, it almost feels like I can hold the baby ... he is so close, i can feel his every little movement. It is amazing and all we want to do now is just meet the little guy. I wife said that she believes it will be today ... on her mother's birthday. Only time will tell.

I made a comment in my last blog entry about not taking freedom for granted. I am convinced, we totally do and don't even realize it. We can share the good news of Jesus anytime we want with anybody without fear of death or imprisonment. There are those that are hurting and dying all around us and we would rather do anything but reach out to them. I remember an Instructor in bible school challenging us with the notion that had a choice. We could either make the choice to make Christ and the lost a priority now and stir a much needed revival in this country. We could do everything in our power to live an intentional life, to make an impact in the world around us, to actually pray and seek God for what we can do to fulfill His plan on the earth. OR. We can wait until we don't have the choice anymore. Until our freedoms are completely stripped away, until there is the fear of death and imprisonment, until we have lost our nation and we regret bringing children into the world for what it has become. Whether or not we ever see America fall away completely in our life time is not the issue, we are headed that way fast and I love my kids to much to not do everything I can to help change it. We are called to sacrifice our lives and to lay them down .... to fight the ferocious battle taking place around us for the souls of men. Let's make the choice to fight fo freedom now, instead of being forced to fight later.

The baby is close ... Happy Independance Day!!

The baby has dropped and is in position. Faith has been having the real contractions here and there, starting yesterday & then they stop. We are off to Babies 'R' Us to get some stuff before he comes. We haven't had a chance to go since my wife's gift card shower to go and pick out anything. We have just been to busy and since today is a vacation day it is perfect. We are just waiting and anticipating our little Ezra's arrival! It is very exciting. I am sure he is wanting some independence on this day as well ... To break free and stretch those little arms and try out those lungs of his.

We praise God for all of the troops risking their lives everyday so that we can keep our freedom and live in the freedon that we do. We pray blessings on them and their families! We praise God for sending his only son to die for us so His blood could cover our multitude of sin. So that we could obtain freedom from the law of sin and death. May we never take any of this for granted.

Online Giving Established

Wow! Check this out! Our generic donate online page is up. We will get the graphics put in there over the next week or so. But everything is up a functions. All funds are going through Celebration Church's 501(c)(3) for now until ours get all the way through. Check it out at: Donate Online Here

First look at the pre-launch site.

I am on my way to bed, but I was excited about finally having the first version of our pre-launch website up. Obvious their is no real content yet, but we are getting close! The address is http://www.venuechurchonline.faithhighway.com/ and here is a preview.

ARC Assessment

Ok, so i fell off the face of the earth for a little bit, but we have been insanely busy for a while. There is a ton to catch up on, but the most recent is the ARC Assessment. We left last Friday night after work, so about 7:00 or so. The assessment was in the Atlanta area but we went to my Dad's house first to in Augusta to drop the kiddos off and spend some time with the family. here is the run down 1050 miles to Augusta, 4 kids (10 and under) and a 8 and 1/2 month pregnant wife. We probably stopped every hundred miles or so and we had to stay over night in hotels so that Faith wouldn't get blood clots in her legs (what a trooper!). I really like to just get in the car and not stop until we get there (except for gas every 3o0 miles) that way the trip is a 17 hour deal, instead of 2 days.

So we get in the car and we get like 40 miles away and the little guy (Ian - 2 years old) starts to throw up. not just a little, but a lot ... it was mostly string cheese and strawberry milk, if that helps the visual. so we find some where to stop and buy a bunch of sanitary products and wipes and such and since I very well can't make my wonderful pregnant wife take the car seat out, and get on her hands and knees to strub every crevase of the car seat and van seat, the job falls on me. sick ... that is all i can say. So my mind is thinking, we just lost 70 miles of the trip and i am cleaning up puke ... GREAT! Ian was fine after that, so it must have just been something his stomach didn't like. I have to clean every piece, that way it wouldn't smell for the next 1000 miles in the van.

The rest of the trip was pretty smooth and we got to August about 1:30 AM Saturday night/ Sunday morning. This was the the first Father's day I ever remember spending with my Father on Father's Day. So, it was a special time. It was just good being there. My sister Lori, her husband Miller (I actually got to marry them late last year) and my brother Michael were all there. It was fun.

So the next day (06/16/08) was our 13th year anniversay, and we had an appointment with the marriage counselor as the first part of our assessment. I think they just wanted to make sure that we weren't scary and that we actually loved each other. I have met quite a few couples that should've went through that process. He went into our past and such, over all it was good. Later that night we had another meeting, free anniversary meal ... haha. It was good food and good company. Out of the 13 church planting couples there we had to go first with the introductions followed by a brief grilling (Q&A) from the panel. To top our assessment/Anniversary Date off they gave us a homework assignment to write up by morning.

The next day was a full one. They split up the couples and put us into a small groups situation where we were given a 2-part senario to talk through and come to a unanimous decision. There was no appointed leader, but I was quickly appointed by the group members ... wooohoo. That one was actually fun. We did well. Next we had to roll play with a fellow planter as if he was a neighbor and conversate through to to point of leading him to Christ. Of course, through all of this there is always an assessor taking notes on your every move, guess we better get used to it. There are always people taking notes on our action, whether we realize it or not. It was fun though, i got him saved, which is a good thing for a church planter to do. We then were grouped with 2 other couples and given a section of the country in which to plant in. We had to decide what city, research the city, come up with a game plan for the launch, then how we plan on planting 10 more churches over the next 10 years, and oh yeah, produce a power point and present (with all members speaking on there areas) in front of the panel and your peers within 2 hours. It was actually pretty crazy. The last deal was a final interview with new questions based upon our homework assignment and how we did for the day. whew. We met some really great people through the process, these are the people that will all be planting at the same time as us through out the country ... a mini support team. We are really excited about these relationships.

We then drove back to Augusta, to visit and see our wonderful kiddos. They had a blast with the Grand Parents and Aunt and Uncles. We had to wait a couple of days on our results form the assessments. On Wednesday, we started the long trek back to Austin and arrived about 2:00 Friday morning.

I had meetings early Friday, but about 7:00 Friday night I crashed and didn't wake until about 8:30 the next day. what a week. I have much more, but I am off to bed instead.

Internship at Celebration Church; Georgetown, TX

Well the last few weeks have been non-stop and much change has been taken place. I start a volunteer internship at Celebration Church on Tuesday of this week. This is a big change for us. I am moving to part time at faithHighway, which means half the time = half the pay. We are trying to get the rest of the Church bank account and the online donation stuff settled so that we can raise some necessary support to help us through the internship. We believe strongly in this step before we launch out and move to Ohio.

We will be the first to do something like this with Celebration Church. It is a priveledge that they are working with us on this. Celebration is in the top 50 fastest growing churches in America (according to Outreach Magazine). The leadership, structure, preaching, and overall DNA is amazing! This is a place that upon walking in the front door the first time (and pretty much ever since) I found myself saying, "This is what I have been looking for in a church, but didn't know existed". We felt like we learned more about what a church is supposed to be and how it should operate in the first three months just attending than in all the bible school and churches we have been a part of up until that time. We are excited to be a part of the team and do what we can to bless the church while we are here and in return we believe that the seed sown and the time spent will be an invaluable part of what God has for us in the future.

This is a scary time in a lot of ways, but at the same time we know that we are right in the middle of the will of God for our lives. God has taken us on an incredible journey in a lot of ways and no mater where you go or what the situation looks like, He is always in control! There is a great peace that comes from knowing that you are following His plan. Nothing else really seems to matter. A great part as well is that my oldest son is now at the age (10 years old) where he can understand what we are doing and why. We get the wonderful opportunity to allow him to see God work miracles in our lives through faith. I want him to see first hand how much we love God and how great God's love is toward us.

Why Cleveland? Part II

Many people have asked us, why Cleveland? Do you have family there? Did you grow up there? What side of town? I will have tackled two of these in the last Blog (Why Cleveland? Part I).

Why Cleveland?
The funny thing about telling people that you are moving to Cleveland is that I get the same response. "Have you ever been there?" Haha! As if, "if you had ever been there you would never actually move ther ... especially from Austin Texas!" Yes, I know that there is like 300 days of cloud cover, yes a ton of industry has left the area, yes half of the people are on prosac. Funny story, I work with a guy whose sister lives in Ohio. I was joking with him about everyone being on prosac and he said yeah it must be true, my sister has been on it ever since she moved there. (Well I guess it really isn't a funny story is it) On the other side, the Cavs are a growing team, they are going to be amazing as they mature. I have always been an Indians Fan and The Browns have had enough great draft pics to hopefully grow into some success. The beaches are awesome, Cedar Point is Close, there is a sweet zoo, and the list goes on ... not to mention there are actually seasons there.

More importantly than any of that, we know that this is where God wants us to be. There is no other place that I would rather be than in his will. We had visited the area twice last year and there was a connection there that I couldn't quite explain. There is a different mentality there that you can't really explain, but it felt like me. I remember thinking, these are my kind of people ... I have been missing these. We could do the same exact thing somewhere else and even get some good results, but complete miss all that God wants to do. There is nothing like the eternal effect you can have when you are right in the exact spot where God has called you to be. Right in the right place and at the right time. He has already set things in motion and really beyhond that, we could really live anywhere in the world and be completely content, but Cleveland and the surrounding area is our place in the world!!

What side of town?
We took two trips to Ohio last year. The first trip was mostly exporatory. We found out that Cleveland and the surrounding areas have 76 suburbs!! Holy Frijoles man! We had no idea. We bought the annual suburb rating edition of Cleveland Magazine. It was great ... it gave a lot of tremendous info and stats. We drove to most of the suburbs and and got it narrowed down a little to about 5 to 6 locations. We really feel like eventually we will have Venue locations in all of those initial cities.

The second trip that we took was partially a vacation. I visited my church planting/fight promoting/tatooed/real estate/Stage Building/Marketing Guru friend in Slidell, LA (Rob Braniff). Then we went to Augusta where I had the honor of marrying off my sister (Laurie) and visiting some family. We then got to spend a couple of days in a condo at Myrtle Beach with my wifes parents, her 4 brothers and their families. Then our crew along with Tim and Marla (part of the church launch team) headed up to Ohio. After we dropped the kids off at Nana and Papas, we spent a couple of days in the Cleveland area. I was actually surprised, because I really wanted to be on the east side of the city, but the more time we spent there the more we realized that we were supposed to be on the west side. We really feel like Avon is the city where we will begin.

Anyway, I hope that helps get a little into our heads and answers some the questions.

Why Cleveland? Part I

Many people have asked us, why Cleveland? Do you have family there? Did you grow up there? What side of town? I will try to answer these questions.

Do you have family there? Yes, most of both my wife's and my family live in northeastern Ohio. They all live about an hour to two hours from where we will be. We have been away from family now for about 10 years. Our visits to family always turn into at least a 2K mile drive (with 4 kids and one on the way we don't fly!). So having that much family only a couple of hours away will be amazing.

Did you grow up there? We mostly grew up there. We both grew up in Military famillies. Faith's Dad was in the Army and my Dad was in the Airforce. We both moved to Ohio in our early elementary school years and lived there until we got married and moved away to go to bible school in 1998. When we left Ohio I said two things: 1. I will never Senior Pastor a church and 2. I will never move back. I case you haven't figured this out yet, never say things like that because God has a keen sense of humor. Neither me nor Faith really visited Cleveland more than a couple of times while we lived there. Although the Texas weather and culture is incredible (for the record there isn't any beach in Texas that can compare to the beaches you can find along Lake Erie) we are drawn back to Ohio. Our hearts are now completely there and i don't believe there is anything that could keep us away. It really feels like a final destination and that is a feeling that we haven't experienced in a while. No matter where we were, we would make friends and enjoy where we were, but we knew that we couldn't settle to much because we weren't staying forever. Now that we are going, I can't ever imagine leaving or living anywhere else.

For the other two questions, See Part II

CPR - Prayer

So this past Thursday and Friday was the ARC-CPR (Church Planting Roundtable) at Celebration Church in Georgetown, TX. It was great! We met some really great people. A group of about 40 church planters all getting together, sharing their vision and dreams. Pastor Joe Champion and Billy Hornsby led the meeting and covered a ton of awesome compacted material in the two day mini conference. The most refreshing part, beyond the content is the heart behind everything. It is an overwhelming feeling that we are all part of something much greater than we thought possible.

You can attend church conferences and church planting conferences and not hear much of an emphasis on prayer. In this conference, this was not only one of the first things covered, but it was labeled as a non-negotiable. All of the planning, procedures, programs, smoke and mirrors can only at best pale to the preparation time spent in prayer. Talent, gifts, money, procedures, buildings, production crews, etc, are all great, but those things won't last if the ministry isn't bathed in prayer. We have all seen ministries that had it all, fall over night because of a loss of focus on the Cross of Christ and his cause. Prayer keeps us, connects us, propels us, and moves us. It is impossible to have a relationship without talking to and listening to God ... the one who has had plans for us before we were even in the womb. It is all quite incredible.

Background and part of the Story.

This Blog is just to give you a glimpse into our lives as we go through this church planting process. Right now we are just beginning the journey. As a full time job, I have been working for a church media, marketing, and web company for the last 7 years. It has been an incredible ride. It was after bible school and while working at faithHighway that the call of God to plant a church somewhere in the Cleveland, OH area was solidified. It was April of 2002 when we received this specific call to ministry. We were directed at that time that we would not receive the next step for 5 years and that I was to stay at faithHighway & serve faithfully in ministry. My job at faithHighway led us to Austin, TX where we gained much ministry experience and were eventually led to Celebration Church in Georgetown, TX. In April of 2007 Celebration Church hosted the ARC (Assoc. of Related Churches) annual conference. ARC is a revolutionary church planting organization that fits with the things that have been in our heart, but we did not know exactly how to express. This meeting along with several other things became our confirmation that our direction was changing and that we need to start moving toward the launching the church in OH. It was almost exactly 5 years, just like God had told us in 2002. Since then we have made several steps and were actually planning on leaving for Ohio this month, until about November of last year. We found out that we are having our 5th child (no we aren't Catholic and we do know what causes this) combined with knowing that we were supposed to stay connected to Celebration Church, caused us to rethink April. We were getting pretty excited about moving forward, but the next 6-9 months left in Texas are going to be invaluable. I got much more to say, but I am off to bed instead. Until next time ...