Alive Worship

Hello Alive family. This is not going to be a very long post. There are just a few tings I want to say.  I met with a council member of the new church I will be joining staff with for coffee this morning. As we talked, it came up that this would be my last weekend service with Alive Church. He asked me, “how is that for you?” Without hesitation I replied, “sad.”  I love Alive Church. Not the non-prophet entity, not the building, not the brand. I love you men and women who I have had the privilege and  honor of serving with for the past 18 months or so.  When I think of not having the joy of working with you, singing with you and doing life with you day in and day out, I feel a loss. I am grateful I’ve had the chance to do ministry with you over the past year and a half and will forever cherish the experiences and opportunities I have had at Alive.  I will continue to pray that God will show His favor to Alive Church as He guides the leadership i...

Last week, I had the incredible joy of reconnecting with an old friend for breakfast. This is someone I hadn't caught up with since I left Tucson in 1999. As we talked about being in our 40’s, our marriages and fatherhood, it struck me how similar our journeys have been to wrestle with our shortcomings over the years and pursue meaning and joy in life. As we caught up, I was reminded of people and events that I hadn’t thought of for around 20 years. As my friend and I sat across from the older versions of the young, foolish men we were in our past lives, I found myself reliving memories of the man I used to be and began to compare contrasting world views and values of my old self to who I am now.  The biggest contrast between who I was then and who I am now can be summed up in one statement; it’s not about me . In my foolish 20’s, I believed that I was one of the smartest guys in the room at all times. I believed that my experiences, feelings, and perceptions gave me a leg up ...

This has been a rough week for our nation. The devastation from the mass shooting that took place on Sunday night in Las Vegas is far reaching. Victims were not just local to Las Vegas, they were from different parts of the country and even the world. In their deepest moments of grief, people tend to ask a very poignant question: where is God in all of this? We may not always be able to answer “why” something like this happens, but I can assure you that God is always present with us through our pain. We serve a God who so deeply desires to be relational with us that He broke into His creation in an act of love and mercy. God left the throne room of heaven to dwell among His beloved, to feel what we feel, and ultimately take up His cross on our behalf. In his book And the Angels Were Silent , a uthor and Pastor Max Lucado paints a beautiful picture of Jesus’ own humanity the night before His arrest and crucifixion. Jesus wrestled with the decision He had to make to be tortured,...

My oldest son, Hudson, had a “grandparents luncheon” at his school last week. Sarah and I took our youngest son Silas and decided to go and have lunch with Hudson for this special occasion. It was fun watching all the families gather under popup canopies and cram into the elementary cafeteria to spend an hour with their kids and grandkids.  Amongst all the activity taking place at the school, one of the teacher’s shirts caught my eye. It was a Ben Bells Project “Be Kind” shirt, which I have seen dozens, if not hundreds of times. But it was the back of the shirt that caught my eye; “At this school we are learning to be kind.” What struck me about this statement is how much it echoes our walk with Christ. Kindness isn’t niceness or politeness. The kindness we are called to as imitators of Jesus is sacrificial and costly. In Luke’s account of the Beatitudes, Jesus said: “If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love the...

There’s a promise that Jesus stated that can be found in the Bible in the books of Mark and Luke that says: “For all that is secret will eventually be brought into the open, and everything that is concealed will be brought to light and made known to all.”  Luke 8:17 (NLT)  For most of us, that promise provokes an incredible sense of fear and panic. I can’t imagine an accumulation of my immoral thoughts broadcast for the world to see. Yet, here is the Prince of Peace promising that all that is in secret will eventually be brought out into the open. That doesn’t feel like good news…unless you pair it with another truth from the Bible: God already fully knows you. This dynamic with God is written about in the Book of Psalms. “O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me. You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I’m far away. You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do. You kno...

I love my boys for so many reasons. One of my favorite thing specifically about my oldest son, Hudson, is his amazing imagination. Our two bedroom apartment is constantly being transformed into a pirate infested ocean, a superhero battle ground, or the outskirts of deep space where aliens are being kept at bay by valiant heroes.  Hudson not only has a beautiful imagination, he also has a heart that is full of wonder and awe about Who God is and all that He has done. Not a single day goes by without Hudson asking, “Did God make this dad?” or state, “Well, if you don’t know, I know God does… He knows everything.” Hudson is aware that God loves us, that God is always with us in our everyday activities, and that we are created for Him and by Him. In short, when Hudson thinks of God, his heart is filled with joy, wonder and awe.  I’m not this way nearly as much as I used to be. I remember as a child looking into the vast blackness of the sky at night and as the stars dance...

"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion— to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified. They shall build up the ancient ruins; they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations." - Isaiah 61:1-4 (ESV) The Kingdom of God is a Kingdom of paradox. We are called to die to ourselves in order to find our lives. We are called to give all that...

From 2007-2010, Sarah and I served with an organization called Youth With A Mission (YWAM), an organization dedicated to training and sending missionaries. Our training center, which also served as our home, was  a large manor in England called Holmsted Manor located in the English countryside (about 90 minutes south of London). We trained and lived with up to 80 different individuals from different countries and denominational backgrounds. We shared living space, but not always the same preferences. We shared chores and responsibilities, but not always the same priorities. But it was in this unique setting that I was challenged into a type of community that I didn’t realize I was missing in life…vulnerable community. The vulnerable community I’m talking about is the kind where we are not only known for our strengths, but also our weaknesses. When you live day in and day out with that many people, it’s not very easy to hide the real you. People will know when you are frustrate...

“So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.” - John 13:34-35 (NLT)  This November will mark 20 years that I have been walking with Jesus. I came to Christ at a church on the East side of Tucson called Pantano Christian Church on November 30th, 1997. Through the years, I have been led by Christ to focus on a lot of different things depending on the season I was in. At times, I found myself focusing on serving. At other times, I would explore different disciplines of prayer. There were times of Scripture memorization and times of deep exegetical study. After 20 years of walking with Christ, I believe that the most important thing to God, the very currency of the Kingdom of heaven is, Love.  We see first of all, that when Jesus merged into creation, it wasn’t to overthrow the oppressive Roman government (as the Jewish people s...

Every weekend we gather for worship: we sing songs, we pray, and we listen to a message. We participate in these things as a way of expressing love and commitment to God. But what if God said he wasn’t interested in our singing? What if He said that we could keep our tithes and offerings? What if all we did for God at church He considered noisy worship? That is the exact sentiment that He shared with the Israelites:  “I hate all your show and pretense—the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies. I will not accept your burnt offerings and grain offerings. I won’t even notice all your choice peace offerings. Away with your noisy hymns of praise! I will not listen to the music of your harps. Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice, an endless river of righteous living.” - Amos 5:21-24 (NLT) Can you imagine God sharing these sentiments with us? “I hate all your show and pretense!” “Away with your noisy hymns of praise!” In the midst of such an inte...

“Jesus came and told his disciples, ‘I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’”  - Matthew 28:18-20 (NLT)  For someone like me who has had to work really hard at dealing with an introverted default posture, obeying the command to “go and make disciples” almost feels especially mean of Jesus to say to me. He knows how He made me. He knows that I prefer “staycations” to being out of the comforts of my home. He knows that at a party, I will find a few close friends to have a deeper conversation with rather than be at the center of the action. He knows that after a day of heavy social activity, I come home and crash like a triathlon runner after the Ironman World Championship . Nevertheless, when...

Years ago, Sarah and I took a course to learn about God’s heart for all the nations of the world and why we do missions. Missions in and of themselves is a strange concept to most. Some of us think of the Mormon elders who show up at your door on bikes. Some people who grew up in the church may think of that strange family who lives in a third world country and take up a weekend service once a year to share a bunch of pictures of a far-off land and the new friends they’ve made and the work they ’ re doing.  As people of God and followers of Jesus, we are not afforded the luxury of merely coexisting and keeping our religion to ourselves. It was very much at the center of Jesus’ ministry to share the “Good News of the Kingdom” (Luke 4:43) and if we are called to follow in our Lord’s example, we are to do the same.  Being a fairly critical thinker, I always ask the question, “to what end?” If you’re anything like I am, you like to understand the goal that you are shoot...