tuesday's aqua...simply amazing

We had an absolutely amazing time of worship at Aqua on Tuesday. I mean AMAZING. As I told the Aqua crowd Tuesday night, to see them worship so freely and intensly like that fuels my faith. What an excellent time of just loving on God. I stood toward the back of the room, and "snuck" a few photos with my camera phone.
Props to Dave D, Benjamin and the band, and all the volunteers who make Aqua great. Unbelievable night. Can't wait for the next one (July 8, 7 p.m., The Warehouse).

last night's aqua

Awesome. We had a great, incredible time of worship with Benjamin Payne and the Aqua band. Here are a couple pics I took with my cell phone:

We had a great crowd show up. Aqua's really gaining momentum. I love the Aqua crowd (18-30's singles). We're in the middle of a series where we're talking about biblical principles that help us navigate life when life gets interrupted. It's so cool to see God at work in so many lives through Aqua.

If you want to come check it out sometime, click here for the details.

conformists

So...you never know who you're going to run in to at Aqua on Tuesday nights...

...or what they'll be WEARING!

If three people show up at Aqua, all wearing the same shirt that says, "Don't Conform," does that make them conformists?

Speaking of Aqua, you can join the Aqua group on Facebook by clicking here.

aquafying the desert

I'm taking a group from Aqua to Egypt. We leave today. Cleveland to Detroit to Amsterdam (with a nine-hour lay-over)...and then on to Cairo. From Cairo we'll take a 7-8 hour night train to Luxor to do ministry with about 80 kids at an orphanage. Unbelievable.

Please pray for us as we travel. We'll be gone until February 4. Please pray for our families while we're away. Please pray that we'd have great ministry while we're there.

I don't know if I'll get to blog much while I'm away but I'll be glad to give full blog report (with photos) upon my return.

going all the way

If you read my blog much at all, you know that I'm a big Craig Groeschel guy. This guy, who is about my age, pastors one of the fastest growing, most creative and dynamic churches in America (lifechurch.tv).

I've been influenced by Craig and Lifechurch.tv quite a bit over the past year. I've listened to his messages, read his blog, and read his books.

His newest book is titled Going All the Way. Strong. I read most of it to my wife, Jenny while travelling to Kentucky a few weeks ago. Know what it did for us? It made us want to strengthen our marriage. It created a renewed desire to be more alive to what God wants in our marriage. It caused us to talk about what it means to have a deeper level of intimacy. It made me want to be a better, more godly husband.

And here's the thing: While it's primary target is the singles crowd, it spoke profoundly into my marriage. I'd recommend it for any married couple that's interested in seeing their marriage develop into what God wants it to be.

And if you're single, whether you're in a relationship or not, I'd call this one a MUST READ. I've been pimping it at Aqua over the past couple weeks. I'm not kidding. I wish I would have read this book when I was single.

The NewPointe bookstore has copies available. It'd make a great Christmas gift for the single adult that you care about.

Read it and find out how you can have a marriage that "Goes All the Way."

what i learned about life on the high ropes

Last weekend Aqua went on a retreat. It was a blast. Man, I love those guys. We stayed up way late on Friday night and got up early on Saturday to head out to take on a high-ropes course.

High ropes is a challenging, team-building, personal-development activity consisting of ropes elements and obstacles usually 30 to 40 feet above the ground.

This was my third time to do a high-ropes course. It's scary...and fun...[kinda]. The thing I love most about the high ropes course are the lessons I learn about life. Here are a few things our team learned Saturday:

• Community. You can't do ropes [life] alone. On the ropes, you're accountable to and for your teammates. If you're not accountable, you're in danger. Also, everyone was interesting in seeing every other person succeed. It wasn't about individual success. So we cheered, encouraged, and congratulated our teammates all the way.


• Trust. You have to trust your teammates. You have to trust the equipment. If you can't trust, you can't move.



• Perspective. Everything changes when you're 40 feet high. But those on the ground have different perspective. They can see things you can't. They can help you which brings me to...


• Humility. It's humbling when you can't climb the centipede pole [that'd be me]. It's humbling to admit you need help. But nobody cared. We all wanted to see each other succeed. So on the ropes [and in life] you can't be afraid to ask for help.


• Courage. I heard Amy say this: "I'm trying to get my balance so I can take my next step but I can't get my balance...I'm not sure I ever will, so I guess I'm just going to have to go for it." I love that! Isn't that true in life? If we wait until things "calm down" before we take big steps, we'll never do it. The reality is, things aren't going to calm down anyway so sometimes we just have to go for it.
  
• Faith. While I was sitting on a platform 45 feet above the ground trying to muster the courage to jump off and go screaming down the zip line, a hundred thoughts were running through my mind: Is my harness secure? Will this fabric loop hold my weight? What if the line is rusty? What if something goes wrong? Am I hooked on correctly? Finally I just had to say, "Enough, I'm just going to take a leap of faith and trust in the equipment and God and let the chips fall where they may. [I'm still alive...and really glad I took the risk.]


• Overcoming. I heard David say this: "I'm going on that obstacle because it's the one that scares me the most. I love that attitude.
  
• Communication. With out it, someone dies.

What an experience. What a great time. I'm looking forward to our next Aqua retreat!

poreuomai

I love going to Aqua. What an incredible night we had last night. The spirit of worship was truly awesome. I love the people who come to Aqua. They are truly some of my favorite people on earth.

In case you missed it (or in case you're not "eligible" for Aqua, but would still like to be in 'the know'), here's what happened:

We talked about how as followers of Christ, we are called to go.

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. Matthew 28:19-20a

The Greek word for "go" is poreuomai. It means to travel, depart, go, take a journey, walk.

The point? Here it is: we cannot stay where we are and fulfill the Great Commission. You and I are called, literally, to go.

So we issued the challenge: Let's (Aqua) go change the world. I told the crowd that we are sending Aqua--as many as we can accommodate--to Egypt in January to "Aquify" a thirsty desert. We're going to go do a vbs and teacher training for 10 days.

Wanna hear something cool? At least 20 people came up afterwards and said, "Count me in." I want to go rock Egypt with the love of Jesus Christ." 20+ people! How cool is that?

20 people who said, "I'm willing to step outside my comfort zone. I'm willing to trust God to provide me with the courage, finances, and time to be able to go. I want to go touch a life in Egypt."

I'm stoked. And there's still room. If you're a part of Aqua (or even if you wish you were), and you'd like to explore the possibility of traveling with us to Egypt this winter, e-mail me. I'll get you in the loop.

If you were at Aqua last night and fear or obstacles kept you from saying yes to going, e-mail me. We'll do our best to make room for you.

See, we believe that you can't be a follower of Christ and be comfortable. He will always take you to a place of faith.

Maybe he wants to take you to Egypt.

dealing with negative people in your life

Last week at Aqua we began a series called It's All in Your Mind. I blogged about it last week.

At the end of Aqua we made some positive promises to God. One of those promises was simply that we would not hang out with negative people. That thought spurred this e-mail to me the next day:

Hi John,

...I was present at last nights aqua. I really enjoyed the message that you guys had for us. I (have a friend who's) in a dilemma. Her mother used to be her best friend and she (has recently moved away). they still talk quite often. The problem is, is that her mother is a VERY negative person. Do you have any advice about how to steer away from negative people and not lose her mother?? I really didn’t know how to answer that question... Thanks for your time

My response:

I’ll try to answer your question: If your friend's mom is truly her best friend and they talk all the time…what would happen if your friend was just very frank with her about her negativity ,in a loving way, of course. Something like, “Mom, God is changing my heart. It’s the craziest thing and I can’t even fully explain it. But I know he’s changing me. Mom, one of the things he’s changing is my attitude. I want to be more positive. We’ve been learning about having the same kind of attitude
that Jesus had…and I want that for me. Mom, I love you and it’s important that you know that…but sometimes our conversations just seem to head toward negative stuff. I don’t want to be like that. What can we do together to avoid that? Will you help me in my efforts to do that?”

Now, I don’t know what your friend's mom’s reaction would be to a conversation like that. But it may be a good place to start…at least begin talking about it.

The best place to start would be with your friend sharing how God is changing her. Notice in the example I gave you that I never blamed or pointed a finger at Mom. I had your friend talking more about herself. Maybe she could begin there and see where that leads the conversation. Bottom line though: I’d be very honest and up-front with Mom about what’s going on in my life and my heart and how I want to change. Also, your friend may just need to establish some boundaries with her mom about what they’re going to talk about and what they’re not going to talk about.

The other thing is to pray, pray, pray for God’s wisdom in the situation. He’ll help your friend…and her mom.

You can listen to the Aqua message Dave D and I gave at Aqua last week right here.

positive promises

We had a great night at Aqua on Tuesday. Aqua is just a great place to be.

We started a new series in there called "It's All In Your Mind." On Tuesday we dealt with negative attitudes. Philippians 2:5 says, "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus…" We asked the question: Is that even a legitimate possibility? Is that achievable? I say it is...but it's not necessarily easy.

We ended the evening by passing out little reminder cards that had the positive promises that we committed to make. Here they are:

I WILL NOT HANG OUT WITH NEGATIVE PEOPLE.
Bad company corrupts good character. 1 Corinthians 15:33

I WILL NOT DWELL ON NEGATIVE THOUGHTS.
… we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:5

I WILL REPLACE NEGATIVE THOUGHTS WITH GOD’S THOUGHTS.
…the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true… noble… right… pure… lovely… admirable -if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things. Philippians 4:7-8

And then we wrapped it up with this prayer of commitment that's printed on the back of the card:

God, I commit to you not to hang around those who pull me away from you with negativity. Give me the power not to dwell on negative, destructive thoughts, but to replace them with your truth. Renew my mind with the truth of your word. Help me to have the same attitude as Christ Jesus.

I'm keeping my card with me. What a great reminder for me to keep a positive attitude...the attitude of Christ. I've got some extra cards. E-mail me if you'd like one for yourself. Also, you can listen to the whole message by clicking here.

can't shut my brain off when i go to bed

It's 3:12 a.m. Can't sleep. I hate that. Happens to me at least a couple times a week. I'll feel tired and ready for bed but then when my head hit the pillow it's like the switch turns on. I just CANNOT shut my brain off! Here's the stuff racing through my mind at midnight:

• Married Life Live. I'm totally stoked for it. Worked on it pretty much all day yesterday. We've got some wonderful creative elements that I can't wait for everyone to experience. But lying in bed, my brain just keeps chewing on ideas for MLL. So I got up and started writing some down.
• First Wednesday. I'll blog more about the next FW soon...but it's going to be amazing. Dwight's going to speak at this one. I'll just say this: Don't miss it! I promised you will have never experienced anything like it.
• July sermon series. I'm speaking in July. And I'm trying to nail down some ideas. This is one of those things that's out there in the future a bit...and I know I should be working on it now but there are some other things that are pressing (Aqua, MLL, First Wednesday, May 6--I'm speaking on that day).
• Aqua. A new series begins May 8 and so my mind is blitzing through ideas for that one. We're going to call it It's All In Your Mind. We're going to talk about biblical truths on the battlefield of the mind, overcoming strongholds, defeating worry, and understanding the mind of Christ. Looking forward to that big-time.

But man, I wish I could just shut off my brain sometimes. And I absolutely do not want to take sleep-aids. Anyway, if you have any ideas that you think could help me, leave a comment. Thanks.

aqua-esque

Last night we "aquafied" in the warehouse. As I blogged yesterday, none of us involved had any clue whatsoever as to what to expect (turn-out wise) at the first-ever Aqua.

Overall, I think the night exceeded expectations. I know you're wondering about attendance: 65 total--which I think is a solid beginning. We totally expect momentum to build and the intensity to increase.

I met a lot of new faces. I love meeting new people. I think Aqua makes it easy to do that.

The band was flat-out awesome. Benjamin and his crew did a bang-up job of leading us into worship. The thing that I like about them is that they're not coming to Aqua to "do a show." They're coming to Aqua to worship and to lead those of us who attend into passionate, heartfelt worship of our Creator. Very cool.

Dave D'Angelo did a tremendous job setting the tone for where we want to take Aqua. He spoke from John 7:37-38 (Aqua's theme verses) and challenged us all to be the kind of people from whom living water flows. His talk was very provocative (provocative was the word of the night). His biggest scud: "I need Jesus RIGHT NOW!" (I'm going to check in to the possibility of getting the Aqua messages online...I'll keep you posted).

I'm most pleased with just the way the whole night came off. Basically without a hitch. Transitions were smooth. The music was great. And we feel like people connected to God and to each other.

The credit all goes to: #1. God. Apart from him we can do nothing. With him all things are possible. #2. Our amazing Aqua volunteers. They have taken ownership of Aqua and that makes all the difference. #3. the NewPointe staff. They're completely behind the vision of Aqua. Thanks guys.

Best of all, I feel like we were very prepared for Aqua. I just feel like we were ready to pull of a great experience...and I feel like we did. Our team didn't leave things to chance. Every detail was covered from sound to lighting to PowerPoint to greeting to the cafe to the setup and tear down and everything in between.

Everyone I talked to was glad they came. I'm already looking forward to the next one (April 10).

Man, I can't wait to see what God is going to do in and through Aqua.

aqua is here!

I'm completely stoked about the first AQUA! Aqua is our brand new environment for college/singles. And the very first one begins at 7:00 tonight.

We sense a need for an environment like this. There's a minstry gap between high school and young families at NewPointe. Tonight we take a huge step toward filling that gap. Aqua will be a place where our area's college/singles arrive worshipping, corporately praises, prays, and learns together, then leaves worshipping.

We believe that simply filling a room with a few hundred people means nothing if lives are not changed. Aqua will be an avenue for college/singles to experience God in personal ways, intently consider their lives, and be encouraged as they choose their steps.

Dave D'Angelo is going to teach tonight. I know he's going to nail it! Benjamin Payne will be Aqua's regular worship leader. And the band...well, they're gonna rock!

I have no idea what kind of numbers to expect tonight. We'll see. I'll keep blog-world updated as we go.

If you'd be willing to pray for Aqua...please do! The more prayer the better.

If you're interested in coming, here are the details:

Aqua meets on every 2nd and 4th Tuesday.
Doors open at 6:30, coffee bar will be open till 9:00. Aqua begins at 7:00 sharp.
Each night is pretty simple: Passionate worship and practical teaching.

Click this link to find out more.