Everything Skit

I've seen lots of skits and dramas in my time. On top of that, I've been in many more. Here I've added a video from youtube that hits me everytime I've seen it. It's an awesome skit that I totally want to do one day. Tell me whatcha think.



Here's the Video Link on youtube... Everything Skit

You Ever been Anxious and overly Excited?

This week has been a week of prayer, dialogue with mentors and friends, and searching. For the past few months I've been talking to this guy named Tim Jernigan. He's the pastor at Northstar Fellowship church in Concord, North Carolina. I've learned from my bad experiences in churches that I need to be cautious. I've learned that I can't ignore the red flags and I can't settle for something that God doesn't want me to have anyways. So as I've met with people from the church, Tim, and his family, I've looked for those issues that I'm not gonna settle for.

This past week was leading up to yesterday (Sunday). My wonderful wife and I went then to teach the students, meet parents, and have our final meeting to help us decide if we want to go there. All I can say is Wow.

For months I've been searching for the place God wants me. I know how God's made me and what he wants me to do. I also know what I need to fulfill that plan. After numerous discussions on ministry, church politics, and just our lives in general, I've got nothing but Great things from God about this church. This seems like just what God had in mind. I believe God is doing great things here and the future is only going to be filled with greater things.

I can't wait to see where this goes after we move there and really get into these awesome people's lives. I can't wait. Can you see why I was so anxious and overly excited? I appreciate your prayers and will continue with it as you pray for me.

God Rocks, Jtw

Do u watch?

Today was reading in Matthew 27. I was reading all about what Jesus went through for me. It occurred to me something that I've never thought of before. God is an all seeing God. He knows everything, he sees everything, and without a shadow of a doubt knows what's best. In thinking that Jesus in Matthew 26 and 27 is murdered, what occurred to me is this...God watched this. I know what you're thinking, heartless right. I mean really, I don't think I could sit there while my child is beaten, stripped naked, humiliated, ripped open with sharp objects, nailed to wood, cursed at, and eventually killed. So, in continuing with that thought, why didn't God do something? Honestly I couldn't have stopped myself from doing something.

The priest even comes to Jesus right before death and says if he's really God he should come down and prove it. At that moment you can imagine thousands and thousands of angels swarming the spot and right before they strike Jesus says stop. They all stop and the priest knows nothing of the power and mercy he just escaped from.

To get back to God watching, God watched as his son was murdered by the people he was sent to save. This was the point though. People forget that God's watching, and he never stopped for a minute. He watched because he loved us. He allowed this to happen because he loved us. I can't imagine loving someone so much that you'd let your son die to save them. Well that's us.

I get asked a lot and it's a subject that people love to debate. Why do things happen like people burning up in fires or drowning in tsunamis. This happens because God loves us to much that he gave us free will. With that free will we've sinned and messed up royally. God watches all this and waits. If he stops it the gift of free will is gone. So, just like with his son, he watches and awaits the day when his love can be complete. That day will come and it's coming soon.
God Rocks, Jtw

4% -- HOLY CRAP

Today I was online. I came across Battle Cry's site and remembered all the excitement I had for going in March. I still may go, but I was going to take the youth group. I was watching some videos about how in only a few years there will only be 4% of people who call themselves Christians when the next generation gets here. That's staggering. It reminded me of a commercial that I saw once about drugs. In this commercial there was a girl in a pond and she couldn't swim. Her friend stood quietly on the dock, merely feet from her friend, watching her drown. The commercial ends with, the statement, "you would do something wouldn't you?"

I write this because it seems to me that many Christians would have to answer that question with a loud "NO." The odds of reaching a person for Christ after they turn 20 is 10 to 1. That scares the crap out of me. This is one of the reasons why I'm a Student Pastor. I want to reach the students with Christ no matter what it takes. Why doesn't every Christian have this point of view? It's a command of God isn't it? How did we go from a society where Christian morals are taught and most everyone was a Christian, to a place where only 4% do?

We as Christians have DROPPED THE BALL. Do you get it? 4% scares the crap out of me. Does it scare you? Battle Cry is a event where students, parents, and all Christians are called to stand up for our generation. They're called to defy what culture has said to us; that we can't be Christians. If you don't believe me just to go YouTube. Type in any Christian video and look at all the hate comments they've received. Go out to the mall and ask someone if you can pray for them or tell them about Christ and see if they don't curse you and spit at you.

How did we come to the point where 4% will be responsible for the spiritual direction of a generation? All I know is that we're called to stand up. Let's do it! God Rocks! Jtw

Prayer over Interview

Tonight I have a sort of interview with a man named Tim Jernigan. He's the pastor at a church called Northstar Fellowship (www.northstarfellowship.com). It seems like a very cool church that's reaching people. I'm very excited about what this could be. God's awesome and a lot of us have been praying for something like this for some time.

Pray over tonight. Pray that I don't let my excitement blur what God is telling me. Pray that God will give me a very clear answer. Tim seems like a great guy and seems like God is definitely with him. I want what God wants.

I appreciate your prayers, and Thank you God for the chance to be your Servant. Pray with me as I pray please...

Lord, Thank You for this opportunity. Thank you for all you've given me and for helping me to be patient as you send me what you have for me. Lord, tonight might be it, and might not. Either way God praise You. God tonight if this is the place you want me to serve you in, then God let me know. I want to serve you in your place. God, bless this ministry either way, Tim wants to reach people for you. Help him! Thank you again and Praise you Lord. In Jesus name..AMEN. JTW

Feminist and Christians

Today I was watching a TV show that made me laugh a little. On this show, this guy had a company being boycotted by a feminist group. So this guy made the decision to take the leading woman out to dinner. She spent the meal with the guy telling him how his company just uses women and causes a poor outlook on women. The funny thing came at the end of their meal. When the check came, the guy began to only pay for his part. The woman watched and was perplexed. She asked, why aren't you paying for all of it. She went on to say that "I thought we were on a date and I assumed you'd pay for it." The guy then turned to this woman and said the greatest statement I've heard in while. He said "Welcome to equality, this is what you wanted."

This woman was a feminist because she thought that women are being treated like second class citizens. The problem is that she wanted all the respect, money, and what she feels is rights that men are not giving men, but she didn't look at it from all sides. She didn't want to give stuff up like men paying for dates, or basically the gentlemen mentality.

So, how does this apply to Christians. A lot of Christians are just like this. They want to be Christians because they think they'll get something out of it; a.k.a. get out o hell free card. Again the problem with Christians is the same problem as the with the feminist. They don't look at it from all sides. Being a Christian is being a follower of Christ. This means doing what the Bible says to do, and not just doing what parts you want or do not want to do. Why do Christians and other people's ethics seem to waiver when they are put into a situation where their personal comfort is compromised.

So, what can we learn from this feminist that can be applied to our spiritual lives? I've learned that if we believe and especially if we label ourselves something that we shouldn't do anything to compromise that. When did situation ethics apply to Jesus and His calling on our lives? It doesn't! No matter the situation, no matter the comfort ability, no matter the issue, if you're a Christian act like it.

Don't we have enough hypocrites in our society? I don't want to spend one more second making my Savior look bad. If you're a feminist, then act like on no matter what. If you're a Christian, then act like one no matter what. God Rocks, Jtw

Wow this weekend

This weekend I was privileged enough to go to Virginia for homecoming at the awesome college that I recently graduated from. I had a plan of going to the football game and some other homecoming festivities, but as I've realized, my plans change a lot. I got there and spent some time with a lot of students. These were students I'd worked with in Va before moving to NC. So I spent the weekend with students, and friends. It was extremely awesome! It did make me realize a few things.

It made me realize that first that God loves me. I realized this because with all the crap that's been going on, to have lots of people come and want to love on you...it was incredible. Around NC i have my family. Other than that, not a lot of people just want to be around us. This is definitely different in Va. The begging people for us to come back lets us know that we're loved unconditionally.

Next it made me realize that God's given me exactly what I need. For years now my wife and I have been working with students. This weekend has made me realize that God's given me what I need to reach students. I didn't do anything but be myself and share what Christ did with the students in Va. It's funny how being real can effect so many people. All the latest things I read that people have realized that works is things we've been doing for years. Being real...it's an opening for God's words to pour out.

Lastly, I have recently been told that a few of the things that I wanted to do weren't needed in youth ministry. A lot of them were said to be wrong because they liked unity of the family and basically their own preferences. This weekend taught me they are wrong. I've seen my ideas in practice and a wonderful student that I got to spend the weekend with validated my ideas. We weren't talking about some of these things. She brought some of these things up in light of the reasons i was fired from my last church. She told me how these things work, and it's what people her age need. She completely validated my ideas and assumptions on the ministry. I thank God for her and His words to me through her.

This weekend was awesome. This was the weekend we were to take the last church's youth ministry up for Scaremare. It could have changed their lives. We were going to take them to the church we also served at before them. They could have seen some of my ideas in practice and a little of my vision. This didn't happen. It's sad when a simple preference of a pastor becomes a crusade to get his way. I pray that God reaches his heart.

If you were involved in this weekend and you read this, then I thank you for being God's love to me and Shannon. This weekend was great and just want I needed from God. Thank You!

Why do churches do revivals?

Why do churches do revivals? This is a question that came to mind today when a preacher mentioned it at a church I was visiting today. He said that the Lord's supper is a good introduction to a revival. I was kinda confused by this statement. He said some other stuff that was confusing too, but I'll get to those later in another blog.

Ok back to the revival thing. I've grew up in church since I was very young. I've been in many different kind of churches, but most of them have a revival in common. A revival for those that don't know is this. There is a few days (up to a week) where a service is done everyday. Usually a pastor from somewhere else comes in, preaches a whole series, and there is more time given for each day (usually no limit). A revival is used to create a fire under people's butts. That is it's intention, to put people on fire for God. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't

So the question is "why do churches do revivals?" Honestly I have no idea why churches do this. It's been my experience that mostly older people go to these and most people don't make it every night of this extended event. I once had a professor named Dr. Ergun Caner. He knows more about church history than I could ever learn. Once he talked to our class about revivals. He said that "no substantial revival has ever occurred that was not started amongst the students of that area." Holy Crap!! That means that revivals that change lives and history start with the passionate students. So why do churches use programs like a revival that targets the older people? Do they really think that if they schedule in a revival that God will jump on board and say yeah I'll show up on that day or during that week because you say so? That's stupid!

Churches use revivals to try and create passion amongst people who don't have it. As my wonderful wife put it, "they try to create that mountain top Camp experience, because they won't go to camp." Wouldn't it just be easier to go to camp? Sounds to easy. Makes you wonder why the pastor doesn't try to create or at least want to create this type of experience all year long!

Ok so what's the point? Well in a purpose driven society, what's the purpose of the revival? I believe that everything we do in ministry should have a point and should meet our goals in one form or another. This doesn't really fit in. If we use the idea behind the simple church we'd have to cut this out. If we use the purpose driven idea we'd cut this out. So why is it that so many churches refuse to cut this out. Is it because it works? Is it because they know a revival will do what they haven't been able to do during the year? No! They do this because they always have. That disgusts me.

Ok, so I probably won't make churches even think about dropping this most scared cow. So my next question is...why do we target the older people? Most pastors have been to seminary right? This means they've taken church history and have learned about all the great revivals. Surely they've learned they've all started with the students who have the passion and the guts to do it. Then why do they overlook this? Why do they just patronize students instead of using them? Do a revival that reaches out to this group. Get a service where the students come, bring people, and are real. Authenticity is key with students and there's a lot of churches out there that are more fake than most of the girls that Hugh Hefner hang out with.

Also, this shouldn't be a once a year thing. This should be a weekly thing. Sure it's going to take a lot more work. It's going to take a person who cares more about God than making people happy. It's going to take a daily revival in the people's lives to whom are going to create an environment that creates a revival in everyone else at least once a week.

Revival in most churches today isn't needed. It's directed at the wrong audience and used for the wrong reasons. Why can't people just rely on God and become real enough to be a revival daily? It's almost like a contest to whom can can get best speaker. Do they really think God's loving this tradition? The question is, how long will he allow this slap in the face from fake people?

Praise God for real people who want to have a daily revival with God at the center. It'll start with students. It always has started with students. Some pastor's have forgotten. God hasn't ever forgotten. Praise my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! God Rocks -- Jtw

When did God become an Excuse?

So, When did God become an excuse for doing what you want? Anyone who's worked in ministry or pays attention to news about people and religion know what I mean by this statement. It seems a lot in the past few years that people in religious leadership like to use God as an excuse to do whatever they want. They say things like "We're going to do this b/c we prayed about it," or something like " This s what God wants." These statements have been used to rationalize some of the most horrible things in history. I saw a news article recently talking about a so called "pastor" who thought it was ok for a father to marry his adolescent daughter because it was part of their religion. Holy Crap, what's up with that? How can God be used to say this is ok? Because God's become the excuse. Recently I was fired from a Job where I was excelling at that job. I was fired b/c they "prayed" about it first.

How can we stop this flagrant misuse of a Holy God? It's called accountability. This kind of thing occurs in places where we give one person way to much authority. When did God ever put a single person up on a pedestal? He didn't! The only person He ever gave major authority was Himself in human form, known as Jesus Christ. If the leadership was accountable to people who walk with God daily, then less little problems like this will arise. Where people stop, think, and talk, ideas outside that of God's word start to become evident.

PLEASE for the love of God, stop using God as an excuse. Why do we feel the need to say that God has said something that you know He didn't? I think it's because no one can argue. The people that say these things know that God isn't going to just come down and confront you in public over the stupid thing you just said that He said. It's only an amount of time before you'll have to answer for what you've said. In this life or the next you'll answer for it.

Start actually praying, looking for God's leading, and do that. Regardless of what God's leading is, do that! You've got to be ready to do thing you don't want to if you're going to do God's will. It's not always the easy thing, but it's always the right thing. The right thing also isn't always what we want. Remember that the next time you're going to want to do something just because it's convenient or want to get rid of someone because you're jealous. Remember that it may not be what God wants just because you want it.

What God wants is perfect. Why do we think that just because we want it that God will in turn want it as well? How selfish our sin must be.

Now we must wait for change...God Rocks!! Jtw

Post-Emergent Church Movement

Recently I've spending a lot of time thinking about the church. I've been to community churches, independent, southern baptist, Pentecostal, and especially dead ones. They all have their issues, whether it's leadership or doctrine, they all do have major issues.

Today I was reading online about this movement called the Post-Emergent Church Movement. Here read for yourself: http://crosebrough.typepad.com/postemergent/about_postemergent/index.html

I've spent a lot of time recently in churches that are not emergent, and I'd say that I like emergent much better. The worship is real and they definitely show God's love. The problem is that they don't go deep. They have very surface level theology, and honestly I hate that. This is where the Post-Emergent comes in.

The Post-Emergent is a movement where you take the authenticity of the people in the emergent church and returns to the authority of the Bible and where it stands. Many churches, especially that reject the emergent, do things because they've always done them. The problem with this is they are fake. People do stuff they don't know about and no one is real. This is evident because they live out of boxes. When they're at work they act one way, when at church another way, and even at Wal-mart they act a whole different way. When did Jesus call us to be Christians only at church? He didn't and I hope that churches that are this fake will wake up before they completely die and leave the area they are in without a light.

A few things that i hope die with this Post-Emergent Church Movement is the emergent church's way of arguing over things that really have no answer, and the decision that tolerance is the best way to reach people.
Why argue? I don't understand why argue about something until you come to the point where neither of you want to talk to each other anymore. Why can't we agree to disagree and agree that we both have valid points that we both don't agree with.
What's up with Tolerance? Ok, I agree that we should listen to other people's opinions, I'm saying that when it comes to what Christ said we shouldn't be tolerant. Jesus was very hard on sin, not the sinner. I can be very honest with someone about their sin, and still show them love. Let's return to that sort of stuff.

I can definitely see the pros and cons of this movement. Only time will tell if this movement will catch on. I believe that it will. I believe it will because a few words are key: Authenticity, Transparency, Love, Honesty, Trust, and most importantly Christ. These are things that define a person's life, a Community's atmosphere, a generation's impact, so why shouldn't they be things that signify a church?

It's gonna be awesome if this becomes a movement that produces churches that reflect these 6 things evenly. And, above that, that the people of these churches create in their own lives these 6 things for everyone to see. No boxes just open space.

God Rocks,
Josh