Sabbathing

"For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy."

- Exodus 20:11

A priority that we agreed on for this year was to be intentional about having a Sabbath. Honoring the Sabbath is not an option in the Bible and so it should not be so in our own lives. It's been said that you will accomplish more in six days with a day of rest than you would in seven with no rest. It should be painfully obvious to us but in a culture that never sleeps, we can find ourselves going weeks without really finding the time to take the rest that we need or to praise God for who he is.

Aimee's Craft Sabbath
For Aimee, she rests best when releasing her creativity through various crafts. Felting, crocheting, decorating, or various other things that you might find in a Martha Stewart magazine, that stuff rejuvenates her. She's inviting other girls to join her every other week. This way, she can share her gifts, be intentional with girls and yet still guard herself to not have a commitment each week. There is no agenda but to enjoy each other's company and rest together.

Disc Golf Sundays
Thanks to my wife's genius move, I found myself wanting to do something similar. A goal of mine is to be more active this year. To mesh the two ideas, I have been gathering guys to go play disc golf. To play a full 18 is comparable to how long it takes the girls to craft. It's been a great way to casually get a bunch of guys together from across The Rock and to just have fun. Minus me potentially getting poison ivy from our last outing, it has been a refreshing and great way to connect with other guys.

Time to Decide Event

This post is mostly going to be about giving kudos to a group of young men in our church who decided that it was time to have a conversation about one of our biggest taboos: sexual immorality among men in the church. Over our LT program last summer, they were involved in a workshop that covered the topic and closely followed the book, Every Man's Battle.

About a month ago, I was approached by John, the student who would lead the effort, to see if I would like to be part of a Friday night event that would bring sexual immorality to light. I said I would love to. Thus began a crafting of what became "Time to Decide", an event that we pulled off last Friday.

Here is a description of the purpose we crafted:

"The Rock will be hosting an event specifically for guys to encourage open conversation on the issue of lust, to become more unified as a church against the issue, and to give us hope in our fight for purity. We want to bring the issue into the light and create an atmosphere of vulnerability and give people other men to talk to about the subject in the church."

As we crowded into the Fellowship Hall at a local church building and finished pizza, there was a feeling of nervousness yet a sense of comfort that I think was a testimony to the safe place for honesty that we try to push in The Rock. The topic of the night was on lust as it relates to pornography and masturbation. We had a series of brief presentations covering: God's standard of sexual purity, motivations for pursuing purity, personal testimonies and practical strategies for fleeing from sexual immorality. We had a time to break into smaller groups and share our personal battles for purity. Finally, I lead a group discussion on placing concrete safeguards to avoid vulnerable situations. I loved it.

Joining these four guys in an effort to begin this conversation in the church was something pretty special to be a part of. Please pray that it does not end there. Lust is the unspoken epidemic among men in the church and it has taken out so many. Pray that our guys would step up and put this sin to death. Pray that they would flee sexual immortality and pursue righteousness.

Men's Study

This summer the men in our church are going through a study by Erwin McManus called "Chasing Daylight". Fellow missionary/ staffer Chad Clooten is leading the 10-week study with roughly 12-15 other men who are around Columbia this summer. The focus of the study seems to be on embracing each moment as we follow the life of Jonathan. It should be a great tool to help us embrace where we are and ruthlessly follow God's plan for us.

We had a really good first night as we adjusted to this new type of ministry for The Rock. To my knowledge, we've never had a men's study that includes a DVD teaching and workbook, so it's kind of an experiment for us as well. As I looked around the room I realized that I knew all of the men there but I wasn't so sure that they knew each other very well. I'm looking forward to seeing relationships begin and deepen as we open up our dreams that God has put on our hearts to one another.

Please be praying for our times on Monday nights. I have a deep passion for the men of the church to rise up and take their role as spiritual leaders. Pray that we would begin our stride in following more intimately with the Lord and this will happen naturally.

Core Group

Our pockets of community start with Canvas Groups, which consist of about 15-30 people, divided up roughly geographically on campus. We meet a couple times a month for discussion/ bible study/ teaching time and throughout each week we may have prayer nights, hang out times, or other things going on. Within Canvas Groups, we have what are called Core Groups. These are guys' and girls' small groups of about 3-5 students. We meet and talk about life, study Scripture, meeting the needs and challenging students in a more personal way than even Canvas Groups can touch on.

I love Core Groups. I've had great experiences with them in the past and have made deep friendships with some young men because of them. Three of my groomsmen were all in the first core group I led back in 2006. There is a reason we call them core groups - they are at the very crux of where canvas group relationships deepen. I would like to introduce to you all the three other guys in my Core Group this year.

Andrew Schulz is probably my closest guy friend here in Columbia and has been for a couple of years now. Andrew graduates in December and will be working full-time at a local bank until May when he plans to begin raising support to go on staff with The Rock. He leads our music ministry team and is one of the most encouraging and energetic guys I know. Our weddings were one week apart and we were groomsmen in each others'. He has a real passion for foreign missions, encouraging people and worshiping through music, as well as Starcraft, spreadsheets and The Office. We are co-leading core group and I am going to be challenging him hard this semester with this role.

Jon Chambers has been playing guitar in our music team for a couple of years, but hadn't been involved in community to any other extent until this semester. Realizing that we live in the same apartment complex (our buildings actually share a courtyard) I thought it only natural to invite him to Canvas Group. A very personal guy, Jon was eager to get involved and has since been coming regularly. It's been great beginning to get to know him and I'm even starting to see some issues creep up that I think have been dormant for a while. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens with him.

Ross Wood, the youngest of the group. He's a sophomore with a lot of energy, a love for video games and driving fast. He's a transfer student and is a very social guy. During our first get together, he told us that he has never been committed to a consistent group of guys who want to go deeper in their faith. He is definitely another guy who I am hoping to build into and see challenged to see himself as a man of God.

Please be praying for our group this semester. I am really hoping to get to know these guys and see them encouraged and challenged in their faith. In Core Group we will be studying Scripture, grabbing a meal, talking about past hurts, wrestle with challenging questions or just goofing around some days. In the midst of our spending time together, pray that God is at work in our hearts and among each other.

Guys' Night of Fellowship

"As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another."

proverb 27.17

Last Friday, about twenty of us guys from The Rock spent a night camping at a place north of town called Pinnacles Youth Park. It's a spectacular place to camp. Though typically they only allow youth groups to stay the night, since we were close enough to a youth group, they let us stay there.

One of my closest and oldest friends since living in Columbia, Randy, was the major organizer of the trip. The week prior to the night, he, Andrew, Jeff and I got together at Memorial Union on campus to plan a much-needed night of intentional guys' fellowship. We wanted to do something manly (camping), to involve guys across The Rock, to have it be spread word of mouth and to have intentional conversation about being men of God. And thus GNOF, or Guys' Night of Fellowship was conceived.

The night started off with roasting hot dogs, building a big fire and doing some night hiking (since it gets dark so early now). I got to know a few freshmen guys who I haven't met with. I also had some great conversation with some of my other friends about life, challenges, joys and how God was working through situations.

Later on, after hiking had ceased, marshmallows had been toasted, things were dying down and midnight was approaching, we had a time of worship around the fire. No kum-ba-yah but we did sing songs and had a time of prayer. Randy then led us in a conversation about what it means to be a man of God. It was great to see young men talking about their struggles, encourage one another in their faith and get their minds set on what is most important in life. I was truly encouraged.We all slept under the start since it was a clear, 50-degree night. I stayed up until 3:30am visiting with the guys around me about life.

When morning came, we packed up and headed back into town. I was deeply encouraged from the night and, like Randy himself said, hopefully this is just the event to get the ball rolling for more nights like GNOF and even bigger and better things.