doc, i know i'm here but i gotta go back to the future

i have been working on this church model that is designed after a few scriptures but one in particular is the one in revelation when jesus says "behold i stand at the door and knock, whoever hears my voice and opens the door i will come in to him and dine with him and he with me." this scripture to me is the classic case of meeting someone's need. the american culture is centered around the table. it doesn't take someone very long to find out how much the u.s. loves its food. the key component of this model is the fellowship aspect, or the dine aspect. when i was in belgium talking with adam mccain he had mentioned this new mcdonalds in ft. worth. he asked if we had heard of it, "it can hold 10,000 people, has 200 registers and feeds a billion people in this one location on a weekly basis." i looked at allyster and we glanced back and forth in shock that we hadn't even heard of this. "no" we replied, "we haven't." adam said "that is because it DOES NOT exist." mcdonalds doesn't try and bring in millions to one location, they spread there stores out broadly over a metroplex in order to feed the people where they are. what a concept! of course i am confident this has been tried and talked about, maybe even packaged up and sold for young pastors seeking revolution in their cities. these are all good motivations but one thing i know lacks in a lot of people is the willingness to DO anything about their motivation. i could read all the books in every christian bookstore and i still would not have made a dent in the kingdom. i would have gained insight and knowledge but is that what jesus has displayed in the word, to gain insight, and knowledge? this model i am speaking of has been in my mind for a while and the vision gets brighter and brighter. when it is in completion i will reveal it but it isn't anything new or huge outside of scripture. allyster reminded me of a scripture last night when we were at his small group in acts chapter 8 verse 3. it says saul began ravaging the church, entering house after house, and dragging off men AND women, he would put them into prison. i am not gonna say anymore after that cause i feel i have given away too much already for this idea, which again, is not the answer to the postmodern movement, but a vision the lord has been showing me in bits and pieces. i actually wanted to talk about belgium and show pics. but i know what god is showing me now i will operate in HERE and in anywhere else in the future.

this happened the moment we made it to kris' house. i know, i know you are NOT supposed to do this, but hey, come on,  i think we needed it, because of the week we were about to endure, in retrospect.

this was the wonderful facility's front side. the belly of this beast was not as appealing as the outer garments.

got stairs? we had our plenty. thats the floor, down there five flights. it was a great workout, EVERYDAY.

our room was quaint to say the least. as americans we brought the usual, his and hers ipods and an ipod touch for our movie entertainment on the "late night no sleep occasions." but we never expected there to be any kids on our level. but there were going to be so we were told to not hide our ipods but LOCK them up in someone's car, everyday. this meant getting them out and making sure one of us was getting them locked up and brought back to the room. needless to say it was an added task i wasn't expecting.

our workshop had the most people in it by far and i was not expecting to have a workshop in the first place but was very honored to share even though i needed a translator. this is the workshop where we were sharing on worship and the power that is in worship. nathan shared after i did, and jon shared after nathan, and it was just an awesome experience to share on something i love doing.

this was our house of prayer set up. our location was called the "holy lounge" and we had the place almost completely dark with the exception of a lot of candles in front of our location, as you can barely see here. it was great though cause it was mostly ambient worship. we played a song that i had written and arranged and was glad to have that ready. this idea is really new to the belgian youth but something i hope i can help contribute in developing over the coming years. 

this was the main stage and us worshiping with the gateways team. something i was glad to do as they played mostly songs i was familiar with. not that i didn't enjoy brian or the others but it is good to know the people you are playing with. this conference went all out with lights and smoke and a bunch of stuff.

this is me with the gateways team again, i think. its blurry cause of 2 reasons, one, the lighting, and two, i am moving so dang fast. no i wasn't doing much but i do come alive in worship if i feel the moment.

this other stuff here is just the life.