beautiful beauvais

a few weeks ago i had the privilege of teaching a worship seminar and doing a night of worship as renaissance accepted the invitation. this was an exciting opportunity because it came out of being apart of another ministry event earlier in the year. so the word is catching on about what god has given us to impart to the church here in europe.

beauvais, france is a beautiful place that boasts to being home of one of the largest cathedrals in europe. beautiful city, land, and hospitable people are but some of the things you can expect upon landing in this city. we trekked out after allyster got off work at nearly 10:00pm on a friday night. the conditions were very well suitable for a long distance journey. danny lankenau served as my co-pilot as the back seats were filled with liz, my boys, maeva, laetitia, and allyster. a few red bulls were the aid in alertness for the night.

we arrived safe and sound with little time to sleep before having to begin the all-day seminar the next day. the teaching and instruction went smoothly. i taught along with allyster and laetitia. the subject was songwriting and it proved successful upon completion.

one lady had written a song and we performed it that night in worship as a testimony to the workshop earlier in the day. it was a wonderfully well-constructed french song that she wrote in nearly 2 hrs. the response was wonderful and you could see how god was imparting vision for french worship to those in attendance. we felt satisfied with our work and left with a passion to come back and do more ministry in beauvais. however, this wasn’t even the best of the news.

we had received an update from the organizer of the event. on the night of worship we had the opportunity to prophecy and speak in one of the leaders of the church. he wasn’t a pastor but was looked at for leadership. i am excited to report that after the blessing and prophetic words were spoken over him he has been given an opportunity to pastor the church in which we had the seminar! he is now walking in such wonderful agreement with the words that were spoken over him. those that made him pastor were not even in attendance that night.

but this is not all...

the young people in attendance on the night of worship were filled with such passion that they have began meeting since we left. they are hungry for revival in beauvais! think about it, a group of young people who did not have a pastor, all received a desire to unify and submit themselves under leadership for the sake of growing in their commitment to the Lord and building his kingdom! god is so good!

keep praying for his name to be great in europe.

i'm loving this

paris has become quite a place of opportunity. this last weekend the opportunity expanded even further. connecting with jeff slaughter here in brussels we were invited to participate in a converge event.

converge is a worship teaching seminar. leading worship, teaching song writing, leading band members in practical aspects of worship, and fellowship are just some of the things that make up these wonderful all day meetings.

we held the event at assemblée chrétienne du bon berger. the turnout was fantastic with nearly 80 people in attendance. allyster and laetitia held a songwriters workshop while danny lankenau and myself took care of the band workshop. it was such a wonderful opportunity to teach the band practical ways of serving their worship leader and imparting just a few ideas on how they could make the worship less about them and more about leading people.

the day was packed from 9 in the morning til 11 in the night. with no room really to rest or have an official reflection on the days activities. the next day we kept it in high gear as we served the local church of the bridge in paris.

the bridge is an international church that meets in a hotel. this 75+ community was such a great experience for our team. meeting new faces and joining with people who literally are from around the world under one roof. one guy i met, named chris, is from australia, married a swedish woman and has a coffee shop in downtown paris! talk about reaching the world in one discussion. i was really impacted by the servants in this church. the situation of the church requires that they set up hours before and tear down moments after the completion of the service. it is not a job for those who are lacking commitment.

after a wonderful chipotle experience we headed home. thankfully we arrived home early enough to gain a great night of sleep. the next day was right back to the grind. meeting with a german pastor who is married to a dutch woman in antwerp. he has a heart to unite the churches in antwerp and it is a massive undertaking. he has connected with me and my friend here helping with the summons discipleship school. he has such a big vision for this, i can't say no to help him.

god is doing some amazing things in europe!
keep praying,
keep supporting, and
keep looking for what god is doing.

have this attitude

i can't get over how great the participation was at the conference this last week. nathan, jon, and i went to be consultants in sound and lighting at the masters commission conference in rome and there was such an amazing testimony to how humility crushes religion.

upon arriving in rome, we were told that the main auditorium would not be available for us to use. instead, we were to use a smaller room down below the main room. this was not what was previously arranged, but we humbly said ok we can do that.

upon seeing the lighting rig that was being brought in the pastor told us that he was going to invite his board/elders to the first night and if we did anything "inappropriate" we would not be able to continue our conference at his facility. we heard the word "disco-tech" peppered throughout the conversation (in italian). we said ok we will not go overboard.

we were told that we could not play any music that would prompt people to want to dance before the service and after. we said ok we will not play that music.

we were told that our original plan to set up on tuesday night was not possible because they had a service in our meeting room (which they failed to inform us) and that we could not set up until the day of the conference, which gave us very little time. thankfully we were experienced in flexibility and moments of little to no time for set-up. we said ok we can do that.

the night of the conference opening, the church had a service in their main auditorium and they started at 7:30pm. we were told we could not start until they were done and we had to be finished by 10pm. we knew this was next to impossible but our response did not echo our frustration and instead we honored his request.

much of what we were brought in to the conference to do was now almost completely diminished. we felt handcuffed in doing anything with a "spirit of excellence." but we knew that we wanted and needed to respect the pastor and his authority.

with the tension of the elders and the board all there the opening night what better way to show our frustration then to publicly from the microphone request all the students to show their support for the pastor by thanking him with applause for allowing us to be there and use his 50 million euro facility. we brought them up before the service started and honored him in front of everyone in attendance. the worship began, the praise resounded, the prayers were loud, and the hearts of 150 young men and women gave a beautiful illustration of the next generations hunger for the living god. so what were we going to hear the next morning from the pastor...

a humbling apology for his attitude towards the whole project. he genuinely felt terrible and apologized not once, not twice, but many times over the course of the next few days. he even told his staff to stop bothering him with every little thing they thought inappropriate and gave us full permission to do "whatever we wanted" throughout the remainder of the conference. in fact, after the first night he and his elders were taking pictures and asking for the contact information for the lighting company that rented us the gear. i had asked the guys who brought the equipment if they had ever rented this stuff to a church and they said "no." consequently, now, there is a connection with them that i know will re-shape a perspective of how church can be done on both fronts. it blows my mind what humility can accomplish. completely opposite to what the flesh says should be done about meeting opposition. i am still on this wonderful high of god's amazing good news which is all about humility.

philippians 2:3-5 says this...

do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each one of you regard one another as more important than himself; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also the interests of others. have this attitude in yourselves which was also in christ jesus...

the responsibility

i am currently reading a book entitled christianity and liberalism. the book offers a clear picture of the ideas that are beginning to form in the modern church, and even our current state of "church". this book was written in 1921 by j. gresham machen. even in that day there were men who recognized a shifting tide in the doctrine of what previous centuries had always been made a standard of the local church. he speaks to this shift and calls it "modern liberalism." it has taken me a while to get through it because i have been actively engaged in it while highlighting to be sure and not miss out on revelation. here is one of the most recent highlights that struck a chord in my heart:

the christian way of salvation is narrow only so long as the church chooses to let it remain narrow. the name of jesus is strangely adapted to men of every race and of every kind of previous education. and the church has ample means, with promise of god's spirit, to bring the name of jesus to all. if therefore, this name of salvation is not offered to all, it is not the fault of salvation itself, but the fault of those who fail to use the means that god has placed in their hands.

i think this struck me so hard because i am living in a country where christianity has painted the landscape so many times, the canvas is completely raw and beginning to tear (if not already torn). it has been preached and preached again. the pervasive spirit of the anti-christ has made a rubble of the divine marriage. certainly this is not the case amongst all the communities of faith. i love that god has entrusted me with a responsibility that runs deeper than my immediate family and it overflows into the community. like a pot that is filled to the brim with the cleansing and rejuvenating water of the word his spirit boils me causing it to splash all around me.

get filled with the word

pray with fervency for the spirit to boil your pot

splash on your community the riches of the personal impression the most personal god has given you

standing in prayer

we (9th hr) received an invitation to attend a prayer rally in liége belgium. nathan and i had been there before to give some exhortations and prophetic words so i kind of had an expectation as to what we might expect. but the other guys...i wondered what they might be thinking this would turn out to be.

anytime i am invited to a prayer rally my mind begins at that moment to wonder what kind of individual this is inviting me. if i have not known the person very long i may deduce that this person is either desperate for anyone to attend the rally, or they generally don't care who shows up because i mean hey, its a prayer rally! who cares if your a catholic, baptist, methodist, lutheran, or even muslim. maybe this person is just a gatherer and knows that there is power in numbers. whatever the case, at times, i am taken back by someone i barely know asking me to come to their prayer rally. like a party, i wouldn't invite just anyone. i would invite people who i think care about me or that particular individual the party might be for. that is just me though.

one of the biggest causes for this thought is that awkward setting at a prayer rally when no one actually is engaged in prayer. like if i had a ticket to see the rangers in their world series run and i am just sitting there in my chair not doing anything to show i am into the rangers and their opportunity. i want to just make a note here and say that this did NOT happen last night but has been something i feel for any prayer setting. i really dislike "warm body" prayer meetings.

there is always a challenge in me when i go to prayer meetings that haven't had a designated focus and there is quiet somber atmosphere. i begin to think to myself, "what if i shouted out something, would that freak anyone out?" or, "what if i started to jump around people, would that distract anyone?" ahhhhh, just thinking about it makes my blood start to rush! i always, i repeat ALWAYS feel that challenge. i know i am a take the spotlight, center stage, class clown kind of guy so most of the time i know it is for the sake of getting attention that i would do this. but, i promise, as soon as i find a great way to connect this absurd sequence of events with a sleeping generation or a heart that needs to be awakened type of exhortation i will do it. there are individuals who have a calling for intercession and a life devoted to a "praying without ceasing" mentality. don't hear that as one who does nothing but pray. that is stupid to think that the spirit would draw us to pray and not prophecy, or pray and not sow seeds of the gospel (even the seed of intercession) unto others.

i am ok with admitting that i struggle with prayer rallies unless i am doing something to occupy my time (like playing music, or the watch leader). so when i preach that prayer meetings are sometimes boring, i am mostly challenging myself. i know it is the lord when i go into a prayer meeting and i feel stirred to stir myself.