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Faith General Virginia Tech

This rollercoaster we call life

Rollercoaster photo by SXC.hu user cmx82It’s been one heck of a month for me. I’m in that bittersweet stage where I’m both very glad that my education is almost over while at the same time not wanting to be done.

The week leading up to vtONE was a rollercoaster all by itself. There was so much still to be done going into that week, and we had no idea how to get it all done. God delivered, but was teaching us patience in the process. Saturday night was powerful beyond words. The Holy Spirit was all over Commonwealth Ballroom, and I’m praying that the fire from that night will never be extinguished. The fire has already been contagious–our anointed band has been invited to play at New River Community College because of the fire of God they saw at Virginia Tech this weekend.

God has been faithful in helping me to be productive and get all my work done. Work didn’t bother me at all during the vtONE lead up week. Now, I have all but one of this week’s assignments done. I didn’t expect to be done so fast, and I know that my productivity was a gift from God for some specific reasons. Last night, Tim’s father passed away unexpectedly, and I have been able to dedicate time that I didn’t expect to have (was expecting to be doing classwork) to being there for Tim.

Another way that God was with me during vtONE was by not letting my allergies get into the way. I didn’t have any significant allergy trouble before the worship event, even though the pollen levels were high. This week, I’ve had trouble sleeping, my head feels weird, and I sound like a cow in pain when I attempt to sing. I’m used to being like this in allergy season, so it was a huge relief to get through the vtONE event without feeling anything.

The original house I made an offer on fell through, but I have some more leads on potential houses and house-related stuff. I was feeling somewhat uncertain about moving forward this weekend, but my wise counsel seems to all be in agreement that it’s a good thing for me to do. My hesitation all revolves around on the fact that I’m really not sure where God wants me to be and what I should be doing. I’ve loved almost every minute of my time leading vtONE, whether things were going good or bad, and I don’t want my graduation to mark the end of my ministry. I’m praying about what comes next in my ministry life, but have been getting more questions than answers. And that’s why I’m thankful that I have a great job lined up, since not knowing what to do and being broke would be a bad combination.

I will bless the Lord who guides me;
     even at night my heart instructs me.
I know the Lord is always with me.
     I will not be shaken, for he is right beside me.

No wonder my heart is glad, and I rejoice.
     My body rests in safety.
For you will not leave my soul among the dead
     or allow your holy one to rot in the grave.
You will show me the way of life,
     granting me the joy of your presence
     and the pleasures of living with you forever.

Psalm 18:7-11

Categories
Faith Work

A crazy month!

It’s been a crazy month for me. I’ve accepted a full time position with Digital Sandbox as a project engineer. I helped the company move to McLean, VA. I’m looking for a house (I’m most interested in one in Reston), and am currently applying for loans.

We’re also 10 days out from vtONE (updates will be on vt-one.com). I’m very excited about this event. As a leadership team, we’ve risked a lot with this event. We’re stretching ourselves beyond what we can do, and believing that God will deliver. After all, if we could change Virginia Tech through our own human effort, why bother with God? We want this event to be completely about what God is doing, and not at all about us. We’re praying that this night (March 31) would rock peoples world for the glory of God. With 10+% of the campus active Christians, it should look different. And we’re believing that God wants to start making the change with us. I would covet your prayers for this upcoming event.

Once we get past these next two weeks, I’m hoping to return to a more normal blogging schedule. I’ve been stretched thin in the areas that tend to make me want to blog, and so this blog has been short changed.

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Faith

Green pastures by way of death valley

A post from History in the Making:

It’s tempting as a pastor to lead people on a comfortable path. Ahh, the love and appreciation you get. No one leaves the church. But it’s ultimately not the route God wants us to take. God doesn’t just lead us to green pastures. He leads us to green pastures through death valley. Take Psalm 23:

“He leads me beside still waters…. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death

“You prepare a table before me…. in the presence of my enemies

If the church stays comfortable, it misses those God-moments that make the church a supernatural experience. A pastor said yesterday, “There were easier routes the Israelites could have taken out of Egypt. But they would missed the parting of the Red Sea.”

Categories
Faith

Passion 07

Passion 07: Last main session in the Philips ArenaI got back from Passion 07 last Thursday, but haven’t blogged about it yet. I came down with a cold Friday night that’s still with me, so I’ve accomplished a lot less than I’d like in the past few days. At Passion this year, there were over 22,000 college students in Atlanta for four days devoted to God’s glory. There were three highlights of this year’s conference:

  1. Passion 07: My family groupMy family group – last year, I didn’t connect well with my family group. I was one of two guys, and every time we saw each other, I think we ended up talking about eating disorders. This time around, I had an excellent family group, where we were open and relevant to each other. I want to keep in touch with these guys! Thanks Daniel (x 3), Hunter, Gennie, and Julie. Oh yeah, I also still have a long way to go on humility.
  2. Being personally challenged – I learned that I need to risk more for the cause of Christ. Especially in the areas of my image and my finances. And I thought that I had things in order in those areas. Interestingly enough, the speaker that connected with me and challenged me the most this year was John Piper, especially in his breakout session. I say that’s interesting, since I haven’t previously been a huge Piper fan.
  3. Passion 07: Worship in the Georgia World Congress Center ArenaDo Something Now – we wanted to impact the world as a result of these four days. When I first saw the partial list of do something now causes, I thought they were impossible goals. But with God all things are possible. We didn’t meet every goal–we exceeded every goal, usually to the largest extent possible. See the official blog post about the results here.

Everything in the conference was top notch, but the specifics are irrelevant. What matters is that God was glorified, and his glory is going to become more prominent shining through the world as a result of these four days. Especially cool was the arrive in silence Passion 07: Candlelight vigiloutdoor candlelight vigil on the last night. Cool to be worshiping God late at night in the heart of the city.

My prayer for myself and everyone who was at Passion is to not let this be a spiritual high, but to let it be a spiritual turning point–a time when God spoke to us both as a generation and as individuals. Let’s get out there and let his lite shine.

You can also check out my Passion 07 pictures in the gallery.

Categories
Faith General Sports

Chick-Fil-A Bowl, Atlanta, and Passion 07

The past few days I’ve been in Atlanta.  I drove in on Saturday with Chris for the Chick-Fil-A Bowl, formerly the Peach Bowl.  Unfortunately, our Hokies continued their bowl game tradition of choking.  Still, the game was exciting and well worth attending.

After the game, we headed to Sno’s aunt’s compound for the night.  It’s quite a house, complete with a room designed by Hildy from Trading Spaces.

We’ve done some sightseeing in Atlanta and are currently at Passion 07.  I’m on free wifi during dinner, so I can’t post much now, but I’ll share more once I get back in a few days.

Categories
Faith Music

Go vote for Crowder over at MSN music

David CrowderLike David Crowder * Band? Then go vote for them over at MSN music. You know you want to.

Categories
Faith General Music Work

Break, Week 1

It’s been more than a week since classes ended. Well, actually, I have an assignment that I need to do sometime this week for one of last semester’s classes (long story), but I’ve enjoyed my week off. Several highlights from this week:

  • SnowshoeSnowshoe – The conditions were the worst I’d ever seen at Snowshoe (only about half open as well), but it was still a blast. Drove up in the morning from Blacksburg, tore up the slopes all day on my board, drove to Washington in the afternoon/evening. I left Snowshoe a little earlier than originally planned because the powder had blown away, revealing ice from their unseasonably warm temperatures and melting/refreezing.

    My trip back took me through Cass, WV (5 miles from Snowshoe–the whole town is a historic park) and also past the Green Bank Radio Telescopefifty story tall Green Bank Radio Telescope (which is the reason cell phones don’t work at Snowshoe–it’s in the national radio quiet zone). Some day, I want to visit both these places. Also saw a beautiful sunset in the Virginia mountains. I even made it to the interstate just as it was getting dark, which made the trip much more enjoyable. I love back roads, but not in the dark.

  • Total Praise gospel song at Frontline – Total Praise is the Frontline choir. On Sunday, they helped lead worship and did an awesome Kirk Franklin gospel song (Now Behold the Lamb). The song was perfect gospel stylistically, the best I’ve ever seen for a choir that doesn’t usually do gospel and doesn’t have many black members.
  • Digital Sandbox – Good to spend four days back with the peeps at Digital Sandbox. Being near to Christmas, the commute wasn’t that bad most mornings. The office is moving closer in come March. I eventually would like to live very close to Washington–perhaps in Arlington, so closer in is good for me.

    National Tree with the White House

  • National Christmas Tree – Monday night, my family took my mom’s parents and sister downtown to see the national tree. Even at night, it was over 50 degrees, which made it one of the most fun times of seeing the tree that I can remember. Although the Yule log isn’t quite as fun when it’s warm out.
  • Annual Cookie Baking – Today was the day of the annual Poch family Rosette making outsidecookie baking. We made molasses cookies a few days ago and today made several batches of cutout sugar cookies and also rosettes. Well, I made most of the rosettes, which we made outside on a little burner to keep the mess out of the kitchen.

Tomorrow, we start the family celebrations mid-afternoon, which will go until Christmas night. Then, a few quieter days with the family, some more celebrations, some shopping, and I’m off to Atlanta for the Peach Bowl (Go Hokies!) and Passion 07.

Categories
Faith Politics

Stolen post: I can’t believe they wrapped Jesus in an American flag

Jesus flagThis is one of the best political posts I’ve read in a long time.

Courtesy of History in the Making.

I can’t tell you how many e-mails I got before Tuesday about the Christian values at stake in this election. The calls to prayer… the passionate pleas to mobilize our congregation… I haven’t heard from those people since.

This is a dangerous post for me to write, but I think it might be good for us to be ‘losers’ in the political arena for a while…

…Just in case we got the idea we could legislate our way to a transformed culture. ~ Just in case we aligned the church with a particular political party. ~ Just in case we mistook the USA for that city shining on a hill… rather than the Church of Jesus Christ.

I’m afraid people have associated the movement of Christ a little too closely with a political agenda. And it’s killing the church. It would be highly beneficial in our ‘Daily-Show-culture’ for us to be stripped of any political influence until we can learn to rely on Christ for cultural transformation. We cannot legislate our way to a revival.

Categories
Faith

First night at the prayer room

Prayer RoomToday, we officially opened the vtONE Prayer Room. The first half hour served as our time to dedicate the room to prayer. We had nine people (about the limit of what the prayer room can hold) come to the dedication. I’m excited about the prayer room and how God is going to use this place to impact Virginia Tech.

God has big things in store for our campus, but we’re not going to see big things happen here unless we are asking for them and believing that God will deliver. Let’s dare to imagine a day when the entire campus is part of God’s kingdom.

Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.
Ephesians 3:20-21 (NLT)

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Faith General Resources of Note

Update to podcasts index

A little while ago when I made a list of podcasts I listen to, I had two podcasts on my wish list.  Well, it seems that John McGowan has pulled together a podcast of his Gathering messages.  The first one is up now, but I haven’t had the opportunity to check it out yet.  This podcast is bound to become one of my must listens, so I feel safe recommending it before trying it out.
Podcast link