Wednesday Night

I completely forgot to tell you guys about this week's service! We had something like 33 wednesday night (not counting women and children... that's for you Andrew). No, actually we had about 33 youth, not including adults- the largest youth service I've seen at Master's. I know that numbers don't mean squat if God isn't moving, but numbers do show that these youth are excited about coming to church, so excited that they want their friends to be there with them. And on top of that, God is moving! The girls really made a great showing wednesday night and outnumbed the guys 2:1 and it's really awesome that God brought so many girls to the service- the message was on Deborah and Jael. Marc is doing a series on Judges called "Judge This"... I think that's what it's called... anyway, wednesday we talked about how God used Deborah to bring victory over Jabin's army and Jael to kill Sisera, the general of said army. (Jael drove a tent peg through Sisera's head and into the ground, remember?) Marc did a great job of conveying the message of "God can use you, no matter who you are" and even tied it seemlessly into the gospel at the end. That's one of my favorite things about these services- you will always hear the gospel. No matter what the rest of the message is about, it all boils down to the gospel of Jesus Christ. The simple yet profound truth that "God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8
God is really moving through these wednesday night services and I'm ecstatic and very humbled to be a part ot it.

A Motley Crew

Here's the youth. Oh, and the bearded one in the back isn't a youth, that's Brad. Brad plays bass with me on wednesday nights. This particular collection of youth (this picture doesn't quite include the entire group) went to the Power of One Conference in Pigeon Forge a couple of weekends ago... I love these guys!

It seems that some clarification is in order

Due to a small amount of confusion in my recent change of churches, I feel the need to explain myself a little better. I made the move to Master's Church (by the way, Mary Beth and I joined yesterday) not in order to pursure a job, but because it's where I felt God was calling me. I am not the youth minister or music minister, but I felt God calling me to serve in those ministries at Master's Church. God has called Mary Beth and I to be there so that we can work closer with the youth and develop closer relationships with them by simply being around more. And no, I am not getting paid.
I'm sorry for any confusion that my leaving caused. I guess I didn't make it clear enough whenever I explained the situation.
On another note, I'm starting to play piano a lot more... I really missed it.

First time for everything...

So tonight was my first time speaking in front of a youth group. Marc asked me a few weeks ago if I wanted to preach one night so I took him up on the offer and spoke on the gospel tonight. I was quite nervous since it was my first time. I mean, I spoke in front of FCA pretty much every week my last two years of high school and led some short devotions, but this was my first time with an entire message. Having such an important message to share, I didn't want to be destracting with my own ill-preparation and I definitely didn't want to say anything false. I really just wanted God to completely take over tonight and that's exactly what happened. As soon as I started talking I knew that the Holy Spirit was definitely working in the room and that God was doing some very big things in the hearts of the youth. Although no public decisions were made tonight, it was obvious that they were turning everything over in their heads as they listened. I pray that the message shared tonight will act as another seed that God uses to bring His people to Him.

For everything there is a season

"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace." Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

God, through His divine and soverign will, has had the entire course of history planned out since before the beginning of time. There is a time for every thing to come to an end and there is a time for new things to begin. Over the course of the last few months, God has revealed to both Mary Beth and I that we are supposed to be at Master's Church and that is where He wants us to serve. We don't really know how we are going to be serving, so this is a giant leap of faith for the both of us. God has been gracious enough to give us the strength and courage to step out from our home churches to start a new ministry. I know that we will continue to work with the youth and become more involved in youth sunday school and we will hopefully start serving in the music ministry at Master's. As God leads us on this new journey, we both greatly appreciate all of your prayers and we pray that God will use us in a very big way to impact Master's Church. I am so thankful for my amazing church family at Buck Run and I hope that there are no ill feelings as I depart. I cherish all of our memories of fellowship, prayer, and worship of our almighty savior and I will surely never forget you.

Guitar

Here's the guitar I bought a few weeks ago. I love this thing and it has definitely served me well thus far in my own noodleing around the house and in leading worship. For those of you gearheads who care- here are the specs:
solid mahogany back and sides
solid sitka spruce top
rosewood fretboard
mahogany neck
nickel tuners
dovetail neck joint
bone nut
rosewood bridge
open-back sta-tite tuners with 18:1 ratio

Oh, my dad and I went to an audiologist in Louisville today and got our ears injected with some awesome yellow stuff that hardened in about 8 minutes. These nice molds are being sent to sensaphonics so that some custom sleeves can be made for our in-ear monitors. It should take a few weeks for them to get shipped to us and then we have to go back and make sure they fit correctly. Hooray!

Worship

This morning I met with Marc (youth minister) and Alex (pastor) of Master's Church- where you can find me Wednesday nights- and talked about some different possibilities for the future about the music ministry there and the Wednesday night youth services. I was planning on driving back to Frankfort after that to get my tire replaced (I ran over a nail the other day and I'm on my spare at the moment) but I ended up just going down the road to the nearest S&S. They kept my tire and said it may be fixable but they aren't sure until they can see how deep the nail goes. (I'll have to check back on Monday.) So, not having to travel to Frankfort really opened up my schedule today and has allowed me to spend more time in prayer, especially in the area of my own personal worship.
God has really been convicting me these past few days of focusing so much on the music and forgetting why I play and sing in the first place. He's showing me that my singing and playing isn't worship at all if it's only an end in itself. If His glory isn't the ultimate goal of my music than it's all in vain. It's become so easy for me to get up on the stage and concentrate so much on sounding good, playing the right chords, and singing the right words (in the right order) and completely forget about the God to whom I'm singing. I can't even count the times that we've finished a concert or a worship service and I've messed up some notes or words and that is the only thing I remember about the night. I was so out of tune with the Holy Spirit working that I completely missed everything important that happened. I'm sure that all worship leaders have gone through this problem and I'm sure this isn't the last time this will ever happen- it will be constant battle that I fight for the rest of my life to forget about everything and focus on God. I pray for your support as I repent.