Mike Cope Sings the Classics

Seriously this is funny. I know some of you like to read Mike Cope's blog and I figured you might like to see this. I love the ending as well.......We CoC people need to poke fun at ourselves sometimes, right?

Chris

snow

It dosn't snow here in our part of Texas very often. Most of the time it is a small event and then the next day it's 80 degrees and melted. But, today like the rest of the country, we got a cold blast from our Canadian friends (eh?) and we got some great snow. As I sit here at my church in my youth room I can see out of the windows a beautiful sight. When I slow down enough to consider the beauty of falling snow, I start to realize the startling reality of our creative and passionate God. Sometimes life tends to be more of a "nose to the grindstone" and "just get me to through this" mentality. All to often we forget about the day in front of us. I believe that if life was just something to muddle through then God wouldn't have given us snow. He wouldn't give us an amazing West Texas sunset. The leaves wouldn't turn amazing colors in their fall. God gives gifts to us in so many forms, one being nature. It is a daily occourance that we should be thankful for and slow down enough to consider.

I'm a tree hugger today.......

Chris

Finally catching up with the rest of the world

Ok, we had an awesome weekend with the Nowells at our retreat. I will post more about that later fo sho. But I just wanted to update real quick to let you know about a new link I have on my blog for our youth group website. We have been working on it for a few days and I am pretty happy about it. We have a ton of work to do on it, but it is a start. It only took 2 and a half years to get this thing going! But we have it up. Subscribe to the email list, or just leave a comment to tell us you dropped by. If you can't find the link on the page, click here.

As I said earlier, I plan to post about our great weekend with Benny and Niki. Hope you guys have a good one!


Chris

a few things......

Just a quick update on the happenings in ol' V-Town. First of all, everything is going well (I know you are just dying to know) and I am looking forward to something really cool this weekend. The area youth ministries are putting on a retreat titled "Plunder the Darkness" that will be taught by our good friends Benny and Niki Nowell. The Nowells will fly into the area on Saturday and spend some time with our teenagers talking about reaching out and loving those who are tough to love. We have spent the last few months planning, preparing, and praying about this retreat. I would ask that you guys pray for the retreat as well. Pray for the Nowells in their preperation and their travels. Also, be in prayer for our teenagers that they would have soft hearts and be changed by what God has to say to them through the Nowells. I look forward to what God has planned this weekend.

I hope everyone is doing well in the Blogosphere! Talk to ya soon!

Chris

Change is good!

Ok, as you have noticed there is a "new look" to the ol' Robey Blog. Let me tell you a few reasons why I chose to switch:

1. The original template was getting a little stale. The "Brown on Brown" look wasn't really doing it for me.
2. I saw someone elses blog that had a much more sleek look that I want in my blog! I want people to look at this blog and say: "My, my, what a cool guy!"
3. I am sitting in grad class right now and am completly bored..........I had to find something to do!

If you guys have any suggestions on how this blog could be better, I am open to suggestions. I hope to blog more soon!

almost a redneck......

I was this close (I am holding my fingers really close together, but you can't see that) to buying an old, peice of crap pickup yesterday to just "putter around in". For a majority of my driving carrer I have owned a pickup in which I could do work around town in. Yet since I have gotten the ol' 4-Runner, I have missed the truck bed. So, I don't want to get rid of the 4-runner because it is such a good car. So, I saw an old, '74 Ford pickup at a junk car lot here in town for $500 bucks. Not bad, eh? I test drove the truck around town a few days ago. Now, mind you, I know NOTHING about cars or how to work on them or if they are lemons. As I test drove this truck it died three or four times as I decelerated. Yet I maintained my optimism. "I am sure it wouldn't be too much to fix that!" I thought. So I took it back to my mechanic to check it out. Thankfully he is a gentle man and didn't tell me what a moron I was for even looking at this truck. He pretty much told me it would take more that I paid for it just to pass inspection. He also pointed out the huge hole in the exaust. That is when I realized that I tasted fumes in my mouth from driving it there. I guess that is why God made mechanics. Too keep Chris from wasting $500!

It would have been cool to have an old pickup to just do stuff around town in. I don't know if that would make me an official red neck, but I am sure it would "fast-track" me. Hey, when in Rome...........whatever that means......


Chris

I have a great job

Tonight our youth group began a new series for our Wednesday nights. Our series is called "Mythbusters". Baisically we are busting myths about God and Christianity. While I know this can't be the only religiously slanted Mythbusters knockoff, it seems like it is going to be a lot of fun. I love the show on Discovery channel because I am a bit of a nerd at heart (okay, a lot of a nerd at heart). I love to see people who know what they are doing use their brains to solve problems, then blow stuff up. A recent episode featured the now famous "Mentos and Diet Coke" experiment. If you don't know already, what you do is take a 2 liter bottle of diet coke and stick a bunch of mentos down into it. What will you get? A tall fountain of aspertame filled goodness coming out of the bottle!

But there is a funny thing about Vernon, Texas. Sometimes you can't find things that you would normally find anywhere else.......like MENTOS! I looked everywhere I could in Vernon (thats like four places total) and I couldn't find mentos. So I had to improvise. I had to use this experiement in my lesson tonight! So I bought various candies that I thought would work. You know what worked the best? Crushed up mint lifesavers! They seem to work just as well as the Mentos.

So I bought 25 bottles of 2 liter diet coke. I crushed my lifesavers. Time for the show. I had our kids walk over to my house (I live across the parking lot from the church) and get set up. I had our volunteers wear plastic panchos and eye-goggles. They really didn't have to do that but I thought I thought it looked funny. We had different contests to see how high we could squirt the foam. I think we got to about 15 feet! It was really fun.

We tied the lesson to the myth that we are alone in this world and that by realizing the value of being together with God and his people would make some amazing things happen (hence the fountain of diet coke). You (mentos) and God (diet coke) make something really cool.

It's a weak analogy, but hey, I am a youth minister and I have the best job in the world.

Chris

By the way.........check out this video..........it takes the mentos and diet coke thing to a new level!

a creek, a crest, a confession

Well it was an awesome ten days in the highlands of Colorado. It was pretty funny because I didn't realize how long I was gone until I was coming home. I started to count the days out of Vernon and it hit me that I was out ten full days. Then I started to wonder if I had told my elders that I would be gone that long. I didn't get any phone calls so I guess that everything is okay.

I was able to camp for five days and that was pretty cool. I camped next to Chalk Creek which was awesome. Life is pretty good when you have a bubbling brook (as I describe it) running in the background. I didn't sleep very well though because the sleeping bag that I brought was too short. My feets were warm but my upper body froze.

I was able to ride the Monarch Crest Trail which is rated as one of the top five mountain bike trails in the state of Colorado. Now I see why. I had to take a shuttle to the top of Monarch pass, then ride up another 1000 feet to make the crest. You wouldn't believe what it is like to mountain bike at 12,000 feet. It was pretty awesome despite having to struggle to keep my breakfast down. I was with six other people from Colorado. They were super cool, but seemed to have lungs of steel compared to me. They shot straight up the mountain while I struggled to maintain eyesight. You really take your lungs for granted when you live at a thousand feet. The people that I was riding with were incredibly patient though. Not that I could have done anything about it if they weren't though! I wouldn't have had the breath to go after them. They should consider themselves lucky! Haha.

I was able to do a lot of cool things while in Colorado like mountain bike, ride four wheelers, golf, and hike, but the coolest thing that I did by far was visit the Dry Bones ministry in Denver with my friends Benny and Niki. If you are part of the Camp OC community then no doubt you have heard about it. But if you are not then you might not know what Dry Bones is. This is a ministry that is dedicated to working with street kids in Denver. These kids have all of the issues that you would excpect for one living on the street, but mainly drug abuse. Benny took me on a "turf tour" of downtown Denver and showed me things that I probably would have never noticed about street life. Also I was able to spend time around street kids that wouldn't have normally had the courage to do in a normal situation.

I was really humbled because I guess that I thought I had ministry figured out before I got there. I figured that you love kids and love Jesus and that was the end of it. I guess to a point I was right. Yet I had reserved my love for those kids who look and act a lot like me. I haven't made it a point in my life to go after the kids who have messed up homes or have made bad decisions. I usually wait for them to come to me. I haven't been the one to pursue those relationships on purpose. I saw the Dry Bones team go after these kids with purpose and intent to love with no agenda. That was startling to me. I have always been taught that you love with the "end-game" in mind. That is, to make them Christians. I guess that is still the overarching goal. Yet when you look at Jesus, he loved fully knowing that he might not get that love back in return. Yet he still loved those around him without abandon or agenda. Why should I be any different?

I confess that I don't really know how to do that. I am still in awe of people who can live their lives in true love to the people around them. I am by nature a pretty selfish guy. I like my house, my dog, and my time. I am praying that God will show me how to really live that way, the way he desires me to.

My experience with Dry Bones was very short and very intense (for me). God is still playing out the implications in my life. I am so thankful to Benny and Niki for spending time with me and showing me what they have dedicated their lives to. They really love those kids out there. I encourage you to go and see what they do. I think that Dry Bones is something that needs to be experienced, not only read or talked about. It is a life changing thing for sure.

Pray for the Dry Bones team. They are on the front lines, I am sure of it. Pray for the church to understand what it means to love like Jesus did. Pray for me. I have a long way to go.

Love you guys.

Chris

Nothing to say

After a really long summer I am on vacation! It is weird this time around because I am striking out on my own for this week. I am spending a few days just south of Buena Vista, Colorado and then spending the rest of my week with Benny and Niki up in Denver to see what they do with Dry Bones (and just plain hang out of course). I am really thrilled to be able to spend some time outside, out in the wilderness (even though I am staying in a campground with a video arcade). My campsite is right next to a creek and I am in the middle of a bunch of 14,000 foot peaks (which are called the collegiate peaks by the way). I plan to mountain bike, golf, off road, and do some major reading and guitar playing. It makes me excited just to write about it now.

I loaded down my 4-Runner with everything that is valuable to me (except my dog.....he wouldn't fit) and I headed up to Raton, New Mexico today. I am in a Super 8 enjoying their very nice wireless internet. I had a pretty cool experience driving up today. I left Vernon this morning and it was already approaching 95 degrees at noon. It was hot, dry, and barren. We have been hurting so bad with a drought this summer and it is really wearing us out. Yet the farther west I drove, I started to feel the cooler air. I started to see green grass. Then I started to see flowers. I smelled the awesome smell of cut grass along the highway (by the way, if you can name any smell that is better than cut grass, let me know).

Then, as I passed into New Mexico I saw the foothills popping up. Then out in the distance a thunderstorm brewed. As I entered the hills it started raining. Raining so hard. The clouds were hanging low and the lightning was putting on its show. Typically I have a heavy foot but I slowed down a bit. I didn't want to miss this. God was slowing me to experience Him. He was reminding me that he is a powerful God. His mountains and His thunder showed His glory. I had nothing to say. I was quite overwhelmed.

It just stopped raining about thirty minutes ago. My soul was definitly cleansed. It reminded me of the Andrew Peterson song, Nothing to Say:

And the mountains sing Your glory, hallelujah
The canyons echo sweet amazing grace
My spirt sails, the mighty gails are bellowing your name
And I have nothing to say.
I have nothing to say.

I have probably said too much.

Chris

It is really nice to be home. I have spent yet another whirlwind summer on the road with my youth group. We really had an awesome few weeks. We were able go from Mississippi to Mexico, Arlington to Edmond, Wichita Falls to Vernon and everywhere in between. I really should have kept track of our miles. One thing that I did keep track of is that every mile driven was safe and productive. I am still quite amazed that we were able to do all that we did without incident. Once again God comes through! I think that one of the greatest lessons I have learned about ministry is the discovery of how truly inadequate I am in light of the power of God. What I mean by that is if I was to have everything go as I plan and by my power we would be indeed lost (probably in Mexico). Also what I have learned this summer is that ministry is day to day. These days build on each other. I have spent two and a half years in Vernon and I think I am finally seeing the time invested in our youth group show fruit. Our kids are growing into adults! This is a great thrill to witness. I believe this is a great gift of working with teenagers. I can join in the development of a young person's spiritual formation.

I know this might sound like old news to some of you youth ministry veterans but remember I am a bit slow (hehe). These are just some small samplings of what God is working on in ol' Robey-boys heart. I am sure there is much more to come.

I plan to post about the article that was written in a local newspaper about the blog you are reading. I am sure you are saying "what the heck? I post on my blog every day! I have links on my blog! I even have a counter! This guy can barely spell his own name!" I am TOTALLY with you on this. I have no clue as to why she was so thourough in covering my blog. But she was very kind to me. Let me know what you think then I will post about it. Here is the article:



Pastors share thoughts on blogsBy Ann Work/Times Record NewsJuly 17, 2006
"I am just a simple man living in a small west Texas town, trying to figure out life like everyone else ... I pray that God will take me more into His presence daily and that by doing so, He can make me more like Him."- entry by Chris Robey, youth minister, Wilbarger Street Church of Christ, Vernon, found at chrisrobey.blogspot.com

When youth minister Chris Robey started "blogging" last year, he wrote about theological questions that were bothering him. He set up his Weblog, or blog, at chrisrobey.blogspot.com. He wrote in spurts, sometimes once a month, sometimes more. He used cyberspace to get discussions going with other youth ministers in his journal-like entries. "Generally, I have something to say, some kind of point to it," Robey said. Robey is one of several local pastors who blog to communicate with other pastors, church members and church youth.

About 75,000 new blogs are started every day, according to Megan Greenwell in a July 9 Washington Post article. Some are started by computer-savvy ministers. While some see the forum as a way to reach out in an increasingly technology-oriented society, other Wichita Falls pastors are saying "no" to the trend.

For Greg Stanford, youth minister at Tenth and Broad Church of Christ in Wichita Falls, blogging started out as a way to let people get to know him. He wanted to open himself up a little bit, to share what made him tick. "It was just keeping in touch," he said. "What it's become is a place to put the thoughts that I don't get to share with people all the time," he said. He keeps two blogs, one at myspace.com and another on blogger.com. He writes a couple times a month. On his myspace account, Stanford serves in a role that is part youth minister and part guardian of his church's teens, who also blog there. At the popular cyberspace teen hang-out, "I remind them that people do read what they type. They need to represent who they are and what they believe." He's blogged enough with church members that it's not uncommon for members of his congregation to speak to him about it at church. "They'll say, 'I learned something about you today.' "

In Vernon, Robey has used his blog to open up about some of his frustrations and fears. In one entry, he tells the story of a Mexico trip with his youth group when he hit a pedestrian with his car. He barely grazed the man but scared the rattled pedestrian enough to unleash a string of curse words from the victim. Three van-loads of church members saw the whole thing and wrote a song about it. "Let's pray that I don't give anyone a reason to write a song about me this year," he wrote as he explained the stress he feels before taking 50 church members on a ministry trip out of the country.

In a March posting, Robey told of a recent trip to Pascagoula, Miss., with a Midwestern State University college group to do hurricane clean-up - and used the entry to do a little preaching:"I forgot how much fun it is to sleep on the floor with a bunch of teen-agers. I plead with you. Go to www.123jesus.com and find out what you can do. We all have so much, but people in our own borders have nothing because of a six-hour storm .... Cancel your Six-Flags trips. Sacrifice your vacation time. Challenge yourself to live out Matthew 25:35 ... Jesus means business when he says these things."

Other pastors say blogging doesn't fit their style or their ministry. Some simply don't have the time. "Most of the guys who do those must have a good staff that allows them to sit and do that," said George B. Davis, pastor of New Harvest Church. He doesn't have the time, he said.He noticed many blogs center on debate, not truth. He doesn't want to debate merely for debate's sake. "My efforts are spent studying and drawing people into the church environment to reveal truth to them in a systematic way," Davis said.

First Baptist Church Pastor Robert Jeffress said he didn't have time to blog and would question any attempt by one of his associate pastors to blog regularly. "If he was blogging, I'd wonder how he has the time to do it," he said. Writing a blog may be a cathartic experience for some and he wouldn't discourage it, he said. "In my own ministry I think people are more interested in hearing what God's Word says about a subject than to read my musings," Jeffress said.

Lukus Counterman, pastor at Messiah Baptist Church in Wichita Falls, follows other ministers' blogs but doesn't have one of his own. A blog to church members could be helpful for ministry, he said, but he's still wrestling with its dangers. "Once you post it on the World Wide Web, it's worldwide. You can't effectively make retraction statements." Some blog sites are merely "brain dumps," he said. "It's not coherent, thought-through or concise. The other deal is it's decontextualized. People come in, they don't know you, they don't know your ministry, they don't know your previous blogs." He's noticed that many bloggers are bitter, frustrated people who just want to criticize. "That's not part of the culture I want to be in," he said.

Other bloggers, like Robey, have warmed up to blogging over time and enjoy the forum to share what God is teaching them."

I am not a very good blogger. Sometimes I wonder why I have one. I usually don't have many profound things to say. I don't live a particularly interesting life. I don't skydive. Yet there are times that I am glad that I have a blog. The whole blog mechanism is good for distributing information to the five (and growing!) people who peruse the limited pages of this blog. I hope that if nothing else, this entry will create some interest in what I believe to be one of the places (the Pascagoula mission trip) that God is truly working in this world."-

Chris Robey, March 27, 2006, blogEducation reporter Ann Work can be reached at (940)763-7538 or by e-mail at work (at)TimesRecordNews.com.

Wasn't that nice?? Let me know what you think. Niki's blog has some good thoughts too.

Chris

the computers figured me out......

It is crazy how these sociological people figure things out. I just took a "personality test" from Niki's blog. It is an online test. Kinda crazy how the results wound up. This is what they think I am:

Actualized type: ISTP(who you are)
Introverted (I) 62.07% Extroverted (E) 37.93%

Sensing (S) 62.07% Intuitive (N) 37.93%

Thinking (T) 53.13% Feeling (F) 46.88%

Perceiving (P) 52.17% Judging (J) 47.83%
ISTP - "Engineer". Values freedom of action and following interests and impulses. Independent, concise in speech, master of tools. 5.4% of total population.

Preferred type: ISFJ(who you prefer to be)
Extroverted (E) 50% Introverted (I) 50%

Sensing (S) 65.63% Intuitive (N) 34.38%

Thinking (T) 50% Feeling (F) 50%

Judging (J) 51.85% Perceiving (P) 48.15%
ISFJ - "Conservator". Desires to be of service and to minister to individual needs - very loyal. 13.8% of total population.

Attraction type: ESFP(who you are attracted to)
Extroverted (E) 65.38% Introverted (I) 34.62%

Sensing (S) 60% Intuitive (N) 40%

Feeling (F) 55.26% Thinking (T) 44.74%

Perceiving (P) 59.09% Judging (J) 40.91%
ESFP - "Entertainer". Radiates attractive warmth and optimism. Smooth, witty, charming, clever. Fun to be with. Very generous. 8.5% of the total population.

Haha......I am a master of tools. Anyone need something fixed? I do have a hammer and a seldom used ratchet set.

How the heck do they do that? I don't even think that I answered some of the questions right. But I think it is pretty close. What do yall think?

Check out http://similarminds.com/pref_jung.html and take the test.

By the way, Mexico and Cornerstone went awesome. Next entry will have some more details. Peace out.

on the shores of old Mexico.........

My kids keep singing that song. I am not sure who sings it or what it is even about. Yet that is where we are going in three short days. I can't really believe it. This year is a monster trip too. Being the nice guy that I am I allowed 50 people to sign up on this trip. I really thought it would be a mistake until we raised more money than we needed and our logistics worked out perfectly. So, I should probably doubt less, right? Well unfortunatly I am human and the doubt still remains. I don't really doubt that this is gonna be a great trip. I think there are just these "pre-trip" jitters that everyone who leads one of these trips feels. Maybe I will get that if I ever get married someday. But I won't be marrying 50 people so that will make it easer I guess.

Pray for our group. Traveling with so many it compounds the possiblilities of something going wrong. God will provide, but we still need to go to him. If you read this blog, please pray.

I will leave you with this thought. Actually it is more of a question: Have you ever had a song written about you before? I did a couple of years ago on our first Mexico trip (with my youth group). Here is how it happened:

We were sitting at a stop sign in Monterey getting ready to turn right on a one way street. I was looking left to see if any oncoming traffic was coming. Well, I saw that it was clear to my left. So I pulled out. What I DIDN'T do was look to the right to see if any pedestrians were walking in front of me. Apparently there was. Just as I hit the gas someone yelled "STOP!!!". I am glad they did. I pulled off the gas just in time to "kinda" hit the pedestrian walking in front of me. Now actually I didn't "hit" him as much as I "nugged" him with my bumper. Needless to say he peppered me with various mexican curse words and hand gestures which I am sure were talking about my mom. I guess I deserved it. I didn't hurt him but I am sure I rattled him a bit. The thing was that three church vans behind me saw it happen. So the kids in the vans behind us procceded to write the now famous hit (no pun intended) "Chris hit a Mexican". It has a few verses and some great harmonys if I remember right. It made me feel special but I am sure that my Mexican counterpart just felt bruised.

So let's also pray that I don't give anyone a reason to write a song about me this year. Imagine what I would have to do to get another one written. Maybe......

"Chris inadvertanly transported an illegal immigrant across the border in the church trailer" or
"Chris got stuck in a pile of concrete" or
"Chris married a Senorita"........I like that one........

Looking forward to the stories. Love yall........

scanning pictures.........sipping coffee

Yeah........it's one of THOSE days............

It isn't really a bad day.......just a day to get some stuff done that I have really needed to in the last couple of months. I agreed about six months ago to put together a wedding video for some friends of mine here in Vernon. The only catch is that I have to scan in like 300 pictures into my computer. Do you know what I have found out? There is NO way to scan pictures quickly! I even bought a nice new scanner. I thought "surly a new scanner would be super fast!"(this is my typical inner monolouge by the way). But, nay it is not. So I am shuffling through mountains of pictures and listning to some good music........oh yeah and sipping coffee from my favorite oversized Disney World mug with my name on it. We should all have one of those.

Anywho........just an update.........hope you guys are doing well. For my Camp OC readers........I am really looking forward to seeing yall at Zenith. Take care.

it's on the way.........

Once again, it has been a while since the last post. I am in awe of you bloggers who can do this every day or even every week! I am lucky to get a post every month! I don't think that my life (or thoughts) are spectacular enough to post on the web with any regularity. Yet, since I see so many of you guys doing it well, I will perservere!

I have noticed a little trend in my yearly calender as a youth minister. It seems like the two or three weeks leading up to a summer tend to bring a lot of anxiety and frustration. A majority of my time is spent trying to get paperwork together and polishing off details for our camps and other trips. Also it seems like I am having to work harder and harder to keep these kids motivated and involved with what we are doing. I am not sure if I know the cause of this, but it seems to be the case.

Also lending to the frustration of these weeks is the sheer anticipation of what is to come. I think these weeks give me enough time to realize exactly what we are undertaking. We are charged with the spiritual and physical saftey of so many kids. There is so much pressure to do this job right. If any mistakes are made, they tend to be played out on a more public stage than some other jobs.

We are taking over fifty people to Mexico this summer. When I start to dwell on the reality of that, I want to freak. This mission trip has just exploded over the last two years. Our kids are so thrilled to go back to Matamoros to work. I think that trips like this force us control freaks to give our struggle over to God. I have failed to do that over the last few years and it shows. I never get the chance to really enjoy these trips because I am too busy making decisions and making sure everything is just right. Maybe that is my job, I don't know. Yet I feel like I am missing out on so much! I am going to try with all that I have to let go and trust. Pray for me.

Pray for all of us crazy folk that do this for a living. This indeed is our most taxing and demanding time of the year. So much is expected. So much is planned. So much sleep is lost. Encourage your local youth minister in these days. They could surely use it.

Love yall bunches.

worship? we don't have a clue......

As a youth minister who teaches quite a bit, I hit points of struggle as to what I should teach my youth. When you work with a group of kids, there are all kinds of spiritual needs. Some need love, others need admonishment, a few need challenge, while others simply need prayer. What does one do when it comes to teaching kids? There are times that I am truly at a loss.

This month I am teaching a series on worship. One of the things that I have found about this specific group of teenagers is that they have no clue about coming into the throne room of the Lord to worship. As their teacher, I am not always sure about how to do that! Yet I am convicted that they need to know how to truly worship the Lord.

Unfortunatly, we have all been taught that worship is simply vertical. That is, worship is simply between the individual and God. If there was no one else in the room, it would make no difference(as the philosophy goes). Yet when we look at scripture and see the overwhelming emphasis on community and togetherness as Christians. If this is true, we must realize that there is a tremendous "horizontal" aspect of worship. We NEED each other when it comes to the worship of God.

Yet when I look at our church (and youth group) I see a lot of division. The body of Christ is indeed broken still. How are we supposed to worship with each other when we don't even like each other? How are we to approach the throne of God together when we can't even live life together? I am so confused!

Let me scream it into this great blogosphere. WE NEED JESUS! We need Him to permeate all of the corners of our lives! He needs to be the central focus of our choices, reactions, passions, mistakes, and misgivings. We need the healing power of the cross to transform us into the likeness of our God.

It's a pipedream, but it's my pipedream. Wait, I believe it is the Lord's pipedream for his people (Acts 2:42-47). Let us live together in worship so we can go to God together in worship.

I think I found my lesson.

Chris

The need is great

As I have stated in many previous posts, I am not a very good blogger. Sometimes I wonder why I have one. I ususally don't have many profound things to say. I don't live a particularly intersting life (I don't skydive or anything like that). Yet there are times that I am glad that I have a blog. The whole blog mechanism is good for distribuing infomation to the 5 (and growing!) people who paruse the limited pages of this blog. I hope that if nothing else this entry will create some interest in what I believe to be one of the places that God is truly working in this world.

Over spring break I was privilged to travel with Allen Carr and his college group from Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls and Trevor Cox and his youth from the Thomas Street CoC in Altus, OK to Pascagoula, Mississippi to aid in some hurricane cleanup. Our three groups totaled up to 22 teenagers and adults. We planned this trip in haste (like three weeks) and it contained every age from freshman in high school to people in their seventies. It was truly a unique group of people. We spent 14 hours on the road on that Sunday getting to know each other and fellowshiping. We arrived in Pascagoula late on Sunday and stayed at the VanCleave Church of Christ just north of Pascagoula. It was a really nice little church. We all sacked out on the floor. I forgot how much fun it is to sleep on the floor with a bunch of teenagers. They love it!

Yet our trip wasn't about sleeping on the church floor. It was about being there for people in need. We learned that 15,000 homes in Pascagoula alone were affected by flood damage. No one was exempt. The rich and poor, black and white, young and old were devatated by rising flood waters. While everyone there has hurricane insurance not many have flood insurance. So many of these people will miss out on their insurance payments because of a loophole. People all over town are living in FEMA trailers outside of their homes just waiting for someone to help.

We worked with a 75 year young lady named Margret. She has been waiting for six months for someone to work on her house. She had 6-7 feet of water in her house during the storm. She lost everything she had. Because of the mold that naturally grows in damp places her home was not able to be lived in. So for six months she waited. We had the privilidge of working on her home first. We completly gutted her home from floor to celing until there was nothing left but studs (not me, the wood studs.....sorry had to do it!). We then sprayed everything with bleach water to kill the remaining mold. After that her home had to be lifted four feet off the ground and a new floor built underneath. Only then could she get new sheetrock and start to move back in. Even after all of the work we did she probably won't be back into her home for another year.

That is simply one home of 15,000 in Pascagoula. People's lives are in shambles. Yet God is clearly at work. I have never been so overwhelmed with the obvious presence of our Lord while in Pascagoula. The Central Church of Christ has made it their mission to help those affected in the storm. What that means is ANYONE in need can come to find support. That means religious affiliation, color, age, and any other background dosn't matter. If they have need they can find it at Central. The even more amazing aspect is that this little church dosn't turn away help from ANYONE. It dosn't matter what church background you are from: if you are coming down to Pascagoula in the name of Jesus, they will take you in and put you to work. The church fed us three meals a day and gave us a place to stay. All that we had to do is go down. They worked so hard for us. They just need help.

This is the part where I plead with you. Go to www.123jesus.com and find out what you can do. We all have so much in our lives but people in our own borders have nothing because of a 6 hour storm. Get your churches to send groups to the gulf coast. Cancel your six flags trips. Sacrifice your vacation time. Challenge yourself to live out Matthew 25. If you don't know what that is, read it. Jesus means buisness when he says these things. I believe that there is a mission field in the midst of tradgedy. People need to be shown who Jesus is during these times. If you want anymore info on this great work please let me know.

Also check out the blog by their preacher, John Dobbs at www.remains.blogspot.com.


Thanks for bearing through this long post.

Chris

I'm a really bad student

Ok, here's the deal. I am sitting in my graduate class right now blogging. The fact that I am doing this might clue you in as to how much I am paying attention to him right now. Seriously, I don't have any idea what he is talking about. I think that he has been talking for about an hour now and I have sent like 3 emails and checked up on all of the blogs on my list. Wait, I think that he is talking about plagarism. I think that is what he is talking about. Anyways, I thought I would update the blog. I haven't written in a while because I havn't had a ton go on lately. I do have plenty going on that I plan to write about soon, but I guess I haven't been in much of a blogging mood lately. I have the blogging blues. Ok, I think the proffessor is catching on. I best go. Have a good day, my peeps!

Chris

Soundtrack of Life

I was reading Niki's blog the other day and she was talking about different music and how she was able to influence her kid's music choices as they grew up. I am a huge music fan but I haven't always been. I don't remember a ton of music in my house growing up (other than Sandi Patti) but as I got into middle school and high school my music intrests grew. Then after I started playing the ol' guitar I was thrust into a brave new world of music choices.

I don't know about you guys but when I hear certain songs, my heart is drawn back to different times of my life. Ususally those times have to do with some girl breaking my heart or some really sorry event in my life. But some songs take me back to fonder days. I have always thought it would be fun to make a soundtrack of my life that would chronicle different phases of my life. Now, I start this little venture with a disclaimer: even though my doing this seriously challenges my "straight-case", I want to reassure my readers that I still like chicks.

With that in mind, let's do this.

Middle school years- Mostly MC Hammer, Boyz (with the z) 2 Men, Vanilla Ice, Weird Al Yankovic (which I hear that he is still influencing our young minds today.......go Al!)

High School years- Got more into the alternative thing- Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Stone Temple Pilots, Alice in Chains, Jars of Clay (their first and very best album) DC Talk's Jesus Freak

College Years- Two words for ya.......Caedmon's Call. My buddy Scott from MSU got me onto them way before they were ever popular. Their music seems to mark my college years. Also I got big into Bebo Norman, Andrew Peterson, Justin McRoberts, and Sandra McCraken. Some of my secular picks were Dave Matthews, Stevie Ray Vaughn, and anything remotley classic rock (because of my increased guitar playing of course)

Post Collegate track list- Since college I have retained a bunch of my favorites but also added some new ones.....Jack Johnson, Dashboard Confessional, a whole lot more Andrew Peterson, Shawn Groves, Jason Morant, Beth Dillon, Jill Phillips, Lifehouse, Kutless, Norah Jones.


I know that I left a ton out of this post. These are just the ones I could think of off the top of my head. I would like to see yours.

Chris

Something for today

We are starting up our theme for the youth this year. It is out of 2 Cor 3:18. Our theme is "Transformed". Now I know that this is not a revolutionary or even original theme but I really think it is a concept that our teens need to hear. A mighty misunderstanding of Christ is that he is like a "one use only" savior who saves us once and flees the scene waiting on our eventual arrival in heaven. The bible speaks of so much more than that. In this passage Paul is speaking of a hope that is dead for the Jews but is alive in Christ. He calls those who don't have Christ "dull" and "veiled". But just as a groom removes the veil from his bride, so does Christ remove the veil of our sin and shame from our hearts. Then Paul wraps his thoughts by saying:

"And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit." 2 Cor 3:18

This verse brings me so much joy because:

1. This seems to be more passive than active from our end. This doesn't mean that we don't play an active part in the redemptive plan of God but that our transforming is done by the very will of God. He intends to make us like his son. Our transformation is only done because God wants it done. That is comforting to me. The plain reality is that I don't know how to transform myself. God knows I have tried. God knows that I have failed as well.

2. This is an ongoing process. Though I struggle daily, I can know that if I have faith in God, even through my failures, I will be a transformed person. This process will not happen today or tomorrow yet I know it will happen. Being patient with God is often our greatest battle.

3. I will be like him someday, when I least suspect it! God's glory will be shown through me (and is showing now I am sure) in ways that I never thought possible. Imagine what God has in store for those he has transformed! Imagine what we will look like! My feeble mind fails at trying to figure this out.

Well hopefully that lifts up your hearts. I hope everyone is doing well and I look forward to hearing from you.

Chris