It’s too cold to be at the Buck’s! So we’ll be at the Bridge offices located behind Mounds Mall next door to Clipzone! 1901 C Street is the address.
2 weeks left until Christmas break and we are doing a series called “Wired” – figuring out why on earth we are here! Middle school is tuesday at 7:17-8:30 and High school is thursday….same time
It’s been almost 2 months since I’ve written on here!! Come on people, keep me accountable on it 
Well, here’s some news for you in case you missed church last week….we have a new high school youth pastor!! Don’t worry, I’m not leaving, (or don’t be sad because I’m still here!) But through the years, we’ve noticed less growth in the student ministry. We believe it will be the best change for us to split the middle school and high school. It’s really hard to connect with a 6th grader and a senior in high school in the same audience. I’ve been excited about this change for awhile because I’m ready to watch God do some incredible things in the student ministry program, but since the change has been announced, I’ve noticed a weird feeling for me. Kylee made a great point to me, she said Phil is excited because this is new. So he is just taking off and doing everything he can to make the high school camp happen and I just know he’s going to be incredible. But I’ve been in this weird funk and she said I’m in a grieving state right now. hmmm….grieving? but I’m not leaving! I’ve been at the Bridge about 4 years now and done the whole youth program, but now I’m giving up part of that. It’s been cool since she told me that because I can better embrace it as a “grieving” feeling instead of just a weird feeling I’m having. But with this, I know God has some incredible plans for the youth. Phil will do an incredible job and I’ll be right there with him through it all, and he’ll be with me with the middle schoolers. We’re a team, it’s not a seperate ministry at all. I like that. Too many churches split it and they never get to know the high school pastor, they’re just thrown in there and have to rebuild a relationship with a youth pastor. Then those that go to high school have this feeling of loss because they lose their relationship with the middle school pastor. We’re 1 team, working with the same purpose, here for the greater story of God, not us. I’m blessed to have a guy like Phil to work with. Things are good and I know that change brings growth!
Stay tuned…the youth banquet is coming up this fall and you won’t want to miss it!
We are finishing up after shock, which will end May 17, with Aftershock unplugged. Today was the first day in a series we’re doing called “Pause”. It’s all about us taking a moment in our busy/hectic lifestyles and pausing before our Heavenly Father and allowing him to refresh us, to speak to us, and to renew us.
Today we really pushed the idea of just ‘being’. It’s so easy to be somewhere, but our minds are running all over the place and we struggle to leave our worries and everything else behind us. I find myself in my time with God struggling to keep my mind and heart focused on being just God and myself.
As Moses was leading the Israelites, God knew he needed to be renewed. So He called Moses up to a mountain to just be. I related it to my wedding day…all other areas of my life are hectic and things are ALWAYS on my mind, but when I was up with Libby and it was just us, nothing else in my world came to my mind except that I am with Libby and I will forever be with her. I was in the moment, I existed there and nothing else clouded my mind except my love for this woman and what we were doing.
How many of us treat our time with God as a wedding ceremony? We may say we are spending time with God and allowing Him to speak into our lives, but are we ever fully there? Too many times we let other things, the things that we need to get done and our busy schedules, to get in the way of just ‘being’ with God.
I encourage you this week, to just be. Stop, and breathe. Be silent and allow our incredible God to continue to do a great work in your life.
Lots of things, I’ll keep it short….
We are back at the Buck’s for wednesday nights! 7:17-8:30…parents, remember it’s over at 8:30, not 9…8:30 please
Friday – we leave the new Bridge building (behind Mounds Mall) at 5 pm for Climb Time. It’s $20 and we’ll be there until 10, so expect to pick your kids up around 10:30.
Sundays – We’re in the middle of a series called “Voices”. This is where we are talking about the enemy and his plan to destroy our life. But we look to the hope we have in Christ to hold onto and fight this enemy. It’s sure to rock your world!
Be paying attention to the weekly program at church, we’ll have updates and things that are coming up! There is going to be a youth banquet here soon! More details to come…
Sunday we started a 2 week series dealing with our regret. I’m not sure if anyone reads this yet or not…maybe we need to promote it better Log on and leave a comment if you do read it!
Anyway – the topic of regret. We all have them, no matter what your age. But too many times we look at our past and it keeps us from moving forward into the future. We let our regrets and our past mistakes keep us from accomplishing things. We feel like we are not good enough or capable of doing anything because of our past. Instead, we need to look at our regrets to help us with our choices we make in the present and the choices we will face in the future. They help guide us. Sometimes, our regrets even cause us to do something great. I talked briefly about Chuck Colson – the aide to Richard Nixon who went to prison for the watergate scandal. He eventually started prison ministry fellowship. Even though he made a great mistake, he turned it into a great success.
Paul,in the Bible, would be a man of many regrets that should’ve been held back. He was the man that persecuted Christians and killed them, and eventually becoming a man of God who went and spoke God’s word to the churches.
The thought is – what in your past is holding you back? Are you letting your past mistakes, failures, regrets, keep you from moving forward?
John Landy and Roger Bannister were in a race to see who the fastest man alive was. As John was about to win, he looked behind him to see how far back Roger was. In that time, Roger was able to pass him. Landy told Time magazing “If I hadn’t looked back, I would’ve won”
Are you still looking back? When we continue to dwell on our past, we can never press on towards the future – toward the goal.
Today was an incredible day. The band was all students and Andrew Mishler opened up with the song “You and Me” by Lifehouse and just nailed it! Then Andrew Jamison lead worship and he was awesome! The whole day just blew me away! I was very proud of the kids and all the effort they put into it. Especially with all the problems we were having in the morning because some of our equipment wasn’t there for the drummer, it was surprisingly a great morning!
What we talked about today was having a balanced life. We looked at all of the “baskets” of our life and really looking at the dating one. It’s so easy to put all of our eggs in the “dating basket” because it offers us so much pleasure – in the moment. But when our lives are out of balance, we are a wreck, it’s not healthy. It’s like a bodybuilder – they’re just not natural. Because we weren’t met to be that way, but to experience all other aspects of life. The baskets we talked about were: Family, Friends, God, Activities and dating.
In Proverbs it says, “When you find honey, eat just enough – too much of it and you will vomit”. This relates to me in terms of buffet restaurants. I get excited because it’s good food, but I always leave feeling sick and wishing I didn’t overindulge. The same applies to dating, we get excited, but don’t know how to control ourselves from putting too much into a relationship that we shut out the rest of the world.
Challenge your kids this week to look at the balance in their lives. Are they spending time with you and the family? Are they always on the phone with that “special someone” that it seems their whole world revolves around just them? Help them see the beauty of a balanced life, and in reality, relationships are SOO much better when the baskets are balanced out. it’s no fun to be obsessed and to put all your eggs in one basket. God wants us to be balanced – to have a healthy lifestyle, but it begins with the example they see at home.
Great week – definitely challenging, but we’ll probably talk more about it wednesday at the shock as well.
I think our bus problem is over. After I wrote that previous entry, I got a guy’s number from the Bridge that Chris Mishler told me to call. I called this guy, Andy Drummond, and he told me that he works with Best Way Disposal (a garbage company in Anderson) and he has 1 other unit that he’s in charge of. Check this out – his unit is in Kalamazoo, Michigan – where is the bus stuck at? Kalamazoo, Michigan. Oh God, how I love your sense of humor. Andy called up there to see if they could do anything and their mechanic just happened to be on vacation. So I get that bad news and start to move forward with something else, when I get another call from Andy Drummond that goes something like this….”Gabe, the manager up there heard what I was calling about. He said he was going to send his guys over and fix it” I had a little hallelujah break down and was dancing…not literally, but I was amazed once again. Can this story can get any better?!? It actually does. The past week and a half or so, I’ve had some great alone time with God. When you really encounter Him and experience Him the way I have been lately, it’s hard not to want to! This whole experience turned from a bad situation into what seems to be a life changing one for me atleast.
Now the ending: I get a phone call this morning, it’s Andy. The crankshaft was broken (if you know what that means, I’m proud of you, cuz I don’t) and the slack adjustor was not in alignment (I DO know what that means! So I’m proud of myself for that one). Anyway, Best Way up there towed it to their place, fixed everything and I get the call this morning that they are on their way down to Anderson with the bus!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?! I was going to be planning a day where I drive to Michigan to pick it up!!! Wow.
I’m sure this is so much more powerful to me since I’m the one actually experiencing it. I hope I’ve written this well enough for you to understand and be able to put yourself in the situation to see how everything was out of my hands. If I had control of the situation, how much more stress would be in my life? How angry would I have gotten over things? Instead, when we let go of things we have no control over and just sit back and watch God at work, we are mesmorized by His awesomeness.
It got me thinking back on my life and experiences with God. Can I see His awesomeness? I know that’s probably not the right word, but there’s no perfect way to describe Him. I feel like if we have never seen God in His glory and to any potential “awesomeness” then I fear that maybe we have missed him, or we may never have really experienced Him. Our eyes are closed too many times to the beauty of God around us.
I used to think the only way I could really encounter God was when I was out in nature, because it was all He created and I could see His hand in everything. I never would have thought in my whole life that my greatest encounter, my greatest vision of God in my life…would be on a bus.
