Feeling overwhelmed?

Leave a reply

I have noticed a pattern in life.  It is a little like the washing machine wash, spin, rinse, repeat.  We tend to go through this pattern in life where we pile up on the anxieties of life on our back.  We carry the weight of our family, we take the phone call from our friend that needs a little help, we take on extra tasks at work, we go to events to keep people happy, we help out at our kid’s school so we don’t look like bad parents, we help out at church, we coach our kids little league, we help a friend in need, and we just keep adding things on and on until it is exhausting.

Continue reading →

God is so generous

Leave a reply

God has been so gracious to our country that we don’t really know what it is like to be hungry.  If we wait for our meal for more than 15 minutes we start looking around to complain about the waiter taking so long.  However, there are some parts of our world where people go hungry every day.

I remember growing up as a kid and having nights where we were really hungry.  We would eat cheese and mayo sandwiches, we wouId add pickle juice to our water for flavor, and I remember going over to my friends house and seeing so many boxes of cereal and thinking, “When you get rich you get to buy a lot of boxes of cereal.”

Continue reading →

What makes Jesus attractive?

1 Reply

I met Jesus when I was 18 years old.  I am 36 today.  I am 50/50 in life with Jesus and life without Jesus.  Recently I was reading a book called Humility by C.J. Mahaney and reflecting on the last 18 years.  I know there is a whirlwind of spiritual activity in our life when it comes to the works of the Holy Spirit, but when I look back on my relationship with Jesus I noticed there are a number of different attractions to Jesus throughout my life.

The first attraction was stability.  I was 18 years old.  A season of life that contains a lot of transition.  I had been raised to be independent and at an early age and I felt a lack of stability.  I wondered if Jesus could bring that stability.  What if He was real?  What if He was true?  It was a blind leap for me, but I kept coming back to, “What if?”  It was those two words that radically changed the rest of my life.

As I continued to mature spiritually I was drawn to Jesus because of the character He would bring into my life.  I could learn responsibility.  I could mature.  I could have discipline.  I was in my early 20’s and my life felt like an endless roller coaster.  I saw other men in my life that had a relationship with Jesus and I was impressed by their character.  I wondered, “What if I could have that type of character?”

As I continued into my mid 20’s my attraction to Jesus continued to evolve.  I had experienced some stability, some character; not a lot, but some.  I began to become attracted to Jesus because of leadership and influence. I saw that there were truths in Scripture that were beneficial to the lives of other people and if I could communicate those truths it could lead to leadership and influence.

Continue reading →

Allandale Food Drive

Leave a reply

On Saturday we did a food drive for a local neighborhood.  It was awesome!  It was our 2nd year to host the food drive.  Last year we saw almost 700lbs come in and this year we saw just over 1100lbs of food come in to donate to the Capital Area Food Bank.  That is total food weight minus packaging materials.  Isn’t that awesome?

On Sunday we looked at a passage in 1 Peter 4 as it called us to share in the sufferings of Christ.  It isn’t that participating in the sufferings of Christ makes up what is lacking in Christ’s death on the cross because Jesus fully takes the penalty of our sin at the cross.  It is that through faith in Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection we get to participate in the reconciliation of humanity, and last weekend we got to experience a part of that reconciliation.

The food drive primarily focuses on one neighborhood.  Can you imagine the impact as we begin to open the food drive up to neighborhoods all over North Central Austin!

Adopt A Family

Leave a reply

Over the Christmas holiday our church has an opportunity to adopt 10 families from Lucy Read Pre K.  Lucy Read is the only Pre K school in Austin and does not receive any Title I funds.

We see this as a great opportunity to connect with the children and families of Lucy Read and serve them through the season of Christmas.  Just as Jesus blessed the world through His birth we have an opportunity to bless others.

There will be 10 families that will give us details about the needs their family has during this time of the year and everyone in our church is encouraged to take ownership of this opportunity.  Our hope is that each family would be adopted and the average cost would be $200.  If you have any questions please contact Michael.

On Sunday mornings you can grab a family to take ownership of and bring their wrapped presents back by December 12th.

Missional Gatherings

Leave a reply

When we started North Village Church we didn’t want to create a church that was simply satisfied with getting a bunch of people together on Sunday morning.  We wanted it to be an agent that sent people out to participate in what God is doing in our city.

For us this happens through missional gatherings.  We have 4 of them right now.  3 in neighborhoods and 1 in an apartment complex.  They are all at different stages from 2 months to 2 years.  They all have somewhat of a different format, but they are all similar in that they exist to invite their friends, neighbors, and co-workers into their lives to explore spiritual truths and deepen relationships.

I am good guy

Leave a reply

On Wednesday I was in Downtown Dallas and I walked by the filming of the Fox Television show “The Good Guys.” I am not familiar with the show, but it is always fun to walk by a little Hollywood action. I walked past one of the actors from the show and thought about saying something, but all I could come up with was, “Hey, aren’t you one of those guys from that television show?” and that didn’t sound very compelling so I just kept walking. Plus, what am I going to say when he answers, “Yeah, I am.” I didn’t really see the conversation going anywhere, but then I did start to think about how often I hear people talking about being a good guy.

In our culture today we hear people often refer to themselves as “good guys.” We might say, “I try to do the right thing or I am not like those other people” and those are just different ways of saying, “I am good guy.” This is especially true in church culture. Good guys go to church. Good guys do the right thing. Good guys do right by their family. Good guys help out in the community. Good guys pay their bills on time. Good guys might buy a sports car, but he never speeds more than 5 miles over the speed limit. Why? Because he’s a good guy. Good guys might mess up everyone once in a while, but nobody’s perfect, and basically he’s a good guy.
Continue reading →

Character of a Christ-follower

Leave a reply

Recently I was talking with a friend as he was wrestling with some decisions in his life as a Christ-follower and it reminded me of some good council I once received:

1. Pursue Holiness: Our holiness only comes through faith in Jesus Christ and because of that relationship we get to walk in holiness. Although this sounds like a really big religious word for people who shave their head and go by names like “Guru Joe” it really just means we are set apart to live for His glory and His purposes. Pursuing holiness simply means to repent of our sin and run to Jesus. We will deceive ourselves with thoughts like, “I have been working really hard, I deserve it, it isn’t that big of deal, some people do a lot worse, nobody will ever find out”, and instead of making excuses for sin we would do better to run from sin, run to Jesus, and repent.

2. Read the Bible and do what it says. Sounds simple enough but it is easy for our hearts and mind to drift from Scripture. We can be stubborn and rely on our own strength and our own ability, but if we are allowing Scripture to touch our heart it will make a difference.

3. Open your life. It is easy to be private. We tell ourselves other people won’t understand. We don’t want to look stupid. We are suppose to be leaders. What will people think. Those are all thoughts that keep us from opening our life to other people. We would do better to open up our life so that people can speak into it and sometimes tell us things we don’t want to hear.

Community Soccer Camps

Leave a reply

Our church hosts soccer camps once a month for the community. It is pretty cool. We set up goals, cones, throw out some soccer balls and have different people coach the kids through drills. We meet for 2 hours in a local park and average about 10-15 children show up and learn how to play soccer.

While the children learn soccer we will take the opportunity to get to know the families and learn how our church can better serve the community.

On October 16th we are going to host some soccer drills at Summitt Elementary for their fall festival!

My son’s singing debut!

Leave a reply

Tucker and I were driving in the car the other day and he started to sing a song. I am not completely sure what he is saying, but to some degree he is saying the same thing over and over.

It had Kennedy having so much fun I couldn’t help but to record his singing. So turn up the volume and jam out to the future of rock-n-roll’s greatest hits, “What’s the big idea?”

Tuck’s Big Idea

Crafting a Message

Leave a reply

Sometimes I use a program called Mindjet to craft a message. It is pretty crafty. The idea is that we don’t always think in a linear mode, therefore, the program allows you to chart your ideas in a circular rotation with thoughts and ideas fitting in as you brainstorm / pray through a message.

I was on a plane this week working on the beginning stages of the message I taught this last Sunday and the person next to me thought it was really interesting to see how a message comes together. I had never really thought about it before, but I thought I would post it for others to see. In the end I don’t end up teaching on everything I put in the diagram, but if you want to listen to the finished message you can click here.

Do we pray for His kingdom or our kingdom?

Leave a reply

In Matthew 6 Jesus is teaching the disciples about prayer and in the midst of the prayer Jesus says, “Your kingdom come your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

This language might sound a little odd to us because we live in a democracy, however, Scripture teaches us we have a God who is a righteous and benevolent king and he is establishing his kingdom here on earth. At first we might twitch a little because we have memories of horrible kings throughout world history, but this king is perfect, loving, just, and all powerful. It is a kingdom that will be established for eternity.

In Matthew 6 Jesus is teaching us to pray for His kingdom. Yet, if we are honest we mostly pray for our kingdom. If you turn on the television, radio, or walk in a bookstore you will see that most people are teaching about how God is here to help us get our kingdom started. We have reduced God to a little rabbit’s foot for good luck. We pray for God to help us get through college, God help me get married, God help me get a good job, God help us get a good house, God help our children be safe, God help us have a good retirement, God help us have good health. Those things aren’t bad, but God isn’t here to help us build our little kingdoms. Our kingdoms would be horrible. Our kingdoms would destroy creation, elevate the wealthy, overlook criminal activity, neglect the needy, abuse women, prey upon children, oh wait…
Continue reading →

Bar-B-Que In Texas

2 Replies

This weekend my family and I made a trip to Lockhart, TX to try their BBQ. It was a lot of fun. There are three places in Lockhart that are known for their BBQ and we tried all three. We went into each place and tried 1/4 Brisket, link of sausage, and beans.

The three places are:

Kreuz’s Market

Black’s BBQ

Smitty’s Market

All three were awesome and had a ton of character. Kreuz’s Market looked like it had been remodeled recently. Huge parking lot and easy to spot when you are driving into Lockhart. I was a little concerned when I walked in and was greeted by the heat in a large open room, but it was where you would order your meat right out of the smoker. Fortunately they had an air conditioned room to sit down and enjoy your meal. They wrap your meat in paper, give you a knife (no fork, no sauce), some bread and you go inside the next room to order your sides. We just ordered some beans and actually they were the highlight of the meal. The brisket and sausage was good, but the beans had chunks of tomato and green bell pepper. It was awesome. Tons of spice and flavor. The brisket was a good, and the sausage was a little gritty for my taste, but overall it was a good start.
Continue reading →