NSC 2019

Well Emily and I just got back this past Wednesday afternoon from the 2019 National Student Conference up at Milligan College in Johnson City, TN this week. We had the honor and privilege to serve as worship leaders for this years conference. After spending some time resting and recovering from a whirlwind of a conference, I figured I'd share some highlights with you guys.

Each day, we led our morning and evening worship times, with Monday evening being a bluegrass set (in honor of being in east Tennessee). On top of that, I also had the cool opportunity to teach/co-teach 5 sessions worth of workshops. I co-taught a 3-session workshop on the book of Revelation with an old friend who is a campus ministry up in Pennsylvania, and I taught a 2-session workshop on troubling texts found in the book of Romans. The biggest obstacle for the week was trying to do whatever I could to keep from losing my voice. Trust me, at times it proved a little difficult, haha!

A few things I took away from this year:

1. I was reminded (yet again) that God is faithful and will show up/do something powerful whenever you do what He asks you to do and you fully trust Him. Our scheduled speaker had to back out a week and a half prior to our conference beginning due to the discovery of a very aggressive form of cancer that required immediate testing/treatment. I had been praying and planning our worship sets since the better part of February of this year, so this obviously would cause ANYONE who is an enneagram classified type-1 significant stress. Nonetheless, I was blown away at just how PERFECT the song selections meshed with the teachings each evening.
2. I really enjoy teaching. I was borderline a nervous wreck for parts of my workshops. Yet I had students and ministers alike come up to me at the end of the sessions telling me just how much they learned, enjoyed, and were challenged from the material and presentation. You could say this is a continuation from the first takeaway in that I should trust that as long as I'm faithful and do what God calls me to do, I shouldn't worry too much because He's always going to show up and do His thing. =)
3. I love being creative and planning corporate worship services. They may cause me stress in every aspect of the process, but in the end I always breathe a sigh of relief and gratitude at: a) the opportunity God's given me to do it; b) the willingness of others to follow my leading and make abstract ideas into reality; and c) lead/see people to truly worship their God with full abandon and be reminded of His love and truth.

Overall, while exhausting, I would say that I miss this conference. In a way, I also hope that those who attended feel the same way. I hope that when everyone who was there looks back to what we did and experienced together, we all are filled with a deep sense of fondness and excitement, not the kind that only sits and reminisces, but the kind that will move us forward into what we're being called to do.

God showed up. God was praised. We were all challenged, encouraged, and motivated to return to our areas and respond to Jesus' call to 'Go.' So let's go!

18 Jesus came up and said to them, “All authority (all power of absolute rule) in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations [help the people to learn of Me, believe in Me, and obey My words], baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always [remaining with you perpetually—regardless of circumstance, and on every occasion], even to the end of the age.”

Matthew 28.18-20 (The Amplified Bible) 

Review: A Tale of Three Kings

A Tale of Three Kings by Gene Edwards
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I read this book in the span of about an hour and a half while waiting for my car to be serviced. It was a recommended reading by my brother-in-law and I thoroughly enjoyed it! Edwards does a good job of creating a drama-like story involving King Saul, David, and Absalom. Throughout the story, you see the inner-character of a person undergo pressing and testing, while facing opportunities at every corner to compromise who he is and become someone he never was. Overall, you'll find yourself asking yourself questions about how you might be becoming (or already are) a 'King Saul' or a 'King David'. If you take it seriously and truly wrestle with the questions, scenarios, and illustrations provided, you can't help but walk away with a brutally honest assessment of your inner attitude and perspective on your life and service in relation to God's kingdom. Certainly a highly recommended read!

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Review: Extreme Prayer: The Impossible Prayers God Promises to Answer

Extreme Prayer: The Impossible Prayers God Promises to Answer by Greg Pruett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a very quick read. Using personal stories from the mission field as well as from his years of leading Pioneer Bible Translators, Greg Pruett invites us in to experience just how powerful prayer is as a regular practice. He explores passages from Scripture, as well as outlines what he means by 'extreme' prayer. I recommend this book as one to read if you're interested in reading up on prayer. It's certainly a quick read, it includes discussion questions, and it an excellent encouragement to invest more time in prayer.

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Review: Who Gets to Narrate the World?: Contending for the Christian Story in an Age of Rivals

Who Gets to Narrate the World?: Contending for the Christian Story in an Age of Rivals by Robert E. Webber
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Overall a decent book. I'm reading it along with Ravi Zacharias' "Why Jesus?" and it seems to be a good, smaller, companion read. While at times it was a little tough to follow and mentally process, I do appreciate the overall movement of the book, as it's an effort to call the church to remember and restore her place and position from WITHIN God's narrative, rather than standing on the outside, looking in. Webber argues that to do the latter forces one to succumb to the culture's terms in 'defending' God via reason rather than via His truth. It's certainly a thought-provoking read and worth checking out if you have nothing better to read right now and are interested in how today's church is engaging with today's world. I'll keep it on my shelf for reference, but I'm not sure it's one that I'll put in my "definitely re-read" pile.

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Living the NEW life... with all of our "Heart, Soul, Mind, & Strength"

This is a blog post that I started way back in the middle of April and have only recently gotten to finish it. Hopefully it'll be an encouragement to you, as you read about God's work in my life and in my spiritual growth.

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Recently I've made some changes to my life. For starters, I'm more purposeful about exercising moderation and self-control when it comes to eating. From there I've started to exercise… well... me! I've been getting up earlier to make time in my day to take care of what God's given to me. I'm not just talking about my physical body. There's a temptation to begin there (which isn't necessarily a bad thing) and then to STAY there (which I would argue isn't a good thing). A verse I've always been fascinated by is the shema from Deuteronomy 6, which Jesus pulled from (and amended) with another scripture from the Old Testament from Leviticus 19. New Testament scholar Scot McKnight calls this the 'Jesus Creed' (I like that). Within this passage, Jesus affirms the words spoken in Deuteronomy 6 to the nation of Israel for how we are to live our lives,

"Hear, O [people of YHWH]: YHWH our God, YWHW is one. You shall love YHWH with all your heart and with all soul and with all your strength." (Deuteronomy 6.4)

I REALLY like Mark's rendition [Mark 12.30] of it because it adds [clarifies may be a more appropriate word/understanding] 'and with all your mind'. From studying and meditating on scripture using 'The Jesus Creed' as a lens over the past decade, my understanding of how to care, live, and worship has grown and matured. This is why I said simply STAYING with the physical exercise application of caring for your body is probably not a good idea. I would like to share what I have learned over the years with you... and hope that what I have learned serves as an encouragement for you! NEVER do I want to come across in a way that's demeaning or condemning. My prayer is that others may experienced the joy, freedom, and growth that I feel in their own life! This is my humble contribution to the conversation, to which so many have already contributed.

Loving with all of your... HEART (καρδία)

The word for heart [καρδία] caries a nuanced usage within the New Testament. Its meanings can range from:

• Physical heart (the actual muscle)
• Its parallel in Hebrew is לֵב is ; 
• One's emotions 
• Example: Romans 9.2 
• A blending with what we typically think of today when we talk about decisions, attitudes, and will. 
• Example: Matthew 11.29; Luke 21.14

If you were to explore the corresponding Hebrew word [לֵב], you'd also find these meanings to ring true throughout the Old Testament.

Allowing these types of usages to roll around in our minds for a little bit, we'll walk away with a better idea of how to apply this important teaching, highlighted by Jesus.

To love God with all of our 'heart', we take all of our will (desires), attitudes (thoughts), decisions (plans), and emotions (feelings), and subject them to the Lordship of Jesus. (I would like to add as well, the command is for ALL... not just SOME.) This is not easy. This is hard. This is unnatural. This is

(dare I say) un-American (with all of today's encouragements to pursue OUR OWN life, OUR OWN liberty, and OUR OWN happiness). This truth was hard for me to learn... and even harder for me to consistently apply at times:

To love God will all of our 'heart', we might have to sacrifice [i.e. kill... not just postpone to a later, opportune time] things we feel like we deserve, have an inherent right to have, and are given.

Loving with all of your... SOUL (ψυχή)

In my undergraduate studies, I was part of a group project where we planned an entire service around this word. (In fact, that project is still with me EVERY week because my wife (then fiancé) got ahold of it and ordered a custom guitar strap with this logo printed down the side. I loved and still love to lead others in praising our savior with that guitar strap with me.) This is a very fun word to study, especially because our western culture has been so formed and influenced by the thoughts and teachings of Plato, that we tend to think about 'soul' SEPARATE from the physical body. Yet in Hebrew thought, they were not separate [i.e. the soul being the true 'you' and just inhabiting a body shell], but both were parts of a whole. In other words, both your physical and non-physical 'portions' made up the person of you.

1. Soul
2. Your very life essence

To love God with all of our 'soul', we might have to put in the effort to alter our thinking about what God desires and to what extent of our lives we might have thought He only cared about!

Loving with all of your... MIND (διάνοια)

This one has always been a big one for me. I've recently been introduced to a personality tool called the 'enneagram', and I discovered I'm a type 1. If you know what that means, then I'm going to guess this revelation doesn't come as a surprise. If you have no earthly idea what I'm talking about, here's one quick summary of what a type 1 person might be like:

(The following was borrowed from Beth McCord and her website: https://www.yourenneagramcoach.com.)

Type Ones are people who are conscientious, sensible, ethical, responsible, idealistic, serious, self-disciplined, orderly, and feel personally obligated to improve themselves and their world.

What drives a Type One to think, feel, and behave in particular ways?

Core Fear:
Being wrong, bad, evil, inappropriate, unredeemable, or corruptible.

Core Desire:
Having integrity, being good, balanced, accurate, virtuous, and right.

Core Weakness:
Resentment—repressing anger that leads to continual frustration and dissatisfaction with themselves, others, and the world for not being perfect.

Core Longing (message they long to hear):
“You are good.”

I've always been one who LOVES to learn and grow in understanding! I tell people quite often, "If it were affordable, I would NEVER leave school!" So to love God with all of my MIND, I would say, is probably the one that comes the most naturally for me (… if I can even say that!). Yet I've recently wanted to do more and be more purposeful/effective in my 'loving'. So I've made a more conscious effort/commitment to spend less time with entertainment and vegetating, and more time reading and learning. I'm hopeful that I'll continue to sharpened not JUST by reading books, but by also engaging Scripture on a bigger scale more frequently. Looking at other places where the word for mind is used, we can see a 'bigger' picture at work than just 'mental knowledge'.

To love God with all of our 'mind', we might have sacrifice times of entertainment that won't lead to growth/refinement, and replace it with methods of engagement in sharpening our minds!

Loving with all of your... STRENGTH (ἰσχύς)

This fun little word [it's only found 10 places in our New Testaments] can mean anything along the lines of: strength, might, power, force, and ability. In light of all this, here's some things I've committed to doing differently to increase my strength/ability/ and might at better loving God AND loving others!

• I've been consistently getting up earlier that I have in the past 7 years.
• I've engaged in a 90-day chronological reading plan through scripture (with the hope of continuing and reading the entire Bible 4 times every year) [Since beginning this, I have indeed finished. Because of traveling so much, I missed the goal of 90 days by 15, and completed reading the Bible chronologically on day 105. I'm also probably going to switch to an aim of reading through the Bible twice a year to allow more time for in-depth studies of various passages.]
• I've been more conscious about what I eat and how much of it I consume at a time. [My wife and I are currently over halfway through a detox from the 'Daniel Plan' book. I won't lie, it has been rough at times. On the flip side, I'm feeling fuller faster, less hungry overall, and I've lost 10 lbs thus far. Progress.]
• I've put things in place to encourage the practice of more of the spiritual disciplines with which God has graced us
• I've committed to live a life of love toward and for other people, fueled by the improved/fit self I'm conditioning. [In other words, I'm going to the gym more consistently to promote better living.]

To love God with all of our 'strength', we might have to begin ridding ourselves of some routines and pick up new ones, thus sharpening our 'ability', not 'squandering' our strength but allowing us to use ALL of it that we have at our disposal.

Looking back from today to where I was pre-April, I can see a MAJOR difference. It's exciting! It motivates me to continue! It actually causes me to crave more! Do I still need to grow? ABSOLUTELY! In fact one of the areas of growth that I've seen in myself, is the ability to see where I still need to grow! As an enneagram type 1, that would normally drive me crazy! Yet by God's grace and the guidance of His Holy Spirit in my life, I now look at these places as challenges that I crave to face head-on, right in-step with Him.

I hope and pray that this post serves as an encouragement for someone. I know it's hard to change something that is all that you've known, but if I could nudge you with one last piece of advice/encouragement to do so, it would be this:

It's SO worth it. It's hard. You'll feel left out when others are talking about shows you've missed because you've cut them out in order to love God with all of you, but it's worth it. There will be days where you'll face discouragement, but it's worth it. There will be things that will happen in your life that will try to derail you, believe me, I know! Yet it's still worth it. Looking back at this part of my journey that I took a leap of faith, trusting the Holy Spirit to guide me, and began, I can't believe some of the things that I have experienced. I can't believe the things that I've learned. I can't believe the boldness/courage that I feel growing inside. I can't believe how much more I KNOW God and His love for me. So, will you take a leap of faith? Will you make more room in your life in order to experience the FULL life Jesus came to bring? If you do, I PROMISE, it's SO worth it!

Review: The Minimalist Home: A Room-By-Room Guide to a Decluttered, Refocused Life

The Minimalist Home: A Room-By-Room Guide to a Decluttered, Refocused Life by Joshua Becker
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was a great book! I wasn't super familiar with the whole 'minimalist' thing before reading this book, but I feel like this was a fantastic introduction to it! I loved how Becker talked about the reasoning behind much of what he advocated, yet at the same time emphasized that each person has their own level of minimizing that they wish to achieve. It was a breath of fresh air compared to what I had heard from others who were advocating minimizing, almost to the point of demeaning you if you didn't see 100% alike.

From reading about the stories and the opportunities that Joshua and his family get to experience and participate in now since they have begun their minimalist journey, I found myself encouraged to purge some things from my life as well. It was really cool to read stories from real people who are all at different points of their journey, and to see/hear about their victories, struggles, and hopes. In fact, after reading this book, I started to clean out my office at work and get rid of some things in order to be more open.

This book is set up in an ingenious way, working from one area of the home to another, beginning with the easiest and moving on toward the most difficult. At the end of each chapter, there is a checklist/guide included to help you go about putting into practice what you've just read. I highly recommend this book to everyone! From the little bit that I've done thus far in beginning to purge things, there is something to reversing the course on consumerism and living with 'less' in order to enjoy/experience more!

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Review: The Leading Brain: Powerful Science-Based Strategies for Achieving Peak Performance

The Leading Brain: Powerful Science-Based Strategies for Achieving Peak Performance by Friederike Fabritius
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was an absolutely phenomenal book! I got the recommendation to read it and was able to borrow it from my brother-in-law, and I'm sure glad I listened! First of all, yes, this book has research, reports, and all of that fun stuff in it, however it's presented in a SUPER readable and enjoyable format. I enjoyed this book SO much that I'm definitely going to get myself my own copy and even recommend our staff read it at some point.

It was refreshing to read about the science and research being explored on our brains and what all they do. In fact, there was so many helpful pieces of information in this book that I found myself writing notes on what I was reading so I wouldn't forget and I'd be able to share with others whenever opportunities arise.

I would certainly recommend this book for anyone looking to read a 'leadership' book, but also to anyone just looking to read something that will help you live a healthier life. This book will help you understand why your brain (and body) react they way they do to certain things around, as well as provide practical suggestions on how to the improve and overcome the situations and factors you can control around you.

Do yourself a favor and grab a copy to read! It's certainly informative, entertaining, and it reads fast!

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