Some really cool things have been happening here in Wisconsin. We are meeting new people all of the time. I work with a guy that I have a lot in common with. We both like 80's metal and hair bands. It is so neat to see how God takes conversations about who is singing lead in Boston now, and sculpts them into spiritual conversations.

One of the greatest things God is teaching me right now is how gigantic the scope of the mundane is to Him. Shane Claiborne in his book Irresistible Revolution, describes the summer he spent living and working with Mother Theresa. One of Momma T's (as he calls her) favorite sayings is "We do not need to do great things only small things with great love." I'm convinced more and more that this is what God wants from us as we make our spiritual journeys here on this planet. Whether it is a conversation about the guitar stylings of Richi Sambora or serving the neighbor across the street by helping them with their snow blowing (Which I have yet to do). We need to be available to do small things with great love every single day.

There is no greater feeling than to wake up and recognize that you are living in a strange land. To daily be aware that anything of spiritual weight of eternal consequence that happens through the day will be absolutely dependent on the action of God. It is great to start your day with that overwhelming feeling that if God doesn't "show up" that you will be powerless to bring change around you. Here I have no contacts, no influence, no network to form a community of people from. All we have here is God and a handful of new friends who love us deeply and are passionate about what we are here to do. But every day that pushes us to fall in front of God and ask for His movement throughout the day. That's a pretty good place to be in my opinion. In fact that is the place we are all at. Sometimes, if your hard headed like me, we just need some of our comfort zones ripped away to remember just how much we need Him. I hope daily I will learn to let God use me in small ways to do things with great love. I hope I will recognize that the mundane is major to Him. And, I hope to see God do things that are huge with the tiny mustard seeds of trust that I learn to daily offer Him.

Hey family and friends. I thought I’d take a moment to give you a quick church planting update. The beginning of our putting down some roots here in Saukville has been kind of like a roller coaster. Bailey and I were able to make it to a Packer game this weekend. That was an experience of a lifetime. There are lots of moments like that, that God has given us that brings great joy. The flipside of the coin is this “Pioneer” church planting as they call it is hard stuff. Pioneer planters move to an unfamiliar area, begin to build relationships, and eventually plant a church there. We are meeting lots of new and nice people which is what we are here for. That’s the great part.

Our first Thanksgiving away from family and friends was really hard. We have great friends here in the McCaskills and the Martells. Bill and Kathy let us do Thanksgiving with their family which was so encouraging and much needed during a time of tough transitions. Still our first Thanksgiving without MeMaw’s dressing at Danell’s Mom’s and not getting to see all the Parker clan we see only twice a year was a little sad. Danell and the girls are troopers but this move has really been tough on them. As most of you who know me well know, I try to stay positive about where we are in life, but I mention all this because we really covet your prayers right now. Just keep praying for encouragement and friendships for Danell and the girls. I need wisdom in knowing what job I should settle into. I have a couple of options now, which is great, but we want to know which is best.

It’s a weird thing. Our lives right now are kind of like they are plugged into an amplifier. The highs are much higher and the lows are much lower. Everything, for lack of a better term, is ….well amplified. Thank you all so much for your prayers, we sense them like never before. Everyday God seems to just pour Himself out in my time spent with Him. For that I’m so thankful. He is faithful and has great plans ahead for us. We are growing with every trial we face. Whatever happens here in Saukville, Wisconsin I’m convinced that God is going to be at work in some real and powerful ways. We sure love you guys. Thanks for your friendship, prayers, and continual encouragement. Our Arkansas friends, new Wisconsin friends, and those of you scattered all over the globe mean so much to us. God bless.

I will never forget my first trip deer hunting. I was invited to hunt on a friend’s cousin’s family land. It was very early morning, we were all walking quietly through the woods to our stands and suddenly this flash of brown and white bounded into the trail several of us were walking. This deer immediately turned running down the trail away from us. Before I could, think, look, or even aim, I hurled my shot gun into the air and fired. Of course I missed and thankfully so. The deer was a doe, it wasn’t doe season, the hunter’s morning was pretty much ruined, and I’m sure I was voted most popular by this deer hunting family that hardly knew me.

This morning I was reading in Psalm 11 about how God loves “righteous” deeds and how the “upright” will behold God’s face. What an awesome invitation from God. Basically if we are righteous we will experience God, face to face, up close and personal. I’m coming to believe that righteousness is more about aim than it is about adherence to a code. Sort of like deer hunting.

I don’t know about you but the word righteous has always evoked one of two emotions in me. One, I picture Wayne and Garth from Wayne’s world saying things like “Righteous guitar solo duuuude!” The other I picture Pharisaical types looking down their nose at the rest of us saying you should be “righteous” like me…and God. So if you have to be righteous to see God, that has never sounded very appealing to me.

So today I thought I’d do some research on the word righteous. I had the time since my current occupation is church planter (ie unemployed). For the Jews being righteous is much more than living by a code or set of rules and regulations. The words righteous and upright were used by the Jews to mean pretty much the same thing. To live “strait.” They saw righteousness as something God has and allows to flow into our lives. God even said Job was “perfect” in righteousness. That doesn’t mean he was sinless it just means he let God flow into every arena of his existence. All parts of Job’s life were open to God.

Being righteous happens when people let God flow though their lives at every level. It is living “Strait”; pointed toward a purpose. It means aiming God at every corner of your life and pulling the trigger. Righteous living is getting up every day and having a target. It is not wildly shooting at life from the hip. It is not vainly attempting to shoot down every thing that pops up in our path through the day. It is getting up and knowing God is our target and letting him permeate everything we do through the day.

I once saw a bumper sticker that said “I missed my ex-wife…but my aim is getting better.” I sure hope my aim is getting better as I get up and try to target God each new day. Here’s to daily target practice, lots of misses, a few bulls eyes, but ever increasing accuracy in our walk.

We are Cheese Heads!

We are officially residents of Saukville, Wisconsin. I spent this morning hanging out in Carol’s Coffee shop, what is sure to be my new haunt, talking with some new friends. We are settling in to our new neighborhood.

We had a rough couple of days transitioning to life in Wisconsin. In fact the night we arrived we couldn’t find our street. The reality hit us that we were about to be living on a street we had never been to in a house we had never seen. We were all a little overwhelmed the first night and into the second day. In fact we discussed just not unloading the Uhaul and turning around and going back to Arkansas. Thank God we didn’t.

Our friends Bill & Cathy, Dave & Sue, and Tim & Lisa came on Sunday and moved us in. They hoisted all our heavy junk, including a piano, up and down two stories and a basement. They even brought us homemade food and gave us a love gift from New Life Community Church. God has so blessed us by having friends like those at New Life.

After the first couple of days here Bailey and Maizey have already made several friends. The kids on our block all come out and play after school everyday. We live at the top of the tallest hill in our neighborhood. Needless to say that attracts all kinds of kids on bikes and skateboards.

The neighbors have been great. Coming over and welcoming us to the community, bringing us bread and treats for Tallulah. There is a real community feel in this area. I’ve already met some great people and think I will meet many more.

I start sometime in the next couple of weeks with UPS working as a Driver Helper over the holidays. Hopefully that may turn into something full time. Thanks for all your prayers family and friends. We are reaping the results of them like never before in our lives. And, I say that from the bottom of my heart. We love you and will keep you posted. By the way, it has been in the 70s but we are due to get some snow on Friday…Here we go with our 1st Wisconsin Winter.

Here we are in front of our Townhouse. We have great Landlords. John and Sue. Say a prayer for them this week. John is battling Leukemia and Sue is having surgery tomorrow. I think we have landed exactly where God wanted us to be. God bless.

I like to Move it Move it!!!

Hey family and friends. We are finishing packing the last of our boxes today. Tomorrow, Thursday the 30th we load the U-Haul and early Saturday morning we are hitting the road. We will be off line a couple of weeks while we make the move to Wisconsin but will update you with pictures and progress once we arrive. It will be strange to wake up this Sunday morning as residents of Saukville, Wisconsin. We believe God has good things ahead of us. Please pray for us as we will for you. God bless, we will talk again soon.

Believe

This morning I was sitting out in the cool morning air writing in a journal a friend gave me for logging our church planting journey in. I decided to start with the complete story of how God got us to where we are today.

As we draw near our actually moving day, Oct. 30th, we are beginning to face some of the strongest emotions we have ever had. Quite honestly I have had feelings lately of just calling this whole thing off. When I look at the ‘factors’ the future seems bleak. Factors like cost of living, no job yet, living in a town house next door to your landlords with two loud kids, 1 piano, 2 guitars, one set of drums, and a 120 lb. dog. We have grown accustomed to living in our own place by our own rules. Pile on top of that the prospects of starting a church comprised of people I’ve never met before and it all gets a little overwhelming.

I’d pull the covers of my heart back and let you see more but honestly I’m tired of crying and you would probably get tired of reading. So this morning as I reflected back on where this all started eight years ago, God really reminded me of some things. About five years ago God placed in Danell and I the desire to start a new church. A church that would be for people who don’t go to church or may never even think about church. We tried lots of avenues for getting started in doing that but none of those roads seem to lead anywhere, until…. One afternoon we sat in the kitchen of our church parsonage and listened to a tape by Rick Warren about how God called him to strike out to a place he’d never been before and start a church unlike any before it. As we sat crying in our kitchen. We knew what God was saying it was time to do. Shortly after that we left our church, our home, our income and set out to start a new church in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Those who know our story know that God had a plan slightly different from ours. We ended up starting X perience, a Saturday night service for spiritually confused searchers.

What God really hit me with this morning as I wrote in my journal was profound for me. The first time I set out to do this I didn’t really have any more blanks filled in than I do now. The only difference was the last time we rolled the dice we landed on home. This time we’ve landed on the other side of the playing board. Over the last four years, after striking out into the unknown, we have bought our first home, renovated it into just what we dreamed it could one day be. We have built deeper friendships than we have ever had anywhere before. We’ve seen God change peoples lives completely around. We have friends who will spend eternity with us that would not have four years ago. I’ve made better money than I’ve ever made in my life. And I’ve learned more in the last four years than in the 34 that preceded them combined.

God hit me this morning with the reality that He is always there. What overwhelms me now will one day be stones stacked along side the road or in the river bed that will serve as reminders of all God did along the way. I pray you and I will trust Him for every step of the journey in front of us. He is always faithful. God, help me never forget that when the clouds of life block my view of You. We love you guys. By the way, we sense your prayers like never before. Please keep them coming. Thank you so much for your faithfulness, friends and family.

We are go for launch

Astronauts train for years to hear those five words. It is the dream of many pilots to leave the pull of earth’s atmosphere and rocket into the vast vacuum of space. I wonder what it must feel like to strap on 165,000 lbs. of Space Shuttle and wait for several hours to be shot into space at 17,500 mph.? I think it is probably terrifying, exciting, nerve twisting, and exhilarating all at the same time. You’ve trained for years for this moment. But, as you feel the rocket thrusters begin to kick in and that voice in your ears count off the final ten seconds of what has taken 15 years to happen, you must have a flood of emotion. I wonder if you think of Challenger and how it exploded before it escaped Earth’s atmosphere? Or if Columbia’s disaster over the skies of Texas flashes through your brain?

This weekend we seem to have gotten the word that we are go for launch on our church planting journey. I’m hesitant to say “We sold our house.” We’ve learned over the last month these things have a way of getting Scrubbed on the launching pad. But, it seems like this time we really are about to launch into a whole new world for our family. We have been in training for this moment for around eight years now. That’s when we first began to feel God was leading us toward church planting. With all the excitement of preparing to live out your dream sometimes you don’t stop to think of what it will be like when the thrusters kick in and God begins to propel you at a high rate of speed into the very thing for which you’ve been preparing for years. Thoughts of fear, failure, DISASTER flash before your eyes. You begin to wonder what if this thing all blows up around me? And when you look around the cockpit and see your wife and two little girls you realize how high the steaks really are.

But, with all the pre-launch jitters we feel like God has called us to this adventure, we are strapped in, and all signs are the final count down has begun. If all goes according to plan we will be making the move to Wisconsin sometime around the end of October. Thank you for your prayers family and friends. Please keep them up. This time it truly seems that we are go for launch. I’ll update you late with details. Houston, unless we have a problem, my next post may be from the great state of Wisconsin…GO PACK GO!