New Faces

One of my favorite parts of being involved in YWAM is getting to meet so many new people. One of the main way this happens is through the training schools we run. Just about a month ago we started our Fall Discipleship Training School (DTS). I has been really great getting to know these students and seeing how God is working in their lives. The guys in the pictures with me are James, who I am discipling while he goes through his DTS, and Wilson who is apprenticing under me during this school.






My wife, who talked me into starting this whole blogging bit, was recently featured as a guest blogger on a friends site, which has since been re-posted on numerous other blogs. Check out my super creative wife's blog here

Fantastical

I recently returned from a very enjoyable visit to Waco, Texas. The purpose of the visit was David Crowder's Fantastical Church Music Conference. I attended with a couple of friends. We enjoyed times of teaching from Francis Chan, Rob Bell, Louis Giglio, and others. We also had great times of worship with Crowder, Mike Crawford and his secret siblings, Hillsong London and many more. The overall theme of the conference was the question, "why do we sing?" While that question was answered in many different ways, I came away dwelling on the following thoughts:
1) Finding a way to use creativity within the church as a tool while avoiding it becoming a distraction.
2) As someone who looks for the best ways to share truth cross-culturally I was challenged to do the same through the words of the songs I write for the American church as well.
3) Looking at and evaluating our churches through the light of scripture rather than our own cultural biases.

On the fun side of things, we enjoyed some of the best restaurant food (I must state "restaurant" because nothing beats my wife's home cooking) I've ever eaten. If anyone is ever in Waco, I highly recommend stopping for a meal at Georges, home of the El Nino potato (pictured below), and crazy wings (chicken wing stuffed with jalapeno, then wrapped with Pepper Jack Cheese and Bacon). Absolutely Glorious

yes, that's 1 lb of baked potatoes loaded with chicken-fried steak,
then doused with gravy and Cheddar cheese