B90X... sort of

Hey there!

First, I want to say thank you to all of our friends and family who have accepted the challenge of reading through the Bible with Allie and me, and each other, over the next few months. The format that we will be using is taken from Elevation Church (and many thanks go to them for the idea), hence their logo on the pdf. The reading schedule is designed so that from start to finish the Bible can be read in 88 days, leaving 2 grace days for things that come up. My purpose for this is to build a better habit of spending time with God, not to barrel through the Bible. Therefore, we will be reading through in 100 days, not the 90 that the schedule says. With the holidays upon us and everybody’s busy life-schedules I figure that 12 grace days will provide enough wiggle room for the people who need it. If that is not enough, take more time, please… my hope is that we can be strengthened and encouraged by one another to honor God by obediently seeking Him through His Word.

Starting today (Nov. 23), if we spend 100 days reading through the Bible, we will finish on March 3rd (Ashleigh's birthday!). At some point during the weekend that follows (TBA) we will be having a party to celebrate our joint accomplishment. Through the process I expect you to keep me accountable to my reading and I intend to keep you accountable to yours.

HINTS:

- The reading plan is available here. Please print it off and carry it with your Bible, and print a copy to put on your mirror, and one on your refrigerator and in your car... it's so easy to forget so put it everywhere so you always remember to read, and always know what chapters to read that day.

- Remember that you have 12, not 2 grace days to skip your reading and still be on schedule. Use them however you wish but once they're gone, they're gone.

- When reading through the murky parts of the OT (Deut. Lev. etc) try reading an idea-for-idea translation. I would suggest the New Living Translation or Contemporary English Version (CEV) over even the NIV. The CEV in particular was translated to a 5.6 grade reading level which makes reading the laws much less painful.

- Online resources- Visit Youversion.com or Biblegateway.com for free versions of all translations. Youversion.com is what I would recommend as it allows you to view 2 parallel translations at once, have 2 windows open to do searches for keywords in one without disturbing the other, and has a built-in journal feature if you like to take notes.

- MP3 Bible- every week I will be making the week's reading available for MP3 download for those with extra busy schedules. To get these, please visit Dropbox and create an account. Dropbox is super cool and gives you 2GB of internet space to store and later access documents, or lets you share, like I'm doing. If you are joining reading through B90X through the blog, send me an email and I will send you the link to the MP3 files, and you can download those at your discretion. If you download the Dropbox program for your computer those files will sync automatically but make sure to move them to another folder on your PC as they will be updated weekly (every Monday). Email me if you didn't get the link and I'll send it your way.

- Blogging- My hope (not promise) is to keep up with the reading via my personal blog. My intention is to post some extra information pertaining to the reading, whether cultural, geographic, or otherwise. I naturally seek to know the surroundings of the text and will try to update my blog with that info for you. Visit, right here, if interested. Also, an additional copy of this email can be found there. Allie is also going to try to blog about it too, though she says its not a promise. Visit her blog at www.allisonmarkwood.com!

- Twitter/ Facebook- For those of you who care I will be tweeting updates as we progress as well, and would love to hear what God is showing you through this process. Visit http://www.twitter.com/sethmarkwood to follow along. For Facebook, visit http://www.facebook.com/sethmarkwood, but they will probably have the same updates. If you want to tweet about it, use the hash tag #B90X please so others can follow.

Finally, I want to encourage you guys both in word and in prayer. I will be praying for each one of you during this time, for the usual reasons but also so that we may all be built up in Christ through this experience. I consider myself blessed to have so many friends and family willing to embark on this exercise of spiritual growth and diligence with me. Thank you. Please keep in touch with updates and insights throughout the next 100 days and I look forward to partying with you on the other side of it. Let me know if you have any questions.

" And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified." - Acts 20:32
~ Seth Markwood

According to research by Thom Rainer, "most Americans have never been invited to church- never. Yet, 82% indicate that they would be at least 'somewhat interested' to attend if invited."

No Room

Why are so many church plants in the habit of building too small? Is it because their leaders have taken no time to examine church growth, or do they not expect growth to occur? My natural inclination is to assume it is because they value the building more than they value people, which is probably why they felt that building such a small building was acceptable. This past week I have examined the websites and/or buildings of 3 local church plants and in every case have been amazed at 1) the fact that they have a building at such a young church age and 2) the incredibly small size of their building. All three churches proport to be similar in style to the type of church I hope to plant. This brings to mind two thoughts. Either they are doing everything right and the culture is denying the style, or they are doing something very wrong.

I don't understand why a 2-year-old church needs a building in the first place, but when a church does finally get around to choosing a building, they are deciding how big their church can grow. Yes, they can add multiple services to help offset that, but whey would you add extra work for yourself if it is not necessary? What buying a small building so early on tells me is that the leaders do not have confidence in themselves as leaders, their priority is not to win souls but to be conformtable, and most importantly, they lack faith in God to help them reach people. If you truly feel that you must get a building as a young church plant, I would suggest getting the largest building you can get your hands on. As T.D. Jakes said about the widow and the oil (2 Kings 4), God can only fill you to your capacity to receive.

One of the things that I greatly admire about Elevation Church is that even with the number of people they have, and even with the money that they brought in to build a perminent location, they still meet in 3 locations, 2 of which are still schools. Perhaps one of the greatest advantages of meeting in a mobile location is that it naturally provides opportunities for people to serve. They have to set up and take down everything at those locations and they have men and women who do it gladly. Meeting in a high school also gives them a greater connection to the community. The auditorium is huge at the school and they manage to fill it 5 times a Sunday. No, after only 3 and a half years, they reach over 7000 people a week. Imagine if, instead of expanding into a second service or a second school, if they had made the decision to move into a small building. Would they have experienced the insane growth they have? More importantly, how would their ability to touch so many lives for Christ be affected?

A final note. Any student of church growth, or general growth principles, can tell you that there is a psychological element to growth that only involves the occupancy of a room. When a room is 70% occupied, sociologically, growth is encouraged. The sense is that whatever is going on in that room is exciting and people are naturally drawn to it. Anything less that 70% encourages people to leave, especially when lesser occupancy occurs after a period of hightened occupancy. In that case it feels as if decline has occured which naturally encourages people to leave. At 80%, growth becomes stagnant because at 80% the room seems full. At this size, people are not leaving because they still feel that something exciting is happening, but rarely will new people be added as the room already feels to be at capacity. When a room reaches 90%, there is a strong sense of overcrowding that encourages people to leave. (The only time that 90%+ is acceptable is in a situation that is more compelling than the urge to leave i.e. concerts, movie releases, Macy's parade, etc.) If decline happens too drastically, the natural response of those remaining in the room is also to leave, not because the room any longer feels crowded but because there is a sense of decline, a sense that what once made the room exciting is now gone.

Understanding this principle is paramount to growth because is a simple way to encourage new people to join the room. This can be done by creating a false room constraint. A large room can always be made to feel smaller through the use of fake walls. This occurs much more often than we realize. Many coliseums have curtains that block off certain sections of the room, and many times they employ ushers to force you into certain sections, even when there is no anticipated threat of over-crowding. Colleges and offices have room dividers, with the intent of making the room larger when the crowd needs it, but how often does a small crowd meet in an over-sized room? Elevation encourages growth in their auditorium but setting up curtains along each side set of seats and removing them as needed. This allows them to control the feel of the room, so they can always encourage growth. Small church building do not allow this luxury.

Owning a building makes it very difficult for you to find a larger venue. If you wish to keep your building, your best option is to expand, which requires much more money. As a young church plant, I have to wonder what the rush is. Nobody will deny that it is more comfortable to have a place to call your home, but at what cost? I have no expertise and am certainly no expert, but it seems to me that you shoot yourself in the foot when you pull the building trigger too soon. We need to remember that our purpose here is to be Christ's witness to the world, and to make them disciples. What must be examined is does having buying a small building help us, or hinder us toward that purpose? I'll let you decide.

Church Innovations

Philippians 1:15-18

15 It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill.16 The latter do so in love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel.17 The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains.18 But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.
Yes, and I will continue to rejoice,

11 Innovations in the Local Church, a book by Elmer Towns, Ed Stetzer, and Warren Bird, uses these verses to illustrate that the use of innovation in the local church should not be discouraged, even when we don't agree with the methods. Paul is clear here that the intent behind the proclamation of the Gospel is not important, as long as the message is preached. Therefore, we can conclude, if we wish, that the intention of the most disagreeable method used for proclaiming the Gospel is done so with an improper intention. Yet, we must conclude that it is good, as long as the message is being proclaimed.

The ramifications this has to the church world could be vast, if only the church were willing to hear it. Paul here is telling us that we should not worry about the methods being used to transmit the message, as long as the message is clear. Many churches are dying because they are unwilling to embrace new methods of reaching culture. They believe that changing methods would somehow be unBiblical, yet Paul's message says otherwise.

A prime example of this is the controversy that raged for many years, and still rages in some areas, over Christian Rock & Roll. Many churches rejected the idea that music they deemed as demonic could somehow be used in a God-glorifying way. Granted, throughout time what has become acceptable as "Christian" music is rarely different lyrically from what is found on the secular top 40, but the principle remains. According to Paul, we should not be bothered by Christian Rock & Roll, even if we disagree with Rock & Roll. What is important, says Paul, is that Christ is proclaimed.

Where care needs to be taken is when there is conflict in the method of transmission itself, and the message of the Bible. For example, getting drunk for Jesus would not be an effective ministry tool as drunkenness is contrary to scripture. When we compromise one aspect of Scripture to fulfill another, we are still in the wrong. When we encourage hatred, even with the best of intentions, we are still not living as we ought.

Therefore, our churches should be encouraged to embrace new methods for reaching the lost. If preaching the Gospel is good, regardless of our motives, when we have good motives and are preaching the Gospel without compromising on other issues, our methods can't be bad. If the church wants to return to a season of growth, it must be willing to step outside of its comfort zone and embrace methods of communicating the Gospel that it may not be comfortable with. Change is uncomfortable but as believers we were never promised comfort. But if we are taking the command to reach the lost seriously, we must become uncomfortable and speak the language of the people. Lost souls could depend on it.

The Forum, Day 1, Post 2

TokBox - Free Video Chat and Video Messaging

The Forum, Day 1, Post 1

TokBox - Free Video Chat and Video Messaging

The Nines, Update 3

TokBox - Free Video Chat and Video Messaging

The Nines, Update 2

TokBox - Free Video Chat and Video Messaging

The Nines, First Update

TokBox - Free Video Chat and Video Messaging

Busy busy busy...

Thank you to my one loyal reader (Hi Dad!) for checking up with the site so valiantly. As many know, I have had a busy summer filled with travels to the beach,, the Eastern boarder of KY, my home state of Ohio, and to the nation's capital, Washington, DC. I also made the terrible mistake of taking classes over the summer, the summer immediately following my graduation from my first five years of college. When not busy with school or travel, I got to spend every day of my summer loving my wife, perhaps the greatest gift I could ever hope for, and certainly the best way I know to spend my time.

That said, I am dedicated to get back into the swing of things on this here blog, and I intend to do it with some intense force over the next few days. I have been given what I consider to be an opportunity of a lifetime in the form of three days of free "conferences" from some of the worlds greatest church leaders, pastors, and businessmen. Tomorrow (or later today rather) I will be at my computer from 10:09AM-9:09PM for a one-day, non-stop berating of pastoral leadership advice in the form of the online conference "The Nines" on 9-9-09 at 9:09 (Central Time) they will begin airing 9-minute long videos where some of today's most successful pastors and church growth leaders will be distilling everything they know about church leadership into a tiny, easy to swallow video. While 9 minutes is all well and good, the conference will be offering no breaks throughout the day... they have over 70 videos lined up. Now, having never attended a conference from the comfort of my own home I can't speak to the level of intensity but if it is anywhere near as good as the impartation that happened at C3 or Thr3e, my brain my have melted by tomorrow night.

To make matters more awesome, Lifechurch.tv has teamed up with Southeastern Seminary to bring to the masses a 2-day, free online conference that they held earlier in the year also on leadership. This particular conference, "The Forum" is all about Christian leadership, plain and simple. Many of the speakers are pastors like Craig Groeschel (where have we heard that name before?) and T.D. Jakes, who I fell in love with early this year at C3, but there are some in the business world, like Dave Ramsey, Jack Welch, and Megyn Kelly. That conference will take place Thursday and Friday from 10-5... pray for my wife because seriously, I suspect I will be absolutely useless this weekend. It is amazing how much God moves at these conferences and how much our minds can take in and process, but when every word you hear for 3 full days is challenging and is anointed by God, it is absolutely exhausting to process it all.

Can you imagine what it must have been like to be with Jesus? We have the ability to go back and read every word but to be one of the men there... your mind would be on constant high-alert in fear of missing something, or anything. I can't imagine the level of excitement you would have at all times being in the presence of God, wanting to devour every word that came out of His mouth... sometimes, these conferences are the same. So many of the speakers have a clearly God-given gift of very clearly pointing out Biblical truths that we so easily look over. One of the things that I took away from my few sermons is that preaching is like sharing a secret. The preacher has spent hours seeking God, doing study, waiting for the text to be illuminated by the Holy Spirit, etc, to understand truth from God to turn around and share it with the people in a bite-sized dose. Until doing it myself, I never understood the intimacy that's there... the preacher gets to share what he has learned from God, with the people, something many of them may have never understood on their own for whatever reason... it's extremely powerful but incredibly exciting. Knowing that feeling, I now eagerly sit on the opposite end where these leaders have spent hour and hours and hours and hours learning the skills and truths that they so willingly give away, all for the sake of the Kingdom.

That gets my to my original comment... all throughout the next few days I intend to give a running report of the progress of the conferences. My intention is to use my webcam to give video updates as I will want to be writing everything (yes, everything) down. Depending on how tomorrow goes I may be able to update during various videos, especially since they announced that all of the videos will be available afterward for free download. On Thursday and Friday I suspect we will be given breaks as it seems to hold to a more traditional conference format, but they haven't sent out specifics yet. Either way, I intent to update you, my faithful reader, on the progress of the conferences throughout the days to come.

In a completely unrelated note, you should check out TokBox, it is a free, completely online version of skype, with a few extra perks. It allows you to record 10 min. videos and send them directly to any email account, it integrates with aim, google chat, yahoo, etc. to allow text or video chatting with any friends on those networks. One of the greatest perks, however, is that it allows an unlimited number of videos to enter any chat, either through the chat interface (aim, etc) or through the sending of a hyperlink. They also have it set so that it can send the hyperlink to your facebook or Twitter account to announce that a chat is taking place. I've only tinkered a few minutes but I'm impressed so far. The quality is very good and it's nice that you don't have to download any software like with skype. I don't know how many videos you could feasibly get running on a screen before your processor starts to cry but as you add them they do get smaller which I imagine helps, but they advertise that you can do as many as you wish, pointedly suggesting that 20 will work just fine. Anyway, random aside.
~Seth

If His Grace Is An Ocean, We're All Sinking

Check out this new song by The David Crowder Band. Listen to the words, soak them in, and be swept away in their truth. After 3 hours of straight listening I still get chills every time. Lyrics can be found below the video.



He is jealous for me,
Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realize just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.

And oh, how He loves us so,
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us all

He is jealous for me,
Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realize just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.

Yeah, He loves us,
Oh! how He loves us,
Oh! how He loves us,
Oh! how He loves.
Yeah, He loves us,
Oh! how He loves us,
Oh! how He loves us,
Oh! how He loves.

We are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,
If His grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking.
So Heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss,
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,
I don’t have time to maintain these regrets,
When I think about, the way…

Oh, how He loves us so,
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us all

Yeah, He loves us,
Oh! how He loves us,
Oh! how He loves us,
Oh! how He loves.
Yeah, He loves us,
Oh! how He loves us,
Oh! how He loves us,
Oh! how He loves.

April 28?

Well, my goal of writing a few times each week has obviously failed miserably but I have a renewed commitment to at least write frequently (I don’t make weekly promises because seminary is beastly… oh yeah, I’m in seminary now :-D )

In the months that have passed since I last wrote, much has happened in my life. I went to Thr3e which absolutely blew me away and changed my outlook on a whole lot of things. I’m sure that you’ll hear little bits and pieces about how wonderful it was in future posts but right now I just want to catch you up to speed on everything. I graduated with honors (Cum Laude) from Liberty University with a Bachelors of Science in Religion and started taking classes at the Liberty Theological Seminary to get my Masters of Divinity degree. If all goes according to plan I should finish around Christmas of 2011… here’s hoping anyway.

My first seminary classes have been on church planting and preaching, two topics that will consume my life in the near future. 2 weeks ago from today (June 10) I gave my very first sermon ever. My newly acquired friend Matt Queen was kind enough to let me preach for his Wednesday night Bible study of roughly 100. I was well-supported and blessed that my family and friends were all in attendance. I was also fortunate enough that the required text was Romans 12:1-2, on knowing God’s will, something that has been a powerful part of my life.

Since taking so much time off I have a lot I want to write but I am going to try to pace myself. As I said, I hope to give some more detailed updates soon, and I have some other things that have been weighing on me recently that I would like to write, but I wanted to prime the pump again, as it were. I hope that you are constantly aware of the love of God in your life. My challenge for you today: be a blessing to those around you. May Christ’s grace be with you.

~Seth

My Tomorrow

This is where I'll be tomorrow... could I be more excited? Nope.







OK, so, quick explanation, Thr3e is a "conference" being hosted by Elevation Church (the second fastest growing church in the US) and will consist of them explaining just about everything they've learned in their first three years as a church (did I mention they're only 3 years old?). The trip also includes a packet of all of the important documents they have developed over that time, the sort of stuff I have been killing myself trying to find on the internet. If anything will help to jump-start the start of Project Church (working title), it will be Thr3e. Thanks also go to churchmarketingsucks.com for their encouragement of churches to use Twitter to reach members. Through my use of Twitter I have already made 2 acquaintances who will be at Thr3e tomorrow, one of which started a church this month... I'm super stoked to pick his brain and hopefully make a few friends out of this whole deal. Again I ask, could I be more excited?

Also, if you have time, go watch Steven Furtick's interview with Ted Haggard and his wife. Regardless of how you feel about him, and whether you're a Christian or not, you should watch the full interview. It is incredibly powerful and deserves to be watched. Check it out here.

A Great Friday

Today, Elevation did something that yet again impressed me (something I have come to expect from them). This morning when I checked Pastor Steven's blog there was an anouncement that said that today at noon, the staff of Elevation would be taking communion and would be streaming it live for the public. When I followed the link I saw that the program they were using was one that I signed up for myself just yesterday (you can see it on the right side of the page). It allows for a chat to take place with the viewers while the owner transmits a live video feed.

When noon rolled around my students were taking a quiz so I pulled out my headphones and tuned it. Pastor Steven popped up and began to talk about how we can't overlook the importance of Easter this week, and in order to truly appreciate Easter we must reflect on the events of today, Good Friday. Quoting Isaiah 53 he discussed that the worst pain that Jesus felt wasn't in the physical death but in the spiritual seperation from the Father.

Following that he presented communion and a time to pray and reflect. All I had were some cinemon Honey Combs and some Diet Dr. Pepper which I used to join with them. The spirit of reflection and communion stands. This weekend the church is having 10 services at 3 campuses and have really pushed for using this as a weekend to bring in friends and family. So many times we only see Easter as a time for Christians, which it certainly is, but what better time is there to spread the message of the hope we profess? Because of that, he asked everyone to give the name of somebody that they hope to reach this weekend and who the church could be praying for. During this time one of their worship leaders came out and played "Jesus Paid it All."

The whole thing only lasted 15 or so minutes but it was awesome. It was great to be able to take a few minutes out of my busy day to take communion and reflect on the freedom Jesus has granted me through His death and resurrection. It was so cool also to get to take part in that with people from all around the world. Many of them were from the local Elevation church family but not all, and getting to share in that was great. I thought the whole idea was awesome.

Any thoughts?

Confessions of a Church Snob

Those who know me well can attest to the fact that I'm pretty snobbish when it comes to church. I try not to be because I know that we're all part of the same body and that we should be building one another up but, especially when it comes to things that could effect the way the church is viewed from an outside perspective, I'm particularly snobbish. I like to think it is rooted in the fact that I have a passion for reaching the unchurched and, having many atheist friends, I recognize what sort of things Christians do that repel the unchurched. When I see something that screams "we're Christians and you should stay far, far away" I cringe. For example:
This gem is a church banner that was made for Easter, and thanks go to Matthew Paul Turner for bringing it to our attention. Now, the question is, what is that dog being stabbed to death by the cross and why is the red tornado of blood only dripping on part of the 3d (yes boys and girls, that's half a globe attached to the banner) world? The sacrificial atonement of the crucified dog carcass is only good for those residing in the northern hemisphere... I am baffled that this is the way we try to present the gospel. Am I off-base?

The church I'm attending had a deacon ordination this Sunday. Now, I'm all for the biblical ordaining of deacons, the laying-on-of-hands when appropriate, etc. None of that bothered me. This particular church runs 3 services and I can only assume that the deacons were ordained in all 3 as it was also their introduction to the church. The second of these three services is a "contemporary" service that meets in the fellowship hall and is relatively small when compared to the other two, more traditional services. Well, when the deacons went up to speak they both mentioned that they had never before been to the contemporary service. Now, I understand that if your personal preference is a traditional service, that's fine but when you find out that you're going to become a member on staff at the church, not only should the church make you do it, but you should feel a burden to attend all 3 services on your own. It was as if they were saying "I'm going to be responsible to take care of you even though I know nothing about you or what you do." I think that they should have been encouraged to attend all three at least once before being ordained, but that's just me.

Finally, I wanted to bring up something that's becoming a new trend in Europe: de-baptism. It turns out that many atheists are renouncing their infant baptism as a way of showing that they don't support the Catholic Church's political involvement. They believe that somehow the number of baptisms is recorded and used by the Catholic Church to gain government power. I think that idea is silly but it seems to be a popular one. More than 100,000 Britons have received de-baptism certificates, many of them paying roughly $5 for them. Reading through what the certificate says, I see nothing wrong with it. I think that, although the idea is a bit silly of getting back at the church by de-baptising yourself, that theologically it is a sound argument (aside from Christianity being superstition). From the National Secular Society's De-Baptism Certificate.

"The certificate declares:I ________ having been subjected to the Rite of Christian Baptism in infancy (before reaching an age of consent), hereby publicly revoke any implications of that Rite and renounce the Church that carried it out. In the name of human reason, I reject all its Creeds and all other such superstition in particular, the perfidious belief that any baby needs to be cleansed by Baptism of alleged ORIGINAL SIN, and the evil power of supposed demons. I wish to be excluded henceforth from enhanced claims of church membership numbers based on past baptismal statistics used, for example, for the purpose of securing legislative privilege.”

You can read more about this growing trend here.

C3 Day Two, Part 2

Getting right into it, following Ed Young Jr. that Thursday was Bil Cornelius, founding pastor of Bay Area Fellowship in Corpus Cristi, Texas. He only spoke during one session of the conference but boy, was it awesome. He spoke on the lack of pastoral prayer in our churches and how we need to burden ourselves with the desire to pray so much more than we do. He through out a statitistic that 50% of all seminary grads are out of ministry in 5 years. One of the hardships that many pastors face is the feeling of not having many confidants but he said that we need to learn to encourage ourselves in the Lord, which is absolutely true.

One of the ideas that came up often is that pastors are called to be modern-day prophets. While they may not all have prophetic spiritual gifts, they all (should) have an encounter with God where they recieved their calling to pastoral ministry. Additionally, God uses them as His instrument to teach and speak to His people, through the teaching of the living Word. God gives the vision to the pastor who in turn gives it to the people. Perhaps one of the most interesting things he said was that because the pastor is the prophet for the church, lay people should not be praying for the vision of the church. That is the pastor's job. They should be praying instead for the pastor.

But in order to hear from God we must get alone with God, something too many pastors neglect. Another trap pastors fall into is forgetting that not everything God tells them is for the church. We spend so much time seeking answers to God's will that we forget that seeking God is God's will. In the hustle and bustle of pastoral life, many pastors neglect their first love. Great pastors teach what God has personally told them. Pastors also get so busy wanting people to show up that they forget to carry the people to God in prayer. "We forget the people and focus on the numbers." As a remedy he suggested going to the mall and people-watching and simply praying for the people you see. You should try it, it's pretty great.

Next up was Jentezen Franklin again and his message was awesome. Using 1 Corinthians 16:15 he talked about how the church needs to become addicted to Christ. In the KJV it says in v. 15-16 "I beseech you, brethren, (ye know the house of Stephanas, that it is the firstfruits of Achaia, and that they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints,) that ye submit yourselves unto such, and to every one that helpeth with us, and laboureth." According to dictionary.com, to be addicted is defined as "compulsively or physiologically dependent on something habit-forming; devoted or given up to a practice or habit or to something psychologically or physically habit-forming." When you are fully addicted to something, you simply can't stay away.

In order to be successful in ministry, we must become addicted to the ministry and to God. It has to be a voluntary addiction but we should be doved such that we become compulsively and physiologically dependent on it and on God. That is how the early church survived and it is how we today will thrive in ministry. Jentezen said that if we ever hope to become addicted, we just have to get started.

Jesus fished with a net. Fishing with a net is completely different to fishing with a pole because when you fish with a net, you never know what type of fish you'll get. When you fish with a pole you can be picky... when you're addicted, you're not picky. So, the big question we must ask is, are we addicted to what Jesus died for? Jesus said to go out into all the world (that's where) to preach the gospel (that's what) to all the people (that's who), but nowhere did He tell us how. We live in an age where we have more freedom than ever to reach people in whatever way we see fit, which is great, but are we putting it to good use?

That night we came back for a session led by Ed Young and Craig Groeschel. Ed talked about the importance of reaching people and putting our attention not on all of the things that beg for it as pastors, but instead remembering that it's all about the chair. He pointed out that when the bride (the church) and the bridegroom (Jesus) get together, and when they are truly spiritually mature, there will be babies. He suggested that if your church is fully spiritually mature then about 1/3 of your congregation will be spiritual babies. Another large chunk will be made up of spiritual teenagers, people that believe themselves to be mature but aren't. The spiritual teenagers will complain all the time about how the church is too big (or small), the church is full of hyopcrites, their friends aren't there, or that the messages aren't deep enough (they're not getting fed). He said that that is the greatest compliment a pastor can make because it means that they are making the Bible understandable. Additionally, he said that when someone complains about not being fed that his response is always "I'm sorry, I thought you were old enough to feed yourself."

The last speaker of the night was Craig Groeschel he spoke about the "disease to please." He struggles with the desire to please people but you can't please both people and God. He points to Galatians 1:10 which says "Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ." He points out that people-pleasing is a form of idolatry when you are more worried about what people think than what Christ thinks. Proverbs 29:25 says that "Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe." The word used for snare is "mowqesh" which is a noose for catching an animal, or as it is used here, a hook for the nose. If you fear man it is as if someone has stuck their finger in your nose and is leading you around by it.

There are several traps that people-pleasers fall into:

"I will compromise for you" trap
"I will over-commit for you" trap
"I will let you limit my success" trap

Groeschel says that the fear of Gos is the best antidote for the fear of people. He points to Psalm 34:9 and 1 Thessalonians 2:4, 6 for support. The higher God takes you, the more people are going to hate you and you need to be OK with that. He used a great illustration of a kid in school with a hall pass. If you have a hall pass it doesn't matter if teachers or administrators stop you in the hall, you just hold of your hall pass and you're untouchable. Well, those who have been called by God for His purpose have a Holy hall pass. Ultimately, it doesn't matter what you think about what God has called me to do because I have God's approval... your dissaproval doesn't even compare.

So, that is the full summary of C3 day 2. Hurray,just one day left!

Dear Birthday Wishers

First I want to take just a moment to thank everyone who took the time to wish me a happy birthday. It was the best birthday I have had all year. Seriously though, I was really touched by how many of my neglected friends took the time to think of me and drop me a note. Sincerely, thank you.

So, I will write in the morning to tell you how wonderful my wife is and how good she got me last night. She threw me a surprise party and I was completely clueless, even after about half a minute of actually being there. I'll tell about that later though. What I really wanted to show you are the wonderful birthday wishes from churches I got today. I think it's a phenominal idea for churches to send out birthday cards, and there is something especially nice about recieving one that has been hand-written, no matter how brief of a message. I applaud Elevation and The Cove Church (both based in Charlotte, NC) for your initiative in sending someone who is not a member a card letting them know you care. It is something I plan to implement in my church some day.

While I applaud the effort, I do have one point of contention. If you can't read the person's name, especially their last name, don't write it. The postal service doesn't care and I know who Seth is... I'm the only one in my household. I can honestly say that never before in my life have I been called "Seth Mustywood." I know my handwriting is bad but I had no idea it was that illegible. Regardless, I appreciate the thought and time it took for my card, and I especially enjoyed the dueling colors. Bravo Cove Church.


I pray that everyone is well and again, thanks bunches. Happy April 2nd everyone!

All Sorts of Excitement

Taking a brief break from C3, I'd like to tell you all about some really awesome and exciting things that have happened in the last week or so. As many of you know I have plans to become a pastor and because I want to get through school as quickly as possible, I applied to seminary for the summer. Well boys and girls, results are in, I'm accepted! I'm now officially a seminary student and I start classes May 12. I got into grad school! What a change from how I started out. Also, because I am currently a religion student I was told that they may be able to accept some of my credits as transfer credits so in theory I could start seminary with 30 credit hours already taken care of. That's 1/3 of my course load that would already be done (and paid for)! I'm really hoping that I can get all 30 taken care of but I'm not holding my breath.

While in the midst of all this school work and with C3 still in the rear-view mirror of my past, I have signed up for yet another pastor's conference. Yes, I know it's crazy, especially since the money is coming out of our own pockets. And yes, I know that it is weird that I am going right after having gone to one just over a month ago. But, let me tell you about this conference. It is called Thr3e and is being put on by Elevation Church and is all about their first 3 years as a church. It is a 1 day event where they'll be talking about everything they've done that's worked and hasn't. They will be giving out every piece of administrative paperwork (constitution, by-laws, staff documents, etc) that they have developed over the last 3 years (I need those things). They will talk about their organizational structure and all other things that I really want to know about them. (Did I mention that this 3-year-old church is the 2nd fastest growing church in the country and has 3 locations with over 4000 attending a week?). I want to learn everything they know. After paying to go and registering they announced a competition where you tell them the effect they have had on your ministry and the winner will have their tuition refunded, so that's what we'll be doing this weekend... being creative!

Last night my wonderful wife (the best of all of them) took me out shopping for my birthday present. I have been complaining about not having a watch because the last 2 watches I bought were utter crap. The last one turned my wrist green and deteriorated tot he point that it was like wearing sandpaper. So, we went to the mall and started looking at JC Penney's. After bothering the clerk there for a while and not finding anything really good (my wrist is so big that most watches don't fit), we decided to wander around to some of the other stores. Along our journey we went to a bunch of places and didn't really find anything that jumped out at me or that fit well. Finally we stopped at Kay Jewelers and although we knew we wouldn't be able to afford a watch there, we let the sales guy show off a few. He asked what I was looking for and he showed me a really nice (and pretty stinkin' cool) watch that had a bigger band than most. It is an aviator watch with both analog and digital, it is almost all black with white hands and is stainless steel which I like. It also has a light-powered battery that charges with indoor or outdoor light and holds a charge for 6 months so in theory, I will never need a battery for it. How cool is that? It was also $500. It was the best-fitting watch I had tried on all day and Allie jotted down the info but as we left I told her she wasn't allowed to get it for me. As we walked out though, I told her that it was the same watch as one I had seen at JC Penney's, I just didn't point it out when there because it was too expensive.

As we get ready to head out of the mall we pass back through Penney's and I show her that it indeed was the same watch. Penney's was having a sale on their watches and she asked me if that's the one I wanted and I said that yeah, I would love to have it but I don't need it for that price. We call the sales lady over again, who comments on the fact that we're still in the mall looking at watches, and have her take it out of the case. In the case there are two of identical model but of different price. We take them both out to compare and try to figure out if they are in fact identical. As she looks up the price it turns out because of the sale they have, the one that is marked $100 more is cheaper by over $50. Allie decides to splurge and get it for me. So, getting the watch at JC Penney, we were able to save (post tax) more than half of what it would have cost to get at Kay's. It is by far the nicest watch I have ever owned (my last watch was the nicest I had owned to that point and it was $20 from Target) and should last me a long, long time. It is funny because when we went into the store Allie asked me what I liked in a watch and I told her that I like the look of a good analog watch but I had grown used to the features of digital watches, such as a stop watch and alarms. This one has both, and 22 time zones, and a timer, and 3 alarms, and the analog sets itself to the digital so they are perfectly in sync... it's awesome. Also I'm learning how to use the outer slide rule to do math... what a nerd watch. You can check it out here... I've never owned a watch before that has it own web page. I have the best wife ever!

While we were wandering around the mall we went into Walden Books. Bad idea. As Allie pointed out, she never has a problem ignoring a sale at a clothing store but when she goes into a bookstore that is having a sale it's hard to fight the urge. While wandering around the store she stumbled upon this book that I haven't stopped thinking about all day. It is called The Rose Labyrinth and, while I haven't read past the first chapter of the book yet, I can confidently say it is one of the coolest books I have ever seen. It is a mystery book with hints of conspiracy and the supernatural. Reading the synopsis it looks a lot along the lines of The Da'Vinci Code. The book came in a cardboard cover that held within it 36 sheets of paper. Those sheets of paper are what makes this the coolest book ever. The papers or full of riddles, references to Dante's Inferno, Greek Mythology, the Bible, constellations, and Hebrew. On the back of each sheet there is what appears to be a map that, when put together, will show the labyrinth or something of the sort. At some point in the novel the characters find the stack of papers that we have from the beginning so the author challenges the reader to uncover the secrets held within before the characters do. It is so very cryptic and simply awesome... Allie and I are going to spend much of tonight putting things together and trying to decipher the sheets. If you do that, there is apparently a message hidden within the text of the book that you can uncover, and according to the author there are some secrets hidden in the pages that the characters never discover. It looks awesome and from what little we've read, it seems to be well written as well. You should definitely check it out.

Well, that's all for today. My kids (I'm subbing long-term for a 10th grade English class) are taking a midterm right now so I think I'll try to get some homework done. I hope that everyone is doing well and I'll have the rest of day 2 of C3 up in a few days. Adios muchachos!

C3 Day Two, Part 1

Day two of C3 continued to blow away our expectations. It was a little bit rougher than that first night because after been up for two days in a row, a few hours of sleep wasn’t nearly enough to feel refreshed. We were beat. So getting up that morning and going to the camp shower (where there was only one room so the other had to wait in the car) was not the most fun we had all weekend. Oh, did I mention that the mornings in Texas were freezing and windy like a hurricane? Yeah, they were.

*I forgot something from the first night so let’s time warp for a moment back to then. The only other time I have been to Texas was for my friend Tex’s graduation. While visiting he took me to a fast food chain that I fell in love with, “Whataburger.” They are open 24 hours, dining room included, and at the time they had a burger that was made with A1 sauce… what more could I hope for? So the entire trip I had been telling Waffle about how we needed to go to Whataburger and have an A1 burger… I was jonesing for it real bad. While we were on the road, the last 5 or so hours of our drive we started seeing them everywhere. Every time I saw one I would point it out; I couldn’t wait to taste that delicious A1-edness.

As get into Grapevine and approach our campsite, we notice that there is a Whataburger literally within 1 mile from where we are staying. Since putting up the tent was such an ordeal and since we had spent all day in the car we decided to splurge and grab a bite down the street before going to C3. What a mistake. So, we must have been staying on the street that divides the Grapevine economic classes because the Whataburger was one of the most ghetto places I have even been in my life. This was crazy to me because it is 2 blocks down the road from a Great Wolf Lodge which is 1 block away from a super ritzy spa, which is another block away from a huge mall area… how we stepped into poverty in one block I don’t know but we did… perhaps it was a worm hole. We go in (remember, I was super excited) and the first thing we notice is that the décor was a bit messy and the place was fairly empty. Ok, this one does look like one of their older stores so that’s forgivable, plus we were a little early for the dinner rush.

When we step up to the counter, the second thing we notice is that nobody is speaking English. Well, not real English anyway. The cashier is Pakistani, the lady at the drive-through is African, there was a Hispanic working in the back and a Texas redneck who seemed to speak English just as well as everyone else. When I step up to the register to order, I ask about the A1 burger because I don’t see it up on the screen. Apparently it was a special they had, not a regular item. At that point I should have left. Needless to say, it took far too long, there were too many communication problems to count, the whole experience was uber-sketchy, my fries were cold, and we got a good (but also depressing) laugh out of the whole ordeal.*

Now back to day two. We made our way over to the church and were greeted by the exact same energetic people in the morning as we were the night before. One of the things that was discussed at the conference is how a church should want volunteers that are fully committed to the cause of the church and those greeters certainly were that. We walked in and were looking at seats over in the side area where we sat the night before but an usher found us and said that if we wanted to do things right we needed to sit in the middle. He managed to find us two seats which were indeed a huge improvement to where we were the night before.

When the lights went down and the music came up one of the singers was on the front of the stage holding signs that had the words of the song. As he would get to the end of a line he would throw the sign on top across the stage. They had strobe lights on and the whole experience was super cool. The rest of the group came out and we sang a few praise songs before Ed young got on stage. It was a great way to wake up in the morning.

Ed ran two sessions that morning, the first of which was titled “Crazy Pills.” They passed prescription pads out to all of us as we came in which was a really nifty tie-in I thought. He talked about how there are crazy people and there are good crazy people, the kind you want to be spending time with. Satan, though, manages to surround us with crazy people that take up most of our time and don’t ever change. If we want to meet the good crazy people we have to push through the actual crazy people. Pastors spend the majority of their time dealing with crazy people that won’t ever change.

In that session he said “one thing we learn from history is that we don’t learn from history.” He talked about Daniel 5 and how Belshazzar didn’t learn from Nebuchadnezzar. His pride got in the way and he didn’t listen to God or to Daniel and unlike Nebuchadnezzar who had years to change, Belshazzar was given one day because he should know better because of the history. He doesn’t learn and Darius comes in and doesn’t listen to God and doesn’t talk to Daniel… the pattern continues.

Then he came to something that hit me pretty hard. He pointed out that in Daniel 6:11 the administrators went to Darius as a group. The majority, he said, is usually wrong. In fact, every time that people voted in the Bible they were outside of God’s will. Read that again because it’s important. In verse 6:13 it says that “Then they said to the king…” Who are they? What do they matter? Eventually though, those that tried to throw Daniel to the lions became lion bate… remember that our God is all-powerful and is faithful when we follow Him, even in the face of opposition.

The second session by Ed Young was geared even more specifically toward pastors but I’ll give just a brief overview. He was talking about depression and pastoral ministry, how pastors do and will become depressed at some point in their ministry. He used Elijah as an example when, after “fighting” with the other priests and God lighting his alter, and then after outrunning a chariot, Elijah went into a deep depression. Ed referred to this as the “Holy Hangover.” Many pastors experience this every week; some call it the Monday Morning Hangover but they experience it none-the-less. Ed gave a great example of what it feels like. He said that preparing your sermon and doing all of the study and work each week is like being pregnant but on Sunday you get to give birth. Sunday is usually great; you’re on a Holy High. But when you wake up on Monday, it’s like finding out you’re pregnant again.

He gave some scary statistics, especially for someone who is just on the forefront of ministry. 80% of pastors believe that pastoral ministry has a negative effect on their family. 75% have had a personal crisis. The clergy has the 2nd highest divorce rate among professions. And 70% of pastors don’t have anyone they would consider a close friend. These statistics frighten me. I can only pray that I don’t become one of them.

His overall point was that we need to be aware that the holy hangover will come and that we need to be prepared to deal with it. He drew a graph that illustrated his energy level over time and while it may start at 100%, after the first hangover it drops to 50% to then jump back up as he gets excited for the next week. But it doesn’t get all the back up to 100, this time it only goes to 95%. When it drops it might drop to 45 and so on until you have to take a mental health vacation to bring it back up. It all makes a lot of sense to me because camp is the same way. He also encouraged the audience not to make decisions when suffering from a holy hangover because it’s then that we make really bad decisions or lash out in frustration, anger, etc.

I am going to stop here because I have already written much more than I intended. I am writing just about as much as I can remember both for those of you who want to hear it but also for my future self to look back and check it out. I will hopefully post part 2 of day 2 very shortly. I hope that you are having an incredible, God-filled and God-inspired day. Let Him lead you and you will never fail.

C3 Day One... Finally

Well, as promised, I am finally getting around to telling you all about the wonderful C3. So, I think that the easiest way for me to explain everything is to split it up into the days that we were there. That means this is the first of three installments. It is very tricky to explain everything that we experienced because the things that were the most influential are the hardest things to recreate into words. The worship was amazing and it is easier to explain than the many wonderful speeches we heard. They were so influential that it is impossible to recapture and share it. But I'm going to try my best.

Before I get to that though, let me tell you a bit about the trip to Texas. Due to some scheduling conflicts, what was going to be a two-day trip ended up being a one-day, straight drive. Waffle (my brother-in-law) and I left my apartment at midnight on Tuesday night and drove 17 hours arriving in Grapevine, TX, just outside of Dallas, at about 4 o'clock (TX time). We got to our campsite and decided it would be best to set up camp before the evening C3 session so we proceeded to put up our tent. Now, I can't speak for all of Texas but the two hemispheres of it that I have visited (Dallas and Midland) are stinking windy. I swear we put up our tent in 30 mph winds. It took one of us to hold the tent at all times while the other worked at setting it up. To make our lives more difficult, it turned out that we were staying on a concrete slab surrounded by rocks... have you tried to spike a tent down into a rock bed? When all was said and done, half of our tent was nailed down while the other half was tied to various trees. It was sketchy.

Praying that we would have a home to return to that evening, Waffle and I drove the painfully long 3 miles to get to Fellowship Church, the host of the event. When we turned down the road to the church we were met by an army of people directing us where to park. As we got out of the car and were about to walk in, Waffle realized that he had left his keys in the ignition and the car was still running. Thankfully he hadn't locked the doors so we were able to get in but we shared a moment of panic as we didn't want to be stuck in Texas, locked out of our car which, upon getting into, would have run out of gas.

On our way up to check-in we were very warmly welcomed by a slew of greeters. It didn't feel like we could walk 100 feet without being given a handshake or high-five. It sounds like it would be obnoxious and if the greeters were not sincere it would have been, but as they were genuine it was really nice. When we got to front door we had to go through registration. They simply asked for the name of our organization (because I am a student I got a discount and I payed for Waffle so we were listed under "Liberty") As the girl flipped to that page I gasped as I noticed that we were right above Lifechurch.tv on the list. For those of you who don't know, Craig Groeschel is one of my biggest pastor/ man crushes. I have the greatest respect for him and the fact that he was speaking at the conference was part of my motivation for going (his church is in Oklahoma).

We were both given little cloth backpacks that have some cool booklets, a pencil, and a puzzle game in them. It was wonderful having those because I didn't have anything to carry all of my stuff in that wasn't already packed with other, well, stuff. We approach the doors and wander around looking for a seat. The night sessions at C3 are open to the public but the front section of seats are reserved for attendees. We make our down the right side and find a seat right next to the mini-stage. It was really cool because while people were filing in there was a band playing some really awesome music right next to us.

So, when the night started, I got chills and had to fight back tears. The lights turned down low and a video popped up on the 3 screens. It was a video of a guy in military drab standing in a field of wheat. “The world is dying and will one more song, one more skit, one more small group, concert or conference change anything? That’s up to you.”

BOOM!

The lights blazed on and from just about everywhere an army of singers descended on the crowd. From the back doors came the choir, all dressed up in military-esque drab, being led by two big marching band drums. Along the left and right balcony appeared people dressed all in white, singing like a band of angels. The band and praise team came down from the front of the stage… as if all of that wasn’t crazy enough, on the front corners of the stage were two big blue barrel drums that had glitter on the top. Have you seen the Blue Man Group? There were people dressed in white from head to toe that pounded on the tops of those barrels so glitter was flying everywhere. From waiting in the seats looking around and being blown away at the size of things to 1 minute into C3 starting, our excitement level leapt from 7 to about 9,000. Talk about sensory overload. It was awesome.

After a decent worship session the host, Ed Young Jr. and his wife came up and welcome the first speaker to the stage, Jentezen Franklin. I had never heard of him but he is the pastor of Free Chapel in GA and CA. He was so nervous because it was his first time speaking at C3 but he did a great job. He talked about how we need to restore mercy into our churches. He used the Ark of the Covenant as an example, how the angels on the top are touching wings but that they aren’t looking each other in the eye but are instead looking down at the mercy seat. As the universal church we need bring mercy back into focus… God is merciful; we have no right not to be.

The second person to speak that night was Christine Caine from Hillsong in Australia. She is a phenomenal speaker (which makes sense since she spends almost all of her time on the road speaking) so even though I didn’t know her beforehand I am glad she was there. I wish that I had my notebook that night (I left it in the car) but there were two things she said that night that really hit me. She talked about how as Christians we like to see ourselves as being in the world but set apart from it, which is Biblical, but we take it to the extreme. We have done such a good job of being apart from the world that we’re no longer in it. Many of us even see the “world” as something discusting that we must shy away from… not true! If we are to be effective at acting out Christ’s cause (notice, it’s His cause, not ours) then we can’t do it without getting dirty! We can’t be afraid to surround ourselves with the filth of the world because if we don’t, they will never see light. The other thing she said that if the estimated 2 billion Christians in the world put forth their full effort to evangelizing, we could have the job done in three days. How amazing would that be? If we all put forth our lives and efforts to reaching people for Christ, we could do it and Christ could come back because it would be finished.

All-in-all, first impressions were great. (Since I’m writing this so late I can tell you that the whole thing was great). I am dedicating myself to write more often now, so hopefully the new update will be here in a day or two. I hope everyone is doing well and I want to say hello to my two new faithful readers, Anna and Erika. Hey guys, good luck on your midterm.

Check Please

Ok, so that C3 update is coming soon, I promise. For now though, some random ramblings...

I don't know how many of you use checks regularly but I wrote two checks today for the first time in literally years. I have to be honest, I'm a big fan of the debit/ credit card and have never, since getting a checking account, carried checks. That said, right now my debit card is broken and I had to go to the doctors (more on that later) so Allie gave me her checkbook. The coolest things happened when I went to write out my check... I was amazed by a wonderful piece of technology that to me was completely new but is in actuality probably pretty old. The lady said I didn't need to fill out the check but to just give it to her. She had a machine that read it then printed on it and took the money out of the account right then... it used my check as a debit card. Then she gave it back to me with the printed info and a printed "void" on the front for me to keep as a receipt. Later when I went to Wal-Mart to get my drugs, they had the same thing. Is this technology new? Or am I really that far out of touch? Either way, I thought it was awesome and worthy of sharing.

So, it turns out I have pneumonia. This last week I have struggled with epic coughing, a terribly sore throat, fever, cold chills, dizziness, and the all-powerful symptom, "etc." I am currently writing under the influence of codine which almost reminds me of the many time I have written on no sleep. On that note, I think I need some sleep. Sorry for the very random update. I promise, C3 update is on the way. Just know that it was amazing and I can't wait to tell you all about it.

~Seth

The Devil Went Down to Georgia, We Went to Mississippi...

"To understand the world, you must first understand a place like Mississippi." - William Faulkner.

This will be a brief update; a much longer, more-detailed one should be expected in the near future. I will tell you though that C3 was phenomenal and life-changing, and I can't wait to tell you all about it. Today, however, I want to give you a status report on our progress. We are currently stuck, yes, stuck, in Pearl, Miss. After leaving Dallas around 3 PM yesterday morning, Waffle and I were so energized and spiritually enthusiastic that we decided to drive straight through the night and get to Charlotte early Sunday morning in time to go to Elevation Church, the church of Steven Furtick, one of the pastors that spoke (amazingly) at C3.

Well, around 10 last night we started hearing a weird noise and the car started shaking. We pulled over to the side of the road and realized our back-left tire was flat so I called AAA to come out and give us a hand. After hooking the tire up to a compressor and realizing that it wasn't taking air, the AAA guy helped us remove the tire to put on our spare. This is what we saw when that happened...

So, it looks like we had a blow-out. Thank goodness we were in a safe position and the driving conditions were safe because it could have been very bad otherwise. We honestly didn't even know that it was a blow out; we just noticed that the car was being funky. In the process of removing the tired, one of the 4 lug nuts broke off, taking the bolt with it so that's a problem to get fixed as well. Our plans for getting to church and getting home early ruined, we found a hotel and stayed the night.

Wouldn't you know, none of the auto places in Pearl are open on Sundays? The only place that was open was a Wal-Mart, but Waffle's tires are low-profile sports tires that nobody but specialty dealers carries (which worries us about tomorrow). So, stuck for another day, we saw a movie and generally hung out around town. We are hoping that early in the morning we can find a place to replace the tire (that's the one we need prayers on... Wal-Mart can special order them, and they'll get here in 6-8 business days) and the bolt. Then, when we get it all fixed we have 11 hours, roughly 700 miles to drive tomorrow. Missing yet another day from school for Waffle and from my wife for me has made this a less-than-ideal hiccup in our trip. But, thankfully we're ok, and this is far from the worst thing that could happen to us.

When we checked into our hotel tonight, through conversation we found out that the woman at the front desk, Laurie, had a much bigger problem to deal with last night. Her son, who she didn't know until he was 13, killed himself last night at the age of 21. She found out while working and she was working tonight... I don't know how she can be here. We talked about church and other things for a while and she's incredibly pleasant, and it makes my problem of being stuck away from home seem so paltry in comparison.

Waffle and I have discussed, several times, the significance of something that Bishop T.D. Jakes said the other night when he spoke. He said that the deeper into ministry you get, and the closer to God you get, the messier and more difficult life becomes. Waffle and I grew much closer to God this weekend and the fact that we were intentionally driving all night not to get home but to go to church cannot be ignored... Let me repeat that: we were planning on driving 16 hours non-stop just so we could go to church... after spending 3 days in a church, on the way to church, our car broke down. While the situation stinks and is certainly no fun, I can't help but be encouraged spiritually that we're doing something right. God is much bigger than our problems and if the best Satan can do is stop us from getting to church; he needs to try a lot harder.

Hopefully we'll be home tomorrow, thank you for all the prayers.
~Seth