My Passion

To be a part of a church that takes the challenges of our post-modern culture seriously, relentlessly pursuing ways of showing people how intimately they matter to God. A place that is taking risks, breaking molds, and reaching out to people who want to experience the life and love of Jesus Christ.

To connect this generation and the next two or three to the stunning grace of God with passion, creativity, and faithfulness.

My Vision

To be a part of a church that exists to be a common ground for reintroducing the ancient Christian faith to new generations.

Ethos…

‘the fundamental character or spirit of a culture; the underlying sentiment that informs the beliefs, customs, or practices of a group’

Our ethos is defined by our beliefs and from those beliefs come our movements and out of those movements flow and organic approach to ministry and an open world view that accepts people where they are no matter what in order that, seeing the way we treat others and believe in our God, they might come to believe themselves.

Ethos is created and embodied by leadership and is contagious.

Ministry

Ministry is risk-taking service to others. God is a God of creativity and has created us as deeply spiritual beings who long for a meaningful relationship with himself and others. We each have a unique story and are at different places in our journeys. Ministry is about releasing each individual to experience the joy and wonder of connecting with others and serving others in brokenness and wholeness because it showcases the grace of God in accepting us, no matter where we are or where we have been.

This approach to ministry results, I believe, in an ‘organic’ ministry. Organic ministry simply means that when a new person steps into a church setting and is ready to become a part of the community…they bring a whole new set of talents, gifts and ideas to the table. With these, new ministry can happen or a new facet to an existing ministry can be added. If a person who was passionate and a driving force behind a ministry leaves then either God raises up new leadership for that ministry or that ministry is ‘pruned’ for the time being until God sees fit to raise it up again. We don’t do something because we’ve ‘always done it’, we do something because God has provided and lead.

We are all creative.

God is the great creator and he has instilled every one of His creations with the gift of creating. We all express that creativity in manifestly different ways. An engineer who builds a bridge shows the same creativity as a songwriter who constructs a song. Creativity expressed on two different levels in two different arenas…both extremely creative nonetheless.

I did not say all people were artistic but all people are indeed creative like the one who created them and in some way, they want to be able to express it.

All truth is God’s truth.

If God is the author

If God is the light and in him is no darkness at all

If God is the same today, tomorrow and forever

If God is the first and the last

If God is the Creator of all things

If God is really sovereign…not just helpful

If God is just…not just good

If God is graceful – full of grace – not just forgiving

If God's name really is above every other name

If God is all powerful, almighty, all knowing, all wise, all encompassing, all present, and all surpassing…

Then his ultimate possession of truth is part of the package.

If there is a truth out there and we happen upon it…it is true because God deemed it to be so. If that truth comes out of the mouth of Chuck Swindoll, Tony Evans or Alistair Begg…it's all good. While it may be challenging and /or comforting it's relatively easy to swallow. If it comes from Metallica or Eminem, the Foo Fighters or Kanye West it's a little tougher to navigate. We spend time pulling truth from Hollywood films because it's there too. It's all about us taking the time to see it. The mark of the creator is everywhere in the creations of his created ones…we just have to train our eyes to see it.

Of course it's uncomfortable when Dave Matthews sings a song like 'Save Me' or Trent Reznor pens a song like 'Hurt'. Some real truthful stuff coming from some real unlikely sources…but are we really any more unlikely. Do we all have the corner on truth? No…we're a lot like the David's and Solomon's and Peter's and Balaam's of scripture. Broken people letting God fill the cracks.

Organic is more than just a nifty word.

Organic ministry simply means that when a new person steps into a church setting and are ready to become a part of the community…they bring a whole new set of talents, gifts and ideas to the table. With these new ministry can happen or a new facet to an existing ministry can be added. If a person who was passionate and a driving force behind a ministry leaves then either God raises up new leadership for that ministry or that ministry is ‘pruned’ for the time being until God sees fit to raise it up again. We don’t do something because we’ve ‘always done it’, we do something because God has provided and lead.

Everybody has a story. Everybody loves a good story. The power of narrative is undeniable and when you add redemption to that narrative you have the power to change the way people see themselves, how they see God and how they see the world around them.

Jesus taught mostly with story. He took ordinary, everyday objects, activities and ideas and wove stories around them in order to make them real and attainable. We engage the imagination and the heart with story.

People also need to know that their story is important. We need to celebrate God’s story in people’s lives and acknowledge that it is still being written.

When I started in ministry I had a bad teacher on this particular idea. He was always afraid to ask people to volunteer. He thought that people were too busy, too involved, too pressed for time to volunteer at church as well. He was wrong. People want to be asked. They want to know that who they are is ‘valuable’ - that what they bring to the table can be used to create something life changing. People will move mountains in order to be a part of something that is revolutionizing other people’s lives…and it usually revolutionizes their own in the process. All we have to do is ask.

7 Reasons Why the Church Needs Artists

1. Only through art can we know God more fully. A person encounters God as an artist before he encounters him as a theologian. We have reduced God's primary interests to truth and goodness. We must remember that beauty is a primary of interest of his.
2. We see God's world more truthfully. Seeing one theme is insufficient. Artists must help people see both the brokenness and the promise of renewal.
3. We embrace God's salvation more completely. Art as morality dictates that we should create more than just "religious" art. Everything is to be redeemed. Everything is worthy of artistic representation.
4. We worship God more humanly. Because of the image of God, humans make art. Humans create. No other organism on earth does.
5. We believe God's promises more confidently. We are blinded to the glory that is here now. With art, you encourage and enlarge hearts to believe the impossible.
6. We proclaim God's kingdom more powerfully. Truth has bigger muscles in art.
7. We need to meet God. The primary place where we experience God is in our imagination–the intersection of our mind, emotions and will.

Movements…

These were the 5 Movements or values that I helped create at Reunion. I include them here because they very much came out of my heart for God, the church and for ministry.

beauty

God is a God of creativity, and He has gifted His people with the ability to reflect that beauty back to Him through a variety of artistic, creative expressions. We value reclaiming the arts through the culturally relevant usage of the performing and visual arts, engaging hearts and minds with innovation and passion.

spirituality

God has created men and women as deeply spiritual beings who long for a meaningful relationship with their Creator. We value the Truth as expressed in Jesus Christ and His Word as an attraction to those who are struggling to make sense of their world.

story

The story of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the truth that gives meaning and purpose to our lives. Reunion is a place that values each person's unique story as it intertwines with God's, recognizing that everyone is at a different place in their spiritual journey. We value nurturing and supporting that journey, giving people an opportunity to see their personal story in God's story.

mission

Ministry is risk-taking service to others. With God's help, we want to release each individual to experience the joy and wonder of serving out of their own unique giftedness. We value making selfless contributions that forge us into a positive and powerful presence for Jesus Christ in our spheres of influence.

connection

The heart of the church is a community of faith, helping to introduce people to the life and love of Jesus Christ. We value sharing our lives in brokenness and wholeness because it showcases the grace of God in accepting us, no matter where we are or have been.

Bible
The Bible is God's completely true Story about who he is, what he has done, what he is doing, and what he will do. It was given by God to human writers and so reflects their backgrounds, styles, and use of language. The Bible is the final authority on all matters to which it speaks.

Salvation
We are connected to God in only one way - by receiving the offer of forgiveness and reconciliation God offers to us by Christ's life, death, and resurrection. God's gift of grace makes us his adopted sons and daughters. There is nothing we can do to deserve this life - it is all a gift from God, and our job is simply to receive it. When we do, God begins the process of changing our hearts and minds from the inside out and making our characters more and more like Jesus'. As we have been reconciled to God, we also have hope for being more fully reconciled to other people.

Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ, God's Son, became fully human when he was born to the Virgin Mary. He was fully human and fully God. He lived a perfect life in place of our imperfect lives; died, as our substitute, the death we deserved to die because of our sin; and physically rose from the dead. He offers us full life by the power of his own resurrection. He then ascended into heaven and today is our representative, intercessor, and advocate with God the Father.

Holy Spirit
We experience the full life and presence of God in our relationship with God the Spirit, who convicts us of sin, points us to Christ, and applies Christ's work to our lives. He gives gifts and power to the church and he is the one who creates biblical community in the church. He reveals truth and guides our lives, individually and together.

God
There is one God, who exists as three persons living in perfect community - Father, Son, and Spirit. God created everything and sustains everything by his life. He is holy, all-powerful, all-knowing, unchanging, and full of mercy and grace.