Ouch!

Saw this on twitter and wanted to share...

Once the Bible is less than God's Word Jesus becomes less than God & sinners become less than sinful. The Bible is highest authority. - Mark Driscoll

What do you think?

3 Questions, 3 Suggestions

Okay, so I know I'm not old. But I feel older than I used too. It's taken a day and a half to get over this trip and I still don't feel 100%. However, I wanted to give you a few more things before my official DCLA blog tour is done.

Three Questions:

As you talk to your kids (you do talk don't you?) here are some questions to ask. These questions we're asked of us each time we got together in the big room.

1) What? - What did God teach you? What stuck out the most?

2) So What? - What does that mean to you?

3) Now What? - What are you going to do about it?

These are good questions and should help you get a better understanding of the work that God is doing in the life of your kid!

Three Suggestions:

I am not smart enough to come up with all of this on my own so I wanted to share with you what Mark wrote on his blog about students coming back:

When your camper gets home, I suggest you do three things:

1. Let them sleep. Let them sleep a lot.
Fatigue is an enemy and they'll be at their best when they have had some rest.

2. Don't tap the brake.
Fight any temptation you may have to "temper" their enthusiasm for Christ. Even if they make bold and unusual statements like, "I'm going to win all my friends to Christ," or "I'm going to start carrying my Bible to school with me." Even then, don't yield to your temptation to suggest they calm down, slow down or lower their expectations. Let them dream. Let them step-up to a new level of devotion and commitment. Let them feel your support - even when they're attempting something that can only happen if Almighty God steps in and makes it so. (Because Almighty God just might!)

3. Say, "That's great," or "That's awesome," a lot.
When they tell you a story about camp, say, "Tell me more about that." When they talk about the steps they took toward Christ, say, "That's wonderful. I'm proud of you." Your encouragement means more to them than mine. Your encouragement means more to them than the encouragement of their camp counselors. Encourage them - and watch them grow!

That's good stuff there! Anyway keep on the lookout for more rewind info as we get it put together and if you get a chance ask someone who was on the trip those questions!

Pivotal Days

Every conference I've ever been to has what I like to call a "pivotal day."

It's a day when everything changes.

It's a day when people finally let go of their hang ups and worries and dive into what God has fro them at the event.

It's a day when all of the work that has been poured into them starts to bear fruit.

Here in Los Angeles, with your kids, I believe TODAY is that DAY!

We've had a day and a half of great classes and worship experiences. We've had a great week of bonding and laughing and disagreeing and just being together in a group. The ground work has been put down. And I believe that today will be the day when the work that God has been doing will begin to blossom.

What can you do?

Pray...

Seriously...

We need you to be praying for your kids.

Because as part of our church family even if their not YOUR kids their your kids.

God is doing some amazing things. We are seeing leaders being raised up, relationships healed, lives opening, maturity happening, and a bunch more.

Prayer is the key to unlocking it's full potential. We are going to be rolling back with a bunch of students who are going to be ready to live as integrated followers of Christ. We need to lift them up in prayer.

We've already had major attacks in getting here and I don't believe that they will stop when we get back. In fact, I would imagine that they will get stronger.

So pray for your kids, pray for kids that aren't yours, pray for the leaders and pray for Chris.

Something big is about to happen and I think it's happening today!

DCLA Update

Well we made it.

It took some phone calls and frustration but we finally got a ride to the Convention Center Yesterday. Our original bus was fixed and got to the hotel shortly after we left.

It seems that everything is smoothing out now that we are here. The opening session was very cool. A great blend of motion graphics, video, teaching, drama and music. It was very creative and engaging and gave me some good ideas to try later.

The students are doing great. They've held up under the stress of not having a bus and the fatigue of late nights and early mornings. Fortunately we don't have to be up early the next two days.

Several of our students were chose to lead groups of other students during portions of the event. Growth is happening.

We are going to do our best to put together a recap for all of you who aren't here with us. Look for it on this site and on Chris's blog.

Brakes or not!

So in case you didn't hear yet we've hit a snag.

We lost the brakes in the bus going down a hill this morning as we were leaving for LA.

No injuries, no damage. Just a jumped curb some ruin vines and a shaken up crew.

Needles to say the plans for today have been changed. We'll miss out on the Dream Center but we should still be able to get to the convention center in time for the start if DCLA.

As the week goes on it becomes more and more obvious to me that we are being fought against. The enemy seems to have a vested interest in keeping these students away from this event. His biggest problem is that he is not in charge. He can throw all kinds of issues at us but we are being watched a guided by the one who is really in charge!

The enemy has nothing that our God can't handle.

What you can do is pray for us and with us. The things that God has in store for each student on this trip is out of this world.

I will keep you updated as I am updated.

Welcome to California

We made it. Long bus ride and cranky people aside we are now in Southern California.

I don't want you to be jealous but we are a bout to roll to In-n-Out for lunch.

Today is a day of refreshing after a fourteen hour bus ride. A chance to rest and play as we get ready for the incredible things that God is going to do in our lives.

I've already read two book and written some new song lyrics, so look out.

If you think about it pray for our teens as they walk into this conference on Thursday. I feel like this is the start of something big in the life of our church, and it's important that we be praying about it so we don't walk into it blindly.

I will keep you updated as we go, and hopefully we'll get some live blogging during the conference.

Check back often...

Prayer Night Recap Part 2

Yesterday I gave you a list of some of the things we can be thankful for. Today I wanted to give you the list of things that we prayed for on Sunday night and that we need to continue to pray for.

• DCLA trip
• Project House
• 4th of July Parade
• Church Finances
• New Ministry Year
• Small Groups @ FBC
• New Families/People who are attending
• Habitat for Humanity
• Adoptions
• Vern and Carol Fraire
• Summer Weddings
• Parents Health
• Family Relationships
• Employment Needs

Our God is bigger than any of these things. We need to make sure that we remember that. It can be easy to let our problems become so big that don't give God the room to work that He wants. So join me in praying for each of these things and lets give God the opportunity blow our minds!

Prayer Night Recap

Ok so I know it's been a few days since the prayer night but I wanted to give you guys a recap in case you weren't there. Here goes....

We started by looking at Philippians 4:4-7

Next we took some time to thank God for the things that he has been doing!

Here's the list...

• 11 baptisms
• 2 new student workers
• Jobs
• Kids being discipled
• Provision for DCLA
• Marriages restored
• New babies
• I Saw the Lord
• Women's Bible study
• Personal witness
• Student Ministries
• Restored health
• Financial protection in our valley
• Rain
• Portneuf Gap Project
• Church Leadership
• Spiritual growth
• Prayers answered
• Stepping into service
• Madatchurch.com
• Regional growth
• Project house
• DCLA

Wow! God has been doing a lot of different things. You should take a second and give up some thanks for each of these things and anything else that isn't on this list.

Tomorrow I'll post the list of things we need to pray for...

Time to get this real!

Are you Brian? Will you be the realtor? Watch this and decide...

BRIAN HEAD WELCH - I AM SECOND from BRIAN HEAD WELCH on Vimeo.

Learning to lead better.

As a leader it can sometimes be difficult to find ways to grow. Lets face it, after so many books my brain just wants to shut down.

Conferences are great. But if you hadn't noticed most of them are not here and not cheap. That's one of the reasons why we have been trying to get more things here. (More on that in a future post)

However, I just got invited to be a part of something both very cool and very challenging. I'm going to be participating in a Creativity/Leadership Coaching Network with Carlos!

I'm really excited for a few reasons...

• I get to hang with some great people
• I know that God will use them to challenge me
• You will get some of the rewards of my growth
• I will be able to learn how to leverage online interactions for community building
• We may be able to transfer some of this to the region

There are a lot of other things I probably don't even know about yet but I'm still excited.

Starting in October I'll be meeting with Carlos and four other creatives from around the country once a month, and with just Carlos once a month.

It should be awesome!