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6 Days in August

August 25 - Headed up to our friends cabin near St. Mary's Glacier. Movies, tons of food, ATV's, BBQ, and games. Very relaxing and fun!

August 26 - Returned from the mountains in time for church. After church Carol and I did some pre-marriage counseling for a couple and then I watched this. Then I went to the airport at 11:30 PM to pick up my daughter Bethany. She was returning from a trip to Oregon.

August 27 - WHITEWATER! It was an incredible Sunday. For the weekend we had a total of 44 baptisms at Northern Hills. Of the 44, only 5 were scheduled. The rest responded to the message that day, or more accurately - God's call on their life.

Speaking of WHITEWATER, our average attendance through the first 5 weeks of WHITEWATER is 640. What a great ride WHITEWATER has been.

August 28 - It was time for some domestic chores. Some house cleaning, wash, a few errands, and then prep for this weeks message.

August 29 - Office Slam-a-Rama. Then off with some friends to the Bonnie Raitt and Keb Mo concert at Red Rocks. Great show and the weather was perfect.

Today - Planning out our next series. Correspondence galore. Meeting with my pal Lorne. Working on our year end stuff, since our fiscal year ends tomorrow. Writing this post. Now going home!

WHITEWATER Week 2

Yesterday was our second week of WHITEWATER. I was excited, expectant, and a bit cautious in anticipating the number of people who would come for week two.

In our first week we had 680 people. This was after a big promotional push that brought over 40 visiting families. We also had dozens of well wishers who came for one reason or another, family of band members, etc... So, statistically we should of had about half of the people in week two that we had in week one. That is what usually happens in things like church plants, etc... having half of the people come back is a big win!

However, I believe that some good things are being done and that God is really in this whole thing so I was hoping and praying for 400-500 people to come week 2. In my mind that was being pretty bold! Ha!

God had other plans. We had more people this week than we had at our grand opening - 748 to be exact! That is a 9% increase over grand opening! It does not make sense to me, but I know that it makes sense to God.

Our services opened with the following songs:

• Making Melody (Matt Redman)
• The Time Has Come (Hillsong United)
• Look To You (Hillsong United)
• Dancing Generation (Matt Redman)

and closed with:

• Rain Down (Delirious?)

The message was about God's provision and came out of 1 Kings 17. We gave everyone towels and challenged the to choose God in the peaks of life and also in the valleys of life. For the people who were in a peak season of life, where all is going well,  I asked them to fold their towels and create a "mini-altar" and fall to their knees and thank God and recognize God as their provider. To choose God even in these good times when they are not driven to God out of desperation. Hundreds did this.

For those who were in a valley season of life I asked them to wad up their towel and grab it as tight as they could. Like they were ready to throw in the towel. Then I asked them to stand and choose God in the midst of this valley, and to turn their hand over and loosen their grip and give the crud over to God. To focus on God more than the circumstance of the valley.

The room was full of people standing and indicating that they were choosing God and giving over their crud to Him and depending on Him to provide. There was a real sense of people dealing with hurt and brokenness. We prayed for these individuals. It was powerful moment.

I feel like we are accomplishing one of our goals for WHITEWATER - a place to be real. Like I told everyone on Sunday. You can do almost anything when you come to WHITEWATER. You can embrace God or doubt God. Hide. Reflect. Ponder. You can sit, stand, jump, dance, cross your arms, or lift your hands. You can question God or thank God. You can be mad, happy, sad, up, or down. You can do almost anything - but play games.

BE REAL WITH OTHERS, BE REAL WITH YOUR STUFF, AND BE REAL WITH GOD!

As C.S. Lewis said - "Pray what is in you, not what should be in you".

Within the next two weeks we should have the WHITEWATER podcasts available!

WHITEWATER WEEK 1

Yesterday was an incredible day! Check out some of the pictures here.

Our first WHITEWATER service kicked off at 9:09 in The Garage at Northern Hills. Everything was in place and there was a great sense and anticipation that God was up to something big. Service began with the U2 song Beautiful Day. Immediately everyone rose to there feet and started clapping. That was shortly followed by our worship set of the following songs:

• The Time Has Come (Hillsong United)
• Let Creation Sing (Hillsong United)
• Dancing Generation (Matt Redman)
• You Never Let Go (Matt Redman)
• None But Jesus (Hillsong United)

I then spoke about dealing with the storms of our life by looking at Acts 27. We closed the service with the song When The Tears Fall (Tim Hughes)

We quickly celebrated the 9:09 service and then began the 10:44 service. At each service we had to add chairs to accommodate the nearly 700 people who showed up. This first week of WHITEWATER affirmed to me that:

• Prayer! Prayer! Prayer!
• God is at work in, through, and around WHITEWATER!
• I have the absolute best team of volunteers. You are all awesome!
• Our band just killed it and our volunteer tech crew is unbelievably dedicated. Thanks for the sixty hour week guys!
• Still learning, but having multi-site venues on the same campus can work and work really well
• Atmosphere! Atmosphere!
• Prayer! Prayer! Prayer!

Again thanks to the many staff and volunteers who made this happen. Praise God for what He has done and what He is doing!

WHITEWATER

As you have probably noticed I have not been posting as much lately. The main reason is my preparation for WHITEWATER. For those of you who do not know, WHITEWATER is our new live venue at Northern Hills that kicks off this Sunday, July 30th. I have the privilege of being the Pastor of WHITEWATER and speaking each week. It has been an incredible experience and we are praying for 400 people to show up on Sunday. Our hope is that many who come will be those who have never set foot in a church before.

WHITEWATER is trying to redefine the church experience for those who attend and has been defined in the following way:

• Edgy, unique and Loud!
• The teaching deals with real issues and refuses easy answers.
• Each service i different - no templates.
• The focus is to go deep and even risk being uncomfortable.
• WHITEWATER is for:
  • People who like to rock and people who like to reflect
  • People who are distant from God and people who doubt God
  • People who are confused by life and concerned for their future
  • People who want real friendships and relevant experiences
  • People who want to improve their community and impact their world
  • People who are frustrated with Christians and fed up with the church

We did some of the promotion for WHITEWATER through a MySpace campaign. This was something new we tried and I will talk more about it on a later post. Amazingly we have over 2000 "friends" in just a bit over a month.  

Please be praying for this Sunday. We believe that God is up to something big and it is an honor to be part of such an incredible team. I will post an update on Monday and toss in some cool photos!