Trinity Helps the Hurting

December 12, 2011 in Ministry, Personal with 0 Comments

I love my church because we have a real ministry to hurting people.  We don’t have to look far in our city to find people in need, and those hurting people don’t have to look far to find us ready to help.  They actually come to Trinity’s Outreach Center by the 100′s every week.  We work hard to feed hungry people, clothe those in need, and offer financial assistance in as responsible a way as possible.  We partner with prisoner release programs, city food pantries, drug rehabilitation programs, health clinics, and other churches everyday to reach as many people as possible.  Did you catch that last one?  We work with other churches.  I love that.

As the NextGen leader at Trinity I am blessed to have ministries like this built into the system of our church.  It’s easy to find a house for teenagers to paint, or a project for children to raise winter coats for.  It’s easy, because our church meets these needs every single day.

I’m not saying my church is better than your church, I’m just saying I love my church.

My Church is Old, and I Love It.

December 8, 2011 in Ministry, Personal with 2 Comments

I love it that my church is old.  Trinity has weathered the storm of different generations and has survived!  Trinity has lasted.  As we approach the 50th year of ministry in Lubbock, I marvel at the impact we’ve had over all these years.  The attendance numbers have fluctuated from “bursting at the seams” to “will anyone show up?”, but over they years has continued to find health and participate as a functioning part of our community for 50 years.

There are unique challenges of an old church, there is no doubt.  But there are great advantages as well.  We have consistent people, both in attendance and in what they give to the vision of our church.  We have a diverse group of people that ranges from newborn children through WW2 veterans.  We have a story that spans 5 decades, and people love to tell it to us young folks!  We have the luxury of experience to draw from with each decision we make.

It’s comforting to me to attach myself and my family to a secure place like Trinity, that values loyalty and excellence all at the same time.  In my travels, I regularly run into people who know about my church.  They don’t know about us from some recent podcast, or popular book our pastor may have wrote (and there isn’t anything wrong with this.)  They know about us, because sometime in the past 50 years our church has impacted their life or someone they know.  That’s rich and I love it.

Free App Setup this Christmas

December 5, 2011 in Technology with 0 Comments

My friend Matt McKee just announced something incredible. It’s called 1000 apps for Christmas. His company, ROAR, is offering 1000 free apps in the next 30 days. That means if you want an app for your ministry, they’ll build it for you for free. All you’ll pay for is the hosting. This is an incredible deal. I’ve seen places where you can get apps for cheap, but in most cases, you get what you pay for. ROAR is different. They build quality apps that are fast, stable and current technology. So, if you’ve been thinking about getting an app for that ministry or program… now’s the time!

Go Get your App Right Now!


Christ our Hope

December 2, 2011 in Bible, Personal with 1 Comment

This year for the Christmas Advent Season my family is doing the normal Sunday Advent devotional, but adding to that by trying hard to continue the theme throughout the week with my kids.  On the first Sunday of Advent we talked about hope.  Two kinds of hope; the hope that those felt for a redeemer waiting for Christ to come, and the hope that we feel for everyday since he has come.

Isaiah 60:1  Arise, shine, for your light has come,
and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
2  For behold, darkness shall cover the earth,
and thick darkness the peoples;
but the Lord will arise upon you,
and his glory will be seen upon you.
3  And nations shall come to your light,
and kings to the brightness of your rising.

We talked with the kids about the differences between hoping and wishing, and kept it short enough that the kids paid attention for most of the 5 minutes. But this year I challenged them to think about HOPE all week long.  I’ve reminded them all week before school to be thinking and looking for examples of hope.  So this week we’ve talked Star Wars “A New Hope”, we’ve talked about hoping that mom will put cookies in our lunch boxes, we’ve talked about how we hope that it snows this week, and everynight before bed I’ve reminded the kids that we can have real hope in Christ.  We don’t have to wish for it, we are given real-life changing hope.

One of the things I found online this week was this great video, which helped illustrate further the idea that we have something inside of us that longs for Hope.  See if you can use it with your family this week to start some discussion as well.

Another Thanksgiving Thought

November 23, 2011 in Personal with 0 Comments

As we celebrate another Thanksgiving, it’s appropriate to remember those things we are thankful for.  We all do this to some degree, right?  If nothing else, we should be thankful for the opportunity to be thankful.  But this year, I’ve been challenging those I’m most thankful for to let our thankfulness be a wellspring of life that allows us to give others things to be thankful for.  That’s a mouthful, I know.  Basically I’ve wanted to let my thankfulness be the things that motivates me to bless others.

This year my family worked together to do something that gives someone else something to be thankful for.  We chose as a family this year to enter into the world of fostering care.  We’ve seen the worst, and we’ve seen the best of the system.  The really strange thing, is that at it’s best…it’s still really hard.

As we drove back from letting the young boy that we’ve had for 9 months reunite with his own family, I was struck with how very thankful I am for my own family.  I’m thankful that life hasn’t presented the kind of challenges that forces me to have to reunite with my own kids.  I’m thankful that my children were big brothers and a big sister to someone that needed them desperately.  I’m thankful that this pain my family feels will be made better by us all being together.  Finally, I’m thankful that we get to imagine big things for our family, and act on those things in big ways.

Psalm 105:1 ESV

Oh give thanks to the Lord; call upon his name; make known his deeds among the peoples!

How has your own thankfulness impacted those around you this year?  

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