Very Excited

I am a huge fan of the amazing television series Scrubs. I always tell people that if I had watched that show when I was in high school then I would probably be in medical school right now and I would handle my bedside manner in the same way as Dr. John Dorian. I own the first six seasons of Scrubs on DVD and completely plan on buying the 7th season when it comes out on DVD. So after hearing this you can imagine how sad I was to hear that NBC was going to end its contract with producer Bill Lawrence and the greatest show to grace a television set. However, I am a frequent reader of Zach Braff's blog online and I have recently seen that ABC has signed a four year contract with Bill Lawrence so that they can air a season 8 of the comedy. I am very excited by this news and can not wait until the new season is produced. I know that many may not feel the same passion as I do about Scrubs or television in general but I would have to say that if you get a chance then you should definitely check it out. It is incredible.

For you Clay

So my boy Clay Taylor recently started blogging and while I must say that I don't agree with his rant about officials (because I am one dude and it is harder than it looks) I must certainly tell everyone that they should read it.....there is some really good stuff on there....if you are lookin for it then it is in my link list so give it a looksie

Lord Save Us From Your Followers

So Nic ordered this book from Amazon with a couple of others and while he started on one of the other books I started this one. I am only a couple of chapters in to it so far but until this point it has been incredible. Dan Merchant does an awesome job of opening my eyes to how stubborn Christians can actually be. He talks about as Christians we are always preaching the gospel of love, which is what we are called to do, but we are pushing it on people without hearing their side of the story and if you do that then you will never build relationships with people. Then instead of drawing people in you actually push them away. It is an incredible book and Dan Merchant can explain these things a lot better than I can. It is a very good read and I would suggest that you guys check it out if you get a chance. I will leave you guys with a paragraph from the book that has been on my mind all day......Dan Merchant talks about on his way into church he sees a bumper sticker on a car outside in the church parking lot that says "Lord, Save Us From Your Followers." He talks about how he found the sticker humorous and then he says this.....

As I walked away from that bumper sticker, something else stirred in me-I imagine it was God tapping me on the shoulder-a realization that far too many people have been one of those Followers and I have been one of them too. My heart sank. I had to admit there have been far too many instances where my selfishness, impatience, ignorance, arrogance-you name it-has pushed people further away from God rather than closer to Him. It's a bummer to realize I am one of them. It's kind of a drag to realize that I am part of the problem-it's much easier simply to blame those I don't like. Do you recognize yourself as one of them too?

Back to Texas

So tonight I am going to drive to the airport to pick Nic and Jo up after their week long trip to Washington D.C. It was kinda cool to relax before the summer started for real but I am really glad that they are coming back. I miss them something awful and I can't wait to hang out with them again. It's also pretty exciting because now the summer is about to start and we get to dive in headfirst with VBS starting next week. I think I can speak for all the interns when I say that I can't wait. Anyways if you have read Jenna's blog then you will see that I am wanting a new truck and if you would like to sponsor that then just give me a call. Also if you have a rich family member that would like to purchase a truck for me then that would be cool too. Alright, well I gotta go get ready so I can look my best for when my family gets back.

Aren't they so cute?

The Austin Stone

On Sunday I took it easy all day after I taught jr. high sunday school. JMob, Dusty, and I decided last week that we wanted to go over to Austin Stone Church for their Sunday night service. So about 4 o'clock on sunday afternoon I headed over to the Pittman's house and we loaded up. JMob, Dusty, Dusty's two brother (Micheal and Brooks), Lucas (a kid in the youth group), and I all loaded up and headed on our way to Austin High School where the Austin Stone holds their church services. Austin Stone has an incredible history and if you want to learn more about it then I would suggest that you go visit their website. It is run by their pastor Matt Carter and their music minister Chris Tomlin. The church has incredible services and is very contemporary. Tonight the pastoral intern Ronnie Smith got up and continued their look at 1 Corinthians. He talked about how a lot of the time we mourn over things in our lives but then we overlook the most important thing that we actually should be mourning. He talked about how we had been saved by grace and that our sin against God, even after He saved us, is the worst thing that we could do but we don't mourn over it. We simply shrug it off and thank God because He died for us so that we could wipe our slate clean time after time. It was an incredible message and the band did a great job of inviting everyone to worship with them. It is incredible to see what all Austin Stone has done in the short time that they have been a church and to see how they set everything up and continue to grow despite the fact that they don't have a building. I would highly recommend that if you are ever in the Austin area that you swing by and check out one of their services.

Fun while it lasted

Well for both of you that actually read my blog you guys know that Nic and Jo are out of town at some conferences in Washington D.C. I am glad that they are having a good time but I am even happier because that means that us interns get a small break before the actual summer starts. So after Bible Study on Wednesday night I headed back to Stephenville so that I could just sit around and relax. And let me just say that I definitely did relax. I went back to my apartment and I just slept and was lazy for two days pretty much. It was incredible and for you guys that know me, you know that I wouldn't rather do anything else. I hung out with a Reed, a friend of mine that lives in Stephenville, and we watched some TV. Then yesterday I got to go to lunch with Sawyer, he is a really close friend of mine and just an incredible guy to hang out with. Other than that I just sat around and relaxed until I got that text message asking if I could teach Sunday school. I accepted and headed back to Lockhart where tomorrow morning I will teach Jr. High Sunday School and await the actual start of summer. God be with us......

So lately I have been on a huge tear about church planters and their blogs and everything else. It pretty much all comes from just listening to Nic all the time and him talking about how awesome these guys are but I have started doing my own research and have found that they truly are some amazing men of God. But over Disciple Now weekend Nic showed me this video by Mark Driscoll and it totally blew my mind. I don't know if Nic posted this on his blog and I am sorry if you did buddy but I felt the need to share it on mine. Driscoll basically rips the men for not being there for the church and tells them that they need to step up. The video is about ten minutes long but it is a great video to watch if you have the time. Mark Driscoll took a lot of crap for not talking about the ladies but that isnt the deal here and if you watch the entire video you will see what he is talking about. So here it is.....enjoy!

An Awesome Wednesday with Great People

Wow....today was an incredible day to be alive. The day started with me going to set things up for the Attic. I had to turn the air conditioners on in there so we didn't all get heat stroke by the time Bible Study rolled around. After that I went to the office and worked on my Bible study for a little longer. I listened to a couple of speeches by Mark Driscoll and also listened to some audio sermons by J.R. Vassar. Both of these guys are incredible communicators of the word and I would definately suggest that you search for their stuff online. The best part of the day was when one of my best friends in the world showed up to offer his support while I was teaching tonight. Chris Gist is one of my best friends and we have known each other a long time. We grew up together and his family has always been so incredible to me and I thank God for blessing me with them and his friendship all the time. But Chris drove down to Lockhart from Goldthwaite to hear me teach and just to hang out for the day. It was really good to see him and when he got here we went and grabbed some lunch at Dobb's Chicken. After we left there we went back to the church and grabbed JMob and then headed back to the house. Dusty met us there and we spent the next hour just talking and hanging out. After a while we headed up to the Attic. When we got there we were surprised to see a whole crew of kids waiting for us to open it up. Last week Nic preached an awesome message about actually living for Christ and really getting involved within the student ministry. So this group of kids decided that their way to give back was to come and clean the Attic before everyone got there. It was incredible to watch them clean the entire place and just see Christ shining out of them. After a while all the rest of the kids started to show up and we hung out and talked to everyone for about an hour. We started the service and the worship band did an amazing job just like they always do. Then it was my turn to get up there and do my thing. I was pretty nervous but prayed for God to speak through me and I really feel that that is what happened tonight. I spoke to the kids about religion vs. relationship and even though everyone told me that I did a good job I think that Mark Driscoll does an even better job of explaining this and I would HIGHLY recommend that if you have the ten minutes to spare that you should click on Jenna's blog under my links list and watch the video that she posted about this very topic. It is an incredible message about what we have turned religion into. Anyways the night ended and everyone went home and I got the chance to head over to Mr. Taco and eat with all the people that help make wednesday night at the Attic possible. It was a great time to sit down and visit with everyone and spend some time with good food and even better people. Once we left there Chris told me that he had to head back to Goldthwaite and he took off that way. I am so glad that God has put so many awesome people in my life to help keep me on the straight and narrow but also just to have fun with as we live this life. So to all of you guys that helped me today and always stand by me.....Thanks a lot, I couldn't have done it without you. Oh and by the way Nic and Jo, even though you guys arent here it definately includes you too.

New Blog

So after a lot of reading of other blogs I have decided to try this thing out. I don't really know how this is going to work out because I tend to get really excited about stuff and then two weeks later totally forget what I was doing. Hopefully though with enough encouragement and pressure from other people wanting a look inside of my crazy thoughts.
So far the summer has been pretty busy. I have moved to Lockhart, Tx to start interning for my boy Nic Burleson. He is an incredible youth minister and I look forward to working with him again and letting him disciple me this summer. I also get the chance to work with two awesome guys in Jonathan Mobley (or J-Mob as we call him around the locker room) and Dusty Pittman. These guys are incredible men of God and I look forward to hanging with them this summer and serving in the ministry alongside them.
This past weekend I tagged along with Nic and Jo as we went down to Corpus Christi to hang out with Jo's family and watch her sister graduate from Texas A&M Corpus. While we were there Nic and I checked out the place that we would be staying for high school camp this year. I would describe the way that these places looked but it only brings up bad memories that I have tried to erase from my mind since last saturday. We were kind of disappointed but we knew that God was still going to do amazing things for our students. Saturday night we left Corpus Christi and headed back to Lockhart for church the next morning. We woke up on sunday morning and went to church where Jenna and I tag teamed the Jr. High Sunday School class. The class went very well and it was really cool to see how the kids responded. For the main service Nic preached in front of the church because it was senior sunday. He preached about acquiring a pig's lifestyle and the correct ways to avoid that. The rest of the day was spent bumming around and going to see Prince Caspian in theaters.
This week JMob, Dusty, and I will be working on some stuff for high school camp while also putting on wednesday night bible study. Nic and Jo are out of town at some church conferences and for some reason they left us in charge. I am teaching Bible study this wednesday and for anyone that knows me, you guys know that I am gonna get pretty nervous so definately be praying for me about that. Also be praying for our students and that everything will go well so that we dont get yelled at when the boss gets back.