Worship Retreat 2008

This past weekend was the Westhills Worship Retreat 2008. It was great! This is the weekend where everyone in the worship ministry gets together for a weekend and we get ready for the next year. What was great about this years retreat is that it was the first time I had been involved in it.

I was there to work with the techies, all 3 of us. But it was still great. We have a new guy, Lord Jeffery, who is learning to run our new lighting program. He is so into it; I can't wait to see what he can do with it. He is a super tech genius so it should be great. And Clay came to learn our new audio set up. He really caught onto it quickly. But we still don't have anyone who can take care of our on-screen element. We are praying God will send some one our way who can handle that part of what we do.

Since we've been in our new building we have had a great time adding new elements to the service each week. But this Sunday, after working with the choir all weekend, was phenomenal. We took a lot of time this weekend to work on the choir set up trying to get everything working perfect. Well, we did. And the choir totally blew it up this Sunday. Everything was working together wonderfully. Lights, band, choir, on-screen, all of it. It was great to see all of our hard work over the weekend pay off.

It's been great being a part of the worship leadership at Westhills. i love working with Robby, James, Tyler, Matt, and Jimmy. All great guys with a great vision for what God can do this coming year through Westhills. I can't wait to see how our vision for the next year fills out. I know God is with us as we try new things and invite people to join into His story.

Personality Test

So I took this personality test online yesterday and really liked the results. I guess I'm kind of bragging but I think it's pretty accurate. The test was on similarminds.com. Well, I took the test thinking, "I know myself pretty well. I shouldn't be surprised by the results." I was way wrong! The results were shocking! Maybe not shocking but they were really cool. See this test gives you four categories of traits. In each category there are two opposite traits. Such as Extrovert vs. Introvert, Intuitive vs. Sensing, Feeling vs. Thinking, and Judging vs. Perceiving.

Well, I am definetly an extrovert so that one wasn't a surprise at all. And I think I'm a very intuitive person; I like to be creative all the time. Apparently I am almost right in the middle between Feeling and Thinking, But I am just a little more feeling. That one surprised me a little. I thought I used my brain to make desicions more than just my feelings, but I was wrong. I guess it's a good balance. But what really took me by surprise is that I am more judging than perceiving. This doesn't mean that I am judgemental. It actually means that I am a good judge of things such as, character, priorities, and time. It also means I am good at judging what steps are needed to be taken to reach a particular goal. I thought that was really cool. I honestly didn't know that about myself.

What I really liked about the test, and this is where I start bragging, is the description of an ENFJ(Extrovert, Intuitive, Feeling, Judging) personality. Here is what the description says:

ENFJ - "Persuader". Outstanding
leader of groups. Can be aggressive
at helping others to be the best that
they can be. 2.5% of total
population.

I like that a lot. I am an oustanding leader of groups. I can be aggressive at helping other be the best that they can be. And what I really thought was cool is that Only 2.5% of the population is like this. So out of all people who have taken this test most of the people are not like me! That's so cool!

I just thought I would share this with everyone. I really suggest you take a personality test if you never have. It surprised me and taught me something about myself I didn't know. I love this thing. I need to do some more!

Understanding #1

Ok, so I had this idea today while I was reading Matthew 5:17-20. Why did I think about a blog in the middle of my studying? Well, for the second day in a row, I was stumped trying to understand a piece of Scripture. I just couldn't wrap my head around it. So I got this idea that maybe some of you could help me get it. So here's how this is going to happen. I will give you the scripture and what I thought about it. Then hopefully, you can help me understand God's meaning about it. This should be fun. Oh, and don't hold back anything, please. Here we go...

So yesterday I read Matthew 5:13-16. I read this before church Sunday morning, which meant I was reading it at 6 o'clock in the morning, and I was stuck on it all day. I had a hard time focusing on what Tyler was saying in his message. So here is the verse that got me.

Matthew 5:13
"You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses it's saltines, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men."

Now, I get the part about us being the salt. But what I don't get is the part that's italicized and colored part. I don't get the salt being thrown out and trampled by men. I can't help but get stuck on the thought, "Is this talking about being thrown out of the Kingdom of Heaven?" I am not a believer at all in "unforgivable sin" or "losing your salvation." But at the same time, this verse is directly talking about the salt losing the saltiness. I know the salt is supposed to mean believers, so is saltiness supposed to mean beliefs? It seems like that fits right?

Salvation is an issue of the heart, I totally get that, so God only calls people believers if they are actually believers. He never says someone is a believer if he knows they don't believe. Makes sense. So I would imagine that God wouldn't call something salt unless it was really salt. So this leads me to believe this verse is talking about a Christian who has fallen away from God, what we sometimes call "back-slidden." I just can't help but keep thinking this verse is saying that if a Christian has fallen away from God, that person will be thrown out of the Kingdom of Heaven. But at the same time I don't believe God does that.

Can someone please lend some thought to this issue of being thrown out of the Kingdom of Heaven?

Revealed

My wife, Desi, just posted this great blog on her myspace blog. It made me so proud that I married her. I'm glad that Desi is open to what God has planned for us and the way He is choosing to get us there. Here's what she wrote:

God spoke to me today...

Through many tears and much confusion I have just realized that we were not ready to venture to San Diego and I finally understand why. Our hearts were ready and we wanted to serve. But spiritually with God we were not prepared. We weren't in tune with God like we needed to be to take on such a HUGE life change. Through all of this it has brought us closer to God and closer to each other. I've seen how this has stretched and grown Travis. He desires to know God's word and seek Him. Travis has helped me be a better person too. He keeps me accountable to study the word. God has shown us that suffering must come before VICTORY! Sometimes you have to go through certain things to learn what God is trying to teach you. Life would be a lot easier if we would just do what God wanted us to do. But too often we give into our sinful nature. But I love "What the devil intended for evil, God intended for GOOD". We just have to trust Him. I know God has a plan for our lives. I know He can still use us. We just have to be patient to see where He leads us. I know that Travis is called to be a worship leader. I just don't know where or when. But I trust the One who knows and is in control. Right now I believe He is preparing Travis for when the time comes. I can see each day how God is teaching Him new things.

So we know that we are called to GO...but where that is we aren't sure yet.
For now it's here, but wherever He leads us we will GO.

As for San Diego I believe God has raised up a GREAT team to GO. (I will miss each and every one of you. You had become like a family to me.) I know God is going to use them to reach the hearts of the people in San Diego.

It has been hard to come to grips with God's plan, but I have to remind myself its NOT about me.

I love it when Desi writes this stuff. It shows me that God speaks to her through what He is teaching me.

I love you sweetheart and I am so glad you hear from God the way you do. Also, I want you to know that it encouraged me so much to read this. God is taking us somewhere beyond our wild dreams, and I'm so glad to share that journey with you.

Creativity Through Song

Songwriting is such an amazing thing. Right now, my Worship Pastor, Robby, and I are writing songs together for our congregation to sing during an upcoming series called "Stories." It's a series that is going to take us through the entire story of God in the Scriptures from creation to the 2nd coming. We working on writing a song for each week as well as a song for the overall theme of "Stories." The best part about this is not just getting to write songs with my Worship Pastor and for our congregation so worship through together. The best part is hearing God speak to me through ancient writings. It really is amazing when God can speak to you through some one's genealogy. We've been at it for a couple of months now, and we've already got a couple of great songs. It's just a lot of fun to sit up in the loft at Robby's house and create songs for our congregation.
Something I do a lot that's really fun is I will start playing my guitar and read a specific piece of scripture at the same time. I was taught a long time ago by a wonderful worship leader and songwriter that worship songs are best when they come out of your own heart. So I write all my songs out of scripture that I am studying. For instance, right now I am studying through the book of Matthew. As I've read through it, I found that Matthew uses a lot of "And this was done to fulfill what was said through the prophet..." He did this to show his readers that Jesus fulfilled what the Old Testament said the Messiah would do, thus proving that Jesus was the Messiah. So I'm taking those parts of Matthew where he quotes a prophet and writing a song based on each one. For instance, one of the first quotes Matthew uses says that Bethlehem will not be the forgotten by God, for out of it a ruler will come. So, being that Israel is kind of a symbol for Christians I have a written a song to encourage discouraged believers saying, "People of God, Children of Love, You are not forgotten, You are not forgotten, For out of us will come great love, Out of us has come God's Son." I got to this by playing some chord progressions and reading the passage over and over again.
This project has been a lot of fun for me personally. It's been great to get up in the morning and read a passage out of Matthew. Then come back that afternoon, after having time to chew of the Scripture, and write a song about what God said to me through that passage. I hope these songs can help show people that Jesus is exactly who the scriptures tell us he is, just as Matthew intended them to.

Challenge Winner

Congratulation Joe! You've won the challenge. I'm really not surprised. I should have known better than to let you play. Now Jordan, reason Joe won and not you is because he said it's an idog. You didn't so Joe wins. So Joe, I will be contacting you soon regarding your prize. Again, congratulations and good luck on the next challenge which will be coming soon.

Golf

I love golf! I mean LOVE! I play almost every day, literally. See my job allows me to be done with work early in the afternoon, mainly because I go in way early. But right now, it is 11:00 pm and I can't sleep because I'm so excited about tomorrow. Why am I excited about a Saturday? Well, I am playing golf with a bunch of guys from my small group tomorrow. The best part...they all think I'm way better than they are! I don't know if I am or not, but they sure are convinced I am. Now, I do play a lot more than they do, but still. They've never seen me hit a ball before. But I really can't sleep cause I just can't wait to hang out with these guys playing a fun game of best ball. I really enjoy all of these guys, and I'm so excited about spending the afternoon with them. I just wanted everyone to know I can't sleep cause I'm too excited about playing golf with a bunch of ugly dudes.

I have a Challenge

So, I have this awesome new background. For those of you who don't know, I am a total tech geek. It's my one flaw in life. But like I said, I have a challenge. You see the little puppy thing at the bottom of the web page? Well, that little puppy is actually a lot more than just a puppy. I will give a prize to whoever can tell me what that little puppy actually is. And it's not gonna be something really stupid, I promise. This is for real. I can't tell you what the prize is, but it will be worth your effort, I can guarantee that. So whoever can tell me what the puppy at the bottom of your computer screen is will get a for real prize. Oh, and I will only accept answers submitted as a comment on this blog. I'm not going to open and read through emails or pick up the phone to hear your answer. So let the challenge begin.

A Life of Unrest

So it's been a while since I posted I know, but a lot has been going on. Desi and I bought a house, that was fun, exciting, and kind of scary at the same time. We got a dog, a boxer named Riley. Now Riley is a girl, but we keep hearing the Riley is a boys name. I don't care Desi named her not me. Desi started a new job at a photography studio. And we've been praying about what God's plan is for us next. But this time of constant change, I discovered today, is the life of a Christ-follower.
I've just began studying Matthew, and today after reading through the end of chapter two, I realized something strange. The first two chapters of Matthew are, in a way, a story of Jesus never being in the same place very long. First, while Mary is pregnant, they have to go to Bethlehem for the census. Next, they have to run to Egypt because King Herod is trying to find Jesus to kill him. Then, when they are told to go back to Israel, the instead go Galilee because Herod terrible son is ruling. So realize this, Jesus was two when they left Bethlehem. They stayed in Egypt till Herod died. Then made haste for Nazareth.
In John, Jesus calls himself "the way." And we see here, that the way Jesus lived his life during his formative years was very unstable. He was never in the same country for very long until he was already a young child. He lived somewhere just long enough to get acclimated into the culture and then it was time to go again. Perhaps this is why he was so "at home" traveling during his three year ministry. You know, the whole birds have nests, and foxes have dens, but the Son of man has no place to rest his head thing.
But I started to think about what this means for my spiritual walk with Christ. And I realized that I've been living in the same town, in the same neighborhood, and on the same block for far too long, spiritually speaking. God calls us to be sojourners and ambassadors in a foreign country. We aren't supposed to be comfortable here. Like Christ, there are times that we have to run for our lives. God can call us to go any where at any time.
What's great in my name, Travis, literally means Traveler. So I've decided that it's time to live up to my name. It's time that I stop wasting time unpacking bags just to unpack them again. It's time to begin my journey as a sojourner and follow "the way" where ever he leads.