Charlotte Bound

So I just realized I haven't really said a lot about Desi and I moving to Charlotte. Well, things just keep getting crazier.

We originally planned on moving around June 20th. That got bumped up to the 12th! We also just got approved for our apartment. We kept having to send them all these documents, paycheck stubs, letters of employment and transfer letters, and other bills to prove our credit. It was kind of ridiculous, but it was $100/month less than anything else around. I guess we had to do a little work to get the best price. So now we have a place to live in Charlotte. But we also still have a place to live in Villa Rica. The good news is that we are talking to 2 people about either renting or buying our house. We'd like to sell it to an investor my dad knows. But if that doesn't work out then a friend of Desi's is looking for a place to rent. So we'll see.

We are also on a roll with raising financial support. Our goal is to raise $3,000/month. So far we our friends and family have stepped up to the plate and committed $1,000/month. So we're already 1/3 of the way to our goal! We've been sending out support letters and calling people like crazy. I spent 2 hours yesterday just addressing letters! We know it's really God who calls people to give, but they can't give if they don't know about it, right!?

We are still waiting for some people to support us in prayer. We are looking for people who are confident in their prayers to continually pray for us as we start this journey. That doesn't mean we don't want your prayers if you aren't "confident". We want and seriously need all the prayer we can get. We just know that some people love to pray, and we want those people praying for us for sure.

So that's it. Wednesday June the 11th, we pick up the U-haul and load it up. The next day, June 12th, we hop in the U-haul and take off for Charlotte. We are so excited and can't wait to join everyone there. It will be exciting and even more crazy than it already has been. But what fun would be if it were boring? That's right. None. It would be boring if it were boring. ??? Anywho, I can't wait to see crazy things happen in Charlotte. I hope this keeps up!

Too Much to Do!

I have got way to much to do today. And the day is almost half over! Here's my honey-to-do list for today...

1. Buy Stamps(Done)
2. Email appraisal to dad(So hopefully this guys will buy our house)
3. Call Toby(So we can talk about 800 things again)
4. Take trash to dumpster(we don't have trash pick up so we take it ourselves)
5. Address and mail support letters(for Sojourn)
6. Send employment letter to Bexley Apts.(Our hopefully future home in Charlotte, if they will stop asking us for stuff like employment letters)
6. Call Bexley apts.(To be sure they got the employment letter)
7. Fill out and mail application for Starbucks(I want a part time job in Charlotte, and Starbucks gives you full benefits if you work at least 20 hours/week)


A lot of that stuff has to happen before like 5:00 when business's close. And others I have to wait for other people to do something for me before I can do what's on the list, like I have to wait for Toby to email me an employment letter so I can sign it, then email that to Bexley apts.(#5). So it's not a real big list, but it's all super important stuff that has to happen today. Wish me luck.

Known by Our Love

I'm tired of it, sick of it. I'm sick and tired of reading and hearing all this stuff about Christians bashing other Christians. It's everywhere from blogs to Youtube. It's even in facebook now. A friend of mine just sent me a video through facebook. If you haven't seen the "Rick Warren Twisting Scripture" video, then go to Youtube and look it up. It's ridiculous.

The whole deal with the video is this. Rick Warren just had this huge conference at Saddleback, held for pastors only. During the conference a friend of mine was there doing interviews and streaming them live online. One of the people he interviewed was Rick Warren. Well, this radio station got a hold of the audio and decided Rick Warren was twisting scripture and did a broadcast about it. So they play a clip from what Rick Warren said, and the radio DJ rips Warren to shreds! I mean just bashes him. Everything Warren said the DJ totally disagreed with and let the world know it.

I have no problem whatsoever with this guy disagreeing with Rick Warren's way of doing ministry. That's fine. I don't think everything Rick Warren does is what I would do, so I don't do it. No big deal. What I do have a problem with is the way it's disagreed with. The DJ didn't just say, "Oh well, that may work for Rick Warren, but in my opinion..." Instead, he would say, "Wrong! What Scripture actually says is...This is terrible..."

I just saw a blog recently that is dedicated to "Revealing the false prophets of our world." And the writer bashes people about books they wrote that he hasn't even read. Or, he hears a snippet of an audio clip and uses it to show someone as a "false prophet".

I'm just sick of seeing all of this stuff. It's everywhere now. I don't have a problem with anyone disagreeing with someone else. That's fine. I do it too. I may not agree with everything Rick Warren, or Bill Hybels, or John Piper, say, and I don't. But I don't have to disagree in a way that makes them sound evil, and I certainly wouldn't call them evil. I just wish it would all go away right now.

Anyone else?

Losing My Hair

I'm not losing my hair. Riley, my dog, is. She has the mange. Pretty bad stuff. Desi thinks she's dying; I can't convince her otherwise. So here's some pictures of what I am dealing with...




Here's my dog. See. Even the look on her face tells you something...



And there is one spot of missing hair. There are 17 missing spots in all; I just counted. That one is the largest, but is the only one you could really see on film. It is pretty big actually now that I really look at it.

The Vet told us the best way to help her is to give her this medicine that they actually use on horses. I'm giving my dog horse strength medication. It's pretty funny because it numbs her mouth. We try to give her a treat after we give her the medicine, and she just licks at it. Oh, and she drools everywhere too. I laugh. Desi cries. And Riley drools. It's all good fun.

Has anybody else had to go through this with their dog?

Insane Things

I got an email from a friend of mine, BJ, earlier today. He told me that he has accepted God's calling into full-time International missions. He is in Australia for the next few months, then off to who knows where.

I told him about Desi and I moving to Charlotte to be a part of Sojourn, and that we were moving in one month. And here is what he said,

"God calls us to do the MOST INSANE THINGS; it's GREAT!"

I love that. The Most Insane Things. I've heard people say that God calls us to do difficult things, or even things we just don't want to do. But I' never heard someone say that God calls us to the "most insane things". Then he ends it with, "It's great!"

So this got me really thinking about what Desi and I are doing. We're moving 300 miles away from everything we've ever known, to a place we've only visited twice, with people we only met two weeks ago, and we haven't heard if we have an apartment yet. I've never been a worship pastor before, never led the worship ministry for an entire church, and I've nevver planted a church before. This really is the most insane thing God could call us to! But I'm taking BJ's attitude.

It's Great!

We can't wait to be in Charlotte. We can't wait to be around these awesome people God has grouped together. We can't wait to be a part of a city that is literally exploding with new people. We can't wait to see what a HUGE God can do inspite of our smallness. We can't wait to be men and women making an impact for God's Kingdom in our World!

What is the MOST INSANE thing God has called/is calling you to do?

What If?

Go to www.ragamuffinsoul.com for more on Creative Chaos.

Well, things have been really crazy for me lately. Getting ready to move, trying to sell a house, thinking about planting a church. It's all been pretty nuts. So I haven't had a chance to sit down and get creative in a while. But I sure know some people who have.

I have some friends who are moving to San Diego, CA to plant a church. They came up with this great concept as sort of a campaign for the church. It's called "What If?"



The idea they came up with is to use this "What If?" everywhere. They recently had a charity dinner to raise money for the church and called it the "What If? Banquet" Their first series will be wrapped around this idea of "What If?" The thought is "What if what happened in Acts 2 happened in America Today?" The best part to me is that they definitely believe that God can do it!

I'm so excited for everyone who is a part of Elevate. Check out more about them at www.elevatesandiego.com. Or read Kevin's blog or Chris' blog.

I'm a what?

So this is really exciting. You'll never guess what happened. You'll never guess what Desi and I are doing now. Well, some may, because I've already told a few people.

Desi and I are moving to Charlotte, North Carolina!

We are moving there to be part of a church plant named Sojourn Church. I'm going to be the Worship Pastor there. Like I said, don't be upset if you didn't know. I didn't even know untill about two weeks ago. Well, I knew about the job and everything; I just didn't know if they were going to offer me it or not. But they did! I'm so grateful to Toby for this opportunity.

So we are moving to Huntersville, NC (about 15 minutes North of downtown Charlotte) in ONE MONTH!!! Kind of crazy timing huh? Well, it's really important to us to there for a couple of months before the church officially launches in August. It'll be great to have some time with the core team to start working with the people who will be the leaders for the worship ministry there.

So there will be a lot changing for us here in the next month. We're as ready as we can be, and we're ready to take this head on.

We will definitely keep everyone up to date. Please check out the website at www.sojournchurch.tv. Here we go...

Stirring the Waters

Go to www.ragamuffinsoul.com for more on Creative Chaos.

I am really excited for this weekend at Westhills. We are doing baptisms for the first time in our brand new building(our first building). There are 6 people being baptized this Sunday. One guy, Jeff the children's worship leader, is baptizing his own son. That's cool!

But what's great for me is that we are singing a new song this weekend. It's a song that the worhsip pastor, Robby, and I wrote together specifically for the baptisms that take place at Westhills. The song is called, "Waters of Witness." Here's the story...

Tyler, the lead pastor, ahs something that he always says at the end of a baptism. He says, "It is our prayer here at Westhills that the baptism waters would never be still." Meaning that it is our prayer that people are being baptized so often that the waters in the baptismal pool will literally never stop moving.

That's the story; here's the song. I don't have a recording of it so you'll hve to deal with just reading the lyrics.

We lift our voices and sing to our King,
For He has saved us and calls us redeemed.
We were the broken, the lost and confused.
Now He has raised us and made the old new.

I will sing this song of life.
I will shout, "The dead are alive!"

Stir up the waters and stir many hearts
To follow you Jesus for the joy of the cross.
We're dead to sins power, alive to your will,
Emptied of ourselves, by Your Spirit filled
May the waters of witness never still
May the waters of witness never still

I'm so excited about hearing Robby lead this song for the first time. It will be an awesome way to tell people our dream of the waters never being still.

My First Facebook

Ok, I just joined Facebook. Holy Crap! Everyone has Facebook, and everyone is on it all at once. I got on, set up my profile, added a couple of friends, and, next thing I know, I have a million friends, comments on my "Wall," and pictures being "tagged" all over the place. People are crazy about Facebook. I don't get it! I have Myspace and that's fine, but Facebook is a whole 'nother world. I've also already joined a "Cause" and a "Group," How much more could I possibly do? Oh, I almost forgot my "piece of flare" Toby sent me. I think I'm a little overwhelmed right now. Give me a couple months and I may recover.

I learned from a Leper

"A man with lepracy came and knelt before him(Jesus) and said, "Lord if you are willing, you can make me clean." -Matthew 8:1-4

I read this verse recently, and it shot me back. We don't know this man's name, but we do know that he knew how to approach Jesus. He did three things that I realized I haven't done in a long, long time. He approached Jesus as the Messiah. He knelt, called Jesus "Lord," and donfessed that only Jesus could clean him.

The first thing Scripture tells us he did was kneel. He knelt. He honored Jesus. He showed Jesus his respect. He made himself lower than Jesus. He knelt. I read this and thought, "When is the last time I knelt before Christ?" There's something so powerful about kneeling. It's a physical posture with so much meaning. When you kneel it means you respect and honor that person, it means that person is above you. You even make yourself suseptible to attack. When is the last time I did this before Jesus?

The second thing he did was he called Jesus "Lord." First, he shows that Jesus is above him, then he confesses it with his lips. When is the last I called Jesus "Lord?" Sure, I pray and say, "Lord, thank you for today." But it's more of a name when I say it. I don't use it to profess that God is Lord of my life. It's like saying "God" and "Lord" are synonamous. Kind of Like Travis and Mr. Williams. Just two names for the same person. But saying "Lord means a lot more than that. It is giving God a position in my life, not just calling Him by another name. When is the last time I called Jesus "Lord?"

Third, the leper acnowledges that only Jesus can heal him. He knows that if Jesus wants to heal him all Jesus has to do is say the word. When is the last time I acknowldged that only Jesus can heal me? Some many times I try to take matters into my own hands, especially when it comes to my reputation. I think, "If I do this than everything will be ok." In other words, I think I can fix myself. I don't rely fully on Christ to heal me. When is the last time I acknowleged that only Christ can heal me?

So after reading this I have an idea. Every day I will get down on my knees, pray to the Lord over my life and all life, and confess that only His Son can heal me. That's what I'm going to do. I will physically get on my knees in prayer. I will put my heart in a place that puts myself lower than God(which I am anyways). And I will acknowledge that, though I try so hard, Christ is the only one who can do anything about my brokeness. And I will tell you, it has changed my prayer life. My prayers are now so much more focused around God. And it all has to do with kneeling, placing God as Lord in my life, and acknowledging that I can't do anything to save myself. I now pray for God to get what He wants out of what I do, rather than me getting what I want out of my day. Try it for yourself and a garuantee you will see a change in yourself and in your prayers.

New Desk!

Finally! I have it! A new desk! Well, it's not a like an amazing desk really. It's not rea big, fancy or pretty to look at, but it's a desk! I haven't had a desk in a long time. It's really nice to be able to sit down and type on the computer without trying to balance it on my lap at the couch. although the screen does look smaller now that it's farther away from my face. But it's a desk. It may look like a fold out table, because of the fold out legs and plastic grey top, with no shelves or drawers. But it's a desk. It may be just enough room for my 12 inch laptop, but it's a desk. It may be the absolute minimum you can get for a desk, but it's a desk. I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's a desk.

Sojourn

So I just spent the weekend in Huntersville, NC. I had never heard of it either. But it"s right outside of Charlotte; I mean like 15 minutes North of downtown Charlotte. I went up there to meet with Toby. He's the pastor of Sojourn Church, a church-plant in Huntersville. What a weekend. We honestly didn't do much, but I am wiped out! I got home at 12:00 last night and had to get up and go to work at 5:00, so I'm tired. All we did all weekend was ride around Huntersville, check out some cool places, ate Mexican, had a cookout at the lake, and watched lots of cartoons(Toby had two sons).

I got to meet a lot of Toby's core team at the cookout. There was Jason and Christy, Trey and his wife with the cool African name I can't spell, Nick, or was it Mike? Maybe there was Nick and Mike, and a few other people(I'm great with names). I had an awesome time hanging out with all those guys, playing volleyball, eating hamburgers and hot dogs, and giving picky-back rides to two boys, at the same time.

It was just a great weekend to spend some time with a guy who has a real heart for church-planting and a great vision for Sojourn Church. I can't wait to hang out with Toby and be hung onto by his boys again. It was great to talk and share our stories together and be able to relax with a guy who knows where I'm trying to get to.

Led through the Gate

"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." Matthew 7:13-14

Wow, this verse is heavy! This verse places a lot of weight on worship leaders. I mean, as a worship leader I read this verse and it kind of scares me.

Worship leaders a responsible to God for leading people through the gate, the narrow gate. Worship through music is said to be the way to "lead people to the Throne of God." I've heard that so many times that every time I read something on leadership, I read it through the lens of leading people to the Throne of God through music(also probably because I am a worship leader). So when I read this verse it says to me, "Travis, you are responsible for leading people through the narrow gate through music." Whoa! The question I thought of was this. How can I be effective at leading people through the narrow gate, instead of leading astray through the wide gate? This passage is great because it answers that question.

The first thing I can do is follow the example of other worship leaders. The Scripture says, "...narrow is the road that leads to life, and only a few will find it." I'm not the first person to find the gate. Others have found it before I did. So I get the opportunity to watch and learn from other worship leaders. One of the best pieces of advice I've ever been given on leading worship is that I need a local church to connect to. I need to find a church to be a part of every week. Just because I'm not on staff at a church doesn't mean I can wander from church to church looking for opportunities to lead.

On the other side of the coin is that "broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it." Sadly, a lot of leaders are taking their people down the wrong road. So we have to be careful who we surround ourselves with. Don't just jump on the biggest bandwagon, this scripture tells us specifically that more people find the path that leads to destruction that those who find the path to life.

The other thing this passage tells us is that the gate is Small and the road is narrow. It's hard to get through and hard to maneuver yourself through it. Leading worship in a way that leads people through the narrow gate is difficult. Jesus tells us that trouble will come; count on it. So we can expect trouble when trying to lead people through the narrow gate. What kind of trouble? People will question your choice in songs. People will question your calling to even be leading worship. People will leave your ministry and your church. People will say things that just aren't true. Troubles will come; expect it and be ready.

Scripture is full of examples on how to lead effectively. I always enjoy learning all I can on leadership, but the Bible is the best leadership book ever. We can learn from the leadership of Moses, Noah, and Jesus. Listen for God to speak to you on how to lead your area of ministry effectively through His Word.

Lights, No Camera, Action!

So this is for Creative Chaos at rugamuffinsoul.com

It's really cool that Carlos posted about his goals for their worship ministry. A couple weeks ago at Westhills, we had our annual worhsip retreat. It was a weekend for everyone involved in the worship ministry to get together and talk about our vision for the next year. It was a great weekend. There were about 50 people there(out of a congregation of about 350).

What was great for me about this years worship retreat is that it was my first time! Yes, I am no longer a Westhills worship retreat virgin. I have the great opportunity to be the leader of the West Tech team. Basically, I get to lead everyone involved in the technical arts elements of the church. I love being a part of that part of creativity at Westhills.

So back to the point of the weekend. I had charged with creating, casting, and leading the vision of the West Tech team for the next year. It was great! We just moved into our very first building. What does that mean for the next year at Westhills? A whole stinking lot! We now have a full-on light system, fully integrated audio system, and video system, and full stage. We have so many ideas for the next year.

The thing that I'm most excited about is developing our lighting concept each week. We started off simple at first. Just a couple of different scenes to define the when the music begins and transitions into the speaking then transition into an ending song then transition to the announcements. We planned out how we would add more complex scenes throughout the year. Each week we make the lighting more complex and intriguing. It's been great so far to see the services developing little by little each week. But last week was the best so far.

The worship set started with the worship leader singing and playing his guitar solo. During that we put a simple backlighting on him. Then, halfway through the song the band busts in and the lights bust out! It was fantastic! I love balsting these elements together and creating an awesome worship experience. You can definetely see how God uses our visual senses to speak to us.

But that's what did happen, now onto what will happen. This weekend we are making the lighting even more impactful. How? Colors. Lots and lots of colors. We don't have intelli-lights, but we do have LEDs coming from all over the stage. We've been using one color scheme for the whole worship set. No more. This weekend we are working with using a different color scheme for each song! Why so much? Music has a mood, and color does as well. Bright colors make you happy. They actually stimulate your senses and make you happy. Others make you feel reflective while others actually make you sad. We're taking these happy colors and mixing them into happy songs. And, you guessed it, the reflective songs get reflective colors. I can't wait to see God use our senses to bring us to react to His message.

Iron Man

So, let's go ahead and say it. Iron Man is amazing! Desi and I saw it last night, and we both loved it. It was visually amazing and emotionally stirring movie.

We hear a lot these days about how you can find spirituality in movies. I won't say that Iron Man is a spiritual movie, but you do see these God given desires all throughout the movie. We see Tony Stark fighting for justice, and a desire for love with a woman. But the major theme of the movie is redemption. The whole reason Tony Stark creates his iron suit is to right all the wrongs in his life. Tony Stark owns a weapons manufacturing company, and he learns that his company has been selling weapons to terrorist groups without his knowing. So he vows to stop manufacturing weapons and destroy all the weapons that were sold to terrorist groups. He used to live a life of selfishness. But after being kidnapped by a terrorist group using his weapons, he decides it's time to save people rather than supply those who kill them.

His desire to redeem his bussines, personal life, and character is the fuel the he uses to help those he used to hurt. This is so similar to what we want with our own lives. We all know things that we have done wrong and people we have wronged. We all want to redeem ourselves and show everyone that we aren't who they once thought we were.

The problem is how we show that we have changed. So many times I try to show people I have changed by doing things in my own power. I try to show people that I care about people by serving at the soup kitchen. Or I try to show people that I don't lust by vocalizing my opposition to watching movies with nudity or sexual material. I try to prove myself by showing how "spiritual" I am. What's wrong with that? A whole lot.

When we do things to prove ourselves to other, what we are really saying is, "I can prove myself, because I fixed myself." You see the problem with that? We think we fix ourselves! The fact is that only God can fix us. But we see this desire to be fixed to be redeemed everywhere. From Tony Stark in Iron Man to "Fix You" by Coldplay. These are great examples of the human desire to be fixed. But they both tell us that we can fix ourselves. If we try hard enough or do enough, we can be fixed. The truth is that we are fixed by God. Ephesians 2:8 says, "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God."

There it is. Just like that. Scripture, God's Word itself, tells us that we can't fix ourselves. Why? Because we're human! We can change our actions, but we can't change our spirit. We can change the outside, but something else has to take place to change the inside. That something is the Spirit of God. That's part of Ephesians 2:8 that says, "...it is the gift of God." Jesus sayed, before he ascended, that he would give us his spirit. That Spirit is what changes us, redeems us, fixes us.

So our responsiblity, as folowers of Christ, is to recognize that people want to be fixedand to show them the way to be fixed. We know people want to fix their lives, Iron Man, "Fix You," My name is Earl. Now we just have to help them find the One who can do the fixing.

Golf with my Wife

So, today Desu and I went and played golf together. It was fantastic! Desi did great for her first time ever playing golf. I was so proud of her. I gave her a few hundred tips before we started, and she actually remembered them while we played! Well, we only got through 7 holes, but it was still great. Here are some pictures from our adventure today...