Hello to all!
This week has been a very good one! It hasn't been especially draining and we feel like we have gotten quite a bit accomplished! Praise the Lord. I thank Him for the strength that He has given me to get through this time here in Michigan. It has been a long 6 weeks but it was definitely worth it.
On Sunday, our team went to the church in Buchanan. Our band played/sang and our children's ministers got to do clubs with the kids. It was a nice preview and glimpse for how a Summit will potentially play out. Everything went great! The music went well and I believe the Lord really used it and the message to reach the hearts of the people. We tore our equipment down immediately after the service very smoothly and without problems. Praise the Lord!
Starting on Monday, we had practice each morning and each afternoon to solidify all the work that we have done the past few weeks. Practice went well all week long and we were able to get even more work done. Each evening we had a different type of session to further our knowledge of what goes on at a Summit. On Monday and Tuesday evenings, the session was about the two clubs that we do at every church. They are kids clubs for little ones and 2nd through 6th grade. They are called Happy Heart City and Base Camp, respectively. We were shown how a lesson would play out and what all the different rules were. It was fun and interesting!
On Wednesday morning, we took team pictures that will be on display at the churches that we go to. So it looks like all of you CCBC people will be seeing my face around at some point! The session on Thursday evening was very different from anything that we had during the previous sessions. On Thursday night, we had a commissioning service. It was for each area of Life Action as we begin to work in this next ministry year. It was a huge blessing to be apart of! Dr. Erwin Lutzer, the senior pastor at Moody Church in Chicago, came to speak and give us a charge for the year. It was very exciting! It was also humbling to know that we are finally about to set out on this journey to see God work in His churches for the next year and knowing that I am going to be able to have a small part in that!
It is Saturday now and we have some time set aside this afternoon and evening to go to the Dunes at Lake Michigan as a team. It will be a good time to rest and enjoy this beautiful Michigan weather before we head out on the road. We leave for our first Summit in Sulphur, Louisiana next Wednesday. We will stop in Princeton, Kentucky on Wednesday night and Jackson, Mississippi (I believe) on Thursday night. I have enjoyed Michigan but you have no idea how overjoyed that I am to be able to have some REAL sweet tea, southern cooking, ride on roads that are actually well paved, and hear the word y'all.
Please continue to pray for me and our team as we minister to churches throughout the year! We know that God is doing to do an amazing work and we are expecting Him to. I want to be used in whatever capacity He puts me in! Also, feel free to keep up with all of the places that the Red team will be at this year at http://www.lifeaction.org/ and if you are nearby, come visit! I want to thank you all for your daily prayers and for the letters and encouragement you have sent me! It is so wonderful to hear from you all! I will continue to receive mail all year long at the address I put up in earlier posts. You may e-mail me as well at orangehorns24@gmail.com
Next time that I post, I will be back in the south! I love y'all!
Reid
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Anyone Want Some Water?
Hey everyone!
It's been a very long week! Actually long might be an understatement. There has been lots of singing, rehearsing with the band, picking out parts, singing, singing, and more singing! However, I'm extremely blessed to be singing praises to my Lord and King all day long.
We started out the week on Monday by getting up early and heading back to the church that I mentioned in some of my earlier posts. We unloaded all of our equipment and began the task of setting up just like we will at a Summit. After lunch, we began practicing. This week we had a couple that was brought in to work specifically with our team. The husband is the worship leader at his church. He and his wife graduated as vocal majors from college, also. It was a blessing to have some outside perspectives come in and really give us a fresh vision for everything we are doing as a band.
Each evening we practiced until around 9 PM and then headed back to camp. They were all very long days and the amount of sleep we got compared to how hard we were working didn't seem quite sufficient. The Lord got us all through, however, with limited casualties. I praise the Lord for water and the blessing of being able to have it so readily in a bottle. I wouldn't have made it through these past 4+ weeks without that blessing. How often do we thank God for small things like that? Things as simple as a bottle of water when millions of people around the world do not even have the luxury of clean water to drink?
I was also able to claim my locker on our trailer this week. That is probably something very insignificant to all of you (and rightfully so) but that locker is one of a very limited amount of things that is going to be solely mine this year. It was one of the most exciting things that happened to me this week! The second most exciting thing would be that blessing of eating out for lunch AND dinner almost everyday. It was incredible! Who knew that Fazoli's and Subway could be so good?!
We are leading worship tomorrow at the same church that we have been practicing all week. Laine Johnson, the revivalist from our team, will be speaking as well. Please pray that God would be the only one that is seen on stage tomorrow morning. It is not about Life Action or our names being made known; it's about giving the glory to God. Pray that He will also begin to soften the hearts of the people so that they will be ready to receive the Lord's message and that they will be changed.
Thank you for all of your prayers! I'm very ready (in my head) to be on the road. Please pray that I will maintain focus this next week as our date of departure looms near. I want to be out and traveling and seeing God's people worship Him, but I also need to focus on the stuff that needs to get done in this next week. There will be lots of preparation, more practice, policy meetings, and we will also be trained for our secondary responsibilities on the team. It has been a great week and I'm excited to see what God has in store for this year!
I love you all,
Reid
Isaiah 12:5, "Sing praises to the Lord, for He has done glorious things; let this be made known in all the earth."
P.S. Feel free to e-mail me at orangehorns24@gmail.com. When I get out on the road, it will be easier for me to reply to texts and phone calls as well.
It's been a very long week! Actually long might be an understatement. There has been lots of singing, rehearsing with the band, picking out parts, singing, singing, and more singing! However, I'm extremely blessed to be singing praises to my Lord and King all day long.
We started out the week on Monday by getting up early and heading back to the church that I mentioned in some of my earlier posts. We unloaded all of our equipment and began the task of setting up just like we will at a Summit. After lunch, we began practicing. This week we had a couple that was brought in to work specifically with our team. The husband is the worship leader at his church. He and his wife graduated as vocal majors from college, also. It was a blessing to have some outside perspectives come in and really give us a fresh vision for everything we are doing as a band.
Each evening we practiced until around 9 PM and then headed back to camp. They were all very long days and the amount of sleep we got compared to how hard we were working didn't seem quite sufficient. The Lord got us all through, however, with limited casualties. I praise the Lord for water and the blessing of being able to have it so readily in a bottle. I wouldn't have made it through these past 4+ weeks without that blessing. How often do we thank God for small things like that? Things as simple as a bottle of water when millions of people around the world do not even have the luxury of clean water to drink?
I was also able to claim my locker on our trailer this week. That is probably something very insignificant to all of you (and rightfully so) but that locker is one of a very limited amount of things that is going to be solely mine this year. It was one of the most exciting things that happened to me this week! The second most exciting thing would be that blessing of eating out for lunch AND dinner almost everyday. It was incredible! Who knew that Fazoli's and Subway could be so good?!
We are leading worship tomorrow at the same church that we have been practicing all week. Laine Johnson, the revivalist from our team, will be speaking as well. Please pray that God would be the only one that is seen on stage tomorrow morning. It is not about Life Action or our names being made known; it's about giving the glory to God. Pray that He will also begin to soften the hearts of the people so that they will be ready to receive the Lord's message and that they will be changed.
Thank you for all of your prayers! I'm very ready (in my head) to be on the road. Please pray that I will maintain focus this next week as our date of departure looms near. I want to be out and traveling and seeing God's people worship Him, but I also need to focus on the stuff that needs to get done in this next week. There will be lots of preparation, more practice, policy meetings, and we will also be trained for our secondary responsibilities on the team. It has been a great week and I'm excited to see what God has in store for this year!
I love you all,
Reid
Isaiah 12:5, "Sing praises to the Lord, for He has done glorious things; let this be made known in all the earth."
P.S. Feel free to e-mail me at orangehorns24@gmail.com. When I get out on the road, it will be easier for me to reply to texts and phone calls as well.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Revival Week
It has been a long and intense week! I feel like I have been trying to take a drink out of the fire hydrant. I need to get alone for an entire month and reflect upon all that I've heard this week. It has been such a refreshing time and God has broken me so much more for the need of revival in our churches and our nation! While dealing with myself and things the Lord was showing me in my own life, I was also being burdened greater and greater for our church and our city.
The speakers that we were blessed to have this week were Michael Catt, Dave Butts, and Kyle Martin. They were definitely ordained by God to be here this week. If not for the whole of Life Action, then definitely for me. The focus of Revival Week is to give us, as Life Action staff, a time to be fed and poured into so that God can bring revival to our own hearts. Let's face it, if we, as Life Action, don't allow God to revive ourselves first, then how can we ask God to revive the churches we're going to and the nation as a whole?
As I stated above, God has really started burdening me heavily for our church. God is never going to use us and we are never going to be effective for the Kingdom if we don't start allowing Him to break us! We have fallen into apathy and complacency. We are completely comfortable and we're okay with that. My prayer is that God would disturb us out of this sad state we are in as a church! Lord, disturb us! You have not called us to a life of comfortableness!
In our apathy, we have closed our ears and hearts to His voice. No wonder God wont move in our church! Because we wont listen to Him! We call ourselves a praying church but we are in desperate need of prayer. We are a mission-minded church in need of a touch from God. We have absolutely packed our schedule with THINGS. They may be good things. But have we packed our schedule with too many events throughout the year that we aren't allowing God to move? Are we saying, as a church, "We just don't have time for prayer?" God could make it to where all we have is time.
I love all of you guys! This week has truly challenged me and broken my heart for the need of revival in our nation! We have to start asking ourselves these questions as a church if we want Him to move in us! If we truly want to see revival in our nation, are we willing to be broken by Him? Is He not worth it?! Please church! Seek HIs face for how He wants to move in us as Candies Creek. I pray that these questions that He has given me for our church prompt other questions in your own life. He wants to see us as a desperate people in need of Him. Only when we get to that point will He send an outpouring of His Holy Spirit and bring revival to His people!
With love,
Reid
The speakers that we were blessed to have this week were Michael Catt, Dave Butts, and Kyle Martin. They were definitely ordained by God to be here this week. If not for the whole of Life Action, then definitely for me. The focus of Revival Week is to give us, as Life Action staff, a time to be fed and poured into so that God can bring revival to our own hearts. Let's face it, if we, as Life Action, don't allow God to revive ourselves first, then how can we ask God to revive the churches we're going to and the nation as a whole?
As I stated above, God has really started burdening me heavily for our church. God is never going to use us and we are never going to be effective for the Kingdom if we don't start allowing Him to break us! We have fallen into apathy and complacency. We are completely comfortable and we're okay with that. My prayer is that God would disturb us out of this sad state we are in as a church! Lord, disturb us! You have not called us to a life of comfortableness!
In our apathy, we have closed our ears and hearts to His voice. No wonder God wont move in our church! Because we wont listen to Him! We call ourselves a praying church but we are in desperate need of prayer. We are a mission-minded church in need of a touch from God. We have absolutely packed our schedule with THINGS. They may be good things. But have we packed our schedule with too many events throughout the year that we aren't allowing God to move? Are we saying, as a church, "We just don't have time for prayer?" God could make it to where all we have is time.
I love all of you guys! This week has truly challenged me and broken my heart for the need of revival in our nation! We have to start asking ourselves these questions as a church if we want Him to move in us! If we truly want to see revival in our nation, are we willing to be broken by Him? Is He not worth it?! Please church! Seek HIs face for how He wants to move in us as Candies Creek. I pray that these questions that He has given me for our church prompt other questions in your own life. He wants to see us as a desperate people in need of Him. Only when we get to that point will He send an outpouring of His Holy Spirit and bring revival to His people!
With love,
Reid
Thursday, August 5, 2010
College Week
Hey everybody! I've had a great week this week! Lots of things to do and work at. The week started on Sunday with the Red team leading worship for both the morning and evening services. Both of those times went great! Thank you for your prayers! We were all very pleased with both services and how the Lord moved and used us during the music time. Some of the songs we led in the morning were At the Cross, Before the Throne of God Above, and Your Grace is Enough. In the evening we led the music time with songs like In Christ Alone, Praise the Father/Praise the Son, and a song called Cannons. The Lord really allowed everything to go smoothly and, more importantly, the whole time was focused and directed to Him!
This Monday started the first of five days called College Week. It is a time set aside during our training in which they bring a college professor from North Greenville University to teach a Survey of the New Testament class. However, since I've been through this class already in college, I was blessed to be put in an Advanced class. There are about 18 of us in the class and we leave camp every morning at 9 AM to go to the National Ministry Center (Life Action's Headquarters). We have class every morning until lunch and then we are free in the afternoons to practice, rest, read, etc. It has been a huge blessing just to be able to slow down each afternoon and reflect on the Lord!
We have been covering topics each day ranging from Life Action's history to Prayer. The topic we had today was very challenging! It started to answer the questions, "Why do we need revival?" and, "How do we surrender to revival in our own lives?" It really touched on some of the questions that the Lord has been burdening my heart with concerning our church and the churches of this nation.
Some of the things the Lord has been placing on my heart for our church are:
1. Are we ready to be desperate for Him? Are we to a point in our lives, as a church, where we are desperate for Him to move in us? And if we aren't, are we ready to be put in that place where we are absolutely in need of Him?
2. Are we satisfied with nominal Christianity? Are we to the point in our lives, as Candies Creek Church, where we are okay with being comfortable, lukewarm, apathetic, and stale?
3. Are we, as a church and individually in our own lives, in a daily state of surrender, knowing that God will not reveal His presence to anyone who is not completely surrendered to Him?
4. Are we being a people and a church that says, "We're not going to SEEK an outpouring of your Holy Spirit. We're content with what we can do without You, God."
We practiced some as a band on Monday night with our new drummer. That was very exciting mainly because we will now finally have a drummer who wont be leaving us in the future. We had to play with two different drummers on Sunday and it was slightly stressful. But the Lord worked it all out to His glory anyway! Tuesday evening the Red team was able to go over to the Executive Director's house for dinner and a get-to-know-you time. That was a lot of fun! We have a couple of more days this week that we will spend practicing and finishing up our class time. Next week starts a week called Revival week. It is a week that is set aside for all of the Road Teams to seek the Lord and seek revival in our own lives, knowing that revival starts in individuals. I am pretty excited for it! Michael Catt, the pastor of Sherwood Baptist in Georgia is speaking all week.
I continue to pray for each one of you daily! Thank you for all of your support, love, and prayers! I'm praying for you guys about those things listed above, even for myself! Let's be a church that seeks hard after Him no matter what the cost! Because He is worth more than anything on this Earth and any possession we may have, isn't He?! Then let's live like it!
I love you all,
Reid
This Monday started the first of five days called College Week. It is a time set aside during our training in which they bring a college professor from North Greenville University to teach a Survey of the New Testament class. However, since I've been through this class already in college, I was blessed to be put in an Advanced class. There are about 18 of us in the class and we leave camp every morning at 9 AM to go to the National Ministry Center (Life Action's Headquarters). We have class every morning until lunch and then we are free in the afternoons to practice, rest, read, etc. It has been a huge blessing just to be able to slow down each afternoon and reflect on the Lord!
We have been covering topics each day ranging from Life Action's history to Prayer. The topic we had today was very challenging! It started to answer the questions, "Why do we need revival?" and, "How do we surrender to revival in our own lives?" It really touched on some of the questions that the Lord has been burdening my heart with concerning our church and the churches of this nation.
Some of the things the Lord has been placing on my heart for our church are:
1. Are we ready to be desperate for Him? Are we to a point in our lives, as a church, where we are desperate for Him to move in us? And if we aren't, are we ready to be put in that place where we are absolutely in need of Him?
2. Are we satisfied with nominal Christianity? Are we to the point in our lives, as Candies Creek Church, where we are okay with being comfortable, lukewarm, apathetic, and stale?
3. Are we, as a church and individually in our own lives, in a daily state of surrender, knowing that God will not reveal His presence to anyone who is not completely surrendered to Him?
4. Are we being a people and a church that says, "We're not going to SEEK an outpouring of your Holy Spirit. We're content with what we can do without You, God."
We practiced some as a band on Monday night with our new drummer. That was very exciting mainly because we will now finally have a drummer who wont be leaving us in the future. We had to play with two different drummers on Sunday and it was slightly stressful. But the Lord worked it all out to His glory anyway! Tuesday evening the Red team was able to go over to the Executive Director's house for dinner and a get-to-know-you time. That was a lot of fun! We have a couple of more days this week that we will spend practicing and finishing up our class time. Next week starts a week called Revival week. It is a week that is set aside for all of the Road Teams to seek the Lord and seek revival in our own lives, knowing that revival starts in individuals. I am pretty excited for it! Michael Catt, the pastor of Sherwood Baptist in Georgia is speaking all week.
I continue to pray for each one of you daily! Thank you for all of your support, love, and prayers! I'm praying for you guys about those things listed above, even for myself! Let's be a church that seeks hard after Him no matter what the cost! Because He is worth more than anything on this Earth and any possession we may have, isn't He?! Then let's live like it!
I love you all,
Reid
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