the innovation

• I start Summer classes on Monday…I am trying to get through this as fast as I can. I learned that practice as a kid.
• A great friend of mine is leaving for Costa Rica today. He is checking out a missions organization stationed there and to make the decision whether or not to move his family there. Please pray for him. They are amazing people who have a strong calling on their life. They are hoping for a CLEAR YES or a CLEAR NO. Either way they are called to be missionaries to a spanish speaking country but with something as big as this they want to hear God’s voice. I know you all like to pray – so pray for them. You can check updates on his blog.
• This is simply hilarious.
• I posted on my twitter that my new favorite thing to do now is watch my son chase our dog with a stick. He likes to play outside.
• Went to the Tulsa Zoo over Memorial day. We went to see the Polar bears. One died so they had closed the exhibit. Would have been nice to tell us that that, the aligators, and half of the other exhibits were closed. Anyone else know of any other great zoos within a day trip?
• Can I have you pray for something else? Please pray for my wife, she is looking for a job teaching middle school social studies. She is actually pretty passionate about the subject and would be an awesome teacher.
• If my friend Jim ever became a TV preacher – I could see him being like this.
• Another friend is hosting a cool CD giveaway. The lead singer is in our worship band at church and totally rocks. You should enter.

• AND thought I would leave you with this…seriously more than ever I feel like God pushing me to challenge the process in society and do something to break the cycle of poverty. Especially with kids. I know that this can take place within a church. I think the church finds itself merely helping people and not breaking the cycle of poverty. Maybe the church is not the place to do this, maybe the church is not called to do this….but for whatever reason I am feeling more called to it. It’s an itch I will have to describe later.

Have a great week. Love on your family. Love on Jesus. Get some rest.

Today…

1) I wish there were sirens that you could put on your car that said you were in a hurry and that people need to either hurry up or move out of the way. And what’s up with scooters that are not designed for the road driving on the road…if your bike with a weedeater mower cannot go over 35 miles an  hour take the side streets to get to your destination. It is a nice concept, but you are annoying. And your helmet? Seriously a hockey helmet?

2) The joy about having a kid is the little surprises that you will find under the couch – or the nice one you find is causing a colony of ants to take up residence in his room. I never knew that mold could turn red. Disgusting.

3) So it is mowing season again. I hate mowing.

4) We moved into our new office this week – it is cool. It is at 1st and Mead – seriously nice to be down where the action is instead of out in the boondocks where turtles and ducks live in the parking lot. We are Old Town Wichita people. Any recommendations on great food? Anybody wanna buy me lunch?

5) It’s great to talk to other church planters. God is doing something big in Derby. Just sayin.

6) I was going to use #6 to tell you that if I could commit a crime which one I would commit … then I realized that the government employs people to watch blogs and facebooks for detective work. Plus if I ever did commit a crime, I wouldn’t want people to be like “Why didn’t we see the warning signs – we mentioned it on his blog.” It was going to be a sarcastic joke – it’s not working.

7) Just so you know – I am a friendly neighbor – but some of my neighbors are not – the others are weird. I am pretty sure there are dead bodies (either human or canine) in my next door neighbor’s house. He doesn’t live there, he actually lives at his office and comes home periodically to make sure it looks like someone lives there…he will turn on different lights and do minor yard work. Someday I will tell you about all of them.

8) Watched town hall of hope tonight – it was good – probably better if I was in the actual auditorium though. I could listen to Dave Ramsey anyday over that Mad Money guy.

9) I like it when you watch the news and it comes back from a commercial or switches cameras and the anchor is looking at a different camera. I always think that at the next break some guy is going to get ripped a new one by the anchorwoman…The guy’s probably don’t care as much.

10) My wife has been applying for teaching jobs. Please pray for her to get a job soon. She will make an awesome teacher and will make Social Studies fun.

…over and out…

I’m back. No excuse for my absence – in honor of my return, I thought I would start slow and resurrect the tradition of Thursday Thoughts…

1. I have never been more excited about cheerios then yesterday when my son stood on a step-stool and peed on one. Way to go Owen – you are becoming a man!

2. I started reading Vintage Jesus by Mark Driscoll – good stuff. Driscoll is a stud. His stuff is packed with so much information but it is actually easy to read – and fun!

3. I used to want to be a bus-driver. I don’t know why. I used to drive my bike up and down the blocks in my neighborhood and stop it random places like bus stops. I did this everyday for like a year, I even got a bigger route after a month or so. Yesterday I saw an accident where a bus had rear-ended a car. The kids were going flippin crazy and the driver just seemed stressed. I don’t want to drive a bus anymore.

4. Have you ever tried fried green beans from TGIFriday’s? They are good.

5. My favorite hour of the day is 10am. Not because the View is on, but because the sun is like in the coolest spot of the entire day. Random, I know, but it is Thursday Thoughts – not Thursday biblical insights from Terry.

6. We kicked off the Rockstar series on Easter Sunday. It was pretty cool. If you haven’t seen pictures, let me know and I will post some on here.

7. My dog ate fertilizer a few weeks ago. She is stupid. The funny thing is that she threw up so much and was sick, but she continued to go out side and eat it. I wonder if it was like a drug. She is better now, I thought she was going to die. I would be okay with that – I mean I like her and all, but she will be our last dog after she goes to dog heaven…as the comedian says – “I have no doubts about dog heaven. there is no cat heaven. there is only cat hell. it’s called dog heaven.”

8. I watched this live yesterday and thought it was funny. She is not biased at all is she?

9. Been thinking of ways I can leverage Facebook and Twitter to connect more people into church – your thoughts?

10. Went to see Monster’s and Aliens with Owen for his first movie theater experience ever. He did good. His favorite part – the large bucket of popcorn and sharing dad’s Mt. Dew. They should give out something to commemorate this experience – like wings on an airplane ride.

• It was a good GREAT day at GracePoint Community this morning.
• Huge crowd to kick of Spring Break weekend (you couldn’t tell that it historically was a low-turnout weekend).
• The music rocked…I am sure Ronnie will be posting the set list for anyone interested. His commentary is always nice.
• Amy absolutely rocked Paramore’s Hallelujah.
• Bryson brought a great message to kick off our new series called, The Chase. He was fired up – more so than I have seen in a while. Overheard a comment – “that definitely brought my testosterone level up”…from a lady.
• “Ministry Time” after the message was absolutely powerful with people filling the altars to receive prayer over the things they are dealing with in their life and keeping them from chasing after the God-sized dreams.
• God showed up.
• Hurting people were healed. Broken people were restored. Lost people were saved. We met God in a real and powerful way this morning.

If you were there – I would love to hear some feedback on how God moved in your life? If you weren’t – where has God showed up in your life lately?

Back when I was in high school at youth group, a friend of mine was given the opportunity to share the message for the night. You see, our youth group handed over the teaching to the youth leadership team during the Summer months. It was cool, because the youth did some pretty cool stuff. So, she read from Matthew 17:20, “I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” I guess it was in the simple way she explained what that really meant, but it was like something clicked in my brain and the whole issue of faith became real.

So she asked if anyone wanted to have that faith and if they did to come up front and someone would pray for them. It was the routine youth group altar call, nothing new for me really.

But something inside of me started moving.

Literally.

I got butterflies. What the heck was happening? I told God that if this kid, Matt, got up and went up front I would. Haha! The fact is, is that Matt was already a Christian and there is no way he would go up front.

The butterflies got stronger.

The song was almost over. The altar was empty and I through to myself, that this was almost over and hopefully my butterflies would go away.

I closed my eyes (as the sweat started to fall down my head from my nerves) to try and calm down. As I opened them – I saw Matt up front kneeling.

What the &#$%! No freakin way! It was at that moment I realized that those butterflies were from God. That the words my friend said was directly coming from God. And that Matt (who felt God telling him to go up front because someone needed to be there) was listening to God speak to him so He could speak to me. I went up front. I kneeled. I cried. At that moment I surrendered my life to Jesus, all of my ambitions, all of my dreams I turned over to Him. I asked for God’s will of my life to be revealed to me. I committed, that day, to make Jesus lord of my life.

I know God speaks. I have heard him. I have felt him. I have seen him. God has done this many times in my life. I can look back on my life and understand how he talked/talks to me, and I am beginning to recognize his voice and his presence around me more and more each day.

Recently, I have felt these same feelings. It has been nice – like reconnecting face-to-face with a long-distance friend. I have seen God work around me and through me and it has been awesome seeing it unfold. You see, when I realized the ways that God talks to other people, I started seeing how God speaks to me.

SO, I AM DYING TO KNOW…HOW DOES GOD TALK TO YOU?

If you didn’t know, my role has changed a little at GracePoint. While I still handle the marketing and communications side of the ministry, I also am the pastor over LifeGroups (our small group ministry). About 50% of our adult attendance are involved in groups that meet throughout the city. That is a pretty awesome deal.

Tonight, as I was driving home from a LifeGroup leader training meeting, I p pulled down my street and noticed several cars in front of a neighbor’s house. As I slowly drove past the house, and looked inside (the door was open and I am nosey, so I looked) I noticed several couples with what looked like books open and they were laughing.

It had all of the characteristics of a small group, but since I didn’t go in (I did drive back by) I am not positive, but I am pretty sure. It’s pretty cool as I thought about small groups meeting all over the area and people talking about God. It had never really hit me until tonight, when I saw other people doing it.

It just gave me a quick glimpse of what God’s Kingdom really looks like.

Random, I know, but thought I would share.

***Remember to email tricia@gracepoint.com to encourage her to get a facebook!

I am sure that there are a lot of things that I do that drive others nuts, but this one is a peeve of mine. We have this awesome Connections director at GracePoint that is great with plugging people into ministry BUT afraid to take the leap and join Facebook. I have given her a hard time about and try to press her, but was wondering if you guys could help make that happen.

Please if you get time today…email TRICIA EVERY at tricia@gracepoint.com and tell her Terry Johnson has asked you to convince her into getting a Facebook…

There is a prize involved…I promise. Here is the catch – I will ask her which email convinced her to do it and will award my prize that way.

Let’s see if we can get her to do it! Thanks!

Sometimes we need direction in life…I prefer the “nudge” approach. This is the approach where you may be encouraged to do something without being forced to…this will help explain it …

SMALL IDEA. BIG IMPACT. (LESS MESS)

Sometimes I need a target to shoot for!

Man I have definitely been in a few awkward situations in my lifetime. I am one of those that tend to freeze up and shut up when things get weird. Don’t know if you saw this last night, but there was definitely an awkward situation on Letterman last night…

Comedy is always the best remedy. And the line “we owe an apology to farrah fawcett” line at the end – is in reference to David claiming she was his worst interview.

What do you do in awkward situations?