Before I preach, speak, meet with someone who needs help, as I’m thinking over a heavy situation before God, work through my own personal sin, etc. I listen to this playlist. It’s a new revised version, but most of my solid staples are there. If you’re looking for a good mix, pick up these tracks on iTunes, Amazon, or whatever music deal you use. I’ll be talking a little bit about why these tracks and why the specific order this week…
“Far Away” by Lecrae
“Out Of The Ground” by John Mark McMillan
“These Hard Times” by Needtobreathe
“We Will Worship You” by Carlos Whitaker
“Glory Screams” by Revolution Worship
“Break Me Down” by Tenth Avenue North
“Change The World (Lost Ones)” by Anberlin
“Alive” by P.O.D.
“Control” by Mute Math
“Secret Of The Easy Yoke” by Pedro The Lion
“Hard to Be” by David Bazan
“In Stitches” by David Bazan
“Dare You To Move” by Switchfoot
What songs are driving you?
What songs make you jump up and get your lazy butt in gear?
Share ‘em people.
Loved seeing this come together. A huge thank you to:
Real Life Christian Church
New Beginnings Christian Church
West Park Church of Christ
Calvary Assembly
Forefront Church
West Road Episcopal Church
New Life Baptist Church
Hampton Roads Jeep Club
Navy Federal Credit Union
Hampton Roads Uhaul
Coast Guard Base (Portsmouth, VA)
UPS Store (Lynnhaven Pwky & Princess Anne Rd)
Also, thank you to everyone who came out to pack things up before the drive to Soles4Souls distribution center in Alabama. Thank you to everyone who gave, sacrificed, and took the time to think of others before themselves. You embody what it means to live like Jesus.
We’re looking at a new project to jump on soon, but not just Forefront Church- we want this to be a collaborative effort with churches & organizations in Hampton Roads. Dropping more information on that soon.
Q: Are we having church this Sunday?
A: Absolutely.
Q: We heard it might snow again. Are you scared?
A: Scared?!? Other than the dark, boogie man, snakes, roaches, Barney, and the Globetrotters… I’m not scared of anything.
Q: Is there a new series starting?
A: Yep. It’s on Relationships & Marriage. It’s going to be great. Check out the promo below.
Q: What about the Super Bowl thing? U Got Game? Is it still happening?
A: Do the Buffalo Bills choke every time they play? Aww Yeah! We’re having the party. U bet!
Q: What time does it start and what are the details?
A: 5pm til the game ends and New Orleans wins! We’ll have free food, the game on three projectors and multiple flat screens, raffle for an iPod Touch, and it’s all going down at our warehouse space: 2697 International Parkway, Suite 3-132, Va Beach, VA 23452
Q: We heard you are using this as a fundraiser. Can you tell us more?
A: Yeah, it’s for the Vietnam “Give Water, Give Life” project. We are raising money for the project and flights so we can make a huge impact on the community there. 600+ people will have clean drinking water FOREVER. We just need to raise the $10,000 to make it happen. Your $10 a person donation makes that happen. Check out the video below to catch on to the vision of why we are doing this.
Q: We see you’re growing your beard back. Did you lose a bet?
A: Are you kidding me?! This beard is amazing. Plus my daughter really likes the way it feels. It tickles her face and makes her laugh, so… yeah, it’s back for awhile.
Q: The service online was off the hook! We loved it! But, someone made the comment on Facebook that it didn’t make you look any better in HD. Do you have any thoughts on this?
A: First off, the stream was not in HD, but we’re glad you thought the quality was that good. As far as me no looking any better, I was able to cry myself to sleep for the past few nights. But this morning I got up, looked in the mirror and repeated to myself, “I’m great, I’m wonderful, Everybody likes me” numerous times… until my wife came in and laughed at me. Ugh. Now I’m going to spend my days inventing a camera that doesn’t add ten pounds, but actually makes you look thinner (because let’s face it, Uncle Al’s Hot Dogs are the best!). I’ll keep you updated on my progress…
For many of the people I meet, much of their happiness and/or negativity is birthed from how they look at life. Fortunately, I’m a glass is half-full kind of guy and cannot believe life is as amazing as God has allowed it to be. In the past couple of weeks, I’ve been a part of some awesome things…
Chloe’s First Snow Day.
I was able to get out and play with my daughter Chloe in the snow for the first time. The joy she had was overwhelming. We built a snow fort and threw snow at each other. Total Kodak moments. I will cherish the time we had to spend together for years to come.
Hampton Roads Churches Respond To Haiti.
The earthquake and devastation will takes years to rebound from. As a church we not only decided to take action, but partnered with 7 other churches, the local Jeep Club, and military outlets to get this thing together. 4,500 pairs of shoes and tons of supplies later, we were overwhelmed. The shipping would have been in the thousands of dollars- so we rented a Uhaul and drove it to Soles4Souls headqurters in Alabama. 26 hours round trip. Amazing to watch the love people have for others through Forefront and local churches. Just awesome.
Snowed In Sunday.
At first, I almost took a turn for the negative, but our leaders came together and made a pretty solid decision and it went well. With the most snow the 757 has seen in almost 20 years, we opted to keep people home safe and attend service online. While we believe that a constant diet of online church is not healthy and online is no substitute for the church family to gather together on Sundays- it went extremely well thanks to our great team of volunteers who made it happen (in my living room of all places).
All in all, God has allowed me to be a part of an amazing family, a wonderful church, and a community of people who I want to share life with. How about you…
“How is God moving in ways that you are extremely thankful for?”
On Sunday, we discussed the idea of how we are called to give life, hope, and the love of Jesus to every single person we come into contact with. But, our footprint and way of life connects us with more people than we’d like to admit. From human trafficking to sweatshops and everything in between- our lack of education in these areas can hurt people without us ever knowing it.
Here are some links on how you can get involved with projects that affect people all over the world (in a positive way) to show the love of Jesus. Thanks in advance for checking these projects out and getting involved.
So old man winter has slowed things down here in Va Beach (which is great for me & my family). I have some thoughts on yesterday’s online service, family moments, church stuff, and some miscellaneous things for the blog later this evening and throughout the week…
But for now I’m going to enjoy time with my family since God has taken it upon himself to send me a reminder by shutting down much of Hampton Roads (for those of you who needed it too, you’re welcome).
So the snow is coming down here in Hampton Roads. We just missed our White Christmas by 36 Days! Bummer. Anyway, we realize the snow might make it difficult for many of you to be able to attend church on Sunday. So, everyone… PLEASE STAY HOME. We have an alternative “Plan B” for situations like this.
We will be streaming our service Sunday at 10am, Live (from my house of all places, ha). We will have acoustic worship, a message, offering, and (grab some crackers and juice from home) communion. It will be similar to a normal Forefront service, but you will need to do a couple things to get ready. Are you ready? Here we go:
Get some crackers/juice for communion (or something that you feel works if you’re on lockdown at the house. God knows your heart/intentions, even if it is Pepsi and Wheat Thins)
Bring up http://giving.forefront.org in a separate tab to give to God’s work through Forefront during the online service. Currently, Forefront is meeting our bills and doing ministry thanks to your contributions, but on a snow week like this- we could possibly take a financial hit and that would be tough for the church on multiple levels.
Promote this to your friends/family/cousins/neighbors pet raccoon “Bubbles” or anyone else you think would love to experience this online with the following link:http://www.livestream.com/forefrontchurch @ 10am EST
The Livestream Link will also allow you to chat with other Forefronters and viewers who are worshiping with you as well. So if you aren’t interested in following via the blog, you can click here and view it with chat/twitter/facebook integration
Thank you for being so patient as we attempt to worship together online and keep people safe. Who knows how it will go or turn out, but as a church, we’re willing to try almost anything to reach people who are far from God. If it means streaming through a little media player to get to your house- than let’s do this thing.
Received an email recently about help/direction on fasting. It’s something that unfortunately gets overlooked by many Christians. It’s tough to wade through everything and make sense of it all if you’ve never tried to/or participated in a fast.
We’ve been working hard to get things together with seven to eight other churches in the 7-5-7 for Haiti Relief. Here is a sneak peak behind the scenes as things came together all day today at the forefront.org warehouse space.
The idea of “get rich quick” schemes & “used car salesman” tactics drive me insane. It’s even worse when it creeps it’s way into the church. Can we really guarantee growth, depth, wealth, and “the perfect church” situation because of our man-made, thought out plan? Well, trust meit isdefinitely outthere.
The thing I’ve been contemplating lately is,
“The early church didn’t have campaigns, perfected systems, proven track records, and over the top technology- and they did more than alright…
they soared.”
When did leaders/pastors get sold on cookie cutter churches, systems, and success? What happened to the organic, learn the lay of the land & people who live there, let’s find what works for us kind of leadership? The guys who weren’t scared to try anything and didn’t care if Paul, Luke, Mark, James, or Matthew had tried the idea and made it sky rocket where they were. Leaders who didn’t change course everytime a new letter was written, blog post dropped, book was released, or twitter update moved them.
Leaders who just decided to lead with God moving them forward.
I want to surround myself with leaders like that.
Those guys inspire me.
Not to carbon copy their plans, church, or systems- but to be around their undying passion for God’s church.
Jason *over and out*
