The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
He makes me lie down in green pastures,
He leads me beside quiet waters,

He refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths for His name’s sake.

Even though I walk through the darkest valley,
I will fear no evil, for You are with me;
Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

Surely Your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life,
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

I read Psalm 23 during today’s reading.
I needed it.
So did you.

My wife, Carrie, is going to take over the blog on a weekly post to share her thoughts and take away from Sundays & life at Forefront. Please be nice and show her a little love on her first installment. She’s a nervous and reluctant blogger. Enjoy.

Jason asked me if I would make some observations, jott down some notes, and share my thoughts from Sundays to give you “the other side.” I think this is good, even though it’s not really my thing. I’m a do’er- not a writer or communicator like this. I enjoy my time behind the scenes. Do’ers enjoy working and serving without needing recognition. In the Church (at large), it’s been labeled being a “worker bee.”

In the system of bees (I guess it’s time for a Discovery Channel lesson- hold on tight), worker bees get the short end of the stick in many people’s eyes. You see, the queen bee lives about 3-4 years, while worker bees live about 3 weeks in the summer or a couple months in the winter. The worker bees slave away for the queen and the hive and don’t get any of the glory, recognition, or pats on the back (or on the wings in their case). They just die. The thing of it is- they aren’t out for the medal ceremony, awards show, or nobel. They do it because it’s part of who they are. They are worker bees. Worker bees serve the hive. The overflow of their identity as worker bees demands that they serve. It moves them to do things. It’s part of their DNA.

As we listened today during the message, Jason talked about James Chapter 2 and pointed out this idea of faith and works. I like how James (the writer of the book) breaks the idea down for us to understand. We can believe in God, but even the demons believe. Belief isn’t enough for us according to God. Our faith becomes real when we begin to practice it. When we love, serve, share, do, give, extend a hand, open our homes, share our lives. It is at that point that our faith in God lives. The thing I get hung up on as a do’er is that I do so much of the things that I believe God would want me to do, that sometimes I just get in the do’er mode for the sake of doing. I forget the why and who. The why I serve and who I am serving.

That’s why I am excited for Forefront as we go through this series. I’m looking forward to the next three weeks. A couple other things that I walked away with today:

• I started to think about how excited James must have been when he started living for God. How come more Christians do not keep that excitement?
• The NeedtoBreathe song, “These Hard Times” was a good worship song. That was the first time I heard us sing it at Forefront and the band played it well.
• We have a ton of people volunteering at Forefront. I want to say thank you for the hard work you all put in. You expect to hear thanks from the staff, but I see it and you all are so wonderful.
• Praying for the women who are thinking about going on the Women’s Retreat in March. It is the 4th, 5th, and 6th of March. I would love to get to know you and worship/learn together. Email me or Lisa Gollihur if you are interested in going.
• I love my husband, but I do not claim him when he is in rap videos like this one today:

A special thanks to my hubby for helping me with the links and editing. I will talk to you all next week and if you ever have any questions, what to talk, etc. please contact me (Facebook or email).

Until next time,  Carrie

Nothing brings me more joy than to see my little girl smile.
Being a dad is the best. Now, for all you parents out there…
“What do you love to do w/ your kids to make ‘em smile?”

Jason *over and out*

• Loved service yesterday at church, the volunteer leaders made it happen.
• I write too fast for my own good sometimes. While doing prep for the message I wrote down 48AD instead of 60AD when James was written. Putting it 30ish years after the death of Jesus. Sometimes I think faster than my hands can write/type.
• Luckily, the message of James loving God and giving us wise council still came across with flying colors, the emails and phone calls are proof enough. Love it.
• Enjoyed the break from preaching for a week on the 27th. It was nice to listen to the word preached for a moment.
• Realized I need to listen more, talk less (My wife has been telling me for years).
• “New website layout is easier to navigate.” (according to the emails & Facebook messages)
• Heard a few people (actually just 3) don’t like the green on our office/website/program. What did green ever do to you? Green is great. Just ask the Jolly Green Giant, Green Lantern, the hills on Windows XP desktop background, the environment, and Gerber baby food.
• Well, maybe not the baby food. I take it back.
• We moved over to CCB instead of Shelby. Web based software is way better (and makes us more effective & saves us money over the long haul).
• I started drinking water exclusively after my meeting this morning. If you see me going for a soda, punch me in the arm, HARD.
• Riding a bike in the cold is tough, but I have to do it. Gotta look good for my smoking hot wife.
• Glad to hear Whiteboard is making it’s second appearance. Our staff is looking to go and be a part. Anyone else in?
• Started the Robert Roberts reading plan on the 1st. Loving the reading in the morning, afternoon and night. Wanna read along with me? I’ll be posting how to do that later in the week.
• Got to watch a father/son get baptized in the last ten days of 2009. Very cool to see lives being changed by the gospel message of Jesus.
• Speaking of the last ten days, take a look at this video of the last ten days of 2009 @ Forefront…

In the hallways of our office I had a conversation today that reminded me of a post I wrote awhile back, but never published. Figured with 2010 on the horizon it’s not bad timing to let it fly and share some thoughts on the church today. But first, the beach…

I grew up with 55 degree east coast mornings. Riding my bike over the Rudee Inlet and heading to 1st Street to catch the morning surf on an easy summer day. There is nothing like it here in Va Beach. The thing I enjoyed most wasn’t always the surf, friendships, or morning ride. It was the walk along the shoreline. In between sets or taking a break with no surf, I’d spend time walking along the foam covered sands of the ocean front shore to see the things left behind by the ocean’s currents. Old cans, shells, bottles, little fish, scattered debris, birds running up to the water only to scurry fearfully as the tide rolled back in quickly to the shore.

It was a motley crew of objects.
But one thing was always constant- the beach.
Everything else- changed constantly.

The items on the shore would get swept back out to sea.
Treasures from a time gone by would slowly get buried beneath the wet sand.
Shells that some would count as beautiful would be destroyed beneath the crashing of the waves.
Even the sand was shifting ever so constantly with every touch of salty liquid that moved across it’s surface.

The beach still remains beautiful and it’s an amazing thing to be a part of, but the things that interact with it never remain the same. As it is with God’s Church.

As we keep our eye on the church today, we watch as:
People come. People go.
Lives are changed. People are offended.
Marriages are restored. Relationships crumble.
People love being a part of the community. Things change and they move on.
The church sees roaring numbers. People walk away in droves.
Addiction is beat with God’s help. Turn back to another hit.
God please help my weary spirit. Why do you let this happen, I cannot stand you!?

The movement of people through God’s church is something you have no control over. All you can do is submit to Him and His guidance to love everyone who you interact with. One of the biggest lessons learned in 13 years of ministry is, “Other than God’s mission/goal/love for the church, nothing else stays the same.” It’s okay if people come in and decide to go to another church instead. If a guy whose been addicted to drugs for years finally walks through the door and loves the church, but decides to go to a recovery program elsewhere, thanks alright too. When a couple who outgrew or became disconnected with their church come out and decide they feel connected at your church, don’t rush them away because you’re a new church that’s “all about the new person.” Because those people need a place for community too. And there will even be some people who come, check out the church you are a part of, hate it, and never go to church again. God clearly talks about the message of Jesus offending people too. That’s a hard part of the ebb and flow for many people who love Jesus. You might even be like me and see some of it happening in the home/family you grew up with. It’s hard to come to terms with.

As Christians, we need to understand, that just like the ebb & flow of the ocean’s shoreline we’ve come to love so much here at the beach- the face & community we look at as “the church” is always changing. People, ministries, ideas, perspectives, lives, it’s all changing. But, the good news is that it’s still beautiful in God’s eyes. God is still moving in places we cannot see. People will come and be saved and continue their journey at the church you attend, while others will decide it’s time to transition to something else.

If we look at the Church as more of a collective group of believers & servants and less from the perspective of the name that graces the cover of our programs and bulletins… ministry and loving God becomes beautiful in it’s simplicity. It’s not about the things we like or don’t like about a church or competing with area churches for numbers, status, and popularity- it’s about changing lives. It’s about being okay with ebb & flow of God’s church changing as people’s journey continues.

As we enter into 2010, I’ll wrap up with a question and maybe we can talk this through a bit more…

“How can the local church make sure to keeps it’s focus, energy, and time on being available to God so it can help the global church & kingdom of God growing?”

I have some ideas, but I’d love to hear yours…

A few snap shots of 2009 Christmas & Holiday Break.
Hope all of you had an amazing time with friends & family.
Jason *over and out*

When I came on at Forefront 3 years ago, the website, design and branding was dated (all the staff agreed on this one). Everything looked like the mid 90′s and some even earlier looking by design. Now, you might wonder, “Why does a church care about design? Isn’t it about the gospel? Why are we ‘branding’ ourselves?” Great questions. As a church, we don’t brand the gospel. God has done a great job of that and there is nothing in His amazing story telling that we can make better. He’s done a perfect job with it, so no need to mess with what isn’t broke. As a church, we do want people to remember us. Remember the loving message, kind faces, acts of service, moving in the community, etc. So logos, colors, websites, fliers, and more help us break through the noise & chaos people see and hear everyday and they remember us. And, if we’re living like Jesus, they’ll remember Jesus in the process which is our ultimate goal.

So, being remembered and leaving a mark, whether it’s via the web, a flier, serving, sharing life in community, is a huge deal.

So a little over a year ago Forefront went with Clover for our website hosting/design. Now I cannot say enough how impressed we’ve been with the ease of use, mobile interface, and clean design. It just works. The traffic on our website has increased dramatically and part of that is because people feel more than comfortable sending their friends to an easy to use site.

Going into 2010, we wanted to make an even clearer mark and update our look & feel across the board. So, we contacted Clover about a template design that would fit our new look & feel well. We couldn’t be more pleased with the way it turned out. Also, we reformatted our weekly program to reflect the changes on our site. Our online giving interface will also mirror the same look in the coming days. Now, some might say these things are silly, trivial, not kingdom related. But, when a first time person visits the website, we want them to be spurred on to come on a Sunday. Currently, 65% of first time people each week come because of the website. Also, when they pick up a program, we want it to feel just as comfortable as the site they visited earlier in the week.

When it comes to the program, we’ve made a few changes. It is still in the two sided, tri-fold format, but the color scheme & design has changed. The area for the Weekly Study is bigger with a bigger font, the space for serving opportunities & ways to get plugged in is larger, and we changed around the connection card to reflect a more tech-savy generation. Many of the people who are first-timers visit because of Facebook, Google Search for churches, or the website. We want to keep better track of that and so those minor changes reflect it. Very interesting to see the culture shift in how people connect with churches for the first time.

Below is a snapshot of the website & new program design. If you’re a church looking to check this program design out or get it in an editable Photoshop PSD, please email us at info@forefront.org and we can send you the file. Now, the things here are small in the grand scheme of ministry, but they really aid in our impact of changing lives. So glad Forefront is a place that can hold strong the the essentials, yet change organically with things that need to change to reach people.

Jason *over and out*

Wrapped up work.
Headed to Famous Uncle Als for dinner with the family.
Spent quality time with Chloe actin’ a fool.
Layed down to rest and watched *Wayne’s World & **Footloose.

And I cannot sleep.
Not a wink.

My mind is racing. Moving and I cannot stop thinking. Christmas is on the brink, people are out losing their minds trying to find gifts, families are traveling to visit loved ones, and I am living in fear of a flat planet. I love what the Church (capital C, universal) is doing with serving projects, Christmas Eve services, etc. But, I don’t think it’s entirely working. I think it’s falling flat. We’re on the verge of a flat planet. A place where every time the church tries to immitate the “cool new thing” it falls flat because it’s been done before and usually better and more professional by the secular media/market.

Around us, every year, we see, hear, and are communicated to with the same message in our churches: “Christmas is not about consumerism. Why can’t everyone remember the true meaning of Christmas?” Turning the status quo and flipping it on it’s end takes a lot more than gatherings with songs or serving one time a year. The wow factor or shock and awe of the events churches are doing isn’t cutting it. Neither is trying to be like SNL or the latest thing on FunnyorDie.com. It’s falling flat. The God I serve is bigger than those ideas. The wave of ideas needs to change, but it cannot stop at simply ideas.

It takes a culture shift.
And… I believe it’s happening.
I’m watching it take place through the community of Forefronters.

I’ll share more with you tomorrow. Until then,
Jason *over and out*

Footnotes:
*Wayne’s World is a fantastic movie and glad it was on cable.
**Footloose is a guilty pleasure. Judge me if you must, but I just want to… DANCE! Ha.