Top 10 posts of 2010

As 2011 nears, it’s interesting to look back at 2010 as we close it out. Looking back on my most-viewed blog posts of 2010 actually sums up the year quite well. So, here they are in reverse order…

#10: This Isn’t “Goodbye,” It’s “Seeya Later!”

My good friend and last-name-sharer, Denver Miller, moved to TN with us in July of 2009, but headed back to NM in July 2010 to pursue further ministry there. It was sad to see him go, but ministry goes on!

#9: Awaken Church is Moving.

Not surprising that this blog post made the top 10 list. Our current remodeled building is our 4th in 16 months!

#8: Unity Amidst Destruction

Although 2010 presented us with many hurdles and reasons for division, we saw unity come from it all. We made life-long friends through some of the hardest circumstances! The very events that Satan intended to use to destroy the Church, God used to built it up!

#7: Turkey and Porn

2010 presented me with a humbling opportunity to post monthly blogs for HeartSupport.com, a ministry that helps people overcome addiction. They call me a “sex blogger,” and although that may sound a bit vulgar, that’s the topic I blog about. I’m a pastor; and I use my past with porn to help others put porn in their past.

#6: I Married My Best Friend

Jenn and I hit the 7-year milestone this year in our marriage. I wouldn’t be where I am today without her!

#5: Happy Digital Christmas

I love technology and I love Christmas. I also love how the 2 were combined in this very creative video.

#4: After the Water Comes the Mud

We were blown away by the support that poured in (pun intended) after the flood that rocked the church in May. We received donations from California to New Jersey and from Montana to New Mexico – literally from coast to coast to coast to coast! Thanks to all of you who kept up with the progress of the church post-flood!

#3: Interview with an Ex-Prostitute

This was another in my series of HeartSupport blogs. I had the privilege of designing the layout of a CD for the Hope Foundation, headed by Bronwen Healy, out of Australia. She gave me permission to post a brief interview with her about her past in prostitution and drugs and how God pulled her out. Powerful stuff!

#2: Mission Trip to Tennessee

We had teams from different churches drive for hours (one from a different state) to help us (and others) clean up after the flood. What they may not have been able to do financially, they did energetically!

And of course the #1 viewed blog post of 2010: The Flood: Update, Pics, & Ways to Help

This blog post got almost 10x the amount of views of any other blog I’ve ever posted. Support poured in, prayers went up, and the Church was expanded through a catastrophe that God used for the best! We can’t say it enough, but here it goes again: THANK YOU!

Reading the Bible in 2011

It’s December 31. In just a few hours, people across the world will gather together, many in front of their TV sets or in huge venues, and ring in the new year: 2011!

Many people make physical resolutions for the new year (lose weight, get in shape, don’t go bald), but I hope you’re strategizing spiritually as well.

1 Timothy 4:8 – Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come. [New Living Translation]

With a full 365 days before us, today is your last day before 2011 to decide what your Bible reading plan will be for the year. If you’ve never read the Bible all the way through, I hope 2011 is the year you do it. It can be challenging, but it’s always worth it!

My wife finishes up reading her Bible all the way through today. She’s done it before, but she did it differently this year with the help of a one-year Bible that I bought her last year for Christmas. She said it really helped her stay on track by being able to flip to each day’s date and read for the day.

I’ve done it that way before. I’ve also used bookmarks, read it in different versions, used commentaries along the way, and more. There are many ways to conquer it. This year, I decided to go about it a little differently though – I’m going digital with it. I’m going to be reading my Bible all the way through on my iPhone and/or iPad in 90 days. 2 years ago, I read the Bible through in 90 days with a group of middle school students. It was super challenging (over an hour of reading every day), but awesome. It helped me to grasp an over-all picture of God’s Word and it kept me committed to daily reading. At that pace, if you miss one day, you’ve got at least 2 hours of reading the next day!

I decided to read it digitally this year for a few reasons…

- I’ve never read it all the way through that way

- Since I have my phone with me all the time, I’ll be able to stay on top of my reading

- YouVersion, the Bible app I use, is challenging its readers to collectively spend 1 billion minutes reading the Bible in January alone, and I want to be a part of that

- I have multiple translations at my finger tips, so it will always sound fresh

 

I’m excited. I love God’s Word. It’s always fun to flip back to Genesis and start again.

If you have a smartphone (iPhone, Android, etc), you can go to YouVersion.com for a mobile version of the Bible. They also have apps available for free so that you can download the Bible in multiple languages and translations and take it with you.

The 90-day plan may not be for you, but that’s ok. There are MANY more ways to read it, even if you don’t read all the way through. You can read some of it or all of it. You can read it topically, chronologically, devotionally, and more. Click HERE to explore over 50 different Bible reading plans.

So what’s your Bible reading plan for 2011?

Leave a comment below and let us know!

the NEW (again) Awaken Church building!

This is our 4th remodel of an Awaken Church building in 16 months – that’s an average of 1 building every 4 months. That’s WAY too much painting, cleaning, and moving for anyone, in my opinion.

Our Christmas Eve service last night was our first service in our new building. We worked till midnight on Thursday night finishing it up. It was a fun family service – we were joined by all the kids and families as we worshiped together. My good friend, Ryan Wylie, was here from Albuquerque to lead worship for us as well.

On our very first service in the new building we already filled it up! That was fast…but that seems to be how God moves! I had a couple people ask me last night where we’d be moving next. Believe it or not, I already have my eyes on a place and have been praying for it for months (more on that when the time is right).

Tomorrow (the day after Christmas) kicks off our Sunday services in our new building. We’ll be debuting our new electronic kids check-in system, expanded and updated kids classrooms, plus, a special message from Luke 2, which I’m excited about.

We’ll have pictures posted soon from our Christmas Eve service, but below is a little walk-through of our new building that I shot on my phone a couple hours before service began.

If you’re in the Clarksville area, join us on Sunday mornings at 10am or Wednesday nights at 6:30pm. What a ride it’s already been – I can’t imagine what’s next!

 

Our last Sunday at 581 S. Riverside Dr.

Jenn and I stayed at the church pretty late last night decorating it for Christmas tomorrow. We’ll be studying Luke 2 in a message I’m calling The 7lb 8oz Savior of the World. Once we finished decorating and cleaning, we sat down on the couch and thought about all we have been through in that building.

That building will forever be the beginning of Awaken Church. It’s where we began and it’s where we’ve seen God provide in so many ways. We’ve counseled, prayed, studied, partied, worshiped, painted, and fellowshipped in that building. We cleaned it up and painted it in September 2009 (pictured to the left), then got to redo the whole thing in May 2010 after the flood that wiped it out.

It’s crazy to think of moving on into a new place, but we’re very excited about it.

In July, when we repainted the building, it took 5 of us about 4 (very long) days to complete the project. This time, although we had twice the square footage to paint, we completed it in only 5 (very long) days. Last Sunday, on our first day of painting, we had 13 people show up to help. That is as many people as attended the church in May when the flood hit! Amazing how quickly it’s changed!

So tomorrow is the big day. We have service at 10am, but as soon as the message is over, clean up will be much different than normal. We’ll unplug, pull down, box up, stack up, and prepare to move out. Wednesday is the official move-in day as long as everything with the city’s inspection goes well. Friday (Christmas Eve) is our first service in the new building. We have a lot to do before then, but it will all come together. Bring a friend and join us as we enjoy our new building and celebrate the birth of the Savior!

Happy Digital Christmas

Every year as Christmas rolls around, I get to teach the story of Christ’s birth again! I love it! One of the best presents we’ve ever received is the gift of God’s presence, so I love talking about it. One of the challenges, however, is translating the story of the Savior’s birth into today’s modern culture that has commercialized and romanticized His birth.

I saw this video, and although you may have already seen it, I figured it was worth posting. It’s a very creative look at how the Christmas story may be told today through digital and social media. Enjoy.

A Quick Building Update…

We finally got started painting the building on Sunday afternoon. As it snowed outside, a big team of us painted inside. By Monday evening, we had accomplished in 2 days what it took us 5 days to do back in July! In fact, we had as many people show up to paint on Sunday as attended the church back in July! It’s amazing what God has done in such little time.

As I type, a construction crew is priming the Kids Ministry side of the building, and we’ll resume painting tonight.

Right now, we’re completely done with the first half of the building. The Kids Ministry side is the fun part – it has all the cool colors! We will be working on that tonight and tomorrow morning. As soon as that’s finished, the tile and carpet guys will come in and get the floor finished. We’re hoping to have that done by this weekend, then as soon as the city approves it, we’re moving in!

Tomorrow night’s Night of Worship is our last Wednesday night service in our current building, and this Sunday is our last service in there. Next Wednesday, December 22, is canceled as we move in and set up in preparation for our first service in the new building: CHRISTMAS EVE!

It’s bee a ton of work so far, but also really rewarding as we see the building start to take shape.

If you’re interested in helping paint tonight, show up at 6pm. There will be snacks and drinks for all the volunteers, good music, good people, and LOTS of work! We’ll continue working tomorrow morning as well. Stay up-to-date with the progress and work times on our Facebook page and Twitter.

As always, if you’d like to help financially with the cost of moving into the new building, click HERE. All donations are tax-deductible…and awesome!

Thanks again to all who have helped. We pray that God uses this building to change even more individual lives, marriages, and families through the teaching of His Word!

Keep it Fresh

When you first started dating your significant other (assuming you have one), you’d go anywhere at any time with them. Eventually, though, you probably both decided on a favorite place to hang out. Imagine if you made that your place to meet every single day at the exact same time, for half an hour or so, then when about your lives after that. That would get old really quick, wouldn’t it?

Unfortunately, many people treat their relationship with Jesus like that. They get in a routine (or more accurately, a rut) with Jesus. They meet with Him at the same, in the same place almost every day (unless they’re too busy or sleep in). Let’s be honest, that can get boring. Not for Jesus, but for you.

I talked with a guy the other day that found himself in a similar spot, where his relationship with Jesus didn’t feel real or exciting – it felt more like a religious ritual than a growing relationship.

My advice to him was to keep it fresh. Just like a human relationship would get boring doing the same thing at the same time every day, so can our relationship with Jesus. So, here are a few practical ways to keep things fresh with you and Jesus…

- Having a “normal” spot is ok, but be spontaneous every once in a while. Hang out with Him in a new spot: a park, a coffee shop, your back porch, or even a different part of the house. Today, instead of reading in my office, I read out in the living room by the Christmas tree – it was a nice change.

- Regardless of location, spending time with Jesus doesn’t have to look the same each day. Spend some days mainly praying, other days mainly reading, other days spend some time memorizing Scripture, etc. Keep it fresh.

- Remember that although you’re not omnipresent (present everywhere, at all times), God is. Your time with Jesus shouldn’t be tied down to just the 15 (or 30, or 60) minutes you get with Him in the morning. You can also chat in the car on your way to work, on your bike, board, or bus too!

- Jesus is also available in the afternoon and evening. “Devotional time” / “Quiet time” / “Chat with Jesus time” (or whatever you call it) gets pigeon-holed as a morning-only thing. It’s as if it’s not as effective or you’re not as holy if you hang out with Jesus later in the day. WRONG. If you’re not a morning person, be a night person and make it a point to hang out with Jesus later in the day.

- Read a different translation. I’ve read the Bible through a few times in the New King James Version, so lately in my time with the Lord, I’ve been reading the New Living Translation. It puts a new spin on some familiar passages that helps each day to feel fresh.

- Talk to Jesus like He’s real. He is real; so talk to Him like He is. If it helps, pull up a chair next to you, invite Him to sit down there, and talk to Him that way. He’s really listening and He really cares, so pray like it!

 

Those are a few things I do to keep things fresh between Jesus and I. What do you do?

New stuff at Awaken Kids!

This morning at Awaken, I interviewed Jenn Witiuk, our Kids Ministry Director, about some exciting new things that we have coming up for Awaken Kids. In 3 weeks, at our first Sunday service in our new building (Sun, Dec 26), we’ll be adding 2 more kids classes, for a total of 5 classes. We’ll also begin a new electronic, internet-based kids check-in system that will help us significantly increase security and protect our kids.

 

With the increase in the amount of classes comes the need for an increase in the amount of Awaken Kids Team Members. If you’d like to get involved, we’ll have an info meeting on Sunday, December 19 after service. You can also click HERE to download an application or fill one out online. If you’re a student or an adult, this is a great way to get involved at Awaken!

Here’s my interview with Jenn in case you missed it…

Building Update and How You Can Help

Moving has become a regular part of our routine since we started Awaken Church.

Before the church opened, we rented a space and began cleaning and painting, until we found out we couldn’t meet there. That was just 3 weeks before our first service. We quickly found our current Riverside location, cleaned it up in about 11 days, and opened the doors for our first service on September 19, 2009. Just about 7 months later, the flood hit and it was time to move again (although that move was easier – we didn’t have much left to move!). We moved temporarily into the Bank of America building downtown, while work was done to restore our Riverside building.

Just 5 months ago, in the middle of June, on a Saturday night in the bank, I made the announcement that we’d be re-opening on Riverside on July 11. I had NO idea when I made that announcement that just 5 months later, I’d be making another moving announcement…but that’s what I did tonight!

Right in time for Christmas, we’ll be opening the doors of our new facility for our Christmas Eve Family Service at 6pm!

We’ll talk more about our Christmas Eve service this weekend at Awaken – it’s going to be fun!

A lot of people have been asking how they can help, so here are a few ideas…

ENERGETICALLY: If you live in this area and would like to help paint, we’d love the help. Sheet rock goes up this Friday and will take about 4-5 days. As soon as that’s up, we’ll head in and do the painting. It took us a long time to do the 2400 square feet of our current building, so we’ll definitely need help in our new 4800 square feet! We’re hoping to knock it out in 3 days, so that they can get back in, put down the flooring, and finish it up in time for the city to inspect it.

The tentative painting schedule is: Saturday, December 11, from 1pm-8pm; Sunday, December 12, from 2pm-LATE, and Monday, December 13, from 8am-8pm. Hopefully we can knock it out in just those 3 days. Whether you’re an artist or not, feel free to come help!

FINANCIALLY: If you’re not local, but would like to contribute financially, you can always donate online (click here). As many of you know, there are lots of added expenses when moving into a new facility, so if you’d like to help in this way, that would be a big help as well.

PRAYERFULLY: It goes without saying that we’d love for you to be praying for us and the ministry of Awaken Church. We’ve already seen God work in powerful ways – changing lives, marriages, and families – but that’s just the beginning of His big plan for Awaken and Clarksville!