AWAKENED: Eric & Liz Rejrat

Eric & Liz are really special to me. The way God has changed their lives and their family and brought them full circle is amazing.

We met them at one of our first park outreaches when he came to give me a piece of his mind about our loud music. Little did he know that was the beginning of something huge and eternity-changing that God was doing in his life!

Since then, I’ve had the privilege of leading Eric to Jesus, marrying he and Liz, baptizing him and his daughter, Kali, dedicating their son Drake, and watching him begin to teach at Awaken Kids and bring his own friends with him to church! What an incredible transformation that God has done in his life!

I’ll let them tell the story…

AWAKENED: Joe & Haley Morrone

As we geared up for our  2-year birthday, one thing we really wanted to highlight were some of the many ways God has changed lives at Awaken Church. For the last couple months, people have submitted their stories, and we were able to get together with a few of them to film.

One thing I love about Joe & Haley is their appetite for serving and learning. They’re constantly looking for more ways to be hand-on with ministry at Awaken. To me, they also stand as a great reminder of some of the people God has enabled us to reach out to. In fact, I invited a guy at Guitar Center to church the other day. He had long, black rocker hair, a bullring in his nose, tattoos, and other piercings. He was surprised to get an invite to the church because he said most Christians look down on him for the way he looks. I apologized to him on the behalf of Christianity, and I told him that not only does that not represent the way Jesus thinks of him, but he also won’t get treated like that at Awaken. Using Haley as my example, I even told him that if he came to the church, the person who greets him at the door and hands him a bulletin may have a bullring and tattoos as well!

I love that about my church!

Watch below to see how God has impacted Joe & Haley’s lives…

The Terrible Twos

As of today, Awaken Church is officially 2 years old!

A lot has happened in the last 2 years since we opened our doors on September 19, 2009.

On Sunday, we celebrated the great things that God has done by taking a look back, but also by casting the vision for what’s next (If you want to watch or listen to the message, click HERE). Here’s a quick summary of our vision for what’s next…

Awaken Church will aggressively and unapologetically reach out to a lost and dying generation with the hope of Jesus Christ.

Everything we do stems from that statement. We’ll do things differently; we’ll do them with excellence; and we’ll do them to glorify the name of Jesus Christ.

As we celebrate the 2-year mark, I’m praying that Satan sees it as Awaken’s “terrible twos.” We want to make destructive & devastating blows to his kingdom as we aggressively pursue this generation with the Gospel! This year holds big things for Awaken, and I’m praying it’s the worst one yet for the enemy!

Over the last few weeks, I’ve asked the Awaken Staff to collect numbers and statistics that represent some of the things God has done in their part of the church. It’s a tangible way to get a small glimpse on the huge impact God is using us for. However, I didn’t want to just read off a list of stats – I wanted people to be able to visualize it. So, thanks to my friend and fellow graphic designer, Khanh Dang, from New Mexico, we handed out these infographics with each bulletin on Sunday. They represent some of what God has done, but pay attention to the bottom line…

Since we gathered these stats at the beginning of the month, some of them have already changed.

>>> 32 professions of faith should actually be 33!

>>> 13 baptisms is actually now 25!

We also didn’t have room for everything, so here are a few noteworthy stats that didn’t make the cut…

>>> 450 cups of coffee in the last 2 months (hence the need to sell some sweet coffee mugs)

>>> 70+ volunteers serving regularly (that’s about 45% of our current church attendance!)

>>> giving has increased about 300% since our first month as a church (let’s keep that number going: give online here)

>>> 90 people involved in Awaken Groups (including leaders, hosts, adults & students) – that’s 60% of our church involved in weekly Christ-centered community throughout the city! 

More faithful than the most faithful

Last Wednesday, as we continued our Vital Signs series through the book of James, we looked at the topic of temptation. Although at times, we may be tempted to blame God for our failures and the temptations that we indulged, the reality is that He can’t be tempted and He doesn’t tempt others. After all, why would God tempt us to do the very thing that cost His only Son His life?

One verse that stood out to me was James 1:17…

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. – James 1:17

James is great at using poetic language to get his point across, and verse 17 is no exception. He describes God as the “father of lights” (the creator and sustainer of the stars), then describes how faithful He is in comparison to the stars…

Compromise elsewhere?

You may have seen this commercial for Boar’s Head turkey lunch meat…

Did you catch the last line of the commercial? “Boar’s Head Oven Gold Turkey: Compromise Elsewhere.“

It is a funny commercial, and they certainly have a point – nobody wants to eat turkey meat with fat and seaweed extract in it. The irony, however,  is that we live in a culture where a commercial promoting uncompromising purity in lunch meat may air right before a commercial for Desperate Housewives or on the same channel as a company promoting pornography.

Although Boar’s Head didn’t set out to encourage infidelity in marriage, the commercial highlights our misaligned priorities.

Where along the way did we begin to think that it’s ok to compromise in marriage and sexual morality, but not when it comes to lunch meat? I’d say if we needed to pick an area of compromise, it would obviously be the lunch meat (although I’m not recommending seaweed turkey).

In the last week at Awaken Church, the topic of spiritual battles and Satan’s clever schemes has come up a lot. Whether it’s through his lies and trickery (Joshua 9) or his constant bombardment of temptation through any means possible (James 1:12-18), Satan is on the prowl, and we need to be prepared.

If a faithful walk with Christ had a slogan, it could be summed up well by saying, “Compromise NOWHERE.”

Remember this: The best possible life you can live is a life of complete surrender to Jesus Christ.

Compromise and complacency always lead to regret and guilt. As Warren Wiersbe put it, “Satan never gives any gifts, because you end up paying for them dearly.”

If there’s an issue that is causing compromise in your life, TODAY is the day to deal with it. Don’t let it go on a day longer. God has provided a way of escape from every temptation and right now is the time to say, “NO!”

Compromise NOWHERE.