TAKE FIVE | Mini-Retreat - Unshakable and Assured
Today's thought hit me right between the eyes. I am in the midst of digesting the winter teen retreat, and as our first event, it can be easy to get lost in critically reviewing all the things that need improvement rather than focusing on God's goodness and provision. We hosted an event for over 450 with no COVID cases, and 100+ students decided to "Keet that Same Energy" by looking steadfastly to Jesus. Amen.
April 2022 Newsletter
GOD rocked the house at our Winter Camp - ReConnect Retreat 2022. Over four hundred fifty people gathered and over 100 responded to “Keep that Same Energy” by looking steadfastly to Jesus and trusting Him.
TAKE FIVE | Mini-Retreat - The Fruits of Solitude
As you read this I am enjoying an afternoon of solitude after taking in a 36 hour youth worker's conference with Amy. It is important to work in recovery time when you come off an intense period of family life, work, or ministry. The teen retreat was amazing and intense. I am certainly glad that I planned some solitude to reflect on it and give God the glory. Are you in need of some solitude also?
TAKE FIVE | Mini-Retreat - Your Tears Will Teach You
According to the Google defintion, tears are a drop of clear salty liquid secreted from glands in a person's eye when they cry or when the eye is irritated; the state or action of crying. While the denotation of this word seems impersonal and bland, this week we discover that the connotation of tears is far more deep, personal, emotional, and significant than on the surface.
TAKE FIVE | Mini-Retreat - Solitude Retreat: An Unhurried Day With God
This weekend is our ReConnect Retreat. I will be pouring out and because I know I will need filling afterwards, I have already scheduled a retreat with my wife Amy at a youth workers event and then a time just with the Lord and I. When was the last time you took a day with Jesus and just spent time together? Learn how you can incorporate this renewal into you life from our friends at Unhurried Living.
TAKE FIVE | Mini-Retreat - Sustaining Your Life: Restored By Beauty
Next week I will be landing in LAX and heading up to Big Bear to greet 400+ campers in the mountains. I can not wait to see what refreshing spiritual fruit and creativity will be unleashed as students who have been cloistered in the city for two years, with endless COVID restrictions, to be free in God's creation and beauty.
March 2022 Newsletter
ReConnect Retreat is just 12 days away and it is going to be full! Find out who is coming and how you can pray.
TAKE FIVE | Mini-Retreat - Spending or Investing Freedom
As followers of Jesus, we are told that we have freedom in Christ. But we can use that freedom in such a way as to either increase it or diminish it.
TAKE FIVE | Mini-Retreat - Streams in the Wasteland
For those of you living in California, conjuring up the image of a desert is pretty easy. I love the brutal beauty of the parched land that somehow still supports the life God designed to live there. We too sometimes find ourselves living in a spiritual desert, and we can live there for a long time. But, there is nothing like the living water Jesus gives us, especially when we haven't had a rainy season in a while
TAKE FIVE | Mini-Retreat - The Goodness of the Good News
If someone observing us were to "take a read" on our life, would they read "good news?" Today we are invited to ponder this question.
TAKE FIVE | Mini-Retreat - Can You Wait 15 Seconds?
How many times do we say no to good things because of this mistaken belief that we don’t have time? Every time I say the words “I don’t have time,” I am strengthening the hold that hurry has on me.
February 2022 Newsletter
42 Days Until ReConnect Retreat! Five Sites Visited, Strategic Planning, and More
ReConnect Retreat Update | Prayer Requests
We are cresting 400 participants for March 18-20th ReConnect Retreat. Keep praying for God to move in mighty ways in the lives of all involved, particularly our students who have had such a hard last two years!
TAKE FIVE | Mini-Retreat - Is God Easy to Live With?
If we grew up in a strict home without intimacy with our parents, it can be hard to imagine God cares for us at all and far too easy to imagine Him as a task master. Conversely, if we grew up with very loving and intimate parents without any boundaries for us, we may have trouble seeing God as Holy and how our sin grieves Him. Ideally we had something in the middle that reflects our God's character.
TAKE FIVE | Mini-Retreat -Remembering a Great Man
Today's message touches me deeply as my dad went home to be with Jesus a little over two years ago. There are a lot of conversations we had, and some I wish we could still have.
TAKE FIVE | Mini-Retreat -Appearance Management for the Soul
Each year we swap out dishes after Thanksgiving for this bucolic set of Christmas dishes showing a small town, a church with a steeple and snow day activities. But the fact that we change the appearance of what our meal sits on, does not change how the meal tastes. A bad meal continues to be a bad meal, and a good one continues to be good. Today we are encouraged to look at what window dressing we might be using to cover up the flavor of our souls.
ReConnect Retreat Update | Virtual Prayer | Sustaining OMV
We have postponed the January event and combined it with March. Thankfully we will be serving just as many teens! Virtual prayer happens twice a month - will you join us? Also, we are counting on you to sustain usin 2022 as we move forward and plan the path to summer camps in 2023.
TAKE FIVE | Mini-Retreat -What Will You Leave Behind?
My daughter and I are going through coins that my father left behind in his bureau tonight. There is a Morgan silver dollar, various Kennedy quarters, indian head nickels, aluminum vichy French francs, schillings, pence, and a whole host of other world coins from 1816 to the 1980's. We can only imagine where he gathered them and how. Each gives us a clue into his and my grandfather's travels. What will people remember about you from what you leave behind?
TAKE FIVE | Mini-Retreat -The Wisdom of Working in Peace and Joy
If your life is anything like mine, you came back from a restful week with family to a long to do list. Let this week's post give you peace as you pursue God's purpose this year and ponder the next right thing to do for God's glory.
TAKE FIVE | Mini-Retreat - Start with the Ending
A little over two years ago, my dad went to be with the Lord. Sadly cancer took him before we all would have liked. He had a great ending filled with redemption as he beat his alcoholism with the Lord’s strength and lived his last four years clean, sober, and healing. Today Gem ponders the same thought, what do we want our ending to be like, and how can we start living towards it today?