2012! What A Year!!!

2012 was an amazing year at CX!  I wanted to post some of my personal favorites.  

We took our first major mission trip to Thailand. Five of us traveled over 9,000 miles to share Jesus' love with some people on the other side of the world. We taught some English to a handful of kids in an Muslim village.  We worshipped on street corners, in restaurants and at a great church some of our missionaries started. We also prayed with a number of people on the streets, got to be a part of three salvations and even helped with the baptisms!  You can watch the highlights here.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dg_K6IM3tfk&feature=share&list=UUeUz74mCtPHWICseUfwau1g

This year we also did a plethora (yes plethora!) of service projects. We held our annual free garage sale where we gave everything away to unsuspecting shoppers.  We served meals and loved on people at the Boise Rescue Mission and City Light.  We played board games with some really sweet people at a local nursing home. We painted walls for the Christian Children's Ranch and took their kids out on the town for dinner, a movie and Christmas stockings. We wrapped Christmas presents for free at the neighborhood Fred Meyer. This list could go on and on with even more projects that our individual small groups did. What an honor to wear the name of Christ and love on people! Highlights here . . . http://youtu.be/BZ29_Jyc9MM

Also, at the tail end of 2012 God opened the door to hire a couple of part-time staff to help move Connections further toward the vision.  I am super excited we are to have Allegra Finnigan and Jeremy Wight join the team.  Besides helping with the typical office challenges and weekly to-do lists, Jeremy and Allegra are both pastors at heart and are excited to come along aside us to encourage and pray with us. 

If 2013 and every year after were as good as 2012, I would consider CX a massive success. But truth is, I believe this year will be even better. I know this to be true for two reasons. First, God has allowed us to press on and do greater things every year and we have even higher expectations for 2013.  Secondly, we serve a God who is alive. He is still in the business of changing lives and reconciling relationships.  I believe if we simply submit to Him, He will use us to love on even more people!

God is moving! And we're drafting right behind Him!  I can't wait to see what's next!

We Have a Calling

I believe every church should have a calling - a God ordained directive that influences its daily decisions. Without this vision in place, we naturally begin to drift into chaos. It my be well-intentioned chaos; nonetheless, it is still without direction or target.

This coming weekend, I'm excited to remind us, again, of who we are supposed to be. Connections has a specific vision. I'll be breaking it out in detail over the weekend, but I want to lay out the big picture here. This is the most succinct way I know to explain our calling.

--Connections is a Bible based community for your lost friends and family.--

We will probably never put that on our website or in our print material, but it's who we are supposed to be. All of us (and I mean ALL OF US) have friends and family who either don't believe or, more likely, have walked away from God. Maybe they got mad at Him, maybe they just drifted away, either way, we desire to see them have a strong relationship with God. I want CX to be a place where you can bring your friends and you don't have to worry about them being embarrassed or offended. We use phrases like, "Turn to page 89," instead of, "Open to Luke 9." We say things like "Right living" instead of "righteousness" and we focus on being more relevant than simply reverent. We have never taken an offering and rarely talk about finances from the stage.

This doesn't mean that we water down our messages or God's word. We say what needs to be said, but make sure we say it as clearly as possible. And we choose, when possible, to look at the positive side of an issue instead of the negative. Jesus said, "Do to others what you want done to you." Interestingly enough, most religions teach, "Don't do things to people that you don't want done to you." Jesus looks at the positive side of things. We try to do the same. We have a sermon coming soon about life. We'll be talking about the joy of life and value of life. We'll spend 30 minutes talking about it and watching interviews and never once use the word, "abortion." People will get the message.

The term evangelism means good news. Most of us have heard that before, but we need to be reminded that we're bringing people some amazing hope, not eternal judgement. That's what Connections is called to do. If you're around this weekend, we'd love for you to join us. We'll be looking at how these philosophies practically play out at CX. If you can't make it in person, we're live online at 10:30 (another easy way for people to hear about Jesus). Just go to our website and jack in!

Cheeseburgers and Christianity

Let's say you're going to start a new church and right before you launch you're given a choice about the future of your church. You can choose one of the following, and only one.
1. Your church is going to make lots of money.
2. Your church is going to be HUGE! So many people you won't know what to do.
3. Your church is going to impact a ton of lives. Everyone will know what you're about.

Which do you choose? Obviously you want all three. Money supports missionaries, people do more ministry and reaching people is what we're all called to do. But if only one...?

We don't have the first two at CX. At least not yet anyway. Maybe one day we will, maybe not, but that shouldn't keep us from number 3. We can do great things with what we have.

This weekend we took over a couple of fast food restaurants, a Jack in the Box and a Burger King down the street. For a few hours we paid for all the meals that came through the line. The cashier would say the total, "That'll be 13.24." and we held out the money and paid. The results were very positive. It's amazing how few people complain about churches when you're buying their lunch. I wish we could do it every weekend. It was a minimal investment and made a great impact.

Lately it's been my goal to try and turn the tide on the reputation of Christians. Let's be honest, right now we're mostly known for hating gays and being hypocritcal. The only way we're going to overcome that is to start loving people and being generous. People in our cities need to see us investing our time and money in the community around us. They need to see us give selflessly without a I'll-scratch-your-back-you-scratch-mine mentality.

I'm proud of the church I serve with. This summer, we're doing/did free guitar lessons for a week, 2 BBQ's in the park, fixing up housing in the neighborhood behind our church, buying lunches, hosting video game nights and a few other little things. I'm praying that some of the people we hit will get hit twice and realize what we're really about. And maybe we can change a few minds and eventually a few hearts!

Baptisms

Honored today to baptize 6 people. 6 different individuals from 7 to 33 took the plunge and let the whole world know they were followers of Jesus. How amazing is that!

God is moving right now through Connections. This isn't something I'm feeling; it's something I'm hearing about and seeing with my own eyes. I want to overemphasize this point. I'm in no way saying that I feel God stirring in my soul. Nor am I saying that "Great things are about to happen." What I'm saying is that lives are being changed and I'm seeing it with my eyes. What I'm saying is little revivals are happening in homes around Meridian. What I'm saying is that people are changing their habits and chasing after God. I'm honored to be a spectator and see what God is doing!

Last weekend we had a men's retreat. 12 of us invested 48 hours to see if God had something to say. Ended up He did. I believe for many of us, God has left a couple of voice mails on our hearts. And when we're quiet and listen, we can hear what he's trying to say. I was so proud of our men. We had some real heart to heart stuff happening. Guys sharing stuff that "They've never told anyone." Small groups praying together. Grown men crying (I can only confirm that with my group). God was peeling away layers and sometimes years of hurt and confusion. It was an amazing time! I can say that a number of men left the mountain top changed.

I should mention this too. It wasn't all emo. We also shot zombies, played golf, grilled burgers and did the other typical guy stuff. Favorite moment: We packed 7 full sized guys in a hot tub. I was the fifth guy in and it was already spilling over the top before I added my 270lbs. When we all got out, the water level resembled more of a wading pool and less of a hot tub. Good times.

That was last weekend. This weekend, we did baptisms. I'll be posting the videos a little later, on our youtube channel (youtube.com/connectionvids) but I was proud of our guys sharing their hearts. Being vulnerable is not something very many of us are good at. The world has taught us to build our defenses and not to let anyone in. We had 5 guys get baptized. At the end of service, I offered to baptize anyone who wanted in. No one responded (which is typical). After service, a fellow "Connector" asked if she could be baptized. I asked permission to invite everyone to sit back down and watch. She was courageous and agreed! A few people had slipped out, but 90% found a chair and we baptized one more! Jeans and all! Another revival in another heart!

God is moving. Sometimes I feel it, sometimes it's just happening. I really don't care which way it shakes down. It just feels good to be in a community where people I know and love are changing. I want in! I'm praying God continues to move in the Taylor household too. I want more God! I want more Holy Spirit moments. I want more Jesus singing in my heart all day long!

"GOD! Bring us more of these little revivals! May they stir into something great, something bigger than all of us! May You rise up in this generation, in this time! I AM LISTENING!"

God Made Yellow

This week I prepared and preached a sermon about how powerful God is. And, as we all know, He is bigger, stronger, and more awesome(r) than all of us put together. There's really no adequate analogy sizing up big God to little us. In fact, we probably shouldn't even attempt to compare the two.

God's power is not just greater than ours in value, but it's conceptually different. In order to understand this, we must first grasp our own view of power. In our world, we view power as more money or success. It means that I can do whatever I want. I can boss other people around. That's power! It means that I have riches and entitlements that most others don't have. It means you have to respect me because my bank statement has a few more numbers than yours. That's power, worldly power. "Look at what I can do! I'm building my own mansion! In fact, I'm buying my own island and designing it exactly like I want. I'm putting waterfalls in the bedrooms and jumbotrons in the living rooms. I'm hiring servants and workers and personal assistants. I can do whatever I want, because I'M ALL POWERFUL!" This is the world's view of power. It's selfish, mostly sinful and very human.

Some religions even take this to the next level. They say after you leave this planet that you will gain amazing power. You can even have your own planet or kingdom. You can have 21 virgins that you lord over. Some even teach that if you handle things right you can become a god. A god that is equal to the I AM, God. That's real power.

These are all great for daydreaming. It's fun to think about designing a castle or a company or pretty much anything just the way you want. And, that would be alot of power. But does that compare to the power of God.

No it doesn't. His ways are different than ours.

I've summed up how God's power is different in three words. I'm warning you, it will seem a little odd at first, but keep reading. Eventually it will sink in. Here comes the three words . . .

God made yellow.

Kinda odd right? How is making yellow power? Well, here's the thing, He didn't find a rainbow and pull yellow out of it. Nor did He pick up a banana and say, "We will call this, yellow." Nope, He made yellow from scratch. It didn't exist and then suddenly it was there. Then he probably made red then blue. He created the very concept of visual attributes. That is power! Creating the idea of colors! Who can do that? Do you have that sort of power? What color is your planet going to be? Green and Blue? Can't have those, God made those colors. If you're going to be all powerful, go make your own colors.

God also made the distance between two actions. The space between two moments. We call this time. God created time. It didn't exist and then it did. God lived outside of time. Like existing in a time machine that is stuck in one moment, God just was. Then, He kickstarted some universal clock and everything changed. Now we have minutes and hours and days and decades. Who else can create time? Can you do that? When you design your universe, will there be day and night and stars and moons and suns? Don't plagiarize God. If you are going to be just as powerful, make up your own . . . whatevers.

God also gave us feeling. He made things like laughter and love. He gave us compassion and desires. Let me give you a quick story.

This week, my wife and my boys came up to Connections to help us build a few things (we're currently in expansion mode). While we were working my three year old got 5 cups, filled them each with water and put a straw in every one of them. Then he put them all in a nice row on a table away from the ladders and pieces of broken drop ceiling. Then, he called us over to take a break from our laboring. I was so impressed! The cups were organized in a row and after I finished mine, he took it from my hand and asked if I wanted more! I stood staring at my curly haired young man and a mixture of emotions overcame me. I was proud of this little Taylor. There was a feeling of respect and love and excitement and probably a dozen other things in me. These are feelings that God made up for us. He designed us to feel all these things! Amazing!

Our power on the other hand is so limited. I consider myself a creative. I love to write music, paint pictures, edit videos and type blogs. But even on my brightest, most creative days; even with an unlimited budget and dozens of people to boss around; even with unparalleled inspiration, grandiose visions and detailed followthrough, I'm not really doing anything new. I'm just reorganizing what God has given us. I'm stealing his colors and notes and his words. I'm robbing the shapes and textures that He himself spoke into being. I'm simply putting them in a different order. It may be a new order for us, but rest assured, I'm just playing in the sandbox that God constructed. In the words of Carl Sagan, "If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe."

I'm no where close to being a god, much less God. And I never will be. His power is not only greater, but fundamentally different than mine. His simple concepts dwarf my greatest creativity (like South America dwarfs a gnat). His ways are higher than my ways. And now, it makes all the more sense why the angels spend all their time hovering around God saying, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty."

God made yellow. It's pretty amazing. It has changed my view of God. Before I used to tell God what to do. I had all the answers and He just needed to answer my requests. Now, I'm changing. Now I'm doing my best to answer His. And it's all because He made yellow. Honestly, I'm not really fond of the color, but I do like green and you can't get there without yellow.

postscript: this was written to go with the sermon. Just some more rearranging.

Latest On The Building . . .

We've signed the papers to expand our current storefront. We're going from 2800 s/f to over 4000. This is significant for us. I've been working with an architect to get the most milage out of a relatively small amount of space. Here are the latest plans. We're meeting again tomorrow to see if we can get a few more things squeezed in. Specifically, we need another stall in the ladies restroom and might shift some space out of the lobby and into the classrooms. Whatever we end up doing, this will be a huge shift forward for the way we worship and the way we work with kids!

Resources

Last week I had the privilege of sharing the stage with Alan Bradshaw as we unfolded both the logical and emotional reasons for belief in a Creator. There are some great resources out there to further your study on this and/or help you present to your kids the side they probably will not hear in their secular schools. Check these out. The more you know, the more it just makes sense to believe.

Institution of Creation Research  (Check out their video on Mt. St. Helens!)

'What Really Happened to the Dinosaurs?'

Creatures that Defy Evolution dvd series.  (These are available on netflix instant watch - possibly hulu too) 

Moody Bible Institute (These guys have great science videos) 

The Truth Project (put out by Focus on the Family)  

'Inherently Wind, A Hollywood History of the Scopes Trial'

'Mysteries of Creation' - super book

'Yellow and Pink' - another great book by William Steig (Shrek author)

www.answersingenesis.org

Dinosaurs & Dragon Legends (A Creation Museum Collection)

The Great Dinosaur Mystery and the Bible - Paul S. Taylor

Being

"Being" can mean a state of simply existing... or it can mean "to happen." There are many opportunities in life for us to simply exist, but to happen, to be an event, well, that takes intentional action.

This last week, as a team, Connections decided to happen. We put out feelers and found places to serve in our community. We put feet on faith, to show our community and our God, that we mean what we say.

And it was, amazing! There is something so powerful when we don't just talk about what God has said, but we actually follow through and live it out. Even if no one knows who served them, even if Connections never gets the credit (which we were not seeking), I believe we are changed, and pulled closer to God's heart.

Honestly, going in, I was not sure how it would go. I had talked to some other church planters who had tried this. They said the percentage of people who show up to serve is often small. "You'll see the faithful, the core," they said. I wasn't sure what to expect.

But once again, I was humbled and blown away by our team! Our people showed up! We had more people yesterday morning that we did the Sunday before. We spent the morning with tools, sweating together to serve neighborhoods in Meridian. We mowed, weed whacked, picked up trash, cut down dead trees and had a blast doing it!

Paul's words come to mind, "In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel, from the first day until now." Philippians 1:4-5. I am blown away to be part of a team that gets it. And I know, if we keep our hearts here, humble before God and really WILLING to do what He says, we will rock the treasure valley, and be a tool of change for Jesus Christ!

Bringing In and Sending Out

Every week there are new people checking out CX. I'm so proud of our people because they keep inviting. I hope we're always that church that's easy to invite to. As a church planter, when you first get started, everyone is connected to you in some way. Our first Bible study was my neighbors, some friends from Sacramento and a guy who helped me move in. And while I still invite, it's the collective community that's the growth force. God continues to bring us lost people (which I love) and strong leaders too (which we've been praying for). I talked with one of our new patriarchs the other day after CX and he mentioned that he'd basically given up on church. This is a rock solid, Bible believing Christian, but he was tired of the mess. We have a few families that have recently connected with us that have been so deeply hurt by the church in the past that I can tell they are constantly guarding themselves. They don't know it yet, but CX is a safe harbor. It'll just take me some time to prove it to them. I try so hard to keep us from becoming a political, messy, complicated church. I know, that somewhere down the road we'll have some issues. My head isn't in the sand. But, when that day comes, I hope we handle it in the light. I hope we apologize honestly for where we screwed up and I hope the offended party (or parties) gives us the same grace that we extend to our people! Sometimes messes end up doing great ministry. It's all about how we handle them!

That was a bit of rant! Thanks for hanging in there.

So we have lots of new people and we continue to grow. But we recently lost an AWESOME couple. Jeremy and Lisa Wight accepted a call from GOD to pack up and move to Thailand. They literally sold everything but about 9 suitcases worth of stuff and headed to the other side of the world. They have their visas for the first year and they're trusting God to keep things going after that. Jeremy and I have become really great friends over the last year or so and this week I have missed him greatly. Although he did great ministry with us, overseeing small groups and preaching fairly often, it's the late night brain storming sessions and Tuesday morning prayers that I will miss the most. Luckily we live in a connected world and we can still chat often. CX is supporting Jeremy and Lisa's new ministry and we're stoked to skype them in once a quarter or so for our people to hear how their doing. I want everyone at CX to know who they are, to know what their doing and to see how their prayers are making a difference. It's one thing to put a check in the bucket at church, it's another thing to put it in there knowing it's going to serious missions ministry. It just makes it that much more joyful! BTW you can watch his vid, give and keep up with Jeremy at http://www.m300ministries.org/thailand_jeremywight

Keep them in your prayers!

We hate losing people at CX, but if it's to go spread the gospel to a country that's only 1% Christian, then we'll do our best to get by without them!

This week at CX we're talking about all our summer outreach events, the reorganization of our small groups and what it's going to take for us to grow forward! We'd love to have you join us.

This Weekend . . .

I gotta tell ya, I'm stoked about this weekend. Our worship leader is out of town (not why I'm stoked) so I get to saddle up behind a guitar again. It's been a while since I got to lead our people in worship and I miss it greatly. We had practice last night with the team and of the 8 of us scheduled for worship, 3 were first timers on stage! I love that. As we continue to grow, we continue get more people on the stage.

There's more great things happening around here. We got a call from the property owner this last week and he wanted to know if we wanted more space? The facility we're in has 6 bays and only three are being used (we have 2 and one other tenant has 1). For us to double our space would open up many new possibilities. The biggest win would be for our children's ministry. As of now we have 2 classrooms that are adjacent to the worship center. Our workers are having to keep the kids quiet, or at least try, while we're having service. Maybe you already know this, but kids weren't made to be quiet. But honestly, they don't bother us as much as we probably bother them. Our worship is fairly loud, so when we're singing, they are too!

Tonight we're doing a BBQ in the park. We have three of them scheduled for the summer. According to accuweather, there's a chance of rain later today. That's a huge improvement from the forecast yesterday. They were saying thunderstorms. I've been praying that we'll meet a couple new families tonight and our chances are much greater without the rain!

If you're in Boise and happen upon this blog, join us tonite at Settler's Park. Free food and live music starting around 5:30. We'd love to see you there!

Quick Update

Sunday morning has been a huge success. Everyone said it would be and they were right. We have visitors every week and people seem to be sticking. This week is Mother's day. It's typically the 2nd highest attended weekend of the year. We're also doing child dedications and a number of families are coming to watch their grandkid, niece, or nephew be dedicated. We're expecting standing room only.

Next week we're adding another service. We're bringing our Saturday night back in full force. We'll be meeting at 6 on Saturday nights and keeping our 10:30 on Sunday mornings. Pray for us. The extra service puts a strain on our children's workers and worship team. And for those praying for our finances, it's working. We continue to have just enough for everything we need. Thanks for your prayers!!!

How Great is Our God! ("!" not "?")

Things have been speeding up lately at Connections. Let me give you the last month or so . . .

Our first set of baptisms took place a few weeks ago. We had 4 people get baptized and share their testimonies on video. God moved.

Two weeks ago we celebrated our first year at Connections. Over the last 12 months we've given away food, free gift wrapping, coffee at a busy stop light, money on a street corner and a slew of things on a one on one basis. We've had dramas and illustrations and have edited more video footage than you could watch in a full day. We've seen marriages saved and addictions broken. Amazing how much God has used a little church with less than a hundred people and no budget. We are willing God. Let's go crazy for year two!

Last week we encouraged our people to invite their friends and family and we laid out the gospel in a crystal clear fashion. We had four people raise their hands at the end to accept Christ. Wow God!

Here's what is happening next. . . We made a call about an open facility on fairview ave. It's one of the major roads in the town we live in. We couldn't afford it, but since it was empty, we thought we'd give it a shot. We offered them what we could afford if they would let us use it 24 hours a week, from Saturday at 1 to Sunday at 1. They countered back and said we could occupy it full time and they would keep the rent at what we could afford. WHAT??? OK, I guess we can handle that. So, at the end of this month, we're moving into our first full time building. Now, honestly, it's pretty small. 2 classrooms, one restroom (ouch) and a good sized room for our service. All in all about 2500sf. We're viewing this like our first little apartment. It's a great place to grow and would allow us to have 2-3 services a week and possibly reach the 4-500 number before we need to move on. And, like I said earlier, we are in a GREAT location! This alone is a huge blessing and we'll be in by Easter! You're amazing God!!!

Here's where I need your help. We have so much stuff ready to go. Since we're a portable church, we already have a sound system and all the childrens stuff we need to get started. What we don't have is tables and chairs. We're going to need 75 chairs and 10 tables (to start). If we buy new, we're looking at 4-5k. We're also going to need an additional projector and screen. Another few thousand dollars. All in all we're going to need around 10-12k. That's minimum. They'll probably be more we need once we get started. Pray with me that we can make this happen. It seems impossible. But, so does a 2500sf facility on Fairview Ave for about what we're paying now. Show up again God! I have zero doubts!

4 baptisms. 4 Salvations. 12 months of amazing ministry. New Facility. Easter is Coming. We're no longer standing in line . . . the roller coaster has officially begun!

Baptisms!

We celebrated our first set of baptisms on Saturday night! It was incredible. We had what looked like record attendance (although we rarely count) and the energy was crazy great. We put all the videos up online (with the permission of those who were baptized). Take a few minutes and watch these. Amazing!!!

The Power of Positivity

Positivity?! I guess that's a word since the little guy inside my computer didn't underline it in red. I ran into this video today and thought I'd share it with you. It's Steve Jobs from apple introducing the iPad. Someone edited it down to about 3 minutes but kept all the positive things that were said during the presentation. Check it out.

Jeremiah 17

I read something in my daily devotions today that was really good. I thought I'd toss it your way. This comes from Jeremiah 17. 5-8 (the message).

"Cursed is the strong one
who depends on mere humans,
Who thinks he can make it on muscle alone
and sets God aside as dead weight.
He's like a tumbleweed on the prairie,
out of touch with the good earth.
He lives rootless and aimless
in a land where nothing grows.

"But blessed is the man who trusts me, God,
the woman who sticks with God.
They're like trees replanted in Eden,
putting down roots near the rivers—
Never a worry through the hottest of summers,
never dropping a leaf,
Serene and calm through droughts,

bearing fresh fruit every season.

This passage seems pretty clear at first. Who are you depending on? Do you trust in your friends, family and other people? Maybe you trust in yourself, "muscle alone." Or, do you trust in God. Is He your source. Now we all say we trust in God. We say that because we're suppose to say that. Plus it sounds pretty arrogant to say we trust in ourselves. And maybe some of us do trust in God, but trusting in God is pretty easy when YOU have everything in control.

My middle child Drae likes to play around with gadgety stuff (where'd he get that?). If it's expensive and has a remote control, he want to open it, close it, turn it off, on, switch the channel, you name it. I will actually hand him the controls sometimes and let him play with it. I'm good with this as long as I'm standing right behind him. It's like I trust him, as long as I am really in control. Is that really trust? Maybe a little but it's not complete trust.

I think the same is true with God. When the bills are getting paid and kids are healthy and I have a good handle on my life, without a doubt I trust him. But, do we trust him when the chips are down or do we jump in and fix it our own way. I know what I do and it's usually something like, "OK God, how should I handle this? Well, I'm going to do it this way, stop me if you don't like it." I'm kinda half trusting and half in control. And what good is that? When you got two Chef's in the kitchen you end up with sushi and fritos. Not a good combination (at least it sounds gross, anyone want to do an experiment?).

What's the solution? Here's the part that is hidden in there a bit. I don't think the solution is just giving God what you already control, I mean, we should do that, but it's not that difficult. The true test of faith is doing something so big that only God could do it. Then and only then will you find yourself trusting Him. I mean, you'll have to, you can't do it on your own!

So what kind of God sized goals do you have in life? Missions work? Adopting kids? Writing a book. Starting a church? Whatever, just dive in. Start today. If God's behind it, He'll honor it, He'll help you through it. So find something worth doing with your life and bite off just a little more than you can chew. Then chew it!

Hey Team,

I trust everyone had a great Thanksgiving Day! Tam and I had a great time entertaining some family and some fellow Connectors. Toss in some pecan pie (my favorite) and it as a great day!

Two quick things I wanted to toss your way. First of all, things at Connections have been really good. We had four people raise their hands to ask Jesus in their lives this last Saturday. To be honest (which means not being deceptive) I know at least one of them well enough to know that they have had a relationship with Jesus in the past, but I'm stoked their getting their life right. God is good and He is still moving. We have such a great team at Connections, our band is INCREDIBLE, our children's ministry is awesome (thanks to a 5-1 teacher ratio, one of the great advantages of a new church plant), we have two other established, successful pastors that attend and speak and almost every person at Connections has a small group they attend at least monthly. Amazing! Still, there's more to do. Here's what we could use prayer for:

1. MORE PEOPLE! I have this visual image of Connections being a small house built on a huge foundation. We've got everything in order to build a big house, now it's just inviting and loving people. Pray that our people have the courage to invite and that the invites are accepted. 2. Pray for our finances. We've had some unexpected support checks lately that have come right on time. God continues to be faithful. Another note of praise, I sold a house this week (I have a real estate license here) and it allowed the Taylor's to get caught up on some bills. He's always right on time!!!

The second thing I wanted to tell you about is a new promotion we're doing called, "I'm Not A Number." This is some of the stories from people who've gotten involved with Connections. We opened the door to anyone who wanted to share their stories. We're hoping to take over CraigsList with written testimonies and links to a bunch more on youtube and our own website. The goal is for more people to notice and check out Connections. We're launching this later this week or early next week. It's going to be a huge win. I'm including one of the stories. It's from the Emerson's. They are my neighbors from down the street and joined us when we were still meeting in our home. They've been a huge asset to Connections. They volunteer for just about everything. I can say without hesitation, CX wouldn't be the same without them!

Thanks for your prayers and support. I truly believe the cement is drying on this massive foundation and we're ready for the next level! To God be the glory.

Full Confidence . . .

Do you have full confidence in God? I mean, do you believe with every fiber of your being that he's going to do what he promises? A couple of days ago in Bible time I read the, "Do not worry" passage in Matthew. As I was reading it, I asked myself if I really believed it. Do I believe whole heartedly that God is going to take care of me and my family the same way he takes care of the flowers in the field. And my answer . . . YES!!!

I do believe it. I believe it for two reasons. The first one is He said he would. That should be enough, but there's more. The second reason I believe it is because of God's history. Not His global history, but His history in the Taylor Family and in my life. God has always showed up, always right on time. I want to tell you about how faithful God has been over the summer. I think you'll be amazed!

For those of you not familiar with Connections, let me give you a couple of quick facts. We're a new church, less than a year old, reaching prechristians and young families. We're still under 100 people (but growing). I have a couple of side jobs that I do now and then when I can get the work, but mostly I put all my time in making Connections go. Financially things have been a challenge, as they are with any non-profit in this economy. But the fact that most of our people are college aged or unsaved makes it even a bit more challenging. Still God has been faithful. Here are the last few months and what God has done to save the day.

At the beginning of the summer, we needed money to pay all our bills at the beginning of the month. We prayed and God showed up in the mail. We got a 600 dollar check from our escrow account. We're still not sure if they miscalculated something (we bought this house when we moved here about a year ago), or if it has to do with a change on our mortgage insurance, but either way, we needed it.

Fast forward 30 days, same situation, just a little worse. Tammi came in and sat down with me to talk finances. "Here are our options. We can take a partial paycheck and pay the mortgage or we can take no paycheck and pay the rent for the church. What do you want to do? Oh and we need to pay our worship leader and children's worker too." As a man, that's tough, I mean, that's my main gig, providing for my family. Even more than starting a church and loving on people, I'm commanded to take care of the Taylor clan. Tam and I prayed together and the next day, in the mail box we got a support check for 1200 bucks. How amazing is that!!! We didn't ask for it, we didn't even make the need known, it just showed up.

Thirty days later, same song, third verse. This time it was a check for 1000 dollars for some work I hadn't even done yet. The original agreement was that I'd get paid after all the editing was finished. We were still a month out from even doing the shooting, much less all the editing, but I was holding in my hand a 1000 dollar check. The guy who sent it had no idea he answered our prayers.

Number 4. Probably my favorite story (that's happened so far). I'm sitting in a parking lot waiting for a lady 4 spaces up to back out so I could park as close as possible to the front door. While I was waiting, I noticed the car directly to my left was also backing out towards me. "Surely she'll see me!" I thought. I tapped on the horn a couple of times then laid on the horn as hard as I could (as if that would make it louder). I actually broke the plastic piece that activates the horn. My horn didn't stop her, but my driver side door did. She apologized and admitted it was completely her fault. My car left an imprint in her plastic bumper, "Reatta" (only backwards of course). Lucky for her it was a loaner car, hers was being fixed. The Reatta took a good sized dent up by the front wheel well. When the insurance company called me to talk about a fix they said I could just keep the money if I wanted or I could have it fixed, either way it was up to me. I still have the dent, and my house. Another mortgage miracle. I love my car (it turns 20 in January), I'm bummed it's got a dent in it, but I'm thinking about keeping it just as a great story of God's faithfulness. He always shows up.

Last month I felt God calling me to sell some things to make things go and I was faithful to that. I understand completely that God calls us to do our part too. We have to be men and woman willing to give it all up for him. We can't just stand there with our hands out all the time.

All in all the last 4-5 months have been amazing. To me it's just more proof that God is behind the ministry we're doing here. And I know he'll continue to be faithful because he has always been faithful, he has always provided.

Let me close with another verse I ran into recently. It's in the book of 1 John, chapter 3 starting in verse 21, "Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him." IF our hearts do not condemn us . . . in other words, if we are clean before God, no unconfessed sin, no baggage that we're carrying around, then we have full confidence in God! He will do what we ask, He will help us accomplish His will on this earth, He will help grow Connections and continue to provide for the Taylor family. I believe this with every fiber of my being! I have FULL CONFIDENCE!!!!

The Full Video

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Opening Sequence

We've posted an opening sequence of the short we're producing. It's about all the junk we carry around in our lives. It's two minutes long. Then hit comment and help me come up with a good name for the video. We don't have on yet!

Quick Update

Things at Connections are incredible. We've aimed for and envisioned this community of young believers where we can gather together to Connect with God and with each other. Also, and this is key to our energy, we want a place where everyone enjoys themselves on Saturday night. We want to see smiles and hear laughs.

I believe we have it.

We had a ton of visitors this last week. I sent emails out to most of them and I got this response back . . .

"Dude, I think I'm hooked! You have a very infectious group. (I've tried other churches but) you guys have a much different energy. It probably has to do with the younger ages of people with Connections, and that helped me "connect" with the others. Nothing against the other group, but you need to find the right fit." -The parenthesis are my paraphrase.

So good! I'm proud of our teams and our families for creating an encouraging atmosphere. All we need now is a few hundred more people!

This Saturday night we're talking about our callings. Next Saturday is our fall kick off. Complete with music, videos, some preaching and a BBQ. It will be a great time!