Synergy faith

Ahhhhh another great day to be alive......I can almost promise you that not all of my posts will find me in such high spirits...but for now I am so yay me! So we took the youth to the lake today and had a BLAST. Even having grown up around the water and having been there a hundred times before...I don;t think Ive ever seen lake martin so beautiful. Anyway the Lord used a 67%wedgie and a double "backflip" into nakedness to show me something. I was really hoping to kneeboard and wakeboard today but of course the kids mostly wanted to tube....it was kind of a battle getting over myself and the fun I wanted to have on the lake but by noon everything had settled itself in me and I realized its not about me its about the youth!!! So I get my chance to go tubing atleast and Jeremy and Lanning and Jake and some others and I get out on thewater. Well...I'm no stranger to the tube. I know how it works I know how to stay in as well as the next guy. However, when Jeremy and I were the 2 on the tubes...Steve put us through the watery version of Sheol. We started out rough and both of us took our falls. As the abyss called my name as I skimmed in the shape of polygons and cookie cutters heading straight for Davy Jones' locker I did what I knew to be instinct lean my weight back the opposite direction to keep myself upright right? Well when I thought more clearly I realized Jeremy was doing the same thing and leaning his weight toward me and my tube. When one of us would go through a wake wed get about 3 feet of air. However when both of us leaned in and our tubes met we got maybe 6 inches and were more firmly rooted together. HOW MUCH LIKE LIFE THIS IS! We are called to be in fellowship and learning with one another. Proverbs states that "As iron sharpens iron, one man must sharpen another." We are called into unity through Christ. There is a term called synergy that means that when things join together they become increasingly effective. For example if 2 people were to lift 100 pounds each and it was a strain...synergy says that if we join together the 2 people could easily lift MORE than 200 pounds together. We are more than twice as effective when we tackle the world together. The bible says where 2 or more are gathered in his name there shall he be also. That's why our theme for the summer is Unity at St.James. I encourage every one of you to sharpen one another lovingly. If I didn't have a group of coworkers and a pastor willing to call me out when I fell short...I wouldn't be effective in ministry. Let's be gathered in his name!!!!!
In the name of the father, son, and holy spirit...AMEN

2 dimensional worship

It has come to my attention throughout the years as I've worshiped different places that there are 2 different dimensions to worship. One can have what is called "Pure worship", and one can have what I refer to as "stale worship". Firstly we will address the idea of the meaning of worship and then we will tackle stale and pure worship respectively. As I have come to understand it, the term worship is defined as "A reaction to an encounter with God". This directly correlates worship with God or at least with what we consider to be our "god". Now that we've defined worship let's put some superlatives on it and tackle stale and pure aspects of it. The term stale, we usually associate with a food item like ...potato chips for example. They are great while they are in their environment or fresh into the oxygen. However, once they have spent a while "out in the world" they become s accustomed to where they are...they lose their freshness. Speaking from the sense of corporate (usually musical) worship, stale worship I consider to be those times when we have become soooo accustomed to the world that we get stale...we lose our freshness and our vigor. Our desire and pull to lift high the cross and pour out ourselves to Christ becomes nothing more than conforming to what others around us are doing. We lift our hands cause thats what mama did in church when we were kids and we close our eyes because we want others to feel like we are "in on it" too. If we were to be honest with ourselves...we just get STALE sometimes. Pure worship is the complete opposite. I consider it pure worship obviously when we worship with our everything for no other reason than to glorify Jesus Christ and make his name known like a banner hanging over us. The opposite of the conforming we do in our staleness is to experience 1 on 1 encounters with God as a sort of "spiritual tunnel vision" for lack of a better term. Big Daddy Weave wrote a song I LOVE called Audience of One. What a great concept. Much like you can be in a secluded place and feel like you are being watched from everywhere, you can stand amid thousands and thousands of people and be experiencing "pure worship" with the father, and it will feel like you are simply an audience of one. THAT is what we should be aiming for EVERY time we worship. In the name of the father, son, and holy spirit...AMEN

Brandon 101

Let's start with the important details and digress from there. I LOVE Jesus. He is suchhhh a redeemer in ways none other can be and he IS my everything. I believe my existence is meant to be spent worshiping God and helping youth open their hearts to worship him as well. I go to Huntingdon College in Montgomery Alabama which is a small(1000 students) United Methodist College where I play Tennis and soccer and am active of course in all the campus ministries. I play guitar and write worship music and love the outdoors and the arts. I love to read, I love to read, I love to read. I am majoring in Christian Education and Youth Ministry with a concentration in Adolescent Psychology and Interpersonal Communications. I was born in San Antonio, Texas and Hail from Enterprise Alabama where I was mostly raised. I love absolutely all country music with a passion but dedicate myself and my guitars only to the music of Christ's worship. My goal for my life is to be an ordained youth pastor with less of a focus on church and religion and more of a focus on Knowing God and making him known in all the Earth! I am also a huge fan of Old Testament theology and research, archeology, and sacred theology so feel free to ask any questions or let's go exploring together.