Sedona was well worth the trip…




Last night we left Austin and hit the road…I was behind the wheel and I just didn’t get tired…SO I DROVE THROUGH THE WHOLE NIGHT AND DIDN’T STOP DRIVING UNTIL WE GOT TO SEDONA! 17 hours baby!




Yeah I’m crazy I know, I haven’t taken a nap or anything like that yet either, when we got in, we went straight to what was suppose to be a surprise for them. I had to break the news to them the other day because they couldn’t really figure out why I was so dead set on leaving Austin Thursday night when we didn’t have to be at Saddleback until Saturday afternoon at 4:30.

So anyway I bought us a JEEP TOUR IN THE CANYONS AND RED ROCK OF SEDONA!!!! Not just any Jeep Tour, this was the “Pink Jeep Tour”…all the jeeps were pink and decked out with off road suspension, tires, and extra seating.



We got on some killer inclines, crazy angles, boulders, roots, and any other obstacles that were available to be driving on, or over!!!! At one point we were almost completely vertical facing forward and the only thing holding you in your seat half the time was the seatbelt that just kept getting tighter and tighter around the old waistline.




Our tour guides name was Chris and he made it really fun…and of course with us three, who WOULDN’T have fun!

We had a great time, we filmed some more video so that’ll be rolling out next week on the blog. Other than that today was just driving and hanging out. We walked around a bunch of different shops, I bought some sun glasses, Jeff bought some sun glasses, I bought my brother some souvenirs, and we just chilled out.

O AND I DON’T WANT TO FORGET….WE FOUND TOM TODAY! Tom Foolery has been on our trip since we left Granger, but we finally found a little guy who we named Tom…It’s quite funny and I know you’ll all be like…”what? why’d you pick him”….no comment…it’s funny though.

What I thought about today:

1. I love driving more than I thought…17 hours with a few gas stops in between and I was feeling fine! As long as I got some good music I’m good.
2. I love elevation changes…viewing different vantage points really helps me stay sane.
3. I have an awesome jeep that I need to use for more leisure touring. I might have to move to Sedona where all the jeep trails are free and open to the public………(long awkward pause)……..nah I love GCC!
4. I really enjoy being outside (I already knew this about myself but it was fun to be outside again since Granger was 25 when we left.)
5. I love wearing shorts and T-Shirt
6. God has made some pretty sweet landscape that’s fun to ride through and photograph. (Not just Sedona but all the way over from Austin)
7. There REALLY IS nothing in West Texas except El Paso.
8. If you’re thinking about crossing the border illegally…don’t, they have four wheelers and patty wagons ready to getcha! (In the middle of the night when I was arriving in El Paso, I saw 3 big groups of immigrants being put into patty wagons and there was no vehicle aren’t except the Police vehicles…so I’m assuming they were on foot. For those geographically challenged, El Paso is on the Border or Mexico and New Mexico.)
9. God has blessed me with so much, how can I turn that around and steward it well and BE A BLESSING to others….

Overall Great Day! Not much “work” but a good time with the team.





We ate at Steaks and Sticks tonight. The BLT (Bucket List Tour) Thumb rating:

John: four and a quarter

Jeff: 1 and half thumbs for the food, 5 and a half thumbs for the big screen tv’s

DC: 4 thumbs for me ( I love sweet potato fries and a good burger, cooked medium, with pepper jack cheese…they even gave me honey mustard dressing…I dipped my fries in it!)

We’re headed to Saddleback next and we’ll be hanging out with Josh and the rest of the team for HSM! I can’t wait!





Keep us in your prayers as we travel…thanks.

So to finish my notes from earlier about HSM…

After observing the 6:30 service at HSM tonight (Saturday night) I know why thousands of churches look to them for an example to follow.

Here’s a couple of things.

Things I loved:

• The hospitality! Saddleback knows how to make you feel at home! (much like The Mix did earlier in the week)
• I got a Josh Griffin. hug today and ummm I see why EVERYONE says this guy rocks…because he does.
• Seeing Doug Fields teach in person.
• Seeing the students fill the auditorium
• Chatting with one of their interns Allison. She does this, and this. She was super cool and all the students loved her…I saw her at least give 10-15 hugs.
• Josh’s recap of the series at the beginning of the program night.
• Chatting with one of the volunteers named Chip after the program.

Things that inspired me:

• The 9th grade band…(I love seeing students involved and on the stage and knowing the steps we’re taking in that direction makes
• Seeing Josh interact with all the students. He was all over the room sharing high fives and hugs with everyone…my kind of guy!
• Doug’s Message. It hit down deep AND he’s a master story teller.
• Seeing all the available resources in the room for students. (devo’s, handouts, notes, etc.)
• Hearing about their small group structure and that they have more students in small groups than they do in their weekly big group gathering.
• Hearing about “Fuel” coming up! “Fuel” is their night of worship.
• Seeing how many people LOVE Josh! They really have his back!

After tonight we ate at “The Hat” per Josh’s suggestion:

The boys are sleep but my BLT Thumb Rating: is 5 Thumbs!

Bedtime, i’ll upload the pics tomorrow and after being here for a full day, we may stay in Southern California for another couple of days then start heading back to GCC.

I’m sitting in HSM out at Saddleback listening to Josh Griffin & Doug Fields teach right now…umm glorious day! They are an awesome tag team!

I’m REALLY loving our time at HSM tonight! Not only is Josh extremely awesome, but they have an awesome weekend program. We didn’t get a chance to see their small groups, but I’m currently still sitting in the service…

Doug Fields is rocking the house with his message…His mixture of in your face questions, sincere heart, and outstanding ability to communicate is making the message time of the night really touching.

GREAT MOMENT: Doug got one of the volunteers a Signed Football and Signed Book from Tony Dungy and presented it to Rob the Volunteer during the 6:30 HSM service…Rob was one of the Colts biggest fans! …in So Cal…

O boy, my battery is going dead and my charger is in the car…gotta go… I’ll finish my thoughts later…

We had a chance to eat with my family on “The BLT”. This was one of my favorite times of the trip.

Here are some of the pics from Austin…

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Wildside

We’re out at Saddleback hanging out today and tomorrow. Right now we’re at Wildside (Saddlebacks Middle School Ministry) and later on we’ll be in HSM (The High School Ministry)

Let’s just say that Josh Griffin is not only the bomb but he’s more hilarious than I expected. We feel so welcome here, i love it!

A couple things I picked up from Wildside (remember this is middle school):

• Keep the kids moving. They did a couple of games that involved getting students out of their
• It’s ok to split up worship (They did two different sets…one upbeat opener type set and an another one with two more worship songs.)
• Keep the message short and sweet! Bethany did an awesome job of connecting with the students through her message on “Bad Girls of the Bible”!
• They had students in their band which if you know me, makes me happy.
• They give the students handouts with the notes on it so the students can keep up during the message.
• They do C-Groups which I love.
• 
  

I’m being quick and fast because we’re getting ready to go head to HSM and I’m personally going to give Josh a hard time…I’m out!

Austin baby!!!

Last night after we left The Mix we came down to Austin and slept until about 11:30 this morning. THEN we got up, filled up our water tank at a gas station and went and met my parents and brother for some lunch.

I WAS SO GLAD TO SEE THEM BECAUSE I HAVEN’T SEEN THEN SINCE ABOUT 7 MONTHS AGO! It made my day to get to hang out with them for a little bit and on top of that John and Jeff got a chance to meet them.

We ate at Golden Corral…it was a little bit outside of the city and finding a parking spot was so much easier than trying to park a 30 ft. RV in downtown Austin!

Here’s the pic of all of us after we finished eating. (I would show pics but again, Blogger is being a boogerhead…I think I’m going to typepad REAL SOON if they don’t fix this…I love pics and I can’t use them…blah!)

Golden Corral was decent but really doesn’t deserve a Thumb Rating…so we’ll just we got full, had a great selection of food but hanging with the family made everything worth it!

We walked down sixth street for a while and took some pics, you’ll see them once they all get uploaded and converted. There were a ton of live bands playing, a serious mixture of different types of people, and a whole lot of Shenanigans, hahaha. (Shenanigans is our code word for foolishness, fun, or just plain old craziness!)

Here are pics from 6th Street in Downtown Austin, TX. (Just use your imagination or something…)

We’re currently in “Whole Foods Market” in downtown Austin right off sixth street getting some super fast wi-fi and enjoying a tasty smoothie! I got the “El conquistador” – orange, mango, coconut, other good stuff, and more good stuff! It’s quite the combo!

I LOOOOOVED seeing all the different types of people in Austin that are here for South By Southwest (SXSW) this awesome live music festival. They have roads blocked off down 6th street and people are here in full force. Bands, solo acts, Roadies, and many others partaking in the Shenanigans! Hahaha

I think John was a little thrown off by all the different types of people, Jeff seemed to be doing fine, and I was glad to get a breath of fresh culture. I haven’t a longing for all people to be able to co-exist together in some form or fashion and for this day in my life I’ve come really close to seeing it.

We seen everything from Rock stars, punk rockers, skaters, bikers, BMX-ers, photographers, gangsters, college athletes, rappers, business people, Jamaicans (actually I’m sitting next to some right now at Whole Foods Market)…we’ve seen emo crowds, scene kids, cowboys, R&B singers (at the end of my table), reggae artists, a banjo player, acoustic corner players, fiddle players….rich people, poor people, homeless people on corners while Porsche Carrera’s roll by….and the list could go on and on….AND THEY’RE ALL RIGHT HERE ON 6TH STREET IN AUSTIN!

So, it was nice for me to see and I really loved it. Pics to come…

Below are John’s thoughts on Austin:

Reflections on Austin

Today we had a chance to meet up with DC’s family and grab some lunch together! They are awesome! I love how much they strive to stay connected and a part of each other’s lives!

After that we took a chance to park here in Austin, Texas and spend some time walking around the downtown. They have a music festival going on right now on 6^th street called South By Southwest (SXSW) and there are a ton of bands playing in every club, bar and pub on the street. The roads are blocked off and there are people everywhere. There are also a lot of interesting people everywhere. The type of people that if you saw them back home at University Park Mall you might find yourself ducking in a store or walking on the other side of the hall to avoid. You know who I’m talking about. The piercings, the tattoos, the different clothing… I know I’ve found myself doing that at times before because they were so different or just plain weird and it was “easier” to act as if they weren’t really there because if I can’t see them, then they must not be there. Maybe it’s just me that’s done that? I don’t know why I was so afraid to walk by these people as if somehow making eye contact with them would instantly make me into “one of them”! It’s really quite silly when you look back on it!

The thing about 6^th street today though was that there was no store to duck into, no “other side” of the street to avoid interaction. The whole place was blocked off and there were interesting people everywhere. I was stuck! Stuck with the people around me and stuck with my own prejudices and judgments. Stuck with looking inside at the ugly mess inside myself that makes judgments about people because of the way they look. Stuck with the thought that I’m on staff at a church and I shouldn’t be judging people this way. And as I tried to sort it all out I found myself reflecting on the people here in Austin and remembering how much they matter. How much they matter to God. Which based on what we’ve been talking about in student ministries for the last year and a half means that they should matter to me as well. Because if I truly believe that I matter to God then I must believe that other people matter to God. Well I do believe that I matter to God and I do believe everyone that I crossed paths with today matters to God as well.

In coming to that realization I don’t think that my actions would have changed much today. I don’t think I would have found a bullhorn and gone walking around shouting out “You matter to me and to God!” I don’t think I would have gotten a bunch of tracts to handout to everyone amidst the flurry of band promos being passed out. I’m not sure that I would have acted any differently because I believe evangelism and missions are not to have a flashbang approach, but I do know that my heart would be different.

Isn’t it crazy how you can travel over a thousand miles only to have an up close encounter with yourself?

I love this tour.

The Mix @ Fellowship Church, Grapevine Campus!!!!




OOOO YEEEEAH! This place was awesome. From the time we set foot on campus at Fellowship we felt welcome (love that Southern Hospitality, I miss Texas and GCC)…anyway, we were greeted with open arms, wiling hearts, and extremely cool people who wanted to connect and exchange ideas, systems, and strategies! What more could we ask for…after all that is what this tour is about!

We hung out with Chris Prater, who’s their high school director, most of the day and had a blast! He wasn’t teaching tonight (Wednesday night) so he had the time to hang out with us, told us all about what they were doing, the transitions they went though and what their plans our for the future!





Big shout out to Chris Prater!!! I love what you’re doing man, I love your heart, I love the ministry you lead, thanks for being so gracious to myself and the team. Our similarities astound me, and to see two ministries MILES apart with the same heartbeat about students does my heart well. We were blessed by being able to hang out with you guys today. You’re knocking it out of the park man and your team is DYNAMITE…BUT if I learned anything about you and your staff it’s that you won’t settle, you’ll keep learning, fighting, scratching, and clawing to see what’s next for your ministry! We’ll be up at GCC doing the same!




Some initial thoughts and insights from The Mix @ Fellowship Church, Grapevine Campus:

1. I loved the “Campus Teams” that they do. They are the small groups that meet in homes throughout the area on Sunday Nights (their program is on Wednesday nights). The sweet things is that all the Campus Teams small group curriculum is what the Ed Young is teaching for the main services. All the resources for the small groups is provide to the students ministry team where they alter it for students and give it out!!! I LOVE THAT!
2. They had the most AWESOME student band I’ve seen around so far…not just on this tour, anywhere. They have students who do the whole thing, and they weren’t just performing they were leading worship (video clips to come later)….THIS MADE MY HEART BEAT FAST FOR WHERE WE’RE GOING IN OUR MINSITRY!
3. I loved that they had a couple of different people who make themselves available to help the students in the band learn to grow spiritually, get better as a musician, and TEACH them to lead worship. One of these people is a staffed position, one of them is a worship leader in the church.
4. Sweet overall facility. Great space! (side note: I’m becoming more found of the flexibility of having your own student ministry facility/space. I used to be indifferent, but I’m realizing the options to impact students go WAY up when you have a space that’s dedicated to your ministries or at least available to your ministries. It gives you the option to offer programs or Next Steps during the morning worship service as families come together and may free up other nights for other things. MY HEART: I DON’T WANT TO BUILD A BUILDING UNTIL I KNOW WE’LL USE ALL OF IT! We’re not ready for a building yet, but in the comings years we will be, I want to steward God’s resources well and it’s good to be at a place where I can say, we don’t just need a building for the sake of having one.
5. They had a ton parent involvement. Fellowship is in the Metro area so most people that go there drive a minimum of 15-20 minutes so they suggested to parents, instead of driving home THEN coming back, how about you just stay and help! Well parents have done just that and are VERY present in their ministry! Not all of them are hands on with students but they are helping students get connected.
6. They also have a volunteer team of parents and leaders who show up on Thursday afternoons do data entry and send info out to the students! LOVE IT!
7. They do a great job of Promoting forward! Keeping “the next thing” in their kinds mind.
8. 
   

THE ONE THING I LOVE ABOUT THEM: Their heart at The Mix is to train and equipping students to reach the lost. To Reach up, Reach in, Reach out.




Heart’s Eight! Is where we went for Lunch….YEEEEAAAAAHHH!!! (Good suggestion Chris)

DC: 5 Thumbs (Sliced sausage sandwich)

John: 4 and half Thumbs (Sliced brisket sandwich)

Jeff: 4 Thumbs (Half Chicken dipped in butter sauce)

(blogger is being weird so I can’t upload anymore pics right now)

Here’s some pics of the awesome facility at Oneighty at Church on the Move. There are a lot but they are pretty sweet.

“Suzie’s got an A-TI-TUDE!”

“Suzie Gellans”…who is she?

She’s the voice on our GPS. She got an attitude with Jeff today when he made a wrong turn..well a couple of them. She kept telling him to “make a legal u-turn” and we started laughing because she almost seemed disgruntled.

Jeff’s quote: “I remember Suzie Gellans when she was only five….look at her now. She’s been soured on life…to many wrong turns…she’s not taking her next steps, she’s pointing her feet in the wrong direction.”

So Suzie’s got an attitude…enough said.

Oneighty @ COTM:









We had a chance to go to Oneighty today down in Tulsa, Oklahoma (interesting city). We didn’t hang out with any of their team except Tori who was our “tour guide”/their intern/EXTREMELY NICE PERSON!




SHOUT OUT TO TORI VON LANKEN!!!!!!!

She gave us a killer tour of the facility and lets just say, it was a really nice “facility”! She answered all of our questions (we didn’t have too many) and gave us a download of the different spaces and what they were used for. She let us know about future expansion and changes in some areas! Did I mention she was really nice.




The Oneighty facility was built 5 years ago and it had this awesome fusion of demographic spaces laced with killer designs, colors, themes, and functionality.




“Demographic spaces”…scary term I know, here’s what I mean. They had different spaces for different demographic of students. Even if they didn’t mean to do it, I thought it was clever. Regardless how you look at it, different students hand out in different spaces. Here’s some examples:

• The video gamer area
• The Ipod and computer area
• The pool table room
• The water bar area (had other drinks too)
• The classic video arcade game section
• The break-dance/dance floor area with Live mixing by a Volunteer DJ and amphitheater seating.
• The basketball court area they was also used for other games
• The Café area




It’s been my experience that different students naturally and culturally gravitate towards different spaces in any environment.




Things I really liked about Oneighty:

1. They used to bus students in from other areas. It created some problems for them so they don’t do it anymore BUT I love the idea. (Possibly more of my thoughts on this later)
• We’d never do that at our place but I love the heart behind it! It made my heard beat fast!
2. I liked that they had a basketball court in the middle of their facility that didn’t have to be transformed or moved every time it wasn’t being used.
• They used it for other games and activities also.
3. I REALLY liked the design in the ‘Varsity’ Room. They had a really chill set up for the “Varsity Crew”. They break their youth group up 7-10 grade is together and they are called “JV” and the “Varsity” is 11 & 12th graders. Things about the “Varsity Room”
• They only do acoustic worship vs the rock band in the JV room.
• There is random comfy seating throughout in the Varsity room vs traditional stadium seating in JV auditorium.
• Only 11 & 12th graders are allowed in the Varsity Room
• They have their own water bar/café
4. I loved how the outside of the building looked just like a movie theater




5. Overall: Great tour, Really nice Intern…then we had to leave…