What We Are For

Katy and I have been reconsidering a lot of what we understand to be the priority and mission of individual believers and the church as a whole. I think these thoughts are normal for people who have left their home culture and are learning a new one.

To that end, here are four core values to us in ministry/church life. 

• Community: We want the priority of community to guide what programs we build, what events we attend, and what organizations of which we are a part. (To be clear, we mean both community within the church and also within our local area.)
• Responsibility: We want to prioritize the responsibility of all believers to carry the mantle of ministry within the church and their local community. We want to model the way as believers empowered by the church to be active in our local community, making disciples and preaching the Gospel through conversations, actions, and life decisions. 
• Language: We want to recalibrate our language bringing clarity to what we do and why we do it. Language can not only be confusing for new people attending a church/ministry event, it can cause internal confusion as to a believer's role and responsibility in ministry.
• Holiness: We want to strive for holiness. This is really only fully possible when lived out through community with other believers with the same priority. As we do this, we want to create an environment which would invite and encourage non-believers to see and understand our journey.

These are simple things. They're not new things. These are personal goals. We believe these goals will help us to fulfill the mission God has given us.

Thank you for all your prayers and support. Together we are striving to connect the university students of Ireland to Christ.

If My People

I ask anyone reading this to pray one minute each day this week for our broken world. With all the shootings, hate, political chaos...it would be easy to give up believing God can heal our nation(s). I want to remind us today of this timely scripture.

"12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand." Ephesians 6:12-13

Paul is telling us that human weapons are no match. We are not fighting a human battle. We are fighting spiritual forces beyond our awareness. But we have a relationship with the one who has already defeated darkness, hate, and brokenness. Jesus Christ is our Savior.

In the Bible, we see Jesus bring tenacious love, supernatural peace, inexplicable hope, and undeserved freedom to those lost in the darkness. This is how we must fight. These are the weapons we must wield to restore this broken world. We are called to be world changers, culture changers, community changers. As believers, we must step into the chaos and speak peace, love, and hope.

As a team, we give, pray, and go so that university students in Ireland would know Christ. Today, we stand together in prayer. We pray for the terror to cease, the hate to dissipate, the fear to vanish. We pray for believers around the world to courageously rise up within their communities. We pray for the Church to rise up, repent, and believe God to heal our nations. 

Eden is 3

It's hard to believe that three years ago Eden James came into this world. Yesterday we had many of Eden's friends over. There was a bouncy castle, cake, presents, snacks, more presents, and so much laughter. My mom was in town to join in and help pull it all off. We even had sunny weather!

It was a perfect day to celebrate. What hit me the most this weekend is that Eden is the one who made me a father. Before he came into this world, I was a friend, husband, son, brother, relative...but the second he arrived I became a dad. I am constantly reminded of words a friend said to me regarding his son. "He will be my greatest disciple." Amazing. I pray, above any other ministry/work accomplished in my life, that Eden and Eli would be my greatest disciples. I will work tirelessly to help them encounter Christ daily and to know Jesus personally. 

The privilege, honour, responsibility, fear, exhaustion, and intimidation that comes with being a dad is FAR outweighed by the joy a child brings. Katy and I are so blessed to raise our two boys. May we be parents that constantly point our children to Jesus.

Thanks to all of you who pray and give so we can minister in Ireland. Your prayers are the fuel that keeps us going. I want to say a special thanks for those who pray for our kids. They mean far more to us than our ministry. It is so humbling to know we have a team of people behind our family. 

Thank you.