Just a quick note as I get on a plane to leave Little Rock and head home to Winston-Salem. We have had a great time of gaining perspective. ARC seems like a great organization to be involved with on some kind of level. I will be interested to see how God uses this organization in onechurch and the kingdom in general. No fake, all genuine relationship.

God is doing something great and I just want to be a part of it in any way I can. Let's do this thing together!

Lately I have been reading in Acts and I've really been taken by the level of community written in these chapters. One thing I noticed especially in chapter 5 was the necessity of the GENUINENESS of the community. If things are not genuine, it doesn't matter how you try and fake it, people know. You can't fake it till you make it, you must work to get it and be real about where you are in your own journey and own it. Ananias and Sapphire were trying to fake it, and things didn't work out so well for them. A new program or a new look doesn't work if your heart is not in what your doing. It's like when people try to make things like what they wear, drive, and live in, define who they are. Things that are tangible are temporary and do not determine who you are. They can however influence us in a negative way. You have to influence your surroundings rather than letting your surroundings influence you.

Also, starting floor training at Starbucks, things are cool. Getting ready to vote early, already over 350,000 people have voted early just in NC. That is exciting, all this voting makes it a good time to be an American. Can you feel the...HOPE?

Keep it real,
Nate

Today I spent about 7 hours with my nieces and nephew, they are great, but I'm exhausted...The office was hilarious tonight. Hopefully I can post a new video soon, I've been in Acts 2 the last couple days, I've been asking my self would I sell something I own to help someone else? yes is the easy answer, but really?

October 13

I'm Back Baby!

To all my faithful readers...I'm Back! Talk to you soon.

omg I haven't blogged in forever. I am so glad that the public announcements of Lucretia and I moving to North Carolina are finally over. They have a tendency to be do emotional, especially wednesday night, (that was the hardest one). We love our family at CFC both natural and spiritual, that is what we are going to miss the most.

Well since my blog doesn't exactly have a high volume of readership, I will stop now.

Six years and counting

IT'S OUR ANNIVERSARY! Six years of wedded bliss...at least most of it.

A long nights journey

Last night was a night to forget. Our beautiful little girl whom we love so dearly, decided because of her appearant discomfort, to stay awake until 2am. Finally, Lucretia and I decided to embrace this decision so we went to the living room turned on the lights, watched reruns of Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien before making our way back to bed.

Ah, the joys of parenthood.

Rainy Tuesday

Nothing like a cloudy, rainy, and dark Tuesday to keep you motivated. I guess we still find beauty in God's cleansing rain, even if it gets in my basement.

Top Ten Video

I used this video for a talk I did in May.

"Christian" Radio

Can I just say I never listen to the radio, and above all I have never enjoyed "Christian" radio. At this point all that I would want to hear is contained on my ipod, so my days of radio have expired. However, last week I temporarily misplaced my ipod and was forced, by my dying need to hear music, to turn on the radio. It was during this time that I stumbled on to a radio station that used to be known as "the Christian radio station" and what I found changed my thinking about radio. They were playing music I would actually listen too. United, Kirk Franklin and Toby Mac, along with Alicia keys, U2 and Kanye West artists that "Christian radio would not even think of playing. Way to go finally discovering that even with all my respect I am done listening to Micheal W. Smith, Amy Grant and Rich Mullens. I say all that to say, I accidentally heard, and it changed me.

Let's go skating! It is free! Fun! and Disco! Bring a friend to Incrediroll on the corner of Merle Hay Road and Madison wednesday May 28th from 7-9. We're gonna party like it's your birthday.

Crossroads

My Friend Rudy told me about this church. He came back so excited about a church he may never attend again, thats what I'm talking about. The visitor ought to be the most excited about the experience.

great convo

I had a great conversation with my brother in law last night, who lives in NC, who votes today in the presidential primary. They also are in the middle of a race for governor. He was telling me how ridiculous everything has gotten down there, and how they are tying together all the negativity in both races. Te republican candidate was even trying to connect the democratic candidate to Jeremiah Write in some crazy round about way.

I tend to think that if we had a national primary or even a national primary month, where the race was condensed into a certain amount of days the negativity might be minimized and the real issues would take precedence. I don't know though, maybe the opposite would happen and we would jump right to the negativity and not talk issues at all.

Oh well, I've voted four months ago, not much I can do now, just wait till November.

Did everyone enjoy their cinco de mayo?

Peace.

Below the Surface

All I can say is WOW! what a weekend. Pastor Dave Toyne was in church this weekend and talked about taking our eyes off of what is above the surface (behavior) and looking at what is below the surface (beliefs, values, and relationships) when making decisions. This was in my grill, some of the conflict I have in my huge melon of a head stems from stuff below the surface, no psycho babel, just real truth.

Much love to pastor dave for keepin' it real and helping us grow.

Also, shout out to my boy Sam in his debut at cedar rapids family church this weekend.

Thursday Morning

It's Thursday morning, I am still tired fresh off another great night at oneyouth.
Last night we talked about "give peace a chance" We shared a powerful story of Paul when writing from prison to the church in Philippi. This is a very familiar scripture for those of us who are church junkies, but like many people who read scripture we just kind of read the scripture all alone and take it a face value. However, we took this passage: "don't worry about anything, but pray about everything".

Paul is writing this scripture from a dark, cold, dangerous cell, deep in a roman prison to a church who is growing and thriving in a growing a thriving community. Reading it from this vantage point makes you say " what the...shouldn't things be the other way around.

It doesn't matter what your going through, what just happened to you, who you are, or where you live. God will give you a piece that is bigger than anything you go through.

Thats all for this rainy morning in cloudy Des Moines, IA

Peace.