Are You Connected?

Looking outside our window at the office last week, it looked like the trees were going to rip from their roots and start rolling down the street. Our electricity started flickering and our server went down twice. Not too long after that I went to a meeting with my student leaders at the Daily Grind and the electricity was completely out there and they were turning people away. The wind evidently had caused trees to come down on power lines and that caused thousands of houses and businesses to lose power.

In Life we can become disconnected. For various reasons friendships and circumstances can come our way that cause us to disconnect from each other and sometimes from God. The thing that we need to realize is that there is always hope for a reconnect. I am finding this out more and more through an amazing resource called Face Book. I have reconnected with literally hundreds of people that I have known over the years. It's pretty cool because I feel like I have a second chance to get to know them again and reconnect with them.

I feel like we all need a vehicle like FB to help us stay connected with each other. But how to do we reconnect with God? Sometimes we may feel like it's too late. Or that We've done something that is unforgivable that our relationship with Him could never be rekindled. God's always there. His arms are open wide and guess what? You don't need a Face Book to reconnect with Him today. All you need to do is dust off that love letter called the Bible and ask Him to speak to you today.

Recently, a friend of mine, Adam Herod www.adamherod.blogspot.com wrote a blog regarding the power of prayer in his life when he was a kid. He encouraged others to chime in with incredible experiences of healing. I want to share this story with you.

I believe that God heals today and I am a product of God's amazing healing touch. When I was three I contracted a blood disease that caused my white blood cells to go all out of wack. The doctors tried many things, and I almost died because of a botched blood transfusion. You can imagine the toll that this had on my mom and dad. It is a disease that has no cure. I was destined to live with it the rest of my life until one day my mom and dad's friend Claire Matthias came into my hospital room and felt compelled by God to lay hands on me and pray for my healing. Out of my mom and dad's desperation they said yes, and this lady prayed over me and in a short time my disease disappeared. The doctors where amazed and told my mom and dad that this was miraculous!

For some reason this disease came back when I was six. I had to stay home from school that year and went to the doctor every day to get my blood checked and was bed ridden for many months. This time my mom and dad's prayer group prayed over me and again, I was healed!

From a very early age I realized that God had a reason for me to live because twice he saved me from certain death. As my friend Adam stated in his blog, I also believe that when we are in the presence of God, amazing things happen. When two or three are gathered in His name He is there! God's will be done.

Anticipation

Perry Noble of New Spring Church just sent a twitter that I thought was worth noting. He says, "The reason there is seldom revelation is because there is often no anticipation...so...what are you anticipating the Lord to do today?"

A lot of our kids at H20 get that. They aren't waiting until H20 services Sunday night. I see them come into service on a Sunday morning and they are ready to receive from God. They are anticipating that God is going to do something that morning! And they aren't afraid to act upon that!

This weekend is one full of anticipation! We are taking forty some kids to Acquire the Fire. Many have brought friends with them in (yes, there's that word again!) anticipation that God is going to meet their friends and experience life change! It's going to be a great weekend! We've been praying and seeking God all week long and we believe that God will reveal himself to many this weekend. Pray for us as we go to Richmond Friday and Saturday. I believe that God has great things in store for us! We are ready for God to do something great! Check this out! http://www.youtube.com/ATFacquirethefire

Sunday morning is coming and Horizons services are going to be amazing. We just had our planning for the order of service yesterday and I am so excited to see how God is going to use each element of the service rock our socks off! So come this Sunday anticipating that God is going to do some great things!

But you don't have to wait until Sunday! "What are you anticipating the Lord to do today?"

a trip down memory lane...

This morning I'm looking outside at the freezing rain. I'm doing my devos and sitting in front our fireplace drinking a cup of coffee. We had an awesome day yesterday sledding and playing games, and watching movies with the kids. It reminds me of how things were when I was a kid on a snow day. We would get our snowsuits on and grab our sleds and walk to our elementary school which had a huge hill. We would trudge up that hill and then throw our sleds down and jump on it and slide down and scream and just have a blast. We'd do this sometimes until late at night. A neighbor would bring a big barrel and started a fire in it so we could warm ourselves before the next run down the hill. Finally we'd make our way back to our house and mom of course, would have steaming hot chocolate ready for us. I don't know how she knew when we were coming back to have that hot chocolate prepared for us but she did. There were no cell phones to call and let her know we were coming home!

Today it's back to reality. We've got a busy weekend ahead of us and thankfully it looks like the weather will clear up for this weekends activities. God's got some great things in store for you this weekend @ Horizons! But you and I need to prepare for those things and get our gear on and hat and gloves and move forward. Some of us may find ourselves trudging up the hill or maybe we've just made it to the top and are ready for the run down the hill. No matter where you are spiritually God is walking beside you leading you to the place that he wants you to be.

"Father, I pray that you would speak to our hearts today through your word and through the circumstances that surround us. Let us be a light for you today! Help us to lead others into a relationship with you today!"

-andy

Last Week:

Last week was a crazy week. My kids loved it because they got off school for two days in observance for Martin Luther King Jr. and the inauguration.

Some of us needed to be in the office and it was cool to catch Obama's swearing in Live on streaming video with CNN/Facebook on my computer. We got to witness history in the making. It was really cool. There was a window that had live coverage and on the right side of the window people were sending messages via Facebook commenting about the event. The awesome thing that I liked about this was the fact that people were connecting with hundreds of people across the nation sharing an event.

I thought Rick Warren did a great job with the prayer and the name of Jesus was proclaimed. Way to go Pastor Rick!

It's next week and we are on our way with a new administration in this land. Please pray for our local and national leaders that God will grant them wisdom to lead this country.

-andy

Kids...

I can remember the days back before I had kids and parents would come up to me as a youth pastor with questions and problems and I remember thinking how silly some of the questions were and how easily they could arrive at a solution to that problem. I thought I knew so much until I brought Maggie home as an infant from the hospital! All of a sudden my life changed dramatically and it gave me a brand new perspective on how my youth group parents handled things! There are so many variables that go into seeing situations clearly. I have memories of how my dad raised me, I have certain fears, moods and that's just me. My wife has a whole other set of variables that she's dealing with. Missy and I work together to be on the same "page" when it comes to family decisions and discipline but we don't always get it right.

I realize as a grow older that I can't do any of this alone. I want my kids to get a well rounded upbringing and get support from trusted people speaking in their lives and I know that my kids are getting that from our Children's Pastor and his small group leaders. Likewise I know that we have a volunteer staff at H20 that genuinely care about the spiritual development of our kids. Praise God for a church family that can help us in shaping our children to be Jesus followers!

-andy

2009...Gonna Be Awesome!

Yesterday was New Year's Day. I had my laptop on the coffee table kicking out Happy New Year greetings to all those on Facebook and getting emails answered. I spent a lot of the day dreaming about being in the new building and how that's going to dramatically change how we do ministry @ Horizons & H20. I'm so excited about the possiblities!

Jesus Said, "Follow Me"

Have you ever done a ginormous thing before? I'm about to once again. I did it a long time ago but I was convicted to do it again. I have joined a Facebook group called "Eat an Elephant in 2009" A dude named Byron Vinson basically started this group to get hundreds of people to read through the Bible in a year. I joined because I have to say I have not read all the way through the Bible since I've moved to Stafford. I know I know that's hard to believe. It really challenged me when I read what this group was up to. I wanna encourage all of my friends @ H20 and Horizons and all over the world to sign up for this and read with me! The Bible is our handbook and love letter from the Father to us, His sons and daughters. Want to know God? Read your Bible. It's that simple. It's a great place to find out exactly who God is and why He sent His son on this earth. Will you join me in this quest?

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

My prayer for all is that you'd find Hope in Jesus this Christmas.

From our H20 family to yours! I hope each and everyone of you has a wonderful Christmas and a very Happy New Year!

Looking for God?

Wow, I'm more pumped and charged about Christmas this morning than I've been in a long time. And I haven't even had my cup of coffee yet! Why, you ask?

Well, for one thing, I am always excited to buy gifts for my family at Christmas. And of course its great to receive gifts too! Justin left a note in my car to me saying, "don't worry daddy, I'm getting you a Christmas gift this year! During my forty something emotional moment as I read this note I realized that something has happened in Justin's heart. He's not just begging and pleading for the perfect gift but he's starting to think of others! Not bad for a ten year old! I'm proud of 'em.

Christmas, as it probably will be for a lot of people will be a bit leaner this year in the Roger's house. But, that caused me to rethink how I do Christmas. I had to get creative to save a buck but still give a gift that is going to make someone smile. I started listening to my family. Not the "I want a "fill in the blank" for Christmas kind of conversation but the ones that as we talked I began to see where their passion lies and that helped me figure out what gifts I'm giving.

I find God in these little things and I hope that this Christmas that we all see the attributes of the Father in our families! Only 16 more days til Christmas. "Don't worry Dad, I'm getting you a present!"

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the Heavenly lights, who does not change like the shifting shadows."
-James 1:17

It's A New Day and a New Year (Almost)

Hi Everyone,

After a short break from blogging I'm back on track again. I took some time off last week to catch up with some things such as planning for the new year, staff retreat, the new building, etc.

Here's a video short of something that I am so jazzed about. We found out on Monday that they are pouring the stage so we got a camera and went out to see what was up! As I was watching them spread the concrete over the form it was an "ah ha!" moment where I realized that we are so close to getting this building finished. Anyhow, here it is and I hope you can capture the excitement. God bless and have a great day.

It's Wednesday morning and I'm at a stopping place from desperately trying to clear my inbox and trying to get a handle on a very long to do list. As I stopped for a moment I thought back to Sunday night. We had a worship time in youth that was truly amazing. After worshiping for almost an hour we broke up into small groups and had a time of prayer.

Usually when I look around at the different groups I see some kids disengaged and not taking things seriously and I'll join that group and help them focus, but last Sunday there wasn't one group that wasn't completely focused. In fact they were so focused that when I called to have everyone join in corporately for one last song I had a hard time getting them to stop praying! What a great problem to have! God's moving in the midst of our kids and our leaders are noticing how their prayers are genuine and even outward and not all about their own problems.

Take some time today and pray. God's waiting...

2009 and Beyond...

We are in a staff retreat right now and we are planning for 2009. Yesterday, we had several team building activities and we spoke words of encouragement in the form of constructive criticism to amazing encouragement. Although it was exhausting, I came out of this meeting realizing that these are people that really understand me and want me to succeed as a leader.

Today we are in the brainstorming mode of what our theme is going to be for 2009. We have spent time in prayer, and God has brought us to some amazing ideas for this year. I'm excited, nervous and believing that God is going to get us to where He wants us in this new year. A lot of things are happening this year. We are moving into our new building. The goals that we are looking at are more challenging then ever but we all are sitting here with eager anticipation to get started! God is good.

Looking Back/ Looking Forward

Looking back:
Last weekend was awesome. We had a Fall festival that was an amazing event at Horizons church. I'm so glad that we were a part of that although, it was a little disappointing that our Trunk did not win the competition! After that we went to the Colonial Forge vs. Mountain View Football game. The MVHS Wildcats pulled off the upset and there was much rejoicing, unless you were Forge fan. Afterwards we went to Starbucks to celebrate and then over to Ihop to get some much needed nourishment. The next night was Mission Possible. Six Teams determined as ever got their camo gear and painted their faces, deciphered code and stealthily collected clues. All the while the counselors were being the spoilers and trying their best to distract the teams from their goals. Afterward we hung out at the camp fire, roasted marsh mellows and chilled. It was a beautiful night to be outside! Sunday night was H20 and I spoke to the middle schooler's while Missy spoke to the HS Group. We had a great night and overcame adversity to be in the presence of God.

Looking Forward:

This weekend will be even more amazing and incredible than last weekend! We are off to the Patriot Center Friday night to launch the inaugural Invincible Tour for Dare2Share. Steve Fee and Leeland will be there leading worship and Gregg Stiers and his team will be giving us some tools to be "Invincible" as we go out and about sharing Christ to a hurting world.
I hope everyone has a great weekend and
I'm looking forward to seeing everyone Sunday morning
and evening @ Horizons services and H2o Services Sunday night!

Standing in the Midst of the Storm

As I look back over the past few months we've had a lot of things go wrong at our house. Some of you may remember that we had a series of thunderstorms over the summer. One of those storms knocked out our power for five hours and our sump pump in our basement failed. That translates into 2 inches of water all throughout the basement level! After that we had a hot water heater go bad that needed replacing. After that we had our fridge go out and needed fixing, twice in the same week! And this month we had our ejector pump go bad in our septic tank which is not a cheap fix. These weren't, "gee it would be nice to fix that someday expenses". These are all in that "necessity" category. Missy and I contemplated each of these things and realized we needed someone in the form of a savior to help us. Now in each of these things God showed himself strong. We got things fixed and realize that there are more things that are going to need fixing in the future as well. It's part of life.

As I was praying with the pastor's this morning I realized that we are in the midst of a storm. The word that came to me as I was praying was that Jesus said that "my yoke is easy". What that means is the fact that as we are walking through all these little trials that add up to big headaches sometimes, that He's walking with us, shouldering the burden. The light bulb went off and I realized that He's walking right beside us. When these things happen and when we are flustered and we aren't sure how we are going to deal with the things that life throws at me, we can stand firm. We can stand in the midst of the storm confident that He is right by our side. And you know what? After all, "We Win!"

Making Time For Him

In the middle of this crazy "fast paced" Northern Virginia world that we live in, I had three different people that tell me, "Andy, you need to slow down and spend more time in the presence of God." I hope you aren't shocked and surprised that a pastor would have to be told to slow down and rest and take it easy. Well, I thought I had a handle on this and that the time I was spending with God was sufficient.

Two questions quickly came to mind. How in the world can I slow down with all that needs to be accomplished in God's kingdom? And the other was what in the world can I cut out to do this? Do I lose sleep and get up earlier? Do I spend less time with my family to do this? Do I spend less time with my H20 kids? What do I do?

As I was pondering this I was reading some leadership mentoring materials over before meeting with some of the H20 leaders the next day. I realized a very simple truth. I better make adjustments even if it hurts. One of the key statements in the material I was reading was the fact that we as leaders need to put our own spirituality over others spirituality. That means simply that if you aren't spiritually healthy that you can't minister to others.

So, today I need to just be, even in the midst of taking care of my home and family, even in the midst of all the crisis that emerge around me, I need to take that moment and just be. God please fill me up today. I need you. You are my source for the energy and the power that I need to be able to accomplish everything that you have planned for me to accomplish in this life. Thanks, God!

The Monday Holiday Syndrome

I have a love hate thing with Monday holidays. On one side of the coin we get a day off and can spend some time with the fam. On the other hand we have lost a day at the office and we are sprinting to get things done by the end of the week.

Monday, we basically used it wisely which really means that we worked around the house, went grocery shopping and then later that evening we had H20 worship practice. At 9:30 that night I remember thinking where'd the day go?

If I lived "back in the day"and Jesus said, "Come follow me", I would have been the one saying, "but, don't you know what I have to do by Friday?" "There's a lot of fish to catch and fry!"

The bottom line: Here's the deal. I need to give my week up to God. I need to allow Him to speak to my heart and trust that He'll give me what I need for the week. Lord, give me the strength, the wisdom and knowledge to be an effective witness for You today.

No Worries!

"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of it's own." -Matthew 6:34

I think this applies to four day work weeks as well.

The Search For Significance

How many times have you prayed and asked God for significance in your life? "Am I really making a difference or am I just a blip on a huge blue ball called earth?" There are several moments in my life that have had that sobering realization that I am still on the planet for a reason. The first moment was when I was three. I had a rare blood disease and unless God intervened and healed me I would not be here today. Long story short, a woman of God who my mom and dad were friends with came into my hospital room and laid her hands on my head and prayed and asked God to heal me. Her name was Claire Matthias. Through this lady, God's healing power touched my body and I was healed. The doctors were amazed and called it a miracle. Fast Forward (I fast forward and rewind a lot in my blogs for some reason.) to when I was six, and I contracted the disease again! As you can imagine my mom and dad where devastated. But, God was faithful again. One more time, people came to our house and prayed for me and I was healed.

Not once, but twice my life was headed for a premature end but God showed Himself strong and healed me. Whenever I am having doubts I can recount the stories because they've been told many times over in our family. Are you recounting your story? If you look back, I can guarantee that maybe God didn't have to save you from a life threatening disease, but you can see God's hand in your life. There is purpose for you to be on this planet!

The One Thing

Here I am, and it's a beautiful Monday morning. After the morning meetings I got on my motorcycle to ride back to the office I realized how blessed we are to be a part of where God is at work. It's the "One Thing" that we were created for. It's the thing that keeps me up dreaming about how to do it the best that I can. I realized that God's hand is on my life. I sense His presence at the beginning of the day. I realize that I am fulfilling God's will for my life here in the place that God has me.

This morning at the Daily Grind, I read a scripture in 2 Corinthians that really says it all. 2 Cor. 4:7 says, "But we have this treasure (the One Thing) in jars of clay to show that this all surpassing power is from God and not from us. Thanks God for the treasure! Thank you that you use us even in our broken state. We are leaking and cracked but you use us to carry your treasure. Everything that we do and everything that we are is because of your power not ours. This passage goes on to say that we are pressed but not crushed, persecuted not abandoned, struck down but not destroyed. In everyday terms, we will have problems. Everything is not perfect. We make mistakes! But God is there, using us and making our lives significant each day through His son Jesus Christ.

The Light that Shines the Farthest...Shines the Brightest at Home...

We had an awesome week last week celebrating a multi-church effort to celebrate Jesus Christ through "See Ya At the Pole". I marveled at the prayers that were lifted up. (see blog below about syatp!) I love it when God says do something bigger than yourself! Several area churches in the Stafford area came together to do something special and I believe that there will be profound affect felt throughout the year because of that event.

I came into work yesterday and I guess October 1st is Missionary update day! I got three updates from my contacts in Southeast Asia and Western Africa and each one was chock full of God doing amazing things! As I was reading the one from my friends Drew and Sarah in Bali, Indonesia I saw this same concept of churches coming together happen on a much larger scale. 30,000 Indonesians got together in Bali's largest stadium for four days to hear the gospel message. Hindus, Muslims and Christians all joined together for this historic event! People brought the lame and sick and they were healed. My friends church had the priviledge of leading worship and documenting this by filming the event. It is a beautiful thing when God calls His Body together to do something amazing!

Last year I had the priviledge of going to Indonesia to serve the local church in a "Burn" for 24 hours. Continuous worship to bring down strongholds and to strengthen his church. Since then the Fire is burning and I was blessed to bring some of that home with me. The leaders of that trip had the priveledge of meeting with local church leaders and they wanted to know how to keep that fire burning even after we left. The Burn continues there and this outreach is just more evidence of God moving in Indonesia. Drew and Sarah continue to serve faithfully in a local church in Bali and they are seeing God's faithfulness each day.

May God continue to draw churches together to impact our world around us. The light that shines the farthest shines the brightest at home. May God's love invade your world today!

Impacting Our World
Wow, it's Wednesday and yes, this is my first blog of the week.

Have you ever really got a glimpse of how God is using you to reach people? Even ones that you'd least expect. Here's a great example.

Flashback to Sunday night. As the kids were playing a game in the auditorium, I was praying in the hallway before we started worship.

A guy came up behind me looking around like he was lost. I asked if I could help him and he said that he had teenage kids and wanted to check out the H20 Youth Meeting. I told him that he was in the right place. And, I'll be honest I prayed another little prayer that youth group would go smoothly! I'm always a little self conscious when I have parents in the meeting!

He and I walked through the doors into the auditorium and there was music playing and lights going during a wild and crazy game called "tick tick boom". The guy proceeded to the back of the auditorium and found a seat. The game finished up and I got up to do announcements and to pray before we started worship. As worship started and the band started playing and the lights went down, I sensed this was going to be a great night. Instantly everyone got out of their seats and entered into worship. During one of the songs, a youth leader got up with a word and the kids responded. Leaders were praying for kids and God encouraged all of us that night. Even more than we realized.

We finished worship and went into the message and then got in our small groups. As we were transitioning into small groups the guy sitting in the back handed me a note and thanked me for letting him be a part of the service.

I read the note as the kids were getting into their small groups and it went like this. "I've been looking for a church with youth on fire for the Lord. I was only going to pop in for 10 minutes but I couldn't leave. The youth during worship so blessed me. It was incredible. God was definitely in this place tonight. The kids here are building treasure in heaven and blessing people even when they don't know it." As I looked up from the note the man was just walking out of auditorium and I thanked God that his life was changed by what he experienced at H20.

The thing that stuck in my mind was the fact that he said, "the kids were blessing people even when they don't know it." When we are honoring God and worshiping Him, it changes a place and those in that place are profoundly affected. Here was a casual observer. Someone who was checking out the youth group for his teenage kids and God showed up and totally blesses him.

Without realizing it we are all having an impact on the others that are around. We are leaving a legacy wherever we go. What is the legacy that you are leaving?