Expecting a Great Spring

This past fall we had an amazing season of growth in our youth ministry. By God's blessing we grew to a weekly attendance of 300 students. After Thanksgiving things slowed down with holidays, Wednesday Connect taking a break and bad weather and our numbers dropped. Through that time I got a little nervous and prayed our numbers would jump back up and as of last week they did. Weather was better, Wednesday Connect started up and we are back to where we were in the fall and I'm very excited for the Spring. We are expecting big things at Epic and I'm just honored to be apart of what God is doing.

Reflections from the Super Bowl

1. I talked a ton of trash about the Colts winning the super bowl and ate every word Sunday night.

2. If we had to lose to a team I'm glad we lost to the Saints. I'm happy for that city and like Drew Brees and Sean Payton.

3. The Saints played to win the game and the Colts didn't. Except for Dwight Freeney, he is a beast and his play was very courageous. The only player with torn ligaments in his ankle got the only sack in the Super Bowl. Dwight you are the man.

4. Why are the Colts so susceptible to the trick play? This drives me crazy.

5. If the Colts make it to the Super Bowl next year I will do everything I can to get tickets since the game is in Dallas. It's on my bucket list to go to a Colt's Super Bowl game and next year may be my best chance.

6. Although we lost we made it to the Super Bowl without Anthony Gonzalez and Bob Sanders, the Colts have a lot of young talent and I'm excited for the next couple years.

7. Again Congratulations to the Saints they deserved it and in case you didn't know Drew Brees went to Purdue and Porter who had the pick six went to IU so it's still kind of a win for Indiana, lol.

Good night!

Busy and Productive Week

Here are some highlights of my week:

1. Everyday I enjoy the thought of the Colts winning the Super Bowl! Who Dat? It's the Colts baby!!!

2. 24 is back and I'm loving it, however, I did think this week's episode was a little weak.

3. We had a great night at Epic Wed. night. I preached about the affects of negative media and how we need to hate what is evil and cling to what is good. I also remade the song 3 and Bedrock. Listen to the podcast next week if you missed it. We also had 14 salvation's. Thank you Jesus!

4. I've been doing well with my eating but haven't got to play racquetball all week. Bummer.

5. This Sunday we have an Epic leaders potluck after church. I can't wait to hang out, eat and share some vision with my team! I serve with some amazing people.

6. Currently it is raining ice outside. Everyone be safe!

7. Jace and I went to a Santa Fe basketball game on Tuesday and had lots of fun. The girls game was pretty amazing with a game tying 3 to send the game into overtime, in overtime the girls won! The boys dominated their game.

8. Tonight is a movie night with Jamie and Jace.

Questions that are on my mind

1. How do we reach more students who are far from God?

2. How does Epic become more diverse?

3. How do we do better at plugging students into community groups?

4. How can we get more students serving in the church?

5. What kind of leaders do I need to be intentional about surrounding myself with? Specifically people who are strong in areas I am weak.

6. What can we modify in our Jr. High Experience to ensure it's something every Jr. Higher wants to come back to?

Some of these I feel I'm getting close to figuring out, as for the others the journey continues :)

Weekend Update! Better late then never!

1. Big win for the Colts on Saturday and San Diego sent us a late Christmas present by blowing the game against the Jets. Personally I'm punching our ticket to the Super Bowl, Miami here we come!!!

2. I think the Super Bowl will be Minnesota vs Indianapolis, the two greatest quarterbacks will go head to head and Peyton will come out on top.

3. Sunday was a great day at People's Church. We had awesome adult experiences, great Jr. High experiences and an amazing connect.me. I love my church!

4. This weekend I went to a youth leaders conference with 20 of my leaders. It was a great time to hang and learn with them. I love my leadership team!

5. One of my favorite parts of the conference was connecting with a fellow youth pastor and hanging out with my youth leaders.

6. Last week's fast was amazing for me spiritually. I'm really excited about what God is going to do in my life personally, in my family and in the ministry.

7. Jamie and I broke the fast with Domino's pizza. With their new campaign we are sold. There new pizza IS really good. I have never ordered Domino's in my life and in the last month we've ordered it twice! Check it out.

8. 24 has started. Jack is the man, nuff said!

Epic Update - The Chair

Last night at Epic I preached a message called What If We Reach One More Person? I'm sure you can guess but I challenged the students to...reach one more person. We still have empty chairs in Epic and we want to do everything we can to fill those chairs. There are hurting and lost students in OKC that need to sit in those chairs and I'm believing God to use our students to help us reach students all over OKC. We saw a great harvest last fall and are expecting greater things in 2010. To end my message I shared a video we used at People's Church called The Chair. If you haven't seen it here it is and I pray it challenges you to fill every chair at your church so then you can buy more chairs :)

Beatin up the Flesh

This is our week of prayer and fasting at People's Church and after only being in it 3 days it has been amazing! God has really been challenging me to have more personal growth, to be a stronger spiritual leader for my family and giving me tons of direction for Epic. After a busy season of ministry this is exactly what I needed! It's amazing what happens when we weaken of flesh and get closer to God. I also realize how much I love food, lol, denying my body food has messed me up but I'm so thankful for the spiritual benefits. If you haven't come to prayer at PC I encourage you to make it out Wed-Fri from 6-7:30 am or 12-1:30 pm! For those of you praying and fasting what has God been speaking to you?

Weekend Update

1. Yesterday we had 2 great Jr. High Experiences. 80 students in attendance and 4 students made commitments to Christ. My favorite part of the experience is being able to encourage, pray for and give a salvation packet to the students who made a decision for Christ.

2. Saturday night we had our community group. We had some good snacks and a good discussion about worship. I really appreciate our group and love doing life with them.

3. I got to see my Alma Mater CBC play basketball against Southwestern Christian University and they got smashed. SCU beat them by 39 points and it was cool to see my friend Derek Colvin on the court. He's a beast!

4. My playoff picks were way wrong but seeing the Patriots loss was amazing. Makes one less hurdle for my Colts.

5. Speaking of my Colts I'm not a fan of how they ended the season and I hope it doesn't hurt us next week.

6. I'm currently playing words with friends 12 people and scored two 100 pt words this weekend! If you want to play my username is chrismith.

7. This week is our week of prayer and fasting at People's Church. I'm really looking forward to what God is going to do in my life this week. Join us for prayer Tues-Friday from 6am-7:30am and 12pm-1:30pm in the PCA/Epic Auditorium.

8. Epic students and leaders don't forget we have prayer this Wed in the Jr. High Room from 6pm-6:20pm! Come join us expecting God to do great things!

The Past few months pt. 2

Here is some more stuff that happened over the last few months:

1. I turned 29 years old, man that sounds old. My birthday is Dec. 24th, yep I'm a Christmas Eve baby and no I don't think I got less presents because my bday is the day before Christmas.

2. Even though my parents are divorced my whole family went out to eat together for my bday, that is always the best birthday present. I love spending time with my family.

3. On our trip back to Ok from Indy I let Jamie drive 7 hours, since I'm kind of a control freak when it comes to driving this is a big deal. She did a great job!

4. Jace did great during our drives, bringing a dvd player was the best decision in the world. His favorites are Nemo, Shrek, Incredibles, Little Mermaid and Cars.

5. Over break Jamie and I went to the movies twice, which is a rare occasion for us. We saw Avatar and The Blind Side. We may have to go one more time to see Invictus.

6. I finished my one year bible reading plan. I haven't done this since college and really enjoyed it. I'm doing it again but this time I'm reading the Chronological one year reading plan with Jamie. I'm currently in Job.

I'm baaaaaaaaaack!

Wow, I haven't posted a blog since the beginning of October!!! With the new year I'm gonna try to get back into this blogging thing. Since I haven't blogged in 3 months here are a few updates of what has been going on:

1. In October our student ministry grew to over 300 students!!! Thank you Lord! This is one of the biggest reasons my blogging stopped, it was very busy but also one of the most amazing months in youth ministry.

2. Along with God's favor and blessing one of the biggest reasons for the explosion in attendance was a two week series my church did called Teenage Love (the videos are below), this gave us great exposure, was a huge blessing and it complimented everything we were doing on Wed and Sunday's. We also launched a second Jr. High Experience!

3. The holidays and weather have slowed us down a bit but we are excited for the next few months and 2010 at Epic.

4. Speaking of weather, Jamie and I totally missed the "Blizzard of 2009", we were in Indianapolis surprising our family for Christmas. Can't say I'm upset about missing the blizzard, lol.

5. We surprised our family with putting Jace in a giant stocking at their door, ringing their doorbell then hiding around the corner filming their reaction. It was priceless! Definitely a Christmas we and our parents will never forget.

I'll share more tomorrow. Thanks for checking back in!