Whenever and Wherever Part 2

Whenever and Wherever.  Those were the words that we started praying back in the middle of 2011 while living in Arkansas.  God brought us to Wellington, Florida in April of 2012.  It has been an unbelievable 15 months!  We have met some awesome people that will be life long friends.  The Wellington campus is just getting started.  I can't wait to see what God has in store here!

 

God has turned the page of our story this last week and in about a month, we will start a new chapter in our lives and a new chapter at LifeChurch.tv.  I have accepted a position at our campus in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, and our family will be moving there next month!  It is with sadness that we have to say goodbye to everyone here in South Florida, but we know that God is in control and this is his next step for us.

 

The staff at LifeChurch.tv Wellington is incredible and I am blessed to have served with them.  You Wellington Lifers are equally as incredible!  Keep leading, keep serving, keep inviting like crazy.  Our mission is still the same and we can't do it without your help.  We want to lead people to become Fully Devoted Followers of Christ!

 

Praying God sized miracles for LifeChurch.tv Wellington.  Looking forward to God sized miracles at LifeChurch.tv Broken Arrow.  Whoever finds God…finds life!  

 

We love you, 

 

Bryan, Mel, Maylee, Maddee

Pray that the Lord your God will tell us where we should go and what we should do.  Jeremiah 42:3

Cry

I was having coffee with a friend the other day.  We talked a lot about faith and what audacious faith looked like.  I got back in the car and a song was playing that pretty much summed up our conversation.  Here are a few of the lyrics:

There is hope for the helpless
Rest for the weary
Love for the broken heart
There is grace and forgiveness
Mercy and healing
He'll meet you wherever you are
Cry out to Jesus

God is in the business of meeting us wherever we are, both in times of joy and sorrow.  He is there today while you're going through financial distress.  He is there today as your heart has just been broken.  He is there today as you cry out for physical healing.  And like a good friend of mine who just lost her brother two days ago, He is there as she and her family search for peace and strength.

The same power that conquered a horrible death lives in you.  Does that really resonate with you?  The same power that allowed Jesus to bust through the clutches of death's darkness into life lives in you if you are a Christ follower.  Cry out to Jesus with audacious faith.  Be bold.  No matter what you've done, no matter what you're going through, His desire is that you will cry.  Cry to your creator with everything that you've got in you.  Stand on the truth and foundation of faith because nothing can shake you off of that foundation if you believe.

The Bible talks a lot about faith.  There are a lot of verses that begin with, "It was by faith that ____".  So what is your statement?  Make it personal.  It was by faith that _____(insert your personal statement for healing, restoration, forgiveness, answers, etc., here).  Then believe it.

Do you really want to hear from God?  Do you really want His peace?  Do you really want His power in you...full on brute force make your hairs stand up on your body type of power?  Cry out to Him.  He will meet you wherever you are.

Remembering Dad 11/3/31-4/2/07

My dad passed away 6 years ago today.  I wrote this when he passed and it was read at his funeral.  In honor of him, I wanted to post it here:

Did you shake it up?  That was one of the last funny phrases we heard from my dad before he got really bad this past weekend.  It came to be a joke with mom, Melanie, and myself.  You see, dad had been drinking glucerna for months for his nutritional intake after it got difficult for him to put any kind of food down.  And although my mom and all of us had done it tons of times before, it never failed that when we would bring him his glucerna he would always ask, “Did you shake it up?”  Melanie brought him a can of it just a few days ago when he was sitting in his living room chair.  As she got closer, she smiled at him and started shaking the glucerna in front of him to show him she was doing it right.  That famous crooked smile came across dad’s face as he took the can from her hand.

That same crooked smile that would appear when he talked about his wife of 37 years whom he, as someone put it to me this week, truly adored.  That same crooked smile that would appear when he would talk about his family and friends.  That same crooked smile that would appear when he would win playing “chicken foot” dominoes with his friends.  That same crooked smile that would appear when Maylee and Maddee would play dress up with him and he would end up wearing a tiara and earrings, and that same crooked smile that I just saw this past Friday when the girls ran inside to tell their pa-paw about how their daddy ran and screamed like a girl because he just saw a big snake outside.

I’m going to miss that crooked smile.  It was extremely hard the last few days seeing him suffer like he did.  Even though he was in unimaginable pain, every now and then up until his final day on earth, he would still reach up and give mom a kiss on the cheek.  We all told him we loved him during those last few seconds and we saw him trying to say something back to us and we know for sure he was telling us that he loved us too.  I’ll miss you dad, but as Maylee and Maddee said to me after it happened…their pa-paw isn’t coughing or hurting anymore.

That crooked smile is focused on Jesus right now, and one day I’ll see it again when dad is standing at heaven’s gate waiting for me…probably with a can of glucerna in his hand and a rubber snake behind his back!

I Give Up

Do you want to give up on something?  Do you ever think that telling God you give up is a good thing?

I was talking with a friend today and he was telling me a story that happened a little while back.  In the story, he told me how he had come to a time in his life where he didn't know which direction to go anymore and he was feeling that God had something else for his life so he prayed these words...God, I Give Up.

You see, my friend had come to a point in his life to where he was tired of trying to write his own story.  He was tired of trying to be the orchestrator of his life.  Like a child, he cried out to his heavenly father and asked him to take over.  God, I give up.

I wrote those four words down as soon as I heard them because I think a lot of us need to come to the point in our lives where we lay everything down in front of God; our fears, our dreams, those nervous feelings in your gut that you get sometimes when you know a change needs to happen, and just say God, I give up.  I cant figure it out on my own anymore.  Show me where to go.

The Bible says to 'Seek his will in all you do and he will show you which path to take.' -Proverbs 3:6. Seeking his will means giving up on your own will, reading the Bible, praying, and listening for God to tell you his will.  By the way, his will is good and it's perfect.

 Give up?

Stretched

Nine months is a long time in blog world.  That's how long it has been though since I last wrote.  The last time I wrote I was living in Central Arkansas.  This time I'm in South Florida.  The last time I wrote I was ending a seventeen year career in banking.  This time I'm about nine months into being a full time Pastor.  The last time I wrote I had a smoking hot wife.  Well, at least some things never change!

God rocks.  That sums up the past nine months.  Flash back to July, 2011.  Me and Mel talking to our two daughters..."Girls, I don't know what God is doing in our lives right now but I can tell you that he's getting ready to lay something so big on us that we can't even begin to imagine what it could be."  Now if this me could have gone back and talked to the July 2011 me and told him what was going to happen in 2012, I would have told this me to lay off the crack and go back to the future.  God does crazy things though when you fully surrender to him...and to say that he laid something so big and unimaginable on us would be the understatement of the year.

S T R E T C H E D.  That word also sums up the past few months for me.  My faith has been stretched.  My mind has been stretched.  My gifts and talents have been stretched.  Life as we know (knew) it has been stretched.  I know now more than ever what it means to truly give your cares, worries, anxieties and life one hundred percent over to God.  You come to a point in your life and you realize that this story you are in, this best-selling adventure story that you are in, is God's story for you.  He's the author.  Let go, and let him continue to show you the next page, the next chapter, the next adventure.  It won't all be easy.  It all hasn't been easy during our transition.  Twists, turns, dead ends, and feeling like you're going Mach 3 with your hair on fire seemed like an everyday occurrence for a while.  But with God in front, we took everything head-on and are all the stronger because of it.  Thank God for an amazing wife and two amazing daughters.  I could not do this without them.

There's so much on my heart and so much that I want to say but I'll end this post with this...Happy 2013!  Let this be the year of no more "what if" questions for you.  Spend time with God and ask him what's next in your story.  Then do it.  There are people out there waiting on you.  God is waiting on you.

A Birthday to Remember

Well, it's 10:30 p.m. on April 4th, 2012.  I'm 39 years old today and in about a week I will be embarking on a journey that I couldn't have imagined nor orchestrated in a million years.  I feel like I need to tell you the story of how this all came to pass because it proves that God is still in the WOW business as well as the Miracle business.  Hopefully this story might help someone out there who has by faith stepped out of the boat onto the water, but feels like they are starting to sink.  I can assure you my friend, if it's God's will then you will be skipping across the waves real soon if you keep your eyes focused on the One who created you.

Here we go...For several years now, I've gone through different seasons of feeling like I was supposed to be involved in full time ministry in some capacity.  Sometimes the feelings would last through several days or weeks, and sometimes only a few minutes or a fleeting thought.  Over the past several months, however, those fleeting feelings turned into a constant tugging not only for me but for Mel as well.  -Let me take a moment here to tell the guys out there that when your wife starts getting these funny feelings and her intuition starts kicking in...get ready because something big is about to take place-. 

Enter January 14th, 2012.  Mel and I had decided to take a trip to get away for a weekend.  No plans, no agenda, just a trip.  We decided on Oklahoma City, mainly because one of our goals was to go visit some of the churches that we had followed and read about for years.  It was between Nashville and OKC, so we chose OKC.  I don't remember exactly, but I'm sure I chose it because I found a good deal on a hotel room for that location on that particular weekend.  Anyway, off we went.  We got there on a Friday night and then woke up on Saturday the 14th and hung out in the city all day.  We then came back to the hotel.  We were planning on going to one of the LifeChurch campuses in the area on Sunday morning.  I had followed the Senior Pastor of LifeChurch, Craig Groeschel, for years and had read many of his books so we were excited to see the experience in person.  Then, through a last minute decision that we made, all of a sudden we were getting dressed quickly and going to a Saturday night service as well as still planning on going to one on Sunday as well.  We hurried to the church that Saturday evening and walked in just as the worship was starting.  It was a great service and as we were leaving, I noticed the Campus Pastor standing in the lobby with no one around him.  Mel and I walked over to talk to him.  He asked where we were from and all the usual small talk stuff.  We talked about me being a banker and about our past experiences with volunteer work at churches.  About 2 minutes into the conversation he asked me if I was looking for a job, or if I had ever looked at their jobs online before.  He then proceeds to tell me to send him my resume sometime.  Say what?  Needless to say, Mel and I didn't talk that much on the way back to the hotel.  Was he serious?  Was this God's way of telling me something?

We got home and that week I sent him my resume.  We talked back and forth a couple times through e-mail and then...nothing.  Never heard from him.  What was that about God?

Fast forward a couple weeks to February 4th.  Mel, in her wisdom, encouraged me to send my resume to them through the regular route by applying on their website.  I reluctantly did so, but because they get so many resumes I really didn't see them picking one out from a banker in Arkansas.  Then 10 days later on February 14th, I walked out of a meeting at the bank and noticed I had a missed call and had a voice mail from Edmond, Oklahoma.  The girl on the voice mail said they had received my resume and could I please call her back.  I called and after a brief conversation, she asked if I would be interested in doing a video interview with someone from LifeChurch that week.  I said yes.  I hung up and was stunned.  Did that conversation really just happen?

Two days later I had the video interview.  It was with 2 guys from LifeChurch...in the interview, they told me they had 2 openings for the position I applied for.  One was in Albany, New York, and one was in Wellington, Florida.  They asked what I thought about those locations because they were so far away from home.  Well, unknown to them at the time, Mel and I had been praying that we were ready to go whenever God was ready for us to and we would go wherever he wanted us to go.  So, I told them that was fine and they proceeded with the interview.  It lasted 30 minutes and honestly, I thought I blew it.  They said they would call me in a couple of days and tell me if they wanted to proceed further with me or they would shoot me straight and tell me if they didn't think I would be a good fit.

43 minutes later my phone rang and it said it was a call from Florida.  Really?  You're calling me this soon to tell me I'm not a good fit?  You could have waited until the 2 days like you said at least.  On the other end of the line was one of the guys that interviewed me.  He said they were interested in taking the next step with me if I was interested in them.  Say what?!  I said I was interested.  He said that they would like to fly Mel and I out to Oklahoma for a weekend interview process.  He also stated that there would be other candidates for the positions there that weekend as well.

March 10^th :  Mel and I flew to OKC.  -Interestingly, they put us up in the same hotel that Mel and I had chosen to stay in back in January on our weekend getaway trip…in a room directly across from the one we had stayed in-.  Now…this is the part of the story where I’m going to leave a whole bunch of what happened in the interview process out because, #1-It would be way too long and this post is already going to be long enough, and #2-If there’s anyone out there that happens to read this blog that is planning on interviewing with LifeChurch, I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag as far as how the process goes.  I will tell you, however, that it was the most grueling and intense process I have ever been a part of but at the same time it stretched me and made me learn more about myself than I probably ever would have.  It was a wonderful experience.

Fast forward 2 days to March 12^th.  After an exhausting afternoon of interviews (Mel was with me the whole time), the process was over.  We waited in the lobby for a little while and then Larry, the Campus Pastor of the Wellington, Florida campus came and got Mel and me.  We went back to a conference room where there was another staff member seated. 

God had rocked our world.  Here we were seated in a conference room at a church where I was interviewing for a pastor position…it had been 27 days since I got that first call from OK asking if I would be interested in doing a video interview.  What in the world was God doing and how in the world was I sitting at that table…

So many nice things were said about Mel and me at that table.  We give God all of the credit because Bryan and Mel weren’t sitting at that table because we got lucky or because we were more qualified than anyone else.  We were sitting there because the God of the Universe had a plan and all those years leading up to this day were preparing us for what was about to happen.  He was about to show us what was in the next chapter of our lives.

Larry proceeded to tell us that he and the others thought we would be a great fit for their campus in Wellington. The offer was made right then and there at that table and we accepted on the spot.  I was the new Associate Campus Pastor- LifeGroups/LifeMissions at LifeChurch (http://www.lifechurch.tv/) in Wellington, Florida.  We smiled.  God smiled.

It’s now 11:59 p.m.  This birthday will be one I never ever forget as my family and I are getting ready to start this new chapter in a little over a week.  Thanks to all of you who are praying for our family.  Thanks for reading our story.  It's only the beginning.  Keep believing in your story…

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  Jeremiah 29:11

Whenever & Wherever

Whenever and Wherever...those have been the words that Mel and I have been praying to God over the past several months.  We said that we were ready to go whenever he wanted us to, and would go wherever he wanted us to.

Fast forward to today.  Through an incredible set of events over the past 2 months that could have only been orchestrated by God, Mel and I are moving because Monday evening I accepted a position with Life Church (www.lifechurch.tv) in Wellington, Florida!

I would love to tell you everything that has happened over the past few weeks that has led up to this, but if I wrote everything down I would have to sell it on Amazon because it's enough information to write a book.  I would, however, love to tell you the story personally, so call me, tweet me, facebook me, or just wait a few weeks and you can come visit me on the beach and I'll fill you in!

God has amazed me with his love.  I don't deserve it...none of us do...but he's ready to give it if we will just be willing to take the first step of faith.

Tell God you're ready and take a step of faith.  Be careful though...He may just AMAZE you.

Looking forward to the next chapter...B