A-M-A-Z-I-N-G

Last weekend we had the incredible honor of hosting our first (of many hopefully) youth conference with David Perkins and the desperation band.

Our church was literally filled with young people from all over the country desperate to encounter God. The reason I love these guys so much is that they are the real deal spiritually speaking. They don't do these to make money, get famous, or "put on a rock show", everything is about getting young people to consecrate themselves and see Jesus for who He is and not what we often make Him.

Every speaker, session and worship set was specifically designed to bring young people to a deeper place with Jesus and it was happening!!! I am so excited about the fruit that was not only produced, but will remain in the hearts of our youth here. If you were not here, DO NOT miss next year, and hold on tight for what God is doing!

Although it was a huge huge honor to be asked to teach a workshop at the conference, that was quickly overshadowed when I was called on stage during the final band set on saturday night. They handed me a maraca and I instantly transformed into a full blown rockstar!!! The last two songs had an entirely different anointing and power once Jerry got my maraca in the mix. People could not believe what a difference it made and how naturally skilled I was at playing it. I even heard Jon Egan mention prodigy and my name in the same sentence. The line for autographs was still out the door at midnite so I signed my last maraca and had security escort me back to my limo at about 2:30. I spent the night updating my "MYSPACE" profile to include played in the band with desperation and leeland, and my agent/wife should be booking something any minute for me. I know this is going to open huge musical doors for me, but I assured my youth group where my loyalties lie. No way I would EVER leave unless an offer came. :)jk

I included this youtube video for a couple of reasons. 1. jared Anderson is hilarious, incredibly humble, and gifted as were all the desperation band members. 2. I love that it's in front of a group of college students
3. after going "my way" for 24 years before Christ, this song has become an anthem of mine.
4. the vocals are amazing!!!!!!! enjoy

ps. I'm sorry there are no pictures of me playing the maraca, but it happened. I wish I had it on film, but the impact it made on everyones worship experience was certainly undeniable.

Unity continued

in order to remedy the situation and spread unity, Riverside was nice enough to let me change the sign for a day:)

U-N-I-T-Y--

Can you believe this church sign?!! I saw it on the way to work.Maybe instead of singing old hymns, they should be listening to queen latifah!! These sort of vicious attacks can't be what Jason Upton was talking about when he said "we are one in the spirit, we are one in the Lord!" Hopefully we can rise above........

do you think I should call them?

the neighbors pool

I do not envision myself as one who could successfully operate his own pool. Judging by the rose bush and other botched attempts at shrubbery in my backyard, I'm quite confident that any body of water left in my long term care would quickly become a cesspool or delicate ecosystem for the breeding of frogs and other amphibians. Each year when our 15 dollar walmart kiddie pool becomes dirty, my answer is to add bleach and/or fabric softener and call it good. Kendra always suggests emptying it and starting over, but that takes way to much time.

However, having a neighbor with a pool is quite another story. The neighbors pool requires zero "Jon" influence. Nothing is required of me but to cross the street with the girls, bring my own towels (its the least I can do) and have my wife the non-swimming wuss take pictures:)I love you Kendra!

If you have a pool that is under your care and the bottom is still visible to the naked eye, I commend your efforts. If not, I highly recommend a neighbor pool over most other options.

summer slam!

Last wednesday the 18th was the kick off of our combined night of youth service for both jr and sr high schoolers. The plan was to do the services back to back with jr. high starting at 6:30 and sr high at 7:30. To rally everyone around it, we had a jousting event for the middle schoolers and a mechanical bull for sr high. Only one serious injury was sustained unless you count the injured pride of those that I whupped at jousting. A girl was thrown off the bull and instead of rolling over, she sat up straight as a board and the bull head rotated around and whacked her pretty good on the noggin. I think the sound (which was pretty loud) of it hitting her made it worse than it really was, but she was a good sport about it. Once we mopped up her skull fragments, we got right back into it. KIDDING!!!!! She Was fine I said!!

Anyways, I did a sermon called eternal realities to help young people understand that every moment of our lives is precious and the decisions we make today are affecting our futures. I had two doors on the stage, one that said "my way", and one that said God's way. I then briefly communicated five eternal truths from the bible.
1. God made you to love you and wants you to love Him back
2. You were created to live forever
3. God has prepared two eternal places
4. YOU choose where you will spend eternity
5. there is no second chance when you die.

Next week we will look at the reality of hell, and end on a high note (no pun intended) and discuss heaven.

To emphasize the point of our lives being fragile, I had some pall bearers carry me on to the stage in a casket which we borrowed from our generous friends at langeland funeral home. It was a little creepy being locked and carried in it and I would just as soon be dead before the next time! Who says church can't be fun?

Over all it was a great night, students made decisions to follow Jesus and had a great time hanging out. Thanks so much to all my leaders who helped pull it off, it will only get smoother and I could never do what we do here at rez without you!!

crossing arms

The new thing around the zondervan household is to cross your arms and sort of rock back in forth in disgust when you don't get what you want. No, not Kendra, I'm talking about my daughters:) (every good husband knows that there is never a time when the wife doesn't get what she wants:)

Anyway, I took a few pics my girls doing it and have told them....."stop crossing your arms and get that look off your face!" in my very stern I'm not messing around dad voice. Although it has only been moderately successful, they aren't doing it nearly as often or for as long as they used to (now they pretty much stomp their feet and go to their rooms, but I'm working on that)

We were at walmart yesterday and Addy my two year old noticed the lady in line in front of us had her arms crossed as her items were being scanned. Addy immediately pointed at her and said.....Daddy, she has her arms crossed, she has her arms crossed!! I felt compelled to explain to the lady why this was a big deal and she abruptly uncrossed them to appease my daughter:)

Lastly, as we were checking out, Addy started singing "NO, Jesus loves me, No Jesus loves me, the bible tells me so." I gently mentioned that the correct lyrics were YES, Jesus loves me and the cashier was cracking up:) Very cute moment!

Fathers day

Thanking God this morning for the gift of being a father to my two beautiful girls. As I dream about what their futures will be like, it is hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that my heavenly Father dreams over me. That even though I love my girls with everything I am, He loves me infinitely more. i think about the death Jesus died for me, and wonder what it would be like to offer the life of your child to save someone else. Where does that kind of love come from?
I remember my dad today, and I thank God for the memories I have of him. I am grateful for the grandpa my girls never knew, but I know dad looks down from heaven and smiles at them.
I thank my wife for being my constant support and friend. I would not be near the man I am without you.

I john. 3:1 "Behold, what manner of love, that we should be called the children of God."

This last picture is of my girls waiting by the window for me to drive by on my way to work so they can wave and blow me kisses. This image will often stay in my mind for the whole day:)

crazy stuff

Not sure what your views are on eschatology, but I'm pretty sure that even if this company means well, they have certainly opened themselves up to serious ridicule. Apparently, this website has designed a service that will send a last ditch "get your life right with God" email to up to 62 of your unsaved friends and family in the event that you are raptured up to heaven and they are "left behind." If a group of people employed by the company and strategically placed all over the country fail to log in to their account for six straight days, the rapture has begun and the "get right with God quick" email is launched. All this for only 40 dollars a year!! The kicker to me however, is their attempt to get people to hand over their encrypted financial passwords and statements to them for "safe keeping" so that your life's savings doesn't end up in the hands of the anti christ government.
Anyways, the reason I am posting about it is because i stumbled across another blog that was criticizing it and I was amazed at the hatred expressed toward christians in general (as i said, the site is a bit fishy and deserves some criticism.) There were statement about how all the christians being gone would be like heaven on earth, and how if that happened we would finally be allowed to teach science and save the environment ( i didn't know christians hated the environment). The one that stuck out to me was from a 16 year old who said the world would be better off anyway without all of us judgmental bigoted hypocrites just looking for an excuse to tell me why I deserve hell.
What a terrible tragedy for anyone to depict followers of Jesus in this way, and as I read it, I felt the Holy Spirit convicting me. Not because I have blatantly wished hell on anyone (ok, maybe a few drivers, but i repented) but because too often I don't see like Jesus did. It can become too easy to stand back as a christian and look at people living in sin, homeless, addicted to drugs, committing terrible crimes, and subconsciously think, "why don't they get it?" What is their deal? Or I will get done preaching a message and find students doing exactly the opposite of what we just discussed!!( don't tell my boss that the students don't always listen to me, I keep assuring him they do:) It is in these moments I feel the Holy Spirit remind me of my life before Christ. Where would I be if God had not rescued me? Who am I to judge anybody for not responding when and how I think they should. Please allow me t end this rather long post by sharing three things I believe God re-spoke to me.

1. people (even people whose actions are beyond frustrating) are not the enemy, they are the prize. Eph. 6:12 says our war is not with people, but with the powers of Satan. 2cor. 4:4 says that people have their eyes blinded to truth by Satan and we are called to be salt and light. This doesn't mean people shouldn't be held accountable for their actions, simply that Satan is behind it all.

2. Love needs to be the trademark of every christian. Just like golden arches are to mickey d's and the swoosh is to nike, Christians need to be identified by love. Remember it is the kindness of God that leads us to repentance, (rom.2:4) We are never going to argue and bash someone lost into the kingdom. Am I responding to this broken world in Love?

3. Pray for eyes like Jesus. Matt. 9:36 tells us that when Jesus saw the crowds, he was moved with compassion, not righteous indignation. Jesus saved that for those who pretended to be religious, but with the sinner, he always modeled love and compassion. By no means should we confuse love with tolerance. Jesus told the prostitute caught in the act to go and sin no more AFTER he showed her love. We can't live our lives on a christian soap box telling people to "be like us"


Take a moment to thank God for His unreasonable love and ask Him to make your heart softer towards those who are far from Him. I never want my testimony to be that I loved God, but never stretched my faith to believe that ALL people are in need of what God has so graciously given me.........love, forgiveness, life everlasting.

ava's first dentist appt.

Ava had her first visit with the dentist and she did great. I think the fact she has seen a chiropractor for a while set her at ease because she jumped right into the chair and instantly opened her mouth as wide as she could! The dentist told her she could close it while she put her gloves and mask on to which Ava replied......I have a big mouth:) Ava loved the pink glasses they gave her to shield the brightness of the light and seemed fine having the mirror and pick thing in her mouth.

Instead of taking x-rays for cavities this visit, they put a pink solution on her teeth, had her rinse, and any pink that remained meant there was plaque build up. Of course most of Ava's teeth were quite pink (mom and dad aren't always as diligent with her teeth brushing as we should be). The funny part was that Ava loves pink so much it was difficult to get her to understand that pink teeth were not a good thing! She kept grabbing the mirror and wanting to see them:) The dentist instructed me on the importance of consistently brushing even baby teeth and let Ava pick out a new toothbrush.

the whole ride home Ava kept saying Hey daddy, why did that lady make my teeth pink?

WEEKEND GETAWAY! (SORT OF:)

last weekend, Kendra and I were both super stoked for our couples getaway scheduled for friday and saturday at the Radisson hotel. Those of you with toddlers understand that sometimes you need a little break from the routines to rekindle passion and keep your sanity:)
Despite some setbacks, we had a great time. What setbacks you ask...........

1. wild weather which led to me and my sister getting into the explorer to "chase" a storm and an eventual power outage at our house:( (which we still don't have)

2. There was a greekfest going on in downtown kzoo friday night and of course we had members of the "freakfest" staying in the rooms right next to ours. i had to call security twice in the middle of the night because they were in the hallway being insanely loud and super considerate of other guests in the hotel. I thought my wife was going to go charlie manson on them!! I literally had to calm her down and convince her to let security do their job and that I would be the one to have to handle the drunkards if she went out there.

Anyways, we had a great dinner at a cool restaurant and yes that is a picture of the 24 oz porter house cooked to medium rare perfection that i inhaled in about the time it took kendra to put her napkin on her lap.

thanks Honey for being such a beautiful wife and mother, I love you TONS! (especially when your mad at drunk kids in a hotel hall)

I still Got It!

Long Before I was a blessed to be a pastor at this amazing church, I spent many a year in the food industry. My journey started at Bill knapps (where you cook from scratch and it blows, I means shows) and ended at an italian joint called papa vino's. I don't get a chance to show off my skills much anymore (my kids live on mac and cheese and raman noodles), but yesterday at our youth service i unveiled my latest cuisine.
Last wednesday i did a sermon out of james 3 and the power of the tongue so i went to a local butcher to pick up a cow tongue for affect. After putting it in the face of screaming teen girls, I promised the kids this week that I would cook it for them to eat.
I looked a recipe up on the internet and shocked my self and others by how good it was!!! it tasted just like a beef roast!!

Anyway, my camera died after only one picture, but I think it captures the essence of the moment.

ps. the hat was from a lady who works in the hardings meat dept. i told her I needed it and promised to give it back. She let me have it:) I guess I must just look Honest!

recipe for a heart attack

take one seemingly safe brick style ranch home complete with basement stairs
add one oblivious to the world 2 year old
stand in your kitchen calmly drinking a coke zero
watch as your two year old declares she is going to get her ball and falls down the entire flight of stairs
scream like a maniac as you helplessly watch the event unfold in what seems like super slo-mo



yes its true,
for the second time in about 2 weeks, Addy fell down the stairs. Last time it was on a friday when I was in the basement and she was playing on the steps. She tried to turn around and fell down about 6 or 7 steps. Traumatic, but manageable.

This time was insane. Addy was walking toward the stairs to get her ball and had her head turned at Ava who was relishing the fact that she had her ball and addy didn't. Instead of swiveling her head toward the stairs, she remained locked in her "you have a ball and I don't" death stare with Ava. She then proceeded to literally walk off the steps without ever turning to look at them. It reminded me of a pirate walking the plank. she cartwheeled down every single one and sprawled out at the bottom screaming hysterically (or was that me)

Anyways, by the complete grace of God all she had was a bloody lip and a scuffed leg. I walked away with only soiled boxers and a sore throat. I am convinced that praying a hedge of protection around our children daily ( Job 1:8, psalm 91:10-11) has kept our kids safe and I recommend it to every parent.

Thanks for letting me share this with you, this is by far the most traumatic event in our household since Addy basically set our entire kitchen on fire.