INTERACTIVE CHRISTMAS

Interactive Christmas is a way for us to reflect and think upon this time for us as Christ followers.  How do we interact with the story of God coming to Earth?  Do you spend time reflecting on how God has pursued us - took on flesh - the ultimate gift of love and redemption or do we just look for what is in it for us and get caught up in the busy times and fly through this time.  

Let us pause and reflect today.

Grace and Peace

WNL VIDEO PREVIEW

HERE IS A SNEAK PEAK AT A VIDEO CREATED FOR WEDNESDAY NIGHT LIVE

Reflections Of A White Boy

For the last month I have been reflecting, and wrapping my mind around the hate that can stem from the human heart toward another. How does one get to the point where they would be willing to kill someone else based on race? What does that process look like? Did it just happen overnight? Did they wake up one morning and decide I am going to hate a race of people with every fiber in me?

My heart and mind have been on this journey. I have been exploring parts of my own heart concerning race and as I have engaged this issue I have come to some conclusions but to be honest I have a lot more questions than I do answers concerning the matter of racism.

This is my story and my learning experiences. I encourage everyone to enter their own journey of exploration. This is just my story - what is yours?

The first time I started asking questions about race was in Englewood, Chicago. The year was 01' I was in college and moved into a mission that was working in the neighborhood of Englewood. I was undergoing an urban studies program for the summer. So here I am this small town white boy in a big city and nothing is familiar - it was safe to say I was out of my comfort zone. Englewood was notorious for being a rough neighborhood with the highest homicide rate. The neighborhood was a low income neighborhood and around 95% of the people in the area were African-American.

The first day of my internship at a local after school program I got a first hand education on life. I got on a bus feeling a little out of place. The neighborhood had a lot of gang activity, the school system was run down, their weren't a lot of high paying jobs but their were a lot of liquor stores. Over the next few months I asked a lot of questions: Where is the hope for the people living in Englewood? How can one get off welfare if they have a poor education if any and no real paying jobs? I started to see things a little different.

My perspective went from a THEM mentality to a WE mentality. I started to feel that if they don't succeed than I don't succeed.

See this is opposite of everything I ever heard growing up. I heard that the people in the "ghetto" were lazy that's why they couldn't get out of their situation.

It is easy to make generalizations and point fingers when you have never lived in the situations the people in Englewood face daily. I started to realize I had racist tendencies and stereotypes that had been built up over the years.

My views started to shift when THEY became people with names, people with stories.

Fast forward to present day. I spent an afternoon in downtown Birmingham at the civil rights museum. As I walked through the institute I was broken by how much hatred, ignorance, and oppression there was. How can someone hate someone so much?

As I walked through the park across the street I saw a statue of two teens getting sprayed by fire hoses. I wondered what was racing through their mind that day. I also thought about how these young teens were probably still alive today and what would they have to say now.

In world war 2 the nazis setup concentration camps to eliminate Jews, Gypsy's, and many other minorities. I was watching this clip from Band of Brothers where the soldiers are liberating one of these camps. They thought the men were prisoners of some kind and soon discovered that they were musicians, teachers, tailors who were Jewish.

So how did this happen. It started with jokes. Blame. Discrimination. It was a process of hate.

The sad thing as I watched the clip I realized that some of those soldiers would go back to the states and see the same thing happening here and not make the connection. African-Americans were being treated in a similar way but we justified it.

We have come a long way. There is still a long way to go though.
Just after the election I heard someone say they were going to throw an assassination party. We still have a long way to go.

Hate is harder when the race becomes a name and the name becomes a story, and the story relates to ours.

Grace and Peace to you all.

The big idea: What kind of world do you want to live in? What does the end product look like? Now, how can you be part of the solution?

WEDNESDAY NIGHT LIVE

THE FIRST WEDNESDAY OF EVERY MONTH VERTIGO IS GOING TO HOST WEDNESDAY NIGHT LIVE.  WE ARE GOING TO HAVE FREE FOOD, LIVE SKITS, MUSIC, VIDEOS, AND V.I.P. SEATING FOR THE PERSON THAT BRING THE MOST NEW FRIENDS.  THE EVENT STARTS AT 6:15 AT THE CHURCH AT TUSCALOOSA [6120 watermelon road].  HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE.  

Perspective Addition 2

S.H.A.P.E. Notes

1cor 12:6 “God works through different ways, but it is the same God who achieves his purpose through them all.”

SPIRITUAL GIFTS

Read 1 corinthians 12

Read Romans 12

God has given us gifts to serve others - they are to be used in love to benefit others.  I would encourage you to take a spiritual gifts test.  The only way to grow in your gift and discover you gifts is to step out and serve.

HEART

What tugs at your emotional strings?  Is it poverty, injustice, racism, abuse, divorce, etc.  The goal is to identify what you are passionate.  What you want to see changed in this world.  God has put that passion in your heart for a reason.

ABILITIES

We all have abilities that come pretty natural to us.  

Whether it is designing, building, speaking, organizing, music, etc.  What are you abilities?  

PERSONALITY
How you relate to others:
Outgoing------------------X------------Reserved
Self-Expressive -------X-------Self-Controlled
Cooperative------X------Competitive
How your relate to opportunities:
High Risk ------X------Low Risk
People Driven -----X-----Project Driven
Follow----X-----Lead
Team----X-----Solo
Routine----X-----Variety

EXPERIENCES
2 corinthians 1:3-4
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

Story of Joseph Gen 37-50
Betrayed by brothers ---> Rose to become 2nd most powerful in Egypt
Sold into slavery ----> Saved the lives of millions during famine
Thrown into prison -----> Never forgot that God was in Control

Genesis 50:20 “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”

STRENGTHS

We are taught that we are all to be really well rounded people.  People with no weaknesses.  The reality is that you will never become great at what you are weak at - you may become descent.  You will grow the most in the areas of your strengths.  When you bring the report card home maybe you have 5 A's and a D.  Where do we want to focus our energies?  You guessed it the D.  Maybe we need to start paying attention to what we are strong at and focus our time in those areas.

Throughout the week identify the times when you felt energized doing something.  Where time flew by.  Then write it down whatever you were doing.  Start to see patterns, be specific.

Now you can be good at something and it not be a strength.  Weakness is anything you do that after doing it you feel drained.  Not just because of physical exhaustion - you feel drained.

8 out of 10 people don't like what they do and don't use there strengths daily.

Sarah Klinedinst: My Story

Here is Sarah's story that we put on video. Great job Sarah we are so proud of you.

S.H.A.P.E.

What is your unique God given shape?  

Over the course of the last 5 weeks we have looked at:

Spiritual Gifts

Heart

Abilities

Personality

Experiences

In the next couple days I will post the notes from this last month and post them for you to refer back to.

$450 in change

Vertigo raised loose change in the month of October.  The students were able to raise $450 in one month just by collecting loose change.  The money is donated to Blood Water Mission and is used to dig wells for clean drinking water in Africa.  Great Job.

The Vine Experience

Here is the image of our vine experience.  Living life connected with God.

DO LOVE MOVEMENT

The DO LOVE movement has officially launched today. Check out the blog at www.dolovemovement.blogspot.com

Perspective Newsletter

Bi Monthly I will release a newsletter entitled "perspective" - it will be looking at youth culture through my perspective. The goal is to encourage, inspire, inform, and engage the youth culture for the better. I have released the first edition and you can find it at www.churchattuscaloosa.com/vertigo then click on the perspective icon. I have also added the image below.

Habits Updated

Habits Updated

We are creatures of habit. Habits can be a good thing or a bad thing - so we want to be pro-active in getting in the groove of practicing Habits that will change our lives.

We have had a "developing habits that will change your life" part of our vertigo website. These spiritual habits will challenge your walk with God and usher you into a new way of living life with God.

Go To www.churchattuscaloosa.com/vertigo Then click the Habits icon - read and then apply

Mexico Pics

Here are a couple of images from mexico.

Last Ministry Day

Hey Everyone,

  This will be my last post since we are leaving tomorrow morning.  We will be heading for the border at around 9:00 am so if you think about us during that time pray that everything goes smoothly.  Tomorrow we are heading to south padre Island to spend some time on the beach then we are heading to Houston for the night and I am anticipating us being back around 8:oopm on Saturday.  

  Tuesday started with more frustrating rain showers.  We were unable to go into the colonia for the 2nd straight day.  Instead God had us here at the Gateway where we did some much needed repairs and construction helps.  We patched holes, put beds together, and did a bunch of small tasks.  God reminded me especially today that he is in control and he knows what he is doing.  My expectations of how I thought the trip should go and what we should do were getting in the way so we all released those to God.  We had a great group time of sharing and lifting each other up which we were blessed to have that.

  Wednesday.  GLORIA DIOS we finally got to leave the Gateway although we were still unable to go into the colonia we were supposed to be working with we did manage to get to some local villages where we did a prayer walk/home visits in.  We got to play with the kids and spend some time inviting children to our VBS later that day.  We prayed with some families and handed out some Bibles.  That afternoon we had a VBS where we had around 35 kids come out. It was so great to be able to do that.  We played some games, sang songs, learned a bible verse, had a skit, a testimony, an invitation, and a craft.  The group was so much fun and it was hard to say goodbye to the children.  

That night I signed our group up to do some work on a local school that has been shut down for a couple years and they want to re-open it so the children don't have to bus to a different part of town.  We bought some supplies and started the process of making a walking path from the road to the school.  We stopped working around 9:00 pm we were tired, and sweaty but it was great to spend our left over energy on that.

Thursday was so amazing.  We made it to our colonia and our group got to see God at work in some really incredible ways.   We started with A.T.L. which stands for Ask The Lord.  We sat for about 15 minutes and just waited on God to speak to us and direct us as in what to do (something we should do everyday but never do).  God gave us some specific pictures.  We split up and some picked up trash and visited two homes that came into our minds.  We were able to witness to a Jehovah's witness who was very confused about his faith and had a lot of questions. We ended our conversation with him connecting with our local pastor.  The other group got a chance to pray with a man that had been in a coma and has show little signs of progress.  He just recently moved his head.  During prayer the man gripped Will's hand something he had not done before.  Will had a picture of a kid that was hunched over like an old man and didn't know what that image meant.  Then they were talking with a family and the boy had just had surgery in his intestines and he was not able to stand up straight but was hunched over like an old man.  How incredible is our God.  

We also got to play some soccer and visit a hospital and pass out water and pray for people.  Tonight we will continue to work on the school and say our goodbyes.  God is working in each of our lives in very specific ways and we are so thankful to be called his.  

Grace and Peace

See you soon

Tuesday - patched walls, put beds together

Wednesday - 

Thursday

Sunday & Monday In Mexcio

Greetings From Matamoros,

   Sunday was a great day.  We spent some time in the market where the students got a chance to barter for the prices.  We then met with the Pastor whose name happens to be Jesus.  The church is being built right now and doesn't have a roof so we had to meet in his house.  He shared his testimony and we sang songs and enjoyed some great food.

   It has been non-stop rain since we have arrived in Mexico.  Today we woke up to rain showers which has caused a lot of flooding throughout Matamoros.  We were unable to go into our colonia (neighborhood) because the roads are flooded and transportation would be difficult let alone dangerous.  We had to improvise a little so our group headed to a huge super market where we stood outside and made balloon animals, ushered people to and from their cars with umbrellas, and passed out fresh water to people.  

Every night we have our group meeting where we brag on each other about things we saw other doing that we were inspired by.   During the meeting we had an amazing sharing time where we looked each teen in the eye and reminded them how loved they were and that God reminds them to be strong and courageous in the Lord and that he is with them.

I am continually asking God what he wants to do in us and through us here and trusting that in spite of the rain God has a great plan.

Lord willing we will minister in the colonia tomorrow

Grace and Peace

Arrived In Matamoros

We have made it here safely in Mexico.  We crossed the border today at around 2:30 pm.  We had no problems with customs.  On the way here there was really bad rain which made the road conditions pretty bad.  A car not more than 100 yds in front of us hydroplaned and flipped over a couple times landing in the median.  We were the first on the scene and were able to safely get the husband (the driver) out of the truck.  We had to wait to move the wife as she had some pain in her side.  It was a miracle no one was severely injured.  We were glad to be there so quickly to help calm them and call for help.  

Tonight we have a training and dinner - the day starts tomorrow as we go into Matamoros and have church in our local colonia.  We can't wait to start the week and are eager to stop the driving and start the loving.  

Grace and Peace

ERIC

Arrived Safely In San Antonio

Hello All,
The team and I have arrived safely in San Antonio. We are staying the night again tonight (july 4th). Today we toured the city: we walk the river walk, saw the Alamo, and had lunch in the market place. We even had a Mariachi band dedicate a song to us. We will be leaving tomorrow morning to go to Brownsville, Texas where we will cross the border. I hope to update this blog at least 3 times while on the trip.

Dios Le Bendiga
God Bless You

CHARACTER SERIES

We are wrapping up our series on character and as we do wanted to post a couple of details on the series in case you wanted to go a little deeper with it.

Visit www.deadlyviper.org
These are the guys that have made the videos that we have been watching they also have a book and an updated blog as well as a forum.

Girl Guy Week 5

Girl Guy Week 5 - Redeem

Gen 25:27-34

Jacob & Esau were twin brothers in the O.T. and Jacob was the 2nd born. Isaac the father loved Esau and Rebekah loved Jacob (can you feel the tension in the story). One day Esau comes in from the fields and is "dying" of starvation. Jacob had just whipped up some red stew (which I am sure was delicious). Esau "dying" of hunger wants some stew - Jacob recognizes his advantage over his brother in the moment and says if you give me your birthright then I will give you this stew.

To fully understand this we have to understand what the birthright meant and why it is a big deal. Isaac the father had become very wealthy and had lots of possessions, land, and animals. The oldest male had a birthright to inherit this from the father. So this wasn't just a beat up old horse that he would get it was riches beyond what any one man could dream of. It also entailed a blessing from the father before his death.

So when Esau hands it over for some stew we have to wonder what he was thinking. Why would someone trade something so valuable for something like stew?

Now think about sex, marriage, and the way God intended things to be. How often in our culture do we settle for stew instead of the thing God had in store for us? As teens sometimes it is so easy to just see a couple minutes, hours, days in front of you and base what you do off that - instead of realizing that God has so much more in store. His design is so much better but we often don't think ahead we just live for the what will please me right now.

Our culture tells us that if you are attracted to someone then you should connect with them physically and then emotionally, socially, and spiritually. The way of God is to connect spiritually realizing that brings everything else in perspective that is the foundation to go off of. Then socially, emotionally and lastly physically joining together.

What happens when you connect physically but then you don't connect on the other levels? Or the physical appearance changes? What then?

Read Psalm 51 - David had just been caught trying to cover up his mistake of just wanting to connect with the physical then he tries covering up his adultery and ends up killing off the husband of the woman he cheated with. Psalm 51 is as raw as they get - you can almost picture David before God pleading with him - desiring to be restored - true repentance desires God more than getting away with something or not having consequences.

We can all be restored - we all choose stew sometimes - let us be the type of people that choose the way of God over the stew.

GUYS & GIRL MONTH READING LIST

I thought I would put on her some of the reading that I would recommend if you wanted to go a little further with what we have been talking about. So here it is: : :

Specifically Written for Teens:

What Almost Nobody Will Tell You About Sex: By Jim Hancock and Kara Eckmann Powell

Sex 180: The Next Revolution: By Chip Ingram & Tim Walker

Dateable: Are You? Are They? : By Justin Lookadoo & Hayley Dimarco

For Guys:
Every Young Man's Battle : By Stephen Arterburn & Fred Stoeker

Wild At Heart: John Eldredge

For Girls:
Captivating: By John and Stasi Eldredge

Advanced Reading: For Teens & Adults
Sex God: by Rob Bell - great book at exploring the endless connections between sex & spirituality

Healthy Vs. Unhealthy

Healthy Vs. Unhealthy Relationships

Relationships are the biggest part of our lives. Usually that is the first place we shut God out of.

1 Cor 13:4-7
"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails."

The interesting thing about this verse is it is referring that you will meet people that are arrogant, rude, envious and to love them will take patience, kindness etc.

Here are some questions to ask to see if you are in a healthy relationship - Do you have healthy relationships with friends, family, neighbors? Ask these questions.

1 Cor 13:4-7
Are you patient with each other?
Are you kind to each other?
Are you never envious of each other?
Do you never boast to or about each other?
Is your relationship characterized by humility?
Are you never rude to each other?
Are you not self-seeking?
Are you not easily angered with each other?
Do you keep no record of wrongs?
Are you truthful with each other?
Do you protect each other?
Do you trust each other?

Now pick a relationship, one with family, friends, opposite sex. What jumps out at you in this verse that you know you are not right in?

Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with ACTIONS and in truth."
I John 3:18 (NIV)

John the Baptist said “prove by the way that you live that you have turned from your sins.”

REPENT – for the kingdom of God is near. Repent means to head a different direction, to pull a 180 with where you are right now. The time to change relationships is right now. Shift the direction of them.

RELATIONSHIP INDICATORS:::
Can you speak the hard truth in love?
Do you want what is best for the other person?
Do you manipulate to get your way?
Do you serve each other?
Do others want to hang around you?
Can you spend time away from each other – at an event, or just away – not worried
Do you use the relationship to fulfill your needs or security?

Any type of relationship is only healthy when you go into it wanting to give to the relationship not get something out of it.

Let me bring it home a little. If I was to pull a super nanny on you and tape you 24/7 what kinds of things would I see in your relationships, With Family, Friends, Opposite sex. IF things start jumping in your mind that are not right – yelling, talking behind back, laziness, attitude, tone, --- what needs to change.

Maybe you need to put a stake in the ground tonight and say I want to move from unhealthy to the healthy. I need to ask forgiveness, tell my friends that I haven’t been a good friend. Have a real conversation with my parents, treat my siblings with respect and realize that I need to show love.

Becoming The Right Person

Our culture is obsessed with finding the "right" person we spend millions of dollars on dating services. As I read the Bible I think God is leading all of us to become the right person. God wants to shape our character our stories and our relationships. It isn't so much finding the right person as it is becoming the right person.

Sometimes as teens your decisions aren't based on the future but rather what the next minute has in store or the next hour that is your long term thinking. I want to stretch you to think a little bit further down the road. One day you will be a father/mother, a husband/wife - the decisions you make right now will effect the future. How you date does matter! Who you date matters! Your purity matters! Your marriage will be affected by what you do today, tomorrow, and in the next couple years. Who are you becoming?

Are you Dateable?

The person you are dating right now you will not be married to - let that sink in. The chances are you won’t be married to them - so don't ring shop in your head. How much you invest in this relationship will determine how much it will cost you when you end it.

Questions to ask if you are in a dating relationship:
+Have you said I love you, is your entire schedule shaped around the other person, do you share everything, have you lost good friends because you are constantly with them, do you spend all of your money on them, have you had physical intimacy with them?

If you answered yes to a majority of those questions than you are highly invested and it will take it’s toll when the relationship ends.

How you date will effect your married life

Everyone wants a great marriage right? No one is saying i want my marriage to be horrible and messy and end in a divorce. Think about what you want your marriage to look like.

Every football team wants to be the best and to be the best you have to train the best, you have to work hard, sacrifice, few teams become great because they don’t make the decisions they need to make to become great they aren’t willing to put in the hard work and it shows in the end result.

If you want a great future then you must be willing to live different now. If you live different now you will live differently when you are older.

If the person you are dating does not have the characteristics you are looking for in a future spouse then why would you even waste your time, energy, and emotions on getting to serious.

Our culture is so focused on finding the right person - we spend millions of dollars on services to find compatable people for us to marry, we have tv shows to find love.

I think God is more concerned with us becoming the right person more than finding the right person. If you become the right person you will attract the right person.

If you compromise now why wouldn’t you compromise later

The only way you should be in a relationship is if you are in it not for yourself and filling your needs if you are in it to gain security, to date the hottest girl, to get something out of it it is not a good thing.

Most girls believe lies that they can change him, that he isn’t that bad, that you are better than his last girlfriends, that he will treat you different

So what are you looking for in a spouse?

What Characteristics are you looking for in a future spouse?
Loves the Lord
Spends time with God - developing his character
Has a heart for people
Athletic
Loves to travel
Is wise with Money
Is compassionate
Has a good friend record
Invest in relationships

Are you working toward developing these characteristics as well?

Parenting Conference

It's coming the first parent's conference at TCAT register all parents at www.churchattuscaloosa.com/parentingconference

Girl Guy Month

This month we are beginning the Girl/Guy Month. We are exploring what God intends for us in our relationships with one another. We started by identifying healthy and unhealthy relationships. We will also be exploring your questions on the matter. And entering in on a conversation that explores the deepest truths about our sexuality and how it isn't just a physical thing but goes to the depth our souls - and is a very spiritual thing as well. Maybe you have questions that you can't ask your mama - maybe you are confused - maybe the stuff the culture has tried to sell you on the perfect body, perfect relationship, and the how to's just aren't adding up. Join us in our honest journey of truth.

Your Story

It is important for us as followers of Jesus to identify how God has been working in our life's journey. At vertigo a couple weeks ago we went through an exercise on tracking God's movement through our life's story. How God was redeeming our story, working in our story, and in the midst of tragedy God still was pursuing us. Are you able to share your story? Are you able to share God's story? What is God up to in the world and how does he want to work in you and through you?Your story begins at birth - by writing key events that have shaped your life positive and negative you can start identifying your story. You should be able to share your story with those around you.

Bringing your junk

Last week we looked at things that can destroy us. How things influence us. Some of us have things in our lives that bring destruction and death rather than life. The God life is a life that frees us brings life to us not hindering us. Are the things you are putting in your life good and honorable? Here are a couple thoughts to think through:

Ephesians 5

When you are in the darkness you are Like a radio not in tune - how can you hear what is right. The habit - the Thing is driving you.

Does it bring life or death

Whatever is honorable . .. .Whatever is pure...whatever is right

popping pills - experimenting with intamacy beyond commitment level - rap doesn’t effect me - the movie doesn’t effect me - the images won’t effect my relationships - the magazines i look at don’t effect how i look at my body - my pornography problem is only my problem - i can quit smoking anytime....but that isn't truth those do affect you. They do shape you.

I am here to fight for future not condemn past

Pull a 180 - repent - turn the other direction.

Prayer guide: : :


TONIGHT AT YOUTH WE WILL BURN THE JUNK THAT HOLDS US BACK

HABITS

STUDYING GOD’S WORD - DIFFERENT METHODS
It is important for us to remember that as we read the Bible we are looking for ways to apply the Bible to our lives and how we live out the ways of God in our world. 2 Timothy 3:16 says, it is useful for teaching, correcting, and training the believer in righteous living. Studying without applying - we must apply it.

Before you read the Bible - pray and ask God that he would use his word to speak into our lives, our circumstances, and that we would have the strength to apply it to our day to day lives.

What kind of Bible to get - there are some translations I would suggest for you so you can understand the text the best TNIV, NLT, or The Message (which is laid out like a story) or a parallel Bible which has 2 or more versions laid out right beside each other. I always recommend a study Bible that comes with helpful information on the culture of the times - and useful information.

METHODS -
Quiet Time = If you are looking just to read/apply the Bible by reading a couple verses or chapters at a time. Read over the portion of text that you want to read during that time a couple times. Ask God what he wants to teach you - go back through and look for phrases or words that stick out to you. Then write down how you can apply this text or what you learned.

Context Study = Asking the questions who? what? where? when? why? The Bible was written in a specific time and a place to help us understand the context we must dig a little deeper than just reading over the text. www.followtherabbi.com has some great resources for helping you understand the times of the Bible. You can also you the cross reference in the middle of your pages to see what other text might give background - insight - or are related to the verses you are reading

Topical = in the back of most Bibles there is an index/concordance that list topics and where they are found in the Bible. You can also go to www.gospelcom.com to lookup any words or phrases to see where they are used throughout the Bible. This is helpful if you want to learn about a certain subject and what the Bible has to say about it.