Perfect Timing

I love preaching and serving Christ like an Armenian and sleeping like a Calvinist. The mission that He has called me to at this point in my life has been completely joyous and completely frustrating. Over the past month we have seen a dead church in Uptown begin to wake up, and I have also experienced some of the thickest spiritual warfare in my life. I know that God has great things in store for us in New Orleans because of the attacks that we have encountered.....I will unpack these at a later time.


Paul encourages us to "rejoice in our sufferings". This is easier said than done. Christ doesn't promise us a limo ride. In fact, if you are serving Christ and you are "sipping on a martini in a limo" I highly doubt that you are obeying God's call on your life. Satan doesn't give a crap about those who are of no threat to him. When I played college ball, we never spent time scouting the bad players. We studied tons of tape on the studs from the opposing team. When the game started, we would do whatever we could to stop the star player from getting in the groove (double teams, elbows, blind-side picks, trash talking, biting, etc.). I was a pretty dirty player (mainly because I was white, thick, short, and couldn't jump). I had to find some way to get an edge. If you are currently experiencing no spiritual warfare, you are NO THREAT TO SATAN. Quit being a sissy, and man or woman up for Christ. This life in Christ is not about you. Act like it.

Why did I title this blog, "Perfect Timing"? Because in the midst of all this warfare (which may I remind everyone that the warfare and persecution that we face in America is nothing compared to some of our brothers and sisters around the world. Go to www.persecution.com and get a dose of reality. Mourn, weep, rejoice, and pray over the names. God's glory is being proclaimed through the suffering of man), God has given my wife, brother, and I a gift. We are leaving this Monday to join my dad's church in Israel. We will be in Israel for over a week. Here is the trips itinerary:

Day 1-Depart USA
Day 2-Arrive Tel Aviv
Day 3-Tel Aviv, Joppa, Caesarea, Megiddo, Nazareth, Tiberias
Day 4-Tiberias, Sea of Galilee, Capernaum, Caesarea, Philippi
Day 5-Tiberias, Beit She'an, Gideon Springs, Amman
Day 6-Amman, Petra, Aqaba
Day 7-Aqaba, Eilat, Dead Sea
Day 8- Masada, Ein Gedi, Qumran, Jericho, Good Samaritan Inn, Bethlehem, Jerusalem
Day 9 - Mount of Olives, Walking Tour, Gethsemane
Day 10 - Model City, Shrine of the Book, Yad V'Shem, Jewish Quarter, Upper Room, Tomb of King David
Day 11 - Western Wall Tunnel, Jewish Quarter, Mount Zion, Upper Room, Caiaphas' House, Calvary, Garden Tomb
Day 12 - Jerusalem, Back to USA

I am so grateful to God for this opportunity to rest, learn, pray, weep, dream, listen, and refuel in the Holy Land. I am not sure if I had hit my breaking point but it was certainly getting close. God's timing is always perfect. I am praying that Jesus would unleash His presence upon my life as I travel the land where He walked.

Bragging on Jesus!

The picture above is a picture of present day Corinth. The apostle Paul did an amazing work in this area as he spread the name of Jesus and planted a church. I love the passage of I Corinthians 2:1-5. I was directed toward this text in my Proclaiming the Bible class at Seminary. My good friend, Tony Merida, is one of our preaching professors and Dean of the Chapel. He is the Interim Pastor of Temple Baptist Church in Hattiesburg, MS. God is definitely using him to spur me on in the ministry. Anytime he preaches God's Word, I feel like I have never preached in my life. I thank God for surrounded me with people like this. I thank God for pointing me to this passage. Read it a thousand times below.

"And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God."

This was my passage for my first sermon at Valence Church. I titled the message, "Bragging on Jesus". Paul helps us see that this life is not about us, it is all about Christ. I was challenged to remind our church that if we had any hope of making an impact in Uptown, it was going to be because the members of Valence Church understand that this life is not about us...it is all about Jesus. God has definitely humbled me through this opportunity.


I am an extremely independent and self-motivated person. I always have been. Because of this fact in my life, it is difficult for me to accept help from people. But God has completely broken me of this stubbornness. With this new opportunity I have learned two important lessons. First of all, I recognize that I am completely unqualified to be a pastor of a church without the grace and power of Christ. Second of all, I recognize that I am completely dependent upon friends, churches, associations, etc. for help in the rebuilding of this church. This is exactly where God wants me and our church.

Paul reminded the Corinthian Church that he came to them in weakness and fear, and that Christ alone was his strength and power. The Corinthian people had begun to lose sight of the supremacy of Christ. Paul redirected all personal praise to Christ. The city of Corinth was very similar to New Orleans. It could have easily adopted the name "Big Easy". God used Paul in a mighty way in this city. I Corinthians 2:1-5 reiterates that when he came to Corinth, Christ took over.


Holy Spirit, I have to have you within me to equip me to do your work. Brothers and sisters in Christ, I need your prayers and partnership in order to complete the task. My good friend Travis has put up a website for the church, www.valencechurch.com. You can read about our church strategy and plan. Join us as we are going to have a blast "bragging on Jesus".

Pink Church Walls...Are you serious?

Welcome to my new home church. I am the new pastor of this great place and I am having a blast digging up new treasures. Let me show you one of my favorite findings. Check out these pictures. What is wrong with this scene?


THE WALLS ARE FREAKIN PINK! Now, I am not a metro. I don't have much style or fashion sense, but seriously who in their right mind would choose to paint a church pink on the inside. It seriously looks like someone has thrown up Pepto-Bismol all over the place.

I am extremely grateful to the prior pastor who has served at this church for over 12 years. At first I thought it was him and his wife that chose this color. I never built up enough guts to ask them. I didn't want to hurt their feelings. After my research today I found out that I was way off. I was talking with a man who has been a part of the church today and asked him if he knew the story behind the PEPTO WALLS. This is what he told me.

The pink walls came from HOLLYWOOD. Typical. Years ago, they used our church to shoot the movie "RAY". I really didn't believe him, so I ran home and turned on the movie. After I skimmed through the whole movie, I didn't find our church or our stupid pink walls. But then I watched the deleted scenes. The last deleted scene is titled, "Ray's Gonna Burn in Hell". There was our church...packed out and clean with a screaming preacher, choir, robes, organ, and yes...PINK WALLS. Thanks a lot Hollywood! Why don't you come back and help us rebuild and repaint our church.

One case solved...34 cases to go. Next week I will be solving a new case. The case is titled, "Let's see how much crap we can store in one small room." I love this call.

I love these guys!

For fall break, our HIMnI team traveled to South Carolina. It was a great week, but I am exhausted. Thank you to everyone who served as a host and facilitator for us this week. I would like to especially thank my wife who coordinates our road trips. We had a blast leading people in worship. We were at Midtown Fellowship, North Greenville University, Anderson University, Concord Baptist Church, and FBC Spartanburg. God really moved in a mighty way all week. We saw youth and college students ignited towards the mission of Christ. Our prayer throughout the trip was that God's Glory would be proclaimed.

My favorite story from the week (outside of Nathan being pushed into every bush that we came across) was at the end of the week. I was hanging out in the lobby in between services at FBC Spartanburg when a man came up and asked me who was in charge of our ministry team. I thought we were in trouble. He pulled me aside and laid the smack on me. Here is what he said:

"On Friday Night we were at the bonfire. (I spoke at a bonfire for the FBS youth group following a football game, the band didn't play at the bonfire) We are new in town and my four kids don't have a lot of friends yet. One of my kids loves to skate and he really digs the bands look. I was sitting with my wife observing the kids playing. She asked me who was playing with our little girl. I looked up and three guys in your band were throwing a big bouncy ball with her. Nobody has really reached out to her, and my wife and I were kind of choked up to see her so happy. I asked someone who you guys were and they told me that you were a ministry team from New Orleans. I brought our whole family to hear you guys this morning. God really spoke to me through your group. Your brother (Greg) spoke out of Galatians and challenged us to expand the table of Christ and reach out to people who are not like us. Thank you for being real. You guys don't just talk and play, you walk it."

I was more proud of our ministry team at that moment then any other time. When I shared this with the guys, they redirected to God and His Glory.

Thank you God for yoking me with a team that TALKS and WALKS.

Starting a New Journey

Growing up I was never exposed to church planting. I was never discouraged from the method, it just never crossed my path. When I moved to New Orleans in the spring of 2004, I attended a church planting conference that was led by a guy named Ed Stetzer. Check out his blog at www.edstetzer.com. He is a missiologist and one of the lead dudes in understanding the church today. His talk on church planting rocked my world. I was exposed to the fact that one of the most effective ways to make disciples of all nations was to plant a church. God lowered the boom on my life and revealed that part of His plan for my life was to start a church. This began a new journey for me.

Well...Katrina hit, I went back to South Carolina for a while, and then returned to New Orleans ready to plant a church. I contacted the local association and told them about God's call upon my life but that I really had no clue what I was doing or thinking. I started working for MissionLab in New Orleans as well as launching a ministry called Ignite Mission and God shut the door on my plans to start a church. It wasn't an issue of whether or not I was going to plant a church, it was more of an issue of when God wanted me to plant a church. Timing really is everything. Not from the standpoint of finding the right time according to the world's clock, but responding to the right timing according to God's clock. As a believer and follower of Christ, I pray that I always act upon His timing and plan. I trust completely in the sovereignty of God.

I thank God for the way he shut that door. I have had a blast serving with MissionLab and Ignite Mission. God's glory is being proclaimed in the city of New Orleans in an amazing way through both of these ministries. Serving with them has allowed me the opportunity to learn the city of New Orleans, grow in my faith in Christ, and fall in love with the people of New Orleans. In particular, Uptown.

My smokin-hot, beautiful wife, Annabeth, has worked in Uptown since we have been in New Orleans. She has taught me so much about loving the people of New Orleans. She has been an amazing witness and testimony for Christ in that area. As she has loved people in Christ and introduced me into their lives, we have fallen deeply in love with the people of Uptown.

In the spring of 2005, we joined up with a new church plant called Sojourn. This was truly sent by God. For the first time in my life I was exposed to what it takes to plant a church. I have a lot of love and respect for James Welch and his family who sacrificed everything to come to New Orleans and spread the love of Christ. We focused upon the people of Uptown, in particular those who are artistically gifted. Now this was completely new territory for me. I am a retired jock. The only thing that I can do artistically is draw a teenage mutant ninja turtle. Which, if I might say, is pretty dang good. But this experience was preparing me and stretching me in my understanding of true missional living.

Throughout this past summer, God really began to place upon my heart a passion to plant a church in Uptown. At the end of the summer, our ministry put on a prayer conference called Out of Range. That Saturday morning, we facilitated an opportunity to prayer walk in the city. I went with my family and close friends to prayer walk in a specific area in Uptown around a dying church called Valence St. Baptist Church. We prayed for God to open and shut doors. God’s Spirit led me to pray and request boldly for Him to utilize us in this specific area.

Picture is of Valence St. Baptist Church Right After Katrina

A couple of weeks later I was in Uptown studying on a Sunday Morning. I ate some breakfast at Slim Goodies and then made my way to CC’s to study all afternoon. I passed by Valence St. Baptist Church at 11:15 and decided to check out what their service was like. I walked into a gathering of 6 people. No one talked to me until the end of the service when the pastor (Rev. Cipriano Stephens) explained to me that if I wasn’t a Christian I couldn’t take the Lord’s Supper. This was a great lesson for me. I had never walked into a service as a lost person and it gave me some great insight. I let him know that I loved Jesus and we took the elements. I approached the pastor and shared with him boldly that I believed that God has called me to this area and that this church could be better utilized for the Gospel of Christ. His wife yelled, “AMEN!” He invited me to be their youth minister. I rejected his offer but asked him if we could get coffee.

Two coffee meetings later, Pastor Cipriano handed me the keys and constitution to the church. He and the other members had been praying for years that God would send someone to lead the church and they believed that myself and the other team of pastors were their answer to prayer. Jack Allen, Page Brooks, Andrew Arthur, and their families have joined the pastoral team to re-launch this church. We have a core team of people who are excited missionaries and committed to the rebirth of a church. This Tuesday Night I will be voted in as the next Senior Pastor of the church. It is our plan to spend from now till next fall rebuilding & restoring, writing a new constitution, developing and training a core team, learning and loving the culture in Uptown, preaching and teaching the Word, and then launching the new church next fall. God seems to be placing the right people in the right place.

I am blown away by all of this. God is so far ahead of us. I am learning with great desperation to put my complete faith and trust in his power, authority, and grace. Why in the world would God choose to use me in this way? Why in the world would I think that God could use me in a way that is different from anyone else who has tried to start a church in New Orleans? I really don’t have an answer for any of these questions. I am absolutely freaking out on the inside, but God is giving me the peace to remain calm on the outside. I have no clue what God has for us, but I know that He has called us, empowered us, and sent us out to this mission. This church is going to make a significant impact for Christ in New Orleans.

John 6 is one of my favorite passages in Scripture. Jesus demands from His followers complete faith and trust in Him. He presents a difficult teaching and without much explanation offers them an opportunity to leave. In a way I feel like Christ has given me this opportunity many times. Christ has turned to me and said, “You can either accept this mission or reject it. Your not that special, but I am choosing to use you if you surrender to me.” A lot of people in John 6 turn away and no longer followed Christ. But the disciples (with Peter as their spokesman) reply that although they don’t understand, they surrender and are committed to Him. I love Peter’s response, “To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that You are the Holy One of God.”

God is not looking for talent, charisma, knowledge, understanding, etc. God is looking for people who are willing to completely trust in Him. Lord, this church and mission is yours. I accept your mission and I am utterly dependent upon your Spirit to lead and direct as we make disciples in New Orleans and beyond. Use your church to bring GLORY TO YOUR NAME.

Relevant, Emergent, Emerging?

Since my brother and I have embarked on ministry in New Orleans, we have taken a lot of heat from Christians (in particular conservative southern baptists). Because I refuse to dress like a modern day Pharisee and connect with another dead ministry in this city, I am all of a sudden labeled postmodern, relevant, emergent....whatever. In one of my classes, I have never spoken out against anything that has been taught (Sunday School, Backyard Bible Clubs, WMU, boy scouts), but the professor spends almost every class trying to convince me not to run from the Lord by leading people to Christ outside of Sunday School. I think that Mark Driscoll from Seattle is one of the most powerfully anointed church leaders in the world today. His talk this past week at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in spot on. Take time to listen to his examination of these three new parties in the church world today. I love his analysis and overview. I love how he attacks his critics in love and also how he points his listeners to Jesus.

Mark Driscoll's Message

Mark talks about the fact that what he cares about the most is what Jesus cares about most. It is all about Jesus. Although I am still working out a lot of my convictions, I strongly agree with him in this aspect. Jesus cares about absolute truth and He cares about whether or not His followers are passing that truth on to a lost and dying world. How do you do this? There are endless possibilities without compromising absolute truth. In Acts 17, Paul goes into Athens and sees the idols. His heart breaks over the fact that the people are lost and bound for hell. He anguishes and examines how he can share the Jesus story in a way that would connect the truth with that culture. He goes, sees, loves, and speaks truth. This is called being MISSIONAL. Wake up people! See what is going on in our world. Not every culture looks like Bible Belt USA.

Last night I was hanging out at Nacho Mama's on Magazine with one of boys that I am discipling in Uptown. We sat at the bar (yes I sit at the bar) and I got to talk with Chase (the bartender). Chase is a beautiful person that is completely confused. She hates religion, respects Jesus, hates Christians, wants to be Buddhist, but loves to sing and dance. We actually have a lot in common. I know this might be a shock to you, but Chase might not come to Christ in a WMU meeting. I know that within my tribe (SBC) the majority of churches are dead or dying. I really could care less whether you sing hymns or praise music, have sunday school or home groups, where suits or t-shirts. If people come to know Christ at your Sunday School class, Praise God! But to say that your methods are the only effective methods is as arrogant as Terrell Owens in an interview after a football game. All of this is so pointless. What matters most is whether or not people are coming to know Christ as Savior and Lord.

When I moved back to New Orleans, I noticed that as a whole (there are a lot of great things going on)...people are not coming know Christ. Do your sunday schools, WMUs, and back yard bible clubs. If they reach people, Praise God! If they aren't reaching people, may God forgive you for being so stubborn, selfish, and sinful.

I am starting a new journey this week. I will share more about it in my next blog. God has shown us great favor in a place where there is very little evangelical presence. He has led me and a team to start a new church by revitalizing an old church. I call it replantilization. We have the keys and the old church constitution. The name of the current church is Valence St. Baptist Church. It is in the heart of Uptown on the corner of Magazine and Valence. Pray for us. Come and help us. Send us money. I am completely dependent upon Christ, because I don't have a clue. As this journey begins, I really don't care about the method. All I care about is seeing people in this area come to Christ. If Sunday School is the most effective way (which I doubt), then bring it on.

Check Out Dad's New Book!

I am proud to pimp out my dad's new book. He is the senior pastor at FBC Spartanburg, SC . Dad preaches to thousands of people in Spartanburg and millions of people on TV with The Encouraging Word. He is my dad, mentor, hero, and best friend. You can listen to his sermons and order this book and others that he has written at www.theencouragingword.org.

Below is a description of his latest book, "The Absolute Certainty of Life After Death".

Description of the Book:

Most people are intrigued by the subject of life after death. Whether in the classroom, at a local church revival or over a cup of coffee, people are wondering what happens when we die. Many of the same questions are asked over and over again:

• “What happens the moment you die?”
• “Will we see our loved ones in heaven!”
• “Where, exactly, do we go?”
• “Do dead people know what’s going on here on earth?”
• “How can a loving and merciful God send people to hell?”

Don Wilton looks at these questions and more in this book, a modern retelling of the Biblical story of the rich man and Lazarus. Set in Texas and New Orleans, this fictional story traces the contrasting lives of Albright A. Rhodes, a multi-millionaire and Billy Bob Malkmus, a homeless beggar, from birth to death....and beyond.