2014 Alive Highlights

When we started at Fairview in June, we didn't really know what to expect. Of course we had people rave about the volunteer help that we would have and the dedication and passion that those who served in the student ministry had...but come on, they tell you that everywhere. Well, they weren't lying at Fairview. The passion and heart that we have seen displayed throughout not only the student ministry but the church as a whole has blown our minds! Here are just some of the things that we have seen take place since June in the Alive ministry!

8 SALVATIONS

4 BAPTISMS

135 NEW Guests since AUGUST 20th! 

110 Average Attendance on Wednesday nights!

62 Average attendance in Sunday School (June, 41 Now, 62)

12 Worship leaders (In June we had 3)

166 Twitter followers 300 Instagram followers 

164 Text signal contacts

44 BIBLES given away!

300 Bracelets   215 Tshirts

40 Volunteers!! (In June we had 9!)

Quality Control, Gray Room, Gym added!

$372 in cafe profit towards CAMP scholarships!

Over $1000 donated to Alive Center

Keyboard, Paint, and Futons donated!

Come join in on the greatness that 2015 is about to be! The best is yet to come!

Money in a Ministry Family

PSA: I know this is lengthy ;)

My husband always says "more is caught than taught". Growing up, I "caught" a lot in regards to how to view and manage money. Money is a sticky subject in every aspect of life. Jesus preached A LOT on money and yet we tend to stray away from any conversation or message involving the "m" word. But, if the church (& christian families) don't set the example, who's going to? The world? The world isn't exactly the place where I want my money influences to come from.

As a pastor of a "large" Baptist church that was faithful in giving and saw the fruits of their giving, my parents did okay financially when I was growing up. We lived in a gated "golf-course" community with 5 bedrooms, a pool, a home office, dining room, family room, living room, kitchen, and plenty of house to move around in. We ate out once or twice a week and somehow my parents managed to feed my two ever-growing-athletic-brothers. We never went without things (that were necessities). My sister and I had jobs to buy what we wanted; clothes, jewelry, shoes, movie tickets, and weekend activities. My brothers played sports so my parents didn't make them work. So yes, we had nice things and we had what we needed to live on. What pains me is when people think that pastors and church leaders should live well under their means "to be some kind of example". If you are giving back to the church and not using your money in an immoral way, should it matter to others where your money goes? My parents decided to put their money into a house where their kids could grow up in and our friends wanted to hang out at. My mom always said she'd rather our friends hang out under our roof than for us to be hanging out who knows where. So, they strived to make our home a place that us and our friends wanted to be. And, honestly, I loved being home.

People have always, and will always, choose to spend their money where they see fit. Some spend it on cars, others on weekend vacations, others on expensive schools, some on adopting kids, some on college funds, some on food, some on their kids, etc. I'm saying this because people have their priorities when it comes to how they choose to spend their money and that's OKAY.

We have decided that from day one we are going to instill in Brooklynn that nothing belongs to her/us. Everything we have belongs to our creator. One way we are going to instill this in her is by having "give", "save", and "spend" jars in her room. As long as she tithes and saves, I really could care less where she spends the rest (as long as it's ethical of course).

As a PK and wife, my family has always lived in a "glass house". People like to make assumptions about how we spent/are spending. For example, Hux and I eat out almost every dinner-time meal so they assume we spend money we don't have. 75% of the time, we eat on a gift card or a coupon and we always share a meal and get water. Essentially, for us, it's cheaper for us to eat out (most of the time) It's always so easy (and Hux and I do this, too) to judge how someone chooses to spend their money. raise their family, or run a church. Only God knows the heart of a person and He's the only one fit enough to judge a person's intentions in the decisions that they make. We, as people, never really know the reasoning behind why people do what they do but we like to think we do. Being a part of a ministry family has taught me the importance of not judging another's decisions because we, too, have been judged and watched and it's not fun.

These kind of posts are not meant to say that I'm a "victim" of being in a ministry family. They're more intended to open eyes. You can say I'm passionate about ministry families because I've been in one my whole life, my sister married one, and my brothers want to plant churches/play a role in church programming after college. Ministry families are held to a standard that most are not held to, unfortunately, and always treated differently.

So, lift your leaders and their families in prayer because a lot of their lives revolve around serving yours :-)

A Pastor's Kid to a Pastor's Wife & Back Around

In the past three years, I've gone from being a Pastor's kid to a Pastor's wife and now soon-to-be-mom to a Pastor's kid. When people ask me "what was it like growing up as a Pastor's kid?" I answer with two words, "tough and joyous". Tough when I was a middle schooler who couldn't go to rated-R movies but joyous because life was good for us and God was good to us. I'm going to tread carefully here because some will not agree with me, but that's okay...(does anyone ever agree on anything these days?) There are a couple lot of things that I took to from growing up that I still hold firm to today. At the top rank faith & money (yes, money). I was going to make this all one post but if you're anything like me, you wouldn't read it. Long=skimming. So I'll break it up for you and I and try to be brief-ish.

When it came to faith, my parents never pushed their faith on me but I saw the work God was doing through them as a couple, their ministry at church, and through me and my siblings. That was something that I wanted to be a part of. God was never about religion or head knowledge in our house. Our families relationship with God never had anything to do with rules, regulations, do this & don't do that "because Jesus says so" but had everything to do with a lifestyle of loving Jesus - everything would flow from that! Did they encourage quiet times and sunday service attendance? Of course. Did they make us attend every function the church had when the doors were open? Nope. But we wanted to. Why? Because we loved the church. All four of us loved the church. Of course there were Sundays that we wanted to sleep and play hooky (and sometimes we did, let's be honest) But that didn't take away our love for the church.

So, how did my parents do it? Get us to love the church? Different ways. But now that I'm a Pastor's wife, I believe there was one prominent reason why we loved the church. And it was not because we "loved Jesus" (*gasp*) Here's the secret...my parents never (I honestly mean, never!) talked bad about another church in front of their children. Are there things that other churches did/do that they may not have agreed with? Sure! But did we hear about it? Never. Here's the deal, if you are always bashing another congregation, it will more times than not, put a bitter taste in your child's mouth for church. And not just the church you are criticizing, but every single church, yours included. If my parents had always talked negatively about a church, I guarantee you that I would not have married a minister and risked putting my future children in the "line of fire". Another thing that my dad was very good at was putting his family ahead of his congregation. And yes, there were many people and staff members that didn't agree with his ways. He missed many meetings, Wednesday and Sunday nights, and events at the church to sit at a dance recitals, cheerleading competitions, or baseball games. He was living proof that loving ministry and loving God are not the same thing. The church never dictated his devotion to his family. In turn, leaving me with no resentment towards him or the church!

What it all boils to is this: the Church is the bride of Christ, how do you talk about your bride to others or to your children? If you're a man and you bash your wife or you're a wife and you bash your husband in front of your children or to other people, it's going to put a sour taste in your child's mouth towards the other person. I've been around people who have criticized their husband/wife in front of me and to be honest, it's made me look at that person differently whether their issues were legit or not...but I wouldn't know the difference because I didn't live in their house and see first-hand what the issues really were. Wouldn't it be the same when we talk about the church in the same manner?

Am I perfect at this? Nooo! We all think we know the best ways to run a church or lead a family (even if we've never done it!) However, ever since I've been married and been knee deep in the ministry, I've learned this: If you're a follower of Christ and you preach the bible and yearn to see people move from death to life, we are ALL on the SAME TEAM striving for ONE PURPOSE for ONE NAME! This is what I grew up believing and it has saved my personal-sanity and my church-sanity ;) Think of what could be accomplished if we joined forces as The Church instead of going to battle with The [other] Church(es)!

So, as a soon-to-be-mom, I want Brooklynn to grow up loving the Church and her Church leaders and not grow up being so wrapped up in church skepticism that she loses focus on loving Jesus and what His bride is doing for our world.