Remembering Our First Camp

4th of July Celebration at Mount Trashmore

It is amazing to step back and see the favor that God has granted us as a church in this community.  I very clearly remember when Awaken was just a dream in my head while Connie and I were still living in Goshen Indiana.  I remember landing in Virginia Beach 6 years ago not knowing a soul feeling a burden to plant churches through the Hampton Roads area that can take the gospel around the world.  Starting out bi-vocational I remember using a GPS to get from home to work.  These past few days God has brought up these memories as I've watched an amazing community at Awaken step up and lead now two of our largest "Branding" and "Bridge" events to the community.  Over the weekend Awaken set up 4 bounce houses, provided face painting, and sack race games for thousands of people who came to our local Mount Trashmore park for the 4th of July fireworks display.  As I watched our incredible volunteers invite thousands of people and their kids to take part in the fun I remembered our first booth which had none of the above with only 2 video game counsels and free water.  Wow how a few years, God's favor, and incredible people at Awaken has changed this.  This we would refer to as a "Branding" event where we are able to just let the community know we are here and want to love and engage with them.

Kid Identification Cards Free to Parents

Following the 4th of July Celebration we began the 6th year of our Free Soccer Camp.  As I watched car loads of kids show up I remembered our first camp we hosted before we even had a public worship gathering.  That first soccer camp maybe totaled 12 kids.  Now hundreds of kids and adults partake every year.  This we would refer to as a "Bridge" event where we are able to begin meeting people over a 4 day camp and make a little stronger connections.



Please be in prayer now as we continue the next 3 days of our camp and then host an awards celebration this Sunday back at the theater we worship in while after providing a free lunch and the classic movie Space Jam.  We would say this is a "Bonding" event where our goal is to help people build stronger relationships both within Awaken and within the community. 

Ages 5-8 at our Community Soccer Camp

Again this week has been a great reminder of all that God has done in the short time we have started Awaken 6 years ago with 3 people in a living room and only a vision and prayer to see people changed for eternity.  Please pray over this week that we are able to continue to build strong relationships with people in the community.  Please pray for all the people volunteering from Awaken and also many friends of people who have come out to help.  Please pray at the end of the day people are brought closer to Jesus and Awaken has deep and lasting impact in people's lives.

RE:Awaken Perspectives: Krisely Regaldo

I found Awaken a few years ago after hearing about them through an info meeting I attended for The Virginia Beach Justice Initiative.  I was shocked to learn  that a CHURCH was actually helping a human trafficking awareness and outreach organization. After all, Human Trafficking, abuse, addiction, and sex aren’t topics that I would normally associate with church outreach.  But sure enough, Awaken was doing something crazy.. it was challenging our city…AWAKENING it.  Awaken says it’s a church for the broken, yet redeemed by Christ's sacrifice.  That’s deep.  It’s hard for someone who’s been hurt, who’s been broken and shamed by a painful past, to stand tall and let their scars be shown; to say “I may have been a broken vessel, but in God’s eyes, I am a masterpiece". 

Everybody has a past, whether we choose to share it and use it as a vessel of hope and mending is up to us.  I completely feel encouraged and blessed to be a part of a church that lets me use my wounds  and battle scars as proof of Gods amazing grace and love.  Gathering the courage to attend my first service at Awaken was scary at first.  I knew I wanted to have a home church, I even did some church hopping with hopes of finding a church that simply just felt right.  But time after time I was let down. With Awaken, I instantly saw a church that wasn’t afraid to step out of traditional comfort and reach out.  I knew right away that Awaken would be a place I could call home.  A place where my family could grow and be challenged spiritually.  

It easy to stand on the sidelines and talk about change, it’s easy to gather and make plans to create change, but to physically reach out to someone and create change takes courage, spiritual strength, and purpose.  This is why I’m so excited to see the impact Awaken will be making through their RE:Awaken 2016 campaign.  Change is scary, stepping out of the norm is scary.  But fear is something that will always be there, “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it”, Nelson Mandela.  I know that together, we can triumph and make an impact despite our fears.

That Kind Of Person

As I think of the heart of Jesus I can't help but think of that kind of person.  You know the blind man Jesus spit in the mud and healed.  Peter, the fisherman who looked and smelled and cussed like your modern day sailor.  Matthew the trader who cared more about swindling people out of money as a Roman Tax Collector then he did his own people.  The woman who married and slept with any man who would show a slight interest in her.  You know that kind of person.  The wee little man hanging out in a tree after swindling even his mom out of her life savings.  This man was so bad he lead the whole group of extortionists.  You know that lady that was caught sleeping around.  When I think about Jesus, I can't help but think of that kind of person because it seemed as though that's who Jesus thought most about too.

But why?  Why would Jesus think of these people?  Maybe a better question why did he always seem to be reaching out to that kind of person?  All I can think of is love.  Love made him do it.  Love made Jesus build a reputation of the King of Misfits.  You know those people who love Rocky Horror Picture show.  Jesus' love for people made him go to extremes to send the life line that so many need.  Love makes you do crazy things.  After all my love for my wife makes me go shoe shopping.  Even though shoe shopping doesn't compare to the extremes Jesus went to in order to share and show His love.

As I think of Jesus' love to that kind of person I scratch my head in disbelief that Jesus' Church doesn't have the same reputation.  Why are we not known as the Church of Misfits?  Why do people believe they need to put things together in their lives to come in?  Why aren't we known for loving that kind of person.  Jesus once stated the greatest of all commands, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.  The second is this Love your neighbor as yourself".

Who do you love?  Jesus was basically saying if you love God you will love people... you will even love that kind of person.  After all aren't we all that kind of person.  Deep inside each of us is the idolater, the adulterer, the greedy swindler, the user, the list can go on and I hope we get the point.  We are the misfits and I pray God breaks my heart for other misfits.  Because if you show me a person whose heart doesn't break for people, I will beg the point that they have lost the heart of Jesus. 

Jesus loved that Kind of Person and I'm glad He did!

Outside the Lines

I feel very blessed for the ministries and churches that I have been able to be a part of and serve with.  From the time that I spent at a great church in Indiana that taught me the value in reaching guys to my home church in Akron, OH where I learned how to deliver God's Word.  The biggest thing that God has taught me over the years and through these ministries however is that the church needs to be outside the walls.  We better not be contained inside four walls and the moment we are we stop accomplishing God's Mission to the World.

This past week we finished our fourth year of hosting a free soccer camp for kids in the community.  I still remember the first year there were about 8 of us hosting a camp for about 30 to 40 kids.  Each year we learned how to reach out to the community better.  This year we had more volunteers than we had kids the first year.  We had 40+ volunteers and had close to 175 kids participate.  It was a great success.  One of our volunteers (Katie) did a phenomenal job planning and organizing the camp and already has ideas how to make it bigger next year.

Then just yesterday during Worship we had an awards ceremony for any families that wanted to come out.  Again the turnout was incredible as we literally packed in 160 kids and parents.  This is by far the biggest Sunday Awaken has had sense the launching of the church a little over 2 years ago.  Why I ask?  I believe God is blessing because we refuse to be a church inside four walls. 

For more pictures please visit our Facebook Page:  Awaken Facebook

Please Pray For New Challenges:

• We are running out of space.  Several weeks ago we had to take some of our kids outside for worship because we were out of room.  We need to be in a new space by October 1.  Please pray for God to provide.
• We are continuing to steadily grow, but have taken a hit this summer in our local giving.  We are several thousand behind budget for the year.  Our goal is to be at 75% internally supported by 2013.
• We are accomplishing our vision.  We have commissioned out 17 military in the last 6-9 months due to deployments and transfers.  Pray we make up for their leadership and giving back at Awaken and that they take the gospel with them throughout the world.
• We have started a new initiative as a church in fighting against Human Trafficking.  We are currently putting in the place the leadership and team to help us build awareness and help people coming out of this horrible enslavement.
• Praise God with us for a great turnout for our Soccer Camp.  Pray that God will help us now reach some of these families with the Gospel.
• Pray that we continue to be a church outside the lines of a building.

Numbers Show Trends

So I have been looking at some percentages and numbers over the last week. This could get a little scary coming from a past engineering graduate. I recently compared an average Sunday with the same Sunday from last year and found some interesting statistics of growth.

Based upon some numbers we have seen:

--At least 20% of our current average attendance have made first time decisions to follow Jesus through Awaken. This is approximately 15 people in the last year to year and a half. Though I can't find current trends with average churches I know this is high. This is like a church of 1000 seeing 200 people baptized and commit to follow Christ in one year.

--We have seen a 58% increase in our average attendance on Sunday Worship going from in the 20's last year to 50's and 60's this year. I know attendance doesn't tell everything like how Community Groups are growing and how close to half our Sunday Morning attendance is involved, but it does show a healthy sign of reaching and influencing new people.

--As most of you know our vision for starting a church here was to reach military for Christ and see them sent out. Over the past 6 months we have sent out about 8 family units or 16 people through military replacement, job transfers, and deployments. This is roughly 25% of our average attendence that we have seen go out to other places to take the gospel. We are accomplishing the Vision!!

--Based upon the above numbers of 58% and 25% means that our reach of ministry over the last year has grown to over 80% as a church in the last year. That means that if we were in a more traditional area we would be seeing about 75 to 80 people in average each week. Based upon some stats I saw this is almost double the size of most church plants almost 2 years in.

It is amazing for us to look back to almost two years ago and remembering there only being 9 people in our living room. For me this is a reflection of God's Grace in the influence he is allowing us to have in reaching people and seeing the gospel advanced.

Though the numbers show we are seeing God grow and build His Church here at Awaken some of those numbers make some of the work challenging.

Please pray for us...

1. When we are losing 25% of our people each year it makes it hard on several fronts. Leadership Development... we are developing leaders with sometimes no idea how long we may have them to help lead here.

2. Financial Giving... reaching 20% far from Jesus and even more unchurched we have to teach how them to Financially Give. Most of the time this is the last area for somebody to relinquish to Christ. As we continue to send people out it makes it hard as we work at becoming self supportive. Right now we are a little above halfway becoming a fully supportive church. Therefore our outside partners are crucial for us to continue this work.

3. We right now need to raise between $5000 and $10,000 more to stay on track. Please pray whether God might have you help meet this need and thanks for those that currently give and have given in the past. People's lives are being changed for eternity.

4. For our 2 Year Anniversary Celebration coming up on March 25th and Easter Sunday coming up on April 8th. We are asking for God to double us as a church this spring and summer.

5. That as we send people out through here that we would be able to continue to develop an internal leadership structure that could sustain growth and influence here locally.

6. Praise God with us for the influence he is allowing us to have!

A Beautiful Mess

I've been reflecting a lot the last couple of days about where Awaken is at and what we have seen of recent weeks. Over the last couple of months we have begun to see the vision of Awaken play out. We are losing people! But you have to understand this has always been our strategy from the very beginning. The vision God gave for starting Awaken Church in Virginia Beach was to reach the transients of the military, see them come to Christ, see them discipled, prepared, and then sent out.

Over the past couple of months we have seen this come to life. We have seen 4 families move on from here to all parts of the country to be re-stationed. In the next couple months we are getting ready to send out 2 more families from the area for job transfers and military re-stationing.

This is 6 families in about a 6 month time that we will have the privilege of pointing towards Christ and then sending elsewhere to have an impact with the gospel. One of the recent ladies that was just re-stationed accepted Jesus a year ago through one of our Community Groups, and baptized last February in the ocean at sun-rise to signify her new life in Christ. Over the year she was a part of a Community Group, a women's group, and served within our corporate worship time. A couple of weeks ago we prayed during one of our worship gatherings and commissioned her out as a missionary of Awaken to her next station (her picture is above).

This does not count the deployments we are seeing with guys and girls taking the gospel all over the world and to their crew members. One of the ladies on her deployment has been asked by the chaplain to lead a Bible Study on board their ship.

As we continue to see people sent out God continues to grow us both numerically and through the fruits of people's lives changed. Just this past Sunday we baptized three more, two of which are recent decisions for Jesus! Praise the Lord for letting us reach people far from Jesus.

Another young guy searching out whether he should plant a church asked me last month how has it happened. My only thoughts were "it is a beautiful mess" and I told him God's Grace!

Pray with us that God may continue to bless this beautiful mess.

Vintage Jesus

This past Sunday we just began our new Fall Series entitled Vintage Jesus. Through this series we are going to be helping to answer all kinds of questions that people have about Jesus. This past Sunday we looked at the question, was Jesus both Fully God and Fully Human? This coming Sunday we will talk about why something as cruel and violent as the cross is so instrumental to our faith.

Through this series we are also challenging our people to be bringing in old shoes to help an organization called Soles 4 Souls collect and send them to third world countries where children and people don't have the privilege of having shoes. Our goal is to raise up 1000 pairs of shoes. If you are interested in helping with this goal please notify myself. We don't want to just challenge our people to learn what the Bible says about Jesus, but to live out their faith in a real practical way. As the Bible says "faith without deeds is dead". We don't want to teach our people a dead faith.

In fact this Sunday I will be sharing a story with our people about a meeting I had with a young man from the community last week. Believe it or not I scheduled a meeting with this guy by simply telling him I liked his Tattoos. When we met at the local Panera he proceeded to tell me for the next two hours about how in the last three years he lost his mom, grandma, brother, and his dad committed suicide. They lived in Mexico and he was not even able to be at their funeral. As he spoke of their death, he told me of the pain he felt deep inside. I told him that I believed in God's providence and that I believe God arranged our meeting so I could share with him the healing that Jesus can bring. Please pray for Manuel as I will continue to try and meet with him.

Let us remember that Jesus is never Vintage and he is still doing today the same thing he has always done; pursuing His people. God please continue to challenge us to not a dead faith, but a faith that is sharing our material wealth through things like shoes and sharing with our mouths the healing that Jesus can bring.

Death & Life

Death = the end of a life of a person or organism, the destruction or permanent end of something.

Life = the condition that distinguishes animals and plants from inorganic matter, including the capacity for growth, reproduction, functional activity, and continual change preceding... vitality, vigor, or energy.

We often forget that we are born into death. We are told in the scriptures that outside of Jesus we are dead to the things of God. We are reminded that we originally were created to have a real, lasting, loving, vital, close relationship with the God of the universe. We are told that we were to walk in harmony; to walk in conversation with God.

However there was a death that happened inside of us when (Adam) we decided to turn to our own ways and ignore the ways of God. We decided that our ways were better than God's ways.

Fortunately God loved us more than we loved Him or ourselves. God loved us to the point of taking responsibility for our running if only we would allow him. There is nothing like going from Death to Life. We are born Dead to God, but thank you Jesus that we don't have to die dead to God. Instead we can go from Death to Life.

There is nothing more wonderful than to see someone make that decision of going from death to life. This past Sunday God did some incredible things and we saw two people who were dead and now today can celebrate life because of their decision to allow God to love them through Jesus. Praise Jesus!!

Are You Being Moved?

I told our people this past Sunday that Extreme Transformation comes from Extreme Commitment. I explained that for us to see an extreme change in our hearts, our lives, in who we are as a sum total there needs to be an extreme dedication to pursuing Jesus this new year. During this challenge I encouraged them to examine their lives and ask what is it that I am holding onto that Jesus is asking me to let go of.

We carry all kinds of hurt, uncertainty, betrayal, aloneness, whether it is from maybe a parents divorce, a spouse leaving, a friend hurting us, a job that doesn't work out, etc... Jesus wants to carry us through all of these "messes" and use them in His story of transformation in us. A story of His working in our lives to never leave us the same.

I was listening to a song the other day by a popular band called Lifehouse. Part of the lyrics in one of their songs struck me. It said, "How can I stand here with you and not be moved by you."

I simply want to ask, are you being moved?

Story

What is your story? What does your life tell? What do others see as they look at your life? Is there joy, hope, constant struggle, constant trial, growth, fear, grace, mercy? Does God have anything to do with your story? If so... what?

I know probably a popular question, but have we truly stopped to consider our response? I am currently speaking through a series at Awaken entitled Storytellers. I believe that each of our lives are a story set to the backdrop of life. No matter what our life shows whether with pain and struggles or/and excitement and adventure God is telling something. What is God telling and how does that have anything to do with me? If we look deep enough at our life's story I firmly believe we will find God at work.

What if I told you your story is even a unique tapestry that God is intertwining with the lives of others to tell of his mercy and grace. Yes your story doesn't stand alone. Sometimes hard to comprehend being that we live in a very individualistic society. But as you look at other cultures, through the scriptures, and deep within our lives you will find a larger story that you are only a part of. Yes you are part of something bigger. I don't want to go there, but isn't that part of our internal groaning? To be a part of something bigger.

You are through your Story part of God's Bigger Story. We don't stand alone we stand together with our stories united showing our need for God, his desire for us, and how he leaves us changed for ever. All through a story of mercy and grace. Isn't that the true gospel of Jesus? Isn't that what the church is supposed to share?

Let's share our stories. Go to the Awaken website that is attached and find the Sorytellers link to a feed of stories that together create a tapestry of God's moving. Or click the following link.

STORYTELLERS

Desperatly Wanting

This is an old song that reminds me so much of God's pursuit of us. It makes me wonder how many are living in this kind of hell "Desperately Wanting" more, but not knowing what that is. Who do you need to tell about Jesus?




"Desperately Wanting"
Past the road to your house
That you never called home
Where they turned out your lights
Though they say you'll never know

I remember running through the wet grass
And falling a step behind
Both of us never tiring
Desperately wanting

When they pumped out your guts
And filled you full of those pills
You were never quite right
Deserving all the chills
They say the worst is over
Kicked it over and ran
Then they ask what went wrong
When they turn you on again
They turn you on again.

[Chorus:]

Kick them right in the face
Make them wish they weren't born
And if they bring up your name
Well they'll say you won the war.
Baby burst in the world
Never given a chance
Then they ask what went wrong
When you never had it right

Oh the letters have dropped off
Though they say you got them all
I finally figured out some things you'll never know.

Take back your life and let me inside
We'll find the door if you care to anymore.
I remember running through the wet grass and falling a step behind
Both of us never tiring
Desperately Wanting.

Spreading Seed

One question that might be asked, which once asked really sounds like a ridiculous question after all. How much seed should we sow? Maybe there is a better way to rephrase that. There are a lot of people starving that need fed when the next harvest comes in. Therefore with that context how much seed should I sow? As much as possible!! Right?!? If there are starving people that need to eat at the next harvest or they won't make it we need to spread as much seed as possible. I mean isn't it almost inhumane not to?

Since we are looking at so many questions let me ask another one. How many people should we try to reach with the gospel? Jesus often talked in parables that involved farming. So therefore how much seed of the gospel should we sow in hopes of a great harvest? How many people are starving for the truth's of Jesus who may not be here for the next harvest?

Are we being faithful with the seed of the gospel God has given us? Are we spreading as much seed as we possibly can, praying and working for a great harvest? No we can't make the harvest grow, but we can plant, water, and be ready to reap when God brings in the store house.

We are approaching one of the more heightened times of spiritual interest during the year. Please be praying as we have worked at planting, watering, and preparing to reap a harvest this Fall as we kick off our series called "I Hate My Marriage" in the month of October. Pray God blesses the following work that has been done...

• 30,000 plus contacts through summer outreaches
• 8 Billboards we received an incredible deal for advertising for this series
• 5,000 piece mailer for our Fall Series
• Series Website... www.IHateMyMarriageNow.com
• 3 Community Letters sent to several hundred people we have impacted during an outreach over the past two years
• 40 day lintel fast the core of the church as been challenged to be involved in leading up
• Hundreds of personal invites that are to be made
• Preparation to launch a new Children's Ministry
• Preparation at providing an overall better Worship Experience on Sunday Morning