Ahh…I just sent off the last thing I needed to get done before a little summer vacation. Time to unplug for a while – no laptop, no Blackberry and no blogging.

I’m definitely going to miss the amazing staff team I get to work with every day. I’m definitely going to miss the students I’m so privileged to serve. I’m definitely going to miss connecting with you through this blog. But I’m definitely NOT going to miss that little Blackberry!!

Rest is so important. I was tempted to cheat, bring my computer with me and post a little bit from vacation. But hopefully a little bit of leading by example will go a long way. We all need to pull back from life ever once in a while, catch our breath and come back completely refreshed. That’s what I’m aiming at for the rest of the month.

See you in August!!

John

It’s only 11.30 and I’m totally blown away by what God has done so far this morning. We so often cling to the promise that God is the One who is able to do “exceedingly and abundantly more than we can ask or imagine.” (Eph. 3:20) That was certainly true for me this morning at The Edge.

Ben Lashey and an amazing band of college students were leading worship and I loved every minute of it. Any time college students are leading, I’m pretty biased. But this morning took it to a whole new level. I loved standing there worshiping with them, knowing their hearts for Christ and seeing a room full of people respond to what God is doing in their lives. Any one who counts the collegiate generation out should have been here this morning and see how God was using them!

More importantly, it was so good to find the space to worship when I didn’t have to carry the responsibility for teaching as part of the service. I just got to enjoy it and connect with God in a carefree way I hadn’t experienced in a while. It was so good. The Gospel was so fresh.

I’m so grateful for what God did this morning. I feel so ready to run into Frontline tonight. It’s going to be such an amazing time as we celebrate baptisms, communion and the beauty of the Gospel. I’m just praying that tonight we would walk away celebrating a God who is still doing “exceedingly and abundantly more than we can ask or imagine.”

After more than a year of praying and dreaming, I learned earlier this week that God has finally opened the door for me to go to Rwanda! If you were any where near Tyson’s Corner on Monday morning and heard an inappropriately loud shout of joy, that would have been me!! I can’t tell you how excited I am for this opportunity to serve Christ in a place so desperate for the light of the Gospel.

I’ll be heading over in late September and staying for just over a week. Yes, it’s absolutely killing me to miss a week of The Gathering and I’ll miss you guys more than you can imagine but I honestly feel the Lord saying this is the right time to go. I’ll be going as part of a small team that will be leading two different three day training conferences for Rwandan pastors. To say I feel privileged to serve these pastors, most of whom have no formal training, would be a massive understatement. I’m already asking God to lead powerfully through us and use our simple lives to advance His cause in Rwanda.

I’ll be posting regularly during the trip and in these next couple of weeks leading up to it. I want to be able to share with you how everything is going but I’m really hoping that reading my story will compel you to live your own. Remember, our dream for The Gathering is that every student would do an intenCITY trip – a short 48 hour missions trip in DC – annually and take at least one international trip during your four years (give or take!) with The Gathering. Our heart isn’t just to be a big event on campus; we want to carry the light of Jesus to every corner of the globe…Haiti, South Africa, New Orleans and, now…Rwanda.

To learn more about this war ravaged nation in the center of Africa, check this out.

We’re moving our offices around at the Tyson’s campus today. It’s quite a festival and quite a team building time. Everybody seems to be enjoying themselves – but I can’t help but think I should be out there helping and not in here posting a blog. Time to go move…

Sing to the LORD a new song;
sing to the LORD, all the earth.

Sing to the LORD, praise his name;
proclaim his salvation day after day.

Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous deeds among all peoples.

For great is the LORD and most worthy of praise;
he is to be feared above all gods.

For all the gods of the nations are idols,
but the LORD made the heavens.

Splendor and majesty are before him;
strength and glory are in his sanctuary.

Ascribe to the LORD, O families of nations,
ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.

Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name;
bring an offering and come into his courts.

Worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness;
tremble before him, all the earth.

Say among the nations, “The LORD reigns.”
The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved;
he will judge the peoples with equity.

Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad;
let the sea resound, and all that is in it;

let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them.
Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy;

they will sing before the LORD, for he comes,
he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness
and the peoples in his truth.

Yeah….that’s about all that needs to be said today. That’s what the Lord is inviting us to live in today. Stunning, if you ask me.

…and this time next week, you can be! The Gathering is heading up to Rehoboth Beach for the day next Saturday. What better way to unwind and enjoy summer after a long week of internships and life here in DC? If you’re able to make it, I think you’ll have a great time. You can get all the info. on Facebook.

I think we all fight to stay inspired in life. God has wired each of us to carry around big dreams, world changing hopes and life altering goals. It’s the stuff we love to talk about. It’s the topic that gets us more fired up than any other. It’s the thing we can’t believe we get to do.

No matter how vivid that dream is, it can be hard to stay inspired. One of the most significant things we can do for ourselves is look for the moments that breath inspiration back into our lives.

I had one of those yesterday in my office of all places! Space can get a little tight around here, so sometimes we have multiple things going on in the same office. yesterday was one of those days – I was working at my desk while there was another meeting going on in the office. It was so cool because the meeting was with student leaders from one of our campuses. I kept telling them they weren’t distracting me at all – but that was a total lie! I couldn’t help listening in to what they were talking about (sorry, guys) – their hopes for the fall, their dreams for ministry and their desire to change their campus. As their passion grew, I got more and more inspired. I’m so grateful I got to enjoy that time yesterday.

It reminded me what The Gathering is all about – students being used by God to change everything on their campuses. We’re not about programs, status, big stages or events. We’re about a generation of students who want their lives to count in the most significant campaign ever known to the world. We’re about students who believe God changes lives today. We’re about campuses coming together to celebrate the glory of Christ.

I’m so inspired this morning – and I hope you might find a bit of inspiration as well.

I’ve been really pressed for time to blog recently and hope I’ll be able to make up for it in the coming days. But I had to take advantage of a few free moments this morning to post in response to last night’s Bible study at the Starbucks on New Mexico Ave. It was an absolutely amazing time and I really enjoyed being there with the students, leaders and Joe Cope as he taught.

I loved the conversations. I loved seeing students enjoy the reality that you can devote an hour and 15 minutes to a passage in Scripture and still have more to say. But I really loved watching the reaction of people as they walked by and saw a full on Bible study packing this Starbucks lounge. I absolutely love it when the church breaks out of our walls. I love it when we’re not confined in some sort of cultural isolation. I love it when we’re a part of the real world.

I definitely got to experience that last night and I’m so grateful for the chance to be there with all of you. I’m hearing great things about the other locations as well, by the way!!

The transition from Frontline Arlington to the early morning meetings that start my Tuesdays off can be a jarring one. I’m not going to lie – when the alarm went off this morning it took me a good 30 seconds to think about what day it was. Kind of frightening when you’re thinking about that question and really can’t come up with the answer! Very disorienting.

What I love about Tuesdays is starting my day with the team that leads our summer Bible studies. It’s amazing to see how God works in that time. He refines our lives. He challenges me personally. He helps us lead Wednesday nights so much more effectively because we do it all together.

It’s honestly a simple reminder of the importance of the Scriptures in each of our lives. Your Tuesday morning doesn’t need to start at a Starbucks with others. But it needs to start with the Word of God. Those minutes alone with the Scriptures will change your whole day around. If you haven’t found that time yet today, fight for it at some point!

It was so great to launch our new series at Frontline, “What Are We Doing Here?” last night. Our whole creative team has been working like crazy to get ready for it over the last couple of weeks and it was so good to see all of that come together last night. Frontline is blessed with an amazingly creative group of people. I’m constantly amazed at what they come up with and loved seeing how God honored that last night.

Being able to worship together for an extended period of time after the message last night was amazing. It didn’t feel like hype or music driven emotion – it felt like worship! It felt like a small taste of what heaven is going to be like!

I can’t wait to enjoy the same experience again at Frontline Arlington tonight!

I’m going to be heading into our staff Bible study in just a couple of minutes. If you read this blog regularly, you know how much I love that time at the beginning of our week. There’s something so right about pulling our team together at the start of a week to remind ourselves that our hope is in God’s Word and the power of prayer. It’s so good to pause and remember that God is the One who carries our week.

For what it’s worth, we’re studying Matthew 16-18 today. Should lead to some really interesting conversations, I hope.

One of the things I’ve been reminded of over the weekend is my extreme love for Settlers of Catan, arguably the most addictive board game on the planet. I believe I played four times today. As soon as I wrote that, I realized how sad it sounded. But I loved it! So much fun. Have you discovered this game yet?

I’m spending the 4th in lovely Greenville, South Carolina. This is completely beside the point, but Greenville is an absolutely amazing place. Such a beautiful town in the South. If you ever find a reason to come here, you should do it!

Getting ready to head out to a baseball game in a couple of minutes, then going to do some grilling and end the night with fireworks. Not bad at all – definitely feeling like I’m getting a full dose of the 4th!

Hope you’re having a great Independence Day wherever you are.

Not sure if I can prove the truth of that title with a particular passage or not. But I’m pretty convinced! There’s just something about water moving that seems to free up our minds to work. I’m going to be teaching Frontline this Sunday and I’ve been working on the talk all week long. By the way, our creative team has been working a lot longer than that pulling everything together for this new series on worship!

Some weeks talks come easy and other weeks, it’s really hard. This has been a really hard one; I think it’s because I feel so strongly about worship and what God wants to do through this series. But I’m sitting outside by a pond right now and I feel like it’s all coming together! I know it’s really all about the Holy Spirit. But the water certainly feels like it’s helping!