Thanks

So last night went well. I must say we are so blessed to have the people we do, doing what they do, helping us do what we, umm, well you get the point. AMPED leaders are the best. Family. Thanks for coming and having a great time last night (even tho nobody but me and Laura dressed up). Next month will be at Tooley's house so start bugging him now. BTW Rich, its up to you to get the word out and plan it. Enjoy the pics! (well, I tried to upload some pics but blogger is having some technical difficulties, I'll try again later)

Dinner!!

It's a Partay! It's for the leaders and it is this Friday the 26th. It's a potluck so remember to sign up to bring something on the website.

So Rich texts me this morning and says, "Do you think we could/should make Friday night a "costume" party?"

And I text back, "okay"

And then he texts, "Wanna put it on the blog?"

And I text,"okay"

So here I am, blogging said text from 9:54 this morning. You can come as Wonderwoman or Scooby-Doo. But whoever you are, it'll be a hoot!

Introducing

Koda Shane Hunt

8 lbs 11 oz, 21 1/4 inches long

Kam and Kendra are doing fine, but a little tired because they did not sleep last night they were so excited. The surgery was at 7 am this morning and everyone is resting well now. Here is a little pic of the proud papa.

little bit

I just finished typing something about hearing God on my blog and thought of something that ties into the distracted thing.

I can't read lips. Just ask Brittney. She does it to me all the time even though she knows somewhere deep down inside of her that if it hasn't worked for me yet, odds are it won't happen this time either. I don't know if maybe we are really secret agents hidden deep inside Gateway Church so that no one finds us out, and that is why we have the need to talk with such secrecy. If only I knew this secret code she is trying to feed me. Actually it's probably some chick thing. Anyway, When it comes to hearing God, the enemy has got us so distracted, the sound is drowned out. And if you are as dense as I am, it's almost like trying to read lips. Hearing from God clearly is pretty useless at that point. Even if I could read lips, it's not like I can see God to read the elephant shoes He is mouthing. All that to say, get the background noise out of the way and then maybe, just maybe, you can begin to hear His voice and recognize it. Then when someone asks you how to hear God's voice, it will be just like trying to explain to someone how I can hear my wife's voice.

now

Okay, I just got home from AMPED and got cleaned up. I've been thinking about our current series, distracted, and thinking how I get distracted. So many things fight for my attention and if you are a breathing person living in America, chances are there is a war for your attention too. Think about it, what, besides work, gets the large parts of your attention during the day? What to eat for lunch, what music to listen to, the lyrics of said music, getting the car fixed, money, people you need to talk to, updating your blog, maybe a new tv or computer, relationships. Many different things, too many to list here, fight for your attention. One of the things I mentioned was money. As I thought about writing this entry for the blog, I thought, "I hate thinking about money", yet I do it a lot! If I truly hated thinking about money, wouldn't you think I would refrain from it and therefore have faith that the money thing will always be taken care of and leave it in God's hands? But no, I seem to make a decision to worry about it. This is only one example of what we give permission to take up space between our ears, and we don't even charge rent! Quite the opposite, we cater to them like these worries can change anything! Ah, but they can, they can influence your attitude and I believe your health, for the worse. Am I preaching to the choir or confessing?

Luke 12:25-26
25 Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? Of course not! 26 And if worry can't do little things like that, what's the use of worrying over bigger things? NLT

Lord, help me to give my thoughts and worries to you.

2 Cor 10:4-5
5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.NIV

Col 3:1-2
2 Let heaven fill your thoughts . Do not think only about things down here on earth.NLT

Eph 4:23-24
23 Instead, there must be a spiritual renewal of your thoughts and attitudes. NLT

Radio

By the way, Kam and I will be on the radio tomorrow morning 6-9 on 89.7, Power FM. Don't listen because we will make fools of ourselves and act like big dorks. It will be quite the embarrassment.

A Whole... Nuva... Level

A busy day for the blog, but I want to leave you with a few thoughts.

You need to get this cd. It is by Desperation Band from New Life in Colorado Springs. They recorded this live with their Jr. High, Sr. High and College groups all together. It is simply amazing and I can't bring myself to take it out of my cd player. Get it by paying for it so we can support these guys and a great ministry. You won't regret it.

Last night after I got home from the little birthday thing we did for Chris K., I lay in bed thinking about our leaders and what we do and how to take it to the next level. A couple of things entered my mind:

I want to be more productive with our pre-service meetings. There is no feeling of urgency or "hafta be there". I would love to take it and turn it into a 15-20 min small group session where one of the leaders, not me necessarily, but a rotation of different leaders lead the group with what God has laid on their hearts. I guess I have a need to connect with you guys on a deeper level. It could be great if we come at it with the right expectation and perspective. This is NOT another thing to take up your time. This is a chance to plug into AMPED on a different level and communicate with each other from the heart.

Another thing is, I don't think we do a good job following up on our kids. A girl told me last night that she had been in the hospital all last week because she wanted to kill herself. Wow. I had no idea. Let's do follow up well. "Follow Up" is such a hokey and formal way to describe it. Let's build relationships with kids that extend beyond the weekly service. Start small and be great at it. Take 5 kids, each of us, and touch base and even *gasp* go and do something with them. Duplicate yourself in a Jr. Higher (this duplicate thing will be a reoccurring theme throughout the year). Disciple them. Not in the generic sense, but actually build them, pour into them the things that you wish you would've been taught at their age. You won't, no, cannot and will not be able to regret the time you spend showing Jesus to them outside of the weekly service. I'm not turning this into a formal thing right now because i don't want you to do it begrudgingly. If you say you don't have time then I will ask you to revisit your priorities. This is what we do, who we are, and how we live. We are the crew and a crew knows what it's responsibilities are. Enough preaching.

Know that I appreciate all of the AMPED Leaders. AMPED has the very best leaders anywhere. Let's take this thing to the next level. Get at me and respond.

2008 at a glance

It has been requested that I put up the event dates for 2008. Enjoy!

January
Series: The Finish Line
25-27 Plug In

Feb
Series: Inspi(red)
22-23 Girls/Guys Night Out

March
Series: It's all about you
17-21 Houston Missions Trip

April
Series: Gifted
25 Mystery Tour

May
Series: Identity Theft
11 Parents Forum

June
Series: Prayer
1 End of School Bash
19-23 Camp

July
Series: Money
21-26 New Orleans Missions Trip

Aug
Series: Joy
3 - 6th graders start
6 - 8th graders gone
24 Back to School Bash

Sept
Series: Boys VS Girls
5-7 Leader's Retreat

Oct
Series: TV Series
17-18 Fall retreat

Loser!

If you were at the leaders retreat (runaway 07), you might remember us talking about the show The Biggest Loser and how it would be cool for us to do it as leaders before camp next year. Elizabeth is putting all of this together and we would like to start when we get into the NRH campus, which is Nov 18th. We have a few people that are willing to be trainers (Kam, Christi) and we can do the weigh in once every two weeks at my house with the same regulated scale. Keep an eye out for more info and if you want to participate, flood Elizabeth with email.

Plug it In

Yesterday I ironed out a few things and had to make some decisions about "The Event Formally Known as DNOW". Just in case you didn't know, our discipleship weekend in January is called Plug In. A few interesting factoids:

January 25-27
Cost for students - $40
Friday night through Sunday morning
Host homes and NRH campus
Guest speaker (possibly guest band too)

I know that last year and even the year before, this event was a catalyst for some adults to get introduced into the system that is AMPED Leadership and then stay permanently plugged in (no pun intended). I would love for that to continue to be the case. Keep in mind we are looking for 08 to be higher attendance and therefore we need more volunteers from host homes to small group leaders to drivers. So go ahead and put this on your calendar and start getting the word out and also begin praying about it!

NRH Official Opening

Okay kids! Here it is! You want it? You got it!

I spoke with some of the Senior team this morning, and the official date we will have the first AMPED service at NRH is November 18th. This is because the AV team does not know they will have everything ready for a service and they are also printing and marketing about opening on the 17/18th. This gives us plenty of time to get in before hand and iron out the details of who will be over what area and how the skate park will operate. So I want to invite you for an orientation on the 11th at 6:00 pm at NRH so I can walk you thru the new building and you can see how everything operates. There you go! You are now in the know!

a calendar for you!

Click on this image to enlarge and then right click, save as, and then you can print it.

Blame my ocd.

video podcast #2

We have a new entry on the podcast and I just want to say much thanks to Matt Nelson for helping us with the tech side of things and therefore making it possible. Matt, you are the best!

*** Okay, the new entry is not called #2, it is the video sermon but it is the second video on there. Sorry for the technical um, misrepresentation.

BTW, help us get the word out about that thing, especially with the parents. Tell them to search "amped video" and it should pull it up, or get their email and send them the link. Let them know they can subscribe and it's free!

prepare

A few things of note:

As I'm sure you have checked this out and know when our first service at NRH is, it looks like we will have a halloween service here at the Southlake campus. One of the things I want to do is a human video put to this song. I've done it a couple of times and it is very, what is the word, impactful. However, we will need to tone it down from what I have done in the past. Then we will probably focus that night on how the enemy lies to us.

Core team, we are meeting this Sat the 6th. Bring your thinking caps!