So as a way to document the history of Epic Movement, here is a summary I wrote up of me and Kelly's experience at Epic Movement in February 2008. We presented this to our Campus Crusade staff to give a report of what happened and discuss the future of our movement. It is so crazy reading this now in light of all the craziness that God has done since then. Epic Conference was so legit! It was amazing. I'm soo looking forward to this year’s Epic Conference. Everyone should go. Check out the link: Epic Conference 2009
Epic Movement Conference Recap - February 15-18, 2008
Hey Jack, Teresa, Shaun, and Jenny!
Here’s a summary of the weekend’s events. The weekend was amazing! It seemed like it was rushed, fast-paced, and went by in what seems like a blink of an eye, but nevertheless, amazing! I’m still trying to process everything that happened. Kelly and I discussed a lot about what happened this past weekend on our plane ride home, and if there is one thing that I think that we walked away, it is affirmation. In the past few months God has sent confirmation to us in starting up Epic Movement, and we really feel that this weekend was God’s affirmation to us on so many levels.
So I’ll try my best to recollect and present my thoughts about the weekend’s events while addressing the following questions you proposed: what was good about the conference? What we learned? What we need to get to the next level?
It’s really long because I kind of got carried away and even though the weekend was tight-packed, we realized that God really showed us a lot now that we have begun to think through it. So what I have done is summarized the major points and then went on to talk about them in detail in the paragraphs proceeding.
What was good about the conference?
Before I go into extensive detail of God’s goodness to us at Epic Conference, here is a brief summary outlining some things that I feel are most important to discuss and be thankful for.
• God took care of us from the very beginning putting Angie and Ben together on the same flight after Angie initially missed her flight.
• People showered us with love especially Joyce, a student from UC-Davis who picked us up. And people were eager to hear our stories, and God put people in our lives to approach us.
• I feel ASU helped set the tone for conference with our energy and excitement.
• ASU was made known not through what Kelly and I have been doing, but through God using James, Ben, and Angie in amazing ways at conference.
• Epic Conference was an awesome bonding experience, and people commented on how impressed by the way we were united together as a family.
• Experienced brotherhood and confessions of sin
• James established a great relationship with the worship leader and was also prayed over and anointed by the worship leader.
• Sharing time was amazing
God blessed our journey to Epic Conference starting from even before we boarded the flight. Kelsie Sharp blessed us by volunteering to take us to the airport. After a strange twist of events, we ended up being late showing up to the airport and Angie missed her flight. It was kind of an irritating experience at first, but in the end everything worked out. She was put on a later flight. Little did we know that the later flight she was put on was the same flight as Ben Dunton. Angie was afraid of traveling for the first time, but God took care of her and by being late for her flight, she was rescheduled to fly on the same flight as Ben – pretty crazy.
We arrived at the airport at Sacramento and were picked up by Joyce, a student at UC – Davis who is a leader of Epic at her school. Joyce is incredible! She showed us so much love and compassion without even knowing us. She us took us first to her school so that we could get some lunch and so that Kelly could meet up with one of her friends from Santa Monica. Once we got to San Jose, Joyce would take care of us by driving us to get food, buying breakfast for all of us, and even taking Angie and Ben back to the airport for the flight back. Joyce was a tremendous blessing to us and showed us what true love and hospitality is all about.
I really feel that ASU helped set the tone for the entire Epic Conference. Our group was excited the entire time and brought energy throughout the duration of the conference especially during worship. People were getting to know us for our energy and excitement, and it was awesome because students from other schools were coming to know about Epic at ASU through the personalities of Ben, James, and Angie. What I mean is that Ben, James, and Angie really took ownership of the conference and were genuinely excited to be there. They literally took over the talent show in some respects. At the talent show, James and Ben took over with a piano and beat-boxing duet. Angie took a step of faith and sang a solo. As a group, we went up together during the talent show, introduced ourselves, and led a worship song that James Mcelroy wrote during the first weeks of our Epic Movement at ASU. The excitement was contagious, and it was not until after we had performed that others started to represent their respective schools.
Yet what was even more encouraging in all of this was how people would comment about how ASU looked like a family. People saw that we truly loved one another and were excited to be there with each other. Kelly was scheduled to speak on Monday morning, but because we had to leave early she was not able to speak. But she didn’t have to. It is crazy to think that, in some regards, James, Ben, and Angie did most of the talking for us. That truly is an encouragement to both me and Kelly because we see that they have truly caught onto the vision.
Another awesome experience was the unity and bonding we were able to experience. The group was able to really draw close to each other and depend upon one another. There also was a sense of strengthened brotherhood. On Saturday night, James, Ben and I were really able to encourage and pray for one another as Ben and I prayed for James who was kneeling at the front of the stage during worship broken before God. Later, James was able to build a great relationship with the worship leader. The worship leader was impressed by James song-writing and his aspirations and he prayed over James and anointed him to be a worship leader. I know that the girls were able to really get to know each other better as they were able to room together along with Joyce and another girl Sara, who we met at winter conference and who will be flying into the Phoenix airport tonight before she goes back to Hawaii.
We went sharing on Sunday afternoon and it was an amazing experience. I felt confident and excited about sharing because of the good time I had sharing with our POD during the Tuesday before, and on Thursday night after Cru, I had the awesome opportunity to lead a friend to Christ! Before we went out sharing, we prayed for God to reveal who he wanted us to talk to. I got a vision of a guy wearing a green shirt and Kelly added that it would be a green polo. I also got something about a white hoody and Kelly added that it would be a guy who had black hair. So after that we started walking around and right away we saw a guy wearing green polo! It was crazy! We were hesitant to talk to him at first, but eventually we approached us. He ended up rejecting us, but it was one of the best feelings of rejections I had ever experienced. Yes, we had gotten rejected, but we took a step of faith and God gave us that vision. So we kept walking around and James talked to a couple of people and I talked to an elderly man who was eighty and had been in jail for twenty five years. He had some great insight, and so we had a great conversation. Kelly had not yet talked to anyone yet, so we were walking around and we spotted someone on a table. I pointed him out, gave Kelly the solarium, and pushed her towards him. While I was pushing her towards the guys sitting at the table, we noticed he had a white hoody on and had black hair. He was the exact image that God had put on Kelly’s mind. They talked for a long time, and the guy poured his heart out. The guy was a Filipino and had similar experiences as Kelly. Kelly was able to get his information in order to get him connected. It was truly an awesome experience and an answered prayer.
Overall, it was an awesome experience, and we definitely experienced a lot of God’s goodness. God blessed us through so many people’s lives, and it was also a great opportunity to share how God has been good to us in our own lives through Epic. People were approaching us and were eager to hear our stories. So ya, all in all God, rocked our worlds in an awesome way!
As a side note, we had the awesome opportunity to initiate prayer for our campuses on Saturday Night at the prayer room. It went for over an hour or so. Also, we met a girl from UC-Davis whose parents just recently moved to Queen Creek.
What did we learn?
Again, here is a brief outline of things that come to my mind as being most important, and then I will go into more detail about them later.
• God totally affirmed us by showing us that He is truly working in our lives and is moving and a tremendous pace at ASU. God definitely empowered us and encouraged us by showing us an even broader picture of his work through Epic at ASU.
• God showed us the importance of building a strong foundation upon which to base our convictions.
• True joy is found in God’s promises and not in experiences,
• The time for pursuing God and praying for revival at ASU is urgent. The window for revival and of God’s overwhelming blessings as we have witnessed is closing. Things are not going to be as bountiful as we are experiencing now forever, so it is really urgent that we make the most of the time we have.
• A dry season is coming, and we need to prepare for it.
• Independence from man and dependence on God.
• We feel that God is really using Kelly and I and the other leaders in mighty ways, and thus we are susceptible to spiritual attacks. Thus we need to pray that we are putting on the armor of God and being sensitive to the spiritual realm.
• The effects of our movement are beyond what we can even see, and we have a lot of people to thank.
• We need to disciple our future leaders and prepare them to take our places.
• I feel more strongly that God has called Kelly and I to go to Japan for Summer Project.
• Vision to go to churches and cast vision and seek support
So first things first, God has given us amazing affirmation through going to Epic Conference. We went to a seminar that was an opportunity for students to ask questions about starting and sustaining an Epic Movement at our conference. So I gave them a brief overview of what God was doing at Epic and how we were doing things at ASU and then asked them what else they think they should do. They were totally surprised by what we were doing, and they said something to the extent of “we would do everything the same that you did but just add food at your meetings.” Later, Kelly and I talked about the stunned reaction on their faces to hear how God has blessed us with people and helped develop our movement. Early they were talking about how their Epic Movements started out really small as a Bible study with a couple of students and how after many years it eventually grew. They were taken aback to hear that God had blessed us with 27 people on the second meeting ever. So God definitely affirmed us by showing us that even though it seems to us that we have no clue what we are doing, He is taking care of us.
We know that God has blessed us with vision and instincts beyond our years. God has blessed us with just mind-blowing success, and we not that it is all attributed to God and not to us. The conference talked a lot about empowerment and affirmation, and how God the father affirmed his son Jesus at his baptism even before Jesus began his formal ministry. And so we feel that God has really blessed us and affirmed us and has used our weaknesses and our youth to show His strength. So we are definitely humbled by God and so thankful for the way that he has empowered us and used us to impact people’s lives.
It is crazy to think about the extent of God’s work through us starting up Epic Movement. We only have a limited view of God’s work, yet we are beginning to see even more God’s greater work at hand. It is amazing to hear from people who have been praying for us and caring for us - even people who don’t even know us. It was crazy to have people come up to us and want to hear about our stories and be excited by what God is doing. We know that there are so many people out there that have been praying for us and that have already been impacted through what God has been doing through us, and thus it is exciting to take hold of God’s blessings and be encouraged by his massive work that is at hand.
In addition to this, we learned about the importance of worship and knowing the heart of God. The quote, “Missions exists because worship does not” was repeated a lot. So we really learned the importance of building a strong foundation in the Word. We learned that God is not interested in actions per se but in our heart. Thus it is important to that we understand that true joy is found in God’s promises not in our experiences. This point hit home really hard because right not God has been blessing us at a break-neck pace. We are truly joyous and excited to see what God is doing.
However, we realize that this overflowing of blessings will not last forever. Thus, we want to make sure that we are truly founded in God’s words in order to take advantage of the time at hand and to prepare for the future dry season that is coming. Through this word from God, we realize that the time for revival at ASU is urgent, and we need to do all we can to advantage of God’s manifold blessings at this time. Thus, with this vision and insight that God has given us we really want to be able to pray fervently and cast vision to others to prepare them for what is to come. Kelly and I talked about the dry season that we see coming, and how it scares us. We know that God is not going to be moving as readily as he is now, and that our there are going to be circumstances that come in our life that are truly going to test us. Kelly and I talked about this weird feeling that both of us had – this fear that we were going to lose someone close to us that we do not expect. I don’t know; it was crazy to hear that we had similar feelings. But with that in mind, we recognize that God has blessed us with extreme power in His name, and thus we are very susceptible to attacks from the devil. We understand that we need to be on guard daily by putting on the armor of God and being sensitive to the spiritual battles that our constantly surrounding us. Yet we have faith knowing that God promises us His protection and His strength to combat these trials.
To go along with that idea of spiritual warfare, we think that God is really leading us to Japan. I know that I was really impressed by the presentation of the Japan Summer Project. The project leaders seem solid, and I really feel a sense of strong calling there. I think that God really wants me and Kelly to go there together to get an insight into leading Epic and to experience the crazy ways in which God is going to intervene in our lives. Kelly told her Dad about the costs of going to Japan, and he said that it would probably be impossible – even Kelly is skeptical. But I really believe that God will use this as an awesome opportunity to speak not only to our lives but the lives of Kelly’s family.
To go along with this idea of raising support and the sense of urgency that we need to harness, God has given me a vision to go to churches and to tell of God’s goodness to us and cast vision to them as well. I know that from personal experience God has used me to speak of the need for revival at my own church, and the results were astounding. I know that God wants others to know the goodness he has shown to us so that others may also respond. I think this would also be an awesome way to raise support especially for Kelly.
As far as other things learned, I think we really learned to be independent of man and just be dependent upon God. I think that it was no mistake that Shaun was supposed to go to Destino Conference and not with us. We were really forced to take initiative and responsibility, and I think that it will really serve us well. Also, in realizing the awesome blessings God has given us, it is important that we really be intentional in discipling future leaders.
God has taught us a lot in just over 2 days. Everything went by so fast and seemed like a blur, but upon examining everything that happened, I have begun to see the profound impact that this conference has had on my way of thinking. I know I learned a lot of things that I would have never expected to learn. God is truly with us, he is empowering us, and he is using us to impact the lives of others. He is proud of us and truly loves us and he is blessing us immeasurably. This brings me tremendous affirmation.
What we need to get to the next level?
Again a summary:
• Formulating a vision, mission statement, and goals in a concise format.
• Putting together our constitution and becoming an official club.
• Help in accountability and in evaluating goals, vision, and mission throughout the year
• Help in forming our focus in the midst of all that is going on
• Weekly Coaching, prayer and support
• How can we devote more time to God through Epic by possibly stepping out of some of our Crusade roles while at the same time serving as vessels through which God can use us to show His vision?
• Need food and budget for food. Need help formulating budget and proposal of budget of funding to give to churches and others we ask for support from.
• Help setting up a website and a newsletter to keep people updated about our progress.
• Can we intern next semester?
• How can we best work with and minister to the different groups of people we are working with. Ex. Cru people, high schoolers, unsaved people, new believers, growing Christians. How can we incorporate these different groups into leadership?
• Need help developing lessons and Bible studies for weekly meetings. Need help starting up discipleship groups and/ or Bible studies to better build relationships with our focus group. We need to determine who the people in our focus group are and the ways that we can better minister to them?
• What do we need to focus on for this semester? And how can we prepare for this summer and next year?
The biggest things we need help with is getting continued prayer and getting the coaching needed to form our vision statement, mission statement, goals, and constitutions. We really want to make sure that we take the time to develop these statements in order to provide a strong foundation for the future. We have made progress towards this and have the vision written on our hearts (and on various scattered papers and notebooks), but we really need help and accountability and forming a concise document that we can always refer to and evaluate from.
I think that we definitely need a coach that we can meet with weekly that we can go over our plans with and can provide us with advice and encouragement. We also need to talk to you all to figure out more ways in which we can devote time to Epic. We are not sure what that looks life such as possibly taking less responsibility within our roles at Crusade. But we definitely want to seek direction for this movement especially for the future and the next semester.
To go along with thinking about the future, is it possible to intern for Epic next semester? I know I was looking on the Crusade website and saw that we could possibly earn school credit with an internship through Crusade. So I was wondering if it was possibly for Kelly and I to intern if not officially through Crusade than at least through ASU Crusade so that we can devote more time to Epic and get credit at the same time.
We also need help with formulating a budget or at least a proposal for a budget so that we can present this to the churches and other groups that might like to support us. For example, my church has already promised their support to our movement, but they want to know what specifically our financial needs our so that they can adjust their own budget. Also, if we do go out and speak to other churches, it would be nice to be able to provide them with something that would further legitimate our needs and show that what we are working towards.
Another thing that has come to my mind is setting up a newsletter to let people and especially those who support us to serve as an update of what’s going on with Epic and how they can continue to pray for us and support us. I was just talking to my dad earlier as well, and he mentioned that we should set up a website for people to check and possibly help support us through. So if you have any insight into doing any of those things, that would be greatly appreciated!
We also need direction in balancing the size of our group and knowing how to be able to minister to the unique needs of all those attending. We have members of Crusade, students from PASA, high school students and youth member from my church and soon other churches, new believers, and unsaved students. So we need to figure out ways to minister to their needs as best as we can while at the same time finding a group that we can focus in on and develop to be the next leaders. So ya we need some help in discerning the best way to approach that such as in what materials we can use and other formats that would best suit people’s needs.
As a random side note, the president of Asian Baptist Youth Fellowship was at my church this Sunday, and I am supposed to talk with him sometime in the near future. I’m not really sure what that entails, but I just wanted to let you know so that you could keep that in your prayers.
All in all, the most important need we have is your prayers and continued support. We appreciate all that you have done for us and grateful for the ways you have already gone out of your way to support us and help make this possible. We know that God is using all of us to do awesome things at ASU, and so we are grateful for your recognition of that and for your encouragement in that process. Thanks again for all your prayers and making it possible to go to Epic Conference! It definitely was an awesome opportunity that has opened up my eyes even more to see what God is doing through our lives!
Thanks so much!
Carl Catedral
Friday, November 14, 2008
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Fantastic Fridays!
Alrighty, so now to discuss our last weekly meeting Friday, November 7. Some of the members have said that it is arguably one of the best meetings we have ever had. So it must have been kind of a big deal worthy of mention. Let the truth be told though, God is alive, and He is LEGIT! Too Legit too quit! Praise to the Almighty! Woot!
So anyhoo, this Friday was pretty interesting. Usually our Friday meetings reflect our Wednesday meetings in that our Wednesday group leaders lead the Bible study we studied together. One problem - we had a completely random and spontaneous Wednesday. What does that mean? Well, it means awesome and spontaneous Fridays! Haha, so Zach comes in at 5:30 to meet and pray together. He tells me he's really tired and doesn't want to lead worship this week. Not a problem! We roll with what we've got. In my mind, I had a set idea of what I was expecting to do. It's safe for me to say that nothing I was planning in my head came to pass, and it turned out to be the best meeting ever! What does that mean? Even after weeks and semesters of experience and planning with Epic, I got nothing on Jesus! It's not about the qualifications or the strategies of man, God always knows what's best. It's humbling for me to realize, but it's so awesome to see how God does His thing to perfection.
Since Zach didn't want to lead worship, I suggested we just take some time to draw pictures and write whatever God was putting on our heart during worship time instead of singing songs. So we decided we would pray about it and go with that. So we took some time to pray and did some waiting prayer. As we sat in silence, God gave me a picture of a face of a lion. The lion really reminded of Aslan from the Chronicles of Narnia. It specifically reminded me of a scene from Prince Caspian when Lucy looks over this gorge and sees Aslan. Lucy tries to show her brothers and sisters, but they don't see because they didn't believe. I felt like God wanted to use that Friday night to expand our imaginations and creativity that we might see and believe the greatness of God. In my mind, I believed that God would use each person's artwork or writing to be a puzzle piece that when put together would begin to reveal the face of God. So we went for it.
We prayed and lifted everything to God, and we set up the room. Once everyone arrived, we sat around some tables and spent the next hour getting to know each other. I don't know how many people came to the meeting this week. I don't really bother to count anymore. I learned my lesson last year in worrying about numbers. But if I recall now, there was a lot of people there! There must have been if it took like an hour to do introductions! Haha, it was kinda funny for me because I was kind of leading the thing, but I didn't know many of the people because I hadn't come to the Epic Friday meetings for the last 3 weeks due to traveling. So, it was cool to hear from from everyone and hear interesting facts about their lives.
After this, I told them we were going to transition into a time of worship. I told everyone we weren't going to do a traditional way of worship with singing. Instead, we were going to do some drawing. Also, Lydia gave a good explanation of why we worship for any people who didn't understand or who were there for the first time. So we passed out construction paper, lined paper for those who wanted to write, and pens and markers. We had some candles on the table and some worship music playing on speakers while everyone drew and wrote. It was pretty cool.
Actually for me, this time was kind of a frustrating experience. I'm not a very good artist and don't have very good drawing skills. I decided to write instead. I wanted to try to write something that I could share - something profound. But instead, I found myself unable to concentrate. I tried writing, and it wasn't coming out how I expected. I was planning on maybe doing the writing and drawing portion for maybe 15 to 20 minutes. But it definitely went on for about an hour or so. I was surprised by how engaged everyone was. No one acted like it was pointless or boring. Everyone participated!
So after about an hour, it was getting late so we gathered together. I told everyone that normally we would take some time to go through a Bible study and go through the Word. However, we didn't have time to do that this week. Instead, I realized that many of the people who were drawing and writing had been reading through their Bibles for verses. I knew that God had been speaking to the different people as they colored, drew, and wrote. So I asked anyone to share their art and what it meant to them if they were willing to.
It was amazing to see people's artwork and their writings. They were beautiful depictions of their relationships with God and the things God had been revealing to them. Their were eloquent poems and beautiful images. The explanations people gave were even more inspiring and real. No one was forcing things here. The poems talked about raw emotions. The paintings were not the most sophisticated but they reflected a sense of depth of each individuals in a way that words or facial expressions could not themselves describe. I saw the humanity, the pain, the authenticity of people on Friday. I didn't know what to expect and was blindsided with a pleasant surprise.
It was surprising because I had nothing to offer. I had no eloquent poem or magnificent painting to show off. In truth, I was frustrated during the experience. I wanted to offer a sense of hope and inspiration to the group through my art, but I was able to offer nothing. Someone in the group called me to share my art, but I had nothing to offer. Instead, I spoke a message that God put on my heart. I told the group that what happened here was more than anything I could have planned or come up with. I told them that so many times only the pastors, the leaders, the athletes, or the celebrities get attention or are privileged in our society. But what I saw that night was something that money couldn't buy. I got a glimpse of the hurts, the joys, and the hear beats of people. Behind the mask of brimming smiles, I saw a glimpse of the real depth of peoples lives. We saw brief snapshot of people's hearts. It wasn't anything overwhelming, but it was enough to soften the atmosphere and bring a smile to the face of God.
I learned a lot from this meeting. It was something so subtle and simple, yet so profound. Church isn't about the pastor or the leader. It is first and foremost about the people, and then secondly it is about the people. The church must be a participative community if it is going to thrive. I didn't have anything to teach or to speak. It was the artwork and the writing of the people there that taught the lessons and revealed the heart of God. And thus it must be with our churches, we must put an end to our top-down hierarchy and ask God how to empower His people to hear His voice and follow His hear beat.
It breaks my heart to see so many people unrecognized and underprivileged. Our society overlooks the teachers, the workers, and those who work so hard to provide for their families. We cast out the homeless. We ignore the orphans. We privilege the athletes, the celebrities, and the charismatic leaders. We can't keep doing this in the church. The church cannot privilege or give priority to the pastors and the elders. We must lift up and encourage all people no matter who they are. I'm not sure that this looks like exactly as we move forward with Epic. But I pray that God will give us a new sense of direction in how to involve and empower His people to know His heartbeat for those who are oppressed and forgotten.
God, I pray that we may never overlook those you love the most. I pray that you would open up our eyes and hearts to see the needs. Open up our eyes to see our own hypocrisy and pride. Forgive me for seeking my own plans and visions. Your plans and your ways are higher than our own. We want your Lord. Give us a heart that breaks for the things your heart breaks for. Give us a desire to see your name lifted high. Show us how to be the church. Restore the church to what it was meant to be. May we increase in intimacy with you, Lord! You are the desire of our hearts! We love you Lord! In Jesus Name, Amen!
So anyhoo, this Friday was pretty interesting. Usually our Friday meetings reflect our Wednesday meetings in that our Wednesday group leaders lead the Bible study we studied together. One problem - we had a completely random and spontaneous Wednesday. What does that mean? Well, it means awesome and spontaneous Fridays! Haha, so Zach comes in at 5:30 to meet and pray together. He tells me he's really tired and doesn't want to lead worship this week. Not a problem! We roll with what we've got. In my mind, I had a set idea of what I was expecting to do. It's safe for me to say that nothing I was planning in my head came to pass, and it turned out to be the best meeting ever! What does that mean? Even after weeks and semesters of experience and planning with Epic, I got nothing on Jesus! It's not about the qualifications or the strategies of man, God always knows what's best. It's humbling for me to realize, but it's so awesome to see how God does His thing to perfection.
Since Zach didn't want to lead worship, I suggested we just take some time to draw pictures and write whatever God was putting on our heart during worship time instead of singing songs. So we decided we would pray about it and go with that. So we took some time to pray and did some waiting prayer. As we sat in silence, God gave me a picture of a face of a lion. The lion really reminded of Aslan from the Chronicles of Narnia. It specifically reminded me of a scene from Prince Caspian when Lucy looks over this gorge and sees Aslan. Lucy tries to show her brothers and sisters, but they don't see because they didn't believe. I felt like God wanted to use that Friday night to expand our imaginations and creativity that we might see and believe the greatness of God. In my mind, I believed that God would use each person's artwork or writing to be a puzzle piece that when put together would begin to reveal the face of God. So we went for it.
We prayed and lifted everything to God, and we set up the room. Once everyone arrived, we sat around some tables and spent the next hour getting to know each other. I don't know how many people came to the meeting this week. I don't really bother to count anymore. I learned my lesson last year in worrying about numbers. But if I recall now, there was a lot of people there! There must have been if it took like an hour to do introductions! Haha, it was kinda funny for me because I was kind of leading the thing, but I didn't know many of the people because I hadn't come to the Epic Friday meetings for the last 3 weeks due to traveling. So, it was cool to hear from from everyone and hear interesting facts about their lives.
After this, I told them we were going to transition into a time of worship. I told everyone we weren't going to do a traditional way of worship with singing. Instead, we were going to do some drawing. Also, Lydia gave a good explanation of why we worship for any people who didn't understand or who were there for the first time. So we passed out construction paper, lined paper for those who wanted to write, and pens and markers. We had some candles on the table and some worship music playing on speakers while everyone drew and wrote. It was pretty cool.
Actually for me, this time was kind of a frustrating experience. I'm not a very good artist and don't have very good drawing skills. I decided to write instead. I wanted to try to write something that I could share - something profound. But instead, I found myself unable to concentrate. I tried writing, and it wasn't coming out how I expected. I was planning on maybe doing the writing and drawing portion for maybe 15 to 20 minutes. But it definitely went on for about an hour or so. I was surprised by how engaged everyone was. No one acted like it was pointless or boring. Everyone participated!
So after about an hour, it was getting late so we gathered together. I told everyone that normally we would take some time to go through a Bible study and go through the Word. However, we didn't have time to do that this week. Instead, I realized that many of the people who were drawing and writing had been reading through their Bibles for verses. I knew that God had been speaking to the different people as they colored, drew, and wrote. So I asked anyone to share their art and what it meant to them if they were willing to.
It was amazing to see people's artwork and their writings. They were beautiful depictions of their relationships with God and the things God had been revealing to them. Their were eloquent poems and beautiful images. The explanations people gave were even more inspiring and real. No one was forcing things here. The poems talked about raw emotions. The paintings were not the most sophisticated but they reflected a sense of depth of each individuals in a way that words or facial expressions could not themselves describe. I saw the humanity, the pain, the authenticity of people on Friday. I didn't know what to expect and was blindsided with a pleasant surprise.
It was surprising because I had nothing to offer. I had no eloquent poem or magnificent painting to show off. In truth, I was frustrated during the experience. I wanted to offer a sense of hope and inspiration to the group through my art, but I was able to offer nothing. Someone in the group called me to share my art, but I had nothing to offer. Instead, I spoke a message that God put on my heart. I told the group that what happened here was more than anything I could have planned or come up with. I told them that so many times only the pastors, the leaders, the athletes, or the celebrities get attention or are privileged in our society. But what I saw that night was something that money couldn't buy. I got a glimpse of the hurts, the joys, and the hear beats of people. Behind the mask of brimming smiles, I saw a glimpse of the real depth of peoples lives. We saw brief snapshot of people's hearts. It wasn't anything overwhelming, but it was enough to soften the atmosphere and bring a smile to the face of God.
I learned a lot from this meeting. It was something so subtle and simple, yet so profound. Church isn't about the pastor or the leader. It is first and foremost about the people, and then secondly it is about the people. The church must be a participative community if it is going to thrive. I didn't have anything to teach or to speak. It was the artwork and the writing of the people there that taught the lessons and revealed the heart of God. And thus it must be with our churches, we must put an end to our top-down hierarchy and ask God how to empower His people to hear His voice and follow His hear beat.
It breaks my heart to see so many people unrecognized and underprivileged. Our society overlooks the teachers, the workers, and those who work so hard to provide for their families. We cast out the homeless. We ignore the orphans. We privilege the athletes, the celebrities, and the charismatic leaders. We can't keep doing this in the church. The church cannot privilege or give priority to the pastors and the elders. We must lift up and encourage all people no matter who they are. I'm not sure that this looks like exactly as we move forward with Epic. But I pray that God will give us a new sense of direction in how to involve and empower His people to know His heartbeat for those who are oppressed and forgotten.
God, I pray that we may never overlook those you love the most. I pray that you would open up our eyes and hearts to see the needs. Open up our eyes to see our own hypocrisy and pride. Forgive me for seeking my own plans and visions. Your plans and your ways are higher than our own. We want your Lord. Give us a heart that breaks for the things your heart breaks for. Give us a desire to see your name lifted high. Show us how to be the church. Restore the church to what it was meant to be. May we increase in intimacy with you, Lord! You are the desire of our hearts! We love you Lord! In Jesus Name, Amen!
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Wonderful Wednesdays!
In this post, I want to talk about what our Wednesday and Friday meetings usually look like. I'll take a look back at our meetings from last week because I think everyone in our group has agreed they have been some of the best ever. I pray that as we move forward that God will continue to give us His grace and shed more light upon his divine strategy to reach this campus. We have no real strategy or plans as of now, we are just learning to listen to the Holy Spirit and go as He leads.
On our Wednesday meetings, we gather our core group to eat together, worship, go through the word, and pray. This last Wednesday our group got together and two of the guys in our group prepared us a hearty meal of grilled cheese and tomato soup. It was quite creative and budget friendly. We have had some pretty cool meals over the course of the semester. It is amazing to see what us college kids can do when put to the stove. Anyhoo, we gathered around the table and each week we catch up with one another and see how everyone is doing. After that, we go over to couch area and do some worship. We usually are led by Zach who sings and plays guitar, but this week he wasn't really feeling up to it.
So as usual, we improvise and go what the Spirit leads. This past week was pretty monumental because the elections had been decided just the day before. God had really been putting on my heart to talk about the elections. Actually, going into this Wednesday meeting, I had no idea what we were going to do. Usually, we go through a Bible study together as a group with some set material. But as I read through the material this week, I felt like it was really forced and not what our group needed. If I wasn't feeling transformed through the book, I couldn't expect the group to be either. So I just surrendered the night to God. I still didn't know what we were going to do, but as I walked to the Cru House where we were going to have to the meeting, I decided to just pray about and ask God what He would lead us to do.
Before I got the Cru house, I walked around the park and just spent some time with God asking for direction. It was great to just return to the simple devotion of loving God and just being with Him. In that time, I knew that God would lead us in the right direction. As I started walking back, I had a peace that God would be with us. Like I said, we ended up not having worship either because Zach wasn't feeling up to it, but things ended up working for the best.
As we sat on the couches, like I said earlier, God had really put the elections on my heart. I know that our group had different views on the presidency and stuff so I wanted to engage that discussion and see what everyone else thought. Wednesday was an important day in shaping our opinions and thoughts about the new direction of our nation, and I didn't want to ignore the significance of that day. So we talked about the elections, and I talked about some of the things God was showing me after going to TheCall in San Diego. If you're interested you can read about my thoughts in my personal blog. But anyway, it was great to hear where everyone was coming from and their opinions about the election.
I didn't just want to stop there though. I really wanted to pray for the nation and the things that we talked about. Many of the members at Epic talked about how the church needs to take a more active role in social justice and have more compassion for people around us. It was awesome to see how our group is responding to the need to do something about social injustices. We also talked about how we cannot just point figures at the church because in the end, we as a group are the church. We must be the ones who do something about that.
As we talked about these things, we transitioned by talking about what it would look like if revival were to come to ASU. What would that look like? We took turns talking about how the campus would change. People wouldn't have to lock their doors; students would share with students and teachers; no one would eat or sit alone; people would look each other in the eyes; there would be true love and compassion for all races and nationalities; etc. It was an awesome exercise, and it was cool to hear everyone's thoughts and hopes. We then read through 2 Chronicles 7:14 which states, "If my people who are called by my name, humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways; then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sins, and heal their land." God gives us the prescription for revival here in this passage. When we humble ourselves, pray, seek God's face, and turn for our wicked ways, God says He will hear us, forgive us, and heal our land. He will bring revival.
So we spent a pretty good amount of time just praying through these things. At this point, Zach pulled out his guitar and played some music as we prayed. He said he even learned some new chords as he played. It was an amazing experience. But after this, we didn't stop praying, we then got into groups and prayed for one another. I think overall we prayed from about 8ish til about 10pm. It was pretty awesome to be a part of this band of brothers and sisters who were committed to praying for one another. I think everyone enjoyed and encouraged the last part most of all when we prayed for one another. The church exists to glorify Christ and to encourage one another. I think by the end of the meeting everyone was encouraged and Jesus was glorified. Sounds like a successful meeting to me! We didn't have a set plan or a set Bible study, but we invited Jesus. That's the most important part.
The challenge for me is to learn how to better prepare and engage with the Word in a way that I can present to others and teach them how to then present it. But above all, I think that it is important for us all to learn how to be led by the Holy Spirit and to be okay with chaos. Neil Cole uses the word chaordic to describe this idea. Chaordic is a combination of chaotic and order. When things are led by the Holy Spirit, they may appear to be chaotic and spontaneous, but as He leads there is always order and structure. All I can say is that transformation is happening. I pray that God will continue to give us a passion to seek Him and a discipline to do our parts in preparing our hearts and soul through intimacy with Him. If there is a major difference between what I did this year and last year, it is the time I spend with God in intimacy. Without intimacy with God, nothing else would matter. I have a lot to learn, but I am so glad to have a group of individuals in Epic who are willing to learn and experiment with me.
Well so far, I only talked about the this past weeks Wednesday meeting. I guess I'll talk about the Friday meeting next post for the sake length. But just as kind of a summarizing note, we do try to follow somewhat of a structure in the midst of the spontaneity. We like to think of them as the 5 W's. Welcome (food), Worship, Waiting, Word, Works (prayer and social justice). We are definitely still learning how to do all these things, but it is awesome how God is teaching us and transforming us in the midst of our inadequacies and weakness. Hooray for Jesus! He saves the day!
On our Wednesday meetings, we gather our core group to eat together, worship, go through the word, and pray. This last Wednesday our group got together and two of the guys in our group prepared us a hearty meal of grilled cheese and tomato soup. It was quite creative and budget friendly. We have had some pretty cool meals over the course of the semester. It is amazing to see what us college kids can do when put to the stove. Anyhoo, we gathered around the table and each week we catch up with one another and see how everyone is doing. After that, we go over to couch area and do some worship. We usually are led by Zach who sings and plays guitar, but this week he wasn't really feeling up to it.
So as usual, we improvise and go what the Spirit leads. This past week was pretty monumental because the elections had been decided just the day before. God had really been putting on my heart to talk about the elections. Actually, going into this Wednesday meeting, I had no idea what we were going to do. Usually, we go through a Bible study together as a group with some set material. But as I read through the material this week, I felt like it was really forced and not what our group needed. If I wasn't feeling transformed through the book, I couldn't expect the group to be either. So I just surrendered the night to God. I still didn't know what we were going to do, but as I walked to the Cru House where we were going to have to the meeting, I decided to just pray about and ask God what He would lead us to do.
Before I got the Cru house, I walked around the park and just spent some time with God asking for direction. It was great to just return to the simple devotion of loving God and just being with Him. In that time, I knew that God would lead us in the right direction. As I started walking back, I had a peace that God would be with us. Like I said, we ended up not having worship either because Zach wasn't feeling up to it, but things ended up working for the best.
As we sat on the couches, like I said earlier, God had really put the elections on my heart. I know that our group had different views on the presidency and stuff so I wanted to engage that discussion and see what everyone else thought. Wednesday was an important day in shaping our opinions and thoughts about the new direction of our nation, and I didn't want to ignore the significance of that day. So we talked about the elections, and I talked about some of the things God was showing me after going to TheCall in San Diego. If you're interested you can read about my thoughts in my personal blog. But anyway, it was great to hear where everyone was coming from and their opinions about the election.
I didn't just want to stop there though. I really wanted to pray for the nation and the things that we talked about. Many of the members at Epic talked about how the church needs to take a more active role in social justice and have more compassion for people around us. It was awesome to see how our group is responding to the need to do something about social injustices. We also talked about how we cannot just point figures at the church because in the end, we as a group are the church. We must be the ones who do something about that.
As we talked about these things, we transitioned by talking about what it would look like if revival were to come to ASU. What would that look like? We took turns talking about how the campus would change. People wouldn't have to lock their doors; students would share with students and teachers; no one would eat or sit alone; people would look each other in the eyes; there would be true love and compassion for all races and nationalities; etc. It was an awesome exercise, and it was cool to hear everyone's thoughts and hopes. We then read through 2 Chronicles 7:14 which states, "If my people who are called by my name, humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways; then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sins, and heal their land." God gives us the prescription for revival here in this passage. When we humble ourselves, pray, seek God's face, and turn for our wicked ways, God says He will hear us, forgive us, and heal our land. He will bring revival.
So we spent a pretty good amount of time just praying through these things. At this point, Zach pulled out his guitar and played some music as we prayed. He said he even learned some new chords as he played. It was an amazing experience. But after this, we didn't stop praying, we then got into groups and prayed for one another. I think overall we prayed from about 8ish til about 10pm. It was pretty awesome to be a part of this band of brothers and sisters who were committed to praying for one another. I think everyone enjoyed and encouraged the last part most of all when we prayed for one another. The church exists to glorify Christ and to encourage one another. I think by the end of the meeting everyone was encouraged and Jesus was glorified. Sounds like a successful meeting to me! We didn't have a set plan or a set Bible study, but we invited Jesus. That's the most important part.
The challenge for me is to learn how to better prepare and engage with the Word in a way that I can present to others and teach them how to then present it. But above all, I think that it is important for us all to learn how to be led by the Holy Spirit and to be okay with chaos. Neil Cole uses the word chaordic to describe this idea. Chaordic is a combination of chaotic and order. When things are led by the Holy Spirit, they may appear to be chaotic and spontaneous, but as He leads there is always order and structure. All I can say is that transformation is happening. I pray that God will continue to give us a passion to seek Him and a discipline to do our parts in preparing our hearts and soul through intimacy with Him. If there is a major difference between what I did this year and last year, it is the time I spend with God in intimacy. Without intimacy with God, nothing else would matter. I have a lot to learn, but I am so glad to have a group of individuals in Epic who are willing to learn and experiment with me.
Well so far, I only talked about the this past weeks Wednesday meeting. I guess I'll talk about the Friday meeting next post for the sake length. But just as kind of a summarizing note, we do try to follow somewhat of a structure in the midst of the spontaneity. We like to think of them as the 5 W's. Welcome (food), Worship, Waiting, Word, Works (prayer and social justice). We are definitely still learning how to do all these things, but it is awesome how God is teaching us and transforming us in the midst of our inadequacies and weakness. Hooray for Jesus! He saves the day!
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
(r)EVOLUTION: A look at the changes from last year to this year
The vision and the structure of Epic Movement has been completely different this year from what we did last year. When we first started Epic, we initially were very concerned with being business-like and professional in our meetings. Every week, we would have weekly planning meetings. There were about five of us who came together each week to check up on one another, pray, and plan. We would organize and plan for our weekly meetings that took place on Friday, we would prepare for worship, we would assign roles, and cast vision for the future. As you can imagine this was a pretty daunting task for our group who had no experience. I had no experience as a leader, and I expected way too much out of everyone. I wanted to mold people to meet my expectations. We learned a lot that semester, and we did a lot of cool events. But that is the biggest difference between this year and last year. Last year, we focused on programs and events; this year year we are focusing on building transformational community.
Instead of having weekly planning meetings, this semester we decided to try something new. Over the summer, God began to put on my heart the idea of simple church. After reading Jaeson Ma's book the Blueprint and going on a summer project to Japan with Epic Movement, I began to recognize the importance of building community versus building a corporation. In the first semester of Epic Movement, I was trying to form a business. We had business meetings; we formed a constitution; we booked programs and events. We had community, but it was based around doing things rather than first being together and enjoying one another. God began to put on my heart the community modeled by the disciples in the New Testament church. As I began to read and learn more about the church in its earliest forms, I began to see not a business or a corporation, but a transformational community. They were a family.
So coming into the Fall semester of 2008, we essentially dropped all our strategies and our plans, and we started all over again. I wanted to see Epic Movement become a place where we could be transformed by knowing Jesus and being in a community that valued one another before any program or event. My heart for Epic has thus been transformed to desire to see the fulfillment of the Great Commandment and the completion of the Great Commission in this generation. It essentially comes down to the very DNA of the church: Faith, Hope, Love. Neil Cole talks about this DNA of the church in his book Organic Church. Faith represents divine truth. We must know God and respond to His voice. The Great Commandment says Love God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind. In faith, we know divine truth when we respond to the love God has for us. Love represents nurturing relationships. We must love our neighbors as ourselves. Developing community and love for one another is essential to the health of any movement. Finally, hope represents apostolic mission. We must go out and tel other of the great love that God has for us. We can't keep it for ourselves. Thus as you can see, the very DNA of the church represents the Great Commandment and the Great Commission.
So what does that look like for us coming into this semester? Well, like I said we have dropped our man-made strategies and have strived to seek after God's heart. Now, we definitely don't have all the answers, and I don't claim to be doing it exactly right. It's definitely a learning process. Everything we do every week is very organic. For me that means, I have no idea what I'm doing for the most part, and I pray, pray, and pray some more that the Holy Spirit will guide us. We have a set skeleton that we basically use every week, but for the most part, we have left lots of space for the Holy Spirit to move. That's the major difference this year. This year, there has been lots of spontaneity and randomness. It's crazy because just this last week many of our members said it was our best meeting. I am so blown away by this because it went completely in the opposite direction of what I expected. I came with plans and an idea of what to do, but God completely turned it around and did something different. I will have more to say on this meeting, and what God has been showing me lately in a future post.
Practically speaking, our group meets twice a week. We have a Wednesday meeting that involves our core community. But instead of meeting to plan and organize like we did last year, this year, we get together and get to know each. We have become a family. Every Wednesday, we get together, and we have taken turns making dinner for one another. There are about 10 of us in this core group, and each week we take turns setting up the room and the dinner table, cooking, and cleaning. After this, we enter into a time if worship, then we go through the word, and then we pray for one another. We are essentially coming together every week for 3 to 4 hours and be the church together. No longer are we striving to do church or go to church, but we are recognizing that we are the church. This has been one of the most important lessons that I have been learning with this group. It has been crazy to see a group of new believers, those jaded with the church, and a mixture of others come together and meet for 4 hours on most Wednesday nights. We hang out together, and we make sure Jesus is invited! That's the key!
Oh and on another note, our Epic Movement has become very international and diverse. God has put on our heart a vision bigger than just the Asian American community. We realize that God has something special for the Asian American community, but there is so much more on God's heart. So this semester our core group has looked completely different from last year. God has brought us not only Asian Americans, but also, Native Americans, Caucasians, and Hispanics. We are a diverse mixture of people. Our hope is that we will be able to equip this diverse group of individuals to pair together and minister to their own ethnic groups. We want to give other ethnic groups the opportunity to hear the gospel by empowering individuals from their own race to bring it to them. Thus, the vision is to multiply our simple church by eventually breaking off into the different groups that God has placed on hearts. Then, the people who have been equipped and trained in our transformational community can go and do the same with those God leads them to.
In order to minister to the Asian American community and raise up leaders within our own community, we still have our Friday night weekly meetings. What we do in our Friday meetings is to replicate what we do in our Wednesday meetings. However, instead of me or Kelly leading, we have the other leaders in our community lead the Friday meetings. It has been pretty successful so far. We have had Friday night weekly meetings every Friday, and I haven't even shown up to the last three prior this last Friday. It has been such an honor and a blessing to work with such a group of willing individuals who are hungry for more of God. It is amazing to see God truly working and transforming peoples hearts. There is still so much to learn and so much more room to grow. My challenge is to not force things to go faster or to be the way that I expect them to be. God has by far exceeded my expectations; thus, I have come to realize that God's way is truly better than my own.
As you can see, God has truly been amazing. I know that we owe everything to Him. I am especially thankful for everyone in our Wednesday group. God has definitely given us kindred spirits and has drawn us together for something special. This was all just a dream a semester ago. But God has been working in double time. It has been such and honor and a privilege to work with Kelly to empower a generation to understand their worth - we are all loved by God! However, it definitely is not a one-way learning path. I learn so much from my brothers and sisters in Christ every day. This movement would not be here without their prayers and their efforts.
One of the other major elements we have added to our group this year are PODs or discipleship groups. We have groups of guys and groups of girls that meet in groups of threes every week to disciple one another and keep one another accountable. We definitely value being known and being loved. These groups allow for everyone to be cared for. I know that I definitely would not be able to care for every single person in our group. But God has raised up people who have had a special heart to love and care for one another. I think this is the biggest reason for our retention and our growth. Our groups have responded to the call and have begun to care for one another. It is amazing to see that our group doesn't just hang out on Wednesdays and Fridays. They all hang out almost every day. I see them together at the prayer house. They eat together. We celebrate birthdays together. Our group has truly become a transformational community - a true family. It makes my heart smile inside. God is soo good!
Next post, I will talk about last week's Wednesday and Friday meetings. God has really shown a lot through those meetings, and I think those meetings were some of the best we have ever had. There were definitely spontaneous and spirit-led, so more on that next time!
Instead of having weekly planning meetings, this semester we decided to try something new. Over the summer, God began to put on my heart the idea of simple church. After reading Jaeson Ma's book the Blueprint and going on a summer project to Japan with Epic Movement, I began to recognize the importance of building community versus building a corporation. In the first semester of Epic Movement, I was trying to form a business. We had business meetings; we formed a constitution; we booked programs and events. We had community, but it was based around doing things rather than first being together and enjoying one another. God began to put on my heart the community modeled by the disciples in the New Testament church. As I began to read and learn more about the church in its earliest forms, I began to see not a business or a corporation, but a transformational community. They were a family.
So coming into the Fall semester of 2008, we essentially dropped all our strategies and our plans, and we started all over again. I wanted to see Epic Movement become a place where we could be transformed by knowing Jesus and being in a community that valued one another before any program or event. My heart for Epic has thus been transformed to desire to see the fulfillment of the Great Commandment and the completion of the Great Commission in this generation. It essentially comes down to the very DNA of the church: Faith, Hope, Love. Neil Cole talks about this DNA of the church in his book Organic Church. Faith represents divine truth. We must know God and respond to His voice. The Great Commandment says Love God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind. In faith, we know divine truth when we respond to the love God has for us. Love represents nurturing relationships. We must love our neighbors as ourselves. Developing community and love for one another is essential to the health of any movement. Finally, hope represents apostolic mission. We must go out and tel other of the great love that God has for us. We can't keep it for ourselves. Thus as you can see, the very DNA of the church represents the Great Commandment and the Great Commission.
So what does that look like for us coming into this semester? Well, like I said we have dropped our man-made strategies and have strived to seek after God's heart. Now, we definitely don't have all the answers, and I don't claim to be doing it exactly right. It's definitely a learning process. Everything we do every week is very organic. For me that means, I have no idea what I'm doing for the most part, and I pray, pray, and pray some more that the Holy Spirit will guide us. We have a set skeleton that we basically use every week, but for the most part, we have left lots of space for the Holy Spirit to move. That's the major difference this year. This year, there has been lots of spontaneity and randomness. It's crazy because just this last week many of our members said it was our best meeting. I am so blown away by this because it went completely in the opposite direction of what I expected. I came with plans and an idea of what to do, but God completely turned it around and did something different. I will have more to say on this meeting, and what God has been showing me lately in a future post.
Practically speaking, our group meets twice a week. We have a Wednesday meeting that involves our core community. But instead of meeting to plan and organize like we did last year, this year, we get together and get to know each. We have become a family. Every Wednesday, we get together, and we have taken turns making dinner for one another. There are about 10 of us in this core group, and each week we take turns setting up the room and the dinner table, cooking, and cleaning. After this, we enter into a time if worship, then we go through the word, and then we pray for one another. We are essentially coming together every week for 3 to 4 hours and be the church together. No longer are we striving to do church or go to church, but we are recognizing that we are the church. This has been one of the most important lessons that I have been learning with this group. It has been crazy to see a group of new believers, those jaded with the church, and a mixture of others come together and meet for 4 hours on most Wednesday nights. We hang out together, and we make sure Jesus is invited! That's the key!
Oh and on another note, our Epic Movement has become very international and diverse. God has put on our heart a vision bigger than just the Asian American community. We realize that God has something special for the Asian American community, but there is so much more on God's heart. So this semester our core group has looked completely different from last year. God has brought us not only Asian Americans, but also, Native Americans, Caucasians, and Hispanics. We are a diverse mixture of people. Our hope is that we will be able to equip this diverse group of individuals to pair together and minister to their own ethnic groups. We want to give other ethnic groups the opportunity to hear the gospel by empowering individuals from their own race to bring it to them. Thus, the vision is to multiply our simple church by eventually breaking off into the different groups that God has placed on hearts. Then, the people who have been equipped and trained in our transformational community can go and do the same with those God leads them to.
In order to minister to the Asian American community and raise up leaders within our own community, we still have our Friday night weekly meetings. What we do in our Friday meetings is to replicate what we do in our Wednesday meetings. However, instead of me or Kelly leading, we have the other leaders in our community lead the Friday meetings. It has been pretty successful so far. We have had Friday night weekly meetings every Friday, and I haven't even shown up to the last three prior this last Friday. It has been such an honor and a blessing to work with such a group of willing individuals who are hungry for more of God. It is amazing to see God truly working and transforming peoples hearts. There is still so much to learn and so much more room to grow. My challenge is to not force things to go faster or to be the way that I expect them to be. God has by far exceeded my expectations; thus, I have come to realize that God's way is truly better than my own.
As you can see, God has truly been amazing. I know that we owe everything to Him. I am especially thankful for everyone in our Wednesday group. God has definitely given us kindred spirits and has drawn us together for something special. This was all just a dream a semester ago. But God has been working in double time. It has been such and honor and a privilege to work with Kelly to empower a generation to understand their worth - we are all loved by God! However, it definitely is not a one-way learning path. I learn so much from my brothers and sisters in Christ every day. This movement would not be here without their prayers and their efforts.
One of the other major elements we have added to our group this year are PODs or discipleship groups. We have groups of guys and groups of girls that meet in groups of threes every week to disciple one another and keep one another accountable. We definitely value being known and being loved. These groups allow for everyone to be cared for. I know that I definitely would not be able to care for every single person in our group. But God has raised up people who have had a special heart to love and care for one another. I think this is the biggest reason for our retention and our growth. Our groups have responded to the call and have begun to care for one another. It is amazing to see that our group doesn't just hang out on Wednesdays and Fridays. They all hang out almost every day. I see them together at the prayer house. They eat together. We celebrate birthdays together. Our group has truly become a transformational community - a true family. It makes my heart smile inside. God is soo good!
Next post, I will talk about last week's Wednesday and Friday meetings. God has really shown a lot through those meetings, and I think those meetings were some of the best we have ever had. There were definitely spontaneous and spirit-led, so more on that next time!
Monday, November 10, 2008
A Brief Introduction
In this post, I want to give a brief history about Epic Movement at ASU and also give a snapshot of what our weekly gatherings look like. Sometime in the future, I want to give a more extensive history of how Epic started, but I keep putting that off. So as a way to preserve what is currently happening and make steps towards more fully documenting the past, I hope to start by giving a brief description and history of what has been happening so far. God has really been putting on my heart to record the history of what happens here. It says in Habakkuk 2:2, "Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it." So that's what I intend to do here on this blog. I want to record the history and write down the vision so that anyone can read about what God is doing here and run with the vision that God is placing on their hearts. The revolution is here. Will you be a part of it?
Brief History:
Epic Movement at ASU was birthed in Fall semester of 2007 when my friend Kelly and I began praying for God to open up doors to start a new ministry. Kelly and I were both in Campus Crusade Christ, but at the beginning of the semester, we didn't even know each other. Through a series of divine appointments, we kept running into each other. Since we were both Filipino, we decided to go check out the Filipino club together. God had begun putting the Asian American community on hearts, and we soon began praying about starting a branch of Campus Crusade for Christ that would focus on reaching Asian Americans. There are so many more details that happened, but those can be saved for another day. In order to really see the full significance of what happened, we would have to look at our personal journeys that brought us to this point as well.
But anyway, we began praying to start an Epic Movement. I didn't even know what Epic Movement was until halfway through the semester. But when I found out, I knew this is something we needed to do. Kelly and I began meeting and praying twice a week or more. We would fast and pray every Friday asking God to open up doors and opportunities to go this conference. We began talking to the Campus Crusade staff and to some of our friends about the idea. Some people seemed pretty excited about the idea, but others kind of looked at us like we were crazy dreamers but would never see anything come to pass. But we pressed on, not merely in action, but in prayer and fasting. God definitely heard our prayers and started opening up doors.
After Winter Conference in San Diego, we came back to school, and we knew that it was time to begin. We had held an informational session before winter vacation, and there was a solid group of people who were willing to commit. So we went out and took a step of faith, and held our first meeting during the spring semester to give more information about what we were trying to do. We got a lot of support from our friends in Campus Crusade for Christ, and there were a lot of others who were interested in well. We told them that the next week would be the starting point. So we prayed and got ready for our first official meeting. God was so good and that meeting 27 people showed up! It was crazy! I don't even know how that all came to pass, but God totally blessed us and confirmed to us that this was His divine work.
In February of 2008, we went to Epic Conference, and there was a total of 5 of us that got to go. Together, we bonded at Epic Conference, and while there God affirmed us so much in showing us that we were headed in the right direction. It was amazing to go to this conference and be a part of a bigger picture of what God was doing. It was also so encouraging to see people's surprised faces when we told them the stories of how God began moving at ASU. Even when I think about it now, it is such a blessing to see what God has done with our Epic Movement here at ASU. It has taken many years for people to see fruit on their campuses. But God is moving so swiftly at ASU, and in just one and half semesters, God has done some crazy things.
The verse that God gave me when we first started Epic was Isaiah 60:22, "The least shall become a clan, and the smallest one a mighty nation; I am the Lord; in its time I will hasten it." This verse is so powerful and has such redemptive power. It promises strength and power to the smallest and the least. God is raising up a generation of Asian Americans and other ethnic minorities who have been long overlooked. But it is not the work or strength of the people, it is the divine intervention and favor of the Lord. God is doing it in His time, and He is doing it in fast forward. God is good!
Our first semester was such a learning experience. We had so many ups and downs, but God was with us and preparing us for something more. Since the first semester, we have changed the entire structure of what we used to do when we first started. In fact, we have mostly an entire new group of people from what we first had. But God has been faithful in the midst of it all. This Fall semester 2009, we have totally revamped Epic Movement and started over. It was tough to give it all up and start over again especially after everything that happened the first semester. But we have learned and lot and are continuing to learn. I am excited about what God has been doing this semester, and I don't even know what to expect in the semester to come. We know that God is good and will continue to guide our every step and give us the vision to press forwards. We have definitely come a long way though. I don't think anyone, even myself, could have expected the awesomeness that has happened along the way.
I"ll talk more about the differences of the vision and the structure of this semester and last semester in the next blog.
Brief History:
Epic Movement at ASU was birthed in Fall semester of 2007 when my friend Kelly and I began praying for God to open up doors to start a new ministry. Kelly and I were both in Campus Crusade Christ, but at the beginning of the semester, we didn't even know each other. Through a series of divine appointments, we kept running into each other. Since we were both Filipino, we decided to go check out the Filipino club together. God had begun putting the Asian American community on hearts, and we soon began praying about starting a branch of Campus Crusade for Christ that would focus on reaching Asian Americans. There are so many more details that happened, but those can be saved for another day. In order to really see the full significance of what happened, we would have to look at our personal journeys that brought us to this point as well.
But anyway, we began praying to start an Epic Movement. I didn't even know what Epic Movement was until halfway through the semester. But when I found out, I knew this is something we needed to do. Kelly and I began meeting and praying twice a week or more. We would fast and pray every Friday asking God to open up doors and opportunities to go this conference. We began talking to the Campus Crusade staff and to some of our friends about the idea. Some people seemed pretty excited about the idea, but others kind of looked at us like we were crazy dreamers but would never see anything come to pass. But we pressed on, not merely in action, but in prayer and fasting. God definitely heard our prayers and started opening up doors.
After Winter Conference in San Diego, we came back to school, and we knew that it was time to begin. We had held an informational session before winter vacation, and there was a solid group of people who were willing to commit. So we went out and took a step of faith, and held our first meeting during the spring semester to give more information about what we were trying to do. We got a lot of support from our friends in Campus Crusade for Christ, and there were a lot of others who were interested in well. We told them that the next week would be the starting point. So we prayed and got ready for our first official meeting. God was so good and that meeting 27 people showed up! It was crazy! I don't even know how that all came to pass, but God totally blessed us and confirmed to us that this was His divine work.
In February of 2008, we went to Epic Conference, and there was a total of 5 of us that got to go. Together, we bonded at Epic Conference, and while there God affirmed us so much in showing us that we were headed in the right direction. It was amazing to go to this conference and be a part of a bigger picture of what God was doing. It was also so encouraging to see people's surprised faces when we told them the stories of how God began moving at ASU. Even when I think about it now, it is such a blessing to see what God has done with our Epic Movement here at ASU. It has taken many years for people to see fruit on their campuses. But God is moving so swiftly at ASU, and in just one and half semesters, God has done some crazy things.
The verse that God gave me when we first started Epic was Isaiah 60:22, "The least shall become a clan, and the smallest one a mighty nation; I am the Lord; in its time I will hasten it." This verse is so powerful and has such redemptive power. It promises strength and power to the smallest and the least. God is raising up a generation of Asian Americans and other ethnic minorities who have been long overlooked. But it is not the work or strength of the people, it is the divine intervention and favor of the Lord. God is doing it in His time, and He is doing it in fast forward. God is good!
Our first semester was such a learning experience. We had so many ups and downs, but God was with us and preparing us for something more. Since the first semester, we have changed the entire structure of what we used to do when we first started. In fact, we have mostly an entire new group of people from what we first had. But God has been faithful in the midst of it all. This Fall semester 2009, we have totally revamped Epic Movement and started over. It was tough to give it all up and start over again especially after everything that happened the first semester. But we have learned and lot and are continuing to learn. I am excited about what God has been doing this semester, and I don't even know what to expect in the semester to come. We know that God is good and will continue to guide our every step and give us the vision to press forwards. We have definitely come a long way though. I don't think anyone, even myself, could have expected the awesomeness that has happened along the way.
I"ll talk more about the differences of the vision and the structure of this semester and last semester in the next blog.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Take Off!
Hello World!
Epic Movement ASU is ready to make some noise! I really want to write down the cool stuff that God is doing here at Arizona State University with Epic Movement every week so that others around the world can be encouraged. God has been doing some awesome things through Epic, and we want others to be able to share with our experiences and pray for what God is doing. It is my hope that I can get other contributors from within our Epic Movement here at ASU to share their experiences on this blog. This way you can get a several different perspectives and stories from other people in our movement. Hopefully, we can update weekly and tell others about what is going on here. Eventually, it would be awesome to be networked with other movements' blogs from all over the nation, and together we can take the internet by storm.
God is working in everyone's lives, and everyone has a story to tell. We hope that Epic Movement ASU's blog can serve as a catalyst that will help ispire and encourage you to take off with the dreams and visions God has placed on our heart. God is faithful to those who walk out and take a step of faith. In the next few days, weeks, months, years, we will recount the history of God's faithfulness to us here at ASU, and we hope that this will likewise help you to respond to God's calling for your lives. Happy writing! It's time for take off! Woooot!
What happens here changes the world!!!!!
Epic Movement ASU is ready to make some noise! I really want to write down the cool stuff that God is doing here at Arizona State University with Epic Movement every week so that others around the world can be encouraged. God has been doing some awesome things through Epic, and we want others to be able to share with our experiences and pray for what God is doing. It is my hope that I can get other contributors from within our Epic Movement here at ASU to share their experiences on this blog. This way you can get a several different perspectives and stories from other people in our movement. Hopefully, we can update weekly and tell others about what is going on here. Eventually, it would be awesome to be networked with other movements' blogs from all over the nation, and together we can take the internet by storm.
God is working in everyone's lives, and everyone has a story to tell. We hope that Epic Movement ASU's blog can serve as a catalyst that will help ispire and encourage you to take off with the dreams and visions God has placed on our heart. God is faithful to those who walk out and take a step of faith. In the next few days, weeks, months, years, we will recount the history of God's faithfulness to us here at ASU, and we hope that this will likewise help you to respond to God's calling for your lives. Happy writing! It's time for take off! Woooot!
What happens here changes the world!!!!!
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