“We’re alcoholics and drug addicts but we don’t mean nothin by it”

ok… let me explain…

This week has been amazing. On Saturday, 21 middle school kids and 9 adults arrived in Savannah from First Baptist West Palm Beach. They were here on a mission trip with “Power Plant” (a program through the North American Mission Board) it pairs churches from all over the country with church planters in different cities to help them and learn about how we do church. for photos click here and here

Our week was a little hectic. The kids and leaders all stayed at SSU in the dorms and then would meet up with us at 1:30 every afternoon and hang out until 9:30 every night. I had a slew of activities planned…

Monday: We stuffed bags with free chick-fil-a coupons and invites to church and then drove around all over Whitemarsh Island hanging them on doors. It was hot! We walked a lot!

Tuesday: We volunteered our time and man-power to the theatre where we meet. We asked them what we could do and they were not shy to tell us… We cut down trees and raked leaves to clear out a back parking lot that has been neglected for a while. It was HOT! Those guys worked hard!

Wednesday: We went to the Baptist Center in the inner city and helped throw a block party for the church that is meeting there. We setup, made signs played with kids and signed them up for VBS. It was HOT!

Thursday: We built over 200 pb&j sandwiches in my garage then drove to different locations downtown to find hungry/homeless people and just offer them a small meal. I was surprised at how many we gave out. This brings me to my first statement…

My group encountered three homeless men in a park… Richard, Johnny and Jerry. These guys were completely wasted, entertaining but wasted. We gave them each 2 sandwiches and then hung out for a minute. It was the first time some of these kids had ever been that close to the homeless. I talked to them and so did the kids… they weren’t scared at all. One of the guys even made a flower out of grass and the other made up a poem. anyway they said the above statement as we were walking away. We are just there to spread the love of Christ!

Next we went to a mission downtown to donate the rest of the sandwiches and noticed a lot of people standing outside to get in. Some were obviously homeless and were laying in the grass while others just looked hungry.

One lady in particular caught my eye… she looked “normal”. By normal I mean… she was clean and seemed to be wearing a badge from work. I thought she may be volunteering at the shelter. But, no! she was standing in line just like everyone else. This humbled me more than I have been humbled in my life. This lady was different… not that I think the other people were not important… it’s not my place to judge anyone or how they got into their particular situation. It’s just that she had been working and just didn’t have money to eat. Her image has been burned in my mind for the last 24 hours.

One of the discussion questions from journey group this past week was: When was the last time you really suffered for Christ?

I thought I had been suffering all week in the heat. I thought that it was just way too hot to be outside and couldn’t wait to get into the van or back home to the A/C.

That woman left her job to go stand outside in line at a shelter to get a meal in that same heat. She was drenched in sweat and when we gave her the sandwich her eyes were grateful although she didn’t say anything but a simple Thank You…I could tell she needed that sandwich.

When was the last time you really suffered for Christ?

Seriously! Be at Canvas Church this Sunday at 10am & 11am! Watch this… it’s funny!

click on the logo…

So… The Canvas group is at a conference in Atlanta for a couple of days.(Except for Jared & April because of work)… we miss you guys! It’s been nice to see familiar faces and old friends. That is my favorite part of a conference. We are headed back this morning and then will be getting on the road home tonight. It’s going to be a long day! I miss all you Savannahians!

For all you spiritual people out there, if you want to know all the details, check out my buddy Tim’s blog. He has written all the notes from the two main sessions.

p.s. I have lived in Atlanta my entire life excluding the past year and I think it’s an amazing place to grow up. It will always be home and I miss it and the people in it.

 But here are a few things that I don’t miss…

1. It’s really cold

2. It takes at least 20 minuted to get anywhere

3. the traffic is stupid

4. it’s really grey in the winter

5. there is no beach

6. piedmont park holds no comparison to forsyth park

1/3 of the vision at Canvas Church is “action”. 

We believe that followers of Jesus Christ individually and as a church collectively are called to act out their faith in tangible ways. We want to reach into the city and figuratively be the hands and feet of Jesus. It is our aim to be involved in the improvement of life in the city, and to physically be active in changing the way people view the church.

This is where I come in as a staff member. God has shown me a few things over the past couple of years about being the hands and feet instead of just donating my money. I have been burdened for the city of Savannah and beyond. I have been taken out of my comfort zone.

Over the past 2 weeks I have sat in and listened in on some great meetings about the future of Canvas Action. I have been a little overwhelmed as to how God has positioned the church and our community for some great things. People are excited about what will be happening. 

I will have some amazing news to announce soon! I wish I could tell you now, but I want to wait until all the I’s have been dotted and all the T’s have been crossed. Just know that God is about to transform a city!

We dream of a church that would be sorely missed if suddenly absent.

I can’t wait to see the lives that will be transformed through it… Mine already has.

UMMMM…. HELLO!

Canvas Church is launching in 11 days! There is a lot to be done. 

Friday…

be at doug’s house (same neighborhood as me) at 6pm to put together 4000 bags to hang on doors! We will be having homemade chili and mexican soup. 

p.s. props to Mr. & Mrs. Parkman at the Chick-Fil-A on mall blvd. They donated a lot of coupons for us to put in the bags. Go there to eat and thank them!!!

Saturday…

we will be meeting right after lunch at 12:30pm in the movie theater (church) parking lot. We will be going around putting out 4000 door hangers. We are not knocking on doors, just placing the bags at each house. Once we gather together, you will be teamed up, given an area with a map and then we will go out.

Sunday…

This will be awesome…

 we are going as a group to NewSpring Church in Anderson, SC. This is an great opportunity for us to gain some vision! We will meet at my neighborhood at 10am. We should be returning around 10pm. 

call me if you have any questions!

We had a great staff meeting tonight. It’s cool because we are discussing things that are actually happening rather than things that are months away. Oh… and Mark is here now so we don’t have to lean over the table and talk to the phone anymore.

We talked about this Sunday’s practice service. It’s going to be awesome, we have some great stuff planned and I think our core group will have a great time of worship!

We talked a lot about our launch service on the 25th… Jared is awesome and has worked really hard to organize all of this. A lot more goes on behind the scenes that no one knows about but we have already planned the services through March! Thanks Jared for your dedication!

Anyway… I realized something tonight. Wait, let me rephrase that. I remembered something tonight that I forget from time to time… God does not NEED us to plant this church for Him. That’s it. I think way too much of myself most of the time. Sometimes I feel so important that I think if we weren’t here nothing would happen, that God couldn’t do it on His own. Ha!

Remember He doesn’t “need” us. He “wants” us! in my opinion… that is a lot bigger responsibility! 

We.. as a staff are praying daily for God to keep us humble, to not let us get in the way of what God has planned. We are praying for Jesus to be more famous  in Savannah… not just at Canvas Church!

We had our 1st practice service today. We met at Doug’s house at 6am to load the trailer on my car then we went to McDonald’s for our Sunday Morning tradition. It was nice to have a tradition again. 

Richard ended the day by singing a song called center by Charlie Hall. It reminded me that no matter what we do or how early we get up or how much sound equipment we have unless Christ is the center of it all… it doesn’t matter!

Please keep praying for us as next week we will be having another practice with a full band and all of our equipment. 

On January 25th… It’s Go Time! 

let’s fill these seats…

2008 was the start of an amazing journey.

God challenged me, delighted me, rewarded me, and humbled me…

I am elated to see what He has in store for 2009.

I have a feeling that God has a few more challenges for Canvas Church.

I have a feeling that stuff is going to happen that cannot be explained.

Get ready Savannah… 24 more days!

Today we helped the Old Savannah City Mission with their annual Thanksgiving Feast in Forsyth Park. We arrived there around 9:45, registered and then got to work! The Canvasians had the duty of giving out the drinks! It was great until we ran out of Mountain Dew!!! It was a very humbling day. I am still in awe of Doug & Shelly’s kids… Ryan & Ashleigh. They got right in the middle of everything and were the only ones that I noticed didn’t take a break! They worked until the head guy told us not to anymore! I am very proud of you guys, you are an inspiration to me and others that were there today…Thanks for being the church!

I just pray that while we are sitting in our warm homes tonight that these people that came for food today are warm. It is not our place to judge why they are in need but our responsibility as Christ Followers to fill it! 

 ryan & ashleigh