Neil Cole shares with us about mentoring and Organic Leadership at Student CPx: Concentrate is Las Vegas in 2009. Neil has been a true Spiritual Father to this movement of lay/student church planters…Enjoy.
I had the pleasure of kicking off Student CPx: Concentrate in Vegas with a bit of the history of how SCPx was birthed, and the desire to see students equipped to live out the Great Commission on their campuses & in their neighborhoods…
To see a bit more of what took place at SCPx: Concentrate in Vegas Click Here to watch some student Baptisms that took place & Click Here to hear from some students about what it means to make disciples/start new faith communities in their context.
I know what you’re thinking…”that’s way too much work, exhausting, & I never make any money.” However, after this past weekend we weren’t really concerned with making money (Although we did raise lots of money for “Stop Child Trafficking Now“!), or having to put work into it. We learned that putting together a neighborhood yard sale might just be one of the BEST ways to meet neighbors, start new relationships, & build a sense of community within your neighborhood. Yes, it was a lot of work. Yes, most people didn’t make much money. But, we all met tons of new people, and are hoping that some wonderful relationships will be the result…
The Simple/Organic Church we started here in the neighborhood came together to organize and host the yard sale. Our goal was to get people out of their houses to meet one another, get the word out about the neighborhood potluck dinner in the club house every month, and raise money/awareness for “Stop Child Trafficking Now”. All of the above were accomplished with great success!
We bought hot dogs, chips, and drinks for lunch. It was fee, but we asked for donations for “SCTNow”. Some little kids in the hood set up a lemonade stand. It was a wonderful time. My neighbor John “manned” the grill for us, and served his butt off voluntarily the entire weekend. Others learned about the child trafficking that occurs in our city, and will be joining us on Halloween to hand out little toys with “SCTNow” facts attached to them.
If you don’t know your neighbors, and the thought of taking fresh baked cookies to their front door scares the hell out of you…then organize a community wide yard sale! Watch what happens…
I will continue part 3 of the “Removing Ignorance” and “Removing [More] Ignorance” posts next week. However, for now I will be posting some video teachings from Student CPx: Concentrate in Las Vegas back in January of 2009. They are in no particular order, but I feel you will find them to be a blessing to you wherever you’re at. We’ll have teachings from Brian Orme, Erik Fish, Pam Arlund, Neil Cole, and maybe one from…me? =) This particular teaching is by my friend Brian Orme who joined us in Vegas, as well as Austin Student CPx this past August. Enjoy…
Student CPx: Concentrate – Las Vegas, NV 2009
We just arrived back from a 4 day planning trip in Pittsburgh, PA. 9 adults and 13 kids piled into one house for the weekend as we brainstormed, dreamed, and made plans for Student CPx stuff in 2010…
(Snow family, Fish family, McKoy family, Chang family, Pam Arlund)
Most of you know about the Student CPx training experiences we host along with several other partnering organizations. Five families make up the SCPx National Elder Team. We host the training experiences in various cities all over the world, with an upcoming SCPx in Costa Rica & our Student Church National Gathering in St. Louis in January. Intentional Gatherings is so blessed to a part of such an incredible team of like-minded brothers & sisters.
We had an incredible time of relationship building & planning for 2010. We have some exciting things in the works for this next year. We made plans for SCPx Training in several cities including Austin. We also developed a plan to visit 12 cities from Jan. 2010 – March 2010 for what we’re calling “iSCPx” (Intro to StudentCPx) where we will meet with students who have heard about the experience, & are interested in learning more about it. The weekend was incredibly productive & fruitful. Not to mention we got to spend some sweet time with some wonderful families who we don’t get to see very often…
View of the lake from the back porch of the house we stayed in. The leaves were changing & it was delicious.
(Olivia Fish, Eliza Snow, Hudson Fish, Graham Fish – SO Cute)
(The kitchen where food was prepped for 5 families-thanks Michelle & Jen!)
(Tried to get a shot of all the kids…apparently Hudson wasn’t in the mood for a photo shoot!=)
(Our little chunky monkey who’s 3 months old and pushin’ 20 pounds!)
We had a blast, and got a lot done. I can’t wait to reveal more details about the upcoming National Gathering, “iSCPx” 12 city plan, and the full length SCPx training experiences that will be hosted in 2010! Stay tuned…
Most of you know about the Student CPx Training Experiences that we, along with a couple other like-minded organizations, host in different parts of the world several times/year.
From the first Student CPx training we could sense God building some sort of “Spiritual Family” among students all over the country who are reaching unbelievers, and starting new faith communities in their context. We believe He is still doing so to this day.
The purpose of this gathering is to give people a chance to re-connect, share stories, & build family. In January 2010 the Student CPx National Leadership team will be hosting a Student Church Gathering. Here’s the details:
WHO SHOULD COME? Anyone who has been involved in your student church this semester at any level. It will also benefit newcomers to your church.
WHY SHOULD YOU COME? To be refreshed in the Lord, reconnect with your
brothers and sisters and be encouraged to dream big.
WHEN? Jan 1-4, 2010
WHERE? St. Louis, MO
The application deadline is December 1, 2009. A $75 deposit is due to
complete your registration. The total cost for the conference is $175
(includes breakfast, lodging and conference fee). If you register after
December 1, 2009, it will be your responsibility to find your own housing.
Your conference fee will be $75.
Click Here to register.
If you have any questions please contact Mike or Michelle Chang at
mchang@studentchurch.org
We just realized that many of you weren’t registering for Student CPx because you didn’t want to pay the full $250 to stay in someone else’s house when you have your own place right down the road. Duh. So, we decided to extend registration, and offer Austin locals who stay at their own place a discounted price of $150 for the ENTIRE 10 day training! On top of that you can receive an additional $50 off if you open your home up to house 2-5 CPx students for a total of $100. GO REGISTER NOW!
That’s $100 for a 10 day experience of a lifetime that will empower, and equip you for a lifetime of kingdom impact. Not to mention there will be some incredibly special people there spending time with us who have been such a blessing to this movement.
***Neil Cole, Brian Orme, Tony & Felicity Dale, Jack Allen, Michael Stewart, Jackie Markovich, Sam Lee, Erik Fish, Lauren Nanson, Dawn Delaney & MORE!***
A few days ago I posted the letter I wrote to Morgan as she began her adventure as a mommy. I also wrote a letter to Eliza a few weeks before the birth. After she was born Morgan and I spent some time alone together with her. It was a beautiful time of worship as I prayed, and spoke these words over them in Jesus’ name…
7.12.2009
“Dearest Eliza,
I am humbled that the Lord has chosen your mommy and I to be the first two people who get to welcome you into this new world. We do so in the name of our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ who did for us what we could not do ourselves, become sinless & Holy that we may commune with the living God. It was God who formed you inside of your mother, and allowed us to be blessed with you. We have committed to a life centered on the Gospel, and kingdom of God. We realize that first and foremost this means we get to raise you as a disciple of Jesus. Aside from each other, we now commit to placing you before anyone else. It is upon this foundation that you enter into our lives. May this become a reality as you grow into the woman of God that He created you to be.
We begin this first conversation with you by confessing our weakness, and brokenness. We admit that we do not have the ability to accomplish this task of raising you that has been laid before us. We humbly confess that we will not always know the right answers, and will likely make decisions that disappoint you. Due to the sin nature that battles inside of us we will probably be responsible, at some point, for pain in your life. It will be these times that we must ask you, as our daughter, for grace, mercy, and forgiveness. Our need for, and dependency upon Christ must be made known now, and we must all be reminded of this reality from this day forward. We are daily begging God for the power of His Holy Spirit to empower us to be equipped for a task such as this. We claim victory over your life right now in Jesus’ name. That victory covers our task as parents, and we are believing by faith that it covers your future decision to follow Christ as Savior with your life.
Eliza, we chose this as your first name that we may be reminded daily to declare these words over you. Your name means “worshiper of God”, or “consecrated to God”. We have a deep desire for you to grow to learn and understand what it means to be a true worshiper of God. We, as your parents, consecrate you, or “dedicate you”, and “declare you as sacred” in Jesus’ name. We declare, by giving you this name, a life devoted to God as your Heavenly Father.
With your middle name, Sage, which means “wise one”, we declare a life of divine wisdom over you in Jesus’ name. This wisdom will allow you to understand the very nature of God, and His Kingdom. It will also give you the ability to make decisions that line up with those Kingdom principles.
As your earthly father I commit to you a lifetime of love. I, once again, admit that my love is conditional due to the sin nature that lives in me. However, I commit to constantly pointing you to your Heavenly Father who’s love is UNCONDITIONAL. I can only pray that as I point you to Him, and you experience His grace and love that you might be able to extend that same forgiveness and grace to me during the times that I fail you. I commit to striving for these characteristics as your daddy:
Humility/Honesty: I will never lie to you, or take advantage of the Spiritual authority I have in your life. I will not deceive you into thinking that I always know the right answers to everything. Patience: I will not expect you to know things, and be able to do everything right all the time. I will patiently wait for you to grow, and mature in God’s perfect timing for you. I commit to teaching you slowly, and throughout your life what it means to follow Christ, and put others before yourself. When you mess up I will patiently help you learn more. Throughout this entire process I promise to pursue being in control of myself, my emotions, anger, and temper. I will need the power of the Holy Spirit for this one, and much grace from you when I fail to live up to this commitment. When the above things do not go as planned I am striving to be slow to anger, and quick to love. Of course, the foundation for all of these is Love. Love, Integrity, and Character, are the foundation in which I commit to building everything else upon.
Eliza, you are a precious gift to your mother and I from our Father in heaven. We are extremely grateful for you, and commit to spending the rest of our lives loving you and showing you how to love. Our purpose in life, which will hopefully become your purpose, is to know God, and make Him known. We are trusting that one way we can do that is to pour our lives, and love into you and your future siblings. We love you very much. We declare these things over you in the name of Jesus, our Savior. Amen.”
We ask that you, as our brothers and sisters in Christ, would hold us accountable to these commitments we have made to our baby girl. Thank you.
The birth of our daughter was a powerful event to say the least. Many tears, thoughts, and prayers were involved in the birth of this little girl. We have watched the video of the birth several times over now; it is extremely powerful, and I wish I could show it to the world. (However, my wife might not appreciate that too much =) I am still processing my experience with the 12 long hours of labor followed by me catching my baby when she came out. I then gently placed her on her mother’s chest as she took her first gasp of air, and began crying. Morgan and I both exploded with tears of joy. I will be journaling the events of the entire evening over the next few days, but wanted to share this brief update with you now…
Eliza was born on July 12th, 2009 at 7:46 in the morning at Gentle Beginnings Birth Center in Hurst, Texas. She weighed 10 lbs. 3 oz. and was 20 inches long. Morgan delivered her naturally; both baby and mommy are doing very well. We owe that to our Lord Jesus who heard our desperate prayers throughout evening, and to our close friend, Ann Crowell, who delivered Eliza. Ann’s birth assistant, Cindy Haggerton, who is also our friend and chiropractor, also played a huge role during the evening.
We had the pleasure of having one of our best friends, Keri Duckett, shoot photos the entire evening. Keri is an extremely talented photographer. You can check out a blog she wrote about Eliza with more pics, as well as some of her other photography HERE. She is available to do maternity photos, births, engagements, weddings, etc. and can be contacted at: keriduckett@gmail.com. Keri put together this wonderful slide show of the birth for us…
Thank you all for your prayers and support throughout this entire process. You have been wonderful. From Target gift cards, and baby gifts, to pregnancy/parenting advice you have all blessed us tremendously. Thank you from the Snow’s; all THREE of us.
Last week my Dad, Mom, and two little brothers drove out to Vegas to spend the some time with us. Isaac, my older brother, had to stay in Texas to work. It was great to see them all, and we had a heck of a time. However, we were all exhausted by the end of the week. (It was supposed to be somewhat of a restful week for all of us, but ended up being TONS of fun/not very restful) It is the first time we have had our family out to Vegas other than when my little bro Samuel helped us move, and when Morgan’s mom Leslie came right after we moved. It was so refreshing to be with them. This is a shout out to my fam…
There are too many great pics, so I had to narrow it WAY down. To see a bunch more CLICK HERE if you have Facebook. For now:
At the Venetian during the “Strip Tour”
(From Left: Jesse, Mom, Samuel, Me)
Dad caught me relieving myself behind some bushes. Not cool.
Hiking at Red Rock – that’s us, the 3 little dots at the top…
(From Left: Samuel, Me, Jesse…or…ummm…Me, Samuel, Jesse…uhhh)
Just Arrived at Mt. Zion, Utah for a picnic & some hiking…
While “picnicing” we were drawn to this LARGE tree…then drawn UP it…
Jesse couldn’t resist, and followed me up
At the top – now, how to get down…
There’SNOW other way to cross a river…ahhhhTHankYou (Casey Taylor, that one was for you buddy =)
Angel’s Landing at Mt. Zion. We’re about to climb that…to the top.
On the way up…
(From Left: Jesse, Samuel, Me)
At the top with the bro’s.
(From Left: Me, Abs of steal #1, Abs of steal #2 – They got abs, I got a hairy chest.)
Ok, so I tried to narrow it down, but didn’t do a very good job…there’s still more on Facebook.
Mom, Dad, Jesse, and Samuel I love you guys! Thanks for driving 20 hours to hang on our turf.
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