Update from FLOOD last night...

God is on the move.  Last night we continued through our series in James called, "In Your Face," looking at the topic of asking for wisdom during times of suffering.  It was a powerful evening of praise, worship, and studying God's word.  And the best part: we saw 6 people surrender their lives to Jesus.  THAT NEVER GETS OLD!!!

Next week at FLOOD we have baptisms.  We don't have anyone signed up for them yet, but we are trusting that Jesus will work in the hearts and lives of people who come to FLOOD so that they get baptized.  Last month the same thing happened and we saw seven high school students profess their faith through baptism.  I would love to see you come out and join us for this if you can.  It's such a powerful event to watch and such an encouragement for anyone who gets baptized to see as many people as possible there in support.

And finally, I want to encourage you about getting your high schooler(s) involved in RUSH on Wednesday nights at 6pm.  God has put this on our hearts to start to make sure that students aren't falling between the cracks, to see a true sense of community build amongst the high schoolers.  Ryan Palmer is a discipleship juggernaut and already has the staff pumped up to start small groups in February (read his post here).

Thank you again, as I always say, for giving myself and the next gen department here at PFB Church (FLOOD) the honor of partnering with you as you raise your students for Jesus.  We do not take it lightly.  God bless you all as you continue to love your kids for Jesus.

Update from Brian about FLOOD: High School

Update from FLOOD...

Hi there,
I just wanted to give you a quick update about what happened on Wednesday night.  IT WAS AWESOME!!! We started a new series called, "PUNCTUATION" (click here to see what it's about).  But here's the thing: God changed things up on me.  Last Friday, while I was sitting in the airport waiting for my flight, I was reading Mark 4-5.  JESUS ROCKED MY WORLD!!! As I read through it I knew that I had to preach for the next few weeks what Jesus had just shown me.  However, this didn't fit with my new series.  And that's when it hit me: When God wants to change things up, he gets the final say, not my series plans.  So, we went with it.  The result: two young ladies stood up to surrender to Jesus.  And the truth: THAT NEVER GETS OLD!!!


God is on the move.  Thank you for praying.  Thank you for allowing us at FLOOD Next Gen to partner with you as you raise your kids to love Jesus.  We consider it a great honor that we do not take lightly.

What a ride,
Brian

Update from The Past Couple Wednesdays at FLOOD

UPDATE: FLOOD on 9/29/2010

Here is the video of the message that Brian's cousin, Megan Fate, gave at FLOOD a week ago yesterday.  I warn you: you may have to change things in your life after watching it.



UPDATE: FLOOD on 10/6/2010

Did you hear heaven celebrating? If not, PAY ATTENTION!!!! :)  Last night I spoke from John 8, the woman caught in the act of adultery.  We looked at how Christ showed compassion to the woman while then challenging and calling her to stop sinning.  It was a message to bring people to a surrendered life to Christ, whether for the first time or for Christians to live as citizens of heaven rather than as citizens of hell.

As I called people to surrender to Christ for the first time, two young ladies stood up.  The place went CRAZY!!! The thing that excited me most (after the fact that they now belong to Jesus) was that they were both brought by other people committed to Flood.  They put into practice the Oikos principle – striving to impact the 8-15 people that God has put into their sphere of influence to encourage them to follow Christ.

On top of the two people surrendering to Christ, four people professed their faith in and love for Jesus by being baptized.  Three were planned and one decided that night as she watched the example of her parents who were both baptized (and by the way, our next baptism service is Wednesday night, November 3rd).

Last night was explosive.  I met a good chunk of people who had come for the first time last night and are excited to make Flood a part of their lives.  I LOVE IT!!! Keep on praying. God is moving.  It’s a stinking blast to be part of it.

Update from Last Wednesday at FLOOD

First off all, thank you for praying for me. I meant to get this update from last Wednesday's worship service to you last week, but it didn't happen. I'm so sorry. Here's why I wanted so badly to give you the update from last week:

Salvation came to Flood this past Wednesday night. We saw between 8-10 people stand to surrender to Christ during our Wednesday night worship service. When they stood up, the place went NUTS!!! It was awesome. Here's the thing: the message really didn't have anything to do with a call to Christ but rather a call for Christians to accept his missional call on their lives. Even still, I did call people to surrender to Christ. And they started standing.

Every salvation was exciting. What was even better about them is that every person that stood came because of someone who brought them to Flood. Most, if not all, were first-time visitors to PFB when they surrendered to Christ. AWESOME!!!

Update for this week in High School Ministry...

Good morning, parents.

Here's the the quick update about what's been going on and what is going on this week in the life of the high school ministry here at PFB Church.

UPDATES FROM LAST WEEK:

• Last Wednesday night we started a two-week series on the vision of the high school and next generation ministries here at the church.


• On Saturday, a small group from the high school ministry met at the church to make lunches.  They then went to Ganesha park and passed them out to the homeless while also sharing Jesus with them. AWESOME!!!!


• On Sunday morning, we looked at 2 Kings 25:27-30, asking the students if they had settled for comfortable rather than freedom in Christ.  To read about what I spoke on, click here to read my blog from this morning.

INFO FOR THIS WEEK:

• We are spending today, Wednesday and Thursday interviewing candidates for the lead high school and discipleship pastor position.  Please pray for myself and the interview team during this process.  We ONLY want God's choice for this position.


• This Wednesday night we will finish up our series on our vision for the ministry.


• This Saturday, from 12:30 - 4:30, you and your high schooler can serve the homeless right here at PFB Church at the monthly homeless feast.  For more information, please call the church and speak with Nancy (909-629-5277, ext. 3014).

FOR THE FUTURE:

• On Wednesday night and Sunday morning, we announced the upcoming Ignite Worship Event.  We had it last year and it was EXPLOSIVE!!! Everyone is welcome to be part of this event.  Cost is free!!! Click here to read all about it.

There you go.  I hope that this is helpful to you.

And thank you again for allowing us to partner with you as you raise your teenagers to love Jesus.

Update from Wednesday Night...

Where in the heck am I supposed to begin? I will do my best.

• We finished up the series called, "Moxie" - a study on boldness.  We look at having boldness to BE the Church, boldness to COME to God and together, and finished up with boldness to GO after the lost.  POWERFUL SERIES!!! Seriously!!! We had people come forward last night, filling out a card to commit to being committed to GOING OUT on their campuses/workplaces/neighborhoods for Jesus.


• We baptized three people last night.  We planned on one, prepared for two and dunked three.  The last guy didn't plan it and went in his clothes.  He went home wet.  SO AWESOME!!!!


• I spoke with a man who was watching the service online.  While watching it he felt the need to come to the church.  So he walked to the church and said that he was supposed to speak with me.  So after the worship service, we got a chance to talk.  I asked  what he was supposed to talk to me about and he said, "I don't know."  Honestly, it's a tough thing to go onto the next part of a conversation when the initiator of that conversation doesn't know what we're supposed to talk about.  So I asked if he knew Jesus.  He said that he had known God all of his life.  So I talked to him about the need to make a real decision for Jesus because we aren't born into a relationship with God.  I told him that Jesus was the only way, and he said, "If the name for God is Jesus, I'm fine with that."  I told him about how there is salvation only through Christ.  He proclaimed Christ as his Lord right there.  I then prayed over him with James Braum, proclaiming freedom and liberty from those addictions that he was struggling with.  WE PRAYED BIG!!!! As he walked away, I stopped and thanked Jesus for the technology that is used at PFB to reach people, and the tech crew that makes it happen.  This man came to Jesus because he was watching the service online and felt the need to come to the church.  AWESOME!!!


• I had two people come up and tell me that they want to get baptized the next time we have a service (which is the first Wednesday of October if you want to join us).

God is at work.  He is on the move and I am blown away.  But it's only just begun.  The best is yet to come.  Thank you for praying.

Update...

Hi there,

Just wanted to let you know a few things.

• Yesterday, after a time of praise and worship and breakfast together, we broke the students up into small groups to discuss community.  Within that context, we  asked for the kids to give us ideas of events that they would like to do, events that they would actually come to.  I haven't seen the list yet, but I've heard that they came up with some really creative ideas.  We want to provide events in this ministry that the kids just HAVE to come to because they don't want to miss out.  The reason: it builds community.  The events that we have done have not brought a lot of students as of late.  The ones who have come have gotten pretty tight (which is the goal of the events), but we want the whole high school ministry to impacted by this.  This is where you come in: if you have any ideas we would love to hear from you as well.  Go ahead and email your ideas to Ashey Copenhaver (acope88@gmail.com) if anything comes to mind.


• This Wednesday night we are finishing up our series called, "Moxie".  The topic is being bold to go and share the gospel.  We are also having baptism this Wednesday night.  If you or your teenager have not been baptized, I would like to challenge you and/or your high schooler to follow Jesus in this step of obedience.  If you are able come, I would love to see you come and worship with us this Wednesday night (7pm in the main worship center).


• This Friday night we have "Dancing With Friends" at the Pomona Valley Workshop.  We go and help throw a dance for those who are devel0pmentally disabled who work at the Pomona Valley Workshop.  I invite you to join the group as they ministry to this group of people.  This is a great time and a great opportunity to serve with your high schooler.  If you have any questions, email Ashely (email is above) or call her at 909-938-4737.


• MARK YOUR CALENDARS!!! Ignite 2010 is coming.  October 23, 2010 from 5-8pm.  This is a worship event that God has put on my heart to start and lead.  If you want to see what it's all about, click here.

Thank you again for allowing us to partner with you as you raise your teenagers to love Jesus.

Update from Wednesday Night...

Thank you for praying.  Last night we finished up our series called, "The Resistance."  We finished by looking at the topic of victory—that we have already won because of Jesus.  It was a powerful evening.  We set up a table with pens and paper off to the side of the worship center.  We invited people to go up to the table and write down anything that has been holding them back or something that they feel that they are in bondage to.  After writing that thing down on the paper, they were invited to walk up to the cross we put in the worship center and rip the paper up and put it at the foot of the cross signifying that they were done with whatever that thing was.  There were a lot of pieces of paper at the foot of the cross.

The worship singing time was powerful.  It was incredible to hear the people singing out to Jesus.

Thank you so much for allowing us to partner with you as you raise your kids for Jesus.

Update on Wednesday from Another Perspective

You have go to read this blog posting that I posted to my blog concerning what God is doing on Wednesday nights in worship service geared toward our next generation.  It will blow your mind and probably encourage you to join us soon.

Click here to read it.

Thoughts About Wednesday Night...

OH MY GOODNESS!!!! Seriously. I can't explain what is happening.  It's the middle of summer and God is growing this ministry and exploding the worship services on Wednesday night.  Believe it or not: people are coming.  And they are bringing friends who are getting all jacked up about it.  And as God's Spirit continues to gear us up for what next, I am excited to take the people of Wednesday nights and let them loose on the surrounding communities.  I was talking to my buddy Ryan Hall today, who led worship last night, and he told me that he has never heard the people bring in worship like that they did last night.  In fact, he said that at one point, the people were singing so loud that he heard them over his speaker monitor.

I taught on the topic of demons: what the Bible says about them and our response to them.  Honestly, I felt like there was so much information to try to pass on in such a short amount of time that I wasn't too excited about how the message came out.  However, it's at those times that I have to trust that God's word went out and accomplished exactly what he wanted it to accomplish (Isaiah 55:10-11).

I will continue to try to explain what is happening on Wednesday nights the best that I can.  However, if you can make it, join us on a Wednesday night at 7pm and see for yourself.  Thank you for praying.  Please keep it up.

Update from Wednesday Night...

We kicked off our new series last night: "Love, Sex, and the Bible."  It's a 6 week journey through the Song of Solomon (yep, God's sexy book).  We had a ton of people there last night.  I was absolutely blown away.  A ton of new people.  There were a bunch of people that we hadn't seen for a while show up to be part of this series.  And then of course: the faithful who have been there from the beginning of what God has been doing on Wednesday nights were there.  We went through chapter one which talks about attraction, and how Godly attraction for someone else is not a sin.  It's part of the process.  However, attraction is not the foundation that we are to build a romantic relationship and marriage relationship on.  That attraction should lead to the priority of loving the person's character.  An incredible evening.  It was so much fun.

At the end, I invited people to surrender their lives to Jesus if they never had.  It blew my mind when I saw a hand go up from a young college-aged girl from the front row.  It was her first time ever at PFB and she gave her life to Jesus.  But here's what hit me when it happened: the whole message had to do with the beginnings of a dating relationship with another person.  And with that topic, she gave her life to Jesus.  It just proved to me that where the Holy Spirit is, he is calling people into a relationship with God through Christ.

Thank you for praying.  It is always amazing to see someone surrender to Jesus.

WEDNESDAY NIGHT!!!

Oh my goodness!!! You have to come to a Wednesday night at PFB soon! It's absolutely incredible what Jesus is doing.  Last night, Pastor Josh spoke on the fourth pillar of the movement that God is doing in the Next Generation ministry at PFB: rapid mobilization.  The main point: we've all been called and gifted for God's service.  At the end of the service, people went forward and filled out cards to share possible ways that they can help and what they are passionate about in ministry.  POWERFUL NIGHT!!!!

If you can't make it into the worship service on Wednesday nights (or your high schoolers don't want you to :)), go ahead and catch it live online on Wednesday nights at www.pfblive.tv.  You can watch the whole service from start to finish.

Thank you again for allowing us to partner with you as you raise your teenager(s) to love Jesus.  Take care.

What a ride,