Controlled Chaos

One of the things I'd try to make sure we had in our youth ministries was a little element called "controlled chaos."
Let's face it, teens just want to have fun. Guys too.
I believe that if you can have a time in every service for a little controlled chaos, then great things could happen.
Whether it be a group activity, silly game, gross contest, controlled chaos is something to get teens up and having fun. It helps create an atmosphere for good things to happen.

In the movie "The Dark Knight" there is a scene where "The Joker" is having some one-on-one time with Harvey Dent in the hospital. He makes a statement, "Introduce a little anarchy, upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos...I'm an agent of chaos. Oh and you know the thing about chaos...it's fair."
A little over the top? Yes! However, there is a lot of truth (I believe) to it.

Think about this.
When it comes to the most meaningful relationships in your life; spouse, family, friends, God-- would you say that you have a real in depth relationship with them or are they more on the surface? The truth be told, it's easy for the best relationships we have to quickly fall into a pseudo style relationship.

So how do we keep those relationships real, instead of slipping into surface acquaintances?
Introduce a little chaos.

Bill Hybles calls it, "The Tunnel of Chaos" and Mike Yaconelli gives detail in his book "Messy Spiritually" that if you want to really grow then you've got to go through this stage in your relationships.
A level of chaos has to be introduced! You've got to come to a place where you can look at each other and say, "if we're going to move from a pseudo relationship to a real in depth meaningful relationship then we've got to allow each others messiness to get on us."

Real openness.
Real transparency.
Real arguments.
Real love.
Real forgiveness.
Real accountability.

Upset the established order to your surface relationships, introduce a little controlled chaos and watch great things happen.

God is in the Whirlwind

Well, it's been a while since my last "real" post.
The last few weeks have been a whirlwind; with me traveling and ministering, as well as, moving.

Tuesday I went to go pick up the 16' truck that I reserved for moving.
When I got there they informed me that they don't have a 16' and will have to wait till the afternoon to get one. I explained that simply won't work and long story short, they hooked me up with a 22' truck for $100 less than what I originally was going to pay for the 16" truck!
God is Good!

Before getting home on Monday I spent the weekend ministering at The River Church in Nortonville Kentucky. I so enjoyed getting to know more members of the body of Christ and we had an excellent time together.

By the end of Sunday I will have logged two days worth of driving in the last five days!
Tuesday: Load truck and drive to Arkansas, then unload.
Wednesday: Drive to Alabama and load truck.
Thursday: Drive to Arkansas and unload.
Friday: Drive to Alabama and load truck again.
Saturday: Drive to Arkansas and unload.
Sunday: Drive back to Alabama and return truck to rental store.
Whew!!!!
Yep, crazy.

Then I'm taking the family to Gulf Shores for some rest and relaxation before we sign papers on June 1st and head to Arkansas for the next leg of the journey.
I'm gonna stay behind a few days and tie up some loose ends and then I have the honor of speaking at Elevate Youth at First Assembly on Wednesday, June 3rd.

Well that's a peek into my life for the next few weeks, I hope to keep in better touch through the wonderful media of Facebook.
Blessings!!

Again and Again

Well, it's that time again. I made a couple of quick videos for the Lowe's Spring Dream Challenge contest on youtube.
Turns out both my entrees made the finals!!!!

So if you're able to stop by youtube and click the "thumbs up" icon for these two videos it would greatly be appreciated.

Vince's Outdoor Maintenance Made Easy
&
Vince's Outdoor Play Area

Simply click on the vote tab on this page http://www.youtube.com/lowes

(I just checked to see if these links worked, and it looks like the Lowe's page is doing some updating-- the tab says "gallery" but will say "vote" when they get it fixed....sorry, keep checking)

You can vote everyday for the next week and your help is needed now more than ever. In the video about our "dream yard" well............we just sold that house!!!! And the house we're moving to, well it's going to need some major help, so the prize package is perfect for that, and the play area.....sure would be great for the kids (with no trees and me not wanting to get pets) this would be the perfect fix.

Thanks for allowing me to post this shameless plug. ;)

Wet Fleece

We listed our house last fall, "For Sale By Owner", it stayed for sale for over four months.
Thinking the time must not be right, we took it off the market.
Well, time passed and we decided to list it again, this time with a realtor.
We put it up at the beginning of March.
The last week of April my wife and I attended the annual Worldwide Missionary Evangelism (WME) conference at our home church in Arkansas.

During the last night of the conference, Larry Jones, spoke a simple and practical message.
At the alter I prayed and simply said to God, "I'm finally at peace doing what I feel you directing me to do, but I sure could use some wet fleece here."---That was on Friday night.

Monday morning our realtor called to tell us the house had sold!
That afternoon we went looking for a place to rent. We looked at a house that a friend had open; it was nice and the offer was very gracious but we wanted to explore all of our options so we called, Pat Saterfield, our realtor who sold our house in Arkansas three years ago.
She informed us that she didn't deal with rentals but she had a client who needed to move his house and would possibly be open to a lease to own plan.
After seeing the house, it was perfect for our needs. We made some phone calls back and forth to the owner and long story short, we sign next week for the price we needed. He's taking a loss on it, but told us he'd rather take a small loss each month rather than a huge loss with it sitting there empty.

Where to go, check.
What to do, check.
Time frame that only God could set up, check.
The fleece, wet.

It would appear that God still answers prayers.

Concerning Starting Over Post

I figured the best way to respond to every one's comments was to post this.....

Thank you all. It has been a good day. Your words of encouragement and understanding have been very helpful in easing the emotions for this new endeavor.
I believe that having faith in God to take the next step does not mean an absence of fear, faith is still trusting God to work in you even when the peace has not caught up with your steps of obedience.
I will defiantly continue to blog about these new steps and would greatly appreciate any referrals, to ministers you know, about speaking at churches or whatever. This will be our main source of income for the upcoming year while the new work is birthed.

I'll start VERY soon on giving you an update about what's going on.
There is already some good things starting to develop.

Blessings,
Vince

farrelldesign@yahoo.com

Starting Over

Man! What a rough night!

For those of you who know me, you know I'm a night owl and going to bed at 2:00am and up at 10:00am is the norm, not a good one I might add.
But last night I went down at 10:00pm and was up at 6:00am with what seemed like hourly awakenings.

I wish I could say it was because of excitement but honestly I'm think it's more out of a new realization. I'm starting over.

I meet yesterday with 20 plus other men and women my age who are exploring God's call for church planting. I introduced myself and gave my story. Afterwards I sat there thinking and listening to see if anyone else had a story was like mine.
It didn't appear so.
It was only afterwards that one of the men there (one of 3 over the age of 50) came up to me and said, "It's a sad thing that it's the church that chews people up and spits them out."
He said it like it was the norm.
That's the sad thing.

I think last night is when it really hit me. Starting over.

As a 18 year old working at Taco Bell, renting my first apartment and buying my own car...there was a feeling of excitement and new adventure.
Somehow, that same excitement is snuffed out as the overwhelming feeling is brought to realization that this time I'm starting over with a wife and two young ones.

The clock has begun.
Thirty days to move locations, find a job, find a church, find a place to live.

I'm ready for the excitement and adventure feeling to hit me.
I hope it comes soon.
Sleepless nights are not my thing.