ultimate frisbee & picnic

so, it's that time of the year ...

Ultimate Frisbee and picnic ... next tuesday night, May 6th, @ 6 p.m. at Enterprise Park (above Kid's Kingdom) ... 

I'll bring the frisbee and you bring the picnic ... bring your own picnic (BYOP) ... bring your family or your girlfriend and don't forget a blanket ... see you there ...

please comment if you are interested ... I'm not playing Ultimate Frisbee all alone ...

Thoughts on last week

Sorry this is late. Anna and Leah had some great thoughts about last week at the Stirring. Let me know if I missed your thoughts.

The terminal

The conference is officially over. Amazing. Nate and I are both moving to a remote village in Honduras for two years to start up a clean water project and plant 4 churches. It will be cool. Someone tell our wives. Meghan is speaking till we get back.
If that doesn't pan out we will be home tonight at 11:30pm in Sac...that get us home at 2:30am. At least we aren't acclimated to east coast time! It's gonna feel like 5:3oam.
We are gonna be fresh at the Stirring!
Can't wait to see you all...keep blogging.

spiritual gifts & questions

hey guys, we're just sitting in this hotel room in Orlando ... dan lance and I flew out for a 'church planting' conference called Exponential ... so far, speakers Andy Stanley, Ed Stetzer and Alan Hirsch (the shaping of things to come) ... it's been provoking ...

this coming Sunday night, we'll be talking a bit more about spiritual gifts ... that God has given each one of us unique spiritual gifts ... healing, prophecy, discernment, service, mercy, teaching, leadership and many more ... and God calls each one of us to bring our gifts to encourage, strengthen and provoke the family ...

so, what are your questions when it comes to spiritual gifts? what would you like to hear more about? if you have any thoughts, weigh in ...

and don't forget love ...

Dudes responding...this blog is blowin' up!

I asked the dudes to step up the blog love at the Stirring and they have responded like crazy: Aaron, Derrick, John, Juan, Kendall, Paul, Sean, and Tyler have all recently created blogs.
I think it's pretty crazy that in 2.5 months we have 37 Stirring peeps with blogs and an average of over 50 individual visits to our blog a day!
I love the direction a few of the blogs have moved to in serving needs. Go check out Amy and Chris' blog.
I'm hoping that this community gets larger and larger and that we find all kinds of creative ways to become family. Keep the blogs comin'!

we are family

all right, we're 3 weeks into this series 'we are family' ... 

we've talked about God's heart for family ... we believe that God is calling us out of a dark room into family ... that God is calling us out of hiding into this messy, imperfect family that bears His name ... 

and not only that, God is family ... the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit ... God has always been family ... God has never been alone ... and that we cannot fully reflect God's image by ourselves ... together as a family, we bear the image of our God ... as we love and forgive and sacrifice together ... amazing ...

we've talked about family responsibility ... that as we mature in family, we are called to carry weight ... it's so easy for church to become a chair ... we come and sit and sing and leave ... and that's it ... 

we realize this is America ... and for many, this series is uncomfortable ... for most people, church has and always will be a chair ...

but for those who are serious about living the way of Jesus, it's time to become the family God has created us to be ... to step into our unique family calling ... to come out of hiding ... to sacrifice ... to make the time ... to get out of the chair ... to become fathers to the fatherless ... to carry weight ... to put God on display in every way possible ... 

we are family ...

What our community has been saying...

...about Sunday night at the Stirring. Here's Nate, Amy and Leah's thoughts. If I missed your thoughts feel free to link to your site in the comments!

What in the world???

Erase the Dark was ridiculous
450+ people in a gym
6 amazing musicians
6 great films
100+ pieces of art
The best food ever eaten
$5500 total raised for Cypress Elementary and Eagles Soar after school program
Our first Erase the Dark music, art, and film festival was a huge success.
Thanks to everyone that made it happen!
Pictures will be coming shortly...hint, hint Emily

John's story

We shared John's story during the second night of our "We are family" series...powerful stuff!

Our ladies are talkin' about the retreat

Emily, Sarah, Erica, Anna, and Bethany share their thoughts. Sounds like it was an amazing retreat.

props to the family

just wanted to say how grateful we are to have such an amazing family ...

those who show up early and set up chairs and couches ... those who lead us in worship every week ... those who run sound for those who lead us in worship every week ... 

and the girls at spot (coffee bar) ... and those who greet at the door with smiles and bulletins ... and our amazing Stirring kids team, who love and shape our children ...

and the Stirring staff ... and the Advisory Team ... and those guys who do the announcements ... and those who create graphics ... and those who show up every week to help out with media and lights ...

and our life group leaders ... and the prayer team who show up early every week and pray for us ... unbelievable ... and those who stay late and tear down the stage and screens ... 

 

God has given us such an incredible family ... 

 

nathan and erica edwardson   

The stories keep coming

Annie shares her amazing story here about how the family series is affecting her...WOW!

Cable's in the house

Chris Cable is starting a Life Group that is focusing all it's energy on serving others. Interested? Go check out his blog and tell him you're down.

We're in the paper baby!!!

Help

Jamie Williams is moving out of her apartment on Saturday. Jeff got a job in Spokane and he's been there for a couple weeks now. Jeff's family is down to help Jamie but we need a crew to help. I've got 4 dudes but we need more. Can anyone out there help? 8:30am this Saturday. I've got the info. Leave a comment if you're down. Don't forget...we are family!

More thoughts on family...

Emily's story gets right at the heart of what Nate was talking about on Sunday night. Check it out. Kari also has an amazing story about what God is showing her in this family series.