How He Loves Us

If you haven't heard the story behind the song, How He Loves Us, I hope you will take a few minutes and watch this video. John Mark McMillan's story is powerful and brings a whole new understanding to the song! This song was recently made very popular by David Crowder Band and has had a powerful impact on our Youth and College students here at Trinity. At Segue we will be hosting John Mark McMillan along with Robbie Seay Band and Jillian Edwards on March 29th. The concert will begin at 8pm at Tripoint (281 & St. Mary's). You can get more information at www.SegueSA.com and if you can't make it in person you can watch live online at www.SegueSA.com/live.

Suggested Music: Mark Wagner

On March 15th we're having a FREE concert at Segue during Spring Break with Mark Wagner, Ryan Long, and Jake Ousley. Honestly, I've never heard Ryan Long or Jake Ousley live but their recordings sound great. Mark Wagner alone is worth driving from hours away though to come and see. About a year ago he joined us at Segue in concert with Trey Duck. Mark has an incredible sound and could entertain you for hours with his incredible music and stories. If you're near the San Antonio area, come out to Tripoint and join us on March 15th for this FREE concert but otherwise get familiar with Mark's music and go hear him live when he comes to a city near you.

Finding the 1

This past Monday I had the privilege of co-teaching with my sister at Segue. She taught the ladies while I taught the guys. We shared the same basic outline, here it is:

Goin’ All The Way: Finding the One


New Theory: Find The One, then the two

We must first be right in our relationship with God before we can think about being in a right relationship with someone else. When we begin to understand that God is our number 1 and our future or current spouse is our number 2, our relationships will be revolutionized.

How to find The One?

Galations 2:20:
“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

It doesn’t sound very nice but it is. When we want to live for Christ, we must die to ourselves.


How to fall in love with The One?

When we begin a dating relationship it always seems to consume our lives. We make the time to get to know that person. Our relationship with God should consume our lives in an even greater way. Great ways to do that:

1. Read the Word
2. Pray
3. Be adventurous and creative
4. Learn everything there is to learn about Him
5. Talk with others about Him (Community)


Becoming the Two as you Prepare for your Two

1. Let the past go!

Romans 8:1-2-
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.”

1Corinthians 5:17-
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is anew creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

You are NOT who you were. Let it go!

2. Be ready to lead you wife and family as a man of God should (be ready now… don’t wait.)

Ephesians 5:22-27

Be ready to lead with love!

3. Start Praying for Him/Her Now

1:46 Challenge --> Read 1 Cor 13:4-6 (love chapter) and pray for him/her every day.


4. Surround yourself in Accountability and Community

Proverbs 27:17 “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.”



Going after The One

The best way you can do that is to focus in on the One that really matters. Fix your eyes on Him... He will work it out.

We all quote Jeremiah 29:11, but we leave out the best part v12-14:

“For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. --> Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you and I will restore...”

Prayer Activity: Take some time, spread out and surrender. Ask Him to be Your One. Pray that He would make you fall in love with Him.

Using Livestream in Ministry... It's FREE by the way!

Have you ever thought about broadcasting one of your services or events but thought it was too complicated or expensive? I thought the same thing until about 18 months ago when I discovered Mogulus.com which is now Livestream. I found out that it's really not that complicated and that I can even use my built in computer camera to broadcast live. I have even heard recently that you can broadcast live video from your iPhone using UStream, but I haven't tried it yet. I'll let you know soon though! Anyways, using Livestream has been incredibly effective for our college ministry as we've had up to 75 viewers at one time and on any given Monday have viewers form 5-6 different countries around the world. We've also used it in our Youth Ministry during the summer when we created Pulse TV. If you're looking to laugh there are some great On-Demand videos. Don't expect much or any spiritual content on that page though. It's been incredible to see how God has used this FREE resource that is really incredibly easy to use. I hope you'll give it a try!I also hope you'll tune into Segue on Monday nights at 8pm CST by clicking here.

What's your plan for Discipleship?

I have been a Purpose Driven fanatic since I first entered full time ministry in 2002. I read Doug Field's book Purpose Driven Youth Ministry and began following all things Purpose Driven since. Rick Warren pushes in his message at The Nines conference that you MUST have a plan for discipleship. I agree that it is helpful and beneficial to have a plan, but sometimes I think we create too much structure in the church and submit to structure over spirit. I do strongly agree with having a plan to follow, I just think that we have to be careful to how firmly we cling to our plan and make sure that we leave flexibility for the movement of God.

I'm curious, what is your plan? I've always led ministries with the idea that our large group experience was evangelism and our small group experiences were discipleship. In the past few years though I think we are seeing small groups becoming more of an evangelism/front door experience and more discipleship based teaching in our large group settings. At Segue, our College gathering, we started with about 5 or 6 students in a house with a discipleship based Bible study. We have since grown in the past year and a half or so to around 200 students in an auditorium but the depth of our Bible studies is still just as deep.

I think what I'm finding is that discipleship happens in so many different forms. It often occurs when we are intentional with our planning, but it also occurs at times and in programs where we aren't so intentional and God moves despite our efforts!

Two Days in a Row

The main purpose of this post is to prove that I'm serious about this thing. After two years of faking like I was going to blog, I'm really going to do it this time. There are 4 things on my mind:

1) Noah... we studied Genesis 6 this morning in Sunday School and Noah's character and obedience to God. There are so many things I've missed in the Old Testament stories I've heard since I was a child. I'm really looking forward to this year's Student Life Bible Study walk through the Old Testament. I'm also amazed at how incredible our Student Minstry Sunday School teachers are! It's going to be a great year!

2) Our house!!! While it makes my head spin that we just signed a loan that's scheduled to last 30 years, it's really exciting! It's a very mental thing for Katie and I to buy this lot and build a home (with the best builder in America, Jeff Japhet). It blows me away to walk through this home that is better than any home I could have ever dreamed of and this is our first home! I guess we're skipping the Starter Home process... maybe moving 7 times in the first 3.5 years of marriage was enough experience. I'm overwhelmed at how much God continues to bless us! I have to also add that the house has a game room that I will still refer to as my man room which means the Bachelor pad leather couch and Big Screen stays!!! Can life get any better?

3) The Texans... while life is so great why do the Texans have to be so bad! I just got over the Oilers loss to the Bills and now this!!! I guess I sold out on the Rockets for the Spurs maybe I should just give in and sell my football soul to Jerry Jones and the Cowboys like everyone else. I might as well become a Yankees fan in the process. Speaking of Baseball, how about those Rays?

4) Finally, tomorrow is Monday! That means Segue! If you haven't heard about Segue, you should go to www.seguesa.com and read about it. Tomorrow night Justin Graves is leading worship and Jeff Mangum will be there as always bringing the Word!!! If you've never heard Jeff, you've got to download one of his podcast from Segue here Can't wait for Monday? Neither can I!!!