my brett weaver story

this post is nearly 6 months in the making. its simply a story from my perspective of how Jesus can radically change a life, and the life of a family.

and the great thing is, i'm writing this at the end of the greatest day i've ever had as a worship leader. at our campus alone we had over 865 people and 47 salvations in one day. mind you that just a month ago we were in the mid-500's. our church as a whole saw over 14,000 people and 516 salvations. THIS IS PROOF that Jesus changes lives through salvation and the hearing of the gospel... but as in my short story here, what i love about the gospel and the power of Jesus is that he continues to radically change our lives in so many ways even after meeting him.

so.... back in march cindy emailed anna, another photographer in florida, about some great shots she had gotten, basically just to tell her how much she enjoyed her photography (which randomly emailing someone is something that cindy doesn't normally do). shortly after, they struck up a casual ichat friendship, where they quickly realized how much they actually had in common. one evening while chatting online, anna and cindy started talking about the fact that their husbands were both in ministry, and so cindy told her where i worked and anna told cindy about her husband brett's job as a children's minister in starke, florida. (actually a town i used to pass through nearly every other week traveling to anthem church). after talking, anna gave brett my contact info, and we connected shortly after. after sharing stories and talking through the ups and downs of being in ministry, we got to know each other through face to face ichat for a few weeks, to which i loved being able to encourage him in his ministry in florida (at the time he was juggling children's ministry, youth ministry, and leading the student worship band...geez).

in april we were invited to go to charleston w/ the weavers, which really gave a great chance for cindy and anna to hang out and talk about stuff that both moms and photographers talk about, and i had more of a chance to hear about brett's ministry and where he felt God was leading him...

well, about a week later, he resigned from his position in florida, feeling that God had done some amazing things in their time there, but that it was time to move on. the big thing that i saw first hand was that i saw God move brett from feeling like he HAD to be in a vocational ministry position, to a desire to simply serve voluntarily in a church that was doing radical and life changing things for the Kingdom. and as you probably guessed, they knew newspring was that place....

fast forward to july... the weavers packed up their stuff, with no jobs on the horizon, and moved to columbia to serve in whatever capacity they could. what happened from there was nothing short of watching Jesus work out his plan in the life of a family. the thing i joke about with brett, is that as great as our friendship is, i NEVER fought or pushed his name that much around newspring, i simply wanted to let God work in his own way and in his own timing, which is the exact thing that brett has said from the beginning, that no matter where they ended up, he just wanted to be able to step back and see what God has done.

all at the same time this was going on, john shelton, our awesome children's minister at the time, was in the process of transitioning to discipleship pastor, which is TOTALLY his niche. he'll be equipping small groups and getting to do what he loves most, ministering to our people on such a personal level and helping them grow in their walk with Jesus.

so.... after MANY lunches, interviews, and days of shadowing, a little more than a week ago brett was hired as our children's minister in columbia.

i think brett would tell you that his life has been changed.

all this to say... i love a God that doesn't stop changing our lives at the cross. He gives us more than we could ever ask or imagine. He is the picture of good and perfect, and i love that even within the staff, and new staff members, there are stories of life change, all because a family was willing to follow jesus over 500 miles away from home and serve.

Jesus is so good.

welcome to newspring brett...

strong fathers: revisited. plus a few other things

yep. no need to acknowledge that its been about 4 months since i blogged last. no biggie. life, fatherhood, and the summer has a way of doing that to me these days.

but today cindy reminded me so kindly that i committed to blogging about my strong fathers, strong daughters readings. all to which i've failed miserably. so, that being said, i'll sum up the entire thing in a nutshell...

dudes, man up. if you are a dad of a girl, or ever plan on being one, we must fight for her from the beginning. so many things i've read in this book are already true for me. natalie already wants my attention. she wants my approval. she puts a tutu (yes i said that) or a skirt on, or new shoes, and the first thing she wants to do is come and show me how pretty she is. i'm thinking that this will never change.

so... not that i didn't before, but i definitely make sure that i kiss her about a thousand times every day, and tell her how beautiful she is and how much i love her. and as i've said before, i thank jesus every day that she gets to grow up knowing this as the norm.

and i won't lie, every time she follows me to the door on my way to work saying "daddy, love you" over and over... it rips a little bit of my heart out of my chest. good gracious i love being a dad.

so... with all that said, its nice to at least be temporarily back writing my blog at 11 pm at night after an amazing sunday at newspring. hopefully in the midst of everything going on in our family, and with the incredible growth and activity of our church, i'll find time to post some more, especially to keep up with family and friends who we've probably fell a little bit out of touch with.

and if you've never read this blog, (providing i keep it up)... know that you'll probably get all parts of me on here... stuff jesus is nailing me with, family, music... and whatever else falls in between.

so... for some immediate "in-between" stuff.... my current soundtrack is the new david gray 2 disc "foundling" album that releases tuesday. do yourself a favor and get that as soon as you can. easily one of the most beautiful and perfect records i've ever heard. bold words. but true.

strong fathers, strong daughters

if you know me, then you know that i've got this theory... that if i work and work on being a better worship leader, but fail as a husband or as a father, then i'm a failure as a person... which in turn, affects everything else around me. so i've really felt convicted to continually develop this part of my life as of late...

so, in attempt to keep myself accountable... i'm gonna try something.

whether anyone reads this or not, cindy challenged me to blog about each chapter as i read through strong fathers, strong daughters.

this way natalie will be able to have a record one day that hopefully she can look back on and see that i've held up my end of this deal: that i will love her in a way that Christ loves her. seeing her as His beautiful daughter first, and that i unashamedly need to be the most important man in her life.

for the first chapter, you can check out cindy's awesome post from a few months back, which basically sums up chapter one.

i'm halfway through chapter 2 now... this book is already wrecking me.

take the edge off

ok, i know i never blog anymore, but this was too valuable to try to fit into 140 characters or less on twitter...

last night cindy came into the living room after feeding natalie. she looked at me and said "i think natalie just eats to take the edge off of her hunger. she never eats to get really full."

as soon as she said that it rocked both of us, and made us both think the same thing....

how many times do i do that to God?

when i chose to follow Jesus i received the fullness of Him. i have the chance to ask for his power and the full measure of his greatness every single day... but i rarely do it.

we all do the same thing.

we pray to get by.

we read scripture and walk away, never realizing that God wrote what we just read. God. the creator of Jupiter. the creator of the Pacific ocean. the creator of every star we've ever and never seen and every galaxy we could never wrap our minds around. God.

i don't want to just take the edge off. i want the full measure of Jesus every single second of every single day.

the kingdom of God is characterized by the power that it holds, not by weakness.

for the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. 1 Corinthians 4:20

one year

its crazy how much i love this little girl...

natalie's first year from stephen cope on Vimeo.

tattoos

so... yesterday cindy and i went to anderson to get the most unique birthday present i've ever recieved :) and what's even cooler, is that she got one with me. let me first say that we never would have gotten these just "because they're cool" or that they look good... we both committed to each other that before we ever got a tattoo... we'd have an amazing story to go behind it.

she got "thrive.139" on her foot... which is basically a response to natalie's "failure to thrive" diagnosis when she was just a few months old (you can read about that here). through that diagnosis, the word "thrive" has constantly been on repeat in our minds. thrive means to prosper, to flourish, and to increase in stature. cindy and i have been so blessed to see that natalie is thriving and she has accomplished so much in her first year of life. the second part of her tattoo comes from her favorite psalm. within psalm 139, david talks about how God knew our shape and our frame before we were even formed in our mother's womb. this verse was huge for us because through all of the ups and downs we knew that God had made natalie exactly how He wanted her to be.

my tattoo is the hebrew translation of the phrase "greater things." this phrase has been HUGE for me, and honestly it probably sums up my past year better than any other. the translation of "greater" that i chose is one that means to be given more/to have an increase and overflow of abundance so great that it can only be given by someone with majesty. the translation of "things" that i chose is one that means gifts, presents, or things that we never asked or imagined.

this past year i experienced huge life change in every area. the first is the birth of my little girl last february. secondly, i was able to get worship leading opportunities that ultimately led to accepting the position of what i would call my dream job. and to add to that... i packed up my family and moved to a brand new city to start our new campus. to say the least, i am constantly amazed by what God can and is doing in our new city and our church..... i feel like i've been given more than i ever asked or imagined.

greater things are yet to come.

NewSpring 10th Anniversary (another perspective)

here are a few videos that cindy took from her seat yesterday at our 10 year anniversary at the Bilo Center in greenville... amazing is an understatement

this first one is of me and sam leading "not to us"

this one is of lee and the whole group doing "rise and sing"

this one is of justin land doing "where the streets have no name" epic