As you saw from my post on Monday, I am in the begining stages of planting a church in Uptown Albuquerque, NM. Over the past few years I have made some good friends who are also planning on planting churches in Albuquerque and across the U.S. I thought I would take the next few days to introduce you to these guys so you can pray for them and follow them as they are on their own respective journeys.
Brad Ruggles
Brad Ruggles and I met through the interwebs a little over a year ago through a certain Christian beer blog. Although I’ve never met Brad in person, I consider him a good friend. He is one of the top three creative people I know (yeah I number them…I have a points system and everything), has a wonderful wife, and some adorable daughters.
Brad left his job, started doing freelance design, moved 120 miles (through a 2300 mile journey) from Fort Wayne to Carmel, IN, set roots, and is in the beginning stages of planting a church. He has an amazingly compassionate heart. I can’t wait to see how God uses him in Carmel.
If you would like to learn more about Brad and his church plant you can:
As you saw from my post on Monday, I am in the begining stages of planting a church in Uptown Albuquerque, NM. Over the past few years I have made some good friends who are also planning on planting churches in Albuquerque and across the U.S. I thought I would take the next few days to introduce you to these guys so you can pray for them and follow them as they are on their own respective journeys.
Carlos Griego
I met Los a couple of years ago when we were going through Ed Stetzer’s book “Planting Missional Churches” at City on a Hill. He is the director of the college ministry, The Well, for Desert Springs Church here in Albuquerque and is the chaplain for the Lobo basketball team. He is an amazing husband, fantastic father, big reader, and a true UFC fan.
For as long as I’ve known him, Los has had a huge heart for the UNM campus area and Downtown Albuquerque. His heart is to one day plant a church that will reach the lost of Downtown Albuquerque for the glory of God.
If you are interested in learning more about Los and his ministry, you can meet him at the Well every Tuesday night at 8:07 pm at Desert Springs Church. You can also read his blog or follow him on twitter.
As you saw from my post on Monday, I am in the begining stages of planting a church in Uptown Albuquerque, NM. Over the past few years I have made some good friends who are also planning on planting churches in Albuquerque and across the U.S. I thought I would take the next few days to introduce you to these guys so you can pray for them and follow them as they are on their own respective journeys.
Clayton Bell
Clayton Bell and I met through the interwebs a little over a year ago through a certain Christian beer blog. Although I’ve never met Clayton in person, I consider him a good friend. Through reading his blog and a few online chats, I know that he is a wonder husband and loving father.
About four years ago, Clayton felt the call to plant a church. Like me, about a year ago he felt that God was calling him off the bench to start his church plant. This last Sunday, He left his job at Every Nation, Tallahassee, where he served as Family Pastor for the past year and is moving to the Tampa/Trinity area of Florida to start Trinity New Life Church.
If you live in in the Florida area and want to join Clayton on God’s mission to reach the lost of Tampa, you can email him at info@trinitynewlife.com for more information.
Please be in prayer for Clayton, his wife, and daughter as they follow God on this wonderful journey.
I’m going to come out and say this…I have a man crush on Moses. Of all the men in the Bible, I have always found myself drawn to Moses. I truly think this is a God thing. Because of all the men in the Bible, I relate to Moses the most.
We’re both miracle babies (my mom wasn’t suppose to physically be able to have children). We’re both overly ambitious (although I haven’t killed anybody…yet). We’re not the “bestest” of speakers. God has used trials, tribulations, and time to prepare us for our callings. Most importantly, I feel like God has given me the same clarification on my calling that He gave Moses.
In Exodus 3, God tells Moses that He is going to use him to deliver His people out of Egypt. Moses’ response is the same as any person who has a great calling put before them, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” Moses is scared, perplexed, shaken and lacking confidence. How could a screwed up man like him complete such a large task after he had failed so many years before? He has been hiding in the desert for 40 years, and he is looking to God for a sign to give him confidence in his calling.
God’s response is classic. He doesn’t give him some pep talk about how awesome Moses is and how God has been preparing him 40 years for this very moment. Instead God tells him, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”
This one verse has been the summation of my entire calling. October 27 of this last year marked the 10 year anniversary of God calling me to vocational ministry. I have known since then that God is calling me to serve Him as my full-time job. And as I have sought Him for clarification of the years, His sign has always been the same. It’s not a pillar of smoke or fire, or a damp towel on my front porch, or a star in the east. Instead God has quietly told me He will be with me, and I’ll know I’ve fulfilled my calling when I look back and see that I’ve fulfilled my calling.
For this reason, I have never really looked forward to try and figure out what God wants me to do. Instead I’ve looked backwards to see what Jesus has done in my life to determine where He wants me to go next.
By looking at the last 10 years of my life, I can see that Jesus has been moving me towards pinnacle moment in my life. In college, I went on a mission trip to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for two-and-a-half months. My main point of contact there was the head of the Purpose Driven Church Planting movement in Rio. Him and others spoke into my life saying they saw in me great potential to plant churches in my future. I filed the information deep in the recesses of my brain and went on with my life.
I came back to Eastern New Mexico University, started a interdenominational Bible study with my best friend, married the most beautiful woman in the world, graduated, and got a job as a youth minister in a small town in the panhandle of Texas. It was during my time as a youth minister that God stirred the memories of Brazil in my head and moved in my heart.
I don’t remember the day or the time, but I remember the intense emotions and distinct clarity. I knew that God wanted me to plant a church. So I did what any young ambitious newly married kid does only a year-and-a-half out of college, I turned in my two week notice and made plans to move to Portland, OR (motivated by the book Blue Like Jazz).
When reality snapped to, we figured out that we had no jobs, no place to live, and no friends in Portland. Therefore we did what every young ambitious church planter does, we packed up all our stuff and temporarily moved into my mother-in-law’s house in Albuquerque, NM. It was going to be our half-way point on the way to Portland
We tried our best to find a way to get to Portland, but God kept shutting the doors. And the longer that we stayed in Albuquerque, the more Jesus opened my eyes to the beauty of this city and broke my heart with the sin of its people. In the quiet of our hearts, God showed us that He had other men for Portland, but He wanted us to stay here in Albuquerque.
As Shannon and I began to settle into Albuquerque, getting jobs and a home of our own, we started looking for a church that we call home while we prepared to plant. We scoured hundreds of church websites and visited numerous in person. We began to get so discouraged by what we found. And as time went on, we began to see why God wanted us to plant a church in Albuquerque.
But like a diamond in the rough, we came across a small church that was meeting in a run down theater on Central Ave, City on a Hill (now Mars Hill Church Albuquerque). The church was a place of love, grace, and mercy as you would see the rich rub elbows with homeless and the messed up mingle with the self-righteous. The pastor, Dave Bruskas, had planted the church only a few years earlier and had a heart to help young men plant churches in Albuquerque. He had a deep love for the city and an even deeper love for Jesus. His passion was infectious (and still is to this day).
It was during this time that a few things happened. First, I felt like God told me to wait. I had some growing up to do, and like the disciples, I needed to go up to my room and wait for the Holy Spirit to come. Second, I learned about Acts 29, Mars Hill, and Mark Driscoll. Through them I learned what it means to be a church planter and more importantly a husband and father. Third, I got a job with UPS doing sales. By working for UPS, I have traveled all over Albuquerque (and half the state of NM). I have seen the good, the bad, and the ugly of this city.
But one area has always stood out to me as I make my daily visits to customers. Uptown has to be one of the more unique areas of Albuquerque. If Nob Hill is the cultural hub of Albuquerque, I would say that Uptown is the socio-economic center. You have the wealthy and affluent who come to work in the high rises and play at Q Mall, but there are also the gang-bangers who come from the War Zone to roam the Coronado Mall. You won’t find another place in Albquerque where more diverse group of people live, work, and play. It has captured my heart (but more on this later).
The last thing that happened was I listened to a podcast that would change my thoughts on church planting for the rest of my life. Up until this point I had planned on flying solo. I was going to gather a small group of people and start our own church named after a weird latin term or vague Harry Potter incantation. But God had other plans. As I listened to Doug Swagerty from Harbor Church in San Diego talk about why and how they do multi-site churches, God made it clear to me that this was His plan for me.
The organization, efficiency, and team-work that went into planting a campus as opposed to a new church spoke to the core of who God made me as a person. It was then that I had determined that God didn’t want me to plant a church, but to plant another campus for City on a Hill in the Uptown area. He wanted me to carry the vision and mission to another part of our beautiful city.
This brings us to this moment in time. For the past three years, I feel like have been metaphorically sitting on the bench waiting for God to call me into the game. Like Moses wandered in the dessert shepherding sheep for 40 years, God has been having me wander in the dessert waiting for His timing. But as City on a Hill has made the transition to becoming Mars Hill Church Albuquerque, I feel like God has been calling my number. The Holy Spirit has began to move fresh my heart, and I hear God saying, “Qualls…get in the game.” I feel like God is calling me to be on mission with Jesus in Albuquerque as He reaches our city to impact a region to influence the world.
Working along side Dave Bruskas, we are looking to start a Mars Hill Church campus in the Albuquerque Uptown area. Through Mars Hill’s campus model we hope to reach hundreds of thousands of people through preaching the gospel, planting Acts 29 Churches, and hosting Resurgence and Acts 29 events.
In preparation for this, I will be going to Re:Train starting on August 16th of this year. Re:Train is a one year training center that trains “missional leaders to live for Jesus and lead their churches to effectively reach their cultures with the gospel by staying culturally accessible and biblically faithful.” I see God using this training as a final step to prepare me for the mission put before me.
Looking back on the past ten years of my life, I can see how Jesus has been leading to this moment. Each trial and tribulation has been there to bring me to this point in time. He has led me here, and now He is telling me once again, “I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.” I don’t know exactly what the next few years entail. But I know this, years from know there will be a Mars Hill Church in Uptown Albuquerque, and we will worship and serve our Lord Jesus on that mountain.
Here’s the deal though, I know I can’t do this alone. And I know that I’m not the only person that God has called to do this. I need all the help I can get. More importantly, I need your help. I completely believe in the sovereignty of God. So if you have gotten through the 1841 words of this post to this point, I believe that God has a part for you in this. I ultimately don’t know what that is for you (that’s between you and God), but I have a few suggestions.
1. Pray
I have seen God move in amazing ways through prayer. I know that God chooses to work through the prayers of His people. Therefore, I desperately ask for your prayers as I move forward with this endeavor. Pray for me as I go through Re:Train. Pray for God to bring laborers. Pray for my family. Pray for provision (finances, locations, volunteers, ect.). Pray for a pouring out of the Holy Spirit in Albuquerque.
2. Join
Join in on the mission in Albuquerque. As we get closer towards starting this, I will be getting out more information. For now this would simply mean joining the Mars Hill Church campus in Albuquerque. Join a community group and start serving. If you are interested in joining, email me, and we can start a conversation.
3. Give
Bread is made for laughter, and wine gladdens life, and money answers everything. – Ecclesiastes 10:19
Unfortunately, it is going to take money to do this. Fortunately, I know that God will provide. He will use His people (you) to provide for the tasks that are ahead. The biggest financial burden at the moment is Re:Train. I need to raise $2,000 in the next five weeks. This will pay for my first month of training, travel, lodging, and a basic laptop. Please pray if God would have you support this task financially. If you feel moved by God, you can use the ChipIn Widget below or email me and I will send you my mailing address.
I am excited to see what God is going to do in the next few years. I look forward to sharing with you what God is doing as we go through this journey together.
This is just a short rant I had to get out of my system. I don’t know if this happens to you, but it seems to happen pretty frequently to me. The people change, but the conversation seems to stay about the same.
Them: Hey can I talk to you.
Me: Sure.
Them: God has really been convicting me lately of _________ sin in my life.
Me: Ok.
Them: I’m telling you this because I’ve seen you do the same thing to me.
Me: um…..
I’m just a little confused, when did the fact that God is convicting you of your deep sinful character flaw, give you the right to nit pick my flaws. I kind of remember Jesus talking about taking the log out of your own eye….not leave the log in your eye, pick up a sniper rifle, and start shooting everyone with specks in their eyes. It just doesn’t make sense.
So here’s my recomendation. The next time God convicts you of something, stop! Don’t start looking around to see if anyone else has the same sin. Don’t start thinking about how you’ve been hurt by others in the same way. Don’t start calling every Tom, Dick and Sally. Instead, put the gun down and go to Jesus. Let him take the log out of your eye and give it some time to heal (logs in your eyes tend to cause a lot of damage). Otherwise you might end up shooting some close friends….
I’m sorry for the lack of posts here lately. I’ve been pretty swamped with work and other activities. So please forgive me. I’ll try to get back in the grove of things in the next few days.
I did however want to take a quick break and share with you a new site that twitter friend of mine came out with called WetheChuch.org. This is a really cool idea that you should go check out. It is basically a prayer wall where you can share your prayer requests/praises and pray for others that need prayer. I really love the idea and it can become addictive watching prayers go up and praying for them.
So take a few minutes out of your day and go check out WetheChurch.org.
I love what this ministry is doing. They are shining the light of Jesus in the darkest of places. These women (yeah I would say this is a calling for women only…unless the guys want to go to the gay strip-club) are going into strip-clubs and giving the strippers gift baskets to show them the love of Jesus. How awesome it that?!
I say we start to change this world with the love of Jesus one strip-club at a time.
For those of you that know me, I’m a pretty cynical guy. I try my best to not be that way on this blog, but I decided that I had speak out about this one.
For awhile now I’ve noticed the concept of being “organic” has been creeping into the church. It’s become a buzz word. Whole ministries and churches are changing everything they do to be more “organic.” I even have a book on my shelf called Organic Church. But I’m coming out and saying publicly that I think being organic is stupid. I know I’m probably going to get some flack for this, but I don’t care. It’s just stupid. Let me tell you why.
Yesterday I was at a church meeting for the leaders of the small groups in our church (we call them Neighborhoods…it sound edgy and vague ). For some reason, the word organic kept coming up.
We wanted our groups to form “organically.” We wanted to be “organic” yet intentional. It was like everyone was getting payed $5 every time they used the word organic. I was expecting someone to start marketing an Organic Pyramid Scheme at any moment.
Now I like the concept that they were trying to get across. That we shouldn’t be forcing relationship to happen in our church, but we also shouldn’t be sitting on our butts just hoping that relationships will happen.
My problem is with the fact that we were attributing so much power to “organic.” Who the hell is organic and when did he/she/it start leading the church?! The last time I check that was Jesus’ job.
We aren’t lead by some impersonal force:
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. – Jeremiah 29:11
Life, relationships, and groups don’t come about by some impersonal force:
In him we live and move and have our being – Acts 17:28
So I’ll say it again, attributing anything to this impersonal force called “organic” is just stupid. So if you are a church leader, please stop referring to organic as the leader of anything. Give glory where glory is due and trust in the true leader of the church. His name is Jesus and He’s a much better leader than organic.
Kinetic Church in Charlotte, NC had a trailer stolen that had 75% of everything the church owned in it. Ok it’s not awesome that they got 75% of their stuff stolen, but it is awesome in how they responded. They posted this video on youtube and also put up some billboards around town to try to get in contact with the thief. They know the ultimate reason why they had the stuff in the first place. I have to give the guys at Kinetic Church some mad props. For what they did, I don’t know if I could have done the same thing.
Ok so Los posted this video of the American Idol contestants singing “Shout to the Lord!” Now there is something seriously wrong with this. I’m not against them singing a worship song. I’m glad that they changed the lyrics back to say Jesus. They did a really good job singing it. The song even has a special place in my heart, but that that is where they went wrong.
This song is special to me because my youth group sang it at camp when I was a sophomore in high school. So that means that this song is on the cutting edge of 90′s Christian music (which we all know was like the cutting edge of 60′s secular music). So now the one of the world’s top rated shows just showed how Christianity is so in touch with today’s culture (sarcasm). I just think American Idol could have picked something a little better…but oh well. That’s just my opinion. What’s yours?
). For some reason, the word organic kept coming up.
