This City Is Yours

This city Lord it is yours, This city Lord it is yours
This City Lord it is yours, this city Lord it is yours
So break our hearts, break our hearts
For the people who are far from you break our hearts
Teach us to love the way you love God
Send us out, send us out
And pour out your fire, and flow through our lives.
send us out, send us out


The Heart in my chest it is beating so fast......
I can hardly contain all the hope in my vains........
As I see you a light in this city arise like.........
the sun shinning bright we see darkness and night run


This city lord it is yours, this city lord it is yours
This city lord it is yours, this city lord it is yours
Teach us to love the way you love God
Send us out send us out
Pour out your fire and flow through our lives
Send us out send us out
we'll take to the streets with fire in out hearts
Send us out send us out.

First Oregon Team Meeting

We had our first Oregon Launch Team meeting last night and It was amazing! So exciting to see this dream becoming a reality. Here are some things we talked about in the meeting.......

Church name is Catalyst Church. We will be planting in the south west Portland metro. We will be relocating to Portland May of next year and doing our official launch January 2013.

Some questions we addressed......

Why another church? 
We believe the local church is God's plan for reaching the world and as long as there are people who don't know Jesus there is need for a church.

Why Portland? 
Oregon has a desperate need. They have more atheists, more strip clubs, and more homeless youth per capita then any other state in America. These truths break our hearts and inspire us to respond.


Hosea 2:23 "I will establish my people in the land and make them prosper. I will show love to those who are called "unloved" and to those who were called "Not-My-People" I will say, "You are my people" and they will answer, "You are our God."


Our Mission...
Our Mission is to "Connect people to faith, hope, and Love"
1 Corinthians 13:13
"And now these three remain: Faith, Hope and Love. But the greatest of these is Love."


Our Strategy......
*Outreach (weekend services)
*Small Groups
*Growth Track
*Dream Teams (volunteers)

Colossians 1:28 "He is the one we proclaim (outreach) Admonishing (small groups) and Teaching Everyone (growth tracks) with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone Fully Mature (dream teams) in Christ.

Our Culture.....
We are a community of Faith, with a message of Hope, living a life of Love.


A community of faith....
Colossians 2: 6-7, Matthew 22:37-38

A message of hope....
Matthew 5:14-16, Mark 10:45

A life of love......
1 John 4:7-8, Ephesians 5:1-2

These are some of the things we talked about in our meeting. Please continue to pray for us that God would bring more people willing to give of their lives to be apart of the dream and vision God has placed in our hearts. We cant do this alone!

Sun Stand Still

    It always amazes me how God can speak to us in the most random ways. This week God has been speaking to me about prayer. It started with my 5 year old daughter Allie. I love that God is already using her and she doesn't even know it.  She came up to me the other day and in her sweetest voice asked "Mom, can I have a cookie?" And I said "no" because I was getting ready to make dinner. Then she asked again "please Mom just one cookie?" I looked at her and in that moment was overwhelmed with love for her and said "Okay, you can have one cookie." And then she did something extremely bold.  She looked at me with her sweetest face and asked with all the passion and desire she could convey " Mom, can I just have two cookies?"I looked at her and again was so full of love and said "okay my love, you can have two cookies."

    Now, I know what many of you are thinking, you are thinking I was played by my five year old daughter (okay, maybe I was) but in that very moment I said to her "yes love, you can have two cookies" The Holy Spirit spoke to me and said "Love, what do you want from me?" And I realized that God was listening. He wanted me to come to him like a child comes to their parent and ask him for something I desired.

Matthew 7:7-11 says "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks the door will be opened. Which of you, if his son asks for bread, gives him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children how much more will your father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!"

    Then, as I was reading my Bible this week I came across a story in the Old Testament.  
Joshua 10:12-15. "On the day the Lord gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the Lord in the presence of Israel: "Sun stand still over Gibeon, Moon, over the Valley of Aijalon!" So the Sun stood still, and the moon stopped, till the nation avenged itself on its enemies. As it is written in the book of Jashar, The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. There has never been a day like it before or since. A day when the Lord listened to a man. Surely the Lord was fighting for Isreal!" 

    I love this story!!! Can you imagine the bold faith Joshua  must have had to look at the sun and tell it to stop, and believe that God would do it! I want to be audacious in my prayers like Joshua was. I want to pray prayers that go beyond all areas of reason and reality! I want to pray and believe for mountain to be moved, for people to be healed, for lives to be transformed, for provision beyond what we can even imagine, Because we serve a God who tells the Sun to stand still and it does! I know God doesn't answer every prayer the way we want him to, but I still am going to pray the big bold prayers because maybe just maybe he will look down on me and overwhelmed with love say "yes, you can have two cookies."

Can't Do This Alone

Hey everyone! I thought I would post an update on how the church planting is coming along. Things are going great. Right now we are in team building mode. I have been amazed and humbled by the people who have already said they are willing to leave their jobs and sell their homes to be a part of planting the church. It strengthens my faith. Because the reality is we cant do it alone, we need people with a pioneer spirit who are willing to give their lives to something greater then themselves. Today as I was doing my Bible reading I came across some amazing scriptures. In 1 Corinthians 3 starting in verse 6 Paul says..... "I planted the seed, Apolos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building". 
 I love this scripture because Paul is realizing two very important truths. First, we cannot do this alone, we need other people. And second and most importantly we can not do this without God's hand. He is the only one who can make it grow. So, we will do our absolute best to prepare the soil and plant the seed but at the end of the day only God can make it grow,  I find such freedom in that fact.  Thank you everyone for your prayers and words of encouragement it means the world to us!

Hosea 2:23

 I came across this amazing scripture today and had to share it..........

Hosea 2:23
I will establish my people in the land and make them prosper. I will show love to those who were called “Unloved,” and to those who were called “Not-My-People” I will say, “You are my people,” and they will answer, “You are our God.”

Get ready Oregon!