'The church that can't worship, must be entertained. And men that can't lead a church to worship, must provide the entertainment." Tozer

Wow! what a word to all of us in ministry.

Kendall turns 1 month old tomorrow!!! Thank you Jesus!!

BABY UPDATE

FOR BABY UPDATES...PLEASE VISIT MY WEB SITE AT WWW.CHRISBYERS.COM

THANKS

Kendall is almost here!

We are in the delivery room just waiting now!! Heather's water broke at about 3:30am this morning. The doctor that was on call for our group is the one we wanted, so we have that going for us. Oddly enough, we have a complete sense of peace and calm over us. Even though I know the delivery in this case is the easy part, and the hardest is to come in the next few weeks...we are just resting, knowing that God has a plan...and we...and Kendall are part of it.

more to come...

a new perspective

nothing like finding out that your un-born baby is going to be born over a month early with possibly under-developed lungs, that she now has a blockage between her stomach and intestines, that she will be taken immediately from you after birth to a childrens hospital to be operated on to make you check what you hold dear and believe. Yes, i did have some anger in my at first. But, somehow it has passed. Just kind of numb now. It kills me walking into the lobby of the hospital for a glimpse of the outside world and seeing a tour group of newly pregnant couples waiting to see the birthing rooms. I remember the excitement i had after 3 years of trying to have another baby and standing in that lobby. I remember them showing us where the NIC unit was and feeling sorry for all the people there. Now...the excitement is gone...and fear has set in. Trying to keep the right attitude...

BABY UPDATE

As most of you know, Heather went into labor on thursday. The doctors say that Kendall is not ready to come yet, so we are in the hospital trying to hold her off. I will update my web site as to what is going on.

Thanks

www.chrisbyers.com

what's up?  it's been a really good weekend and week so far.  had a cookout saturday with some awesome friends of ours.  i love hanging out with them, cause we have such similar views on church and life so it was a blast.  Sunday we did a new Tim Hughes tune called Everything.  I love that song.  It has my favorite verse in the Bible in it from Colossians..."Christ in me, the hope of glory"...  

Anyway, I know i usually only talk about church and home on here, but I have to give a plug to our home business.  Mona Vie is taking off like crazy!!  It was featured on an episode of The Doctors.  We've gotten a huge response from that!  Also, in June, Mona Vie is launching it's own energy drink.  It will be all natural and kick the teeth out of red bull and rockstar!  we are psyched.

Anyway, peace out...

Here is an small portion of an article Francis Chan wrote...

He was talking about how the word "Christian" has become diluted over the past years and that we shouldn't strive to live like "christians" but like Christ.  He said that we talk about how the world has become hostile and rejects Jesus, but the fact is that they may have never seen Jesus since that is supposed to be his followers;

Try to be COMPLETELY honest with yourself right now. Is the following true of you?

You passionately love Jesus, but you don't really want to be like Him. You admire His humility, but you don't want to be THAT humble. You think it's beautiful that He washed the feet of the disciples, but that's not exactly the direction your life is headed. You're thankful He was spit upon and abused, but you would never let that happen to you. You praise Him for loving you enough to suffer during His whole time on earth, but you're going to do everything within your power to make sure you enjoy your time down here.

In short: You think He's a great Savior, but not a great role model.

To read the entire article, copy and paste this link:     http://www.catalystspace.com/content/read/francis_chan/

sunday

Hope you guys had a great mothers day yesterday.  We had...a busy one!  Journey went great yesterday.  I was a little nervous at 10 when there was like nobody there!  Then at about 2 minutes after everybody started pouring in.  Guess everybody was taking it slow on mothers day.  We had a fun set yesterday.  Started out with David Crowder's version of O For A Thousand Tongues.  It has such a folk sound to it.  I almost broke out in river dance (not really).  Then Al joined us and we did a southern rock version of a bunch of older hymns (I'll Fly Away, There's Power in the Blood, I saw the Light, and Will the Circle Be Unbroken).  Everyone seemed to enjoy it.  Then we closed with Kristian Stanfills version of Jesus Paid It All.

Then Heather, Lance and I had to pack up and get to the Cobb Galleria by 2 to help with Passion City Church.  We set up 3,000 chairs within 45 minutes.  It was pretty cool.  I got to sit in on Chris Tomlin's practice and sound check.  It was great.  I learned a lot.  Then when it got about time for the service, I was assigned to check id's for access to the green room.  I got to talk to Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, Kristian Stanfill, and all of Tomlins band.  It was great!! I got to introduce Heather and Lance to Kristian.  Heather was pretty psyched!

man... we have had a great time in the past couple weeks in the Crazy Love class.  we hit on a topic this week that just won't leave my mind.  we posed this question..."if you could have absolute perfection in heaven...if you could have your family, perfect weather, no sickness, no sadness, your favorite foods and hobbies, and eternal life...if you could have all of that but no Jesus...would you be satisfied?"  

wow!! that question brings a lot of empty looks on peoples faces.  i think why that question is so powerful is that we have turned following Jesus into living this "American Christian Dream."  Being a follower of Christ has turned into not cursing, dressing the right way, having good kids in good schools, driving to church on sunday, wednesday and any other time of the week the doors are open, being on committees at church and all other similar activities.  we vote republican, sign petitions for babies rights, listen to christian radio, put fish stickers on our suv's, wear t-shirts with sayings on them like God's gym, and stay away from any place with a flashing neon sign (or simply condemn those who go near one...even if it's where their church meets!!!).

the problem with all of that is that we have forsaken that being a follower of Christ is simply about a love relationship with Jesus.  one of the ladies in the class put it so beautifully...in fact, in my prayer life this week i have closed with the request that i want to fall in love with Jesus just as she has.  she pointed out that she wouldn't want anything without Jesus for the very fact that she didn't deserve His love and He gave it to her anyway!  wow...i want my heart to rejoice just over that fact.

i sat in prayer last night and found myself thanking God for all of the great blessings in my life...my family, my wife, my son, my daughter on the way, my guitars, my mac, my dog...you know...everything.  and then i thought, is this why i'm rejoicing...has my praise of God been reduced to the tangible things He has given me?  yes i'm thankful to have those amazing things in my life...but at the base of it all...i want my praise to simply flow out of a redeemed heart that is madly, deeply, and overflowing-ly in love with it's Redeemer.  i want to love Jesus, the way that she loves Jesus.  because of His love.

extravagant worship

we are currently in a money/priorities series at journey.  this is going hand in hand with the crazy love series.  in a few weeks michael is preaching on the widows mite.  here is a song i wrote for the service.  

sitting in the lap of luxury

looking down our nose at their poverty

our bank accounts, 401k

putting away for a rainy day

stocks and bonds and louie vuitton

from mall on the weekend to the hair salon

we runneth over our starbucks cups

10 bucks in the plate that should be enough

but can't you se her, walking thru the crowd

the money grubbers they act so proud

but Jesus saw her, two mites she gave

to the deceitfulness of riches she was not a slave

I want to be just like her...extravagant worship

i wanna leave the cares of this old world behind, and extravagantly worship You

two things i ask remove lies far from me

give me neither riches or poverty

feed me with the food that You've alloted me

so i won't be full, and forget that You are God

I want to be just like her....extravagant worship

i wanna leave the cares of this old world behind, and extravagantly worship You

Sunday, April, 19

I hate this time of year!!! My allergies are driving me crazy!  I sounded like i was singing in a cave this morning as congested as i am.  Anyway, besides that all went well today.  We had a guest singer with the band today named April and she did an awesome job!!  

Set List

Your Grace is Enough

Breathe On Me

You Are The Light (New Steve Fee Tune) loved it!!

We had probably the best time in Crazy Love today that we have had.  We had an awesome discussion about the churches place in culture and we really broke through some barriers to communication together.  Can't wait until next week.

see ya

Easter weekend has come...and is about gone

Hope everyone had a great Easter weekend!  I know I did.  Extremely busy, but great.  Started it off Friday night volunteering with Passion at Verizon Wireless Ampitheatre.  There was an incredible storm that came through and almost cancelled the event.  Turns out they postponed it for 2 hours and I am so glad that they didn't cancel.  Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, Louie Giglio...what could make for a better Good Friday.

So Saturday....at church all afternoon getting ready for Sunday.  Had to be there at 3 for staff pictures.  Which, let me say were AWESOME!!  Lisa of Party of Seven Photography (and our keyboard player) did the pictures and she did an incredible job.  You should go to her site and check out her work. (www.partyofsevenphotography.com)  There is info on there about booking her.  (up top is a sample she put on the web).

Sunday worship went off great.  Had a great crowd with a lot of new faces at Journey.  Had to do a bit of prodding to get everyone out of the "were at a concert" face and into "were here to participate in worship" mode, but it turned out to be a great ride!  I pray that God did some work in some lives of those in attendance.  Oh yeah...the set...

Faithful

True Love

Oh the Wonderful Cross

I Stand Amazed (How Marvelous)--Tomlin Style!!

Yo...What a busy week last week was!! Wow!  I was ready to get it over with.  But anyway, we had a good service yesterday.  Here is the list;

Hallelujah!  What a Savior

No One Like You

Beautiful the Blood

By His Wounds

We closed with By His Wounds while the church did communion.  It went pretty good.  Of course anything that you have to keep repeating due to not knowing how long you are gonna have to play it has it's own challenges, but for the most part pretty good.

Finished reading "Jesus Wants to Save Christians" by Rob Bell.  I did not like the book very much.  The thoughts were too random and never came full circle.  Velvet Elvis was random but got all wrapped up in the end.  I really don't know what the intention of this book was...you know...what I'm supposed to do with the information.  A few parts ticked me off pretty bad.  Some very Un-Patriotic themes in there.  The parts of the book I liked were talking about the church in exile.  Much like the exiles in the Old Testament.  My favorite quote..."Jesus wants to save the church from the exile of irrelevance."  That I like...and agree!  But for the most part I do not recommend it.

Looking very forward to this weekend.  I'm volunteering at the Good Friday service at Verizon Ampitheatre with Louie Giglio, Chris Tomlin and Matt Redman.  And I can't wait for Easter Sunday service.  I love the stuff we are doing and I love a packed house!!

See ya next week

wassup?  what an awesome week so far.  The Crazy Love study has us focusing each day on the Cross of Jesus.  This is something that we should do every second of our lives.  To see everything through the lens of the Cross!!  Today has been great just trying to think of the sacrifice every moment!

So Sunday went great!  It was one of the best sets we've done.  I have definitely filed that one away for future use.  The tunes;

Let God Arise

Blessed Be Your Name

Hallelujah--Our God Reigns

Breathe on Me (a new tune by Todd Fields)  awesome song!!

Crazy Love was great.  I am having such a blast being a part of that class.  Heather and I went to our Northpoint small group tonight.  It was my turn to tell "my story", which i loved (i love any chance to talk and be the center of attention for a few...lol)  But it was great to look back at all the things that God has put together in my life to bring me to where I am right now.  Henry Blackaby in Experiencing God said that we should have "spiritual markers" in our lives.  Times and things that we can look back to when God did something or taught us something new.  The markers come from the Old Testament when folks would stack rocks or build some type of monument when God came through or they had an encounter with God.  It is a very important thing to do for Christians.

Anyway, each day I am sending those in the Crazy Love group a reminder of something Jesus did on the cross.  I look forward to reading it myself...

i'm back

so i'm a little behind on my posts.  the last 2 weeks have been really busy and crazy.  So to start, last week a bunch from Journey went to the Un-Leashed conference at New Springs church in Anderson South Carolina.  We had a great time of fellowship.  Mike and I were the outcasts seeing that our wives did not go so we were on the outside looking in most of the time.  But that's fine....we had fun with our white armbands (inside joke).  Anyway, the conference was ok.  Nothing earth shattering though.  After touring their campus I was sure that they were not selling any Francis Chan books at the bookstore...i was right!! 

So we got back Friday.  That night I was at the Apple Store (heaven on earth) at Northpoint.  I was standing in line waiting to get some service and there next to me was Chris Tomlin!!  He was getting something done to his MacBook. We talked for a while.  He is a truly awesome guy!!  He was in person at the mall everything that he portrays himself to be.  It was great...i got to meet my hero.

Everything went good at Journey Sunday.  At least as the band goes.  We did stuff we and the church knew.  I don't know if everyone was tired or what, but there wasn't much expression in the crowd during worship.  A good friend of the church that is starting a church in Newnan spoke.  He did an incredible job.  He spoke right in line from what we are learning in the Crazy Love class.  

Anyway, i've been spending alot of time writing and recording here at home.  I have a song that I would love to have by Easter but don't think it will be ready.  It would be a great transition into I Stand Amazed in the Presence.  We'll see>>>>

Sunday March 8

We had a great sunday this week!  Attendance was a little down...I attribute it to 3 things; time change, only second week of new schedule, and the race.  But the people that were there were excited and made up for the lack of numbers!

set list

Take It All

Salvation Is Here

Jesus Paid It All

The band rocked as always!  Jesus Paid It All was better than ever.  Or maybe after the amazing things that God did in my life last week I was just ready to really sing that song.

Crazy Love class was great.  I really love the group that God has put together for this class.  I can just see God working in the lives of this group of people.  

Just watched the forecast for the week and all i can say is it is MOUNTAIN BIKING season!!!  see ya on the trails...

WOW!! What a roller coaster of a last 24 hours we have had!  It all started at lunch yesterday.  Heather came home and began having some bad cramps.  We didn't think much of it until she got back to work.  Then things got worse!! She came home and called the baby doctor.  They set her an appointment for 2 o clock today!! 24 hours of waiting, reading on the internet (which was a big mistake), and praying that she didn't lose the baby.  Everything we read on the internet seemed to be pointing that way.

So I picked up Lance early from school and we met Heather at the doctor.  The doctor even introduced himself and said he was sorry it was under these conditions that we were meeting.  My heart sunk.  Heather and I had already prepared for the worst and began to prepare Lance as well.

Then they started the ultra-sound.  I knew what we were all looking and listening for...a heartbeat.  I noticed that the Doctor turned the volume down so that we wouldn't know exactly what was going on.  I could see in his face that he was expecting the worst too.  I couldn't look up at the screen...I just sat with my head down and prayed...God, why would you let us try for 3 years...then give up...then Heather get pregnant just to take it from us.  I prayed God, please let the baby be ok. Then the doctor got excited and said I see the heartbeat.  He said the baby was moving all over the place it it seemed that he/she was waving at us.  As if to say..."what are you guys so worried about?".  Heather began crying and I was so excited i could barely sit still.  I finally realized how much I want this baby.  

Lance was so worried.  When I was walking down the hall toward him I could see the fear on his face.  Then I smiled at him and you could see the relief come over him.

What a day.  Up top is a pic of our baby.  It may be hard for you to make out, but we sure can!

So today...great day at Journey.  Complete with a snow shower!!  We were continuing in our series on the Song of Solomon.  The reception has been great with a lot of requests for cd's of the messages.  Music.  Heres the list;

Happy Day

All Because of Jesus

Never Let Go

There was an air of excitement during worship..(of course I think some of it was looking out the windows and the impending snow storm coming), but it was a great time.

We started this semester of small groups today.  Crazy Love went great.  There is a wonderful group for it and I cannot wait to see what God is going to do with us...

just got a pair of Chuck Taylor Converse.....Most Uncomfortable Shoe EVER!!!

Yesterday was a great day at Journey.  Justin McGhin, who is a missionary in Romania was in town and spoke yesterday.  What an amazing message.  It totally lined up with everything that Francis Chan is talking about in Crazy Love, so it totally lined up with where I am in life right now.  Justin spoke of leaving everything and the foolishness of possessions.  That is so where I am.  Heather and I almost bought a new car last Saturday!  We were in the lot and picked out the one we wanted.  We justified it.  Our van has alot of miles.  We have a new baby on the way.  Then when the salesman told us what the payoff on the van was I had to stop.  It could be paid off in a year and we would owe nothing.  All I could see was Francis Chan in the house he lives in and the old car he drives...knowing that he could afford any house and any car he wanted.  But, he has priorities.  And they do not include living the american dream.  so...we walked away.  And made a commitment.  To be totally debt free in 2 years and give away 50% of our income! To people like Justin that are out living on the edge for Jesus and the Gospel.

So the set list from yesterday;

Song of Hope

Let Me Sing

Here is Our King

All Over the World

it went great.  All over the world went perfectly with the message Justin gave..."Every nation tribe and tongue join as one and give glory to God."  

Still busy getting everything ready for the Crazy Love small group starting Sunday.  And oh yeah, Journey starts it's new schedule Sunday....Worship at 10.  small groups at 11:15.

yes i'm frustrated!!

Just got done reading Crazy Love for the second time in preparation for teaching a small group on the book.  All I can say again is...WOW!!  I have made a serious re-commitment to putting away the "American Christian Dream" and pursuing God like he intends.  How is that...by living in a way that show i believe in God and in a way that God has to come through.  We as American Christians love to talk about things like, "i can do all things through Christ who strengthens me", but we live like " i can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, but if he doesn't i always have my pension and savings to bail Him out".  Or our churches live in a way that always has a backup plan if God doesn't come through.  How can God not come through?  How have i been blinded to live this way for so long?  How can I not be completely dependent on Him and live in total abandon for Him?  How can I put my personal safety (and that of my family) above His plan?  We in America have turned church into a spectator sport and if we feel a little convicted during a sermon we think that we have done what God wanted.  No Action!  No Commitment!  When it comes to serving God, we say things like, "I'm waiting for Gods will".  But i bet you didn't see if it was Gods will before you turned on the TV last night?  Or did God inspire you to go to Starbucks today or did you just act on the desire?  

What if the church asked you to participate in a homeless feeding ministry?  Would your answer be that you needed to pray about it?  Did you get up and work out this morning?  Did you pray about it first?  Did you eat lunch?  Are you sure that was Gods will, or did you do it because it was time to eat.  There is nothing wrong with Starbucks (i go there everyday), eating lunch and working out...what is wrong is when we do all those recreational things without Godly inspiration, but won't move a finger for God unless he moves heaven and earth and gives us a heavenly sign!  Here's your sign...it's called the BIBLE!! 

yes you can sense my frustration...but it is with myself as well as most of the American church.  Oh to be part of a church who gets it. Who's leadership gets it.  Whose people get it.

so for the set list today;

Forever

Happy Day

we started out old school with Forever and then came modern with Happy Day.  Happy Day went great.  We used the loop downloaded from the Northpoint music site and it was perfect.  Robert, our drummer was dead on!!  We were supposed to close with Let Me Sing, but we ran out of time.  We packed in a baby dedication and an intro to our new series based on the Song of Solomon.  All in all it was a good day.

Today we began to talk about Song of Solomon and all the lessons God has for us in loving our spouses.  SEX is good!! WOW!! who knew??  Just kidding.  Anyway, it is amazing that details about loving your spouse are so vivid in Gods Word.  The lesson for the day...kiss your spouse!  I like this homework.

can't sleep

so...sitting here at 1:24 am on a saturday night.  I have to lead worship tomorrow and was hoping for a good nights sleep before but that is just not in the cards it does not seem.  I have been re-reading and studying "Crazy Love" to get ready for the small group I am going to begin teaching next month and just like it did the first time i read it...it has me all messed up!  All of my goals, all of what I am living for just seems so insignificant compared to the life that God intends for us to lead in community with each other.  I don't want to get into specifics here, due to ruining the group lesson that i am going to be doing, but I just hope and pray for a group of people at Journey that sign up for this class that will be impacted by this book and the scripture that it drives you to as i am.  If so, look out Atlanta...Journey Church is going to impact this town for the Kingdom of Heaven....

So..Heather and I had a great weekend off last weekend.  We went out to eat whenever we wanted...went to Buckhead and played pool...watched some funny movies...went to Northpoint CC Sunday morning...basically just did whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted!!

Journey had a great Sunday with Hugh leading.  We really missed being there.  This past Sunday was great.  We had a good turnout and a great energy during Worship. I have decided to blog every Monday about the set we do on the previous Sunday.  

So Sunday...Here was the set list

No One Like You

Famous One

Oh the Wonderful Cross

Come Ye Sinners-(Robbie Seay version)

We got kind of old school yesterday and did some of our churches favorites.  Famous One is my second favorite worship song of all time (2nd only to My Glorious!!).  I am going to be teaching a small group class on Sunday mornings after worship on the book "Crazy Love" starting next month.  I am pretty excited but also overwhelmed by the thought of putting into lessons all of the amazing teachings that Francis Chan covers in the book.  But, it is gonna be fun to delve into that book deeper than ever on a weekly basis.

well...heather had her appointment with the neurologist yesterday...and...the lesion on her brain is nothing to worry about.  Actually, he said it is just an age spot.  So she is just getting old.  Any other time someone told her that she might be mad, but it was music to our ears yesterday.  Thank you to all that prayed for this situation.  Now we can just focus on the bundle of joy that will be here in 8 short months!!!  

anyway, Sunday was a great day.  Besides not getting any sleep before church, our Associate Pastor Mike preached an incredible sermon on absolute truth.  it was "absolutely" great!  I came home and wrote a song based on his sermon.  We had a ton of visitors so the atmosphere was great.

NEWS...

Most people that will be reading this know this already, but for the rest here is what is going on...We are dealing with some serious health issues with Heather.  She had an MRI due to severe headaches and the results were not what we were hoping for.  She has an appointment with a Neurologist at the end of the month to see exactly what they found is.  So, to say the least, it has been on our minds a lot.  Then the good news...during all the tests for the head, we found out that Heather is PREGNANT!!  The funny part is we decided that if she wasn't pregnant by Dec 31 2008, that we were done trying.  Guess God had other ideas.  So to say the least, we have a lot going on right now!  But we know that God is in control and we trust His heart.  Anyway...more to come when we know more....

http://www.catalystspace.com/content/read/article_francis_chan/

Awesome article by Francis Chan on what the Church SHOULD look like.

My heart can barely take it in,

The way You love me so.

You stretched Your arms out so wide,

And blood and water flowed.

And nothing can contain my voice,

From crying out to You.

The eagle soars, the lion roars,

They all bow down to You.

cb