Special Delivery!

“It is the same with my word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it.” Isaiah 55:11

During ZOOPLOSION over the summer we saw over 100 decsions to follow Christ for the first time, which was awesome. But that was then and we wanted to do something NOW that would help them in their new found relationship with Jesus Christ. So with the help of a gracious family within FOkids we were able to purchase 125 Bibles. Not small generic Bibles but good study bibles for kids. Today we met to distribute them to almost 100 households. It was so cool seeing the body of Christ come together and follow up those decisions. It was neat seeing whole families pack out an SUV and deliver bibles together. That’s the kind of family I want to look like, well done Simmons Fam. What a great morning. Thank you to everyone who helped get the greatest love letter ever written to kids that have a whole lifetime to soak in that Word. May it be so. I look forward to seeing the fruit in the coming years.

President or Vice President?

As Barrack Obamma hand picked Joe Biden as his running mate it got me thinking. Clearly Presidents get more love and attention than their Vice Presidents. But the two places find two different paths to the oval office. The President has to spend countless hours, weeks, months, and years pushing and shoving to get "up front". And if he wins it's because he made it happen with lots of hard work. However the VP gets picked, gets selected, get chosen. As I was thinking about which one I'd rather be I used to think the President but now I see how flattering and humbling it would be "chosen" as the VP. No "pick me, pick me" campaigns. A VP pick is bringing someone along that is being successful at what you hope to be successful in. Which would you rather be President or VP?

Mythbusters Blog.

Wow, what a story. So it started when my neighbor and friend Tammy called me over to help jump start her car. I get my jumper cables and attached them like normal and started the car up. Well the first set of cables were acting weird; it was smoking and really hot. So I took them off assuming something was wrong with the cables. So I got my other jumper cables and attached them. Immediately after I place them on the batteries and started the car the cables got so hot that they almost caught on fire and quickly ate through the cable from end to end. Smoke was everywhere as it dissolved my cables. Picture it. I place the cables on and from the middle they begin to melt like wax each end heading to the car. Tammy and I have no clue what to do and we both are thinking this very well might blow up each vehicle. So I quickly ask Tammy's daughter Abigail, who is 5 years old, to grab me a stick so I can make sure the heat doesn't damage the cars. She comes back with a 4 inch twig. By the time I come back with an adequate stick the cables completely dissolve and eat into one of her vehicles. All throughout that process I am trying to handle the cables with oven mittens because of how hot they are and I'm not sure if they can shock me (not that an oven mitt would save my life). So as I am trying to put out a near fire, with oven mitts on, an over sized 10 fit stick, Tammy can't stop laughing at what a fool I look like. After we get it all cleaned up I become determined to figure out what happened that triggered the event. Through much research I find out that on one of the cars I accidentally attached the positive on the negative and the negative on the positive. I know that sounds pretty dumb. What made it frustrating is the reason I did that was because whoever put the battery on mistakenly switched the labels. The negative was painted red and the positive had a black cover over it. So I assumed their identities. Once again I am proven that I am not the macho macho man I hope to grow up and be some day. How embarrassing! So there you have it. My promise to share my life with you, the good and the bad. No need to comment, I know how dumb I am and so does Tammy. So the mythbuster on "what happens if you misplace the cables when jumping a car" has been solved. Don't try it at home.

Funerals, Weddings, and Pregnancies!

Within the past 14 days I found out that we are pregnant (Oh by the way if you didn't know, we are pregnant YEAHHHH!), I was in a wedding (Shaun & Hailey Lafferty), and then tonight I led a funeral service (the first funeral I lead) for an amazing baby boy named Malachi. Wow no wonder I am emotionally spent. The funeral tonight was awesome! Yes I can use a postive word with the word funeral. Remember for Christians there is no sting in death. Tonight Malachi's family proved that verse and taught many of us how to celebrate when we lose a loved one. Malachi was just 5 months old and never spent a day out of the hospital. Although a strong fighter his ailments were just too much for him to overcome. I know this sounds morbid but I never thought I could feel so blessed and encouraged to be apart of such an inspiring funeral. Mia and Myran (Malachi's parents) you guys are such an inspiration on how to cling to our Saviour in the midst of chaos. May God continue to carry you and heal all that is broken.

Should we try to be the best?

In the pursuit to reach as many people as possible for the Kingdom of Heaven it sadly can quickly turn into a silent competition. Of course no one says this and very few pastors admit such a thing, however I happen to believe it exist. I also believe it is one of the key components that is holding "The Church" from going to the "next" level. Obviously scripture is clear on the fact that we are to give 100% at anything we do especially when talking about helping people finding God. So I don't have an issue with a mentality that is driven, focused, with an attitude of pursing excellence (I think this is the exact attitude we are to have). What I've discovered is I don't like the idea or phrase when we try to be the best or have the best this or that. For example I don't want our church to pursue having the best children's ministry in the nation or world. The moment we make such a statement we immediately take our focus off what we are called to do, in this case leading kids to Jesus, and begin looking around at other churches and their ministry teams to determine if in fact we are the best. After concluding where we stand we then go back to the drawing board full of a "false inspiration" to try harder to reach more people. I believe that this kind of thinking not only distracts us from what God is trying to do within our own ministry but I also believe it steers us to go in a direction that God never meant for us to go down. Let me be clear I am not saying we can't or shouldn't check out other ministries, pastors, or churches. I think all that is extremely beneficial if done with the right motives, I do it all the time. I just wish our motivation for building great churches was more based on the fact that lost people are dying and going to hell and less of us comparing with one another who has the best this or that. I actually would love it if we were trying our hardest and we weren't the "best". That would mean there are so many other churches reaching more people than we are. I'd love to reach hundreds of kids and know that it's no big deal because so many other churches are doing the same thing. You see my passion and desire isn't to be the best Children's Pastor. My passion and desire is to see people fall in love with Jesus. I don't care if they are black, white, brown, old, young, Swedish, African. I don't care, I just want to see people be drawn to Jesus. If that means God places me to be the best at something, great. If I am not the best (out of 6 billion people) but the gospel keeps moving forward I think I can gladly live with that. Bottom line are you trying to be your best for what God is calling you to do or are you to preoccupied with simply being the best? PS: These are thoughts I've been chewing on for years and are not at all a reflection of my current church or my current situation. Just thoughts from along the way.

Make Him Famous

"Publish his glorious deeds among the nations. Tell everyone about the amazing things He does." Psalm 96:1-3 This passage hit me like a laser. Wow! What a passage. What does it mean to publish His glorious deeds? And tell everyone? Amazing things? He does not He did? Wow! bottom line that I get out of this is that we are to make Him famous as He is still rockin this earth. Tadd Grandstaff (pastor of Pine Ridge Church, NC: http://taddgrandstaff.com/) did a series called "Rockstar, making Him famous". This scripture reminds me of that. Alright I am off to do whatever I can to make Him famous because He still does amazing things. dustin

Upcoming new series

Starting Sunday we'll be learning how to act out the Word of God through our series entitled, "Welcome to Hollywood". I am really exciting about this series as well as the fall. It seems that my previous 4 months here have been observing, learning, and praying about all that God wants to do here. Now I feel like God is given us some clear vision and objectives that I am anxious to implement this fall. Also my mind is still transitioning from student ministry so if anyone has any series that are geared for kids and not too lame send them my way. Thanx and keep rockin for Him.