This one is powerful. Francis and his teaching helped to change my prayer life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UY1dyQ4LzxE&t=375s

My youngest son and I are headed out for a week at Scout camp tomorrow. Frank Viola's book Insurgence has been loaded onto my kindle and the battery is fully charged. I'm looking forward.

So, what does Jonathan Roumie (Jesus in The Chosen) have to do with my story? Well, once I realized that I'm responsible for my family's spiritual health and growth, I also realized that I lacked the knowledge to properly get this job done, so I started taking classes through Christian Leaders Insitute (CLI). Their purpose, Free and low-cost Christian Education, matched up with my need. I'm not going to Bible College, but I would like educated. A chunk of the House-Church training was from the original House Church training created by Francis Chan. I really connected to his preaching and teaching style and have watched many more of his videos. In one, he was talking to a group of young people in Europe. He asked them, as you're driving down the road of life, and come upon Jesus walking alongside the road. Do you stop the car to pick him up or just keep going? If you did stop to pick him up, where do you find space for him in your car? So, much of my life, I only had space in the back seat. One day, I said, "Hey, why don't you move up here into the front with me. It would be easier to talk to you."
Sometime later, I heard the song, "Jesus take the wheel." for the first time in a long time. A short while after that, I hear Francis Chan ask "You have the opportunity to talk to the Creator of the Universe. Are you really going to give him a to do list?" I realize, in my car, I'm sitting in the wrong seat. I can't give Jesus a ride, as long as he is going where I'm going. So, 30 years after being baptized. I accepted the fact that we need to change seats, and I'm going where he is going, and I don't yet know where that is. But, along the way, we have picked up a few "supplies". I feel like we are getting ready to go on a trip.

Where was I? So, like many in 2020 we were not in a church for until sometime in late 2021. We headed back to a church that I thought might have a strong line by line teaching style. I had been studying and listening to a lot of things, but my wife really had not, and I wanted a stronger teaching component. Not someone talking about the latest leadership reading they had done. Plus, I wanted a large youth group, as we had one last child at home, and he had the teenage years coming. We find our church and I felt so thankful. The teaching was amazing for the 2 months it lasted, then he left. Turned out, there were background problems that we didn't know about when we started. So, one day while pondering how this situation went wrong and what I should do about it. The thought drifted into my head that maybe I should stop looking for someone to teach my family, but maybe I should be doing that. Well, that is enough for today. I'll leave you with this image.

Thanks for allowing me to join. What a wonderful group so far. I thought I would get started by describing a bit of my journey so far. I grew up in a small town in Northern Indiana. My mother was Lutheran, and my father was really uncertain/undeclared. I attended a small-town church as a child, but we stopped going I guess around Junior High. It really wasn't until after getting married and us expecting our first child that it really occurred to me that I needed to do something about my spiritual condition.
We found a nice church in Indianapolis, got baptized, had our baby and that began the next segment of my life. Honestly, I thought that was enough. I never felt called into the Ministery and didn't really know where I was going. Over the years, I started travelling for and on the West Coast, was introduced to K-Love. The messages on their station started to change me and I started to listen to bible teachers on the Radio. J. Vernon McGee and Through The Bible, was such a great teacher for me. Over the years, I went through the bible at least 3 times with TTB. This was the most knowledgeable I had ever been and if felt like real progress.
But Gary, Doesn't James call us to be Doers of the Word and not just Hearers? Yep, but I thought that was the stuff churches used to get money from us. Well, that is the start of my story. I'll pick it up in the next couple of days. It's time to go make some tents.