God is raising up the Next Generation of Leaders in the Church...Are You Invested

There is a verse in the song, Hosanna, from Hillsong that says:

I see a generation, rising up to take their place, with selfless faith.

The past 3 Sunday afternoons, I have had the privilege of spending time with the next generation that God is raising up to lead the church and if they are any indication of what's in store for the future of Christ followers, I am not worried one bit.

To start, let me give you a glimpse of their spiritual gifts:

• Leadership
• Serving/Helping
• Administration
• Mercy
• Faith
• Teaching

The world wants us to buy into the lie that the next generation doesn't care for Christ and that they are a generation that wants life served to them on a silver platter. This is not the case my friends! They are a generation that are willing to serve first and have an extra portion of leadership and mercy to do it. The question is:

Are you invested?

You see, God is asking our generation to step up and SHARE the Good News. The youth today will serve, but it is a matter of what or who they will serve. If we don't share the real Christ Jesus with them, they'll find a cheap imitation.

My prayer is that you'll put your time, talents and resources into the next generation. That you will invest in an eternal payoff and make a difference in the life of our youth. Share Christ Jesus with them! God has already done the hard work of preparing their hearts and minds.

THEY ARE READY....ARE YOU???

Dream Center Basketball

This year we kicked basketball up a notch and it was amazing. Thanks to 8 great sponsors and 16 amazing men and women of Christ, we were able to reach over 60 people through this outreach. We wrapped up the season with a sports banquet and some healthy competition. Here's a quick look of what it was like!

Cinderella Day 2009

On Saturday at the Dream Center, we had over 1,000 dresses donated for girls to come and pick out dresses, jewelry, have their hair done and so much more. There were even seamstresses that came for alterations. It is so humbling to see the body of Christ work together. Thanks to all of you who donated time, talents and treasures to make this happen. Here's a little something to remember the day thanks to pictures taken by Patricia Walsh and music by U2.

Habla Espanol...if not you better learn!

I used to handle Procter & Gamble as a client when I worked at Maersk. They say that the average household uses 8 P&G products each day. Not familiar with them, let me give you a few


That was over 4 years ago and I remember talking with them about their advertising shift to appeal to Hispanics, preparing for their rapid population growth. I have seen this in the past 2 years at the Dream Center with the growth in latinos that come to the Food Bank and live in the area. Tonight, I saw it hit the nightly news. Some interesting facts:

• 50.5% of the Population Growth in the U.S. is Hispanic (this means 1 out of every 2 people added to the population are latino)
• 48% of a local elementary school in North Charleston (Midland Park) is Hispanic
• Midland Park has seen their Hispanic Population in their school grow from 5% of the total students to almost 50% in the last 10 years

This is exciting when you know that we are starting a service this Easter that is 100% in Spanish!!! I can see where God is preparing us for this growth and my prayer is that He will intertwine our hearts.

If you're interested in the stories on NBC, here's the sites:

www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/#29472239
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/#29466839

A Glimpse of the North Charleston Dream Center

I know a lot of you have asked exactly what it is that I am doing at the Dream Center in North Charleston, so I decided to make a short video of the work that God has been doing through us in the last year. Hope you enjoy!

I Love Personality Tests

A friend posted a link on facebook to a personality test: Career Direct. Since I love doing these types of things, I thought I would check it out this morning. It's pretty dead on, except the part about impatient and impulsive...now come on! I NEVER GET LIKE THAT!

Your Profile Type: Motivator

General Description
As a Motivator, you excel in blending your high energy and enthusiasm with the desire to achieve goals and results. Your superior communication skills enable you to effectively motivate others and mobilize them to action.

Typical Areas of Strength
Motivators, like you, are passionate, highly interactive people who love to achieve, influence, and relate with others, especially large groups. You thrive on variety, changes, new challenges, and opportunities to convince others of your viewpoints. You point to the future with great optimism.

Typical Areas of Struggle
You sometimes may push your strengths to the extremes; and you may exhibit weaknesses, such as exaggeration, hyperbole, becoming too emotional, or overlooking key details. You may then begin to be controlling, impatient, or impulsive.

Your Preferred Activities
Because you demonstrate a desire to achieve and be recognized, you function best when you have frequent people interaction and have opportunities to set ambitious goals.

Your Communication Style
You communicate through your superior verbal abilities and combine your zeal and passion to motivate others to action. You sometimes need to wait for other family members to catch-up to your ambitious goals.

Any Thoughts On One for the Dream Center?

I love the old-school church signs! You know, the ones with a funny, yet relevant message. I found a couple cute ones on line, but it made me think what might work at the Dream Center. Share with me any good ones that come to mind or that you've seen!

Bigger Than You Can Imagine

If you go to Seacoast, then you hear it every weekend:

Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than we ALL we can ask or imagine...

It comes from Ephesians 3:20 and tells us of the power of God, but how often do we think about it? His fingerprints are everywhere!

I had one of those moments tonight that you rarely get to experience. I was calling some of the peeps in North Chuck that said they wanted to help volunteer. I am always encouraged by how people are moved to serve our Father in Heaven. Anyways...I come to the last call of the evening and reach JoAnn. I know right away that my silly, sarcastic sense of humor will fly, so I let her rip! We are laughing like old friends within minutes.

She walked into Seacoast North Chuck for the first time this past weekend with her family. How she got there is the cool part!

She was eating with her family at Adolini's in North Chuck on a Sunday afternoon and saw a group eating with Dream Center shirts on. They had been church shopping and just hadn't found the right fit. They were looking for a culturally and social economically diverse church. When they saw the Dream Center, it reminded her of a friend that preached at the L.A.Dream Center there and wondered whether it was the same thing. Searched the internet and found Seacoast. First thought: this isn't the church we were expecting to find, but then saw what we were doing in North Chuck with Adopt-a-Block and all.

This weekend they found their new church home at the Dream Center. The cool part for me...guess who the peeps were chowing down on pepperoni pizza! Yep...some of our friends and us! Who would have ever guessed that God would use that to bring people to the Dream Center? All I was doing was enjoying a pizza with my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ!

Where You Are At...

I am sitting here on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, resting and anticipating the words that God has for people that will walk into the Dream Center tomorrow morning, but if I am honest...Sundays aren't my favorite day. It isn't that I dread them, it is just that I feel like it has become the universal 'God Day.'

It's Sunday, we are expecting to go to church and we are expecting to share the message and we are expecting people to make the decision to follow Christ, but when did that become the norm?

Don't get me wrong, I know that many of you reading this will say that you share Christ daily and I am encouraged by that, but I question whether that is the norm? If we look at the life of Christ as an example, He shared the gospel where he was at: the well, the middle of the street, a friend's home, the dinner table...where ever He was at and where ever there were people to listen.

That's why I love the Dream Center! Because we have taken a deliberate approach to take the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ to where the people are...I look forward to:

• the times I drive down the street and can share Him
• Adopt-a-Block Saturdays where we bring it to a person's doorstep
• dinners with friends as their loved ones are imprisoned
• greeting people as they come looking for food and clothing, but receive so much more...love
• seeing the eyes of people as volunteer medical staff heal them in the name of Jesus

You see, if you are looking for Jesus in the church on Sunday, I'm afraid you are seeing in part. He is outside the four walls of that building and my prayer is that you will find Him and share Him where you are at...

Amie Needs...

So one of my friends is calling me a slogger and I agree. I have been slack on the blog. I'll blame it on Facebook and the fact that gave my camera to my sister-in-law to borrow, so I haven't taken any cool pictures to post either.

Anyhow...one of things on Facebook that is popular right now is this: go to Google and put in the search in parenthesis 'YOUR NAME needs'. For me, it's pretty darn funny:

Amie needs:

• beer and juicy pictures from hurricanes

• help

• numbers

• a tissue

• to know about music

• to buy the following supplies for her trip: camera, journal, compass and hiking boots (didn't know I was going to take a trip)

Last, but not least (and I am not kidding)...NO INTRODUCTION!!!