Relax and enjoy the splash of surf from thundering hooves!

Last year I helped lead a small Mission Team of Students to Costa Rica to help install a water purification system under the capable hands of Curtis and Claudia Daniels of EDGE Outreach.  It was an amazing journey filled with lots of rewarding moments.

One of the 'Adventure Elements' that Meredith Salyers Lewis and I built into the trip was horseback riding on the coast that was amazing.  

Our posse' picked up our horses about 1/4 mile inland from the coast and were given very basic instruction in horse riding -- basically, 'hang on!' and then we were let go to ride out on the beach as we saw fit.  I'm not a little guy so that hooked me up with a large horse with a fiery disposition that liked to run.  I'm not a cowboy either so I was in for an incredible ride!  

As we neared the beach my horse began to gallop and I was a little tense so that kind of hurt...when we got to beach we were off to the Costa Rican Derby and my horse simply wanted to run -- FAST!  And he was competitive as a horse can get so anytime he was challenged he would run faster....at first this was terrifying, but I felt a sense of a deep message and peace settle on me as the surf splashed up on me from the racing hooves -- just relax, have fun and feel the wind and surf --I've got you.  You are in for the ride of your life!  

At that point I was tasked with giving Crestwood Baptist Church a final answer upon my return about whether I did truly intend to leave a great position in that great church to launch a fully new enterprise which is now known as Phos Hilaron Church. 

 So, this was on my heart and mind a ton and on that beach racing along the message I seemed to hear deep in my spirit from God was, 'Hold On, you're in for the ride of your life!  Relax and enjoy it, because I am with you.'  

I had forgotten about that until this evening when we were having dinner with Tyler and Stacey Eldred of Life Champion International and The Louisville Chocolate Fountain and we were talking about horses and horseback riding.  As I shared the joy of riding unfettered at full throttle with them I was reminded again of how lucky I am to have the chance to ride along and experience the thrill of watching God do HIS thing as He carries Phos Hilaron Church along at full tilt!  What a ride!  I'm learning to relax and enjoy the wind of the Spirit moving among us and watching God do Amazing GOD-STUFF all over the place to grow us into the Missional Church that He called us to become.  

For the last 10 days I've been on vacation with my family and extended family -- well, really, we've been crashing on families sofas and extra beds as we did a 1200 mile trek from Louisville through Huntsville, Chattanooga, Cherokee North Carolina, and Corbin, Kentucky.  

While I've been away the incredible team at PHC has had a great Service Worship at Creasey Mahan Park and they had a meaningful worship experience today as Len Jaggers stepped up to preach in my place.  I'm grateful for this amazing team of people who are stepping up to build a church that is out in the community serving and seeking to invest & invite neighbors who don't have a church home already.   

For this ride with these people I am abundantly grateful!  I'm learning to relax in the saddle and enjoy the ride of a lifetime!  (If you live in the Louisville area maybe you should think about taking this ride with us.  Go to ph-church.org to learn what's happening next at Phos Hilaron Church.  

Relax and Enjoy the Ride!

Jeff Fuson

Jeff Fuson serves as Point Leader for Phos Hilaron Church near Louisville Kentucky. Jeff's # 1 passion is being a husband and daddy. A close second is seeing people grow spiritually. As a Professional Speaker Jeff also serves as a Keynote Speaker & Trainer crafting & delivering high impact keynote addresses & training events for Entrepreneurs, Banks, Credit Unions, and small to medium sized non-profit & for profit enterprises. He's got one incredible wife and 3 awesome children.

Hebrews 6:14

YOU GOTTA HAVE A BIG DREAM THAT DRIVES YOUR DAILY ACTIONS AND DISCIPLINES YOUR CHOICES MOMENT BY MOMENT. This is true for all of us who are attempting something that is HUGEMONGOUS.

God had a way of getting people's attention in the Old Testament by promising them extreme reward for accomplishing His mission in their lives. A prominent example of this was Abraham and the promise that God made to him that his offspring would be more abundant than sands on the seashore. (Genesis 22:17)

Hebrews 6:14 recalls the Genesis experience of Abraham when it says, "I will most certainly bless you, and I will greatly multiply you."

Now, I know that this text was not a promise to me or for me, but I sure would like it to be mine. My greatest hope is that God would use me to accomplish MUCH for His Kingdom on the move through this world. And, it's one of my dreams that Phos Hilaron Church would be counted strong in Loving God, Loving our Neighbors, and Expanding the Neighborhood.

So, here's to stretching the text so that it applies to me and you and PHC today!

And, here's to YOU in discovering God's BIG Dream for YOU that will bring about the disciplined daily actions and habits necessary to accomplish the dreams of your wildest imagination!

I'll be thinking about that one simple verse a lot today and praying that God would say the same thing to me (at least in a spiritual offspring sort of way!).

Enjoy THIS day,
Jeff Fuson



Jeff Fuson serves as Point Leader for Phos Hilaron Church near Louisville Kentucky. Jeff's # 1 passion is being a husband and daddy. A close second is seeing people grow spiritually. As a Professional Speaker Jeff also serves as a Keynote Speaker & Trainer crafting & delivering high impact keynote addresses & training events for Entrepreneurs, Banks, Credit Unions, and small to medium sized non-profit & for profit enterprises. He's got one incredible wife and 3 awesome children.

Church Planters Zany Ride and a Cool Mantra to boot!

The Ride of a Church Planter is a bit zany....

-most of us come from something fairly stable career-wise and jump head-first into the raw thin-air of 'not-yet-ness' and the dream of a new church that will add to the collective Kingdom firepower in a fresh new way.

-most of us believe we have a new angle that MUST COME TO LIFE or the world will remain unchanged -- totally unacceptable for those of us who are driven to influence others and outcomes in the world

-we attract the best and brightest dreamers in the world -- most of whom are just like us -- we have very little notion of how to put the wheels on the wagon we're imagining so we need technicians and engineers and people who can sequence information inputs and outputs --and that puts us at odds because our internal processors are so vastly different -- so we have to grow people skills out the yang to be able to work with those who see the world way differently and in much more crystalline black and white than we can imagine

-we postion our families on the brink of financial ruin

-we fuel work-a-holic tendencies

-we put our people loving selves on the line of attack from those outside AND inside the church and wonder why this can feel like a lonely enterprise at times

AND, we revel in the notion that God DOES USE US.

HE DOES EMPOWER US.

HE DOES ALLOW US TO SEE THE MIRACULOUS WHEN HE BRINGS BREAD RIGHT WHEN WE NEED IT.

HE GIVES US THICKER SKINS TO DEAL WITH THE BARBS TOSSED OUR WAY BY OTHER 'CHRISTIANS' WHO JUST CAN'T SEE THIS AS A VERY GOOD IDEA.

HE GRANTS US EVEN MORE TENDER HEARTS THAT ACHE FOR OUR BROKEN FRIENDS.

HE HELPS US CARE PASSIONATELY ABOUT NEIGHBORS WHO ARE NOT YET AMPED IN THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD.

WE GET TO EXPERIENCE THE JOY OF SEEING 9 PEOPLE BAPTIZED AT OUR FIRST BAPTISM EXPERIENCE......(happened for me at Phos Hilaron Church on Sunday, July 6, 2008!)

So, this is the ride of a lifetime in a lifetime of rides!

We've seen God do more incredible things in the past few months than in my entire life. It's more fun to play at the edge than you can imagine -- yes, scary and it doesn't feel very 'safe' at times, but what in life is truly 'safe'?

Helen Keller basically suggested that 'safety' is overrated when she was quoted as saying,

Security is mostly superstition. It does not exist in nature . . .

Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure.

Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.

That could be a church planters mantra!

Amazed that God can even use ME!!!
Jeff Fuson

Jeff Fuson serves as Point Leader for Phos Hilaron Church near Louisville Kentucky. Jeff's # 1 passion is being a husband and daddy. A close second is seeing people grow spiritually. Jeff also delivers impacting training events for Entrepreneurs, Credit Unions, and small to medium sized enterprises. He's got one incredible wife and 3 awesome children.

Creative Risk & Launching at the EDGE of Disaster

As a church planter who chose to launch with a staff I think a lot about stuff I didn't have to think about as a Youth Minister at a large church - like how to make payroll for the team every couple of weeks. And, God is full of surprises -- like the fact that we've made it every single time and that He's given us everything we've needed right when we've needed it. He has been out in front of us the whole way.

There's no question that a cash infusion would allow us to do some really cool marketing campaigns and add some video production gear to boost our creative team capabilities a notch or three, but the 'needs' are being met.

Lesson # 1 for me = God is IN this with us and HE's resourcing the movement

Lesson # 2 for me = What God Originates He Also Orchestrates (originally spoken by Troy Dobbs)

Lesson #3 for me = Launching with a strong creative / missional edge drives some 'normal' church people away, but it draws those with a missional heart and a will to impact culture. It's a natural filter.

Lesson #4 for me = 'risk fatigue' is lurking among our team and in my heart all the time. Sometimes we ask ourselves if we should keep pushing the missional and creative edges because we know that it 'costs' us in terms of reaching more 'churched' people right now who could help resource the movement. But, we also know that 'playing it safe' invites a slide back into 'church as usual' which is death to the dream of Phos Hilaron Church. The core of our dream is to reach those who are M.I.A. (Missing in Action) from the Kingdom and those who are P.O.W.s (Prisoners of War) and in our hearts we know that this means that as leaders and as a body PHC must 'cowboy up' and risk playing behind enemy lines, going hand to hand and heart to heart in our neighborhoods, and taking it to the streets in all ways possible. So, we ask for courage to dance at the edge of disaster where God can show Himself strong and abundantly able to do what He wants to do to resource this movement.

Lesson #5 for me = Play to Win or Head to the House. Since God is in this we don't have to 'play it safe' and we don't have to protect our gains and play 'not to lose' -- we can stay aggressive in our methods and dreams and actions (don't read that as obnoxious and 'in your face' , rather read it as taking creative risks to advance the Kingdom of God in creative, compelling missional ways). So, a personal mantra related to the enterprises in my life these days is 'Play to Win'!

I had an old coach who pulled us aside before a big game and gave us a great pep -talk that started something like this, 'Boys, it's not how you play the game, it's whether you win or lose. And, if you lose, don't come back...' He was just kidding, kind of...

And, if I said that to Phos Hilaron Church I'd be kind of kidding, but kind of serious, because the church in America has become so preoccupied with 'pretty and nice' that we've forgotten that our leader took the ball across the goal line up a dust covered hill spattered with his own blood--not pretty, but effective! Sometimes winning does matter and sometimes winning God's way is to play hard and do the gritty work of advancing the Gospel in unorthodox ways. If you wonder about whether God is into 'unorthodox' ways consider how He brought salvation to us -- a Virgin, a baby, a cross! Not orthodox, but ultimately EFFECTIVE.

Just thinking today!
Play to WIN or Head to the HOUSE!
Jeff Fuson

My Best Buddy!

I was shocked!

My heart filled like a water balloon drinking from a fire hydrant.

Floored and awed and "HAPPIER than a tornado in a trailer park" as 'Mater would say. (you've got to see the movie, Cars!)

It was just me and my little guy chillin' at Starbucks because he was thirsty and we got a bottled water and split a mocha frapacinno. So, I asked him, who's your girlfriend and he just got a shy freckle-faced grin and acted a little embarassed. So, I went on, 'Who's your best buddy?' and I fully expected it to be Tristan, or Nicolas who he spends nearly every waking moment with, but his answer floored me and flooded my heart--he answered, 'You'.

Oh God, You know that we live in the land of God provisions, especially these days as we wait and wonder what You're gonna do with us, through us, and for us at Phos Hilaron Church. And, I'm blown away by how you have cleared every hurdle, opened every door, provided every resource, sent money from the strangest of places and most of all I'm amazed that you show me how to be loved by sending me a little freckle faced 'best buddy'! Thank-you.

Amen.

Jeff Fuson