Tory Farina

What a week... part 2

Monday... One last thought on Monday. I loved hanging with some of the brightest minds I know. I was able to ask some questions about High Point and get some Ideas. I love hanging with people smarter then me.

Tuesday... This was a gauntlet of a day.

• It started, after a tough night sleep in a strange bed, early. We went to the national headquarters of the Assemblies of God and started our day with chapel. It was the Christian honky-tonk version of Mannheim Steamroller. I know, Strange.
• We spent from 9 am until after 1:30 with Dr. Wood. He is an amazingly charismatic, intelligent and genuine man. We from our youthfully perspective were able to interpret our lay of the land for him and he in his wise and stately position was able to walk us through some very important steps he is planning to help the AG become more relevant for the next generation.
• I am more convinced that you can tell a lot about the stories a leader tells. Dr. Wood told some amazing Stories. He has an office full of paintings and pictures and an amazing piece made of sheep's wool. Each piece has a story behind it and many of the pieces speak to Gods amazing work behind the scenes of humanity. I love hearing stories about God's work in the supernatural.
• We talked about everything from who would be a good council speaker to how do we get more young ministers involved. We spoke passionately and he listened then asked more questions. It was a treat.
• We meet with GPH the printing and publishing arm of the AG. That was an interesting meeting. They are doing well fiscally but out of touch to the more contemporary new church like the five of our churches. I think they heard an honest assessment of what we were looking for and I am hopeful that they will begin to make some changes to resource us, the local church. It is a hard line between satisfying your bottom line and resourcing your churches. I think that there is a market that might take some time to build that will accomplish both more effectively.
• Dinner- Dr Wood brought us to his new home which was a fantastic place. He laughingly said, "I have always wanted a home with a view." It has that. We at together and laughed together for a long time we talked about Dr. Gene Scott and Dr Wood made this statement. "He knew about God enough to talk about him. But he know Who God was enough to not talk directly to him." (This Guy was a brilliant theologian that became wacky on a TV show and became a negative and loony example of a television preacher.) We talked about life in ministry and for us Young Bucks it was fun to hear the years of ministry experience come through. We were able to ask open and honest questions about beliefs, methodology, experience and life in ministry. He shared his life with us and we were so much the better for it.
• We prayed at the end of the night and I found it to be the most energizing time we had.

I walked into this day not knowing what to expect and what to think. I walked out Feeling a confirmation that we have the right leader in the right position. It was a truly spectacular day.

Wednesday- I flew home and felt like my little girl had grown another inch longer. We went to lunch and spent time together at the MOA. I love Tuchi Benuchi so we had a little chicken Parm. Later we watched the show "Life" it is a fun and interesting show.

Thursday- FULL Day! I started the day at the office cleaning up projects... then went to chapel at NCu to hear my uncle preach a great message about doing ministry in the rural setting. It isn't for me but it sounded good. Then I rushed down to meet my old Youth Pastor for lunch. He is coming to speak for us one of these weeks. I am so excited to share him with you. He was foundational in my life. I have so many stories about him and trips we went on and times we had. I will save them for another time. Then I went back to the office to clean up more work. The sermon I had been working On i felt I needed to change so Went back to the drawing board and then... Off to a fund raising dinner at "The Depot" down town for NCU.

I look forward to this every year. I get to see old friends and make new ones. It is a blast. E and I give every year. I thoroughly believe in education and one day will go on to get my masters degree...

Friday- Message day... Then Connection group...

I love my connection group. we have such good conversations. We talked about scripture. It was refreshing.

Then I watched "Transformers" truly more than meets the eye.

Saturday- I slept in a little this morning. I am trying to catch you up and get back to my message.

***Final Thoughts***

I am truly humbled at what God has given me. I Think about the church and the home and wife and child I have. Some days it is good just to think about all the beauty in your life.

Psalm 19 speaks of the heavens declaring the glory of God. I think about how my life declares the glory of God. I am truly not the cause of what is good in my life. It is truly God!

What a week... part1

Ill try and recap things as they happened starting with Sunday and then moving through today.

Sunday- It was another great week. We saw people respond to the message of

Stop... when the fires of live start to rage.

Drop... to your knee and get below the smoke of the situation.

Roll... Let things roll of your back and leave them in Gods hands.

It was another good attendance day. I am encouraged because whenever you do a mailer you are unsure of the results but I feel like this has been our best turn out from the mailer and our best season of keeping those who are visiting. It has been a lot of fun.

Don't miss this week. There are still some spots open for the blood drive.

Monday... I spent the morning with E and O. They are my favorite people to spend a morning with. We made some chicken tortilla bean soup. It is so good and good for you as well. I love my wife's cooking.

Then I hit a plane for Springfield Missouri. I tell you this is the strangest place to have the National Headquarters for the Assemblies of God which is the credentialing organization that our Pastoral team is connected with. I got in around 7:30 and met up with some of my blogging friends. Paul Stewart, Mark Batterson, Brad Leach, Jeff Leake and George P.Wood. We went to a little dive called Mexican Villa that was Marks trip down memory lane. He told us stories and had to take a picture or two. I on the other hand left my camera in my bag in the car.

Paul my best friend who is going to Des Moines as there small group pastor and I spent and hour or two being friends and talking life with one another. We have both been walking through some stressful days.

It is always good to step away from life for a few hours this trip was less than 48 hours but it was a gauntlet, But I came home much more relaxed.

Ill tell you more in a few... I have an uncle in law speaking at North Central University today and Have to go support the team.

Future AG Fallow up...

I told you a while back that I started a blog for the Future of the fellowship we are associated with. It was a smashing success. We hit it hard. Wrote what we had been feeling and found a whole group of like and not so like minded people who were ready to talk openly and honestly about some deep issues.

I discovered the power of a God Idea. He takes the small things and blows them up.

We have now been invited down to the AG national Headquarters to talk with the Superintendent. He wants to continue the conversation and we want to help make a difference. I was afraid and didn't think I could make a difference. Now I know that when I feel like that... I need to do it.

I feel like I am apart of History.

As of Yesterday 6,000 absolute Unique visitors have visited www.Futureag.blogspot.com. It is a place that allows ministers to talk about how we can better reach people for the cause of Christ. The church is at times behind the times when it comes to technology but there is a resurgence in using the latest technology for the Christ's name sake. We have to be on the edge.

Porn right now in our culture is the fastest integrate of technology into there business. That is ridiculous! We can not let that continue to happen. I am convinced that the church has the potential to be the most creative place on the planet because our God is all about creativity. I am always looking at new trends to gather ways to help aid in the mission of High Point Church.

Maybe we can help the rest of the AG to take that journey with us?

Future AG Blog Down

Blogger shut down www.FutureAG.blogspot.com because its security machine thought that we may have been involved in spam. We had over 30 links on one post and that is what flagged us. This is a temporary issue and as soon s they realize that we are not spam we should be back i business to find a new GS. Keep coming back and spread the word we do not want this to stop the momentum.

Maybe it is time...

I love the way Erwin McManus says it in his book Unstoppable Force: “The center of God’s will is not a safe place but the most dangerous place in the world.” Then he makes a great distinction: “To live outside of God’s will puts us in danger; to live in his will makes us dangerous.”

Maybe it is time… to do something that scares you to death but if you don't do no one else will.

I am tossing around starting a web page that would be a dialog of the future of the AG. Who will lead and who will step up to vote and make a difference? If we as a young generation showed and voted we could have fresh leadership overnight. What Power we have as young leaders. But will we show? (I say that and feel guilty because i am about to have a baby then and my wife is needing me to stay home and take care of her.) But others will be there and could if they wanted to make a difference. So pray with me about this.

If nothing else at least it would be a place to rally who knows what could come out of it? The ideas exchanged the people reached and encouraged because we collaborated. I am working on the details so any help you can give let me know.

Rock the AG Vote

I have been thinking lately about this next generation of leaders. Tom Trask General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God just resigned in the middle of a four year term. He is leaving at a critical time for the AG. There seems to be a divide that is growing... it seems to fissure along several lines.

The difference between: a rural church and a suburban church. The majority of our churches are under 50. That is a major issue because if you are in the minority you think different and look for different things than if you are one of the pastors of a church of 50.

The difference between: fresh and fast paced church lead ministry that is more concerned about growth and discipleship and the old school revivalists that are looking for the next wave and centralized

Springfield

leadership. The one group wants to break down the bureaucracy and do away with business meetings and just talk about church growth and discipleship and the other one wants to keep things as is and talk about speaking in tongues as our one and only issue.

There are more divisions but this is what I see as the largest area of concern for the AG.

So I wonder if a person under 50 with a passion for the next generations future might be who we need instead of status quo same as usual guy gets the vote. What if we rallied all of the young credentialed leaders and got them there to vote a pre picked young leader. It could change the face of the Fellowship. It could revolutionize the AG.

So there are a few people who could do well, however no one knows there name.

So I think we should gather the under 40 and show up in force and see what happens.