Going Away Video
I hope to write a long sappy post about how much I love the people of Calvary Chapel Crook County sometime soon but I wanted to throw this video up, that some of the guys put together for Andrea and I for our going away party Sunday.
Please pray for us as we are leaving here next Tuesday and hope to be in Fort Collins Wednesday night. This is much more difficult than I ever anticipated it to be.
[vimeo 5898224]
The Joy of the Lord
Have you ever noticed how quickly your joy can be taken from you? In light of that here is something to think about.
Joy by it’s very definition (at least biblically) is rooted in an unchanging God and the promises that He’s given to us. It’s why Paul could exhort the Philippians toward joy while sitting in a Roman prison simply for serving God. Therefore when my joy comes and goes like the UPS man then the source of my joy must be rooted in something other than Jesus because He and His promises never change (James 1:17; 2 Cor. 1:20).
Lord help us to find our joy in You and Your promises…not allowing the ever changing circumstances of our life to steal our joy. May our joy be rooted in Your unchanging character and when we sense that we our losing our joy help us to run to the cross where we learn that no matter what anyone says about us, or what people may think of us, we have favor with You.
“Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” (Nehemiah 8:10)
On the Road
Andrea, Carson and I are in Fort Collins all week meeting with people and getting a better feel for the area as we continue to make progress in planting a church here.
The drive wasn’t too bad, we left Sunday around 5pm (PST) and arrived in Twin Falls, ID at about 2am (MST). We would have arrived earlier but we stopped by the home of the CC pastor in Burns, OR and ended up staying there for about an hour. We didn’t get on the road until almost noon on Monday and arrived in Fort Collins at about 8:30pm.
Thank you for praying for us in this adventure…we are excited about all that God has in store.
Here are some pics…
Church Names
I am kicking around a few church names for the church plant in Ft. Collins, CO.
1. Prodigal Church – The word prodigal actually means “reckless spendthrift” and defines not only us as sinners who have ruined our lives by spending all that we have with reckless sin but also our God who gave everything to redeem us.
Our youth pastor, Chad Carpenter, has a custom t-shirt business called Prodigal Threads – MySpace and Facebook but I actually thought of this name before he named his business…weird.
2. The Bridge or The Bridge Church – This name is much more common and not nearly as creative…of course it speaks of the fact that Jesus is the bridge (Mediator) between God and man (1 Timothy 2:5)
3. Missio Dei Church – Again not original but I love the meaning (Mission of God). This is one of those Latin church names that either labels you Reformed or Emergent for which I’m neither.
4. Mission Church – Could go with the English version…there are churches everywhere with this name including a new church in Bend.
5. Restoration Church – The whole point of God’s mission…to restore mankind to His intended purpose (Genesis 1:26).
6. Refuge Church – The word refuge means…shelter, aid, protection. All things that describe Jesus and the gospel as He shelters us from judgment, aids us in our greatest need (forgiveness) and protects us from the consequences of our sin by taking God’s wrath upon Himself.
7. Paradigm Church – A paradigm is a something that serves as a pattern or model and also it defines the worldview of a community; both of which have great implications for the purpose of the church.
*Updated Names -
8. Emmaus Church or Community (Bob Sweat) – Jesus showed the disciples that the Bible all points to Him on the Emmaus road.
9. Regeneration or Regeneration Church (Bill Walden) - speaks of conversion and the work of salvation
Let me know which one you like best or if you have a better idea let’s hear it.
Church Plant in Ft. Collins
Most of you know that my family and I are planning on moving to Ft. Collins, CO in the next 3-6 months to plant a gospel centered, Jesus focused, missional church…that cares more about God’s glory than man’s happiness. Holding tightly to the text of the Word while desiring to engage the context so as not to become an isolated subculture but a city on a hill.
Fort Collins is a city of about 140,000 people (the metro area is closer to 300K) and the home of Colorado State University.
We are going to miss the people of Calvary Chapel of Crook County, the city of Prineville, and all the friends and family we have here in Central Oregon. It’s been an amazing ride here in Prineville…we have seen lives radically changed, a wonderful church planted, we have made many friends (and only a few enemies), and added our two children to the Couch family.
Please keep us in prayer…here are some specific ways you can pray.
1. The transition of pastors here at Calvary Crook County (the search for a new pastor, his transition to becoming the lead pastor).
2. The church body (please pray that the enemy will not gain any traction in the lives of people in our body during this transition).
3. The church plant in Ft. Collins…
a. Conversions to faith in Christ in the Ft. Collins region
b. A team of like-minded Christians to join with us in this work
c. Inroads into the community and the university to engage the culture with the gospel
d. Provision
If you would like to support this church plant our contact information is in the drop down menu above.
For Jesus’ fame,
ryan
Announcement
If you were in attendance at our mid-week service last night you are already aware of this. If you weren’t I wanted to catch you up on what is happening in our church and my family.
About 8 years ago I was standing outside of Calvary Chapel Redmond asking God to confirm what I was sensing was a call to plant a church here in Prineville. Confirm it He did and about 6 months later – Andrea and I along with Dave and Laura Gagermeier began a Bible study in a local home. About 6 months later on May 5th 2002 about 30 adults gathered in the library of the Ochoco Elementary School for our first official Sunday morning service.
Over the last 7 years there have been many ups and downs, much fruit, and tremendous challenges. Many have been converted to faith in Jesus Christ; many of you have grown in your relationship with Jesus. What began as the call of God and the vision to establish a strong Jesus centered, gospel preaching, Bible focused missional church has turned into an amazing community of believers that is making a deep impact on this city for Jesus’ fame.
Andrea and I came to Prineville out of obedience to Jesus. We knew He was calling us. We now know He is calling us elsewhere. We love this church, we love each of you very deeply but we love Jesus more and we must obey Him above anyone or anything else.
Over the last few years God has been stirring in my heart to plant another church, but not having any direction we just waited and prayed. About 3 months ago I received a phone call from a friend of mine who pastors a large church in Denver, CO. Through that conversation, and a trip to Colorado in March, the Lord has confirmed to Andrea and I that he is calling us to plant a church(es) in the Northern Colorado area.
Andrea and I have made this decision after much prayer, and with a clear sense of God’s call and an understanding of the sacrifice this will be. We have counted the cost of leaving this wonderful church, the great friendships we’ve made with many of you, and this great community. We have poured our lives into this work and we will leave part of ourselves with you. We want you to know that we love you, and this is most definitely the most difficult thing that both Andrea and I have ever done.
Please remember that Jesus has and always will be the Senior Pastor of this church. He founded this church, He loves this church, He died for this church, and He has a great future in store for this church. What is good for Andrea and I will also be good for this body. As your pastor I want you to understand this transition in light of the Kingdom of God. I want you to see this as sending our family not losing our family. We will all spend eternity together but until then we are on a mission, a mission to spread the gospel around the entire world. Our mission is calling us somewhere else…but it’s the same mission that I’ve been challenging you to embark upon right here in Prineville. My hope and prayer is that you continue to pursue Jesus’ mission for you in my absence because you are not serving me you are serving Him! You are His slave…that means your life is dictated by Him. You are on mission with Jesus and He will never leave you nor forsake you!
We do not have a definite timeline. We have our house on the market and we are praying along with the elders and other leaders for God’s perfect timing in this transition. The elders are considering a few men to take my place as Lead Pastor and you will be kept abreast of all future decisions. Please keep our elders in prayer as they make this decision. Please keep myself, Andrea, and our children Kaitlyn and Carson in prayer as well.
I love you!
If you have any questions please direct them to me or one of our elders. Each of us can be contacted from the church website here.
If you would like to hear the audio from last night’s service it will be available soon in the media player here on my blog and on the media page of the church site.
Blew It
As many of you know we’re hosting a Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University class at our church on Wednesday evenings.
One of Dave’s axioms is, “sell so much stuff the kids think they’re next.”
In light of this my wife (and I stress it was her idea) thought it would be good if “we” sold “my” truck (2006 Toyota Tacoma).
So much to my dissapointment I placed an ad on Craigslist, thinking that no one would be willing to pay top dollar for my truck in this economy. Well to my astonishment I received several emails and phone calls. One such call came from a guy in Portland. His dad was in Bend on business and he wanted me to drive the truck to a local hotel (about 20 miles away) so that his dad could look at it.
Well I wasn’t really thrilled to drive the truck 20 miles for someone that may or may not buy the truck. But after being assured that this guy was very serious about buying the truck and that he didn’t care about the fact that it was filthy and that the back seat was stained I drove the truck the 20 miles to the Comfort Inn on the East side of Bend.
In talking with the father to arrange the meeting I quickly found out that he was a very blunt and offensive dude. But I wasn’t prepared for how rude this jerk would be in person. Upon arrival he gets outs of his fire engine red Chevy Suburban immediately receiving a phone call so he pretty much ignores me and begins to examine the truck. After a few minutes of him “kicking the tires” and talking on the phone he hung up and said, “those tires look like crap!”
Nice to meet you too.
“Well I told your son that it had oversized mud tires and a 3 inch lift”
“He is going to have to replace those tires right away and it really needs to be detailed.”
“Yes I understand that sir but I informed him of its present condition as well.”
This was his cue to call his son and begin speaking to him in a foreign language so that I couldn’t understand. After that brief phone call he said, “well I’ll give you $19,000″
A full $2,000 less than I was asking.
I was beginning to tire of his antics and his attitude so I said, “look I informed your son that I wouldn’t take less than 20K and he assured me that you wouldn’t play games…at this point you are wasting my time.”
His reply was awesome…”wasting your time, all I did was pull you away from your TV, you’ve got nothing to do anyway!”
This was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I stormed off, got in my truck and honked the horn as I exited the parking lot. I then proceeded to call his son and gave him a piece of my mind about his dad. After hanging up from that super productive phone call the Lord began to speak to my heart.
“You just blew an opportunity to apply your message from Sunday.”
Oh man…I was busted!
We are going through the book of Luke on Sundays. Last Sunday we looked at 6:12-36 where Jesus commands us to “love our enemies” “do good to those that hate you” and to “bless those that curse you.”
Immediately I was struck with how ugly my flesh is.
Paul’s words in Romans 7 came to mind, “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (vs. 24)
How thankful I am to have the answer to that question…”I thank God–through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (vs. 25a)
Thank You Father for the gift of Your Son.
I am so grateful for your grace without which I would be absolutely obliterated by Your wrath and my own sense of guilt and condemnation.
What a blessing to write articles like this knowing that the people in our church do not need perfection from me…they need more Jesus, more gospel, and more transparancy from me to help them to look past their pastor toward Jesus.
I’m still trying to figure who to blame this episode on…Dave Ramsey or my wife. 
Oh and by the way I haven’t sold my truck yet!
New Year's Resolutions '09
Ok I know it’s already the 7th of January and this is a little late but here are my resolutions for this year. Let’s see if I can keep this past the 31st.
1. Lose 30 pounds (29 to be exact) – I currently weigh 209 lbs. Which wouldn’t be too bad if I was 6′ but I’m only 5′8″ and although I’m built pretty stocky this is “weigh” too heavy. I’m currently on an 1800 calorie per day diet which should help me drop about 10 lbs per month. I also plan on doing a fairly intense workout regimen. We’ll see how it goes
2. Spend more time in the Word devotionally…it is very easy for me as a pastor to substitute studying for devotions and fail to spend quality time with just my Bible, Jesus, and me…not thinking of how this would make a great sermon but simply seeing it through the lens of my own life.
3. More organized with my time - I am going to schedule certain meetings and appointments early in the week to allow for more study and preparation time later in the week. This is difficult to do as things come up but I need to say no, more often.
4. Read 12 books – I would like to read at least 1 book per month.
5. Take a day off – I take Friday’s off…it’s what we call our family day. But with a Blackberry and laptop I’ve got a mobile office and I need to be more disciplined about turning it off or leaving it at home so that my focus is upon my family and not the “urgent” phone call or email that just came in. This is completely my fault…I can’t expect life to stop on Friday but I need to make sure that I prioritize my life better.
Well that’s it for now…I think 5 is enough. If you feel led you can help keep me accountable.
blessings on your New Year!
Happy Thanksgiving!
I haven’t been inspired to write in a while, plus I wanted the church planting threads to get plenty of traction.
Anyway sorry it’s been so slow around here.
I guess sitting here bored out of my mind at my in-laws holiday get together in Antioch, CA is as good a time as any to post.
Thanksgiving is a great day…
Lot’s of food and football; can’t really beat that.
Here are my picks for tomorrow:
Titans over Lions
Cowboys over Seahawks (that pains me but Seattle is really bad)
Eagles over Cardinals
Friday is the biggest shopping day of the year…it’s the opening day of deer season for women (and some men). I remember driving by “Best Buy” last year seeing grown men and women camped out on the sidewalk, living like hobos to get a digital camera for half price. It’s not worth it to me…although I do send my wife with a ’short list’ of items that I must get.
Oh one more thing…do you reuse your towel or do you use a fresh one each day? This is a discussion that we’ve been having here as we prepare for Turkey Day.
Don’t eat too much tomorrow…but don’t worry too much about it; whether it’s food or stuff we’re all gluttons in this crazy country. Something tells me we don’t really know what economic problems are.
Bighorn Hunt
I just got home last night from my bighorn hunting trip in the Trout Creek Mountains of SE Oregon.
For those of you that don’t know, drawing a bighorn tag in the state of Oregon is about as likely as winning the lottery. And those that are fortunate enough to draw one are only issued one in a lifetime.
So needless to say it’s a very big deal.
Well besides my sore body and blistered feet (it was brutal country) it was an absolute blast.
We made a hunt on this ram (he was with 7 other rams) from above.
Kevin Vaughan and I worked our way down the canyon (about a mile) and came in above the rams, while Shawn Jones and Dave Vaughan directed us from above (with radios…yelling down the canyon would have been real ineffective =)
We were able to come in right above them while being shielded from a large rim rock outcropping. The rams were bedded just below the rim rocks about 150 yards from where we came out. As we crept up over the ledge to get a good shot the rams got up (probably a combination of the wind blowing at our backs directly at them and two big white faces peering over the rim rocks).
I already knew which ram I wanted as we had glassed them from above and Shawn had told me where the largest ram was right before we made the final approach. The rams were all grouped together and initially I didn’t have a very good shot, but seconds later another ram moved out of the way giving me a clear shot at his vitals. I squeezed one off making a good clean shot through both lungs. The work had just begun at that point but I won’t bore you with the details.
Thank you Kevin, Shawn, and Dave…I couldn’t have done this without you guys!
Jeff Stewart Update
I met Jeff Stewart about 5 years ago on the mission field in Mexico. I am thankful to God for that encounter. For Jeff has been a dear friend and brother ever since. Despite our busy schedules we talk regularly on the phone and meet up at least a few times year at different conferences and ministry opportunities. In fact Jeff is coming up in November to teach at our marriage conference.
Jeff served on the board of our church for several years and remains an integral source of counsel for me in all areas of life. Jeff has taught me to loosen up, to not take myself so seriously, to be relatable, to be applicational in my teaching, and so many more lessons that I couldn’t list them all here.
Yesterday Jeff went in for the second and final kidney surgery. In May Jeff received a new kidney (graciously donated by Matt Monzon) This surgery was to remove the native kidneys which weighed about 20 pounds!
Jeff texted me last night and despite the intense pain he is stable and is expected to make a full recovery. Please pray for Jeff as this surgery is extremely painful and can take weeks to recover from. In addition to Jeff please pray for Jeff’s wife Karen (37 year old non-smoker) who has terminal lung cancer and will be beginning chemo-thearapy very soon.
The Stewart’s have been an amazing example of how to handle trials and suffering. Not once have I ever heard Jeff complain and they continue to serve others despite their personal difficulties.
Flashback
Today is my daughter’s 6th birthday so she had several of her friends over for a slumber party. With all those girls invading our house my 4 year old son and I decided to go to the movies. We were going to go see “Wall-E” but by the time Carson finished his piece of pizza (if only he ate real food as fast as he does Mike and Ikes), we tracked down his missing flip flop and I changed his pants after he decided to relieve himself there instead of the toilet, we were way too late for the movie so we went to Best Buy to purchase a movie instead.
After perusing the endless supply of Disney and Nickelodeon selections we decided upon one of my childhood favorites…
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
As I’m writing this Carson and I are watching these classic episodes…in some ways its seems like yesterday when I was enjoying these little mutants myself. The graphics and storyline are pretty cheesy but how cool is it to watch my son get excited about the same show I used to watch when I was his age.
Sorry I haven’t posted my notes from the Burning Questions Series. The notes need to be typed up and I’ve been pretty buried of late. The audio will be up on the church website by Monday afternoon if you’re interested.
Have a great weekend!
Happy 4th of July!
The 4th of July is a great holiday…not only is it the birthday of this great country it is a time when the weather’s good and you get to blow stuff up!
Well at least we did when I was a kid. Now they have so many restrictions on fireworks that everything has been reduced to a glorified sparkler. It’s probably for the best though because 10 year old boys and explosives aren’t typically a good mix.
I leave for Mexico at 1:30am on Sunday morning. I’m taking Stewart (our worship leader) and 5 young people from our church. We will be joining 12 other students for a month long missions/retreat/Bible College experience in Vizcaino, Baja Mexico. Actually Stewart and I will only be there for a week as there are 3 other pastors involved who will each take a week to lead and teach the group.
Please pray for us as we travel by van, and plane on Sunday. There are many things that can go wrong on a trip like this so please keep us in prayer. My single desire for these young people is that they hear from Jesus in a powerful and personal way over these 30 days.
Thank You for praying!
Mouse in the House
We’ve had a mouse in our new church building for the last two weeks or so. He (assuming gender here) had (notice the tense) successfully scared the h-e-double hockey sticks out of several people in the church. He ran across one ladies feet (in flip flops mind you) while she was getting something out of the CM resource closet. So we set out a few traps which proved to be unsuccessful. Then he went into hiding… (more…)
Long Time No Write
Hey Friends…I think we are just about on the other side of this building project and my office is pretty much set up in the new building so I can sit down at my desk and ponder life and the state of world affairs once again.
The new facility is definetely attracting people. I don’t know if that’s good or bad but for now we’ll say it’s a good thing.
Last Sunday we had a building dedication service. My good friend Jeff Stewart from CC Pomona Valley was here to teach and lead the dedication and he did an amazing job. I don’t think the dedication could have gone any better. The building was packed, the band we brought in was phenomonal and Jeff shared some great insight about the purpose of the church and how the building is simply a tool for God to accomplish those purposes.
If you would like to listen to the message click here and look for “Building Dedication”.
It has taken me about three weeks of having services here in the new building to feel comfortable teaching. Yesterday was the first time I didn’t feel like I was guest speaking somewhere.
Life has been pretty hectic but I think things are starting to settle down a bit. At least that’s the lie I’m telling myself right now
Julie Erickson who has been our office administrator for the past several years stepped down last week due to some major back issues that she is experiencing. It never ceases to amaze me how the Lord works in these situations.
I approached another bookkeeper in our church and asked her if she would be willing to take on the church books. She gladly accepted and while meeting with her about the books late last week another lady from church stopped by and said that the Lord had been putting it on her heart to volunteer her time at the church during the week. She began today.
In addition one of our young worship guys, Daniel, is going to begin volunteering three afternoons a week to assist in anything that needs to be done. The plan is to have him work himself into a job. In six months or so we will evaluate the position and the church budget and determine if we can bring him on staff. So what was one person doing the books and some basic office work is now three people putting in twice as much time for half the money.
Lesson: This is Jesus’ church and He cares way more about it than I do.
New Building
Sorry I haven’t posted much lately. I’ve been real busy with our building project. By the grace of God we met our goal of having our first service on Easter Sunday. There were many “little” details that weren’t done but the all the major stuff was finished. We made it through the project without any church splits or major catastrophes. Kevin Vaughan, the general contractor, and I are still good friends and amazingly he is planning on continuing to attend the church!
We are still finishing up all the loose ends to be done for our building dedication this Sunday. If you live in the area we would love to have you celebrate with us on Sunday March 30th at 6pm. We will have a great time of worship with the band Above the Noise and my good friend Jeff Stewart will be sharing and leading the dedication service.
Update About My Dad
The initial findings about my dad’s tumor were correct. He has a stage 4 (based upon a 1-4 scale) primary tumor the cells of which have fully saturated his brain. Unless the Lord intervenes it’s just a matter of time before another tumor emerges and several more after that.
With chemo and radiation the doctors are giving my dad one year to live. Only 8 of the more than 10,000 patients that the surgeon and his partner have performed this surgery on in the last 30 years have lived more than 5 years.
Please pray that he can regain use of his right side…after the surgery to remove the original tumor he is partially paralyzed.
My mom would love for him to be able to do a few of the things he enjoys with his last days upon the earth. Pray for my mom as well she is trying to be strong for my dad but she is on the verge of completely falling apart.
I have two other siblings…sister Nicole (31), brother Trevor (30) both single.
Love you guys…thank you for praying!
My Dad
My wife and I drove to Olympia, WA. today to visit my dad who underwent surgery yesterday to remove a tumor in his brain.
The surgery went fairly well although the doctors believe that the tumor is a type 3 or 4 aggressive primary tumor which means that the tumor originated in the brain and the cancer cells have spread throughout the brain. If this is true then in the natural things are looking fairly bleak. In fact if this prognosis is accurate he has less than a year to live.
We are praying for God’s perfect will to be accomplished.
Please pray for my dad, my mom and the rest of our family.
grace…ryan
Application=Revelation
I love new stuff.
It is natural to be enamored with new. If you’re like me you love new clothes…new jeans with an old look. A new shirt to go along with the 30 others that are hanging in the closet (sad but true)…a new watch…new shoes…just talking about it makes me want to go shopping for something new!
I know I sound like a chick.
Don’t worry though I love to kill stuff and my truck has big tires with a lift. 
I’m part metro…part redneck. It’s a real wierd combination but that’s how I roll.
Metroneck…if this term becomes famous remember you read it here first.
Blogging
I’ve always been an avid reader (I remember reading something like 200 books in 2nd grade). I’ve enjoyed writing since I was kid. I’ve always wanted to write a book. But since that isn’t going to happen anytime soon I’m getting my fix through blogging.
You're a pastor?
I get that question a lot. I used to hear ”you are really young to be a pastor!” But now it’s just “you’re a pastor?” It went from shock due to my age to amazement due to my complete incompetence.
I guess I don’t look real pastoral. Maybe it’s the shaved head or the stubbly beard. It could be the Chuck Taylors, unbuttoned shirts and holey jeans that comprise my Sunday morning attire as well. But whatever the case it kind of ticks me off. No not that I don’t look pastoral ( I actually go out of my way to avoid that mystique) but that people don’t think I look young anymore! Come on I’m only 32…please tell me that I still look young to be a pastor I loved those days when no one respected me and treated me like one of their kids.
But it is a funny question isn’t it? Especially when you include the facial expressions and the long drawn out tone…”you’rrrrre aaaaa pastorrrr.”
I totally deserve the question though…
Our People's Greatest Need?
A pastor friend of mine sent me this quote from Robert Murray M’Cheyne…
“My people’s greatest need is my personal holiness.”
I guess Damian Kyle whom I greatly respect and appreciate quoted M’Cheyne at pastor’s conference as well.
With all due respect to Pastors M’Cheyne and Kyle I completely disagree with this statement…
Predictions
Some predictions…not important stuff or things that will cost me my life if I’m wrong but just some ideas of what will go down in the world of sports and politics.
Something I hate about Christians
Yeah I know that is an alarming statement…
But there is something I hate about Christians. I hate the fact that we get so focused upon what we think defines being a follower of Jesus and in the mean time we totally miss the point.