Paul Prins

A week and a half ago we had our very first meeting of Ignite on May 9th (this will be the monthly college rally for students in the twin cities and at substance church starting this fall). The whole idea of this night was to give a taste of what we hope to do this fall. This way we could get some good media to use in promotions, get some word of mouth buzz, and help us refine our approach.

The message from that night was recorded, and I believe it went pretty well. I would love your feedback (in the comments or via email). So please let me know what ya think of it! The scripture part at the beginning actually took place during worship before the announcements and my message. This was the first time I had a part in the entire production of a service (and not just the message). It is pretty cool how much creativity one can pour into that 75 minutes.

I hope you enjoyed it and found it encouraging. I got help writing the message from Mike Svoboda, awesome feedback from Mark Mellen and Bill Svoboda and I did all the graphic and video editing this time around (filming help from Gabe Hymer and Jordan Prins). Looking for people who would like to help with the creative stuff this fall.

Over the last two weeks quite a bit of time has been spent thinking about life, where I am at right now, what I am doing with my time and relationships, and so on. Initially there was a bit of despair as I journeyed through thoughts about this all being in vain. I believe that we honor Christ most in the excellence that we bring to the execution of the passions that God has placed in our being. Yet when balancing so many things I am passionate about it is easy to feel as though the time I have to put towards excellence leaves my results less than excellent.

At this point the title, Excited for Life, probably isn’t making all that much sense. It isn’t that I’ve been disingenuous above, only that those feelings only express half of the reality I have the privilege I had forgotten I get to experience on a day to day basis.

The reality is that these last two weeks have pushed me into prayer about where I am at and to spend time reflecting on those things I am juggling in life (work, family, church, and seminary). I do often feel the tension and weight of my responsibilities yet it is in the midst of this tension that I’ve felt God’s pleasure through the works of my hands. It isn’t that this sense of God’s pleasure has been missing in my life, but rather I’ve just stopped appreciating it. A short next step would lead me to start ignoring it. In some ways I think I was beginning to ignore God’s pleasure in my work in little ways.

It shouldn’t be a surprise, but taking that extra time to pray and lay everything down before God again has brought the reality of His pleasure back into focus. This is so exciting to me. To experience God’s pleasure in the little things I do day by day fuels my motivation for excellence. Knowing that, as one of His sons, I represent Him in some small way it is an honor to give all I was, am and will be to him.

So I find myself here – now – Excited for Life.

I just finished up 9 straight days of class, 8+ hours a day. While it was very intense and time consuming it was a great experience, though one i don’t think I will need to repeat. I took my first Old Testament course (OT501) on Genesis – Ruth, and then immediately rolled into my Preaching Practicum.

There is still work to be done for each course: papers and exams for OT501 and a sermon to write and deliver for preaching. But I thought it was worth celebrating regardless. Below is the sermon I gave at Woodridge Church on Sunday evening to part of their exchange service (thanks to those of you that made it out!).

http://vimeo.com/5710979

There had been some very sizable changes from the way the sermon was delivered the day before in class. Even so, I don’t believe the audiance was any wiser for it, or that it really hurt my illustrations/approach. Would love to hear your thoughts!

Found a talk given by Erwin McManus through iTunes. For those of you who are unfamiliar, Erwin leads Mosaic church out in LA.

‘The reason I can take you through this time is not because I’ve studied this theoretically, not because I’ve read a thousand books, or not because I’ve written one. But because I spend my life immersed with people I love. And that the journey we’ve taught people to go on doesn’t work for them.”

“I’ve been noticing that across universities that whenever you have God verses Atheism, or Creation verse Evolution debate people move further from God, not closer. Christians feel more affirmed and more confident they are right and they loose their effect and impact on their university. But we don’t care about that, we just want to win. I’ve also noticed that we fill the room with all the wrong people. We fill the room with everyone who wants to win too. And what’s funny is that the Christians in the room and the atheists in the room are the same. The both just want to win.”

“‘I heard the voice of God for the first time and the only way I can describe it is like falling in love for the first time.’ I was driving down the 210 to a meeting when I was reading this email and I began to weep, it was overwhelming to me. How many of you would describe hearing the voice of God like that? If you want to reach post-moderns you need to be a deeply spiritual person. It has to be a natural and organic part of your being.”

There was more but stopped feeling like transcribing it out. I am so encouraged by him.