The be.loved Conference

This past weekend, we hosted our first be.loved Conference.  It was amazing.  What progressed throughout the weekend was honestly stunning to watch.  But let me start even earlier.

The leadership team of the be.loved Conference is truly that.  Leaders leading.  They each took charge of an area of need and were incredibly successful in accomplishing everything they set out to do.  I heard over and over throughout the weekend, “I can’t believe this is the first time you guys have hosted an event this size.” Or, “Everything has run so smoothly this weekend!”  The longer the weekend progressed, the more awestruck I became with the leadership team.  It was an opportunity to watch the family of God do what they were made to do.  From setup, to crowd control, to worship, to tear-down the weekend was spectacular, though not without hurdles…

Friday night started out with less people in the crowd than we anticipated.  Not only that, but it didn’t seem like too many of the attendees actually wanted to be there!  Not exactly what we’d hoped for for an opening session.  I actually overheard a worship leader mention that it was the toughest crowd he’d ever been in front of, and that he was pretty sure someone leaning on the stage was twiddling his thumbs!  What a way to start the conference!  But the Lord would not be denied.  What started out with little engagement, soon began to develop into what we had hoped:  Jesus encountering people and transforming their hearts.  By the end of the night Friday, many people, young and old, had been prayed for and ministered to by the be.loved Prayer Team.  We left Lakeview Arena Friday night encouraged by the work the Spirit was doing.

Saturday started off strong as Heather and Trevor led worship and Adam Tuttle shared from the Word about God’s love for His beloved Bride.  Many who started the night Friday without much interest were being tenderized by the love of God.  As the day progressed Saturday, we could feel and see the momentum of the Spirit of God.  More and more people were allowing God to do a deep work in them, and were being marked by God to become His disciples, His followers, His beloved.

By the end of the night Saturday, those who were twiddling their thumbs on stage in disinterest Friday night, found themselves almost involuntarily dancing with delight as they encountered the Living God for themselves.  You can see the pictures on Facebook under the FireUP be.loved page just to see that I’m not exaggerating.  There were literally between 75 and 100 people dancing before the Lord in front of the stage as the conference ended.  This wasn’t an overly charismatic group performing a learned response, it was young people and old people who had encountered God for the very first time, and some who were encountering Jesus again and renewing their love for Him.  It was amazing.  There was such an incredible change in 28 hours, it couldn’t be credited to anything but the power of Christ Jesus.

We’ve heard many stories of changed lives, and transformed hearts in the past three days.  Maybe you have a story to tell.  Share it on the Facebook page, or through email at: fireup@mqtchurch.com.  We are so incredibly grateful that Jesus met us this weekend.

Planning for next year’s event is already under way.  We’ll be starting our Encounter services throughout the region in December of this year.  Keep an eye on the website and the Facebook page to stay up to date, and stay updated on the School of Life and Ministry website (www.mqtchurch.com/slm) to continue to be challenged and encouraged in your relationship with God as the year progresses.

Thanks for praying with us this year, and we’re looking forward to the next years together with you.

 

The Good News

Some time ago, I was studying Paul’s writings to the church in Ephesus in the books of 1 and 2 Timothy.  As I read through the aging apostle’s writings I was struck with his fascination of what he called, “the blessed Gospel.”  Here was a man who had seen and done it all for Christ.  He had matured as much or more than any man had in Christ, and yet, here he was, absolutely fascinated with the power and beauty of the Gospel!  I was pierced by my own flippancy toward what is “the power of God to us who are being saved.”  I had viewed the Gospel as something for non-Christians to hear, and for new Christians to make their foundation, but beyond that we should mature into something greater.  I’d been a Christian for years.  Yet again, I was confronted with Paul and his childlike adoration of what Jesus had accomplished through His death, burial, and resurrection.  Was it possible that I had far undervalued the enormity of what it meant that God Himself had become a man— to die, and then be raised from the tomb after three days?  What incredible wonder is this that the Creator would enter His own Creation simply to let them kill Him— just so He could have them???

Over the course of the following months, I was struck, stunned, astounded, and driven to my knees in awe and gratitude over what Jesus Christ did for me, for us.  I had never known how complete His work truly was, and why He was able to utter, “It is finished,” until that period of time, and my life was revolutionized once again.  All it took was one moment with God, when He opened my eyes and I saw what He’d done, and everything became clear:  ”It is finished.”

In two and a half weeks, at FireUP be.loved 2011, Jesus will be the center, the essence, and the everything of this event.  The Good News will be proclaimed, and lives will be changed.  I hope yours is one.

 

One month to go!

We are now just under one month from FireUP be.loved 2011, and our amazing leadership team is in full stride preparing for your arrival.  Registrations are climbing, food vendors are readying their menus, worship teams are excited, and most importantly, prayer for this event is hitting a climax.  To help us out, you can jump online to register yourself and your group so we can ensure we’re prepared for your arrival.  Having your registration allows us to make sure we have enough seating, make sure the vendors have enough food, and connect you with a host church if you have need.

Business aside, I want to share for a few minutes about some of the things you will experience this year during FireUP be.loved.

Worship is our highest calling, we will be enthralled with it throughout eternity, and we want to do on earth what we’ll be doing in heaven, so worship will be a major focus during FireUP, and will be very intense.  Each session will include a couple hours of worship.  It is often while you’re worshiping that God will be gently speaking and probing your heart.  I want to encourage you to allow Him to deal with sin, wounds from your past, loneliness, disappointments.  Often, He will also speak to you about His love for you, who you are to Him, and His hopes, dreams, and future for your life.  Let Him have His way in you during worship.

The Word is also eternal, and unending.  You will hear preaching that is both Biblical, and applicable to what is on God’s heart for this event.  The Word of God is alive, it is active, and it pierces to the depths of one’s heart.  God speaks to each of us individually as we listen to His spoken Word.  And if we are willing to respond to what He is saying, His Word will bear fruit in us.

Respond.  Jesus repeatedly attached amazing promises to phrases like, “if you abide in my word.” Or, “If you obey my commands.”  Phrases in which he required a response to His Word.  And if we respond, He promised great reward.  Abundance of life, freedom from sin, joy, love, peace, hope.  All of these were promised us if we respond in obedience to His Word.  As God speaks to your heart during the conference, be sure to respond.  Many times, I have witnessed life-changing moments because a person simply responded to God’s Word that was spoken to their hearts.  I have seen men instantly set free of lifelong sexual sin, simply because they let someone pray for them.  We have a well trained and loving prayer team.  I know each person on that team would love to serve you by praying for your needs, whatever they might be.

I believe God will move powerfully at FireUP be.loved.  This week we had an incredible prayer meeting in which we were encouraged greatly by the Lord.  My hope is that each of you will receive everything He desires for you during this upcoming weekend.  Come expecting.  Come anticipating.  See you in four weeks!

A Heart That Burns

A few years ago, I went to an event of a similar nature as FireUP, and it was at that event that I heard a man speak of something that so burned in my heart that it brings tears to my eyes to this day as I speak of it.

The preacher was a man about fifty years of age, he spoke with a burning passionate love for Jesus, and a conviction that what he spoke was Truth.  In his message, he told a story of being a man in his early twenties.  He was at a conference with about three thousand young people, the same age he was, and the man speaking asked the young people there to commit to live a life faithfully burning before the Lord.  And at that conference three thousand people in their early twenties responded to commit to a life of faithfulness before God.  They celebrated together dancing in worship before God.  Three thousand young people.  Commitment.  Dancing.

As I sat and listened to this fifty year old preacher tell this story, I was wondering why the tone of his story was tinged with sorrow.  He paused after telling of the dancing, and the commitment all three thousand had made.  His voice caught in his throat as he said, “three thousand young people, dancing…  and now, thirty years later, after trial, hardship, and time, of those three thousand, all that are left is a handful.  A handful out of three thousand that still dance, and burn before the Lord.”

Something in my heart tore open.  How grievous!  That at a conference, everyone is ready to live for Jesus, and when they get back home, life gets in the way.  Friends don’t want them to change.  Parents are uncomfortable with this new passion they have.  People wonder why they have to be so radical.  It’s like a wet blanket is being thrown on them… and the fire begins to fade…  Not right away, but slowly over time.  Soon a year has gone by, and they return to the conference where the year before they had committed to burn for Jesus, and here, a year later, they’re a bedraggled wreck, storm tossed and tattered on the sea of life.  How sorrowful!

So, as much as I love conferences, and watching people worship with passion before Jesus, what I love even more is when I meet one.  One person who wakes up in the middle of the night crying out for God to move in their city.  One person who walks with integrity in spite of the response of their friends, family, and workplace.  One person who sets all of their life aside to spend a couple hours everyday with God in prayer and in the Word.  I love conferences, and dancing masses of people, but I’d trade it all in a heartbeat for one.

So when we designed this event, the thrust was to lead people into an encounter, a personal meeting, with the Living God.  But we refuse to let it end Saturday, August 20th.  It must carry on throughout the year.  It’s not enough to get excited once a year at a big conference!  Jesus is exciting everyday!

But we can’t do it on our own.  We need the company and support of the family of believers. Jesus sent the disciples out in pairs. So, get involved in a church, a small group, a discipleship group.  Get tied in with people who will push you deeper and deeper into God’s burning heart. Find a friend that will commit to pursue Jesus with you, and commit to each other to hold the course.  My hope is that each year, as you return to FireUP, you’ll come back stronger and more in love than when you left the year before, and that throughout the year you will enjoy the strength and encouragement that comes from being a part of a local church body.

Because we know that resources are at a premium, we’re providing access throughout the year to weekly podcasts, devotionals, and books that will challenge you to continue to burn with love for Jesus— one day at a time, all year long.  That access will be provided for you when you sign in at FireUP be.loved in August.  See you then.

In hope,

Charlie

FireUP be.loved 2011

This is the first of the Director’s Blogs.  In the weeks leading up to FireUP be.loved in Marquette, MI on August 19 & 20 this will be used to keep everyone up to date on what is developing, and what God is doing in our hearts to prepare us for the event. After FireUP it will be a weekly devotional to help deepen relationship with God throughout the year.

The Registration Packets have been mailed and they are amazing!  Ask your pastors to keep their eyes open this weekend and to register your group with the Registration Card inside!  Just have them fill it out and place it in the mail, the postage has already been paid.  Or you can register online through the website: www.mqtchurch.com/fireup  Inside the packets is a Housing Guide where host churches, families, campgrounds, and hotels can be found.  If you are a part of a church, and you would like to make sure your church received a packet, contact us at fireup@mqtchurch.com

In the packet we enclosed a letter from the director, in which I shared a few of the changes we’ve made with FireUP this year.  This is that letter:

This year, we’ve made a few changes to FireUP, and I’d like to take just a few minutes to explain some of them.

First, our greatest desire is to worship Jesus for who He is and what He’s done. So FireUP will have a very definite worship focus.

Second, we believe God’s Word is alive and active, and we want people to have the opportunity to have their lives change as God opens their eyes to see what He has declared in the Scriptures. The messages heard at FireUP will be biblical teaching and preaching.

Third, we hope to make the Gospel available to all people, and so through God’s provision, FireUP be.loved is free!

Fourth, our passion is not only to see teenagers come into the knowledge of God, but also anyone who is young, and willing to leave everything behind to follow Jesus. So FireUP is now for anyone who fits that description.

Lastly, we hope that this event will catapult teens and collegians into their schools as people of influence for the sake of the Gospel. So we moved the event from the spring to the end of summer.

Our hope for FireUP be.loved is that God will be touching hearts and transforming lives as he so deeply desires to do. We desire for Christians to be refreshed with new awareness of the love and beauty of Jesus. We hope that non-Christians will become Jesus’ disciples as they are confronted with the incredible scope of his mercy. The direction of my life changed at an event like this one. My hope is that many others will experience a similar change in direction, or maybe just a boost on their current path. I believe at FireUP be.loved in August, we will see both. I hope you will join us.
Sincerely in Christ,

Charlie Holsworth
Director

…but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.

The last time I felt the Lord move me to write was almost two years ago.  The things happening in my heart were involving the disappointment I was having regarding a promise God had given to me about the leadership of FireUP (I have had dreams of speaking at FireUP since 2003.)  A year before I wrote about hope deferred, I had shared my vision with the Board of Directors of FireUP and had been rejected.  I knew God had promised this to me, and my heart was broken…  I was hurt, angry, frustrated, discouraged, everything I wrote about in those two blogs…

And now almost two years to the date after I wrote the first of those about my disappointment, we will be hosting our first ever FireUP be.loved and I have been charged with being the director.  The Lord did a mighty and amazing work to bring this about.  So what I want to share with you, is the path I had to walk to get here…  While I won’t share all of the details of the last three and a half years, what I will tell you is this:  Jesus is the dream, and whatever the current assignment he has you in, if you’re found faithful with that, he will entrust you with the potential he has planned for your life.

When God gives us these dreams, these promises, these hopes for our lives, He is giving us a potential we can live up to, if we walk faithfully with Him in love and obedience in what He has given us to do.  Our coming into His potential for us is dependent upon our abiding obedience.  Jesus spoke of the importance of abiding in His love, and how obedience and abiding are inseparably yoked together, “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in His love.  These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” (John 15:10-11)  See, there isn’t joy apart from abiding in his love.  And there isn’t abiding in his love apart from obedience.  Joy, love, and obedience are all inseparably bound together.

So my point is this:  you can walk in the fullness of joy, and in the fullness of His love, long before you ever step into the full potential He has for your life.  If you’re waiting for circumstances to change before you walk in His pleasure, you’re falling more in love with an assignment, than you are with the Beautiful God who gives that assignment.  So establish yourself now in a deep and intimate love relationship with Jesus, walk in obedience in your current assignment, and He will bring you into the potential that He desires for your life.  That is the part that’s up to us.

But the truth of the matter is, He is the only one who gets us into the promises He has for us.  Over the years, we give up so many times, we complain, we stumble, we want to walk away, we run out of strength, and it is God, all God who finishes the good work He began in us.  The only thing we do is let Him pull us along in love and obedience.  And when we come into the promise he gave us, we’re so awestruck by His ability to get weak, broken, and powerless people into a glorious destiny that only He could create, that we’re humbled to tears at His kindness and sovereignty.

So now, FireUP.  To be honest, a lot of circumstances have changed in the last three and a half years.  We have a baby girl, Elisa Joy.  We bought a house.  We have another baby due in December.  I’m the Associate Pastor of Water’s Edge Church.  I’m the Director of the School of Life and Ministry, an equipping discipleship program in Marquette.  And I’m the director ofFireUP be.loved.  And I still work at Babycakes Muffin Company, a coffee shop downtown.  And I can tell you honestly, that while my joy has increased, the source has been the ever-increasing awareness of His pleasure in me as I walk obediently in love before Him.  He is just so kind, so good.  I’m so thankful that He kept me, and brought me into this time of life.

I’ll be writing the Director’s Blog here over the next months, both to keep everyone updated on our progress, but then as a resource for people who’ve attended the event to continue to go deeper with God throughout the year.  It’ll also be continually updated on the SLM website.  I look forward to this season God has for us together.

Hope deferred (Pt. 2)

The next part of disappointment that I have been chewing on is this:  we’re so used to “surrendering everything to God,” that we often take the promises of God and stop believing that He is going to fulfill them because somewhere along the line, we hoped, and it didn’t happen and so we “surrendered” it —right into unbelief.

It’s like this:  we get a word or a promise from God.  Something we’re super excited for.  For me it was the ministry God had before me.  Three years ago I got a word that it would happen around Thanksgiving time.  Well, let me tell you, that Thanksgiving three years ago was the least thankful givings I may have ever had.  So anyway, I “surrendered” my dream, my promise, my desire to the Lord and told Him, “fine, Lord, I’ll just stay in my job for the rest of my life, and I won’t think about the ministry thing again!”  So I tried and I tried to forget about this dream, but it haunted me.  I was believing for revival in my workplace (still am), and trying to surrender this dream and give it back to God that I might get His desire for my life.  There was just this one problem:  The very promise I was working so hard to give up, was the very one He was wanting to give to me!

See, we get promises from God, that He wants us to joyfully and excitedly expect to be fulfilled.  Then, when they don’t come how and when we thought they should, we get disappointed and beat ourselves up for ever wanting anything from God other than His Presence, and we try to surrender ourselves right back into holiness.  Only it’s not holiness that we’re surrendering into—- it’s stupidity!  Here’s why:  God gave us promises to be excited about, promises that He fully intends to fulfill.  But because we are so afraid of being disappointed, we stop believing Him, just to protect ourselves from being let down again.  We actually slide into unbelief because of our fear of disappointment.

What God would have us do instead, is to draw near to Him (see Pt. 1), and taste and see that He is good.  When we have tasted of His goodness, faith arises once more for the promises that have been given to us.  See, when God gives a promise, He wants us to excitedly believe for it, and watch for it, celebrating its arrival even before we have it.  When disappointment comes, we are to press into Him, and through the disappointment, to maintain and actually grow in faith of the promise that just days ago we were ready to abandon!  It is not God’s desire that we would abandon His promises for our lives because we’ve been disappointed by their (in our esteem) untimely arrival!  It is His desire that we would rejoice in His goodness as we continue to let faith build in us, knowing that God is good and that good is on the way for us!

We have two options left to us:  One, because of our fear of disappointment, to not allow ourselves to hope for anything, and to maintain an even keel at all times in the name of “surrendering everything to God,” and by doing so live a life with no faith and no impact and no disappointment.  Two, to live such a radical life of faith and hope, that we are unwilling to let our own disappointments hinder us from hanging on to the goodness of God and of the promises that He has given to us!  I would rather be disappointed a thousand times and yet live with such great faith that mountains move, rather than live a life without faith, never tasting of disappointment again and leaving no mark on eternity whatsoever.

Hope deferred…

I think something that most of us are at least semi-familiar with, is the feeling that through our own failure we have somehow let God down, and coming back into restoration can be a bit of a process.  As in the case when David sinned and it took the prophet Nathan to rebuke him to restore him to his rightful place.  Or when Peter denied Jesus, it took Jesus chasing him down on the beach and restoring him there.  When we fail, it hurts.  It’s hard to look God in the eyes when we feel we have disappointed Him.  (Check out Saturday night’s message by Pastor T.  www.marquettechurch.com.)

Beyond that, I’ve spent the last couple years walking through something slightly different, but equally as challenging.  Because I think it is even harder to look God in the eyes when we feel that He has disappointed us.  When we have been faithful, and haven’t stepped into sin, even more, we have done everything that He has asked of us to do, and what we had hoped for is deferred.  It makes your heart sick, for real.  When your dreams seem to get farther and farther away in spite of your faithfulness.  When your hopes and dreams and promises from God seem to come so close, and the moment that you think you are going to step into them, disappointment.  

In my mind, all it takes to overcome my own failure is humility and brokenness, and a willingness to let God bring restoration.  That’s not too bad.  But when I feel like God has failed me???  When I feel like the One that I am supposed to run to is actually the One who has broken my heart???  What to do then?  

I believe what we do in this moment is what qualifies or disqualifies us to actually step into the fullness of the promise that God desires us to step into.  The question before us is this:  Do I love the promise more than the Presence?  Because when God has not released my promise, and I feel He has disappointed me, if I value His promise more than His Presence, I will be offended by Him and will begin to harden my heart and let my own feelings keep me from the depth of relationship that we once had.  Let me repeat that:  when God has not released my promise, and I feel He has disappointed me, if I value His promise more than His Presence, I will be offended by Him and will begin to harden my heart and let my own feelings keep me from the depth of relationship that we once had.  And as soon as I begin to harden my heart, I have begun to believe the lie that God is not good toward me.

But!!!  If I value God and His Presence with me more than the promise He gave me, then I will surely go directly to Him and express my disappointment, discouragement, hurt, frustration.  I refuse to accuse God of doing anything wrong, because He hasn’t.  But this is a genuine, “God my heart is broken, and even though I know you haven’t, I still feel like you broke it.” moment.  And in this honesty, in this humble brokenness, sometimes after a little while, He comes.  When our heart has shone itself to love His Presence more than his promise, and the refining has taken place, Jesus comes.  He doesn’t speak, He just arrives.  To be with me.  I tell you there is no promise that can compare to the ecstasy of being with God in a room.  No blessing comes close to the joy experienced when He sits beside you and your body trembles because the One who created it now has wrapped His arms around it.  The Promise to desire is this:  that we, get to be, with God.

If you have experienced disappointment with God, and it hasn’t been on your end (if it has you need to repent, and get back on track), then right now you need to get before Him and pour out your heart to Him.  Don’t accuse Him, that’s just dumb.  But tell Him how you’re feeling, and what you had hoped for, and how much you want to have the intimacy with Him back.  Pour out your heart before God and don’t stop until He comes.

[More to come]

Post-Hayward

It has taken me some time to sit down and try to capture my thoughts on what took place in Hayward.  I’ve talked to the Lord extensively about it, or more accurately He has talked to me about it, and I think I can finally get some things expressed.  It is somewhat long, but I encourage you to take the time to read it.  

This past week was like nothing I’ve ever experienced.  The team that we took was incredible.  We were faced with numerous difficulties, and yet, were not swayed from the mission God had set upon us.  From abnormal physical exhaustion to oppression, this team continued to honor one another and encourage each other throughout the entire week.  It was amazing to watch.

For the first two and a half days, we saw almost no manifest fruit in the Spirit.  God is always at work, and things are always happening, but it is exciting to see it manifest instantly.  Scott and Dan did an awesome job bringing the Word, and yet we were hitting a wall in the Spirit.  At one point we discussed the importance of making war in the Spirit throughout the week, but for the first time in ministry I had the acute awareness that people outside our group were interceding on our behalf.  I can’t explain how I knew, but we actually got to see the manifestation of God’s reality break in to the realm of earth.

The second to last night, after watching the power of God’s impact increase steadily for two and a half days, Ed and I shared something that God had confronted both of us on “forgetting to mention.”  

“Will you tell them Who I Am?”  I cannot tell you that either of us “felt anointed,” or anything of the sort.  I think we were both quite exhausted, and maybe a little disheartened.  But when Ed spoke of God as He was revealed in the Old Testament, and I introduced them to Jesus, His Son, I tell you the response at the end of the night was like something books are written about.  It was no warm-fuzzy message, it was about dying that one might know this Jesus.  But when we invited the young people to meet Jesus themselves, ALL BUT ONE YOUNG MAN RESPONDED IN REPENTANCE!!!

I have never seen anything so sovereign, and so glorious, as to see about forty young men and women come and stand before the Lord, waiting to have Him transform their souls.  After a period of heaviness in which we didn’t pray for anyone, the joy of the Lord began to break out upon these youth as they experienced the joy of their salvation. And as these who would not sing to the Lord, now danced before Him, the music was turned off, and at that moment, the skies tore open and a deluge like I have never been apart of poured forth from the Heavens, and the young people streamed out into it to receive their water baptism from their Father in Heaven.

But it did not end there, no, God would have disciples as well as children, and when the last day dawned, we lay forth a challenge to forsake all thoughts of pursuit other than Jesus.  And on the last night, as hungry and empty vessels came forth, God released a Baptism of His Spirit upon these young people, that as they prayed for one another, some fell prostrate before the Lord, and others received His joy.  But not one person in that camp left that week without encountering the power, the love, the mercy, and the goodness of God.  Not one left without being touched powerfully by His Spirit.  And by the last night, every young man and woman in that room had had their eternity changed forever.

Praise be to you Jesus.  Never in all my life have I seen such a wonderful move of Your Spirit.  Never have I felt so helpless, and so delighted as I watched you move in my weakness.  You are incredible, My God, and I love You.  Amen.

Hayward

For the next few days we will be in Ramsay, MI and near Hayward, WI partnering with Pastor Todd Winkler and his church.  We’ll be with them for their Sunday morning service, and their senior high camp that follows through Wednesday night.  

Pray for us as many of the students haven’t met Jesus yet.  Though we’ve been promised tremendous fruit by the Lord.

Last time we partnered with this church we had an amazing weekend and numerous individuals encountered the love and goodness of God.  (Check out the testimonies at www.onehoperevolution.com .)  We’re really looking forward to this week and expecting God to do something incredible.  I realize that it is faith to expect God to do something huge, as that is exactly who He is!  He loves to change lives, heal the sick, and sweep masses of people into the Kingdom!  So we should expect Him to act as He loves to act!!!  

So we’ll give an update on what Jesus does this week, but enjoy partnering with us and sharing the fruit as you pray!!!

Thanks for all of your hunger and excitement over Jesus!!!