We right in the middle of our Miracles Series @NCC. I don't think it's coincidence that as I connect with people during the week I am finding that so many are in need of God to do something in their lives that is beyond human ability. It is interesting to think about though. All of the miracles that we face are really micro miracles compared to the macro miracle that God performed when He created something (all of creation) out of nothing! Wow! That is encourages. I will put my hope in trust in the One who is able. Whatever situation you face today know that God is more than able to do exceedingly and abundantly more than you could ever ask for or imagine. Would you have ever thought of the salamander or the ocean's tide?

Potomac Youth Leadership Conference from Ben Engle on Vimeo.

Great times in Orlando. I feel like my seretonin levels rise to a new level when I come to Florida. Here are a few of the trip highlights:

*dinner at Maggianos with Matt Chandler, Francis Chan, Brian Mosely, and Mark McCarthey
*meeting Lou Giglio and hearing his first session at Exponential
*experiencing Chan's workshop on true submission to God
*breakfast at the hotel was amazing
*palm trees
*meeting Dave Ferguson and the Exponential Team
*Downtown Disney & the Irish Pub Doughnuts (thanks Chris)
*Downtown Orlando with Nate and Ashley
*SouthEastern University Chapel
*The new Kia Sportage is really nice and handles well
*we made a few turns that led us in the wrong direction more than a few times:)

I am still downloading thoughts from the session in my heart and brain. I will share some thoughts when it's complete.

Hung out with Kristian Stanfill and the band this weekend. Great guys..great time! Kristian is one of the worship leaders at Passion City Church in Atlanta. They recently released a new album. You should get it, its good! Off to Florida in the morning for Exponential Conference. Should be great times! Always love the opportunity to hang out with church planters from all over the nation. Super stoked about connecting with Lou Giglio and Matt Chandler. Enjoy your week!

We found out that we just lost a house after being in contract for 40 days. Some weird things have happened that were way out of our control. As frustrating and devastating as it is and sounds..we are still confident in the Lord. Perhaps God is protecting us from something that we do not yet see. We have two choices. We can get mad and get even, or trust in God with all our hearts and lean not on our own understanding, and enjoy a life of peace and patience. After contemplation we have decided to go with the latter. So for now we will embrace this story that He is writing in our lives, enjoy the moment, enjoy the process, and enjoy the people. An interesting opportunity is coming on the horizon that I cannot yet share but I will keep you posted. Here is what I (we) are trusting in today:

Excited to be at the Potomac Youth Leaders Conference this year. I will be leading worship along with Jeff Deyo. If you are a youth pastor or youth leader in the area you should check it out. Always a good time with the PYM team.

Shelly and I are in the process of creating an organization that will resource the local church to live up to the standard of James 1:27: "Religion that God the Father accepts as pure and without fault is this: caring for orphans or widows who need help, and keeping yourself free from the world's evil influence." 
Pure and without fault is a heavy adjective. If I am honest, when I think of the church today as a whole, I do not think this is the best adjective for the church. That is a problem. The need is obviously great and there is so much more we can do. So we are currently fleshing out a plan to equip the local church to be the hope for their community. New Rhythm Project will work to educate, advocate, and facilitate for foster care, adoption, & mentoring. Please pray with us as we continue to develop God's plan for NRP. Stay tuned for different ways you can get involved to help the cause. 

Shelly and I bought a house!! We are moving in today and tomorrow. We are so excited about this opportunity that the Lord provided for us. Going to be a long sweat equity day but worth every drop.

As we have been reading through the Gospel's in our year reading plan I have been encouraged in so many ways. This month especially I feel like God has given me a new perspective on offense. In one way, Jesus was always offending people when He went about teaching. His teaching was so simple yet so challenging. For those that were not ready to hear it, they got offended. But so what, right? It was the truth and in the end it changed their entire lives. I think sometimes I am way more concerned about offending people than I am at making sure the truth is exposed. I need to be more unapologetically apologetic. On the flip side Jesus taught about offense as well and how we should respond. He of all people had reason to be offended. After all, the very people he came to embrace and love, killed him. But, he was always willing to forgive because He came to this world to play offense. Jesus made it very clear that when you hold on to offense you are not playing offense. Make sense? The goal is to go into all of the world and share God's story with anyone and everyone. However, if we are worrying about who did this and who said that, we are no longer playing offense and we are missing the point. That challenges me to let go of the little things and pray though the big things. There is much work to do here and no time to stay on the fence thinking about our offense when we should be playing offense. Am I making any sense?