Pastor Kevin

What Oneighty is doing to: Partner with Parents

One of the most important relationships in the spiritual development of a Christian Teenager, is the relationship between Parents and the Youth Ministry the teenager attends.  God has ordained both the Family and the Local Church, and when both of these entities work together to impact the life of a teenager, that is when true life change begins to occur. 

Because of this, we at Oneighty are doing a few things to partner with parents.  One simple way that we are building bridges with our families is by launching a parent page where I give a weekly video recap of what I talked about that week at Oneighty.  I also put a written version of my message with questions parents can ask their teenager during the course of the next week.

Here is a video recap of a recent Oneighty message....

Parent Update 4.29.10 from kevin Moore on Vimeo.

Helping a teenager become all that Jesus Christ died on the cross for them to be is far to personal of a task to be done just by the local youth ministry, however,  it is far to big of a job to be done just by the family.  But thru the years, I've seen that, when both the family and the church combine forces, a young persons faith will begin to grow.

To start partnering with Oneighty just log onto (parent page) at oneighty.com every Thursday.  There you will get all the latest video updates, message notes and inside scoop of everything we are doing each and every week.

Life isn't always easy, but God is always good.

Eight years ago my family and I were living the dream.  I was a Youth Pastor of a growing church, my family was healthy, my finances were secure, all was well in life and ministry. 

Then one day God called us to move away from our family and friends to become the Youth Pastor’s of a church five hours away from everything we knew as home. 

God had confirmed to my wife and I so strongly that we were suppose to leave that we both knew that if we did not go we would be out of God’s perfect will for our lives. So we resigned from the church, packed our things, put our house on the market and moved. 

Once we arrived at our new Church, the ministry exploded.

In less than two years the youth ministry grew from 30 teenagers to over 300 students each week. We were the largest and fastest growing student ministry in the entire state.  In fact, the ministry side of life could not have been better.  Everything we did, worked. Everything we did was blessed. Everything we did was hitting on all cylinders.

Our ministry was incredible, our personal life, however was a totally different story. 

Even though we had made some incredible friendships at our new church, and we were being paid a very respectable salary...our home did not sell for over a year.  Because of this we were paying both rent and house payment every single month, and with three kids to take care of, things were getting extremely tight. So tight in fact it was becoming harder and harder to even buy groceries for my family.

In the middle of all the financial turmoil, my wife became pregnant for our fourth child. We were so happy. This was a real bright spot in a very dark situation.  The entire family was excited. 

About 13 weeks into the pregnancy my wife started to feel a little ill.  So we went to the doctor to have her checked out. While we were at the doctor’s office, to our surprise, they could not find the babies heart beat.  They tried and tried for several hours, but it was of no use.  We had lost the baby. 

I still remember going to the waiting room and telling my three children that Mommy was fine but the baby was in heaven.  The pain of losing our baby, while holding my three children as they sobbed in my arms, combined with the fear of the financial ruin was almost to much to take.

However, within a few months of losing the baby things started to look up.  Our house finally sold.  We found a home that we loved, we were getting close to catching up on bills, and my wife became pregnant once again.  Things looked like they were going to turn. 

Then, 13 weeks into pregnancy my wife became ill.  When we went to the doctor, the heart beat we had heard just a few short weeks before, was now gone.  We had lost another child.

You would have thought, after two years of near financial ruin and losing two children to miscarriages, that my wife and I would have given up on God, resigned the church and went home to be with our family.

But instead, my wife and I stood on the promise of Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” 

We knew that what we were experiencing was only temporary and that our God had a brighter future for us.  So in spite of the fear, the pain and the hard times, we kept our faith, stayed faithful and trusted God.  Knowing that in the end He would prevail.

A few months after losing our second child I received a phone call from a very large church that I had followed from afar for years.  In fact, I had patterned my life and ministry after the Pastor of this church in hopes of one day having a youth ministry like the one he had started years before.

This church had a position open and they called me to see if I would like to come down and be a part of their youth ministry.  My wife and I could not believe it.  I talked to my Pastor about the possibility of moving and he gave me his blessing to go thru the door that God was opening. 

So we resigned from our church, packed our things, and moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Today.  I am happy to say that my family and I are once again living the dream.  I am the Youth Pastor of Oneighty.  Our finances are secure, my family is healthy and two years ago Veronica gave birth to Lilly Grace, our beautiful baby girl.

Over the past few years I’ve learned that life isn’t always easy, but my God is always good.  

In spite of the trials and tribulations that come our way, in Christ and Christ alone, we will triumph.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Die Already - 4 ways to kill your past

Zombies are so big right now aren't they?

Michael kicked off the Zombie craze back in the 80's with his Thriller video, and today Zombies are bigger than ever.  They just don't seem to ever die.  Shoot them, cut off their arm, shove a shovel thru their stomach and they just keep coming and coming and coming.  How in the world do you kill a Zombie?

Well teenagers face Zombies every single day.  They face the Zombies of their PAST.  Like a Zombie, past sins, relationships, friendships, and harmful things that happened just keep following them every single day.  And it doesn't matter what they do, the Zombie of the past never seems to die.

Tonight at Oneighty I'm going to deal with this Zombie issue by doing a message titled ....

"DIE ALREADY - FOUR WAYS TO KILL YOUR PAST"

Here is a quick break down of tonight's talk.

The four ways to kill your past are...

1) You have to want to kill it.

To many times we are like the little girl that wants her Daddy to kill the Spider, then screams DONT HURT IT DONT HURT IT DADDY, when he grabs his shoe so he can smash it.  When it comes to your past the first thing you have to do is want it to DIE.

2)  Give it to Jesus

Col. 2:14 says that Jesus took "it" (past mistakes) and has nailed them to the cross.

Jesus is the Daddy with the shoe - when you give him your past, he's not going to let it breath, he is going to take it and kill it. So give your past to Jesus.

3)  Stop Talking about it.

James says that like a rudder on a ship our words guide us.  Every time you talk about your past, you turn your entire life around and go right back to that spot.  So shut up and stop talking about it.

4)  Move on

Paul gave us a great example, when he said "forgetting those things which are behind I press on toward the high calling of Christ Jesus"  Your past may be good, your past may be bad, either way its dead and gone.  Give it to Jesus, stop talking about it and move on to what God has for you in the future.  You and everyone else around you will be glad you did.

That's what I'm talking about tonight at Oneighty.  You will be able to watch our opening drama / dance at oneighty.com in the next day or so.  You will want to check this out for sure.

Youth Ministry "Lifer"

Nineteen years ago my father came up to me and said "Kevin, Barry (our volunteer youth pastor) is moving, so he can't lead the youth group anymore, do you want to be the youth pastor?"  At the time I was helping out in the youth group every week, so I thought "Well, I'm going to be here anyway, why not do it?".  

Nineteen years, four churches, and three cities later, I'm still doing youth ministry.  

This Wednesday night just like the past 988 Wednesday nights, I will be standing in front of a group of teenagers teaching them about the life changing principles of Jesus Christ, and I love it.

Besides my God, my wife and my children, the reason I get out of bed in the morning is to share Jesus and live life with people between the ages of 12 - 22.  I love youth ministry.  I'm currently 39 years old and I don't ever see myself doing anything else on a Wednesday night than what I will be doing this week.

Thank you God for calling me into your harvest field.  

Thank you for calling me to be a Youth Pastor.

May my next 19 years be even more fruitful.

Lloyd Christmas, the perfect example for Christians?

Dumb and Dumber is my favorite movie. In fact, I'm pretty sure it's in the top five favorite movies of all time for every dude between the ages of 25 to 45 in America. 

Dumb and Dumber has to be the most quoted movie in cinema history.  I mean when was the last time you were at a party and someone said one line from the movie and the next thing you know, it's 30 minutes later and dudes from all over the room are sitting at a table spouting out famous phrases from Lloyd and Harry.  

In fact, you just had a quote from the movie come to your mind didn't you?  See...it's amazing!

I love this movie.  I mean what better example of how we should live in constant pursuit of Jesus is there than Lloyd Christmas's passionate pursuit of Mary Swenson, Swanson, Samsonite?  I mean this guy quits his job, kills a pet parakeet, jumps in a shaggin waggin and heads across the country to find his love.  Sure he is mentally challenged a tad bit deranged and a sexual deviant, but those things aside, he really wants to be close to Mary (which is a good thing except for the fact she's married).

Ok, so he's not the perfect example, however, with all the things we let keep us from drawing close to Jesus each day, maybe we should be a little more like Lloyd (minus the mental issues and killing of kids pets). 

I guess what I’m trying to say is, in your own personal way, stop making excuses, jump in your ’84 Sheep Dog, grab a couple of big gulps and head out on a spiritual road trip to meet with Jesus.  Who knows you might just get 50 miles a gallon on this Hog.

From a happy reader.

Hey Kevin! 

I just wanted to say that I enjoy your books sooo much! They're awesome! I have read all of them and some of them I have read multiple times. It's kinda funny because I realized not too long ago that when I talk to my friends, I'm starting to quote little passages from your books into my conversations. I especially like the book about friends and God.

Thanks so much,

Natalie 

Find out more about WHAT DO I DO WHEN?

Your probably a youth pastor if...

1) Your hair is messed up and you have at least two plaid western shirts from Urban Outfitters.

2) You secretly desire to look just like the dude from Hillsong United.

3) You've ever scheduled a big outreach event, just so you could get free food.

4) Every time you want to "go deeper", the first thing you do is read a book by Mark Driscoll.

5) You can always come up with 3 legit reasons to do it later. (and it doesn't matter what "it" is)

6) Your car catches on fire and the first thing that comes to your mind is "this would be an incredible  illustration".

7) You got married so that you could have one more steady youth worker.