p.s. Dallas

BY THE WAY, 2 weekends ago I made a trek down to Dallas...yeah I just got to OKC a month ago, and just moved into my urban apartment about 12 days ago...but I had made a commitment to a group of believers in Dallas about 2 or 3 months ago to come, and didn't want to break it despite how exhausted I was (am).

Long story short, I like this guys thoughts named Frank Viola. You may not like him but I do. And fast forwarding a bit more, I was reading his blogs, website stuff, etc and then went from link to link surfing around. I came to another site, I think it was house church resource dot org or something like that...or maybe one of the organic church sites...(as much as I hate to say just google it...just google it...) anyhoo I saw this conference that sounded cool called a "Greenhouse." I called a guy named Joseph, and I was impressed when he connected with me for more than 45 mins over the phone, rather than the usual 30 seconds you get when you call most churches, ministries, etc that are ran more like a business. Heart to heart stuff. Guy to guy, straight up stuff. Really cool dude. And nut-shelling-stuff again, I wasn't able to make it for that trip at the time, this was last-fall-ish. But, he had invited me to just come down another time, which wound up being last weekend.

Nothing earth shattering necessarily, but, nothing just ho-hum either. I slept at Joseph's place...ate with him (a monstreously huge burger at this one place it was perhaps in my top 5 favorite burgers ever) and hung out a lot. He poured a lot into me...had some tips, advice, but not too pushy about it...and I went with him to some settings where believers were crying out to Jesus in living rooms throughout the DFW Metro area, which is a huge area I may add.

They have lots of cool ideas about how to be "missional communities" of Jesus followers. They've planted small fellowships of believers worshiping God in homes...in inner city ghetto's, amongst Vietnamese refuge's flocking to Dallas, amongst HIV-AIDS victims, etc. Cutting edge, frontline stuff that little-to-no-one in the American church touches no matter what side of whatever fence you sit on...and I admit I especially liked seeing my bro's and sis's that are in what many call "the emergent Church" not just reforming the Church but loving people "out there" too. Cool, cool, cool stuff. Really cool.

And I kinda sorta want to do something like that...that connects to my quest in OKC...I want to find out what authentic Christianity looks like...the ultimate blend of encountering God literally (i.e. Glory shining on street corners, face to face with a God brighter than the sun, etc) and loving people ridiculously while still not getting cropped down with religious parameters...but yet still going after things, too, and not just avoiding religion...make sense??? It's ok if not...it doesn't even make sense, fully, to me yet...all I know is that I'm journeying deep inside of me rather than journeying geographically to the other hemisphere...I want the real deal, and refuse to settle for the system just because that is the status quo. At times lately I feel like I've potentially gone really far backwards...I've not used WTN to build a huge machine or program and in doing so, well, it's not funded much at all anymore, I'm not known in many places anymore, etc...yet, perhaps I've at least stumbled and crawled an inch or two closer to the goal, of fighting for a fully true Jesus-group of people somewhere in this planet. What does that even flippin mean though??? Let's find out...

yeah...Dallas...great stuff...

Urban Missions OKC

Hi all...

I'm living in OKC...yeah, wild.

More on all of it...soon....Lord willing...but basically for this season I'm entering into USA / Urban / inner city missions work.

Here's a link on who I am working with, once on their site check out the "news link" (it should be in red) for current info:

http://refugeokc.wordpress.com/

wrap up on KC trip

I loved the drive back down to Oklahoma today. The desolate Kansas countryside reminded me of my Midwest upbringing as literally thousands of geese flew above us into the sight of a sunset equally mixed with orange and purple and red splashed across a tall set of clouds, and the sight painted a picture that brought the 3 of us in the car nearly speechless. I love trips like this, and all the little perks like that along the way.

Today wrapped up the conference, but our day was actually spent in a house. We wound up having a spontaneous time of worship and prayer. My friends parents had expressed some challenges they were having in finding a body of believers they could worship with. Week after week after week, the large mega-church bodies they visited offered them no relationship---even after months of faithful "attendance" at each body, they were totally unknown. As about maybe 10 or so of us were in the living room (it was such a cool mix of people from different states & sub-cultural characteristics from southern country folk to east coast artsy people) hanging out, it was as if this burden of theirs dropped into all our hearts and we began to carry it with them. The words, "can we pray for you" were on the tip of my tongue, but another lady beat me to it---which was likely the kindness of God reminding me He lets other people hear things too and it never is just my idea because He can give it to someone else.

Soon, this small group of us were declaring a new future over that home. Tears began to fall from over half the room, as a cleansing tide of encouragement flooded the room, and the barren wasteland of lifeless Christianity was being washed in a wave of love. The prayers, initially, were for the sake of my friends parents, but they were quickly reciprocated and we were mutually edified as we walked in a cooperative form of worship in which all are free to participate. Great freedom & hope gripped all our hearts as we could see the evidence of a God moment in the room.

And in this midst of it a relational bridge was built for a few to connect with each other on a continual basis...in other words, it seemed possible that this has all the potential to be a home that opens it's doors to it's region for the sake of loving Jesus and loving God's people. I'm careful to not say "we planted a house church" not because I should be abashed of that, but, because that isn't necessarily the goal or aim....it was just Jesus and a group of His kids in prayer but something happened.

That being said, I just see a unique redundancy in our need to open our homes up to our communities and to the Holy Spirit.

Also, this weekend really continued to cultivate a renaissance of my hope, calling, and dreams. Being around those that are chasing & blazing & moving and shaking things is a huge encouragement. I made some connections with some people & places that make me look forward to seeing the possibilities play out. At times I could just see myself jumping in a car every week or month or whatever and just going house to house in all the cities I possibly can, and just love God and love people. Tons of fun. I'm waiting to hear back on a few things, but, there are some more tentative plans for travel coming up. More soon!

10 p's

Here at the Luke 18 Conference, they set out some practical insight this afternoon about how to contend for revival and see a movement of God shake the earth. It really registered with my heart, and many elements of this are things I want to implement into establishing communities of people who seek Jesus and love people. I took notes here on my laptop so I thought I'd just copy and paste to try to keep you posted in an easier way again:

1. Pray & Fast
2. Plan ahead
3. Prepare for the “Unknowns”
4. Pray together
5. Plunge deep into the committed
6. Pursue Community
7. Publicize the gathering / ministry (get the word out)
8. Praise together (worship)
9. Produce leaders (sacred charge)
10. Plant more movements

Also, today I had an uncanny coffee-shop chat with a group of bro's and sis's. One guy I met said that "I want to see us be able to seek Jesus in continual prayer while in the middle of Muslim nations. I want to see a marriage of intimacy with evangelism." It was like he stole the words out of my mouth! In literally about 20 minutes of knowing him I added him as a friend on Facebook! I also met a young lady who is connected with a group of house churches that are burning for Jesus from their homes and reaching out to their communities here in the KC area. That is also spot on for who / what I want to be connected with and do. So often I feel like it's nearly impossible to articulate what it is I do or want to do, and even more difficult to find anyone else in the world that wants to blend all these things together like I do. It's been a massive encouragement to connect with these people, and I feel like it's helping me lay good groundwork for '09.

Luke 18 Conference in KC

Yeah, I'm in KC again. I just sent an email to some friends of mine and I thought to copy and paste part of it for everyone real quick to save me some time in trying to stay up to speed with everyone, so here it is:

I'm writing once again from inside the prayer room at the Kansas City House of Prayer. My good buddy Brandon had invited me to join him for the "Luke 18" conference, a sort of off-shoot from the IHOP ministry here. A few Saturdays ago I had received one of the more accurate prophetic words I've had in some time (in many areas besides what I can mention here) and pertinent to this email he made mention about how I need to "link arms with other brothers in this season" and a few days later the call came to come here. That had already been brewing in my heart, and so here I am. Last night as we had some brilliant chat time at a Starbucks & then his mom and dads place with some other young adults who love Jesus, I felt a deep "re-alignment" in my purpose here on the earth. Just being on the road again, going somewhere--anywhere, has felt like a gift of God. Really, I'm simply here to learn from and connect with people; although simply doing that cultivates so much in my heart for dream and purpose. I absolutely love going from house to house and entering into relationship with people and trying, as imperfect as our words are, to talk about the beauty & battle of following Jesus. My hope is that in this time here Papa will speak to me as I truly long for even just one short sentence to find His clear direction in my life.

I can't help but shortly digress of a lyric they are singing in this moment of their 24/7 worship, "Death has no hold on me, Sin has no hold on me, YOU have the victory." In 2008, I felt like the Lord said I was like a seed that had to go into the ground and die in order to be fit for the Kingdom of God. As typical as it may be to have a 2009 wish or word, I have this hope that what is ahead of me this year will certainly be better than the death of heart I faced in this last year, and I'm choosing to run after that hope we have in HIM with all that I've got left.

Thanks for standing with me,
lots of love
Nate

Trying to describe WTN...again...

I've really been extremely evasive so many times in rendering any potency to what exactly WTN is, what the vision is, etc. In the last email, I started a process of trying to correct that, as in this season I'm hoping to really link arms with a number of people who have the same passion I do to see the beauty of Jesus brought to every crook and cranny of the earth. I want to continue to do a bit more of that in this blog.

I read this verse about 2 weeks ago, and it was as if I wondered why in the flippin' world I had never looked at it before: "The Lord said to the man clothed in linen, 'Go in among the wheels beneath the cherubim. Fill your hands with burning coals from among cherubim and scatter them over the city'. And as I watched, he went in." Ezekiel 10:2

WOW! It's hard for me to find words to say what is moaning and groaning inside of me for what I want to do...but this verse really epitomizes a lot of it....1. Go into a heavenly place of God-encounters like this one 2. Take that encounter with Him and make it something that shakes, rattles, and rolls in the world.

I received a good word from a brother about a month and a half ago as I was worshiping together with people in a house in Hominy, OK (one of my favorite places ever). He said he felt like I was "going backward so that I could go forward again. Almost like being pulled back in a bow so that an arrow can go out." That really has helped a lot of things make sense for me.

I'm taking my sweet time in a lot of ways right now, but, in so doing, I want to connect with those that want to grab fire from above and let it's affect take place over cities, villages, regions and nations. I'm waiting on a green light from the Lord to go back out, re-commissioned with His authority & with great expectations.

I got another word from someone this past weekend at another time of gathering to worship in another house here in Oklahoma---a guy who never met me, who said stuff like "you are a preacher. You are made for the nations." The room was laughing in an uproar at how hilariously spot-on this guy was in his accuracy in the prophetic. He went on to say (amongst much else) "it's time to link arms with your brothers." A few days later, a good friend of mine called me up and invited me to join him for the Luke 18 conference in Kansas City, which is somewhat of a co-op with IHOP / OneThing. From what I gather, it's going to be a great chance to connect with a lot of leaders in the prayer / missions movment, from all sorts of different organizations and backgrounds.
What got me was the immediate effect of this word from this guy...follow up of confirmation within days (and I admit I've been weary of many words lately because of the lack of accuracy, confirmation, or even a remote sense of truth so many bring). I'm really really really excited about this because I feel like I am supposed to seize the moment right now and hook up with those that also have a heart to see organic witnesses of Jesus planted throughout the earth.

I don't know how to describe to you what's about to happen, but I hope this helps. All I know is that I read this book that says stuff like grab fire from heaven and toss it over cities. And I'm going to try to figure out how to do that.

a renaissance of vision...and, just to be clear

Thanks for checking out this blog entry. I'm hoping in this particular writing to really write much more extensively than I've done in some time regarding a practical outlook on what's ahead for both me (Nate) as a person and this ministry (WTN) as a whole. With regards to vision, I'm wanting to really communicate what I'm working on right now to move toward taking WTN to where it needs to go. And, as in the title, I added some stuff on "just to be clear" so as to hopefully clearly express my heart where I love all of God's Church, no matter how or where they meet...while I am still unapologetically hoping for change.

It has been some time since I've written much ministry stuff. This comes for a number of reasons. While the personal ones may have been obvious, there has been much more to my time in the States than just what has rocked the world of Nate. Besides the grabbing inner shaking I went through this year, I've really been wanting to find a way to clearly and concisely communicate the vision which I believe has been placed in my heart by God and to be able to practically implement that vision...all that while shooting to not become very typical and avidly avoiding the ordinary...in other words trying to find a way to really chase the God-given dreams inside me without become another dull & dry Christian thing. Urgh to that.

In brief, here's what I want to see Watch the Nations become: 1. A red-hot, Holy Spirit chasing, interceding, contending for nations prayer movement birthed completely out of radical romance with Jesus 2. A missions movement coupled with the prayer movement 3. A house-church aka simple-church aka organic-church planting organization (organism hopeful).

Also, in concise manner, I'm wanting to then build upon this mindset and basically establish small, simple churches that meet in houses and chase after God in prayer. And, I want to do that in Africa. And, I want to do that soon---but have to really work some things out first.

Imagine with me this: the Church of Jesus becomes the real deal she is meant to be. The reformation we desire becomes reality...an imperfect reality perhaps but one much closer to what we now know to be "church." Imagine with me tiny pockets of people who are completely normal...completely humble...completely sane and legit. People who truly love others...people who don't give up on people when they make a mistake...people who chase after the depths of God's heart while admitting He is a mystery we can never fully figure out...people who need to say little with words because their lives shine brightly the Glory of God...Imagine with me Acts chapter 2 being a normal function of your faith...

What if this imagination was no longer our spiritual salivation to drool at while hungrily hoping for more than we've yet tasted in our dismal Christian experience? It is for this reason that I've decided, again, that I have to chase the dreams of my heart...that I have to keep trying and swinging away at what my Father has put in me...thehopeof our calling...

The reason why I personally love the house church movement is NOT because I think that those who worship in house churches have an elitist perspective on faith or because I think that the "mainstream" church is not going to heaven or something like that. The reason why I am a big believer in house churches is because when I first started hooking up with them, it was as if they were the missing element to what I had wished I could have in my earlier days of trying to follow Jesus. I can remember when in my late teens and early 20's I started to look at the Bible for me...not to be taught by man or to teach man...and I began to really wonder why it was that what I knew as Christianity didn't look much like what the Ancient Scrolls had recorded...and then, I began to get a glimpse, a slight shimmer of light that illuminated just enough hope in me that reformation is entirely possible and that there really is no need to settle for "normal" Christianity.

While I could elaborate on those effects much more, to be pertinent to a ministry outlook, I'll also say that the reason why I love house church / simple church movement is because it literally is the only type of church one can plant in a restricted nation. Any missionary I've met in areas like North Africa, the Middle East or Southern Asia would be the first to agree. It's nearly impossible to plant a traditional church in such areas simply because of the persecution...a large building is a proverbial bullseye for attack.

Furthermore, the Church of China is arguably the closest group of any believers of any nation to revival. They've seen millions upon millions of people follow Jesus just in recent decades and have experienced miraculous things beyond counting. And, one of their strongest and most infamous leaders, Brother Yun, speaks out and tells us that the house church movement in China is largely why they are seeing this revival. He often travels and speaks throughout the Western world with a message telling us to "wake up" and within this message is good advice about what we need to consider implementing in our lives in order to do just that...and a large part of this he tells us is to change our "wineskins" if we are to see revival.


So, it is for these reasons, and so many other ones, that I'm wanting to see Watch the Nations become a "house-church missions organization". That, in some ways, is not at all how I want to phrase that...for such reasons as not really even wanting to be just another organization or getting caught up in all the stuff we always seem to eventually drift toward while drifting away from Jesus...HOWEVER it is all I know to do right now...

I'm wanting to really not apologize for this anymore. I stepped out in faith to launch WTN almost 2 years ago now and I'll be honest, the fear of man has held me back to not want to talk much about house church. I don't want to just offend people for no reason. My goal is not to simply critique traditional / mainstream church bodies. However, I've come to a point now where I've realized that there are a lot of people in the Bride of Christ who desperately WANT to change, and that they simply need to see something at work in order to change with. I've also come to know many pastors and leaders in the Church who are not threatened by house churches because they are not trying to build up their own Kingdom but God's Kingdom, and they rejoice with us in that we are reaching people who are much more likely to enter a house where a church is meeting than a building template. Many of you know that I was formally a minister and missionary in the Assemblies of God. Ironically, the very month when I left the AG organization, an AG church in Wichita, Kansas actually BEGAN to support what I was doing in Africa, aka WTN. What's even more ironic was that I had contacted them earlier in my missions career and had tried to gain support through my own ability and what I regretfully but jokingly remember as "telemarketing for Jesus." At that time they didn't feel lead to support me. I hadn't contacted them in a couple of years, and then once WTN was launched, they got behind it.

What's my point there? I believe that it's ENTIRELY POSSIBLE for the mainstream church / house church movement to work together in harmony and peace. WTN is also supported by mainstream bodies in Florida, New York, and New Mexico and we are deeply thankful for these leaders in God's Kingdom who do not see this as a threat but as an opportunity for change and to impact the world.

In the coming months, I want to write more about what this looks like. To my knowledge, within the house church movement, I know of little taking place in a foreign missions context---which would be perhaps one of my only critiques of this movement; urging my brothers and sisters to not simply reform the Church forever and ever but to eventually reach the world, less our "4 walls of the church" become a living room rather than a sanctuary....that being said, this is completely grassroots pioneering territory for me.

So, I'm also going to intentionally connect with some other believers in Dallas next month, Lord willing. They've got what they call "a relational network" where they basically are connected not by authority but by friendship with other groups of people that worship God in a house somewhere in Texas. So, I'll cross the border to my south to make a connection with them.

I'm also wanting to hook up more with some friends I've made over in Oklahoma City who have established something they call "The Refuge" which, in essence, is going be an urban missions / house church missions movement. That is right up my alley! They are essentially doing to stateside version of missions that I want to do abroad. I have high respect and love for them and am excited to see what may take place in hooking up with them.


I remember the words of one of our more recent martyrs of modern history, "I will not be labeled as average" -Rachel Scott, Columbine High School student. When I write that vision down in the paragraph before this one, it startles my soul. It's beyond me. I've found myself coming full circle so many times lately that I think I'm getting dizzy. And all I really know is that I want to change the world, and nothing, nothing, nothing satisfies me like trying to do that.

Word up.