MINISTRY- THE EARLY YEARS part 2

It was a rainy weekend. I had to travel alone because at the time there was not enough money in the church to send my wife and myself. Melinda was working full-time, like a lot of Pastor’s wives, but it was well beyond our means to afford two plane tickets. Ron Luce was preaching Friday night on “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.” About 4500 young people were in attendance.

I had never seen such a radical presentation of the gospel before.; The lights, sound, pyrotechnics, drama team and worship was amazing. I had VIP privileges so I sat at the sound-board because I liked the technical side of production. As Ron preached, my mind was captivated by the Holy Spirit. I began clenching my Bible with extreme force because something was erupting inside of me. Something I couldn’t explain was happening inside my spirit. God was speaking and He was calling me out.

Suddenly the altar call came and I witnessed nearly 80% of the room move towards the front to get their lives right with God. At the same time my emotions began to well up inside me. I began to see my home church and all the faces of the young people that served there. I began to see them being radically challenged to new things. As tears rolled from my eyes I stood on top of a chair to see what God was doing. The Holy Spirit was changing and challenging lives. Young people were laying their lives down at the altar. Drugs, alcohol, boyfriends, girlfriends, cars, cd’s, music, priorities were being left as they were turning their heart toward Jesus. It was awesome.

I left that night with all the free stuff I could muster. Ron had told Rich Franzen (now leader of Impact Africa) the production head to give me whatever I wanted, so I took advantage of it. I had every single book or tape that Ron had produced. As the weekend wore on I talked on the phone in to the early hours of the morning with my Pastor, some of the youth and my wife. When I wasn’t on the phone, I was reading or listening to tapes. Later, on the flight home I realized I hadn’t slept in 53 hours. God had so rocked my paradigm that my physical needs became unimportant as the vision for my city and our youth began to erupt.

There you have it, one of the most impactful weekends with God in my life...more to come later.

MINISTRY- THE EARLY YEARS part 1

It was the spring of 1996 and I was on a trip that included traveling to Tulsa, Oklahoma and then onto Pittsburgh, PA.. I was investigating and meeting with a ministry called Teen Mania. Years before the President of TMM, Ron Luce, had ministered in my church and I had a great respect for him and all that God had done with his ministry since 1988. I went to meet about being the host church for Acquire the Fire. Located on a small college campus outside of Pittsburgh, this Seattle native had a run in with God. Little did I know what this trip would hold for the rest of my life.

I have lived in the Seattle area my whole life. Having been a Pastor's Kid (PK) since the age of 14, I was very aware of the church and my calling in life. I knew in 1994 that I was called to full-time ministry as a Youth Pastor and began working in the church that raised me. With no formal internship experience and no bible college to raise me up in the protocol of ministry some seasons were hard and the fruit of the ministry just wasn’t always there. The first Sunday I preached 75 young people showed up: The next week we had 9. I was hardly an expert in church growth and multiplication. At the time our church was in between permanent facilities and the youth was meeting in a parking stall. After 22 months of believing God, preaching the Word, counseling kids, fighting the enemy, planning activities, doing outreach, praying my guts out, working hard, following leadership, reading books and attending conferences the youth ministry only had 14 young people, in a parking stall. Every week we would worship God with the adults, then right after the offering we would grab our chairs by the back door and circle them up outside.

As I reminisce about the first years of ministry I am reminded of all the heartache ,frustration and discontent I was experiencing. It seemed all of the effort I was putting in was to no avail. I focused entirely on spiritual warfare because I thought that the devil had his foot on my young people, my church and my city. What I learned is that the devil had his foot on my vision, methods and ideas. What I learned is that if ministering to young people was a part of God’s plan then He would accomplish it, I needed to take the pressure off. What I learned was that if I yield to the Holy Spirit and allow Him to have his way with the His church then I would have the great opportunity to be right-smack-dab in the middle of an incredible move of God. As I stood at Acquire the Fire God began to open the eyes of my heart.

To be continued...

WHERE ARE YOU FROM?

In a recent Knightrous.com poll it was determined in a seven day period that 77% of visitors of this Blog are from Snohomish county, 9% are from the rest of Western Washington and 11% live outside of Washington stats. It's a good start for certain, but I have an idea. How about each of those connected to Knightrous.com forward the link to all their friends and family. It's a great way to introduce your crazy aunt. It may soften the invitation this Christmas when your wild uncle is in town. Who knows, as a result of this blog, a neighbor just might check out The Rock Church and find Christ.

I have a friend who calls blogging "Digital Discipleship." I couldn't agree more. Sometimes we are overly dependant on a verbal invitation to church when the click of a mouse might be someones first step. We forward all those urban legends.

I tell you what, if you introduce your friends to Knightrous.com I will do my best to stop those threatening chain emails. You know that one's about forwarding to five people and if you don't the movie Scream will be your reality. When you forward Knightrous.com to your friends I will never forward one to you. Deal? Sounds good.

TRC TELEVISION SPOT

Today we finished up the first step in a multi-step plan with Belo Media (King 5 and Kong 6/16) to move to television. Production of our first ever TV commercial will start in coming weeks with the airing to begin the week of July 23rd.

Right now, it is looking like our first season of 30 minute shows will start after the first of the year (2008). Just so you all know, this will not be conventional, predictable Christian TV. We are storyboarding and building the series of shows right now that will be a perfect fit to the culture of TRC.

I am just thrilled to announce the wheels are turning. Look for the commercial this summer on King and Kong TV. I heard some rumors about race cars have good eye appeal on TV. Apparently there are these races on TV where guys go round and round. I guess I'll have to figure out what that is an see if we can get some race cars to make a commercial with...

A BEAUTIFUL QUOTE

Yesterday, while talking with a new TRCer, he made a statement that was music to my ears. Let me give you some thoughts and then I will tell you what he said.

I pastor a church founded, by my parent's; located in my hometown, where I went to school; and down the street, from where I have lived for 33 of my 36 years on Planet Earth. Leading a church is difficult enough, but doing it in my parent's church and in my home town can make me, at times, think, "God, what are YOU thinking?"

Why? Because on most occasions a pastor comes to a city, no one knows his name and he begins to lead. In my case, the mayor of Monroe was an English teacher at my Jr. High, I have friends who own businesses here and run into people everyday attached to my childhood; consequently, the good, the bad and the ugly on Jeff Knight and TRC has been lived out in the city of Monroe! There are no secrets, no skeletons; believe me, if there were, someone in this town would know about it.

So yesterday this man, who has been coming to TRC for about 9-months, made this statement about TRC. He said, "Everything negative we had heard about The Rock Church is simply not true." I loved it! As an "ambiguity buster" of the gospel I get fired up when the ambiguity is busted about The Rock Church!

I was thinking today, what did he mean by "Everything"? He meant Common Misconceptions. Here are a few we have heard throughout the years:

We have heard there is a common misconception that people think they, "Have to dress a certain way to go to The Rock Church." Truth? We only want people dressed when they come to church. Is that asking too much?

We have heard there is a common misconception that people think, "The Rock Church doesn't want young people to date." Truth? We have an internship where we ask our interns to dedicate 10-months to God without a dating relationship and we are strong proponents of "rating your dating while waiting for mating," but we are not anti-dating. That's funny considering how many singles go to TRC every week! Shout out to the singles.

We have heard there is a common misconception that people say, "The Rock Church has lights, and loud music for worship; it is just a show." Random thought, "What church is still using candles?" Truth? Yes, we have lights of all colors. Loud music? WHAT? Just teasing, our music volume reflects the passion in our services and worship is a big part of our passion: some services are loud, others are not. Is it a show? No way, there are far too many people working toward the common goal of Connecting People to Life to be a show; nevertheless, it is not the church I grew up in, but that doesn't make it a show.

We have heard there is a common misconception that people think, "The Rock Church is one of those soft-relational-don't-talk-about-sin churches." Truth? There are not "soft" and "hard" churches when it comes to sin; in fact, there are only "with judgement" and "without judgment" churches when it comes to sin. I will take the "without judgement" approach every time, but that doesn't mean TRC does not confront sin. There are far too many people mad at us to be considered a "sin friendly" church. We just don't publish their names.

We have heard there is a common misconception that people say, "All they talk about is money at The Rock Church." Random thought, "What church is operating without a financial budget?" Truth? We talk about honoring God with our money by living generously. Do people seriously think nearly 1,000 people would attend a church every week that only talked about money?

We have heard there is a common misconception that people think, "The Rock Church is one of those, you know, emotional churches." Truth? We allow the Holy Spirit to guide our service planning and implementation. Are there people still wondering if God wants us to experience Him for real? Yes, God wants you to experience Him emotionally, socially, relationally. financially and physically and who would not want that? When people get saved, there are tears; water baptized, yep, more tears; and when people experience the fullness of God and the Holy Spirit, total joy! Yep, TRC is emotional for the things of God, but not in a weepy wimpy way, maybe in the 80's, but that was 20 years ago, we have heard all that before.

We were asked one time, "Does TRC fund a NASCAR Team and the building of Choppers?" That would be cool, but NO! Instead we use other peoples toys (NASCAR and Choppers) to reach people with the gospel. People don't think the Church owns all those cars at the annual Father's Day Car and Bike Show, do they? Although, how much fun would the staff have with those rides? :)

I was told one-time by a dear friend, "Jeff, you're too conservative to be charismatic and too charismatic to be conservative." My response, "Yes sir, God made me, and there are two ditches along every road."

The Rock Church is doing everything in its capacity to Connect People to Life--life with a capital L! The truth is TRC is not a church for everybody, but it is a church for somebody, so to all those somebody's out there, "Keep it up!" 48 re-commitments to Jesus and 15 first-time salvation's on Easter, with 91 water baptisms last weekend is not a Common Misconception! It is now a historical fact!

I love this town and our county! I love The Rock Church! Guess what? I love all the critics who have told us over the years what we couldn't do. I love EVERYTHING!

Let me say it again, "EVERYTHING negative we have heard about The Rock Church is not true." Now that'll preach on behalf of every church and in every city!

SWEET PICS

My racing family. Thanks Melinda for always letting me chase my dreams, in life, with God and on the track...

June 21, 2008, My first win!!!

My buddy Mike, Never forget you man...

The 2008 T...

Me and my life coach, Shandel Slaten...


My first trophy, 3rd place ASA Northwest Tour...

My first race ever, September 2006...

Submit your own caption...I was thinking, "Hold on Dan, this things is alive..."

Mark helped on Saturday at the track. He gave his life to Christ in March of 08 and has not looked back...this is why we race...

I love it when fans bring cookies to the track, they get to sit in the car...thanks Terry and Susan...
My Crew Chief, Steve Craig. Crew Chief and Driver Communication is essential...

Dan and Will, pre-race prep...

A quiet moment before the race...

Thanks for a great year Noland...

John in action...

Hanging out with Will and Scott...

Race Party...

In the pit...

Great Sponsors...

In the pits...

Night racing...

Flat out on the 5/8's back stretch...


Jeff Knight, Pastor of The Rock Church, entering turn 3 at Evergreen Speedway.

The 70 car under braking..

The 70 car through the center and starting to throttle up for corner exit...