Tradition

Merry Christmas everyone!
NOW it really feels like Christmas. I had a really hard time this season feeling that it was actually the time of year, but today was certainly a great day!
Traditions can be pretty great. True, tradition tends to many times become sacred cows in our lives that limit us rather than uplift us, but when they are kept in a way that doesn't keep one in bondage but rather creates memories and deepens our recollection of what really matters, they are quite useful.
My family would have no traditions if it was not for Christmas. I really enjoy them, and I thought I'd share a few with you today! Leave me a Christmas tradition of yours on my facebook as I'd love to hear yours.
So here are a few:

*Christmas Eve is always spent with my mom's side of the family, even before my dad passed. Up untuil this year it was always at Grandpa and Grandma's, but this year we moved to a bigger house because there are too many great grandkids that have tipped the scale!

*Christmas Presents. Around my family, getting a gift for eachother is more important than getting a gift for eachother on our birthdays! Christmas actually supercedes birthdays! lol. I get at least one gift for each of my family members and everyone else does the same. Not just cheap gifts -- we really bring out the big bucks. Could be why we rarely get eachother anything for birthdays. lol.

*Christmas Breakfast. My dad used to make this massive buffet of ham, eggs, hasbrowns, toast, bacon, and more. We've done this as long as I can remember. Now my brother Justin cooks it, and Tyler and I assist. Great and yummy tradition!

*Christmas Cookie Buildup. Mom cooks all kinds of cookies (that we are not allowed to have before Christmas...but I sneak them anyways) and unleashes them for feasting on Christmas day.

*Do NOTHING! On Christmas Day we dont go anywhere. Every other holiday we keep that option open, but Christmas Day is reserved for just our family. This is priceless to me!

*Grandpa and Grandma. They come over and see what we got for Christmas, and Grandpa plays with something that we bought. Today he tried to put together Tyler's puzzle that has 300,000 possible ways to put together wrong. He didnt get very far, lol.

So in times like these I wonder how many of these traditions I will keep when I have a family of my own, and also how many we will make. None of these are sacred cows to me, but they are special at this point in my life. I'm looking forward to when I have a family of my own and we can have special Christmas' together!
It's been a wonderful Christmas and I hope yours was too. May you have wonderful memories with your family -- they are precious gifts from God!

...And to all a goodnight!

Love,
Chris

IHOP Adventure: Parts 3 & 4

Sometimes if you have trouble remembering the great things that have happened to you, the best thing to do is evaluate the change in your life and work backwards. I can tell you that something shifted in my life in a powerful way. I've been greatly impacted by their lifestyle of prayer and fasting, their unrelenting drive to contend for the Kingdom to invade, their passionate "lover and a fighter" bride and forerunner relationship to God, their depth upon depth of prophetic ministry both in music and in preaching. Some might ask why God chose to move at IHOP...I would ask why wouldn't He? They have prayed 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year for 10 years straight, and a move of God broke out. They eat, sleep, and breath prayer in cries for the last great global revival that will usher in the second coming of Christ. Of course, they haven't seen all that they have prayed for in the beginning stages of this awakening, but certainly this could be the beginning.
I went to the prayer room and was simply blown away. There were rooms for deliverance, prophetic, healing, Israel, travail, and more. Someone or band continuously playing live music, declaring the Word of God and interceding through instruments and singing. I have no doubt that from that room major disasters have been cancelled, 5-fold ministers have been called, lives have been saved, nations have been re-directed. How do I know this? John Wesley once said "God does nothing apart from the prayers of His people." God has chosen for us to partner with Him, and contending in prayer releases the finished work that He so desires to release. He just simply won't do it without us releasing His power through prayer. This is so much deeper than I can elaborate right now, so I apoloize for stopping here -- but I won't leave you hanging. Read Dutch Sheet's "Intercessory Prayer" and you'll never look at intercession the same again.
I left IHOP with two major takeaways, everything that I just said as one of them. I am not suddenly an IHOP maniac that is going to say they are the only ones who have it going on and I want to get out there. There are so many great movements across this country, such as what is going on at Bethel in Redding and the RAMP in Hamilton -- and of course, my church Victory Christian Center! My heart burns for this region, for VCC. There have been words spoken over this church of a great move of God coming to us. I just have finally gained the revelation via my trip to IHOP that God's promises are unlocked by intercessory prayer. Sounds silly that I didn't realize this before, but prayer is everything.
I'm becoming more and more consumed with the passion to pray and fast, to contend for the awakening to come in this region, for revival to break out at Victory that will completely be authenticated by the precious presence of the Holy Spirit showing up in full demonstration of Salvation -- deliverance, healing, and redemption.
So there you have just some of what God did. I know I didn't go into details of actual events, such as Misty Edwards in the prayer room singing about the redemption of a harlot. If you want to know more, just ask! Thank you for praying for me while I was there -- it was a trip I'll never forget!

With admiration,
Chris

IHOP Adventure: Part 2/4

Hey everyone!

So three guys jump in a car on Thanksgiving weekend, drive over 800 miles for an encounter with God that would change our lives. Sounds crazy, and I'm glad that I live in this world of crazy -- because this trip has been amazing.

Last night we went to the Awakening service, and right away God connected me with a friend from Victory! She came to our church years ago and left and came to IHOP. It was really good seeing her again and hopefully we will all connect later on tonight.

Julie Meyer led worship for the first half and it was incredible. These IHOP artists have an amazing ability to weave together multiple songs and use them to lead us into God's presence. They have more excellence, creativity, and depth in their music department than any ministry I've seen or learned about.

We got to witness Mike Bickle, Lou Engle, and others officially recognize Wes and Allen as the leaders of this Awakening. It was a beautiful thing to see fathers release sons to run with something that could forever change the course of the IHOP community and even the world. Mike has not spoken a single word in the webstreams that I've seen, and to see Mike so proud of them made my heart glad. Something else that was remarkable was this: Allen is the president of IHOP U, and Wes is on staff under him. Allen recognized that God's hand is on Wes to lead the Awakening, and submitted himself to his leadership in regards to it. I thought that was a beautiful display of how the body of Christ can work -- choosing to submit to those who God's hand is upon for a specific task, even if they are under your leadership. Wow.

There is no superstar mentality here. Everyone contributes, from the worship leading to the ministry. There hasn't even been preaching -- just the leadership recognizing what God wants to do and run with it.

A highlight of the night is when Julie Meyer prophesied over Wes...she began to sing over him something that God sang over Him in a dream, and oh my...it was overwhelming!

Something shifted in me at a certain portion of the night that I know that I'm set free from. I wont share it yet, for now it is "secret history" as Bill Johnson would call it. All I know is that I got the main drive of what I came for last night, and I'm THRILLED!

btw, Misty Edwards led worship for the second half. Amazing. She is definitely my favorite worship leader ever.

Today we are going to the IHOP prayer room and then to one last service before we begin the long journey home. Please pray for me -- I'm excited at what God is doing in me!

With admiration,

Chris

IHOP Adventure, Part 1/4

This weekend I'm going to the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, MO! I'm leaving Thansgiving night. It will be short, but I know that God wants to do some significant things on the inside of me.
To give you some backround, God has awakened their University, and they have been having nightly meetings where healing, deliverance, souls saved have happened in amazing ways. I've been tuning in via webstream and Holy Spirit has been depositing things in me, so now I'm on my way to receive first hand!
To be honest, I've never done anything like this before -- and by that I mean I've never jumped into a car with little planning and drove across the country seeking an encounter with God. But I know that something significant is going to happen as a result if me going.
So I do have a cast of characters joining me in this adventure! Wayne Anderson is coming with me, and I'm really glad that he is. Wayne is my cousin and in YMC as a first year student, and I greatly admire his gift of faith. This is the man who went to Lakeland a year and a half ago with no money or a place to stay -- just completely on the stirring of the Holy Spirit to go for it. God changed him forever down there and now he is with YMC pursuing his destiny. He told me about the IHOP meetings and we soon realized that we needed to get down there. Wayne had no money -- but stepped out in faith as he so often does by committing to come with me. As a result, someone blessed him yesterday with money to go! One thing I want this weekend is the grace of the 1 Corinthians 12 faith that he operates in to rub off on me!
My brother Justin Loncar is also going. I call him my little big brother because he is younger than I, but certainly physically bigger than me! But more than that, I admire him because he has the kindest heart of anyone I know, constantly thinking of others before himself. He may be younger than I but I learn things from him, just like I'm learning great faith from Wayne -- oh, the beauty of the body of Christ to be able to learn from even those you have been given a measure of authority over!
Please pray for us as we travel. We live at 8:00 PM Thursday and will drive all through the night! I'll update you through blogs. If you'd like to watch the live stream of the services, go to ihop.org/watch. They are 7PM - 1 AM nightly.
I love you and can't wait to share all that God does! Happy Thanksgiving!

If It Ain't Broken, Break It!

I had the privilege of teaching a class on creativity last year. I said something that, at the time, I didn't know would be so huge in my life over the summer. So, this is what I told the then 1st year students:

"Remember that what worked for you during your 1st year will not work your 2nd year."

I said this to challenge them to grow to a new level, because while you could grow at a slow pace during your first year and most of the time be ok, during your second year you must accelerate because there are hungry first years right behind you. You simply won't last if you do not grow. Little did I know that this concept would be the battle of my summer for a young minister in his first year of vocational ministry.
This summer was rough for me, and I felt like I hit a wall in ministry. I certainly wasn't used to running into walls I couldn't burst through in short periods of time...nothing usually held me back for very long. But this summer and early fall was different as I felt like I was at a complete standstill in my growth in the Lord and ministry. I even crashed into Pastor Sergio's basement, spilling out how I felt.
While there were several reasons, there is one I'd like to share with you. I came to realize that I was doing what had always worked. Praying at the same depth, preaching with the same fervency, reading at the same pace. And while those things worked for last year, I realized that I subconsciously decided not to go after the greater things. Pastor Thomas tell us staff that we shouldn't wait for something to go bad before we change, but always have enough foresight to see what's ahead and creatively move to the next level before it stops working.
During my first year of YMC, I remember Pastor Chris talking with us and bringing a reality check. He said that we needed to grow at a faster pace because the incoming 1st years were hungry, radical, and on fire. We all felt the healthy pressure to grow not only for our own individual destiny's sake, but for those who were to follow. So together we prayed harder, learned intentionally, and stepped up our vigor to grow. By the end of our first year Pastor Chris commended us for growing where we needed to be, and we held the standard high for the radical 1st years to go after.
Someone once said "If it ain't broken, break it!", and I do agree. I'm thankful for all that God has put in me that has worked, but it wont work forever. I'm evaluating everything in my life with this prospective, because I want to continue to grow. I hate walls, but we will run into the from time to time. And as the late Randy Pausch said, the brick walls aren't there to keep people from getting through, it's to keep the people out who don't want it bad enough.
So excuse me while I go break through some walls -- it's reading time!

Heritage

Friends,
below is an old journal entry when I recollected my 7th and 8th grade years in Victory's youth ministry, REPO. I post this to honor everyone who impacted me, and thank them for sowing into me life! As you read, remember the little things you say and do for younger people make an extraordinary impact.
Though they were not in this journal entry, I must also thank Pastor Sergio, Luis Bonilla, Adam Quinonez, Brian Baber, and Ruben Gutierrez. You made such an impact!

“REPO City Revolution.”

Ah, REPO. I entered that place in the seventh grade, totally pumped and excited to finally be there. It was the place to be and everyone seemed so cool. The fun that we heaerd happened there was enough to get us to count down the days until we get got there. I had and still have quite a big class…names like Isaac Arroyo, Paul Barth, Rachael Rauch and Amanda Prentice come to mind right away. When we finally got there the course of my life changed forever. I remember my first game of basketball at REPO. Ziko Millen chose all of us seventh graders to be on his team. I felt so special to be on such an awesome(he was a good basketball player…I’d have to see his skills now to see if he still got game, haha) guy’s team and it boosted my confidence. Then game a guy named Eric Waser. He took me under his wing and dicipled me. I remember playing basketball with him and I tried a hook shot. He called me Kareem Abdul Jabar! DO you have any idea how much that impacted my life? He compared me to a pro basketball player! Talk about cloud nine…and I still remember that to this day. I remember details as well, like how it was dark outside and what end of the court we were on. Truly a defining moment. He bought me an official REPO journal(even though I lost it, heh) and asked often to save him a seat, or he’d say that he’d save on for me. I also remember his girlfriend at the time. She was also wonderful and I remember one particular time I wound up sitting my her. To this day every once in awhile when I see her I still sit by her. The kindness of the people of REPO never faded and throughout the years I made many friends, and for the most part they were all college aged. I found that the friends that I had grown up with I wasn’t close with anymore. There was an MC student named John Sekanic. I remember the first time I met him. We were playing pool. We got o be close and many Mondays he would come over and we would go get an Aldi’s pizza for two dollars and eat. John really invested into my life and was a key in me receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit. There’s so many more who made an impact on my life…names like Justin White, Andy, Rick Johngrass, Jason Dinoble, John Giese…the list of people can go on. The incredible kindness and reaching out to the younger guy’s and girls by all of these older, much cooler people impacted me more than any actual ministry from the pulpit, because if it hadn’t been for that, would I have continued to attend REPO? If I didn’t feel accepted by the people, would I have felt accepted by God? It blows me away to think of how the course of my life might have changed if people like Eric and John hadn’t reached out to me. Early on in REPO, the foundation years were taking place. I remember going to the right side of the room for worship where all the guys worshipped. I saw the passion in the singing, the energy of the crowd, and the breaking sticks of the drummer. What excitement…what an experience(even though my glasses got broken once after being hit by a jumping worshipper). We sang songs like “The People Who Know There God” and “Lord I lift Your Name On High”, as well as the classic “REPO You”. Pastor Chilly lead with Becky Thomas and a few others singing. Pastors wife Netta and Sarah Stankich played the keyboards, while various people played guitars and bass like Jake and Scottie. Sometimes the Spirit of God was so strong that we had to continue worship the whole night. I can remember many defining moments in my life at REPO, like when we went to Boot Camp at Wesely Woods. That was the REPO City Revolution. I remember worshipping up front at an altar call or something. I wish just sobbing and sobbing, the Holy Spirit just blasted me and I can’t explain how I felt or why I was crying. All I know is that I was being changed…I remember tucking my head in my shirt continuing to cry, and Eric praying for me. That Boot Camp was incredibly powerful and revolutionary in my life. It was at the end of my first summer and it set me up for even more wild times with God...

The 5th Year Student

It's Thursday today, and YMC is scattered across the region, catching their breath from an intense week of serving and learning, breaking and shaping, dying and living, laughing and crying. Most are studying the Word for their reports and writing them, memorizing their Scriptures, or catching up on some SEU reading.
I've been incredibly blessed and privileged to be a part of VCC's Master's Commission since it re-launched back in the fall of '05. I have never experienced anything quite like it, as it has transformed my life over the past 4 years. I have come from being an insecure, rebellious, unbroken, and confused student; to a confident, submitted, broken, and stable-minded student.
But notice that the same about point A and point B is that I'm a student. I've grown so much over the past 4 years, and while I am in pastoral leadership with YMC under Pastor Sergio, I am still a student, wanting all that God has for me and never quite embracing a sense of arrival.
In my first year, the theme established by then-Director Pastor Juan was "Capturing the Heart of God", so I made that my personal theme. In my second year I came up with one that I felt God laid upon my heart for me, and it was "There's Another Me". It was inspired by a song with that title and I became convinced that there truly was another better me waiting at the end of my 2nd year. Truly there was, for in the time period of a year my parents divorced, my Grandpa died, and my father died. At that point, grownth was no longer optional -- it was mandatory, and suddenly responsibility was dropped onto me that a 21 year old kid could never handle well without God's grace.
So recalling the years I established themes for my life, God gave me one for this year: "The 5th Year Student". One normally graduates after two years, but I'm going into my 5th. I know that I'm a pastor, I know I've taken the classes, I know I've graduated the program. But I haven't graduated from learning. I'm going to be that student sitting under the impartation of Pastor Thomas with my pad, pen, and Bible ready; I'm going to be that student serving the needs entrenched in unpleasant circumstances; I'm going to be that student who will graduate his 5th year through the program -- not because I've been held back, but because I am moving forward.
So it's Thursday and YMC is scattered everywhere once again, and today I join them in study to become everything that God has for me to be; for there is yet another me waiting at the end of this year.

A Selfish Post

Let me first say thank you to myself for writing this blog.

Not quite your customary opening statement, I know -- but it needed to be said. I love to write, as few people know. It is a gift I know that's inside me, but it hasn't quite matured or has gone public for my realm influence just yet. I fear too often people write blogs, post facebook statuses, and obsessively count their twitter followers because we're longing to be noticed, liked, entertaining, and other things I haven't thought of. I myself have fallen into those traps from time to time, but I'm a firm believer that if you have a gift, you should give it your best no matter what.

For example, I preached a message last week that I felt was a word that could have been saved for a special service we are going to do in October. I prayed about it and debated it (we often debate in our heads more than we just give it to God) and knew it was a word for right now. So I preached it, and God did what only he could do and we saw some huge breakthrough that night! I was challenged to take that which was special and apply it to the norm, so that which is special becomes normal. You may have to read my last statement over to really get it. Think about it: when we put amazing effort into something and something special happens, we shouldn't go back to what was normal before. We should make the results of excellence, growth, or breakthrough the norm so when something special happens again, it's a whole other level. You wouldn't call a yearly deliverance service a success if students were going back to their old lives after the "special" was over, only to get it broken off again a year later. That would make the service useless if they always go back to normal.

So while I hope you are blessed by this blog, I have decided to write for me. As selfish as it sounds, I find it rather self-less. I'm not writing so that I can have all kinds of readers, I need to write so that I can understand just what is in me. I need to write so that I can use what God has given me to glorify Him. There is a lot in me, and I find that things make more sense when I write things out. Perhaps you should think about being more "selfish", too -- how often do you act in such a way that isn't aimed at impressing someone? Do something because you love it. Your gift will make a way for you and it will bless and impact people, and you'll be thankful for it -- but you wont be obsessed over it. And that is a healthy thing.

So...here are my freethoughts.

--Chris