Wade Joye

Last Mt. Horeb Set List

7.29.07

Everlasting God - Lincoln Brewster
Mighty to Save/Hallelujah- Hillsong
Everything - Tim Hughes
The Stand - Hillsong United

Goodbyes

Yesterday was my last day on staff at Mt. Horeb. Worship at the contemporary service was the most powerful it has ever been, and it was nice to pull back from the mic and hear so many voices singing to Jesus with joy and adoration. The church was extremely gracious to Ferris and me and gave us a gift of two nights at the Indigo Inn in Charleston. We are looking forward to the chance to take a little mini-vacation sometime this fall.
After the serice, the youth threw us a going away party at the lake. So many people showed up, and we felt very loved and appreciated. Words cannot express how much we will miss our Mt. Horeb family, especially our friends in the youth ministry. These three years have been special to us, and I can't wait to hear reports about the new and greater things that God does in Lexington through you.
I have to say that growing up in the church, most of the time when I have seen people leave, one or both parties ends up making things difficult and it can get messy. Thankfully, the Lord has blessed us with a church that is excited about the new steps God is calling me and Ferris to take. I am also glad that God gave me the grace to finish well. This was such an encouraging experience for me. Now I am looking forward and am about to explode with enthusiam for all that awaits in Charlotte at Elevation! Less than two weeks!

Mom

Today is my mom’s birthday, and she is definitely a mom worth celebrating. She is such an incredible woman of God. We went to what we thought was going to be a birthday party for her, and it ended up being a surprise going away party for Ferris and me. We had a great time, and it is a perfect example of the type of woman she is. She always puts others before herself, especially her family. There is not enough room on this blog to write about all of the times she has sacrificed for me, encouraged me and faithfully labored in prayer for me. Everyday that I was in college, she sent me a card with a verse of Scripture and a note of encouragement. I got mail everyday, and my friends were so jealous! She has always been the cool mom that my friends love being around, too. More importantly she has invested in the lives of so many of the youth at her church and been a spiritual mentor to them. Being in youth ministry for 3 years, I have become even more thankful for the godly example my mom set for me growing up. Mom, thanks for raising me with such unconditional love and for constantly pointing me to Jesus. I love you!

Healed

I had an incredible encounter this past Wednesday with a guy who has just started attending Mt. Horeb. Here is the backstory. This man is a well-known local musician who has played in several bands and toured around the Southeast. He was recently diagnosed with lung cancer and was given only months to live. One doctor said that he wouldn't make it past May. Anyway, this summer God led some people into his life and he committed His life to Jesus. His friend invited him to Mt. Horeb a few weeks ago, and at the end of the service there was an opportunity to come forward if you wanted prayer for healing. He responded and two staff members prayed over him. This type of service maybe happens once a year at Mt. Horeb. Here is the amazing part of the story. The next day, he went into the doctor and there was no sign of cancer anywhere in his body. He had been completely healed. Now, he said the doctors were hesitant to use that word, but they couldn't explain what had happened. In fact, one told him that people in his condition simply don't get better.
He has been changed dramatically by this experience, and now wants to use his life to advance the gospel. There is such a spirit of gratefulness and joy that radiates from him, and his enthusiam to reach his friends who are far from God is intense. He has such a powerful story, and I believe God will use him in a mighty way. It was an encouraging and powerful time for me as I talked with him. I have heard stories of God healing people, but I had never talked with someone who had been healed in such a dramatic way. I mean most people thought he should not be alive right now, and yet here he stands as a witness to the power of Jesus. Our God truly is mighty to save.

Everyone Is a Music Critic

We have all heard people who don't like electric guitars in worship and who think drums are the epitome of all things evil (unless they are terrible sounding electronic drums which for some reason can be considered holy). Anyway, check out these quotes from some of our church fathers who said the same things about traditional instruments. It kind of makes you laugh at people who get worked up over the traditional vs. contemporary debate.

Worship Set

7.22.07 Worship Set

• Awesome Is The Lord Most High - Chris Tomlin
• Beautiful One - Tim Hughes
• Kingdom Come - HIllsong United
• How Great Is Our God - Chris Tomlin

Crazy Week

Last week was intense, crazy and amazing. I had my first official Elevation staff experience on the Staff Advance, which you can read about here. The goals we set and prayers we prayed for next year are huge and hard to even wrap my mind around. I can't wait to jump in and be a part of what God is doing there.
On a different note we bought a house! My wife has chronicled the whole process on her blog. I am so happy with how everything worked out. Larry Hubatka has been great as our realtor and definitely helped us get exactly what we wanted. Apparently the room she is most excited about fixing up is my music room, so that works out well for me. I feel incredibly blessed right now and so thankful. Life is good.

Happy Birthday Ferris!

So this weekend we celebrated my wife's birthday (it was Friday). She is the love of my life and my best friend and I wanted her to have the perfect weekend. We got to have some good quality time, spent time with our family and kicked it with some friends. It was so refreshing. I love celebrating Ferris and what an amazng woman she is. She is such a precious gift from God and I am extremely thankful for her. The funny story from yesterday was waking her up with a helium Happy Birthday balloon tied to Scooter's collar. Scooter was freaked out by the balloon and ran all over the house trying to escape it, but since it was attached to him he failed miserably. Once he calmed down, we woke Ferris up with a cake, a balloon and a very scared dog. Today was spent on the lake even though it was cold and rainy but once again I proved my wakeboarding prowess. All in all, a great weekend. Happy Birthday Ferris!

Transitions

I had a great meeting today with our youth staff as we worked through a lot of transitional issues. My goal has been to do my best to set up the youth ministry to not only succeed after I am gone, but also to grow and surpass anything we have seen so far. We have amazing staff who I believe are much more skilled at youth ministry than I am, so in terms of leadership we are in great shape. Our systems have improved, although there is a lot of room to improve there, so we examined a lot of that today and wrestled with some good strategic questions. I really believe that God is going to do crazy things in the lives of our students this fall and I want to make sure that we have everything in place so that we are doing our part to move them along in their next step of obediance in their relationship with Jesus.

This transition process has been really encouraging to me. Everyone in the church has been extremely supportive and genuinely excited about our move to Elevation. The staff has been amazing, also. This positive atmosphere is not always the case in many places, so I feel blessed. My prayer is that I have led well, helped to build a strong enough foundation and empowered people in ministry so that I won't even be missed. It would be such a poor testimony of leadership if things fell apart because one individual left. I have always wanted to finish well in anything that God has called me to, and lately I have been greatly encouraged and excited about the future of youth ministry at Mt. Horeb. Our staff is going to make some noise in Lexington.

That'll Preach

Just listened to the second installment of Elevation's latest series, Confessions of a Pastor. Pastor Furtick is bringing it in this series, and a quote from the latest sermon, entitled Lots of Christians Get On My Nerves, rocked my world. Religion makes your personal preference a biblical principle. How many times have we made worship about our personal preferences? About what best strokes our ego for the day? And because we mandate our own preferences to others as if we speak for God, how many times have we as the Church been a stumbling block from people coming to know Jesus? This especially rears it's ugly head with worship music. It is so easy to be critical because the style doesn't suit us. As the Church, we exist for Jesus and for others, not for ourselves. I know many people who are struggling and feel stuck in churches that only think about themselves and ignore the enormous need around them. I am so thankful that both the church I currently serve at and the one that I am so excited to soon be a part of exist to make the name of Jesus famous.