Matt grew up in a Christian home in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, where he enjoyed surfing and beach volleyball. Rachel grew up in Madison and attended Blackhawk from a very young age. They are both graduates of Wheaton College, where they met playing volleyball. They were married at Blackhawk in 1994, and were involved in youth ministry in Ft. Lauderdale for the next three years. From 1997 to 2000 they served with Peak 3, a high adventure ministry to youth in Colorado. They moved to Madison and Matt began his ministry at Blackhawk in August/September 2000. Hannah was born in October 1999 and Leah on January 1, 2002.

We have has a very cool opportunity placed in front of us from our friends at the Majestic theater.  The owners of the Majestic have been asked by the city to oversee the Mifflin Street Block Party and in light of this big undertaking, they have asked if we might consider helping with clean up the day of the event.  At Blackhawk, we love Madison, the downtown neighborhoods and the University so helping at something like this just feels right.  We are looking forward to showing people the love of Jesus by how we serve people by cleaning up.  Who knows what God has in store for us???

Here is an article about Mifflin this coming year which you may want to take a look at this article….

http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/article_d6cebe2a-3ea9-5da7-b244-93d26a17a248.html

Alright…  So first off,  I feel like I need to apologize for speaking so long last night.  Who do I think I am???  Thanks for hanging in there with me.   Since I finished though, I’ve had quite a few facebook messages, emails and texts about putting the link to the Bells Beach Open up here.  So here you go….

http://live.ripcurl.com/index.php?aid=1406&q=Bells11Highlights

THis first one is of the highlights from the quarter finals through the finals with Joel Parkinson and Mick Fanning.  You can watch this one if you wan tto get more of a feel for the whole contest and other surfers involved.

http://live.ripcurl.com/?aid=1409&q=Bells11MensFinals

The next one is the highlight 3 minutes of the final.  You get more of a feel of Parko’s last wave in this one.  If the surfing isn’t enough for you already, the commentators Australian accents just add to the cool factor.

Lastly, here are the articles from the NY Times about the church in China.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/18/world/asia/18beijing.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=ilicit%20church,%20evicted&st=cse

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/25/world/asia/25church.html?src=ISMR_AP_LO_MST_FB

If you are interested in hearing more about the topic we discussed last night on Acts 3 & 4, I got a lot of my ideas from a series Andy Stanley taught called “Big Church” which looks at the movement of the 1st century church through the book of Acts.  Commentaries I used were The NIV Application Commentary on Acts by Ajith Fernando and Acts For Everyone by N.T. Wright.

Let’s Be Bold,

Matt

It’s good Friday today.  We had amazing Maundy Thursday services last night at Blackhawk on Brader way!  A great time for our community to take a look at John 13, to worship and to take communion together.   These services we have at Blackhawk our some of my favorites of the year.

Then, this morning, as I got up, I had a chance to look at the gospel account of Jesus crucifixion with my daughters.  As we looked at them  together and talked through Jesus’ unbelievable love for us, we went back and read Isaiah 53 together.  Amazing to think of how much earlier this passage was written from the time of Jesus’ death.  And amazing to see how it foreshadows Jesus’ life and death.

As you prepare for Easter, or even if you are reading this after Easter, take a look at Isaiah 53.  May it bring you to a place of worshiping our King!  Jesus, the lamb of God who comes to take away the sins of the world!!!!

When I came on staff at Blackhawk Church back in September of 2000, I was hired on as the first college and young adult pastor the church had brought to the team.  It’s crazy to remember all that has taken place since then.  As I think back over all of that time, there seems to be a constant trend of change due to directions that God was taking us as a church community.  In that time, I moved from college  and young adult pastor to specifically doing college ministry due to growth of the amount of college students calling Blackhawk Church home.  I was also asked to add to my job helping our church launch video venues over 8 years ago. (Not something I had on my radar when I was hired.)  Anyone who has been a part of Blackhawk knows that this model has become an important facet of who we are as a church and how we worship.  In that time too, we grew as a church and went through the process of relocating as a church much farther from downtown and campus.  This was a huge change for us as a community.

That history brings us up to where Blackhawk was as a church about 2 years ago when the leadership of the church asked me to pray about launching an off-site campus of Blackhawk church in the downtown area which would be geared towards the people calling the downtown area home.  Thus the beginning of Blackhawk Church Downtown meeting at the Majestic Theater on King Street.  We began meeting this past September and now with about 400 people worshiping in 2 services on Sunday mornings, things are going well!

In light of the movement we are seeing downtown from God, Blackhawk leadership has asked me to scale back my hours in college ministry and focus more of my time into our downtown church.   I am excited about this for a couple of different reasons.  One is that I love seeing what God is doing in our community downtown and stoked to see how He desires to use us in the downtown area to help other people understand who Jesus is.  The other part for me though is that I still get to keep my fingers dipped into college ministry helping with leadership and teaching.  I love college age people still just as much as I did when I first took the job at Blackhawk over a decade ago!

The other exciting piece of change in my opinion is that CAM is adding a new staff position and promoting another staff member!  Emily Nelsen has been working full time on our CAM team for the last year is going to be promoted to the position of Associate Director of College Age Ministries at Blackhawk.  With everything we have handed Emily over the last year, she has been a rock star and we believe this change in position for her will give her the chance to continue to flourish at an even greater degree.

We have also hired Kayla Dunnum as Ministry Assistant to continue to help with the process of taking care of all facets of our college ministry and taking care of college age people well.  Kayla has been an intern for us this past year and has proven herself to be a highly capable young woman with great teaching potential.  We’re excited to have her on the team.

Like I said at the beginning of this note, change has been the norm around here for the entire time I have been on staff….and as I look back I am able to see that the change taking place has been the hand of God moving us in different directions he has desired for us to go.  My prayer is that in this new time of change, that God would lead us in the directions he would have us go and that we would follow him well in it.

Matt

Last night we started our new series at CAM called “Bad Romance.”  We began to take a look at the whole concept of dating and the reality that the vast majority of dating relationships we step into our most likely going to end with up break up which we could call bad romance.  Dating is complicated and hard to figure out.  It can be frustrating to figure out what dating is supposed to look like these days.  In the talk, I showed some classic book covers on the topic of dating. Trying to figure out how to put them up on this site.  As soon as I do, you will be able to enjoy them for a long time!

Also, another aspect that helped me in prepping for my talk were dating series created by Louie Giglio from Passion and Ben Stuart from Breakaway.  If you are interested, Buckhead Church in Atlanta Georgia is also doing a series on this subject right now.

Great passages to study on the idea of us being desired by God are Psalm 139 and 1 John 4.  Take a look at them and if you have thoughts, post them on here after you have looked at them.

Hey everyone.  Wanted to give you an update about our plan for CAM tonight, Feb 1, 2011.  Due to our blizzard warning in the area, we are scaling back our normal night.  CAM will still happen tonight for those of you who want to come over, hangout, have some hot chocolate and enjoy a more low key evening.  We still think it’s going to be a great night worth your time!  However, if you normally drive to CAM, take the night off, stay home and be safe.

Also, many people were going to be signing up for the CAM retreat tonight so if you haven’t signed up yet, send an email to Emily at enelsen@blackhawkchurch.org and let her know you are coming.

Stay warm tonight!!  Happy Blizzard Night!

Matt

I’ve had some people ask me about references that I used in preparation for my sermon that I preached at Brader Way on Dec 5.  Here are a few of the books I found super helpful.

The NIV Application Commentary on Philippians by Frank Thielman

Paul for Everyone by N.T. Wright

Searching for God Knows What by Donald Miller

Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis

Descending Into Greatness by Bill Hybels

Hope these help you as you continue to unpack Philippians 2:1-11.  It one of my favorite passages in scripture.  BTW, I can’t tell you how excited I am to preach on this passage live at Blackhawk Downtown this Sunday, December 12.  Nothing like preaching a sermon in a bar….

Hey guys.  To all of you who made it to CAM last night, hope that you enjoyed the evening Mark and Leslie Johnson.  As they mentioned, they would be happy to hear from you with any questions that you might have for them.  Here are their email addresses.

Mark Johnson – mej@athletics.wisc.edu

Leslie Johnson -lesliej@schorr.net

They also both attend the 4:30 service Blackhawk service in the East side auditorium so if you ever want to join them their, feel free.  Go up and ask them if they’d like to sing a song…..

There are certain weeks where it just seems that there is just too much good stuff coming up at a time.  This is one of those weeks for me.  Tonight, Monday, Sept 27, Passion Conferences is holding their Live Link on Line at 7:30 Central Time.  If you have never experienced one of these events, you have to check it out.  Blackhawk College Ministry has been a part of many of Passions Events for the past 10 years and we will be traveling to the Passion Coference this Christmas Break again.  To check out tonights on line event, go to https://secure.secure268.com/livelink/. 

Next is Tuesday night at 8PM at the Regent where Mark & Leslie Johnson will be coming to speak at CAM this week.  Mark is the head coach of the UW women’s hockey team.  He was a member of the 1980 gold medal olympic team and most recently was the head coach of the women’s olympic silver medal team last year. For more info on Mark, go to the  UW Badger Page.  I met with Mark and Leslie yesterday for a couple of hours to talk through Tuesday night.  We had a blast! Trust me, this won’t be a night that you want to miss.  They will be talking about what it looks like to follow Christ through the roller coaster of life. 

Lastly, this weekend is the CAM Fall Retreat!  For me, this is always a highlight of the semester as we take time to get away, escape the stress of classes and get to know one another better.  the deadline for signing up for the retreat is Tuesday night so sign up now! http://www.blackhawkcam.org/us/events/ We want you to be there.  Hope you can make it.

Like I said…..too much good stuff in one week!!

Last night at CAM I talked about how every person who has ever lived on this planet underestimates God. It doesn’t matter where a person is at on their spiritual journey. Everyone does it. I don’t believe that anyone gets to the gates of heaven, sees God and says, “Is that it??”

Our hope at CAM is that every week that we come together, we gain a more clear perspective of who Jesus is that we might underestimate God less from undertanding Him more.

In the talk I used some different passages of scripture along with a quote from C.S. Lewis. Here are the different passages and the quote.

Romans 11:33-36
33Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and[a] knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments,
and his paths beyond tracing out!
34″Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor?”[b]
35″Who has ever given to God,
that God should repay him?”[c]
36For from him and through him and to him are all things.
To him be the glory forever! Amen.

Matthew 8:23-27
Jesus Calms the Storm
23Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. 24Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. 25The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!”
26He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.
27The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!”

Eph 3:16-20
16I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. 20Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

“If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered to us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” – C.S. Lewis The Weight of Glory