Blake Goss

“Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.”   -John 4:23

Now read it again and you’ll see my vision and my prayer for the worship at Freedom Church:

“Yet a time is coming and has now come when the Freedom Church worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.”

May Freedom be the kind of worshipers that the Father seeks.

I’m a little behind blogging about our trip to Elevation Church because I’ve been so busy working my tail off ever since we got back. I felt like I soaked in so much wisdom from those guys that I had to put it into action and into systems as soon as possible. The guys at Elevation are unbelievable. I had the honor of meeting with their Worship Pastor, Wade Joye and Worship Leaders Mack Brock and Chris Brown. Those 3 guys are passionate about worshipping Jesus and seeing His people understand authentic worship. You can check out their brand new CD here. It rocks.

We’ve been blessed to see some amazing things happen at Freedom Church since we launched 6 months ago. I believe that what is about to happen at Freedom will blow away anything you have ever seen. God is moving Pastor JR, He’s moving in the staff and we’re about to see that revolutionary movement of God take off to a whole new level. If you’re not already a part of it, see ya sunday.

7.27.08

• Take It All- Hillsong United
• All Because Of Jesus- Fee
• Dare You To Move- Switchfoot
• Mighty To Save- Hillsong
• Glorious One- Fee

We had an incredible day yesterday celebrating Emily’s birthday. She is the most amazing wife a man could ever ask for and I loved getting to spend the entire day with her since it was my off day. The day started with my very own breakfast of champions: egg whites and whole wheat bagels. Then we took the dogs for a walk at red top mountain and took a nice picnic to dillinger park by the lake. After a well deserved nap from all the strenuous work we went to the cheesecake factory to enjoy a romantic dinner for two. As you can see……we really really like to eat. To finish the night off we went to see the new batman movie: The Dark Knight. It was just as good as everyone has been raving about. It was an awesome day and she deserved every bit of it. Happy Birthday Emily!

Psalm 97:1-6

The Lord reigns, let the earth be glad; let the distant shores rejoice.

Clouds and thick darkness surround him;

righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.

Fire goes before him and consumes his foes on every side.

His lightning lights up the world; the earth sees and trembles.

The mountains melt like wax before the Lord, before the Lord of all the earth.

The heavens proclaim his righteousness, and all the peoples see his glory.

Every week we like to evaluate the “energy” of the worship experience. We try to do things from the moment people get out of their car to the very end of the worship experience that creates high energy. Then the other day I really started thinking about how you measure good energy at church.

A lot of times people want to blame low energy on the audience. If people aren’t getting into the worship time we wonder what’s wrong with them. When in fact, if we allow the audience to control the energy, then the audience is the one leading us. Even though you are a part of the audience, don’t allow them to control your worship experience. This sounds like the most spiritual answer that could ever be given, but I believe the energy in our worship experience is the Holy Spirit. It’s possible to have people at church jumping up and down screaming, but they aren’t connecting with God. On the other hand, we could play a soft acoustic set and people are connecting with God more intimately than they ever have. Energy is not defined by the tempo of the music. 

“For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.” Every single sunday the energy (holy spirit) is already there when we arrive. Our energy is measured by whether or not we are in tune with Him. There’s always great energy, but we have to be passionate enough to join in.

7.20.08

• Solution- Hillsong United
• Your Grace Is Enough- Tomlin
• Let Me Sing- Todd Fields
• Beautiful The Blood- Fee
• How Great Thou Art- Carl Gustav Boberg

There’s been a lot of ranting and raving about the p90x workout. It’s a 90 day fitness program to get you in the best shape of your life. Ian and I started the workout a little over a month ago and have been joined by many people from freedom including JR and Todd. You can ask any one of us about the workout and we would tell you to imagine the hardest thing you’ve ever done x’s 10. It will absolutely push you to the limit and possibly even cause you to throw up, BUT you will be guaranteed to look the best and feel the best that you ever have. I just got done taking my 30 day “before and after” pics and I can already see and feel a big difference. No, I’m not posting them. If you want to jump on the p90x train and defy over 50% of our culture that is overweight and unhealthy then check it out here.

JR posted about how Emily and I are working on becoming debt free. We’ve been blessed to already pay off $23,000 worth of debt in just 4 1/2 months. I’ll post a longer entry later on explaining how it possible to payoff that much debt that quickly and how it will literally change your life. Fore now, here’s how you can help us finish off our quest to be debt free: buy this truck! It’s an 07′ tacoma with only 16K miles on it. It’s basically brand new and becoming debt free is my only reason for selling it. If you’re interested or know of someone else who may be interested then email me at blake@freedomlive.net.

PS- if you know a way to find a super cheap (or free) suv or truck you can email me as well. Thanks!

7.13.07

• Let God Arise- Tomlin
• We Are- Freedom Live
• Beautiful Jesus- Kristian Stanfill
• So Small- Carrie Underwood
• To Know Your Name- Hillsong