Kirk Bowman's blog

Thanksgiving was a blast this year. We had 25-30 people over for a great day of feasting and hanging out together.

It was a great mixture of friends and family. Long time friends (almost 25 years of friendship). A guy who used to be in my teen ministry way back in the day - now with a wife and 3 kids. New friends. A newly married couple. Lots of church friends and then my awesome family.

My wife is an excellent hostess and cook so everything was perfect for the day. Jambalaya and oyster dressing are two New Orleans dishes that I anxiously await every Thanksgiving and Christmas. Suzette does them so well.

I think some of the main things I am thankful for were represented on that day. My amazing wife. My gorgeous girls. Long time friends. New friends. Church friends who have stuck with us through thick and thin. Family. Health. Home. Blessing.

I hope your Thanksgiving was blessed as well.

Still reflecting on my latest trip to Ghana and what a powerful event it was. I've been pondering an idea as a result of my time there.

The idea is: Find out what God is blessing and then become a part of it.

It's so much better than trying to get God to bless what we want Him to bless. God is good, but He is stubborn. He is God, we are not. So I want to go with His flow rather than trying to get Him to go with my flow.

This analogy always helps me : If I want the hand of God on my life, find out where His hand is and then get under it.

"Why change the world? Change worlds!"
Henry Miller

I want to get in the world of God's blessing and favor and then bring others in with me.

After 42 hours of travel (each way) , I returned late Saturday night to Asheville from Kumasi, Ghana. The trip was grueling but it was well worth it.

Partnering with Dr. David Shibley and Global Advance ministries, I had the opportunity to minister to 1,500 pastors and leaders from around Ghana.

It was amazing! I felt swept up into something greater than any of us could have put together on our own. It was a God moment. God is up to something great in Africa.

Some highlight reel moments for me.

1. Watching every single one of those guys sow into an offering to help sponsor another conference for leaders to be held in northern India. What a holy moment as they gave unselfishly from what little they have to help someone else hear the gospel.

2. While I was teaching on "The power of a proclamation", I encouraged them to take a minute to proclaim the praise of our awesome God. The Holy Spirit took over the meeting and for 15 solid minutes we all declared the greatness of God. It was electric.

3. At the end of the conference, Dr. Shibley called them to commit to plant at least one new church in the next 12 months and for some of them to go cross cultural if they would. Watching hundreds and hundreds of guys stand with determination to answer that call was so touching. It wasn't just the numbers but the presence of God in the moment was powerful.

The African pastors and leaders are such beautiful people. Humble, serving like crazy and completely sold out to God and His cause on the planet. They all danced in worship like little kids. Joyful and without a care for anything but expressing their praise to God. It was fun to experience.

Thank you to all who prayed with us. Your prayers affected a nation!

In just a couple of days I leave to minister in a pastor's conference in Ghana, Africa.

I'm joining up with our great friend, David Shibley, who started and heads up Global Advance ministries. Global Advance is one of the premier missions ministries in the world and our church was one of the first to support them in their beginning 17 years ago.

This will be my first time in Africa . The 18th nation I've had the privilege of ministering in.

A few ideas swimming around in my head going in to this:

1. Relationships are the door to everything - I get the privilege of ministering to 1900 pastors in Ghana because of my connection with David. An opportunity afforded me by a relationship.

2. The gospel is universal, every culture is unique. Having had the opportunity to experience so many different cultures has given me a great appreciation for the uniqueness of each nation. So there always has to be a unique understanding of the culture we find ourselves in and how to "voice" the gospel to be heard in that culture. This principle applies to spreading the gospel in Asheville or Africa.

3. You can go anywhere from here. I live in Asheville, a small town of 70,000 people. But I can go anywhere on the planet from here. Where you live does not have to define how big or small your life can be.

4. I am blessed. I get to experience the whole world and all it's many colors and textures. God has given me so many opportunities to spread His good news all over planet earth. I love being the bearer of good news.

Pray for us!

Tonight we're having a Family Fun Night for kids and families. It will be a safe and family oriented way for kids to dress up and play and eat lots of candy. And have fun.

It's something we like to provide for our community. A way to bless. A bridge we're building.

I can remember the days when we used to almost boycott Halloween. It was the devil's day and we would have nothing to do with it. Certainly, there are some gruesome and yucky aspects to Halloween that I wouldn't really want to endorse.

I even preached messages against Halloween.

Now, I don't see Halloween as a hill to die on. I'd rather use the opportunity to build a bridge rather than build (yet another) wall.

There are some hills to die on. No question. The Lordship of Jesus, the Cross, the Bible as God's word, Salvation.

But when there's a chance to bless and build a bridge I'd rather do that than fight a battle for a hill that's really not worth dying on.

Yesterday we had a blast at church!

We were pausing to celebrate our church's 18th birthday. 18 years of journey. 18 years of God writing the story. 18 years of blessing.

Suzette and Tori and I moved here with $500 and a dream. And a whole bunch of naivete about church planting. We didn't know anyone in Asheville and certainly didn't know how to start a church. We've certainly made our share of mistakes along the way.

Our 18 years have had their ups and downs for sure. Highlight reel moments and tearful, painful moments as well. My takeaway on it all - God is good and always faithful to His word.

From that little seed of faith and hope our church has grown to 900 members and over $6 million in assets. Thousands of people have been touched. We are grateful for God's blessing.

Our dream of a life-giving church full of color and fun and music and friendships and lifting people rather than condemning them still burns brightly.

I know God will be as good and as faithful in the next 18 years as He has been in the last 18.

The party is still on.

Party on, Wayne! Party on, Garth!

This is from my Bible reading in Joshua this morning:

All the tribes of Israel were given their allotments of land by God.
But they still had to go in and take possession of what had been given them.

Everything God gives must be taken.

The sons of Joseph are given their allotment but start complaining because it's too small and there are some difficulties involved in taking their piece of land.

Joshua says to them:
JOS 17:18 but the hill country shall be yours. For though it is a forest, you shall clear it, and to its farthest borders it shall be yours; for you shall drive out the Canaanites, even though they have chariots of iron and though they are strong. "

I love this phrase: For though it is a forest, you shall clear it

When we were building our buildings a few years ago, the piece of land we had was rolling and forested. Through a vision of what we wanted to build, we cleared forest and moved dirt and built our buildings. Now you'd never know what was there before.

What forest do you have to clear in order to fulfill your vision or take your land?

Here is God's belief in you - though it is a forest, you shall clear it.

This past weekend we launched a new semester of Connect Groups. Our Connect Group Fair was a total success and had a great buzz and feel to it. Our gym was packed with CG leaders and people checking things out. Met lots of new people God is bringing into our church.

Two things that have really been working for us is going to a semester format and having "fairs" or launch date celebrations. We have done this same thing with our Volunteer Team in the spring and it worked really well then, too.

If our destiny is found in connections than of course the enemy will work hard to keep us disconnected. I think some of the greatest spiritual warfare in life is over our connections - i.e. relationships. He stirs up vain imaginations which eventually turn into broken relationships.

Life is better together.

ECC 4:9 Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor.
ECC 4:10 For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up.
ECC 4:11 Furthermore, if two lie down together they keep warm, but how can one be warm alone?
ECC 4:12 And if one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart.

I am loving these two CD's right now.

Remedy - David Crowder

Beyond The Neighborhood - Athlete

Actually, these two CD's represent two of my favorite genres of music - great worship music and moody, alternative British bands.

If The Doves would get saved and write worship music I would be beside myself.

Radiohead just bypassed the whole middleman process and put their newest album online for download. And you could pay whatever you wanted. From what I've read - 1.2 million downloads at an average of $8.00 each. In the first week! So that's close to $10 million. Wow!

No question the whole music industry has to be sitting up and taking notice of this. We should be as well.

This raises a whole new set of questions, thoughts and approaches for the way ideas or music or anything gets distributed.

My main call and passion is to spread the good news of the kingdom of God. The idea (if you will) stays the same. The distribution method has to be thought through and reconsidered over and over.