know anyone getting married?

I’m available for wedding photography (and general photography services) and would love to lock in a few more weddings (and photo jobs) for the 2007 year.  I just re-designed my photography website…

Tell me what you think – Monachetti Photography

**I am available to travel almost anywhere for a wedding!
***I am open to discounted services for IHOPers!

getting a perspective of the End-Times…

fellow IHOPer Matt Hartke just wrote on what I was going to write on next.  even at risk of being called a copy-cat wordcaster I’m going to say what I wanted to say anyway…

I’ve experienced several ”collisions” the past few months concerning my convictions and beliefs related to eschatology (the study of Jesus’ 2nd Coming and end-time events).  A recent collision this weekend stirred my heart once again.  The basic challenge always seems to start with something like this:

• Why focus on the end-times and 2nd Coming of Jesus so much?  It’s so radical, so un-imaginable, and causes so much controversy.

1. IT’S NECESSARY - the Bible says so, Jesus made the topic of His 2nd Coming and establishment of the Kingdom of God a central part of His message and ministry.  Much of the New Testament (*and much of the OT) commands us to study and understand Jesus’ 2nd coming and what happens before, during, and after Jesus returns to earth and establishes His Kingdom.
2. KNOWING THE END AFFECTS US NOW - an understanding of the ”end” significantly affects how we choose to live NOW (i.e. the Sermon on the Mount lifestyle even when it hurts)…and with that understanding, the choices we make NOW will significantly affect how we respond towards God in the worst crisis of life and calamity when it hits home and gets personal.
3. IT GIVES HOPE – an understanding of how things end (*God’s victory and promises) helps keep us faithful and steady through all life’s storms including the Tribulation that is still to come.  There is nothing more hopeful than knowing that Jesus is coming back to earth to redeem, reconcile and make all things right.  This helps keep us grounded and gives us rest when crisis happens.  It is a gift that God has revealed the ending to us to serve as a plumb-line in life.

collisions and tensions of the heart…

In reflection of a few recent conversations I’ve had I’ve been pondering a couple realities. 

• collisions of the heart draw out the deposits that God has been sowing into our lives.  Often times it’s easy to rest and relax amongst a community that has strong common vision and common values on almost everything.
• it is the crisis moments of life that pull and reveal the fruits of our growth (or lack thereof) in the Lord
• I love that God uses tensions and collisions of life to mature us and develop our character and convictions.
• I love knowing that there is truly another Kingdom coming from heaven and that I’m not living for this age but having hope in eternity.

9 reasons I wear my IHOP name badge…

In response to Shawn’s comment HERE I have compiled this statement (*on the record) concerning wearing my IHOP name badge:

1. it pays the bills - random visitors make anomynous donations to staff members they see around IHOP…it helps if they know your name
2. increase your blog traffic - laptops and screensavers aren’t the only place to promote your wordcast URL
3. own your occupation – its not about taking identity in “it” but exercising ownership of “it”
4. fight the spirit of rejection – even if someone forgets your name you will never know, and you won’t get your feelings hurt
5. MacGyver would wear it – if he were on staff he would totally wear his 
6. I’m not Tim from Merchant Band – bless you and thanks for asking…but NO, I’m not “the guy” who sings and plays guitar in Merchant Band 
7. Jack Bauer would wear it too – you know he would! …or would he?
8. Molly Mosack wears her’s – …most of the time
9. make fasting easier - so you’re hungry, take a look at your name badge and remind yourself you’re at a house of prayer not a house of pancakes

WHY DO YOU (or don’t you) WEAR YOURS?

can you really package Luke Wood?

I love Luke and I love playing on Luke Wood’s team. But what I really love is Luke’s DEPTH and the team’s depth. I’ve been in some bands in my day (christian and secular) and I’ve found it rare to receive encouraging comments on the both the music AND the lyrical depth. I love that we aren’t churning out popy-shallow worship songs. Some of my fav lines from our songs:

• “the law and the prophets…they hang on love, thats what holds it all together…love, it never fades away” – {Law & the Prophets}
• “May you be all that’s on my mind, all of the time…let my heart be torn in two, until Your will is mine” – {Heart After You}
• “You’re faithfullllllllllllllllllllll…” – {Picture of Your Love}
• “You, You have no shallow love, Your kindness is relentless…and there’s fire in Your eyes” – {Relentless}
• “all man’s empty promises lay broken in the end, but You have never broken one” – {You Pour Out Mercy}

shifting gears…Forerunner Music has a new challenge this spring! Get ready to get blazed b/c Luke is recording a full length worship CD w/ all your favorite songs and some new ones! I hear Brandon Hampton is producing the project and they are beginning sessions in March. If it turns out anything like Luke’s EP that was released in December, it will be amazing!

the call of the hour…

my friend Shawn has been asking the question, “are you ready for revival?”  I myself have been struck this week with a similar thought in light of the many shiftings that are going on at IHOP-KC and the belief that revival is waiting to explode on the scene.  thinking about IHOP’s prophetic history and the events that are unfolding has led me to this thought:

I believe the question of the hour is -  How will our hearts respond in the midst of revival and prophetic promises being fulfilled?

I believe the call of the hour is – AGGRESSIVENESS NOW, meaning this…

…we must live aggressive lives as Christians NOW by laying hold of the deep foundations in God that are needed to steward the realities of revival and rightly respond when the Lord moves.

His judgements are kind…

Last night as I read the Bible to Amanda before bedtime I found myself right in the middle of Psalm 76 asking myself if I should be reading about God’s judgement and wrath to my wife right before we sleep.  Then this verse struck me like and arrow in the heart:

“…God arose to judgement, to deliver all the oppressed of the earth.”
{Psalm 76:9}

this excites the heart when you are in the “oppressed” category, but how does our heart feel when we are in the “deserving judgement” category?  **Stingy.  Let’s put confusion to rest and set things straight:  However difficult they may be, the judgements of God (i.e. – natural or supernatural disasters, trials, tribulations, persecutions, etc.) are an expression of His lovingkindness towards us no matter which category we find ourselves in.  His ways are not our ways and His judgements truly are from the kindness of His heart.  We need to get this reality!  Amen.

an open letter…

this is an open letter to our supporters, friends, family, and acquaintances:

It’s time we be real.  things are going to be changing a bit on our blog wordcast.  lately, we’ve been wrestling with a couple questions regarding our hearts and our wordcast.   Mainly: Why are blogging we wordcasting? and Who are we blogging wordcasting to?

First – We’re wordcasting to keep in touch with YOU.
Second – We’re wordcasting to express the realities of what God is doing in our lives.

the latter hasn’t got much attention, which in my own opinion has capped the potential of us tracking with you and you tracking with us.  As things shift in our hearts things will shift on our website.  We want authentic reality, so we’re opening up the doors to our hearts rather than just our lives and ministry in Kansas City.

STAY TUNED!

with love,
Steve & Amanda

it may not be meaningful, but…

thank God it is 60 degrees outside!  we were starting to wonder if it ever was going to climb above 25 degrees again.  (my Euro friends, don’t forget that we measure in farenheit!) 

what did we just sign up for…

We’re officially on IHOP-KC staff as of now!  So what did we just sign up for and what do we do?

• we believe this is a “real job”  {1 Tim 5:17-18 or ref. the entire Bible!}
• we believe that intimacy w/ Jesus is what primarily moves the heart of God and produces change within our own lives and others {Luke 10:38-42, Matt 25:1-13}
• we believe that the presence of God is our primary means of reconciling: people to God, human injustices, wrongdoing, and sin in this world {Luke 18:7, Joel Chs. 1 & 2, Revelation 21:1-8}
• we believe that actions which may appear foolish and weak to the world (praying, fasting, giving, serving) will release power in ministry and revival among cities and nations  {Matt Chs. 5 & 6, Acts 4:29-31, 1 Corinthians 1:18-31}
• we believe that Jesus was serious when he said prayer actually changes things {Mark 9:29}
• we believe that our identities are primarily lover’s of God that seek Him, secondarily intercessors that ask Him for His Kingdom to come to earth, and thirdly workers in the Kingdom that reach out and serve Him by serving others.  {Matthew 5, 6, & 7}
• we believe that participating in the perpetual solemn assembly (24/7 prayer and worship) will usher in justice in the earth, revival among the Church, salvations among the lost, and ultimatley the 2nd Coming of Christ {Acts Chs. 1-4, Matthew Chs. 24 & 25, Mark Ch 13}
• we believe that Israel is still God’s choosen nation and people and the Jesus will save Israel at His 2nd Coming both practically/physically (from the Antichrist’s armies) and spiritually (as Messiah and Lord)  {Zechariah 8:1-3, Matt 23:37-39, Romans 11:25-26, Isiah 2:2-4}

1. we are committed to living a life of intimacy with Jesus and imtimacy w/ each other.
2. we are committed to praying and fasting for the in-breaking of God which brings revival among the Church and repentance/salvation to the lost. 
3. we are committed to the Sermon on the Mount lifestyle including embracing things that appear foolish and weak to the world (prayer, fasting, giving, serving).
4. we are committed to raising up, empowering, and equipping believers that develop intimacy w/ Jesus and foundations in the knowledge of God that they may be sent out to speak the Word of God with boldness and authority.

happy birthday…

it’s our housemate’s 25th today!  check her out…Heather Ballis, and also here and here.

just an add to “a day in our lives”

While the previous post gave a general day.  Let’s keep in mind that SOME of us in the Offutt family have to get up at 7:00am or 8:00am on somedays for other “work-related” activities such as the Healing Rooms.  This work is ministering to and praying for the sick or pregnant folk that come to the House of Prayer.  While I love it, it is tough when you go to bed at 2:00am the previous day.  Talk about the Lord using you when you are weak, you really get to see the power of God despite the fact that you’re half alseep. 

Wow, that last line sounded like a rap song :o Maybe I should add that to the schedule…2:15am write a new rap flow…it might work.  If you come up with a good gansta name let me know.

a day in our lives…

I know you probably wonder what we really do all day now that we’re officially on staff at IHOP-KC.  well, we don’t have a typical 9-5 work schedule but here’s a snapshot of our typical day:

7:00 AM: Denali (our cat) wakes Amanda up ’meow-ing’ for food
7:05 AM: Amanda rolls back into bed
9:45 AM: hitting the snooze a couple times
10ish AM: finally we make it up and out of bed
10:15 AM: we’re cleaning ourselves up and brewing hot tea
11AM – 1PM: this is our ‘life time’ – meetings, quality time, chores, and errands
1:25 PM: hustle out the door and drive to IHOP for work
1:30- 2PM: we made it! brief w/ prayer team, talk about what we’re praying for
2 – 6PM: hit the prayer room for prayer, study, contemplation, etc.
6-6:30PM: debrief w/ prayer team, discuss what we learned and what God said
6:45-7:15 PM: while most people do dinner, we doing lunch
7:25 PM: we’re running out the door again back to work at IHOP
7:30 PM: brief w/ worship team, discuss our prayer focus and worship songs
8 -10 PM: play/sing at the 8PM prayer meeting
10:02PM: take a deep breath…the day is winding down
10-10:20PM: debrief w/ worship team, talk about what was good, bad, ugly
10:20-Midnight: head back into prayer room for personal study and prayer
12midnight: work day is done… it’s dinner time!
12:30AM – 2ishAM: hit those chores again while winding down the day
3:00 AM – bedtime

It’s pretty wild living on a 10AM-3AM schedule but we’ve gotten quite acclimated to it. As we joined staff at IHOP, we wanted to set our “work day” schedule around the afternoon and evenings. Our afternoon (12noon-6PM) responsibilities are to lead and supervise a group of IHOP staff in the prayer room.  During the evenings (6PM-12midnight) we lead the prayer meetings by playing/singing on Luke Wood’s worship team 5 days a week.  Of course we have a couple breaks in-between all thouse hours!

on the frontend, most people think we’re pretty lazy when they hear we don’t get up until 10AM.  then they realize that we go to work from 1:30PM and don’t get home until about midnight each night.  I like to think about it like this: Our “12midnight-3AM” is like most people’s “8-11PM.”  That usually casts a good perspective for those that wonder.

Another quirky thing:  we made Thursday and Sunday our days off.  Go figure!

we’re back…

i promise we haven’t disappeared!  We’ve been enjoying some exciting and not-so exciting thigns such as:

• preparing taxes ourselves!
• re-designing my photography website  
• joining IHOP staff
• working/attending the IHOP conference over the weekend
• searching for Stephen Baldwin at IHOP
• celebrating Amanda’s birthday
• doing the GBF last week
• re-connecting with Ben & Kristin!
• searching for a laundromat to wash a king-size mattress pad
• doing some photography work for SupportRaisingMaterials.com

first things first…

first things first, as we’re playing blog-post catch-up: 

This past Monday, Feb 5th was Amanda’s birthday!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my beautiful wife Amanda!
yes, she’s even 30 days older than I!

Be sure to leave her the best birthday comment you can think of!