I was raised as an "Air Force brat" and my family moved frequently while I was growing up.  To my parent's credit, each time we moved they made it a priority to find a church to attend.  I made a decision for Christ at 11 years old that was real but soon began to notice some things that did not line up ...

As I started middle school my father retired from the military and retired in Austin, Texas where we attended a Baptist church. By the time I was 17, after several years of observing the darker side of an embattled church where two pastors were "run off," a youth minister fired for no clear reason, deacons gathered outside between Sunday School and church for gossip and a smoke, the church treasurer embezzled thousands and fled town, teenagers arrived at youth functions intoxicated and Sunday School was the same (well meaning but never prepared) guy read the SS literature to us each week (for yeeeears ... we never "promoted"!), and add to that my active mind, skeptical nature and a high school education in evolution and humanism ...  it is not a stretch to say that after 4-5 years I was seriously doubting my faith.

Enter Carey Womack ... an early memory I have of him is from a cold day when he wore a Christmas sweater pulled snugly over his stocky self.  Let's just say that there was a lot of him to love. Carey walked into a difficult church situation but he clearly cared for the students and loved the Lord; he was the first one to expose me to Christian music and introduce me to other students who were genuinely Christian ... he was the first person I had met that I believed actually believed this stuff ...

Sometime during my senior year in high school, Carey led a Bible study for our youth group ... after all 15-20 of us watched with arms folded while he tried to get us to sing along in worship ... that day he spoke from the heart about what it meant to be a disciple and how we have to make the ongoing choice to follow Jesus as a disciple.  He ended with a "heads down, eyes closed" appeal to us to follow Jesus as disciples then offered to work with anyone wanted to grow their walk with the Lord.  He asked for those who were willing to raise their hands ... being sure everyone had their hands up, I cocked a squinted eye only to realize it was just me and another girl.  YIKES.

The two of us met for the first time with Carey a plan where we would learn how to read our Bibles, to pray, share our faith, etc... she never came back.  That left just me and Carey.  The good news was that most weeks he bought my lunch ... over lunch, he asked me hard questions about my life and why I had or had not followed through on what we had discussed the previous week.

Carey taught me lessons with his words (I still have the small, blue, ring-bound notebook with his hand lettering on the spine sitting on the shelf in my office) ... more importantly than what he said was what he showed me.  He lived out what it looked like to simply love the Lord ... what it was like to wrestle successfully with disappointment and doubts and continue to spend time in God's word and grow in obedience.  Somewhere in that time, I developed a real hunger for God's word and took ownership of my faith and really began to grow.

I have long since lost touch with Carey. I am deeply indebted to him for the personal investment he made in me and the impact that has had on those I have had opportunity to minister to over the years.  Carey later went on to start a Christian punk band with the purpose of ministering to the street people and hard core club scene in Austin, Texas.  You can read about him here.

That experience deeply affected me and has shaped the way I understand much of ministry.  Over the years, I have made a priority of meeting with a small group of guys for the purpose of personal spiritual growth. Some of my dearest friends have come out of those groups and some of the greatest growth has been experienced in my own life and in the lives of those who participate.

The current sermon series, Blueprints, is intended to serve as a both a catalyst and an introduction to the personal spiritual disciplines needed for a close walk with God.  All of the rest of what we do as a church are the details that should support the disciple making process.

So - I thank God for sending Carey (if anyone reading this knows of his whereabouts and can put me in touch with him I would be grateful!) ... and let me ask you ...

Who is teaching you the "how to's" of the Christian life ... and not just teaching them but demonstrating them?

With whom are you spending deliberate time in an effort to train and equip them to walk more closely with the Lord?