CHIC 08

A Year Gone Bye

I’m the last one awake at mom’s house. We have been here celebrating Christmas and everyone has gone off to bed. It’s so quiet my thoughts are actually leading me somewhere. I just realized that it was at this moment last year that I was sitting on a sofa with my in-laws when a text came through that would chart the first portion of 2010 for us. My husband, being the helper that he is, saw a friend in need and extended our support to a church in Louisville Kentucky. I mean, that is what we do. We consult with churches to build music teams, we lead worship, one of us or both. We fill a need if we can fill it. Trent offered my services to a church that was in need of a worship leader. At first, I thought, no way, this is crazy! How could we move our family to somewhere I know nothing about?! Moving was just one option far off in our minds at that moment this time last year. We were only at the beginning stage of setting up plans of assistance and that meant I would travel on available weekends to Louisville to fill-in the gaps for them. As the weeks passed by and I had visited Louisville several times, it became a place of interest to me. I had been yearning for a place I could be a part of a team again, and have my family involved in church at the same time, yet still fill my place on the road. It was a check, check, check plus! I could do all that and more!
Through much fasting and prayer, we got the green light. Simultaneously, we received many prophetic words all revolving around our move and what we would accomplish. I will possibly get into more of that later. We had all the confirmation we needed and the good Lord knew I needed it for what I was going to face throughout this year.
As I stated in a previous blog right before this all came about, “We miss many occasions for serving because we lack sensitivity and spontaneity” (Rick Warren)

This is to be continued…….maybe a series….;)

A New Journey Begins

My life has been an incredible journey the past few years. Stepping out on faith into what seemed like nothing in the natural but a hope and a prayer, Trent and I followed the still small voice calling us out of our “comfortable” place. God took my hand, led me off of one mountaintop, and into a mountain range of discovery.

Being on the road for this season has been so enjoyable! I have made many wonderful covenant relationships along the way, connected with kingdom-minded people and ministries, and enjoyed the fulfillment of reaching people with God’s love. Through this journey thus far, the depth of my faith has been stretched, and I have experienced first hand God’s immeasurable ability to exceed my expectations in every area.

While this has all been amazing, still there has been a void in my heart. The challenge of balancing a thriving road ministry with the demands of the Cory household has been a trip! When to leave the kids, when to take the kids, and in general how to make it all happen! Life is all about finding balance no matter what your hands find to do. The greater question has been whether I’m home with them or not, are we planted in the right place?! A place where I feel I’m being effectively used, and where my kids are being nourished.

Although I treasure the ministry time I have with Trent and that will never change, there has been a yearning inside of me to make the most of every moment. Being that I am a busybody, and not one to sit on the sidelines, we have been praying together for the right opportunity to maximize my potential, his potential, and our potential as an overall ministry. It is our goal to be effective in many areas of the Body of Christ while keeping our family as the highest priority.

My idea of being fulfilled at home would include a place where I could lead worship, and find the proper balance between my family and ministry on the road. I didn’t say stop traveling, I simply have come to the understanding that God has the ability to combine my desire to lead worship, be a mom, and carry on a road ministry simultaneously! So to make a long story short, we had arrived at a place where it was either buy a motor coach, hit the road and home school the kids, or me open my heart to the possibility there could be a church out there that embraces and understands the demand on our calling.

I’m so happy to announce that for the next season of my life, I have accepted a position as Worship and Arts Pastor at New Vision Ministry Center in Louisville, KY with Pastors David and Christel Boggs! (Can you see me jumping because I am so excited!) I have visited this church several times and have grown to love their vision and what I see God doing there. This church is straight out of the box! I will have an awesome team to build on and they are ready to move forward! They have offered me this position with the understanding of my call to at times be with Trent or other opportunities as they arise.

Speaking of Trent, he will continue the worship ministry God has entrusted to him on the road doing concerts, worship events, speaking engagements and conferences. He is equally as excited as I am for myself! He believes that this is a great opportunity to provide support for a church that is destined to make maximum Kingdom impact.

We love Florida and our Florida family. Who knows, maybe one day we will be back! One thing for sure is that God directs our path!

With all that being said, please keep us in your prayers as we transition our family to another state, and a new chapter of our life.

I am so excited
I am so excited
I am sooooo excited…
Can u tell!!

When I’m Home, I’m Home!

I love Saturdays! And more than that, I love Saturdays during football season! A typical Saturday at the Cory’s is a real big southern breakfast, and this is sneak peak at our menu. Blueberry or chocolate chip pancakes, grits, bacon or sausage(turkey that is),eggs, and a BIG pot of coffee! I know that sounds like a good way to totally ruin all of the daily workouts we attempt to complete during the week, but that is just how we roll! Plus, my kids have just grown to expect that on days we’re home together, and not racing against the clock for church or school! Landon even likes to help cook as he is quite the little chef.

Today was a little less than that since Trent was traveling home from Houston, and were scheduled to be at Jaydon’s season opener at the t-ball field around 9 o’clock. From that point forward the race was on! Landon was being a hair model for my cousin, and Madison was set to cheer on the Port Orange Hawks football team at a 1pm game. Once we finally were delivered from the balmy humidity with a 22-0 win, we head home with a predetermined understanding that college football will rule the house the remainder of the day! LOL The boys usually glue themselves to the sofa with Trent for at least a few games and I LOVE IT! Mainly because I love them all being home. However, Jaydon and Landon are busy bodies and end up playing with friends at some point. But not Trent! If he’s home, you would think he has to send a report from each game to ESPN or something!

Another reason that I love for them to be occupied with football is that it gives me Freedom to float around and do what I like! Are there any women out there that can give me an Oh yeah on that one? Usually I will gather my favorite magazines, pull up my laptop, or paint my nails, and just be a presence in the room. Sometimes I just quietly slip out and make a run to a sale somewhere and they never even notice! My personal freedom!
The combination of the early start, kids activities, all day football, magazine reads, shopping, and a little personal girl time just makes the day feel a little extra longer! I hate how fast time seems to pass, and in some crazy way, it feels like I am getting a few of those hours back on Saturday!

My new phrase is, “when I’m home, I’m HOME!” I have reflected on the past 10 years since we had little Madison, and I realized that I had wasted too much precious time rushing to the next thing. Now, when I am gone to minister, it’s all about ministry, and when I’m home, I AM HOME! My kids have an understanding of this, and I have seen such a change in the atmosphere of our home. I had this random thought one day that our home should be a place where all of our five senses are engaged, and memories are created from those tangible experiences.

I want our home to have a memorable smell. This is where I usually get in trouble because I love the smell of chocolate chip cookies! I want my kids to take a deep breath when they walk in the door and be able to sense that mom is home! I remember as a teenager coming home from late practices, and immediately knowing what dad (or mom at times, haha) had cooked for us. There are times when I run into a scent in the craziest of random places, and it will take me back twenty years or more to a memory of home. Which now leads me to tasting, and all I’m gonna say about that is, there’s not going to be anything tasteless in my home! From food to to clothes, the Cory’s will have some taste! LOL I want our home to have a sense of touch that will remain. It’s apparent to me that when the smallest injury happens to my four year old, he just needs a hug and magically he’s better. Love is sometimes most realized when it is felt physically. Hugs, kisses, and sweet little hands and feet! Moving on to the sense of hearing, I want our home to have a sound. A sound that will make us all know that there is peace, no matter what we are up against, or how crazy tomorrow’s schedule may appear:) I am blessed to be involved in worship ministry, and I know and understand how worship brings peace. At any moment(which is a lot), Trent will fill our home with the sound of worship from the piano room. It may be in competition with 3 TV sets, dinner on the stove, and a phone conversation, but it creates a sound in our home that we will never forget. It’s amazing how you evolve as a woman in your thirties. Life has so much more meaning, and it’s my desire to make impressions that last. (well, the good ones…) That was long, but if you made it this far, perhaps it stirred the senses in your life. Live every day with purpose, and never forget to slow down and smell the roses while they are in bloom:)

WHY??

The question we start asking around 2 years old if not earlier is “why?”. Answers seem to bring closure and maybe even in some situations bring relief. In death maybe it’s a selfish question, because in some way an answer may separate us from the cause. What I’m saying is, it doesn’t satisfy us to just hear someone passed without a reason, “why” always follows. And I’m also saying that when there’s not an answer to the question, maybe we fear it could happen to us. If there were a cause, like diabetes, we feel exempt if that does not exist in our family. Some people do die without cause, proving that God is in control of our every breath. I’m just expressing thoughts. I’m so sad today, puzzled at why our friend passed away. I was told he had a seizure, but still I don’t understand why. People have seizures and live.
Danny Rivera only recently came into our lives. I believe with all my heart our paths crossed perfectly during this season of our lives. Danny contacted me to sing with us whenever there was an opportunity. He was so eager and had much desire to sing for the Lord. He sang with us in Tampa a couple weeks ago for the first time. I’m not sure he even realized what he was getting into because we try to give everything we have in ministry. By the end of our concert, we were all spent physically and emotionally. He commented several times that he was blown away at what he experienced. He talked with me about his hopes to take part in anything else we did. As I’m writing this tears are pouring. How could this be, someone so young, with so much life ahead? I know this happens everyday. I’ll still want to know why my dad died. Some things will remain a mystery until God himself reveals it.
When I first met Danny, I sensed he was entering into a new phase of life and that God was positioning him for something. Who would have ever dreamt this? Danny was a worshipper and I know he is experiencing the presence of the Lord right now. The bible tells us life is a vapor and that we are not promised tomorrow.
I have been feeling compelled lately to help open eyes to eternity. People have to make eternal decisions today. Imagine life without the presence of God, I can’t. Take away all his attributes and that is hell.
I really hope some people stumble across this blog and commit themselves to Christ. I understand Danny is in a better place and one that I long for. A place where nothing is corrupt.
Please pray for Danny’s family and his girlfriend Katrina.

Emotional Reaction vs. Spiritual Depth

I was flipping through the channels and heard this phrase “Emotional Reaction vs. Spiritual Depth”  from a tv preacher. From where I picked up in his message, I gathered he was referring to the church services where people get emotionally carried away and walk away without hearing one word!  We produce these services with hype and emotion and push people to “manifest” in all kinds of ways,( I’m being humorous) then they leave and haven’t changed.  

The issue I take with this is, you can find some of the same people who are bucking and running and falling out emotionally in the church, the next week cussing out, flipping off, or ranting about something based on emotion. This I have witnessed many times over.   Let them get a negative report from a doctor and watch them fall apart.  No real spiritual depth.

Real depth will give you that  Job mentality, “Though they slay me yet will I hope in Him”. You have got to have roots strong enough to survive storms and dry times. 

I used to be shallow, if fact most of my christian life has been based on emotion. Whether or not “we felt something” was determined mainly on what we saw, or we judged the anointing based on what we saw.   The past three years I have been deeper in the word than I’ve ever been and it has changed me and made me secure.  Knowing your secure in God will change your worship!

It takes discipline to not get emotional. The past year I have been involved in many different environments of worship that have been extremely opposite of where I have spent most of my Sundays.  There was this one Sunday service that I remember feeling like I could burst out of my skin!  We were in a worship set, in what I call a pretty reserved church.   All the people were connected, it was one of the most beautiful times I have ever seen of people in the presence of God.  It was so real and not conjured up and there was this immense feeling of God’s glory. It was hard to contain all the emotion I was feeling. I remember wanting to display my worship in a greater way. (I really don’t know how I would’ve done that, ultimately I’m pretty reserved in comparison to some, but I had the urge!)  Then, I distinctly remember God speaking to me.  He told me He saw my heart filled with worship.  Your heart will tell God a lot more than your dance.

That’s all it took for me. That became a turning point for me.   I thought about the times I had been a cheerleader worship leader yelling at people to get up and display worship.  We can hype people up to dance but are they “just dancing”?  God is looking at our heart.  We the people judge worship based on what we see people doing.  I think that’s called works.

I have found freedom in another place I was bound.

The worship I now have is out of a pure love and its balanced.

 

ps. Put the hatorade down, Im not knocking flamboyant worship! I want it all!  I just want people including myself, to have pure motives.  I want our hearts, not noise, to be on display.  By noise I mean the clanging symbols that  1 Corinthians talks about.

much love

Worship at the Warehouse

 

I am so excited about this event!  About a year and half ago when the Lord laid it on my heart to cultivate a night of worship I began to structure this event but it never seemed to work with our schedules. I had the vision of how it should go but not where it would be.  Out biggest question was where it would be because we didn’t want to have it in a church setting.  Our reason for that was to draw people who  wouldn’t necessarily go to church.  I remember the feeling of settling with the idea of having it in a gym. At that point I remember distinctly the Lord telling me I was getting ahead of Him!

So, I placed it on the back burner and had not given it much thought since then due to all the transition in our lives.  Well, Dennis Brooks had his property in New Smyrna for sale.  While he was in prayer one morning, he felt the Lord impress on his heart to remove the for sale sign and to have a worship service out there in his warehouse.  Dennis called Trent and shared his idea.  Within ten minutes after  that phone call we had two more worship leaders involved! I was sitting there shaking my head in amazement at how God does things so simply in His timing! It has been a lesson to me that I don’t have to strive for anything when it is God’s plan!

I want to say that this is not church. It is a gathering of worshippers for worshippers.   And for the record, it is nothing else besides that!

Come out expecting the presence of the Lord and maybe a little coffee or cider!

Chic 08

I am so excited about leading worship at the Chic Conference this year!  I think this is my 4th year being apart of this gathering of young ladies and I truly believe that this year is going to be the best one of all!    I am so thankful for Jinny Force’s vision to host this event and for every detail she places in it that makes it so special!   I am so very passionate about this event! 

I have set aside prayer time for this event alone and specifically I have made my petitions known! I desire for hearts to be changed and eyes to be opened so that each girl can live with purpose and be free from entanglements!

This year Drew Powell will be joining me  on our worship team and we are going to make this the best time of worship yet! We are going to set the atmosphere and I believe God’s presence is going to be so strong!

Let’s get ready girls, start expecting now!<a href="http://“&gt;