Turn Down the Music

Turn Down the Music Tour

with Shane & Shane,

David Nasser

and Matt Maher

It's that time of year again...tour time.

I will be hitting the road with my good friends, the Shanes, next week for a 19-city run. This time the amazing Matt Maher will be joining us. If you are not familiar with Matt as an artist, you might know his songs since you probably sing them at your church. Matt has penned such classics as “Your Grace is Enough” (made famous by the golden child Chris Tomlin) and a handful of others. Matt is an anointed worship leader and you’re gonna love him. Between Matt and the freak of nature duo better known as Shane & Shane, plus a brand new message from yours truly, it ought to be a special night.

The tour is called the “Turn Down the Music” Tour. I don’t want to give too much away, but I will tell you that we are very excited about the tour theme. So what does it mean? Turn down the music? Musicians want to turn down the music? What???? Come and find out...we’d love for you to join us.

• Apr 16, 2009 Springfield, MO Baptist Bible College 628 E. Kearney, Springfield, MO 65803
• Apr 17, 2009 Columbia, MO Parkade Baptist Church 2102 North Gatrh Ave. Columbia MO 65202
• Apr 18, 2009 Marion, IL Marion Cultural & Civic Center 800 Tower Square, Marion, IL 62959
• Apr 19, 2009 Naperville, IL Harvest Baptist Chapel 185 High Point Drive, Naperville, IL 60563
• Apr 20, 2009 Off Day
• Apr 21, 2009 Off Day
• Apr 22, 2009 Off Day
• Apr 23, 2009 Fargo ND Hope Lutheran Church / South Campus 3636 26th Street, Fargo ND 58104
• Apr 24, 2009 Cokato, MN Dassel Cokato Fine Arts Center 4852 Reardon Ave SW, Cokato, MN 55321
• Apr 25, 2009 Oshkosh WI Reeve Memorial Union 748 Algoma Boulevard Oshkosh, WI 54901
• Apr 26, 2009 St Paul Northwest College/ Maranatha Chapel 3303 Snelling Avenue North, St Paul MN 55113
• Apr 27, 2009 Orange City IA Northwestern College 101 7th Street SW Orange city, Iowa
• Apr 28, 2009 Lincoln NE University of Nebraska Union - Centennial Room 200 Nebraska Lincoln Nebraska 68588-0452
• Apr 29, 2009 Fayetteville AK University Baptist Church 333 West Maple Fayetteville, AR 72701
• Apr 30, 2009 Overland park KS Heartland Community Church 8301 Lamar AveOverland Park, KS 66207
• May 1, 2009 Colorado Springs Vanguard Church 3958 North Academy Boulevard Colorado Springs CO80917
• May 2, 2009 Lakewood, CO Colorado Christian Univeristy 8787 W. Alameda Ave, Lakewood, CO 80226
• May 3, 2009 Off day
• May 4, 2009 Off Day
• May 5, 2009 Berkley, CA First Prebytarian Church 2407 Dana Street, Berkeley CA
• May 6, 2009 Yuba City, CA Crossroads Community Church 445 B Street, Yuba City, CA 95991
• May 7, 2009 Brentwood, CA Golden Hills Community Church 2401 Shady Willow Ln., Brentwood, CA 94513
• May 8, 2009 Anaheim, CA Sa-Rang Community Church 1111 N. Brookhurst St. Anaheim, CA 92801
• May 9, 2009 Cave Creek, AZ North Ridge Community Church 6363 E. Dynamite Blvd., Cave Creek, AZ 85331

Brothers and Sisters Around the World

Obviously, we need to pray for our brothers and sisters all around the world. But if you're like me I forget. Sadly, the "out of sight, out of mind principle" applies here. If we don't know who to pray for we simply quit praying. I think practicing the discipline of awareness can be the cure that arouses prayer for others around the world. I received an email the other day that reminded me of the persecution of Christians in Muslim nations. I wanted to make you aware of it as well. Here it the article from the Christian post:

Islamic nations made up more than half of the top 10 countries listed as the world’s worst persecutor of Christians in a new report.
Saudi Arabia again took the No. 2 spot, followed by Iran (No. 3), Afghanistan (No. 4), Somalia (No. 5), Maldives (No. 6), Yemen (No. 7), and Uzbekistan (No. 10). Compared to last year’s Open Doors’ World Watch List, the 2009 list had one more Muslim dominated country.

Taking the top spot again this year for the seventh year in a row is the totalitarian and reclusive state of North Korea.

Dr. Carl Moeller, Open Doors USA president, highlighted several changes to the 2009 World Watch List including the reemergence of Somalia into the top 10 list.

“Somalia and Eritrea are also in the top 10,” Moeller noted to The Christian Post in an interview Tuesday. “You can see that the Christian community in that part of Africa has just been hammered."

Also Afghanistan moved up two spots to No. 5 this year because of increased activities by the Taliban, a Muslim extremist group that formerly ruled the country.

Interestingly, Moeller noted, both China and Bhutan, both Asian countries, dropped out of the top 10.

Although China (No. 12), which has a troubled history with religious freedom, is no longer part of the top 10 list, Moeller said the ministry will continue to keep a close eye on the country he describes as an “enigma.”

“China is an enigma in many ways in relations to persecution,” Moeller said. “There has never been greater openness in China, and yet at the same time - having spent some time there, in particular just a few months ago – we still hear direct reports from individuals who have been arrested, interrogated and even held for days without being told why."

“And this type of persecution continues to go on especially in rural areas,” he said.

The two countries that showed the most improvement in Christian persecution over the past year are Vietnam, which dropped from No. 17 to No. 23, and Columbia, which was dropped from the top 50 list after ranking high for many years on the list. Vietnam was No. 8 on the World Watch List in 2006.

World Watch List 2009

1. North Korea
2. Saudi Arabia
3. Iran
4. Afghanistan
5. Somalia
6. Maldives
7. Yemen
8. Laos
9. Eritrea
10. Uzbekistan

Here is the link for the actual article.

Wolfe Family Update

Many of you have been praying for the Wolfe family. Here is an update and video that I think will bless you.
Warning: tearjerker alert!!
David

A Good Cause

I need your help.

My assistant LeAnn received an interesting email sent to our office the other day, here it is:

LeAnn,
I emailed you last week asking for your help in spreading the word about my husband raffling off his Super Bowl ring. I understand this sounds like a far-fetched story; so here are some links to help prove the validity of this story!! Won't you please help us get the word out on this so we may raise the most amount of money to help children locally and globally! David played a part in our spiritual walk, God used him to instill something into us (or remove something) that helped us eventually get to this point where we are willing to give it all back to Him!! His words "These children deserve the very hell that is their lives...but so do we!!" kept ringing in my head the night that Jim Brown shared. And as I saw the pictures and heard the statistics that he was sharing…that was all I could hear. My children deserve this just as much as any other…and it’s by God’s mercy that it isn’t them. And what I am willing to do about it!!

So please help us spread the word so we may raise the most funds to go to these poor children locally and globally!!

Have a great day!!

Samua Cherry

We want to help Samua and J'Rod Cherry get the word out. J'Rod Cherry played pro ball for the Saints, the Eagles, and the Patriots. He is a big dude, with an even bigger heart. It was obvious as I was talking to him that God is up to something really special through this. The is about a whole lot more than a jock giving away his ring. This is about a guy who is casting down idols in his own life and calling all of us to examine what we can do for the kingdom. Even if you're not into bling, or into the patriots, this is a really special cause.

This is not a joke. You buy ten dollars worth of raffle tickets (ten bucks gives you five raffle entries)and you're entered to win an actual Super Bowl ring. You also win the 18 grand it takes to pay off the taxes on 142 diamond's and pure gold value of the ring. Obviously it's worth a whole lot more than that...

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/shutdown_corner/post/Super-Bowl-winner-to-raffle-off-ring-for-charity?urn=nfl,108295

http://www.buildmomentum.org/jerodcherry.asp

https://www.celebritiesforcharity.org/raffles/RaffleID_SuperBowlRing.cfm

So go to this site and buy a few raffle tickets. You only have a few days left.
If you win, wow....if you don’t, you're still helping out a great cause.

Happy Thanksgiving,
david

Thoughts on The faith Forum at Saddleback, with McCain and Obama.

Before I get started I want to make sure that you understand that I am not endorsing either candidate. I’m not trying to tell you who to vote for. I will however go on record to say that you should get out and vote. Make your mark.

Saturday night’s Faith Forum at Saddleback has been swimming in my mind, my heart, and on my tongue since the moment it aired two nights ago.

First of all, I want to declare a winner! The winner of the forum is...(drum roll please)...

Rick Warren. Whatever you think of Rick, his mega church, or even more mega selling book, you've got to give him points for asking questions that were both revealing and timely. Rick did a great job of asking the kind of questions that everyday people want to know the answers to. He was also fair and gracious to both candidates. Hats off to you Rick... Now, if we can just convince him to get rid of the goofy Hawaiian shirts...

There is so much to discuss here, but as you might have guessed, what got me blogging was the question about when life truly begins, and the candidate’s stances on abortion. Don't get me wrong, everything they talked about was important.
Their heroes? Important.
The war? Important.
The economy? important.
The education of our children? Important.
The responsibility to care of the needy in the world? So-so important.

But to me the plight of the unborn, is still the most important.

Why? Because every other decision that a president makes flows out of his core belief about the sanctity of human life. Not just the sanctity of life for an already born adult, but for those in a mother’s womb as well. This is not just a pro-life stance, but what many conservative evangelicals like myself like to call a “whole-life stance.”

Here are the facts, no matter what your opinion:
1. Although abortions are on a decline in the past few years, almost every third baby conceived in America is aborted.
2. Since 1973 (Roe vs. Wade), when abortions became legal in the United States, there have been nearly 46 million abortions to date. This is not to mention the illegal, and untraceable abortions now more frequent because the abortion pill.
3. Most scientists, Christian or not, agree that some form of a “new living” cell begins at conception.
4. Combine these facts with the belief of billions of people that abortion is the termination of that “new life”, and you can see why this is a searing hot topic to say the least.

So here are a few thoughts on each candidate’s response to Rick Warren’s question.

John McCain:
The question was: At what point does life begin? His answer: “At conception.”

I know his voting record on pro-life issues before the forum. I know that he was in favor to uphold the ban on partial birth abortions. It’s also important to note that I also know that, unlike me, McCain approves of embryonic stem cell research. I fail to see the difference between a parent who discards an unwanted or leftover in-vitro embryo, or an unwanted embryo in a womb of a mother. While I recognize the urgent need for stem cell research in the fight against such things as Parkinson's disease, I see adult stem cell research as the only ethical choice. Is a human embryo a human life? If so, when is it OK to kill a human embryo for any reason?

Barrack Obama:
The question was: At what point does life begin? His answer: Basically, “I'm not sure… I'm pro-choice, because I believe that women make this decision with much thought and serious consideration. I want to see abortions reduced by offering better options.”

Rather than taking potshots at his “above my pay grade" comment, I will pose a question instead. Let’s say that no one really knows when life begins. Let’s say that none of us can really ever be sure. Let’s just say the question is above everyone’s pay grade. Since we don't know, Senator Obama, could it be that we MIGHT be killing babies through abortion? Aren't you admitting that they might be alive, by saying, “I don't really know?”

Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that the FDA approved a drug that we think might be killing millions of people. It’s a highly controversial drug that many people disagree about. Let’s say no lab really knows for sure whether the drug is safe or not. All we know is there is a valid argument on both sides that this drug could or could not be lethal. Would you be OK with allowing this kind of Russian roulette game go on as the president? Would you say that since you don't know if the drug is really killing people or not, that we should continue to use it? How is that not a pro-death stance?

I heard both men profess Christ as their Savior, and I heard both men stress the need to stand against the innocent killings in places such as Darfur and Rwanda. I heard both men say that 150 million orphaned children need a home, and that this great nation must rise for the oppressed. But, I also heard both men agree that evil exists. What greater evil can there be than the holocaust of 46 million innocent children in our nation alone?

Our prayer:
Oh Lord, we repent. We repent for the lack of tears, the lack of shouts, the lack of passion, and most of all, the lack of vigilant prayer for the unborn. Revive this land, Lord. We are a desperate people in need of you. We pray for our leaders, both present and future. Break their hearts for the things than break Yours. We don't need a king, Lord, we already have one. You are it. We need You.

Canada Tour

On Friday April the 25th, Starfield, the Shanes, Bethany Dillion, and I were leading 1,300 worshippers in a church sanctuary, when a serious incident took place. During the Starfield set, the floor in the front of the stage collapsed, causing an opening that was over 25 feet wide. The crashed in floor caused the lighting truss, speaker stack, and lifts to fall down over the audience and into the hole. Many people fell in as the ground under them buckled.

As you can imagine, the next few minutes were filled with shock, fear, and panic. The intense moments were also filled with fervent prayer and heroic action. Many rushed to the basement to drag people out of the rubble, while hundreds huddled in prayer in the church parking lot.

By the end of the night, 35 people were hurt and 25 had been rushed to the hospital. Most of the injured suffered cuts, bruises, broken limbs, and other non-life threatening injuries. Three patients however had to be admitted overnight. Here is the current update on the three so that we can all pray for them by name.

Debbie—Debbie has suffered severe spinal damage. At this moment she is paralyzed, but we are petitioning our Great Physician for a miracle.
Adam—Adam's hand has been crushed in over a hundred places. My personal prayer is that on the one-year anniversary of this event, Adam can use that very hand to write about the grace of God through trials.
Sidney—Sidney has been back and forth to the hospital due to a severe concussion. We are praying that Jesus the Prince of Peace will calm her mind. That by his wounds, healing would come.

Obviously our tour family of 24 (from artists, to crew) will never be the same. God has used this incident in our lives to revive our passion for Him. Rather than derailing the tour, the Lord has fueled us with a greater sense of urgency and focus. Pray for us. We need you... two shows had to be postponed, but even as I write this blog, we are on our way to Edmonton to lead His people in celebration. We have so much to bless Him for. His grace and provision has never been clearer to us, and we can't wait to tell of His goodness tonight.

If you noticed, I am referring to all that happened as an incident and not accident. This was no surprise to our God. God was on the throne, sovereign over every second of all that happened and for that, we are thankful. We trust His Word that uses all things for the good of his purpose. He and only He, is our firm foundation.

Sola deo gloria,

D

Jeans Offering

This blog is far overdue, and a bit longwinded, but I assure you, I'm giving you the reader's digest version! To get a better grasp, you might want to go the blogs I have highlighted. They offer more insight. You're also reading my perspective of the story; so let me assure you that there are many better versions and back-stories. Anyway, I promise to get another blog out next week (a much shorter one!) about the Ukrainian trip last week in which God allowed history-making things to happen for His namesake. But now: an overdue story that I can't wait to tell you all about.


It all started back in November when Jennifer was told through an adoption agency about a group of siblings from Ethiopia who desperately needed a home. Due to their older ages, for these kids to be adopted would be no small miracle. As always, Jenn wants to save the entire world by inviting everyone in it to live with us, so her first response was to adopt them immediately. I had to be the heavy who pushed the pause button. By the way, this happens all the time in our home. If Jenn had her way, our home would look like the United Nations, filled with children from all across the world. As for me, I’m a little slower to act on every adoption need that comes our way. Anyway, back to the Kinfe siblings’ story...


The two sisters and one brother had been blogged about because of their two-week visit to the United States last summer. Through a program that allows orphans to visit the U.S., these 17-, 16-, and 15-year old teenagers had captured the heart of their host family in a powerful way. Although the host family was not led to adopt the siblings since they had just finished their own adoption of a little girl, they were heralding the Kinfe's need for a home by writing about their visit. It was obvious that God had placed these beautiful Ethiopian children with a Christ-centered family that had a broken heart for the 200 million orphans of the world. Especially them. (Click here to read Paige's endearing blog not only about the Kinfe kids, but the adoption of their own little girl from Ethiopia)


Jennifer had been reading the blog and keeping up with the situation of the Knife siblings for several months. Jennifer's concern was backed with the urgent need to have Aschalo (the 17 year old boy) adopted before his 18th birthday. After that, he would not be eligible to be adopted. If he were adopted, Jenn told me on several occasions, then maybe Aschalo can get some assistance to go to college. Aschalo had shown interest in wanting to be a chemist one day. The blogs about him gave Jennifer insight that that dream was impossible in his present condition.


Then came Christmas, and our trip to Rome and Paris. During that trip, my dad generously gave five crisp, 100 dollar bills to each person in the family as a Christmas gift. A few days later, while in a cab in Paris, Jennifer informed me that she and the kids felt as though God wanted them to give their Christmas gift money to start a scholarship fund for Aschalo’s college dreams. After some discussion, I agreed and pledged to match any funds they gave with a gift from D. Nasser Outreach as well. The goal was to raise funds to allow Aschalo to go to college, even if he were never adopted. All that said, this was much more on the front burner for Jenn and the kids than for me. The Kinfes’ were Jenn's passion, and I was there as backseat support.


Fast forward a few weeks later, to Martin Luther King holiday weekend. What a tragic weekend that turned out to be. A friend of mine lost his 2-year old son in a drowning accident. I had only met little Bronner Burgess once, but it didn't matter. It felt as though we had lost one of our own. We all mourned this loss with the Burgess family. Rick, Sherry, and the rest of the Burgesses allowed their loss to be used in such a powerful way. What Satan meant for evil, God used for good. The goodness and grace of God in the midst of sorrow was so evident as the Burgess family used their very public lives to minister to people in the midst of their loss.


On Tuesday, January 22, Jennifer and I, along with thousands of others, gathered together for the memorial service. What an anointed time. The presence of God filled the room as we worshiped the Lord in the midst of such a storm. As Rick spoke at the memorial about the Gospel, priorities, and the gift of children, my heart was both filled and retuned. (Click here to see Rick speak at the memorial) Sadly, I had a flight to catch and had to walk out of the memorial service early to head to the airport. I was flying to Lynchburg, Virginia, to speak for Liberty University's Spiritual Emphasis Week. I sat on the plane with my heart filled to overflowing from what I had experienced at Bronner's memorial service. I got out my Bible, a note pad, and began to write new revelations for a neglected message I had written years before out of James 1:27. This was a message that I had never really embraced or preached a lot. But for some reason, the loss of Bronner, our time of worship at the memorial service, and Rick's sermon had rekindled the passage and this old message back to my heart.


On the second night of Spiritual Emphasis Week in Lynchburg, I decided to preach my newly resurrected sermon out of James 1:27. In the middle of the message the Lord gave me a mandate. I sensed the Holy Spirit urging me to call the 3,500 students in the audience to something practical and applicable about God’s call in James 1:27. The passage basically tells us to care for the widows and orphans in the world. I have to admit, stuff like this doesn't happen to me often, but I was sure that the Lord was speaking to me as clear as day. "Take an offering and give it to orphans and widows," God told me. In obedience, I told the students what God was calling us to do corporately. We called it the "Jeans Offering." I asked the students to come back the next night and to bring the financial equivalence to the pair of jeans that they were wearing that night. That way everyone was called to equal sacrifice, not equal amount. I told them the funds given would be divided to go three ways: locally to widows, domestically to strangers, and internationally to orphans. At that moment, the Kinfe kids where nowhere in my mind, but after the service, when the Liberty University leadership and I began to strategize about what we wanted to see happen with the offering, it quickly hit me that the Kinfe kids were orphans who possibly could receive help. “Maybe this is one of the reasons God had placed them in our path for the last few months,” I thought and prayed.


The next morning after much prayer and consideration, the Liberty leadership team decided unanimously that 1/3 of whatever was given would be allocated to help in funding the adoption of the Kinfe siblings. That night, right before the offering, I showed the children's picture to the audience, explained their situation, and after praying for them, we asked the students to not only give graciously for them, but also for the other 2/3 of the offering that would go to widows and strangers in the world. Our goal was so much bigger than physical needs being met. We wanted to see the redemptive work of Christ done through these funds, not just charitable social work.


In the next day and a half, the students at Liberty generously gave, and gave, and gave, and gave, and gave... an amazing offering that totaled $85,000 at first and then neared $93,000! The offering buckets were filled with actual currency from not only the U.S, but also the Ukraine, China, Canada, and even Ethiopia. Some gave their checks from work, some their Starbucks cards, some their own Christmas money. That night I put in our Nasser family's Christmas gift money as well. There were literally hundreds of letters and cards attached to many of the offerings. Most were for the Kinfe kids. Some students burned Ethiopian worship CDs they wanted delivered to the Kinfes. I even saw a few handmade necklaces as gifts for the two Kinfe sisters. I had never seen James 1:27 brought to life like this.


Best of all, thousands of us began to pray for "big" things to happen through the "big" offering. (Click here to read the Liberty article about the offering)


Then came the calm before the storm. In the next few weeks, the Nasser's sat and prayed about discernment and wisdom about the Kinfes. The adoption agency had a few signs of interest, but none that looked promising. We had begun to pray about adopting them ourselves, but due to different circumstances, we could not get a peace about it no matter how much we tried to convince ourselves. A few more weeks passed and then on the 23rd of February, I was in Inman, South Carolina speaking at an event, when afterwards several different Liberty University students approached me, curious about the latest news on the Kinfes. After the event, Jenn and I were riding in the hotel elevator and I told her about my conversations with the inquiring students. As we were walking down the hallway to our room, we both agreed that if the Kinfe's were not being adopted by summer, we would go ahead and pursue them ourselves (fyi: we weren't planning on taking the money given if we adopted them—we would have given it toward someone else's adoption.) I walked in the hotel room, and ten minutes later checked my email and read the amazing news. The Kinfes had found a home! Not just any home, but an amazing one at that!


In the audience at Liberty the night we took the offering sat Kristin Wolfe. She and her family had been praying about adopting older children, and Kristin knew that these three might be the ones. In the next month, God began to confirm in the Wolfe family that these were the children for them. I am thrilled to announce that the Wolfe family has officially begun their paper work to adopt the Kinfe kids. The email was a link to their site, letting us know that they were called by God to adopt these precious teenagers. (Click here to read their journey so far. Warning, tear-jerker alert!)


The remainder of the "jeans" offering has now been designated as well. Outside of local ministry in Lynchburg, the funds are being spent to assist a couple of medical teams in upcoming trips to the Amazon and to the Andes mountains. There are also funds going to India in efforts to help with widows and orphans in that nation. Last, but certainly not least, some of the funds will be used to build a hope center in Uganda.


I write all this to testify that the God of this universe is sovereign over all things. He orchestrates His plan in ways that reveal to us His glory in magnificent ways. God uses all things for good, and I am just so thankful that we got to play a tiny, tiny, role in His “big” story. Sole de Gloria.