This bird has flown

Dearest brethren of Center Grove Church,

It is with pain in my heart and tears in my eyes that I write this letter. These three and a half years behind us have reaped so much fruit for God's Kingdom. Along with many of you, my wife and I have seen lives transformed by the grace and love of Jesus Christ. We have experienced the warmth and healing of God's mercy in genuine Christian community. I can think of no greater joy - save the love of Christ - than sharing in the chapters being written into God's story which we've been so graciously allowed.

We are filled with such joy and yet it burdens us in knowing that we have experienced more grief and agony from tongues of those whom we should call brother and sister than we have from those who do not claim to know Christ. I say this not to dismiss the work that God is doing through the people of Center Grove Church. It's hard to imagine a greater tragedy than to allow a foothold to the enemy who seeks to destroy what has been established and consecrated by God. Rather these words are meant to encourage you dear brothers and sisters to press on in love and in oneness in Christ Jesus. Do not give up! Do not give up on His goodness and do not give up on one another. Surely, our loving Father has yet to give up on any of us. We pray as we leave you that in the days and months and years ahead that Center Grove Church will be known for being a community which listens. May you listen for God's redeeming voice in the silence between the busyness which most mistake for life. Don Miller said it this way, "We can trust our fate to a jury of peers, we can work to accumulate wealth, buy beauty under a surgeon's knife, panic for our identities under the fickle friendship of culture, and still die in separation from the one voice we really needed to hear.

I was invited to Center Grove Church to dream and to cast a vision for the youth ministries at Center Grove Church. The vision which I continually saw before me and was convicted to follow was not that of efficiency and fast-paced programming, but instead had more to do with authentic, relational community. I believe with all of my heart that God was blessing and will continue to bless that ministry in which He has laid the foundation.

It pains us to leave you this way, not of our own sensing of God's calling us elsewhere. However, God can and will take all things and use them for His glory. Of that we can be quite sure.

Therefore, do not stop loving one another with your very lives. For love washes over a multitude of things and it is by our love for one another in which we will be recognized by the world as Christ's bride.

As the apostle Paul said, "When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God's power."

May the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ reign in your minds and in your hearts,

joel

Only wish

The 2005 Christmas ep is now making it's way into the hands of good folks both young and old. This one was a joy to create as the songs took on a lovely shape thanks to the nurturing of a couple of good friends named jason and kyle.

Be sure to come out for a hot beverage at Strange Brew on friday, january 20th while the boys from rebel robot and myself share some music and song.

"If I find myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world." -c.s. lewis

And the adult superstores shall be as numerous as the stars in the sky.

I just spent a handful of hours northbound on 65 from the wonderfully inclined nashville city. My wife and I spent about four days hanging out at the annual YS national youth workers convention. We hadn't been in a couple of years, but had the chance to spend the time with two incredible women (one R. Furrow and another A. Johnson) who are continuing to listen to and follow God's wonderfully calling on their lives. Together, the four of us were challenged and encouraged in our faith, love, and in the youth ministry at center grove church which God has called us to be partners in. I made a few new friends like Brad from first baptist church in Williamsburg, Kay Why. We sat in on a seminar together, snapped a few photos and prayed for one another before parting ways. He has just finished a year as an interim youth pastor of a group of about twenty kids (jr AND sr high). After a brief conversation, it was evident that God has been blessing their "small" youth group with depth in relationships and transformed lives rather than with numbers...

As I spent the last few days in Nashville, reflecting on our ministry, fuming about our church community, listening to God, to brothers and sisters in Christ, to Dylan... alot of things began to percolate... not only in my mind, but in my heart. I began to see how inward focused I have become lately. I have forgotten my first love. I have stopped trusting my God. I have stopped jumping fearlessly into His arms with wild abandon. And yet, regardless of my own neglect of my soul and of the God who alone can nourish and sustain me, He has not forgotten me. Somehow, in my confusion, and inability to see two steps ahead of my self, I am held by the peace of Christ Jesus. You are my joy You are my joy You are my joy You are my joy.

And so, after miles and miles of billboards citing Scriptures adjacent to adult superstores, I arrive home. Not with answers to all of my questions, but with joy in my heart and a hope in the God who was doing just fine before I came around and who certainly doesn't need me now. And yet he desires me. He delights in me. He invites me to be apart of His story as salvation unfolds and His kingdom comes.

The timeless art of malfunction

Please come out to see me and the boys from rebel robot at Sophia's Portico coffeehouse in the basement of Olive Branch Community Church (corner of 56th and Broadway in Broad Ripple). We'll be sharing songs and musical ambiance to rattle and soothe your soul.

For more info check out www.myspace.com/joelrockeymusic.

See y'all soon!

Unnecessary exhaust

I know I know I know I know I know... It's been a while. Well, it may be little while longer... however,

Hey hermanos...

Just sitting here thinking about how life is going. Something tells me that things are about to shake up... let's try that again. Something tells me that things are about to shake up? Ahh! Much better.

The week has been unnecessarily exhausting. I couldn't necessarily say why. Perhaps the four hours spent driving to and from the Fort of Wayne on Tuesday somehow contributed to the matter. Nevertheless, it was a trip worth taking as Miranda and I surprised her mother on her birthday by showing up for dinner with the rest of the family. I believe her mother got a little misty around the eyes. It was also a joy to see our niece Megan after a few months being apart.

Last night I enjoyed the company of one Andrew Furrow as we cleaned through stuff in my office, discussing literature and speaking back and forth through mobile communication devices. These are surely times to be cherished. Meanwhile, don't you dare miss Andrew, myself and other exciting musicians as we perform at the CGPC Fall Festival this Halloween. Here is an 80 bit rate download of some work-in-progress just for the special few who may care. Enjoy!

Somebody get an organ to play

Time passes... slowly, quickly, away, by, on... these are all relative terms. Time passes, that much we DO know. But I digress.

I recently experienced something I've never experienced before and quite hopefully never will again. That being the wedding of my younger and only brother Jeremy. I also had the first-time experience of being a best man in a wedding. It was an incredible experience being able to stand next to my brother as he and his wife said their vows and as Pastor Greg Glover delivered a message of profound biblical proportions. I may have cried a bit. It cut me deep!

The reception held at the dolphin pavilion at the Indianapolis Zoo was really quite nice. We got to check out the dolphins and bust some fat moves to the phat beats of all your favorite dance party hits! I will tell you that you've never experienced anything quite like a Rockey wedding reception. Needless to say, all were exhausted by the end of the evening. Plus, my retarded tux jacket somehow mysteriously disappeared. I'm looking at a $130 fee on top of the $150 rental fee unless it turns up. I'm currently taking donations.

Recording has FINALLY started on the new album! Tracks for two songs are currently being laid down in the Mustard Room with more on the way. I'm so excited to being getting these songs on record and sharing them with others. I'll have some audio clips available soon.

Keep cool my babies!

joel

Gloria a Dios

 Hey Hey diddle diddle,

I just spent a week in Tulum with an amazing group of Sr High kids, my wife, and some other good friends. It was nothing short of amazing! This was not a mission trip as much as a partnership... I guess really that qualifies as mission and as Christian, I suppose there is a great deal of life that is missional in purpose... Kingdom missional... The mission of love, compassion, peace, justice... Jesus' mission.

Together with our hermanos y hermanas en Jesuscristo, we ate, laughed, played, loved, worshiped, listened, prayed, sang as one. Two cultures brought together by the Maker of all good things to learn from one another and to build bridges of cross-cultural ministry and reconciliation. Spending a week with friends of such depth and hearts the size of Volkswagen buses...

Gloria a Dios!