Back to the Beginning

Back to the Beginning?

“Jeff, didn’t you mean “Back To The Future?”

Nope. This fall 2018, God is saying it’s time to go – back to the beginning. Oh, I love the Back To The Future franchise. And I could watch Marty McFly and Doc all weekend long!

But I am somewhat captivated by – beginnings. Christopher Nolan of course started the Batman series all over again. How could a newbie director pick up something we all thought was dead in the water – overplayed, overtold, and overdone – and ABSOLUTELY CRUSH IT with a brand new franchise now so recognized, so appreciated and loved – people forgot EVERYTHING before it?

There is a Scripture in Revelation 2:5 that haunts me. But in a good way. A very – good – way…

“Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.”

Hmm. How many of us leap right on past that first phrase? “Consider how far you have fallen?” I wrote a book about this sad state of affairs in THE NEW PHARISEE where I basically uncover a disease that is, in my opinion, the #1 hidden killer of spiritual life in ministers and Christians – the pharisization of human beings.

In fact – my professor in Bible college wrote his own version years ago “Christian Pharisees” and he said to the congregation “I was a professor at a Bible College and I didn’t even know I was a Pharisee! but I was!” Dave Nichols – you are a life hero of mine!

So what I really love about beginnings – is that once we repent, agree with God that our deeds are actually evil (II Chron 7:14) we can GO BACK TO THE BEGINNING – when it was new, fresh, when we loved Jesus just for who he was, and when we lived in a bubble of singing off key praises in the dark and doing good when we didn’t get any earthly credit for it.

THE BEGINNING! That’s where we crushed it with Jesus! Remember? We didn’t care about our egos and positions and worldly junk back then!

You see I spoke a few weeks ago at a church in Omaha, Nebraska called “Tribe Church” and it was funny because – the pastor was one of the harder kids in my youth ministry with my mentor and overall best ministry boss I ever had – Ty Schenzel. (Why did I like Ty? What’s not to like for a young youth pastor? I mean, he asked me to come work with him in Omaha, and I TURNED HIM DOWN! Oh, man was I blind.)

Well 6 months later things were different. And he asked me again!

So I now was speaking at this church, and I couldn’t help look Pastor Ken in the eye at least a dozen times. And in the crowd were so many friends that had heard I was coming and came to see me speak! It was standing room only! And that was a change since as you know, my wife and I had just completed a stint as “interim church planters.”

And as I spoke to this group I ended my message with a chance to repent, a chance to let that childlike faith in Jesus – direct us to move with the Holy Spirit – who is like the wind. I spoke of dozens of miracles that God did in my ministry and basically that we have been away from THE THINGS WE DID AT FIRST for way too long.

Ty and I were hand in glove – We were BATMAN & ROBIN! (Sans the tights. Praise be!)

Thank God for that divine pairing. From 1991 to 1996 I did everything in my power to make Ty shine. I did everything I could to serve him, give to him, assist him, make things happen for him. And unlike so many in my life before, and since, instead of him kind of lording it over me, he in kind began serving me, lifting up me, elevating me, letting me shine and not hiding me behind the stage in a dark closet. ”

We did it together.

Recently guys (I am bringing this to a close now) I was helping a friend try to get a TV show picked up. We got close. It’s still in the works.

But in that scenario, a producer friend from LA asked Affirm films what kind of story they were looking for. And Affirm said “True life stories.” And my producer friend asked me about Ty. I said “You want a story about The Hope Center?” and he said “No – before. Tell me what happened on the journey. I like a movie that tells the journey. I want to know what happened 5 years back. 4 years, What did you guys go through before The Hope Center was a reality?”

I told him stories for almost 5 hours! He kept saying, “Then what happened next?” Tell me!” Ha ha. It was so cool. He wasn’t a Christian.  But he loves faith films.

And then he said, ‘Jeff I love the story. And it’s your story of your time with Ty during those years. So if you make a book about that  I will team up with you. I also co-own a publishing company. So just get a book out – and give it to me and we will get this thing going.”

And that is the update of Jeff Saxton as of September 2018.

This book, guys, it will be quite potent. I mean, – in so many ways.

But it’s where I am at.

And I prayed about this, alot. And I am not a fan of crowdfunding. I vowed I would never do it again after our IndieGoGo experience. But I learned that IndieGoGo is for widgets and inventions. But Kickstarter and GoFundMe are better suited for books, films – et.

Here is the link to the GoFundMe campaign. Check it out.

And we will be giving you more stories and updates as time goes along.

Thanks as always,

Jeff