Celebration!

We have been working so hard to get our new church building ready to occupy. Well today after a ridiculous amount of hard work by our contractor we received our Certificate of Occupancy. Next Sunday (August 24th) we will have our first services. Exciting times for a church that has been portable for 11 years!!!

Introducing....

....some friends of mine that are relatively new to the blogging world. Lisa and James Duvall have been friends for many years. James has been a mentor and friend in ministry and is currently a worship pastor at an amazing Kingdom building church and Lisa is a witty, passionate mom and leader of women. Stop by and tell them hello!!

Re-introducing.....

After several months of being out of the blogging game, Jeff is back at it (here). You don't want to miss his latest post. Very interesting, yet controversial topic. Welcome back Jeff! Enjoy.

Todd Bentley is bootleg.

Your thoughts please! I have always been skeptical of a self-proclaimed revivalist. This video is of the latest person proclaiming a new word. His name is Todd Bentley and he is nuts. I cannot believe people follow this false teacher. As you watch the video notice how opposite the fruit that comes from this dude Todd's ministry compared to the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

"...the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit."
Galatians 5:22-25

Campout hangover

After a couple of days camping in the wild with a bunch of middle school students I have been suffering from a hangover. Headache, check. Tired, check. Irritable, check. It was all worth it though as we were able to hang out and speak into the lives of junior highers. Shown is a picture of me on the spinning swing. I almost puked. Thanks for some Pepto stashed in my back pack.

Hickey conversation

A student from our ministry came up to me tonight to congratulate me on our adoption. As we were talking I couldn't help but notice some nasty red marks all over his neck, they were obvious hickeys.
Me: "Nice suck marks on your neck!"
Student: "What are you talking about? Oh, that, I was hit with some paintballs this weekend!".
Me: "You liar! Those are suck marks."
Student: "Ok, one of the marks is a hickey"
Me: "Come on dude, stop yankin' my chain!"
Student: "Ok, your right"

I have never heard that excuse for a hickey. Some I have heard: "I put a vacuum cleaner on my neck", "I was itching my neck", "It's a fungus"
Never "I was hit with a paintball"

Whats the lamest hickey excuse you have ever heard, or made up?

Church picnic

As a church we take advantage of our beach-side location and have several church picnics each year. Here I am on the softball field where I made my post knee surgery debut. I also played some flag football and ate a bunch of chilli and a hot dog. Good times, I love my church! (Yes, this is the only hat that I wear)

Peace sign Jesus

Last week I was at a ministry meeting at a local church here in South Florida. This picture creeped me out so much. Notice how big his head is, the blue eyes, brownish blonde-streaked hair and of coarse the peace sign. Is this the creepiest picture of Jesus you have ever seen?

At the barbershop

Today was our monthly Adopt-a-Block day in inner-city West Palm Beach. Each time we make our way around the block picking up trash I stop by my old friend Courtney's barbershop. I have known Courtney since he was 15 and it has been so amazing reconnecting with him. It's so cool watching him become a fixture in his neighborhood as a local favorite barber. Have you bumped into anyone you have known for a long time?

Financial integrity?

AlterNet reports that U.S. Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) is leading a Government investigation and seeking detailed financial information from six mega-ministries. Here is a snippet from the investigation:

Joyce Meyer Ministries in Fenton, Mo. Grassley asks Meyer and her husband David to explain expenditures like a $23,000 commode with a marble top, a $30,000 conference table, an $11,000 French clock and a $19,000 pair of vases for the ministry headquarters.

Any thoughts?

Adopt-a-block day

For the 5th month some men from church continued our adopt-a-block with Urban Youth Impact. UYI serves one of the most crime-ridden, economically depraved communities in America. We have been picking up trash, mowing lawns and just plain ol' community connecting and it's been amazing. I would encourage everyone to have some sort of outlet like this in their lives. Here are some pic's from today's endeavor.

Adopt-a-Block

Over the past several months some men from our church and a local para-church organization which reaches out to inner-city families (Urban Youth Impact) have been partnering in a very unique adopt-a-block service based ministry. We meet up every first Saturday of the month and do various work around our neighborhood. This past Saturday we cleaned up an overgrown vacant lot and mowed a single mom's yard (honestly, I didnt do the mowing!). It's so rewarding to give of yourself without expecting a lick in return. I think too many times when you do ministry all of the time you grow to expect some sort of return: more people in the seats, money to do more ministry, life changing decisions, etc. This has been a very pure, basic form of ministry that has helped me just to enjoy serving without the potential return. Just doing it. Do you have an opportunity where you can just serve just for the sake of serving? Where? What is it?

Overwhelmed

The only word to describe the love and support that we received this weekend. Will share soon.

Building Update

As many Life & Times readers know, the church I serve at, Calvary Chapel Jupiter is in the process of building our first permanent facility. We broke ground on June 1st (there-about) and as of right now we have moving along rather swiftly. Our plumber and electrician have been doing their thing and we are prepping to finish the roof so we can install doors and windows. I'm thrilled to participate in this project. It's hard to imagine that in just about 6 months or so we will no longer have to set up and tear down or worry about whether the truck we move our two 24" trailers with will start or not. Time is tickin' away. Exciting. Click here to see more pictures.

Quick Rant....

I am so bewildered by people who are so set on being truth speakers and a voice of reason in the name of Jesus, yet don't do what Jesus did, love God and love people. They throw his name around and quote His words all in the name of truth, when in reality it's just subtle, but pure gossip and bitterness. Many "blogs" (and I say that rolling my eyes) have become a forum for some people to complain, call out and be just plain ol' big mouths all in the name of truth. I'm sick of a bunch of fellow evangelicals getting on the soap box about the emergent church. That's so yesterday. We have bigger problems in this world than a bunch of guys who like candles, mantras and weird hair-dos. Last I checked there were millions of people who are dying and going to hell. As Christ-followers it's important that we remain Biblical (for it is our source of all reference) but for crying out loud, lets have the heart of Jesus. Love God, Love People.

Staff Retreat Update

We continue to enjoy our time as a church staff spending time together building on the existing solid foundation. I must say that this is the most cohesive staff I have ever been a part of. Yesterday we enjoyed a devo from Pastor Dan and had some hang out time at the pool. We enjoyed an Italian dinner at Giordanos (again!) then went to our Childrens Ministry Directors temporary residence to play the game BANG!. It took some time, but I finally figured it out, but still lost. Today we had devos again then I was able to catch up with my boy Phil from CC South Orlando. It was good to catch and share whats going on in each others ministries. I came back to the community that we are staying in and hit the pool. This time I swam and went down the sick water slide. The place we have been staying in is called Windsor Hills Vacation Resort. Here is the website

Staff Retreat

This afternoon Penny and I caravaned 2 hours north to Orlando for our church staff retreat. This year we rented out a couple of houses close to the wonderful world of Disney and have crashed. This place is sick. It has like 5 bedrooms, a 42' plasma, pool, hot tub, game room and of course most importantly, wireless. We are about to have dinner, feasting on the best pizza on the planet, Giordanno's. I look forward to just chillin' with all of the peeps I serve with for the next couple of days. I have read of some staffs going to some crazy spots for a retreat/getaway. This isn't crazy, just nice. Stay tuned....

Crazy Day

Another day in the life of me. Crazy. Up at the butt crack of dawn, quiet time, off to campus #1 (middle school club), to church office, off to campus #2 (high school lunch), back to office, back to campus #1 again (meet with campus police), quick lunch at BK, home to eat, off to campus #3 (pre-game meal with football team, prayer), home. Now I await 8 PM Smallville season 7 premiere and most importantly The Office season 4 premiere, 9 PM. I'm giddy. Jumpin' for joy. I will post after the episode. Peace.

MERGE

You have to watch this video. One of our ministry partners put this video together. You can get an idea of what we do on Wednesday nights.



Watch here

Crazy week....

Posts have been hard to come by this week. After prepping for 4 messages, I got a call from Dan (my pastor/boss) and he asked if I was ready to go this Sunday. That means, you gotta' message? He taught me a long time ago to always "have one in the hopper". So of course my answer was yes. So again, I ask for your prayers as I prepare another message for this Sunday. I know what I will be teaching/preaching, I just have to refine it and of course know it. It's quite an honor to be able to fill in for Dan. Big shoes that I cant fill, but I will do the best with the gifts that God has given. Messages this week: Who is God? (Omnipotent, Omniscient, Omnipresent), Connect (our third Student Ministry Core Value) and now Decision Making.