Outed by Ed Stetzer

Ed Stetzer has proclaimed on his blog that I’m Pentecostal.  I guess you can say he “outed me.”  I actually prefer the term “Continuationist“ since I have never had a Pentecostal experience like tongues of fire sitting on my head.  I’ve also never spoken in Spanish as the Holy Spirit gave the utterance.  But, I do embrace the [...]

The Way We Roll

It’s 26 degrees outside and we rocked the A/C all night long.  Dang…wish I’d brought a good jacket.

Taking Breaks

I’ve taken a break.  And it feels great.
I worked like a dog on Sunday after church and the membership luncheon (which was awesome) so I could wrap up some of our stuff for Easter, especially, our Moonlight Easter Egg Hunt.  I stayed up late and hit the office hard on Monday basically wrapping up a [...]

Thank God for New Churches

Some 2,000 years ago, Christians began meeting together in homes and borrowed spaces to worship a revolutionary Jesus. That heart is alive today.
Check out these two blog entries from two of my friends whose new churches meet in homes and borrowed spaces, Chris in Lakeland, FL and Matt in Pembroke Pines, FL. Jesus [...]

Sunday Wrap-up

Chris has a great Sunday Tossed Salad, his version of a Sunday Wrap-up. Go there now…run don’t walk.
The Ritz Crackah has a Sunday Rundown too.  Check out what the young pup has to say.
After a shot of NyQuil around 1 AM, I was a tad loopy in the 9 AM service.
I don’t know if [...]

A Church That Reflects the Image of God

I hear the chatter of a thousand accents…voices of the world talking to one another enthusiastically.  Its almost an oddity to hear two people engaged in conversation using the same rhythmic style.  Its like a chaotic poetry seasoned by melanin (or the lack thereof) that produces seemingly every skin color under the sun.
Every tribe.   [...]

Easter Drama is Canceled in Favor of a Moonlight Easter Egg Hunt

UPDATE 3/20: This page is getting a lot of Google traffic looking for information on the Moonlight Easter Egg Hunt in Homestead. Pre-registration closes on the late afternoon of Thursday, March 22nd. Once pre-registration closes, you can still get into the event. But, you’ll have to show up at the event to [...]

Easter Drama

We’ve been trying to finalize the details of our Helicopter Easter Egg Drop. It has led to our first Easter drama…there’s a lot. I have a meeting at 1 PM with some folks at the city to try to get things figured out ASAP.
We had until today on our direct mail deadline. [...]

“You All Are Everywhere”

One of our goals is to disallow Jesus from being ignored in Homestead.  I don’t want anyone to be able to say, “I never knew…” or “I had never heard…”
On Sunday, one of the connection cards from a first time guest circled that they had heard about us on our billboard, a handbill, the internet, [...]

Fidel goes into retirement

The old fella has finally gone into retirement.  I wonder if he’ll trade in his oppressive, communist general’s fatigues for a pair of plaid shorts and begin playing shuffelboard?

Where are you?

We can’t get to where we’re going until we first admit where we are.
from Perry Noble via Tony Morgan

Sunday Wrap-up

The 9 AM service was awesome…so good that we blew a horn on stage right.
Did I mention we have a sound upgrade happening this week?!?!
The vibe in the 9 is as juiced as the 10:30…love it.
When the band played “Worth It All,” I was in awe…one person was singing through incredible pain. [...]

WannaDoCity

Yesterday, the girls shopped, worked in a hospital nursery, were archaeologists, modeled, rode in an ambulance, went on rides, and had a blast. They also earned about 800 Wongas!!!
Me? I got worn out. But, we had a blast at one of the coolest places for kids on the planet at WannaDoCity. [...]

Praying for Rain

We’ve made the decision to have three services on Easter.  We’re tilling the ground, planting some seed, and praying for rain.  I believe God fills vacuums/empty vessels (2 Kings 4:1-7).  We’ll keep creating empty spaces and pray for God to use our people to fill them.
The truth is that our people are inviting their friends, [...]

PDA Valentine

Its Valentine’s Day.  There will be no night on the town for Travis and Kelly tonight.  Why?  Because Lost, American Idol, and Survivor are on tonight.  That’s one of the things we do.  However, I do want to deliver a Public Display of Affection across the blogosphere on this special day to the most gorgeous [...]

If You Had Nothing But Yourself…

If you had nothing but yourself…to bless someone or some people who were not expecting it, how would you give of yourself?

If you had $1,000,000….

If you had $1,000,000 to give away…to bless someone or some people who were not expecting it, how would you give it?

Mark Driscoll on (un)Christian

The title of ths video is actually Jesus vs. Religion…same thing. Enjoy.

Potential Podcast

Last week, I was on the Potential Podcast with Troy Gramling, Raul Palacios, and Heredes Ribiero from Flamingo Road Church. We chatted a little about Life Pointe and handling negative criticism.
Check it out here.

Sunday Wrap-up

Coolest moments of the day: baptizing Savannah, Nicole, Charlotte, Veronica, Jonathon, Flora at Bayfront Park!
Another cool moment: Seeing my great aunts and uncles (JP, Helen, Hosea, Estella) come in unexpectedly from Huntsville and Atlanta. They were looking like a million bucks, always dressed to kill. They were accompanied by my cousins/neighbors, Terry and [...]

(un)Christian: all hell breaks loose?

Its the morning of our kickoff of the (un)Christian series, my voice is shot, I’ve had to delete some folks from my blog who’ve been upset with us for even doing this series (you should hear the voicemails), and there’s no football on this afternoon for the first time in months.
Its going to be a [...]

Assimilation Seminar

Bob Franquiz is hosting a Fusion Seminar (on Asimilation) with Nelson Searcy in Miami Lakes on Thursday, March 6th.  Registration is only $39 and will be well worth it for a pastor/leader/volunteer who wants to help people take the next step forward in their pursuit of Christ.
In 2007, I was a part of Nelson’s pastor’s [...]

Miami #3 Recruiting Class Nationwide

According to Scout.com, we have the #3 recruiting class in the nation. We got a pile of kids from Nation’s top highschool teams, Booker T. Washington and Miami Northwestern. UM is on the road back to dominance…looking forward to the upcoming season. I don’t expect us to be perfect or the best. [...]

Multi-site Exposed

I’m registered for the Multi-site Exposed Conference in Seattle, WA at Mars Hill Church in April.  To do it, I had to cancel my plans to hit the ChurchPlanters.com Conference next week to do it.  But, I think it will pay off…even though I’ll miss seeing some good friends and a great conference with Shawn [...]

“Smells Like Teen Spirit” - Ukelele Orchestra

Thanks to Open Culture

(un)Christian proof

We sent out postcards promoting the message series. Our hope is to apologize for the way we’ve misrepresented Jesus and to share how we can truly honor Him. We got a card back from someone today with three notes asking us to refrain from mailing “our propaganda and literature.” It kind of [...]

(un)christian series kicks off Sunday

We’ve produced a short film which will accompany this 3 week message series based loosely on Kinneman and Lyon’s book, “unChristian.”  Find out more here.  Invite your friends.

Full Speed Ahead on Our Location

We just finished the negotiations with our theater concerning our meeting space. The school was great to give us the opportunity to move in. It was a really tough decision. I’ve not dealt with more gracious people. They provided us with excellent opportunities…all the way around. I believe that’s [...]

Looking Glass Self

Charles Horton Cooley developed the sociological concept of the Looking Glass Self. It’s three components are:

We imagine how we must appear to others.
We imagine the judgment of that appearance.
We develop our self through the judgments of others.

In becoming the “self” or the leader that God has called us to be, we must consider the [...]

Sunday Wrap-up

We had to break into the theater for the 2nd time in three weeks.  Apparently, after 2 years of meeting there, its a surprise that we show up at 7:30 AM on Sundays.
Our lease is up at the end of this month.  We may be moving soon.
I’m conflicted about that.  The theater has been a [...]