It’s September, but we’re already staring to think about the Christmas season. We’re planning our Christmas series, but if you haven’t noticed December 25th is on a Sunday. So I’d like some input from all of you: What is your church planning to do? Have church. Don’t have church. Christmas eve, but no Christmas day. Just to throw something else into the mix, what are your doing on New Year’s Day (Which is the next Sunday)? I’d love to hear your thoughts…

Every year we have an appreciation dinner for everyone that serves in the church in some capacity.  This year we decided to do something different.  We wanted to appreciate them with the whole church there.  So we did our appreciation at our annual church picnic.  So we rolled out a red carpet and cheered for all of our volunteers.  We had 115 people that we were recognizing for their faithful service.  That was awesome!  We gave everyone a certificate of appreciation and a Starbuck’s style coffee mug with our church logo on it (The kind they sell for like $25).  … Read More

Well, we finally celebrated 5 years as a church on Sunday (I feel like that’s all I’ve been talking about lately), and it was great.  Going to 2 services went great as our team just did an amazing job making it happen.  Then we had our annual church picnic afterwards and I was so shocked by the hundreds of people that were there. I was with our youth playing a game of kickball, and as I was in centerfield I took a look around.  There were so many people there that I started to get overwhelmed by all that God … Read More

We kicked off a brand new series called "Life", in which we are looking Solomon’s life as told in Ecclesiastes.  It went great. The message was enetitled, "That’s Life."  The main point we are working from is that "God wants to add life to your years".  Solomon wasted so many years of his life only to realize this truth when he was close to the end of the journey.  We designed the whole theatre to look like "the game of life" and it looked amazing.  Carey put together an amazing video that set up the message perfectly and our worship … Read More

I just got back from Expo ’05.  Let’s just say that mentally I’m wiped out.  But I was totally challenged by everything that was shared.  Let me give you a basic breakdown of what stuck out in each main session:  Session 1 – Andy Stanley: Even though I’m the president of the Andy Stanley Fan Club, let me say that he was amazing!  The guy just rocks my world every time I hear him.  He hammered the point home that people give to vision.  But people want to see the vision, but just hear words.  So the key is, how … Read More

Tomorrow I’m heading to Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale (My old stomping grounds) for the day to attend the Exponential ’05 conference that Generous Giving puts on.  The speakers are: Bob Coy, Michael Easley, Charles Stanley, and Andy Stanley.  It’s going to be great.  I’m looking forward to learning a great deal and I’m excited because this is so close.  I usually have to fly someone somewhere to go to a good conference, but this is only an hour away.      

This Sunday (9/18) is our 5-year anniversary as a church. It’s amazing how fast the time goes. We’re going to 2 services (9:30 & 11:00) and we’re looking forward to what’s in store. I don’t know if I still qualify as a church planter, but I still feel like one. I’ve learned so much over the last 5 years and I still feel like I have no idea what I’m doing. Some days I can’t tell if everything is coming together or coming apart. Sometimes I feel that at the same time…

I don’t know if you’ve been following the latest new trend in the blogging world, the "Pirate Blog."  But Andy Stanley’s comments about church world have been amazing.  I’ve copied (without permission, but I hope it’s OK) his thoughts on what a church’s optimal size should be & what church planters should focus on… On a church’s optimal size: "As to the optimal church size… I pretty much agree with what everyone has written. In fact, our answer to that question may seem a bit…simplistic… compared to previous entries. Our theory is that a church should be allowed or encouraged … Read More

After 9 months of writing and hard work, next week my book, Elements will be released.  Bob Coy, Senior Pastor of Calvay Chapel of Fort Lauderdale was kind enough to write the foreword.  The book is a look at the life of John the Baptist and…well, I’ll let you read it for yourself.  Check out my other site, www.fuelmg.com and you can read the introduction to the book.