Guys Weekend

Man it’s been a long day. We got Sandi to the airport at 6:20 this morning. She is off to see her dad in Pennsylvania. If you get a chance please pray for her dad. He was diagnosed with a terminal illness and at this point there is nothing the doctors can do for him. So, we want to take as many opportunities as we can for her to get up and see him. As for me and the boys, we have an all guys weekend ahead of us. We started out tonight with a highly nutritious meal; the all you can eat CiCis pizza buffet, man those boys can eat. Then it was back home for some highly educational activities; couple hours on the Wii. And now I’m beat. Just a couple of minutes ago I got the boys to bed, but I can still hear them talking away in their bedrooms. For tomorrow morning I think I’ll start them off with another nutritious meal like Krispy Kream or leftover pizza. Anyway, I hope you have a great weekend and I’ll C U at C3.

I'm Loven It

Have you ever had one of those weeks where you were just exhausted, but things keep happening that get you more and more excited about the week? That’s been my week this week. Sunday morning driving to Church I could barely see straight, but once the day got started, man was it an awesome day. Darrell and the band were awesome as usual. Then we had a special time where all of the pastors got to reflect on this past year. It got me so pumped up! I just keep thinking about how many people have shared with me over the past year about how God has changed their lives. I am so thankful to just be a part of what God is doing here at C3. Then so far the rest of the week has been about the same as Sunday. There has just been so much that we’ve been working on this week that has me absolutely jacked-up. On Sept. 9th we start a brand new series in Crave called Life’s Toughest Questions. With this series we will take 7 Sunday evenings and answer questions that the students themselves said were things that they have difficulty understanding or dealing with in life. Also this week, we’ve been working on our Home Teams kick-off for Sept. 16th. I’m so excited to get Home Teams up and rolling again. There really is no better way for adults to connect with each other than through the Home Teams. Then, if that weren’t enough, tomorrow we begin putting together the room for our brand new puppets environment in First Look called Play House. Man, what a week so far, I love C3!

Wii Church

Received a question about “if it’s not broke, break it” from my blog on Change. I have to admit the first time I heard the idea, I didn’t really get it either. But, the truth is it’s a very simple idea where one is never satisfied with the status quo and always looking for ways to do things better. Take the Nintendo Wii for example. The guys over at Nintendo could have said, “Man, we love the Game Cube, it’s selling millions of units each year and kids love playing our games, it’s a system that works and we can’t mess with a system that works.” The natural tendency is to think that if something works once, then it will always work. But the truth is that if the guys over at Nintendo would have never changed their current system, the Game Cube, then eventually it would go the way of Atari which people think is old, boring and has nothing for them so everyone stopped buying it. Instead, the Nintendo guys said, “Hey, even though Game Cube is working we should “break” it and see what else we can come up with. Of course, they came up with the Wii and now stores can’t keep them on the shelves. The exact same holds true in church. Over 80% of Orlando doesn’t go to church on Sunday and many of those folks will tell you church has nothing for me, it’s irrelevant and boring. It’s an Atari. And then there are the Game Cube churches; they work fine, but could they be better? So, it’s time to start breaking some things in church. Of course, when I say that some folks get freaked out and think you can’t change church; that’s sacrilegious. No, understand Truth is still Truth. The Wii still plays “video games,” just in a different way. We in Church still need to share Truth, just in a more relevant way. At C3 we decided a year ago we’ve had enough of being a Game Cube church, we’re going to break a few things and become a Wii church. Also, check out Darrell’s blog on Innovation or Death.

C3 Kids Rock

Last night we had our beginning of the school year kickoff/training meeting with our Children’s ministry volunteers and I got to tell ya, I’m just jacked about where our Children’s ministry is heading. We have the world’s greatest volunteers for First Look and Power House. These are folks who are passionate, loving, will do whatever it takes to make Children’s Ministry relevant and exciting for the kids and even kept their energy up after going through policies and procedures last night:). You guys truly are making C3 THE place for kids!!! Our youth have really stepped up to the plate as well. We had a bunch of youth come volunteer yesterday. You guys rock! Last night we also rolled out our plans for a brand new element to First Look called Play House. Play House will bring in some awesome singing and dancing and best of all: puppets for our 2s, 3s, and 4 year olds. Big thanks to Marlene and Ryan for all your hard work on getting Play House together!!! Also, if you haven’t stopped by Power House lately (we seem to like the House theme) you got to check out Heroes of Mega City. We’ve started a brand new curriculum that helps us completely redo the theme to Power House every 8 weeks and the kids are loving it. It is going to be an awesome fall with C3 Kids, I’m really looking forward to all God has in store.

Change

I was catching up with reading blogs after vacation and if you haven’t read it already you have to check out Pastor Byron’s blog on change called Ahh… Freak Out from Aug. 7th. I remember being in the UCF Business School and them pounding the philosophy in us that if it’s not broken then break it. That’s a philosophy that can really freak a lot of people out. But their point was that in business just like so many parts of life you have to be imaginative, on the cutting edge and always looking for ways to become more effective at what you do. We had major corporations like Motorola, Darden and AT&T come into to our classes and always tell us the same thing: you have to embrace change and never be afraid to fail. In many ways church life is not so different. We always need to be looking for ways to improve and become the relevant church that strongly impacts our culture. That’s not always the easiest thing to do, especially when you have to change something that you’ve poured a ton of time and energy into. But the truth is if we want good things to become great and if we want to make sure we are advancing then, we have to be willing to change. I’m so thankful for a church staff that is willing to ask the difficult questions of why do we do things the way we do and then embrace change to make sure we are always on THE EDGE.

Crave N Wild

I had a great day yesterday with our student ministry “Crave” at Wet N’ Wild. Our students really seemed to enjoy themselves as we turned the lazy river into wrestle mania and rode every ride we could. I love our Crave students. They are a great group of middle and high school students who have really gelled together over the last couple of months. I’ve never seen a group of students who cared so much for each other and really are out to help each other in every area of their lives. Good job guys! The Crave staff and I are very proud of you. Remember our next Crave event is on August 26th as we kick off the new school year with some crazy Crave games, food and prizes. We’ll see ya there.

Keys Part 2 - Lobster

Well, we’re back from the Keys and in full swing of things again. But, it seems like I’ve been getting several questions about lobstering. If you’ve never tried it, you need to put it on your “to do” list. Lobstering is one of those activities that can really get into your blood. My dad and I would go down to the Keys every summer since I was about 10 through my freshman year in college. My dad is now 70 years old and still makes it a priority to get down to the Keys to go lobstering every year. I myself look for every opportunity I can find to get back down there. This year was really cool because I had two good friends come lobstering with me and it was my boys first time. Jeff is an old pro at lobstering and as soon as we got near the water you could see the excitement in his eyes. Don had never been lobstering before but now he is already planning next summers trip to do it again:). Our normal method of catching lobster or “bugs” as we affectionately call them is to drag on planes behind a boat. Once we spot a lobster or holes or something that lobsters like to hide under we drop off, dive down tickle them out of their holes with a tickle stick and scoop them up with a net. It really is a lot of fun, here are some pictures of Caleb and Luke on their first lobster outing.

Luke heading out to look for Lobster:

Caleb and Luke on the planes behind the boat with Grandpa and dad, looking for lobster:

We credited this as Caleb's first lobster. He spotted it and daddy went and got it:

Keys, Family, Friends

Well, we are just about to wrap up our family vacation to the Florida Keys. I love the Keys. If you have never been, you have to plan on going one day. There is so much to do down here; fishing, swimming, boating, and my favorite of coarse; lobstering. This year was extra cool because we got to experience it with some of our really close friends. We spent 3 jammed packed days with the Newcombs and Jacobsons. We started out Monday with swimming in the hotel’s salt water pool, fresh water pool and snorkeling in the lagoon. Then, that night came Sandi’s favorite part of the trip: the all you can eat seafood buffet at Whale Harbor. Tuesday was an all out lobstering day, more on the lobstering later, but let’s just say that night was awesome as we all got together for a lobster dinner in our room. Then Wednesday was more fun in the sun as we rented aqua bikes and had more fun in the water. Check out a few pictures from our trip.

Good Company

So, I was really feeling like I needed to write about some comments that were recently published on certain folks’ blog sites. Evidently, there are a couple of people who like to say that the work we are doing here at C3 is from the devil and have compared staff members to satan. At first I was pretty mad at these comments, but then I realized we are in good company. You see, in Mark 3:22 Jesus was called the devil too. And what I find extremely interesting is who was doing the name calling; it was the religious elite, the “teachers of the law”. These were the guys who were supposed to be the closest to God yet they were calling God’s very own Son, the devil. Of course the question is why would they do that? Well, in part because the teachers of the law cared so much more about their rules, traditions and establishing a religion more than they cared about people. Jesus on the other hand came and turned those ideas upside down and it ticked the religious elite off. Jesus actually cared about those that didn’t spend all their time at the synagogue. In fact, He spent a ton of His time eating and hanging out with the vilest sinners around (Luke 15:1-2). In Mark 2 it even records Jesus going to a party with “notorious sinners”. But, why would He do that? Why would the most holy person who ever walked the earth hang out with those that are the farthest from Holiness? Jesus tells us in Mark 2:17 when He says, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but the sinners.” Jesus came not for the religious elite but for those that were the farthest from Him. To put it frankly, Jesus was a garbage picker. He came to this earth to the people who were considered the garbage of society and pulled them out. Personally, I think we at C3 have ticked the religious elite of Orlando off because we have decided to no longer be a social club or religious elite kind of church. Instead, we decided to “go out into the world” and pick out the garbage. I am sorry if you feel like your precious Southern Baptist Church was taken away from you. However, last time I checked it’s not your church, nor is it the Southern Baptist’s. Personally, I’m very thankful for Pastor Byron, our church and staff that clearly sees that God’s heart is not in creating a social order or massive colony. Instead His heart is getting out of the church building and going through the garbage cans of life.