New Christ Follower

Everything we do at C3 works toward the goal of connecting people to Christ. Last night God brought that home for our family as my youngest son Luke prayed to receive Christ. It was just an awesome, tinder time. Sandi and I have talked with him a ton about Christ and what it means to become a Christ follower, but we’ve never pushed him to make the decision to accept Christ. We wanted to make sure he fully understood the decision he made. Last night Luke told me; "dad I really want to accept Christ" so I talked with Luke and asked him question after question. He really impressed me with his understanding of; what sin is, how sin separates us from God and that our punishment for our sins is hell. He understood that Christ came and died on the cross so that we can be forgiven for our sins and to take our punishment away and by accepting Him, Christ comes to live in our lives and secures us a home in heaven someday. Jesus’ words in Matthew when he said that we must have faith like a little child became alive to me during this time. I saw in a 6 year old boy an extremely deep faith and passion to know God. After we had talked for a good 45 minutes I lead Luke in a prayer and through his tears he started a personal relationship with our living God. As a dad I could never be more proud of him than I am today. For both my boys I know the promise of Romans 10:9 is true in their lives and they are safe and secure in God’s hands. Let me also just say a huge thank you to everyone who invests in the lives of children and youth here at C3. You may wonder some times if you are really making a difference, but trust me when I say you are making an eternal difference.

Tirelessly Devoted

Last night we went to the Colonial High vs. University High football game to hang with some of our Crave students. It was awesome to see Jen rock’n with the Colonial High band and #56 big Vail leading Colonial as the starting center. I’m so proud of all our Crave students; they have such passion and drive to succeed at all that they try. I remember playing in high school and really loving the game yet missing the drive to really succeed. It really became frustrating. I wanted to play but at the same time I didn’t want to spend all that time training and going the extra mile to play well. As I sit here thinking, I really believe this is where so many who work in churches get hung up. They love God and they love serving him, but they’re lazy. If you know me, the one thing I cannot stand (probably comes a lot from being this way in high school) is laziness. That is one of the reasons why I am so thankful to be a part of the staff at C3. It still amazes me to think about how over the past 2 years God has orchestrated bringing together a church staff that has a deep, relentless passion to become the relevant church tirelessly devoted to changing lives. It hasn’t always been easy, but I am so thankful for a Pastor who isn’t afraid to make the hard calls and a staff team that is so willing to do whatever it takes to see Gods vision through to completion.

Good'er and good'er

What a great weekend! On Saturday we had some friends get us tickets to the UCF - Texas game. It was an awesome game, UCF hung right in there with #6 and the atmosphere was outrageous. During the middle of the 3rd quarter when we were standing and cheering in the poring rain, Caleb turned to me and said; “Dad, this is the best game ever!” That really made my day. Then yesterday… the only way I can describe it was just a day from God. Church was through the roof!!! We had 16 people get baptized that morning, the new Play House ministry for the First Look kids kicked off and I continue to hear one great comment after another about the music and message on Sunday morning. Then that evening we had one seriously sweet fish fry with our Home Team Leaders. I got to tell you, I love our Home Team Leaders! Last night there just seemed to be an overwhelmingly positive atmosphere as everyone seemed excited to get home teams started again. To top everything off we had Crave right after the home team meeting and man did God show up in a powerful way. We are continuing on through our “Life’s Toughest Questions” series and last night we dealt with; how do I handle the three big Ds; Difficult people, Difficult situations, and Depression. Everything started with Barry O. sharing some seriously personal experiences that he has had with the three big Ds. God used his story in amazing ways as student after student began to bring up and confront the big Ds in their lives. What a weekend! I love what God is doing here at C3 or as Pastor Byron would say, it just gets gooder and gooder.

Another Thought

I was thinking about yesterday’s blog and I started to think about how thankful I am for those that came along with us on the “search party.” In fact, this Sunday night we have a Home Team Leaders meeting that will be full of folks like that. They saw the vision of C3 church and have been faithful in living that vision out every step of the way. Guys; thank you for allowing God to use you to make C3 such a success!!! And, I got to tell ya, I am so jacked about what God has planned for C3. We have some jammed packed exciting days ahead of us as where we will be able to impact the community of East Orange County like it has never been before. Or as Darrell put it “hold on to your seats” because the ride is about to kick into overdrive.

Just a Thought

So I was thinking about this church that I heard about here locally that is starting to become much more progressive in reaching the unchurched. They have started to go through some of the same transitions that we have gone through here at C3. They are becoming more creative and innovative. Instead of running away from the culture they are using it to tell people about Christ. Well evidently, just like what we experienced here at C3, some of the current membership is all up in arms and very upset about this transition. They’ve started blogs calling the pastor names and saying how ungodly their church is now. Ya know, I just don’t understand that. It seems the folks that do this stuff only care about being heard and being “right” and in the process they tear down and destroy what God is doing at that church. Why? Because they believe church should be done a certain way? It almost seems like they think that because they disagree with the church style then God has somehow appointed them to absolutely make life miserable for anyone who sees things differently. I’m sick of it and these people need to grow up. I think the real problem is they don’t fully understand God’s heart. They don’t seem to understand that God wants us to engage and be relevant in society; why do you think the Bible says over and over again that Jesus ate with sinners and tax collectors. It’s why Paul said, “I become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.” God never said to go out and create little convents where traditions rule and people like you can go. Instead, He said to head out into the highways and hedges; in other words, get out to where the people are. They seem to miss that absolute desire to do whatever it takes to “save some.” Or maybe it’s just that these folks feel jealous. Maybe they feel like, “my pastor and my church no longer revolve around me so I no longer feel like a big fish in the sea.” You remember the story in Luke 15 when Jesus tells the parable of the sheep? In this story Jesus shows us how serious He is about going out and finding the lost. He tells the parable of leaving 99 safe sheep to find one that was lost. Now some of the 99 might get excited when they see their shepherd heading out to find the 1, but I wonder how many others probably felt like they got left in the dust. So instead of heading out to become part of the search party, I think sometimes the 99 can feel jealous or left out. Then, because they have nothing better to do, they set out to make the pastors’ lives miserable. I wish these folks would be honest and say that the 1 doesn’t really matter all that much to them. What truly matters to them is what environment the 99 are meeting in. Well anyway, just a thought. If by some chance you are reading this and you are a pastor who is starting to make this transition, man I know things are probably getting rough right now. However, let me just encourage you and say, “Stay true to the vision that God gave you.” I can honestly say I am more excited about ministry today more than I have ever been.

Fun on the Weekends

Man, it has been one jam packed weekend. Starting Friday morning Sandi and I were out test driving cars. We haven’t bought a new car in forever. However, this time around we decided to do the 21st century thing and hit the internet. It’s absolutely amazing. We were able to do a ton of research, figure out financing, get quotes from all the local dealers and then even haggle the price right on line. Anyway, by Friday we had narrowed it down to two main vehicles and to a couple of dealers who still had '07s on the lot. By that evening we had our new car. Oh, the internet also helped find a dealership with a minimum trade-in allowance, which really came in handy with our old beat up trade-in. This morning we were back out running around as the boys had a British soccer clinic. The guys sure didn’t look like they were from Britain, but I’m not saying anything. Tomorrow, we start the day off with Discovering C3, which is an awesome way to start a Sunday. This is a class where I get to meet with new families to C3 who are looking to join the church. I love this time to spend with these folks, usually everyone is so excited and really interested in what we are doing at C3. Then tomorrow night we start our normal fall schedule for our student ministry; Crave. I’m so jacked to get things rolling with Crave again and starting tomorrow night we begin a brand new hang-out time called Club Crave at 5:30. Needless to say this weekend is moving, but as always, I’m loving it! Don’t forget to check out C3 Sunday as we continue to make some Waves.

Guys Weekend Comes To An End

Sandi is back home (Thank you Lord!) and the boys and I are starting to get vegetables in our diet once again. Actually, it wasn’t that bad; thanks to the Bledsoe’s and Jacobson’s the boys and I got some veggies in over the weekend:). Really, the weekend wasn’t that bad, we just tried to stay as busy as possible. Of course by Monday morning I was completely wiped out, but we made it through none the less. Sandi had a great visit with her dad. She was able to spend a lot of quality time playing games and talking with him. Please keep praying for him as he is not doing well physically at all and that makes it really hard on the family. God Bless Today!!!