Make'n C3, C3

Dude, I’m so jacked about what God’s doing here at C3!!! With all the stuff that’s been happening this past month I’ve been in a lot of different church’s and I got to say; man, I love what we do here! I love thinking how a couple years ago God began to put this vision of C3 into the hearts of our management team and there has been no turning back ever since. The guys I serve with are awesome. Each one brings amazing skills and talents to the table, but what gets me pumped is that in each one there is a relentless desire to do whatever it takes to see the unchurched connected with Christ. What I also love is these guys are so real. I’ve seen so many pastors who put on a suit Sunday after Sunday and put on this religious front. There’s no pretending or puffed up egos here, we all know we’re not perfect but we take what God has given us and we do our absolute best with it. I think Josh, our newest addition to the team, put it best when he said; “I’ve never been a part of a church where I could just be myself.” It’s hard to explain but there is a freedom in being able to be yourself here at church and it’s one of the things that makes C3, C3.

Back to Posting

Man, it’s been about 2 and half weeks since I last got on here. It has been a crazy couple of weeks. Literally hours after my last blog we got a call that Sandi’s dad had taken another turn for the worse. We flew Sandi up to PA the very next morning and the boys and I started an 18 hour drive up. You could see God’s hand all over that trip. Sandi was able to get to her dad while he was still coherent and spend some time talking with him. And, even though I was alone in a car with the boys for 18 hours we had a great time ridding up together and we made it to PA just in time for the boys to see their grandpa one last time. It was a long hard week following Sandi’s dad’s death, but her family really pulled together and helped each other through. However, just a few days after we got back to Orlando, tragedy struck again. Sandi’s closest friend lost her mom to a very short battle with cancer last Monday. She was diagnosed just 3 weeks prior to her passing and even though she was in the hospital she seemed to be doing better. In fact they were getting ready to send her home when all of a sudden her body just gave out. It’s amazing how fragile life can be. But, it is a lesson I keep thinking about over and over again. How we need to never let the day “get away from us.” In life there are so many important things to do, but we can not neglect the most important things; our relationships. God has created us for relationships. Relationships with Him, our family our friends, just remember as you go through your day to guard and treasure the time you have with the ones you love. Let me also say thank you to all those who called, sent cards and prayed for us over these last couple of weeks. Your love means a lot!

Stuff

Man it’s been a long time since I’ve been in the blog world, but there has just been a ton of stuff going on. Some stuff has been really good, like Power House. Over the last couple of weeks Don and his crew have been transforming Power House into the deep dark jungles for our new 8 week series on “Treasure Quest.” If you have kids that are elementary age they will not want to miss the next 8 weeks!!! Then Crave for our middle and high school students has been running at full steam. Our students have really gotten into investing and inviting. Over the last several weeks we have had a ton of guests come check Crave out simply because their friends invited them. Great job dudes!!! Then this coming weekend Crave is heading to Boardwalk Bowl for a little fun and of course to discover the awesome sport of “Cravebowl.” Parents, students will need to be dropped off at Boardwalk Bowl at 5:30pm and then plan on picking them up by 8pm.
Other stuff this week, however, has not been so good. Over the weekend Sandi’s dad took a turn for the worse. Her dad has pulmonary fibrosis from a job where he use to work with chemicals. Basically, what that means is that he is losing the function of his lungs and his body is unable to get enough oxygen. Over the weekend it got extremely hard for him to breath and he was hospitalized. As of right now the doctors are unsure of what is going to happen; if his lungs will begin to function enough to go home or if they will just stop functioning all together. If you think about it, please pray for him and Sandi this week.

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.