A good name for a church

I was talking to one of our leaders in our Children's area and she was sharing about her son's friend that they'd invited to church at Bay West. They had tried to work out picking him up to come last weekend, but with holidays and stuff, it didn't work out. So, our leader was talking to the mother about arranging a time for the son to come and she said that actually she was going to try a new church in Palm Bay this next weekend in the area.

Our leader asked her which one and she said that it was called "Come as you are" and it met at Heritage High School. She showed our leader a mailer that she got in the mail that had prompted them to go.

That's a picture of it above...and it's actually a mailer that Bay West sent out (minus the "CHURCH" that Photoshop and I added to the picture above) and that's the church they are trying out this weekend. Funny, huh, how God works that out? And that just sealed the deal for them to come, because now they know someone already.

Don't forget to invite your neighbors and your friends, because you never know how God is already working.

We've got some INVITE CARDS that will be on the information table as you come in and go out...pick up a few and give out to friends. They have a map, our website, what's going on the next few weeks in X-Factor, and some special Christmas opportunities that FBC as a whole is doing throughout December.

FYI...we will be having a combined service on Sunday, December 27th at the Melbourne Campus @ 10:30am. It will be a chance for all of FBC Melbourne to get together in one place. CONSEQUENTLY, there will be no services at Heritage High School on December 27th...the rest of the time, we are on the ball as usual.

A good way to cap off Incomplete

We just finished our first series entitled "Incomplete", a series on the 6 things that God has lead us to focus on here at the Bay West Campus.

The tough thing about a series like that, as I've expressed, is moving away from the sort of "checklist" mentality in dealing with Christ. If I do these things, then I'm good. The problem is that's already been done, it's called the Law, that God gave, and it was created, not for us to find righteousness in it, but to highlight the fact and make it easier for us to see that we CAN'T keep it, thereby making it easier for us to turn to God...still, when you say, "Hey, look at these 6 things!", people tend to look at this as the definitive list...but it isn't...hence the name of the series "Incomplete", because just any compilation existing of only our efforts to save ourselves from the punishment that sin brings would be just that....Incomplete.

Throughout the series, we've said, time and time again, that Jesus is the thing that connects everything. Our relationship with Christ and the faith in Him is what leads us to salvation, because He is the only source of that saving.

Katye sent me an email the other day about a verse she found in her reading that really kind of capped off the sentiment from this series on "The 6"...

James 2:22- "You see, his faith and his actions worked together. His actions made his faith COMPLETE." (NLT)

Pretty cool, huh? See you Sunday, when we examine a perspective on something that we all do every day...

It's all in who you know

For years, I've heard this phrase and it's made me bristle. It implies that you can't get ahead in this world on your own merit, it's always about the person in power that you know that can get you to the right place.

I HATE that... I want to make it on my own merit on things, that's why I hate it... That, and I'm one of those guys who have never really known anyone to hook me up. :-) Just kidding.

This week, we'll be talking about the next one of "The 6" here at Bay West Church which states that one of our values at Bay West is that we lead people to cultivate relationships with God's purposes in mind. When I was studying for this talk, I began to see that the statement I hate may be more a part of my life than I ever suspected...and that may be okay. Oh yeah, it's easy for the preacher to take the high road, capitalize the "Who" and say the "Who" is God, but that's too obvious...and while that would be the greatest value statement I could make, it would hardly be the end of this subject in the life of a Christ follower.

Hopefully, I can shed some light in the immensity of this one of the 6 that just really gets lumped into eating meetings and parties...but it's much, much more than this. If you are in West Palm Bay, or you just want to drive a little bit, feel free to stop on by. See you Sunday, 10am, Heritage High School.

Are you working it or missing it?

Worship is something that most of us have on a calendar of some sorts, either in the habitual brain side set for Sundays at "x:xx" or the family on the wall calendar or the online, computer-based variety. Our schedule consists of getting up on time, taking the shower (hopefully), busting out the smell good (DO, ToothP and the like), breakfast (optional), getting the kids ready (if you have them), checking the news/internet or whatever is your morning routine... I'd love to say Quite Time with God and His Word, but I know that some people take the "well, I'm going to church already" road, sadly enough, so I know for some, that's in the optional category with breakfast.

Then, you've got to hit adequate drive time and if you are at Bay West, you've got to get there early enough to fulfill your opportunity to serve the weeks you are on...which so far has totalled "2".

Most of us, if we can hit our little mile markers and hit the service before I start to speak, we stamp goal accomplished...good job.

But is that enough? While this would probably be the picture of a successful Sunday for most and if people were asked what they had to do to prepare for the worship service on Sunday, it would be a similar list...is that enough?

Sadly, no, it's not. This Sunday, we'll be talking about #3 on the 6 in our series entitled "Incomplete". Hopefully, we can all come away with a broader perspective and some winning strategies to get the most out of Sundays. If your worship has been sort of boring lately, I've got some answers for that. If you're just not "feeling it", got that covered... No problem...

See you Sunday!

Sooooo....love it is or is it?

One thing I noticed as I prepared for the love component of the Incomplete series at Bay West Church is what secularly we associate with love and exactly how it changes the focus of love. I'm not really talking love and lust, but just in the foundational aspects that make you really understand what's involved in the endeavor...I'm going to spend some time on that on Sunday...

When you think about it...everywhere you look, love's all wrong, as far as the definitions go...people say the right things, then send you on a wild goose chase, philosophically...what you look for, what you think you're in for...no wonder people seem to fail at love so much, when everything around us at times works to re-focus in another direction...

The dichotomy is really interesting...

Dangerous series...incomplete

We started off at Bay West Church in West Palm Bay with our series "Incomplete" last Sunday. It had an interesting germination. In the development of the vision of Bay West, we wanted to identify some things that we would like to be core values to our campus. In meeting and praying with some of the couples on the launch team, we came up with what we call, "The Big 6". It's a list of 6 habits, characteristics, behaviors that we'd like to be known for at Bay West. In developing this list, I really felt God's leading to begin Bay West by preaching on these foundations of Bay West...hence the six-week series we are starting out with.

I was at Sun Shoppe in Melbourne, meeting with Elliott Davis, one of our worship leaders about a month or two ago. I shared what the first series was and he said "Hey, that would be a good thing to call this series, Incomplete" Of course, I was like...wha???? He went on to explain his thinking that 7 was the perfect number and this was one short, leaving it incomplete. Of course, we went to the same place....that the 7th and complete picture was Jesus that made it all relevant. Great! Incomplete was complete.

You know when you preach a series like this...that lists some good things to focus on in your life...there's always a danger. It's called the "holy checklist syndrome". The danger is that someone might think that if they do these 6 things, the "holy checklist", they'll be fine.

Nothing could be further from the truth....and it's part of the reason that the name of the series, "Incomplete", fits so well.

In the Bible, Matthew 7 says...
22 On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’
23 But I [Jesus] will reply, ‘I never knew you....

Hence the danger...there are loads of people, all across the planet, that think if they just can "do" enough stuff and put Jesus' name on it...even in a well-meaning, honest, trying-my-best, in-church-ever-Sunday sort of way, that this will be enough...but not so much.

Christ, right there in Matthew, puts it in black and white. The biggest thing, the foundation of our judgment, before all the "you did WHAT????? You mean I have to forgive THAT???" starts (just kidding - :-) ), the requirement will be if He knew you or not...did you have a relationship with Christ? Did you spend time with Him? Did you follow Him daily? Did you get to know Him in the ways He left for you to? It won't be because you did a bunch of stuff that impressed Him enough to make Him think you deserved it...just the opposite. We CAN'T accomplish that at all...impossible.

The Big 6 aren't your salvation...they are just good things that can help you understand, live, grasp, emulate what already exists in your heart...a relationship with Christ. So let's not get the cart before the horse, the ".com" before the "http:" so to speak...remember the foundational non-negotiable here...that's you...Jesus...healthy relationship...the rest will work itself out.

GREAT Day!

We had a great day at Bay West Church this morning. The training took WAAAAAAY longer than expected on Saturday, so needless to say, even though God's been extremely faithful the whole way, we all found a way to lose a little sleep last night. Of course everyone was so keyed up to get it done, we had the guts of the Worship Center done at 8:15-8:20am...lol.

The service was great, even though we had some minor technical snafu's and PCI/us will have to get those worked out (got to mention the Tech stuff...I am still a techy guy at heart.)

All in all, though it was great...talk to you next time...what? You want numbers...we didn't count...just kidding, here are the vital stats.

Bay West Church first Sunday
1 hour and 20 minute setup and sound check
45 minute takedown and store away
Service was 1:05 (and yes, Jim went over, got out at 11:10, but we started late on purpose - just this week- :-) )
108 or so in the Worship Center (some people came in late - don't know if they got counted also)
43 kids
17 workers (including Jenny and Bevan, Children's Minister and leader)
34 people filled out guest cards (even though we didn't have any pens or anything to fill them out)

Lot of people we didn't know...

That's 170 on Campus for the first Sunday (not counting Roberto, the best head custodian in the business in Brevard county, or Larry, since he couldn't stay the whole time).

Praise to God...let's get ready for next week!

God can do a lot of things...

I found out a new one yesterday and it bears repeating and it happened in our journey of starting our new satellite campus, Bay West Church in west Palm Bay, Florida. Heritage High School, 10am...

On Thursday, the AP at Heritage High let us know that he'd been able to clear out "most" of the room that we'd been scheduled to use for storage there at the school, but still had a shelving unit...and he didn't know where we'd put the overflow.

That was troubling since our diagram of the room and how our cases fit in there from PCI showed that we'd have the room jam packed and have 3 large cases that wouldn't fit in the room and would have to be stored elsewhere...now there was no elsewhere.

Honestly, I was a little bit ashamed (that's dumb right?) to go to God with what I had...all I really knew to ask for at that point was "can you just make the room larger, please?"

We got there yesterday and our equipment was delivered by PCI. When we started loading the cases into the room, ALL the cases fit in the room...with the shelving unit in there!

I've always felt that God could do anything that He wanted to do, but I'd never thought about Him being able to enlarge a room and I guess I never thought I'd be lucky enough to see it...but He did.

God can do a lot of things...thanks, God. Bay West Church starts today.

Spiritual Warfare never really stops...

...it just ebbs and flows. If you don't know, Bay West Church has experienced our share this week of the launch, so keep praying.

Larry, our SP, had to go to the emergency room on Sunday right after the service. He probably should have gone before the service, but he wanted to be a part of commissioning everyone who was going to Bay West. I've been sick for about 2-3 weeks or so, nothing nearly as serious as Larry's by far, but just had the accelerator to the floor for 6 months or so and this is just the result. Finally had to break down and go to the doctor myself, and get a shot, take a day off and go short days on work for a couple of days (which means keep working, but just try to be calm about it).

Last night, I got a call from one of our Launch Team guys. Tuesday night, he & his son had put out about 20 signs on Malabar in West Palm Bay about the Launch on Sunday...you know, those political signs that stay up for weeks. Well, someone had gone down Malabar and taken all 20 down. I'm not sure if someone just knocked them all down or actually took them away, but they aren't standing.

We also have not received all the final confirmation on the storage space we'll need...computer software issues have taken extra time this week...we've had some extra miscommunication as far as staff at FBC that's taken some re-communication and backtracking and clarification on stuff...nothing major...if you shoot a BB at something, it's not so bad. If they come one at a time, not that big of a deal, but if you shoot 100 at the same time, that's a shotgun shell...bigger deal.

Most of the time, spiritual warfare is always around, so it never really stops, it just goes in waves when you are attempting to accomplish something for the Lord. Personally, I don't think it will destroy the work or anything like that, because God is still in control. Most of the time, sw really just attempts to steal the joy of those involved. It's a good reminder that you are probably doing the right thing, if it upsets the enemy so much, but it's all good.

All I ask, is that all of you pray extra hard this week...we don't want to pull up short and that we don't get thrown off by the inevitable little things that get thrown our way.

More pub for launch...

Is it big enough to call it "pub", I think so. Billie Williams at the FBC Weekday Preschool, had her parents orientation meeting today (has another one tomorrow), gave out our info, talked about it and let Katye speak to the parents in attendance about Bay West. She had a signup sheet for anyone who wanted more info and one lady even said she'd heard about it and said that her family was going to go this weekend.

The FBC Weekday Preschool has become a pretty good entity with a good rep (according to Ann Marie's Kindergarten teacher at West Melbourne School For Science) and lots of people send their kids there, regardless of their religious affiliation or the church thing at all. In Susanna's class, there's only one kid besides Susanna that goes to FBC. There are also several families from Palm Bay whose children attend. Anyway, the point is that everyone that goes there aren't Christians necessarily...not a requirement to go or anything. It's just another way that we can reach into the community to help build a bridge from Bay West Church to the community of people in West Palm Bay.

One more testimony of stuff...

Stan Berry called me in my weakened condition to tell me some encouraging tidbits from his day.

1) He ran into someone at Publix and in talking with them, was able to share about Bay West and they seemed to be interested in coming.

2) He also ran into someone else later that had gotten our mailer and their kid had already been nagging her to take him there on Sunday.

Things are working as God continues to move to bring Bay West Church to Palm Bay...don't miss your part in this, okay?

Family Fun Night went great...not wet

Last night, I was a little worried about the rain and thunderstorms, whether it would even go off. This morning, I thought about calling it early...but, we figured we'd just deal with it, suck it up and just go for it....good thing too!

At Bay West Church's first official community event, there were a lot of people there...a LOT. We cooked 500 hotdogs and they were ALL gone...while I know some people might have gotten two, there were also those that didn't eat any. Lots of kids as well...The Community Center opened up for open gym, and we rented it out for 2 of the 3 hours and it was PACKED (thanks, Dudley, you are simply the man...know you hate that I said your name, but you are).

The GREAT thing was that there were A LOT of community people that I'd never seen or met before...lots of people that got the mailout, saw a sign, looked on the web, were invited by friends or just people they ran across...I was really pleased, but boy, am I tired...as are a lot of really great servants who will sleep well when they go to bed tonight.

GREAT JOB! I don't know how many will come, but there were a lot of people who said they were planning on it...we'll see. Here's our first real attempt to reach out and serve the folks of Palm Bay, Florida...West Palm Bay...and it seems to have worked. I would totally love to name EVERYONE who worked there, but I'd forget someone and that would stink...so I won't...I'll just say I know that God is pleased with your sacrifice and that's why you were there.

Signs are up in Palm Bay about Sunday night

Signs for the Family Fun Celebration are up in Palm Bay...some really great people put them out and some really weird looking guy in an Alabama hat just had to take his picture by one today...

We'll see if the weather cooperates...we've got about 60% chance of Thunderstorms on Sunday afternoon at present...the chances have been getting worse...we'll see what God has in mind.

And things keep coming...

Katye, my wife, was wearing her Launch T-shirt at Nicole Cote's School of Dance, which is where our girls take dance. Someone stopped her and started talking about Bay West Church, and said that she'd heard about us and was planning to come.

Little words here and there...don't forget to invite your friends...Launch is in 9 days at Heritage High School in West Palm Bay.

Don't forget the Family Fun Celebration on Sunday night!

Another really cool email in a timely fashion...

I got home from our Launch Team meeting last night, felt REALLY tired...long day...

The day started well with a great Worship planning session, then a meeting with a guy who agreed to be our drummer for a while...but as the day wore on the issues came in...isn't that just the way it is?

Lots of issues to deal with...all of them level "5"...allegedly...then some good stuff, but you know how it is...the challenging seems to take more out of you, even when the good is there, too.

To end the day, I had a standoff with my 5 year old daughter and we both ended up crying and pledging to be better (okay, I'm a sap, sue me...she's got me, can't help it.)...I'm getting really sick and it won't quit, but I don't have time to quit so it will. So, all in all, it's a pretty not so great ending... I'm lucky I have people that are praying for me or I simply wouldn't be making it (I know they are, they email me that they just did, facebook me right after they do, text messages, v-mails, so that's AWESOME...it's not always necessary to pray for storms to stop, but better to pray for strength to withstand them, to learn what you need to learn through them, and grow closer to God in the process...because that's what it's for....but I digress.)

Back to the story... I'm feeling pretty much lower than a worm's belly button and I decide to check my email...yeah, when you're low you might as well go in for the kill, because usually email can be that...but I got a really cool email from someone who'd seen our flyer and was really glad we were coming to the area. That's great! Made my day!

The other side of things was that this email was PARTICULARLY important because one of the things we've had to deal with was some well-meaning person calling the church to complain about the separation of church and state and how we shouldn't be meeting in a school...didn't matter if we pay BIG money for rent just like anyone else could...because we are a church, we should be penalized for that. I also found out that a few well-meaning people had been pestering the principal, John Tuttle, at the school as well. Our Worship Minister ended up on the call with the well-meaning person and made a really good point..."sir, you make a good point, but isn't it funny that we vote at every election that's had in churches all over the country?"...guy didn't know what to do with that one...kind of took the wind out of his sail...

Anyway...you can see how God sets up stuff to keep you going and give you energy and encourage you, because this was a big email. I hope the person who sent it didn't mind, but I copied-n-pasted a really nicely put portion (minus their names and stuff) and forwarded it to John over at the school. He only gets the junk calls and emails and he needs to know as well how many people appreciate our being in the school. He's a good guy trying to do a hard, yet very important job.

And this type of thing happens all the time...so there's my "just another cool email" story...hope it helps you to. Here's to bringing Bay West Church to West Palm Bay and doing our part in obedience to join with all the other GREAT Palm Bay churches there to reach Palm Bay, Florida for Christ.

P.S. And if that wasn't encouraging enough, the next article I read was that Mark Ingram and Julio Jones (two big starters for the University of Alabama football team) were cleared to play against Va Tech on Saturday night and our starting DE, Brandon Deaderick, who was shot during an attempted mugging on Tuesday, miraculously, only sustained a flesh wound in the arm, so he won't miss his entire senior season or anything...good news all around...every little bit helps...God knows that.

Things are working...

Someone was talking with someone this last week and upon mentioning Bay West and FBC, they responded with "hey thanks for the water"...pretty cool, huh? They had gotten some of the free water we've been handing out.

Keep praying for this weekend...please, please invite friends in Palm Bay, especially if they have kids...The Family Fun Night at Palm Bay Regional Park...4-7pm will be fun!

Bay West Church is just 12 days away from launching in West Palm Bay! It's an exciting and busy time. There are a lot of people picking up the slack and I'm reminded every day of two things....1) There is a LOT of things to do 2) God really is on top of things.

Look for our first service to possibly be on the Bay West Church YouTube channel...NO GUARANTEES...but definitely possible.

Just more evidence...

God sure has been in our corner throughout this process..so many things that I've missed and He's caught and fixed without my help...one more thing. For those who were at prayer last night...the whole water thing...God has now opened the door for someone to donate 20 cases of promotional water (and pay for the shipping) for us...God is truly good.

So, LAUNCH TEAM, be ready to get to work to bring Bay West Church to West Palm Bay.

A few things:
1) Sept. 6th...BOTH morning services will be praying over us and commissioning the ENTIRE team in the morning services. If you are in town, please plan to be in both services for the commissioning if you can.
2) Sept. 6th...EVENING...Family Fun Celebration. We'll be on hand to get things done at Palm Bay Regional Park that evening...do not miss it and bring all your friends from Palm Bay. You will be getting some phone calls about helping at various things, but the primary thing is for you to attend and make sure you mill around and meet people in the area.
3) This next Wednesday, Sept.2 and next Wed. Sept. 9th - BE THERE, be there, be there... There will be training for the KIDZONE teams both nights with Jenny Goodson, who'll be doing the training and there will be some things such as putting toys together and other things (First Impressions, Media Team, etc...) that have to happen.

Also, our leaders of teams will be recruiting, so if they call you, so stay receptive and open and we can do the work that God has for us in Palm Bay, Florida,

another Thursday night...

There's some great things going on for Bay West Church...

We have us a Children's Leader...Bevan Brennan, a Melbournite and her husband Jason will be joining us in this endeavor. Katye and I had a great dinner with them tonight and feel very positive about them being part of the team.

They've been married 3 years, and they'll be coming around so look for them and get to know them...good folks. Jenny, David and I have met with them to interview them and it's a good deal. You might remember Bevan, because she was a music intern here a few years ago.

Keep praying, because I meet with a prospective Worship Leader tomorrow night AND I had an awesome lunch with a guy today who I've asked to be a part of our worship planning team...GREAT creative mind, we freakin' click....

Feeling good about stuff...met the Community Center Coordinator for the Ted Whitlock Community Center at Palm Bay Regional Park the other day...Rob Medina...GREAT guy, great guy! Talked with him about distributing some promotional water, if we donated it for his different classes and stuff and he was all for it...he's a believer and sincerely loves Jesus. Great contact....btw, thanks again to Larry and Doug for maintaining such a great rep in this area, that definitely helped out the cause here!

Another story of how God just works stuff out here...Jeff Cooke, one of the guys on the Launch Team, was at the prayer time Wednesday night (DON'T MISS THAT) and I was talking about taking water down to the Community Center next week...then I remembered...I'm in Fort Myers all next week at this mandatory training from the FBC (pray for my attitude about that, I don't like being made to go somewhere when I feel I've go so much work to do here), so I can't deliver the water when it comes on Thursday...Jeff pipes up and he's a Landscape Tech with the county in Palm Bay, lives right near the Park, has a truck and says "no prob", he knows Rob, so, done deal...water is right on schedule to be delivered. See how God works...solving problems I didn't previously even know were problems.

There's loads of stuff like this that makes me hopeful...I can't plan this stuff, it just happens. There's big stories and small stories (like just meeting up with Cliff the other day, the guy who runs the Cricket Club down at the Park and then Rob setting me up with a contact for a future community service project...HUGE! to Truth Advertising finding a string to pull to get our mailer out with a short turnaround - thanks Geoff) You just can't buy this stuff...not to mention the money that's been raised in THIS economy to make this happen....you just can't deny that God has something planned. I'm not sure what it is...maybe three of us sitting in that big school in learning about Jesus...but we'll see.

Anyway, here's to more successes in faith as we follow God to try to help bring Jesus to West Palm Bay...adding to the Palm Bay Churches.

woo hoo

LOTS TO DO! Bay West Church is on the move!

Just a few quick hits
- just recorded some spots to start airing on some cumulus radio stations in the area
- look for Facebook ads to hit soon (I'm paying per click, so if you already know about the church, doooooon't click it)
- We've got a HUUGE potluck for the Launch Team coming up on August 23rd (Sunday night) in the Fellowship Hall..EVERYONE on the Launch team needs to be there...BIG TIME.
- September 6 - Sunday night - We are having a family night at Palm Bay Regional Park to gear up for the Launch the next day...tell ALL your friends in Palm Bay. We'll have bounce houses, refreshments, (possibly) live music and it will be from 4-6pm...and it's FREE!
- I've just decided on the first series two, possibly three series that we are doing at Bay West and this should take us through the end of the year... You know me, so it's INTENSE, so be ready for it...
- we are still looking and praying about the children's leader and worship leader...we are close, but I'll let you know as soon as we do.

Things are really looking up and I'm getting the second wind to pull this thing off...so hang in there. We are really serious about being a Palm Bay Church and doing what we can to bring Christ to West Palm Bay

Wow

Things are going crazy and beginning to blow up here about West Palm Bay. Bay West Church is starting to get crazy...website...T-shirts... equipment...ESPN Radio...setup team... First Impressions team... Skate Jam at Liberty Park looking.

Woooooo...it's getting nuts here. One thing after another and things are looking great.

One small prayer request... tomorrow morning...big, big meeting and some things need to sway our way.

Worship Leader search... We are getting closer and closer. Things are looking great, continue to pray.

Children's Leader search... Getting closer here also...

Hopefully soon, I can give more news...keeping praying...pray again...now pray one more time and repeat tomorrow. :D

Community Impact & Sunday plans

Just had a great meeting with a guy about involvement in our Community Impact team. The more we go along, I realize that there has to be promotion about the start of the Bay West Campus of FBC Melbourne in Palm Bay. I'm a multi-task guy, so the more Bay West Church can do promotionally that helps the community of Palm Bay, Florida, the better. We've got to be serious about bringing Jesus to west Palm Bay.

I'm getting ready to preach this Sunday at the Melbourne Campus of First Baptist Church in the 9:15 service. I'll be talking on Moments... and how they make up our life and determine our directions... hope to see you there.

Sunday night, we have our Launch Team Meeting this Sunday night at 6:15 in the Jr. High Room. Don't miss it!

4th weekend...and it's still rolling on...

Well, we have loads and loads of things going on. I pulled together a focus leadership group after some prayer and we've been working on 5-8 things that will be the major hot buttons that we push at Bay West.

Basically, we were looking for the 5-8 priorities that we will encourage in believers at Bay West. While we are looking for important theological concepts, we are also looking for those "gifts that keep on giving"...the habits as a Christian that just permeates your life and touches so many areas, pushing the believer closer and closer to Christ.

We're still working with the designer on the website and that's coming along...still a ways from being programmed, but it's working.

On the Worship Leader....things are going well, two or three guys are rising toward the top for different reasons for this little campus trying to reach West Palm Bay for Christ.

On the Children's Leader...I've met with a few, looking at meeting some more and Jenny is getting in touch with some as well...we'll compare notes and see what happens from there.

There are some interesting things and possibilities and combinations, so we are just praying for God to highlight the people that God has for Bay West Church, as we endeavor to join the group of Palm Bay Churches reaching Palm Bay, Florida for Christ.

Good week!

This week's been good and stressful...ha! Seriously, we got the quote back from PCI and feel good about their assessment and plan for our location in Palm Bay.

Bay West Church, from the technical side, is really starting shape up. And it's looking GREAT!

Click here for a link to a video from Florida Today on Heritage High School...LOOKS GREAT!


I had a great meeting with some of our Leadership Core on WEdnesday to do some formative things for our campus. We'll be finishing it up next week. The structures we are putting into place are formative to our ministry and our campus, so please pray for us.


Three good conversations as well. I met with two prospective Children's Leaders for a meet and greet and had a phone conversation with a person with some interest in our Worship Leader position. I was pleased with all the conversations...we'll just see what God has upcoming. Look for some large projects for August-September right around the launch...here we go.

New name is out there!

This morning, we announced that the name recommended by the naming team for our new campus in West Palm Bay is going to be Bay West Church, a campus of First Baptist Church of Melbourne. We hope and pray that God is able to use us to introduce people to a relationship to Jesus as a one of the churches in Palm Bay, Florida.

Stay tuned for more info, as this starts to heat up into our launch on September 13, 2009.

Great God!

You know, today I was reminded of God's supreme planning ability...how he's incredible and all that stuff. It's really amazing how God is putting this whole thing together...for us to join the work He's doing in Palm Bay, Florida as Bay West Church....this new campus of First Baptist Church of Melbourne.

The other day I was praying and was just really impressed with God at all the things He was doing and at the same time, I started to start feeling really inadequate. I started thinking about all the church planters I know that really know what they are doing...are people that I respect tremendously in their walk and was thinking "Why in the world would God be blessing me as the leader of the project so much?" My honest thought was "I just absolutely don't deserve all this, God". It was one of those times that God almost spoke to you...it wasn't audibly, but it was almost like an immediate phrase popped in my head...like an answer to my statement. The reply was "Good...cause I'm not doing this for you, Jim, I'm doing this for Me."

That re-centered me again and also calmed me as well...my inadequacies don't stop the universe or blow God's plan, in fact, I think He prefers using people who don't have it all going on, like me, so He gets more credit...that's certainly more comforting.

Field Trip a SUCCESS!

We had a GREAT trip to Sherwood Elementary to visit New Hope Church. Bruce Cadle, the Lead Pastor, acted as our host for the day and was very gracious, as were all the people at New Hope. They were VERY hospitable to us future attendees of Bay West Church in Palm Bay, or the Bay West Campus of First Baptist Church of Melbourne.

We arrived at 8am and got to help unload the trailers. Everyone was cheerful and upbeat and I was EXTREMELY proud of our group and their willingness to jump in and help.

One takeaway was across the board...PCI is worth the money. New Hope has a pretty involved setup and we were able to setup in a little over an hour. Everyone was impressed with the ease of which the room set up.

Another takeaway was the importance of depth of the setup team. For example, in the Baby-K area, people are asked for a 2 week a month commitment. One week, a person would participate in the area's set up and they are done. Their second week commitment, they would come in and work the morning (after another team had set up that morning), and then they would take the area down afterwards. So actually, one person only misses 1 worship service a month.

A good rule to remember anywhere (especially here) "Many hands make light work." The thing about this proverb is that it's not that EVERYONE shows up at the same time and mass assembles. They had a period at the beginning where they had TOO many people...people in the way, inability to set up in a proper sequence... What they found was that the "light work" was better served in 3 teams of 10, rather than 1 team of 30.

We also found out about layered setup. Some areas don't need as much setup as others, so some areas had later meet times.

Another takeaway was how different each area (especially the children's area) looked before/after. The PCI setup was able to achieve a VERY inviting atmosphere. Bob Osterholm remarked to me how impressed he was, because he was expecting for it to look like you were having "church in a school", but it was not like that at all...the transformation was WONDERFUL.

We also realized that we have several advantages over New Hope.
1) Chair setup. Because they meet in a cafeteria, they have to take down the tables and setup their chairs, then take them down again. In the auditorium that we'll be using, we will have neither.
2) Acoustics. New Hope's music and sound was GREAT, but there are always challenged in a cafeterium...an auditorium is acoustically treated to handle performance styled music, which (regardless of what you like or don't like about the word "performance") is pretty much the style of music that ANY worship service has...regardless of the configuration of instruments, vocalists, etc...bad sound hinders everyone, and the room can really hurt or help you...
3) Stage setup. Because of the small size of the stage in the cafeteria, they had to set up a pretty sizable temporary stage for a pretty complicated setup. Even though PCI's system sets up likety-split, it is a challenge that we won't be locked into taking on.

We heard some great stories of kids and salvations and reaching people in the community and were really encouraged about their enthusiasm for our task of reaching people in Palm Bay. They offered open access to relationships with the setup team leaders there to offer any wisdom to us as we go through the process. It was a great time for everyone.

Field trip is ready

In about 10 minutes, I'll be heading out to FBC Melbourne to meet our team to go to New Hope Church (findhopehere.com). They meet in Sherwood Elementary. We'll be sharing the experience of the setup this morning and seeing how things go there.

Bruce Cadle will be giving us some time for Q&A and I really hope it will be a profitable time. Time to go...see ya.

Rolling, rolling, rolling

FIELD TRIP
Field trip! Field trip! We'll be going on a Field Trip on June 7th to New Hope Church. They've just recently moved into a school and used Portable Church Industries for their church. This is an EXCELLENT OPPORTUNITY for our Launch team to see up close a similar setup for church. We will be meeting at FBC at 7:25am...that's AM...on Sunday morning, June 7th and leaving at 7:35am to make it to Sherwood Elementary to observe and watch the setup team at New Hope do their thing. Bruce Cadle, the Lead Pastor, will also be available for us to have some Q&A with him during the morning. They will also be providing us with a continental breakfast.

Email me and let me know if you are coming to see what's up... jim@fbcmel.org

WEB FOCUS GROUPS AND DESIGN
Sandy is getting a focus group together to fill out a questionairre to help us establish a flavor and design for the Satellite Campus THIS WEEK. We have a discovery call with our graphic artist next Tuesday, so be in prayer for those filling out that crazy questionairre...it's nuts, but there is a method behind the madness and we are working with a proven and successful entity in the field of web design in Details Communications. Click on the name and check out the other churches they've done designs for. Nice work (including our current design a few years ago). We'll be incorporating the dual campus element of our church into a prevalent part of the design and updating our design somewhat. We will also be getting some newer functionality that will make it easier for online giving, event registration and member management...it will be GREAT! Pray for this as well.

STAFF SEARCH
Our staff search is still ongoing. I made a contact at the Baptist College of Florida and he will be sending us some traffic from their schools of ministry. If it's on your heart to possible serve as Children's Leader or Worship Leader, it's up to you to follow the procedure and put your name in the hat...if that's what God's telling you to do, it's your responsibility to do it. Just click here for the process (JDs, resume, cover, email to me)... www.fbcmel.org/staffsearch .

FINANCIAL PLAN
Mitch Garner, our Finance Team Leader for FBC Melbourne, and I are getting together to work through the exisitng financial plan for the rest of 2009 and 2010. Pray for wisdom for us and great ideas and that we'll catch as many things as we can.

LAUNCH TEAM MEETING
This meeting went great...we ate a little, fellowshipped a little, gave info and the most important thing...we prayed for the campus and what God will have us do. We will be praying in the Ed building, room 127...

PRAYER
We'll be meeting to pray every Wednesday night in the Education Building in room 127 on the first floor from 6-7pm. Come on by! Also, if you are still considering being a part of the Satellite Campus, this may be a good place for you to be still and let God give you an answer on your direction. Remember that Stan Berry is having prayer/bible study at his house in Palm Bay on Sunday nights as well. You can email Stan at

In the beginning...

In the beginning...well, let's don't be that dramatic. It's a new day for us at FBCM and for me personally, as we are planning and working and scheming to start a new campus of FBCM in Palm Bay. We're currently exploring the option of meeting at Heritage High School on the west end of Malabar road...and I mean the WEST end...on the end, way out there...

Believe you me, that I have asked God on more that one occasion if this was what He REALLY wanted. I mean, up until a month ago, we were going down a dirt road (yes, a dirt, unpaved road) to start a church. It's not an easy project beyond that either...there were 9 church starts, of which FBC was at least a part supporter, and this will be the 10th...and it's just us.

We are considering the name Bay West Church. This name will be the external name, while internal communication will call it Bay West Church or the Bay West Campus of FBC Melbourne. It's a little scary, but it's a lot of fun...it's exciting to put together details which may help further the cause of Christ in Palm Bay...it's scary. The economy is bad, yet we will be taking on an ENORMOUS investment and in 2010, we'll be adding 10% (about 225,000 dollars) to our budget. GOD, you must come through, because the truth is that this is something we cannot accomplish on our own.