Wednesday, September 30, 2009

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.

Monday, September 21, 2009

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!

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

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...

Sunday, September 13, 2009

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.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

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.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

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.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

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?

Sunday, September 6, 2009

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.

Friday, September 4, 2009

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!

Thursday, September 3, 2009

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.