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
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Friday, July 10, 2009
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!
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!
Saturday, July 4, 2009
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.
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.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
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.
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.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
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.
Stay tuned for more info, as this starts to heat up into our launch on September 13, 2009.
Thursday, June 11, 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.
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.
Monday, June 8, 2009
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.
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.
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