mattmehaffey

Party People

Friday night, Janie and I, threw a party at our house and invited several families we've met in the year's time we've been in South Florida. Some were from The Pursuit and others we met in other social circles. Our friend Sheri Dupuy, from Indianapolis was staying with us for the weekend too. Good thing, cause we put her to work! But, that's what she gets for being a Red Sux fan.

Janie themed the party based on our multicultural makeup and everyone brought food from whatever part of the world they were from. As you can tell from the map, we had food from places like Cuba, Malta, Peru, Spain, and Kentucky (yes, there was chicken).

We also borrowed Alex and Erin Diaz's Wii which turned some party-goers into fierce competitors (cough, Janie, cough). Check the picture out below and see my record setting score, as I dramatically came back after starting off rather poorly against Janie. By the way, those are Alex and Erin's virtual versions of themselves (I played as Erin and Janie played as Alex). Victory!

Here are some other pictures from the party through my flickr account.

Sunday in the Bag

Yesterday, was a hard but very good day. Feeling like I was about to puke my guts out while unloading the trailer was my first sign. Luckily, I was able to hold it together.

Sunday's celebration service at The Pursuit we looked at the true marks of a godly leader. We looked at 1 Corinthians 4:1-5 and you can find the audio here. The Big Idea for yesterday was "We become good news to South Florida when we lead as we serve like Jesus."

This was a difficult message for me to preach because I talked about a couple of men who I considered godly leaders (I am where I am today because they pointed me to Jesus) but they hit the eject button on the church, one abandoned his wife and kids for another woman. Paul says, it's not enough to aspire to be a leader but to be a faithful leader.

I found a prayer journal I kept while I was at Cincinnati Christian University where I wrote the names of 20 of my peers who were studying to become leaders in the church. I committed to pray for these guys for a time. While many are still growing and persevering almost half have dropped off the map.

I think what consumed my thoughts yesterday was how fragile all leaders (and all churches) really are. There is something deep inside all of us that loves to put people up on pedestals and when that leader proves what we should have known all along ... they're human and scarred by sin ... we realize too much of our faith was anchored to them instead of Jesus.

Highlights of the day:

1. We saw a beautiful display of grace take place during communion. Good place for it!
2. Kids City is rocking and rolling. Recent first time guests are coming back because their kids had such a blast.
3. We looked briefly into the future to when The Pursuit will transition from the current management team to a local eldership. I said, "If there are men who aspire to this position you need to know and live 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:5-9." While saying that, I saw a bunch of people writing down those verses to study later. Love that!
4. We now have three chefs at The Pursuit ... thank you Jesus!
5. A great summer crowd showed up.

Connecting the Unconnected

Many of us have read, The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell who teaches there is a point at which the momentum for change cannot be stopped. He writes in order to cause any type of social movement three types of people are needed: Mavens, Salesmen, and Connectors.

In starting The Pursuit and building the staff, I knew I needed to surround myself with mavens and connectors because I am definitely the salesman. I believe connectors are especially vital to church planting and the more you can get on board the better. If you look up "connector" in the dictionary you will see a picture of Bob Smith.

Bob currently serves The Pursuit Christian Church as Campus Pastor of the Pembroke Pines/Miramar location but he and his wife Linda are also in the process of starting a new campus that will reach older adults so they can love, live, lead. Just read his recent post over on his blog. Read it and you'll see what kind of a connector he is. Click here for Bob's blog.

XXXchurch Las Vegas

When Craig Gross, founder of XXXchurch.com was at The Pursuit in April he was telling Eric Metcalf (Small Groups Champion at Community Christian Church in Chicago) and me about his plans of planting a church on the Las Vegas strip. These guys are all about taking the gospel to the edges of society and I for one applaud them for taking this risk.

If you guys look at multi-site, might I suggest South Beach? The Pursuit would definitely be all in on that!

Check out the video below and consider how you can help.

Sneak Peak into Pursuit 1.0

One of my favorite events on the church calendar is Pursuit 1.0. This is basically a three hour time where we invite a smaller group to our house for dinner and conversation. After we fill up on food from Joey the Baker (yum), I get to show them "under the hood" of The Pursuit Christian Church and we look at what makes her run.

The main goal is to issue a challenge of membership. The Pursuit believes in having a high threshold for its members. We aren't signing up for a Blockbuster card where there is no commitment required. At the end of the night, some are ready to go all in and others are not. Either way I love talking about where God is taking The Pursuit and seeing new people ready to jump in and do their part.

Why I Heart Apple

Thanks to all who poured out their sarcastic sympathies when I shared the news my iPhone was sick. I hope you catch whatever it had.

Last Thursday, I walked into the Apple Store in Ft. Lauderdale, told them my situation and without any hassle gave me a new iPhone. (With the 3G iPhone coming out July 11, I thought I should have waited a few weeks and maybe they would have upgraded me but the guy at the Genius Bar said they are keeping the older version of the iPhone for cases like mine.) After syncing it to my MacBook Pro all of my original settings were completely restored on the new phone. I have high respect for companies who care so much for their customers experience they will do whatever it takes to make sure they leave satisfied.

Sorry to those who's texts and calls I missed for a couple day but I am back and better connected then ever.

Did You Take Your Dog to Work Today?

Since our office is at home we did but this is all he did. I am going to fire him if he doesn't start contributing.

Sunday in the Bag

Yesterday at The Pursuit we continued our We Love SoFlo series. I taught from 1 Corinthians 3:10-17 (but only got through the first few verses). Paul's letters are loaded I tell you. The topic yesterday was "Building on Jesus" and the Big Idea was "We become good news to South Florida when we join together and build a church founded on Jesus." Here's the podcast.

Highlights:

1. The next step I challenged everyone with was to realize God has specially gifted each one of us and has a role that only we can play in building The Pursuit. I saw some people really get it. Several people jumped in after the celebration service and helped tear down and load up the trailer.
2. We had several first time guests.
3. As the architect God has called to lead The Pursuit, I shared some big picture dreams I had never shared before during celebration service. Could The Pursuit have three church campuses in just a year and a half? Nothing is impossible with God. I love seeing people realize God is much bigger than we ever imagined!
4. Pursuit 1.0 (our membership class) met last night and two of my favorite people committed to membership. Proud of you guys, Manny and Yami! Two others want to meet about being baptized.
5. Hearing a young couple who has been coming for the past few weeks say, "We love what we are learning from the Bible. We've been trying this church-thing out but the past few we tried the pastors talks on and on about themselves and you point us to Jesus."

I love the church God is building here in South Florida.

My iPhone is sick.

Tried to restore it to it's original settings but that did nothing. This calls for an Apple Store visit tomorrow to see if they can fix it.

Jeter's New Shirt