mattmehaffey

Saddleback Forum

"It doesn't belong in a church!"

"What about separation of church and state?" 

There certainly wasn't a lack of controversy before the Saddleback Forum on Saturday night.  Pastor Rick Warren, of the Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, CA and author of the best-selling book Purpose Driven Life moderated the forum with presidential hopefuls Sen. Obama and Sen. McCain.  Despite the naysayers, this turned out to be one of the best political events I have ever witnessed. 

Here is why, you need to see this.  It was a comfortable and very informational two hours of television.  I think the reason most people are so turned off by politics is because you can never get a straight answer out of anyone.  For the most part, I found both candidates clearly communicating their stances on key issues in the upcoming election without negative attacks on each other.  I for one, needed to see this. 

If you missed the Saddleback Forum you can watch it in its entirety here.

Sunday Blend :: August 17, 2008

Today was The Pursuit's first Family Celebration & Child Dedication.  Six families took part.  The parents made commitments to raise their children under God's way and eleven children were dedicated to God (that's my unofficial count).  This is something we have been planning since June and it turned out to be a very special day for our church family. 

Highlights included: 

• the infusion of Kids City into the Celebration Service went very well.  The goal was to give everyone a sample of what a typical Sunday in Kids City is like.  Erin Diaz led a game show pitting moms against their kids and Linda Smith did a great job teaching the kids lesson.
• Alex changing the words of the song by the late, great Rich Mullins "Boy like Me, Man like You."  Original words, "I grew up around Indiana, you grew up around Galilee."  Alex's words, "I grew up around Venezuela, you grew up around Galilee."
• We had our largest crowd since April.
• Met a really great couple (first time guests) who came because they saw us outside of Wal-mart for our School Supply Drive.
• I put several people into shock when they saw me wearing a jacket.  Wait until I pull out the tie some day! 

Today was a great team effort and I am very proud of the way everyone stepped up and made this one of our best Sundays to date.  

New Marketing Strategy?

We have been looking for new ways to get the word out about The Pursuit Christian Church.  Check out our new jingle by clicking on the following link.  Download your_jingle.mp3   It was produced my legendary music producer Tommy Silk.  We were really lucky to get him!

You can get one for your business for free using The Jingle Generator.

The Pursuit Needs Purpose Driven Resources

The Pursuit is going through the 40 Days of Purpose starting September 14.  Bob and Linda, Paul and Ali, and Janie and I went through this study together at Traders Point Christian Church several years ago and it was a momentous event in the life of the church.

I am really excited about what God is going to do through this study for our young church.  80% of the people at The Pursuit said they had never heard of the 40 Days of Purpose before.  Have I mentioned lately, South Florida is one of the most unchurched regions in the U.S.? 

You Can Help!
I know there are hundreds of churches and people out there who have Purpose Driven Life books and Small Group workbooks collecting dust in storage.  Would you please consider sending them down to South Florida so we could distribute them to guests for free?

Please send them to:

The Pursuit Christian Church
18520 NW 67th Avenue, #198
Miami, FL 33015

Thanks for partnering with The Pursuit Christian Church!

New Macbooks Next Month?

After my Macbook Pro kicked the bucket last week, I am hoping this article is correct.  I can wait until September to get the new one. 

The Pursuit Podcast

Here's the link to this week's podcast.  You can also subcribe via iTunes here. 

Intersecting Lives

Janie and I just had dinner with our friend Arie. Her mother, Mercedes, is visiting from Puerto Rico and she cooked us a delicious meal.

At the dinner table I just listened as I heard story after story of how Arie is connecting with so many people from The Pursuit. Those of you out there who are church planters will probably understand what I am about to say better than most. We try so hard to create community within a new church. Sometimes it feels a bit forced. It's a beautiful thing when it just happens.

Unfinished Business

I thought I accomplished a lot today, but at day's end, the arrows pushing the to-do items to tomorrow grew more numerous than my checks.

Sunday Blend :: August 10, 2008

We Love SoFlo, The Pursuit's 10-week summer series is officially a wrap.  This has been my favorite series so far.  It strikes at the core of who we want to be as a church.  The series may be over but we are just beginning to show our love for the region.

Yesterday's celebration was called "Superpowers" and The Big Idea was, "We become good news to South Florida when we discover and use the power God gives us to build his church."  I'll post the link to the podcast when it's up.  There are many in our young church who are using the abilities and skills God gave them, but there are also still many who have not yet taken the step to contribute.

Highlights

• Several 1st & 2nd time guests
• One of our largest offerings to date
• The band's acoustic rendition of "My Hero" by the Foo Fighters. (Love that song!) 
• I discovered my gift of prophecy.  While loading up the trailer after the service, I made the comment, "Do you guys, realize in 7 months of loading and unloading this trailer we have not once been caught in the rain?"  Two minutes later, the skies opened up and we were drenched. 
• We had 16 in Kids City which is the largest crowd we've ever had!  Quoting Erin Diaz, "God is teaching me how to deal with controlled chaos."   

Next week is The Pursuit's first ever Child Dedication Sunday.  We have several families signed up to commit publicly their desire to raise their children in the way of God.  Erin and her team are preparing a great Celebration Service next Sunday.  I am really looking forward to it.

Why Twitter?

One question I get asked a lot is, "Why do you Twitter?" The following video does a great job answering the question.

Watch the video, get your own free Twitter account and you can follow me on Twitter here.