mattmehaffey

Going Dark

This weekend, Janie pointed out to me that I haven't taken a day off in over a month. Yeah, that sounds about right. Therefore, tomorrow I am going dark.

No emails. No phone calls. No texting. No Twitter. No blogging.

I'll resurface on Tuesday.

Sunday Blend :: Sept. 28, 2008

God is doing something BIG in Miami.

In January of 2007, I was on a plane flying to Miami to scope out four possible locations The Pursuit Christian Church would start. Two young men, I did not know, were sitting next to me. Halfway through the flight they turned to me and asked me straight out if I was going to start a new church in Miami.

"How did you know," I asked.

One of the guys said, "God revealed to us that he is going to do something huge in the South Florida area and he is raising up new, young leaders to make it happen."

Let me say, I am not a charismatic guy by any stretch of the imagination. But, over the past two years I have seen enough evidence where I actually wasn't shocked with their words. Their words made perfect sense.

Now, I usually use Sunday Blend to share all the good things happening at The Pursuit. And this Sunday, there were great things to share, but I am not going to. Instead, I want to shine the spotlight on two godly, young leaders who are leading a couple other great churches in one of the most unchurched areas in the U.S. Both guys I look up to a lot and need to spend more time around and soak up what they've learned.

Travis Johnson @ Life Pointe Church in Homestead, announced today they are going to launch their 2nd campus in an old church given to them in gorgeous Islamorada (in the Keys).

and

Bob Franquiz @ Calvary Fellowship in Miami Lakes, recently moved out of a movie theater and into an awesome 1,000 seat school auditorium.

Glad to be serving along side you guys!

Just1Word has Launched!

A new social networking online community has just launched called Just1Word.

My friend from the Indianapolis area, Bryan Miller, has been hard at work developing J1W for the past several years. Bryan's goal the entire time has been to offer a place on the web for young people to connect to the Bible and each other. I even had the honor to consult on this project for a while. I am excited to see the result.

Jump over to Just1Word.com, setup your profile and check it out. Once you do be sure to add me to your friend list. My profile name is ... Matt. Creative huh?

Post your comments about J1W below.

A Boy and His Guitar

In June of 1998, I made the decision to learn to play guitar. I had just been hired to be the Student Ministry's one-year intern at Traders Point Christian Church. My decision to learn guitar was made quickly after I learned my boss was using a CD player instead of a live band for the High School worship service.

I bought a cheap guitar from a teen in the church and started to teach myself using this website. A few months later, I played for my first youth event. The CD player and the Jeff Moody CDs went forever into retirement. Then I dropped some serious coin and bought a really nice guitar.

Over the next 10 years, I built bands composed of many Middle and High School students who began to use their musical abilities to lead others in worship. One of the bands, Table for Seven, even went on to win a national contest and played before thousands of students at a conference.

In the past year and a half, I've picked up my guitar less than five times because of my new role as Church Planter and Lead Pastor of The Pursuit Christian Church. If you are in my office and are really quiet you can sometimes hear my Taylor whispering, "Play me." It's creepy, believe me.

Well, her wait is over. Alex, (The Pursuit's Arts Dude) is gone this weekend and I am making my debut. I am very nervous because there are some amazing musicians on stage. Say a prayer because rehearsal is tonight!

Good-bye, Yankee Stadium

Home to 85 years of Yankees baseball ... 3 perfect games ... and most importantly 26 World Championships.  An end of an era indeed.

Area 10 Faith Community

Congratulations to my great friend, Chris Barras, and the team at Area 10 Faith Community who launched their church this morning in Richmond, Virginia.  We are very proud of you, man.  Chris is one of the most driven guys I know.  I have no doubt God is going to do great things through Area 10. 

They very easily have the coolest venue (The Byrd Theater) of any new church in the history of church plants!

Sunday Blend :: September 21, 2008

What a day!

Our new place is already feeling like home and the atmosphere was electric.  I am very proud of everyone who went the extra mile to make this uber fast transition possible. 

Be sure to click here and check out the slideshow to see the rest of the images.

The Pursuit's New Home

Well the e-news is out. 

The Pursuit Christian Church has a new location and we are starting this Sunday, September 21.  Much love to Floridian Ballrooms who allowed us to rent their beautiful space for the past 8 months but the new place made us an offer we couldn't refuse. 

The negotiations have been long and at times difficult but leader extraordinaire, Paul Smoot went above and beyond to secure us the best deal. 

To make a very long story short, we were approached by another church in the area who was closing its doors and the existing members were merging into another Presbyterian Church in Weston.  The leaders of Christ Church have been extremely gracious through this process and we look forward to continuing the legacy they started in this location. 

This move excites me for many reasons:

1. It's 24/7 space.
2. We will pay less per month in the 24/7 space than in the ballroom which we rented for 4 1/2 hours per week (Seriously!).
3. We will have an office where the staff can interact more frequently. 
4. This will be a place where many people will find their way back to God!
5. No more unloading and loading the trailer in the intense South Florida heat! (for now)
6. We can be more creative with our set designs for each series.
7. We are located directly across from the brand new West Broward High School (next to the track).
8. Meeting in a warehouse sounds more manly than meeting in a ballroom.
9. The church staff will finally get all of the junk out of our garages! (ok, that one's a bit self-serving)
10. We have a space that can be used to be good news to SoFlo.

Below is a slide show of the new location: (This is how it looks now.  Can't wait to Pursuit-ify this place)

Florida Church Planters Retreat

Just spent a full 24 hours in Orlando with some great leaders and church planters from all over the state of Florida.  The Pursuit Christian Church is proud to be associated with these guys.

• Dan Donaldson, Director of Florida Church Planters

• Jeff Swearingen @ Crosspoint Christian Church in Cape Coral

• Phil Ayers @ LifePoint Christian Church in Lake Mary

• Danny Schaffner @ Common Ground Christian Church in Tampa

• Mark Michael @ Crossbridge Christian Church in Tallahassee (no offense Mark but how in the world is Tallahassee our state capitol?)

• John Porterfield @ River Run Christian Church (Brevard Campus) in Melbourne

• Brent Captain @ Palm Coast Church in Ormond Beach

• Ryan Sudsberry @ Cooper Creek Christian Church in Sarasota

I really enjoyed getting to know this group of guys because we have many shared experiences.  It's easy to feel isolated being scattered over this massive and widely unchurched state.  We need more qualified church planters in Florida (especially South Florida).  Excited to see how this group is going to grow as FCP continues to expand its influence.

The Muppet Show on Netflix

I was truly disappointed by "the best movie of all time" (according to AFI), Citizen Kane.  Of course, it could have something to do with a Peanuts comic strip I read a long time ago where Linus (I think) told me the truth about Rosebud.  Thanks a lot. 

Now I can't wait until our Netflix queue gets to Season One of The Muppet Show!  The Muppets are great because there's humor for every age.  I love Waldorf and Statler the cranky, old guys who criticize everything.  I can think of a couple people in my days as a Youth Minister who remind me of them ... minus the humor of course.

Anyone else a fan of the Muppets?