mattmehaffey

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)

Sunday Blend :: August 24, 2008

Yesterday we kicked off our Retro series at The Pursuit.  We took a trip back in time and looked at the 60s.  Like no other time in US history, the 60s was the decade of rebellion.  "Question Authority" was the mantra of the day.  It was widely taught that freedom could only truly be found through rejecting all authority.  Today in 2008, we are still widely influenced from this mindset.

The Big Idea: The world says, "Be your own authority." But Jesus says, "Make Me your authority."
Text: Matthew 8:5-13 - Jesus and the Roman Centurion

I had an absolute blast preaching this message.  I'll link to the podcast when it's up later this week. 

Highlights of the day:

• Several people came dressed up in 60s attire!  Ashley Cross gets the prize though.
• God brought several new people to The Pursuit.  One family just moved to Miami from North Carolina (usually it's the other way around).  How did they find us?  They were visiting family in Orlando this past July and attended Journey Christian Church one of the weeks I was preaching there!  I love watching God work.
• I took a cheap shot at Brett Favre.  C'mon, he deserves it for the constant media coverage he's put us through!
• Alex's rendition of The Beatles classic, "Blackbird."
• The laughter that came as a result from Yearbook Yourself.  If we did not get you this week, do not think you are safe! 
• We had a great group at Pursuit 1.0 last night.  My friend and new member of The Pursuit, Frank Fernandez, is a police officer in Miami and because of his job he gets to go to every home game for the Dolphins, Marlins and Hurricanes.  When Ken Griffey Jr. hit his 600th home run, Frank was the guy who pulled the guy who caught it out of the scrum. Last night he gave me a game used baseball from a Marlins game.  Cool!

Older Siblings

I am certainly used to being the youngest. Having an older brother and two older sisters I got used to hearing the words, "You must be ____'s brother!" That never really bothered me because my brother and sisters are incredible people who I don't mind being associated with.

The Pursuit Christian Church is a brand new church we started January 27, 2008 and while we are not under any denominational head we are proud to be part of a great legacy of Christian Churches who are unified by our love for and obedience to Jesus. Because our movement is practically non-existent in South Florida (I can count the number on one hand) many people here are unfamiliar with us but drawn to us because we are identified as a "Christian Church."

The Christian Standard just released a list of "mega churches" in our movement. These are some of our older siblings in the U.S. we are proud to be associated with and of whom we have learned a lot from.

Week 2 Recap

Alex's blog has a nice walk thru of last Sunday's celebration service. This week was even more fun for me because where last week I saw a crowd this week I saw a family.

Here's a few more thoughts of mine from Sunday:

- A bunch of people came back (which is always a good sign)
- We had around 20 1st time guests
- Klara Estrada, is an amazing artist and I wish I could have stopped preaching and just watched
- The band was great and I enjoyed Eric and Jaime jumping in on vocals for the 1st time
- We had a church planter come check us out this week. I have such a deep respect for anyone who follows God's call to start a church. It is a lot of work. She and her husband are coming back this Sunday.
- Brent Foulke (my church planting coach) came down from NY. Janie and I had a bunch of people over to watch the Giants pummel Tom Brady. Oh and there was a game too. Being from NY, Brent is a Giants fan and me being a Patriots-hater we had a great time!

We have Lift Off!

Today has left me speechless and absolutely drained. I can barely muster the energy to type this blog. I've been riding a massive wave of emotion all day long. Can't tell you how much our team appreciated (and needed) all the prayers and encouraging texts, emails and phone calls from people across the globe. Thank you.

The Pursuit Christian Church successfully launched today with 139 people in attendance. Half of them were launch team members of The Pursuit and people from supporting churches in Florida and Indiana but the other half were first time guests!

The thing I am going to bed celebrating and the first thing I will think of when I wake up tomorrow morning is how I saw God calling people back to Him right in front of our eyes.

I promise there will be a lot more said in the days to come (probably some great pictures too) but please know we serve a faithful God who is madly in love with His people and who will never stop searching for those who are far from Him.

I love my job!