mattmehaffey

The Pursuit's Summer Interns

When I was a Student Minister, I had the privilege of getting to know some amazing young men and women who are sold out to the mission of Jesus.  Two of those students are Carl Wittrig (who I used to call Chuck all the time because I could never remember his name) and Hannah Draper. 

Currently they are both students at Cincinnati Christian University and preparing to go into ministry full-time.  I am very proud of them both.

That is why it was a no-brainer to ask them both to come down to South Florida this summer for some hands-on-training at The Pursuit.  They will be helping out with our Kids City program on Sunday morning as well as creating some summer events for Middle School and High School students.

I am thrilled to get to work with these two!

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 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.

Cincinnati Crunkin' University

My friend from college, Jake Follis, just sent me this video on youtube. It will probably not be funny to anyone else but Cincinnati Christian University students and alumni (and there's a good bet it won't be funny to a bunch of them either). Me? I can't stop laughing. Kudos to the guys who created the song and video.