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!
My friend, Peter Stevens, currently a youth minister intern in Maine and student at Lincoln Christian College, just kicked off his blog. When I was the Student Minister at Traders Point Christian Church, I saw Peter go from scrawny and awkward 6th grader to the cool guy he is now. Can't believe you are getting married, man! Pete's got crazy potential and I can't wait to see what God has in store for the rest of his life. I will be following his blog.
When I married Janie I married into some really great friendships too. Two of those were Paul and Ali Smoot. At the time we were living in Indianapolis but they had moved to Miami. Little did I know that God would use that relationship to move us down here to start The Pursuit Christian Church.
Not only are they two of my biggest encouragers but they are using their God-given abilities to build Jesus' church. On Sunday mornings Paul helps unload and pack up the trailer, sets up tents in Kids City and puts out road signs. In the South Florida heat, that's a ton of work. All those things and much, much more have to be done every week.
Those things are great but Paul is also a man of great integrity with a head for business. The Pursuit is in the middle of some major negotiations that in the end will position us as a church to go to the next level. You can expect the big announcement soon. Through this process I have seen God use my friend in amazing ways. He leads with gentleness but speaks firmly in truth.
I know better than anyone else that I have a lot to learn about leadership but I am so thankful I have some giants like Paul to look to as examples.
Yesterday, several of us from The Pursuit had the honor to lunch with Ezequias and Gabia Sales. They serve at one of the largest Christian Churches in Brazil and are here in Pembroke Pines on vacation with family.
Even though we just met them, I felt an instant connection to them (so much so our lunch turned into a 4 hour conversation). It is easy to see how Christ is evident in their lives and they are willing to do whatever he calls them to. They are going to visit The Pursuit this Sunday and then they will be traveling back home to Brazil.
I love how God continues to open my eyes to what He is doing globally as well as what He is doing locally.
This week we were thrilled to host Carl Wittrig and Hannah Draper (and two of their friends) who were on Spring Break. They escaped Cincinnati just in time to avoid the 18 inches of snow that was dumped on the city last weekend. Both Carl and Hannah were heavily involved in the Student Ministry at Traders Point when I was the Lead Student Minister there. I am excited to see what God does through these two. They have tons of potential and integrity. We are very proud of you two.
They served us by taking care of our home and watching our pets while we took a couple days for our own vacation. They left last night and headed back to reality, but are welcome guests anytime they want to come back.
How did we ring in 2008? Clubbing in SoBe? Nope.
We headed over to Century Village (a 55+ gated community in Pembroke Pines) and played cards with Bob and Linda Smith. Yeah, the Mehaffey's know how to party hard. Actually it was a lot of fun. The Smith's served up Skyline Chili, which is the nectar of all that is good in life. The picture is one I took and sent to the Diaz (who were in Indy) to let them know we missed them and wished them a happy new year.
2008. I can't wait to see what this year has in store for our lives and the new life of The Pursuit Christian Church. With God, I know for sure it won't be boring!
Our church, The Pursuit Christian Church, helped sponsor a community event called Snowfest this past Saturday in Pembroke Pines. It was a great event. Every year the city brings in machines to manufacture a mound of snow for kids to play on and it's always a huge hit. I would estimate around 4,000 people came to Snowfest.
The Pursuit had a major presence there with our signage and booth. Frosty the Snowman, a.k.a. Eric Hafner (member of the church), drew a steady stream of kids to our booth for their chance to get their picture taken with him. It was 82 degrees all afternoon, I can't imagine how uncomfortable he must have been.
We took their photo, framed it and gave it to them as a gift from us. Here's what the finished product looked like.
Today has been very surreal for me. I've been in meetings most of the day as part of the NewThing Network. I look around the room and I can't help but ask the question, "How did I get here." The Pursuit Christian Church hasn't even launched yet and I get the privilege of networking with a group of leaders I have tons of respect for. They stretch me as a leader even more as a Christ follower. The thing that impresses me the most with this network is how "ego-free" everything is.
Sorry to Richa and Troy for not taking a step back to get them in the picture, but Troy managed to get his arm in.
The churches and leaders present are:
Community Christian Church
Dave Ferguson
Jon Ferguson
Tim Sutherland
Brian Zehr
Aaron Monts - planting a church in San Francisco in 2009
New Life Christian Church
Todd Wilson
2|42 Community Church
Dave Dummitt
Church! At Bethany
Matt Payne
Crossings Christian Church
Mark Nelson
Forefront Christian Church
Brian Moll
Jacob's Well Community Church
Dave Richa
Reunion Christian Church
Hank Wilson
Suncrest Christian Church
Greg Lee
Restore Christian Church
Troy McMahon
A couple weeks ago, Jose and Nicole Lopez (friends from Indy), stayed with us for a few days. I had heard a lot about the grand opening of Ikea 15 minutes north of us and asked if they wanted to go and check it out. They did.
We made the drive and found out it didn't open until the next week. I never thought I'd see Jose cry. It's not pretty sight.
Recent Comments