something random. something inspiring.

weekend recap...

• Saturday, Caleb and I went to my nephew's soccer game. Not sure I will do that for a while. Caleb couldn't understand why he couldn't run out on the field. My son is wild about anything that has a ball involved. God answers prayer. we had a blast!
• We spent the rest of the day napping and cleaning getting ready to have some rednecks over to watch the Bama game.
• Watching football on Saturday's is excellent prep for Sunday just to chill and get my mind off of things. It has been a long time since I have seen BAMA dominate anyone even if it was WESTERN KENTUCKY, I'll take it.
• Couldn't sleep Saturday night...wrestled with my message and everything going on.
• Sunday was a bit bittersweet as we said goodbye to Gabe (worship leader).
• I was pumped that we found room for 40 more chairs, by squeezing the rows closer together and putting the front row in spitting range of the stage. I figured that the additional chairs would help for a while. I was wrong, the second service was full again, and the first is filling up.
• It was a good thing we found the extra room as we had our largest crowd ever (nearing 600).
• We announced that our new baby on the way is a BOY. My wife is in trouble!
• Mike Thorsby, who leads worship at a friends (Bryan Roberts) church plant in North Carolina, Church Relevant was with us, I'm pumped for these guys.
• I felt like my message was a bit off...perhaps it had something to do with the 2 hours of sleep. My wife thought it went great so I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to believe her.
• It was awesome to see so many people stepping up to the plate to serve our community. I'm s proud to serve this church.
• There is nothing like Sunday afternoon power naps.

Lots to do this week...gearing up for the Men's Retreat this weekend, message prep for Sunday, thinking about additional staff, and planning (in pencil) a new third service option, among everything else.

NUMBER 1!

In case you missed it Kristin (my wife) and I are pregnant with our second child (ok, she's pregnant and I do what I'm told). Yesterday we went and had a new ultrasound, and we found out the sex of the baby which if you want to know what we are having you will have to be at church on Sunday, or check my blog next week. Needless to say we are very excited, and really do not care if it is a boy or a girl. We are elated to know that we have a healthy growing baby that will soon be in our arms. I believe that children are a gift from the Lord. Watching my son Caleb grow up has turned me into a softy and has made me much more mindful of how I live my life knowing that he wants to be like his daddy. Our new baby I'm sure will bring new challenges, but I wouldn't want it any other way.

Another thought I can't help but having when I see an ultrasound is how anyone can think that abortion is an option with an unwanted pregnancy, I mean I really don't get it. I know that some people get pregnant in less than ideal circumstances but there are other options than discarding a real live baby with a beating heart. I cannot understand this line of thinking. The hypocrisy with this issue is sickening. If someone kills a pregnant woman and the baby dies, it is called murder. If you "choose" to kill your baby it is called a "right". Our society goes to great lengths to protect the rights of animals and promotes compassion to the less fortunate but neglects to protect our most vulnerable and defenseless. As a pastor I can assure that abortion is not a quick fix to the "problem", I have seen women suffer for years to get beyond the guilt and shame associated with abortion. I have also had the great joy in counseling with couples who were not "planning" to have children and were considering abortion who changed their mind. Abortion is not a political issue, but has unfortunately become one, it is a moral issue with an easy answer "i't's just wrong", period. If you think differently, I am not trying to point fingers, so I will let my unborn yet very alive baby do it.

Progress...

David Sewell (our youth/children's pastor) and I were just talking about how excited we are for this (interior) renovation coming to an end. We don't have offices, everything is a mess, with everything going on it is just easy to get our eye off the ball. Soon, we will be able to move beyond all of this and move into a new ministry season, which I can't really imagine quite yet as we are on a serious momentum tear. We are praying about adding an additional service later this fall as well as some new staff. If you would pray...enjoy the pics.
 

RECAP...

This weekend was awesome!

• Started Friday with movies and Ice Cream at home with the fam. Fell asleep on the couch watching "What happens in Vegas".
• Saturday, woke up early to get ready for the outreach and clean up around the church after another week of construction (new pics tomorrow).
• It was awesome to see such an excited group going out to serve the community. When the church is "Being" the church it is a force to be reckoned with.
• The highlight of the day for me was praying with a lady at the gas station. I had Caleb in my arms, and as we began praying my son just got louder and louder and louder praying with us. It was very cute and it touched the ladies heart...not to mention mine and Jesus'.
• We concluded the day at Seville Square with some music and fun. It kind of felt like a family reunion as many from all the campuses came together.
• I left exhausted but very excited. I was blown away by how good God is and how incredibly blessed I am to be a part of a church that doesn't shrink in the face of the challenge, there is this raw passion to pursue God and His purpose. I finished the night studying and listening to Alabama beat Tulane on the radio.
• Sunday was another great day at the North Campus...I was fired up and full of caffeine. The band was cranking, the mood was up, and I became an old school preacher. It was a really good day. The second service was absolutely packed. The ushers came down during the worship and said, there are no more seats. If you attend the North Campus we really need you to go to the first service. We are not quite ready to add an additional service, going to the first service will be a huge help in freeing up space.
• I have really been digging seeing a ton of fresh faces. I am not good at names, but am doing everything I can to remember.
• God has really been speaking to me lately. I am convinced of "Greater Things" in the works and am trying to flesh out the plan.

Thanks for your prayers...updates on the renovation tom! It is looking awesome!

Walls...

We are entering week 3 of our "God of this City" series and I have to say I have been blown away. Our creative and worship teams have done an incredible job "teeing up the ball" for me to speak. I have never seen such response from a series of messages despite a tropical storm and a hurricane scare momentum is at an all time high. The messages have really resonated with the people and many folks are getting our vision here in Pensacola. I preached at the Blue Angel campus last night and was moved to hear about our outreach initiative we are doing this Saturday. To be honest I was expecting a good turnout, but I have been blown away at the size and scale of what is happening this weekend. We set what we felt was a very lofty goal of 500 people across our campuses serving in various outreach projects, and logistically we were not prepared for that many, well as of now we have over 600 people signed up to serve our city this weekend. To give you a sense of what is happening here is a bit of what will be happening.

5 FREE GAS OUTREACHES
We will set up at 5 different gas stations and will give away 5,000 in free gas.

FREE DRINK GIVEAWAYS, at the beach, at various intersections, and neighborhoods.

FREE ICE CREAM TRUCK, giving away 1,500 free ice creams to the kids in our community.

FREE CAR WASH  

LOAVES AND FISHES
We have teams set to serve the homeless community through this local agency.

WATERFRONT RESCUE MISSION
We have a team of 30 people set to sort clothing, do pick ups around the city, and whatever else they need us to do.

PYRAMID
An organization helping special needs kids, we are painting and doing some minor repairs to the building.

SCHOOL CLEAN-UP
60 families are cleaning the Escambia High School football stadium and it's entrance. Another 30 fa-miles are doing some clean up at Helen Cairo Elementary.

PARK CLEAN-UP
We will be clearing and cleaning 5 local parks in Warrington.

HOPE HOME
Hope homes helps teen mothers in crisis, and a construction team is building a privacy fence for the kids to be able to play in.

On top of all of this we have a couple different clothing and food drives to benefit hungry children in our community and kids moving into foster care.

There is nothing like seeing the church "be" the church. I am humbled and honored to pastor such a great church.

Enjoy a video our team put together, during the services our worship teams have been doing the song live to it. I'm not sure how they do it, but they knock it out of the park. Enjoy.

Random thoughts from a busy mind...

Been a very busy but very productive couple weeks. Here is what is keeping me awake at night these days.

• It's funny that people still haven't picked up on the fact that I am a normal human being.
• I've been digging the Olympics. The opening ceremony was absolutely amazing and a little scary.
• For some reason the Golf channel is becoming my favorite station.
• I'm thinking I might try to go surfing this weekend.
• I can't wait for college football to start. There is nothing like ESPN, homemade chili, and good ole rivalry. ROLL TIDE.
• My son has discovered the word "mine", and it is becoming his favorite word.
• My wife is way too good for me.
• Why am I so excited to pay $3.60 a gallon of gas?
• A fast growing church is back breaking and heart wrenching and I love it.
• I think it's funny that people at church still ask me, "Where do you work", as if everything miraculously happens without constant attention.
• Someone new to our church told me this weekend, that they have been delivered from alcoholism and have committed their life to Christ. That never gets old.
• Last night while at dinner Kristin, Caleb and I bumped into a large group of young adults from the church laughing together, community is so powerful.
• We are giving away $5,000 in free gas away in a few weeks, and the image I have is chaos.
• I have never been more excited about the smell of paint as I am seeing the walls of the church being painted.
• The interior renovation is almost done...and it is blowing all of my expectations.
• I discovered that the exterior renovation could be done in a month and a half. That makes me excited to see the progress and a bit scared knowing we have to pay for it (make your donations payable to Liberty Church, North Campus, 9420 Music Lane, Pensacola, FL 32514...just kidding, sort of)
• We are going to be able to squeeze about 20 more chairs in for Sunday...
• I only had 3 hours of sleep last night.

Maybe that will hold you over for the weekend!

God of this City...

For months we have been working behind the scenes on our plans for the fall. As we do every year the fall is when we focus much of our effort and energy on moving the ball down the field as it is typically a season of growth and momentum that moves us into the new year. I believe that in order to retain a pioneering or advancing spirit then we much be consistently challenged to move forward both personally and corporately. There are incredible challenges facing our world/country/state/city, and unfortunately the typical response from the church has been to retreat into "the ark", or just stick our head in the sand and hope that things get better. This Sunday we begin a new chapter as a church as we become more intentional about being "a city on a hill" as Jesus commanded us to be. I have never felt a stronger sense of urgency and expectancy about a season of ministry in my life. Our church is poised to expand it's boundaries as well as our capacity to express God's love with no strings attached. We have never had greater momentum going into the fall than we have this summer, and I am being challenged by God to stretch my faith and anticipation for what He is going to do in and through us.

"God of this City", is a 7 week journey using the book of Nehemiah as a spring board into the rebuilding work God has called us to in our own city. I don't want to let too much out of the bag about what we have planned...but I will tell you this, we are going to be challenged like never before. We are believing for 500 people campus-wide to serve in various local missions projects including; a free gas outreach at 5 gas stations across our community, as well as serving along side existing local agencies to serve the homeless, the poor, and those in crisis. In the middle of the series we will see our interior renovation come to completion and celebrate this milestone in the life of our church.

We are setting up a God of this City blog to report on the progress of this initiative, give daily devotions and action steps, and provide you a place to share your own stories as soon as it's live I will pass along the info. I am believing God for something that only he can get the credit for. Lives will be changed, and our focus will be fixed like never before to be the salt in light where He has planted us.

Join us this Sunday, 9:00 or 10:45 at the North Campus, 8:30 or 10:30 at the blue angel campus, 10:30 at the Eastern Shore Campus, or 10:30 at the Navarre Campus.

God speaks...

Sometimes things seem to come out of nowhere, don't they. I have been knocked off kilter more times that I care to remember, however big things that come down the pike for me often seem to be cut off at the pass by an impression God gives me in my spirit to prepare me. I believe strongly that life and ministry move in seasons. Those seasons may be long and they may be short, they may be seasons of great victory and they may be seasons of great tribulation. I can't really explain it, nor do I want to sound arrogant at all as if I have this down to a formula, more often than not I feel as if I am pursuing the voice of God rather than resting in it. I rarely feel as if God is speaking to me about specific details in my life, I feel his peace and I move toward it. However I do feel strongly at times to move to a more concentrated focus of prayer/fasting to press in to see what is happening or what is coming. In January I felt a word very strongly relating to my ministry as a way of preparation for what was to come. I told my wife, and I told my staff and had them to pray about it. Honestly I didn't like what I heard at first, but I knew that this was God speaking to me and preparing me. Now months later I am realizing why He prepared me so strongly and vividly as I am seeing it unfold. Because I knew it was God, I am at complete peace despite it being something very challenging. The last month I have "felt" another call to prayer and feel something brewing in my heart, not sure what it is...but I know it is stewing.

If you struggle to hear the voice of God...you are not alone. If you don't believe God speaks today, press into Him. As a follower, husband, father, pastor and friend I know that I cannot do it without the power of God working within me; leading, guiding, preparing, revealing Himself to me. He is faithful.

church update

 

We are coming off another great weekend. Having church in a construction zone has been very interesting but very rewarding. I think it will make the end result much more meaningful as you get to watch the progress week to week. It also has created momentum that I had not really anticipated. We though doing the construction during the summer would help because it is typically a slower season with people out of town or just checked out. However we have seen some incredible trends through the summer, and have consistently grown in attendance through the process. The last few weeks have been our best attended services in our history. Another great trend has been with out first service, there have been several weeks this summer that there have been more people in the first service than the second. We have alot planned going into the fall, which has historically been our season of growth. I am really excited about our new series starting in two weeks, "GOD OF THIS CITY", I'll blog more about that later.

The renovation is rocking along. The sheet rock will be complete this week, and we will begin painting towards the end of the week. We are already seeing the benefit of our larger lobby as people have much more space to hang out around the services. Last week we ordered new counters for our new guest services, and new coffee bar. Next week Kristin and I will be going to pick up all new furniture for our lobbyy, classrooms, and "the living room" (our small group environment). We have also been doing some work on our parking lot. We were able to add about 20 new spaces, and re-worked both lots to help them flow much better. We are waiting on information from masons to begin transforming the exterior, which should begin in a couple weeks. Following the completion of the exterior of the building we will completely rework our parking lot and getting our new playground.

I hope you would pray for us, during the critical season. There are many decisions to be made, and there is opportunity to become distracted from the main thing.

bloom...

So I had some time to spend at the bloom event that our youth ministry put on. I was asked to speak on Monday night, and I really loved being back in that type of environment and to see the openness and excitement in this generation of young people. A couple of other things that really came to mind, was both the blessing and burden of being in youth ministry for the long term. Before I began to pastor the North Campus I spent 6 or so years pioneering and pastor-ing crossover (our youth ministry). It was an incredible feeling to see so many youth leaders who were kids in my youth group, to see what God has done in them is very rewarding. I couldn't help but think where crossover has come from. I spoke with a youth pastor before the service on Monday night who was a bit overwhelmed with the numbers of kids and the resources crossover has to utilize. I know that feeling all too well feeling inspired but overwhelmed at the same time. When I started with the youth ministry I can vividly remember being able to load the entire youth group into a church van, and having no money or resources to do much of anything. I also remember the construction of our vision, and remember the snickers I received after telling everyone that I envisioned crossover being hundreds of teenagers. God is faithful! Nate Wheeler, who now is the crossover youth pastor started with me as a small group leader,what God has done through him since I left is unbelievable. My biggest fear leaving crossover was that the vision would die, little did I know that the surface hadn't yet been scratched. Nate has a bigger vision for crossover than I ever had. There will be a day I believe that crossover will reach 1,000 kids a week under Nate's leadership.

The painful element for me is thinking back to many kids who had experiences with God, and who committed themselves to him only to walk away in the years to come. I feel like God has put a new burden in me to pray for those kids specifically. Unfortunately, some people require going through hardship and pain before coming home I know that all to well. My prayer is that our church, your church would be a place for prodigals o return, and that we would run and embrace them upon returning.

Off to another busy day of decision making... I am going to post some updates about our renovation tomorrow as it is barreling ahead.

Have a great day!