update (part 2) personal life

One word can summarize my personal life lately; strength.  I have had to rely on the strength of the Lord, like never before.  I have come to a greater understanding of my inadequacies and of His ability to work on and through me.  I am continually challenged by Scripture and my relationships with other Christ followers to walk further, run faster, and jump higher than ever before.  Here is what is going on in my personal life.

1. I am more faithful than I have ever been in reading the Bible and praying.  

2. I am being stretched to be continually giving of myself; time, energy, emotion, and money.

3. Cameron is 9 months old now.  He has become an incredibly smart, funny, and beautiful little boy already!  He crawls like a maniac, stands up on his own (close to walking), waves and does more fun tricks.  I am so blessed to have him in my life. 

4.  Christie is three months pregnant.  She is nursing Cameron and has a growing baby in side of her.  Her body has a  lot of work to do!  It is very good that she is able to stay at home.

5.  I am working 40-50 hours a week for the church and another 18 at Starbucks.

6.  After this semester, I will have 18 hours left for my masters!

7.  I am incredibly out of shape and have battled with a good plan to change that over the past year.  I am currently working on a new one.  

8.  I have made some great friends through my involvement in mosaic church of Crestview.

9. As a result of the popularity of our churches nomorechristians.com teaching series, i have several non-Christians who listen to my teaching regularly.  This has provided some cool opportunities.

10. I wish my friends and family from the Jacksonville/Starke area could pack up and move to Crestview.

what you can pray for

Christie and I's relationship.  This is a stressful time for us and we have to be intentional about working on our marriage.  We are both immature and struggle with being the spouse that we need to be.

Christie and I having two kids that are 15 months apart.

Our personal finances. It has been tough for Christie to stay at home.

My continual trust in God's provision and sovereignty.  

Increased opportunities and influence to use the gifts that God has given me.

Thank you so much for your support and love of Christie and I.  God has used so many of you to strengthen us to do the overwhelming tasks that He has called us.

Michael McDuffie

This morning Michael McDuffie left Crestview to begin his two year commitment to teach English at a university in China.  While Michael will do an excellent job of teaching college Freshmen English, Michael's primary goal is to build relationships with the students and people he encounters and share the love of Christ with them.  

Michael graduated from Auburn last December and has spent the past eight months in Crestview and serving Mosaic Church.  I have learned some incredible things about Michael as we have built a great relationship.  

Michael is in love with Jesus.

Michael loves people a lot.

Michael has a great shared love for His family.

Michael is a natural leader.

Michael has a servants heart.

Michael is hilarious.

Michael trusts God for provision.

Michael is going to do an amazing job of sharing the light of Christ wherever he goes.

Please join me in praying for Michael as he moves across the world to share the light of the world.

you can follow him on michaelmcduffiejr.com

where to go to church?

I ask myself all the time where I would go to church if I just moved to Crestview.  Just recently, I started believing the answer would be...... Mosaic.  

But, for some people Mosaic is too "edgy", too "laid back", too "loud", or too "young".  

This week I will blog about a few other churches in Crestview (in no particular order) that would be on my short list of churches to attend.

Maybe this will be helpful to those of you that are still searching for a place to plug in.

preachers

If your desire to preach is bigger than your desire to see lives changed, then the source of your desire to preach is not God.

Dangerous Churches: Craig Groeschel

check out this blog from Pastor Craig Groeschel, someone I hold in high esteem.

I was talking to a guy on a plane about God. When I asked him if he went to church, he explained politely that he wasn’t interested. I asked him why he wasn’t and he said matter of factly, “Because I’ve already been and nothing happened.”

Maybe he went to a “safe” church.
In a safe church:
The message makes you feel better.
You’re never confronted about your sin.
No one rocks the boat.
You don’t have to change.
You may never truly encounter our Holy and Life-giving God.

When I read about the New Testament Church, it was filled with people with a dangerous faith. While we certainly should make our environments welcoming, our message should remain dangerous.
We’re called to leave everything to follow Christ.
We’re invited to believe God for the impossible.
We’re told to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.
We’re told that to find our life we have to lose it first.

There is nothing safe about that message. May our churches become a safe place to encounter a dangerous message.

What are some of the ways you offer a welcoming environment while presenting a dangerous message?

it begins

This has been a  mentally exhausting week.  It makes me question the fact that I registered for classes over the summer today (after 1.5 years off from school).  

This nomorechristians teaching series is provoking a lot of questions.  This week....

• I have had four deep conversations about the existence of God, validity of the Bible, and other religions in addition to a group discussion on atheism last night.  
• I have had two e-mails wanting an explanation of this upcoming series.
  
• I have been called blasphemous twice (one joking, one serious)
• Adam Duckworth and I have been referred to as geniuses and idiots
• I have scheduled three meetings; one with an atheist, one with former atheist, and one with an agnostic.

and we haven't even promoted this thing yet.

I don't want to be the guy who only blogs about what the church is doing, but I am so excited about what God is going to do with this series!

nomorechristians.com

We are exactly 30 days away from the most exciting teaching series to hit mosaic crestview so far.  

This is the commercial we will be running during the month of April.

planning for the "we" series

insight and wasabi

Yesterday I was having lunch at a fantastic sushi restaurant in town with my friend Mark (whom I had a fantastic conversation with).  Just as I sat down a woman came up to me who attended mosaic off and on for a few months.  She exuded that awkward feeling of "i better say hey to him first".  We said our hello's and she asked how my family and I was doing and then I asked her how she was doing......... of course the response went immediately to why she hasn't come to mosaic in a while.  

She said that she loved what we were doing and loved the people at mosaic and that my preaching was incredible (she even said I spoke right to her) but that she was going to a bigger and more established church  (that i won't mention) because it was closer and all the stuff they have. 

TWO THINGS.

One, isn't crazy that someone will pick a church not by the fact that God is growing them but by the things that the church has.  I think having stuff is good, but completely secondary to communicating the truth of scripture in  a way that leads people to get it.  

Secondly, this shows that it is important to single moms for their to be a lot of opportunities for their kids to do stuff.  Our churches must always remember that as we seek to be relevant to families that good preaching and good worship is not enough for that family.   

I wanted to tell her how much better things are for children and students at mosaic, but I realized that she is a christian and is going to church (at least some times). 

parenting

this Sunday i am talking about parenting. If you have any good qoutes or illustrations, comment on my blog or send me an e-mail (james@mosaiccrestview.com).

Who are you preaching to?

This is a blog of pastor Steven Furtick. Steven is a guy who God is using to make a huge impact for His kingdom.

Who are you preaching to?
July 22nd, 2008

When I’m preparing my messages, I have a specific audience in mind.It’s a guy who is coming to Elevation for the first time this week. In fact, this will be his first time in church in years, and he’s far from God. His friend kept inviting him until, one Sunday-this coming Sunday as a matter of fact-he’s decided to give it a try. Of course, there are hundreds of people who resemble this description who attend Elevation every week-men, women, boys and girls…and when I stand to preach, I narrow down my audience, picture this person in my mind, and let it fly.
Yes, it’s my responsibility to edify those who already know Christ through my preaching, and to feed and disciple the flock of God. But I’ll always tilt the playing field toward the guy or gal who is far from God. Eternity hangs in the balance for them.That’s why I’m so basic sometimes, rather than parsing Greek and demonstrating exegetical competency ad infinitum.That’s why I scream loudly and look like I’m on the verge of exploding at random points in my sermon every single week, every single service.
For those that serve at Elevation, picture that guy this coming Sunday as you do what you do. It puts it all in perspective.

you can check out Steven's blogs at stevenfurtick.com