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.

update (part 1) church life

Over the next few days, I will update you on what God is doing in my life. I will begin with a snapshot of what is going on with mosaic church.

1. Jesus is being honored and glorified by our leadership. We are trusting in Him and He is the focus of all that we do.
2. I have been blessed with an incredible staff (Walker, Tripp, and Joey) who are continually improving in their dedication to our church and devotion to helping me focus on what I need to focus on.
3. We have some great volunteers who are giving so much of themselves to see the vision of our church carried out.
4. During July we averaged 110 in attendance which is our second highest month ever.
5. Our worship services and environment has become incredible. (thanks to the staff and volunteers)
6. God has brought some new faces to be a part of our church that are going (and already are) do so much to further the Kingdom of God.
7. We have got some office space for very cheap, so while we remain a portable church we will have a central office.
8. We have seen several trust in Christ. We are excited about them being baptized in August!

what you can pray for

God has been burdening me that we need a few couples that are more mature ( age wise and spiritually). We need some strong older married couples that are passionate about our vision to reach the unchurched.

Finances are pretty bad for mosaic church. Please pray that God provides in a supernatural way. Christie and I are exploring the possibility of me working bi-vocationally gain. We'll do what we gotta do!

Other than that, just pray for me to listen to God and not my desires or other peoples desires. There is a great amount of momentum building right now and we don't want to do anything to quench what God is doing!

Thanks for reading and thanks for loving on my family and mosaic church!

WHO IS THIS?

Storms.

With the exception of a privileged few, we are all guaranteed that times of great uncertainty will come in our lives.  

In Luke 8:22-25 you find that the disciples are on boat with Jesus and while he is sleeping they are engulfed by a fierce sudden storm.

The disciples freak out and do a good thing.  They go wake Jesus.  They want his help.

Jesus calms the storm and then questions the disciples; where is your faith?

Why would he ask this?  All of the factors show that the disciples had reason to be afraid.  They should have been scared....except for one thing!

In verse 22, it tells us that Jesus was the one that put them in their situation.  He is the one who was in control.  Since they were where Jesus wanted them, they should have been calm.  

When we are following Jesus and storms come, we have to follow His example and......

rest. chill.  be at peace.

There is nothing that we can do.  A storm is beyond our control.  So we need to be at peace.

God will put storms in your life for a reason.  Not to make you stronger, not to help you help others.

He put storms in your life so that you will be amazed by Him.

In verse 25, the disciples questioned "who is this" that calms the storm.  

So when financial, relational, physical storms come in your life; be still and KNOW that He is God.  Let Him amaze you and who he is.  

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.

back from vacation

I am a list guy..... here is a list of five things I learned on my extended trip to Jacksonville!

1. I really love my family and as dysfunctional as they can be (whose isn't), I am glad that they have played a part in my life.

2. Really good friendships are hard to find and sometimes hard to keep going.  However, their are certain friendships that will be strong forever!

3. I really love having wireless internet at my house.

4.  If home is where the heart is........ Crestview is HOME!

5.  It is so fun to be a part of mosaic church - Crestview.  I missed it even more than I thought would!

a great privilege

One of the coolest things about being a part of a church body is the amount of times that you get prayed for.  

It sounds very "unhumble", but I really like being prayed for!

I am so thankful that you are praying for my family's physical and spiritual health.

I am so thankful that you are praying for my leadership.

I am so thankful that you are praying for God's growth in my life.

PLEASE DON'T STOP PRAYING!

I try to pray for our church partners pretty regularly.  Regardless of whether or not you attend mosaic, I would love to lift you up.  Shoot me an e-mail at james@mosaiccrestview or leave a comment if you have some requests!

The prayer of the the righteous is powerful and effective - James 5:16

weekend recap

Mosaic 5K

We had 247 participants in the 1st ever Mosaic 5k!!!!!!!!

The unofficial amount of money we raised is just under 5K dollars!

-all proceeds benefiting the Crestview Pregnancy Center and the building of  a well in Mali, Africa.

I am so proud of Kinetta (race director) and all of our volunteers that made it happen!

Worship

I think that week 2 of "no more christians" was the best overall worship service we have ever had!

It was cool to meet people who have been to church once or twice in the last 10 years! (It seems like this is starting to be a regular thing!)

1 year celebration

We had a great time of hanging out, eating good food, singing together, and sharing what God has done over the past year!

I am so excited about what God has done, is doing , and is going to do through our Church!

Cameron

His second tooth appeared this weekend.  It is so bittersweet to see him grow up!

I love my family so much!

God

Is so good and so real on a personal level!

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.

Walker and Amanda Sherman

God has answered a prayer of mosaic church this week as Walker and Amanda have decided to lead worship for our church!

As the leader of our church, I strongly desire to see every worship service become an incredible experience of worshiping God through music and hearing relevant teaching of the Bible.  I am confident that the Sherman's joining our team instantly brings us to that point.  

Here are just a few of the reasons why I believe that Walker is the guy to lead our worship music.

He has an evident love for Jesus Christ

He has an incredible desire to put his wife first

He has an authentic call to lead worship

He has learned from the experience he has

He has a desire to learn more

He is self motivated

He is very talented

He gets the vision of mosaic crestview

He is supportive of me as the Pastor of our church

He wants to see others use their gifts to serve Christ

He is fun to be around

He believes that God is doing great things  and will do even greater things with our body of people

I am excited to see how God uses Walker and Amanda to see lives changed in Crestview.

planning for the "we" series

mosaic update

Here is a snapshot of what is going on with mosaic right now.  

• God is being faithful to working in the lives of people.
  
• We have two people scheduled to be baptized next month.
  
• We have a couple of people who are so close to realizing what their life should be about.  
  
• Our attendance is in the 90's consistently. 
  
• Our childrens ministry is finally organized well.
  
• We are changing the layout of the Sunday experience to be more comfortable for guests.
  
• We are in a transition time as our worship leader's last Sunday was this past Sunday. Hoping for people that we already have to rise up or for God to bring someone to us.
  
• Finances have improved but are still a struggle, giving needs to increase!
• Our student ministry is doing great!
• We are about to start a new life group for married/engaged couples
• We have started podcasting!  Mosaic Church Crestview
• and much much more!

tripp battle

steps

So, it is a new year and I have some goals. The date I have set to meet these goals varies from during this year to five years from now.

-Finish my Masters.
-Get back into the shape I was at our wedding.
-Pay off our car/have only our mortgage as debt and then save up to pay cash for the next car.
-Become a better husband.
-Lead our church to experience growth and no longer need outside support to carry out the vision God has given us.

Probably a few more to come!

You know what's crazy, people set goals without ever determining the steps to get there. I am setting the steps now! Pray for me as I work on all of these!

open

Last night, I decided to drop in on our life group entitled open. Open is a group that meets at Starbucks every Sunday night. They usually start by discussing the topic of that day's sermon and then whatever is going on in someones life. The idea behind this group is to be a small step for someone to make to get more plugged into our church.

WOW!

I was absolutely amazed at the openness between people who had not met each other before that day. I was amazed at the willingness for new people to share what is going on in their life. I was encouraged by this small groups success in doing what we believe God has it there for.

If you are not seeing guests/regular attenders become more invovled in the body, then be creative. Start service based groups, interst groups, use different nights of the week, go to public locations, and do whatever it takes!

What works for us may or may not work for you, but is part of our call as Pastors and leaders of the church to do something to try and equip people (eph 4) and we have to figure out steps that people can take to move them along on their walk with Christ!

BJ Head

Yes that is his real name.

I thought that is was very fitting to conclude this five part blog series with BJ. BJ first attended mosaic about five months ago. He and his girlfriend at the time chose mosaic because they wanted to go to a church that was not all about tradition and where they knew they would not be judged (they actually heard about us from visiting shoreline). Since then BJ has surrendered his life to Christ and been baptized. He is also serving every week with our greeting/parking team and is faithful in participating in many things that we do as a church family.

This week I got a call from BJ asking for some advice on a commentary to help him understand the Word more as he reads. This is a point that many life-long "Christians" haven't gotten to in their walk.

I am so encouraged by BJ and his hunger for Christ to be in control of every aspect of his life. I am thankful to be a witness to what God is doing.

BJ is why we started mosaic church.

Nathan Barrow

Nathan shows up at 8:00 every Sunday morning and helps with sound or media, or really whatever role is needed. Nathan is not a guy that is really needy or that wants a lot of attention. Nathan is just a guy who does what is needed and that you can rely on to give it is all faithfully. I often wonder what Nathan thinks about things because he is so laid back. ( however, Nathan can definitely step into action at any minute so do not think that you can take advantage of him). Nathan is young but yet has the discipline of someone who has been around the block.

I doubt that Nathan will ever receive crowds of praise or awards for leading many, but I am confident that Nathan pleases our Father more than just about anyone.

I look up to this guy that is a couple of years younger than me and so should you.

I am very thankful for the privilege of serving with Nathan and for being able to call him my friend.

Kinetta Johnson

Today is Thanksgiving and we had the privelege of hosting some of my family for this time of hanging out and food. I asked Christie if she wanted to take this on and she went above and beyond to provide a great meal for everyone.

Kinetta goes above and beyond with anything you ask her to do. She is one of those people that is going to make sure that every t is crossed and every i is dotted. She is going to give people specific instructions and she is going to make sure what needs to get done, gets done.

Kinetta is also one of those people who is going to give you her honest opinion if you ask for it. However, she does not just give feedback to hear herself talk, she gives feedback so that things can improve. She desires that people give their all in everything because that is what God deserves.

Kinetta is not a person that just does things, she also hungers for the Word and is one of the most passionate learners of the Bible that I know.

If you are not sure of yourself and why you are doing something, Kinetta is going to make you feel uncomfortable as a leader. If you are called by God, Kinetta is going to be an incredible asset to your ministry.

I am thankful that she is a part of mosaic.

Kevin Clark

As my wife and I balance preparing for this week's message, caring for our son, and getting the house ready for our guests; I am reminded of Kevin. Kevin, is a true servant in every fashion. Kevin has continued to amaze me by his willingness to do whatever is needed. Kevin's heart is that the Church fulfills its mission.

In most situations you find people who serve one area of the Church and have some agenda in doing so. Kevin serves in any area and with the big picture in mind. In fact Kevin randomly calls me to remind me to follow the vision that God has given me and to not worry about man's opinion.

Kevin is the kind of guy that I hear most pastors wish they had in their church. I am so thankful to have that guy serving at mosaic and partnering with me to make an impact in our community and world!

As a partner of mosaic we are asked to commit to serve selflessly, if you ever question what that means, hang out with Kevin Clark.

Bill Zuhlke

Bill is one of the seven original partners of mosaic church. We actually had our first two months of Bible study at Bill and Debbie's house. Bill is also the "church adminstrator" and really handles all of the finances (along with the finance team) and records for the Church. In addition to this roll, Bill and his wife have done/are doing numerous things for our church. He pulls the trailer every Sunday mornings, they print the bulletins every week, they help greet, and I could go on and on.

Bill is also not afraid to respectfully question decisions that I make as the leader of our church and hold me accountable to the vision that God has given me.

I know that Bill has a true desire to see mosaic church grow and reach out to our community and world. Bill does not do all of these things for recognition, he does them for the eternal reward of seeing people's lives changed!

It is a blessing to have someone like Bill working alongside me and for all that he does, I am truly thankful!