On August 8th, we are kicking off our first core group bible study. This is going to be the starting point in building the foundational team that will launch Jacksonville City Church. I wanted to take a moment and explain what exactly a core group is!
- A Core Group is a group of people who have been gathered as a Bible Study Group with the goal of starting a new church.
- Lyle Schaller says, “Your first 20 members will determine who your next 100 members will be.” If that’s the case, then your core group is extremely important.
- “Core groups are best developed in informal meetings of interested persons. Through these meetings relationships are nurtured, spiritual truth explored, and questions asked. A strong core group is developed that will give rise to a healthy new church” (William C. Tinsley, Breaking the Mold, p. 30).
*Quotes from Michael Lukaszeski
So, with that mind. We are looking for people who want to be a part of starting a new church! We want people who will share our passion and vision to build a church that creates space for people to hear the gospel and reach people no one else is reaching!
We’ve got a big weekend and fall coming up. Here’s a couple big things on the horizon.
1. Tonight, I’ll be preaching at this month’s Ascension Worship Night. We are expecting a couple hundred folks to show up! Please pray that Jesus would speak through me.
2. Sunday I’ll be preaching at Providence Bible Church. Their Pastor, Mike Lewis, is with a group on a mission trip. Mike is doing a great job in St. Augustine.
3. Sunday Night, we are hosting our first Informational Meeting about Jacksonville City Church. We’ll be grilling out some burgers and spending some time introducing this new church! You are more than welcome to come hang out with us.
4. In a couple weeks, I’ll be traveling with my wife to Atlanta. We’ll be talking with a great church there about partnering with them to start new churches.
5. My second son will be due in less than two months! We are expecting Fletcher to arrive some time mid September. This fall is going to be crazy.
The past few Sundays have been weird for me. Since we are in the processing of launching a new church we’ve been floating around visiting other churches to see old friends, preach, or visit around. It’s been weird just showing up places to sit and leave. I’ll tell you it’s kind of depressing not being involved on Sundays.
I know its just a season for me and my family right now, but here’s where it affects you.
Some of you aren’t involved at your church at all and I feel kind of bad for you. Because it’s really boring just attending a church and not doing anything else.
You are missing out on a big opportunity. You have the opportunity to be a part of someone else growing in their relationship with Jesus. There’s a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment serving in your local church, I want to challenge you today to step it up and get involved. Start doing something, make a difference.
Don’t miss out on the opportunity and experience you can have!
Here’s an idea for your Monday morning coffee read.
I wonder what aid it could be in our sermon planning if we did a church wide survey a couple times a year to help gauge where our people are in life and theology.
You could ask questions of all sorts: theology, current events, biggest struggles, etc.
I wonder what that could do to your preaching. Thoughts?
We’ve been very busy the past few months. We are getting ready for the birth of our second son in a couple months, I preached out of town for three weeks straight, and have been working hard on finalizing the documents for our new church. I do want to take a moment and introduce you to the name and website of our new church.
We are going to be called Jacksonville City Church. It’s simple and not clever. We wanted a name that would be relevant 50 years from now. Something that was timeless. You can take a look at our new website here.
It’s been an incredible journey leading up to this. We are very excited to host our first official event in two weeks. We’ll be hosting an informational BBQ on July 25th to invite people to join our core group. Please, be praying that God would give us favor with our city and send us the right people!
I’ve been out preaching the last two and a half weeks. I figured I’d update you on a couple highlights!
- We’ve seen about 10 + people surrender their lives to Jesus. Many of those have been students who thought they were Christians, but realized they never committed to Jesus before!
- I’ve preached over 20 sermons over the span of about 10 days!
- Students took the sermons on honor, respect, unity, humility, and the gospel going forward very well!
- There were about 20 + students that indicated a call to ministry in some capacity, it was exciting to pray and challenge them with the call.
- I’ve eaten very well at these camps…last night I had steak! What other camp does that?
Please continue to keep me in your prayers. I will still preach another 5 times this week!
I’ve spent the last week and half preaching to different student ministries from Jacksonville and South Carolina. It’s been a humbling experience. I remember when Jesus called me to preach, it was about 6 years ago. I remember the summer of 2003, thinking how awesome it would be to one day preach a summer camp to a packed out room of students.
Here am I seven years later, I’m preaching to over 300 people this summer…most of whom I have no relationship or connection to. It’s humbling to see the platform and influence Jesus is entrusting to me.
I am humbled that Jesus is giving me the platform to speak truth and hope into the life of students, parents, pastors, and leaders this summer. I’m also, reminded of the process. There is a process in which God brings a man through. I’ve looked back on my short preaching career and church planting journey and see the process in which God has brought me through. I see the process…It’s humbling.
these three things are ways I want to shape my leadership. I want my staff and team know that we take our job serious, we want to have fun doing it, and know we can not do it alone.
Consistency :: Let’s take our opportunity serious
- we stay focused and we follow through
- we execute with our best
- we show up prepared and planned to allow the Holy Spirit to move
Celebrate :: Let’s have fun doing this thing
- we will celebrate our progress, initiatives, and wins
- we will always celebrate Jesus and His work through the church
Collaboration :: Let’s do this as a team
- we stay united upon the vision
- we will invite seasoned wisdom
- we will do this as a team, because we can not do it alone
- we will walk with a humble confidence
I’ve got a plan to treat each person with the same integrity, honor, and respect. It’s hard at times. I’ve got to really think about my actions and what I say.
Here’s a couple things I’m working on to enable this to work:
- I make eye contact at all times
- I don’t respond to emails or text messages while we are meeting..whether we are talking business or just catching up
- I don’t pick up my phone when it rings…unless it’s my wife. That’s my only exception
- I ask more questions to learn about you and your passions and dreams
- I’m bringing my notebook more. Usually I’ll only bring my journal when I’m meeting with someone who I think is a big deal. But, I’m out to let you know I believe you have something to offer. I don’t care what stage of life your in, your title or position, you’ve got something I can learn.
I’ve been working a lot lately on what our initial core values are going to be for our church. I’ve spent a ton of energy fine tuning these. My wife and I have talked through them over and over again. We wanted to make sure they truly came from us and overflowed into our ministry.
But, one things I have been considering is not having core values but rather ‘A Code’ a set of statements that describe the mentality behind our church and people. (the code is adopted from reading this book.)
These are 7-12 statements that we want our people to adopt and begin living out. When people ask me about my vision, I keep coming back to these statements. I want people who come through our ministry to begin living out these statements as life goals and ambitions.
I believe these statements can change people. They can redirect energy and attention. I’ll share with in the near future what they are.
