Making Difference Makers Challenge Part 1

Let me take you through a little Jason Curlee personal health/fitness history. After quitting college football in 1989 I went full into bodybuilding. Even worked in a gym for 3 years. I'm talking about hardcore bodybuilding...up on stage...tiny little suit...yep...here's a little picture to prove it.

When I started college football in 1988 I weighed 205. For my first bodybuilding show I cut from 215 down to 185 to make the middleweight cut. BTW that is where the picture is from. After that show I took my weight up to 225 and cut down to 203 for my second bodybuilding show.

That second show was a top level amateur show and was a wake up call for me as a bodybuilder. Since I competed naturally against several guys who competed with drugs I knew I would need to take about two years to really get my weight up to where I could come in cut at 225.

Over that process I got my weight up to 275 and was pretty big. Sure it was off-season and not a shredded 275 but I was meeting my goals. I was pretty confident that at my next show I would hit my 225/230 mark.

That was in 1994 and life changed for me. I took a new direction in my life and ended my bodybuilding quest and with that...the workouts ceased. 15 years later and I have to say at 39 I am not pleased. I probably weigh around 255/260 and am in the worse shape of my life....obviously...THINGS NEED TO CHANGE!!!!!

I tell you all that to prepare you for a challenge. Obviously if I'm doing to be a difference maker there needs to be some things that I get straight in my life...my health and fitness are going to be an area that I'm going to target.

I'm challenging any of my readers...I'm a competitive person and one way that is going to drive me in this is a competition. If you are like me and are sick and tired of being where you are health/fitness/body....then lets do something about it.

Plus...probably the only way I will do it is if someone steps up and challenges me.

The challenge will begin next week and if any of you are willing to step up I'll give you the details towards mid-week. Is there a prize? You bet...mostly bragging rights...BUT...the real prize is the gift we will give to our families and our self. If your willing to possibly challenge me read more on the details of what we will do and let me know you will be in with me by leaving me a comment.

Late Night Look

This seems to be my look every night from 9 to 1 am....I need sleep but I'm not sleepy.

Crazy Challenge

I've been thinking of a crazy challenge....it's about time...I'm still mulling it over. Details to come next week.

Looking Ahead

I'm looking forward to 2009 for a couple of reasons:

• I get to do our campus full time. With that comes a lot of responsibility. I'm cool with that.
• I get to pour into developing leaders at our campus. Time is free and there are now no excuses.
• Building a community on our campus.
• Finding more ways to serve our community like we did this past year.
• Revitalizing my blog. I'm looking to do some more series that can help pastors and churches out there.
• Our Bay Area Fellowship Multi-Site initiative. I feel God is going to do something special in '09. And I'm pumped that we are going to start even more.
  
• Networking with like minded leaders across the country. I get to go to Innovation3 and to C3 Conference. I'll finally get to meet some peeps face to face.
  
• Deepening some new friendships.
• Raising my level of leadership.
• Continuing to grow my relationship with God.
• Being a better dad and husband.
  
• Living the adventure with God.
  

Sudden Death Tamales

Every year we make tamales. This year I had a wild idea. Why not put some Sudden Death Sauce? Check it out!

Turning 39

This past Saturday I turned 39. I want to thank all those on Facebook who sent me messages. Maybe it's just age but that day seemed like just another day. No celebration....no fanfare.

So how does a 39 year old bi-vocational pastor spend his Saturday.

• 7:30 a.m. Soccer pictures with youngest daughter
• 8:30 a.m. Soccer game with youngest daughter
• 11:00 a.m. Volleyball game with oldest daughter
• 12:00 p.m. Searched stores for something to baptize people in
• 3:00 p.m. Drive in to Corpus to Sam's to get Sam's Card and shop for campus
• 7:00 p.m. Home to eat
• 8:00 p.m. Created Bulletin Insert for Sunday
• 9:00 p.m. Played Rockband with Daughters

That's about it....just another day as Dad and getting ready for Sunday.

Happy Birthday to My Wife

Today is my wife's birthday. My wife is my best friend. I won't tell you how old she is...cause...well you know. What I can say is that she is the best. We met in college and have been together ever since. We have served together in ministry for 14 years, living life in the fish bowl.

Robbie, you are so awesome. I can't tell you how much I appreciate and love you. The love we have together has grown brighter through the years. I couldn't imagine living life with anyone else. Happy Birthday.

Projects

Some projects I want to work or focus on:

1) Leadership Pipeline for Church - I think our campus can really set the pace in developing leaders. It is one of my passions and I really feel I can create a system that is workable and manageable to select and develop leaders.

2) Making Difference Makers Podcast - I think I may start out with a once or twice a month and go from there. I really enjoyed doing this when we created it in one of my past youth ministries. We did over 35 podcasts with a talk show on each one. It was fun and I actually enjoyed it.

Frustrated

Here I am on Saturday writing this post. It has been almost one week since I last posted. The reason I'm frustrated is that I feel the quantity and quality of my blog has diminished from what I purposed when I went into this year. In fact since Oct. 2006 I don't think I have had a blogging slump low rut season like I am at now.

I feel there are so many things I want to share. I think of them on my way to and from work. I have great ideas at work. I seem to have them all the time. Yet I lack the time and energy to get it here. I also miss the community of blogging as well. Doesn't seem I get to post comments to blogs like this, this, this, this. I miss talking to many of my online buddies and continuing to develop relationships.

Don't get me wrong I'm excited about where I am at and the things I'm doing. It is just that there are some areas I feel I can contribute in and I'm not.

Is it going to last forever??? NO.......I know that. But I miss it and I'm frustrated.

Never Fear

Thought I would catch you up on my life. It has been obvious over the past two weeks that my original goal in December of one quality post per day has changed. It has done so for a couple of reasons.

If you have been following for some time now you undoubtedly know that I am the pastor for one of Bay Area Fellowship's multi-site campuses. Four weeks ago we launched and it has been a great ride over that time.

Last week, I started back full time at my day job which is being a principal for a local public high school in town. In fact, I made a commercial which is being shown on the local cable provider and we have an article coming out in the paper tomorrow.

With these two it has kept me busy...there were times over the past two weeks where I didn't do a great job in the evening's at home in having a little balance. So I determined that I can't do it all and I'll blog when I can about what I want. That means I'll still be trying to put out some great content and also keeping you updated with what is going on at our 5 Point campus. Only it will come when it comes. Maybe once a day...maybe take a day off here and there. Maybe it may even come twice a day.

The best thing I could recommend you do if you follow this blog is use a RSS reader like Google Reader that will bring the content to you when it is posted.

So...Have no fear...I'm still here and am here to stay.

Questions Answered 1

I asked people to ask me a questions they would want the answer too.

First question is by Texas Ron Linebarger whose blog link is kindlytalk.com

"Why is Jesus not mentioned in the Core of MDM page?"

What he's talking about is here. Great question by the way. The reason I don't have it in there is that I feel that I shouldn't have to preference "Jesus" on everything I do. I don't spend a lot of time on this blog putting out or proving my theological stance. I don't spend time interpreting scriptures even though I way put some in there.

What I do do...(hmm that didn't sound so good...do do)...is try to help pastors or ministry leaders be more effective. I feel there is enough written about how you should be praying, reading the word, trusting, walking by faith, etc, etc, etc.....I want to write in areas that can help people practically.

Well done TEX....great question again.

Are You Questioning Me

So...I've never done this before...and might be a little afraid to...BUT...here goes.

If you could ask me any question, what would you ask.

Go ahead...leave a comment and I'll answer them all.

Rule is....if the date is after June 27th...no more questions...

HERE WE GO....

Great Pastors I Have Worked For Part 2

In part 1, I told you a little about Jim Graff who is a great pastor I have worked for. In this post let me tell you about another great pastor I have had the priviledge of working for.

Well the fact is that it is not past tense...I'm actually working for him now. His name is Bil Cornelius. Bil pastors Bay Area Fellowship in Corpus Christi, TX.

In September of 1997, Bil came to Corpus Christi with a great vision to start a church that would use modern methodology to reach people with God's timeless message of salvation through Jesus Christ.

Bay Area’s first community service was on January 18th, 1998. The service was held at a local elementary school and over 200 people attended! Over the past decade, Bay Area Fellowship has grown to over average now at this writing 5,300 people in weekend attendance between their two campuses. Bay Area is also currently launching two more campuses at this time.

In the short time being here, I have met and am now learning from a Pastor who is totally passionate about reaching the lost. I believe that if he had a water pistol he would leap into the fiery pits of hell and try to rescue those who are lost. It is this passion that has attracted me to being and launching a campus with Bay Area.

I firmly believe Bil is one of the greatest church communicators in America and it is an honor to be hear. In fact I believe that God has been leading me to this for a very long time. The timing is now and it's game on. We're gonna swing the bat until our hands bleed.

Great Pastors I Have Worked For Part 1

I've had the privilege of working for what I feel are two of the best pastors in America.

The first was Jim Graff who pastors Faith Family Church in Victoria, TX. Jim is the brother-in-law of Joel Osteen.

He has an incredible passion for reaching the lost and for the small counties of America. Several years ago I lead a research project where we called and found the largest church in every county under 150,000 in population. That was over 2,700 counties. What we found in that research was staggering. 85% of the counties in America didn't have a church that reached 1% of the county population. This led to him founding the Significant Church Network, a network aimed at helping the pastors in small counties.

Faith Family is a church of 3,500 in a county of 85,000. They have a great team of passionate people surrounded by a church that has taken on the challenge of reaching their city.

It was an honor to be on staff at Faith Family for five years. Part of me always thinks "how in the world did I make it on staff there???"

God has truly blessed me by allowing me to learn from Pastor Jim. I really believe that God refined a lot of my leadership skills and abilities while working at Faith.

Stay tuned for part 2 where I will be talking about another great pastor I have the privilege of serving under.

Throwing Some Link Love

As many of you know I'm launching a new campus for Bay Area Fellowship in an area called Five Points in Corpus Christi, TX. Yesterday, my Pastor, Bil Cornelius, said some great things about me on his blog in a post called 5 Points and Padre Island have got me fired up!

It is a great honor to be doing this. In fact it is a dream come true. Go over and check out Pastor Bil's blog and give him some link love.

We're Charging Hell

Short blast - John Atkinson made the announcement as well. John is heading up this whole multi-site movement for Bay Area. Go check out his blog to read where we are headed.

Hey Dave - We're gonna charge hell with a water pistol fire hydrant.

Bringin' it to the Five Points area.

My Big Announcement 2

If you read my announcement last week you will know that I accepted a promotion to be principal. Although that is a big announcement that is not the announcement I've had everyone lingering on for about a week or two.

The Turnaround
What a turnaround there has been in the past nine months. After an unexpected resignation in July of 2007 and a failed church plant in which our partner named himself the "senior pastor" we went through some hard financial and emotional times. It was a time where we stood strong in our faith believing God was working some big things out for us.

During the time prior to the resignation, I had begun initiating a friendship with John Atkinson who is a pastor on staff at Bay Area Fellowship. I was reading his blog and thought since I lived in the same town I would give them a complement on how I thought they as a church were doing a great thing.

The friendship continued to grow and after the failed church plant we decided we would go as a family to Bay Area Fellowship as we figured out what God wanted us to do. I knew God had placed in me the desire to launch a church so I continued planning and building a team through the network of friends God had placed in my life over the years. We were having core team meetings and our core grew to a total of 20 people attending. It was going good until the day when I had a meeting with John to just talk over what all God was doing. That was the beginning of things turning from good to great.

In the meeting, John began to lay out the plans God had put on his heart to begin taking Bay Area into a multi-site initiative. Bay Area already had one campus but God was really moving on John to do something big and with Pastor Bil's go ahead John was moving. It was at that point John asked me a question that has led up to my big announcement.

The question was "Would you consider taking what you are doing and becoming a Bay Area Fellowship Campus in the Calallen/TM area and leading the campus?"

At first I was shocked and intrigued. Obviously, it was a great honor to be asked by a church like Bay Area to lead a campus. After several conversations, prayer, and talks with our team here is what we have decided to do with our church launch.

The Announcement
We have decided to accept this role and convert Life Church, the church we were planning, into becoming Bay Area Five Points. I have accepted the role to lead the campus by joining our vision with the vision of Bay Area Fellowship.

Not sure if you can grasp the significance of this...THIS IS HUGE. This is a perfect fit for us and what we wanted to do. In part 3, I'm going to let you in on some more thoughts but for those that don't know, Bay Area is pastored by Bil Cornelius and runs about 6,000. Pastor Bil planted the church here around 10 years ago and it has grown to be a church focused on reaching the lost and connecting them with God.

I would love to hear your thoughts.

[Photo Credit Flickr.com]

My Big Announcement Part 1

WoW...A lot has transpired since July of last year (07). I feel like my life went through the wringer.

BUT

God is so faithful. In the span of the last five days. The principal of the sister school I worked at resigned. I was offered the position and today accepted the position as principal of Corpus Christi Academy.

It is simple amazing what God has done.

BUT WAIT....that's not even the big announcement that I want to share with everyone. I gave two hints....here and here. But either no one was smart enough to guess or simply doesn't care. Either way...I'm simply PRAISIN' GOD!!!!!!

Don't worry...I'm going to officially make the announcement next week...I'm also going to give a little testimony of how God brought me from the pit to the palace.

[Photo Credit Flickr.com]

I Dwelt In The Darkness

As some of you may have picked up on over my past few confession posts, I've kind of had a hard time lately.

In fact, it has not been just lately. It all started in July of 2007 when I had to turn in my resignation. Honestly, them asking me to resign was the best thing that could have ever happened for me. Only problem, is it was the start of what I felt has been the darkest nine months of my life.

It is interesting that I say that because early in 2007, I spoke two messages called God Dwells In The Darkness. You can read some more of my thoughts on that here, here, and here. Sometimes it's easy to get up and preach a message than to live it. I had thought I had gone through some dark times before, but had no idea what was to come.

Throughout this whole process I have kept my faith. There were times I wanted to pack it all it. There were times I wanted to shout at God and blame Him. There were times I didn't want to even set foot in a church. When you are hurt by a pastor and church as hard as we were hit with (twice in three months)...you might feel the same way.

So this has been one of the darkest moments in my life and all I have been able to do is stand...and when there was nothing else to do I would stand some more (Eph 6:13).

And after all that standing the result is that my faith is now stronger...I am more resilient...and I am pumped for what the future is about to bring (James 1:2-4). The sunrise has broken through the darkness (Psalm 112:4). The snare has been broken (Psalm 124:7).

God, over the past two weeks, has used some people to pump my confidence back up. I was beginning to question myself seriously. A huge thank you goes out to this guy, this guy, this guy, and this guy specifically for little things you have done over these past two weeks. You have allowed God to use you to breathe life back in to me. I could not say enough about my wife standing firm beside me as well.

I also have a huge, huge, huge announcement coming, hopefully next week. I'm so pumped and excited. It is a great opportunity we have accepted for our church plant. So stay tuned as you may hear about it very, very soon. Thanks for being patient through my confessions and for reading.

As a side note, this blog throughout this time has continued to grow. My hits have gone up around 25% and subscriptions have just about tripled since December. Thanks for being a loyal reader here. And now I'll turn this blog back over to bringing you ministry content that will help you minister more effectively.

[Photo Credit to flikr.com]

I've Been Not So Good

I had a stream of thought going for confessions. It's amazing though what a weekend of not posting can do to you. You kind of lose that stream.

I do have to confess...I'm the poster boy for male church toughness. I really suck at not opening up to let people know what I'm really going through. I am great at encouraging others but when asked my patented answer is "It's going good."

So this month I feel like the past nine months have finally caught up to me emotionally. First, I let two different people make decisions that affected my family and I, and I took it personally inside. I have had some really negative internally conversations. I've partly been depressed. I allowed these events to shape who I was viewing myself and in more ways than one have wanted to do nothing but retreat from the world.

Ok, now that I've run off practically everyone of my readers...let me give you my plan for rising above this. I'm now beginning to go on the upswing from this.

Run To God
Adam and Eve ran from God when they first sinned. They ended up hiding from Him. I don't want that to be me. I want to run to God. I want to run to His arms. In fact through this whole set of events God has been the one that has been faithful.

Speak His Word
A couple of weeks ago I had someone post a comment on this blog that reminded me of a Scripture that I quoted often in the past. When you quote Scripture it comes alive. It moves you from your current to where God wants you. It feeds or fuels your faith.

Admit
I am admitting here that I have blown it in this area. I am going to still find it hard to say things are not going good when people ask but I'm going to be better at it.

Keep Moving Forward
Don't let your past or events in your past hold you back from reaching your God potential. God is the "God of what is to come" as well. Allow your events to mold your faith in Him. Keep moving...keep going...keep volunteering...keep ministering. Keep doing whatever is necessary to move forward. Satan can't rob you of your calling but He will try to rob you of your confidence. If he can steal that he can in essence stop your progressing of doing that thing that God has destined you for.

These aren't the only things I'm doing but they are a start and I'm recovering. God has been revealing some things to me and some other events are transpiring that God is using to bring back the confidence in me.

What do you do when your not so good????