Sunday 12-28-08 Through My Window

Here are some reflections and pictures from this past Sunday's Experience on 12-28-08. A couple of days after the fact but I still thought I would get them in.

• Numbers were lower than normal but I felt they would be with the holidays.
• In retrospect I think we should have only done "one" Sunday Morning experience.
• Each week our haze machine seems to haze the room a little different. This week it all seemed to stay on the left of the room and didn't distribute at all.
• We had a bare-bone skeleton volunteer crew.
• Pumped that we can actually say we did our first Christmas as a church. Dreams do come true.
• Music was good...looking forward to seeing where we go. Time to push the envelope.
• Great and relevant points in the message from Pastor Bil. We really do have one of the best church communicators for our messages.

Here are some pics:

Tribes: Secret Of Success

In the book, Tribes, by Seth Godin, Seth makes a great statement about being wrong. It is as follows:

"The secret of being wrong isn't to avoid being wrong!
The secret is being willing to be wrong.
The secret is realizing that wrong isn't fatal.
The only thing that makes people and organizations great is their willingness to be not great along the way. The desire to fail on the way to reaching a bigger goal is the untold secret of success."

And so I ask: Where are you pushing the envelop today? Risking it all? Charting a course and not looking back? Being innovative...on the edge. Are you failing....are you possibly getting it wrong to be right?

Bay Area Fellowship Stage

Check out the new Bay Area Fellowship stage in action. This clip is from our Lights and Sounds of Christmas Production with the Corpus Campus band rocking Hillsong United's "The Time Has Come"

Christmas Production Opener Video

For your viewing pleasure here is the Bay Area Fellowship Corpus Band opening for the Lights and Sounds of Christmas Production.

Christmas ARK Project

Today we hosted a Christmas Eve Party for a local organization that works with children who have been removed from homes. It was a great first time experience and opportunity for our 5 Points campus. Below are my thoughts and some pictures. Due to the organization we worked with we were not allowed to photo any of the children.

• Our campus solely raised over 150 toys and gifts. That was almost one gift per our average attendance.
• Tons of people helped out this morning.
• We catered in breakfast and a local home school organization served breakfast to all the kids.
• We decked out our facility even more with Christmas stuff and all the tables were covered in Christmas wrapping paper.
• We showed "Horton Hears a Who" for the little kids...the older ones played Rock Band.
• The little kids were so pumped when Santa showed up...yeah...we had Santa out to our campus....get over it.
• You should have seen the smiles when these kids started getting their gifts from Santa...PRICELESS.
• Even the older teens were pumped about their gifts.
• I just happened to pick out a some gifts for an 8 to 10 year old boy. When he opened the ones I had picked out he stated "I was so wanting one of these". Then he opened the other one and got another...YES...I'm so good.
• The older teen said he wanted to come back to go to church here.
• My wife Robbie and our team did a fantastic job planning, organizing, and executing this event. "I love it when a plan comes together."
• Giving seemed to become infectious at our campus...people were really enjoying helping and being a resource....WAY TO GO 5 POINTS!!!!
• With all the gifts our campus was able to help two separate organizations with gifts this Christmas and also reach out to another family who's house burned down in the city of one of our other Multi-Site campuses.
  

Penn Says It All

In this video, Penn, of Penn & Teller, makes the most profound challenge to the church that I have ever heard. Understand...this statement comes from a self-proclaimed atheist.

Is this a challenge we must heed? Is this a challenge we must embrace? Watch this video and let me know what you think.



In the video Penn says:

I don’t respect people who don’t proselytize. If you believe that there’s a heaven and hell, and people could be going to hell, and you think, ‘Well, it’s not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward’… How much do you have to hate somebody not to proselytize?

Let's go out and make a difference and change our communities.

[HT: ChrisReeder.com]

Structure Your Church For Growth

Pastor Bil Cornelius of Bay Area Fellowship wrote a great article at ChurchSolutionsMag. Here is a sample:

In mentoring and associating with hundreds of church planters, I’ve discovered a very common trend: Although they have great vision, passion and a true sense of calling to a particular area or city, most church planters still are not equipped to be successful. In fact, pastors of small or struggling churches may encounter some of the same challenges. The main areas that seem to hold these leaders back from achieving their full potential are poor structure, ineffective staffing and......

Make sure you go read the whole article.

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!

Merry Christmas From 5 Points Elves

Wanted to say Merry Christmas to all of you from the Bay Area Fellowship 5 Points Crew.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

The Tokbox Experiment

Well, I've actually be checking out tokbox for a week or two...I got me a profile and looked at myself on my webcam but really hadn't tried it out.

UNTIL....tonight.

I read Todd Rhoades post today on his http://churchstaffbreakroom.com and so I thought "why not". How totally awesome of a time I had connecting with guys and ladies I've been twittering with and reading blogs. Not only that but got to meet some pastors in other states and hear their story. It was so awesome to hear others who were launching churches and I even got to tell our Bay Area Fellowship Multi-Site story a couple of times.

Talk about potential with this little tool. Of course I got to get Mr. Atkinson hooked up now...he is gonna love using it too connect...

So many ways to use this. I've already got a campus pastor that wants to set up a network with me using it. I could also see a prayer room, small groups, staff meetings, leadership training.

In one of my next posts I'll let you in on the details of it and how best to use it.

Tools I'm Using

Some tools I've been using for a while:

• Google Doc, Google Calendar, Google Reader...shoot....everything Google
• Blogger
• Twitter
• Youtube

Some new tools I'm trying:

• Tokbox
• Mogulus

Some I rarely use:

• Myspace
• Facebook

Some I tried but didn't catch on with me:

• Ustream
• Utterz - Isn't even around any more.
• Jotz - Can't seem to find it.

I love using just about anything techie...I'm in front of my computer way to much and if you could jack the internet straight into your body like in "The Matrix" I'd probably be there. Seriously...I love using tools that can connect with others and build community.

Organizing My Thoughts

Lot of jumbled stuff up there about our campus....so I thought I would write them down.

• Excited about doing the campus full time...it is going to allow me to put a more creative edge on a lot of the things we are doing.
• In the new year, I have already scheduled several quarterly leadership trainings I will do with our campus. I'm also looking at a monthly training for our department heads.
• I've typed out several guides for the campus - one is a guide to receiving the offering and I'm in process of creating a meeting guide that will outline every element of our experiences.
• I wrote out a leadership development plan for next year.
• I'm really wanting to create a campus pastor network made up of pastors from different churches to learn from and bounce ideas from organization to organization. If you are interested in it...contact me.
• I'm really a techie guy...so I'm always looking for technology to implement on the internet and for our campus. Having more time to do that will be a plus.
• With more time it will allow me to make graphics for announcements. I'm also looking at how we could do some video announcements.
• I'm got tons of creative ideas I want to try...almost more than I can get out on here. I think that we can add a creative edge to our campus that will be a draw for people that question the video message portion.
• In saying that....VIDEO MESSAGES WORK....we have had 49 people documented that have prayed to begin a relationship with Christ...that is an average of two per week...that is why we started the 5 Points campus.
• I still talk weeks in how long...probably will until after the first year...then it will be months....can't wait until we are counting by years....CRAZY!!!!
• And, like Pastor John, my mind is racing on where our next campus will go. As soon as I got time, I'm going to begin formulating a plan....yeah...I got ideas too!
• It is so awesome to see that our three multi-site campuses are all on the vision of launching the next campuses. As we do more and more this is just going to explode.
• I'll be glad to connect with ministry leaders online more this next year...working at church will allow me to network in a greater way.
• In '08 I wanted to take my blog to a new level. Becoming a principal and starting a campus kind of side tracked that. I'm pumped to be able to write in a better and more quality way. I love writing and some day have a goal to write a book...actually several.
• Last night we were looking more at our lighting on our campus to continue to create that WOW effect. Some of it is just getting in there and working with them...we had some great cool looks last night.
• PUMPED! PUMPED! PUMPED!!!!!!!
  

Don't Watch

Don't watch the following video...it will make you winch with pain.



I Told You Not Too!!!!!

I liked Corey Hill on the Ultimate Fighter and know this is a huge setback...

And now back to your regular scheduled blog posting.

Did You Know

What a powerful video that will get you to think...it seems so much like things are speeding up. Wonder if there are any implications for the church? What do you think?



HT: Scott Williams

Multi-Site Campus Pastors

I'm still compiling a list of websites of Multi-Site Church Campus Pastors....read [HERE]

I've had a few churches email me and let me know...this is what I'm looking for.

• Church Name
• Campus Pastor Name
• Campus Name
• Campus Pastor Blog Site and/or Twitter Site

Reason I'm doing this is that it can be a great resource to be able go to for Campus Pastors. They can follow and read what others are doing as well as connect with them.

So if you are a campus pastor or your church has various multi-sites email me at pastorjcurl{at}gmail{dot}com or even comment me here with the information.

You can see my current list [HERE] for examples of what kind of info I need.

Would They Care

I'm not sure who I first heard this quote from...but I did recently re-read it in the book, "IT" by Craig Groeschel.

The quote said, "If your church closed down would the community even know or care?"

That quote has kind of haunted me for several months now, especially as we have now been doing our campus for half the year.

Far too often churches get together and get in a rhythm of doing church on Sunday morning and think that just because they are open they are making a difference. Making a difference with your church requires intentionality. It requires a willingness to be a working solution to your community.

God has planted us in our community to partner with Him in bringing change. Often times when churches start they want people to come to them. They do outreaches geared to bring people in. God has called us to more than being an open door. God has called us to help be a solution to the social ills that permeate our country.

And to be honest...that will require just a little more than telling people about Jesus, although that part is extremely important.

It is my desire that our church campus is a solution. That it is a movement. That it is a force that brings change to our community. That we are the answer to what our community needs.

Sunday The 14th Through My Window

Here is a view through my window for this Sunday.

• I was able to do the message this morning due to us going to getting the Sunday message from Pastor Bil.
• I talked more on vision from two weeks ago when I spoke last.
• Told my favorite football story from high school.
• My main point was that we must have a PASSION to do WHATEVER IT TAKES to REACH OUR AREA.
• Loved this quote from Erwin McManus, I used it today - “When have we forgotten that the church doesn’t exist for us? We are the church and we exist for the world.”
• Joey Davila our BAF Multi-Site Music Director rocked it out with our band today...
• I'm loving all the new lights we have...it adds movement and really enhances the experience.
• Since I was preaching I didn't really get to mingle with leaders and people as much.
• Attendance was ok today...my first December as a kind of Senior Pastor.
• I really wanted to hit more on Commitment...I find that today's church in America needs more people who "really" follow Christ...
• My big dawg buddy John was hanging out with us...but he left before I could say bye since I did message.
• Looking forward to doing this full-time now...it is going to allow me to start doing some of the creative things that I feel will take it up a notch even more.
• I really feel that we are creating an awesome experience each Sunday...I'm really believing that people are going to begin to start coming out to see what we are doing.
• I recorded the message and want to put in on our new mogulus site...but the recording was during our second experience of the morning and in the line of the shot there isn't a lot of people sitting there...so it looks a little bare. Not sure that is the image I want up.
• I want to spend a lot of time in the new year working with and building up leaders.
• It's exciting to think that the three campuses are already working to have the finances to launch more campuses in the future.
• Every week no matter how many people are there, we have new guest each week...that is so exciting. I don't think there has been a week in these first 22 that we haven't had someone there checking it out.
• Pumped up about getting our sign and billboard this week. I'm hoping we can get our sign up pretty quick.
• Below are some pictures of today's experiences complements of Rachel. Pretty soon I'm going to create a new video...
  

Working A Secular Job

Here are some things I learned in having to work a secular job (by that I mean a non-ministry job) for the first time this last year in 14 years:

• People who work jobs have busy lives...they work all day and then have families to go home to in the evening....THEREFORE...be careful how much you demand from people. I spoke with one pastor who had demanded his youth volunteers to...do church on Sunday morning and Wednesday night, attend his leadership training on Sunday night, do their youth ministry on Friday night and then meet with their team once a week...I thought...YOU'RE OUT OF YOUR MIND!!!
• The best way to lead people who get paid is still with vision. You can lord their paycheck over them but you still will get more when you cast an infectious vision.
• People cuss a lot....my first job out of the gate was as a teacher in an inner city alternative high school. I heard more cuss words the first week than I had in my prior 14 years. It felt good to get back to what we all should be doing....hanging with those who are far from God.
• You don't have to be like them to reach them. By that I mean it is important that people see something different in us. You don't have to tell dirty jokes, flirt, act like them...you life is like a seed that should be planted.
• That I'm geared for ministry...God placed it in me and it never goes away...He has made me for a purpose and I need to flow in that purpose.
  

Mogulus Site

Started a Mogulus Video site for our 5 Points Campus...address is http://www.mogulus.com/bayarea5points

I only just got it up and right now have about 30 minutes of different videos that are running on it. I have some ideas of what I want to do with it: Training, Prayer, Small Group, etc...

Some of that is going to wait until I'm full-time. I see this as another great way for people to connect with what we are doing.

BAF Multi-Site Ministry

Recently Pastor Bil Cornelius took some time to blog about our Multi-Site Ministry and what he has learned from the Pastors of the various sites.

Here are the posts:

• The Truth Behind Multi-site Leadership
• Lessons I’ve Learned from Pastor Rudy
• Lessons I’ve learned from Pastor Jason Curlee

It is so awesome to have a leader that believes in this ministry and in us. I'm so fired up to be part of this team at Bay Area Fellowship and have a lot of stuff built up in me that is ready to be unleashed. Not just for my campus but for the whole Multi-Site Ministry.

We have some stuff already in the works for next year and I can't wait to be on full time. December 19th is my last official day as a principal and I'm back in the world of full-time ministry. Taking it to new levels.

C3 - Creative Church Conference

Anyone else going to C3 - Creative Church Conference?

I'll be there and am wanting to connect with so many others who I've never met face to face.

Campus Pastor List

I'm now compiling a Campus Pastor Blog List from a question I posted up on twitter asking if anyone knows the blogs websites of any campus pastors. DJ Chung, who blogs at Digital @ Leadership Network, posted up my question with some campus pastors. Then this morning Dan Ohlerking emails me with a list of the campus pastors at Healing Place Church.

So I think I'm going to compose a list. Not sure exactly what I'm going to do with it just yet. But here is what I need.

If you are currently a campus pastor for a church (not sure what you would be a campus pastor for other than a church) email me at pastorjcurl{at}gmail{dot}com or leave a comment with what church you are with and a list of blogs of your campus pastors.

Remember this is a list of the personal blog sites of current Campus Pastors. Go to the link at the bottom to check out what I'm looking for.

This may turn out to be a big list...which will be cool. It will be a great resource to other churches and campus pastors.

The link for my list which will be a working document which I will be adding to as people contact me is Campus Pastor Blog Twitter List

*** UPDATE *** If your a campus pastor and only twitter we'll take those as well.

Clear Vision

Ministries that have it always have a clear vision. The people know the vision, understand the vision, believe in the vision, and live the vision. The vision guides them, motivates them, and energizes them. Large numbers of people move in the same direction. Ministries with vision tend to have it. All the rest are hit and miss.

Craig Groeschel from the book IT: How Churches and Leaders Can Get It and Keep It

{Photo By Flickr.com}

Padre Island Campus Grand Opening

Sunday I drove over to be at the Grand Opening day for our Bay Area Fellowship Padre Island Campus. While I was there I took a few shots. Here is a look at their campus:

Sunday The 7th Through My Window

I went on a road trip yesterday to our Padre Island Campus grand opening...so most of my window was a blur driving from one campus to the other and back...BUT...I have some thoughts and here they be:

• Yesterday was our 21st weekend.
• It was great to be able to take off to the other campus for a Sunday. I only did it because I knew I had a team that could handle it.
• Juno Garcia stepped up to lead in my place. Feedback was he did a great job.
• Our band did "Break Free" and I missed it...I think that is one of the best songs they do.
  
• Our attendance jumped back up after the Thanksgiving Weekend lag. We had lots of new families out visiting. We are so close to breaking the 200 mark.
  
• Got to go over to the Padre Island Campus for Grand Opening. I got pics and will post them up this week so everyone can check out that campus.
• So pumped for Pastor Dave Cothem and his team. They had 298 people for their Grand Opening. Great feel. Building came out awesome. Makes me wonder what ours would have been like bar Hurrican Ike hitting our Grand Opening weekend. (No I'm not bitter)
• Joey Davila was rockin' it with their team. He will be playing and singing with our band this weekend.
  
• Padre Island band did a great job.
• As soon as I'm on full time one of the things I'll be doing one day is helping them re-do their lighting.
• As great as it was being over there I missed my campus. It's funny how you get bonded to your church. Our campus is beginning to transform into a community. I'm loving it.
• At the ribbon cutting last night there must have been around 400 people. It was great seeing Pastor Bil and hanging with him a bit even though everyone was wanting to say hi to him and talk to him. I'm glad he takes moments to bond with us Campus Pastors.
• I'm thinking of resigning if Pastor John resigns to go start the next multi-site in Honolulu...I'm not to old to be a student pastor...PLUS...someone has to help him with his tech inadequacies. (See Number 14 on his post)...UNLESS...we start one in Italy in which I'll try and talk my family into going there. J/K...besides they would never move to Italy. Maybe we could go for the summer just to get the campus up and running.
  
• All in all it was a great weekend for our multi-site campuses...we had 762 in attendance at our three multi-site's. God is a great God and has us on a wave of momentum...we got to ride it.
• Pumped about our Christmas Project. You can be a part of it too...go check out my post.
• Rachel did a great job with pictures...Rachel volunteers by documenting our progress through digital photography. She even went out and got a new camera. Check out the slide show of our Sunday below.

My Big Announcement

For about two weeks I've been saying that I have a big secret announcement. Well, the secret is out. Here it is:

Bay Area Fellowship has brought me on full time to lead the 5 Points Campus.

There were some reasons I couldn't share this with the world. Namely because I'm a principal of a school and we hadn't told our staff or the students yet. So I had to keep it semi-hush.

We have officially told everyone...only thing left is to write a letter to the parents.

I actually turned in my resignation about a month ago and have been sitting on this with my superintendent who has been awesome through this. He understood the opportunity and was excited for me even though I would be ending my work with them mid-year. We don't do contracts which is why this move could be made now.

So for now you know the news I'll post a little more on this in future posts. Stay tuned.

5 Points Billboard

Here is a picture of our soon to go up official 5 Points Billboard.

Servicing Our Community 4

This is a project that I want to encourage my readers to be a part of.

I can't got into all of the total project until after Christmas but I will tell you what we are doing and how you can be part of the joy.

This Christmas we are partnering with a local organization to our area that takes in children pulled from their home by the state. Our idea is to give these kids and the organization a Christmas they hopefully won't forget.

Could you imagine being taken out of your home for whatever reason during this time?

You can partner with us as well....right now the easiest way if you are not in our own BAF 5 Points campus is to mail a check or money order to:

BAF 5 Points
P.O. Box 260660
Corpus Christi, TX 78426-0660

Label it Christmas Project

How much????? That's totally up to you. What we are believing for is the ability to give every child two or three toys...and maybe purchase them an outfit and/or small suitcase.

At a max this organization could have up to 37 children of various ages and sex. We won't know until the last minute.

This is purely about giving...we know these kids won't be coming to our church the next weekend or ever. What we know is that we are about serving our community and being a resource to it.

Give a gift to our Christmas Project and partner with us to serve these children in this time.

Twitter

How do you Twitter?

Seems like there are many ways and if you ask someone you get a different answer.....SO....I'm asking you.

How do you Twitter?

Here is how I do it:

• First, I follow lots of people. In fact, my main policy is to follow you if you follow me.
• Second, if you don't follow me I don't follow back.
• Third, if you quit following me I quit following you. I use a program called http://useqwitter.com
• Fourth, I tweet and start conversations as I get on about anything or with anyone that seems interesting.
• Fifth, I tweet back to those that @reply me
• Sixth, I go to the twitter sites of friends and people to read what went on in their day. An easy way to do that is create some bookmarks in your browser.

That's pretty much it. To follow my tweets go to http://www.twitter.com/jasoncurlee

So how do you twitter?

Marketing Our Campus

After 20 weeks in I'm looking at marketing our campus in our area.

On our first try at it, we sent out a mailer during the week of our grand opening. One problem though...Hurricane Ike was coming right at us when that went out. So in our opinion many of our mailers got lost in the frantic rush to possibly evacuate or board up. (It still has been our highest attendance to date though)

So now I'm looking at doing a few things:

1. A Billboard - this is to mainly get some campus recognition and position our name...we should have ours up by December 15th.
   
2. Bus Stop Bench Advertising - This is a cheap way to get our campus info into several places. I'm looking at about 3 to 5....we'll see.
   
3. Church Sign - One thing that has kept people from finding us is not having a sign. That is changing as we are fixing to have a 10 foot by 8 foot sign up front.

A couple of other ideas I'm thinking of are:

• T-Shirts - to all those that attend and asking them to wear them on the weekends when they are out. This will probably be simple shirt with logo and website address....thought about some cool graphic map to the campus but that might be overkill
• Door Hangers - Want to print up 10,000 and hit the beat with the campus.
• Another Mailer - This time it will be positioned not when there is a Hurricane coming.

What ideas might you have of getting our name out to our community?

My Family

I sure love my family...here are a couple of pictures we took on the farm.



Here are my girls

Deck The Halls

We decorated for Christmas...not a whole lot...we plan to build on it each year until we are done. Here is a sample of what we did:

Announcement

Later this week, look for a major announcement coming...this changes everything...at least for me.

Sunday The 30th Through My Window

Here are a few pictures of this morning and our facility.



Want to catch a glimpse of my thoughts on today....here they go:

• Today I delivered the message at our campus. Pastor Bil was off this Thanksgiving weekend so our campuses were given the option to go live.
• I talked vision at our campus. Many people have come on board that have never been to Bay Area Fellowship.
• I gave a little BAF and 5 Points Campus history lesson.
• Talked on 5 Points that are the foundation for our campus. All came out of Acts 2:42-47
• So pumped for the future of our campus.
• Music sounded great this morning.
• We put up some new lights and hung some tin to add to the atmosphere. I got one more surprise for next week.
• Tom Grant, our production director, did an awesome job of bringing the lighting and stage design to life. I had an idea...he ran with it and it added so much to our morning.
• Numbers were a little down for the Thanksgiving weekend...don't know if that was the norm at all of our campuses.
• Last night when I practiced my message I had to look at all of what I wrote...this morning I hardly looked at my notes...that can be a good thing or bad thing.
• I was so busy thinking about the message and the new changes I only was able to snap off a few pictures.
• Our production crew has grown to a solid team. I'm looking forward to what the future holds for them.
• Due to using Mediashout for the first time...the graphics for this morning were full animated moving graphics....that added some extra atmosphere.
• Even though we were down we had several first time guests...that always excites me and shows me that we are on the right track.
• I've been letting Juno Garcia do some of the speaking elements each Sunday. Juno is our Service Director and if I'm not there will handle running the morning.
• One of my statements this morning was that we are not just a "video campus"...we are the church.
• Told them we are about NUMBERS...numbers of lives being changed...numbers of families staying together...numbers of teenagers having a hope..numbers of people spending eternity with Christ.
• Pumped about the future of our campus...we have a great group of people who really want to see this church happen.
  

Thanksgiving

It's Thanksgiving and yeah I'm gonna do one of those posts that some of you that subscribe to a million blogs will probably just scroll though...

I'm so thankful to where God has brought us...thankful for a wonderful wife and three awesome girls...thankful for a group of people who are catching the vision of our campus...thankful for a great friend I've found over the last year....thankful for a pastor who like me wants to make our area the hardest place to go to hell...

I hope you all have a safe and wonderful time this Thanksgiving.

5 Points Re-Wired

It's the day before Thanksgiving and even though I've been off for two days from school (my principal job) I've been highly absent from the blogging world. I thought I'd take a moment and let you know what I've been up too.

For two days, I've been working with my production director, Tom Grant, on some upgrades to our adult room. Now albeit, to some churches out there what we did would be nothing. But one of the things about our campuses at Bay Area Fellowship is that we have intentionally tried to start them with the least amount of finances that we can. That way as we launch more campuses, no matter what size town we go to it can work. This week, though we upgraded from our starting package. Our room was a little plain so we added a little WOW.

I put a real brief teaser in this short video:

The Most Important Leadership Quality

Pastor John Atkinson, Multi-Site/Hometeams Pastor of Bay Area Fellowship and my partner has a great post on his blog called "The Most Important Leadership Quality" Here is an excerpt:

The lack of integrity however, will define our leadership and our lives!
1. We must have integrity in our faith, or we'll change the Word of God to fit us, instead of changing us to fit the Word of God.
2.Without integrity, we'll be able to see pride in others, while missing it in ourselves.
3. Without integrity, we'll challenge others to live lives of purity, while in the privacy of our own homes we'll fail at it.

There are some more points on his post so make sure you go read them all. You can also follow Pastor John on Twitter at www.twitter.com/johncatkinson

Sunday The 23rd Through My Window

Here is a look through my window for Sunday 11-23:

• Actually got the date right this week in my title.
• Last four weeks have been a flip flop...183 to 163 to 192 to 163 today. I was actually hoping to bust through 200...we are so close.
• Felt like I wasn't connecting the elements smoothly. That is one of the reasons I like to type out my sermons totally whenever I preach.
• Music team did Break Free this morning....it sounded great....best song of the morning.
• Tomorrow we are making some upgrades that will be revealed next weekend.
• Revealed our next service project....can't talk to much but we are going to be doing something with a local non-profit out in our area. In a nut shell...kids and Christmas Party.
• I feel that our campus will only be as strong as the leadership team I have assembled. It will only be as strong as the bond we have together.
• I've tried something new with our information cards and last week we had 12 first time guests turn it in....this week 5. I feel it is a little more non-threatening for our guests.
• Got an anonymous tip about giving today on the cards...obviously you can guess how that one went.
• Children's area was loud today...one of those facility issues that is a good problem.
• We used our new bar area today....it looked great...still have to but laminate on it.
• Seemed I had too many announcements and things to talk about today...but no time. One of the areas I have to work on.
• Looking forward to kicking off Hometeams and Youth Ministry in the new year. I feel Hometeams are a great way to build relationships and community in a church. Our youth ministry is going to be exciting as well...I'm fixing to do some serious planning for it. Going to line out some message series.
• I felt a little out of it today...not really sure why...every Saturday I've been listening the first two minutes of Eminem's "Lose Yourself" song. It is a great reminder to me to not miss the opportunity before us. Each weekend is so vital to someone....it is when someone's son or daughter or grandchild or mom...dad...friend will be coming to our campus for the first time. It may be their first or last time to ever hear the message of Christ....it is also our responsibility to be ready.
  

Working On

Couple of projects I've been working on:

• Assimilation System - From 1st Time to Core this is a key system for any church. It is vital that we have this one on right from the beginning. My hope is to type it all up into a Google Document for you to view soon.
• Guide To Giving - With a little help from Michael I have typed out a guide (click [HERE] to view) that outlines the steps to plan for and receive an offering. I have always believed that this is an important area of worship for those that come. It is something that should be planned for.

How to Change Your Life in 7 Days

Pastor Bil Cornelius Senior Pastor for Bay Area Fellowship has a great series on his blog called "How to Change Your Life in 7 Days". Here are the links:

Step One: Acknowledge What Needs to Change
Step Two: Create Your Future on Paper
Step Three: Commit
Step Four: Deposit the Price
Step Five: Make Course Corrections
Step Six: Celebrate Your Mile Markers
Step Seven: Honor God with the Rewards

Spring Cleaning

Feel like I need a spring cleaning off my blog...only it's winter. It needs a face-lift.

He's Amazing

I've been thinking over the past month of the difference from last year to this year.

One year, one month ago I was wondering what in the world my family was going to do. Asked to leave a church staff un-expectedly...launched a church only to have that fail...wondering what in the world we were going to do...no job...deflated...unknowing.

Fast-forward and we are leading a church that last week had 192 people in attendance after it's 18th week. Have a great friend in John Atkinson...have a great multi-site team we are building....have a great group of leaders who are making it happen.

God's not just good...He's simply AMAZING!!!!!

When you are down and think your out....THINK AGAIN!!!!!

Harvest Festival Pictures

Here is a slide show with pictures of our 1st Annual 5 Points Harvest Festival.

Making A Difference

I have to say that I'm proud of my church and my school. As a church we allowed my school to come in and us host them for a field trip. They had a blast. This past week they brought me a thank you card.

Sunday The 16th Through My Window

Here is a view through my window for Sunday 11-16-08:

• Pre-Service set up was just ok. Felt like everyone was late and that we scrambled to get set up on time. I feel this area has to sharpen up.
• Music rehearsal is going great. The band has been getting sharper and sharper after 18 weeks. They can now get in and bang it out.
• I would say the area we need to sharpen most on Sunday is our First Impressions. It is ok and good...but I want it great.
• We have some little changes we are making that are going to sharpen our facility. One I can talk about right now is we have created a bar along one of our walls where people can sit or stand between experiences with their coffee/juice and snacks. We got up the first part this weekend and got a lot of complements.
• Outside of our grand opening week, attendance set another record this weekend. Both experience had almost exactly the same amount of people. We had twelve first-time guests....some with families.
  
• I feel we need to tweak our follow up system. Again...another area we are doing just ok in but we can sharpen.
• Music Sunday was really good.
• Great response to message. Even on video people were clapping to some of the points. I think they are understanding that it is still a live experience.
• Two people prayed to begin a relationship with Christ Sunday Morning....that's why we do it.
• I'm seeing more and more of a buy-in with people to the campus.
  
• Yesterday we had our first annual Harvest Festival. Doing it not on Halloween gave us a great turn-out. I estimated that we had between 400 to 500 people there. One public school put a flyer in all of their students back packs and we handed out flyers at Wal-Mart. We spread the word to a lot of people in our area that we are out there.
• Lots of help and a well, well planned event.
• Look for some pics coming soon.
  

How to Change Your Life in 7 Days

Bil Cornelius, Senior Pastor of Bay Area Fellowship, has started a great series on his blog called "How to Change Your Life in 7 Days". Get caught up now...http://bilcornelius.typepad.com...I should be posting links to the whole series when he's done.

Communicating Clearly

Ever feel like your in a conversation like this:



I myself am still working on this area. What are some ways you have cleared up your communication?

Take The Hit

Failure isn't final
losing isn't fatal
if we don't quit.

It is the pursuit
the drive
the consistent push
to not allow life to knock us down.

Keep getting up...
Keep driving forward
Don't QUIT!



Philippians 3:12-14 I'm not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don't get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I've got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus. I'm off and running, and I'm not turning back.

When you're playing against a stacked deck, compete even harder. Show the world how much you'll fight for the winners circle. If you do, someday the cellophane will crackle off a fresh pack, one that belongs to you, and the cards will be stacked in your favor. - Pat Riley

How you respond to the challenge in the second half will determine what you become after the game, whether you are a winner or a loser.
-Lou Holtz

A Leader vs The Leader

Scott Williams, campus pastor for Lifechurch.tv, recently posted a great "leader" thought up on his blog. Here is an excerpt:

Pronunciation: “A Leader” Uh-Leader and “The Leader” Thuh Leader

Just because you are “A Leader” doesn’t necessarily mean that you are “The Leader”

Just because you are “A Leader” who leads a church of 500 people; doesn’t mean that you are “The Leader” to take that church to over a thousand people

Just because you are “A Leader” that has a position, a title and an office; doesn’t mean that you are “The Leader” that....

There is a whole lot more go read the whole post called "A Leader vs. The Leader"

A Secret

I have a secret...you'll know more in December.

Don't you just hate that!!!!

Looking For Campus Pastors

If you are a campus pastor for any church I would love to connect with you. Email me at pastorjcurl{at}gmail{dot}com. I'm looking to start networking in the coming months and I would love to know what some of you are doing.

Keeping It Simple

During this first year of our campus I'm wanting to keep things simple and focus on just a few areas and do them well...

Right now we are focusing on:

• Sunday Morning Experience
• Children
• Outreach

Coming quickly will also be:

• Hometeams
• Teens

Beyond that...there is nothing on the horizon for the first year. When you try and do everything your first year you can end up getting spread thin and not doing anything great. This will allow us to sharpen these areas and staff them well with volunteers and not lose focus by trying to do everything.

Fix It Or I'm Gone

Ok...well you may not care or not but let me tell you something Mr. Big Time Pastor Blogger. I don't like to subscribe to a blog via a feed reader and then have to click over to your site because you only allow a partial feed. That's why I use a feed reader. It doesn't matter how big time you are...how big your church is...nor how cool and relevant you might be.

I'm not sure why you do it. Maybe it's because your knowledge level in this area is limited. Maybe it feeds your ego to see more hits to your site. Maybe your trying to get a book deal and you need those hits. Not really sure...BUT...I've already unsubscribed...you won't get either of my hits.

Sorry...I know it probably won't bother you. You probably have plenty of people who follow you every day that you won't miss one. But I wonder if there are others like me. I wonder how many others you have lost.

Either way...I'm sure if you write something outstanding one of my other friends who I can read all of their post will probably put it on theirs and I'll be inspired. Until then...I'm out.

Ok...I'm off my soapbox.

BTW Mr. Big Time Pastor Blogger if your still reading this...you can fix this by going to your settings in feedburner or in your personal blog settings. How knows...one of these years I may check back and see if you did it.

Marketing Like The Church

Often we become blind to how we as a church present ourselves to guests. This video is a great parable with the thought "What If Starbucks Marketed Like The Church?"



It's got me thinking!!!!

For direct link to video click {HERE}

11-9-08 Sunday Slideshow

Here are a few pictures from this Sunday.



A View Through My Window:

• Major coffee machine meltdown...little tip when you get new equipment you may want to do a test run not on a Sunday morning...at least we figured that out.
• 1st Experience was most attended...great feel in there.
• Tom Grant is doing an awesome job in our Production Area...he has taken it on and has thrown himself into learning the sound board and soon to be new lighting board as well as building a team.
  
• Kids area did a messy game...they had fun...looking through the window there was a lot of energy.
• The whole BAF Kidz area had lots of volunteers this week...my wife has done a great job in recruiting.
  
• First time I didn't follow the message with cards and offering. I had my man Juno do it and he did an excellent job. I am trying to put people in place to lead if I'm not there on a Sunday. Pretty soon I'm going to let them do a whole Sunday while I'm there.
• We started a new series called "Experience Life Beyond Limits". We had one person that prayed to begin a relationship with Christ....PRAISE GOD!!!! Every week we see people praying this prayer.
  
• We had a director meeting during the message time of our second experience. Our campus will only be as strong as the team that leads it.
• We had five people attend our 3rd Membership Class. So far in all three we have had right between 35-40 attend them. I'm still trying to figure out how to squeeze all the info into an hour plus provide a time for food. It took us right at two hours total.
• I'm pumped that the response to our Harvest Festival has been so great in the schools. Now I am just praying we have enough help.
• I did my first video challenge while driving. It wasn't much of a challenge to drive and do the video...but it took me about six takes while coming home cause my camera kept stopping at one minute. When I finally figured that out I was already in my neighborhood.
  

Fail To Succeed

You don't succeed without failure.



“There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.” - Colin Powell

Don't Cha Wish Your Girlfriend Was Hot Like Me

Can't Resist...Our next ministry is going to be a hip hop choir....It's getting hot in here....so take off all our....ROBES?????

HAHAHAHA....simply hilarious....ROFL...you gotta watch the whole thing to appreciate it.



Thanks Todd!!!!

Servicing Our Community 3

So I've told you a little of what we are doing to Serve our Community here and here.

Let me give you one more way. We believe in Children a lot a BAF as well as at our campus. One Elementary School in our area was doing a field trip and they were only going to be able to take two grade levels. That meant the whole 2nd grade class was not going to go.

We have paid for that class to go on their trip. We believe in kids so much that we went in and paid the cost for bus and gas for them to go. My wife dropped it off and told them not to say anything. By the end of the day (she was subbing) kids were coming up and saying thank you for the church sending them on the trip. I received a letter from the Fine Arts Teacher who my wife said was in tears that day thanking her for what we had done. It felt awesome to be able to do it.

Could we have kept that money in house? Yep. Could we have bought something with that money? Sure. Only we are going to partner with our community and serve it however we can. If we have it available we will do it.

The Answer Is Not A Black President

It's also not a white one either.

The answer to our problems is not having the first black president.

The answer to our problems is not having the first woman vice president.

It is not because one side says we need change. But change is what we need.

This may sound a little cliche. What we need to change is the apathy of the church. We need to rise up and be the church and quit playing like we are the church. We need to change the thinking in church that the answer is either with the republicans or the democrats. The reality is that for half the country either side will screw it up.

The answer is that the church needs to keep back to truly relying on Christ as the answer. We need to not get wrapped up in the hype. Both parties threw a Hail Mary and I'm positive about one thing. The Democrats are not going to turn this around...and neither are the Republicans.

Nope, neither are the answer....CHRIST IS.

Servicing Our Community 2

Here is another way we are serving our community. Read Part 1.

Every year thousands of churches around this country are doing Fall Festival's. Being four months in we thought it would be a great idea for us too. Only we decided to do it with a twist.

Most churches, when they do one, use it as a fund raiser for their kid's or youth or even for all their various ministries. NOT US. This is how we want to be different. This is how we want to partner with our community. We decided to partner with an elementary school in our area and allow them to come in and use our festival as their fundraiser. This school's PTA is trying to raise money to build a new playground. So we are letting them come in and do all the food and keep all the money's raised. None for us...all for them.

Honestly we figure this will go so much farther than we could get for our ministries. Could we do this ourselves? Sure. Could we utilize the monies raised? Of course. But what we feel is more important is the ability to be a resource to our community which is more of our priority.

What are some of the things you are doing to partner with your community?

Our First Children's Dedication

Today marked another first for our campus....Children/Baby Dedications. Here is a slide show thanks to my new campus photographer.

Hulkify-Me

This was my costume last night.

What Would Your Caption Be

Servicing Our Community

Right now I'm sitting in our 5 Points Campus watching "The Incredible Hulk" on our big screen. The reason I'm here and not at school is because I'm testing out us being community service oriented.

We do not just want to be a church....we want to be a church that serves our community in any way. So I opened up our campus and brought my school out and as a church we are providing pop-corn, drinks and pizza to them.

Many schools are running so tight right now financially that they are unable to do certain things for their students. Many can't take field trips because of finances.

What we are going to do is offer our campus to schools to show movies or however they need it. This can be a great alternative to them doing something with less of a cost. Not only that but we are going to find other ways that our community can utilize our building as well.

I Am A Christian

I got to get this one off my chest...here I go.

I think many people should stop saying "I'm A Christian".

This is probably one of the most highly used statements in Christianity that should probably stop being used.

Let me break it down by what I mean.

First, off the word "Christian" in English broken down means, "Christ - like". Therefore when you say I'm a Christian you are saying I'm like - Christ.

Now I know there is the thought that yes I have committed to following Him and I've prayed a prayer and yes all things are created new...and now I'm a new person in Him. I don't deny that.

But I want to get down to the essence. There has to be something different with and about our lives. People should see something.

I think that is why the term was first used to refer to the early believers in Antioch. See Acts 11:26

But I don't believe it was used by themselves...I believe that it was those around them that saw something so unique...so "like-Christ" that they used that term. I believe that it is a stronger term when someone on the outside can look at us and say "Christian". I believe it is easy to say it on our own. I believe it could be more of a reality when someone says it of us.

Full Out

Why do you do the things you do?

Are you living your life full out?

Is your life centered around Christ or everything else?

I reflect on that now as I sit here writing. Jesus said follow me. He said for me to pick up my cross.

Have I??? Have you???

I Gave At The Office

Today I gave blood. I actually like doing it because I believe it is a great cause. I know that the blood I give to someone in need far outweighs any fear or pain I may go through in giving. Not that I have any. Here are some pics of my experience.

Bi-Vocational Multi-Site Campus Pastors

Does anyone know of any Bi-Vocational Campus Pastors whose campus is really going great? I would love to get in touch with them to find out some of the things they are doing. How they manage work and pastoring? What they are doing team wise for growth?

Any help in this area would be extremely helpful to me????

Sunday 10-19-08 Pictures

Pictures from our Sunday Experience:

Baptism Blowout

What a great day for our 5 Points Campus...beginning at 3 today we had a time where we hung out and had a lot of fun together. We decided that for our first day of baptisms we would do it with a tailgate party. So we put up football on our big screen...people grilled...we had a Guitar Hero tournament...and to boot we had the first baptisms for our campus.

Three people today were baptized...OUTSTANDING!!!!!

Here are some pictures from this afternoon:

Something New

After 13 weeks of doing our campus.this coming weekend I'm going to try something that I think is going to be fun. We are calling it Baptism Blowout.

In a nut shell we are going to celebrate all the people that are going to get baptized this Sunday. We are going to make it a fun day at our campus. We will have football going on our big screen, tailgating, Guitar Hero tournament, games, and movies for the kids.

We want to have a great time getting to know each other and celebrate this great event in the life of a follower of Christ.

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.

Got Me Thinking - Tailgating

Shaun's post really got me thinking of something we could do to position our campus in the eyes of the community we are in.

How about a tailgate party at the local high school football game?

It might require a little planning but some things that could be done are:

• Burgers & soda's for all that come by...
• Handwavers, clappers, or thundersticks with Go "team name" and church name/address on it to give away to fans
  
• Video Game Contest
• Drawings for prizes
• Live Music

Really....the sky's the limit. Know anyone out there that has done this????? OR What would you do at one???

What Are You Challenging

One of the main roles of a leader is too challenge the status quo of their organization.

That is why you must:

• Challenge your systems. You must challenge your processes. What is working now may not work successfully in two years or at double/triple your current size.
• Challenge mindsets. Mindsets develop and can keep organizations, staff or people from changing. What mindsets
• Challenge success. The greatest enemy of an organization can be success. We often feel that what got us where we are will get us where we want to go. Problem is...things change...people change...organizations change.

A healthy leader challenges where they are as they continue to chart a course forward.

How You Vote 2

So last time I wrote on voting I asked everyone how they came to the decision to vote? Results....no one told me. SO...let me see if I can pick a nerve.

If your pastor decided the way they were going to vote was to pray and hear from God on who to vote for...and let you know who it was God told them who to vote for....and the other guy won...

What would you think????

Haggling Through

Scott Williams at his blog, Big is the New Small, has some great dialog going in a post called "Haggling Through". Scott is a campus pastor for Lifechurch.tv.

Here is a mini-excerpt:

Last week I shared a post that was inspired by the LifeChurch.tv all-staff time with Bill Hybels. Bill shared quite the discerning quote: “Cool isn’t cool anymore!” This quote has provided for some healthy dialogue for my team, whom for about a year now has been feeling the tension of the coolness and God.

There are some great comments there. One of the things I wrote was, "So in the presence of our coolness do we have the presence of an AWESOME GOD!"

What are your thoughts? How does Church, God and Cool mix?

Twitter

Do you twitter? Should you twitter? Interested in twittering?

Check out this video to help you get started.



You can also follow all my tweets at twitter.com/jasoncurlee

What No Pictures

It's not because I didn't take them. I just am not putting them up this week.

"What Pictures?" you ask.

Every week I have put up a slide show here on my blog of pictures from the weekend experiences of our campus. I just thought a change of pace this week would be in order. I'll still put them up on my public picasa so if you know how to get there you will be able to check them out. Well I cheated for you so that out to be easy.

I still put up a video though of my weekly challenge. Just go over to the blog to check it out.

Whatever It Takes Graphics

Created a few graphics and am trying to decide which one I like best. Top two I have to have with so much black in the bottom due to our projector screen...the white is due to the fact of how the baf/fivepoints looked on a black background...you could see some white around the lettering which didn't make it come out sharp. Gotta work with what I'm given. I'm sure this will be an evolution as I need to get back into graphic making mode.

Blog Update

For those new to my blog or who have even been around a while, I thought I might give you a little history on my blog.

I began blogging on March 22, 2006, you can read the why then on my first blog post. It was an interesting experiment that has grown into a love. I actually have become really passionate about blogging on a consistent basis.

Those first few months were sporadic until about October of 2006, when I realized there was a whole blog world out there and I learned a few things to track my blog and my blog entered a new phase.

I was a crazy blogger, blogging up to 3 times a day some months. My most posted month was a month where I posted 100 times.

My journey in blogging shifted somewhat going out of '07 and into '08 when, at that time, I wanted to create a new focus on this blog. It paid off with my subscriber base tripling in no time.

Now I'm in a season where I am doing some various posts updating our journey, leaving some encouragement, and helping other make a difference in their world.

Whatever It Takes

Been meditating on a motto for our year. What I have decided on is: WHATEVER IT TAKES.

As a church campus and as followers of Christ, we should do WHATEVER IT TAKES to:

• Make a difference
• Connect the unconnected
• Create community change
• Reach our neighborhoods, workplaces, families, friends
• Serve our community
• Spread the life of Christ

How You Vote

Just interested in how you choose to vote:

1) Pray and let God tell you
2) Vote based on which canditate most fits your beliefs
3) Because that's how your parents always voted
4) The lesser of two evils
5) I've given up on voting and don't participate
6) Other reason

Failure Isn't Fatal

If you've never failed....you've never lived.



Also check out my blog series "Keep Moving Forward" in which I deal with failure:

Keep Moving Forward Part 1
Keep Moving Forward Part 2
Keep Moving Forward Part 3
Keep Moving Forward Part 4
Keep Moving Forward Part 5

His Will

Sometimes it's scary to let go.
His will doesn't mean life will be perfect.
Sometimes His will is in the middle of a storm.
Sometimes when you let go you won't know.

But...it is in His will that we can find who we are.
We can find His peace.

Joy and sorrow can be in His will.
That may seem like a conflict but....

Life truly is not lived until we are in His will.

A Video Experiment

One of the challenges I've seen with being a campus pastor is finding the time to connect with people from the platform. Often times it seems I have to rush. I do spend time trying to connect off the platform but being the lead person from the campus I want to be able to give those coming a personal campus touch as well as being able to cast some vision for our campus.

SOOOOO....this week I'm trying a little experiment on our campus blog. Each week I want to put out a little video based on the message from that weekend and also use it to let others know of what is coming up. I already got a little feedback.

I started it this week and I'm going to watch it evolve.

I got the idea from the Lifechurch.tv internet campus blog. I've seen Brandon do it over the past few weeks and thought it would be a great way to be able to connect more with those that come to our campus.

Subscribe

Are you subscribed to this blog? Do you even know how? What about the reason you should be subscribed?

Why not bring all the content to you...This video by Commoncraft tells you all about RSS in Plain English.



Click [HERE] to begin to subcribe to my blog.

Check List 1

As a church planter...yeah that's what I feel I am even though we have launched a site for Bay Area Fellowship...there is a subtle saying, "Some that start the journey with you won't finish it with you"

When you are launching there will be some that don't continue the journey with you. Reality is...it's ok. In fact, it is even a biblical reality.

First, don't let it bother you. It's probably not a bad thing. It may sting. Disappointment will probably be there. You might even take it personal.

Second, it has happened to many...many...many before you.

Third, it is probably a good thing. Many times God may actually be working behind the scenes to line things up for you. Let it drive you to Him for the solution.

Fourth, keep moving forward anyway. Many will come and go...stay hard to the vision.

Why did I write this post???? Cause I'm one of the many. I've checked this one off my list. I have seen it happen in the months of the journey we have been on this year. In fact when we first decided to partner with Bay Area some of our initial team didn't continue. I'll tell you the truth...I just kept plugging forward believing God would have someone for us. We lost a guitar player and God had already positioned someone to move into that spot. I could go on and on.

REALITY....God is even more interested in making the vision happen than we are. Believe and know He's got your back and keep on moving!!!!!!!