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?

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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.

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