Kind of a dramatic statement, isn't it? But inbetween the cheering, the commercials, the dips and the wings, Jesus is definitely going to be at my Superbowl party. Why? Because David and I have decided not to throw our own party this year. Instead, we are going to Christ Fellowship's Superbowl in the City party. It's an outdoor event with an even mix of guests and volunteers. And oh yes, the guests are the homeless of West Palm Beach. With…
Just a quick thought before I drop exhausted into bed tonight after the infamous birthday weekend. I went to our City Place campus of Christ Fellowship today, one of my favorite spots to be. The campus pastor, John Poitevent, was away. Andy Glass, another staff member, took his place and preached a great message on God's wisdom. I needed to hear it today. One point popped out at me...God knows everything, holds all things together. And we don't want to…
Relationships follow several predictable rules, one of which is that to be friends, you need to be there. You've got to put the time in to form the base of the friendship. A relationship is made up of all the days and nights of walking through experiences together: laughter, life change, job losses, baby births, deaths in the family, crazy visits from oddball family members. Relationships grow in the middle of life. So to do life together, you've got to…
Last Friday night we had a Leadership Gathering at Christ Fellowship. I love Leadership Gatherings, because we have a chance to visit with our friends and churchmates from all the Christ Fellowship campuses, hear the stories of how God is working on their campuses, and worship togethre. There is also usually food involved, which tickles me, too. Because David is an elder and we are migratory by nature, we tend to pop in on most of the campuses regularly. So…
Tonight, hope looked like Christ Fellowship's City Place campus, the Ascent, packed to the rafters with people worshiping. To hymns. Absolutely astounding. Our musicians spent this week learning songs they'd never played before, just to increase the breadth of our musical worship. It was an amazing night. I can't explain why this evening touched me so. But as I looked around tonight, I saw people of all generations bonded together in singing songs that brought me back to my childhood.…
Visiting Christ Fellowship's various campuses always causes me to come away shaking my head, amazed at the radically different personalities that have developed from one heart and one ministry. The City Place campus, also called the Ascent, seems like the bohemian, artsy little sister of the Christ Fellowshp group. City Place itself is a mid-sized commercial redevelopment program, an outdoor lifestyle center that is about as hip as you can get in West Palm Beach without descending into gritty. The…
I reprinted this recent entry from my church's "Stories" newsletter. I was touched by John's thoughtfulness in dealing with Ross. John was one of the Christ Fellowship Pastors who went to Q with us last April. This story is such a great picture of living out the life of Jesus in the kingdom one life at a time. You can read the original article here, along with a few other Christ Fellowship stories. Ross prays for you when he goes…
Sunday afternoons on my back porch are the best time of the week! We just returned from Christ Fellowship's City Place campus. Jillian (our youngest daughter) is headed to Costa Rica with the City Place mission's team next week, so we went to see the commissioning service. I love City Place campus: where else do you find a Starbucks, Macy's, Cheesecake Factory and Anthropologie outside your church door? The worship is great, the setting is more intimate and the serendipitous…
