Some difficult adjustments

The last two years at CF, we have enjoyed a fun run of growth. We have seen God bring more and more people to us, and we are honored to help connect them to God, others, ministry, and the world.

In the midst of our growth, we set some bold budget increases to finance all God was/is calling us to do. For example, we raised our annual budget 1.6 million from last budget year to this budget year.

And while we are significantly ahead on giving compared to last year (25%), we are also significantly behind on budget (10% shortfall). So we needed to make some difficult decisions in recent days.

I work closely with a group of godly men on our personnel team, and with their feedback, prayers, and support -- we “froze” hiring on roles we budgeted and on roles that were recently vacated. But we also moved some roles to part-time and issued some lay-offs.

Every department is courageously shouldering the weight of the burden, as the adjustments are effecting each department.

If you attend CF, please (1) pray for your staff (2) volunteer and serve alongside the staff as we are committed to fulfilling all God has called us to do and (3) give as God has called you to give.

One thing you need to know: we believe we have been following Jesus each step of the way. Nor do we believe that His plans for us have waned. In the next few days, I will share what God is teaching me through this…

the whole story

Context is very important in any story, including the biblical narratives. If you do not understand the context, the meaning of the story or passage can be misunderstood.

Let me give you a modern example. Jr Lovins recently questioned my intentions for posting on our google mail that I am "glad Tony has a rash." (see pic to see what my profile on google cf page looked like at the time)

Why would I be glad?

Well, because Tony called me that morning thinking he had shingles. He went to the doctor and found out that he did not. Was just a rash I guess. And I am glad T only has a rash (and not shingles) because our small groups for Uncovering Revelation begin. And we need his leadership.

Now you have the whole story...

Schools we love...

This Saturday we are reaching beyond the walls of CF to some schools we love in Miami-Dade County.

The Homestead and Redland campus is working together to host a teacher’s dinner (250 folks) for the great people at Campbell Drive Middle School in Homestead. We are cooking for them and serving them dinner at our Redland campus. We have flowers for each teacher. The principal there asked us to host them, and we are honored to do so.

Our worship and guest services ministry at our Palmetto Bay campus is spending Saturday morning cleaning up and helping beautify Perrine Elementary – right across the street from our PB campus.

We love our schools in Miami Dade County and we love teachers. Teachers are heroes to us. Thanks for what you do!

And CF – thanks for serving our city.

maybe I should retire...maybe not

Either God’s hand is on me and the enemy is attacking. Or the glory of the Lord has departed. There are only those two options.

Just joking about the above, but check out the strange events this weekend while teaching at our Palmetto Bay campus

… Saturday night – major problems with microphone. Pops non-stop. No one can trace down the problem. I speak all over the place and it only happens at PB campus

… Sunday 9am – the power goes out in the middle of my message. No mic, no lights, no screens.

…Sunday 12:30pm – a lady claiming to be a “prophetess” stands up and attempts to dialogue with me. But she has nothing to say. Just keeps saying, “don’t be scared.” I say I am not scared; I am going to teach the Bible. Some security folks ushered her out. Sad thing is that people sometimes think they are being “obedient” to some strange call, but they do more harm than good as it wigs out some people who are checking out God and church for the first time.

Despite all that, I believe God moved in some great ways. Two great stories:

1. A man came to faith in Christ on Saturday night who this week was contemplating suicide and had almost given up hope.

2. A lady came to faith at the 12:30 service (despite the distracting wanna-be prophet lady) who just recently lost everything due to drug abuse. We are getting her into our recovery group this week. Talked to her afterwards and I really believe she is a brand new person – fully forgiven. You could sense the freshness of her walk with God. Was cool.

fun day off in Alabama

At the airport in Huntsville, Alabama after enjoying a great day of teaching Simple Church to 180 pastors and church leaders. The AL Baptist folks are really good at hosting a conference. They assigned church staff teams to sit at the same tables, which helped with great discussion.

The new pastor at the church where I grew up outside of New Orleans was there. He told me he heard there was a plethora of old Geiger stories…ouch.

They were pushing Rainer’s new book at the conference – Essential Church, which is tied in some ways to Simple Church. I called the president of BH publishing (my friend Brad) to rib him about my new book not being pushed. After all, I was the one speaking! We got some flyers by the end of the day, so everything worked great. Rainer is a stud in Alabama. When I called Brad, Thom was with him and he told me to tell the crowd he was dedicating his new book to Nick Saban – which further solidified his renown with the Alabama folk. 

Recent Staff Discussion...

In the staff meeting I lead on Tuesday morning, we recently engaged in a brief theological discussion inspired by Alan Hirsch’s book, The Forgotten Ways. I placed three words on the dry erase board: Christology (our view of Christ), Missiology (our understanding of mission and transforming the lives of others), and Ecclesiology (our understanding of Church). 

I then asked the staff to place those words in order, based on which understanding drives our practice. In other words, it is clear we begin with Jesus and our view of Him impacts everything else. But what comes next? Does our view of the Church inform our understanding of mission? Or does our view of mission drive our practices as a Church? 

Interesting discussion.  

We landed on our view of mission informing/impacting our practice as a church. Our view of Christ is concrete and because He stepped into our world, we must step into the world of others. And our passion to impact the world around us must drive how we function as a church. 

In other words, we want our whole church to flow from God's mission - to be focused on being God's redemptive agents in this world. God has planted us here in this city to be His light. Let's allow His call to be His ambassador to drive how we live as individuals and function as a church. 

More about this at our ministry rally for those of you who serve…

more recording...

This was for the "You are an alien."
4 of the 7 sessions are filmed.