Tag Archive - Coastal Community Church

Seeking to Act.

June 27, 2009 in Uncategorized with 1 Comment

I have been reading an amazing book by Dino Rizzo called Servolution.  Dino pastors one of the most influential churches in America called Healing Place Church.  He really embodies the book that he wrote.  This morning as I was reading I was thinking about this book as well as out Beach Reach outreach today.  He says in one of the chapters that “Jesus lived his life SEEKING opportunities to turn His LOVE FOR PEOPLE into ACTION.” For some reason I just can’t get this statement out of my head.  I had never really thought about the fact that Jesus, the Son of God, was SEEKING, LOOKING, PURSUING ways to LOVE people but not just love in words but in ACTION.

serve2This is so powerful!  So many times in my life I have compassion for people or say that I love people but there is no action behind that love, just words.  But Jesus was SEEKING, or looking around every corner, at every situation for an opportunity to put His unfailing love into ACTION for others to see.  It makes me ask myself, “What am I seeking in life?”  Am I seeking to put my love into action with my family, friends and those who do not yet know?

I am so challenged today to live life a different way, not self serving but living life on purpose showing God’s great love for me with ACTION to others.

Full expression of love

June 17, 2009 in Uncategorized with 1 Comment

I had a great quiet time today with God. I don’t know about you but I have found that when I put God first, my day seems to just go so much better. I was reading in I John 4:12
“No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.”

wired to serveGod is the all supreme being that we can’t physically see but see his attributes and goodness all the time.  God’s love is the most incredible thing in the world.  He gives and just continually gives to anyone and everyone.  I love the part of this verse that says “His love is brought to FULL EXPRESSION in us.”  I cannot even fathom what that would look like.  I have been trying to imagine his love being in full expression but just can’t seem to get there.  I bet that if I ever arrive at that point it would be the most amazing experience that I would ever have in my life.  I guess that I haven’t gotten to the point of realizing this because I haven’t “Loved each other.”  I don’t know about you but this is an area that I have continually struggled with in life.  Don’t get me wrong I love people but not like how God loves people and would be willing to give up his son’s life for people that don’t even like him.  That is a pretty intense love for others.

My prayer today is that God would help me love like he has loved me.  It has been so pure and unconditional, that even though I do stupid things and turn my back on it at times He is always there waiting with open arms to love me once again.

What’s Happening with Coastal

June 9, 2009 in Uncategorized with 0 Comments

costal-community-church-logo-final1

God is up to Greater Things in Ft. Lauderdale.  I am so excited about what God has been doing for Coastal Community Church.  This past week we were donated 1800 square feet of office space.  On Saturday some of the launch team got together and painted the entire office and then on Sunday afternoon we went and deep cleaned the entire space.  On Monday we went to Ft. Myers to pick up some desks and chairs for the offices that were donated to us.  Now all we have left is to get a couple of couches, chairs, and tables to complete the space.  It is going to be a great place for us to do small groups, hang out, coordinate our outreach events and have our launch team meetings.

I had the opportunity this past week to speak to quite a few individuals about Coastal Community Church.  I was invited to a party by our worship leader who had tons of people interested in becoming part of our launch team.  It was great to share with them how we are a church IN and FOR our community.  That means that we are here to serve and love our community first and that by doing that, they would see Jesus.  People are getting excited about what is about to happen.  We also did an outreach to our local police station on Thursday morning where we brought them donuts and bagels for breakfast.  They were blown away by the fact that we wanted to thank and honor them for there service to the community.  I later got an email from the chief thanking us making the morning shift change such a big hit.

Starting on Thursday June 25th we are beginning our initial launch team meetings.  It is going to be so great to get our team together and let them meet one another.  We are going to be talking about the values of our church and how they will impact us and the community we live in for Christ.  I can’t wait to work with this incredible team to serve and love on our community, showing them Jesus through our random acts of kindness.

We are so excited about what God is doing here and would like for you to pray about being a part of Coastal Community Church.  For each one of us that can mean a different thing, so let me give you some ways to be a part of this with us.

  1. You can pray for the church, launch team, and Shayla and I.
  2. You can refer any friends that you have in the Ft. Lauderdale area to be a part of the church.
  3. You can move to Ft. Lauderdale and be a part of this with us.
  4. You can give financially to support the movement of planting a life giving church in Ft. Lauderdale.

    5. Please take the time to see what part God is calling you to place in this adventure with us.

Brain Fart

June 4, 2009 in Church Planting with 1 Comment

Do you ever just have one of those brain fart moments in life.  This morning Wayne and I were out delivering donuts and bagels to the Coconut Creek police force and to Monarch High school as a way of saying thanks for all that they do for our community.  So of course as you are giving something away expectantly to someone they would ask who it is from.  This is where everything went wrong for me.  I have been on staff at an amazing church in Bradenton called Bayside Community Church, so when they asked where we were from of course I would tell them Coastal but instead said Bayside. I know that names aren’t important for recognition because it is about making Jesus famous but if they would like to say thanks, they are going to have a hard time finding Bayside.

d31Outreach was great this morning anyways.  It is always great to bless others to be a blessing.  There response always is so genuine and appreciative, in fact most of the time they don’t know how to react.  Why is it that when someone else does something helpful or gives us something that it blows us away?  Jesus told us that “He did not come to be served but to serve others by dying on the cross.”  You would think that if we embodied Christ words that we would all be use to people serving and doing things for us.  Makes me wonder a lot of times why we want the deeper things of God when we don’t embrace the simple.

Are you living out Jesus words to serve others by GIVING?

What are you doing with your TIME, TALENT and TREASURE in life?

Are you living for yourself and what you can get or for God and what you can give?

I love what Winston Churchill said “We make a living by what we get and we make a life by what we give.”

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