No More Tweets Here

I’ve decided to discontinue the Daily Tweets post here to my blog.  I love twitter and think it is a great tool and will continue to use it, but just felt that it was cluttering my blog to have the daily posts from Loud Twitter.  I hope to still post my twitter activity weekly, but you won’t see anymore of the daily posts here.  You can still see my twitter acitivity on the side of the blog as well.  If you are fellow twitter-er, let me know and I’ll becoem a follower.

Thanks for reading.  Leave me a comment and let me know what you’d like to see more of (or less of) here on the blog.  I’m still getting the hang of this blogging thing…

Healer

Wanted to share the video we showed in worship this morning…amazing story!

Why I Love Pastoring a Mobile Church (part 3 of 3)

3. It is different

But then again, nobody that has known me has ever accused me of being a normal pastor.  I’m not sure how to take that, but I think it is a good thing.  I love the looks that people would give me when I would tell them that we would be meeting in a movie theater.  For those of you who follow church planting trends, you know that it is one of the fastest growing places for a church to start.  And, without a doubt, it is the right place for us to be.  But, to many people church is closely tied to a building with stained glass, pews and beautiful architecture.  Hopefully, one day, we will have our own building.  My prayer is that we will maintain that understanding that a building is simply a tool for reaching people, and not the definition of the church.  Foundry has maintained this DNA since its inception in a school cafeteria.  What is great about being in the theater is that it forces us to be outwardly focused and concerned most with reaching people and not huddling up the Christians.  The theater is also a great place for a church that has a heart for those who are far from God.  While some people might not feel comfortable coming to a steeple church, everyone loves to go to the movie theater.  Honestly, one of our challenges has always been to make the theater feel enough like you were coming to worship and not carry any of the negative baggage people might have with their perception of church.  We have tried hard to let the movie theatre environment be an advantage, yet make the place feel like we own it.  I love different!

So, if you are part of the Foundry Fry Roadies, let me say that you bless me in the way that you go about doing church together.  I’m loving the moment we are in and I can’t wait for the future.

If you are reading this and thinking of being apart of starting a new church or a second campus, I hope I’ve encouraged you to see the unique challenges and how they can really be advantages.  There is nothing more exciting than going out on that limb for God and seeing Him create something new.  Don’t be scared to do something different.  It will change your life.

Speaking of mobile church, I couldn’t help but pass this along…the newest innovation in mobile church.

Andrew Davis Video

I’ve gotten a few requests for the video that we showed Sunday of Godfrey interviewing Andrew Davis. This was shot at the Texas Institute for Rehabilitation and Research.

Marathon or Relay Race

I mentioned in my message yesterday that life is more of a long endurance race than a sprint and what James 5 tells us is that a big part of perseverance when facing trials is simply having patience and perspective.  I ruptured a disk in my back about 6 weeks ago and the last six weeks have proven to be quite a test of my patience.  I am a person who struggles with impatience.  Being in constant pain and not being able to get around and do things that I normally can do has really been testing my attitude.

This morning as I watched the highlights from possibly the greatest relay race in the history of the Olympic Games, I realized that life is a long endurance race…but maybe a relay race is an even better way to think of facing troubles.  We need to realize that there are times in life when we really are going to need others to keep going in the race.  Are you cultivating those types of deep relationships with others?  Do you know who is on your team?  I’m thankful for the people in my life who have been there for me and I would never want to go it alone.

Since we are on the subject, do you have Olympic fever yet?  Last night’s race was truly remarkable and will probably go down as one of the top moments in American Olympic history.  Let’s join the rest of American and cheer on the Red, White, and Blue!

Congratulations to Michael Phelps, Garrett Weber-Gale, Cullen Jones, and Jason Lezak for their gold medal victory

Watch footage and check out these staggering statistics from last night’s race.

Go USA!

Why I Love Pastoring a Mobile Church (part 2 of 3)

2. It is unpredictable

Almost every week there is some kind of adjustment to make.  I remember when we were first starting out and trying to figure out how our new lighting system worked and we would be fifteen minutes from start time and not have any lights at all.  And let me tell you, they design a movie theater to be dark, so without our lighting it would have been total darkness. Talk about raising the prayer life of a church!  It even crossed our minds several times that we might have to do church in the parking lot…not a good idea in Houston heat! But, in the unpredictability of it all, I think we’ve all learned to trust in God.  Our team really does strive for excellence in what they do.  I believe that honors God and he desires us to give him all that we can.  But, in the end, we have learned that the most important thing, the thing that honors God the most, is our availability to Him and our desire to be a place filled with His Holy Spirit.  In the unpredictability of doing church in a box I have learned to trust God and remember to keep the main thing, the main thing.

…check back for part 3 later this week

The Steven Curtis Chapman Family on Larry King Live

I will be mentioning, in this week’s message, the Chapman family and how they are persevering in the wake of such tragedy.  Their faith is so authentic and their family so strongly united in their journey together.  I think what impresses me most is their willingness to share the raw pain and struggle they have faced.  Their grief and pain are real, but their hope in Jesus is strong!

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

Part 5:

Part 6:

Also see my previous post for the Good Morning America interview…

…or for more on the Larry King interview visit the SCC site or I especially recommend you visit this site for some good reflections from someone who was there at the interview.

Why I Love Pastoring a Mobile Church (part 1 of 3)

There are two things I am sure of after a little over a year of praying, preparing, pursuing and a lot more praying about starting a new portable campus at Foundry.  I love doing “church in a box” and it is hard work.  Every week our volunteers unload our two 24′ trailers filled with everything from squeaky toys to amplifiers to coffee makers to high-tech intelligent lighting.  It is amazing.   Most weeks I leave thinking, “That was a great morning of hard work for the kingdom…and we get to do it again next week!”  Most pastors that I speak with about what we do think I’m crazy to say that I love this…unless they’ve been part of one.

I think there are a few reasons that some people don’t get excited at the thought of doing church the way that we do it.

1. It is hard work
2. It is unpredictable
3. It is different

I was reflecting recently and realized that these are the precise reasons why I love being the pastor of a portable church.  Over the next week, I want to share why…

1. It is hard work
I know that our volunteers probably often think, “Why did I agree to do this?”  They are there every week.  Some volunteers arrive as early as 5:30 getting the trailers to the theater.  Some of them work nearly a full 8 hours on Sunday.  And I can honestly double their pay each week, because $0 squared is…well, you get the picture.  That is crazy!  But, what happens while they are working together doesn’t happen anywhere else in the life of any church I’ve ever been part of…true community!  Somehow working together is a much more natural way for us to form relationships with people.  I think most people (especially men) bond more quickly and easily over work.  Conversation happens more naturally and people connect with one another.  It’s kind of like being a soldier in the trenches together or teammates on the field or curt together.  I haven’t seen many of my teammates from my ball playing days, but we could pick back up right where we left off if I ran into them on the street.  We are laboring together and while it is a labor of love the outcome is more than just a worship service…it is a connection like no other for those who are working as part of the team.  My wife was recently explaining that we would be going to church with family while on vacation.  He began to drill her with all kinds of questions about her church, “Do they have church in a theater?” “Do they have kid’s church like us?”  He then began to ask what his aunt did.  “Does she teach? Setup? Sing? Ect…  He just couldn’t imagine going to church as most of us think about going to church.  Surely going to church must involve some work right?  I live it that he is growing up with the idea that the church and community is something that Christians create, build and live in rather than just consuming.  I am tired of a consumeristic approach to church, yet I think it is the trapping of Christians in suburban America. I’m glad to be apart of what we are building here in Cypress and my prayer is that we stay focused on building, creating and being the church rather than consuming a worship service.

…check back for part 2 next week

Steven Curtis Chapman

Hughes’ Family Vacation 2008

We are having a blast with Jacqueline’s family this week and headed to see my family this weekend.  Today we celebrated Chase’s third birthday.  He has been begging to ride a bucking bronco ever since we went to the Houston Rodeo in March.  So, today for his 3rd birthday we had a cowboy birthday party and he got to ride a bucking bronco…well close enough.  Click my flickr bar on the right side of this site to see photos.  It seems a little odd to me that we traveled from Texas to Georgia to ride horses.  I think it may have been their first time to host a group of Texans at the little cowboy ranch we visited.