The dark side of planting in cities
It was half past midnight and I was sitting outside on my apartment’s terrace by myself, lighting up a cigar after a long, stressful and unresolved discussion I had had with my wife Beth. As I overlooked downtown Dadeland’s scarce skyline, a beautiful ‘cuarto-menguante’ shone down only to be soon eclipsed by an immense dark cloud. For those who know…
16 principles of a healthy replant
According to statistical reports every year more than 4,000 churches close their doors in America compared to just over 1,000 new church starts. While clearly more church planting is needed to change the scenario, church re-planting presents itself as a valid alternative to expand the Kingdom of Jesus in global cities. There are several places in the world today (specially…
Speaking of community… (quotes)
The church is not simply the bearer of the message of reconciliation in the way a newspaper or telephone company can bear any message with which it is entrusted. Nor is the church simply the result of a message, as an alumni association is the product of a school or the crowd in a theater is the product of the…
talking about community again?
This is the 4th time in a year that I will speak on the topic of Christian Community. I don’t want to sound redundant but I really feel the need of drilling in deep our core values into our community’s heart. Especially given the fact that most mega and wanna-be mega churches today are real heavy on programs. If you…
iValue – 09′s first sermon series.
During the month of January we will be revisiting Crossbridge’s core values. Reason: We desire to be a church where we have actual values not merely desired values written on a banner that hangs on a wall. We invite you not to miss the recasting of our vision as you are challenged to make these values yours, personally. Sermons will be: iValue the Cross…
Back in the game
It’s been about three weeks since I’ve blogged. Didn’t give up… I was just busy trying to get Crossbridge ready for Christmas and at the same time hosting 10 family members that flew in from Brazil to stay with us for three weeks. On one of the weeks I drove with everyone to Beach Mountain (NC) where we stayed in a house…
Santa: The Western Projection of God.
Let me start by saying that I have a hard time believing in Freudian thought and modern psychology. However, if the theory that the idea of God being a father-projection were true, Santa Claus would have to be a Western projection of God. Religion and moralism in the western world depicts God as an old grumpy man that relates to…
God is For Us… Sunday sermon preview.
There are two common ways in which people relate to God. Religious people tend to relate to God in a merit-reward way and irreligious people tend to see God as a total absent being from what goes on in the world. These two approaches are magnified during Christmas. We see this first approach clearly portrayed in the figure of Santa…
Behind the scenes of crafting “The Gospel According to Xmas”
This is an email I sent out to Omar and Marcus sharing my thoughts about the direction I’m taking with new xmas series. Marcus is preparing for worship and Omar will be preaching one of the 4 sermons. After spending some time meditating on our xmas sermon series I realized a few things. 1. that the sermon titles that were…
This Sunday’s sermon blurb.
God is With Us – Matt 1:18-25. “Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty”. -Mother Teresa Many do not look forward to Christmas. The reason for is that Christmas has the power to remind people of how lonely their lives are. Those who have broken family structures are reminded, those who live far away from…
Catching my breath…
I’m glad I’m not preaching this Sunday. In sermon fashion I’ll give you three points to prove you why that is true. 1. Past experience. a. I’m coming out of a ten week series on our discipleship process (Awaken.Experience.Touch) b. I’m coming out of a very busy week. Last week I prepared and preached three different sermons in three different…
A tool for gospel sharing
So… If you were at Crossbridge last Sunday you heard my sermon about evangelism. I sense that churches that talk about it usually make their people feel guilty for not doing so. However, they do a poor job of 1. explaining to people why evangelism usually short-circuits in their lives and 2. equip their people to be authentic and effective…
Touching the Marginalized… an experience.
Every Monday morning we have our staff meeting here at Crossbridge. We start at 10:30 and we’re usually done by 12:00. While I was wrapping the meeting up with my final thoughts (to our staff of three), this random voice interrupted our meeting saying: “Yo quiero hablar con lo pastor”. I said: “- we’re in the middle of a meeting…
I liked what I saw last night.
I liked what I saw last night compared to what saw during the months that led to the conclusion of this political chapter in the american history. Just for the record, I’m not a citizen so, I don’t vote. All would have to agree with me that this was a very heated presidential campaign between the two candidates. The advertising, the rallies, and…
Manning on the Christian Heaven.
I just got this this excerpt by Brennan Manning, The Signature of Jesus from Marcus. I thought is right on target with what we will be thinking through this Sunday. “People must not look to the church to reinforce the values of their culture, or to dust off on Sunday morning the idols they have been living by during the week. The early…
A Beautiful Mess… Pre-thoughts on “Touch the City”
This morning I woke up as usual and helped Beth to get the girls ready. I sipped my coffee and put on my running shoes. I stepped out the door and as caffeine was beginning to flow through my veins I took the elevator down. Walked in front of panera, said a few “buenos dias” and “good-mornings” and, heard jazz as I stretched under a…
Harvey Conn on Synergy.
Been thinking about this quote from Dr. Conn in regards to the ministry of the church. The gifts of the Spirit that were given to us by Jesus, should be able to produce a synergetic force of change among us, before we commit to create synergy to change the world. Huh… interesting. And, It fits the military language of Ps…
Gifted people are spoils of war.
Been sitting here at at a presbytery meeting now for about 4 hours and have been thinking/ meditating on Sunday’s sermon passage… I think this might be a better use of my time. I don’t know… One of the things that I have been thinking about is the connection Paul makes between his teachings on the spiritual gifts (Ephesians 4)…
Post thoughts on Real Relationships by a “crossbridger”
Felipe, Thanks again for another good sermon in the series – the Cold Play song reminded me of two others – one old one done Johnny Cash a long time ago then done by some others – the other one is from Jars of Clay – both dealing with the idea of how being alone isn’t right. Here are the lyrics -…
Communal interpretation of Scripture
It’s 8:00 P.M on Sat and I get this quote from Omar trying to enrich my sermon on Experiencing Real Relationships. I like it and it does have to do with what I had to say on Sunday. I could’ve squeezed it in my second point but, sorry… it can’t make the cut (b-sides baby)… too late and obviously, too much stuff….
“My Song is Love…”
In addition to Jesus’ prayer (John 17:20-26) I’ve been meditating this week on A Message by Coldplay. Our music team should perform it before this Sunday’s message entitled “Experiencing Real Relationships”. As I read both (text and lyrics) it strikes me how the whole idea of love has become so foreign to our culture. I don’t mean to exclude the…
Post-thoughts on “The Dance”.
I tell you what was going through my mind after I preached this past Sunday’s sermon. As I sat down in my stool and heard Dr. Kling’s voice leading us through a moment of confession before communion I thought: “wow, that was fun… maybe a little abstract though. Is that good? I guess it is. Huh… interesting that I feel…
New missional followers to crossbridge
We hit an important an landmark in Crossbridge’s history this past Sunday as we got to welcome 22 new members to our four week old church body. It was great to see such a diverse group up there. I mean, we had african-americans, asians, europeans, hispanics, brazilians, and anglos. From college students to P.H.Ds, from mature christians to new born…
