Why we sprinkle babies
Why we sprinkle babies
Yesterday I was able to perform one of my favorite things that ministry allows me to do– infant baptism. Some people were surprised that Crossbridge baptizes babies so, I decided to write a post to explain why we sprinkle babies.
1. We are Presbyterian. Part of what it means…
Why Miami?
Yesterday I once again had the opportunity to talk to Campus Crusade Staff folks about the importance of doing ministry in Miami. I gave them three reasons. The same reasons that led my wife and I to land in this great city a little over 2 years ago.
1. Theological Reason – Cities have a special…
Church Planting Reminders (Reflection on Brickell)
Yesterday I spent most of day in the Brickell area. I led a Bible study, met with a core group member, met with my staff, a local community group leader and a music indusrty executive. In between the meetings I shook hands with city counsel members, introduced myself to a few local professionals and checked…
Going to Bed With Rachel and Waking up to Leah.
Two weeks ago I started a series of sermons in the life of Jacob entitled “One Life”. Jacob is the easiest biblical character for us modern people to relate to mainly because there’s nothing worth emulating in his life. There has never been a civilization in history like ours — so proud of being broken….
“Sábado de Aleluia”: Accomplished Salvation setting the pace for Salvation Applied
Today is Easter Saturday 2010. In Latin America we call it “Sábado de Aleluia” which can be translated as “Hallelujah Saturday”. Growing up I always questioned why they called it Hallelujah Saturday. After all, if there was a sentiment that represented what Jesus’ disciples were going through after the “raboni” was buried it would have…
A new campus? Why not a new service?
Why are you adding a new campus when you have not even out grown your current facilities? That’s one popular questions I’ve been getting from people (especially those who are not from Crossbridge) trying to understand why we are launching this new campus downtown Miami.
I frankly think it’s a great question because it all goes…
How come they are not the ones asking the question?
It has got to be the third person in the last two weeks that has asked me about the existence of God in light of the tragedy in Haiti. The last words I heard before I walked out of that Starbucks were “How can a good god exist and allow these things to happen, a…
Pastor of Availibility
Last week I was able to hook up with an old friend of mine who happens to be a pastor as well. He’s not a senior pastor, a youth pastor, a ministry pastor, a worship pastor nor a, family’s pastor. He’s an “Availability Pastor”. Have you heard of such thing? I hadn’t ’till then. When…
Preaching Tensions
Yesterday I got a call from my friend Chris. He said: “Listen man, I’m going to be in your area do you wanna grab some lunch over the little french bistro off of 136?” Every so often we get together to support what each other is doing, bounce ideas off of each other and, ventilate what we are currently wrestling with.
Well, yesterday’s topic ended up being “preaching”.
A Story of Ingratitude
Here’s a story I shared in church today. I shared this story today because this is thanksgiving week. This story was shared to me first by mom as an attempt to get me to return a favor, a service or, a compliment. Something that when I was a child, I was really bad at. I have to tell you, it worked. It worked more than the sharp pinches she gave in my kidney section or the severe reprimands on the spot.
A short piece on sports and spirituality
I’m a sports fan and for a while I’ve been wanting to write a short piece on it. Specially about where sports interacts and intersects with spirituality.
I’ve often found myself comparing what happens in my soul when I play a soccer match, read the sports section of an online paper and, watch one of my…
Savior, save me from the things I most want!
Every once in a while I get tweets from colleagues that read more or less like this “yesterday, x # of people got saved! Praise Jesus!”. While I do rejoice that people are committing their lives to Jesus (and BTW – I do believe in public conversions and altar calls) there’s always been a counter…
Life hanging by a thread
Have you ever had the feeling that your whole life is hanging by just a very thin thread? That everything you’ve worked really hard to build can just crumble at any moment?
You’re not alone. There are days I wake up feeling the same way. When that’s the case my prayer to God is: -”Father, give…
Ahead of the Sunday curve.
I’m sitting in my office with my feet on my desk reflecting upon where crossbridge should be in the next 5 years. I just came back from a lunch meeting I had with pastor Sam and Jeff Springer. Sam is our connections pastor and Jeff is the head of our leadership development team.
A year ago…
City of Contrasts
Since I’m currently preaching a series of sermons on the theology of Miami, one of my leaders at Crossbridge emailed me this week a link to America’s Favorite Cities website. I love when they do this. It shows they are into the series topics and it helps my preparation. The website basically ranks cities into…
Reason for CityPulse
Tomorrow I start preaching a new series of sermons entitled CityPulse on the theology of Miami. Everyone has a set of beliefs (which makes them a theologian) and those beliefs will dictate the way that life unfolds for them. It will influence how they spend their money, how the cary out their relationships, how they…
What do we miss out when we miss out on hospitality?
“An embrace involves always a double movement of opening and closing. I open my arms to create space in myself for the other. The open arms are a sign of discontent at being myself only and of desire to include the other. They are an invitation to the others to come in and feel at…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
