The un-official start of summer

That's right. It has begun. Lobster mini season has come and gone. John Moore, master of the lobster domain and six others including Austin and me, went out on the last day of mini season. The official start of Lobster season comes in on August 6th. It is what many of us call the "un-official start of summer": going out and enjoying all that God has provided. It is awesome.

We were out on the ocean by 7:00 AM. We saw a beautiful sunrise and at the end of the afternoon we had our limit of 84 lobster! It was a great day.

Some important dates for you to remember:

August 9th we will do a Reach Beyond at Perrine Elementary School, which is right across the street. 9:00 AM-noon. What a great way to show our community that we love them and care for them. Please be sure to sign up this weekend in the worship suite.

August 13th the worship choir will meet at my home for some great eats...provided by you. Yea! We will just kick back and relax. 7:00 PM to whenever. More info will be provided this weekend.

August 15th is our Fall Ministry Rally. You know how great these are. This will be informational, fun and did I mention, good eating.

This weekend is part two of Lose Your Religion. Be in prayer for another great weekend. The colors are red tops and black bottoms.

Lose Your Religion sparks some good discussion

Well, we had a great launch to "Lose Your Religion." The weekend services, although it rained like crazy, were really strong at all our campuses. The messages for our campuses were all powerful. We had some decisions for Christ. That's what it's all about.

Saturday evening was a blast. Thanks to the worship pastors from our other campuses who were here leading. I love these guys and they all did great!

We also had our worship choir lead with us for the full weekend. You all are super. I love you all. The colors were really nice.

The messages sparked some good discussion. That is what we are wanting. For people to dig deep into God's Word and allow the Lord to speak. If you have not invited folks to this series, you need to. This is going to be good.

Let's take God seriously. He wants to do more than we could ever imagine or hope for.
Do you believe it?

see you soon

Lose Your Religion

Great title for some great teaching by pastor Rick, pastor Eric and the others. It begins this weekend at all campuses.

What about Mary? Ever been asked that question? Or what about the Sabbath? Or how about this one, what is the unpardonable sin? These are some of the questions being tackled in this series from the book of Matthew.

Check it out worship choir. We will be singing on Saturday evening. Meet in the worship center at 5:30 PM. You need to wear jeans and black tops. On Sunday, it is Purple tops for the ladies and Gray top for the men. Black bottoms for men and women. I told you wrong on my earlier post.

Hey looking forward to this weekend.
sammy

Here We Go

Well, this weekend we will be starting the new series from Matthew, "Lose Your Religion." This should be a really practical message series. And why not, for the Bible is so practical.

Be sure you are inviting your friends and family that need Christ. We have made it easy for you with the church invest and invite cards. Be sure you are taking these guys and handing them out.

I'm looking forward to tonight. We will be learning a new song, "Happy Day" by Tim Hughes. We will start it with the old southern Gospel tune, "O happy Day." It should be really fun. Hey, worship can be fun.

Don't forget, the color this weekend is Red top and black bottoms. The colors have been really nice. I'm so thankful for you all.

Hey, I'll see you all tonight.
Seek His Face
sammy

A week of first's

This week was a unique week for me. I did some things that I have never done before. Let me explain:

Linda and I went to the Holocaust Memorial in Miami Beach. It was a very moving experience for me and Linda both. The highlight for us was speaking with Ann. Ann was a survivor of the death camps. She was 13 years old at the time. She lost her entire family to the death camps. If you have never been to the memorial, you should check it out. The pic is of the very dramatic statue that is in the center of the memorial. Powerful.

Then I made a homemade pizza on the grill. Yea, it was tasty.

On Friday morning, 12:01 AM, the fam and I went to see the opening of Dark Knight at the theater. Good movie. Long but good.

Linda and I also resurfaced our driveway. It looks like dark chocolate. Yum.

For our song set during the worship service I used two songs together for the first time. Shout Unto To God, [United] and Shout to the Lord, [Hillsong]. I transitioned from "Higher" [Brandon Hiltibidal] to "Shout Unto God", then "Shout to the Lord", as if it was one song. It was a great service. We saw some folks come to Christ. God is so good.

I also introduced a song that I wrote for the Rest series; "Lay Your Burdens Down."

It is the end of another amazing week. We have some new people in the family of God. Like my new friend, that I had the awesome joy of leading to the Lord in my office on Wednesday, plus those that came to Christ in the service.

Now we need to be ready for this coming weekend. The new series, Lose Your Religion, begins. The worship leaders from our campuses will be together on Saturday evening. Don't miss this.

Do you know studies show that 9 out of 10 un-churched people would come to church if invited. All we need to do is invite them. We have made it easy for you by creating the Invest and Invite cards. Pick a pack up and invest.

See you soon

sometimes you have to face your fears

Here is Joel, me, Linda and Andrew (he goes by Andy) after we rode "Sheikra" that crazy roller coaster in Tampa. I have to tell you, it really made me nervous. You know, a bad childhood experience on a roller coaster that I just have not been able to shake. Well, so Linda tells me, "Sometimes you just have to face your fears." I assured her that, that cliche' must not have applied to me.

Well, I did it and survived. In fact it was fun...kinda. Have you ever been afraid to share your faith. I have. [I hope I have not disappointed you.] Not because I am ashamed of Christ, or the Gospel, but of the response from the people that I have shared with.

Understand, that it is not you that they are rejecting but Christ. Be at peace. What you will say, God will use to continue to work on their heart. Just face those fears and do it. One way we have made it easy at Christ Fellowship is by making available the Invest and Invite cards. These things are great. Be sure to pick some up this weekend.

Hey, we will see you tonight for rehearsal. We will be wearing black bottoms and any color solid top. Hey, the colors looked great last weekend.

Seek His Face
sammy

You know, when you go to share...

You know, when you go to share with someone, and you think that you will really be helping them. Then you end up learning from them. Well, that's kinda what happened to me when I spoke at "ascend" Bell Shoals Youth Camp.

As you may recall, their pastor and oldest son were killed in a plane crash, earlier in May. It was tragic. Obviously the church is still dealing with this. After fasting and praying, I sensed that God wanted me to share about "Worshiping through pain."

I wanted to share from the heart of God what the scriptures tell us about suffering. I believed that the Lord would allow me to encourage them with the Word. But by the end of the week, these students and adults showed me what it is to worship through pain and suffering. They were amazing.

This is Courtney Pollack, Pastor Pollack's daughter. It was amazing to see her worship. Knowing the pain she must be going through with the loss of her dad and brother. But she has continued to worship. We spoke some one evening, and what an encouragement she was to me. Her and the rest of the Bell Shoals folks really blew me away with their love for God.

It was great being back this past weekend. Rick did another amazing job in opening up the Word of God. "Rest" has been a good series already.

Connection Class was really good. The folks were tapped in and I will be following up with three people that want to know about salvation and their relationship to God.

Hey, I look forward to seeing you Wednesday. Be sure to check out the song list on Planning center.

Seek His Face
sammy

Did you know...

Where is the summer going? Does it seem like it's going fast? It does to me.

Hey everyone, we will be rehearsing tonight. I'm excited about the weekend. It was great being here last weekend, worshiping with the congregation from a different location. It was beautiful.

I can't wait to see you all and share a few highlights from the past few weeks.

Did you know that you if you stomp really hard at a charging dog they will stop? Yea, only if your as ugly as I am. That's right, while on a run in Alabama I thought I was going to have to fight a big dog. As the dog came charging, I turned to square up and face the dog. I stomped as loud as I could on the ground. Sure enough the dog stopped. It was great.

One suggestion: don't try this at home. This will only work if you have a shiny head and ugly mug like me.

See you tonight. The weekend is going to be awesome!

Seek His Face
Sammy

Sweet weekend

Abiel Mir, our Downtown campus worship pastor led this weekend at Palmetto Bay. It was a sweet weekend. They did a new tune by Israel Houghton, with a latin style beat. It was really good. High energy and a great song of celebration. The best part for me is when they went from "Majesty" Delirious to "Majesty" by Jack Hayford. The transition was really powerful. Both of the songs magnify Christ. I thought of the picture of heaven. Jesus as Lamb, on the throne bearing the marks of the abuse He took for our sins, and all those around the throne singing, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord, God Almighty. Who Was and Is and Is to come.

So let us exalt Him...wow!

And Rick knows how to bring it! What a powerful message. We saw some cool things happen in the service. It is good to be back at Christ Fellowship. It is an honor to serve here.

Saturday evening Jorge (our Homestead campus pastor) and I led for the funeral of David Santana, 19 year old who died in a car accident. Jorge did an amazing job in sharing a great message of hope by presenting the Gospel. Pray for the family. Two of the students that spoke at the funeral also came forward at our 12:30 service. Is God awesome or what!

While in Alabama for a few days, here is what I paid for Gas: $3.87 That price is long gone.

In the next few posts I will share some thoughts on worship. I love you all and look forward to leading this weekend.

Peace
Sammy

A Beautiful Ending

The last evening of the Bell Shoals Camp, I spoke from Isaiah 6:1-8. My topic was "Our "Response to Worship." When we encounter an Almighty God, we will worship Him and against His Holiness we will see our sin and confess it. We will receive forgiveness from our Lord and then act on His calling. As Isaiah did, we will say, "Send me."

We observed the Lord Supper at the end of our Worship Service. It was a beautiful ending to a great week. I will post some more info later.

I have been without internet access for the last several days, so today is the first day that I am back on. It is amazing how dependent I have become on technology.

We will be home soon, and it will be good to be back with you all. Tomorrow we will spend the day with Joel and April in Tampa.

Seek His Face
Sammy