My NAKED PASTOR ... video submission

So far ... here's my favorite entry! Great job A.J.!

Keep them coming ...

My Naked Pastor ... explained

I've been getting tons of emails and questions about our upcoming series www.mynakedpastor.com - in order to explain it a little better, I've decided to share a post from my co-worker & friend Heather from her LeadHership blog- you can read it here or simply scroll down below. Thanks HP - nicely put!



My church is getting naked, and so is my pastor! No...not that kind of naked, a new kind of naked. A revolutionary kind of naked. A nakedness that has no shame; a nakedness that would make God smile. Beginning Sept. 9 at 8pm, our church is putting our pastor on a 24-hr webcam. We are going to see him in his fishbowl - the good, the bad, the great, the ugly - for FIVE weeks. Not too exalt him, but to realize, thru him & with him, that we're all fish in a bowl. Which simply means the more transparent (naked) we get, the more permeating Jesus Christ can be. We aren't called to be children in hiding, concealment, or shame. God has called us by name, we are His, and we are to be naked and unashamed in HIS light for HIS glory. So, get ready, 'cause on Sept. 9, Flamingo's going in a bowl.. - Heather


And by the way - 9.9 @ 9 (September 9 @ 9 PM) !!We will be having the party of the year !! But to get invited, you need to submit a video here Food, Fun, Prizes and much more ... all at the Naked Pastor's house! You're gonna want to be there! Good Luck!

Ricky's Legacy

Thank goodness we're not doing mynaked WORSHIP pastor.com - ;)
Coming soon - www.mynakedpastor.com

FOR THE RECORD _ RICKY DID NOT CUSS ! Not even in Spanish - bleeps were added for effect people! Relax, relax...

Prop Giving Post

Prop #1
When props are due, props are given! So let me give some major props to our Doral weekend team. From our Saturday setup crew all the way to our band who spent the day together - from 6:30 am till 7PM at Pulse - you guys are a joy to serve and rock out with. Keep it up! Thanks to our new Doral musicians, Backstage & tech crew and everyone who makes the weekend happen! We had an all time record attendance this weekend - God is great and we're gonna bring it in the fall - can't wait!

Prop#2
Major props to a family we hold very dear - the Aguirres. They have been great friends of ours and serving faithfully at FRC (before we were even there) - they also have the coolest kids ever (even though we've corrupted them with the simpsons - sorry!) Anyway, they hooked us up with dinner last night - and we get to have dinner with them again tonight - sweet!! We might get used to it guys ... be careful ;)

Prop#3
Right now I'm sitting at the dentist's office waiting on our Lead Pastor Troy Gramling to show up for a video shoot - this video promises to be very naked in nature, but you have to come on a weekend service to check it out: don't forget www.mynakedpastor.com begins soon! Like I said - when props are due , they must be given - with that said - HUGE props to Troy since he gets to fly out this week to Ed Young's Church (Fellowship Church) in Texas to teach at their main campus and multi-sites for the weekend! That's just stinking awesome - get em Bro !

Prop#4
Finally ... props to my wife Marcy for being the best & most beautiful Cook/Baker in the world ! (There, I said it - now can I have my iPhone?)

Trip Update # 4

Michael Porter
(Harvard professor)
Session 5

The guru of strategic planning ! Read more about him here

At best we're ineffective - at worst we cause harm" - Michael Porter on the church

How do we do well at doing good?

Our organizations (churches) get involved in many many things and create chaos by not truly addressing the needs of the people.

Strategic Principles

We must shift our mindset - the mindset of charity & philanthropy
We must believe we're doing them a service - customer service
We must put ourselves in the shoe of the recipient

Important Questions -

Have we clearly defined what our goals are ?
What set of community services and needs should we attend to?
Whats our strategy in executing? delivering value ?
How do we get the organization to align / to make choices?

Good intentions are not enough ... charity is not enough.

We create value if we uses the resources to create social benefit


We need to ask ourselves: where can we do the most good with the best resources we have?

If someone is doing a good job at something - support them. Partner with other churches/organizations.

Where can we do more than just giving money? or unskilled labor?

Things that get in the way of strategic services:

1. Lack of clarity on our goal
2. Lack of focus
3. Misplaced resources
4. Lack of partnership

It's the churches job to motivate the outside communitty/organizations to do good.


In other words ....


PARTNERING WITH PEOPLE IN REACHING THEIR GOD POTENTIAL!

Way ahead of you Porter .... j/k - Great lecture - I wish I could've seen the teaching slides though - it would've helped. Porter needs to go church though ... I might send him a link to our internet campus.

Flamingo Road Trip

In about 5 hours I will be hitting the road with some of the most creative & talented people I know! The Flamingo Road Church Creative planning team ...we'll be packing a van and heading north to Orlando for some leadership development and an all around good time! We'll be learning from Collin Powell, Bill Hybels, Marcus Buckingham, Jimmy Carter, Richard Curtis and more at the Willow Creek Leadership Summit Then we'll hook up with the Discovery Church staff and challenge them in some professional arm wrestling - they got nothing on us - we have Heather on our team! Finally we'll do some shopping and check out the Blue Man Group! Those guys are just out of this world .. Marcy and I have seen them before and just loved them.

If WiFI permits ... I'll be blogging on the summit and the happenings along the way - so check back soon. If not - follow me on Twitter here and I'll keep you posted!

Snapshot from this past weekend...

You've got to come and check it out ... HINT -this weekend is gonna smell sooo sooo good - come find out why!

And don't forget ... the countdown has begun at www.myNAKEDpastor.com

What happenned to this kid?

This week ... Pr. Garland (one of my Pastors) sent me this picture of this poor kid - this is the "after" photo - can anyone guess what happened to him? I'll post the "before" photo tomorrow... Garland might even hook you up with a gift* if you get it right - *the gift might be a "trademark Garland style office beatdown! ;)



Here it is:
It's what happens when parents ask their kids to stop playing with their food: they begin playing with their forks! Ouch ...

Blog Party Winners

The results are in ... sorry it took long - thats just because the Jamba Juice gang was so undecided! Congratulations to all of you who won - and if you didn't, keep checking back - you never know when we might party again.

Blog Party Winners

1. David Uribe - First Comment (Starbucks Giftcard)
2. IB Guatupe - The Way You See it (Starbucks Giftcard)
3. Alison Riling - Comment (Fuller CD #1)
4. Rey DeArmas - Comment (Fuller CD #2)
5. Roberto Lopez - Blog Party Photo (Photo Shoot)
6. Michael Fernandez - FRClive.tv (Starbucks Giftcard)
7. Allen DiStefano - I Jamba Ju U? - (Jamba Juice giftcard)
8. Kristel Lopez - Sketchism.com - (Custom Sketch book)
9. David Uribe - Comment-a-thon 1 - (Starbucks Giftcard)
10.Roberto Lopez - Comment-a-thon 2 - (Relevant Subscription)
11.Chantal Meza - Disney Medley Video - (AMC Giftcard)


The blog party judge panel has spoken and all decisions are final ... no hate mail or nasty comments please. ;) Some of you were really close but had no blog, some were creative but broke some rules - sorry - Hope you had fun ... cya around here!

heredesandmarcella.com

For all of you new bloggers, coworkers, friends and family who have found my wife and I here in the world wide web - we'd like to introduce our site:

www.heredesandmarcella.com

We launched the site on the day of our wedding (December 27th 2004) and it has been an amazing journey! My wife, Marcy is not only an amazingly hot cook, but also my best friend and my biggest fan! It has been a blessing to do life with her - I love you linda - muah! Be sure to check out some of our wedding portraits, ceremony shots and more. Enjoy...

Lessons from The Simpsons

Here's the deal, I owe half of my english vocabulary to the Simpsons since they were the only TV show with SAP (Secondary Audio Program) in Brazil allowing me to watch them in English. Thank you FOX! Now, I'm not sure if that's such a good thing ... but I have been a fan over the years - I own several toys (still in their original packaging) which I intend to save until I'm 50 - then I'll sell them and go on a month vacation or something.

As a result, I have been heavily criticized for watching the yellow family over the years - and to some extent I understand. Tis the reason I dont endorse it or at least haven't till this post. However, I do believe that we can learn a lot from the Simpsons... since they are the typical American family. A middle class family with three kids and a dog who attend church on Sunday morning, yet poke fun at their goodie two-shoes neighbor. A family who prays every week, but also gambles and cheats on their taxes. A family with parenting issues and marriage problems. A family who constantly asks the questions of existence... and who truly desire something more to life.

It's still no excuse for the crud humor and the innuendos - but if you ever hangout with a real family like them ... you might understand them a bit more and maybe even make a difference, and not just be known as the goodie two-shoes Christian neighbor they might expect.

Diddily-doodily-bye! Off to watch the movie...

Notes from Craig Groeschel

Last week our Campus Worship Pastors watched the Buzz Conference session from lifechurch.tv pastor: Craig Groeschel - I just finished revisiting the notes from that session this morning and thought it was worth posting... one "formula" in particular is a one liner worth remembering -

Limited Resources + Increasing Passion = Exponential Innovation


Here are his points from the session which is still available to watch online here.

Four characteristics of innovative leaders - by Craig Groeschel

1. They heal the sick.
Not just physical healing. “In order to reach those that no one else is
reaching, we will have to do things that no one else is doing.” We have to
be driven to bring people to Jesus. We have to be passionate about that.
“When is the last time you had a non-believer in your home?” We need to lead
our people to love those that don’t know Christ. They need to be real people
with names that people know. That type of ministry looks very different than
the typical church ministry looks today. “Who is God calling you to reach
that no around you is reaching?”

2. They break rules.
We don’t break away from the Truth of Jesus Christ. We need to do less
“preaching” and more “listening.” Jesus healed people on the Sabbath. Martin
Luther put the Bible in the hands of the common man. John Wesley preached
outside the church walls. Bill Hybels combined the passion of parachurch
with the power of the local church. “We have to care more about reaching
people than following man’s rules.” Sometimes you have to stop watching what
others are doing to hear from God. It’s your turn. Break some rules. “What
is God calling you to try that hasn’t been done before?”

3. They offend Pharisees.
“When you do something new, the Pharisees will attack you like you never
dreamed possible.” The things that are accepted today in the Church world,
were hated ten years ago. When they do criticize, you must handle their
criticism with grace. A lot of you are angry, and you have to get over your
anger. Don’t shoot back. “What new thing is God calling you to create that
will be hated today and embraced tomorrow?”

4. They redefine success.
John 3:30. Less of me and more of God. We have to do that…in everything we
do. For example, a 2,000-person church in a metro area like Washington, D.C