Archive for the 'My Life' Category

35lbs Since Christmas

Published
by
Nathan Griffis
on 18 November 2009
in My Life
. 2 Comments

A little over a year ago I set out on what is probably the biggest spiritual journey that I have ever taken. I was reminded of it today as I “squeezed” into some pants and realized that I have put on 35 lbs since Christmas. I would like to give 5 of that back and am working toward that but this is not what I want to journal about today.

This past year has been probably one of the most challenging of my life. Looking back now I am reminded of how Satan tempted Jesus in the desert during His fast. At the time I had some thoughts of what that might look like and expected it to occur during or immediately following. Now I understand that would have been a mistake because in the natural a person would be weakest after an extended fast, but in the spiritual the opposite is true.

So today represents day 328 since I finished that fast and it is just now dawning on me that my fast may be the reason that I will survive the desert temptation. To be quite transparent the last 6 months have been filled with a lot of temptations. Not to leave my wife for somebody else or other obvious temptations. But those ones that make you want to quit, give up, walk away, stop fighting, stop pursuing, question, doubt, blow-up, get frustrated, be angry, become needy, self centered, lethargic, and just not care.

It has come from things such as the multitude of resumes that were not responded to, unreturned phone calls, the promised phone calls that never came, opportunities that were on the radar that apparently developed stealth technology, financial challenges of unemployment, the process of piecing life back together, the feelings of abandonment, etc.   

Frankly it has made me mad at hell. No that isn’t a misprint. For the past few months I have been on an emotional roller coaster. The 4 people that read this blog know me fairly well and this is not normal for me. I confirmed this with my wife today because I didn’t want to misrepresent myself. She concurred (fun word to use) that I am pretty emotionally stable and that I do not normally get bent one way or the other.

I am glad that God brought back to my memory my fast and helped me to realize just what is going on with me. God also reminded me yesterday that unemployment is not part of my calling. (I have a secular job now, thank God, but I have been unemployed from ministry for 7 months) Even though I am trying to be found working and am having a lot of fun witnessing to coworkers and friends I miss the rush of being a “missionary”.  I miss the pleasure of feeling like I am doing and being exactly what God created me to be.

God, I know You have plans for my family and I. I am trying to be patient while waiting for them (even though You know it is crazy hard for me). I want to thank You in advance for those plans and I also want to thank You for leading me in a season of preparation almost a year ago to help through my desert experience. I pray that You will continue to remind me of who You are and what You have already enabled me to overcome. I pray that You will continue to remind of specifics in Your Word that I can use as my sword in this battle. I pray for Your favor, Your direction, and Your will. Amen.

Let the Wild Rumpus Start

Published
by
Nathan Griffis
on 2 November 2009
in Church Planting and My Life
. 0 Comments

A few years ago my church planting career started with a trip to South Florida to “check out” a potential area named Weston, FL.  Well, three years later it is another trip to Weston, FL that shakes things up a little. This last weekend we went and visited InDependence Church in Weston, FL.

The music rocked as it has for a long time and the venue at Sagemont has greatly improved since we have been there with some permanent installs. There were many other changes but in the end I was impacted mostly by people. Some of the people live in Virginia, Singapore, Texas, Boston, South Florida and soon San Diego. There are people that have come and gone and others that have remained but they are lives that God impacted through what He allowed us to start there.

In the 3.5hr trip there and back Harmony and I had a lot of time to reflect on our successes and failures. We were able to remember the good times and the bad, the victories and the defeats but in the end it always came back to the people.

I often told our congregation that we started the church for a sea of blank faces. Over time some of those blank faces were replaced with real people with real issues. We were privileged to be able to introduce them to a real Jesus and inspire them to share what they found.

The family in Virginia had to go to a church meeting in a school because the kids didn’t think church could happen anyplace else. My own son gets mad when there isn’t anything to tear down when we visit a church in a permanent building. There are stories of reunited marriages after two years apart. There are men taking steps of faith after operating in their own fears.  There are others who came for one reason but found their callings and how they are to live out the Great Commission. There are those continuing to stand and fight for the people of Weston, FL.

So with all of that said we are making a conscious decision to go after more people. What that means today I am not really sure. Will it mean planting another church? I am sure at some point it will but for now we are going to live out the Great Commission in the manner that God has equipped and called us to. We have spent a lot of time in the last few weeks discussing this and I have come back to the Great Commission every time. If God leads us to plant a church out of ministering to some people… so be it.

I believe that everybody is called to live out the Great Commission but the way that it looks for you may be different then it is for me. Inside of me God has planted a seed that to be honest festers and burns inside me every day.  I was reminded this weekend of what it looks like when you let it out and I am tired of the heartburn.

So this time around this thing is probably going to look very different for us. At this point we don’t have a location or really any ideas were God will send us. We don’t have any money (see previous posts as where all of that went). We don’t have any denominational support. What we have is the Great Commission, a calling, a passion, some experience, some knowledge (not near enough), new ideas as to how Harmony, Owen and I can work as a team, and that is enough.

So let the wild rumpus start… This is the intro prayer to a new unwritten chapter to the story that is my life.  God may you bless our endeavors as we set out to broaden Your Kingdom in whatever manner You allow and direct us to. Thank You in advance for Your grace, mercy, love, wisdom, knowledge and power. I pray that You will release these things to me, and my family’s life. We love You and want nothing more than to make You proud. Amen.

MWMP (Married/White/Male/Pastor) looking for ministry opportunities

Published
by
Nathan Griffis
on 25 August 2009
in My Life
. 1 Comment

Well I have officially been out of the “pulpit” for 4 months now and to be honest the first three were really nice. But now I find myself really itching to teach/preach again. So I am sending this message to all of my ministry friends to see if they or anybody they know would allow me an opportunity to minister. I work a full time job so it is tough for me to travel anyplace that is more than a 6hr drive from Orlando unless a flight is included.

I sing but you wouldn’t want that to be a part of the deal but if you need somebody to be the fall guy for running somebody off I could quite possibly be the right man for the job. Thank you for your prayerful consideration and/or sending some other contacts to me.

“jeopardy-series-week-1-clip“  This is a clip of a recent message from the Jeopardy Series that we did for your listening pleasure. In this clip I am responding to the question “Why is it considered by many to be weird and wacky to be a sold out follower of Jesus Christ?” This is a portion of part 1 to the response which was because of the extreme nature of the Jesus we are following.

PS. My mom and wife say I am very good. OK my mom would lie so not to hurt my feelings but for those of you who know my wife understand that she would tell me if I stink and to stick to my day job.

I fell off the grid

Published
by
Nathan Griffis
on 17 July 2009
in My Life
. 1 Comment

One of my five readers gave me a hard time last week on the length of time since my last post. I guess I have been trying to fly under the radar a little and just escape as many of the “things” that I was involved in for the past two years. Somebody asked me if when I fell off the grid did it fall on top of me. In my defense I have been using Facebook as a line out so if you want to be my “friend” look me up.

So I feel like I am in a void between two chapters of my life. I know what the last chapter was about and I know when and how it ended. I know that I spent 1.5 years between the previous two chapters and only have a few little thoughts as to exactly how long this time will be. (I know little brain = little thoughts) The other uncertainty is what the next chapter will involve. I have ideas about when and what but if you have asked going into that 1.5 year period, I would have had a much shorter time and a whole lot different direction.

So… I have spent the last two months on “vacation”. Many would call it unemployment but I like to think it was God’s way of forcing me to take a sabbatical. I am really glad that He did too. My family and I have had a wonderful time staying at the beach, going camping, community pools, Sea World, etc. Harmony and I even got a couple of weekends alone. Even though you can never make up for time lost it was great to try.

I have been blessed with a full time job in architecture until September 15th. After that my future is once again up in the air. One thing is for certain… we have grown to expect the unexpected. I try so hard to try and figure out the way that God is going to spin this event or this relationship. I look at how this may play out or where He will send the next “BIG” thing from or open the next door.

I laugh (not to keep from crying) because it is an exercise in futility. As I look back on the last two years, and really long before that, it hasn’t been very often that I could have predicted who, what, when and where. I may have got one or two right but thankfully (sometimes) God blew my expectations away.

I was looking back through some old e-mails yesterday and came across some that were sent around the time that we went to Weston. I had almost forgotten just how fast and how unmistakably God had worked in that situation. It seemed like everything happened over the course of just over a month. So in one month I went from a career in Architecture and comfortable life in Central Florida to living in South Florida as a Church Planter. God said “Jump” and we did. I have never bungy jumped but I have to believe that we experienced some common emotions.

So “I wait for You”. I do what I can and seek His direction but I feel a little like I am standing on the side of a bridge just waiting for God to say “jump”. So I haven’t blogged a lot because waiting isn’t my favorite thing to do and really doesn’t make for interesting filler. But if this was a picture book some of the views would be amazing!

Beach visitation…

Published
by
Nathan Griffis
on 10 May 2009
in Health and My Life
. 1 Comment

This morning I woke up before the family and set out for some morning exercise and take a jog. Don’t take this as some sort of morning ritual because I have honestly neglected my temple for about a year now but it is time to do some maintenance. So I set out heading north on A1A and ran a little more than a mile. Then I opted for the beach for my return trip.

God speaks to people in all sorts of ways but for me it is often through the imagery of the things around me. As I making my return walk on the beach this was the encouraging word that God gave me. First let me give you the setting. Its 7:45am on a fairly unoccupied (at least this time of day) section of beach in Boca Raton, FL. It is beginning to heat up but the ocean breeze keeps the temperature just right for the cool down walk home. Continue reading ‘Beach visitation…’

The autopsy of a church planter

Published
by
Nathan Griffis
on 30 April 2009
in Church Planting, Church of God, City of Weston Florida, Health, InDependence Church, My Life, My Wife, Parenting, Random Ramblings and The Word
. 7 Comments

Somebody asked me yesterday what it was like to not have to prepare for Sunday. Well I wrote this blog a while back titled 6 days till Sunday which has been the story of my life for the past 16 months straight. Even though I recently have switched over to Facebook to spout off random thoughts, this blog still remains the behind the scenes look at the life of a husband, father, and church planter. I just have been busy with the stuff below and haven’t had time to blog much. (And outsourcing my blog didn’t work)

 

So I wanted to journal my thoughts as I close the chapter of my life at InDependence Church. As many of you know this past Sunday was my last official Sunday at InDependence. Over the next week or so I will be working on transferring over all of the other “stuff” that goes along with this job like, banking, taxes, facilities, marketing, leadership, staff info, etc. etc. etc.

 

Many of my pastoral friends have called to check up on me to see how I am doing. My wife asked me yesterday if it feels to me like we are offering our kid up for adoption after you have brought it into this world and raised it for two years… In a sense yes but God has given me incredible peace and confidence that I am doing what is best for me, my family and InDependence.

 

To not so quickly recap:

Continue reading ‘The autopsy of a church planter’

That’s my dog!

Published
by
Nathan Griffis
on 20 March 2009
in My Life
. 3 Comments

My wife and son recently returned from Ireland where my wife took nearly 1000 pictures. Even though there were some amazing pictures of castles and beautiful landscapes clearly these were the best ones. My son marking his territory…

I would so do this…

Published
by
Nathan Griffis
on 12 March 2009
in My Life and Random Ramblings
. 3 Comments

Check out this charity for cancer. If anybody is interested in finding some sponsors for me I would gladly give up my ever increasing grey and brown hair… there are a handful of locations hosting close to us between now and the end of the month. I dare you to dare me.

Tales from Ireland

Published
by
Nathan Griffis
on 10 March 2009
in Church Planting, My Life and My Wife
. 0 Comments

Today my wife and son visited the ruins of a church in Ireland that dated mid 600AD. From what my wife could remember from her years of Latin she believes that a tombstone at the site was that of the Pastor and his wife.

 

Seeing that she began to question what it was like for them. What challenges did they face? I guess she feels a connection with them given our current positions as pastor and wife.

 

Now she has me thinking. Will we do this until we die or until Jesus comes back? Can we be obedient enough for Him to desire to use us for that amount of time? Can we keep the passion to serve and the compassion for the lost? Can we make it through the periods of physical, mental and emotional tiredness? Will we be able to maintain enough faith to stair in the face of adversity and still declare all things are possible? Can we overcome temptation (lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, and the pride of life)?

 

The part that I found very cool was that they are presumably buried at the church where they pastored. For us I don’t think the school would be to keen on that but this says some things to me. Maybe it was nothing like this but to me I see a couple who were able to say yes to the above questions.

 

Even though it would be neat to hear their story I don’t have to because most all stories that I hear from pastors include struggles, temptations, trials, victories, grace and deliverance. I know that ours does and now more than ever I want to be able to say yes to the above questions. I don’t care about being buried at a church but I do want to stand before God someday and as He looks over my record for Him to see these things.

 

So today I pray God lead me where you want me. Plant me, grow me, and prune me as necessary, so that I may produce good fruit for your kingdom all the days of my life.

New favorite picture of Owen…

Published
by
Nathan Griffis
on 4 March 2009
in My Life
. 0 Comments

 

My little bobblehead!