Archive for July, 2007

Paul’s Principles

Published
by
Nathan Griffis
on 18 July 2007
in The Word
. 0 Comments

I was reading the Book of Romans yesterday and I came across this text and I thought it was worth throwing out there. Even though these are very simple principles to write down we have made them pretty difficult to perform. I have given a couple of different versions and have bolded some that I thought are just outstanding words for the day.

Romans 12:9-21
(New Century Version)
9 Your love must be real. Hate what is evil, and hold on to what is good.10 Love each other like brothers and sisters. Give each other more honor than you want for yourselves.11 Do not be lazy but work hard, serving the Lord with all your heart.12 Be joyful because you have hope. Be patient when trouble comes, and pray at all times.13 Share with God’s people who need help. Bring strangers in need into your homes.

14 Wish good for those who harm you; wish them well and do not curse them.15 Be happy with those who are happy, and be sad with those who are sad.16 Live in peace with each other. Do not be proud, but make friends with those who seem unimportant. Do not think how smart you are.

17 If someone does wrong to you, do not pay him back by doing wrong to him. Try to do what everyone thinks is right.18 Do your best to live in peace with everyone. 19 My friends, do not try to punish others when they wrong you, but wait for God to punish them with his anger. It is written: “I will punish those who do wrong; I will repay them,” says the Lord. 20 But you should do this:
“If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink.
Doing this will be like pouring burning coals on his head.” — Proverbs 25:21–22
21 Do not let evil defeat you, but defeat evil by doing good.

(The Message)
9-10 Love from the center of who you are; don’t fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle.

11-13 Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don’t quit in hard times; pray all the harder. Help needy Christians; be inventive in hospitality.

14-16 Bless your enemies; no cursing under your breath. Laugh with your happy friends when they’re happy; share tears when they’re down. Get along with each other; don’t be stuck-up. Make friends with nobodies; don’t be the great somebody.

17-19 Don’t hit back; discover beauty in everyone. If you’ve got it in you, get along with everybody. Don’t insist on getting even; that’s not for you to do. “I’ll do the judging,” says God. “I’ll take care of it.”

20-21 Our Scriptures tell us that if you see your enemy hungry, go buy that person lunch, or if he’s thirsty, get him a drink. Your generosity will surprise him with goodness. Don’t let evil get the best of you; get the best of evil by doing good.

Healthy Discipline

Published
by
Nathan Griffis
on 16 July 2007
in Health
. 2 Comments

Physical, Spiritual and even Mental health has so much to do with discipline. I have always been a sucker for a good martial art movie. I am not talking about a Van Damme (the splits thing is impressive) or Karate Kid movie but one where you know these people did some real “ninja” type training. During those movies when they show the training process a majority of it is spent in disciplining the mind, body and spirit to bring their bodies under complete control. I know I just touched on this the other day but this has been solidly on my heart for a couple of months.

Since moving to Weston, disciplining myself to exercise 5 days a week has made my body more physically healthy. I am working on disciplining my body to eat better as well but that is a tougher for me than exercise. Mentally I have been reading more books which are a great way to exercise your mind. I wish that I was disciplined enough in time management to be able to read more, but I am trying.

Spiritually I have spent more time in the word and prayer than at any other time in my life. Even though it could easily be argued that it is still not enough, I have made some huge gains. This morning I didn’t read my Bible at the YMCA as I usually do. God didn’t need to convict me because I had already placed myself under conviction before I had left the parking lot. For the first time I felt myself missing my time with God in His word. I know that is a sad statement but I have never been consistent enough in the discipline of reading the Bible to miss it. I’ve missed friends, family, even a good television show, but not my Bible. To be completely honest, even though it felt terrible I am so excited to have this longing. I feel that I have a clearer understanding of Spiritual Health. I have always needed God but prior to today I didn’t understand just how much. To know that I had missed that time, that appointment, made me almost physically ill.

I believe God honors the surrender of self and acts of self discipline. This is why he challenges us to fast. It is a way of putting our body under submission. Before I started the whole ministerial credentialing process 9 years ago I went through a lot of deliberation with God. I needed to know for sure that this is what He wanted me to do and that it wasn’t just something I felt pressured into doing out of guilt or some other emotion. During this deliberation I went on a 30 day fast from all food. So for 30 days I only drank water and for the last 15 or so days I added some lemon juice to my water because I couldn’t stand the taste of straight water. I know…I didn’t think water had a taste either but after two weeks it isn’t a very pleasant one. I had heard many people talk of the amazing revelation that they had received during long periods of fasting. For me there wasn’t any huge revelation, I didn’t see any angels in a dream or any such thing. I mainly dreamed about cheeseburgers. Just kidding! In all honesty I had some pretty big expectations of what would happen. At the end I walked away with the direction I had asked for.

The time that I have spent lately with God in prayer, reading, meditating and fasting has been for a different purpose. I didn’t ask one specific question or want revelation on a particular topic. I have set my mind on achieving a closer relationship with Him. Just as He responded during my time of fasting He is showing up more and more in my life everyday that I seek Him. I want now, more than ever, to be increasingly desperate for His time. Not because I know that without Him this career choice of Church Planter will be a flop, but because I know now that I will miss Him if I don’t take the time to spend with Him.

I have some free time over lunch before a meeting about some donuts so I am going to go read my Bible. I challenge you to pick up yours today, maybe blow off the dust, and read it. There is Spiritual Health and even some guidelines for Physical and Mental Health inside.

Goings On

Published
by
Nathan Griffis
on 14 July 2007
in InDependence Church, My Life and Parenting
. 0 Comments

Since this is really a way for me to journal I am taking today to write down all of the “things” going on in my life as a church planter. It seems like the pace is beginning to pick up as I alluded to in some previous posts, The Stretch! and The “Gambler” so I just wanted to download some of our actions lately. Some of you may not find this interesting but come back again and I promise I will not be writing my “to do” list everyday but for all of you who have been asking “What have you been up to?” and How’s it going?” here you go…

Thus far a majority of our time here in Weston has been spent marketing. Preparing our materials and doing everything we can to get our name out into any ring that we can. We have completed our website (which made the Ultimate List of Cool Church Websites), purchased road signs (which I put out again this morning), joined some different community clubs such as the Mom’s Club, Chamber of Commerce, even the YMCA. We have some other marketing things that I will get to in a few minutes but on Monday we are having our first strictly ministry event. My wife is hosting her first “Mug and Muffin Monday”. We have hosted events in our house before but they have been more social than ministerial. This mentoring group directed toward women will be held once a month with each group having 5 women in it. The first group that starts Monday is full. I believe that there will be a need to start a second, third and fourth group in the near future as word gets out.

The other ministerial event that we are working toward is our Positive Parenting Seminar.
Items currently underway:
1. We have secured the Hyatt Regency Bonaventure.
2. Our mailer preliminary design should be completed on Monday.
3. I have filed for our mailing permit.
4. We have contracted with Our City Weston (a local paper) to place an ad for one month.
5. We are in the process of ordering 335 copies of 8 different books for resale at the event.
6. We have started to write the content for the notebooks we will provide.

Yet to do list in no particular order:
1. Complete the on-line registration.
2. Contact some local radio stations to see if we can advertise the event.
3. Complete the notebooks content and assemble them.
4. Provide the newspaper with our ad graphics by the 25th.
5. Finalize mailer design.
6. Sort the mailer and deliver to the post office, once received.
7. Purchase laptop (I am going for the MAC), sound equipment, projector, screen, media shout for presentation.
8. Prepare Media shout Presentation.
9. Design and have printed posters to direct people once inside the hotel.
10. Continue to pray that God will send a minimum of 150 people to the event to cover our costs.
11. Approach local companies for donations to our Family Grand Prize give away.

WOW! I wish the second list was the shorter of the two.

So that is one of our big push events and the rest of the stuff we have been doing is just filler. That was sarcasm but it is hard to be sarcastic when you are typing. We have been looking for a place to hold services. I am going this week to talk with a local school. One of the other places we had looked into was way over priced and didn’t want to commit for more than 6 months.

We will be ordering some promotion items on Monday including shirts for us and team members, pens, bags for the conference and window clings. Monday I am also supposed to get my design completed for our donut boxes. I am really excited about these because I am going to distribute 500 dozen donuts to local businesses in boxes that have our info all over them. What better way to reach people than with food. They will take about 12 days to print and ship and then InDependence will not only be a church plant but a bakery also.

This coming week our marketing brochure will be wrapped up and sent to print for distribution to all of our family, friends and enemies, requesting them to partner with us with prayer and with financial resources. If you are one of those people who expect to receive this, or you would like to become a partner, you don’t need to wait. Just click here and sign up today. Our on-line giving feature is operational so you can even arrange payment.

I know that there are some things I am forgetting but I won’t bore you anymore. I am glad I learned how to multi-task at my last job because on top of that stuff I still have to be a husband and a dad. Let me also say that I have never been more excited about going to work and fulfilling the calling of God for me!

WWJD

Published
by
Nathan Griffis
on 13 July 2007
in My Life
. 0 Comments

A few years ago, okay it has been more than a few, the biggest thing in Christian living was all of the WWJD (What Would Jesus Do?) bracelets, necklaces, key chains, etc. Everybody would proudly wear them to act as some sort of conscience, as a reminder to live their life in a way that would be honorable to God. I know this may be sacrilegious but I only remember wearing the bracelet someone bought me once. First of all I am not a big jewelry guy and second of all I just didn’t feel like I needed a bracelet to be my banner that says “I am a Christian”. No offense to anybody who bought them by the truck full or the people that probably made millions of dollars producing them, it just wasn’t for me.

Last night I attended my first gathering of the Weston Chamber of Commerce. It was just a small gathering of 75 or so people at a local bank to be able to connect with other local business men and women. From what I can tell thus far the Weston Chamber of Commerce is a well managed Chamber that is really interested in the promoting of local businesses. I’m sure that it will be a big asset for us to be a part of the organization.

Anyways…After a couple of hours of mingling and marketing I found myself in one of those moments in time where you know that if Jesus was still walking on this earth, He would have been there. To be quite honest I am not sure exactly how this group formed (I was drinking coke at the bar so it wasn’t because of the wine) but a group of seven of us went a few doors down after the event and crashed a small little burger joint. While there we had some drinks, chips and some pretty incredible conversation. If we had been walking into a bar it would be the start of a great joke. Around the table we had a Pastor, Counselor, Spanish Dancer, Ex-Yugoslavian Government Employee, a very talented Artist who was a proclaimed Atheist, and the artists’ parents (I am not sure of their background). In the course of a 35 minute conversation we discussed faith, water baptism, salvation, power of positive thinking, terrorism, organized religion, greed, servant hood, meditation, the environment, and the fear of the Lord. As I sat there and we talked I couldn’t help but be amazed once again at the choreography of God.

At the beginning of that evening there is no way that any of us could have imagined being with that group of people. In the end I was able to not only share my vision for Weston but more importantly share my faith. During our conversation did the atheist drop to her knees and give her heart to Christ, no and neither did the others but I was excited to plant some seed. Sometimes we get caught up in the harvest and forget that somebody has to plant some seed first. In my heart I don’t believe the atheist didn’t believe in God she was rebelling against organized religion and some of their actions. I was very honest with her in stating that there are many things that organized religion has done through the course of time that has destroyed the message of the gospel instead of lifting it up. As for the others there were varying degrees of belief and faith but if I in any way encouraged them to seek Christ then I will have been a success.

Before every meeting I pray that I would be a great representative of God. That I would not embarrass Him, that He would give me knowledge, wisdom and favor. That the Holy Spirit would go before me and that He would give me the right words to speak. As He always does, He honored that prayer last night and left me looking for more fields to plant in.

The Return of Slavery

Published
by
Nathan Griffis
on 11 July 2007
in Parenting and Random Ramblings
. 0 Comments

I have been reading a book called the Five Essentials for Lifelong Intimacy by Dr. James Dobson in preparation for our Parenting Seminar. I’ll try to give an update tomorrow on how the planning is going for that. You may be asking what that book has to do with a parenting seminar. Besides the obvious that without a little intimacy you can not become a parent these life patterns have other effects on your children. Okay, so it only takes sex to make a baby but I like to imagine the world having a different view of the reproduction process. Anyways…

One of the six sessions we will be covering in the seminar is called “I learned it by watching you”. You may remember the old commercials where the child who gets busted hiding drugs gives his dad this response when asked “who taught you how to do this stuff?” Your relationship with your spouse will directly affect the relationship that your child has with their future spouse. If I disrespect my wife, physically or verbally abuse her, take advantage of her and run my house like a tyrant that will be the husbandly example to which my son will emulate. Granted we are usually not exact replicas of our parents but bad influences by the parents can be very difficult for a child to overcome especially concerning marital and parent/child relationships. A majority of their skills in these areas will be taught by you due to the amount of time they are exposed to it.

So back to where I started…In the book Dr. Dobson makes this statement “We value that which we are fortunate to get; we discredit that which we are stuck! We lust for the very thing which is beyond our grasp; we disdain that same item when it becomes a permanent possession.” He quotes this to help explain the incredible power that the lure of infidelity can have on our behavior.

I believe this character of human nature is responsible for much more than infidelity. I believe this can be linked to how we treat our spouses while we are dating vs. after we get married. I think that it adds fuel to the fire of competition with the Jones’s next door. It creates the urge for us to lease cars so we can have something brand new after two years. It is why the average American makes five career (not job) changes in life. It takes us to the offices of plastic surgeons for enhancements, reductions, removals or reconstructions. In addition to all that, it robs the “joy of our salvation” and brings others to turn completely away from God.

The Bible Says in 1 Corinthians 9:27 “No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.” I think it is time that we reintroduce slavery into our society. Not the slavery of people but the slavery of our own human nature. We need to man and woman up and stop allowing this urge and that urge to lead us down paths to destruction. There are so many more scriptures related to this topic but I am literally out of time for today. Let me leave you with a good urge that you should let lead you, the urge to rekindle or start a relationship with God. If you need any help with that relationship please visit the How to find God section on our website www.TheInChurch.org.

The Stretch (Continued)

Published
by
Nathan Griffis
on 10 July 2007
in InDependence Church
. 0 Comments

I requested prayer last week in regards to a potential permanent home for InDependence. We spent a good portion of the day yesterday viewing a total of three properties. One of them is for sale and two others are for lease. The only one that I knew about at the time was for sale listed at 1.2 million dollars. All of the zoning is in place for a church and the plans are almost through permitting. Once complete the space will hold approximately 220 people. The final price after build out and furnishings would have been around 1.5 - 1.6 million. To be completely honest that is a pretty big anchor for a young ministry that has a desire to remain flexible. Having designed churches for the last two years that I was with Cuhaci & Peterson Architects I wasn’t overly impressed with the proposed layout of the space. I am sure that it will make somebody a nice home but unless the owner changes his mind and would consider leasing it, that somebody won’t be us.

The great thing about the connection we made with the realtor was that we wound up looking at two other properties and one of them has some real potential. The location is pretty good and the children environments would be awesome but there would be a price paid in the adult worship venue. I know a lot of parents would give up a little if they liked were their kids are. I can’t go into details because I signed a confidentiality agreement but we are awaiting the owner’s price.

Now that I have the ball rolling on the Parenting Seminar I am going to focus on finding us a home. There are not too many options but I am believing God for something great. I feel that whatever we prepare for God will send and settling for a smaller space may be just selling God short. I want nothing more than to be exactly where God wants us. I know that there is the perfect environment out there and if we just continue to knock God will open a door.

Weekend Download

Published
by
Nathan Griffis
on 9 July 2007
in My Life
. 0 Comments

I know it has been a few days since I blogged and to be honest I kind of missed it. Sometimes it feels great just to download your thoughts. I never really understood the concept behind journaling, but I have grown to really enjoy it.

Over the weekend we spent some time with my in-laws who were down for a long weekend. We did some pretty fun things while they were here. We went on an airboat ride out in the Everglades. It was a pretty good deal at $20 per person. Besides that Florida Residence can come back and ride as often as they want for an entire year for that single ride price. Owen enjoyed it a lot and we did get to see this little fellow.

One day we dropped the girls off at the mall and us boys went down to the Harley shop because my father-in-law is getting the urge to buy a second Harley. Even though I am not really a Harley guy I did like one of the bikes he is considering for his next bike. I didn’t realize this but his intention is to give Owen his first Harley for his 18th birthday. I think most parents might freak out a little but I bought my first bike when I was 21 and was responsible enough to handle it. I know all to well the dangers but I also know the enjoyment. I look forward to cruising with my son. Maybe by then I’ll be over the whole “crotch rocket” thing and ready to cruise.

Saturday night we went out to eat at Braseros Steakhouse in the Weston Town Center. The food was pretty good but I am not sure if it lined up with the price. After dinner we walked off a part of our meal (the part that hurt because I think we all ate too much). They had some great live music in the square so we sat and enjoyed the evening as long as Owen would let us.

We took them back to the train station on Sunday morning which was probably the highlight of the weekend for Owen. It was very difficult for him to understand why he couldn’t get on.

The Stretch!

Published
by
Nathan Griffis
on 6 July 2007
in InDependence Church
. 3 Comments

God is doing some pretty exciting things around here. Whenever God does exciting things it usually involves the stretching of the people He is leading. Leading the Israelite people out of Egypt was exciting but the amount of stretching the people had to do in their thinking and in their bodies at times was clearly overwhelming for them and many of them refused to be stretched that far. I am not so naïve to think that the life of a church planter would not have similar implications and so we are learning to embrace the stretching and go with it.

Since we have been in Weston I have been looking for a possible home for InDependence Church. We have always thought that we would be a portable church. What we have found is that there is only one hotel in town that could house more than 50 people and since we are hosting our Parenting Seminar there we know that it is not cheap. We have found there to be three available schools to rent space from but to this point I have not been able to look at them so I can’t say for sure that they are true possibilities.

Through the first weekend of having our signs around town we had a commercial real estate agent call us. She called under the premise of being interested in the church but it may be argued at this point that she was being an opportunist. Personally it doesn’t bother me if it was just the later because I love opportunists and I think that God can use that. Some people just have an aggressive spirit which God can take advantage of for the good of those that serve Him.

So…to get to the point, on Monday at 12:30 Harmony and I are going to look at a potential home for InDependence Church. I have seen the facility on the outside but we are going to go view it on the inside. It is an office park that is located about a mile out of town and was previously being leased by a church. All of the rezoning requirements have already been completed and the facility supposedly seats 220 people with approximately 5850sf. There is some adjacent space (3200sf) owned by the same gentleman which would need a variance but would make great classroom/office space. Being that they have already approved a church the classroom space would be a little easier to make happen. Besides, if God is in it…

Here is the exciting part. The owner is asking 1.2 million dollars for the sanctuary building. Somebody in the State Office just had a coronary so please say a prayer for them right now. I know that sounds like a lot of money but here that is actually a pretty good deal. The realtor told us that he has been offered much more than that for the space but has turned it down because he is only interested in selling it to a church. Let me revive some of the State Office officials who may be still reading. I am not interested in signing a mortgage today, mainly because I haven’t seen the inside, but I am also smart enough to know that the Church of God might not be ready to carry a note for InDependence YET!

Harmony said that we need to pray that God would direct the owner to lease to us, maybe with an option to buy. I told her forget that…we need to pray that God would lead the owner to give us the property. If I am going to be stretched I am going to be nimble enough to receive the best that my God can offer. Money is obviously not the driving force with the owner otherwise he would have taken the previous offers. So if he is holding out for a church there is no reason that InDependence couldn’t be the one he is holding out for.

So we are asking for you to pray big with us. Pray that God would provide confirmation that we are headed in the right direction. Pray for ridiculous favor. Pray that the Holy Spirit would be our negotiator. Pray that God would never stop stretching us as we endeavor to stretch His Kingdom.

Thank you in advance for your prayers and support!

Great Show!

Published
by
Nathan Griffis
on 5 July 2007
in City of Weston Florida
. 1 Comment

I just wanted to congratulate the City of Weston for putting on some great events for the 4th of July. I didn’t get involved in the run at 7:00 in the morning but I believe that I will participate next year. In the morning the family and I went to the parade at 10:30 where my son walked away with enough candy to keep him hopped up for the entire day. The Sherriff helicopter was a big hit with him as well. Even though it was unbelievable hot First Baptist of Weston cooled us down with plenty of water. What a great use of advertising dollars.

We spent the afternoon cooking out with some friends and then after picking up the outlaws (I mean in-laws) we went to the Municipal Park for some food, games and FIREWORKS! I know the weather didn’t cooperate but in the end a wet field with freshly cut grass makes for a great time for a three year old. When you throw in inflatable toys my son couldn’t have been happier. Due to some scheduling issues we didn’t get to the park exactly when we wanted to but we still got in a little bit of fun before the fireworks.

The fireworks were excellent and for 20 minutes we bent our necks in awkward directions to take in the show. This was the first year my son appreciated fireworks. At seven months we just wanted to have a bunker so that the fireworks wouldn’t keep him awake all night. When he was a year and a half he ran away screaming. Last year he watched from in the house as I lit some small ones in the back yard. This year he got more excited with every BOOM and POW! His excitement was contagious as he entertained the people sitting around us.

To all of the planning committees and all of the city employees who worked so hard to put it together…congratulations for a successful day and thank you, my family and I had a blast!

INDEPENDENCE DAY!

Published
by
Nathan Griffis
on 4 July 2007
in Random Ramblings
. 0 Comments

As a country we are celebrating 231 years of independence. That is pretty exciting to think that for the past 231 years the United States of America has been responsible for itself. Now there are a couple of ways that you could choose to view our track record but I want to choose the positive one.

For many years I have related “free will” in the acceptance of Christ to people’s desire for democracy. There are hundreds maybe even thousands of people who will today make an attempt to cross one of our borders to get into America, the land of the free. Why, because they want the power to control their own future. Sure, some would argue they want out of the conditions that they were living in. Sure that is a part of it, but if they thought that they had the power to change those conditions where they are it would be much simpler to stay than to face the risks and challenges of coming to a new country.

Today in America we have the freedoms, which have been sacrificed for, to do almost whatever we want. Obviously there are certain rules and consequences for some actions but the freedoms that we have are pretty broad. With Christ we have that very same freedom. He gave us the freedom to choose to accept Him or a choice to do our own thing. This in a nut shell is “free will”. God, like many of us, wants people to love Him because they want to. There is something very gratifying in knowing that somebody loves, respects, admirers, and listens to you because they want to not because of something you hold over their head or an authority position you hold.

So as we awake today to celebrate our freedoms will you take a moment to consider the freedom you have to choose God. You can discover more by clicking here.

Have a great INDEPENDENCE DAY!