Archive for August, 2008

How we roll!

Published
by
Nathan Griffis
on 27 August 2008
in City of Weston Florida and InDependence Church
. 4 Comments

I have nothing against the Miami Herald or the Sun Sentinel. In fact I love them because they have helped us in the past with some free publicity. But we are trying to get a few more people to hold out on reading the Sunday paper until the afternoon.

So with a little help from one of our college students currently attending Full Sail University in Orlando, we prepared this little video to help promote what we affectionately call the Fit Club. The reason why we call it that is because if you slowed the tape down a little you would see these grown men sweating, especially as we roll in “the beast”. That is what I have begun to call the +/- 1400lb cart that carries our staging.

So if 7:30am rolls around this Sunday and you’re thinking I would love to take in a good work out and do some service for God… join us at InDependence Church and help us with this…

Purpose Driven has a Price

Published
by
Nathan Griffis
on 26 August 2008
in Church Planting, InDependence Church, My Life, My Wife, Parenting and Random Ramblings
. 1 Comment

At breakfast this morning with my buddy Carl we were discussing some of our challenges. This time could easily turn into a one up or simply a complain session. (you thought I was going to say something else but I am working out my salvation) To this point we have been successful in making it an opportunity to encourage one another and offer feedback. 

This morning I was telling him about my desire to establish some priorities and boundaries between ministry and life. I know some really “holy” people just said there is no difference; God has called you to be a pastor, so it is your life. No, it is only a piece… God has called me to be a man, a husband, a father, a friend, a witness, an employee, and a pastor so it is up to me to establish the priorities of these things and establish boundaries.

I have always been aware of the time vacuum that is ministry. I grew up with it and have vowed hundreds of times not to loose site of my priorities. Well, seemingly no matter how conscious I am or how hard I have tried I am missing the mark. God has a way of reminding us of where we are falling short. Sometimes they are subtle redirections and other times they hurt like a dull knife cutting out your heart.

So, I used the word Purpose Driven because that is one of the church planting models that includes the “launching large” concept. Obviously there are others, but I want to share today a price to “launching large” (especially if you don’t make it). The Bible talks about counting your costs and this was one that I didn’t consider and maybe you haven’t either so let me help you learn this so you might not have to pay the same price. Continue reading ‘Purpose Driven has a Price’

www.Th_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _.org

Published
by
Nathan Griffis
on 22 August 2008
in My Life
. 0 Comments

So it has been a while since I mentioned our little project. We worked on it at the end of July for three days. We got quite a bit done but thankfully God bought us some more time to get our ducks in a row. The website is moving forward and I discussed it with our  designer on Wednesday.

He is making some headway using the graphics that we sent him. I put out some more feelers last week also and I think it is going to be awesome. But I have one issue… I need a good CPA. Not just your run of the mill H&R Block person but somebody who has some knowledge on operating non-profits.

So if anybody has a good one that they trust please send their contact information to pastor@TheInChurch.org. Okay so I gave you a hint… our project isn’t going to make any profit. So with that in mind I guess I should have clarified good and CHEAP tax person.

 If you are one you can contact me at that same address. Thanks.

Survey Says (2 of many)

Published
by
Nathan Griffis
on 21 August 2008
in City of Weston Florida and InDependence Church
. 2 Comments

It took somewhere in the neighborhood 26 surveys before we got our first really negative comments. To be honest I didn’t expect it to take that long, but I am actually happy that we got some. It had to do with their experience at InDependence drawing them closer to God and being able to enter worship easily.  

Granted those are two pretty critical things but what I was reminded of as I read those things… simply, InDependence isn’t for everybody. At first glance I wanted to dissect every other response and try to figure out why. After so many positive responses especially in these areas and then this one person… why?

At the end of the day it isn’t realistic to believe that we are going to appeal to everybody in Weston and the surrounding areas. Not everybody is going to get into Hillsong United worship and respond to a pastor wearing jeans.  

God has given us a vision at InDependence and it is our job to do the very best job that we can to reach the people that our “style” is going to minister to. Sure I want to win the whole city but in reality God knows that we aren’t for everybody. That’s part of the reason there are a few more churches in town.  

So if one of your ministry goals is to win the entire world for Jesus Christ, I’m not going to say not to try, but you might want to set some more realistic goals because there are some people in Weston, FL and the surrounding areas that we are responsible for.

So you think you can dance

Published
by
Nathan Griffis
on 20 August 2008
in Random Ramblings
. 2 Comments

Good thing this guy can dance because he can’t fight… Check it out

I want some gold shoes!

Published
by
Nathan Griffis
on 18 August 2008
in Random Ramblings
. 0 Comments

I am just throwing that out there because seemingly everybody with gold shoes is incredibly fast.  In 1996 it was Michael Johnson, who I think started the trend, and then this year we have Usain Bolt with a 9.69 sec. 100-meter world record. I watched Cool Runnings and I think that the Jamaican bobsled team needs to do some recruiting.

It is almost like all of these track specialists who said Johnson runs to straight up and Bolt (great name by the way) is too tall to be successful getting a good launch out of the blocks missed the advantage of the gold shoes. Check this out… Bolt won with his shoe untied. I am sure there are a lot of athletes at the shoe store right now getting some of these… Nike has officially Pimped My Shoe. 

I am not trying to get too spiritual here but John the Revelator wrote about God having feet like brass… kind of looks like gold. And God is pretty fast, creating the whole world in just 6 days, as an example. Coincidence?

Survey says (1 of many)

Published
by
Nathan Griffis
on 15 August 2008
in Church Planting and InDependence Church
. 0 Comments

I am getting some great feed back from the survey we put out. There are a lot of encouraging things, some surprises, and confirmation that some of the changes that we are working on are needed.  

I am keeping a close eye on a few of them and one specifically is the ranking of factors for deciding to attend InDependence. “Worship style” and “casual atmosphere” were on quite a few peoples top three. Location was an important part as well. I am hoping for a few more “sounded like a cool place” people because my mom always said I was cool and I want to plant a cool church. But I guess core values and beliefs are important too and many of you agreed.

If you haven’t taken our little survey yet please take a look in your e-mail inbox because even though it is anonymous I would like to track how many people from our e-mail list took the 10 minutes to take it.   

I will post our findings in the next couple of weeks and once we have exhausted our efforts to get information from the people who have a personal relationship with InDependence, I will open it up to public view via this blog and our website.

6 months In review

Published
by
Nathan Griffis
on 12 August 2008
in Church Planting and InDependence Church
. 3 Comments

I am getting ready to celebrate 6 official months at InDependence. We launched on January 20th of this year. God has enabled us to do some incredible things and we have learned some valuable lessons along the way. So today I heard the audible voice of the Lord and it sounded a lot like a church planter friend of mine that suggested I do an e-mail survey.

I had heard of people doing church surveys and being blown away by the information that they received. I found some good examples to work from here and I plan to put an InDependence twist on it. We are in the people business… more specifically people’s soul business so the thought of asking the people that your ministry has reached their opinion, seemed like a no-brainer.

To be quite honest I needed some reminders that we are being effective.  I was looking here and was encouraged because God really has kept us on a faster learning curve. But I don’t want to be just average, or even above average, I want to our ministry to be exceptionable.

I have been somewhat disappointed by the numbers of new life commitments that we have seen at InDependence because that is really what it is about. I know that we have helped to facilitate renewals and recommitments but I am praying for some flat out radical life changes. The ones where people say I can’t believe that so and so just gave their lives to Christ. We didn’t advertise here and with this on Y100 because we wanted somebody’s disgruntled church members.

So we are going to figure out what we are doing right, and we will take it as a pat on the back. We are also going to figure out how we can improve inside of the vision that God has given us and fix what is wrong. I want to reach our community and introduce them to Jesus Christ and if that causes a blow to my ego, so be it. So if you are on our e-mail list be looking for the survey and please take it. If you want to be on our list go here.

Fall is coming!

Published
by
Nathan Griffis
on 11 August 2008
in InDependence Church, My Life and Random Ramblings
. 2 Comments

The fall has always been my favorite season. I know I live in South Florida where I am not sure if that terminology even exists but… Maybe it is because my birthday comes in the fall. Maybe it is because that is when “football” season kicks off. Now that I live in South Florida I need to clarify, “American Football”. Specifically it is the time when the Buckeyes of The Ohio State University take the field under the fine coaching of Jim Tressel. O-H-I-O

Maybe it is because I remember taking great yearly trips as a kid to the mountains to enjoy the changing of the leaves. Maybe it was because I was married in the fall. Maybe it is because of Thanksgiving which is one of my favorite holidays. Maybe it is a little of all of that, but now that I am a church planter I have found a new affection for the fall.

I am anticipating the return of all of our vacationers in the next few weeks. As kids return to school and schedules begin to settle I am looking forward to making this fall our season of spiritual growth. We will trying to find out what sort of impact a New Testament church can have on our community. 

So starting in September we will be taking the New Testament Challenge. We are going to read the New Testament cover to cover during the course of the next three months.  We are going to be challenged to live out the life of a New Testament follower of Christ. We have taken off our lousy t-shirts and we are getting on with our own amazing journeys. 

Downsizing

Published
by
Nathan Griffis
on 8 August 2008
in My Life and My Wife
. 1 Comment

A fairly common term used lately in business but this time I am not using it in relation to corporate America. My family is putting the wraps on a move tonight and tomorrow. This is the first time that my wife and I have downsized in our soon to be 9 years of marriage. It’s the pottery/willow anniversary and I already have the gift picked out… way ahead of schedule.

We started out in a 1200sf (2/2) apartment. First house was a 1700sf (3/2). Second house was an 1800sf (4/2). Then the last house we were renting was a 2400sf (4/2). This house was way too big for us but to get 4 bedrooms in Weston (to house the church office) this was one of the smallest models.   The 1800sf house was a great size for us. Not too big and not too small. The four bedrooms allow for an office and a school/playroom for Owen, which is really nice.

This week we moved into a 1350sf (3/2) apartment. Talk about scale shock. All of the furniture that swam in the big house is sinking the apartment. This process has forced me to face some important realizations.

10. We have way too much stuff.

9.     A majority of it is really not that important.

8.     Maybe I am a little bit of a pack rat.

7.     If you haven’t used it, much less seen it in a year…

6.     It really pained me to part with yard tools even though I haven’t used them once since we moved here. (they were the nice fiberglass handled ones)

5.     God has really blessed us during those 9 years.

4.     Paying $60/hr to have (2) guys from U-haul to move our heavy furniture… worth every penny.

3.     Size does matter, especially when selecting a U-haul truck.

2.     If you think paper cuts hurt… try cardboard

…and the number one realization I had in downsizing…

1.     My wife is an incredibly strong woman… not only physically but in every other area.

Ok so you may be thinking that was cheesy but you don’t know how much effort my wife put into this move and I just want her to know that I love her and appreciate her.