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Friendly Reminder… courtesy of God

Published
by
Nathan Griffis
on 4 November 2009
in The Word
. 1 Comment

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.” – Joshua 1:9

I challenge you to read this passage of scripture along with the previous 8 verses of this chapter. As you read these verses I want you to notice that the command to be courageous and brave came just 2 & 3 verses before. So not only did God feel that He needed to tell Joshua multiple times, give him specific tools to equip him to be courageous and brave, He also had to remind him about what He said.

Joshua had seen some pretty amazing things in his life. We are talking about some of the most used Sunday School and message material of all time. Yet, he needed to be told over and over again that God, the same One who had parted the Red Sea was with him.

That is a pretty interesting train of thought (at least to me) because it shows the level of humanity in even the superheroes of the Bible. But what caught my attention this morning was that God also reminded Joshua in verse 9 that he had made God his God.

Grammatically I don’t know if that made sense but the key to the fulfillment of any of this was contingent on God being invited and allowed to be God. God told Joshua that because you have allowed me to be Lord of your life I will be with you.

You have invited me into your life and on this journey and because of that “…as I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Joshua 1:5)

So you want God’s help, you want His promises; you want His commands to carry weight in your life… MAKE HIM LORD. Is this easy? No. Today God reminded me to allow Him to be Lord so I am reminding my friends.

God, today I thank You for reminding me to allow You to be Lord. You know better than anyone what my journey looks and feels like. You know that I need You to not only be with me but to direct my footsteps. Holy Spirit, empower me to crucify any unbelief and to stand on the promises of God. Remind me of the God’s amazing grace and the provision of the past. Chase out any doubtful thoughts and restore to me strength and courage that can only come from my Lord. Thank You. 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’

O N E T R I L L I O N D O L L A R S

Published
by
Nathan Griffis
on 3 April 2009
in Random Ramblings
. 1 Comment

All this talk about “stimulus packages” and “bailouts”…

A billion dollars…

A hundred billion dollars…

Eight hundred billion dollars…

One TRILLION dollars…

What does that look like? I mean, these various numbers are tossed around like so many doggie treats, so lets get a sense of what exactly a trillion dollars looks like.

We’ll start with a $100 dollar bill. Currently the largest U.S. denomination in general circulation. Most everyone has seen them, slightly fewer have owned them. Guaranteed to make friends wherever they go.

A packet of one hundred $100 bills is less than 1/2″ thick and contains $10,000. Fits in your pocket easily and is more than enough for week or two of shamefully decadent fun.

Believe it or not, this next little pile is $1 million dollars (100 packets of $10,000). You could stuff that into a grocery bag and walk around with it.

While a measly $1 million looked a little unimpressive, $100 million is a little more respectable. It fits neatly on a standard pallet…

And $1 BILLION dollars… now we’re really getting somewhere…

Next we’ll look at ONE TRILLION dollars. This is that number we’ve been hearing so much about. What is a trillion dollars? Well, it’s a million million. It’s a thousand billion. It’s a one followed by 12 zeros.

You ready for this?

It’s pretty surprising.

Ladies and gentlemen… I give you $1 trillion dollars…

 

Notice those pallets are double stacked.
…and remember those are $100 bills.

So the next time you hear someone toss around the phrase “trillion dollars”… that’s what they’re talking about. (notice the guy in the red shirt in the lower left corner)

Quitting Church

Published
by
Nathan Griffis
on 2 April 2009
in Church Planting, City of Weston Florida, InDependence Church and Random Ramblings
. 1 Comment

I am half way through a book titled “Quitting Church” by Julia Duin and it has made me sad. I can recognize so many of the things that she describes the church to be and not be. She talks about the types of people that once experienced Jesus but were driven away by the “church”. This is not a book about people who wer never reached by “church” but were reached and rejected or reached and turned off by what it has become. Check out this blog article with some Q&A with the author.

I am encouraged to think that InDependence Church is doing something with its’ Jeopardy Series to combat her concern of the “church” being disconnected with the questions and needs of its’ community. So far our church has reached more disgruntled than lost. In the past I have found that discouraging but today I have a little different perspective. Whether it was the world or the church that turned people away from God is irrelevant. We were still called to reach so “God give us the wisdom and the knowledge to reach those that once knew you but were driven away by the methods man used to represent you.”

New Jeopardy Series at InDependence

Published
by
Nathan Griffis
on 25 March 2009
in Church Planting, City of Weston Florida and InDependence Church
. 3 Comments
What's the one question you would ask in church?

What is the one question you would ask in church?

Text your questions to 954.707.2493

Text your questions to 954.707.2493

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…