Temporarily Suspended

Just wanted to let you know that I have suspended my posting on this site during this season. My main blog Making Difference Makers is where I am posting right now. When I begin posting back on here I will let you know at that site.

Carlos and Enterprise

Lovin' Carlos' stand with Enterprise....

I won't be riding in an Enterprise Rent-A-Car.

Core Meeting Tonight

Tonight is the night for our Five Points Campus core meeting. I'm jacked...things are happening...my house is not big enough to handle it.

I love great problems like this.

Busy But Enjoying It

Haven't had a lot of time to commit to quality blogging because lots of great things have been happening.

With leading a campus for Bay Area Fellowship and becoming principal for Corpus Christi Academy...all the while trying to be a great husband and father.

Life can get kind of hectic...I have to be reminded every now and then to enjoy the ride. Thanks babe...for reminding me.

One Powerful Prayer

Today at Bay Area Fellowship, Pastor Bil started a new series on prayer. We are going to start praying big prayers around here.

At the end he put out the call to pray a big prayer over the next week:

We are going to pray that God is going to provide property that we can sign a lease on within the next seven days for our Padre Island and Five Points campuses. We are going to double our campuses from two to four in the next seven days.

On top of that he wanted us to pray that we would pour a slab for a new playground at the Corpus Campus.

Here is the cool thing. Right after the service someone came to him and said they would pour the slab. God is so awesome.

Be praying for us as we go through the next few months of launching these two campuses. I'm not just praying for that but also am praying that God will supply the finances for equipment and materials to get us started.

Pray God-sized prayers and watch Him move on your behalf.

I'll update you within the next week about the properties.

Multi Site and Bay Area

John Atkinson had a great post today called Multi Site Keeps Moving. Make sure you go check it out for info on what we are doing.

Here is an excerpt from the end:

Here's what I love about following your dreams; you don't need to have all the answers, all the ideas, all the skills, and most importantly, all the money, you just need to have faith. If you have faith, God will take care of the rest. I'm living proof of that because I'm sure not smart enough to pull this gig off. Just ask well, pretty much any person on the planet that knows me!

My thought is that if we could do it there really isn't much faith in it at all. Make sure your dreams are the size that it's going to take God to do it. Then, supernatural things will follow.

Bay Area Five Points

I'm double dipping on my two blogs today because Pastor John let me know that our Bay Area Fellowship Padre Island campus had 70 at their core meeting tonight...they raised $6,500 for the campus as well....I'm so excited about what God is about to do through us.

Scream it to the rooftops...We're bringing it to the Five Points area and beyond. Calallen, Tuloso, Odem, Sinton, Orange Grove, Mathis, Robstown...fasten your seatbelts...it's coming and we are going to change this area.

If you know someone in any of these area let them know about what we are doing. Alone we can only do so much...together we are an army poised for something big.

Let's win this area TOGETHER!!!!

What Happened

I guess it happened so fast that I'm sitting here tonight going what happened. A month ago we were plugging along depending on God. I was working as a teacher and we were putting together a team to launch a church.

Fast forward and I'm now a principal and we have been asked to launch a campus for Bay Area Fellowship. God is so amazing. And when He gets ready to move He can turn things around in a snap.

My Journey

I'm still on my journey...just two busy to blog about it. I figure it's better to do it than to blog it.

So I'll update you if I have time.

Friday Night Core Meeting

Great things are happening with our launch of a Bay Area Five Points Campus. This campus has a prime mission to reach the Calallen/TM and surrounding area by extending the vision of Bay Area Fellowship.

*** Due to the initial response of our meeting, our house is no longer able to handle the size of the meeting. We will be moving the meeting to Bay Area Fellowship. Click [HERE] for map.

The meeting will immediately follow the Friday night SPONTANEOUS meeting that begins at 6:30 pm. Pastor Bil was led this week to have a spontaneous revival beginning Wednesday to Friday. Read about it on his blog [HERE]. Each night’s meetings begin at 6:30 and will end around 8:00.

This is perfect for our meeting as you will get to see just exactly where God is leading Bay Area, as well as give you an idea of who Bay Area is. Our meeting to follow will be a time where we will then meet with Pastor John Atkinson and me to field any questions you may have about our upcoming Five Points Campus launch.

After the service, I will be next to the information table and we will go from there.

If you have any questions feel free to email this week and I’ll try and provide you with any details. Make sure to let me know you will be there.

My Big Announcement

In case you missed it on my other blog I made my big announcement.

Oh yeah, John Atkinson made the announcement as well. Go check out his blog to read where we are headed.

We're gonna charge hell with a water pistol fire hydrant.

Journey Day 10

Today is day ten of my 50 day spiritual journey.

Prayer Time - 60 Minutes

Prayer Reflection - Great Time In Prayer

Bible Time - Acts 10 Amplified Version

Scripture - Acts 10:24 And on the following day they entered Caesarea. Cornelius was waiting for and expecting them, and he had invited together his relatives and his intimate friends.

Scripture Reflection - Cornelius not only what to hear but he invited others to hear as well. He invited his main circle of influence. I think it is important that we are aware of those that are closest to us and that the possibilities of their relationship with God may start with us.

Book Reading - Visioneering pages 117-121

Book Reflection - These four pages end the chapter called The Power of Vision.

Great thought in the book: "Powerful relating consists of grasping a vision of what God has in mind for someone and the faith to believe that the vision could become a reality." - Larry Crabb

My Prayer - Lord, lets rock this area and speak vision into the lives that are here.

Needing Balance

I am off today...but not off. I have several things I need to do. Working a full time job and launching a church demand both a lot of time and energy.

Probably one thing I will have to do, and something my wife has said, is set boundaries and manage our time.

One thing I saw happen through the past year is that my relationship with my wife has grown. Through the hard time we bonded together. We shared our frustrations together. We are not perfect but I believe we are closer now than ever.

God has also brought some great friends into my life. It is amazing the people who said they were going to be there for us. "Where are they again?"

For what is about to go down....I'm simply PUMPED!

Blogs With Benefits 1

When I began blogging, I really didn't know what I was getting in to. I had a friend who had moved off to pastor a church who had came back and showed me his blog and how I could keep up with him.

I thought it was perfect since I was in transition as well. It would be a great way for all the wonderful people at my previous church to be able to keep up with what I was doing.

Little did I know there were some positive benefits to blogging. It is probably one of the reasons I feel every pastor/ministry leader should blog.

• Relationships - Ministry can be very lonely if you are not careful. Not only that but in some churches networking with other pastors is not an easy thing to do. Through blogging I have developed friendships not only across the country but throughout the world.
• Therapeutic - Blogging for me is a way of centering my thoughts and filtering them on "paper". It allows me to write some of my frustrations as well as share many of my joys. Of course you have to be really careful what you write though, as once you hit that publish button it is out there for everyone to read.
• Educational - When I first began blogging, I didn't have a clue there were some great blogs where I could get instantaneous information. Many pastors post what their days and weeks are like. Churches post some of the creative elements they create. Pastors share their successes and failures. Imagine if we could have read what the Apostle Paul went through on a daily basis.

What are some of the benefits you have found in blogging?

[Photo Credit Flickr.com]

Journey Day 9

Today is day nine of my 50 day spiritual journey.

Prayer Time - 80 Minutes

Prayer Reflection - I spent a lot of time just worshiping and singing before the Lord. It is so awesome what He has done. I also spent time praying over the city, Pastor Bil, John and the staff at Bay Area Fellowship.

Bible Time - Shame on me....I allowed the day to slip by.

Scripture - None

Scripture Reflection - None

Book Reading - None

Book Reflection - None

My Prayer - Lord, help me order my day for success.

Whoop Bass

Guess I'm going to have to take up fishin' now....and get out a can of "Whoop Bass"



Too Funny...Thanks Ed Young.

Teach us all that life can be fun in ministry.

Journey Day 8

Today is day eight of my 50 day spiritual journey.

Prayer Time - 30 Minutes...may have been up to 45 to an hour as I prayed some while I drove as well as throughout my going through the day.

Prayer Reflection - We were out of town at an all day tournament and about 20 minutes into my prayer time that I carved out I started to feel not so good.

Bible Time - Acts 8 Amplified Version

Scripture - Acts 8:1 AND SAUL was [not only] consenting to [Stephen's] death [he was pleased and entirely approving]. On that day a great and severe persecution broke out against the church which was in Jerusalem; and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles (special messengers).

Scripture Reflection - We often fear persecution but it was persecution that actually spread the Word and made the church move out. I wonder if they would have been their own special club in Jerusalem like so many churches are today if it weren't for this.

Book Reading - Visioneering pages 113-112116

Book Reflection - These four pages are in the chapter called The Power of Vision.

As a father it is vital that I cast vision to my children. Vision is so powerful coming from people we respect. It draws us and captures our imaginations and then engages our hearts which gives us a sense of purpose.

My Prayer - Lord, use me to speak purpose into my children's lives.

Is This It

Is this my big announcement????

Journey Day 7

Today is day seven of my 50 day spiritual journey.

Prayer Time - One Hour

Prayer Reflection - The prayer time was broken up through the day but this evening I prayed for about 25 minutes and it was so good...just praising and thanking God for what He is doing.

Bible Time - Acts 7 Amplified Version

Scripture - Acts 7:49 Heaven [is] My throne, and earth the footstool for My feet. What [kind of] house can you build for Me, says the Lord, or what is the place in which I can rest?

Scripture Reflection - What so awesome is that Heaven is His throne and the earth is His footstool yet He lives in my heart.

Book Reading - Visioneering pages 109-112

Book Reflection - These four pages begin the chapter called The Power of Vision.

Imagine if we realized the power of our words and how they can paint a vision for every relationship we may have. Words have the power to point people in a direction...to set their life's course.

As a leader this is especially true. We have the potential to chart the course of our organization or family by the power of the words we speak over others lives.

My Prayer - Lord, help me to maximize others around me. Help me to always be thinking and hearing what You may want to speak to others through me.

My Announcement-Well Maybe

It's coming soon...nobody even tried to guess on my last hint. Of course it is relation to the church God has been leading us to launch.

How about another hint? Read This.

That one might make it really easy. Maybe not...you still haven't officially heard.

Journey Day 6

Today is day three of my 50 day spiritual journey.

Prayer Time - One Hour

Prayer Reflection - Tried to begin the rhythm of early morning. Prayed about 30 minutes then more two and from work.

Bible Time - Acts 6 Amplified Version

Scripture - Acts 6:7 And the message of God kept on spreading, and the number of disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem; and [besides] a large number of the priests were obedient to the faith [in Jesus as the Messiah, through Whom is obtained eternal salvation in the kingdom of God].

Scripture Reflection - The message kept spreading and the disciples multiplied. Why can't more people and more churches get this? IT IS ABOUT NUMBERS. If we are doing what God has called us to it will be about numbers. And not just adding...it is now multiplying. That is why I love this idea of multi-sites. You are no longer adding but are multiplying.

Book Reading - Visioneering pages 103-107

Book Reflection - These four pages end the chapter called Going Public II.

Late...not gonna update this.

My Prayer - Lord, I pray more people would go on a journey like this. Work on me being more in tune with you. Help me to hear what you are speaking to me during this time.

Journey Day 5

Today is day three of my 50 day spiritual journey.

Prayer Time - None...My day didn't work out at all for me

Book Reading - Visioneering pages 99-102

Book Reflection - These four pages are in the chapter called Going Public II.

The problem engages the mind, the solution engages the imagination, but the compelling reason engages the heart. You must be convinced of what your vision should be before you can effectively cast your vision. Run your vision through two questions: What Difference Will It Make? and Why Should I Attempt This?

My Prayer - Lord, help me to stay strong on this journey and stay focused.

Journey Day 4

Today is day three of my 50 day spiritual journey.

Prayer Time - One Hour

Prayer Reflection - Two things I felt God say into my Spirit. "See my glory revealed in you." It was as if He was saying...I'm going to make all the wrongs right and that all I needed to do is let Him be God.

Second was I asked Him what are next move was with the church. "Sit and watch". Now I know that wasn't me...I actually had to ask twice. I'm am not a sit and watch...I'm a run and do. I'm a planner and implementer...I felt Him saying to "sit and watch" what He will do.

Bible Time - Acts 4 Amplified Version

Scripture - Acts 4:8 Then Peter, [because he was] filled with [and controlled by] the Holy Spirit, said to them, Rulers of the people and members of the council (the Sanhedrin),

Scripture Reflection - Much is put on being filled with the Holy Spirit....but is it time we allow the Holy Spirit to control us. Powerful thought. Peters words came because he gave control to the Holy Spirit. Do we want the filling but remain in control? What would our lives look like if we gave total control? This is probably what truly making Him Lord of our lives would look like.

Book Reading - Visioneering pages 95-98 (there were some blank pages before this that's why the numbers skipped)

Book Reflection - It's late I read but I'm not going to update this.

My Prayer - Lord, pour out your Spirit and Fire in me.

My Announcement

Well, a lot of people know already the announcement about our church plant. At least those on my team. I've been thinking about already sharing it with everyone. Although what would be fun about that. The announcement will be coming sometime this week. But iff you feel like guessing here is a hint:

[Here] is the first clue.

And Bill and David you can't guess.

Journey Day 3

Today is day three of my 50 day spiritual journey.

Prayer Time - One Hour

Prayer Reflection - Today was a little harder. It was my first time in a while getting up to pray at six. I had to fight off tiredness and I felt a little off in prayer rhythem. I didn't spend the time to reflect that I did the previous day but it felt good to start my day off this way.

Bible Time - Acts 3 Amplified Version

Scripture - Acts 3:4 And Peter directed his gaze intently at him, and so did John, and said, Look at us!

Scripture Reflection - One of the reasons the church is not being effective is because it is not gazing intently into the community. We say we want change and impact but yet we are so far removed from the issues. We hare living in our fancy houses driving our fancy cars and I feel we are saying "look at us" but are we directing our gaze into our community.

Book Reading - Visioneering pages 89-92

Book Reflection - These four pages end the chapter called Going Public I.

Vision must present the solution. Since it is what we are seeing in the future it answers the problem and ignites our imagination as to what can be.

Vision must be clear in us. It must be a burned in image. If not we will not be able to translate that to others. When the pictures and images that fill the mind and hear of the visioncaster are accurately transferred to the minds and hearts of the audience, the vision has been cast.

A team whose imaginations are aligned and hearts are knit togther by what could and should be is a powerful team who can truly acheive more.

My Prayer - Lord, I pray more people would go on a journey like this. Work on me being more in tune with you. Help me to hear what you are speaking to me during this time.

Reverse Church

What if the primary church really was the home groups and we all came together on Sunday in a mission oriented reach out mindset?

Church Upside Down

Bracket Challenge Day 4

With Round 2 In The BAG...nothing much changed from Day 3 to Day 4. This weekend is my favorite of the whole tournament. But with two weekends to go anything can happen.

At The Ragamuffin Bracket Challenge - Tied at 1 of 125 with 36 right picks - See The Standings
In the Church Planters Bracket - Tied at 2 of 140 with 35 right picks - See The Standings
At Making Difference Makers - Tied at 4 of 21 with 32 right picks - See The Standings

BRACKETOLOGY BABY

Journey Day 2

Today is day two of my 50 day spiritual journey.

Prayer Time - One Hour

Prayer Reflection - This time I spent the last five minutes just listening. I really felt God say "I am here" and that I need to keep pressing in. He has always been there I just need to reposition myself to sense and hear Him more.

Bible Time - Acts 2 Amplified Version

Scripture - Acts 2:1 AND WHEN the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all assembled together in one place,

Scripture Reflection - This probably ties in a little with yesterday's reflection. God didn't give them a time it would happen, He just gave them a command to wait. I wonder if it felt like an eternity. I wonder if they sat there day after day wondering what was going to happen.

What I do see though is that they were together in one place. I almost want to say that the place wasn't just about being in one location although it was for them. I think that you could say that they were united and in purpose they were all in the same place. Imagine if today's church could do that. I think it will only be possible when everyone coming actually gets in the same place. To many people in church don't know why they are there and many are there for their own religious duty.

What would happen if we all came to a place where we were waiting on God to just explode His presence in our church and over our city?????

Book Reading - Visioneering pages 85-88

Book Reflection - These four pages begin the chapter called Going Public.

Vision is not something you do alone. God usually raises up a point person to paint a compelling picture.

An effective vision includes: the problem, the solution, the reason something must be done, and the reason something must be done now.

When communicating your vision you must be able to state your problem that the vision addresses. Often this is not a problem that people don't already know. They may have just gotten accustomed to living in this problem. Visioncasting often wakes people up from their apathy. Presenting the problem provides the context for presenting the solution.

My Prayer - Lord, help me to see clearly the issues of our area. The areas we as the church have allowed to grow where people have become apathetic. Burn this deep within me to the point where I cannot stand it no more.

Bracket Challenge Day 3

All right players...read em' and weep...I am totally thrilled after day number three with my brackets. Day 4 tomorrow...I'm gonna crush all your dreams.

At The Ragamuffin Bracket Challenge - Tied at 1 of 124 with 31 right picks - See The Standings
In the Church Planters Bracket - Tied at 2 of 130 with 30 right picks - See The Standings
At Making Difference Makers - Tied at 5 of 21 with 27 right picks - See The Standings

BRACKETOLOGY BABY

Cheeto Jesus

Leave it to a youth pastor to find this.

Seems a youth pastor in Houston has a Cheeto that looks like Jesus...what do you think??

Me...I can see it.

Can You See Jesus In This Cheeto?

See The News Video

50 Day Spiritual Challenge

So I've decided to take this to myspace and beyond. I encourage you to take the challenge and pass it on. Check it out. Here is what I posted:

I encourage you to read and forward this on...so much junk gets forwarded here on myspace...why not start a spiritual revolution.

With Tomorrow being Easter and the Day of Pentecost scheduled on the calendar for May 11th, I have been sensing God challenging me to step it up and position myself spiritually for what he is about to do.

I am going on a 50 day fast/spiritual journey.

I really feel God has been challenging me to take my spiritual life up a notch.

This is going to be a 50 day push beginning today, March 22nd, and will end May 10th. One day before the calendar date for the Day of Pentecost.

Here is what I feel God challenging me to do.

I will be chronicling it on my blog at jasoncurlee.com to help hold myself accountable as well as journal through my thoughts during this time. I believe that will challenge me. You may want to use your own blog or myspace blog as well.

Here Are My Details:

• Pray one hour a day. 50 days = 50 hours
• Read through book of Acts twice during this time.
• I’m also going to read through Visioneering by Andy Stanley. No other books unless I get some on Multi-Sites as this is an area I’m going to focus on.
• Fast one day a week from eating. Only drinking water for a 24 hour period. 7 weeks=7 days
• Cut back to 50 blog subscriptions. And once a week on my fast day not read any of them. This week, I cut it back from 115 to 50. This was a brutal one for me. One of my strengths is being a learner. Through blogging I have made so many friends and it was hard to narrow down to whom to cut and not cut. (Why not cut them all out? Glad you asked...cutting this amount is almost the equivalent of that. It’s like drinking water for me for a day.)
• Cut back on the Podcasts I listen to. Not sure how this one is going to shape up just yet. But I already cut out 10 subscriptions on it at the time I’m writing this.
• I also feel during the last 7 to 10 days God is going to take it up a notch too…not sure how just yet.

****** Important Note ******

The challenge is not so much as for you to fast or do exactly the same as what I am doing. Decide what areas God may challenge you to give up or to step up. I am doing some specific things like the book of Acts and Visioneering…as well as the once a week food fast and praying an hour a day. The blog reading and podcast part is an area I felt God challenging me specifically. I tend to take in an enormous amount of info and during this time I want to limit it to hear more from Him.

For each of you that may be different…it may mean no TV or music…it may mean changing your diet for 50 days in an area…like no sweets or sodas…it may mean doing a Daniel Fast type diet. Ultimately it may mean a variety of things.

It really is about preparing yourself and positioning yourself for whatever God may do.

****** Important Note Over******

If anyone else out there feels like they could accept this challenge, or even part of it, let me know by Leaving A Message For Me On My Myspace at myspace.com/pastorjcurl or Leave A Comment At My Post Taking The Cut Up A Notch

I’d like to know specifically who and maybe how you will go though this challenge.

Don’t worry if you weren’t prepared for this today when you are reading it just join in wherever we are and push through to May 10th.

For some of you pastors out there reading this, I encourage you to challenge your team as well and let me know the results.

I encourage you to forward this on...so much junk gets forwarded here on myspace...why not start a spiritual revolution and let me know if you are participating!!!!!

Jason Curlee
jasoncurlee. com
myspace.com/pastorjcurl

What Were They Thinking

'los posted something today that I had never thought about before.

What were they thinking?

We know the story but they didn't.

We know He died yesterday 2000 years ago. We know He rises from the grave tomorrow 2000 years ago.

But they didn't.

What were they thinking?????

Journey Day 1

Today is day one of my kind of 50 day spiritual journey. I'm actually using this blog as my accountability partner. David has also jumped on board the journey with me.

Prayer Time - One Hour

Bible Time - Read Acts 1 Amplified Version

Scripture - Acts 1:7 He said to them, It is not for you to become acquainted with and know what time brings [the things and events of time and their definite periods] or fixed years and seasons (their critical niche in time), which the Father has appointed (fixed and reserved) by His own choice and authority and personal power.

Scripture Reflection - As Christians we get caught up in this whole time thing. We are fascinated with prophecy and trying to figure out when Jesus is "coming back". Or what season God has us in...whether we should be doing this or that right now. Should I go with the opportunity before me or is it right.

God has all that lined out. He knows your past, present, and future. Our true responsibility is living in close relationship with Him and fulfilling the mission He has for us. The neat thing about God is that it sometimes doesn't work out as we see it. I am the type of person who likes to have it all planned out. God often through's a monkey wrench into my plans just to keep me seeking Him.

Book Reading - Visioneering Chapter 6

Book Reflection - Since God has the perfect view of our life and where we are going it is vital for us to be in close communion with Him. There are many times we have a vision and we see how we might get there. The real truth about it is that few destinations have only one point of access. There are many alternatives to living out the vision you feel God has laid on your heart. I think this is where I have come to over the past three months.

I have a vision to DOMINATE the Coastal Bend area with the life of Christ. There is more than one way for that to happen. Often we get caught up in how we picture it. I am willing though to lay down something I truly love to allow God to make that vision a reality in this area.

My Prayer - Lord, this is your vision and your responsibility to make it happen. I am just one small part of how you want to do it. I'd rather be a small part of something big...than a big part of something small.

Bracketology Baby

I have three brackets going in three groups.

My own at Making Difference Makers.

I have one in the Ragamuffin Bracket Challenge.

And then my last one is in the Church Planters Bracket.

Overall this is how I ended tonight after the first round:

Making Difference Makers - Tied at 15 of 21 with 21 right pics - See The Standings
Ragamuffin Bracket - Tied at 13 of 124 with 24 right picks - See The Standings
Church Planters Bracket - Tied at 47 of 130 with 23 right picks - See The Standings

Taking The Cut Up A Notch

Ok friends...nitty gritty time...I feel a fast/spiritual awakening time coming on. If I'm going to do what we are about to do then I'm going to need His presence and fire in me more than ever.

This is going to be a 50 day push beginning tomorrow, March 22nd, and will end May 10th. Here is what I feel God challenging me to do. Don't worry I'm really asking him if He is sure.

I'm going to do my best to chronicle this here. I believe that will challenge me.

If anyone else out there feels like they could accept this challenge, or even part of it, let me know. I could use a partner to help keep me honest.

The Details:

• Cut back to 50 blog subscriptions. And once a week on my fast day not read any of them. Today, I cut it back from 115 to 50. Don't worry Bill I still have both of yours in there...although Batterson, Noble, Arment, Stevens, Morgan, Furtick, and Lamb didn't make the cut. I figure enough people follow them and they wouldn't miss me for 50 days. This was a brutal one for me. I have made so many friends and it was hard to narrow down to who to cut and not cut. If you didn't make it don't take offense. I am also not reading my twitter friends feed during this time. It's just gotten too big for now. (Why not cut them all out? Glad you asked...cutting this amount is almost the equivalent of that. It's like drinking water for me for a day.)
  
• Read through book of Acts twice during this time. I'm also going to read through Visioneering by Andy Stanley. No other books unless I get some on Multi-Sites.
  
• Fast one day a week from eating. Only drinking water for a 24 hour period. 7 weeks=7 days
• Pray one hour a day. 50 days = 50 hours
• Cut back on the Podcasts I listen to. Not sure how this one is going to shape up just yet. But I already cut out 10 subscriptions on it at the time I'm writing this.
  

Just To Be With You

I mixed this video last year for a message we did in the youth ministry we were leading at the time.

What could be better than Third Day, The Passion, and knowing what God did for us on this day?

Overdo It

I might be guilty of over-doing this...but I'm so pumped about a possible announcement that is coming next week....

The Son is shining through.......HA

THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING....

Funny...a few of you already know...pays to develop relationships.

Meeting

Had a meeting with this guy last night, who is a pastor on staff with this church for this pastor.

Look for an announcement coming soon. ;)

Stay Tuned

Pumped about a big meeting I have tomorrow. Hope it goes well and that I will have a big announcement coming soon.

Stay tuned.

March Madness

Do you enjoy March Madness like I do???? I created a Making Difference Makers Yahoo March Madness "Bracket Challenge".

If you are a pastor, youth pastor, ministry leader, church volunteer and you enjoy the college basketball march to the final four then join the challenge and see if you can be the top picker in this years brackets.

I have set up a group in yahoo [here's the link] that will track the scores and each weekend I'll be posting the leaders here.

This Sunday is selection Sunday so go ahead and join in now and get ready to make your selections.

Just thought I would break in and create a little community building. Are there any takers out there? Think you can pick the brackets better than me?

I dare you...join in...take the challenge...and spread the word.

I'm really throwing down the gauntlet...this will be for all the bragging rights. Tadd you got the guts, what about you Mark...Perry...John (you into March Madness or just the UFC)...how about you Dave, Adam, Paul, Russ, Brandon, Troy, Boyd, Tyler, Leonce, Dave, Dave, Terrace, Gary, Chris, Jay...or anyone else out there???????

Let's get it going.

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Mind Dumps

Am I the only one tired of posts that are: Random Mind-dumps,18 bullet point Reflections, Sunday Thoughts.

Do you know the kind I'm talking about????

Don't know what big Pastor blogger started it...but everyone jumped on board with it.

Know I skip them altogether. They aren't practical, they are so random with no flow, the good stuff in them is not elaborated on. Plus it's not really good writing.

Right now, when I see them I just skip them altogether.

What are your thoughts on these kind of posts????

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Organizing The Cut

No cuts today...yet. But I did organize everyone I read into catagories in my Google Reader and added some widgets to the page. If you are reading this by RSS feed check the page and if your not in there let me know. I would like to have readers of this blog in there.

Still not totally finished.

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The Cut Continues

That's 10 more subscriptions cut from by Google Reader. I'm down to 113. I've cutout 20 in the last two days. I have also organized them into categories. That's one of the cool things I like about Google Reader. When I'm finished I'm going to put some links on the side of my blog to all the various categories I feel are important here.

I wonder if you made the cut.

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Publish Post

The Cut Has Begun

Ok...I still want your thoughts on this but 10 didn't make the cut.

If you are a reader of either of my blogs and you have a blog yourself let me know. I don't want to cut you out.

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Beware The Cutting

Today I looked at my Google Reader and I have 133 subscriptions. 133!!!! That is a whole lot of blogs I follow.

Now I don't read every single post but I am finding that I am skimming through a lot of them.

My dilemna: Do I cut out a whole bunch? Many I read because they are a great resource to what I'm doing. Many others I read have been friends I have developed a relationship with through blogging. And where do I start cutting???????

I will be honest...I'm not getting much from the big dogs of pastor bloggers. I may start with theirs.

What are your thoughts? I feel I can handle about a 100 of them due to the nature of how I speed though the posts.

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Get Off The Sideline

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Record Setting #999

This month has been a recording setting month for Making Difference Makers. At the end of December I changed my approach and for two months I have seen a steady increase.

Honestly I really do give all the props to God who has give me the favor to produce and get my thoughts out to the world. I also give much props to everyone who reads.

Here is the kicker: February is two days less than January and the blog still blew out the record books. My subscriptions have doubled and the hits are up over 25%...and I haven't even counted tomorrow. And no there wasn't any special post that drew in record numbers. It is all solid growth.

To top that...this is, between my two blogs, post #999. That means my next post will be post #1,000. I'm thinking of a special one for this one. It will go off on Making Difference Makers.

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Kingsville/Corpus Launch Meeting

Tomorrow Night (Friday 2-29-08) is the Night we will be in Kingsville for our Launch Gathering.

Anyone...and I mean anyone can come out to Young's Pizza in Kingsville and check us out. We changed things up with our location this week to be able to meet with several people in the Kingsville Area...but if your in Corpus feel free to join us.

Check out the details BELOW...and do me a favor....Let me know if you are going or not....just leave me a comment here or one on myspace. You can email me as well at pastorjcurl@gmail.com

Hosted By: Life Church
When: Friday Feb 29, 2008 at 7:00 PM
Where: Young's Pizza
625 W Santa Gertrudis St
Kingsville, TX 78363
United States

Click Here To View Event

To find out more how you can partner with us to change this area visit 300forLife.info.



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Kingsville/Corpus Launch Gathering

Corpus/Kingsville Area....Join us in Kingsville for our next launch gathering.

Hosted By: Life Church
When: Friday Feb 29, 2008 at 7:00 PM
Where: Young's Pizza
625 W Santa Gertrudis St
Kingsville, TX 78363
United States

Click Here To View Event

To find out more how you can partner with us to change this area visit 300forLife.info.

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Down But Not Out

Here is a twinge of admission:

I've been feeling down this week. I'm not really sure what caused it. I'm sure a lot of it is spiritual warfare. Regardless, something Sunday clicked on me mentally and I've been down since then.

My feeling is that I'm not getting anywhere. I think I feel like Nehemiah when he was standing before the king looking down. He had this huge vision but I think he was feeling stuck and he didn't know how it was going to happen.

It feels like I see this huge need in this area. I feel I've communicated it to people. I feel like I've prayed. I believe this is God's heartbeat.

But yet it feels like I'm down.

Truth is I could lie like the rest of the Christians out there that say everything is okay. I could lie and say things are going good.

But this week my countenance is down.

I still walking by faith. I'm still in the mix. I'm still believing.

Oh and "no" that's not me in the picture.

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Two Ideas

Have some ideas in the hopper.

1. Podcast - We are still a few months out from our church launch but I feel I need to sharpen up my communicating skills. It has been about 5 months since I last delivered a message and like anything if you don't use it you begin to lose it. So I'm thinking about starting a podcast that will force me into prepping each week and delivering a message. I'll let you know when I get it up and going.

2. Open Source - I am thinking of beginning another blog. Ok before you say, "are you crazy?" This blog would simply be a resource blog. One of my goals is to open source the materials from our series. Since I have a lot of materials from my youth ministry days I'm going to begin with that. The idea came from a youth pastor who finished up using my Heroes series. He said it went well and he wanted to know if I had anymore. So I'm sending him four others.

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Bil Cornelius at Evolve Conference

Go over to churchplanters.com and check out Pastor Bil Cornelius' session at the Evolve Conference. They have it up there for free to listen to. Look for it on the right side of their podcast page. It is called "Session 5: The Resilient Leader Bil Cornelius"

Bil Cornelius is the pastor of Bay Area Fellowship in Corpus Christi, TX.

You can read more from Bil at his blog.

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Follow Me?

I learned long ago that my personality is that type that lives all out in everything I do.

When I was a bodybuilder...I gave it my all. My whole life revolved around it. My clothes, my job...I even had a whole room dedicated to it.

When I choose to follow Christ....guess what...all in is right. I pushed all in...everything on the line.

And now as a church planter...well you guessed it.

Honestly I don't see that the Christian life should be lived any other way.

God calls us to follow Him...not the other way around. Too many Christians live a life that frankly says to God "follow me".

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Ownership

This weekend we met for our latest launch meeting. Results have been frustrating. I have several people that have stated they are on board but yet we can't seem to meet together. Something always seems to come up with everyone's schedule.

We are only meeting twice a month right now and at this pace as a team I feel we will never be able to get on track.

I guess it comes down to ownership. Do you really own it? This is something I have seen in every church I've been in. Many watch the pastor run around and do everything.

Life Church will only be a great church when everyone takes ownership in it. It is not about creating a place that is all about putting me out as a personality. I feel I'm going to be a small part of something big even as the lead pastor.

I'm going to use the gifts God has given me. What about you????

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A Picture of Evil

What seems so fittingly evil about that picture?

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300 For Life

Just purchased the domain name 300forLife.info

One of my next goals is to purchase our website domain name.

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Life Church Website

I made a new logo for Life Church website....

Took the WIRED part off and added a new graphic which I like better.

Red/Black/White seems to be the current theme.

Go check it out.

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300 For Life

In anticipation of our exciting plans for 2008, we're endeavoring to raise funds to see the launch of Life Church in the Coastal Bend.

We have launched 300 For Life. We are believing for individuals/churches who desire to make KINGDOM IMPACT that will partner with us to bring the life of Christ to this area.



With this we are also designating part of our donations to help some area community services. We will be releasing more info soon.

Check out the following links for info:

• 300 For Life
• Life Church Website
• Life Church Proposal

Creative Sick

This is post number 100 and I thought it would portray something creative, inspiring, and teamwork oriented.

So that is why you must watch this video of Kaba Modern. They are crazy, sic, off the chain, bad to the bone, insane....no seriously you must watch them dance. The isolations to the gun shots at the beginning...WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!



[RSS readers...you might have to go to the original post to see the video]

Michael Fanzese At Elevation Church

WoW....if you are interested I just watched the video from Elevation Church who had Guest Speaker: Michael Franzese...he is a former Capo in the Colombo Crime Family. Listed as #18 of the 50 top Mob Bosses by Fortune Magazine.

Go to http://www.elevationchurch.org/subpage.php?nav=0&sub=resources and click on the media player link on the right...when it comes up make sure you select Guest Speaker: Michael Franzese.

What a tremendous story of God's Grace.

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Well I had some great...

Well I had some great inspiration today. Check on a blog and some guy who said he was using Jott. First of all I would give it a try so this is one of my test runs on Jott. Start so, hello. listen

Powered by Jott

Vision or Relationship

What is vision?

I think vision adapts some as we really seek to get in that place God wants us.

I think it is about faith and walking the walk with God. The vision for our lives gets shaped and molded.

Vision really is about faith. We ultimately don't know. I know that people will say that they know that they know but we just sense what we think God is telling us and then we go after it. Then God changes it a little here and there and we just keep hearing from Him going after it.

Really it's about relationship.

Could I even say that vision is relationship?

Life Church Website

As we seek to build momentum to our September 7th, 2008 launch date, I have worked on creating an internet presence. I had a great friend walk through it all with me to look at the "brand" we are beginning to establish.

Today I completed and added some pages on the site. I also want to give you my philosophy on this. I have always believed in doing the best job with the resources you have available. Currently all of our sites are free sites that we are using to spread the word. As our resources begin to come in, be on the lookout for a revamped version of our website.

You can view our internet presence at the following links:
lifechurchwired.wordpress.com
www.myspace.com/lifechurchwired
www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=7419532292

Make sure you stop in and add us as a friend. I also have one more secret site that I have been working on that I will be revealing in a couple of weeks.

Bet You Can't

I've had about 10 students and teachers try this....one guy told me he could, but I'm not believing him....I emailed it to this guy and he had already posted it right when I sent it...we laughed...Thanks to Bill for enlightening me through his Google Reader shared posts via Frostfirefizz.com

All These Questions

So of course I've been thinking again. That's why I have all these questions roaming through my mind. Maybe some day someone will answer them.

What if the focus was more on making disciples than on altar calls? How would that look?

What if the altar call was more like Acts 2??? repent and get dunked...NOW!!!!

What would the community look like if we put 9 million into it rather into a building?

How can we streamline church to it's simplest form to make the greatest amount of impact possible?

How can we put a reproducing church culture in place from the beginning?

What if a church launched two sites from day one??? Or three??? Has that ever been done?

How much vision is too much vision?

Will too much vision scare people off??? Am I fine with that?

What would reaching ONE BILLION for Christ look like?

Marketplace Ministry

Michael had some interesting questions in his "What if?" post. It totally flips the question of what and when to build. His questions were:

1. What if, instead of building a church building, we built an elementary school? Or build a school tailored to our needs and let a charter school or at-risk school utilize it to meet the needs of the community.

2. What if we built a new boys and girls club or a YMCA and let that non-profit operate programs all throughout the week? Partnering with an existing non-profit would create a win-win situation for both.

3. What if we built a movie theater? Everything could be built and tailored to meet the needs of the church but would be suitable to show movies during the week.

4. What if we built a giant family fun center, like a Chuck E. Cheese or a Fun World? Not only would this be suitable for our children's ministry needs but could be a way to service the community with a positive environment.

Wordpress Problems

For a brief moment I was thinking about a transition to Wordpress. Unfortunately that is on hold right now.

Reason why is that I have been using it temporarily for our church site. It has many great features that blogger doesn't have. One is being able to create separate pages that make it look more like a website vs. just a blog. Another is creating a static home page which I think is really cool when you want to use it like a website.

Today, as I was working on my pages each time I saved a page, one other page would disappear. In fact all of the work I had originally done is now gone. Which honestly bites. I didn't realize I should have exported all the pages so that I would have it. I wasn't doing anything unusual or out of the ordinary. In fact, I was doing things I had done before on the site.

If anyone else has experienced this through wordpress let me know. For now, I am evaluating everything until we purchase our web hosting.

Life Goal

One of my life goals is to go to Italy. That's Amore

Our Values Coming Soon

Several things that I believe are important for a church to know are: vision, mission and values. Of course once you know these then you need to develop them down into goals and tasks to accomplish your mission.

Next week I am going to break down our values each day with their own post. I have placed them in the form of an acrostic - TO DOMINATE. That alone is our greatest value and vision. Be on the look out for that next week to get to know Life Church a little better.

What are your organizational values?

Embrace It

Great guest post by Gina McClain who posted on my leadership blog Making Difference Makers. She really brought it when talking about Children's Ministry and church. Bold, brash...just my style. Gina is the LifeKIDS director for LifeChurch.tv.

Make sure you read Embrace It...if you already haven't.

Awaken The Giant

A very powerful prayer you can pray. Check out what I wrote in my post at Relevant Christian called Awaken The Giant.

My Shirt Dilemna

I can't believe that my wife wants me to sale this shirt,



and this shirt,


in a garage sale. What is she thinking?

Come on...disco may come back.

The Questions Continue

How can we see the greatest level of influence as possible?

Can we be a church that, if suddenly closed down in 10 years, would be missed? And not just by the 100 to 500 people who attend. Would the community abroad even know it?

We marvel at a church like Lakewood...but 47,000 in a metropolis of 5,500,000 is only .85%. Less than 1%. Do you really understand that number???????? Yeah but they own the old Compact Center... point-eight-five-percent folks. (BTW...I respect Joel and what they do tremendously....I worked for his brother-in-law in Victoria...we were reaching about 4 - 5% there) I'm just talking pure community impact here.

What good is it to sit in our pews and behind our pulpits and say God bring 'em in? When are we going to start going out? What about impacting poverty? Teenage pregnancies? Homelessness? Substance abuse?

Does outreach need to be re-invented? A friend of mine who will remain nameless had an idea for an outreach to rent a big facility and have a crusade. A crusade???? You know hire this big Christian speaker...with a praise band....and have every Christian in town come and then say we had an outreach to the community. Gimmie a freakin' break.

Is creating culture possible and what would that look like here?

How big is too big in thinking what we can do?

Just a few questions I'm thinking about....how about you????

Life Goals Process

This guy has me thinking about my purpose and the process of achieving my goals.

This guy has inspired me to write 101 life goals.

I created a section in my google notebook that is broken down into categories I'm putting goals in. To start they are broken into the categories of 1) family, 2) travel, 3) ministry, 4) influence, 5) experience, 6) accomplishment, and 7) physical.

What or are you going to do anything about it as I am?

Famous

Can we make Jesus so famous that He is known all throughout this world? To where He is more than cuss word?

Is the church making Him famous or infamous?

What "are" we making Him famous for?

Just some questions I'm filtering.

Subjective Innovative Church List

With the innovative lists being released I thought I would release my list of the 10 from that list. Of course every list is subjective based on the people who create it.

My list is made up of those on the list that are innovative to my world.

1. LifeChurch.tv, Edmond, OK, Craig Groeschel
2. Community Christian Church, Naperville, IL, Dave Ferguson
3. Granger Community Church, Granger, IN, Mark Beeson
4. North Point Community Church, Alpharetta, GA, Andy Stanley
5. Flamingo Road Church, Cooper City, FL, Troy Gramling
6. NewSpring Church, Anderson, SC, Perry Noble
7. Elevation Church, Charlotte, SC, Steven Furtick
8. National Community Church, Washington, DC, Mark Batterson
9. Willow Creek Community Church, South Barrington, IL, Bill Hybels
10. Crossover Church, Tampa, FL, Tommy Kyllonen

Life Church Wired

Short one here....we are calling our internet experience Life Church WIRED!

I've spent the better part of the last few weeks working it all up to launching it this week. I'm using all free resources to start with as one of my core convictions is don't let money stand in the way of you doing anything.

We are using wordpress to begin with on our website. http://lifechurchwired.wordpress.com

We are using myspace and facebook for our social experience...and will be also quickly working twitter into the mix. www.myspace.com/lifechurchwired Search for "Life Church Wired" on facebook and you should find it.

Nothing Is Impossible

There are days when I sit and watch my students come in and wonder is there anyway to reach them. Are they already that far gone? (I have a rough crowd.)

Reality is...nothing is impossible with God. It just may not be the way I picture it.

Welcome To

Life Church

It's official...this weekend we have release our name. Check out our launch video below.

You can also check out our myspace which I got up and running tonight.

Be on the lookout this week for our wordpress blog site.

Our First Launch Team Gathering Of 2008

Tonight marks the first launch team gathering of 2008. I'm so pumped for it. We will be studying through Visioneering by Andy Stanley for the next few months as we gather speed for our September launch date.

I spent all day yesterday shooting video and then editing it into a video for tonight. I was up until 3 a.m. working on it. I am using it to launch the name of our church to our team as well as using it to serve as a little vision casting.. (Don't worry...I'll put it up here for all of you sometime this week) I might even let you in on our name.

Be praying for us as we continue taking steps towards DOMINATING this area with the life of Christ.

Getting On Rhythm

I'm a little off rhythm right now. I set out to journal more on this blog and with the holidays I got really out off track. We also started back to work at the school today so that has me busy. I'm getting ready for Sunday evening which is the kick off to our launch team gatherings. Then there is the reading and visioneering I've been doing. All that to say...I'm busy and need to get on track with a schedule. Of course this weekend we decided to do a garage sale.

A couple of things on my block are to get our pastor round table started, secure all the paper work for our church that will initially get it going, spend more time with my family and continue working on our initial strategy.

For all of you out there be praying for us. Pray for God to lead us in every decision we make. Pray for the right people to partner with us. Pray for the resources that He has already made available for His vision.

Values

A couple of weeks ago I started posting on our ethos which is the DNA values we will be as an organization.

After prayer and meditating on how God has fashioned the way we have done ministry we are going to state are values as such. I will be adding the last two over the next month.

T
O

Deliver Unprecedented Truth
Oriented To Seekers
Market-place Ministry
Innovative Thinking
Non-stop Reproducing
Allegiance To God
Team Approach To Ministry
Everything An Experiment

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to you all. May the year 2008 be your best year yet. May you be blessed and highly favored in this new year.