of pastors being maniacs getting the gospel message to the masses. Perhaps your sense of humor is different but its good for a laugh either way. View commerical here unfortunately my Wordpress learning curve is still very steep!

I was reading a blog post by Lew Graff who mentioned that he had read something about church being like a consumption monster. He quoted his source who stated this:

“Attractional models of church and need-based programs simply do not leave time for people to actually be in their communities. There is just too much effort required to pull these things off, and the monster must be continually fed by more money, more volunteers, more staff, and more time.”

As a church planter, I have to say I agree with this. If you notice from the model above, most people equate “church” with the worship service, others as well equate church with everything done “at the church” which is why most people can’t even fathom NOT having a building. 

One of the perception challenges I’ve dealt with and have talked about with my husband who planted Grace Fellowship with me is this very thing. Real estate is so hard to come by and we’ve had a not so good experience with a Spanish AG church that we rented from (so sad that my denomination is of SO LITTLE help in this planting journey) and we are now in a place that we can’t continue to meet in my living room due to community association rules (too many cars on the lawn make neigbors unhappy).

The models we have seen require MORE, MORE, MORE. However, the Shane Claiborne’s and others who do ministry and “church” without a large overhead are showing us different models. In the Latino community though, for many Latinos, church isn’t church unless you have a building, a place where they can “run” a ministry and be “in charge” of something. Yeah, I am going to go there. It is sad to me that alot of people just don’t get it. “Being” a church community is much more than a dog gone building. That is why we have a world that thinks so little of our God because we think so little of how our God can make a difference in people’s lives without a place to put the nice little cross in the front, or the pulpit, or a place to have the bulletins.

However, mi gente don’t make it easy for me. They don’t give creedence to what we do because we’re small. Because we don’t have an address. Because we don’t dress up. What should “attract” people to a church community is the love in action displayed by those who call themselves Christian, not the programs or fancy things they have inside. Don’t get me wrong, for a church plant we have alot of things. Cutting-edge technology, not one but two portable sound systems, screens, etc. etc. But what we are trying to get our heads around is doing “simple church” without the price tag.

What’s your take? Come on stop lurking participate in the discussion.

I’m annoyed about a few things…I recently learned about the Salvation Army’s personnel policy to have all their employees able to speak English within one year. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has filed a suit against The Salvation Army for discriminating against two Hispanic employees by requiring them to comply with an English-only policy and imposing an English fluency requirement, even though the employees successfully performed their job duties for at least five years prior to their termination.I have to tell you this angers me. I hear people with influence share their views on this stating for the most part that “They” come to our country “they” should learn our language. One person on the View said that she is insulted when someone doesn’t learn English and that there is no problem learning English “since there are free English programs out there”.

Nancy Pelosi is trying to kill an amendment that would protect employers from federal lawsuits from employees fired or not hired due to this “policy”. 

 Another thing that has me annoyed is how the government wants to tell parents to discipline their children. I mean get real here?  Since 1979 nineteen countries led by Sweden have banned corporal punishment by parents of kids in the home. A bill scheduled for debate today before the Massachusetts legislature would make that state the first to join the trend. I am not a habitual spanker but when needed I have spanked.  I think its crazy for the government to dictate how we should discipline our kids and make parents fear Children’s Protective Services !  There are many other issues the government should be trying to intervene in then a person’s home.  

Although I won’t be able to attend, fellow sojourners up in North Florida are having an interesting event. Register here if you are interested in attending. I have a list of about 15 people in South Florida who have expressed interest in our conversations surrounding the Emergent discourse.

On another note, this past Sunday’s Sun-Sentinel (one of the major papers down here) highlighted a blogger, Lew Graff and his reviews on churches he’s visited in Florida. His favorite seems to be Calvary Fellowship whose pastor was highlighted with me in the Miami Herald’s Easter Edition on Emerging type churches, that info is here.  One of the churches he reviewed Oasis Church is not far from my current home.

I’m in the process of moving. Moving from one house to another - about 15 minutes from each other. The other house is beautiful. The house I am moving from was a nice house too, it was my first house (having been raised in the projects of the Lower East Side in NYC than graduating to apartments and condos). As a first house it has sentimental underpinnings for me.

As I walk around my house today, bare and naked walls, scattered boxes and literally just a plain old mess, it made me think of moving as a spiritual metaphor. In our spiritual journey, I think we “move” theologically many times and not unlike a literal move which has been studied and shown to be a major life stressor, so is a theological move–sometimes even more so.

Raised Catholic and finding Pentecostalism at 10…finding God a little later in my teens and finally growing up and having lived out experiences that rocked my faith many a times, I can surely say I’ve moved. Sometimes the moves have left me mentally exhausted and spiritually at want. Why? Because my embedded theology was uncovered and I realized what I really believed (or not). Recently when articles on Mother Teresa’s doubts about God came to light, I felt better. If a powerful instrument of God can feel doubt than what I feel at times is ok, right?

Like my personal life where I’ve moved to a better location, I feel I’ve moved to a better location theologically and spiritually. I live in a place called “Don’t Always Understand” (God), my neighbors are great but sometimes barge in during unwanted times like “Destiny” who reminds me that I’m on earth for a reason even when all reason goes out the window and doors seem to close faster than open. Then there’s good ol’ “Doubt” who always pokes me with questions, questions that I was usually afraid to find the answer to if it didn’t neatly fit into my theological foundation. Hanging with doubt however has led me to a God that I’ve found is not afraid of questions.

I’ve always hated moving. Packing, unpacking. Moving is stressful because you have the Pre-mess and the After-mess. Isn’t that just like us when we go into a period of questioning, of trying to discern God’s next step for us, trying to figure out if the step we took was the right one to take? My church planting experience has had me in a tale spin since 2005. I have not liked the moves I’ve had to make because of my experiences but they were necessary to make me who I am today. Without those experiences, some painful and some downright disappointing, I would have stayed in a house (belief system) that has outlived its usefulness in my life.

In my life right now, I am contemplating church plant issues as I simulteanously contemplate life purpose and a literal move to a great home. Yeah, I’m moving again, both literally and spiritually, but this time I welcome the move.

I have to get this off my chest. Yes its a rant. Sorry, but I gotta go there.  As a church planter and ministry leader, this is something that many in a similar role don’t talk about at least not in public because well…its not comfortable and sometimes the leader doesn’t want others to know just how much they are needed.

I say, hey…people can’t read your mind and sometimes we leaders need to cut to the chase and be real with folks. My issue? SO many people who call themselves Christians (and they very well may be as they may have a relationship with Abba) don’t want to work in the kingdom. Spectators is what most people are and on top of that, criticizers. I don’t have any problem whatsoever with people who get involved and then have something to say about problems they encounter but yeah, I do have an “issue” with those who sit by the sidelines and judge, critize and offer their “easy solutions to the problem” without ever having given or lent a hand.

Now before you think something happened to me recently to get me in this mode, let me offer the “NO its not that” answer. I just heard of an organization that matches Christians with volunteer opportunities. ChristianVolunteering.org is a free directory with over 2,000 volunteer opportunities in ministries serving the “poor.”  The site’s partners include the Salvation Army, GospelCom (BibleGateway.com), World Vision, the Association of Gospel Rescue Missions and over 1,000 ministries serving
under-resourced communities. I think its a great thing to do. But it got me thinking how many in my community (Latinos!!) sit on their butts and don’t get involved.

It’s this disease I call Christian comfort! Comfort is something that everyone wants to have in life. To have peace of mind, to be relieved from misery, to possess contentment and inner calm — certainly everyone desires that! But comfort is something few people possess. For some, comfort is when things go well in life, when I have all that I want, good health and few problems. Others would say that comfort is the ability to brush away the bad, to have a strong will, to take the bitter with the sweet. Still others say that comfort is to escape the realities of life, whether that be done by vacations, pills, or liquor.

I’m not saying that comfort is bad. But wanting comfort 24/7 is! The Christian journey is not about comfort. Remembering the greatest story we’ve heard that of Jesus entering this world, we are reminded that He didn’t come seeking comfort, that his reality was very UN-comfortable from the moment He was born in a stable no less to the moment He died. Why is it that so many of us just want comfort?

Seeking comfort and less hassles usually creates the “church hoppers” , the “uninvolved” and bottomline, the dead Christians. I know here in FL, there are SO many church goers with mega churches in close proximity to many households. However, those who get involved in  helping the church to be more to their community outside of the church is near non-existent. In my church plant alone, many left because the obviousness of (us) needing help was to much for their conscience (and the guilt was too much).

 All this to say, what’s up with Christian comfort? Are we in this to chill or to make a difference people!? If you are here because you know you are here to make a difference, volunteer either through ChristianVolunteering.org or with your local church or faith-based ministry. The truth is they need you.

Today is Thanksgiving day 2007 and the beginning of the holiday season. I love this time of year, I go all the way decorating my home, have music on most of the day and watch Christmas movies with the family. I love to reflect on the meaning of the Thanksgiving and the days ahead. Although I have been dealing with Bursitis with tremendous pain in my upper back and my right writing arm and have had to resort to prescribed drugs to help with the pain, I still feel an incredible amount of thankfulness today.

I guess it is because my life could have turned out so differently then it is now. I grew up in the Lower East Side surrounded by drug addicts, young single moms, raised by a single mom who had two jobs just to care for me and my sister. As a latchkey child, I could have been in alot of trouble most of the time. But I was introduced to God at an early age and going to church made all the difference in my life. Sure, I have had my run ins with those who don’t walk their talk, those who give Christians a bad name BUT thankfully I learned it never has been about THEM. It’s all about me and God. He’s kept me–out of trouble when I was younger, sane when I was older going through all the drama I’ve endured.

I am thankful I am more in love with my hubby than when I married him and that is with an almost near breakup in 2001;

I am thankful for my older son who has always been very healthy and never been hospitalized;

I am thankful that my younger son didn’t die on me this past Mother’s Day even after being resusitated 5 times!;

I am thankful that God kept me through the dissertation process without killing anyone especially after a certain person kept rejecting my submission (5th time was a charm);

I am thankful that God always provided for me and my family even after I was let go of a job at a so-called “Christian” university because I was “too much of a women’s advocate”;

I am thankful that my family and I made it through a lawsuit against the hospital who made serious mistakes with my younger boy and finally admitted it!

I am thankful that I was able to get a house and car of my dreams and will be spending my Christmas in awe of what God can do;

Finally, I am thankful for what I learned through the church plant experience even if it didn’t turn out to be what I dreamed it would be–the journey of highs and lows has made me so much wiser and aware of things we take for granted such as loyalty, spirituality, friendship, and honor.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone. God is good!

As many of you know if you’ve been reading my blog for any length of time, my son’s present condition was preventable but occurred due to hospital error. We are now on the other side of a malpractice suit which was settled but reading this story reminds me that hospital screw ups touch the famous and the not-so-famous.

Outreach Magazine wrote about me as one of the “Faces of the Future” for their Nov/Dec  2007 issue. The link is here .  I am humbled that they would want to write about what I have done. It’s interesting that we usually never view ourselves as someone who is doing anything substantial and most of the time I know for myself, I feel like I haven’t done much. Truth is, I feel I still have so much to do yet many times I’m tired.

I was in NYC for 1 ½ days to handle some personal business and as always I try to meet up with my closest friends. As I connected with one of them, she and her husband who also happen to be church planters  tried to encourage me to do the Churchill “Never, never, never quit.” We are both facing many challenges as planters with little resources but also both feel like this is what we are supposed to be doing. I found this reflection on the web and thought of how I need to balance my dreaming with my doing.  I’ve been spoiled by having started with the big that I don’t realize that small is the new big in this day and age—this viewpoint has held me back from doing things in Florida to engage the community here. It’s taken me a while to get used to the way things are done here. I guess you can say I’ve been like a big baby stomping around in private about how the mindsets of people and the way things are done here in FL are so different.

However, in between the arrival to NYC and my return trip back to FL last night, I feel like I was given a new resolve to continue until I win. Winning for the kingdom that is…impacting lives, facing the giants in the land and continuing to do what I was wired to do. In order to do that I need a winner mentality, I found this reflection below that keys in on what winners do and think. Perhaps it can be useful to you too!

Winners

Winners take chances like everyone else,
They fear failing, but they refuse to let fear control them.

Winners don’t give up,
When life gets tough, they hang in until the going gets better

Winners are flexible.
They realize there is more than one way and they are willing to try others.

Winners know they are not perfect.
They respect their weaknesses while making the most of their strengths.

Winners fall, but they don’t stay down.
They stubbornly refuse to let a fall keep them from climbing.

Winners don’t blame fate for their failures,
Nor luck for their successes.Winners accept responsibility for their lives.

Winners are positive thinkers who see good in all things.
From the ordinary, they make the extraordinary.

Winners believe in the path they have chosen even when it’s hard,
Even when others can’t see where they are going.

Winners are patient.
They know a goal is only as worthy as the effort that’s required to achieve it.

Winners are people like you.
They make this world a better place to be.

 Nancye Sims