Its been too long!

Its been a while! The church plant I lead worship for, Crossway Church, launched earlier this month. I’m really excited to see what God is going to do. We are currently at 70 people, and growing! Go to our website and check us out! www.crosswaychurch.net

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This month I grew my library by 80 books. All thanks goes to my brother Eddie. Eddie is on staff over at Coral Ridge Presbyterian (www.crpc.org), and he called me last friday to let me know that their bookstore is selling almost all their books for $1 each! So needless to say, I cleaned them out! Here’s a picture!

Tragedy 1 – Jimmy 0 ?

When you look back and really wonder about how on earth you are where you are. The answer is always God is mercifully guiding you.  In my case, Hosea 6:1-2 is the story of my life.

2009 was a solid year……

1) I found out I was going to lose my job about 3 weeks after I got married.

2) I had jobs lined up and 3 weeks before my last paycheck, both jobs called me letting me know they couldn’t hire me due to lack of tithing.

3) The ONLY offer that stood was for a church plant. Which if you  are used to working for established churches, doesn’t seem like a great job to agree to 4 months into your marriage.

Seriously, what was I to do.

All Erin and I could do was pray. Our God is a big God. He gracefully saves his people,  and will gracefully provide. (By the way, if you think praying during this time is an easy task, contact me so I can tell you first hand how hard praying actually is)

Let me tell you about how big my God is….

Over the past 7 months, besides my leading for the usual camps and events through the summer, I’ve been helping churches out. Some friends of mine, and in most cases, friends of friends, have been calling me needing a worship leader or a service or for a couple weeks. I’ve led worship for 12 churches I’ve never played at before, and some never even heard of. Their stipends have been the only thing keeping Erin and I afloat.

Doesn’t end there…..

God hasn’t just been providing us with money to pay our bills, God has also given me something else I desperately needed. Through the past months, God has blessed me with new friendships with many pastors in South Florida. Honestly, I don’t know where I would be right now without their guidance.

God also gave us a great church home. Coral Ridge Presbyterian has been our church home now for the past 7 months. I can’t  begin to tell you what I’ve learned, not only practically and theologically, but what I’ve learned about the gospel and how the gospel applies in life. Its great to read books about it, but to hear it first hand from my friend Tullian has been a great joy and privilege. Brandon, their Director of Worship, has been a great friend and mentor. Without the both of them, I don’t even know where Erin and I would be.

God also opened the door for the church I grew up in, FBC Pompano Beach, to ordain me. They have been really gracious with me and put together an ordination council consisting of a couple deacons, the pastors at FBC, and a few dear friends of mine. I passed the exam and my service will be January 10th 2010 @ FBC Pompano.

On top of all those things. One day back in October, my wife sat me down and said, “Jimmy, I think God is mercifully guiding us to plant that church”. I started to think through all the events that started in January. I lost my job, no jobs opened up, the only offer that stood was a church plant that was launching in 2010. Through prayer, Erin and I decided, planting Crossway Church is what God wants us to do. Moreover, its what God caused us to do. If only you knew the joy I have now in my ministry with Jon, the senior pastor of Crossway.

Here is how the gospel applies in this…

God’s “bigness” has nothing to do with his capability to provide me with worldly possessions that I claim I need, but has everything to do with his grace.

God has the right to tear me down as much as he pleases. I have sinned against him! He is a rightesous God, one who must punish sin. Here is the best part: I have no right to being built back up. Because of my sin against God, my only right is death and Hell. For I bear the indignation of the Lord, until he pleads my cause (Micah 7). But our God is a loving God. One who shows grace to his people. He, by his own sovereign grace, decided he was going to built me back up. Why? What did I do? My actions just drive me more and more away from God, but his grace brings me near to him. That is election, and I humbly worship God everyday for it.

I am humbled.

I am currently living in Hosea 6:1-2.

“Come, let us return to the Lord;
for he has torn us, that he may heal us;
he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.
After two days he will revive us;
on the third day he will raise us up,
that we may live before him.”

-Jimmy

The Blogging Starts Now!

I apologize for not blogging for a while!

A lot has happened….

I’m planting a church! We launch in January 2010 in the Plantation/Davie area. Go check it out! www.crosswaychurch.net

We’ve had 2 preview services so far and both have had about 60-70 people.  Thats not church planter lingo for 30-40 people, but we really had 60-70 people. Please pray for us as we serve this city with the gospel.

www.crosswaychurch.net

Go to it!

A new adventure….

I am the worship pastor for a new church plant in South Florida. Check it out! www.crosswaychurch.net

God has been mercifully guiding me all through this past year and helping me realize this is where he wants me to be.

Pray for us please!

“More Relevant Than Thou…”

“…the church and its members must not seek the world’s approval by providing programs that pander to people’s need to feel popular and appreciated. The “more relevant than thou” approach to ministry may fill churches, but often at the expense of the cross and all its glorious foolishness and shame.”

An extremely relevant quote (pardon the pun) from Jason J. Stellman’s Dual Citizens. You can read an expanded quotation at Ligonier Ministries or purchase his book.

(via Nathan Bingham)

Spurgeon on Baptists…

About a year ago, when I worked at Oasis Church, my good friend Guy Melton gave me a paper that was ripped out of a magazine. On the paper was this great quote from Charles Spurgeon speaking on the history of Baptists. When uneducated pastors are shaking their heads and fists out of shame, I will always stand and say that I’m proud of my Baptist heritage. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

“We believe that the Baptists are the original Christians. We did not commence our existence at the reformation, we were reformers before Luther and Calvin were born; we never came from the Church of Rome, for we were never in it, but we have an unbroken line up to the apostles themselves. We have always existed from the days of Christ, and our principles, sometimes veiled and forgotten, like a river which may travel under ground for a little season, have always had honest and holy adherents. Persecuted alike by Romanists and Protestants of almost every sect, yet there has never existed a Government holding Baptist principles which persecuted others; nor, I believe, any body of Baptists ever held it to be right to put the consciences of others under the control of man.”

—Charles H. Spurgeon

What the pursuit of Holiness looks like

When we sin, we repent.

Biblically, I think Micah 7:8-9 shows repentance in a way that points the sinner back to Jesus. It points back to the very person who provided grace, took all wrath, and supplied Justice.

v8 Rejoice not over me, O my enemy;
when I fall, I shall rise;
when I sit in darkness,
the Lord will be a light to me.

v9 I will bear the indignation of the Lord
because I have sinned against him,
until he pleads my cause
and executes judgment for me.
He will bring me out to the light;
I shall look upon his vindication

On the cross, God executed judgement by looking to Jesus instead of looking at us. God vindicated us through Jesus. It is Jesus that takes us from darkness into his marvelous light.

You should memorize these two verses.

Good Music

I’m not just saying this because he’s one of my oldest and dearest friends. But check out my friend Fil’s band Mouvement . His e.p. will be coming out shortly and they’re going to be touring around Florida in August. Go see them if they are playing in a town near you.

Give an ear to their music on www.myspace.com/filipesound. The song “Making Landmarks” is seriously my jam.

-Jimmy

Tired of music

When you are tired of everything on your itunes and ipod what do you do?

I am currently looking through 13G’s of music on my macbook… and I can’t find anything that fits my current mood.

Usually this is when I either throw on the first Third Eye Blind album or some Denison Marrs.

What do you do?

Covering songs…

Why does being a good cover band make you a good worship leader?

I am reminded of that old movie with Mark Wahlberg and Jennifer Aniston from 2001 titled “Rock Star”.  *edit: video now works*

I quit playing in a cover band when I graduated… from middle school. Playing songs exactly like the CD may prove you are just as good as a musician as the CD you playing your worship songs from, but are you sure you’re not trying to make your worship band a Chris Tomlin tribute band, a Hillsong tribute band, or  a Paul Baloche tribute band? Are you Mark Wahlberg’s character? Are the “Top-20″ worship artists your Steel Dragon? (see trailer above)

What about doing music your own way? What about writing your own or arranging your own?

Make music your own. God has placed you in a city to minister to it. Your job as a worship leader is to help the senior pastor of your church build a city within a city. Play and write music that ministers to YOUR city. Are you willing to play the kind of music that it takes to reach people in your context, or are you only willing to lead with your own style?

Cool stuff

1) First off, my wife took a picture of one of the coolest things ever in St. Augustine. We went up there for our honeymoon and just found about 4 rolls of film and got them developed. Check it out via her Flickr.

2) I posted a new song. Check it out over at my mypace.

3) Passion tea is the greatest thing at starbucks.

4) I bought Delicious Library a couple months ago. If you use a mac, and have a personal library that you always lend to people (books, dvd’s, games, etc…), you should buy this program. It only casts $40 and is simply amazing!  Check it out from their website.

5) If you don’t follow the Cool Town Studio’s blog, you should.

C.S. Lewis

To along with the post below, my good friend Ryan posted this quote from C.S. Lewis’ book Mere Christianity

“They all say “the ordinary reader does not want theology”…I have rejected their advice. I do not think the ordinary reader is such a fool. Theology means “the science of God”, and I think any man who wants to think about God at all would like to have the clearest and most accurate ideas about Him which are available…If you do not listen to Theology, that will not mean that you have no ideas about God. It will mean that you have a lot of wrong ones—bad, muddled, out-of-date ideas.”