Join The Conspiracy.

Dear Centerpoint Church Family,

I love this time of year – parties, family, good food, and a focus on generosity in our society that is different than any other time of year. As The Church, we should be at the forefront of that generosity.

During the month of December, I’m inviting everyone connected to Centerpoint Church to participate in our Advent Conspiracy Offering. The idea behind Advent Conspiracy is turning this season upside down to unleash an avalanche of generosity on our community to advance the Gospel and meet needs because of the Gospel. This is the time of year where we put feet to our faith – where we show our community the love of Jesus.

The idea here is that as we buy gifts for other people, we want our largest, most extravagant gift to go to Jesus. We’ll use 100% of the donations to the Advent Conspiracy Offering to fund the following projects:

• Adding a full-time pastor to our staff. Our church has grown by nearly 150% over the past year, making it one of the fastest growing small churches in the country (Ed Stetzer, Lifeway Research of churches of 1,000 and under). The exciting thing for us is that many of those people are new to “the church” or are returning after being away for years. This has created a great need to add additional leadership in order to continue to create great environments, develop leaders, and have the structure to reach more people. Adding staff is in line with our vision, which is not just to grow numerically, but to help those who are attending CC to grow spiritually.  
 

• Planting our first CC extension campus near USF. The addition of another full-time staff member will allow us to partner with several groups who are also passionate about reaching college students, the least-churched demographic in the United States. We already have college students who commute and are asking about the possibility of inviting their friends to an extension campus closer to their university. 
 

• Digging wells through Living Water International. We will send money to dig several wells in Uganda where the lack of clean water is directly linked to disease and death. It’s an amazing opportunity to show the love of Jesus globally. 

On December 16, 2012, we will receive the Advent Conspiracy Offering during both of our weekend services. We’re providing special giving envelopes and encouraging everyone to come prepared to give on that day. You can get more information on the offering at www.centerpointfl.org/AC.

If you’re going to be out of town on December 16 or if you’d like to go ahead and donate now, you can do that online at www.centerpointfl.org. It’s safe, secure and simple to use.

In addition, during our Advent Conspiracy campaign we are encouraging every CCer to be generous with food and time. Donate food for Metropolitan Ministries on December 9^th and donate time by serving at one of the incredible compassion organizations we partner with. We also have an Advent Devotional Guide with activities for individuals, families, and community groups during this season. All of the details are at www.centerpointfl.org/AC.

Please pray about participating and conspiring with us. God has given us an extraordinary stewardship of this message of reckless grace. Let’s unleash a wave of generosity for more people to encounter Jesus and for real physical needs to be meet.

Bryant

Lead Pastor and Fellow Bridge Builder

Centerpoint Church

Video Messages & Important Things To Know...

CCers,

Over the course of the last month, our gathering at Centerpoint Church has continued to grow numerically because you have invited! As a result, we have experienced an explosion of life change that has been un-matched in the life of our church as people have trusted Christ, taken steps to heal from addictions, and have given their lives back to Jesus. The power of God working through His movement, the church, to radically change lives with His reckless grace is alive and well. This note from Sunday, which is one of the many stories of life change, reminds us of the fact that every person, every invite, every encounter represents someone who needs the love of Jesus.

The next two weekends are strategic times to ask someone to attend with you.

• This Sunday Bryant (@bryant_golden, lead pastor) concludes our series “The Shocking Statements of Jesus”. He will answer the question posed last week, “What does love require of me?” Our band will also introduce two new songs. It’s going to be an amazing Sunday and a great time to invite a guest to attend for the first time. You can send an e-invite at www.centerpointfl.org/invite.php, share our Facebook page at www.facebook/CenterpointChurchFL, or share our Twitter handle @CenterpointFL. The point is, if you have been waiting for a Sunday to invite, then this is the perfect time.

• Then, next Sunday, Oct. 21st, we begin a brand new series called Upgrade. Many of us have never really thought about what it might look like to upgrade our walk with God - to step into the life Jesus created us for. So for several weeks we are going to talk about what that looks like practically. We say this often, but a new series is a great time to invite someone. Don’t miss it!

Video Messages. Lastly, we have recently created a youtube channel for Centerpoint Church at www.youtube.com/CenterpointFL. We post our weekly announcement videos and now our messages. The first message posted is "The Shocking Statements of Jesus, Part 5 (Grace & Truth)". The quality of video and audio will improve in the coming weeks and it will serve as another tool to view messages and share them with others in our community.

We look forward to seeing you Sunday at 9 or 11 AM.

Bryant (Lead Pastor)

Why Wouldn't We...?

So we are five weeks into the launch of our second service and, honestly, I have never seen our gathering more passionate about carrying out our mission at Centerpoint: “To lead people into a relationship with Jesus Christ…” and our strategy: “To partner with culture to tear down unnecessary barriers to the Gospel”.

I specifically want to encourage you to be bold and ask someone to join you for one of our services this Sunday at 9 or 11 AM. This is one of those talks that is perfect for those who have been turned off by the church or “Jesus followers” as well as for those who consider themselves “Jesus followers”. Seriously take advantage of this opportunity Sunday as well as the remaining couple weeks of this series. You have no idea what’s at stake with a simple invite! That was never more evident than this past Sunday (one of my all time favorites at CC).

A couple stories…

• A college student invited five friends from her college campus in St. Pete. She came up after the second service to tell us about her Agnostic friend who was in tears during the service and immediately began asking questions about God.
• Another CCer shared with us that his openly Atheistic father-in-law, who’s been hostile toward the church, came to the 11 am service after years of being invited (so don’t give up on who you’ve been inviting). He was extremely impressed by our volunteers and, in a positive way, his experience was nothing like he thought it would be– high praise from an Atheist who’s been hostile to church! It has opened the door to several conversations since Sunday.
• A high school girl came last Wednesday and told one of our leaders she has a lot of questions about God. She came again Sunday WITH her parents! That’s why we constantly tell people it’s safe to come and to have questions.
• We also had the privilege of talking to three men Sunday who either had questions about Jesus or a desire to follow Jesus: One man is struggling with an addiction, one told us his story of running from God, and the other is currently on probation from a recent arrest!
• Dang, that reminds me of Jesus eating with the sinners & tax collectors…and if the church is the representative of Jesus’ body on earth, then maybe we are on to something! Maybe there is something to this grace & truth thing! ☺

Last Sunday reminded me again what’s at stake EVERY week. Stories like the above are represented in our services every Sunday; so why wouldn’t we give our lives to seeing people’s view of the church and consequently Jesus change forever? Why wouldn’t we pray for boldness to invite people whose lives may change forever as a result? Why wouldn’t we invest in the lives of these children & students who are looking for answers and hope? Why wouldn’t we give generously to Jesus’ church to see this happen?

You have to understand this doesn’t happen by accident. People are giving sacrificially & generously, passionately serving, and INVESTING & INVITING like crazy. So to those people we say “THANK YOU” and to others who are on the fence, I want to encourage you to step into being a part of this unstoppable movement that is the church.

This past Sunday was also our largest non-holiday attendance ever. HIS church continues to grow. The number of people in both services is very even, which gives us a great opportunity to continue to reach more people in both time slots this Fall.

As a pastor friend of mine says, “we can’t lead anyone to fall in love with Jesus but we can keep setting up the dates!” And that’s what we plan to do – everything short of sin to remove unnecessary barriers to the Gospel, preach grace & truth, invite EVERYBODY in and keep settin’ up the dates.

Love you all! The best is yet to come!

Bryant (fellow bridge builder & lead pastor)

Chasing The Invisible

Momentum is a difficult thing to define. You know when you have it, and you certainly know when you don’t. It is that “It” factor that gives energy to your work, unity in your family, success in your marketplace, and passion for God. You can’t manufacture momentum. It just seems to happen.

In Spiritual terms, it’s an act of God’s grace (God’s undeserved favor) in your circumstances and life. However, there are some things that contribute to gaining and sustaining momentum. I like Dave Ramsey’s definition of momentum: “Focused intensity over time multiplied by God equals unstoppable momentum”.  The multiplication and supernatural power of God are what only He can do, but the focused intensity (on the right things) is what we can do to position ourselves as candidates for unstoppable momentum. Throughout this past year and into the launch of our second service three weeks ago, we have seen incredible momentum surge through Centerpoint as Jesus has faithfully built His Church. It is more than numerical growth, we have witnessed life transformation week after week. People are accepting Jesus as their Savior, going public with their faith through baptism, healing from generational sin, restoring broken relationships, and falling more in love with Jesus. It’s easy to simply say that the Holy Spirit is working (and He is); but like the churches in Revelation, we can invite or discourage the kind of supernatural momentum we seek. I think there are a couple things that require our focused intensity as we move forward. 

1. Focus on others. In Matthew 28:19-20, we find our marching orders as the church. As we obey the commands to make disciples and to baptize, God promises to manifest His Spirit in a unique way. Right now is the best time of year to invite a coworker, friend, or neighbor. We’ve seen God do unbelievable things as we have collectively invested in our relationships and invited people to our church gathering. Lives have been transformed! As a friend of mine likes to say, “We can’t make people fall in love with Jesus, but we can set up the date.”

2. Focus on being open handed. Jesus instructed Christ-followers to leverage their time, gifts, and wealth for their good and His glory. Jesus also made the promise that we could re-direct our passions when they are in the wrong place, specifically with our wealth. As a church, the basis of our message is the generosity of Jesus. So when we are generous to give toward those coming to know Jesus, He changes our hearts (Matt. 6:21). Now more than ever it is crucial for us to be generously giving regularly and systematically toward all that God is doing through Centerpoint in order to keep the momentum alive.  So much is happening to create powerful children and student environments, life-changing weekend services, and opportunities for college-age adults. Thank you for your continued generosity to  make this happen!

3. Focus on playing our part. We are all joined together as “supporting ligaments in the house of God”, which means we have been made a part of God’s Church by His grace. Your part is indispensable. Serve where God has gifted you; find a place where there is a need. We have seen so many CCers step up to serve well every single week. If you haven’t yet, join us in being a Bridge Builder in one of our ministry environments. It will change some one's life, not to mention yours. 

4. Focus on recognizing nothing happens without Jesus. See the negative side of momentum is this,  “our pride and complacency repels the special presence of God” – Matt Chandler.  Prayer is where we surrender our will and declare our dependence on Him. We can do nothing without His power. Continue to pray with us and join us on October 3^rd at 7 PM for our next corporate Night of Worship and Prayer.

I am so excited about all that God is doing at CC as He continues to reach the 60,000 unchurched in our immediate area. I am passionate that Centerpoint always stays in a position of focused intensity so that we do not hinder the momentum God has so graciously multiplied and sustained over the past year. Thank you for being a conduit to the Gospel week after week by inviting, serving, giving, and praying.

Love you guys!

Bryant (CC Bridge Builder)