Filed under: Church, Connections, Friends, LOVE, Personal | Tags: Diversity, Orange County, Orlando
One thing that I love about C3 Church that I don’t think that I have ever really talked about on my blog is the diversity that God has blessed us with. When I say diversity you might think I am only talking about race but you would be mistaken. Race is only one aspect of the diversity found at C3 Church. We not only have diversity in race but diversity in age. We have diversity in socio-economic levels. We have diversity in religious denominations or no religious affiliation at all. God has blessed C3 with just an incredible melting pot of different people with one desire to “love God and love others!”
I really believe that C3 church is truly a microcosm of Orlando. Orlando is a very diverse metropolitan area where many different races and cultures combine. I think that every church should reflect their culture through diversity. If you take an honest look at your church congregation and 98 percent of your congregation is representing only one race or culture then I think you are missing the boat. In fact Orange county is now so diverse that minorities are now the majority of the population in our county. C3 Church is in fact very close in mirroring this trend in the Central Florida area. It is truly a blessing to see our racial diversity at C3 Church.
I also heard it said that as we transitioned C3 Church to a more contemporary model that the older generations would not come. Well to be honest with you that could not be a more incorrect statement. Yes we had a lot of “churched” senior adults move to other churches in our transition but God has brought in a lot of older un-churched folks who have found Christ and some older Christ-followers that love others so much that they enjoy C3 Church and the work that is being done. So diversity in age, young and old!
We have people that speak English and second languages such as Spanish, French, German, Korean and the list goes on and on which represents a diversity of cultures. We also have Catholics, Methodist, Pentecostals, Baptists, Presbyterians, non-denominational, etc. and most of all un-churched religious backgrounds. Diversity is part of C3 Church.
I am so proud how God has given C3 Church the platform and ability to speak the truth of the love of Christ not only to a select few but to ALL people here in Orlando. Loving God and loving others, that’s what it’s about at C3! Love Wins!
Next week we will be starting a new sermon series called “Tweet This!”. Obviously this series is based on the popular social networking program called Twitter. We will be taking a look at some characters in the Bible that will encourage your walk with Christ. Some of these characters you might know of and some you might not.
This will be an interactive sermon series so in case you don’t have a Twitter account you probably should get one. (Link to set up a Twitter account) It is going to be a blast as we take a look at some great stories in God’s Word. Join us at C3 Church on Sundays and on Twitter as we “Tweet This!”
To my beautiful wife. You are the most beautiful woman in the world! You are the glue that holds our house together. You will be the best mom ever. You will be the hottest mom ever. I love waking up beside you in the morning and I love going to sleep next to you at night. Even though life gets tough at times I know we can make it through together. Thanks for letting me lean on you many times. Thank you for loving my mom unconditionally. Thank you for loving me unconditionally. You are the best friend that I could ever have. I really do love you beyond what my feable attempts to put into words allows me to communicate. I love you Andrea, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Filed under: Personal
Alright. Everything I’m going to share is just from my heart. I know all of the truth of scripture and that God never leaves us or forsakes us and I believe that and have no doubts. I’m just going to share something with you that I have thought so many times, even from childhood and I’m sure many of you have thought at one time or another. Wouldn’t it be really cool if you could just sit down with Jesus face to face to talk and ask questions. I know, I know, we can pray and carry on convos with Him but I’m talking about sitting down with Him literally and just talking. Sometimes I imagine what it would feel like if I could have a real tangible and audible conversation with the Son of God. I often think about how much stronger I would be if this scenario could be played out and how comforting it would be for me. Then, I realize that the strength does not come with an easy convo but in the faith and believing even when you can’t see.
I think the disciples had it great because they could talk and do life with Jesus but even they had difficulty in believing at times even though they witnessed the miracles. So I’m no different than any other human being that has walked on the earth. It’s always going to be difficult to understand “things” and then have the ability to easily trust through difficult circumstances. Life will never get easy and there will always be struggles which makes it difficult at times to trust in the One who you can not even see, hear or touch. But,….then I think about what God “spoke” to us in the Bible, “Blessed are those that haven’t seen but still believe!” I grab hold of that and realize that everything will be OK.
loveworshiplovelife 