God and Politics

Now that I am back from Orlando I have much to share with you readers in the next few days about The Florida Renewal Project Conference I attended. Let me start off by saying that this was an eye-opening, jaw-dropping experience for me as the Christian morality of this country in the realms of politics has been steeply decreasing. It seems that most Christians feel that they should leave politics out of the church and their lives. Wrong! It is our God-given duty to elect the right leaders for our government. To not care (not vote) in my opinion is an absolute sin in God's eyes! We must vote based on our Christian values, not on a party preference or getting one candidate in over another one.

Also, the Florida Marriage Amendment is falling short of petitions due to and audit (I feel it was corrupted by the ACLU) and If you have not signed it, are registered to vote in Florida, and feel that marriage is between one man and one woman, then click here...sign the form and mail it now. It must be in by Tuesday the 29th in Orlando. Get as many as you can and sign it now!

Looking forward to sharing with you some thoughts from the speakers like David Barton, Newt Gingrich, Tim Lahaye, John Hagee, Bob Mcewen, Mike Huckabee, and others. Do not forget to vote on Tuesday!

I'm Back From Convention

Hello everyone,
I'm back now from the Florida Baptist Convention in Daytona Beach, Fl. and ready to tackle the pile of papers, messages, and bills on my desk. Fusion should be great tonight and I am looking forward to Grind, Grub, and Golf Day this saturday.
The convention went well and overall it was an enjoyable time with great music, preaching, and meeting old college buddies from BCF. The business meeting part was quite boring to be completely honest with you, but it was necessary.

Gone Fishin...I wish!

Well I am off to Daytona for the week due to the annual Florida Baptist State Convention. I should be back to post about all my adventures on thursday! Anyways, have a great week everybody!

Getting Away From Distractions

Well Jessica and I are back and attempting to recover from taking our youth group camping this past week! Even though we both are exhausted, it was a awesome time! Some highlights and funny things that happened was the late-night hike in the woods (it's always fun when you get a youth to hide back in a bush and jump out and grab someone...ahhh the ear piercing screams!) Of course there were campfires and S'mores! Swimming in an alligator habitat was fun and fearful at the same time! The last night we were there it stormed and my tent and another one of the guy's flooded out! Needless to say I crammed all the guys in one tent and I literally slept under the stars and was awoken by raccoons only twice!

Amongst all the craziness, wetness, lack of sleep and stress, the more important thing that took place was the bonding of our group with each other and with my wife and I. We had a total of eight youth come! (for those of you think 8 is no big deal...my group was only 2 youth in July!) I had some cancellations at the last minute which could have brought the total to 10. It's awesome to see numerical growth but that is not nearly important as spiritual and relational growth in the group. My church supports me in this philosophy of youth ministry and they are just as excited as I am.

During the camp-out we took time to focus on getting away from the distractions in life and think about those less fortunate to have all the luxuries teens have today. There's no better setting than in the middle of the woods with no electricity, video games, computers, ipods, television, phones, or radios to learn about focusing on God's purpose in there life! We live our lives with countless distractions. Work, family, money, politics, and even church eats away at our time alone with God. Our distractions become our idols! Let me challenge you to spend three days without any electronics, phones, etc. and spend that time alone in God's word and prayer just like my group did this past week!

Be Back Monday

Bye everyone...Jess and I are off to our camping trip....be back monday

Sound Off Campout!

Hey everyone...I haven't been able to spend much time lately posting new material and I apologize. I have been preparing for a campout with FUSION this week and things are getting crazy! As of Sunday, my total for youth wanting to go went from 5 to 12 !!! wow! I don't know if they all are actually going to go until Wednesday Night but it is exciting to see a group finally have some numerical growth along with the spiritual.

This campout with actually be a fasting time from all media devices like video games, cell phones, ipods and such. The time spent away from media will be turned into discipleship. We leave Thursday after school and will be camping till Saturday. Hope no one gets eaten by alligators!

I'm Back and Running

Hey guys...I am back from the FOCUS conference and it was awesome! I learned alot about building relationships with youth and not youth ministries. more of that to come.

I got back Saturday to find out that i will be preaching tonight in church due to the death of the pastor's mother. I have a funeral tomorrow morning for my piano lesson teacher when i was in school, I have a meeting with the high school activities director, a choir music reading conference tuesday in Lakewood Ranch , FUSION on Wednesday, and a See You @ the Pole Rally on Saturday! ...welcome home Bill!