When I use the word simple, I mean not complex, not confusing, hard to understand or be a part of. Church should be done in such a simple way that everyone present is able to understand the basic message of what is being communicated and what is being done. Immediately some will assume that I am speaking of creating a church that seeks to make it “easy” for people. I have never been good at faking the funk with people, and I am not about to begin doing so now. The gospel of Christ has a simple message: believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. For me, this means that at some point in a person’s life, a decision is made to believe in God and to be in a relationship (a life-long journey) with him until he returns to him. It’s a simple message. As a church, we believe in this and will not ever steer away from it.

I have African American friends, Caucasian friends, Asian friends, friends from the Hispanic cultures, the Caribbean, Brazil, Canada, my friend Makinda from Africa and many friends and family in the Bahamas. I love the different colors and cultures of people that exist in our world. I think it is one of the coolest things God did for us. Some would consider the differences that exist between people to be a curse. However, it is healthy for the cultures of this world to deal with the challenges of diversity. The church, more than the world, seems to struggle with these differences. It is heartbreaking that even today in the year 2011, Sunday at 11am is still the most segregated hour in the life of communities all around the world. In majority of churches within America, cultures of people continue to remain amongst themselves (their people) and worship in ways that they would define as comforaccordionle and safe. This has to change. The question that I continuously ponder as I look at these traditional models is, for the “White church”- is the kingdom of God only for white people? For the “Black church”- is the Kingdom of God only for black people? For the “Hispanic” and “Asian church”- is the Kingdom of God only for Hispanics and Asians? At this church we will work to the very end to make sure all people in the seats feel safe, valued and appreciated. How do we ensure this? We intentionally make sure our attendees see other people who look like them up front leading in our celebration and leading this church. We intentionally use music, movie clips and humor that have been put together by an amazing creative team who uses their own personal stories, illustrations, testimonies and experiences to connect with the people in the seats. Here is the real deal, we like doing church with our friends and at the end of the day our friends come from all walks of life.

Doing Life together is vital to us as a church. We must strive to build our community among each other. The world encourages people to cultivate community with those who share commonalities. In many churches, this is the norm; people on the same economic level, same lifestyles, the same everything doing church together. However, this is not the church Jesus models for us. Jesus teaches us to embrace all people, from all walks of life. We must be that church – a diverse, beautiful, wonderaccordiony made group of people doing life together – doing small groups together, eating together, laughing together, crying together, going through tough situations together, figuring out life together, enjoying life together and growing into Christian maturity on a daily basis.

Got to tell you the truth, I like to have fun and laugh. I don’t see why this should have to change. Church should be a fun experience. We will laugh a lot ?.

I’m just a simple guy, raising my kids, loving my wife and growing in my walk with God. I am a broken vessel continuously being worked on by God. The worldly things I used to do, I don’t do them as much anymore. The mistakes I used to make, I don’t make so many of them now. I am not perfect. However, I choose not to live in a state of imperfection. I must be and do better each and every day of my life.

We must be an outward focused church. We must be a church that is always finding ways to serve those outside of the church. We must invest in the lives of the poor and those who don’t know Christ. We must do all of this because Christ models this for us and commands us to do so.

Be you and be real. We all have been designed by God with all kinds of quirks, specifications (whatever they are) and oh yea baby brokenness. With that said, despite whatever our stuff is, it’s okay to be you; to live 100% authentic. Doing so avoids surprises (our brokenness being turned into secrets by the devil) and gives each person the ability to reach the accordion potential that God intends for them. I believe in growing slow in order to allow a deeper relationship in the long term. Be you. You will be more comfortable in your own skin.

For us, the space in which we do church is not about the building. We believe that the spirit of God honors the people not the place. Therefore, we simply come together to experience God and watch Him do amazing things. We simply use the building as a resource to assist us in showing how cool and amazing God is and how much he loves us and others.

Our worship experience is all about an experience. We call our worship experience “a celebration.” We usually meet for an hour to 75 minutes. We plan and practice what we have in store for our worship experience and leave it to God to do the rest. We respect time and feel that God honors the fact that we are timely in everything we do.

We must invest and build into the next generation with excellence and care. We believe that our children and our youth should not have to sit on the sideline and bear with us as we do what we do. We truly believe that they should and must be able to have their own experience and come to the place of knowing God for themselves. We also believe that if they stay, they play. If they stay with us in the celebration, we find ways to allow them to be a part of the celebration. We hope and pray that all of our children and students come to know and accept God for themselves. This is a really cool thing.

Within my Sunday messages or even in my conversations with others, there is always a practical message or call to action. We should always be challenged to do something. It is one thing to hear something that can help us in life. It’s a whole other thing to hear something and put it into action. I truly believe that God wants us to be people of action.

I love all kinds of music, especially music that has meaning. The music that we play will be presented in a creative and worshipful way. Our musicians are skilled and gifted to provide the best, most creative music for God. You will be blessed and amazed by our music team.