Hey All.
Our Grace field trip was awesome. I had a great time and I believe its fair to say we made a Restoration memory!
I wanted to thank Mike and Kelly (Grace’s Pastor and first lady!) for their hospitality yesterday.
I’ve attached some pics in this post that Dave took for us.
Enjoy!
A-
Here is the Grace trip info for Sunday, April 18th.
SCHEDULE
8:45– Meet at CCC and carpool out
10:00– Arrive at Grace
10:15– Guided tour begins
11:30– Attend the third Q&A worship Service
12:30sh–observe a few minutes of Break down
1sh–Lunch at Oboys BBQ (This is a dutch event :))—Casey Johnson our new staff hire will join us too.
After lunch we’ll head back.
DIRECTIONS
–Go to www.gogracefellowship.com and download them in case we get separated on I-4
PLEASE RSVP BY FRIDAY THE 16TH AT THE LATEST
Hoping and expecting to see you all there!
Hey All.
I wanted to ask you to check out Larry’s blog at:
http://www.themusicandthedance.com
You’ll find the details to the “Church Planting Boot Camp” we are hosting at Christ Community Church in May.
The Boot Camp will be a great way for you to learn about the task of church planting.
I hope you’ll visit the blog and attend the camp.
-Anthony
Hey All.
Just a reminder for our meeting tonight.
Same as usual. We’ll begin at 6:30 (please get there early if you intend to buy drinks).
We’ll be wrapping up our discussion in Breaking the Missional Code and talking about some of our future plans.
Looking forward to seeing all of you tonight.
Hey all.
I wanted to give you some important dates to remember.
Here they are:
April 12th- Will be our next meeting at the Java Jungle in Port Orange. We’ll begin at 6:30 and end around 9. Please plan to get there a bit early if you are going to purchase drinks.
April 18th- FIELD TRIP! We’ll be heading to Grace Fellowship (A good friend of mine planted this church in Orlando 7 years ago) to tour their operations and attend their worship service. We’ll meet at Christ Community Church at 8:30 am and will be leaving shortly after. After the worship we’ll grab lunch somewhere. You won’t want to miss this.
April 26th- Our second meeting for the month of April. Same instructions as the meeting on the 12th.
If you have any questions please feel free to submit them through this post!
Thanks,
Anthony
Hey All.
From here on out I’ll be sharing some of what is going on at the Java Jungle with our readers. Obviously, not everyone who reads the blog is coming to our gatherings.
In case you don’t know, the Java Jungle is a coffee shop located in Port Orange on Clyde Morris Blvd. Restoration Church is currently meeting there twice a month on Monday nights.
This past week we asked Larry Kirk (the Pastor of Christ Community Church, Daytona Beach, Florida) to share some of the lessons he learned while planting his church.
Here is a summary of what we talked about
1. Be focused. Starting a new church is an incredible opportunity that requires faithful workers. We were all challenged to think through how we can faithfully invest our lives into Restoration Church. (Hebrews 12:1)
2. Be flexible. Starting a new church involves a great deal of adventuring. This can be a very exciting and frustrating reality because we all come to the table with certain expectations. It is very likely that some of our expectations will look different than we expected. We were challenged to think through how we will respond to each other when expectations meet reality. (1 Corinthians 9:21-23)
3. Be prepared. Starting a new church is both a rewarding and challenging endeavor. We were all challenged to think through how we will prepare ourselves for the potential difficulties that lie ahead. (Acts 20:17-19, 28-32)
4. The Importance of Submission. Wow! That one sounds kind of rough; however it is in the Bible. Truthfully speaking, everyone in the church is accountable to someone. Everyone to God, the Pastors and Elders to each other and the church, the church to the Pastors and Elders. This is the way God has designed the New Testament Church to function. (Hebrews 13:17, 1 Timothy 5:17, 3:1)
5. Dependence on God. While there are many “lessons” we can learn in regard to church planting, none is as valuable as learning to depend on God. While we should plan, pray, and work hard, God tells us in the Bible that he is building His church and Kingdom. This is a truth we should find peace and comfort in. (Psalm 33:16, Acts 20:32)
So, what do you think?
Hey All.
Just a reminder that we will be meeting at the Java Jungle tonight.
Start time is 6:30 pm. Try to get there a little early if you plan to buy drinks.
Larry Kirk (aka Capt. Kirk) will be talking about some of the lessons he has learned through the process of planting Christ Community Church.
You will not want to miss this.
Hope to see you all there.
-Anthony
It’s that time of the blog again!
Many of you have been asking great questions about Restoration Church and I’d like others to hear what you’re asking too.
In light of this, I’d like to ask you to post them in this section of my blog.
You can submit your questions by writing them in the “Leave a Reply” section below this post.
I’ll do my best to answer your top questions about the new church.
I hope you’ll join our conversation.
So, what do you think?
Hey All.
Just a quick reminder that our next Restoration Church meeting will be on March 29th.
As usual, we’ll be meeting at the Java Jungle in Port Orange. We’ll start at 6:30. If you can, try to get there a little early to get your drinks.
Looking forward to seeing you all there.
-Anthony
You’ll find creativity at the very beginning of our Bible. The statement goes something like this, “in the beginning there was nothing, but God made everything”.
You do not have to be a Biblical scholar to understand the creative nature of our God. In fact, a quick look around at the complex beauty of the world we live in is evidence enough for me.
I’ll never forget watching the sunset in the bush of East Africa. The sky was fire red, and the plains over which the sun was setting seemed infinite. It was moving.
The desire we have to create stems from the very creative nature of our God. As people, we seem somewhat compelled to create. Look at the great cities of our world, the vast amount of music and art that have been made. Every year we redesign the body styles of cars, and clothing styles. I could go on, however I believe you get the point.
This is so because we as people are marked by the undeniable thumbprint of the one who created us. And the one who created us invented creativity!
Why then does it seem that our churches can often be the last place we see creativity? I’m not sure, and I cannot speak for anyone else, but I can speak for Restoration.
At Restoration Church in Port Orange, we intend to be a church that affirms and encourages the God-given desire we have to create. We want creativity to influence the way we teach, worship with music, use existing art forms like media and care for our community. Basically, we want to see creativity in all we do.
The best way we as a church can labor towards being a creative community is to deeply honor and celebrate the rooted, historical, ancient history we have in our Christianity while creating a culture that allows for creative expression in all we do.
So, what do you think?
Anthony is the Founding Pastor of Restoration Church, Port Orange, Florida. He's married to Carin, has one son Aiden, a baby girl named Adelaide, and is in the process of adopting a child from China. Born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, Anthony has a mild obsession with the Yankees.
outside the gate 
