Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: jail ministry, juvenile detention center, multi-gatherings, prison
We are at a place now where doors are opening at several detention centers in the Jacksonville area to bring the Celebration services and volunteers in. I’d like to ask my subscribers to pray that we not only get in, but have a consistent lasting presence in as many of these places as possible. What has happened at the St. Johns County Jail has been exceptional….now running 4 services a week there with around 50 inmates attending…. but it took 2 years to build the relationships and earn the trust to get in there. We are currently in that ‘building trust’ stage with several facilities.
If you have relationship with a jail, rehab center, homeless shelter, etc, I’d love to hear from you. We’d also like to hear from you if you are interested in joining our team of over 50 volunteers that visits these facilities- either weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly. We currently have a total combined ministry to some 400 people a month in places like this throughout Jacksonville, but I feel we are just scratching the surface.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: princess bride, fezzik, buttercup, the dread pirate roberts, inigo montoya, westley, epic, journey, pilgrim, nomad
I read this quote today, “to journey and not be changed is to be a nomad. To change without journeying is to be chameleon. To journey and be transformed is to be a pilgrim.”
I can think of 4 distinct journeys in my life, and in every one, I encountered a cast of characters who all had one big thing in common…. a love for the movie, “The Princess Bride” . I always get good buzz when thinking of it. Amongst other things, it was the movie Rachel and I were watched on our second date.
So throw me your favorite quotes or/and Princess Bride Stories….I’ll begin…
“You’ve been mostly dead all day.”- Fesik
Filed under: Uncategorized
I spoke 2 weeks back to our college crew at “College Life”, wrapping up the ‘Practical Atheist’ series. As always, it was a great time, and I made some great connections afterward with several passionate students….a couple who wanted to get involved in the prison ministry, several who were interested in bringing extension services to places like FSU and Valdosta…
So check out the podcast here. And next time I invite you to College Life, give it a try!
Filed under: Uncategorized
10 months ago at the end of a 10 day fast, our lead pastor, Pastor Stovall Weems, launched an initiative known as Multi-Gatherings/ Extension Services. Today, we announced to Celebration St. Johns Campus that we have accepted his invitation to take the lead staff positions over all the Extension Services and Hosts of Celebration Church. It’s a great honor and an exciting time, as this movement promises to be an incredible venue for God to reach people in rehab centers, hospitals, military bases/vessels, jails, prisons, colleges, schools, and more.
The beginning of this season signals an end to our season as campus pastors in the St. Johns community. Rachel and I will continue to attend St. Johns Campus as our ‘home campus’, but will also be rotating to our other campuses and extensions on weekends to oversee and provide support to our extension services and hosts.
Our church is bringing new leadership to St. Johns with our great friends Pastors Dennis and Debbie Heald. Amongst other endeavors, Dennis has long played a leading role in men’s ministries at Celebration, specifically overseeing the parking/ushers/security teams at multiple campuses – all the while gathering men, discipling them, and bringing unparallelled strength to the church men’s ministry. Debbie has been on staff for over 5 years, with concentrations in women’s ministry (Shine), youth ministry, and college ministry. She’s been the fuel that kept the youth motor running at all campuses, and she’s equally excited to take on this new role. They will be great representatives of our Pastors Stovall and Kerri at the campus.
So we can’t wait to take the church to the 4 corners of creation! It’s been a strong desire in my heart that God planted in me during 1 Prayer last year that God would multiply the number of churches/plants out of the special work He is doing at Celebration. The Extension Services are a large part of that dream, as they are the first step in a community group becoming a ‘campus’. The idea of an extension service is to take the church to people rather than trying to get people to church…a ‘reverse bus ministry’ so to speak. So far, we’ve had 2 extension services morph into full fledged campuses. Here’s a description of Extension Services from www.stovallweems.com.
Filed under: Entertainment, Uncategorized | Tags: barbarian way, gladiator, guy movies, Religion
I hit the Monday wall and caved yesterday after the craziest school year I can remember. I went to Blockbuster and rented Gladiator. This one liner came back to me almost immediately…
“What we do in life echoes in eternity”-Maximus
What are some of your favorite one liners?
Filed under: Uncategorized
Yes, I said Weekness. In the busy-ness of the past week, I’ve seen God strong in several places..
( A side note- Rachel was with family for the weekend- I’ve learned that a man just can’t live off Captain Crunch even if it’s buy 1 get 1 week at Publix…)
We did a lunch for 19 of our graduating seniors- catered in Cheesecake Factory- and it was a blast. I’ll be writing blog posts about them because of what I learned at a funeral at an A.M.E. church a couple years back, “Don’t save my flowers for me for when I’m gone”
Which brings me to this…. we worked for 3 months with essentially 3 other churches to pull off an event remembering the 6 seniors who’ve passed away from the Class of 2009 at our local high school. You can find a summary of the event here. It was really humbling to have a chance to speak with the parents of these kids. I’ll be writing here soon about tips for churches/groups in responding to such crises as those we’ve experienced this year. While it was a beautiful moment in time, I’m just more resolved than ever to appreciate and encourage the living.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Graduation is about 6 weeks out. We’ve done lots of stuff in the past for our graduates….Olive Garden catered in, a special service, gifts, etc. Any special ideas for this year? Please leave comments.
Here’s a poll as well….
Filed under: Religion | Tags: 2009, 32092, 32259, 904, church, easter, fl, florida, northwest, nw st. johns
As we prepare for Easter services at Celebration Church, our staff is very excited! Under the leadership of our Lead Pastors Stovall and Kerri Weems, our church has grown to 10 campuses with over 10,000 people in weekly attendance in just 10.5 years. We count it a privilege to empower families and individuals both in NE Florida and throughout the world to live a God first life!
This Easter, consider worshipping with us at 10:30 a.m. in the auditorium of Bartram Trail High School- our service location since March of 2005. Our church has been reviewed by the Florida Times Union, News4Jax, First Coast News, and even Folio Weekly as being a place where people of all races, ages, and backgrounds can experience God in worship, hear an inspiring message, and see God transform their lives. God has incredible things in store for you! To listen or watch archived messages & podcasts, click here.
Kids are valuable to God and us too . . . so you can expect a safe, caring environment where your children will have a great time learning about Jesus as friend and Savior. Click here to learn more about our children’s ministries.
Our original music is on Itunes and can also be sampled on our website. Click here to listen!
For any other information, including youth ministries, college ministry, etc, please check our website, or feel free to send questions via comments here.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Admission: Rachel and I had a 3 day honeymoon to Orlando, took a trip to Colorado on our 1 year anniversary, and somehow didn’t take a true vacation for 4 years, until this week…
Back in Summer 08, we stumbled upon 2 bands of young men who were in the midst of their EastCoast Tour. It was great 2 day adventure (chronicled in blog form here and on CoffeeShopJournal.com ) with these total strangers that included having them stay in our house and do some crazy body surfing with Hurricane Bertha off the Florida shore (that almost killed me)….
Due to some Travelocity low-fare alerts and this being the ‘offseason’ for New England tourism, we decided to take a trip up to see the guys in concert in Connecticut on March 27 (and ride along as roadies in their van). Stay tuned to BigJohnsBlog.com for details of our trip, and we appreciate the prayers for good connections with friends old and new in the days to come.
keep the faith, and here’s to being a fan of the people in our lives.
Big John
Filed under: Popular Culture | Tags: a jasey project, christian rock, dane, grace wilke, jacksonville fl, kirk harrison, murray hill theatre, music scene, ryan patterson, sean, taylor welsh
I heard them play Element last week, and if my brother wasn’t flyin in from Iraq tonight, I’d be at their show rockin out! Check out A Jasey Project (here’s their myspace page) in concert today!
Filed under: Popular Culture, Prison Ministry, Uncategorized | Tags: #1, critics, madea goes to jail, relevant, tyler perry
Morris O’Kelly said “The #1 movie in America, Madea Goes to Jail grossed 41 million in this its first weekend, with 1000 fewer screens than any other #1 of any week of any year.” and I couldn’t find even ONE Christian media outlet who reported or blogged on it.
Self-important movie types have rarely warmed up to Tyler Perry’s “Madea” films, and in many ways, that’s to be expected. They just don’t ‘get’ Perry’s movies….and even Perry has come to peace with that for the most part. I have been much more bothered that ‘Christian media’…aka magazines, blogs, etc… that aspire to be taken ’seriously’ chose in February to write lengthy and ‘important’ pieces on Sean Penn, Slumdog Millionaire, or the upcoming U2 album rather than even mention Tyler Perry’s Madea.
In our quest to be relevant, Christians sometimes ignore the success of those around them who’ve achieve relevance and mainstream appeal. I once heard that Relic and Relevant are on the same page in the dictionary. We have to check ourselves. In our quest to be cool, we can end up chasing the wrong influencers. This is the #1 link on my blog in 2009…so I’d like to ask you a question or 2.
1) What Christian media outlet… magazine, website, blog do you pay attention to? Why?
2) Have they taken space to report on this movie or other Tyler Perry movies? When? Where?
Once a month or so I try to get out a “Best Friends I ever had” post. Standing at the end of so many caskets this past 12 months has reminded me to never leave feelings or thoughts unsaid when it comes to thankfulness for friends and family. Excuse the picture..that’s b4 I found out how to trim my red beard correctly…
Tonight Jozef graduates from a 1 year outpatient rehab program. I took this photo with him on the last day of January, 2008, about a week after he was realeased from jail.
I met Joe back in 2002. Some of his neighbors brought him to a youth group I was working in. He was a 6th grader at the time. He soon became a regular attender and even volunteered to play drums in our church band. We went to youth camps together, had lock-ins, and played way too much Madden Football games(most of which I won-but when I didn’t, he sure let me know about it).
Jozef was in 8th grade when I met and married Rachel. He and I had this Epic journey together that Winter in 2004…from Florida to Alabama to go and retrieve all my belongings out of storage from my Decatur days 
) . In 30 hours, we drove to Alabama, got all my furniture, and back. We talked, laughed, ate lots of Wendy’s Jr. Bacon Cheeseburgers, and barely made it back to FL alive.
Joe barely lived through high school. He struggled, got into drugs and much more. After a long process, he ended up in jail. You can find more about that time for him here. While in jail, I went to see him after he told his mom He’d given his life back to Christ. I continued to visit him for the next 8 months while he was in and out of jail and rehab during a headspinning legal process.
Tonight, Jozef graduates from the outpatient drug rehab program that’s helped him stay clean the past 22 months. I can’t begin to express how proud I am of Joe. He was surrounded by our church family after his release, and I know they’ve played a big part in his journey since. Tomorrow he’ll wake up free from a drug program- with no mandatory testing. As proud as I am of him, I know what waits around the corner…the types of people and the strength of the temptations. It’s my prayer that He finds God’s plan for his life and has the joy I’ve seen in him only grow.
The kid has the biggest heart of anyone I know. If I could tell him one thing, it’d be this…: Jozef- thanks for being a friend and brother to me and Rachel. Your example of faith, total dependence on God, and honesty in expressing your need for a circle of friends to hold you up is a real treasure for so many of us….a measuring stick for our own lives. Keep the faith brother. Be the man God has anointed and called you to be. Yes, he has ministry and opportunity waiting for you that is a direct by-product of your dependency and relationship with him. Know that we are forever proud of the leaps and bounds you have taken…and your love for us and your family of faith is something that can never be replaced. There’s a gaping void when you’re not around…in the lives of students, adults, and friends alike. Be called. Be present. Be His.
-big John
Filed under: Element High School Ministry, Youth Ministry | Tags: element youth st. johns
this is a letter I read to our students our last night at Element St. Johns. We felt it really fit the mood and anticipation for our futures….. It is an excerpt of a blog from our good friends Jamie and Byron from ‘To Write Love on Her Arms’.
i hope you feel less alone when you look in the mirror. i hope it reminds you of community, that you’re part of a bigger thing. i hope it sparks some conversation that brings change like a fire on the coldest night.
You’ll need more than us. You’ll need more and better. You’ll need other people. You’ll need people to help you process, people to help you let go, people to help you remember what’s true and people to help you forget what’s lies. You’ll need the stories and advice of people with gray hair or white hair or no hair at all. Don’t buy the lie that suggests they have nothing to offer or nothing to say – they were young once too. They are stories still going and they’ve seen the places you will go. They’ve been stuck at times as well, just like you and me and everyone.
You’ll need coffee shops and sunsets and road trips. Airplanes and passports and new songs and old songs, but people more than anything else. You will need other people and you will need to be that other person to someone else, a living breathing screaming invitation to believe better things.
We’re saying the story doesn’t end here, that the air in your lungs is there for a reason. Perhaps we’re all in the business of better endings, you as much as us, the business of redemption. Yours and mine and all the characters around us, and perhaps that bigger thing. i’ll steal from Bono here and tell you that i believe we’re far from alone in this, that God’s been at this for a long time, this business of buying things back, making things new. If this is starting to sound too Churchy or spiritual, i’ll simply say that i believe God…(cares)… about your life, about your story, about your pain. And if those possibilities feel too far or they just sound weird, then rest now and we’ll get back to people….
Filed under: Element High School Ministry, Youth Ministry | Tags: element st. johns, grief
This is a guest blog from a great friend of mine, Tom Lester. He’s headed up our high school band for the past 19 months at ‘Element St. Johns’. This entry, written Jan. 15,speaks so much to what Element has been, & to the pain of 2009 – as we’ve lost 4 all under the age of 34 in just one month.
Last night, instead of having our normal Wednesday night youth service (called “Element“), we had a memorial service for two of our teens that died in a car wreck. It was a sobering experience for sure. This photo was taken at the table where kids wrote notes, prayers, and memories for their friends and left it at the table.
Those who know me well know that I’m not big “griever”. However, those who know me well also know that I do get deeply saddened by events like this. My son asked me last night if I was sad for the two kids who died. I told him “no… but I am sad about the pain that their friends and family are going through”. I didn’t know them well. I didn’t really even know them at all, but I know they were loved by many who will miss them dearly. For me, dying isn’t the sad part. It’s the void in the lives left behind that is sad.
Last night, I found myself thinking of lyrics to a song by Peter Gabriel as I watched the tears flow down many kids faces. Peter writes, “There’s nothing yet has really sunk in, Looks like it always did”. When I showed up last night, it was like any other night. Even with with photos of the kids, candles, and cards it was hard to “get it” that two of our teens were gone. I don’t even think their friends were getting it. I saw some walk around the place with a smile on their face, laughing with friends and then it would hit them and their face would change. Tears would roll down their face. Even if it was just for a moment.
I grieve for those left behind that have to deal with the new huge void in their lives.
I Grieve
It was only one hour ago
It was all so different then
Theres nothing yet has really sunk in
Looks like it always did
This flesh and bone
Its just the way that you would tied in
Now theres no-one home
