I used to pray a prayer all the time when I first started dreaming about planting a church. I kept on praying that God would give us something "fresh" and something "new." I prayed that we would be able to "stick out of the crowd" and "be different." Of course, I still want whatever is next from God. New things. Fresh things. Different things. I love the idea of creating something that has never been seen or done. But my prayers have changed recently. I am praying that the same elements of the first church found in Acts 2 would be seen in our church. Something old. Tried. Tested. Something...

I taught on Acts 2:42 this weekend at Center City Church. It gives us a glimpse at the church in it's earliest days. Four elements of the church are identified in this verse: 1. Sitting under the apostle's teaching (going to church).2. Fellowship (hanging out with people. Getting to know each other). 3. Sharing meals (opening their homes, spending time over the dinner table).4. PrayerWe decided to host a dinner tonight at Clark and Salina Beasley's house to get the ball rolling with the idea of community dinners. The thought is to encourage our people to simply open their homes and enjoy...

I want a full band that rocks out every single week as much as the next pastor. I want to see our venue filled and God doing amazing things through a huge number of people coming under the same banner of unity. I want to see tons of different ministries happening through our church. I want the challenge of navigating growth just as much or more as any other pastor. But I want God more. I want his best for us. God has challenged our leadership to take a much slower approach to starting this church. We have been laboring in the foundations for quite a while. No band. Very few elements of...

I am so looking forward to spending time with my long time friend, Charlie Dawes, and his family today. They are heading to Charlotte from Florida to spend some time in the world's best city for a couple of days. Charlie and I spent countless hours at a Chick-Fil-A in Winter Park, FL over the course of several years dreaming about the future. It was during these conversations that God was giving us an opportunity to look to the future and dream of the days to come. Much of what we talked about over chicken biscuits and sweet tea have come to reality. Charlie is now a professor at...

I love living in the city. We all are crammed into a five mile radius of life. I did six meetings today and never left my five mile radius of life. The last meeting of the day was completely unplanned. I was walking out of Central Coffee and stopped to chat with a new friend that's recently started coming to our church. I was so encouraged by his thoughts on what God is doing at Center City. And it all happened because we live life in the city. We frequent the same coffee shops. We shop at the same stores. We enjoy the pleasure of being crammed into the same five mile radius of life. And I...

We have made some very conscious decisions in the early days of Center City Church that are producing some amazing realities. We have done no advertising to date, yet we are seeing new people come every single week. We have 50-60 people every week at our gatherings. No records smashed there, but it's beautiful. During our staff meeting this past week, we called out - by name - each person that has come to our church since we opened six weeks ago. I was a bit startled to see that we have around 100 people right now that could consider Center City "their church." As averages go, not everyone...

I so enjoyed heading up to Max's elementary school recently to have lunch with him. We totally downed some classic cafeteria food, complete with a Flinstone's Push Pop. Delicious. We went through the lunch line and headed to our seats. I noticed that he jumped right into his meal and starting chowing down. This was unusual to me because Max prays on his own before every meal at home. I leaned over to him and said "do you want to pray with Daddy to thank God for our food?" He looked back at me with disappointment in his eyes and said with all sincerity, "Dad, we're not allowed to pray in...

I am very conscious of the decisions I am making today. I am not much of a farmer-type, but I do at the very least understand that if I want a potato in August, I need to plant the potato seeds today. That decision to plant today will bring the harvest in August. I can see so much for the future of Center City Church. I see life and health. I see our people growing and spreading the message of what Christ is doing in our community. I see friendships deepening and life being lived together. But I have to do something about it today.I need to invite someone to my home to get to know them...

The hearts and prayers of Center City Church are with Scott Agnew this weeks and in the days to come. I ask you to join with us as we pray for a miracle. Scott is the son of a staff member of Elizabeth Traditional Elementary School. This is the school that we meet at on Sundays for our weekly Sunday gatherings. Scott and his father were cutting down a tree in their back yard this weekend and experienced a terrible accident. The tree fell on Scott resulting in multiple serious injuries. He is in intensive care now and is currently in a coma. We are praying for a miracle for God to heal...

I have been so blown away by the unity that I have felt from other pastors and ministry leaders in Charlotte. And it started almost immediately when Dara and I got to town two years ago. Dara and I joined a team of pastors to launch Hope Church in North Charlotte in 2008. We were warmly greeted when we got to Charlotte by another pastor named Derek Turner (from The Branch Family Church). The Branch opened up their arms to us - and their facility. They let us use their multi-purpose room for FREE to have our very first gatherings of our core team that started Hope Church. Amazing. One of the...