**Luke 11:1 - Once Jesus was in a certain place praying. As he finished, one of his disciples came to him and said, “Lord, teach us to pray..." I have decided to make a detour in my scheduled preaching calendar this week at Center City Church. For the past week, I've been fascinated by this request that one of the unnamed disciples made of Jesus: "Lord, teach us to pray..." This is a topic that is probably assumed more than it is taught in our current church culture. Just like this disciple asked of Jesus, I believe that there are many people that long to talk to God, but for a variety of...

I used to think of my relationship with God in terms of a compass. I always wanted to find "true north" in my relationship with Jesus. That is an acceptable metaphor, I'm sure, but I have re-calibrated my journey this week. Dr. Steven Fettke is one of the most respected professors in the school of Pentecostal theology. He has given over 35 years to teaching the truths found in Scripture. This week, I have had the great privilege of sitting under his teaching again as a part of the Masters of Arts in Ministerial Leadership program I am pursuing through my alma mater, Southeastern University....

Met a new friend, Steven Chaparro. Interesting to hear his take on our journey, filled with ups and downs, to see Ebenezers Coffeehouse come to Uptown Charlotte. 

It's amazing what is found in the Docusen home during our annual Spring cleaning. That was what Monday of our Spring Break week consisted of today. Moving all the furniture, sweeping, mopping, dusting and creating piles of stuff to give away to friends and Salvation Army. Having four kids ages 10, 9, 7 & 5 always make days like today rather interesting and, sure enough, we found some real gems.  The winner, by far, of most disgusting was the who-knows-how-old Kid Clif Bar that we found in the boys' bedroom. Our youngest son, Ben, has a habit of "finishing" his breakfast by sneaking off...

Just over a year ago, two dear friends returned home from a beautiful, traumatic and effective season on the mission field. They spent multiple years in a country in North Africa sharing the love of Christ. Their community was full of amazingly gracious and wonderful people. But it also included people that were extremely hostile to anyone that would dare introduce another religion different from theirs. They laid their lives on the line to share the love of Christ. In a story that could be adapted into a movie, they were forcefully removed from the country and the community that they...

After months of prayer (and copious amounts of frustration), our search for a home had finally come to a close. It was the summer of 2010 and the desire of our family was to have a home in the same community that our church was located. It just so happened that our church was located a half mile from the heart of Uptown Charlotte in the historic Elizabeth community. With a median price tag of a half million dollars, purchasing was out of the question. Renting was our only option, but even then most homes were double the amount that our family of six could afford. We found a 1,300 square foot...

Staring down the barrel of a machine gun was not quite the way I had imagined our romantic drive to Lover's Beach. But that's exactly where my new bride, Dara, and I found ourselves lost as a ball in high weeds on the fourth day of our marriage. Twenty minutes earlier, the concierge at our honeymoon resort in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico had given us detailed instructions to this intimate locale that we had heard about from some locals. The only problem was that these instructions were given in Spanish. This story is for another day, but I famously (infamously?) scored an 18% on my final exam...

We're huge fans of Christmas in the Docusen home. We do our best to make sure we creatively teach the kids the story of Jesus - and why it matters - every year. This year we also started to incorporate fun and creative ways to teach them about generosity - that when God blesses and provides for our family, it gives incredible joy to be able to give to others. It's been a fun week around the Docusen house. Tonight, we incorporate a family tradition that we've started with the kiddos. On December 23rd every year, we do Family Movie Night (A Muppet Christmas Carol this year) and open a "family...

The generosity of our church family and friends in Charlotte and around the world is what keeps us moving forward as a church family. And for that, I’m incredibly grateful. I’m asking that our friends and family would consider giving a one time, year-end gift to help us continue to fulfill our vision of making disciples at home and across the world. Your generosity at the end of 2013 is the financial foundation for our church to move into 2014. Any gift is greatly appreciated and every dollar given to Center City Church is put toward continuing to fulfill our vision of making disciples at...

Our church family is a community of hopeless, helpless and depraved sinners. I'm not sure what I expected when I got into pastoral ministry, but I'm realizing more and more that a community of faith, simply put, is a community of sinners. Liars and cheaters are two accurate descriptors of all of us. And here's what I'm realizing even more: I'm the leader of the pack. Without Jesus as the sole focus of our attention, we can easily move toward the desires of our own flesh. The enticement of the world is incredibly appealing. The Kingdom of God teaches us to consider others before ourselves,...