November 8, 2007

»Houston and Churches

Houston, Tx. needs a revolution in their chuches and in the hearts of men that are called of God to plant churhes.

Remember... this is my opininon and in my opinion it really is a good opinion. Huh?

Ok. Here we go:

  • Houston needs more churches!

You may say, "Are you serious, Tony?" and I'm asking you, "Do you see me laughing?" In reality, Houston has so many churches... It has some megachurches and it also has dying churches. We have Ed Young's Second Baptist. We have Hillard's churches... Oh, and am I forgetting Joel Osteen and the largest church in the U.S. "Lakewood Church"?
We also have dying churches ... every 2 blocks theres is a storefront church in a small broken-down plaza. So why do we need more churches?

We need more churches with purpose, strategy and organization.

I believe strongly that if you don't believe in the purpose of the local church, you dont believe in the words of Jesus when He said that He will build His church! There is a purpose to every church that meets and it is to offer and give their community Jesus Christ. Point them to Jesus.

Many churches do not have a strategy. We need a strategy. You can ask all these churches
"Who are you trying to reach?"
They will tell you, "We are trying to reach everyone..."
You get what I mean?

No target... no focus.. and that leads me to this point: Without a strategy, their organization in the church is horrible. Sorry, for being mean, I mean "insightful"), but it's the truth!

  • Houston needs more church planters.

There are a whole bunch of churches that are established... and they are dead.
Their worship is dead, their preaching is irrelevant. Their leadership is dead. We need more church planters. We need men to get their families ready to do God's work. I tell you, I'm getting ready!

Houston needs men that are willing to step out of their comfort zone and stop blaming their dead leadership for not letting them go.

And whenever you do step out to plant a church, have awesome worship, be relevant in your teaching, and train amazing leaders. Don't imitate dead churhces. Do something amazing! But stay biblical. Get out of the tradition. Break your old habits. Just stay scriptural.

What do you think?

November 6, 2007

»Finding your way.

I was sitting near the window at Starbucks yesterday and I was reading and writing some stuff that I was thinking for the future. I love that place... you got nice people, nice atmosphere and good frapuccinos...

Anyways, I had been there for a while... and I love siting by the window... because they are from the floor to the seiling, so you could just look outside and see what's going on outside.
Next thing I know, this old man in his 60s walked by, pressing the button on his key chain trying to locate his car. I did not think anything of it...
About 30 seconds later, he passed by my window again, still pressing the button on his keychain, looking for his car.
To tell you the truth, and not exaggerate, I saw him again, a minute later, still... no car.
I watched him for a while, until he brought his hand to his head and his face shone like a lightbulb that had been turned on, meaning that he had found the car.
I saw him find his car and drive off.

I laughed to myself (silently, of course. I don't want anyone thinking I'm crazy. Or maybe I do...) and thought about our next series at Starting Point, "THE SIMPLE JOURNEY OF A DISCIPLE"

Many people that have been in church for the longest time, find themselves like that old man... trying to find their way to their car... to their destiny and purpose. They go this way, they turn this corner... They stop in their steps to think. They cannot find their way.

One of the purposes of this series is to let people know the value of being a disciple of Jesus.

Forget your title or what you do. God will bless everything that you do, but before all the pressure of ministry or before your career or even before your family, YOU ARE A DISCIPLE OF JESUS.

It is going to be awesome.
See you at 10 A.M. at Starting Point Church.