I used to do the Monday mindless dump well, on Mondays, but starting four campuses is 19 months has taken me away from it. I have so much that has gone on in those months that I’ve wanted to share, and one of the ways I used to do that was with this. So here we go for the first time in well over a year. When reading this please take in to account the size my pea brain was before we started the four campuses, and then take into account the shrinkage that occurred while starting them 
1. I am so proud of the Multi Site team. There are now five Multi Site campuses, and all are doing well, and each of the teams have sacrificed so much to get these campuses up and running. Let me just call out the MS team because they are an awesome group of high capacity leaders. Rudy Garcia, Dave Cotham, Joey Davila, Jason Curlee, Kyrah Hopkins, Randy Bryan, Tony Reyes, and David Flores. I am beyond blessed to have this team around me!
2. Just heard the other day from Jason Curlee that right at 200 people have asked Jesus Christ into their lives at the 5 Points Campus in the last 15 months! I am blown away by how God is using this ministry. The cool thing is, it’s happening at all the other campuses as well. 5 Points is doing such and amazing job and Pastor Jason has built a group of leaders that are second to none. Props to everyone who has worked so hard to create an amazing church out there!
3. The Kingsville campus was started four years ago and was our first campus, so it has been around for four years, but years in it has never looked better, sounded better, or operated more efficiently than it is right now. Huge props to Pastor Rudy, his worship Director Eric, Children’s Director Herlinda, and the rest of what is an incredible team of sold out followers of Jesus Christ. Kingsville has been transformed, and this team deserves some huge props for all the work they have done!! You guys rock!
4. I don’t know what to say about the folks from Padre Island. They are pouring their hearts out not only for their own campus, but they have given like crazy to help make all the new campuses happen. I don’t know of a more giving, loving, vision driven group a folks anywhere at any church. Pastor Dave and his team have something special going on out there, and it’s making a huge impact on the Kingdom of God.
5. I am so proud of Pastor David for being willing to follow God and take over the Alice campus with little or no experience. He stepped out on pure faith and God is creating in him an amazing Pastor. Alice is still in it’s infancy, but it is doing well and people are coming to Christ, and all that because a guy who simply loves Jesus was willing to step out on faith and go somewhere he’s never been before, to do something he’s never done, just because God said go!
6. Last week we made a decision to do something that we probably should have done already, and that is to ordain and license Joey Davila into the ministry as our Multi Site Worship Pastor. Pastor Joey, now that has a God felt ring to it. I am so proud of the leader and Pastor Joey has become. He will represent the ministry well and we are so blessed to have him on our team. He has started five separate bands basically from scratch, and turned them in to great teams leading amazing worship. Let me tell you folks, that is one tough gig!
7. We have one assistant who supports the entire MS Ministry and she does and amazing job. Kyrah has to put up with seven of us and all the campuses and ministries we represent, and somehow she has done it while remaining relatively sane. I assure you we would all be lost without her taking such good care of us. Not sure how she pulls it off every week but she does and she does it amazingly well!
8. I can’t believe how much has happened is such a short amount of time in San Marcos. We merged and existed church in San Marcos whose pastor is a great friend of ours and has been for many years. With any merger there is usually a tough period where a good many of the people are deciding whether they are going to buy into all the change or not, and thats the journey San Marcos has been on. Pastor Randy has been through a tough time over the last few months because he has been at ground zero as all this has transpired, but as we have gone through it, it’s become clear that God has chosen the group of people He intended to stay and be a part is BAF San Marcos, and they have not only stayed, but they have completely bought in to the vision and are excited about the future. Pastor Joey and I have spent a lot of time there in the last few months, and every time we go were more excited than the last time, because people are getting it. The potential for that campus is off the charts because there are four times as many people in San Marcos than any other city we’ve put a campus in so far, so we are so excited for all the people who will come to know Jesus there!
9. Been looking at some great West Side locations and just waiting for God to open the right door. I’ve reached a point to where I’m completely comfortable with Him closing doors I thought would open. Very cool feeling to just wait on Him and know that He is indeed God!
10. Spent two days in San Marcos this week installing all new audio/video components. Man this was a tough install because the UPACC, where BAF San Marcos meets, has 350 seats, a 30 ft ceiling, sloped floors with permanent seating. It was definitely a new challenge for all of us, but with an amazing team we, as Larry would say, got er done! I couldn’t believe how awesome the worship and the message were this last weekend. Big thanks to Dave, Joey, David, Randy, Ralph, Mario, Bear, Rick and all the others that worked so hard those two very long days!
11. I am truly the most blessed guy on the planet. My wife April is the greatest Pastors wife on the planet. I hope there tons of pastors out there who disagree because you should. She gets my calling, and she is my number one fan. She supports me and understands that the job God has called me to is time consuming, but at the same time she is the best at telling me when it’s time to back off a little. And she does it in such a great and uplifting way and never by criticizing me. I don’t know if she knows how much that means to me. I love her for many so reasons, but none more than knowing she always has my back. They say lots of things are priceless on the Visa commercials, but there is nothing in my life more priceless than April! She went with me to help out in Children’s at Alice a month or so ago and realized they needed help big time in that area, and because she’s done Childrens Ministry for 5 years, and because God asked her too, she has been driving 50 miles over there every weekend to lead Children’s ministry to help out Pastor David, and will continue to do so until someone is raised up and trained to take over. That is just one more of the many reasons I love her so much, her answer to God is always “yes,” regardless of the cost.
12. I have twin 17 year old boys who are sold out to Christ and are living their faith out each and every day! They are living a proactive faith and I am so proud to be their Dad. One is on staff in Element Student ministry leading worship, the other one serves on the Element leadership team as well. I was listening to a Craig Groeschel (Lifechurch.tv) podcast the other day called Practical Atheism, I highly recommend it, and the premise was about people who claim to know Jesus, but live as if they don’t. I can’t tell you how good it feels to be able to say that my wife and children all live out their faith every day, as if He does indeed exist.
13. When I found out my wife was pregnant 5 years ago, I was both happy and overwhelmed because I was 45 at the time and didn’t know if I had the energy for a baby at my age. I don’t know what I would do without my soon to be five year old little guy in my life. He is the love of all our lives, and the joy he brings to us is beyond measure. Thank you God for working through my selfishness and bringing your little guy Caleb to our lives. I love the look on his Mommy’s face when he loves on her. That too is priceless!
14. Every time I go to a different campus I am constantly being blown away by the people. There is over a 1000 people worshiping at a MS Campus on any given weekend, and they really get the whole MS thing. The spirit of the people at these campuses is incredible, and at every campus people are constantly asking me when and where the next one is going to be. If you’re wondering is MS actually works, let me assure you it most certainly does, and there are in excess of 500 BAF people who will spend eternity in Heaven with Jesus who will attest to it! I also have tons of Pastor friends who will tell you the same thing.
Please forgive any typos or grammatical errors, I’m exhausted and ready to go home, and of course there is the pea brain issues I told you about as well So much for my first Monday Mindless Dump!
John
If you knew me you would know why it’s called the Mindless Dump:)
In Management Staff recently Pastor Bil ,said he felt led to open his life up to a group of pastors and church planters around the country, and asked us to help get the word out. I am so honored to be talking about this opportunity on my blog, because I really believe in Bil and I know if you will sign up for this it will be a huge benefit to the future of your church, and more importantly to you and your spouse!
If you follow BAF you know that the Multi Site Ministry has been moving fast around here. As we’ve moved forward one of the things that has become clear is that we have to begin focusing on the future, and that means putting in place a system that will begin preparing future leaders now, so they’ll be ready when its time to start a new BAF multi site campus. This is critical because one of the main things we’ve learned over the last 18 months is that DNA transfer is tough. My experience tells me were better off sending out our DNA to a campus, than hoping it will be caught by someone whose already there. However, that is not something that is completely set in stone because every situation is different, but we do feel like sending DNA, if possible, is a good thing.