A few weeks ago I read one of Eve's (my 15 year old) poems from the stage. A few of you asked me about it. So, although I don't quite have all of it, here is the excerpt I read, posted here.
A powerful fleshing out of creativity, compassion and desire sparked by mission.
Read MoreCrucible is back on this weekend.
The building is still in process (bathrooms, offices and classrooms are unfinished, there is no AC yet, etc.) but the city has granted us permission to meet on Sundays while we finish it up — and we're excited.
We start our first Sunday in our new building with what will be the first of four series from the book of Genesis. This first series, THE MAKER, begins with the nature of God and the origin of all things.
Come a few minutes early this week to make sure you figure out where you are going, find parking, and other things we haven’t thought of yet. It is going to take some time for us to figure out how to use the space and to run Crucible inside of it, so please be patient and gracious with us. I fully expect at least one or two things to not work or to give us some problems, but if we are all light-hearted and flexible it will be fun.
Our address is 1925 2nd Ave in Ybor. We are close to the corner of 2nd Ave and 22nd Street, Adjacent to IKEA.
See you Sunday.
Read MoreOur Core Sundays were again a beautiful and formative time. Thank you to everyone who participated. I was particularly moved this year by Kenny's painting and Brad's poetry. I asked Brad if I could post his poem, so here it is...
Read MoreIf there is anyway for you to physically be there the next two Sundays please do. But we know that there are some extenuating circumstances and lots of UNDERGROUND people scattered around the country so we will be live streaming the event. http://tampaunderground.com/live
Also, for locals, we are offering a round table discussion style event to unveil and explore our budget (and money priorities in general). These budget dinners are free but you have to RSVP online. You can do that here. http://tampaunderground.com/budget
Finally, we want to offer an online pledge option this year. If you can't make it in person to the final Core Sunday celebration or you just are ready ahead of time to make your pledge we would love for you to do that here. We would like to get everyone to pledge online ahead of time but for those who don't (and even those of us who do) we will still use the paper pledge cards as a symbolic gesture of our personal commitment. http://tampaunderground.com/pledge
Read MoreBecause we value transparency in our use of money (both in our giving and our spending) we always make our Network budget available to everyone. Each year, I have presented the budget and opened the floor for questions. Typically there are very few, which I attribute to three possible factors. 1) We are already on board and all of our questions have already been answered. For most of us, this is not the first UNDERGROUND budget we have seen and supported and because the changes from year to year are not major, peoples questions or concerns have already been addressed in previous years. 2) There are too many people in the room. It could be that the size of the gathering makes some of us reluctant to ask a question. 3) We don’t really care about this kind of thing. Some of us just don’t worry too much about how the money is spent, we trust the leaders making the decisions and feel good about giving because we know that God is in it...
Read MoreThank you.
As another year comes to a close I just wanted to take a minute to say thank you to all of you who gave sacrificially this year. I ask alot of you (which is fitting for kingdom people) but I never take you for granted. I know that every gift, both big and small, that was given from a place of conviction and sacrifice is more than just money for the cause, it is a gift received by God. (Click through to read more.)
Read MoreIn the gospels, Jesus’ disciples are criticized for not fasting while the Pharisees and John’s disciples gave themselves to fasting. Jesus responded that as long as He, the Bridegroom was with them, there was no need to fast. But there would come a day when He would be physically taken away from them and on that day they and we, his disciples would fast. We fast in order to draw closer to Jesus and remind ourselves of our exclusive need for Him...
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