Podcast 2

I Need To Change The World

Do you remember the days, way back when.... You'd go to church, engage in worship, pour out your heart, read the scriptures daily, find you "quiet times" with God, feed the homeless, pray for everyone and their mother, speak a heavenly language, give of your time and money, bleed, sweat, cry, and actually think about dying for Jesus? I remember those days...

Wanna hear a sad thing?

I had forgotten about those days not too long ago.

There was a time (and I'm glad to say they're back) when I would go home everyday after leaving the church office and tell myself that I just got done changing the world.

I know that sounds retarded but, think about it... We live to love God and in doing so, we find out what the heart of God is.... and the heart of God is love, love lives inside of us (God), so it's only natural that the desire of our hearts (if we love God), would be to love others. So I would come to work with this mindset of everything I did played some significant part in a bigger story even though I knew I was a small person in this very big universe. That story of course is the story of God. I wanted to believe that if I came to church, work, etc. and gave it my all, to the best of my abilities, with a heart of excellence, then I was changing the world.

EVERYTHING I DID MATTERED! AND FAILURE WAS NOT AN OPTION!

What the hell happened???

Maybe I got tired of waking up early and going to church, maybe I felt under appreciated, maybe I quit feeling the excitement that everyone around me including myself used to feel, maybe I let the thought of all this (Christianity) was just a big pile of crap.

I don't know...

But I know this.

I wanna change the world, I need to change the world... You know what? I AM CHANGING THE WORLD. Every song I write, every set I play with the band, every hand I shake, person I hug, smile at, feed, listen to, care for, pray for, cry for, plead for, sweat for, fight for, friend I make, logo I design, podcast I make, blog I type, story I tell, ministry I work for, etc. etc. etc.

I AM CHANGING THE WORLD.

You know where it starts? ...It starts with God, and looks a lot like love.

Love God
Love People


Change The World...

2 Nite! The Upper Room

Come get some!! God is doing some amazing things that really can't be explained but only experienced! Come tonight for prayer and worship at 6543 Governors Dr New Port Richey, FL @7pm!

God's got it going on!

PF

Podcast 1

just sayin'...


(i am worship)

Good night with friends...

April 18th, The Awaken headed out to TSP for a night of bowling. Now, even though we all bowled as bad as Brittany Brown drives...we all still had a lot of fun. Some of us bowled, some played pool, some chose to just chill and talk, and one specific guy decided to go spastic with my digital camera! I'm gonna have to say the highlight of the night was when a certain red-head decided to cross lanes without looking, tripped over the ball return, and ended up face down on the lane...I'm not gonna lie, it was pretty hysterical!

After 3 games, we decided hang up those awesome neon bowling shoes for the night and head over to Starbucks. While a few of us were in line waiting for our drinks, we ran into an interesting 12 year old kid who claimed he just walked over to Starbucks from his work at a Pizza place. He told us if we wanted he could open the store back up for us and get us pizzas...the kid was oddly interesting. I guess eventually he got bored with us and decided to go parkin lot pimpin, walking over and starting conversations with random people.

While heading home with the wife, I couldn't stop thinking about the evening. It may sound like just another Saturday night bowling, but when I look back on this night, I'll think about an awesome night growing relationships and becoming closer with my brothers and sisters in Christ. I'm already excited for the next night we can all do something like this again.

- Dub

We need a Revolution not another "Youth Group"

A Revolution: "A sudden or momentous change in a situation; to overthrow the current system for something radical and fresh"

2 out of 3 Christian teens will evacuate the church after they graduate from high school
63% of our teens don't believe Jesus is the Son of the one true God
58% believe all faiths teach equally valid truths
51% don't believe Jesus rose from the dead
70% don't believe an absolute moral truth exits

88% of children raised in Christian families leave church at the age of 18, never to return (SBC).
A majority of adults no longer consider Christianity America’s default faith (Barna).
64% of decisions for Christ are made before the age of 18, and 77% are made before the age of 21 (Barna).
An estimated 4% of the “bridger” generation, or Gen Y, will be Bible-believing Christians when they reach adulthood. Their grandparents’ generation: 65%. Their parents’ generation: 35%


Youth ministry needs a revolution. It needs to be overthrown, retooled and reborn.

Will you join us??

Pastor Frankie

The Awaken Drama - Must See Video!!

Bowling anyone? Saturday Night 7pm Tarpon Lanes

Dont Forget tomorrow we are going bowling Tarpon Lanes 7pm Bring $8 Bucks wit ya to bowl 3 games

Bring a friend....and lets have fun!!!

Pastor Frankie

What was the BIG SECRET??

Well we took are group out in Limos and asked them if they Loved God? All of them raised their hands. Then we threw them to the dogs and told if they loved God then it was time to prove it and share their faith with random people inside of Target. Off they went and man what an adventure it was...I really think everyone had a great experience...something we will do again....The Big Secret part 2 maybe???....

Overall everyone realized that with little preparation and no training we can do this...we can share the love of God to people no matter their response.

PF

The Sickest Easter Video Opener Ever!

You got to see this check it out...

http://www.stevenfurtick.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/16.mov

Pastor Frankie

EVANGELISM... has this revolution started?

So a couple of weeks ago I went out with some of my friends from the AWAKEN to Mitchell Plaza in Trinity. We went out with 1 digital camera and 1 video recorder and asked the public 1 question...

"What do you think about people who go out in public and try to talk to you about Jesus?"

We got some pretty blunt answers and some very crude ones too. Mind you, we got a couple polite remarks but, the general consensus was that people who EVANGELIZE are pretty much lunatics.

I beg to differ...

I'm glad to be a part of a ministry here in Florida that is ACTUALLY doing something! This month, not only are we equipping our ministry to practice effective EVANGELISM but, we are raising up a generation that is not afraid of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's pretty amazing when someone who believes to know truth (Jesus) and knows how to share truth, actually goes out and does it.

I love these kids...I love this church!

Last night at service we took the kids on a limo ride! YES! A freaking limo ride! We rented 3 limos, packed them all in with people not knowing what was gonna happen next, drove them back to the very same plaza where I got all the negative responses, and guess what happened next?

THEY SHARED THE GOSPEL OF JESUS!!!

It was beautiful! They went out, and yeah, I bet some were scared outta their mind but, they did it. We went out and talked with people about truth and that truth is that Jesus loves them, died for them, and will always be there for them.

the AWAKEN... a revolution has started.



Eli (i am worship)

Green Grass & Deep Crap by Pastor Steven Furtick

Green Grass and Deep Crap
We have several patches of unusually green, extremely tall grass in our front yard.
We also have a problem with our septic system. It leaks into the aforementioned part of the yard, where the grass grows tall and green.

There is a direct correlation:
The place where the crap runs the deepest
is the place where the grass grows the greenest.

(It’s a stretch, but…)
The same is true in our lives.
The more crap we go through, the more we grow.

James said it in a more profound and appropriate way:
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.
(James 1:2-3)

Thought for the day:
Deep crap=Green grass