more will be revealed

Today was our last “practice” Sunday at CoastlandTampa, it being the 4th week we’ve met at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in their Grande Ballroom. And yes, “Grande” has an “e” on the end. It’s that awesome. All of this means that next Sunday, February 10th, is our official grand opening, crazy-go-nuts launch day!

Each week since we’ve been meeting in the Crowne, we’ve tweaked and added and adjusted and fixed so many different things. From the signs directing people to our meeting area (which we initially purchased at FastSigns but have since hooked up with another vendor for a super deal), to the flow of the service, to adding a full band this week (this made a HUGE difference in atmosphere!), to stepping up the quality of the videos shown during the service.

Sunday morning service is basically my baby…the room is my responsibility so it falls on me to make sure everything is ready to go and that things are done right and well. I’m so thankful we’ve had these practice weeks to learn and experiment and figure out what works well, because I definitely needed it! I’ve been meaning to share about our room setup and equipment (for any church planters out there along with those curious), and I’ll get to that this week sometime. But I wanted to share a key part of each service: our videos.

Each week we show two videos during the service: a man-on-the-street interview that is related to the topic of the morning, as well as what we call a Jesus Story…someone telling their story of how Jesus changed their live, of course connected to the topic at hand.

The MOTS is shown right before the message, and the Jesus Story is shown in the middle of the message. Before coming to Coastland, my video work was fairly minimal, though I knew I could learn and do it well (after all, Input and Learner are in my top 5 strengths!). So each week for the last 3 weeks, I’ve shot and edited a good deal of video and I’ve learned and improved each week, something quite satisfying to see.

Here are some videos I’ve shot and edited. I’ll get into how they were made soon. For now, take a look and let me know what you think.

I went to USF today with two other guys to shoot some Man on the Street interviews for Sunday morning @ Coastland. I did the same thing last Friday for this past Sunday and got a chance to meet and talk with some very cool students at USF who shared their thoughts on prayer. It was a very refreshing experience, and so I looked forward to going there again today.

We ended up interviewing 9 people and again had some great conversations. People at USF, and I think in Tampa in general, are so spiritually open. People are surprised to be served by someone else, completely shocked. One gentlemen was blown away by the $5 Starbucks giftcard that we gave him at the end of the interview, as a thank-you for his time. To me, it was nothing…just a $5 giftcard. It was as if that guy had never experienced kindness or generosity like that before.

I felt so energized by my experience today. I’m so excited about what God is doing here in Tampa! We’re coming up on our official launch day of February 10th quite quickly. Our first two Sundays at the Crowne Plaza have gone well. We are tweaking, fixing bugs, and ramping things up each week…this past Sunday was a definite improvement over the first. A sound issue with my laptop ruined the opportunity to show a video or play selected music, which was very frustrating. This past Sunday our amazing sound guy Corey was able to fix the buzz and everything went off without a hitch technically. I’m hoping the same for this Sunday…definitely something I pray for! Ah technology…we are so dependent on you.

I was recently featured in the Coastland Buzz article for people who are connected or interested in CoastlandTampa.  Sign up for the Coastland Buzz at their website to stay up on the latest news at Coastland!

What are 5 key words that tell what you are all about? I’m going to have to go with my top five strengths: Responsibility, Input, Belief, Learner, and Deliberative. Can you briefly describe the path that brought you here? More than a year and a half ago, I was sensing that God was moving me in a new direction away from the role I had in my church, to be involved in helping plant a church.  I came across Steve’s blog last year and read about Coastland and thought “Wouldn’t it be cool to plant a church with Steve Sjogren?”  This past June, I decided to email Steve to see if he could see someone like me joining the Coastland team.  He emailed me back the next morning, we met for coffee later that week, and the rest is history.  There’s obviously a bit more that happened than that, but that’s the brief version. Tell us a little about your family. I’m the oldest of 4…I have a sister and two brothers.  My sister and one of my brothers are married, and including my in-laws, 3 of them are teachers.  We’re originally from Niagara Falls, NY, and all of my family but me moved to the Orlando area in the last 3 years.  I’m so glad to be able to live so close to them now! What music have you been listening to lately? I’m a big fan of indie music and lately it has been bands like Arcade Fire, Band of Horses, or Menomena.  I just picked up the latest albums from Maroon5 and OneRepublic and have found I can enjoy some of the mainstream stuff that’s out there. Favorite Books? I love to read, so this question is always a tough one.  Here are the one’s that are close to the top, though ask me the same question in 6 months and it’ll likely have changed. The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger by Ron Sider Seeking the Face of God by Gary Thomas The Presence of the Kingdom by Jacques Ellul Exiles by Michael Frost Favorite Movies? My favs are The Matrix, The Bourne Trilogy, The Usual Suspects, and Crash.  Now that I’m hanging out with Steve and the crew, I’m sure we’ll be watching a lot of movies, of which some will get added to the favorites list. What are you currently involved in at Coastland? I’m currently involved in overseeing media & IT support, while collaborating on website management and development with some of the other Coastland team members. If you were a car, what kind of car would you be and why? I would be a 1991 Honda Civic DX, a car I just recently owned.  It was a very dependable car that had a few quirks, but always got the job done and never failed me. What is a word or sound that you love?  Hate? I love the sound of the exhaust of high-performance sports cars, but I’m not in any way a fan of country music.  Yes, I consider country music a “sound.”  That’s how much I dislike it. Is there a Bible verse that stands out in your mind at the moment? A verse that I try to keep at the forefront of my mind is Matthew 6:33,  “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.

Time definitely moves faster as one gets older. I can remember being 12 years old and thinking “I wonder what I’ll be doing when the year 2000 comes?” Now here I am, 8 years beyond that, amazed at how quickly time passes me by as a twenty-nine year old.

This is a new year of incredible possibilities. A little more than a month ago I moved over 1000 miles to be a part of a movement that I believe God will use to help change the world, this movement called CoastlandTampa. I had several people tell me that I have no idea what I’ve gotten myself into, and I’m realizing that they were right, and in a good way. The latent energy that is building and brewing here is something I’m excited to see realized in the very near future.

We are fast approaching our January 13th “soft-launch” date, where we will begin to meet in the Crown Plaza Hotel just off of I-75 and I-4 in Tampa. Our official launch is February 10th, so we will have 4 weeks to work out the bugs, so to speak. There is so much to do in the next 10 days to 5 weeks! Some of it is logistical/utilitarian, such as ordering hardware for FellowshipOne Check-in Kiosks, video projectors and screens, laptops and presentation software, redesigning the CoastlandTampa website, etc. I’m shoulders deep in all of that, as well as creating several videos (that have yet to be shot) for our series of messages. All of that is going well and I’m happy to be using my gifts and skills and experience, but what really gets me going are the conversations I and others are having with the people here in Tampa as we show God’s love in practical ways.

One of the big goals we are going to accomplish before our February launch is to touch 250,000 people through random acts of kindness. This Saturday we are going to be handing out water bottles to motorists, something we have done twice already in the last several weeks. We don’t expect nor want every person we touch to come to Coastland. That’s way too many people! : ) Instead, we want to change the perspective people have toward Christians and ultimately toward God by showing them God’s love in practical ways.

I have been shown God’s love in a very practical way by the families who have and are supporting me financially so that I can serve here at Coastland.  I am incredible grateful for each of you and will be praying for you that God will bless you and give you opportunities to show His love to the people around you.

As this is a new year and resolutions are of the order, I will make it a practice of posting each week how things are progressing here in Tampa.  Please pray for God’s favor as we bring everything together for the 13th!

Wow…I can’t believe how quickly the last 2 weeks have flown by! It seems like yesterday that I arrived here in Tampa to begin this new chapter in my life. I think I’ve lost track of what day it was several times, so you could say it has been an interesting adventure so far!

I’m living in what we’re calling the Intern House, which is where Steve Sjogren and his family, along with 2 interns, are living as well. The house has plenty of room, though not enough (right now, anyway) for me to have my own living space. So I’ve setup camp in a living room upstairs to sleep in that doubles as our worship meeting area on Sunday mornings. Thankfully, Steve and his family will be moving into their new house this week, which means I will be able to move into my own room and establish some sort of rhythm again in my life.

I’ve already been able to use many of my gifts, talents, and experiences here at Coastland. I’m helping bring their use of media during Sunday morning worship up a notch by utilizing some presentation software that’s out there for the Mac. We still need to decide which software to use, something I’ll try to post my thoughts on this week. I’ll also have a big part to play in implementing FellowshipOne, the ChMS that I helped rollout while at my previous church. And though I haven’t had much hands-on development (ie. actual coding and graphic design) of websites, I’ve had a fair share of experience developing a number of websites. I’ll be able to use that experience as we move forward with revamping some of the many websites we have here.

Besides enjoying the work I’ve been doing, I have also met some great people down here. I’m enjoying getting to know the Sjogren family as well as the rest of the talent team, who are a fun-loving bunch of Jesus-followers from all over the country. One of the couples are from western NY and we’ve been able to reminisce about Buffalo food we miss, the Bills and Sabres, amongst other things. We’re planning on having a “Buffalo Food Night” every so often, just to keep close to our roots.

Finally, I’m loving the weather and the Tampa area. It’s been sunny and in the 80s almost every day that I’ve been here, something so odd for me to experience in the month of December! I’ve been to the beach a couple of times and absolutely love it. I thought the sunsets were great in Ohio, but seeing the sun set into the Gulf is like no other. I’ve also been able to get together with my parents and siblings since getting down here. I’m so thankful to be living near my family again!