Diversity Matters

In Rev. 7:9, there is a picture of heaven where every tribe, tongue and nation is gathered in the presence of God. It is a picture of God's people coming together for all eternity. It is a picture of the diversity of God's people coming together because of him. The question is this: Is Revelation 7:9 simply a portrait of what will be or what could be?

Clearly this is a picture of what will be of heaven. However, couldn't it or shouldn't it be a picture of the church today? We need for this reality to become reality in our churches.

Last month, my wife was a part of one of our worship team training days. She noticed we had some new people on stage. More interestingly she realized our hope was becoming reality. As she looked across the stage she noticed one person was from Nigeria, another from Haiti, another from the Philippines, and one from Mexico. There she was, a one-stoplight-town girl from east central Illinois serving alongside a ministry with global implications.

What an amazing reality! From the beginning, Common Ground has intentionally pursued a multi-ethnic church. It hasn't always been easy and it hasn't always happened, but diversity matters. Diversity is the core to how we live as a church.

Common Ground is now 9 months old. It is hard to believe that the vision of God has become a normal reality in our church, but it has!

By the numbers

Common Ground is now 9 months old. Wow, did we say that out loud? 9 months old and this has allowed us to truly see who we are becoming.

Like and infant becoming a toddler, we are seeing our personality, interests, and abilities begin to take shape. As we continue to take steps forward, there are some very strong signs of life. We have averaged 120 attenders, had 51 people become members, and seen 10 baptisms.

We continue to be amazed at what God is doing through us and in us. We have much work to do though. These are great signs that God is working and up to something big. We must continue to serve our neighbors and reach out in new and fresh ways.

Mother's Day

We had an incredible Mother's day. Did you?

Sunday was great because we had so many family members come and support their kids as they sang in service. It was incredible.

We are so fortunate to have o many families connected to our church It is a real testimony to our staff and they way they have reched out and gotten our families connected here at Common Ground!

Great gifts for the kingdom

This last month Kristi was in a wreck and our car was totaled. Fortunately no one was hurt, but the car could not be fixed.

At the time, we had a mission team here on campus. They heard about our car being totaled and felt compelled to donate their truck to Common Ground. We are fortunate to have people who will step up and help however they can.

This is a picture of our friend Paul Halstead donating "the truck he couldn't sell" to the church. It is certainly an upgrade from my 1994 Grand Am.

Spring Break with CIY.

We had a chance to take our family to Panama City Beach, FL this spring break. (It was much needed after 3 mission trips over 4 weeks.)

We had a chance to work with CIY, Steve Fee, and catch some much needed family time on the beach. Go to http://www.ciy.com to see what they have in store for 2008!

Final Spring Mission Team

E91st Christian Church and Seacoast Christian Academy came and served with Common Ground on March 29-April 4.

We were able to give out almost 4,000 water bottles this week and collect another 150 grocery bags full of food for the replenish project for "hunger free" a ministry of East Tampa Christian Church.

Thanks so much for all of your help and service to reach Tampa for his glory!

Spring Fling - inflatables and food

There was a lot of fun at the Easter egg hunt, but things got really pumping was we came back to the church. All in all, over 300 people were involved on the day and smiles were all around.

As you can see we had inflatables, food, families and a lot of fun. What I love about the experience is 8 new families showed up Sunday and most of them had been at our Spring Fling. Let's see what God does with this momentum!

A special thanks goes out to all the leaders and helpers with the Spring Fling. Our community is getting a first hand look at who we are and what we are about. Thanks for representing Common Ground and Jesus with your best efforts! You are making an eternal difference.

Spring Fling - Easter Egg Hunt

So we tried our first ever Easter egg hunt at Rivercrest Park. Wow. The community really showed up.

Julie Scott, our Associate to Children and Families worked hard helping us get flyers to all the closest Elementary schools. We also handed out 1500 door hangers to help out with our cause.

All in all, so many things went well and it was a great kick off to the weekend. The Spring fling also continued down on the church's campus and only got better!

RoK Week: Revolution of Kindness

I am excited about what March 16-23 will bring. We are doing a whole series of servant evangelism projects. Block parties, water bottle give ways, Easter egg hunt, and recruitment for supplies for a local homeless mission.

We are still in need of help with water bottles, candy, and volunteers for Spring Fling. Contact Julie at julies@commongroundtampa.com if you would like to volunteer.

Christ In Youth is bringing a group of students to help us in this endeavor. They will have 15 individuals looking to plug in and serve.

Big Push for Easter

Over the next couple of weeks, we are making some major pushes to connect our community to Common Ground. Here are a couple of our promotion pieces to hang on doors and give out with our water bottles.

Message series

On February 3rd, we talked our new series "Jesus Uncensored."It has been so good to see the response in our people. As we address the issues of love, forgiveness, selflessness, and others, God is building a church that looks like him.

Please pray for us a God is bringing new people to work with Common Ground as special guests.
Ruth Reyes has already come to lead worship with us from www.fcc.edu .
Gerson Lopes, pictured below, will be here the 17th of February.
Kenny Beers will be here 24th from www.fcc.edu.



In January, we did a series called "Fresh Start." We had one of our highest attendances as we discussed a fresh start in our lives, finances, relationships, and faith. It was an incredible series that finished with a couple of more baptisms.

January 27th was a day that celebrated a mother and daughter baptism. Both grown adults, came to a decision to be baptized into Jesus together. It was a wonderful way to finish the month.

Christmas Eve: Our very first service

Common Ground held it's very first Christmas Eve service.

The staff and volunteers cleared out the room and set up tables. The room was decorated with Christmas trees, a manger scene (Created from one fo the broken pews from the former church), and strategically placed poinsettias brightened the room.

Families were encouraged to join in on the family activities and create different elements on their tables. A ton of different desserts and egg nog was served. The room was filled with friends and neighbors!

We showcased the variety of talents of our families at Common Ground. Julie and Mike Scott played our emcees for the night. Bridget Gordon and family came and sang an original song and then shared an interpretive dance. Julio and Krystal Cruz did an interview of a couple of our families to talk about Christmas traditions for different perspectives. Danny shared a short message and the night finished with a great solo by Carlos Cortijo and Mary Lou Harden.

Merry Christmas to all. Thank you so much for making our first Christmas a very special one.

Christmas Weekend: It snowed!?

What a wonderful weekend - this Christmas weekend. Chris led an acappella worship set and it snowed! Thanks to Big Dog Audio, aka the Hankos, Common Ground had snow on Sunday morning!

We chose to have a combined worship service and enjoyed seeing everyone together. It was like opening weekend. So many new faces, but actually it was just the first time they had met since our people attend 2 different services.

We had one family bring some extra goodies from "Toys for Tots" and spontaneously share with the children of Common Ground. We are thankful for the generosity of the of all the families - both volunteer and staff - who made this weekend an extra special weekend.

Community Concert is a success

Tonight the Sunshine Brass Orchestra performed at Common Ground. Roughly a 30 piece band came and played for the South Seminole Heights Civic Association.

This was our second community event hosted in our facility. We have begun a partnership with the civic association and now host their meetings and special events as needed.

There was a dinner at 6:30 PM and concert that followed at 7:30 PM. The concert was filled with traditional carols and chorus - everything from Jolly Old St. Nicholos to O Holy Night. One tribute was a suite of Canadian choruses.

The highlight of the night was a version of "What Child is This?" The vocalist was amazing! We were fortunate to have such a talented group come to Common Ground.

Thank you SSHCA for coming and hanging out with us.

It's Christmas Time and It's Raining?

As I sit here this evening I have been surfing the web and checking out the weather up north. Today was 83 degrees here in Tampa, but in Indy it was 31 and felt like 23.

Everywhere you drive here there are marks of Christmas. Inflateables in the front yard, reindeer on the roof, and a manger on the porch. Not at my house, but a few houses in our neighborhood. But one thing is lacking. It's snow.

For the first day in weeks, we got some rain. But rain is not snow. It's too wet to pack, to fluid to hold, and too warm to freeze.

Oh well, guess we'll have to go to the beach to find white ground. Like my friend Dan always says, "I've never had to shovel sand to get my van out to go to work."

Party In the Park

On December 1st, Nolan English the Associate Minister of Community Impact, lead Common Ground on a day of service.

The beginning of a new food pantry were started, new shed was put up in place of the old one, a little bit of cleaning and repair work was done, and our portable building was repaired.

All the work was provided by Common Ground and friends of Common Ground - Church at the Bay here in Tampa and Tomoka Christian Church in Daytona, FL.

Thanks to all who helped make that day possible.

Baptism Sunday turns into a weekend

Baptism Sunday was a great success. 8 different individuals chose to obedient and follow in the steps of Jesus through baptism.

What an outstanding day! We had scheduled the baptisms to be on Sunday but had a chance to baptize one of our own early on Saturday. It was great to experience God's kingdom growing as He continues to prepare for us a place where every tribe, tongue, and nation can belong!

Thank you to everyone for your prayers and support. Just another day in God being a great God!

By the numbers

Some of you have wondered how we are doing. Though numbers do not determine our success they help us get a handle of what kind growth and potential we have as a church. Here a look at our first 2 months of information.

This information is from the connection card that have been filled out since Sept. 9th, 2007.

1. TOTAL HOUSEHOLDS - 157
2. NUMBER OF FIRST TIME GUESTS - 244
3. NUMBER OF NEW MEMBERS - 34
4. NUMBER OF PEOPLE IN GROUP LAUNCH - 17
5. TOTAL NUMBER OF PEOPLE IN OUR ROSTER - 255
6. NUMBER OF CHILDREN ON OUR ROSTER - 64
7. 8 Baptisms as of Nov. 4th!

God is doing a great work here and I am so glad we came to start this new work!

The Fall Festival Comes Together!

The Fall Festival is our Halloween alternative to our community. We had partnered with Broward Elementary in handing out flyers to our local students. Approximately 300+ children and parents attend from 6:00 - 8:30 PM.

It was a beautiful night and lots of new friendships were formed. It was good we ended when we did. The later it got - the rowdier it got.

Thanks to everyone who supported and helped make this night a huge success! Let's pray they all show up on Sunday now too!

Family Fun Night is a success

We are so fortunate to have a great staff. A few weeks ago we saw a new wrinkle of our staff's greatness when Julie (Klunzinger) Scott hosted the first family fun night. Parents and children attended a night of pizza, movies, competition, and fun.

Almost 50 people attended. What we loved the most was the chance to begin to introduce our families to other families. Goofing off, laughing, and sharing stories allows us to go from neighbors and guests to friends and eventually family.

If you are in the area, make sure you make plans to attend our Fall Festival on Oct 31st. God is doing a great work and we are so fortunate to get to be a part of Common Ground!