I’m playing with the thought of having a mini-Christian bloggers’ meet-up this Friday night. I’m not an event organizer or anything like that, so I really don’t know what I’m doing. :D Nonetheless, I have a couple of reasons why I need this to happen:

1. I need to see the faces behind those avatars. Let’s admit it, we know a lot of people online, but very few know each other personally. It can be a great time to fellowship and shake the real hands, you know what I mean.

2. LifeChurch Makati, the church we’re launching in May, said we’re willing to sponsor the coffee/drinks for this event. So, that’s free Starbucks for those who’s coming. :D To be transparent about it, not only that we’re excited to meet Christian bloggers, we also what to know if you guys can help cover the event on Sunday (March 21) as we have our 2nd preview service at Glorietta 4, Cinema 4. Details during the meet-up.

So, if you’re a:

- Christian blogger, or

- Christian twitter (wow, new English term, eh!)

and if you’re available this Friday, 7 pm, we’d like to have you for this Christian Blogger mini-meetup. That’ll be held at Starbucks Glorietta 4. Please confirm your attendance here. If I’ll have even just 4 bloggers to sign up, we’ll proceed. If you have questions, please email me at arnold[at]lifechurchmakati.com.

Thanks,

Arnold

Most of the greatest spiritual innovators throughout history were people who broke the rules… When you try something new in ministry most people will tell you that your idea will never work… Innovation by definition will not be accepted at first. It takes repeat attempts, endless demonstrations, monotonous rehearsals before innovation can be accepted and internalized by an organization. This requires courageous patience. If you have a God idea, you must be brave enough to go with it. Break some rules.

This Sunday marks the start of “breaking rules” for LifeChurch Makati. We’re going to break some rules in doing church here in the Philippines. If you’re interested to know what it is, check us out on our first preview service at Glorieta 4, Cinema 4 this Sunday, February 21. You’re invited to observe and experience.

So, we’ve been making noise about a new church called LifeChurch Makati in Facebook and people were asking, “There’s no more Grace Place?”

The quick answer is, “Yes. There’s no more Grace Place.”

The longer and more accurate answer is to explain that technically, the people behind Grace Place are the same people that will launch LifeChurch Makati. Only, LifeChurch Makati has:

• a different approach in doing church
• a different Sunday experience
• a different location
• a different partner

LifeChurch Makati is powered by LifeChurch.tv, an innovative church in the US lead by Craig Groeschel. We’re going to have a preview service on February 21, 2010 at the new location in Glorietta 4, Cinema 4. It’s a different Sunday experience, I promise. You’ve got to see it to believe.

And if you’re a follower of Christ and wants to serve, you’re welcome to be part of the launch team. Here are the details.

- Over the weekend, a battalion of lawmakers will migrate to the US to catch the Pacman. That means, there will be no quorum to vote for bills and the impeachment complaint against the ombudsman.

- Everything will stand still Sunday morning.

- Even criminals on the streets will take a break.

- Restaurants, cinemas and even hotels will be packed not by customers who want to eat or watch a movie, but by people who want to catch the Packman live via satellite feed. They are willing to pay P500 to P800 for this experience.

- Speaking of hotels, we’re even displaced from Tiara Oriental Hotel where regular services of Grace Place take place every Sunday. All function rooms will be occupied for the show of the day. We have no choice but to move the services to 2 pm to give way to the Pacman.

- And, yes, speaking of church services, as Steve Murell often says, churches will be full packed in the afternoon services. Why? Do the math, dudes.

The Pacman’s power will be felt all over the country this weekend. Let’s just all enjoy the moments, then slip back to exactly where we are at right after. I’m not sure if that’s good or bad, in any case, that’s exactly what it is anyway.

Good luck, Manny.

Grace Place (Metro Manila), in partnership with LifeChurch.tv, present:

After the service, one of my enrollees approached me, and with the short discussion with her, I gathered 2 things that most people think when they hear the word “theology”:

1. It’s boring — “Kuya, sigurado kang exciting to ha. Baka naman magsisi ako?”, and

2. It’s hard to understand – “Isinasama ko nga si ___ (friend’s name) kaso di pa raw sya ready sa hard stuff”.

I can’t blame her for thinking that way. In fact, it’s pretty normal to think that way about theology. Now a days, when people talk about theology, they actually  mean “I want to confuse you”. Seriously, theology has become so confusing that it becomes boring for most people.

Theology simply means a study about God. Anything about God — his character, his love, his holiness. In my case, I want to discuss about His grace. I tried to explain that the reality is, everything that we talk about in church has an underlying theological concept. This Sunday, our lead pastor talked about the importance of having a loving and caring small community. The theological concept behind that is “Fellowship”. He didn’t mention that term, but who cares as long as the concept is presented and understood well! Last year, one of the most interesting and much appreciated message series was “TXT”. It talks about the Bible. The attenders learned and understood it’s concepts — little that they know that Kuya Prudy is talking about the theological concept called “Sola Scriptura”.

So, theology can be understood and can even be fun!

“Ah, parang Theology for Dummies?”, she commented.

Great term! I like that. :D

I was able to read one of those “For Dummies” books and I was really amazed on how the author explained a complex topic in such a way that it become simple and interesting. He uses simple terms, graphics, even comedy in presenting the hard facts. The book didn’t water down the obviously hard-topic-to-explain. It simply explained it in such a way that it could be understood.

Theology needs not be confusing. It can be understood. It can be exciting. I guess it all depends on how it is be presented. And, yes, understanding God’s grace can be  challenging than the usual “inspirational topics”, but sure it can penetrate the heart, it’s life changing. And even Johann, my 4 year old kid, can understand it. It’s just a matter of presenting it in an exciting, non-boring, and understandable way.

So, Tuesdays 7:30 at Kopiroti, The Columns will rock! Believe me. :D

To prepare for this message series, we are researching and looking for possibility of interviewing on camera 2 to 3 followers of Jesus who are terminally ill. Yung parang may taning na.

Here’s where you can help us. If you know of a person who :

* is a believer of Jesus.
* terminally ill, probably s/he has cancer or any other similar disease.
* has a positive perspective on life despite his/her situation
* preferably living within Mega Manila (Metro Manila, Laguna, Cavite, Bulacan, Rizal). We may not be able to travel further than that. But if his/her story is really inspiring, we will try to consider traveling further.
* preferably not older than 49 .
* most especially, willing to share his/her story on how his perspective in life changed because of the life threatening disease.

You don’t have to convince them. Just give us a tip — who this person is, way to contact (ie, cell phone, land line, who to contact initially). We will be the one to talk to them and share with them the vision of the interview. We are hoping that they will agree to be interviewed after we explain the tremendous impact their story can create to the lives of people.

You can email me :

arnold.gamboa [at] graceplace.ph

Your contribution to this project is greatly appreciated. Thanks a lot in advance.

* Steve Murrell shares a great analogy on how understanding your sinfulness affects the way you respond to God’s grace.

* I thought we should put Jesus first in our lives? Steven Furtick says, no. We should put Jesus on the center of our life instead.

* Perry Noble‘s New Spring Church launched a new website called ParentsAreClueless.com to coincide with their new series on parenting. If you are a parent, you’ll agree with me that we are clueless most of the times, don’t we?

* I’ve started a Pinoy Paypal users group. If you are a Paypal user or plan to use it in the future, join us as we try to shoot down possible problems that we can encounter.