Robert Pooley

Congrats Leanna!

My 14 year old Leanna had a great day yesterday... She overcame fear and entered the girl's competition at the opening of the new skate park in Milton.  With probably over a thousand people watching... she skateboarded to first place in the girl's division.

I'm blown away on so many levels... but I think the biggest thing, is she overcame the fear.  She was afraid to compete... She finaly decided to try... and she won! 

Congrats Baby Girl...  I'm so proud of you!

Ramblings...

1.. Chris Sligh rocked the house on American Idol last night...singing "Typical" from Mute Math.  Mute Math is a great choice.  Too bad he had to get caught in a weird exchange between Seacrest and Cowell.

2..   Starting a brand new series called "Urban Legends" on March 4th.  We will spend some time debunking spiritual myths like "It doesn't matter what you believe as long as you are sincere," or "If I ignore my pain, it will go away."   We will be talking about myths that have become Urban Legends in the church.

3.. I was shocked the other night... I turned on one of the news channels and they were actually covering some news...  Well, they were discussing Jet Blue...  Anyway, I can't tell you how happy I was to be able to watch a few minutes of real news and not Britney's bald head, or Anna Nicole... I remember the old days when there was such a thing as hard news.  What has happened with news is similar to what happened to Music Television.  Try to find music on MTV... not too easy.  Try to find news on most of the news channels...  Its a weird thing.

4.. Wildwood was a huge hit at Coast over the weekend.  Thanks to Mike Wheeler and the guys for nailing the classic Beatles tune, "All you need is love."

5..  I'm getting calls and reports from people every week who are discovering Coast and saying what a difference it has made in their life.  People are talking about the practical teaching, (and the large amount of scripture... we don't shy away from that... its really all we have.)  They are talking about the worship, the people... the mission... the ministry... and the lives that are being changed.  I want to take a second and just give huge props to our volunteer team members...  You guys rock!  And life changing ministry is happening every week because of you.

6.. I love that I have wise counsel in my life.  I thank God first of all for His Holy Spirit.  The bible tells us that He guides us into all truth...  The Holy Spirit is 100% reliable.    I also thank God for my wife, Vicki.  A friend of mine told me at lunch that his wife has the rights to "I told you so" for the rest of their life.  I know that feeling... My wife Vicki is an amazing source of wisdom for me. 

I thank God for our elders.  These are men I trust with my life.  They are a constant source of inspiration and counsel to me. Our church is blessed more than anyone realizes because of these men and their wives. 

I so appreciate my Pastor friends.  These guys have walked the road.  They have loved and followed God through hard times... and through good times... and their wisdom is rock solid.  Everyone needs people in their life that know them at the deepest level...  I thank God for these.

7.. Useless fact that you didn't know about me...  The two songs at our wedding, besides the traditional wedding march were... "If" by Bread... and "Color my world" by Chicago.  Both of those songs still make me melt. 

8..  Speaking of music... Last I-tunes download was "Its over" by Daughtery.  This guy rocks to me.  I have been on a Mute Math kick lately... I mentioned them at the top... but they really are an amazing band... and all believers... but having said that, I'm a little bored and looking for something new to download off of I-tunes.  If you have any great ideas, let me know.

9.. Nascar has started... and what better way to start than a racer finishing upside down and on fire... should be a great season.  (By the way, how long till football season.)

10..  FSU just took it to Florida in Baseball.  I love that.

11..  I am so pumped at the atmosphere and vibe of Coast right now.  There are so many cool things happening and people are really catching the vision of changing our community, and loving them into a relationship with Christ.

 

 

Christian Blogs

Here's a list from the Saddleback folks of Christian blogs to look at...  link

The Ramblings, Rants and Raves of a busy mind (my blog) are included on the list.

I got the fever...

Nope, its not a  romantic Valentine's fever... I actually have a fever, feel weak, and have no energy... ugh!!!!    Good news though... Chris Sligh made it to the final 12 for men...   

And since it is Valentine's day... let me take a second and just say what an amazing woman Vicki Pooley is...  She is a tremendous blessing to Coast... a great wife and mother...  Happy Valentine's Baby... I love you more than ever...

American Idol

Idol is heating up already!

Chris Sligh...  one of the worship leaders from Seacoast is still going strong...   SeaCoast, like Coast is an ARC Church.   Go Chris! 

Here is a sample of Chris singing worship sample

The Unknown Beatle...

Was a great day at Coast today... We had an awesome time as we started our new series "All you need is love."  Beatles music pre service... Great crowd... Gary and the Coast Band were rocking and worshipping... And it was a lot of fun... And as promised I revealed some Beatles trivia that has never been released ever before this day...  The existence of a mystery unknown Beatle that has been wiped away somehow by history...  Yes, I was a Beatle...  Want the proof?  Here's a shot from the early days.  (You can click on these to see a larger version)

Ahhh, five young guys from liverpool... ok, four from Liverpool and one from Florida.   Still not convinced?  Ok, here's something from a little later on.

Can't find me... here's a close up...

You say, well Robert, you're just a face in the crowd... You can't hardly call that an unknown Beatle.  Well how about me in the most famous picture of all time... the Beatles @ Abbey Road.

Thanks to my Rock Historian pal Mike Wheeler for making these up... errrr, I mean digging these up out of the archives...   Was a fun morning...  and who knew there was an unknown Beatle?

Excited about tomorrow

Really excited about our new series that is starting tomorrow... Its called "All you need is love."  And I can't give away the secret... but tomorrow I will be sharing with people for the first time anywhere...  a piece of Beatles trivia that has never been shared with anyone. Not ever... not anywhere... not any place... and for the very first time... it will be spoken of publicly...  And I have pictures...  If you come to Coast... you won't want to miss this one...

This is very exciting... and I will post the pictures on my blog on Sunday night.

From this week's email newsletter...

Time for a little rambling...

1.)  Very excited about this new series..."All you need is love."  We have some fun things coming up... one that I can talk about is on February 18th, the band Wildwood will be doing two songs for us in our Sunday service... including the song "All you need is love." What a blast that's going to be!  These guys are excellent! You won't want to miss that one... By the way, if all goes well... you might get some insight this Sunday into some of my own little known Rock-n-Roll history...  we will see. 

2.)  You know those commercials for I think it is, Alltell with Chad and the guys who represent the other companies.  What's the deal with Chad?  Does he genuinely like those guys?  And if so, then why is he constantly making them look bad?  The more I watch the commercials I find myself not being so fond of Chad.   By the way, speaking of commercials... after seeing the Geico ads, I find myself wishing that there were some cavemen in Gulf Breeze... they seem like an outstanding group of guys.

3.)  Encounter was a huge blessing last night, with a great time of worship, communion, the word and then just taking time to pray for people...  It was a great night... if you are not coming to Encounter, the first Wednesday of every month... you really are missing out.

4.)  I am encouraged by what I am seeing with Fox Family Films... This is the company that is putting out movies like "End of the Spear," "Three," and the current movie, "The Sin Eater."  Set to release soon is the Tedd Dekker - Frank Peretti book, "House."  I haven't read it but I understand its a real page turner.  I wonder if its about a renegade Dr. who is rude to people but extremely good at curing sick people?  Anyway... I love that Christians are beginning to take the arts seriously again.  I believe one day that Coast will be on the leading edge of creativity in all areas of the arts, from film to music to sculpting and painting... to dance and on and on and on.   It used to be that Christians set the standard for the world... and not the other way around.   I would like to see that happen again. 

5.)  I have been thinking through Jacob's statement at Bethel where he said, "God is in this place and I knew it not." And what really is resonating in my heart is that Jesus lives in the heart of the believer... and wherever we go, He is there.  I really do think that if we could become aware of that, it would change our lives...  We would relate to people differently...because Jesus is there...  We would learn to respond and not react... because of the presence of Jesus.   God is with us!  Its really is a life-changing thought.

6.) At lunch I was talking with an old friend today about goals, and how if you ask someone about their professional goals... "Where do you think you will be in 5 years professionally?"  They usually can tell you where they think they will be and what their plans are to get there...  But a lot of the times if you ask people where they will be spiritually in five years, they might have an answer... something like they want to be closer to God, they want to learn to love more, etc.  But they can't tell you what it will take to get there.  See. its like this... way too many people buy into the myth that spiritual growth is automatic.  In other words, if I just hang out at church, then automatically I am going to grow and be more mature this time next year.  Sorry, it doesn't work that way.  It takes time and effort to grow spiritually. 

When I first started dating Vicki...  I spent time with her... every second I could.  I wanted to know more about her, because I really liked her.. and then I began to love her.  Same with God...  When I first became a believer, no one had to "make" me grow.  I was reading the word... I was reading books... I was grabbing my bible and making appointments for lunch with other believers and I would ask them questions.  I wanted to know God... I pursued God... and the bible tells us when we do that, He will be found by us. No one had to feed me... I was hungry...so I ate.   I haven't stopped... I still want to know Him better... I still want to grow.  Here is the thing... Its' my decision and my determination to seek after God that makes this happen.  Before I became a pastor, I attended church every Sunday.  I took notes... but I didn't stop there.  I asked questions, I studied, I read, I spent time with God... and the result is I grew. 

I said all that to say this, If you want to grow in the Lord, you can!  Its not up to me, or anyone else. Its up to you.  So I will close this week's newsletter with the questions, "Where do you want to be in five years spiritually?  And, how do you plan to get there? 

Let's rock the world together!

Cya Sunday,

Robert

Something to think about...

During the Second World War, a church in Strasbourg was destroyed. After the bombing, the members of this particular church went to see what was left and found that the entire roof had fallen in, leaving a heap of rubble and broken glass. Much to their surprise, however, a statue of Christ with outstretched hands that had been carved centuries before by a great artist was still standing erect. It was virtually unharmed except that a falling beam had sheered off both hands. The people hurried to a sculptor in town and asked if he could replace the hands of the statue. He was willing, and he even offered to do it for nothing. The church officials met to consider the sculptor’s proposition -- and decided not to accept his offer. The congregation decided to place a plaque on the base of the statue. It reads: “He has no hands but ours.”

Friends?

Mark Waltz, Connections pastor at Granger Community Church wrote this in the Wired news and I thought it was interesting... so here it is.  By the way, @ Coast we have 242 groups that meet at different times and different venues... If you are in the NW Florida area and would like more info on what groups are available, contact us at Coast31@aol.com   Here's the Mark Waltz article...

The bright folks at Windsor Crossing Community Church near St. Louis gave me something to chew on a few weeks ago. Judy asked, “Why is it that the church is the one organization in America where participating people expect the organization to find them a friend?” Great question. I’ve been thinking about it for a month now. You don’t expect the gym to find you a friend. You don’t go to college and expect the registrar to find an appropriately profiled friend. You don’t go to the golf course and expect the pro shop to find you a summer golfing friend. But people expect it in the church. Why is that?

What if, for lots of years, the church in general has so promised intimacy and relationships [“We’ll help you find a friend”] that we’ve created an expectation that nearly removes personal responsibility as well as personal choice for people?

This remains true: People matter to God. Jesus was, and is, a friend to sinners. And to Christians who have enormous expectations for the church to “feed” them. At Granger Community Church, we believe everyone should “have a friend and be a friend.”  (Side note... we believe that at Coast as well) Relationships matter. It’s how Jesus did ministry – and how he went about discipleship.

Friendships are developed over time. Friendships are a two-way street. And they’re important enough to do the hard work to develop meaningful relationships.

It’s not weird that people want friends, want meaningful relationships. We all do. God’s wired us up for relationships. But isn’t it weird that the church tells people who their friends should be? And isn’t it weird that people in the church expect the “church” (that is, the institution) to find them a friend?