Week before last we spent two days at the UPACC Center on the Campus of Texas State University in San Marcos adding a new media package because thats where our newest Multi Site Campus BAF San Marcos meets. Here’s a video of the work we were doing. Can’t wait to see what God is going to do there!!
Yesterday I felt led to write the Monday Mindless Dump for the first time in over a year. I finished it really late yesterday afternoon so without reviewing it, I just posted it! Good Lord did anyone actually read that novel? lol When I looked at it this morning I thought, who does that moron think he is, Tom Freaking Clancy? Geez what dufus. I can’t believe I wrote War and Peace on my blog and didn’t even know I did it. Sorry folks I’ll try to refrain from such stupidity in the future 
:)
I used to do the Monday mindless dump well, on Mondays, but starting four campuses is 19 months has taken me away from it. I have so much that has gone on in those months that I’ve wanted to share, and one of the ways I used to do that was with this. So here we go for the first time in well over a year. When reading this please take in to account the size my pea brain was before we started the four campuses, and then take into account the shrinkage that occurred while starting them
1. I am so proud of the Multi Site team. There are now five Multi Site campuses, and all are doing well, and each of the teams have sacrificed so much to get these campuses up and running. Let me just call out the MS team because they are an awesome group of high capacity leaders. Rudy Garcia, Dave Cotham, Joey Davila, Jason Curlee, Kyrah Hopkins, Randy Bryan, Tony Reyes, and David Flores. I am beyond blessed to have this team around me!
2. Just heard the other day from Jason Curlee that right at 200 people have asked Jesus Christ into their lives at the 5 Points Campus in the last 15 months! I am blown away by how God is using this ministry. The cool thing is, it’s happening at all the other campuses as well. 5 Points is doing such and amazing job and Pastor Jason has built a group of leaders that are second to none. Props to everyone who has worked so hard to create an amazing church out there!
3. The Kingsville campus was started four years ago and was our first campus, so it has been around for four years, but years in it has never looked better, sounded better, or operated more efficiently than it is right now. Huge props to Pastor Rudy, his worship Director Eric, Children’s Director Herlinda, and the rest of what is an incredible team of sold out followers of Jesus Christ. Kingsville has been transformed, and this team deserves some huge props for all the work they have done!! You guys rock!
4. I don’t know what to say about the folks from Padre Island. They are pouring their hearts out not only for their own campus, but they have given like crazy to help make all the new campuses happen. I don’t know of a more giving, loving, vision driven group a folks anywhere at any church. Pastor Dave and his team have something special going on out there, and it’s making a huge impact on the Kingdom of God.
5. I am so proud of Pastor David for being willing to follow God and take over the Alice campus with little or no experience. He stepped out on pure faith and God is creating in him an amazing Pastor. Alice is still in it’s infancy, but it is doing well and people are coming to Christ, and all that because a guy who simply loves Jesus was willing to step out on faith and go somewhere he’s never been before, to do something he’s never done, just because God said go!
6. Last week we made a decision to do something that we probably should have done already, and that is to ordain and license Joey Davila into the ministry as our Multi Site Worship Pastor. Pastor Joey, now that has a God felt ring to it. I am so proud of the leader and Pastor Joey has become. He will represent the ministry well and we are so blessed to have him on our team. He has started five separate bands basically from scratch, and turned them in to great teams leading amazing worship. Let me tell you folks, that is one tough gig!
7. We have one assistant who supports the entire MS Ministry and she does and amazing job. Kyrah has to put up with seven of us and all the campuses and ministries we represent, and somehow she has done it while remaining relatively sane. I assure you we would all be lost without her taking such good care of us. Not sure how she pulls it off every week but she does and she does it amazingly well!
8. I can’t believe how much has happened is such a short amount of time in San Marcos. We merged and existed church in San Marcos whose pastor is a great friend of ours and has been for many years. With any merger there is usually a tough period where a good many of the people are deciding whether they are going to buy into all the change or not, and thats the journey San Marcos has been on. Pastor Randy has been through a tough time over the last few months because he has been at ground zero as all this has transpired, but as we have gone through it, it’s become clear that God has chosen the group of people He intended to stay and be a part is BAF San Marcos, and they have not only stayed, but they have completely bought in to the vision and are excited about the future. Pastor Joey and I have spent a lot of time there in the last few months, and every time we go were more excited than the last time, because people are getting it. The potential for that campus is off the charts because there are four times as many people in San Marcos than any other city we’ve put a campus in so far, so we are so excited for all the people who will come to know Jesus there!
9. Been looking at some great West Side locations and just waiting for God to open the right door. I’ve reached a point to where I’m completely comfortable with Him closing doors I thought would open. Very cool feeling to just wait on Him and know that He is indeed God!
10. Spent two days in San Marcos this week installing all new audio/video components. Man this was a tough install because the UPACC, where BAF San Marcos meets, has 350 seats, a 30 ft ceiling, sloped floors with permanent seating. It was definitely a new challenge for all of us, but with an amazing team we, as Larry would say, got er done! I couldn’t believe how awesome the worship and the message were this last weekend. Big thanks to Dave, Joey, David, Randy, Ralph, Mario, Bear, Rick and all the others that worked so hard those two very long days!
11. I am truly the most blessed guy on the planet. My wife April is the greatest Pastors wife on the planet. I hope there tons of pastors out there who disagree because you should. She gets my calling, and she is my number one fan. She supports me and understands that the job God has called me to is time consuming, but at the same time she is the best at telling me when it’s time to back off a little. And she does it in such a great and uplifting way and never by criticizing me. I don’t know if she knows how much that means to me. I love her for many so reasons, but none more than knowing she always has my back. They say lots of things are priceless on the Visa commercials, but there is nothing in my life more priceless than April! She went with me to help out in Children’s at Alice a month or so ago and realized they needed help big time in that area, and because she’s done Childrens Ministry for 5 years, and because God asked her too, she has been driving 50 miles over there every weekend to lead Children’s ministry to help out Pastor David, and will continue to do so until someone is raised up and trained to take over. That is just one more of the many reasons I love her so much, her answer to God is always “yes,” regardless of the cost.
12. I have twin 17 year old boys who are sold out to Christ and are living their faith out each and every day! They are living a proactive faith and I am so proud to be their Dad. One is on staff in Element Student ministry leading worship, the other one serves on the Element leadership team as well. I was listening to a Craig Groeschel (Lifechurch.tv) podcast the other day called Practical Atheism, I highly recommend it, and the premise was about people who claim to know Jesus, but live as if they don’t. I can’t tell you how good it feels to be able to say that my wife and children all live out their faith every day, as if He does indeed exist.
13. When I found out my wife was pregnant 5 years ago, I was both happy and overwhelmed because I was 45 at the time and didn’t know if I had the energy for a baby at my age. I don’t know what I would do without my soon to be five year old little guy in my life. He is the love of all our lives, and the joy he brings to us is beyond measure. Thank you God for working through my selfishness and bringing your little guy Caleb to our lives. I love the look on his Mommy’s face when he loves on her. That too is priceless!
14. Every time I go to a different campus I am constantly being blown away by the people. There is over a 1000 people worshiping at a MS Campus on any given weekend, and they really get the whole MS thing. The spirit of the people at these campuses is incredible, and at every campus people are constantly asking me when and where the next one is going to be. If you’re wondering is MS actually works, let me assure you it most certainly does, and there are in excess of 500 BAF people who will spend eternity in Heaven with Jesus who will attest to it! I also have tons of Pastor friends who will tell you the same thing.
Please forgive any typos or grammatical errors, I’m exhausted and ready to go home, and of course there is the pea brain issues I told you about as well So much for my first Monday Mindless Dump!
John
If you follow my blog you probably know that we are trying to start 6 campuses in 6 months. That process has begun, but we also had some unfinished business at one of our existing campuses. For the last three days myself, Pastor Dave, Pastor Joey, Pastor Randy, and some awesome volunteers from San Marcos have been burning the midnight oil installing all new media at the UPACC, which is a building on the Campus of Texas State where BAF San Marcos meets. It was three long grueling days, but well worth it, and I’m really happy with how it turned out.
This was by far the most difficult install the multi site team has ever done. We’re trying to be good stewards, so up to this point, we have tried to find buildings for our campuses that will hold about 150 in worship, and have room for supporting children’s ministries. These buildings have all been around 6000 sq ft with 15 ft or so ceiling heights. This has worked well for us and we’ve been able to continue to grow these campuses with multiple services while not killing the budgets. The UPACC however, has seating for 350, 35 foot ceilings, and a sloped floor with fixed theater seating. This made for an interesting few days because of course everything we were doing was being done over the top of fixed theatre seating and 35 feet in the air. We had a lift designed to work over seats, and it worked well, but it took forever because it had to be rolled back into the aisle every time we moved it, and good grief did we ever move it a lot. Of course the stage created the same problems for screens and lighting so the team really worked their tails off on this one. It’s important to know that all this work was being done by a MS Director, 2 Campus Pastors, a Worship Pastor, and a handful of volunteers! Pretty crazy mix for sure
Really proud of everyone on the team because they really did some amazing work on this one. This weekend at BAF San Marcos, video, lights and sound will be at, as our friend Pastor Ed Young Jr says, “a whole nutha level.” I’m really excited for the team at BAF San Marcos and me and Pastor Joey will be heading back up there Sunday to make sure everything is working as we planned it. By the way, who in the heck is the idiot who came up with the idea to start a campus three hours away? Oh yea never mind, I think that idiot is me:)
John
All blessings from God are great, but nothing comes close to the blessing of God in the lives of our kids. In a world where teenagers lives are falling apart, and we see it in our church all the time, my 17 year old twins are living out their faith each and every day. The one on the left (Cory) is on staff in the Element Student Ministry as a Worship Leader and has a calling on his life to ministry, the one on the right (Cody) is part of the Element Student Ministry leadership team and pours his heart into it with all he has. Both are sold out to reaching broken and hurting students for Christ and model servanthood in ways that challenge me all the time!
I thank my God each and every day these two amazing young men. I love them with all my heart and am so proud to be their Dad. Thank you God from the bottom of my heart!
Over the last 18 months we have started 4 new multi site campuses in small towns around CC and I’m so excited to say all are doing really well. I know starting 4 campuses that fast sounds crazy, and frankly it is, but the cool thing is God just kept showing up over and over, and always right when we needed Him the most. But here’s the key, the provision was always found in the pursuit of the vision, not in the planning for the vision. Faith started 4 campuses not BAF, and every one of me team would wholeheartedly agree. I’m constantly being asked questions about how we pulled it off. Questions like, how did you pay for it, what’s your system, do you have written job and ministry descriptions, how do you staff, and tons of other questions, and sometimes I kind of feel bad because I don’t have a ton of stuff I can send people, but honestly, there really isn’t a system per se. Don’t get me wrong, I have a fantastic team of leaders who I would stack up against any leadership team in the country, we make plans, and we try our best to carry them out, but when I try to explain exactly what were doing, most people look at me and wonder if I’m completely crazy.
So today I’m here to confirm some suspicions and answer some questions! Based on the last 18 months, and the current vision in front of me, I am indeed crazy, probably not a big surprise to most of you, no I can’t really explain in a clear concise way what our system is because it’s evolving and changing faster than I can write it down, and yes we are really planning on starting seven more campuses in the next six or so months, and no we don’t have the money or people to pull it off. Some leaders would frown on that, and frankly I completely understand why, because I would be the first to tell you that what were doing really doesn’t make much sense, but I can also tell you it’s working.
So for all of those who are asking how we’re doing this, here’s the BAF Multi Site system as best I can explain it, and I’m not joking here, our faith is bigger than our common sense and skill! Thats pretty much the entire BAF Multi Site plan. For the last 18 months we have stepped way, and I mean way, out in the faith zone and started four campuses with not enough money, not enough people, and not a real clear plan. To be honest, we didn’t have a clear plan because we had no idea how to do what we were feeling led to do, but what we were sure we had was a word from God, and He came through every single time we needed Him, and is some huge ways. Here’s why I’m so excited to be called to carry out this vision, Pastor Bil has committed two hours of prayer a day for a year now, yes I really said every single day for a year he has prayed two hours, and in that time God has told him to keep starting campuses, so the BAF system is this, we’ll move forward and continue to figure it out as we go! I can tell you this, it sure is easy to follow a pastor who has spent two hours a day in prayer for a year asking God for His vision and provision!!!!
John
Life in the Multi Site ministry has been crazy, but man has it been fun. In the last 20 months we have started four new BAF Multi Site Campuses and all are doing really well. A lot of people would be ready to sit back and take a rest, but Bil’s on fire for Multi Site and he’s spent over 200 hours in prayer asking God what He wants us to do. In his prayer time Bil is absolutely sure God wants us to push forward with a huge vision and just trust Him with the money, people, and places. So that’s exactly what we’re doing.
In this vision we have seven locations where we want to put BAF Campuses, and we want to do it in a very short period of time. Part of what we are doing in the process is restructuring the entire Multi Site Ministry. I’m very excited about the vision in front of me because it will challenge me to take my leadership to a whole nutha level! I’ve never done what is in front of me, and that excites me. The cool thing about this vision is, it makes absolutely no sense and just couldn’t happen if it wasn’t from God, but Bil has prayed over 200 hours about it, so we’re going to trust God and move forward with it. Man I love that crazy faith zone!
I’m really excited about all this but trust me, there are times when I look at the size of this vision and wonder what God was thinking when He chose a guy to lead it who walked without his Son for 37 years, has no seminary training, or any church experience at all prior to coming to BAF. But for some reason God chose me to lead this thing, so I’m going to have to trust He knows what He’s doing
As we pursue this big vision I am so thankful for the amazing team God has surrounded me with, because without them, I couldn’t even come close to pulling this off. This is an amazing group of leaders who without exception have this vision deep in their hearts. Jason Curlee, Dave Cotham, Rudy Garcia, Randy Bryan, David Flores, Joey Davila, Kyrah Hopkins, and our newest Campus Pastor for the Westside whose name I don’t want to reveal until he’s had time to tell his family and friends. This is one seriously amazing team and I cannot put into words how thankful I am for each of them!
It’s going to be a crazy ride so if you’re reading this and you’re a part of BAF, we need your help. Get in contact with us and we will find a way to get you involved. This will take a body of believers joining together as a team to start all these amazing campuses where people can gather to experience the life change that only comes from a relationship with Jesus. We need you on our team.
John
If you have followed this blog you obviously know that I haven’t posted in six months. I used to blog once or twice a week and really enjoyed doing it, but the job God has called me to has simply put me in a position where I’ve had to change some priorities.
As much as I love this blog, I love leading the Multi Site Ministry at Bay Area Fellowship more. In the last 19 months we have started four new BAF Multi Site Campuses. I have been the guy leading that vision and it has challenged me in ways I could never have imagined.
There were so many times along the way when I knew I should be blogging about the journey, but there just didn’t ever seem to be enough time. I am going to try to make some time in the future, because the journey has been an amazing one for me and the Multi Site Staff. Four new campuses is truly amazing, but whats more amazing is all the people who have asked Christ into their lives at the campuses. So much life change happening all around us. I am so proud of my team and so thankful we serve an amazing God!
We are getting ready to start a bunch of new campuses and I am going to try to do better blogging the journey, because doubling the BAF Multi Site Ministry is of course going to stretch me even more. I actually feel like I’ve learned more about leadership, ministry, and myself in the last two years than the previous ten. I’m feeling like I need to do a better job of sharing what God is teaching me, so I will. Hope you check back!
John
Stay tuned and feel free to comment and hold me accountable to keeping you in the loop.
Starting campuses sadly puts my blog on the back burner sometimes, but as much as I love the blog, Multi Site is what keeps me awake at night, not my blog. So thanks for hanging in with me. So whats on my mind right now?
1. Really excited about what’s going in the Multi Site ministry.
2. We’re currently working on our temporary facility to get the Alice Campus ready to start meeting on Sunday’s.
3. We’ve gathered about 70-80 people who are interested in being a part of a BAF Alice Campus.
4. So proud of the Multi Site ministry for how we’ve saved so much money for future campuses! Every campus tithes weekly into our Multi Site account for just that purpose.
5. Padre Island is doing fantastic, and we’ve been able to solve our main problem of ceiling height with dual side screens. So much better now!
6. Pastor Dave Cotham is doing an amazing job out there. The PI campus is so about helping start other campuses. So thankful for all that is happening out there.
7. Never cease to be amazed at the job Pastor Rudy Garcia is doing at our Kingsville Campus. Pastor Rudy is 22 folks! What an amazing young leader!
8. Pastor Jason Curlee is tearing it up at our 5 Points Campus! I am blown away by what him and his team have been able to do with what was an old worn out metal building. They have transformed that place into a beautiful house of God.
9. Worship at the Multi Site Campuses is unfreakingbelievable. Is that actually a word? If not it should be. The quality of worship has exploded under the leadership of our Multi Site Worship Director Joey Davila. No way this happens without Joey joining our team.
10. Somehow we keep this machine rolling, and that’s in large part because of our MS Ministry Assistant Kyrah Hopkins. Not sure how she does it, but somehow she keeps all of us boneheads in order. We couldn’t do this without her!
11. We should have Alice meeting regularly in less than a month which will take us to 5 Campuses total, 4 being Multi Sites. A year ago we had one MS Campus. Wow, I’m leading this and that still blows me away. Amazing what God can do through a bunch of people crazy enough to believe He can do anything!
12. We have never waited until we had all the money we needed in place before starting a new campus. If we would have waited until all the money was place before moving forward on these, we would be one campus instead of five. Every one of these campuses has been built on the faith that God will provide if we’ll just start moving! That is one of the things about Pastor Bil that I love the most, he lives by faith!
13. Really excited to have Jim Tumberlin with Third Quarter Consulting coming down to hang with us for a few days in June. Jim is one of the smartest Multi Site guys in the country, and he’s coming to hang with us! I am so excited to have him join our Multi Site Staff meeting that week. We are going to learn a ton from him and I can’t wait!
14. Pumped about taking my team to the Innovation Exchange in San Antonio in June. I love hanging with this amazing team, because they are more than my employees, they’re my friends. Were going to have a blast.
15. Very pumped about and upcoming event at BAF. A group is using our church to film the third or fourth version of Thou Shalt Laugh which will be recorded and sold all over the world. We’re just hosting the event so our people get a free night of some amazing comedians. John Tesh will be hosting.
16. Also really stoked about Michael Franzese coming to BAF for a weekend in June. He is a former Captain in a Mafia Crime Family who found Jesus. His story will blow you away. He will be preaching at all the services one weekend. I’ll pick up John Tesh from the airport one week, then the next week I’ll pick up Michael Franzese. Talk about worlds colliding, WOW! lol Going to be cool meeting them both!
17. Really proud of my twin 17 year old sons. Cory is heading to Austin at the end of the month to compete in State in classical guitar, and he also serves on leadership staff in the Element Student Ministry in their Worship Dept! Cody is an honors student at Carroll High School with a 98 average taking all AP Classes. Most of all I’m proud because they’re both sold out to Jesus! I’m getting chills just writing that!
18. Then theres the my little guy Caleb, I will be 50 in June and he is 4, don’t tell me God doesn’t have a sense of humor.lol He is a mini tornado blowing his way through our lives at Mach 10. Cant imagine my life without him!
19. How cool is it that my wife is also my best friend! I love April with all my heart and she is truly a blessing to our family.
20. BAF is going live on national television in a few weeks. Very exciting because we’ve been working on this for probably a year. Our first show will air on The Church Channel which for now is only on Direct TV, but we should be following that up a few months later with some spots on Daystar.
21. I’m truly thankful for leaders in my life like Geoff Surratt and Jim Tumberlin. To have leaders who I can talk to who have accomplished what these guys have in Multi Site, is a huge blessing from God! I need all the help I can get! lol
22. I’m so thankful for all the ministry friends I have made through Twitter. There are so many leaders tearing it up for God all over this country I would never have known had it not been for the relationships we’ve built on Twitter. If you’re a pastor, I challenge you to join Twitter! Yes it will take some of that time you don’t think you have, but the relationships you’ll build with other leaders around the country, will be worth that time.
OK enough rambling! This is what is going on in my pea brain today, hope something in it interests you!
John
Tuesday night we gathered the Alice Core Group together to share a meal at a local restaurant. At the three previous gatherings we had 30 or so at the most, but this time we really challenged the group to invite their friends and neighbors. They did just that as 65 people showed up. Man that place was packed to the brim, and it was great. The staff at El Jalisciense was simply amazing. If you’re ever in Alice stop and have a meal there, you won’t regret it!
The energy in the room was off the charts as everyone laughed and fellowshipped over some bad to the bone Mexican Food. Really, is it possible have a bad meeting when Mexican Food is involved! The best part was that the room was full of new faces, and we were still missing some our regulars who couldn’t make it for different reasons.
After dinner I took a moment to speak to the group then asked Pastor Bil to share with them as well. Bil has been out there 3 times and it has made a huge difference because those folks know he truly cares about their church. We also had a chance to introduce Newell Atkinson to everyone. Most of the people already knew him, but what they didn’t know was, he is going to build us a building and lease it to us because there was nothing available in Alice that would work for us.
We will first move into a 1,800 sq ft facility Mr. Atkinson already has and make it work as best as possible until the permanent structure is ready. I was concerned where we were going to put all the kids during that time, so he decided he would have two temporary buildings he owns hauled to the back of the building so can use them for kids until we’re ready to move into our permanent structure. Man has God been moving in Mr Atkinson’s heart. He is in our prayers and we are praying for God to continue blessing this man and his business big time.
So thats where we are on Multi Site #4. Things are moving fast and God has made it beyond clear that He wants a BAF church in Alice, so me and the MS team will just keep pushing forward. Sometime in early June we will have our first official Sunday morning service at BAF Alice. Keep praying for us because this is going to be a big job, and it has been made perfectly clear to me and my team that, in a little Texas lingo, Satan ain’t happy about it.
John
