Reminder: BYK KICKOFF IS TONIGHT!

September 12, 2014

BYK = Build Your Kingdom and the Kickoff event is TONIGHT at 8 pm (doors open at 7:30).

The theme of the night is "God Building His Kingdom through STSA." We'll have LIVE TESTIMONIES from people whose lives have been transformed at STSA and hear how God is working in our church. We'll also have the music team rockin, we'll be giving away prizes (like 4 tickets to a Christian concert coming to DC) and of course yours truly will give a brief message (as I always do) kicking off the 4 week BYK campaign.

So get excited and come on out tonight! If you’re local, come join us in person; the event is free and all are welcome. If you’re not local, then be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter and simulcast the event live as it happens.

Either way, don't miss out on the fun tonight and find out how God wants to use YOU to build His Kingdom wherever you might be.

BUILD YOUR KINGDOM HERE!

Be Part of the #OneBrick Movement

September 9, 2014

You’ve seen the tweets and you’ve read the Facebook posts. You read yesterday about the BUILD YOUR KINGDOM campaign launching on Friday night and by now you’re probably asking the same question I’ve gotten from many over the past few days…WHAT IN THE WORLD IS THIS ALL ABOUT?

What is Build Your Kingdom? What is #OneBrick? What are you guys trying to do here?

Build Your Kingdom KICKOFF EVENT

September 8, 2014

What are you doing on Friday night? Whatever it is, I guarantee that it won’t be as uplifting, inspirational, and downright FUN as what I’m doing. That’s because I’ll be attending the “Build Your Kingdom” Kickoff Event and I’m inviting you to join us as well.

The kickoff event is where we’ll be launching a 4 week campaign to BUILD GOD’S KINGDOM all around the world. We’ll talk about some of the ways that God is building His Kingdom here in the DC area and we’ll show you how you can get involved and become a kingdom builder as well.

And if you’re not local, we’ll be simulcasting the event live online and hopefully inspire you to build God’s Kingdom wherever you might be.

Celebrating One of My Heroes

May 14, 2014

Hero: ‘a man of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities’

I grew up loving action movies – but not the comic book, superhero kind of movies that are popular now. I grew up watching real heroes, guys without any superhuman powers but who fought with superhuman courage and bravery. Guys like Bruce Willis in Die Hard – who saved the world from terrorists without a weapon or even a pair of shoes. Or like Rambo who could take out an entire city alone and never had to call for backup. Or my personal favorite – this is really going to test your knowledge of the 80s – The Greatest American Hero (listen to the theme song and see if it rings a bell).

Today I want to celebrate one of my real-life heroes – not a fictional character but a real person who really did save the world from evil and without whom only God knows where we’d all be today. And in addition to all that, he’s got a really cool hero name too!

Meeting with Pope Tawadros in Egypt

March 6, 2014

Haven't been able to post all week and the reason why is because I’ve been in Egypt since Monday. Yep, that’s right. American priest visits land of Egypt. I’ve had quite the experience and thanks be to God, all has gone well.

And the highlight of my trip by far was getting to meet with His Holiness Pope Tawadros II.

I was truly humbled and honored by His Holiness' love and care for both me and our church. Below is a short 1 minute video clip that His Holiness recorded as a personal message to the entire STSA family.

May the Lord keep His Holiness Pope Tawadros for us and confirm him on his throne for many years to come.

God's Promise for 2014

January 2, 2014

Happy New Year! I hope that 2014 has been good to you thus far and that you’re still going strong on those new year’s resolutions (only 364 more days to go!).

We started a New Year’s tradition at STSA last year and it has quickly become one of my favorites. What started as “it might be a cool thing to try this year” has quickly turned into “it just wouldn’t be New Year’s without it.”

What is “it”? RECEIVING OUR NEW YEAR’S PROMISES!

Welcome to THE WELL

December 4, 2013

I’ll say a phrase and you say the first thing that comes to your mind. Ready? Here’s the phrase.....…THE WELL. What do you think of? What comes to your mind? Anything exciting or earth-shattering? My guess is that the answer is probably no, but there is one lady I know who is filled with emotion whenever she hears that phrase. To her, THE WELL is much more than a big hole in the ground filled with water. To her, THE WELL is the place that her life was changed forever.

Who is that lady? She is the lady written about in the New Testament, John 4, commonly known as the Samaritan Woman. To her, THE WELL is an ordinary place that took on extraordinary meaning and significance through her encounter there with a Man called Jesus.

She showed up at THE WELL one way, but she left a completely different way – completely transformed on the inside and the outside. Her life took on new meaning ever since that day at THE WELL and that’s why to her, THE WELL is the most important place on earth. It’s the place where she met Jesus and her life was changed forever.

Because of that, when we wanted to come up with a name for our post-Liturgy Sunday meeting at STSA - the weekly event that we use as a chance to invite our friends to come to church and hopefully meet Jesus there - we decided to name it THE WELL.

The World's Original Problem

September 18, 2013

Trivia question - what was the first “problem” that ever existed in the world? The first dilemma that man had to solve?

a) Rush hour traffic
b) Long lines at the DMV
c) In-laws
d) Loneliness and lack of relationship

If you guessed D, you are correct!

Look no further than the second chapter in the Bible and you’ll see that before there were wars and disasters and violence and diseases – all the things that came as a result of sin – there was another problem...LONELINESS.

“And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone.” (Genesis 2:18)

Keep in mind that at the time, everything was good in the world. No problems. No pain. No sickness. No unemployment. No fighting. No construction on the Beltway during rush hour. Everything was just "good".

Now That's My Idea of a Great Weekend!

June 26, 2013

“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16)

Last week I wrote about how excited I was for this past weekend. It was the weekend of our public launch at STSA – the weekend where we felt God wanted to take the good things we have going inside the church and make them known to the community outside. And just as the first century church “went public” on the Day of Pentecost, we felt like God wanted us to do the same this past weekend as we celebrated Pentecost as well.

So how’d it go?

FANTASTIC! Magnificent! Best weekend to date! YAHOO!!!!!!

Let the Tidal Wave Begin – STSA Going Public!

June 19, 2013

This is one of those weeks for me. One of those weeks where I don’t know what to blog about or what to say. It’s one of those weeks that I absolutely live for and dread at the same time. It’s a week where I really feel – with all my heart, soul, mind and strength – like God is going to do something big… something huge… something massive… something historically grand… something that is exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask or even imagine! And He’s going to do that right here – right in front of my eyes!

What in the world am I talking about? Let me explain.

As you probably know, I have been blessed to be serving at St. Timothy & St. Athanasius church (STSA) - aka THE GREATEST CHURCH EVER!. I love my church so much and from day one, I have felt that God has a special calling and a special mission for this church (go back and see the very first blog post I ever posted and you’ll see what I am talking about).

BOLD Part 3 - 3D Living

June 3, 2013

BOLD is back! Yesterday's message was a very powerful one, but also practical one.

We talked about 3 simple steps that every single one of us can take to start living a life of evangelism: Develop friendships, Discover stories, Discern next steps. This is a must listen for anyone who's ever said "I know God wants me to do evangelism, but I don't know what to do" or "I want to be a witness but I don't know what to do or say."

If you've ever said that, then check out the video above and hopefully it'll help answer your questions.

BOLD Part 2 - Just Sowing Seeds

May 20, 2013

Part 2 in the latest series, BOLD: All Things to All Men. Yesterday's message was focused on the key to "success" as an evangelist. It isn't training or knowledge or any special skills. It's your willingness to just do one thing....

What is it? Check out the message to find out.

BOLD Part 1 - The Call to Evangelism

May 13, 2013

I'M BACK! I know I've been offline for a couple of weeks now, but I am back now and more on fire than ever. God has really really been speaking loudly and clearly to me and I can't wait to get back on schedule (now that house is sold, Pascha week is over and week in Florida is done) and share all the good things God is doing.

So if you thought you got rid of me....YOU WERE WRONG!

And the first thing I want to share with you today is the first message in a brand new series that I started yesterday. It's called BOLD: All Things to All Men. Can you guess the topic? It's all about "evangelism" - the word that means different things to different people - and what our role is with regards to evangelism. Trust me, it's not what you think.

Being an evangelist isn't what you might think it is. It is something much simpler and in this message I answer the "who, what, where, when, why and how" questions with regards to evangelism. You can check it out below. And tomorrow, I'll resume my regularly scheduled blog posts as before.

IT'S GOOD TO BE BACK!

Crazymakers Part 1 - SIX KEYS TO RELATING WISELY

March 11, 2013

Kicked off a new series at STSA yesterday called CRAZYMAKERS!

What's a Crazymaker you ask? "My wife makes me crazy", "my boss makes me crazy", "my parents make me crazy..." Then they're your crazymakers! The goal of this series is to focus on our relationships and restoring health in this area of our lives. And this is especially important as we - Orthodox Christians - kick off Lent today and begin this 55 day journey towards the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Why is this important for us at this time? Stay tuned to tomorrow's blog post and I'll talk about it there. Or you check out the video below as well. Enjoy! And good luck with all those crazymakers!

Spiritual Sweat Part 3 - SOLITUDE

January 28, 2013

This week's installment in the Spiritual Sweat series is on the discipline of SOLITUDE - the habit of being alone with God. Is it possible to find true inner solitude and peace in the midst of all the noise and chaos of the world today?

Check out the video and see for yourself.

A New Vision for the New Year

December 31, 2012

What's your final to do item before the clock strikes midnight on 2012? Getting a NEW VISION FOR A NEW YEAR. Resolutions are great, but vision is what lasts. Happy New Year everyone!

Fasting & Repentance - Hungering for God Part 2

December 10, 2012

Below is Part 2 in the new series Hungering for God. This message focuses on the connection between fasting and repentance and why we should want to fast, even if we don't have to fast. Enjoy!

Hungering for God - Fasting Part 1

December 3, 2012

"Usually I start a new series by telling you guys that I am really excited about what we're going to talk about. But today I have to say that I am NOT AT ALL excited about what we're going to talk about. Why? Because our topic is FASTING."

That's how I started my message yesterday - the first message in a new series about fasting. Fasting may not be what we want to hear about, but I believe it is what we NEED to hear about. God has a lot to say about fasting in the Bible and I invite you to delve deeper by listening to Part 1 in this series on Fasting, titled HUNGERING FOR GOD.

Stay Pure - For Better or For Worse Part 4

November 12, 2012

Yesterday's message is such an important one for every single person to hear. It speaks about the plague of our era - sexual immorality - and the devastating effect it has on both single and married alike.

It's the 4th part of the series we're doing right now called FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE - 5 commitments to fail proof your marriage. Take a look at the message below and may God help you (and me) to keep this important commitment to Stay Pure.

Fight Fair - For Better or For Worse Part 2 (sermon video)

October 29, 2012

Here's part 2 in our latest sermon series called For Better or For Worse.

In it, we're talking about 5 commitments that we need to make to fail proof our marriage. This week's topic was FIGHTING FAIR. You can check out the sermon below. Enjoy!