A big shout out to my friends Milan Ford & Eddie Velez for making this possible.
{ 0 comments }
From the monthly archives:
February 2010
Hey!
I hope that you are doing amazingly well! We wanna knock out 3 birds with this 1 blog post and are excited to see YOU follow up right away!
1. REGISTER NOW FOR OUR VERY FIRST SMALL GROUPS!!!
We are wanting you to sign up now to be a part of one of our very first small groups!!! You DO NOT have to a member of Courageous Church (or even a Christian) and we encourage you to invite as many of your friends and family as you want to join a group. Anyone can be a part of a group, but you MUST register.
Each group is free and will provide a place for you to build relationships, learn timeless truths to help guide you through life, and ultimately complete a courageous project together! Can you tell I am excited??? :-)
We are having a special kick-off service this Sunday and some groups will begin meeting as early as Monday.
NEW UPDATE: The teen small group is now meeting @ 1pm instead of 5pm here in the Courageous Church offices. This way you can come to the 11am service, then go to Financial Peace University @ 1pm, and then have your teens meet with their small group. Encourage your teen to register and encourage their friends to register too. It’s going to be the bomb (is that still cool to say?)!
2. Sign up NOW for Financial Peace University! It will change your life!
NEW UPDATE: FPU begins on Sunday, March 7th and is offered @ 11am & 1pm every Sunday for 13 weeks.
A few VERY IMPORTANT details:
- You do not have to be making money to take FPU -it’s for everybody!
- Although we have invested a good deal of resources to become an official Financial Peace University site, we are offering the class for free.
- Like any university setting, some books and materials are required and cost $93 per family unit. Order them from a link on the registration form.
- We have a limited # of partial scholarships available from the church to help you if you absolutely cannot make this investment. You can let us know on the registration form if this is needed.
3. We need more volunteers in the office every day of the week to help with our efforts in Haiti, manage our daily operations, and so much more. We’re growing and need you to help carry the load, OK? Sign up now! Thanks!
BE COURAGEOUS!
{ 1 comment }
Launching Courageous Church has been the most exciting, challenging, rewarding endeavor of my life. I am not an expert though. I regularly guess and experiment. Sometimes I guess correctly.
Here are my 10 favorite correct guesses :-)
I have made a gazillion mistakes since we launched though (I list 10 here).
In the spirit of keeping it real, I laid out some brutally honest facts about our church here.
Church planting has been way harder than I expected. A few months ago I wrote about 10 of those difficulties.
—
All of that said, I think we’ve learned a few transferable strategies on how a church can have a big launch (or grand opening) in large cities. Understand this, everything that we’ve done is not transferable. You must find your own voice/expression/strengths in your own context. Too often, church planters, with a genuine heart to grow a church, end up wrongly mimicking every detail of something they saw at their favorite church -and were SHOCKED when it didn’t work for them.
God does not desire that you simply be a carbon copy of what He is doing all around the world! Some programs or principles may transfer, but I urge you to first listen to the voice of God and get His heart for the people you are serving before trying any of what I am about to share.
Here are 3 practical strategies we used to launch Courageous Church that helped us have over 700 people at our first service (and have helped us throughout our first 13 months). I will be posting more details about these 3 strategies on Wednesday after I teach both of my sessions @ #cp10.
1. Pray Hard – PUSH HARD.
Breaking through the SKEPTICISM and noise and clutter and bright lights of the city is not easy. I regularly worked 24 hour days leading up to launching Courageous Church and we pushed hard. I mean like our lives depended on it. Strategies that work in the suburbs can easily cause church planters in the city to fall flat on their face and ultimately wonder cause a great deal of self-doubt. People in the city, more than the suburbs, don’t simply accept that churches are needed and it is going to take hard work to secure your place in the city.
2. Do so much good that it makes the news…a lot.
Leading up to the grand opening of Courageous Church, our 500toys initiative was covered extensively by several local news stations, the radio, The Today Show, Wall-Street Journal, was picked up by the AP, and ultimately covered in dozens of newspapers in countries all around the world. This was HUGE for us. It branded us as the church that loved kids and showed it in tangible ways.
Since this, including yesterday and today, our church has been covered by the local news media for GOOD news for six different initiatives and we have been featured on the official Facebook blog, WIRED magazine, in many church publications, and much more.
3. Make real connections via Twitter & Facebook (including effective Facebook ad campaigns).
Over half of the people (80 % if you include 2nd generation) that attend Courageous Church learned about us on Facebook and Twitter. However, our Facebook and Twitter campaigns DO NOT STAND ALONE. They are CLOSELY CONNECTED to #1 & #2 above. More details soon!
{ 3 comments }
We never aim to be on the local news, but it’s great when it happens – particularly if it helps our cause! Here we are on the local NBC affiliate -11 Alive News. Keep spreading the word about aHomeInHaiti.org and we’ll keep pushing hard!
{ 0 comments }
Hey!
I hope that you are doing very well! We are soooo excited to announce that Small Groups for Courageous Church will begin on March 1st, 2010!!! Space is limited for each group and we hope that you will register online RIGHT AWAY! It’s easy! Register HERE!
You do not need to be a member of our church (or any church) to be a part of our small groups, but you must register now.
Each small group is designed to do 3 things:
1. Help you build strong relationships with great people.
2. Foster an intimate and encouraging learning environment.
3. Produce PROVE-IT projects in Atlanta and around the world.
Get any materials you need here.
See you soon!
Shaun
{ 1 comment }
This is about Haiti.
I am going to cut to the chase and tell you why afterwards.
I need large donors that can purchase up between $2,000 – $500,000 worth of tents directly from the largest tent manufacturer in the United States to contact me. This tent manufacturer is privately offering us tents @ below wholesale costs (65% off of retail) and only has about 1,750 waterproof tents remaining.
Here is the tent. It normally costs $109 (and we have paid that much for it) and is being offered to us in bulk for $42. It has a full rain fly. It can fit a family of 4. It is wind-resistant and very portable. I will personally arrange for you to purchase these tents from the manufacturer.
We have launched a full-project for this effort at aHomeInHaiti.org and hope that you can help there in some way if you cannot help with this request. On this website we explain why we need tents, show you how to buy and send them, and much more.
We are now partnering with great, reliable shipping & distribution partners but cannot do this without you.
If you can help, please email me @ shaunking@courageous.tv at your earliest convenience.
Be Courageous!
Your Friend!
Shaun
{ 0 comments }
Hey Everybody!
As you may have heard me say recently, we are VERY EXCITED to be offering Financial Peace University at Courageous Church. This is an intense 13 week program designed for YOU to be educated and empowered to be in full control of your financial health & future. It begins on Sunday, February 28th and you now have just 10 days to sign up and order the required materials.
I’m taking it. I’m 30 years old, I have tons of student loans, more debt than I want, and need to make sure that my financial future is stronger than my past. Can I get a witness? :-)
Seriously though, we are expecting a ton of you to jump on board and cannot wait to share this experience with you. Do you have peace financially? Let’s get some!
We will share more info about FPU over the next 10 days, but watching these videos will give you a great sample of what to expect!
A few VERY IMPORTANT details:
- Financial Peace University begins on February 28th.
- You have just 10 days to sign up here.
- Classes will be offered every Sunday for 13 weeks @ 11am & again @ 1pm.
- Attendance is required for completion and for effectiveness.
- You do not have to be making money to take FPU -it’s for everybody!
- Although we have invested a good deal of resources to become an official Financial Peace University site, we are offering the class for free.
- Like any university setting, some books and materials are required and cost $93 per family unit. Order them here right away.
- We have a limited # of partial scholarships available from the church to help you if you absolutely cannot make this investment. You can let us know on the registration form if this is needed.
Cannot wait to go through this with you all! Sign up now to reserve your place!
{ 4 comments }
Beautiful baby Landina is just 3 months old. Both of her parents were killed in the Haitian earthquake. She had to have her little arm amputated and is in URGENT need of a major brain surgery within the next few days or she will die. She has a terrible, painful skull fracture.
The problem is that the doctors cannot receive flight clearance to get her out of Haiti and into the UK or US to be operated on. Her surgery is too complicated for the facilities there and she must receive clearance right away.
I am working now with many others to help make this happen. If you by chance know anyone that can help our cause, please let me know and email me directly @ shaunking@courageous.tv
In the absence of that, please watch her in this gut-wrenching video and PRAY! Pray for her. Pray she hangs in there until we can get her to a proper hospital. Pray that her pain is eased. Pray that she is cared for with meticulous love. Ask your kids to pray for her. PRAY! I just believe in my heart that this case will break for her! Join your faith with mine and let’s believe that doors will open very soon! Feel free to write out your prayers and thoughts in my comment section after viewing the video.
{ 6 comments }
UPDATE: We have secured free, reliable shipping directly to Haiti over the next 10 days.
Dozens of people from Atlanta (and around the world) are working with us to make sure that every person in Haiti has temporary waterproof shelter before the rainy season/hurricane season hits. When this happens, disaster will strike if the 700,000+ people that are still living under sheets with sticks don’t have something stronger.
Yes. Homes need to be rebuilt. We are working on that. This will take months and years to complete and we have to make sure that people have shelter NOW before the rains come in just a few weeks. A few very quick points:
- We are launching a website and will be asking people in partner cities all around the United States to join us in creating tent collection sites and more.
- We are working now on creating consistent delivery channels to Haiti – including a reliable, efficient distribution hub on the ground there.
- Until our website launches, we would prefer for you buy the actual tents and send them and not donate money just yet.
BUY ANY TENTS from this Amazon.com wishlist (they are approved, waterproof tents) and send them directly to us @
Shaun King, Courageous Church
1330 West Peachtree Street
Suite 560
Atlanta, GA 30309
{ 11 comments }
I need your vote. So does my friend Carel Pedre. We are finalists for different categories in the Shorty Awards – which are for the best Twitter Users in the world.
Believe it or not, I don’t feel great about shameless self-promotion. However, my concerns about shameless self-promotion are outweighed by my desire to help bring hope and solutions to people that need them both.
You don’t get money when you win the Shorty Award. They don’t even pay for your trip to the Awards Ceremony. However, I feel like the influence we will get from the platform provided is worth lobbying for. Carel & I are using Twitter in every way we know how to save & improve lives in Haiti.
In my non-profit category and in his innovation category, we are the only finalists focusing on Haiti and we will both use any attention or influence we receive to continue to bring HOPE!
Here are 5 quick points:
1. You must leave a REASON when you vote or it will not count.
2. If you have voted for us already, you don’t have to vote again, but can tell your friends/followers to vote.
3. Voting Ends @ 12pm EST today (FRIDAY)
4. Vote here for me in the NON PROFIT CATEGORY
5. Vote here for my friend Carel Pedre in the Innovation Category
{ 2 comments }
UPDATE:: We are no longer accepting donations of any kind (cash, tents, etc.) for this particular event. However, tens of thousands of tents are still needed and we will create another giving opportunity very soon. THANK YOU!
Hey Family. My friend Carel Pedre – a rising Haitian leader that I trust a great deal – has made it clear that the overwhelming majority of homeless people in Haiti still need tents and need them badly -including many of his close friends.
Most folk are just using tarps or sheets with sticks and they aren’t very secure from bugs/impending rain, don’t provide much privacy, etc. Just put yourself there in your mind and you’ll get the picture. Would you like living under a sheet for all to see?
I want them to have some tents like the ones pictured here on my blog. They aren’t quite home, but they’re better.
So – get this – a large cargo ship is making space for us to ship 10,000 tents to Haiti on Wednesday morning from the ports in Miami, FL. This is INSANE. Likely – impossible. Going to take a miracle to pull it off.
Just my type of odds :-)
I dare you to buy every tent in Miami, the Miami Area, South Florida, Florida, the SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES and get them to Miami NOW!!!! It appears they will need to in Miami by late Tuesday night, but I will confirm that shortly…
ALL TYPES OF TENTS ARE NEEDED. Large. Small. Try to get waterproof. Don’t sweat the details…just get the best tents you can.
Just get the tents. Ask your family to buy a tent. Ask your church to buy 10 or 100 or 1,000 tents. Ask your boss to buy a tent!
We can do this!!!!!
—
If you have ANY questions regarding drop-off locations please contact:
Ms. Esther Ortiz directly @ 305-761-4476
You can also reach her on Twitter @EstheriOrtiz
Email @ esther.ortiz@FlamingoRoad.org
For questions regarding the cargo ship please contact:
Ms. Kimberly Brooke
Twitter: @KimberlyBrooke
Email: kim@kimberlybrooke.com
Phone: 443.398.5294
NEW DROP OFF LOCATIONS:
TAMPA, FLORIDA
8902 citrus village Dr. #201
Tampa, Florida 33626
813-428-1111 (Megan Duncan)
Call when you are on your way!
SARASOTA, FLORIDA
2301 Ingram Ave.
Sarasota, FL 34232
813-428-1111 (Megan Duncan)
Call when you are on your way!
BROWARD COUNTY
West Pines Community Church
21113 Johnson St. STE 120
Pembroke Pines, FL 33029
Drop off hours: 9-5
For after hours donations call us: 954-432-0321.
DADE COUNTY
J-R Custom Mica Furniture
411-H NW 132nd Street
Opa Locka, FL 33054
Drop-Off Hours: 10:00 – 4:00 p.m.
Attn: Jesus Travieso
AFTER HOURS (after 5pm) DROP OFF LOCATION
5275 SW 171st Avenue
Miramar, FL 33027
We will be accepting tents at our house, into the wee hours of Wednesday morning if we have to! If you have any more questions, you can reach Esther Ortiz @ 305-761-4808. The community is GATED, so when you arrive at the gate, ask for Esther Ortiz, and they will let you through.
Update: If you are shipping tents via overnight you can ship them directly to a trusted friend of mine:
We suggest you order them from these tents @ Amazon.com. If you sign up for a 30 day trial of Amazon Prime you can overnight them for $3.99
Esther Ortiz
5275 SW 171st Ave Miramar, FL 33027
You can also go to Bass Pro Shop in Miami for tents 11551 No.West 12th. Or you can call there and order @ 305.341.4200. Ask to speak to Mgr Scott Tarlow to call & buy. All sizes and costs available. Designate 4 Haiti under name Esther Ortiz
We are securing additional drop-off locations as we type, but you can also drop tents off at the above address as well.
If you are not in the Florida area and would like to donate directly to this cause you can donate safely & securely through our registered 501c3 here.
100% of these proceeds will go directly to tents only and will be purchased at the latest possible hour in bulk in Miami on Tuesday evening.
Here is the experienced shipping company (that has already made one successful trip) that we are partnering with.
{ 81 comments }
(Wow…pretty sure that was the longest title for a blog post I’ve ever had :-)
I hope that you are doing well and that you are prepared to have a great week. We are in the midst of a very exciting time in the life of Courageous Church! I have 4 important bits of news for you and really hope you will take the time to read these so you can stay connected.
1. Your financial giving statements for 2009 are available online for you to use for tax purposes or for you to simply see how much you donated in our first year. If you have any trouble of any kind, email our team @ giving@courageous.tv any day this week for support.
To access your giving statement, follow these steps:
-If you already have an account there, click on Give Online Now to go to the user page. Sign in and look @ your giving record easily there.
-If you DO NOT have an account there, click Setup New Account and follow the instructions. Then email our team @ giving@courageous.tv to let us know you have done so.
2. Our very first sessions of Courageous U begin THIS WEEK!!! This is, in essence, orientation for all of you that want to make your commitment to God through Courageous Church official! The 3 part orientation is only offered 3 times a year and you must sign up by this Tuesday (tomorrow) if you want to be a part.
3. Our very first semester of small groups will be starting later this month!!! I will be preaching in the weeks ahead on how essential it is for us to do life together and we cannot wait for groups to begin. These groups will add depth to your life and the relationships that you form will be priceless.
We will have groups for Married Couples, Men, Women, Teens, and two sessions of Financial Peace University by Dave Ramsey offered for everyone. I can’t wait! Details are coming soon on how you can sign up, when groups will be meeting, and more.
FYI: You DO NOT have to be a member of Courageous Church (or a Christian) to be a part of a small group, but must complete Courageous U if you want to lead a group this semester or in the future.
4. With so much going on within our growing church locally and our efforts to assist causes around the world, we need VOLUNTEERS to serve regular office hours Monday-Friday. If you have free time, are currently unemployed, or whatever the case may be – we need you. Heck -we can call it an internship and you can put it on your resume :-) However, we need you to make an initial commitment to some set times so we can ensure we really maximize your time.
Sign up to volunteer in our office now!
Thanks a ton for your time! Praying for you!
Be Courageous!
{ 0 comments }
