Reason # 5,689 for why I deserve zero credit for the success of my church plant

Posted: 31st August 2010 by ap in Aletheia Ministry Stuff, Church Planting
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I’ve given myself a couple days to digest the interesting (but great) day that God gave to Aletheia Tampa on Sunday and I still can’t quite properly assess everything. It’s not like I am on an emotional high or anything like that. To be honest, I never was on an emotional high because I was so drained after a day full of running around, setting-up, tearing-down, teaching a Bible study that I never really intended to teach (that’s always fun), and dealing with issues that I didn’t think I would have to deal with (i.e. a 21 year old Afghan war veteran who came in on a wheel chair after falling off of a 40 foot cliff while riding in a military vehicle, only to be ejected from that vehicle, and subsequently breaking his pelvis, both femurs, shattering his spleen among other organs, and being in a medically induced coma for 3 weeks…or how about the 19 year old USF student who had just learned days earlier that one of her best friends, an 18 year old, and his girl friend had just committed suicide).

Needless to say, it was a heavy day at Aletheia. I had originally prepared to go through the first chapter in Ruth (yeah I know, a lofty goal for me but that was the plan). And many of you know that Ruth starts off very dark, with a lot of suffering, and a lot of discouragement. But the suffering part of the story really only lasts for the first 5 verses of the book. After that, things progressively get better and the story proves to be one of the most contrasting, rags to riches stories in the entire Bible. We see that God works through suffering to bring about His will and the end result is joy, blessings, redemption etc.. But I never really made it to the encouraging part, unless you count my brief 2 minute synopsis of verse 6 at the very end (I had to give some hope or else my people would have been depressed all day).

Things just didn’t go as planned so I sit here a couple days later with my original thought: I knew that’s what God wanted me to do (even while it was all happening), but in my mind, the fall kick-off 1 year celebration service at Aletheia Tampa was supposed to be light-hearted and happy. But then I realized while I was teaching that also in attendance was a young 23 year old girl who had just lost her 14 year old sister the week prior due to complications from a surgery, and then one of our volunteers was there in the crowd after losing his 21 year old cousin in a car accident just a week prior…this 21 year old young man, who had just gotten married 3 weeks prior, leaving his new bride behind, widowed, and uncertain about the future.

God really knows what He’s doing doesn’t He? One of the mega-themes of Ruth is God’s providence. I saw it first hand on Sunday. Here it was, the biggest day in the history of our church, tons of people, tons of food, the band rocked the house, everybody was having a blast…and then I got up to teach and painstakingly talked about suffering for 50 minutes. Teaching for 50 minutes of suffering is not what I planned.  I’m not going to lie, I was frustrated, still am a little…but God wouldn’t allow me to move on to the rest of the chapter. He held me back. He did that because there were a lot of people in pain at church, and they needed to hear that suffering is normal, a part of the Christian life, a part of being in God’s will (1 Peter 4:19)…it is in fact, a gift (Phil 1:29), a blessing of sorts (Matthew 5:4). Those wonderful creations and children of God needed to know that God was still there, that he cared, and that there was some kind of purpose for it, if only to test the genuineness of their faith like 1 Peter 1:6-7 tells us. Ironically enough though, not everybody I mentioned above who was and is continuing to suffer through those traumatic events came through our doors on Sunday a believer in Christ…but at least one of them left knowing Christ and His sufferings, a child of God’s now. How amazing is God!? He imposes His will so that complete glory goes to Him. I had the sweetest Bible study planned and I didn’t even get to it…on the highest attended day in the history of this church. The reason: God needed to receive the glory…And you know what? He did!

So there it was… Reason # 5,689 for why I deserve zero credit for the success of my church plant.

Here are some pics from the day that I learned a few more ministry lessons. It was unreal what God did…

Mexico, Icee pops, and 1 year Birthdays

Posted: 25th August 2010 by ap in Uncategorized
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I know that it has been a month since I last blogged, and I apologize to those who have faithfully clicked on my blog the past 30 days only to see the same post from late July. I really find the blogging thing to be a thorn in my side. It takes time to sit down and come up with something creative to write, and lately time (and energy…and creativity for that matter) is something that I have not had much of. But I will try to at least write a few posts here and there to keep aaronproffitt.com alive. Right now it’s barely breathing.

The latter portion of the summer has truly been incredible.

On August 11th, a team of 12 from our church plant here in Tampa went to Southern Mexico to visit one of my very best friends, Mark Huffman. He and his wife Abby felt God’s call to go on the mission field two years ago and they found themselves in Chiapas, Mexico. Over the past 2 years, they went ahead and started the very first international Aletheia Church. Our team had the privilege of working alongside them for a week. We had an amazing trip encouraging them, connecting with their people, meeting new people, and evangelizing (6 people entrusted their lives to Christ while we were there). I came back overwhelmed with joy to see that one of my boys was really doing a great job for Jesus.

Since we got back on the 19th it has been nose to the grind here in Tampa. We are gearing up for what is shaping up to be a very awesome fall. Our creative team has come up with some incredible ideas and our volunteer army is working hard to connect with the USF students. In fact, right now, we have a team on campus that is handing out icee pops and invite cards to the students. On Monday we did the same thing and in total ended up handing out close to 250 icee pops and over 350 invitations to Aletheia. And along the way, we got into some sweet discussions about faith. In fact, one young freshman, a computer engineering major heard the truth, and right in the middle of one of the busiest parts of campus, grabbed my hand and prayed to receive Christ. This happened right as the rain started to descend. I keep telling people that was for the dramatic effect!

This Sunday we will officially launch our fall services. I am beginning a new sermon series on the book of Ruth called: A Story of Redemption. Our team has come up with some amazing creative elements and last night, 9 of us were in my garage doing some painting. It was a glorified arts and crafts time. Not my favorite thing to do but I think the end result is going to be awesome. We have high hopes for this new series and this new semester. There is a lot of momentum heading into this next school year. We have busted our tails this summer and I really think we’re going to take the next steps of growth in the coming weeks and months.

It also just so happens that this week, Aletheia Tampa will turn 1 ! Can you believe it!? I can’t!? It actually seems like it’s been 2 years. I’ll be honest, there were times when i was ready to pack it in but thank God for His faithfulness even amidst my frailty. 1 year ago we launched our Sunday evening services. Only 3 months ago did we launch our morning services. Many people base the inception of their church off of when they launched Sunday morning services. So technically I could say that we are only 3 months old as a church. But I won’t do that. We’re 1 year old! Praise Jesus!

I can’t wait to see what God does in year 2. We made it through what I feel is the hardest year. And it was hard, don’t let the birthday celebration antics cover up the truth. Our crew toiled, sacrificed, and at times put in a lot of work for not a lot of tangible results. But through it all, God was honored, people were saved, lives were changed, and a church was built.

I’m ready for year two. I’m ready to see God move. I’m ready to see Aletheia Church be used as God’s vehicle to bring glory to our Savior!

The “Fullness Movement”

Posted: 28th July 2010 by ap in Aletheia Ministry Stuff, Church Planting
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So much is happening right now in ministry and life in general that I never really have time to sit down and write about it all. One thing about my church planting experience is that I never quite have enough time, and when I do, I certainly don’t have the brain power left to cram anything else in.

But I must say, I am really excited about what God is doing with the Aletheia Network right now. All of the churches are having great summers and things are really looking good for the fall. Aletheia Harrisonburg, the original, is about to launch two services this coming Sunday. We are praying that God does some incredible things through this necessary step that the church is taking. Aletheia Richmond is getting an influx of talented and passionate people as they gear up for an incredible fall semester. Aletheia Norfolk has grown tremendously this summer and they are preparing for their big move to Sunday mornings this fall. Aletheia Tuxtla, our international church plant is the newest and most fragile plant because our church planters Mark and Abby Huffman have been doing the work alone. But God has done and still continues to do some amazing things…and, a group of 12 from Aletheia Tampa will be heading down to Mexico in two weeks to help encourage and create some momentum for that young church. Speaking of Aletheia Tampa, we just continue to plug along. Thsi summer has been one of growth and stability. We’ve seen many people accept Christ, we recently baptized a bunch of people, and we’ve had some pretty nice sized crowds.

With all that being said, our desire within the Network is to see churches multiplied and reproduced. We are experiencing that as we speak in our 5 locations. But we are not content with just planting and maintaining 5 churches. We want to see so many more churches planted in the coming years. And more importantly, God is showing us that He wants more churches planted in the coming years. Just this past Monday, we took 13 people from our churches in Harrisonburg and Tampa to the University of Florida in Gainesville on a probing trip. We were very impressed and impacted by the spiritual opportunity that exists in that city. We are also more than convinced that an Aletheia needs to be planted in that city sometimes soon. So our church planters Kevin and Jackie Anderson, and the team that they are assembling will be deferring to God in the coming days to see if that’s where God wants their team. Selfishly, I really want them to end up at UF. We’ll see what God does.

I was reminded last night by my dad that the church of the body of Christ is the fullness of Christ who fills all in all (Eph 1:23). It encourages me to no end that I am a part of a “fullness movement.” That I get to be an extension of God on this earth. There is nothing that I would rather be doing with my life. I just hope that God is going to send those young men and women who feel the same way our direction, so that we can equip and mobilize them, and send them out to continue this movement.

a little update…

Posted: 8th July 2010 by ap in Aletheia Ministry Stuff, Church Planting, Mission Trip Updates, Proffitt Family Happenings, Update
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I know that many of you, especially our supporters, try to keep updated with our lives via my blog. Updates are one thing that I have not been very good at lately but here are some random thoughts on how things are going here in Tampa…

1. Our church plant has seen unusual summer growth over the past couple of weeks. For collegiate church plants and planters, summers are a time to catch your breath, solidify the core group, do some fun events, and really gear up for the fall. We made a few crazy risky moves at Aletheia Tampa this summer. Instead of just tightening down, not changing anything up too much, we decided to move locations and times. The results initially were a bit discouraging but as the weeks have gone by, we’ve seen growth, tons of new visitors, and the idea of taking risks in church planting has been reinforced.

2. If you haven’t heard yet, Aletheia Tampa got a brand new site. Check it out here and be amazed. Thanks mostly to Graham Cochrane who also had some help from Ashlee, Emilio, and Ace. The site looks incredible!

3. My two boys are growing up way too fast. Drew turned 3 on June 16th and Asher is pushing 5 months, although he is as big as Drew was at 7 months old (yeah, he is a beast!) Even though I lose my patience frequently with my two little fire crackers, I really am seeing more and more as the days go by that “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord , the fruit of the womb a reward.” Check out this pic that my wife took a couple days ago…

4. Although performing wedding ceremonies aren’t my most favorite thing in the world to do, I’ve had the privilege to marry off some pretty spectacular people in recent weeks and months.

5. At the end of this month, Kevin and Jackie Anderson, along with some of their team members will be heading to Florida to probe one of the major Universities in the state as a potential spot for the next Aletheia Church. We are excited to say the least about what God is going to do with that, whether He sends the team to Florida, or to some other state.

6. In August, Aletheia Tampa will take it’s second and third respective global mission trips. We will continue to make world outreach a main focus of what we do as a church in the coming years. One team will head to Haiti to help the struggling quake victims in that nation while the other team will be heading to Tuxtla, Mexico, to support our church planters Mark and Abby (and their new baby Rachel) Huffman and their ministry at Aletheia Tuxtla. Please pray for these trips, that God will use our people to impact the people in those nations.

So that’s about it from the update front. This summer has been extremely productive, and it’s only half over. I’m really looking forward to serving God in the coming weeks and months and seeing what He does through the Aletheia Network during that time.

Will Power

Posted: 1st July 2010 by ap in Church Planting, Random
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“Nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.”

These words are the toughest for me to accept at times when it comes to doing what I do. I am a church planter. I am a hard working church planter at that. I have big dreams for my church plant. I have high expectations because I believe in the working power of God and I believe that He wants nothing more than to extend His Good News message to the masses, using none other than His church, the vehicle. So, plainly stated, I believe that what I am a part of is the pinnacle of service to God. God cares most about seeing people connected to Him. People get connected to Him by becoming His disciples. And the catalyst for accomplishing this task is the church. And I am a church planter. Boy, I’m feeling pretty good about myself right about now..

That is until I realize how much I see the work that I put in, a lot of times, doesn’t translate into results. In our culture, we are all about a “hard work = big time pay-off” system. It’s the American Dream. Everyone, supposedly (and really we see it happen so often i.e. the character that Will Smith portrays in The Pursuit of Happiness) can go from obscurity to big shot if they work hard.

But that’s not the way it goes a lot of times in church planting. You can work your tail end off and see nothing happen. Let’s just say that many a church plant have failed and it’s not due to a poor work ethic from those leading it. It all has to do with God’s working, His timing, His plan, and ultimately His Will.

So often I feel that in what I do, if it is done Biblically, my church will grow by hundreds immediately. Well, that’s what I would call wishful thinking. Really, it is an unhealthy and improper perspective to have. Of course I’m not saying be a Calvinist, chill out, and watch God work through His sovereignty (of course I had to throw that joke in there)…and not work hard. God wants us to work hard; He wants us to work tirelessly. Look at His example, we see Jesus being tired at times during His ministry, but busting through it to help people. The Apostle Paul was relentless too. Heck, all of the apostles were hard workers. They were diligent. They were on top of things. They got up early and went to bed late. Working hard for God is honorable. But results aren’t contingent upon hard work. Results are contingent upon God’s will.

I mean, even Jesus understood this. He made His classic statement (as He prayed to the Father) with grief and exhaustion, as he prepared to take on the sin’s of humanity. Talk about ultimate submission and satisfaction in God’s will. God’s son was okay with the Father’s will being done. Uh oh! That’s scary for me. I am such a control freak, and feel like at times I can control my own church planting destiny. And then things happen like what happened this past week where I left town, along with my worship leader, and my church plant had the highest summer attendance to date in our absence. As if I needed another reminder, God crushed any shred of “this is my doing” in me. The growth of my church has nothing to do with me. How about that? It’s tough to take but so true.

This is what I have had to learn. Moral of the story: Still work hard, but understand that God is dictating the end results. And be content with that. It’s a constant struggle for me but I think it’s sinking in more and more as I go.

Insights on Real ManHood

Posted: 24th June 2010 by ap in Aletheia Ministry Stuff, Random
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This past Sunday, since it was Father’s Day, I taught on Real ManHood. It was actually pretty enjoyable because there is nothing more fun for me than to poke fun at the male population (which definitely includes myself). I think our people enjoyed it and what was so great about it all was that I was able to really elevate women in the process. I taught on Luke 13:10-17, where Christ healed the crippled, demon-oppressed woman. The way that we see Christ esteem and value that poor struggling, outcast woman, gives us as men the best example for how to treat women.

Teaching this passage made me really think about what a man’s purpose should be. I think that many men (even those who are a little older) are still trying to figure out what their identity is. The more I thought about it as I was preparing to teach on Biblical man hood on Father’s Day (which by the way, you can listen to the entire sermon by clicking here), the more that God just kept putting a few simple practical things in my head. As a result, five nuggets were brought to my attention in regards to a man’s purpose:

1. Grow up. This involves getting out of mom’s care, finishing school, getting a job, and paying your own bills.

2. Get Married. This involves actively pursuing a godly woman, courting her, and stepping up to meet her at the marriage alter. This doesn’t involve finding someone who will take the place of mom so don’t get any ideas men.

3. Make babies. When you get married, have kids. It’s the logical and natural progression in life. Men who don’t want kids are selfish and are not obeying God’s command to be fruitful and multiply the earth. Now how much fruit you want to make and how much you want to really multiply is a mutual decision that both the husband and wife should make together :)

4. Provide for the family. If you think you are a real man by getting married, and then sending your wife off to work to bring home the bacon, when you are more than capable to do so yourself, you are not doing the right thing. I know of men who have gone an entire decade without a job, while their wives have provided the entire time. Now that’s embarrassing.

5. Elevate God. I place this last not because of it’s lack of importance, but because of it’s superiority of importance. A real man will elevate God, and as a result, all of the other areas will be more healthy. Cultivating the spiritual element is the most vital element in a real man’s life. The man who avoids church on Sundays, who doesn’t pray with his wife, who doesn’t read the Bible to his kids, and who doesn’t take time personally to develop a more intense relationship with God is a complete failure in my book. And really, this man will have glaring holes in all of those other areas that were spoken of above.

So that’s it. Sometimes we need to keep it simple. We as men over-complicate things often. We tend to major on the minors. We’re more concerned about the next great video game, movie, or sporting event, than we are about cultivating the spiritual element of our lives. Let’s get on it men. Let’s get better. Let’s start growing.

The Future is Looking Bright

Posted: 17th June 2010 by ap in Uncategorized
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On Tuesday, a group of 7 from our church plant here in Tampa made the trek to Orlando to be a part of the SBC 2010 annual convention. There were thousands of people in attendance. This year’s meeting had been hyped up for months to be a defining moment in the history of the SBC. A “Great Commission Resurgence” (GCR) was the theme and a report on how the Great Commission was going to be infused back into the SBC was the focus. We sat in the Orlando convention center with about 10,000 others as people who wanted to make changes in methodology to better accomplish Christ’s task of making disciples, baptizing, and equipping people, battled (it was kward at times, let me tell you) against others who wanted to keep doing things within the denomination the same way they had been done for years. I felt like I was at some political event.

In the end, the majority of the people, who wanted reforms and who wanted to get back on the track of doing things Biblically, joined forces with the minority, to overwhelmingly support the GCR. This means church planting will be back on top of the priority list within the SBC. I think those of us who are involved with Aletheia can be very excited about the future ramifications of this. What this means is more emphasis, more resources, and more people who are on board with fulfilling the Great Commission. And let’s think about it for a second…how did Jesus intend for us to do this in the first place? He intended this to be done through an agent, a vehicle that He created through His people…the church! The church exists to see the Great Commission fulfilled in people’s lives. So Tuesday was a day of celebration for those of us who are going to continue to be a part of God’s vehicle. And in order to continue to expand God’s commission, we must start new churches. This is what Aletheia is all about. We want to see as many churches planted in as many cities, in as many countries as God wills.

So praise God for His commitment to His mission. And praise Him for the COmission that He has given us. And praise Him for His love for the lost. And praise Him that we are pushed to continue to change our methodology, but never the theology that He has given us in His very own Words!

Feeling Encouraged

Posted: 9th June 2010 by ap in Aletheia Ministry Stuff, Church Planting
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I find it so difficult to stay up on blogging these days and it honestly surprises me that people can update their blogs every single day. I guess when you make it a part of your daily or weekly routine then it can become easier. I usually am so mentally exhausted from everything I’m doing that I don’t have the capacity or energy to write a blog. So this is a feeble attempt at updating my very outdated blog…

Our church plant here in Tampa is definitely taking most of my time, and when I’m not doing that, I’m trying to spend some quality time with the family. I am so loving this point in our ministry right now and am more encouraged than ever before. After being here in Tampa for over a year now, I think I have moved past the stage of insecurity and now I am just enjoying the process all of the time. Even though (just as we have seen at every other collegiate church we have ever planted) the attendance has dropped significantly (we went from averaging 75-100 the last few weeks of the semester…to 51 this past week), there is so much excitement among our people. Every week since we launched our Sunday morning services on May 16th, we’ve had at least 6 new visitors on average, we’ve seen about a dozen people commit their lives to Christ, and we continue to put a major emphasis on equipping our people. As a result, there is a lot of momentum, our people are stepping up more and more to serve, and the church is really stabilizing. It has been a really fun and productive summer so far.

God has been super faithful to this church plant and I believe a lot of it has to do with prayer and a maintained focus on doing things Biblically of course, as well as having a super incredible team of volunteers. Our core group is relentless when it comes to serving. They show up on Sunday mornings hours early to totally revamp our meeting location. It truly is incredible what they do to that building week in and week out.

Not only that, but last week we had 10 people go out sharing the message of Jesus to perfect strangers. I can see that more and more of our people are getting that sense of urgency for the lost. if there’s no sense of urgency to see people reached for Christ, then there is absolutely no reason to plant a church. My fear, as the lead pastor here at Aletheia Church, Tampa, is always that our people will become indifferent towards doing evangelism.  If we take the “I only want to do what I’m passionate about” route (because let’s face it, most will say they are not passionate about doing evangelism), then where does that lead the many who are still disconnected from Christ, and who won’t hear it (because it will take more than the couple people who are “passionate” about it)? It’s time to tighten up the proverbial chin strap and start getting the truth out to people. And my belief is that because we have a great culture of evangelism, God is in turn blessing our efforts in even more incredible ways.

I love my team here at Aletheia Tampa…I love their constant sacrifice…I love their work ethic…I love their hearts…and I pray that these hearts will continue to be directed towards a passion for the lost. End of story. Period.

Recent Happenings

Posted: 24th May 2010 by ap in Uncategorized
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The past couple of weeks have been exciting and adventure filled to say the least. It all started on the 12th of this month when over a dozen people from our church plant here in Tampa made the trek to Richmond, Virginia, for the 1st Aletheia Network Conference. What an incredible time the Conference was as four of the five Aletheia Churches (Mark and Abby couldn’t make it because they were having baby Rachel) gathered together in one location, to worship Jesus and to Reflect on what God has done over the past 9 years and look ahead to what He’s going to do in the future. The Aletheia bands from each of our churches led the worship times and the pastors led the teaching times. It was an incredible 3 days full of unity, like-mindedness, strategic discussions, and vision casting for the future. The 125 that attended really got a sense for where Aletheia has come, where it is now, and where God wants us to go in the next 5-10-20 years. Here are a couple pics from the weekend…

We returned from Virginia on Saturday night the 15th, and the next morning, we decided it would be a good time to launch the Aletheia Tampa morning service. I know, we like to keep it interesting. So on Sunday morning the 16th, we got up early, headed to our new location (the BCM building on the north east edge of USF’s campus). Our team of volunteers worked furiously to get the building ready and when it was all said and done, the place was totally transformed. I am blown away by the team that God has assembled here in Tampa. They worked so hard and did an incredible job making our new facility absolutely amazing to worship God in. A nice group of people showed up even though it is officially summer now and we had a great time worshiping God and beginning the next phase of our ministry.

After our Sunday morning launch, it was time for Ashlee and I to get away and celebrate 5 years of marriage. And get away is exactly what we did. Savannah, Georgia beckoned us and we had an incredible few days of seeing the historic sights, eating a lot of ice cream, and turning our ministry brains off for a few days. Asher joined us for the trip and Drew spent the week with Nana and Papa. I still can’t believe I’ve been married to Ashlee for only 5 years. Sometimes it feels like so much longer because during that time we’ve…

1. Been pregnant FOUR times.
2. Lost two children.
3. Taken about 25 plane trips to places like Spain, Mexico, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, California, and Georgia.
4. Moved 750 miles away from home.
5. Helped to start 2 churches (Richmond and Tampa)
6. Gone through many hair-do’s (see the pic below)
7. Potty-trained one child (this might be our biggest accomplishment to date)

It’s been a crazy ride, a tough ride, a challenging ride, and a fun ride all at the same time. I love my wife.

What I was doing this time last week…

Posted: 6th May 2010 by ap in Aletheia Ministry Stuff, Random
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Last week, exactly at this time, my father and I were speaking in Newport News, Virginia, at the United States Air Force (Air Combat Command) Chaplain’s Conference. I know that was a mouthful but that’s exactly what it was. These Chaplain’s were the ones who were overseeing the spiritual well being of the Air Force troops that drop bombs on the bad guys.

As you might expect, there is a high suicide rate within this unit of the Air Force for reasons that pertain to the nature of the job. It was a real eye-opener to hear some of the stories from these guys. For example, one soldier within the Air Combat Command’s job was to dis-assemble enemy bombs. He had dis-assembled 180 of them one day when the last one detonated. It blew his eyes off as well as one of his arms, and of course took some of his hearing. He stood up at a banquet that honored him months later and did he loathe in his self-pity? No, he thanked America and the other soldiers in the room for the opportunity to serve his country. These guys are the real deal.

I honestly felt like a duck out of water last week and for most of you who know me, you know that I can relate with anybody, anywhere, at any time. When we began to give our presentation about Aletheia and why we have been successful in reaching out to 18-24 year old’s, I was rendered speechless. I literally was overwhelmed by what I was in the presence of and it hit me like a ton of bricks. I never even thought about serving my country. It never even crossed my mind growing up. And here I was telling these Chaplain’s how to reach out to people who are risking their lives for me. Even some of the Chaplain’s are called to active duty so they are risking their lives as well at times.

What a couple days it ended up being. I am so grateful for our military. I am grateful for these Chaplain’s, who are sacrificing a lot to minister to the soldiers. And I am grateful to God that I get to live in a country such as this, which is very imperfect, but pretty freakin’ awesome!

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