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20 Dec

If you are interested in supporting our ministry and family financially; here are step by step instructions with photos on how to give online.  All gifts are tax deductible.  Thank you.  We love you and thank God for you!

First, go to https://crosspointe.onthecity.org/give

If you are already a City User then simply login and continue throughout the site by clicking on the “Give” tab.  If you are not a City User, click the blue button,”Continue to Online Giving.”

The next page will look like this below.

Fill out the information and click on the tab selecting the “Waterford Lakes Congregation.”  Also, do the same for the tab selecting, “Josiah Potter.”  Enter the amount you want to give and click on the green “Next Step” button.  You will have the option to make it a reoccurring gift if you want to support us monthly.

Finally, fill out the account info and then proceed to the confirmation page.

Thank you for supporting us as we seek God’s face and respond to His call to church plant in Orlando!

Love, The Potters

Unshackled: Galatians 3:15-25

6 Jul

This past Sunday I had the opportunity to preach the Gospel at Crosspointe Church Waterford Lakes where I am the Worship Pastor.  Our Lead Pastor, Jared was out of town on vacation, so I was honored to be able to occupy his pulpit for the weekend and walk through Galatians 3:15-25 with our church.

Here is the link to hear the podcast: http://www.crosspointechurchwaterfordlakes.com/sermons/sermon/redeemed:-week-7:-unshackled

Hope you can take a listen and wrestle through the truths of the Gospel as we did this past Sunday.

-Josiah

FCA Missions 2011-Mexico

23 Jun

Upon leaving Mexico this year I thought about all the Holy Spirit had taught us throughout the week.  There have been so many mission trips that I have been impacted by the Holy Spirit, God’s Word, and Jesus through what I experienced each week, but went back home, backslid into old habits.  I now see that it’s because I wasn’t resting in the finished work of Jesus Christ.  I was still trying to earn my salvation by impressing God with how ‘good’ I was.  The truth is that God sees Jesus when He looks at us.  That’s why the scriptures say that we are “…the righteousness of God.”  To help address the issues that get at my heart and cause me to forget the gospel of Jesus Christ and what He has done for me, I made this up to look at everyday.  It’s a collaboration of ideas, questions, and sermons I’ve heard from Tullian, Davis, Driscoll, and generally what the Holy Spirit has been teaching me this year.  Hope this will help you orient your hearts to Christ, rest in Him, and then do good works already prepared in Him for God’s glory and your good.

What we’ve learned from fundraising: Part 1

28 Oct

Crosspointe Picnic in the Park!

18 Oct

We had our first church picnic in the park yesterday.  It was an awesome time of fellowship!  We played bocci ball, soccer, frisbee.  The kids played in the splash grounds and Lenny’s subs donated free subs to us!  It was a great day!  Here are some photos.

First Sunday Morning at CPWL

17 Sep

The time has arrived.  After just over a year we have planted with Crosspointe Church Waterford Lakes.  It’s been a long, excruciating, joyful, tiring, encouraging and Spirit filled journey, and it’s just beginning!  We are so thankful for all of your support, prayer and fellowship.  God is so good and receives all the glory!  We are humbled and thankful to serve Crosspointe each week and are just in awe of God’s providence and faithfulness as we heard His call and obeyed it for the glory of His Son!  Here are a few photos and a video from our first Sunday!

We had 52 people join us in worship this past week from college age students to families to older couples.  We can’t wait to see what God has in store next week and are blessed to be a part of what He is doing in Orlando Florida!

Table for 3

12 May

One thing you all should know about servers at restaurants is this……it’s going to sting…..are you ready?

If you’re not a regular (someone who comes in the same time ever week and sits in the same section and orders the same thing)……if you’re not a regular, your server doesn’t care about you.  It’s nothing personal, actually that’s sort of the gist of it.  Guests are merely dollar signs to servers.  Sure they’ll treat you like kings and queens but as soon as that credit card receipt is signed you’re simply taking up precious space until the next party of four dollars sits down.  Is this taught by the companies/restaurants in training?  No.  This is an unspoken norm that I see played out every day.  I’m ashamed to say that I get caught up in it.

One night, a week or so ago I had two people sit in my section.  It was close to closing time, I was tired, I wanted to go home and be with my wife….needless to say, I didn’t care about these people.  I walked up to greet them, put on my fake server smile and asked if I could get them something to drink.  The guy informed me that he was an employee of Chilis.  That changed everything.  Employees get 50% off their bill and usually tip really good so my demeanor shifted a little.  I was refilling drinks, chips and working my tail off for that one table because the little dollars just turned into bigger dollars.

Later in the meal I stopped by to see if they needed anything.  The girl had gone to the restroom and the guy looks up at me and says, “Hey man, sorry I’ve had such a bad attitude this entire meal.  I got some really bad news today.”  Oh no.  This isn’t good.  My dollars were turning back into people.  People with real problems, real families and real souls.  I had a choice.  I could blow it off and say, “sorry bro, more sweet tea?” or I could truly serve “the least of these.”

I said, “I’m so sorry man, what happened?”  He said that he just found out that he got rejected by the law school he’s been dreaming of going to since he was a little boy.  I replied, “Wow.  That’s awful man.  Well, I know some people with connections to some great schools in Georgia.  I’m a pastor, here’s my card.  Call me and we’ll grab coffee or something and talk about what’s next for you.”  He looks up at me, “You’re a pastor?  Me and my girlfriend have been looking for a church to go to around here.”  From there on I told him about Crosspointe and where we meet.

I’m not sure if that guy will come to church, or even call to talk about what’s next in life for him.  I’m not sure if that was even the reason for the lesson I learned that evening.  I am convinced of one thing though, we all get caught up in whatever it is that we do and devalue people.  Pastors devalue people to numbers.  Serves devalue people to dollars.  Politicians devalue people to votes.  So how do we change that?  How do we see the value in people?

We serve them.  Whether it be with time, money, work or refills of sweet tea, we serve them.

35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 38 And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? 39 And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’40 And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

Matthew 25:35-40

Love,

Josiah and Jordan

Praying amidst the chaos

27 Apr

In Exodus 17:8-13 there’s a story of perseverance in which the armies of Amalek and Israel fought with one another.  Moses instructed Joshua to choose men personally to go and fight with  him.  The deal was that Moses had to lift his hands (in which he held his staff) above his head, raised and the Israelites would win.  If he lowered them, the Israelites would lose.  Short version of the story-Moses raised hands, he grew weary, Aaron and Hur each held one arm up, Joshua cleaned house with his sword and God facilitated the win.

Last week I was working a shift at Chili’s and the night came to a close.  If you’ve never worked at a restaurant, here’s a look into what happens at the end of the night.  It’s insane.  The servers are taking care of their last tables while doing sidework (i.e. cleaning drink stations, salsa cooler, chip machine, trays, trivets, soup station, dessert station) and trying to clean their tables, all so they can roll two buckets of silverware before they can go home to their families or cats.  All the while, the bartender is cleaning the bar, the bussers are taking out the trash, cleaning the bathrooms and bussing tables, and the kitchen is cleaning all the grills, fryers, bowls, utensils and well……it’s chaos.

I walked back to my manager’s office to cash out for the night and we begin talking about Jesus, life, Christianity, and the church.  This is all fairly normal as the relationship I’ve developed with my boss has basically become a really great Q&A concerning the Gospel.  My boss begins to tell me about his life and the things he’s going through with his family and work and basically let’s me know he’s broken.  I assured him that we’re all broken and in need of Christ.  I explained God’s sovereignty and how He’s way ahead of us and is already putting into place things in our lives to draw us closer to him.  I shared 1 Peter 5:5 with him and explained the difficult process of how getting walked on glorifies God.

After talking I asked if I could pray with him.  He said yes.  So amidst the chaos of the restaurant closing, I laid hands on my boss and prayed for him.

God is moving in Orlando to redeem this city.  God is using Crosspointe Church to reorient people to the gospel, and God is using simple servers at Chili’s to pray over their bosses  prayers of healing and grace.  This is all being facilitated by and through your prayers and your giving.  Thank you for trusting God and supporting us.

Love,

The Potters

The First Sunday

19 Mar

I’ve heard a story told in pictures communicates far more than words so I’m going to heed that phrase and instead of describing how our first Sunday service went I’m going to let you see how it went.  God blessed us and brought us more than we expected; in people, in ministry opportunities, in community and in grace.  Here’s a peak into our first Sunday.


Brent and me figuring out last minute tech stuff for worship and teaching.

Brent and me testing the mic for recording and Jared & Jocelyn & baby Hudson looking over the seating arrangement.

Shot from the back of the room.


Where the body of Crosspointe Waterford Lakes worships.

Praying over the night.

Community

Jordan already has a big children’s ministry!!!  Six children!!!

The first worship at CPWL.

Out of the 32 people that God brought us that night, 5 were orphans from a foster care home.  They were awesome students and so much fun to talk to and be around!

Jared teaching the gospel.

Children’s ministry in full effect.

God is so good.  We are so thankful for your support and prayers.  Keep coming back for more weekly updates on what God is doing in Waterford Lakes!!!!

Love, The Potters

40%

8 Feb

Now that we have sent out our first quarterly letter updating you all on what’s been happening these last two months I am excited about blogging weekly again.

We wanted to get something tangible out that you all could hold and read and enjoy.  We will continue to send those out every quarter and will be blogging, emailing and calling weekly.

God has a plan for everything.  He works through and in all things.  One of those things has been Josiah’s job at Chili’s.

One of the things that I (Josiah) wrestle with is wondering why God has called us to Orlando to plant a church but has only provided 40% support for us instead of 100%.  I figured if I simply heeded the call and obeyed He would automatically meet my expectations of completely supporting us so that we would be “freed up” to do “Kingdom work.”  Luckily for us, God works in and through all things.

I was finishing up my work at Chili’s one night and walked into my boss’s office to cash out and go home for the night.  Here’s how it played out.

“Here’s my cash and checkout slips.”

“Josiah, I have a question for you and I hope I don’t offend you.”

“No, by all means.  What’s your question?”

“So, what makes you so sure that Jesus Christ is the Son of God?”

“I should grab a chair.  This may take a while”

For the next half hour I walked my boss through the bad news/good news of the Gospel.  I talked to him about the authority of Scripture and the fact that Jesus cannot be a ‘good man’, that He is either Lord or a lunatic.  We spent some time going through the separation from God because of sin and disobedience and the physical birth, life, death and resurrection of Christ for the Atonement.

Nothing spectacular happened afterwards.  I didn’t baptize my boss in the lake or hand him an invite card to my church.  I simply told him about the redeeming love of Jesus Christ.  I feel God gave me an opportunity to live 2 Timothy 4:1-5 which says:

4 h I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, i who is to judge the living and the dead, and by j his appearing and his kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; k reprove, rebuke, and l exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 3 m For the time is coming when people will not endure n sound [1] teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and o will turn away from listening to the truth and p wander off into myths. 5 As for you, q always be sober-minded, r endure suffering, do the work ofs an evangelist, t fulfill your ministry.  2 Timothy 4:1-5

As I left Chili’s that night I thanked God for giving me that opportunity and prayed for more like it.  Looking back on that evening I’m grateful for our 40%.  That 40% meant a conversation to a man who needed to hear about Jesus Christ.  That 40% means another opportunity I haven’t had yet but will.

To those of you supporting us in prayer or financially-thank you.  Read this and know that your support isn’t simply keeping our lights on, or providing us the means to see whether we’ll have a boy or a girl at the O.B.; but that God is using you to facilitate the spreading of the Gospel of Jesus Christ daily in Waterford Lakes, Florida.

Love,

Josiah & Jordan

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