What is Go & Be? It’s a specific vision and direction the Lord has given the leadership of the church that will pave the way for Orlando North’s future from this point forward. It’s filled with excitement, challenge, and yes, even adventure. It’s a call for us to not just DO church, but to GO and BE the church God has called us to be. The campaign itself will last through March 2015, but the vision will reside with this church forever.

I want to invite you to experience and be part of this with us. Come this Sunday to Orlando North and hear the vision firsthand – it will lead you to something very special and tangible we’ll be doing in weeks one and two.

Welcome to a new era for Orlando North Community Church. It’s time to Go & Be.

It turns out sex isn’t so controversial after all, it’s just misunderstood.

This Sunday morning I’m going to open up a new can of worms when I begin a series entitled, This is NOT a Sermon Series About Suffering (But we’re going to talk about suffering a lot). The sex series was uncomfortable because it challenged us in the paths WE choose for OUR lives. A series on suffering is even more uncomfortable because it brings us face-to-face with unwanted paths GOD allows in OUR lives. Yet, even in the initial discomfort of the subject, there is so much we are hungry to know about suffering and God’s plan in and through it.

When suffering happens in our lives the pain is so vivid that it leads us to one simple question – ‘Why?’ The question is not ‘What?’ or ‘How?’ or ‘Whom?’, but always ‘Why?’ Suffering is never our goal so when we’re drowning in it we want to know why this is happening. Perhaps it’s so we can make sense of our pain. Or maybe it’s because we need somebody or something to blame.

Regardless of where we land spiritually, whether Christian or non-Christian (or anywhere in between), when we are looking for an answer to our question of ‘Why?’ all fingers point directly at God.

• The devout Christian might be asking God why he would allow something so painful to happen to one of his own.
• The non-Christian might not even feel compelled to ask the question of ‘Why?’ because they view pain as a validation of their opinion that God doesn’t exist, or if he does, he is a sadistic overlord for allowing such suffering to occur.

How can we possibly serve a God who allows suffering in the world? It’s the billion-dollar question. In this six-week series we are going to address this. This series could prove to be the pivotal point in which your life takes a dramatic turn towards God as your pain and suffering is put up against the context of his love and grace. I honestly believe much healing will come as God opens our hearts to what is true, and what he thinks about us in the midst of such pain.

Here’s a breakdown of what the series is going to look like:

• August 24: Understanding the Gospel – Part 1(How does suffering fit into God’s Good News?)
• August 31: Understanding the Gospel – Part 2
• September 7: Understanding Suffering (The ‘Why’ of Suffering)
• September 14: Idolatry of the Heart (Suffering Exposes Idolatry)
• September 21: Suffering Honestly (Many Christians feel compelled to sugar-coat their suffering story so God won’t appear to be put on trial. Masking our suffering was never God’s intention.)
• September 28: Our Mysterious God (Trusting in the Unknown)

Please join us for this series. If anything, give it a shot this Sunday for the first week of the series. These messages not only have the potential to heal your heart, but they also could provide a worldview that will serve you well the rest of your life. Invite someone you know who was or is suffering. Don’t be afraid that God can’t defend himself from the questions of ‘Why?’ Come and see what he can do with your life.

Perhaps God and suffering aren’t so controversial, they’re just misunderstood.

Sunday @ 10:30AM
Orlando North Community Church
1021 Douglas Ave. | Altamonte Springs

Haley’s grandparents, affectionately known as “Moo and Bop” to the family, made regular missions trips to Africa every year, and Melanie and I saw this as an opportunity to not only teach Haley about serving people in other cultures, but also a way to rid her of her pacifier. Please don’t judge us for what I’m about to share – We asked Haley to pray about giving her pacifier (named ‘Deetsy’) to a little child in Africa who could really use it more than her. Wow, does that sound weird just typing it. But that’s what we did, and she wanted to help the kids in Africa so she gave up her Deetsy and the rest is history. I’m proud to say our twelve-year-old daughter no longer sleeps with a pacifier. And before you judge us I want you to know that the pacifier really did make the journey to Africa after being boiled, and was given to a child there.

This one moment in Haley’s history opened a passion in her heart for the people of Africa. It didn’t matter if it was Zambia, Uganda, or South Africa. She loved that continent and wanted to serve their people. She began sending her clothes and toys with Moo and Bop on every trip they went on. In 2006 Haley actually inspired a shoe drive that we did at the young adult service I was leading at Calvary Assembly. On one particular evening Haley inspired all in attendance at our young adult service to lay whatever shoes they were wearing in that moment on stage and every pair would be sent to Africa. These young adults who came into service not knowing what was going to be asked of them left all types of shoes at the front – high tops, high heels, flip flops, tennis shoes, etc. – and walked out barefooted in a holy silence knowing God just did something in their hearts.

Over the years Haley has raised money and supplies for the people of Africa. She writes a monthly newsletter and knitted scarves where all the proceeds go to a missionary in South Africa. She has raised well over $1,000 for the people of Africa.

I say all this so you can understand her heart. She has always wanted to go to Africa and in three weeks (July 21-August 2) she is finally getting that opportunity. Haley, Melanie, and Moo (Patsy) will be going to South Africa to work with our missionary friend Cathy Potter to work in schools and children’s homes bringing the hope of the gospel to them. And I couldn’t be any prouder or more excited for her than I am right now.

Haley and Melanie have held garage sales and sold stuff on EBay and Craigslist to raise support for this trip. As you can imagine it’s an expensive one – $6,000 for both of them to go. As of today they are at $5,100, just $900 shy of their goal. The girls have asked me to put out a Facebook post to ask for people’s support in raising the last $900. I felt a blog letting you know Haley’s heart would be more appropriate. I want you to know if you give to this trip you are putting your money in a place where it promises to be used in a manner where love and hope will be brought to all the kiddos Haley and Melanie minister to. After all this trip is approximately 10 years in the making in Haley’s heart.

If you would like to donate you can click HERE and designate that it is for Melanie and Haley Duford (South Africa) or you can write a check to Missionary Ventures International (MVI) and mail it to PO Box 593550, Orlando, FL 32859 also designating whom it is for.

I’m not good at asking for money. But I don’t feel like I’m asking you to contribute to something in vain; I’m asking you to invest in something eternal and to be a part of this team by sending these ladies. I can only imagine what God is going to do through these girls on this trip, and what will happen in Haley’s heart when she finally visits the land she has long dreamt of.

Thank you for your love and support!

Every moment seems to last an eternity as you’re waiting and waiting on something you’ve been told is going to happen. Maybe you’re waiting for a person to arrive, or an event to occur, or an apology. You sense it’s on the horizon, but the waiting is making you anxious.

Personally, how do you handle that tension?

This Sunday as part of our What Would You Do With 40 Days? series we are going to talk about this tension. For most of us when we’re waiting on God for what feels like a ridiculous amount of time our temptation is often to fall back to what is familiar to us, and handle things ourselves. We do that with our relationships, our finances, our careers, and pretty much every other area of life where waiting is demanded.

Of the five accounts in the gospels that have been written about Jesus’ ministry in his 40 days post-resurrection, the one where he deals with his disciples as they are fishing could be the most personal for us today. If you’ve been trapped in the waiting period for a while and are getting restless, or if you’ve grown tired of waiting and unwisely decided to take matters into your own hands then I know this week’s service is going to minister to you.

Join us Sunday morning at 10:30 for our worship service. I promise God will do something in your heart. But….you’re going to have to WAIT…after all, it’s only Thursday.

See you then.

To some reading this post you might consider the word, “adoption”, important, but it’s never been very personal. To others this word is the most personal word they know as it has changed the direction of their lives.

Adoption is the legal process of a caregiver legally receiving to himself/herself/themselves someone who was not biologically their own. It’s the process where one, who has both the desire to have children and the capacity to provide for a child, goes to great lengths in pursuing the legal right to make that child their own. Typically, often because of age, the child is unaware that he or she is being pursued by an individual or couple for adoption, but the pursuit is happening nonetheless.

The desire of the potential parents is to love and raise this child not as a distant, segregated, second-class relative, but as a son or daughter whose rights to the family’s name and love are as though they were inherited biologically. The adopted child, although not carrying any of the biological traits of the adopting parents, legally carries the only thing that matters – the family’s name. A child may have been born in another culture, with different skin tones and dialects, but when they are adopted by loving and caring parents the appearances make no difference as they are legally part of this new family.

As sinners we were born apart from God. Because of our sin we looked nothing like him and sounded nothing like him. Yet, as an enemy of God in his love we were being pursued by him for adoption without even being aware that it was a possibility, much less already happening. He’s always pursuing us – trying to get the attention of those he wishes to make part of his family. And the beautiful part is when he extends his hand and welcomes us into his family it doesn’t matter what we look like, what we’ve done in our past, or what we are doing in our current – he simply wants to give us his love and his legal name.

And as a son or daughter of God we legally inherit everything that comes with being a part of his family. We receive his love, his protection, his redemption, and ultimately his eternity.

I would like to personally invite you to experience the four weeks of our new sermon series we are beginning this Sunday, March 16^th, at Orlando North Community Church entitled, Sons & Daughters, where we will unpack the fullness of what this adoption message means with a look through the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Galatians. This is one of the Bible’s most important messages to us, and I know it will change your life.

Orlando North Community Church
10:30AM – 1021 Douglas Ave., Altamonte Springs 32714
OrlandoNorth.com

Do I have your attention? Thought so.

If you live in Central Florida you’ve at least met my friend in passing. The reason being is that his face is posted on dozens of billboards all throughout our community advertising his law firm. He’s also on television commercials regularly throughout the day.

My friend is Mark Nation of The Nation Law Firm. I met Mark in 2010 while working out at the gym we both are members of. He kindly introduced himself after hearing me speak at another church. We had a great theological conversation over a treadmill, and I was thrilled not that he was a local celebrity, but that his love for Jesus was obvious. Over the years Mark has spoken spiritual life into me with various conversations with topics ranging from God’s faithfulness, giving, parenting, marathon training, and weird running injuries.

Mark and his wife Wendy began attending Orlando North just over a year ago, and have been such a beautiful addition to our church family. Wendy has served in our children’s ministry and brightened up our VBS last summer. They both live extremely kind, wise, and generous lives centered in their relationship with Jesus. And before I forget – they are HUGE Tim Tebow fans.

When I was prayerfully considering the sermon series we are currently in, “9-to-5: Your Work Matters,” I found out Mark was a speaker at the “Greater Than Conference” where he was sharing a message on this exact subject. This prodded me to do two things: (1) Proceed with preparations for the series; (2) Figure out how to get Mark’s message to our congregation.

As you may already know, the first of these two items has already been accomplished as we’ve been through three weeks together in this series. The second will come to fruition this Sunday morning, March 9^th, as Mark has kindly agreed to share his message with Orlando North Community Church.

I would like to make this a personal invitation to anyone reading this to join us Sunday at 10:30AM at Orlando North Community Church (1021 Douglas Ave., Altamonte Springs). You will receive a Biblically and culturally challenging message from our friend, Mark Nation. Children’s ministry is available from nursery all the way through 5^th grade if any parents would like to take advantage of that. I know Jesus will be glorified through the message Mark brings, as Jesus is already being glorified in his life. I hope you will join us.

Rob Duford
pastor

There, I said it, and I’m not convinced it helped. I’ve heard that admission of the problem is the initial step in healing.

I guess only time will tell.

Why am I confessing such an addiction on such a public forum as a blog? Because I need you to know if I run into you on Wednesday, or any of the soon following days, and I’m a bit cranky/grumpy/agitated there is a reason. The reason is a four-letter word I’ve learned to both despise and embrace – LENT. During Lent 2014 I am fasting from my favorite beverage, Coca Cola.

The Easter preparatory season known as Lent begins tomorrow (Ash Wednesday). This season tends to be a bit subtler, darker, and even more introspective than it’s sister season, Advent, which is a celebratory countdown to Christmas. Although both Lent and Advent are celebrations of what Christ has done, and will do for us, the tone of the seasons couldn’t be more opposite. At Advent we wear bright colors, give gifts, and devour unhealthy amounts of holiday food. At Lent there is much silence, prayer, meditation, and even fasting.

I’ve never fully (yes, partially) understood the sorrow surrounding Lent. Lent ultimately points us to the one moment in world history that gave us eternal hope – the death and resurrection of Christ. In the past century Lent has begun to open its doors to the truth of the season – that it, much like Advent, is a celebration of the overwhelming sacrifice our King made for us on the cross. Is the curse of the cross dark? Yes, but our King took the curse of the cross for us because he absolutely loves us. In one fell swoop he rescued his own children, and simultaneously pronounced his glory.

For Lent 2014 I have called the individuals of Orlando North Community Church to prayerfully consider fasting something that may have an addictive grip over them for these 40 days (actually 46). For one it may be a food or drink (chocolate, coffee, soda, etc.), for another a social media website, and for another television. In addition to the fasting (surrendering) of these items we are to take moments throughout our day to take time to pray.

But, wait there’s more! I’ve found that I’ve spent a bunch of money on my Coke habit. It’s an extra $2 every time I go to Chipotle, or $3 if I’m at a sit-down restaurant. For the season of Lent I’m calling us to take the money we would’ve spent on the thing we’re giving it up and give it to a specific cause we’re working towards as a church.

Corporately we are raising money for a women’s and children’s home for a tribe tucked away at the base of the Amazon in Peru. The home is open for women with high-risk pregnancies, and will soon be servicing also as a renutrition center for malnourished children. The home is run by our missionary friend, Susan Holowecky, who is a country director for Missionary Ventures International (MVI.org).

It’s a great cause to attach to our commitments during Lent. If you’re reading this, I want to ask you to join us. The benefits are numerous:

• Intensify your relationship with Christ.
• Find freedom in him from a particular vice.
• Support women and children who need our help.

It’s a win, win, win. I’m posting on Orlando North’s Facebook wall a place where friends can post what they’re fasting for Lent. It’s a place where we can encourage one another and see what the Lord is doing with this special season. Will you consider joining me?

Rob

(yeah, it was that miserably cold)

As Orlando North kicks off 2014 we want to intentionally look at the paths we are choosing in our lives. Are they paths that ultimately lead us where we want or are we living as though any random path will lead us to our desired destination? Every path has a destination, but is the path you are on leading you to the destination God desires for your life, or are you just hoping you will randomly land there someday?

In the first series of 2014 we are going to do a sermon series entitled Destinations. This series is similar to one we did five years ago as a church, but we’re bringing it back with some new twists as we feel the message it delivers is extremely vital, especially as we begin a new year.

This series will ask you to identify your desired destinations (spiritually, physically, emotionally, financially, professionally, etc.) and then challenge you to answer the very real question – Am I on the appropriate path to make this destination a reality or am I just hoping to magically arrive there someday?

Begin the year with a fresh look at your approach to your future. God has something amazing in store for you and us corporately this year, and it’s time to get it started this Sunday. Join us and bring a friend.

This past week the reality of Advent set in for me in a way I never dreamed possible. Advent is historically celebrated as a time where we look back at the anticipation that was building leading to the birth of Jesus in the manger. But that’s only part of the story. Without the final part it’s simply incomplete. The word ‘Advent’ is Latin meaning an expected arrival or coming. Yes Advent points us back to a beautiful moment in a Bethlehem manger a couple thousands of years ago, but it also is to point us forward in eager anticipation to a day when this same Messiah will return to earth, but this time with a different purpose. This time he will come to receive to himself his bride, his church, for all eternity. This Advent is the best thing possible as it ushers in an eternity that will be without pain, tears and death (Revelation 21).

My anticipation for that moment is building.

Over the past month I have seen people whom I love, in my own congregation, struggle with pain and death. Courtney Freeburn unexpectedly lost her grandmother, Jennifer Gonzalez unexpectedly lost her grandmother and aunt all in the same week, Al Mackay’s mother is under Hospice care, and Jamie Kesselring said goodbye to her 37-year-old husband, Jason, this week as he lost his life to cancer. My heart was and is heavy for all these folks.

Then pain got very personal on Tuesday. Moments before stepping in to do Jason’s funeral on Tuesday I received the phone call informing me that Isaac Hunter had just taken his own life. I was and still am breathless and heartbroken.

Isaac was a really good friend. Seven years ago when I was ready to plant Orlando North Community Church, but didn’t really know much about church planting, I was pointed towards this young pastor in town who had recently planted Summit Church. I had nowhere else to go so I called the church office and was able to schedule an appointment with Isaac not knowing anything about him but that he was the son of Northland’s pastor, Joel Hunter.

From that day on a friendship developed. He took me under his wing and encouraged me every step of the way in our planting endeavors. He created a luncheon for me and guys like me who were just planting churches. He had my family and me over for dinner. He took me out to countless lunches. He had me preach in his pulpit when he needed a break. Yes, he even tried to hire me on Summit’s staff numerous times.

Every time I’d enter a room where he was awaiting my arrival he would greet me with the nickname he had given me – Bobby D. I loved it. He’d introduce me as the author to others in the room knowing I’d released a book about the same time we had met. A pastor of a megachurch took time out of his busy schedule to be my friend. He believed in me when I wasn’t sure I believed in myself. He supported our church and me when things were looking tough. He was a pastor, and a really good one at that.

(Isaac attending Orlando North’s first art gallery)

This past year was obviously really rough on Isaac. He was in a dark place that he couldn’t find his way out of. I wish different choices had been made. I wish I had been a better friend. I wish I knew. The wish list is endless.

I miss my friend very much.

During this Advent season I am preaching on the four stages of the birthing process that ultimately lead to a new life being born. Each week builds off the other and ultimately ends with a joyous celebration of something new. The four stages are the announcement, preparations, labor, and birth. Sunday I talk about the labor or the struggle that comes just before the birth. Labor is the moment women dread in the pregnancy. It’s painful, it’s overwhelming, and it’s consuming.

But the pain is a sign. It’s a sign that something new is only moments away.

And in that fact lays my hope. The pain I feel now is a sign that the joys of Revelation 21 are only moments away. My hope is in knowing that I will see Isaac again, but the next time it will be in a place where pain no longer has a grip over our lives.