Growing up....

Sunday, January 27, 2008

This week was one of those weeks you realize you are getting old and there is no turning back. My youngest son Jacob took two giants steps to adulthood. On Monday, January 21, he applied and was accepted to his first official job. He, like many others before him, will become a Starbucks Barrester. Great for me and Grecy, we will be enjoying many more Double-Short-Cinnamon-Dulce-Late and Double-Tall-Defa-Perpermint-Mochas... our two favorite drinks. In case you want to stop by and say hello, Jacob will be working at the Starbcuks in Miami Springs. You are going to have to call him to figure out when he is schedule to work.

In addition to his new job, on Thursday, he finally received his Drivers license from Florida DMV. Check these pics out!





As we drove around this week taking care of these two most important events, Jacob kept saying: "wow, I can't believe I have a job and my Drivers license". which I said, I can't believe it either.

You know what, time does go by faster than we can understand. Before we know it, life has past on by and if we are not careful, we can easily miss out on the many things God has for us.

Balancing life is my biggest challenge. I want this young man to always know among all the things that make up who I am, I'm a Father who wants to be there to experience moments like the ones he had this week.

In case you are wondering, no he is not driving all around town yet. He got his drivers license in Hialeah. If you see him driving towards you, get out of the way. We still have a couple of years to watch him grow into that responsibility. In the meantime, I will be taking him to Starbucks as often as I can and enjoying a nice cup of my favorite Starbucks drink... ala Jacob!

The Leadership blog podcats...check it out!

Pastor Troy, Matt, Heredes and myself discussing the lessons of leading a campus. enjoy the discussion and let me know what you think.




To hear other leadership discussions, go to

Where I find myself right now.

Monday, January 14, 2008

I'm reading this great book about developing leaders. It is not a Christian book, but it does contain a great deal of wisdom. Personally, I believe the author, Morgan W. McCall, Jr. is a Christian based on his wisdom on developing the next generation of leaders. At the very least most of his views thus far,I'm half way through the book, are based unconventional ways of preparing leaders for the future. He's a quote from pg. 64.

"Learning is driven by the things a person has to contend with in handling a particular experience, and the potential lessons in each kind of experience are determined by the overlap between what the experience demands and what a person does not yet know how to do."

The book's premise is that it is the right kind of experiences that help people reach their potential. In other words, certain experiences help a person develop more than others. Not all experiences are created equal. In the process of developing leaders for the future, most organization do a poor job. Being deliberate means having the right set of people, experiences, and programs to produce the kind of leaders needed to be able to meet an organization's future growth.

What is your thought on how to develop leaders? Does a classroom accomplish this task? Is on-the-job-training enough? How can these two coexist?

what's waiting for you in 2008?

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

This morning I found myself, on the first day of 08, continuing my devotional time in the book of Acts. I just happen to start where I left of in Acts 9:31. When I got to the last part of this verse… I could not go any further.

In my Bible it read like this:

The believers were walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit.(NLT)

As I began to pray and meditate on this passage, several ideas came to mind for this New Year.

1. When I fear God all other fears seem relatively small in comparison. In this way I can be courageous in confronting the fears that keep me from reaching my God-potential. Fearing God means He becomes my motivation for every decision I make.

2. In the process of accomplishing what God has for you, we all need to be comforted. The great thing is that the Holy Spirit abides in us to comfort us when we need it.

I'm so encouraged by these words found in Acts. In the first 4 chapters of this book, the believers were reaching more people than ever before. They were also going through the strongest opposition. This explains the fact that they feared God and were also comforted by the Holy Spirit. They needed both to accomplish the task Jesus commanded them to do before he ascended (Acts 1:8).

In 2008, I need to remember what this verse means for our church. As the campus pastor of Flamingo Road church Doral, I believe this year will be the most important year in our history. To reach the people in this community, we must all work hard knowing that there is nothing to fear other than God Himself. And when we do that, He promises to be there for us and comfort us when we need it most.

While most New Year's resolution do not make it past the first month, this one does not have to be like this. Allow God to do something special in you and through you, making this year the best year ever.

This year God wants you to trust Him more than ever. If we do that, He will continue to do more than we can ever imagine. Let's go after it together as we grow into reaching our God-Potential.

To the best year yet,

Igor