If you're a member of a Sunday Volunteer Team, or if you're ready to join a team, we would love to invite you to the Launch Conference at CITYCHURCH on Sunday, September 8th, from 4:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m. During this conference, you can expect preaching and vision casting from

Pastor Dean, a full band with an extended time of music, a time to share

the Lord's Supper, a time to focus our vision and passion for creating

irresistible environments in Tallahassee, and a breakout time with your

ministry area for dinner, relationship building, and training. Make plans to join us and sign up online today!

Are you new to CITYCHURCH and wondering what's next? Then join us for NEXT, an engaging 2 hour class (with a break!) for an overview of our mission, strategy, and environments to help you determine your best next step. Dinner and childcare are provided.  NEXT will take place on September 18th or 22nd from 5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. Sign up here.  

It's that time of the year, school starting for many, but more importantly college football! With this season of the year, there is so much stress put on the success and failures of teams. We count these successes and failures with simple numbers of how many games a team won or lost, that's it. For many teams this record might not necessarily reflect the overall number "successes" and "failures" a team may have.

Our society today portrays success and image as everything, and that failure is not an option. Many will do whatever they can to get ahead, completely turning against God and His word to gain an advantage in life. I can tell you with absolute certainty; this is the biggest failure we can ever live.

I see many people who turn to these tangible things to fill themselves with happiness, only to be burdened and consumed by them. Clothes, relationships, cars, shoes, jewelry, society status, whatever it may be... are meaningless. These "things" that we put in our lives will only suffice for a short time. They are like pouring water into a funnel. While it might initially seem full, it will slowly drain and become empty. This is a repetitive trend in today's world - consistently searching for things to fill this unquenchable thirst. We fall short by allowing so many things to guide our lives that we take our eyes off God.

In Matthew 11:28-30 it states, 28 "Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 All of you, take up My yoke and learn from Me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for yourselves. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

I have this passage printed and taped to my bathroom mirror as a daily reminder to look to God as my guidance, not things in this world, and take the success and failures knowing that God is truly guiding my life.

As Christians, we know that God's plan for us will entail both successes and failures. While many times we wonder "Why God?" we must remain steadfast in our faith and trust that God will follow through with His word. I constantly struggle when situations don't go the way I want, but I have to remind myself that God will provide me with what I NEED and not what I WANT.

A passage that helps me constantly in the selfish battle of trying to do things for myself versus relinquishing control to God is Jeremiah 29:11. "For I know the plans I have for you -this is the Lord's declaration-plans for your welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope."

Through recent failures, I have come to focus more on God and look to Him for His plan and direction. Once I began to focus strictly on God, the successes, whether small or large, came right behind. If I kept a record of my successes versus failures in life, I would be the laughing stock of the sports world. But as a believer in Christ, I know that no matter how what happens on this earth, I will not be a failure. Jesus loved me so much that he went to the cross and died for me, for you, and for all those who believe in Him. This is the greatest thing in life we could ever ask for. The best part about this success of everlasting life is that it is free to all who believe in Him. So what if my record is 1-354? That one WIN, Jesus dying for me, a sinner, is the GREATEST success I could ever have in this world.