Monthly Archives: June 2008

Not Recomended

Posted by clintclifton on

When Jennifer and I were in Florida a few weeks ago we got the chance to visit a church that we helped to plant during our first year of marriage. At the time the Church was called “Point of Grace Church.” I was assisting Brett Maragni, the church planter, and was leading worship.

As a side note, it is not recommended to name your church after a well know musical group. I have been a part of two of these… here is how the conversation usually goes.

Guy: “What’s the name of your church?”

Clint: Pillar

Guy: Awesome, like the band!

Clint: Ya- sort of

Guy: Has Pillar ever played at Pillar?

Clint: um… no

Guy: bummer!

Point of Grace recently made a huge shift in there ministry by becoming a part of Harvest Bible Chapel out of the Chicago area, thus changing the name to Harvest Bible Chapel of Jacksonville. It was really good to drop in on them after several years and see that God has brought the church significant growth.

God-song Conference 2008

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This weekend attended the 5th God-song Conference. I started God-song 6 years ago because I was looking for some friends to write music with. At the time, songwriting, leading worship and musicianship were extremely important topics in my life. I ran God-song with a lot of heart and was able to recruit some really amazing songwriters to participate in our events and contests. Things went really well for about two years. By year three God was calling us to start a church and more and more our lives were being restructured around church planting and international missions.

For the next two years I continued to run God-song even though I knew I should hit the delete key on it. Just a month or two after I resolved to finally let go the conference was picked up like an orphan on a door step and given a new set of duds.

This weekends conference was the first event under new leadership and I was so proud of the job that had been done. So a big thanks to Brian Green and his team at Christ Church for taking good care of my malnourished baby.

One of Life’s Little Tragedies

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Dirty Clint Fact # 118 - I’m a sucker for novelties. I currently own a Chia Pet, I desperately want a Clapper, and I have had my fair share of phony poo-poo.

Monday the kids took me on a little fathers day camping trip. We stayed in a tiny cabin and had a blast. In the store at the campground for $1.49 I picked up a product that I am sad to say is slowly going the way of the Buffalo.

What other product do you know of that can serve a practical purpose like keeping your 12 oz soda cool while also entertaining you and your guests?

Bali to Borneo

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Jennifer and I are headed to Indonesia in a few weeks we are really jazzed about the trip. My wife gets to go on this trip and some of the people who have been a very BIG part of our ministry are going too.

Andy and Rebecca (who have planted Pillar Church with us), Naethan (my church planting partner), Ruth (who helped plant the church at Quantico) and 9 other great friends.

We were planning to go to Java when the missionary we were going to assist experienced a tragedy thus changing our plans. We started seeking other opportunities around the same dates and BAM! two opportunities drop in our lap. So… in early August 12 crackers from NOVA will hit the bush. We are splitting our team into two teams when we arrive in Indonesia. One team will head to Bali to work village to village. Here is a little description from the missionary of our work there:

Your team will come and live in a village. We have a place with basic facilities, western and local bathroom, and foam mats on the floor in the building, or tents for the people to stay in. Your team will do various community service projects and you would have some translators with you so that you would be able to share with the people in the village

The second half of the team will be headed to Kilimantan, the Indonesian portion of the island of Borneo. The missionary there was a bit more colorful about the conditions:

Terrain will not be the problem as it is all marsh-land the heat and humidity and rain in the rainy season will. There will be plenty of bugs and maybe a few snakes and monkeys and crocks (no, not the shoe kind). If you have any kind of health problem, you should be able to take care of it yourself and not count on anyone else. This is for the fit and ready to rough it and no one else. It will be hard to come get you or even find you if you get in medical trouble, though we‚ll certainly try. Great hospitals are only two-three days travel away! I guess we should prepare a First-Aid kit with a few helpful meds in it for you I’ll think about that and get back to you. You will be traveling in the marsh-lands and rivers of south Kalimantan. Travel on Kalimantan will mostly be by boat. It is a hot land, just south of the equator.

The Banjar people are Muslim and as such will expect you to be fairly modest in your dress and behavior. There will be time to out on shorts and go swimming, but normally expect to wear long pants and a T-shirt. Sleeveless shirts and tank-tops are out of the question. The people bathe several times a day to keep clean and cool. I recommend you do the same. You‚ll have to watch how and where they bathe and try to fit in, though it is likely you‚ll attract an audience. Housing? You’re kidding right? Available housing well in the city before you head out, a cheap, but clean hotel. After that I don’t know. Perhaps you’ll find a nice wooden shack with a family who’ll let you crash there. You let us know how you did and we’ll include it in the info for others presuming they take the same path and/or river you do. As long as you have your sleeping pad and a very lightweight sleeping bag (I’ll sell you one for $20) then you should be set.

The trip is expensive and it will take a move of God for us to come up with the nearly $2500 per person it will take to go. If you can pray for our team or support us financially please send your assistance to:

Clint & Jennifer Clifton c/o SBC 2202 Jefferson Davis Hwy Stafford VA 22554

New Churches About to Bloom

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Our church has been very involved with church planting over our short three year history… This fall some seeds that we planted over the course of the last few years will emerge from the soil. I am really excited.

Last year Jamie Limato, was a children’s pastor at an established church. We had a lunch meeting where he let me have a little glimpse into his heart (it looked like this). Now Jamie and his family are packing boxes heading down to VA beach to plant Aletheia Norfolk.

Then my good buddy Colby, who is very possibly the best student pastor in the country, has been called to plant an international church in Reykjavik. We have had a chance to help pave the way for this plant through our participation with the Iceland Project.

As if that weren’t enough Jonathan, one of our elders, is is planting a church in his community about 25 miles away. Now Jonathan is a coke man, A redneck and sports nut. Even with all of these things stacked against him… God is using him to raise up Lakeside Community Church.

Not So Simple Man

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I have always thought of myself as a two dimensional person. A simple guy that could be adequately described with a few well chosen adjectives. I often play down any complexity noticed by those around me. I tend to describe myself the way my older sisters described me to there friends when I was bothering them. Today is the first time I have ever considered the possibility that I am not the simpleton that I portray. I wonder if this attitude has offended God throughout my life? I imagine Da Vinci would have been offended by young Mona had she shouted, “boring” from her oily canvas. So to the most high God who made me and reads every word of my blog; I repent of describing myself differently than you describe me.

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. – Psalm 139:14