Dean Inserra

What an awesome Sunday night at the Well! That was seriously an amazing atmosphere. Is there a better band anywhere?

Last night was a pretty emotional one for me. My good friend and fellow founder of the Well, Scott Simmons, had his last night as our Worship Leader. Scott has what I call beyond a full-time job as an engineer and has been giving us any spare second he has for the past year. With his family as a major priority…it is time for Scott to move into other areas of ministry in our Church. I thank God for him. I know everyone at the Well can say the same.

Rachel Boeselt is going to be the Well’s worship leader starting this Sunday. She is awesome and we are pumped to have her on board with us. If you were at the Well two Sunday’s ago you know what I am talking about. Rachel is for real.

A few randoms:

-Gotta love a Church that has a margarita party after the service. The Well is a unique place!

-I had my 10-year high school reunion planning meeting yesterday. Wow.

-Krissie and had to get new bedroom furniture over the weekend. I think I would rather attend a Mormon baptism of the dead service than go furniture shopping. It was like Christmas morning for Krissie. 

-Sarah Scruggs and Lawton Graves are getting married this weekend. I am thrilled that I get to be the official Pastor dude for the wedding. Here is my struggle…will I be able to stop calling Sarah “Scruggs-ie” after she becomes Sarah Graves? That is gonna be tough!

-Our summer vacation series starts Sunday night! The nice thing about having a night-time service is that you can make it back from July 4th weekend vacation in time to be there.

I am a pretty big Boston Celtics fan. No, I did not become one all of a sudden last week. I was watching the NBA draft last night and the Celtics had the very last pick of the first round at #30. The champ always picks last.

With the pick, Boston took J.R. Giddens from New Mexico. I thought it was a pretty good pick. They need a younger guy who can shoot.

They always list a “weakness” on the profile of each player…Giddens’ weakness was…”needs to work on his professionalism.” Professionalism? I guess in a huge market like Boston with millions of dollars on the line that makes sense, but come on. If that is his issue….welcome to the green jersey my man!

If there is one thing I never want to be as a believer, it is a professional. I look at the life of Christ and I see someone who did not come as the professional Messiah that everyone was looking for. He came as a man who lived life and spoke truth. The professional religious crowd wanted to clean him up and make him more seasoned. He wasn’t interested. He went on to do the most un-professional thing imaginable! As the only one who has ever been perfect…He died in the place of undeserving sinners. Wow.

The world of professionalism in the Church is keeping people from a fully committed following of Christ, and the world isn’t interested.

Here is the world of the Church Pro:

-The worship service should be exactly one hour without exception EVER.

-Since I am a member of this Country Club…I should call the shots. After all, I pay those guys’ salaries!

-My 19 year old son absolutely has to come to Church with me. It doesn’t matter that he is bored, is texting the entire service, and does not want to be within 30 feet of this place. We have to be seen together as a family. What would his grandmother think? She hasn’t missed a service in 75 years! Betty and Bill’s entire family is sitting together. He better get here before the sermon starts. What if the Preacher sees him walk in late? What is everyone going to think! If he doesn’t show up I am taking his credit card.

-Am I a Christian? Yes…I go to Church every Sunday and I help cook breakfast for the men’s group once a year. My daddy and his daddy both taught Sunday School their entire lives.

-Whoa..that is not how we normally do things here man.

Oh…the world of the pro. Church culture has created the best! Maybe J.R. Giddens should come hangout in Tallahassee….he could learn a thing or two about the professional life.

I am ready to see a city move beyond what I like to call Andre Agassi Christianity….Image Is Everything.

Two other quick things:

We have another staff member from the Well in the blog world. Check out Matthew Robinson’s site.

Also, My friend James Smith wrote an amazing and VERY IMPORTANT article on the CBF. You need to know about this! While we pray for Church unity…we cannot unite with Churches that are this far off base in terms of their view of the Gospel and Scripture. CBF folks should be viewed as our friends we pray for, but this is serious stuff. Thank you James Smith for getting the truth out there!

A few questions:

-Why is it that I need to be “cultured” due to my disliking of art museums and sushi…while someone who doesn’t like football and sweet tea apparently doesn’t?

-Why is it incarnational living to drink Chai and listen to Moby at a Coffee Shop, but not living incarnationally to be in a Sorority or go to Jimmy Buffett concerts?

I often wonder if living missionally is bigger in its’ scope than reading books about people who moved into the inner-city, listening to Rob Bell podcasts while eating at Descent Pizza, and wearing t-shirts of the latest band that better not become too popular or they will be selling out to the man?

Here is the deal: A lot of what is considered/called postmodern ministry is more about a clique or style than an actual worldview. Nobody would ever admit that…so I guess I just made a few people mad. I love my emergent/emerging brothers and sisters…but lets come clean here:

Are you really being an individual living missionally when everyone you run with wears the same kind of glasses, breaks into a cold sweat when they see Ralph Lauren products, is no longer mad at God since they read Blue Like Jazz, and sits in front of their Mac at a coffee shop all day?

I am seriously not trying to make fun of people. I just get tired of Christians in those circles (it really is its’ own christian sub-culture…but shhh don’t tell them) playing the “we are individuals, don’t care about what others think and want to be open-minded” card…while the literal interpretation of that is….”as long as you are not someone who is a sorority girl, jock, listens to country music, has blond hair, drives a nice car, didn’t vote for George Bush, wears brand-name clothes, eats red meat, we would love to live life with you, help you heal from your bad experience at the Church and accept you just as you are.

Don’t get me wrong, there is a lot of good being done by my Emergent/Emerging Church friends…this is a conversation we have had in person many times. Incarnational living is just defined so narrowly by the people that claim to be the gold-medal winner of the open-minded Olympics. Oh yea…please don’t send me a long email about the difference between emergent and emerging.

Guess what guys…those folks that wear tons of make-up and have their daddy’s credit card need Jesus too.

I spent the morning on campus at FSU helping new freshmen move their stuff into the dorms. I had the chance to talk with families and tell people about the Well. It was a great connection time.

Freshmen move-in day always reminds me of the importance of students connecting with a local church. The father of one of the students I met pulled me aside and said that he and his wife are scared to death that their daughter will not plug into a Christian community. Kids who grew up in a believing home literally go one way or the other when they get to college. I can see his concern!

 This was only the summer move in. The big one for us comes in the middle of August when a whole new world of kiddies come to town. Our good friends at Cross Pointe are coming down from Atlanta to help us again this year.

While unloading cars…one dad handed me a box of cereal to take up. I asked him what else he needed me to take upstairs and he handed me a box of condoms. 30 seconds later he asked me what I did for a living. Always a fun conversation.

On the not-so-good side of things….we only had two college students from our Church show up on campus to help. SAD.

Special thanks to Brian Hartsfield and Mary Katherine Grimsley for taking ownership of getting the word out about our Church and being a part of move-in day.

Declaring yourself in a relationship with so and so on Facebook is a bad idea. Seriously, you are BEGGING for drama.

I hate to be the one to bring the bad news, but chances are you will probably break-up one day. I know, i know…he told you he loved you after the first week…he just wants to hook-up…don’t buy it.

The post-break-up practice used to be that the girl runs home and puts everything her boyfriend gave her into a box. She then shows up at the guys front door and gives the box back. “I guess I won’t be needing this anymore,” is the standard quote. If she is a real drama queen…she will include a few pictures and the cd you burned her full of Kenny Chesney songs from Spring Break 06. My how times have changed! Now…she sprints to her Facebook and immediately declares that she is no longer in a relationship. This usually takes place no more than 30 seconds after the break-up.

Now…your 347 friends at FSU, entire high school class of 2005, 4 friends at UCF, and random stalker person who reads everyone’s profile knows that you just broke up. Here comes the texts, wall-posts, phone calls…now people’s moms have Facebook, so she even knows! Creepy.

The truth is that some of you love drama. You wouldn’t know what to do with yourself if there wasn’t any. So…the whole world will enjoy seeing 3 different dudes in a relationship with you on Facebook over the next 6 months. Enjoy the texts!