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CityLife Church launched the same day that the Philadelphia Eagles started the NFL season. To celebrate our Kickoff series, we’ve been giving away Eagles stuff all month long. So far, we’ve given away two jerseys and a fun tailgating cooler with a $50.00 Acme gift card inside.

The time for the big prize has finally come and I am pumped about giving away two Eagles tickets during the final week of our Kickoff series this Sunday! Everyone in attendance will be eligible.

Most of all, Sunday is going to be a fun God-party–a worship experience packed with hope, love, and LIFE! See you then!

The launch of CityLifeis complete, but the fun has just begun! We’ll be back at The Academy at Palumbo this Sunday for week 2 of our Kickoff series.

To celebrate, we’re giving away fun Eagles stuff throughout the series. This week one lucky winner will get a tailgating cooler, complete with a $50.00 Acme gift card. We’re building toward the grand prize of two Eagle’s tickets on October 2!

If you’re visiting for the first time, be sure to check out the “Visit Us” section of our website and download the VIP Guest Guide.

I hope you can be with us for our second service on Sunday. It’s going to be a God-party!

Today I took the train downtown to meet with a high school principal. After the meeting I felt like some exercise and had a few phone calls to make, so I decided to walk the 2 miles back home. As I made my way south on Broad Street, I heard someone preaching behind me. I turned around, expecting to see a street preacher with a megaphone. Instead, a car passed me with speakers mounted to the roof.

The guy inside was preaching and driving!

Stunned, I did my best to keep up with him, but soon fell too far behind to hear his evangelistic sermon. I’ve seen a lot of interesting evangelism techniques since we moved into the city, but drive-by preaching was a new one.

I know we have laws prohibiting DUI’s. Now I think it might be good to outlaw PUI’s.

Is it possible that someone could hear a snippet of a message from a car speeding by on Broad and surrender their life to God? I guess. God can use anything He wants to get someone’s attention. But you won’t find me preaching and driving anytime soon.

For starters, it was virtually impossible for anyone to hear the whole message. I couldn’t even get close enough for a picture! You’d have to sprint 25 miles an hour behind the car to take it all in, and believe it or not, I didn’t see anyone doing that.

The experience gave me free appreciation for the incarnation. Jesus could have orbited earth a few times with a God-sized sound system, blanketed the planet with the gospel, and then returned to heaven. It sure would have been easier for Him. But he actually moved in for 33 years. He had conversations. He answered questions. He healed the sick and fed the poor. He combined the good news with good deeds.

And that’s what we want to do at CityLife Church. Move in. Build relationships. We’re going to preach. But we’re also going to listen. Instead of shouting a message as we speed past people, we want to slow down and walk with them.

With six weeks left before the official launch of CityLife, I thank God for the relationships my family has built these eleven months in Philly. I can’t wait to see what God will do in the lives of our neighbors and friends!

This is shaping up to be one fun weekend for CityLife Church! Here’s the 411.

On Saturday night we’ll be hosting a block party in the middle of South Philly’s Italian Market–at 9th and Montrose. We’ll serve free food starting at 7.30, and start the movie around 8.30.

On Sunday we’ll gather at our new location–The Academy at Palumbo–for our third preview service. This preparatory high school is an answer to prayer in a historic South Philly location with easy access to Center City. The guest lounge opens at 10 am with free coffee and donuts, and the service begins at 10.30 am.

If you’re local, we’d love to have you as our guest this weekend! If not, will you take a minute to pray for our city and the birth of CityLife Church?

Every Saturday morning I meet with our 7 church plant residents. It’s one of my favorite parts of the week. This week we will be talking about the three biggest temptations church planters and pastors face.

Gold, girls, and glory.

It seems to me that most leaders who fall do so because of an unhealthy relationship to money, the opposite sex, or power. Conversely, if we can establish strong safeguards in our lives in these three areas we can go a long way to preserving our character and integrity in life and ministry. In fact, one of the things we’ll do on Saturday is to help each other develop personally accountability plans.

One of my pastor friends here in Philly carries a card in his wallet with a simple title: “What I Have To Lose.” It’s a daily reminder to him that any choice to sin would be as foolish as Esau trading in his birthright for one tasty meal. I’ve taken his idea and added my own list to the card.

What I Have To Lose:

• Amazing God
• Leah
• Gabby and Claire
• Calling

These four gifts are too valuable to not take my personal and spiritual health seriously. As a result, I want my life to be marked by intentionality and wisdom. And I want the leaders who serve with me to do the same.

My second daughter was born this weekend in Center City Philadelphia. I believe her birth has unique meaning and symbolism for the upcoming birth of our new church.

Claire was born EXACTLY six months to the day before CityLife Church! Our plan is to launch CityLife on September 11 of this year. Claire’s birth was fast, healthy and punctuated by God’s favor–a picture of what’s to come for CityLife.

She was born in the oldest hospital in the United States. Pennsylvania Hospital in downtown Philadelphia is more than 200 years old. New life in a historic place. Likewise, Philadelphia is a historic city that’s about to experience a fresh dose of the life of Christ when CityLife Church is born.

Her full name is Claire Salena Leach. Claire means “shining light,” and Salena means “salt.” Likewise, our dream is that CityLife Church will have a transformational presence in Philadelphia–salt and light in this great city!

Leah, Gabby and I, along with several of our launch team members, are Philadelphia transplants, having relocated here from other parts of the country in response to God’s call. Now we have a daughter who is “FROM PHILLY!” That’s a milestone for the Leach family and CityLife Church.

Watch out Philly.

New life is in the air and joy is in our hearts!

I’m so happy to introduce Claire Salena Leach! She was born last night at 11.46 pm and weighed in at 8 pounds, 11 ounces. Leah was amazing throughout the entire delivery process–strong, gracious and beautiful!

Claire means “shining light” and Salena means “salt.” We believe this young woman of God will live a life full of flavor, boldly influencing people for Christ. Salt and light!

Right up to Claire’s birth we didn’t know if we were having a boy or a girl, and I’ve got to say, the anticipation and excitement of that moment was absolutely worth the wait! The moment we discovered she was a girl was punctuated with a fresh realization of God’s sovereignty in our lives. He knows I need another woman in my life!

Leah and Claire are both doing well today, recovering downtown at America’s oldest hospital. Thanks for your prayers!

Church planting guru Ed Stetzer recently wrote a great series of blog posts in response to some research that revealed the top 7 issues church planters face. I followed along with a lot of interest and felt like the research along with Ed’s thoughts were right on target.

After finishing the series, Ed gave me an opportunity to respond to it with a guest post on his blog. I decided to write a list of practical suggestions for attacking each of the issues.

You can read my post on Ed Stetzer’s blog here.