It started out as another normal day at the golf course back in 1993 for PGA Professional Russ Holden, who was still pursuing a dream of one day playing on tour as he worked at Woodfield Country Club in Boca Raton, Florida, as the head golf teaching professional. Chris Collins, a former Major League Baseball pitcher for the California Angels, who had recently undergone double Tommy John arm surgery ending his pitching career, stopped in to ask Holden if he knew of any jobs in the golf industry. He said he didn’t need much money but just wanted to start […]

For us Floridians, there may be no snow in sight, but, nevertheless, the sights and sounds of Christmas are in the air. Last December, over 2,500 people visited the Arts Park* in Downtown Hollywood for the holiday spectacular, “Christmas Near the Beach” (CNTB). This year, things are looking even grander for Event Director Deena McDaniel and her team as they look to celebrate a “Hometown Christmas” with family and friends. McDaniel shares, “As we grow each year we see a bigger and bigger crowd! Christmas Near the Beach attracts a family audience, and 2013’s ‘Hometown Christmas’ will have that wholesome, […]

I remember the moment I first read my favorite expression about the dreams that God gives. I had just walked into a friend’s house on New Years’ Eve and there it was, hand painted on a canvas: “If your dream doesn’t scare you, it isn’t big enough.” The moment I read it, I felt this great sense of conviction. Maybe it was the adrenaline of a New Year’s promise, maybe it was a realization that I had “dumbed-down” my dream to make it fit the limited resources I saw around me. Maybe it was an acknowledgement that I had simply […]

This Christmas will you and your family accept the gift God is waiting to provide? Unlike the commercialized Christmas gifts our world tells us are expected, the gift God is hoping to give you does not need batteries. It will not expire, and it won’t deplete your bank account. Actually, it will fill your account – the one that matters most. “What is this gift,” you ask? It is the gift of unconditional love, of hope, of generosity, of selflessness…given to your sister or brother living in a developing country. When God invites us to step forward, he creates the […]

The Fort Lauderdale Christmas Pageant started in 1984 at the War Memorial Auditorium in Fort Lauderdale as a modest production, with the First Baptist Church donating $20,000 to stage a Christmas pageant as a gift to the community. This year, the now Broadway-style spectacle will embark on a 30th anniversary celebration starting November 30 with a budget of over $1.3 million. Sandy Casteel, the pageant’s original coordinator – who still now makes costumes for the show – says, “The show just keeps getting better, but one thing has never changed and that’s the storyline of displaying the real meaning of […]

1 + 1 = 1? Is that some kind of new math? No, it is actually wisdom as old as the dawn of creation. God said in the beginning, “This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one” (Genesis 2:24). One man + one woman = one marriage. God has a plan and a design for marriages, but modern trends are evidence that the design is under attack. Divorce, cohabitation and efforts to redefine marriage are completely transforming the attitudes of most Americans toward marriage. A […]

International powerhouse worship band Hillsong UNITED is coming to Miami’s Bayfront Park on November 23-24. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to participate on what is sure to be a powerful time of worship alongside thousands of other South Florida believers. Who is Hillsong UNITED? Hillsong United is a worship band that originally rose out of the youth ministry of Hillsong Church in Sydney, Australia. This progressive worship band is a global recording and touring entity sent out to share the ever-evolving worship music of Hillsong Church to an international audience through live performances and records. UNITED has a strong […]