Maurilio Amorim

Month: July 2008

  • Celebrating Faith, Faithfulness and Friendship with Frank

    Yesterday I spent the day in New Millford, CT celebrating 10 years of ministry with a client and good friend, Pastor Frank Santora. His church dedicated the weekend services to Frank and his family for his faithfulness to his calling and to Faith Church. I met Frank 8 years ago shortly after he had taken on a very difficult situation where even the most seasoned of leaders might not have survived. But Frank not only survived, he went on to build one of the largest churches in New England.

    During the service I was thinking back to my first visit with Frank and all the years we have worked together. We have been through three capital campaigns, a building campaign, one major relocation, a name change (from Bright Clouds Ministries–ok, that was not a hard one to do), hundreds of creative sessions and several strategic plans.

    Through all these years, I have seen Frank’s faith and willingness to continue to learn and trust God as hallmarks of his ministry. New England is not an easy place to grow a church; well, I would even venture to say that it’s a hostile environment to the message of the gospel. But I’m thankful for Frank, his unwaverign commitment to preach the gospel, his tenacity to continue to push against so many barriers, and mostly for his friendship over the years, letting me speak into his life and ministry.

    The New Yorker did a 9-page spread on Faith Church last november. I wrote about it here. While they got a lot of the facts correctly, they could not get the heart of the matter. God looked for someone to stand in the gap 10 years ago and he found a young Italian who was willing to trust Him and put everything on line.

    I’m encouraged to know that when we trust God, He shows up–even in Connecticutt. I’m proud of my friend, Frank for always pushing forward even in the midst of impossible odds, always trusting that the God who called him to lead this congregation has great things planned for them, and for never settlling for the status quo. Days like yesterday remind me of how rewarding my job really is.

  • The Inconvenience of Travel and the Opportunity of Ministry

    God has a way to intersect our lives during the mundane to do something amazing when we least expect. I call these moments “divine appointments.” These are times when God places people, often the unlikely, in an intersecting path with our own, but the result is seldom what we anticipate. It’s usually something truly inspired. Unfortunately, I, for one, too often fail to see these divine appointments for what they are, and let them pass by unaware of their power to change lives, mostly mine.


    I travel a lot–frankly more than I want to, but it’s necessary to do my job. One of the things I enjoy about flying is the time it affords me to read , to write, or to just nap after a long day (I’m one of the few people who can sleep soundly in a plane). A few months ago I was on a flight and, for reasons I didn’t understand at the time, I felt compelled to engage the man sitting next to me. It was a strange prompting. It called for me to put down my book and begin a conversation with a total stranger.

    Last time I had such a feeling, the passenger next to me became a Christian before the flight landed, so I knew better than to ignore it. The fellow turned out to be a friendly young man, who told me he worked for a marketing company that specializes in the automotive sector. This was a short one hour flight and the conversation never went beyond that. Even though we hit it off personally, I never got a chance to share my faith or anything of significance with him, and I felt disappointed in what seem to be a missed opportunity.

    The next day as I boarded the plane back home–you’ve guessed it–there he was, standing in line. And, yes, he sat next to me again. I was completely blown away. In all my years of travel, and in all the flights I’ve been on, this was a first. Emboldened by the apparent crazy coincidence, I wasted no time and went for the whole enchilada at once:

    “man, I don’t know you from Adam, but one thing I’m sure, God has put you in my path twice in two days, and I want to be obedient to Him and find out why. So what’s going on with your life?”

    As I’m saying those words I’m thinking “great, I just freaked the dude out completely.” And frankly, I could see the struggle on his face as the man tried to figure out if I was right or just plan nuts. I waited for the verdict during what seemed like an eternity. Finally a big smile came on as he decided I was ok. He then began to tell me about his career, about the fact he was on a job interview and his struggle with his Christian faith. It was an hour confession from the man on seat 12c.

    I prayed with him and pledged to walk with him both through his job opportunities as well as his faith journey. Since then we’ve kept in touch through emails and phone conversations. Today he called to let me know that he made the decision on his new career opportunity. “Man, you’ve helped me so much. I couldn’t have done it without you,” he said over the phone. Well, I know he could have, but God chose for my story to intersect with his and for us to walk together for a while.

    This chapter for him is done, but the story is not finished. We’re still talking about his spiritual life and restoring his faith walk. The interesting thing for me is that through this whole process, God has made my life richer, my next casual encounter more meaningful. The inconvenience of travel has become the opportunity of ministry. Tomorrow morning, I’m flying out again. I can’t wait to see what happens.