Maurilio Amorim

Author: Maurilio Amorim

  • Rick Warren Inaugural Prayer

    Almighty God, our Father:Everything we see, and everything we can’t see, exists because of you alone.

    It all comes from you, it all belongs to you, it all exists for your glory.

    History is your story.

    The Scripture tells us, “Hear, O Israel, the LORD is our God, the LORD is one.” And you are the compassionate and merciful one. And you are loving to everyone you have made.

    Now today we rejoice not only in America’s peaceful transfer of power for the 44th time, we celebrate a hinge point of history with the inauguration of our first African American president of the United States.

    We are so grateful to live in this land, a land of unequaled possibility, where a son of an African immigrant can rise to the highest level of our leadership. And we know today that Dr. King and a great cloud of witnesses are shouting in heaven.

    Give to our new president, Barack Obama,

    the wisdom to lead us with humility,
    the courage to lead us with integrity,

    the compassion to lead us with generosity.

    Bless and protect him, his family, Vice President Biden, the Cabinet, and every one of our freely elected leaders.Help us, O God, to remember that we are Americans–united not by race or religion or blood, but to our commitment to freedom and justice for all.

    When we focus on ourselves, when we fight each other, when we forget you–forgive us.

    When we presume that our greatness and our prosperity is ours alone–forgive us.

    When we fail to treat our fellow human beings and all the earth with the respect that they deserve–forgive us.

    And as we face these difficult days ahead, may we have a new birth of clarity in our aims, responsibility in our actions, humility in our approaches, and civility in our attitudes—even when we differ.

    Help us to share, to serve, and to seek the common good of all.

    May all people of good will today join together to work for a more just, a more healthy, and a more prosperous nation and a peaceful planet.

    And may we never forget that one day, all nations–and all people–will stand accountable before you.

    We now commit our new president and his wife, Michelle, and his daughters, Malia and Sasha, into your loving care.

    I humbly ask this in the name of the one who changed my life—Yeshua, ‘Isa, Jesus [Spanish pronunciation], Jesus—who taught us to pray:

    Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.
    Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

    Give us this day our daily bread.

    And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.

    And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,

    for Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.

    Amen.

  • Cross Point Launches Social Media Friendly Site

    We have just launched the latest redesign of Cross Point Church’s website. I love the way the site looks and the way it accounts for multiple campuses. But my favorite feature is how simple the site makes to share content anywhere online. As a part of our MediaMachine back end tool, all the code and images, including the Cross Point branded player, is generated through a simple interface that the church staff controls. We believe it should be very simple for Cross Point staff to create tools such as evites, banners, links and embeddable video or audio. We also believe that it should be simple for anyone visiting the site to share such content with their networks as well.

    However, since the player itself is branded and always links back to Cross Point’s site, the content is never out of context. “Who is this? Where does this come from?” are now questions of the past, since the church and series information will accompany the media anywhere it goes.

    Take a look at the latest promo for their new teaching series. To get it on this blog, I just went to the “Messages” part of the site, clicked on the series promo video, clicked the “share this video” option, copied the code and pasted into this blog. It’s taken me longer to describe the process than the 15 seconds it took me to get it done.

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    Try also mousing over the player and choose the full screen option. view Cross Point website here

  • I Say Yes: My 4 Promises for 2009

    It’s a new year and this time I decided not to make any new year’s resolutions. Instead, I’m going to make new year’s promises. While some might say this is simply a matter of semantics, it’s important to me to make the distinction. It’s easy for me to break a resolution, but a promise, well, that’s a big deal.


    In 2009:

    1. I promise to say yes to God’s prompting on my life. I’ll say yes to divine appointments even after a long day when I’m looking forward to flying home with hopes of no one sitting next to me.

    2. I promise to say yes to my family every time I can. It’s easy to shut down my wife and sons with the simple, “no.” But I promise to yes every time I can and only to say no when there’s a better yes waiting for them.

    3. I promise to say yes to my dreams. Life is fragile and we’re only guaranteed today, so I will say yes to the dreams God has planted in my heart and will give them the time and discipline in order for them to become realities.

    4. I promise to say yes to my friends. The longer I live, the more important relationships become to me. People are not distractions or a means to an end. They are precious treasures whose stories are intersecting with mine and whose lives enrich my own. I will say yes to them every chance I get.

    What about your promises? What’s the most significant one of the year?

  • Are You Ready to Quit Church?

    Last week I picked up a copy of “Quitting Church. Why the Faithful are Fleeing and What to do about it.” This is the latest book from Julia Duin who is the Religion Editor for The Washington Times. I had high hopes for the book since it promised to help church leaders to answer the tough question: how to stop people from leaving our churches.


    Sadly, Julia never fully answered that question. The majority of the book focused on the well-researched statistics the author gathered about church exodus in America (most mainline denominational churches–nothing new here) and a few anecdotal examples from Ms. Duin’s own friends and associates . But even in recounting her struggles with the local churches she’s attended over the years as well as her friends’ issues, Julia fails to give the reader answers.

    The one constant in “Quitting Church” is the author’s inability to find a church like that of her youth where she felt the most engaged, closest to God, and produced, therefore, the happiest memories of her Christian walk. I don’t blame her for that. While I was disappointed with the lack of answers in the book, I’m glad I read through all of the objections pointed out in 180 pages. Interestingly, as I read through the book I felt like I was reliving all the tough conversations I’d had with people about to leave the churches I’d served in the past. Well, it was a mini nightmare of sorts.

    For a while I thought Ms. Duin was going to be a strong advocate for the house church, since she quoted Barna extensively on the movement and seemed to find little fault with such a model (Megachurches beware; much is wrong with you). However, at the end that was not the answer either.

    So who’s getting it right? According to the author, most new churches catered to the 25-45 crowd that likes to be entertained. I’m not sure about wanting to be entertained, but I, for one, think that boring people with the Good News of the Gospel is a sin.

    I think it’s naive of anyone to expect to find the perfect church, but what’s the next best thing? What do you look for when looking for a church home?

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  • An A Group Christmas

    Yesterday we had The A Group annual Christmas Event. I call it an event because it’s way more than just a party. First we closed shop by noon Friday and the entire team then made its way to our Brentwood Costco for lunch. [ Before you call me cheap, read on.] As we dined on the exquisite chicken bake and pepperoni pizza everyone drew a name in secret. Then I performed one of my favorite Christmas tradition: pulling out a bunch of $100 bills and giving one to each of our team members.


    The rules are simple: Buy a total of $100 worth of gifts for your secret Santa during the next hour, take it home, wrap the gift(s) and come back that evening for our dinner party. Since no one knows who you’re buying for, it’s always fun looking at what people are buying and trying to guess whom they are buying for.

    At dinner time, we took a break between the meal and the dessert and exchanged presents. It’s a lot of fun when people explain “why” they bought what they bought for their secret friend. One of my gifts this year was a large box of protein bars. These people know me well.

    I’m thankful for very talented people who love what they do, each other and who are able to deliver amazing results to our clients. I’m glad we took time to celebrate Christmas and one another.

    How do you celebrate Christmas at your work?

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  • The Business of Friendship

    During the thanksgiving holidays it dawned on me that I’ve known my childhood friend Wagner for almost 30 years. That’s a long time and yet, I remember our first meeting like it was yesterday at a youth camp in Jaboticabal, Brazil. But as I take inventory, I realize that I have been blessed with several life-long friends.

    The older I get, the more valuable people become to me. When you put people before position, profit or personal gain, it changes everything. As trite as it might sound, that’s what Jesus has asked us to do. This mindset allows me to have life-long friendships with people whom I just met. Really. Think about it.

    As I write this, I’m in Orlando, Florida with several Pastors and Church Leaders. Some of these men are my friends. We happen to be business associates as well, but first and foremost, we are friends. I’m thankful to be part of their life story and even more thankful they’re part of mine.

    Once while contemplating starting a new business with a friend, I got some great advice from my wife, Gwen: “If you ever have to choose between money and friendship, always choose the friendship. And if you can’t do that, don’t go in business together.”

    As I finish typing this post, the sun is just now coming up and I’m looking forward to meeting a new life-long friend.

  • Social Network Challenge

    I have the best job in the world. I really do. I get to work with great men and women who have a passion to make the world a better place. Some of them are church leaders, and some start or lead amazing organizations. My friend Wayne Elsey is one of those rare people who has a winning combination of passion, business acumen and relentless drive. Less than four years ago he started Soles4Souls. Since then he’s managed to give away several million pairs of shoes. As a matter of fact, every 22 seconds, S4S puts shoes on the feet of someone in need.

    Today they’re starting a new challenge: 50,000 pairs in 50 days. And they’re doing it through social media. It sounds like a lot of shoes, but for $5 you and I can help change two lives with the gift of shoes–giving them comfort, dignity and even health (in Africa, people are getting sick from worms who enter the body thr0ugh their feet).

    I’m taking the challenge, but I’d love for you to do the same as well. You can click on the button and donate and you can help spread the word through your network, blog, twitter and even something as antiquated as email. This is truly making a difference.

    The 50,000 Pairs in 50 Days Challenge

  • The A Group’s MediaMachine Comes Online

    Everyone has to win. I believe that about most exchanges in life, and more so when talking about business. I have spent a lot of my life arguing with brilliant software engineers and developers about the need to create the administrative back end of software as easy and beautiful as the user interface. “We must make it Martha friendly,” is my cry around the office. Years ago we developed software for a church who hired a sweet lady named Martha to work it. Well, Martha was not computer savvy. That’s an understatement—she thought the mouse was a foot pedal the first day she looked at her terminal. Martha did us a big favor. She forced us to make things simple; very simple. And from then on, every time things start to get complicated, I dig Martha up (she’s not really dead, only gone from her old position). “What would Martha do?” is the infamous question my team is probably tired of hearing.


    Last week we debuted our online MediaMachine. This application serves multimedia to users of websites that require a lot of different “moving parts and options.” It presents the user with an organized and simple way to enjoy

    • video,
    • audio,
    • notes
    • pictures
    • live chat

    It also allows website users to embed our clients’ custom branded video player on their blogs, social network sites or to send any of the media to a friend with a personal message.

    However impressive the feature list is, MediaMachine’s true power comes from its back end prowess. Our developers have been working hard to make it possible for a web novice, the Marthas of our world, to be able to manage this thing with less than an hour of training, forty-five minutes is our goal.


    This aggregater will take input from multiple sources and present them through a very sleek format. For example, if Sally is only approved to upload the notes for a teaching series, she’ll log in and only see her notes uploader option. Bob, on the other hand, has the ability to upload video and audio and images, so on his log in screen, he’ll see all these options. The interface is totally customizable.

    MediaMachine’s back end uses a lot of Ajax technology (no, not the kind you wash dishes with) which makes the whole process much faster and elegant for the user.

    We created this tool for churches and organizations that would like to share their media content but can’t afford an in-house, full-time Webmaster. Pricing is very accessible and is scaleable with volume, so to make it affordable to organizations wanting to have a presence that, previously, only large churches were able to have. To me that makes MediaMachine a winner.

  • Words Could Never Describe

    In my line of work I have seen a lot of weird stuff Christians do. But this video has its own special category. Really. Keep in mind that this was shot just last year. And make sure you watch it all the way through. It gets even better towards the end.

  • A Matter of Perspective

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