August 2008

Finding a Sunday Morning Location (Please Pray)

August 13, 2008

A few weeks ago I thanked God not just for being a Door-Opener, but for also being a Door-Closer. I am now living my words out after the top three locations that we desired for our Sunday morning services are off the market for various reasons. We have a new list that is bigger, better, [...]

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Do You Wear the Mask?

August 13, 2008

When I was a student at Morehouse College, we read Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poem "We Wear the Mask" several times in my literature courses. I never forgot it because I have a mask of my own that I am all too familiar with. If you’ll be real, you have one too. While Dunbar’s short, profound [...]

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I’m Sorry Ed. My Mother Says We Should Shake Hands.

August 12, 2008

My mother (momma) wrote me an email entitled "Be Nice" this morning after she read my interchange with Ed Stetzer here. She knew where I was coming from, but told me I should apologize anyways. Where I come from in rural Kentucky, when your momma says to apologize, doggone it, you better do it or [...]

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A Church “OF” Small Groups -Dreams & Ideas (2 of 5)

August 12, 2008

From my time @ Buckhead Church to all of the awesome testimonies that I have read and books that I have studied about small groups, I am a total evangelist on their essential value to a church. Bill Donahue of Willow Creek magnifies the importance in this book of building a church "OF" small groups [...]

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My Comments Caused Quite a Stir

August 12, 2008

Ed Stetzer, a respected church planting and church leadership expert, posted thoughts about Barack Obama yesterday that I took offense to. I very much disagree with Ed’s perspective and the Barna Research that he is quoting. I have been around long enough to know that you can make numbers anything you want. The last I [...]

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Dreams & Ideas that Need Your Feedback (1 of 5)

August 11, 2008

As far back as I can remember, I have had a big imagination and have had a hard time telling the difference between an enormously lofty dream and reality because I tend to still believe that anything’s possible. I’m not talking about riding on a flying dog with a weird tail through the sky with [...]

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Buncha Stuff Sunday

August 10, 2008

I am a dreamy type of guy and have some big dreams and ideas for The Courageous Church that I am going to be sharing this week. Call me naive, but I still believe that absolutely preposterous dreams can come true. Somehow a disposable diaper was put into the washer with dirty clothes yesterday. It [...]

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Is That a Dead Guy?

August 9, 2008

My wife hates it when I show these photos because the pain that caused them and the recovery that I went through was unimaginably difficult. I show them to you today because so many people have emailed me about them and want to know the story behind them. Plus, I feel like you only halfway [...]

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1, 2, 3, – Push!

August 8, 2008

There’s something about hitting the number 3, then pushing, that makes it seem like we can concentrate our strength to make it more potent – be it through childbirth, pushing a junky car up a hill (or out of mud), or un-budging a big ‘ol piece of furniture. I need us to count to three [...]

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Guerrilla Marketing Links, Photos, Videos, and Book

August 8, 2008

Web Urbanist has THE Guerrilla Marketing blog series and gives some real insight into who, what, how, when, where, why, etc. This is THE definitive book on Guerrilla Marketing by Jay Levinson. I have been hooked on his strategies for years. 15 REALLY GOOD Guerrilla Marketing Photos from the Bootstrapping Blog. 10 EVEN BETTER Guerilla [...]

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Guerrilla Marketing Inspiration & Examples

August 8, 2008

Guerrilla marketing is all about breaking through the noise of traditional commercialism and marketing to convey a bold message in a surprising and often humorous way. I honestly don’t plan on The Courageous Church doing a whole lot of marketing, but the marketing that we will do will likely be guerrilla marketing. I want to [...]

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Be Willing to Adapt (Finding a Sunday Service Spot)

August 7, 2008

I like to set and meet at least one BIG goal per week. I have daily goals and the same never-ending to-do list that you have too, but my weekly goal tends to be pretty doggone important. My primary goal for this week was to finalize (or come close to finalizing) the Sunday morning meeting [...]

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Guerrilla Marketing on a Shoestring Budget -Part 1

August 7, 2008

Our church plant, like most church plants, has a very tight budget with just a little bit of money for marketing. Companies pay a lot of money to advertise in downtown Atlanta, so we are going to have to be extremely creative, halfway outrageous, and incredibly courageous with our guerrilla marketing campaign if we want [...]

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First Time Giver System

August 6, 2008

I am starting to think that I learn more from blogs than I do books! I just read an awesome post about church finance that deals with a First Time Giver System, a Consistent Giver System, and Worship Service System on the blog of my buddy Paul Peterson. Very good, practical, instructive, realistic wisdom that [...]

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Taking 3 Kids to the Dentist

August 5, 2008

Tomorrow morning I have to take EZ (23 months), Kendi (6 years), and Tae (8 years) to the dentist for a basic checkup. EZ often fights me like a raging animal when I brush his teeth so I am very curious how he does tomorrow. Stretch your hands toward downtown Atlanta and pray at about [...]

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I Smell the Finish Line!

August 5, 2008

Yep – most people see the finish line, but doggone it – I smell it! Between what Rai and I have given, all of our online donations, and all of our offline donations from churches and friends, we have now raised over $20,000 in our campaign to raise $30,000 to help launch the Courageous Church [...]

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Today I Chose to Cheat

August 5, 2008

I am choosing to cheat today. I had a very important meeting with Gary Lamb and the Revolution Church staff to attend this morning, but family responsibilities were too important to pass up and Gary was more than understanding – he encouraged me to stay home. Almost five years ago I read Andy Stanley’s great, [...]

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An Amazing Service @ Buckhead Church

August 4, 2008

I want to tell you all about the amazing time we had together @ Buckhead Church yesterday, but as I sat down and prepared to pull out all of the adjectives to describe the gathering, none of my words really suffice. Kind of like describing how pizza tastes – what you do you say? Tangy, [...]

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Buncha Stuff Sunday

August 3, 2008

Wow! Double Wow! Triple Dog Wow! The message by Louie Giglio and worship through music led by Carlos Whittaker @ Buckhead Church was life changing. I was crying. My wife was crying. The people in front of me and around me were crying. God’s grace is amazing. I am going to post about the service [...]

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Leaders Everywhere – Debunking a Multi-Site Myth

August 2, 2008

Over the past few days I have been sharing with you some of the surprising leadership lessons I have learned from my time @ Buckhead Church before we launch The Courageous Church on 1-11-2009. I want to close this series out today by sharing the very cool fact that Buckhead Church has leaders everywhere. A [...]

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