I am so excited to see the response to the post I wrote yesterday about the miracle that I experienced nearly five years ago. Between Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, blog comments, emails that you sent me, about 100 people responded. A few of you had questions that I would like to answer:
1. Why did I just now talk about this?
While this is the first time I talked about this story on my blog, for the first two years after this happened I told my testimony to nearly every person that would listen. I also told my testimony at nearly every church that invited me to speak. However, because my blog has a national and international audience, I wrestled with talking about it on here because miracles and acts of healing are really shrouded in a bunch of fraud and phoniness around the world.
Late two nights ago, I just felt like I was doing a disservice to God, to myself, and to others that may need to heart this story by hiding behind the bad name that others have given the very real work of God.
2. Why did I feel the need to say that I’m not a "loon"?
I was joking a little bit, because I actually am a little crazy in the head (most church planters are), but I think that most people think ANYBODY that claims to have experienced a miracle is either a fraud, wants your money, has another angle, is unintelligent, or some other miscellaneous negative trait. This doesn’t come out of nowhere. I don’t care if you think I’m crazy, but I just want you to know that this miracle has nothing to do with me being a little crazy!
I’m not sure how well you know me, but I am a relatively normal guy. Well, normal isn’t the best word for me, but if we all agreed that I’m a down to earth dude, we’d at least be in the right ballpark. It is after 1AM as I am typing this and we get up at the butt crack of dawn in the King House so I have to cut to the chase. I tell you that as circumstantial evidence that what I am about to tell you is important and I am pretty confident that someone out there needs to hear this.
On November 28th, 2003 I experienced a miracle. Not a cool coincidence. Not a freak occurrence. I experienced a miracle.
I am completely sure of it. Several very normal members of my family witnessed it and doctors at the University of Kentucky were baffled by it for days.
On the evening of November 28th, 2003, my wife and I were in a very serious automobile accident in which I was sent through the windshield face first in a head-on car collision going full speed on an icy interstate. I have talked about it several times on this blog in terms of what I had to overcome, but have been reluctant to share my entire story with the world – in part because I did not want to become known as the Miracle Guy.
Tonight I realized that not sharing this story is a disservice to God. Not only that, I feel in my spirit that someone out there needs to read this story right now.
THE SETTING
Visiting our family in Kentucky for the Thanksgiving holidays, my wife and I, after a long day of Christmas shopping, got a bite to eat at Moe’s and were preparing to meet my brother and his wife to go see the movie Mystic River. The roads were covered with black ice that day and Rai and I had actually witnessed a few minor accidents earlier in the afternoon. Being the safe driver that I am, I knew that I would have to be extra careful during the 7 or so mile drive to the movie theater.
Rai and I were SOOOO happy that day. We were scheduled to close on our first home the day we returned to Atlanta and had purchased a bunch of cool items for our new home super early that morning in those crazy, day after Thanksgiving sales. On the way to the movies Rai and I were JAMMING! I mean music cranked all the way up, heads bobbing, full blast JAMMING to the new Byron Cage CD. It had only been out for a little while and we loved it! We were there in Atlanta for the live recording a few months before then and we were Jamming with a capital J to the main song on the disc – “The Presence of the Lord is Here”. In some ways, we were singing it in celebration because we were both keenly aware of how good the Lord had been to us and we had even mentioned our blessings earlier that day.
The instant the song was over, I reached down to hit the button to start the track from the beginning so we could re-do our jam session. As soon as the track began again, I hit a patch of black ice on the interstate and completely lost control of the car.
THE ACCIDENT
After doing a complete donut in our lane of the interstate at about 40 MPH, I tried as hard as I could to straighten the car out, but couldn’t do it. Separating one side of the interstate from the other was not a rail, but a very steep ditch. Our car, a black 2002 Mitsubishi Galant, my first new car, sped toward the ditch, and, according to eye witnesses in the police report, our car went deep down into the ditch and then went airborne into oncoming traffic on the other side of the highway. Seeing the headlights of a truck coming toward us, I very clearly remember my wife screaming out,
“I’m going to die!”
Desperately, with what little faculties I had left, I tried to move the car out of the way of the truck that was coming right for us and BOOOOOOM! Some type of bomb went off in the car. The explosion was so violent that I could smell it, taste it, hear it, feel it, but not see it. Something weird had happened to my face in the explosion.
I could catch only a small glimpse of my wife who was moaning in pain and appeared to be about to pass out or die. Within seconds I started to realize that the bomb that went off must have gone off in my face. I started screaming in pain. I could not see and it felt like my face may have been on fire. My mouth was full of glass and I could tell from the way I sounded in my own ears that something terrible had happened to my lips and teeth. Afraid that my wife was dying and pretty confident that I was about to die myself, I screamed as loud as I could for help and did not understand why my wife was not trying to help me. I noticed that the song, “The Presence of the Lord is Here” was still blasting and felt just a slight comfort by its message. The mind is strange, because I remember thinking that having it playing will probably let people know that I wasn’t a drunk driver. That was important to me.
A bomb had not gone off in our car at all, but, instead, our car collided head-on with a truck going full speed on the interstate. Instead of the truck hitting my wife on the passenger side, which we were told would have likely killed her in an instant, we hit the truck head-on and the impact threw me forward and I crashed, face first (not head first or arms first, but nose first) through my windshield and was thrown back into the car after hitting a side railing on the road.
Unable to free myself, I felt like my face had been broken into pieces. I felt skin falling off of my face and both of my legs felt broken. I could not move. Smelling the smoke, I was panicking and screaming in agony like a raving mad man, but did not sound like myself. Something bad had happened. I could not see and I felt and tasted blood everywhere. A man, who unknowingly broke my heart, came next to the car, looked at me, said nothing, and left. He could have gone for help for all I know, but when he left I felt like I had been totally abandoned and was moving much closer to death.
What may have been just a minute, but felt like about an hour passed when a very sweet woman, like an angel without fear, came to the car. I moaned to the woman that I was a young pastor and that the woman with me was my wife. She grabbed my hand and told me very gently that she was a nurse and a Christian and that she was praying that I would live and for me to hold on. Her words were nice, but I began to feel an unspeakably deep sense of depression fall over me. (I never stopped screaming in pain throughout this ordeal.)
Her words confirmed for me that I must be dying and I began to get very sad. I am crying now as I type this because I remember the overwhelming sense of sadness and despair that started to swallow me as I considered all of the unfulfilled dreams and hopes with my wife and our young family. My daughter was not even two years old and I was about to leave her alone in the world. The woman told me that it was urgent that she find a cover to wrap my face up to keep it together. She grabbed a blanket from my back seat and began to gently wrap my face with it. She never left my window until the police and EMT’s got there a few minutes afterwards. The police asked me for emergency contact information and I seemed to have given them my mother’s contact information. Apparently my wife also gave them contact information for her mother and her aunt.
After a team of people yanked the door open to get me out, my grief and sadness began to grow because I could hear and sense the trepidation and fear on behalf of every person that saw me. I was being carted away on a stretcher away from my wife and I had no idea what her condition was. My sadness grew because I kept feeling like I was going to die. I began to imagine places that we wanted to vacation together and all of the things I wished I had told her about my love for her. I had convinced myself that if I could live until I got to the hospital, that everything would be OK.
I heard the EMT’s assess that my left leg was badly broken and that it appeared that every bone in my face had been broken when it went through the windshield. I started to drift in and out of consciousness and heard the EMT’s tell the driver that they “were losing him.” Real life is different than television because it was clear that the EMT’s were very nervous. The driver then started yelling at them that he couldn’t rush or that they’d all end up like “him” (me).
The EMT’s kept lying to me and telling me that we were almost there. It helped me a little. I heard them say that my blood pressure was dropping. Because something had happened to my eyes, I could not see anything, but could hear very well. I heard them charge the paddles and, I kid you not, got so afraid that they were going to use them on me that I think the last adrenaline I had left kicked in. They told me that my injuries were very severe, but to just hold on until we got to the hospital.
I held on and prayed and prayed and prayed that God would just spare my life.
THE MIRACLE
By the time I got to the hospital, my mother, my mother-in-law and many of the members of her small Pentecostal church, my wife’s aunt, and my brother, who was a youth pastor in Indianapolis at the time, had all been notified by staff or called by one another. My mother was told that my legs were broken and that my face was broken into many pieces and that my injuries were life-threatening.
Every person above that I just named began praying for me and for my wife. My brother began praying for healing. My mother began praying that the Lord would save her son. The nurse that comforted me at the scene of the accident had prayed that I would live.
After they got me into the emergency room and began to assess my injuries, I began to feel the Spirit of God in a way that I had never felt before or have never felt since. With doctors and plastic surgeons waiting to perform surgery on my face, I heard them talk about assembling the right hardware and plates that were needed. Knowing that I would not be able to talk once they started operating on my face (while I was awake), I began to beg nurses to write a note on my chest that said,
“I still believe in the Goodness of the Lord”
After begging two nurses to write the note and trying to tell them that I wasn’t crazy, the third nurse wrote the note and placed it on my chest. I asked her to not let anyone remove the note and pointed to it every chance I got. It is on my chest with my blood on it in this photo.
After washing my face and picking out shards of glass from it, they rushed me to have a CATSCAN done on my face and on my legs. The results shocked them and shocked me.
In spite of the fact that my face went through a windshield during a full speed head on-collision with a truck, in spite of the EMT diagnosis that “every bone in my face was broken,” in spite of the phone call made to my mother, in spite of all of that…
NOT ONE SINGLE BONE IN MY FACE WAS BROKEN. NOT ONE. NOT EVEN MY NOSE. NOT ONE BONE IN MY LEGS WERE BROKEN. NOT EVEN A HAIRLINE FRACTURE IN MY FACE OR MY LEGS.
Doctor after doctor and nurse after nurse told me that nearly ever person that goes through a windshield in such a violent head-on car collision dies and every single one of them ends up with scores of broken bones.
In spite of the fact that it took over 300 stitches to put my face back together – including stitching a big part of my bottom lip back on and my left eyelid back on – NOT A SINGLE BONE WAS BROKEN IN MY BODY.
I have thought about this across the years and there is a chance that every nurse and EMT and doctor that examined me and felt on my face and legs and studied me before I had those CATSCAN’s and MRI’s was simply wrong. They all misdiagnosed my condition. That is possible.
But for me, it takes just as much faith to believe this as it does for me to believe that something unexplainable, something strange, something miraculous happened to me that put the bones in my face back together again.
For days while I was recovering in the hospital at the University of Kentucky, doctors would visit me and discuss the strange occurrence of what happened. Medical students came by to examine me because of the peculiar nature of it all. My eyes were swollen shut for several days, but I could hear how peculiar people found my condition. Because my face still looked so horrible, I think people had a hard time actually believing that no bones were broken beneath the wounds.
I am choosing to believe that a miracle happened on that day. I experienced it for myself. If you know much about me, you know that I’m not that religious and I’m certainly not a very spooky dude. Before this happened to me, I probably leaned more to the side of believing that miracles rarely, if ever, happen in the real world. I had prayed for miracles before this incident and saw my prayers go (seemingly) unanswered.
I can’t explain miracles. I can’t predict when they’ll happen. I’m not sure why they happen when they happen. I don’t know why they don’t happen when we often want them to.
But doggone it, they happen and I am convinced that God still wants us to hope and believe that they are possible in every circumstance. Will a miracle happen every time? No. Why? I don’t know. But miracles can happen and my face (scars and all) is living proof!
Now if you don’t mind, I have to jam out to the track, that while nearly killing me, gave me a new lease on life! Wanna join me?
My wife and I had a total blast yesterday as we celebrated our 7th anniversary. We went to go see Les Miserables (it was the bomb) and ate an awesome dinner @ Legal Seafood (it was also the bomb). Here’s a picture of our meal.
The Beginning of the Gasoline Fiasco
After we left dinner, I had to stop and get gas for my wife’s car.
Knowing that Atlanta is having a MAJOR gas shortage, I decided to drop my particularly pregnant wife off @ home before I started my gas-seeking adventure.
Having gas is not normally a problem for me (wink, wink).
When I dropped my wife off, I only had 11 miles of gas left in the tank.
After driving to six gas stations throughout downtown Atlanta, I couldn’t find one that had even a drop of gas – not even premium.
After striking out six times, I only had 5 miles of gas left in the tank.
Following me on Twitter, a Morehouse brother on Facebook told me that the ghetto BP by my alma mater had gas so I made the 4 mile trip over there.
When I got to the BP, I was shocked to find a TOTAL MADHOUSE!
Dozens and dozens of cars were lined up to get gas at the little bitty BP.
I was about 45th in line.
People were yelling, honking, screaming, and running out of gas while in line.
While I was in line, they jacked the prices up to $4.55 a gallon.
Three men with turbans were directing traffic in the streets and stoked anger (and pre-existing racial tensions) by barking orders at frustrated customers.
When I got all the way to the pump, they informed me that they were taking cash only and that they don’t have an ATM machine.
This didn’t pass the smell test for me (or for others).
Out of gas, I parked my car at the pump, to the frustration of other customers, and proceeded to walk across the traffic-filled streets to get money out of the ATM.
I got my gas and rushed home.
The End of the Gasoline Fiasco
My kids were totally amped to be able to wear pajamas and eat breakfast @ Buckhead Church this morning. They totally love it there!
My oldest daughter had a baptism interview today that went very well and will be moving forward with her baptism! We are so excited!
We invited Shannon, a new launch team member of The Courageous Church, to join us @ church this morning and were so touched to learn how on-time the message was for her.
Andy Stanly closed out his series entitled 5 Things God Uses to Grow Your Faith with his message on Pivotal Circumstances. It was a serious, gut-check type of message that really provided a deeper understanding of how God uses tough times to strengthen our faith.
You need to listen to all of them, but particularly the last message from this morning’s service.
After meeting Shannon (our new launch team member) after the service, we learned that she was about to travel out of town for the funeral of her 22 year old cousin that just died in a car accident.
She said that the message helped her in a powerful way and bought a copy for her family.
On my way home from church, I kid you not, I passed a gas station (the only one with gas for miles) that had over 100 customers waiting in line for gas!
I have to stop blogging and do some laundry if I don’t want my girls wearing dirty undies to school tomorrow!
Oh yeah, my wife has really started to adjust her stance on abortion after some real experiences we’ve had recently. Check out her thoughts here.
I don’t know about other families out there, but my wife and I struggle to get time to go out on dates. With three kids, a packed schedule, and a tight budget (can I get an AMEN?) time alone with one another is hard. When we finally get out, we giggle like teenagers the whole night.
Our wedding anniversary was this past week and tonight we’re going to the Fox Theatre to see Les Miserables. I splurged and purchased some really good seats and we are both giddy to get away from the kids for a few hours.
And we both love Les Mis! If you haven’t read the book, seen the movie, or experienced it live, it is one our favorite stories of all time. I’ll tell you a secret if you promise not to tell anybody! Sometimes I like to look in the mirror and say, "I am Jean Valjean!"
I live with a great deal of physical pain every day. I’ve had several major spinal surgeries and am trying to pray away another one. I rarely feel sorry for myself, but my pain, like your own pain or your own circumstances, can be discouraging from time to time.
Pills rarely help me so I don’t take them, but let me tell you one thing that helps me more than any prescription:
Perspective.
Yesterday while doing my chaplaincy work @ Emory Hospital, I was scheduled to visit 14 patients to offer them encouragement, prayer, and a positive presence. Here is a quick glimpse of who I saw:
A middle-aged drug addict who was not being helped by the pain medicine he desperately needed because he had his leg amputated the day before.
A 26 year old woman whose foot had to be amputated because of diabetic complications.
A frightened grandmother who was breathing well for the first time in years after just having a lung transplant.
A very morbid woman with an aggressive cases of kidney disease and pancreatic cancer.
Hear my heart – AS I WALKED OUT OF THE HOSPITAL – my back still ached, my legs still hurt, my feet were still sore – but I felt that way – AS I WALKED OUT OF THE HOSPITAL.
Would a shift in perspective make your life better? Try it today and let me know!
Just thinking out loud to you about school pictures.
Do you order the pictures from school that your kids take. Seems a little old school to me. I don’t order them, but I must admit that I feel very guilty about it. In fact, I feel so guilty that I can’t bring myself to throw away the proof with the numbers written across the bottom. It almost seems similar to throwing away an American flag or a crucifix. I just don’t like the idea of a picture of my kids sitting in the trash.
It seems like a no-brainer that great training increases the likelihood of success. It doesn’t quite guarantee success, but it will, without a shadow of a doubt, put you much closer to it than if you ignored training altogether.
I joked a few days ago that I might be the first over-trained church planter. While one can indeed over-train and over-prepare for something to the point of never acting on what God has called you to do, RARELY do any of us actually cross that threshold.
I am in Tulsa today with a group of ARC church planters from all around the country. Rick Bezet, the awesome pastor of NewLife Church in Arkansas is here to coach us today. Some of us will also be on a 3pm conference call with Dino Rizzo of Healing Place Church in Baton Rouge. I’ve read all of the church planting books, I read all of the church planting blogs, I have been to conferences, I have been through church planting boot camps, I have mentors, I have students, I have planted a church before launching The Courageous Church, but I still need training because the guys that are coaching us today have already been where I’m trying to go.
The truth is, that the jury is still out on whether or not I will be a truly "successful" church planter, but much of the success I have had so far can be attributed to good coaching and frequent training. Here’s some motivation for you. Works for me every time!
I am as staunch an advocate for women in ministry as the Southern Baptist Convention is against women and have made my views and the views of our churchvery clear. I am not in the middle of this argument. I am on a side.
By choosing to pull this recent issue of Gospel Today magazine from its shelves and either refuse to sell it or sell it from under the counter as if it was pornography, the Southern Baptist Convention has not only continued its offensive stance on women in ministry, but have also shocked thousands and thousands of customers and observers by taking an even more rogue and isolationist stance on journalism by this move.
It’s MUCH easier to dismiss what you have not seen or heard for yourself. I have met 3 of the of the 5 women on this cover and have heard all of them speak (some on multiple occasions). They lead some of the best, most effective churches in this country. Period. My eyes and ears along with the testimonies of the tens of thousands of lives that have been transformed under the leadership of these women are not deceived.
Lifeway says it is pulling this magazine because it goes against their core beliefs that women should not be ordained as pastors, but this would lead me to believe, then, that Lifeway and the SBC are stating that no other books or magazines in their bookstores violate those beliefs. Is this true?
Of course it isn’t.
Lifeway felt that the sales of this magazine in their stores was negligible enough to pull it without much loss or fuss, but a simple search of the books on their website shows that they clearly sell books by authors like TD Jakes that strongly support women in ministry and often addresses issues faced by women in ministry in the books being sold by Lifeway today. Will they pull books by TD Jakes or by other popular authors that hold or address beliefs that are contrary to their core beliefs? We’ll see.
Obviously, Lifeway feels very strongly about this and that is definitely a right they are free to hold. I thought that these stores were meant as a resource for all people, but I can personally say that I no longer feel welcome there and neither do thousands of former customers I know. I will exercise my right not to shop there again.
We are planning some HUGE and envelope-pushing events for October, November, and December before we launch in January of ‘09.
Our launch team gathering yesterday was really cool! We had a diverse crowd of really, really good people that are ready to serve God in downtown Atlanta.
We had several very productive discussions with our crowd ranging from issues of worship and arts to social justice.
About 50% of the people that RSVP’d did not show up. Is that normal? I wasn’t very bummed because folk are going to do what they wanna do, but I was pretty surprised. I’ll factor this in to things next time…I guess. Any thoughts?
Christian Church Buckhead provided the space and has a great thing going on over there. I am so thankful for their support.
I am inviting our entire launch team to begin attending services with my family @ Buckhead Church on Sunday morning/evening. I have learned so much in the few months I have been there on about ten different essential church issues. I’m sharing those lessons with the team, but you can’t beat seeing and experiencing the church for yourself.
You probably already knew this, but Andy Stanley is one of the best preachers in the world. I am amazed at how many layers and how much life he can bring to a familiar biblical passage. He is in the middle of a series entitled "5 Things God Uses to Grow Your Faith" that I will be using with our team over the next few months for sure.
Casey Darnell was the worship leader this morning. That dude is really, really good. Beyond being a great singer, he brings a certain authenticity to what he does that is contagious.
I love baptisms @ Buckhead Church. They add so much to the service. I think we do baptisms at Buckhead Church about every other Sunday. Really good videos are filmed ahead of time that just do an amazing job telling the story of the person being baptized.
Today the video malfunctioned (an oddity that turned out to be a blessing) before an older dude from England was about to baptized by Jeff Henderson. People from the crowd started yelling to the baptismal pool that floats about 25 feet up in the air for the guy to tell his story. When he did, it was amazing! After he told his story, he got so amped that he started yelling and pumping his fist in excitement. My wife was crying. If Buckhead Church was Pentecostal, that would have been the time where we amped the music up and started dancing! I think it could have happened there this morning! :)
I am going to begin telling the stories of our first two staff members back on this blog tomorrow. I was taught to judge what the Lord thinks about you by the quality of people you are surrounded by. If that’s true the Lord must love me because I am being surrounded by some AWESOME folk! Haha!
I have a big exegetical paper to turn in for a preaching class by Tuesday on the story of Zacchaeus and have MAJOR work to do tonight and tomorrow.
Off topic, but I really love my wife. We’ve been together now for 11 years (since we were in High School) and she is such a beautiful pregnant babe. Several of my friends busted out laughing when we read a recent blog comment from a random guy asking me why I "let" her comment on my blog. Maybe I live under a rock, but do any of you all have to get permission from your spouse to comment on blogs???
While I write this, I’m jamming out to John Mayer: Live in Los Angeles that wifey bought me for my birthday. My two year old son has learned to play air guitar and is jamming out with me. If this pastoring thing doesn’t work out, I think I may do this for a living.
Today @ 4pm we’re having the very first launch team gathering for The Courageous Church. I am so stinking excited. I honestly can’t remember the last time I felt this doggone pumped up! I’m also a little nervous and anxious, but it will all balance out! If you can’t make it, please pray for us!
I’m totally swamped, but I’m loving it! I’m right in the middle of one of those seasons where I feel like I’m juggling daggers and bowling pins and flames while spinning plates on my head and hopping around the stage on a pogo stick. I really do feel like the Swamp Thing right now, but I always thought he was a pretty cool dude. I’m loving this busy season because I see God moving in so many different ways. I’m getting pumped just thinking about them!
I’d love to put it all in a pretty narrative for you, but let’s try some bullets.
I am in grad school full-time and stuff is really heating up! I am up to my eyeballs in reading, but am learning a ton!
My pregnant wife had a medical emergency at work on Monday and has been getting tested for gestational diabetes this week. We’re praying against this diagnosis fervently.
My daughter, Tae, had her 9th birthday on Tuesday.
I turned 29 on Wednesday.
We found out that our baby is not longer a "It" but is a "GIRL" this morning! We are very excited. She’s not due until Feb. 9th, but I found a way to snap a cell phone pic already. Check it out! We think we have a name for it HER, but I wanna pray and think about it some more.
Both of my daughters are having a sleepover tonight. This means I will be banished to my bedroom while Camp Rock is played @ full blast and girls dance around my house breaking stuff.
I’ve started to receive some (more) hateful & negative messages and mail about me and The Courageous Church this week and we haven’t even launched yet! Three things on that…1) I’ve seen and experienced such extreme hate and violence in my life that makes this crappy hate seem like a compliment. The Lord created me to endure opposition and I’m just not phased by it. 2.) You may want to save your ink and emails until after we launch, because we’ve only scratched the surface of who we feel God is calling us to be and it’s going to get pretty doggone crazy! 3.) At this point in my life the hateration either tickles or motivates me, but doesn’t get me down one little bit. Not one iota.
We’ve made some BIG decisions this week about the first two staff members we are going to hire for our church and I can’t wait to break the news! They are two of the most awesome, experienced, dynamic, God-fearing people that I know!
In just a few hours my wife and I are going to find out if the newest member of the KIng Team is going to be a boy or girl. We’re pretty doggone excited. Wifey is rooting for a girl. I think I’m a little ambivalent.
Go ahead and take your guess! Is it going to be a boy or girl?
Have any baby name suggestions? Feel free to have fun with your guesses and suggestions!
Exactly 29 years ago I was born in Frankfort, KY. Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair, but it has been way more rich and rewarding than I could ever have anticipated. While I expect that year 29 may be (one of) the most eventful years of my life, I want to take a very rushed moment to list some events that stand out in my life over these 29 years.
I remember a game of hide n’ go seek in my house with my family during a storm when I was just about 4 years old. I had help, but I won several times.
I remember being fascinated with Rocky IV and watching it over and over and over again when I was in kindergarten. I still like to pretend like I am Rocky and the world is Ivan Drago.
I remember my mother watching me perform WWF wrestling moves on pillows and dolls over and over and over again for a period of 3-4 years during elementary school. She always watched and made me feel like I was a superstar and set the foundation for my very exaggerated healthy sense of confidence that I still call on today.
I remember being devastated and stumped when the young mother of my best friend, Monte Berry, died of cancer when we were in early elementary school.
I remember seeing a Major League baseball field for the very first time when I went to a Cincinnati Reds game @ Riverfront Stadium in 1986 and being in absolute awe of its size and being shocked at just how green and perfectly manicured the field was. Eric Davis was the star of the team and was my hero for years.
I remember running for Student Government Vice President in 7th grade and delivering my first speech in front of the student body. I was hooked on speaking, politics, and leadership from then on out.
I fondly remember my first job @ the hot, raggedy Dairy Queen the summer after 8th grade. I loved working there with my great friend Lionel. We worked full-time and were confident that we were nearly rich from all of the money we made.
I remember my utter and complete brokenness when I discovered that my high school in Versailles, KY was completely segregated down racial lines and being forced by violence to pick one group to identify myself with. Up until that point, I lived with one foot in two worlds.
I remember getting caught my freshman year with three girlfriends when I took two of them to the same Homecoming dance. I totally lost the one I really liked, pretty much lost the one I kind of liked, and ended up with the one that I hardly liked. I never did that again!
I have detailed the assault and harsh discrimination that I experienced elsewhere on this blog, but want to say that I remember the great love of my mother, brother, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and close friends during the 1.5 years of school I missed recovering from surgeries and injuries. I came out of that period with some brokenness, but also a strong foundation based on a family that loved me deeply.
I remember very clearly opening up my heart to Jesus and the church when Rev. Willis Polk preached a powerful message about Jonah that convicted me that God had a real plan for my life.
I remember the day in 1996 when I first saw the hot babe that would become my wife. I thought she was so cute and spunky and wanted her to be my girlfriend right away. I fought for the next few years to wrestle her away from another sorry guy that she liked and am glad to say that we’ve been together now for over 11 great years!
I remember entering the ministry at the age of 17 by preaching my initial sermon (Jesus – The Problem Solver) in front of nearly 1000 people at the main service on Sunday morning.
I remember Morehouse College being the only school that I applied for and people thinking I was crazy for putting all of my eggs in one basket. I also remember the admissions team giving me a full scholarship (even though I didn’t meet the minimum requirements) for that very reason. I still use this dangerous strategy to this day.
I remember how hard I pretended to not be shocked when I won the Otis Moss Oratorical Contest @ Morehouse College my sophomore year. Winning that contest in front of over 2500 students set me on a path that had me elected as the youngest Student Government President ever at Morehouse just two months later.
I remember seeing poverty unlike anything my eyes had ever witnessed when I traveled to South Africa for a United Nations conference just days before 9/11.
I remember delaying the shotgun wedding with my wife for two weeks when 9/11 threw the country into a tailspin.
UPDATE:: I have written all I have time to write…gotta run to class! I love you all and thank you so much for your prayers and birthday wishes! I’d love to tell you about the birth of my children, my many near death experiences, my first pastoral employment, and much, much more.
While The Courageous Church may still be an experiment, we’re ALIVE!!! We’ll be hosting our very first launch team gathering this coming Saturday afternoon and we want to see you there.
It’s going to a fun, productive, good use of your time and it’ll give some of you a chance to meet me for the very first time and will also give you a chance to hear more about all that God is doing through our community of faith!
If you know that you know that you know you wanna be a part of what we’re doing or you just have some healthy curiosity, come on out and be a part of our first gathering.
We are going to have some CRAZY door prizes that aren’t going to be the least bit normal. Here’s a hint…they’re ALIVE!!!
Our good friends @ Christian Church Buckhead (right next to Maggiano’s) have been supercool enough to let us crash at their place for this meeting. It begins @ 4pm this Saturday and you can get more information from the above links. See you there!
A fly DJ that can seamlessly and confidently integrate into what we’re going to be doing each and every Sunday morning.
We need a DJ that isn’t just out of the box, but is willing to step all over the box to do his/her thing. If you think you may be interested, leave a comment and let me know!
Yeah – this video is hilarious, but not because they meant it to be. Saw this on a few blogs I read and decided I wanted to share it will all of my readers. Enjoy! Let me know if you learn any new moves.
I really enjoyed my time preaching for Freedom Temple in downtown Atlanta this morning. They are a great church and always receive me very well.
The pastor there, Rodney Smith, is one of my best friends and I’ve been praying heavily for him over the past few weeks. We were both in Student Government at the same time @ two different AUC schools back in college.
After being out of full-time ministry for the past few months as we prepare to launch The Courageous Church, I forgot how tired I could be after preaching on Sunday morning. Why is it so draining?
I’m getting mixed reviews for this blog post and my less than pastoral reaction to something that really shocked me online. What are your thoughts?
I have no problem being controversial and would say something again about the same issue, but I have to go about it with more wisdom for sure.
I have really tried to (let the Lord) smooth my rough edges over the past few years, but a few of them are obviously still there. Somebody told me that I remind them of Peter cutting off a man’s ear. I took it as a compliment, but don’t think they meant it as one!
Have you seen my wife’s blog yet? She doing big things and is already bragging on how her latest posts have more comments than my latest posts! Can you believe the gall?
I’m heading to Tulsa in about 10 days for a Church Planter’s Roundtable with ARC. Really looking forward to being there and meeting some awesome church planter’s.
Rick Bezet of New Life Church in Arkansas is going to be the main speaker that day. Everyone I know that knows him, loves him.
I’ve made some preliminary decisions concerning the first staff hires for The Courageous Church and feel a real peace about them. I can’t wait to share some details with you in the weeks ahead.
We’re hosting our first official launch team gathering this Saturday and I’d love to see you there. If you are interested in being a part of our team or are a church planter that wants to check out what we’re doing, come on out. Let me know if you wanna come hang out or we simply won’t let you in :)
We have some INSANE door prizes that are really going to blow your mind. Here’s a hint…some of them are…ALIVE!!!
We have a series of BIG EVENTS planned for October, November, and December and will be talking about some of those things and much more.
I’ve been cooking salmon, rice, and spinach while writing this blog post.
Whoever said I wasn’t talented is just flat out wrong. I can cook and type with the best of ‘em.
Grad school is already starting to put the squeeze on me. It’s a good squeeze, but a squeeze nonetheless. I am reading more than I have ever read in my life and am still behind.
I’m learning like never before. I will be a much more effective pastor and leader because of my time @ Candler. I’m just glad to be able to say that I will probably never do math or science in school again.
I have a bunch of questions and issues that I am going to asking for help with from pastors and leaders this week. Don’t be surprised if you get an email or a phone message from me!
Now that my son is in daycare and my schedule has stabilized, I have about 20 awesome church planters that I need to schedule meetings with that reached out to me over the past few months. We should just do one BIG meeting! I agree with Mark Batterson – church planters are my tribe. I just understand them and they understand me. Can’t wait to see you all!
I love Twitter. It is a communications hub that allows you to post and respond to messages with 140 characters for a group of select friends and followers. Twitter has allowed me to really connect with a diverse group of men and women from around the country and around the world that I would probably never know if it wasn’t for the service. It has a strange way of making the world a much smaller place.
Earlier this past summer I announced that I would no longer be discussing (partisan) politics on my blog and really detailed how The Courageous Church hopes to approach politics. Both moves were received very well.
Just last week I announced that I would also refrain from discussing and debating about politics on Twitter. This was fairly difficult for me to do since I used Twitter as a place to really vent my real, raw feelings from day today. The move received a mixed reaction ranging from people that were completely confident that this was simply the wise thing to do to people that were stumped and disappointed since one of the only reasons they followed me was to read my opinions about the politics of the day. In that announcement I announced many things – including the following two statements.
If I read a lie about someone that I care about
personally, I will still punch you in the mouth and defend them
vigorously even if they are in politics or the media.
I will still discuss politically linked issues that I feel very strongly about.
I am not going to cut my balls off to please the masses. If the
doggone Pope can speak about war, sexuality, abortion, the death
penalty, and other essential issues of our time, so can I.
So, yesterday, in between classes at seminary, I was instantly bothered when I read a Twitter statement/question concerning Barack Obama being a Muslim from a worship leader that I really respect. When I read the question, I immediately thought it was amongst the dumbest things I have ever read on Twitter.
For his 209 followers to see, the worship leader posted the above sleazy YouTube video of Barack Obama and asked the following question with these words, "Not a loaded question. Is Obama a Muslim? Just saw a video of him slipping up and pics…I mean…for real?"
In spite of the assertion that it wasn’t, for me the question was extremely loaded and equally surprising. I think I must live in a bubble because the idea that anyone could really be stumped as to whether or not Obama is a Muslim at this point in the game shocked me. I read recently that about 5-8% of the country was still wondering if he was a Muslim, but I made the (incorrect) assumption that these people must be flaming, skinhead, don’t have cable TV or internet racist typeslike the folk Gary Lamb talks about here – not the young, hip, iPhone carrying, well traveled, contemporary worship leading type.
I responded to the worship leader, a guy whose advice I have been seeking on building a diverse church, with these words…
"hey man! If you are serious about Obama being a Muslim I oughta slap you in your face! That’s just stupid. Very stupid."
I know. I know. Not very pastoral of me. I’m still working on that – for real. I am actually a very warm, gentle guy and am surprised myself that I responded with such frustration.
According to the dozens of people that wrote me privately and publicly, I should have said, in exactly 140 characters, something like this,
"Dear Brother. I can completely understand why you would still be wondering aloud if Obama is a Muslim. That YouTube video would stump anyone!!"
or better yet, I should have said something like this
"After 20 months on the campaign trail and two best-selling books from Obama, I bet that YouTube video stumps a lot of folk. Let me help you."
or even better, most people said, I should have said this
"————–"
That’s right. Most of the responses said that I shouldn’t have said anything at all.
On my wife’s new blog, she details, better than I ever could, why someone (like me or her) would be so outraged at this type of statement.
However, when my buddy Gary Lamb, a self-described redneck joined the chorus of surprised Twitter friends by asking me, "Dude, that really made you that upset? He seemed to be asking a genuine question" I had a bit of a light bulb moment.
Gary’s statement to me, as much as the worship leader’s original question about Obama being a Muslim, let me know that the gap, no the gulf, no the canyon between my frustrated and offended feelings about the worship leader’s question about Obama and the general feeling of so many other folk was a huge canyon indeed. Hear me, this isn’t about whether or not you or I like Obama’s politics, his views on taxes, or his stance on abortion, but for me, and for a lot of other people, Obama means a lot more to us than you (may ever) understand. I tried my best to detail why some of us take Obama so personally here.
The worship leader, in his (public and private) follow up messages took offense that I responded to his public message publicly and wished that I had responded to his public message privately. Beyond responding publicly because he asked a public question, I see (part of) my role in the online world of social networking (particularly the online church and church planting world) as being a checks and balance role. Most church bloggers and churchy men and women on places like Twitter and Facebook are pretty (or very) conservative. In spite of the constant labeling of me as a liberal, I am actually a pretty independent thinking, moderate dude. Dozens and dozens of people have written me very touching emails detailing how I have helped them to see a perspective about race, or politics, or life, or leadership, or church planting that they just didn’t see before I wrote or spoke about it. Most of those emails came about when I took what I find to be a rather counter-cultural stand against something someone else has said or done.
While I have apologized to the worship leader for offending him with my "slap" response, my frustration remains. This isn’t a peeing contest, but Obama is one of the most devout, practicing Christians in politics. I know people that work with him closely from day to day in his Senate office and for his campaign that make it clear that the man we see publicly is the man they see privately. Before he ever even became a national leader with something to gain, he detailed his baptism, his love for Jesus, and his love for the church in his autobiography. You have never heard one person claim to hear Obama raise his voice in anger. You have never heard one person claim that Obama has been anything but faithful to his wife and children. You have never heard one person claim that Obama has done as much as use a vulgar or cross word. The brother is far from perfect, but he is a good man that loves Jesus and has done more to let folk know that than nearly any mainstream politician in recent history.
Others have written me or called me to say that I am a voice for them concerning issues that they want to discuss, but just don’t have the words or nerves to discuss. God gave me plenty of both. I will be more careful and wise how I use them, but use them I will.
Dr. Ben Witherington, one of the most respected New Testament scholars in the country, went so far to say that folk ought to wash their mouths out with soap for questioning Obama’s faithin this popular blog post. I’ve washed mine out.
So proud to see my wife putting her thoughts out there for all to see. We are two of the most opinionated people you’ll ever meet. We argue constantly (when she isn’t pregnant) and scare the crap out of our friends that think we must hate each other, but I have never loved somebody [...]
I remember September 12th, 2001 like it was yesterday.
My wife and I had just gotten our first apartment together, she was pregnant with our daughter Kendi, and I was trying to encourage her that we, 20 & 21 year old college students, were going to be OK in the face of what looked like [...]
Hello! I'm Shaun King - a 30 year old husband, father, pastor, and grad student (in that order) in downtown Atlanta.
I am the Lead Pastor of The Courageous Church- a brand new, diverse, exciting church in the heart of downtown Atlanta! Before I put on my SuperSuit and go live out my call in the city, I fix my five kids a bowl of cereal, change diapers, pack lunches, and give my wife a kiss.
This blog is all about the tight rope that I walk between Courage & Corn Pops!
Visiting our family in Kentucky for the Thanksgiving holidays, my wife and I, after a long day of Christmas shopping, got a bite to eat at Moe’s and were preparing to meet my brother and his wife to go see the movie 
A bomb had not gone off in our car at all, but, instead, our car collided head-on with a truck going full speed on the interstate. Instead of the truck hitting my wife on the passenger side, which we were told would have likely killed her in an instant, we hit the truck head-on and the impact threw me forward and I crashed, face first (not head first or arms first, but nose first) through my windshield and was thrown back into the car after hitting a side railing on the road.
After a team of people yanked the door open to get me out, my grief and sadness began to grow because I could hear and sense the trepidation and fear on behalf of every person that saw me. I was being carted away on a stretcher away from my wife and I had no idea what her condition was. My sadness grew because I kept feeling like I was going to die. I began to imagine places that we wanted to vacation together and all of the things I wished I had told her about my love for her. I had convinced myself that if I could live until I got to the hospital, that everything would be OK.
After they got me into the emergency room and began to assess my injuries, I began to feel the Spirit of God in a way that I had never felt before or have never felt since. With doctors and plastic surgeons waiting to perform surgery on my face, I heard them talk about assembling the right hardware and plates that were needed. Knowing that I would not be able to talk once they started operating on my face (while I was awake), I began to beg nurses to write a note on my chest that said,
In spite of the fact that my face went through a windshield during a full speed head on-collision with a truck, in spite of the EMT diagnosis that “every bone in my face was broken,” in spite of the phone call made to my mother, in spite of all of that…
I can’t explain miracles. I can’t predict when they’ll happen. I’m not sure why they happen when they happen. I don’t know why they don’t happen when we often want them to.
