- 111 Days until we launch The Courageous Church!
- 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.
Buncha Stuff Sunday
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{ 2 comments }
It’s a common for people to bail out of coming to an event even if they said they would come in Christian ministry. It’s one of the more befuddling things because one would think that people, in general, keep their word. Well, I find, especially when it comes to people in my age range, you can almost count on them not doing what they say. It’s difficult but one of those things you just have to take and deal with.
Hey dear,
You are so funny. I really love you too.
Know you didn’t have the numbers you were expecting yesterday, but two things I thought were really great: YOU- really, I thought you did a wonderful job facilitating the meeting. You seemed comfortable, were engaging, and very well prepared (thanks to my hounding you I think).
And also, the people that were there had a good vibe. It was indeed a diverse crowd as you said, and that was encouraging. And bump the air guitar idea, if this pastoring thing doesn’t work out, you are getting a 9 to 5!