A few words about my wife before I recap today…
- It’s my blog, I’m going to be super honest tonight.
- Before we launched The Courageous Church, my wife was @ wits end with church and told me that she honestly thought she could do without it.
- We quickly learned that she was far from alone with these feelings (now our church is full of people just like her).
- I prayed to God several times that he would use me and our church plant to help restore her confidence in the church. I was told by another senior pastor that this was a pretty stupid prayer.
- We spent nearly 9 months @ Buckhead Church before we launched our church and this time was a total respite for my entire family after a pretty rough exit from our previous church that left us all a bit broken.
- I have never seen my wife as on fire for God and for His church than I have over the past few weeks.
- She’s singing. She’s planning. She’s socializing. She’s dreaming. (And she’s a hot babe)
- As pumped as I am about our attendance rising, testimonies of life change happening, people committing to baptism, and more…
- I have to admit that seeing God answer the many prayers I prayed for my wife is pretty stinking high on my celebration list. THANK YOU JESUS! (If I could dance I would do a Pentecostal Holy Dance…but I can’t dance and I think I’m too cool for the Holy Dance :-)
Recap of Our Services!
- I’m spending more time on sermon prep than I ever have in my life (12-18 hours a week). I still don’t have any sacred time carved out for this where I go without any interruptions, but I’m going to try to do so this week.
- This week was the first week our leaders ever really met together to creatively plan out our services and it really paid off. We’ve been winging it in a major way.
- Dorothy, one of our newest worship leaders, told us right away that it was obvious we were only making it by the Grace of God! That’s an understatement!
- Our free breakfast (learn more and see the videos here) is a very big hit and is helping us build a real community. It helps that the food is so doggone good!
- Before we started our free breakfast, attendance was spotty every week when we started the service…
- Now we have a pretty full crowd by the time we start our welcome because folk have already showed up for breakfast.
- I was pretty bummed that we could not use our projector and screen this morning! The room they were stored in was locked and we could not contact the person with the key! A few former criminals tried to open the door, but we couldn’t open it without scratching anything up :-)
- We moved forward and our worship team was great!
- We sang Mighty to Save (Hillsong United) and Imagine Me (Kirk Franklin) and a new song by Israel Houghton called One that is AMAZING and fits our church more than anything else out there!
- We’re wondering if we can play it every Sunday after our service ends…we love it that much!
- I started our SERVOLUTION series today and I think it is going to not only have a radical impact on our church but on Atlanta! More about this tomorrow…
- I have to cook dinner! Big ‘ol homemade turkey burgers on the grill so I have to hurry up.
- God has blessed our church with such a selfless, hardworking crew of servant-leaders! I am so thankful to God!
- People show up @ the butt crack of dawn and stay until past lunchtime to make what we do a success and do so with a BIG smile for 6 straight hours!
- I love y’all!
- Gotta run before I burn the burgers!
- Can’t wait to see what in the world Dennis Rodman is so mad about on Celebrity Apprentice :-)
- PS – My wife has a great blog post up about our weekend here!
{ 5 comments }
I love posts like this! Thanks for being 'real'… very refreshing!
I hate so much that I missed church today. I had some eye problems this week that have kept me out of work and (mostly) indoors and out of bright light, so I wasn't able to be there with you guys today. :( I contented myself with some quiet time in God's Word today and did some reading that I've been meaning to do, so all was not lost. Between tweets from Melissa during service and yours and Rai's "Buncha Stuff" posts, I almost feel like I was there! Can't wait til next week!
Shaun, I put your video up on NewChurchReport.com — hope it helps! You guys rock! -Chuck
Shaun,I always appreciate your honesty and ability to convey your heart here on SITC
We had a nasty church situation on the last run. My wife and I were hurting big-time. I took a year off from ministry just to re-focus. God led us to a church and opened new doors like I have never seen before,HE blew the doors off.
I think there's a lot of us who have been through bad situations. I imagine a lot of folks hold that anger and resentment for years. I was pretty upset for a long time. And the only way I got that out of my system was by dumping at the Lord's feet daily and reading the Bible. And God used my wife and I to be there for each other during that time. He strengthened our marriage. My wife is so stoked about ministering to families in the church and in the community.
I'm stoked about Courageous Church and hope to visit some day.
Shaun, your post is great. Honesty is something that "the church" has lacked from her leaders. No more "perfect" leaders, please.
As a member of the founding leadership in a six-year-old church plant, I can tell you that these butt-crack-of-dawn-and-stay-until-past-lunchtime days are the best! We were in a school for two years before God put us on the land we have now.
I don't know if His will for your church will put you in a place that you hold the deed too, but just in case, I would suggest that you video and photograph these days. There will be those who come later who will need to know.