Yearly Rundown (2008)

2008 has been an amazing year for me and our church!!  I spent this morning just reflecting and thanking God for His faithfulness and blessings ... but also getting excited to know that He wants to do MORE than we can ask for or imagine!! (Ephesians 3:20-21)!!

• We were blessed to celebrate more baptisms this year any other in our history!


• God caused our church to grow faster this year and we were named one of the Top 100 Fastest Growing Churches in America by Outreach Magazine (check out the list here).


• We began construction on our Next Step campus expansion at our Dalton campus.  The highlight was opening Stage 123 as a second worship venue, community space, and student ministry space.


• God brought some amazing new staff members to our church.


• We celebrated one year of being a multi-site church at our Calhoun Campus.


• We've identified some areas where we need to improve: church-wide communications, growing our small groups, and developing leaders in our church.


• I've learned a lot about myself as a leader and where I need to grow to better serve our church and our staff.


• I've learned to rest more in God's sovereignty and promises.  Many times I know exactly how the man felt in Mark 9:24 when he cried, "I do believe! Help my unbelief!!"


• Our staff and Elders continually amaze me with their dedication, wisdom, and leadership.  We are blessed to be led by this group of people. 


• I took a longer summer break this year and it was good for me, my marriage, and our church as a whole.  I'm a better leader, preacher, husband, friend, and child of God when I "rest" and get away.


• Thought our creative team (worship + tech) did a great job with our message series this year ...


• The Forged message series was a great series as we discussed how God works to "forge" our character to be like Christ.  Staging rocked for this one!


• I think the Boot Camp series covered one of the greatest needs in Christianity today -- how to study your Bible on your own and fuel your spiritual growth.


• For me the Prime Time was really powerful to preach because all we did for several weeks was share the truths of the Gospel message of Jesus Christ ... GOOD NEWS!!


• Lots of great feedback from the Committed series on marriage.


• Hostage series was all about freedom in Christ ... what He died to give us!!


• Two very practical series this Fall:  Dirty Jobs and Temptation.

Let me close this yearly "rundown" by simply thanking the wonderful people of Rock Bridge!! We are part (albeit small part) of a movement of God.  Thank you for coming, serving, praying, and bringing people to church with you!! Never underestimate what God wants to do through His church ... we cannot imagine it but we can be part of it!!  Our God is an awesome God!!!

Weekly Rundown (12.21.08)

• Today we talked about Mary, focusing in on the incredible humility she had to possess in order to be "possessed" (literally) by God.  Mary is one of my favorite people in all Scripture. 


• Don't forget our Christmas Eve services on Wednesday: Calhoun @ 5:00 pm in the Civic Auditorium; Dalton @ either 4:30 or 5:45 pm in the Wink!


• Ate my first Christmas meal on Saturday night with some of Beth's family.  It was awesome while I was eating but not after I was finished ... kind of like sin isn't it? Feels good for a short while and then ... "Oh my gosh, what have I done?"


• We had an amazing Elders meeting this past week!! The wisdom and faith of those men are amazing.  Rock Bridge, we are blessed to be guided and guarded by our Elders!!  In this meeting we really talked and prayed about where we believe our church can go and what it will take to get there.  For one thing, it will take us all seeking God like crazy to make us like His Son, use us to reach unchurched people, and to make Jesus famous in NW Georgia!!


• Navy lost their bowl game to Wake Forest ... but a great season regardless for the middies.


• Beth and I will be doing some snow skiing this week up at Sugar Mountain, NC. 


• We've started working on our message series for the new year.  It's going to be called, "WOVEN", ... we're going to look at how God 'weaves' Himself in and through everything that happens to us, asking the question, "What if we looked for the thread of God in all our relationships, circumstances, and life events?"  I think it is going to be a powerful series!  Be praying NOW and start asking unchurched friends NOW to join you at church in 2009!!

Things We Like to Hear

A good way to "check the pulse" and see if our vision is being pursued is to listen to what people are saying.  Here's some things we like to hear around Rock Bridge:

• I never thought I'd see _______ in church!


• I want to serve.


• I am reading my Bible more on my own.


• When I go to college, I've got to find a church!


• We now talk about church outside of church.


• Christ is now part of our marriage.


• I brought a friend to church.


• I know what it means to have a relationship with Jesus Christ.


• My child "wakes me up" to get ready for church.


• It's all about Him!!!!!

Step Together

This Sunday (Dec. 14th) is our Step Together Offering to mark the one-year point of our giving campaign.  I can hardly believe it was one year ago that we took the step to give (over a three-year period) gifts of faith, sacrifice, and generosity to fund the vision God has given this church!!

Our goal has been to transform the buildings God has given us into worship and ministry centers that will be used to preach His Word, worship Him as Lord, disciple & equip people to serve Him, and extend our "reach" into our community.  We believe the Lord has sent and will continue to send people to Rock Bridge to meet Him, grow in Him, and bring glory to Him through their lives. Renovating, retrofitting, and building these buildings provide more capacity for people to connect to Christ and His community.  So on Sunday we simply want to unite our pledge giving and step together into Year Two of the project with unity and a renewed commitment to the God-given vision for Rock Bridge (click here for more details). 

Only in the past few years has God really taught me about sacrificially giving to His causes.  I want to share a few things Beth & I have personally learned:

1) Giving is hard (if not impossible) when motivated by fear, guilt, or obligation; giving is easy when motivated by BIG ideas and BOLD visions.  The church has the BIGGEST, BOLDEST, & BEST vision ever birthed and yet too often uses fear & guilt to motivate people.  Here's Rock Bridge's big and bold vision:  as long as anyone in our "area of influence" does not have a church home or personal & growing relationship with Christ then our mission is not finished.  This means the best is yet to come, God is just getting started, and giving to His causes is a safe and rewarding investment (not an expense) in eternity. That motivates me!!!

2) We cannot outgive God.  God led us a few years ago to give our entire savings to Him when Rock Bridge purchased the Wink.  I won't go into details, but trust me, you cannot outgive God!

3) Giving to something bigger than myself makes me feel good about myself.  I know this sounds a little weird but it is true.  I think we are all wired to want to be part of something special, unique, and big (look at how much $$ was given to the presidential campaigns this year).  Based on the authority of God's Word, nothing is bigger than Jesus Christ and His church (Colossians 1:15-18).

4) Giving honors God because it clearly demonstrates I trust God.  The more I grow as a Christ-follower, the more I simply want to honor God period.

So this Sunday Beth & I will be excited and honored to continue our participation in The Next Step campaign by "stepping together" with our fellow Rock Bridgers to further God's vision!!  And this coming year, Beth & I will be expectant as we watch what God does through a church committed to staying in step with Him!!

Weekly Rundown (12.07.08)

• Go Navy!!  Seven straight wins over Army ... although I did like the Black Knight's new uniforms.


• Great Sunday at all our venues and campuses today!!


• I'm leading a breakout session at an upcoming conference in February on how a church can make a big impact in a small town (most new churches start in or around major metro. areas; Rock Bridge is somewhat unique in that regard).  Please pray for me and I'd love to here any thoughts you might have on that subject. {BTW, this is an excellent conference on planting and leading Kingdom-minded churches!!}


• I am thinking about shaking up my weekly routine to give me better time in prayer, study, and preparation.  Sometimes I think "new" things and "new" routines help us push through the limits of familiarity, complacency, and "plateauing." -- I'll let you know in a few weeks. 


• We meet this week to think through our messages for 2009 ... I'm excited about some of the topics and Bible passages that God is focusing us on for next year.


• As a staff we are really thinking through how we communicate both as a staff and as a church.  I personally think we have lots of room for improvement in this area.  One of the things I learned from observing this year's presidential election was how disciplined, focused, and "on message" the Obama Team was day in and day out.  His campaign used every piece of technology they could to keep people informed, inspired, and in sync.


• Beth and I MUST start our Christmas shopping this week!!

Best Christmas Movies

Nothing like a good Christmas movie.  Here's some of my favorites:

Hon. Mention: Die Hard -- I know, I know ... but Bruce Willis tackling terrorists in a high-rise over the holidays is hard to beat it ... unless of course Jack Bauer did a 24 series on Christmas Eve!!

#5: Home Alone -- a childhood favorite and I can go for "stupid-funny" movies.  This one is just fun.

#4: Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer/Frosty the Snowman --combination pick from my childhood.  It's wasn't Christmas without these two holiday "clay" animations.

#3: A Charlie Brown Christmas -- Charlie Brown can help anyone get the Christmas cheer!

#2: Christmas Vacation -- my favorite in the National Lampoon series and possibly one of the funniest movies ever.  Nothing like Clark W. Grizwold and Cousin Eddie to get us laughing into the Christmas spirit!!

#1: A Christmas Story -- mine and Beth's personal favorite.  We are forever indebted to the folks at TBS for the 24-hour marathon showings of this classic.  From "triple dog dares" to the "queen mother of all bad words" this one has some of the best lines ever ... and it is pretty insightful about family dynamics.

Small Groups Pastor

Our search for a Pastor of Small Groups and Discipleship is going good.  Our search team of 3 staff members and 3 elders has narrowed the list down from 133 candidates to 10 at this point.  Lots of prayer needed for wisdom and discernment.

I really have been CONVICTED lately that as a church we must strengthen our ability to connect people relationally into small groups and help them grow spiritually through these groups.  This connection process is happening now but we need to take it to another level to more effectively fulfill the Bible's mandate on us to make disciples and "feed the sheep" entrusted to our care.  As a leader, I have struggled with how to do this until I read Paul's letters to a young pastor (I & II Timothy).  In II Timothy 2:2 Paul says to establish reliable teachers (plural).  He was telling Pastor Timothy that his church needed leader-teachers to effectively lead, grow, and shepherd the church.  The pattern was Paul (apostle) to Timothy (pastor) to other leader-teachers established in the local church.  Isn't this the pattern:  from God (through His Word & Spirit) to the Pastor to small group leaders?  However, as I looked at our church, I realized we were not structured as a staff and church body to do this beyond about 1000 people. 

This is when I became CONVINCED that we needed a Groups Pastor to live, breath fire, eat, sleep, and champion small groups, spiritual growth, and leader-teacher development in our church.  Several Elders were already feeling the same way ... that our small group growth has not kept up with our overall church growth and that producing church goers and achieving church growth is not the end goal -- developing followers of Christ who bring glory to God is!! (John 15:8).

Weekly Rundown (12.1.08)

• Had a great Thanksgiving ... "had to" eat twice in 2 hours ... somebody had to :)


• Unfortunately, I was right about the 'Dawgs and Tech.  Because Paul Johnson turned Navy's program around, I have a lot of respect for him and the way he coaches.


• Army-Navy game is next weekend!!!


• God rocked me this morning with Philippians 3:7-8.


• Seeing our Host Team outside yesterday in the rain, offering umbrellas, smiling, and greeting people as they came to church pumped me up!!  I Peter 4:9 comes to mind:  "Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling" .


• The Christmas musical is THIS WEEKEND: Friday & Saturday night @ 7:30 pm and Sunday @ 3:00 pm.  This always gets me in the Christmas spirit!!


• First Wednesday is this week at both campuses.


• Beth & I are going to be taking a couple of short "get aways" over Christmas ... and I can't wait.  We started taking short trips about 2 years ago and it is a great way for us to recharge and reconnect.  Relaxing at home is great but email and cell phones and work are always right by our sides.  I also use this time to clear my mind and really pray for God's guidance and direction. 


• I've got to start my Christmas shopping!