Grateful and Never Satisfied

In the context of Vinings Lake, there is a "balance" that I try to continually walk - between being grateful and yet never being satisfied. I want to be grateful in where God has brought us so far and even in a short amount of time - lives have been and are in the process of being changed (me included, thank God for His process of growth), we have seen many people come, connect, and commit to grow in a relationship with God.

Yet, it almost "haunts" me to never be satisfied - to realize our potential.........NO, God's potential - and the stewardship that has been given to us in our community of Atlanta, where in a 5 mile radius there are about 158,955 people and in a 10 mile radius there are around 600,000 people! We shouldn't be foolish and we shouldn't be lazy, we must be faithful and we must be effective.

It is God's power and His calling - and at the same time, in John 17 Jesus tells us that He has given His disciples the same glory that the Father gave Him; in Philippians 2:15 Paul writes to this church to be stars that shine in the universe, in Matthew 5:16 Jesus tells us to not hide but let our light shine so that others will see our good works and be drawn to God, in John 15 Jesus tells us that He is the vine and we are the branch, and in Matthew 28:19-20 Jesus tells us that all authority has been given to Him and He commissions us (and reminds us that He will be with us always) - so God's power and calling - is the same power and calling we can go forward with.

With that in mind, I must be Grateful for where He has brought me - and just abide in Him - and I must be grateful for where He has brought our new church - yet in light of our opportunity, potential, responsibility, and Commissioner - IT IS UNACCEPTABLE TO EVER BE SATISFIED!

I Want to be a Rock Star

Yesterday at VL, we wrapped up a 2 week mini-series called "I Want to be a Star". Last week I told everyone that my "dream" is to be a Rock Star - and so the band worked up a little diddy and my friend Joe wrote a little something and yesterday at Vinings Lake, all my dreams came true!!! Click here to watch it.

Theo's

Today, I am very excited because I get to go to one of my favorite places with Hollie. When I can, I love to go to Theo's - it is a great lunch place that is adjoined to Aspen's (another great place to eat) in the West Cobb Avenue's. On Friday's, they have the best soup ever - it is a very thick and rich cheese soup - in the words of Nacho Libre, "it is the best!"

Fried

My brain feels like it is fried. I am thankful that it is GOOD things that makes it feel this way and not bad things - but either way, it is fried.

So much to think about, prepare for, and do - but even in the midst of it - I have joy - joy in the fact that God is doing and is about to do a great thing. The truth is, He is always doing great things - in and through people - we just fail to realize it.

Here I go again - meaning to just put a "pointless" blog out there and turning it into a "reflection" - not bad, but sometimes I think I wear myself out!

Great word

Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC has caught some attention and the little that I have observed seems to be a great place where they are reaching people and doing some incredible stuff "behind the scenes" as well.

I just jumped on their website to see what is going on and through browsing around read an incredible blog by the pastor, Steven Furtick. He titled it "Don't put Jesus first" - click here and take a look - GREAT stuff!!!

A little humor

Click here for a little weekend humor - the National Anthem in way you need to experience it! Make sure you listen/watch all the way through - this guy is a good sport!

Mr. Mom

Hollie is out of town for a few days and I am trying to juggle being Mr. Mom and keep up with other stuff as well. 2 nights ago, I was in bed by about 10:30 - and last night I was in bed before 10:00pm!!!! - that is very unusual for me!

It is amazing to me everytime I step into this "role" - I am reminded that this is a TRUE calling and responsibility for women to be stay-at-home moms (and I will take anyone out if you disagree!....ok, that may be a little harsh....no, it's not - it's true!!!)!

It seems like as soon as I get one thing done for one of my little monkeys another thing is just about to happen - dressing, bathing, feeding, taking to school and preschool, picking up from school and preschool - on and on.......say what you want, but there is no hiding the truth that this is a FULL TIME responsibility - and truly a calling! At least for me and those that have other kinds of "jobs" - when we are "off" work - we are off - for moms, until the kido's go to bed - their "work" follows them everywhere!

I love my wife - I miss my wife - babe, if you are reading this, you are my hero!!!!

Shane

There are certain people in your life that are so authentic, encouraging, fun, and just REAL. Shane is one of those individuals in my life. Shane and his fiance Natalie go to VL and Shane plays in our band - he is a constant encouragement to me. When he plays, he worships God. When we walk around and greet people - he practically drags his cord around to go and shake someone's hand. I truly love this guy - he is awesome!

Today at VL - Missions and Community Group

Today at Vinings Lake was a privilege for me to have my friend Alex Himaya speak to our church. I worked for Alex at First Baptist Springdale in Springdale, AR several years ago and now he is the pastor of The Church at Battle Creek in Tulsa, OK. Alex spoke to us about the "Why" of Missions? Why would we go to the world and spend time, money, efforts, and energy in another country? Alex taught us through Titus 2:11-13 that we must do this because of the Grace of God - and b/c of His grace, it is a gift, it changes our lives, and it gives us heaven - eternal life. It was again - a memorable day at VL.

Tonight, we hosted our Community Group at our house - great discussion and community tonight (Brian, once again - the discussion curriculum was great). One thing dawned on me that is awesome. Earlier, Hope asked if we had "small group" tonight - and then I thought about the fact that our kids see us doing this - and I am reminded that this is an example to them and will hopefully lead them to make this a commitment and practice of their lives. And that gets me excited b/c it is all about teaching through example.

Catalyst Day 2

Catalyst continued with an incredible day - and succeeded the greatest of expectations.

Craig Groeschel, who is the pastor of LifeChurch.tv brought a message that spoke deep to the heart - he talked about saying we believe in God, but living like we are an atheist. Do we REALLY believe?

Dave Ramsey kicked my tail with truth from God's Word about being good managers of our money - and how VITAL it is to get this straight - before we can even think about being tithers and generous givers - and we know that tithing is not an option, so we better get our stuff together!

There were some other great moments - including the most amazing worship experience I have ever had when all the worship leaders and musicians took the stage (including 2 drummers).

Andy Stanley closed the conference with a GREAT talk on the fact that "systems create behavior" - this was very good for me as a pastor - and helps in the operations of church ministry.

Again - it was great to see some friends from the ministry and.............I can't forget to include the cave man that was there

- J.R. Lee - that is for you my friend!

Catalyst Day 1

I am just going to throw some bullets down from today - what an amazing day it has been:

* My wife went with me and she loved it - I love her so much!

* Steve Fee led most of the worship - WOW!

* Andy Stanley kicked things off this morning and talked about the power of our influence as leaders. The main point was "What do you do when it dawns on you that you are the most powerful person in the room?" He read from John 13 where Jesus washed His disciples feet - and that was the answer - "to leverage the power of our influence for the sake of others in the room" - it is serving others - that is what Jesus did!

* Lunch was fun with tons of ministry friends - we piled 9 people (grown adults!) in our Yukon on the way to Chili's for lunch!

* Hollie and I saw about everyone we know.

* Francis Chan had a WORD from God - at least for me personally - it challenged and reminded me of God's PERSONAL call, power, and purpose in my life - it gives me boldness to say what He wants and confidence that I am called by Him. He said that we can grow and build a church and not even be in love with Jesus - I needed this - I allow myself to get so caught up and busy that I forget the most important things - ONE - Him!

* Rick Warren ended the day with a great message from his life and what to do with our influence and affluence. He used Moses' staff as an illustration - that it is all about surrender - whatever we give to God, He will take and use it - and give it life (like He did the staff when Moses threw it down) - and whatever I keep for myself will end up dead again (like what happened to the staff when Moses picked it back up).

What a day! Can't wait for tomorrow - Erwin McManus, John Maxwell, Craig Groeschel, Andy Stanley again - and more! And my wife is coming back again!!!!

Catalyst Conference

I am pumped about the Catalyst Conference starting tomorrow morning. I am very jazzed that my wife is going with me!!! It should be a pretty sweet day - and I look forward to seeing several people that we know as well.

Burn for You

Yesterday our band did a song called Burn for You by Steve Fee. It was the song they played while the people came up front to place their My Life cards at the front. It was a very powerful moment. These lyrics are amazing!

You can go here and click on "media" and listen to Burn for You and all of his songs from this album.

*Most likely we will do this song again this week!