All right guys, at 7:36, I am calling it: Ty is gone tonight…or maybe Marty…no, I am sticking with Ty…dang, it might be J.D. (I hope not).

Okay, I am sticking with Ty. Call it a gut feeling.

I have looked EVERY WHERE for a place to hold our Christmas Eve services. Well today we found a place. It holds about 600 and is awesome!!!!! It has huge stained glass windows, pews, woodwork that will blow your mind and is so different then what The Stone is about. I am freaking pumped about it.

It will be off the hook by the time we add screens, lighting, scrims, candles, sound system, etc…
AND the building will never be the same.

Matter of fact, look for a shift in the graveyard as the forefathers roll over!

I learned that phrase from Nelson Searcy. It simply means learn and then return what you have learned to others. I have shared with you some of the awesome people God has allowed me to come in contact with and it is awesome. In the last week I have got to hang with Perry Noble and this week I was in a meeting at NAMB with Darrin Patrick, Matt Carter, Ted Baird, and Ed Stetzer, just to name a few. Just sitting around soaking in what these guys are smoking is an awesome thing.

Then today, God allowed me to talk about 30 minutes with a dude who is just getting started and ready to get after the unchurched even if it means his core groups leaves. The dude got me stoked. In the morning I will be meeting with a guy going to Miami (it is my study day but a guy has to eat) and I am excited that I get to return to him what I learned from others.

Find you a mentor but take time and return to some one else what you have learned or what you have screwed up (that is normally what I share best).

Is there any type of PDA (Calendar, address book, etc.) that syncs with a mac? I will admit I haven’t looked but I figure you will all know. I am so lost right now without something.

One of the churches that have been so good to us is Mountain Lake Church in Cumming, Ga. MLC is led by Shawn Lovejoy and is a GREAT church. I found out this week that their worship pastor, Rick Pearson found out he has Leukemia. Rick is probably about 23 years old and might be one of the best Worship Pastors I have ever seen in my life. If you have ever been to Catalyst, then you have heard Rick sing. He also leads worship at BigStuf Camp.

I would be lying if I said I knew Rick great. I have met him a few times and he was a great help to Tim when we first started.

When I heard this it hit me hard.
Add to this, what Perry went through a month ago and God has reminded me of some important things.

Our time here is a gift. We need to make the most of it. God has given us an awesome mission and we need to do all we can to tell people about Jesus before it is too late.

Please Remember Rick in your prayers. He really needs them.

I haven’t posted in the last few days due to being in a pretty decent set of meetings. I very rarely talk about the denom we are part of but, RSC has a partnership with the SBC. I was asked by NAMB to be part of a 12 member Young Missional Leader Task Force (that is a mouthful). Anyway, we have been meeting the last two days and I left excited about some of the things that were discussed. There was a sharp group of guys there and it was a blast. I’ll post my thoughts on it later.

My mind is on those in N.O. I could care less about the city but as I watched those people packed into the Superdome, it messed me up. I could not imagine being in there with my wife and two children. It literally will be a night of hell for these people. My heart goes out to them.

That Every Rose has a Thorn?
That every night has it’s dawn?
That every cowboy sings a sad sad song?
Man, I got to quit listening to this stuff!

From Scott King in the comments section of my blog:

“Well, there are church planters who realize they don’t know everything, and then there are the ones who fail in the first year.”

Hello! Great Quote

I had two e-mails this week after my post about driving to Anderson to meet with Perry Noble. Both of the people e-mailing me wanted to know why I would take time out of my schedule and “waste” gas to drive that far to have lunch with someone.

Are you freaking kidding me?
Please tell me you are not serious!!!!

I would have drove double that for that lunch.
In October I am flying to Arizona to met with Greg Rohlinger just to hang out and pick his brain.

Listen, you CAN NOT put a price on that type of stuff. I am all for conferences but I have never gotten one on one time with the leaders of those. It is worth the time to sit with some one who has been where you are and has gotten the job done.

I literally would drive to Anderson once a month if the opportunity presented itself.

As planters we need to do all we can to learn from others. These guys have already screwed up. They have already made the mistakes. They have the battle scars. Why not learn from them where I don’t have to make the same mistakes?

I believe in this so much that I would tell planters to forget a conference budget their first year and use that money to drive and talk to PLANTERS who are blowing the doors off.

I laughed this week after talking to another planter. He asked me how I got meetings with these people. I admit it was real hard. I actually had to send a e-mail and ask them to meet with me. Man that was hard.

I like the Vonage commercials that talk about not being stupid.
Hey planter, don’t be stupid. Meet with other guys and learn from them.