Well, DeAnna and I are off to see INXS tonight. I am hoping it is a great show. I have a MAJOR ear infection to the tune of I can’t even touch my ear it hurts so bad, so I am not sure how this is going to work but it should be fun!

As I posted yesterday, we went to the churchplanters.com church planting conference this week. I just noticed they have put the sessions up for sale. If you are a pastor or a planter or whatever, you MUST go to this page and order the talk by Brian Bloye of West Ridge Church. The talk is called “The Choice - Nuturing Vitality”

This talk changed the way I did ministry over year ago when I first heard it. He gave this talk again at the conference and it was GREAT. I seriously believe this CD should get in the hand of everyone especially planters who push themselves to the limits trying to get their church up and going.

Do yourself a favor and go order it.

Tomorrow our teenagers will leave the office for thier first ever event. I am excited for Erick and all the work they have put into this. Youth have been a very small part of The Stone since we started but that is about to change. They are taking close to 40 people sking (yep, there I go talking about number again). It will be fun to be the office tomorrow when they all start showing up.

Teenagers bring life to a church and I love seeing them walking around on Sunday mornings…plus we work them to death on Sundays.

The Church Planting Conference was good today. Brian Bloye of West Ridge knocked it out of the park. I was able to serve under Brian and I consider him my pastor and it was cool to hear someone speak and KNOW that they practice what they preach. He talked about the importance of the family and talked about the areas he checks himself in daily. I have heard the talk before but it was good to hear again.

Bill Cornelius from Bay Area Fellowship did a great job also. He has a great work going in Texas and gave a great talk on creating a great worship experience.

99% of the conference was geared towards guys who had not planted yet but it was a nice break and I got to hang out with some planters and see some planters I haven’t seen in a long time.

Here in Cherokee County we have year around school. it works like this: They go to school for 6 weeks then they are off a week. During the summer they are off 8 weeks. During the summer this is a nice thing. Your summer break and attendance drop is short-term. However during the school year it stinks. Every 6 weeks you have a two Sunday dip.

Today was no exception. We were lower then normal but the service seemed good. I have been trying to move to no notes (not easy for me) and today I really was able to use them WAY less then normal.

Looking back I am not sure calling our series iHateParenting was the way to go. Our people are loving the series and we are hearing great things. However we have not had the visitors we normally do when we do such a felt need series. I think while all parents at one time or another have been at the stage where they hate parenting, none of them want to admit it.
Of course it could be just the fact that we had bad weather last week and winter break this week.

One thing I have learned in planting is you can’t live week to week. You have to learn your growth patterns and realize there are times when no matter what you do that attendance is going to be lower.

I hate that…

In the morning I am taking the guys to the ChurchPlanters.com conference. Though the conference is really for guys who haven’t launched yet, it is being hosted by one of the churches who helped us get started. They have a GREAT line-up of speakers and I look forward to just getting a break from the office, hanging with my team, and getting to hang with some other planters.

Should be fun.

Following the lead of several churches we respect we announced today that starting Easter Sunday we will no longer be allowing children under 5th grade in our morning worship services. We are all about children at Ridge Stone. We have invested tons of money and staffing into this area and I honestly feel that parents are robbing thier children of loving church by keeping them in the main service. And the simple fact is that children have become a huge distraction in our main service. Our staff felt we put to much emphasis and work on Sunday morning to have someone distracted from hearing what God wants them to hear by children simply being children.

I have to admit I was very nervous letting our people know this today. I had no idea how this was going to go over but I was convinced that it was the right decision and nothing was going to change that. I announced it and we didn’t get ONE negative thing from anyone. Even people who normally bring their children in the service thanked me after the service.

Very cool.

DeAnna and I went to the Bon Jovi concert last night. Wow, it made me feel old. It was funny, it was one of the tamest concert crowds I have ever seen because everyone (including me) was old! The concert was GREAT. Bon Jovi will never be accused of being the best song writers, the greatest musicians, or the best band, but they put on a GREAT show! I think that is what I love about hair band music, the show is done big.

The video, the creative elements were off the hook!

When we arrived I noticed about three rows in front of us was a little stage over some seats. I thought that was odd but didn’t give it a second thought. About halfway through the concert Jon left the stage and Richie Sambora sang “I’ll be there for you.” It was off the hook. After that song the guitar part of “Young Guns” started and there was Jon three rows in front of us in the crowd singing. I’ll admit I acted like a school girl and went crazy!
It was awesome. My wife about passed out and the women around me were going nuts!

It was a great night and it reminded me a of a lot of things growing up. They played forever and rocked it out. I forgot how many hits they had.

Perry hit it out of the park today with this post.

When the people you pastor suffer heartbreak, it breaks your heart…