The printer is working!!!!!!!!

Here are a few shots from Easter. I got the disk today but it was blank so I just had our photographer send me a couple. They are shots of the band so I’m not sure the hidden meaning there.

The reason there is two backdrops is because we painted the one to look like the backdrop of the Apostle’s Creed video we showed and it stayed up during worship. During the series intro video we had the different letters flying on screen and when it got to the letter Y that backdrop fell witha magnet system to reveal the Y backdrop we painted.

Anyway, here they are.

God is doing something with church planting in Georgia! I have always called Georgia the myth state when it came to planting. Everyone thinks there are church plants every where here blowing the doors off but that just isn’t the case. There ARE A LOT of plants but very few doing anything, 90% of them are under 75 in attendance and have been there for a few years. We launched with 278 and that was a big deal. We had about 12 people from our mother church so we were excited to have that many people. As with most plants we lost about 50% of that crowd over the next month. We launched in August and by December we were down to 130 a week and even had a Sunday where we were 103. We were excited because we didn’t know others especially in our network that were doing that.

Crude that seems like nothing now. I know of two plants that launched this last week. One had 319 and the other was around 450!!!!! That is amazing to me. Seriously I can’t believe it. One of the guys I was not impressed with at all (I guess that shows what I know). The funny thing is how excited I actually got about it. I was stoked for these guys. People act like launching big is easy, it isn’t. Especially in Georgia because every Tom, Dick, and Harry are planting churches and advertising the same thing you are. It is hard to be a purple cow in this area.

The real test for these guys will come in the next months. It will also come as if they discover who they are reaching. Is it churched or unchurched? To me that is a big deal. I’m sure these guys will step up and now I got to step up so as not to be forgotten.

We have some really cool things happening Sunday at The Stone. We are continuing our series called Y (yep, stole the title from Mark) with a message on Y we do what we do. I get to talk about the vision of Ridge Stone and why we do church they way we do it.

This is my passion and I have communicated it over and over. Every time I teach it, it is awesome to see those who finally get “it.” We have thought of a pretty cool illustration this week to show our people what we are talking about.

Should be fun!

Got an invite to the Best of Canton Banquet tonight and had a good time. A couple of different people who attend won awards and I got to hang out with them.

The mini scoons were da bomb!

I love live CD’s and 3 Doors Down is my band. So what is not to like? Just wanted to jam to some tunes tonight and this fit the bill.

Got an email wanting to know how the typical hire happens at Ridge Stone so I thought I would share with you how we ended up with our crew:

Tim - Tim is our worship pastor. I met Tim while on staff at West Ridge Church. Every one told me I should look at him for the slot so we met, got to know each other and I offered him the job. He turned me down. He then came back and wanted the job. I turned him down. We started Ridge Stone and he was just there. I had worship leaders lined up for the first 4 weeks and on the 5th Sunday I let Tim lead. He never stopped. Tim and I are as probably as close as you can get between a pastor and a staff. We are GREAT friends. We do everything together. We complete each others thoughts sometimes and it freaks us out. I can’t fire the dude because he is literally my next door neighbor.

Preston - He showed up our 5th or 6th week. He was the youth pastor at a pretty large church in the town west of us. He resigned, heard about us and started coming. We hit it off instantly and became good friends. He stared working very part time with the youth and we discovered Preston gift mix was not the best for starting something from scratch. However, I KNEW he was the right person for the staff and we moved him to our children’s area when we had a need and he took the already established but small team and took it to the next level. He is one of the best team builders I have ever seen. Preston handles close to 100 different volunteers in his ministry area and does a great job. He is perfect for kids because he is a 6 foot 7 inch kid. Love the dude.

Cheri - Cheri was in our church since about the second month. We hit it off so we hired her. She is the only every day woman in the office so she puts up with a lot and does a good job. If you ask Cheri to do it, it WILL get done.

Christine - We brought her on in January part time to do video. She has been with us since before we launched. She worked at a mega-church in Cobb County doing video and had been off their staff due to an illness with her son for about 5 years. It was literally a God thing. We had X amont of dollars and she need X amount of pay. She was way behind the learning curve being out for 5 years in the video field but she has stepped up and done a very good job. She gets better every week. We call her the staff boomer and surbanite. She doesn’t like that.

Erick - I went to college with Erick and we have been friends for about 10 years. He started a church in St. Louis and God showed him he was not a senior pastor. When we were looking for a youth guy, I called, he moved. I never even thought of hiring someone else. I knew he could do the job. Erick has never been part of a church like The Stone before but I don’t care. He is sold out to our vision and because I know him, I know he will do a great job.

We have never looked at a resume, we have never posted a job opening, and we have never sought after someone. So far we have had needs and I have hired people I knew either in the church or from friendships.

It has served us well.

I’m not sure our people realize how blessed they are with the staff God has given us. I thank God for them every day. Seriously, I could not imagine doing this without them. I couldn’t do it and I wouldn’t want too.

I had a good conversation with a friend today about hiring principles. As a disclaimer let me say in the first six months of Ridge Stone we had a lot of staff turnover. I was growing as a leader and to be honest I made some crappy choices. I feel as if I have grown in this area and because of past experiences, I am now pretty dogmatic about my opinion on this subject.

I ONLY HIRE FRIENDS.

We are a staff led church and I lead the staff. The buck stops with me but, I have never felt like my staff were hirlings. We are a team but most importantly we are friends. We hang out together, we enjoy being around each other, and we do what we do because we are sold out to Ridge Stone, not sold out to being in paid ministry. When I have to be the boss, I can and I am.

I have heard this is probably a bad thing from many pastors I respect but, this is how I work. I want people who know me, know my vision, know how I work, be loyal, and dig it.

Early on in our church we made a change at the children level and hired a guy from the outside that we didn’t know. To be honest, he wasn’t a bad guy but I could NOT get over the fact that he was loyal because we paid him. I couldn’t get over the fact that we were a stepping stone and that the moment something better came along he would be gone. I let him go.

From that day on I decided I would hire friends and people I enjoy being around. We don’t have job descriptions (I figure if they need one, they are the wrong person for the job), we don’t have set time off (they do the job, they can have off when they need it), and we function more like a frat house then a corporate office. Because of that, I need guys and girls who are go getters and who I know and trust are going to make things happen. I know that with my friends.

EVERY ONE on my staff had never been on staff at a church in the role they are now. To say they lacked experience would be very accurate. However they all were sold out to God, the church, and the vision God had give me. We were all some type of friends before they were hired. They have grown in their roles and I think they are some of the best around in their fields.

It presents challenges. The lines can get blurred at times. But I think the good outweighs the bad any day.

I get to do this thing one time, I want to do it with friends.

Large Format Printer is here!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tech to show us how to work, no where to be seen!!!!!!!!!!!

Charlie Pharris, pastor of Stonecrest Baptist Church in Woodstock, Ga. visited The Stone (actually half of him visited, he had lost so much weight) on Easter and left disappointed. Hey buddy, sorry about that….
Check out his thoughts here.