I guess I came across as disappointed yesterday in my post about our Easter service according to many of the emails I got fro you guys.
I DID NOT mean to come across that way at all. Easter was awesome! It was just a different type of “BIG” service for us. Normally we have pulled out so many stops that the next week those returning visitors felt we tricked them.

So this year we decided not to do that. We did some pretty cool things but we wanted people returning the next week to see the same thing they saw on Easter. So it was just a different feeling to me.

I also think we have gotten to a point where our typical Sunday service is pretty dang good, so it is hard to do much more then that on a big day. That was not the case last year. Now we do a run through every week, we do a lot of video, lighting, smoke, etc. every Sunday so doing a big day is a normal thing.

Yesterday was AWESOME!
I have never seen our volunteers step up like they did, they are awesome!
The theatre looked so good, (I will post pictures as soon as I get them)
We had tons of visitors and our attendance almost doubled.
Final count was 724!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I never thought we would anywhere near that 20 months in.

AND most important, several people accepted Christ (still trying to follow up on the exact count).

God is awesome…now we got to do it again in 6 days.

Along with Easter being today, we started our no children in the service. It went GREAT. With the exception of one lady prior to the service, I literally had NO ONE even mention it. I watched and listened over and over as our Host Team explained the church vision to our guests and I watched every one of them take their children to the children’s area.

Our children’s check-in team dealt with two snide comments from OUR people but they handled themselves great. I was very proud.

The coolest thing was watching people who normally take their children in the service thanking me after the service that we started the no children thing. One lady told me it was the first service she had enjoyed since coming.
We set up a nice area for mothers with newborns. They could hear the service but not see it. We had two couples I really love back there and I felt guilty. This week we are going to figure up a way to get a video feed back there.

The service was GREAT. It was so nice to preach the gospel and to know that I was not contending with their attention with a cute baby.

If you are a church planter, I would strongly encourage you to start your church with this policy. We had one family leave the church when we first announced it and I hated that BUT the bottom line is those who have a problem with the policy, have a problem with the vision of the church. When you are fueled by vision, it makes life a whole lot easier to implement these type of things.

Thanks to Perry Noble for all the advice in doing this! You da the man!

We had a good day today. It is the least amount we have ever done on a big day, so I left there feeling a little weird. I am so use to being slap worthless after our big days because of all the work that goes into. This year we pulled out some pretty creative stuff but nothing like in the past. We wanted people coming back next week to not feel like we tricked them.

I haven’t seen the communication cards yet so I don’t know about people entering into a relationship with christ but I’ll find out sometime today or first thing in the morning.

I don’t have all the numbers yet either but it appears we were between 660-680.

We did two services and I am out of shape.
Two services are weird. Obviously our first one was the low one but they actually seemed to have a little more energy then the second one.

It is nice to get up and teach your message twice, I felt so much better the second time teaching.

We had a 83 year old lady in the service today and afterwards she told me I reminded her of a young Billy Graham. That made me laugh. I think she was just being nice.
The one cool thing about this lady is she was visiting from Alabama and told me that her church needed to change to our style if it was going to survive another 10 years. She is from a fairly large church so I was surprised to hear her say that. I thought it was cool that she go “it.” She also kissed me on the cheek…I liked it.

I overheard one of our ladies yesterday excited about tomorrow because they “get to wear their Easter jeans.” That is why I started a church!!!!!!
Tomorrow most of the churches in town will be filled with people wearing Easter dresses, at The Stone they’ll be in their Easter jeans.
I love pastoring this nut house….:)

It is weird how you can form friendships online but I have met so many pastors since starting this blog. 90% of them are church planters and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I think church planting is the extreme sport of ministry and you guys rock!

I just wanted all of you to know I am praying for you. I hope God exceeds all you expectations tomorrow and the unchurched come out like crazy and they come to know Christ in the process.

I’m glad I get to be part of the Adventure with all of you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Passion and Hillsong United had CD’s come out in the last couple of weeks.

Both are excellent!

The Passion CD might be the best one yet in my opinion. Tomlin’s song Party will be done at the Stone next week. Very AC/DCish in my opinion. There are some great songs on it.

As good as the Passion CD is, it doesn’t hold a hair to the United CD. WOW! I can’t quit listening to this CD. The song From The Inside Out is the most powerful song I have ever heard. I have listened to song over and over and just can’t quit. It is awesome. DO NOT buy this CD on iTunes. It is 20 bucks for some reason. Go somewhere and buy it in the store and it comes with a free DVD that is excellent.

Okay, some of you say I do this all the time already but, I have to brag on our people. I just left the office and I was amazed at what our creative team is able to do. We always do it the hard and cheap way because we can never afford the easy and expensive way and it ALWAYS is incredible what they pull off.

It was funny, during our last series we had a few church planters asking where we bought our backdrops and all they were was solid white window shades we bought at Home Depot and painted. They looked awesome.

I can not believe what our people have put together for Easter. We change the stage for every series but the backdrops they have created for this series have left me speechless.

I get WAY to much credit for Ridge Stone. God has just sent us some of the most awesome people with the most awesome talent to help make the vision that God has given me happen.

I’m humbled and you guys rock!!!!

Saw this somewhere else and it has carried over to the office:

Who would win in a fight between Jack Bauer and Walker, Texas Ranger and why?

They are both bad men but who would win?

BTW, yes we have been getting ready for Easter but this has been the topic that has fueled us guys today.

I’ve been in the podcasting listening business for all of two days but I have downloaded a lot of podcasts so far and SO FAR this are the best two I have found:

1.) Simply Strategic Podcast – Come on, these guy’s are giving you practical insight every week. It literally is like listening to a 15 minute breakout session at a conference every week. I have actually been listening to them before I got my iPod but they are still tops to me. Another big plus to me is it is about 15 minutes long.

2.) Mosaic – Erwin, the BEST preacher out today. Love the dude and he speaks to me. Great stuff.

For some reason, I can’t get Perry’s to work. It keeps telling me there is a URL error. I listen to him every week as well. It will be nice when I can listen on the go. I have talked to my insider over there and he assures me the problem is being looked into.

If you don’t read Tadd Grandstaff’s blog you are missing out. The Stone is where it is today because of Tadd. Before launching and through our first year, Tadd did all the things no one wants to do where I could focus on teaching, meeting people, and casting vision. At our one year mark, Tadd felt God was moving him and to be honest, we agreed. It wasn’t easy and after talking EVERY day for over a year, sometimes 3 and 4 times a day we actually went about 3 months without talking.

I guess we just needed a break. It was odd but, I remember him stopping by the office one day after about 3 months and it was like NOTHING had changed. From that day on we have talked every day, sometimes 3 and 4 times a day. After moving to another church, Tadd realized he was actually being called to plant a church and resigned from that church and just took a job here in town as he prepares to move to North Carolina to plant. While he is waiting, he is at The Stone about twice a month and visiting other church plants the rest of the time.

The city of Burlington, N.C. is about to get rocked!!! Tadd has so many churches ready to partner with him that it is crazy. God is opening doors in a huge way up there and it can’t be anything but a God thing.

Anyway, while working his new job, God has opened HUGE doors for him and what God is doing in his life as Easter builds up is AWESOME.

Check out his latest post here.

It really should convict all of us as pastors.