From Mark Driscoll’s blog. Read it here and listen to what the man has to say.

Great post!

Spent the day with a possible free agent today. Can we afford him? Not now. Will we be able to hire him? If things keep going like they are, soon.

It was fun checking out the area with this person and casting a little vision.

I even met with a place about meeting there and they pulled the whole church and state junk on me. All that did was fire me up and make me determined to get in this place especially since I know of churches meeting the same exact buildings across the state. I told the lady this and she then came up with another excuse.

I might have to call my connection and get his daddy to make a phone call.

Ridge Stone Backstage is now live! This is a blog that will be written by our entire staff and will tell you the what, when, where, why, and how of what we do at RSC. From day one it has been our desire to help other church planters in the adventure and this one of the ways we felt we could best do that.

We will basically be sharing what is going right at The Stone and what is going wrong. For whatever reason, God has chosen to bless what we are doing and even though we are less then two years old, even though we are portable, even though we are clueless at what we are doing, God is doing some awesome things.

We’ll be sharing with you all the things that are happening at The Stone and why and how we are doing them.

If I know most church planters, they already have the answers to every question but for those of you who don’t, maybe you will find something here you enjoy.

Thanks!

You ever meet one of those guys you just like right off the bat?

Tim Wolfe is one of those guys. He is a big country boy who God has given a heart for urban areas. He planted 1027 Church in Midtown (Downtown Atlanta) and is reaching the setting in some very cool ways.

God is doing some awesome things in the actual city of Atlanta and there is a lot of guys wanting to head there and plant. To my knowledge, Tim was the first.

He is now blogging and you need to bookmark him as it should be a good read.

Don’t ask me why but this is what I am chilling out with on a Monday. Michael Buble’. The sad thing is I am digging it.

UGH!!!! Today was possibly one of our worst services ever. I was doped big time on medicine and felt dizzy the entire time on stage and didn’t feel like I could get my mouth to move. The band had a couple of new guys today and was just a little off. Our sound guy was out of town and while the guys did a great job, it is hard to replace a professional.

I hate those type of day especially since we are all about Sunday and people have invited thier friends to be there. I feel as if we have let them down.

Howeve it is also days like this I am the proudest of our people. We had a lot of our key volunteers out and a lot of new ones involved today and they did GREAT. I love seeing our people take ownership.

The good news is we get to do it again in 7 days!

Just saw that espn has their preseason top 25 is out. Needless to say, I am no longer a espn fan.

They have Clemson rated #11 and the Dawg’s rated #22. I dont’ think so.

I’m calling it right now that Georgia will have a down year due to the QB woes and even in thier down year they will rank higher then Clemson and they will finish in the top 15, probably the top 10.

It is still a few months away but let the smack talk begin…

Our Ridge Stone Backstage site is almost done! I got to admit I am pretty excited. This will be a blog that our entire staff will post on and give you a backstage look at a church plant and how and why we do things. We’ll be sharing our thought process on why we are teaching what we are teaching, how we created our look, our equipment, things that are working and even things we are trying that are bombing. We got some cool things coming up in the fall and I think it will be a cool thing for you to hear and see what we are doing while we are doing and see if it actually works when it is all said and done.

Should be fun.

Shout to Ken for taking time to get it up!!!

I was sent a copy of Breaking The Missional Code by Ed Stetzer and David Putman and asked to do a review on it. Let me say upfront that I know both of these men personally so even if I hated the book, I doubt I would say it.
David is the executive pastor of one of the churches that was very active in helping getting us started. It is a GREAT church, doing great things. David has also started at least one other church that I know of in Newnan, Ga. I think (not sure) he started a few other churches as well.

When we started The Stone, our local association required all the church planters to go to a church planting network meeting once a month that was led by Ed Stetzer. I hadn’t launched yet so therefore I had all the answers and didn’t understand why I had to go to this meeting. So to say I had a pretty rotton attitude would be an understatement. I eventually got booted from the network because I was such a jerk to everyone, including Ed. It was kind of funny our association required every planter to attend this meeting to get their support checks. For me they required me NOT to go if I wanted to get support. The cool thing to me about Ed is as rude as I was to him, he would call about once a month to check on me. Then I kind of hit rock bottom on some personal issues and ego and Ed was there. He told me what a jerk I was and I have appreciated and respected him greatly since.

To be honest, I had no desire to read the book. I did it simply because I knew the two authors. However the book is very good. It convicted me in some areas and confirmed some other things that we have been doing. I kept hearing the buzz word “missional” and to be honest wasn’t totally sure what they meant. Now I do. They said a lot of things I have always said but they put it in a lot better terms. The bottom line is you have to learn your area and learn how God wants you to reach it. God isn’t looking for cookie cutters.

The book is an easy read and Ed throws in some great stories (Great if you haven’t heard them a thousand times like I have. ).

If you run in the circles with guys doing more modern things in their church there is really not going to be anything earth shattering in the book for you. But they are going to put words to what you have been thinking. That was huge for me.

If you don’t run in some of the circles I mentioned then this book is a MUST read. I could see where this should be required reading for all traditional pastors.

If you want to found out more, grab the book.

It is worth the read.

I have always been intrigued with the multi-site idea. I actually found a church planting prospectus we put together when we were thinking of planting at West Ridge Church. At that time I was leaning toward Athens, Ga. and we were thinking of launching one church in two locations. We wanted to go to the college campus and into the community where all the families were moving.

I actually feel like I have a unique perspective as someone who planted in a town where two rather large churches launched sites within months of us starting. One didn’t last very long at all. The other one was planted by a small church in Alpharetta and even though we slash the tires on their trailer every Saturday night and shoot paintball guns at their signs, they are rocking!

So I was excited when I got the opportunity to read Multi-Site Revolution.

All I can say about the book is it is GREAT! I love to hear stories of other churches and this one is full of them. It is a great step by step book on going multi-site. I have to admit it answered a lot of questions I had and stretched me in my vision. I have ALWAYS known we will be multi-venue but this has me thinking hard about multi-site. I was shocked how many average churches are doing it. I always thought of it as a mega-church thing but that is not the case, those are just the ones you hear about.

I would encourage anyone to read this book if for nothing else but to have your vision stretched and show you how to dream bigger.

I have bought copies for our entire staff and for our advisory team.

There is nothing like dreaming a little bigger.

GREAT BOOK!!!!!