There are some great concerts coming up!!!!! The beauty of living in the ATL is EVERYONE comes through here on tour.

Some of the concerts coming up:
Kenny Chesney
Def Leppard/Journey (might have to go the scalper route on this one to get some tickets0
Tim McGraw/Faith Hill
Rascall Flatts (One of the girl’s at Perry’s told me Wednesday our staff reminds her of Rascall Flatts. I think what she was saying is we were a bunch of country rednecks who THINK we are cool. She said I reminded her of the FAT lead singer (my words, not hers). Ken was there when she said and he didn’t defend me. I’m not sure it was a compliment) INXS
Poison/Cinderella
Lynyrd Skynyrd (I already got tickets. Is that sad?)

I love concerts!!!!!

Jerry moves into his new building this week. Tadd is up there for the big day and told me to check out the pictures. Wow, it is big.

About two years ago I went with Brian (pastor at West Ridge)when he preached at Liberty University. They had just got the building. It was something like 950,000 square feet. Jonathan Fallwell took us on a tour of the building and I kid you not, it took an hour and a half to walk the building. It was HUGE. The amazing thing is the worship center was added onto that space!

I got to meet Jerry and I got to admit it was cool to meet someone that famous. He was cool cat and he punched me in the gut. I was going to kick his butt but, I didn’t think Brian would like that. So I let it slide….

Anyway, check out these pictures of the new building. It is impressive.

Click here.

I think it is funny that sometimes you don’t realize how tired you are to you finally stop to rest. I left at noon today and I am off to Wednesday (Preston is teaching Sunday) and I can barely get off the couch. I am just plain tired.

I’m taking the family camping and I am going to enjoy the break!

It is also going to be nice to go to church Sunday and not have to preach, but just check things out as a “normal” person.

We have our first building project under way at The Stone. No, it’s not a building! We are remodeling our offices. We have opened up the foyer when you walk in for a sitting area, we have added a door and wall to separate the foyer from the hall leading to the offices, we have shrunk our break room in half, we are adding two totally new offices, building a creative room, and adding a video nook somewhere (can figure out where yet).

The place is a mess!!!!!!!

Everything is covered in sheetrock dust and I am ready to scream, but it is going to be NICE when done.

How do guys deal with building programs???? I can’t even stand a office remodel.

I have been praying about where The Stone is heading as far as partnerships and networks. I have a vision for a few things, but those things will come in time, so I have been praying about some things in regard to now.

In the last week, I have been in two different network meetings.

Last week I was off at our mommy church as they are starting a church planting network. They seem to have a pretty good plan together for some like-minded churches to come together and partner in planting churches and training and coaching church planters. The meeting consisted of just West Ridge church plants but, they plan in inviting some other churches in once it is up and running.

Then today I headed up to New Spring. I always love being up there as their vision vibes so much with ours and the staff there is always so awesome to us. I just get jacked up being there. Perry had a good group of guys there. There were churches there ranging from not having launched to well over 1,000 in attendance. It was a good mix. Being around some of the guys who were sharing their struggles reminded me how lucky I am to have the people God has placed in my life. New Spring has a strong desire to help equip, coach, resource, and counsult churches. That is awesome to me.

The thing I dug about both visions was they allow fit different needs for us (one to help plant churches and one to mentor us as we grow) YET they both allowed us to still do our own thing as God makes that clear. Very cool.

Another cool thing today was I got to hang with Chuck Young from True North Church. I just met this dude Sunday and I dig him. He is a nut and would fit in at The Stone well.

Man, I thought summer meant it was time slow down but I have been so stinking busy that it is crazy. I feel I have had more meetings lately then I can remember in a long time. We have a lot of new people at the church and I have been hooking up for lunch and meeting them. On top of that, I have been meeting a few local pastors, which is something I never do.

I am a couple of Sundays in July and yet, I feel that I am getting no rest.
We have some big things coming up real soon and I am excited about them…..

Had some cats all me this week from TrueNorth Church and tell me they were coming to check out some church plants this week and were going to stop by The Stone. These dudes are getting it done. They started the week after we did (less then two years ago) and are running 1100!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don’t know how the learned anything from us but I had a blast hanging with them this morning. I instantly clicked with their guys and really enjoyed having them in the services.

Check these guys out because from what I can tell, you are going to be hearing a lot about them in the future.

Man, today’s pre-service was one of those days. Set-up was crazy, my headset mic broke prior to service, run through was rough, the first song started and Evan, one of our guitar players broke a string, but it turned into a good service.

We had a good crowd and they really seemed to respond to the message.

We kicked off our Finding God in your iPod series with Daniel Powter’s Bad Day and I guess God wanted me to practice what I was preaching.

I only had one meltdown during run through but as Tim reminded me, “It had been about a year, so you were due one.”

Youth is one of the areas we are still trying to figure out. I posted a interesting discussion I had with a pastor the other day over at our Ridge Stone Backstage blog. We allow comments over there so I would love hear your feedback on what I wrote.

Am I totally off base?

Go here and give me your thoughts…

We FINALLY have an adminstrative pastor coming on staff (still can’t tell you who, sorry). He called today and told me they have sold their house and will be here August 1st.

June 1st we brought on an assimilation/small groups pastor and now with this person coming on, I feel we are complete on the pastor front. As we grow we will add some admin help but we are good to about 1000, I think.