24-22!!!!
I have nothing to say that would be pastor like so I am choosing to say nothing.
Needless to say I am not in a good mood. Needless to say it will be a rough night in the Lamb house tonight.
Yes, it is safe to come to church tomorrow. I will probably be a grump right until the band kicks into the first worship song and then I will be good to go!!!
The hidden gem of The Stone is DeAnna, my wife. She is the most supportive woman I have ever seen when it comes to ministry. She followed me to Iowa and after that experience was 100% ready to do it again when we planted RSC. She loves it here and loves that we get to partner with all of the people who make up RSC in reaching this city for Christ.
Many of you ask what does DeAnna do outside of RSC, so I thought I would feel you in. She is my wife and trust me that is a full-time job. She encourages me, makes me laugh and takes care of most of the stuff in our lives so I can have fun playing pastor. She is a mom to our two wonderful kids and that is 2 full-time jobs, maybe 3.
On top of that she partnered with Amy Young (our creative guru) to start Christian Adoption Consultants. I really can’t explain everything they do but I know they complete families and it is AWESOME. Take a peek here to see their latest blessing.
She is a superhero in my book and I thank God every day that He put me with her.
John and I left the office early this morning to hook up with one of my best friends to meet with a company (friend and company shall remain nameless. One because it was so bad and one because he is doing something awesome for me and knowing him, he wouldn’t want anyone to know). We were pumped up. This company “specializes” in getting warehouse and retail space for churches and cheaply turning them into very nice worship spaces. Or say they said.
We were going to meet their guy and he was going to take us to one of their churches that had transformed a warehouse into a church. They talked a BIG game and I was excited. They guy pulls up and instantly I begin to doubt. He had this huge grease stain on his shirt and he told us to follow him down the road and we pulled up to a warehouse that was about 3,000 sq ft. Small but no big deal. I wanted to see the portable A/C units, portable walling, portable bathrooms, etc. they spoke so highly of. The dude was pumped about this church and it was obvious this was one of the ones they were proud of. I being to ask him questions and he couldn’t answer any of them. He was clueless.
We went in the building and it was all I could do not to walk out. Literally our UNfinished warehouse/office space was in way better shape then this place. The place was a dive. It had insulation exposed, air ducts hanging down, the place had torn fabric on the walls instead of sheetrock, etc. I kid you not, it was one of the worst churches I had ever walked into in my entire life.
The guy told us for a church our size we needed 6,000 sq ft. WHAT????????????? We at least need 25,000 to hold our people IN multiple services. He then begin to tell us how you “have to take steps” in church planting. “Uh…dude, we stepped over this our first service,” was my first thought and what I wanted to say. The guy while a nice guy had never been around a church with a big vision it appeared.
It was so obvious that the vision of this company was so typical of most churches. Cut corners, don’t spend money, and do the best you can at getting by. It was sad and broke my heart to know churches were buying into the small visions of people like this.
In no way was the guy a crook, he just had a small vision and his view of God was smaller then my view of God.
It was a wasted day at this point besides hanging out with my friend. We went to lunch and he informed me that he was going to pay my way to Fellowship Church to attend the Paul Gage Fundraising Today conference. WOW!!! I get to go and hang with my friend and I get to hear information that will be so important to our church as we continue to grow in the future.
This person invested in the start of RSC before our first service and today he invested in the future of The Stone.
What started off as a total waste ended up being a huge blessing.
I never want to stop being amazed by how awesome God is and how He always has a plan even if I don’t know it or understand it.
As the large majority of you know, our rent has been raised quite a bit at the movie theater starting in January. We had it sweet for a year so I can’t really complain but it did make us think about a possible move. As we begin to explore the options, at first it seemed there were no open doors anywhere.
Then in the last week, God has cracked some doors open that could be AWESOME opportunities for The Stone. One of those opportunities is actually staying at the theater, which is awesome to me because I TOTALLY love it. In many ways it is RSC.
Regardless of wherever we end up, it has been awesome to have God confirm the vision we have and see the support of our people. I have never seen a church react the way our people did to the news. They are so pumped about what God is doing here that a building is the least of their concerns. I honestly believe our people would meet under a tent if that is what we had to do!! It amazes me that a group that was primarily unchurched before attending here is so willing to do whatever it takes to reach more people.
I think we will know what the future holds in the next few weeks and I am excited to know as well.
Bottom line is it doesn’t matter where we end up or if we stay at the theater, our mission is to rock this town with the gospel and reach out to the unchurched people of this area. No matter where we end up that WILL NOT change.
Next month is election time here in the Peach State and anyone who knows me, knows I could give a RIP about politics. But, I do dig Sonny Perdue, the governor. I first started digging the dude when he was on the 2 Live Stews and said, “This is Governor Sonny Perdue and I am down with the 2 Live Stews. ” I just thought it was funny as I was driving down the road.
Two other reasons I dig him:
1.) His son Jim Perdue is a church planter and pastor of North Cross Baptist Church in Cumming, Ga. I have known Jim for about two years and we could NOT be any different. But I can’t help, I like the dude. He is who he is and I dig that about him…..even if it is a little baptisty.
2.) Sonny is raising hell with the AJC over the Georgia Bulldogs. If you haven’t read this article you need too. THAT is what I want in a Governor. I don’t want who won’t raise a little heck just because he thinks he shouldn’t because he is the Governor. Go get em Sonny!
You got my vote next month!
Made some changes to the blog last night. When I started blogging it was a great way to talk about something I am passionate about which is church planting and network with other planters. I focused everything I wrote about on church planting and what was happening at The Stone. It was great and accomplished what I intended for it too.
Two years later, things change. As a staff we run Ridge Stone Backstage that talks about church planting and what we are doing at The Stone. Basically the purpose of this blog became the purpose of that blog.
Also during the last two years, we have grown to the point where I need an outlet to communicate with the people I get the honor of pastoring. So while you probably won’t notice many changes here, the content and focus is going to change to a place where I can communicate with RSC and keep our people informed about what God is doing here, what is going on my life, and cast vision for the church.
If you haven’t already, go and subscribe to the backstage blog, there is some great stuff over there. Also, feel free to hang around here and see what God is doing at RSC.
Go over to our backstage blog and subscribe and stay subscribed here, I think you’ll still dig it.
You have heard me talk about Haiti Cheri Missions before. The president of the mission, Dan Merrefield attends The Stone and is a great guy with a great vision for reaching Haiti. It has been our honor to partner with them on a small basis as we have gotten started and as we grow, we look forward to expanding that relationship.
Today in the Cherokee Tribune the had a great write up about Haiti Cheri that is worth reading. You can check it out here.
If you are looking for an exciting mission opportunity, I am telling you to check this guys out. They are getting it done for the Kingdom in big ways.
I am sitting in front of the TV last night watching my dawgs ROLL. I mean it is 24-7 against Tennessee and I email Perry to talk smack and no quicker do I send the email then it begins to unravel.
Are you kidding me? The #1 defense in the nation in points given gave up 51 freaking points!!!! 51 points given up???????? How does that happen.
Richt needs to fire a certain coach TODAY. I am so sick of this zone defense that I could scream.
I am literally disgusted with what I saw last night.
But we still got the Gators (might be the best team in the nation) and Auburn who I think we can beat if we actually decide to play.
We need to win out and need UT to lose and we will be back where we we belong at the top of the SEC.
Got to be honest, Pac 10 just seems like sissy football to me. I know So Cal has been one of the top teams but give me a break. There is no smash mouth, get down and dirty, football in that league.
The uniforms are stupid and I just don’t get it. I even think it is worse then the ACC.
I’ll stick with the SEC any day of the week.
Does anyone know the rule of thumb for what the sq ft per person is in regards to a worship center?
Fox example can you get 1 person every 5 sq ft or 10 or 15 or ???????