Another night, NO sleep.
My mind is racing with all God is calling us to do!!!!!! It is 6:30 a.m. and I am hyped on a Rock Star energy drink and I am at the office putting SOMETHING together to talk about today.
Today we got a ton of church planters coming to town to hang out and I am excited about it in a big time way!!!!!!
Chris Sligh got kicked off American Idol tonight. I hated that. The guy seemed like a class act. He is Chris Surratt’s worship pastor. For that reason alone I was rooting for the cat.
The good news is Chris will have his worship pastor back. 
I got to hang out with some of the staff from one of the largest churches in America tonight. McLean Bible Church has a crew in for our roundtable tomorrow because they launching 10 sites around the beltway of DC in the next 10 years and are looking at doing it in movie theaters. Mike Hurt is their head of campus development and I just dug the dude. He is VERY down to earth and was a wealth of information on their vision and some things we are looking at down the road…..
It was very cool having them in town.
Tomorrow we have our roundtable and we literally have NOTHING planned for it. I am going to get up and yak and let people ask questions and we are going to have a good time. I figured area planters would come but we got 5 different states coming. I hope they have a good time! We are just going to share what we do and if it helps some guys that will be awesome!
Wow, you guys are big on waiting until the last minute. :) As much as I hate to do this, I have to do it. We can’t take anyone else at our Church Planter’s Roundtable tomorrow. We simply don’t have the parking space to hold anymore people.
If you emailed us today before 1:00 p.m. you are good and we’ll see you tomorrow. If not, we will be doing one again in the fall and would love to have you.
I am pumped about hanging for the day with all of you and it should be fun!
Seems like I upset some people with my last post. The truth hurts I guess.
One thing I always get a kick out of from guys who are frustrated and bitter that their church isn’t growing is the EXCUSE they use that they are in a “hard area to plant.” Allow to give you a news flash: EVERY PLACE IS A HARD AREA TO PLANT IN!
I’m in Canton, Georgia, the bible belt in the truest sense and yet 72% of our area is unchurched. Yep, you read that right, I said 72% of our area is unchurched. I understand that up north you are dealing with people who have never been to church in their life period. That is hard. I understand that on the west coast you are dealing with some of the most liberal people in the country. That is hard. I pastored in Iowa in a MAJOR university town. Iowa has more cults then any other state in America. It is also has a huge influence by works based faiths. Most of the people think they are going to heaven because someone splashed them with water as a child. There are VERY few churches doing anything there. Guess what? It was hard, just like every other place.
I remember thinking while I was in Iowa that it would be so much easier when we moved back to the south because that was the “bible belt.” Guess what? IT is a lot different then Iowa but it isn’t any easier.
Here in Georgia we deal with a mixture of people. First off the entire world is moving here. 70% of RSC isn’t from Georgia. So we have a mixture of the different traits that planters deal with all over the country. On top of that we have people who because they are from the south deal with the HUGE baggage they have from growing up in church. They have been burned by church, by it’s rules, etc. It isn’t a cake walk.
But I have better things to do then sit around and complain about how hard “my” area is because I have learned that church planting is HARD no matter where you are and no matter what type of church you are planting.
God is doing amazing things all around the country through men who instead of whining and complaining about how hard their area is and always looking for excuses, have instead decided to do whatever it takes to reach their areas.
Send the emails my way blasting me, but know this: you will be hard pressed to find someone who loves church planters and church planting more then I do. I am for you and would do anything I could to see you succeed.
That being said, I am sick and tired of wasting my time, our staffs time, and time I could be spending with others for guys who have it “so bad,” “planted in a hard area,” “didn’t have the proper funding”, etc.
If God called you to plant a church then do it. No excuses, just do it…and know I am rooting for you the whole way.
I am in the middle of one of the craziest times in my life.
And I can’t freaking believe I get to do this for a living!!!! I love what I get to do with everything in my body. I love the church I get to pastor, I love the people I get to pastor, I love my family, I love my God, I love teaching, I love our staff, I love the day to day grind, I LOVE EVERY ASPECT OF WHAT GOD HAS CALLED ME TO DO!
On the 1st and 15th of every month I can’t believe I have fooled our church into paying me to do this when I would do it for free (glad I don’t have). To think that the God who spoke everything into existence would chose to use me to accomplish His mission literally blows my mind. I was the person who should be in jail right now but God chose to use me to lead the most powerful force on the plant, His local church!
I’m sorry I will never understand guys who do this because it is a job, because they are stuck, because they are to big of chumps to get a “real” job. I pray I never become the fat, cynical pastor who has “been around the block.” I will never understand how people who God has called burn out and are always sending resumes out looking for the next great thing. We have the greatest calling in the world and the large majority of pastors I talked to are to freaking busy whining about how hard they have that it is no wonder they aren’t making an impact for the kingdom of God. If that offends you I could care less.
If I have another church planter or pastor call me or email me telling me how hard it is I am simply going to kick the crap out of them. YES, it is hard. What the crap did you think you were signing up for? You are on the frontlines of the battle between good and evil. Did you think it was going to be a cake walk? What fantasy are you living in? When you are making an impact for God, the devil is going to come after you with everything you have.
I am so sick of excuse making pastors. I am talking about the ones who always think everyone else has it better then them and they can’t accomplish what they want to because someone else got “the breaks.” Shut up and do something for God.
Those of us who get to do this with our lives have the greatest job in the world. We get to lead a local church into battle against the forces of darkness. We get to be part of leading people to have their lives changed. We get to lead people into changing their communities. We get to do this and it is an honor!
I LOVE CHURCH PLANTING!!!!
I LOVE PASTORING!
AND I AM SICK OF THOSE WHO DO IT AND DON’T LOVE IT!!!
IF YOU DON’T LOVE, DO YOURSELF, YOUR FAMILY AND YOUR CHURCH A FAVOR AND GET OUT!!!!
This thing is hard enough without you complaining and whining and making the rest of us miserable!
end rant
Well I made it in today, but I am freaking sleepy.
Tuesdays are a CRAZY day for us. We have creative meeting in the morning and Lead Team meeting in the afternoon and it makes for a LONG but productive day. I can’t believe Easter is less then two weeks away and I can’t believe that everything for that service will be done this week!!! Our team rocks!
If you think abou it, lift up a prayer for me today. I need them.
Yep, after a night of being gone those mice were back and now after kicking DeAnna again, I am up at 3 in the freaking morning and I have my first meeting in 4 hours. Not cool. For some reason I have found sleep very hard to come by lately. I just find my mind racing a lot in bed and I’m not sleeping well at all.
The jump over the shark that is!!!!!!! When Milo started making out with Nadia it became official.
I will still be watching but I will not being enjoying it at all…..
Baggage is done. It has been the most taxing series from a spiritual and physical stand point I have ever done in my life. I spent the morning praying over the pieces of papers you guys turned in anonymously yesterday and it was heartbreaking to see the baggage so many of us carry but it was also awesome to see how many of you were giving to God for the first time! I rejoice with all of you!!!!!
After yesterday, we are done. NEVER have we ended a series early but God is done with the series and I am bring a stand alone message this week.
God gave me a thought this week as I was reading a story about Jesus and it rocked my world. I will be sharing it with you and telling you how it ties into the vision of The Stone.
ANY time I am talking about our mission as a church you can rest assured that it is a CAN’T miss service. I am pumped about it!!!
After the heaviness of baggage, this is a sermon that is going to rock the place and remind everyone why we do what we do.
See ya Sunday!