For Easter we are launching a series called 24 and I have been pushing our people hard to invite their friends. This week I shared with them how I was trying hard to get someone special to church on Easter (The Easter Bunny) and I thought it would be fun to keep up with that adventure.

This is part 1, we will show part 2 this week, and part 3 will be on Easter morning. It passed the test, which is it has to make me laugh.

Shout out to Ryan Fitzgerald for the video. Ryan is a sharp kid doing some good, inexpensive video work and if you are looking for some help in that area, give him a call.

I’ll get our intro video for the series up soon. Ken Wilson did that and if you need some 3D video stuff done that is out of this world, he is THE man. Give him a call as well.

Okay, I can’t get it to post to wordpress (yes, wordpress drives me nuts!) so you will have to click here to see the video.

Those mice were back in my dreams last night……

Weird…

We have 21 church planters coming to our roundtable this week and we are pumped.  I just went out and figured out the parking situation and we can take three more church planting teams.

If you are interested in hanging out for the day and discussing church planting, contact Taylor at the contact link at the top of the page!

See ya Thursday!

WOW!  Today we were in the third week of our series called baggage and to say it was THICK in there would be an understatement.  I talked about emotional baggage and who we are IN Christ.  Then at the end of the service, I had people write down their baggage on a piece of paper and come lay it on the stage as a sign of turning it over to God.

You have to understand that we have never done anything like that in our the life of our church.  I had no idea how it was going to go but man it was freaking awesome!  People were crying, people were for the first time in thier lives admiting thier baggage and it was a powerful morning.

Awesome morning!

I try to go to bed early on Saturday nights but tonight I simply can’t sleep.  Every time I lay down my mind starts racing with all that is going on, so I thought I would just bullet point everything that is going through my mind right now.  That way when I get up and I have forgotten about it, I will remember it.

• The song Mighty To Save by Hillsong is hands down the song that is rocking my world right now.  I have probably listened to it 30 times today and I have it in repeat right now.  You can see it done live here.  It might be one of the best worship songs ever in my opinion.
• We are going to do something tomorrow we have never done and it is going to pull people out of their comfort zone in a good way.  However it has me nervous.
• I think people are going to let go of a lot of Baggage tomorrow after they here how God views them.  I am excited.
• I can’t believe we are going to one service for the summer.  God is control is something I have been reminding myself a lot lately.
• We have 21 different church plants coming to hang out at the office Thursday.  I hope we are a help and a blessing to them.  I also hope they ask enough questions to keep us going for 4 hours.
• I love our staff dynamic right now.  I love doing life with these people.
• We are about to make two new hires when we find the right people and that stresses me out that we might bring someone in who disrupts that dynamic and doesn’t get our vision.
• The two hires will be a Technical Director who will oversee our sound teams, lighting teams, AV teams, oversee set-up and tear-down of the worship center on Sundays and take a load of stuff off of Tim.
• The other hire will be a video person with some graphic design skills.  We outsource WAY to much of this and it is time to bring ALL the video in house and some of the more basic graphic stuff.
• I am excited about Easter.  There is no better day to invite your friends so get them there on this day!!!!
• We are hitting marketing hard for Easter.
• Our guys are in for a shock on our staff retreat.  It is normally all fun and games but not this time.  We have a lot of stuff to cover, plan, and think about regarding the future or our church.  It is all business this time.
• The vision God is asking us to be part of is not going to make sense to a lot of people but I am losing sleep at night with excitement over it.  North Georgia up 575/515 will be impacted for the gospel like never before.
• I am pumped up about the National New Church Conference.  I really don’t have time for a conference but my family is going so they will get a mini vacation and they deserve it.
• I am going to hang out with Mark Batterson sometime in July and August to pick his brain on some things.  I am looking forward to that and want to make the most of my time with him.
• I am going to take some Sundays off this summer to visit some other churches to stay fresh and see what others are doing.  I can’t decide which ones it will be.
• How big can you grow in Canton, Georgia without a building?
• Is it possible to never build and yet never stop growing?
• Evan is leading worship tomorrow.  I love that kid but I love teaching after Tim leads.  We are a team like few I have ever seen.
• I love Ridge Stone Church and can’t believe God allows me to do this for a living!
• I am blessed by the mentors God has placed in my life.
• The situation with our office has me pissed off.  What a distraction.
• We ARE going to grow BIG time this SUMMER.  End of discussion.
• What will RSC look like in 5 years?
• I live for Sundays!
• Is anyone going to show up tomorrow?
• Are those mice going to haunt my dreams again?

Here is another guy whose blog I have been digging. I haven’t totally been able to figure out his story (not sure if he planted his church or took it over) but I love the guys zeal and it sounds as if they are doing a GREAT job.

Anyway, if you are looking for someone new to read, check out Daniel Floyd.

You guys got some interesting insights into my dream.  The scary thing is all of you who have responded have almost said the same thing.

Hmmmm………..

The last three nights in a row I have had the same dream and last night it lead to kicking DeAnna very hard in the bed. 

Here is the dream:

For some reason I am in the theater parking lot with some people and I notice this very large bag of popcorn laying on it’s side and there are 4 mice in it chomping away.  They are big mice, I mean very fat and they look kind of cute but creepy.  Anyway as I am standing there watching them they notice me and their eyes turn red and their teeth turn to fangs and instantly they start attacking my ankles.  I am kicking them off like crazy and then I wake up.  The kicking got so bad last night that I ended up kicking the crap of DeAnna.

I’ve never had a dream 3 nights in a row so if any of my charasmatic friends want to tell me what it means, that would be great.

DeAnna is off shopping with her mom, the kids are watching Saturday morning cartoons, the windows are open, and I am simply chilling.  I am doing everything I can to enjoy today because when today is over things get CRAZY and non-stop for the next month.

• Easter is two weeks away!
• We have 21 churches coming to hang out Thursday for a church planting roundtable.  It is going to be fun!
• We have our membership class Friday night.  If you are not a member of The Stone you will want to sign up for this class!  It is a great time to hear the vision and hear where we are headed as a church.  Plus the desserts are off the hook and the Starbucks coffee will be hot.
• Easter is two weeks away!
• Next week our mailers hit and Around Canton magazine with us on the cover hits every mail box in the city.
• Our next Home Team session starts
• Easter Sunday will be off the hook!!!!!  Get your friends there!
• We are launching a series called 24 on Easter.  It is going to be awesome.
• We have our Lead Team staff retreat where we will be dreaming and planning some HUGE things that will literally change the face of Ridge Stone and the areas we are reaching.
• Last week in April I am off to Orlando to the National New Church Conference.  I will be doing a Blogging Pastor Roundtable with some awesome people like Ben, Tadd, Dave, Mark, and Shawn.
• We will be meeting about our summer schedule.  Summer is very tricky in a movie theater as they start showing movies  way earlier then normal.  Logistically it is a nightmare.
• We start our new series called Hell No which is going to rock your world.

I have a habit of saying as soon as I get through whatever I am working on at the time that things will slow down.  I have learned that in a growing church that things NEVER slow down.

I love it!!!

Before I rant, let me say that I love church planting and my worst day planting RSC is better then my best day doing anything else.  I even love being portable.  I have been in portable church now for 8 years.  For me there is something very New Testament about it.  I actually dig it.

However there are days like today where being portable is a pain in the butt!

1.) We have confirmed due to the summer schedule that for May, June, and July we have to go back to one service.  This drives me nuts, but it is all good.  Starting with Spiderman 3, they will be starting movies at 11:30 a.m. during the summer.  With one service at 10:00 that is cutting  close.  With two services and the last one starting at 10:30, it is impossible.  So for the summer we will go back to one service.  We can bring in probably 75-100 folding chairs if we need them and we can due live worship in another theater with the sermon video cast in if we need that as well.

2.) We are at war with our office complex.  We are the ONLY renters in the building, everyone else owns. and after 18 months of renting the place and there being NO fire system, NO outside lights, NO ONE cutting the grass, NO ONE cleaning the trash they finally decided to form a owners associtation.  Since we don’t own, we can’t go to the meetings.  The decision from the meetings is that we are to blame for everything.  On top of that they are concerned we are having  “hundreds” of people here at night.  I wish that was the case but our teens run about 50 kids spread over two different services.  So now we are dealing with a group trying to get us ousted.

It is just one of those days where I wish we had our own building.  However come Sunday when the theater is packed out, I’ll be reminded WHY we are portable and I will love it again.

I LOVE CHURCH PLANTING!!!!!