• Today is my little girls birthday.  She is 6 and it seems like just yesterday she was being born.  Happy Birthday Ashlyn!
• The new website will hopefully be up next week!!!!  Factor1 is doing a bang up job!
• I have done something to my back and I am in freaking pain!!!
• Talked to someone who left our church a few months ago and it looks like they are coming back.  God is in the relationship building business and I think it is cool when people come “home.”
• The aquarium is getting water as we speak.  It has to sit for a month to let the water get right but next week there will be an eel in it to help filter it with it’s poop. 
• The family ministry tank is up and running.  It is fresh water and it was awesome watching the Oscars chase down and hit the goldfish today.
• Jenna is starting September 1st in the kids area and I am pumped!
• Preston is moving to Connection’s Pastor and is getting his own office instead of sharing.  It is the smallest office in the world BUT he gets by himself.
• DeAnna and I are speaking together Sunday.  I’m excited!!!
• Ashlyn wanted O’Charley’s for her birthday because “she just needed some soup.”  What kid wants O’Charley’s for thier birthday????
• It is HOT!!!!!!!!!!
• We had an awesome all staff meeting today!!!!  Look out to North Georgia because we are about to rock your world!
• All the Revolution stuff is getting done!!  Website, signs, graphics, shirts, car window thingies, pens, etc.  I love the new name!!!!

other then it is the greatest thing in the world.

Check out the official Gary Lamb Fan Club on facebook!  Thanks to the president Tony McCollum for starting it.

Yes, Jesus is coming, but in this case that is not who I am talking about.

We have confirmed that The King will be here on September 9th as we launch the BIGGEST series we have ever done called “All In.  Trust me, it is going to be awesome!

The previews are starting for the fall TV season and being the TV junkie I am, I am very excited.

Prison Break starts back!  Looks like a good twist they are putting on it.  Should be great as always.

Heroes starts backs!  THE best show on television period.

As far as new shows, I am looking forward to the show called LIFE about the cop who got convicted of murder then released and put back on the force.  It is on NBC and looks pretty decent.

I love TV!

Today was so not a typical service at Revolution.  I am physically drained right now after teaching the way I did today.  I like things when we are laughing and cutting up a lot more then when we are hitting on tough topics like today, BUT those messages have to be communicated as well.

I kind of felt like an old baptist today just railing against everything that moved, but the feedback was great.  It is funny, when you reach disconnected people you can bring the heat and they take it.  ONLY churched people get mad.

• Buddy Cremeans -NorthwayChurch.tv - Found this guy about 2 months ago and just digging him.  I think (not sure) that I talked to him by phone one day but I can’t remember.  The dude is getting IT done in New York.  Lots of good stuff.
• David Foster - The Gathering - He wrote one of my favorite books.  I didn’t know he had a blog until Tony Morgan posted about him.  I have been soaking up the stuff on his blog ever since.  I dig this dude.
• Dean Herman - Hooked up with this guy through New Spring and I just dig him.  Plus he is about 7 ft tall and about 300 lbs so I think he could kick my butt.

• Today was a GREAT DAY!
• People say sex sells, I say sex hits home. We can’t make CD’s fast enough during this series.
• There are certain times where God just fills me with vision involving Revolution and I am in that time right now. We serve a BIG God and He is reminding me of that lately.
• I think one of the most important things a church plant can have is THE vision God has given THEM. Far too many guys just steal someone elses vision. More on this later…
• Our new website will be up soon! Shout out to Factor1. If you are looking for a website, give these guys a look and tell them I sent you.
• I am teaching with DeAnna next week. I can promise you it will be one of the most honest messages you have ever heard. We are going to be no holds barred and our marriage and what God has taught us.
• Def Leppard, Foreigner, and Styx this Saturday and I got GREAT seats.
• I love being back at two services.
• I love these series but I am so pumped about our next series called All In. The creative elements are off the hook and we are doing our first ever community outreach during the series…Revolution style.
• Ashlyn lost her first tooth last night. It freaked me out a little.
• Our podcast will be back up on September 1st when our new website launches.
• The backdrop fell while I was preaching today. It was so hot the sticky stuff on the velcro came undone. All you can do is laugh, but inside you are steaming
• Our creative team is awesome so I will let them live.
• It was so HOT in the theater today!!!!
• Rumor has that the fish tank could FINALLY come to life this week!
• I have a smack down meeting in the morning at 6:30. A guy is giving one of my pastor friends crap, so I am going to their meeting. Should be fun.
• It’s almost time for football!!!!
• I also have our fantasy football draft next Sunday.  I’ve made it to the championship game the last two years…..and lost.  This year I am taking the prize.
• DeAnna and I have a trip planned in three weeks with NO KIDS!!!  AMEN!
• I think there were some tense teenagers today…..
• ….AND some tense parents.
• The stats I gave today on teenagers and sex blew my mind!
• I’ve been checking a couple of new blogs.  I’ll share the links this week when I get a chance.
• I’m listening to Jeff Kapusta right now on iTunes.  Good stuff.
• Grandma was in service today…and I had a Grandma illustration.  Not good.
• Perry had the whole Clemson team in his service today.  I hope they all got saved, but I still don’t like them.  What awesome influence!

Our team has killed themselves the last three weeks.  With the fall push coming, with us changing our name, getting ready for our upcoming series, and Tim, Malcolm, Amy, Preston, AND Jenna ALL changing responsibilities in the last month, it has been a CRAZY month.  Our guys have gone above and beyond making everything happen.  They have been working insane hours and I never heard one person complain.  They are awesome!

To let everyone get a little R&R we closed the offices on Thursday (they are always closed on Friday) and gave everyone a long weekend.  I know some of the crew headed out of town, some did some stuff local, I simply did NOTHING and I loved it!!!!  I haven’t talked to anyone on staff, haven’t emailed anyone and as much as I love them and love Revolution Church, I have loved the few days off.

I am pumped about Sunday and I’m ready to hit it hard next week, but right now I am enjoying chilling with nothing to do!

Nothing amuses me and angers me as much as parents who are totally blind about their children.  This week I am talking about how to handle the subject of sex with your children.  I am going to give you some stats that are going to rock your world and already I am hearing excuses from parents.

“Those stats are national, not local”

“There is no way that is happening here.”

“I talked to my child, they have no questions” (Yeah, right)

“My child is more mature than most children”

Parents, get your head out of the sand!  Are you so blind to see that these stats ARE talking about your children.  These stats are talking about MY children.  I know it is hard to hear, I know it is hard to think of our “babies” like that, but don’t be blind to the REALITY of what is taking place in our culture.

Sunday is going to be intense.  I venture to say some of you are going to leave the service madder at me then you ever have, and some of you are going to think I crossed the line like never before.  I have thought about all that and here is the bottom line:  I don’t care.  I care enough about you and your children that I am going to teach this subject and I am going to teach it hard.  Call it tough love.

Heaven forbid one of your children fall into Satan’s lies, but if they do, I want to know I did everything in my power to teach them and you what the Bible says about it.

I got asked a lot what we consider “success” here at Revolution.  I know that EVERY church looks at “success” in different ways, but for us it truly does come down to numbers.  We measure everything we do by the number to let us know if we are being effective in our mission of taking those who are disconnected from church getting them connected into the adventure of the Christian life.

More importantly than just any numbers is we look at number in 3 areas ONLY.   It is nothing new but we call it our C3 approach to ministry.

Celebrating - We want to know how many people are connecting weekly in celebrating their faith with other believers.  Of course we do this through counting our Sunday morning attendance.  Now that we are three, we know “number patterns” for us and we have previous years to compare with.  We don’t live week to week because that will kill you.  We look at where we were the previous year.  Not only do we count numbers, we count first time attenders, and decisions that were made.  Those are great indicators if are people are inviting their friends and if our marketing is working.  Decisions are a great indicator if the service is moving people into action.

Connecting - Every Monday I get a report that tells me the % of our Sunday morning attendance that is plugged into some form of a small group.  This could be a Home Team, a weekly bible study, interest group, or our mid-week recovery group.  I will admit this is our weak link.  We finally started seeing progress this last year in this area with Malcolm  leading this area, but with his move to Executive Pastor this area has been without a leader.  That changes October 1st with Preston moving over.  We used small groups as a connecting point and not necessarily a discipleship point.  We want our people connecting with others in the church and doing life together.  In the next two years I want to see this number around 50% of our Sunday morning attendance.  Right now, we are around 20-25%.  By keeping up with that number, that allows me to know we need to make improvements in this area.

Contributing - The last area we count is the % of our Sunday morning attendance that is contributing by serving and giving.  We don’t have any desire to have people who attend our church that are simply attending and doing nothing.  If you are going to be a partner in what God is doing here, we expect you to contribute.  This is a very strong area for us.  On a typical Sunday about 35% our church is serving.  Over the course of a month about 65% of our church is serving.  In the area of giving our people are making huge strides.  A year ago this was a huge problem.  We have so many people who didn’t understand the principle of giving, but that has changed in big  ways with our people stepping out in the area of giving.  I have been so proud of them.

Anyway, that is what we consider wins and what we keep numbers on.