DeAnna and I had a date night last night and it was one of our best ever.  Someone at church gave us tickets to a Alzheimer’s fund raiser at the new Cobb Center.  Cobb County has built a GREAT venue for concerts!!!!

The event was a concert featuring acoustic sets from Monty Powell (songwriter from Nashville who has written TONS of #1 country songs), jazz musician Anna Wilson, and country music star Keith Urban.  All of them came out and played by just sitting on a stool and strumming a guitar.  It was one of the best concerts I have ever attended in my life.   Keith Urban was awesome.  The dude can shred a guitar and he was awesome.  There were only about 1500 people there so it was awesome to that close to the stage and feel like they were singing right to you.

I love spending time with DeAnna and our favorite thing to do it concerts, so last night was perfect!!!!

I am learning that when the vision God has given you is at the forefront of everything you do that most decisions you have to make already have an answer.  The vision dictates the answer.

No need to stress, no need to analyze, no need to discuss, because the answer always comes from the vision.  Which choice best allows us to fulfill the vision?  Once you answer that, everything else is pretty simple.

Yes, I am a broken record.  Yes, I pump everything up.  Yes, I think every Sunday is going to rock.  Yes, I think every series is going to be life-changing.  Yes, I am sure you just roll your eyes when I say the same thing every week…..BUT….I mean every word of it!!!

I am pumped up about this Sunday!!!  We are launching a new series called RevolutionaryLove.tv and I think it is going to be one of the most life-changing series we have ever done.

This Sunday we are going to show you the power of giving back in a way you have never seen in a church before.  Trust me, you don’t want to miss what we have planned this Sunday.

From a leadership standpoint this has been one of the toughest weeks of my life.  I had to make some of the toughest decisions I have ever had to make this week.  I have had to weigh different options in plans we were making, I have had to realize that what I want isn’t what God always wants, and I have had to seek the face of God like never before.

On top of it being one of THOSE weeks, I didn’t preach last week.  Needless to say, I am ready to bring IT this Sunday.  Should be fun!!!!

Man, we have been on a roller coaster lately at Revolution.  Three weeks ago we announced we are moving both our locations because God had opened doors for us to move.  Since that time, things have been up and down.

One minute everything is clicking, the next we are being thrown curve ball after curve ball.

Things literally change by the minute in regards to these two moves to the point that it could come January 6th and we won’t have made either move.  The Jasper WILL happen, the questions is just can we get it done by January 6th (we’ll know by the end of the week).  The Canton is happening one minute, isn’t the next.  We will know by Wednesday at the latest what God has in store with this move.

I said when we made these announcements that God guides our next steps one at a time.  He doesn’t always reveal the entire journey at once.  Honestly, I am good either way.  Here is what I have learned in pastoring a church:  God can do whatever He wants, whenver He wants.  We can meet in a tent for all I care because NOTHING changes our mission which is to reach PEOPLE.

One thing about roller coasters is THEY ARE FUN!!!!  I love doing this thing, I love the unknowns, I love the ups, I love the downs, I love following blindly what God is doing, I love KNOWING that He is in control, and I love knowing that I pastor a crazy group of people who are just crazy enough to walk through whatever door He opens!!!!!!

Hang on, it is about to get fun!

This Friday at 7:00 p.m. we are having our first informational meeting about our Jasper campus.  If you are interested in being part of the team that helps launch our new location in Jasper then this is a can’t miss meeting.

The meeting with be Friday at 7:00 p.m. at Roper Funeral Home (Yes, you read that right).  This will be our ONLY meeting at the funeral home and if there are viewings, we will be counting those people as part of our launch team.

To sign-up, contact Mitchell Harris at mitchell@therevolution.tv

The Dawgs whipped Tech.  Sadly, it has become so common that it really isn’t that big of a deal.

We are now #4 in the nation.

This week I am rooting for Oklahoma to beat Missouri, which could very well happen.

I am also rooting for Pitt to beat West Virgina.  That one is a stretch but stranger things have happened.

If those two things happen, we should be in the National Championship game!!!!

We are the best team in the SEC, but we blew it against South Carolina (how did that happen?) and The Volunteers.  We have no one to blame but ourselves.

• I missed church today.  I hated missing and started getting the desire to go about 9, but it was a much needed break.
• I heard Kyle O’Neal did a great job leading worship today.  If you are looking for a worship pastor, take a look at Kyle.  If the timing is right and Kyle isn’t with another church by then, he will be playing a big part in Revolution as we launch our second campus.
• I heard Preston did a good job too.
• Wal-Mart is crowded even on Sunday mornings!!!!!!!
• I heard attendance was great especially for a holiday weekend.
• I have a 7:00 a.m. meeting tomorrow.  That is too early to be fun.
• We are decorating the house for Christmas and I love it.
• There is a chill in the air and it feels like winter down south.
• I heard Tadd had an awesome day.  I am proud of him and glad we get to partner with what God is doing in North Carolina.
• Things start moving BIG time this week for our Canton location.
• We have our first meeting with our Jasper team  on Friday!!!!  If you haven’t signed-up and want to come, just call the office this week.
• Some tough decisions to make this week.  Some of them won’t be popular and people will jump to conclusions without hearing our side, but that goes with being the leader.  I don’t like it, but I accept it.
• Next week we are doing something that I promise that those of you in attendance will have never seen done in a church service.
• I am pumped up about RevolutionaryLove.tv
• I am glad my family is home.
• Pray for DeAnna.  The guy who murdered her brother is supposed to plead guilty tomorrow in New York.  This has been about 13-14 years in the making and as you can imagine, it is a tough thing.
• Christmas music is playing on the radio and I am ready for the season!!!!
• My fantasy team is rolling!!!!
• I am starting to like the dog a little better.
• Someone gave us two tickets to a unplugged concert with Keith Urban this week and I am looking forward to the night alone with my bride.
• I’m going to enjoy the rest of my day off.

It is 8:00 a.m. on a Sunday morning and I am sitting in my bed.  That is a weird feeling to me.  In three years since we started Revolution Church I have only missed being at either Revolution or some other church only twice.  After a long week and Deanna and the kids getting home from the airport very late, we decided a few months ago to take the Sunday before and after Thanksgiving off.  Of course, Preston got sick last week and I taught, but today we are doing nothing buy being lazy.

I got up this morning and prayed for Preston and every aspect of the services this morning.  One of the marks of a healthy church is how well the church runs when the Lead Pastor is gone.  Revolution doesn’t miss a beat.  We have the greatest staff and greatest volunteers in the world and THEY make Sunday happen every week with or without me.

I am enjoying being home, but I miss being a church too.  I think it is awesome to work at a church where I don’t want to miss a Sunday.  I don’t think there are a lot of pastors who could say that.

I made it back from Buffalo late last night and I am glad to be home.  I had a good time meeting DeAnna’s family and getting to know them a little more, but there is no place like home.

Buffalo is a depressing place.  It is literally dying and closing down.  The downtown area might be one of the worst downtowns I have ever seen.  The young people are graduating and moving away.  Too bad, because it could be a cool place.

Here are some random thoughts from my time away:

• Thanksgiving was good, but NO ONE does it up like my mom.  I missed a southern Thanksgiving.
• Buffalo is grey and COLD!!!!
• I have never been in a place where people are so crazy about football.  They are nuts about the Buffalo Bills.  I mean crazy nuts.
• I ate at the Anchor Bar, the home of the first ever Buffalo Wing.  VERY good.
• I didn’t take my computer so I was detoxing from e-mail.  It was hard.
• I have enjoyed the time off, but things kick in big time on Monday.
• The Vols are beating Kentucky right now and I don’t like that.
• Georgia vs. Georgia Tech today.  I am a little worried about this game for some reason.
• Kentucky just scored!!!
• DeAnna and the kids get home tonight and I can’t wait.  I am a homebody and like my family to be home with me.
• The dog is sleeping.  That thing has some of the stinkest gas I have ever smelt in my life!!!!!!!

I will leave for the airport at 4:30 in the morning tomorrow.  I am flying to Buffalo to have Thanksgiving with DeAnna’s family.  This will be the first Thanksgiving ever that I have not done with my family and I am little bummed.  However, I am very excited for DeAnna because it means a lot to her.  She flew up with the kids on Monday and they are having a blast.

I have never even met most of DeAnna’s family so that should be fun.  It is supposed to snow up there on Thursday night and I fly back on Friday so please pray I don’t get stuck in New York.

I wonder if Yankee’s cook the same grub we do on Thanksgiving?