I thank God every day that I get the honor of pastoring Revolution Church.  There is no where on earth, I would rather pastor then right here.  Revolution is far from perfect, but it is what I always imagined church could be.

I feel that every Sunday I see people who are truly having their lives changed by the power of God.  It is a church full of imperfect people who are doing life together.  I love showing up every Sunday and actually knowing I would attend Revolution even if I wasn’t the pastor.

I love that our people get the vision God has given us for this region.  I love that our people allow me to be their pastor and have allowed me to grow in that role.  I have made a ton of mistakes since starting this church and yet our people stand behind me and my family.

I get asked a lot if I will leave one day to go somewhere bigger.  Besides the fact that no one else would ever have me, I have no desire to ever leave.  I honestly want to grow old pastoring Revolution Church and then when the time comes to turn it over to someone else (my daughter ), I want to stay around and lead up the old folks ministry.

I’m thankful for the country we live in and the military who fight for our freedom. I never want to take for granted the freedoms we have in this country. The fact that I can get up every morning and know that I am safe, that my kids are safe, that I food on my table, and a roof over my head are huge to me. To know that I can voice my disagreements with the way things are and that I can worship the God without fear of being persecuted is huge to me.

I also don’t take for granted that people are giving their lives fighting in our military. I’m not concerned on your views on war (and mine might surprise you) but I 100% support our troops who are giving their lives so I can live in freedom and safety. To know they are sacrificing so much is humbling to me.

I think the church brings politics onto the stage WAY to much, but I also think we pray for our troops and tell them THANK YOU way too little.

I heard this song a few weeks ago. It is written by some dudes that attend West Ridge, where I served before coming here. It has made it pretty big around here and I thought it was perfect to express the way I feel towards our military and country. You can listen here.

We gave everyone the day off today, meaning we were only in the office two days this week.  BUT, those had to be the two longest days I can ever remember.  We dealt with more stuff this week then I think ever.

I think we are crazy to pull of these two moves by January 6th.  We have hit roadblock after roadblock, but it appears everything is still good to go!!!

The Spiritual Warfare is insane right now.  I preach this to our staff over and over, but I always act surprised when it starts happening.  This week we have been hit several times with spiritual warfare, but this morning God reminded me of Nehemiah.  We are up on a wall doing a great work.  When you are doing great things for God there are going to be obstacles, those who aren’t happy, and things that could distract you.  When Nehemiah was faced with these things, he stayed on the wall, rebuilding the wall.  He didn’t deal with the distractions.  I’m off today, I am fly out to Buffalo in the morning, get back late Friday, have a busy day Saturday, then church on Sunday.  There is too much work to be done to focus on the distractions.  As of this morning, I am done focusing on anything but the work God has called me too.

I love this adventure!!!

I am thankful for the family God has graced me with.  I am married to the love of my life.  I was in love with her from the first date we ever had.  We have been married 1/3 of my life and I can’t remember the other 2/3.  She completes me.  I am not easy to be married too, but she does it well.  Things have not always been great in our marriage but we have been committed to each other and we work at having a God honoring marriage.  I thank God every day for DeAnna.

I never thought I could love someone like I love my two children.  Ashlyn is the apple of my eye.  I love everything about her.  She will pastor Revolution one day.  She is a female Gary Lamb.  My boy, Avery reminds me so much of DeAnna that it is crazy.  He is a momma’s boy like I have never seen.  He is quiet and one of the most loving kids I have ever seen.  I pray every day that they will grow up and be wild and crazy in the Kingdom of God.

Family is a blessing and my cup runneth over in this area.  For that I am thankful.

It’s Thanksgiving week, which is my favorite holiday of the year.  I love to eat and I love football.  Obviously, it is a great time to give thanks for all the great things in our life as well.  So this week, I am going to post some things that I am thankful just as a reminder when I look back at the end of the year.

Without giving it a second thought, the first thing I am thankful is for the love of Jesus Christ.  I know that is wha you expect from a preacher, but I can honestly say my life was radically changed the day I started living for Christ.

I was living a lifestyle that was so ungodly that it would amaze you.  I was nothing, yet God allowed me to have a relationship with Him and my life has never been the same.  I owe everything I am from my marriage to my job as a pastor to Him.

To think that Jesus Christ came to earth to give His life for someone like me simply blows my mind.  If nothing else ever went right in my life, that would be enough to be thankful for.

It is funny how we will read every book, attend every conference, and meet with every person we can to figure how to be more effective at pastoring the church we started.  Don’t get me wrong, all those thing are great, but I am learning that there are NO rules in church planting.  Trends and the “way things are supposed to be” don’t always happen that way.

Our yesterday was a perfect example of this:

• On a holiday weekend, we had the largest attendance we have had this fall
• On a holiday weekend, we had the highest offering in the history of our church
• We committed to 50 thanksgiving boxes for MUST Ministries and our people came through with around 125
• I preached a sermon that I put together only about 10 hours before teaching it and we ran out of CD’s and our email has been slammed with people talking about how much they needed the message
• We didn’t do ANY creative elements and yet the service rocked
• We are growing at a time when most churches aren’t

The longer I am in this thing called church planting the more I am learning that you never figure it out.  That is what keeps it fun.

Here is our first pet. We named him Koy because I wanted to name Avery that and DeAnna wouldn’t let me. Sounded like a cowboy name to me so I dug it. He is 10 weeks old and he is BIG and he needs a bath, and he wants to climb on me, and I ain’t down with any of that stuff.

The kids love him and I hope I will grow to at least be able to deal with him. Seriously, I think I am going to do dig him.

• Awesome Sunday today!!! We had to take the curtain down on a holiday weekend!!!
• I wasn’t supposed to be preaching today. Preston was taking the first week of our new series but called me last night on my way home from the Georgia game to let me know he was sick. I got home at 8 last night and spent the rest of the night putting a sermon together.
• On top of not really being prepared, I tweaked my back big time this morning.
• So I preached unprepared and strung out on pain pills. I felt good about the message but of course, I was feeling good about everything.
• We got a dog today. Right after church we drove to Anderson S.C. to pick up a 10 week old Boxer. We named him Koy. He has already crapped in the floor.
• DeAnna and the kids fly out to Buffalo at 8 in the morning. That means we have to leave the house at 5. They will be in Buffalo all week for Thanksgiving. I will join them later in the week. I fly out Thanksgiving morning and fly back around lunch on Friday.
• Had a blast at the Georgia game yesterday!!!!
• I was blown away at how many Thanksgiving boxes you guys brought today!!! We hit around 125 boxes. MUST Ministries had a goal to feed 600 families this Thanksgiving and you guys accounted for 25% of that total.
• If you have any cool stories to share about the Thanksgiving Boxes go over to RevolutionaryLove.tv and share in the comment section. Don’t be scared, it is only the internet. I’ll post some pictures tomorrow.
• Clemson lost. Nothing new.
• Somehow I mentioned getting into a fight with Johnny Hunt again this week on stage. I promise, I love and respect the guy. I just speak before thinking. I ain’t messing with Johnny. I think he could take me.
• I can always tell church planting teams that are NOT going to be down with being portable when they visit us. They are the ones that are walking around wide-eyed, seeming like they have never seen a portable church before.
• We had two team with us today. One will make it, one will make it but they won’t make it as a portable church without some attitude changes.
• Have you met our new Campus Pastor for Jasper? He’s name is Mitchell Harris and I’m pumped about the guy!!! We found out today during the first service that he can’t say the word “Jasper.” Since this is where we are launching our next site and he is going to be the campus pastor, this could be a problem. But we love him anyway.
• This dog is freaking me out!!!!
• Evan did a great job leading worship today.
• We got a lot to do in a short time and it is freaking me out!!!!!!
• I hope Kentucky beats the Volunteers next week.
• Got to be up at 4 so I am going to bed.

We are starting a new series tomorrow on the bible and I was actually going to take a Sunday off to get ready for RevolutionaryLove.tv series that is coming up.  I have taught evey Sunday but one Since August and my brain is fried.  I enjoyed the week of just reading, getting ready for our moves, and meeting with our staff without working on a message.

I even went to Athens today to watch the Dawgs play.  That is something I hardly ever do because it makes me worthless on Sundays.  I wasn’t teaching tomorrow so I wasn’t worried about how tired I would be on Sunday.

On the way, Preston calls me and tells me he is sick and suddenly I am filling in for myself tomorrow.  I had nothing ready but I got home about 7, locked myself in the room, talked to God for a few minutes, and put a little something together for tomorrow.

Obviously, I am big time out of my routine but I am pumped up about teaching about God’s word from God’s word tomorrow!!!

Spent the day in Athens between the hedges.  I love college towns and Athens is one of the best!!!  I honestly had a blast today just hanging out with Adam, tailgating, watching people, and cheering on the Dawgs!!!  It was a great game and after a slow start, we looked GREAT!!!!

On the way home we listened as Vandy BLEW it against the Volunteers.  I was furious but we still have a chance next week as they play Kentucky.