Currently Georgia is #9 in the rankings. But here is how we are going to make the BCS championship game.

2 Oregon lost last night…

8 Arizona State loses to USC tomorrow…

7 Ohio State loses at Michigan tomorrow …

6 West Virginia loses at #22 Cincinnati tomorrow

Come Sunday, UGA is up to #5.

Now, #3 Oklahoma, #4 Kansas & #5 Missouri still have to play each other in a round-robin…

KU & Missouri play next week…

The winner plays Oklahoma in the Big 12 Championship. In other words, two of the three teams will be eliminated.

UGA #3

UT loses this week or next, meaning UGA can sneak into the SEC Championship and play #1 LSU, winner will play in the BCS Championship against Big 12 Champion.

So there you have it. Georgia will be the National Champions this year!!!!!

I’ve posted a lot today, but as I sit here my mind is thinking about how lucky I am.  Seriously, I deserve nothing, but God has been so good to me.

• God saved me
• I have a wife I love with all my heart
• I have two healthy kids who are everything to me
• I truly believe I have the greatest job in the world
• I believe I am part of the greatest church in the world
• I love the team I get to work with.  I work with my best friends
• I get to hear about life change every single day of my life
• I get to be a part of God doing something awesome
• I get to pastor people that I truly love

Life is good.

From day one at Revolution, we have used outside vendors for various things.  We have outsourced graphics, web, video, sound, etc.  In that time we have had some great partnerships and we have had some awful partnerships.

Different churches look for different things in outside vendors, but for us we have established some guidelines that determine who we partner with and who gets our business.

Since this is one of the questions we get asked very often from other church planters, I thought I would share what we look for in an outside vendor.

1. They MUST look at what they do as a ministry first - Trust me, I understand they are in a business and a business must make money.  I also understand a lot of churches want everything free.  We have NO problem paying for the services and we don’t look for the cheapest person, but we have to feel they have a heart for the local church and truly want to partner with us to reach those far from God.
2. Be fair and honest - I understand sales, so don’t try to give me a sales job.  Don’t blow smoke, shoot straight, and trust me, I am going to check out what you say with others so don’t lie to me.
3. We want to know we matter - As we grow, this becomes less of an issue.  However, in the early days nothing would make me madder then when we hired someone and they would blow us off for more well known churches or larger jobs.  If you take our job I could care less who else you are doing work.  We want our job done and done right.  Ken Wilson is the BEST at this.  He was doing his real job at New Spring and doing side work for churches like Elevation, yet I always feel we get the same quality work as they do.
4. You have got to understand our budget - Nothing, I mean NOTHING angers me more then when someone knows our budget and they come in nowhere near our budget.  I would rather you tell me it is impossible to do for the amount we have budgeted then you turn in a bid nowhere near what we have budgeted.  Tell us how we can do what we need to do within our budget.
5. You’ve got to understand our church - One size doesn’t fit all when it comes to outsourcing.  Just because you can do graphics for First Baptist doesn’t mean you can do them for us.  They are different styles.  You need to understand what we do, how we do it, that we are portable, and that we don’t run 2,000 people so we don’t have the money like a church with 2,000 people.
6. Realize we are looking for a long term relationship - I am a networker.  I am very relational and I am very loyal.  I still remember the people who helped us when we had nothing and 9 times out of 10, we are still using those people.  When you do business with us, shoot straight and do us right because we want to use you long term.
7. Do what you say you are going to do - Meet your deadlines, do what we pay for, call us back if we have questions, stay within your quote, don’t come later telling us we need something else, and show us how to work the services we paid you for.
8. Don’t act like we are stupid - I hate professionals that talk down to you because you are not an expert in their area.  If we were experts in your area, we wouldn’t need you.  We are paying you money to speak in a language we can understand, not act like we are idiots.
9. Realize cost does matter - We aren’t made of money, but we aren’t afraid to spend what we do have.  We want things done with excellence and we want stuff that is going to last.  However, we are doing our best to be good stewards with our finances and if we can something for the same quality at a lower price, or make something we already have work, we are going with that.  Some people are brand driven, no matter the cost.  We aren’t.
10. Don’t come back three months later telling us we need to upgrade - We had a guy sell us something one time that we needed.  Three months later, he was telling us it wasn’t good enough and we needed to upgrade.  Why?  We don’t have to have the latest and greatest.  When you sale us something make sure it is going to last us.

We announced this last Sunday that we are relocating our Canton campus and we couldn’t be more excited. This has been a move we have been praying about for over a year!!!

Let me give you a little background about our relationship with the movie theater. We moved into the theater 2 years ago and we have had a great relationship with the staff. They have been very good to us and the theater has served us well. We wouldn’t be the church we are today without the theater. The location and the building served us awesome.

As great as they have been to us, there have been several reasons we needed to move. We have been there two years and we have never had a contract. The parent company will not allow churches to sign one so we have been month to month for two years. Every time they have a surprise inspection, we are stressed out that this is the time we are getting thrown out. Along with having no contract, we have had our rent raised three times in two years, have had storage nightmares, and they start movies earlier and earlier meaning we have to get out earlier and earlier. The biggest challenge has been putting on a children’s environment with excellence in the theater. I think our team does a GREAT job, but making our children’s area bright, clean, and useable for our children is tough. With those things in mind, we have prayed and prayed for God to provied a new location.

Every consultant we have brought in and every mentor I have has told us we had to get out of the theater. That was easier said then done. Moving a church our size is not that easy. Finding a place to meet is not easy. We have called on EVERY available building, every available school, every place that had an open room. God opened NO doors. We really felt God wanted us between exit 14 and 20. The only building big enough was Cherokee High School and there has been a good church meeting there for a few years now and they have no plans to move out. We thought about challenging them to a fight but we thought we would win too easy. After searching every where, we determined that God would provide a place at the right time.

About a month ago, a friend of our church called me. He has never been to our church, goes to a traditional church, and probably doesn’t understand everything we do, BUT he is one of our biggest fans. He has been good to us over the last three years and he serves on the board of the Boys and Girls Club. He called me one day to just give me a tour and that led to us meeting the director, Jeff Brooks, and that led to the door opening for us to use their brand new, 20,000 sq ft, 2.5 million dollar building!!!!

There is A LOT of work to do before moving on January 6th, but the move is such a God thing for us that we can’t be anything but excited. We have been praying for 12 months for this and God showed up big time in HIS timing.

Some of the pluses of moving locations:

• We can reach more people!!!! That is enough of a reason to move by itself. We currently meet on Exit 20 which is the last exit in Canton and puts us at the very north end of Cherokee County. This moves positions RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE of the county. We are still located in Canton, but we are now centrally located to Hickory Flat, Holly Springs, Towne Lake, and Woodstook. All of these towns are BOOMING towns that we haven’t had much impact in due to our location being so far north. We now move from being a City of Canton church to being a Cherokee County church. We have the chance to reach the 150,000 people located in this county much better.
• We get it all day - For us, this is huge. We have been under huge time constrants at the movie theater. At the Club, it is ours on Sunday.
• We have a contract - We like that.
• Our rent goes down - We get a better building for cheaper rent. We can’t that as a huge plus.
• Children’s Area - From a insider point of view, this is the BIGGEST win for us. The Club was built for children. It’s purpose is children. The children’s space is perfect, it is clean, it is roomy, it is designed for kids. We are a church full of young families and since we don’t allow children in our services, I am thrilled at the level this is going to take our children’s ministry.
• It is farther away from Jasper - With our campus set to launch there at the first of the year, the need to stay in north Canton was erased. We have some great people coming from Jasper and we will now serve them with their own campus.
• Easier set-up - Notice I didn’t say less set-up. However the Club is going to allow us to fly our sound system, lights, and video in the ceiling at the gym and leave it up all week!!!!!!!! I would much rather lay out plastic chairs compared to carrying speakers and lights in every week.
• First Impression - The building is state of the art. It looks like it could be a church.
• Built-in partnership - We want to be a church that is creating a revolution in North Georgia and we are going to do that by giving back to the communities we have locations in. We have a natural partnership at the Club that will allow us to impact the lives of those who need impacting.

I couldn’t be more excited about the move and the position God has put us in. On the surface, people outside of our church are shocked we are moving out of the theater, but they don’t understand the vision we have to impact this county. Everything we do is about people and this move allows us to reach more people and do church the way we do it in a more efficient way.

Revolution Church, I have been telling you for months God was preparing us for HUGE things. I could feel in my spirit that big things were about to happen. We have seen huge success in the last 36 months, but we will continue to push and be driven to reach more people. What God is doing here is NOT normal. The lives that have been changed here is not what is happening in a lot of churches. God has used a bunch of CRAZY people to do awesome things and I promise we ain’t seen nothing compared to what He has in store.

I have a very open day today so I am going to take some time and knock out some posts by answering several questions we get on a regular basis.

I’ll start with this one:  What is Revolution doing to prepare for it’s second campus?

We get this question non-stop from other church planters and pastors.  I always feel bad when guys call us and want to know how we do certain things because the truth is we are very simple.  We don’t over-complicate stuff.  We don’t have systems in place, we aren’t great planners, and to be honest, we fly by the seat of our pants A LOT!!!!!!  Our staff excels at big days and we just have a knack for pulling them off, so we normally start thinking about an event right before it is time to do the event.

We have treated launching a second campus just like we would if we were launching a second service.  As of today, we are planning on launching on January 6th, 2008 (We are learning that could change due to building permits, inspections, etc.).  We have not had one meeting with those going to Jasper.  Yes, you read that right, we have not had ONE meeting.  We have our first meeting planned for November 30th and that will probably be one of two meetings we will do.

I understand that many churches do launch team meetings to prepare, but we don’t feel that is necessary.  The people we have going to Jasper are really an All-star team.  We have some studs that live in that area.  We have key volunteers in almost every area that live in that area.   They will do what they already do in Canton except they will do it in Jasper.  To me, it is like a second service.

These people already know our vision, they know our mission, they know our DNA, they know our vibe, and they know what we have planned.  Why complicate things with a lot of meetings about stuff we already know?

We are using our staff at Canton as “overseers” of the same ministires in Jasper.  For example, Tim is over worship at both campuses, Jenna is over children about both campuses, etc.  So we have spent a lot time internally planning for the launch in order to equip our people to serve and make the campus happen.

We will met with the people who want to help with that campus about twice and then we will launch that sucker and we believe it is going to make a huge impact in Jasper.

So for someone who is geared toward step by step directions and systems, our method probably would stress you out, but we thrive on it.

I just wanted to remind all of you who signed up for Thanksgiving Boxes that you MUST bring them to church THIS Sunday.  We are scheduled to deliver the boxes to MUST Ministries on Sunday afternoon.

For a list of what needs to be in you box, click on RevolutionaryLove.tv.  Also, if you have any cool stories about you and your family putting the boxes together or you want to share your thoughts on Revolutionary Love, feel free to leave a comment.

I am hooked on this show that is on FOX on Wednesday.  Chef Gordon Ramsey goes into restaurants that are struggling and gives his feedback on how they can improve.  The funniest thing to me is the chefs who get mad.  They know their business is closing down and yet they get mad when the Ramsey gives his thoughts.  EVERY episode the chefs will say, “Ramsey doesn’t know what he is talking about.”

Really?  He’s a world class chef and yet these guys say he doesn’t know what he is doing!!!!!  It is no wonder these businesses aren’t making it.

Reminds me of a lot of church planters who are barely making it.  I love it when they seek advice but when they don’t like the advice they say you just don’t know their situation, their church, or their city.

Here is what I do know:  People are people.  Church planting is church planting.  If more guys listened and followed the advice they sought out, more guys wouldn’t be having kitchen…..I mean church planting nightmares.

We are in dog search mode at the Lamb house.  DeAnna really wants one for the kids, she wants one to run with her, and she wants a puppy so the kids can grow up with it.  Me, I could care less.   We really like Boxers and they seem to be the right mix for our family and what we want.  So we in search mode.

We’ve also decided that getting a dog from a rescue is the way to go.  I have found out there are two kinds of rescues.  1.) Those that really are a rescue and want to place the dog.  2.) Those that really care about making money.  It is funny what some of the rescues charge.  You could just go to a breeder and buy one.

I have also learned that a lot of dog lovers are great people but they aren’t the best business runners.  They don’t specialize in calling people back, a lot act like your an idiot with your questions, and a ton of them act like you are a bothering them by calling.  It is weird.

Of course, there are a few we have run into that are GREAT and I am excited about finding the perfect dog.  I thought we had found one with a boxer/bullmastiff mix but the bullmastiff isn’t suited for running.  I was bummed because I really wanted it.

Let me tell you a lesson we have learned after 3 years of outsourcing graphics, web design, etc.  Finding someone who actually meets a deadline is hard!!!!

This is the reason, I LOVE Factor 1 Studios.  Matt and the crew over there have gone above and beyond for us.  They launched our website in a SUPER short period and totally did everything we asked.  Then last week he put RevolutionaryLove.tv together for us in literally two days.  It still has some small tweaks, but he bailed us out of a huge jam and we apprecaite it.  I think it looks GREAT!!!!!

Not only do they do what they say they are going to do, there stuff looks as good as anyone out there and there prices can’t be met.  If you are looking for someone to help with your web stuff, give these guys a chance and I promise you will be pleased.

I had a interesting conversation with a pastor the other day about us “taking over churches” in North Georgia and turning them into sites for Revolution. He made the comment that our multi-site vision made him excited.  He was excited because we could bring life to these dying churches by taking them over.  I’m glad he was excited, but the truth is we don’t have a multi-site vision.   He didn’t get what we are about.  We simply have a vision to reach people. If that is through multi-site, church planting, buying 100 acres and building a huge building, I don’t care. We just want to reach people.

I had a great conversation the other day with Steven Furtick and for the first time ever he summed up what I had been feeling but didn’t know how to put into words. Our vision has been the same since day one, but the thing that will continually change is the strategy. I’ll be honest, I don’t care what the strategy is. I just want to reach people far from God.

We explored every option there was for us to reach the people we feel God called us to reach. My heart beats for the people in the North Georgia mountain towns. They aren’t the biggest towns, they aren’t glamor towns, but they are growing towns with NOTHING that is reaching the next generation. God has birthed in Revolution a vision to reach thos people.

We thought about church planting. The reality is church planters aren’t knocking down the doors to go to mountain towns with less then 16,000 people. The few that we did meet, we didn’t feel had a true vision to reach those far from God. That is our heartbeat. I tell people all the time that we don’t think the way we do church is the only way to do church BUT we believe in the way we do it and when it comes to investing our resources, we will only invest in those who have the same heartbeat as us.

We thought about building. I know many GREAT churches who built great buildings and people come from all over. We explored this option. With the towns we have a heart for, we didn’t feel this would work. The towns we are launching sites in are not built around Canton. They are straight north, meaning some of the towns are 45 minutes to an hour away. Building a building in Canton isn’t going to reach those towns.

So because our vision is to reach people, we felt at this time the best strategy is multi-site. We are committed to it, we believe it is going to work, we believe it is going to change lives, we are doing it. But our vision is people, not multi-site.

Our vision will never be a strategy, it will always be people.