I am working at the office late tonight tying up some loose ends and the band is out in the warehouse practicing.  HOLY CRAP, they sound good.  They are planning some cool things for Sunday and busting out the Christmas music, Revolution style.  I even hear rumors of a mini-choir.

You don’t want to miss Sunday as we celebrate Christmas in a BIG way.

The awesomeness continued today:

• Hot Wings - Don’t even know who brought them.  I was studying and they were here.  Can Santa bring hot wings? :)  If so, it might have been Santa.
• Rockstar Lattes - YES, that just happened.  You read that right.  They are awesome
• Peanut Butter Fudge
• Chocolate Covered Peanuts
• No bake cookies - not sure what that means but they were good

DeAnna is out Christmas shopping and I am supposed to be cleaning the kitchen, but I had to put my list of jams into a playlist before I could that.

Tonight’s Music:

• No One - Alicia Keys - This is my girl!!!  Love her.
• 40 - U2
• If Everyone Cared - Nickelback
• Wire - Third Day
• Storm - Lifehouse
• Jesus Freak - DC Talk - Still love this jam
• Revolutionary Love - David Crowder Band
• I Told You So - Keith Urban
• Love Found Me - DecembeRadio
• When Love Came To Town - U2/BB King
• Baby, it’s cold outside - Ella Fitzgerald - This is my Christmas Jam
• Wonderful Tonight - Eric Clapton - My jam that reminds me of my wife

The Christmas goodness continued today!!!!  Some of the items that arrived at the office today:

• Chocolate  Oreo Balls (Never heard of them, but they were awesome!!!!!)
• Chocolate Rum Balls - Tim ate all of those
• Chocolate Pretzel Sticks
• TONS, I mean TONS of cookies!!!!!
• LOTS of candy
• FUDGE!!!!!
• Peanut Brittle!!!!!
• Michael and Susan Holiday fed the entire staff at Jocks and Jills today.  They have the best wings in town, nachos in town, and today I found out they have the best freaking shrimp in town!!!  Starting next year, I am going to start taking a different ministry team out to eat every month on our dime and we are going to do this at Jocks and Jills.  Love that place!!!
• Someone also bought me a Yellow Tang for my fish tank.  The fish is awesome!!!

I love Christmas

To say I have taken a more hands on approach this week would be THE understatement of the year.  I feel like I did when we first started the church and I am loving it!  Things have been insane the last two days and our guys (and gals) are stepping up to plate and jacking homerun after homerun.

I think we have laughed more, got more done this week, and just focused on the task at hand more then I can remember in a long.  It has been fun.  We got a couple of new people in the office and new blood always brings a freshness that gets lost at times.   I’m having fun and I forgot how much I enjoy coaching our guys and getting my hands dirty being part of making it happen.  This week has reminded me a lot of when it was just Tadd, Tim, Preston, and I in the early days.

Sunday is going to be off the hook!!!!!!  We had a cool creative meeting today to shore everything up and it is going to be a great end to RevolutionaryLove.tv.  The worship is going to be awesome, I am pumped about the message, we are going to celebrate communion together, and we are going to receive our Next Step Offering that is going to enable us to show Revolutionary Love to North Georgia in huge ways!!!

Christmas Eve we are meeting at the office at 4:00 p.m. to sing a couple of songs together and then we are passing out 250 dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts to everyone who has to work on Christmas Eve night in Cherokee and Pickens Counties.  It is going to be an awesome ending to RevolutionaryLove.tv.

On top of all that is going on at Revolution, I am gearing up to head to WinterPlace Ski Resort next week with Sidekick Student Ministries to teach at their winter camp.  We are taking a group of kids and I am so excited about this.  I haven’t taught to students in about 10 years so I am little freaked out, but I am going to have a blast.  The best part is DeAnna and the kids are coming with me.  The kids are pumped about seeing snow.

We are taking Sunday, December 30th off from having church to give all of our volunteers a Sunday off and then we are kicking 2008 off in a HUGE way.  We are launching a series called Confessions Of A Pastor and it is going to be no-holds barred!!!  We are pushing this series huge.  We are featured on the January cover of Around Canton Magazine and we are doing a HUGE direct mail piece that is going to most of Cherokee County and Pickens County.

2008 is going to be a HUGE year at Revolution and if you think we pushed hard this year, you ain’t seen nothing yet!!!!  I feel as pumped as I ever have.  Our team is as pumped as ever.  We are going to DOMINATE North Georgia this next year like never before.  I am more focused then ever to reach the unchurched people in North Georgia.

I’m back in the saddle and it feels good.

Man, our people are loading up the office with goodies!!!!!!!!!!!  I have eaten more stuff that is bad for you today than ever before (and that is saying something).  I also hear rumors that more goodies are on the way.

Bring em on!!!  Trust me, they will get eaten.

• Probably one of the best services we ever had was today!
• There are some Sundays when things click and there are some Sundays where EVERYTHING clicks.  Today, everything was clicking.
• Today you saw why I believe Tim is one of the best worship leaders I have ever seen.  The music was AWESOME today.  They played “40″ by U2 as a worship song and it was off the hook.
• We borrowed Joel back from Oak Leaf (hey, he was ours first ) and he simply NAILED the song Where The Streets Have No Name.  I miss Joel, but I honestly am glad he has a church closer to home.
• Click here and you will see how Oak Leaf and Revolution are changing the world through gingerbread houses. :)  Go to the third story down.  Mitch goes to Revolution.  Brett goes to Oak Leaf.
• I have spent more time in prayer over the last few day then I have in a long time and I can really tell it.
• I think I quit leading in some very important areas over the last few months.  Trust me, that stops now.
• Through some friends and my quiet time, God has really reminded me that I am the leader of Revolution and everything rises and falls on leadership.  I will be stepping some things up big time starting first thing tomorrow.
• If you have friends who don’t know Christ, do WHATEVER it takes to get them to church this Sunday!!!!
• Have you heard what we are doing for Christmas Eve?
• Our Next Step offering is this coming Sunday!!!  I love it when God stretches us!!!!
• Adam is taking over our Tech Team at the start of the year.  I really love that dude.
• Laney and Jenna are doing a great job in the kids area.
• I just realized my fantasy team is in the playoffs.  It is the loser bracket, but it is the playoffs.  I’m losing.
• Honestly, I am flying high after today.  Love Sundays like today.  Sundays are better then any drugs I use to do.
• It is almost Christmas!!!
• I’m getting ready to head to Winterplace with Michael to teach at one of his winter camps.  Very cool.
• Zaxbys tonight.  Mmmm…..
• We have 5 former pastors at Revolution.  That’s cool.  We also have 5 kids of pastors who attend.  That’s cool too.  We also have 2 people who work for the North American Mission Board.  I dig them too.
• Man, the Falcons stink.
• Taylor gave me what might be the coolest shirt in history today.
• Two Words: Rockstar Mocha.  Yes, they have it and Yes, I have had it.  awesome!
• We are NOT having church December 30th.  Enjoy the Sunday with your family.
• Tons of guests today.
• I just saw the front cover of Around Canton Magazine for January.  We are on the cover.  Actually, I am on the cover and it seems a little weird to be honest.  The story inside is great!!!
• Several sport coats today.  See, we got a little class.
• Fire place is going!!!  Finally!!!
• Props to our set-up team for setting the place in the freezing cold this morning!!!
• There is a natural buzz right now in the church that is off the hook.
• I love my friends.
• I can’t believe I get to do this for a living!!!

Today, I laid around the house until 1:30 doing nothing but chilling.  I then went and got my fro cut, went shopping with the family, and now I am done for the night.  That is a good day.

God knew what he was doing when he threw that sabbath day thing in the ten commandments.  :)  It truly is amazing the difference I feel when I take a true day off.  I have been doing my best to take Fridays off lately and I can tell the difference in my body, mind, and spirit.

Tomorrow we are up early for the wife to run another 5K and then I think Grandma is taking the kids for the night!!!!!

To top off the weekend, I get to throw down on Sunday morning about a topic that I think is going to connect with a lot of people!!!!

I’m sitting here looking over my sermon for Sunday and I am pretty pumped!!!  I am loving our current series and all that we are doing through it.  God is doing big things at Revolution and I am enjoying every minute of it.

Don’t forget this week we are partnering with MUST Ministries to help them clothe those in Cherokee County who are without.

We are asking you to bring the following NEW items:

• Winter Coats
• Gloves
• Undergarments
• Socks
• Winter Hats

See ya Sunday!!!!

This has been one of THOSE weeks.  It hasn’t been a bad week, it has just been one of THOSE weeks.

Lucky for me, it is 75 degrees today and everything looks brighter sitting on the front porch with your neighbor (in my case, that would be Tim) just shooting the breeze.  We hung out, talked about how far God has brought us, what God has done through Revolution, and that we can’t believe He chooses to use us.

It was a good night….