Over the last few days God has very much convicted me about my growth as a leader.  The biggest thing I see is my lack of focus.  I am always in the middle of about a million things and because that I focus on very little.

As we are popping 1,000 people a week in attendance I have to focus on fewer things where I can focus on a certain things.  Right now I am laser focused on leadership growth.  I need to grow as a leader, I need to equip our staff to grow as leaders, and I need to be around other leaders.

Because of that I am saying NO to a lot more things.  I have cut my blogs back to 25 MUST read ministry blogs and I am going to add 10 business/leadership blogs to the mix.  I am going to spend at least an hour a day reading books that will enable me to grow as a leader.  I am reorganizing the way we do meetings at Revolution where I can be a better steward of our staff’s time. I am going to spend once a month meeting one on one with pastors who are pastoring a church of at least 2500 people.   I am cutting out on some online forums I participate in.  I am learning towards shutting down my facebook account because it is a distraction.  I am going to have Taylor filter my meetings and phone calls even more than we already do.

These things will enable me to get the most out of the time I have.  On top of all that, I am putting people in my life to keep me accountable to make sure I am doing these things.

I refuse to be the bottleneck in our church growing.

Man, I had a GREAT time today at a Pastor’s Roundtable in Alpharetta.  Just hearing what God is doing at other churches across the southeast is awesome!  Several things rocked my world and were great reminders of things I need to start doing and of some things I need to stop doing.

I am going to process EVERYTHING we have talked about over the next few days and filter it through our DNA as a church and implement what will make us more effective.

We meet again in the morning at 8 and will be done at noon.  Tomorrow we are talking multi-site so that should really rock!!!

Had a very good day today.  We had our all-staff meeting this morning, creative meeting after that and than I hung out with Daryl Strickland and Jeff Kapusta all day.  I honestly want to be Jeff.  He dresses cool, knows all about coffee (I guess that is cool), and he surfs!!!

I had a blast hanging out.

Tomorrow I head over to Alpharetta to hang out with a bunch of church planters for a couple of days.  Should be fun.

Dang, I just mentioned that I heard a rumor they were having a GuitarHero Tournament at the ChurchPlanters.com conference and already people are talking smack.  Tadd called me at 9:00 a.m. this morning to talk smack.  Dave is talking smack.  Chris is talking smack.

It is actually sad that in one short day that the blogging world is abuzz about a tournament that none of them have a chance of winning.  I am THE Guitar Hero so go ahead and give me my trophy and spare the beat down that will happen at the tournament.

Seriously, I am willing to let you guys give up right now where you don’t have to be killed in front of 700 church planters.  The choice is yours.

• FUN and INTENSE service today!
• It was fun to have service again!!!
• Lot’s of new people. Lot’s of new people leaving with their jaws dropped after the message.
• Anytime you have an excuse to play Keep Your Hands To Yourself by The Georgia Satellites it is a fun day.
• I was as open and as honest as I have EVER been today. It actually made me uncomfortable, but I think it was a message that was needed.
• We had about a 65/35 split between the two services today. Considering we are normally about 85/15, I’ll take it.
• Even with all the new people moving to the first service, we were about 80% full in the second service.
• Patrick had someone who reads my blog attend his first service today. My understanding is they use to live in Canton and read my blog. But they didn’t attend Revolution when they lived in Canton. Shame on them.
• VERY nice having a sound consultant in the service today. I think there was a big difference in the sound. Our guys are all new and sold out and with a little more experience they are going to be great.
• The theater manger called and said someone named Wendy grabbed my Bible today. Thanks Wendy! If you read this blog, I need that before Sunday.
• We had a lot of people talking about the Unleash Conference today. If you want to go, we’ll pay your way. Simply hit the CONTACT button at the top of the blog and sign up.
• I am gone Wednesday and Thursday this week at a pastor’s roundtable. This group of pastors is actually going to meet 3-4 times this year. I am looking forward to it.
• One more week of our Confessions Of A Pastor series. It has been a great series, but I am sick of confessing. I want to get back to pointing everyone else’s faults out, not mine.
• I hear rumors of a Guitar Hero tournament at ChurchPlanters.com Conference. Interesting…..
• I’ve got postal workers in Acworth, Canton, and Cumming. I love getting the scoop on what other churches are doing in terms of marketing.
• As I walked around today, it literally seemed like everyone in our church either had a newborn or was pregnant.
• I preached on Staying Sexually Pure Is Hard Work today. I told the church I was thinking of calling the message, I like boobs. I guess there is a shirt that says that and I only had about 15 people tell me they were getting me one. Only at Revolution.
• We are trying to improve our children’s area to help it get to the next level. We have some great volunteers in that area and next we have a consultant coming so I am excited about that!!!! That area is to important to not run awesome.
• I am thinking we are going to take our entire staff over to Mountain Lake next Sunday night just to see someone else in action.
• Brian is coming over tonight to help us train our dog. He trained K9’s in the military. He is multi-talented. He works security and will shoot you on Sunday morning and trains dogs at night.
• We got a lot of stuff to move this week out of all our storage places. NOT fun.
• I love the excitement our Jasper crowd has. They are ready to get started!!!!!!
• Have you seen the new Revolution signs around town? They look great!
• A ton of pastors in town are now blogging. I like reading them and it makes me laugh as I read their blogs and they are acting nothing like they are in real life. Guys, just be yourself!!!
• Next week you can start signing up to help us put on the biggest Easter egg hunt in the history of Cherokee County.
• I am trying to work in a road trip where I can go hang out with Perry for a day and with Steven for a day. Things are jus so busy it is hard to get away.
• It is weird not have football on today.
• Today was a GREAT example of why we don’t allow children in our services.
• Get your friends to church this week!!! If they are skeptics and doubt God, this will be the message for them!
• Anyone got any good music they are listening to?
• I’m going to play Guitar Hero with Ashlyn. See ya!

When I started living a life as a Christ-follower, things happened quick. I started teaching pretty quickly after I got involved in church, I took over a singles ministry at the church we were attending, I did the Bible college thing for a VERY short time, and I moved at 23 years old and started a church in Iowa. To say I got on the job training would be an understatement.

God was watching out for me and He must have known I needed some major help because He has placed some incredible leaders in my life that have shaped me into the pastor I am today. As I was thinking of those leaders today, started thinking of the ONE thing I learned from them the most and it has shaped me into the person/pastor/leader I am today.

Randy Rhye - With the exception of those who log into my blog from my past to find out “liberal” I’ve become and have something to preach against, no one on here has probably ever heard of this man. He was my first pastor and was all out, sold out for leading others to Christ.  He is as old school as they come, but I am who I am today because of him.  One Thing That Shaped Me: I learned to be consumed with lost people.

Brian Bloye - In many ways, I consider Brian my pastor now.  I served for a year under his leadership at West Ridge Church.  One Thing That Shaped Me: Family before Ministry.  He is as dogmatic about this balance as anyone I have ever seen.  He lives it out every day.

Shawn Lovejoy - One of the people who pours into my life on a regular basis.   One Thing That Shaped Me: Be Mean About The Vision.  That one sentence changed everything in me.  I heard it before we launched Revolution and I have ate, slept, and drank it.

Perry Noble - I consider Perry THE mentor in my life in regards to ministry.  One Thing That Shaped Me: DREAM BIG.  Perry is the biggest visionary I have ever been around.  He literally thinks he is going to reach 100% of Anderson, S.C.

Steven Furtick - I feel blessed to be connected with Steven.  I think he is one of the great leaders/visionaries in the church today.  One Thing That Shaped Me: The Office Of Pastor IS A Big Deal.  I fought this for a long time.  I wanted to be everyone’s friend.  While I still want to be friends with the people of Revolution, I am their pastor first.

Greg Rohlinger -  I have been friends with Greg since I was in Iowa.  I often state he is the most underrated church planter in America.  He has built a great church and is a great leader.  About two years ago, DeAnna and I flew out and stayed in his house for a week.  It changed my ministry.  One Thing That Shaped Me: It Is About People.  Greg is a pastor.  He loves the people he pastors.  He has the heart of a pastor and that was a big deal to me when I saw it.

DeAnna had a 5K this morning so I am on kid duty.  They are watching cartoons that are nowhere as good as when I was a kid, but they are being good and that is all that matters to me.

When DeAnna gets back she is taking the kids to my cousins where the women in the family are doing something that I am sure is boring.  So I am heading to the office.  I am going to grab a cup of coffee, sprawl on the couch and just read.

I am literally watching the clock waiting on tomorrow.  I feel like we have haven’t had church in forever.  Time has moved SLOW this week as I have waited on Sunday.   This time tomorrow I will be on stage during our 9:00 a.m. service and I can’t wait!

Cherokee Tribune wrote a pretty cool article about me blogging in today’s paper.  You can read it here.  I think it is funny we have been around 3 years and have seen a lot of growth, have done a lot of crazy things, and have created a lot of buzz and when they finally write about us, it is about my blog.  Oh well, I appreciate the article.

They also wrote about my boy Charlie.  Love that dude.

Driving home from our Revolution Jasper meeting get me dreaming about multi-site.  The possibilities are endless.  We have said from day one that we feel God would have us launch locations in Jasper, Elijay, and Blue Ridge.  I joke that I want to retire in Murphy, N.C. so we have to launch a site there.

On the way home tonight I was thinking why should we stop there?  As we continue to outgrow the theater, i could honestly see us launching multiple locations in Canton.

• I would love to see a location in the Macedonia area.  There is nothing in this area and it is booming.  The problem is there isn’t many places to meet, but there are a few schools.  We have a large group already coming from this area.
• I could see us launching a Sixes Road location as well.  The area around BridgeMill is WIDE open. There is nothing in this area and Sixes Road is booming with growth.  I might have to make the band wear dockers in this area, but it is wide open.
• Heck, we actually have a possible location in Kennesaw that when complete will hold a few thousand people.  The owner attends our church and has already told us we could use it for a location.  The location is literally on Barrett Parkway about a mile from the mall.  If this door opened, I can promise you there would not be another church in America meeting in a location like this.

We started Revolution to change North Georgia with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and that is exactly what we plan to do.  Multi-site gives us the way to do it.

• Found out today we have 50,000 prestuffed eggs being dropped off next Saturday
• Got a guy in the church who is going to hook us up and wrap our new box truck.  A billboard on wheels!!!
• Excited about our Jasper meeting tonight.  My goal is to double the number of Home Teams we have there
• I am leading a creative meeting at our office Monday night.  It has been a long time since we had one and I think our creativity has become stale.  I hope some new blood means some new ideas.  We are going to be attacking our next three teaching series.
• Should have an announcement about our youth next week.
• We still have openings for Unleash.  If you want to attend  click the “contact” link at the top of the page and let Taylor know.
• Next Sunday we are bringing in a consultant for our children’s area.  Look forward to hearing what she has to say.
• This week we have a consultant coming in to help with our sound.  We are having some issues and hopefully this will help.
• Tim has band and vocal audtions coming up next weekend.  If you want to audtion, contact him at tim@therevolution.tv
• I hear rumors we are going country next Sunday in our worship.  Should be fun.
• I am loving our “Confessions” series, but I saw the graphics and video for our next series called “Deadliest Catch” and I can’t wait.  We have never preached through a book of the bible at Revolution.  In this series we will be going chapter by chapter through the book of Jonah.
• I think our staff team right now is the best it has ever been.  That isn’t a knock on anyone we have had before, because we have had some great people.  It is just there is a great chemistry, attitude, and talent with our team right now.
• Don’t forget we need some people to move to our early service and free up some seats at 10:30.
• During our RockStar series we are launching on Easter we have one of the greatest volunteer appreciation things we haver done being planned.  Stay tuned for more information.
• Stay tuned because are about to give you all the details about our Easter Egg Drop.  We are dropping 50,000 eggs from a helicopter and we are going to need a HUGE amount of help.
• See ya Sunday!!!!!  Trust me, you don’t want to miss church this Sunday.