This has been a LONG week.  After church last week, I spent the rest of the day meeting with Thad about joining our team, I was gone all day Monday and Tuesday at a conference with church planters, and I have been playing catch up the rest of the week.  It seems like forever since we had church.

This Sunday we continue our ONE series and I am going to teach on a subject that I don’t think I have ever thought on before.  I am going to be talking about one of the most vital areas of our church and why it is so vital.  I think it will be very eye-opening for a lot of people.  It is going to be fun.

I know many of you are still out of town on Winter Break but for those of you who are in town, I look forward to seeing you Sunday!!!!!

I just sat down and ate my last meal before the big weight lose challenge.  Roast, Rolls, Green Beans, Rice, and I am SURE there will be some type of dessert coming before midnight.

Right now it is Team Revolution, Team Freedom, Team Reveal, and I hear rumors about Team Embassy Metro, and even my friend Andy Jones from Watermarke said he wants in, but he has got to find a boy to roll with him.

Here is the deal:  $100 a team.  Weight has to be recorded by midnight tonight, and we roll until May 1st.  Team with the largest % of weight lose wins all the money.  DeAnna already told me I get to keep all the money to buy new clothes.  I got Tim on my team so there is no chance of us losing.

JR says there is still time for other teams to join.  Just contact him TONIGHT and let him know you are in.   I’m looking forward to winning about bunch of poor church planter’s money.

Tony Morgan is blogging live from the Creative Church Conference in Dallas and he just posted this quote from TD Jakes: “There’s always a Judas at your table, and he’s close enough to kiss you.” I don’t agree 100% with that statement and I would hate to live life with that mindset, BUT I do think there is more truth to that statement than we would like admit.

It sounds like Ed is hitting the issue of betrayal hard and I am betting it is powerful. I think this is something EVERY leader will face at one time or another in their life. Like it or not, it will happen.

Being at Churchplanters.com this week just reminded me of how much I love church planters.  I think church planting is the extreme sport of ministry. To step out on faith where there is nothing, where you know no one, and don’t have any money is CRAZY. That is why it takes a crazy person to do it. Just hanging with church planters pumps me up.

Since the day we started Revolution we have been around church planters.  Honestly, there are church planters in our services, our offices, e-mailing us, and calling us so much that it just seems normal.  You never know who is going to be in the office when you show up or on the phone when you pick it up.  I love it!  It truly is in our church DNA.

I am actually praying that God will get a hold of someone and they will GIVE us a house where we can house church planters for a year at a time and allow them to do nothing but hang out at Revolution for a year and learn and prepare to plane the church God has called them to plant.

This past year, I had to get a grip on my schedule and that meant saying NO to a lot more things.  One of those things was passing on some of the church planters who come our way.  I have LOVED watching our staff embrace the same passion and do whatever it takes to help out those planting churches.

Church Planters are like a fraternity.  You just meet guys that are starting churches and there is an instant connection.  That is why I make it a point to attend ChurchPlanters.com every year and will continue to even after Shawn decides he is sick of letting me teach breakouts.

I heard the expression LEARN AND RETURN one day and it just stuck with me.   I have the honor of meeting with some very sharp people in ministry and I want to be able to spend my life reaching North Georgia and impacting church planters.

If you are a church planter and you are not connecting with other planters and you are not learning from other planters, you will not last.  Start saving your money now for the churchplanters.com conference next year.  Look for opportunities to connect with guys.  I actually heard a rumor this week of a one day church planting thing coming up this fall.  If it happens, sell your car to make it to this one.  I promise it will be worth it.

The first 100 COMPLETE (if you didn’t answer every question, we aren’t using it) are in, so I thought I would give you some early glimpses at what you said.

• For the record, we we are NOT starting a location at Hooters as more than one of you suggested.

• VERY excited to see the interest in a Holly Springs/Hickory Flat location.  You answered a question I had been batting around in my mind. (35% of you want to see a location there)
• VERY excited to see the buzz about a Jasper location. (33% of you want to see a location there)
• Nothing to do with the survey, but I heard a rumor that you will see locations in both of those places in the next year…..
• BLOWN away so far with how many of you said you would watch the sermon on video (76%)
• 50% of you listen to the sermons online.
• 45% of you checked out the webpage before visiting.  Last time we did the survey it was 10%.
• 0%, yes 0% said they came to our church because of direct mail.  It is early, but that is AMAZING to me and doesn’t make sense since every time we do mailers our attendance jumps big time.
• Parenting, Studying The Bible, Living The Christian Life are leading in sermon topics you would like to see us do next year.  GREAT thing is we already have those planned!!!
• 84% said the primary reason they come is for the teaching.  I am sure they are lying but it is good for my ego.
• Only 23% of you were regular church attendars before attending Revolution.  VERY cool.
• 68% of you came the first time because someone invited you!!!!  That is amazing.
• 75% of you said you would be interested in being part of the launch team at another campus.
• 31% of you said you would attend another campus with another live teacher, but 23 of you left comments basically saying he had to be loud, make fun of baptists, and teach like me. :)  Since that isn’t that easy to find, we’ll stick with video.
• Literally a 50/50 split on staying portable or building.  Very surprised by this one especially since I just taught on portability. :)  That is what is so great about you guys, even though you want a building you never mention it!
• 43% said you would attend a Saturday night service instead of Sunday morning.  Only 14% so far for Sunday night.
• Thanks for all the sexy pastor comments.

We’ve got a long way to go and a lot more people to fill out the survey but I thought the first 100 responses were interesting.

Because we are high-tech rednecks at Revolution, we took our church survey online today.  I sent it out through our e-mail blast, but if you are part of Revolution and don’t get that, I would love for you to take a couple of minutes and fill it out.  Don’t worry it is anonymous.

We have a ton of results already and I got to be honest, some of them really surprise me.  Interesting.

Fill it out here.

There are times when common sense works and there are times God just opens doors and you have to walk through them. This is one of those walk through the door times.

I am very excited to announce that we have brought Thad Wood on our staff full-time this week! I’ll share the story of how it happened one day, but it truly is a God thing.

We weren’t looking for another hire, we didn’t have one budgeted, and didn’t even know Thad was looking, but God did some cool things and we are stepping out on faith to make this happen. He is the right person for our team and I am looking forward to seeing how God is going to use Thad to help us impact North Georgia with the message of Jesus Christ.

What exactly will Thad be doing for us? Good question. A better question is what will he NOT be doing for us? Once we launch our second location, he will be leading worship somewhere once a week. Right now he is working in our worship area, he will be helping out Adam with all that is on his plate, he will be helping Preston with all that is on his plate, and there is a small rumor that he might be doing something with our middle school and high school students as well.

Go over to his blog and tell Thad, Jill, and Zoe hello and go check out this page to hear a song he wrote.

Somehow I got talked into doing a contest to see who can lose the most weight from this coming Monday until May 1st with JR Lee and Mark Ayers.  The way I understand it is we are all picking one person on our team (my person is Tim) and I assume it will be by weight lose percentage because the most weight lost total isn’t fair for us guys that are already skinny.

I also agreed to put up a large sum of money (I think) to raise the stakes.

Not sure exactly what I said agreed to do, but I will fill you in the details as I figure them out.  Just know this, I will win.

A few more quick hits and I am done talking about the conference:

• Finally got to meet Matt Adams from Factor 1 (guys who did our website and this blog).  I think Matt is one of the best web designers I have ever seen and I can’t recommend him enough.  GREAT GREAT company.  If you are looking for a site, he is your man.
• Had fun hanging with Devin Hudson during the bloggers breakout.  The dude makes me laugh so for that I like him.
• Went to lunch with a bunch of old friends.  That is always the best part of any conference.
• I knew a lot of people read this blog and I knew a lot of people follow the Revolution story, but I didn’t realize how many.  God really convicted me of the responsibility our church has and I will be taking this more seriously.
• I simply love Dave Anderson.
• The dude working the room I was teaching in was great.  I can’t believe I can’t remember his name but the dude was awesome!
• I need to get to more conferences.  I honestly feel like I could kick the devil in his teeth right now.

I live for people discovering their purpose in life.  I know how my life was changed when I knew what God had called me to do and I love to see it in others.

Today I got a package from Ben Arment (this is the guy I told all you church planters about in my session today that has all the worship environment pictures) about his one day conference called The Whiteboard Sessions.  It was the BEST promotional package I ever saw.  It actually got me pumped about the conference and made me look at my calendar to see if I could make it.  When I discovered, I couldn’t, it actually bummed me out to know I can’t make it.

What does that have to do with knowing your calling?  When I got the package, I started smiling knowing that Ben has found his calling.  As most of you know, Ben resigned his church plant a few weeks ago.  I can’t imagine how hard that had to be.  I bet it was the toughest thing he ever had to do, but on the other hand it felt like a thousand pound weight off his chest.  I think it takes a big man to admit they aren’t where they should be and it is time to move on.  I think it takes an even bigger man to have the guts to do follow your passion.

If you have followed any of the journey of The Whiteboard Sessions, it is nothing short of amazing.  I have been blown away with the way in which Ben has put this thing together and I think it is awesome that he is operating in his sweet spot.

I said all that to say this:  If you are looking for a conference to go to this year, check this one out.  8 of the most awesome speakers in the church today, given 30 minutes to discuss one topic all in one day.  That is awesome.

BTW, thanks Ben for the package.  It was awesome!