I guess the page I linked to earlier didn’t work, so try this one out.

One thing we have always done well at Revolution is BIG days.  Matter of fact, we have seen almost all of our growth through big days (Easter, Christmas, Anniversary).  So we are accustomed tonthe stress that comes from these days and we know we better be prayed up in a BIG time way because the devil comes out in full force during these weeks.

The week started yesterday and things have been insane.

• Yesterday morning was the MOST stressful morning of set-up we have ever had!
• Our first service was CRAZY!
• This morning I woke up with a throat that felt like it had razor blades in it!
• We ordered a TON of new lights that haven’t shown up yet and the company doesn’t seem to want to answer the phone.
• The post office called today and there is a problem with our mailers that were supposed to hit this week.

Most people stress over these type of things.  I thrive in these areas.  I love the stress, tension, and rush that comes from big weeks!  I have seen our team grow to love them too!  Preston and Adam were handling business today and got all the above issues worked out!  I love it!

Revolution, this weekend is going to be awesome and unlike anything you have ever seen.  Let me remind you of a few things that will be opening this weekend:

1. Good Friday Service - This is the first time we have ever done a Good Friday service and it is going to be a simple affair.  Tim and Thad are going to lead us in a little acoustic worship, we are going to share communion together, and than we are going to spread across the room and pray for the weekend and pray over the names that were written down on Sunday.  The 6:30 service is full, but there is still space at the 8:00 p.m. service.
2. Cherokee’s LARGEST Egg Hunt - This is going to be the most insane thing we have ever done.  Honestly, it is going to be crazy.  We are dropping 50,000 eggs from the sky onto Boling Park Field!  There are going to be a ton of activities for the children and we are giving away iPods, Xbox 360, and a Wii, along with a lot of cash!
3. Easter Worship - We are launching a new series called Rock Star and it is going to be off the hook.  We have services planned for 9:00 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. and I can promise it is going to be the wildest service we have ever pulled off.  TRUST ME YOU DO NOT WANT TO MISS THE WAY WE KICK OFF THE SERVICE.  You DO NOT want to be late.  We need a lot of you to move to the 9:00 a.m. service and we need you bringing your friends!

I can’t figure out how to get a YouTube video embedded on this blog (everytime I try, it posts a blank screen), but to see our promo video for Rock Star, you can click here.

Yes, I go to A LOT of concerts. If I could do anything with my life it would be to be the frontman of a band. Today someone asked me what the best concert I went to see last year was so I thought I would share the top five from the last year or so.

5.) Bon Jovi - Took DeAnna to this one last year (and going again this year) and the dudes are legends. EVERY song they sing is a hit. They sound great live and they have changed with the times (maybe the church could learn a lesson here) and years after the 80’s they are still packing out arenas with NEW music.

4.) Keith Urban Unplugged - DeAnna got to see Keith Urban with only about 2,000 other people and it was incredible. He literally sat on a stool and played the guitar and told the stories behind every song. It was GREAT.

3.) Three Days Grace - I had never heard of them, but they opened for Nickelback (who were awful) and these dudes stole the show. They had people eating out of their hand. I am not hooked on them. These cats are putting out some rocking music.

2.) Michael Buble - Took three chicks (one was my wife) to this concert and the dude was awesome. Honestly, I loved this concert. He is a great performer and it was awesome to watch him to just have the crowd lock in on him. GREAT GREAT show.

1.) Kid Rock - Tim, Adam, Thad, and I went to this show last Tuesday and I was BLOWN AWAY. The dude is GREAT. He is beyond talented. Yes, he is vulgar and I am not sure I would ever go back to another concert but the dude can play anything. He played rock, southern rock, hip hop, country, he played every instrument on stage and I have NEVER seen a crowd respond to a singer like they do him. You can just see it on his face that he loves what he is doing. The dude played for over 3 hours!! It was simple, no video, just a band rocking it out to great music. I think every worship pastor in America should go see him to learn how to lead a crowd of people in music.

In the next month I am going to check out Bon Jovi, Daughtery, and Lifehouse. Did I mention I love concerts?

Thad has been on our staff for two weeks and the only knock we have against him is the fact that he is from Seneca, S.C. and he is a Clemson fan.  I honestly feel bad for him and for people like Perry as well.  Yet again, Clemson gets so close only to lose when it counts and yet again, Georgia wins a championship.

Can you believe the Dawgs won the SEC tourney???

Thad, welcome to Georgia, a state where our team actually wins.

• CRAZY, I mean CRAZY day
• We didn’t have sound until about an hour before the first service. We had sent Tim back to get our youth sound system and for him go unplugged.
• Thad lead worship and did a good job. He broke a guitar string in the first service but still rocked it out
• Did I mention it was as crazy of a morning as we have had in a LONG time
• I felt we should give everyone in the first service a refund. It is what it is, but it was rough.
• Second service was pretty rocking. I was proud of everyone pulling together and making it happen.
• We had people come down and write the names of their lost friends on the stage. I thought it was pretty powerful.
• Ken Wilson outdid himself on the Rockstar video stuff. THE best stuff I have ever seen him do. It is freaking awesome.
• Oh yeah, the video didn’t have sound in the first service. Did I mention things were crazy this morning?
• I bragged to soon. I was laughing at other churches a few weeks ago because of the flu bug, but it hit our crew this week.
• Children’s Check-in went GREAT!!!!! I am so glad we are doing it all through the computers now. Very nice.
• If anyone has a suggestion on storing HUGE carpets, I want to hear them.
• Easter Egg Drop is NEXT Saturday!!!!!!!!
• Next week we launch Rock Star and it is going to be awesome!
• We gave out Rock Star Energy Drinks today as invites for our people to give to their friends. I thought that was cool.
• Good Friday service this coming week. The first service is sold out! There are about 75 tickets for the second. If you want to come, you better hit Preston up quick. You can email him at preston@therevolution.tv.  Tickets are free, but we are limited on space.
• Did you see how awesome the kids area looked today? The girls have been doing a GREAT job down there and today it looked GREAT!
• Taylor was on vacation today and that was not good. I will be glad when she gets back in town.
• March Madness is here and I am so busy I could care less.
• I have been with AT&T a week now and they can’t touch Verizon on coverage. But I do love my iPhone.
• This is the perfect day to go bike riding, but I am at the office instead.
• I am working on a post about MOST worship pastors and musicians in the church being nothing more than prostitutes. I have NOTHING against paying musicians but find it funny that most of these guys travel around on Sunday wherever the paycheck is and they don’t belong or are active in a church YET we are bringing them in to lead our people in worship. I’ll get the post done one day.
• I hear Georgia is in the SEC finals today. I hate basketball but I will have to check that out.
• The people we took to Unleash were FIRED up today.
• Got a couple of new toys this week. If we can figure out how to use them, you’ll see them next week in the service!
• How are you going to get your ONE to church Easter Sunday?
• LOVED hearing the band do God of this City. Love that song.
• I would appreciate your prayers this week as it is going to be insane busy.
• I am jacked about firing up the grill in a little bit.
• Got a meeting at 5 tonight. Broke a lot of my rules to have this meeting but I am looking forward to it.
• I love the office on Sunday afternoons. It just quiet and that is rare.
• Scratch that lost hit.  The band is practicing today for Easter.  It is NOT quiet.
• I got a bunch of work to do so I better quit writing.

Tomorrow morning we are moving to a computerized check-in system down in the Revolution Kids area.  We have worked hard the last month getting this ready and we think we have all the bugs out, BUT we have not tried it at the theater yet so come a few minutes early in the morning and be patient as the great volunteers down there figure this thing out.

If you lose your patience we will be forced to our security team shoot you.

Tomorrow we wrap up our ONE series and to say I am excited would be an understatement.  I am going to give one of the most practical talks I have ever given to show you HOW to get your friends to church.  This is the #1 question I have gotten during this series so I am going to do my best to answer all your questions.   At the end of the service, we are going to make your ONE known to the church in a very very cool way.  Trust me, you don’t want to miss it!

Thad is going to be leading worship tomorrow and I am pumped up for him.  He would never admit it, but I am sure he is nervous.  Filling in for Tim is no easy task, but I am pumped to hear what him bring it.  Tomorrow is going to be fun!

I honestly believe it could be one of the most powerful services we have ever had.

Let the fun begin!!!!!!  Yesterday we were given a full page in the Cherokee Tribune and today I just logged onto the AJC (THE Atlanta paper) and we were on the front of the home page!  You can read that article here.

On top of the TWO newspaper articles this week, things have been off the charts!  7 or 8 elementary schools passed out our invite cards to EVERY child in the school!!!!!!  The Around Canton ad hit this past week which goes to 16,000 homes.  The cards are being handed out at Chik-fil-a in Canton (We have already taken them ANOTHER thousand), and next week 50,000 direct mail pieces will be hitting mailboxes all over Cherokee County!!!!!

We’ve always figured if we were going to do something we might as well do it as BIG, as INSANE, and with as much BUZZ as possible.  So far, so good……

• Conference was amazing.  Simply amazing.
• Yesterday confirmed to me that Perry is the greatest leader in the church right now.  I have the honor of being around him often and he IS the real deal.
• EVERY pastor and EVERY church member needs to hear both his talks from yesterday.  Very powerful.
• The volunteers at New Spring are amazing.  Simply amazing
• I got to eat lunch with a small group of pastors in Perry’s green room and I just shut up and listened.  I also popped two pain pills before going in the room so I was pretty much out of it.
• Enjoyed the Senior Pastors Only session with Perry.  There were actually some good questions asked.
• HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY:  Spending time with 100 people from Revolution.  I am honored to pastor this church and I keep thinking you guys are going to come to your senses one day and realize the messes I create.
• I was so happy for our people to see where we are headed as a church.  They hear me talk about it, but to see it is a different story.  It was life-changing for our people.
• I told you God has been working on my about being more kingdom-minded.  Confession:  This doesn’t come natural for me so I have to be intentional about it.  We paid for 4 senior pastors to attend Unleash and paid for one church to take 10 people.  As I watched those people getting IT, I was thankful we were in a position to help.
• Didn’t do a lot of networking yesterday with other guys.  I was very intentional about hanging out with our people.  If you tried to connect with me and didn’t, I’m sorry.  Call the office and Taylor will set up a time for us to chat.
• We all stopped to eat and I LOVED hearing the stories from our people about how they were ready to charge hell with a water gun!
• I almost, almost lost it when our people gathered around me to pray. Very cool moment.
• I love our staff.  Seriously, those guys are the most loyal group I have ever been around.  There is no one I would rather go to war with.
• Perry joked about people talking about things they do better than New Spring so I thought I would throw my thing in. Yes, their building is incredible BUT we have cupholders in every seat so our seats are better!!!
• THANK YOU NEW SPRING FOR TAKING THE TIME FOR UNLEASH!