We got a ton of stuff going on at Revolution right now so I thought I would give you the 411 on all that is happening over the next few weeks:

• THIS Sunday, May 18th - We are wrapping up our Prison Break series by talking about Breaking Free From Religion.  I have loved this series and the feedback has been off the hook!  This week we are closing it in style.  You don’t want to miss Sunday!
• Sunday, May 25th - Annual Tailgating Service.  Every year on Memorial Day weekend we party outside!  We’ll combine services and have a time of worship, baptisms, baby dedications, inflatable games for the kids, the grill will be fired up, and you’ll get to hang with the awesome people of Revolution!
• Baptisms - During our tailgating service on May 25th we will be giving you the opportunity to let the world know you’ve entered into a relationship with Jesus Christ.  Baptism is the first step in obedience in following Christ and is our way of letting the world know about the decision we have made.  Contact Preston at preston@therevolution.tv to sign up.
• Baby Dedications - On May 25th we will also be doing baby dedications.  If you would like to bring your child before the church and allow us to pray for you as parents to raise them in a Godly way, we would love to do it!  Contact Preston to sign-up!
• Partnership Class - Take the next step in partnering with the vision of Revolution Church on Friday, May 30th.  During this class we will tell you the history, vision and expectations expected of those who call Revolution home.  We’ll serve you dinner so all you got to do is show up.  Class starts at 6:30 and is being held this time at the ROCK BARN next to Cherokee High School.  We will not have childcare.  Contact Preston to sign-up.
• Sunday, June 1st is going to be one of those CAN’T miss services.  We are going to rejoice in all that God has done at Revolution Church and I am going to share with you some very COOL news about the future of Revolution.  This one is going to be BIG!
• Sunday, June 6th we are joining with over 700 churches across the country for a teaching series called One Prayer.  During this series we are going to be showing some of the greatest teachers in the country teaching their ONE prayer for the church.  It is going to be an awesome series!

• Good Sunday.  Not great, but very good.  I can’t put my finger on it because nothing was really wrong, but things just didn’t seen right.
• Very unhappy with my message.  I could never get in sync but I had some good feedback and I honestly believe some people learned how to let go of their unforgiveness for the first time in their life.
• We were low today in attendance.  We always have a drop on Mother’s day.  I joke that all of our young former hell-raisers take mother’s day to make mom happy and go to church with her.
• I hate that we drop in attendance but they always return the next week appreciating Revolution.
• Kyle O’Neal lead worship for us today.  The dude has a great rocker voice.  He did a good job.
• Confession:  Using different worship leaders has been an adjustment for me.  I think Tim and Thad are as good as any guys around.  Problem is they are such GREAT leaders that we are holding them back by just allowing them to lead worship.  Tim has moved into our executive role and Thad has taken over our family ministries and they are knocking it out of the park!
• Our set-up team is full of nothing but FREAKS.  They literally set-up in the middle of POURING rain, lighting and tornado warnings this morning.  I heard they had AWESOME attitudes and they made it happen.  You guys rock!
• Met Jill’s parents (thad’s wife).  They seemed normal so that gives me hope for Jill. :)  I was afraid they were going to slap me for moving their daughter away but they didn’t
• Diana’s video today about forgiving Ray was POWERFUL.  I love that family!
• I think I have all of Revolution Church twittering.
• I’m trying to work it out where Revolution sponsors the main stage at Relay for Life next year.  We would run sound, lights, and get the music taken care of.  I am trusting Tory to make that happen since she has the pull.
• We had a young teenager get violent with his mom this week.  I had a little talk with him this morning….
• AC wasn’t working today.  It was so freaking hot that I honestly thought I was going to pass out.
• I said the phrase Hot as Hell today and this couple left angry saying I should be put in jail.  Huh?
• I have to be in Gwinnett County at 9 in the morning for a meeting.  NOT cool.
• I will leave the house about 6.
• Pray for Preston’s mom.  She had a heart attack today.  She is fine but pray for God to do some cool things through this.  I love the Porter family.
• Baptisms in two weeks!
• Baby dedications in two weeks!
• MUST ministries has a shortage of food right now so in two weeks we are going to load them up with can goods.  Bring your stuff to the tail-gating service
• Breaking Free From Religion is this Sunday.  If you want to share you story on video about how God has used Revolution to bring you out of religion and into a relationship with Jesus Christ, e-mail Preston at preston@therevolution.tv
• Love reading The Magic Tree House books to Ashlyn.  GREAT way to teach her history.
• Adam and Jenna are on vacation this week.  They deserve it!
• Get to see some plans this week in regards to our big announcement on June 1st!  Very pumped about that.
• Excited about One Prayer in July.
• Ready for next Sunday already!

Michael had a good post the other day about the need for pastors needing others pastors who are preaching truth into their lives.  You can read it here.  I couldn’t agree more.  As a pastor, I never get the opportunity to sit in a church service and listen to other pastors because obviously I am teaching.  I have learned as a leader and a pastor it is vitally important for me to listen to teaching and I can tell a huge difference in my spiritual life when I am not taking the time to listen to other preachers.  Podcasts are a God-send in my book because it allows me to listen to some of the greatest communicators in the world and listen to them when I have time.

Right now here who is speaking to me (I listen to several others but right now these are the guys who I don’t miss):

Perry Noble - I think he is the preacher of choice in our office.  At one time or another I walk through the office and everyone in the office is listening to Perry during the week.  I think he is one of the greatest leaders I have ever been around and I consider him a friend, a mentor, and I consider him my pastor.  BTW, Perry will be teaching for us during our One Prayer series via video.  Can’t wait!

Ed Young Jr. - There are times when I connect with Ed more than others through his teaching.  Right now, I am connecting BIG TIME.  Revolution Church would NOT exist if not for Ed Young Jr.  I have never met him, but I started Revolution after seeing what God was doing through him.

Brian Houston - Brian is the pastor of Hillsong Church in Australia.  Hillsong is probably more known for the worship than they are their preaching and that is why I started listening to Brian.  I wanted to hear a guy who was so secure in his calling that he could have a church that was known more for worship than his leadership.  Here is the deal:  THE DUDE CAN PREACH.  I am enjoying him big time right now.

TD Jakes - The BEST communicator in the church today if you ask me.  LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE this dude.  He makes me want to be an overweight black dude.  Man, he could preach the phone book and I would listen.  Right now he is the first sermon I listen to every week.  You have to pay for TD’s podcast and I think that is pretty lame but it is worth it so I do it.

I also listen to Steven Furtick, Greg Rohlinger, Craig Groschel, Eddie Cox, and a couple of old school guys that would actually shock you on a very regular basis.

Holy Smokes, tomorrow is going to be an awesome Sunday!  We are continuing our Prison Break series and we are hitting on a subject that hits EVERY one at one time or another.  We are going to be talking about breaking free from unforgiveness and I pumped about the service we have planned.

It is amazing the amount of people I meet who hold onto bitterness and unforgiveness for literally years and it is even more amazing how much it affects  them without them realizing it!

Kyle O’Neal is leading worship in the morning and I am excited about hearing him bring it and I am big time pumped about sharing what God has shown me on the subject of unforgiveness.

Invite a friend and I’ll see ya on the morning!

God is doing some amazing things across America in terms of church planting.  I love to keep up with stories of guys who have started with nothing and now are knocking it out of the park.  It also seems that it is the same people you hear about all the time.  Don’t get me wrong I love hearing about God moving in around these guys, but I want to learn about those guys have have started churches that have grown and are truly impacting their communities and no one has heard of them.

I’ve got some guys like that I want to share with you over the next week or so, but if you know of some guys getting it done in your area, send their information to me by clicking the contact button at the top of this page, I want to learn from them.

We shot our video sermon for One Prayer tonight and it was strange to teach in that setting. I have never taught in a studio setting and focusing on the camera and the people on the other side of the camera instead of the people in the room was different. I think I could have done a lot better job, BUT I was very pleased with it being the first time we have ever done it.

Most amazing thing is I kept it to 25 minutes! It took me longer to record all the personalized intros for the guys who requested them than it did the sermon.

Shout out to Ryan Fitzgerald and Joe Wiggleston for the video help!  This was our first time working with Joe and I dug the dude.  Ryan is always awesome and I enjoyed catching up with him for a few minutes.

We are getting ready to shoot our sermon for One Prayer and I am actually nervous.  Not sure why but to know others will be showing our video has me a little freaked out and this is the first time I have ever taught in front of a camera so that will be different.

The good thing is I have a ton of video intros to do for churches who are using our sermon so I can warm up a little doing those.

Earlier today I mentioned that had cut way back on which blogs I read.  At one time I was reading about 120 through bloglines, but I am now down to around 20.  After that post I have gotten several e-mails asking me how I decide which blogs to read so that got me thinking about it because I guess I had an answer since I did pick which ones to keep and which ones to delete, but I had never thought about it before.

So after looking over the blogs I have kept, here is how I decided which ones to keep:

• I have a relationship with most of the bloggers whose blogs I read
• 90% are church planters.  I am one and I relate to those planting churches
• I kept guys whose church and leadership speak to me
• Most of the guys I keep up with mix their blog with leadership stuff, church stuff, and personal stuff.  I like that.
• Guys that I just like.  I know that sounds dumb, but at one time I was reading guys just because everyone else was.  Now, I am focused on guys that I simply like to read their stuff

Some of the ways I decided to quit reading some blogs:

• If you are always selling your crap on your blog, I ain’t reading
• If you post very long posts, I ain’t reading
• If you aren’t being real, I ain’t reading
• If I don’t really know you, I probably ain’t reading

That doesn’t mean any of those above things are bad, they just are some things that personally drive me nuts.

I will still keep up from time to time with some of the blogs I deleted and I will hopefully be adding guys back as they connect with me during different stages of this adventure in pastoring.

Preston beat me to the big news, but I am excited to announce our newest hire at Revolution. You can go here to see a video of him in action.

Nice

EDIT:  Just realized this guy is going to be down by my buddy Chris so I might have to go check him out.  Chris, can I crash on your couch?  I HAVE to see this guy kick someone in the face or leg drop a pastor!

I have taken HUGE steps in the last months to do away with distractions that take up my time and keep me from Revolution and my family and I feel more focused and excited about the future of my life than I have in a long time.

Today I finished off the cleaning house of my time by deleting the blogs I follow down to 18, shutting down my facebook account, and by this time next week I will have a new cell phone number and a new e-mail address.

I think every pastor needs to take time every few months and evaluate what it is that is distracting them and is wasting their time.