• Solid Day At Revolution. Not great, not bad, but solid
• I felt like I dropped the ball in our first service. It’s been a long time since I felt that out of sync, but I felt we rebounded in the second service.
• Attendance in the second service at Canton is packed.
• Heard Holly Springs was solid as well. We got a lot of work to do there, but I got a little something up my sleeve that I think is going to help bolster that campus a little more
• As soon as church was over, our entire Lead Team hit the road for Charleston and the Multi-site Exposed Conference. I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS CONFERENCE IN A BIG WAY!!!!
• After doing multi-site for a month, I am convinced it is NOT the next craze in the church. It is hard work and you have to be sold-out to make it happen.
• After doing multi-site for a month, I am more sold out to the vision of it then ever before. One church in multiple locations is the vision of Revolution.
• Had a great vacation with the family last week.  Honestly one of the most relaxing trips we have ever taken.
• I had done so good at not traveling over the last 6 months but the way the things have played out, I have been in my bed 3 nights in the last 2 1/2 weeks. Granted one week of that was with my family, but I am ready for my home.
• Wrapped up The Ultimate Fighter today. Fun and Powerful sermon.
• This week we launch Beautiful: The Heart Of A Woman. I think this series is going to be off the hook. I can’t wait to share with you some of the things God has laid on my heart!!!!
• Be there early this week as we have a nice surprise for you in the lobby at both campuses.
• I have seen some people stepping up in big ways at Revolution over the last month and I could not be prouder. I love our volunteers.
• I can’t believe my Georgia Bulldogs the other night. Literally made me sick.
• I have cut my bloglines account down to 4 blogs I am following. I just felt the need for a break from outside perspectives right now. I want to hear from God about Revolution without being influenced by what others are doing.
• I have been thinking a lot about blogging lately. I see good and bad to blogs and I will be posting some thoughts soon about both.
• We started working out of our Holly Springs campus last week but I haven’t been around to see how it works. Looking forward to getting in their on Wednesday and settling in.
• The lack of gas in Georgia is insane!!!!!  People are literally waiting in 30-40 minute lines. That is stupid and crazy. Where is Governor Perdue showing the leadership we need during this time?
• I’ve been thinking a lot about the election coming up and I have decided who is getting my vote. How about you?
• I got 3 fantasy football teams and looks like all of them are going to win this week. That is a first.
• I’m bunking with Tim the next two days. He’s a lot uglier than DeAnna.
• I’m exhausted so I’m out.

I am sitting in a Panera Bread in Panama City Beach spending some time working on my message for the first week of our series called Beautiful that starts in 2 weeks. Thank you for all the emails and prayers for us this week.  The last few days have been awesome.  I have done nothing but spend time with hanging out with the family and time alone with God.  It was a much needed break and I look forward to a few more days here before we head home on Saturday.

Before I start studying, let me give you a couple of thoughts running through my head especially since I didn’t do a Sunday Night Mind Dump this week.

• You don’t want to miss this Sunday at Revolution!!!  We are wrapping up our Ultimate Fighter series and we are going to be talking about teh subject, “What every woman wants their man to know about….SEX.” Trust me, it is going to be off the hook!
• As soon as church is over Sunday, our Lead Team is heading to South Carolina to attend the Multi-Site Exposed Conference. It hit me over the head this week that we visited ONE church doing mulit-site about 2 years ago, attended NO conferences, and pretty much went into our Holly Springs Campus without knowing what we are doing. :)  Yet, God is still doing awesome things there. This week we have gotten several e-mails from families who have started attending that campus and sharing stories of life-change. I love it!!!
• I’m ready to launch #3.  I want to be in Jasper with a campus so bad I can taste it!!!!
• I have no internet at the cottage we are staying in and to be honest, it has been nice to unplug. I still have my phone so I have been twittering like crazy.
• I’m going to be part of a breakout at The Sticks Conference and I am stoked.  PLANTING IN SMALL TOWNS IS MY PASSION. God is showing me some key things in how Revolution is going to be more active in this part of my passion in the future.
• BIG game this weekend for my Dawgs. I personally think we are pulling the blackout to early, but as long as we win, I could care less.
• Anyone heard of biting flies? Me neither but they are come to Flordia for about 2 weeks every year (from what everyone tells us) and the bite like hell.
• Well, back to studying. See you all Sunday!!!!!

It is Saturday night and I am getting ready to throw down with my Georgia Bulldogs!!! That is the a PERFECT Saturday night for me!!  But before I watch the Big Dawg Eat, I wanted to let you know I am more than likely out of the pocket for the next week.

As soon as church is over tomorrow, I am heading with the family to Florida for a week. I’ll be back next Sunday to wrap up our Ultimate Fighter series so don’t try to miss.

Anyway, that means no Sunday Night Mind Dump and probably no posts this week unless I just happen to find internet somewhere.  Have a GREAT week and let me give you a couple of blogs to check out this week that might not be on your radar to keep you busy:

Jim Carpenter - I consider Jim a great friend. The dude is passionate about building a church that impacts lives and I love that about him. He wears his emotioins on his sleeves about as much as I do. Check out his blog

Charles Hill - Got to connect with this dude the other day on the phone and we just hit it off. He planted a church in a town that makes Canton look like it is Atlanta. They now have 3 campuses and are blowing it up!!  He is also putting a conference on called The Sticks that is focused on doing big things in small towns. I love it! We’ll be at the conference and I am going to be part of a panel discussion on outreach.

Brian Bloye - This is my pastor. I know that sounds weird that a pastor would have a pastor but that is what he is to me. Brian pastors a church called West Ridge that started Revolution Church. Love what they are doing and his blog is worth the read.

Carey Nieuwhof - I had the pleasure of meeting Carey a few months ago and instantly he became one of my favorite people. He is doing HUGE things in Canada and his story will rock your face off. He is straight up a dude of faith!!! Love his blog.

I can’t wait for church in the morning as we are going to talk about a little thing called money. :)  I also can’t wait for church to be over where we can head to the beach.

If you start joneses to bad for what I’m doing this week, I am sure I will be updating Twitter though phone. You can keep up with our week by clicking here.

Well, I’m home.

It has been a CRAZY week.  I had been doing a GREAT job of watching my schedule and staying balanced and all that work was totally thrown out the window over the last 5 weeks. I worked 23 straight days leading up to launching our Holly Springs Campus and I am NOT proud of that.  I resorted back to some old leadership habits and I’ve learned my lesson. Won’t be happening again.

This week I left early Monday morning to go to Warner Robbins to attend the NEXT conference.  The conference was solid.  I got to meet a bunch of cool church planters and several not so cool church planters. Highlight of the trip for me was hanging with my friend, Hal Mayer.  Love that dude. Also got to meet Ron Sylvia and that was very cool.  He spoke some unfiltered truth into my life over Mexican food and I appreciated the honesty. It was very gut checking.  The conference was held at Harvest Church.  We couldn’t be more different than Harvest in style, age, music, etc. BUT I was honestly blown away by the stories of life-change. I just kept meeting person after person who had been RADICALLY changed by the message of Jesus Christ. It really convicted me to see that the way we do church isn’t the only way to do it.  Plus they got about the coolest worship dude ever. He’s just a old rocker and I had a blast getting to talk to him!!!!

I left straight from the conference on Wednesday morning and headed to Anderson, S.C.  Wednesday might I had dinner with several pastors and I enjoyed the time. Hanging out with other pastors always makes me uncomfortable. I feel like the square peg trying to fit into the round hole.  To say I am not very pastoral would be an understatement. :)  I got to connect with Daniel Lucas who has planted in Kentucy and I really dug him. I want to get to know him more.

After talking to JR Lee until about 1 in the morning, I was up early for breakfast with Tony Morgan.  Tony is helping us out with some long term planning. I’m honored that he would take the time to invest in Revolution and I can’t wait to see what God has in store through his help. The guy asks tough questions and knows his stuff.  Can you be excited and afraid at the same time?  That is what I feel as we work through the process with Tony over the next several months.

The rest of the day today I literally drank from a fire hydrant. We had the second session of our leadership coaching with Perry Noble and words can’t describe the stuff that he taught us. I honestly was begging in my mind for him to stop about an hour early because I thought my mind was going to explode. I couldn’t write the stuff he was saying down fast enough. I look forward to processing it over the next week.

Now, I’m home. Thank you Jesus!  Hung out with the kids a little while and looking forward to hanging out with DeAnna. I see a early sleep time in my future.

Tomorrow I am up for a 7:30 meeting and then I have to film our next two weeks worth of messages for our Holly Springs campus because I will be out of town next week.

Can you say CRAZY? That is my life right now….AND I LOVE IT!!!!

• CRAZY doesn’t describe today.  It was crazy!!!!!!!
• Fall break, but attendance was actually pretty good. I hate the school schedule in Cherokee County. School is out for a week every six week. Makes series planning a nightmare!
• Sound guy NEVER showed up this morning at Canton. GREAT guy who is fighting some major demons. He texted us and told he was going to get help. I hope he does because God has a great plan for his life.
• Is there another church in America where the sound guy doesn’t show because he’s relapsed the night before?  Revolution never ceases to amaze me with the craziness. It is heartbreaking yet why we started the church.
• I heard we had a good crowd at Holly Springs. Some technical issues, but we’ll get them fixed.
• My friend Scott King was supposed to run sound at Holly Springs, but bailed us out at Canton. Our regular sound guy in Holly Springs was sick. Thank God for Shane Crosby leaving Canton and taking care of Holly Springs.
• CONFESSION:  Our tendency as a staff to do everything instead of empowering others has been exposed now that we have two campuses.
• CONFESSION #2: Thinking in 2’s is a tough adjustment.  We’ve got to step it up and I know we will.
• I said this last week, but I’m still amazed that multi-site works!!!  People are really taking ownership at Holly Springs.
• Even with the craziness of the morning, I thought it was a GREAT morning. I felt very good about my message. It was a uncomfortable subject, but I brought it hard and as always, our people received it.  BTW, I taught about porn.
• LOTS of buzz about our women series starting in October. We’re calling it Beautiful and I think it is going to be awesome!!!! Can’t lie the pink graphics made me squirm.
• I’m heading out around lunch time tomorrow to go to Warner Robbins to attend and share the Revolution story at the Next Conference.
• Pumped about hanging with my great friend Hal Mayer.
• As soon as the conference is over on Wednesday, I head to Anderson, S.C. for my leadership coaching network with Perry Noble. Can’t wait!!!!!
• Next month I am teaching at the West Ridge School of Church Planting.  Pumped about that too. Elena Stoecking makes me laugh talking about this pastor who keeps trying to recruit her to move and help them plant. Typical church planters.
• I’ll be in rare form at the school next month because I’m BEYOND passionate about the topic I will be teaching on.
• Did anyone see my Dawgs yesterday? They looked awful, but a win is a win. I’ll take it.
• I’ve decided we have more drug dealers (the good kind) in our church than any church in America. I have more people bring me crazy drugs for my problems than any church ever.
• I took a nap today for the frist time in about a month. It rocked my face off!!!!
• Taylor’s brother in law, Connor is working on my van today.  He’s awesome at what he does and most important to me when it comes to a mechanic is he is HONEST!!!!
• As soon as church is over next Sunday, we are heading to Florida for a vacation!!!!!  I plan on sleeping the entire week. We will be back on Saturday. No, I won’t be missing a Sunday so don’t start making plans to not be there.
• Is there anything better than watching football on Sundays?
• You ever just sit back and think about how blessed you are? I’ve been doing that a lot lately.
• I’m blessed that Christ saved me.
• I’m blessed to have DeAnna as my wife. I’m more in love with her today than ever before in my life.
• I’m blessed to have two awesome kids.
• I’m blessed to pastor Revolution Church.
• I’m blessed to have the team around me at Revolution that I have.
• I’m blessed to see lives changed every day. Best high I’ve ever experienced and I’ve experienced many different kinds of highs.
• Watching Brett Favre right now. BEST QB ever even if he does wear Wrangler jeans.
• Gas prices are out of control because of Hurrican Ike. NOT cool.
• Red Velvet cake is in my kitchen right now. Yeah…come on.
• It’s getting election time. This one could be interesting.
• Pray for our staff right now. We are being stretched like never before. Love it, but love the prayers as well.
• Falcons are not very good, but they are playing with BIG time heart.
• I need some good music. Any suggestions?
• Going to the hang with the family. Peace out.

Last Sunday was a great day in the history of Revolution Church as we kicked off our Holly Springs campus!!  It was an awesome experience, freed seats at our Canton campus, and put us in a different area to reach another part of Cherokee County. We’ve got a lot of work ahead to make Revolution Holly Springs as effective as we want it to be, but I’m pumped about what God is going to do through that campus.

This week we do it again. One Church….Two Locations.  That still blows my mind!

We’re continuing our series called The Ultimate Fighter. Throughout this series we are confronting the temptations that men face and showing you what God’s word says about overcoming them.

Last week we look at what God’s word says about being a Godly Man.  This week we are talking about the thing dudes think about every 7 seconds, SEX. I’m pumped about Sundays message and talking about an issue that is a huge temptation for men and is keeping them from being all that God intends for them to be!

I know it is Fall Break, but if you are in town, plan on being at one of our campus and plan on bringing a friend to church THIS SUNDAY!!!!

Revolution Canton 9:00 and 10:30

Revolution Holly Springs 9:30 and 11:00

BTW, if you haven’t seen our Holly Springs campus and you live in that area, let me encourage you to check it out and see what God is doing in that area!!!!

Last week we got the opportunity to meet Will Henderson a church planter from Australia.  I have actually known Will via email for a while, but he is now doing a one year internship with our friends at Moutain Lake Church.

He was at both of our campuses and some good feedback on things we are doing right and on things we can improve on.  It was good hearing his thoughts and I look forward to getting to know Will and his family better over the next year. One thing I like about him already is his use of the word “yuppieville” talking about certain town in Georgia and his ability to suck up the lead pastor by having this three boys in Georgia Bulldog shirts. :)  He also compared our band to JET which I am huge fans of so that was another bonus for me!!!

Check out his thoughts on Revolution Canton here

Check out his thoughts on Revolution Holly Springs here

Hands down the biggest myth I hear when it comes to churches that are focused on reach unchurched people is that CHURCHES WHO REACH UNCHURCHED PEOPLE WATER DOWN THEIR MESSAGE.

I have heard CRAZY rumors about my teaching at Revolution. I have heard I don’t use the Bible, that I just talk about whatever pops into my mind, that I have actually bashed the Bible, that I preach messages that are pop psychology, etc.  I have also heard that I never preach on sin, that we grow because I think it is okay to do whatever you want, and I preach a water-downed gospel.

Of all the myths I hear, this one makes me laugh the most.

Any time someone says these type of things, I always ask them if the people have been to our church. The answer has ALWAYS been “no.”  I never have claimed to be the best preacher around, but I can PROMISE you that you would be hard pressed to find a preacher who preaches harder, use more Scripture, and will call sin out by name than I do.

I often joke that I am an old school preacher who is relevant. With all due respect to preachers who give talks, use one point, go for 20 minutes, or hardly use Bible, that just isn’t who I am.  I scream, holler, spit, I’m an outline preacher, I got about 40-45 minutes, and I will shoot everything moves while I am preaching.

Over the last 4 years I have done series on grace, addictions, the Trinty, marriage, sex, I have preached through books of the Bible, I have talked about homosexuality, baggage, money and hell to just name a few.

I venture to say over the last 4 years I have covered a more diversity of topics than most preachers I know. I always get a kick of people say all we do is preach towards lost people when most traditional churches preach a straight-up Salvation message EVERY Sunday. Nothing wrong with that at all, but isn’t that geared toward non-believers?

The funny thing is I have found out that our unchurched people take hard preaching better than our Christians.  If I can back up what I am saying with Scripture, they will do it. They don’t carry the baggage of knowing everything like those who grew up in church.  They are hungry for truth and if you are reaching men, they want it brought in a challenging way, not sugar-coated.

This past week I preached a message that 90% of pastors I know would not preach. I came HARD, it was tense and people received it greatly.  I called men out for not leading, I told them their job was to lead, and showed them the life the Bible says they should live. I sugar-coated NOTHING.  Matter of fact, I loved Elena’s thoughts on the message, especially since she is a lady and it was directed towards men.

I listen to a lot of teaching and I don’t know any pastors that I listen to that are “watering it down.”  I don’t know any pastors that won’t stand for right and preach against wrong.  Will we do it in a way people can understand?  Will we do it without all the big theological words? Yep.  It doesn’t do much good to preach something, no matter how fancy if the people listening don’t understand what you just said.

Preach it hard, boys! One of the reasons growing churches are growing is because the pastor is bringing IT, not sugar-coating it.

Next week, I will be attending the Next Conference put on by Ron Silvia.  To say I am looking forward to the conference would be an understatment.  Along with attending the conference, I am going to get the opportunity to share the Revolution story!!!

From the look of things it looks like it is going to be a great conference. Ron is one of the JEDI KNIGHTS of church planting. Also, Hal Mayer who is one of my favorite people in the world will be teaching as well.

The best part about the conference?  IT IS FREE!!!!!!

If you are thinking about planting a church, want to know about planting a church, or have already planted a church THIS IS THE CONFERENCE FOR YOU!  I would venture to say just the networking itself is going to make this a MUST attend conference.

You can register here and I look forward to see those of you who will be there!

By NO means is Revolution the perfect church and by NO means am I the perfect pastor. In fact, I could write a book on how not to pastor a church. I have made so many stupid decisions since starting Revolution that I can’t believe she still exists. It is only by the grace of God and the willingness of our people to allow me to grow as a leader that we are still around.

There are a million things we could have done better and could do better now, but there is one area we excel in at Revolution and that is in the area of reaching UNCHURCHED people.  I don’t mean to sound cocky or arrogant but the fact of the matter is Revolution does a GREAT job of reaching people who are far from God. This was never more clear to me as we were building out Holly Springs campus. There was a day when I looked around the building and EVERYONE in the building working was unchurched prior to coming to Revolution. The room was full of addicts, ex-cons, and just people who previously had no interest in God or church.

I find this be awesome.  I mean we started Revolution Church to reach those far from God, yet when our critics start criticizing this is the fact they love to bring up.  I have learned not to pay attention to the naysayers, but as I sat here tonight I started thinking of all the myths there are about churches that are truly reaching lost people.  I actually laugh out loud at many of them due to the sheer lack of ignorance of those who are doing the criticizing.

Over the next couple of weeks, I’m going to shatter some of the myths I hear about churches that are focused on reaching truly unchurched people.  It should be fun.

Some of the myths I want to talk about are:

• You have to water down your message to reach unchurched people
• You can’t have any standards when it comes to leadership
• You can’t talk about money
• It’s all about entrainment
• It’s all about numbers
• We hate Christians
• It’s all about building my (or whoever the pastor is) own kingdom
• Plus a few more I’ll probably think of as I start writing