• I wasn’t at Revolution today.
• Actually for the first time in 10 years, we took a Sunday off without being on vacation, visiting another church, or me teaching at another church.
• I had taught every Sunday except one since June. My mind was fried and I enjoyed the break.
• I heard today was a very good day at Revolution.
• Michael taught on divorce and from what I heard, he did a good job. I knew he would.
• Josh Bayne led worship for us today and everyone said the band was tight. They also said he looked just like Tom Petty.
• Heard crowd was very good as well. I guess our people don’t know that people skip church the week after Thanksgiving. That’s why I love them.
• The week off was nice, but I am ready to teach next Sunday!!!!!
• I can’t wait to launch our RevolutionaryLove.tv series next week!!! This year we are looking at making an impact in Canton all year long and not just during the holidays.
• We are pulling out all the stops for this series!! Trust me, if you ever wanted to get your friends to Revolution, this is the series to get them here!
• I’ve been told I say this about every series, but I’m fine with that so let me say it again:  Visually, Musically, Creatively, and Sermon’s in this series have me jacked out of my mind!
• We’re going out of the theater with a freaking bang!!!!!
• Speaking of the theater, can you believe we only have 3 Sundays left there?
• I can’t help but laugh at all the churches lining up to move into the theater after we leave. When we moved in there, people said it was suicide and now everyone wants to be there.
• One of the churches looking at it is full of people who have left Revolution, so they’ll feel right at home at the theater.
• All joking aside, the theater served us well. Janet, the manager there is GREAT but it has some HUGE challenges for a portable church. It’ll make a great home for another church that is trying to reach people far from God.
• We’ve got a TON of work to do to get ready for our move to the Cherokee County Convention Center!!! I can’t wait to see what God does as we move to the next chapter of Revolution.
• It’s been a LONG time since we moved and I forgot all the details and expenses that go with a move. Everything from signs to the way we set things up have to be changed. One day, I’ll give our guys the proper amount of time to pull something off. :)  This time we got three weeks.
• We FINALLY know our Christmas Eve schedule!!!!!  We will having Christmas Eve services for the entire County at our new location!!!!  We will be holding services at 4 and 6 p.m. at the Cherokee County Convention Center!!!
  
• I can’t wait for you to see our set-up at the new building!!
• Along with our move, we’ve hired a pretty sharp company to do a rebranding for us. The logo ain’t changing but we are tweaking everything else about our image.
• I spent all of last week in Ellijay at a cabin. I thought I’d go stir crazy but I was wrong. We had a blast!
• My family came up on Thanksgiving and we had a great day. I like not having to drive on Thanksgiving and the fact that family comes and then they leave. Honestly, it was the most fun I’ve had with my family in a long time. Everyone actually got along.
• I’ve ate so much junk this past week that I am disgusted with myself.
• With the holidays coming and the long hours I’ll be putting in, I’ve got to get disciplined and that starts tomorrow morning at 5:30 a.m.
• I really don’t want to comment on the Georgia/Georgia Tech game. Yes, Georgia lost. Yes, Tech won. Tech overacheived this year. Georgia underacheived. Not happy.
• Tech winning is proof that the sun shines on a dog’s butt every now and again.
• DeAnna decorted the house today for Christmas and I love it!
• I’m watching the Falcons and you can’t help but be impressed with them. Even if they lose, they play hard.
• I know it is Christmas because tonight we are watching ELF. DeAnna has crazy ELF issues. She loves that movie.
• Every time I go to Ellijay, I am reminded that they need a Revolution campus.
• I’ve never seen a city with so many screaming pastors and southern gospel music on the cable stations. It was a nightmare.
• I feel like I got a million things on my mind, but can’t think of them right now so I’m calling it a day!
• Stay tuned to my blog as I will be keeping you up to date on all that is happening at Revolution in the coming weeks.

I hope you guys are having a GREAT holiday weekend! I’m in the mountains with DeAnna and the kids and I have enjoyed the break. We head back tomorrow just in time to watch the Dawgs kill the Yellow Jackets!!!!  Let me give you 5 reminders to put on your calendar.

1. We are ALL meeting at the Canton Campus till the end of the year when we combine the campuses back together at our new meeting location!!!
2. Starting January 4th we will start meeting weekly at the new Cherokee County Convention Center.  This is going to be a GREAT move for us!!! FINALLY, we have room to grow!!!!
3. We kicking off RevolutionaryLove.tv: The Sequel NEXT Sunday!!!  I can’t wait to revisit this awesome series from last year….with a new spin on it.
4. Sunday, December 21st we will be taking up our Christmas Offering.  I’ll be taking more about this on December 7th, but I want you to start praying NOW about how God would have you to give financially on this Sunday.
5. Wednesday, December 24th we will have having TWO community Christmas Eve services at 4 and 6 p.m. at the Cherokee County Convention Center!!! More details to follow but start spreading the word!!!

As soon as I leave the office tonight, I’m heading to Ellijay to the cabin to spend the rest of the week with DeAnna and the kids. I can’t wait!!!!!  We have a ton of stuff on our plate, but I’ve learned that is always the case here and if I left when things were slow, I’d never leave.  To get away for a few days is going to be nice.

Before I head out of town I wanted to wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving.  Revolution, we have so much to be thankful for this year that it blows my mind.  God is doing huge things among us and I can’t wait to see what the rest of the year has in store.

I hope you all have a great week eating, spending time with family, and being thankful for all God has done in our lives. BTW, don’t forget this Sunday we will be taking about the D word.  You asked what the Bibles says about divorce and we’re going to answer it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

About a month ago, Chad Ellliott was in our office meeting with Thad about something and out of the clear blue I just felt God tell me to ask him to pray about joining our team.  Not real sure why I did it, but I just felt I was supposed to do it, so I did.  2 weeks later Chad accepted and to be honest, I never doubted he would.  When he left that office that day after i asked him, I knew he was in.

The funny thing is if you would have asked Chad about a year ago his thoughts on me, they wouldn’t have been all that good.  There are a lot of rumors that float around about Revolution and float around about me and Chad had heard all of them.  During the build-out of our Holly Springs campus he was working for the company that installed our media equipment and I knew he didn’t like me, but I didn’t care because we needed the stuff done QUICK!  During that we got to know each other and really just hit it off.  He hit it off with the rest of our team and it become VERY clear to me that he had a lot more talent, vision, and leadership ability then he was currently using.  After I convinced him I wasn’t the devil, I knew it was only a matter of time before he was part of our team.

Chad is very well known in church circles in our area. He grew up in this area, has led worship at several churches in the area for different functions, and up until we brought him on our team was leading worship weekly at two different area churches.  One of the churches was a church plant that has been around 5 years and he was on the staff from the start.  He is also the founder and lead singer of the band Elsewhere, which is very known and has traveled all over the south.  He’s a high caliber addition to our team and I can’t wait to get him plugged in.

Chad will be one our worship leaders here at Revolution, along with overseeing all the technical aspects of our Sunday services (sound, lights, video, etc.).  I can’t wait to see what type of team him and Thad are going to make.  Thad will still be leading worship and overseeing our creative elements.  They are going to take us to a WHOLE NOTHA LEVEL!

Not only is Chad a great addition to our team, but his wife Christie is going to be a great addition to our church.  She is 100% on board with joining Revolution and is extremely talented herself.  Chad and Christie have NEVER been to a service at Revolution and took a HUGE pay cut to join our team.  That is being sold-out!!  Their daughter Neena might give my Ashlyn a run for her money in taking over the world!

Chad “officially” starts January 1st but if you drop by the office you’re likely to see him already working.  They will be in attendance at Revolution starting December 14th so when you see them, let them know you are glad they are part of The Revolution!

God is putting together a team of people at Revolution right now like I’ve never seen.  2009 is going to be CRAZY!!!!

One of the greatest things that has happened to us at Revolution in the last year or so is having a GREAT photographer named David Johnson start calling Revolution home. I remember the first time I met David because he visited the first time and walked up and told me he had been listening to our podcast for a while. That was the first time we had a first time guest tell us that. Since that time, it has happened many times. Technology is amazing.

David has been taking pictures of our services since this past summer and I think he is the most talented photographer I’ve seen. Our facility is a nightmore for people taking pictures. It is very dark, we do a lot with moving lights and it is hard to get good shots without disrupting the service. We have had so many different people come in and try and they have never really looked the way we wanted them to look…..until David started shooting pictures for us. I love the dudes work.

He just sent me the photos from yesterday and I thought they looked awesome. You can see yesterday’s photos right here.   You can see all the photos he has taken for Revolution here. The dude is good.

He didn’t ask me to do this but if you are looking for a photographer for any needs you have, David is your man!  You can check out all the stuff he has done here.  As I’m typing this, DeAnna just informed me he is taking some family pictures for us.  If he meets DeAnna’s standards, that means he is REAL good.

David, thanks for all you do at Revolution!

If you would like to get in touch with David you can reach him at dwjphoto@gmail.com or you can call my office and Taylor will give you his number.

Almost one year ago to the day, I stood up on our stage and announced to our church that we were moving out of the movie theater and into the brand new Boy’s and Girl’s Club. We were out of kids space at the movie theater and about 85% full in our second service. We needed bigger space and we needed it bad. I was beyond excited and let my excitement get the better of me by announcing it without having a contract signed. Needless to say, the deal fell through and I had to stand up on our stage and announce to our church that we were NOT moving locations. I was devastated, but I got on stage and did what I knew to do and that was rally the troops. Our people were AWESOME! There wasn’t one negative reaction to the deal falling through.

The problem was we were still out of space. So to free up more seats we launched a second campus basically in the same town. Our intentions were never to have a second campus in Canton, but we needed seats. The second campus has worked. In the 10 weeks we have had it opened it has averaged about 150 people in attendance. It opened up seats at our theater….for about 4 weeks. Within no time we were back to being out of space at Canton, especially in our kids area.

To be honest, I didn’t know what our options were. Canton is a growing town but finding space to fit a church our size is not easy.

About 3 weeks ago we got a call out of the no where asking if we would be interested in leasing the BRAND NEW Cherokee County Convention Center.  When they called us, it was a week from opening.  Having been burned once, we moved with extreme caution.  After several meetings it became very clear that God was opening a huge door for us.  We signed a letter of intent, the Board of Commissioners approved, and on Friday we signed a contract to rent this facility for our Sunday morning worship services.

It truly is a God thing.  The building has worship space for around 800 people, great space for our elementary school kids, has nice, clean space for our nursery and preschool areas, HUGE lobbies, plenty of parking, and is located in the area that is going to be THE area of Canton in the next year.  To say we are excited would be an understatement!

This allows us to combine both our campuses back together under one meeting space, it allows us to have a lot of flexibility with service times, it allows us to grow to around 3,000 people before moving, and it gives us a place that is brand new in the community.  The move is going to be huge for Revolution Church!

We’ll still be keeping our Holly Springs campus but will be turning that into offices and the worship center into a worship center for our students.  This is the actual reason we leased the building to begin with.  The move makes sense all the way around.

The theater has been wonderful to us, but our time there is done.  We are out of space, we are to big to have to be flexible with their hours, and God has opened a huge door.

I had been told the Convention Center would NOT be open to have a church meet there so the fact that the door there is open so wide is a sign to us that God is up to some big things.  We’ve been praying, looking, and we’ve been told for over a year in order to go to the next level we had to find a new place to meet.  In God’s timing, He provided a place to meet.

Yeah…come on!!!

• Today was one of those days you’ll always remember.
• Everything changed today.
• As awesome a day as it was, we crammed WAY to much into it. Lesson learned.
• I know 99% of you are here to hear what our big announcement was and I’ll get to that, but…
• The BIG announcement wasn’t the biggest news today. The biggest news was our people stepping up to love on the community!!!
• MUST Ministries asked us to provide all the turkeys for their Thanksgiving dinners they will give out this year. They estimated they would need 600 Turkeys.
• The people of Revolution provided OVER 850 Turkeys!!!! You LITERALLY cannot find a frozen turkey in the city of Canton. As of yesterday, every store in town was out of turkeys. You people are freaks!
• I’ve never personally been part of a church that steps up and makes things happen like you guys do!
• Thank You!
• We even had a lady buy two turkeys, give them to someone in our church and then tell the people how much she hates me. I love it when people hate you but still buy into the vision!!!!!!
• 850 families will have dinner on Thanksgiving because of YOU!!!!!!!
• Taught on Racism.
• God taught me some racist things in my own life studying for this message. It embarrassed and convicted me.
• You could hear a pin drop during the service.
• Shaun King was a HUGE help in me putting my sermon together.
• During the message we had Emily Matthews painting words of hate on a canvas that in the end turned into the cross. Very powerful illustration.  She was GREAT to work with. Can’t recommend her enough.
• I preached WAY to long.
• After the sermon the band, Swift, and Tim busted out Colored People by DC Talk. That was straight old school.
• Did I mention we had a big announcement today?
• Speaking of Swift, go check out some of the music his band is putting out here. Good stuff.
• Revolution is become a church of full of rocking bands! Brad, our guitar player has a band that is making it pretty big. Brad is the real deal and I love watching him on stage. Check out his band and their music here.
• Thanksgiving is this week!  Hands down, my favorite holiday!!!!
• I’m heading to the mountains this week with DeAnna and the kids. I’m looking forward to some time away to clear my mind and EAT a lot of food!
• Ben Arment was with us today. Ben is going to be helping us with a couple of things to go to the next level. I’m excited.
• Can’t wait for Georgia/Georgia Tech game this Saturday!!!!!!
• I can finally tell you about our new addition to our team.  A couple of weeks ago we brought Chad Elliott onto our team.  Chad will be over our Technical junk and leading worship along with Thad. He starts January 1st.
• I’ll tell you a lot more about Chad and how God worked this out some time this week. Chad, Christie, and Neena are going to be an awesome addition to our team.
• Trust me, a bunch of local pastors just heard we have Chad on our team and their jaws hit the ground.
• God is getting ready for some HUGE things at Revolution!!!!!
• About a month ago I did something to my fingers where I jammed them and they haven’t been right since. Today some bozo about broke my hand shaking it, but he snapped my fingers back in place. They actually bend now.
• I dig the Cowboys blue and white jerseys.
• 24 returns tonight!!!!!!!!! It’s only for one night but I’m excited.
• Christmas Eve this year is going to be INSANE!!!!!!!!!!!
• I was blown away how many people talked to me about last week’s message on sex!!!!! Awesome to see God working in people’s lives.
• I heard about a local pastor who is stalking me on my blog and twitter and then complaining every time I say something he deems inappropriate. Glad he is the morality police.
• Got TWO very cool ideas for our January series. Both are the same series, but got two different names I got to decide on.
• Blown away by all the pastors who have emailed me this week letting me know they are praying for me as we get ready to go to a WHOLE NOTHA LEVEL!
• Dang, I forgot about our big announcement. Well, this is long enough post already so I’ll let you know the announcement in the morning
• Do you really want to know? I promise I’ll tell you in the morning.

• BOTH Campuses are worshipping together this Sunday!! Let me repeat that:  There will be NO services at our Holly Springs campus.  Services at Canton are at 9:00 and 10:30 a.m.  I can’t wait to worship with everyone from Revolution under one roof.
• We are providing all the frozen turkeys (600+) for MUST Ministries. We are asking everyone who attends Revolution to help us show Revolutionary Love to our community.  Bring as many frozen turkeys as you can to church this Sunday. We’ll deliver them after church.
• We have a HUGE announcement this Sunday! This is the reason we are bringing the campuses together!  We have been praying, working, and trying to make this happen for a while now and God has opened the door!  I can’t wait to share with you the NEXT steps God has for Revolution Church!
• Talking about racism this Sunday! I think this Sunday is going to be one of the best services we’ve ever had. We have some great creative elements planned and it will be a Sunday to remember.  Get your friends to church this Sunday!
• Thanksgiving. That doesn’t really have anything to do with the church but I love to eat!  Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and this year we’re heading away for the week so I’m REALLY looking forward to the holiday!

This week we continue our series called Be Careful What You Ask For… with a message I am very excited to be teaching.  This week I will be answering the question, “What Does The Bible Say About Racism?” I have always taken pride in the fact that Revolution has been a church that is open to anyone regardless of your age, sex, social standing or the color of your skin.  The reality is Canton is about 97% honkey, but times are changing and I think this is an important issue to talk about.  Since this was the #4 most asked question, I take that to mean you thought it was important to talk about as well!

We are pulling out the stops this Sunday and I think it might be one of the most powerful services we’ve ever had.

See ya Sunday!

To all of you prayed for our meeting today, thank you!  The meeting went great and the answer was YES!  I can’t tell you what you were praying about until Sunday after I tell the awesome people of Revolution.

Thank you for the prayers!