I get a lot of emails about my blog and many are the same thing so I thought I would address them here though none are very serious.

1. I am VERY aware that my blog is FULL of misspellings, improper punctuation, and even improper sentence structure. I don’t care. I don’t have time to proof everything and I just write what pops in my mind.
2. I don’t care if you don’t want to hear about my family, music I listen too, etc. I mainly do this blog for my own benefit. I want to look back and see what God was doing in my life at certain times. I’m glad you read but I will continue to write about what I want to write about. After all it is my blog.
3. I don’t care that you don’t like that I don’t allow comments - Even though I post very regular, I actually spend little time worrying about this thing. I sure don’t want to debate with people who have issues with what we are doing and all they want to do is argue.
4. You want to see pictures of my wife and kids - I get this one a lot for some reason. Not sure why you want pictures and I do post them from time to time, BUT I am very protective of my family. Believe it or not, I get a lot of negative things from this blog including threats. I pastor in a small town and I am in the “spotlight” a lot. It is VERY rare for us to go out and not run into someone we know and even run into people who are quick to let me know they have issues with me. I choose not to put my family in that position. My church knows who they are, but I’m not big on plastering their faces all over the place. Call me weird, but I have strong opinions on this one.
5. People think I brag on The Stone to much - Get over it. Besides God and my family, The Stone is the love of my life. DeAnna and I invested everything we had in planting her and she is my baby. I love the people who make up The Stone and I love EVERYTHING it stands for.
6. You don’t like the fact that the “contact” link goes to Taylor - That is fine but again, I have better things than answering every email. The ones I need to see, I see.
7. You want to be linked - GREAT! However I haven’t messed with the link section in forever and I’m to lazy to change it. I figure we all read the same blogs anyway so me listing someone else is useless because you already know about them.
8. You want to me to acknowledge the blogs that continually bash what God is doing here and in churches like ours - Uh, no. I have better stuff to do then even look at those things or think about those things. I obsessed over those things for a long time and now I don’t even look at them. Sorry.

Anyway, I have been saving those answers for a while so maybe that will save you from asking a dumb question or making a dumb comment in the future.

I have a policy that I don’t receive emails, blog comments, letters, etc. from people who don’t have the guts to put their name to it.  To my surprise, I have gotten heat over that in the past.  Of course, I can’t stop you from sending a fake email or leaving a false name when you send me a message through my blog, but those all go to Taylor and if it isn’t a valid name, I never see it.

Anyway, I saw this quote from the Prince of Preachers, Charles Spurgeon today and thought he said it way better than me.

“Never write what you dare not sign. An anonymous letter-writer is a sort of assassin, who wears a mask, and stabs in the dark. Such a man is a fiend with a pen. If discovered, the wretch will be steeped in the blackest infamy.” Charles Spurgeon.

Yep, that is what I meant to say.

Of course, I mean freak in the most awesome way!

They just announced they are making EVERYTHING they do (graphics, videos, sermons, etc.) available online for churches for FREE!  It is amazing the heart of the some of the largest churches around.  I truly believe it is one of the reasons God is blessing these churches!

Life Church has been doing this, Sea Coast has been doing this, Elevation is as generous as any church I have ever seen, and New Spring is taking it to another level.

Check it out here and let them know how much you appreciate it!

Just found out Bil Corneilus is now blogging.  I think Bil is one of the most creative and sharpest pastors around.  This will be one you will want to bookmark quick.

I think blogging is so great for learning from some of the great leaders out there.  To get the insights a lot of great leaders are leaving on their blogs is awesome.  I was thinking of some guys who I would love to see start blogging and these popped into my mind:

Andy Stanley - Pastors a little church called North Point.  GREAT leader and GREAT writer.  I actually like his writing better then his speaking (though the speaking is pretty good as well).  If he started a blog busting out 2 or 3 leadership principles a week, it would be the most read blog within a week.

Brian Bloye -  This is my pastor.  Brian showed me what a large portable church could look like.  When I first got to WRC I thought he had built the best staff team I had ever seen.  HUGE heart for church planting and could add a lot of insight and learnings it he would do it.  I’ve been trying…..

Jim Collins - Author of Good To Great.  A research genius.  I devour everything he writes and would love to get a few nuggets a week from him on the principles he has wrote books about.

Vince Antonucci -  Heard about this cat through Ben Arment and started listening to his sermons.  The dude is doing a great job at reaching unchurched people and I would love to see him share some insights from that.  I met him at the National New Church Conference for a brief second and liked him.  He’s got a book coming out soon I just found out.

Bill Hybels - Pastor of Willow Creek.  THE king of church leadership and vision.  Anything he writes I am reading.  The pioneer of doing church for the unchurched.  Would love to see him doing this and a great way for him to pour into young leaders, which is a passion of his.

I’ve been reading a few blogs that are new to me lately that I am really enjoying and I thought I would share them with you as well:

Jeff Kapusta - Met this dude a couple of weeks ago at a Pastor’s Roundtable and just really liked him. Being around him reminded me of the zeal we had 2 years ago. He got me pumped just hearing him talk about his church.

Steven Gibbs - I met this dude about a year ago and then our paths kept crossing. I’ll be honest, I didn’t think I would like him so I didn’t give it much thought. But we have just sort of hit it off and the dude is doing a good job in a place that had leveled off. Sharp guy. I honestly believe you are going to be hearing a lot from him in the years to come.

Matt Evans - Matt and I hooked up about a year and half ago and we could NOT be any different in personality. Howeve we get along great and I love the dude. He is doing a GREAT job in a small town and that rocks to me. You would be wise to bookmark his page and learn from his leadership insights. He is another one I think you will be hearing a lot of noise from in the future.

JR Lee - Planting a church in Acworth and being around the dude gets me fired up!  I love church planters.  These guys are going to rock Acworth and I look forward to seeing it happen.  If you want to be part of partnering with a dude who is going to do something, I think this is the person you want to hook up with.  One of our families who lives where they are planting has already joined their team and I think that is awesome!

My blogging is limited due to time but I am alive and having a blast!

The conference is off to a good start if for no other reason then I have connected with a ton of friends.  I’ll post more about it later.

We are a staff bitten with the blogging bug and have been for some time.  We just feel it is a great way to communicate what is happening our lives.  So I thought I would post the links to the different blogs our guys have going:

Preston Porter - He also does this one where he talks about the Kids Area.

Malcolm Young is our Connections Pastor which means he is over Home Teams, Assimilation, Volunteering, and Pastoral Care.

Chris O’Neal is in a short term role for us as our Tech Director.  As of today they are going to Calhoun to plant.  We’ll see what kind of vision casters we are in regards to if we can keep them or not.

Adam Ellis does our Students.

Not sure why I am even listing this one but it literally is the WORST blog in America and hasn’t been updated since July of 06, but I know he’ll whine if I don’t list it so here is Tim’s blog.

None of our ladies blog……..yet.

At one time I was subscribed to about 120 blogs through bloglines.

I know that seems like a lot BUT remember they don’t all update at the same time and remember that I only had to go to bloglines and scan through them. :)  Anyway, in January I decided I had to manage my time better and one of the things I did was decide to only subscribe to 30 blogs.  I had to cut 90 blogs out of my list.  THAT WAS HARD!   However, it was a great decision.

The tough part comes when I add new ones, I have to decide if I am willing to cut one of the old ones for it.  Tonight I added two new blogs and I had to cut two old favorites but that is the way it goes.

Here is another guy whose blog I have been digging. I haven’t totally been able to figure out his story (not sure if he planted his church or took it over) but I love the guys zeal and it sounds as if they are doing a GREAT job.

Anyway, if you are looking for someone new to read, check out Daniel Floyd.