• Great day despite it being the last Sunday before school starts back. Attendance in second service was slammed and 1st service is just solid like a rock every week. That service never changes in attendance.
• It has been a long time since I walked off stage feeling like I hit a dud like I did today BUT I had more people say it was the best message I had ever taught. Weird.
• Band was rocking! Thad has grown a lot as a worship leader since coming to Revolution!
• I thought Swift sounded as good as he ever as leading the opening song. He is learning how to transition from performing on the secular songs to leading on the worship songs. Very cool. Love that dude.
• One more month of being a church in one location. Weird.
• ALIVE starts next week!
• I know Ross Wiseman’s secret but I ain’t telling. Excited for our friends at Embassy Metro.
• The power went off at our house last night at 5:45 and didn’t turn back on until 4:46 this morning. Not cool.
• I slept like crap because of it. It was so freaking hot!
• I was dead this morning but Redline Extreme took care of everything
• Why do rednecks shoot off fireworks like madmen when the power is out?
• It is so hot right now that I am counting down the days until fall!!!!!!!
• Did a wedding today for a very cool couple. God has radically changed their lives since coming to Revolution and I was honored to do their wedding today.
• My first week NOT walking around before service and I still got nailed. I was LITERALLY walking up to the stage to teach and some guy grabbed me and started asking me our stand on homosexuality. Are you freaking kidding me?
• I was so jacked up on Redline that I was screaming during my sermon. My mind was telling me that I was doing it but I couldn’t stop.
• Get your friends to church next week as we launch our new series! I think it is going to be one of the most thought provoking series we have ever done.
• All-staff meeting this Tuesday. Hands down, this is my favorite thing of the month. I love having the whole team together to talk about dominating North Georgia.
• Went out to eat with some friends after church and was reminded that of another reason I love Revolution: We can have church, tear down and still beat the Baptist to the restaurants. Yeah…come on!
• Got a couple of church planters coming to hang out Tuesday. Looking forward to that!
• I start a coaching network with Perry Noble in two weeks and I am stoked about it!
• Do you ever sit back and realize God is so much better to you than you deserve? I’m there today.
• I have been getting into cycling big time lately and it is a great reminder that every pastor needs a release. I would literally be dead from stress right now if not for cycling the last few weeks.
• Few people from church going to see Linkin Park tonight. I hate them.
• Cut the grass today. I have a HUGE yard and do it with a push mower because I am stupid.
• Kids start back to school tomorrow. I pray the children of Revolution create a crazy revolution in their schools!
• Our Holly Springs Campus is coming along nicely. I’m ready to get it done and get in that bad boy!
• We are going to keep opening seats and asking God to fill them.
• Working HARD to get our service down to 1 hour. If we do that, we can add a 3rd service without staggering that. Got to figure out if that messes with our DNA and what makes us who we are.
• Looking forward to a great night of sleep! Please, pray I get it.
• Revolution, I love being your pastor!
• Peace. I’m out.

I have been around a lot of great thinkers and leaders over the last few weeks and there have been several things that have been messing me up. I want to elaborate on them further but here are some of the things that are keeping me up at night:

• There are only two reasons for people to come to church. Only two things they can get at church that they can’t get by sitting at home listening to preaching and worship. Relationships and Experience. Still digesting this one but when I heard it I felt like I had been kicked in the groin. Still processing this but I want to post some thing about it soon.
• I’m honestly concerned as the “contemporary” church starts producing it’s second generation, that we are producing young leaders that are more interested in what they think is “cool” and our “models” than we are reaching lost people. This bugs me greatly. I might post more on this but I’m not sure I can articulate the thoughts in my mind into words.
• People will chose relationships over vision. As a leader, I hate to accept this but it is true. More thoughts on this later.
• Why does everyone want to only go to white-collar suburbs or college towns to plant churches? We would rather plant where there are 20 others churches as opposed to going to urban and rural areas. Romans 10:14 haunts me here.
• It can’t be all about numbers. Trust me, I am a number freak but it has to be about community impact. A church of 500 in a town of 16,000 will have a stronger community impact than a church of 5,000 in a city of 250,000.
• No one is being successful with multi-site. Not sure I agree with this, but I heard someone make the point the other day that for the amount of money churches are spending to launch second and third campuses, the number of people they are reaching is not a great return. Never had this thought before but it has me thinking. It is one of the reasons we are hell-bent on launching our Holly Springs campus for the amount we have budgeted. I want the amount of people reached per dollar we spend to be HIGH.
• What does it mean to truly transform a city for Christ? I use this terminology all the time but someone asked me what I meant by it and I couldn’t give a simple answer. I want that changed.
• This is one of the most exciting times to be part of the church ever. The ability to reach people is greater than any other time in history. It excites me!
• What are other ways we can reach the North Central Georgia region? I”m sure there are ways I have never thought of and that excites me!

• GREAT day today!
• I love sharing my heart with Revolution!
• I was so freaking sick today. I woke up feeling awful and didn’t think I was going to make it through the first service but God got me through
• Matt Moody did a good job leading worship. He’s come a long way from the days of leading with your students.
• We are looking to hire another worship leader as we get ready to launch a second campus. If you are interested contact Thad Wood at thad@therevolution.tv
• BTW, if you can’t rock, don’t contact us. If you are into girly pop worship which is most worship out today, that is cool, but we aren’t the right fit for you.
• Speaking of Holly Springs, can you believe we launch that campus in 8 Sundays?
• Construction is rocking there! If you want to help with the build-out contact Tim at tim@therevolution.tv
• The Elevation Worship CD is really growing on me. Very good songs on there. You need to get it.
• We are about to start looking for office space. We don’t need our current space with the warehouse since we have Holly Springs, but we do need office space.
• It is amazing how fast money goes when you are building!
• I’m supposed to be in Tampa hanging out with Hal Mayer and going to hang out with some church planters tomorrow. I was feeling so bad, I had to cancel.
• I feel like a scum bag for canceling
• Pumped for Perry and their new campus they launched today.  Those guys inspire me like crazy!
• I feel like every church planter I meet is planting in the city of Atlanta. That fires me up! I have said since we launched Revolution that someone needs to go to the city and when they do we would partner with them. Atlanta is a huge mission field.
• I am hellbent on finding a location to launch a Jasper campus.
• When is this rain going to stop?
• Michael starts full-time tomorrow! Pumped about what this means for the students of Cherokee County.
• 4 of our 5 Lead Team guys have been youth pastors. I am the only one that hasn’t.
• Give a Kid a Chance is next Saturday. If you want to help, let Preston know!
• There is still time to bring a backpack.  We need them at the office by Thursday!
• Downloaded the new software for my iPhone and I am digging all the new apps.
• Getting pumped about the Next Conference. If you are planting a church, sign-up!
• DeAnna was supposed to camp out with the kids tonight but with the weather, they might be doing it in the living room!
• There is a crazy buzz in the church right now. You can just feel it.
• I’m teaching for Tadd next Sunday. Love that dude. We have invested in Tadd since he left and I am proud Revolution has a part in what he is doing!
• I had the honor of meeting Pete Wilson earlier this year.  The dude is the real deal and doing great things for the Kingdom! You HAVE to read this post about him being backstage at the Poison concert. POWERFUL stuff.
• Everyone keeps asking so I thought I would tell you that NO we haven’t found out trailer AND yes, I would still break the persons legs
• I told our church today we are putting ourselves in position to reach 10,000 people by year 10. YES, I believe it is going to happen!
• I still feel rough.
• I feel even rougher because I should be in Tampa eating seafood right now. Makes me sad.
• Several people back today from vacation.  Good to see people I haven’t seen in a few weeks.
• Not happy about how the Packers are treating #4. He is the greatest ever so if he wants to play, let him!
• Michael is coming up this week to check out our Holly Springs campus. Should be fun.
• Going to puke.

This was the first week in about 5 weeks we had all of our staff in the office (minus Carol, our financial chick) and it was one of the most awesome weeks! GREAT reminder this week of why I love that God allows me to lead Revolution Church!

• Monday we had a ROCKING Lead Team meeting where God started stretching us like never before. If you think the last 3 years have been insane, you ain’t seen nothing yet! We are putting ourselves in position to literally change the way church is done in the North Georgia Mountain Region.
• We are about to get very strategic about WHAT we do around here. I’ll admit we’ve never been a real strategic church. We’ve flown by the seat of our pants and God has done awesome things, but imagine what He could do if we actually get strategic???
• Pumped about Michael starting on Monday. I honestly think what we are about to do for students in Cherokee County is going to explode! There is such a HUGE, I mean HUGE need in this area for a rocking student ministry that it is crazy!
• Can you believe we started construction on a second campus and that the campus is going to be permanent?  It still amazes me what God is putting us in position to do in Holly Springs. There is such a huge need for a church that is focused on the unchurched in that area and I truly expect that campus to blow up overnight?
• Tim and Swift laid down vocals last night on the first two songs from our first worship CD. All original music and I am pumped about it. I had a certain vision about Revolution’s music before we ever had our first service and God is starting to put the pieces together to make that vision a reality.
• God began the turning in my soul this week about a Jasper campus. We’ve looked everywhere BUT the desire and burden I have for that area has NOT went away. As soon as the Holly Springs campus gets launched, we are going to hit Jasper again HARD!
• Had a great talk with Tony Morgan this week! We’re looking at bringing him in to help us get to the next level later this year.
• Had a conversation last week with a dude in our church who is praying about starting a church inside the perimeter. Honestly, I didn’t think much about it at first but I can’t get our conversation out of my head.  If God is leading, I can’t wait to partner with what would be our 2nd church plant since we’ve started.
• Tim started a coaching network today for Executive Pastors. Love the initiative he is taking to be the best executive pastor he can be.
• We’ve been financially supporting Haiti Cheri since about a year in, but this December we start taking that to whole different level! Stay tuned for the 411 on this.
• Tomorrow I am spending the entire day with the family! Yeah…come on!

• It’s summer and we are growing! Every week this summer we have had a ton of first time guests! Look at this fall!
• We have only 8 more Sundays of doing church in ONE location! The first week in September we launch our Holly Springs campus!!!!!
• Speaking of Holly Springs, we started construction today! It was awesome seeing a group of guys at the building knocking down walls!!!!
• God has been ROCKING my world about the long term vision of Revolution Church! I’ll admit, we have never been very strategic church. We have focused on reaching lost people and God has rocked our world but I’ve never really thought long term about Revolution, until lately. I spent the month of June focusing on what God wants to do at Revolution over the next 10 years and he has been rocking my world.
• Today we had one of the best Lead Team meetings we’ve ever had!!!! We spent a ton of time on the core values of Revolution and did some major tweaking. Values don’t mean anything if you don’t actually do them. Instead of listing what we wanted our values to be, we talked about what our actions actually show them to be. Good discussion.
• VERY excited about Thad 100% taking over worship. We are still looking for the RIGHT worship leader for Holly Springs, but I am excited about God using Thad to take worship to the next level.
• Jacked up about Revolution recording our first worship CD.
• Loving the photos David Johnson has been taking lately. The dude is GOOD! Check out the pictures from Sunday here.
• Can’t believe in September we will be at 4 services and by October we will probably be at 5.
• Revamping our addiction ministry. BIG changes coming by some awesome people and I couldn’t be more excited.
• Tweaked Preston’s job today to TOTALLY fit his skill set and exactly what we need here at Revolution.
• Excited about Give A Kid A Chance. Love that we are making a difference in our community!
• I can’t wait until Sunday to teach. I am going to be sharing with you the fact that what God wants to do at Revolution makes me UNCOMFORTABLE.

• Home Alone.  Got a ton of offers to hang out with people BUT I’m enjoying a quiet day.
• Cut the grass this morning. I hate grass.
• Mapped out my week so I would receive the last disk of Season 2 Sopranos on Saturday from NetFlix but forgot they are closed today so that won’t be happening. Not cool.
• Still working on my message. I have changed it twice this week but I think I got the right direction now.
• Listening to the new Journey CD. Borrowed it from some friends. The new guy can sing.
• I’m so freaking ready for church that I can’t stand it!
• Probably going to grill a steak tonight. Sounds good.

I honestly appreciate everyones emails telling me to calm down and not be angry, blah, blah about our trailer getting stolen. Here’s the deal, I am not angry or mad. Haven’t been one time today. I do stand by the fact that I would love to punch these people in mouth but I am not mad.

Getting mad does nothing for the situation and doesn’t change it so why get mad?

I’m sure most of you pastors have already seen this, so I am posting this more for the people of Revolution.  This post from Wade Joye, the worship pastor at Elevation Church got me pretty choked up today, which doesn’t happen very often.  Go check it out here and pray for the Joye family.  AWESOME faith!

Also this song by Hillsong is rocking my world right now!  Check out the song here and the story behind the song right here. The backstory is POWERFUL.

I had the honor of talking to the staff at Oak Leaf Church yesterday at their staff retreat in Chattanooga. Had a fun time and was impressed with those guys. I have said this a million times but it always strikes me when I leave Michael how different we are. We couldn’t be any more different, yet I think our respect and friendship for each other has really grown over the last couple of years. I consider him a friend, peer AND a mentor in many areas. Michael is a sharp guy and I have only been around Anthony, his executive pastor a couple of times but I am impressed with him as well. OLC is going to do great things in Cartersville.

One thing that strikes me when I am around other church staffs is how close knit our staff is. It wasn’t that the OLC staff wasn’t close, but today I was reminded that I do life with my best friends.  I am learning there is a vast difference between having a staff and a team.  Here at Revolution we have a team of people who are passionate about Jesus, our city, reaching lost people and are passionate about each other.

We actually love being around each other, we love hanging out, we love that we get to do this thing called Revolution together. I consider the guys and gals on our team to be my best friends.

I have had a lot of people tell me that we will eventually stall out in our growth if we don’t change the frat house culture at our office and the closeness of our staff.  I see their points and I understand what they are saying, but the day I have to stop being close with the people I lead is the day I will stop leading this place.

Trust me, I can put the boss hat when necessary.  Being so close with our staff does create moments where things are awkward and difficult but I would take those moments anytime in order to keep the closeness of our team.

I think my friend Perry Noble and the staff at New Spring keeps this balance as well as any staff.  When others tell us we need to change, I just point to New Spring.  I love coming into an office where I am happy to see everyone, I love that I can go hang out in others offices, and I love that I actually enjoy being around our staff.

• Great message from Perry Noble!
• Let me say it again, video teaching is NOT an issue!
• Perry had our people hooked the moment his personal greeting started.
• I’m not really sure our people want to go back to my preaching. I have heard a lot of comments about how awesome church has been without me. Not cool.
• Loved One Prayer but I am glad it is over. I am so freaking ready to preach that I could bust.
• DeAnna and the kids are in Florida with my family this week. I’m home alone all week and that sucks.
• Taylor who is my assistant is also on vacation.
• That means the two women who run my life are gone for the entire week. I will be a mess by the end of the week.
• Great thought by Nelson Searcy here. I am glad to say before even finishing the article, I could say no amount would make me leave.
• Dinner with Hal Mayer on his way back home today. Love that dude but love his wife more! She is a saint.
• Tadd and Becki had their baby. Tadd was on out staff when he first started and Revolution helped him start Pine Ridge Church in N.C. Check out the baby here.
• Next week we are doing something that I would venture to say you have never seen in church before. Trust me, you will remember the sermon.
• I am so ready to preach I was actually preaching to myself in the empty house last night. My dog got saved!
• Heading to Chattanooga EARLY to talk about reaching unchurched people at the Oak Leaf Church staff retreat. Taking our guys to hang out for the day after I’m done so that should be fun.
• I hope the OLC staff is ready because Micheal has asked me to speak on the thing I am the most passionate about.
• The new guy leading worship today was Phillip May. Yes, I know he looks like Ronnie Van Zant.
• Bayne is leading worship next week and I can’t wait to meet him. Heard a lot of great things.
• We hired a new student pastor this week. He starts July 15th. You already know him and he is going to be awesome. He built a GREAT student ministry in Paulding County. Who is it? You’ll see…
• Thad is moving to lead our worship area full-time. With Tim moving to Executive Pastor a few months ago, we refuse to allow worship to slip. Thad will do great in this role!
• We got our permits and are ready to roll with the build out at our Holly Springs campus!!!
• I am so freaking pumped about Holly Springs!
• Had one of the biggest Florida Gator fans in the world buy me a Georgia T-shirt from the college world series.  If that isn’t love for your pastor NOTHING is!
• Also got two Cuban cigars from a family in the church today! They smuggled them in the country. :)  People breaking the law for their pastor is love too.
• One of my great friends, Roger Blackmore showed our One Prayer video this morning in church and I love his comments about it! Check them out here.
• Thought it was funny that the Cherokee Tribune wrote an entire article up about World Harvest being for sale based solely on rumors. Loved also how we got included in those rumors. I appreciated them calling and letting us clear that up.
• Loved more the comment section of the article where the Revolution people got a little redneck because someone called me out. Loved also how they let Bishop Lance and his family know we are praying for them. You can check out the article and comments here.
• I love church planters BUT I can’t help but laugh when I get their emails and letters telling me how much money they MUST raise to start their church. It doesn’t take big money to start a church, it just takes God showing up.
• The band got in the studio this past week to start recording our first worship CD. Yeah…come on!
• I miss my family.
• DeAnna’s van broke down this past week. The starter went out and it is broke down at my moms. UGH! Chris Garcia is going to help me fix it on Tuesday so that rocks!
• Have I mentioned I am ready to preach?
• Not only am I keeping my dumb dog, I am somehow keeping Tim’s two dogs as well. Sucks.
• God of this City is my song right now! Love it!
• I refuse to let outside worship leaders do it at Revolution because you have to have a heart for our city to sing that song and mean it!
• I’m hungry
• It is storming like crazy!
• Going to watch Sopranos season 2.