• Good day. I am glad winter break is over!
• The band was insane today.
• Dave Anderson was hanging out today.
• Laney and Jenna seemed pumped up after spending the week at the children’s confeence at Fellowship Church.
• Different type of message today, but one I felt needed to be talked about.
• I shut down my facebook account today. It was fun at first but I am sick of answering movie questions, getting monkeys thrown at me, being asked to join everyone’s hobby horse issue, and just how much time I spent logged in there.
• Movie started early again. I hope this isn’t a trend.
• Three Days into losing weight against other pastors. I feel GOOD, but tomorrow I turn it up another notch.
• DeAnna and I are going away for a couple of days this week to Nashville. I am meeting with a bunch of pastors to talk shop. We are staying an extra night to practice what I preach.
• Easter Egg Drop is coming fast!
• Easter Sunday is coming fast!
• I am really seeking God on some location things and I think I am starting to get some clarity.
• Met a guy starting a church in Canton this week. God has really grown me in this area. 3 years ago, I felt like I owned this town. Now, I just want to see people meet Jesus and we could use a dozen more churches who are actually reaching people. I’m excited about what he is doing.
• I am REALLY checking out another Canton location. IF (a big IF) you could find the right location you could be centered between Macedonia, Holly Springs, and Hickory Flat and there are a ton of homes there and no one really making an impact. The area is wide open.
• Excited about Thad starting this coming Sunday!
• Student Ministry? Wait for it……. Trust me, it is coming very soon.
• The song “God Of This City” is rocking my world right now. Not a normal song I would like but the words are so freaking powerful. I love the city God has called us to reach.
• DeAnna ran another race yesterday. She is so disciplined. I’m proud of her.
• Bummed I am not going to see Van Halen again tomorrow night because they cancelled. Oh well, I am thrilled I got to see them once.
• Several churches wanting to do our ONE series. Very cool. If you want the graphics shoot us an email. They are very simple and that is on purpose. You probably don’t want the intro video as it is very focused on Revolution and wouldn’t work in other churches….probably.
• Thad, have you sold your house yet?
• This morning was just chaos before the first service.  It is just one of those mornings where things were tense.  I’m done a lot better at not coming in the mornings, but this morning I did.  Not a good idea.
• DeAnna took the kids off today to something.  I should remember what, but I can’t.
• Bil’s talk at ChurchPlanters.com is still messing with me.  The phrase swing until your hands bleed is something I can’t get out of my head.  We are going to swing until our hands bleed to get the word out about Easter.  There are so many areas where that doesn’t make sense but I want people knowing what we have planned.
• Still a few, a very few spots open for the Unleash Conference.  If you want to go, you have to let us know this week.  Trust me, you want to go.
• My weight isn’t the only thing I am being more disciplined about.  Starting this week I have to get my schedule and my time back under control.  That is a good thing.
• Reading several good books right now.
• I’m going to to chill out.  See ya!

• Good day today
• The Band has been insane lately!
• I thought the sermon was pretty decent. DeAnna didn’t. She is now sleeping on the couch.
• Anytime you get to preach the gospel is a good day!
• Mark Shelton is knocking it out of the park with what he is doing with the lights. Love that dude.
• Had a blast hanging with Thad this weekend.
• Swift busting out some Kravitz was off the hook!
• Easter Egg Drop sign-ups are going awesome!
• Get Easter Egg Drop invites and give them to everyone you know!
• I think Zaxbys owes me some money. We literally pack that entire place out every Sunday after church.
• Attendance was good today especially considering it was winter break.
• ChurchPlanters.com tomorrow!
• I’m teaching a session on getting rid of excuses for portable churches and I am passionate about that subject so it should be fun.
• Can’t wait to connect with a ton of friends at the conference.
• I hooked up our new washer today with only a little help from Tim. I’m proud of myself.
• LOVED seeing a bunch of new faces at set-up this morning.
• Next we are hitting on subject that I don’t think I have ever talked about at Revolution.
• Our warehouse is FULL of props for our Easter series!!!!!
• No energy drink today before the sermon and I am feeling it right now.
• Movies started EARLY today and I was so proud of our people for getting the theater torn down so quickly.
• Looking forward to heading to Nasville and hanging out with Joe Case and some planters.
• What are we doing about our middle and high school students? You’ll find out very soon……hopefully.
• We have a very cool young man in the church with down syndrome and I love seeing that dude every week! He dresses like he should be playing lead guitar in a rock band and for the longest time he wouldn’t even acknowledge me. Today he made me cookies and I thought that was the COOLEST thing in the world.
• Simple Man just came on my iTunes. I think that is my theme song for my life.
• Steven told me that Denise was just being lazy and skipped church today. Shame, Shame, Shame.
• I’m hungry and there is nothing to eat at the house
• Looking forward to hearing Furtick bring it tomorrow at ChurchPlanters.com
• We have some hurting people right now and I think that sucks. I hate when our people are going through hard times.
• I am loving our ONE series.
• Ashlyn wants to go see then Hannah Montana movie and we are going to take her this week. Yuck.
• Van Halen’s Jump is on iTunes now. Love that song as well.
• I was talking to some men in our church today who asked me how things were going and it was just a great feeling to tell them things are GREAT. Honestly, this is about the best time I can remember in the life of Revolution. I like that.
• BUSY week ahead
• Pray for me tomorrow as I will be teaching to at the conference around 2:00 p.m.
• We need YOUR home for Home Teams. We also need some of you to step up and lead a Home Team. We are going to be talking about this in two weeks and trust me there will be a need.
• Peace. I’m out

• Awesome start to our new series today!!
• “one” will be a series that we look back on and realize we went to another level
• The Band nailed Rise Today by Alter Bridge - Freaking awesome song
• Get your lost friends to church next Sunday!
• I am about to leave to go to the Van Halen concert at Phillips Arena. Can’t wait to see Eddie shred on the guitar - You don’t even want to know how awesome my seats are!!!!
• We had a couple of church planters in church today. Love that we are able to influence those who are planting churches in a small way
• Tomorrow we are moving stuff all day the office. That sucks.
• I need someone to push me into getting in shape. I want to do it, but I always find an excuse not to do it.
• We have had a sound consultant in the last couple of weeks and he is doing some good things.
• New projectors today made everything so crisp. They are 3x more powerful than what we were using.  GREAT job by the team to get those together!
• Loving Jack Johnson’s new CD.
• EasterInCanton.com is live!
• ChurchPlanters.com is next week! I’m teaching a session on portable church.
• Loving this weather!
• I have been racking up on clothes from our people lately. I think they are in agreement with DeAnna that after 31/2 years, it might be time to change my fashion.
• Man, the crowd was rowdy today!
• I’m going to try to stop drinking cokes starting tomorrow. I did it for 10 months last year but when I started back, I was worse than ever.
• I’m supposed to be in Nashville at the end of the month for a church planters roundtable. Joe Case is leading it up and should have information soon about it on his blog….I think.
• It was fun having Thad with us this morning. He did a good job leading a song during worship. We are looking at maybe having Thad hang out with us a lot more in the future. We’ll see what God has planned.
• Got to go to Starbucks last night with my bride and NO children. Very nice. Very peaceful. I think I will do that more often.
• Got tickets to see Lifehouse on April 12th. That is our anniversary as well. 11 years!!!!!!
• Writer’s Strike is over. Thank you Jesus!
• As I was hanging out with Thad last night, I was sharing the Revolution story and I didn’t realize how much crap we have stirred up in the last 3 1/2 years.
• TONS of people signed up to help out with the Easter egg drop.  You guys are awesome!
• I was blown away with the new stage design today!  Aaron is awesome!
• Ashlyn has beat her first song on Guitar Hero.  In her own words, “I rocked their face off”
• Today’s message was HARD, but it was needed to be said.
• Winter break is the next two Sundays.  Always does crazy things with our attendance, but we are still bringing it hard next week.
• Jenna had brand new carpets in the children’s area today.  She has been waiting a long time to get them and they looked great right up until a child barfed on them before our first service.  They made it 10 minutes!!!!!!
• LOTS OF PEOPLE SICK TODAY!!!  How can you be sick when the weather is awesome like it is today!
• Days like today remind me why we do what we do!
• I’m headed to Atlanta.

• Wrappped our Confession Of A Pastor series today.  GREAT series, but I am ready to move on to the next one!
• Dana Jacobs KNOCKED IT OUT OF THE PARK TODAY by busting out a little Brooks and Dunn.  Holy crap, she was awesome!
• We went country with the entire set today.  Tommy Dodd joined us and I dig hearing the dude on Steel Guitar.
• We had a teenager who works at the theater wrote the F bomb all over some of our signs.  That was nice.  Not.
• We had Cherie Duffy from New Spring in to do some consultating for our kids area today.  She was GREAT and even though I haven’t seen her report yet, she made it clear we have A LOT of work to do.  We WILL make the necessary changes and do whatever it takes to make that area as effective as possible.
• We start a series next week called Deadliest Catch where we will go through the book of Jonah.  I am calling an audible on the entire series.  On the way home today, God changed my entire direction for our next series.  We have NEVER changed a series like this but, next we are launching a series called…….well, you’ll just have to wait and see what we are changing the series too.
• Membership class this Friday night!!!!!!
• DeAnna is getting ready to cook her world famous, okay nearly world famous hot wings for tonight!
• I’m getting ready to cook my world famous cookies.  They come already made, but I do have to put them in the oven.
• Jennifer starts FULL TIME tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• Lifehouse is coming.  DeAnna and are going with this couple and it is going to rock.
• I have a LONG LONG week ahead.
• Super Bowl tonight!  I think it is going to be a lot closer than people think and I wouldn’t be surprised if the Giants pull the upset.
• I love our church!!!

• FUN and INTENSE service today!
• It was fun to have service again!!!
• Lot’s of new people. Lot’s of new people leaving with their jaws dropped after the message.
• Anytime you have an excuse to play Keep Your Hands To Yourself by The Georgia Satellites it is a fun day.
• I was as open and as honest as I have EVER been today. It actually made me uncomfortable, but I think it was a message that was needed.
• We had about a 65/35 split between the two services today. Considering we are normally about 85/15, I’ll take it.
• Even with all the new people moving to the first service, we were about 80% full in the second service.
• Patrick had someone who reads my blog attend his first service today. My understanding is they use to live in Canton and read my blog. But they didn’t attend Revolution when they lived in Canton. Shame on them.
• VERY nice having a sound consultant in the service today. I think there was a big difference in the sound. Our guys are all new and sold out and with a little more experience they are going to be great.
• The theater manger called and said someone named Wendy grabbed my Bible today. Thanks Wendy! If you read this blog, I need that before Sunday.
• We had a lot of people talking about the Unleash Conference today. If you want to go, we’ll pay your way. Simply hit the CONTACT button at the top of the blog and sign up.
• I am gone Wednesday and Thursday this week at a pastor’s roundtable. This group of pastors is actually going to meet 3-4 times this year. I am looking forward to it.
• One more week of our Confessions Of A Pastor series. It has been a great series, but I am sick of confessing. I want to get back to pointing everyone else’s faults out, not mine.
• I hear rumors of a Guitar Hero tournament at ChurchPlanters.com Conference. Interesting…..
• I’ve got postal workers in Acworth, Canton, and Cumming. I love getting the scoop on what other churches are doing in terms of marketing.
• As I walked around today, it literally seemed like everyone in our church either had a newborn or was pregnant.
• I preached on Staying Sexually Pure Is Hard Work today. I told the church I was thinking of calling the message, I like boobs. I guess there is a shirt that says that and I only had about 15 people tell me they were getting me one. Only at Revolution.
• We are trying to improve our children’s area to help it get to the next level. We have some great volunteers in that area and next we have a consultant coming so I am excited about that!!!! That area is to important to not run awesome.
• I am thinking we are going to take our entire staff over to Mountain Lake next Sunday night just to see someone else in action.
• Brian is coming over tonight to help us train our dog. He trained K9’s in the military. He is multi-talented. He works security and will shoot you on Sunday morning and trains dogs at night.
• We got a lot of stuff to move this week out of all our storage places. NOT fun.
• I love the excitement our Jasper crowd has. They are ready to get started!!!!!!
• Have you seen the new Revolution signs around town? They look great!
• A ton of pastors in town are now blogging. I like reading them and it makes me laugh as I read their blogs and they are acting nothing like they are in real life. Guys, just be yourself!!!
• Next week you can start signing up to help us put on the biggest Easter egg hunt in the history of Cherokee County.
• I am trying to work in a road trip where I can go hang out with Perry for a day and with Steven for a day. Things are jus so busy it is hard to get away.
• It is weird not have football on today.
• Today was a GREAT example of why we don’t allow children in our services.
• Get your friends to church this week!!! If they are skeptics and doubt God, this will be the message for them!
• Anyone got any good music they are listening to?
• I’m going to play Guitar Hero with Ashlyn. See ya!

• No church today
• I literally slept all day. I slept till 9:30, then went back to sleep at 1 and woke up about 3:30.
• My voice seems a little better. Hopefully by next week I will be 100%
• For some reason I have been very dizzy all day. I think I am dying.
• It is freaking COLD outside.
• The Pack and Giants are playing tonight and it is supposed to be below zero
• It feels so weird not having church on a Sunday
• Got to decide if we are cutting one week off of our Confession series or if we are going to go a week longer since we didn’t have church today. I’m leaning towards going a week long
• This has been a week of finding out interesting stuff. Can’t go into details, but it has been interesting.
• Our boxer thinks he is a lap dog
• Next week I am hooking up with 10-12 other pastors for 24 hours to do nothing but talk shop and share ideas.
• We have managed to keep a fire going for two days now.  I’m impressed.
• Next Sunday will be insane.  I will have sat on this sermon for two weeks and I will be more than ready to bring it.
• GET your friends to church this Sunday.  Let’s pick up right where we left off last week.
• I’m going to watch some football and probably going back to sleep.

You are going to have to deal with lists over the next couple of days because I got a lot of thoughts on my mind.

As we get ready to launch our second campus, here is what is running through my noggin right now:

• I think the multi-site model of ministry is GREAT for a church like ours that has a desire to go into smaller towns where church plants might never go.
• Tonight we find out if we get to start our build-out at our Jasper location.  If we get the go ahead, we start construction tomorrow.
• Multi-site is all about branding.  I am blown away by the response in Jasper from people that already know about our church.
• Campus Pastor is the KEY role in the whole thing.  This person has to be a leader, but also a team player.  To be a campus pastor you have to be a very unselfish person.  You are leading, but you are not the primary teacher or vision caster.
• Worship is the second big role.  God has blessed us so much musically that we are fine for the short-term.  However, we need to bring another worship leader on staff asap.  Finding that person is such a key hire.  They will be under Tim’s leadership and have to fit in our with our team.  Artsy, Fartsy guys need not apply.
• We will probably NOT assign a worship leader to a campus.  Instead we will rotate them among all our campuses.
• Creating a buzz BEFORE you launch is EASY and IMPORTANT
• Doing a build out on a budget is stressful.  I think IF possible it is best to go portable.
• I think the second one is probably the hardest and most expensive one to launch.  As we launch our 3, 4, and 5th campuses, we will already have the video recording equipment so we will only need to buy equipment for that campus.
• Your mindest changes to leader reproduction quickly
• Reproducing has to become a core value in all aspects.  We are saying we have to reproduce EVERY aspect of everything at every campus or we won’t do it at any campus.
• I’m excited to see us change North Georgia with the gosple of Jesus Christ!!!

• Another awesome day!
• We popped around 1000 again.  Haven’t seen total numbers, but it looked equal to last week.
• I literally, I mean literally lost my voice teaching today.  It is shot.
• Yes, I compared prayer and sex.  The comparison worked in my mind.
• Fantasy Football Party tonight. I’m in a keeper league so we have to announce who we are keeping. You can keep four players and you lose the round they were drafted.
• I only allow myself to subscribe to 30 blogs at a time. Today I deleted about 15 and added 15 new ones. Some of the ones I bumped, I have had since I started blogging. But, for whatever reason they aren’t connecting right now.
• We got to nail down our 2008 conference schedule this week. I want to take the entire staff to one conference together. We do Unleash and I am thinking of the Drive Conference as well.
• With staff changes comes staff office shuffle. Preston moved into Malcolm’s old office and took all of my office furniture. Adam moved into the creative meeting room and has set-up shop. It makes me laugh watching everyone move offices for about the 100th time since we started.
• HUGE meeting with Pickens County concerning our Jasper build-out Monday night. We have already had the HOA of the neighborhood around the building call and let us know they will be opposing the rezoning. Bummer. They are mad at the landowner over some other things, not us. Still sucks.
• Ashyln has discovered Hannah Montana. Kill me now.
• Our dog got this “boys” cut off last week. He has been pretty hyper since it happened. I thought it was supposed to calm him down.
• Adam is heading up 85 this week to pick up our video equipment we have been given. Nice.
• Friday night I am teaching at the Men’s Conference at West Ridge Church. I’m looking forward to it.
• We have all our teaching series nailed down until June. We got some cool things planned.
• I ate an authentic Cuban meal today.  Cuban pork, black beans, rice, and yuca root.  It was awesome.  Bob, do you know what a yuca root is?  It freaked me out at first.
• I know a teenager that is about to BLOW a great opportunity because he wants to do things “his way.” It breaks my heart how stupid he is being.
• I am ready to launch our Jasper location!!!!!!!!
• Watching the Packers last night was the way football should be played. I love Favre.
• I’m so tired, I have nothing else left on my mind.

Got a lot on my mind so here goes:

• Christmas was GREAT!!!!  We went nowhere.  We just stayed around the house in our PJ’s till about 1.  Grandparents came over about 3 and stayed the perfect amount of time (about 2 hours) and then we just laid around some more.
• BEST GIFT: VAN HALEN tickets!!!!!!!  Not to just one show, but to both of their shows.  Two different people got me tickets and I am pumped!  I love concerts.
• Of course the only gift we give in this family is concert tickes so I got DeAnna tickets to Bon Jovi/Daughtery.  Should be fun also.
• Today is DeAnna’s birthday.  She is the love of my life and I thank God every day for allowing me to be married to her.  As is our tradition, we spent the entire day at the mall and I wasn’t allowed to complain.  Had a blast!!!
• Heading out to West Virginia tomorrow to teach a few hundred teenagers at the Sidekick Students Winter Retreat.  We got a good group of our kids going and my family is going.  I haven’t taught to students in probably 9 years so I really don’t know what to say or do.  I just plan on bringing the heat like I do on Sundays.  Our kids seem to dig it so I hope the other kids dig it.
• We have a 50,000 piece mailer hitting mailboxes next week and we are featured on the cover of Around Canton Magazine in January.  It all points to our new teaching series called Confessions Of A Pastor.  This series is going to be me no-holds barred.  I’m a open book already so this should be interesting.
• NO CHURCH THIS SUNDAY!!!!!!!! Enjoy the Sunday with your family.
• We’ve made a couple of additions to our team at Revolution.  Aaron Olson is coming in for the next few months to do programming and stage design (which he had already been doing since our 24 series) and we have hired Jennifer Vogelpohl full-time to come be do all our business administrative.  I’ve been trying to hire Jennifer since about 3 months after we started the church and finally with some of our people moving onto other things and her ready for a new adventure, the stars aligned.  Very excited to have her in the office.
• Seeing our people show up to deliever doughnuts on Christmas Eve was awesome.  Very proud of our church.  Loving pastoring a church I would attend even if I wasn’t on staff.
• I can’t lie, it felt weird not having our big Christmas Eve blow-out, but we’ll come STRONG next year with it.
• Still can’t believe we brought in $83,000 in our Next Step Offering.  Revolution is amazing.
• I almost bought some shoes today.  I haven’t bought a pair of shoes in probably 5 years and have only worn shoes about 3 times this year, but it might be time for a change.
• No good music out right now.
• We took the dog to a bording place today and I am not happy.  I am worried about the little fellow, but I guess he’ll be fine until Sunday.  He better be….
• I’m going to enjoy the next week off but honestly, I am ready to go back to work now.  I love what I do, but I know resting from it is good for Revolution, for my family, and me.
• I started praying some VERY specific prayers about our church a few months ago.  They included location issues, staffing issues, multi-site issues, and financial issues.  God has rocked my world by answering those prayer requests.  Some the way I thought he would, some NOT they way He would.  Either way, I am glad He is control and trust Him to build this place.
• Chris and Taylor close on their first house on Friday.  VERY proud of them.
• I wonder what God has in store in 2008?

More thoughts running through my head:

• Did I mention we raised $71,000 today!!!!
• I was rocking the sports coat today
• Swift tore it up on When Love Comes To Town
• I wish I only had one name like Swift.  How about just Lamb?  Doesn’t have the same ring.
• I got to figure out how to get our dog to quit chewing everything in the house
• Just saw a glimpse of the new Batman.  Yeah baby!!!
• DeAnna is starting to cook all the once a year goodies she makes every year.  I’m pretty excited.  The next two days I will simply eat, eat, and eat some more.
• One more week until the Sugar Bowl.  I ain’t going to lie, the Warriors worry me
• Got someone who just emailed and wants to deliver doughnuts to those working at the liquor store tomorrow night.  That’s awesome!!!!
• Had a few “old” faces back at church today.  I was glad they were back.
• I have had Zaxby’s 4 nights in a row.  Not good.
• Okay, no more thoughts for the night….