Sunday I announced to our crowd we are changing our name to Revolution Church. Might not seem like a big deal but it was huge to us. Most places change their name when things are going wrong, yet we changed it when everything was going awesome! I thought I would share with you our thought process behind the change.

I have heard it said over and over that it takes a church 3 years to truly figure out who they are, who they are going to reach, and what is going to be their DNA. for us that is so TRUE!!! We are such a different church then we started and we are so different then what I figured we would be when we started.

I can remember when we started the church we wouldn’t allow the guys on stage to wear denim because that is what some other churches did (that lasted about a month). We had all these core values that we thought sounded cool but didn’t reflect our passion. We did sermon series that everyone else was doing even if they didn’t fit who we were. I could go on and on giving you examples of how we are different now. We had a very coffee shop vibe with our logo and webpage. We did some cool things but it wasn’t who we were.

Now 3 years in it is very obvious the type of church we are, the vision we have, the people we reach, and the values we have without even having to list them. We are who we are.

In the early days of a church plant you naturally play it safe. We did that with our name. I thought it was safe to go with a name that had no meaning and really made no sense. Everything from subdivisions to retail centers were using these type of names so we went with it. In the process we had a name that blended in with everything else and didn’t stand out.

Ridge Stone Church served us well but it did NOT describe the type of church we are. It sounded like a golf course community more than a church that was looking to turn it’s town upside down with the Gospel. It was a name that blended in with everything else around us. We meet on Riverstone Pkwy, so people thought we were Riverstone Church. It took people a couple of months to remember our name. We have been called Ridge Stone, Stone Ridge, Ridge Mill, Oak Ridge, etc. The name was not easily remembered.

As we turned 3 I felt we were finally in the place we should be as a church. The last year has been a huge year of growing for me and our staff and we finally have the systems in place that match our Sunday experience. Year 4 is going to be a huge year. That along with the fact we are going multi-site and wanted a name that showed the areas we were going to that a different type of church was coming were reasons we felt led to change our name to the name I should have named it the day we started.

This was something that I had been thinking of in the back of my mind for probably a year. We even thought about changing it a year ago to The Stone. Loved that name but again it meant nothing and sounded really laid back to me and we are anything but that. Over the course of the last 4-5 weeks several things happened that showed that we could do this thing. One of those things was walking through the process of my friend Tony McCollum changing his name. I brought it up to our staff and they loved it. I started thinking we would transition very slowly and do it by January. Then we thought about our 3 year anniversary and the big pushes we have coming up so we decided after much prayer and much counsel to pull the trigger in 8 days!!! It was a wild week but I loved every minute of it and our team pulled it off like they always do.

I’m excited about the change, our people are excited about the change, and the community is going to be excited from the results of the change!

• We turned 3 today!!!!
• It was one of the most rocking services we have ever had.  The crowd was rowdy!
• Chris Elrod was in our services.  Love that dude.
• We moved to Pro Presenter today without a hitch!  Way to go tech guys!
• This has been a rough week for church plants in our area dealing with schools.  I honestly hate to hear that but it makes me thankful that we meet in the movie theater!
• Got to eat at The Varsity tonight!  Love that place.
• John Mayer was awesome!  That dude can tear up a guitar!
• Did you see the kids area this morning???  WOW!!!!!  It was off the hook!
• Steve Waters had a heart attack and passed away this week and it was odd walking into the worship center and not seeing him greeting.  Gave me a lump in my throat.  Continue to pray for Debbie and the kids.
• The video looking back at the first three years was incredible.
• I felt off of my game today but our people responded huge!
• Loved the new shirts!!!  We had 500 shirts and I think there were about 20 left after the service.
• Lots of new faces today!
• Enjoyed watching hanging out with my bride tonight!
• We are about to turn it up even another notch in Canton.
• We had MORE families from Jasper today.  The buzz is insane there!
• Oh yeah, we changed our name to Revolution Church

will have to wait until tomorrow.

We’re off to see John Mayer so I don’t have time to post.  We had a HUGE day today! We made a big announcement and our people went freaking nuts!!!  The place was electric and I can’t wait to see what God has in store.

What was the big announcement?  I got to go but I promise to tell you tomorrow.

I am very excited about Sunday!!!  We are turning 3 and we are going to have party looking at all that God has done but I am more excited about what God is leading us to do.

Tomorrow we change the face of Ridge Stone and it is going to be awesome!

If you think the first 3 years have been crazy, you ain’t seen nothing yet!

Got a phone call today that I did not expect or that I wanted.  We made it three years without an adult death, but today a great man in our church passed away suddenly from a heart attack.

When I got the news I felt like someone punched me in the gut.  This guy came to our church as an unchurched person and I have had the honor of baptizing almost their entire family.  He stopped by the office EVERY Wednesday just to shoot the breeze.  I remember when he first started coming to our church I saw them at Cracker Barrel after the service and without me knowing they bought our dinner.  He was always smiling and was one of the first faces you saw in the church as a greeter.  He served EVERY week and did whatever we needed.

Days like today make me forget about “big announcements” and “cool series” and whatever else we are doing at the time and just thank God that I get to pastor people and be there when they are going through those type of hard times.

Pray for the family as they are going to need over the next few months.

We are about to turn 3 years old as a church. It has been a wild ride and God has rocked our world. I was thinking today about some things I have learned in doing this thing of planting a church.

So here are my thoughts in random order:

• At year 3 you finally realize the type of church you are going to be, not the type of church you want to be.
• Do whatever you can to get momentum and then fight, kick, and scream NOT to lose it.
• It is easy in year 3 to get comfortable. Don’t let that happen.
• People you started with leave. Let them.
• We should have developed volunteer leaders a lot sooner.
• Church Planters tend to get bored. Keep it fresh or you will leave.
• Take Sundays off. I didn’t do this near enough the first two years. I learned my lesson towards the end of this year.
• Take off during the week. I didn’t do this nearly enough the first two years.
• Stay flexible.
• The people you put on your team are important. Take people you love to be with over experience any day.
• We should have gotten systems in place earlier. At least it is better late then never.
• Don’t be scared to preach on giving. It is biblical and you owe it to your people to teach them what God’s word says on the subject.
• It is about Jesus and people. Nothing else.
• Learn and Return. I have had people pour into my life and therefore I pour into the lives of others.
• If you lose your church, God might give you another one. You lose your family, you’re done.
• Every pastor should have an assistant and an executive pastor.
• Push your people to live lives that reflect the Bible.
• Go after the unwanted people. You CAN build a church with those no one else wants.
• We are a lot more impressed with our “cool stuff” then the people in our communities are.
• Other Churches in our area are NOT our competition.
• Christians are not a bad thing. I thought they were for the first two years.
• When it quits being fun, step back and figure out why.
• Lead as God tells you, not as others think you ought too.
• There are times you have to do what others think is crazy and do it standing alone. That is called being a leader.
• I’m here to impact my community not impress other bloggers.
• You need friends in the ministry. They have been there, done that, got the T-Shirt to prove it.
• If you can do anything else and be happy then do it. I can’t. I love this thing.
• Don’t be afraid of shaking it up.
• Hire ahead of your growth.
• If you wait until you can afford to hire, you will never do it.
• Know the vision God has given you and let nothing or no one change it.
• I am never 100% about any decision I make. If I can get to about 85%, I’m good.
• Small groups that work are an amazing and powerful thing.
• You might need to cross those bridges you burned your first two years.
• Find one or two mentors then shut up and learn from them.
• Three years into it your mentors will probably change. You outgrow them or are at a different phase in life and need different people pouring into you.
• Enjoy the ride. Far too many guys miss out the awesomeness of the ride.
• There is nothing sweeter then a changed life.
• I’m as excited and sold out to this thing as I was the day we held our first service. Honestly, I am the luckiest person in the world to pastor this church.

Holy smokes!!!!!!  Things are insane here but it is coming together FAST!!!!!  I thrive on this stuff and I love seeing our people making it happen!!!

Sunday is going to be FUN!

We have a meeting withe head of Picken County Schools on Thursday at 8:30 a.m.  This meeting is HUGE for us in regards to our multi-site vision.  We need the High School and this is the man that can give us permission to rent it.

Pray that his heart is open to us meeting there.

Pray we can be a blessing to the school we meet in.

Pray we turn Jasper upside down with the message of Jesus Christ!

That is the ONLY way to describe the office today!!!!  Amy Young is the MAN….ur woman!  She is stepping up this week in big ways and going above and beyond to make Sunday happen.

Pray for us because we are in way over our head and I love it!

Next week I am making one of the biggest announcements in our church history (no, we are not getting a building ) and I just found out some awesome news about that announcement that is just MORE confirmation!!!!

I love the adventure of serving God!