Wednesday, October 31, 2007

ramblings

**Make sure you bring your kids to the Trunk or Treat sponsored by Walmart tonight from 6:00pm-8:00pm (at Walmart). Foothills Community Church will be represented well. If you've never been, all I can say is that it is the best thing I've seen for kids when it comes to Halloween. Last year there were like 4,000 kids that showed up and each of them had tons of candy. I think there are about 5 churches that will be giving out candy including us.

**They are starting to put the roof on our new building! I can't wait to have more space.

**Don't forget to set your clocks back this weekend.

**I am behind in my schedule this week. That stresses me out.

**My son started wrestling practice this week. The bad news is that their practices are mostly from 7:30pm-9:15pm. Which means we have to drive back and forth to Walhalla (25 minutes each way)

**I am really enjoying playing basketball on Monday and Wednesdays, even if it is at 6:00AM!

**We are going to be doing 5 Identical Christmas services this year. Right now it looks like the times will be Sunday 8:30am, 9:45am, 11:15am and Monday (Christmas eve) 4:30pm and 6:00pm. Remember they will all be identical. It is going to be a really cool service!

Monday, October 29, 2007

More random thoughts

** Last Thursday some businessmen in our area put together a Pastors Appreciation luncheon. Many area Pastors including myself and a few of our staff were able to attend. They fed us a nice lunch and gave away some prizes. One of our guys won $100, and another won $50 (it must have been rigged because I didn't win anything!) We all had a great time.

** Clemson looked really good against Maryland. South Carolina made a nice comeback only to lose to Tennessee (nice try!)

** Kicked off our new series yesterday called, The DNA of God. Yesterday we talked about Jesus being our Good Shepherd. Our attendance was strange. 9:45 had plenty of extra seats---11:15 was packed (usually they are pretty close. I think everyone must have slept in yesterday)

**I did some trivia yesterday in all of the services. I gave the birth names of some famous people and I had people guess what their celebrity names were (overall the 11:15am service were the winners), but the thing that I was most surprised about was that someone in the 8:30am service knew that Cordazer Calvin Broadus is who we know as Snoop Doggy Dog!!

** I've got a lot of meetings today--gotta go!

Thursday, October 25, 2007

slip sliding away

Brian Marshall, our Pastor of First Impressions said something in our staff meeting on Monday that I have been processing. He said that someone once told him that "if there was ever a time in your life that you were closer to Christ than you are right now, then you have backslidden."
I have thought alot about that.
Almost every pastor that I know will tell you that the line between study for Sunday messages and personal devotion time is very blurred. It can be tempting to substitute message prep for personal quiet time with God.
In a recent Pastors Roundtable that I participated in, this topic came up, and someone said that the key to delivering great messages was learning to preach from the overflow. The "overflow" that they were talking about was the overflow of what God was teaching them from their quiet time with God and what God was speaking into their lives on a personal level.
You can't preach from the overflow, if there is nothing that is overflowing.
David says in Psalm 23:5b, "You annoint my head with oil; my cup overflows."

So, the question we need to ask ourselves is; "has there ever been a time that I was closer to God than I am right now?" If so, what are we going to do about it?

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

creativity



Don't you just love creativity? One of the things we work hard to do here at Foothills Community Church is to be creative. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
Here's what you can be sure of when you see something done in a creative way: 1) It took alot of hard work. You don't accidentally fall into creativity. If creativity was easy, then every one would do it. 2) It took longer to pull off than you may think. Creativity takes time. 3) It probably wasn't the first idea. Usually the creative idea or elements we use were not the first ones we came up with. When you are with other creative people, there is a very cool interaction that happens that is hard to put into words, but generally one idea spawns another.

One other thought. Sometimes the most creative things are the simplest ones. It doesn't always take some sort of full-blown production to be the most impactful. Sometimes saying things SLIGHTLY different is all you need.

Here is a great example of what I'm talking about: (I would love to have this guy in our creative team meetings!)

Monday, October 22, 2007

God use me!

One of the questions I'm often asked is, "when you first started Foothills Community Church did you ever imagine it would grow this large?"
I always try to answer that question with caution. I don't want to come across as being arrogant, on the other hand I always believed that God had the ability to do anything.
So my answer is usually something like this. "I'm not surprised that God is doing such an incredible work here at Foothills, but I AM amazed that He is using ME to help reach this many people.
When I look at Foothills Community Church, I still believe that we have not even begun to scratch the surface as far as our potential to reach people for Christ. Our most productive days are still ahead of us!
During our staff meeting this morning we asked God to do more at Foothills than we have ever dreamed or imagined (Ephesians 3:20). I would love for you to join us in that prayer.

Be sure to invite your friends to church with you this Sunday as we begin a new series called "The DNA of God". I think after this series we will all know God a lot better!

Saturday, October 20, 2007

quick thoughts

**Clemson looked very good today. (I know it's only Central Michigan, but hey South Carolina lost to Vandy!) They put up some huge numbers. Is it just me, or does it seem like Cullen Harper gets no respect. His numbers are incredible. I'm a Willy Korn guy, but man, Harper is doing phenomenal.

**Speaking of South Carolina, how do they lose that game? They had an outside chance at a National title, but not anymore. I actually feel bad for them.

**We are going to wrap up the RelationSHIPS series tomorrow, talking about "Submarine" (taking your relationships beneath the surface. I am really looking forward to it!

**Got deer #2 this morning! What a beautiful morning to be in the woods.

**I am on a losing streak playing cards with my wife. I hate to lose, but if I am going to lose I would rather it be to her than anyone else!

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

one of my favorites of all-time

This video has been around for a while, but it is still one of the best ever made.

Unfortunately Mr. Bean's experience is happening in real life in many churches every Sunday.
Every time I watch this video it cracks me up!

Monday, October 15, 2007

random thoughts

** I finally broke down and went to play basketball at 6:00am this morning. It was a blast! A little hard to get up at 5:20am, but it was worth it (I think I am going to play on Mondays and Wednesdays)

** Had 4 great services yesterday. Attendance was a little light because of Fall break (or whatever it's called) for the schools.

** We are wrapping up the RelationSHIPS series this Sunday, the next series is called The DNA of God

** We are developing an advanced Leadership internship program for young emerging leaders who have an interest in going into ministry. We are going to launch the first 12 week session on January 7th.

** Broke the ice on my hunting season Friday. Got a nice fat doe. Can you say venison sausage! (sorry to all who don't like hunting, but it's how we roll around here!)

** Did you see the cut on Eric Peter's (our Worship leader) bald head!! Ouch, I know that had to hurt! (Note to self---Don't shave head)

Saturday, October 13, 2007

transparency

A few posts back I shared that I had made a decision to just be "real" as a Pastor. I want to continue to look at this a little more today.

I think all of us have a built-in radar that allows us to detect when someone is not being genuine.
I once greeted someone and asked him, "How are things going?' He answered by saying, "if things were any better, I'd be twins"! That answer would be fine IF things were going good in his life, but what he didn't know was that I was aware that things in his life were going very poorly. What a shame that he felt the need to try to cover things up. Wouldn't it have been a lot better if he would have felt comfortable enough to say, "Well actually things are a little tough right now. I could sure use some prayer".

I'm not coming down on that guy, because I've done the same thing at times.

My question is why do we feel the need to put on some sort of disguise, pretending to be someone we're not?, Or putting on a fake smile to pretend to be happy, when we're not? Are we that insecure?
Here is the biggest key for us to understand, that will set us free from these insecurities: NO MATTER HOW YOU VIEW YOURSELF OR HOW OTHERS VIEW YOU---GOD VIEWS YOU AS A MASTERPIECE! ("For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago". Eph 2:10)
When we truly come to grips with who we are in Christ, our personal insecurities melt away.

My friend Jeff Kapusta recently blogged about Pastors being real. (Great post Jeff!)

Another friend, Troy Gramling is just finishing a message series called MyNakedpastor.com where Troy let video cameras follow him around 24 hours a day for a month and it was being shown live across the internet to let people get a glimpse into the life of a Pastor. (just for the record he didn't get naked in front of the cameras), he was saying that emotionally most of us are afraid of getting naked.

Why not let go of your insecurities today and let God show you how valuable you really are?

Thursday, October 11, 2007

incredibly powerful

Eric Peters, our Worship Pastor sent me this video. It is very powerful. It is such a great reminder of the sacrifice made by our Savior!
I'm sure you will see our band do this live sometime in the near future!!

One other thing. we met with our general contractor yesterday. Unfortunately, it looks like the building won't be ready by Easter. It is now looking more like May. Oh well, there are some things in life that we don't have any control over. Fortunately God is still in control though!

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

a couple of thoughts

** We have a meeting today with our general contractor who hopefully will be able to give us a firm date for us to move into our new building. Our hope is that we are still on track to be able to have our first service in the new building by Easter.

** Tickets are now officially on sale for KidzBlitz Live
Last year's event was an incredible night of family entertainment. you can pick up tickets at the KidZone entrance on Sunday morning

** I had a great time having lunch with Matt Evans and his wife Beth yesterday. What a great couple that are passonate about reaching people for Christ!

**Last Sunday we had 401 kids and volunteers in our Children's area!
We have the most phenomenal Children's ministry!

** I heard that the temperature is supposed to drop into the 40's by the end of the week. Some people like that news, but I wish it could stay warm a little longer!

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

lunch

Just getting ready to head out to have lunch with my friend Matt Evans. Matt is the Pastor of Rockbridge Church in Dalton Ga (The carpet capitol of the world)
Actually they opened up a 2nd campus in Calhoun Ga recently. I am looking forward to talking to Matt about what he has learned so far about this new venture.
They are doing an amzing job of reaching their corner of the world for Jesus!

Monday, October 08, 2007

another great day

We had another great day at Foothills yesterday.
We had a big crowd, and the band showed their diversity by doing some country (we even had a steel guitar player). Rebecca Walker sang a Kelli Pickler song. It was awesome!
It was a message that created tension for many people. We talked about learning to truly forgive people who have hurt us in the past. I talked to many people after the services who said they they have struggled to forgive people, but knew that they needed to.
There is probably nothing as detrimental to your spiritual walk with God than harboring unforgiveness. If you have been struggling to forgive someone, you may want to listen to the message here (it should be online by late tomorrow)
Next Sunday, I will be sharing about what to do when you have relational conflict.

Thursday, October 04, 2007

keys for success

Over the years I have noticed that there are 4 main ingredients to success in just about everything, but especially when it comes to Church services. (If any of these 4 things are left out, results will be mediocre at best.)
Here is my list in the order that they need to be in.

#1 Prayer -- Before any endeavor we need to pray. Prayer sets everything else into motion. It is important to note that my prayer should NOT be,"Lord bless what I am about to do". Instead it should be more like, "Lord help me to tap into your heart and do what you are blessing."

It seems like prayer would be a no-brainer, but too often in church service planning, we start with a cool idea, and then tack on a prayer at the end like, "oh yeah,by the way, God bless this."

The times we get this part right, God moves in extraordinary ways!

#2 Planning-- Once we figure out God's direction through prayer, we should start planning. The farther out you plan, the better the execution will be.

I have to laugh at the number of people who have actually convinced themselves that somehow planning doesn't leave room for the Holy Spirit to move. The Holy Spirit should be moving at every one of these 4 steps. And considering that God is a God of order, it makes sense that planning should be a part of every service. (Planning creates order!)

One more thought about planning; My plans must always be flexible enough, that if God wants to change things up at any point in this process, it is OK

#3--Preparation--Once the plans are made there needs to be some action. That's where preparation comes in.
In this phase assignments are handed out (with timelines), materials are ordered and people are working toward the final execution of the process.
You can have the greatest planning in the world---but if no one prepares, all you had was an IDEA!

#4 Presentation--The last step in the process is the presentation. The presentation is the culmination of all of the above steps. It's where the rubber meets the road.
The likelihood of the presentation being excellent is totally proportionate to the amount of prayer, planning and preparation that have been done.

The only thing else I would add to the process--a #5, if you will, would be the assessment or review (I wish I could think of a word that started with a "P"!)
At the end of every service we evaluate. We ask questions like, "What was really good?", "what could have made it better?" (Kind of like a football team watching the film of the game, even though they may have won by 40 points. There is always something that could be tweaked)

Bottom line: Every Sunday may be someone's last chance for hearing and experiencing the Good News of Jesus Christ. The stakes are high, we need to give our best efforts!!

a few thoughts

It's pretty quiet in the office this morning. More than half of our staff is in Atlanta at the Catalyst conference. When we bought the tickets a few months ago, I decided that I wasn't going to go this year----now I'm wishing I would have gone! Oh well, maybe next year.

One thing that I am very excited about is this weekend's service. We are continuing our RelationSHIPS series. I will be talking about what to do when someone hurts you. We will be showing a video of someone who has worked through some major relational pain and then the band will be doing a very powerful song. It's going to be good! If you or someone you know is dealing with emotional pain from a relationship make sure to be at Foothills Community Church this Sunday!!

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Just for laughs

I felt like a good laugh today. I don't know about you, but I love the comedy of Jeff Foxworthy.
As long as the "You might be a redneck" stuff has been around, it still cracks me up.
Take a break and laugh a little! Click here if you're a redneck!

Monday, October 01, 2007

building progress










Here are a couple of pics of the new building under construction from this morning. The pictures don't do justice to the magnitude of the project. The new facility gives us an additional 36,000 square feet of space.The new worship center (on the right hand side, if you're looking at it from the street), will have 1,050 seats.