after Thanksgiving random thoughts

Thanksgiving is a great Holiday. We had a lot of fun with family and friends (and too much food). I have so much to be thankful for!

My wife almost broke her tradition of waking up at dark-thirty to go shopping on Black Friday. The key word there is "almost". She gave in and went shopping and saved us lots of money. She told me that the stores weren't as crowded as usual.

On the list of things that I hate to do, shopping is near the top, just below going to the dentist for a root canal.

Clemson/Carolina game today. I'm not going, but I will be watching on TV. With this weather it could be a mud bowl. Go Tigers!

Speaking of the Tigers. I hope they offer Dabo the job.

With the bad economy many families in Oconee County are having tough times, and as a result there are a whole bunch of kids who may not get any gifts this Christmas. Foothills is going to do something about that, so we will be taking a special offering for the kids for the next 2 weeks. Last year we did it spontaneously after the services on one Sunday and received over $5,000. So this year I want to see us surpass that mark.

Don't miss tomorrow at Foothills. It's going to be awesome!

The goal of a church service

This may not seem like a very spiritual question, but what is the goal of your church service? I have found that most churches really don't know the answer to that question.

Over the years I think my answer probably has changed somewhat, but I believe that basically the goal of a church service is to lift up Christ so much that people genuinely encounter God.

The goal is not to entertain (although sometimes it is very entertaining). The goal is not to just gather corporately to catch up with people you haven't seen in a week (although that happens). The goal is not to become a spectator of a performance, where the people on stage become the players and the congregation becomes the audience.

The goal is to engage. To connect with a holy God. To offer praise. To be challenged.

When we sit in our creative meetings we try to think through the elements of a service. We want to be sensitive to what God wants to do during that service. We purposely try to help people connect the spiritual dots. We want to design services where people have an opportunity to engage, and interact.

I really feel that 2008 has been one of the most spiritually enriching years our church has ever had. As I reflect on some of those services, it gets me fired up! Every service we do, I truly believe that God is going to show up and change lives----and He always does.

I am so thankful to all of the people who are part of Foothills Community Church!

Sunday recap

Things keep on going well at Foothills, and yesterday was no exception. My message was on John 3:16, and when you talk about God's love people respond.
We had many more people flip the switch and begin a relationship with Christ! (Not sure how many yet) Our baptism services on December 7th are going to be incredible.

Tons of first-time guests, especially in our Kidzone ministry. I have to say that our Children's ministry is one of the best that I have ever seen---anywhere!

Our Toccoa campus set a record for attendance since going to one service. Shannon is doing a great job of leading. I can't wait to go there and hang out with them. I am planning on getting over there one Sunday very soon and do the message live!

I made a mistake in a previous post about our Christmas service times. The correct times are Saturday December 20th at 6:00pm and Sunday December 21st at 9:30am and 11:15am

Mark this on your calendar

As most of you know, God is doing some things at Foothills that have been indescribable. There have been record numbers of people that are being saved, and coming up on Sunday December 7th we will be doing baptisms in both services. As usual, we will be doing them different than ever before, but I promise you they will be exciting!

If you are a Christ-follower but have never gone public through baptism, this is your chance. Just let us know by checking off the box on the info card in the Foothills Flier this Sunday and we'll contact you to let you know what to do next. We are expecting a ton of people to be baptized, so it is going to be awesome.



Another thing to note is that this year's Christmas service schedule will be as follows:

Saturday December 20th at 6:30pm and Sunday 9:30am and 11:15am

This year we have decided to pour all of our energy into these 3 services, so we will not be holding Christmas eve services. Instead we're asking you to invite all of your friends and family to one of these 3 services and then on Christmas eve spend that time together with your family.

December is going to be an exciting month!

Sunday recap

**We continued our Switch series yesterday. Lives are changing!

**The feedback from yesterday was awesome

**I think we had another 30 people or so who gave their lives to Christ.

**They had 3 people "flip the switch" yesterday at our Toccoa campus!

**Had the largest attendance we have ever had (not counting Holidays or the Grand Opening of the new building)

**Tons of first-time guests and tons of people returning.

**Looking forward to this Sunday's message. We're going to take a real close look at what could be the greatest verse in the Bible!

**Our student ministry is on fire right now with lives changing. Brian told me that there are around 15 teenagers who will be baptized in December.

**Foothills has the most incredible staff of any church. These men and women are committed to the core to reach more people for Christ.

**I am truly blessed to lead such a phenomenal church!

Saturday thoughts

Haven't blogged in a few days, so let me try to catch you up.

**On Thursday I went to my monthly coaching network. It was awesome, and I always take away so much good stuff.

**Went hunting in the fog and rain on Friday morning. Shot a nice buck!

**Friday evening we had a family night at Foothills.It was a lot of fun, and lots of people attended. We had a magician come and perform, and he did great.

**On a sad note, a wonderful Christian man and a great friend lost his battle with cancer last night.

**Praying really hard for this Sunday's services. Please, if you have a friend who doesn't know Christ, get them there Sunday!

**Sunday's message is going to get a little uncomfortable, but that's a good thing sometimes!

**After all the rain and wind, my yard is covered in leaves. I guess that's why it's called "Fall." It's supposed to get cold tonight. I miss summer already!

What would you ask?

In December I have been invited to be a part of a group of Pastors that will meet in Dallas to spend a few hours with a very well respected leader. One of the things that I was asked to do before the meeting was to email 3 questions or topics that I would like to have discussed.

I just sent my questions in. My fear is that the rest of the Pastors are going to send in some deep, profound questions and mine will sound really stupid! But the reality is, I have always heard that the only stupid question is the one you don't ask.

I have tried to make it a practice to ask questions. Some people are naturally more inquisitive than others, but when you ask questions, you get answers. Let me say that again. When you ask questions, you get answers. (Profound, huh?)

I cant tell you how many times by asking someone a question it saved me from making some bad decision, or saved me a lot of time or effort.

Let me give you an example of what I'm talking about. When we started to prepare for our second campus, I knew that I didn't have the answers, so I asked questions. In fact I put together a group of 7 or 8 other Pastors that were also considering second campuses and we got together for a couple of days and asked each other lots of questions.
There were still many unanswered questions, so we sent our campus pastor to a multi-site conference before we started so that he could ask questions.

Do yourself a favor, start asking lots of questions. You may be surprised at what you will learn.

Can you say, amazing?

Yesterday we continued our Switch series, and it's hard to describe what happened, but I'll do my best.

Another huge crowd. People definitely invited their friends!

We had over 40 people "flip the switch", and give their lives to Christ yesterday! (that's what it's all about)

We actually did a "come forward" invitation yesterday (we normally just do response cards) it was different, but very cool.

The worship teams did another fantastic job leading us.

There is an unbelievable buzz at Foothills right now.

Sunday is coming again in just 6 days, so go out and invite your friends that don't know Christ. Pray that they will flip the switch.

The test

On Sunday I showed a video clip that was part of a research project that shows some college students passing a basketball back and forth. The goal is to count how many times the basketball gets passed.
You can try it here

Before you read any more take the test---count the passes.



Now, if you are like 70% of the people in the world you didn't see the gorilla that walked across the room. The reason is because when we get focused in on something (like counting the basketballs), we automatically block out everything else.

I wonder how many times we go through our everyday lives and get consumed with our own little world, that we miss all of the hurting, lonely, frustrated, and disenfranchised people that are all around us. Jesus once said, "wake up and look around. The fields are already ripe for harvest."

This Sunday at Foothills we will continue our Switch series. Ask God who you can invite to come with you. I promise you, they will have an opportunity to "flip the switch!"

Because People Matter

This weekend we are hosting a conference to honor our volunteers and to help other churches. Mark Waltz from Granger Community Church will be leading the conference. Mark does an excellent job communicating the importance of first impressions.
The main conference is this Saturday from 9:00am until 12:00pm and you can find out more about it here.

It's not too late to sign up. I can promise you that it will be worth your time coming to this.

There is no cost for all Foothills Community Church volunteers, and for other churches there will be a very low $10 per person fee. This includes lunch and all materials. Please note that there will be no childcare available.

sunday recap

We had another fantastic day at Foothills today! Here are a few of the highlights:

**Kicked off our new series called, "Switch" today. The focus on today's message was helping others flip the switch spiritually.

**Tons of people handed in their switch cards with the names of their friends they want to see become Christ-followers.

**We had a huge attendance today. I guess an extra hour of sleep helped everyone.

**The services went long today. We need to work on that.

**We're expecting tons of guests over the next few weeks as our people invite their friends.

**I heard that our Toccoa campus had great services today too!

**The band rocked today, especially in the 11:15am service during the walk out song at the end of the service

**Hamilton Allstatt is officially the best electric guitar player I have ever heard.

**Lots of meetings tomorrow. Gonna be a great week!