random thoughts

** Had a great day hanging with some Pastor friends in Easley today. These guys challenge me and inspire me.

** We met at 5 Point Fellowship where my friend Dean Herman is the Pastor. Their building is located right next door to a funeral home with a crematorium. When I was leaving, a big cloud of black smoke came pouring out of a pipe on top of the funeral home and blew in my face. I'm guessing someone was in the oven. That was pretty gross!

** We ate at a Japanese restaurant for lunch. (before the crematorium incident)

** Really excited about Shine 09. Keep your calendar open for May 9th from 9:00am until noon so you can participate.

** My son Cole picked up his tux for his prom. He looks pretty slick, I must admit.

** Lots of people freaking out about the Swine Flu. Let's not panic.

** Great services planned at Foothills this Sunday---can't wait!

** Looking forward to playing basketball tomorrow morning, even if it is at 6:00am

** Speaking of basketball----Lebron James is ridiculous! My guess is that the Cavs go all the way.

** Can't believe that Adam was in the bottom three in American Idol last night. I'm picking him to win, although I would rather it be Danny or Chris.

** My 3 year old grand daughter has found where we stash the candy in the house. She has been caught eating candy 3 times in the last 24 hours ! She comes by her sweet tooth very honestly. Has to be genetic.

** My wife has been killing me in card games lately. I hate to lose----anything!

** Have you joined Foothills facebook group yet?

Shine 09

This weekend I will be wrapping up the When Love Comes To Town series.
I will be outlining our Shine 09 project, but here it is in a nutshell:

We have a goal of 1,200 volunteers from Foothills Community Church serving in our community on Saturday May 9th from 9:00am until noon. (this shouldn't be a problem considering last year we had 1,000 volunteers).
Do the math, 1,200 volunteers for 3 hours = 3,600 man hours of service!

We have invited all the churches in the county to be a part by serving as well. Several churches will be joining us. I'm not sure exactly how many people the other churches will provide, but I'm excited to be partnering with others to reach our community!

We have 125 projects lined up. We will be serving some schools, county parks, individuals with needs, providing food, building wheel chair ramps, and things of that nature. We will be painting, landscaping, etc.

There are no strings attached. There is no cost to the people we will be serving. They don't have to agree to come to our church----it is just our way of saying, "Christ loves you, and we love you"

There will be projects in all areas of the county. you will have ample opportunity on Sunday to select a project. We will have tables set up with descriptions of the projects and maps to get there. (On May 9th you will go straight to your project and start serving)

I will probably preach the shortest message that I ever have, to give plenty of time for you to get your project (at least, that's my goal!)

I believe that this could be the most important thing our church will do all year---do not miss out on history!

Huge Sunday

Incredible day at Foothills yesterday!

** Brian Rhodes, our Pastor of Student ministry spoke for me yesterday morning. He did an awesome job. He is a gifted communicator.

** Eric peters and David Odom led worship and knocked it out of the park!

** Lots of families hung around for the Kidzone Picnic. I hear that they had a great time.

** Last night we had our Night of Praise. It was a blast! Had a great attendance. It was really cool having our Toccoa campus hanging out with us. Those people have some serious energy! Their worship leader, Jonathan Bryant led worship with David Odom last night, and brought the heat!

** Sharing communion with the church body is such an honor.

** We baptized 43 people after Night of Praise in 2 pools set up in the parking lot! That is always a highlight for me.

** It went over so well that we'll probably do it again in July or August.

Big Day tomorrow

We have a huge day planned at Foothills tomorrow.
First we will have our services in the morning. We will be continuing the series, When Love Comes To Town. We are just 2 weeks into this series, and it has been phenomenal.
Second, there is a Kidzone Picnic for children and their families at 12:45pm at the church. The weather is going to be great for a picnic. If you have not registered, there are a FEW openings left.
Third, we have a Night of Praise beginning at 6:00pm. We will worship, share communion and have a baptism. IT IS GOING TO BE UNBELIEVABLE!

Definitely a full day, but I can't wait. See you tomorrow.

Questions Uncensored

Have you ever wondered what the Bible has to say about certain things, but didn't know where to go to find answers? Well, your chance is coming soon. On May 10th we are going to start a new message series called, Questions Uncensored.
It is your chance to ask any question that you've been wondering about. We are selecting the top questions and then I'll try to answer them during the series.
We have received dozens already (some really great ones), but there is still some time for you to send us your question. You can go here and submit it.
The deadline for your questions is tomorrow (April 24th), so hurry up!

Night of Praise

April 26th @ 6:00pm
A Night of Worship, Sharing the Lord’s Supper, & Baptism!

You and your family won’t want to miss out on this special event at Foothills Community Church as we join both of our campuses together for one big night. We will be celebrating life! A life found in Christ. We’ll be doing this through a time of worship led by our three worship leaders: Eric Peters, David Odom and Jonathan Bryant. We will also be spending time sharing in the Lord’s Supper, remembering and celebrating the price that he paid on the cross for us. Following this time we will continue our night of praise with a baptism celebration. Please plan on joining us for this time of celebration. Child care will be available for those 6 weeks up to Kindergarten.
If you would like to be baptized, please call the office at (864)888-8008

Shine 09

Last May we did a community service project that we called Shine 2008. We took a Saturday from 9:00am until Noon and tackled 85 service projects. It was incredible! We had 1,000 people from Foothills volunteer to serve our community.

This year it's going to be bigger and better. We will be doing Shine 09. This time we plan on having 1,200 people volunteering from Foothills, and we are also inviting other churches to participate. We have over 100 projects lined up. Make sure to set aside a few hours on Saturday May 9th from (9:00am until Noon.)

I will be sharing more about this in my message on May 3rd. This is an opportunity to give back to our community. Don't miss it!

Here is an article that ran recently in the local paper about it.

This Sunday

As you already know, this past Sunday we had the biggest day in Foothills history. We had hundreds of first-time guests and tons of salvation commitments (around 100 people raised their hands during the invitation). The expectancy level was off the charts. All in all, it was amazing---- BUT...
This Sunday is going to be awesome as well!

I will be continuing the series, When Love Comes To Town, with a message called Bringing the Love. Trust me, you don't want to miss it.

I am privileged to lead a church like Foothills! I believe that our biggest days are still ahead. See you Sunday.

Easter recap

Whew, what a day we had at Foothills Community Church yesterday. God showed up! If you missed the services all I can say is "it stinks to be you!"

Here is a quick recap:

** Record attendance 3,177 total people at Foothills (almost 3,000 of them were at our Seneca campus) Check this out -- 1 out of every 23 people that live in this County was at Foothills yesterday!

** Toccoa campus had a record attendance too!

** We had people saved yesterday in 4 different venues. Seneca main auditorium, Seneca Venue auditorium, Seneca Planet Kidz auditorium, Toccoa Campus

** Had dozens saved yesterday. (during the invitation time probably a hundred people raised their hands signifying that they were becoming Christ-followers)

** We had over 100 people make re commitments yesterday as well.

** We had over 650 kids yesterday!

** Joy Hunnicut who appeared on the Intervention TV show, was back with us yesterday singing with David Odom. -- Oh my gosh, that girl can bring it!

** Our technical stuff really was incredible. Scott Chatfield created some amazing video pieces.

** The testimony video that we showed was unbelievable.

** We held our first ever Venue service. It ran live simultaneously at 11:15am. I understand it went pretty well ( by the way we had 4 people give their lives to Jesus in the Venue)

** Kudos to Bill Swindle for stepping in at literally the last minute to lead worship in the Venue. Eric Peters was scheduled to lead, but had strep throat, a fever, and was at the hospital because he also became a grandfather yesterday!

** Foothills volunteers---you all are phenomenal! There isn't another church in the country that has a team like we do. Many of you came here at 5:00am and stayed til 1:00pm -- thank you.

** I'm pumped. We get to do it again this Sunday --Jesus is STILL alive!

** Mark April 26th on your calendars. We are having a Night Of Praise. It will be at 6:00pm at the Seneca campus. Our Toccoa campus will also be joining us. We will have communion, and baptism as well as an unbelievable worship time. Music will be led by all 3 of our worship leaders (Seneca and Toccoa) If you want to be baptized, let us know.

Easter reminders

I am so pumped up about Easter and tomorrow's services at Foothills Community church I can hardly satnd it. I thought I would mention a couple things one last time before Easter.

1. Easter is all about Jesus, and how He defeated sin and death. (It's important to remember this because it's so easy to get distracted)

2. We will be having 6 service in 3 locations tomorrow. Toccoa Campus: 9:15am and 11:00am ----- Seneca campus (main auditorium): 7:55am, 9:30am, and 11:15am ---- Seneca campus (The Venue auditorium) 11:15am

3. Show up early---but not too early! Doing multiple services is a little tricky. Most congestion in the parking lot and concourse occurs as one service is letting out and the next service is about to begin. It is best to plan on showing up about 15-20 minutes before the actual service time. This should give you ample time to check in your kids and have some refreshments before the service starts.

4. Pray like you've never prayed before that people would give their lives to Jesus.

5. Invite like you've never invited before. People WILL come to church IF you will invite them---especially on Easter.

6. Leave the best parking spots and seats for the guests. We want to roll out the red carpet for our guests, so that will want to come back.

7. Come with expectancy. Expect that God is going to touch your life.

8. Say hello and smile -- a lot!

9. Bring your A-game. Worship Christ with passion for what He's done for us!

10. Let's have fun---we've got something to celebrate! (refer to point #1)

And the winner is...

We have a winner. The most creative Easter invite goes to... The Riley Group Real Estate.
On their front sign in Clemson they are letting their light shine. Way to go guys!

could this be church?

This week about 25,000 people in Oconee County will be receiving a card in the mail that simply says, www.CouldThisBeChurch.com When they go to the site it will link them to our website.

The reason we came up with that domain name was because that question (could this be church?), is a question we hear a lot at Foothills Community Church.

When people pull up in the parking lot and are warmly greeted or when they're given a hot cup of coffee and refreshments, or when their kids are upset because they don't want to go home, or when people walk into the auditorium and feel the music and hear a message that is Biblical and relates to their everyday life -- they often ask, "could this be church?"

There are many great churches in the area that are reaching people for Christ, but if you don't already have a church, why not come to Foothills this Easter? And before you ask; Yes, this is church!

Easter stuff

** I can't believe how many of you have responded to the challenge of inviting your friends to Foothills. I've seen your invites on Facebook, and Twitter. Keep it up!

** We have already given out around 2,500 tickets, and I know many people haven't picked theirs up yet! Please go here and print out your tickets right away. (the tickets are free. It helps us get a head count for each service)By the way, you don't need to pick up tickets for your kids. There should be plenty of room in Kidzone.

** If there is any way you could come to the 7:55am service, that would help tremendously. It would help free up seats for guests during the prime times (9:30 and 11:15am). There are plenty of seats available for the 7:55am service. I know it's early, but the benefit is that you will have the rest of the day to relax.

** Remember, we are beginning a new service on Easter Sunday called, "The Venue" It will be in our former main auditorium, which is currently our student's auditorium. The Venue service is at 11:15am.

** We are about to send out 25,000 direct mail cards to homes in the area, which will direct people to CouldThisBeChurch.com

** Our Toccoa Campus will be rockin' this Easter too. They will be having 2 services, 9:15am and 11:00am. We will be sending out 7,500 mail pieces (actually they will come inside your newspapers) advertising those services.

Countdown is on!

We had another great day at Foothills yesterday.
There was so much energy in the building, I can't even describe it. People are pumped about Easter.
Yesterday I challenged our folks to invite everybody they know to come with them to our Easter services. (I know I was preaching to the choir because you all know how to invite your friends---you do it EVERY week). But a lot of people took it to a new level.
I went out to eat after church and I was told by a waitress that she and another waiter had already received 2 invitation cards each!
Here are a couple of ways that you can invite your friends---Facebook, Twitter, texting and you can go here and send an invite electronically.

Trust me, I will be sharing a message that will give people an opportunity to personally receive the risen Lord this weekend. If you have friends that do not know Christ, get them there. Invite them, drive to their house and pick them up, bribe them, kidnap them, do whatever you have to do to get them here (Just for the record, don't kidnap them. I felt I should mention that because I know some of you Foothills people are a crazy enough to actually do that!)
Here's another reminder of the times of the services at the Seneca campus. (Toccoa campus service times are 9:15am and 11:00am)

Big day this Sunday

My focus on my blog lately has been on Easter Sunday, but I just wanted to let you know that tomorrow at Foothills is going to be incredible too!

We are going to wrap up our EKG series. (It has been an amazing series). The focus on tomorrow's message is geared toward making an impact in other's lives---it's going to be a lot fun.

We are expecting another big crowd tomorrow, so plan on getting there a few minutes early so you can be in your seats when the service starts. You won't want to miss a minute of the service!

Why not call a friend and invite them to come with you.

Risk

A couple of months ago during our all-staff meeting, I shared a message about risk. I was thinking about this recently and thought I would share some of my notes from that meeting.

There are 3 Types of risk:

Stupid risk-- This is the kind of risk people take that throws common sense and caution to the wind. It's like in High School when one of your friends double dog dares you to do something really crazy, and you do it. People who engage in a lot of stupid risk, either end up broke, dead or hospitalized!

Calculated risk-- This is the kind of risk where pretty much everything lines up, and on a human level makes sense. Cautious people fall into this category. These are the type people that will only attempt something if every detail works out. People in this category rarely get anything important done. Their motto is "better safe than sorry"

God-Ordained risk-- This is the type of risk that requires faith and obedience. It doesn't usually make sense on a human level, but underneath the white knuckle fear, there is a sense of peace. God-ordained risk never contradicts scripture. It always makes us say, "If God doesn't come though, I'm in big trouble." Biblical examples of God-ordained risk would be Abraham leaving his homeland to travel to an unknown location; David's willingness to fight Goliath; Joshua leading Israel into the Promised land.


As I think back on some of the things that God has called us to do here at Foothills, I can recall some of the feelings of sheer terror, but also feeling certain that God was leading us; so we went forward. And each and every time we followed God's leading, He did something miraculous.

What is God calling you to attempt for Him? (If you don't swallow real hard and start to sweat a little bit, it's probably not God, because God is going to call you to do things that are so big, you couldn't possibly do them on your own)

Why not take a risk?