A Foothills Christmas

Some incredible things are going on at Foothills Community Church this Christmas season.

** First off, let me thank all of the generous people of FCC. Thanks to your generosity we have received over $11,000 towards our special Christmas offering and it's still coming in. This means that so far we have been able to provide Christmas gifts to over 250 kids!

** Don't forget that THIS Saturday we will have our spectacular Christmas eve services. I am pumped out of my mind about this! Here are a few things to remember about these services:
*Service Times: Seneca Campus- 2pm and 4pm, Toccoa Campus- 6pm (I will be doing the message live in Toccoa, and I can't wait!)

*Bring someone with you. Statistics show that most people would be open to coming to church on Christmas IF someone invites them. Let's hand out those ticket/invite cards to everyone we see.

*If you need more ticket/invites, you can print them online here.

*If you have a friend that doesn't know Jesus, I can't think of a better day to get them there.

*Arrive early. The services will be crowded, so get there early, have some refreshments and find a seat. Don't forget to scoot to the middle of the rows.

*Kidzone has some special things planned for the kids, so get them checked in a bit early too.

*Trust me, you DO NOT want to miss the first song. I heard that it might be THE best Christmas song we have ever done. Which is one more reason to get there a little early.

*Don't forget to pick up a special Christmas DVD we created for each family to take home with them. Instead of having services on Sunday (Christmas day) on our campuses, this DVD is meant to play on Christmas morning to have a worship time in your own home with your family. There is music from our band and a very short message from me.

*Our regular service schedule will resume on January 1. You will not want to miss this service either, we are going to have a lot of fun.

Why I'm Taking a Break From Facebook

As we move toward a new year I am making a few changes. Here is my first one: I am officially taking a break from Facebook. I thought I would share a couple of reasons why I have decided to do this. Since I am a Pastor I thought I would alliterate :-).

DISTRACTION. In many ways I have found that Facebook can be a bit of a distraction. Having to check your status or make updates throughout the day is not a wise use of my time.

DRAMA. I have found that 80% of the people on Facebook are pretty normal people, but the other 20% wear me out. It seems like they go from one crisis to another. (I shared a post about this a while back)

DISSENSION. A very troubling trend I am seeing on Facebook is the number of people airing their personal disputes on a public forum. Many people say damaging things about their spouses, their friends, their churches, etc. Matthew 18 tells us that if you have a problem with someone, you are to go directly to them and settle it privately. By expressing your disagreements publicly it causes dissension.



I am not suggesting that anyone else needs to take a break from Facebook, but this is what I am doing. I may take a break for a month, or a year, I really don't know.
In the meantime I will continue to use my Twitter account (gregoraham), and I will probably blog once a week or so (gregoraham.blogspot.com).

I love you all!

random thoughts

It's already Thursday, where has the week gone? There has been a lot of activity around the FCC offices preparing for Christmas and our new series, Misfits, which begins THIS Sunday at our Seneca campus (The following Sunday in Toccoa)

* The concourse looks absolutely amazing. As soon as you walk in the doors, you get in the Christmas spirit.

* The Stage set looks unbelievable. Thanks to all of the folks that have been working so hard this week to get it ready for Sunday.

*Last Sunday we had baptisms. We baptized 24 more people! Our Toccoa campus will be doing baptisms this Sunday!

* Our Student Ministry (Thrive) Had 4 more students give their lives to Christ on Wednesday. That's 60 this year!

* The students also collected peanut butter for the Golden Corner Food pantry and diapers for the Foothills Crisis pregnancy Care. I am so proud of our students giving back to the community

* Speaking of giving back to the community. We are collecting money for our special Christmas offering. Last year we were able to get Christmas toys to over 300 children. This year we hope to surpass that!

* As I mentioned earlier, we will begin our new Christmas series this Sunday called, Misfits. I think this will be the best Christmas series we have ever done.

* Don't forget to pick up tickets for our Christmas Eve services. And don't forget to take some extras to use as invitations for your friends. I am telling you, make sure you bring some people with you, it is going to be awesome!

* Our Christmas Eve services times are: Seneca Campus: 2 and 4pm. Toccoa campus 6pm. I am extremely excited that this Christmas Eve I will be doing the message LIVE in Toccoa! Can't wait!

* Also, don't forget that on Christmas Day (Sunday) we will not be having services at the church building. Instead, we are making it possible for you to have a worship service right in your living room! We have created a DVD to play on Christmas with your family (It will also be available online). It has music from our worship team and I will be sharing a small devotion.

* On January 1st we will be back to our normal service times. You don't want to miss the New Year's day services. The worship team will be doing your favorite songs from 2011. Kind of a Best of 2011 thing. You will be able to cast your votes This Sunday!

Sunday review

We had an amazing day at Foothills Community Church. The best part of the day was that 36 people on our Seneca campus and 1 person at our Toccoa campus gave their lives to Jesus. That is why we do what we do!

* The message was "If Heaven and Hell are real, then what?" We talked about how "not" to get into heaven, and how to get into heaven. Unfortunately there is so much confusion about this.

* This Sunday we will be wrapping up the GLOW series and also be celebrating baptism (Toccoa campus will be having baptisms on Dec. 11th) I absolutely love watching baptisms. I really struggle with Christians that don't get excited about baptism Sundays. Let me make this very clear...If you are a Christ-follower and baptisms don't excite you, there' something wrong with you!

* The following week we will begin our Christmas series called, "Misfits" I am super-pumped about that series!

* Start making plans for our Christmas Eve services. The times will be: Seneca campus-- December 24th at 2 and 4 pm. At our Toccoa campus the service will be at 6pm (I am going to be doing the message LIVE in Toccoa!)

* Tickets for the services will be available beginning THIS Sunday. Be sure to get some for yourself and the people you will be inviting.

Sunday review

We continued the GLOW series at Foothills Community Church yesterday. This is one of my favorite series we have done in a long time.

* The weather was nasty yesterday. Not terrible, just nasty. Chilly, gray, and drizzly. It definitely affected the attendance at our Seneca campus, but not our Toccoa campus. They had a big crowd.

* I have never understood people when it comes to church attendance. If the weather is too bad, they don't come, and if the weather is too good, they don't come! Pretty funny!

* For all of the people that did come, wow, we had a great service, didn't we?!

* We talked about our purpose yesterday. It is awesome to think that God created each of us with a purpose. Unless we discover and fulfill that purpose we will always feel frustrated.

* Had more people give their lives to Jesus yesterday! I love what the Lord is doing in the hearts of people. Gotta love life-change.

* Joy Hunneycutt was back with us yesterday. She does such a great job leading worship. Wish she lived a little closer.

* I am totally fired-up about this Sunday at Foothills. If you have a friend that doesn't know Jesus. Get them to Foothills this Sunday! trust me.

* Don't forget that on Dec. 4th (Dec. 11th in Toccoa) we will be having baptisms. Oh yeah, I love those days!

* Thanksgiving is right around the corner. Hard to believe how fast this year has gone by.

* We have some exciting details that we will be sharing with you about our Christmas Eve services. I can't wait for that.

Sunday review

Sunday was an amazing day at Foothills Community Church. The GLOW series is connecting with a lot of people. I love hearing the stories!

* Talked about God's holiness. An intense topic for sure, but much needed.

* Also talked about our need for personal holiness. Also much needed.

* David Odom blew it out of the water singing Holy, Holy, Holy.

* Holiness is not a list of do's and don'ts, but conformity to the character of God and obedience to the will of God. In short personal holiness is becoming more like Jesus.

* More people gave their lives to Jesus on Sunday! Over 300 people have given their lives to Jesus this year at Foothills!!!!

* Our next baptism will be on December 4th at both services at our Seneca campus and on December 11th at our Toccoa campus. If you have not been baptized, and are ready to take the plunge, go here and register.

* Our Dream Team celebration on Thursday night was a blast. I love serving with all of you!

* Looking forward to having Joy Hunneycutt back at Foothills this Sunday. That girl can flat out sing! She also has an amazing story of God's grace. Joy was featured on the TV show, Intervention a couple of years back. She has overcome her drug addiction and is now using her talent to serve the Lord.

* The next 3 Sundays at Foothills will be perfect days to invite a friend that does not know Jesus. PLEASE invite, invite invite!

* I am super excited about our Christmas series. Our creative team went all-out, and you do not want to miss any of it. Our Christmas Eve services are going to be the best we have ever had!

Our Dream Team

Tonight we will be throwing a party for a bunch of true heroes. I am speaking of our army of volunteers, that we affectionately call our Dream Team.
Once a year we throw this party, and I think it is one of the most important nights of the year. It's a time where the staff of Foothills Community Church gets to serve our volunteers!

We are blessed at Foothills to have so many people that are willing to use their gifts, talents and abilities to serve the Lord. In fact I believe that we have over 600 hundred people that serve at Foothills!!

Many people look at our church and think, "they have it covered, they don't need me". Let me assure you. If you have been thinking that, it is certainly not true. You are needed. You have abilities that no one else has. You are uniquely created by God, and you have something to offer.

Not only that but we could double the number of volunteers and still have a need for more. It takes a lot of people to make a church function at its full potential.

If you are not serving, why not check off the box on you Foothills Flier this Sunday about serving. We'll have someone follow up and help find just the right place for you. If you are already serving, THANK YOU! You are incredible!

Sunday review

We had a great day at Foothills yesterday. Here are a few highlights:

* I'm not sure what the numbers were, but it looked like we had a very good attendance

* Having an extra hour of sleep definitely had people come in with a ton of energy.

* The worship set was awesome. loved having the choir up there.

* We started a new series called, Glow. We are asking the question, If so, then what? Yesterday we asked, If the Bible is true, then what?

* The 3 main points were, we must Accept God's Word, Absorb God's Word and Apply God's Word.

* Yes, I really did accidentally put on my wife's jeans. (You will have to watch the video to understand!)

* We had a great response to the message, in fact we almost sold out of Bibles in our bookstore!!

* We had a Get In The Game class yesterday afternoon. I absolutely LOVE leading that class!

* I heard that our Toccoa campus also had another incredible day. The momentum at that campus is amazing. I have been encouraging some of our staff from Seneca to get over there on a Sunday and just experience it.

* On another note, I was asked to lead a couple of sessions for my friend Dean Herman's staff retreat last Friday. It was a great joy to do it. Dean's church is preparing to move into a new facility, so I talked about some cautions to be aware of.

* This Thursday evening we are having our annual Dream Team appreciation celebration. This is the night where our staff gets to honor all of the volunteers that make our jobs possible. If you have never volunteered at Foothills, you are missing out!

Sunday review

Yesterday was a great experience all the way around for me. I actually got a chance to worship at both campuses of Foothills Community Church, so that was very cool.

* Brian Rhodes preached at our Seneca campus on parenting. As a new Dad, his approach to the message was, I'm not an expert, but here's what I want my daughter to know". It was very heartfelt and everyone really enjoyed it.

* Next week we will start a new series called, GLOW. Basically this series is going to ask the question, If so, then what? (I'll tell you more about it on Sunday) Make sure you bring a friend!

* After the service at Seneca, I rushed over to our Toccoa, GA campus for their 11:00am service. It was awesome! Here are a few observations:

* It was packed out. In fact I heard that it was a non-holiday record attendance.

* The energy was amazing. The people are totally into it. They laugh alot, sing loud, and smile... a bunch!

* I kind of snuck in after they got started and sat down and just "observed"

* They baptized 5 people in the holy horse trough! Lives are changing for sure!

* Pastor Kevin Robison did a killer job leading the worship and Pastor Brian Marshall is obviously in his element. They make a great team, along with all of their awesome volunteers!

* They had a huge party yesterday evening for the community, and they estimate around 700 people showed up!

* A few other things:

* Foothills will be participating in the Trunk or Treat at the Seneca Walmart this evening from 6 until 8pm. This thing is huge. last year there were around 8,000 people that showed up!

* If you have a car (and some candy) and you would like to help out at Trunk or Treat, show up at Walmart at 5:30pm

* I have heard a bunch of great feedback from our Lord's Supper service last Thursday. Many thanks to Brian Rhodes for leading in my absence.

* I was in Dallas, TX meeting with a group of Pastors that I have had the privilege of getting to know over the last 2 years. I am totally indebted to each of them for their friendship. These are some of the most godly, wise men that I know. Each of them are leading significant churches from across the United States, and I can assure you that the Lord is at work in our Nation!

* It was also nice that my wife was able to come this time as well!

Sunday review

Week #3 of our Family Wipeout series was a tough message to deliver. we talked about marital infidelity. So many marriages/families have been destroyed because of this epidemic.

* The statistics are staggering. Some show that 50% of all men and 40% of all women have had adulterous relationships--- that seems unbelievable to me.

* I talked about 4 things you can do to avoid an affair: 1. Improve your walk with God. 2. Invest into your own marriage. 3. incorporate guardrails into your life. 4. Imagine the consequences.

* It was tough to do that message knowing that there were people in the service that were dealing with the aftermath of adultery.

* There is an attack on the family unit. Foothills Community Church is committed to helping families, that's why we tackle the tough topics.

* David Odom knocked it out of the park, singing Ring of Fire!

* I am so pumped about this Sunday's message. We will be talking about the Blessing. You need to be there!

* Our staff is working on some new parameters for serving as a leader at Foothills. We are going to be raising the bar, but that's what leadership is all about!

* We will be doing the Trunk Or Treat for Halloween at Walmart again this year. This is a HUGE opportunity for us to connect with our community. Last year there were over 8,000 people that came!!

* Our Toccoa campus will be having their Big A Party on Oct. 30th. It will be very similar to the Seneca campus Party in the Pasture, but they will be having a trunk or treat in their parking lot too.

* Looking forward to connecting with some pastor friends next week in Dallas. I love hanging out with these guys!

* Honored to be asked by my friend, Dean Herman to help lead his staff retreat in November. God is doing big things at Dean's church.

* Hoping to go to the Clemson game next Saturday. How bout those Tigers?!

Project Reach and Launch Network

As many of you know, Foothills Community Church is a Partner church with the Launch Network, a church planting organization that has a goal of planting 1,000 churches in the next 10 years. A portion of our Project Reach funding is going toward this huge goal!

A friend posted this on his blog, so I thought I would pass this along. Here’s a list of the church planters Launch will have assessed, trained and resourced. Some of these churches have already started. Others will start in the coming months.

* Brad Raby, Discovery Church (Knoxville, TN)
* Will Goodwin, Oak Leaf Church (Canton, GA)
* Chad Davis, Venue Church (Hattiesburg, MS)
* Christian Newsome, Journey Church International (Lee’s Summit, MO)
* Robert Green, Fondren Church (Jackson, MS)
* Justin Craig, Vinings Church (Atlanta, GA)
* James Cordell, 101 Church (Rockmart, GA)
* Josh Nelson, The Station Church (Carlsbad, CA)
* Jeff Phillips, The Crossings Church (Vancouver, BC)
* David Bradford, Celebration Church (Hoover, AL)
* Angus McKinley, Elevation Church (Loveland, CO)
* Damian Boyd, Vertical Church (Atlanta, GA)
* Keith Montgomery, Kingdom Come (Woodstock, GA)
* Brandon Brilhart, Relevate Church (Lawrence, KS)
* Doug Sibcy, Impact Church (Lebanon, OH)
* Wesley Odum, Dynamic Church (Chattanooga, TN)
* Jonathan Napier, Newnan Church (Newnan, GA)
* Joey Baynes, Restoration Church (Greensboro, NC)
* Chaz Churchwell, Restore San Diego (San Diego, CA)
* Travis Fox, Salt Lake City Church (Salt Lake City, UT)
* Shawn Peoples, Grace Community (Kaneohe, HI)
* Chris Hughes, Hope Church (Orlando, FL)
* Terence Lester, Innovation Church (Atlanta, GA)
* Bryan Carter, Bozeman City Church (Bozeman, MT)
* Bryant May, The Exchange (Jackson, MS)


Thanks to all of you that have given to Project Reach. You are making a difference! We will be becoming even more active with this in the near future, but until then please pray for these new churches!

Sunday review

Sunday was awesome at Foothills Community Church. We continued our Family Wipeout series. I spoke on the art of communication. No doubt communication is the key to healthy relationships.

The 4 main components of communication are:

1) What I hear (being a good listener is the most important part of communication)

2) What I say (choose words that encourage, bless and edify)

3) How I say it (be extra careful with the non-verbal communication such as body language, facial expressions and tone)

4) When I say it (timing is everything)

If we can master these 4 things we will enhance every relationship we have.

Other thoughts:

* The music was excellent. It was cool having David Odom and Adam Courtney tag-teaming leading worship!

* Stephanie did an amazing job leading us during her song!

* Shane Smith's team does a great job with all of the technical aspects of our services

* Foothills has the most incredible volunteers!

* We have had almost 100 people give their lives to Jesus in the last 9 weeks!

* This Sunday I will be tackling a very difficult topic. How To Avoid An Affair. I can't tell you how many marriages I know that have been destroyed by infidelity.

* We had around 40 people show up for our Project Reach family day last saturday, serving at the food pantry! Wow!

* We have a team of 14 people heading to Harlan County Ky. this weekend to serve on a Project Reach regional mission trip!


Some dates to remember:

* Thursday October 27th at 6:30pm. We will be celebrating the Lord's Supper at our Seneca campus.

* Sunday November 6th from 12:30pm until 2:30pm we will be having our next Get In the Game Class. Lunch and childcare will be provided.

* Thursday November 10th at 6:30pm. Our annual Dream Team Celebration. This is our annual celebration honoring every person that has served at Foothills during the last 12 months. Our staff gets to serve the volunteers as a way of saying "thank you". This is a blast. I believe that we will be having karaoke again this year! Desserts will be served and childcare will be provided.

What a weekend

Last weekend was unbelievable at Foothills Community Church.

* On Sunday morning we kicked off our new series, How To Avoid A Family Wipeout.

* For whatever reason, every time we do a series on the family it seems to really connect.

* I spoke to the singles about raising the bar when it comes to dating/marriage. It was also a reminder to all of the married people about continuing to do those things that you used to do when dating.

* This Sunday we will be talking about what is probably one of the most important parts of relationships. I have a feeling that this one is going to connect with everyone that comes.

* On Sunday afternoon we had Party In The Pasture. Wow, what an amazing party it was. We had inflatables for the kids, a classic car show, a petting zoo, lawnmower races (and yes, I believe one of the mowers blew up!), food, a concert by Stone Echo with some good old classic rock!, and best of all we baptized 32 people!!!

* I was blown away by how many people came to the Party In The Pasture. It was crazy, but it was a lot of fun!

* As my wife and I drove away that evening, we were so thankful for all of the staff and volunteers that made the event so special. It was one of my favorite days ever at Foothills!

* I absolutely love it when the church just comes together to have fun!

An Important re-post

I had the privilege of speaking at the Nines conference on the topic of health in ministry. That got me thinking that I needed to re-post something I wrote right after my surgery 4 months ago. My hope in re-posting this is that it may challenge someone to take a step toward physical health.


FROM MAY 17th, 2011


I want to thank all of you that have been praying for me. In case you were not aware, I had a recent physical (which I passed with flying colors), but kind of in passing, my Dr. suggested I have a Cardiac Calcium Score test done. I had never heard of this test before, but I figured, I may as well make an appointment. The test took 5 minutes and cost $99. The lower the score the better. Unfortunately for me, my score was high.
I was then sent to a cardiologist who scheduled me to have a heart cath done this past Monday. The idea was, if the cath showed no sign of any plaque build-up, I would be given a clear bill of health, if not they would install a stent in my arteries. Unfortunately I had 2 blockages (1 was 80% blocked, and the other was 75% blocked), so they put in 2 stents.

The surgery took about 3 hours, and other than me keep waking up and having to get more anesthesia, it was pretty easy. I stayed overnight at the hospital, and will have to take it easy for a week, but then I can resume my regular pace.

I am thankful that my Dr. recommended the test. Keep in mind that I am not overweight, don't smoke or drink and exercise regularly. My cholesterol is just slightly above normal, I don't have high blood pressure and eat pretty well. I had no symptoms of any sort. Not even during strenuous exercise. That's pretty scary.

Here is what I am hoping this post will do. I hope you ask your Dr. about scheduling to have this test done, and get it done. If everything is clear, you're only out $99, and you have some peace of mind. If not, then maybe you can catch a possible heart condition before something tragic happens.

least likely

When you read the scripture, you notice a recurring theme; Jesus always gravitated towards the least likely people. One great example of this is found in John 4 when He encounters the Samaritan woman. Jesus broke through the cultural taboos by speaking to a woman, and not just any woman, but a Samaritan woman. In that culture this was totally unacceptable. In fact it surprised the woman when He struck up a conversation.
The woman had been divorced 5 times and was living with her boyfriend. She carried the social stigma of her past mistakes, and yet Jesus reached out to her and offered her living water. In verse 26 He tells her that He is the Messiah. She is so overwhelmed that she leaves her water jar, and goes into the town telling everyone about her encounter. The result..... Spiritual awakening happens throughout the city.

I believe that if the Church in America is ever going to see spiritual awakening like that, it's going to take all of us that have had encounters with Jesus to go back into our cities and introduce people to the Savior.

I am thankful every time I think that God would use a "least likely" like me to tell others about Jesus. Let's keep on proclaiming His name everywhere we go!

random thoughts

* Sunday was phenomenal at Foothills Community Church. The best part was that 37 people at the Seneca campus and 2 people from the Toccoa campus gave their lives to Jesus!!

* It was great having Joy Hunnicut back with us.

* David Odom and his team brought it on Sunday (as usual). Seriously, we have the best worship team in the Country!

* We will be wrapping up the Stranger Than Fiction series this Sunday. It has been a lot of fun. This week we will talk about what to do when your world falls apart. You do not want to miss it.

* On October the 2nd we will start a brand new message series called, How To Avoid A Family Wipeout. This series will be the best time to invite someone to church. There will be topics that everyone will be able to relate to.

* I am excited about a conference next week called, The Nines. It has a unique format, with lots of speakers throughout the day, each given 5 minutes to talk. It's all free and it's all online. By the way, I will be one of the speakers!

* Don't forget about Party In The Pasture on October 2nd at our Seneca campus at 4:00pm. This is a community event with giant inflatables for the kids, Lawnmower races, food, a concert and Baptisms!! Invite EVERYONE!

Sunday review

Awesome day at Foothills Community church on Sunday. There were so many great moments, i don't have time to list them all, but here are few that come to mind:

* It was extremely moving to commemorate the 10 year anniversary of 9/11. Bill Swindle did an incredible job on that song!

* The attendance once again on both campuses continues to climb.

* Our Toccoa campus had their highest non-holiday attendance of the year!!

* We continue to have so many first-time guests. Sometimes I wonder, where are all of these people coming from?

* Our Student ministry, Thrive has been seeing teenagers come to Christ every week. Wow, I love to hear that!

* We had 61 people attend our Get In The Game class on Sunday afternoon! Leading that class is one of my favorite things to do. There were several people that came to Foothills for the first time on Sunday and then came back for the class!!

* I am very excited about this Sunday. I cannot wait to share what God has laid on my heart.

* Joy Hunnicut will also be back with us singing with our Worship Team.

* The band will be doing a feature song that will bring the house down, so be ready!

* I love the staff I get to work with. These guys and gals are AWESOME!

* I am looking forward to the Party In The Pasture coming up on October 2nd. (see the video below) Let's invite every single person in the community to this event!

* On October 2nd we will also be starting a new series called Avoiding a Family Wipeout. INVITE everyone!

Party in the Pasture! from Foothills Community Church on Vimeo.

Sunday review

Sunday was another fantastic day at Foothills Community Church. Just when it seems that it can't get any better, it does!

* Adam Courtney was back as our guest worship leader. Not only is he a great worship leader, he is a great guy.

* David Odom will be back leading worship this weekend. I can't wait to see what they have put together to remember 9/11.

* I can't remember having so many people connect with a message as they did on Sunday. We talked about breaking free from the things that hold us captive.

* As I was preparing for the message, God showed me some really cool things from the scripture that I think resonated with our folks.

* Both of our campuses are experiencing an incredible awakening! it is so much fun to be a part of that.

* Looking forward to catching up with some Pastor friends this week!

* College football season is in full swing. I am really happy about that.

* Archery season opens up in 9 days. I really like that too!

* This Sunday at Foothills it is going to be awesome. Start thinking about who you can bring with you.

* Our children's ministry aka Kidzone is exploding right now. I don't think most people really have a clue what goes on in the kids area while we are in the main auditorium. All most of us see are the game room or big playscape, but that is just a way to draw kids in. What really makes the difference is what is happening in each of the rooms. Kids are learning about Jesus in an age-appropriate environment. We hear stories ever single week from parents whose children come home and can share with them exactly what they learned, and begin to live it out.

* Don't forget about the next Get In The Game class THIS SUNDAY at 12:30pm in the small auditorium. There will be free food and childcare. We will have you out of there by 2:30pm. It's not too late to come. just go here and register.

Sunday review

Sunday was when of the best days we have ever had at Foothills. It was awesome.

* There is such a buzz around the campus on Sunday mornings, it's almost tangible. It seems like no one wants to leave after the service. They just hang out with friends. I love that!

* We have come out of the summer with a huge momentum wave. We are seeing people commit their lives to Jesus every week. The attendance has increased by nearly 350 people in the last 4 weeks!

* Our Toccoa campus is exploding right now. They are having record numbers of first-time guests, and overall attendance is growing rapidly!

* At both of our campuses we have tons of people signing up for our new semester of LIFE groups. Kelly Ross is knocking it out of the park getting people connected.

* At our Seneca campus our worship team did an arrangement of In Christ Alone that just about blew the roof off of the building---Amazing!

* We dealt with a very difficult topic, betrayal. All of us at some point in life are victims of betrayal, so how we deal with it is crucial to our overall spiritual health.

* I am very excited about something we are planning on doing on September 11th, to commemorate the 10 year anniversary of 9/11.

* College football is almost here. Bring it on!

* This Sunday is going to be incredible. I will be talking about how to break free from the things that hold us captive in our lives.

Sunday review

Wow, What a great day we had on Sunday at Foothills! You can tell that people are getting back into a normal pattern after a long summer.

* We had the 3rd most first-time guests of the year. Thank you to all of you that keep inviting your friends. You are making a difference.

* Kidzone was rocking with tons of children. If you happened to notice people walking around the concourse dressed like a clown or in other circus related costumes, don't worry, they are actors from Planet Kidz!

* I am so proud of all of you that are participating in our Project Reach opportunities. We had sign-ups for helping with 3 local ministry projects and we not only filled them up, but had an overflow!

* We started a new series Sunday on the life of Jacob. We talked about the importance of waiting on God. As an impatient person, I really needed that one. This Sunday we will be talking about dealing with the pain of betrayal. If you have ever had someone hurt you, stab you in the back or betray you in some way, you NEED to be there. And keep inviting everyone you see.

* I am very excited about our next Get In The Game class. This is a class where you will learn more about who Foothills really is. At the end of the class you will be given the opportunity to join Foothills as well. The next class will be on Sunday September 11th from 12:30-2:30pm. It will be held in the Venue auditorium in Foothills south. We will be serving lunch first in the small auditorium (adjacent to the Venue). Childcare will also be provided. You will also get a chance to meet most of our staff too. It is going to be a blast! You can sign-up online here.

* Mark your calendars for October 2nd. We are going to start a new series on the Family that day, and here's what I am asking you to do. INVITE, INVITE, INVITE!!
It will be a day to remember. We will have one of the most amazing services on Sunday morning, and then later that afternoon we will be inviting everyone back for a HUGE party. There will be tons of inflatable rides for the kids, free food, a concert, and BAPTISMS. You will be hearing a lot more about this, but make sure you set aside that day on your calendars.

Sunday review

Here's a late Sunday review, but you know what they say... better late than never.

* Wrapped up the Awakening series. I loved the series. It was a bit convicting, and uncomfortable for me and many of you, but God uses that to grow us.

* Attendance is already starting to come back to some sense of normalcy. This Sunday will be the first weekend where pretty much everyone should be back from vacation.

* I love all the Dream Team volunteers that make Foothills what it is. You all are the most committed, passionate people I know.

* It was great having David Odom back leading worship this Sunday.

* I am so pumped about all the things that God is doing at Foothills right now. The momentum is building.

* Through a lot of prayer the Lord has given me direction for what the next 7-8 months will look like at Foothills. We are expecting huge things. I will be sharing these things in the coming weeks.

* I can't wait for this Sunday. We're starting our new series called, Stranger Than Fiction. We're going to look at the life of the Old Testament character, Jacob.

* I am asking all of you to get out and Invite, invite, invite! Let's pack the place out. This series will be life-changing!

* Had a great conversation last week about Foothills with a guy that I met. The more I talked about Foothills, the more excited I became. I love this place. By the time the conversation was over all he kept saying was, "I wish I lived closer to your church" (He lives over an hour away)

* I am so proud of the teenagers at Foothills. Last Wednesday 3 more gave their lives to Jesus and 14 more were baptized. I am praying that they rock Oconee County for Christ as they head back to their schools. They are kicking off a brand new series this week too.

* Our Toccoa campus is geared up for a huge Fall. Campus Pastor, Brian Marshall and Worship Pastor, Kevin Robison have been prepping for big things!

What will it take?

I have been working on some 6 month goals that I will be sharing with my staff. I am so excited about what God has laid on my heart about the next year at Foothills Community Church.

Along with those goals I listed 5 things that we must do to accomplish these goals. Keep in mind that these same 5 things are necessary for any endeavor to really work.

#1. PRAYER. Once God gives you direction the first and most important element is prayer. Not just a quick, "God bless this endeavor." but a prayer that begs God to step in or there will be complete and utter failure. Once our staff hears the goals it will take all of us every day voicing these prayers to our lord.

#2. PLANNING. The next phase is developing a plan to carry out the mission. Putting this in Football terms, this is where the game plan is put into place. It's not enough to say, we want to win the Superbowl. You need to develop a strategy to pull it off. In the Planning phase we begin to develop goals for each individual ministry, set time-lines, and necessary milestones.

#3. PREPARATION. This is the phase where things really start to get interesting (and sometimes a little hectic!) This when we look at systems, structures, developing leaders for the next wave of growth, making sure you have the infrastructure to handle the growth, etc.

#4. PROMOTION. This is where the vision becomes very public. You do whatever level of promotion is necessary. In the case of some of the things we will be doing, we will need total buy-in from our church. They will be the people who do the bulk of the promotion. We will also utilize other means such as marketing.

#5. PERSPIRATION. This the phase when it takes a "whatever it takes" get your hands dirty attitude. Everyone owns the mission, and everyone does their part. This is the part that will either make or break the entire deal.

Well, there you have it, 5 things to do to help your event succeed.

Sunday review

We had a solid day at Foothills Community Church yesterday. We began our second week of the Awakening series with a message from the book of Jonah. To be honest, there are some messages that are fun to preach.... this was NOT one of them! It was pretty intense, but that's OK.

* Adam Courtney was our guest worship leader. He did an awesome job. He leads a band called The Less Adam has led worship several times at our Toccoa campus

* Spiritual awakening doesn't come without a price.

* I mentioned that my brother was an extra in this great film classic!

* This Sunday has the potential to be so life-changing. You do not want to miss it.

* This morning (Monday), instead of our regular weekly staff meeting, all of the staff went bowling and then to lunch. It was so much fun. We are so blessed to have the most incredible staff in the world!

* On September 11th we will be having our next Get In The Game at Foothills. If you've ever considered becoming a member, or wanted to know more about the church, you need to sign-up. We will be doing it a little different (but better). It will be held after the 11:15am service on September 11th from 12:30 until around 2:30pm. We will serve lunch and provide childcare. All of our staff will be there to answer questions or to just get to know. You must RSVP so we will know how much food to have.

* Football season is right around the corner. I can't wait. I love college football!

* Speaking of football, Foothills flag football league is about to start. Sign-up today!

incredible weekend

It was great being back delivering the message this past Sunday. I have really missed Foothills Community Church. I was reminded again just how blessed we are as a church.
God has blessed our church with an incredible staff and volunteers.

* We began our new series called Awakening. It is going to be life-changing. The scripture was from Ezekiel 37. It is a story about a valley of dry bones becoming a great army. I think all of us can relate to the dry bones. There are times in my life when I get that way spiritually. Fortunately God can breathe the breath of life back into us.

* The music was unbelievable. It really was. David Odom is an incredible worship leader. We also had Joy Honeycutt with us again, as well as our praise choir. Fabulous.

* It is great to be able to take a vacation and not worry about anything. Thanks again to Tim Wadsworth, Brian Rhodes and Daniel Lucas for preaching in my absence. I have heard nothing but good things about their messages!

* We are gearing up for a new series we will begin on August 21st. That is going to be a huge weekend. School will be back in and summer will be over (sort of), so most people will be back to a more normal routine. This will be a perfect time to invite your friends to come with you. The series will be on the life of the biblical character, Jacob. If you think you're life is full of drama, just wait until you hear about his!!

* I miss waking up at 4:30am to go fishing (that was pretty much our routine for 3 weeks). I know that sounds weird if you're not a fisherman, but if you are, you understand.

* On a separate note. I am currently looking for an executive assistant to work at Foothills. As most of you know, my former assistant, Michelle Rhodes, and her husband Brian had a baby, so she is a bit busy right now :) This is a full time position that will take someone who has experience. You can email the church office for more info. office@foothills.cc

I'm back!

I am back. I had an amazing time on vacation, but it's time to get back to reality.

* I am pumped about the new series we will be starting tomorrow called, Awakening. If you have ever felt spiritually dry or apathetic, this series will focus on how to get your spiritual life back in gear.

* I think this series will be one of the best series we've ever had. I think there will be a whole lot of people who are awakened.

* We will also have Joy Honeycutt with us. She is a fantastic singer with a fantastic story of God's grace.

* I have missed Foothills Community Church. We visited a lot of great churches, but as the great theologian Dorothy once said, "there's no place like home."

* I am super-rested up. Having an extended time away is so therapeutic for the soul.

* It's hard to believe that it's almost August. Where does time go?

* I can't wait to see all of you tomorrow, and don't forget to invite a friend.

summer fun

I haven't been blogging for a couple of weeks because I have been on vacation. I am having an absolute blast. I'm getting a chance to visit family and do a lot of fishing. This year I trailered my boat down to Florida, and for the most part the seas have been calm, so we have been able to go offshore a bit.
If there is one thing that re-energizes me, it's fishing. Here is a pic of me and my nephew with a double-up on cobia.In case you're not familiar with cobia, it is probably the best tasting fish that swims!! The second picture is the "after" picture of the cobia!

What a week!

It was an incredible week at Foothills Community Church. Between the 2 campuses we baptized another 22 people! (That's 40 people this month!)

It all started Thursday evening with a time of worship, communion and baptism at our Seneca campus. Then on Sunday evening over in Toccoa they had a big party/baptism on Lake Hartwell. My wife and I were able to go and hang out with them, and we had a blast!

* We continued our Control Freak series on Sunday with a message about controlling our tongues. This is a tough one for most people. I know it is for me!

* We had over 20 people give their lives to Jesus at our Seneca campus on Sunday!!

* Even though it was 4th of July weekend, the attendance in the auditorium wasn't too bad. The kids numbers were way down. Lots of people on vacation.

* I think this was my first 4th of July were I didn't see any fireworks. Not one. I need to get out more.

* I keep getting unbelievable messages from people about life-change. God is doing some things behind the scenes that would blow your minds.

* Hard to believe it's already July.

* Please join me in praying for our team of 23 people that is in Harlan County, KY doing ministry through our Project Reach initiative.

Party time

I am so stinking excited about tomorrow evening (Thursday June 30th). If you love a party you don't want to miss out at what's happening at our Seneca campus of Foothills Community Church.

The evening will start with a worship time led by our incredible team. It is rumored that the one and only Kevin Robison, our worship leader from our Toccoa campus will be there too. Then after that we will join together for a time of remembrance of the Lord's sacrifice with communion. And then we will head outside to do baptisms in our holy horse troughs!

We will close out the evening with free ice cream for everyone.

Here's the info.

It's not too late to be baptized. Just wear a bathing suit and bring a towel, and you're set!! See you there!

Sunday review

Wow, what a great day at Foothills Community Church yesterday. We had a lot of fun with all the Fathers, especially the ones that competed in our little game of putting a cloth diaper on the baby (doll), then strapping them in a car seat, setting up a pack-n-play!
It got pretty intense during the second service. The competitors knocked over the table, and then one of them that was having trouble with the velcro on the pack-n-play pulled out his pocket knife and cut the strap. That was some serious redneck action for sure!

* Hamilton crushed the guitar solo in the beginning of the service!

* Our band once again brought us into the presence of God.

* The Dad Life video was hilarious.

* Wrapped up the No Guts, No Glory series with a message on the ultimate man, Jesus Christ. He had the guts and deserves the glory!

* Jesus lived with a singular focus--- staying aligned with the Father's will.

* In the face of adversity, He never quit.

* The center of the will of God is NOT the safest place to be--- but it is the BEST place to be! (there was nothing safe about the cross)

* I am super excited about our new series that starts this Sunday called, Control Freak. In your life there are very few things that you have control over, but we will be talking about the few things that we need to control. Invite your friends!

* Shane Smith put together a video from our last baptism service from a couple of weeks ago on Lake Keowee. In spite of the terrible weather, it stopped raining long enough for us to baptize 18 more people!

* If you would like to be baptized, your next opportunity will be Thursday, June 30th at 6:30 pm. We will have a special Praise night that will include worship, The Lord's Supper, and baptism.

Wednesday randomness

Last Sunday was a great day to be a part of Foothills Community Church. The A.M. services were awesome, but Sunday afternoon was a blast.

* We had a baptism/party at Biggerstaff Retreat Center. Unfortunately there was a severe thunderstorm warning right when we were scheduled to begin, so most people didn't brave the elements. But in spite of that, the weather began to clear a bit, and we were still able to do some baptisms in Lake Keowee. When it was all said and done, 18 people were baptized!

* We decided to have a Plan "B", so on Thursday June 30th at 6:30pm at the Seneca campus we will be having a Praise night, with a time of worship, communion and baptisms, so if you didn't make it to last Sunday's baptism time, be sure to put this on your schedule.

* We wrapped up Son Sports last week and it was a huge success. Tons of kids and volunteers, but the best part was that 16 children indicated that they wanted to begin a relationship with Jesus!

* You do not want to miss this Sunday at Foothills. It is Father's Day, so we've got a couple of fun elements that we've included in the services for the guys. Bring your dad, it's going to be awesome.

* Tonight at 6:15pm we will be having our Get In The Game class. If you want to know more about Foothills, or are interested in becoming a member, then this class is for you. It will last until 8:15pm and yes, there will be child care.

* I am so excited for Brian and Michelle Rhodes (Brian is our Director of Student Ministries, and Michelle was my assistant). Michelle gave birth to their first child, Hannah!

* Got a chance to fish with my friend Dean Herman yesterday evening. Dean put us on the fish. Had a blast!

Random thoughts

It was a fun Sunday at Foothills Community Church. Brian Rhodes, our Pastor of Student ministries preached (and did an awesome job), so I kind of just hung out.

* Our worship team just keeps raising the bar. It's amazing.

* Every week people are giving their lives to Jesus. I love that!

* We kicked off Son Sports yesterday evening, and it was a blast. Hundreds of kids and over 100 volunteers made this possible.

* I am so proud of my wife, Liz who works tirelessly every year to put Son Sports together. (She also is our Director of Family Ministries which she also leads with excellence!

* I am also thankful for the Clemson Tiger football players, Tajh Boyd, Malliciah Goodman, Tra Thomas, Corico Hawkins, and Cole Stoudt who came and spent the afternoon meeting the kids at Son Sports. They are some great young men.

* This Sunday we will continue the No Guts, No Glory message series. You don't want to miss it.

* Don't forget that this Sunday afternoon, we will be having our huge baptism celebration party. It will be held at Biggerstaff Retreat Center in Seneca from 4:30pm until 7:30pm. Bring enough food for your family plus one extra person. Foothills will provide plates, eating utensils, and drinks. If you would like to be baptized, it's not too late!!

* During the summer months many of us are out of town and church attendance becomes somewhat irregular, however the church still has financial obligations, and what may help you continue your financial support even when you are gone is to use our automated giving system. Many people have found that it is the easiest way to do their giving not only during the summer but throughout the year. You can sign-up online here.

Sunday review

I know this is late, but anyway here is a snapshot from last week at Foothills Community Church.

* You never know what to expect on holiday weekends, but overall the attendance wasn't off too much. In fact we had a ton of first-time guests!

* We started a new series called No Guts, No Glory. It's a message series of Biblical characters who had extreme faith and courage.

* We kicked it off with Joshua. I love the book of Joshua. In Joshua 1, God calls Joshua to be the next leader of Israel, and to take them through the Jordan River and into the promised land. I can't imagine how intimidating it would be to follow in the footsteps of a great leader like Moses.

* Everyone has their own Jordan River to cross. The Jordan River is anything that stands between you and God's best for your life. Once you identify what that is, we need to make a decision to get moving.

* Once again, David Odom and his stellar team rocked the house. Our worship team is amazing!

* My friend Dean Herman who is the Pastor of 5 Points Fellowship got to hang out with us during the 9:30am service. He was blown away with the level of excellence! Dean and his crew have got it going on in Easley, SC

* We're still receiving Project Reach commitment cards. If you haven't turned yours in yet, you can do it this Sunday.

* We are starting to hear a bunch of cool stories of how Project Reach is already touching lives. We hope to capture some video to show during a service.

* Don't forget that June 6th is the first day of Son Sports. If you have kids, they need to be here for this, trust me!

Sunday review

We had another incredible day at Foothills Community Church. God was at work throughout the entire morning.

* I am honored to serve as the Lead Pastor of this great church. Over the last week, I have been overwhelmed by the number of people who have been praying for me. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

* It was great to be back on the softball field yesterday. I plan to be back on the basketball court on Wednesday morning!

* Yesterday was Commitment Sunday for our Project Reach initiatives. I do not know the total amount pledged yet, but whatever was pledged will be use to help the least, last and lost of the world!

* I spoke about Commitment, and although those type of messages tend to step om a lot of toes, there was a great response.

* Project Reach is already in full swing. We had a group of people serving the Food Pantry this weekend and another group just got back from Haiti. We have scheduled a trip in Early July to send teams to Harlan County Kentucky to serve people there. We are already actively engaged with Launch Network to help start 1,000 churches in the next 10 years.

* I am so excited about what's going on at our Toccoa campus. They baptized 10 people yesterday, and have another 13 people already signed-up for their next baptism!

* We will be starting a new message series this Sunday called, No Guts, No Glory. I cannot wait!

* Our next baptism for our Seneca campus is scheduled for June 12th at Biggerstaff Retreat Center. We will have food, games, water activities on beautiful Lake Keowee, and of course, baptism. We will start at 4:30 pm and end.... whenever!

* Don't forget about Son Sports, (which is Foothills version of Vacation Bible School) It begins on June 6th.

Thanks for your prayers

I want to thank all of you that have been praying for me. In case you were not aware, I had a recent physical (which I passed with flying colors), but kind of in passing, my Dr. suggested I have a Cardiac Calcium Score test done. I had never heard of this test before, but I figured, I may as well make an appointment. The test took 5 minutes and cost $99. The lower the score the better. Unfortunately for me, my score was high.
I was then sent to a cardiologist who scheduled me to have a heart cath done this past Monday. The idea was, if the cath showed no sign of any plaque build-up, I would be given a clear bill of health, if not they would install a stent in my arteries. Unfortunately I had 2 blockages (1 was 80% blocked, and the other was 75% blocked), so they put in 2 stents.

The surgery took about 3 hours, and other than me keep waking up and having to get more anesthesia, it was pretty easy. I stayed overnight at the hospital, and will have to take it easy for a week, but then I can resume my regular pace.

I am thankful that my Dr. recommended the test. Keep in mind that I am not overweight, don't smoke or drink and exercise regularly. My cholesterol is just slightly above normal, I don't have high blood pressure and eat pretty well. I had no symptoms of any sort. Not even during strenuous exercise. That's pretty scary.

Here is what I am hoping this post will do. I hope you ask your Dr. about scheduling to have this test done, and get it done. If everything is clear, you're only out $99, and you have some peace of mind. If not, then maybe you can catch a possible heart condition before something tragic happens.

Sunday review

Sunday was awesome at Foothills Community Church. It was one of the most emotional services I can remember.

* We started the services with a little clip from Family Guy, which was pretty funny.

* The band, worship team and praise choir was in rare form. The whole place came unglued when Petecia Moon sang Are You Ready For A Miracle. I honestly can't remember a time when the response was so loud!

* The message was on the link between faith and miracles.

* It's always a good day for me, when I can bring my Bowtech on stage to use as an illustration.

* In both services the guys that came on stage had WAY too much faith in my shooting abilities!

* It's going to take a miracle for us to reach our project reach goal of $1,000,000, but that's when we need crazy faith.

* Our first Project Reach dinner was a huge success. Everyone was so excited.

* There are still a few tickets remaining for this Thursday evening, and about 100 tickets left for the dinner on May 19th.

* Our Toccoa campus has huge momentum. Lives are changing every week there!

* They will be having their project Reach Dinner on May 15th. I can't wait to hang out with them.

a quick review

It's been busy for the last week, so I am updating a little slow.
I am really fired-up about what God is doing at Foothills Community Church right now!

* I was in Dallas last week for a couple of days meeting with a group of Pastors of large churches from around the Country. We get together every 6 months to hang out. It is truly a rich time for me. Over the last year and a half these guys have become some of my best friends in ministry!

* The organization that put the group together is Leadership Network. If you are a Pastor, you need to do what you can to be a part of one of their communities.

* This past Sunday was another great one at Foothills. It's always interesting to me how quickly attendance can drop off after Easter! For those who came, it was awesome!

* We are in a series called, Project Reach. Project Reach is a strategic way for us to reach around the world to help the least, the last and the lost with the gospel.

* We will be catering 4 informational Project Reach Dinners (3 in Seneca and 1 in Toccoa) The first dinner is this Thursday and is completely full!. There are a few tickets still available for the other dates: May 12,and 19th in Seneca, and May 15th in Toccoa.

* A lot of people have asked me about my feeling regarding the death of Osama Bin Laden. I read this blog that probably explains how I feel the best.

* You do not want to miss this Sunday at Foothills Community Church. If you have ever needed a miracle, you need to be there!

* It is Mother's Day, so we have a couple of cool things planned for Moms. I know there are many couples that are unable to have children, so Mother's day is a bit painful for them, but this should not prevent us from honoring our mothers, and celebrating with them.

* I love the fact that for the last 3 weeks we have had people saved at both of our campuses. Lost people are being found, and lives are being changed!

* We are sending disaster relief funds to tornado victims in the South. My friend, David Anderson and his church are making a huge difference in Alabama and we are joining them. Thanks for your faithfulness to give because it makes this kind of thing possible.

Easter review

All I can say is wow. It was an unbelievable Easter at Foothills Community Church. I don't have all the metrics of what happened, all I know is that something big happened!

* Both campuses had huge crowds and lots of people give their lives to Jesus. In Seneca we had 78 people saved and in Toccoa they had 3 salvations!

* We had over 550 kids/volunteers just in Kidzone!

* The energy level was through the roof.

* We started handing out our new first-time guest bags filled with great stuff, and they were in high demand!

* The worship team did an awesome job led by David Odom in Seneca and Kevin Robison in Toccoa. It was also great to have the praise choir doing their thing!

* The stage team did an amazing job with the new stage for our Project Reach series.

* The technical team led by Shane Smith knocked it out of the park as well. Phillip B. spent most of his Spring Break programming lights!

* I am so appreciative of all the wonderful Dream Team volunteers that served tirelessly to make Easter over-the-top.

* There were so many new faces and the response from everyone that I met was that they absolutely loved the services and plan to be back!

* We had a little Easter egg hunt in the auditorium. Most people were not real interested in playing along until we told them that whoever found the eggs could redeem them for free gas cards. After that everyone got pretty motivated!

* I can't wait to see what happens this Sunday. You don't want to miss it.

Easter countdown

A couple of quick thoughts as we head into Easter weekend:

* Don't forget to invite your friends. Use those invite cards. Better yet, go and pick someone up on Sunday morning and bring them to church with you.

* We will start a new series called, Project Reach. This series could be one of the most important series we have ever done.

* A lot of you have heard of Project Reach, but during this series, you will understand it.

* We are having 4 catered dinners (3 in Seneca, and 1 in Toccoa) during the month of May that we are inviting people to attend to hear the full details of Project Reach. We have very limited seating so you need to get your tickets ASAP. They will be available starting this Sunday at the Link, located in the back of the concourse. (If you attended the Project Reach Reveal in March, you already have your tickets.)

* We had a bunch of people show up to pray over every chair in the auditorium for this Sunday's services. We have done everything within our power to make Easter a success, we have prayed, prepared, and planned, but it is up to God to do the part that really matters!

* You may have seen our CouldThisBeChurch.com billboards around town. They are creating a lot of buzz in the community.

* I will leave you with this thought. Our services this Sunday are going to be the best services we have ever done. You will not believe some of the elements. It will be inspiring, fun, challenging, touching, and humorous.

Sunday review

I love my church! Every Sunday I am surrounded by hundreds of passionate people that show up ready to worship God. It is awesome. Authentic worship knows no boundaries--- it transcends economic differences, racial differences, or age differences. On any given Sunday we have people that come from every conceivable background that come together for the sole purpose of lifting up the name of Jesus!

* Our worship team keeps raising the bar. If anyone can sit through a Foothills worship set and not be moved, there is something wrong with them. Seriously.

* It was the beginning of Spring Break weekend, and although the attendance was slightly down, it did not have an effect on the excitement level of the people.

* We wrapped up the Colossians series (it took a while!). What a fantastic book of the Bible for a church to study together. So solid.

* We handed out invite cards for Easter Sunday. One person asked if they could have 300 to give out! I got a text today from someone who said that the invite cards were all over the plant that they worked at!

* We gave out tons of free Easter tickets. The 8:00am service still has plenty of room, so if you are scheduled to serve next Sunday, it would be helpful if you could attend that service. The reason is, that the 9:30am and 11:15am are nearly full, and we KNOW that there will be lots of people that will show up that do not have a ticket, so let's make sure we have extra room.

* Our staff has been preparing for months for the Easter services and they will be the best services that we have ever done. You do not want to miss!

* The worship team tells me that there will be something for everyone. There is a rumor that we will have everything from Classic rock to rap. Yes, this will be Foothills at its best. Could This Be Church?

* Please bring your friends that do not know Jesus. My message will focus on 3 post-resurrection events that will change our lives!

* Come prepared to CELEBRATE! After all Easter is the reason to celebrate.

* One last thing. I want to invite you to come to the church Tuesday through Thursday any time from 9:00am until 6:00pm to pray for our Easter services. Just stop by the office and someone will make sure the auditorium will be unlocked. All of our staff will be praying over every seat in the auditorium on Thursday from 9:00am until 9:30am. We would love to have you join us then.

Sunday review

I had a different, but wonderful Sunday. It was different, because I didn't preach, but also because I got to spend the morning at our Toccoa, Ga campus.

* I started the morning by driving to our Seneca campus. I showed up at 9:25am for the 9:30am service. I noticed immediately that apparently that's what most people do. There was a steady stream of traffic coming in then.

* I knew that I had to leave by 10:00am to make it in time to get to Toccoa, so I stood up against the back wall of the auditorium during the worship set and the intro of Brian Rhodes message. I noticed that the auditorium fills up from the back to the front. I'm one of those people that likes to sit near the front, so I really don't understand why anyone wants to sit so far back, but apparently these are the premium seats!

* I heard a lot of great things about Brian Rhodes message. I can't wait to watch it online this week.

* The worship set was incredible. I love working with David Odom and the rest of the team. There is another team that most people don't think about too much that play a major role, and that is the technical team led by Shane Smith. They are phenomenal. they are responsible for audio, video, graphics, cameras, lyrics and probably a whole lot more that I don't know about.

* I then drove to Ga and hung out with the Toccoa campus. As usual, they were a lot of fun. Other than most of them wearing clothes emblazoned with Georgia Bulldogs emblems, they are a great group of people :-)

* Campus Pastor Brian Marshall and Worship Pastor Kevin Robison make a great team. I know I have said this already, but God is up to something big in T-Town!

* It's always weird watching yourself on video, but once I got past that, it was a very enjoyable service.

* Tickets for our Easter services were available yesterday at our Seneca campus. If you forgot to get yours, go online and print some out or pick them up on Sunday. Only about 400 tickets remain available for the 9:30am and the 11:15am services. There are plenty left for the 8:00am service.
The Toccoa campus Easter service will be at 11:00am

Foothills Toccoa and some lessons I've learned

About two and a half years ago we launched our second campus in Toccoa, Ga. We felt that although Stephens County had a bunch of great churches that possibly a church like Foothills Community Church could help reach some of the people who were not being reached by the existing churches.

For the first year and a half we met in a gymnasium at Osborne Wood products and then, a little over a year ago we moved into a more permanent location, as we leased a former furniture store and converted it into a church facility.

Like any new church, there are challenges, and obstacles. In fact, it was the same way at our Seneca, SC campus when we first started. I believe we are on the verge of some incredible things happening there. As many of you know, our campus pastor is Brian Marshall who has served at our Seneca campus for many years, but what many of you don't know is that we recently hired Kevin Robison as our new campus worship pastor. I believe that these men will help us reach that community for Christ!

Some of the lessons I have learned about becoming a multi-site church (especially in small towns) is that it takes patience and perseverance. It takes time for the community to get to know you, and trust you.

It takes a heart for your community. Deep-down the people who attend the church have to have a burden for their community to know Christ. They must build relationships with people who don't know Christ, and invite them to church.

It's hard work. There are no short cuts. You reach a community, the same way you eat an elephant, a bite at a time. One person at a time, that's the key.

It takes unselfishness. The church has to be willing to set aside their own personal desires for the sake of the people they are trying to reach. They must be willing to do whatever it takes to reach people.

They have to prepare for guests. There needs to always be an expectation that there will be guests, and therefore they need to make sure that they feel at home. In fact everything must be viewed and evaluated constantly through the eyes of a first-time guest.

As Foothills Toccoa moves forward, they do so with purpose. I am so pumped about the future of our Toccoa campus. Every time I go there I just love the environment that they have created. It is an incredible group of people that love Jesus. If you know anyone in that area that doesn't have a church home, let them know about our Toccoa campus!

Project Reach Reveal & Sunday review

Last Thursday evening we held the sneak peak of Project Reach. Here are a few of my thoughts:

* We had a great attendance for a Thursday night. Several hundred people showed up to hear about Project Reach

* It was an honor to have my friend pastor Toby Slough come and share with our staff and then our congregation about some of what god is doing at Cross Timbers Church. He knocked it out of the park!

* Our people are hungry to see the world reached for Christ, and to help people who are homeless, hungry, hurting, and feel hopeless.

* We will be starting a new message series called, Project Reach starting on Easter Sunday.

* We will also be having a series of informational dinners on May 5th, 12th and 19th. The tickets will be available on Easter Sunday. (Those people who came to the reveal on Thursday night got to pick their tickets up already). There are a limited number of seats available, so be ready to pick yours up.

Sunday review:

* Spoke on Colossians 3:22-25 about making Christ supreme in the work place. It was a challenging topic for many

* Lots of people have a huge disconnect between Sunday and Monday. They view Sunday as God's day, but then separate Monday-Friday as their work days. We can't compartmentalize our lives that way. Christ needs to be supreme over everything we do.

* 85% of American workers say that they could work harder. 50% say they could double their output at work. As Christ-followers we should be the hardest working employees at our jobs.

* Ultimately we work for God. "Whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus.." Col. 3:17a

* Our Toccoa campus welcomed Kevin Robison as their new worship leader!

* Easter is right around the corner. Who will you invite?

results

I made a statement in last Sunday's message that I have been thinking about quite a bit. I said, "God doesn't reward us based on results, He rewards us based on our FAITHFULNESS".
You see, the results are God's. In the parable of the three servants in Matthew 25:14-30, one servant is given 5 talents, one is given 2 talents and one is given 1 talent. When the master returned he called them to give an account of how they had used His money. The servant with 5 and the servant with 2 talents had both doubled his money. His response to them was, "well done my good and FAITHFUL servant, You have been FAITHFUL in handling the small amount, so now I will give you more responsibilities.." To the servant that had been given 1 talent who had done nothing with the master's money, he was rebuked because he had been unfaithful with the things entrusted to him.

The results are always God's.
For the parent this means that your responsibility is to faithfully train up your children in the way they should go, but the results are God's
For the person who witnesses to a friend or family member, your job is to faithfully share Christ, the results are God's.
For the Pastor, your job is to faithfully follow the Lord and lead His people, the results are His.

Ultimately the words I would like to hear when I meet Christ face to face are, "well done my good and FAITHFUL servant".

Sunday review

The weather was dreary, but the mood at Foothills Community Church was high-energy yesterday. I taught on the the family from Colossians 3:18-21. I am pretty certain there were a lot of people that got their toes stepped on, but it's all good! I say this all the time, but I LOVE what God is doing right now at Foothills.

* On Monday mornings our staff gets together and talks about stories of life-change and what we cal, "God sightings", which are things that they see God doing in people's lives. It is always inspiring to hear the stories!

* This thursday at 6:00pm is Project reach Reveal. Here's a short video invitation. YOU NEED TO BE THERE!

* I love the staff I get to work with. They are tireless workers that love Jesus.

* With the weather hopefully warming soon, I plan on doing some fishing this Spring.

* We are getting ready to start advertising on 6 billboards throughout Oconee County. You should see them by early next week.

* I was just looking at some of the pictures from our live CD recording/baptism from March 13th. Awesome!

* We are almost finished with our Colossians series. kind of bittersweet for me.

* Easter is only a few weeks away. We are planning the biggest services that we've ever had. Who will you be inviting?

* Our Toccoa campus will be welcoming their new worship pastor, Kevin Robison this weekend. I am pumped about having him on the team!

Sunday review

Getting around late to this past Sunday's review, but you know what they say, 'better late than never".

* I love what God is doing at Foothills. There is an unbelievable amount of energy right now. Lives are changing and people are excited!

* Another stellar day from our worship team. These guys and gals are so inspiring!

* I spoke about new life in Christ, and how that is supposed to play out. Even though we are free in Christ, God has some very high standards for Christ-followers.

* I have had so many people tell me that they are really enjoying the Colossians series. It is such a solid book. We are in the home stretch, and it looks like we will be done before Easter.

* Speaking of Easter, wow, we have an incredible service planned (actually we will be having 3 services at our Seneca campus and one at our Toccoa campus) This is a great opportunity to bring a friend with you. We are printing up some new invite cards that will make it even easier. We will get those to you on April 10th

* We are getting ready to do some heavy advertising for Easter. It looks like we will be renting some billboard space. I'll let you know more soon.

* Don't forget about our Project Reach reveal coming on March 31st. YOU DO NOT WANT TO MISS IT!

Sunday review

There are really no words to describe yesterday at Foothills Community Church. Everything just clicked. Here are a few highlights:

* Daylight Savings Time definitely got the best of our 9:30am attendance, but the 11:15am service was right on track. Actually our kids numbers were huge yesterday. Apparently it was the adults that slept in (not really sure how the kids got to church?) :-)

* I spoke about how easy it is to move from grace to legalism if we're not careful. In the South there are a lot of very "religious" people that live by a set of rules, rather than in the freedom that the Gospel affords us.

* Legalism says, "God will love me IF I'm good". The Gospel says, "God loves me, therefore I desire to obey" There is a huge difference between these two views.

* I think a lot of people were set free from legalism yesterday.

* Our new T-shirts went on sale in The Stoop. At the end of the 1st service we had already sold out of most of them!

* Last night we had our first ever Live recording at Foothills, and it was AMAZING!

* David Odom and his crew absolutely blew the roof off of the place. I am not kidding, Foothills has the best worship ministry anywhere!

* Our tech crew is unbelievable as well. The sound and lighting and everything that goes into a recording---- wow, these folks burned the midnight oil.

* The place was packed out. It was also cool to have a bunch of people from our Toccoa campus make the journey over to SC.

* People are asking when the CD will be available? the answer is, as soon as possible. Most likely it will take approx. 2 months, but you can Pre-order a copy in the Stoop.

* The highlight of the night for me was the baptisms we did in the middle of the service--- 37 people took the plunge. Yea God!

* What's really amazing was the spectrum of the ages that we baptized.

* We baptized a lot of children and youth. That is incredible. Our kid's ministry (Kidzone) is the best anywhere! I want to brag on my wife, Liz, who is the Director of our children's ministry, and our other staff who serve with our kids. Week after week, they prepare age-appropriate lessons for children and mix it with a lot of fun activities, and as a result, kid's lives are changing!

* This Sunday we will begin Chapter 3 in the book of Colossians

Be A Part Of History

I am constantly blown away by the quality of our worship experiences at Foothills Community Church. God has assembled the finest team of musicians and singers to be found anywhere. We have so many requests to make our music available by CD or online, that we felt now was the time to record our first ever Live recording!

For our first project, David Odom and his team have selected many of the worship songs that are familiar to many people, yet with our own unique Foothills flair.

To add to the excitement of the evening, we will also be doing baptisms. This is a chance for many people to go public with their faith in Christ. This promises to be an historic evening, and we want invite everyone to come and be a part of this live recording!

It's this Sunday (March 13th) at 6:00pm at our Seneca, SC campus. There will be child care for children ages 6 weeks to kindergarten.

Ninja lessons

If you've ever wanted to be a Ninja, here's your chance to sign-up!

Quiet time

As a Pastor, I get a lot of questions. Many of those questions are about the nuts and bolts of growing spiritually. So I wanted to devote a post or two about some common questions I get.

Today i want to talk about having a quiet time.
If ever there was a mysterious phrase in the Christian's vocabulary, it would be the phrase, "quiet time".

Normally you would hear the phrase in a sentence like this: This morning I had a fantastic quiet time with the Lord.

In this blog post I want to de-mystify that phrase.

First let's try to define it. I would say that a quiet time, is a set aside time that a person strategically spends with God. As the name implies, a portion of this time would be in quiet or solitude.

For me, my quiet time would look something like this. Prayer time (a time of speaking and listening to God), and a time of reading and studying my Bible, and some time to meditate on what I have just read.

A question many people have is, how do you pray?
Well for me personally, I generally use the ACTS method of prayer:

A- adoration. A time to praise and adore God for who He is.
C- confession. A time of confessing sins (by name), and acknowledging that I truly desire to live for God.
T- thanksgiving. Taking time to thank God for all of His blessing in my life.
S- supplication. A time of asking God for specific things in my life and the lives of others.

I have found for me personally that having a list with people's names and different things that I need to pray about keeps me focused better. Also, I personally like to have my quiet time in the morning.

As far as how long does a quiet time take? That just depends. Sometimes it's relatively quick, and other times it may be an hour or more.
It's basically the same way you would talk to your best friend on the phone. Sometimes you just need a quick chat, and other times you need a little longer.

Sometimes I get rushed and miss my quiet time, and I can tell you, that I can tell the difference in my life. I'm just a little off center the whole day.

One last thing. Don't be legalistic about it. If you miss a day, it's ok. God still loves you! If you don't have a quiet time, why not start today. You will be surprised how it helps your life.

Sunday review

Every Sunday at Foothills just seem to get better and better. Many times in rainy, dreary weather, people tend to come to church in a more mellow mood. Not yesterday. From the start to the finish of our services people were fired-up.

** God is up to something crazy at Foothills right now!

** Our Umbrella team is amazing. These volunteers show up early and stay late to make sure people stay dry coming from their cars to the building. Way to lead well, Kelly Ross!

** David Odom is such a phenomenal worship leader. I love his heart for God.

** I loved hearing Pamela read the scripture in the middle of the song, Oh How He loves Us. (Nothing can separate us from the love of God!)

** The band and choir are awesome. They prepare for hours on end to make sure that Sundays are the best hour of the week.

** I'm so proud of Mary Douglas. She not only sings great, but her love for the Lord shines through her.

** This past weekend, our student ministry had it's Ignite weekend. I'm proud of Brian Rhodes and Tim Wadsworth, and for ALL of the people that made this weekend a huge success! You all deserve some extra rest!

** I am also proud of our students. It is wonderful to see God at work in the lives of teenagers. Many gave their lives to Christ and many stepped-up their commitment to Christ! They also had some serious energy on Sunday morning!

** Pastor Brian Marshall told me that the Toccoa campus had an amazing service as well. I can't wait to see what god does there in the next year. I believe it is going to grow like crazy!

another funny video

Dennis Swanberg is a funny guy!

Sunday review

It is so cool to see what God is doing right now at Foothills Community Church! There is an awakening that is taking place that is incredible.
Yesterday's services were unbelievable. It's only Monday but I'm already excited about next Sunday.

** Strong attendance-- especially in the 9:30 service. I'm guessing that had something to do with the beautiful weather yesterday.

** We had close to 400 in the children's ministries alone! We had the most first-time guest children that we've had in months!

** 5 more people gave their lives to Jesus yesterday. That's 25 people in the last 2 weeks!

** I taught on the Holy Spirit yesterday. It's amazing how much confusion there is about that topic. I think a lot of people understand Him more and will begin to rely on Him more.

** I have used a white board to teach from for the last 2 Sundays. I will probably retire it for a while, although some of the more visual learners are really enjoying it!

** I also used Alka Seltzer in an illustration. That was interesting.

** This Sunday I will be using a deck of cards as an illustration.

** This Colossians series is solid!

** I can't wait for our Live CD recording/ baptism coming up on march 13th at 6:00pm. You do not want to miss that.

** Our Toccoa campus continues to grow. That is so exciting!

Spring is almost here

It's almost Spring, which always makes me think about fishing. If you're like me and you need a laugh, here's bass fishing's own, Bill Dance.

sunday review

We continued our series on the book of Colossians today at Foothills Community Church. It is an amazing book. Today I asked the question, "who is Jesus?" It seems that everyone has their own personal opinion, but the Bible is crystal clear, Jesus is God in the flesh.

* I'm loving that this series is challenging people to read their Bibles intensely.

* I went old school today and used a white board to explain the Gospel. It is awesome to know that Jesus reconciled us to God, and because of the cross, we are totally forgiven!

* Next Sunday I will be talking about the Holy Spirit. There is so much confusion about this topic. Don't miss it.

* Our music was absolutely unbelievable. I am so excited about our live recording coming on March 13th at 6PM

* We had quite a few people give their lives to Jesus today!

* I did my best not to crack on Nascar too much in honor of the Daytona 500. However the video clip of Ricky Bobby was classic!

* Our student ministry is on fire right now! Kid's lives are changing. Don't forget to register your teens for IGNITE weekend.

* It was exciting to hear a little bit about the possibility of Foothills enering a ministry partneship in the Country of Haiti. I can't wait to share with you about PROJECT REACH. Set aside March 31st on your calendars as we reveal some incredible plans!

mid week run down

Finally getting to the blog this week.

* Last Sunday was a solid day at Foothills. It was fun to be back. The music was awesome as usual.

* The Colossians series is fun to prepare for and teach! If you missed this past Sunday, you can watch it here.

* In case you missed it, we are planning our next Baptism on March 13th at 6:00pm. This is going to be a very historic night for Foothills. Stay tuned for details.

* My friend Richie miller from Avalon Church in GA, came and led our staff meeting on Monday.

* We will be unveiling our 2011 ministry initiatives (Project REACH) on March 31st (yes, it's a Thursday) at 6:00pm. You will be hearing A LOT more about this in the days ahead.

* Some of our staff are out sick. I am hibernating in my office to avoid the germs!

* All of our staff has this overwhelming sense that we are on the brink of something mind-blowing that God is about to do at Foothills!!

* Keep inviting your friends.

Catching Up

* Been out of the office for the last week, which is awesome, but there is a lot of catching up to do.

* Spent some amazing time with my family in Florida. It worked out really good, because we got a chance to catch up with a bunch of family members that we don't get to see very often.

* Enjoyed a week of 80 degree weather (don't hate!). Unfortunately I got sunburned and am now peeling.

* Yesterday I was wearing shorts, today I am wearing long johns.

* Yes, we got a chance to do a lot of fishing.

* I got such good reports on the services at Foothills last Sunday. I am so proud of the team that God has blessed me to serve with!

* Tim Wadsworth did a super job with his message. (How does he always manage to talk about his feet every time he preaches?)

* Liz and I got to worship at this church last Sunday. They have been a portable church for 18 years, but Sunday was their first time in their own permanent building!

* I am looking forward to week #2 of our Colossians series. If you have not already read through the book of Colossians, why not do it between now and Sunday?

* There is a sense of spiritual awakening happening happening at Foothills that is incredible! If you don't have a church home, come and hang out with us Sunday!

Sunday review

We had a phenomenal Sunday at Foothills Community Church. We kicked off our new series on the book of Colossians. I spoke about my favorite topic--the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Actually we talk about the Good news every Sunday at Foothills, but we dissected what the Good news is all about--- that we were hopelessly lost and separated from God because of our sins, but God loved us so much that He sent His one and only Son Jesus Christ to pay for our sins on a cross. He was buried, and on the 3rd day he rose again!
That is life-changing news!

* We have created some extra-curricular study/devotion material that you can download , to make the series even more meaningful.

* I love that God is sending us so many new people to Foothills!

* We had 45 people go through our Get In The Game (membership) class last week! Lots of people getting fired-up about Foothills.

* Our LIFE groups are up and running for this semester. Lots of new people are taking a step in their Spiritual growth.

* I love our staff at Foothills. These are not only gifted, talented people, but they love Jesus!

* Our Toccoa campus is gaining momentum. Our campus Pastor, Brian Marshall is doing a terrific job!