Leadership qualities 1

I am going to start a series of posts on Leadership qualities that are totally transfreable to any type of leadership. I hope to touch on some of the not so obvious ones that sometimes get overlooked.
Today I want to talk about ENDURANCE. Endurance is the ability to hang on and press forward in spite of challenges.
When I think of leaders with endurance, I think of guys (and gals) who have stood the test of time and remained faithful. Leaders like Billy Graham, Bill Hybels, Rick Warren and others that endured through criticism, and being misunderstood to achieve the goal that God had called them to.
Endurance is sometimes overlooked because it's not flashy or sexy. Leaders with endurance just show up everyday and suit up and get the job done.
Like the story of the tortoise and the hare, the one with endurance won the race.
When I look for potential staff I have learned to look beyond the shiny exterior of a potential candidate and try to see if this person is the real deal. I have found that the "Superstars" are rarely people with endurance. They hop from church to church and job to job. They carry a copy of their resume with them everywhere they go and are always trying to position themselves for something a little grander. If you don't believe me look at the sports world. Team owners that shell out the big bucks for a big name usually regret it. The players that take a job because the money is a little better, will probably become a free agent in a year or two and offer themselves up to the highest bidder again.
Give me a bunch of above average leaders who are loyal to the team and have endurance, and we will win a championship! I'm tired of flash-in-the-pan, one hit wonders.
A great Biblical example of endurance is Caleb. He kept on rocking for God well into his golden years with the same passion that he had when he was young---that's endurance!

video shoot today

We're getting ready to head up to Greenville to do an on-location video shoot. It will be done outdoors and it's going to be really chilly. It was 28 degrees this morning so needless to say I'm hoping we can get it done on the first take.
We saw the concept of this video online from another church, so we're going to tweak it slightly. It will be shown during a series we're doing in May called "15 Minutes"
I am thankful for all of the creative things that other churches are doing nationwide. I view this as just our expanded creative team. We get so many ideas from other churches. Our view is that we're all on the same team, and we're all striving for the same goal of reaching people for Christ. This is exactly why we have always made any resources that we have created available to any church that wants them.
At Foothills we are blessed with some extremely creative people that meet weekly to discuss every element of every service. Our prayer is that there is a common theme throughout the entire service that communicates the love of Christ clearly.

Back to work

I just got back from a quick trip down to Florida. When we left out of Greenville on Friday afternoon it was 40 degrees and raining---when I arrived in Florida it was 84 degrees and partly cloudy. Yeah baby!
We had purchased tickets a couple of months ago to fly down there for my daughter's graduation from Youth With A Mission's DTS school. Last month she decided that she was going to stay in South Africa and continue her training there. Which means we had airline tickets, but no graduation to go to. Oh well, we just headed down to Stuart, FL to visit my parents and do a little fishing and laying on the beach.
So now it's Wednesday and I've got a ton of things to do before Sunday. Fortunately I finished this weekend's message before I left last week.
By the way, I heard that the Celebrate Your marriage Conference was amazing. We had about 100 couples participate. Then on Sunday I understand that we had fantastic services at Foothills Community Church. It's always nice to know that you have a great team in place so that you don't have to worry when you're out of town!

Big weekend at Foothills

This weekend is huge here at Foothills Community Church.
Starting Friday evening we are hosting a Celebrate Your Marriage Conference. We had a few couples go to one of these conferences at the Grove park Inn in Asheville, NC last year and rave about what a great conference it was, so this year we decided to bring it here to Seneca, SC. It will be Friday evening and most of the day Saturday. If you haven't signed up, do it today! $99 per couple for everything---you can't beat that!

On Sunday we will be wrapping up our Forecast series, and during our 8:30am service we will have our Parent/Child dedication. That's always meaningful. Make sure you are here Sunday. I am told that there will be a very funny video that you won't want to miss.

We are also getting really excited about a new series will be starting on March 2nd called "Caveman"

I have been reflecting a lot lately about celebrating our 10th birthday as a church. I will be posting some thoughts on that in March.

Counting down til September

In case you haven't heard Foothills Community Church will be adding a 2nd location in Toccoa, GA. Our plan is to hold our first service sometime in September of 2008, which means between now and then there are a WHOLE LOT of things to do.
Here's what's going on right now. We have 2 new LIFE groups that are starting up in Toccoa. Paul Carr, our Connections Pastor will be working directly with these groups in hopes of multiplying them in the near future.
We are just beginning the process of interviewing for the Campus Pastor position. This person will be responsible for overseeing operations at the Toccoa location. In addition to the Campus Pastor we will be interviewing for a worship leader and children's director in the next few months.
In the next couple of months you will be hearing a lot more about the next location on Sundays. I want to keep this in the forefront of everyone's minds.
I will also be asking for people who have a pioneering spirit to make a commitment to helping us get started over there. We will need tons of leaders and volunteers to help pull this thing off.
Here is how this will work. On Sunday mornings everything in Toccoa will be live (music, children's ministries, refreshments, etc.)with the exception of the message. The message will be captured at our Seneca location and then played on high quality video projection. I know that sounds weird, but believe it or not, it works! I went to a church that was using this technology recently and within a couple of minutes I forgot that the Pastor was not there in the room. It was amazing. If you think about it, most of the time you probably watch the screens during the service anyway. The Campus pastor's responsibility would be to welcome the people, make any announcements, and to connect the people. Basically he is the "face" of Foothills in Toccoa
I have many Pastor friends that are doing this and the results are amazing.
Would you begin to pray about how you might get involved with this new initiative?
Together we can accomplish our mission to reach those people who are far from God!

Sunday Recap

* Had another great Sunday. Pretty strong attendance, especially considering it being a long weekend and the flu going around here.

* We got to play musical chairs during the service. That's always fun!

* We talked about singleness. That's pretty tough for someone that's been married for 24 years, but overall I think it went pretty good.

** Lost the power in the 6:00pm service. It's rough to communicate in the dark without your mic working.

** I'm glad Dr. Melvin T. Snerd III is finished (at least for a while)---You had to be there(or you could watch the message from Feb. 3 or Feb 17)

** Don't forget the Parent/Child dedication service this Sunday (8:30am service only)The deadline to register is TODAY!

Sometimes plans change

My wife and I took our son and a few of his friends to the Winter Jam with Skillet and some other bands at the Bi-Lo Center last night. When we got there we met up with some other people from Foothills. By the time we got there it was packed. I had to park like a mile away. The lines were like huge swarms of people. It was crazy! The fact that they didn't sell advance tickets added to the craziness. We waited and waited and waited, crammed in like sardines, but before we could make it to the doors---they closed them and said that the fire marshall said that no more people would be allowed in. Bummer!
So we went to plan "B" -- we stopped at Chik-fil-a, and grabbed a bite to eat, and the kids played in the playscape (imagine a bunch of teenagers climbing, sliding and running through the kiddie playground) They actually had fun.
I thought it was really cool how those teenagers responded to the change of plans. Their hearts were set on going to the concert, but things didn't work according to plans so they just rolled with it. That's what I call a great response to unexpected change.

Wouldn't it be great to respond to the unexpected like those kids did? Unfortunately many people when faced with change go kicking and screaming. They either refuse to change altogether or change with a bad attitude and great reluctance.

Someone once said that the only thing constant is change. I think the key word to change is FLEXIBILTY.

I really believe that God uses change as a way of growing us. It is impossible to rise above where we are and on to greatness without CHANGE. I know many people who have tremendous potential, but will never live up to it because of their inability to adapt to change.

Here are a couple of things you can do to force yourself to change. 1) Read books, magazines and blogs. It's amazing how much the discipline of reading will challenge the status quo. When you read the thoughts of others you will be challenged by their differing point of view. 2)Try new things. This is a tough one for me, especially when it comes to trying new foods. Especially vegetables.(I have eaten some strange things--rattlesnake, turtle, armadillo, moose, elk, buffalo and other stuff like that, I just don't like vegetables) But not only foods, try listening to different styles of music, visiting new places,and meeting new people.
The bottom line is that in life things change; embrace it!

Happy Valentine's Day

Since this is Valentine's Day I thought I would list some of the things in life that I really love.

1. Jesus. Yes I am not ashamed to say that my first love in life is Jesus Christ. The fact that He would love me and forgive me and use my life is so amazing to me.
As many of you know, I grew up basically without much of a clue who He was. When I was 23 years old I opened a Bible for the first time in my life. It was then that I began to realize just how passionate He was to have a relationship with me. And let me tell you, I was no prize, to say the least. I was about as far from God as a person could possibly be---and yet He reached out to me.

2. My wife, Liz. She is without a doubt the most amazing, beautiful godly woman I have ever met. Did I mention patient? Well she puts up with me, so let's add patience to the list. I have talked to many Pastors whose wives never really supported them in ministry, but Liz is not only supportive, but she is right smack-dab in the middle of ministry. When we planted the church, it was truly "WE" planted the church. She is my biggest cheerleader and my best friend.

3. My children. I am a blessed man. God has given me three wonderful children. We have walked through many difficult times together, and yet right now I believe that this may spiritually be the best shape my family has ever been in. My oldest son Rick is walking closer to God than ever before in his life. He called me this week to let me know that God had allowed him to share his testimony with a group of 30 men struggling with addiction. My daughter, Kristen. I just got off the phone with my daughter who is in South Africa doing mission training work with Youth With A Mission. She is so passionate about reaching the South Africans with the love of Jesus that she has re-enrolled and will be staying for another 9 months. My youngest son Cole. He is an incredible young man. It is scary how much like me he is. He is at the age (15) where it's hard to be a Christ-follower, yet he lives out his life for Christ. He has chosen good friends and he will serve anywhere there is a need.

4. My Grandchildren. It is still hard for me to comprehend that I have grandkids, but what a blessing they are to me. Savannah and Mia I truly love you!

5. My extended family, and all my friends. I am so fortunate to have a network of family and friends around me that love me. Thank you all for being a part of my life.

6. Foothills Community Church. The church that God allows me the privilege to lead. You all are incredible. Your passion for God and your desire to see this whole community come to Christ is inspiring. Thanks for making time out of your busy schedules, to serve God and others, not because you "have to", or even because I ask you to, but because you want to. That is awesome!

Well I guess I could go on and on about this topic., but I am going to stop because one thing that I DON'T love is typing! My finger is going numb!

Idol 2008

This season's American Idol is in full swing. Last night they were in Hollywood. All in all some pretty good talent. I am already about tired of the homeless teenager who is living in his car, with the fake British accent. I think he cried about 6 times last night. Actually he sings pretty well, but he is annoying. For his sake I hope he wins something just so he can get an apartment, or some counseling. The only bad thing this season is that Simon is being way too nice!

taking a quick breather

I just came up for air for a couple of minutes. I have been in the zone with my message prep for some upcoming messages. I have pretty much finished the next 4 weeks of complete outlines. I'm usually pretty happy with being out 2 weeks.
If you are someone who has the responsibility of preparing and then teaching a weekly talk you will understand what I'm about to say. Sometimes it seems like you are in a funk and can sit there for hours and have nothing to show for it. And then there are days like today when you can barely write fast enough to keep up with what God is showing you. These days are much better, I can assure you!

I have a big meeting tonight with a group of people who will be helping us pull off the biggest thing we have ever done as a church. It's coming up in May, but I can't talk about it quite yet. It would spoil the surprise. It is so big, that if God doesn't show up we will mess it up. That's a good place to be!

Busy Day

Busy day today with lots of meetings.
We decided to make a major programming change regarding our next message series. Originally we had planned on starting a new series called "15 Minutes", but instead we will be doing that on in mid April. Our next series beginning March 2nd will be called "Caveman". It should be really good.

We're excited about having a whole team of about 20 people from a church in NC coming this weekend to sit in on our children's ministry. (As a side note we have a phenomenal children's ministry. In fact, we have had more churches come to see what we are doing in our Children's area than in our adult Worship services!)

We have had so much momentum since the New Year it's incredible. You can feel the buzz in the lobby, big time. Tons of new people!

I have been told that drywall has been delivered for our new building! We need the space.

A couple pet peeves

Here are a couple of my personal pet peeves:

I always use pay-at-the-pump when I fill up my tank. One of the reasons I choose to pay at the pump is because normally when you go inside the store you either come back out reeking of cigarette smoke or greasy fried chicken. It never fails that when I'm done pumping my gas, it always says "clerk has receipt"---Doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose?? This is definitely a pet peeve.


Here's another:

People who insist on driving at least 10mph UNDER the speed limit. I think there is somewhat of a Murphy's Law related to this. The more of a hurry you are in, the greater chance you have of getting behind someone driving slow (and why is it always in a no passing zone?)


I'm really not bitter...!
Have a great weekend

God told me to tell you..

Whenever someone approaches me and says this, my natural inclination is to run!
Now please understand that I'm not saying that God doesn't use other people in our lives to send us a message, but I am saying that it has been my experience that when someone says to me that God told me to tell you, it usually means, "here's what I think you should do, but I doubt you're going to listen to me so I'll make it sound more official."

Let me give you one such example. When we were doing a capital campaign to raise funds to build our first building and I had a woman approach me and say, "Pastor Greg, I was praying last night about the building campaign and the Lord told me to tell you that you need to sell your house and give all the money to the building fund." I responded by saying, "well that's interesting because I have been praying about how much I should give and that's not what God told me!" Then I said, "what did God tell you that you should give?" She said that God told her that since she didn't have too much, she didn't need to give anything!

Here are my parameters when it comes to whether I listen to someone when they say this type thing. Do I know them and do I respect their Christian walk? Are they a nut? Could they have ulterior motives? Is this something that I have been seeking an answer about?

Monday Staff meetings

Mondays are meeting days around here.
We have an all-staff meeting on the first Monday of every month.
Yesterday I unveiled our new structure model to our team. No doubt everyone (including me) is going to be challenged to make some significant changes.
My general leadership style is relational with a high level of grace. That style works pretty good when your staff is small and you are able to actually have relationships with all of the staff. As the church grows, and the staff grows this style becomes ineffective. We don't have a huge staff (12 full-time and several part-time), but it is growing.

I told our staff that I have to change my role from being their buddy to being their leader. Obviously that doesn't mean that I don't care about them. Or that I won't hang out with them at times. It just means that I need to move to a more important role in their lives---being their Leader!

I have created a management team that will be responsible for staff underneath them in the organizational chart. They will give me weekly briefings of how things are going in their various departments.

Bottom line is that these changes are going to allow us to continue to move forward in reaching our community for Christ!

sunday debrief

** Another great day at Foothills today. It was very strange to not be doing our 6:00pm sevice. We made the decision after looking at attendance last Superbowl Sunday evening. Let's just put it this way, a whole lot of people like to stay home and watch the Superbowl!

** 11:15 sevice was even more packed today than last week. We had about 40 people sitting in metal chairs (not good!)

** I had alot of feedback on the pre-message video. It was pretty funny. All I can tell you is that it is hard to talk with Bubba teeth in your mouth!

** Our new series, FORECAST is going to help alot of families.

** If you haven't signed up for our Celebrate Marriage conference at Foothills later this month, you need to. The cost for the whole weekend is only $99 per Couple!

** Looking forward to meeting with a bunch of Pastor friends next month over in Myrtle Beach. That's always a blast.

Came to work wearing a tie today!

I came in to the office wearing a tie this morning. I must tell you that I have caught more grief about that than anything I have done! 2 of our people on staff took out their cell phones to snap a picture of this very rare event.
The reason I was wearing a tie was because of a video we are producing for this weekend. Which means that if you are curious what I look like in a tie, you'll just have to be here Sunday. I must say that I clean up pretty good!
Remember, that this Sunday only we will NOT be having our 6:00pm service, so come to one of the other 3 (8:30am, 9:45am, 11:15am)
I am very excited about the new series we are starting this Sunday called "FORECAST"!

Time for some more change

I believe it was Peter Drucker who said that an organization has to change its structure with every 35% of growth. Regardless who said it, it is great advice.
Over the last 9+ years we have been around as a church, we have averaged over 35% growth per year, every year. So needless to say, structure change is nothing new for us. A good structure doesn't cause growth, but it allows for it. A poor structure though, restricts growth.

When I meet other Pastors who ask me about how to break through a growth barrier, I always ask about their structure. 9 times out of 10 the reason they stopped growing was because their current structure could not handle any more growth.
The best illustration of this principle is picturing a table. If you began pouring sand on that table, at some point that table could not hold the sand. Either the sand would start spilling over the sides, or the table would collapse. In order for more sand to be added, you would probably have to increase the size of the tabletop and add additional support underneath the table.
If you think about this in terms of church growth, at some point structure has to change or you stop growing. So the question then becomes, "what kind of structure changes do I make?" Well the first place to look is staffing. Do you have enough staff to not only service the existing amount of people, but another 100-150 people?
Where most churches make their mistake is that they have not hired ahead of the growth curve. They say, when we add another 100-150 people we'll bring on another staff member. Here's the paradox----you can't get the next 100-150 people to ever add that staff member, because the current staff can only service so many people.

In the early days of Foothills Community Church (we had around 200 people or so), I was pretty much flying solo as far as staff was concerned, but I knew that in order to go to the next level I needed another staff member to assist me. The problem was, that there really wasn't enough funding to cover the new person. I remember being out fishing with a wise businessman who was a member of our congregation. I told him my dilemma, and he looked at me and said, "you have to go ahead and bite the bullet and step out in faith and make the hire." I knew he was absolutely right, and we did make that next hire, and immediately we jumped up our attendance to over 300 people!

Well I am sensing that it's time to restructure internally again. I want to pro actively restructure now before we have our next growth surge. We know that when we move into our new building we are going to get slammed with new people, so we're making those changes now! It's not a matter of adding more staff (although that is part of it), but for us right now it's more of a cultural restructuring. We have always been pretty laid back as far as inner office type stuff. Now don't get me wrong, we have the most dedicated, hardworking staff that I've ever seen. If you don't have a strong work ethic, you wouldn't last long on our staff, but right now our need is changing things like, who comes to which meetings, who does the buck stop with in certain areas, and things like that.
I am meeting with our Executive Pastor Dick Schaffer and putting together a better organizational flow chart which we hope to begin implementing in the next month or so.
Here's a question for you Pastors who read my blog. Is your current structure able to carry you to the next level? If not start making changes today!

sunday highlights

Another incredible day yesterday. Attendance was right at 1,600 again yesterday. (we averaged 120 more people per week in January than in December) The bad news is they are all attending the 11:15 am service! It was wall to wall in there yesterday.
If you are a member, why not try the 8:30am service or 6:00pm service to free up a seat for a guest at one of the prime times (9:45am and 11:15am)?
Yesterday we had to park cars on the little road that goes to the back of our property to make room! Every other space was filled (on the asphalt, gravel and grass)
In January we have had about 100 new members go through the Belong Class! (We're doing 2 more classes next Sunday)

We also wrapped up the "Obey" series yesterday. I had a blast delivering it, but this week we are starting a new series called "Forecast" It will center around family matters, and should be awesome!

One other important thing to note. We normally do our Parent/Child dedications on Mother's Day. This year we will do it on February 24th at the 8:30 am service ONLY. We announced this yesterday, but many people assumed that we would be doing it on Mother's day as well---We are not. If you would like to participate in this important event please contact our office (office@foothillscc.org)

new building progress

Our new building project is moving right along. They tell us that they are still running on schedule and say that our completion date will be in mid May. It doesn't seem like that's possible, but I will say it is finally looking like there is progress being made.
They are almost through with the interior framing, the rough electrical, HVAC and plumbing are being installed now and they have been finishing up the concrete in the auditorium. It's a little tricky because of the sloped flooring.
It's kind of funny, but a construction job goes from looking small at times, to large as they start doing certain things.

A couple of quick facts about the building:
Auditorium seating capacity: 1,035
Total square feet of new building: 36,000 (with existing building, total square feet: 54,000)
New lobby is basically 3 times as large as current lobby

LIFE groups

This week our new semester of LIFE groups is kicking off.
We had a great turnout for our Grouplink events with many people checking out a group for the first time.
One thing that has become very obvious to us is that many people are still a little uncomfortable going from our Sunday morning worship services, which are large, to a home Bible study group. Therefore we have an intermediate step that seems to be extremely popular. We call them Community groups. Our Community groups meet here at the church on certain evenings. Instead of a home group with 10-12 people there are usually around 35-50 people in Community groups.
We have several Community groups being offered this semester including a couples group, a couple of groups that are open for all ages, single or married, and others.

If you have not signed up yet and you would like to be a part of one of these groups (or any others) you can contact our Connections Pastor Paul Carr at paulc@foothillscc.org .
For a more detailed list of groups click here

hanging out with friends

I always enjoy spending time with other Pastors and talking about what the Lord is doing.
Last week I got to spend a few hours with Artie Davis who is the Pastor of Cornerstone Community Church in Orangeburg SC. They are a church that is making a significant impact on their community. Artie shared with me an amazing story about how God has allowed them to purchase a new facility in the best location in 3 counties. (I believe they are purchasing and remodeling a former Winn Dixie location!)
Then today I got a chance to have lunch with Dean Herman from Five Points Fellowship in Easley SC. They are also making a huge difference in their town. Dean played on Clemson's 1981 National Championship team. He is a big dude, and a very passionate leader!
I believe one of the best investments of my time is spending time with other leaders.
Carve out time in your schedule to spend time learning from others. If you don't know other people, pick up a phone and call people from churches that you have heard about and offer to buy them lunch. You would probably be surprised how many will say yes.

another great day!

There is just so much energy and momentum at Foothills Community Church right now, you can feel it.
Yesterday was awesome. Despite the extremely cold weather and it being a holiday weekend, people showed up big time. Our new message series "Obey" seems to have struck a nerve with many people. I have had numerous conversations with people lately who are fired-up about living their lives in obedience to God -- that's very cool!
Like I mentioned yesterday, obedience is always costly---but it's always worth it!

One other very important thing to make note of, especially if you come to the 6:00pm service. On Sunday February 3rd we will NOT be having our 6:00pm service in observance of our National Holiday--Superbowl Sunday. We made this decision because when we looked back at last years Superbowl 6:00pm service attendance it seemed like the majority of the people that showed up were volunteers!
So please try to make arrangements to attend one of our other services that Sunday (8:30am, 9:45am, 11:15am). If you can't make one of them, we will make sure you get a CD of the message. Of course you can always watch the video of the message online at our website.
Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause you. The 6:00pm service will resume back as normal the next Sunday.

Sunday services in the snow

In case you are wondering if we will be having services tomorrow if it snows, the answer is YES! No one dislikes snow more than me, but it's not going to keep us from having church.
If for some reason we have a major ice problem (which they are not predicting), then we wil reassess, and announce any cancellations on our website by 8:00am.
I have a fairly steep driveway, so I'm planning on parking at the road just to be safe.
If you don't feel safe coming in the morning, remember we do have a 6:00pm service!!

snowed in

Well, we got our first snow of the year last night. I'm not sure how much, but probably a couple of inches. It doesn't snow much around here, so pretty much everything is shut down.
Snow is very beautiful no doubt, but I am ready for it to warm up.
I heard that there is a possibility of some more snow on Saturday. I hope not!
For all my friends back in sunny south Florida, here's what snow looks like!

staff meeting

As I mentioned on an earlier post, I have been changing the format of our all-staff meetings. I have been doing some leadership training using some of mostly my own material.
Another thing I will be doing in 08 is a couple of times during the year bringing in another leader to teach us. I'm excited that my friend Mike Linch from NorthStar church in Kennesaw Ga will be here on Monday March 10th!
A couple of years ago Mike invited (actually I invited myself!)our team to hang out with his staff at NorthStar. We came back fired up with lots of new ideas and things to talk about.
If you have never taken your team on a road trip, you should. There is a lot of wisdom out there waiting to be tapped into.

grouplink

Had our first of 2 Grouplink events yesterday evening. We had a fantastic turnout of people who were looking to connect with a LIFE group. What is really incredible was that I didn't know most of the people.(Some of the people I had seen, but never gotten a chance to talk to, and several people I had never even seen before!)
It was nice to mingle and meet some new people and hear stories about how they ended up at Foothills.
3 of our staff,Paul Carr, Josh Gregory and Joel Bruce, did a great job of putting it together.
If you didn't get a chance to come last night, it's not too late! Tonight (Tuesday) at 7:00pm stop by the church and check it out. You'll be glad you did.

Sunday reflections

*Yesterday was awesome! We kicked off our new series, "Obey" and every aspect of the entire day was clicking.

*Eric Peters, our worship guy and his team sounded as good as I have ever heard them.

*Bill Swindle knocked it of the park singing the Third Day tune, There's a light at the End of the Tunnel"

*We had big numbers again yesterday----over 1,600 people! Tons of new faces and lots more returning and making Sunday mornings at Foothills a regular part of their week.

*I think we've had around 100 people sign up for our Belong (membership) class in the last 2 weeks!

*We've got 2 Grouplink opportunities this week. You can come either Monday or Tuesday at 7:00pm. If you've never been in a LIFE group, but have always wanted to try one, this is your chance.

*Sometimes doing 4 services in one day takes it's toll on you. Yesterday was one of them. I had a meltdown in the 6:00pm service. I actually forgot Abraham's name. Now keep in mind that I had preached on Abraham for 3 services already at this point. I probably said the name "Abraham" over 100 times, but for some reason I went blank. I called him "Moses" once and then a little later I actually called Abraham, "Eric".
I have a sneaking suspicion that I will see that again in our bloopers video.
I guess I'm losing it!

Toccoa Ga

Made a quick trip over to Toccoa Ga yesterday, which will be the location of Foothills Community Church's next location. I didn't have a lot of time, but in the short amount of time I was there I saw some promising locations to meet. Of course we still have some time before we have to nail down a location, but it is exciting to start dreaming.
I took our newest staff memeber, Paul Carr with me. Paul will be serving as our Pastor of Connections and will focus on getting people connected in LIFE groups and serving. Paul moved back to SC (he was in Charleston), from Missouri where he was a multi-site campus Pastor. (He actually was responsible for pretty much putting everything together as they got started). He won't be our Campus Pastor, but he will be able to assist us in Toccoa.
We expect to launch the Toccoa site in September. If you live close to that area (or know someone who is) and you're interested in being a part of something very exciting let me know. We will be sarting to get things cranked up in the next couple of months.

Obey

I've been wrapping up the preparation for my message this Sunday as we begin our new series, "OBEY". I am going to be talking about Abraham this weekend(and next weekend too). The message this Sunday is called Obeying Even When It Doesn't Make Sense.
One of then things that made Abraham an icon of the Old testament was his willingness to instantaneously obey God even when it made absolutely no sense.
As we head into 2008 I want to be like that. Always willing to obey God.
By the way, we will be showing a video that will totally inspire you too, so you don't want to miss out.
If you normally attend the 11:15 am service and are feeling cramped, why not switch over to one of the other services? There is a little room at 9:45 am, and there is plenty of room at 8:30 am or 6:00 pm

huge day yesterday

Well yesterday's services were incredible. We had huge crowds (our 11:15am service was at 94% capacity), and lots of new folks. I got to share our Vision '08 message, which basically recaps who we are, and where we're going.
We have all heard that vision "leaks", so it's always a great idea to set aside a Sunday in January just to drive home the vision as we start a new year of ministry.. But once a year is really not enough, so we incorporate vision casting throughout the year in various messages.
In all 4 services when I announced that we were going to start our 2nd location in Toccoa Ga. in September there was spontaneous applause. Our people really get it when it comes to reaching more people with the Gospel, which is extremely cool.
This Sunday we will start a new message series called "OBEY".
Be sure to sign up for our Grouplink coming next week. This will help you find a LIFE Group so that you can build relationships and grow spiritually.

Hannah Montana tickets

By now I'm sure you have heard the sad story of Priscilla Ceballos, the mother from Texas who helped her daughter concoct a lie about having a father who died in the war in Iraq so she could win some tickets to see Hannah Montana.
Well today I heard her apology, and I must say she did sound very contrite, but I wonder how much of that is because she got busted.
I'm not sure but I doubt she will be chosen for Mother Of The Year. It's actually pretty sad. But the real tragedy is that her 6 year old daughter, who instead of being taught the virtue of honesty and truthfulness by her mother, was taught that if you want something bad enough you do whatever is necessary to get it.
Not only that but it dishonors all of the families who actually have lost a brave loved one who died protecting our freedoms.
Oh well, welcome to the 21st century.
Priscilla, What were you thinking?

2007

2007 is now a thing of the past, but for many people it will be remembered as the most significant year of their lives.
I am just finishing up my Vision '08 message. Part of the message is a look back to 2007. As I looked at the tangible hard data from 07 there is no doubt that it was our best year ever.
Attendance increase -- 20%
1st time salvations -- 286
Baptisms -- 202
Re-commitments -- 402
New members --255

Basically almost everything that we track is up significantly!

We praise God for 2007, but this is 2008. We are more determined than ever to make a greater impact than ever before! I am pumped!

back from a blogging break

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and a Happy New Year. I sure did!
Had a chance to go out of town for a couple of days. It was nice to take a breather.
I am so pumped about 2008!
We have some incredible things planned for 2008. This Sunday I will be sharing a message called Vision '08. We'll talk about God's blessing on Foothills Community Church in 2007 and then talk about what our focus will be in 2008. These messages are definitely my favorite type to do.

Here are a few of the things we are planning in the first 6 months of 2008:

In February we will be hosting a Marriage Retreat weekend. We have had an annual marriage trip since our inception, but this will be the first one on our campus. We expect to have over 200 couples participate.
In March we will be doing a series called "15 Minutes", that I believe could be the best message series we have ever done. Also in March we will be having our Easter services, which are going to be phenomenal!
In April Foothills will celebrate our 10th Birthday!!!(you know what that means---PARTY)
In May we are going to do something that to my knowledge has never been done in this area. I can't tell you what it is yet, but let's just say that many lives will be impacted!
Also in May, we should be moving into our new facility (we will have some sort of grand opening then, but we will most likely have our "official" grand opening in late Summer/early Fall)

There are lots of other things that will be going on, so stay tuned.

Christmas services

Still recuperating from 5 Christmas services. We had a blast!
We had our highest attendance ever with 2,026!! Tons of 1st time guests.
I'm not sure about how many spritual decisions were made, but I believe there were quite a few!
I want to thank all of our volunteers who served to make it all possible. You guys and gals are the best!

What a great day!

We have had 3 incredible Christmas services so far (there are still 2 more on Monday---4:30pm and 6:00pm)
In spite of some very dreary, rainy weather we had huge numbers of people. The energy was tangible and all in all it was phenenomenal!
If you didn't get a chance to come today, make sure you don't miss out tomorrow.
I'll update more about the services next week.

Countdown to Christmas

Just a couple days left until our Christmas services! Whatever you do, make sure you come, and bring your friends.
You are not going to believe what we are going to be doing during those services, but let's just say that there will be some audience participation that is going to make someone's Christmas even better!! (that's the only clue I am giving you. You'll have to come and see for yourself!)
Remember, we will be having 5 identical services to choose from. Sunday 8:30am, 9:45am, 11:15am and Monday 4:30pm and 6:00pm

friends

I got a chance to spend half a day yesterday with some Pastor friends of mine from the Upstate of SC. I always come back from these type things challenged and stretched. It is amazing how similar our experiences in ministry are. All of these guys are the founding Pastors of their churches, and I was the rookie having planted only 9+ years ago!
It's kind of funny, as we were swapping stories it kind of reminded me of a bunch of old geezers sitting around comparing stories of all of their surgeries!
Christmas is a great time of year to hang out with your friends!
Tomorrow, I will be doing lunch with some more Pastor friends! Should be fun.

Wow!

If you were at our services yesterday, you know that we did something that we rarely ever do (maybe never). I had read in the local paper on Saturday evening that there were 300 children in Oconee County that would not receive Christmas gifts because of some financial shortages of a couple of local agencies. After reading that I thought to myself, "Foothills Community Church can step in and make a difference." So we took a special spontaneous love offering after each of our services. It is absolutely amazing how you all stepped up. We collected over $5,500 yesterday (money is still being received today)!!!
I'm not sure how much money is allocated for each child, but, I'm pretty sure that that will help make sure that quite a few children get presents this year.

Also, yesterday we gave out DVD's to every person that attended. On each DVD there is an entire service (yes, with music!), as well as some other cool stuff. These are for handing out to your friends to make inviting them easier. I'm sure all of us has tried to describe what a Foothills service is like, only to say, "well you just have to come, because I can't really explain it". So now you can just hand them the DVD. They can watch it at their convenience, and if they like what they see, then they'll probably show up. Pretty simple!
Make sure you give yours out this week as we move toward this weekend's Christmas services. The service times are Sunday at 8:30am, 9:45am, 11:15am, and on Monday 4:30pm and 6:00pm

This Sunday

Whatever you do, make sure you don't roll over and go back to sleep tomorrow because we will be giving everyone who attends a very special gift to help you invite your friends to one of our 5 Christmas services on Sunday December 23rd and Monday December 24th!
Not only that, but the services tomorrow are going to be phenomenal as well.
See you tomorrow.

2008

Over the last couple of weeks I have been giving a lot of thought to 2008. I have been asking myself some tough questions about some personal goals I want to accomplish in 2008.
I haven't formalized them yet, but I will set spiritual goals, physical goals, personal growth goals, leadership goals, relational goals, etc.
2007 has been a great year, but I want to take it up a few notches personally in 08.
Because I tend to be fairly structured by nature, I have gotten myself in too much of a predictable pattern from a schedule standpoint, so I am going to shake things up a bit.
I think it's healthy to do personal evaluation on a regular basis. Statistically about half of us make New Year's resolutions. Whether you call it a resolution or not, a new year is a great time to reflect and to make changes.

Monday thoughts

** Pray for the people whose lives have been affected by the tragedies in Colorado. Both at New Life Church, and Youth With A Mission (Y.W.A.M.)
The Y.W.A.M. one really hits home for me because my daughter is at the Orlando base of Y.W.A.M.

** We had great services yesterday. Don't forget to come back this Sunday. We will be giving you something to take with you that will make inviting your friends to Christmas services easy! (I'm not going to tell you what we're going to give out. You will have to come to find out!)

** Mondays are meeting days around here. Once a month we have an all-staff meeting. Today I kicked off a new format for those meetings that hopefully will make them more productive. Our emphasis will be on Leadership Development Training.

** We got a copy of our seat layout for the new building. We have made a decision to have more legroom between aisles and larger theater style chairs, so it will be very comfortable. We will be able to seat 1,035. We could sure use those extra seats now!

** I love the warm weather we are having. I heard that we will probably break a record today. I am ready for summer!

** After yesterday's message I have decided that I have WAY TOO MUCH STUFF!

Christmas is just around the corner.

Here's something that makes me laugh:
Merry Christmas!

I love this place!

Today after our staff meeting I played a phone message that was left for me by someone who came to Foothills two weeks ago for the first time. It was awesome. I won't go into the details, but basically what the man said was that he was 51 years old and he has been looking for a place like Foothills all his life!
What is incredible is that those same sentiments are shared by hundreds of people. We get to hear stories of life-change on a very regular basis, and I never get tired of hearing them.
God is doing something very special at Foothills Community Church. I am honored to lead such a great church. The hearts of the people here are nothing short of amazing. People serve with a smile, they invite their friends, they embrace the vision and they love the Lord. What more could you ask for?
And the best thing is-----that our best days are still ahead of us! There is no telling what God will do through this church. Thanks for being the best church in the world! Let's continue to reach this community for Christ!

Clemson Football Church Day

It seems that the ACLU is unhappy that Tommy Bowden has a voluntary team church day every August (they came to Foothills in August of 04).
You can read the article here. I must say, this is ridiculous! Don't these people have anything better to do?
Keep up the good work Coach Bowden!!

Thinking Outside The X-box

If you were to ask most Pastors, what are the most difficult sermons to preach they would probably mention Christmas or Easter. That probably sounds strange, but if you think about it, it makes sense. Typically most Christmas and Easter messages use familiar Bible stories, and therefore it's hard to find new angles to teach from. This is precisely the reason we have to be even MORE creative during these seasons.
I am very excited about the new Christmas series we are starting this Sunday, Thinking Outside the X-box! This week the message is titled, X-haustion. We're going to look at some outside the box ways of preventing the Holiday season from leaving us totally wiped out.
We are expecting to see record crowds so it's gonna be a blast!
If you attend Foothills make sure you bring your friends with you. The Christmas holiday season is a time that most people would attend church if invited.

One other thing please pray for our Creative Arts Pastor Josh Gregory. He's been having some stomach problems, and they are doing some tests to try to figure out what's up.

Barry Bonds

Some people are still not convinced that Barry Bonds took steroids.
Here is a copy of his rookie card. You decide for yourself!!
I'm not sure, but he looks a little bigger now!!!

great thanksgiving weekend

** Hope you had a great Thanksgiving. I sure did! It is one of my favorite holidays. Eating and football. What more could you ask for?

** My wife kept her streak alive. Another Black Friday marathon. She got started at 2:00am!
If shopping ever becomes an Olympic sport. She will win the gold! The best thing is that my wife refuses to buy anything that is not ridiculously marked down.

** Scott Chatfield preached yesterday for me (and did a great job!). I got to sit and watch and relax. We had a pretty good attendance for a holiday weekend.

** Got deer #5 on Friday!

** We start our Christmas series this Sunday: "Thinking outside the X-Box" Plan on attending for the entire series

what a day!

** It is absolutely beautiful outside today. High is supposed to be 78 and sunny!

** It looks like they are really moving on the new building. They have the roof all on, and they are getting ready to pour the concrete for the floors, and put up some of the exterior siding. Very exciting!

** We are going to ask all of you to help us design the music set for January 6th service. I will be giving our annual "state of the church" message, and what we are asking you to help select your favorite worship songs from 2007 and your favorite feature song. The top ones will be performed on that day. We'll be giving you a list to choose from in the next couple of weeks. (I know what I'm voting for already!)

** My computer has been driving me crazy for the last week. I thought everything was finally fixed, but now I can't get anything to play through my speakers. UGH!!

** I was at Walmart this morning. They have a lot of archery stuff on clearance, so I bought some new broadheads. The lady working at the register asked if I was 18!! ( you have to be 18 years old to buy them) I know what you're thinking; that poor lady needs to get some glasses---quick! But it sure made me feel good!!!

sunday recap

Had 4 great services today. Attendance was a little lighter at 9:45am. All the others were about normal. Somehow I think Clemson playing last night caused some people to sleep in today.
Speaking of Clemson, it was a heartbreaking loss, but hopefully they can right the ship by next weekend for the South Carolina game.

During the services today, I mentioned that I had a problem with flying squirrels getting in my attic. But I took care of the problem by trapping them and then killing them. I think the animal lovers got mad, but hey sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do! For the record, I killed 27 last year!

The DNA of God series is definitely one of my favorites. I think we may do a Part 2 next year! Today we talked about Jesus being our Redeemer. It caused me to have a new admiration for the work that Christ did for us on the cross.

Last Thursday afternoon we went to pick up our daughter from Ridgecrest NC, where she was at a Youth With A Mission Conference. It was so cold in the mountains. Believe it or not there were snow flurries.

I am looking forward to Thanksgiving. I have so much to be thankful for!

sermon prep

These days a large portion of my week has to do with what happens on Sunday mornings. Everything from prior Sunday service evaluation meetings to upcoming creative team meetings to the actual sermon preparation time, and finally to the sermon rehearsal time.
Here's what I've discovered. The larger our church becomes, the more important it is for Sunday mornings (as well as every other area) to continue to improve. Like it or not people expect better quality everything from a larger church.

Here's what I want to tackle in this post. What do I feel the keys to quality sermons are. So here are my thoughts.

I think if you want to find out what the ingredients are to a great sermon we need to look at the best communicator ever, Jesus. Jesus delivered His messages different than others. In Mark 1:22 it says that when Jesus taught, the people were amazed because He taught with authority. If you study Jesus communication style, you will see that Jesus was a storyteller, he used creativity, props, illustrations, and whatever else was necessary to drive home a truth.
He also was a big believer in life application, so His teaching consisted of about 30% Information, and 70% Application.

Whenever I am preparing a message I ask myself 2 important questions; What do I want them to KNOW?,and What do i want them to DO?
Alot of Pastors are good at the first part---What do I want them to KNOW? Some Pastors are just disseminators of a lot of information. They can tell you what something means in the original Greek, but they can't help you figure out how to apply that information so that it impacts your life on Monday.
People don't want to get out of bed on Sunday morning and come to church to gain more information. If they wanted to do that, they could stay home and read the newspaper!
People come to church because they want God to touch their life. Which means that a sermon must include information, but it also should include a heavy dose of application. James reminds us to not just be hearers of the word only, but be doers.

Here's what I believe sermons would look like if they were mathematical equations:

Information + Application = TRANSFORMATION

Really the desired outcome of a message should be transformation.

So here's the takeaway. Let's learn to communicate the message of truth, like our model, Jesus Christ!

beautiful Wednesday

** Had a great creative team meeting yesterday. There are going to be some incredible series in the next 6 months!

** Everyone is still mourning the loss of the 3 West Oak High School students who died in the auto accident Monday. What a tragedy. Please pray for the families.

** Why do I always feel like I'm playing catch-up? Can you relate?

** It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving is next week , and Christmas is only 6 weeks away!

** It's supposed to be 76 degrees today!! I love it.

** This Sunday's message is stretching me.

** I don't know why, but I am on everyone's spam list. I have people trying to sell me everything under the sun. From replica watches to computer software to Cialis to other things I won't mention. It's crazy!

monday thoughts

** Our staff finally finished the book The Starbucks Experience. We covered the last chapter today. In my opinion the last chapter was the worst. Found it a little boring. Starbucks wants to leave their mark by being known as an environmentally friendly company. That's cool. I'm all for protecting our environment, but I'm having a very hard time jumping on the save the planet bandwagon! Is it just me or have you noticed that it is the politically correct "in" thing these days is to be GREEN?

** Services were incredible yesterday! God was moving big time!

** Clemson looked very good Saturday. Now if we can thump Boston College like we did Wake Forest, maybe we can get revenge against Va. Tech in Jacksonville (that is IF they can beat Virginia)

** They just about have finished putting the roof on the new building. It's looking good.

** We're having some traffic back-ups on Sunday mornings because of the large crowds. Please bear with us we are looking for a solution (maybe a police officer helping direct traffic back onto Bountyland Rd.)

** Supposed to be up to 70 degrees today! I can hardly wait for summer!

** Had a lady catch me after one of the services and tell me she just moved here from out of state and absolutely loves Foothills. Since her mother and sister are still in the other state, she calls them on her cell phone and lets them listen to our services live from her cell phone! That's a first!

great Sunday so far

Well 3 services are in the books and I'm just doing a little relaxing before service #4 at 6:00pm.
In all 3 services I sensed God's presence in a very tangible way. We are talking about God revealing Himself to us as the God of comfort.
The video testimony and feature song really capped things off. It was definitely a God moment for me.
Attendance has been extremely strong the last couple of weeks. The good thing is that it appears to have increased across the board so there is still a little room in the 9:45am and 11:15am services (and the 8:30 am and 6:00pm have plenty of room)

One more thing. I just got off of the phone with my Aunt, who is facing heart valve replacement surgery in a week. She is an amazing person who loves Jesus. If you think about it, please offer up a prayer on her behalf.

working ahead

Ask any Pastor about the most stressful part of his job and he would probably say, that it is the intensity of preparing messages week after week after week. It doesn't let up. It's like standing on the shore of the ocean. The waves keep on coming. Our Worship Pastor Eric Peters refers to this as the relentless onslaught of the Sabbath.
Whatever you call it, it is hard work. One of the ways to relieve some of that pressure is by working as far in advance as possible. For me, having general message series ideas and topics 6 months out feels about right.
Yesterday I (sort of) completed January through June of 2008. Next Tuesday our creative team will meet all day trying to fine tune the creative elements. This is by no means an exact science, because things can (and sometimes, should) change.
If you are a Speaking Pastor or anyone on a creative team and have never had the luxury of being out ahead, why not start by putting your 2008 calendar together now? Start with the Big Idea, (the topic or message series) you want to cover in 2008. You don't need full outlines or anything real in-depth at this point, just where you are wanting to go with the message in general, and then start filling in the details as you get together. For instance, I am going to do a 3 week message series called "Obey". The 3 things I will be talking about will be, Obeying God even when it doesn't make sense (The story of Abraham offering Isaac as a sacrififce). The next week is obeying God even when you don't really want to (The story of Jonah), and the last week will be obeying God even when it costs you something (Jesus willingness to go to the cross).

When we get together as a team next Tuesday we will try to nail down creative elements (series logo ideas, staging design ideas,video needs, faith stories, etc) Each of these things has a timeline and a deadline. Once the decisions are finalized everyone has their assignment, and(in a perfect world) it comes together just like it's supposed to!

The bottom line is that all of this is hard work, but when lives are changing, it's all worth it! One last thing that is the key that we can never forget: No matter how slick or creative our services are---if the Holy Spirirt doesn't show up, it's just entertainment! He is the one who changes lives, so leave room for Him to guide the entire process.

God's protection

My youngest son Cole recently got his learners permit driver's license. After I picked him up from wrestling practice the other day, he wanted to drive so I went to the passenger side and he took the wheel.
In his brief time of driving I have tried to express the importance of defensive driving. I have told him to expect the unexpected when you are operating a car, because people will often do what they're not supposed to. Well, as we were leaving his school a little ways ahead I noticed a car in front of us was making a right hand turn so I said "slow down a little". It was a good thing he did because the driver of the other car did a u-turn right in front of us and never bothered to look our way until we were right on top of her. He slammed on the brakes and we stopped just a foot or two from her driver's side door. A close call for sure, and a lesson learned for him.
What would have happened if I would not have been in the car with him? What would have happened if he didn't listen to my warning to slow down? Who knows? But it probably wouldn't have been pretty.
One of the greatest things about having the Lord in your life is that He is always right beside us, instructing us and keeping us from harm if we will listen to Him and obey his commands. Life throws out a lot of unexpected things our way, we need God.

Sunday recap

We continued our DNA of God series, with a message about God being our Rock. All of the services were amazing.

Attendance was very strong. Having an extra hour of sleep had people energized for sure!

Yesterday's services were all recorded so we could create a new DVD for our Newcomer's packets. Eric and his team brought their A game. We are also going to use the new DVD as an invite tool for our Christmas services.

The feature song was very different but very cool yesterday!

You don't want to miss this weekend's services, as we talk about God being our Comforter. We are going to show a very powerful video of someone from Foothills who walked through an extremely difficult time in her life, and felt the comfort of the Lord throughout that ordeal. If someone you know is currently going through a difficult time, make sure you get them here on Sunday.

one word

If you had to describe your church in one word, what would it be? Friendly, warm, relevant, fun, boring, exciting, celebrative, liturgical, worshipful, high-energy(I guess that's 2 words), ritualistic, welcoming, obsolete, sameness, dynamic, ingrown, accepting, family, safe, big, small, wonderful....

Now ask yourself this question. If a guest showed up for the first time, what word would he/she use to describe your church?

Every church is known in the community for something. When people mention the name of your church is it in a positive light? If not, how come?
I believe that it is our responsibility to honestly examine ourselves and if our overall one word assessment of our church is not positive---then we need to make some tough decisions and set out to change the perception.
Unfortunately this process is difficult so most churches won't deal with it. For instance if you were to ask some church Members to describe their church, they may say, "Friendly", but if you were to ask a first-time guest how they would describe it, they may say "unfriendly" because the reality is that the church is friendly to their members, but not friendly to "outsiders"

When we moved to this area we were invited to many churches. Some were good experiences, some were not. One particular church we were attending seemed to be a possible choice for us to join, but we had some apprehension because it seemed like we just didn't fit in. Now keep in mind we were actually trying to fit in. We didn't sit near the exit and bolt for the doors as soon as the service was over. We attended a couples Sunday School class, we engaged people in converstaion, and yet it just wasn't clicking.
The thing that finally convinced us that this church wasn't for us was when we attended a church-wide party at a local park. My wife went to try to connect with some other ladies, and I went to try to connect with some guys. Neither of us were successful. When we came back together we both commented that we were not accepted into their established cliques.
We decided to move on because the word that we came up for our experience at that church was "unfriendly." Maybe that's not a fair assessment, but it was our assessment.

One of the things that thrills me is when someone says, "I came to Foothills because I kept hearing what a great church it is, and now that I've visited, I see why they said that!"

So what is the word for your church?

ramblings

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

More random thoughts

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

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

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

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

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

slip sliding away

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

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

creativity

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

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

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

God use me!

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

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

quick thoughts

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

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

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

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

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

one of my favorites of all-time

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

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

random thoughts

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

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

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

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

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

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

transparency

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

incredibly powerful

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

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

a couple of thoughts

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

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

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

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

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

lunch

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

another great day

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

keys for success

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

a few thoughts

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

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

Just for laughs

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

building progress

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

wow!

I don't usually blog on Sundays. After speaking at 4 services I am pretty much wasted. But tonight I thought I had to.
Today was an incredible day at Foothills Community Church. We have been planning, preparing and praying for today's service for a long time, and I have to say it was amazing. We told the story of the Prodigal son in music, video and with a message. The video was a really cool modern spin of the story, and then Carol Strickland sang the old Kansas tune, Carry on My Wayward Son. We also ended it with Eric Peters singing the Daughtry song, Home. Let me just say that the band just flat nailed it! (When they did Wayward Son in the 11:15am service I thought to myself, "Foothills has the best band I have ever heard!"----You guys and gals are incredible)
There were so many people in tears thinking about God's amazing, unfailing love for us.
We had right at 1,600 people today and the feedback I received was so positive!
We haven't tallied up all of the spiritual decisions yet, but it looks like tons!
These are the kind of days where I am reminded how blessed I am to be at a church like Foothills!

Foothills is "real"

One of the most common compliments I hear about Foothills Community Church is that it is "real". Sometimes it may be worded differently, but essentially that's what they are saying.

I made a decision a long time ago. As a Pastor I could either stand up on stage and pretend to be perfect, and have it all together, OR I could just be "real." I decided that I was just going to be real.

Being real means that it's o.k. to let people know that you have struggles. It means that I still get impatient standing in lines. It means that I am not always a very compassionate person. It means that sometimes I lose my temper. It means that I'm not a perfect husband or parent.

There are many areas that I am trying to grow to become more like Christ. I'm a work in progress. I think that is what Paul was saying in Philippians 3:12 when he said, "I don't mean to say that I have already acheived these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ first possessed me."

If you are looking for a "perfect" church, led by a "perfect" Pastor, Foothills is not for you. But if you are looking for a place that is authentic and real maybe this is the place for you.

Servelink was a blast

Well our first Servelink is complete. It was a lot of fun. There was a party-like atmosphere. There was a great attendance and lots of new people signing up to serve and there was such a great excitement in the air.
If you were unable to come last night, it's still possible to start serving. Just let us know either by emailing us at joel@foothillscc.org or by checking off the "serving opportunites" box in your Foothills Flier next Sunday.
Again I want to thank the hundreds people who volunteer their time to help Foothills complete our mission to reach people for Christ. We could not do it without you!

getting people connected

One of the most important things that I do is to help people take steps toward higher levels of commitment. Commitment tends to be a very scary word. Whenever Jesus would raise the bar and call for radical commitment, people would bolt. And yet, taking those steps are vital for the growing Christian.
Several weeks ago we had a Grouplink. Grouplink is basically a big open house for people to check out and sign up to be in a LIFE group. It went amazingly well, so much so that we decided to do the same thing to allow people to get their feet wet in serving. Tonight we are having a Servelink.
We will have all of the ministry teams of Foothills Community Church represented. Many people have signed up to be a part of this. People will be able to browse different tables and ask questions, and hopefully sign up to start serving here at Foothills. (There are hundreds of people at Foothills that have discovered the fulfillment of being involved in serving---but there's room for you!!)
If you are interested but didn't register, you can still come. Be here tonight at 7:00pm and check it out.
I promise you, once you start serving your life will never be the same!

Proud father

I am so proud of my daughter Kristen. On Saturday we took her and our granddaughter Mia to the airport so they could fly to Florida to start training with Youth With A Mission.
They will be in training down there until the first of the year, and then they will be off to a foreign country (not sure where yet) for another 6 weeks helping reach this world with the gospel of Jesus Christ!
Pray for them if you think about it!

This is exciting

Over the last couple of days we have been shooting some video for our September 30th service. We are going to do some things that we've never done before! The video will actually set up and close out my message that day. We will be tying in a couple of killer songs in the mix.( I can't tell you what the songs are yet, but one is a classic 70's rock tune and one is current on the charts. All I can say is that it is going to rock so be prepared.)
Speaking of September 30th. We are starting a new series called RelationSHIPS, and we will be giving you some cards this weekend to invite your friends for the kick-off of that series. If you have friends who don't know Christ, trust me, this will be THE service to bring them!
It is going to be crowded, so you might consider the 8:30am or 6:00pm service.
The building construction is moving along, but in the meantime it's going to be "cozy". I'll try to post some pictures of the construction progress soon.

yesterday's service

Yesterday was a lot of fun. Mainly because we talked about what our mission is as individuals and as a church----to help lost people get found!
One of the tendencies for people who have been "found' spiritually, is that they tend to have no "lost" friends. We distance ourselves from the Secular world to be sequestered into our holy huddles, because we don't want to be contaminated.
The only problem with that line of thinking is that it's not biblical! Jesus spent his time with lost people. He hung out with sinners. He was Relational, not Religious.
I shared about the best compliment about our church that I've ever heard. (What makes it even funnier is that it wasn't meant to be a compliment). A lady found out that someone went to church here. She was outraged, and said, "I can't believe you go to Foothills, that's the church where they let sinners in!!!!!!" WOW, what a compliment. I followed up by saying that I would love to let that lady know that Foothills is not only a place where we let sinners in, but it's a place where a sinner stands up every Sunday and delivers the message!!
My statement may have raised some eyebrows. A Pastor actually admitting that he sins? Yep that's right. I am totally dependent on the grace, mercy and forgiveness of the Lord Jesus Christ. In my humaness there is nothing good. Anyone who says that they don't struggle with sin is struggling with the sin of lying!
This morning I was handed a card that someone put in the offering basket. There was a note that said, "I have struggled with drug addiction for many years. Foothills is the only place I have been able to attend where I was love and accepted, and never once condemned. Thanks for being that kind of church." (That's what it's all about!! Foothills family, you are an amazing church! Keep it up!)

Unbelievable Story

Had lunch yesterday with Tony Morgan (Tony is the Chief Strategic Officer at Newspring Church. I have no idea what that means, but I love that job title!), and Howard (sorry Howard I don't remember your last name, but Howard will be Newspring's campus Pastor in Greenville)
During our time together we chatted about what the Lord was doing at our churches.
As I talked about what was happening at Foothills Community Church I was reminded how incredible this story really is. To my knowledge there is not another Church in America that is in a semi-rural area that has the influence that God has given us!
We are in a county of 68,000 people that is very spread out. (Within 15 minute drive there are probably less than 40,000 people) We currently have 1,500 in attendance (and growing rapidly). We will probably have over 2,000 people attending within the next 12 months (depending on when our new facility is completed).
That is mind-boggling! I wish I could say, that my leadership is the reason for this growth, but it's not, because I ain't that smart. It is a 100% God-thing! (And I wouldn't want it any other way)
The future is bright!

try something new

For many people, change is scary. Change takes us out of our comfort zones and challenges us to try things that are new. For many people that is more than they can handle. If it weren't for change we would still be riding in covered wagons, and rubbing 2 sticks together to build a fire to cook our dinner. Our willingness to be flexible is needed to follow God.
I have been learning the challenges of change recently. I have been hunting with a bow for over 25 years. For the last 12 years I have been shooting a Long Bow (which is what the Native Americans used---basically it is a stick and a string). This year I have gone back to a compound bow (which is a modern bow with cables and pulleys and sights, etc) The big change though, is that this year for the first time ever I will be shooting left-handed. I am right-handed, so this has presented a host of difficulties. It is a challenging change, but I have been able to adapt. And I am pretty confident if a deer gets within 25 yards of me, I can make the shot.
Has this been easy? No. It has been pretty difficult, but I believe it will pay off. (I'll let you know)
In a church setting there is often change. Change is not something we should fear, but rather something that we should embrace. no matter how difficult!
I am thankful at Foothills we have a culture of change. Over the years there have been tons of changes, and there will be many more!