Shine H2O

This weekend we will celebrate baptism in all 4 services. I am very excited about this. Up until last year we have done all of our baptisms in Lake Keowee. That has always been exciting, but over the last couple of years we outgrew all of the county parks and other gathering spaces on the lake. So last April we did a spontaneous baptism service on Sunday and God showed up! We baptized 112 people that day. (We also did a couple of other baptism parties last summer at lake Keowee)
We have decided to bring in the swimming pool once again and baptize during the services. It is going to be incredible. DO NOT MISS THIS SUNDAY!

I have been asked by other Pastors how we pulled off a spontaneous baptism. Logistically it was difficult, because although it was spontaneous to the church, it took a lot of planning and preparation from our staff and volunteers to pull it off.
Here are some of the things we had to think through:

Time issues------ How long will it take to baptize larger amounts of people? How do we minimize the time it takes for people to get in and out of the pool? How does that affect the length of the worship set and sermon. (we have 4 services on Sunday, so you have people who are showing up for the next service while the other service is still in progress)

Safety issues----- When you baptize lots of people, they get the floors wet and slippery. We brought in lots of the kind of mats and runners you use at a front entrance for people to wipe their feet on, and laid them down the aisles where people would walk. Plus you have to make sure there is no electrical close by (microphones, etc.)

General issues---- We decided to buy tons of shirts (dark shirts are a must) and gym shorts and towels and gave them to everyone that was baptized. We ordered the T-shirts with our logo on the back and on the front it said, I got dunked at Foothills.
We had lots of volunteers. We had volunteers distributing the shirts, shorts, and towels by size. We had volunteers helping people get in and out of the pool, and writing down the names of the people who were being baptized. We had some people who could counsel people who were still a little unclear, etc.

Preparation issues---You have to figure out how to arrange the chairs to fit a pool in the auditorium. You have to allow plenty of time for the pool to be filled up (and heated, if you are wimps. Our people are tough. No heat!)

Prayer issues--- This is the biggest part to the whole day--Prayer. If God doesn't show up, you will look pretty foolish. So pray hard.


If you have never done this, let me encourage you to consider it. I would say without a doubt that that service was the most moving service we have ever had at Foothills!

If you want to see a little glimpse of what it was like click here, then go to the multimedia tab

Shine 2008

I have had a few great stories about people who are getting fired-up about Shine 2008.
You can read more about Shine 2008 here and here.

One man told me Sunday that he had an idea of a project that he was going to do on his own. He drove by a cemetery in a small church that has many veterans buried there. The grass had grown tall and it needed someone to pull weeds, so he is going to try to get permission to take care of that.

Another person from our church lives in a community that has probably over 100 homes. They approached their whole community about doing a food drive so we could restock the local food bank. Many of the neighbors (that don't even go to Foothills) are participating.

Another person who coaches one of the local High School football teams said that he was going to have ALL of his players participate in Shine 2008 by doing community service projects.

I have received many emails of people who can't be there Saturday because of prior appointments that are doing their projects during the week.

When it's all said and done, there is no telling how many lives will be impacted by people willing to let their lights shine in the community by doing acts of service.

Staff planning retreat

Today we had a staff planning retreat up in Clayton, Ga at the home of one of our members. It was an incredible location to meet. What a view!
Anyway, the reason for the meeting was to make sure we were all on the same page in our preparation for moving into the new building. Generally when a church moves into a new building there is a sizable attendance jump (when we moved into our current building we grew by nearly 50% in the first couple of months!) No matter how many plans you make to compensate for the new growth, it seems like you still aren't ready. So this time we are trying to be proactive by implementing new systems and structures.
We are also planning on a complete dry run service from start to finish with all the volunteers in place, prior to our move-in date.
These are very exciting times here at Foothills Community Church.

sunday debrief

We kicked off our Shine series today. It was incredible.
We designed the service to last 45 minutes and then for the last 15 minutes I challenged our people to walk next door into the lobby of our new building where we had about 50 tables set up with information on around 100 service projects all over this county. We had everything from jobs to build wheelchair ramps for the elderly to clean up of schools and parks, to food collection---you name it, we had it.
Our goal was to have 1,000 people sign up for a half day of service next Saturday. I don't know the numbers for sure but my guess is we will have closer to 1,200 people! Think about that, 1,200 people who will volunteer to serve our community next week. Awesome!
Foothills people, you blow me away. You always seem to rise to the challenge. I am proud to be your Pastor.
Next week we will be doing baptisms in all 4 services. Put on your seatbelts, it's going to be crazy!

Big Mac Attack

Well, my iMac arrived and Scott got me all set up, so I am typing this blog on my Mac! So I am now officially a Mac man. Well sort of, because I still use a PC at home. It's a little tricky getting used to, but overall I like it. It definitely looks cool. The picture above is its side profile.

New building service thoughts (part 1)

As we get closer to move-in day for our new building there are lots of things that we are preparing for. A couple of the major changes will be the format of when and how we do services at Foothills in the new building.For this post I want to address the "when" question.
One of the major changes will involve the times of the services. By necessity, because of our growth we have continued to add services over the years. As most of you know we currently offer 4 services on Sundays (8:30am,9:45am,11:15am and 6:00pm.) The reason we have these options is because we ran out of room at the two prime times (9:45 and 11:15). When we go into our new building we will begin with 2 service times because we will have a lot of room in the prime times again. We will Probably offer services at 9:30am and 11:15am. We realize that there are some people that come to the 8:30am or 6:00pm service because it's the only service they can attend. We apologize for any inconvenience to you. But for the majority, they come to those services by choice rather than necessity.
As you can imagine it takes an amazing amount of energy and resources to do 4 services every Sunday, so by going back to 2 service times it makes sense from a resource standpoint.
As these two services get filled up, we will offer additional services at the same times (9:30 and 11:15) where we will simulcast the message to our current auditorium. Everything else will be live, including the music, etc. Essentially by doing this, between our current auditorium and our new auditorium it will give us about 1,600 seats per service. which means for the 2 prime times we would have 3,200 seats available. Not too shabby!

Upcoming things

Remember, this weekend we begin our new series, Shine.
It is only a 2 week series, but it is going to be huge.
This Sunday I will be talking about Shine 2008, which is a community service project that will take 1,000+ volunteers from Foothills for a morning of service on Saturday May 17th. We have about 85 projects ranging from building wheelchair ramps to beautification projects at our County Parks and waterfalls and everything in between.
Then the following Sunday (May 18th) we will be celebrating baptism in all 4 services. It is going to be phenomenal. Bring your friends with you!

Big things happening at Foothills

Here are a couple of thoughts that are running through my mind today:

** Yesterdays services at Foothills were fantastic---possibly the most important message I've ever done.

** Strong attendance, especially considering it was Commitment Sunday for a mini capital campaign

** Not sure how much was pledged yet. Hopefully enough to cover some of our move-in costs

** In one way or another I have incorporated the vision of Foothills in about every message for the last 6-8 weeks

** I believe that it is absolutely true that if your vision isn't big enough that people are leaving, then your vision is too small!

** This Sunday we will unveil Shine 2008. It is a community service project on steroids. Foothills is going to turn this County upside-down with acts of service

** Believe it or not we are going to let people out early this Sunday!

** May 18th we will be doing baptisms in all 4 services. Don't miss out

** They delivered our children's playscape and (I think) our seats for the auditorium for the new building (a little early, but when we ordered them we thought we would be moving in in May)

Sidelined

Yesterday morning I jammed my thumb pretty bad blocking a pass while playing basketball. I have probably jammed every finger at some point during my life, but this one felt different. It was definitely more painful. I thought by this morning it would feel better. I was wrong. I could barely tie my shoe.
I decided I better go have it x-rayed. So I went by the hospital today and I found out that I broke my left thumb. Bummer. I have to keep it splinted for a few weeks, so I won't be able to shoot hoops for a while. I can't tell you how much I am going to miss playing basketball. I play every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 6:00am--- it's awesome. Oh well, I guess it could be worse.

coming over to the dark side

For the last 2 days my office computer has been down. Our IT guru, Paul has been back and forth trying to revive it. The problem seems to be virus related. In spite of our anti-virus software it still made it through (which is not the first time).
After some counsel from the Mac guys at Foothills, Paul, Scott, and Josh they have convinced me to come over to the darkside and buy a Mac. So today they hooked me up and ordered one. My old computer will become a check-in computer.
In case you are wondering I'm getting the iMac

Baptism service coming soon

On May 18th we will be doing baptisms during all 4 services. If you were at Foothills in April of 2007 you will remember that we did a spontaneous baptism service (click on the multimedia tab), and baptized 112 people that day. It was by far, the most moving service I have ever been a part of.
Well this year we are doing it again. The only difference is that we're letting people know in advance (so I guess that technically it's not a spontaneous baptism!)
If you are one of the people that have become a Christ-follower and have not yet been baptized, this is your chance.
Whatever you do---Make sure you are at church that day!

sunday recap

We had another great day at Foothills. Here are a couple of the highlights:

** OTHERS is what Foothills is all about! The only legacy that will truly outlive us is the spiritual investment that we make into OTHERS

** Great energy yesterday, even with the rain

** We did our new building tour. People were pumped to see the inside of the building. Most people couldn't believe how big the new building is. We are going to see it filled up pretty quick.

** We have hired a Campus Pastor for our new location in Toccoa----more on this later.

** WE gave out our "Their Chair" commitment cards. We hope to raise $750,000 to help offset some of the costs for furnishing the new building as well as the Toccoa location. Some people already turned their cards in(I guess they couldn't wait until next Sunday!)

** We are planning some very cool things when we get in the new building (First service July 13th)

"Their" Chair

As Foothills Community Church gets to the last stages of construction on our new building we are going to be asking people to help cover some of the cost to equip the building (chairs, children's equipment, furnishings, sound, lighting,video, etc.) Sort of a mini capital campaign, if you will.
We are hoping to raise an additional $750,000. Basically here is what I will be challenging people to consider over the next 2 weeks: I will be asking people to purchase chairs for the new auditorium and also chairs for our new location in Toccoa.
Obviously the chairs won't cost $750,000, but it is an easy visual reminder of what we are giving to. Here is the breakdown, we are going to ask people to purchase 1,500 chairs at a cost of $500 each. But here's the key---they aren't purchasing that chair for themselves, but for someone who isn't even attending Foothills yet. In essence we believe that when we step out in faith and sacrifice for the sake of others, God will send the people to fill those chairs. They are purchasing chairs for the family member or friend who doesn't know Christ yet.
Pray and ask God how many chairs you should purchase. Some people could easily purchase 100 or more, others maybe 1 or 2. Every chair counts because every chair represents someone who will have a chance to hear the Gospel of Christ.

bite the bullet

Since about January my TV has been on the blink. I have to literally beat on it in order for it to work. And I'm not talking about a couple of love taps--I mean beat on it. It's crazy. Lately it has gotten worse, so I am finally going to bite the bullet and purchase a new TV.
A couple of weeks ago we went to Best Buy and were looking at the TV's on display and it is amazing how nice the pictures are in the high-def TV's. Call me a late adopter, but the thought of spending $1000 for a TV does not make me happy. My old TV held up for over 10 years, so I suppose if I get 10 years out of a new one it comes to $100 a year. When I look at it that way, it's easier to swallow. The positive side is that I can now watch the games in high-def! Come on Football season.

More building pictures

As promised here's a recent picture of the outside of our new building. They are doing the stucco (that's why there is scaffolding up)
The inside is being painted and it's really beginning to look like the end is in sight.
Don't forget our building tour this Sunday at 4:15pm.

New website coming soon

Foothills website is in the process of getting a face lift.
Our current site has served us well, but it's time to have a fresh look. We hope to have the new site up some time in the early part of summer.
Based on a recommendation from my friend Gary Lamb we have chosen Factor 1 studios to create our new site, so if it doesn't turn out good I can blame Gary!
We are hoping to simplify operation on the new site and have it load much faster by not using as much Flash. We will be adding a couple of other things like E-vites so it's easier to invite friends.

Sunday Recap

Wow! Yesterday was amazing. Here are a a few highlights:

** Set another attendance record

** Tons of first-time guests that are really enjoying Foothills

** Our students were on fire. They had a huge turn out for IGNITE weekend. Then they carried their enthusiasm with them into the Sunday morning services.

** 38 students made spiritual decisions at IGNITE!

** We have an incredible staff

** 15 Minutes series is going to go down as one of our best ever

** Our people can eat some donuts!

** We're having fun at Foothills watching God at work

new building progress

I took a couple of pics of the interior of the new building yesterday. It was late evening so only a couple are light enough to see. I'll try to post a couple of the exterior soon. If you would like to get a sneak peek of the new building, plan on being at Foothills at 4:15pm on Sunday April 27th for a tour.
Pic #1 is the bookstore entrance
Pic #2 is looking across the lobby from the auditorium toward the Kidzone check-in area.
Pic #3 is in the lobby looking from the front doors toward the back

15 Minutes

This Sunday we are starting a new message series called, "15 Minutes."
We are basing it on the words of Andy Warhol who said that "everyone has their 15 minutes of fame." The whole premise behind this series is that all of us will be remembered for something, and the things we do today will determine the legacy we leave tomorrow. I believe this could be the most impactful series we have ever done!
Whatever you do, don't miss the next 3 weeks!

Ignite Weekend

I am very excited about our Student Ministry's Ignite weekend beginning this Friday evening. Scott Chatfield and his team do an excellent job putting this together each year. There will be about 250 students participating this year, and I am praying for them big-time!
Growing up, I didn't go to church so I missed out on this type thing. I wish I would have been a part of something like this, because they have a blast.
If you are a Middle school or High school student and you haven't registered yet, it's not too late (you can even sign up at the door.) If you are an adult and would like to help us pull this off, contact the church office.
I am so proud of our students at Foothills. They are amazing. Students---you guys rock!

10 year anniversary newspaper article

Our local newspaper ran this article recently about Foothills Community Church.
Time flies when you're having fun!

Sunday highlights

** Celebrated our 10th Anniversary yesterday as a church--What an incredible milestone!

** Got a chance to share the vision of Foothills (again). I love talking about our vision!

** I'm more passionate about our vision today than I was 10 years ago

** Vision messages are "pruning" messages. They fire-up the people who love the vision, but they prune out people who aren't behind the vision.

** We had our second-highest non-holiday attendance--- and it was spring break!

** I shared that in the last 10 years over 1,000 people have become Christ-followers at Foothills --- that's 1 out of every 70 people in this county!

** Our best days are still ahead of us.

** Look out Toccoa, Georgia, here we come! We're about to get moving on our second location. The start up day will be in September. But between now and then there is lots to do.

I used a lot of exclamation points in this post. Can you tell I'm excited?!!

Pastors I enjoy listening to (Part 2)

OK Here are some of the other Pastors that I listen to on a regular basis:

Craig Groeschel at Life Church Oklahoma (Never met him, but I feel like I know him, and I think that's what I like about Craig. He comes across as a friend who is trying to help you out. Besides leading one of the largest churches in America, he basically is one of the best communicators out there.)

Troy Gramling at Flamingo Road Church Florida (Troy is a friend of mine and what I love about him is that he is one of the most creative communicators I know of. He is a visionary leader that has great vision to reach South Florida and beyond)

Andy Stanley at North Point Church Georgia (Don't know him, but he is one of America's favorite teachers. He just has an amazing ability to take a passage of scripture that you've read a thousand times before and preach on it, and it's like "wow, that was amazing. I never saw it like that before.")

Bil Cornelius at Bay Area Fellowship Texas (Bil is also a friend and what I like about Bil (besides the way he spells his name and his cool hairstyle) is that he is genuine. I will tell you he is about as nice a guy as you will ever meet. It comes across in his teaching style)

Ed Young Jr. Fellowship Church Texas (Ed is the king of creativity and is among the best communicators in the country. Besides that, he is a fellow fisherman so that counts for something!)

That's enough for now. I might do a part 3 soon.

Pastors I enjoy

There are lots of phenomenal communicators out there. I am often asked "Who do you listen to?"
I have a long and diverse list of Pastors I enjoy listening to. I thought I would list a few here (and what I like about them). Bear in mind this is more of a sampling than an exhaustive list.


Judd Wilhite at Central Christian Church Nevada (Don't know Jud but what I like about him is that he always seems like he's happy. He's leading a church of thousands in Las Vegas)

Miles Mcpherson at The Rock Church California (Never met Miles, but he's one of my favorites. I like him because he's very funny and beside that he used to play football in the NFL)

Perry Noble at Newspring Church South Carolina (Perry is a good friend and in my opinion one of the best communicators anywhere. He's extremely funny, yet he can get in your face with his messages)

David Hughes at Church by the Glades Florida (David is a friend of mine, and what I like about him is that he is articulate, and he's got a great voice--makes me jealous!)

Francis Chan at Cornerstone Church California (I've never met Francis but what I love about this guy is his authenticity and love for scripture)

Bob Merrit at Eaglebrook Church Minnesota (I've never met Bob, but I love his stories and his midwestern friendliness that comes across when he speaks. And beside that, any person who could survive a Minnesota winter is my hero!)

Buddy Cremeans at Northway Church New York (Don't know Buddy, other than an email chat, but I love his creativity and the fact that his church is reaching an extremely unchurched area and they are knocking it out of the park)

Mike Ashcraft at Port City Church North Carolina (Don't know Mike but I love his laid-back style. Seems like he would be a cool guy to hang out with)


That's enough for now. I will do a part 2 to this post later.

ME church vs WE church

AS I was putting my message together for this Sunday and our 10th anniversary,I was thinking about Foothills Community Church and I realized that one of the main reasons that we continue to see phenomenal growth (even after 10 years) is because we are a WE church not a ME church. Here are a couple of my thoughts.

ME Churches VS WE churches:

ME churches have a tiny front door—you are expected to meet certain standards to fit in -jump thru hoops ---WE churches have a huge front door—always open—everyone welcomed—no strings attached (background, economics, race,etc don't matter)

ME churches are all about what makes ME happy –first question they ask is how can I make the saints/Christians comfortable? --- WE churches are about what makes God happy. 1st question, how can we leverage culture to introduce people to Christ?

ME churches internally focused –WE churches externally focused

ME churches are about maintenance-------—WE churches are about being missional

ME churches are stagnant and dying----WE churches are vibrant, growing and dynamic

ME churches resist change----WE churches embrace change (Message never changes—methods do)

ME churches grow mostly through church members transferring---WE churches grow mostly through conversion

ME churches see minimal life change---WE churches see life change on a regular basis

ME churches content with status quo---WE churches realize there is still much to do

ME churches ask “WHY?”---WE churches ask, “WHY NOT?

Is your church a ME church or a WE church?

Teamwork

Teamwork at its finest!! (I just needed a laugh this morning)

painful

I was looking at some old video footage from the early days of Foothills for our 10th anniversary next Sunday, and the only word to describe it is PAINFUL!
How anybody came back a second time is a mystery. The music was bad, the messages were bad, the stage sets were bad. Most of the videos I watched were from 1999 (our 2nd year). Anyways it just goes to show you, it's really a God thing! Bottom line --- it ain't about us! No matter how good we think we do services, it's still the same principle, if God doesn't show up we might as well go home. If you don't believe me, read Acts 2.

Lessons I've Learned over the last 10 years (part 3)

Here's another lesson that I have learned. Planting a Church is the hardest thing you will ever do!
My background is business. I have started and owned and operated 2 businesses, and I can honestly tell you that that was a piece of cake compared to planting and pastoring a church. There are many reasons that this is true.

First there is the pressure of knowing that there are lives literally hanging in the balance every week.If a business doesn't "make it", they just shut the doors and go home and do something else. If a church doesn't "make it", there are many people that have devoted their lives into that church, and then they have the burden to find another family of believers do life with.

There is the pain of people you love, leaving to go to a new church. In business if someone leaves, you've only lost a customer. In a church you've lost a friend.

There is the difficulty of getting most of your work done by volunteers instead of employees that you have the leverage of a paycheck to keep them going.

In a business you close up at 6:00pm and you're done until tomorrow. In a church you are always on call. Every Pastor has gotten the phone calls in the middle of the night from a person that is in crisis.

I meet people all the time who want to be a church planter. I think that's great IF God has called you to it. If you want to plant a church because you think it would be cool, or because it looks easy, or because you are a disgruntled staff-member, or because you want to be the next Steven Furtick or Perry Noble then don't do it. (I know both of these guys, and they are amazing leaders who work HARD)
It's not as easy as it looks. Contrary to what you may think, it's not hanging out at Starbucks everyday and preaching on Sunday for an hour. It's hard, disciplined,getting dirty in the trenches type work. And the Sundays come with amazing regularity!

Please understand, I'm not complaining. And I'm not looking for sympathy. In fact, I'm having the time of my life! There is nothing I would rather do. I am saying that there are many potential church planters that are called by God, and I want them to know what to expect so it doesn't blind-side them.

Lessons I've Learned over the last 10 years (part 2)

Another thing that I've learned as a church planter/Lead Pastor is that you need to figure out what it is that you NEED to do, and spend the majority of your time doing that. For me that would be Vision casting, General leadership of the church and more specifically my staff, and Preaching on Sunday mornings.

This has not always been the case. In the early days, by necessity, I not only did these things but I drove the trailer to the High School, helped with set-up and tear-down, counseled people, performed the weddings and funerals, tried my best to be there in people's time of need, ran errands, met with lots of people, etc.
As we grew I selected people to lead some of these things. As we continued to grow, we added staff that I could delegate more of these responsibilities.

Many Pastors never seem to be able to grow their churches beyond a certain point. My guess is that they have never embraced the art of delegation. They feel like they need to know everything that's going on, and thus by their unwillingness to hand-off some of their responsibilities, they become the bottleneck to the church's growth.

Recently I have been studying Moses and some of his leadership tendencies. In his early days he felt like he needed to be involved in every detail of his congregation. Fortunately for him he had a wise Father-in-law with the gift of leadership that challenged him to begin to delegate. The story is found in Exodus 18. If you are struggling with delegation I would strongly recommend you read it.

I believe that there are 3 lies that we believe that prevent us from delegating:
1) I am the only capable of doing this.
2) No one can do it as well as me
3) It would be faster to just do it myself
I'm not going to elaborate on these 3, but I will say that they are not true. There are other people that can do it--maybe better than you, and in the long run it will save lots of time to train someone to do something now and then let them do it in the future.

website trouble

In case you have visited our website over the last couple of days, you may have noticed that we are having some technical difficulties. I have been told that our web host made some sort of change (without informing us) and now we are scrambling to try to get things working right.
Don't you just love technology!

a few thoughts

**Another stellar day at Foothills yesterday. Eric and the band did their thing, the people showed up (our largest non-holiday attendance ever!), and Jesus was lifted up.

**The theme yesterday was the decade of the 80's---it was fun. This week is the 90's, look out.

**It was embarrassing showing everyone the picture of me in man short-shorts from the 80's (I blame Tom Selleck from Magnum PI for that terrible fad!)

**I am glad that I never had a mullet!

**When I came in today I was reading some emails, and I got one from someone in another state thanking us for touching the life of someone she knows who has started attending Foothills recently. It was so encouraging.

**Foothills has an amazing staff team. I am proud of them!

**One more thing, we will be celebrating our 10 year anniversary in all 4 services on April 13th (not just the 6:00pm service as previously stated).

relaxing day off

Fridays are our day off at Foothills. The office is closed and for the most part everything shuts down.
Yesterday was a busy, but relaxing day for me. I started out at 6:00am playing basketball (I play every Monday, Wednesday and Friday). Then I met Paul Carr and Josh Gregory, two of our Pastors from our Connections Department for a round of golf at 8:30am. My golf game was pretty sad. I'm not saying what I shot, but let's just say I got my money's worth!
After that I came home and relaxed and then had a date night with my beautiful wife. A full, but wonderful day.
Here's an honest confession. I have not always done a good job of taking a day off every week. I find myself always sneaking into our home office and tweaking my message or doing other work related things. Not only is this not healthy, but it's not Biblical. Most Pastors that I know struggle in this area. Now that the weather is warming up, I plan on making sure that I really do take Fridays off.
How about you? Do you set aside a day each week to relax and re-energize?

Lessons I've learned over the last 10 years

If you are attending a church that has a white-hot passion to reach the community for Christ you need to never lose focus.
One of the things that I have learned after 10 years is that no matter how much you teach the Vision and mission of the church, you can't over teach on that topic. When you feel like you've taught on it enough, teach on it again! Sometimes I feel like a broken record when it comes to what we're about as a church, but the reality is that vision leaks.I am amazed how quickly people can forget the vision and turn inward. Even people who have been with you for years.
When you start hearing people saying things like, "I don't really like the music style", or "I think the volume is too loud", or "I want to be fed more", or "it's too much trouble trying to find a parking spot/seat", or "I think we need to start focusing on taking care of the ones we've already reached instead of always trying to reach more", or " This church is getting too big,I liked it better when I knew everyone" These are all telltale signs that there is some vision leakage.
In case you didn't notice, all of those things have a common denominator--"I". The reality is that Jesus was never about what made Himself comfortable, He was about making whatever sacrifice necessary to reach the world.
I have said a million times that the Church is not a country club. A country club exists for the sake of its members, but a Church exists for the sake of the people in the community. Every church in America that is effectively reaching their communities are doing so by being willing to set aside their own desires for the sake of the people who don't know Christ already
As a Lead Pastor I would say clearly casting a compelling vision may be the most important thing I do! I have never apologized for our vision, and I never will. It is a vision from God.
As I look back over the last decade I see God's hand leading us every step of the way. As we enter the second decade I feel like the African Pastor who wrote this letter which was found the day after he died as a martyr for his faith:

I'm part of the fellowship of the unashamed. I have Holy Spirit power. The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made. I'm a disciple of His. I won't look back, let up, slow down, back away, or be still.

My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, my future is secure. I'm finished with low living, sight walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tamed visions, mundane talking, cheap living, and dwarfed goals.

I no longer need pre-eminence, prosperity, position, promotions, plaudits, or popularity. I don't have to be right, first, tops, recognized, praised, regarded, or rewarded. I now live by faith, lean on His presence, walk by patience, lift by prayer, and labor by power.

My face is set, my gait is fast, my goal is heaven, my road is narrow, my way rough, my companions few, my guide reliable, my mission clear. I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, turned back, deluded or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of the adversary, negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity.

I won't give up, shut up, let up, until I have stayed up, stored up, prayed up, paid up, preached up for the cause of Christ. I am a disciple of Jesus. I must go till He comes, give till I drop, preach till all know, and work till He stops me. And when He comes for His own, He will have no problems recognizing me - my banner will be clear!

10th anniversary celebration

We are in the planning stages of a 10th anniversary party for Foothills Community Church. It will be Sunday April 13th at 6:00pm.
I want to encourage everyone who has been touched by the ministry of Foothills to make sure to attend. We will take a look back over the last 10 years with laughter and probably some tears.
If you have any old photos or video that might help us, let me know. 10 years is a major milestone and we need to celebrate all that God has done.

Toccoa, Ga -- our next campus

I got the opportunity to head over to one of our LIFE groups that meets in Toccoa last night with our Connections Pastor, Paul Carr. We had an incredible time. Those people are FIRED UP about getting our 2nd campus started next September! The only down side to the Toccoa, Georgia location is that they are all Georgia Bulldog fans (please pray for me--I'm really struggling with that!)
FYI, we are almost ready to announce a date for our first informational meeting, so if you are one of the many people that have shown interest in helping that campus get started, hang on just a little longer.

One other thing. To all of you loyal, dedicated NASCAR fans, I know I was a little hard on you in Sunday's message. I want you to know how truly repentant I am for calling into question the great sport of NASCAR. I don't know what came over me. I am truly sorry......... NOT REALLY!

sunday recap

Wow! That about sums up today's services at Foothills.
We had 2,447 in attendance (a new record), and lots of spiritual decisions (I don't know the exact number yet).
I want to thank all of the people who volunteered today to make it happen. Doing 5 services in 1 day is exhausting, but there was so much energy in the building that it made it a lot of fun.
The band rocked with the 70's era Doobie Brothers and Kansas tunes, the hospitality team went the extra mile with an incredible assortment of refreshments, the hosts (ushers) did an excellent job of helping people find seats, and the kick-off of our new series, "Decades" seemed to be well received. All in all it was fantastic!
Next week we'll talk about the decade of the 80's--that should be fun!

Less than 24 hours

OK I have to admit I am totally psyched about our Easter services tomorrow. I feel like I did when I was a teenager and I had a big game the next day----excited, anxious, expectant, overwhelmed.
The reason I feel that way first of all because of what Easter means to me personally. Secondly because I know that our people have been handing out their invite cards all over this community, and that there are going to be so many people that come to Foothills tomorrow that are searching for something meaningful for their lives, and I have the honor of sharing this wonderful message of salvation and freedom through Jesus!
Historically, we see a spike of around 40-50% in attendance on Easter, which means we should have around 2,300-2,500 people at Foothills tomorrow! That is exciting!
A couple of reminders: We will be doing 5 identical services for Easter. The times will be 7:15am, 8:30am, 9:45am, 11:15am and 6:00pm. If there is any way that you could come to the 7:15am, 8:30am or 6:00pm that would help us with space issues during the 2 prime times (9:45am and 11:15am). Remember Easter services will be even more crowded than usual. Plan on arriving a few minutes earlier, and please be patient entering and exiting the parking lot. We will have a policeman directing traffic to help. Be sure to make those last minute invitations to come with you, and don't forget to pray like crazy!
See you tomorrow.

March madness

I just suffered my first loss in my NCAA March madness bracket. Georgia lost to Xavier. That's what I get for choosing such a bad team. I assumed that they might be on a roll after winning the SEC tourney---but NOOOOO!
I hate to admit it, but I have North Carolina and Memphis in the final showdown with North Carolina winning it all. I hope I'm wrong!

Every Member a Minister

Every member a minister. I don't know who coined that phrase, but I do know for sure that it is Biblical.
When we become Christ followers we are gifted, and called to serve God and others. We must use those gifts and abilities in the context of the local church (and outside the church too)
Many times we get caught up in the word, minister. We assume that minister means paid staff, but the reality is that if you're a Christian you need to be a minister, and in order to be a minister you need a ministry.
In Colossian 4:17 Paul writes this: "And say to Archippus, "Be sure to carry out the ministry the Lord gave you." We don't really know why Archippus needed to be reminded of this. Maybe he was losing his focus and other things were taking precedent over his ministry. Maybe he was burned out and was sitting on the sidelines, and needed the encouragement to keep on. Maybe Archippus had a case of mission drift and fell into a consumer mindset and wanted people to serve him. It's hard to say for sure.
They say that in most churches 20% of the people do 80% of the work (this is NOT the case at Foothills) If those stats are true that means that there are a lot of people who need to be reminded to "be sure to carry out the ministry the Lord gave you."
If you have never served in church before, why not take a risk. At Foothills we realize that this can feel pretty intimidating, so we've tried to make it easy. Here's a great way to get started, sign up for our next "Serve" class on March 30th. It will be offered at 9:45am and then again at 11:15am. In this class, our Connections Pastor Paul Carr will help point you in the right direction. Why not join the hundreds of others at Foothills that are having the time of their lives serving God?

Simply amazing

I just heard this week that Foothills Community Church was #3 in numbers of people baptized among Southern Baptist churches in the state of South Carolina in 2007!
That is simply amazing. There are nearly 3,000 Southern Baptist churches in South Carolina, and here we are in Seneca, a town of about 8,000 people and God is moving in incredible ways! For the record we baptized 202 people in 2007. And this is not just a "numbers thing"---every one of those 202 are people whose lives have been changed forever!
Please hear my heart on what I'm saying. I am in no way boasting on me or even our church. I am boasting in God, and His amazing power to transform lives.
If you have committed your life to Christ and have not followed through with baptism, you will have an opportunity coming in late Spring---stay tuned for details.

Happy Anniversary Liz

Well today is a special day for me. It's my anniversary. It seems like yesterday that I was walking down the aisle of First Baptist Church of Lake Park surrounded by family and friends and pledging my love and devotion to my wonderful wife. It's hard to believe it's been 24 years! The best 24 years of my life. I married way out of my league, that's for sure. Anyway, I thank God every day for my wife Liz. I am a blessed man!

Excited about Sunday

I can't wait until Sunday. We are going to be wrapping up our Caveman series. There are going to be a whole bunch of people that are going to experience freedom for the first time as they venture out of the cave that has been confining them. If you or someone you know is either currently or has been in a situation where they felt totally trapped, make sure you don't miss this weekend's services.
We are also going to give you some invitations to our Easter services on March 23rd to give to your friends (they WILL come with you on Easter!). Easter services are going to be incredible. We will be starting a new series called, "Decades". Easter will be the decade of the 70's---it should be fun!
Rememeber we will be having 5 identical services at Easter (7:15am, 8:30am, 9:45am, 11:15am, and 6:00pm) I want to encourage you to consider coming to the 7:15am or 8:30am services to make room for the hundreds of guests that will probably choose the 9:45am or 11:15am. To sweeten the deal, if you come to either of the 2 early serices we will feed you sausage biscuits as well as the usual donuts, etc.

Unleash rewind

Just got home from attending the Unleash conference. I had a blast!
I got to see old friends and meet a whole bunch of new ones. Our entire group that went with us were pumped!
I can honestly say that my friend Perry and all of the fine staff and volunteers at Newspring are among the most gracious, giving people I know. It is no wonder that the Lord is blessing them.
Perry definitely "laid down the smacketh!" with his own unique flavor. His story about picking up the snake by the tail was especially hilarious. He is one of the best communicators out there.
Lee and the band......WOW!
I had the privilige of getting to hang out with Perry and a few other Pastors at lunch---- That was awesome!
Basically everything was great. I'm ready to do it again next year!

Countdown to Unleash

Less than 24 hours away from one of the best conferences out there---Unleash.
I love Unleash for several reasons.
First, I love the people of Newspring (the church that hosts it) They are so gracious and are never too busy to answer questions. They are also so supportive of what God is doing here at Foothills Community Church.
The second reason is that it is a one day conference. I just am not big on multi-day conferences (although I do some of them too)
Third I love Unleash because it's close and inexpensive which means we can bring lots of people with us.
Fourth, because it is a fantastic conference. Practical, nuts and bolts info. Inspiring, challenging messages, and break-outs.
It's no wonder that it is sold out this year!

Awesome staff meeting

Today Mike Linch and several of his staff from Northstar Church came up to lead our staff meeting. It was great. Mike challenged us from Nehemiah 6 about sustaining our vision. There were a couple of things that Mike said that really got my attention, that I am going to continue to process. What I really love about Mike and his people are their hearts to serve their community. I have never seen or heard of another church in America that is impacting their community with the love of Christ through acts of service like Northstar. Marlon Longacre is their Community Relations Pastor, and he is a passionate dude when it comes to his community. You can read more about what Northstar Church is doing in Georgia here.

By the way, we had another fantastic day at Foothills Community Church yesterday. Lives are changing, and there are so many new people who are coming. I must say though that the 8:30am, and 9:45am crowds were still a little sleepy from the time change!

Leadership qualities 2

The second leadership quality that I wanted to tackle is loyalty.
You may be thinking, wait a minute, loyalty is what you look for in a follower but not necessary for a leader. WRONG!
If a leader is not totally loyal to God, his spouse, his family, his convictions, his staff, his organization, and his people he will not make a good leader.
Let's face it all leaders expect their staff to be loyal to them. I expect my staff to defend me if someone is being critical of me. It only makes sense that they know that I will do the same for them. If someone speaks poorly of people that I care about, I won't tolerate it.
When a leader is loyal to the organization he represents, he always puts the organization ahead of his own desires.
For a Biblical example of loyalty I think of Joshua. He was Moses right hand man for many years. Never did he try to posture himself to become the leader of Israel. Never did he try to make Moses look bad in front of the people. He was loyal to God and his convictions. It is no wonder that when Moses died that God chose Joshua to succeed him.
How loyal are you?

** Just talked to my friend Mike Linch from Northstar Church. Mike is bringing some of his crew up to Foothills next week to speak to our staff. It's going to be great!
One of the things that I love about most of the great Pastors that I know is their willingness to sacrifice to help others. There is probably a million things on Mike's plate more important for him to take care of at his own church, yet he is making the road trip.

** It's hard to believe that Easter is just a couple of weeks away. I can hardly wait. Just a quick note---we will be having 5 identical services on Easter Sunday, March 23rd. The times will be 7:15am, 8:30am, 9:45am, 11:15am, and 6:00pm
If you can, please consider the 7:15, or 8:30 services so that we will have plenty of room for guests. I'll tell you more about this later.


** I found out that our completion date for our new building is June 27th, so our first service in the new building will be on July 13th!!
We will do our major grand opening event as soon as school is back in session.
Until then, thanks for your patience. I know that both the 9:45am and 11:15am services are uncomfortably crowded, and I know that the parking and trying to exit have been frustrating (we are hoping to hire a policeman to help direct traffic onto Bountyland Road).


** Really looking forward to the Unleash conference that our friends over at NewSpring are having next week. We went last year and loved it! Perry is another Pastor-friend that has gone out of his way to help us.

random stuff

We had an amazing weekend at Foothills! We kicked off our new series, Caveman. The stage crew did an awesome job, the music was great and the place was electric.
I threw out some caveman frisbees during all 4 services. It seemed like a good idea on paper, but I didn't count on the near riot!! Glad to report--- no major injuries.

Headed out early Monday morning to hang out with some fellow church planters for an annual roundtable in Myrtle Beach. It's always fun to hear about what God is doing across South Carolina. Just got back home after a rainy, windy, 5 hour drive. These guys are some of the pioneers of church planting in this state. There is so much collective wisdom, that it's scary.

I'm excited about this Sunday's message. If you've ever wondered how to hear from God, please don't miss it!

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.