Men's retreat

I got a chance to go to our Spring Training Men's Retreat this Friday and Saturday. We had a great turnout. Our Men's ministry leader, Bobby King and his team did an incredible job! We had all kinds of guy stuff to do---Skeet shooting, paintball, ATV riding, Horseback riding, a Texas Hold-em tournament and plenty of food. It was nice to spend some time with my youngest (14 years old) son, Cole. They grow up way too fast.
Also, a big thank you to Clemson Tigers Head Coach Tommy Bowden for coming out on Saturday evening, and bringing a couple of players, Willy Korn and Xavier Dye. Then on Saturday, 3 more guys from the team came and hung out with us.

Finally!

Well he's finally gone. If you have tuned into American Idol this year, you know that this has been a big joke. I'm not sure which was worse, his hair-do's or his voice. Anyway, he's off the show! All I can say is goodbya Sanjaya!

Good News travels fast

We are hearing so many cool stories about what happened at Foothills Community Church this past Sunday! (110 people baptized) One person told me that he had 6 people leave messages on his phone Sunday after the morning services telling him he better make sure he gets to the 6:00pm service --because God was doing something incredible.
There have been emails of people celebrating a loved one's salvation (that they have been praying for years about) and then their obedience to follow in baptism.
I have heard stories of the buzz in the community of conversations around the water cooler that were about what was going on at Foothills.
The list goes on and on, so what we are going to be doing (hopefully by the end of the week) is having a link on our website (www.foothillscc.org) to a place where you can leave your story about your experience last Sunday.
All honor to God!!

Pray

By now I'm sure everyone has heard about the tragedy at Virginia Tech. A gunman kills 32 people, then himself. Another 15 people injured. They say it's the worst mass killing in our history.
Senseless. That's the only way to describe these type of things.
My neice is a student at Va. Tech. Fortunately she was not one of the victims. But there are a lot of people that are grieving big-time today. Parents, brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and friends.
I have two thoughts about this tragedy. First, PRAY. Pray for all of the people that will have to deal with this tragedy first-hand. God is still on the throne. This did not take Him by surprise. And although God did not cause this tragedy, He can and will be there bringing comfort and peace. Psalm 34:18 says: The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; He rescues them those who are crushed in Spirit.
Second, Tell your kids that you love them today!

Unbelievable!

There are no words to describe what we experienced at all 4 of our services today. The only way to describe it would be to say that God showed up and did what only He could do----touch people's hearts.
We have been telling everyone to be prepared, because we were going to be doing something we have never done at Foothills. What was the great mystery? A spontaneous Baptism service!
When the dust settled we baptized 110 people!!! Let that sink in for a minute. 110 people publicly declaring their faith in Christ.
I have never been in a service that was more moving. And the cool thing was, that God moved in every one of the services. I have never seen so many people in tears as they watched person after person going under the baptism waters. I am in awe of God.
We also set another non-Easter attendance record. I believe we had 1,623 people show up today!
Probably the coolest thing was at the 8:30 am service (which by far is our most conservative service), I hadn't even given the invitation when a man ran down the aisle and literally cannonballed into the pool. He couldn't wait. Everyone thought that he was a plant--but he wasn't!
Foothills family, all I can say is, hang on!!

Excitement in the air

We are putting the final touches on the service for this weekend. I have been telling everyone to put on their seatbelts because we are going to be doing something at Foothills that we've never done before. There is something very exhilirating about doing something that if God doesn't show up, we're in big trouble.
It's been really funny watching people trying to figure out what it is that we are going to do.
Anyway, mark your calendars for April 15th. You Do Not Want To Miss It!

Easter Update

So here are the official numbers from Easter. Attendance--2,000 on the button! More importantly we had the biggest spiritual response we have ever had, we had 18 people receive Christ, and we had 106 people make recommitments! That is amazing. 124 significant spiritual decisions. Now comes the hard work---follow-up.

Whew!

What a day we had yesterday! We're still tallying up everything. but it looks like we had 2,000 people yesterday at our services. It was really amazing.
I can't say enough about our staff and volunteers. There were probably a couple of hundred people serving. Some actually volunteered at all 5 services.
It's hard to believe that yesterday was also our 9th birthday as a church. What an amazing journey we are on. On our first Sunday 9 years ago we had 70 people show up. Yesterday, 2,000!!--ONLY GOD!!
Our new building is going to be so helpful for us to be able to keep reaching people as space is becoming an issue.

This is hilarious!

Over the years there has been alot of mis-information about Foothills Community Church. Things like, "they don't teach from the Bible", or "they don't talk about sin or Hell", you know, just the normal stuff that people make up because they are a little insecure or jealous.
But I heard about a rumor that someone heard about Foothills Community Church. This person heard that if you join Foothills, you have to take a vow to never drink any Pepsi products again!!!!!
Are you kidding me?? Someone actually believes this?? Just for the record---I drink 2 diet cherry Pepsi's everyday.
Can you imagine the membership covenant: I willl protect the unity of my church, I will participate in the ministry of my church, I will only drink Coca-Cola products!!
Where do people come up with this stuff?? Hilarious!!

The steel has started to arrive!

We just had 3 semi truckloads of steel delivered for our new facility. I have no clue how many more truckloads they are going to bring. The only problem is that they haven't started the grading and earthwork yet. Oh well, at least we won't have to wait for the steel to be delivered.
This is starting to get really exciting!

Easter is coming

Easter is just around the corner. We will be starting a new message series called "Games."
You don't want to miss it----and don't forget to invite your friends! We expect to have over 2,000 people attending one of our 5 Services on Easter Sunday (April 8th)!
Then the following week (April 15th) will be something we've never done at Foothills---NEVER.
By the way we will also be celebrating our 9th birthday as a church. Time really does fly when you're having fun.

What a great day

Yesterday was incredible! Our services were off the charts, and then last night we had our "Only One Life" fellowship banquet. Let me explain this as best as I can. From Jan 2006 thru March 2006 we did a building/spiritual growth campaign called "Only One Life". It was designed to raise the funds to construct Phase 2 of our facility. It ws a huge success. We had over 2 million dollars pledged. But since last year we have grown a lot, so we decided to do a one night banquet to let the newer people know how they could be involve. We had dinner catered which was served by some of the students in our youth ministry (way to go all of the people who volunteered to serve the meals, watch kids and set up tables, etc!!) after that we watched the video of the new building and cast the vision of Foothills, and why we are building this new facility. We did not ask people to give anything last night. You read that right, we did not ask anyone to give anything last night! We asked them to give-----but ONLY after they went home and prayed about it and then had a family conference. We set April 15th as the date for the new pledges to be turned in. I have no idea what will be given, but I am trusting God to do beyond whatever I would dare to ask or hope (Eph 3:20)
By the way, we hope to see some construction started in the next 30 days.

2 Huge dates to remember

Make sure you mark your calendars for 2 big dates. The first one is April 8th. That's Easter Sunday. It will be the biggest day ever at Foothills. I will begin a new message series that day called, "Games". You do not want to miss this service. Bring someone with you to the service that does not know Christ. Get them there no matter what it takes. Bribe them if you have to!
The second important date is April 15th. It's not only important because of your taxes, but that day we will be doing something at Foothills that we have Never Done! I'm not going to tell you what it is right now, but trust me you won't want to miss that service either.

Also props to the Clemson Tigers basketball team for getting a trip to Madison Square Gardens for the N.I.T. (I know, it's not the NCAA tourney, but maybe next year.) Several of our staff went to the game, Clemson was up by like 18 points and somehow let Syracuse back in the game. It was a little scary at the end, but they pulled it out.

New stuff

Thanks to our IT guru Paul Nalley and video techie extraordinaire Ray Smith, we now have videos available of our weekly messages online!
It's amazing how many people currently listen to the messages online, but with the ability to watch the messages it should gain even more momentum.
Get the word out to everyone you know. The messages are available at Foothill's website.
You will also be able to download the message outlines and make notes, and you can even download questions for your weekly LIFE group. It's very cool.

You To Be

Well, I finally finished the series "You To Be". ( 9 weeks on the Fruit of the Holy Spirit.)
I think it was the longest series I've ever done, but I totally enjoyed it. God stretched me big-time.
I've got a long, long way to go when it comes to having this Christ-follower thing figured out, that's for sure! (Many of you have shared that this has been one of your favorite series ever.)
Make sure you come this Sunday, because I will be beginning a mini-series on fear called "Frozen In Fear." This week I'll be talking about Fear vs. Faith, and then the next week we'll talk about most people's #1 fear---Death! (and why you don't have to fear it)
And then the following week (April 8th) we'll celebrate Easter and start another series. (I'll give you the details later) Make sure you start inviting your friends---They WILL come to church with you on Easter!

Unleash takeaways

Our staff got a chance to go to the Unleash Conference at Newspring today. For me it was one of the best conferences I have been to in a long time.
Everybody on the Newspring staff that I have met (and all of the volunteers) have always been some of the greatest people around. They will bend over backwards to help other churches. I have known Perry and the gang for a couple of years, and that's the way they have always operated.
What I really enjoyed about the conference is Perry's authenticity, and his passion. He not only is a great communicator, but he also is one of the funniest people I know.
Tony did a great summary of the sessions.
Another thing that was outstanding was getting to worship with the Newspring worship team (way to go Lee!)
I will definitely be there next year.

Wide angle or Zoom lens?

Wide angle or Zoom lens?
That was basically what I asked each of us to consider this past Sunday. Everyone of us goes through life wearing one of these two lenses.
Let me explain; Some people wear the zoom lens. The zoom lens is designed to zoom in on one single object. When we have the zoom lens life, WE are the object that we focus on. The zoom lens life is self-absorbed and selfish.
Other people go through life with a Wide angle lens perspective. The wide angle lens has a wider field of vision. The wide angle lens life is what we are called to as Christ-followers. When I have wide angle living, I see that there are lots of people in the picture besides me.
If you missed Sunday, I challenged everyone to 30 days of Kindness. For the next 30 days, look for opportunities to meet a Physical need, encourage someone emotionally, and reach out to people Spiritually.
Easter Sunday is only a month away. I'm asking everyone to invite at least 5 people to come to church with you.
Remember, we will be doing 5 services on Easter. 7:15am, 8:30am, 9:45am, 11:15am and 6:00pm

IGNITE Weekend

Things around here are getting pretty exciting. This weekend is IGNITE weekend! This is one of our 2 huge events of the year for our Student Ministry. Scott Chatfield along with his wife Amy and lots of other volunteers have been praying and preparing for this weekend since last year.
I just walked into our auditorium and they built a new stage set, added a bunch of lighting and plasma screens. It looks very cool.
Scott tells me that he's expecting between 300 and 400 teenagers to show up! The theme this year is "Heroes".
We believe in providing the very best ministries possible for our Students (and children as well) Proportionately from a budget standpoint we also put our money where our mouth is. We feel like it is an investment. I also want to thank all of the adults volunteers that are going to be sacrificing their weekend for the sake of these great kids ---way to go guys and gals!!
If you're a student, its NOT TOO LATE to be a part of IGNITE. You can still register at the doors. For more info, here's a link to IGNITE

If you think about it, say a prayer for these kids this weekend.

Be careful what you preach on

I have figured out something; whatever the topic you choose to preach on, you will usually get a chance to experience it first-hand (I will be doing a message on death in a couple of weeks---uh oh!)
Sunday, we were talking about the fruit of the Holy Spirit known as Peace. The whole message was basically about not being anxious, but trusting in Christ to give us that peace that passes all human understanding. Wouldn't you know it, several members of our Worship and Tech teams were sick, so we were short handed. Then on top of that I had a sore throat. It was the kind that the more you speak, the sorer it gets. By the time the 4th service was done it was really hurting.
The other thing that was kind of strange was, that I couldn't seem to get "peace" about my message. All week long it just seemed like it wasn't clicking. On Sunday morning, a couple of verses popped into my mind that I knew I needed to share about. I still was able to use my main outline, but I eliminated a few things, and added some others. You have to understand something. I believe that the Holy Spirit works through the planning and preparation stages a lot more than He does spontaneously. It is not more spiritual for a Pastor to walk on stage and not be prepared and then blame the Holy Spirit for his lousy message. I usually spend 20-25 hours in message prep each week.
Anyway, despite all of the chaos of the morning God showed up big-time. We had another record attendance (the 3rd record in the last 5 weeks!) We had more people saved and more people become members.

Conference take-aways

We brought some of our team the the Church Planters conference at Mountain Lake Church on Monday and Tuesday. They did a great job of putting that thing together. Their volunteers were helpful; the speakers were engaging; the music was rocking, and the atmosphere was high-energy.
There were a couple of God moments that I am still processing. Both Shawn Lovejoy's and Perry Noble's sessions reminded me to protect the vision that God has given us for Foothills.
Dave Furgeson reignited my entrepreneurial spirit. Matt Carter's message stirred my heart, and Ed Stetzer's message challenged my thinking.
I didn't attend, Gary Lamb's breakout session, but a couple of our team did, and they said that Gary was bouncing off the walls!! (What's new?)
One of the absolute best parts of these conferences, is the time our team had to spend together. We commuted back and forth both days, so there was a lot of great conversation during the drive time.
The only down-side to the conference is that I'm a little behind this week on some work.
I'm looking forward to next year!