Refreshed

Vacations are great! I highly recommend them. There's nothing like getting away for a little while to recharge the old batteries.
I will be preaching this weekend again after three Sundays off. It feels kind of wierd, but I can't wait! I will begin a 2 week mini-series called "The Untouchables"-- we'll be discussing sex and divorce. Speaking of divorce, why is it that if an axe- murderer gives his life to Christ we bring him on stage to share his story, but a divorced person walks into a church and they are shunned?
We have always made an effort to open our doors and arms to EVERYONE at Foothills. Our motto is "bring your baggage--we'll help you unpack it"

Book Review---Multi-Site Church Revolution

For anyone thinking about starting an additional site or venue this book is a must read. I was very interested in reading this book because we plan to be offering an additional venue (possibly 2) in our new building that we hope to be occupying in late 2007.
This book is low on "theory" and high on "practicality", which to me, is a good thing. There are plenty of case studies from various size and style churches, and a lot of nuts and bolts facts.
It is an easy read, and for me it only bogged down in a couple of places.
Overall I would give this book 4 stars.
Do yourself a favor, if you are even remotely considering an additional venue or site (or if you just want to get an insight into the future) read this book.

New Spring

Had a great day today spending time with some other Pastors over at New Spring Church. Perry Noble and all of his people have a heart to help other churches. They are great hosts. They even provided lunch from Mama Penns. I had heard of them, but that was the first time I've eaten their food---very good!
I got a chance to meet some new people, which is always nice and catch up with some old friends.
New Spring is creating a network of churches to help provide resources, encouragement and support for each other. With all of the bad press churches get for fighting amongst each other, it's refreshing to hook-up with guys who realize we're all on the same team.
I know that Perry and New Spring catch a lot of flack from people that don't know them or understand what they are trying to do. I have to tell you, I think it's very unfair. They are reaching people, and the last time I checked, that's what we were commanded to do. If you find fault with that--get a life!

major kids event

We kicked off our Summer Sports Spectacular for kids, and it was fantastic! Hats off to my wife Liz who coordinated the entire thing. She has been putting in 16 hour days for weeks preparing for this event. I am so amazed by our people. We had probably 100 adult/teen volunteers there to help make it happen. We had music, drama, faith stories from Clemson University athletes and of course all kinds of sports. On day one we had around 250 kids. On Wednesday evening we will have a BMX group called Chaos on Wheels coming to perform. I can't wait to see them.
We have not had any sort of VBS type thing for the last 2 summers. I know that some parents couldn't figure that out. In the Bible Belt it's just expected that churches do VBS. If you lived here, your kids could probably go to VBS somewhere twice a day for the entire summer. We decided that if we were going to invest resources in something it needed to be something different from everywhere else. I've never been a big fan of doing something "just because everyone else does it"
If day one is any indication as to how the rest of the week is going to turn out---I'm pumped!

It doesn't get any better than this

As I reflected on this past Sunday, the thought that crossed my mind was, "it doesn't get any better than this". Sunday was incredible. The entire team knocked it out of the park in all 3 services Sunday. I spoke about the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin. Jeremy came up after and sang that Chris Rice song, "Come to Jesus". We showed some video footage in the background of last year's baptisms. I cannot remember a time where I have seen more people in tears. It was powerful.
Then Sunday afternoon we had our first Baptism Party of the summer. We estimate that probably 500-600 people came. We went all out. We had bounce houses and games for the kids and food and to top it all off we baptized 42 people (see picture above) in Lake Keowee. I left exhausted from a long day, but totally amazed once again with God's power. What a day!

staff hiring part 2

Another decision that is absolutely critical when it comes to staffing is WHO you hire. You're probably thinking, "no duh!" But it is amazing how many times we let our desire to fill a vacancy cause us to rush a decision and then end up with the wrong person in place.
There has been tons of information about what to look for in a new staff, but I think Bill Hybels summed it up pretty well by hiring based on the 3 C's. Character, Competency and Chemistry.
Hiring people from within is always best. No doubt by hiring people who are doing a great job volunteering you will probably not have many surprises. You will know all about the 3 C's.
Two things you may want to consider though. Sometimes you simply just don't have a person capable or willing to come on staff that is currently at your church. The next best thing is network with some other Pastors---maybe they have someone that they know. Of course there are agencies like Church Staffing that also have success stories.
The other consideration is that once you hire someone who is already a part of your church, it is almost impossible to terminate them (even for legitimate reasons).
Without a doubt, hiring decisions are among the most important decisions you will make. I am very thankful for the tremendous staff that we have at Foothills. They are tireless workers who take our mission very seriously.

Granger crew

Yesterday we had the privilege of spending a couple hours hosting some of the guys from Granger Community Church (Tony Morgan,Tim Stevens and Mark Waltz). It was really cool to hear and learn from them. One thing that was obvious was that these guys are sharp. They know their stuff and they represent both Granger and God's kingdom well. What I liked was that they were just real, down to earth people. They also were learners. They didn't come with a "hey, look at us---we know everything" attitude. They genuinely listened and who knows, maybe they learned a little from us as well.
One other thing that was cool, was that these guys are a real team. They really seem to like to hang out together. That's what a staff should be ---a team. I'm so thankful for the team God has given me to serve alongside with.

staff hiring

One of the biggest decisions a church will make is in the selection of staff.
The first important decision will be what is the proper order of staff hires? Do I add a youth Pastor, or a small groups Pastor?, etc. I have found that there is no hard and fast rule. They are all important, but since funding is always limited you need to determine which staff position is MOST strategic for the big picture of your church's vision. For us, It was me and a part-time worship guy until we reached about 200 in attendance. Everyone else was a volunteer. Even the secretarial duties at that point were all volunteers. We then added a very part-time children's person, and then we hired a full time Associate Pastor position (which basically was someone who did everything that I couldn't or didn't want to do. We hired a part-time position for a couple of other things after that. When we reached about 400 hundred we began to be more intentional about hiring because we began to grow extremely fast. Right now we average about 1200 people on Sundays and we have a pretty lean staff. We are going to add 2-3 more staff positions by the end of the year. I will try to talk more about hiring tomorrow.

taking a break

Today I got a little break from delivering the message. Our Pastor of Connections, Brian Marshall filled in for me. It's nice to have zero responsiblities on a Sunday every now and then.
Last week I actually got a chance to get a little bit ahead. I began working on a message in our new series, "RED" that starts next Sunday. It's a message series about Jesus parables.
For those of you who have the responsibility to prepare and deliver a message every single week, you know how tough it can be. There is probably nothing that drains you more. When that process begins to become a grind---it's time to take a break. In the early days of a church plant it feels like you can't take a break. For some reason most of us think that if we aren't up on stage, the world will stop spinning. Which of course only adds to the pressure. I am blessed to have other capable communicators on staff who can pinch hit for me so I can take a breather.
My goal is to speak 40 -42 Sundays a year. If you don't get a break once in a while your creativity will dry up. You will begin to feel like a sermon machine that pops out a sermon every 7 days, and let me tell you, that will take its toll on you. So do yourself (and your congregation) a favor---take a Sunday off!

Simple Man

Well we finished up our series, "WOW, Can You Play That At Church". Our final message in the series was the song Simple Man by Lynyrd Skynyrd. (the importance of simplifying our lives). It was awesome, Scott nailed the song!
We had a pretty diverse selection of songs in the series, but we figured we would wrap it up with some good old Southern rock. Our band and singers are so talented.
If you're interested in hearing the messages from that series you can click here
We had about 1200 in attendance today, but we were slammed in the 11:15 service. I saw some people standing. I can hardly wait til we start construction on that new building.

Wow!

I just found out that so far in 2006 we have had 100 salvations! Think about that for just a minute. 100 people have for the first time in their lives crossed over the line of faith and are now Christ-followers! That's an average of about 4 people per week.
That does not include children who have made a commitment in our Children's ministry (there have been many there) These are just people who have indicated on their response cards that they have invited Christ into their lives.
Now the hard work really begins---helping them grow in their faith. We offer a class to get them started that we call XCEL. It is designed to lay a spiritual foundation. From there we try to involve them in one of our LIFE group Bible studies, and integrate them into the life of the church. Many times our system doesn't seem to work, but many times it does. I think our responsibility as a church is to have tools available for people to plug into. The responsibility ultimately rests on them. I would love to hear what other churches are doing to successfully disciple new believers.

Mother's Day Musings

Without a doubt preparing for Mother's Day sermons are among the toughest. After all, what can you say that you haven't already said? I do know this, mother's are pretty sentimental and they expect to get their props on Mother's Day (and they certainly deserve it)
Mother's Day is always one of our higher attendance days of the year. One of the big reasons is because we do our Parent/ Child Dedications on Mother's Day, so all of the grandparents, aunts and uncles usually come. Today we had so many parents and kids that we had to stand in front of the stage because we couldn't get everyone on stage at the same time. As I looked at all of those little children I couldn't help but think that right before me were lives with unlimited potential. There is no telling what impact those little ones will have in this world. Thank God for parents who are committed to raising their kids in Christian homes.
It's no wonder that Jesus had a special place in his heart for children.
By the way, we had 1,254 people today! That's a 42% increase from Mother's Day last year.

Search for significance

David Blaine is a freak. If you have never heard of him, let me tell you a little about him. He is a street magician and a guy who does really crazy stunts. Once he was buried alive for a week. Then he was frozen in a block of ice for 3 days, and last week he lived underwater for 7 days in a big fishbowl in the middle of New York City. After breaking that record he tried to break the record for holding your breath underwater. His goal was 9 minutes. He didnt break it, but he held his breath for over 7 minutes while being handcuffed underwater.
Keep in mind that he CHOSE to do all of those things! This guy is nuts. What would possess someone to try these life threatening stunts. I'm not sure, but my guess would be Fame.
It's amazing what lengths people will go to for significance. The need to be known is a pretty basic human need. The reality for David Blaine or any of us is that only in Christ can we have that need for significance met. Ephesians 2:10 says, "For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good things He planned for long ago.
By the way, I can't wait to see what David's next stunt will be!

America, what were you thinking?

There has been a huge travesty of justice. Chris got voted off of Idol last night. You must be kidding. Katherine desrved to go home. You could tell by watching her, that she expected to be the one who would be packing up and catching the next flight out of Idol Land.
Oh well, I have no one to blame but myself. I didn't call in to vote for Chris.
He will no doubt land a big fat record deal, so it's hard to feel too sorry for him.
I guess now my money is on Taylor.

idol

My guess is that Katherine goes home tonight. She was pretty weak last night. The truth is that she probably has the best voice in the competiton but she didn't bring her "A" game --so long Kat!
Surprisingly Elliot stepped up. I think his performance will probably keep him around 1 more week.
Taylor missed a huge opportunity last night with the Elvis thing. That should have been his world. He was just so-so.
Chris was just ok last night, but I still think he will be the last man standing. Besides that, he has cool sideburns.

Adding another service

We are in the planning stages of adding a 4th service. We will make the big move on September 17, 2006. Everytime we have added a service, we have had a significant jump in attendance.
Even though all of the services will pretty much be identical, this one will be a little trickier because it will be on Sunday evening (probably 6:00pm).
It will be kind of wierd to go home after speaking at 3 services in the morning, just starting to decompress, and then have to go back and do it again. Actually I am a little more concerned about what it will mean to our volunteer base. I know that many churches can swing it, but intuitively as a leader it still concerns me. Our volunteers are the most incredible people in the world, and I would put them heads-up against any church-- but it still concerns me.
The good thing is, that if we are able to begin construction this summer as planned, it will mean that it will be a short term (1 year) assignment.
As they say, "it's a good problem to have".

Another one in the books

Sundays are so much fun at Foothills! Yesterday we had a great crowd even with the overcast sky and cool drizzle. What was really cool was how many kids we have involved in our Children's ministry (Critter Crossing--pre-school, and Planet Kidz--k5-5th grade) . Yesterday we had over 275 kids!
Our volunteers did an amazing job making sure everyone stayed dry walking through the parking lot. We have an umbrella team that make dozens of trips back and forth from the parking lot to the building. It's really great to hear people's comments the first time they experience this. They can't believe that people would serve them that way.
Sometimes it's the little things that say the most to a guest.

American Idol

Well last night wasn't a big surprise. Everyone I talked to figured Paris and Elliot were going to be in the bottom 2 , and Paris was my guess for going home last night.
I felt bad for her, because at this stage, everyone of them is pretty good.
Chris is my pick for #1, followed by Taylor.
This is the first year I have watched American Idol. I could never figure out why people were so into it. Now I know. It's kind of addictive.

Leaders are Learners (part 2)

Another method of learning that has helped me become a better leader is meeting with other leaders in person. I have found most Pastors/churches to be very helpful in making themselves available to mentor other churches. You may be surprised at how far buying a lunch for a Pastor will go.
Our church has benefitted greatly from meeting with churches like New Spring Church, Northstar Church, Marathon Church, Brookwood Church and Crossroads Community Church. They have rolled out the red carpet and it is incredible how much impact it has had.

If I read or hear about a church that may have already been where we are going, I don't hesitate to pick up a phone or email somone and ask if I can correspond with them or even schedule a staff road trip to hang out with their staff. I think I have only been turned down once or twice. My theory is, Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Since we began as a church, it has always been our heartbeat to be a resource for other churches, so we have tried to make ourselves available for churches too.
There really is no conference or seminar that can come even remotely close to the things you will learn meeting face-to-face.