Date week

Keri and I's "date week" is coming to an end. Our kids spent this last week before school starts with my parents in Canton Ohio. This left Keri and I with the whole week to ourselves. We literally went out on a date 4 nights in a row. It was awesome! I even skipped my softball game to make this happen. (talk about sacrifice! lol) We felt like a young couple again. I have to admit though, that it only takes a couple days and we both start missing our kids.
- On another note, our newest Staff members to C3, Brent and Starla Salyers move in today!
- As for our new building, the walls and trusses are here and will go up shortly.
- Sunday is also C3's annual picnic! There will be a huge kickball game, cornhole, food, fun.....and trophies....ha.

what it feels like

Tuesday, I was running "mile repeats" with one of my friends. Mile repeats are where you run 1 mile very fast, take a 3-4 minute break, and then run another mile and continue to repeat those 2 steps. Trust me, it hurts. As I'm running the last mile, I kept telling myself, that this is what winning feels like. Everyone says they want to run fast, but very few are willing to put themselves through the pain to do it.
I'm learning that as our church continues to grow, the pace begins to pick up. When there are times that I may feel it, I begin to think, "this is what a growing church feels like." The choice is then either to embrace the discomfort, or let off. Which one are you choosing?

obstacles

What are your biggest obstacles? The one's that stand in the way of you doing something great with your life. The obstacles that if removed, you could run after your dream on your heart? Those obstacles are effecting more than you. Think of the countless people that you could touch if your dream was realized. The crazy thing is, it's your dream, your obstacle and your responsibility to get over, under or around it. What's the first step? Take it!

fun

Sunday night I was at my parents church where I got to play some bluegrass music with my Dad and Papaw! It was awesome. At one point I beat boxed and my Dad rapped and his people gave a standing ovation! Everyone was laughing and we had a great time. Monday, we took the kids bowling and I had a turkey (3 strikes in a row) on the 10th frame! Today, we had our monthly sectional meeting and then to a coffee shop to meet with some pastors from another church. I pray Gary and I gave them something they can use. Tonight, Keri and I are going out with about 30 C3'ers to gameworks for dinner and games. It's cool Keri threw out some emails saying it's open to any who are available. I love our church.

Fairfield Christian Academy

Last night and this morning I got the privilege to speak at the beginning of the school year retreat. I had a great time and pray the students were touched by God. The band "the great transparency" led worship and did a great job. It was also cool to see a couple students from C3!

taste

My Keri and I had a conversation discussing how that whatever I speak on Sunday, we have usually had to deal with it the week before. The reason is, "we will have to taste what we preach!" It's easy to stand up and tell others to have "faith" through a rough time in their lives, it's a complete other thing to have to walk through it yourself. So, I'm looking at my preaching schedule through the end of the year to see what I should prepare to face....ha.

depth

I have wrestled at times with how deep to go with the teaching on a Sunday morning. If we don't go deep enough, we lose the mature believers, but if we go too deep, we lose the seekers or young Christians. Our approach has been to deal with real life topics and to look at how the truth of the God's Word can be applied to our lives. Application is the key to LifeChange. Faith + Action = LifeChange. Many Christians who have followed Christ for a while, are over educated and under applied. In other words, they have a whole lot of Bible head knowledge, but very little heart transformation. Who cares how much you know....what are you living out? In my opinion, true ministry depth is what others can take away and apply.

too much too fast

As a leader and a visionary, it is a fine line between having a compelling vision and totally burying everyone with too much vision. As the leader you must see farther than others see, but if you run out too far, you will lose those who are following. So I'm learning that wisdom discerns this balance. The goal is to continue to move forward at a fast yet sustainable pace. To challenge our church and leaders to continue to step out in faith. Once it becomes a part of our DNA it's like a train, that then becomes hard to stop. Choo Chooo!

the life of a pastor

This morning I went to visit someone in the hospital and ended up helping give him a shower. Right now, I'm about to do a wedding at C3 where the bridal party is literally going to dance down the aisle to "love roller coaster." My life is anything but boring!

kids

Talking with my dad last night and he threw out a quote. "With kids, the days are long, but the years are short." Wow that is so true. I want to do my best to enjoy every minute of everyday day and take nothing for granted.

the baby

--- "Nobody wants to hear about your labor pains, they only want to see the baby." ---
So true, isn't it? When I see God using someone to do great things for His Kingdom, I realize that there was much praying/trusting/sacrifice on the individuals part to bring it to pass. Many of those stories of times of discouragement and feelings of walking away from it all, are sometimes lost in the past when the dream is realized. But when you really think about it, we need to hear those stories. Stories of battles fought and scars received in order to see the vision "baby" realized. Sometimes when we hear success stories we get a distorted view of reality or think less of ourselves. I want to hear about the struggle/pain that led to the baby/vision realized.

the summer is over

For C3 and I'm sure most churches, the summer brings with it a lull. We look at summer, not as a time to relax, but a time to plant and prepare for the Fall. Within the next month, things will start to ramp up again and we will see how well we have prepared for it. We are in a crazy season in the life of our young church. With our new addition going up, new hire coming in and a big growth spurt on the horizon, we are praying for God's continued wisdom and favor. Right now I'm also praying/working on C3's future through 2015. Big things are in store....I'm just praying for God's timing.

change the world

Today, Gary (C3's Exec Dir.) and myself are in a coffee shop for our weekly meeting. When we talk about what God is doing and what He is going to do, we get a little excited. We glanced over to see the girl behind the counter staring at us with a puzzled look. I said, "Oh don't mind us, we are just talking about how to change the world."
But truly....we have to believe that. If we are called by God...did you catch that?..BY GOD....the CREATOR of all, the ONE who holds all the power, how can we not believe that we CAN CHANGE THE WORLD through the POWER of CHRIST. I have determined to spend my life chasing what is on God's heart and that is people....souls. I'm just crazy enough to believe that God is looking for a few people who will dream the impossible and have the courage to run after it. When Jesus returns, may HE not find us complaining or complacent, but rather in middle of taking another CITY FOR THE NAME OF JESUS!........I'm getting fire up...I need to go pray.

barbie

My little Kali (who is the most beautiful little girl EVER) is turning 4 and got an early gift while in AL. It was her first "barbie doll." We were sitting together that night as she gazed at the doll and her demeanor suddenly changed. Kali then said, "Barbie is prettier than me." "Look at her pretty dress and her eyes." My heart broke! I wanted to RIP THE HEAD RIGHT OFF THAT STUPID DOLL! I told her that barbie was not real. Look at her eyes (as I smashed her head) they are not real. She is fake....but you are a REAL GIRL. I then spent the next couple of minutes telling her that real beauty comes from the inside. And that she was beautiful on the inside and so-so-so pretty on the outside as well. She knows that her daddy thinks she is the most beautiful girl in the whole world, but the important thing will be what she thinks of herself.

vacation is over

It truly is challenging being away from internet for multiple days at a time. The last 3 days we were at a place on a lake with a dock, pontoon, a canoe and fishing poles. We had a blast and got some sun....burn. Now comes the long drive home (13 hours). We drove 4-5 hours late last night and are about to leave our hotel room now...right after a FREE continental breakfast. At 1 am last night I learned that in this part of TN they can't rent you 1 hotel room to any group that is larger than 4. After the 3rd motel.....we finally found a guy who apparently didn't care to break code. Crazy!

Vacation

My blogs may be a little thin this week, cause I'm on vacation! We left Sunday afternoon and drove to KY to stay the night and go to Dinosaur World. The kids had a blast. We are now in Birmingham and it is hot and humid. We will head to Keri's mom's lake house...(uh trailor) this weekend!

I watched the Dark Knight last night and it really challenged me. (God speaks to me in a huge way through movies) The character Harvey Dent who was turning into the real hero of Gotham, was finally turned through the Joker's pressure. Everyone looked to Dent and trusted him, but he fell. I spent some time thinking about my own life as a leader and pastor, and knowing that just like Harvey Dent, when we stir up the enemy, there are repercussions. It almost always gets worse before it gets better. There is a price to pay, and those who lead the movement will pay the highest price. Am I, and are you, willing to pay it?