The First 3 months

Two weeks ago we celebrated our 3 month anniversary. Here's a quick video that we shot.

BTW - since the video was shot 7 more people have begun a relationship with Jesus.

67 people have chosen to follow Christ in the first 15 weeks!

From the very beginning of this thing, our launch team has prayed to see 200 people begin a relationship with Jesus Christ! We're a little ahead of pace :)

Untitled from Josh Roberts on Vimeo.

Registration is filling up fast for free Childcare!!!

We still have over 100 spaces left for free childcare this Friday (and next Friday) from 6-10pm at Kangaroo Jake's in Armuchee Village Shopping Center. There is no catch... just free childcare (and free pizza)!!! To register or get more information go to www.ConnectRomeVBS.com or call 770.337.1617!!!

Ads will be appearing on the radio and all over Rome starting today so you will not want to wait to register!!!

Forgive me...

Forgive me for the silence.
In all honesty, this may have been the toughest week I've had in quite some time.
Starting a new church really has the ability to wear you down.
But life is good. I still love my job. And I love my family even more.
Speaking of family, Briggs turned 1 this past Sunday!
Since most of you weren't at the party... I thought we'd bring the party to you.

Enjoy.

We're still hiring.

It looks like Connect Rome is really close to making a few hires for our Children's Environments.

I'm quite excited.

I'm excited for parents.

I'm excited for children.

And I'm excited for volunteers.

I'll be sharing more with you about our new directors soon.

For now... We've realized that the blog actually works pretty well for online classifieds.

Therefore, we are going to try it again with another position.

Connect Rome is looking to hire a part time student director.

The pay will not be great (or really even good.) But the job will be a blast.

And you'd get to play a big part in helping transform the city of Rome!

If you would like more details (i.e. see a job description, expectations, etc.) drop an email to

Julie_Roberts@mac.com.

You should move quick in responding. We're going to make this hire pretty fast.

BTW - Before you do that; you should read below about what we're a looking for in a hire.

I have to thank my pastor friend JR for the words below. He's smarter and more eloquent with words than I am. I'm just a good thief :)

• We ALWAYS look to hire from within FIRST – It’s easy to buy in to the vision at Connect Rome for a paycheck. Hiring within allows us to find people who have already bought in and get our unique culture.
• When we don’t hire from within we ONLY hire people we know or are recommended from other friends we know – God’s given us great relationships with great leaders/ministries across the country. As a result, we will use that network to find the best people.
• You have to love Jesus – Period.
• Your family has to be on board – You AND your spouse must be completely bought in. Completely. This is a non-negotiable.
• You have to already be a giver - If you don’t already give to the vision of Connect Rome – than I am not going to pay you to rob God.
• You must be a high capacity and teachable person – If you love to learn and you can get the job done – this is the perfect environment for you.
• You’ve got to be a FREAK about those far from God – When we say we are a church for those far from God – we mean it. If that bothers you – go sing songs with your 3 accountability partners in your Bible study – but don’t worry about applying here.
• You’ve got to be a person of character – Integrity is a big deal. Not looking for perfection – but I am looking for people who take living for Jesus very seriously.
• You’ve got to be an active partner – If you attend Connect Rome and you aren’t serving- then I won’t give you a second look for a staff position.
• You’ve got to fit - You might be the most talented person in the world but if you don’t fit with our team chemistry it isn’t going to work.
• If you could picture yourself doing anything else anywhere else, do it - Connect Rome isn’t a stepping stone. I want to do life and ministry with people who want to give their life to this vision, this church, and this city!

Everything You Ever wanted to know.

So, you've wandered about Connect Rome....

Why did we start a church in Rome, GA - aren't there already a ton of churches?

Why do we meet in a bar?

Why do we have such loud music?

Isn't our marketing a little risque?

How did we get started?

What makes us different from other churches?

Are we a cult?

Starting this Sunday at 11 am (doors open at 10:30) - we will be giving you an ALL ACCESS, Behind the Scenes look in to Connect Rome.

You will not want to miss it.

The Morning After

We finished up the You Asked For It series yesterday.

It was a lot of fun.

Instead of answering a question this week, I gave folks a new, better, question to be asking.

You can here the podcast here.

You can always access the podcast from www.ConnectRome.com

Yesterday really was a great day.

We have the best team of people. They work hard and are passionate about making it simple for people to connect to God and each other.

I'll admit it; I was dreading the summer.

I was kicking myself for the timeline we started the church (we launched about 6 weeks before summer started).

After all, churches have summer slumps and I knew we were losing more than 100 college folk.

But the crazy thing is we haven't had one. The bar was crowded this past week; and we are having a ton of first time guests every week.

AND 8 more people began a relationship with Jesus yesterday.

If you are reading this blog from the Rome area and are not connected to a church; you really are missing out on something incredible. You REALLY should come be a part of Connect Rome.

If you are not in this area... you should move here. We will find you a place to stay. Heck, we have an extra bedroom in our house :)

I'm serious, the next 6 months are going to be crazy. I'm really loving what's going on with Connect Rome right now.

We start a new series called Backstage Pass this Sunday. I'll be posting more on that later.

If you haven't pre registered your kids (or nieces, nephews, grandkids, or neighbors' kids) for our NOT YOUR GRANDMA'S VBS event, you should do it quick. Registrations are flying in 0ur inbox by the minute. This event is only open to the first 200 kids. You can find out more about it and/or register by going to www.ConnectRomeVBS.com

I promise your kids will love it! And you should love it to - it's great, free, 4 hour childcare on a Friday night!!! You deserve it. So do your kids.

Not Your Grandma's VBS!