Blogathon

Up next is Michael Lukaszewski.  Michael is the pastor of Oak Leaf Church in Cartersville, GA.  He is truly one of the best leaders I have ever known.  I have had the opportunity of visiting Oak Leaf Church on several occasions. I have also had numerous conversations with Michael and been able to sit in on staff meetings at Oak Leaf.  In every occasion, I have walked away with better insight on the church and how to lead it.  So go spend a little time on Michael's blog, you will be both challenged and excited about what God is doing in North Georgia.  And then, come back and read his guest blog post here.

Addicted to Blog Porn

One of the reasons that church planters and church leaders often feel discouraged is because they are addicted to blog porn. We all read the blogs and follow the twitter updates and hear amazing things all the time. Pastor Billy just spoke the word and $5 Million was given to their capital campaign. And $1 Million of that came from a big giver. Heck, our big giver gives $100. Pastor Kevin did a series and 800 people were saved, and 850 of those people got baptized. We've only seen three people trust Christ this month.

We look at our core group or our attendance or our giving trends and wonder if we're even in the same league. I learn a TON from reading the blogs of high capacity leaders. But sometimes, I read their stuff and feel discouraged. God is doing some amazing things in THAT church, but what about MY church? What can we do to make our services as exciting as so-and-so, or how can we baptize 100 people in 15 minutes? I forget that God doesn't just rejoice when 800 are saved, He also parties when one crosses the line. I forget that in my town of 20,000 people, God is doing amazing things. When we compare ourselves to the all-stars, and treat their blogs like porn, we think we're failures.

The reality is that God has given you a unique set of gifts, placed you in a unique setting, and surrounded you with a unique group of people. You can learn from those people, but you can never duplicate their results. That's because they have a unique set of gifts, a unique calling and a unique group of people as well. Comparing yourself to them, comparing your people to their people, and your budget to their budget isn't really fair.

As a leader, I've done this. And it's led me to feel bad or not be excited about what God is doing here in Cartersville. Which is just as amazing.

Michael
oakleafchurch.com [church]
youcanknowgod.com [blog]

Failure blog & sunday events

yesterday, a few of us from the launch team ventured down to Acworth, GA to check out Freedom Church. Here's a few, quick, observations:

• Freedom Church is the friendliest place I've visited.
• The band was exceptional.  
• J.R.'s message was spot on.  It was funny, scriptural, and challenging.
• We got to witness numerous people choose faith in Christ.  As JR said, there were many people who came to Freedom Church yesterday morning who were destined for Hell who left destined for Heaven.  It was awesome.  I hope that never gets old.
• And J.R. has a body guard. I was definitely intimidated.

J.R. Lee, the Lead pastor for Freedom church is also the guest blogger today.  I met J.R. last spring and have gotten to know him pretty well.  I have been blown away by his generosity, his transparency, and his willingness to help other pastors. I definitely consider him a friend.  It has been a privilege to learn from him and be challenged by him.

enjoy.

We have made a lot of mistakes in the church planting journey at Freedom Church. Some bigger than others.

1. We had to fire a staff member before we even launched. I had doubts about hiring this person, but did it anyway. Not smart! I have definitely had to learn to trust my instincts. God gave them to me for a reason.  

2. I have almost jumped off the top of my house several times because I was so worried about our week to week numbers.

I lived week to week WAY too much prior to launch and even during the first two months after we kicked off Freedom Church. If we were down 2 people from the week before - I couldn't sleep for 3 days and thought I was the worst church planter in America.  

3. I constantly battle playing the comparison game. Some of my great ministry friends also double as the most successful church planters and/or Pastors in history. This is a huge blessing to me, but if I am not careful - I can drive myself insane wondering why we had 250+ rather than 2500+ in our first 7 months.

The list could go on and on! Rather than fight it, I just strive to hear and act on the voice of God. If I screw up - I just get back up and keep moving forward. I think I finally believe that God really does want to reach this city more than I do! He will use me - mistakes and all.

J.R. Lee
Lead Pastor

failure blogs

I've tried to make it a habit of not posting serious or heavy things on Friday.

But I do want you all to know the line up for the final three failure blogs that resume on Monday.

In no particular order:

Michael Lukaszewski - pastor of Oak Leaf Church in Cartersville, GA

J.R. Lee - pastor of Freedom Church in Acworth, GA

Jay Hardwick - pastor of Awaken Columbia in Columbia, SC

if you haven't already, check out their blogs and get to know them a little bit.  All three of these guys are much smarter than me and dress better.  And one of them has highlights in their hair.

BTW - is anyone else excited about the Dawgs putting a beat down on the Crimson Tide this weekend.  I can not wait!!! 

Failure Blog -Three

Sorry for yesterday's delay. I was too cheap to pay $10 for internet access.

Up today is Paul Peterson. Paul and his family have recently moved to Cincinnati to plant Walls Down Church.

The reason I asked him to right this blog is because of the personal impact he has made on me. Paul has personified courage and audacity. He gave up security to pursue God in a crazy way. That inspires me. And the guy is a mad man at creating systems to make church planting most effective. Connect Rome will operate more effectively because of some of the systems and procedures I thugged from Paul.

enjoy.

My biggest failure

My name is Paul. I am thirty three years old. I have been married eleven years to my best friend, and together we have four beautiful little girls (5, 4, 3, and 1). I have two masters degrees, have served as senior pastor of a church of over 800 people, and am currently engaged in the biggest adventure of my life… starting a new church, Walls Down Church. All of this and yet I am living in the middle of my biggest failure.

Since college I have had a single goal – to make the complex simple so that everyone can enjoy the complex. I have been carved out to be a teacher and desire more than anything to help people understand, appreciate, and know how to live out the life Jesus promised, that “abundant life” He talks about. One of the best ways to accomplish this is through writing. Therefore, since college, I have desired to write material designed to help “Joe Sixpack” understand and love God’s Word. I haven’t done it yet.

I have a ton of excuses; in the last five years we’ve: had four children, moved four times, I’ve finished two master’s degrees, led a church into a new building, led a church that grew from 600 to 800 in two years, answered the call to plant a church, and on and on the list goes.
The bottom line for me is that my failure comes down to one key issue; I have failed to manage fear. I typically blame my failure to achieve this goal on things like:

• Poor time management – “If I’d manage my time better, I’d be able to write.”
• Stage of life – “When the kids are grown… that’ll be the time to start writing.”
• Insecurity – “Who am I that anyone would listen to what I’d say?”
• And the list goes on and on… you’d be surprised at how creative I can get when it comes to making excuses rather than admit I’m afraid. Or maybe you wouldn’t!

When I got out of college I thought, “I need a master’s degree to give me credibility.” So I earned a Masters of Divinity. But that wasn’t enough. I thought, “I need some more education to give me credibility on the writing front.” So I earned a Masters of Professional Leadership. But that wasn’t enough.

I am coming to the conclusion that preparation does not remove fear. Fear is removed by action. My fear of leaving a stable income and great church was only removed by leaving. My fear of starting a new church is only removed by starting.

I’m at a turning point in my life. I am thirty-three. I am slowly watching the idealistic, visionary, ambitious young man I used to be morph into a man who is “adventurous” but not significant. My father tells me often of the dreams he had as a young man, many of which have not been achieved. He speaks of them in an almost regretful manner. I am at a point in my life at which I am determining how I will look back at my life in the future. I will either look back with regret as I share my story with my children, or I will look back on this period with gratefulness; grateful that I chose to quit living out of fear and chose to put pen to paper and do what I was made to do.

So, my biggest failure to-date is the state in which I currently find myself – made to write but not having done so.

Keep an eye on the local bookstore shelf to see if I break through this failure.

So how about you? Are you making excuses to cover over the fear that keeps you from doing what you were made to do? Let’s bust out of this failure by acting on our biggest hopes and dreams!

Thank you Josh for asking this hard question, and thank you Sherri (my bride and best friend) for pushing me to put pen to paper.

blogarama delay

dearest blog readers,

I apologize for not posting today's failure blog. I am in Tulsa for a church planter's round table. I will post the blog when I arrive home this evening. I am sending this from my phone.

guest blogger - my hero.

Lanny Donoho is guest blogger number 2 (as in order of sequence, not hey i'm going to the bathroom.  oh, are you going number one or number 2?).  Many of you probably know Lanny from his remarkable hosting abilities at the Catalyst Conferences.

Lanny transformed my understanding of ministry.  When I was a junior in college, I went to the famous Big Stuf camps that Lanny directs and emcees.  To be honest, I thought church was lame and boring, And I really wasn't looking forward to going to another church camp where all the girls had to wear one piece bathing suits.

Lanny changed that perspective.  He was hilarious, intriguing and engaging.  For the first time in my life, I saw Christ and His bride with excitement. Lanny made me laugh out loud (which is incredibly rare.)  During that week down at Panama City I gave Jesus Christ my future.  I told Him I would do whatever it is He wanted me to do whenever He wanted me to do it.

I'll always be thankful that Lanny helped initiate the journey that I have been on with Jesus for the past ten years. So here goes.

Enjoy.

So, 

I've not been asked to "guest blog" before although i have crashed a few blogs before. When Josh sent me a note and asked if i would do this thing about failure, i thought "wow, i could pick almost any day and blog about that." I understand the thought though and i think it is important to understand and contemplate and discern failure and what it really means. I am certain that I've been involved in a lot more failure than i am aware of. Think about that for a sec.
Anyway, I do remember one of the first times i ever became immersed in my own failure. This is kinda weird because it's not a failure in my adult life. This may be where it started. I was young. Probably eighth grade. The teacher very quickly asked the class to take out a sheet of paper and write down the following numbers. He then proceeded to simply "say" numbers. We were supposed to write the numbers he spoke. If he said three thousand eight hundred seventy four, we were to write 3,874. This seemed to me to be absurd. Certainly no one would give such an easy assignment. So i assumed he wanted us to write down the number that "followed" the number he spoke. Don't ask me why. I just knew he used the word "following" and i thought the actual request was too simple so i would write 3,785 for the number he spoke above. Shortly after, he graded the papers. He came by my desk and looked at me, handed me the paper with a big red "0" on it. Then he said. "you are surprised huh?" I was not only surprised. I was shattered. EVeryone heard him say that. Everyone else got 100 on it....with the possible exception of Melvin Graham, who probably drew pictures of animals, but that is a different story.
. I sat there. Crushed. Failed. When the bell rang. I walked home. Went to my room and laid on my bed and began to cry like crazy. My mom came in and wanted to know why i was home and why i was crying. I told her about the test and that i had failed and gotten a 0 and everyone probably knew and that i was never going back to school again.
FAILURE. I was smart. Kinda popular. Had felt pretty good about myself up until that time. But right then....I was miserable.
I've failed in a lot of ways since then. In relationships, in job performance. In meeting expectations of myself and of others. I've stood in front of people and done comedy where no one laughed. Actually was set up once at the Miami fair by a guy who said "hey, come open up for me at the show." He was doing music and wanted me to do comedy before he started. I kept doing my best stuff and kept hearing him laughing behind the stage curtain but not one person in the whole audience laughed at anything i was doing. I finally just walked off the stage and went backstage where he was laughing his head off because out of the two of us, he was the only person who knew that not one audience member understood a word of English.
But i felt it again. What happens inside when we think we fail could literally tear us apart. It has happened to thousands of people.
Here is the thing i have discovered. The thing we all know but often we can't internalize. We can't fail. We can discover what we aren't good at. We can discover what we need work at. We can discover what we shouldn't even be involved in because of our giftedness. Don't get me wrong, we can do things that are wrong and that hurt others. We can do things that we shouldn't do. That is a different matter. When i say we can't fail, i simply mean that life is a process. That process should be about learning all the time. Woody Allen, the great theologian once said "If you're not failing every now and again, it's a sign you're not doing anything very innovative"
. Ok so you can fail. But that doesn't make YOU a failure. You succeeded at discovering what you shouldn't do or what you should do again only next time differently. God doesn't create people who are failures. He creates people who should live and learn and grow and discover and honor him. There isn't a person mentioned in the bible, who didn't fail at something, but again, that didn't make them a "failure". Generally speaking it made them someone he could use. And hey, they made it into "the bible".
Everyone has heard all the stories about Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Abe Lincoln, and every other major brilliant historical figure. All of our lives are filled with many more stories of failing than succeeding. The failures were what made them heroes of success. Weird huh?
I wish i could go back and write down "the following numbers"... and i wish i could go back and know spanish, or decline the invitation to stand on that stage, but...to this day, i always make sure i understand the instructions before i begin, and i always ask a lot of questions about the audience i am going to stand in front of. My failures made me ask the right questions and move forward.
One more note. i know a lot of men and women who have gone through what they would consider horrible failure. Marriages have been lost, jobs have been lost. Careers lost. But not one of them was ever lost from God's loving and forgiving mercy and grace. It took me a while to have the courage to go back to school. It has taken a while for many to stand back up and make life count. But God is bigger than all the mistakes we make and he is the only one who doesn't fail. I wanna walk close beside someone who doesn't fail. Really close.

Guest Blogger Numero Uno

Failure Blog Week

for an explanation of what is going on this week go here.

First up on the ole' blogaroo is Carey Nieuwhof.

I met Carey briefly last year when he visited Rome with the North Point Strategic Partner Lead Pastors.  I, observed, as he interacted with other lead pastors, and was incredibly impressed at his desire to ask questions and seek understanding. I think his background is journalism (I think Carey also went to Law School and Seminary) so it was fun watching him interact with Andy Stanley and then ask follow up questions.  

Soon after that, I discovered Carey's blog - and I have become a daily reader.  In the past 9 months, Carey has challenged and mentored me through his blog without even knowing it. 

I ask a distinct question every time I interact with people based on Carey's challenge.

I have challenged people trying to determine whether or not to be a part of the movement of Connect Rome to ask this question because of Carey's blog.

Carey's story is crazy and bold and audacious.  And I am so pumped that he was willing to write about failure for us.  

On deck, for tomorrow, is this guy.  he's truly my hero.

enjoy. and then spend some time on Carey's blog.  I promise you that you'll be both challenged and encouraged.

Afraid to Fail

There was a season of my life (a long season) where I was afraid of very few things. Except this big thing. I wasn't afraid of tradition, opposition, change or doing things differently. I wasn't afraid to make radical changes, and we did make radical changes. I started the ministry God gave us in three small, declining churches with an aggregate attendance of 50. Within eight years, we had sold all the original buildings, moved to a school, relocated again into a 2 million dollar facility and grown to over 800 in weekend attendance.

That big thing? Fear of failure. I didn't realize it at the time. My fear operated at the white noise level - there, but hard to hear any more if you've been in the room for more than a few minutes. Ironically, it was in some measure my fear of failure that lead me to succeed.

The hardest part about fearing failure is that it can play with motivation. I was deeply sold out for God, in love with him. But being afraid to fail meant dysfunction crept in. It was hard to let anything not succeed. I remember one Sunday in particular, I came home from church and asked my wife how my message was. "Good" she said. "Good?" I asked (never say 'good' to a preacher). "That's it, good?" "No honey, it was good. Like very strong. There was nothing wrong with it, it was solid all the way through?" "Solid...but what kept it from being great?" Finally, she looked at me and said "Can't you just accept that you did a good job?"

Stopped me dead in my tracks. No, I guess I can't settle for good. It has to be great. I have to be great. I realized my deepest fear was that I wasn't that great. That God might leave me with a ministry of 3 people preaching in some cornfield in the mid-west somewhere (apologies to corn farmers and people from the mid-west is extended in advance). I realized I think I needed to succeed more than God needed me to succeed. That's so deeply sobering because the logic is so deeply twisted.

God had been chipping away at me for some time, but shortly after that exchange he would lead me into a deep almost depression, and then a deep rewiring of who I was (I blog a bit about that time starting here). One of the hardest things I had to come to terms with is that I didn't have to win again and again. It was okay to fail.

I'm still working through that one...but here's what I want to see happen fully in my life:

I want to see all my motivations - subconscious and conscious - to be motivated out of gratitude and response to Christ's grace, not out of my fear of failure.
I want to remove all the pressures that fearing failure puts on teams and families. I want that gone.
I don't want my personal emotions to be dictated by pleasing people, but by pleasing God.
I want my sense of self worth to be firmly rooted in Christ alone, and not in "performance" that comes and goes like the wind.

How do you struggle with fear of failure? How does it impact the people around you? Where are you in that struggle? How might God be speaking into your life right now?

Oh, and before I go, I hope you liked this blog piece....

Actually, right now, that's the furthest thing from my mind. But I do hope God might use it in some way. And either way, He loves us.

Failure...

I've screwed up a lot.  I mean a whole lot.  And later on, I am going to speak openly about some of my biggest and greatest failures.  The list is truly long.  I spent a good portion of my time in late high school and college dealing with pornography (it's quite strange to see that written on a public blog where hundreds will read it.)  As a 22 year old kid, my wife left me.  Big time failures.

Failure happens.  It sucks.  It's embarrassing.  It hurts.  But sometimes it's necessary.  Other times it's helpful.

I know a lot of you who read this thing have big dreams and hopes. You truly believe that God is calling you to do something big - super big - like so way beyond your capability big.  But it's scary. It's hard to be bold, to move - especially with out the guarantee of success.  

This week I'll be featuring so pretty impressive guest bloggers.  These guys have made a big impact on my life.  And they are all pursuing God sized dreams.  They have agreed to talk honestly and candidly about their failures.  My hope is that reading the stories of successful folks who have made an amazing impact for the Kingdom of God will encourage you to be more courageous and audacious.  

Enjoy.

halloween costumes

I have to admit that halloween is definitely my favorite non-Jesus holiday.

Last night, Julie and I were discussing what Briggs should be for halloween.

I actually want to poll you guys to see if it would be an appropriate outfit:

we, well actually I (Julie doesn't really like the idea - i guess she'd rather him dress up like one of the veggietales characters - okay she doesn't want him to be a veggie - in fact she actually just likes for me to suggest costume ideas so she can tell me how stupid i am), thought that it would be a good idea to dress Briggs in swaddling clothes and carry him around in a manger.  

Is it inappropriate to dress your child up like baby Jesus for halloween?

Would it be more appropriate if I dressed up like Joseph and Julie dressed like Mary?

I really would like to hear your opinions on this.  And please suggest other more appropriate (or inappropriate) costume ideas for our boy's first halloween.  Julie's mom has already said she'd foot the bill for the costume.  So feel free to be extravagant.

Apparently, we're not the only family dealing with these struggles.  For a related story, you should read here.

It doesn't happen often, but yesterday...

I had the opportunity to drive up to Cartersville and spend sometime with this guy yesterday.

Michael's been quite helpful and supportive.

I'm looking forward to the possibility of being able to partner with him and Oak Leaf church to be able to really impact Northwest Georgia.

On my way home from Cartersville, I decided to cut my radio off and spend some time listening to God.

It doesn't happen often, but yesterday I distinctly heard (not audibly, but in my head) God speak.  

This is what he said:

"Josh, I'm enough for you."

I'm pretty certain that I believe what God said is true.  And many of you reading this also believe that statement is true. 

But, our lives don't always  reflect that belief, do they?

After all, isn't sin essentially us saying that God is not enough and that we need something more, something different?

would we care so much about money and comfort if we believed that God is enough? Isn't our concern about money and comfort really a reflection on how we choose to chase after our own security rather than our security in God?

I have a great desire to be successful and gain notoriety.  Isn't that me being more concerned about my own glory and not being satisfied that God's glory is enough?

When things get tough - we don't usually run to God because he is enough - many of us run to a bottle, a pill, a late night movie, an ice cream container, a job, a bad relationship, a computer, or a fake identity.

And every time we think that is going to be enough, but every time, it is never enough.

In fact, the inverse usually happens.  

What you thought would bring you more hope actually leaves us more hopeless.

What you thought would ease the anxiety actually makes you more anxious.

What you thought would make you feel more valuable actually made you feel more devalued.

What you thought would make you feel more secure actually created more insecurities.

What you thought would bring you relief actually brought restlessness.

It's deceit.  It begins with do this {insert bad choice here}, and you surely will not die.

But then,

What you thought would bring you life is actually bringing you death.

Scripture is clear.  The enemy has come to steal, kill and destroy.

It doesn't happen often, but yesterday God told me that He was enough for me. 

Right now, I'm choosing to believe that because, honestly, I've chosen a lot of the other options before and all they've ever done is screw me over.

the dilemma.

UPDATE - Wowser - saying you won't post something gets a lot of people intrigued. it's really not that controversial, but if you'd like to read it, well just read below and you'll get instructions.

So

I'm looking at a blog I wrote for today.
It's borderline inappropriate.
My assumption is that some would be quite offended.
It has words that are not suitable for children (yeah - much worse than scrotum)

But
it would hit many of us in the stomach hard.
And
it would serve as a great litmus to gauge our love for people who are far from God.
And

sadly, the statements are true.

And

the purpose of this blog is not to create division.

But

the blog I wrote doesn't actually create division.

And

it actually just highlights the division that already exists.

So,

here's what I decided:

Most of you are big boys and girls and are capable of making a decision about whether or not you are willing to be offended (many of you will not be offended in the least.) 

And 

many of you are very curious now about what I have written.  

I don't want you to go hungry from curiosity.  

I care about you.  

I'll feed you baby birds.

But

I have decided, for now, not to post it on my blog.

But

If you would like to read today's post, you can send me an email and I will happily send you today's blog post directly to your email.

Here's my email address - joshtalks@me.com

xoxoxoxoxoxox,

josh r.

connect rome announcement time

This sunday (sept 21) we will be meeting again as a launch team. We will be meeting at 10 am at McCrobie's on Broad Street. (325 Broad Street.) It is important that you make it this week. We have a lot of plans that need to be discussed, and we want your input. Since we have begun meeting as a launch team, we have never had more than about 65% of our launch team together at the same time. So, please do whatever it takes to get here this Sunday at 10 am. Make sure to bring someone with you. Come, be a part of the beginning of an incredible movement to make it simple for people to connect to God and each other. If you have any questions feel free to contact me.

also...

This saturday morning is the annual Redneck Rummage Sale at the Rome Braves Stadium. Connect Rome is participating in this event. We need the following:

1. Your junk to sale at the rummage sale. Clean out your garages and closets. Ask others if they have things that they want to get rid of.
2. Your help Saturday morning, bright and early, (before 6 am) unloading trailers and getting stuff set up in the booth.
3. Helping out at the rummage sale by maintaining the booth and buying things that Connect Rome will need.
4. Help pack up stuff that is not sold on Saturday afternoon so that we can take it to Mountaintop Experiences, Inc.

If you can do any or all of these things (we really do need your help) send me an email, text or drop me a comment. Your response would be of great comfort to me, and I would think you are super.


It's going to be a busy weekend, but it will be a lot of fun.

josh
joshtalks@me.com
706.409.2379

random things you didn't know about me - the finale.

I tend to come across to people as super confident, arrogant even.  I typically do not have a problem making a quick decision or leading other people, but...

I'm really not near as confident as I appear.  In fact, I tend to rotate between being highly confident and scared to death.  A lot of days (and most nights) I am scared to death.  I sleep very little & have high anxiety. There have literally been days at a time where I have truly thought all day long that I was on the verge of vomiting.  Overwhelmed would be an understatement for a descriptor of how I sometimes feel.

I have spent a lot of time analyzing my leadership abilities and insecurities, and I can trace all of my confidence and all of my fears and anxieties to one common denominator.  

Trust.

When I look at what God has called me to do, I immediately recognize the magnitude of what is at stake and feel the pressures and uncertainties that come along with the tasks.  And each day, I must choose to either trust in God's ability or trust in my inability.

That choice directly determines whether I walk in confidence or fear.

I can either walk in confidence of knowing that can and God will do immeasurably more than I could hope or imagine or walk in fear that I may screw something else up.

It's a choice. 

One choice allows me to be in charge.  

One choice requires gives up all my rights and desires and gives God control.

Typically, my personal history has shown that I usually give up my rights and desires after I have tried to be in charge and screwed things up.

but now, I'm trying to stay in a realm that is so outside of my league, that I have to fully trust God from the very beginning.  

Andy Stanley once told me (well not me personally, but about 25 of us) about a sign that he has had stuck on his computer screen since he began the big scary leap of launching North Point in Alpharetta.  

The signs says this -  "Lord you got me in to this.  I'm trusting you to get me through it!"

Today, I'm choosing to fully trust God.  And therefore, I will walk confident in his abilities and plans.

Hopefully tomorrow I will do the same.

random things you didn't know about me pt 2 - A

this is a response to this post.  

mainly this is for greta who has been breathless with anticipation.

i have a belly button.

but i cried for several years of my life because my siblings explained to me that I got it from a cabbage patch kid.

random thing you didn't know about me part 3

in the next few weeks, this blog will be featuring some incredible guest bloggers.  they will be talking about their failures and struggles in leadership and ministry.  my hope is that it will encourage us all to be more audacious and bold in leading and pursuing the expansion of the kingdom of God.  So, really, stay tuned.

in the mean time, here is another random thing you probably didn't know:

I'm an above average size guy - although the descriptor is quite relative.  On my college basketball team, I was not an above average guy.  I was tiny.

But I am around 6' 1" and about 190 lbs.  By no means am I scrawny.  But growing up I thought I was going to be a gigantor because I have always had incredibly large, awkward, sized feet.   When I was in 4th grade I wore a size 10.  In 8th grade, I wore a size 14.  I have always looked abnormally disproportionate and walked and ran clumsily.  

So random thing you didn't know about me is that I have ridiculous long feet - well actually my feet aren't the long part.  I have ridiculously long monkey toes.  Don't believe me? I posted a picture below.  And I used my pinky (I also have really long fingers) to give you a length comparison.

unfortunately for briggs, it looks like he got his extremities from his dear old dad.

random thing you didn't know about me pt 2.

when i was a wee child, i was sick and feeble.  and at the ripe old age of 6 weeks old, my belly button exploded.

have any of you ever seen the old faithful geyser at yellowstone?

that's what my belly button did.  

I had a hernia that ruptured, and yellow stuff shot straight out of my stomach.  

My belly button was destroyed.  

So... 

the doctor gave my parents a choice. 

They could either have me stitched up flat with no belly button or 

they could have the doctor make me a new fake belly button.  

and for the past 27 years I have been disappointed with the choice that my parents made.

For those of you coming to this blog to be challenged and encouraged in our audacious church planting journey, stay tuned.  There is a great line up of blog posts coming the next few weeks.  I don't want to drop to many hints, but I guarantee you it will be worth your time.

And for those of you wanting to see more pics of the boy, rest assured that I'll feed you baby birds.

random thing you didn't know about me part 1.

In order for you to get to know me better, over the next several days I will be sharing random things you probably don't know about me.  

Here goes, numero uno:

When I was 4, I purposely pooped in my pants.  Then, I took the poop out of my pants (it was solid) and placed it on the toy shelf at my preschool.  I have processed through these events several times in my life.  

Here's what I've learned about me through this experience - I don't like sleeping.  I hate naps & never ever look forward to going to sleep. It is very tough for me to cut my brain off, and I would just assume stay awake always.  

And it was for this reason I crapped in my pants and placed it on the toy shelf.  It was during nap time and everyone else was asleep except for me.  I was bored and bitter.  So I did what I thought was necessary.  

I'm also pretty certain I didn't wash my hands afterwards.

the aftermath

Currently, as I write this, I am sitting at the Bar at McCrobies watching the Falcon's actually play football.  People are beginning to show up here to play pool, watch football and drink beer.  I, so, want the people in this place to know Jesus - to really really know Jesus.  That is the reason we met in this very same place this morning to pray, worship and create a plan to make it Simple for People to Connect to God and Each Other.  

Here's a quick run down of this morning.  

1. It was cool to hear and see people worship God in this place.
2. It was also cool to see people's response when they found out we were meeting in a nightclub this morning to have church.
3. I stood outside in downtown Rome and listened to the band warm up.  It was an incredible experience to stand in downtown Rome and hear Jesus Paid it All blaring from a bar.
4. We had some new folks sign up this morning.  That always makes me excited. (And we added a new baby sitter to the list.)
5. I love talking about and imagining people far from God showing up in this place on Sunday Mornings and finding out that Jesus is madly in love with them.
6. I told our launch team today that I am going to constantly keep us in the realm of uncertainty because I want us to fully trust God.  They seemed okay with that.
7. I saw people come alive this morning while planning different ministry environments.
8. We talked about getting in on God's invitation to experience a great move of God.
9. We also discussed some upcoming fundraising ideas to raise support to help launch this thing.
10. 4 months and 4 days until launch day - I am so freakin' excited!

Falcons just won!

I'm heading home to get ready for small group.

Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin - The new Alaskan Assassin.

So - she's kinda taken the Evangelical crowd by storm.  

This is not an endorsement of her or a non-endorsement (is there such a thing as a non-endorsement.).  

Rather - I just have a simple question for a portion of the conservative Evangelical crowd.  There are denominations (and a large number of pastors) that do not believe women should be pastors or even deacons.  If you are one of those people who believe that (and I'm not necessarily saying you are wrong):

How do you reconcile not being able to vote for a woman to be a deacon but you can vote for a woman to be the Vice President of the United States?

I would truly love to hear your response.

BTW - at Connect Rome, women will be in Leadership.  And it's quite possible that women will one day be on our elder board and serve in pastoral roles.

the boy

Briggs is not quite two months old.

He really doesn't do anything exciting.

He eats, sleeps, and craps all over his clothes.

And we are required to clean up his mess.

We have to clean poop out of all his creases and under his balls (sorry if I offended you, I tried to use the word scrotum here but it looked really strange.)

Sometimes, he'll chow down 5 or 6 oz of mommy milk (that term seemed a little more kosher - no Julie isn't Jewish), and then, out of no where, like he's been waiting for the perfect moment, will extinguish his mommy milk all over your face.

He also requires you to get up real early in the morning, pack up all his junk, and load him up.  

Sometimes it is a slight nuisance.

But... I wouldn't trade it for anything.

I love him.  There's no real reason.  Sure he is incredibly good looking, but he requires a lot of energy and effort. But no matter what, I love him and enjoy being around him.

and He definitely has not earned my love or favor.  I just do.

Now don't get me wrong. I look forward to the day when Briggs can wipe his own butt, clean up his own messes, keep all of his food down, and get his own stuff together in the mornings, but I'm not going to love him more when he matures.  In fact, there is nothing he could do to make me love him more, and there is nothing he can do to make me love him less.

I love that my heavenly father feels that way about me (and you.)  I am so grateful that we don't have to earn His favor.  

There is truly nothing that I can do to get God to Love me more.  And there is truly nothing I could do that would make God love me less.

He loves me.  And there is absolutely nothing I can do about it.

It's that time again.

these launch team meetings are getting more and more frequent.  do you know what that means?  it means we are getting closer and closer to launching this movement to make it simple for people to Connect to God and Each other!!!

I am very excited that this Sunday (September 7th) we will be meeting for the very first time at McCrobie's (formerly the Alley) on Broad Street!!!!
We will meet from 10am - 11 am.
Bring a friend with you.
Here is what we will be discussing:

- How to set up McCrobie's to make it welcoming and exciting on Sunday Mornings
- Our children's meeting space
- our fall campaign to get the equipment we need for launch date
- how to connect with College students - (if you are a college student - we will definitely need your input.)
- Fall events (i.e. chili cook off, christmas parade, etc.)
- our partnership with Mountaintop Experiences, Inc. in South Rome & how you can help
- Marketing ideas

We are less than 2 months out from our first preview service!! Make sure, if you are at all interested in being a part of this thing to come this sunday.

If you have any questions, call me at anytime - 706.409.2379.

Also, we had mentioned eating chili this week after the launch team gathering. We will not be able to do this at McCrobie's this week. Therefore, we will not be serving lunch after the gathering.

It's about to get real exciting.

By the way, we currently have around 50 people committed to helping launch Connect Rome. We still need about 50 more. So have a conversation this week with someone about Connect Rome and invite them to come with you this Sunday.

Notorious B.R.I.G.(g.s)