Church Planting

350 is not…

-How much it cost to fill up the gas tank on my Explorer. (Although it is closer than I would like.)

-How many gold medals Michael Phelps is going to win by 2040.

-How much movie tickets will be in 5 years.

350 is the God sized goal that we will reach this Sunday.  It will be nothing short of miraculuous when we have 350 people in the building on Sunday.  Not 350 just for the sake of having 350, but so that our influence in this community could be increased.  That would be more people who potentially will have a life changing experience with God.

350 people would continue to further the dream of being part of a revolutionary movement of God in this city!

We are praying like everything depends on God and inviting people like it all depends on us.  I can’t wait to see what God does!  I’m expecting God to do great things!

Chad Bowen is one of my best friends and was my roommate in college at North Greenville.  He is the Lead Pastor at Metamorphosis Church in Greenville, SC.

He and his staff are currently living on the roof of Liquid Highway for 48 hours in an attempt to obtain a bunch of canned food for people who need it. 

The event is called Hunger Hurts Greenville.  Check it out here!

Update:  I just talked to Chad.  He informed me that they have surpassed their goal of 2000lbs of canned food.  A very cool thing!

Yesterday, I had the awesome opportunity to connect with Daryl Strickland, who is the Executive Pastor at Lifepoint Church in Wilmington, NC.  It was almost creepy how many similarities there were in our stories.  Daryl was extremely helpful and willing to give me almost an hour of his day.  (Breaking news…I just read on their website that he is also a rapper.  That makes him even more cool.  I’ve secretly wanted to be a rapper but never had the skills.)  Be sure to check out his blog.

Lifepoint is doing an incredible job in their city.  They are seeing God do some pretty incredible things!  I’m looking forward to getting to know them better and learning from them.

Lifepoint – welcome to the network!

As I watched the NBA finals last week, I was constantly reminded about the importance of having a good team around you.  This year was a classic example.

-On one side, you had the LA Lakers.  LA is fortunate to have (probably) the best player in the league in Kobe Bryant.  He doesn’t seem to miss, especially with the game on the line.  The problem with the team is that there is no supporting cast there.  It all rises and falls on Kobe.

-On the other side was the Boston Celtics.  There is probably no one on the team that could play with Kobe one-on-one.  However, they had more supporting cast members.  On any given night, anyone on the team could lead the team statistically.  When someone was having a bad night, there was always someone there to pick up the slack.

It made me grateful for the team that we have at Freedom Church.  We have a staff and partners that are passionate about seeing God do His thing in Acworth.  We realize that it is going to take each person doing their part to reach this city. 

I can’t wait to blog about what God is going to do in and through Freedom Church in the coming weeks, months, and years.  It is an honor for me to be a part of what God is going to do in this city.

As a part of my Grand Jury Duty, we took a field trip to the Cobb County Detention center today.  We ate lunch there and took a tour of the facility.  The food wasn’t terrible, but not something I would want to eat on a daily basis.

As we walked around and I was able to look into the faces of people that were in jail for various reasons, I couldn’t help but to be overwhelmed.  Some of these people were in jail for misdemeanors.  Some for felonies.  Some were even in solitary confinement.

The thing that overwhelmed me about each one of the guys and girls was the lack of hope on their faces.  It was apparent to me that they simply had no reason to live.  I left there even more convinced that we need to reach the people in the Acworth area.  They need hope!!