Freedom Church

Wow….that’s the only word that I can find to express what we experienced yesterday at Freedom Church.  Here are  a few of the highlights:

- We celebrated the 2 year anniversary of Freedom.  It is hard for me to believe that it has been 2 years already.  Lots of changed lives and people celebrating our great God.

-We launched a new series called, Freedom 2.0.  This series is all about the vision and values of Freedom Church.

-We had a Slam Poet write a piece specifically for this day and used it to intro into a song.  It was crazy intense!

-Freedom Worship debuted a new original song.  It was rockin’!

-Pastor J.R. also announced that Freedom Church will be moving on March 7 from Barber Middle School to North Cobb High School.  Barber has been awesome but North Cobb is going to take things to a whole new level.

-We lined the entrances to our campus with signs that displayed the first names of everyone who has accepted Christ since our launch.  It was a powerful visual of all that God has done in 2 years!

- Pastor J.R. reminded us that while the last 2 years have been awesome, the best is yet to come!

Exactly 2 years ago, I was going insane because I was going crazy thinking about the launch of Freedom Church.  I can remember being extremely excited and pumped.  (I also remember being terrified that no one was going to show up.)

Not much has changed.  Well, I’m not as worried that no one is going to show up.  However, every Saturday I still have that same excitement about the upcoming Sunday.

Tomorrow is no exception!  We are going to have an unbelievable celebration of all that God has done over the past 2 years.  I’ll see you there at 9:45 and 11:15!!

Also, Pastor J.R. is making a HUGE announcement!   You won’t want to hear this information second hand.

I spent some time today thanking God for what He is doing in my life.  He has given me a great wife, amazing kids, and an opportunity to have a front row seat to what He is doing at Freedom Church.  I feel like I am living the dream.  Just when I think life couldn’t get any better, it goes to a whole new level.

Here’s a little challenge for you:  Take 3 minutes and write down as many things as possible that you are grateful for.  You’ll be overwhelmed!

Thank you Jesus for all that you have given to me.  It is an honor to be able to serve the creator of the universe!  Please help me to never take for granted all that you have given to me.

I haven’t said this in a while but it’s still true.  I abso-freaking-lutely love my life!!

*I couldn’t ask for a better wife.  She’s amazing… ‘nuf said!

*I couldn’t ask for better kids.  Brayden, Anniston, and Presley bring me truckloads of joy each day.

*I couldn’t ask for a better job.  Being the Executive Pastor at Freedom Church is a dream job for me.  I love what I get to do.  I love the people that I get to experience this journey with.  God has done many incredible things.  Here’s the good news:  The best is yet to come.

Kind of reminds me of this verse.

Don’t miss this Sunday, as we continue a series called Hide and Seek.  This has been a powerful series that God is using to call out the greatness that resides in all of us.  See you at 9:30 or 11:00!!

Currently, I have the opportunity to oversee the Guest Services areas on Sunday mornings. Pastor J.R. challenged us to think through why a person should desire to serve in our particular area.  Here’s what I came up with:

5. You have the opportunity to help our guests have a great first impression of Freedom Church.

4. You have the opportunity to honor others by creating a distraction free environment for them to worship.

3. You have the opportunity to connect with other incredible partners.

2. You have the opportunity to be on the front lines of something so much bigger than yourself.

1. You have the opportunity to help people far from God to experience life in Christ.

In Acts 15, the Pharisees are very upset because the Gentiles aren’t obeying the law of Moses, as related to circumcision (ouch!).  Peter stands up for the Gentiles by basically telling the religious leaders to get over it.  He also helped them to realize that they were trying to place something on the people that God didn’t require.  He tries to help them to understand that they were saved by grace, not by the law of Moses.

As I read this, I couldn’t help but think about how churches operate.  Often, we often condemn people for showing up to our worship services dressed the ‘wrong way’ or for not knowing the right words to say.  In our minds, we expect people to be fully devoted followers of Christ by the 2nd visit!

One of the things that is refreshing to me about Freedom Church is that we realize that the starting point for everyone is different.  We have to take people where they are.  They have no choice but to be there. There is no condemnation for people who didn’t wear the right thing or said a word that you probably wouldn’t normally say at church.  We realize that it is a process and no one changes overnight.

Our goal is to help them to take the next step in their journey with Christ.  For some, that will mean they need to just admit there is a God.  For some, it may be to accept Christ.  For others, it may be to begin praying or reading the Bible.

My prayer is that we continue to view people as God does.  In doing so, we have the opportunity to help people far from God to experience life in Christ!

Last Thursday, I placed a call to the GA DOT to see when a couple of major access roads were going to open back up.  The roads had been affected by the extreme amounts of flooding.  The person on the other line told me that the roads weren’t going to be open until this week.

So, what do you do when your 2 main access roads are closed and you’re a portable church?  We immediately began making plans to move our worship experiences to North Cobb High School.  Our team worked like crazy to make it happen.  By the end of the day, we had everything in place to make the move.

I bet you can guess what happened next…..the roads opened!  We were glad to be able to meet at Barber this past Sunday and not have to move.  However, I think we enjoyed the rush of going into super-planning mode. I went home that night exhausted from my mind racing the entire day.

This was another reminder to me that the team that God has assembled at Freedom is special.  Everyone is very fluid and is willing to do WHATEVER IT TAKES!  The bottom line is we desire greatly to see people far from God experience life in Christ.  We are willing to do whatever we have to do to make sure that happens!

I’m grateful to be along for the ride!

The people of Freedom Church are inviting machines.  We are averaging 40-50 first time guests per week.  They are doing an incredible job getting their friends and family to church.  This is just proof that if you give people something to be proud of, they’ll tell everyone they know!

The cool thing is that our people are playing a HUGE part in what God is doing in the lives of their friends and family.  It excites me when people are telling their story and it begins like this, ‘It all started when ________ invited me to church.’

Freedom Church, keep it up!  You are doing a great job!!

Without question, Old Time Religion has been our greatest series to date.  We’ll see you at 9:30 or 11:00 this Sunday as we celebrate the last week of this series!  Come experience the goodness!