So I’m sitting in the Varsity right now in Atlanta. I decided to have Coke. I haven’t had one since February 28th. Here’s the verdict: it was nasty! I can’t believe this, but I don’t like Coca-Cola anymore. I never thought I’d be able to say that. By the way, I love Atlanta! It’s nice to be back here…
Top 33 Victories Part 2
#2 – I have made some great hiring decisions The team I have is amazing! There is no way our church would be as effective as we are without them. These guys are gifted, passionate, sacrificial, talented, and godly. Their understanding of our style of ministry, their loyalty to me and the church, their relentless desire to see God’s vision accomplished in our area leaves me in awe. These guys don’t just work for me at church, they are like my family. They come over my house on Christmas and Easter. It’s not just about work. We’re doing life together. … Read More
Top 33 Mistakes Part 2
#2 – I gave too much of my time away to complainers This is still a struggle for me. My curse is that I want to know what’s going on and that gets me into trouble. There are so many amazing people at Calvary that I want to give my time to and invest in, but somehow I end up sitting in my office listening to complaints about the decibel levels of the music, my choice of sermon topics, or some other misunderstanding. There are days that it takes every ounce of self-control that I possess to keep from going … Read More
The Gospel in Chalk
I’ll be flying to Atlanta to attend the Drive Conference this weekend, but in my place we will be having Jason Anthony (AKA The Chalk Guy) to share a message using the arts. This guy rocks! We normally don’t bring in outside speakers very often, but his message is so powerful that the folks in our church asked if we could bring him back so they could invite their friends to see him. It’s a great entry point into our ministry. You can check out his website here. Calvary Fellowship people reading this: Invite everyone you know!!! This is … Read More
Top 33 Victories Part 1
#1 – We haven’t been afraid to experiment I think one of our greatest strengths as a church has been our lack of fear in trying new things and experimenting with new ideas. Sometimes that hasn’t always worked out, but it has created a culture of change where people are willing to try new things and "work with us" as we’re experimenting. This has happened because we have an amazing group of people that call Calvary Fellowship home. How did we grow this change-friendly culture? That’s easy. We just started changing things. I don’t know if there’s any other way … Read More
Top 33 Mistakes Part 1
Our church’s 5 year anniversary is in 33 days and I’m feeling a bit nostalgic. So I decided it might be helpful to someone out there if I shared what were the biggest mistakes we have made since we started. Since I don’t want my self esteem to go into the toilet, I’m also going to write 33 posts about the stuff we did right (if we can think of that many). What’s amazing is that thinking of the mistakes were a lot easier. Well, here goes… (By the way, these are in no particular order) #1 – I placed … Read More
Double your pleasure…Double your fun…
One of the things I forgot to mention about this weekend’s service is that we are going to 2 services starting September 18 (That’s our 5 year anniversary). I can’t believe it’s almost been 5 years. But our new service times will be 9:30AM & 11:00AM. This transition should be pretty easy since we’ve been preparing for it for a while. We just need to make sure that we end on time, which we have gotten much better at. But it’s an exciting time for us and I believe this is going to open up some new opportunities to reach … Read More
Book Review: The Tipping Point
I just got done reading (Actually listening) to "the Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell. The book was great. The book is written for business and marketing leaders but the applications for church leaders are great as well. What causes some churches to explode with growth and others to stagnate? How can 2 churches have a similar style of ministry and get totally different results? The answer according to Gladwell is 3 key issues: context, presentation, and people. Here’s a couple of take aways I got: Context is the world we live in. What is the context that people see, feel, … Read More
The Names have been changed…
Well, we unveiled the new name and logo today. It was great! People just went nuts over it! "Whatever it takes" was the title of the message and we talked about being sacrificial in our giving to get into our new facility. People were very open to the message and were up to the challenge. I pastor the most amazing church ever! If you’re interested, the message is up. You can download the mp3 here…
The Boiling Point!
I’m working on my message for Sunday and I’m losing my mind I’m so excited about all that God wants to do on Sunday. If you’re a CCML regular, do “Whatever it Takes” to be there. You won’t regret it!
