is this thing on?

since i missed last Friday’s “Friday Four” to go to my grandfather’s wedding, i figured i’d hit you up with a little extra this week. no need to thank me.

here we go.

1 :: read this post this morning. one word. WOW.

2 :: my iPhone was 8 hours off this morning when i got to work. instead of it saying 8:22am it said 12:22am. really weird. i just shut it off and turned it back on and it fixed itself. that’s what we like to call “Shut Up and Reboot”

3 :: going to hang out with some guys from Freedom tonight at this guy’s house. he thinks it’s too quiet with his wife and kids gone so he wants us to come hang out. i think he’s just scared…

4 :: the more i listen to Gavin Degraw’s new album, the more i like it. i didn’t like it at first and frankly, i was a little disappointed because i expected more. but now, i’m kind of digging it.

4.5 :: if you saw the comments on yesterday’s post, you know that this guy got a new garbage can!

yesterday i had a great phone conversation with Louie from this church about small groups. he gave me a whole bunch of great ideas and made me think about some things that i had not thought about. i got so fired up that i went and created the rough draft of the system that FreedomChurch will use for our small groups.

what was the last thing that got you fired up?

so we have a week off of softball and i have no idea what i’m going to do tonight. maybe i’ll watch my boy David Cook prove once again why he should be the American Idol. maybe i’ll go to the grocery store instead of my usual Wednesday evening run. maybe i’ll do some more research about small groups for Freedom. maybe i can just relax. who knows?

what are you doing tonight?

this past weekend i had the dubious task of being in my grandfather’s wedding. i kept telling myself, “it’s not everyday your grandfather gets married.” which is true.

anyway, the wedding was weird, to say the least. for starters, i had never met his bride-to-be until Friday afternoon. pretty crazy. secondly, instead of my dad being the best man (since he was the oldest son) my uncle was the best man and i was a groomsman - my dad skipped out on being in the wedding altogether! i’ve still got to figure out how to get him back for that. anyway, Callie went down with me and played the harp before the wedding got started in what we in the industry like to call a “prelude”. she did a great job and frankly, she stole the show. people were quiet and mesmerized Friday night when she started to practice. she wasn’t even doing her real stuff! she was PRACTICING!! she’s amazing.

flash forward to the wedding on Saturday. they strategically placed me directly behind the unity candle so when it was time for that, i had to take a step back. after they lit the candle, a song was sung which meant i had to stand there with my grandfather and his almost-wife stare into each others’ eyes while the song was being sung. very weird.

there were some other things that added to the weirdness but i don’t want to go into all of that stuff. and trust me, you don’t want me to either.

so, what’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever had to experience?

do you remember this game? the game where you had the stand up playing board and the red and black checker pieces that you dropped into the slots at the top and you tried to connect four of the same colored pieces? i loved that game. really. i did. problem was. i didn’t have anybody to play with me because i was/am an only child. so when the rains came and my play time was forced to be inside, i would break out the connect four game and make designs with the pieces. you could make diamonds and squares and rectangles. it was hours of enjoyment. well, at least for me it was.

basically the premise of this game was to take your playing chips and prevent your opponent from making a connection with their playing chips while at the same time, attempting to connect four of your chips together, in a straight line. seems easy enough. well, it wasn’t. your opponent was trying to block you at the same time.

this is sort of how it is in the church world. ok, its no where close to the way it is in the church world. but the premise is the same. take your playing chips (people) and connect them with other playing chips (other people). most churches nowadays are going with a concept called “small groups”. this is a group of about 8-10 individuals who meet together on a weekly basis to connect throughout the week and apart from the actual church building.

FreedomChurch is a little different. right now, we have no small groups. we just have Sunday morning. Sunday morning is awesome but eventually, we’ll need to build a stronger sense of community. if we’re going to accomplish the vision and goal that God has given us with helping the 90,000 people in Acworth who are far from God move closer to God, then we’ve got to create some outlets for people to get connected.

as of this past Monday night, i am no longer the Creative Director of FreedomChurch. i have taken on a new, and frankly rather daunting role as Connections Pastor. basically, i’m in charge of connecting people to FreedomChurch - helping people move from a first time guest to a regular attender to a partner. this is a big undertaking and i am supremely excited about it. i may still dabble in some creative stuff because my mind doesn’t really have the capability to shut that off, but most of my efforts will not be concentrated on small groups.

if you know somebody or work with somebody at your church who is involved with small groups, please send them my way. i will need a lot of help and guidance. this is a great step in moving FreedomChurch in the direction that God is moving us. God has called us to keep moving. He is so far ahead of us in his plans and dreams for FreedomChurch, we don’t want to keep him waiting on us to catch up.

i am super excited about this opportunity. this is going to be big.