One of the things I really struggle with is slowing down long enough to really “hear” from God.  Some people prefer the word solitude, but to me, that sounds like being stuck in a prison camp on an episode of 24. 

 At any rate, I have tried everything to improve in this area!  Everything!  After a ton of failed attempts - I finally found something that works for me…

I have cleared my calendar every Thursday from 8 - 11:30AM.  I go somewhere with my Bible, notebook, whatever book I am currently reading, and a pen.  My only agenda during those hours is to slow down and hear from God.  Everything is competing for our time.  I had to make a strategic effort to make sure that the “everything else” didn’t win! 

What are some of the things you do?  Trust me, I need all the help I can get!

One of the things that has really helped us is our willingness to listen to feedback.

We ask for feedback every single week - and we evaluate every thought that we receive.  We don’t have this thing all figured out - so to receive insight from others has been huge for us! 

Everyone on our team has a desire to be most effective! That can’t happen on our own.  We have to be willing to learn.  If we are not - then we need to get out of the way for those who are!  Embrace feedback and embrace those who are willing to give it!

 

 Call me insane, but I have a crazy dream. 

We are talking about it Sunday and I CAN’T wait! 

After a few hours of celebration - it was time to get back to work.  Fighting the urge to immediately move on was TOUGH! 

We have several little things we want to tweak in order to help us to become more effective.  We are adding a couple items, subtracting a hazer, and moving guest services in order to create better traffic flow, etc. 

We have a lot of follow-up to do this week and I am already pumped about this Sunday!  Can’t wait to do it again!

Today we took a big step in the right direction as we began the journey that is Freedom Church! 

We had a great crowd (225), several church planters, and everything went very smoothly.  There were probably 50 people that were either friends from out of town, family, or church planters from across the region - so to have 175 solid from the city was a great start. 

2 people accepted Christ and I was pumped to hear the great feedback and the buzz that generated from everything that happened today.  It’s just day 1…so I am going to celebrate a little today - and get back to work in the morning!

 

Thursday we had the opportunity to attend Mayor Tommy Allegood’s, “State of the City” address in Acworth. 

He talked about 2007 and the things that are planned for 2008.  One thing is clear - Tommy is a visionary leader and his generosity has spread to this community!  Mike gave me the opportunity to pray at this meeting which was actually hosted at NorthStar!  I love that!

In the middle of the Mayor’s speech - he began talking about Freedom and the “zany” ideas for impact.  Look into the background of the picture from the MDJ.  Funny!

2 more days!  There is a strange ”calm before the storm” type feeling. 

All the last minute purchases have been made, Kenny (the gargantuan box truck) got a tune-up, and it looks like the weather is going to be as nice as a January day can allow.

Can’t wait to take the next step on the journey!  Freedom is coming!

We have tried to communicate several things to our launch team over the past several months…

Vision

Core Values

Culture

One of the most important things we have communicated is that our launch service is not the destination!  Beginning FC is just part of the journey.  This is very important for us.  We’re not just building momentum  for launch Sunday - launch Sunday is building momentum for the future!  3 more days!

Tonight the staff and I are headed out to US Play…

 It’s good for us to just get away for a few hours and concentrate on having a great time.  We are all pretty competitive so I am pumped to be able to see what kind of skills everyone has when it comes to bowling. 

Rumor has it that some of the wives can beat the husbands… If that is true, it will lead to a VERY fun night!

We spent this morning at an elementary school for their 100th day celebration.  Kindergarten teachers should immediately get a pay raise!  It was a lot of fun and we were able to supply several volunteers for the event.   Thank you to the Freedom crew that were able to make the trip!

Later that afternoon, I had the privilege of sitting in a room of area pastors.  Many of those guys have been doing this thing for a long time, and it was good to just sit, take notes, and learn from them!  I was honored to be invited to the table…