I can’t wait til tomorrow.  It’s going to be intense!

Not sure why, but it seems like it has been a month since last Sunday.  To say I am ready for it to be here would be an understatement…  See you then.

It came down to the last night on the lake… If I had to come home without catching a single fish - I would never hear the end of it.

The good news is that I don’t have to worry about that.  I finally caught one last night.  A decent sized “perch” looking thing, but I really have no clue what it was.  The kind doesn’t matter. The only thing I cared about was catching something living rather than the bottom of the lake, a stick, or someone else’s fishing line.  Perseverance my friends - and a whole lot of luck.

I have a love/hate relationship with fishing.  I get bored quickly if I am not accomplishing anything.  This has served me well over the years; however, I do have to be careful sometimes. 

With that in mind, fishing (I am at a lake house on Lake Oconee until tomorrow afternoon) should be a good outlet. I can accomplish something and relax at the same time.  The problem is that I haven’t caught a single fish.  Not one.  Two full days - several hours in a boat or on a dock, worms, minnows, spinner things, and this horrible smelling catfish stuff - and no fish.  I made a vow not to leave this place until I catch a fish and at this rate I will be here for the next 6 months. 

All that changes today!  Please God - let all that change today!

After creative team meeting yesterday we headed to the lake for a few days…

Todd and I decided to take 3 of the 4 kids out on the boat.  We got about a mile out and decided to come back - when the boat decided it no longer wanted to move.  Neither of us have any idea how to fix anything, so the fact that we were inspecting everything was basically useless…until we checked the gas tank.  You got it - completely out of gas in the middle of Lake Oconee. 

Thank God some guy felt sorry for us and came to the rescue :)  All was well, we were back in less than an hour, no one drowned, and it wasn’t half as embarassing as I thought it would be.  We will try it again today - with a full tank of gas and some extra in the boat!

We are closing out State of the Union this week with a message called How to Have an Affair…

When we planned this series several months ago, I was pumped about this particular message.  I couldn’t wait!
Now that we are in the middle of preparation for this thing and actually walking through the communication points…it is a little different story.  It is going to be intense. 

I am super excited about this Sunday - but in a different way that what I had first anticipated.  Success this Sunday will not be measured by what happens as much as by what is avoided.  Preventative maintence is the best option.  Forget that “live and learn” mindset.  In my life - I’d rather “learn and live”.  That might just make all the difference. 

Great day today!  We are on the front end of spring break and attendance was very good.  Actually, one of our best so far. It was cool to have Gary and some of his crew come to hang out a little bit today.  He has been a HUGE help to us and I was honored he came this morning. 

 On another note, the new offices are almost complete! Can’t explain to you how excited I am about this :) 

1. Sunday morning is going to be a blast…
2. Guys if you don’t get your wife there tomorrow - you are going to be very, very, very upset! Trust me
3. We now have offices in Acworth and will move everything from the Woodstock location this weekend!
4. The tornado alarm sounded twice yesterday…That’s twice this month so apparently I need to build a panic room. 
5. I don’t know how to build much of anything.
6. It’s too early to be typing a blog on a Saturday morning - so I will see you tomorrow!

This guy is coming to hang out with our staff for a couple days beginning Monday and I am pumped about it! 

He is a great guy and I look forward to tracking with him on the church planting journey…

Today I am off to donate quite a bit of blood… I see those mobile blood donation (buses?) eveywhere I go, and I typically stop and give some blood a couple times a year.  Even though they ask me the most interesting questions and stick a large needle into my arm - the cookie buffet is good once the ordeal is over

This time I have chosen to give blood in a more non-traditional way.  How?  The Dentist.  Most of you probably know what I mean by this…Walk into office, sit in a chair, have the hygeinist (also my mother-in-law) floss, spray, blast, etc., etc., your teeth.  Typically, this causes somewhat excessive bleeding on my part - and the demand from my mother in law that I start flossing every single day to avoid this fiasco in the future.  This has been the story for the past 10 years of my life. Another chapter will be written today.

“How close are you to your staff?” It’s a good question that I get asked all the time from other church planters. 

Pretending that we have to be best friends and hang out every second of the day is not beneficial.  The following things are beneficial and we take it very seriously…

We honor each other. (publicly and privately)
We value each other.
We believe in each other.
We evaluate and challenge each other.
We want the best for each other. 
We have each others back. 

These characteristics are non-negotiable.  We have a GREAT team at Freedom and we don’t take that for granted!