• Great week on Fathers Day!  5 very cool classic cars, the lobby turned into a game-room, and root-beer floats for the guys at the end.  Much fun!
• Meeting yesterday with several city employees and local business owners for an event coming up in August.  It’s going to be a blast!
• Only ONE service this week (and this week only) in the other theater on campus at 11:00 am for Lord, Make us One! 
• Free giant bouncy games for the kids (and over-anxious parents) and a few cold surprises at the end as well!
• June has actually been a very good month for us so far!
• In August we will begin financially supporting two church plants every month.  Very cool. 
• I got some blood work the other day and they told me to eat more oatmeal?
• Trying to decide if I am jumping on this bandwagon with the rest of the staff.
• The vast majority of my hair has been cut off for the summer.  I would shave it - but I am afraid.  Very afraid.

Devin’s dad (Hawk) use to be a pretty crazy guy.  He dealt heroine for extra cash, has been in more fights than anyone I know, and has shot a man - all since becoming an adult.  As a side note - I have seen him yell at cops who were giving me a hard time in nothing but his underwear and with a face full of shaving cream. 

Since that time - God has changed his life and he is a completely different person.  With that in mind, Devin was eating breakfast with him for Fathers Day.  He told her a story about something that happened a few days ago…

Apparantly, someone was bad-mouthing his Pastor, Johnny Hunt.  As a result, he told the man - Sir, you’ve got two options.  Either you shut up right now and I leave you alone or you keep talking and I will kick your A#%&*.  The man chose option 1 and all was well. 

In a very real way - we need more people like that.  I hope I get to the point that I am more known for who/what I stand up for - rather than who/what I am tearing down. 

Here are a few up and coming church planting guys that are on my radar…

Austin Porter - The guy needs to blog more often - but I am not sure there is a more encouraging person out there. 
Doug Garvin - He’s going to Savannah.  Cool town with some great opportunities. 
Josh Roberts - Very creative guy in Rome (GA not Italy).  Bonus - he has kissed a giraffe. 
Lloyd Owens - He is definitely the church planter with the coolest hair
Jason Salamun - Being in South Dakota makes him worth watching.  Great guy and I really like him. 
Mark Ayers - He’s my brother-in-law, but in spite of that, will do a great job in Flowery Branch. 

This is far from an exhaustive list.  These are just the guys I have talked to in the past couple of days. 

Since today is Fathers Day and I will be away from the computer most of the day - I thought I would leave you with this…

Random things to happen at the convention I attended last week…

• One of the highlights of the trip was playing “Guess Who’s a Baptist” at the mall.  Very easy game to play.
• Still wondering if they ran out of Evangelism Soccer Balls at the Lifeway booth.  That’s funny.
• One guy was very upset that the convention wasn’t being held in Atlanta.  The response by Frank Page was priceless.
• Besided a few other guys - I was by far the youngest Pastor in attendance. 
• In the two hours that I actually went (waiting for the vote), I think I voted on 14 things. 
• The WMU (I honestly didn’t know that was still in existence) president gave Frank Page a signed copy of his own book as a gift.  Wow!
• I have a few thoughts about the future of the SBC - and I think most people will be surprised to hear what they might be.  More to come on that later.

“Don’t let your learning lead to knowledge. Let your learning lead to action.”    Jim Rohn

Knowledge is good but if we aren’t acting on it than what good are we?  

While we were out of town in Indianapolis - their was a party happening at our house in Acworth. 

There were a few things that needed to be fixed (something about a condensated rabbit?) - and some of our friends who happen to live in our neighborhood were kind enough to make it happen.  I am sure that they were laughing at my lack of “handy-man” knowledge and I would definitely admit that it was much deserved.  :) 

Thanks guys (and girls) for helping us out. Ya’ll are awesome! Any other random things you see to fix - have at it!

Todd and I took off Monday night after staff meeting to attend the SBC.  More specifically, we drove to Indianapolis in order to vote since Pastor Johnny was going to be nominated as President.

• Todd’s car blew up around midnight in the middle of nowhere.  ($1200)
• An entire town tried to help us fix it - didn’t work - so we found a hotel. 
• Rented a car (31 miles away from our hotel) and were back on the road in the AM
• Got to the convention center in time to vote - Pastor Johnny Hunt = new President of the SBC.
• Big party last night in his honor at the Marriott.  Everyone was there - there was more wisdom in that one room than in any I had ever been in. 
• Pastor Johnny pulled Todd to the side and paid for his car repair.  Wow!
• The business part of the meeting that we sat through (2 hours) was torture.  There’s no way around it - it was pretty bad.  More to come on that later.

I am honored to be able to have incredible leaders to invest in my life.  Pastor Johnny is the real deal ladies and gentlemen.  He believes in the generation of leaders coming behind him.  I am not sure about the future of the convention; however, if anyone can navigate it through much needed change - it is him.  Yesterday was a good day - and some don’t even know it yet.

I was talking with a friend the other day about leadership, etc. 

The discussion was based on the fact that if you look back over the course of our lives - we are totally different people than we were 2 years ago, 1 year ago, and even 6 months ago.  Most of the time when people say “Man, you’ve changed. You’re not the same that person that you use to be,”  they mean it as a negative.  The truth is that you should really look at that as a positive. 

I have no desire to be the person that I use to be.  I want to consistently transition in order to become the person God wants me to be.  Leo Tolstoy said this and it is very convicting for a guy like me… “Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”  Good stuff!

Beginning soon, I will give updates of the freedom journey in a little different format.  I already give a recap from Sunday every week, but I want to add something new to the mix.

I consistently ask myself where we are at right now, where we going in the next several months, and what we need to do in the meantime in order to get to the destination that God desires.  With that in mind, I want to make some of this journey public.  The run-down will look like this…

Here - An update on where we are right now (challenges, opportunities, etc.)
There - The destination at which we want to arrive (think short-term rather than long-term)
In-between - How do we get from “here” to “there”.  Think baby steps and little wins to move us forward. 

Pray that I can do this honestly and be as “real” as possible :)  I think this will be a lot of fun!

• Good day today!  Great 9:30 crowd.
• With the Phillies in town and getting ready for the College World Series - I haven’t watched this much baseball in the past 2 years combined. 
• Huge party tonight for all our weekly partners.  Can’t wait!
• I remember when gas was .89 cents per gallon!  Seems like a million years ago now. 
• I was actually sad that Big Brown didn’t win yesterday. 
• I can’t wait until Fathers Day!  Great day planned!