- Another great Experience!
- Huge crowd today…we had to keep setting up row after row of additional chairs in the back!
- The morning started off early…I mean really early. For some reason I’ve been getting up early recently so I decided to head on over to the church.
- It was nice to have a leisurely pace in setting some stuff up before everyone else got there.
- One of our projectors froze up so Andy had to climb into the attic to re-set it.
- Having been in that attic last summer, I’m glad it was him and not me.
- All in all, it was a pretty easy set-up today.
- Brian and Adam had wireless body packs for their guitars today so they liked being able to walk all around the stage while playing.
- Gave new meaning to the song, I Am Free.
- It was very nice of Steven Furtick to do a custom intro to the message for us.
- Never heard of my preaching referred to as “shucking the corn” before, but hey he’s from the south so what do you expect.
- MMMMM…maybe I shouldn’t say anything…I scored a 66% on the Yankee or Dixie test.
- I love this message he gave…in fact I used it to inspire my own last year. For my re-mix of it, click here.
- It was good to see and spend some time with my friend Chuck Frank and his wife Tammy who were just hired by our denomination to oversee church planting. Chuck and I have had our paths cross a number of times now in ministry and I’m excited about being able to work with him again.
- It was cool seeing so many people walking around in their United t-shirts. We are about half-way through our supply…to order yours, click here.
- I am so stoked about next week!
- Not only will I share with you a huge next step in fulfilling the vision God has given us, but I’ll also announce the series we’ll be doing after Unstoppable…trust me…you are going to love it and it will be talked about for a long time.
- Well time for a quick nap before heading out to spend some time with friends.
- Please continue to remember my family in prayer…tomorrow is the funeral for my cousin’s baby who died this past week.
4th of July
Well I was going to do a post about the 4th and how our true independence comes from having a relationship with Jesus…it does…but then I read Mark Batterson’s post this morning and thought it was a must read for you to understand the spiritual history of our country.
Enjoy your day…don’t forget to invite someone to come with you Sunday, Steven Furtick’s message is going to blow you away.
1/2 Year Stats
Wow it’s hard to believe that 1/2 of 2008 has already passed us. Thought it would be interesting to see which blog posts and which Podcasts got the most hits in the first half of the year.
Blog Posts: In total I posted 136 times in the first 6 months…here are the 5 most popular.
- Wow I’m Honored: The post where I shared that Tim Stevens had asked me to help review the manuscript for his new book Pop Goes the Church. By the time it was all said and done, more than 10 people helped out, but still an honor none the less.
- Inside Today’s Experience (2/17 Edition): Not sure what made this one so popular. I will remember it as the day we tried an acoustic set and a certain friend of mine went that night to see the Blue Man Group without me…yes if I sound bitter I am. :)
- Off the Top of my Head: Overall when you look at what consistently gets the most hits, it’s the Inside Today’s Experience posts and any time I do random thoughts. It amazes me that you like to hear so much about my personal life, but I guess it’s good in that you get to know me better as a person, not just some guy you see up on a stage once a week. In any case, this Valentine’s Day post was about as random as they come.
- Inside Today’s Experience…Sort Of: My thoughts of visiting ForeFront Church while on vacation in Virginia Beach.
- Inside Today’s Experience (4/20 Edition): The morning that all of our technology stuff seemed to die beforehand and Andy was back stage soldering right up to the start of the Experience.
Podcasts: Obviously we had 26 messages in the first half of the year. I spoke 20 times and 6 guest speakers filled the other 6 weeks. Here are the top 5 most downloaded messages of the year thus far.
- A Time to Run: From the series, Take It to the Limit. This was the message I talked about how to deal with sexual temptation.
- Speak No Evil: From the series, 3 Wise Monkey’s. Guest Speaker, Cathy Pence shared how powerful our words can be.
- As Is: From the series, Everybody’s Normal til You Get to Know Them. Here I talked about living an authentic life before people.
- Be With: From the series, Everybody’s Normal til You Get to Know Them. In this message I talked about why small groups are such an important part of your spiritual growth and maturity.
- Just a Little Bit: From the series, IMPACT. Here I shared the way Jesus wants you to begin to see yourself.
Karson Crawford
I just found out that my cousin’s boy Karson died this afternoon. Please pray for Deron and Megan and the rest of our family. This was their first child and it’s got to be rough right now.
Random Tuesday Thoughts
am PUMPED UP about this up-coming Sunday’s message from Steven Furtick!
- Make sure you read the instructions carefully that your potential employer has asked. It’s amazing how people aren’t following simple directions.
- Make sure you fit the job description…again amazing that people who have no skills in the areas that we are looking are applying. It would be like applying for a job as a secretary and saying you don’t know how to type and you’ve never used a computer and you hate using the phone. Well then why apply?