Weekend Rewind

• Had a delicious home cooked roast beef dinner for my Birthday Friday night along with a home made double layer cake from my mom.  Wow! 
• Enjoyed hanging out with my family all day Friday and some Saturday
• Visited Tadd Grandstaff  at Pine Ridge Church on Sunday in Burlington, NC

(It was awesome spending time with Tadd and his staff on Sunday & Monday.  I've known Tadd since high school and it is encouraging to see how God is using him now.  He is still the passionate, in-your-face person I knew in high school, but now he's using those qualities to reach people for Christ.  Thank you Pine Ridge for spending time with us as we begin our journey.)

• Spent a lot of time in Starbucks on Sunday with Mark working on things for the church.  I love working with someone who is so passionate and has a big vision.
• It was a long drive home on Monday but I loved getting home and seeing Kinsey run up to me for a hug.  I love being a dad and love being a husband even more.  I have the most amazing family.

Party Time...

It's my birthday and I'm ready to party. Amber fixed me an amazing loaf of banana bread and it is probably the best I've ever ate. Eventhough we officially start the D-Fat competition today I am pigging out at my parents house tonight. I have no idea what they are fixin but I know it will be some good eatin!
I'm not to proud to ask for presents so if you want to know what to buy me you can go here.

D-Fat

JR has started a D-Fat blog to keep up with our challenge of loosing weight. So if you want to watch Mark & I kick some tail and win money than you need to follow it here.

Muted...

The boys at Duke played the worst I've seen them play all year with the exception of the last 8 minutes of the game. The worst part was that I couldn't handle listening to Billy Packer announce the game. I had to put my tv on mute and watch in silence. He is by far the worst person I've ever heard call a basketball game and it wasn't just last night it's every game he calls.

I was going crazy at my house trying to stay quite and not wake up the girls. I'm one of those fans that screams at the tv during the game. I love college basketball and I love Duke. They will bounce back and figure out what has gone wrong the last two games. We are that good (Tadd) and will continue to lead our conference and by the end of the season the nation!

D-Fat Reality

At the church planter conference there was a challenge put together by a few of us about loosing weight.  Because we are all fat and need to loose weight and Shawn hit us right between the eyes about being a disciplined leader.  

JR, I guess is the mediator for this competition and has stated the rules on his blog here.  I'm about as competitive as they come and even more so when it comes to going up against JR (not real sure why, I always beat him).  So Mark and I will definitely be winning this competition.  I will use my winning proceeds to go towards purchasing a new wardrobe and taking my wife out for a crazy night on the town.  

Good luck to everyone for second place!

Evolve was awesome...

Finished up the churchplanters conference yesterday at Mountain Lake Church and it was better than I imagined. I went in not really knowing what to expect as I've been to a number of conferences in the past on different things and usually walk away about the same. But this time I had my face rocked off by some amazing teaching by the session leaders and was given a lot of good practical advice from the breakout sessions.
I really enjoyed getting to meet a lot of other planters and their staff and learning from them as well. It is awesome to talk with people who have a similar passion, they got me fired up even more for what God has called me to do at Reveal.
I'll probably post some more about some of the things I learned this weekend in the near future. I'll finish by encouraging everyone that is involved in planting a church or is thinking about planting to go to this conference next year!

Silk in town...

I went down to the Airport Marriott this morning and got to eat breakfast with one of my best friends from high school.  His name is Jason Page and our football coach named him silk because of how smooth he was.  He flew in this morning to referee the Georgia State vs Northeastern basketball game this afternoon.  I enjoyed catching up with him and how things are going in his life.  He is getting married this October and is moving farther and farther ahead in his career as a referee.  He's a great friend and I hope and pray nothing but the best for him and his life.  Even if he is a UVA fan.

Excited...

Here is a short list of things I'm excited about right now.

• My relationship with Christ is stronger than I think it has ever been and I am so in love with an awesome and amazing God who loves me so much.
• My wife:  she is such a blessing from God she knows me so well and encourages me all the time. 
• Reveal Church:  I can't wait to be in Flowery Branch
• To be lead in this journey by my friend and pastor Mark.
• Evolve Conference:  It's going to be great to meet with a ton of other planters and learn from them.
• Duke: their 10-0 in ACC and 22-1 overall.  Let's Go Duke!
• Going to Pine Ridge next weekend to see Tadd and learn from him and his team.
• That I have no idea how I'm going to pay my bills and provide for my family.  Weird I know but that just means God has to show up that much more.

I'm sure I could list a lot more but these are the top few things right now. 

My Valentine!

I have the greatest valentine ever! I am blessed to have a wife that is my best friend and my biggest supporter. She always encourages me and challenges me in my daily life. I couldn't ask for a better wife. Of course it doesn't hurt that she is so georgeous! I love you Amber and celebrate the love we have not only today but every day.

I would of posted a pic but I have no good ones on my comp at work and she would of killed me for the goofy ones I do have.

Where did the time go?

I have heard from friends and other church planters that time goes by quick and you always feel like there is a ton more to do than you have time. I'm am realizing this more and more in the past couple of weeks. I am working on more and more things for our new church and at every turn I find more to do. I go to sleep thinking about things I need to do for Reveal or things that we hope to accomplish. I am being led by my Mark who has a vision that only God can accomplish. I'm so excited to be on this journey and pray that God would make the sun stand still at times so we can get more done. Get ready Flowery Branch because God is going to do some amazing things and lives are going to be radically changed!

Props

I have to give props to Mark Ayers. Not only am I completely excited about being on this journey of planting Reveal Church with him, he also hooks my blog up to look cool. Thanks Mark!

God of this City

I got a text last week from my boy up in SC Josh Bradley to listen to Chris Tomlin's new song "God of this City." I tried pulling it up here at work and it didn't work and I completely forgot about doing it later. Well Monday night Mark had it and played it for me. If you have not listened to this song than you are missing out. It is one of the best songs I've heard, I wanted to get out of the car and run to Flowery Branch and help people in their lives and know Jesus. If you are a pastor, church planter or anyone with a vision than this song should be your calling card because if you don't believe this than you should go wash cars for a living.

People vs Task

This has been one of those weeks that seems like every time I sit down to work on something, something else comes up and stops me from getting things done. I came in today hoping to get a lot of things done so I'd be free tomorrow. But as soon as I came in my office a guy asked if he could use my computer for a sec to check email and send a quick one out. He said it would only take a couple of minutes. As soon as he gets on he downloads a massive powerpoint presentation and starts going through it, laughing out loud at each slide. You know one of those laughs that people do when they want you to ask what their laughing at. I of course ignore it because I want to get to work and not spend the next hour looking at things I don't really care about. Well 25 minutes later he finally says he's about done and asks how to do a couple things and then looks up more emails and finally gets off of my computer after 10 more minutes. As I was sitting in my chair getting more and more frustrated about how long this was taking I was reminded of one of my profesors at LU.
Dr. Gutierrez was my favorite professor and in one of his classes he taught about knowing if we are a people person (which I think I am most of the time) or a task person. I realized this morning that I was being a task person and how frustrated I was getting. It set my whole morning on fire and I was about to choke someone out.

In minisry, life and especially in planting a church I want to focus on helping people and not accomplishing a task. Because at the end of the day I may accomplish a lot of things but if I have neglected the people at the task or who the task is for than I have accomplished nothing.

ACC perfection

That's right Duke took down carolina in their own gym last night. What I'm most pumped about is that we didn't play a great game and we still won in their gym. Without a doubt Duke is playing better team basketball than anyone in the country right now. It was a fun game to watch and I look forward to their next meeting in Cameron.

Thoughts from the game:

* The referees where inconsistent on both sides of the court
* Tyler Hansbrough flopped on the ground a lot and spotted more water to be wiped up on the court than any player in history.
* Roy Williams was so impressed with Duke that he almost passed out a few times.
* The little dance that carolina players do before the game shows no class or sportsmanship and only fuels the fire of other teams.
* Henderson can jump out the gym.
* Paulus is shooting the lights out right now.
* Lance Thomas played the best he has all year.
* Demarcus Nelson is an extremely smart player and is as strong as they come.
* Duke has an amazing freshman class led by Singler.

I could probably go on and on but that's because Duke is that good. Go Devils!

It's Time Baby!

I've been going crazy all day thinking about the game tonight! I don't know where I'm watching the game at yet, but I guarantee I will be somewhere cheering on my boys at Duke.

I've read a lot of articles and blogs today about unc fans still crying about Tyler Hansbrough getting his nose broke by Gerald Henderson last year. Quit your crying its part of sports people get hurt and it wasn't intentional he was going for the ball. But anyways, I hate that Lawson may be out because I want Duke to beat them with all of their people but we will still annhilate them with or without him.

The game should be great tonight but in the end the champs will be DUKE! Let's go Devils!

Can't wait...

this Wednesday is going to be huge! To me the games each year between Duke Blue Devils & unc tarholes (i mean heels) are bigger than the super bowl, world series, stanley cup or nba finals. These are two teams that hate to loose to eachother, play with pride and want nothing more than to shove the ball down the throat of the other team.

My dream of dreams is to be at a duke/unc game at Cameron indoor stadium. Which my birthday is coming up so if anyone wants to buy me a ticket I'm ok with that.

I'm already getting excited about watching this game and it's still two days away! Lets Go Duke!!!

Lost Perfection

I would normally careless about who won the super bowl this year but I wanted to see history made with a perfect season for the Patriots. Unfortunately it wasn't meant to be and the Giants defense last night was huge. Eli got the MVP which was deserved (that sack he got out of & the catch made by David Tyree was the most impressive play I have ever seen) but I think the real heroes of the game were the defensive linemen for the Giants. They put it on Brady every play of the game and that's where it was one. Congrats to the Giants! Next year it will be my Falcons or Cowboys! yea right!

It's a good thing I'm not a sports writer!

Finances

I have worked on spreadsheets & financial things more in the past couple of weeks than ever before.  Not because we have a lot of money but because I want to try and get things set up the best I can so I don't screw up and go to jail.  We've also set up our pay checks to come through a company called paychex.  If you are looking for a great company with a good price and quality service than I highly recommend using them as they will do a good job and explain everything to you.  

It takes a load off of me having to figure out taxes and I like not having to worry about things like that!

Weeks later....

I know its been weeks since I blogged but I am working on getting better.  I'm not always the most open person to blog about things and more than that I forget about it most of the time.  But I am committed to get better because just as I am learning from so many other church planters that are ahead of me I hope that someday someone can learn from my failures and successes.  

With that being said, the last couple of weeks have been crazy.  I'm still getting used to having two little girls at home but I am loving it too.  They are completely opposite of each other in looks and personality.  I can't wait to see what God is going to do in and through them and only hope and pray that Amber and I raise them the best we possibly can.  

I am amazed everyday at how awesome of a job my wife does at taking care of our girls and home.  Not amazed in that I didn't think she could do it but that she is able to do it with little sleep and little help from me.  She is an amazing mother and wife and I couldn't do what I do without her support.  She has been lifting me up so much lately with her words and actions its been unbelievable.  I'm looking forward to going home and spending the weekend with my family and having no other plans.