Sunday Remix

-great day with tons of guests several who I have met at different times in the community. way to go emc keep investing in people's lives and inviting them to come and experience what God desires to do in their lives.
-I invited another barista from the coffee shop and he came yesterday. that's always cool when that happens.
-music sounded great. the mix was hot.
-The God at the movies series ended great and we had the best attendance we've had all summer.
-there is definitely some buzz taking place. the next few months are going to be off da hook. I know it's labor day weekend but take off after church because I want to tell everybody what's going to be happening at the embassy over the next 8 weeks.
-we had a chic come last week as a guest of an emc-er. she then came to the 80's party Saturday which by the way was great fun. Loved the mullet and ACDC shirt on Rich it reminded me of 3/4's of the guys in my home town during the 80's. anyhoo, this lady shows up Sunday with her fiance'. I love this...after church I met him as he is nervously apologizing about his rock t-shirt and tattooed arms. He said if he knew he was coming to church he would have worn long sleeves. I told him, "two things, first I like tattoos and you don't have to worry about covering them up we have a lot of people with tats and we want you to come as you are. second I said laughing, "now explain to me what you meant by, if I knew I was coming to church I would have worn long sleeves." It's not like you accidentally end up at church.
He proceeded to tell me how his fiance' told him on Sunday, "let's go for a walk" so walk they did when they got to the theater she said let's go in." and they did that too. He then experienced the environment that I am always saying the emc-ers create with acceptance and dedication to making people feel valued by God and us. Well, the rest is history. The dude loved it and is planning on coming back, hopefully he'll come just as he is. I love to see people who bring people who bring people. Too Cool.
-one of our college age guys got a mohawk...holy pointy hair batman. actually it looked quite nice.
-Todd hooked me up with his ipod transmitter because his new car has one built in. Can't beat free swag. Thanks
-My oldest daughter Adalee actually beat me at a game for real. That's the first time one of my kids beat me when I was actually trying to win. No more air hockey for her. I'm only going tp play against grant from now on.
-I was beat from the weekend. Saturday I taught 2 one hour sessions on church planting to around 20 future church planters in Griffin, GA then attended the rest of the days workshops. got home just in time to get to the 80's party and didn't get to sleep until late. Went to lunch with some emc-ers and then I crashed Sunday afternoon taking a four hour nap. You got to love church planting.

New Group I'm Diggin'

Josh Brown tipped me off to a trio from Mount Pleasant, North Carolina that really have a great sound. This is what Wikepedia says about them: The Avett Brothers combine old-time country, bluegrass, punk, pop melodies, folk, rock and roll, honky tonk and ragtime to produce a sound described by The Washington Post as "post civil-war modern rock", or by other reviewers as "grungegrass".

Everybody that knows me knows I have a broad range of musical tastes. I like everything from rock to bach and from rockabilly to hillbilly. For some reason the music of the Blues and Mountain Music have always served to make me feel the most rooted. These guys do a great job putting a modern twist on mountain music so that it feels like I am listening to something fresh and new, but I swear Great Grand Dad A.J. Hatfield would have liked it too.

Flooding in my county back home

Here's a friend of mine who made the Mansfield News Journal. He has 4 feet of mud in his basement. I guess stories like this are happening all over Mansfield & Shelby OH. I'm glad Gary got his hound out. It's awful what he'll have to face when it's all over, but I know there's a bunch of good people at Mansfield First Assembly our home church that will be there to help. Our thoughts and prayers are with you Richland County.

80's Party Coming Next Saturday

This was something I was doing a great deal of in the 80's. If you have a photo from your 80's experiences e-mail them to me at ross@embassymetro.org

By the way, Pastor could shred back in the day. SX8 or Die poser!!!

Life Limiters

Someone who wants to lead in life has no desire to achieve status quo. They will do what it takes to find momentum and maximum potential. So at times evaluation needs to take place to discover what it is that is restricting or limiting that maximum potential.

In NASCAR there is a device called a restrictor plate. This device limits air flow into the intake of the engine decreasing the potential power from 700+ horsepower to a little over 400 horsepower. The goal is to bring the track speed down to a safer level and to create an equal level of competition. The problem is at a track like Talladega where the cars begin to run so tight it puts everybody at risk when a crash occurs. One of the best ways to stay safe is to get out ahead and lead. Every analogy breaks down if you take it too far, but I see in this the leadership lesson of doing whatever it takes to take the restrictor plates off of life and off of our organizations. We have to live to lead life, not allow things that limit to cause us to run in the pack risking our potential and success.

Life Limiters:

-Surrounding yourself with people who praise you but never challenge you.
-Ceasing to read, listen, and gather information from a wide variety of sources.
-Obsessing on things you can't do when you're not even doing what you can do.
-Making excuses for what you are not willing to do
-Failing to seek out resources for what you are unable to do.
-Thinking that success in life has nothing to do with spiritual principles.
-Doing life, business, or ministry alone.
-Continuing to repeat & maintain the same patterns, decisions, and relationships and hoping they will lead to a different outcome.
-Blaming everything and everybody else for the life or quality of organization that you currently have.


I'm sure we could all add to this list a hundred things. Why? Because we all have individual restrictor plates that try to limit us. Look at yourself, stop making excuses, and rip that baby off. Your life, business, and ministry wants to soar, to be lead to new heights, to achieve and maintain a speed that brings success. Don't be the restrictor plate in your family or organization. Do whatever it takes to lift your life limiters

Sunday Recap

-Thankful that our air conditioning is working at the theater.
-enjoyed the bottled cokes instead of coffee in the cafe'
-the band, you guys sounded great today, but the girls were amazing on vocals. Go Mary, Hannah, & Charla!
-We launched our God at the Movies series entitled "Searching for something reel" this week we looked at "Searching for Real hope". We used Spiderman 3 as our storyline as we looked at the thought that "there is hope for the goo in you". We dealt with the sin nature that every person has. You'll have to check the podcast out for details. Some weeks things just really click and this was one of those weeks.
-We had a bunch of guests and I was glad that a visiting family won the friends and family movie pack give away thing (4 tickets, coke and popcorn) We'll be doing a drawing weekly during the God at the movie series so there is still a couple of chances to win.
-Shout out to Terry & Monica Smith for bringing the guest family that won the movie give away.
-EMC we are on the verge of an explosion. Our attendance was great and we were missing a ton of our Cobb County folk who were most likely getting their last weekend away before school starts.
-I'm posting this from the Serene Bean and as I do it I look around at those who work here and realize that four people working today go to the embassy. Too Cool!!!
-The greatest thing that happened last night is that the dude who did the blues piece at the start of our crossroads series came to Christ last night!!! It was too cool he spent the afternoon with the sermon in his mind and his cousin talking with him about stuff. They called last night and showed up at the house. Pastor Jared showed up too. I was fishing down at the lake with my kids, my usual Sunday night unwind acitivity. Here they come down the hill. We sat on the rock, started to pray and I told the dude man you've seen this done if you want to begin this with God you just pray what you want. I loved it as he spoke to God about the "crap" in his life that he needed God to take care of. It was awesome. We all have spent a bunch of time together fishing off those banks and now my friend was allowing himself to be caught by the great net of the one who came to fish for men, Jesus. I loved the whole experience to because it was so raw and rough, not neat and sanitized. there was something very warrioresque about it as Ken full opened himself to God and put his foot on the neck of Satan. What so cool is, this is a guy that we have been doing life together with for months. All you emc-ers you have created an environment where a person can come and find themselves, find God, and find life. I'm just really proud of you all for making the difference in people lives for eternity. And Ken...Way to go bro!!!!!!!
-You know I don't talk about numbers much, but experiencing that with my friends last night makes me want to see that happen in the lives of hundreds in the next year!!! I want to see it happen in the lives of your friends and family members. You may not feel comfortable sharing your faith and until you are get them to the embassy and I promise we will do everything we can to point them to Christ.
-I can't wait until next Sunday only 6 days to go!

Grant's First Day of School

Here's my boy on his first day of kindergarten. He loved his first week at school and was so proud everyday that he stayed on green. Last year in preschool I got called in to preschool a few times...you know like father like son. I was asked to not come back to a Baptist elementary school after my fourth grade year. I was just a little hyper...oh and I liked to fight too. Grant is a lover not a fighter, but he is all boy and we are constantly helping him understand his parameters. Anyway, he was really proud of himself this week and I was proud of him too.

Time Flies

This week has reminded me how fast life really goes. Amie got her hair cut yesterday (Zoe you did great!)and as I saw her I did the typical husband stuff like..."you look great, wow, etc..."

It was the first time in probably six months. And so all the streaks and stuff (I'm not sure if that's what you call it) were cut out leaving Amie's naturally beautiful dark hair to be seen clearly. As I took her into my arms I got a close up look at her scalp and then I put my foot right in my mouth. I said "dang girl look at all those gray hairs" To which she pointed out the arrival of my first gray hair in my beard. I say all that to say time flies. I remember thinking how cute Amie was when she was ten...I was almost 13. I remember when she was 12 and the flirting began...OK I was flirting, she thought I was a dork, but a couple years later and the flirting became mutual. When she was 16 I took her into my arms for the first time and when she was 19 we gave our lives to each other until death we part. Now I find myself holding someone who I have admired for 22 years and to know that we will grow old together is very comforting. It's just strange how time flies, grey hairs come, and smile marks slowly begin to form into permanent lines (Amie quickly points out that I have more of those than she...can I help it if I smile alot?)

Another marker of time is the coming of a new school year. Yesterday we dropped Grant off at school for the first time. All our babies are in school now. That just feels weird. Grants in kindergarten, Aubrynn is in third grade, and Adalee is a fifth grader. Amie was taking it pretty hard so I took her to IHOP for breakfast before we started work. Looking across the table at her I realized how amazed I am that I have got to do life with this girl. She amazes me. Well anyways I wrote all this just to say embrace what you have every moment and live fully in each moment because time flies and you can never do yesterday again.

Sunday Recap

-My man Dale Stephens brought it. It was nice being at the embassy today, and being able to just chill. Dale did a great job talking about what evangelism is (doing life with people in such a way it points them to Christ) and what it's not (Christian T-shirts). It was great how he tied in embassy's theme "with you on the journey".

-The cafe team did a great job with set up!

-We are getting ready to completely redo the cafe area.

-19 months into this I'm realizing we have some maintenance issues. Time to replace some of the kids stuff, a few tables, etc...

-For being the last Sunday of the summer break we had great attendance... I love it when you see momentum building.

-I love what God's been doing in people's lives at emc recently.

-I love our band and what Jared is doing with the rotation of musicians and vocalists.

-We said bye to Josh who was going to be taking a job and moving 4 hours away. Man I'm glad I have to retract that good bye. Yesterday was very pivotal in his life and it looks like he's staying around. I got the call last night. too cool.

-God has always provided for us and He continues to amaze me at the faithful giving of those who get what we are attempting to do together for God. Thanks to those who have allowed God to touch their hearts in such away that they have financially engaged in the vision of what we are accomplishing at the embassy.

-I love seeing people back who have been gone this summer. Our college students are coming back. Our vacationing families are rolling in. It just feels good having the family home again.