-Hey emc-ers today Jared is in the office working on the weekend's podcast. I keep hearing you all laugh and whoop, and respond to things said and done. I love it that you guys are a vocal bunch.
-Bill from the Bean was up and heard it. He said and I quote "man our church has a great laugh"
-He is right. Y'all have a great laugh and I love it. I know it thrills God's heart to hear His people having a great time on Sunday morning.
Monday, April 28, 2008
De-tox finally over
No your pastor wasn't in rehab. For the past 10 days I have been doing a de-tox recommended by my trainer/R.N. Yesterday was the 10th and final day. It was tough to preach because my cotton mouth was as thick as lamb's wool. A couple times I about choked on my own tongue. It's been a long time since I had to drink that much water while speaking.
Well, after ten days of a serious liquid regimen I am looking forward to solid foods. That won't happen until tomorrow though, as I ease myself out of the regimen.
Tomorrow will be O.J. and Vegi soup. The next day more of the same plus salads. Finally Thursday I'll be ready to Wok and Roll baby. Digestive track cleaned out and feeling good.
It's funny how everybody wanted to know my "diet" this weekend. I can understand. I did drop a lot during the ten days of the de-tox, but that wasn't the purpose of it. I had already lost 50 pounds from October to before I did the de-tox. The de-tox cleans you out, but being that it's all liquid you end up losing also.
If you want to know how I lost the weight then look back from this past Fall to before the de-tox. I was at the gym 5 days a week. I ate 6 times a day combinations of good lean protein, healthy carbohydrates, and fibrous vegetables.That's how I lost the weight. Not some 10 day fad diet.
I hope y'all get the point of this. I want you to be healthy. Health doesn't come in a can, nor does it come over night. You can do this! Get moving. Get eating healthy, and Watch over time your body will respond.
OK I'm your pastor not a health guru so that's all I have to say about that. I will say that in life rarely anything that is sustainable happens overnight. If you want to see changes in any area of your life you have to get intentional. Be intentional about applying your resources to the vision you have and watch it begin to take shape!
Well, after ten days of a serious liquid regimen I am looking forward to solid foods. That won't happen until tomorrow though, as I ease myself out of the regimen.
Tomorrow will be O.J. and Vegi soup. The next day more of the same plus salads. Finally Thursday I'll be ready to Wok and Roll baby. Digestive track cleaned out and feeling good.
It's funny how everybody wanted to know my "diet" this weekend. I can understand. I did drop a lot during the ten days of the de-tox, but that wasn't the purpose of it. I had already lost 50 pounds from October to before I did the de-tox. The de-tox cleans you out, but being that it's all liquid you end up losing also.
If you want to know how I lost the weight then look back from this past Fall to before the de-tox. I was at the gym 5 days a week. I ate 6 times a day combinations of good lean protein, healthy carbohydrates, and fibrous vegetables.That's how I lost the weight. Not some 10 day fad diet.
I hope y'all get the point of this. I want you to be healthy. Health doesn't come in a can, nor does it come over night. You can do this! Get moving. Get eating healthy, and Watch over time your body will respond.
OK I'm your pastor not a health guru so that's all I have to say about that. I will say that in life rarely anything that is sustainable happens overnight. If you want to see changes in any area of your life you have to get intentional. Be intentional about applying your resources to the vision you have and watch it begin to take shape!
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Baptism Videos are on You Tube
-Pastor Jared has all the baptism videos up so you can tell your friends and family to check out what God has done in your life.
-Click here for the videos.
-This Sunday those who were baptized will be given a DVD of the event.
-Great job Jared!
-Click here for the videos.
-This Sunday those who were baptized will be given a DVD of the event.
-Great job Jared!
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Loving the Office
-You can't know how awesome it is to have an office outside of the house. I can already tell that I am being able to shut things off a little and I'm finding more balance in my schedule.
-The vibe of the office is making it a very good place to chill and be creative. Definitely diggin' it.
-Today is cool because Brantley's up making a couple of crazy videos for "Kid's Live". He even got Jared to dance for a video. That's hilarious. I'm loving what Brantley and Hannah are doing in Kid's Church. Parents be sure to give them props at every chance.
-I want to try and make Wednesdays for me sacred at the office. No appointments or projects, just a day for prayer, study, hearing from God and prep for teaching. If emc-ers would help me out on this one I'd greatly appreciate it. You want me hearing from God. You want me having something fresh from His heart. So try and help me protect that day. Thanks!
-The vibe of the office is making it a very good place to chill and be creative. Definitely diggin' it.
-Today is cool because Brantley's up making a couple of crazy videos for "Kid's Live". He even got Jared to dance for a video. That's hilarious. I'm loving what Brantley and Hannah are doing in Kid's Church. Parents be sure to give them props at every chance.
-I want to try and make Wednesdays for me sacred at the office. No appointments or projects, just a day for prayer, study, hearing from God and prep for teaching. If emc-ers would help me out on this one I'd greatly appreciate it. You want me hearing from God. You want me having something fresh from His heart. So try and help me protect that day. Thanks!
Monday, April 21, 2008
Sunday Remix; 4-20-08
-Awesome day at the embassy.
-Record setting attendance again. We had a lot of guests and we look forward to them being back next week.
-We baptized 9 people Sunday. Their stories were amazing. I'm so proud of those who took that step to publicly profess Christ.
-I am also proud of all of you who give of your time, abilities, and finances. Sunday should have made you proud. God is truly using you to impact lives in significant and eternal ways.
-Special thanks to some freaks of the week. This week we did set up at midnight. This allowed the sound/tech guys and the band to work all through the night. They were able to dial in our new digital mixing system. Those who stayed up to help. Thanks! I am so glad that emc-ers are freaks about the vision God has all of us accomplishing. Great Job! Now go take a nap.
-Enjoyed being at the dinner with all of you after the baptism. Man the fried chicken and buttered corn looked insane. I'm glad you enjoyed it because I'm doing a 10 day detox/cleanse and couldn';t touch the stuff. I guess I'm becoming a health freak. HA!
-Looking forward to the start of next week's family life series.
-Record setting attendance again. We had a lot of guests and we look forward to them being back next week.
-We baptized 9 people Sunday. Their stories were amazing. I'm so proud of those who took that step to publicly profess Christ.
-I am also proud of all of you who give of your time, abilities, and finances. Sunday should have made you proud. God is truly using you to impact lives in significant and eternal ways.
-Special thanks to some freaks of the week. This week we did set up at midnight. This allowed the sound/tech guys and the band to work all through the night. They were able to dial in our new digital mixing system. Those who stayed up to help. Thanks! I am so glad that emc-ers are freaks about the vision God has all of us accomplishing. Great Job! Now go take a nap.
-Enjoyed being at the dinner with all of you after the baptism. Man the fried chicken and buttered corn looked insane. I'm glad you enjoyed it because I'm doing a 10 day detox/cleanse and couldn';t touch the stuff. I guess I'm becoming a health freak. HA!
-Looking forward to the start of next week's family life series.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Random Monday Thoughts
-Loving our church offices.
-Digital sound was better this week, but still needs tweaked. Saturday night the team will be setting up after the last showing. The band and tech team will then tweak the system out until it's tight and right.
-My allergies have been crazy the past two afternoons.
-Looking forward to the baptisms at the theater this weekend. This will be the first time we have done them as part of the service. The tank rocks and yes it has a heater.
-Glad the Life Bytes series is over. Loved the first three weeks...kind of struggled yesterday.
-My personal times with God lately have been so rewarding. Oh, He's always on, but sometimes I go through periods where I'm just not listening so good.
-Looking forward to the next couple of months at the embassy. We're kicking off a Family Life series. Then a two week mini series for singles. In June we will be hooking up with pastors from around the country as we go into our "One Prayer" Series.
-During "One Prayer" we will be doing a community project/event with the other theater church in Cherokee County. My friend Gary Lamb and Revolution Church have been getting it done in north Cherokee County. It will be an awesome thing to connect with these guys as we both have a passion and no-excuse approach to reaching the unchurched of Cherokee County.
-Paying Taxes Suck!
-I have an idea that would stir up some serious spiritual discussion in and around Woodstock. I would love to have someone financially sponsor a billboard for August/September and the production of a website geared to provide a discussion/resource board for the stuff we stir up. The series promoted would begin in September. If you have a few thousand and want to risk it to impact lives in Woodstock GA shoot me an e-mail.
-Digital sound was better this week, but still needs tweaked. Saturday night the team will be setting up after the last showing. The band and tech team will then tweak the system out until it's tight and right.
-My allergies have been crazy the past two afternoons.
-Looking forward to the baptisms at the theater this weekend. This will be the first time we have done them as part of the service. The tank rocks and yes it has a heater.
-Glad the Life Bytes series is over. Loved the first three weeks...kind of struggled yesterday.
-My personal times with God lately have been so rewarding. Oh, He's always on, but sometimes I go through periods where I'm just not listening so good.
-Looking forward to the next couple of months at the embassy. We're kicking off a Family Life series. Then a two week mini series for singles. In June we will be hooking up with pastors from around the country as we go into our "One Prayer" Series.
-During "One Prayer" we will be doing a community project/event with the other theater church in Cherokee County. My friend Gary Lamb and Revolution Church have been getting it done in north Cherokee County. It will be an awesome thing to connect with these guys as we both have a passion and no-excuse approach to reaching the unchurched of Cherokee County.
-Paying Taxes Suck!
-I have an idea that would stir up some serious spiritual discussion in and around Woodstock. I would love to have someone financially sponsor a billboard for August/September and the production of a website geared to provide a discussion/resource board for the stuff we stir up. The series promoted would begin in September. If you have a few thousand and want to risk it to impact lives in Woodstock GA shoot me an e-mail.
Monday, April 07, 2008
Sunday Remix 4-06-08
-EMC went digital today. If you didn't notice all the sound was being mixed and processed through a computer today. It will take a few weeks to work out the kinks (like what the heck was going on with the bass and subwoofers) but it will give us a consistency with our sound that we have never had. We will be offering training by a profesional to all our sound guys and any one wanting to be a part of of the sound team. Jared will have dates for the training soon.
-The third week in the Life Bytes series was powerful as we asked God to "defrag" our operating systems. As I preached I could just see people dealing with God and the broken things in their lives. People were given paint sticks to write on the things in their lives that they felt were broken files messing up their lives. Some of these things are because of poor choices. Others are the result of other peoples actions towards you. Either way we need to defrag and allow God to deal with the broken files that keep breaking our lives.
-At the end of the service we had everyone on the count of three break the paint stick. This was to symbolize that we are choosing to allow God to deal with the broken files in our lives. Dude the sound was incredible, powerful, and to be honest made me want to shout. To know that we were giving our stuff to God to deal with, and to know that He will, make me amped because over the next few months we will begin to hear the stories of life change that will result because of that one service. I loved the pile that the sticks made as people came and threw them on the stage. They did that because there's no use in carrying that stuff around. In Christ we are forgiven. In Christ we are secure. In Christ we are FREE!
-For it being spring break our attendance was great.
-We have had a bunch of guests the past few weeks. I look forward to getting to know you, to seeing God work in your life and family, and to seeing you find your part as we serve together to impact Woodstock!
-I was looking at our growth and in just 13 weeks we are averaging 20% more in attedance than our year average for 2007. Wow! Everyone that works so hard to make emc what it is. Thanks!
-I'm out of the digital world until Thursday. Talk at ya'll then.
-The third week in the Life Bytes series was powerful as we asked God to "defrag" our operating systems. As I preached I could just see people dealing with God and the broken things in their lives. People were given paint sticks to write on the things in their lives that they felt were broken files messing up their lives. Some of these things are because of poor choices. Others are the result of other peoples actions towards you. Either way we need to defrag and allow God to deal with the broken files that keep breaking our lives.
-At the end of the service we had everyone on the count of three break the paint stick. This was to symbolize that we are choosing to allow God to deal with the broken files in our lives. Dude the sound was incredible, powerful, and to be honest made me want to shout. To know that we were giving our stuff to God to deal with, and to know that He will, make me amped because over the next few months we will begin to hear the stories of life change that will result because of that one service. I loved the pile that the sticks made as people came and threw them on the stage. They did that because there's no use in carrying that stuff around. In Christ we are forgiven. In Christ we are secure. In Christ we are FREE!
-For it being spring break our attendance was great.
-We have had a bunch of guests the past few weeks. I look forward to getting to know you, to seeing God work in your life and family, and to seeing you find your part as we serve together to impact Woodstock!
-I was looking at our growth and in just 13 weeks we are averaging 20% more in attedance than our year average for 2007. Wow! Everyone that works so hard to make emc what it is. Thanks!
-I'm out of the digital world until Thursday. Talk at ya'll then.
Sunday, April 06, 2008
We Need God's Power
This morning I will be teaching the 3rd part in our Life Bytes series. We are looking at the subject of "Defrag" allowing God to deal with the broken files in our lives. This is one of those mornings where teaching won't be enough. We need the power of God to show up and do works of healing to the hearts, minds, and lives of those who have experienced fragmentation. Fragmented values, memories, self worth. Some because of our doing. Others, the result of lies and abuse. Today will be a powerful day as God brings hope and healing to those gathered at the embassy. Please pray for His power to touch hearts today. Thanks!
Saturday, April 05, 2008
Spring Break
The past two school vacations my wife and kids left me to go see the in laws. Well not this time. I'm looking forward to a little fishing, pickin', and reading in south Georgia for a few days. We leave tomorrow after church and we'll be back sometime on Wednesday. Oh yeah you may be on your way to Daytona (Robby) or Disney (Deena). Some of you are PC bound. Well, we're on our way to Waycross and I couldn't be happier. Ya'll can have the beach and college students in rodent costumes. I hope to pull a big one out of the Okefenokee along side my boy and the best father in law you could ask for.
Friday, April 04, 2008
Office Update!
The office was bright yellow so I think just a coat of paint made it 100% better.I'll have to get some before pics from Jared, but here's some after pics of our new office space.
We still have to move in the copier, printers, and file cabinets. It will be so nice to have our own place 7 days a week.
We still have to move in the copier, printers, and file cabinets. It will be so nice to have our own place 7 days a week.
Thursday, April 03, 2008
We're In
In the month of June Embassy Metro Church will be joining hundreds of churches in the nation for a series called "One Prayer". I'll fill you in on more as it begins to get some traction.
Each pastor will begin the four week series with the statement: "Father make us..." at the end of those three words the pastor will put in his hearts cry for the church. Some of the pastors that have joined this campaign are:
LifeChurch.tv (Craig Groeschel)will teach "Make Us One."
Fellowship Church (Ed Young) will teach "Make Us Creative."
NewSpring Church (Perry Noble) will teach "Make Us Dangerous."
Free Chapel (Jentezen Franklin) will teach "Make Us Passionate."
We will have the opportunity to hear from some of the greatest communicators in our nation.
We also may attempt to submit our "One Prayer" sermon via video for use by other churches during the series. The deadline for the video is May 12th. Keep your ears open as we announce a special night of preparation for this amazing month. I'm picturing us having an evening where I deliver the teaching and we get the recording. We then take some time praying for our city and the other churches that we will be partnering with in the month of June. I'll get you more info as we figure things out.
The churches unite! We will partner with all the churches to bring one offering as we impact a combined missions project. We also will be partnering with three other local and like minded churches to impact our communities. Be praying for this as all of it comes together.
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
Getting the Office Ready!
-Last night a bunch of us finished painting the office. Today we will get the desks, printers, bookshelves etc.... in.
-Just being there gives me a sense of excitement. It will be nice to find the balance I need between my family and the ministry. For 2 1/2 years it's like you never stop working. The office has been in the house and it was just too easy to jump into doing work anytime, all the time.
-The office will allow us to have a structured schedule. This will make us more productive both for church and our families.
-Starting next week we will go to a Sunday-Thursday work week. We will take Friday and Saturday off. On Sundays my day usually starts at 4:00am. When church is over we will go home with the families or out to eat with people, relax a little in the afternoon and then come back into the office to get things started for the coming week. We will go with this schedule for a month or so, evaluate it, and then decide if it's working or not. Anyways that's the plan.
-Just being there gives me a sense of excitement. It will be nice to find the balance I need between my family and the ministry. For 2 1/2 years it's like you never stop working. The office has been in the house and it was just too easy to jump into doing work anytime, all the time.
-The office will allow us to have a structured schedule. This will make us more productive both for church and our families.
-Starting next week we will go to a Sunday-Thursday work week. We will take Friday and Saturday off. On Sundays my day usually starts at 4:00am. When church is over we will go home with the families or out to eat with people, relax a little in the afternoon and then come back into the office to get things started for the coming week. We will go with this schedule for a month or so, evaluate it, and then decide if it's working or not. Anyways that's the plan.
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