Sunday Night Reflections

Great week coming…great Sunday that just took place…here are some thoughts!

• You have GOT to read Tony’s post about Starbucks, seriously, this is one of the best things I have ever read in blog world.
• Every time I share vision I get chocked up…today was no exception. To see how far the Lord has brought us in less than eight years is amazing! I can’t wait to see what God does next week on commitment Sunday…let’s all continue to pray and step up big time!!!
• Oh yeah–BE EARLY next week!!! Seriously!
• Charisse is teething…please pray!
• Steven and Holly had their baby boy on Friday…congrats guys!
• If you didn’t read Q & A with Lucretia last week–check it out here. Dang my wife is amazing!!!
• I was PUMPED to see our new service times and the amazing turnout for the evening services. We had almost 500 kids at the 5:00 service alone…it’s amazing what God can do with pizza and ice cream!  :-)
• Don’t forget–same thing next week!
• A young lady sent me an e-mail on Thursday that MADE MY WEEK! She was informing me about her recent decision to trust Christ. Oh yeah…she came to NewSpring as a result of her friends inviting her and NOW her life has been changed–ETERNALLY!
• Clemson lost–oh well, at least I’m not a Notre Dame fan!!!
• We made the Baptist press…they wrote about our recent baptism…here’s the link to the story.
• Something happened to me a few weeks ago that I NEVER thought would happen–EVER, I am blown away by the opportunity and I can’t wait to blog about it in the future.
• Registration for Unleash is going crazy! There are already over 400 people registered…and the conference isn’t even until March. You can check out Tony’s thoughts here if you would like.
• Our leadership team made a last minute decision last week to head down to Catalyst this week–and I am STOKED! I love this conference…and I will be like a huge sponge, soaking in some awesome teaching on leadership! Can’t wait!!!
• Another thing that is awesome about being in Atlanta is that I will get to eat at THIS RESTAURANT, seriously, this is the best place to consume food on the planet! They just keep bringing dead cow to your table until you stop them!
• Speaking of learning some awesome things about leadership–over the past two weeks I have had the privilege of sitting down with Mark Driscoll and Andy Stanley for a combined total of six hours and just ask them questions! God has used these men to influence my life in a major way and I would have to say that they are two of the wisest and godliest men that I know. The Lord stretched me in incredible ways during the conversations I had as He used these men to both encourage and challenge me. I love those guys!
• Oh yeah, when I meet with guys like this I take my notebook, have a list of questions, ask them and then shut up and listen…the more I get into this church thing the more I realize that there is SO MUCH that I do not know! AND I learn just as much in these type of environments as I do in conferences. (Not knocking conferences…I think both are necessary for learning!)
• I STILL REALLY want to share a meal with Erwin McManus and pick his brain…love the guy and his creativity…and God used his book “The Barbarian Way” to REALLY mess me up!
• One more thing…the past month and a half I have spent WAY more time seeking the Lord through Scripture AND trying my best to meet with godly people who are doing something great for God instead of looking at negative, critical blog posts by people who aren’t actually doing anything…and my mind is SO MUCH MORE refreshed and prepared for ministry!
• Kem Meyer laughed at me this week about how many exclamation points that I use in a post!!!!!!!!!!!!! OK…so I overdo it at times. So, Kem, when are you going to write a book? Huh?

That’s about it for now–going to bed–long day tomorrow!