ONE Prayer

Am I the only one who has felt like I'm running behind all week? Since we were off on Monday, Tuesday became Monday, Wednesday became Tuesday, now here I am on Thursday which really feels like Wednesday and I'm starting to get confused. Anyway, that's why I didn't write anything yesterday. I know that the seven of you who regularly read this were very disappointed.

This week we are beginning a message series called ONE Prayer. We will be participating in this along with over 900 churches around the world. The focus of the series is this: If you could pray just one prayer for the church (not just Freedom, but all of God's churches) what would it be? I will be kicking off the series this week with the prayer that I have for the church which is: Make us matter.

Some of the scripture we will be looking at is: Proverbs 11:11, Matthew 16:18-19, and 1 Corinthians 13:1-3.

For the rest of the series we will do some things we've never tried before.

First, we will be using video teaching from some other pastors from around the country. Because the ONE Prayer series is a world wide emphasis we want to hear what other pastor's prayers are for the church.

Second, on the final Sunday of the month I will be bringing the message at Springwell Church and Springwell's pastor Scott McAllister will be bringing the message at Freedom. This will be a practical reminder to us that we are partners (not competitors) with other churches to reach the world.

There is one other big thing we've never tried before that I will tell you about later, because the details haven't been worked out yet, but when it happens it will be very cool!

If this sounds strange and confusing to you don't worry, I will explain things a little more fully this Sunday during the service, which by the way is at 10:30 at Greer High School. I'm looking forward to seeing you there!

Tuesday morning quarterback

Scattered thoughts after a three day weekend for you to peruse:

- Yesterday I ate too much. Donny fried up a lot of the fish he's been catching this spring, along with some spicy deer sausage. Let's just say I didn't show much restraint. My plan is to punish myself at the gym this afternoon, but I'm pretty certain that the amount of fried food I ate yesterday will not come off in one workout.

- Danica Patrick is one tough girl. At least she thinks she is. During the Indianapolis 500 this weekend some guy ran into her on pit road. The accident took her out of the race, so her reaction was to march down to his crew to pick a fight. Fortunately, (or unfortunately depending on your point of view) she was stopped before she got all the way there. Now I know there are some ladies out there who can whip a man's tail, but Danica Patrick is 5 feet tall and weighs around 98 lbs. What was she really going to do? Maybe she was hoping that the guy she was going after had been taught never to hit a girl. Now I'm hoping she comes to NASCAR and has a wreck with Tony Stewart. If she does she better watch it. I'm betting he would hit a girl.

- Donny did an awesome job on Sunday. I enjoyed having a break from speaking, but just having Donny back preaching was the best part.

- This Sunday we're kicking off a cool series called ONE Prayer. There are over 900 churches across the country who will be participating. I will be sure and write more about it tomorrow.

That's it for now. I'm already a day behind so I need to get back to work.

Idol chatter

It's one day late, but here's my take on the Idol finale. In short, I was shocked. I mean really shocked that David Cook won. I think he deserved it, but I didn't think he'd get it. When Ryan Seacrest said, "the winner by 12 million votes..." I knew it would be Archuleta. Shows how much I know.

I said I would only watch the last 15 minutes. I ended up watching a little more than that, but not a whole lot more. The part I really can't handle is when they have all of the finalists sing together. The way they move together and sing reminds me of something you'd see at Six Flags.

That's all for this week. I'm looking forward to worship this Sunday, Donny will be bringing the message. Bring a friend with you, and I'll see you there!

Am I a real church planter?

A little over three years ago when we started Freedom Fellowship I became a church planter. That is just another term for a guy who starts a new church and is the pastor of that church. There were many of you who also became church planters then, because I consider everyone who helped get this church off the ground to be a planter. Since then I have gone to a lot of church planting conferences, meetings, lunches, and retreats. I also read lots of church planter blogs, books, and magazine articles. Just like any other group, planters have developed their own culture. We tend to read the same books, look up to the same people etc. That being said here's a list of things that make me wonder if I am a real church planter:

- I don't have a fauxhawk, use gel in my hair, or have a soul patch.
I have noticed at a couple of conferences I've been to that some guys are using the fauxhawk as a way of covering up their impending baldness. I guess in those cases the fauxhawk is the new comb-over.

- I don't wear designer t-shirts.
My t-shirts are either freebees, restaurant related, or left over from VBS or a camp. I don't have any cool ones with skulls sprouting wings or anything like that.

- I don't have a pair of Skechers.
I think they look cool. I just don't have any.

- I don't drink Starbucks coffee.
I generally don't drink any coffee. That's what having a couple of kidney stones will do for you. I do like Frappuccinos, but those suckers are expensive.

- I don't have an iphone or a blackberry.
I actually tried to get a blackberry but the nice lady at the Alltell store said I had recently renewed my contract and I wasn't eligible for an upgrade. Of course she did offer to sell me one at the full price of $600. Since I think paying $2.50 for a Frappucinno is too much, guess what I thought about a $600 phone?

Despite my lack of qualifications I will try to continue to lead Freedom to be a church that makes an impact.

To all my church planting buddies that do meet these qualifications, keep up the good work! Y'all are awesome!

We can't do it alone

Here's something I just read this morning in "Looking for God" the new book by Nancy Ortberg. This would have been great to use in this past week's message. Let me know what you think:

"Community is very powerful. It is God's people living together with God at their center. It is the way of life out of which evangelism and discipleship emerge. Community is where we learn the truth about ourselves, where we are deeply loved, where walls are broken down, and where people who are usually excluded are included."

Following Jesus cannot be a completely independent effort. The path must be traveled in community with others, and that is one of the best explanations of it I have ever read.

Now for the meaningless discussion of the day. It looks like Archuleta will be the next American Idol. There's no way I can watch the whole show tonight. The two hour build-up for a 15 second announcement drives me crazy. My plan is to start paying attention about 15 minutes before the end of the show. I would rather David Cook win, but I'm not sure he would rather win. I get the feeling he'd rather finish second. Maybe I'm wrong. It just kind of seemed like that last night.

Where change starts

I'm sure you've already heard, it's an election year. No matter who the candidate is, campaign speeches all talk about the same thing: change. Candidates discuss the changes that are needed in America, the world, and our communities. Political speeches contain a lot of what a college professor would call "deconstructionism". I don't know if a college professor would really call it that, because I'm not sure that is actually a word, but all political candidates are good at what we're good at, observing what's wrong with the world and talking about it. Whether it's the government, the church, the local recreation department, or Wal-Mart all of us are good at finding fault or "deconstructing" the way things are being done.

I ran across a quote from Leo Tolstoy today that I think is appropriate for all of us when it comes to this natural tendency we have to deconstruct everything.

"Everybody thinks of changing humanity and nobody thinks of changing himself"

Perhaps the best place to begin a deconstruction of the way things are is in my own life. That should give me plenty to work on for the next 50 years or so.

Monday morning quarterback

It's a beautiful Monday morning, and I hope your weekend left you energized to dive right into another work week. This weekend was busy and fun for me. Here are the highlights from Relay for Life on Friday night:

- It was cold but still fun. I don't know what the wind chill was on Friday night in Greer, but I know that my teeth were chattering by the time we headed home. Despite that, the whole night was a blast. I got to catch up with a bunch of kids (now they're adults) from my youth ministry days at Fairview, as well as all of our hard working Freedom folks. Our relay team, led by Kelly Thomas, did a great job again this year. This year's event raised over $230,000 for the American Cancer Society! If you missed it this year, you will want to plan to be there next year.

- I got to sing with an amazing band.
My buddy Michael Buffalo Smith had put together a band of Southern Rock musicians to play at Relay for Life, and they were good. I mean really good. Michael asked me if I would sing the first verse of "Can't You See" by the Marshall Tucker Band with them. Of course I said I would. I couldn't turn down that type of opportunity. By the time the guys got to the song I was freezing, and I was afraid the words I sang would sound like I was stuttering due to my teeth chattering. Once I got to stand up on stage with the band I forgot about being cold. I was too busy watching Donnie Winters rip on his Gibson Les Paul that he has named "Smoky". When I got off the stage Scott Greene informed me that Donnie has played with everyone in Southern Rock, including Lynyrd Skynyrd, Marshall Tucker, and ZZ Top. I'm glad he told me that after I sang with them. If he had told me before I would have been too scared to get on the stage. You can read Michael's description of the night here. I went home happy. I guess I've never gotten over the desire to go on the road with a band.

I will be moving this blog from blogspot to wordpress sometime in the near future. Blogspot has been doing some strange stuff lately, and according to Blake I can add some more features to the blog if I move it to wordpress. Blake is helping me get it set up. I will let you know when we make the move.