Life On The Edge

Goin' To Nashville

2009-08-30T16:56:00.008-04:00

It's been awhile since I've done this "blog" thing, so you may have to bear with me. I have now been trained to think in only 140 characters. :-)

After 15 amazing years at Seacoast Church - the last 5 as Campus Pastor at the Greenville campus - I have accepted the call to join the awesome staff at Cross Point Church in Nashville, TN. My official title will be Pastor of Spiritual Formation, where I will oversee community groups and help with multi-site strategy. Cross Point currently has 2 campuses and is launching 2 more in the next few months.

I am very excited to join Pete Wilson, Jenni Catron, and the entire Cross Point staff. They are doing an incredible work in the Nashville area. I have been an admirer from afar for a couple of years, and I can't wait to soon be serving side-by-side with them.

This has not been an easy decision. It has required many, many hours of prayer and Godly counsel. I absolutely love Seacoast and it has been my privilege to serve the Greenville campus over the past 5 years. We will miss the people and leaders in Greenville deeply. I feel confident that Seacoast Greenville is in great shape with great leadership in place. I was probably just getting in the way! :-)

My brothers Greg and Geoff, have been awesome through this entire process. They have walked it with us over the last few months as we wrestled with what was God's direction for our life. Geoff came up today and helped me announce it to our congregation. They have both been very supportive through all of it.

So now we will work on transitioning our life to Nashville. My last Sunday at Seacoast will be September 13. We are praying for a quick sale of our house. If anyone would like a nice home in Greenville, please let me know. We will throw the dog in as a bonus door prize. :-)

Oh, and if Keith Urban needs a session keyboard player, I'll be in town...

OnePrayer

2008-06-03T16:24:00.003-04:00

I am really excited about kicking off the OnePrayer series this weekend at Seacoast. I think that it is an unprecedented opportunity to connect with churches around the world on the same mission. We are starting things off with Craig Groeschel's prayer that God will make us one. Powerful stuff.

There are over 1200 churches that are participating in the series, and I am curious about the churches that are not. What drove the decision to not be a part of it? I am not condemning, just completely curious.

Anyone...anyone?

Mother's Day

2008-05-10T21:14:00.003-04:00

Tomorrow is Mother's Day. A bitter, sweet day for me every year. I love celebrating the day with my wife, who is an amazing mom to our two girls. If I had to raise them by myself, they would have absolutely no chance in life. Jenny is our rock.

It is also bitter because I miss my own mom. She was also the rock in our family. She was beautiful and kind, and could twist an ear harder than anyone should be able to! I see her in my girls everyday and I know that she would be proud of her kid.

Thank you mom.

Where I've Been

2008-04-24T16:54:00.002-04:00

I'm sorry that I have not posted in a while. I am really digging the twitter lifestyle right now. If something that requires more than 140 characters pops into my head, then I will put it on the blog. Otherwise, come follow me on twitter - it's a swingin' good time, baby!

Acknowledge & Celebrate

2008-04-17T23:29:00.002-04:00

The ARC conference was really good. It was the first time that I have heard Brian Houston speak in person and that church is not just about the worship. The guy can bring the truth. His Wednesday morning session was one of the most inspiring messages that I have ever heard. I will never forget that the "oil is in your house." Good stuff.

Another thing that grabbed me was something Dino Rizzo said during his session. Dino is always great and he talked about the 4 thoughts that he wrote down right after starting Healing Place Church (although it was not called that then). The one that stuck out to me was:

Always acknowledge and celebrate what others are doing.

Dino said that you cannot have the attitude as a church planter that you are the only good thing in town. That there is no one else in your city reaching the lost. That there is no one else in your city feeding the poor. That you are the only one in your city doing great ministry. There are great things going on in every city.

Dino said that every ministry that has fallen into sin was preceded by an elite spirit. We have to acknowledge and celebrate what others are doing. I know that I need to get much better it. How about you?

Sunday

2008-04-13T23:08:00.008-04:00

This weekend was very tiring, but a lot of fun. We kicked off our new series Reflect by putting a stage out into the audience with chairs wrapped around the sides. Mitch and Rebecca once again did an amazing job with the stage set. They customized the entire set to go around and under the new stage. It really looked cool. We had plasmas on each side as well as the large screen on the stage. Here are a few pictures from this morning. You can't really see the stage, but I will try to get some shots next week.

Shakin' It Up

2008-04-10T15:03:00.003-04:00

We're going to do something this Sunday that we've never done before. It will be a lot of work to pull off, but this is what energizes me. I am not a very good "stay the course" kind of guy. If we are not shaking things up occasionally, I tend to get discouraged and feel like we are in a rut.

I think that it should be pretty cool. I will try to post some pictures here next week...if we survive the weekend. :)

All A Twitter

2008-04-08T23:00:00.002-04:00

I have been observing Twitter for a while, trying to figure why anyone would want to keep up with anyone else that closely. Well, while I am positive that no one wants to know what I ate for lunch (5 Guys) - I have begun to Twitter. If you would like to come follow me, click here. Just don't follow too close...that kinda creeps me out.

Loss

2008-04-07T18:05:00.003-04:00

A few years ago, I went with a team from Seacoast to the 2nd ever C3 Conference at Fellowship Church in Dallas, TX. That was our first exposure to Fellowship Church and it rocked our world. We came back and changed a lot of what we do creatively because of that conference.

The person that I remember the most from that conference was a singer on staff at Fellowship named Vanessa Whitwell. She was one of the most talented singers I had ever heard on a church stage, and beyond that, a beautiful person inside and out. She talked to us after one of the sessions and was extremely kind and real.

I just read on Ed Young's blog that Vanessa passed away last night at the age of 34 from a sudden brain hemorrhage. I cannot imagine the pain that her husband, family and church family are going through right now. Please take a moment and lift them up in prayer.

Movin' On Up

2008-04-07T10:40:00.000-04:00

If you were not there last Sunday, I made a major announcement at the end of the services: we are moving into our own building! That's right boys and girls, Seacoast Greenville is getting our own digs and we are just giddy about it!! The location is 2309 Hwy 14, Simpsonville. That is 2 blocks south of Woodruff Rd.

We have been in our current location for the past 3 years and it has been great. We have seen some amazing things happen in those 3 years, but it is time to move on. The new location gives us room to grow in a GREAT location, and most importantly, it will be ours. That means no more set-up and tear down. Can I get a wup, wup?!?

We are still finalizing all of the details, but it is now just down to the fine print. The goal is to begin up-fitting/Seacoastizing the building this summer with the first services happening in August. We will be rolling out all of the details over the next few weeks. This is a MAJOR faith move for us. We know that God will provide, but we are definitely stepping into the Jordan river. I will keep you updated through our blogs on what the next steps are.

Passionate Worship

2008-03-31T15:50:00.002-04:00

It seems like we have have gotten this idea that if you are passionate worshiper in church that you are automatically labeled a "charismatic" or "pentecostal". In my scripture reading lately, I have noticed that almost every time someone is worshiping they are doing it passionately. They are falling to their knees, falling on their faces, tearing their clothes (not necessarily recommended for public worship now), raising their arms, shouting, dancing...and the list goes on.

If worship here is practice for when we see Him face to face, you can label me whatever you want - I will be even more undignified than this.

Let's be passionate worshipers this week.

Pics From Easter

2008-03-31T14:56:00.007-04:00

Here are a few pictures of the band from Easter Sunday. These guys rocked the house!

Back From Disney

2008-03-28T19:12:00.002-04:00

We managed to survive Disney World during spring break week...barely. I have never seen so many people in one place in my life! We had a blast though. If you get there early enough and work the fast-pass system, it can be done.

Most pastors that go to Disney come back and write a post on lessons they learned from Disney. I am not going to do that, but we did notice one thing: we saw several Disney "executive types" walking around the park and they all had one thing in common - they were holding claws for picking up trash. Apparently, no one at Disney is above picking up trash around the parks.

That's a culture of excellence.

Easter Weekend Thoughts

2008-03-24T21:46:00.002-04:00

I'm exhausted. I am also on vacation. That is a very good thing. I need a week to recover from the past month. We had a great weekend starting with our Good Friday service.

I will have to post some pics later. We do it very different from anything else that we do, and I think it's the most moving service that I have ever been too. It is a lot of work to set-up and tear down, but well worth it.

Sunday was a lot of fun. We set an attendance record, but I think if we are growing, we should set an attendance record at Easter every year? The services had a lot of creative elements that could have gone wrong, but nothing did. Everything was really smooth and the volunteers did an awesome job all morning. The band rocked straight from 7am until 1pm! That's not easy for musicians.

Our staff was amazing. Tons of extra hours over that last couple of weeks and everyone still had a smile by the end of Sunday. The auditorium looked unbelievable for Good Friday, and then completely different for Easter Sunday. I am not sure that anyone went home from Friday to Sunday!

Thank you so much Seacoasters for celebrating our Savior's resurrection loudly! I am now officially on vacation...

Deep Thoughts On Special Music

2008-03-14T23:31:00.004-04:00

I read this quote on special music by Mark Dever, Pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist in DC, on Ben Arment's blog:

"I think special music smacks too much of a variety show. I assume the choir is the congregation. I'd rather not spend the short time we have together listening to someone else sing."

I thought that was very interesting and kind of sums up my feelings about special music in our worship service. It's funny, because back in the day, I programmed special music for almost every service at Seacoast. I prided myself in being able to put together the hippest, latest song that would set-up the message perfectly - or at least close enough. We once went to a conference at Fellowship Church and they did 3 different Creed songs! We had to have us some of that!!

Here is what I began to see when I really took a look at it:

As good as we could do the songs, they always came off as bar/karaoke versions of the originals. Every time I hear a church (no matter how good they are) doing a "cover" song, I end up wishing it was the original artist doing it.
When it was done, it always ended up being 4 minutes of people just staring at us on stage. We typically have around 70 minutes for a service. 45-50 of those minutes are the message. That leaves 20 minutes to connect people's hearts to God through worship. Why would we want to waste 4 of those staring at someone singing someone else's song?
It's much more fun to have the audience participate with you! It's like a great concert where everyone sings along with the band.

We do still occasionally do a special song - mostly for holiday type services, or if it sums up the message perfectly at the end. That also doesn't mean that we throw together some worship songs every week. Each song is very thought out, and we try to come up with creative ways to use them in the service. Lately, I have been using a lot of video for the lyrics. There are some great resources out there right now for doing this well.

In the end, it just has to be authentic to who are you are and the mission that God has called your church to. Doing Creed songs was definitely not who we were. :)

Helicopter Drops

2008-03-12T20:36:00.002-04:00

Since it seems like we somehow missed the memo about churches doing egg drops from a helicopter, we have decided to drop turkeys from a helicopter for Thanksgiving. We're pretty sure they can fly.

Giving Hope, Giving Life

2008-03-11T17:09:00.006-04:00

I know that I have not posted a lot about the church lately. I am not a big fan of the 'hype' style of blogging that seams to dominate these days. It probably has it's place, but that's not really who I am.

However...I do get very excited about life change and serving the community. We had a 2 hour outreach meeting this morning and there are some really cool things planned for this year. Our community may be sick of us by December! It starts this Saturday with our Giving Hope, Giving Life outreach from 12-3pm at the church. Here are just a few of the things that we are doing:

Easter Egg Hunt
Lots o' food
Jump castles for kids (and me)
Free oil changes for single moms
Free car wash and detailing
Free massages
Free dental screenings
Free medical screenings
Free financial seminars
Free job interviewing seminars
Free business clothes for job interviews

Did you notice the theme there? Everything is FREE! And this is not some scheme to get you to sign up for the real stuff that costs later. We have people in our church that are doctors, nurses, dentists and business leaders and are giving their time and expertise to just be Jesus in the community.

I think that's worth the hype.

Radio Call

2008-03-10T16:12:00.003-04:00

I was asked this morning if I would make a "surprise" call to the morning show at The Joy FM in Sarasota, FL, who had Chris Sligh in the studio for an interview. Against my better judgment, I called in. You can listen to the damage here. :)

Dog

2008-03-05T00:00:00.004-05:00

We got a dog. I am not sure how it happened, but we went out for lunch on Saturday and came home with a dog (We adopted a rescue - we didn't steal one). We couldn't just start with a little cute puppy - we got us a DOG. It's a 3 year old, 60 pound Australian Shepherd. If you need something herded, give us a call. We put a gate on a doorway to keep the dog out of a room, and it jumped over it with no run up. Somebody told us that they will jump on the back of sheep to get to the other side of a herd.

Yeah...we got a DOG.

Would You Be My Neighbor?

2008-03-04T22:49:00.003-05:00

I have noticed a few pastor-type blogs lately talking about similar churches that are basically locating right next to each other. Tim has a post about a church that is planting a campus very near Granger. Michael talks about a church that is relocating to the same area that they are in. Greg pointed out that his church is directly across from Prestonwood Baptist, another mega-church in Dallas. I was visiting my friend Rich Butler's church a few weeks ago and was shocked at how close they are to Brookwood Church here in Greenville. They could almost share a parking lot! We are experiencing this at Seacoast Greenville with Newspring Church planting their first campus less than a mile from where we are.

I am not sure what to think about this phenomena yet. I know that this is quite common in the retail world. There is usually a Home Depot directly across the street from a Lowe's. Grocery stores that sell the exact same products are almost always clumped together. I am just not sure if this is the best strategy for life-giving churches that have the same mission and strategy.

Then again, maybe it's a good thing and each church feeds off of the spiritual momentum of the other.

Just something that I am pondering right now. I would love to hear anyone else's thoughts on this.

Home

2008-02-29T19:33:00.003-05:00

Possible ticket from speeding to DFW airport to catch the early flight = $100
Bad airport sandwich and coke for lunch = $11.23
Home 6 hours early for family movie night = Priceless :)

Chris Sligh's New Single

2008-02-24T23:01:00.002-05:00

My friend and our former worship leader at Seacoast Greenville, Chris Sligh, has just released his first single, "Empty Me", from his upcoming album, "Running Back To You". It is really, really, really good, and you can download it from iTunes here. It was also released to Christian radio this past week.

Chris has been in Nashville for the past 6 months working with famed CCM producer, Brown Bannister, on his debut release with Brash Records. I think people are going to be blown away when they hear the final product on May 6th. On top of being an amazing singer, Chris is a fantastic writer and musician.

Chris is also writing reviews of this year's American Idol at www.ew.com. As you know, Chris does not hold anything back!

Like Me Some Foo

2008-02-21T00:40:00.002-05:00

I just caught the Foo Fighters on Letterman tonight. For my money, Dave Grohl is the coolest dude on the planet. NO ONE rocks harder than the Foo.

Numbers

2008-02-03T22:35:00.000-05:00

15 - that is how many people we baptized this morning at Seacoast Greenville.
2 - that's how many people were signed up to be baptized.

I really don't have any words for what we experienced this morning. After a great message on why you should be baptized, we opened it up during our response time for anyone who wanted to take that extra step of faith.
We did not have any idea of what to expect.
We thought we were ready with plenty of clothes and towels...we were not.
The last few people had to wear recycled shorts and use already wet towels.
We were still baptizing people after the second service was over.
The sight and sound of people worshiping and cheering at the same time was overwhelming.
I cried - a lot.

Sunday Thoughts

2008-01-20T20:45:00.000-05:00

Not that I ever considered it, but...really glad that we did not cancel church today. We filled up 2 services with people that didn't seem to mind the cold!
I don't think I saw single piece of ice on the road this morning.
We kicked off our winter small groups this morning. 19 groups! Every group made cookies to entice/bribe people into their group. Hey, whatever it takes!
The band was laying down some serious rock today! I had someone ask me after church if the guys in the band came out of our church. Yes, they did. I love that the people on the stage believe in the mission of the church. And they seriously rock my face off every Sunday!
I'm rooting hard for the Packs to make the Superbowl. That would at least make it an interesting game.
Jenny's birthday is Tuesday, and she has asked me and the girls to make her cake. I told her that it will not probably be edible, but we'll give it a shot!

Church Tomorrow

2008-01-19T19:52:00.000-05:00

In case anyone is wondering, we are having church tomorrow. The snow is over and everything should be clear by tomorrow morning. We will have our normal services at 9:30 & 11:15. We are also kicking off our new series "Behind The Man - The Early Years", as well as our winter small groups tomorrow!!!

My First Series

2008-01-17T16:10:00.000-05:00

I get a pretty good amount of phone calls and emails from pastor's who would like to know what our experience has been like as a multi-site church plant. What has worked? What would you never do again? What are the differences from a normal church plant? I thought that it might be fun (and potentially time saving) to do a series of posts on this subject. I love blog series now because I have the attention span of a gnat.

So gather up the kids and neighbors for some serious blog fun!

Snow Day!

2008-01-17T10:06:00.001-05:00

We woke up this morning to find this white stuff all over our yard. I am not sure what it is, but apparently it is quite dangerous. All of the schools are closed and no one is going anywhere!

Growing Up In The Digital Age

2008-01-16T22:51:00.000-05:00

My 4 year old daughter interrupted the bedtime story reading tonight with, "Daddy, can you put it on pause please?"

YouVersion

2008-01-12T22:50:00.000-05:00

I posted awhile back about how my daily Bible reading has transitioned to the computer. I hardly ever, except for Sundays, pick up an actual Bible. I wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing until the guys at LifeChurch.tv came out with YouVersion.com. This is a great, great tool for online Bible study.

I have never actually read through the Bible in a year. I have started a couple of times and lost it somewhere on the path. This year I am doing it through YouVersion's yearly plan. It also allows you to journal your thoughts as you are reading. That was the one thing that I felt like I was missing with electronic reading. You can also upload videos, pictures, mp3's...all to enhance the passage you just read. That's pretty sweet.

You can start your yearly plan by clicking here.

David Crowder Band

2008-01-12T00:28:00.000-05:00

I just got back from my first David Crowder Band concert. A few observations of the show:

I haven't sat on a pew in church in a LONG time. Luckily, we stood most of the time. :)
The opening band was not very good. I guess that can be a good thing?
We are getting old. Jenny and I used to be cool (at least we thought so).
David Crowder was great! Anyone that can play a lime green keytar and a Guitar Hero guitar in one set, is my hero.
The lighting was fantastic. They used the moving lights to enhance the worship, not distract from it.
Video consisted of one screen with white letters over a black background. Surprisingly minimalist compared to the lighting. The projector didn't even fill the whole screen.
The guy is a great performer, as well as a worshiper. He proves that you can do both in the right setting.
We snuck out during the youth pastor's talk for some "Shrimp On The Barbie" at Outback. Totally worth it. :)

Christian Radio

2008-01-08T11:38:00.001-05:00

One thing that I will never get is: churches that advertise on Christian radio. Who are you going after?!? I have yet to meet a seeker who's first step was to turn on some Christian rock. Just a thought...

On a positive note, Greenville has a great new Christian radio station at 96.7. I think it was formerly The Buzzard? I am not a huge Christian radio fan, but these guys are playing some good music (Switchfoot, Lifehouse, Reliant K...). Check 'em out if you're in your car today.

Thoughts

2008-01-06T23:23:00.000-05:00

The energy in the room today was amazing at both services. It feels great to back to the normal schedule!
Our special guest this weekend was Jim Caviezel, the guy who was Jesus in The Passion Of The Christ. This guy is the real deal. He doesn't hide from his convictions and faith.
It takes a big man to take a part that will absolutely kill your career in Hollywood, and count it as gain for the cause of Christ. Wow.
Great, great crowd today, and most of the college students come back next Sunday!
We are going to spend the next year in the book of Luke. I love that we are going to dig in like that.
We got a Wii for Christmas. My 4 year old slaughters me in bowling. She now wants to be a professional bowler when she grows up. I think that she has a real chance.
I can't stop playing the Wii.
No seriously, I am playing tennis with one hand while typing with the other.
We're going to lay out the vision for Seacoast this Sunday. My favorite Sunday of the year.
Jim Caviezel is tall. Or maybe my brother Greg is really short...
Love the holidays, but I am glad they are over. Christmas tree is still up though. My daughter thinks that we should leave it up and just change the decorations for the different holidays...hearts for Valentine's day, flags on July 4th, overdue books for National Library Week...I like it.
I have a need, a need for more Wii.

Proud Daddy

2008-01-05T23:03:00.000-05:00

My 9 year old daughter, Brianna, decided (on her own) to ask for money instead of gifts for her birthday this year, so she could buy essential baby items for single moms at the Piedmont Women's Center.

Last week, we took her to Target so she could could spend her $85 on items for a boy and girl baby. The lady who was checking us out, asked us if we were buying all of that for a baby shower. When Jenny told her what Brianna was doing, she started to tear up and told Brianna that people like her make a big difference. She then revealed that she is a single mom with another one on the way. She had no idea that the Piedmont Women's Center helped out single moms.

Yeah...I'm a proud daddy. :)

Sunday Download

2007-09-30T20:49:00.000-04:00

About all I can say about this morning is, "WOW!"
Unbelievable worship and energy in both services
We set a new attendance record - ok...we shattered our attendance record today!
Thank you for everyone that came to the 9:30 this morning. The 11:00 was actually full again, but I don't know what we would have done if some people had not switched to the early service.
It was really cool having Chris back on the mic. It's still a little weird though to watch your worship leader sign autographs after the services. Where's the love for the pastor, people?!?
Next week the 11:00 service moves to 11:15. And the parking guys rejoiced!
I made a pretty big announcement this morning: We have secured a lease on some additional 24/7 space! We now have offices and a 2200 sf. venue. It was built out as a Christian coffeehouse/performance room, but never opened. We now have a really cool room for youth, college, Alpha, and anything else we can think of - a 1/2 mile from the church! I will try to post pictures later.
I just downloaded the latest albums from the Foo Fighters and Rascal Flatts. How's that for musical diversity!
Our small group last week had 20 adults and 10 kids. That's almost insane.
I can't wait for Catalyst this week. I REALLY do no have the time to go, but I know that I will be glad that I did.
I am depressed that the Cubs are in playoffs, but giddy about the Mets historically choking it up end the end! :)

Some Thoughts

2007-09-24T00:16:00.000-04:00

Great Sunday at Seacoast Greenville. Tons of energy in the room today.
We are out of room in our 11am service. It's probably time for a few of our peeps to move to the 9:30. When that fills up...
I will have a very big announcement next Sunday.
My boy Chris Sligh will be back with us next Sunday. The AI tour wraps up tonight after approximately 565 dates! :)
Our people are starting to really step it up with our "Simply Serve" campaign. It's exciting to see people plug in to use their gifts.
Jenny and I are going to see Rascal Flatts in a couple of weeks. I don't care what you think! :)
I am taking our staff to the Catalyst Conference this year. This will be my first time. Is it any good? :)
I got one of the weirdest emails ever this afternoon. I may have to share it in a future post when I finally decipher what it means.
I am flying out to Dallas for the week tomorrow. I may have to hit Pappasitos one night. It has to be done. If anyone wants to hang, shoot me an email.

Virtual Bible Reading

2007-09-13T10:54:00.000-04:00

Recently, I have been doing my daily Bible reading online at Biblegateway.com. I don't know if I like it yet. It almost feels like I'm not really reading God's Word. I know that the words are the same, but there's something about holding leather. Also, it's really hard to highlight my screen. :) Anybody else do their reading online now?

Junky Car Club

2007-09-10T21:02:00.000-04:00

I absolutely LOVE this idea. I am so close to being able to enjoy a full membership. Just a couple more years on my cars!

http://junkycarclub.com/

I'm Exhausted

2007-09-09T21:49:00.000-04:00

I am not sure that you can pack more into one week than we managed to do in the past seven days. Here are some of the highlights and some random thoughts on a Sunday night:

On Wednesday night, we had our first annual Seacoast Chili Cook-Off. (h.t. Jeff Kinney) All of our small group leaders prepared what they thought was their best chili and the battle was on. There were prizes for: hottest, tastiest, best fixin's and so on. My small group managed to land the hottest award. Nice job Maria! It was a HUGE success with a lot of people getting connected to our small groups.
I am now officially officeless. In order to make room for more children's space on Sundays, Ross and I moved out of our office on Saturday. We will be officeing out of our homes for the next few weeks until we have something else in place. You may see me very soon in a coffeehouse near you!
We spent most of the day on Saturday setting up for our 3 year anniversary and building a new classroom in the former office.
We partied hard today! I think this has to be the coolest Sunday that we have ever had. We had stuff happening everywhere! The owners of Brick House Coffee are Seacoasters, and they basically set-up a Brick House Coffee in our cafe. They gave away a ton of iced coffees. The line before the second service wrapped half way around the auditorium. Those guys ROCK!!!
We also had huge chocolate cookie cakes from The Chocolate Shoppe. Mmmmm...... :)
We rented a huge jump castle for the kiddies to jump in after the services. It looked fun.
There were a lot of people there today. We had so many college students in the second service that a visitor asked me after the service if that was our youth service! :)
We had pizza for all of our college students after the 11:00 service. I can't wait to get our college ministry kicked off next week!
I shared my vision of being a church that leaves a legacy of serving this morning. Jesus gave us the model of picking up the towel, and that is what we are going to do in our church, in our community, and in our world. We gave everyone a small towel to be a reminder of what we are called to do. Our slogan this year is: Simply Serve.
I had 4 people ask me to mention their school's football team during the welcome this morning. Apparently - there were some big games this weekend? :)
Next week kicks off our new series "Get Smart" and our new "Get Smart" small groups. All of our groups are doing the same study for the next 6 weeks. We have over 20 groups ready to go!
Our staff is AMAZING. If everyone knew all that happened behind the scenes this week, you would just weep for them. Those guys took it all in stride and kept going.
I can't wait for a slightly slower week...we'll see what happens. :)

Location, Location, Location

2007-09-04T22:46:00.000-04:00

Seacoast Greenville is turning 3 this Sunday. It was actually a couple of weeks ago, but we are choosing to celebrate it on the 9th...because we can. :)

We have learned A LOT in the past 3 years. I think I now know what the hardest part of planting a church is. It's not people leaving. It's not hiring staff. It's not finding musicians. It's real estate. Finding a place for a growing new church to meet in a town like Greenville is extremely frustrating. We have been doing some searching over the past 6 months, looking for our next step. Our current building has been great, but we do not own it. That means that we do not have complete control of our future, and that future has looked tenuous at best over the past year as the main lease has changed hands.

Things look good right now, but when we first got word that our building was up for sale, we started an all out search for possible buildings. Here is what I've found:

Retail space is expensive! A Bi-Lo grocery store that is 1/2 mile from us recently moved to a new location. They still have 9 years left on their lease, so they are looking to sub-lease 60,000 sf. to anyone but another grocery store. I made a call on it because it's literally down the street from us. It would only cost us - $510,000 a year!!!
They do not want to lease or sell retail space to churches. I have had good conversations with realators until they found out it was a church. That usually ends it.
We have grown to the point where we need enough space and parking that we also cannot afford. Ah...the other side of growing with unchurched, young people. The part they don't tell you about in the books! :)
Warehouse space looks affordable, until you factor in the upfit. Most do not have air conditioning and/or enough parking. You also have to build a lot of walls.
Greenville County schools will not let churches in them. We also have 2, count them, 2 movie theaters.

It may not be a bad idea for church planters to get their real estate license first. It will probably come in handy. :)

Latest Reads

2007-08-22T23:51:00.000-04:00

I am a pretty big reader, but not always the most disciplined. I usually have at least 5 books going at the same time, and it is rare that I actually totally finish a book. It seems like most books repeat everything over and over! Anywho...here are a few that are grabbing my attention right now:

5 Dysfunctions Of A Team - I am going back through this with my staff. Great discussion starter!
Choosing To Cheat - I know that I am late on this one, but Andy really nailed it! An instant addition to my counseling recommendations.
The Big Idea - Dave and the guys at CCC continue to raise the bar on church innovation. I am actually re-reading it to digest some more.
The Prodigal Comes Home - I couldn't actually bring myself to buy this one, so I read it in about 3 trips to Barnes & Noble. :) I was a HUGE fan of Michael English in the early 90's. I had no idea that he fell so far.

I have 2 new books that should be arriving by Friday. I love the smell of an Amazon box!

Catch Up

2007-08-22T23:03:00.000-04:00

OK, I know that it's been awhile, but don't be playa' hatin'!! Here are some quick hits of what's going on in my little world:

It was a fun Sunday with a lot of the college students back! There's definitely more energy in the room with those guys. Love ya NGU!!! Can't wait for Furman in a few weeks.
Had lunch on Tuesday with the South Carolina District Superintendent of the Assembly Of God, Steve Brown. I grew up in the Assembly Of God, but have been out of it for 14 years. I really liked him...especially since he picked up the check! :)
I am tired of thinking about buildings!!! I am ready to get back to thinking about ANYTHING but buildings.
The public charter school that now controls the building that we are in (that's another VERY long post), started on Monday. We now have to remove anything that remotely looks religious from the auditorium every Sunday. At least we don't have to tear down everything! :)
Our auditorium in now the gym class during the week. :(
The church that owns our building (again...another long post...) took about 100 auditorium chairs to sell in a yard sale. This will probably be a major problem for us in a couple of weeks. We may start BYOC services soon!
Chris posted some new tunes on his myspace. Check 'em out...
I can't wait for our 3 year anniversary on September 9th! God has done SO much in our church over the past year. We're putting it together now, and there will be some surprises... :)
Don't look now, but here come my Cardinals! 2 1/2 back baby!!!
It can not be football season when it's 101 degrees outside. It just can't...

Favorite Websites

2007-07-30T22:10:00.000-04:00

As a follow up to my last post, I thought that it would be fun to list my top 10 websites. These are sites that I visit on an almost daily basis.

www.usatoday.com - my national news fix every morning
www.greenvilleonline.com - local news fix
www.weather.com - you gotta know...
www.bloglines.com - my blog reading fix
www.cnet.com - my gadget fix
www.biblegateway.com - my reading Bible
www.planningcenteronline.com - see previous post
www.igoogle.com - my home page for the moment
www.facebook.com - see previous post
www.apple.com - I just need to!!!

Tech Toys

2007-07-28T15:37:00.000-04:00

I am an admitted techphile (nerd), so I thought I would list 10 of my favorite gadgets, websites and software that help me in ministry and just plain make me smile. :)

ProPresenter - worship presentation software. I have demoed almost every presentation software on the market, and while they all have their good and bad, none of them rival ProPresenter in my humble opinion. It's flat out the easiest to use and it runs on a Mac! We have not had a single crash since we started using it 3 years ago. The most recent upgrade took it over the top!
Planning Center Online - scheduling software. I cannot imagine trying to manage my worship and tech teams without it now! It saves me hours of tedious work every week. The best part - it's totally web based. I can log in and work with all of my resources anywhere that I am. As much as I travel now, that's a good thing!
PWarchive.com - chord charts. The first site I check before I start charting a new song. They're not always 100% correct, but they're usually pretty close. Another MAJOR time saver in my week.
Bloglines - rss aggregator. I rarely ever actually go to a blog. Bloglines tracks around 100 different blogs for new posts for me, and I can scan through them all in about 15 minutes. I wish I could do that with books (or people).
Backpackit.com - organizational software. I am new to this site, but it's growing on me really quickly.
iPod - mp3 player. We use iPods for all of our pre and post service music. I just set-up different playlists and it's always fresh. Do you remember when you had to burn cd's every week?!?
AT&T 8525 - PDA/Phone. I have had a Treo 650 for the past 3 years and I just made the jump to the 8525. It's a beautiful thing. Working on the road is breeze with everything this thing can do.
iMac - computer. There is not a better designed desktop computer out there. I have one on my desk and we use a 20" Intel version for running ProPresenter. We even used one when we were mobile. They are very compact and easy to move.
Pandora.com - internet radio. I never got into internet radio until I tried Pandora. Pick your favorite artist and let it build a custom playlist for you. How cool is that?!? It also helps my research for new music. :)
Facebook - social networking. I am really digging the networking possibilities of Facebook. MySpace what? :)

Facebook

2007-07-26T17:44:00.000-04:00

I am now officially addicted to Facebook. If you're on Facebook, look me up and be my friend!

Kid Friendly

2007-07-15T11:31:00.000-04:00

Apparently, according to this site, my blog is ok for the whole family to read. I...uh...think that is a good thing? Hopefully it's not like a boring cartoon movie that you have to take your kids to see every once in awhile. :)

Random Thoughts From The Concert

2007-07-11T16:58:00.000-04:00

Now that I have slept for a few hours, these are some thoughts that I had last night:

I am still amazed at the whole concept of the American Idol tour. Thousands of people pack out arenas to watch people sing other people's songs? Whatever - it works.
It was very surreal to see our worship leader, and my friend, singing on stage in front of 9000 screaming people.
Jordin & Melinda can saaang.
Phil Stacey had the pipes to pull off the win. I think his nerves on tv got to him. Watch his career very closely.
I can now see some of the appeal of Sanjaya. He is definitely interesting to watch. In a bizarre, freakish kind of way...but interesting.
Blake is a master showman. Not a great voice, but has major charisma. He was my 3 year old's favorite (besides Chris!)
The drummer rocked! I think he tours with Usher as well.
It was fascinating to see how each of the idols interact with people. A few standouts:

Jordin is unbelievably nice. She had the biggest crowd around her the whole time, and she even got down on the floor with my girls. Very cool.
Melinda is the real deal. Very, very humble and kind.
Gina was really cool as well. Very funny.
Chris R. surprised me a bit with how nice he was with the girls. He took the time to talk to them before signing their book. His sister was there and remembered us from Hollywood. She's traveling some with the tour.
Sanjaya smiles - a lot. Seemed like a nice kid though.

It was cool that a few of them included scripture references under their signature. Brianna got her Bible out as soon as we got home to look them up. They can be a witness in that profession.
We are going through a little bit of American Idol withdrawal right now. Last night was the final big event. It has been fun, but I am not losing another worship leader to American Idol! :)

The AI Concert

2007-07-11T00:31:00.000-04:00

We had a REALLY fun night tonight. We went out and caught my boy Chris Sligh and the other idols in concert at the Bi-Lo Center in Greenville. Our seats were unbelievable - 5th row dead center! When we first got in the arena, we kept slowly walking towards the front thinking that we must have missed our row. I kept looking for security all night to usher us to our real seats. :)

After the show, we got to go back stage and hang out with Chris and the other idols for a little meet & greet. The girls got autographs from everyone except Lakeesha, who was not around. I have some thoughts about the concert, but I will save those for tomorrow. For now, here are a few pics of the excitement:

Pre-show amazement

Chris & Gina duet

The Idol boy band (not pictured: Phil & Chris R.)

Chris & the girls backstage

THE American Idol, Jordan

Hailey & the fam

Gina signing for Brianna

Melinda signing

Phil adding to the Idol book

Thoughts From The Beach

2007-06-24T21:33:00.000-04:00

Here are some random thoughts from the past few days:

Why do people like sand?
Being unconnected for a few days is actually ok.
I hear that the church survived without me today, and it was a great day at Seacoast. I don't know if there is any correlation there or not... :)
Some people are not meant to wear bikinis on the beach. Women or men.
I am losing my office this week. You might have to find me in a local coffee shop for awhile!
Craig Groeschel has a GREAT series of posts going on the art of preaching. I had just read this one, when we got a postcard from another local church advertising their new summer series, "Desperate Households." The timing made me chuckle...a bit.
This could be a pivotal week for us as a church. More details later...
I watched the footage on CNN of the memorial service for the fallen firefighters in Charleston. My heart grieved for those families. Those guys are true heroes. I was so proud to see Seacoast take a part in the service.
I did not get to go to church this morning, because we were on the road to get back to Greenville. It was strange seeing restaurants packed and church parking lots mostly empty. The times have changed - so must churches.
I am ready to go back to work!!!

Back From The Beach

2007-06-24T20:54:00.000-04:00

We got back this evening from a much needed mini-vacation this past week. The grandparents had the girls for a week, so we met them in Florida to reclaim them. But, before we picked up the kiddies, Jenny and I spent a few days in Panama City. If you ever need a body part drawn on or pierced in any way, this is your place. We were able to land a sweet resort spot through Priceline.com. They had four separate pools right on the edge of the bay, with a long pier to their own personal miniature beach. I've never been to a place where they give you robes to wear! :) Unfortunately, they also make you give them back. :(

I am usually not very good at just being still - anywhere, but that was basically all we did for 3 days. It was exactly what I needed right now. I have never been in a crazier or more stressful time in my life, and it was time to step off the path for a moment and just sit. My mind needed a break in a bad way. I didn't even open my computer while we were there. I didn't even know that was possible for me!

Anyway, I am back and I am sure the insanity will continue tomorrow at the office, but I feel rested and ready to watch God work it all out for His glory!

Consultants

2007-06-13T10:31:00.000-04:00

This post at MMI this morning brought up a thought that I have had lately: I would NEVER bring in a church consultant that is not currently serving in a local church somewhere. I know that church consultants have to obviously be gone a lot of Sundays, but when they are at home, they should be active in their local church. Otherwise, they are just blowing smoke.

Deep Thoughts

2007-06-10T22:11:00.001-04:00

My life has been unbelievably crazy the last few weeks. I think I can see some margin coming, though. If it doesn't, I may be going to join Paris Hilton - soon! Here's the latest:

I have been in between assistants for the past couple of weeks. My last one went all celebrity on us! :) Our new assistant starts tomorrow - and I am very excited!!! Welcome to the team Cara!
I spent the past week at the coolest church that you have probably never heard of. I helped facilitate a Leadership Network Community at Heartland Community Church in Rockford, IL. Somebody asked me the other day if I though that video churches could grow very big. Until about a year ago, Heartland was showing video messages from Willowcreek 80-90% of the time. They are 9 years old and have over 6000 people coming on a weekend! They literally bought a 350,000 sq. ft. mall in the middle of Rockford, and turned it into one of the coolest church buildings that I have ever been in. 26,000 sq. ft. of it is just for production space. They have 90 50" plasmas around the building! 65,000 sq. ft. of the space is used just for storage and set building for their monthly kid's program. Yeah - I think this video thing just might work.
My wife and 2 little girls are camping with the grandparents in Texas this week. I HATE being in the house by myself for a week. I HATE camping even more. I'm just saying...
My brother Geoff was in Hawaii this week doing some consulting. He sucks. :)
I have been to Chicago twice in the past 3 months. I have been stranded overnight both times. I don't have good thoughts about Chicago right now...
Another local pastor chose to spend his summer sabbatical at Seacoast. I think that's very cool. I pray that we were able to be a blessing to him and his family.
Today was another phenomenal Sunday. God continues to bless beyond my understanding.
The iPhone drops in 2 1/2 weeks! Can anybody say - Father's Day?

What's Happening

2007-05-27T22:49:00.000-04:00

I deeply apologize for my recent absence from the world of blogging. Someday soon I will be able to write about what has been going on over the last few weeks. It's been...uh...interesting. In the mean time, here are a few thoughts lately:

We continue to grow...which is blowing my mind right now. God is sending some AMAZING people to join us on our mission.
Some writer named Melville once said, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." Oh boy, do I know what that means now. It always seems like when God is beginning to do something huge, Satan attacks like never before. The arrows have been flying fast and furious lately.
As a pastor, never underestimate the value of having good friends that you can just hang out with. You need that release.
The best leadership in your church are people that have been there with you and get the vision. We couldn't survive without those people.
They moved Freedom Weekend Aloft this year from Anderson to 10 minutes from my house. It took us and hour and a half to get to the front gate this afternoon. :(
My oldest child will be finishing 2nd grade this week. I'm old.
After Chris was off of the show, we pulled for Jordan on AI. Seems like a genuinely nice person.
The Office finale was great. 24 needs to pull it together next season. It's sad to see Studio 60 go out with hardly a whimper. It was a smart, funny show.
Spiderman 3 was a really good 2 hour movie. Too bad it went like - 2:30. Can't wait to see Pirates 3!
As crazy as things are right now, I kinda like it. I could not handle a normal 9-5 job! I tend to thrive on SOME organized chaos.

Argh!!!!

2007-05-01T20:25:00.000-04:00

I am a very impatient person. I can't stand to wait on something. If a thought or an idea hits my brain, I want to do it right then. You are more likely to get something scheduled with me if it can happen in the next day or so. Better yet - that afternoon. I can't even think more than two weeks out.

There's is something going on right now that is causing me much, much anguish. God has to be building patience in me...right?!?

Thinking Differently

2007-05-01T20:09:00.000-04:00

We had a discovery at our staff meeting on Monday. We were going through different issues that we are having right now, and we kept coming to the same conclusion: we have to start thinking differently as a church. We are not the same church that we were 6 months ago. Sudden growth is very nice, but it also causes wrecks if you do not start thinking more strategically. The questions we are having right now are:

How do we get these people plugged into small groups quickly?
Are we ready for people to jump into serving?
How do we stop running out of everything every single Sunday?
How are we going to handle Newcomers this Sunday?
What are we going to do when we can't put more chairs out?

We kinda thought we knew what we were doing a few months ago. I don't think that's where God wants us to be. We are definitely out of our comfort zone right now!

So You Had A Bad Day

2007-05-01T19:57:00.000-04:00

Ever had one of those days where you'd just like to start over? Where it's not one big thing, but several hundred little things? Today was one of those for me, and it ended quite nicely with the waitress at dinner dumping two glasses of sweat tea and water on me. I thought we might at least get free dessert out of it...but no. Just a, "sorry - are you guys ready to order?" Blurgh.

Prayers

2007-04-25T17:37:00.000-04:00

I've never done this on the blog before, but we could really use your prayers this week. There are a couple of decisions coming down the pipe that need God all over them. I can't go into details right now, but the next few days could be extremely important.

Thanks.

Sickness

2007-04-23T19:00:00.000-04:00

Man - I really, really, really hate being sick. :(

Canceled my trip to the ARC conference. I think I made the right call.

Trust me - You do not want to know the details...

Sunday Thoughts

2007-04-23T00:08:00.000-04:00

I have to start this post with the disclaimer that I have been sick for the past several days and right now I am flying high on a couple tablespoons of Nyquil. :) Whatever is said after this may not make sense and will not stand up in a court of law. :)

In between coughs and snot blowing this week (just keeping it real...), I have been thinking about what God is doing right now with this church. For whatever reason, God seems to have put his hand of blessing on us to have an influence in this community right now.

I remember our first year as a church. In a LOT of ways, it was rough. You've read about the churches that go from 0-2000 in their first year...that was not us. My family and I dropped into this city in April of 2004, and we knew four people. Two of them have since moved back to Charleston! No one would return my phones calls - real estate people, schools, other pastors - no one! I had one local, influential pastor tell me that he would not trade places with me for anything in the world. That felt good. (Cue the violins)

The dream of starting with 300 people and the next week having 400, and the next 500...did not happen. We opened our first Sunday with 315 people and pretty quickly settled in at around 120 every week. Our first summer, we dipped under 100 on a couple of Sundays. I was on vacation for one of them...I almost didn't come home. I remember standing on stage on one such Sunday and thinking, "This is not what I signed up for God".

The weird thing was - we were not doing things a whole lot different than we are now. We've always had really good music, the teaching is very solid, the core team volunteers were awesome. But yet, we were not ready...I was not ready. I am amazed when I think about how much God has grown me in the two and a half years since we launched Seacoast Greenville. I needed that time to figure out why this church exists. I needed time for God to break me and use me how He saw fit - not how I planned it. I have given up a lot of pride since April 2004. It's no longer about what I can do to grow this church. I know now that I've got nothin'.

That's why it's kind of amusing to me now that suddenly - I get phone calls returned. In fact, I am now the one returning a lot of the calls. If they only knew! I do know one thing - I will always return those calls. I know that as quickly as God can bless, He can also lift His hand of blessing. I have seen it happen. We've all got nothin' without the power His Holy Spirit behind us.

I don't know where you are at as you read this. Maybe you need to let God break you. He needs to break you before He can use you. I wanted to give up several times (and still do on the occasional Monday :)), but I am so glad that I did not. God had a plan and it was so much greater than anything that I could ever dream or imagine. And He's not done yet...

Too Early To Fly

2007-04-16T05:23:00.000-04:00

It's 5:30 in the morning and I am sitting in the Greenville airport waiting on my plane to Dallas. I am off to do one of my favorite things this week - hang out with a group of multi-site churches that are getting it done! These guys are doing things for the Kingdom that would blow your mind. The only downside is - it's 5:30 in the morning! Oh well, I could be on a treadmill or something. :)

Cool Sunday

2007-04-15T18:43:00.000-04:00

Last week, we had the most people ever on a Sunday. That was to be expected - it was Easter. Normally, the Sunday after Easter is one of the lowest of the year. Everyone gets their church in on Easter and need to rest up until Christmas. :)

That is why I was blown away today when we had more people than last Sunday! I've never seen that happen before. It felt a little like when we first launched the church. Tons of visitors - tons of visitor cards to follow up on. :) We ran out of chairs and bulletins in the second service. Sarah was running off more notes between services and we still didn't have enough! We also signed up a ton of new people for small groups. Great job Chris and Joey!

Our First Touch guy, Scott Derrick, is my hero for the past 2 weeks. For the second week in a row, the parking team had to park people out on the front lawn to handle the crowds between the services. Scott told me today that he wouldn't mind if it calmed down a bit next week!

The interview with Chris was a lot of fun. You never really know what Chris is going to say... which adds to the excitement. The Greenville News came out and took pictures of the first service. You can check those out here.

I can't wait for next week!

A.D.D. Generation

2007-04-13T17:19:00.000-04:00

When I was in college, I would literally read 3 newspapers from front to back every day. The fact that I did most of that during my geology classes was not a good thing...but none the less...

Since I started reading blogs a couple of years ago, I have noticed my reading attention span has gone WAY down. If your post causes me to have to scroll more than once - I'm gone. My daily newspaper reading consists of hitting UsaToday.com and our local paper's site, scanning quickly for the best stories, and moving on.

I suspect that I am not the only one who has this problem now. The internet is a wonderful thing, but I wonder if we are creating a generation of news clips and sound bytes? Maybe that's ok.

Sorry, I just lost interest...gotta go...

Marketing Jesus

2007-04-12T23:25:00.000-04:00

We made a paradigm shifting decision this year that I think will shape how we market our church to the community in the future. We decided that the best way to invite people to our Easter services was to do an event that did not benefit us at all. Our Baskets Of Hope outreach was 100% designed to help homeless families in our community get back on their feet. We did not receive a single penny. Our fliers about the event did not mention our Easter services or even our normal service times. We had a chance to do a big flashy event that would have gotten a lot of attention, but I am very happy that we did not do it.

I am NOT saying that churches that go that route are wrong. We have done plenty of that in the history of Seacoast. My brother Geoff has a great post about how we need all kinds of strategies in the church world. I just think, for me personally, it's time to go a different direction.

We did get tools into the hands of our people to help them invite their friends and neighbors - personal invites, t-shirts, car decals...but our event was geared to simply love people like Jesus in our community. The one piece of marketing that we did do this year was a direct mailer. I think this will probably the last time we will ever do that. We received 5 mailers from churches this year! I have a hard time imagining anyone looking at those anymore.

Next year, we will do it again. We will love our community like Jesus. I think that is the reason to have a church. Don't you?

Big Sunday

2007-04-12T17:29:00.000-04:00

This Sunday at Seacoast, Chris Sligh will be performing one his songs off of his band Half Past Forever's latest release: "Take A Chance On Something Beautiful." This will be the first time since leaving the show that he will be performing his own music. Sunday will also be the first chance to purchase the CD in Greenville.

We will be back to our normal service schedule of two services at 9:30 & 11:00. You will probably want to show up a little early this week to get a good seat!

Chris Sligh Interview Help

2007-04-10T14:32:00.000-04:00

I am going to interview Chris during the services this Sunday about his experience on American Idol. Any suggestions on questions I should ask him?

Warning - Rant Ahead

2007-04-09T00:04:00.000-04:00

One quick rant before I close the books for today. If you are a pastor, please do not ever say that your church is doing something, or about to attempt to do something, that no other church has ever done. One thing that I have learned after a year of working with Leadership Network, is that there are churches that you have never heard of, doing things that you had no idea were possible. I am continually going, "Why has no one heard of you guys?" I also don't see the point of pointing out how much cooler or more clever your church is than everyone else's. Who are we trying to impress?

End rant. :)

Easter Thoughts

2007-04-08T23:28:00.000-04:00

I am so tired right now that about all I can say about today is - wow. God blew our doors off in a big way this morning. We had the most people ever...a LOT more people...but that is only part of an amazing Easter Sunday:

It was unbelievable to watch Chris Sligh use his enormous talent to lead people in worshiping a risen Savior. God is going to use him to do HUGE things in His Kingdom.
Several people gave their lives to Christ today and symbolized it by lighting a candle. That is what it is all about.
I was blown away again by our volunteers and staff at Seacoast. They went way above the call of duty today. Especially Scott Derrick, who kept everything running smoothly through all of the chaos. I still have no idea where they parked all of those cars!
3 services in one morning is a lot of work!
The worship was awesome. You could feel the energy building during the entire morning. Every service was the same. Chris, Kim & Lee had the Spirit all over them!
Mitch & Rebecca did it again with the set. I am not sure when Mitch sleeps...:)
Sarah was at the church at 1:00am this morning getting rooms ready for the kids. That was after being there all day with us getting everything else ready! I only found out about this because Mitch was still working on the set at 1 this morning. You guys need some sleep!
I am now hiding with my family in an undisclosed hotel somewhere in America. It's time to unplug until Tuesday!

There are so many people that stepped up in a big way these past 2 weeks. I am so stinkin' proud of our church right now. Seacoasters - you are making a difference...let's charge hell with water pistols!!!

Good Friday

2007-04-06T23:01:00.000-04:00

We had an awesome Good Friday service tonight. We opened it up a little more this year and added a labyrinth walk through the last moments of Jesus' life. One of our artists painted paintings for each station. At each stop there was a painting, a physical reminder (thorns, spikes, a stone...), and a scripture with an instruction to help initiate a prayer. We lit the path to each station with candles on the floor. It looked really, really cool.

We also hung 25 miniature lanterns with tea lights in them over the audience. They looked really great with the lighting kept very low.

Mitch painted a painting of Christ being crucified during the service. I think it's one of his best, and it was very moving to watch as we listened to the story retold straight from John 18 & 19. Lee did a great job leading worship as well.

We had two crosses set-up for people to go and meditate on scripture, and then nail their prayers of forgiveness or thankfulness to. It is always chilling to listen to the hammers hit the nails.

This is definitely the most moving service that we do all year. I think that we need to spend some time every year remembering why we are able to celebrate on Easter Sunday. Without the cross, there would not be a resurrection.

LifeChurch.tv

2007-04-06T22:14:00.000-04:00

I took a cruise through LifeChurch.tv's newest campus this morning. I was able to just walk in, look around at the different rooms. Watched a little bit of a previous message on a flat screen in the lobby. I even sat with a group of guys in the lobby and talked about the church and our recent experience with American Idol. Two of the guys that work at LifeChurch.tv were nice enough to chat for awhile about the campus and what they are looking at doing.

Oh yeah...I did all of this sitting on my bed with my laptop. Their newest campus is in Second Life, and it is launching this Sunday with 3 experiences. It is one of the coolest, out-of-the-box things that I have ever seen a church attempt to do! If you have a chance, teleport to Experience Island and check it out. Yes Don, it will all soon be robots! :)

This Sunday Is Easter!

2007-04-02T13:58:00.000-04:00

I am so pumped about this Sunday! I have this funny, little feeling that it is going to be HUGE. We are doing 3 services - 8:30, 10:00 & 11:30.

Our mailers dropped today and we are already getting phone calls about them.
It will be AWESOME to have this guy back with us. We missed him and you can read his thoughts about it here. (FYI - Chris is on almost every entertainment show this week - check your local listings:))
There are lime green shirts that say "Plans For Easter? www.seacoasteaster.com" all over Greenville this week.
People took a ton of personal invites to invite their friends, family and neighbors.

I can not wait to feel the excitement of God doing something big on Sunday morning! That's better than the buzz from coffee in the morning any day... :)

For Seacoasters - we are pretty sure that it is going to be slammed for our 2 later services. If you could possibly attend the 8:30 service, that would help a lot. If you are bringing someone with you, please come to the best service for you. Here we go!!!

Baskets Of Hope Pictures

2007-04-02T13:17:00.000-04:00

Here are a few pictures from our outreach event.

Baskets Of Hope

2007-04-02T10:23:00.000-04:00

What an amazing weekend!!! I am still trying to recover this morning from the whirlwind of the last few days. I may have to turn to coffee...no, it will NEVER be that bad! :)

We decided this year that the best advertisement that we could do for Easter, would be to do something completely for our community. We didn't want it to turn into a big publicity stunt for Seacoast. Honestly, we have had enough publicity lately! :) We decided to partner with a local organization, The Human Relations Commission of Greenville County, that helps families in our area who are homeless or about to be homeless. They collect basic needs items for the families to help them get back on their feet.

I first challenged the church to donate basic items for baskets to go to the families. We were overwhelmed by the generosity of our people! You guys came through in a BIG way! They are busy at the office this morning putting the baskets together to deliver later today.

We then did some art outreach in downtown Greenville the last couple of weekends. Mitch Lehde set up at a store front in the middle of Main St. to paint 3 paintings to be sold at our event on Saturday. While he was painting, we handed out water bottles and fliers about the event to anyone who was interested. I love that fact that Mitch is able to use his amazing artistic gifts for true ministry! People have called our church artsy - I LOVE IT!!!

This all led up to the huge Baskets Of Hope event this past Saturday. We crammed everything we could possibly think of into 3 hours of fun in front of the church. Here is a list of what we did:

Blood Drive (Around 30 people gave during the event!)
Silent Auctions
2 Live Auctions (Scott and Deborah rock!)
Cakewalk
Sucker pull for the kids
Face Painting
A live concert (thanks Lee!)
Easter Egg hunt
Car Wash
Food
Mitch did a live painting for a raffle
Jump castles
Craft table

And...we're officially exhausted! The best part - we raised over $3000 at event!!! Every penny of that will go to the families that we are helping.

I am so proud of our church right now! This is what being a Christ follower is about. If we do not love our community like Jesus, than why should we exist?

(I will post some pictures tomorrow.)

It's Not Over

2007-03-29T21:59:00.000-04:00

A few people, ok - a few hundred people :), have asked me today what I thought about the results last night on AI. Unless you've sworn off any kind of technology, you know that Chris Sligh was not voted to stay on the show (that's really what happens - they're not voted off...).

Here are my thoughts: I am actually quite relieved. I do feel that Chris definitely deserved to stay on longer than he did. However, it is hard to watch your friend get thrashed on national tv. I do not think that he deserved the harshness that he got Tuesday night. I have watched it back a few times, and he was only off slightly on one section. They kind of set him up with Gwen's comments and it was downhill from there. He didn't have a chance. I am very proud of what Chris was able to accomplish - 10th out of over 100,000, and how he handled himself in the public eye. And yes, Gary, it will be good to have our guy back in G'ville for a few weeks!

The best part...Chris can now speak for himself! :) Check out his blog here, and catch him on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno tonight. You can also order his band's cd here.

I have some very cool stuff about Easter coming up. Stay tuned...

In The Press

2007-03-20T23:09:00.000-04:00

I had the privilege of being interviewed for a couple of articles outside of Greenville about Chris.

The Sacramento Bee ran this story this week. (FYI - Chris does not consult me for advice on songs for Idol! :))

Meg Kinnard with the Associated Press wrote this story that is starting to get some controversy.

I think Chris is a great guy, and I consider him a really good friend. I hope that I am able to convey his heart a little bit when I give interviews. I did not, however, plan to be his spokesman to the press. I just pray every day that I don't say something stupid!

Quick Thought

2007-03-19T17:49:00.000-04:00

I am about to get on a plane to Dallas, but I just had this revelation while cruising my Bloglines: I am finding myself drawn in by only the blogs that allow comments. Maybe it's the whole "web 2.0" idea. USAToday.com recently changed their entire website to be totally interactive. I think good blogging and websites spark conversation and doesn't have to be just a one sided information dump.

Just my opinion - any comments?

Fake Blog

2007-03-15T23:44:00.000-04:00

I am getting a lot of questions about this, so I'll clear it up here. There is a blog out there that claims to be Chris' secret blog - it's fake. I read through the posts and it seems fairly harmless, but it cracks me up that people are commenting to Chris on it! The only real Sligh blog is here. Comment away!

And check out the forums at chrissligh.com.

Terry's Back!

2007-03-14T19:45:00.000-04:00

I am very excited that the best blogger in the bid'ness, Terry Storch, is back in the game! Terry's blog was the first blog I ever read and the cyber world was not the same without it. He's also a really nice guy. I left his link up on my blog for months hoping he would come back, and finally gave up a few weeks ago. I am adding it back - but only in pencil for awhile. :)

Back From LaLa Land

2007-03-10T20:03:00.000-05:00

So...by now you've probably figured out that the "nameless show" that we attended in L.A. was American Idol. I don't know if I've had much more fun in my life! I just hope that I looked ok on tv, and it didn't cost Chris votes. :) I won't go into all of the details about how the show works. My buddy Don does a great job of that here. The only difference was - we got to stay in the "red room" for the entire Thursday show. It was hard seeing the parents and friends of the ones who got kicked off. We got to talk to Sundance's wife for a bit, and she was really nice. Jarod's parents were great as well. We were on the couch that faces away from the studio, so when Chris was told that he made it through, we couldn't actually see it. The rest of the night we had to lean over the couch or go to the side rails to see the show. Carrie Underwood was AWESOME. She was up with us before she came out and wished everyone the best. Very nice. Here are a few pictures from our Hollywood adventure:

This was us hanging with Chris after the Tuesday show at his hotel. People were stopping him everywhere we went and telling him what songs he should sing!
After the Thursday show, I got to go with Chris and hang out at the "American Idol Top 12 Party". This is a picture of the red carpet madness. It took 2 hours for them to get through it!
Here are a couple pics of Chris and Gina getting interviewed
Me and Chris on the Red Carpet
This pic is a bit fuzzy, but this is me hangin' with former idols: Justin Guarini, Kimberly Caldwell (center) and Paris Bennet. Aren't you really jealous now?!? :)

That was an unbelievable experience. Thanks Chris for letting us be a small part of your craziness!

I Love L.A.

2007-03-06T11:02:00.000-05:00

Jenny and I are currently in L.A. for the taping of a t.v. show tonight that will remain nameless. However, it is on live tonight on a major network - more details tomorrow! :)

Highlights from the trip yesterday:

1. I walked out of my office without my computer, PSP, iPod, and all of the books that I was going to read on the plane. I am typing this on my dad's laptop, circa 1989. Yeah, that was a lovely discovery in Charlotte!

2. Because of #1, I picked up a book at the airport called "Manhunt". It's about the 12 day manhunt for John Wilkes Boothe after he killed Abraham Lincoln. Really good book about how my relatives helped him along the way.

3. Our pilot decided to take a practice run at the landing at Orange County Airport. We were almost on the ground when he suddenly pulled back up for another go at it. Something about almost hitting the plane in front of us. Yeah...

4. Finally got to my dad's house around 1am eastern. There is not a quick way to get from Greenville, SC to Los Angelas, California. Up at 7 for a conference call this morning. Now I'm ready for some fun!!!

I'll have some good stuff for you tomorrow.

Viewing Party

2007-02-28T19:31:00.000-05:00

We moved our viewing party to the church last night and over 100 people showed up! It was a pretty cool night rooting our boy Chris Sligh on. Everyone there thought he killed on his version of "Trouble". It was very nice that he got to dedicate it to his lovely wife Sarah, and she was there to experience it with him. Fox Greenville and Fox Atlanta were both in the house to cover the mania. You can check out the stories here and here. They also did a nice story on HPF and Seacoast guitarist, Adam Fisher. Here are some pictures of the fun after the show. Enjoy!

Tuesday

2007-02-26T10:12:00.000-05:00

Fox Morning Show

2007-02-21T17:14:00.000-05:00

I will be on the Fox Tennessee (Nashville) morning show tomorrow, so if you live in Titan's country, make sure you tune in and let me know what you think. By the way - I'm a HUGE Titan's/Jeff Fisher fan! :)

UPDATE:
I had a blast on the show this morning! Charlie Chase and Kellie Sutton at Fox 17 were very nice and asked great questions. I checked their website for the video to link to, but it looks like they do not post them. Sorry - you'll just have to imagine how great it is to talk to me. :)

FINAL UPDATE:
Imagine no longer, kids - Curt Miller from Tennessee Mornings was kind enough to post it on YouTube. Click here to see it.

The Big Idea

2007-02-20T01:01:00.000-05:00

I am almost finished reading The Big Idea by my friends at Community Christian Church in Naperville, Ill. I will post a full review in the next couple of days, but I wouldn't wait for that - go buy it TODAY. It is that good. These guys are setting the bar for multiplying churches, ministries and systems. If you are a church planter, stop reading this blog and click this link right now.

What are you doing?!? Do you think that I can't see you're still here? GO!!!

Craziness

2007-02-20T00:49:00.000-05:00

Oh my, will I have some fun stuff to write about the next few days! I have this feeling that it is just beginning...

Pics From This Week

2007-02-16T15:34:00.000-05:00

TV truck in front of our house

Me being interviewed

Sarah getting interviewed

Idol night 1

Idol night 2

Here We Go...

2007-02-14T23:41:00.000-05:00

What can I say - another night, another Idol party, another tv news truck in front of our house. I can't imagine what our neighbors are thinking about us. We'll see how many "For Sale" sign pop up tomorrow... :)

This time, they did a live remote from our living room for the 10:00 news. They interviewed Sarah, Chris' wife (and my assistant!), to lead off the story. She did an awesome job. For some reason, they put my face on there again. That can't help ratings. I will post the link to the video here tomorrow - along with some pics of the chaos that has become the Surratt house.

Oh yeah...Chris Sligh is in the top 24!!! How unbelievably cool is that?!? My friend, Chris, who two weeks ago was hanging out in our office every day because he didn't have internet at his house, is going to be famous now. I always knew that it was just a matter of time before he was "discovered", but this is freakin' ridiculous! I'm just giddy to be watching it all happen. On to the semifinals!

UPDATE: Here is the link to the news story. Click on the video "Local singer advances to Idol's top 24".

Top 40!

2007-02-13T23:10:00.000-05:00

Well, our boy, Chris Sligh, is through to the top 40 on American Idol. I have to say that I think his group song was the best group performance of any season. I never thought that the BeeGee's could rock!

We watched it tonight at our house with most of the worship team from Seacoast, and a few other friends. The local Fox affiliate came out to film us and interviewed me about Chris for the 10:00 news tonight. I tried to not sound too stupid - it was really hard! :) We had a blast, and I will post the pics tomorrow.

I talked to Chris on the phone after the show, and it was fun to get his perspective on what they showed. I can not WAIT for tomorrow night!!!

UPDATE:
To see the Fox news story about the party - click here and choose the video "Chris Sligh fans throw Idol party"

What A Week

2007-02-12T23:44:00.000-05:00

Wow - the last 8 days are just kind of a blur right now. It has been amazing and exhausting at the same time!

Last Sunday - I promised a big surprise for Seacoast Greenville, and I think I delivered! We hid Greg in the green room until it was time for the message - and when he stepped on the stage -the place went nuts! It was very cool to have him come up and be with us. He even tagged team with me for our Newcomer's Reception. Kinda cool to have the guy who started it all - tell the story of Seacoast. Oh yeah - we also had the most people ever on a Sunday!

After Newcomers, Greg and I got on plane and flew out to San Diego for the 3rd Coast-to-Coast Multi-Site Conference. Yes, I missed the Super Bowl. :( The things you do for ministry... There were over 700 leaders from 200+ churches exploring this new thing called multi-site. I was lucky enough to teach at 2 breakouts with Jason and Shawn. The coolest part, however, was seeing Mark Driscoll in person. The guy is a gifted communicator. A lot shorter than I imagined though. :)

Tuesday night - I caught the red-eye back to Greenville so I could be back in time for our First Wednesday service. There's nothing like getting up to teach on 2 hours of sleep! I hope it made sense to somebody... The biggest reason I wanted to be back though, was the chance to baptize 4 people during the service. That is definitely worth anything else I have to do!

Sunday - Had an awesome day all day yesterday. Worship was amazing at all 3 services, and there were as many people there as last Sunday! God is definitely doing something in our church right now. I'm just holding on loosely!

Tonight - had a great small group at our house, and 24 was 2 hours - woo hoo!!!

Now you can see why it's been blur. Also, this week could be more interesting than last. Keep your eyes on the paper and the tv. That's all I'm going to say about that!

It's Too Good

2007-02-01T12:22:00.000-05:00

I heard a new one this week:

"The music at Seacoast is so good that it distracts me from being able to worship. I just listen to the music."

Ok...we'll start hitting some bad notes so you can worship...

Idol Night

2007-01-31T15:01:00.000-05:00

A few of us from Seacoast got together last night with Chris and his wife Sarah to watch him on American Idol. We had a blast watching his life change in a span of a few minutes.

Idol Recap

2007-01-30T23:13:00.000-05:00

For those of you who are dropping in on this blog because of a google search for Chris Sligh, feel free to stick around and check things out! :)

Chris was indeed featured tonight on the Birmingham edition of American Idol. What you saw on the show is who Chris is - a very funny guy with an amazing voice. I am so proud of him and I am very excited to see what God has for his future. The world is finding out what we've known at Seacoast Greenville for the past 2 years. :)

Rock on Chris!!!

American Idol

2007-01-24T23:06:00.000-05:00

If you are a Seacoaster, and you watched American Idol tonight to the very end, then you caught a glimpse of someone very familiar in the preview for next week's show. He was referred to as "found new talent in Birmingham". That's right, our worship leader Chris Sligh will be on American Idol next Tuesday night. I have not talked about it very much because there are confidentiality concerns with something this big, but I think it is safe to say that you will want to watch Idol next week.

If you want to catch a preview, then come to Seacoast Greenville this Sunday at 9:30 or 11:00! :)

3rd Service

2007-01-09T23:35:00.000-05:00

This Sunday will be the official kickoff for our 3rd service in downtown Greenville at The Carpenter's Cellar. If you would have told me a year ago that we would have 3 services and 1 of them was going to be off-site, I would have signed you up for a urine test. This is going to be a crazy year that only God could dream up! If you want to have some fun and be a part of dangerous church, join us at 12:00 this Sunday at 123 S. Main St.

LifeChurch.tv

2007-01-09T23:29:00.000-05:00

The guys at LifeChurch.tv - Craig Groeschel & Bobby Gruenewald - have started a blog. This will be a must-read blog. NOBODY is getting it done for the Kingdom like these guys.

Read it here!

Rent A Worship Band

2007-01-09T22:59:00.000-05:00

Gary had a good post about their decision to not pay musicians for their worship band. You can read it here. I am torn on the issue and have gone back and forth for the past several years at Seacoast. I think ultimately, it comes down to each Pastor's preference and what God tells him to do.

There is, however, one trend in church plants that kind of bothers me right now . It seems to be the thing to hire an entire band to come in and do your music until hopefully, you can raise up your own people. I understand this from the excellence stand point, but I have a couple of problems with it:

1. I feel that worship music should be something that comes out of the life of your church. It's always pretty obvious if the guys on stage are not sold out on the vision. Worship should be an overflow of what God is doing in that community.

2. Transitioning to your own people will be rough - at best. A tight touring band is going to be hard to follow for awhile. I would much prefer to have guys that are sold out to the church - grow together as a team from the start. That doesn't mean that the music won't be excellent from the beginning, but there is a chemistry that has to mature with a worship team. Leading people into worship is not your typical gig.

Just my thoughts.

Give Me Everything

2006-12-20T22:40:00.000-05:00

I have one small request for fellow bloggers. I use an aggregator to read all of my blogs. My tool of choice is Bloglines. I love the fact that I can catch up on everything in about 15 minutes every morning. I don't have to waste time going to every single blog to see if there is anything new. If there is a new post, it shows up in bold and I am one click away from expanding my mind. Except, if the blog author has chosen to only syndicate a portion of their posts, thus causing me to actually go to their blog to finish reading their profound thought. That drives me crazy!!! I don't want to see your fancy graphics. I don't really need to see the latest picture of you in action. I don't even care about the recent books you have conquered. I just want to read your latest drivel and then move on! Is that too much to ask?!?

Thank you. :)

Love Like Jesus

2006-12-20T21:53:00.000-05:00

If you've read my blog for any amount of time, you know that God has given me a HUGE vision for reaching people for Jesus by loving people like Jesus. I feel strongly that it's not enough to put on a great show every Sunday and try to get as many people in the church doors as possible. Sundays will always big an important tool to present the Gospel, but I'm a big believer that what you win them with, is what you win them to (h.t. Bob). Lasting life change will happen within the context of a relationship with someone who really cares and will be there tomorrow when the questions and struggles come. To that end, I have encouraged our church to go beyond the "drive-by" outreaches this next year. When you serve the community, don't love 'em and leave 'em.

I think we have taken a huge step towards that goal over the past few weeks. We asked our people to adopt a struggling family in our church and our community, and help provide a few basic needs. They were to bring the items to the church and we would fan out across the city to deliver them to the families this week. I have to say - we were totally overwhelmed by the generosity of our church! They brought in so many items that we are now looking for more families in our community to help. Yeah God!!! Thank you Seacoasters for seeing the vision and taking it way beyond what I thought was possible!

Tis' The Season

2006-12-19T20:52:00.000-05:00

Wow, the Christmas season is almost past us and...I'm tired! This time of the year is always hectic in the church world. There are certain expectations that come along with December - music that we only do during that month, major decorations (ours are amazing this year!), jam packed Christmas Eve services, and occasionally, a few minutes to hit the mall with the masses.

This is also usually not a great month for Sunday attendance. It seems like people are so busy that they save up their church time for Christmas Eve. But this year has been different. We have actually grown, and last Sunday had our largest non-Easter attendance ever!

Christmas Eve should be interesting. We are doing two - one at 11am and one at 6pm. I have no idea how the attendance will shake out, but we are preparing for everything. The 6:00 will have few extras like: a marshmallow roasting pit, carolers outside, and a visit from Santa for the kiddies. I was wavering a bit on having Santa until my wife invited one of our neighbors who does not attend church, and they told her they will probably come because they haven't been able to take the kids to see Santa yet. Ok...we'll have Santa.

It's been a great month and I can't wait until January!

To Blog Or Not To Blog...

2006-11-23T00:45:00.000-05:00

Lately, I have been searching for the reason to blog anymore. I summed up most of my hesitations in a previous post. Then tonight I decided to read a few of my posts from when we planted the church. It was great to have a running journal of what was going on and to see how far we've come. I think blogging is worth it, if just to have an online diary of our journey as a community. It may not mean anything to anyone else, but that's ok. It's much cheaper than therapy. Happy blogging and thanks for the fish!

Best Band Ever

2006-11-22T16:39:00.000-05:00

I am sitting here listening to the 5.1 version of the new Beatles remastered cd/dvd "Love". These are still the best songs ever written, and they are the best band of all time. Consider that:

They recorded everything live, mostly on one track.
An "overdub" was cutting the tape and piecing it back in somewhere.
There was no such thing as AutoTune.
They were inventing everything they did.

Right now, I am thankful for John, Paul, George and Ringo. :)