Posts Tagged ‘ New Church ’

It’s “Go” Day

Yesterday was a unique day in the short 9 month life of Awestruck Church.  We cancelled our service so our folks could serve.  I had no clue what to expect or if anyone would show up.  (It would have been a great excuse to skip church and sleep in)  To my surprise, we had more people than we had jobs, and the Awestruck crowd knocked it out of the park!!!  My personal goal was to see at least half of our average adult attendance show up to work and serve.  We’ve been averaging between 65-80 adults each week, and we had 42 people serving on Sunday morning plus 5 kids!  I was worried about this goal after 24 people informed me that they were either going to be out of town or working, but we reached and exceeded it.  

I was so proud of all that was accomplished yesterday.  One of our families made homemade biscuits to deliver to homeless people on their way.  One crew worked around the home of a lady recently diagnosed with cancer that has been virtually immobilized for a few months.  They weeded, planted flowers and vegetable garden, trimmed hedges, and sanded and repainted her rocking chairs.  The other crew met at Eastern Middle School (where we have church) to wash all the outside windows, pull all the weeds, pick up trash around the building and parking lots, and make over 100 thank you bags for the staff.  We finished the day by taking dinner to the local fire station.  I got reports from a few more folks about their acts of service over the weekend, because they couldn’t join us on Sunday.  

There were so many people working that I didn’t even have a task?  It gave me the opportunity to walk around and record the activities, so look for a video very soon.  Thank to all the folks at Awestruck who showed up to be the Church!

2009
06/01
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Monday Download

1.  It feels great to have my Mac back!  I was a bit disconnected for 14 days, but I am back on track now.

mac2.  Speaking of the Mac…the reason I bought it was to avoid “Crashes”, but that was my second hard drive fail in 18 months?  Oh well, not even that could ever make me switch back to a PC!  🙂

3.  The last few weeks have been Insane at Awestruck Church!  We finished up “The Next Step” series this week and God is doing some BIG things in peoples lives.

4.  Travis Moore preached his first message…ever…at Awestruck yesterday.  He knocked it out of the park to finish up our series.

5.  It was nice to have a break this weekend.  I am proud of our team for having everything set up and running smoothly w/out me there to help (or harass)

6.  Of all days for me to take off, there was a Basketball tournament going on right beside our service space in the Middle School…and we didn’t know until they showed up.  Those guys handled it superbly!  

7.  My little girl turned 3 years old last week!  I cannot believe she is already 3 and ready for Dance Class!

8.  Micah’s Baseball season kicks off tonight!  He is ready and so am I.  

kickball9.  My Kickball season starts Wednesday…Yes I said Kickball!  I play in an Adult Kickball league w/ GSO Parks and Rec, and I love it.

10.  Speaking of Kickball…don’t judge it until you experience it.  It is one of the most competitive sports I’ve ever been part of.  Those folks take it serious.

11.  Speaking of Serious…This Guy got me suckered into my first Fantasy Baseball league.  The draft was last night, and I don’t think I had a clue what I was doing.  But, it was kind of fun?

2009
03/30
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Monday Download

Joseph1.  Micah was in his first Christmas play last week and he got to play Joseph

2.  None of the kids got sick or fell off the stage, but they did scream out to their parents a lot…and that made it very fun to watch.

Cake Face3.  Adyson really enjoyed talking to Micah while he was on stage, AND the cake afterwards!

4.  Awestruck church had the highest attendance and the largest offering in our short history yesterday!

5.  What is phenomenal about the offering is that every bit of it was designated to go to help out families of students of Eastern Guilford Middle and our people stepped up Big time.

img_03296.  It was good to have Layden back together and rockin out our worship time yesterday.

7.  Brittany added a great new element to our music.

img_03308.  The challenge yesterday was to live our lives in a way that makes Jesus attractive to people around us.   Be the “ornament” that hangs on His tree.

9.  I am soooooooo excited about Santa coming to our house this week!  The kids are too.  🙂

10.  We had a blast hanging out with Shannon’s family in Roanoke Rapids on Friday and Saturday.  Be sure to check out the video below to see the dangerous gift SHE picked out for Micah.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and enjoy time with your families!

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2008
12/22
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Dragging vs Flying

On our recent trip to Topsail Island we stopped in one of the oversized bargain beach stores.  You know the stores that sell everything from Bikini Girl Beach Towels to lighters shaped like guns?  While browsing we decided it would be fun to fly kites on the beach, a little father son bonding time.  I bought Micah a classic cheapo piece of vinyl with a string attached for only $4.  I, however, was convinced that I needed the more expensive “sport kite” which promised to preform aerial acrobatics with ease!  I couldn’t wait to show off my skills.

Once both kites were assembled and ready for action we headed out on the sand.  Micah’s simple, classic kite went up with ease and maintained a great flight pattern for long periods of time.  Mine, well…not so much!  I spent the good portion of an hour attempting to get it air born only to watch my efforts (and my mood) crash and burn into the beach sand.  I ended up dragging my kite instead of flying it.

What I learned was to stick with what you know if you want to fly.  As a leader I am learning very important lessons about who I am, and more importantly who I am NOT.  We often get swindled by the fancy packaging and promotion that alters our view of “success”.  This leads to us dragging instead of flying.  Be you, don’t try to get in over your head.  I am learning my identity as a pastor and it is helping me to put people around me that are talented in the areas I am weak.  I want to constantly grow and learn as a leader, but I will always be me.  If the leader doesn’t know themselves it leads to the church/organization dragging as well.  What good does it do to obtain all the fancy and impressive ways if all you do is drag them around?  You were meant to fly high and achieve great things, but only when you work within the parameters of who God created you to be.  Are you a leader that Flies or are you just dragging around?

2008
12/17
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Lessons from Life
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I’m not Burnt Out…Yet

Shut DownIt seems crazy to be gone for a second weekend just 15 weeks into starting our new church.  It goes against everything I’ve ever learned about church and ministry as a whole.  I’ve always worked in systems that revolved around the Pastor, which meant that if he wasn’t there then things didn’t run as normal.  I have also learned the hard way how negatively that affects the man God calls to lead the church.  

I decided when we started Awestruck Church that I would be gone from church once every 8 weeks.  I also encourage my leadership to do the same thing.  Why you might ask?  To avoid Burn Out!  I plan on doing this for the rest of my life and I feel like I need to put some things in place right now that allow me to stay fresh and excited about being the pastor of Awestruck.  I want the people at Awestruck to hear great teaching from the incredible leaders on our team.  I want them to miss me when I’m gone, but I don’t want the success or failure of our church to weigh on my shoulders!  God has assembled an awesome team of Leaders at our church.  I am so blessed to be able to get away and trust them with the Sunday morning worship experience.  What God is doing in our church is so much bigger than I am capable of doing on my own.  Why should I be so prideful to think if I’m not there then He can’t work?  I am a pastor learning what it means to break away from the business of God and rest in His presence.

2008
12/11
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Newer Stage Design

 

We are constantly changing the look of our stage and trying to improve on what we have.  This is our newest set up.  So Fresh and so Clean!  This is the beginning of our changes…cool new stuff to be added very soon!  I’ll add some pics of the changes we’ve made to the kids rooms soon.  Enjoy.

 

Sound Check

Sound Check

 

Sound Checker

Sound Checker

 

 

 

 

 

 

Checked and Rockin!

Checked and Rockin!

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2008
11/23
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Awestruck Stage Design
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The Overflow

We often think that we have to hold on to all that we have and get more for an overflow to occur.  The next four weeks at Awestruck Church are all about how God has chosen for us to pour out in order to live in His overflow.  When God pours into us then the overflow trickles down into our family, time, priorities, finances, and every aspect of our life.  When we live in the Overflow it also has filling affect on everyone around us.  The overflow is what happens when we pour out!

2008
10/30
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Our First Service

All the sleepless nights and stressful days were well worth the effort as we celebrated our first service today at Awestruck Church.  I was thinking as we finished our set up how much of our stuff got done at the last minute, but you would have never known it this morning.  Yesterday while setting up the bulb on the projector burnt out and we did not get the sound system to the school until late last night, so all that had to be set up today.  Our location was not secured until about 9 days ago.  We just chose to laugh and enjoy the adventure.  Other than the fact that I emailed Evan the wrong scriptures for my message, the service went off without a hitch.  It was almost scary how smooth everything went!  I didn’t feel like I ever got into a good flow with my message, but that will come with time.  It is more difficult than I imagined to switch from set up and maintenance mode into preaching mode.  Layden flat brought the house down with our worship.  It was a bit loud (even for me) but the music was incredible.  A new sound system combined with a new setting will take some time to dial it in right.  They played two of their original songs to open and close the service.  The last song was “Hear me Loud” which was very fitting.  🙂  We had a great crowd this morning at Eastern Guilford Middle School.  It was a very diverse group of people.  It will take us time to sort through all the info cards to figure out how everyone found out about Awestruck, and next week will tell how many folks show up for a second time.  The fact is that the real work has just begun.  This is the part I have been waiting for.  Loving people and connecting them to a genuine community so they can encounter Jesus.  Here are some pics of Awestruck’s first service.

2008
09/07
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Awestruck Stage Design
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Welcome to Awestruck

Perhaps I am delusional from a lack of sleep over the past few weeks, or maybe I am just optimistic?  I honestly thought that our set up today would take 2 or 3 hours and we could rest all afternoon.  Well, we met at 10 am to load all the stuff and head to the school and I got home at 8:30 pm!  My two hours turned into 10 without me noticing.  It was all worth it though.  The team worked hard to transform Eastern Middle into Awestruck church and it looks phenomenal.  I am so proud of my team and how well everything turned out.  Here are a few pics of what you can expect to see when you get there.  Note: this is not the final product.  I will post some pics tomorrow night of our first service. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2008
09/06
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I don’t have time for this? (you should make time to read this)

What a crazy week!  I have not had time to do much blogging, twittering or any of our social media this week.  To be accurate, I have never seen a chicken run around with their head cut off, but if it is anything like what I imagine it to be then that is what I have resembled all week.  Tons of stuff has fallen in line for Awestruck over the past few days and I can’t wait until 9/7/08!  Only 10 more days and we finally get to put into action all the prayers, tears, dreams, and plans we have been making over the last 331 days.  I have been saying “Booyah” a bunch this week?  I have been excited so I am allowed.  

Our sound system is going to be incredible thanks to Don’s Music City and their desire to be part of what God is doing through Awestruck.  Thank you Jim for believing in our vision.  Our signs should be done very soon, like maybe today.  We have found a great deal on a great projector…finally!  Starbucks has donated the coffee for our first sevice and we have the equipment to serve it up right.  The pipe and drape and backdrop for our stage will be finished by Sunday.  (Could be a long workday for the Awestruck crew.)  Our children’s area is 99.999% complete thanks to our friends at Pine Ridge Church, my wife and Aubrey working so hard.  The videos for our service are going to be off the charts thanks to Evan.  I think he even impressed himself with these.  Layden is ready to flat bring it with our music!  I will warn you that if you are expecting the typical “follow the bouncing ball” type worship, then you might want to visit another church.  Those guys are going to rock out.  Steggy (our pastor of guest experiences) has it going on with our welcoming and greeting stuff.  I have been preparing my message for 10 months now, so it better be pretty good.  Most importantly, by lunch time today Awestruck will officially be able to call Eastern Middle School home!  It has been worth all the hassle and frustration to be able to meet in this incredible facility.  Thank you Mr. Ferrell for all your hard work and accommodation.  Like I said, this has been a busy week.  I know that I have forgotten about some folks and stuff, but you get the idea. I am amazed and gazing in wild wonder at all God is doing behind the scenes for Awestruck.    Get ready Eastern Guilford county, we are coming.

2008
08/29
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FYI

The thoughts expressed here reflect only my personal opinions and viewpoints. Awestruck Church is free from any blame on my rants.