Happy 4 year Anniversary to me and Billie

Four years ago today at this very moment, I was pacing the floor at the Jameson Inn in Bainbridge, GA. In just a few hours, I'd be getting married to my soulmate. I remember waking up asking so many questions . . . "Am I ready for this? Will I be a good husband? Will I be a good provider? What if she changes her mind and gets cold feet?" Obviously she didn't get cold feet and I'm still working on the husband and provider part . . . plan to for as long as I'm alive.

If you don't know our story, I'll share it briefly. It was fall of 2004 and I resigned my position at a church due to frustration, anger, confusion . . . well all the reasons you're not supposed to resign, but I did. Even though I went off on a tangent, God still provided for me. I landed a job with the new Hibbett Sports in Douglas and within a few weeks, I was managing the store. I was making good money and was done with the hassles and problems of ministry until the day I got a call from Americus from Pastor Bud Wommack. He talked to me about coming to Americus as youth and music minister. I turned him down. We talked again a week or so later and I turned him down again. I told God that if he called me again that I would do it, and he did, so I did.

I didn't know but the whole time God was working on me to get me to Americus, He was working on Billie to move to Americus. She had lived in Donalsonville all her life and was trying to make a decision between entering a program called "The Mission" in Cleveland, TN or to go to college at Georgia Southwestern State University in Americus. After praying about it, she felt she needed to move to Americus.

So on January 1, 2005, two complete strangers moved to Americus on the same day. I came for church I thought. She thought she came for college. We came for each other. We met on Sunday, January 9th during the PM service at Heritage Church of God. I was preparing to lead the music when I saw her walk in and I immediately heard what might as well have been an audible voice tell me that she was the one I was going to marry. I introduced myself to her that night. Our first date was the next Monday, the 17th, to Prayer Conference service in Tifton at the Church of God Campgrounds. Dr. Raymond Culpepper was preaching. Not really sure what he was preaching about . . . I think it was good though. February 14th, we got engaged on a small little island. June 25th, we got married.

It's been a wild ride and we've been a lot of places and been through a lot of stuff, but I wouldn't trade any of it. It's made us who we are today. My wife is my treasure and I'm blessed because of her. The memories we've already made are sure to be joined with a lifetime more of memories. Happy Anniversay Billie . . . I love you more than anything!

Tribute to my Great Grandma

Lucille Hutchison was her name. She passed away over the weekend at the age of 92. Grandma Lucille spent most of the latter years of her life in pain and alone as her husband, Fred, passed away earlier. For different crazy reasons and excuses that we all have, I wasn't as close to her as I should have been. Yet, everytime I did go and visit, she always had such an interest in my life and what I was doing.

Grandma Lucille was a praying woman. She was a Spirit filled Christian. They tell stories about waking up at night and hearing her interceding for her children and asking God to intervene in situations. It was nothing to hear her pressing through until she began to speak in a beautiful Heavenly language. She loved her family. She loved God.

Today, she doesn't know what pain is anymore. She doesn't know what sorrow and loneliness are. In fact, she'll never have to write another check to a bill collector or worry about the crops on the homestead. She's in the precense of Jesus, her Lord and Savior. The Bible tells us that on that day, He will wipe away every tear from our eye. There will be no more sorrow, suffering, or pain. As I look at the world around me and I literally see the judgment of God on the horizon . . . when I see the communities we're going to be raising kids in . . . when I see Christianity slowly creep into an afterthought in both the world and the church . . . I'm jealous of Grandma Lucille.

She doesn't have to catch her breath to shout, sing, or pray. She doesn't have to use a walker to get down those transparent streets of gold. No . . . I just believe that if you want to see her now she's doing one of two things . . . running those streets with vitality and praise or sitting literaly at the feet of the One she sat before for years on earth.

I love you Grandma Lucille. I'll see you on the other side.

New youth website features

I finally finished all the upgrades on the youth website. You'll find a new slide show of ads, a new poll, and a few new pages. Starting in August is Live Aid. This will be an extensive discipleship program for teens. There is a page for Live Aid that gives a description. If a teen joins Live Aid, all they will need to do is pull up the website, go to the Live Aid page, click on the picture, and it will take them to a Live Aid Message Board which is password protected. That's where discussions and weekly check in's will take place.

There is also a Download page. There are four different links on this page. The first is a permission form link. Parents can now go to the site and click on the permission form link on the Download page and be able to download and print a permission form directly from the site. No more waiting till church when we usually forget it all anyway! The next icon is a calendar so if you want you're on youth calendar every month, just pull it up and print it. The next icon is for applications. Right now, you'll find an application for the Youth Board which we will get back together and an application for Live Aid for the teens. Again, click them, print them, fill them out, give them to me or save them an email them to me.

The last icon is a chat icon and I'm really excited about this. Starting the end of July, we're going to be hosting weekly chat talks. One will be on Monday from 8:00 PM to 9:00 PM and will be for parents. I'll give the password for each session each week. It'll be a place to voice concerns, ask questions, or invite other parents to share what they are experiencing. On Tuesday's from 8:00 PM to 9:00 PM, we will have a chat for youth with a Q&A format. On both chats, real names are optional as is registration. You can participate without ever registering with the site.

I'm pumped about what God is going to do with our youth. Check out the site daily at

http://www.thecrossingym.org

Also, teens can now sign up for trips online via the message board.

I stayed in a hotel in Perry

It was very strange. I live in Perry, but last night I stayed in a hotel in Perry. Strange indeed. Our air conditioner went out sometime Wednesday afternoon and when we came in from church, it was like a furnace. We braved the heat Wednesday night anyway because it was so late, but it was horrible.

I spent Thursday trying to find someone to come fix it. A local company was unable to get to me. Our home warranty company was able to squeeze us into Friday, but that didn't fix Thursday night. So we went to the Microtel here in Perry. It's new and it was very nice especially for the price. We enjoyed our local stay . . . and it was comforting to know that if we forgot anything, we were only 2 miles from home.

Hopefully today the air gets fixed. It cost me a trip to Six Flags with some folks in the church, but hey Billie still went. She'll have fun for us both I suppose.

Hello, I'm the pastor, er um . . the youth pastor . . . well I'm both . . .

Tonight marked the relaunch of our youth ministry at the church. I'm back to doing youth again as I'm taking over the youth program for the near future. We're not at a place where we can afford to give it to just anyone and folks aren't exactly knocking down opportunities to uproot their families for a part time position and know they will have to find a secular job on the side in this tough economy. So until God sends us someone or until we can train someone, it's me.

Tonight's meeting went well. We had good attendance and good reception to our plans. We are moving our youth service to Sunday night's immediately after Discipleship beginning Sunday, July 19th. Drama practice for youth will take place on Sunday's during Discipleship. Wednesday night will become the Youth's Discipleship night. In addition, we are creating "Live Aid" Ministries. Live Aid will be an extensive discipleship program designed for teens to teach them ministry in the local church and community. Starting July 19, a point system is going in place and up for grabs is the winner's choice of a Wii, PS3, or Xbox 360.

We've got some awesome trips coming up too. Not this Saturday but next, we're headed to Itchetucknee for a fun day of tubing. The big trip is our Night of Joy trip in September to Disney World. A lot of great things are coming.

The youth website will be changing some. Parents will see a "parents page" which will require a log in. It is on this page that parents will be able to dialogue with myself and others. We will also link all permissions forms on the page. We will be setting up a monthly chat time where parents and/or teens can log on anonymously or with their real name and ask questions, get encouragement, or advice.

Check out http://www.thecrossingym.org in the next few days to see updated material. I'll also be updating the church website (perrycrossroadscog.org) in the next few days . . . Thanks Evy!

A Biblical Approach to Leadership in the Church

That's the name of our three week intensive class we're doing for all current leaders in the church and all prospective leaders. In time, we will make this class mandatory for anyone wanting to hold any position in the church.

We studied the leadership selective process by Peter in Acts 1. He wanted to maintain familiarity with the vision, mission, and directives of Jesus Christ. Paul would later reshape this idea by stating that we should know those who labor among us. We discussed how it's important for people to establish themselves reputably and spiritually among a church before attempting to lead the church. The individual must also show a grasp of the church's vision and mission and have a great understanding and comprehension in regards to the workings of the church.

We then studied the five fold ministry in Ephesians 4 and we divided people into two categories . . . verse 11 people and verse 12/13 people. Verse 11 people are those who are called to leadership and that calling is expressed through the offices of apostle, prophet, evangelist, teacher, and preacher. We dissected the office of each and expounded beyond the modern day thought of these positions. We found that verses 12 and 13 are the barometer of success in ministry. Paul said the five-fold ministry was to equip the saints for unification in the faith, maturity in Christ, growing in the fullness of Christ, and pursue service in Christ's kingdom. If our ministries and leadership are not invoking those things, then either we are not called, or we are not working. Verse 12/13 people are those who do the service, help the unificiation process, and promote growth. A verse 12/13 person can certainly be a leader, but many times it is out of a burden instead of a calling. A calling is eternal. A burden can be lifted.

We talked about the need to take ownership of the ministry and that if it is a calling and not a burden, it takes precedent and priority in your planning and time consumption. We dealt with the problem of generics in church visions and projections. Everyone wants to win the lost at any cost. Everyone knows we have to reach out if we want to grow. And when the question is asked, "how are we going to grow our church" the answer usually is generic . . . "love people, invite them to church, etc." But Jesus didn't deal with generics. He dealt in specifics. Paul dealt in specifics. Our vision statements have to answer the following questions, "how, where," and "why?" How are we going to love people? Where are we going to reach out? Why are we doing this exercise? If we don't know as leaders, those we're training and teaching won't know either.

It was a great time together. I've divided the course into three segments, "Ministry in Leadership, Business in Leadership," and "Professionalism in Leadership."

Congrats Perry Crossroads

You gave and gave to the YWEA project this year. You constantly outgive yourselves, but we've never outgave God. Because of your faithfulness in giving to missions and ministry, God is really blessing our church. And because you gave $1200 to YWEA this year, I'm bringing home a gold plaque as recognition.

Thank you church for your giving and seeing the big picture!

Campmeeting in Tifton

What a week! I hate to see it end tonight, but it's been amazing. I can't really remember a Campmeeting quite so good. The services have been amazing, but for me, the highlight has been the Bible studies in the morning with Pastor Dan McEachin. He has been speaking on holiness and it's been very sobering to say the least. I'm considering playing the DVD of some of the sessions on Wednesday nights coming soon. It was that good.

Tim Hill preached an awesome message on the issues of the church. Mark Williams reminded us that we can go forward in faith or fear. Raymond Culpepper preached about the crucifixion and passion of Jesus and painted the picture as if we were in a movie theather. Last night Tommy Bates did a tremendous job. He said some very good things and reminded us that like the storm came to the ship due to Jonah's presence on it, a storm is coming to our nation because the church has ceased to be the church. I do enjoy his music as well!

Tonight is Tommy Bates again and Jason Crabb will be doing worship. It should be a good night. I'm very tired and I am looking forward to going back to Perry. Nothing like your own bed to sleep in!

Looking forward to Sunday as we finish up our giant series.

The Braves do it again

I'm a little late talking about this, because I decided to give it a few days to rest my little feelings (thanks Carnes!) in regards to actions made by my favorite baseball team, the Atlanta Braves. On my other blog, I complained loudly about their treatment of John Smoltz. The man had turned down tons of money to stay with the Braves and pitched through tons of pain. He was a Braves icon, and we let him leave over 2 million dollars. That's a lot of money to me, but for a ball club, not so much. Just think . . . we could have kept Jeff Francouer at his salary from yesteryear instead of bumping him up and afforded Smoltz. There were other cost cutting measures for sure. But needless to say, I didn't like or appreciate the move or treatment of a Braves icon.

Now there's round 2. Tom Glavine may not be Mr. Brave like Smoltz was, but he is still no doubt an Atlanta Brave when it's all said and done. Yes, some folks lost respect for him when he went to the Mets (I was one) and didn't appreciate his comments with the labor strike of 1994 (I was one), but he's a Brave and you always give your Braves another chance. After doing so with Smoltz, the Braves do it to Glavine.

First the obvious, lots and lots of scouts say his velocity is way down and he'd get creamed in the majors. Maybe, maybe not. Jamie Moyer of the Phillies is doing pretty good with his 84 mph fastball. What it really boils down to is that the Braves resigned Glavine after he said he would pitch for them or retire. After signing, he goes through a surgical procedure to fix his arm to be able to pitch without pain. He goes through the rehab. He pitches more than ten shutout innings at Rome. He comes to Atlanta ready to put on the Braves uniform again and upon arriving is told that he's been released. I'd be ticked.

Look, I know it's a business and you have to make business decisions, but would it have hurt to run Glavine out there for a game and see what happens? How many times have they run Jo Jo Reyes out there bad start after bad start? If nothing else, it would have proved to Glavine, the Braves, and the fans exactly what needed to be done.

In reality, Glavine is done I believe. His better days are behind him. He should retire with his 305 wins and get ready to head to Cooperstown with buddy Greg Maddux. I'm not saying he should be on the ball club. I am saying that the Braves need to remember who got them where they are today and the individuals who turned down lots of money to stay with them. As one prominent Church of God pastor stated at a business meeting, "You don't strangle those you love."

Come on Braves. You can do better than this.

Happy early Anniversary to me

June 25th will be four y ears of awesome marriage for me and Billie. It hasn't always been perfect, but whose marriage has been? We learned a lot in our first year as most do, but it made us all the stronger. Our story is an interesting story in how we met and so forth, and I'll save it for another time. But suffice it to say, it was only God who could have put all the pieces together and here we are today.

Billie is very creative and she's horrible at keeping secrets when they pertain to gifts and so forth. When the first present is wrapped under the Christmas tree, she begins on a quest to get at least one opened before Christmas day and for me to do the same. She loves it. This year, I got my anniversary present 24 days early. Billie has found a program that she's been using to make videos for the church and even a vacation video of our time in New York and Hershey. I guess this program can do a lot more than videos because Billie made an actual book out of all our pictures and letters, and the works. I guess she scanned everything in the computer and placed them how she wanted on the pages and journaled on them. The book is 51 pages long and includes pictures and memories from when we first met on January 9, 2005 to our engagement on February 14, 2005, to our marriage on June 25, 2005, and finally to our buying our first house in October of last year. Movie stubs, crazy pictures such as the one's you take at the mall in the photo booths, and little notes are all in the book. Even my best ways of describing this book is not coming close to doing it justice. It's definitely the greatest gift I've ever received. I love it! And I love my wife!

. . . though I must wonder . . . did I get this early and coincidentally get an annonymous email from "Zales" about a ring out of coincidence . . . .