Weekend Wrapup

Published
by
brian
on January 5, 2009
in general
. Closed

• Great morning at West Ridge yesterday! We were slammed in the 11:00 PM service, in spite of the fact that a lot of families are still on vacation.

• I spoke on Real Change for 2009. I always like to do a personal vision talk at the beginning of the New Year and then follow it up with a church wide vision talk, which will be this coming Sunday. You don’t want to miss it!

• A big focus of yesterday’s talk was on making 2 degree shifts in your life. A lot of people set huge, unachievable resolutions for the New Year that they can’t keep. What if we could tackle change in 2 degree shifts? You’ll have to listen to the podcast to get the whole picture.

• We ended yesterday’s service with the Third Day (inspired by Rich Mullins, inspired by the Nicene Creed) song Creed. I love that song and our people love it as well! Huge cheers throughout the song in both services. Next time we do it though, we’ve got to have Jake Collier’s wailing guitar solo a little louder. I’m serious!

• I talked yesterday about the Bravehearts event with Michael Leahy coming up on January 30th. There will be at least 20 different churches coming to West Ridge that evening to hear this guy talk about how his life was destroyed by pornography, how God restored him, and has now given him a national platform to help others. This evening is going to be powerful and life changing! This event is for men and their middle school and up aged sons. If you are a man you don’t want to miss this event. We will have tickets on sale Tuesday on the engageatlanta.com web site. Tickets are going to go fast.

• I have very busy this week. Tomorrow, our pastors and directors are out of the office all morning doing calendar planning. Then, I’m meeting all afternoon with our management team to talk through my vision message that I’m giving this Sunday. I’ve learned it’s always good to have your team hear vision first before you cast it to your crowd. Wednesday we are going over to North Star Church in the morning to listen to Ira Blumenthal talk about Branding. Thursday, Jim Akins and I are meeting with Shawn Lovejoy and David Putman from churchplanters.com to talk about partnering opportunities.

• Happy New Year to everyone. Thanks for reading my blog. I hope to be a little bit more faithful in my blogging this year. Just a little 2 degree shift.

Christmas Week Wrapup

Published
by
brian
on December 26, 2008
in West Ridge Church
. Closed

Christmas week 2008 will go down as one of the most amazing times in our church’s history. God did some amazing things this past week in the midst of a lot of activity.

• Saturday and Sunday night our children’s ministry did a good ole, traditional Christmas pageant. When they first floated this idea to me, I was a little hesitant to go along with it, because I’ve seen some really lame pageants over the years. However, Brent Moxey and his crew did a phenomenal job with this thing. It was excellent. Plus, anytime you have 180 plus kids on stage some really funny things happen. Our kids got two big standing ovations.
• Christmas Sunday morning was just solid. Great attendance great offering, several salvation decisions, and great spirit of worship in the place. It was a very inspiring Christmas service. We took one of the largest regular offerings in our churches history. In spite of a very bad Georgia economy, our giving has been very good over the last few months.
• Steve and the band did a great job with the music this past Sunday. Taddy Lindsey knocked it out of the park with that Faith Hill tune at the end – A Baby Changes Everything. It tied in really well to my talk on the name Lord from Luke 2:11. Taddy has become one of my favorite singers at West Ridge.
• In the second service, I put a bucket on the stage and asked that crowd to help me buy a new washer and dryer for a widow in our church who has recently been through a very difficult season of life. This lady lost her husband last Christmas and her daughter was murdered at the beginning of the year. She has been raising two grandkids on her own. Our people did not let me down. We ended up buying her a really nice, frontloading washer and dryer, and then gave her a gift card to do some Christmas shopping. When we told her what we were doing, she cried. It was a sweet moment.
• Sunday afternoon, God just overwhelmed me. I don’t know how else to describe it. We ministered to over 1500 families in our building. It was so amazing; it deserves its own blog post. I’ll post that one shortly after I post this one.
• Christmas Eve at West Ridge was probably the best it’s ever been in our 11 year history. Everything was excellent! We had somewhere between 20-25 salvations. The 2 PM attendance was bigger than I thought it would be. The 4 and 6 PM services were packed.
• I talked Steve Veale into doing the drummer boy. If you’ve seen it, then you know how spectacular it is. If you’ve ever seen the Blue Man Group, it’s kind of got the same feel. He gets a huge response every time he does it. When I knew Steve in college, he was a pretty decent drummer.
• For the first time, in probably 10 years, the four original amigos (the founders of WRC, Paul, Steve, Dave, and me) ran a service together. It was like old times. We had a lot of fun collaborating together. I can’t believe these guys are still with me.
• I realized after all of the activity was over, that there is probably not another church around that does more “stuff” at Christmas then we do at WRC. I’m not saying that’s good or bad, it’s just the way it’s become over the years. I’m really proud of my whole staff for all of the hard work they put in over the last month. There were quite a few zombies walking around our office the last few weeks.
• Pray for Jim Akins, our Pastor over Church Planting and Care. His 62 year old brother died this past Wednesday after a long battle with cancer.
• My family and I are in Lynchburg, VA this week visiting Amy’s family for Christmas. Her dad graduates from Liberty Seminary this May with his PH.D. We’re going to try to catch some skiing in North Carolina on the way home next week. My boys and I love to ski. I can’t wait to take them out to Colorado or Utah one day for the real stuff. It will blow their minds!
• I’m really looking forward to January. God has put some really cool thoughts into my head for my annual vision messages. I can’t wait to share them with our crowd.

Leadership meetings in the Big D

Published
by
brian
on December 18, 2008
in Leadership and West Ridge Church
. Closed

Last summer, I got an invitation from Leadership Network to fly to Dallas (yesterday), to hang out and learn from some of the leadership guru’s at LN. I had really been looking forward to this opportunity, because I have great respect for the people associated with LN. It’s a first-class organization.

Well, yesterday I got to sit at the feet of some great men who I would consider to be leaders in the area of leadership development. I also got a chance to meet some great pastors from around the country.

I have always had great admiration and respect for Bob Buford. Bob is a social entrepreneur and the founder of Leadership Network. He has written some great books: Half Time, Game Plan, and Stuck in Half Time. Bob is 72 years old and still as sharp as a tack.

I also got to hang with Robert Lewis. Robert is the author of Raising a Modern-Day Knight and Rocking the Roles: Building a Win-Win Marriage, executive director of the Global Reach research/resource organization, founder of the Men’s Fraternity ministry, and pastor-at-large for Fellowship Bible Church in Little Rock, Arkansas. This guy has been one of my pastor heroes for a long time.

I’m not going to go into everything that was said, but I want to give you some quotes that these guys shared that really impacted my thinking.

Bob Buford

• Leaders move into different stages as their leadership develops: Struggle > Success > Significance > Surrender
• Managing yourself is the task of the second half of your life.
• What wears a leader out the most? The time you spend doing the stuff you’re not good at. Somewhere you have to be honest about what your good at and what you’re not, and stop wasting your time on the latter.
• How do you grow an organization BIG? “You have to release the organization to people you trust. You have to release the talent that you have in your organization.
• Most churches are built with the command and control model of leadership. This will eventually kill growth.
• When your organization gets larger, it’s your job to release and direct energy, not to supply it. (Peter Drucker)
• There is a transition happening in the religious world from institutions to pastors to people.

Robert Lewis

• The churches mode of gathering and discipling people is normally to “Catch and Keep.”
• People who sit in a church long enough under the “catch and keep” model will eventually develop spiritual rigor mortis.
• AB. Bruce – “Jesus chose 12 so that they might be with him…and then he sent them away.”
• Jesus’ model of gathering and discipling people was to “Catch and Release.”
• The church of the last few decades has been about dynamic pastors. “Come and Watch.” As the church gets older, these churches feel the pressure to be more innovative and creative to keep the people they already have. The successful church of the next century will be about developing dynamic people and releasing them to do what God designed them to do. (Ephesians 2:10)

Wayne Smith – Leadership Network

• High capacity leaders sometimes do not engage in local church ministry because often times either the opportunities don’t intrigue them or the vision is not big enough to interest them.
• We need to have a mechanism in place in churches to not just develop leaders, but to discover them.

Obviously, there was a lot of table conversation that happened that I didn’t write down. This six hour meeting was like drinking from a fire hose. Thanks Leadership Network for the invite. It was invaluable.

Weekend Wrapup

Published
by
brian
on December 15, 2008
in Church Planting, Leadership and West Ridge Church
. Closed

Weekend Wrapup

• Great morning at West Ridge! Paul Richardson spoke and did a really good job. I’m really proud of how he is developing as a speaker, a leader, and as a man.

• We had 175 plus kids on stage leading us in 3 Christmas carols yesterday morning. They did a great job! I loved the fact that in both services our crowd gave them standing ovations. I finally talked my 10 year old Zach into getting up on stage with the kids, but it took a little arm twisting and cash. Of course, he had a great time once he got up there.

• Jason Faust and Nikki Alvarez knocked it out of the park with a VERY soulful “rendition of “Children Go Where I Send Thee.” I still don’t know exactly what that song means, but I like it.

• Amy and I split our time in middle school and children’s ministry yesterday morning. We sat and listened to Brad Chandler speak in middle school. He did a solid job. He’s becoming a good communicator. Solid program. Brent Moxey’s got it going on in children’s ministry. They have a new band in there that is very, very good. It’s being lead by Robert Andrykowski. The kids in there have no idea that Robert used to be a big time country western singer in the 90’s. Google his name. This guy is very good on stage.

• We had the model for the new children’s ministry environment displayed out in the atrium. It has an Indiana Jones, wild adventure theme to it. It was cool to hear kid’s and parent’s reactions. I’d say about 98% of the people that saw it loved it. The other 2% thought it was a little scary. I’m just blown away at how talented some of our people are in this church. Big shout out to Pat and Beth Wilson and Keith Curtis! You folks are crazy talented!

• We had a solid offering yesterday! Second Sunday, Gift Offering morning, bad economy…I can’t explain it. I’m just really proud of our folks right now. In spite of a living in the county (more than half of our church lives in Paulding) that’s been hit the hardest by the economic down swing in the Metro Atlanta Area, our people continue to trust God with their finances. You people inspire me with your faithfulness!

• I spoke at our church planting school on Saturday morning. I gave my “23 Principles of Leadership” talk. I tweak that talk every year, because I’m always learning new things; but it’s my favorite talk that I give to the school all semester long. I’m really impressed with the guys that are in this class. I have not had a chance to personally get to know all of them yet, but we’ve got some strong planters, (I believe 12 in all), getting ready to hit the ground in 2009.

• My mom had a graduation party last night for my brother Jonathan. It’s been a long four and a half year journey since my dad died. I’m really proud of Jonathan for hanging in there and getting his diploma. Great job buddy! Dad’s proud of you! You’ve got what it takes! Thanks to everyone that has prayed for him and encouraged him to keep pushing forward.

• We are having our annual Staff/Elder Christmas party at my house tonight. I really love having everyone over to our place during this time of the year. Of course, I have to go around and give all my neighbors a heads up as to why there will be a shuttle bus running through our cul-de-sac all night long , but it should be a lot of fun.

Time to study…

Porn, Pastors, and the Church

Published
by
brian
on December 12, 2008
in Pastoring and West Ridge Church
. Closed

Yesterday, I had a meeting with 10 pastors from West Cobb County who have all decided to work together to create unity among churches in our area. It was a great meeting of listening and sharing about things that we are experiencing as leaders in our churches.

On January 30, we are putting an event together, that West Ridge is going to host, called Bravehearts. Bravehearts is an event for men and their sons to come together to tackle the issue of pornography and sexual addiction. We are bringing in Michael Leahy, who is the founder and executive director of Bravehearts. Bravehearts is a ministry created to help people overcome their addiction to pornography. Michael has an amazing testimony of losing everything to porn and then finding a new beginning through a commitment to purity and holiness.

Let’s face it pornography is a huge iussue, not only in our country, but in the church. Check out these statistics taken from the Bravehearts website:
• 51% of pastors admit to having a struggle with porn.
• 1 out of 7 pastors are addicted to porn.
• 1 out 5 men in the US is sexually addicted.
• The #1 struggle for Christian men is sexual temptation.
• 20 million men and women in the US are sex addicts.

Yesterday, the pastor of the largest church in our area (a friend) had to step down from his role as senior pastor for what our local newspaper is calling “inappropriate behavior”. I don’t know the details of what “inappropriate behavior” means, but my heart breaks for this guy and his family. The thought of having your name and story plastered on the front of a major newspaper web site, scares me to death. We need to pray for this guy, his family, and the church.

Sexual addiction is a huge issue in our society and the church, and it’s only getting worse. If 51% of the pastors in our country are struggling with porn, no wonder so many churches in the US are powerless and anemic.

I heard a statistic last year on the radio that 94% of college guys are regularly dabbling in internet porn. If that’s true, just think of all of the messed up marriages that are going to come out that statistic.

One of our elder’s wives at West Ridge is a Christian sex therapist. Her husband told me recently that she is completely worn out from listening to all of the horror stories of men, and now a growing number of women, who are ruining their lives and marriages because they are trapped in some form of sexual addiction.

I know that a lot church planters and pastors read this blog. I want to challenge you today to count the cost. Take a good look at your wife and your kids and ask yourself if it’s worth it. Think about your name and picture being on the front page of your local paper. Think about having to face your church. Think about people falling away from God because you messed up.

If you’re struggling, be honest and get some accountability in your life; go to counseling; throw your stinkin computer out of your life if you have to…just do something. The stakes are way too high.

Here’s what I’ve found when it comes to mixing sexual sin and the ministry. God doesn’t play that game.

Weekend Wrapup

Published
by
brian
on December 10, 2008
in Pastoring and West Ridge Church
. Closed

I have really fallen behind on my blogging. Sorry folks. Last week was one of the busiest weeks that I have had in a long time. If you have ever been involved with Dinner in December then you know how crazy the week of DID can get.

• Sunday was just a good, solid morning at West Ridge. Nothing fancy. Not a lot of bells and whistles; just a good morning to be in church.
• We started a new series called Given. We are looking at some of the names of Jesus and what they mean to us as His followers. This past Sunday, God has GIVEN us a Savior.
• The Sunday after DID is always a little crazy because everyone involved in making the morning happen is usually a little hung over from a lack of sleep. Everyone did a good job, in spite of a lot of blood shot eyes.
• Chastity Tibbetts closed our service off with the old Brownsville Revival tune, “Come To Me”. That song is flat out beautiful! Chastity has a great voice and did a really good job on this song.
• I have to brag on my wife. She and her team decorated the tree and wreathes in the atrium. They are beautiful and very classy.
• If you have not seen it yet, you have to go on You Tube and see our staff Going Green Video. It’s a classic!
• I had a funny moment in the first service this past Sunday. The tech guys left a big camera on a tripod on the front part of the stage. It was blocking a bunch of people’s sight line to the center of the stage, including mine. After I prayed over the offering, I tried to move it and it nearly fell on top of me. Everyone cracked up laughing. I hammed it up and went back stage and grabbed one of the backstage guys to move it. Crazy moment!
• Amy and I hosted two tables at DID and sat at another one with our Journey Group. Our Friday night table were folks from our baseball world. Our Saturday night table were all church planters. The folks that we brought that were not in church loved it!
• Friday morning, I did a funeral for the mom of one of my good friends and former neighbors, Dave Irwin. Dave’s a wonderful guy. His mom was a special lady. Having lost my dad, I really feel for people that lose a parent.
• Saturday morning, from 7 to 9 AM, I had an elders meeting. WHAT THE HECK AM I THINKING SCHEDULING AN ELDERS MEETING DURING DINNER IN DECEMBER? Hello! Needless to say, I was wiped out this past weekend. Good meeting though!
• I’m not sure what it is, but I’m listening to more Christmas music this year than ever before. Maybe I’m just getting older.
• This is the first year that I can remember that Michigan is not in a bowl game. It’s just sad. My second favorite team is Michigan State. I know, I know, it’s like saying you like UGA and GT or Florida and FSU. My dad went to State, so I’ve always pulled for them, especially the basketball team. Well, Michigan State is playing Georgia in the Capital One Bowl. In just a few short weeks, my friend Gary Lamb is going to owe me a steak dinner. I like the DAWGS, but I’ve got to pull for my dad’s alma mater. Hey Gary, I like my steak medium well.

Happy Thanksgiving from Dallas, Georgia

Published
by
brian
on November 27, 2008
in Family and Pastoring
. Closed

The food has been eaten, cleaned up, and put away (I think Amy may be bringing out the leftovers). The Detroit Lions have lost another Thanksgiving Day football game. My boys are playing Monopoly with their grandparents. And I’m sitting in the kitchen enjoying it all (except the beating the Lions just took). I love Thanksgiving! It’s one of my favorite holidays. There are so many things that I’m thankful this year.

• I’m thankful for my wife Amyy. Every day I’m with her, I realize how much of a gift she is from God.

• My two sons - John Taylor and Zachary. I love being their dad.

• My mom, Paul, my brothers, Amy’s family, and all of the Bloye’s and Haney’s. I’m blessed!

• So many wonderful memories of my dad. Best dad I’ve ever known. Still hard to believe he’s gone. The man could devour a drumstick on Thanksgiving. I miss him every day.

• West Ridge Church! I love doing life with all of you.

• The West Ridge Staff. Thanks for living the dream with me.

• All the people that volunteer at West Ridge. Thanks so much for all that you do.

• My recent trip to Burkina Faso, Africa. Life Changing!

• The good ole USA. I’ve literally been around the world. I love Africa, Cuba, the Ukraine, but I feel so blessed to have been born in this country.

• My friends. God has blessed me with some wonderful friends.

• God’s love and His grace. It still amazes me!

• All of our church plants and church planters. I love these guys!

• Moments where I get to read.

• Detroit Red Wings (07-08 Stanley Cup Champs!) When the rest of the home town teams just stink, I can always count on the Red Wings!

• I’m thankful the NFL still lets the Lions play on Thanksgiving. I know it’s hard on the rest of the country, but it’s the only time I get to see them play. Man, I miss Barry Sanders.

• Little getaways to my sister in-law’s family cabin in Blue Ridge. We’ve made some great memories up there.

• Starbucks, Zaxby’s, Chick-Fil-A, and Johnny’s Pizza.

• Movies that inspire me – Rocky 1,2,3,4, and 6, Braveheart, Remember the Titans, Cinderella Man, etc.

• God given vision and purpose. There is nothing like knowing what you’re supposed to do with your life.

• Most of all, thanks God for saving me. What an amazing thing to go through life knowing that I’m forgiven and my future is secure in Jesus.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Weekend Wrapup

Published
by
brian
on November 23, 2008
in Pastoring and West Ridge Church
. Closed

• What a morning at West Ridge! To wrap up our “Stolen” series, we did a Cardboard Testimony morning! It was powerful! There were not a whole lot of dry eyes in the crowd. There were some real victory stories standing on that stage today. I loved the fact that our people gave the people on the stage a huge standing ovation in both services.
• We are going to try to post the testimony part of the service on YouTube. We should have it up within the next 24 hours.
• One of my closest friends in ministry, Tommy Poltiz (Pastor of Hillside Church in Amarillo, TX), came up with this idea last year. I appreciate him giving me some “what to do’s and not to do’s” this past week on the phone.
• Big crowd this morning! We are normally a little bit down on Thanksgiving Sunday. Not today! Great offering too!
• I loved communion today. What a great way to head into Thanksgiving week.
• I got my prostitutes a little mixed up in the first service this morning (I hate when that happens). Hagar was not a prostitute. Gomer was a prostitute. Gomer was married to Hosea, not Hagar. The band came out and started playing behind me a little earlier then they were supposed to and it messed with my head.
• We partnered with CAYA Friday and Saturday to provide food for a bunch of families in our community. We will probably give away over 700 turkeys by Thursday.
• I got a chance to see a mock up version of our new children’s ministry environment this afternoon. All I can say is that it will be one of the best children’s areas anywhere. It was unbelievable!
• I really love Thanksgiving. This year we will have my mom and Paul and Amy’s parents in our home on Thursday. We’ve never hosted both of our parents for Thanksgiving. It should be a lot of fun!
• We are heading to Blue Ridge to hang out with my brother Kevin and his family for a few days. I love going to Blue Ridge! We have made some great family memories over the years at my sister-in-law’s family cabin. We will probably do some fishing while we’re up there. My boys love to fish.
• Tomorrow is my dad’s birthday. It’s hard to believe he would have been 64. I can’t tell you how much I miss him. He loved it when everyone got together at the cabin. I know he loved what happened at West Ridge this morning.
• Amy has been at the hospital all day long with Zachary. We thought maybe he had strep throat, but it appears he may just have a sinus infection. He was so upset that he wasn’t going to be able to go the cabin tomorrow. He should be fine.
• My two favorite football teams, the Detroit Lions (0-11) and the Michigan Wolverines (3-9) are having their worst years in both teams’ history. I’m not bailing on them, but it’s been a tough year. I knew Michigan was going to lose to Ohio State yesterday, but I was still just as mad that we lost as I am on any other year. Five years in a row! I love the people in our church from Ohio (there’s a bunch of them), but I just cannot stand the Ohio State Buckeyes!
• I’m starting to become a Falcons fan! Matt Ryan is the real deal! He should win rookie of the year.
• I have so much to be thankful for this year. I have a phenomenal wife, I’ve got two great kids, my family is healthy, I’ve got wonderful friends, God loves me unconditionally, and I get to be the pastor of the greatest church in the world. Life is good! Happy Thanksgiving!

Still

Published
by
brian
on November 22, 2008
in Inspiration, Pastoring and Teaching
. 0 Comments

It seems like the older I get, the more I have these mornings where I wake up at 4 or 5 AM and my mind is racing. Usually, I can’t go back to sleep. Sometimes, I will lay there and try to sort out the 10 million things that are racing through my mind. Of course, this usually just makes things worse and I lay there frustrated.

Awhile back, it occurred to me that maybe God is waking me up because He wants to talk. Honestly, I would rather talk at 6 AM, but who am I to tell God that I won’t talk to Him at 4 or 5AM. Well, this morning at 5:12 AM, God and I talked.

While I was talking to God, asking Him to calm my mind and my spirit, He brought to mind a lesson that I taught to our Stephen’s Ministers the other night at Tuesday Night Life on the word “still.”

There are times, like this morning, that I simply need God to help me to be still.

There are several places in Scripture where God uses the word “still.” When Job questioned God and was ready to throw in the towel, his friend Elihu told him to stand still and admire God.

Have you ever had uncertainty or doubt? God tells us in Psalm 46 to “be still and to know that He is God.” In other words, chill out and let Him fix things.

My favorite “still” moment in the Bible occurs in Mark 4. Jesus and His disciples are out on the lake and they get caught in a huge storm. Jesus is sleeping at the back of the boat. The disciples wake Jesus up. They are scared to death that they are going to drown. I love Jesus’ words – Peace Be Still.

Have you ever felt so overwhelmed with your circumstances that you feel like you are going to drown? I love Jesus’ words…”peace be still.” The Word says, immediately the winds stop and there was a great calm. Have you ever needed a “great calm?”

What kind of “still” do you need in your life this morning? Ask Him to bring stillness to your heart and mind.

Below are five different places where the word “still” is used Scripture. They all have different meanings. I’ve needed every one of these at different times in my life. I hope one of these will encourage you.

1. There are times when we don’t understand what God is doing in our life. We need to stand still and admire God.

Job 37:14 (KJV) - 14 Hearken unto this, O Job: stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God.

Hebrew - amad, aw-mad’; to stand,

2. There are times we can get angry and want to sin. We need to quiet our Spirits.

Psalms 4:4 (NKJV) - 4 Be angry, and do not sin. Meditate within your heart on your bed, and be still. Selah

Hebrew - damam, daw-mam’; to be dumb, to be astonished, to stop

3. There are troubling times when we need God to lead us to rest and restoration.

Psalms 23:2 (KJV) - 2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

Still = menuwchah, men-oo-khaw’; repose, peacefully; consolation, an abode, a resting place.

4. There are times when there is uncertainty and doubt in our life. We need to trust God to fix things.

Psalms 46:10 (NIV) - 10 “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

Still = rapha’, raw-faw’; or raphah, to mend (by stitching), to cure, to make whole.

5. There are times when we are overwhelmed by a storm. We need God to bring peace to a situation

Mark 4:39 (KJV) - 39 And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.

Still = phimoo, fee-mo’-o; (a muzzle); to muzzle

Weekend Wrapup

Published
by
brian
on November 16, 2008
in Pastoring and West Ridge Church
. Closed

This was a morning at West Ridge that I will not soon forget.

• Today was our highest attended Sunday since last Easter. I really don’t know what to attribute it to, it was just packed today.

• We are in week two of our Stolen series. I spoke this morning on the importance of knowing who you are in Christ. It’s one of favorite topics to speak on.

• In the first service I truly feel like I had the flu. It was craziest feeling. I think I’m still trying to get over the weariness of 11 days in Africa. I had a lady pray over me at the end of service and I felt a whole lot better after she was done.

• Ready for this? In the second service, right after I talked about how Satan does not want anyone to know the information that I was about to share, the fire alarm went off in the building. We had to evacuate the entire building, babies and all. It was insane!

• Our Children’s ministry area got a new fog machine this past week. Apparently the smoke detectors in that area of the building are a little sensitive to fog.

• Hats off to our preschool and children’s ministry area for the job they did in evacuating all of our kids. They did a superb job of getting all those kids out of the building without incident.

• I’m really proud of the fact that hardly anyone left to go home during the evacuation. People stood out in the cold for about 10-15 minutes. When everyone came back in the building they knew that Satan was up to something, but it was apparent that God was in the house.

• Once we got everyone back in the building, it was on! I was fired up! I can’t remember a morning where the spiritual warfare was so clear and so intense. We had a great response at the end of both services, especially the second service.

• Our band and singers brought their A game this morning. It was great to have Scott Laughridge back on stage at WRC. He did a great job with the song “Undone” at the end of the service. I love his voice!

• During the offering we showed a video of our prayer encounter with the little girl with malaria in the village of Fing, in Burkina Faso. I had mentioned this encounter last week on my blog, but I didn’t’ tell how things had turned out. This little girl’s sister had died two weeks ago with malaria. After we prayed in the name of Jesus over this little girl and then sent her to the hospital, she was completely healed. This is the kind of thing that opens the door for entire villages to come to the Lord!

• Pray for our Preschool Director, Senga Veale. She and her family are in South Carolina this week for her father’s funeral. Senga’s dad had been sick for a long time. I don’t care how old you are, it’s hard to lose a parent.

• Next week is going to be one of the most memorable services we have ever done at West Ridge. I can’t wait to see how it shakes out. It’s going to powerful! You won’t want to miss it!