I had lunch today with 2 other church planters in our area, Chris Bryant from City on a Hill, a UMC plant and Brian Jones from The Point Church, a SBC plant. It was good to spend time with these guys. To hear each other's stories and encourage each other in the work that God has called us to was very confirming and affirming. When I got back to the office, my friend Jeremy from the Marietta Vineyard had left me a note. God always knows when I need a word and always provides one. I include it here so that it may encourage you too.

I sat in front of your church for a bit and prayed for you guys. I sensed the lord speaking to me about Axios - The Lord would say -Stay the course! I see the work of your hands and see the cry of your heart. I will move on you and on the city of Holly Springs. Don't give up! Stay the course! May your hearts be ever tender to the moving of God's Spirit among you.
God, I thank you for the ministry of Pastor Ray and Axios Church. Open their hearts even more to the words you have for them. Expand their borders and allow them to be the light You have called them to be in this community.
Go for it, brother! Never give up! Expand God's kingdom!

Thank God that we are not alone in this work. I thank God for these new friends and their ministries. I hope that I can be as encouraging to them as they have been to me.

Double Dutch Holiday Classic

Sunday, August 26

• The crowd picked up today. It was good to see everyone.
• It's still hot!
• The band was great!
• It was good to see Logan back.
• We had visitors.
• Spoke on "We Love Holly Springs" and shared about love from Romans 12:9-13.
• We are building up toward our Sept. series and an outreach campaign beginning Sept. 9. We had everyone write names of people that they want to invite to Axios on the back of the backdrop that Nathanael has painted for that series. We will be praying for those names.
• Had a great birthday party for Rayanne. It ended with me, Rayanne, Jeremy, Ben and others jumping rope double dutch style (2 ropes) on the street. I was the first to be able to do it but then everyone caught on. Pattie and Raquel were the twirlers and they did a great job. We jumped for over an hour and I am sore today. Check the video after this post. Ben and Jeremy thought they were as good as the video.
• Had a great leadership meeting Sun night. We are going to do a "We love Holly Springs" campaign and we settles on our game plan. I will post more about that later.
• It was also my mom's birthday. I have a great mom who I love very much. She's in Tennessee but I did get to talk to her.
• I can hardly watch those blasted Braves but I do anyways.
• I'm ready for football.

Happy Birthday, Rayanne!

Today is Rayanne's birthday. She is 14 and a freshman in High School. We have a big family get-together today. It will be fun. It's always fun when all 5 kids are at home and the grandkids. Other friends will be there as well. I love Rayanne. She loves people and family. She is a great friend to all her friends. She loves the Lord and wants to follow Him. She's an overcomer and a strong and brave young lady. Have a great day Rayanne. This is Rayanne in the middle with her friends, Tori, on the left and Katie on the right.

Go Joe!

God is really opening doors for Joe. I think he has played at 4 different venues this week. Tonight he is playing with a band that is opening for a Superchicks concert. This is a big deal. Superchicks is not just some local band but one that is fairly big in Christian rock. Sunday night, he is playing at Mountain Lake Church in Cumming, GA. This is no little church and very respected in the church planting arena. This church was featured in the book Breaking the Missional Code. Through Joe's volunteer work at the Catalyst Conference and his faithfulness to 722 at Northpoint, he has connected to Kristian Stanfill. Kristian has agreed to be his mentor for Joe's Senior project at school and will be meeting with him on a regular basis and recording with him. Pray for Joe. Pray that God will use him in a great way and that he will be the man that God has called him to be.

Speaking of Matthew

Our oldest grandson turned 12 last month and I failed to post about him. Matthew is a great young man and is growing up way to fast. He got a pretty good sized dirt bike for his birthday. He loves that stuff.

One tough kid

Check out this picture of Camille. We are going to start keeping Camille once a week while Rachele works. Hopefully she won't pick up any more of my bad habits. Actually she is licking the chocolate off of a candle from my grandson, Matthew's cake.

Forgetting What is Behind

Sunday I did a message called "Springing Into Fall." We are praying that on Sept 9 we can pick up where we left off in the Spring. I used the text "Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead." I reminded everyone what was behind so that we could forget it. In January 07, we were in the middle of a test. I have seen many churches come and go, start and fail over the past 5 years. Church planting is hard and there is no guarantee of success. Usually what kills a church plant is a lack of finances. This is a test that every church plant has to pass. In January we were falling behind financially and flatlining in our attendance. But today, we are caught up, attendance is on the rise (except for this month) and we are more passionate about our mission than ever before. I believe that we did 4 things that turned things around:

1. We practiced compassion instead of consumerism. It is easy to become selfish when things aren't going well. Our test actually began last July. It was the first time in 4 years of ministry that we could not pay our rent. In Aug 06 we did a series called "How In The World Are You?" where we discovered that God means for us to be a light and a blessing to the world around us. In Dec 06 we challenged our people to not fall into the Christmas hype by buying things that would only find it way into the next Summer's garage sales. We raised $3000 to drill a well in Rwanda even though we were 2 months behind in rent. In Jan 07 we began supporting 3 kids from 3 different continents through Compassion International because of Isaiah 58. There is something about sowing seeds of generosity into the world that unleashes God's work in your own life. Thats why you shouldn't wait to get out of debt before giving regularly toward the kingdom of God.
2. We focused on mission instead of ourselves. We became aggressive in reaching Holly Springs. We spent money on signs, ads, mailers, remodeling, etc. to reach new people even while we were behind. God can miraculously rescue you from debt but usually doesn't give you the winning lottery number to meet your need. Over the last 4 years I have seen God provide miraculously through generous people from which I never expected it to come. But God's plan is to provide for His church through the generous giving of its people. We needed to reach more people because that is the mission of the church. But we also needed more people to share the financial responsibilities of the church. I also found that our own people were more willing to give toward mission and vision rather than debt. Our focus on mission unleashed generosity in our people.
3. We developed a plan for outreach instead of hoping for change. We had an advertising plan that began on March 18 as we launched our new start of being "The Church In The Warehouse." We ran ads from March through May in Around Canton magazine, put out new and more signs, did mailers for our March 18 launch, Easter and Mother's Day. We had a 33% increase in attendance during this time.
4. We turned to God instead of the bank. Sometimes we look everywhere else for solutions rather than turning to God. I really thought that the only way to satisfy the landlord was to borrow money and pay him off. I didn't see how we could pay him in a timely manner otherwise. Fortunately our Elders are smarter than me and said no. So after a successful Spring outreach campaign, we still owed $15000. We stopped all church activities for the Summer including home teams and children's ministry and started meeting on Wed. for prayer. No Bible study, just prayer. And God answers prayer! We are now caught up and we did it during the Summer. It is a complete miracle.

God has now positioned us to spring into fall. We can put some things behind us and press on to what is ahead. It's a great day to be alive!

Sunday, Aug 19

It was a good day at Axios. You wouldn't know it from the attendance or the offering but it was good just the same. The atmosphere is changing. People are changing. They are thinking differently about church. There is an anticipation for what is to come. There is a desire to act. We are planning to kick off the fall agenda on Sept. 9. I am anxious to get there and get going. Some may ask "Why wait?" There are a few reasons:

1. Maybe the heat will subside by then. We had a good summer going but the extreme heat of August has coincided with our lower attendance. It is hot and will still be hot in September but maybe the mornings will be a little cooler.
2. After Labor Day will be the best time to reach out. People are back into the routine of school and the Summer travel will be over.
3. We have work to do to be prepared for what God wants us to do. Positions need to be filled. A new commitment to ministry and excellence has to be made. Signs, fliers, ads need to be completed. We had lunch with Bob and Monica, which it was great to have them back by the way after 2 weeks off, and I was excited as I told them about the series coming up and we began to plan the music that we will do. We are going to have fun with this series. I met with Jacob (children's pastor) on Saturday and it was good to hear his ideas and his enthusiasm about getting going again. We have a Creative Design Team that we are starting and its going to look great when we have the set design completed. Nathanael's back drop that he painted for us is awesome and I can't wait to get it all up and ready.
4. We have to keep praying. Jesus told His disciples to go to Jerusalem and wait for the Holy Spirit. While they waited, they prayed. And then the power fell. When ever we or you are in a holding pattern, prayer must be a big part of our activity.

I love God our Father. I love His Son, my Savior, Jesus Christ. I love His Church. I believe that we are the hope of the world and of Holly Springs. We must keep pressing on.

A New Friend

Sunday we had Jeremy, the pastor of the Marietta Vineyard Church visit our service. They were doing a special "Church in the Park" on Sunday night and had no morning service so he dropped in on us since he lives in the area. Yesterday we met at "The Grind" for coffee or in my case, the ice-blended caramel mocha with whip cream. We had a great time together and a 2 1/2 hour conversation on our stories, our churches, and how to reach Holly Springs. Jeremy really enjoyed our church, our people, the music, the message and our vision to reach Holly Springs. He was a great encouragement to me and I feel like I have made a new friend. Some of the things that he is doing as far as ministering to the poor really resonated with me. He is a part of The Irresistible Revolution and some of the things they have done and are attempting to do are awesome. The affirmation and the confirmation I received was a God thing. I believe that we are going to see God do some great things this fall.

Sunday Recap, Aug 12

Sorry for this late update.

• Very good Sunday. Attendance is still alittle down but the offering was great.
• Nicky Evans, our guitarist until he met and married Michele and moved, led worship today. It was good to see them again. He always does a great job.
• Had a pastor from Marietta visit. We are hooking up this week to share with each other about our churches. I'm looking forward to it.
• It was hot.
• We had several visitors.
• It was real hot.
• Thank God for cloud coverage or it would have been hotter.
• Started a series called Operation: Holly Springs. I will be sharing the next few weeks on how we are going to be reaching out this fall beginning Sept. 9. Talked about how easy it is to underachieve or get sidetracked in our mission or underestimate your worth to the kingdom mission. The smallest unit that Jesus told his disciples to reach in Acts 1:8 was a city. Paul went after cities. It would be wrong for us to strive for anything less.
• The Axios Kids worship started back today.
• We have 3 couples expecting their first children in the next several months. That's exciting.
• Can't wait until next Sunday.

August 5 Recap

• We concluded our Heroes series. Talked about Jesus being our Superhero from John 3:16. Concluded with these thoughts: 1) People are worth dying for. 2) Jesus is worth dying for. 3) Anyone worth dying for is worth living for. I really want our people to live sacrificially with God and others being placed above their own comfort and pleasure.
• We had juices and Starbuck's Mocha Frappacinos.
• A lot of people wanted to talk after church. I like that. I like seeing the wheels turning. God is going to use our people in a great way. It begins with changing the heart and then by changing the way you think. Our people are moving toward thinking differently. That's awesome.
• Pray for a young man with a lot of questions and a lot of issues.
• Katie Hemby came by the house to see us Sunday afternoon. What a great surprise! We haven't seen her in a while. She was like a family member for most of her young life. Now she has grown into a beautiful young lady and heading to UGA. Chrissy and her husband, Rick were also with her. It's awesome to see how God has blessed Chrissy.
• Our Youth Group was answering the call today. I am proud of them. They are faithful and really desire to step it up and make a difference. Many of them are Seniors this year and they all responded to being a part of our new Creative Design Team. They also responded to a facepainting and clowning opportunity for a Holly Springs Founder's Day event this Saturday. They will represent our church well at this event.
• Tracy Thompson, one of our college aged singles, answered the call to be our Community Events Co-ordinator. She called me this week and jumped right into her responsibilities. Thank you Tracy.
• I can't wait to get going on September 9. August will be used to get us ready to reach out after Labor Day. I believe God is positioning us to reach people.
• My nephew, Nathanael, came into town last night and will be staying with us for the next 2 weeks. He will be doing an art project for us as a part of his senior requirements as an art major. He is very talented and I can't wait to see the finished projects.
• I love Sundays!