More Trick or Treaters

Jenny and Brian came by last. That's Rayanne as some kind of queen and her friend, Emily, as a cat. Jacob is Batman and Matthew already is out of his costume. That is Pattie as Snow White. We had fun but we also had the fewest halloweeners ever. All the kids in our neighborhood are growing up. Had a few kids from the bus come by and I got my picture made with them. By the way, Jenny dressed as Cruella Deville and she looked great. Now lets start thinking turkey!

Halloween Stinker!

We had a skunk on our porch tonight!

It's just Camille!

Rachele and Camille!

Camille with Snow White!

Camille is the sweetest skunk ever!

Halloween

Halloween tonight! I told all the kids on the bus to come by my house and they were excited about that. I had a Middle School boy get on the bus this morning dressed like a pumpkin. It looked like something your mom would think is cute - on a three year old not a middle schooler. I prayed all day that he wouldn't get beat up. One kid said yesterday that he saw a house with "Halloween declarations" instead of "decorations." Rayanne is waiting for me to carve the pumpkin so I must go. When we get this night over with I can start thinking about "Christmas declarations."

Sunday Recap

• It is always good to be in the house of the Lord whether it is a warehouse or a cathedral.
• I think I know why churches have Sunday School - to guarantee that someone will be on time to the Worship service.
• I love the song "You Never Let Go of Me."
• Busted three myths about Satan and the spirit world: 1) Satan is an opposite and equal foe to Jesus Christ. Truth: Satan is an opposing force but far inferior foe to Jesus Christ. 2) Satan is a force to fear. Truth: Satan is a force to fight. 3) Satan is your greatest enemy. Truth: You are your greatest enemy. If you want these explained, order the cd.
• Had a great meeting after church about our Christmas plans. Got a lot of people on board, wheels are spinning, ideas are flowing. We are looking at the biggest thing that we have tried but it should be a great Holiday outreach. And we are hoping to raise more money for clean water and local charities.
• Rachele and Camille came over this afternoon. That is always a treat.
• We are back here tonight with our Middle School ministry. Jeff and Andrea are doing a great job.
• I survived Pattie being gone and she is home safely but I'm glad it was only one night.
• My mother-in-law called to inform me that that video of Pattie's road trip was not the road to her house.
• The Patriots and the Colts looked awesome today. Next week is the big showdown. Go Colts!
• The Red Sox are taking all the fun out of the World Series.
• How bout them Dawgs! Florida has a 3 in the loss column. Sorry Dwayne for my jubilation. I loved when the players stormed the field after the first touchdown. It set the tone for the game and caught Florida totally off guard.
• The Amazing Race starts next Sunday. I love that show.
• Halloween this week and my first bus paycheck! It will be a good week!

Have you heard of this guy?

Check out this man, Paul Potts, on a Brittish tv show. I think he's amazing.

Pattie's Roadtrip

Pattie did something today that I can't remember her ever doing - she went on a road trip by herself! That's right, she drove by herself to Trenton, Ga (which by the way, you can't get there from here - you have to go through Chattanooga and back into GA to get there) to spend the night with her mother while her brother, Doug, is away. Pattie and I are seldom apart and we prefer it that way but it is usually me going rather than her. So its just me and Rayanne and we are going to Jim and Donna's for supper. Wait - Rayanne just called and she wants to spend the night with a friend. Its going to be a cold, lonely night. Here's a clip of Pattie on the road.

Let's skip Halloween!

I am in the Holiday spirit already. It's mid-October and I had the whole bus singing "Jingle Bells" today. Rayanne watched "Elf" and "The Santa Clause" the other morning. Rachele told me that she has already watched "Elf" twice. My mind has been on Thanksgiving at Mom and Dad's and it can't get here soon enough. We are having a Creative Team meeting on Sunday to finalize our plans for our Christmas stage design, Christmas lights and community outreach. We have a great plan and I can't wait to get it going. We announced our Thanksgiving Feast for the church for Nov 11 and by then we will have some exciting news to share with everyone. I am actually going to do 2 Christmas series, one in Nov called "A Revolutionary Christmas" which will be about thinking differently about the holidays instead of stressing and letting consumerism take over us. The second will be in Dec and is called "The Christmas Conspiracy." I'll tell you more about it later. Anyway, I guess I had better carve the pumpkin and buy the candy before I forget that Halloween hasn't arrived yet.

I love creative elements!

Check out these power point backgrounds that Joe Stagnaro made for each of the sermons in our series Mythbusters.

Sunday recap and more

• Sunday was good. The band was great. Joe did a great song called "Beautiful" by Phil Wickham to lead in to my sermon about heaven.
• Busted three myths about heaven: 1) There are many ways to heaven, 2) Heaven is a distant place of clouds, halos, and an eternal church service, 3) Heaven will be the same for everyone.
• Decent crowd with visitors.
• Went to the park Sunday afternoon with the family including Rachele and Camille.
• Andrea and Jeff did a great job with the Middle School Mythbusters Night. Had a good beginning. Busted myths that teenagers buy into. And we busted eggs with a tennis racket, teed up tomatoes and hit them with a driver, had a large mallet (sorta like Gallagher's Sledge-o-matic if you remember him) and busted apples, lemons, yogurt cups, and pumpkins. We were a mess but it was awesome.
• Made a late hospital call to Patricia Interiano. She is doing much better.
• Saw next to nothing as far as sports. Can't believe that Cleveland couldn't closeout the Red Sox. Colts and Pats look awesome.
• Met with Gary Lamb of Revolution Church in Canton on Monday morning. Gary is doing a great job in Canton and I wanted to talk to him about reaching Holly Springs. It's always good to talk to Gary. He makes me think and challenges me.
• We have a lot of decisions coming up concerning Axios and how we are going to reach this area. I want to be the church in Holly Springs. I want to stay in the warehouse. But most of all I want to hear from God and follow Him wherever He leads me.
• Got another great email from my cousin, Anne. What an encouragement and I can't believe that I have been missing out these past years on a great encourager and a very good writer. Thanks for tuning in, Anne!
• I have been put on a long term temporary route that is right in my neighborhood. The regular driver broke her arm and will be out at least 6 weeks. It's and easy route with pretty good kids except of the little Kindergarten girl that informed me that I am not the boss of her.
• Started this long term route just in time for Bus Driver Appreciation - chicken biscuits this morning from Sixes Elementary and a Sixes ball cap, a t-shirt from Freedom Middle School, and a bag of chocolate chip cookies from some mom on the route.
• Insurance kicks in Nov 1.
• Announced Sunday the date for our annual Thanksgiving Feast - Nov 11. This is always a great time.
• We have some great ideas for Christmas. Our theme is "A Revolutionary Christmas." We are working with Holly Springs to make an impact this christmas. We will be sharing these plans at the Thanksgiving Feast.
• God is good all the time.
• I haven't been perfect but I have been faithful.
• Marsha and Chip said good-bye Sunday. They are moving away. I hate that. Pray for them in this move.
• Heroes is starting to get good again. House is the best though and is on tonight. He makes me laugh.
• I am in love with my wife. Just felt like sharing that.

Heaven Through a Looking Glass

Tomorrow I'm preaching about heaven. From studying heaven and hell these last few weeks, I have learned some things from Jesus (imagine that!). Jesus taught matter-of-factly about Hell and warned people to avoid it but did not use it to scare people into following Him. He did the same with Heaven and showed it to be a place to be desired but did not use it to bribe people into following Him. The message of Jesus was life now not later and His invitation was "Follow me." The question is not "Do you want to go to heaven when you die?" Who wouldn't? The question is "Will you follow Jesus?" The first question is a good sales pitch but cannot deliver on the product. The second is harder but it is the path of faith and life that begins now and ends in Heaven. I think the real question is "Are you just wanting to get to heaven or are you really following Jesus?"

Middle School Ministry

Recently Andrea Dorr approached me about heading up a Middle School ministry. Our Student Ministry is a little strange because there is a gulf between the young and old. We have a lot of Seniors and the rest are in grades 6-9, no 10th or 11th graders. So this Sunday night we will be starting this ministry. We will be busting myths that teenagers buy into and should have a lot of fun doing it. Pray for Andrea and the other leaders and for the students that they will reach.

Here comes Turbo!

Friday I called Pattie and told her that I would be dropping kids at the bus stop in front of our house at 2:31. When I got there, she was waiting for me with Rayanne and my grandson, Matthew, and took these pictures.

Here I come
Dropping the little angels off.

There I go!

Do things really happen in threes?

We can go forever it seems without anyone in the hospital and then suddenly everyone is in the hospital. We have had three different people go in the hospital this week. Patricia Interiano had gall bladder surgery that was not as routine as it should have been. She will be in the hospital a few more days. Jamie Smith spent a couple of days in but is now at home confined to bed rest for the rest oh her pregnancy. Monica Selby had out patient surgery but should be in church tomorrow. If everything does happen in threes, I guess the rest of us are safe until next time.

Thanks, Anne!

My cousin, Anne, emailed me today and said that she had been reading my blog. It was great to hear from her but she closed with this verse that really encouraged me.

"God is not unjust: He will not forget your work and the love you have shown Him
as you have helped His people and continue to help them." Hebrews 6:10

Sometimes in this church planting business you can feel like your greatest effort makes little impact and goes unnoticed but it is great to know that God sees. My desire is to be the church in Holly Springs. When people in this community think of church, I want them to think of us. I was a little amazed that out of all the churches in this area, we were the only one at the Autumn Fest. We met a lot of people and planted seed but only God knows what will come of it. I want to have a presence wherever a crowd gathers. I want them to see us everywhere. I want them to know that there is a church that will come to them and not just wanting them to come to us. It takes time and a lot of seed to grow a church. I am glad that God sees and will not forget the love we have shown.

Sunday, 10-14-07

• Had a ton of our regulars gone today but still had a decent crowd.
• The band did a great job.
• Kicked off our new series, Mythbusters, with Hell Under Fire. Busted 3 myths: 1-Good people go to heaven, Bad people go to hell. 2-A loving God would not send a person to hell. 3-It is neither fair nor just for God to send a person to hell for eternity.
• Took a nice long nap after church. I rarely take such a long nap.
• I'm a dynasty hater so the NE Patriots are starting to get on my bad side. I loved them when they were underdogs but now they are so good that they are forcing me to cheer against them. But I still cheered for them today because I still root against Dallas for being a former dynasty.
  
• Can the National League playoffs be any more boring? Red Sox/ Indians is a good match up though.
• Jeff Gordon wins again!
• Way to go Kentucky for beating LSU! College football is messed up. They definitely need a playoff system because there is no clear #1 anymore.
  

Great time at the Autumn Fest

We had a great day at the Holly Springs' Autumn Fest. First, I must say that I was impressed with the set up by the city. It was very well done and carefully thought through. There was good entertainment with live bands on the stage. They had bluegrass, blues, a Johnny Cash clone, an Elvis wannabe and my favorite was the band that did mostly Eagles and Credence Clearwater music. There were also acts from belly dancers (the last thing I thought I would see at the HS Autumn Fest) to karate. Our football setup went over well. It was a popular place. We gave out 250 CITW (Church in the Warehouse) footballs and everyone won a lot of candy and some won CITW t-shirts. It was great seeing a lot of people wearing our t-shirts by the end of the day. We talked to and invited a ton of people, took prayer requests and handed out some printed material from our church. We also gave out free water and fruit drinks. We were very well received. I pray that many will choose to visit our church. Here are some other observations:

• There was a spot that sold funnel cakes and deep fried oreo cookies. They will deep fry anything in the South.
• A guy told one of our ladies that he was looking for a church but he wasn't a "Bible thumper" and just wanted to come away feeling good after a service. Too bad I'm preaching on Hell tomorrow.
• It was a beautiful day and I'm burnt to a crisp.
• One man said he had heard that we were a church that liked loud music. I say amen to that. Our band rocks, our praise is loud and we have a message that must be heard!
• We were the only church that I saw participating in this event.
• We have great people who did a great job reaching out to our community. Special thanks to Tracy Thompson for heading this up. Thanks to everyone who helped.
  

Holly Spring's Autumn Fest

Tomorrow we have another community outreach in Holly Springs. This time we are partnering with the city at their own Autumn Fest. It is from 10-5 at Barrett Memorial Park on Hickory Rd. We are renting an inflatable football pass where you throw footballs through targets. We have purchased 250 footballs with ChurchintheWarehouse.com imprinted on them. We will also be distributing water. We are going to set up our "Love Holly Springs" table and hand out fliers about our church and take prayer requests from the community. I pray that we can meet alot of people and that this will be as successful as our Sept outreach.

MythBusters Starts Sunday!

Our new series called Mythbusters is starting this Sunday and I can't wait. I always get excited about new series because I have been studying them and thinking about them for weeks before we actually do them and can't wait to share what God is teaching me. What do we really know about heaven, hell, regeneration, miracles, demons, angels, etc? When it comes to the supernatural, it is easy to allow imagination and conjecture to define our beliefs. Even pop culture with shows like The Ghost Whisperer, Medium, Supernatural, Criss Angel Mindfreak, and other mystical shows can cause confusion about the afterlife, spirit world, and everything else in the twilight zone. Who better to turn to for the facts and to dispel the myths surrounding these things than Jesus Himself? Here are the sermon titles:

• Hell Under Fire
• Heaven Through the Looking Glass
• Rumors of Another World
• Supernatural
• possibly one more if I feel led to continue

The Creative team has done a great job with the set once again. Lots of black lights and neon paints. Big thanks to Joe Stag who is using his creative genius to help our church reach our community. He designed the graphic above.

Ray "Turbo" Brim

I had a kid on the bus shout, "Slow down, Turbo, that's my stop!" I kinda like that. Maybe I can get a new nickname. One of my new friends and fellow bus driver said that he told his wife, "This job is going to lead me to smoking or drinking, which do you prefer?" Don't worry about me, I'm keeping my sanity.

Sunday Recap 10-7-2007

• We had a great day in both attendance and offering. Many visitors and some others that we haven't seen in a while.
• Logan did a great job leading worship. He was genuine and comfortable and God used him to minister to our people.
• The message from Phil 4 went well and seemed to encourage many.
• Pattie and I had lunch with Jeff and Andrea Dorr. Andrea wants to start a Middle School ministry (6-8) and we had a great meeting about getting that started.
• Our friend, Connie, brought one of her dachsund puppies over to the house and Davia ended up taking it home as her new pet. Precious, cute dog no bigger than a minute but had our big dog, Sadie, shaking and hiding under the chair.
• Falcons lost, Dolphins lost, Packers lost. I need new teams to cheer for.
• But my Colts won and my man Jeff Gordon won one of the best NASCAR races I have ever watched.
• Joy up! You are as strong as the God who lives inside you!

Looking forward to Sunday

This Sunday I am preaching a stand alone sermon on some things that God has been teaching me personally from Phil. 4. We just finished "The Road to Somewhere" and next Sunday we begin a new series called "Mythbusters." We have another outreach planned for the 13th and I am praying that it will be as successful as our Dippin' Dots outreach last month. I will write more about these things later but I am excited about tomorrow. God has been using Phil 4 to ease my stress and to draw on the peace that God promises to the ones who trust in Him. I hope it will be an encouragement to you and others. Also, Logan Dean is leading worship. This will be the first time for him to lead since his wife, Amber went home to be with the Lord in May. God is doing a good work in Logan and He is changing the direction of his life. Logan shared with me how God is teaching him that life is too short to waste in a time consuming career that leaves little time for more important things. He is taking this time while he is young to venture out and pursue dreams of music and travel. I say, "Go Logan!" Don't miss tomorrow. It should be a great day.

Catalyst Conference

For the last 5 years Steve Sisk and I have worked as volunteers at The Catalyst Conference every October. We have heard some of the finest Christian leaders who have influenced the modern church movement over the last few years. We have heard church leaders such as Andy Stanley, John Maxwell, Bill Hybels, Rick Warren, Erwin McManus, Rob Bell, Louie Giglio, Ron Martoya; authors such as Don Miller and John Eldridge; business leaders such as Tim Sanders, Malcolm Gladwell, Truett Cathy; various other entertainers, politicians and humanitarians. It has always been awesome. But alas, this year I was not able to attend because of bus driving. I didn't feel that I could ask off for 2 days after just being hired. I didn't want them to think that asking off would be a common practice for me. But Steve, my son, Joe, and Bob and Monica all are there right now. I have been thinking lately of people that are currently influencing my life and shaping my thinking. Here are 5 guys that I love:

1. Andy Stanley - I love the way he communicates the Word of God. It's amazing how preachers can take the most exciting message in the universe and greatest stories ever told and make them boring. Andy breathes life into the Bible.
2. Rob Bell -I appreciate the way he is able to take you back to the world of the Bible and how he connects the Old Teastament to the New. There is a freshness to his insights. We have Americanized Christianity far too much and he takes you back to its Middle East roots.
3. Erwin McManus - I love how he views the world and faith. His church is truly multicultural and his world view is the reason he is able to pull that off when most of us are just one demensional. His faith eyes see a big God in a big world and he moves forward with that vision.
4. Rick McKinley - growing a big church in one of the most churchless areas of our great country, Portland Oregon in the Northwest. He has done so by embracing his culture instead of being anticulture. His church is green, open to the arts, environmentally active, and urban. They are changing Portland. I love the tender way he approaches Scripture.
5. Perry Noble - a good old Southern boy building a big church in Anderson, SC. I love his heart for evangelism. I love how it permeates his preaching. It has encouraged boldness in my own efforts of reaching the lost.

Sunday 9-30-07

• Had a great day with the closing sermon on "The Road to Somewhere." This has been a great series and I believe one of the better ones that we have done. We finished with "Taking the High Road" and used "in all your ways acknowledge Him" as our text. Encouraged people to acknowledge that the Lordship of Jesus Christ extends to every path of their lives. Also that they would honestly acknowledge where and why they are where they are and who got them there. Several people responded in the invitation.
• Baptized two people. Tom, who had been baptized into the Mormon church, said that he had renounced his belief in Joseph Smith and embraced Christ alone as his personal Savior. God is doing a good work in his life and it was an honor to be a part of this step in his spiritual journey. The other was Davia, Ben's girlfriend. Ben led her to the Lord a few months ago and it has been a real pleasure to see God at work in her life. God has answered her prayers recently concerning a new job and an affordable apartment. He also has supplied other smaller needs that has shown her how much God loves her. She has become very special to Pattie and I and I know God is going to do great things through her, in her, and for her.
• Attendance was a little off compared to the last few weeks but the offering was great.
• Had a birthday party for Ben on Sunday afternoon. I love it when all the kids are at home. Also had several friends over. Ben is 21. God is doing something different in Ben's life right now but we are not quite sure what it is. He is not in school this semester but will start the next one but we're not sure where. Pray that God will open the right doors for him and provide his needs.
• Always remember that God is good and that He loves you. Your circumstances may try to tell you something different but if you hold on you will find that it is true. Circumstances change but God does not!