Today and tomorrow, I’ll be attending the Velocity ChurchPlanters.com conference in Cumming, GA at Mountain Lake Church. Speakers include Rick Warren, Steven Furtick and Dave Gibbons! If you’re there, I’d love to meet you. Should be fun. You can follow the action on Twitter.
The first time I realized the power of withholding the drums until just the right moment was in Phil Collins’ genius song “In The Air Tonight”. That’s when I “got it”. The following is a video of him playing this live in his Farewell Tour (I have this DVD – because Phil Collins is a musical hero to me). You know you love it! Is there anything cooler than when the drums kick in?
I hope the point is getting across. Let music build. Let it grow. Let it breathe. Leave space. Know when NOT to play. The musicians and bands that I’ve featured the last few days get it – it’s time the Church got it. I know some of you get this – but unfortunately, the majority of the Church (big “C”) doesn’t.
Do you have any other great examples? And yes, I know Mercy Me opened their Live DVD concert with their arrangement of “In the Air Tonight”. I loved it. You can watch that HERE.
This week we have 2 doctor appointments (Monday/Tuesday), then an MRI on Wednesday. We’ll go see family in Houston for Thanksgiving and then return for an appointment with 2 different surgeons the following week. Please keep lifting us up in your prayers.
Tomorrow I leave for San Diego. I’ll be speaking for the first time at the National Outreach Convention. I’m really looking forward to it as I’ll be able to see many great friends, leaders I respect and hopefully meet some people for the first time. I’ll be speaking four times. Here’s where you can catch me if you’re attending:
Yesterday I arrived in Atlanta. Today through Friday I’ll be attending Catalyst – a conference I look forward to every year. These guys bring it every year. If you’re at Catalyst, message me on Twitter and let’s meet up. Hope to see you there. More when I return.
In the last couple of months I’ve talked with several churches that are interested in bringing me in for a secret shopper/mystery worshiper visit, but don’t have it in this year’s budget. They are setting aside money in their 2010 budget to bring me in.
I bring this up for you to consider. Maybe you’d like to arrange a secret shopper visit. I’d encourage you to budget/plan for it now and you’re working on next year’s budget. Plan on $2000 or less for the visit (that includes all my travel expenses).
If you’d like to schedule a 2010 visit, contact me and let’s begin to look at the calendar. It’s a wise investment. You can go here for more information and to read endorsements of my ministry.
As you know, I’m in the air (traveling) a lot. Lately I’ve been bringing some magazines with me to read during the flight. Magazines that I’m reading currently are:
What magazines are you reading?
This past weekend I did a secret shopper visit at an amazing church in Orangeburg, SC. I arrived in town Saturday evening and headed straight to the church as it was nice out and I thought it might rain on Sunday. I wanted to see the grounds and parking lot, building exterior, etc.
As I was looking around, I came across a door in the back of the church that was left open. I didn’t know if someone was inside or if it had been overlooked and left open/unlocked, but I opened it and went inside…
NOTE: It never occurred to me that there might be an alarm.
I went inside the church and began looking around, making notes and taking pictures. I went straight to the restrooms and since I wouldn’t get to see the Women’s Restrooms on Sunday, I decided to go inside them, take pictures and make notes. I must add: they have a very nice women’s restroom. Below is their sitting room when you walk inside the women’s restroom:
I noted that the women’s restroom had 11 regular stalls and 2 large/handicap stalls (as seen in the top picture). Their sink area appeared neat and clean, etc. Regular stuff. I left there and went across the hall to the men’s restroom. I made notes in there and took pictures.
I walked out to be greeted by 3 police officers with tazors drawn. I’m not kidding. They asked who I was and you should have been a fly on the wall as I tried to explain to them what a church secret shopper was. They told me to turn around and padded me down. They took my ID and called it in.
Please understand and believe me – I planned on calling the senior pastor after I finished looking at the restrooms to let him know about the unlocked door.
So the interrogation went on. IF I was not able to get the pastor on the phone (which – thank God I was) they were going to take me downtown and arrest me. I didn’t “break and enter” as one officer said. I simply saw a door cracked open and walked inside it.
Lesson learned – I won’t be doing that again. So there! That’s my new unforgettable secret shopper story and my welcome to South Carolina. 
Today I leave for 10 days straight. Boy will I miss my family! I fly to South Carolina this afternoon to speak at a worship conference Thursday through Saturday in Spartanburg, SC. I always enjoy this conference because it takes place 15 minutes from where I grew up and so I get to spend some time with my mom and sister. If you’re going to be at First Baptist Spartanburg, please stop by my class and say “hey”.
Then Saturday I fly from South Carolina to Birmingham, AL to join my new friends and team at ARC for a Church Planter Basic Training. From Saturday to Friday I’ll be involved with a week of intense training for church planters. I can’t wait!
Next week I’ll share with you a new project I’m doing with ARC that could involve YOU and your church. I’m pretty excited about it and hope you’ll be too.
As you know I spoke at the BUG Conference on Monday. I arrived Sunday evening so I could attend Church of the Highland’s 6pm service. With 12 Sunday services across 5 campuses, Church of the Highlands is the fastest growing church in the US.
I visit a lot of churches and have been to all of the “big boys”. I must say, Church of the Highlands and pastor Chris Hodges lived up to the hype. The worship experience truly was a celebration. I (as a former worship pastor) truly appreciated Chris Hodges’ heart for worship and how he led by example and through exhortation to the attendees.
Their music was solid and well done. Their tech (sound, video and lights) was great and reminded me a lot of what we did at Bent Tree. And Chris Hodges is a terrific communicator. I appreciate his spirit, his humor, his liveliness and all around excitement that he brings to the stage.
All this and you’d never know that there was a thunderstorm that knocked all the power out twice! We literally sat in the dark and then when the lights came back on there was no video, no sound, nothing – and God still moved. I still think it was a wonderful experience and can’t wait to go back this coming Sunday night again. I’m going on a church planter assessment with the good folks of ARC on Monday and Tuesday and since I’m flying back to Birmingham Sunday night, I hope to catch their 6pm service again!
The BUG Conference was a total success. For a first year, I think ARC and specifically, Guy Walker, did an amazing job putting it together. The main sessions were solid and informative. The workshops were all great and well taught. The community and relational side of the conference was great, too.
As you know, I’m at a lot of conferences, but again, there was something special about this one. Maybe it was the topic of social media/social networking and seeing how relevant and educational it was for the attendees. Maybe it was the smoothness of the conference experience and how it seemed they’d done this before. I don’t know exactly what it was, but I wholeheartedly endorse it and encourage you to go if there is another one in the future.
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