Rearview Mirror

• Strong Crowds at NStar this AM! Hard to believe that it is the middle of summer and things are so strong! This is sort of scary for fall!!
• I love our people - their faces when you are speaking are so open and ready for what God has to say to them!
• Great video behind the "History Maker" song this morning - Strong!!
• I used a quote from Mark Batterson from his blog "Jesus did not die to make us safe, He died to make us dangerous" - went perfect with the message "It's on me" on being a difference maker in this world
• Looking forward the morning and seeing how many cards came in responding to the challenge!
• With no baseball this afternoon - I made a solo drive to Fayetteville and spent the afternoon with my parents. Mom whipped up a big dinner (nice treat) and it was good to get caught up! They were great parents and I love them a ton and thank God daily for what a great home they raised me in!!
  
• I have a ton to cram in my day on Monday trying to get ahead before being out for the next week - trying to get ahead a little bit tonight!
• I looked out this AM and saw tons of High School Coaches - how awesome is that - these guys are difference makers in a lot of kids lives!!
  

I'll keep you posted!

Tribute to my boys

Back in early February my 14U travel baseball team set a goal of 40 wins for the 2008 season. This was huge in light of the fact we play a very tough schedule and it is a long season and with injuries and just 14 year old schedules of kids being out - 40 seemed like a big reach! Our first tourney found us going 1-2-1......not the start we expected! Then the guys turned on the jets and today swept a double-header from a Muprhy, NC team and picked up their 39th & 40th wins!!

I have never been more proud of a group of "determined" young men who put together an absolutely unforgettable season! The guys have played as a team from beginning to end and they are one solid group!!

We now head to Disney for our end of the year trip!!! I can't wait to spend a week in Florida with these guys!!

I am a little sad that this years run is almost over.....I love these guys!

Leap Week

Our campus has been rocking this week with "Leap"!! Over 160 middle & high school students & leaders worshiping and serving.......incredible! My son Casey is a part of the week and he is having a blast!! J.R. Lee is knocking it out speaking & NorthStar's own Chris Huff is leading in worship! Brad, Nick & their team have done an awesome job leading the way!!

Tomorrow (Thursday) at 4pm - they will be baptizing 40 students out on the lawn in front of our True North building!! I can't wait to be there to be cheering them on!!!

"Let me Sing"

Daniel & our NorthStar worship team just came out just recently with their first worship cd "Let me Sing"..it is amazing!!! I can't quit listening to it!! Visit the site and listen in and make sure and order yourself a copy - great stuff!! Their goal is to produce 2 a year.......way to go Daniel!! I love all of the cuts on the cd but my favorite is "Blessed Assurance"! Let me know what you think!

It's Just another Manic Monday!

• The Carrier funeral was HUGE! The place was packed - it is so unusual for a 48 year old man to have touched so many lives. One word described his life....Others! Robbie Carrier was a man who invested his life in others and so many lives were touched by his life! Please pray for his 3 sons and sweet wife as they continue his legacy!
• Today began "Leap" week at NStar! Over 160 adults & students spend the morning doing "camp" (worship with Chris Huff and teaching by the one & only J.R. Lee) and then they serve all over the community in the afternoon. This week NStar has partnered with FBC/Kennesaw to do Leap.....talk about coming full circle - FBC is where I was youth pastor for 5+ years and it is so cool that their youth pastors now (Jimmy & Melanie Gunderman) were in my youth group there!!
  
• 12 students accepted Christ this AM to start the week!
• Check out our prayer net to see all of the unreal stuff people are living with in their lives
  

Rearview Mirror

• Great AM at NorthStar
• Down at 9:30am and packed out at 11am
• Great friend Kevin Burrell, scout with Chicago White Sox, was in the 9:30am service! What an awesome guy!
• Worship was STRONG - I love our team at NStar!!
• Message today was on "how to diffuse conflict" - just good practical stuff from Philippians!
  
• No games this afternoon - swam and hung out with the family & friends....how nice is that!!
• Have a funeral on Monday & Tuesday of this week.
• Went to funeral home to visit with the Carrier family - Robbie passed away early Saturday and left behind 3 sons and his wife Kenya. Please be praying for them during this time! We are expecting a huge crowd for his funeral tomorrow at NStar.
• My heart breaks for this family - I look at them and put my son & little girl and wife in their spot and it just tears me up.....

If you get a chance tomorrow around 11am - please pray for them and for all of the others at the funeral that the good news of where Robbie is now will be a story that they can't forget.

Week Recap

What a great week of "The Adventures of Kennesaw Brown"! On Thursday night we had 30+ (3rd -5th graders) say yes to a relationship with Jesus Christ!! Pretty Cool!!

Some of our men are going to a weekly rental lodge and bringing the children from there.....one of those young men got saved and the looks & tears from the guys who are investing in their lives was incredible & unforgettable!

Last night they had the closing night with a new kids artist (Lyndee Link) and God's Warriors put on a strength show - it was pretty awesome!

Today, I am heading out to a double-header at Harrison Park in East Cobb for games with two different teams! We play at 10am & 2pm - should be a fun day! The great news is that I am off tomorrow - a Sunday afternoon with NO baseball! Like every other pastor I am toast on Sunday afternoons but usually I have to go into a different gear to have the energy for the baseball games I go to - tomorrow......no gear needed - I will crash!!!

Tomorrow we continue our "Meet Joy" series at NorthStar with "May I see the Manager"....talking about how to handle conflict & still have joy!! Should be fun!

Adventure Week

What a crazy week around NStar!! What do you get when you cross 300+ adults and a couple of hundred kids.....you get Adventure week!!! It is VBS on steroids!!

I have had a blast hanging out meeting tons of new NStar families and watching our NStar team pull off an incredible week!! "The Adventures of Kennesaw Brown" is the theme and it is totally unreal - all of the scripts & curriculum were written by our team for the week and it is so cool to see it all come together!!! What I love most is looking around and seeing men everywhere helping & serving - that is just cool!!

Marsha ,Tricia, Terri & Lyndi & Tim have been awesome leaders making "The Adventure" happen!!

I sure wish I was a kid again!!

A father's day to remember!!!

A Father's Day to remember....

• Great day at NStar - strong crowds and so cool to honor Dads.....if these men only knew how big God's plan was for their lives!
• We were in part 3 of Meet Joy - Hungry Man's Special.....pretty cool stuff from Paul about men....if we could live out the attributes he laid out, our lives would count in a big way!
• Coach Jimmy Whittemore and his wife Melanie did the welcome in the Compass Centre...it was so cool to see a Kennesaw Mountain Coach up on stage talking about exchanging ordinary living for an extraordinary life through the transforming power of Jesus Christ! Thanks Coach Whit!!
• Daniel & Stephanie & the worship band were rock solid as usual!!
  
• My 14u travel baseball team lost their first game of the morning (10-6) the boys showed up for 7am bp and and then the game started at 8am. After the loss the team had to drive 25 minutes to another park (won 2 in a row there) and then came back to Big Shanty to win the 14u USTBA National State Championship!! The boys were at the ball-park for 13 hours today and these warriors had enough left in them to win first place in their division - I am so proud of these guys! I have never played 4 games in the same day in my life and these guys hung in there and pulled it out!!
  
• We set a goal of 40 wins before the season started and the team is now (35-9-2). Unreal!!! Still a lot of baseball left to play!!
• Adventure Week @ NorthStar is this week!!! I can't wait to see the campus covered up with kids & adults - it is going to be a fun week!
• I am worn out and going to call it an evening!!
  

Truly - a father's day I will never forget!!! I am so blessed!!!

Happy Father's Day!

Knowing that tomorrow will be a little crazy......services at NorthStar (continuing Meet Joy series - Hungry Man special) and some action on the diamond (Titans are currently 2-0 in the USTBA State Tourney) - I wanted to say a Happy Father's Day to my dad Charles Linch!

I guess nothing could conjure up Father's Day memories more than being at a baseball field. My dad was an incredibly dedicated & hard worker in business (he went 35+ years while only missing one day of work). He taught me so much about loyalty, honesty and the willingness to work hard to move up. However, he also taught me about family. I don't know how he worked his schedule, but I do not ever remember dad missing one of my baseball games. He had his little cooler, lawn chair & umbrella and he would find a quiet spot behind the plate and he would sit & take in every pitch!

I do not remember him ever saying a word to me during those games but I knew he never missed a thing! We would replay the game over & over as we would ride home and it never crossed my mind that he could have been a million other places! On days we were not playing, we were sitting at a ballpark together somewhere dissecting hitters and other teams in hopes that we would play them and put our notes to work! It was years later when I finally realized that you had provided me an opportunity that you did not have and that though you had to work as a teenager and give up your gift of baseball, you allowed me the chance to work at baseball & to be a kid! I will never forget you saying, "You have the rest of your life to work - be a kid and enjoy playing and see how far you can go". I think you were as excited as I was about getting the scholarship to play for Coach Richardson at Liberty - you sure deserved it as much as I did!

I still remember looking up while in college on a March afternoon in Lynchburg and seeing my dad in the bleachers at Liberty with his luggage from the airport and realizing that he had flown up to catch my DH. Those were some great memories! He had did not pour I love you's & hugs but what he did give me was a love that was spelled "T...I...M...E" - He was there and we bonded not by organized sitting together but by doing life together and by just being there.

Thanks Dad........though you were quiet & I am loud and you sat in a chair at ballgames & I pace the dugout & field - you taught me what it means to be there for my kids & to provide for them the very best way that I can! Everytime I feel the hot blazing sun and the take in the dust swirling around me on a field - I think of you and all of our years together on a field!

Happy Father's Day dad and thanks for taking time for me when I know (now) that you didn't have to!!!

Tim Russert - I'm So Sad!

I have always enjoyed watching "Meet the Press" with Tim Russert, he had that amazing ability to ask super tough questions from all sides without seeming like a jerk! He just seemed genuine & nice and it always engaged me! It did not matter if you were a Democrat or Republican - you were going to get asked tough questions from an absolutely nice man who seemed to represent everyone who wanted to ask the questions!

A few years ago I sat down while on vacation and read "Big Russ & Me" about his relationship with his dad....WOW! The book was amazing and I picked up some stuff from it that I added into my life. And of course, after reading the book - I liked him even more!

Today, as you most likely have heard, he died from a heart attack at the NBC Washington Bureau at the age of 58. Tim, though I never met you, you taught me from a distance and I am a better man today because of the lessons you put on paper! My heart breaks for his family on this father's day weekend but I hope the realize the impact he left on so many lives!

NorthStar at it's best!!

Below is a note from Kelley Maddox, who is serving with Marlon in our community ministry, and their experience from yesterday!! What I love is a church that does not do something once a year but rather it is something that happens all of the time!! I love this church!!!

Hello MUST Summer Lunch Volunteer,

Words cannot express the gratitude I feel towards all of you(71 families were involved in making this happen)!! You all are amazing, our church is amazing, our GOD is amazing. Here is a recap of what our last 2 days were like:

On Tuesday evening, all the brownies, applesauce, and juice boxes were dropped off. Over 30 people stayed to help pack the 1200 lunches needed for the next day. I could not find my camera memory card before I came-I have no pictures!! Our volunteers just came in and started working. Some were packing bags, some were supplying tables with food, some were emptying trash as the garbage bags filled up, and some were counting and putting lunches in boxes. ALL were having a great time!!! It took us less than an hour to pack the 1200 bags!!!! Oh yeah-we had extras that we sent to the MUST centers for the next day's lunch!!!

Wednesday morning, I was at my house receiving sandwich(278) and Ludell, Eddie, Paul, and Judy were at the church receiving sandwiches(1000+) as well. I was afraid that people would not want to be at the church at 7AM to drop off sandwiches. But none of you felt inconvenienced!! Many of you were dropping off you sandwiches on the way to work. Also, you all followed the directions for sandwiches perfectly!! Again, we had all 1200 sandwiches with extras to leave for the next day!! I love it!! Do you know what 1200 lunches look like?? Imagine a 15 passenger van with 2 seats removed full of boxes with lunches, a full sized truck bed full of boxes with lunches, a 4 door jeep with the back seat down full of boxes with lunches, and a jeep Cherokee full of boxes with lunches!!

At both of the distribution centers(the Walker School and Cumberland Community Church) for the lunches, we had checker/packers there to double check all of the sandwiches and the items in the bags, load bags in crates, and then load vans and cars for delivery. One of the coordinators at the Walker school said you all were the quickest and best help she has had so far!! We could not have sent a more passionate group of people to help get the job done!!
(Again-no pictures-I'm a dufus!!)

Kellie, Diane, and I headed down to Cumberland Community Church to deliver lunches. Ray and Joann were there with their grandkids ready to deliver as well. Deanna was riding the Marietta route with Carol, the lady who started this whole thing. I DO have pictures of this!!! Yeah! I have added them to our website- www.northstarinthecommunity.com. You have to check them out!! The MUST people gave us a map with directions to neighborhoods/apartment complexes they have identified as low income. We put a MUST magnet on our car and drove through these areas beeping our horn and stopped at a designated location. All the kids would come running out of their houses, many with a baby brother or sister on their hip!!! Unfortunately, we did not see many parents!! Now I know why MUST requires a background check for deliverers!!

Our favorite stop was at a lady named Ms. B's house. She was once a teacher and is like the neighborhood grandmother. Many of the kids are left at home alone during the day in her neighborhood. She saw that they were bored and did something about it!! She has games, balls, hula hoops, etc. that they are allowed to check out and have to return to her once they are finished playing with them. She got them on the MUST route so that they could have lunch during the week. She has a Sunday school classroom set up in her living room(she lives in a small townhouse type dwelling) She teaches them about God and encourages them to do their best. For Father's Day, she is helping them to make cards to God-our Heavenly Father. This is because most of these children do not have a dad in the home. One thing I have learned working with Marlon is that you can be working to meet a need and about 50 more will pop up while you are there!! We are going to try to help Ms. B out!! You will hear more about it later. When you look at the pictures, Ms. B is the shorter of the 2 ladies.

I hope it is ok to say that I am PROUD of my church for stepping up and helping!! Like Marlon said, it is hard to believe people are in need just a few minutes away from NorthStar. I saw it with my own eyes. I think most of the need is because these kids do not have parents that are at home with them while they are out of school and they just leave them to make it any way they can. Yesterday, we were able to make these kids feel like some one cared!!
No matter what part you participated in(some of you recruited neighbors and friends to help!), you were necessary to make it all happen!!!

Thanks to all of you!! We have another lunch scheduled for July 9th. If you want to do the same thing for this lunch, shoot me an email and I will get you signed up. Some of you have already done it!!!

Serving Him with you,
Kelley

PS-Don't forget to check out the pictures-www.northstarinthecommunity.com

Unity

The New Testament has a ton to say about Unity! With Unity - a team or group can accomplish so much and without it, you are in big trouble!

I was watching the College World Series (imagine that) the other day and saw the Arizona State baseball team (2 players) get into a scrap before the championship game with Fresno State. As you can imagine, ASU lost the game!

Today in our team meeting we talked about unity and how key it is as we move forward together! The enemy loves to find gaps and expose weaknesses and destroy teamwork! We are doing super right now and I pray it stays that way!

Here was the key comment from the AM - "Our job is to believe the best about each other until someone gives us reason not to" If we can do that in life, marriage, business - we can really make a difference in this world!

Willow Creek & Lessons Learned

I am finally going to post my thoughts on the whole Willow Creek study that was put out this past year. People have loved jumping on the band-wagon and saying that they have blown it for the past 20+ years and that they were wrong. People love to find flaws in what has worked, I guess it must make us feel better for our stuff not working either! If blowing it is reaching 20, 000+ people with the good news of Jesus and baptizing them - then I hope we blow it is as well!!!

I know that NorthStar Church stands on a road paved by churches like Willow Creek and so does Saddleback, North Point, etc. These guys have led the way and were 20 years ahead of the curve! I guess Hybels had enough of the "stories" flying and decided to address them himself.

Please see the interview and article below:

Bill Hybels Responds to “Reveal” Criticism

A couple of weeks ago, Christianity Today ran an article entitled, "Willow Creek's Huge Shift" (subtitled Influential Mega Church Moves Away from Seeker Sensitive Services). Here's how the article started: “After modeling a seeker-sensitive approach to church growth for three decades, Willow Creek now plans to gear its weekend services toward mature believers seeking to grow their faith." Recently, Jim Millado sat down with Bill Hybels so that he could respond. It seems that from Bill's perspective, enough was enough, and it was time to set the record straight. Here are a few comments from Hybels on the situation (and on other reports that have come out from Reveal). You can also watch the video of the interview... Read the full post here...

Rearview Mirror

• Unreal week at Impact!! God showed up & moved in absolutely amazing ways!!!
• Saturday morning was the kickoff for the "Special Needs" baseball league in Acworth! There are 104 players registered to be a part of the season!
• My Titan baseball team were buddies for the "Diamondbacks" special needs team - these kids were a blast and we had SO much fun being out there with them! That is what it is all about!
• Great to be back at NStar today....I haven't been up in 2 weeks and I was ready to go today! We were in week 2 of Meet Joy and we talked today about "Satisfaction Guaranteed". In life - there is no satisfaction and the key is learning to overcome the circumstances we all face! What a super time learning from the life of Paul in Philippians!
• Today was the last day for Greg & Amanda Blasche, our student arts leaders, they have been part-time with us and now have a chance to be worship leaders full-time at a new church in Macon. We are SO gonna miss these guys - we are so happy for them but so sad to see them go!
• Taking their role at NorthStar is Lauren Boyd, who has been leading worship at Liberty University the past few years - she is coming home and we are so glad to have her back!! God is so good & faithful to see us through!!
• My baseball team took the field today and swept a DH (7-1) and (11-1) - way to go Titans
• Tonight - Daniel & his team had a CD release night "The Gathering" at NorthStar!! They absolutely blew it out - the crowd was nuts and the night as a ton of fun! It was so fun to see people cut loose and just "enjoy" God!! Tonight was a special night for a couple of hundred NStar folks! Check out I-Tunes to get your copy downloaded - it is amazing!! The version of Blessed Assurance that they do is amazing - Stephanie absolutely blows the lid off!!
• I am slammed after talking for 14+ sessions at Impact and a leadership training for Congressman Westmoreland's staff this past Tuesday - I am slap worn out but ready to get back in it tomorrow!!
• Congrats to my buddy Kevin Burrell, a scout with the Chicago White Sox, whose choice Gordon Beckham was the #1 pick of the White Sox - pretty big honor for a scout to get the #1 choice for their organization!! Hate that Beckham is a Bulldog - but not for too much longer! Way to go Kevin!
  

Impact 2008

Let me start by saying – I have just been part of the greatest week of summer!! 20 years ago I started working at a camp called Impact and it has been 20 years of great experiences!!

I have met some of my greatest friends in ministry at Impact and God has developed some relationships that will last a life-time! I came to this camp as a 19 year old college baseball player and now I am a 39 year old Pastor/Dad and I am still as moved by student’s obedience as I was 20 years ago!

I could spend pages telling all that God has done through the years……there have been some absolutely amazing experiences! This year has been one of the highlights – God has shown up and done some things that I do not even know how to put on paper! We have spent the week talking about the simple truth, “We are now the light of the world”. When the light of Jesus lives through us, how can we not make a difference in the world that we live in!

I have absolutely no doubt that we have a camp full of students that are going home to let their light shine in the world that God has put them in and the difference they are going to make is going to last for eternity! God is moving in this generation – watch out – they are going to show us what the light looks like when it lives through people!!

Impact 2008 has been amazing and I cannot wait to hear the stories that are going to come and the towns & schools that are going to be changed!! Thank you God for an absolutely amazing week and we still have one day left!

Sunday Away

Heard nothing but great stuff about services at NorthStar today! My man, Steve Roach, led off with the first week of the "Meet Joy" series! Steve is the "creator" of our content week to week at NorthStar and it is so cool for him to actually present what he helps to write every week! Way to go Roachie!

I am up in Toccoa, GA at a camp called Impact. I am working with about 200 leaders today and then the students arrive tomorrow - everyone who attends Impact calls it the best week of summer and I have to agree with them! I really do not do a lot of conferences or outside speaking but I keep a week on my calendar every year to invest in student pastors/leaders - I remember coming to Impact as a student pastor worn out and that week was always a re-charge for me!

I will post some stuff about what this place means to me as the week goes! If you are reading this - pray moves in a big way in about 1,000 students lives this week!!! Can't wait - it is funny, when you expect God to show up in big ways and plan for God to show up in big ways....He usually does!!