Momentum

I remember hearing Ike Reighard say, "You are never as good as you look when you have momentum and you are never as bad as you look when you lose momentum". In our 10 years of existence as a church we have had many years of great momentum and then there have been years that were not as strong! When you catch the wave of momentum, you have to be so wise about how to handle and what to do.

We are in one of those phases right now of EXTREME momentum and we are looking at some pretty cool things that I could take us to a new level! We are going to begin to announce the ideas this weekend and I am so pumped....I know that there will be a lot of challenges but I think the benefits will be awesome!

No one can teach you or tell you when to do what as a leader.....you just have to trust in the team around you and in your walk with the Lord!! You make the call then......you wait & see!!

Rearview Mirror

• Great finish to our "5th grader" series with "What every parent needs to teach their kids about Sex"
• We were packed out and the traffic was nuts but FUN problems!!
  
• Awesome "Parent FUSE" last night with Wes Cantrell talking to parents about how to talk to their kids in super practical ways (remember how Sunday night church felt...ouch!)
  
• We had 70+ from our worship/creative arts ministry at our house on Saturday....hope no one got sick off one my hamburgers....if you did, it must have come off Daniel's grill!
• Got to attend a lunch yesterday for a young man who turned 16 and his dad invited key men in his life to pray over him....pretty cool & it was at Maggiano's!!! I will do this with my son one day!
• My baseball team (14U Kennesaw Titans) cranked up the fall baseball season with a 5-0 win over the Cherokee Pride! Great start to the season!
• Got to start studying today for our "COIN" series that is coming in September.....this is going to be cool!!
• Met my wife for lunch today.....that was awesome!! I love being with her!!
  
• Tomorrow - I meet with our management team and get to discuss some exciting ideas for the fall!
• I talked to my old college baseball coach (Bobby Richardson...former NY Yankee great) - I remember now why he meant so much in life - he is the real deal! A man who has it all but cares nothing about it - he just loves people!
  

Looking ahead!!

I am sitting here early on Saturday going through my notes one more time for tomorrow. We will bc continuing our series "Smarter than a 5th grader" and talking about what every parent needs to teach their child about sex! Tomorrow is a huge day for a lot of parents who just avoid this topic but it is huge in the lives of their kids and their students especially face it every day! Tomorrow night we are having "Parent FUSE"....while their middle & high school students are down in the Compass Centre in a huge student blowout - we will be in the new True North building with a good friend & speaker named Wes Cantrell who is going to spend over an hour talking to parents about practical things to do in regards to discussing sex with their students. Wes speaks to public schools all over Cobb County about this and he is an awesome communicator!! Tomorrow should be a blast!!!

Today - we have over 60 people coming to our house for a worship ministry cookout & pool party! It will be a great day as long as I do not kicked out of the neighborhood for all of the traffic! Mary-Michal also starts cheering today for the Due West Hoya football season - it is hard to get pumped about football when it is 100 degrees...but I will be sipping a cold diet coke I can assure you and staying as cool as possible!! Oh yea....we start fall baseball tomorrow!! Get ready for a lot of baseball smack to be flowing this fall!

Reminder

Today I had the chance to sit with a good friend for over an hour and talk about where he is spiritually and hear his story of how this God we speak about every week is "pursuing" him. I know that I believe all we talked about but to hear the pure passion he spoke with about where he is and what he is experiencing....it renewed my faith a little as well!! Sharing the greatest story ever never gets old and it is more amazing every time I think about!! Pray for my buddy - would ya?

Thought

We are so blessed to be in a community where there a ton of GREAT churches! If someone gets up on a Sunday morning, they can turn out of the driveway and within minutes be at some awesome places!! How great that it is!!

It makes us at NStar even more passionate about connecting with people who are disconnected from God & Church. These are the people that when they wake up on Sunday they are not considering, "Which church will I go to...but rather will I: golf, play tennis, go swimming or go to the lake...." To these folks - our church can be invisible. However, we want them above all others to know who we are and how we feel about them!

I read the other day a great quote by Seth Godin that said, "If you are not remarkable, you are INVISIBLE".....that is strong stuff!! We can be good at lots of things, but we are great at? We know what that is for us and it is what separates us from so many other great churches.....It is community - we pour tons of time, effort & energy into being where "disconnected" people are. More to come - this next year we are going to be hosting a conference on this passion..."NorthStar To Go"...it is going to be awesome and it will be a great place to get like-minded people connected about to reach those who do not know they are looking for something!

Teams that work

I am a sports junkie and I love nothing more than seeing a team function and hit on all cylinders! Everyone is pulling their weight and doing their part to make the whole group function! During our 10+ years at NStar, we have had some all-stars and some great team-mates....but I do not know if we have ever had a time where everyone was working together more than they are right now!! The NStar team is amazing and I cannot wait to see all that is ahead!

This past week, I have been thinking through some new ideas that were from some of our staff....Sometimes the person most reluctant to change course is not some person at NStar who has been hiding out on the back row and waiting to derail things but rather.....it is me! When things are going good - you just hate to do anything to rock the boat or to cause a lack of momentum. I was at a point I needed some wisdom from someone who has faced the same issues we do and has come out on the other side.....This guy was more than willing to help and help me think through all of the options.....I felt so much better when I got off the phone!! This guy is so busy and leads one of the greatest churches in America but he was so kind to take the time to help me.....I pray I am always that willing to help those that are coming behind me!!

What a weekend!

Life has hit all time highs of busyness lately and I have been everywhere but in front of the computer screen!! On Friday night I went to Nashville, TN with my girl (Anne) and I had the privilege of doing the wedding ceremony for one of my former students and his lovely "new bride"! It is so great to look back to when I met him when he was in the 6th grade coming to our youth group and to see the incredible young man that he has grown in to! He was a tremendous baseball player at Harrison High, then at Vanderbilt University and then he just finished up playing in the minors with the Chicago Cubs organization....the great thing - he is still the same guy now!!

Tonight has been a trip - we drove back in today to attend my 20 year high school class reunion in Peachtree City. First, I cannot believe that it is has been that long and second, my biggest fear was that I would not remember anyone!! After just getting home and thinking back on the evening....all the old cliques went right back together tonight! I sat with the same crowd (+spouses) that I sat with and hung out with in high school! It was great to see everyone but you realize that life really has moved on and that high school was just a blip on the radar screen!!

All I could think about as I left was, "Why did I ever care what anyone thought of me?" I had a great 4 years at FCHS and there are a handful of friends that I have kept up with through the years but I found myself all night just looking forward to getting in the car with my wife and laughing about the whole experience!! One of my best friends, Steve Roach, whom I sat with tonight - I get to see at NStar everyday now, that is just too weird!!

What do you after 20 years - get together at the 50th reunion.....dude, that just scares me!!!

Tomorrow is a HUGE day at NStar....better get some rest!!