This why we do it!!

I was wrong about Sunday - there were actually 97 people baptized at the lake!! How awesome!

Tonight, Marlon Longacre called me to let me know that at FCA football camp last week, there were 40 of the 74 football players at North Cobb High School made first time commitments to Christ!! To all of those at NStar that gave to help those players go - your investment was an eternal one!!!

My heart is so full tonight!

Rearview Mirror

• Great morning - another day of huge summer crowds!
• There is a ton of momentum going into the school year
• Got to slip out of the 11am service and watch the end of the True North service - that was fun to see how many people are in that service every week!
• Met a bunch different people this Am that teared up when telling me their stories of finding NorthStar and then finding God!
• The NStar picnic tonight was incredible.......around 700+ at the lake with us!
• The best food yet at any of our picnics.......solid effort on bringing food - Casey & I loved it since we are living without our girls!
• Great to meet so many people that I just see every Sunday and getting to meet their families and learn their names!
• Once again baptism was huge!!! There were over 80+ baptized tonight...all ages, all backgrounds, all walks of life......a true picture of what God can do with a willing heart - no matter your age!! I will post some pics this week!
• We have now baptized around 150 this year - and there are tons still waiting.......I never get tired of watching people exchange ordinary for extraordinary!!!! Gotta love it!!
  

Praying for Sunday!

I am praying for a big day at NStar tomorrow......We continue our Meet Joy series and we will be talking about contentment! If we could get a grip on contentment our "joy" would change a ton!

Tomorrow night we will gather for "NorthStar @ the Lake" - our picnic and baptism!! There are over 80 already signed up and I am sure some more will hit tomorrow - always one of the highlights of my year! I am totally blown away by what God is doing all around us!

I am sitting here tonight after a good Saturday:

• Hung out with Casey all day - I love that boy!!
• Went & saw my brother & his wife (David & Nancy) and their twins.....the kids are getting so cute and it was great to see them!!
• C-man & I went and saw "Dark Knight" - what a great flick!! The spiritual overtones are unreal!
• Got home in time to watch the Braves blow their lead - that was brutal!!
• Casey just smoked me in "major league baseball" on PS2.....you know you are old when you get ripped that bad!
• Sitting here going over my notes for Sunday
  
• Missing my 2 girls like crazy - we are having fun but the house is just not the same!!

I can't wait to tell you what all God does tomorrow!!!

Fun Night!

Casey & I are "batching" it this weekend with the girls away at Mary-Michal's cheerleading camp! Anne has the fun job chaperoning 6th grade cheerleaders, they are at UGA all weekend!

Tonight - Casey & I went with David Eeles and his 2 boys to see the Rome Braves baseball game - we had a blast!! There is nothing like minor league baseball (quick trip, easy cheap parking & cheap dugout tickets) The boys got tons of autographs from many future major leaguers who are not jaded yet by their profiles and they are still playing baseball because they love it!

Dave & I had a blast catching up on our Liberty playing days and it is crazy to think that he has moved here from Phoenix and will be coaching at Allatoona High this fall!! He is such a great guy and great friend!!

But........we sure do miss our girls!

Parenting

Okay, this is the week of no original thoughts but.......when other people's are good, why not post them?? As a parent of an 11 year old and 14 year old (one starting middle school and one starting high school) and a former youth pastor.......I realize that my greatest years of influence are almost behind me! I am so thankful that I had some great mentors in my life who kept me from wasting away those years! Below is a great post from Tim Stevens about the influence of parents........

Thinking About Parenting

By Tim Stevens

I've been thinking alot about parenting lately. Maybe it is because we have four kids at home, ages 7, 11, 13 and 15. Yeah, our quiver is full.

I think everyone would admit that there is a point in a teen's life when the influence of his/her parents becomes less, and the influence of their friends becomes greater. I did an informal survey yesterday on Twitter, and again last night at dinner with some friends. It seems that the age at which the parents' influence drops dramatically happens somewhere around 13- to 15-years old.

As I reflected on my life as a child, the influence I perceive that I have with my own kids, and my informal survey, I charted it like this...

As a parent, the awareness of loss of influence can be alarming if you didn't see it coming. So be warned young parents, I have just given you a glimpse of the future.

Here is the key learning: Environments matter. Who my daughter is influenced by as a 15-year old is dependent greatly on the environments that my wife and I placed her in as a 10- and 12- and 14-year old.

It's a little early to tell whether we will survive life with teenagers, but here is the advice I would give parents of pre-teens...

• Get involved in a great church with strong youth leaders.
• As they start middle school, don't give them the option to stay home from the youth program.
• Find a school that has strong values and where there is good chance they will be able to find solid friends. That might mean paying for private school or moving to a better school district.
• Get them in situations where they are hanging with young adults who are following God. That's why we had college-age students live in our home for two years.
• Teach them the joy of serving when they are very young.
• Let them participate in events where there is a good chance they might take a step spiritually, like summer camp, missions trips, or weekend retreats.

Oh, and one last word of advice for those with teenagers---stop lecturing and start listening. Stop giving direction and start asking questions.

It's your turn now...is my chart way off?

August Rush - new series starting August 10

Here is a great article from CA Phillips about our upcoming series August Rush......Good word CA!!

What a weekend....

• On Saturday, the City of Acworth broke ground on the special needs baseball field!! This is going to be one amazing field (full synthetic turf) so it can navigate wheel chairs & walkers and also a special equipped concession stand so some of the players can work when their teams are not playing!! It tore me up to stand back and just experience the excitement of these children & their families!!! What began as a dream and a "extraordinary giving" at one of our services now is a 1.2 million dream that united the entire community!!
• Services today were beyond slammed.....
• Kaitlyn Howell was home from Hillsong Australia and she sang in both of the Compass services! We are so proud of her!
• We continued our series on "Meet Joy" and talked about how to handle stress God's way....the room was pretty thick with what people are going through & facing in life!
• At the 9:30am service we had the Head Football Coach from Kennesaw Mountain High School (Scott Jones) share about his team going to FCA football camp this week and tons of his players & coaches were there as well!! Coach Jones is the real deal and loves the boys and his #1 goal is turning out young men who get that God has a plan for their lives beyond the football field!!
• At the 11:00am service - Coach Shane Queen (head football coach at North Cobb High) shared and then had one of his players share as well.....this young man worked his way through high school, made great grades, played football & supported his mom. He had his life changed last year at FCA camp and there was not a dry eye in the house! A bunch of the Warrior football players were there along with coaches and their new principal Dr. Bynum!!
• We gave our people a chance to give and help sponsor players who want to attend FCA football camp but they can't afford it!! I will say it again, "NStar is at our best when we are giving!!!" I just love our church!!
• I left the campus today and could have stayed there all day just soaking in what God had done all morning!
• It is easy to sit & focus on how disconnected schools are but if you "invest into their life" there are days like today that you begin to see the fruit!!!
  
• I am so proud!!
  

Lessons Learned

Yesterday I had to do the funeral service for a good friend who left this world a little too early. He & his family were HUGE in the early days of NStar and through the years he was a big encourager to me & to our church! There was a day early on that we were out of money on a Friday and this guy called to tell me that God had blessed his business in huge ways and he blessed us in big ways...It was so hard to look out and see his sweet family - they were rocks through the whole ordeal this past week - I was so proud of them!

The family had moved to the other side of town and been attending North Point during that time. Though they asked me to do the funeral, they wanted to have it at their home church. I guess the expected response from huge churches like North Point is that, "well, we are sorry for your loss but you are on your own". I notified the NP on Monday AM and by Monday afternoon they were in touch with me & the family and walked with them every step of the way! I was blown away and reminded once again that they are a fabulous church for more than just their Sunday services! I shot Andy a note and let him know how proud he should be of his team!

They put most churches to shame on how they loved on the family and were there to help meet any need they possibly could! I know this - I learned a ton and there are some practices that I will put into place at NStar ASAP! We do a good job with families but there are things that we could certainly do better! As I said earlier this week - you never go wrong when you love on people!

Cookout

Tonight about 40 "hungry" college students descended on our house for their weeknight bible study!! We cooked out and had a blast just hanging out in our backyard and chilling!! They swam, talked & then I did about a 15 minute bible study to close out the night!

Bryan & Lee Ann Barton have done an amazing job leading this group and it was so fun to meet many of them for the first time and get to know them a little!! God has His hand on some of these guys in HUGE ways and I am so pumped about what is in store for them & for NStar!!

I am praying that we reach KSU in a big way and I have a good feeling that the catalyst to make that happen are with us right now!!

It's not that hard!

I think sometimes in ministry & in life we make things too complicated! We forget the things that really matter and we focus in on things that do not! It is really easy to begin to focus on the quality of our program and let the people around us become the interruption and see them as a hindrance rather than what it is all about!

Let's "uncomplicate" things a little bit and enjoy what God has called us in to! It's about people......it's about their hurts, their joys, their ups & downs....it's about people! If it worked for Jesus - I betcha it will work for us!

It's not that hard!

Homerun Derby

Sitting here watching the All-Star Homerun Derby!! Gotta love it.....Sad part is that I am having major flashbacks to pitching in college and giving up some monstrous shots!!! Bad memories!!!

I'm Back!

After a week of baseball at Disney and the other time spent at the parks enjoying the world of Mickey and a few days with the fam at Clearwater Beach chilling.....I am back!

Of course, I have heard nothing but raves about the past 2 weekends at NStar! Brad last week and then Daniel this past week knocked it out - it feels so good to be away and know that your team is blowing it out!!! Way to go guys!

As you can imagine, I have a ton piled up to get done and I know that the next few weeks leading up to school are going to be nuts!

I lost a great friend as well this past weekend and I am so sad for his sweet family that he left behind. He was one of our original core families at NStar and though they moved to the other side of town, I had kept up with them pretty well through the years. The funeral will be late this week and they have asked me to do the service.....please pray for them!!

Here we go.........

Cry me a river!

Check out Bonnie Hoover's blog.....she gives a shout out to my favorite little girl in the little world!

Disney

Sorry I have been off-line for the past week. We are at Disney in a baseball tourney and having a ton of fun hitting the parks!! We play ball every AM and then hit the parks until night - we are whooped tired but having a blast!! Can't wait to catch you up!! Off to Hollywood Studio's for the 2nd time to hit the "Rock n Roll' Coaster and then we play the Cayman Islands in baseball in the AM!