Breakfast and Fireworks tonight @ DAG

Just wanted to remind all you DAGer's out there to come and join us at the church at 9pm as we countdown to 2009! There will be amazing worship, an inspiring message, breakfast, a family movie and of course prayer & communion at midnight followed by fireworks! For those of you reading this that are not a part of DAG we invite you to come and enjoy the evening with us.

I know it's not the Peach Drop in Atlanta, but it's going to be awesome hanging out with family. If you are coming just bring some kind of breakfast item to share with everyone. Tami, myself, and Josiah hope to see ya'll tonight.

Sunday Mind Dump

• Sunday was an AMAZING DAY!
• Our worship team did a great job once again. You guys are awesome!!!!
• Every now and again I jump into the middle of worship and share some thoughts with the folks and yesterday was one of those moments.
• Yesterday was a wreakless moment in worship and I felt like folks were missing a great opportunity to connect with God.
• So I reminded them how King David was wreckless in his worship as the ark (God's presence) came back home.
• It's time to get on worship on!!!
• Sunday was also our Youth Pastors last Sunday with us:( He and his wife have decided it was time for them to leave.
• They have been apart of our church for 10 years and have served as the youth pastors for 4 1/2 years.
• We are going to miss them a ton...
• Pastor Blake and Kristie thank you for serving faithfully all these years. It was an honor serveing with you. I pray that God directs you and your family during this new season of your ministry.
• I started a message series called "NO PERFECT PEOPLE ALLOWED".
• I have decided that this is going to be more than a collection of messages, NO PERFECT PEOPLE ALLOWED is going to be our new church mantra.
• I want everyone in Dahlonega and Luumpkin county to know that DAG is a place for everyone no matter where they are on life's journey.
• As we get closer to the new year I have been talking about our 1st 21 day Daniel Fast.
• We have so much to do that it is essential to spend a part of January seeking the Lord through praying and fasting.
• So please pray for our church from January 12th through February 1st as we seek God through praying and fasting.
• DAGer's I am so proud of all of you! 2008 was a wonderful year but I can't wait to see what God does in 2009!!!
• I love pastoring DAG!

I REFUSE TO STAND IN POOP!!!

This morning while I was playing with my son I noticed a very strong smell hovering around him. No matter where he went in the house the fowl smell followed him. Having an 18 month old I knew exactly what it was...you guessed it, it was a dirty, stinky, poopy diaper. At this point I had two options, option one allow my son to continue to stand around in his poopy diaper or option two pick him up and change him. Option one produces a very irritable and unhappy baby while option two produces a very content and happy baby. It amazes me how my 18 month old son understands that a poopy diaper is a bad thing and it makes life miserable.

Only God can use a moment like this to teach me a major life lesson. The reality is life is filled with poopy moments. I realize that many Pastors that blog like to keep things positive which for the most past I agree. The problem with taking this stance all the time is that when the crap hits the fan every body acts like nothing is wrong (either because we don't want to face the crap or because we don't want to offend anyone) while standing in waist high poop! Whether the "mess" is in our lives or churches it doesn't help our families or churches to totally ignore the "mess" all around us. The sad part is that many of us have gotten use to living and even worshipping in waist high poop and find nothing wrong with it.

Let me take this a step further...what is poop? (sorry about the poopy talk but you got to admit it's a great analogy:) It's left over waste that our bodies don't need. Because God is such an amazing Creator He created our bodies with the ability to distinguish the difference between substance (the good stuff) and waste (the bad stuff). Substance keeps us going strong and healthy and waste is the toxic material that can do some serious damage to our bodies if we don't get rid of it.

So how does this "weird/funny" analogy apply to our lives and churches? We can't be okay with wallowing in waist high poop. A mediocre mindset is poop, unforgiveness is poop, resentment is poop, bitterness is poop, a religious attitude is poop, legalism is poop, SIN is poop, you get the idea.

Keeping things positive is a wonderful idea especially since we live in a very negative and sarcastic world, but as leaders and Pastors we can't be afraid to help people get out of their "mess." I've met too many Pastors who love using the "keeping everything positive" statement just because they don't want to get dirty. Let's be honest MINSITRY IS MESSY! We're fooling ourselves if we think throwing a lifeline from the pulpit will help people become the men and women God created them to be.

So if you're a Pastor stop thinking that if you ignore the "mess" all around you that somehow it will all disappear. As leaders and Pastors we should strive to keep things positive but we must be ready and willing to roll up your sleeves and clean up. A lifeline is okay but what people really need is someone to be a life guard willing to jump in and help them out of the crappy situations of life. My point is that when we REFUSE TO STAND IN POOP WE ARE MOVING FORWARD!

My name is Gabe Trevino and I REFUSE TO STAND IN POOP!!!

I'm Back!

It's been over a month since my last post. Several people have asked me why I haven't updated my blog latey. At first, I didn't know what to say over a month ago I wrote my last post and than I just stopped. But as people continue to ask me, I started to ask myself why I haven't written lately the reality is...it wasn't a top priority.

Lately life has been crazy in the Trevino household and although I enjoy blogging my family is my top priority. Jesus, my wife and son deserve my time more than blogging does. Like I said even though I enjoy blogging sometimes it's just one "MORE" thing that I feel like I have to do.

Interestingly, I have been reading about many other Pastors and church planters echoing the same thoughts. They're reevaluating "WHY" they blog. Even though blogging has become a great way for Pastors and church planters to communicate with each other and minister to others it has become a time consumer. At it's worst it becomes a "let's see who can have the most interesting and read post." I guess what I'm trying to say is if I choose to blog I have to understand why I'm blogging and I have to learn how to priorities it among the many other more important things in my life.

From this point forward I got blogging...blogging doesn't have me. So that being said I am back!

Mind Dump: Monday Edition

• This past week was crazy!
• I worked some weird hours at my other job which drove me a little wacky this past week.
• Preparing for our Fall Carnival took a lot of work.
• Learn some valuable lessons.
• We had a great turn out...I'm thanking God for what He did last Friday Night.
• We had around 250 people showed up for Fall Carnival.
• It was great having all those folks on our campus.
• The greatest part of the night was watching the faces of our folks. PRICELESS!
• I am so proud of our church!
• DAGer's you guys were amazing.
• Thank you for serving with all your hearts.
• On Saturday I had to be at work at 5:45am. That was rough!!!
• I can't wait till I'm at the church full-time.
• So if any one has some extra funds on hand that they don't know what to do with may I suggest my salary fund:)
• Sunday was off the hook...that means amazing.
• Seriously, the worship time did a great job!
• I think my new favorite song is Jesus Messiah!
• Our attendance was really off on Sunday.
• We had one family show up from Friday's event.
• I think our church was a little disappointed especially since we just had 250 people on Friday night.
• Honestly I was a little disappointed but then I realized if we did our Fall Carnival for just that one family it was totally worth it!!!
• It was so good preaching again.
• It had been two weeks since I had preached so I was SO ready to share God's Word.
• I think I went over board...I preached for over an hour.
• I honestly didn't mean to but I really felt like the message I was sharing needed to be heard.
• After the message we had communion.
• I love having communion with our church it makes me feel closer to everyone and it reminds me how amazing Jesus is.
• Over all it was an fantastic weekend.

Meeting Stephen Baldwin @ Krogers

Tonight I had a really cool experience. I was on my way home from my night job and I was debating on whether to get dog food tonight or tomorrow. I decided to get it now so I pulled into the grocery store near my house to get my pooches some grub. As I was walking toward the dog food aisle I saw this guy standing there and instantly knew who the guy was but I convinced myself that it couldn't be him. So I called my wife and told her that I thought I just saw Stephen Baldwin at Kroger's. At that moment Stephen stepped into the main aisle and it was obvious that it was him.

At that moment I hung up the phone walked up to Stephen and introduce myself. I think I freaked him out alittle. The reality was that I was a little nervous as I was introducing myself. Don't act like you wouldn't have been nervous meeting Stephen Baldwin. Seriously it was a really cool moment, how many times do you meet a person who is influential in the Hollywood and Christian world at the grocery store?

Anyway, I then began to share with him that I pastor a church in Dahlonega Georgia and that we have a large group of skaters in Dahlonega and I was praying how we could impact this ignored and displaced group of students. He then gave me his ministry card and told me to email one of the organizer of the Assalt Tour. The ASSALT TOUR is a completely FREE event that offers the youth a drug free and positive environment to come and see some of today's hottest bands, professional freestyle moto-x, bmx, and skateboarders. The tour also offers amateur skaters the chance to show off their skills to the pros and win cash & prizes!

Can you image if this ministry came to Dahlonega. Countless lives would be changed forever. I'm seriously going to try to make this happen. I have no idea how to make this happen but my bible tells me that nothing is impossible for my God. So DAGer's and Dahlonega get ready because God willing the Assalt Tour is coming. If you want more information about the Assalt Tour check out it here.

Just in case you are reading this post thanks Stephen for listening and introducing me to the Assalt Tour. It would be great to have you and the Assalt Tour in Dahlonega.

Sunday Night Mind Dump

• WOW what an incredible day!
• I am totally exhausted but it was totally worth it.
• I am so proud of our worship team! Every week it gets better and better.
• We had several guest.
• Life has been a little crazy and stressful for many of our folks.
• I really felt today that alot of people had their JOY restored.
• Our guest speaker, Noel Rosa, hit it out of the park this morning and tonight!
• He has this unique way of connecting with every generation.
• He really stressed how important it is for the older generation to pour into the younger generation.
• If you want someone that knows how to jam on the guitar and tell you how it is you have got to invite Noel to you church, school, or events. I promise you won't be disappointed.
• Let me know if you want his info.
• Had lunch at the Smith House in Dahlonega it was amazing!
• It's a little pricey but totally worth it...it's the best country food in north Georgia.
• I was so jacked up about our fall carnival this Friday. It's going to be blast.
• I am so tried...
• Still working on several projects at the church.
• I just ordered our new church sign.
• Our current one was made in the 70's...seriously. It looks pretty bad right now but hopefully we will have our new sign in 5 weeks.
• Pretty excited about our new cafe area. we're currently looking at furniture to complete it.
• I'm think about getting a tap for a rootbeer keg to make rootbeer floats:)
• Just thinking about it:)
• The last couple of weeks I haven't preached so I can't wait to preach next Sunday!!!
• The Sunday before Election Day...it's gonna be interesting.
• Good night!

THIS SUNDAY!!!

Hey just wanted ya'll to know and remind all you DAGer's out there about this Sunday. A couple of days ago I got a call from Noel Rosa. Noel is a award winning singer/song writer/speaker. He is also the designer of a new guitar line series that is storming the music industry. On top of all that he is a passionate follower of Christ. He has travel all over the country performing in front of small and large crowds with a message that communicates to every generation. Long story short he will be at our church this Sunday October 26th at 10:30am service and at our 5:00pm Student Ministry service. Below is a short bio of Noel, I hope to see you on Sunday morning.

With his unique percussive-style of guitar playing Noel Rosa has been amazing audiences around the country. He has won over the hearts of thousands of fans with powerful heartfelt songs, an approachable personality and an exciting stage presence. People of all ages are raving about this incredible performer.

Noel has shared the stage and worked with national and world wide ministries over a 15 year career on both the speaking and music circuit. Noel has opened for such national music names as Audio Adrenaline, Rich Mullins, Pierce Pettis, and many more. He has also worked with Billy Graham’s organization, Benny Hinn, Louise Pallau, Dave Reover and many more.

His strength is approaching the gospel on a parable form, using word pictures to make his messages easily understood for all ages and emphasizing mentorship of the young.

If you love your Senior Pastor...

If you love your Senior Pastor you have got to read this post. Pastor Perry just wrote a great post that I totally agree with and hope everyone at DAG reads it. It's entitled, Seven Things Senior Pastors Want Their Staff To Know–Part One check it out here.

Thoughts about GOLD RUSH

Wow what a crazy weekend. This past weekend Dahlonega hosted their most popular festival of the year Gold Rush Days. What's Gold Rush Days you ask...basically it's a two day festival celebrating the 1828 discovery of gold in Dahlonega Georgia. Historical Dahlonega is the official first site of the US gold rush. Just like any small town festival there are arts and crafts, kiddie rides, and of course a ton of food. Since 1979 Dahlonega Assembly has been selling our world famous funnel cakes at Gold Rush. Okay, maybe they're not world famous...yet but they are Gold Rush famous. Seriously we had people looking for us at Gold Rush because they had to have our funnel cakes. That's crazy!

This year was my first Gold Rush experience and I got to admit I am exhausted! My feet are killing me, my back is hurting, and I'm just physically tried but I had a blast!!! It was so much fun hanging out with our church family for two days. It was amazing seeing how our people rally together to make Gold Rush successful. I had a lot of people telling me it was going to be a lot of hard work and they weren't joking it was hard work but it was totally worth it. In the past the money raised at Gold Rush all went to foreign missions but this year along with global missions we are going to invest into our community (local outreaches and mission projects).

I am so proud of our folks at Dahlonega Assembly of God! DAGer's because of your faithfulness lives will be changed in our community and the world. I am so honored that I get to pastor such an amazing church. Thank you for serving with all of your heart ya'll are amazing!!! I can't wait until next year's Gold Rush!

I did something crazy...

I did something that most pastors would never do...I cancelled a Sunday morning service! I know that's crazy, who in their right mind would give up a perfectly good Sunday service...I would!

A couple of weeks ago I decided to cancel yesterday's morning service. You see this past weekend our community was hosting it's biggest festival of the year Gold Rush Days. In years passed this event would bring in 100,000 people in a community of 17,000 people. Wow...who in their right mind would miss an opportunity to reach 100,000 people in a weekend? Sure most of these folks are just visiting Dahlonega but that shouldn't stop us from trying to connect people to Jesus. My prayer was that in our serving and interacting with people this past weekend that they would see something different in us.

Now before some of you jump on your high horse and tell me that I took away an opportunity from someone to know Jesus by not having a service "at church" let me remind you that most of Jesus' ministry recorded in the Bible happened in the streets, shorelines, fields, hills, marketplaces, in people's homes, oh yea on the cross. Jesus seized every opportunity no matter where He was , even when he was hanging on the cross, to share and show the message of the gospel.

One of the things that really tick me off are Pastors who think the ONLY PLACE that we can teach people about Jesus is in a church building. Just for the record, I believe in establishing a place (church building) for Christ Followers to come together regularly to encourage each other, to worship together, and to grow in the Word. That's why we are investing a lot of resources in updating our facilities right now, but it's stupid for us to think that it's the ONLY place that a person's life can be changed. When that foolishness comes out of our mouth what we are communicating to Christ Followers and disconnected people is that their relationship with Jesus is based on a particular environment and not a 24/7 no matter where you're at growing relationship with Jesus.

Serving people at our funnel cake booth gave us an amazing opportunity to speak into and interact with countless lives. I know there are some of you out there asking if it was worth cancelling a Sunday morning service...my answer is YES! Let me remind you that I am willing to do everything up to sin to reach ONE person for Jesus. I promise you this will not be the last time we cancel a Sunday morning service.

Finally, I am so stinkin' proud of our church! The folks at Dahlonega Assembly did a great job representing Jesus and the Kingdom of Heaven. My wife and I are so blessed to be apart of a church who is willing to take some risk for the sake of reaching just ONE person. DAGer's ya'll are so awesome! Thanks for doing whatever it takes to reach people with the life giving message of Jesus Christ. Love ya'll!!!

Sunday Night Mind Dump

• Wow Sunday was amazing!
• I want to give a quick shout out to everyone on the worship team. You guys did awesome job on Sunday. Thank you for serving with all your heart!
• Our attendance has been weird lately. A little frustrating but God is still in control.
• I was so ready to preach I couldn't wait to get up there and share what the Lord had laid on my heart.
• I'm loving the series that we are on right now it's called Fear Factor.
• We're taking a look at how FEAR keeps us from our full potential as people and especially as Christians.
• check out Sunday's message at our NEW website. Let me know what you think:)
• At the end of my message I asked folks if they had any fears that were keeping them from their maxium potential and if they were ready to face it and take it out to raise their hand...it was so awesome to see people step up and take the challenge and begin to move forward! God is so good.
• I GOT TO BRAG on God for a second. Right now we are in the middle of a lot of projects at our church right now. I mean BIG projects like we just put on a new roof, we just repainted our building, we're doing a ton of painting inside, we just installed a new water filter system, we are about to order a new street sign, we are getting ready to create a new kids church area, we're thinking about doing some work on our parking lot, and the list can go on and on my whole point is that God has been extremely faithful throughout this entire time.
• I am discovering when you are doing exactly what God wants you to do and has called you to do even when it doesn't make sense to you EVERYTHING falls into place.
• Thank you God for being BIGGER than our circumstances and thank you DAGer's for being faithful during this season of transitions. I can't wait to see what God does in the next couple of months.

I ALMOST MISSED IT!

Got to be honest...I've been a little disappointed that I wasn't able to go to the Catalyst Conference this year. Three years ago I went to my first Catalyst Conference and it rocked my world. Since than I haven't been able to attend but this year I was determined to make it and at the last minute my schedule changed. So I was being a little whiny yesterday. The problem is that I almost missed an amazing opportunity yesterday.

I got to hang out with my son all day long! You see my evening work schedule and everything that has been going on at the church has been crazy lately and I haven't been able to hang out with him as much as I would like to. But yesterday during the day it was all about "daddy and the Josiah". After my wife got home from work we got ready and went to Chili's for dinner. On our way to Chili's we drove by the Cumming Fair and my wife mentioned she would love to go and take our son to his first Fair. Honestly...I wasn't in the mood to go to the Fair and walk around and buy over priced funnel cakes and corn dogs so we continued to Chili's.

After dinner we did a little shopping and on our way home I drove by the Fair again and saw my son's and wife's face and I couldn't take it any more so I parked and we went to the Fair. Once again I ALMOST MISSED an opportunity to create a memory with my family. We had a blast at the Fair! It was our son's first fair and it was so funny seeing his face as he took everything in. My wife (the prepared one) had the camera locked and loaded to take pictures and yes we did buy the over priced corn dogs, lemonade, and funnel cakes and they were amazing delicious!!! I also bought my son an overpriced light up toy that he already broke today but it was totally worth seeing his face.

I can't believe it I ALMOST MISSED IT! I almost missed creating this unforgettable memory with my family. I would have love to had been at the Catalyst Conference this year and hopefully I can make it to next years conference but I learned the most important life lesson yesterday...FAMILY FIRST before ministry.

The greatest impact I can make for Jesus on this earth is investing TIME...not just time but "QUALITY TIME" into my family. I realize this statement sounds simplistic and obvious but the problem is that many Pastors MISS THESE KINDS OF MEMORIES because we put "others & church stuff" in front of our families.

Listen I'm all about conferences and leadership training. We have got to invest into ourselves to become better leaders but not at the expense of our families.

Whether you're a pastor or not STOP MISSING OPPORTUNITIES WITH YOUR FAMILY. The greatest leadership lesson I learned this year wasn't at Catalyst while being surrounded by some of the most amazing and creative leaders in America but at the Cumming Country Fair surrounded by my family. Don't miss your opportunity!

thanks for the prayers

I just wanted to thank you for the prayers and calls regarding Josiah. He is doing so much better. DAG you guys are amazing! Believe me when I say that you prayers helped our son and us. This was our first time taking him to the hospital since his birth. So as you can image we were a little overwhelmed. Below is a post that I wrote during the time Josiah was really sick but never had a chance to post it.

The last couple of days have been crazy. A couple of nights ago we had to take our son to the ER at the Children's Hospital in Atlanta. His temp was at 104 and was not coming down at all even after we gave him medicine. They checked out his ears and throat, they found a little redness in his throat but they couldn't determined why he had a high fever. At the end they basically told us that it was a viral infection. We were a little frustrated with the hospital. We felt like we didn't get the attention our son needed. In fact we were discharged and on our way out the room when the nurse came back because they "forgot" to take my son's vitals. We basically paid the hospital to tell us to keep doing what we were already doing. I guess what I am saying is it would have been nice for the folks at the Children's Hospital to show a little more love, patience, and compassion.


Anyway after our long and frustrating night at the ER we finally got home around 1AM. After some medicine and some tossing and turning our little boy finally fell asleep. As you can imagine it was a long night with him. Around 9:30am his doctor called to check on him. We shared with them our experience we had at the ER we shared felt that they did really pin point the issue so they told us to come in so they could check him out. So here we go to the doctors again.

Just so ya'll know Josiah freaks out with anyone wearing a lab coat or scrubs. If your a parent you know the "freak out" cry...they mouth is wide out, nothings coming out, their face is turning red, and they stop breathing. It's kind of funny but it still breaks your heart to see your kid "freak out" like this.

Anyway the nurse comes in the room checks his ears and throat...she notices some redness in his throat and runs a quick test for strep. What do you know...Josiah has strep. So his doctor gave us a prescription for an antibiotic and we pray within the next couple of days he will feel a lot better.

Please keep our little boy in your thoughts and prayers.

Once again thank you for praying for Josiah. It's great to know that we have an amazing support system in place.

please pray

My wife just called me and told me that our son just woke up and burning up with a 104 temp. Apparently he had a really hard day at daycare today. just a little frustrated it seems every time we take him to daycare his gets really sick. I think we are done with daycare this year! Thankfully my in-laws have offered to watch him when we are at work. Thank God for grandparents!!! Seriously please pray for our son Josiah...it's going to be a long night.

Sunday Night Reflections

• We had a great service today!
• Pastor Blake and the worship team did a great job.
• One of my favorite thing about being a Pastor is helping folks discover their potential and watching them use it.
• I am so proud of our girls ministry leaders and girls they had a yard sale yesterday and did a great job.
• Thanks ladies for working hard this weekend. I promise those girls will never forget your commitment.
• Today I preached on one of my favorite topic...dreams!
• I preached about how Caleb never forgot the dream that God gave him.
• At the age of 85 Caleb made it very clear to Joshua that regardless of his age and the obstacles he was ready and willing to walk into his God given dream.
• Too often WE give up on our dreams because of time, inexperience, obstacles, people, or lack of faith.
• The greatest lesson we learn from the life of Caleb is that he believed with all of his heart that if God said it was possible that nothing would stop him from walking into the dream.
• I am looking forward to the next two weeks. I will be taking a much needed speaking sabbatical.
• Next Sunday one of my great friends, Chris Lewis, will be speaking. He and his wife are getting ready to plant a church in Conyers Georgia. Check out his blog here.
• In two weeks we are going to be celebrating our 32 anniversary at DAG. I'm really excited about this weekend.
• It's great to remember the past but it's much more exciting to dream of the future!
• Finally we went to a birthday party this afternoon. I love sharing these life moments with people. It is such an honor for me and my family to share these special moments with our church families. I love pastoring DAG!!!

Great Quote!

“The devil doesn’t care how big your church is - he cares how influential it is.”
- Brian Houston, Pastor, Hillsong Church, Sydney, Australia

I GOT ISSUES

It's been a little hard to blog lately. Life has been interesting in the Trevino household. Even as I write this post I have a ton of things running through my mind. Everything from family issues, work issues, church issues, personal issues, I think ya'll get the idea. I GOT ISSUES!

Honestly...my first reaction to my "issues" is to separate myself from everyone and everything (including blogging) and to find a dark room to hide in. I call this the Elijah syndrome:). The reality is that I will always have "issues" so i can't hide in some dark room. Eventually my "issues" will invade my dark room so the question is how do I deal with my issues...I face them and walk right through them! I know what a simple concept but it's easier said then done.

This past Sunday as I was teaching I asked the question "is God in the desert?". People's responses were all over the board. I quickly realizes that my peps had some issues and they needed some direction. We looked at the Exodus story. I pointed out that every time the people would start to crying about their desert experience God would always remind them that He was with them. When they were hungry He feed them, when they were thirsty He gave them something to drink, when they were being attack, He protected them. When the Israelites faced their issues and walked through them (even when they whined about it) they learned about the faithfulness of God. I am so thankful that God thought this was an important event that He inspired man to write it down so that one day people with issues (like me) can read, examine, and take a closer look and learn how I can face my issues and walk through them.

Today I am reminded that blogging helps me face my issues. I guess it's therapeutic for me. As I blog about my issues I'm able to analyze them. I think far to often we miss out when ever we go through "stuff" and rush right through it so we can move on with life. Which is totally understandable but when we do this we miss critical life lessons that God wants us to face them so we can learn to walk through them with Him. I got issues and I'm okay with it!!!

Expresso Yourself...

One of my favorite places to go and relax is Starbucks. There's something about a coffee shop that puts me at ease. Maybe it's the smell of the coffee being brewed or maybe it's the clam colors of the space or maybe it's the relaxing vibe in the environment. Whether I'm studying, writing a message or having a conversation with someone it seems easier to "expresso" myself. But no trip to Starbucks is complete without having your favorite cup of joe.

Personally, I prefer a tall java chip frap with whip cream. Now one drink I can't do any more is a straight shot of espresso. I discovered that a straight shot of espresso is for the serious coffee drinker. Just a tiny cup of it packs a powerful caffeinated punch. In much the same way, our lives can make a powerful impact on those around us.

This new teaching series promises to caffeinate your life as you understand what it means to “Expresso Yourself” in ways that connect to God and with others. So I hope ya'll join us this Sunday at 10:30am at Dahlonega Assembly of God in Dahlonega Georgia as we learn how to "Expresso Ourself!"

Some thoughts about FFN @ Yahoola

Yesterday afternoon we had our Family Fun Night at Yahoola Park in Dahlonega Georgia. This event has become a highlight for our church. One of the things that I have discovered in my short time at DAG is that the people LOVE to spend time with each other. Seriously the folks at our church love doing life together.

The reality is it's hard making friends. Think about it...with our crazy schedules it becomes more and more difficult to create life long and healthy friendships. If you aren't intentional about making friends it just won't happen. One of my goals at DAG is that we get intentional about creating experiences for people to connect.

For a couple of months we have been anticipation this event because of the long awaited softball rematch between the adults and teenagers. The first time we had our FFN @ Yahoola the teenagers got a brake "cheated":) and beat the adults. It was a crazy game right in the middle of it, it start to pour rain but we kept on playing. So for the last couple of months the teenagers had bragging right but not anymore!!! Last night the adults of DAG were redeemed! After a long and well played game of softball we beat the tar out of the teenagers! The final score was 19 - 18! By the last inning everybody was out for blood:). WE PLAY TO WIN...to honor Jesus of course:)

Here's the thing I love playing softball and I love winning but that reality is that my hope was that people connected. From the looks of it we accomplished our goal that afternoon. Over 60 people showed up and at least half were first time guest! My goal was to remind our people that we are never to busy to invest some time into each other and into the people around us whether we know them or not.

If you are a Pastor and you are not intentionally creating experiences for your people to connect to God and each other start TODAY!

Monday Mind Dump

• WHAT AN INCREDIBLE WEEKEND!!!
• I'm a little sore from the softball game last night but it's totally worth it. We had our monthly family fun night at Yahoola Park in Dahlonega and the adults (aka-senior crizitens) BEAT the teenagers 19-18:) more about this later.
• On Friday and Saturday me, my wife, and several people from our church attened the Georgia Assemblies of God annual Church Ministries Conference in Griffin Georgia .
• It was the best church ministries conference I have ever attended!
• One highlight that's worth mentioning is my wife and I got to spend some much needed time with the people from our church. Friday night we had a blast at IHOP. It was so much fun to hear stories and see a side of them that we have not seen yet.
• The second highlight was that I got to sit in a pastoral round table with the Senior Pastor of First Assembly Griffin Randy Valimont and several other high caliber Pastors from around the state. I truely felt like the mule at the Kentucky Derby.
• I'll share more about the conference later this week when I finish downloading everything I took in.
• yesterday was an AMAZING DAY!
• for a while now I have been singing on the worship team but yesterday I sat back and worshipped from the pews.
• Pastor Blake, Chad, and the rest of the worship team did a great job leading us in worship.
• did I really say yesterday was amazing?
• from the moment that I drove on our church campus I knew God was up to something.
• We had several first time guest yesterday.
• On top of that we had a great attendance.
• Yesterday I spoke about Being Strong.
• We looked at the story of Joshua in Joshua 1:1-9. I said that as Joshua stood at the edge of the Jordan and looked across the river into the unknown he had to BE STRONG to inherit the promises of God.
• People responded very well to the message.
• Several people stood up and declared that they were going to BE STRONG as they move forward in life.
• After the message I shared with our church some strategic and exciting opportunities that were in front of us.
• In the next several weeks we are going to start making some much needed repairs and upgrades to our current facilities.
• Everything from a new roof, a new church sign, painting our building, updating our bathrooms, a new website, creating a new kids ministry area, and much more!
• The next several weeks and months are going to be a exciting around DAG!
• DAGer's thank you so much for being faithful in your giving and serving. Because of your prayers and faithfulness we are going to be able to improvement our current facilities and create a place where people can CONNECT TO GOD, BECOME LIKE JESUS, & INFLUENCE THE WORLD!
• another opportunity that I shared with our church was the opportunity to help establish a Spanish Assembly of God church in Dahlonega. Starting soon we will be having a Spanish church meeting in our building on Tuesday nights and Sunday nights. We are partnering with another Spanish church to make this happen.
• For a while now I have been praying about how we could minister to the hispanic community in Dahlonega and then this opportunity presented itself. All I got to say it has Jesus written all over it! I let you know later when they will begin to have services.
• Sorry about the long mind dump but as you can tell it was a very busy weekend.
• God is so faithful I can't wait to see what He does this Wednesday and next Sunday!!!

Monday Mind Dump

• Yesterday was amazing and encouraging!
• I am so excited about what God is doing in our church and our community.
• Once again I am so proud of our worship team! You guys are unbelievable...thank you so much for stepping up and making it happen every Sunday. I couldn't do Sundays without ya'll.
• Yesterday morning when I was driving up to Dahlonega for church Jesus and I were having a moment and I asked if He could encourage me with some guest and guess what happened...We had some first guest!
• THAT'S MY KING!
• on week 3 of my 6 week series. I'm really excited about this series.
• Yesterday I spoke about hitting the mark in a cultural that encourages sloppy living. We should have it on the website by Wednesday.
• I love our partners in ministry at Dahlonega Assembly!
• Even though we are all relearning and establishing new serving structures every Sunday our partners in ministry serve so faithfully.
• Thank you partners for serve with all of your hearts.
• My youth pastor had our students do a crazy game yesterday...it was hilariously!
• I had a board meeting last night...and it was awesome!
• No joke we had a great meeting!
• DAGer's get ready we have some great opportunities coming our way...what opportunities?
• Show up at church on Sunday morning and you'll find out:)
• Some of the folks and I had a think session for GOLD RUSH. I have never experienced GOLD RUSH but I am getting jacked up about this community event.
• I have a very busy weekend coming up.
• Friday night and Saturday all day we will be in Griffin at the Assemblies of God Church Ministries Conference. I am really excited about all the different session that there will be but I am excited about spending some time with some of our leaders.
• Then next Sunday afternoon we have our Family Fun Night at Yahoola Park in Dahlonega.
• It starts at 5pm with the fried chicken and all the side dishes you can think of and then the game that we have all been waiting for...I heard ESPN is going to be there...(jk) the long awaited PAY BACK game.
• It's goin' get crazy so if ya'll are in Dahlonega feel free to come hang out with us eat some good & FREE food and watch the adults stomp the teenagers:)

GUEST BLOGGER: CASEY GRAHAM

Hey everyone you are about to experience something new on my blog...a guest blogger. Casey Graham, President of ReThink Money, is a new friend that I met several weeks ago. I was in the middle of a finance series when I get this message from a guy that I have never met. He saw a comment that I left on a blog and wanted to get to know me and hear what God was doing in Dahlonega. So I called him back and introduce myself and we started talking about what God was doing in our lives. Somewhere in our conversation I told him I was in the middle of a finance series and then he started to share with me what he does through ReThink Money.

I don't believe in accidents or luck I believe in divine appointments. Casey didn't know this but I had been praying about how I can help our church with their personal finances. Sure I was teaching about money but I wanted to give them more...I wanted to help them take what they heard on Sunday and apply it to their lives the rest of the week. Honestly, I didn't know how to do this but that's were Casey came into the picture.

The Lord sent Casey and ReThink Money at the right time. Casey is the real deal. He wants to help your people become more like Jesus Christ by taking control of their financial futures and having hope for the future. That's exactly what happen at Dahlonega Assembly of God last Saturday. I personally recommend Casey and the team at ReThink Money. The ReThink Money LIVE seminar was fun, simple, and most of all it gave a new sense of HOPE for the future.

Please...please...please...ya'll got me begging and I never beg but this is too important. Don't let your pride, fears, or insecurities as a leader stop you from inviting Casey and ReThink Money to your church. I promise you it will be one of the best decisions you make as a leader.

Okay bloggers it's my honor to introduce to you my new friend Casey Graham. I hope you enjoy his post.

At ReThink Money, we pride ourselves in helping the AVERAGE person with finances. I think we make finances way to complicated sometimes. At ReThink Money we actually frustrate really financially savvy people because they want to teach everybody everything about finances! I have learned that in teaching finances their are four major subjects we have to tackle. In this post I would love to share with you the three subjects and their benefits.

1. Spending

I can't believe I go around the country teaching people to spend less than they make. It seems so simple but it really is so hard. Spending is a spiritual decision. Each time we make a purchase we have made a choice to take God's money and use it for something that will benefit our kingdom or His. At ReThink Money we teach people how to spend less than they make and to leverage their spending for Kingdom impact.

My in-laws went to buy a lake house. As they were in the middle of signing the contract at the real estate agents office they wanted to stop and pray and use this time to ask God to bless the lake house for Kingdom good. As I sat their I was thinking, "This prayer is just to justify this purchase!" I really thought it was a weird and shallow prayer.

A few weeks later one of my best friends and pastor's that I served with was diagnosed with cancer. He lived ten weeks after his diagnosis. Guess where his family stayed during their last few weeks with my friend? THE LAKE HOUSE! They leveraged their kingdom for God's Kingdom. That is very important to teach your people. It isn't bad to own a lot of stuff. It is only bad when we don't see what we own in light of eternity.

Question 1: How are you teaching your church to leverage their purchasing power for God's Kingdom?

Application: You could definitely teach a message series around this idea.

2. Debt

I believe getting out of debt is a great place to start and terrible place to stop! I am starting to see a debt free mentality in some of the churches I work with. HOWEVER, I think this is only the first step in the equation. The reason we become debt free is so we can free up more money to give! Being debt free just to build our kingdom is very empty.

Question 2: How are you helping your church decrease debt in their lives so they can increase generosity? What is your plan for that?

Application: Let ReThink Money teach your people how to become debt free! Email me at cgraham@rethinkmoney.org

3. Generosity

I am not hearing a lot of preachers teach on this subject unless they need money for a specific project. I am NOT AGAINST asking for money for your church for a specific project at all! I am only against it if that is the only time you talk on generosity. I believe that generosity is a lifestyle more than a one time act or commitment. I would like to place a challenge out to all pastors reading this blog. I dare you to challenge your church to be more generous this fall. It is absolutely essential we do this. Why? PEOPLE'S SPIRITUAL LIVES DEPEND ON IT! If you want to know what will stretch people to believe in Jesus, ask them to give their possessions away.

Generosity HAS TO BE TAUGHT on at a higher level.

Question 3: How are you specifically helping people become more generous in God's Kingdom? How is your church becoming more generous in giving more to the poor and needy?

I think you could do a message series on these three subjects and it would be a home run. Remember finances need to stay simple. Let us help you navigate this process! Email me at cgraham@rethinkmoney.org

Monday Mind Dump

• This weekend was crazy but awesome!
• On Saturday morning Casey Graham from ReThink Money came out and did an amazing job teaching some simplistic principles about money and getting out of debt.
• If you or you want to bring someone in to teach on money Casey is the man. We are definitely bringing him back in January or February.
• Sunday morning was stinkin' awesome!
• We had family from out of town come visit this weekend. It was great having them in service.
• Worship was amazing!!!
• You could literally feel the presence of God in the room that morning.
• It was week 2 of my new series. Talked about the WORD of God being our lamp and Jesus the light.
• I challenged our church not to be content with living in the darkness anymore.
• Several people responded to the altar time...I love praying with our folks!
• We started to have full service kids church on Sunday. I heard nothing but great reviews.
• Looking forward to updating our kids area. Praying for some favor with the bank so we can make this happen.
• NGCSU is back in session this week. I praying that we could make some serious impact on the campus.
• We're starting to make plans and preparations for GOLD RUSH in October. If you don't know what GOLD RUSH is I'll blog about it later.
• Looking forward to our Family Fun Night this Sunday. We're meeting at Yahoola Park for a picnic style get together.
• the adults are going to massacre the teenagers in softball this Sunday. You don't want to miss it!

ReThink Money WAS A SUCCESS!

ReThink Money LIVE was a huge success this morning! I got to admit I was a little nervous because I was going to have to "really" take a look at our finances. For some people this isn't a big deal but if you're like me this is a very scary thing. It's not like I'm totally ignorant of our finances but before today I usually felt overwhelmed, confused, and very stupid. The truth is I have always been intimidated by numbers.

As far back as I could remember numbers and I have never been friends. It wasn't until college that I discovered that I had a learning disability. So naturally I milked my learning disability for all it was worth. I did everything in my ability NOT to have to deal with numbers. When I got married I didn't have a problem when my wife started to handle the check book...it worked for me. For years I was content with this arrangement...until today.

Today, I learned that WE can and will get out of debt sooner than we thought! I also learned that I have to be part of the process in order for this to happen. I don't know about you but that turns my crank! Casey Graham from ReThink Money did an amazing job explaining to me, my wife, and our church why we should get out of debt and how to get out of debt. Here's the best part I actually understood what he was saying!!! No joke I almost started to cry because I could understand how to get out of debt.

The other best part of today was I got to see the faces of the folks that were there realizing that there was a light at the end of the tunnel. For most people when you are struggling with debt you feel like you're drowning and that there is no way out of your situation. Not for the DAGer's that were there today! Sure they walked in a little nervous and maybe a little embarrassed but they walked out with their heads held high, a spending plan in their hands, and excited about their debt free future.

Today marks a new day for my household and our church family. We are determined to be debt free so that we can do what God has called us to do in our families, church, community, and the world.

Casey thank you so much for being faithful to the call that God has placed on your life. God used you to bring much needed HOPE in our lives this morning. I can't wait to see and hear how this weekend changed the lives here at Dahlonega Assembly. I pray that we will continue to partner together so lives can continue to be changed at DAG and all of North Georgia!

WORTH EVERY PENNY...

This past weekend I got a subscription to Powerpointsermons.com. I got to tell ya'll I have been totally impressed with these guys. If fact 24 hours after getting my one year subscription online a "real" person called me just to thank me for getting a subscription with them. On top of that he gave me a direct number to reach him just in case if I have any questions or have any trouble. Wow...that's customer service!

In the past I have bought slides from powerpointsermons.com one at a time. After being very satisfied with the graphics I decided to get a one year subscription. At first, I struggled about getting a subscription because of the cost. But the reality is its more cost effective to get a one year subscription than buying them one at a time. Another reason I decided to get a subscription was it saves me a ton of time. I currently work at night so I don't have a lot of time to create slides from scratch and I don't have people, at this time, that are graphic geniuses and can spend time doing this for me so this is a perfect alternative.

Being a bi-vocational Pastor I have to maximise my time. So I am constantly looking for ways to work smarter not harder. While at the same time raising the bar of excellence and never being satisfied with average. Even though my church would love to bring me on full-time they just can't do it right now. So if anyone has an extra $35-$40 thousand that they don't need let me know ASAP! With that said, I wanted to share with ya'll other resources that have been extremely useful to me and our church. Some are FREE while others you have to pay for but like I've discovered sometimes you're going to have to pay to get quality stuff so you can present the gospel in the most effective way. If you have any other resources that you think would be use to me PLEASE let me know. Thanks and I hope ya'll enjoy these resources!

• http://www.powerpointsermons.com/ - powerpoint slides
• http://www.visualrealityonline.com/ - video illustrations & count downs
• http://www.sermonslides.com/ - powerpoint slides
• http://www.sermonspice.com/ - video illustrations, countdowns, background loops
• http://www.sermoncentral.com/ - sermons, illustrations, video illustrations, powerpoint slides...
• http://www.ichurchphoto.com/ - collection of Church related royalty-free images
• http://www.sermonvideos.com/ - video illustrations & countdowns
• http://www.openresources.org/ - powerpoint slides & sermons
• http://www.allthetimeministries.com/ - youth & kids monthly newsletter
• http://www.outreach.com/ - they have it all!
• http://www.churchnerds.com/ - multi-media suppliers
• http://www.bluefishtv.com/ - video resources for all ages and ministries

Monday Mind Dump

• We had a great service yesterday.
• Even though we had some hiccups during our worship time the team kept it together. You guys are amazing!
• Started a new 6 week series called Carrying the Torch.With the Olympics starting this week I thought it would help folks retain more or at less remember a little from Sunday messages.
• I'm really jacked up about our new laser printer that I just bought for the church! I am anal about doing everything with excellence and this new print is going to help us raise the standard in our in house material production. WE'RE TAKING IT TO A NEW LEVEL OF EXCELLENCE!!!
• I don't know if you have ever experience an off day but yesterday was my "off" day. Although everything went well at church I just felt that I was off my game....anyway i just wanted to share that transparent moment with ya'll.
• Had a great lunch on Sunday with some of the amazing peps from my church.
• the A/C got fixed over the weekend so it was nice and cool this Sunday...thank God! There's some work that needs to be done still but as long as it's cool I'm good to go.
• I AM SO PROUD OF MY YOUTH PASTOR AND OUR STUDENTS!!! Word of mouth is differently the most effective way to get your friends to church. Our students are so excited about whats happening on Sunday nights that they were on their phones all afternoon trying to get their friends to show up...and it worked. There was at less 10 first time guest that showed up. I was so excited for our kids and Pastor Blake.
• Here's the part that I love most of these kids weren't regular church kids.
• That's what I'm talking about reaching the unchurched.
• Just got a subscription to Powerpointsermons.com! This is a great resource for churches who don't have graphic people yet. check it out at www.powerpointsermons.com.
• Really excited about next Saturday! Casey Grahams from ReThink Money will be doing a one day seminar at our church. more details to come!
• I'm so jacked up about the new school year! We're planning to impact our schools in a HUMASSIVE way!
• I love pastoring our church and community!

Get Ready DAG ReTHINK MONEY is coming!

Yesterday morning I had the privilege of having a mocha frappuccino with a new friend. Casey Graham is the President of ReThink Money. Casey started ReThink Money because he had a passion to help others learn how to handle the resources God has given them. From the beginning of our conversation it was very clear to me that he was the real deal. Awhile back Casey called me out of the blue because of a comment I left on Shawn's blog. Here's the crazy thing, as we were talking I mentioned that I was in the middle of a financial series at our church. He had no idea I was even teaching about money. I truly believe that God still orchestrates divine appointments.

When I started this series I wanted to do more than just teach about money. Realizing many of our people were struggling financially I wanted to help our people take what they would hear on Sundays and put it into practice on Monday. So I started to look for some kind of tool, but there are so many different programs and "ministries" out there and honestly I was overwhelmed just looking at all the different material but then I get this call from Casey Graham. God's timing is perfect!

The main reason why I decided to team up with Casey and ReThink Money was because he wasn't trying to sell me a program. He genuinely wants our church to experience freedom in their finances. In other words he cares about what I care about. My desire is that our people will get the tools to handle their resources so that they can begin to live the life that Jesus died for.

So on Saturday, August 9th from 8:30am - 12:30pm Casey and ReThink Money will be doing a one day 4 hour seminar at Dahlonega Assembly of God in Dahlonega Georgia. There is a cost for attending the seminar $35 for couples and $25 for singles. The cost covers the resources that everyone will get that morning. Also, Casey mentioned that there will be some pre-work to do before the seminar. I will let you know what exactly you need to do before the 9th.

DAGer's PLEASE make every effort to be there on the 9th. In fact if you have friends that would benefit from this seminar INVITE THEM!!! Personally, I have been inviting people left and right. I want you and the people that you care about to take advantage of this amazing opportunity!!! So get ready DAG because ReThink Money is coming.

Can't Sleep

It's 1:33am and I can't go to sleep. It's crazy how on Sunday we had an amazing service. The worship was great, I felt like I communicated the message very clearly, our attendance was great and we had the best offering since I have arrived. It was one fantastic day! Suddenly two days later the high from Sunday wears off and I'm reminded that life goes on. Bills got to get paid, families are in pain, people are dying and going to hell become they don't know Jesus, and the list goes on and on.

I know this might sound a little weird but it's almost 2am so deal with it. Since we have become Senior Pastors the one think I have really notice is how more sensitive we have become to people's pain. So here I am at 1:59am praying about the finances of the church, praying for the families in our church, and praying for the lost in Lumpkin County and Dahlonega Georgia. As I was sitting here praying and thinking about these things I honesty believe that the Lord used a tv preacher to share Psalms 91 to me. After read this I felt impressed to share this with the blogger world.

So don't blow this off I believe there is someone out there that needed to read this post and Psalm 91 I pray that you are encourage as much as I was when I read it. So read it and go to bed or stop worrying about the stuff your worrying about remember HE is your REFUGE and FORTRESS!

enjoy I'm going to bed...

Psalm 91:1-16
My Refuge and My Fortress 1He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.2I will say to the LORD, "My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust." 3For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence.4He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.5 You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day,6nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday. 7A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.8You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked. 9Because you have made the LORD your dwelling place—the Most High, who is my refuge—10no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent. 11For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.12On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.13You will tread on the lion and the adder; the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot. 14"Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name.15When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him.16With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation."

Sunday Mind Dump

• Today was an amazing day!
• Attendance was great! It seem like everyone is done traveling for the summer and getting ready for school.
• WORSHIP WAS SWEET!!!
• I know I say this every week but I am SO PROUD OF OUR WORSHIP TEAM!
• Thank you guys for practicing hard and serving with all of your hearts.
• We actually had one person leave during our worship time because the music was to loud. I guess we aren't the church for everyone.
• It was hot in the sanctuary today. A/C wasn't working well.
• My wife shared about the ladies brunch yesterday. From the sounds of it they had a blast. I love to hear my wife teach God's word. I can't wait til she teaches on a Sunday morning.
• I ended our How To Be Rich series today. Felt really good about how we ended it.
• I walked on stage wearing my Party City BLING. Huge dollar sign chain with my dollar sign rings on both hands and of course my favor favor massive gold clock. It I can't wait to see how this series effects our church.
• Tomorrow I have a meeting with Casey Graham of ReThink Money. I'm looking forward to meeting him.
• By the end of the service I was burning up! Thank God I was wearing a black t-shirt because I was sweating profusely by the end of the service.
• I later found out that the motor on the A/C unit for the sanctuary burned out. Seriously smoke was literally coming from the motor. Pray that we find an affordable replace.
• One of the highlights for today was that we had the largest offering since i have arrived. I am so jacked up about this not just because it's money but the people of DAG are beginning to see why we exist.
• DAGer's thank you so much for living to give and loving to give. The best is yet to come!
• I love pastoring DAG!!!

Monday Mind Dump

• Yesterday was a great service!
• Attendance was a little low...lots going on this month plus a couple in our church got married yesterday afternoon so everybody's mind was in a different place.
• Laterly though we've seen a rise in teen attendance! I'm pretty jacked up about that!
• Also many of our former students for our last church showed up yesterday. Even one of the parents showed up with them. It was so good to see them. I am so proud of all of them. A couple of them are going to school for full-time ministry! I'm a very proud spiritual daddy!!!
• Once again I am so proud of our worship team. It was a little shakey in the beginning but they pulled it through. Every week I can see the improvement. You guys are amazing!
• Sunday was our second week of "How To Be Rich". I want to give props to Andy Stanley for the title to this series. I totally went in a different direction regarding content put I loved the title. So I borrowed it!:)
• I was so jacked up about all the teenagers on Sunday. When I saw all the teenagers there I sort of tweed the message so it could really impact the students that were there. It's never to early to get a biblical view regarding money.
• I love pastoring DAG!
• Next week I will be ending our series "How To Be Rich". I can't wait til Sunday it's going to be awesome.
• After church I had lunch with our former students. All I got to say is "welcome to Moe's"
• Afterwards I headed to Gainesville for the wedding. My amazing wife played wedding coorinater for the day. I was so proud of my wife!
• Honey you were amazing...thank you so much for jumping in and helping and serving you are my HERO!
• I was so much fun hanging out with our church at the wedding! I think it is so funny how people let loose a little more when they are not at church.
• The wedding was amazing! Matt & Crista I pray that blesses you with many years of joy and love.
• I was so proud of my youth pastor. He performed the ceremony and did an amazing job! You rock Pastor Blake!
• I can't wait to see what Jesus doesn't this week!

Finding your Happy Place!

Earlier this week while I was doing some yard work I discovered something...I found my HAPPY PLACE! I know how could working in the yard be a "happy place"...well, I love a manicured lawn. I love standing back when everything has been trimmed, edged, and cut and enjoying the fruits of my labor. Aside from enjoying the finish product the other thing that I love about yard work is the alone time.

Nobody wants to hang out with me when I mowing my lawn. Maybe it's because of the noise from the mower or the smell of gasoline or maybe it's my outdoor mowing the lawn sweating profusely odor...whatever it is I honestly don't mine the time alone. I have discovered that mowing the lawn is one of my HAPPY PLACES.

What's a happy place you ask...it's a place where no one bothers you, a private sanctuary, a place away from your computer and cell phone, a place where you can gather your thoughts together, a place where you have uninterrupted time with God, finally it's a place away from the craziness of life.

I believe that everyone NEEDS to have a "happy place." Oh my gosh, even Jesus had a "happy place"...don't believe me read Mark 1:35. If Jesus, the Son of God, had to find a happy place how much more do you and I need this special time and place. I discovered two things happen when we spend time in our "happy place"

1. WE'RE REFRESHED. In Mark 1:32-34 we see Jesus doing some serious ministry. He's spending time with alot people, healing folks left & right and kicking some demon butt! I'm pretty sure He was physical exhausted at the end of the day. Jesus realized that the only way He was going to get REFRESHED was He had to go find His "happy place" and spent time with His DAD.
2. WE'RE REALIGNED. In verse 36 we see the disciples are looking for Jesus and when they find Him the tell Him that everyone is looking for Him. I love Jesus' response, "38Jesus replied, "Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come." I believe the time Jesus spent in His "happy place" realigned His priorities. I'm sure Jesus loved healing people but He made it very clear that He came to preach a life giving message.

So let me encourage you to do whatever it takes to find this "happy place" in your life. Whether it's mowing the lawn, in the shower (that's my second happy place), driving your car, in your bedroom, taking a walk, working out, taking a bath, riding your bike, siting at Starbucks, or going to Chili's and enjoying a huge cup of sweet tea with an order of chips and salsa:) where ever it may be make it a daily or weekly practice to go to that place and be REFRESHED AND REALIGNED!

Preach IT Pastor Perry!

Hey DAGer's some of you may remember Pastor Perry from NewSpring Church in Anderson SC. We watched him a couple of Sundays ago during our ONE PRAYER series. I was reading his blog recently and came across a series of post entitled "Pastors/Church Planters BEWARE that totally echos how I feel regarding SEVEN types of persons that try to neuter a church. I will be reposting his post because I believe we could ALL learn from Pastor Perry's and NewSpring's experience.

I was thinking the other day about what I would types of people I would warn a pastor/church planter about–there are seven, here are the first few…

#1 - The “I’m Going To Leave If” Person
Pastors, you are going to have people threaten to leave your church–period. And 999 times out of 1,000 the best thing you can do is let them go. I remember once in the early years being on the telephone for over an hour, begging a young lady in our church not to leave. Why was she wanting to leave? A group of singles had gotten together and forgotten to call her. You are going to have people who don’t like the music, your wife, you talking about your kids, the way you dress, the kind of car you drive, the version of the Bible you use, your hairstyle, your zodiac sign, your staff, and your belief on the end times. You can’t please everyone…and, to be honest, that BOTHERS me! But, reality is, according to Hebrews 13:17 you and I will stand before God one day and be held accountable for how we led the church…and I would much rather a disgruntled person walk out that God’s presence go instead! Don’t ever be held captive by a person who keeps threatening to leave.

#2 - The “Let Me Tell You How Much Money I Have” Person.
Pastors, you’ve GOT to make a choice early - are you going to be motivated by money (thus becoming a prostitute, not a prophet) OR are you going to resign to the fact that Jesus purchased you, thus making you not for sale? I remember early on a guy calling my assistant and demanding that I come to his house for dinner. (Something I just don’t do…explanation later!) He told her where he worked, where he lived (a NICE neighborhood), the kind of car he drove and also told her he wanted to get financially involved in the church…all I had to do was some to his house for dinner. I didn’t go. I don’t play that game. When people begin to dangle money in front of you…it is ALWAYS attached to an agenda.

We have some incredibly generous people at NewSpring Church who give faithfully every single week. In our two campaigns that we’ve done we had a giver once give $1.4 million and another one gave $1 million…and neither of them ever asked me for one second of my time. They gave with a pure heart and with pure motives.

When people threaten to stop giving then that is an issue they will have to work out with God. Don’t let a person who has a lot of $$$ keep you from doing what God has called you to do.
When a person begins telling you how much money they have…trust me, they ultimately desire to either buy you or control you. Don’t let it happen. Tell them you are excited they have money, ask them to give generously, challenge them to be faithful in their giving…but don’t EVER begin to let them dangle money in front of you, thus becoming your source of motivation.

All I got to say is PREACH IT PASTOR PERRY!!!

Sunday Mind Dump: Tuesday EDITION

• We had an amazing service on Sunday morning!
• There were some first time guest. One couple exactly was visiting our church because of this blog...I thought that was totally amazing and funny.
• Our worship team continues to amaze me with their heart to serve. Seriously you guys are SO AMAZING!!! Thank you for stepping up and leading.
• Our prayer time after worship was great. I love praying with our church!
• After prayer I was sharing some thoughts about our Hunger & Thirst night and one of the ladies that was there on Friday night told our church that on Friday night she was late because she was having some serious pain but didn't want to miss it so she still came but some time during that night all the pain she was feeling all day was gone and has not returned since then.
• Jesus is the MAN!
• Started a new series about money on Sunday. I wasn't sure how our folks were going to respond to it but it seems like they were into what I was teaching.
• I know it seems silly to be doing a message series on money in the middle of summer but I believe that our church needed (myself included) to get a grasp on what the Bible says regarding money before the Fall hits.
• Sunday was the first time I taught with a table and stool on the stage. It felt a little weird but it was a nice change. I liked having the option of sitting down and walking around. I'm thinking about making it a permanent thing...
• After service we had a Q & A session with our members regarding some ministries in our church. It was another opportunity for me to share the vision and purpose of our church to our people.
• Overall I believe everybody got a more clear picture of where we are headed and why we exist.
• I'm really getting excited about our kids ministry. We have some big plans for our kids and teenagers. DAGer's say it with me...BIG DREAMS...BIG RISK...BIG FAITH...BIGGER GOD!!!
• I love our church!
• Still making plans to reach North Georgia College and State University or NGCSU for short. If you live in a college town and if you are reaching you college I would love to know how you are doing it. Drop me a comment.
• On Sunday I let our church know that we were going to adopt some foster kids in our community and invest into their lives by buying them school supplies and school clothes. We are teaming up with Family Connections of Lumpkin County to make this happen.
• I still jacked up from our Hunger & Thirst night!
• After church on Sunday we had lunch with one of the amazing families in our church. We had a great time hanging out with this family!
• Overall Sunday was one encouraging day! I can't wait for tomorrow night. I get to hang out with some of the most amazing people in the world.

It was AWESOME!!!

On Friday night at 9:15pm we had our first Hunger & Thirst night. From what I was told we had over 30 people there. I honestly wasn't expecting that many people to show up so when people kept walking through the doors I was so jacked up (excited)! Before we started I shared a quick illustrated devotion. I stacked up a bunch of boxes around the altar area. I said that even though we know that nothing is impossible for God we usually pray prayers that "box" God in. I wanted us to pray BIG! I encouraged our folks to pray humasive (huge/massive) prayers. I told them that we were busting up the boxes we put God in and really believing that nothing is impossible for Him.

After my little devotion we went into worship. I am so proud of our worship team! We just went through some changes and everyone stepped it up to fill in some really big holes. YOU GUYS ARE AMAZING!

Around 10pm we went into prayer. One of my main goals for this night was to unite our people in prayer. I believe when we pray there is literally a shift in our environment/atmosphere. Satan hates when the church prayers. One, because prayer wipes away any kind of division. When you pray with someone it's hard to keep a grudge with that person so prayer doesn't leave a "foothold" for Satan. Two, prayer builds the body up. When a person or church prays and they begin to see the things that they have been praying for in faith begins to happen it BUILDS UP THEIR FAITH. Satan would love the church to stay in a constant state defeat. Praying together builds up the church and each other. Third, when the church prays together it communicates clearly that we are totally depend on God and that we are here to serve Jesus. I'm sure I don't have to explain why satan (God's enemy) hates this.

We prayed for our community, city officials, schools and NGCSU, country, our government, military, families in our community and the surrounding areas, marriages, kids, teenagers. Not only did we pray for our church but we prayed for all the churches in Dahlonega and Lumpkin County. We also prayed for physical healings. We prayed for people thinking about suicide. We prayed for financial breakthroughs. We prayed for people who were hurt by the church and for people that have given up on Jesus.

It was around midnight when the first couple of people started to leave. All thought out night people came and went at the end there were four of left at 6:30am. Got to be honest around the 4-5am mark I was struggling to stay a wake but the four of us left drink a lot of water and encouraged each other. I was so proud of our church I truly believe that the Lord is going to honor the time that we spent together praying. I can't wait to see the affects our prayers had in our church and community. We will definitely be doing another Hunger & Thirst night in the future. Eventually I would love to see a 24 hour prayer team at our church. DAGer's thank you for coming together and seeking God with me and Tami I promise you our prayers were heard and the BEST IS YET TO COME!!!

I would love to hear what you thought of that night and what God is doing in your life since that night. So PLEASE leave me a comment.

I am so HUNGRY

For the last several weeks the Lord has been speaking to me about seeking Him with ALL my heart. It sounds pretty simple but have you ever try to seek Jesus with ALL your heart. As a Pastor you would think that I am constantly seeking Him but the reality is that there are so many things fighting for my time, mind, and heart. My heart's desire is to have less of me and more of Jesus. Psalm 63:1-4 totally describes exactly how I feel.

1 O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
2 I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory.
3 Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you.
4 I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands.

I am so hungry to see God move in my world. I started to read about the men and women in the Bible that were so desperate to see God move in their world. I realize that they all had ONE thing in common...PRAYER and/or FASTING. Every time God moved in a supernatural way it was because people hungered and thirst after Him. In other words they would relentlessly pursue Him with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength.

Well tonight myself and the amazing people at Dahlonega Assembly of God are going to relentlessly pursue God. In a couple of hours we are going to surrender our most valuable commodity, our TIME, and literally seek God ALL NIGHT. God has given us a huge vision for Dahlonega Georgia that before we can begin to move in His vision WE GOT TO SPEND TIME SEEKING HIM. So from 9pm Friday night to 7am Saturday morning we will be at our church praying for our church, families, community, schools and college, missionaries, nation, healings, marriages, and the list goes on. I believe that we are to see God move in our families, church, and community like never before.

Please join for us and with us as we Hunger and Thirst after God tonight.

OUR NEW LOGO!

I just wanted to share with ya'll our new logo. I'm pretty jacked up about our new look! I love the fresh and modern look. I took my time designing our new look. I played around with different concepts, got some feed back, played around with some more concepts, drew up a rough draft then I met up with a pro from The Logo Store. My friend from The Logo Store took what I drew and cleaned it up. The result is what you see here.

Before coming to Dahlonega Assembly I started to studying about the effects of "branding" on churches. It's really sad that there are many churches that believe that branding and marketing has no place in the church. Then complain at the same time that no one is coming to there church. Last December I attended a conference in Las Vegas at The Church of South Las Vegas and heard Phil Cooke speak about marketing/branding in the church. One of the things that he stated was that the church is the worst at marketing it's message. He also spoke about how we over complicate our logos. Churches try to stick every religious symbol into their logos and then expect people to understand what we are about by our logos. The one thing that he said that resonated with me was to KEEP IT SIMPLE. So that was our goal.

This particular look of our logo will be our new church sign outside. I also had different versions of our logo created so we could use in varies ways. Thanks Daniel for taking what I drew up and taking it to the next level. If you are looking to do some printing or need a new logo I personally recommend Daniel from The Logo Store. If you need the information let me know.

Monday Mind Dump

• We had a GREAT service yesterday!
• I am so proud of our worship team. You guys did an amazing job!
• During our prayer time I was lit up! I could feel God's presence in the room and I wanted to soak in it for a while.
• I read Psalms 20 to our church, prayed over some folks, and preached a mini sermon to our church regarding how God was setting us up to reach our community.
• It was an amazing prayer time! Wait until Friday...i'll blog about this later.
• After our prayer time I invited our worship leader with his wife up front and our entire church prayed over them.
• Sunday was their last Sunday with us. Although we are excited for this new season in their life it was sad to see them leave. They have left a huge mark on this church.
• James and Debbie thank you so much for your faithfulness and servants heart. We love ya'll and we will miss you so much.
• After all that worship and prayer we finally got to the Word.
• Sunday we ended the ONE PRAYER series by hearing an amazing sermon from Pastor Perry Noble.
• OH MY GOSH...Lord, make us Dangerous was PERFECT!!!
• Our church loved the message...they loved Pastor Perry. (but I'm not jealous...)
• Pastor Perry thank you for such a timely WORD. You made our church laugh, think, ask questions, and respond to the Word.
• We are definitely going to the next UNLEASH conference.
• Had lunch at Moe's with some amazing folks from our church.
• I love hanging out with the people of our church. I love hearing about what God is doing in their lives and families.
• We started to talk about ways that we can impact our community...I WAS LOVING IT!
• I love watching peoples faces when they start to connect to the new vision of our church.
• I can't wait to see God move our church and our community...it's going to be awesome!

Perry Noble at Dahlonega Assembly of God this weekend!

This weekend ONE PRAYER ends at DAG. I am so happy that we participated in this amazing series. I believe that it gave us a small preview of what God wants to do at Dahlonega Assembly and in Lumpkin County. Throughout this series I was so excited to share with my church some of the men who have become mentors to me (even if they don't know it). The most amazing outcome of this whole series is how 1,625 churches and over 893,075 people came together like never before. I can't wait to hear and see the outcome of this series.

Tomorrow Pastor Perry Noble will be preaching at Dahlonega Assembly of God. He will be sharing his ONE PRAYER for the church, "Lord, make us Dangerous". I'm looking forward to see how our church responds to Pastor Perry and his message. I let you know how it goes tomorrow. DAGer's get ready for another WORD to be preached!

WE WILL NOT BE A STATISTIC!!!

I am still lit up from Sunday's sermon. Pastor Steven preached an amazing message. It had our church listening intently from the beginning and laughing at various times. Especially the story of the crack smoking lesbian. I think some of our folks were caught off guard with the bleach blond hair but whatever it takes. :) Even the title of his message, "Lord, make us Audacious" grabbed our attention. I have watched Pastor Steven's message four times and each time I want to kick satan in the teeth and run though out the streets in Dahlonega telling and showing people the love of Jesus.

Pastor Steven if your reading this post, I personally want to say THANK YOU! Not only did your message inspired me but from the sounds of it, it reignited my church. Because of your message I have determined in my heart, mind, and spirit that WE WILL NOT BE A STATISTIC!!! For a long time people in our community either didn't know that we existed or have under estimated the potential of our church. In fact I believe a lot of our own folks have under estimated our potential. I realize that hundreds of church die every month but WE WON'T BE ONE OF THEM! We WILL make it through the thorny and slippery valley. Sunday's message reminded me to stay focus. I love what the Apostle Paul says in Galatians 1:10;

"For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ."

I think one of the main reasons churches become a statistic is because Pastors allow people to high jack the vision that God has given them. In our attempt to fulfill the vision many of us become people pleasers instead of a servants of Christ. The Apostle Paul makes it very clear that if we are people pleasers we are not servants of Christ.

A servant of Christ refuses to be a statistic! A servant of Christ refuses to be a people pleaser. A servant of Christ refuses to allow anyone high jack the vision God has given him. A servant of Christ refuses to allow the thorns and slippery valleys stop him from dominating their community.

As a servant of Christ I refuse to become a statistic on some form. As a servant of Christ I am determined to do whatever it takes to draw people to Jesus...even if it makes me feel uncomfortable. As a servant of Christ I will do whatever it takes to draw others out from underneath pomegranate trees and join the fight. I don't know if this is the definition of audacity but it sure sounds like it to me. Oh God make Dahlonega Assembly of God AUDACIOUS!

Once again, Pastor Steven thank you for listening to the Holy Spirit and sharing the Word that God put in you.