DAY ONE: 21/21 Challenge

On Sunday I challenged my church and myself to read the bible for the next 21 days for 21 minutes. I"ll share with ya'll the whole 21/21 challenge on a later blog. Anyways during my lunch break I cracked open my bible and began to read in the book of Nehemiah. I read from chapter 1 to chapter 3. I am so jacked up about the 21/21 Challenge. I am anticipating at the end of this challenge God is going to do something supernatural in our church. So until then I thought I would share some highlights with ya'll along the 21 day journey.

• instead of responsing to the destruction of Judah in his own human ability Nehemiah spent days dealing with the loss and (here's the part we miss) looked for direction and a plan from God not himself. Ouch!!!


• it was very clear that Nehemiah loved Judah. when was the last time we wept over our communities?


• God gave Nehemiah favor with the king. this is huge if Nehemiah didn't have divine favor that would have been the end of Nehemiah's story. When we start walking and living in God's plan it will blow our minds how doors, windows, and the garage door all opens at the same time.


• the community (God's people) came together to rebuild the community. this is what I want to see in Dahlonega Georgia.


• Nehemiah ignored the critics. On the way to his purpose Nehemiah was already taking hits from the critics and how did he handle them...he ignored them...NICE!

Monday Mind Dump

Yesterday was awesome! It was my first time preaching on a Sunday morning at our new church. Got to be honest I was a little overwhelmed and a little nervous. It was such a surreal moment for my wife and I. One year ago I resigned from our last church with no idea what God was doing now one year later we were standing in our new church as Senior Pastors! Wow!!! Anyway here are some thoughts about our first Sunday as Senior Pastors.

• My wife and I had a rough start in the morning. Just being honest...
• We made up on the way to church...don't act like you never made up on the way to church!
• Started my first sermon series Building onto the Legacy.
• I LOVE our new church!!!
• I LOVE our new church family!!!
• I have an AMAZING STAFF! Pastor Blake thank you for going the extra mile on Saturday.
• Ms. Jeannie thanks for ALL of your hard work you do for me and the church...YOU ROCK!
• I was really nervous preaching my first sermon as a Senior Pastor.
• I was sweating in places I seriously didn't know I could sweat...
• A little bummed out because my son wasn't feeling good.
• My wife looked HOT!
• We had an incredible time during our Sunday night service!!!
• I love praying with a bunch of people that believe that NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR GOD!
• We ate at this amazing Mexican Resturant in Dahlonega!
• We met this amazing family during lunch who loves Jesus and our community.
• I love saying "our community" I can't wait to see what God is going to do in Dahlonega Georgia.
• Finally, I challenged my church to read the bible for the next 21 day for 21 minutes a day. I tell you more about this later.

Friday's 7 - Who's preaching on my iPOD?

Here's this weeks top seven preachers that are speaking into my life.

1. Pastor Richie Miller from Avalon Church
2. Pastor Matt Fry from C3
3. Pastor Bob Coy from Calvary Chapel Ft. Lauderdale
4. Pastor Vince Antonucci from Forefront Church
5. Pastor Dino Rizzo from Healing Place Church
6. Pastor Craig Groeschel from Lifechurch.tv
7. Pastor Mark Driscoll from Mars Hill Church

Again if you have a favorite preacher that is speaking into your life let me know. As you can tell I love listening to all kind of communicators.

First Staff Meeting...

On Wednesday night I had my first staff meeting. It was awesome! It was great to hang out with the staff and share our heart and vision for Dahlonega Assembly of God. There was so much excitement and anticipation in the room. I'm sure I overwhelmed my staff with all the information and crazy dreams I was sharing with them but the coolest thing was that they were excited about the future. My wife and I are extremely bless to come into a church that already has so many committed leaders and volunteers. DAG'ers you guys are amazing! Thank you for being faithful to our church and people. The party is just getting started! I can't wait to see ya'll on Sunday it's going to be life changing!

First Sunday @ our new Church!

We had our first Easter service at our new church. I didn't know what to expect but all in all it was an amazing service! I didn't speak this morning, the temporary Pastor asked me if he could preach since it was his last Sunday. It was no problem with me, he has faithfully serve Dahlonega Assembly of God since October. I have learned so much from he and wife. Throughout this transition he has been a constant encourager and friend. I can't say enough about the people of Dahlonega Assembly. It was great to see familiar faces there but it was so much fun meeting first time guests. There was so much excitement and anticipation in the atmosphere. The people are so ready to move forward and not only think outside the box but to break the box. I can't wait to see what happens in Dahlonega/Lumpkin County! I know this statement is over used but THE BEST IS YET TO COME!

Friday's 7 - Who's preaching on my iPOD.

Ever since I got my iPOD I have been engulfed in preaching. So I thought I would share with you on Friday the top 7 preachers I'm listening to on my iPOD.

1. Pastor Steven Furtick from Elevation Church
2. Pastor JR Lee from Freedom Church
3. Pastor Judah Smith from Generation Church
4. Pastor Jentezen Franklin from Free Chapel
5. Pastor Perry Noble from Newspring Church
6. Pastor Gary Lamb from Revolution Church
7. Pastor Blaine Bartel from Northstar Church

I'm always looking for some good preaching if you have any preachers you love to listen to please let me know.

WHO WE ARE NOT...

Earlier this afternoon I had lunch with my mentor and former Senior Pastor. We ate at this amazing BBQ joint called Dreamland BBQ. If you are ever in Atlanta you got to check it out! I had this amazing salad. It was a salad covered in chopped pork and saturated in ranch dressing and BBQ sauce...this is how salads should be eaten. Anyway it was great seeing my former Senior Pastor. I got to brag on him for a minute. Several years ago this guy took a huge risk when he asked me to be his Youth Pastor. I had very little ministry experience, in fact I was doing children's ministry at the time when he asked me to work with him. But according to him the Holy Spirit told him to ask me to work with him and the rest is history.

I have many friends in ministry whose first experience in ministry was a horrible one due to the Senior Pastor they worked with but I was truly blessed that God paired me with a man that loved Jesus and saw my potential when I couldn't see it. Sure we had some crazy and difficult moments but we supported each other in public and private. We made it through each crazy moment because we were a TEAM. So it was so great to sit down and talk about the past and dream about the future.

One thing that my Pastor/Mentor said ,regarding vision, that I thought was profound was that as Pastors we are great at writing down who we are and what we are about but we are horrible at writing down WHO WE ARE NOT and WHAT WE ARE NOT ABOUT. He encouraged me to write down these two important statements and put them in a place that will be constantly visible. He told me that there will be moments where people and stuff will try to re-direct the vision of the church which in turn will distract me from my mission and purpose. But if I have written down who we are & what we are about and who we are not & what we are not about I will be able to compare those distracting moments to the vision and stay focused. It's important to know who we are but it also important to know who we are not so we don't waste time, resources, and frustrate our people.

As I start this new journey as a Senior Pastor I thank God for my Pastor/Mentor. Honestly I didn't know what to expect from this lunch meeting today other than having a good meal and a great time but as I was thinking about it last night I read this post that Perry Noble wrote about how to be ready to meet with a mentor that helped me get the best out of my lunch meeting today. Thanks Perry for the post it was a huge help. I also want to thank my Pastor/Mentor Sam for meeting me for lunch and for continually investing into my life. Pastor Sam I am becoming a better Pastor because of your influence. Thanks for everything!

Pics of Dahlonega Assembly of God

Pics of Dahlonega GA

BECOMING a Senior Pastor ONE YEAR LATER...

It's almost been about a month since I have blogged. Honesty, I have wanted to but life has been a little crazy these last several months. Let me bring you up to date. On Sunday March 16 at 12:30pm we received a call that changed our life and ministry forever. One of the Deacons from Dahlonega Assembly of God called to informed us that the church took a veto and vetoed in favor of my wife and I become their new Senior Pastors! To appreciate the magnitude of this announcement I got to take you back ONE YEAR AGO.

Approximately a year ago I was attending my last Easter service at the church I had served as a youth pastor for 4 1/2 years. Months before that Easter service the Lord began to stir our hearts about planting a church that would reach disconnected people and reinspire the connected. Being raised in the church all of my life I have seen these people from both of these groups leave the church and never return.

So for the last year I have been meeting Pastors, visiting churches, and attending conferences that are reaching disconnected people and reinspiring the connected. It has been an amazing journey! I have met so many amazing people and have learned so much in one year. When I started this season of my life I had no idea where this journey was going to lead me and my family...until recently.

When I started this journey I believed that we were going to plant a church so we started to prepare to become church planters. But in December the Lord asked me if I was willing to take something old and make it new. Not having any idea what He was talking about I said yes...I was willing to do anything for Him. So throughout December that seem to be my conversation with God. A few days before Christmas I received a call from a friend of mine that asked me if I was still interested in Pastoring. I told him yes he then started to tell me about a church in Dahlonega Georgia where his dad was temporarily overseeing the church until the church got a new Senior Pastor.

Got to be honest...at first I was not interested in taking over some "old" church. Growing up in church I have seen how ugly these situations can get or maybe it was because I was hanging out with so many church planters who have stated that they would rather plant 10 churches then take some "old" existing church. In the middle of that thought the Lord reminded me that I said yes to taking something "old" and making it new. So I told my friend that I would meet with his dad. Well to make a long story short, after meeting with the temp. Pastor, the church board, and preaching at the church a couple of times last Sunday the congregation at Dahlonega Assembly of God vetoed 100% in favor asking us to be their new Senior Pastors.

It is amazing how in one year life changes. As I think about how one year ago I thought I had a good plan for our future. God reminds me that He doesn't want me to be satisfied with good but wants me to have His GREAT PLAN! I can't wait to see what happens at Dahlonega AG. DAGer's get ready we are going to turn things upside down in Dahlonega and all of North Georgia!