Sunday Night Mind Dump

• Today was an amazing day!
• We had 8 people become members of DAG!
• Wow...Steven Furtick preached the WORD at DAG this morning!
• At the beginning of the ONE PRAYER series I was a little worried how our church would respond to video sermons but after this morning I can definitely say we will some day be using video technology.
• Just remember DAGer's nothing is impossible of Jesus!!!
• After today's message I am so jacked up!
• We have more family in this week it's been great hanging out with them.
• Had lunch at the Smith House in Dahlonega for the first time. It was a really cool experience. There's a real gold mine underneath the house...very cool. It's a southern style restaurant so be ready to get grub on.
• Went back to the church after lunch and found our Youth Pastor and teenagers practicing for the youth service tonight. It was sounding awesome.
• Afterwards we did a little shopping at the outlet mall in Dawsonville. I bought me some BIG DOG shorts...I'm very sad though I found out that Big Dog is going out of business:(
• All in all it was a great afternoon with the family.
• I can't wait until next Sunday it's going to be AWESOME!

Steven Furtick at Dahlonega Assembly of God this weekend!

I have been loving the ONE PRAYER series! This Sunday will be the third video sermon our church will watch.

On week one I preached the message. My prayer for the church was "Lord, make us Determined." On week two we watch and listen as Pastor Craig Groeschal preached and shared his prayer for the church "Lord, make us ONE." On week three Pastor Benny Perez shared his prayer for the church "Lord, make us Servants."

This Sunday we will be watching Pastor Steven Furtick from Elevation Church. He will be sharing his prayer for the church "Lord, make us Audacious." I can't wait until this Sunday! I have listen to this message a couple of times and every time I hear it I want to rush the gates of hell with a super soaker. DAGer's get ready because this Sunday the Word of God is going to be preached! So I'll see ya'll on Sunday morning at 10:30am.

FRIDAY's TOP 7 - Who's preaching on my iPOD?

I have declared tonight to be catch-up FRIDAY! So here's my new FRIDAY's top 7 list.

1. Pastor Craig Groeshcal from LifeChurch.tv


2. Pastor Jeff Kapusta from Lifepoint Church


3. Pastor Mark Driscoll from Mars Hill Church


4. Pastor Mark Batterson from National Community Church


5. Pastor Andy Stanley from North Point Community Church


6. Pastor Blaine Bartell from Northstar Church


7. Pastor Herbert Copper from People's Church
   

I hope you enjoy this weeks TOP 7. Once again if you listen to anyone that is a great communicator please let me know.

10 Leaders that I would love to meet at Chili's

The last time that I made a Chili's list was in April. Life has been a little crazy lately so I haven't really been able to sit and think about this list. If your new to my Chili's list here's the concept behind this post. I blogged about how I was inspired by Jay Hardwick's blog about 5 Pastors that he would love to meet at Starbucks. I thought to myself although I love my grande mocha frappacino, I really love me some Chili's. So here's my version of Jay's Starbucks list.

1. Ben Arment


2. Bob Franquiz


3. Brian Hunter


4. Carlos Whittaker
   
5. Steven Furtick


6. Tory Farina


7. Troy Shaw


8. Gary Lamb


9. Ed Stetzer
   
10. Jeff Kapusta
    

If you see your name on this list I am totally serious about meeting up with you. If you're ever in the Cumming Georgia or Atlanta area please let me know it would be an honor for me to buy you lunch and talk about ministry.

Camp was Amazing!

Well I didn't make it for lunch but I did make it for dinner! Chicken tenders, white rice, black eye beans, a salad, peach cobbler with ice cream and of course a huge cup of sweet tea. That's totally weird that I can remember the entire menu...but that's goes to show you how great the food is at camp. Anyway, it was great seeing our teenagers having a good time. At dinner one of our teenagers looked at me and asked me if we had church tonight in Dahlonega. I told her that we did. She looked at me a little confused and asked me why I wasn't at church. I told her that I was there to spend the afternoon and evening with them. She said it was awesome that I would skip church for them.

I was reminded at that moment that this generation of teenagers is looking for someone or for that matter anyone to be interested in them. Someone to listen, someone to pray with them, someone to give healthy and godly advise, someone to drop everything for the day and just to be there with them. It's amazing how spending some time people gives you access to their heart. I know that we're all busy (Pastors), I could have spent the day working at the church, which is important since I am part time at this point. But it was more important for me to INVEST time into my Youth Pastor and our teenagers that day. I'm learning everyday that I must prioritize PEOPLE (SOULS) over paperwork. WHAT ARE YOU PRIORITIZING TODAY? Just a thought.

Anyway, like I said dinner was good but oh my gosh the service was amazing! Worship was awesome! There is nothing like worshipping with over 200 teenagers. After worship the Senior Pastor, John Wood, of Christ Chapel @ Sportstowne in Macon Georgia shared a great message. He spoke about "God's Call" in your life. He spoke about the experience the Apostle Paul had when Jesus called him into the ministry.

The best part of the night was definitely the altar time. It was such a privilege praying with our teens. What added to the experience was being surrounded with over 200 teenagers seeking and responding to God's call on their lives. WOW! I can't wait to see how our church is changed and challeneged by this week's Youth Camp. I'll let ya'll know.

I'm headed to youth camp

I decided to go to camp for at least a day. So tomorrow morning I'm headed down to Timberlake Camp in Forsyth Georgia. I can't wait to see how our teenagers are doing. One of the best part of camp other than the services is lunch:). So I'm going to make it down there just in time for lunch. I'll let you know how it goes.

Monday Mind Dump: Tuesday EDITION

• Pastor Benny Perez from The Church of South Las Vegas preached at our church on Sunday. It was awesome! His ONE PRAYER for the church was "Lord, make us Servants".
• My wife and son left Sunday morning with my mom and family to Illinois.
• I hate going to church without my family.
• I am totally missing them right now:(
• Attendance was really low on Sunday morning...I was a little sad because the folks that were out on Sunday missed an incredible message about serving.
• Our worship leader and his wife had a baby boy on Saturday morning...congrats you guys!
• Since he's going to be a little busy with his growing family we had to take care of worship on Sunday morning.
• I am so proud of worship team. you guys did an amazing job on Sunday!
• I even played the bass for one of the songs...and then I got a blister.
• AND it still hurts...the things that I do for Jesus:)
• I announced to our church that on July 11th we are going to have a 24 hr. HUNGER & THIRST NIGHT. more about this later.
• Still prayer for a new worship pastor.
• Hung out with some amazing church folks after church for lunch.
• After lunch I met with my pastoral team to catch up.
• Found out on Sunday afternoon the church van broke down. Which sucks because our teenagers were going to camp on Monday morning.
• Pastor Blake and I came up with plan B on Sunday night so our teens were still able to go to camp for the week.
• I'm so excited for our teenagers and my Youth Pastor. They going to have an amazing time! I'm a little jealous.
• I miss going to youth camp...
• Am still missing my family:(
• Sunday night I went to IHOP in Lawrenceville (international house of prayer).
• It was so awesome! worship lasted 1 hr. & 45 mins. it was intense!!!
• Billy Humphrey spoke about the Glory of God. Which is crazy because the Lord has been speaking to me about His GLORY laterly...oh shoot something fixin' to happen.
• I can't wait to see my family on Wednesday night.

I can't wait until tomorrow...

Tomorrow ONE PRAYER continues at Dahlonega Assembly of God! We will be watching Pastor Benny Perez from The Church of South Las Vegas. Last December I had the opportunity to visit The Church of South Las Vegas and attend an A.R.M. conference (A.R.M. stands for Association of Related Ministries.) The church, the conference, the people, the staff, and of course Pastor Benny rocked my world. Pastor Benny was gracious to schedule me in for a lunch appointment. It was such an honor sitting across this man as he shared with me with God was doing in Vegas through his church and through A.R.M. In fact I was so moved by what God was doing through Pastor Benny and A.R.M. that our church has become partners with Pastor Benny through A.R.M. If you want more information on A.R.M. check out this link.

Anyway like I was saying I can't wait until tomorrow. Pastor Benny's prayer for the church is Lord, make us Servants. DAGer's get ready for the WORD!

thank you catalyst!

I just got done listening to the Catalyst podcast interview with Craig Groeschel, Perry Noble, Mark Batterson, and Steven Furtick. What a great interview! I have always wondered what it would be like talking to one of these men of God on the phone and getting excited about ministry. It was inspiring hearing how ONE PRAYER is changing these guys and their churches.

The part of the interview that really encouraged me was the transparency of each of the guys. For instance, Perry shared how he struggles with connecting with other Pastors in Anderson. How could this encourage me...it reminded me that BIGGER is not always BETTER. Big churches have the same struggles as small churches but just on a bigger scale. Also his transparency allows me to know how to pray for him and NewSpring.

Perry I pray that God gives you favor and wisdom to find ways to connect with every Pastor in Anderson so that thousands more could be added to God's Kingdom.

I could blog about this interview forever but according to Mark's blog tip #3 I'm going to keep it short and sweet. Thank you Catalyst and Craig, Mark, Perry, and Steven for getting a peak into the hearts and minds behind ONE PRAYER and for investing into me and countless others.

If you would like to listen to the interview here's the link.

Midweek Update: Thursday EDITION

Here are a few highlights from my crazy week and some other stuff:

• It's been great having my mom, nephew, and niece visiting this week. I am really missing my dad. He couldn't make it this trip but I'm praying he can make it for Christmas.
• My wife and I took the family to explore the wonders of Dahlonega Georgia yesterday. We had a blast!
• We took them to the Chestatee Wildlife Preserve and to the Consolidated Gold Mine.
• My son is cutting so many teeth right now which of course produces a never ending flow of drool. PRICELESS!
• Wednesday night service was amazing!
• Teaching through Chuck Swindoll's book "Improving your Serve". If you want to grow in your serving you have got to read this book!

Finally I was so proud of our worship team on Wednesday night. At 7pm everyone comes together into the sanctuary for what I call "FIRST DOSE". This is where we sing a couple of worship songs, pray together as a church and pick up our offering and then we break up and go to our ministry areas.

Yesterday my worship leader called me to let me know he wasn't going to make it. So I had to get with my Youth Pastor and several of the teenagers who are learning and developing their musical talents and practiced for 45 minutes. I was really impress with their skills. But when the service started everything hit the fan. Everything was off beat from the first note. I started to freak out a little bit honesty, I started to get embass for them and mad at myself for setting them up to fail but then I turned around and saw the determination and passion in each of them which totally inspired me.

The Lord reminded me that when we are totally determined and passionate about serving Him no matter how off beat our "serving" sounds to us, it will always sound like a master piece to Him.

Pastor Blake and worship team thank you for your determination and passion for serving. You guys are amazing! thank you for letting God use ya'll to speak into my life.

i LOVE my new Bible

I have been thinking about getting a new teaching Bible for a while. I actually have many different version of the Bible in my personal library for study purposes. I currently use a thin line personal NIV Bible for teaching on Sundays. Although it's been a great version I have been looking for a version that is a word for word translation. But like ya'll know other than the KJV there aren't many out there until now! Thanks to Jonathan Herron I discovered the English Standard Version Bible.

Oh my gosh...I love this Bible version! There's finally a Bible that is word for word that you can understand when you read it. So after checking out the website and researching this version I bought my ESV Bible this afternoon. I can't wait to devour it and mark it up. The pic of the ESV Bible on the side is actually the style I bought today. I'm also thinking about buying a box of ESV pew Bibles for our church. Here are some of the folks that are endorsing ESV Bible, Dr. R. C. Sproul, John Piper, Joni Eareckson Tada, James MacDonald, Max Lucado, Dr. Ravi Zacharias, Dr. Robert S. Ricker, John Lindell, Mark Driscoll, and of course Jonathan Herron. Having a list of endorsements like this you got to at less check out the ESV website. I promise you that you will fall in love with this version! Let me know what you think about the ESV Bible.

Monday Mind Dump

• We had a GREAT service yesterday!
• A lot of new faces in the pews...yea we have pews...don't you know that pews are back in...it's retro!
• The worship team did a great job!
• I was a little sad during worship. It's getting closer to the day when my current worship leader and his family are leaving.
• I'm still believing that God is going to send the right person or people to help us with our worship team. If you're that person you need to read this post.
• I am so proud of our landscape crew. These guys are amazing! Dave and Freddy thank you so much for making our church grounds look amazing!
• Celebrated communion for the first time since we have become the Senior Pastors.
• At first I was going to do it at the end of the service but we did it right after worship. It was awesome!
• I preached a Father's day message.
• It was my first message I on preached on Father's day since I have become a dad.
• My mom was in service on Sunday. It was her first time attending a service at our church.
• Got to admit a little nervous but at the end it was an honor having my mom there.
• The best part of the service was that ONE person accepted Christ! Enlarging the Kingdom of God ONE person at a time!
• After church I performed a Wedding! It was awesome!
• It was my first wedding at the church.
• It caught alot of our regulars off guard but they jumped right in to make the ceremony perfect for the couple.
• That's why I love the people at Dahlonega Assembly. They see a need and jump in and fill it. DAGer's ya'll are freakin' amazing!
• Afterwards my wife and I joined the bride and groom and some friends for lunch at Wylie's Cafe in Dahlonega.
• Oh my gosh...I love Pastoring DAG!

family...

Last night around 10:30pm my mom rounded into town. She and my sister drove from Minnesota. Actually my little sister flew from Atlanta to Minneapolis just to drive back with her. If she wouldn't have done that my mom would have not made the trip. Thanks sis you are amazing! Along with my mom and sister was my niece and nephew from Texas. The only person missing from the picture was my dad. He was unable to make the trip down here this time. Anyway I took my mom up to our church in Dahlonega. It was a really cool moment between me and my mom as we dreamed together and talked about what God has done and what He's doing. After the grand tour and the dream session I drove her, nephew, and niece around the humassive city of Dahlonega. All in all it was an awesome morning in Dahlonega. I can't wait until Sunday! It's going to be freakin' awesome!

full house...

It's gonna be a crazy week. We have a lot of family coming in later this week so we are in over drive clean up mode. It's crazy how crazy we get about cleaning before the family comes over? I mean seriously will my family think I'm a pig if my carpets aren't vacuumed or the floors aren't mopped? Probably not. Honestly I don't mine cleaning, I exactly love having everything clean and in order which has been a little hard to do with a one year old in the house. I just think it's kind of fun how crazy we get about cleaning before family comes over. Anyway sorry about going off on that bunny trail like I was saying it's gonna be crazy week.

My in-laws are coming to visit and their bringing my brother in law's kids. Then on Wednesday my mom is driving from Minnesota to visit and she's bringing my sister's kids so by Thursday we'll have a full house. My little boy hasn't met my sister's kids so I really excited for them to meet. I love being surrounded by family so I am totally looking forward to a full house. Also my mom hasn't seen our new church so I'm really excited to show her what God's doing in Dahlonega.

Sunday Night Mind Dump

• my boy was a daddy's boy today. mommy wasn't quite enough today...it was all daddy! all I got to say it's about time!
• Half of our church was gone on vacation. it was weird i think they all got a group rate at Myrtle beach.
• this was our second week of ONE PRAYER.
• Craig Groeschel preached at our church this morning.
• WOW...he did an amazing job!
• it felt so amazing being apart of something worldwide and historic.
• it was the first time ever that our church has ever used technology in this way.
• it seemed like everyone responded well.
• had lunch at Shane's Rib Shack...i love bar-b-Que!!!
• my youth pastor's basketball loss a championship game to a team they beat four other times today...seriously dude I don't want to talk to you til Wednesday:)
• praying for a new Worship Pastor...if you know anyone tell them to read this post.
• praying for some serious financial breakthrough for our church...
• praying about how DAG can impact North Georgia College and State University.
• had a baby shower/farewell party this afternoon of our current worship leader and his family. i hate losing this amazing family. we love you guys a TON!!!
• the former pastor and his wife joined us for the party. it was great having them tonight. they were so excited about the changes we have made.
• still working on some projects at the church. totally rearranged my office this afternoon...thanks Chad for your help.
• I love being the Pastor Dahlonega Assembly!
• the people at DAG are freakin' amazing!!!!
• I can't wait to see what God does in Dahlonega!!!

What a Night...

What a night...we finally had our long awaited date night but it was totally different from how I described it earlier. We went to Red Robin but the wait was way too long for a burger so we went to another restaurant. Afterwards we went to the movies to catch a flix but we walked out because the movie turned out to be filled with stupid/adult humor. The thing that really broke our hearts was that there were a lot of kids watching this movie with their parents and no one else walked out. After we walked out we had to chill out for a second so we headed to DQ. Even though our plans were totally rearranged the best part of the evening was just being with my wife. It was so nice just to be able to sit there and talk about how we can improve our marriage. What an amazing date night can't wait til the next one!

DATE NIGHT!!!

I finally have a Saturday night off from my night job and I am taking my amazing wife out on a date! Got a big night plan we headed to Red Robin for some serious burgers and then we headed over to the movie for a flix and we'll finish the evening off with a stop at our Starbucks. All we're waiting for to start the evening is for the baby sitter to get here. Got to be honest it's been a while since we have had a real date night. Oh I think she here gotta go!

Worship Pastor WANTED for hazardous journey.

Since I started blogging I have never used this outlet to ask for help. I usually share what's on my heart or what God is doing in my world, but tonight I need help. A while back my worship leader came to me and told me that due to his job his last Sunday with us will be July 6th. Got to be honest...the news freaked me out a little bit. I don't have to tell you how important worship is to a church. Worship sets the temperature in the environment so that people can be changed by God's word. Worship prepares our hearts to be transformed for the inside out. Worship in the church prepares us for worshipping in heaven. So in other words worship is HUGE!

So as the Senior Pastor of Dahlonega Assembly this has been on my mind and weighing on my heart because I so desperately want our church to be able to have worship experiences that will always help people CONNECT TO GOD.

Awhile back I was studying for a sermon on PURPOSE and I found this amazing illustration.

"The following ad once appeared in a London newspaper: "Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful." The ad was signed by Sir Ernest Shackleton, Antarctic explorer. Amazingly, the ad drew thousands of respondents, eager to sacrifice everything for the prospect of meaningful adventure."

As I was thinking and praying about the kind of person we need for our team I thought to myself I want the kind of person who can get excited and see purpose in an AD like this.

So this would be my version of a Sir Ernest Shackleton inspiring ad;

"Worship Pastor wanted for hazardous and faith filled journey. Small or no wages in the beginning, potential to be criticized and misunderstood, constantly discovering how to work with little or no resources, guaranteed impact on a church and community."

I realize that is probably the worst way to market an open position in a church. The reality is serving in a church is hard work. It gets messy, it gets personal and it gets crazy. The thing is if you are CALLED to pastor people it doesn't matter how impossible the journey may look. I don't know about you but when the odds are stacked against me that's when I thrive. It's in those moments that I experience another level of God's amazing faithfulness. It's in these moments that I realized that God has instilled in me the ability to see the potential in people and the possibilities in the journey.

So if my "inspiring" ad turned your crank and if you have been called to pastor people while leading them into God's presence through worship I would love to talk with you. Drop me a message or email me at pastorgabe@hotmail.com. I can promise you this, you will have a Senior Pastor and a team of passionate, driven, determined people who will lock arms with you as we help people connect to God, so that they can become like Jesus, so that we can influence Dahlonega Georgia, all of North Georgia and the world.

Lord, Please Make Us Determined!

As ya'll know our church decided to participate in this amazing teaching series ONE PRAYER. In fact we started the series last Sunday. We had an amazing service! You can actually listen to the message at our website http://www.dahlonegaag.com/. I entitled my message "Lord, please make us DETERMINED!" Ever since Easter we have been trying to birth vision, mission, and purpose into our 31 year old church and only because of God's grace and favor we have seen some amazing steps forward. The reality is that the only way that we will fulfill our vision, mission, purpose in Dahlonega Georgia is we must have a DETERMINED mind set.

I believe this is where most Pastors and churches drop the ball. You see, we always start off with the best intentions. We dream the big dreams, teach and preach vision to our churches, we get everyone to the point that they believe nothing is impossible for Jesus and then suddenly "everything hits the fan." Some of the charter members don't agree with the new direction, to many changes, there's not enough money in the budget, you're pushing people to serve too much, the dream is too BIG, and every body's favorite, "we've never done that before." The list can go on and on but my point is that there will always be some kind of excuse or setback and the only way to overcome every one of them is with a DETERMINED mind set.

On Sunday I spoke about the DETERMINATION of "some men" in Luke 5:18-20. These guys carried a full grown paralyzed man on a mat to see Jesus. The bible never says that these men knew or didn't know the man but that they "CAME" carrying him. First of all, what kind of people carry a grown man on a mat to go see another grown man? DETERMINED PEOPLE! Now here's the kicker...when the men got to the place where Jesus was they tried to get the man on the mat next to Jesus but the crowd was to large. So in other words this would have been a perfect excuse for them to tell the guy on the mat, "sorry bubba but there are too many people here, but at least we tried." But remember these guys were DETERMINED "close enough" isn't good enough! Getting "close enough" was not an option. So what did these crazy guys do...they carried the paralyzed man onto the roof, tore a hole in the roof and lowered the paralyzed man right in front of Jesus. WHAT!!! What kind of people tear holes in other people's roof...DETERMINED PEOPLE! These guys knew that if they could get this guy on the mat in front of Jesus that his world would be changed forever.

The DETERMINATION that these men displayed to see ONE life changed gave Jesus a platform to not only change ONE life but an entire community.

Luke 5:24-26
24 So I will prove to you that the Son of Man has the authority on earth to forgive sins.” Then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and go home!”
25 And immediately, as everyone watched, the man jumped up, picked up his mat, and went home praising God. 26 Everyone was gripped with great wonder and awe, and they praised God, exclaiming, “We have seen amazing things today!”

I believe with all of my heart that God is looking for churches and Pastors that are DETERMINED to do whatever it takes to see ONE LIFE CHANGED. Churches that are willing to look crazy, churches that are willing to think outside the box, churches that are willing to tear holes in roofs!

What would the church of Jesus Christ look like if we all prayed "Lord, please make us determined?"

On a personal note, I am DETERMINED to see our church fulfill it's purpose in Dahlonega Georgia. I am DETERMINED to see every person in Lumpkin County reached with the message of Jesus Christ. I am DETERMINED to do everything up to sin to reach every person in our community! I am DETERMINED to see a healthy and thriving church in Dahlonega. DAGer's I pray that this is your prayer for our church because if it's not it's going to get really uncomfortable for you.