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!!!