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!!!