Re: Engagement

No matter how crazy my life is, no matter how unsure I am of the next step in life, no matter what stuff is happening, the lives of other people keep going on.

 

Friday, May 15, my little bro, Daniel, proposed to his freakin' awesome girlfriend, Leah Casky.  OH, yeah, she said Yes!!! 

 

So, in honor of my brother, I am making a list of why he is awesome:

 

1.  He actually paid for his ring!!  Here's the story.  Our grandma left us one diamond.  Me, being the loving big brother, I took it and used it for when I proposed.  I spent a total of about $500 on a ring that is worth about $5000.   Daniel actually went out, saved a crap load of money, bought a flippin' awesome ring and it's BE-E-A-UTIFUL!!!!  WOW!!

 

2.  He has lived like 5 places since he graduated from high school.  He lived in Africa, West Viriginia, back in Charlotte, Montana, Asheville, Montana, back in Charlotte.  Wow!!  He lived the life, did what he wanted and then decided to sort of settle down.  I'm a little jealous of all the cool stuff he has done in the last 7 or 8 years.  

 

3.  He picked an awesome girl.  Leah is the perfect complement to him.  They are both freakin' crazy, exciting, funny and all kinds of weird.  She is perfect for him.  I've prayed that he would find someone who would complement him the way Tracy complements me.  I would be totally incomplete without Tracy, now that's Daniel and Leah.  SWEET!!!

 

4.  He has good taste in beverages.  I'll leave it at that...fat tire.

 

5.  He's a risk taker

 

6.  He can do anything.  He made Tracy and I a table of like 5 different types of wood - oak, maple, cherry, other stuff.  He can paint.  He's all over the place.  He can do just about anything. 

 

7.  He has really cool goals.  He doesn't see life as a boring job to be had, but an exploration that he has been on for 26 years.

 

8.  He loves Jesus.

 

9.  Tigger, Kentuck Mumbler, etc.

 

10.  He is the only other person in the world who truly understands how weird our parents are!

 

11.  He is crazy loyal, especially to our family.  He's a much better grandson, nephew, son, etc. than me.

 

 

I think I'm going to stop at 11.  I don't have to have a good even number.  I'm just going to stop there.  My brother is my best male friend in this world (only Tracy is closer).  I don't think many people in this world have brothers as good as mine.  He's awesome.  I can't wait for him to be married, have some babies, do awesome things with his life!  

 

So, yeah, he and Leah are engaged.  I'm pumped!  The ring is beautiful (see above).

I'm done.

Re: Emotions

So, apparently, part of being a church planter means that there are going to be UNBELIEVABLE emotional ups and downs.  One morning, I wake up fully confident that Cynergy Church is going to take Holly Springs by storm, that we are going to start a revolution that will multiply across the world as God provides.  The next morning,  I wake up pretty sure that I've done the most stupid thing in the world and we are going to fail, Tracy and I will be poor forever and I'm ready to give up.

I am an emotional guy, probably a little more than most guys, and I tend to wear my emotions on my sleeve just a little bit.  But, the one thing that has remained constant through my emotional ups and downs is the clarity of the calling that God placed on my life to be a part of a church plant that's going to change a town, city, region, state and world.  

So, I'm not quitting, right now.  I knew this wasn't going to be easy.  I'm not sure I was prepared for it to be this hard, but I know that God is going to take care of us.  He's going to provide us with the things we need, he's going to honor our efforts and he's going to accomplish what He has set out to accomplish, with or without us.  

Truth is, I'd rather be on mission for God and be on an emotional roller coaster than to have a lots of money and worldly success but have nothing real to live for.  

Guess that's it for today.

I'm done.

Re: Worried

So, I'm worried.  Here's the deal, I like kids, just not that much.  For the most part, kids tend to get on my nerves.  I don't think this is all that unusual, but there are 2 major problems.  First, Tracy is 4 1/ 2 months pregnant with our first child, who at this point is a boy named Wyatt Grady.  Second, Tracy and I are leading "CynergyKIDS" at Cynergy Church every Sunday night at 6:00pm.  

Truth is, I really do enjoy being around children and I enjoy getting to tell them about the difference that Jesus has made in my life.  I probably enjoy teaching teenagers more, but kids are fun, too.  But, I guess one of my major concerns is that it seems like so few parents are investing real time into raising their children.  They simply give them what keeps them happy and/or quiet and/or occupied.  

Tracy and I sense a strong burdening (is that a real word?) from the Lord to be about raising Godly kids who are secure in who they are, who are respectful of adults and WHO WE ENJOY SPENDING TIME WITH!!  I don't think most parents enjoy spending time with their kids.  

Anyone who reads this (which I know there's only like 2 people, one of them is me), anyways, anyone who reads this and has kids is probably thinking that I'm fooling myself and it will never happen like that.  You're probably thinking, "you just wait, it will change".   Yeah, I've heard it.  But, I've seen families (maybe literally 1 or 2), but I've seen them, who enjoy being together, who don't get wrapped up in dating, where kids don't hate their parents, where parents enjoy time with kids, where Jesus is the center of the family.   I wanna be that.

I'm excited about being a dad, I really am!  I'm excited about raising a son, too.  I can't wait to teach him about the most beautiful woman in the world (whom he will know as Mom, or Mama). I can't wait to sit him down one day and teach him about being a man, to see him taking care of his younger brother(s) and/or sister(s) if the Lord gives us that.  I can't wait to tell him about how Tracy (aka Mom) is way more important to me than him, but outside of Jesus and Mom, nothing else in the world comes even close.  I can't wait to see him take his first step, say his first word, make an eternal commitment to Jesus, do crazy stuff for the kingdom and be an awesome big brother.  And, hopefully, he'll be left handed, just because that's cool.

Geez, this is enough.  I'm freakin' pumped!! Cynergy went well again tonight!  I'm flippin' pumped about what God is going to do!!

I'm done.

WOW!!

The last few weeks have been a blur and we've already had 2 Sunday evening services with Cynergy and we're just a few short days from our 3rd.  

And, all I can say is WOW!! 

Here's the thing, we thought we knew exactly how to do everything!

We didn't.

We thought tons of people would show up and we'd have a mega-church by the 3rd week.  

We won't.

We got this idea that all we had to do was just say we would do things with excellence and everything else would fall in to place.

Didn't happen.

So, I'm ready to quit, right? Umm, heck no!!!

This is the most amazing thing I've ever been able to be a part of.

I am learning that if I want something to happen, I need to make sure it happens.

I am learning that when I say that the core team is here to be the "staff" for Pastor Perry, we need to be the one who hold him up.  When I say that, we really have to do that.  Even within the first few weeks, it's easy for the pastor to get everything thrown at him, we gotta have his back, FO REAL!!

I'm learning that part of doing something for the kingdom of God means that there is going to be a personal investment, there is going to be a personal cost.  If it costs nothing, it's not worth it.  

On top of all that, Tracy and I found out we are having a boy.  Wyatt Grady.  In the midst of all this, WOW!!  God is bringing about 2 of the biggest changes in my life all at the same time!  Wow!!  I want to talk more about fathering a son, hopefully next time. 

WOW!!!!

I'm done.

Re: Cynergy Church

The time is almost here!! We have been praying and planning for this moment for what seems like two years now!  

And, it's getting here faster than we ever imagined.  This Sunday night, we will be having our first public service for Cynergy Church at the Holly Springs School of Dance, located at 136 Oakhall Drive in Holly Springs, NC - at 6:00pm!!  The owner of the studio has been incredibly generous to allow us to use the facilities there for our gathering.

I am so incredibly excited to see how God is going to use Perry and the team from Cynergy to make a crazy big impact on the Holly Springs area.  I really do believe that God is setting each step in front of us.  And, in his timing, he waits just long enough so that we really have to depend on him, not on ourselves.  I have been just blown away by the way that the Lord has provided over the last few weeks and how He has orchestrated each step before we were ever sure how or when we might take that step.

Now, we will turn our attention to putting all of these thoughts and ideas to action.  We are going to hold a church service.  We are going to share with the community what has been in our hearts for an exceedingly long time.  

Thank you, Lord, for the opportunity to serve you!!  

I can't wait to see what He's going to do with Cynergy!

I'm done!

Re: Clarify the Win

I missed a few days because we went to Unleash Conference at NewSpring Church in Anderson, SC.  It was amazing!!  I really can't explain it.  If you ever get a chance, go!!!  I think this years main sessions will be online soon, www.newspring.cc/unleash  Once the videos are online, it will be worth your time to watch them!! 

As I continue to take a look at the 7 principles (from Andy Stanley's 7 practices of effective ministry), today we look at Clarify the Win.

This is such a simple concept and it makes me sick to my stomach that churches, by and large, have simply ignored this idea for the sake of laziness or tradition.

It's simple - ask yourself this question - For our church, what is a win?  A baseball team knows what a win is.  A teacher knows what a win is for her students.  A business knows what a win is.  What is a win for the church?

For Cynergy, we have compressed it down to one simple phrase, A win is....That people would realize that there is more to life through Christ!

So, every ministry, everything we do will have to answer to that.  We will ask, does this ministry, does this series of messages, does this outreach accomplish the win that people would realize that there is more to life through Christ?

If the answer is no, we simply won't do it.  We'll talk more about this tomorrow.  But, one of the ways that this will manifest itself is that we won't do a bunch of programs and ministries to meet the needs and wants of the congregation.  Everything will be about accomplishing the win.  

And, as a member of Cynergy, it won't be about what you can get from the church, but about what you can accomplish for King Jesus through Cynergy Church.

Think about that in your church?  Has your church clarified the win?  Your youth ministry? your children's ministry?  What would happen if the whole group got on board with accomplishing the "win"?  We might actually see hell a little less crowded and heaven a little more!! 

I'm done.

Re: Cynergy Church

I'm gonna take a short break from Ecclesiastes.  We have been meeting with the core team of Cynergy Church and we are spending the next 8 days reading through the 7 principles of effective ministry by Andy Stanley.  What we've done, though, is to take a look at the 7 principles through the lens of the vision and values of Cynergy, and it's turned out to be very interesting.  It's also really helped us to develop a very clear picture of what Cynergy is going to look like.

I know that the 7 principles are not a new concept in churches, Andy Stanley has been developing them and sharing them with leaders for a while now.  But, it's new to us and it's exciting to think about the possibility of approaching church in a simple, straightforward way that keeps us focused on the one thing that's most important - to help people realize that there is more to life through Christ!

One of my worries, though, through this entire process is that we'll have the best plan, the best principles, the most amazing theories for church ever thought up, but we won't be able to deliver.  We won't see anything really happen, it'll be a flop!!  

So, what's the IT factor?  What is IT that actually causes life change.  Of course, the answer is that people realize that there's more to life through Christ and they give their lives over to Him!! 

I tend to be very practical, though, and there are 2 main things that I have given a lot of thought to that can be the IT factor:

1.  Be in the business of people.  We can't put ideas, principles or plans ahead of the people who we are trying to reach.  We must give ourselves to developing relationships, to loving people, and only because of what Christ has done in our lives, not because we want a big church of successful ministry.

2.  We must set a clear vision.  The Bible says in Proverbs - where there is no vision the people perish.  Every human being is looking to be a part of something bigger than themselves.  So, we must set a clear, consistent, powerful and motivating vision of why we're doing this, what we're doing and what we expect to happen.

IT will happen and people will know that there is more to life through Christ!!

I'm done.