Mike Pittman

Friday (Fight Gloves, Stories and a Favorite Band)

by mike p on May 18, 2012 in Acknowledging my A.D.D. is kickin! with 6 Comments

Happy Friday Vertical! I hope that all of you have had a tremendous week! I know that those of you with kidz in testing grades are glad to see Friday – hope that they all did well. Cup of Pike’s Place in hand I have a couple of things I really need to share on this Friday morning:

Sunday is Week One of our new series, “Man vs Woman”. So many are caught in the cycle of fighting IN their marriage instead of fighting FOR it. At VC God is transforming lives and marriages – there is NO MARRIAGE that is beyond God’s ability to heal – NONE!!! I would encourage all of you looking to improve your relationships, married and dating alike, to plug into this series hard. By the way, those who aren’t married shouldn’t feel left out – we have something for everyone. I challenge all of my single friends and attenders of VC: never forget, our life is preparation for what’s next – could some teaching about relationships help you to prepare to be successful in a future relationship? You can get more info about the series HERE
Baptism Video Prep

This weekend is Baptism Weekend at Vertical! Jesus is changing people’s lives all around us! One of the most incredible things that we experience together as a church is the public sharing of people’s faith in Jesus Christ. We do this through baptism and this weekend… All I can say is I can’t believe that God has allowed me to be part of this! Thank you Jesus.
Does the person who SHOULD get your best get it? The song that the band starts the service with is a favorite of mine. It’s also one of those that I am so thankful to Pastor a church like Vertical. I’m not kidding… please be in your seats when the clock hits “0″. DO NOT BE LATE TO SERVICE THIS SUNDAY!!

Helping People Move from Here to There

by mike p on May 17, 2012 in Church Planting, V Teams with 2 Comments

Have you ever been on a people-mover at an airport or an amusement park? It’s a pretty awesome concept (I loved George’s idea on Seinfeld to put them around the city). People get on this moving floor and as the continue to walk they move 3 times as fast as normal. People movers make it easier for people to move from Point A to Point B.

Years ago I realized something about the calling on my life: I am in the people mover business. My job is helping to move people from Spiritual Point A to Spiritual Point B and beyond.

At Vertical Church we have worked really hard in this area. We have systems in place that assist us in those goals (Host Team consisting of Parking, Greeting, VIP (1st time guest), Ushers, Cafe, Prayer Room, First time calls). We want to help them to:

Move from 1 visit to 2. While our ultimate goal is that people enter relationship with Jesus, our immediate goal is to help them string together consecutive visits. I once had a man say to me, “Pastor, I have never been to church 6 weeks in a row in my life.” Now he has – that’s a win to us.
Move from making a private decision to a public decision. When people are sitting under the teaching of God’s word we recognize that the Holy Spirit is at work on that person’s heart and mind. It is so easy for people to make mind decisions that never seem to make it to their heart. It is our job to help them make that transition. We direct everyone who has questions to go by NEXT. NEXT is a table located at the exits staffed with people who are trained to help people take their next step, whatever it may be. We try to make taking a next step easy because we know that actually taking the step isn’t.
Move towards being doers and not just hearers. We teach some pretty heavy stuff and the truth we place before our people can change their lives but only if our people apply what they’ve learned. Hearing preaching doesn’t change our lives – doing something with what we hear changes lives. We will not be changed by preaching osmosis (absorbing teaching that changes us).
Move from death to life. Never misunderstand, what we are involved in is supernatural. God is changing hearts, minds, lives and eternities. We feel it’s our job to help them move from death to life, not just in this world but in the world to come. Eternity is promised by God to those who call upon Him for salvation.

This weekend at Vertical we will baptize people that I have personally prayed for… some for a while. This is real and this is supernatural.We’re in the spiritual people mover business and I thank Jesus for allowing me to be part.

New Series Begins this Sunday!

by mike p on May 16, 2012 in Message Series with 4 Comments

Got your gloves on yet?!?

One of the greatest gifts that God gives us is the love relationship between a man and a woman. It’s also true that the same relationship meant to be our greatest blessing can become one of the hardest to manage. Have you ever wondered where the happiness has gone in your relationship? How can people who made a decision, a vow, to love each other forever literally become enemies?

So many find themselves fighting IN their marriage when they should be fighting FOR their marriage. We want to help you have better relationships in the way that God intended which is why our next series is a biblical relationship series titled “Man vs Woman”. I bet you never knew the bible has so much to say about marriage. I bet you also never knew the bible speaks so frankly about SEX.

And don’t forget: this series will be PG-13. You really need to put your children 5th grade and under in VKidz or you may have some conversations with them about sex that you may not be ready to have.

This is gonna be some good stuff! And to all of my single friends, this series is not just for the married people – I promise, we have something in here for everyone!

Sunday Nite May 20 (Staff Edition)

by mike p on May 14, 2012 in Sunday Nites with No comments

What’s up, everyone?!? I missed being with you all this morning at VC. My family and I were in Myrtle Beach for an annual dance competition that my Madison was competing in. I have not been at my church on Mother’s Day in 5 years due to this competition! We had a great time, Madison killed it. It is SO hard to believe that 10 months ago she had the huge back surgery she did… it was so amazing to see her bring it at that level this weekend. Thank You, Jesus, for Your healing power and for giving her another chance to compete. I recognize that He is not good because she is “back” – He is good because He is good. He is good if Madie never danced again!! The fact that we experienced this is just bonus in our relationship with Him.

Another thing that is good is the fact that God gave me the ability to begin Vertical Church with a staff that brings it hardcore whether I’m there or not! I have strived for years to be the kind of leader that my absence doesn’t mean “b-team Sunday” (grin). As our Pastor to Students and Service Programming tweeted:

Missed my pastor @mikepittman and his fam 2day! Thankful 4 his leadership. BTW when the cats away, the mice do play jk #mothersdayrocked
Rhonda Lovin ‏ @rhondalovin said: Missed our awesome Pastor @mikepittman today! Your excellent leadership was evident in what we saw today at Vertical Church! We love you!

Rhonda, I heard you straight up brought it today!!! I love all of you too – thanks for the shout outs! I asked my staff to share their thoughts on Mother’s Day on here – so here’s what’s on THEIR mind tonight.

Donnie Paschall (Executive/Teaching Pastor)

Had one mom pray to receive Jesus this morning. That always makes for an awesome day.
Had quite a few leaders out this morning but we did not miss a beat. We still brought a spirit of excellence.
The party room for moms was banging! Shout out to Sarah Pittman, Candy Cox and her amazing team.

Jon Lloyd (Worship Arts Pastor)

Rhonda straight up brought the HEAT this morning leading Vertical Worship! So proud of her leadership as she continuously leads people to the throne. We kicked off the service with an acoustic version of Natalie Grant’s “Your Great Name.” Alison nailed that song! It’s so awesome to see new worship leaders being raised up – we are in the midst of an awesome, life-giving God! Rhonda then led us into Elevation Worship’s “Let Your Kingdom Reign,” followed by Planetshakers/Hillsong’s “Healer.”
We had an awesome group of musicians this morning, including Robby on guitar, Chris on bass, and Andrew on drums. I spent the majority of the time on keys today, which is always cool – I have a secret love for playing keyboard!
All I can say is MAKE SURE YOU DON’T MISS THE OPENER NEXT WEEK for Man Vs. Woman! This whole series is going to be filled with some songs that are going to make you say, “Wow – did they just do that song in church?!?” Yep – be there!

Joey Autry (VKidz Min/Connections/Bladen Location Pastor)

Here’s what’s on my mind this evening:

Lebron’s a beast!
Set VKidz attendance record for total attendance and watching leaders in other areas step in to help where needed. Love that we have a ‘WE’ mentality in serving Jesus instead of a ‘ME’ attitude. Awesome to witness servant leadership every week. Our VKidz team knock it out of the park (Josh Hamilton style) every week. Humble to be a part.
Always awesome to speak with someone crossing from death to life. Seeing literally before our eyes a person being broken by His Spirit, restored through His Grace, and experience love from our heavenly Father. Where you can see healing, forgiveness, and restoration in someone’s life will never get old.
There was this overwhelming since of love for one another today. Being portable gives us unique opportunities to be creative and our host teams helped create loving atmosphere today for our mother’s. You could just sense genuine love among families today as we honored an integral part of our families. Proud of our teams for putting together a great experience for some special ladies today.
Excited to see baptism list for next week grow. Really neat to have conversations with people today in between services wanting to take a NEXT step. Pretty cool helping lead people to be passionate about Jesus so they can lead others to Jesus. Still blown away we get to do this!

Joey brought it “Mike P style” (grin)

Brandon Meadows (Student Pastor/Service Programming)

I had the joy of working at the NEXT table after the 11 service, and what a blessing I received by being able to witness the flocks of ppl who took next steps this morning! #multiple baptisms, #biblereading plans #FUZEcamp =)
Record Breaking day in Vkidz!!!
Had 2 great conversations and 1 wonderful prayer opportunity that were sparked by the amazing offering talk and testimony given by Karen Paschall, our Executive Pastor’s wife.
BIG SHOUT OUT to our production and stage design teams for bringing the heat while our media director was enjoying the weekend away with his family. Excited about the new upgrades we are making week to week with our lighting and sound. The next 2 months and beyond promise to make for some incredible/irresistible environments.

Thanks guys – you are great. All of you who read are too! Let us have a Jesus-filled week. Man vs. Woman begins next Sunday!

Being a Mobile Church is not an Excuse

by mike p on May 10, 2012 in Church Planting, Going Vertical, Vision with No comments

I have been a fan of church planting for years and have been so inspired by churches that don’t allow their portable status to be an excuse to not make things next level. At Vertical, being portable is not an excuse but a blessing!! I know that some of you who read me are church planters and I challenge you: don’t let being mobile be used as an excuse to not create excellent, exciting and engaging environments.

By the way, I love our creative team! Here are some of the stages we’ve done in the past year.