What’s up everybody?!? Sorry for such a late “Sunday” post but just could not get to it before now. After an incredible Sunday and a couple of hours downtime I headed into an incredible monthly leaders meeting and then directly after Donnie and I hit the road for Atlanta (more about that).
I tell you all that to say – here’s what is on my mind regarding services at Vertical Church for May 20, 2012:
Week One of “Man vs Woman”, our new series about relationships. Today’s service did not disappoint.- Donnie brought an excellent, transparent and biblical Word about the subject of sex. Most people, even people who are Christians, have an unbiblical view of sex that was shaped by everything except the bible. This affects our marriage relationship deeply. Mark Driscoll says in his book, [Real Marriage], “Most of the time, a couple enters into a marriage with different views of sex. And even if they agree, rarely do they agree with the Bible. How we are raised, teaching we have had (or not had), and experiences we have accumulated all combine to shape our view of sex.”
- Shout out to all the fellas that leave their underwear in the floor, pretend like it’s not there and then wonder why their wives struggle with feeling close to them. Pick ‘em up fellas!!!
- Bottom line – sex is a gift and God means for it to be great! It is to be shared within the confines of marriage and when treated as the special gift it is brings emotional, spiritual and physical intimacy. I hope you’ll check out the podcast.
- I appreciate his heart and excellent job sharing what we believe God tells us about this most important issue. I can’t wait for my shot at it this Sunday!!!
- I must give a shout out to Kelly Little and Brandon Smith for the “Man vs Woman” stage set. Once again, raising the bar for excellent environments in church. Notice I said church, NOT portable church! These people are doing more in a portable environment than many do anywhere. Don’t allow excuses to define your excellence – take it to another level!
- Also, another environments shout out to Sarah Pittman who designs the Cafe’ environment at Vertical.
Cafe Table Decorations
- Sunday was baptism day and we had the privilege of seeing 14 people share their stories of spiritual death to everlasting life. These stories… so many of them were the epitome of our vision (to help people who don’t like church meet God!) As I stood in that baptism pool with them and watched the stories that they shared via video I just thought over and over, “thank YOU for letting me be a part of this”.
- Once again there were people baptized this weekend who I have personally prayed with and for their salvation. It is a wonderful day to see God answer your prayers and the prayers of families before your eyes!
- I hope that we will be able to post the baptism videos before the end of this work week!
- Oh, and by the way, we had our biggest non-holiday attendance in the history of our church on Sunday!!!! WOO-HOO! YOU GO JESUS!!!!
Took a trip to Atlanta yesterday for a Planting the Gospel Hub Leaders meeting. I AM SO EXCITED TO BE A PART OF PLANTING THE GOSPEL Leadership team. We have an incredible team including our leader David Putman, David Rogers (rocking Valdosta, Ga), Jeff Hickman (representing Upstate SC), @moviepastor Dave Anderson from Alabama and Chad Hunt from Kentucky. Y’all, we have some big things coming up for church planters and pastors later on this year through Planting the Gospel. Whether you are a church planter or are thinking of planting, or your church would like to be involved in planting Gospel Centered churches, I would love to talk to you about Planting the Gospel, our plan to plant 10,000 churches and how you can be part of that.
