Sunday Nite (Man Fest 2012 Edition)

I continue to be blown away by what we get to do! You would think that after almost 16 months of doing this I would get used to this. By the way, 16 months?!? Where has the time gone? Regardless, I am SO thankful that we have had the opportunity to be a part of bringing a life-giving, Gospel preaching, joy filled church to our region!

I hope you made it to “Man Fest 2012″ but if you missed it, here’s what you missed:

• Our final week of the “Man vs. Woman” series. This has been a powerful 5 weeks as we have talked about God’s plan for relationships. We closed the series with a message to our single guys titled, “Where My Dog’s At?”
• Why a message to single dudes on Father’s Day? This message was truly a challenge to all men but I hit from the single guy perspective, speaking into their lives about the characteristic of a Godly man.
• I jumped with the question “how many of you, if a person were describing you, would be described as a Godly man?” See, Godly man is not a descriptor that you place on yourself – Godly man is a title that you earn. The term Christian you receive by grace – but the title of Godly man is one that’s placed on you… It’s placed on you when a person looks at you and they see Jesus IN you.
• My goal for the message,I want to share through the scriptures how a Godly man operates in this world. Most guys have no instructions on how to do this!
• I am so thankful for the men that, as a new believer, took me under their wing and set the bar high in my life in what God expected of me as a husband, father and man. Still don’t know that I have achieved the title I long for but I am certainly striving for that. As I said, you don’t assume the title nor can you fake your way into it – It is placed upon you.
• Remember, What seems insignificant to you may be at the center of God’s plan. Ruth was just going to get some food, meets a man, they get married, have a child who was the father of the King of Israel who over 1,000 years later the Messiah, the Savior of the world was born from his bloodline.
• We finished the message with a video from Craven and Lillie Sealey.Craven and Lillie were with us on the very 1st day of VC – they are not your typical Vertical attenders and they love it! They have done something very few people have done – they are nearing 50 years of marriage. What a great way to end the series but with a model of what I hope for everyone of our people – a long, loving, fruitful, Jesus-centered marriage.
• The message is not yet on the app or the website but it is on itunes. http://itun.es/isv4hx
• Outside of the message we had an outstanding service. Brandon Meadows is our service programming director and he killed yesterday. Father’s Day is a tough one for the church. Mother’s Day is one of the high attendance days in the church, Father’s Day is not. It takes a lot of planning and prep to make the day as it should be.
• Brandon truly called in a lot of favors, made bunches of phone calls and created a Father’s Day extravaganza. A Nascar, challenge games for the men to see who is better, biscuits, Harley Davidson’s, classic cars, exotic stuffed animals onstage, Boar and Deer heads, stuffed turkeys and bobcats… yesterday’s set up totally had a testosterone driven feel.
• Shout out to Scottie Jackson for making the cars happen for us yesterday. That dude knocked it out the park!!! Who else can you call and say, “we need a Nascar” and they actually can come through for you?!?
• Hate it if you missed Steve Allen’s sweet Harley. I really thought that someone was giving that to me for Father’s Day (grin).
• Robby Gaddy started up the message with a very applicable song to end our Man vs Woman series, The Georgia Sattellite’s 80′s hit, “Keep Your Hands to Yourself”. I think, given yesterday’s subject, it was quite applicable. Pretty sure he caught people off guard with his lead vocal on that one – not me. I have always known Robby could do that. Growing up as a musician I always looked up to Robby as a musician and a singer. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE seeing him grow more comfortable in his role at Vertical church and seeing growth in him as a worshiping musician every weekend. The way that dude worships Jesus with a guitar is absolutely inspiring.
• Jon, Justin, Robby, Joey and Mike brought a great set yesterday musically that included a new song, “Rise” from Hillsong (Madie and I love this one) and “Aftermath”. 2nd service that song totally slammed me!
• It really was a great day – so much excellence across the place.
• I look forward to a day when dad’s across our region truly feel from their heart that the perfect start to their Father’s Day is to worship with their family at church! That will happen when Godly men inhabit the region. I believe that day is coming.
• Next Sunday we begin our new series about the end times titled, “The End is Near”.

Thank you to everyone who made yesterday a success in all of our areas! I love you all!