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Thank you

Today, I’m in a hotel in Anderson, SC about to head over to the Unleash Conference. Daryl contacted me two days ago and invited me to join the Lifepoint team of about 70 for the trip. What a blessing. I love that another church in our city believes in us enough to have me join them. Thank you Lifepoint!

With our Community Fun Festival happening this Saturday, I did not think I would be able to go. But, I’ve been watching Matthew step up his game leading our incredible staff and volunteers. Our staff said, “GO! We’ve got this!” You know what? They’re right. God has blessed me with an amazing team that is chasing the vision with me.

Thank you Rock Church! Thank you Lifepoint! Thank you Newspring!

I love you guys!

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What’s up?

This several days have been crazy fast and very productive. Let me try and recap for you.

• I have been asked by my good friend, Paige, to help with her American Express Member’s Project. You should go vote now. It’s free and could save the lives of thousands of children. Stay tuned for my little addition to the cause in a day or two.
• Adam’s team dominated on Saturday winning 30-0. Adam ran a 50+ yard touchdown to end the game. Wow!
• Noah’s team did not dominate on Saturday. They played hard but just did not come up with a win. Noah did play much better this week though. I’m proud of him.
• Sunday attendance was down because of Riverfest. I’ve said it a bazillion times that we are not in competition with other churches in Wilmington. We are on the same team. We are up against the world.
• Even with a lower attendance, people experienced God. People raised their hands acknowledging their need to give their lives to Christ.
• We are one week closer to having our sermon videos online.
• Yesterday was a hard message for me. I talked about who Holy Spirit is. I feel the need to help people understand who Holy Spirit is without watering down His power. I feel like it was a success because I delivered what Holy Spirit gave me.
• Next week, I am praying for an encounter with Holy Spirit like ROCK Church has never seen before. It’s going to be incredible. If you have been wondering where we are headed as a church, you want to be here. It will either answer your questions or give you more fodder for your cannon. Either way, you don’t want to miss it! I can’t wait!
• After church, we headed over to the Wilmington Life Chain event. We partnered with a ton of churches in a silent prayer vigil on behalf of the unborn. I love taking our boys and teaching them about this. We had 44 people from ROCK Church show up. Thank you all. I am proud of you!
• Later we had the whole family over for Don’s birthday and grilled burgers. It was a blast.
• About the time I finally relaxed last night, Jeff twittered that he wanted to catch the Steeler’s game. So, I jumped in the car to head across town and hang out. I am glad I did. It was good to hang out with a fellow senior pastor and talk shop and watch the game. Plus, the Steelers won!
• Now, I am wrapping everything up in the office to head out to Atlanta tomorrow for the Catalyst Conference. It’s going to be a great time and I can’t wait.

That’s it for now. Gotta jet. So, what was your weekend like?

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Weekend Recap

• Yesterday, we lost control of our house and stage lighting about 30 minutes before start time. Carolyn was able to get a very basic lighting setup by “Go Time”. But, there was no haze and none of our intelligent spots were able to work.
• I can’t figure out why vendors and manufacturers don’t do a better job of servicing their products. Carolyn has been on the phone with our local vendor and the manufacturer. But the board is still not working. Are you listening LSC? Our lighting board has had problems since the very beginning. Please fix it!
• Even without the haze or intelligent lights worship was awesome! Even though our lighting board may be a thorn in our flesh, God was celebrated in our service.
• We also did our first test of live streaming the video our message over the ‘net. The picture was sub-par and the audio left a lot to be desired. But, IT WORKED! I am so excited about what this means for ROCK Church! Carolyn and her team are incredible. They are already strategizing how to fix all of the issues so we can go live in the next few weeks.
• 4 people raised their hands yesterday to give their lives to Christ! I think that makes 22 over the last 3 Sundays. Thank you, Jesus!
• There were 35 kids in 2xTreme! That many 10-12 year olds in 1 room is a sight to behold. Eric Flore has been doing an amazing job teaching on Creationism. Our oldest son, Gabriel, turns 13 at the end of next month and he was concerned that he would have to leave before Eric finished his series. That’s what I like to hear.
• Today, Kyle Runner starts as the new leader for our Video Production Team. How many are on this team? Counting Kyle, we have 1. I love that Kyle has caught the vision to start. He quit his job to join our team volunteering to develop this new ministry. Big vision attracts visionaries and Kyle is definitely a visionary. Welcome to the team!
• On Saturday, Adam scored another touchdown and pulled several key flags to help his team command a dominating win. Woohoo!
• Noah’s team on the other hand just couldn’t pull it together in their game against the Panthers. Daryl is on the coaching staff of the Panthers and he had the nerve to text me this after the game… “You can’t mess with the favor of God.” OUCH! But, on Saturday, I think he was right.
• Speaking of Daryl, the Lifepoint guys hit it out of the park this weekend. They gave away gas to 250 people as a way to bless the community and let them know about their new move to Ashley High School. Go Lifepoint Go!
• Jennifer and I are gearing up for our trip to Catalyst next week. I can’t wait to see what God does to us while there.
• This week, Matthew celebrates his 2nd anniversary on our staff as our youth pastor. Jen and I had Matthew and his new bride, Jennifer, over Friday night for shrimp and grits. Matthew, I can’t imagine not having you on the team for the last 2 years. Where we are today has been dramatically affected by your vision and commitment. Thank you for believing in the dream.

I’ve typed enough. Stay tuned. There is a lot coming soon. God is up to something huge.

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I’ve been bad, but…

Yes, I know. It’s been too long since I last posted. It’s not that I have not had something to write about. The problem is that I have too many amazing things happening to pick one or fifty to fill you in on. So, I’ll just post some random awesomeness (Gabriel would say) for your enjoyment.

• Jen went back to the doctor about the new cysts that had formed on her ovary again. This was not good. After a lot of talk and prayer, Jen decided that, if the cysts were still there at follow-up visit, she would have the ovary removed. This was not an easy decision for Jen since it was her only, remaining ovary. But, when we went back, the tech performing the ultrasound said, “I don’t understand this, but the cysts are gone!” Yeah, God’s up to something and we can prove it!
• I’m an uncle again! Don & Abbye gave birth to Rylee Lyric this past Saturday! Actually, Abs did most of the work. MAN! Rylee is beautiful! I am so glad I did not have a girl. I would spend all of my money on a little girl and then hurt the first boy that tried to hold her hand.

• One Prayer has been incredible. Check out the lineup of speakers. Week One, Dad kicked us off with, “Lord, Make Us Joyful“. Then we had Craig Groeschel share his prayer, “Make Us One”. Then I taught, “Make Us Selfless“. This past Sunday, Dino Rizzo messed us up with “Make Us Extremely Generous”. This coming Sunday, Dad will finish the series with “Lord, Make Us Your Church”.
• I love that video made it possible to have men like Craig and Dino speak to us. We even grew as a church through this series… IN JUNE! I thought churches were not supposed to grow during the summer. Somebody should have told all of our ROCKERS who are inviting their friends like crazy!
• We are having our annual 4th of July party this Friday. This year, we are dubbing it “Blowing Stuff Up 4 Freedom” and it’s going to be huge! We are actually setting the fireworks to music. You’ll have to see it to believe it. If you live in Wilmington, you are invited. Find out more HERE.
• PC3 had their last services as a portable church this past Sunday. The next time they meet, it will be HERE. I am very excited for them. This move is going to be HUGE for them. GO PC3, GO!
• Jeff and the crew over at Lifepoint had some big news this past Sunday as well. This September, they are moving to Ashley High School. God is up to something HUGE there as well.
• Every day, I drive by Northside Baptist on my way to work. It is fun to watch their new building going up. It is HUGE and it gets me fired up every time I see it. Pastor Kenny Chinn and his team are doing an incredible job leading their church.
• I get to have lunch this week with Pastor Tim Blevins from Life Community Church this week. I’m hearing some amazing stuff about what’s happening there as well. They just kicked off their first weekend with the Angel Food Ministry. This ministry is going to make a huge impact in our city!
• I’ve been loving the music in our weekends recently as David Pray has been leading our teams. The more I get to know him, the more I thank God for joining him to our church for this season. Stay tuned…
• I could blog like this for at least 20, 30… a lot more.
• Needless to say, God is up to some HUGE things around here and I am loving the ride.

So, what’s God doing in your world?

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Posted by Bryan | 2 Comments

An amazing day already

Here is what has happened so far today.

• Our new 10 bay CD duplicator and full color CD printer arrived. Our media center is about to go to a whole new level.
• We made the decision to initiate some major systems changes. Over the next 3 months, we are going to see some significant improvements in how we support our ministries and interact with our church family.
• We had an amazing lunch with Jeff, Daryl, Tiffany, Drew, Brad and Dave from Lifepoint. I love what God is doing through their church. It was cool to see our teams interacting together.
• This comes on the heels of Carolyn and I having coffee yesterday with Mike from PC3.  PC3 has on 10-11 more services until they move into their new building. That’s awesome.
• I made arrangements to do some promotion for a very big announcement coming soon. God is doing something huge at The ROCK. Not in the future. He’s doing it right now.
• Matthew helped Jen out today on the murals going in down the hall. A big part of the hallway is now blue. It’s exciting.  WOOOHOO!
• Connecting with someone later today about some big vision things. If you cannot sense the intensity, your spidey sense is a little off.
• During lunch today, Jeff spoke to our staff (I didn’t give him any forewarning) and it was powerful and right on time for us. I love getting around guys that have big vision and are idiots for God. Thanks for hanging out with us today.
• I gotta get back to work. I can’t play Halo all day like some churches… Hey, somebody just shot me with a rubber band.

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