Posted on March 23, 2009 at 11:21 AM in "The Church", Church Planting, Leadership, Mountain Lake Happenings, Multi-Campus Stuff | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Last night, my new friend Greg Surratt said one of the most hilarious, yet truthful things I've heard in a while. While we were sitting outside doing life by a fire, he said: "You know, the church planting world needs more Simon Cowell's".
As soon as he made the statement, I laughed out loud, knew what he meant,and agreed wholeheartedly. What he was saying is that church and ministry leaders who work with potential church planters need to be more honest with these young men and women coming to us with interest in planting a church. Here's what we agreed on and discussed:
Thanks Simon; and Thanks Greg!
Posted on November 19, 2008 at 08:56 AM in "The Church", Church Planting, Multi-Campus Stuff | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
After spending time with Dave and the team from Community Christian Church for two days, I'm so encouraged! We've been a multi-campus church for 10 months now, and we've learned a lot about ourselves as a church during that time! It's been so great to get some outside perspective on clarifying the win for multiple campuses! I have come away convinced that we have done so many things right in our multi-site strategy!
Here are some of the wins for our second campus of Mountain Lake:
Posted on November 06, 2008 at 07:47 AM in Church Planting, Multi-Campus Stuff, WOW | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Today I get to hang out with a couple of my heroes and good friends: Dave Ferguson and Jon Ferguson, as Mountain Lake hosts Newthing Network's Multi-site Practicum. Can't wait to learn from you Dave and Jon! We welcome churches from all across America and hope we're able to show you some Southern (and even better, Mountain Lake) hospitality!
Posted on November 03, 2008 at 05:34 AM in Church Planting, Multi-Campus Stuff, Personal Notes | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Posted on October 27, 2008 at 05:29 PM in "The Church", Church Planting, Leadership, Multi-Campus Stuff | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Just so you know, we don't take lightly a decision to cancel worship services here at MLC. There are so many factors we take into account:
By the way, every time most churches cancel services,their offerings take a BIG HIT that week. Regardless of what you might think, most people don't "make up their tithe the next week" when they've been out for various reasons. Thank God we have so many people at MLC who are committed to honor God in their giving, whether they miss a week or not! This is a GREAT REASON to utilize online giving. It allows us to be consistent in our giving even when we miss a week at church. I know I can count on you this week and next week to be faithful and to keep the mission strong here at MLC! See you next weekend!
Posted on January 20, 2008 at 09:07 AM in "The Church", Church Planting, Leadership, Mountain Lake Happenings, Multi-Campus Stuff | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Well, we did it! Today we were one church, on two different campuses...And it all worked!Both campuses rocked! I had the opportunity to teach Saturday Night at our N. Forsyth Campus, and today for both of our "Sneak Preview" Worship Services at W. Forsyth High School. Two Bands; Two guys, Rodney and I, both communicating the same message...and it worked... BEAUTIFULLY! I believe God actually used what we said!
Here's the most amazing part: this first W. Forsyth PREVIEW service was not even publicized. It was intended to be a "practice" service for our core...and nearly 300 people showed up! Un-believable! You guys are amazing! Your service and generosity to make all of this happen almost leave me in a stupor! You amaze me! Hats off above all, to Chad Ward, one of my best friends in the world, my fellow Elder, and now Campus Pastor! Chad, you constantly amaze me! I'm not a perfect leader, but I was batting .1000 when I picked you to help me start this church eight years ago! Fantastic job today!
Posted on December 09, 2007 at 03:59 PM in Mountain Lake Happenings, Multi-Campus Stuff, WOW | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
December is going to be an AWESOME MONTH around here! There are going to be SO MANY GREAT THINGS GOING ON that will impact our lives and our church, for some time! Here are some of the things happening this month:
Dec 1-2: We are starting our new message series MIRACLES this weekend! AGAIN, this series is going to be SO encouraging this Holiday season! Who are you going to invite to be here this weekend?
Dec. 7: We will hold our "WOW It's Christmas" Banquet for those who committed to give financially to our WOW Initiative, which God is using to impact our community and our world!
Dec. 9: We hold our FIRST PREVIEW WORSHIP SERVICE for our West Forsyth Campus on this day. Two worship services: 9:30 & 11:00!
Dec 12: Wednesday Night Live. You don;t want to miss this Christmas themed Wednesday Night Live. We're hoping there will be a Pastor video, and some incredibly BIG ministry updates on the construction of our new Worship Auditorium.
Dec. 23-24-25: Our Christmas weekend services! Our theme this year: "A Community Christmas" Worship Times: Saturday 4:30 & 5:45; Sunday 9:30 & 11:00; and MONDAY (Christmas Eve) @ 4PM.
Dec 24: Our FIRST PUBLIC WORSHIP SERVICE at our West Forsyth Campus!
Dec 29-30: THE LAST TIME OUR CHURCH WILL EVER BE LIMITED TO ONE CAMPUS! (Did I just say that?)
Posted on November 27, 2007 at 07:46 AM in Church Planting, Mountain Lake Happenings, Multi-Campus Stuff, WOW | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
I'm writing this post today, because my blog is read by HUNDREDS of pastors all over the world. And I want to get the word out as far as possible. God has begun a Revolution in our church! He is ALREADY using us mightily, but things are about to take off at a fever pitch!
As many of you know, MLC is getting ready to launch a new campus at West Forsyth High School. Our vision is to launch an additional campus every 12-18 months. ALL of these campuses will offer live, rotating teaching pastors, and rotating worship leaders, just like our present campus does! We envision facilitating ministry on at least 5 different campuses 10 years from now! WOW! This is an enormous, overwhelming opportunity, but also an overwhelming task!
SO...the greatest task of all in this campus revolution movement is raising up and recruiting leaders from all over America who will feel called of God to be part of the incredible vision GOD has given us! So let me tell you AGAIN what MLC will CONSTANTLY be looking for over the next several years:
Teaching Pastors: We will be looking for Pastors who have a STRONG gift of communicating to the unchurched. No warning: these pastors won't just sit around and dream up sermons all the time...These guys will wear multiple hats of leadership on our team over the years and depending on the need. However, we are going to need an arsenal of Pastors who have the gift of TEACHING. If that describes you at all, send an email to me. Send me some biographical info on yourself, and send me a CD or preferably a DVD of your teaching. Don't send me questions. There's no way I could answer them. You're either interested in doing something crazy, or you're not!
Worship Leaders: We are also looking for an arsenal of young worship leaders who can be part of of an incredible Creative Arts Team and lead worship for our various campuses. You will have an amazing opportunity to work with a PROVEN, TOP SHELF Worship Pastor in Todd Nichols who has a passion to help young worship leaders grow as people of God, as well as Worship Leaders. If you are interested in this, drop Todd a line.
If ANY of what I have said today sparks YOUR interest, could it be that God is speaking to you and asking you to consider doing something CRAZY? Why not test the waters? Look forward to hearing from you...
Posted on November 19, 2007 at 06:51 AM in "The Church", Church Planting, Mountain Lake Happenings, Multi-Campus Stuff, WOW | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)



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