Our daughter just went on her first girly outing with her mother, and I think I am in for a long 18 plus years…
Filed under: Church Launch Team, Churches we visited, Cinema Church, Creative, Innovative Churches, Photos, church launch
My mind is still spinning from last weeks adventure to Georgia. If you haven’t been reading our blog we went to Georgia to be assessed by ARC (more on that later). The whole assessment was a VERY stressful event. There was one thing that I was extremely excited about. We decided to go to Georgia early so that we could visit Revolution Church in Canton Georgia! They did not disappoint. In fact, it may become a requirement of anyone planning to help lead Cinema Church to take the 1200 mile trip from Connecticut to Canton to check out Revolution Church! Yeah, it was that good!
Things that I loved about Revolution Church:
- Gary Lamb. While he did not speak (bummer was looking forward to that…the fill-in was OK
), he did share his vision for a community project that he and another church are directly involved with. It is no wonder why God’s hand is all over this church. This dude is the real deal! I am really hoping to connect with him big time. - They meet in a movie theater! Quite possibly the best church currently meeting in a movie theater. I loved everything they did, and how they utilized a theater to its full potential.
- I love how involved they are in the community, and how fully focused they are on targeting those far from God. There may be no church in America that is so focused on reaching people.
- They had a ton of signs outside and inside. I believe you can never have too many signs directing people and helping people feel more comfortable. They did a good job with this.
- I really loved how they had the hallway leading to the children’s environments well lit up. This is probably the biggest obstacle to being in a theater. I am probably going to copy exactly what they did to bring light to the walkway leading to the children’s environments.
- Loved their check in process. A really friendly lady walked us to each area that we needed to go. And, maybe most important to us was the “security guard” making sure no one went into the kids area if they didn’t have a child to pick up. Cannot say enough about how that makes parents feel.
- Loved the ushers with lights helping people find their seats. Again huge in a dark movie theater setting.
- Their worship space was out of this world. Again a ton of things that we are just going to copy. I liked the truss holding projectors and lights. Awesome idea. The stage was simple but at the same time very cool.
- I loved what they did with lighting. We are going to have to find a way to connect with their lighting people and learn a ton from them. Definite road trip for all those planning to be involved in our lighting.
- The band sounded great together. Loved how the people were crazy worshiping God. Just another great side effect from seeing people give their lives to Christ and not reaching out and targeting casual Christians.
- Love that this freak and his team were given iPhones. How the crap did he pull that off? We definitely need to connect cause I gotta know how to make that happen!
You are teaching me to slow down
You are teaching me to enjoy the journey
You are teaching me to laugh
You are teaching me to laugh a lot
You are teaching me to laugh with my mouth wide open
You are teaching me to enjoy the little things
You are teaching me to enjoy life
You are teaching me that no matter what I am the most blessed person in the world
Thank you, my little man
Here are some pics of the Tattoo series at LP. Thanks Lauren!
Click to make biggerer
Hope to see ya all here Friday!!!
Well, yesterday was mothers day! Hope that you all had a great day.
Yesterday, as I was going through thousands of photos of the kids for one of Rachel’s gifts, I came across the photos of Aidan and Cameron’s first days. It brought back memories of just how scary those moments were! Literally every single emotion all happening at once. From excitement to shock, from joy to scared, from nervous to anxious…and tons of emotions in between.
Here is what each looked like at just under 1 day old.
That’s Aidan on the left (photo on my lovely Apple computer screen) and Cameron on the right.
Here is Cameron’s first day home!
You did great Rachel, and I know you will continue to be an awesome mom!
Filed under: Church Launch Team, Churches we visited, Photos, church launch
This is the church that hosted the Evolve Church Planters Conference. I loved the conference. Right now my brain is so fried that you will have to wait to hear all about the conference. For now here are some PICS of the church.
Filed under: Churches we visited, Creative, Innovative Churches, Photos, church launch
OK so this church was really just for fun. They are in another atmosphere when it comes to church. It is really a production. And its better than Broadway or the Blue Man Group. I must admit that being here makes me tempted to become a Consumeristic Christian. I would love to go here. I would love to bring my family here.
But, how would that help the lost people in Connecticut? It wouldn’t at all. So, we are going to do our own thing in CT and rock our state. Jill, I know you are giving up a lot but I look forward to you leaving an amazing church to join what God will do in Connecticut.
Filed under: Churches we visited, Creative, Innovative Churches, Photos, church launch
This morning we got to visit Oak Leaf Church. I have been watching this church, from a distance for a while, and I love what they are doing, what they are about, and how they are doing it!
I have to say I was VERY PROUD of our people. Myself, Zak, Donny, and Kyle made the trip to Georgia. We came mainly for a church planters conference, but along the way we checked out some rockin churches. It took us forever to get here, and we got little to no sleep. So, instead of sleeping in on Sunday morning…we got up at 5 am and drove to Oak Leaf to help them set up. Oak Leaf meets in a High School so they have to set up every Sunday and tear down every Sunday.
Because of the lack of sleep I had no idea how we would do. I have to say again I am proud of our guys! Not just for making the sacrifice to be here, but for doing an absolutely amazing job setting up! I think we were def a blessing to their set up team!
Any way the church is almost exactly like I would love our church to be. Things I loved:
- Macs everywhere
- 3 huge screens!!! LOVED THAT
- Clear communication about where to go and where to bring children
- Great worship band – perfect mix, no one was louder than anyone else, no one was great, but they were great together
- Very loud LOVED THAT actually could have been louder
- Children’s areas were off the hook
- I love that they are portable. It takes a huge part of the church people working if there is even going to be church. I love that more than anything.
- Very strategic and organized in everything. No one wandering around wondering what to do. Everyone was on the same page and worked to get it done.
Rachel was trying to leave this morning. I have a lot to get done for our upcoming trip. So, Rachel was taking Aidan with her. He immediately said no, “stay home”. I tried to explain to him that I wasn’t staying home. He said “stay you dad”. This is good stuff. I am loving that my son wants to stay with me. However, after a few minutes reality sets in and we realize we have to start moving. We keep trying and nothing is working. He still wants to stay with dad! This melts my heart and makes me feel good. Until…Rachel says the word…and bam off goes Aidan. What happened? He took off like his life depended on it. Ive been replaced by THIS.
