2. softball season starts back this upcoming Tuesday night and i’m pretty jacked up about it. we had “practice” last night which reall just constitutes all of us taking turns hitting while everyone else fields. i have a bruise on my hand this morning from catching a ball at first last night. i don’t know who threw it but i didn’t catch it in the pocket like you’re supposed to (obviously). first game is Tuesday night at 8:30.

3. heading out of town tomorrow for a quick day trip. i can’t say anything else about the trip because  you never know who reads your blog. so i’m not going to say any more about my quick one-day trip out of town. check out my twitter tomorrow for updates.

4. FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! this Sunday at Freedom we’re continuing our “Let’s Get it On” series and we’re talking about dealing with conflict in marriage. it should be a great day – especially coming off of the Sex Challenge this week. i expect to see many happy, smiling couples on Sunday morning.

God did incredible things at Unleash last Thursday. to have 3,300 church leaders in one location on one campus worshipping God together was unbelieveable. it pumps me up to see God show off like that at NewSpring and know that’s He’s ready to show off at Freedom too! one of the major things that i learned at Unleash and Blake reminded everyone of Sunday at Freedom, is that our church and every church in America sucks if God doesn’t show up. He’s the reason we have the lights and the video and the sound and the band and the message. if all that stuff happens perfectly and God doesn’t show up, we did it all for nothing. without God, church sucks.

Friday Callie and i had a chance to hang out with some great friends that we really don’t get to see enough. we had the opportunity to go to a real recording studio for the first time with my friend Matt who is in the process of recording an album. it was a bit overwhelming to say the least. just walking in the room and seeing a 64-channel SSL sound board that they had to bring into the room in pieces and put it all together, was unbelievable. 

saturday was truly a relaxing day. we stayed at home for the most part and didn’t leave the house until Saturday night. we had to go to a wedding for a couple that i met at our wedding. other than meeting them that one time, i had no idea who they were. as for the wedding, well, let’s just say it was… interesting. 

sunday kicked butt because God showed up at Freedom. i have never seen our people worship as hard and as passionately as they did yesterday. God has brought some incredible people to Freedom Church and he continues to bring us more people. the passion and excitement that people have on Sunday morning is contagious and gives the staff, the band, and the production team passion and excitement on Sunday morning too. it fires me up so much that i hate that we only have one service right now. our church and the people of our church is so awesome that i hate not being able to have two services on Sunday. 

also, JR issued the Acworth Sex Challenge. i have never seen couples run out of church so fast. this next week is going to be a great week!

this series is going to be awesome. i’ve been trying to find ways to put into practice what i learned during the message yesterday. i learned that even though i think my wife is beautiful and she’s special, i need to tell her she’s beautiful and special to me. i need to take her out and show her off. 

if you want to check out our stage design for this series, head over to Ian’s blog and check out some of the pictures he took yesterday.

this series is going to be incredible!

as a church, we’re getting a lot of new people joining us and partnering with us and it is been absolutely incredible. this past Sunday, we had a Newcomer’s Lunch and had some people sign up to partner with us and be a part of Freedom Groups as well. i got the names of those that wanted to be a part of Freedom Groups and i sent out an email to all of them that explained everything to them. i got a response from one couple – first from the guy, then from the woman the next day. and at the end of the woman’s email, i noticed a strange sentence. it read:

“PS- we really became partners with Freedom to go to the kickin Sparkles party! We can’t wait!”

you see, Freedom Church is throwing an Freedom Partner Only – Partner Appreciation 80’s night at Sparkles Skating Rink next Sunday night, February 22. and even though the main reason for this couple joining our Partner team was so they could go to this event, we’re still going to use them and they are going to receive the blessing that partnering with Freedom brings.

i’m so grateful for all of our partners at Freedom Church – no matter the reason they jumped on board. as Pastor JR says from the stage, “it’s not about what we want from you, it’s what we want for you at Freedom Church”

2. MOVIE REVIEW – The Great Debaters
one of Denzel Washington’s greatest movies. this movie takes place in 1935 in a little town in Texas. Denzel’s character, Tolson, is a debate team coach at an all-black school – Wiley College. He leads and coaches them to an undefeated season against other “Negro” colleges in the state and even a victory over all-white Oklahoma City University on a “neutral” site. the team eventually receives and offer to debate Harvard University in Cambridge, MA. the team is thrown for a loop when the topic of debate is changed on them 48 hours prior to the debate. the little Wiley College team defeats the NCAA Champion Harvard debate team as their coach looks on.

there are a lot of twists and turns and expected scenes in a movie that takes place during segregation in the south so be prepared. don’t worry, i didn’t spoil the movie. you can tell they are going to win. plus, if Denzel is your coach, you’re gonna win. especially if your “coach” is directing the movie.

3. Callie has been making me smoothies for breakfast with our Magic Bullet and i’m loving them! don’t ask me what she puts in there because i’m not real sure. all I know is that it tastes good!

4. Freedom Church is continuing to DOMINATE this Sunday! 10:30am Barber Middle School. AND… Freedom Generation Sunday night at 6:00pm! my main man, Tyler Orr, spoke at my alma mater, Kennesaw Mountain High School at their FCA this morning and I’ve heard it was good. Make sure you get your middle school and high school students out to Barber Middle School this Sunday night for Freedom Generation! it gonna be zoppity!

good news is, we’re taking dad’s old car to my grandfather this weekend. he’s giving dad a little cash for it so i guess it all works out.

2. Callie and i bought tickets to see Jon McLaughlin last night. he’s going to be at Vinyl on January 22 and tickets are only $10. if you like some good singin and a very talented pianist (i like using that word), grab a ticket for this show. seriously, it’s good stuff.

3. Freedom Church continues to DOMINATE this Sunday at Barber Middle School. last week, the band kicked things off with “We Will Rock You” by Queen and this Sunday, they are taking it up another notch. Seriously, you don’t want to miss it!

4. ok, here it is. the moment i’ve been dreading but most of you have been waiting for. today is the first official weigh in for my NYR. this morning, using Callie’s Weight Watchers digital scale, i weighed in at a whopping 222.5 lbs. i unofficially weighed myself last week and i was hovering around 226 lbs so it appears like i’m making progress.

for those of you that don’t remember, my goal is to be a size 36 waist by February 15 and keep going and get down to a 34 in. waist by March 1, 2009. i don’t have a “goal weight” – i just want to weight however much i need to to be able to wear size 34 in pants again.

keep checking back here for more updates as we get closer to March.

to say that it was the best time of worship that Freedom Church has had to date would be an understatement. to feel the energy of the crowd – everybody together for one service again (but not for long) and the music, lights, video, message – it was all good. 2009 is going to be the year of life change, life restoration, and life shifting moments for the people and families in Acworth GA! our prayer is that we stop begging God for table scraps when He’s planning us a FEAST!!

check out some of the pictures from the day that this guy and myself took here.

2. Miami lost their bowl game last Saturday night. oh well, can’t wait until next year!

3. my dad has been out of town since Callie and i came back from our honeymoon. it’s been almost like having a 2nd week of the honeymoon – except for the me having to go to work every morning.

4. Freedom Church moves to Barber Middle School this weekend! tomorrow (Saturday) we’re meeting everyone there at 9:00am to set up church. we’re meeting on Saturday because we need a little extra time to figure out where all our stuff for church goes in the new location. then, we’ll be rocking on Sunday. if you go to Freedom Church or are thinking about coming this Sunday, DO NOT BE LATE!! You do not want to miss the band’s first song. it is going to be incredible.

Freedom Church | 10:30am | Sunday | Barber Middle School

Acworth is about to be dominated!

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