God has been doing an incredible work in the lives of many at Greenbrier Church!  More and more people are trusting Christ here!  Marriages are being rescued.  Lives are being flipped. Just a few weeks ago, we baptized 15, and we already have more that are needing to be baptized! God is moving among us, and this is just the beginning!

This Sunday will be a very special time at Greenbrier Church as we conclude our “DOMINATE“ series! You will want to be a part of this! As well, i cannot encourage you enough to keep praying for the “three” God has put on your heart to INVOLVE – INVEST – INVITE!  Wouldn’t it be amazing for you to see them be a part of our next “Dive-In”…and be baptized…because YOU were God’s instrument in their lives…in them trusting Christ as Savior!  It can happen!  It WILL happen…if you take the risk!

“When Marriage Stinks” (www.whenmarriagestinks.com) launches NEXT Week (Oct. 11th)!  Over four months in the development, i believe it will be one incredible series for our married and single body, and an excellent tool…an AWESOME opportunity for you to leverage as you INVITE disconnected friends!

Ok, I am excited!!…and going on an on!
Dudes, i am pumped about My Jesus and His work in this Church!
…and i want you and i to be there…bringing as many to Jesus as we can!
I love you in my Jesus and Praise God i get to be your pastor!
-Live reckless for my Jesus!

What does a movie title “Drag You To Hell!” and Pre-school children have in common?

It is INCREDIBLE being a church meeting in a Movie Theater!  I love that God allows Greenbrier Church to intersect with culture and Connect the Disconnected in such a cool place!  In that, it was too stinking funny a few Sunday mornings back as i was walking through the Theater halls to meet and pray with our “Brier Patch CREW” (pre-school servant team). Right before i entered the “Brier Patch” environment, i noticed the theaters on both sides of the halls had marquis promoting the movie being shown inside. One side of the hall: “Angels & Demons”; the other side of the hall; “Drag you to Hell”.  It get’s even better:  The marqui outside theater we use for our 3 & 4 yr olds; “Land Of The Lost”.  Dudes, i was laughing my head off…and praying at the same time…for all the parents we have dropping off their precious cargo. Can you imagine being a “Guest”, walking down the hall to drop off your precious baby for the first time, being given directions by “Host Team;” “Glad you are here!  Just take your child past “Drag you to Hell” and “Angels & Demons” and drop them off in “Land Of The Lost”!  So glad you are trusting your child in our care! (He he he he/snicker/snicker).”  Ha!  Fortunately, our awesome Host Team escorts guests to their environments and are great at laughing off those awkward moments.

The two HUGE messages that God hit me square in the face with:

1. Those Movie titles and themes are a real, “In your face” subliminal message of what the world holds…Without Christ! (John 3:18-19)

2. Even more, what awesome HOPE My Jesus offers through this church – Greenbrier, through HIS Church, to the parents and the children  …at this same Movie Theater!   How cool is that!! (John 3:16-17)

We must leverage all we have to lead this world to the only true hope there is…to Connect the Disconnected with JESUS!( Romans 10:9-10,13-14)

-Live reckless for my Jesus!

Pastoring the incredible Greenbrier Church can be a challenge (just being real), but more often that not, it is HUGE adrenaline rush and blessing!  I would not want to be anywhere else doing anything else (Thanks God!)!  That said, what happened yesterday…Once again, God showed off!

-Our band led in some incredible worship!  The texts, personal comments and phone calls about it have rolled in!

-Shane (our Student & Community Pastor) laid out a powerful message of what God has called us to reflect!  (JESUS!)  Look out when we grab hold of that truth!

-NewPassion Church launched and God blessed in some great ways!  I snuck over there during second service, and was pumped with what God was doing with Nick Carnes and company!

-15 adults, students and children were baptized at the lake yesterday evening!!  Praise God!!  HUGE!  It was one celebration!

-Churchwide Picnic – we had 30 RSVP, yet over 100 came out and celebrated those being baptized!  What a party!

Folks, what God is doing now could and should only be the beginning!   Jesus, with all the authority of God, called us to “GO” and make disciples (Matthew 28). Let’s do this thing and watch Him draw people to His fame!

CHURCH PLANTERS…

We all have an element of pride in our troops…those who serve Jesus Christ in our church!  If you are portable, i’m pretty certain you value them even more!  At Greenbrier Church, all of our incredible servant volunteers are called “CREW”, but we count the “Set-Up & Break-down” CREW as our warriors.  All of our CREW are awesome, but these guys arrive before the sun is up,  set-up our church campus (items packed in a 24′ trailer, a 24′ U-Haul box truck and a 14′ box truck) in one hour or less.  After services are over, they break-down the entire campus (staging in two environments, lighting, pipe-n-drape, Krispy Kreme boxes..wait – that’s where they are disappearing to!)…the ENTIRE Church Campus and load it back in our vehicles in…30 minutes..or Less!  Since we meet in a Movie Theater, our time rental window is small, and our warriors make sure we honorGod & our contract.  HUGE!

This past Sunday, what i believed about this CREW was confirmed.  We have one BAD Set-Up/Break-Down Team!  I would put them up against ANY Church CREW out there!

Why?

1. They do not move any equipment in or out of the Theater without praying together! Almost as much as me, they own the vision and want to see Greenbrier Church be a part of  “Connecting The Disconnected with Jesus”!

2. Reasons listed above: setting up enough equipment in a Theater to fill a huge house…then loading it back up in less than 30 minutes. Whew!!  …And most of them do this weekly.

3. Did i mention they are falling in love with Jesus and have servant hearts!

4. They catch and tackle wife abusers. Yep, this past Sunday after campus was set-up and the band was rehearsing, Set-Up CREW headed out for a quick breakfast together. In a parking lot across from the Evans 14 Cinemas, a woman was on the ground and her husband was on top of her, beating her up.  Our warriors, who had just unloaded ALL of our equipment, raced over to the scene.  As i have been told, the man (excuse me…) the “WIMP” who was beating his wife took off running.  Our guys chased him about 200 yards and caught him.  This man is alive and did not have his face beat in only because: 1.) our MEN (in a truer sense of the word) love Jesus and will not waste the God given skin on their knuckles on someone like this 2.) the wimp cried like a baby when he was caught  3.) Jesus loves him even still and will hopefully save his wimpy soul (Dudes, do not judge me. If i were there, juiced on caffeine and running on Jesus adrenaline prepped to preach twice as i was, he may have been dragged on stage as a sermon illustration: “This is a pummeled face…only God could love”.)

The police arrived…and the action was over. Though i heard the wife did not want to press charges, hopefully she wakes up from her “spouse abuse” mentality and gets away from him until he gets help.

Yes…these dudes are BAD!  In fact, this morning, i found myself reading in 2 Samuel 23:8-39 – David & His Mighty Men. Whatever David put in front of them, they did every bit of it… and more…to serve their king.  Our Greenbrier warriors, over and over, whatever has been put in front of them (as with all our CREW), they do it…and more…to serve the King Of Kings – My Jesus Christ!

Dudes i am blessed as a pastor, and even more so as a servant of Jesus among some awesome, BAD, Jesus freaks servants. Every last one of them goes to battle with me weekly!  I’m proud of ‘em…and i’ll put them up against your team any day.  Bring It On!

…and live reckless for my Jesus!

I used to follow “LOST” weekly…but then i got lost with the plot.  Then again, was there ever…or …ummmm…is there…or…uhhh… will there ever be a plot?!?  (…i am so lost with the time travel component of LOST.)

Face it, time travel would help make sense of all the junk in life. Yeah, right!   Actually, i’m realizing that getting older and learning to abandon all to Jesus Christ is what works ( i have sooo far to go!), but time travel just sounds cool…and so much easier!  I think of the “stock” i would NOT have bought; the vacation i WOULD have taken with my family; the call(s) i COULD have made…before “it” happened; the marriage(s) that SHOULD have been saved…if only i had _____; the people that WOULD know the power of Jesus Christ in my life if i had just responded differently.

Instead, i have held back, i have walked through some key battles licking my wounds, i have been rejected (see The “No!” Box) and felt like it is more important to vent to anyone/everyone, rather than trust God with my future.  Yep!  Even planting a church…being a pastor of one incredible body called Greenbrier, it happens.  The hurtful and hateful things people have said and done (often unintentional…but it is easier to hold a grudge if you think them spiteful) has given me “opportunity” to reflect a perfect Savior! A Savior who would endure brutal beating and, dying on a cross, say; “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34) ; of those who had butchered Him.  It makes me sick to know that when God gives me a shot, i do not always honor that divine opportunity to display His power!

In John 9, Jesus pulls a seemingly random blind beggar (blind from birth) into the spotlight, and makes a powerful statement: “”but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life“.  That simple statement has gotten under my skin! This man could have been born with sight, but God allowed this to happen so that at this moment in time, THE WORK OF GOD MIGHT BE DISPLAYED IN HIS LIFE.  Like a LOST finale, for me God has been unraveling some layers of trials past and exposing my futile need to make sense of it all at the time.  Whether hurt or rejected or simply having things go completely opposite of how “I” think they should go (God forbid), …it is ALL to display the Work of  God!   My response to every trial, every rejection, every great and stinking situation is an opportunity…that the work of God might be displayed in (my) life!

I have a long ways to go, but i am learning (Uhg!).  How about you?

-That this world may know we have an incredible Savior, it’s time to cut loose from our LOSTness, our excuses, our need to have all the answers NOW… and boldly display the Work of God in my/your life!

-Live reckless for my Jesus!

Let’s get real!  At one point or another you have been “rejected”.  Whether it was years ago in kindergarten, and you passed a note to “her” (that first girl, other than “mom”, who caught your attention), and she checked the “No!” box …or yesterday at a bank, applying for a loan.  Most of us have a pretty good grasp of rejection.  Unfortunately, some are unhealthy enough to carry a mental list (worse yet: an actual/physical list) with them, of all the rejections they have experienced.  There is no greater prison!

As a church planter, i know the word well.  When we first launched “Greenbrier”, any time a family left the church for any reason (even moving to China…or Ohio), i felt like the “R” in my name (my middle initial) meant “rejected”.  I had to fight the pitty party voice and turn off the volume.  Perry Noble (my stunt double & pastor of NewSpring Church) has a humorous but so accurate way of putting it for churchianity. (my paraphrase) “Don’t work to close the “back door” of the church and stop people from leaving that are convinced they don’t belong there. If the church is the “body” of Christ…what happens when you shut the back door of your body?!  Not good!”"  ANYONE who leaves our body, we want them to know we truly love them in Jesus Christ, and want God’s very best for them! We are about His kingdom, not our own.  That doesn’t mean we need to serve in the same mission outpost.  …BUT, in love, we must serve The One who knows rejection greater than i will ever comprehend – Jesus!

A passage that continually haunts me is John 6:66-69!  In it, Jesus has just said a hard word to all who were following Him.  He wanted them to know the true cost of following Him. He was tough and laid the smack down. I have no doubt, the angels in heaven were playing the soundtrack to “Gladiator” as He spoke!  It was a HUGE moment in history!  …and EVERYONE left Him, except a handful of disciples.  Did you get that?  EVERYONE walked away from Jesus …they turned their backs on Him… they rejected the Savior of the World!  They were standing in the presence of sovereign God, and they checked the “No!” box…right in front of Him. Oh My God!!!

Was He surprised?  No!  But dang…Rejection hurts…even God!  Especially, when God knew how far He was willing (and would go) to show His love!  THEN, Jesus turned to the disciples and asked if they would leave too!  OW!!  I think of every kid i have known that has had a parent walk out on them…every spouse that has begged the other to Please NOT leave.  It tears me Up what Jesus must have thought!  …and i wonder how often i tell Him “No!”  Whew!  God forgive me! Then God pushes me to read on;  My hero, Peter (the A.D.D. poster boy, jump-out-of-a-plane for Jesus…without a parachute), answered for the souls of humanity…”Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”  Such an obvious answer, but it seems too often we seek every other solution possible.  Sorry – just speaking for my wretched sinful self.  Not you …of course!

Rejection: Dudes & Dudettes, You have been there…or are there…whatever form and for whatever reason!  Did you deserve it or is it a result of consequences? – that is between you and God to wrestle with.  All i know is that in time, i have learned (and continue to learn) that the rejection i walk through is either for my benefit (i have SO MUCH to learn) or for the blessing of the body! All said and done you and i will never experience the depth of rejection Jesus walked through.  Even though He knew it was coming…even through brutal beating and death on a cross, He was willing to endure it completely out of desire to draw us to embrace Him. This is your crossroads. “Do you want to leave too?!  Show Him your “No!” box (whoever gave it to you), then know He alone is your hope!  He alone is your joy!  He alone is your salvation! He alone has the Words of life!

So, who are you going to follow today?!

Pursue my Jesus recklessly!

Oh, the bravery of God in trusting us! Do you say, “But He has been unwise to choose me, because there is nothing good in me and I have no value”? That is exactly why He chose you. As long as you think that you are of value to Him He cannot choose you, because you have purposes of your own to serve. But if you will allow Him to take you to the end of your own self-sufficiency, then He can choose you to go with Him “to Jerusalem” ( Luke 18:31 ). And that will mean the fulfillment of purposes which He does not discuss with you.

We tend to say that because a person has natural ability, he will make a good Christian. It is not a matter of our equipment, but a matter of our poverty; not of what we bring with us, but of what God puts into us; not a matter of natural virtues, of strength of character, of knowledge, or of experience— all of that is of no avail in this concern. The only thing of value is being taken into the compelling purpose of God and being made His friends (see 1 Corinthians 1:26-31 ). God’s friendship is with people who know their poverty. He can accomplish nothing with the person who thinks that he is of use to God. As Christians we are not here for our own purpose at all— we are here for the purpose of God, and the two are not the same. We do not know what God’s compelling purpose is, but whatever happens, we must maintain our relationship with Him. We must never allow anything to damage our relationship with God, but if something does damage it, we must take the time to make it right again. The most important aspect of Christianity is not the work we do, but the relationship we maintain and the surrounding influence and qualities produced by that relationship. That is all God asks us to give our attention to, and it is the one thing that is continually under attack.

-Live nothing but reckless for my Jesus!

Ok, i acknowledge i have been a very random blogger…

and it has been too long since my last blog.  Glad some of you faithful blog subscribers have not given up on me and love me for more than my looks (ha!)  Over the next few weeks, i purpose to be hitting my blog much more consistently.  There is A LOT God is putting in front of me, and i look forward to sharing it…challenging us with His call on each of our lives!

I was wrapping up some study time i had yesterday morning, and i read something in Oswald Chambers (My Utmost For His Highest) that blew me away!  What he wrote about my Jesus, almost 100 years ago, haunts me in God-awesome ways! This morning, just wanted to share it:

You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am —John 13:13

“Our Lord never insists on having authority over us. He never says, “You will submit to me.” No, He leaves us perfectly free to choose— so free, in fact, that we can spit in His face, as men did; so free that we can put Him to death as men did; and yet He will never say a word. But once His life has been created in me through His redemption, I instantly recognize His right to absolute authority over me. It is a complete and effective domination, in which I acknowledge that “You are worthy, O Lord . . .” ( Revelation 4:11 ). It is simply the unworthiness within me that refuses to bow down or to submit to one who is worthy.”

I so want my life marked as not dominated by any competing passion or cause, except my Savior! … To be so fixed on a relationship with my Jesus Christ that i count it a nothing less than a privilege that He would entrust me “to sit with tax collectors and sinners”…of which i am one (Luke 15:1-32)! …To be so compassionate  through Him that i would embrace the hurting and destitute (Luke 17:11-19; Matthew 9:1-8; 18-34 …and so many other passages)!  …to be so Confident in His presence and purpose that i would boldly lead people away from the practice of religion (a southern social icon), and lead people to discover a true relationship with the One & Only Savior – Jesus! (Luke 18:9-14; 18-30)

Jesus Christ – the one and only bailout we all really need!

-Live reckless for my Jesus!

Have you ever had a phone call with news that is just un-stinking real?  It’s the kind of call we all want to get!…the kind i received this past Sunday!

Greenbrier, here is the deal: I am loving being away with my family on much needed vacation – absolutely the #1 place I want to be!   That said, the update call I received from one of our Greenbrier pastor team on Sunday afternoon was un-stinking real!  It made me jealous…wanting to rush back to be a part of what God is doing at Greenbrier!  On the other hand, it made me want to stay away longer so I would not mess up anything.  Ha!

What happened at Greenbrier on Sunday morning?

-The Set-up CREW was at the Evans 14 Cinemas early (as always), praying, serving Christ by setting up church campus so that many could meet and worship Jesus!

-Brier Patch and 3D CREW had done an incredible job ministering to our pre-school and children, even with a bunch of CREW out on vacation!

-…and worship was powerful, with 3 people making an eternal/life changing decision to trust Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord…while watching a “One Prayer” video message!!!

-Did you catch that? THREE LIVES are changed for eternity…AGAIN!

Folks, God is moving in and through this body!

-People are beginning a relationship with Jesus Christ most every week at Greenbrier!

-20 adults and students from our church body are returning tonight from a week+ mission trip in Costa Rica.  Rumors are that Jesus was working in huge ways!

-Two weeks ago a Big group of Greenbrier students and adults terrorized a whole bunch of children with the love of Jesus for four days in downtown Augusta.

-Two more adults from our church are heading out to Thailand on a mission project this week.

-In August, we will be assisting one of our team (Nick Carnes) in launching a church (NewPassion Church) in Grovetown!

Folks, as we partner with over 1700 churches around the world to glorify God through “One Prayer”, God is showing off.  Whether video or live message – He is transforming lives in our body. Our church is stepping out and being Jesus to the world, instead of waiting for the world to come to us.  Our church is blessed by all the people you are bringing in, and even more, by how many we are sending out for His fame!

God is blessing this church, my Greenbrier family!

Keep…

-INVOLVING God by Praying for our church and the people He has placed in your life (family/neighbors/work).

-INVESTING in lives of those same people.

-INVITING anyone/everyone He places around you that may not know the power and hope of Jesus Christ…to join you at church!

Dudes & Dudettes, I love ya’ll and we are pumped about being back with you this Sunday!  Until then, live reckless for my Jesus!

Greenbrier was so incredible to be a part of this past Sunday!

Our set-Up & Break-Down Teams did an amazing job in record times! The worship was powerful! Brier Patch (pre-school) was loaded up and loving on a mess of kids.  …And what happened in 3D (our children’s environment) was awesome! – A first time guest brought their kids to the 1st service (9:00AM).  After the service was over and the kids were checked out, they realized there was a second service (10:15AM).  The kids had such an awesome time that they begged to stay for the second service!  …And that is what happened!  The family stayed and the kids went home knowing Church is cool and Jesus is INCREDIBLE!

This is why we are ORANGE!  All of our ministry environments teaming together to Impact entire families for Christ!  I hear different versions of this happening on our campus with kids and families almost every week!  3D CREW  – I am PUMPED about this!  Praise God & Thank You…and ALL our CREW (Set-Up & Break Down Teams, Brier Patch, Host Team, Usher/Parking Team, Worship & Tech Teams, 3D) for uniting to make this happen! AWESOME!  Kids and parents realizing JESUS is nothing less than Incredible…and us taking advantage of that truth in every environment – that’s what it is all about!  TOGETHER, Greenbrier, you made this one of the best hours (if not THE best hour) of the week for this family…and MANY MORE!

God continues to move in our body and provide in powerful ways!  This Sunday, we continue “Dirty Laundry” (Parenting series).  In that,  I cannot wait  to share with you This Sunday some very cool opportunities He has in front of us and Huge ways He is providing for us!   Whew!  -Can’t wait!

-stay reckless for my Jesus!