I don’t know about you, but one of my hobbies is making fun of really cheesy church signs.  I know I probably shouldn’t do it, but I can’t help it. 

It’s sad to me that so many churches are committed to putting up these unbelievably corny phrases on their signs.  All it does is confirm the community’s perception about the church being weird and irrelevant. 

So, it’s with this in mind, that I thought I would share with you some of the worst signs I’ve seen over the years.

• “God is here…where are you?”
• “Jesus should be your steering wheel, not your spare tire.”
• “Avoid truth decay:  brush up on your Bible reading”.
• “Seven days without prayer makes one weak.”
• “Stop, drop, and roll doesn’t work in hell!”
• “Bingo is Gambling.  Gambling is a Sin.  Therefore, Bingo is a Sin.”
• “Baked or Fried? You will be both if you do not have Jesus.” 

Now, let me ask you a question.  Do any of those signs make you want to run into those churches?

Just a thought.

So, if you’re into cheesy, corny, goofy church signs, I want to encourage you to take your ideas to this website instead. Church Sign Generator allows you to create whatever church sign you’d like to.  Really.  If you can dream it, you can put it on a church sign. 

So, if you’ve always dreamed of being the person who got to put those flimsy letters on that ancient church sign, today is your chance.  

Additionally, if you come up with a good thought for a cheesy church sign, I would love for you to send it to me, so I can post it on the blog. 

I hope you have a great weekend, and we’ll see you Sunday!

It’s time for another edition of “What’s playing on Matt’s i-Pod”.  I don’t know that anybody really cares what I listen to or not, but I enjoy sharing anyway.I haven’t downloaded a lot of music lately, but I have been playing a few recent downloads an awful lot, and I thought I would pass them along.  Here they are, in no particular order:

1. “Hosanna” by Hillsong United- I love almost everything Hill Song United puts out, but this may be my favorite.  Powerful song.   

2. “God of this City” by Chris Tomlin- This is the latest amazing song from one of the great songwriters of our time.  I think about Warner Robins every time I listen to it.

3. “How He Loves” by John Mark McMillan- I’d never heard of this guy or this song until a couple of days ago when I was reading someone else’s blog and he commented on it.  I love the story behind the song maybe more than I even love the song itself. 

4. “Opposite Way” by Leeland-  I really love Leeland’s music.  And this particular song is from their new album, and I especially love the lyrics!   

5. “That’s How You Know” by Amy Adams- I’m not saying that this is my favorite song in the world, but I am saying that I can’t get it out of my head.  It’s from the movie, Enchanted, and is one of a few classic Disney songs that will be playing in the mini-van for months to come.  I promise you that once you listen to this one, you’ll find yourself singing it throughout your day. 

Yesterday, I talked about how great Sunday was for us as a church. 

What I didn’t tell you was that Sunday was a special day for me personally as well.  It was special to me because my son, Micah, got baptized during one of our Easter services.

And being the proud father that I am, I thought I would post a couple of pictures today. 

But before I do, I thought I’d give you a little context. 

On Easter Sunday, the water in the baptistery was freezing cold.  And by freezing, I mean “white water rapids” cold.  It was unbelievable.  We had some sort of malfunction during the week and as a result, the water was nowhere near its usual, warm temperature. 

And not only that, somehow during the second service, the water was accidentally drained from the baptistery and we had to fill it up again at the last minute, which made it even colder.

So, all week I’d been telling him that the water would be warm and I would take care of him, only to find out that very morning that the water would actually be freezing cold.

We actually told Micah that the water was cold and that if he wanted to wait another week, then that would be fine with us, but he was ready to do it, and we obviously had no objections.

So Easter Sunday, my eight year old boy go baptized and all of Heaven and Southside celebrated. 

“Dad, the water is freezing!”

My buddy and me

“Mom, quit taking pictures!   I need a towel!”

I thought some of you would enjoy this really cool picture from one of our Easter services yesterday.  This is the 9:30 service, and as you can tell, the place was absolutely packed!

If for some reason, you missed Easter at Southside, you need to know that you missed one of the most incredible days in the history of our church.

I’m not exaggerating…it was a great day! 

Here’s why yesterday was such a great day:

• Our volunteers went above and beyond the call of duty.  We have the most amazing servants on the planet!  I am so proud of all of you who made Easter such a huge success yesterday.  (And by the way, our guests were absolutely blown away!) 
• Our music was first class.  I can’t imagine worshipping anywhere else. 
• Our pastor was on his game.  Take a listen here.
• Our crowds were enormous.  We had over 3,500 people on our campus in our three services.  We’ve never had more people on our campus for any Sunday in the history of our church.  Wow!

So I would just like to say, “Thank you!”  Thank you for showing up early ready to help.  Thank you for inviting your friends.  Thank you for celebrating the baptisms with thunderous applause.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!