A few things I saw / heard this morning:

·         Mark wore a tie again while leading worship…it was a stumbling block during worship for me.

·         We sang “God of this City”…just love that song!

·         Besides how well it sounded, it was especially meaningful hearing Anisa singing “He’s God” after the events of this week in their family.

·         Today we gave out our Servant of the Year Awards…I wish I could take time to really tell you how invested and effective the recipients are.

·         Volunteers make Southside a special place…and those this morning give their all for us.

·         In the second service we honored Barbara Willeby.  She has been a member since day 1 at Southside – 50 years…simply amazing.

·         In the typical church world mentality that says “don’t change things or I’ll leave and go elsewhere” Barbara has witnessed more changes than I can begin to think about.  And guess what…she is still here…why??? Because of words like loyalty, faithfulness, surrender, and the unique ability to possess a mindset that says “it’s not about me.”

·         I’ve come to realize that Monday staff meetings go so much better when Alabama wins on Saturday.

·         Did you see that we are building a church sign?  It will have a fountain…wonder how long it takes before someone puts fish in it?

·         FYI - Big news coming soon…

A few things I saw / heard this morning:

1.       We have some awesome volunteers in our pre-school area.  I watched many this morning go out of their way to help families…great job guys.

2.       The “What’s Happening” was very “Old School”…If only you could have seen the dancing behind the camera.

3.       Mark had a great song this morning…love hearing that acoustical sound…he’s almost as good of a guitar player as me.

4.       We tried to talk Pastor into wearing an “old school” outfit this morning…I voted for the 70’s John Travolta look.

5.       We started sign-ups for our volunteer team to work Fall Fest…huge first week response…it’s going to be awesome…more rides & food…giddy up!

6.       Pastor finish week 2  of Old School and this morning was about Samson, here are a few points he made…”You are supposed to be different so you can make a difference.”

7.       Talking of Samson…“The spirit of God had left him and he did not even know it”…that my friend is a really strong statement!  We all need to think through that for the week.

8.       “Samson could conquer others but not himself”…what a great point.

9.       “Samson was not into submitting to authority or accountability”…will never understand how some people choose not to be connected in a group…Maybe I’m not there yet, but I need encouragement and accountability.

10.   Great Sunday Southside!

I can honestly say that I’ve never been more excited about a sermon series as I am about the one I’m starting tomorrow night.

The reason I’ve titled the series, “Lessons from the Whiteboard” is because the next four weeks, I’ll be using a whiteboard to help me communicate.

Now, I’m not known for hyperbole, so when I say that you don’t want to miss tomorrow night and the first message in this new series, I mean it.  I think it’s going to be great! And more than that, I think every Christian in our church will benefit from what I’ll be saying.

Hope to see you there!

Over the last eight years, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked, “When are we going to get a church sign?”  

My typical answer to that question has been, “People don’t seem to have any trouble finding our church so I don’t see why having a sign is such a big deal.”

Usually I don’t mean those words.  It’s just my way of getting people off my back.  

Well, I’m pleased to announce in this blog post that a sign is coming!  

And not only that, but there are a few additional surprises that we’ll be throwing in to make our campus look more beautiful than ever!  

I don’t want to give everything away (at least not right away), so that’s all I’ll say for now, but trust me when I say it’s going to make our campus look amazing!  

A few things I heard / saw this weekend:

1.       Freedom Fest was HUGE! …what a great day all around…the evening weather was perfect and the bands, speaker and of course fireworks were awesome.  To all those volunteers that stayed up past 4:30am cleaning up…THANK YOU.

2.       Amber’s song was amazing…not sure if it gets any better than that.

3.       We had a volunteer named Rick Gonzales led the choir during Amber’s song…that dude was rock’in!  It was fun watching his energy and passion…I almost danced, and then the Holy Spirit reminded me that I have no rhythm.

4.       Absolutely love how our church is beginning to truly reflect our culture…all people.

5.       We put a Southwide conference brochure in every bulletin…this is going to be a great conference for all our church family to attend.  We have a great line-up…

6.       Pastor asked me to be the keynote / headline speaker for the conference…very kind of him, but my Fantasy football duties have my free time booked up.

7.       Few things from the sermon this morning: “God did not need Gideon to believe in himself, He needed Gideon to believe in Him.”

8.       “God, help us be heroes in our culture today.”

9.       “God says go in the strength you have and watch me work in your weakness”

10.   I walked away this morning saying “thank you Lord for using Southside to change Warner Robins.”

Things I saw / heard today:

1.       Due to Alabama winning their first game, Pastor was in a really good mood…I think it’s time to ask for more vacation days.

2.       The doughnuts were really small this morning…I will not stand for mediocrity in my Krispy Kreme.

3.       Matt and Charlie did the opening skit in Fusion…it was hilarious.

4.       This morning was a powerful message and the conclusion of our marriage series…It has been an awesome series and we have witnessed God doing some amazing things in many marriages.

5.       Next week starts our new series “Old School”…Pastor has been looking forward to this one for awhile…wonder if he will dress “old school?”  That would be cool!

6.       In the message, Pastor said “Men have a big S on their forehead”…yes we do.

7.       Bible says, “Adultery is a deep pit”…ever talked to someone who has fallen in it?  You will know how true that is.

8.       50% of men / 42% of women will have some type of affair-like relationship…wow…that is scary.

9.       Charlie closed the service for us this morning…thought he was going to start preaching.

10.   As always, our music rocked.