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Last Wednesday at Inside Out was great. So many things just went well.

The game of “Finger Swords” was so hilarious to watch. (Pic below) No props needed. Just tell kids to poke each other. Simple yet fun youth game.

Music was great. One of the youth, Aaron, led a couple of the songs and did fantastic. They even opened with “Over My Head” by The Fray. The kids seemed really engaged and were really responsive in worship. It’s great to see them reaching up to God even more these days than when I first started at SSCC. Our youth worship leader, Shannon, is turning out a pretty good band nowadays.

We had a senior named John Ryan bring the message. He has spoken twice before and brought the junk both times. This time was no different. He spoke on being a living sacrifice and what that means to us as believers. It’s so awesome to be a youth leader on church staff and have one of your youth spiritually spank you. He did a great job and I hope to hear him more.

Overall a great night. I hope this week is as amazing. Pray with me it will be.

Amanda took pictures most of the time but I joined in as well. Here are some pics and some links to more if you’re in the mood for pictures.

Amanda’s pics from the night on Facebook
My pics from the night Facebook
My pics from the night Flickr

I’m praying big. Real big.

I want too many people at St. Simons Community Church.

Here’s the deal. SSCC started in a home ten years ago. Since then growing out of buildings has been a trend. God is moving. The leadership is listening. We think we’ve done a decent job at following God and He seems to be blessing. We are now at almost 2000 people a Sunday coming through our doors. That’s several hundred more than we had six months ago. In January we were still meeting in a shopping center in what used to be a dentist’s office. At that time we had three main services - two of which were usually full and required an overflow room. In our new building we are at two services. Both are at 75% capacity and growing.

Here’s my prayer. “God, give us a need for three services“.

It’s not a popular prayer to those who just want to play church. It’s not a popular prayer among some who serve on Sundays. It’s very popular among those who wanna see the church and the Kingdom grow. If God answers it then more work is required. One less service seems easier. Less commitment. Check it off our list. More services would be harder and more time consuming. Trust me, it wouldn’t be fun to add another hour and a half to our Sundays.

The good thing is God never intends for us to handle His will by ourselves. 1 Corinthians says we labor WITH God. When we can handle His will by ourselves I dare to suggest we most likely aren’t in His will. He has no reason to be strong when we are handling it ourselves. We don’t need God to run our church if we are doing fine without Him. I pray we never become that church.

I want problems we can’t handle. I want issues we can’t solve. I want to see SSCC to trust and rely on God fully. I want us to be testimonies of God’s power.

I’m ready for the honeymoon to be over. I’m ready for our staff meetings to include statements like “we’re gonna need a third service by the fall”. We do have other options such as overflow into our student’s room but I pray for growth there too. I want to see God move among our people and be strong among us. I want to see Him create and solve our problems. I want to see GOD at SSCC.

Who knows how this will pan out. Who knows how long it will be until God takes us to those new lands - new and scary lands. It may include a Saturday night service. It may include a Sunday night service. We may even launch a satellite campus one day. God will take care of the details for us.

Pray with me that God would move at SSCC. Pray that we would listen to and follow God as He takes us along this journey. Pray for our selfishness to fade. Pray for our hearts as the staff - that we would unite as one to work WITH God and not against Him.

Are you praying big with me?

If I could summarize my biggest need right now it would be time. I need time with Amanda. I need time to have fun with music and photography. I need time at work to get better at what I do. I need time to organize.

Some examples: I haven’t filed papers at home in six months. Amanda and I cook at home MAYBE two nights a week. I love to write yet I go weeks without writing at all (you can see the gaps here as proof). I’m a graphic designer who spends half as much time as would be proper on projects. I haven’t gone on a local photo safari in months. I pick up my guitar briefly every couple of weeks. I have little time to learn and less time to practice new techniques in design. Right now it seems like life is getting in the way of living. It’s not fun.

So what’s in the way? Why do Amanda and I rarely just chill out away from the house? Why do I work 8-10 hour days and not get it all done? Why do I spend time at home and never get organized? Why am I never able to spend time learning?

Someone! Help! Please!

I’ve had some ideas but as of yet they haven’t paid off or I haven’t stuck with them. Someone recommended changing my sleeping schedule to go to bed earlier and get up earlier. Unfortunately something in my physiology hates that and always has. I don’t know how to become a “morning person”. It would be nice though.

Another suggestion was to get to work earlier and leave right at five instead of working late. My job though includes at least one night I have to stay (Wednesday @ Youth Group), one night I like to stay (Tuesday @ Elevate), one night I’m usually slammed and it becomes a late day (Mondays), one night with my small group, and if I’m in the band or helping set up for Sunday it’s another night (Thursday). Most weeks I am at the church four of the seven nights in the week, sometimes five. It’s killing me. No, I’m not being forced into this schedule but I don’t know of a better one. How can I still get and give the ministry and community I need and still have a life?

The other is a question of my productivity. I feel like I get interrupted (Ha ha. I JUST got a phone call about a printer that isn’t working. Interruptions in action.) all the time and it kills my productivity. When I was looking for solutions I found a PDF from Stephen B. Jenkins of the Institute for Aerospace Research for National Research Council of Canada. His research found that “interruptions that occur within 15 or 20 minutes of each other can cause your productivity to fall to near zero.” That might explain why I get my best and most productive work done after 5pm. No one is here to distract me or interrupt me. Given, my job involves tech support but I feel like there is a better way than repeated “Got a minute?” entries through my doorway. I wish I could have designated work times where no one can bother me. Too bad I can’t hide. My 24″ iMac with second 22″ monitor is a little hard to throw in a backpack and go to Starbucks.

Any ideas? I’d love them. I have to get more productive so that I can work and live without harming the other.

If you have any ideas please leave them in the comments area. Please.

Last night at Jay and Brooke’s we played Dance Dance Revolution. I won.

It’s amazing what two weeks will do. You see staff meeting used to kill me. I work at a church which should be so interesting and fun but I can’t pay attention for two hours to stuff that doesn’t concern me. Not that I don’t care about children’s ministry volunteers and the like - it just doesn’t interest me for that long. Then something happened, staff meetings became staff worship times. I was glad. But it was hard to focus because I couldn’t help but remember all the things that I could be doing to get ready for Sunday. I was torn. Eventually I lightened up and became free to worship after a few weeks. Then prayer became a bigger part of staff meetings. We were singing, praying, and discussing the overall direction of the church. We moved the individual ministries’ discussions to other times so we could focus. Oddly, I actually liked staff meetings. I eventually quit calling staff meetings “staff infection”. I looked forward to every other Tuesday.

Fast forward to two weeks ago when our pastor, after a week in prayer up at IHOP in KC, comes back broken and changed. He confessed that he as a leader hadn’t led us as a staff to seek God first, then do ministry second. When your church is getting so big and then moving into a brand new facility while still trying to keep up with making sure Sunday happens, it’s easy to forget the relationship for the sake of the ministry. We all had done it in some way. Many of us, as a staff, unknowingly believed the lie that serving God can replace knowing Him.

During that staff meeting we read the Bible. We talked about seeking God FIRST. We talked about the One Thing… God. It was the best staff meeting yet. We spent an hour and a half talking and praying and reading Scripture. Then David dropped the bomb.

For two weeks, our first hour at work was to be spent seeking God. No discussion. We were to shut our door and pray, read, sing, whatever. He realized that we as a staff could not serve God unless our relationship with Him was in order. He wanted us to give God the first fruits of our time. It’s been amazing.

In those two weeks I prayed more than I had in years. I read more of the Bible than I had in years. I got to be in God’s presence each morning for a solid hour. It has changed my life.

When we met again for staff meeting after those two weeks we were all thinking the same thing but someone piped up and asked it, “Can we keep doing it?” So we are.

Our stress level is down. I seem to be getting more done in less time. I feel at peace. I’m just randomly talking to God. Scriptures are coming to mind more frequently in situations where I need them. Praise Jesus.

My pastor told us to work less so we can seek God more. Where else can you find that? We’re blessed, lucky, whatever. Praise God for the leadership He’s put in place.

So I encourage you, if this testimony get to your heart at all, spend an hour with God each day. It will change you. Of you want those Scriptures David gave to us they are:

• Psalm 27:4
• Luke 10:41-42
• Philippians 3:13-14
• Isaiah 64:4-5
• Matthew 6:6
• Matthew 6:33
• Hebrews 11:6

In my time of prayer I chose to put on some background music and it tended to help me tune out distractions outside my door. The two albums I listened to were The Mix Up by The Beastie Boys (iTunes / Amazon) and everything by Explosions in the Sky (iTunes / Amazon).

Friends, go after the One Thing.