This message is for pastors and church planters.  Dudes and dudettes, Michael Lukaszewski and the rest of the crew at Oak Leaf Church are hosting a one-day conference called Nuts and Bolts and I promise you that this thing is going to be amazing.

Here’s the deal.  These guys are flat out getting it done and they are going to share everything they’ve learned with the rest of us.  Beyond that, they’re going to actually run through a typical Sunday from top to bottom so we can all see how it all fits together.  This is going to be a truly unique experience.  That alone is worth the trip to Cartersville but the fact that the whole thing is only $10 bucks is truly incredible and makes this an awesome deal!  There’s no way that you’re not going to get ten times worth that back in stuff you’ll learn.

Like many of you, our conference budget is close to nothing this year.  Times are extremely tight.  At the same time, there are great opportunities for our churches to increase their impact in this season.  We can’t afford to just sit back and wait for things to turn around.  Leadership demands that we advance and take advantage of these God-given opportunities even when resources are limited.  How?  Well, we’ve got to get $10 worth of impact out of every $1 we spend.  We’ve got to leverage everything we’ve got.  God’s been telling me that we’ve got to be scrappy and I firmly believe that this conference fits the bill.  It’s an investment that none of us can afford to miss.

Invest the money and time to make this one-day conference happen for you and for your team.  Remember, it isn’t a cost.  It’s an investment and you’ll be glad you did it.  They are already 25% full at this thing.  Don’t miss your chance.  Register today.  All the details are here.

See you there!

The Antiques Roadshow on PBS is hard to pass by when channel surfing. There’s just something very interesting about watching people discover the true value of things. This clips is particularly great.

As cool as this is. Those that have found Christ have experienced this feeling on even a greater level.

In this Sunday Stuff, I talk about this morning at Fusion which was amazing. I also talk about an emerging star, an emerging pastor, a bad movie, Ernest, three folks I miss, one dude I’m proud of, prayer, and a couple that inspires me. Plus, a whole lot more. Check it out.

To go along with the Prayer series that we’re starting this weekend, we also announced last Sunday that we will be having a special Focus service the Tuesday before Easter.

At this incredible event, we’re going to worship and pray and hear from God.  I’ll be teaching a message that God dropped into my heart just for this time together and I promise you that it’s going to impact you.

We’re doing all this to actually help us focus on God more.  If you’re like me, Easter seems to just sort of come and go each year.  Don’t get me wrong.  We have great Easter services at Fusion but it just seems to happen and vanish.  I think God has a desire to so something much deeper in our lives this year.

Get ready.  Come expecting God to move in your life!

DETAILS

There will be no growth groups meeting this week so that we can all focus on Easter and the focus service.

Childcare will be provided but you must register.  (See the response card on Sunday to register your kids.)

Get ready!

In light of everything that’s been going on at Fusion lately, I’ve really been wanting to get a second job so that I might be able to give more to our great church.  The problem is that it’s hard to find a second job that doesn’t interfere with my first, and most important job, being pastor of Fusion.

I’d been scratching my head about all this for a couple of weeks and, as this was going on, I started to feel like it was time to launch PastorGear.com which was a side project I had been working on.  It was certainly odd timing to my way of thinking but I felt like God gave me the go ahead to do it.

When it launched, I thought it would be nothing more than a small hobby but to say that I’ve enjoyed it would be a big understatement.  In some ways, it has been dream come true for me.

At this point, you need to know that I’ve been a techie and a geek for a long time. (I’ve also been a trekkie but we won’t go there.)  I was messing around on the internet before the web was invented.  (No, they’re no the same thing.)  Anybody remember gopherspace?  (Google it.)  Anyway, early on I joined a email list for pastors and I saw very clearly the power the internet has to connect this often very isolated and disconnected group of people.

You also need to know that I’ve had a heart for pastors since the day I stepped into the ministry.  Other than my desire to see people come to know Christ which is paramount, there is simply no greater passion in my life than helping pastors.

Because of all this, through the years I’ve had a dream of using the internet to help connect and assist other pastors and church planters.  In fact, I’ve even tried to launch a few things before but the timing never seemed right and they all quietly faded away.

That’s why I was so surprised to feel like God was telling me to move ahead on this thing when my life couldn’t be crazier.  Let’s face it.  We’ve got a lot of stuff up in the air right now and it didn’t make much sense to me.  Then, one night when I was up late thinking and praying about a second job, God dropped an idea into my heart.  The light bulb went on in my head and I realized that He wanted me to help others with PastorGear.com and as I did that I’d make a little extra money (through links and ads and such).  PastorGear.com was supposed to be my second job all along.

This is so cool and just the way God works.  As we seek to serve others and take care of their needs, He will take care of us.  If I’ve learned that lesson once over the last 24 years of ministry, I’ve learned it a thousand times.

So, I’m going for it.  I’m going to go for my dream of helping other pastors and I’m going to build the best blog/site/online community that I know how to build.  I’m going to share with those that join me there everything I know about tech, marketing, leading and just taking care of God’s people.  I’m going to pour out everything I’ve been privileged to learn while sitting with the many great leaders and coaches the Lord has brought across my path over the years.  I’m going for it with everything I’ve got because I sense His hand on it and, as I do, I’m trusting God to open doors and bless it so that it can help others and earn some modest money to give to Fusion and invest in other ministries.

Honestly, I’m a little nervous about it but I’m terribly excited at the same time.

I’m telling you all this because I want you to understand what I’m doing and why I’m doing it.  I don’t want you Fusion folks to ever feel that PastorGear.com is more important that you or that my life mission has changed in some way.  The truth is that other than God and my precious family, the people of Fusion are the most important things in this world to me.  I have given everything I have to Fusion over the years and that will not stop.  If anything, I see PastorGear.com as extension of my mission.  I’ve always done everything I could to help other pastors and I always will.  It’s just part of my calling and my purpose and the site will help me do that in a greater way.

I am also telling you all this because I could sure use your prayers and support as I try to launch this thing on almost no budget.   I do have a little bit of cash saved up that I’m going to invest in the site but I really need God to help it take off.  Actually, I’ve got a kind of crazy idea about a way that I could promote the site and it would be a bit of gamble with my limited resources but I think God would help it to pay off in the long run.  I’ll probably announce that scheme over at PG either tonight or tomorrow.

BTW,  if you a pastor reading this and want to help, it would be great if you could spread the word about the site to other pastors that you know via twitter or blog posts.)

Anyway, I love you, Fusion, I just wanted you to know what was going on.  Okay, well, I guess that’s it.  Here goes nothing…