Something I’ve been thinking about is my website. It doesn’t take a lot of time or effort to maintain but there is an expense for hosting. After watching many people I know (and deeply respect) make the switch themselves, I decided it was time to investigate for myself. I am certain the reasons others have made the switch to Substack are as varied as the people themselves. My reasons for making the switch to Substack are not complicated.
Now that budget season is well behind us, I’m taking a little time to reflect on the budget process in my current church. It can be challenging to anticipate how an entire year will unfold, much less try to do so months before that year even begins. We all know too well that things can change very quickly (yep…I’m still thinking about the impact of Covid among other things) and in ways that simply cannot be anticipated.
As we approach the end of 2024, I’m excited to share some of the highlights from the second half of this eventful year. Despite intentionally stepping back from writing during the latter half of the year, there have been several joyous occasions and significant changes in our family’s life that I’d like to celebrate with you.
Let’s face it, people don’t always agree with us. That’s a fact of life my parents taught me growing up. Even later, in the different facets of my career, from large multinational corporations to local small businesses, my dad and I would talk about those sorts of relationships. With Father’s Day having just passed, he’s been on my mind (like just about everyone else!), and I’ve been missing him since 2020.
People close to me know I spent the first four months of 2024 serving with a remarkable ministry called Frontline Policy helping with what I certainly hope is the first annual Run 2 Win Conference. Frontline Policy is two distinct organizations: Frontline Policy Action is a 501(c)4 dedicated to forging public policy and electing champions for conservative family values (if you know me, you know that’s my heart). Frontline Policy Council is a 501(c)3 dedicated to educating and equipping Christians to engage in the political sphere. Though two distinctly different entities, both work towards a common goal of glorifying God in the public sphere.
A couple of weeks ago we celebrated my 54th trip around the sun and it has been every bit as eventful as all the others. I shared some thoughts on social media and thought I’d expand on those a bit and share them here since I’ve been intentionally quiet here on my site in recent months. That’s not to say there hasn’t been a lot going one…Lord knows there certainly has! Through everything, God has blessed my family and I in ways great and small.
s we navigate our daily lives, the hum of next year’s elections might seem like distant background noise. But it’s crucial to perk up our ears and pay closer attention now. The decisions made at the polls in 2024 will shape our community in Fayetteville and our state for years to come. A few months ago I wrote an article called “Issues for Christians to consider in the 2024 elections.” There I mentioned a number of issues Georgia Baptists should seek clarity on as we consider candidates vying for our votes.
A few days ago I shared across my social media accounts that I have concluded my role as Executive Pastor at Flat Creek Baptist Church. It was not an easy decision, but one we believe aligns with God’s will for our lives and the church.
Southern Baptists believe in the inherent dignity and worth of every individual. This is rooted in our understanding of the doctrine of Imago Dei, the belief that every person is created in the image of God. This means that a person’s fundamental identity is defined by their relationship with their creator.
Folks that know me know of my great love of education! Apart from coming to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, I believe a quality education has the greatest impact in a person’s life and future. I also believe that parents are both the primary educators and decision-makers for their children. There are some who believe the education of children should be left to professional educators and parents should simply trust their local schools. I do not share this belief.
In a world that seems to be evolving at an ever-accelerating pace, Southern Baptist churches face their own unique set of challenges as we look ahead to the next two decades. As believers, it is essential to approach these challenges with a positive and thoughtful mindset, fueled by a steadfast commitment to the gospel and an unwavering trust in the providence of God.
Friends, the state convention is more than just a meeting. It is a powerful gathering where God’s Word is proclaimed, hearts are encouraged, and souls are stirred to action. It is an opportunity to embrace the biblical vision of unity, collaboration, and discipleship. This is a moment for us to stand together and affirm our commitment to the inerrancy of Scripture, the preaching of the gospel, and the winning the lost across Georgia.
Cancer is a name that carries an unthinkable weight, a name we’d all prefer not to know. But it’s a name that has seeped into our lives, our families, our friendships, and our churches. It is an illness that does not discriminate, tearing through the very fabric of human life, spreading fear, pain, and uncertainty. I hate cancer, not out of bitterness or rebellion against God, but because it causes such profound suffering to those I hold dear.
Every year, the SBC holds an annual meeting in different places around the country where members gather to worship, conduct business, and make important decisions about the future of our network of churches. This year’s meeting will be held in New Orleans, Louisiana, and there are many compelling reasons why you should attend. Here are four reasons I think you should consider attending the Southern Baptist Convention in New Orleans
Transitions can be both exciting and challenging, especially when it comes to moving from one ministry to another. It can be an emotional time as you say goodbye to the people and work that you have been invested in, and prepare to move on to new challenges and opportunities. I understand both aspects of this firsthand, having begun a new ministry on January 1st of this year.
As a committed Southern Baptist, I believe that the Cooperative Program is one of the most significant and effective means of supporting our churches and ministries. The Cooperative Program is our unified giving program that enables Southern Baptist churches to come together in support of missions and ministries nationally and globally.
Oh my word…thank you, thank you, thank you for the birthday wishes. What a difference a year can make!
This year has passed by faster than any I can remember! So much has taken place in our lives and change is in the air as we transition to a new season of ministry beginning in 2023.
Since announcing we were entering a time of transition, our family has received hundreds and hundreds of phone calls (yep… still a thing!), emails, text messages, and encouraging words across a variety of social media platforms, all wishing us well.
It is with some sadness that we announced my resignation as Administration Pastor of this wonderful church this evening. As Northside is the first church where I have served on staff, the transition to a new place of service will be another first for us.
Just what am I going on about you might ask? I’m talking about saying “yes” to God and seeing where He may choose to send me to be hands and feet. I know that sounds a little vague and probably a bit “super spiritual’ but when it comes down to it, that really is what I’m going on about. I suppose a bit more explanation is in order.
Friends that are closer to me know of the joy I get from blogging. Over the years since launching my…
I’ve started to write this and stopped…and started again and stopped…oh, let’s just say more times than I want to admit. I knew the first year would be challenging, but I had nothing to compare it to and, if I’m being honest, didn’t really know how to ask someone else about it. You know, how do ask someone, “tell me how you dealt with that first year after one of your parents died?”
itial thoughts about what had taken place at the convention midway through and expressed my plan to provide a more thorough overview once our team returned to Valdosta. In fact, I had begun gathering my thoughts on the convention but then my plans changed.
We’re in Nashville this week for what was expected to be, at times, a testy family gathering. Largely, that has proven not to be the case in the room. Now, you might not know that if all you knew about the convention happenings was based on various social media platforms.
I had thought I would be writing about ministries resuming, in-person gatherings growing, the 2020 election campaigns behind us, and the end of the global pandemic in sight. I still want to write on those topics but I have paused any writing I might do so that I might process the events of January 6, 2021, in Washington DC, the hurried events that followed, and the revelations about famed apologist Ravi Zacharias.
Goodness gracious! Like so many people literally around the world, I thought 2020 lingered far longer than was welcome. This…
A lot has happened in my life that I want to share before returning my attention to other topics such as reopening churches, budgeting during corona, the presidential election, etc. Like many of you, I will not mourn when 2020 passes away and we move into 2021!
Resuming on-campus worship on Sunday morning was just the first step in our plan to slowly transition back to a normal schedule. Sunday will mark our fourth week of on-campus worship services. The last three weeks have gone very smoothly and we anticipate that to continue to be the case as we transition into the next phase of our reopening plan. I strongly believe one of the key reasons for that is part of our plan from the beginning included communication. There are four key groups we knew we needed to have clear communication with.
If there is someone who wants to resume on-campus worship services more than our team, I don’t know him! Seriously, since our church last met on March 15th for worship, we have been closely following the guidance of our local, state, and national leaders working hard to keep the members of our congregation safe.
After our first Sunday online, I have to admit I was down. Like a lot of other churches, things didn’t go as well as we had hoped that first time we moved our worship services entirely online. Yes, we have long had our services on a livestream but it had not been a key focus of our ministry up to that point. Mercy has that changed!
I have been genuinely impressed to see the pastors of churches from across the Southern Baptist Convention creatively adapting to the constantly changing COVID-19 situation. As new information becomes available, leaders at all levels of government have been adjusting their responses to the spread of the virus and asking all organizations in our nation to adapt.
Those are fun discussions, but there was a different question that inspired this post. That question: why do I blog? It’s a good question and one I have actually given a considerable bit of thought to!
Today I want to share a very good way to help save your church money year after year. I’m not talking about something that only larger churches can do either! Nope, this one is for churches of just about any size, assuming you have computers in use in your church. I’m talking about computer software.
There is so much I have learned these last four years that I could write pages and pages about. I could share about all of the training I received in seminary and how I have been able to apply it over that time. I could also write about the things I wished I had learned in seminary that I have had to learn along the way.
You’re probably hearing a lot of people saying something similar to what I am hearing: where did this year go? As the years pass by, they do seem to do so more quickly than I remember as a child or even as a young adult. With the year coming to a close in a few short weeks, I have been reflecting on all God has allowed me to be a part of and the ways in which He has blessed me and my family. Believe me, it’s a lot!
The Georgia Baptist Convention was earlier this week and as I expected it flew by. Any discussion of this year’s meeting that neglects to praise the folks at New Hope Baptist Church for the amazing job they did hosting us this year is simply incomplete. They are blessed with great facilities and amazing volunteers that represented their church and the Lord Jesus Christ so well as they served Georgia Baptists. Thank you!
In my last post I mentioned the Georgia Baptist Convention is right around the corner. Next week, in fact! I know New Hope Baptist Church is ready for Georgia Baptists to come and spend a couple days with them and I am certain they will be amazing hosts!
I hear it all the time: “I’m not a numbers person!” Sometimes someone will say something like, “I sure am glad you’re the numbers guy and not me.” The truth is I am a numbers guy and I love me a spreadsheet where I can track a lot of different, complex things and put together a simple report that helps us see what’s happening in our ministry. To do that, I track a lot of different metrics.
With some vacation time that is unused on my hands, I decided to take a couple of extra days this week and spend time on the campus of Truett McConnell University (TMU). Readers with kids in college can probably relate to this: any excuse to go see my son in person is a good excuse to make that drive! So, with the help of the amazing folks at TMU, I made my plans and waited for this week to arrive. Since I would be on campus, I thought it would be fun to survey a few classes (yep…I’m that guy) and see firsthand what happens in the classrooms on the campus where my son is now residing.
Spending time with two of my friends yesterday was a tremendous blessing and not just because we ate well, which we did! That time reminded me of a few things those close ministry friendships add to my life and my ministry. Honestly, that time reminded me of more than that, but I thought I’d share a couple of those things here.
Do you remember Apple’s little iPod Nano? I sure do! Mine was a gift from my wife while our family was living in Las Cruces, New Mexico. That gift led to my moving away from listening to the radio in my car and eventually into the world of podcasts.
If you are looking for practical training for just about any ministry in your church, you’ll find it at GO Georgia! It is a total church leadership equipping event that helps in more way than you might think.
During a recent staff meeting we talked about our core beliefs. For all of us who still need to know “why,” this is an important exercise that reinforces what we do and why we do it as a church.
Recently I had the privilege of writing a series of columns for The Christian Index related to a breakout session I am leading during the upcoming GO Georgia conference. The title of my session is “Budget with Purpose” and is one of over 100 breakout sessions available to conference attendees. I was humbled by the opportunity to write for such a distinguished publication as well as for the invitation to lead a breakout session at the conference.
When my wife and I got married 1998, we lived in an apartment in Lawrenceville, Georgia. I still had a…
When I say my son and wife are more prepared for this next season in our lives than I am, that does not mean I am not embracing it. Quite the opposite is actually true!
Earlier this year our Missions Pastor told me he thought I was supposed to be a part of the team…
Back in 2007 I did something I wasn’t very sure about at the time: I set up a blog. While…