Another Sojourn Cookout

So Desi and I just got home from yet another Sojourn cookout. It was more of a "Let's order pizza so we don't have to cookout this time" kind of a cookout. So it wasn't a cookout at all. It was a pizza party. And a couple of awesome people came as well.

First there was Son Tan. Yes, it is pronounced just like you think it is. He is a guitar player who wants to play with us. He also plays at another church where he is on a rotation, which is good because he knows exactly when he's playing there. And he has a really nice guitar. A Gibson Les Paul Standard, for those of you who care to know, or even know what that is.

Also, Aneesa(Spelling?) and Ian came. They're a really cool couple. Ian is from Sierra Leone and Aneesa is from Chicago I think. Ian is a seriously smart guy, and Aneesa is a preacher's kid. Aneesa is apparently a very gifted person as well. She wants to serve in the church, but doesn't where she wants to serve only because she can't make up her because she kind of wants to do it all.

So we'll see what happens from here. But now, I apparently am getting old because it's not even 9:00 and I'm ready to go to bed. See you youngsters later.

Tomorrow, Tomorrow, I'll love ya tomorrow!

So I'm pretty excited about tomorrow. Why? Well, Sojourn isn't having a service tomorrow. But that's not what I'm excited about. I'm excited because it means that I get to go to another church tomorrow. I haven't been to any other churches up here. And I can't wait to go to the one we're going to tomorrow.

Tomorrow, Desi and I are going to Mosaic Church. They are some awesome guys there, and they do a great job, from what I hear. And they're a big success in the area. They had 500 people show up to their first service! 500 people! That's nuts! And they've been running 2 campuses for a while too. Well, they actually just moved out of the movie theater that Sojourn now meets in, and moved into a high school, so both of their campuses are together now, all 1000 people. Yeah, 1000 people in just 3 years, that's phenomenal!

And I've recently gotten to know the worship pastor there, Nate Davis. Nate is an awesome guy with some great ideas on helping the global church that I'm excited to join in on. And he wears some really cool t-shirts. I've heard that's kind of the dress code for worship pastors out here, designer jeans and cool t-shirts.

And tomorrow evening we are having a little get together for Sojourn. Just a chance for us to get to know some of the new people who want to volunteer. Good for me, because I didn't get a chance to meet anyone after last week's service.

So that's my day tomorrow. Should be fun!

Email, Phone, Email, Phone...

So my day has been completely consumed with emailing and phoning people. It started this morning at 8:45 and ended about 30 minutes ago around 5:30. I'm surprised I'm still in any mood whatsoever to be typing.

I just looked at my email, and today I sent 35 emails to different supporters of Sojourn and to people who visited Sojourn this past weekend, and to the band, and to Toby, and Nate, and someone else. Oh, a couple people who volunteered last weekend for the first time. I also received almost 50 emails today. So really about half of the emails I sent were reply's to emails I received. But I still had to type 35 emails and read nearly 50.

But that's not all. I also made 15 phone calls today. 15 phone calls! I had to call a couple of people after I emailed them or they emailed me. Trying to coordinate stuff. I also called like 5 places trying to find a place to have band practice. There's no where to do that either. And to top it all of, I've had to leave like 5 messages. Which means I could be getting 5 more phone calls at any minute.

And I'll have you know that I did all of this and still had to work at Buckle from 12-4! So I started emailing and phone calling at 8:45. Stopped to go to Buckle at 11:30. Then picked it right back up when I got home from Buckle at around 4:30.

I love people. I really do. I love talking to people, and emailing people, and finding out how people are doing. I love talking to other worship pastors and finding out what God is doing in their church, and making lunch plans with them. I love talking to people about getting involved with serving Sojourn by volunteering on Sunday mornings. I love talking to musicians who want to be a part of our band. I love all these things. What I don't love is doing them all at once! So if I emailed you or talked to on the phone today, please don't upset if I totally forget all of it next time I talk to you.

But it really is a good sign. It shows me that there is a lot going on with Sojourn. It shows me that people are proud to support us with prayer, and finances. It shows me that people want to be a part of Sojourn, and believe in what we are doing. It shows me that there are people out there who really care and want to help. So yes it was a lot. But it all good too.

Over This City

Someone once told that every city has sort of a demon sitting over it. Not so much a demon, but a spirit. Every city has a spirit about it that keeps people from God. He is the pastor of a church in San Diego, CA, so he felt like the demon over San Diego had dread locks, sitting in a hammock, smoking pot telling everyone to relax because everything was gonna be alright.

I got some tough news. One of my good friends here, whom will call Jim, not his real name, and his wife are separated. He is an awesome guy who has been working very hard to provide for his family during this difficult time in our economy. Apparently she didn't feel he had been doing enough. So she asked him to leave. Jim told me what was happening, and my heart shattered for him and his family. I know it's hard being away from his children like this, and feeling like his wife doesn't seem to care.

I have another friend, I will call him Bob. Bob and wife have been married for less than a year. They have been separated for a few months now. She left him only a couple of months after they got married. And another guy I know, Jack we will say, was divorced by his wife shortly after they learned they were having their first child.

What makes things worse is that all of these guys were leaders in their church when this all happened. Fortunately my friend we are calling Jim, is part of a great church and still wants him to be a part of their community. But the other two guys weren't so fortunate. Now, I know for Bob's church, it was a very difficult decision. One that the pastor confesses he wished he never had to make.

So that being said, I feel like Charlotte has a demon over it like San Diego does. It's not a demon that is smoking pot sitting in a hammock. It's a demon that is running throughout churches and tearing apart the families of the leaders in those churches. It's a demon that is telling the married people that they deserve better than what they have, and that it's out there just waiting for them. That demon convinced Jim's wife that there is a man out there who can give what Jim can't, and that she deserves a husband better than Jim. It convinced Bob's wife that she just didn't need Bob, so why stay with him.

It's so upsetting to see the people I know here hurt so badly. It's really quite alarming. Now obviously I know that divorce is everywhere. And it happens in churches all across the nation. But it seems as if the thing to do here in Charlotte is go to Starbucks in the morning, divorce your spouse in the afternoon, and go back to Starbucks in the evening like nothing had happened. It's really inspired me to protect my marriage with Desi even more strongly. It make want to do even more to guard ourselves from those improper thoughts.

I am praying for my friends Jim and Bob. God is in the business of redemption, and I am praying that he redeems my friends marriages, so that He can receive the glory of being a God that can redeem anything, anyone, and any relationship.

The Big Day

So the big day was actually yesterday. It's just taken me a whole day to get over all that went on.

So yesterday was Sojourn's first preview service. Wow, what a day. I got up at 5 in the morning, shaved, and took a shower. Got in the car around 6:15. Arrived at the theater at 6:30. About 6:31 my stomach started to churn. At 6:35 I had to use the bathroom, like HAD to! Started setting up at 6:45. Got done setting up at 8:15, which was 15 minutes later than I wanted to be done. Had band rehearsal till 9. Prayed with the team at 9:05. Realized I hadn't set up the projector at 9:20. Finished setting up the projector at 9:25. Stomach no longer churning but writhing in anxiousness, went to the bathroom and c put on a dry t-shirt at 9:30. Started service at 10:05. Led worship till 10:35. Listened to Toby talk about finding our significance through surrender. Sang "Take My Life(Here Am I) by Chris Tomlin at 10:55. Forgot the lyrics at 10:58. Tore down at 11:15. Went to lunch at 12:30.

So that was a rundown of my day yesterday. It was hectic, chaotic, crazy, a mess, and a huge success.

At 3:30, Toby called to tell me some amazing news...

One person accepted Christ yesterday!

And a couple of others made a recommitment!

And the other 15 people that were there were "whoa-oh-oh"ing with me during "Take It All", Hillsong. So there was about 20 people there, which is great for a first service, based on what I've heard of from other church plants at their first service. But even better is the decisions that were made.

We've only had one service and we've already had someone give their life to Christ! That's the real success. I was sitting at home thinking of what a great morning we had when I found out that it was even better than I thought!

This first service was a great experience. I've experienced church planting before, but as a member, not as a pastor. I saw a whole new side of church planting I've never known before. It was a lot more stressful and nerve racking, but it was so incredibly worth it. I've got so many ideas on how to improve on set up, and rehearsal, and other things for our next service. I will definitely be sharing a lot more of what I thought about Sunday in the week to come. I just felt like I need to say something now that I've had some time to process all that happened.

I haven't had a chance to talk the person who accepted Christ yet, but I can't wait to, and hear their story of how they came to that decision. I hope they let us do a testimony video of them for one of our future services.

Well hello there

So I just realized I haven't posted anything in an entire week. That's really bad for me. But allow me to explain...

First off, Desi and I went out of town for our very first ever wedding anniversary this week. We were gone from Sunday till Wednesday. It was a nice break.

Then when we were still on the way home Wednesday, all you know what broke loose. We were supposed to have our first band practice and everything fell apart. We lost our place to practice, and the bassist called and said he had some family stuff come up at the last minute. So we had to put together an impromptu acoustic set.

Then on Thursday I had coffee with Nate. Nate is the worship pastor at Mosaic Church. Yes the name is the same, but they are not part of the Mosaic network of churches that stems from Mosaic LA. Thus they are Mosaic Church, not Mosaic Charlotte. But Nate is an awesome guy with some great vision. And he's helped us out a lot already. Then I had to work at Buckle, and worked on trying to get stuff ready for Sunday.

And today...I woke up a little later than usual, meaning I got up at 8 instead of 7. I worked on some set up instruction stuff for sunday. Then I went to Journey to get some floor monitors they're letting us borrow. Then I worked at Buckle. Then I slapped flyers on windshields at the mall and got kicked out of the parking lot, apparently you're not allowed to do that. Then I came home, got a shower, and went to Toby's to run over everything for sunday one last time. I also freaked Toby out and told him that we didn't have some cables we needed to have for sunday, which meant spending more money. Toby likes to say that he is "cautious" with money, so it got to him a little.

Since then I've been sitting in front of this computer working on last minute announcement slides and videos for sunday. And I'm waiting on Kinsey, Jared, and Josh to get here. That's my brother, and my two bestest buddies, who are all coming up from the ATL for Sojourn's launch on Sunday.

So that's my excuses for not talking to you in a while. What's yours?

Audtitions

So last night was pretty interesting. Last night was our first night having auditions for Sojourn's worship band. I say it was interesting for a couple of reasons.

1. I had 8 people tell me they were definitely going to be there.

So I'm thinking, "Gosh, 8 people. I'm not sure we're going to have room for all of them in Toby's garage." But I knew I had to make it work. So I go over to Toby's in the middle of the afternoon to set up. We get the drumset all set up along with a little PA system. I was getting ready for drummers, bassists, guitarists, vocalist, and a pianist. I used to have a little audition evaluation sheet, but I lost it so I had to make a new. I got that done. Then I printed off lyrics for the songs the vocalists were going to sing; I wasn't expecting anyone to memorize anything.

So the moment arrives. 7:30. And here's anotherinteresting part of last night.

2. Only one person showed up.

Rob. He was the only one out of 8 people that actually showed up. And I know no one else got lost or anything because every single person had my phone number, and I did not have a single call all night, except from Rob who actually got to Toby's house at 7 when no one was there. So after a week of emails and phone calls and meeting people face to face, only one of them showed up. Was it frustrating? Actually, not at all!

See, Rob came to audition to play drums. And audition he did not. Impress he very much did. I had sent him an mp3 of "Take it All" by Hillsong about 3 days before the audition. And this guy shows up and has it nailed. It was like he'd heard it all his life, and says he had never heard it before. He had great rythem and tempo. I made him count off the song without listening to it, and th tempo was perfect. He knew exactly where he was going next. He had each drum piece down. I was very impressed. And what I liked the most about Rob is that he said that he wants to be part of a church that is something different for him, and he wants to serve that church with him talents. What more could you ask for?

So that being said, last night honestly did not feel like a waste whatsoever. And I now have a drummer who wants to "the drummer" in a band, which is great because I know he's reliable since he was the only to show up, and he was early. So now, we atleast have all the pieces we need for our first service. August 24th, be looking for me, Brad, Josh, and Rob being able to worship at AMC Northlake Mall with whoever else shows up.

Even if it's one person.

Brochures!

This is part of Creative Chaos at RagamuffinSoul.com.

So I talked be fore about how we finally finished the road signs for Sojourn. Well, now, our brochures are done! Now, when I say brochure, I don't mean some little pamphlet with nice pictures of people smiling and enjoying our worship. When I say brochure I mean a little card that tells you what we are about. It has a segment on there that is our motto...Come as you are. This is also he piece that every church has for people to fill out with their info, like their name, phone number, email, if they made a decision to follow Christ, or if their interested in volunteering. But it's a totally different look than I've ever seen before, and I LOVE it! Enjoy...





I am so thankful to Curtis for coming up with the original design for free. This isn't exactly what his looked like, but his certainly helped me get here. This is going to be the very first thing that people get in their hands when they come to Sojourn, so we knew it had to look it's best. And it freaking rocks! I couldn't be happier with the way it turned out. And we should be getting them back from print tomorrow I think. We are now only 10 days away from our launch. Here we go!

Momentum

I love Craig's list. I really do. It's a wonderful thing. Last week I put up a couple of posts on Craig's list about needed musicians for Sojourn. And it has been awesome how many people have contacted me wanting to audition. I've getting at least one email a day since I posted it 5 days ago. I've talked to Brian, Rob, Josh, Quentin, Brandon, Caleb, and later today I will talk to Kristen. And to think, just last week I thought it was just goin to be me and Brad playing all by ourselves.

We're having auditions this Friday, and it looks like Toby's garage is going to be very full! I say Toby's garage because that's the only place we have to do auditions right now. It's going to fun. There's only one thing that makes me nervous. We are having auditions Friday. We will have our first practice next Wednesday. Then we have our first service the following Sunday. In other words, we will have one practice outside of Sunday morning as a band before our very first service. That's just a little nerve racking. So we will just have to wait and see what happens. Hopefully all of these people are very talented and call pull it off!

Music that Worships

I was talking with my new friend Gil the other day about trying to get some musicians to play at Sojourn. Gil is a worship leader here and knows a ton of guys, which is great because I don't know anybody.

We started talking about some musicians he knows when he said something I hadn't thought about in a while.

He said, "Some guys can play really well. Other guys can worship really well."

Like I said, I hadn't thought about that. So I started thinking about more. And here's what I realized.

There is culture in the church now that you pay the musicians who play. It's rampant now. I thought it was bad in Atlanta with the mega-churches there that pay their musicians upwards of $300 a service. Then I come to Charlotte, where the same thing takes place. Now, this isn't a bad thing entirely, but it kind of hurts church plants. We don't have the money for anyone to be full-time staff, let alone to pay musicians.

What is really hurtful of this culture is that feeds into the musicians desires. Every musician wants to tour. It's like the ultimate goal. And churches are feeding that desire now. As a musician, you can play at a different church every weekend, so it feels a lot like you're touring. It just makes the musicians ego a little bigger each time they get paid. They start thinking, "Hey, I'm good enough at this to get paid to do it. Why should I not get paid to do it? If someone can't pay me, then I can't play for them." It's selfish is what it really is. And this is so set into the culture now that even churches who don't have the money to pay musicians feel like they have to in order to have the quality of music they want.

So that being said I have made a decision. I am not looking for good musicians. I am looking for good worshipers. I don't want to deal with peoples ego-centric attitudes of being to good to play for Sojourn because we can't pay them. I want musicians who just want to worship God with their talents. I want musicians who want to serve the church and serve God.

I want musicians who worship better than they play.

Huge Things

"And he (Jesus) did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith." -Matthew 13:58

This verse is scary to me. There is a lot to learn from this verse. This verse is a wake up call. It is a stark reminder. It calls me to action.

So Jesus goes back into Nazareth, his home town, for the first time since he started his ministry. I don't know how long it had been since he was last there, but had to be a while, like more than a year. Anyways, he's back home, and he starts preaching to the people there. Well, these are the people Jesus grew up with. The guy who worked at the grocery store Jesus used to shop at was there.. His Sunday school buddies were there. That girl who had a crush on him when they were 10 was there. You get the idea.

Jesus starts preaching, and the people there start wondering where he got all of his knowledge from. They know that this is that kid who used to play tag with their kids. Well, they start getting mad. Scripture says "they took offense at him." They thought that Jesus thought that he was better than them all of a sudden. They start thinking stuff like, "Who is this guy to tell ME what the ancient writings say?" They think that Jesus is just one of them and has no place to be preaching to them.

So what happens? Basically nothing. It says right there that Jesus didn't do many miracles there. Why? Because of their lack of faith. They missed out on what they could have ben a part of. They missed out on the big things Jesus could have done!

Talk about a smack in the face!

This could happen to me!

I could be the one that misses out on the great things that God could does. I could be the one who, because of my lack of faith, doesn't get to experience all that God is capable of. That's scary!

God has plans. And no matter what we do, or don't do, those plans will be accomplished. But how terrible would it be to not be able to be a part of those things because I got in the way.

I want so badly to see God do HUGE things. I want to be used to do those things. I want Sojourn to become the movement we are imagining. I want to be a big part of worship music. I want to be someone who helps thousands of other churches. I want to do BIG THINGS!

I have goals. I have a vision for my life. I have dreams. And then I have BIG dreams. I want to see these dreams come to life. But tey won't if I let my head get in the way.

I want to see God do HUGE THINGS!

Getting the word out

So yesterday was an eventful day at Sojourn.

We passed out more flyers.

Yeah, it wasn't the most exciting "event" or anything like that, bu it's the cheapest way for 5000 people to see what we're about.

Last weekend Toby and I passed out about 1000 flyers. Yesterday, we as a church, 10 people, passed out about 3000 more. The great thing about yesterday is that we loaded up the area right around the movie theater we will be meeting in. It's the first time we've done anything right in the specific area we will be meeting in. We went as far east as UNC-Charlotte, and as far west as to about Mt. Holly Huntersville Rd.

So it was a good day yesterday. And hopefully some people will read the flyer and at least want to find out more and go to the website or something. Maybe they'll even come to the church, which would be awesome!

Also, we are now less than 3 weeks out from our first service. Here goes nothing...

Graphics

Today was a great day for me. It was a great day for Sojourn.

Today, Curtis showed us what he's got.

Curtis is a guy I met at Buckle. Turns out, he's a graphic designer. And he was totally willing to do anything for Sojourn. So I gave him some stuff to work on. I saw his website (which I don't have the web address for right now), and it looks really good. So I figured he'd do a good job. He did more than a good job. He did a great job! The things he has done for us are awesome.

I'm not going to put any pictures of his work up here because it isn't done yet. I just wanted to get your appetite wet. But don't worry, as soon as it's done, you will see what an amazing job he has done.

Thank you Curtis for all of your great work. It looks freaking awesome! Thank you, thank you, thank you.