Don't bunt!

So, thanks to Comcast Sports Channel, I had the chance to watch Wake Forest play in the ACC baseball tournament this weekend.

Wake made it as an 8th seed, punching their ticket to go on the last weekend of the regular season (thank you BC and the rain!). Wake lost their first game then went on to beat Clemson and Miami - 2 powerhouses in college baseball - to reach the championship game against UNC.

UNC is up 3 to 2 going into the bottom of the 9th inning. Wake has 2 outs, a man on first, and one of their best hitters at bat with their BEST hitter on deck. So what does the guy up do? He tries to bunt his way on! And where does he bunt it? Straight back to the pitcher! The pitcher doesn't even MOVE!

So here's the deal. I love competition! I realized that again this weekend. But there is one thing I never want to do - BUNT! If your going to lose, lose swinging! 'Cause you NEVER know when you are going to get ahold of one and send it flying!

Life lesson today - don't bunt!

It's not manly...

Mr Ed

I would like to thank one of you for your comment on my picture to the right. You said, and I quote, "[i]t kind of reminds me of Mr Ed." Thanks.

Like my self esteem isn't low enough...

Date Night

<---- Family portrait.

Kara and I had a date night this week! Woo-hoo! Doesn't happen often, but I have to say, I love our date nights. A little dinner at PF Changs and then we HAD to grab a piece of cheesecake at The Cheesecake Factory. HHMMMMMM good!!!!

So if you ever want to make me happy, bring me some cheesecake from the Factory!

great read!

Take a moment to read these excerpts from Dave Dummit - lead guy from 242 Community Church in Michigan. Really good leadership stuff about reproducing...

1. Cast the Vision from the Beginning

• Start with a name that is reproducible.
• Start by calling your church plant the "first campus".
• Hire staff that are "reproducers".
• Bring people in who have gone multi-site and have them tell their story.
• Bring on church planting apprentices to help with the launch.

2. Reproduce when You Can, Not when You Have To!

• Start a second service when you have enough leaders and artists, don't wait for the room to be completely packed.
• Start each small group with the idea that it will soon reproduce. And if you have groups that are too big, make sure that you have multiple leaders so that those groups can reproduce quickly. No matter how many people are in a small group don't close the group; force reproduction.

3. Develop a Reproducing Culture.

• A reproducing culture is a permission-giving culture.
• One person in our church went from being far from God and living with his girlfriend to a worship leader in 3 months. Some will say that is "soft-selling the gospel"; I say that shows the power of the gospel.
• God wants to move faster than we do. In Acts we have 3,000 people getting baptized, you know that resulted in some rookie leaders!
• Coaching is key in a reproducing culture.

4. Measure Reproduction Internally.

• Create a dashboard that measures reproduction in every area of your church.
• Share that dashboard with all your leaders so they can see where you are winning.

5. Celebrate Reproduction Publicly.

• Congratulate all new leaders by putting their picture and name on the screen at a weekend service.
• Announce all new leaders at Leadership Community.

6. Develop Clear Expectations and a Common Language for your Leadership Pipeline.

• Every ministry has it's own separate silo and often ends up with it's own language. If you can make sure that every ministry uses the same language (volunteer, apprentice leader, leader, coach, staff) it gives a clear path for the leadership pipeline.

7. Model Reproduction Yourself.

• You are going to reproduce who you are.
• You will reproduce whether you want to or not.

Feed on those words for a moment...

500!

Over the last 2 weeks, we have been working as a campus to bring in books for London Towne Elementary School. A school that has a large number of underprivileged kids. Each summer they do a book drive so they can give their kids at least 5 books per kid to read while out of school. Great idea!

Well, after two Sundays and limited announcements, the Haymarket campus has brought in 500 books! That is incredible! Here we are helping a school not even connected with our campus.

Keep it up Haymarket! We are making a difference!

not a wuss!

No. Not talking about me. Though some may not agree!

I am reading the story of Abraham again and came across something I never noticed before. In Genesis 14, Abraham actually led his men into battle against some bad guys! They went in, beat up some guys who had pillaged Sodom and Gomorrah (of all places), and brought back Lot, his family and others to S & G. Really cool!

The best part? Abraham didn't even take the goodies offered him by the rulers of S & G! He told them to keep their crap! NICE.

community impact

If you ever hear me talk, you will know I use the word IMPACT quite a bit. I think it is my BUZZ word. Not sure why. A nervous tic I guess. Anywho, I am REALLY excited about something we are doing here at the Haymarket Campus now. How do we connect people, take care of people, and impact our communities at the same time? We start community groups!

These are not life groups, but community groups - a connection point for our people in their communities.

Why do this? It creates buzz. It creates community. And in the end, it helps us impact the lives of people around us.

So stay tuned to watching this play out! And make sure to get in on our community groups!

mother's day

I always like mother's day. Not only do we get to celebrate (or have disdain for our mothers as some of our experiences with them have left us in pain) motherhood, we get to celebrate life. Plus, it's one day of the year you get to let your wife take it easy. Not a bad gig if your a mother!

Of course, I am kidding! It's kind of like the pay scale they put together for stay at home mom's every year. I think the number this year is $138,000. That is BIG cash! Too bad stay at home moms don't actually get paid!

Anyway, mother's day is always a good day at church too. We do our Child Dedications that day. Cool to see so many new people come out to support their families. And then to see them have fun while there.

Good stuff! And great job Terri!

day at the zoo

I took the day off yesterday to spend with my family (much needed). We decided to head East - to the National Zoo. My first time there in about 30 years. I have to say, it really is a nice zoo. And free!

Our kids crack me up. They seemed to be more excited about riding the Metro than getting to the zoo. Then at the zoo, they kept saying, "Look, a caterpillar!" I'm thinking - we could have stayed home for the caterpillar zoo! Got to love them!

Oh, and for some reason Savana wanted to see the Hippos. So we make it to the Hippos. But what is she most interested in? The cotton candy in her hand! UGGHHHHH!

Good time though! I highly recommend it...

the VIP room

Cheesecake GALORE! Yes, that's right! We had TONS of cheesecake this past Sunday night. And it was GOOD!

We also spent time talking about the health of the Haymarket campus - basically our numbers for the year. Good stuff to celebrate. God is doing some great things here. Keep on praying...

The rest of the night - as we ate cheesecake - we talked about our next steps as a campus. We are going to focus on leadership development and coaching. For us to move FORWARD, we have to develop leaders (you may call it discipleship too). So stay tuned for more info on coaching...

The last bit we talked about was building regions. We have around 8 towns/areas that our people come from. We are going to split up into those regions and ask some of you to be the go to person for that area. It will be a great chance for us to build relationships and a BIGGER community.

Good stuff! And as always, lets move forward!