Mistakes I've made in the past four years part two:

4. I tried to do too much.
I truly thought everything had to go through me.  This was nothing but my immaturity.  I was scared of letting people try new things.  What if they failed?  What if they didn't live up to my expectations?  One person can only lead a church so far.  As we continued to grow I began to realize I COULD NOT DO EVERYHTING.  If we were to be the church God planned for us to be, I had to get my hands off of everything.  Since discovering the reality of this, I have narrowed my focus into three areas:
    a. teaching God's Word
    b. leadership development
    c. the vision of this church
By stepping back from the daily routines of running a church I can now focus more on God's Word and prayer.  I spend hours in the Bible and on my face before God each week.  When I stand to teach God'sWord I feel confident this is exactly what God has laid on my heart.  In the beginning stages of the church, I was doing everything but everything was being done poorly.

5. Scared to lose people
I can remember the first time someone told me they were leaving the church.  I was shocked, hurt and just flat pissed off.  How dare they leave our church.  I can remember thinking about it for days.  What had I done wrong?  Why would anyone want to leave this incredible church of 100 people meeting in Pickens High School.  I lost so much sleep scared more people would be leaving. 
Sure enough, they did.  But I love the way my friend Perry Noble put it, "the church is a body and every body needs a good bowel movement."  If someone hasn't bought into the vision, if someone doesn't enjoy our music or my style of teaching, they need to leave.
Now when people tell me they are leaving, I wish them the best of luck in finding the perfect church.  I usually tell them if they find it, let me know, I'll go there also.  When you see a sign that says, "A church for everyone" that is false advertisement.  No church can please everyone and we can't either.  People will come and they will go.

6. Consumed with numbers
Every church planter dreams of the day when every seat is full.  I have prayed for this throughout our four years.  But the difference between now and when we started is that I desire to see the seats full because of life change.  I do dream of the day when every seat is full, three or four or five times a Sunday.  But it is because I'm driven to fill them with people who do not know Jesus.  People who need to hear the good news of a loving Savior.

This past Sunday as I drove to church in the pouring rain I told God, regardless of the number we have, I was preaching as if it was my last sermon.  If we have 200 or 1,000 I will not let the numbers sway me because every person here is a person God created and deserves my best.  God is going to fill this place five times over, but it wasn't until I had my priorities correct would He do so.

Some other thoughts:
* We have close to 150,000 eggs stuffed, taped and boxed.  WOW!
* Begging God for a beautiful day on April 4th, no back up plan.
* 2,000 hot dogs and buns ordered
* Can't wait to head to Bon Clarken with 28 couples this Friday & Saturday.  It is going to be a blast.
* Not ashamed to say I look forward to an awesome night of passion with my bride.  Gonna be good!
* Saturday night is our Volunteer Banquet.  I wanted to say thanks to all the people who make things happen around here.
* 200 lime green egg drop shirts are ordered.  I believe we will fill every single one because our people are starting to get it.
   Serving others is how you bring people to Jesus!
* Asking God to show me how to take risk for Him.  I so desire to do great things for my Savior.
* PMS, the man series continues this Sunday.  Discussing money this week but not on giving to the church.  We'll be discussing   
  heart issues.  YOu can't buy God or lie to God.  I can promise you it will be eye opening. 
* Going to try and ride 20 miles today at lunch.  Haven't rode my bike yet this year.  Been swimming and running but no bilking.
   I know I'm going to be so sore in the morning.
* Met with my coached this morning and challenged them to begin taking risk for Jesus.
* Enough for now, gotta get back to work on Sunday morning and this weekend activities.