Teenagers, tattoo artist & bankers

Today @C3 I looked around the room and was amazed at what I saw.

Gauging success is easy in school but how do you determine success in the church world.

The C3 report card is scored on LifeChange. When someone takes a step beyond where they are we celebrate it. The ultimate goal is to give them the information to make a LifeChanging decision.

Today I was struck by the diversity I noticed when I looked around the room. I saw my 16yr old daughter and a lot of her friends, I saw a tattoo artist and a banker. If that isn't cool I don't know what is.

We say we want to be a church where you feel comfortable inviting your friends. Based on that criteria - success.

My point: we could easily point to the offering or the 1100+ people that showed up this weekend but we want to celebrate more than that. We celebrate small steps and major decisions. We celebrate teenagers inviting their friends, we celebrate our banker showing up in his sweater vest and we celebrate our people inviting the one who gave them a tattoo.

We are blown away at what is going on at C3 and we celebrate being part of it.

What other environment will you see teenagers, tattoo artists and bankers.

Go positive

I love throwing a good positive over a potential negative.

I kind of enjoy when a person is trying to be negative about someone and I don't go there. I will say things like: we don't know the whole story, you're definitely entitled to your opinion, that's not the same person I know, let's give em the benefit of the doubt or don't you think that's an unfair perspective.

Sometimes I will be more direct and tell them they are being negative or ask if they would be saying that if the other person were standing here.

The final tactic is to blow up the negative with a positive. I try to talk about something really good about the person just to get the negative person to either see a different side or just shut up.

My point: one of the easiest things to be is negative. One of the hardest things do is be positive around negative people. Training yourself ahead of time, knowing how you will respond to negativity is a great defense to negativity.

The next time someone goes negative - be positive. It will either make them mad or make them quiet. Either way, you're better off.

Honor

This is a great of woman. This great woman is mourning the loss of a great man who served our great country.

The viewing and the funeral were absolutely incredible. The outpouring of love and support to honor Tim's life was nothing short of amazing.

Tim was honored by the US military and his wife was presented with a gift she will always cherish. Tim was honored by friends and family by attending his funeral and showing his girls love. Tim was honored by people sharing memories of how his life made theirs better. Many many people honored Tim.

One great thing was Tim was around long enough to hear people honor him so he could appreciate it.

My point: we need to honor people when they are alive to hear it as well as when they are no longer with us. Life is way to short to wait until a "better time" to show love and honor to those who deserve it. Show honor as you can because you are not guaranteed another opportunity.

It's times like these that make you wonder what you will be remembered for and how will you be honored.

Our friend Tim Caudill died way before his time and we will miss him dearly.

See, I told you

I remember when we moved to Pickerington and we were taking a family walk in a neighborhood when a couple kids ride by and one yelled "O-H" to which we responded "I-O".

After we completed our part, the one who yelled OH turned to the other kid and said "see, I told you". He was proving to the other one that no matter where you yell it, someone will complete it.

It's great to take such pride in our state that you can always count on the pride being returned.

That's how it felt today at the C3 EGGstravaganza. We put it on as a gift to the community. Lots of people showed up as if to say - see, I told you.

When we started C3 our goal was to be a positive influence in this community. I think many families have started bringing people to this event to show them its possible to have fun for free and we don't try to convince anyone to attend our church. It's a gift.

We have done this event every year we have been a church. I love people expect this event. We have positively influenced this community and many people can trust us to say - see, I told you it wouldn't be weird.

My point: do things you are proud of. We are proud to be part of a great church in a great city in a great state.

When people look at you and say to someone else "see I told you" - what so they mean???

DR3AM

We had C3s version of an annual business meeting tonight. We had close to 130 people show up to celebrate 2012 and get excited about 2013.

We presented some incredible information about how great 2012 was and how much greater we believe 2013 is going to be.

We shared these 2012 stats:
-605 first time guests
-324 salvations/recommitments
-59 baptisms
-412 participated in 31 Comm Groups

We don't talk about these things to brag on anyone other than Jesus. As a church we are blessed to have an incredible team dedicated to accomplishing the vision of our pastor - Loving people to LifeChange.

We gave staffing updates and introduced our newest team member, this received a huge round of applause.

My point: a DR3AM requires action. Action requires a plan and a plan requires amazing people. C3 has been blessed with all the above.

We can't wait to say "no way" every time God does something amazing. Maybe we will get to the point where we say "of course He did" but for now we will stay in awe of what God continues to do.

We love Pickerington and I am living the DR3AM.

Why do you play?

Rae (5yrs old) and I were playing tic tac toe and this is the board and its her move. What's a 5yr old to do?

My little left handed princess grabbed her crayon and started to put her X in a spot and I paused her and asked her what are you doing?

Before she answered, I told her to look at the whole board. Hannah (7yrs old) started to tell her what to do and I stopped her. I said Rae, what's the goal? And she said looked at me with a "are u kidding me" look and said "to win".

My point: sometimes we get so caught up playing defense that we forget to play offense. Sometimes we view ourselves as the victim and overlook the fact we are victorious. Sometimes we play not to lose instead of to win.

Sometimes we need to step back and get a fresh perspective. Sometimes a pause before we move is all that's needed.

What's the goal? What are u trying to do. Who are you?

If the goal is to win, play offense. If the goal is to win - WIN!

Rae made the right move - she won

...he says he loves me a lot of times

I had the privilege of taking my 5yr old to daddy night at her preschool. It was a lot of build up and and it did not disappoint.

I scheduled something months prior to knowing about this event so I had to reschedule it. It involved about 13 other people but missing this daddy night wasn't an option.

We arrived to daddy night and I actually put it on my cal wrong and showed up 30 mins early. It turned out being great because we sat in the foyer and talked. Loved it.

Then it was time for the event. Rae introduced me and the teacher walked us thru a typical day. Rae was so proud to show me her world. We then made an airplane, iced a cookie, played in play dough then it was as picture time. We got a pic together and to end the night the kids all sang the daddy song. Priceless!!!

The highlight of the evening was when the teacher showed us the pic our child drew of us. They drew a pic of us and filled in the blank "he is special because _____________"

Rae wrote "he says he loves me a lot of times"

My point: I tell my kids I love them all the time. Right now Rae jokes and tells me "you always say that" - like she is tired of hearing it. I would rather she be tired of hearing it instead of wondering it because I never said it.

Who do you remember, and what do you remember them saying? What do you want to be remembered for saying? Go say it - a lot of times!

Happy birthday?

Today is another birthday. I am truly a blessed man.

I have no health issues to speak of, great job, beautiful home, reliable vehicles & an amazing family. What more could I ask for?

Hannah and Rae hand made me a card and Shayna brought me a polar pop and butterfinger bites - after she ran over a tree and wiped out a mailbox.

She was trying to be nice and surprise me and she was very successful. She burst into my office crying and told me she wrecked her car.

We dealt with the accident report and talked about how it could've been much worse. No one was hurt.

My point: All the consequences of this are inconveniences. It's gonna cost her money to get car repaired, insurance is going to go up, she has to go to court and they may suspend her license for a little bit. I will take inconvenience over injury any day.

While this feels like a cruddy thing to happen on ur birthday, I can't help thank God it wasn't worse.

My family is healthy and safe. Happy birthday to me.

Change

Change for the sake of change is crazy but change with intent is necessary.

Today was the first day of the new service times for C3. We needed to do something because of our limited children's space. We have room to grow in our adult environments so we focused on our true obstacle - kids space.

It took us awhile to drill down on the root of the problem we were trying to solve. It was so easy to think our only option was to add a fourth service time. Once we listed all the pros and cons we realized it wasn't the best solution.

We had a whiteboard session and exhausted all the possibilities then landed on what we decided was the win/win.

Our goal is to have more children attend the 4p service than were attending the 8:15a service. That's it!

My point: change is a constant. Change with a desires outcome is wise change. Change just for the sake of change is frustrating.

Based on today, we are on the right track. The 4p service has room to grow. I think it will prove to be worth the time invested in the decision process. We shall see...

hurry hurry hurry

If you want anything done right or well, it can't be done in a hurry. 

I have started saying "nothing good happens in a hurry". I may get a sarcastic comment here & there but the point is if it's worth doing, it is worth doing well. 

When we are rushed at home, our children respond to us differently. When we are rushed while driving, we put ourselves and others in danger. When we do projects while in a hurry, we typically don't get the best results. When we have to make decisions in a hurry, sometimes we haven't thought thru all the important details. 

My point: I know there are times when you don't have the luxury to take all the time needed to think thru everything. There are times that you have to make a decision or finish a project in a certain amount of time. There are times when you have to be somewhere at a predetermined time. All these things are true BUT for the love of all that is pure and good - plan for it. Always doing things last minute means you are a poor time manager. 

In a society where being busy is some sick badge of honor, people always seem to be in a hurry. Slow down, Hurry is horrible. If you are always in a hurry - it's your fault. 

I heard a guy say if you want to have a growing relationship with Jesus you have to ruthlessly remove hurry from your life. Let that sink in!

Nothing good happens in a hurry...