YES, THAT INCLUDES ME TOO!!!!

Im so serious! Lately I have found myself caught up in this cesspool of bitter whining about this or that. Complaining about this church or that guy doing something outrageous. Taking offense by someone off color comments about people they dont even know.

Now, i am no Terrell Owens, and im glad that most of you are not either, but there has to be a point where we shut up the whining and begin WINNING! Here is our winning theme, vision statement, mission statement, motto and whatever else you want to call it…

Romans 8:37 (New International Version)

37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

Take a look at this definition of the root word for conquerors, conquer and tell me… HOW IN THE HELL CAN WE LOSE???

con·quer

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Churches closing, pastors falling, infighting between theology, denominations, races, cities and so many others.

Can we stand up and take ownership of the victory that has been afforded to us by the sacrifice and obedience of our Father and His Son?

What say yea?

In just a week or so, peculiarplace is going to do for the first time something we plan to do forever! Give Back! At a time when so many people are hurting, so many shelters and food pantry’s have more people in need than food, we wanted to provide some people with a little something to maybe help them have a glimpse of Christmas.

I ordered these bad boys today and cannot wait until we get them. I have been so blessed to be surrounded by a family and launch team who are givers and believe in sacrificial giving! I love my crew!!

So, here is how it is going to work. We are simply going to ride around Old Fourth Ward, jump out of the car and place a gift card, denomination between $10.00 & $100.00, in their mailbox!!! We plan on saving at least twenty of the cards to walk through, Underground, Five Points Station, as well as Auburn & Edgewood Ave., putting these cards in the hands of individuals we randomly pick out. We plan to do the face to face action two days before Christmas and be “mailbox bandits”, striking at anytime when the gift cards arrive.

We are also creating a website to allow you and others to tell us how you are giving back, what you might be doing for someone in need this Christmas, and also a chance for those who received the cards to tell us what they did with their “extra” money.

What do you think?

I have been putting off on writing this piece for a minute now, but after my boy dturn wrote this piece
“my thoughts on diversity”, I could no longer hold my peace! Why aren’t churches more diverse, and why doesn’t anyone seem to care?

The first question is probably easier to answer than the second, but either way they are both important. Churches, especially in this church planting movement, focus on communities, neighborhoods to reach out and be a beacon of light, to reach those far from God, to help the poor and to add to the Kingdom of God. With that said it is understandable if the particular community that church calls its home is not a diverse community. But what about the church who in its “1, 2, 3, and even 5 mile radius” has a community as diverse as heaven? What about the church who sits in between two communities divided by color or race, economics and lifestyle?

If there is no diversity in your community by all means ignore this post, but if there is then DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. Serisouly, we are the body of Christ. There is no white body, black body, asian body, poor body and rich body of Christ, just one body, one faith, one God and one salvation.

Is it because we dont really care? Is it because we are simply comfortable around people who look like us, talk like us and understand “our” culture? Is It? If that is the case, then how in the hell can we stand to claim we want to engage those that are far from God “sidenote: only those far from God who look like us, or who are wealthy, or who are from a particular race”?

God has not called us to be FREAKING comfortable? He has not called us to only associate ourselves with those we are most comfortable or have the most in common with. DON’T BELIEVE ME? Look here and here!

I can tell you right now peculiarplace will be EXTREMELY INTENTIONAL ON CREATING AN ENVIRONMENT THAT IS REFLECTIVE OF HEAVEN!!! You can take that to the bank!!!

Talk to me, prove me wrong please!!!
Part two coming soon!

Made it home from an amazing trip to Lynchburg, VA. Liberty University put on a church planters conference and let me repeat once more, no matter how you may feel or have felt about Jerry Falwell, the man was a true and inspirational visionary. To see first hand all that God has accomplished through him was breathtaking. More on that later in the week.

I need you all to reach deep down inside and ask yourself how can I truly be a blessing to someone in need this holiday season, then I want you to go to http://500uniforms.org and buy as many uniforms and toys as you can to support some of the neediest kids in Atlanta. My homie Shaun King, the Courageous Church and these kids NEED YOU NOW! Can you imagine your child, or niece/nephew having to wear the same uniform to school everyday? I didnt think so, so why should these kids have to do so. Will you help?

I will be posting pictures later of the crew serving Old Fourth Ward on election day. You can never know how much a simple bottle of water can mean to someone, especially when you dont want anything in return!!! I am going to love serving this beautiful community!!! I thank God He chose me to serve them!! Continue to pray for us and support us as we DIVE headfirst into the abyss that is church planting.

I love ya!!!

So much to do, and seeming so little time.

I want to send a shout out to my folks in PA and in Houston who now have power and those who are still waiting to get power. I cannot imagine what you are going through, not being able to be in your own home or get back to your regular routine. you all are in my prayers!!!!

Let’s see, prospectus (church business plan), finalize logo for peculiarplace (thanks to my creative team!! LOL! – more about these great guys soon), reserve a couple of key domain names, incorporation again (long story), design and build with some help from friends the peculiarplace website, getting my ducks in a row to hit the ground running hard next month to raise support, respond to emails, meeting at 12:30, send new emails, get cost for personalized water bottles to hand out on election day (i know the lines are going to be long!!), finally get a meeting with venue owners for peculiarplace this week, and a ton of design work for clients that i am behind on because my computer decided to up and die on me… she is breathing again Thank God!!!

Ohh yeah and most of this stuff has to either happen today or at least begin today!!!

 Please pray for your boy!!!

Did I mention that we, well Esther, is now 30 weeks pregnant!!! We are hitting the final stretch baby!!!