Sunday Night Mind Dump 4-25

Thought of the day… Faith is believing God for something, that hasn’t happened yet. Let that one talk to ya for a moment.  This week has been Faith Week for me, and wouldn’t ya know it God came through… Let’s take a mind dump shall we…

theROCKchurch

• At the very least ONE person stepped over the line and became a follower of Jesus Christ this morning at theROCKchurch, that absolutely NEVER gets old! And that’s why we do what we do!
• I said this week was Faith Week for me personally and really it was for the church too… Our partners know what I’m talking about, and let me just say HE CAME THROUGH, BIG TIME!
• If this week was Faith Week, I believe next week should be termed Vision Week. Lots of of plans and visions that are going to get some feet on them this week.  I love this stuff…
• Just as Andy was about to lead us in “The Heart of Worship” this morning, the sound board just went BLANK… No sound… And you know that one moment spoke to me almost more than any other moment in the entire experience. I may just have a separate blog on that very thing… First words of the song “When the music fades and all is stripped away…” How poignant, and I just felt like God slapping me across the face and saying “Dude, it’s not about all the STUFF you all put together, it’s not about the lights, the sound, the stage setup, or any other THING we do… It’s about HIM and HIM ALONE, that’s the heart of worship. What could have been a completely awkward moment, turned into a beautiful moment as Andy led it completely unplugged. Awesome moment for an awesome day
• Check out The Curtis Band’s new and improved website… Sweet stuff
• Next week we’ll be recording our message for One Prayer 2010. Go to the link to find out more about it… Close 400,000 churches have signed up this year as the church unites to become ONE for the month of June.  I’m excited to have the opportunity to submit our message to be viewed by churches worldwide.
• To say I’m proud of what some of our ROCK partners did this weekend is a huge understatement… When we went to Charlotte a month ago our people saw a need in the apartment complex and flat jack took care of it! We still have a ways to go, but in less than a month they raised enough money to buy 315 pillows to hand out yesterday… That is simply AWESOME… here’s a couple of pics… Go to Chris Martin’s photos for more.
• Kingsport get ready… cause that kinda Crazy Love is coming…

Sports

• So we’ve started 1-1 in the Kingsport Rec Co-Ed Softball League… First game we had most people there and played decent… The second game was best summed up by this Andy Curtis quote “If they interviewed this team (us) for the Bad News Bears movie, they would say ‘sorry you guys are too bad’”… Yep, not pretty. And I’m too competitive to let that crap happen again!
• So proud of my Tennessee boys getting drafted… but not only that their character is just AMAZING… Eric Berry chose to wear #29 for the Chiefs in honor of Inky Johnson (that’s just awesome)… And Dan Williams chose to wear #92 for the Cardinals in honor of the great Reggie White. Pure class boys…
• Get ‘em while they’re hot
• And of course I can’t fail to mention… that whipping boy of Tennessee football for the last 2 years Jonny Crompton was not only selected in the 2010 NFL Draft but in the 5th round!  So proud of that kid, for the way he handled himself through all the moronic junk that he had to deal with these last couple of years.
• I am now a full in Kansas City Chiefs fan though.  I love their organization, the rabid fanbase, they’re an upcoming team, and now they have EB.  It’s a perfect combo.  Excited about the future.

Great day… Check out all that’s going on at theROCK at iROCKdoU.com.  Let’s do this!

 

Sunday Night Mind Dump 1-31

A little different doing a mind dump with no Sunday experience at theROCKchurch this week… But nonetheless here we go…

• Snow pisses me off… that is all.
• We had a HUGE day planned for the 31st, but now we have an even BIGGER and BETTER day planned for Feb. 7th!  You seriously do not want to miss the iLife’10 Series Finale with CURTIS live!
• If you’re on facebook, go to our event page and make sure you check the “Attending” Box… I want more Attending’s than Maybe’s… Go now theROCKchurch Feb. 7 Event Page
• Also for all you CURTIS fans out there… A couple of things of note… 1) Check out the CURTIS website HERE equipped with their blog, music, myspace, and facebook pages… 2) Come support Andy and the band at Wintercruise on Wednesday Feb 3rd at ETSU D.P. Culp Auditorium. 6:00pm
• “I’m going, going…back, back…to Cali, Cali.”  Or “California, knows how to party… Californnnnia, knows how to party”… Like my old school raps? I’m gearing up for a busy week, because I’ll be out of town next week in Cali… Andy and I are heading to Saddleback Church for the RADICALIS conference. Should be an exciting week fo’ sure.
• I encouraged our ROCK partners to check out at least 1 of 3 internet campus experiences at Elevation Church, Lifechurch.tv, or Newspring Church…  I had awesome feedback from people as they viewed these experiences… And as a result of some of the viewings… We at theROCKchurch may have a HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT in the very near future, regarding our next step in campus development! Exciting days ahead!
• I probably had more positive feedback from my boy Perry Noble than anyone. Perry is the most courageous leader I have ever seen. Check out his blog, he encourages me and fires me up every day. God is doing big things through Perry and Newspring!
• On to SPORTS…
• Big win for the Vols basketball team on Sunday, after a big loss on Wednesday night with me in attendance…
• I’m telling ya I think Tennessee basketball fans are some of the dumbest fans of any sport in the country.  It’s like they’re dead in the times the team needs them most and cheer the loudest at the most ridiculous things (such as the stupid kiss cam). Bruce Pearl has done a tremendous job making Tennessee basketball relevant to the nation… but he still has a ways to go to make it relevant on his own campus.  It’s just sad…
• Speaking of the kiss cam… Sure it’s funny, but seriously who ever runs the production for Tennessee basketball games needs to be fired. It seems every time the Vols go on a run and a time for the fans to really start getting into the flow of the game.  They throw the stupid kiss cam up and it kills the momentum!  I know I’m taking this too serious, but I had to vent to someone!… Moving on…
• This Wednesday is national signing day for college football, which is why I’m trying to work on Monday as much as I can, because Wednesday I will be worthless… And isn’t that sad that I get so attached and glued to where 17 and 18 year old kids are going to go to college. Yes it is sad… but I love it! ha
• Tennessee and Derek Dooley is picking up some momentum heading into the final days before NSD… This weekend they hosted the #2 and #3 ranked Wide Receivers in the nation!… if they were to get both of these guys it would be the best class of WR’s in the history of Tenn football.   Who cares? I DO!
• The Vols also hired two new coaches. Former Chicago Bears OL Coach Harry Hiestand will be the new offensive line coach… … Yes Harry looks to have a lazy eye, but isn’t that what you want in an OL coach? I think you need a little crazy lazy eye guy whipping those boys in shape…
• Speaking of whipping them in shape… Some suggested that we get this guy to become the new Strength and Conditioning Coach. I think it was a solid candidate, because I think these workouts are INTENSE and we could finally compete with the Florida and Alabama’s of the world. Check out the candidate and a sample of the workout HERE
• But instead Tennessee went with this dude… … If he can’t get you in shape, I don’t know who can?
• And if you still question whether Bennie Wylie is a good strength coach check this interview out… Tower of London
• Should be a fun week… Don’t forget to check out all the happenings at iROCKdoU.com and Facebook and Twitter.

 

Sunday Night/uhh Tuesday Afternoon Mind Dump

Sunday night was not the best of nights to get all my thoughts down on the blog, for a number of reasons (could not talk because I was so hoarse, had no energy, and I was still in awe) all related to one huge event… I witnessed perhaps one of the most amazing moments in Tennessee basketball history on Sunday evening. With all that had transpired over the last 2 weeks, it was AMAZING to watch the young men from Tennessee rally together instilled with pride and knock off the #1 team in the country (Kansas).

In our iLife’10 series at theROCKchurch we’ve been talking a lot about vision (chazown) and purpose. Not only as a church but for you as an individual… Bruce Pearl is a man of VISION, LEADERSHIP, and PRINCIPLES. Any team that Bruce has coached has had to develop his 3 prong approach to winning a basketball game.  This is the CHAZOWN (Vision) if you will of Tennessee basketball: PASSION, POISE, and PURPOSE. Those young men on Sunday night displayed those attributes to perfection. They played with the PASSION and energy that it takes to do what they did. They had POISE every single time that Kansas made a run. Someone always stepped up and made that big shot, or that big rebound, or that big stop that they needed. And they all rallied around the same PURPOSE. With only 6 scholarship players available they were going to the fight with a butter knife, but little did we know that a butter knife used with precision and purpose it can just as easily get the job done!

As you can tell I’m still a little excited, but my question is… before we get into my mind dump… What does this mean for you? You know sure it was just a basketball game between maybe two teams you don’t even care about… but I say it was much bigger than that.  Everyone ends up somewhere, but few people end up somewhere on PURPOSE… Are you facing an obstacle that you don’t think you can overcome? I suggest you attack it the same way the University of Tennessee men’s basketball team attacked their giant on Sunday afternoon.  Have PASSION… What is it you’re supposed to be doing? Whatever it is, go at it with ALL THAT YOU GOT! Have POISE… don’t get rattled when life throws you the curve, don’t walk around defeated, don’t give in to the temptations. Have poise, in the midst of your struggles… and then attack with your PURPOSE. You should have already determined what your mission in life is… if you haven’t you can do so here, by first watching our Mission and Values message, and then fill out your  iLife Development Plan M&V1 . Once you find your MISSION and PURPOSE, do whatever it takes to fulfill it! Just as we say at theROCK we will “Pay whatever cost, to point people to the Cross”.

Ok time to mind dump…

• Did I mention Tennessee had a big win in basketball Sunday?
• If you haven’t seen the post game locker room video… It is a must SEE. Here it is: Tennessee Locker Room
• Hard to believe that Pete Carroll is leaving USC but I have a feeling it’s about to get ROUGH in LA. Southern Cal could be in for some huge sanctions, and Pete was getting out before the hammer comes.  Timing in life is everything ya know.
• With Carroll leaving it could be HUGE news for Tennessee recruiting. WR Kyle Prater, a freak WR that is, has decommitted from USC and will be visiting the Vols this weekend! Could be a big big get. Kyle Prater Bio
• Alright enough about sports… it was another AWESOME day at theROCK on Sunday.
• Hopefully the video will be up soon, for those who weren’t able to be there, you have to check it out!  Check our website for more details… theROCKchurch
• If you were there and did not pick up your Week 2 iLife Development plan sheet… Here it is! iLife Development Plan SL2
• Next week will be a huge one, as we tackle our Financial Life. Again everyone ends up somewhere financially… few people end up somewhere on PURPOSE.
• I can’t wait to introduce you to a plan that will get you out of debt… called the “Debt Snowball”… Gotta be there this Sunday, for some HUGE financial advice, that will benefit you for years to come.
• For our ROCKchurch peeps, our Thursday night Rock bible study, has been moved to WEDNESDAY this week… Please take note in that. And if you’re reading this but do not normally come… Check us out! Again go to iROCKdoU.com for more details.

 

Sunday Night Mind Dump 1-3

Well tonight is going to be a quick mind dump… because my mind feels like a dump of mucous as I’m trying to get sick. (Don’t ya love that mental picture). I’m trying to fight it off early so going to try to rest up. I do have some blog ideas through the week though, so in place of a long Mind Dump, I’ll blog away the week…. So let’s do this!

• If you missed the first week of iLife’10 oh my goodness you have GOT to check it out online… I will post the link on facebook, twitter, and here once it’s up!
• I can’t tell you how awesome it is to look on facebook and see theROCKchurch fired up about finding their mission in life. I mean THAT is what it’s all about!
• Again if you were not there for the first week, check it out on our website where we will also have resource tools for you to discover your core values and mission.
• As Andy was away learning, growing and worshipping at The Passion Conference, Chris Vaughn stepped in and was awesome!
• We had at least 1 more to step over the line and surrender their lives to Jesus Christ today… THAT NEVER GETS OLD!  And that’s why we do what we do!!!
• So the Pennsylvania trip was a success… had a great time with family. Jax had a ball (no pun intended, if you know my son this makes a lot of sense) with his aunts and grandparents. Hopefully we’ll (ok Elaine) will have the pics up on Facebook soon.
• Got to read through “The Genius Machine” and almost all of “The Back of the Napkin” on the trip and they were EXACTLY what I needed. Huge plans ahead at theROCK as God guides me to creatively look at the future.
• DISAPPOINTED does not even come close to my thoughts after hearing that 4 Tennessee basketball players (Melvin Goins, Cameron Tatum, Brian Williams, and Tyler freakin Smith) were arrested on Friday afternoon.  The leadership has been lacking for 2 years now and it is no coincidence that Tyler was in this mess. I hate it for him because I know he’s been through a lot with the passing of his father and all, but I seriously believe it’s time to let them all go.  I’m normally the calm headed guy that says “let’s see how it plays out”, but I’m sick of it. I know Mike Hamilton is too. It is embarrasing and will most definitely effect recruiting in all sports at The University of Tennessee until these messes are cleared up.  Sad day to be a Vols fan… {Rant over}
• Speaking of Cameron Tatum… He was one of my favorite Vols, and I mean no disrespect by this but he is the perfect look-a-like with Donkey from Shrek.  Don’t believe me… You be the judge.
  
• I refuse to believe that Tennessee played in a bowl game this year… Sorry didn’t happen.
• Jax is up to over 45 words now… not a bad vocabulary huh… Yes BUTT is most definitely the favorite.
• Ok time to take some meds and hit this sickness before it hits me.  More to come in the week ahead…

 

Sunday Night Mind Dump 12-27

Although I’m stashed away in Pennsylvania with the in-laws and didn’t preach this morning, doesn’t mean I’m not giving the weekly installment of the dumping of my brain… So here we go.

• Admittedly I can not stand to miss theROCKchurch EVER, but I think it’s probably good at times for me to get away and evaluate things and it’s good for the church to hear somebody other than me running my jaws. If you weren’t there today… You HAVE to check out the experience here…  The Big Mo!
• Big shout out to Mark Tribble for filling in for me this weekend. God has some huge things in store for Mark and his family… Excited to see what the future may hold for these guys.
• Every time I take these trips I take the opportunity to really do some things that I don’t get an opportunity to do in the busyness of my life back home. And that is read as many leadership/business/creative/spiritual books I can get my hand on.  My favorite gift for Christmas was a $75 gift certificate to Books-a-Million.  So I purchased 3 books, “The Genius Machine: The 11 steps that turn raw ideas into brilliance” by Gerald Sindell, “The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures” by Dan Roam, and “What the Dog Saw and other adventures” by Malcolm Gladwell. I’m ready to devour these in the next week, and come back ready to implement what God gives me!
  
• Tonight as family we had some really hardcore, heavy, deep conversations on the “issues in our lives”… You know we are all messed up people with a lot of baggage and sin. Why do we try to hide that? Why do we try to cover it up? Why do we try to pretend we’re different? We’re NOT, you’re NOT! We all have CRAP, we all have SIN, we all have deep JUNK that we’re dealing with. But it’s not until we begin talking about it, and sharing our struggles that true freedom can be found. Tonight I have witnessed some awesome forgiveness and the work of healing and restoration in life. It’s not an easy process, but it’s worth it!
• Here’s our schedule for the week…
  Monday: Huge family party with people coming from as far as Boston, whoa
  Tuesday: Our friends Todd and Erin Weitzel with their son Laird come to visit
  Wednesday: Taking Jax to an Aquarium in New Jersey
  Thursday: Visiting grandma in York, PA. Back home by 4:30pm to watch Tennessee basketball @ Memphis. And then Chic-Fil-a Bowl at 7:30pm.
  Friday: Day with the family
  Saturday: Traveling back home…
• As for the sports world… I guess Urban Meyer has flip flopped on his little decision to “retire”. I don’t wish any ill-will towards him and truly hope he gets his health taken care of… But seriously? This just seems like a prima donna move to me. So one day it’s all about the family, the next day he doesn’t even tell his family that he’s planning on going back.  Really Urban? Really? Check out Pat Forde’s article on this here. I was sad to see him leaving because I wanted Lane to have at least one more shot at him. Looks like we will get that in 2011.  Here we go!
• Looks like Tennessee found their man to round out the coaching staff. Rich Bisaccia will soon be hired as the Running Backs/Special Teams Coordinator. Needless to say, this is a HUGE hire. I thought the losses of Frank Wilson and definitely Eddie Gran would be signficant… But Lane Kiffin has proven once again that he’s an even better recruiter of coaches (by hiring Kippy Brown and Bisaccia) than players, which is AMAZING! Pumped about 2010 and beyond!
• Speaking of 2010, you have GOT to be at theROCKchurch for our January teaching series called “iLife10″… You know we all end up somewhere in life, but few people end up somewhere on PURPOSE. Come and learn how you can develop a personal vision for your life in all aspects. And may you end up somewhere in December 2010 on purpose! Go to iROCKdoU.com in the next few days for more details… INVITE and COME!!!!!

 

Sunday Night Mind Dump 12-13

Lots to unload from the mind since I didn’t post much through the week. So let’s get to it!

Church Stuff

• What’s happening at theROCK is exciting the heck out of me.  In our 2010 planning, I can barely keep everything in.  Get on board now!
• This morning was just a little of the overflow of what God has been wrecking me with this past week…
• It still amazes me how strategic and intentional Jesus’ miracles were.
• And still can’t grip my mind around the idea, that Jesus allowed the little girl (Luke 8:40-48) to die, by stopping and healing the woman. Of course He just went and raised the little girl from the dead, but STILL don’t ever forget your issues in your life no matter how insignificant they may seem to you, are very SIGNIFICANT in God’s eyes.
• Even more amazing is the fact that God allowed His Son to die because of us. Good grief, you matter to God, don’t ever say you don’t!
• As for next week you have got to be there!  Christmas @theROCK is going to be awesome!
• The totals are in for week 1 of our ROCK Kingsport 2010 Christmas Gift.  And in Week 1 people gave close to………  $750!!! I think some people are serious about Dominating the city of Kingsport with Jesus!

Other Stuff

• Dealing with a sick baby sucks, let’s just be honest.
• I’m pretty sure Satan didn’t want me preaching the message this morning, or if I did preach it, not preach it effectively because listen to this story…
• So as I was finishing up my prep for Sunday last night. I was getting the car ready and what not, and took the trash outside… To my surprise 2 sets of my neighbors across the street were outside talking and it was 1am! Needless to say it caught me off guard and they proceeded to tell me that a drunk dude started vandalizing people’s property.  Ripped up a mailbox and chucked stuff in people’s yards.  Cops were looking for him. So I talked for a few minutes, went back in to go over my sermon one last time… Then my door bell rings at 2am! It was the neighbors again saying they think the dude may be behind my house to turn on the backyard lights… So can you picture me going to my back deck to flip on lights thinking as soon as I flip them on there’s going to be a drunk idiot standing at my door?  Flipped on the lights ready to swing if I had to… No one there… So I went outside with the rest of the peeps and we looked and they finally found the brilliant first class gentleman in the woods trying to get sober.  He turned himself in and I got to go back in around 2:45am AWESOME…
• The story is not over, so as I finally got to sleep around 3:15ish, my poor sick son wakes up SCREAMING HIS HEAD OFF at 4am. So as I was rocking him back to sleep I had a conversation with God of how important this sermon must be for some reason.  Interesting night/morning to say the least.
• This hostess story that no one wants to let die regarding Tennessee recruiting is absolutely ridiculous… It was determined that Clemson was the team to “turn Tennessee in” and I propose that we schedule Clemson every single year for the next 15 years and beat the living snot out of them. And every year we run the score up, and let the Orange Pride (our hostess’s) stand on the sideline and just wave.
• Speaking of the stupid story that now “I’m not letting die”, Did you check out this little article on the New York Times writer and Pahokee? Very interesting for my little conspiracy theorists… Something Stinks in Pahokee
• I completely nailed the Heisman voting last night… 1. Ingram 2. Gerhart 3. McCoy 4. Suh 5. Tebow
• But Gerhart absolutely deserved it… Check out these stats (Thanks to @kreyflanary for these)…. Gerhart 1736 rushing yards and 26 td’s (with consistent play all year)  Ingram 1542 rushing yards and 15 td’s (with some horrible games vs. UT and AU) “Gerhart plays in the Pac-10 where they don’t play defense” Gerhart’s average rushing defense 58th, Ingram 66th hmmm! Top 40 rushing defenses faced Gerhart 5 Ingram 1. Rushing defenses ranked 100 or worse faced: Gerhart 2 Ingram 3… TOBY GERHART WAS ROBBED!
• I forgot how many chills I get watching “Remember the Titans”
• What’s up with the lack of Christmas shows these days?  I remember back in the “good ole days” back when I was growing up, there was Christmas stuff on all the time. And I loved all the specials like “Bob Hope Christmas” and they would bring all the All-Americans on the stage and talk to them.  Where is that stuff these days?
• I leave you with my favorite car prank of all time… Enjoy

 

“Be Careful What You Wish For”

“Be careful what you wish for”… For those who know me, you know I’m a little bit of a sports nut, and naturally always wanted my kid to be a sports nut like me… Well Jax seriously takes it to a WNL (Whole Nutha Level!) If you’re around the kid more than two minutes you will hear him say “ball” or “bawwwl” 18 times. And if there is a ball within 2 miles he knows it…

And yes the rumors are somewhat true… I have been known to sit there and make him throw me 5 perfect strikes before he eats dinner (I don’t do that every night though! haha) but yes I’m afraid I have created a monster!

If the constant pointing at “BALLL” or throwing whatever ball he can find 120 mph at your head was not enough… he has now found a book, that has a page dedicated to every “sports ball” you can find.  Sooo now every time I turn around he wants me to “read” his favorite page out of his favorite book.  It’s a little Univ. of Tennessee book, and it has a Tennessee football helmet, basketball, football, baseball, volleyball, tennis ball, golf ball, etc… And so I have to tell him what every single ball is over and over over and over and over.  Never thought I would get tired of seeing sports, but shew he is wearing me out!!!

So yes, I guess the old adage is true “be careful what you wish for?”… I have a little sports nut on my hands, and it’s a little more than I bargained for. …  And yes, he throws five perfect strikes at 18 months!

 

Sunday Night Mind Dump

Tonight is the first night, that I begin my “Sunday Night Mind Dump”. Every Sunday night I will try to post the happenings around theROCKchurch and just some general things on my mind.  It will really be a DUMPing of my brain as I unwind from the week and re-charge for the week ahead… Enjoy

• Today’s experience at theROCK was definitely Top 3 since we launched. The Spirit was moving in a HUGE way.  Awesome, awesome day.
• I wish people could get an opportunity to see what I see on Sunday morning’s when God starts rattling some people, and convicting and challenging hearts.  Nothing is more humbling than watching people broken by the God of the universe! Just amazing!
• We changed up worship a bit, and did the majority of the worship after I spoke… I liked it. More change-ups in store…
• Andy Curtis absolutely knocked it out of the park again today leading worship.
• Hannah Holly blew me away! Powerhouse voice and you need to check her out, she’s going to go somewhere!  Recently signed by Sony…
• I forgot how ZAPPED I am after preaching two messages.  Today I remember! Preached this morning and then spoke at The Partnership Event for 90 minutes.  Geez
• Speaking of Partnership Event we had 10 more sign up to become partners of theROCK today! AWESOME!
• So Tennessee lost two coaches this week… Frank Wilson to LSU and Eddie Gran to FSU….
• Eddie Gran leaving for Florida State SUCKS, but I think Lane has proven more than once he knows what he’s doing, and I think he recruits coaches better than players
• Chick-Fil-A Bowl it is… dang you Outback!  However… playing VA Tech is bittersweet!  For those who know me closely, understands how much I CAN NOT STAND THE HOKIES!!!!
• Alabama vs. Texas should be interesting… can’t wait for a couple of more years when the Vols are back in the BCS.
• Speaking of Texas did you see Mack Brown just about pull a Les Miles last night? Seriously?  What are these guys thinking???
• Played this video today during our experience and it was such a hit that everyone has been hitting me up for it… So I threw it up on Facebook
• Our Partnership Event was held at Braeden’s BBQ today. Seriously you need to go eat there like every day, if for no other reason so that Barry Collette can have more money to tithe to theROCK… I’m JUST KIDDING, geez people. But yes, do go!
• Also go to Salsaritas in Kingsport this week! And tell them that you want your money to benefit the Brock Bivins Foundation.  Little Brock was diagnosed with a form of lymphoma, and all this week Salsaritas will donate 10% of the proceeds from each person’s meal who states they want it used for Brock.  Brock’s dad is Dallas Bivins the Director of Missions of the Sullivan Baptist Association. Great guy and family!
• Mind dumped for now…