400 pairs of shoes are heading to the Texas/Mexico border! I wish you could have seen our staff trying to pack and cram all the shoes into boxes to ship to South Texas. We had shoes everywhere. I am continually amazed at the generousity of Cedarcrest Church! Thank you to everyone who contributed shoes for these children. Not only did you provide shoes to children in need, but I believe these shoes will make an impact on eternity. Many of the children who recieve these shoes will never forget this gift. Some of them will trust their life to Christ because of your gift. Please continue to pray that God will use these simple gifts to change the eternity of these children.

“How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” Romans 10:15

Yesterday at Cedarcrest we focused on serving. It was another exciting Sunday morning!

As I was thanking God for the services yesterday I was reminded of the incredible volunteers that we have serving the King each week at Cedarcrest Church. We have over 200 volunteers who have committed to serve at Cedarcrest. This is unbelievable! We could not do it without our volunteers. I cannot tell you what an encouragement it is to me to see the commit of those of you who are serving at Cedarcrest. Lives are changing as a result of your service! The kingdom of God is expanding as a result of your service! Thank you for all you do!

As the church continues to reach more and more people with the good news of Christ it becomes even more important that we increase our capacity and have volunteers in place to connect with the new people God leads to Cedarcrest. Thank you for showing the love of Christ through your service! Real life is found when we give our life away. There is nothing greater than serving the King! It is an honor for me to serve with you as we seek to serve the King and make His name know to the world!

What a day! I am still in awe of what happened this morning at Cedarcrest. All I can do is praise God for what He has done!

Over 50 people stepped out on faith and were baptized to show that they are standing with Christ! I have never been part of something as exciting as this day! God is so good and He is moving in amazing ways! There is nothing more exciting than seeing Him at work to change lives. I know my life has been changed as a result of this day and my faith has certainly grown through this experience. More on that to come later.

I look forward to following up further about this morning later in the week. Right now I am totally cashed after this morning and I am calling it a day. Thanks for your prayers and your encouragment. May God continue to move in ways that cause us to never be the same as a result of what He has done! What a day! What a God we serve!

Sunday was an exciting day as we kicked off our new series “The Kingdom”. The feedback on this series has been incredible and I have recieved e-mails from several of the pastors in our community who are participating in this series that they also had an amazing response! I can’t tell you how much I love this! God is bringing churches together in our community for HIS GLORY! I can’t wait to see what He does through this series. As I mentioned on Sunday, this coming weekend at Cedarcrest is going to be unlike anything we have ever done. It is Monday afternoon and I can’t wait until Sunday!

Yesterday after the services were over I took our staff down to Buckhead for an overnight retreat. We went to Buckhead Church for their evening service so we could worship together as a staff. It was a great experience. It is easy for us to run around on Sundays in “work mode” and this gave us a chance to worship together. It was incredibly refreshing and I am so thankful to have the opportunity to hear a phenominal preacher like Andy Stanley. If you have never heard Andy preach I encourage you to check out his podcast, North Point Ministries, on itunes. You will be blessed by his preaching!

This morning we had a planning meeting to pray about some things that are coming up this fall at Cedarcrest. Can I just say, I love our staff! It is such a blessing to work with this group of people that is so passionate about Jesus and wants to do whatever it takes to spread His love in our community. I thank God everyday for allowing me to work with this incredible team!

Please continue to pray for our staff as we seek to follow God’s vision for Cedarcrest Church. He is taking us on an incredible journey and I firmly believe we have only just begun to see God move in a powerful way at Cedarcrest Church!

Did I mention I am excited about this Sunday? I can promise you it is going to be an exciting day that you don’t want to miss!

By now things are probaly moving at full speed in your life. The fall has begun, the kids are back in school, the weather is cooling down and you are probably settling into your fall routine. As you look forward to the fall I want you to know that we have some very exciting things taking place at Cedarcrest Church in the month of September. I beleive that God is going to use this month to do incredible things in our midst. He has given us the opportunity to step out on faith and follow Him in some very exciting ways. Here are a few things to look forward to this month at Cedarcrest.

1. “The Kingdom” - Each Sunday this month we will be partnering with 8 other churches in our community to do a sermon series on the Kingdom of God. It is amazing to see churches come together to promote unity in the body as we seek to point people in this community to the Kingdom of God and I am so thankful we can be a part of this at Cedarcrest. You are not going to want to miss this series! In particular on September 14th we will be doing something at Cedarcrest that will be unlike anything we have ever done before. I believe Sept. 14th has the potential to be the most exciting day in the history of our church! Do whatever it takes to be at Cedarcrest on this day and bring everyone you can with you.

2. Shoes, Socks, and Lollipops - This month we are partnering with San Isidro Baptist Church to do our second annual shoe drive to provide shoes and socks for children in need at the Texas/Mexico Border. Our goal for this year is to take 400 pairs of new shoes to children at the border. We will have a group from Cedarcrest who will travel to South Texas Sept. 25-29 to deliver the shoes the church collects. I hope you will take part in this exciting project to provide a new pair of shoes to a child in need.

3. Community Groups - September is the month to sign up for a fall community group. I hope every person at Cedarcrest will join a group to connect in fellowship and discipleship with others at the church. Community groups will launch the first week of October. If you want to connect to what God is doing at Cedarcrest Church make sure you sign up for a community group this month!

This Sunday we begin a new series at Cedarcrest that will be unlike any series we have done before. Several months ago I began meeting with a few other pastors in our area with the hopes that we could come together to communicate unity among churches in our community. Out of those meetings we felt led to plan a sermon series together on the Kingdom of God. This is so exciting for me because churches often come across as competitors when the reality is we should do all we can come together and promote unity with each other when we share a common passion for pointing people to Christ through the word of God. When Jesus prayed for his followers in John 17 before he went to the cross, the underlying theme of His prayer was unity in the body.

As we join hands with Westridge Church, Northstar Church, Burnt Hickory Baptist, Riverstone Church, Mt. Calvary Baptist, Noonday Baptist, West Cobb Baptist, and Piedmont Church, we are doing so to communicate to this community that we all serve one King, and His name is Jesus!

I am so excited about this unique opportunity to communicate there is not competition between these churches, but we are all in this together on mission to point people to the love of Christ. He is bigger than one church and He alone is why the church is here! My prayer for this series comes straight from the prayer of Jesus. “The glory which You have given Me i have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have love me.”

I can’t wait to see how God moves in our midst as we come together as one to communicate the love of Christ to our community!

I hope you will join us for this series and begin to pray that God would use this experience in powerful ways to reach this community with the love of Christ!

This past Sunday at Cedarcrest we looked at Joshua 10 and were reminded of the truth that we serve a big God who can handle big prayers. What does your prayer life look like? Are you bringing your requests before God? Are you prayers wimpy and weak or are you praying prayers that only God can answer? Are you praying in such a way that only God can get the credit for what is taking place in your life?

As you begin to pray big prayers and trust God to do what only He can do in your life, I would love to hear about it. If God has moved in your life in a powerful way post it hear. If God has done a miracle in your life, let me know. I look forward to hearing what He has done in you as you step out on faith and pray big prayers that only God can answer!