About to go catch some gym time in just a moment, still trying to wake up! Neeeeed Coffffffffeeeeee!

Just tried to upload my blog to twitter , so this is a test.

Prayer

This is what I believe, I believe private prayer transforms lives, but Corporate prayer transforms cities! So come pray with us as we seek Gods provision to transform the CIty Of Rockmart with the name of Jesus Christ! Tomorrow night, Thursday January 7th at Goodyear Elementary School at 6pm. Hope to see you there!

Making History ( Via Ashley Bratcher )

The past two days have been spent getting the Goodyear Gym/ CrossView’s future auditorium cleaned up for the Rockmart Christmas Eve service. As I’m sure we all are I have been generally excited about our first service in this place. I mean that day in itself will be another significant part of our history as a church and what I believe will be an important part of history for the community as a whole. Although I have been looking forward to it I do not believe the reality of the awesomeness truly set in until the last 2 days. This gym looked dirty, worn and used, as it should be… it hosted thousands of rambunctious kids over the years. It was hard for me to wrap my brain around how it could look as our church. I’m not a super creative or imaginative person (lol) so these things can be a challenge for me. I know that this school has an unlimited potential logically but its hard for me to get it until I see it happening I guess. Anyway, this gym looks amazing! Thanks to so many of our wonderful CrossViewer’s the floors are a color I didn’t even know they could be! The walls look clean, some Christmas lights are already up. I see trusses on the stage for the lighting, leaves have been raked, fresh pine straw has been laid and those awful bathrooms are now something I am not afraid of and they even smell good! In just 2 short days I saw a huge difference being made in this place and it really pumped me up! I know if I am as excited about this then what’s to come is just gonna be too much. Our minds will officially be blown! BUT … as awesome as all of that is… what pumped me up the most, what made my heart the happiest, and what made me the most proud is seeing our people work there tails off together to get it done. I saw the investment they had in this, not just the building but in the vision for the ministry that is going to come out of this place we will soon call our permanent facility. I so love and appreciate the culture of our church and the servant hearts of our people. I can try to imagine what God has for us over the next 3 years but my human mind is just to small to even wrap my brain around what He is going to do! In the words of Danny Echols I am “Jacked UP” about what God is going to do! I am also super thankful for every single person who is a part of CrossView and that works hard and steps up every time there is a need. You guys rock

FEW THINGS ABOUT THE CHRISTMAS EVE SERVICE.

Greetings CrossView, I just wanted to let you know everybody can support us as a church by attending and inviting your friends this night. It would mean a lot to all those that are putting a lot of time and effort into pulling off an unforgetable service! Can’t wait to see you and your family!

HIGHLIGHtS

AWESOME MUSIC- You don’t want to miss this. We will have something I really believe for everybody. I had an awesome opportunity last night to hear a sample and I am jacked up!!

FUN/CREATIVE – Don’t stay home and watch Christmas movies when we will have some really funny Buck Wedgewood in the house and his brother that will be our special guest.

KIDS will join the stage- All the children will be joining center stage with a song and dance it will be very awesome. The kids are excited and can’t wait for your applause!

@ GOODYEAR – This will be our 1st service in the building. You don’t want to miss it! Our folks are working hard to pull off a service that you will never forget!

1ST ROCKMART CHRISTMAS EVE SERVICE- If you come you will not only be a part of the 1st Annual Rockmart Christmas Eve Sevice but it’s open to the community.

THE 1ST SERMON preached at The Goodyear campus and I am JACKED UP! Listen don’t wait any longer get your tickets this Sunday!!

GOD HIMSELF WILL BE PRESENT – The Bible says, where two or more are gathered in his name, that He will be in the midst. The GOSPIL will be presented (So bring family and friends) Don’t miss His (Jesus) Birthday Party!!

Matt Chandler befor Brain Surgery this morning

The last seven days have been some of the most interesting of my life. I have felt anxiety, fear, sadness and a deep and unmovable joy simultaneously and in deeper ways than I have felt before. I am grateful for this heightened sense of things. Today at 10:45 a.m. CST I will have a good portion of my right frontal lobe removed. I head into that surgery with a heart that is filled with gratitude and hope.

Here are some of the things I am thankful for in no particular order:

I am thankful for the thousands of you who have prayed and fasted for my health. It has brought far more tears to Lauren’s and my eyes to receive this kind of attention from the Church universal than this tumor has.
I’m thankful for health insurance because I’m guessing they aren’t doing my five-hour surgery for free!
I am thankful that I have deep, real friendships at The Village with Michael Bleecker, Josh Patterson, Brian Miller, Chris Chavez and Beau Hughes. They have been such a comfort to me and my family this past week. Pastors should have good friends on their staff. It’s risky but worth the risk.
I am grateful for the men of God in my life, namely John Piper who taught me to hold my life cheap and to join with Paul in saying “I don’t count my life of any value or as precious to myself if only I might finish my course and complete the work that He gave me to do to testify to the Gospel of the grace of God. I’m nothing, I just have a job. God keep me faithful on the job and then let me drop and go to the reward.” Without this strong view of God’s sovereign will, I’m not sure how you don’t despair in circumstances like mine.
I am thankful for my wife Lauren. “Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come. She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: ‘Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all.’” “Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.”
I am thankful for my children. Audrey the Beautiful, Reid the Valiant and Norah the Joyous. Being a daddy to these three is one of the greatest joys of my life.
The privilege of seeing and appreciating all of life through the grid of a heightened sense of my own mortality.
I am thankful for brilliant doctors and surgeons who have been given a real gift by our great God and King to repair things as complex as the brain.
I am thankful for The Village Church. If there is a place that loves Jesus more, takes sanctification as seriously and wants to see the lost love the great King deeply I am unaware of it. These last seven years have been a spectacular joy!
More than anything else I am grateful to my King Eternal, my Lord Immortal, for my God invisible. He alone is God. All Glory and Honor, Forever to You O God. I am overwhelmed in these moments by God Himself and the assurance of a future inheritance of a Kingdom that cannot be shaken and where all things are made new (Hebrews 12).
Christ is All,
Matt Chandler

Pray For Your Pastor (Via Perry Noble)

This particular post may seem a little self serving…but so be it…this needs to be said (AND…I don’t mind asking people to pray for me!) 

This past Thursday (Thanksgiving) I was enjoying some great food and watching a football game when all of a sudden I began receiving text messages about something happening to Matt Chandler, the pastor of The Village Church in Texas.  Long story short…Matt passed out, hit his head…was rushed to the hospital and after some tests was diagnosed with a mass on his frontal lobe that will be looked at this week.  Matt is a young leader (33 or 34 I believe) whom God’s hand is all over.  His preaching/teaching is amazing…and God has used him to grow the Village Church from about 100 or so people to over 7,000 in just a few years.  (He is an incredibly gifted preacher/leader!)

Hearing about what happened to him shook me up…BIG TIME.  I had VERY few words for the rest of the day as I began to think about the stress and pressure that is on pastors that simply is not understood by many.

My prayer is that things like this will cause the church to rally behind their pastor…and pray for him with more passion and intentionality than ever before.  Here are several areas where you can be praying for your pastor…

#1 – His Walk With God – Pray that his relationship with Jesus isn’t one out of obligation…but of OBSESSION for HIM!!!  It is VERY tempting for a pastor to read the Bible for sermon prep and NOT to know Jesus.  Pray that His relationship with Jesus will be FRESH and that he will be filled with vision and passion like never before.

#2 – His Integrity – It takes YEARS to establish integrity…and it can be destroyed in seconds.  Pray for your pastor to keep his eyes on Jesus and OFF of anything that might lead him astray!!!

#3 – His Marriage – Pray that your pastor just doesn’t preach about a healthy marriage…but LIVES it out.  I promise you the enemy comes STRONG after his marriage…and his kids!!!  Lift up his wife and children by name as well!!!

#4 – His Sanity – He deals with critics, he deals with unrealistic expectations, he deals with accusations, he deals with pressure that is intense.  Pray that he will keep his sanity.  I recently heard of a survey that said only 10% of the men entering the ministry actually retire…the others either get disqualified OR drop out!  That is a 90% failure rate!!!  THE STAKES ARE HIGH!!!

#5 – His Health – I was in a meeting of pastors a few years ago…everyone of us were leading large churches…everyone of us were under 35…and over HALF of the men in the room (remember, we were under 35) had been hospitalized in the past two years because of serious medical problems (most likely brought on by stress and anxiety!)  Good health is so vital for ministry…and I can promise you that physical, emotional and spiritual health do not just “happen!”  Do not assume that just because your pastor is young that he is healthy…lift him up.

Whoever your pastor is…seriously…I would ask that you lift him up.  No matter who you are…no matter who your pastor is.  I don’t care if you are reading this site and hate me…don’t hate your pastor.  Cover him…and pray that Jesus will speak to him and through him in ways that he has never experienced.

Rick Warren once said that he believes pastors are the most underrated changes agents in the world…and I believe that!!!  SO…let’s lift him up before God…and pray that Jesus will have HIS way in his life!

AND…keep praying for Matt!!!  He is in God’s hands…God has a plan for him…and I know God will receive ultimate glory out of all of this!!!

Sunday Recap

Sunday was Absolutly AMAZING. I praise God that he allows me to lead HIS church! It is so great to see God move in a mighty way! Here are a few highlights from Sunday!

Old Fashion Tent Service! What an awesome day under a tent! Weather was awesome. Thank you God!

We saw 15 people make there FAITH public through BAPTISM! What a great day!

The Music was out of this world! And woke up the neighbors during sound check! Sorry but hopefully the lyrics spoke to you! The police actually showed up but were EXCITED about what was happening and said they were not going to STOP the Lords work!

The message was about getting UNCOMFORTABLE to get where God wants you to go and how the problem with society was the need to lift of JESUS as the SOLUTION!! That we can’t legistlate morality.

The Youth Drama team knocked it out of the park, not a dry eye in the house! The drama SPOKE so much to our need for JESUS!

The Volunteers were JACKED UP!!!!! thanks to all that served! YOU represent the hands and feet of CHRIST well!

The Food was amazing, you guys know how to through down in the kitchen!

The Tours were full of VISION for the future!!!!

CROSS VIEW are BEST DAYS are AHEAD of US!!!!

A Few Things I’m Excited about!

1st Jesus being lifted up in Rockmart! For far to long the church has made God look small, weak, and boring! As a church we have taken a stand to reveal to Polk County a HUGE, STRONG and AWESOME GOD because our Lord is all mighty and all powerful!

2nd I am excited about the life CHANGE this past Sunday. As people rushed the alter to repent and pray for those far from God! What an amazing day at CrossView, but the truth is you haven’t really begun to experianced what GOD is going to do! Our best days are ahead of us!

3rd I am “JACKED UP!” about Sunday! 3 year Anniversary- ONE service 10:30 under a tent @ Goodyear school. Awesome Music, Baptism, Testamonies,Vision, Student Drama, BBQ, Tours of Goodyear. DON’T MISS IT!!!!

4th I am excited about creating a stewardship culture within our church. Where our people live beyond themselves and begin to trust God with there finances! Society is doing nothing to teach people about money! So I am pumped to help people get freed up financially so they can follow God and not be tied down, or strapped by the all mighty dollar when the real almighty is God. This is what I have found people that get mad because the church talks about money are normally the one’s that Money is there God! Yes I said it, If you get mad when the church talks about money you need to check your heart because THE TRUTH often times ticks people off! The only people that get mad when you talk about adultry are the one’s involved! Listen I am excited to help people become fully devoted.

5th thing I am excited about is Perry Nobles Coaching Network. I learned so much already and I am honored to learn from someone that is really knocking it out of the park like NewSpring Church! Pray that God will continue to grow me as I work to lift him up publically to a community where real followship needs to happen!!

Monday Recap

I have not blogged in a while because I have been super busy, going through a Capitol Campaign raiseing money and doing a series on evangelism. Perry Noble told me, “Doing those things together will kill you!” and I have felt it this month, but thank God I have awesome people around me to support me as the Pastor of CrossView! Here are a few highlights from yeserday!
When the 9:30 service kicked off our sound board that had been working all morning would not work. So we had to put on a additional countdown to find and fix the problem, and after the music was over I know why Satan was working overtime to stop it because it was amazing!
Tabby Kirby and Jason Foust and band knocked it out of the park so much so that people were on there knees worshiping before the sermon was even preached!
Sunday was the last part of a series titled, “Come Home” and I am telling you God moved in a huge way and many people came home to God!
Jason Closed the service with a song by One Republic Come Home and half of our crowd rushed the stage and got on there knees before God! Tears of pain, and tears of Joy, All had a meeting with God in personal way! What an awesome Sunday but here’s what I know the best is yet to come!!!!!