Danny Echols

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 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!!!!

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!!

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!!!!!

Yesterday, I had a great opportunity to go chill with Perry and the crew at NewSpring Church and I can’t wait until next weeks coaching network launch it is going to be off the chain leadership stuff, so I am siked!!! But the truth of it all was I had a great opportunity to hang with Josh Kirby our Children’s director, and Anthony Millsap our Student Pastor. We had an amazing time listening to each others hearts for ministry and I am telling you Rockmart is about to not know what hit them when it comes to Children’s, and Youth Ministry! Not only are your children and teenagers going to have fun, but they are going to be safe, and they are going to learn about Jesus in a way they can relate to the message of Christ with age appropriate teaching! I know that God is going to use these two men in an awesome way. Children’s and youth ministry is the ripest field the church ministers too! So as a church get on board, support it, and let’s make these ministries explode!!!

This weekend I am sitting here in Panama City and I am wraping up my vacation and time away with Gracie. We have had an awesome time and great time to reflect on what God has done! 4 years ago God placed the biggest call on our life that I had every experianced and it was to lead a Jesus movement in Rockmart, To start a church that really got past the junk that so many church’s were bogged down in! The tradition, the social status garbage and the family run church with the cruiseship mentality! The church was rapidly declining like the Titantic, and God was up to something big! 4 years later, I look back at the very 1st Bible study were no one showed up and where God has brought us and I thank God that he has allowed me to Pastor it! I love CrossView and all it stands for! We have some of the greatest people that any pastor gets to work with! I am reminded today that God is not just good, but he is great! Because he has shown himself great not only in our own life, but in the life of the church! We are about to celebrate 3 years as a church and Wow it has been a ride that I will never forget! I have to say this; During tough times we have made decisions based on convictions and it has not always been comfortable to make the right decisions but the truth is comfort should never win over conviction! I believe God has been given the glory because of that! I am still amazed that every week someone is coming to know Christ and new people are still walking through the door and people lives are still getting rocked in Rockmart!! As a leader I have never been as focused in all of my life as a pastor as I am now, I am understanding Gods word like never before, and I am more comfortable in my skin than I have ever been, and I am here to tell you that God is about to “shake it up” at CrossView! You better hope that you have Got your forks held high because the best is yet to come!!!!!!!

The other day I am hanging out with the kids at the house and Nathan my 10 year old gets bored with just hanging out with family. So he was doing everything he could to go to a friends or to grandma’s just anywhere so he could get out of the house! Well I really wanted for us to have a family day so we could enjoy being around each other but he didn’t feel the same way. So we were out on our deck and He begins to whine about being bored, and I encouraged him to try to enjoy his time with his family but he just couldn’t wind down. Right about that time God spoke to me and said, Danny this is what you so often do to me you run and run and are here and there and you think being busy is important but what about some time with me! So often we can get so caght up in our schedule or our own agenda that we forget or just plain out ignore Gods attempts to just hang out and love on you! So the question is: Are you hanging out with God?

Together with God we are making it happen! The vision is not only being lived out but also being seen by the community. It will be amazing to see what is going to happen this year in the life of CrossView as we take huge steps to trust God in amazing ways! Since Easter weekend we have raised a little over $40,000 That is amazing! We still have long way to go and a short time to get there, but together with the help of God we can, and will do it! I can’t wait to meet in a perminent building so that we can do more ministry in the community! The plans that we have for our childrens ministry is going to blow your mind. I really believe many children will come to know Christ through this ministry! We are going to put a huge focus to this area when we get into Goodyear!!!! We will change and transform a community with the name of Jesus and the cool thing is we get to play a part of it! God has invited us to come along side of him to impact this community and that what we are going to do! One life at a time!!!

Dear CrossView,

Sunday was one of the best days and one of the hardest days in my life as a pastor, but I realized through it all that change is sometimes hard. But, at the same time it could be the best thing to happen if it’s God’s will!

I regret to inform you that this past Sunday, Jonathan and Holly Drake made an important decision to resign as worship leader at CrossView. We are going to miss Jonathan and Holly in a huge way. Jonathan was not only a good friend but a joy to work with. The Lord used Jonathan in my life personally and professionally to challenge me as a Christian in so many different ways. I’m sure that this decision “no matter what it may seem like” was not a spur-of-the moment decision. He has been wrestling for sometime if God really wanted him in Rockmart. Having to commute everyday was hard and their house in Villa Rica would not sell allowing them to get more involved in Rockmart. But sometimes our plan is not God’s plan. During the Innovate Church conference, that our staff attended two weeks ago, Jonathan was moved by God into the direction that He had been calling him and unfortunately it was not with CrossView. I believe this was a tough decision for Jonathan that he didn’t take lightly. I know this decision was not an easy one for him, but the right one if he is following God, which I believe he is.

Jonathan and I both love Jesus and we both love His church. We both want to see people come to know Christ and we both believe the best day of the church is yet to come! Jonathan felt like he would hinder the unity and the vision of CrossView if he stayed when God was moving his heart into a different direction. I respect him so much for that! However, I write this to you with much hurt and pain because I hate to see them leave. But, on the other hand I rejoice, because Jonathan wants to be where God wants him to be!

I would have hoped his resignation would have been a public resignation where we could have prayed over Jonathan and Holly and their journey with God. Jonathan thought it would be better this way. But, it leaves the door open for speculation. So if you’re a spectator you’re saying, “well what’s the scoop? Why didn’t you tell us on Sunday?” The truth is, I didn’t know myself until Sunday afternoon. I spent most of the day confused and upset while trying to wrap my brain around everything, because I didn’t see this coming. After much thought, I came to realize that is the way God designed Jonathan. It would have been much harder for him and his family to address his leaving publicly. So it was better this way for him and Holly. As a staff we want the best for Jonathan and Holly. There was no plan to replace Jonathan. To be honest, we had hoped that he would stay with our church for the rest of his life. We all love them and we often joked about when we got old we were going to be some Rocking Sr.’s. LOL. But the truth is our plan is not always God’s plan, but God’s plan is the right plan! So with all that said, I would ask you all to pray for Jonathan and Holly as they prepare to face a new chapter in their lives. Pray that they will continue to seek God in everything they do. Also, continue to pray for CrossView as we prepare to make some decisions with worship. To avoid any further miscommunication or misunderstandings please contact us directly so we can address any concerns you may have. You may contact the office over the next few weeks. We would love to help you have some closure in this because our best days as a church are ahead! God is going to continue to do some amazing things among us! And lives will continue to be changed! I find hope in this verse:

Romans 8:28 We know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God, and are called according to his purpose for them.

Love you all,

Pastor Danny

• The last two weeks off have been refreshing, just for my own spiritual health. 
• I had an opportunity in the last 13 days to visit 4 different churches and hear 18 different pastors.
• YES I was drinking from a fire hose but I have retain a lot of what I have heard!
• I am fired up about the new series coming up after this week “Live like you are Dying” .
• Got a contract on Goodyear from the school board we have 120 days to secure financing, So pray for us!
• 105k is what we have left to raise to close the deal, (I believe) I have at least 50k raised from partnering churches. 
• We are hosting a 5k in the summer email me if your church is interested in getting involved all money raised goes to build Gods kingdom!
• Can’t wait to see what God is going to do this summer!