unMediocre

This week is all about Community Makeover Weekend. I’ve never been more excited about anything in my ministry career. This Friday through Sunday, about 10 churches from our area are teaming up to send somewhere in the neighborhood of 2000-3000 volunteers into our community to make things better. We’re cleaning up parks, replacing roofs, painting homes… You name it. Hundreds of projects.

Sunday morning, the churches that are involved are skipping morning services to finish up projects. Then Sunday night, we’re expecting upwards of 3 or 4 thousand people at a gathering in the Sam’s parking lot in Hiram. That’s where my energy will be focused for the weekend. We’ll have our band with some friends from other churches, an 80+ voice choir, and story after story of what God has done.

Yesterday’s worship services at West Ridge were just plain over the top amazing… Our folks seem to be connecting deeply to the heart of this effort. There’s a huge wave of anticipation.

If you want to read a little more about it, go to engageatlanta.com.

So this week is Surge Camp at West Ridge. Surge is one of the coolest things we do at West Ridge. Lots of churches do VBS…but this is no VBS. This is hundreds of volunteers, including people who don’t even attend our church, getting together to teach kids things they already love… How to be a better ball player, photographer, cook, actor. Each kid picks a ‘track’ for the week and spends each evening learning new stuff from people who know what they’re talking about. We have local school coaches, professional photographers, etc., teaching the kids skills while sharing the love of Jesus and a nugget of scripture throughout the week.

You should see this thing in action… We’re talking shuttle busses, very elaborate parking strategies, over 600 kids in color coded t-shirts, and more volunteers than I’ve ever seen at any West Ridge event ever.

All I’m doing is putting together the madness that is the “large group time.” It’s laughable in comparison to what these other folks are doing to invest in these kids.

Unbelievable.

Last Sunday, I had the privilege of hanging out with the folks at Vinings Lake Church in Mableton, GA. I was on my way out of town with my family, and spending the morning at VL turned out to be the perfect transition from my crazy schedule at West Ridge to some wind-down time with the fam.

Several folks from the VL lead team were on a short-term missions trip to the Dominican Republic, so they asked my friend Paul Richardson to come in to teach for the morning. I got the invite to lead worship for the morning.

I hear that they are experiencing a ton of momentum right now. It’s not difficult to see why. They have taken an older church facility and turned it into something spectacular. The landscaping is top-notch. The building has been painted and drastically renovated inside and out. And the volunteers are PHENOMENAL! I felt welcome from the moment we pulled into the parking lot until the moment we packed up and left.

As a Service Programmer, I was most impressed by their use of space in the Worship Center. Very smart. They’ve taken a pretty basic church sanctuary, turned its focus 90 degrees, and completely changed the environment. The colors are warm, the lobby is cozy. It feels like you’re walking into a well-decorated home. The stage is spread along the right wall, and though I’m sure audio is a challenge with the full band, the teacher and band are close to the crowd. Very easy stage to lead from. They’ve just recently brought in some new LED lighting, trusses, and spandex. I don’t know what it looked like before, but the new stuff fits the room well and created a great backdrop. Nice work!

The team at Vinings Lake should be encouraged. I’m already trying to find an excuse to hang out with them again! Keep up the good work, gang!