Well we had an awesome Sunday! It was a great ending to our “One Month to Live” series. We talked about Leaving Boldly. Everyone wants to leave a legacy, to make their life count. However, many times we get wrapped up in “building sandcastles” – spending our time on stuff that doesn’t last, that’s not eternal. Three things that do last however are our convictions, our character, and community. Being a beach town, everyone really seemed to relate to the sandcastle illustration. And everyone really liked the body building illustration as well.

Overall, this was a really good series. Lots of positive feedback. Lots of synergy when we all read something and think through something together. Next time we will also push the study to our small groups as well and make it more of a church wide campaign – Sunday morning, daily reading, and Small Groups. In our Creative Team planning meeting, this was probably the series that generated the least excitement. But it was just something that I felt God was leading us to do – which is always the way to go. And now I see how it leads right into our next series, “Words from the Cross.” We’ve been talking for a month now about what we would do if we knew we only have one month to live. And now we’re going to be hearing from Jesus exactly what He said when He was dying on the cross for our sins.

Our attendance was back up on Sunday – 161 between the two services. We had lots of 1st Time Guests and return guests. But you know what? We had a bunch of our regular people not there. I think we can easily hit 175 before Easter! In fact, let’s go for it! We kick off a brand new series. It’s going to be very powerful. Invite your friends. Get them here. And help us out with contact work. If you haven’t seen someone in church lately, give them a call and get them here. Let’s do this!

Everyone is starting to get more and more excited about our Easter Egg Drop and starting to sign up to volunteer. We still need more volunteers and more candy filled, taped eggs. In fact, we’re having an egg stuffing, taping party on Wednesday, March 4th at 7PM at the church. Bring your eggs, candy, and come join us! We need all Egg Drop volunteers at our next FUEL meeting, Saturday, March 7th, 10AM. Keep spreading the word, take home some flyers and pass them out at schools, daycares, teams, neighborhoods, etc. Spread the word on your Myspace, Facebook, Blog, Twitter, etc.

Oh and guess what? It looks like Wal-Mart and Nintendo will be giving us grants to help sponsor the event! That’s right – Wal-Mart and Nintendo! Melanie you are “da donation collecting bomb!”

Our Worship Team continues to do an awesome job each Sunday. The Wes/Daniel combination is off the hook! Janet had some new people observing in Promiseland on Sunday. We still need more volunteers in all areas of Promiseland. Sign up on your Connect Card and we will contact you.

Well, after getting turned down at several off site West Ashley locations and needing to start promoting the event, we have decided to have our Easter Egg Drop at our own campus. Having the Drop at our own campus was always an option, but we were a little hesitant about the parking. After looking at it in more detail, we really believe that we can handle the parking. We will park in the ball field on the rear of our campus and on the left side of our campus. That parking, along with the parking at Oakland Elementary School, the parking at Charleston Harbor Bible Church, and at Seacoast West in the shopping center on 17 we should have more than enough. We are asking our people to park in the shopping center at Seacoast West and we will shuttle people over early Saturday morning.

There are several huge benefits to having the Egg Drop at our church. One, our guests get to come to our campus and see our building. We believe that will increase our chances at getting them to return on a Sunday morning. It also makes set up and break down much, much easier. It’s also cheaper! Honestly, now that we’ve made the decision, I’m jacked! So spread the word! Pick up some flyers on Sunday. Spread the word online – facebook, myspace, blogs. Send all of your friends to our Egg Drop website – www.charlestoneggdrop.com. Let’s get 1000 people at our Easter Egg Drop! Yesterday we found out that Wal-Mart will be giving us a grant to help out with the prizes!

I worked hard last week to make sure I got everything done before Saturday. I wanted to make sure that I didn’t have anything to do on my anniversary except to spend it with Janet. And that’s what I did. Honestly, it was easier since Knology accidently cut off our cable last week and didn’t get cut back on until Monday afternoon. We really don’t watch a lot of T.V. but Thursday night is our family tv night and it was the start of a new Survivor season. The Office is also on Thursday. So, our family went over the church and watched Survivor, The Office, and Burn Notice. We had a lot of fun.

On Friday, I went to lunch with an old friend of mine who was in town for his father’s funeral. Although the circumstances of him coming back to Charleston were very sad, he’s made a lot of changes over the years and it was great to reconnect. He was the first person I shared the gospel with after I gave my life to the Lord.

Saturday was a lot of fun. Janet and I left for an early dinner at Outback Steakhouse. The teachers in my Oakland Elementary Prayer Group gave us a $50 gift card! Free always tastes better. After dinner we went over to the shops at Mt. Pleasant Town Center and went window shopping. Then we saw the movie, “New in Town.” It was cute. We had a nice evening, eating, laughing, talking, and just having fun.

Sunday was great! The band was awesome! We had a guest drummer who was unbelievable. We were in week three of “One Month to Live.” People in the last days of their lives have an incredible sense of humility about them. They have to depend on others. They are no longer self-sufficient or proud. And they gain a perspective about their past failures, their mistakes. That’s what we talked about on Sunday. We need to learn from our mistakes, surrender to God’s strength, and pursue God’s path.

Even though our overall attendance was down a bit, each and every week we continue to have 1st Time Guests. And another friend of mine came to church on Sunday – a teacher from Oakland. She told me this morning how much she enjoyed it and that she would definitely return! Way to go Coastal!

I love you Janet! I love everything about you. Thank you for the best 22 years I could ever imagine! You are the most beautiful woman in the world! Life with you just keeps getting better and better. Happy Valentines Day & Happy Anniversary!

We hope to have the location for our first ever Easter Egg Drop finalized this week. As soon as we do, we’ll go full scale with our promotion of the event. Again, for those of you who haven’t heard, we’re going to be doing an Easter Egg Drop on Saturday, April 11th (the day before Easter).

An Easter Egg Drop is basically an Easter Egg Hunt on steroids (okay, bad analogy with all the news lately, but you get the point). We scatter a large field with about 10,000 plastic candy filled Easter Eggs and then drop another 10,000 out of a helicopter (not on the kids, but on the field). The kids are then released and go pick up all the eggs. About 200 of the eggs will contain tickets that match corresponding prizes – like money, ipods, a Nintendo Wii, portable Playstation, etc. I believe Elevation Church in Charlotte was the first to do this event, but now tons of churches around the country have also done it the last several years. I think we might be the first in Chaleston.

In the coming weeks, we’ll be posting more information and needs concerning the event. Right now, we need plastic, candy filled, taped eggs – lots of them! Last year, after Easter, our family bought some eggs on sale, in the event that we were able to do the Egg Drop this year. Guess how many we bought? We weren’t sure, but we counted them today. We bought 2,400 Easter Eggs! Janet called from Wal-Mart and asked how many to buy. I told her to buy as many as she could fit in her cart. I wish now we went back and cleaned them out. Guess how much we paid for them? $5. That’s right – $5!

Now, you won’t be able to get them at that price this year, before Easter, but from our shopping around, we’re pretty sure Wal-Mart still has the best price. They should be coming out right after Valentine’s Day. It looks like we have several hundred already at the church. And with our 2,400 we’re well on our way to 20,000. Jennifer Evans has volunteered to be our “Egg Person,” making sure we not only get them, but that they are counted, properly prepared, stored, are ready to go. Now – go get some eggs!

Just wanted to share a blessing with you. This morning at my Oakland Elementary School prayer group I was reading from 1John 3 about love. We know what love is because of Jesus laying down His life for us. After I read and shared for a minute or two, one of the teachers spoke up about their love for me and my family. She shared how grateful they all were for me coming to their school each and every week, praying for them, and serving them and they wanted to give me a gift. I was blown away! They gave me a Valentine’s card with $100 in gift cards to two restaurants here in Charleston. That’s a lot of money – especially for teachers! I called Janet and said, “I know where we’re going for Valentines Day!” She was blown away too!

Speaking of Oakland, next week I’m attending a meeting about a new program that our church might really be able to help out with. It’s called “Lunch Buddies.” Basically, they are looking for adults who would be able to give about a half hour of their time and come and have lunch with a student. When I get the details I’ll pass them along. Oakland is such an obvious part of our community – a place where we have a chance to be the hands and heart of Jesus and tangibly show people our love (back to 1John 3). And as you can see, they are very grateful for all we do.

Honestly, the thing I was most excited about on Sunday is that a friend of mine came to church! She is a teacher at Oakland Elementary School. She’s been coming to my before school prayer group for the past year and a half. She’s been telling me for a while that she was going to come to our church, but she finally came on Sunday. She said that she loved it. I hope she comes back. I really think she will.

Overall our attendance was down just a bit from the last month, but we actually had a lot of 1st time guests on Sunday and several return guests. You can just feel the momentum! On Saturday night I got a text message from a member at Coastal, telling me that a friend they had been inviting was coming. Just love the excitement of watching our people look for their friends on Sunday morning that they invited. And then I feel so honored when they introduce me to their friends after church! It is such an awesome feeling. Coastal we are in this together! You invite and we’ll create and provide an atmosphere where they will hear the gospel.

We continued in our “One Month To Live” series. Melanie Bowick said she loved the service and message so much, she stayed for both services! We talked about Loving Completely. To truly love completely requires a work of God through the power of the cross. It is natural to be selfish. It is supernatural to be accepting, serving, and forgiving.

Janet had a training for our Coastal Kidz volunteers on Sunday afternoon. She said it went great! Susan Brown kicked off another installment of Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace. It looked like they had a great group.

Daniel Matthews helped Wes lead worship on Sunday. Daniel will be a part of the worship team at least every other week. They sound great together! And this Sunday I believe we’ll have a guest drummer. Wes is really working overtime to provide an atmosphere of worship on Sunday morning. He’s doing a great job.

In my last post I mentioned all the volunteer work Lora Firman has been doing. I’m really blown away by all the awesome volunteers we have at Coastal. You can’t come to Coastal on without seeing that. A couple more volunteers stand out. Rebecca O’Grady is not only a mountain climber (we learned that on Sunday), but she is one hard worker. Actually, she would be the first to recognize and thank all the consistent, behind the scenes hard work of Mary Prince, our Treasurer. That is a tireless, never goes away, sometimes thankless job. But Mary has been building a quality team and Rebecca is on that team. She comes to one service and then works on the finances during the other. Sometimes she come back on Sunday night or during the week. She might as well, she takes the garbage out each week too. And then there is Susan Brown. She’s also on the Financial Team. She counts, helps with the deposits and now leads Financial Peace for the next 13 weeks. And periodically, when her husband is at work on Sunday mornings, she makes sure 1st Impressions runs smoothly. And sometimes she juggles that with Nursery and 3C’s Cafe. Speaking of our 3C’s Cafe, then there’s Jennifer Buenting who’s taking that to a “whole nutha level” – organizing and building a team!

Wow! I think it’s time to reinstate the “Freak of the Week” post where I highlight some of our volunteers! You guys are awesome!

Had a very productive weekend. Actually, I feel like January itself has been very productive for me and for the church. Although, I’ll probably look back on January as the month of the “Stomach Bug” for me and a lot of people at our church, it was also a month of change. I announced some of those changes at our “Year Ahead” message and our first FUEL meeting.

FUEL itself is one very productive change. Although we’ve only had two meetings, I can tell that long term it’s going to help create a culture of leadership development here at Coastal. On Saturday we had our second meeting. We spent most of the meeting breaking down our Easter Egg Drop. As soon as the location is finalized, we’ll be promoting this big time. Everyone is getting very excited about it.

Another productive change is that I am making an intentional effort at focusing on doing what God has called me to do and finding and letting others do the things I don’t need to be doing. I do not want to be the bottleneck of growth here at Coastal. I don’t want to be the lid. I’m trying to spend more time meeting with Leaders and potential Leaders, message preparation, and vision casting.

One very necessary part of that process is hiring an Administrative Assistant. I’ve talked about that a lot over the last couple of years, but it just hasn’t happened. Well, I started off the year saying, “No more excuses, we need to make this happen and find the right person.”

Well, the right people have found us. Lora Firman, already a part of Coastal, heard me talk about our Administrative needs, and she responded. She already has a career, but happened to have some time during the week that she could volunteer. And volunteer she has! She’s worked 15 to 20 hours a week for a month now. She’s got us up and running with Fellowship One, our online database management system that we’ve had, but not utilized. She’s been doing the bulletin, connect card, and a hundred other things that have freed me up for more contact work, lunches, meetings, and the stuff that I need to be focusing on.

Her comment this past weekend, “I don’t know how you’ve been doing what you do.” Truthful answer: I’ve not been able to do the things I need to be doing. Instead of meeting with volunteers and future leaders and processing the vision God has laid on my heart for Coastal, office supplies, paper products, food, and cleaning products have to be bought, tables need to be set up, and on and on and on. The daily urgent stuff gets in the way of the long term important.

I said the right PEOPLE have found us. Blessing number two: Christin Occhipinti, also already a part of Coastal, will also begin volunteering at the church. She graduated from the College of Charleston with honors in December with a degree in Communications. She will be doing some Administrative work and will also be helping us organize and lead our Easter Egg Drop and countless other things. She could very easily work her way into a job here at Coastal.

Who knows what the future holds with Lora and Christin. Lora has a job that is based on a grant and probably won’t have the time she has now in the future. Christin just graduated and is getting married in May (to Alan Benda – yeah Christin and Alan). But right now I know that we are building a very gifted team of people who are committed to the Lord and to Coastal and are willing to do whatever it takes to see His Kingdom advance. And for that I am very grateful.

I know, I know – what a title!? I’ve got to do a better job of regularly posting so as not to jam 3 posts into one. This past Sunday we kicked off a new series entitled, “One Month To Live.” The series is based on a book of the same title by Kerry & Chris Shook. The idea of the book and the series is asking yourself this question, “what would you do if you only had one month to live?” and then living out the results. It’s about living with purpose and intentionality. How would you live your life? What would you do differently? What would you stop doing? The book is designed to be a 30 day daily devotional. In fact, we had copies of the book available on Sunday and we ran out (which we never do)! We will have more copies this Sunday.

We had several first and second time guests on Sunday. Invite, invite, invite! Wes has been working very hard at improving our Sunday morning experience – learning and introducing new songs, working in a new worship leader (Daniel Matthews), and tweaking the sound. His hard work shows. He played and sang, “Live Like You Were Dying” on Sunday and did a great job. But not only does his hard work show, so does his heart for worship and for people.

On Sunday my message was about living passionately. I challenged everyone to ask yourself the question (what would you do if you only had one month to live) every day, read the book with us, get into a small group and share your experiences. And speaking of small groups, Sunday was also, “Taste of Small Group” Sunday. We had an updated brochure of all of our LIFE Groups and after both services we had a table representing each group in our Welcome Center with information about their group (and great snacks). It really made our Welcome Center quite the hub of activity on Sunday. It was a lot of fun. It’s never too late to join a LIFE Group!

After the second service, we cleaned up everything from “A Taste of Small Groups” and got ready for our Super Bowl Party! We pushed back all of our chairs in the auditorium, put up our ginormous screen, and got everything ready for the oyster roast. Lots of people helped, but a special thanks goes to the Young Adult LIFE Group (screen and various other things), Delma White (oyster roast), and Dan Long (supplying the oysters). We had a great crowd (people brought friends), great food, and lots of fun! And we even had an entertaining game to boot! We will definitely do it again! After the game and everything was cleaned up, my family stayed and watch The Office on the big screen! It was a very long, but very good day!