Typically for most churches, Memorial Weekend marks the beginning of Summer. Although we still have a couple of weeks left of school in Charleston County, it definitely had a Summer feel this weekend. I performed two weddings on the beach on Saturday – one in the morning and one late afternoon. Both of them were destination weddings on Kiawah. Both were for very sweet people. I met several strong Christians from around the country at both weddings. I met a retired Pastor and seminary professor from California. He was very encouraging and gave me some great advice about loving people and prayer. I also met a former Miss America from the 70’s. I jokingly asked if there were any “scandalous” pictures of her coming out. She said, “No, times have changed. When I won, my next appearance was at a Billy Graham Crusade.”

In between the two weddings we went to Charlotte Roberts’ one year birthday party! It’s hard to believe Wes & Bri’s little girl is one already. It seems like yesterday we were waiting for the details of her arrival in Connecticut and their move to Charleston. She is such a precious little girl. I love her smile. The party was at their new home on John’s Island. I love their home and their community! I wonder what John’s Island will look like when Charlotte is all grown up. When I was a little kid, John’s Island wasn’t much more than farms and hunting land and home to the very poor or the very rich. Times have changed – and continue to change. By the way, I think Wes wants a fire pit in his back yard. Just ask. : )

On Sunday I talked about God’s presence in uncertain times. There is no doubt that we are living in uncertain times. People feel uncertain about their jobs, their finances, our government, and our future. However, we learn from scripture, history, and even our own story, that God does his greatest work in the darkest days. He is faithful. Will we remain faithful even when, from our perspective, we can not see His hand? We used my message to move right into Communion. The Lord’s Supper was birthed in a time of tremendous uncertainty. It was a dark, dark hour. And yet, it was then that God was doing His greatest work. A friend called me this morning to tell me how meaningful Communion was to him yesterday.

With the rain and the holiday weekend, our attendance was down a little bit, but we continue to have 1st time & return guests each and every Sunday! Actually, yesterday’s low in attendance would have been a high just six weeks ago. More people brought food yesterday. I hope to tell you soon about the family or families that we will bless. Jim, our regular drummer, was out Sunday and Billy filled in admirably. If you’ve ever wondered where we get these “guest” musicians – Louis Camblor is the Charleston musician connection! He is the man when it comes to finding musicians. However, even he was having a hard time this weekend finding someone.

I hope you and your family have a wonderful Memorial Day! Take a moment and give thanks to those who gave their lives so that you and I can enjoy the freedoms we so often take for granted.

Mondays are typically my day off. Sometimes I still have a few things to do, but if there’s a day where I’m going to try to recover from the weekend, it’s Monday. Christopher still had some school to do with Janet in the morning, but he and I spent the afternoon and evening together. First on the agenda was seeing the new Star Trek movie at the IMAX Theatre. The IMAX here in Charleston had been closed down, but evidently someone bought it and reopened it. We both really enjoyed the movie, especially on the big screen, and had a lot of fun. After the movie, we ran home, changed clothes and went to the gym together to workout. It was just a great afternoon and evening with my son.

I finally got around to getting a shower right after Christopher went to bed (I don’t usually get showers at night, but I do after the gym – stinkaroo!). Anyway, when I walked by Christopher’s room I saw that he was still up reading. I asked him, “Whatcha readin’?” He said, “My Bible.” I told him that was great and went on my way to my shower. On the inside, I was jumping up and down. My 13 year old son was reading his Bible on his own, with no prompting from me or Janet. I am so proud of Christopher and the young man he is becoming. He is beginning the process of personalizing his faith. He is starting habits that will serve him well his entire life. Christopher and Lydia have a special relationship and he will definitely miss her next year when she’s off to college. But Janet and I really believe that this is going to be a great year of growth and development for Christopher. In some ways we’re just as excited for him as we are for her.

So – “Whatcha readin’?” I love you Christopher!

Well, I think we have officially broken through the 200 barrier. 4 weeks straight of attendance over 200. Now on to 250! We kicked off a short 3 week series called, “Where’s MY Bailout?” After going all out for “Beautiful,” we intentionally scaled back decorations and props for this series. We just thought that was appropriate while talking about the difficult times our country finds itself. So instead of props and giveaways, we decided to challenge our church to give! During this series we’re asking people to bring canned goods and non-perishable food so we can bless some hurting families in our community. We’re off to a good start so far, but let’s pack out the Welcome Center with food!

We continue to have lots of 1st time and return guests. Had a great Newcomers Lunch after church. Thanks to Kathy Beam and Susan Brown for taking care of the meal and set up. I don’t even have to think about it. Great job and as always, great food. Thinking about making a few changes to our Newcomers Lunch. Might add a quick survey for people to fill out, similar to something we use in our 101 Class where we can begin the process of learning more about people – jobs, interests, talents, experiences, etc. Would help in connections and next steps.

Glad to have Lora, my Administrative Assistant, back in town. She learned a lot at the Dynamic Church Conference (FellowshipOne) that we sent her to! Great investment! She’s very excited about helping us take some next steps – all instrumental in advancing the Kingdom! As our church continues to grow I can’t wait to step out in faith and hire Lora full time. Anyone want to speed that up and donate a years salary? In the meantime we are going to expand our administrative volunteer force. Soon we will be looking for some people to regularly help on Sunday nights or Monday with data entry, email, and letter writing for Guest Follow-Up. Also, wondering if anyone out there has any skills with Adobe InDesign and desktop publishing (bulletin, connect card, etc.). Give Lora a call.

Wes did a great job with his WAVES Parent Meeting Sunday afternoon. He’s done a great job this past year with our Students. Truthfully, as our church continues to grow, he’s between a rock and a hard place. Wes is our Worship Pastor & our Youth Pastor. A growing church means a growing Worship & Student Ministry. He won’t always be able to do both and do them well. The next step, which we talk about all the time, is to continue to raise up volunteers from within and find some interns or part time people for Wes to oversee in Student Ministry. These are great “problems” to have and prepare for. But don’t worry, Wes isn’t going anywhere and he has a great Summer planned and lots of exciting changes for the Fall.

And speaking of Wes, the worship was great Sunday too. Love having a full, loud sound! Daniel & Tristan did an awesome job! Our music this Summer is going to ROCK!

Well, that’s about it. Gearing up for VBS this Summer! Also, making plans now for revamping our Small Groups for the Fall and making some improvements in our auditorium – LIGHTS! Oh, Happy Birthday to Charlotte Roberts! Wes & Bri’s little girl turned 1 on Sunday!

It was a wild and crazy weekend at the Rollins home! Lots of fun, food, and friends! It was Graduation Weekend! My daughter Lydia graduated from High School (The prestigious Rollins School-homeschooling since the 3rd grade). And yes we had a formal graduation. We are a part of LCHEA (a local Homeschool Association) and SCHAIS (a statewide Homeschool Association). Our local Association has over 350 families and offers a formal graduation ceremony. Some students choose to go to Columbia for the statewide graduation. 21 Seniors graduated on Saturday with LCHEA. The ceremony was held at Faith Assembly Church and several hundred friends and family came out for the event.

Graduation practice was Friday night and then we were up til the wee hours of the night getting all the food ready for the party on Saturday night. I stayed up late making sure I was completely done with everything for Sunday, so I could enjoy the weekend and focus on Lydia. Mission accomplished. We had a drop-by at our house. Lots and lots of people came over and we had lots of laughter and fun. Everyone was so gracious and kind to our daughter and blessed her with so many gifts. We were so blown away and so grateful.

We are also so very proud of our daughter! She has worked so hard and has been such a great student. We are so excited for the next chapter of her life. People tease us all the time about her leaving the nest and how hard it’s going to be and her being so far away (Liberty University is about 6 1/2 hours away). But honestly, I can’t wait to hear about new friends, adventures, and experiences. Yes, it will be hard, but we are just so excited for her.

I must also say just how proud I am of Janet! Truthfully, I do very little, if anything, when it comes to homeschooling – you all knew that anyway. We joke about me being the Principal and handling the discipline and flirting with the teacher, but it’s all Janet! And she is absolutely amazing! She is the hardest working woman I know. Homeschooling is a full time job. And yet she does that plus being the Pastor’s wife and the Children’s Director of our church. Three jobs that very few people understand the work or pressure involved. At times the pressure she feels for simply educating our children can be overwhelming. That’s when I lovingly reassure her that she’s not ruining our children and we made the right decision, i.e., I grab her and make a few jokes about them not being able to read.

But when I look at Lydia and her character and success, I see Janet and her faithful hard work. I tried to tell her that on Saturday when we sat down for the graduation. But as soon as we sat down Janet started crying and I was quickly instructed to not make it more difficult (she lovingly made the “shut mouth” symbol with her hand). But Janet, here goes – I love you! When we started this homeschooling journey, we said we would take it one year at a time. It was one of the best decisions we ever made. You did it! One down, one to go! You really are one of the best, most gifted teachers I have ever seen! Thank you for the sacrifices you make, the late hours, the juggling of roles, and always making our home a place where everyone, especially me, wants to be. And by the way, we are not the typical homeschool family, because you are not the typical homeschool mom or wife! I love you Janet! I am so proud to be your husband. Happy Graduation!

Let me just say that “Beautiful” has been one of my favorite series that we’ve done at Coastal – the messages, the decorations, the creative elements, and most importantly, the changed lives. It’s been great! And it was so appropriate to close out the series on Mother’s Day! We gave away Bath & Body Works’ new lotion to all the Ladies. We also had two make-up artists from Estee’ Lauder on site to give “touch ups” to all the Ladies. One of the Ladies from Estee’ Lauder just happen to go to High School with a young man from our church. What’s so interesting about that? They went to High School in West Virginia! It was just a fun day! We gave away gift bags from Bath & Body Works and fragrances from Estee’ Lauder – which just happened to be called, “Beautiful.” It was just an all around great day!

On top of all of that – we had 222 in church! That is four straight weeks of growth. We have broken 200 three weeks in a row – 206, 215, and 222. That has never happened in the 20 years of our church. In January, I boldly said we were going to be a church of 250 by the end of the year. And when you’re basically a church of 150 on a good day that either seems like wishful thinking or crazy talk. In fact, last year we had 103 on Mother’s Day! Right now, 5 months into the year I’m wondering when we’re going to break 300 and we’re already making plans for a third service on Sunday nights. God is drawing people to Himself here at Coastal. People are jacked about each and every Sunday and inviting their friends to be a part of it. Keep it up Coastal! We are shrinking the size of Hell one life at a time!

Sunday night our family went to the Rehearsal Party of a young couple in our church that got married on Monday – Christin & Alan Benda. We had a lot of fun and it was a beautiful wedding on Monday morning at Middleton Plantation. Always exciting to see young couples grow closer to the Lord and to each other. And it is an honor to be a small part of that.

On Tuesday, Lora Firman, my Administrative Assistant took off to Dallas for Fellowship One’s Dynamic Church Conference. Fellowship One is the Web Based Church Management Software that we use at Coastal. Honestly we really weren’t utilizing the program until Lora started. I can’t wait for her to return and put all of her knowledge to work. We are really just scratching the surface of what it can do. Truthfully, I believe that one of the reasons our church has grown this year is because of the shift we made when Lora joined our staff – even though it has only been part time and volunteer. The shift has been me not doing everything and starting to focus on what I am called to do – preaching, vision, and leadership. As our church grows the next hire will be a full time Administrative Assistant. And if Lora can hang on as we grow, it’s her job to keep.

What a wonderful weekend! Friday was Prom Night – another passage for my daughter. 18, Prom, and graduation just around the corner – May 16th. Friday included the normal Prom stuff – nails, hair, getting ready, and pictures. I know I’m biased, but my daughter looked absolutely beautiful! I am so proud of the young woman she has become. I am quite confident of her readiness for the next chapter of her life. She went to Prom with two (yes two) fine young men from our church – Ryan & Caleb. They have been good friends for quite a number of years at church. From all accounts they had a great time! They Spell family rented a limo for their departure. My daughter texted, “I like limos.” I told her not to get used to it.

Saturday was our FUEL Leadership Meeting. We started FUEL back in January and it has quickly become one of my most looked forward to meetings. The last several FUEL Meetings had been dedicated to Egg Drop preparation. We spent a few moments talking about the Egg Drop – what went right and what we could improve. We then got back to the heart of FUEL – Leadership Development. We talked about Jesus’ leadership development style – relational. Like our faith, I am learning that while it is still intentional, Leadership Development is a process, a marathon, not a sprint. But the payoff is true exponential LIFE change and growth! It is a mindset of believing in redemption (people can change, grow, and become leaders), looking for potential leaders, and then intentionally pouring into people’s lives. We are just beginning to see the fruit of that change here at our church.

Sunday was simply awesome! We began the day by giving roses to all the women of our church. They really seemed to like the gesture. My message was about healing from our past – specifically our sexual past. It was a day of healing and growth. Several people made decisions to recommit their lives to Jesus. Others want to learn more about our church, get baptized, and come to our Newcomers Lunch. After the first service, one of our ladies told me that women were weeping in the restroom sharing how the message was meant specifically for them. It was just one of those days. We seem to have them week after week now. Honestly, we have come to expect them. Why shouldn’t we? God’s word is proclaimed. God’s people are present. And we still believe in resurrection power. We expect Jesus to change lives. He can’t help but do it. That’s what He does. We’ve just made the decision to get out of His way.

Oh, and by the way, we had 215 in church on Sunday! That’s right – 215. We didn’t just break 200, we kicked it in the rear! No “special” day, no “big holiday,” just Sunday at Coastal! I told my son that it’s time to do the same to 250. In fact, I told him that we’re going to put 250 in a choke hold and it’s going to tap out. Okay, I was a little more graphic than that, but you get the idea. This Sunday is Mother’s Day! Show me what you’ve got Ladies. Let’s send off our “Beautiful” series in fine style. Invite and bring your friends. It’s going to be awesome!

Here are a couple more pics of Prom Night. Friend me on Facebook to see more.