I was gone all last week in Virginia at a church planting training seminar, so today was totally committed to hanging out with the family. Max started calling these “hang out days” when he was really little, and that’s what we did all day.
I absolutely love hanging out with my family. There’s no responsibility greater than being a great husband and father. We spent the whole day together hanging out, laughing, singing, dancing and cuddling. I love my family!!!!
The Church Multiplication Network is hosting a Church Planting Boot Camp this week that I have the privilege of attending. Church planter’s from all across the country are together for a five day intensive training on the logistics of starting new, healthy churches.
I am so excited to be a part of this event this week. God is really challenging me and I’m meeting some great young leaders that are doing church planting from a fresh and engaging perspective. Love it. I’m learning, listening, growing and coming away with some great ideas to take home with me.
So blessed to have so many people who have been down the road before giving us wisdom and insight for Center City Church.
**Proverbs 15:22 – Plans go wrong for lack of advice; many advisers bring success.
God has given us a phenomenal team at Center City Church. A great example of this is Ben Getz. He just graduated from Radford University (in Virginia) and moved here to be a part of launching Center City. He is a musician/advertising & marketing guru/frisbee golf extraordinaire/natural born leader. He also has a huge heart of compassion.
Compassion is one of the things that we identified in Scriptures and have decided to focus on early in the life of Center City Church. We want to create opportunities for people from all stages of their walk of faith (from exploring to fully committed) to be able to serve our community.
The following is what Ben wrote after meeting with Lani Lawrence from Friendship trays. This is a non-profit organization in Charlotte that cooks meals on a daily basis and delivers them to individuals and families in need of assistance (homeless, under-privileged families, etc). I love the fact that our team is stepping up to lead others’ to serve our community. Here are Ben’s thoughts after taking the initiative and meeting with Lani:
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Lani was extremely helpful in explaining everything and every aspect of their organization. They rely on over 100 volunteers daily in order to deliver over 700 meals around the Charlotte area. I’m no mathematician, but that’s not only a ton of meals but about an average of seven meals per person to deliver. This statistic amazed me. I love that people are willing to serve those in need and doing so by dedicating more than two hours of their time on a daily basis.
Lani was more than excited about our group at Center City wanting to serve the community. She was very open and said she would love to have us anytime. Whether we choose to plan in advance for a larger group or show up unannounced, she said she would be thrilled either way.
I am looking forward to working with this organization! God is so good!
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I am so grateful for Ben. For his friendship, his passion, leadership and commitment to our vision to serve Uptown Charlotte. We couldn’t do this alone. Wouldn’t want to do this alone. Thank God for Ben!
Our world has been wonderfully filled with so many genuine and loving people from the creative community of Uptown Charlotte. We have made so many new friends that are painters, sketch artists, digital designers, musicians, etc. Every two weeks these artists showcase their work at a community event off of North Davidson Street (affectionately referred to as NoDa) called Gallery Crawl. The streets are lined with the work of local artists and live music. Incredible setting.
Dara and I spent hours tonight at Gallery Crawl with some amazing people from our world. I never knew that God would bless us with the opportunity to get to know such a talented, eclectic, genuine and inspiring group of people.
We walked talked, observed, listened and enjoyed great company. We landed at the Smelly Cat Coffeehouse for a while, then Tasty Yo Frozen Yogurt and then Amelies French Bakery. Each stop was filled with new people and engaging conversation.
I absolutely love what we are doing. Dara said it best tonight when she said the she can “feel” that area. It made sense to both of us when she phrased it that way. God has blessed us with the opportunity to build relationships with a group of people that we love more and more with each passing day.
Dara and I had an amazing evening tonight out and about around Uptown Charlotte. My mom watched the kids and that allowed Dara and I to go out on a much appreciated date.
Being parents of four, we don’t get many opportunities to go out like years past. It was so great to just sit across from her at a local burger dive called Penguin Diner. So much fun to be with my best friend and laugh, talk, eat and enjoy each other’s company. We finished off the night by getting dessert at Amelie’s French Bakery where we ran into a dozen people we love and cherish. Hours and hours of fun.
I love my wife. There’s no one on the planet that I would rather spend time with than her. Our relationship is a gift from God. I’m so grateful that we still love dating each other after 7+ years of marriage. What a great date night (thanks, Mom)!
