Dara and I stood in the lobby of the conference center tonight telling some fellow church planters our story. We told them about leaving Orlando, responding to God's call to Charlotte, raising our funds, etc.We shared with them the last four months of our journey. We told them about the fact that we completely ran out of money in January and have been walking every day in faith ever since for our finances. We shared with them the present reality of our life. As we stood there in that lobby, we were 3 days away from our next pay period and around $1,000 short of our budget.I looked them...

These past two days have been so refreshing for Dara and I. We are literally just soaking in refreshment from God as we break away from our hectic pace and receive from some amazing men of God as they are speaking into our lives at the All Access Conference.It has been so great to reconnect with old friends that have jumped into the church planters tribe. So crazy to see people from yesteryear that have responded to God's call to plant life giving churches across the nation.We heard some awesome things to day from Dino Rizzo, Chris Hodges, Greg Surratt and Ed Young, Jr. Looking forward to...

The sessions will be streaming all day tomorrow and Wednesday from the ARC All Access Conference. If you want to watch, click here.

Really enjoyed the beginning of the ARC All Access Conference today. First of all, it's just great to get away with Dara. Our life is utterly dominated by our four kids these days, so any time away is refreshing for us. (Special thanks to my mom for coming from Orlando to watch the kids this week!)We got to hear from the president of the ARC, Billy Hornsby, tonight. It is so great to be a part of a greater initiative than our own. The ARC has raised $50 million dollars for church planting in the past 8 years. Absolutely amazing.One of the most thought-provoking quotes came when Billy said,...

I just watched a video feed from the Q Conference about Blake Mycoskie at Toms Shoes. He had an idea and ran with it with all of his heart. While on a trip to Argentina, Blake saw the huge need for kids to have a simple, yet vital provision: shoes. He dreamed up a company that would give one pair of shoes away for every pair of shoes he sold.In the past year, Tom's Shoes has completely exploded. Each pair of shoes comes with a story. When people wear these shoes, they are compelled to share the story that another pair of shoes went to Argentina. The message of service and servanthood is...

Dara and I are headed to the ARC All Access Conference today. It's so great to get away with our Hope Church team for a couple of days. We also love connecting with friends from around the country. Looking forward to what God has in store over the next couple of days!

I am a dreamer. Always have been. I believe that my greatest strength can be my greatest weakness when not properly harnessed. However, God is the author of our dreams, so I allow myself the liberty to really have faith to believe for huge, ridiculous, amazing things. I had one of those dreams over a year ago when we decided to leave an awesome job in my home town to come to Charlotte with no guarantees. It's worked out quite nicely :-)One of the biggest things that I have found is that realizing your dream comes at a huge cost. There is so much behind the scenes work that make dreams become...

Dara and I took the kids to the Great Wolf Lodge on Friday and Saturday for their grand opening celebration. There was lots of energy, great food, some guy from Hannah Montana named Mitch singing in the lobby, an awesome hotel room and an AMAZING indoor water park.All of this for free thanks to some great friends that hooked us up! So much fun to spend the night with the kids, wrestle, laugh, not sleep much, eat Dunkin Donuts in the morning and then play all day in the water.Dara put it best yesterday when she said that we are creating memories that the kids will remember for the rest of...

Dara and I will be attending the ARC All Acess Conference next week in Raleigh, NC. I wanted to put it out there in the blogoshphere to see if any of our friends would be attending. I'd love to connect with some other church planters!Shoot me an email ([email protected]) if you'll be there or connect on Twitter.

I post these things so that God gets all the glory:We are 8 days away from our May pay period and we are still $1,500 short. Of this I am sure...he will provide. When he does, I will be sure to brag about his love, faithfulness and provision.Dara and I just prayed together this morning as we looked at the reality of our finances. This was our prayer: "Lord, you promised to provide and you told us not to worry. We can feel the stress, but we give that stress to you today."God gets all the glory when we do all we can and it's not enough. We need him. He will provide.