I just returned home after attending the Exponential Conference in Orlando. I took along Max and Mary (5 and 4 years old) and dropped them off with my mom to hang for a couple of days. It was so much fun to road trip with my two oldest kids! My love for them can be summed up in the fact that we went to McDonald's twice on our drive back from Florida. I'm paying for that today, but we had a blast. Dara stayed back with Jack and Ben (2 years and 3 months old).As we drove by Uptown Charlotte last night on I-77 my heart got all warm and I realized that I was home. I am falling more and more in...

What a week!Dara and I took the whole fam to Hopewell, VA this weekend. I officiated John and Ginny Gum's wedding. So cool to be a part of this incredibly special day. We then returned home late Saturday night and were up early on Sunday to get Hope Church geared up for another great service.I then turned around and am attending a church planting conference on Monday and Tuesday. It has been really challenging to hear Mark Batterson speak on the topic of creative communication. I'll post some thoughts from this event in the coming days.Early mornings and late nights for several days in a...

I will be checking out of the blogosphere for a couple of days as I'm headed to the farmland of Virginia to officiate the wedding ceremony of John Gum and Ginny Peterson.John and Ginny have been incredibly close to Dara and I for the past 5 years. God did good by putting these two together :-)They are both incredible people, incredible friends and incredible leaders. God is going to use them in life and ministry in great ways. I'm so honored to be able to be a part of this amazing day. I will be fighting back tears. I can already feel it. Be strong, Docusen.Off to Virginia!

Dara and I send out an e-mail update keeping people posted on what's happening in our life and ministry. If you would like to be added to this list, shoot me an e-mail and we will add you to the list.E-mail: [email protected]

Being a dad means so much to me. Besides my relationship with Christ and my marriage to Dara, it is the highest honor and greatest joy of my life. One of my favorite things that I do every night is re-tuck in the kids. The last thing I do before I go to bed is check on each one of them, put their covers back on them and make sure they are sleeping well. I will sometimes just stand there and stare at them sleeping so peacefully. They are precious.I love my kids and I long to be the best daddy I can be for them. From the outside looking in, a lot of people tell Dara and I that we are great...

Dara and I left Orlando (and all of the security that came along with family, friends and a great job) over ten months ago with no guarantees. We have been so blessed to have gone this entire time without receiving a single paycheck from Hope Church. It has been completely because of God's provision through the generosity of so many people around the country who have invested into our family.I just checked our online giving website and was blown away. We got a completely unexpected $500 contribution from some friends of ours from Missouri. Absolutely amazing. It has been moments like these...

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)I have prayed the same prayer for the past 15 years. I have prayed God would keep me on the front lines of ministry. I want to see the land that lies ahead. I want to touch it first. I want to smell it first. I want to see what God is about to do and be a part of a group of people that leave a trail for others to follow.This prayer inspires creativity. This prayer challenges my faith. This prayer motivates me on an incredibly deep level. I pray this prayer never stops in my life.Never...

I am so excited for John and Ginny (almost) Gum to get married next weekend!Dara and I have had the privilege of doing their marriage counseling for the past couple of months. We will be recommending a book to them that I would like to put on the radar for all you married and engaged couples out there. It's called "Nightlight: A Devotional for Couples" by James Dobson.This book helped Dara and I during our first six months of marriage immensely. One of my greatest fears was to become the spiritual head of my home. I had no clue how to do that. If we are all honest, I think most guys feel...

It was bound to happen eventually.I got schooled today in the ways of NASCAR by my good friend, Justin Leedy. He took me all around town today visiting a ton of race shops of all the top drivers in NASCAR.A bit of a confession: I think I'm really starting to dig racing.We stopped by Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s race shop today. We saw the guys working on the cars in the garage and all the crazy stuff they sell with Junior's face on it. Jackets to lunchboxes to keychains. All things Dale Jr. I even found out today that Junior owns two buffalo that live on his farm. Not kidding.Here's a pic of me and...

As if we don't have enough kids that cry throughout the day in the Docusen home...Dara and I were sitting in our living room tonight, the three older kids already down for bed and feeding Baby Ben his bottle before bed. All of a sudden we hear a little baby crying. We both look at Ben and he's pretty content scarfing down his Similac Advanced formula. We then look over at our baby monitor and realize that our monitor is picking up some other crying baby in our neighborhood. Not cool.I often call the screaming, crying, laughing, screaming and crying of my children the soundtrack of my life....