We had a blast today as we gathered our core team together for a picnic to celebrate the last several months of planning for Hope Church. It all begins tomorrow at our GRAND OPENING for Hope. It would have been impossible to get this far without so many that have invested their time and energy into one common goal: to bring Hope to the Charlotte community.Thank God for the 50+ that were there today. Thank God for so many more that will join us tomorrow. We're on the precipice of something great. It feels good.

I am feeling the momentum leading up to Sunday so strong right now. It literally feels like we've been pushing uphill for the last nine months and we've finally reached the tipping point. It's starting to take off downhill now.My heart is energized and my spirit is full of excitement. 53,000 people received our mailer this week. We've already gotten a huge response from it via telephone and web visitors. This is such an exciting time for us.It's go time.

ALWAYS HAVE A CONTINGENCY PLAN.We are sitting here in our office (Caribou Coffee) talking about our launch this weekend. After all of our plans to get prepared for Sunday, we brought up this idea today:What happens if there are more people there than seats?The theater we use has 235 available seats (after all of our setup). We just mailed out 53,000 mailing pieces to the community. If 1% of the recipients show up we would have over 500 people. If .5% show up we would have 250 people. Add this to the 65+ that we have been having on a regular basis and we might have a very good problem.That...

Here's a look at the direct mail piece that we have sent out to the community this weekend. 53,000 of these have gone out and are being received today and tomorrow throughout North Charlotte and the surrounding areas. We are already starting to get a great response from the community from them!This is yet another piece designed by Luke Bolin and StudiOne26. Our goal with this was to not bombard people with so much information. Lots of churches and businesses send advertising pieces...we wanted to send one that would create intrigue by the design and then drive them to our website. I'm a firm...

I just found a great internet marketing company called Yodle (thanks to Hutch Vollendorf). They take a nominal fee to set up your account and then get you set up on all the major search engines. On top of that they will track all of your activity and visitors and give feedback on the effectiveness of your campaign. Great for churches and businesses.

I recently got hooked on a great business magazine called Fast Company. I love it.This magazine is chocked full of new ideas that are shaping the business world. One particular article that really caught my eye recently talked about a certain marketing strategy they called "dirty marketing". The basic idea is that advertisers create a "perceived need" (a need that really doesn't even exist) and then they sell their product to fill this "need".This got me thinking about what we are doing at Hope.I want to market Hope all around the community. I want people to recognize our brand. I want our...

I am finding so many similarities between church planting and the gift of entrepreneurialism. I have seen it my whole life from my dad. He's a magnet for new ideas and businesses that just seem to make sense in "niche markets". Some of my earliest memories are seeing my dad head out on his days off to go sweep chimneys in Michigan. He found a market and did it with excellence.In the same way, launching a church is like opening a new business. You find your niche in the community and begin to build from there. I think there may come a day that God releases me to use this interest in...

Six years ago today I married the most amazing, elegant, gifted, lovely, beautiful woman in the world. I love her.

I am reading through Acts these days. Chapter 2:25-28 is a pretty substantial nugget that many may pass over. It spoke so deeply to my spirit today. Peter is addressing the crowd that gathers after the Holy Spirit shakes things up. He quotes King David in this verse from Psalm 16:8 -"I know the Lord is always with me. I will not be shaken, for he is right beside me."First off, David has the experience to back up this sentence. David was a man that didn't just theorize about the faithfulness of God, he desperately depended on this reality. He can state "I will not be shaken" because God was...

Why do they schedule sports like this? Let me explain:We go all summer in the dark days of sports. We are forced to pretend we're interested in the countless games Major League Baseball plays. Sportscenter focuses on stuff like kayaking and poodle shows for 3 months. All of a sudden - seemingly at once - the NFL, college football AND the pennant race for baseball hits.I'm looking forward to filling my Saturdays, Sundays and Monday nights with football and training my children at an early age to root for the Bucs and the Gators!So awesome. So overwhelming. I love it.