1000 People giving $25 to Transform a City!

Connect Rome is a movement of people trying to Make it Simple for People to Connect to God and Each Other.  We have a desire to see Rome Georgia transformed for good!

People deserve to eat.
Children deserve school supplies and clothes.
Families deserve the opportunity to have a great Christmas.
Marriages deserve to be restored.
And every man, woman and child deserves multiple opportunities to make an informed decision about Jesus Christ.
This takes money.
That’s where you and your friends fit in…

We’re going to raise $25,000 dollars before 2008 ends.  We’re not looking for a few people to give 1000’s of dollars. We are looking for one thousand people to give $25.  God is doing incredible things in Rome, GA.  Would you consider helping play a part?

I need you to do three things.

1) Go Here

2) Consider giving $25.  I know the economy is rough.  Just eat cheap a few days.  Or brew coffee at your house rather than making your morning trip to Starbucks. Make a sacrifice. Invest in the Kingdom. Your donations are tax deductible.  You will get a receipt for your gift.

3) Ask your friends to give.  Send your friends an email or give them a call.  Tell them what we are doing and ask them to consider being a part.  You can post a link to our cause page by copying this link -

https://www.causes.com/fb/donations/new?cause_id=115215&fundraiser_id=18187177&m=e006ddf7

Feel free to post this on your blog, as well.

Thanks friends.  With your support, encouragement, and participation we can show our city how great and awesome our God is!  I am so excited about what he is doing in Rome, GA!!

Soooo, my last 2 weeks?

They have been CRAZY.  I’ve had two relatives die – a grandmother and great-grandmonther, both whom I’ve been pretty close to growing up. I worked ALL last week at a kids conference in Fort Walton Beach Florida called Breakaway.  I learned a valuable life lesson about grace and I got to experience first hand why it’s SO incredible.  The mere fact that when we screw up beyond all thought of redemption, we are offered the compassion, love and acceptance that we don’t deserve makes me wanna go hug someone or something. 

Then yesterday, we had our first launch team meeting for Connect Rome.  We had about 25 people show up, and others that wanted to but couldn’t.  God has really showed up in the whole launch process, even now when we’re still 6 months out from launching, he makes himself look super huge.  I look forward to the coming months to see what else he might do.  You can follow the whole process on Josh’s blog better than you probably could on mine.  

I’d like to share something that I read on Kristian’s blog this morning.  He was applying this to worship leaders, but it’s applicable to anyone who wants to be a part of adding to the kingdom that Jesus has called us to.  It is John 15:1-8 which says:

1“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes[a] so that it will be even more fruitful. 3You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 5“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.7If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. 8This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. 

If you are actively pursuing God’s calling in your life, these few verses should be your home.  We are called to not only build others up in the Lord, but also to feed our spirit with the principles that are Holy and Righteous.  We are called to be his hands and feet, but how can we when we have trouble walking on our own?  Hmmmmm.  

Visionary Leadership

I am a part of a church plant movement that is launching here in Rome Georgia in January of 2009 called Connect Rome.  Our mission and vision is to create opportunities where it is simple for people to connect to God and each other.  Josh Roberts is our lead pastor.  

I just finished reading an Article at Motivation-tools.com about Visionary Leadership.  One good part I’ll share is the definition of Visionary Leadership vs. Standard Leadership.  

Below are the definitions taken from the website. 

Visionary Leadership increases efficiency by moving decision-making responsibility to the frontline. Efficiency is achieved with limited supervision. To make frontline responsibility effective, leadership must give workers opportunity to develop quality decision-making skills and learn to trust them. Wal-Mart stores use visionary leadership.

Standard leadership assumes employees to be robots and do as they are told. This is based on man’s natural instinct that only leadership is capable of making quality decisions. This is known as command-and-control leadership. Low efficiency is caused by the disconnect between management and the frontline. Management is busy dealing with problems that affect them while ignoring problems that affect the frontline. Front line problems are only dealt with when they explode into a major problem. K-Mart stores use standard leadership.

We have all been a part of an organization that falls under the Standard Leadership umbrella.  It is easy to get worn out or burned out quickly when you are not allowed the freedom to lead in the areas you excel. I tend to think that is the reason why Visionary Leadership has gained so much ground in the last few years. People in leadership positions are starting to catch on to the fact that they can be more efficient in leading their organization by stepping back and allowing the leaders they have raised up to actually lead. 

One thing we hope to do and do well at Connect Rome is to constantly be developing new Visionary Leaders who can be making decisions for the kingdom right on the frontline.  From our Children’s Ministry, our Sunday Morning Programming Team, our Creative Teams, or even our Parking Teams, we hope to raise up men and women who are keenly aware that they are able to and capable of leading people effectively for the kingdom.

Keep a steady eye out on the Connect Rome website.  It is pretty plain right now, but it should develop a new look in the next month or two and it will be jammed packed with all the information you’ll need about who we are, our vision, where we’ll be meeting and when, etc.  You can also check back HERE at my blog or Josh Roberts’ Blog to stay updated.

Creative Meeting

Just got back from a planning retreat with J.R. and Todd from Freedom Church in Acworth and this guy.  We planned out 9 months worth of teaching material.  It was a pretty neat experience to see it all come together.  I’ll post more later.  I’ve got tons of stuff I’ve gotta accomplish today.  

Andy Stanley

I learn so much from this man, it’s insane.