but you promised

I can remember saying that growing up to my parents.  During summers when I was a kid, I would often pester my parents to take us somewhere to swim.  I grew up in North Augusta and summers were the same as they are now in this area: brutally hot and humid.  For us it was either one of four places: Misty Waters, Anderson’s, Ascauga Lake or Hammond Hills Pool (the first three are either shut down or non-existent now).  I would remember my parents saying that they would take us “sometime” later on in the week or day, and I would just cling to that hope saying “but you promised”   Now I’m sometimes on the receiving end of that with my own kids.

I’ve been reading through Romans in my time with God and just came across a passage that just nailed me.  It is out of Romans 4 and is speaking about Abraham’s faith and it was his faith that made him right with God.  God made a promise to Abraham (an old childless man with a barren wife) that he would be the father of “many nations”.  This was a promise that he and Sara had to wait for years to come to pass…but it did.

Speaking of Abraham, in 4:20-21, the Bible says:

Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.

Here are some thoughts and questions that really stuck out to me:

• For all of us, there is a promise.  A promise of a plan, a will, a purpose for what we are to be about.  (Jeremiah 29:11)
• There are times when that purpose or plan is very clear.  There are times when it is just a dream, or we can only see “snapshots” of what it might be/could be.  There are times when we have NO clue.
• That doesn’t change the fact that the promise is still there.
• Question: Do I believe God will keep His promise? Abraham had to wait 25 years for the promise to be fulfilled (from the time when God first gave him that promise till Isaac’s birth)….now munch on that….25 years.  Yet he still believed.
• Question: Do i really believe God has the power to make that promise happen? My words say yes, but too often my actions say “I’ve got this God.  Let me help you out on that.”
• I’m just hoping and praying that the above verses will be true in me.  I’m asking God for that kind of faith that is unwavering to trust his promise and his power.

AJ Mind Dump

So it’s been a while since I posted as I’ve been out of town some.  Here is the latest from the world of Jones:

• Spent the past week and a half in Hilton Head, SC.  From Sunday to Friday, I was there with Walter and Danny doing some production for a camp called Breakaway.  The rest of the time was spent with my family on some vacation time.
• Breakaway – This was a our 4th year doing that camp.  Basically our day at breakaway consists of the following: 1. morning worship – where we run cameras, and propresenter for the meeting 2. film seminars – around 10:30 am 3. afternoon – Danny and Walter film recreation (both organized and non) and bring tapes to me where I edit for the the evening highlight reel 4. 6pm – tape student stories/testimonies to be used in the morning worship time 5. around 7:45 – evening worship where we run cameras, and propresenter for the meeting.  Also tape the messages/meeting for later use 6. late night – edit student stories and other pieces for morning/evening the next day.  Somewhere in between, we eat and sleep.  Not a whole lot of beach or pool time in there at all.  Seeing 300+ students encounter Jesus is a VERY cool thing.
• We usually hit Myrtle Beach with the family but things worked out great to spend our family vacation at HHI.  Was a great change of pace and some much needed R&R.
• Got to read a little bit and finished up Craig Groeschel’s book IT.  I’ve read a good number of books on leadership.  This one ranks at the top, imo.  His chapter on Vision and the last two chapters should be a must read for every pastor and staff.  Some insightful questions at the end of each chapter that would be great for a leadership team to walk through, too.
• Got the vacation hangover.  Calls for double doses of coffee.
• Still have a lot of exciting things heading this way this summer.  Looking forward to it.
• Biggest takeaway from the book IT was a prayer: God, stretch me, ruin me and heal me.  Amen…..seriously, you need to get that book.
• Reading through Andy Stanley’s “Making Vision Stick”.  gonna be good, I can already tell.
• I’m seriously thinking of going to no conferences over the next year.  I might make an exception, though, for Catalyst.  dunno
• Wrapping up several ecommerce sites over the next few weeks.  Looking forward to seeing them go live.
• Waiting on God’s timing is TOUGH!  Possibly the hardest thing I’ve had to process through in my life.  I’m not a very patient person, you can ask my wife.  Once I get an idea, a thought, a passion or new direction, usually my immediate next thought is “okay, let’s roll on that…” Can you relate to that?
• all for now.

my boy

Kim snapped this shot of Spencer, and I think it may be one of my all time favs.

AJ Mind Dump

Just a few random thoughts and updates from the life and mind of Jones:

• Been a good week.  Finally started feeling like myself in the last few days.  Hoping for a much healthier spring.
• Speaking of spring, excited about spring practice starting up for the DAWGS.  I’m still shocked that we were able to win 10 games in spite of how bad we played at times, especially on defense.  Spring ball can give you an idea of who may be the next player to breakout.
• Can’t wait to take the kids to Disney World in about a month.  It will be their first time.  We’re working on getting everything in order for it right now.
• Speaking of traveling, excited about heading to UNLEASH at Newspring this week.  Then, Kim and I are heading to North Georgia for a quick weekend getaway.  Looking forward to it.
• Speaking of football, GATORS WEAR JEAN SHORTS.
• This story is why we have security at CCC.  I am convinced that EVERY church should have solid, well thought out security, not just a guy named Bubba that looks really mean.  This could happen to any church, anywhere.  I use to think that guys who had large churches were pompous when they had security around them.  That changed several years ago.  As your church grows, so do the number of crazy people that want a piece of you.  At CCC, the security is packing heat for good reasons.
• Was sitting in church this morning, and I looked over and there was a lady sitting there crocheting during the service, listening to the message…..that’s a first!  ….crocheting…during church….really?
• Been loving this weather this weekend.
• Ready to get back into my routines.  Since I’ve had this stuff going on with the staph infection, it has totally thrown everything off in my schedule.  Ready to get back into working out more regularly.  During the last week, my workout has consisted of hitting home runs on Wii sports.  Better than nothing, but not quite what I need
• Love my wife…she’s my best friend and she’s hot
• I’ve had a ton of people over the past week that have been inquiring about doing some website work for them.  I’m grateful, but I’m wondering what has caused it to skyrocket all the sudden, especially in this economy.
• Going to enjoy the day.  peace.

Happy Birthday Kim!

It was a cool Sunday afternoon back in November of 1993 when I got the guts to ask Kim if she wanted to go out with me.  Fortunately for me, she said yes.  We’ve been together ever since.  Today is her birthday, and I just wanted to say how incredibly blessed and happy I am that she is my best friend, my wife, the mother of our kids and my partner.  Next to Jesus, she is the best thing that has ever happened to me.  I love you, Kim, and hope that you have a GREAT birthday.

AJ Mind Dump

Been quite a week.  This may be short as I’m having to type this while lying down on my bed.  Just wanted to give a quick update on me/us for those that have been asking/praying:

• Started this past week with a fever and a pretty nasty boil/infection.  Had it treated by a surgeon in an in-office procedure and felt like it was doing well.
• Went back on Friday for a routine check up to get the packing changed and my doctor just wasn’t satisfied with how it was healing.  So, Friday afternoon around 3PM I was admitted to Aiken Regional for outpatient surgery so they could go back in and remove any remaining infection.  It was diagnosed as a staph infection called MRSA.  Apparently it is a pretty nasty infection.
• I’m on some good antibiotics and vicodin for pain as needed.
• My wife is a champ. She has taken care of me very well.  I’m blessed to have her.
• I’m hoping to get back on my feet by Wed/Thursday.  Got a lot of work to do.  Right now it’s hard to sit up with where the incision is located.
• Had to miss all of C3 this past week.  Danny and Kenny both said it went really well, though.  Maybe next year.
• Appreciate all the prayers, phone calls, visits and messages.  All of them really helped.
• This whole ordeal threw off my 40 Days of Blogging by a few days.  As I can, I hope to get that back on track.
• That’s all for now.  Peace.

quick update

just wanted to give a quick update. My computer time has been kinda limited as you can imagine for now.  Kim and I went back to the surgeon today, and redness/irritation hadn’t spread and there was a little improvement so he’s going to hold off on going back in.  Yeah.  We have to go back tomorrow to have some packing removed, and then hopefully things will be headed in the right direction.  Appreciate all the prayers and phone calls.  peace.

movie trailer addict

All my life, I’ve been a huge fan of movies.  Some of my earliest memories that I can remember to this day are ones of our family going to the drive-in theater that use to exist in North Augusta.  My mom would pop literally a paper, grocery sack full of popcorn, and we would load up and head to the drive-in.  My first job in high school was at Master’s Cinemas on Washington Road in Augusta.  I always loved working on Friday nights when there was a new, summer blockbuster being released.  The place was packed, people were excited to be there, saw people I knew….hmmm..similarities to a church there…but I digress.  Kim is my movie buddy and we watch a lot of movies at the house and love to spend a date night catching a new flick. (side note here: one of my pet peeves – people who talk during the movie…just be quiet, really, seriously…people don’t like you at all when you are flapping your gums during the movie. Save your money, stay at home, wait for the dvd, talk all you want then and allow us to watch the movie that we paid half a mortgage payment to see)

Along with movies, I also love movie trailers.  Most of the time, studios will include some of the best scenes and lines in that glorious two minutes or less.  This spring and summer looks to be full of a lot of movies that I’ll be checking out.  Here area couple of links to sites that I frequent to get my movie trailer fix.  Enjoy:

Fancast: http://www.fancast.com/trailers

Apple: http://www.apple.com/trailers

11 years ago today

February 1st 1998 I was introduced to Cedar Creek Church as the new student pastor.  It’s pretty wild to believe I’ve been at CCC for that long.  Kim was pregnant with Hannah, and it just seems like so long ago.  I’ve been blessed to be able to be on staff with the some great pastors, leaders and friends.  When I first came on staff, the only other paid staff was Richard, Kay and Travis Holmes.  We were meeting at New Generations DayCare, and we were averaging around 450.  Our offices were downtown Aiken in the old post office building.  Those were good times.  Now, we’re averaging somewhere around 2,600 to 3,000 a weekend, have a lot more staff and have two, soon to be three, campuses.  I just wanted to say a word of incredible appreciation to Richard who gave me a chance to join the staff back then and for the example he has given me of what it means to lead, be a pastor, a man who loves Jesus, and wants to desperately see others meet Jesus.

AJ Mind Dump

Really happy for the long weekend.  Planning on using tomorrow to catch up on some projects.  Just a few thoughts to wrap up the week.

• Cedar Creek West had its official launch today.  Total of 441 people showed up today.  That’s pretty amazing.  Still stand by my prediction that it will be at two services by March.
• Speaking of the West Campus, just wanted to say that there is not a doubt in my mind that Wes is God’s man for that campus.  Have the utmost respect for that bro.
• We’ve got to really nail down the streaming delivery to that campus.  Right now we’re using P2 cards taped at the 9 AM service at the Banks Mill campus.  That will work for one service but not two.
• It’s pretty cool to see all the hard work, research and legwork finally becoming a reality on the media end.  A lot of media and lights hardware going on to make that happen.  Kenny and the team are doing an excellent job with the setup and production.
• Met last week with our projection and light suppliers in Ridge Spring to begin preliminary pricing and such for Cedar Creek On The Ridge campus.
• Going to be hiring some video and graphic help part time over the next several weeks.
• Really believe I heard from God this past week about some things that I’ve been praying about and working through in my head for a while.  Don’t worry…I’m not losing my mind…yet anyway   Had a great conversation that really helped.  Don’t know where that path will lead, but excited about growing to a new level.
• Started reading through the book of Acts in my time with God.  Some new stuff that God is speaking in to my life.
• Had to put any speaking on the backburner in the months leading up to the west campus launch.  Feelin like I’d like to speak again soon.
• Phillip used this verse in his message this morning.  Rocked my world.  Going to pray this for my life, family and ministry…”God, you did it once….do it again..” (my paraphrase): Habakkuk 3:2
• Can’t wait to hit C3.  Has always been a time to refuel for me.  I’ll be heading out there with Danny and Kenny B.
• My kids crack me up with some of the things they say.  Tonight I was saying prayers with Spencer, and he told God that he was proud of me for buying him some Skittles…one of his personal favorites
• Got several large web projects that are about to hit.  Looking forward to working through them.
• Really wish we had some snow.  When I was a kid, I remember during winter time waking up in the morning on school days, looking out my window just hoping that it had snowed during the night.  I have some very vivid memories of some great snows we had at my house growing up.  Didn’t have very many, but the ones we did have were so much fun.
• I think I’m becoming an HD snob.  The picture is just insane. Can’t wait to watch my DAWGS in the fall in HD.  If I’m not at the game, I’ll be at the house eating cheese dip and enjoying the picture there.
• Speaking of the DAWGS, I’m officially on the WeNeedANewBasketballCoach bandwagon.  Harrick put our team in a huge mess 6 years ago, but to score less than 20 points at the half against a rebuilding vandy team is just pathetic.  We had 19 points today at half against Kentucky.  Felton is a standup guy, but I think he has taken us as far as he can.  Just not a very good coach or recruiter up to this point.  Time for the AD to open up the wallet and bring in a top tier coach.
• Going to watch a movie with Kim. peace.