Epic Update

Here are a few things happening at Epic:

1. We are currently in a series called Glow. This series is about students being a light in their schools & communities. We talked about how light always shines in darkness, how God wants us to reach out to our neighbor, how the church exists to heal people & Christians exist to help bring people to Jesus. Check out the sermons on our Epic podcast on iTunes if you missed them.

2. We are currently selling epic t-shirts for our battle of community groups in September. Buy a shirt on Sunday or Wednesday to get big points for your group! T-shirts are $10.

3. Next Wed 8/25 & Sunday 8/29, I'm doing a message with a pretty sweet illustration & we are also having a special giveaway for every student that attends, bring some friends!!!

4. Next month we are doing a new series called Last Name: Ever, First Name: Greatest, where we look at who is the greatest ever of all time? Peyton Manning, Michael Jordan, Michael Jackson, Mohammed Ali? Who do think deserves the title greatest ever?

For more details you can email me at chris@peopleschurch.tv

Why We Delegate and Investigate at Epic - Pt. 3

"Delegation without investigation is an abomination." Ed Young

In order for us to delegate and investigate at Epic, here is the third factor:

3. Everyone must be willing to lead and be led. All of us are leading or being led in some capacity. For those of us with leaders underneath us we must lead without hesitation. We do that by training, caring, praying, correcting, delegating, communicating and loving those underneath our leadership.

Those of us being led must submit without hesitation. We do this by being humble, teachable, flexible, ready to serve, respectful, communicating, a team player and loving.

When leaders are leading and following we are operating like a well oiled machine and again it allows us to give our students our very best!

Why We Delegate and Investigate at Epic - Pt. 2

"Delegation without investigation is an abomination." Ed Young

In order for us to delegate and investigate at Epic, here is the second factor:

Communication is key, assuming is deadly. Haha that ryhmes, I promise if I wasn't a pastor I would be a rapper. JK, anyways. Everyone has to communicate with each other. The best way to make sure we are staying on point is by asking questions, dialoging and never assuming. When we assume we risk the chance something is not getting done or not being done correctly. Whenever we think about assuming we must go to the person that can give us the definitive answer to our assumption. Everyone must be on the same page and for this to happen we must communicate with each other. This also helps us give our students in OKC our very best!

Why We Delegate and Investigate at Epic - Pt. 1

I want to share with you a few quotes I have on my office wall over the next few blogs and why they are important to what we are doing at Epic.

First quote: "Delegation without investigation is an abomination." Ed Young

At Epic we investigate everything to make sure it is being done correctly and with excellence. My Youth Associate and myself are doing this, we expect all of our team leaders to do this and expect those being led to embrace the investigation process. We have a huge vision to reach and disciple every student in OKC and this vision will be accomplished with us paying attention/investigating every detail.

With our ministry growing tons of stuff is delegated which means we need to be on point with our delegation and what is being accomplished.

In order for us to do this effectively a few things must happen, here is the first:

1. Everyone must have thick skin and be flexible.

If we are correcting or changing something it's not because we are trying to be difficult or jerks. We believe our students deserve the very best, they deserve an experience done with excellence and if nothing else in their life is excellent, Epic will be. Every bit of critique, correction, follow up must be received with an attitude of making Epic better for our students. So with that yes we expect everything to be done with excellence, we expect everyone to be on time and on point and we will investigate every detail because our students deserve nothing less then the best!

Stay tuned for more.

iPhone Blogger

I have not done well blogging from a computer so here goes nothing trying from my iPhone.

Personally I use my iPhone for everything! Here a few things I use the most on my iPhone:

1. My calendar. I need to sync my phone more often because if I ever lost it I would be in trouble. When I set up a meeting or write down an important date the first place I put it is my iPhone.

2. Text messaging, thank the lord for whoever invented text messaging.

3. Social media. Most of my facebook & twitter stuff is done from my phone.

4. Weather App. I'm checking this all the time praying there will be food weather on Wed & Sun.

5. Maps. No more mapquest or paper directions for me. Now this has burned me a few times but I still use it all the time.

6. I'm hoping the blogger app. I guess we will see. :)

Believe it or not I don't use my email a lot because it would control my life. I limit emails to my work computer so I'm not emailing all time. I struggled with this when I first got my iPhone but now have it under control.

My wife is an amazing mother

Jace is truly blessed with an amazing mom. Jamie's care & love for Jace is out of this world. She is great at caring for his needs, playing with him & teaching him all kinds of stuff like ABC's, colors, names & more! He knows his mommy & loves her!

Thanks Babe for being such an amazing mom. I've enjoyed every minute of this parenting journey with you!

Thanks also for changing a lot of poopy diapers. I'm such a wimp!

My Mom

In honor of my mom I want to share some insights about the things I appreciate about my mom:

1. My mom is a servant. She excels at putting others ahead of herself. From visiting complete strangers at the nursing home on a regular basis, to driving cancer patients to their appointments, including widows on family gatherings so they aren't alone, to going above & beyond for her kids & grandkids, taking care of her mom who was having a tough battle with cancer, to picking up panera bread to take to a food shelter & giving bday & Xmas money to convoy of hope, Haiti & Katrina relief. I'm very inspired & challenged by her selfless acts. Just for these things my mom is a hero in my eyes.

2. My mom is healthy, I give her a hard time about this at times but she is always lookin out for our health & cares about us adding years to our life vs. taking years away. & although I do appreciate this I have to say I will never eat brussel sprouts :) Sorry mom.

3. My mom loves to travel with family. I have reaped many benefits from this & Lord knows my step dad & grandpa have played a huge role too but I'm thankful & feel pretty lucky for all the places I have been.

4. My mom has always taught us "blood is thicker then water". Family is a big deal to my mom & because of her it's a big deal to me too, I know all my grandparents, cousins, aunts & uncles & love it. We r a close family and I plan to do the same with Jace. Family always comes first!

5. Last but not least my mom is a huge believer in being debt free. We are on our way there & I apprecaite all my moms advice & her example when it comes to debt.

There is a lot more but as I was writing tonight this is what stuck out to me. As you can see my mom is a pretty amazing woman.

Love you Mom!

Week In Review

NBA Playoff predictions: Magic over the Hawks, Celtics over the Cavs, Lakers over the Jazz and Spurs over the Suns. I just wanted to put those out there now here are some highlights from my week:

1. Monday I arrived in Atlanta with the other directors from People's Church for the Drive Conference. Got a lot of great insight from the conference and had a blast with our staff.

2. Being at a church that has 1100 students in their youth ministry really challenged me and helped me see some steps we need to take to get to that level. It also helped me see we are on the right track of someday reaching and discipling over 1000 students!

3. Wednesday we flew back to OKC and got back to the church just in time for Epic! All of April we have been planning, strategizing and praying for a new community groups launch. We launched on Wed and are on the right track. The greatest part was seeing 100% of our students in community and excited about it. The future looks very bright!

4. Thursday I had a great day at work and got a lot done. I hardly had any catching up to do because Rachel, my assistant and Juan, my associate did a great job holding down the fort while I was gone. It's a blessing to leave for 3 days and know everything is being taken care of.

5. Thursday is also Survivor night and this may be my favorite season. I was pulling for Russell but now I want him to get the boot. I would love to see Rupert win it all!

6. Friday, slept in a little (I like to sleep), worked a little and now we are going on a family date featuring Chick Fil A and the mall!

7. Till next week have a great weekend and I want to wish a Happy Mother's Day to every Mom out there!

The Best Part about the Drive Conference

I'm currently in Atlanta for the Drive Conference with our staff from People's Church. At this conference I have gotten a lot of good nuggets and insight regarding leadership and ministry but my favorite part has been hanging out with my coworkers. We have laughed a ton and are developing memories and stories that will last a lifetime. The conference is great but the relational connection with my coworkers has been even better. I'm very blessed to work with such great men of God, who work hard, are humble, love ministry and love to have a good time.

Tomorrow is the last day of the conference and I can't wait to see my students at Epic and my family!

I'll also post some of my insights on here later this week.

Thunder Up!!!!

The Thunder struggled last night but I still think they can upset the Lakers. I know most people will think I'm crazy but I'm pretty sure they will win game 6 and then all they have to do is steal game 7. Easier said then done right? Well I'm gonna pull some inspiration from the movie Miracle. We may play 8 games in LA and get beat 7 out of 8 times but we only need one win in LA to win it all. Game 7 will be that one game!!! Go Thunder!!!