Daryl Strickland

You will face many obstacles to being all you can be in life things like; laziness, busyness, discouragment and probably one of the BIGGEST is DISTRACTION.

Your success in life, in ministry, in business hinges primarily on how focused you can be. It is so easy to get going and forget the main thing (the mission) and get way of track. The company’s, churches and people who can relentlessly keep the main thing the main thing, usually excel at their mission.

Our main deal at Lifepoint is pointing people to life and that life is found in Jesus. We believe that living at the “lifepoint” is where your love for God intersects your love for people. It’s the Greatest Commandment. Their are lots of other things that we could do but our deal is pointing people to Jesus and helping them live at the “lifepoint”.

Some easy examples of getting distracted are: listening to critics, always defending yourself, and this one is a tough one but focusing on every need that comes up as opposed to focusing on the mission.

One thing that I heard this week remind of this. The statement was that vision comes from inside not outside. Meaning that you can’t allow all the passengers on the plane to decide where your going and how to fly the plane. You have to carry your church, your company, your family where they need to go, not where they want to go. You have to understand you vision/mission cleary and stay on track!

I am pumped about the people that God is allowing us to meet and ask questions. There is no doubt that they are influential people. Look at there churches! Look at my blog stats this week. (Thanks Tony, Perry , Jeff and Gary!)

T.D. Jakes says that God doesn’t bring heavy machinery into your life to build a chicken coop! Expect BIG things Lifepoint, God is definitely allowing us to have access to heavy machinery. Thank you Jesus!

Are there certain things that you are always attracted to and interested in? I have some really weird ones and here they are:

• Calculators – I know you are laughing but I cannot go down a calculator aisle without stopping and looking at everyone and all of their features. I literally have to talk myself out of buying a new one each time. I really have a thing for Scientific Calculators.
• Knives – Same thing as the calculators. It doesn’t matter if they are at a convenience store, Wal-Mart or Dick’s Sporting Goods, I want a new one every time I see one. I like the manly looking ones with the serrated blades.
• Shoes – I know I will hear it on this one but I like shoes (I just don’t own as many as some people I know).
• Televisions – I look at every TV at every store, even the small ones that I would never buy and yes the that big one at Circuit City that wouldn’t fit on any wall I own.
• Trucks – Last but not least is trucks. I am loyal to no brand here. I like Fords, Chevys, GMC’s, Dodges, and my favorite right now it the Toyota Tundra. (That thing Honda puts out is not a truck – sorry Paul, but anything you can drive backward and it looks better that frontward is not a truck).

This Sunday is Lifepoint Churches two year anniversary. That sounds so crazy to say. I remember the first Sunday like it was yesterday. I remember every song, every face and every thought. I remember having that diarrhea feeling. I remember wondering if anyone would show up.

As a matter of fact nothing has changed! Well, nothing as far as the things listed above. The things that have changed is the stories of people growing closer to God, people wrestling with and tackling issues that used to dominate their live. There are lots more Dream Team members now and I feel like we are in a prime position to make a huge difference in this city and around the world THIS year!

We start a new series this week and this one, like them all, would be a great one to invited any unchurched neighbors, co-workers, friends and family. We will attend to Shatter some of the most common sterotypes about the church.

See you Sunday!!!

Gary Lamb and his staff are a trip! We got to hangout for a little while with Gary, Tim, Adam, and Preston from Revolution Church in Canton, GA. There are a lot of pastors out there that are trying to be the next Andy, Erwin, Craig, etc.. Gary Lamb is not one of those. He is a clone of no one and has no problem being Gary.

We hung out for a few hours and talked about our biggest challenges and victories. The biggest thing that I got from Gary today is what you see is what you get and this guy loves life. This is a cool staff and they understand their community and it’s language very well.

I so look forward to getting to know these guys better. Thanks for the time Revolution!

Updated: Good Point Preston. Jock’s and Jill’s is a slamming place to eat if you are ever in Canton. The chicken chimichangas with gorgonzola mac-n-cheese was off the hook! And Craig Sager was one table away from us when we got there.

The Lifepoint Staff was privileged to be able to meet some of our counterparts at NewSpring Church in Anderson, SC. Here are some of my notes and thoughts from todays meetings.

Jason Wilson

Jason is the Executive Pastor at NewSpring and he is a great friend. I ask Jason a few questions this morning about his role at NewSpring and supporting Perry and I picked up some awesome ideas for ways to better serve Lifepiont and my Pastor. Probably one of the coolest things is the way that Jason prepares for the Senior Management Team Meeting. He facilitates this meeting and he prepares the agenda by gathering info from each team member prior to the meeting (which makes this meeting very productive).

Jake Beaty

Jake is over the Care Ministries at NewSpring and this guy is in his sweet spot!! I loved to hear his heart to care for people, to care for Perry, to care for the NewSpring Staff and to care for us. He has a great blog for people seeking biblical wisdom on issues that they face (click on his name above). The biggest thing that I learned from Jake today is that every situation and every person is unique and have to be treated that way. I will share more wisdom from Jake later but check out his blog.

Senior Management Team Meeting

This was worth the trip. Jeff and I found ourselves sandwiched between Perry and Tony Morgan with some serious horsepower all around the room. This isn’t a huge meeting, there are eight people on this team and each come prepared and pour their heart into this time. The meeting had intense moments and some really hilarious moments that I wish I could share. What I learned from this meeting is that Perry is a confident leader who believes in the vision that God has given him and he believes in the people that God has put around him. Perry doesn’t run this meeting but there is no doubt when it comes to vision, where it comes from. This team is the real deal and I took lots of notes. One other cool fact about this meeting is that they truly welcome unfiltered debate. They actually want to duke it out over the important things and come out unified, with the best idea.

Two on Two (L to R Jason Wilson, Perry Noble, Jeff Kapusta, Daryl Strickland)
This was an unexpected bonus to our trip but Perry and Jason hung out with us for a while after the Senior Management Team Meeting. This was another one of those moments that I think we will look back on and say, this was a God moment. Perry and Jason fielded questions and imparted wisdom. Neither one of these guys have forgotten their early days and they truly wanted to pour into us and help anyway they could. I am and always will be thankful for this time.

Band Practice

We got to hangout tonight with Karla, Joel, Lee and the Band. I can’t lie, if their was anyway that I could have stolen Lee, Rosangela, Joel, Karla, or any of the band we would have. I can’t say that I have met so many people in one place that absolutely love what they do. Band practice was fun. Everyone was on time and you could tell that they had practiced their parts. Lee is a strong leader that cares about his peeps. Joel is a stud! He knows his gear, he knows sound, he knows lights, he is also very generous. Practice was first class and we learned a lot. We plan on sending Drew back to hang with Lee and experience the whole weekend and practice.

Here is my parting thoughts and I have said this before, NewSpring is successful because of one thing and that’s Jesus. Everybody there loves Him, Serves Him, Points People to Him. The reason they have cool sound and lights is because they are faithful to talk about Jesus and lots of people need Jesus.

Thanks NewSpring for your heart and generosity’s!

This was one of those services that you want to say, “God, if this is what heaven is like, you can take me now”.

Perry brought the lumber. The message was on the Lord’s Supper and he did his best to talk you out of taking part in it. Here is why, if you take communion, you are saying not my will but Yours be done. If you say that and leave and don’t live this way you are mocking the name of God. The Bible cleary states that God can not be mocked, so Perry encouraged you to only take communion if you really meant the words, “not my will but Yours be done”. It was strong. People stood up all around me and gave their lives to Christ.

Here are a few one liners that I wrote down from the message:

• Has there ever been a time that you were closer to God? If so, who moved?
• Anybody can follow Christ when it’s easy. Can you follow Him when things get tough?
• It doesn’t matter how bad the storm is, there is always something beautiful on the other side.

His three main points were:

1. He is close enough to hear
2. He is powerful enough to act
3. He is faithful enough to trust

We have one on one meetings all week long with staff members from NewSpring Church in Anderson, SC, Revolution Church in Canton, GA, Stone Creek in Alpharetta, GA and Buckhead Church in Atlanta.

These are some heavy hitters. I can’t wait to see what God shows us through this crowd!!!

Is this:

A. Osama Bin Laden

B. Britney Spears Passed Out Drunk

C. Pastor Jeff resting between service due to being sick

If you guess A your wrong, it was C. I was proud of Jeff and the whole LP team today, we played hurt and God showed up. Love you guys!!!

Today was awesome! I knew it was going to be a good day when I found out that 4 out of our 6 staff members were sick (2 of them extremely sick, which one was our Pastor), a horse showed up at the school (this is very odd for our locale) and it was really, really cold.

God loves to work when nothing else does. We prayed hard and what looked bleak early on, turned into a record day. We had our highest attendance to date (545) and tons of new faces. Jeff had an awesome message on purpose that he preached from the reserve tank and the dream team was on it today!

After all that action we loaded up and drove 5 hours to Anderson, SC and attended NewSprings 6:45pm service. This service was unbelievable. Perry did a whole message on the Lord’s Supper which was one of the best that I have ever heard and was tremendously challenging. It was a well put together service. Again, we were blown away by the hospitality that NewSpring extends. When you go there it’s more like visiting family that you love than going to church. Thanks NewSpring!

Here are a few pics from today: