Eric Taylor

Remember when...

I'm so ready for this weekend to get here.  I can't wait to begin our new series called REMEMBER.  We ripped off ideas from several churches... Granger, LifeChurch, Northpoint and Elevation and created a series that deals with some ancient practices like Communion, Baptism and Fasting that, frankly, are often misunderstood.  We're going to look at each of these practices and remember and rediscover the beauty and significance of each.  I will warn you though... don't expect some religious ritual stuff... The next 3 weeks could be the most spiritually significant time of your life.  Whether you've been a Christ Follower for a long, long time, or you've just recently gone public with your faith, or even if you're still exploring Christianity, this series has something for you.  I believe we will see God move in a big way in our church during the next few weeks.  So, get ready... make sure you clear your calendar... you don't want to miss it... and plan to bring a friend with you.  If you think this series is just for Christ Followers you will miss an opportunity to help someone who is disconnected from God and the Church to discover and begin to understand some of the weird stuff we do at church.  I hope you'll talk it up around your office, your classes, your neighborhood and let's fill the place up and watch God do something amazing!

Sunday Night Mind Dump on Monday Morning

This Sunday Night Mind Dump is a little late, mostly because I had a pretty busy night last night and never got to it.  So here it is...

• Joey and Jason did an awesome job leading worship yesterday.
• I am still praying that Joey will move to Auburn after their baby is born.
• Evan Almighty is one of the funniest movies I've seen in a while.  And it's got some GREAT truth to it... You guys will be hearing me use lines from the movie in the coming weeks
• We joined a gym a couple of weeks ago and have made the commitment to get back in shape... no one who's 5'8" should weigh over 200 pounds!  I'm chipping away at that, plus I'm feeling great getting back to the gym again.
• I'm going to get Kent Rogers into the gym with me soon!
• Getting up at 5am to work out is tough... but I'm glad when it's over!
• Yesterday's message was fun... I loved teaching it... plus it hit me hard because I tend to worry sometimes and it affects my joy.
• I had a blast shooting the video with my son, Seth.  We laughed so hard and then got frustrated because it took 847 takes to get one shot right... but then we found more stuff to laugh about.  He's a pretty creative dude, plus, he's learning to play the drums... one day he'll be on stage at Journey.
• Abby, daughter, does more to help our church than she sometimes gets credit for.  She helps in the nursery sometimes, she greets people every week plus  she does childcare for our growth group.  She really does a lot and I appreciate her more than I tell her... I'm going to tell her more!
• I'm really jazzed about our upcoming series--REMEMBER-- as we look at some practices of the church ... Communion, Baptism and Fasting.  We're going to take communion together, we're going to baptize some folks and I'm going to challenge our people to fast... GET READY, The next 3 weeks could be the most important time in the life of our young church and it will be a time of HUGE transformation for a lot of people.
• I've allowed some of our ministry areas to get a  little sloppy... If we're going to be excellent in all we do, we've got to execute well!  This week I'm putting together some task lists for all of our ministry areas so there is no ambiguity about expectations.
• God's at work and lives are being changed!
• I love what I do
• I love the people I get to do life with on a weekly basis!
• Journey is the best church in the whole world!

The Summer of...

During summer months in the past, our family has always tried to do something we've never done before or go somewhere we've never been.  This summer, Sonja did something that will surely cost me some "Man Points".  She signed us up for a Line Dancing class.  I'll pause right here until you stop laughing....OK... you can stop laughing now.  Here's the thing... I am rhythmically challenged...I can't dance at all...just ask my kids!  I agreed to take the class because I love my wife a lot more than I hate line dancing... and she wanted us to do this together.  How bad could it be, besides, I thought I could blend into a room full of people and everyone would be looking at the instructor right?  WRONG!  There were 4 people in the class... And the cool cowboy instructor I thought we might have turned out to be an elderly guy that was reading the instructions from a sheet.  I prayed for my phone to ring, I would have answered a telemarketer's call...just get me out of there.  But after doing the Electric Slide and the Shoop Shoop and some other steps with goofy names something happened that made me lose it... the elderly instructor began to shake and wiggle his butt...He really sold out to the dance... and He gave me something that would forever be etched in my memory.  I know I shouldn't have laughed... it wasn't him, he really was a nice guy... It was the whole experience...Now, every time Sonja and I hear a line dancing song or even say the word line dancing we laugh uncontrollably.  While the summer's not over yet and there are still a few more things we want to do as a family...This has to be the highlight...The Summer of Line Dancing!  But I am far from being crowned "Lord of the Dance".  While I didn't learn to line dance, I was reminded that every now and then  you have to have a good belly laugh... the kind that makes your abs hurt and you almost wet your pants.
(disclaimer:  my apologies to all elderly, butt-wiggling line dancers out there that I may have offended.)

Braves vs Red Sox

I'm about to head out with Sonja to Atlanta and meet up with some friends and go to the Braves-Red Sox game tonight.  I'm so pumped.  These are my 2 favorite teams in all of baseball.  Curt Schilling is pitching (minus the bloody sock).  I'm going to eat WAY TOO MANY Hot Dogs.   We're going to get to hang out with 2 of our favorite people-- Louie and Lindsay Lovoy.  Louie is the Pastor of Guest Services/Volunteers Pastor at Mountain Lake Church.  We go way back to FBC Pleasant Grove and He's doing some great things at MLC.  I'm going to pick Louie's brain about mobilizing as many people as possible to impact our community.  That's what I get really jazzed about... it's not when we have a spike in attendance, it's not when our worship is kickin', it's not even when I feel like I've done a good job teaching.  I love it when I see our people plugged in and serving... not just on Sunday morning, but through the week as well.  While I might quote a few church planters and pastors that I admire for what they're doing, my real heroes are YOU GUYS @ JOURNEY who show up week after week and do the tedious work of setting up, taking down, making coffee, putting out signs, greeting people and  helping people find their way back to God!  When I hang out with Louie you better believe I'm going to be bragging on you guys. 

Weekend of Firsts at Journey

This weekend was a busy one.  Being a young church less than a year old, we experience a lot of "firsts".  This weekend we had our first wedding.  Jeremy and Rachael Thomas were married on Saturday.  They are an awesome couple.  The wedding was great but I always tell people that want me to marry them that I don't do weddings, I do marriages. So much emphasis is placed on one day.  The wedding day is important, but the reality is that what happens the day after the wedding and all the other days are what build a great marriage... not a great wedding. I've heard of people spending $100,000 on a wedding, but the marriage didn't last a year.  Pretty sad.  The great thing about  Jeremy and Rachael is they have a strong love and commitment to each other and to Jesus Christ.  It was great to be a part of their wedding, but I'm even more excited to watch how God uses them as a couple in the coming years. 

Then, at 12:45am on Sunday, our "first" baby was born... Mason James Howell.  Jay and Bethany Howell welcomed Mason into this world.   Congratulations guys.  It's going to be an incredible journey and we're blessed to be able to walk through it with you.  Get some rest while you can!

Creative Cramp

I have to admit, lately I've had sort of a creative cramp.  I like to think that I'm a pretty creative guy, but honestly, looking back over the past few weeks, my creativity has been lacking.  Then I read Steven Furtick's blog where he had some great things to say about being creative.  His post reminded me of something that I've known all along, but just conveniently forgot in all the thousand and one things you do planting a church.  He said to "write something every day... even if you don't "feel" like it"... this stretches and exercises your creative muscles.  And you know what they say-- use it or lose it.  Well, I feel like I haven't been using it lately.  And then yesterday I made a trip to Birmingham and saw my friend Joey Seales.  He's the most creative person I've ever been around.  He OOZES creative thoughts.  Just being around him for a little while helped give me the jump start I needed.  Now, what does that translate to for our church?  I want us to be known as the most creative, most innovative church in town... that's going to mean taking some risks, maybe falling on our faces, failing a few times, but I believe we can become the leader in art, communication, music, atmosphere (even in a portable church).  The church has looked to the world for it's cues on innovation... but that wasn't always the case-- in the 17th and 18th centuries, the Church was the cultural center of towns... they produced the best art and music and people looked to the church to see what was next.  That's the kind of innovation I believe we can have at Journey.  We have an awesomely creative God... (just read Genesis 1)...and we are created in the image of a creative God, therefore, we are, by nature, creative people.  But I hear people all the time screaming, "but I'm not creative..."  Yes you are... on some level we all are creative... maybe you just have creative cramp and you need to work out your creative muscles.   I'm looking for some people to help RAMP UP our creative process in the areas of art, music, set design and construction, computer graphics, graphic design, drama, video production and communications. Let me know if you'd like to help make Journey one of the most creative and innovative places around.

Gotta Serve Somebody

Today I had a great time at church.  Even though my voice started going away halfway through, this may have been one of my favorite messages ever.  I love Philippians, especially Chapter 2!  If you weren't there you missed it!  Email me or send a comment my way and I'll send  you the MP3 of the message.  The challenge was to reflect the character and attitude of Jesus by being Humble Servants.  To help put feet to our faith  we gave everyone "Bright Idea" cards and we challenged everyone to serve 3 people this week and give them the 3 cards that came with the Bright Idea cards.   I believe all over Auburn this week people's lives will be impacted because YOU are willing to serve someone!

I want to hear your stories.  Post a comment and let me know the details:  what did you do to serve someone, where you were and what impact did it have on you and others.

Overflow!

I have been loving this series we're in called "OVERFLOW".  It's from my favorite book in the bible-- Philippians.  I am pumped about this week's message.  Get ready because I'm going to challenge you to do some stuff that's BOLD!  Since I got back from vacation it's been like God's rattling my cage to get moving on some things that I know needed to happen but I've just been "too busy" doing other stuff to do the important stuff!  This morning I was reading in Isaiah 45 and these verses HIT ME HARD:

    18"I am the Lord," he says, "and there is NO OTHER (emphasis added). 19I publicly proclaim bold promises.  I do not whisper obscurities in some dark corner.  I would not have told the people of Israel to seek me if I could not be found.  I, the Lord, speak only what is true and declare only what is right."

There are so many people in our city who are living casual, religious lives, chasing after gods that will not satisfy and ignoring the promises of the True and Living God.  My heart breaks for folks like that because they are deceived... and we must lovingly, patiently but BOLDLY proclaim the promises of Jesus Christ. 

While I was at the beach I have realized that I must do a better job of LEADING our church and not simply managing or caring for it. That means releasing people to do ministry at a whole new level,  empowering people to utilize their gifts more effectively and developing people today that will lead our church tomorrow (and I literally mean tomorrow-- or pretty close to it). We need CREATIVE people, we need MUSICIANS,  we need ADMINISTRATIVE PEOPLE to help do simple but VITAL tasks, we need to expand our PRESCHOOL area and need more folks to serve there.  We need more people to help make phone calls and write cards and letters.   We need YOU. 

When God does stuff like this to me, you know it always means that we raise the bar and attempt some crazy stuff... so get ready... This Sunday, I just might ask YOU to do something BOLD. 

Refreshed and Ready to Go!

Last week was an incredible time of rest for me and my family.  Hanging out in Gulf Shores and having fun with my family helped me relax and renew my mind and body for the days ahead at Journey.  I accomplished everything I wanted to accomplish... I ate seafood--The Original Oyster House is the best, but my son Seth picked a place where we could try something we've never tried before--Royal Reds.  I didn't know what they were but when they brought them... Sonja and Abby almost gagged... Whole Shrimp... Heads, tenticles and all... Seth showed us how to pop the heads, peel the legs and eat the shrimp... What an experience!  We also rode Go Carts... and, while I talked some trash to my kids... They both smoked me on the track... Abby even tried to put me into the wall!  But we had lots of fun.  The highlight for me was hanging out on the beach with my smokin' hot wife, Sonja... We read, talked, dreamed and made plans to come back together...just us!  Oh, we did do the manditory "family pictures on the beach at sunset".  The kids thought it was lame but I know they'll appreciate it when they get older.

Doesn't this look like a family that had a great week at the beach?