Eric Taylor

Happy Birthday Abby

Today my daughter turns 15! I know it's cliche but it does seem like yesterday that she was climbing up on my shoulders and I was teaching her to ride a bike without training wheels.  Now, on Monday, she will take her Driver's Test to get her learner's permit.  It's going to be a great Daddy/Daughter Day... we'll get to the license office around 6am to wait in line until 8.  Then she'll take the test and, hopefully, we'll be out of there by noon... I'm not counting on it!  Then the words that she's waited so long to say will come..."Dad, can I drive home?"  I'll have to say yes... I want to say yes... I want her to learn to drive well and be confident in her skills while I'm in the car with her.... because in just one more year, the words will come that I hope I'm ready for... "Dad, can I borrow the car?"  I'm not sure I'm ready for that yet... we'll just celebrate her 15th birthday for now and get ready for the Great Driving Adventure.  Happy Birthday Abby... You make me proud... I love you!

My Favorite Week

This has to be my favorite week of the year... the week between Christmas and New Year.  Most everybody gears down and I think it's a very healthy thing to do.  We had an amazing Christmas-- and we're looking forward to a great New Year in 2008.  But until things get cranked back up on the 2nd, things are kindof low key... except for one thing-- We're implementing Fellowship One (some of you Church planters will know what I'm talking about) as our database, financial recordkeeping and ministry contact tracking software.  It's going to be incredible once we're up and running with it and get everyone trained how to use it.  That being said... it's taken a TON of time just to get it set up so we can implement it.  I had a personal goal to be up and running by January 1st... we'll make it but that means I don't get to gear down as much as I'd like.  I spent a whole day listening to training modules to help get it set up...I've got 6 more hours to go!  But, like I said, It's going to help us track our progress and our process in helping people become passionate Christ followers... so that makes it worth it. 

Remember that we are not having service this Sunday, December 30th but will kick off the new year with a brand new message series called "Life in High Definition".  See you soon!

Monday Morning Mind Dump

Of course the holidays are incredibly busy, so I'm going to spare the long commentary and just give you my thoughts on yesterday.
1.  I LOVE Christmastime.  It's actually starting to feel like Christmas.
2.  I HATE that Auburn pretty much "shuts down" at Christmas... our attendance wasn't down as much as I heard other places were, but this is the first time I can remember having ZERO first time guests.  It was all family... and it was all good! 
3.  I love sharing communion with our church.  I loved it even more that my family helped serve it.  It blessed me to watch my kids serving.
4.  It's only been a week and I'm already missing our band.  I'm ready for them to get back so we can Rock the Place again in 2008!
5.  We're taking next Sunday off to give our volunteers a rest and allow them to spend time with their families. 
6.  We're traveling today to see my family and hurrying back to Auburn for a Christmas Eve Service... It's going to be a quick trip!
7.  I have been falling behind in reading blogs.  I hope to catch up this week.  I'm also looking to learn more about how to leverage the technology better.  I admit... I used to think I was techno-saavy, but truth is, I don't have a fat clue how to use all the bells and whistles that other bloggers do.
8.  I got up at 4am this morning to pray... not because I'm super spiritual, but because I had 2 big bowls of chili last night at our friend's house.  Nuff said!
9.  I've been reading Colossians and it's been rocking my world!  I love the Prison Epistles! 
10.  Our Christmas Tree is finally drying out...I think it's going to make it to Christmas this year!
11.  I hope you all have an Amazing Christmas. 

Frustrating Day

Well... I had on my schedule to write a new post at 7:30am today.  But, it's now 5:00pm and I'm just getting to it... why?  because I've spent the better part of the day rebuilding my files on my hard drive.  I didn't lose everything because the computer didn't crash... what happened was completely MY FAULT--that's what makes it so frustrating.  I'm not sure what I did, but I was cleaning out some space on my hard drive and I went to empty my trash and there was no more Journey Church folder.  All my documents, all my movies, all my church stuff, all my messages, everything was gone.  Now, here's my big pitch for Mac's new Leopard Operating System, which I don't have...yet.  If I had it, it could have retrieved what inadvertently threw out... I've already ordered it!  So... I'm stuck the entire day searching on external hard drives for back up files... I did back up everything in March, so, I only lost 8 months of stuff!  Man, am I bummed... But, here's the good news... as frustrating as it was, and as much as I wanted to hurl my MacBook Pro like a frisbee, I chose to control my emotions simply look at it as a learning experience.  Naaaah-- I cried like a baby and screamed at the top of my lungs and pounded my desk and cried out to God to remind Him that this would be a great time for a lesson on grace... you know... I deserved to lose everything, but just when I thought it was all over, God, who is rich in mercy, revealed the lost file on a tiny corner of the hard drive... I didn't deserve it because I was a bonehead... but He poured out grace... well, that didn't happen!  But God is still full of grace and I'm so grateful for a whole lot of other things that happened today...I got to see God work through our people to rally around a family when the husband/father had surgery... I got to pick up my teenagers from their last day of school today and take them to lunch and even in the middle of all the frustration, I got my message ready for this weekend. 

Proud Papa!

I've been teaching my daughter, Abby, to drive.  She get's her permit at the end of this month and every Sunday she goes to the school with me at 7am for a little daddy/daughter time.  A while back, I let her drive from the front gate of the school around to the back just to help her get comfortable driving... I really know what it's like to NOT be in control... it was one of the scariest things I've ever done.  But she's a really good driver and every week she's gotten better.  Being a portable church, we have a trailer that we have to unload every Sunday and Abby has even learned how to back up my truck to hook up the trailer.  That's been a big help!  But what happened yesterday made me so proud.  She asked me if she could drive the trailer around and back it up!  And she did it!  I only learned to back a trailer up when I was working at Mountain Lake Church... It took a long time... and a lot of tries... But Abby picked up on it quickly.  That made me so proud!  I know that God's going to use her to do great things... she wants to go to medical school and be a Doctor.  But I know however and wherever God uses her, if there's a trailer that needs to be unloaded, my Abby can do it!

18 Years!

I'm incredibly blessed to have been married to my wife for 18 years. She is definitely the woman behind the man.  She worked while I was in seminary... She's the most incredibly disciplined Christ follower I've ever been around.  She's an incredible mom and a wonderful friend... She invests her time and heart into a bunch of 5th graders at Dean Road Elementary School and she's dang good at it... She coordinates the Children's Ministry at Journey and I never have to worry about what the kids are doing because she's on it!  She loves her kids at school and at church... she loves our daughter and son and models the way for them to become Godly young adults... she loves me more than I deserve... I really did marry way over my head!  But most of all, she loves God radically, passionately and will follow Him wherever He leads.   Even into the crazy adventure of church planting.  Sonja is a special woman and I'm so blessed to call her my wife!  I love you, honey.  Happy Anniversary!

Great Movie Line!

I recently saw August Rush, a movie my wife and I had been looking forward to for a while.  The previews just looked pretty cool and we love music and anything w/Robin Williams in it.  I loved the movie... in fact... it's moved into my Top 3 all time movies --Braveheart and Gladiator are the other two--as for rankings... it depends on what kind of mood I'm in... but August Rush had some incredible stuff in it.  My favorite line in the movie comes when Robin Williams is trying to help the boy musical prodigy come up with a new, flashy, cool name.  The boy is an orphan but has always believed his parents wanted him and is committed to reconnecting with them, and Robin Williams' character ("Wizard") asks him... what's a cool name... what do you want more than anything else in the world?  Here it is... the answer to life's most important question... and the little boy said it:  "To be FOUND"!  The movie didn't really acknowledge how profound of a statement this was... but it's the heart of every church planter I know and it's the heart of everything we do at Journey... to connect disconnected children to their heavenly Father.  And the reality is that we are all (CHURCH BUZZWORD ALERT) "seekers".  Over the next few days there will be thousands of people I'll walk past, drive past, sit next to, stand in line behind who's greatest desire in life will be to be found.  They may not say it that way, they may not even know what they're looking for, but as Christ Followers, we know that the greatest thing we could ever experience is to be found in Him.  I'm reminded what Paul said in Philippians 3:8-9:

"I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ."

That's it, Journey!  That's the search we're on as humans on this planet.  Jesus made it possible because He took steps out of heaven and came to where we are so we could be FOUND in Him. How about taking a look around you today at the people who are living life disconnected from God...  Deep down their greatest desire is to be found by their Father...what will you do to help them take a step toward Him?

Whirlwind Weekend

it has been such a wild 4 days.  I was in Jamaica with ACE Ministries... the group we're going to partner with this summer on our mission project.  It would take me a LONG time to share everything I experienced in the short time I was there...so, I'll hit the highlights... left my house at 3:00am on Thursday to catch an early flight to Jamaica... touched down and immediately had some jerk chicken!  after the rest of the team arrived we took a 2 hour bus ride to the hotel/ministry center where we got to know each other and was oriented by A.C.E. (American Caribbean Experience)... They are an awesome ministry that has been in Jamaica 19 years and I'm looking forward to a long term partnership  with them.  Friday we left early on a whirlwind tour to all the ministry sites and villages they work with.  Churches, schools, and an infirmary that broke my heart... I got to meet and hang out with some very cool leaders from all over the place... The place was beautiful and the needs are great... The hard part is going to be determining where we will focus our team to make the greatest impact.  At the airport, there was time for one last Jerk Chicken plate and then it was back home for Church on Sunday...

I know it sounds old...but I love our church... today was especially great. Maybe because attendance was up, maybe because I was riding a mission project high, maybe because the whole time I was in Jamaica I thought about you guys and specific people  who I would love to see make the trip in May... I prayed for you guys while I was there and I couldn't wait to get back so I could spend Sunday with you watching God work in our lives.  So... today after church, I came home and crashed!!!!   I came out of the fog just long enough to write this post... now I'm unplugging for the rest of the night and hanging out with my wife.

You asked for it...Here it is!

Several of you have been asking about how you can get  another look at our Office Spoof video.  Here it is.

It was great hearing the laughter last night at Sunday Night Live as we showed the video, but it was even greater being able to hang out with our Journey Church Family last night...  and by the way... the Banana Pudding(s) rocked as well as all the other desserts and side dishes.  As the pastor I thought it was my spiritual duty to make sure I tasted everything! 

Big Weekend @ Journey

I know I say this a lot, but I can't wait until this Sunday.  I believe God is going to rock our socks off!  You've gotta be there and bring someone with you because we're beginning our new series-- UNWRAPPING CHRISTMAS .

  I'm so excited about the next few weeks as we unwrap some of the traditions of Christmas. I promise you'll have fun and you'll be taken back to some of your favorite Christmas memories and traditions. 

Sunday morning is also our ALL IN Commitment Day.  You've been challenged and I hope you have been praying about how God will use you in 2008 to help fund God's vision for Journey.  The Commitment Cards you've been seeing for the last month will be available if you forget to bring yours from home, and we'll be receiving them as well as our ALL IN VISION OFFERING.  If you haven't heard by now, with the Vision Offering we will be raising $5500 to help fund mission projects all over the world and prepare us for some ministry opportunities early in 2008.  I know God is going to bless your obedience and your faithfulness as you give generously.

I'm also pumped up about our very first -- SUNDAY NIGHT LIVE-- This Sunday at 5:30.  It's going to be a fantastic time of worship and fellowship; eating and laughing together;  we'll give out some awards and we're going to share some important stuff about the next year @ Journey.  You don't want to miss it!   We need you to bring a side dish (enough for your family and one more family).  The church will provide the meat and drinks.  Our ministry team has worked really hard to put together an amazing night.  I think you're going to have a great time.  I'll see you Sunday!