This is total rip-off from my pastor’s blog, but it was worth repeating and I don’t think he will really care.

We started a new initiative several weeks ago.  Here is an email I received in response ::

Dear Pastor J.R.

We were the recipients of a lovely act that was extended to our family.  My name is ____.  My son ____ was at Wendy’s last week.

We needed a treat and sent him with a few bucks to buy our family of five a frosty.  We are going through a terrible time – I am battling cancer and my husband is out-of-work and very ill.  We don’t have a lot of money due to this situation and really watch our pennies.

Sometimes, I try to cheer up the kids with a small treat & yesterday was that time.  To my son’s amazement, when it came time to pay someone had already paid for our Frostie’s.  The cashier simply said that the generous person was from Freedom Church.

I imagine that they thought they were doing just a small thing, but it meant the world to us!  Cancer is tough, I’ve lost friends through it, I’ve lost hope…briefly….I have been so weak that I couldn’t lift my head from my pillow…but I fought and fought hard…with God at my side and holding my hand, and I wasn’t afraid.  God gave me strength and we’ll get thru the rest of this too.  God will heal my husband, and he will see and receive the hope that he needs.  I thank you for the hope that this Frosty provided.  Yes a frosty can give you hope. :)   The gesture offered comfort, knowing that people care – people we didn’t even know.  You never know how you can touch someone’s life one small gesture at a time!

Keep up the great work!  I hope the person that did this can read this message as well!

Keep it up Freedom Church!  Little things can make all the difference.

Don’t take it from me.  I grabbed this picture on the way to lunch today.  Notice the Freedom Church sticker in the window just below the heart.

In case the other thousand reasons you should come to Freedom Church were not enough, this should push you over the edge for sure.

Today’s Easter service at Freedom Church was awesome.  Not because we did anything that we would not normally do the other 51 Sundays, but rather because we did our usual thing and let God show up and do the rest.  I have to say though, our “usual” easily surpasses that of any other church our size (and many that are bigger) in the Acworth-area.

Week-in-and-week-out the Freedom production team brings it.  From lighting, to sound, to video, to music I am proud to work with this group of people.  And, to top it all off we have a ton of fun doing it and get better every week as we gain more experience.  Thanks to everyone for making it so enjoyable and letting me be part of the team.

Our band is awesome as well.  Not just musically, but by the sheer fact that they help with setup and tear-down as well.  You guys (and gals) rock!  It is so much easier to serve alongside people that are not afraid to roll up their sleeves and help get the work done rather than just showing up to perform and leaving everyone else to do the dirty work.

Our reward?  Every week seeing people that are far from experience life in Christ!  It can’t get any better than that.

Yesterday Freedom Church turned 1 year old.  My famliy has been going to Freedom for about 10 of those months.  It has been great to work with a production team each week and get to know a group of dedicated people that have a singular focus… “That those that are far from God can experience life in Christ”.  It is this statement that drives us to produce the best freakin’ worship experience possible each week.  It is this statement that has 25+ people show up at 7:00 every Sunday morning to setup our church inside Barber Middle School, and then stay 2 hours after everyone else to load everything back into Kenny (our truck).  It is this statement that lets me overlook how loud the music is or some of the crazy stuff our Pastor says.  It is this statement that has resulted in over 85 people in our community accepting Christ in the last year!  If you live within reasonable driving distance of Acworth, Georgia and have a friend, relative, or enemy that needs Christ you need to bring them to Freedom Church.

Extra: Click here to see yesterday’s celebration video of Freedom’s first year.

My church is putting on an event to raise money to buy bikes for kids in our area that otherwise may not get anything from Santa this Christmas.  For 50 hours, members of our church staff are spending their time 50 feet above the ground in a scissor lift in a local Walmart parking lot to raise the money for 200+ bikes.  You can donate and check things out live at www.bikesorbust.net.  We went by to check things out last night and Chase got a chance to meet Santa.