Greg Atkinson

It’s good to be back blogging. I got back Tuesday night from Atlanta. We had a great trip and great meeting with Clark ProMedia. I came home to find out that our home internet was down and so wasn’t able to blog Wed. and Thurs. (I didn’t have time to go somewhere else with my laptop).

I was swamped all day Wed. and Thursday, then left Friday morning to go to Phoenix, AZ. I had a great visit with Christ Life Church in Tempe, AZ. Above is a picture of me in the middle and Jeremy (their worship pastor) on the left and Tim (their media minister) on the right. They are great guys and serve at a church with a ton of potential. I look forward to continuing to work with them. Below (besides seeing Beowulf) was the highlight of my trip. That’s right… they have In-N-Out Burger in Phoenix, too!

I came home late Saturday night, got up early Sunday and we had a great day of worship at my church on Sunday. I left the best for last - the ultimate highlight of my week was my oldest daughter praying to receive Christ on Wednesday night. Yesterday we celebrated that at my church with a rose on the platform! We took a picture of her with her rose that I’ll post in the near future.

Now it’s back to work with a short week. What are you doing for Thanksgiving? We’re staying in town and have family coming to us.

This weekend was good and I enjoyed the opportunity to not think about our building project for a couple of days. Friday night I took my son to his first ever football game. It was a local high school and they are very good (I try to see them play a few times each year). They were winning 42 to 0 at halftime, which was a good time to leave and get my son to bed. He thought he had seen an entire game. His eyes were wide the whole time and it was a true joy for me to hold his hand and walk him into the stadium.

Saturday, my oldest daughter went ice skating for the first time with her mom and I stayed home to watch the other 2 kids. Saturday night we had a special dinner at my church to give core people an update on our building project. Several building tours went on and there was a lot of excitement about this special season we’re in. Also, our worship pastor (Scott), returned from leading worship at a Willow Creek conference in Germany. I hadn’t seen him in 2 weeks, so it was good to have him back home. We have a lot of catching up to do!

Sunday was a different kind of day for our church. We had an abbreviated service - in the service we gave everyone a sneak peek at what a typical Sunday will be like in the new reality. Not only are we building 3 new buildings, but as soon as we move into them, we start a huge renovation of our current worship space, which will be an amazing kids’ theater (like KidStuff at North Point), plus 2 other smaller kids’ theaters. We did a short music and preaching set, then played a video of KidStuff at North Point to cast the vision, heard from our Kids Pastor, then had our new FX Live (FX is for Family Experience) team do a short portion of a typical family production service with a host, actors, singing and dancing. It was a ton of fun and well received.

After that, we had a huge tent set up in the parking lot and after a challenge “to get plugged in and serve” from our pastor, we ended the service early to allow our people to go out to the tent, fellowship, eat (we had great snacks/food), sign up to serve (we had every ministry represented at different tables) and just have fun (we had a DJ playing music the whole time).

In between the morning and evening services I came home and we had a 7 year old birthday party for my oldest daughter. It was a fairy party and my wife did a great job decorating the house and making fairy wings for all the girls. I went back to church later on that afternoon for our night service and then came home to catch the last 2 minutes of the Cowboys game - which they won! (That’s right: the Cowboys are 8-1).

I get some air miles this week as my Audio Coordinator and I go to Atlanta this Tuesday for a full/intense day of meetings with Clark ProMedia. We leave at 5:15 and return at 10pm. Then Friday and Saturday, I’ll be consulting with a church in Phoenix. Pray for me.

Yesterday I experienced one of the most satisfying and joyous days at my church. You’ve got to realize that I’m in a tough season at my church. We are coming down the home stretch of a 28 million dollar building project (the plan is to move in debt-free). I make trips out to the new worship center everyday. I have meetings and conferences calls constantly to talk about all the upcoming changes and the huge transition. Next week I fly to Atlanta (again) to meet with ClarkPro Media, so my new Audio Coordinator can get an overview of the entire project and be caught up to speed.

My office is a wreck - with a hardhat on my desk, boots to wear out to the site, blueprints all over my office and a Bill of Materials list as big as a dictionary. Mind you, that’s all on top of my full-time job as the Technical Arts Director and making Sunday happen on the technical side each week.

All that to say, yesterday I had the privilege of meeting with, counseling and praying with one of my tech volunteers for 3 hours. I got to sit and listen, minister and encourage and it was awesome. I’ve been so entrenched with new building stuff that it’s all I can think about. When this team member called and said he needed a pastor (that’s what we are) to talk to and that he wanted it to be me - I was thrilled.

You see, I often tell my entire tech team (via email) that I want them to share prayer requests with me and that it would be my honor to pray for them. Some have taken me up on it and I have enjoyed praying for them and checking in with them from time to time. Many have not taken me up on it - YET, but they will eventually. My team went through 2 other Technical Directors before me in a short period of time and I think they are starting to realize that I’m here and I’m not going anywhere. I love it when they take me up on my offer to pray for them.

So yesterday, as I sat across from one of my tech tech members and listened to him share, I was humbled, honored and excited that he would trust me enough to come to me and share openly and honestly with me about a tough situation he’s going through. The reason I titled this blog simply “Ministry” is because that’s what we are to be about. Too many church staff members would see his coming in as an interruption and a distraction from their job. My heart cries out: this IS my job! He apologized for taking up 3 hours in my day and I told him, “Dude, this is why I’m here. My door is always open.”

I bring this up to encourage, challenge and stretch all of you. Do you see people popping in as distractions and interruptions or as opportunities for ministry? Do you see something like this as keeping you from your job or is this your job?

I’ve got to be real, honest, and bold with my Media Minister/Technical Director friends for a moment: There are far too many techies, gear-heads and button pushers in the Church today. You might be skilled in those areas, but if you’re the leader of your tech team or an area of it, your calling and duty is to lead, shepherd and equip those under your authority. This is the area that the majority of my consulting with churches deals with. More on the “equip” part in a future blog. I’ve preached enough for today. I’m stepping down off my soapbox.

ON A PERSONAL NOTE:

My sister had her second child yesterday, so I’m an uncle again. All is well with mom and baby. God is good.

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EXTRA:

Did anyone catch MuteMath rock Conan O’Brian’s show Wednesday night?

PERSONAL:

I just got back from taking my 2 youngest kids to play Putt-Putt. My middle child is a 5 year old boy and my youngest is a 3 year old girl. My boy got 4 holes-in-one. Watch out Tiger!

That’s right - it’s my B-day. I’m officially 32 now.

I had a good Father’s Day. Of course I always miss my dad on Father’s Day, but my children are a blessing and made it a special day for me. How was Father’s Day at your church this past Sunday? Did you do anything special or out of the ordinary?

I’m back home after attending my family reunion in South Carolina. The highlight of my trip was spending time with my mom and step-dad, my sister’s family and visiting Brookwood Church, where I visit whenever I’m in town. I enjoyed talking with their youth pastor and senior pastor. The family reunion was so-so. My brother, who I haven’t seen or heard from in 3 years was there. He said “Hi” and “Bye” - that’s about it. My kids didn’t even know who he was. That’s life. We all come from various family backgrounds and dynamics. We all need prayer. I know I do.

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Today I fly to South Carolina. I’ve got a family reunion tomorrow, which ought to be interesting since we haven’t had one in years. I fly into Charleston, SC, which is where my wife and met and went to college (and lived for 8 years). The first churches I ever served on staff at were in Charleston. We’re going to do some sight seeing, cruise by our old college and have lunch at my all-time favorite Mexican restaurant with 2 friends from college. One of the friends is my college roommate - he’s bringing his 2 boys and I’ll have my 3 kids with me (should be pretty cool).

After sight-seeing and visiting in Charleston for a while, we’ll head up to the upstate of South Carolina, which is where I’m from and my mom lives. We’ll do the family reunion thing on Saturday and then I’ll get to visit some churches on Sunday. I’ll fly home on Monday and will probably blog again on Tuesday. Peace!

Yesterday, I took my first day off in 3 weeks. I still haven’t unpacked the first box in my new office and so was tempted to go into work and unpack, but my wife talked me into taking the full day off. I’m glad I did. I had a great day. First, I had “man time” with my 4 year old son. We went and both got haircuts. After that we went to my favorite Mexican restaurant - they know me well there and were excited to meet Tommy. Tommy didn’t really eat Mexican (he had grilled cheese), but seemed to enjoy it. After lunch we stopped by a cool place where we played a round of putt-putt and then Tommy put on a batting helmet for the first time and we stepped into his first batting cage. It was great father/son time and a special memory for us both. After the batting cage, I introduced Tommy to Gatorade, which seemed to hit the spot.

I then brought Tommy back to our house, where my wife and youngest daughter were. My youngest daughter, Katie, finished my Gatorade for me (not my choice). I left them all at home and went to pick up my oldest, who was at Kindergarten. From her school, we went to “Just Brakes” to get my SUV worked on (it was due for some break repair). I offered to drop Grace off at home first, but she wanted to go with me. While we waited for them to check out my truck, Grace drew a picture of the shop, including “Just Brakes” on the sign - she’s sharp.

The night went on to include dinner together as a family, me renting a movie and my wife and I having an at-home “date night”, after the kids went to bed. It was a great day and much needed. Today, my wife is taking our oldest to have some mom and daughter time, while I stay with the other two. I feel refreshed and excited as I look forward to my Tarheels taking care of Duke tomorrow. If you’re going to fill out a NCAA Tournament bracket, I can save you a lot of trouble by advising you to put the Heels in the Championship game.