GOD @ ridge church (from Chris Brown)

(I haven't been able to write here on renown the past 2 days because the Ridge Church staff and peeps from our volunteer leadership teams (about 14 of us total) were at Buckhead Church (North Point campus) in downtown Atlanta for N*Rich. I'll probably blog about it another time. HERE are some thoughts about it you can read now.)

*I've been wanting to post something my lead pastor (Chris Brown) wrote a couple weeks ago. I just haven't gotten around to it yet. We had some really awesome conversations about God & Ridge Church. The kind you don't soon forget. The kind that remind you that this crazy hard thing you're doing is all for the glory of God and therefore totally worth it...
His post is a little window into some of that. He says it better than me.

You can read his full post on his site HERE. OR you can read most of it below:

"I love my job because it is so much more than a job! It's an adventure. We are engaging a movement that began over 2000 years ago. The closer you get to that movement the more radical the adventure becomes.

I have been challenging my staff team to ask and re-ask the question lately "How do we define success?" Is it numbers...how many people came...enough money to pay the bills and bless people? Is it excellence? Is it great, clean, helpful, content and environments? Is it relevance? Is it dispensing Bible facts? What is success? I may unfold the four or five questions that have become our filter for success later but for now I just want to highlight one that we are chasing after and still working to craft. It is still an evolving process for us:

We are asking the question "Did we invite people to experience the undeniable presence of God?" We are okay if people walk away mentally arguing with the message content from time to time but we aren't okay with people not experiencing the love, power, peace, hope, healing, even conviction that come with the presence of God. But that feels somewhat intangible...right? That's why we say "did we invite..." We can't force this one but we can invite it and create an expectation and anticipation in people." 
 
You should also check out his most recent posts on Project NOW at Ridge Church HERE and always stay up to date HERE. I am so ridiculously stoked about this that I can't even explain it! I will attempt to do so in some soon coming blog posts about it! I can't wait... can't wait to write about it, but even more can't wait to see what God does through us in the lives of the poor for His glory!