happy birthday Ridge!

it's hard to believe... another birthday for Ridge!

i can still remember the very 1st Sunday morning we ever met 3 years ago. it was exciting.
there was a buzz.

This morning was our 3rd birthday of meeting on Sunday mornings. 3 years... it's wild to think that it's been that long!

it's our 4th birthday overall as a church. and i can vividly remember that 1st ever Sunday night we met. there was a crazy buzz that night.
we started loading in at like 10am and got home around midnight. i'm nostalgic, but i don't miss those 14 hour days at all.

and it's crazy to think that very soon we'll be moving to our own permanent facility. it will be our very own. no load in or load out. we do what we want with it.
what a thought.
it hasn't really even sunk in yet.

the big deal... the main point of all this -- is that the last 3 & 4 years have been absolutely amazing. God has done some incredible stuff. He has changed so many lives in big ways. we've been able to bless our city and the world.

it's been an awesome 3 & 4 years, but i know the next 3-4 will be incredible and put the past to shame.
no doubt the best is yet to come.

stay low. go hard. we on a mission.

ever needed bolt cutters... at church?

i don't usually repost someone else's blog post here on renown, but this one is classic.

this is what my pastor wrote about after Sunday's "experience". he wrote about it way better than i could have. i think you will laugh. (when i saw the look on his face "in the moment" he was definitely not laughing though.) you can read the whole article on Chris' blog HERE.
(i have also copied & pasted it below so you can get a cheap laugh from Ridge's pain)

"Load in Church: Like a box of chocolates...
In my last post I highlighted a few of the amazing stage sets that our production/creative team is able to pull off even though we are in a load in context as a church. To add to the already challenging task of creating appealing environments for people of all ages, we've had to learn to be creative on game day too. In the words of a great theologian--Load in church is, "...like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get."- Forrest Gump.

Bird Cage?
One morning we arrived to discover a brand new bird cage in the foyer of the facility. That's right a bird cage! First week we covered it up until we realized that all the kids loved it. Now our children terrorize those birds every week while their parents check them in. If I had to guess I would say "sippy cups" now strike fear into the heart of those birds!

Defibrillator?
Another week we arrived to find a new "defibrillator" attached to the wall right beside one of our waumba rooms (pre-school).

Today...we arrived to find this little problem:
In case it isn't clear in the picture--that is a pad lock for a door. Behind that door were all of our Waumba supplies! (preschool ministry) But thanks to Volunteer hero of the day, Matt Rich, here was the solution and result.Seriously, I bet there wasn't another church on the planet today...yes I said planet--that required the use of bolt cutters in order to pull off their preschool environment. I'm just saying...this thing is an adventure. And none of the happy people that showed up and dropped off their children in Waumba ever knew this had happened.

**To the people that work so hard, give so much, serve so faithfully, and show up with game day creativity for the sake of our mission.--THANK YOU! It matters. Peoples lives are being changed."