Back from sabbatical

Hey everyone. Sorry I haven't posted in a few weeks. Been kinda busy!

So, as most of you know... I'm a new father again! Baby Hadyn was born last week. She's healthy, beautiful, and the sweetest thing I've ever seen. I'm already wrapped. And I knew this would happen. It's why I didn't want a little girl! LOL. Now I have two women that I'm hopelessly in love with! Cason is loving being a big brother. He thinks he's really cool now. Tiffany is doing well, except for she's about to go crazy sitting at home.

If you come to the Journey, you know that I have taken the last three weeks off from leading worship. Nothing's wrong! Just took a break. And it was good for me. I have some extremely talented people on my worship team and I've been working with them for awhile now, helping to prepare them for stepping into leadership roles here at church. As we continue to plant campuses and add services, I won't be able to be there at everything. It's going to require that other leaders step up and lead. I want to say a big congrats to Molly MacNiel, Miranda Allen, and Philip Organ. They have been working really hard and preparing themselves to move into worship leader roles here. They are the three that led these past weeks. They did an incredible job, and I heard nothing but great things about all of them. I'm very excited to know that God has blessed us with these people and their talents. I look forward to putting them into a regular rotation of leading worship. And I know they are excited to be stepping up!

Some things that I learned while taking a break:

1. Everyone needs to take a break. No matter how much you love what you do, you need a break.

2. If you prepare well, and trust those you give leadership to, they will excel when they have the opportunity to lead.

3. If you pray for God to bring you leaders, and He does, you better use them.

4. The world won't fall apart if you aren't the one who is leading at that moment, but rather, your leadership is increased by empowering other leaders.

5. Allowing other leaders to lead gives them the opportunity to taste that vision you've been telling them about, rather than just hear about it.

6. Once they've tasted that vision, their resolve is strengthened even more for the mission of the team.

7. And lastly but certainly not least.... When you have a new baby, and your friends bring you food for a week, and your family stays with you to help out with housework and things like that, you really see how blessed you are. Thank you soooo much to everyone who has been there for me and Tiffany. We love you all very much and thank God for all of you.

Finally, I know a lot of you have been praying for my book endeavor. Just a little update.... I have a couple agencies who have contacted me, wanting to represent me as an author. Please keep praying for me as I make this decision as to who to sign with. I'm very excited and know that it's going to take a lot of hard work to get this book out, but with your prayers and a good agency, I know that it is going to be successful. I can't wait until it's on the shelves and you can read it for yourselves.

Love you all,

Robbie

What would you do?

So... this weekend, we had the Cornhole Tournament at the Journey. It was really cool and we had a bunch of Cumberland University students come by (which was the intention behind the whole event!) and we gave away a $500 first prize for the winning team. All in all, it was a big success.

So, I carry a blackberry. Have to... for work. My wife hates it, but that's another story. But, I love my blackberry. I can get instant emails, text my friends, look up things on the internet.... it's literally like having my laptop in my pocket. And Saturday, during the cornhole tournament, I got the best email I've gotten in quite awhile.

As you all know, I have been trying to get the book that I've written published. Right now, I'm in the "find an agent" stage. So, I've been sending out proposals to agencies and blah blah bah.... you know how it goes. Well, Saturday, I got an email from a really good agency informing me that they were completely hooked on the story and the sample chapters I had sent them. Now, they want the entire manuscript! So, naturally, I fell all over myself trying to get to the computer to send it back to them! LOL.

Anyway, I've always believed that since I started writing this book, that it was going to be successful. But in order to make that happen, I'm going to have to put a lot of energy into it. When you send a book proposal, one of the first things they want to know is.... what are you going to do to ensure the success of the novel? Well, the obvious answer is.... Whatever it takes! Right? Yeah. But what is "whatever it takes". Many publishers are willing to put money behind a good book. But few of them are willing to put money behind anything if the author doesn't have a marketing plan.

So here's the question. You've written a novel that you believe in with all your heart and soul. What are some of the things you would do to promote it? I'd really really love your input. Please leave a comment and a suggestion. Who knows you may be responsible for the greatest marketing idea to come about in 40 years! (and I'll even give you credit for it!)

Have a blessed day.

Robbie

Rain

Well, I'm going to cheat this week. I posted a blog for our praise team about this and liked it so much... that I'm using it here too. So, I hope you enjoy.

Rain... what can you say about it? We've certainly had a lot of it lately. I sit around when it's raining and think.... really? God, couldn't you just give us a nice sunny day? Couldn't we just not have to walk around and get drenched? Would it be too much to ask for a little bit of Sun?

This morning I was sulking, thinking about how much I hate the rain. Then I opened my bible randomly to Dueteronomy. I do this from time to time, when I'm not doing a book study. So, I'm grumbling about how it's pouring outside.... AGAIN! and I'm really starting to question whether or not I need to build another Ark. And then I see this:Dueteronomy 28:12.

So often we take the things of this world for granted. We dismiss the smallest of things and make big deals out of others. But more often than not, we forget that God uses ALL things for His glory. We sit around and ask God to bless us and our efforts, and in the midst of a blessing, we pass right over it. Today I was taught a valuable lesson and I was reminded of another passage of scripture. In Isaiah, God tells us that His ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts.

We need to remember this. Cause if we don't, we are going to possibly miss out on something that God is doing, something that directly affects us. We may be missing out on receiving that which we have been praying for. And in the future, maybe I'm not going to be so bummed out when it rains!

Tell me your thoughts.

Here are the songs from the Catalyst service yesterday.

"Open Up the Gates (King Of Heaven)" Planetshakers, "Did You Feel the Mountains Tremble" Hillsong, "Glory To God" Fee, "The More I Seek You" Gateway Worship