Much like Revolution Church, I believe that this is just the beginning of all that God is going to do at Timber Ridge Church!

From Pastor Nic:
Here’s some highlights:

• Held our first ever Christmas Eve service with almost 200 people in attendance. Four people made decisions to follow Christ that evening!!!
• Had our first “Timber Ridge Serves” Sunday on Dec. 4th. Basically, instead of meeting for the service for that Sunday, we met for a brief worship rally, then went out and served our community in various ways. Had over 60% of our people show up for it so I think it was a big win. We served at our local Crisis Pregnancy Center, hosted a party for about 120 adults with mental retardation that live in homes here in Stephenville, and served several families by doing work around their homes.
• Since the first of the year, we’ve had our 2 of our top four best attendance days and are averaging right at 200 people each week.
• God continues to move as we are seeing people make commitments to Jesus each and every week.
• We have been doing a series on what the Bible says about money all month and have seen God do some incredible things in people’s hearts.
• We have 20 families signed up for our first financial class. We’re doing Joe Sangl’s I Was Broke, Now I’m Not.

Again, THANK YOU!!! And please pass on OUR DEEP GRATITUDE to the people of Revolution! They’re helping start a spiritual revolution in Stephenville, TX with their generosity!!!

At Revolution we say BRANG IT. Not bring it. Brang it…its a Revolution thing. Seriously.

Another we say is “BE A BRANGER.” It means that we as the church have got to bring people to The House. We should do whatever it takes (short of sin) to BRANG people to God’s house.

Why? Because once they get to The House, there is a great chance that their life will be changed by Jesus!

This week we are having five different Christmas Worship Experiences. So get some tickets here if you haven’t yet and get your family to Christmas at Revolution! But I want you to think about this too: Get some tickets for the people in your life that need to find hope in Christ. And then be a BRANGER and BRANG ‘EM with you!

We are going all out in our presentation of the Gospel this Christmas. The team has been planning and prepping and practicing for over a month now. And we believe that God moves in a special way when His people get together. When we meet together, great things happen!

Be a BRANGER and I’ll see you Friday or Saturday.

Set your clocks FORWARD one hour tonight before bed! And go to bed early!

See ya Sunday!

Seriously, IBC is already good out of a bottle, but when you leave a glass mug in the freezer for several hours and then put your IBC in it…it’s a slice of heaven. The key is a super cold GLASS mug…yes, it must be GLASS. Also, when you pour it in go slow…

You’re welcome.

-The kickoff of our new series was EPIC! We started Lies of the Devil today. I cannot wait to see what God does over the next few weeks. I believe we are going to see barriers ripped apart and walls brought down in many peoples’ lives!

-today we talked about the lie that so many believe that says “God will never give me more than i can handle.” That is really great…it sounds so pretty…but there is one problem with that idea…The Bible! The Bible never says that anywhere. Check out the podcast this week to hear the whole message.

-people accepted Christ today and got baptized! God is good!!!

-I am so thankful and honored to work with you Revolution! You’re an incredible group of people who are just crazy enough to believe that God can and will do things much greater than we ever imagined or hoped for. That’s my favorite part about you…that you are crazy!

-Speaking of crazy, the band did “To Hell with the Devil” by Stryper today. It was pure sweet brown sugar. Seriously, they did it BETTER than Stryper ever did!

-we also introduced “Typical” by mutemath as a regular rotation song. Awesome! Funny…10 times more people sing that song than any song labeled worship that we do…

-crazy busy week full of all kinds of stuff coming up…

-today was LONG. Up at 5:00am, setup at 6am, preached 3 services, did tear down, ate lunch at 3pm, worked the website, setup for the Pumpkin Smash, went trick or treating with my family and some of our friends, finally got home at 9pm, put the kid to bed and now I am WIRED.

-our entire family dressed up like pirates! It was a blast! We used the Trick or Treating experience to meet some neighbors that we did not know yet, and to get some candy! Gimme some candy!!!!

-kicking around some ideas in my head for Christmas. I totally blame lowes and hobby lobby for that because they already have all their Christmas stuff up…

-speaking of Christmas, Couper and Amber must have watched The Santa Claus 2 about 20 times this week…ohhhhhhhh…help me!

-watch the blog this week…fun stuff coming!

Halloween!!!!

Wow, what a cool week to kick off the new series “Lies of the Devil”.

Check out this weeks songs on iTunes:

To Hell with the Devil – STRYPER
In my Heart – Fellowship Church
Mercy Reigns – Elevation Worship
Typical – Mute Math
No reason to Hide – Hillsong

Make sure to check out This weeks Podcast too if you missed the message. Pastor Zak talked about a huge lie that so many of us buy into. See ya Sunday!

Do the dishes.

Not just once. Do the dishes ALL the TIME.

And when you do them, sing to your wife. Sing a love song. Have fun with it. While you are doing the dishes say “I’m making love!”

It will change your marriage. Seriously.

And your wife will have beautiful hands for years to come.

Your welcome.

• Going all the Way by Craig Groeschel
• Every Young Man’s Battle
• Preparing Your Son for Every Man’s Battle
• Every Woman’s Battle
• Preparing Your Daughter for Every Woman’s Battle
• Friends without Benefits
• The Ten Commandments of Parenting
• Better Dads, Stronger Sons
• Raising a Modern Day Knight
• Raising a Modern Day Princess

Below are some specific things that we will be praying for. I would be honored to have you pray with us for an hour during that 24 hour stretch. Click here to sign up and you will receive our official 24 hour prayer guide.

A few things we will be praying for:

NOT PUMPED about the long long long 3 weeks I have coming up. Jam packed with Easter, Couper’s birthday, moving to new house, traveling, and more. And yet, I am PUMPED about it.

See ya at Revolution in the morning! 9:30 and 11:00am!

2005 – In 2005 I learned that youth ministry was NOT what God had called me to despite all the people telling me that to be a pastor you had to do youth ministry first. Why did I ever listen to that bologna?

Early in 2005 we moved to be on staff at The Connection Church in Kyle, TX. At the time TCC was a brand new church plant just months into starting. Cole Phillips hired me on as basically the pastor of everything I could possibly do. I had to raise my own salary to go on staff and learned a lot about fundraising, leadership and vision casting through that experience. Again, I had no idea, but God was prepping me to launch Revolution Church.

2006 - Up until this year, everything I did was about being a leader and leadership. I had basically been repeatedly “baptized by fire” into leadership opportunities but never had truly learned to follow. Through 2006, God moved in crazy ways by teaching me what it meant to be a follower. It seemed like every time I prayed God answered “follow your pastor Zak” (which was Cole Phillips at the time.) I can’t remember ever growing so much in my relationship with Christ during any other time in my life.

2007 – My son, Couper Jay White was born on March 31st, 2007. He was born six weeks early and we spent his first week in the hospital. Couper’s birth made the idea that God gave His ONLY Son COME TO LIFE for me. God taught me about the urgency of the Gospel message and showed me that I MUST depend on Him. Again, prep for Revolution Church.

2008 – Talk about a LONG year. God started jacking with me about my life mission at the start of 2008. I reached one of my life-goals by running my first full marathon which gave me some confidence that maybe I actually could do this crazy thing that I felt like God was calling me to do. I also felt like God was moving me out of that season that began in 2006 where I was learning to follow, back into a full on leadership role.

2009 – Over the first few months of 2009, I prayed 100 hours about planting a church after being challenged to do so by Bil Cornelius. I’ve never experienced anything like that in my life. To keep a long story short, Revolution Church was birthed!

To conclude this series of posts, I believe that looking back helps us move forward. I am big on goal setting; I can’t help it. I just refuse to drift through life. Most people spend more time planning their summer vacation than they do planning their life out. I think that’s a tragedy.

With that said, what are the top moments of your last decade? What will the next decade look like for you?

His name is Micah Fisher. And, we have got to get him a better pic.

I am pumped up about working with this guy. He loves God, loves people, and is passionate about starting a spiritual revolution in our community!

The story of how we got hooked up is a GOD thang! I can’t wait to share it with you.

Micah is an imaginative visionary, with a desire to see people experience God personally through worship, creative arts, relationships and ultimately truth.

In 2005 he graduated from Masters School of Ministry in Atlanta GA. Since then he has been involved in leading worship from Atlanta to Texas and even as far as the United Kingdom. Through this he has gained experience with children’s, student, and adult ministries.

“I have been a Christ follower since I was a child. Growing up in a pastor’s home I’ve experienced the best and the worst of what church as usual has to offer. With this exposure I have become passionate about bringing people into a rich, personal, and life producing relationship with Jesus Christ.” -Micah Fisher

In his off time Micah enjoys spending time with his family, friends, and also hanging out at the local coffee house. He also enjoys the occasional traveling excursion, musical endeavor, and experiencing new things.

Micah, let’s do this Hoss!

Since I’m so much older and wiser than him…about 3 months older and wiser…and since I loved it so much, I thought I’d take each of those things and elaborate on them over the next several days. Or maybe I’ll get tired of it half way through…

Here are the first few:

1. People, for the most part, have lots of baggage. And what’s funny is that most people walk around thinking their situation is unique or unusual. But we’re all in the same boat. -Trappstr

Yup. Everyone carries baggage. And what we all need is a baggage handler. We all need someone that we can be REAL, GRITTY and HONEST with; someone who can help us handle our baggage.

This is why we’ve created Running Partners at Revolution. In the same way athletes train to reach physical goals, we need spiritual training partners to provide encouragement, pacing and motivation for spiritual goals. Running Partners encourage one another to become all God intends us to be.

Listen to this message for more elaboration on how we live this out at Revolution.

2. Enthusiasm wins. In all situations. -Trappstr

Ralph Waldo Emerson said “Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.”

I get accused of having too much enthusiasm often. My buddy Clayton Bell thinks I need to learn to chill. But I always wonder if I am enthusiastic enough. I’ve learned that enthusiasm does indeed win, but even more important, that its CONTAGIOUS. I like to be a carrier of it, spewing it all over the place.

More tomorrow…