- First things first. The team we have at The Connection Church is THE BEST TEAM ANYWHERE. Hands down. YOU GUYS ROCK.
- The week of debt begins RIGHT HERE tomorrow. Check back in each day for posts all about debt and how you can CONQUER IT!
- I just finished reading the Connection Cards. Don’t do that enough. I cried as I read the things we are praying for and the things that God is doing in people’s lives. INCREDIBLE.
- Today was officially the MOST INSANE day EVER at The Connection Church.
- First, the power went out 9 minutes before church was supposed to begin.
- Our team is so incredible that they had the lobby of the PAC set up for church within minutes. The band rolled out a piano and grabbed their acoustics and we had church right there in the lobby. I had to yell a little when I preached.
- Funny thing is, the power actually came on about 5 minutes into the service, but people were so pumped up that we just stayed where we were.
- Of course, we moved back into the worship center for the second service so we could get our ROCK on. The band did one of my favorite songs “Satisfy Me” by Decemberadio. INCREDIBLE.
- Some other insane stuff happened that I won’t even mention.
- Bottom line is this: Our teams were able to change direction at a moments notice and pull off what will be one of the most talked about, well remembered services ever in the history of TCC!
- Cole didn’t seem to freak out too bad about the crazy day. If he was preaching it would have been much worse. God must have planned it that way.
- Having people blend credit cards on stage was one of the most fun things I’ve ever done preaching.
- Watching the ENTIRE ROOM JUMP when I popped balloons was the most HILARIOUS thing I’ve ever seen while preaching. Seriously, EVERYONE left their seat cushion for a second. Man, the acoustics in that room must be incredible. I’ve NEVER heard a balloon pop that loud before!
- Did I say that the band blew me away with Satisfy?
- Going to be an insane week. I have about 6 days of work to squeeze into the next 52 hours. YIKES!
- I don’t care how much work there is to be done, at 7pm tonight the world will freeze so I can watch 24: Redemption. YES. YESSSSS. YESSSSSSS!!!
- Can’t wait to go home and visit family this week for Thanksgiving. I’ll be traveling about 1400 miles. Yummy.
- Pray for my momma if you think about it. She had a nasty foot surgery and has to be down for about 3 weeks. YUCK!
Tag Archive - cole phillips
INSANE Sunday Mind Dump
That Little Extra
Excellence IS about that little extra…
Something I am finding is that some people aren’t used to a church environment where excellence is expected. Some have come on board our team and bailed fast because they were scared of excellence. They wanted to just lay back and operate on cruise control. That kind of attitude just don’t go around here…savvy?
This is why our definition of excellence is so important. Excellence at The Connection Church is NOT perfectionism. We don’t expect perfection from anyone because none of us are perfect. Excellence just means doing the BEST we can with the RESOURCES God has given us.
At the same time, there is NO shortcut to excellence. I have worked with our lead Pastor, Cole Phillips for four years now and we haven’t slowed down one bit. The reason The Connection Church has been able to grow, even during the summers, and reach people is because our team has committed to make excellence a priority.
They never stop giving that little extra and that little extra always pays off in a BIG way.
Excellence is not hard. You just have to decide to give it your BEST shot, all the time.
The Church is the ONLY hope that the world has. If anything deserves that little extra, its your Church.
The Yardstick of Quality
I get introduced as all kinds of things. Sometimes I’m the associate pastor, just pastor, friend, magic man…all kinds of things. I’ve even called myself the Church idiot on stage before.
My actual title at The Connection Church is Executive Pastor. I don’t care what I’m called, but I do care a great deal about the thing I am called to do.
I’ve always thought “Yardstick of Quality” would be a good title for me. Weird? Yes. But, it would be perfect because a large part of my job at TCC is to have a keen eye for details and to establish functional systems that allow us to present excellence.
Sunday Mind Dump
- Today, the band played some of THE BEST music I have ever heard at a Church, ANYWHERE. And the energy in the room was INCREDIBLE. YEAH!
- Cole did an incredible job with the first message of our new series “Freakonomics.” If you missed it, you really should go watch it HERE.
- After Cole’s message I feel a little odd staring at my flat screen TV. Hmmmm…
- We did a fun Jim Cramer Mad Money spoof today. We’ll be doing one each week. Check it out here, or below. Best part? I got to break stuff on camera!
- We have a FPU preview coming up on Monday, Nov. 24th. If you realized during the message today that you are READY to get FREAKY with your finances and dump all your debt, you need to be there. If you missed the chance to sign up, let me know here.
- After we got home today, I suddenly felt very sick. Had the shakes, cold sweat, a fever, and felt light headed. Very weird. I actually took a nap for the first time in probably a few months. I NEVER nap…
- Got a super busy week ahead of planning for Christmas at TCC, our annual staff advance, 2009, and more.
- I have a light running week. Only about 10 miles this week…oh, unless you count race day, which will be a 26.2 mile run! AHHHH!
- Please pray for my knee this week. I know it may seem trivial to ask for you to pray for me and my marathon, but this is a life goal for me. I’ve put 16 weeks of HARD training into this race and I don’t want a sore knee to stop me or slow me down.
- There are approx. 6500 students grades 6th-12th in our school district that are NOT being reached for Jesus. That makes me want to cry.
- I believe that if anyone has a chance at reaching those students, it’s us.
- Friday night Nic and his team put on an “After Game Bash” for students grades 6th-12th. It was awesome! Pray for Nic this week as he begins to follow up with students. This could be the start of something that reaches the students in our area.
- I can’t believe that I get to serve at TCC!
Freaky Finances – Video from The Connection Church from Zak White on Vimeo.
