Posted in Graystone Church, Leadership, Vision on February 12, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
Graystone’s Annual Vision Night is Wednesday, February 13 at 7:00PM. If you’re part of our local Graystone team, please make it a priority to participate. Childcare is provided and the middle schoolers will still meet in the student room (6:30-8:00PM).
Come expectant!
Jonathan
Posted in Graystone Church, Leadership, Missions/Outreach, Vision, Volunteers, tagged Expansion Campuses, Multisite Churches on February 11, 2013 | 1 Comment »
Around 50 folks from our Graystone Walton Set Up Team met at 8:00AM Sunday at Loganville High School. They set up the children’s area, lobby with Guest Services and Coffee Bar, and the stage/sound system. It took approximately 1 hour.
I hear it was very organized and the set up and tear down went smooth. And from what I saw in the pictures, it looked incredible. I am so proud of our amazing staff and volunteers, and I know God is going to use the Graystone Walton Team to impact hundreds of lives for all eternity!
Here are a few pictures:
Posted in Leadership, Missions/Outreach, Volunteers, tagged Brian Houston, Church Expansion, church planting, Hillsong Church, Pastors on January 31, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
Brian Houston, Founding and Senior Pastor of Hillsong Church, wrote a recent post: 10 Principles of Church Planting and Expanding. All 10 principles are golden but #8 seemed to truly resonnate with me:
Church planting is TEAMWORK, which means building a leadership team who are there for the long haul. My experience is that often the people who promise the most, don’t always come through with the most. Great churches are built with people who are faithful in the little things. I’d take a group of ordinary people devoted to an extraordinary God, over a charismatic someone that talks a big game, but hasn’t proven faithful in the ‘day of small beginnings’. (Underline added by me)
We have had some amazing miracles with land and buildings in our history, but we have also said no to numbers of opportunities and partnerships because there were ‘strings attached’. If it looks too good to be true, it probably…………………..!”
Posted in Bible, Discipleship/Spiritual Growth, Graystone Church, Leadership on January 30, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
In Adam’s message Sunday, he shared this idea:
If you want what normal people have, then do what normal people do. If you want what few people have, then do what few people do.”
This is so true, and it applies to every area of our lives.
Money
Marriage
Parenting
Academics
Career
Walk with God
Ministry
Health and Fitness
As Christians, a part of His church, God has called us out of the world. God wants us to live differently than the norm. Are you one of the few?
“You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it.” Matthew 7:13-14
How will you think and live differently today?
Posted in Graystone Church, Leadership, Missions/Outreach, Volunteers, tagged Expansion Campuses, Multisite Churches on October 1, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Yesterday, we had our first Graystone Walton Info Meeting. We have had tons and tons of questions about multisite, expansion campuses and specifics about Graystone Walton and how it will effect Graystone Ozora. Here is an updated FAQ sheet:
Posted in Graystone Church, Leadership on August 13, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
1. Buck Still did a great job sharing his small groups testimony. You can watch the video above. If you would like to sign up for a small group, you can do it online here.
2. Someone replaced my broken mailbox (I mentioned it in a sermon earlier this year.) with a brand new one while we were at church. Thank you.
3. Several people switched from the 10:30 service to the 9:00AM or the 12:00PM to create “empty seats at optimal times”. Thank you. We had more people at Graystone this Sunday than last Sunday, and we had 100 fewer people in the 10:30 service. So, we have plenty of room to grow with the services balancing out.
4. We had a record attendance for Graystone Students…Middle School during all 3 services: 9/10:30/12 and High School at 6:30. PRAISE GOD! Alan and Allison are diving right in and getting off to a great start.
5. I had the privilege of officiating Jason and Sarah’s wedding last night in the backyard of a beautiful house on Lake Oconee. Jason and Sarah are a part of our college age small group. BTW, are you in a small group? If not, you can sign up for one here.
Also receiving votes: Joelan earns more hardware in his 2nd U16 Tennis Tourney; KATB did great even with Kyle relaxing at the beach; On 2 separate occasions yesterday pre-service (9/10:30), I was slapped in the butt by former college/pro football players (This is not a highlight, I just find it odd that it happened twice on one Sunday.); I only wasted 15 minutes of my life watching the Olympics Closing Ceremony (It could have been worse.); and LSU, the Saints, and the MS Mullets are all still undefeated!
Posted in Bible, Graystone Church, Leadership, Prayer, Vision on July 30, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Jonathan Howes getting air on the wakeboard.
Please pray for the Graystone Staff Team as we are heading this afternoon on our annual staff retreat. We will spend the next few days praying, planning and playing. All of the spouses have been invited so my hope is that this will be a great time of fellowship and team building. With everyone’s busy lives and ministry schedules, we rarely ALL GET TOGETHER.
We will be celebrating all that God has done in this past season of ministry, and we will dream big and set goals for the 2012/1013 ministry year. Staff Momma, Jennifer Howes, will be handling all the meals, and Kyle Hale and Chris Landress (my favorite staff husband) are heading up the water sports and activities on Lake Oconee. If you’re lucky, you might get to see a few pictures or even a video or two. I’m pretty sure I’m better than Kyle on the wakeboard. And I doubt that the Hollandsworth boys will even be able get up on the wakeboard/skis/kneeboard. Maybe we will have a tube for them, or they will enjoy riding in the boat?
Please pray for God to confirm His perfect plans for Graystone’s next season of ministry and for us to stay on God’s agenda for our lives, areas of ministry, and church. I will be sharing more specifics about Graystone’s vision and strategy this upcoming Sunday.
In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.” Proverbs 16:9
Posted in Bible, Discipleship/Spiritual Growth, Graystone Church, Leadership on May 11, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
We live in a world full of quitters. People quit on their teams, jobs, marriages, families, churches and faith. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about FINISHING STRONG. The old saying is true: ”It’s not how you start but how you finish.” At least the back half is true. It really is all about finishing.
Our baseball season has been the most difficult we’ve ever experienced. But my message to Joelan (and myself) is to persevere to the end and FINISH STRONG. We will put a 4 game losing streak on the line this Saturday as we head into the playoffs.
If we FINISH STRONG in the tourney, we could turn the entire season around. We’ve had a ton of injuries (Joelan broke his nose at the first practice in December.), bad attitudes from players and parents, and we enter the tourney as the last place team losing our last 2 games with a combined score of 0-23. But if we win 4 games, which we are capable, we could find ourselves on Cool Ray Field playing for the championship. And I’m pretty sure that would be the lasting memory of this team.
As this season of life and school year come to a close, let me encourage you to FINISH STRONG. FINISH STRONG with your team, school, job, small group, marriage, family, church, and faith. Although, I do think getting off to a good start is important (I.e. Valley Town Church), what’s more important is how we finish. True authentic faith in Jesus Christ perseveres to the end.
I like what Paul says at the end of his life…
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.” 2 Timothy 4:7-8
In what area of your life do you need to recommit to FINISHING STRONG?
P.S. If truth be told, Joelan cares more about Friday morning basketball with his church buddies after his discipleship group, than his U14 GGBL Baseball Season. BTW, their discipleship group started strong and FINISHED STRONG. Thanks Nate for your leadership and investment into our young men.
Posted in Graystone Church, Leadership, Missions/Outreach, Monday Download, Volunteers on April 9, 2012 | 2 Comments »
Easter Sunday at Graystone was amazing, and I was honored to be a part of it. The fact that every one of us is “Someone Worth Dying For” never gets old to me. I am overwhelmed by God’s love, grace, and forgiveness and am so thankful for Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. I love Easter!
I want to THANK all of YOU who serve on the Graystone Team. God is using you to DOMINATE our community with the love of Jesus Christ and lives are being changed for all eternity. I’m blown away that God allows us to be a part of something so much bigger than ourselves.
Thank you to those of you who made a sacrifice to come at 9:00 or noon. As it turned out, we were slammed at 9:00 at almost maximum capacity (I’m not sure what this is, but I think we were close.) It turned out great, because we had empty seats at 10:30 for our guests. Hopefully, they saw that we have plenty of space for them in our “living room.” Also, I loved having the larger than normal crowd at noon. I was energized and think it was the best of the 3 messages.
THANK YOU to our incredible volunteers…the admin team, cleaning team, landscape team, parking team, children’s workers, children’s check in team, design team, coffee team, greeters, ushers, tech team, Chris Chester, band, etc. There were several volunteers who served all 3 services…AMAZING! Thank you so much to all the men who prayed with and for me before the first service. I can’t tell you how much this encouraged me.
Thank you to the mission team who served in Wilmington, VT last week to help launch Valleytown Church. They had an incredible first Sunday. God is moving in Wilmington, and Ben and the team are pumped.
As always, KATB did a tremendous job leading us in worship and keeping our Easter focused on Christ. HE IS ALIVE! And He lives in us. The same power that rose Jesus from the dead lives in us. May He empowered us the live an abundant life on earth and for all eternity.
Thanks again for serving God through Graystone Church. I love you guys. The best is yet to come!
Johnny
P.S. I will post some Easter pics soon.
Posted in Graystone Church, Leadership, Random on March 9, 2012 | 7 Comments »
1. Last night in the batting cage, our clean up batter hit a line drive into the side of my skull and knocked me off my feet. As I was lying on my back half conscious and my ear bleeding, a lady from another team brought me an ice pack, and I faintly heard her say, “Isn’t that the preacher? That isn’t supposed to happen to the preacher.” I wish her theology was accurate.
2. Speaking of theology, the elders of Graystone had a great discussion/debate Wednesday night about a young earth (4000-5000 years old) verses an old earth (umpteen billion years old). In the 7 days of creation, did God create the heavens and earth in literal 24 hour periods or were the days eras of time (I.e. 1000 years?) We also discussed theistic evolution vs creation, the trinity, a little eschatology, and demon possession.
3. Which reminds me, this Sunday I am preaching on 7 Marriage Killers. One of the marriage killers is demon-possessed in laws. Hopefully, you do not have any demons in your family. Most families have one or two crazy people. If you don’t know who they are, then it is probably you.
4. Also on Sunday, Jennifer and I will be answering several of the most asked questions about marriage. My favorite question came from a wife and she actually signed her name. It said, “How many times a week do ya’ll have sex? What is normal frequency for a healthy young married couple?” Now, I know one reason why this couple has such a happy marriage.
5. Speaking of, Kyle is heading up the design team of Project Kids Space. He and Shannon have done such an incredible job that HGTV’s Design on a Dime has approached them about doing a TV special. If you have not seen it, the kids area looks AMAZING!
6. (A little lagniappe) Kyle is singing a country song this Sunday at Graystone. Who’d a thunk it?
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