WOW!! My thoughts on an AMAZING, CHALLENGING, and INSPIRING Day…

• Whenever someone surrenders their life to Jesus it’s an AMAZING day…that happened today!!!!
• My oldest son, MacLean, was recently asked “What kind of a church we were?“…
• …not really knowing how to answer that he told them “Compass is a JESUS CHURCH!!“
• BEST answer I’ve ever heard…Yes, I bowed my chest out a little when I heard that (very Biblical thing to do – Mark 1:11)
• We’re not real good at that yet, BUT we are trying to be obedient and live that out!!
• BTW, what Jesus said will totally MESS you up!! (Matthew 5:42, Acts 20:35, Matthew 25:35-40, Luke 12:48, 1 Timothy 6:17-19, Luke 4:16-21)
• BTW, the religious people rejected Jesus and killed him for what He came to do!!
• BTW, YES, we are called to CONNECT PEOPLE TO JESUS,  BUT as the local church we are also Commanded, Commissioned, and Called to HELP the poor, FEED the hungry, CLOTHE the naked, CARE for the sick, and INVITE strangers in (Matthew 25:35-40).
• We have so FAR to go, BUT today we took some GIANT STEPS towards being a GENEROUS JESUS CHURCH!!
• #1 – we introduced THREE STRATEGIC PARTNERS we will be partnering with in 2010 to meet needs in our community…
  • Northeast Georgia Food Bank, Habitat For Humanity, Fowler Drive Elementary School.
  • This Video Link from our Strategic Partners says it all – CHECK IT OUT HERE!!
  • I can’t explain it all – check out this Sunday’s Podcast for all the details.
  • Yes, this is just a start and I pray over the next 10 years we can partner with dozens and give away millions!
• #2 – we introduced  SERVE THIS CITY - a strategic initiative of 300 hours of service over the next 14 days
  • What is it? SERVE THIS CITY will kick start us to become the Hands and Feet of Jesus in NE GA 365 days/year
  • What’s your part? GO FOR IT by giving ONE HOUR of service over the next two weeks and TOGETHER reach our goal of 300 hours of service
  • What Do I do? CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR YOUR ‘One Hour of Service‘ - We’ve filled almost 200 hours and counting so far!!!
• #3 – we announced EGG THIS CITY our Easter Promotion to invite 3 Friends and perform one act of Generosity b’w now and Easter (info overload – more on that tomorrow)
• Here’s what I know…
• …up to this point we have been SPONTANEOUS with our Generosity (meeting whatever needs we could at the time – John 6:5-9)…
• …From this point we MUST become STRATEGIC (Isaiah 32:8) where Generosity is a Priority, Planned, and a Percentage is set aside…
• …and SACRIFICIAL (it’s going to cost us something!! – Mark 12:44)
• Jesus didn’t die on the cross for us to give SOMETHING, He’s asked us to give Him EVERYTHING!!!!
• Most of us are not real good at this, INCLUDING ME, but we are going to figure it out!!
• WHY? “Because God has given us SO MUCH MORE than we deserve, we are going to learn how to INTENTIONALLY give others MORE!!”
• I love and am humbled to be your pastor…I see God so at work changing, shaping, & molding our hearts to be GENEROUS one person at a time – let’s open our lives to Him BIG and let Him DO HIS THING!
• LET’S DO THIS and Let’s GO FOR IT!!!!
• If you have not signed your students up for 706 SUMMER STUDENT CAMP, you can do that here.  We have a limited window as parents – let’s position them for life to do great things for God in their generation. Summer Camp is one of the BEST INVESTMENTS you’ll make in your student’s life this year – PROMISE!!
• CAN’T WAIT for next Sunday’s Night of Worship beginning at 6:00 pm (GET HERE EARLY) as we come together to worship,  prepare our hearts for Easter, and BEG GOD to Show UP and Show OFF BIG Easter Weekend.

LIVING the Gospel

The New Testament makes it clear that our love will distinguish us as followers of Jesus.  It is clear that God has called us not just to talk about the Gospel but to LIVE the Gospel…which means being willing to love, give and serve extravagantly…just as Jesus did for us!

Well just last week, God allowed our church to love, give and serve extravagantly! He allowed us to be the hands and feet of Jesus to a community. Last Friday, I got to watch our church LIVE the Gospel and a week later I still can’t get over it!  I just wanted to take a moment today to celebrate a job well done with each of you.

Compass Church, you can rejoice that through your extravagant love, generosity and service we were able to be Jesus to a community in need by providing 365 families and 1704 total people with 13 meals for every person in the family!   Those final numbers fire me up almost as much as the memories that I have of seeing our volunteers “bust it” to do whatever it took to put that food in the hands of families that needed it!

If you have given generously by making a commitment to BEYOND and make it a discipline to give back to God through your tithes and offerings, I want to say thanks for LIVING the Gospel!  It was through our BEYOND offerings that we were able to partner with the Northeast Georgia Food Bank to make this event possible and through your continued generosity that we will be able to continue this outreach.

If you were one of the 40 plus volunteers that showed up and showed out to express the love of Jesus to our community in a tangible way, I want to say thanks for LIVING the Gospel!  Never have I been more blown away by our volunteers than I was seeing you do whatever it took to put over 28,000 pounds of food into organized boxes and ultimately into the hands of families that needed it!

Finally, if you have been on the fence about partnering with Compass Church through your time, talents and treasures, then I encourage you to get in on the action as we seek to see the Gospel LIVED out in Northeast Georgia!

Since I get to post today and the blog is all mine…. I’d also like to take this opportunity to tell you how fired up I am about this coming Sunday!

It is week 2 of GET SOME, perhaps the most audacious yet impacting series we have ever done!  I heard from so many couples and singles that this series could not be more timely and God is already challenging people in a HUGE way.  I have absolutely no doubt that God wants to use this series to change homes, marriages and families all over Northeast Georgia…but you have got to be here and invite your friends so that he can do that!   Bottom line is Satan wants to destroy marriages and wants to lead singles into destructive relationships and marriages.  He wants YOU to do anything but GET SOME of what we are talking about on Sunday….GUTS.  You don’t want to miss out on what God wants to say to you and how He wants to challenge you THIS SUNDAY!

Chase McKissick
Compass Children’s Pastor

Compass has always been passionate about local outreach.  Our belief is that we are never more like Jesus than when we give of ourselves expecting nothing in return.  The crazy thing is when we operate with this mindset often God shows up and blesses us the most.

Back in December, a few other staff members and I were blessed to represent our church as we delivered the 100 coats and Christmas gifts for 30 families that Compass generously collected for needy families in the Fowler Drive Elementary community.  We weren’t expecting any fanfare or much interaction with the families receiving these gifts.  We were wrong and blown away by our experience at the school that day!  We took the Christmas gifts over first and had to make a second trip to bring over the 100+ coats.  Upon our second arrival at the school, parents were already arriving at the school to pick up the Christmas gifts for their families.

Several school administrators and teachers were waiting for us as we walked in the building.  They said that in all their years at the school, they had never seen an outpouring of unselfish love like this one.  The school counselor escorted us outside and told us there was someone who wanted to meet us. It was a mom who had just finished picking up her family’s Christmas gifts. I can’t tell you how appreciative she was! She said she teared up when she received a call earlier in the week to confirm that someone wanted to help her out with Christmas and the gifts would be available to pick up at the school.  She continued, “I never expected anything like this!” This couldn’t have happened at a better time for her family because she had been laid off at her job three weeks earlier. She wanted me to tell everyone at the church, “Thank you so much!”

I was blessed and my heart was deeply touched by the events of that day, but I have to admit a part of me felt guilty.  I felt guilty that so many from our church made the events of that day possible through their generosity and so few of us got to experience the impact of that generosity firsthand.  I wished that more of our people could have gotten to experience being the hands and feet of Christ like I did that day.

Well, thanks to the generosity of those of you who have made and are making commitments to BEYOND our church is once again positioned to have a HUGE impact on the Fowler Drive Elementary Community. I want so much for you to experience what I did on that day in December last year.  A portion of all BEYOND commitments are allocated specifically to outreach, allowing us to book a tractor trailer filled with enough food to feed 500 families through the Northeast Georgia Food Bank.  This is meeting a HUGE need in the Fowler Drive community because many families at the school receive assistance with meals throughout the school year that will be unavailable during the summer. We will be unloading the food and distributing it to families in need THIS Friday, May 15th from 2:45 – 6:30 p.m. It’s not too late to sign up to volunteer! Take a half-day off work or come as soon as you get off work. It will be well worth it. This time we wanted to make sure that YOU could see the results of your generosity firsthand and receive the blessing of physically being Jesus to a community in need.

See you Friday!

Chase McKissick
Compass Children’s Pastor

•BEYOND contributions making a DIFFERENCE. Friday, May 15th, will be a landmark day as we pour into the Fowler Drive Elementary Community!  The Food Bank of NEGA will drop an 18-wheeler filled with food and we get to pack it up in boxes and give it away to feed 500 families in need.  Help us POUR into Fowler Drive by VOLUNTEERING to be Jesus with skin on by Showing Up, Packing Boxes, and Distributing Food to 500 families. Click here to VOLUNTEER!!

•Congrats to all of the Grads walking tomorrow!!  Go For It – God’s got huge plans for your life!!

We loaded the Christmas gifts up first and quickly realized we would have to make a second trip to bring the 115 coats, 305 diapers and 253 packs of underwear that were now boxed up in 2 refrigerator-sized boxes. When we arrived at the school we were greeted by several administrators and the school principal. They started to discuss the best location to store the Christmas gifts. Judging by the space they showed us, it was evident we were going to officially overwhelm them with the powerful way that our church responded to this opportunity to POUR into the Fowler Drive community. As we rolled in bikes and toted in boxes overflowing with Christmas gifts, the school counselor scrambled to find more available storage space.

As we brought the final gifts into the building one of the custodians asked me, “Where are all these gifts coming from?” When I told him they were from Compass Church he just perked up, introduced himself, told me where he went to church, and said, “Thank you SO much!” You could tell how proud he was to see a church step up and BE the church to a community in need.

We returned to Fowler around 8:30 a.m. to unload the two refrigerator boxes full of coats, underwear and diapers. One of the teachers who helped show us to the coat closet said that she had, “never seen anything like this,” in 20 years of teaching. The school counselor escorted us outside and told us there was someone who wanted to meet us. It was a mom who had just finished picking up her family’s Christmas gifts. I can’t tell you how appreciative she was! She said she teared up when she received a call earlier this week to confirm that someone wanted to help her out with Christmas and the gifts would be available to pick up at the school on Thursday but she said, “I never expected anything like this!” Then she told me that this couldn’t have happened for her family at a better time because she had been laid off at her job three weeks ago. She wanted me to tell everyone at the church, “Thank you so much!” She said that her family needed a church home and she asked about where we were located.

The school administrators were more than happy to put “Tate Test Compass” candy canes in all the teacher boxes and wanted some extra ones so that they could give them to any of the families that asked where all the gifts came from. I can’t tell you what a buzz there was about the way our church stepped up to the plate for this community! It was a great day for Fowler Drive, Compass Church and most of all a great day for the body of Christ! These parents will never forget that a church in their own community loved them enough to come in and make Christmas a little merrier for their family. I can’t tell you what a difference the incredible generosity of our church is making today!

•Did we share the Gospel in “Words” today – NO! Did we share it by our “Actions” – ABSO-STINKIN-LUTELY! (John 13:1-17, 35) “Your LOVE FOR ONE ANOTHER will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

•Well Done Church!

•Can’t Wait for our Christmas Services on Sunday – God’s Going to Rock Northeast Georgia’s World!!

About half of the group met at the church around 4:00, and we headed up the loop to the Wal-Mart at Epps Bridge.  Jonathan, Ko-D, and Derek decided to lead us in song, which was probably a bad idea from the get-go.  More on that later.  Anyway, we knew that serveral were going to meet us there (Seth, Erin, Phillip, Ethan, and James) [Jim's insert - ERIN is a brave 706 Warrior -ESS], so this group was going to be BIG.  I was actually worried about us getting kicked out of Wal-Mart.  I learned later as three of them were throwing a football over the top of the men’s clothing section that Wesley actually encouraged a couple of boys in the group to try to get kicked out of Wal-Mart.  I know he was joking, but they might not have thought this.

We got about $120 worth of merchandise from Wal-Mart, scanned everything ourselves, loaded it in my trunk, and took off to Academy Sports.  Some of the guys took turns riding the bike for the five year old across the parking lot.  How nobody is hurt, and how the bike is still in one piece, I’d like to know.  There are pictures of the bike rides that would probably incriminate us.

Academy wasn’t THAT bad…well…kinda.  This was supposed to be an in-and-out deal.  BUT, they saw the weightlifting equipment and treadmills.  Nobody died, but there were probably a couple of close calls. Thankfully I kept my camera in the car.  We then went to eat at Wendy’s on Epps Bridge, but this wasn’t really eventful.

The trip back to the church…ummm…I’m glad that it was dark outside so that nobody could see the activities taking place.  As we were leaving the parking lot, the three “heathens” started a chorus of “99 bottles of beer on the wall”, and they got down into the lower eighties before screwing things up.  I was also taking Seth home, and he looked like he was going to strangle all three of them.  He wanted to kill Derek and Jonathan more when they stripped down to their boxers for fun, and started to take pictures with their phones. [JIM INSERT - NOTE TO SELF - probably should have Edited that last line.]

With all of the craziness mentioned, it was still one of the most impactful things I’ve seen done in my 23 years on this planet.  These eight students donated their time and their money in order to make sure that this family wasn’t going to go “without” on Christmas in 2008.  I know a lot of people say that kids have changed.  They aren’t as “great” as they used to be, they say.  I beg to differ.  People try to focus on the negative sides of students in order to pump up THEIR generation.  When looking at the events of Sunday, I’d argue that they’ve already surpassed my generation of five-six years prior.  The Lord is doing great things with The 706, and it’s more impactful when you see it in front of you.

706 Small Group Leader – Jimmy Hughes

•OK  - my Blog has been Hi-Jacked again.

•Jump on board – get in the game – be a part of a Radical Revolutionary MOVEMENT of God in OUR GENERATION!

COUNTDOWN IS ON – only 30 Days until we get to invite people to experience life change through Jesus in TWO locations in Athens! Only 9 Days until Christmas services at NOHS Fine Arts Center.

3 Quick Thoughts That Have Me PUMPED -

#1 – GOD ROCKS – and I want to tell everyone I know and there’s no better opportunity than Christmas. Did you know Christmas has now surpassed Easter as the #1 time a guest is most likely to accept an invitation.

•Compass – let’s go for it over the next 9 days and make the BOLDEST invitations we’ve ever made. This week, my family is baking cookies and inviting every single family in our subdivision to Taste Test Compass this Christmas. I’m also mailing 10 personal invites with tickets.

• Why? Because that first Christmas, God introduced the BEST GIFT EVER – JESUS! As we invite people to TASTE TEST COMPASS this Christmas, we will never have a better window the entire year to introduce our friends to the BEST GIFT EVER – JESUS!

•Can’t scream it enough – Christmas @ Compass will Rock, be off the chain, frickin incredible, stinkin awesome. We are planning the most powerful and creative presentation of the Gospel we’ve EVER done!

•And, we are BEGGING God to Show Up, Show Off, and Rock our Worlds. (SAT PRAYER TIME – 9am – 9:45am at the church).

#2 – WE HAVE A HUGE OPPORTUNITY

•To Make Jesus Famous in our Community.

•To Pour out on behalf of others this Christmas locally and globally.

•To be part of something BIG God is doing in our generation.

•Don’t forget to bring your Christmas Gifts for the Fowler Drive project to church with you Sunday. We deliver them this week. Those kids and families are going to be blown away this Christmas by God’s love through you!

•This Sunday, we are taking our Beyond Christmas Gift Offering. A word of encouragement – DON’T SKIP and sit this one out. God is going to Show UP and Show OFF big time.

•What I know? #1 – His job is to SPEAK. Our job is to OBEY. #2 – It’s never equal gifts but equal sacrifice. #3 – It’s not about what we can’t do, but what we CAN DO together.

•We have experienced OFF THE CHART RETURNS as a church this year!! I really do believe the BEST RETURN you will ever receive on your money is POURING it in GOD’s ECONOMY through His local church.

•Just knowing how God has already worked this year, I believe He is prompting many of us in a crazy time to be MORE GENEROUS than we’ve ever been before – I’m praying with all my heart we will RESPOND to WHATEVER He asks us to do COURAGEOUSLY!

•Plus, I’m feeling a little emotional – our last time together in the warehouse before we become one church meeting in two locations in this community. Sunday is going to be one of those days where God does something BIG!

#3 THE BEST IS YET TO COME

•It shouldn’t surprise us that God wants to FINISH 2008 STRONG! Hold On, Pray like crazy, Invite EVERYONE you know, and Get Ready, Get Ready, Get Ready for God to Rock our world!

•In our creative planning meeting it was summed up best this week “I’ve NEVER been part of a church that’s baptized this many people in one year and seen so much life change. I don’t want that to STOP.”

•We are going to do WHATEVER IT TAKES to Take Jesus to Clarke, Madison, Banks, Green, Jackson, Ogelthorpe, Oconee, Walton, Barrow, ALL of Northeast Georgia, to Athens and BEYOND!

•Absolutely LOVE being your Pastor! Can’t Wait to Celebrate with all of you on Sunday!