Perry Noble, Delta, and a race against time

The day finally arrived that Todd and I were going to meet with Perry from Newspring Church. The meeting was supposed to be at 11:30 which wouldn't have been a problem; however, our first flight (6 AM) was cancelled and our 7:30 flight was an hour late. This put us into Atlanta at around 10:30. By the time we found a car to drive it was almost 11 and we still had to drive about 2 hours to get to Anderson at a decent time. Perry's office graciously bumped the meeting back to around 12:30 and we made the 2 hour trip in right at an hour and a half. Not getting a speeding ticket was a miracle - for which I am very grateful.

The meeting with Perry and Shane was incredible. First off, we went to Fatz which made me very happy, even though I just realized that they never did bring us those little doughnut type roll things that they have. This is probably a good thing as I am not allowed to eat them anyway. We talked about a ton of stuff at that meeting - too much to write here in one post. Several people have called to ask, "what was the most important thing that you talked about" at that meeting? Here it is...

1. Don't let anyone hijack your vision. Know the vision that God has given you and do not allow anyone to distract you from accomplishing it. This was big! Perry had a guy (who gave 65% of his total church budget) stop coming to his church in the early days because the guy wanted Newspring to go in a different direction and Perry wasn't willing to budge. As a result, God has blessed tremendously. It is easy to spot the person who has a completely different vision than you; however, spotting those who have subtle differences are key. Keep the vision clear! Don't apologize for it and don't try to be all things to all people. Realize who you are as a ministry and don't back down. Most churches suffer from an identity crisis. Don't be or become one of those churches or ministries.

Great day yesterday.