Author: nick

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10 Years Ago Today

nicki-and-me-3-spring-2010It was on Saturday, November 4, 2000 that my life changed forever. On that day, it appeared not to be a big deal, just a simple Wedding Ceremony. A small gathering of family and friends, a small wedding chapel, repeat a few words, say ‘I do!,’ and then the Honeymoon. Nothing much would change (so I thought), I practically saw Nicki everyday anyway, but now we got to live together. Hey! I’m a guy!

That’s why I tell everyone who says, “Wow, you two got married young!” that we actually got married “Young and Dumb,” however I had enough wisdom to land Nicki while she was dumb enough to say ‘Yes!‘

10 Years later…I have no way of telling all of the great and not so great memories that we have shared so far in a blog post, but I can say I am eternally grateful to God for giving me the greatest wife in the whole world. She has stood by me when I’ve  followed some of the dumbest dreams and ideas that have ever popped into someone’s head, she’s let me make horrible decisions (and only brings them up every once in a blue moon), she’s been hard headed and difficult (which I am thankful she’s not always been who I wanted her to be), she’s helped me grow and become a better person, she’s been flexible to not always demand her own way. She is loving and merciful when I am a little less so. She is a great mother to our three wonderful children, Gavin, Tristan, and Hailey. Simply put I love her for who she is.

As a bonus…she is an awesome cook and is sexier than your wife (and if you are a woman, she’s sexier than you)!

Happy 10 Year Anniversary Nicki, I love you and look forward to the next 10+ years together!

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Turkey Tuesday

one27-turkey-project

I love Thanksgiving! Okay, except for the one two years ago when I had appendicitis and had to have emergency surgery, but the rest of my Thanksgiving memories have been awesome and full of great food and laughs with my family. It wasn’t necessarily the appendicitis that ruined my Thanksgiving two (almost three) years ago, it was the fact that I didn’t get to eat my traditional Thanksgiving lunch/dinner. I was really questioning God’s love that day 🙂

I love Turkey and Dressing and the rest of the fixin’s, but it was miserable knowing and seeing everyone else getting to enjoy it while I got left out. That’s why I’m passionate about the ONE:27 Turkey Project that New Passion is hosting. We’ve set a goal to provide 30 complete Thanksgiving meals through United We Care for families in Grovetown, GA who are in financial need. We’ve supported 10 families already, so on this Turkey Tuesday, will you help us support the final 20 families? You can sponsor an entire family with a complete Thanksgiving dinner for only $20 (for multiple families multiply $20 by the number of families you want to help). Thank you for your participation and for making someone’s Thanksgiving one to remember!









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I’m Not Alright

“There was a man named Nicodemus, a Jewish religious leader who was a Pharisee. After dark one evening, he came to speak with Jesus…” John 3:1-2

I’ve heard various stories about why Nicodemus came to Jesus by night. Personally I believe it was because he was curious about Jesus, and as the Scriptures point out, it was very evident that God had sent him to teach them a new way of finding right standing with Himself. However, Jesus was not popular with the Pharisees. In order to be accepted by his own people Nicodemus had to seek Jesus out in private.

I love the song “I’m Not Alright” by Sanctus Real. I never had permission to not be alright for a long time as a Christian. Over the last several years things have changed and now I feel free to not have it all together. I understand that my goal is to become more like Jesus, but as long as I am alive, I will always battle my fallen nature. I just wonder, why is it that the church has created an environment where people have to act like Nicodemus did? Why is it that people don’t feel free to walk through our doors and freely say without the fear of judgment, “I’m Not Alright!“

  • I wonder how many lives would have been saved if people could say, “I’m Not Alright” and not be preached at?
  • I wonder how many pastors, who eventually ended up giving into moral failure, would still be preaching if they could have said, “I’m Not Alright” and not be shunned or abandoned?
  • I wonder how many teenagers would have grown up and raised their families in church if they would have had the freedom of saying, “I’m Not Alright” without being branded in a youth ministry?
  • I wonder how many people could have received hope and grace or found redemption if they had the freedom to say, “I’m Not Alright!“

Why is the church afraid to let people be broken and to seek answers? The honest truth is, growing up, at least 85% of the answers I received to my questions, were essentially “Just trust me” or “That’s what the Bible says” (without a Scripture reference or with a Scripture reference out of context). Could it be we are afraid for people to ask questions to seek healing for their brokenness because our faith and our beliefs have been based on what we were told to believe, so beyond that, we really don’t know how to extend help to people? We don’t have answers because we only know what we’ve been told to know?

Check out the video below and then join the conversation: “Why does it seem the church has created an environment where people cannot be honest when things are “Not Alright?”

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Welcome to Oddville

greg-drinking-coffeeI was going to tweet this but it’s too long:

I think I died and woke up in an alternate universe, you know the kind where all the people are the same, but everything is different?

We had our first New Passion Leadership Meeting where all four of our key leaders (Billy Wilson, Jonothan Powell, Gregory Hansel, and Myself) were together tonight.

I found it funny and strangely odd that #1 I was the only one out of the group NOT tweeting and #2 the two newbies to twitter, who by the way, swore they would never tweet were having an in-depth discussion with each other about why they weren’t following each other.

By the way, if you are the wife to one of these guys, my goal was to end by 8:30, it was 8:33 when I was finished with what I had to cover, but it also took me an extra five minutes to get them to put their phones down 🙂

Oh how things change!