Category Archives: e3

Great post worth your read (Clayton King)

Clayton King wrote a post this morning that I have not been able to stop thinking about today.  His post was titled “What the Church Can Learn From the Boston Celtics” and you can read it fully here.  The statements he made from his observations have rolled around in my brain all day today.  Of course, I am incapacitated and really can’t do much other than read right now from my injury, but his conclusions are thought provoking nonetheless.

I encourage you to read the full post, but his summary points on how the Celtics were successful and what that means to the church are:

1. Embracing change, not living on legacy

2. Staying hungry, not fat and satisfied

3. Staying faithful, not flashy

4. Keep it simple

We will never, never, ever replace or improve upon the simple yet remarkably insurmountable task of making disciples that Jesus left as his marching orders for us.  There is no room for change-resistance, complacency, compromise, or complications.

The time we invest in accomplishing that purpose is really the only investment that yields kingdom dividends.  The rest is just wasted effort, tilting at windmills and settling for apparent short term gains that sacrifice the heart and intent of the kingdom focused portfolio.


Pray and stand with these local churches…

I shared a little about One Prayer in this post in case you missed it. Chuck blogged about his excitement here.  The last time I looked there were 18 29 churches in the upstate of SC participating in One Prayer. (There’s a whole lot more over the whole state!) We need to pray for all of the churches participating, but if you know someone at one of the churches listed below, it would be awesome to share the excitement of this series with them.

Stand and pray for these churches and pastors as we UNITE together in One Prayer for The Church:

Church Name – Pastor Name (Location)

Cedar Creek Church – Phillip Lee (Aiken, SC)

Lakeview Baptist Church – Thomas Maxwell (Anderson, SC)

Hope Fellowship – Mark Gasque (Anderson, SC)

NewSpring Church – Perry Noble (Anderson, SC)

New Life Worship Center – Eric Thompson (Central, SC)

Chapin Baptist Church – Dr. Ken Kelly (Chapin, SC)

The Mount – Bob Lentz (Clemson, SC)

Ignite Kids – Eric Cole (Easley, SC)

Trinity Point Church – Michael Mohler (Easley, SC)

5 Point Fellowship – Dean Herman (Easley, SC)

Cross Fire – Matt Suttle (Easley, SC)

Marathon Church North – Reggie Smith (Greenville, SC)

Edwards Road Baptist Church – Aaron Rayburn (Greenville, SC)

Metamorphosis Church – Chad Bowen (Greenville, SC)

Washington Avenue Church – Chuck Bridges (Greenville, SC)

Trinity Community Church – Richard Bowers (Greenville, SC)

Freedom Fellowship – Cliff Marshall (Greer, SC)

Ridge Point Church – Shane Stone (Inman, SC)

New Journey – James Reppart (Laurens, SC)

Fellowship Community Church – Clark Ford (Liberty, SC)

The Dwelling Place – Michael Stewart (Little River, SC)

Faith Wesleyan Church – Scott Smith (Little River, SC)

Pelzer Wesleyan Church – Phillip Modlin (Pelzer, SC)

Oak Pointe Church – Mike Morris (Piedmont, SC)

Hub City Church – Jonathan Everette (Spartanburg, SC)

Springwell Church – Scott McAlister (Taylors, SC)

Ridgeview Church – Tommy Hargrove (Taylors, SC)

CenterPoint Church – Bryan Parris (Taylors, SC)

Frontline Student Ministries – Jon Brown (Walhalla, SC)


One Prayer…

This weekend, we kick off an unbelievable series that is unlike anything we have ever done at WAC. In fact, it’s unlike anything I have ever heard of in the history of the Church!

Here’s the deal: over 1200 churches from over 25 countries are standing together in the month of June in a corporate series called One Prayer. Here’s the premise: pastors from all over will answer the question, “Pastor, if you had only one prayer to pray for the church at large, what would you pray?” These messages have been collected from several of the churches participating in the series. Over the series, churches will hear from their pastor, as well as other world class communicators via video!

That is AWESOME and unprecedented…and here’s why! The Church has not exhibited this kind of unity except perhaps in the 1st century and possibly other times of great persecution in history. Not only is there AMAZING unity, but the extent of the unity is larger than ever before possible…because of the technology that exists today!

The vast number and difference of groups who will participate in this is due primarily to the internet and technology advances in video and multimedia.  Without the benefit of modern technology, something like this would not be feasible!  The sheer expense of getting all these pastors to the places they will preach would be exorbitant!  Add to that the limitation of the time-space continuum…one person can only be in one place at one time. But because of technology, churches around the world can come together in unity and pastors can preach in a limitless number of places at one time!  WOW!

This is an incredible time to be alive to share the gospel!  Here’s a thought…Jesus wants all people to be saved (2 Pet 3:9).  He commanded us to go to the ends of the earth (do whatever it takes) with His message (Matt 28:19-20).  We should use all means necessary and available to do that!

…So here’s the thought:

If technology could be used as one of the most powerful tools for sharing the gospel, could we be working against an incredible move of God by failing to embrace it to the fullest?  And anytime we work against God…we know what that is…SIN!


Moms are special…

At the risk of sounding like a cliche or seeming like I’m just throwing my 2 blogging cents into the mix, I’m going to say it anyway…Moms are SPECIAL!  Especially those Moms out there who do it all on their own.

We had an awesome dinner tonight for a group of very special ladies.  They were all single moms and we did our best to treat them like royalty!  Lisa Freeman, our missions coordinator did a fantastic job lining everything up.

We gave away incredible care packages and hopefully made a lasting impact on some pretty incredible ladies.  Allison Taffer shared with the ladies about the first single mom in scripture…Hagar.  Can I just say…good night! Seriously, Beth Moore has nothing on this woman!

It was a cool night and I am glad I got to be a part of it…Happy Mother’s Day to all Moms out there!


A Time to Rebuild

Yesterday, Chuck shared the vision God has given him for where we are heading with our facilities. This is an awesome time for Washington Avenue Church and the Kingdom as we all do whatever it takes to reach whoever we can!

This church has a richly tremendous heritage of reaching the community at large for Christ. This is another step in that direction. Below is a short video of some of the clips we have from the conceptual design.


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