Last night, Mandy and I were thrilled to attend the first volunteer training session at the new home of Gwinnett Church. I’ve been lucky to go by the building a couple of times over the past few weeks, but last night was quite different. From the moment we walked in the door something felt more exciting, more expectant – even electric. The building is fantastic, but when you pack it full of the most passionate volunteers it takes it to a whole different level.

Paul, Adam, Trey, Matt, Rica, Tim, Ryan, Jonathan, Davis – the GC worship dream team – kicked things off by literally shaking the walls. Seriously some of the best worship I have ever experienced. You guys absolutely rock!

One of the other awesome highlights was walking through all of the environments and seeing the level of thought and detail that was put into everything. The woodwork around the place obviously stuck out to me most of all, but everywhere you turned there was some other meaningful art piece. We saw photos of events that we attended through the years and found our signatures on the old #FORGwinnett sign. We saw the representation of the 280,000 unchurched people in Gwinnett County. We saw representations of the church’s mission and strategy. We even saw the colors in the mural that we helped paint in the children’s environment. Each detail looks fantastic; I think Mandy wants to get Lauren’s shopping list so that she can redecorate the house now!

However, more importantly than the physical building was the vision that Jeff shared with those of us that he called “vision owners”. The #FORGwinnett hashtag has spread quickly and represents one of our mission statements with which I could not agree more. For too long the church has been known for what it is against, but we want people to know that we and the God we serve are FOR them. As is the case anytime Jeff speaks, I was fired up big time.

We are so excited for this next chapter in the life of Gwinnett Church. Mandy and I are incredibly blessed to be involved with this staff, these volunteers, and these people. There is so much greatness ahead for the folks of Gwinnett County so let’s go have fun. Here’s to the crazy ones!