Cross Street LIVE is back March 15 / 5PM @ RHS

Made it back home from a a few days at the Unleash Conference. Took yesterday and did nothing but hang with my family. We had a great time. This is a really wild next 2 weeks for the GCC family ministry. This weekend we host Cross Street LIVE at 5 on Sunday night at Rossview High and next weekend is our MERGE weekend for relevant student ministry. We do Cross Street LIVE to give families the time to STOP and WORSHIP God together. It is so incredible to see parents and kids go for it each month. Hope you can make it out this Sunday night...here is our promo commercial! enjoy!

Today at Unleash

Had a great day here at Unleash. Have too many thoughts right now to air it all out BUT I have posted pics for the new children and student areas up on my facebook page. Go check it out. One thought before I get out or here today to catch my plane to see my family and enjoy a few inches of snow at home is about SHARING! It is so refreshing to see see the collaboration happening as the church gives away things they have learned. Through this one day conference NewSpring has made it really easy for churches to come in and check things out. Not to come in and copy but to learn...THERE IS A HUGE DIFFERENCE. I am praying that at GCC we can keep that philosophy rolling for with our ministry teams. What we do works for us in Clarksvile but it is for all to share and learn from. Here is a news flash...none of this church stuff is OURS, it belongs to GOD. We do not keep it to ourselves, we give it away and pay it forward. Thanks NewSpring for opening your doors up.

FUSE...student ministry at NewSpring

The student ministry team at NewSpring Church in Anderson, South Carolina let me come in and check out their weekly gathering for teens called FUSE tonight. What I did not know was this was their first night in their new Fuse building. New Spring went all out investing in a space to reach the next generation. 1200 seat worship space, cafe, hang out space, gym, small group areas...it looked great. THANK YOU NEWSPRING for investing in the next generation. (I have to say we have this same strategy at GCC, thanks GCCers for giving and supporting our effort to reach teens in Clarksville!) We watched over 1,000 adults and teens pack that room and they went for it. The team at Fuse did a great job with security and student check-in, band and speaker did great, service flow was good, and most importantly the team cast the vision for why they built the facility...to see teens follow Christ. There was a genuine hunger tonight to see God show up. It is clear the Fuse team is on a mission to reach teens in Anderson with the message of hope Jesus brings to humanity! Loved the passion of the staff. Loved that on a big night for their ministry they let some strangers come in and take a quick look at their environment. We try to always keep our doors open at REMIX and it was cool to see that same mindset in action at FUSE. Here are some pics from the night...

Unleash conference and new spring church

Blogging from Charlotte, NC and about to get my rental car from HERTZ of course and head to Anderson, SC to check out the student ministry at New Spring Church and then go to the Unleash Conference on Thursday. Could not hit a student ministry conference this year so I decided to try a short conference and connect with some leaders in action to watch, listen and learn. I love to see what God is up to around the country and I am very excited about meeting the student ministry team at New Spring. If you get a chance to check out the web site and check out the some of their services online. Perry Noble is the lead pastor at New Spring...some of you love him and some of you hate him. If ya hate Perry, please do not use my blog or facebook to bash a pastor. Perry is innovative and his church is reaching people for Christ each week. Perry has a great blog you might want to check out also at www.perrynoble.com! Should be a fun 2 days, will have some pics an thoughts from the student ministry up tonight RIGHT HERE.

thanks YOUNG LIFE clarksville

Chelsea and I hosted a table tonight at the Young Life Clarksville banquet and once again this year I am reminded how thrilled I am that YL is here in our city. If you have a YL in your city please take time to see how your youth ministry and church can support the work of YL. We have YL in three of our high schools here in the city and we pray we can see every high school here have YL in action. Tonight I had the chance to hear from one of our teens that goes to Grace Community talk about how Young Life had made a difference in his life. I watched his YL leader stand next to him. It was amazing to hear his heart and know that GCC had a small part in his life. I was just as excitd to know he had a place to BELONG at YL! Youth Ministry is about seeing teens embrace Christ and here at GCC we feel like we have 2 student ministry efforts rolling to make a difference in the live of teens. Yes, I direct relevant student ministry here at GCC but we also support and believe in Young Life. We give to YL! We think it works! Why do we believe in Young Life? Here are a few reasons...

• YL has a clear focus on being present on high school campuses and sharing the message of Jesus Christ. Yea, it works!
• YL connects with kids that would never check out our church or youth ministry first. They go where we can't!
  
• YL has staff and volunteers working at each school! Yea, it works!
• YL helps teens discover Christ and then through a small group process help teens GROW in their faith! IT IS RELATIONAL!
  
• YL helps teens connect with church...YES we have tons of teens at GCC because of YL and it is cool to see them serve and connect each week.
• YL stives for excellence...we believe in excellence.
• YL trys to do a few things really well...I love that strategy.
• YL trains up volunteers to invest in teens. THAT IS THE HEART OF YOUTH MINISTRY!

Thanks to YL clarksville for investing in the lives if teenagers! I am stoked we get to do ministry together here in this city.

weekend thoughts...

We started a new series here at GCC this Sunday called EPIC. For the next several weeks we are literally going to dive into the story of God. His story is amazing and it is weaved all through the Bible. So many of my friends need this (well, I need it to!) because somewhere between reading Deuteronomy and the Gospel of John the entire story just does not make sense. This amazing story is the redemption of mankind, the hope of the world and yet we struggle to find our place in the story. I am hoping in the next few weeks all of us at GCC can see clearly what God has been doing and is doing in the world around us and that we understand the role we play in this amazing story. You can catch up on this week if you missed it at (http://www.gcomchurch.com). Some other STUFF that came up over the weekend...

• Tore down my jacked up trampoline this weekend and Kelyn helped! Kelyn loved to help. She loves to be right in the middle of the action. So glad it is done but I am REALLY ready to go get the girls a new one. This time I will make sure and secure it to protect it from the wind!
• Got to play golf this weekend with some great golfers! They each shot a 75 I eeeeeked out a 91! HA! Nothing like that to make you feel like a golf slacker. It was fun and I still so love the game. Join me in my golf addiction!
  
• My girls love Dunbar Cave State Park. Got to take them to feed the ducks and crawl around the entrance to Dunbar Cave Saturday. THEY LOVED IT and I loved my time with them. it was just a dad/daughter date and we had a great time.
• It was so fun to be the storyteller in Cross Street this week with our K-5th grade kids. There is nothing cooler than the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. WOW...that is crazy.
• In community group we are all sharing our stories...CAN YOU SAY AMAZING. It is so incredible to hear how God has worked in each others lives and be able to honestly share where we are now. POWERFUL stuff!
• My wife is AMAZING...nothing else really to say, she is amazing!
• This week I get to work on our upcoming retreat for relevant student ministry and Cross Street Live going down Sunday night. Hitting a conference this week to but will blog about that later. IT IS GOING TO BE A BUSY WEEK, so thankful for a restful weekend to help me get ready for it!
  

MERGE 2009 coming soon to RSM

Merge is a weekend retreat we do each year at relevant student ministry where we get away by staying right here in town. By get away I mean, we get OUT OF OUR NORMAL FLOW. The weekend is built so that our lifegroups can spend one weekend together connecting with each other and with God. Each lifegroup stays in a host home here in Clarksville for the entire weekend. It is amazing what happens when the groups connect in homes. Since our groups gather at our weekly environment they are not in a home setting very often. The weekend works because it is built around relationships. The teens connect with their leader and with the group in a way that just cannot happen in our weekly REMIX environment. This year we are bringing in Patrick Willis and Cameron Gwaltney to lead worship with my ENTIRE worship band from FBC Norfolk days. Pat Rowland from Cross Point Community Church in Nashville is speaking and I know he is going to do an amazing job. We wanted to get the word out about MERGE so we have a three commercial series coming your way. Here is the first promo commercial! Oh yea, the dates for MERGE are March 20-22 and teens can sign up at www.relevantstudents.com

2 big days for KOZ

Kozbi had her first school production tonight. She was GREAT, posted the video up here because it is just to wild. You have to see her get down. I love that she went for it. She was so funny and was cracking us all up. So proud of my girl. She is so smart, so beautiful, loves people, and loves God. What more could you ask for?

Other big news is that in the morning Koz has her tonsils taken out! HER FIRST SURGERY! We are pumped because she has had so many problems with strep throat. Lets roll with it. Will blog more about the surgery later in the week! If you get a chance pray for her.

Here is the video...if you are on Facebook click over to www.michaelbayne.net to check it out or look at the post I made on the Facebook page. HERE WE GO...

how do we connect?

Why do we care so much about people committing to and attending the environments we lead? We care, stress, and worry when people are missing because we care about them and we believe in what we are leading. It matters to US very much! That Bible study, youth ministry, community group, or church service we are leading have a goal and we want people to experience it. Just a reminder from yesterday that no matter how much we want people to come to our THING we can not miss the chance to invest in those that are present and serve them in the moment. If we will focus on serving those that are at our event there will be time later to connect with those that miss. We can connect and we need to connect outside our EVENT bubble. I work with families so I know how busyness can keep folks from incredible events and environments. My goal is to help them stay plugged in and serve them in the middle of their busy life. Just because they have a ton going on does not mean that they do not love God or want to be connected with what is going on at our church or youth ministry. Here are some things that work for us to build community and connect week in and week out...

• RELATIONSHIPS - yes I said the R word and I cannot overvalue the importance of small group ministry in the lives of kids and teens and community groups for adults! Kids and teens needs adult leaders they can connect with. Adults need a place to slow down and belong. People need to know they are known and cared for and that comes from genuine relationships. Relationships are bigger that that environment you lead!
  
• WEBSITE - your website is the information door for your ministry open for parents, kids, and teens 24 hours a day. The ability for people to go back and check out podcasts, register for events, and just get caught up is HUGE for helping people to connect.
• SOCIAL NETWORKING - yes, Facebook and Myspace are so helpful in connecting with teens and now PARENTS who are staying connected more. You can use both to connect with tons of people.
  
• THE CELL PHONE - texting has taken over and it allows us to get quick info and make quick connections with people. When our group leaders need to connect with teens they all use the text message! It is not going away, get used to it!
• PATIENCE - do not give up on people. They may feel very connected to the environment you lead but just not be ready to make the attendance commitment you would like. You never know when that could change so slow down and be patient.
  
• PRAYER - when you notice people are not able to plug in do not worry, PRAY for them. They need that more than our gift of worry over why they did not show.
• BE AVAILABLE - we need to care about what is going on in other people's lives! Seems simple but meet people where they are. Go to a ball game, go out for coffe. have someone over for dinner. After al of this we have to repeat to ourselves..."Not everyone does life like I do" then move on!
  
• BE READY - you never know who will be at the event you lead week in and week out. We might want to give our best and trust God for How He works in hearts and lives. He is kind of IN CONTROL!
  

HELP, someone did not show up!!!!!

Maybe this is a student ministry phenomenon but so many of us get caught in the...WHO WAS NOT HERE mindset of ministry. It is almost like at every event, gathering, retreat our minds move right past all of people who chose to come and dwell on all the folks missing. Should we check on folks who miss? Sure! Should it consume us with worry? No! I think it comes back to our thinking that our ministry, our plans, our events are the most important things, the only thing that does and should matter. Sounds harsh but you know it is true. We so often think, how could those people who missed, miss, what is so important? Well, they do miss and they will miss and at some point we have serve who is in the room. Why should we miss what God is doing right around us and worry about people who are not even there. In 2009 I am having to come to terms with the fact that at every event, every camp, and every weekly gathering teens are going to have other stuff going on in their lives and they are going to miss what is going on. I hate they will miss it, I want them to experience what is going on, but I am not really in control am I. I think we should all say that together. WE ARE NOT IN CONTROL. I am called to serve people not to control their schedules. Just a thought...serve who is there, encourage those who miss (the stuff we have planned), and drink a diet dew. I really like the dew part!