headed home...

We had a great week here but we are ready to head home! Today we just hit the beach and cooked out one more time. We heard that the fox station in Nashville ran the story about the little girl who got bit by the shark. It was cool to break the story right here on my blog! It is a great thing to spend a week with family and be thrilled about coming home to a city we love and church where we are thrilled to invest our lives. I have spent so many vacations over the years trying to figure out things going on back home in the church I served at. It was wild this year to just be at peace with church stuff. Chelsea and I both know God has amazing plans for Grace Community and for the first time we see our family locking in on one city and group of people at GCC. I am 32 now and have been able to serve in some amazing churches. At each of these places God has revealed more to me about His call on my life. Now has has planted us in Clarksville and given us a peace about seeing what staying in one church for 10 - 15 - 20 years looks like. I have some good friends who have been able to stay in one place for years and it looks so rewarding. We pray we get to see what that looks like here. The best thing about it that I get to serve with some of my closest friends and my girls are close to their grandparents! My mom loves that!

For all of you out there serving in hard places, HOLD ON. I man it, HOLD ON. You may know that God has not wired you to serve in the church you are at, but you need to serve with all your heart where you are at right now. I look back and see that one thing I was able to do at every church I was at was give it 100% and love the people God placed in my life. I am so glad God placed me in every church I served at even though my heart longed to be involved with a church plant. If you know change is coming do not underestimate the lessons God has for you in the present. You have to lead where to are at and dream about the future at the same time. God has you where you are a for a reason. HOLD ON!

great day and no sharks...

Yes, Friday here was great and we got this pic from the beach this afternoon. Yes, you have to have a little photo shoot one afternoon when you have kids and we have a ton of them with us down here. It has been a great week but vacation with kids is so different. The week really becomes about shared experiences and memories. Dad and mom have to put our plans aside so many times so the girls can have a good experience. Really having little girls makes you realize that you have to serve the ones you live with before you serve others around you. Yea, it is biblical, serve those at home then serve those around you. I am really beginning to understand that giving of our time to invest in our families prepares us to serve others because we begin to understand how God still served us with His grace, wisdom, and love. I am so selfish with my time and my plans that I have to remember to slow down and look for what God wants to show me in life.

Got to hit to golf course today! I played bad and it was still fun. You know you have not played in a long time when you can play bad and still have fun. It as great to get out and hit the ball. We went to a new restaurant called Mollies tonight. Slow service but good food. Getting ready for our last day on Saturday. We are gonna try to soak it all in!

sharks at surf city???

No pics today but plenty of excitement. Seemed like a normal day on vacation until we had the joy of meeting Mr. Shark. Yes, we actually had a nice little shark attack today. I had just taken Kelyn back to the house to get her ready for nap and Chelsea was going to take Koz out for one more swim. The girls were in the ocean and there was a mom and daughter about 5 feet in front of them. A few moments later Chelsea looked up and saw the mom freaking out but not able to yell and in the shallow water saw a real three foot long shark. Chelsea did what anyone else would do, she screamed HELLLLppppppp. About 20 people started running to the water and started grabbing people out of the water and getting the shark off the little girls foot, I am not kidding. The shark got kicked back into the water, it was kind of BIG, 3 feet is 3 feet. The little girl was ok and Koz never even saw the shark. Chelsea...she saved the day and she is a shark master now. I expect her to be on shark week for sure. I am amazed, our family experienced a shark attack. Where was I at when this went down you ask. AT THE BEACH HOUSE GIVING KELYN A BATH. AHHHHHHHH I missed my chance to see if punching a shark in the nose really worked!

worth the difference...

OK, if you ever come to surf City you have to hit this restaurant. This is our 3rd year vacationing here and we have eaten at this place 5 times and every time I am blown away. The odd thing is that they really have their own groove, limited choices on the menu, and some quirky things that other restaurants do not have. The food and the atmosphere is so good I just never remember all these differences. I get reminded every time I come back that I have to adapt to their way of doing things if i want to eat. I just have to adjust and it is so worth the adjustment! Just a few things that are different. They do not separate checks for any group, no questions asked. They only serve bottled drinks and you pay by the bottle! They have no kids menu (you just plan and adapt). They just have seafood, nothing else (well maybe one chicken option). With all of these things tat are odd it is still amazing and our family always walk away with a great experience.

Ok I love the place BUT It just reminded me that when you offer an experience that is amazing people will adapt to how you run your organization, church, or business. You can only ask people to step out of the norm if you are willing to offer an experience that is worth them going through the process that your organization, church, or business demands of the customer. When you encounter excellence and the product is amazing you will come back, you will adjust. I did!

Last thing...the new batman movie is amazing. Chelsea and I got to go on a little date today and saw the flick. Loved it!

another day at the beach...

The weather could not get any better than it was today. Just another great day here in Surf City. We moved our tent down a little today. Yesterday we set our tent up too close to a big family that had a beach front house. They did not like that we were in their space, we really did not care and need their attitude so we just moved on down. It was the first time we really have encountered anybody here that we had a problem with in the three years we have been here. Today Kelyn was ready to roll and all the kids were out in the water. The waves were so much better. It is vacation for sure because I grilled some burgers tonight, wow...homerun! Had my first fantasy football draft tonight and it went really well. It is way to early to draft but it was so much fun to get into football season and think about touchdowns. We are going to see the new batman movie Wed. afternoon, can not wait. Loaded more pics on facebook!

we made it to the beach, FINALLY!

Yes we finally got to hit the beach...yes we are feeling much better. It is always hard getting sick but God really blessed Koz and I and helped us get better quick. It was a beautiful day today and all the kids had a great time. We have a house full of cousins here. We have 2 little girls and Chelsea's parents have adopted 4 wonderful kids, yea I know it is a long story but they are parenting again after raising 3 great girl. We also have Chelsea's sister Chayla and her husband here. Some big news here from the day! Koz was rescuing dead washed up jelly fish and throwing them back in the ocean. Kelyn is still getting used to the water, still kind of shy. I put the tent up this morning by myself and managed to hit homerun on the grill tonight cooking grouper and salmon. I was really proud of myself. I also go to take a nap with kelyn, we slept good. The mark of a good day at the beach is a nap! Will load some pics from the day on facebook. Good times, good time...

Here is a good God thought today...God made all of this, he thought up the beach, the mountains, the grand canyon, the Redwood Forrest, and anything else that just makes you think. God also made little girls who just live in the moment and dive into the ocean as soon as they hit the sand. This is the God of creation, the God that saved my soul. Amazing...

cars, vommit, and kids...

we made it here to surf city but man was it an adventure. The age of our kid demand that we drive this trip to the beach in 2 days, Day one of travel was amazing. We got to the hotel, had time to swim, at e agreat dinner at a local mexican place, GOOD TIMES. Then bed time came and all hades broke loose with the Bayne family. The kids each slept in a bed with one of us parent types. They both sleep like ninjas so it was a long night. The next morning Kozbi and I discovered we were sick. I had a fever the entire day and Koz puked about 5 times on the way here, Kelyn not to be out done got a puke in also. When I got to the beach house i was so out of it I just crashed and woke up in time to see some of the Espys tonght. Justin Timberlake hit a home run and also please Bret Farve...LEAVE...it is over. Ok back to it. I am typing so that means my fever had broke. 10:47 and ready to go to bed. Loking forward to adventure of spending time with my girls. These are trips that are so important for us. Love being with the girl, glad we get to hit the waves in the morning!!!

remix is moving to WED> nights!

yes, it is true! After much praying, eating, sleeping, bible reading, meeting, paint balling, swimming, jumping, and dvr...ing (if that is a word) we have decided to move REMIX our weekly gathering for students to Wednesday nights starting August 13. We are really excited about what this change is going to bring. We really feel like students are connecting and serving each Sunday morning at Grace and that we need a midweek time to build community and take time to focus on rethinking what it means to follow Jesus Christ. So here we go, spread the word and then go on facebook and myspace and look at our latest media release from www.relevantstudents.com to promo the move. yes this video will win an award, we are not sure what award but it will win an award. Well, I leave for vacation this week so look for posts from the beach at www.michaelbayne.net I know I will have some good stories!

In other news, looks like I got one person fired up because I posted some comments from a pastor I really respect www.perrynoble.com . Yes you guessed it, his name is Perry Noble so for some interesting reading go check out the little discussion a few of us had this week on my last post. For those of you out there leading in a church it will be a very interesting discussion! Just so it is clear, I hate Internet fights, whatever you want to call it when people comment and rant on specific people. Some people like to call it slander. My mom used to say, if you can not say something good about someone, say nothing at all. When it comes to blogging it is a good rule to have. This space we have should be used to encourage and dream together. It is cool to vent about and issue but please leave the names of people and locations of their church out of it. If you have a gripe about an organization, contact the leaders there and give feedback. I love where I serve because I get to create and innovate in a church and actually do something for the kingdom of God instead of typing words about it. If you are out there and God is giving you a vision for the local church then pray to ave the courage to gather some folks together and create that environment. For all that read this, feel free to hold me accountable if I do more griping rather than building up.

www.perrynoble.com...go check it out!

Yes I am up at 1 Am...i got working on a video for Sunday and got it knocked out tonight BUT it is late. I was looking through some of the blogs I read and over and over I was blown away by Perry Noble of NewSpring Church in Anderson SC. Love this guys, love his heart. Here is just a short piece he blogged the other day...

I am COMPLETELY COMMITTED to doing whatever it takes to funding the next generation instead of fighting them. (Andy Stanley quote!) If we are going to be a church that is willing to go to unfamiliar places–we need to be willing to embrace what is unfamiliar!...

The previous generation has never worshiped Jesus the way their parents worshiped Him…what’s next for the church?

I want a church that causes hell to be less crowded!

Ok, go to www.perrynoble.com and check this guy out. He is an incredible leader and he allows others on his staff to lead out.

mind dump after week in New Orleans...

Wow, it was great to sleep in my own bed last night and even better to get to worship at GCC. it is always great to be with my spiritual family. Got the blessing of serving in Cross Street this week and getting to share with the kids some of what went down with our team of high school students in New Orleans. I thought after a great past 7 days I would just hack out some thoughts I had from the experience before I dive into video editing on Monday morning...

There are so many places in our country where people have never heard the gospel. we served kids that lived next to several churches and had never heard the message of Jesus. it was so sweet to get to invest in those kids and see many of them pray for receive Christ.

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You can never count out what OLDER kids will get when working in a city. We had several high school kids that plugged in all week, wow. They really got it.

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Never underestimate what High School students can do, our team did an amazing job of leading and this was their first experience.

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God has blessed us at GCC with a sweet spot for working with kids, we know this is where we need to go next year.

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MissionLab was a great organization to partner with...go check it out at http://www.missionlab.org/.

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Nick Fundora is going to be a very good guitar player - keep working on it man, you know three chords now...just wait!

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Lawrence Roper was so good with kids, he showed up and helped this week in Cross Street, great job man!

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Our team really hit a home run on our trip thanks to all of you who went on the journey with us, you were amazing.

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Get ready to see a recap by video of this experience in our Sunday gathering next week...

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It is going to be a wild week...hope to get some time to make some posts, we will see. GO NATIONAL LEAGUE in the all star game this week...

last post from NEW ORLEANS!

Yea, this is it until we get back from New Orleans. Today was just a great day for the team here. By far we found our groove on our VBS site. The kids plugged in and connected with the story today, they went crazy and did some crazy dancing with me playing the guitar, they really opened up in small group and connected with our team. Today was why we are here and on Friday we get to share the gospel with the kids. Many times the kids have asked us why we are here and of course we are here to invest in them. They have never seen this so this is all new. Our goal Friday is to as clearly as we can help them to understand what God did by giving humanity Jesus. Pray for us, it is going to be wild to see what God does. We feel the week was a win since we were able to get this club going and we have a church following us. In or work in the mornings we have been able to clear out 6 overgrown yards! The neighbors have been so thankful. Imagine having to have the house next to your overgrown with weeds, snakes, and bugs? yea, that would stink. It has been great to just serve. Thanks for everyone who prayed for us. We get back Saturday evening and I am ready to see Kelyn and Kozbi! we are headed to our last worship gathering of the week tonight then getting off campus to go get some ice cream, yea...you know how we roll at GCC! We have to get off campus and have some fun.

Will get a recap post up after we get back in town, pray for the team as we share the message of Jesus with the kids in the 7th ward on Friday.

day 3 from New Orleans, some lessons learned!

We are over half way through our week here in New Orleans. The team has done an amazing job, just amazing. One thing that we have learned this week is that there are real places in America where people do not know who Jesus Christ is. Yes we are in the middle of an area where kids do not know the message of Jesus. These kids are just trying to work through life on their own. This is the first time in over 3 years any church has tried to do work in this area so imagine how many places there are like that in America. Today in our group none of our 11 kids really had any kind of church they went to. They are learning about Ester and really do not know what a Bible is. As followers of Christ how can we not go, connect, explain, pray, give, serve. I know there are kids just like this in Clarksville. There are families who are generation away from any member of the family being a follower of Christ. While we sit in our churches arguing about worship style, church planting, theology, discipleship, giving, and building projects we are surrounded by people who are separated from God and will be after they die. As followers of Christ we have to rise up and join God on His mission. This is his plan and so many of us are juts watching the days go by. Our team has just learned to look for every opportunity this week. Every one of us can look for a chance to connect with someone who is not a believer...we were made for this mission, to spread the fame of God. Our team is just glad we get to be a small part here in New Orleans. GO TO WWW.RELEVANTSTUDENTS.COM for pics from today!

still here in the BIG EASY!

Yes we made it through day 2 of Mission Lab here in New Orleans. Thanks for praying, we saw our VBS site go from 12 kids on day one where we just connected with them to 31 where we got to move through our entire vbs plan and really invest in the kids! It was wild to see 31 kids show up. In our older kid group we had two 8th graders and they were just hungry for connection. Again it was amazing to see our team invest, serve, give their life away. We also had an adventure in southern New Orleans, we are cleaning out lots that are over grown with grass, weeds, trash just to help the neighborhood. Look at these pics. Please keep praying for the team...God is on the move. YEA, go to www.relevantstudents.com for three pics from today...

live from missionlab 08 day 1

Day one from here in New Orleans was simply wild. Yes...we get to start a new location for a bible club in the 7th ward that has not had any work being done in over 3 years. This experience rings so much of projects I have been involved with in Mexico and Brazil where you start a new work. Thanks for all you who are praying for us, please keep it up. Today we had to change our entire plan. We had a grand total of 0 people show up for the project and the site we were working at was covered in grass. This sounds wild but it was the best thing that could have happened to us. We prayer walked the entire ward and just met people and prayed. We changed our plans and went back that afternoon to try again. By the end of the day we had connect with 12 kids...yes 12 and we are going back on day 2 to see what God does. We are also going to be working with a city park department to do some work in local places that need clean up and STUFF, we will see what that means later. Here are a few pics to help you get the feel of where we are serving... well, go to relevantstudents.com for a few pics!

amazing story...

Want you to go check out a blog if you have time. God brought this incredible family to Grace Community this year. Renee Garcia and her family is simply an amazing picture of how God gives us the strength we need to face every day we live. I will let you read about their story on her blog but i write this to ask you to check our her story, and pray for her family as their beautiful daughter Kennedy is having major surgery today. Chelsea has Kennedy in her group on Sunday mornings in Grace Acres (www.gcomkids.com) and she is simply an amazing blessing from God. So here ya go, check out the blog and if you have time ask God to be at work in the middle of this time in Kennedy's life. http://www.myspecialks.com/

MissionLab leaves Sunday!

A team of 20 leaders and high school students leaves Sunday for a week of serving in New Orleans Sunday at 7 AM, yes, one week to give our lives away and serve others. Yes I know it does not sound fun to serve other people but this is what we were made for, this was God's plan. His hope is that we will see hurt and bring healing in a dark place. This week we will be updating our blog with some pics each day and some thoughts from New Orleans. This will be the week where we put the summer pickle to REST (if you went to Bigstuf or Student Life you know what we are talking about) We are praying God will use us to make a difference, to think His thoughts, to serve His way, to love the way He has made us to love. It will be incredible to see what God does and you get a front row seat here on the relevant blog and at michaelbayne.net.

You can check out MissionLab at www.missionlab.com . It is an amazing organization and we are thrilled to get to partner with them for a week.

So ready for the 4th of July...our family is heading to the lake to hang out with my family. Nothing like cooking out, jet skis and the lake. It will be great to get to relax before we leave for an intense week of serving in New Orleans. So thankful for the freedom we have here in America and love this holiday to remind us of what a great place we live. Thanks to all who are on the front lines bringing democracy and freedom to the world. We have so many friends who serve in the military all over the world. Thanks! What you do is making a difference!