Reverend Scottie

A Week in the Life of a Church Planter

It's amazing to me what can happen in a week's time. This time last week I was recovering from a very stressful Easter Sunday. I had about 4 hours of sleep the night before, our Pro-Presenter software was giving me a fit, we didn't have enough help on our set-up crew and I was physically and mentally worn out. The week just kept getting worse when Mark wrecked his truck. Just when I thought it couldn't get much worse I get a call on Saturday that we have no lead singer for the band! AGGHHH! I had no idea what to expect on Sunday, it seemed that every time we got one thing under control then something else went wrong. Then something really cool happened; God stepped in and showed us He really is in control. This past Sunday was one of the best for Journey. We had plenty of great volunteers, set-up and tear down smoothest and fastest ever, people stepped up and filled in gaps in the band and we even had a great skit to replace one song that we had to scrap. Mark's teaching was great and really hit home with our people. Just when you least expect it and most need it God steps in and takes control.

After a great service I enjoyed a quick bite to eat with friends at Waffle House and then headed to Dalton with another friend. Topping of a great day I had the privilege of sharing the Gospel with the crowd at the Dalton March Swap Meet. (Thanks BB!)  Like Leeland's "Count Me In " song says sometimes I'm amazed this Love is for me.

Banquet Update #2

I had high hopes that this awards banquet would be different than most when Dr Scales said tonight was all about the students. If this were true I feel we could have eliminated over an hour of political butt kissing with introductions of everyone except the county dog catcher.

The student's portion of the program consisted of only about 15 minutes out of the nearly 2 hours of programming so who was it really all about?

Banquet Update

Broadway music, dancing, and bland chicken. Someone please shoot me now!!! I don't know if Mark had any hospital food today but I think I just did. :)

Accident Update

Just got off the phone with Mark and he is OK and on his way home. He seemed to be in pretty good spirits; probably the drugs talking. He has some stitches and a brace on his knee. We will be needing some volunteers to take Mark's place this Sunday for loading and unloading. If you can be there between 6 and 6:30 it would be a big help. He does the work of at least 3 people so we will need lots of help. I'm sure he will have some great sermon illustrations this Sunday. I hear he crawled back into the burning mangled wreckage to rescue his laptop. Well that might be a bit exaggerated but you get the idea.

Scott Pollard Connections Pastor Journey Chattanooga

Posted from my mobile phone at the Hamilton County Superintendent's Honors Banquet. Yes it is that boring :)

Mark Love Accident

Just wanted to ask everyone to be praying for Mark. He delivers trucks as a part time job and was in a very serious accident this morning near Athens GA. Mark is OK but is pretty banged up with bruises, stitches, and a very swollen foot. He is currently in the hospital but hopes to be released later this afternoon. Mark's Mom and wife are driving down to pick him up so please pray for them as well. I will update this blog later this evening when I have more info.

I knew that Mark was OK when Deidra said that he managed to pull his laptop from the smoldering wreckage. He is probably trying to blog from the ER.

Easter Reflections

• Great Day @ Journey Chattanooga!
• Learning names and faces of new friends each week is cool.
• We learned that Mark can do interpretive dance...especially when you sit a massive subwoofer on his big toe.
• Daniel texts me and I think maybe he and Jamie are having their baby, false alarm... Daniel blew out his flip flop and had to hobble to Walmart for a replacement.
• Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee seems to be quite popular with our people.
• Sound Method does a killer job leading worship. Look for these guys on tour near you this fall.
• Easter Sunday at the end of Spring Break did weird things to our attendance.
• Peeps and more Peeps. There were some kids bouncing off the wall this afternoon. :)
• We get to do this every week!

American Idol Best Practices for Church Planters

If you watch American Idol there's a lot of things you learn that apply to church planting.

• As a pastor your teaching isn't nearly as good as you think it is.
• Everyone has advice and is more than willing to share it with you.
• You can follow other's advice and they will still find something to criticize.
• People don't connect with music that was popular 10-20 years before they were born.
• You aren't passionate about material that's not your own.
• You're only as good as your last sermon.
• You can't pretend to be someone you're not for very long.
• Most pastors need someone to help them with their wardrobe.
• It gets harder every week.

Chris Elrod on Panty Praise

Chris has one of the funniest posts ever on worship pastors here. I am much like Chris in that I don't enjoy singing prom songs to Jesus. Where are all the songs about warriors, victory and such? We have some pretty manly worship coming up during our new teaching series entitled Epic. Come check us out this Sunday and see what the opposite of "panty praise" really is. By the way Elrod coined the term panty praise and I like using it because I'm sure it will drive up the hit count on my blog. Maybe some of the perverts googling that phrase will stick around here and learn something about who Jesus is.

Sunday Sleep In

Karen and I joined the ranks of the thousands of unchurched in our community today and enjoyed a lazy Sunday morning. By the way if you are a boring pastor you probably don't need to be on Sunday morning TV. This will be our last Sunday off since Journey launches next week. Mark and I have been working almost nonstop the past few months to get Journey off the ground. It all comes together next Sunday at 10am. For many people it will be the first time in a long time that they will have a reason to get out of bed on Sunday morning. I am really looking forward to seeing what God is going to do next Sunday. I think it's going to be BIG!

A Night Off

It has been a rare evening, no plans, nowhere to be, nothing urgent to accomplish. I was able to come straight home from work, eat some leftover pizza, take a nap, and watch Kyle XY on TIVO and then American Idol. Getting Journey off the ground has been a great adventure but it tends to consume every free minute that I have. I was quite thankful for some down time.

As Mark and I get more and more systems in place for Journey church planting life gets a little easier. Thanks so much to all of our great volunteers. We already have a lot of people involved and we couldn't do it without you. As Easter approaches we will be asking even more volunteers to step up and get involved with Journey. If there's an area you would like to get involved in shoot me an email.