Sunday morning I made one of the most difficult announcements I have ever made over my 4.5 years at Ridgeview Church. Tommy had preached a sermon on "What is God's Will for My Life." Then, after finishing the final worship song, he asked me to come up and share what God had been doing in our family's life.

Here's what happened.

Milo Wilson - Leaving Ridgeview Church from Ridgeview Church on Vimeo.

Ridgeview has been an incredible place to serve. You stuck with Erin and I last year when we faced the worst thing imaginable: the death of our 8 month old son Josiah. (www.thewilsonheart.com) You have allowed me to do some pretty crazy stuff with your middle school and high school students, and we have all grown very close together in the process. Hopefully your students will continue to learn how to develop into Godly young men and women.

The worship band has grown into something that I am incredibly proud to be a part of. Our little church has learned how to sing and praise God at the top of our lungs together. We love to worship, and we aren't ashamed to do so. What an honor to have been a part of the process.

Pastor Tommy has been an incredible mentor, and a dear friend. You have allowed me to mature as a pastor myself, and have given me the tools to lead others into being a bridge of God's love to all people. Thanks You.

We will still be in Greenville through Oct 24th 2010. At that point Erin, Daylia, Hazyl, and I will begin our trek up northward. I will be joining Darrick Castronova at The Well (www.thewellbuffalo.com) as the Co-Pastor of the new church plant there. Stay tuned for what God has in store!

Tommy used this video as a lead in to his sermon from The Essential James series titled: Who is your best friend?

Here is the video again if you missed it...

25 Things I Hate About Facebook...



original video source

3 years ago I joined the staff team at Ridgeview Church.

That seems like a very long time!

3 years ago...

We had a 5 month old baby who we could take to the restaurant with us, and she would sleep in the car seat while we ate dinner together.

I was consumed with preparation for my senior recital, the German songs required the most work. I haven't sung a single word in any non-English language since.

I owned a guitar, but never played it and only knew 3 chords.

I was pretty sure I wanted to join a Barbershop quartet (again) as a hobby.

I had never read a blog, and didn't know anyone who wrote one.

I rode my MTB regularly, and scoffed at any road cyclist.

I led worship from the keyboard, with a bass player and occasionally a jimbe player.

I still got a little excited when I realized I wouldn't have to wear a tie to church

original video source

I am in the middle of one of the craziest days I will have all month. We are trying to print bulletins, and all promotional materials through January 4th today, and I am responsible for the "creative" elements involved. Tonight will be our first performance of "Simply Having a Wonderful Christmastime?" at Graceview Church in Anderson.

Because Tommy has to be at a meeting tonight very key to our future building/location in O'neal Village, I will be doing all the speaking tonight as well. The teaching points are: Simplify your plans, Simplify your moments, and Simplify your decisions. This is how you can Simply have a wonderful Christmastime.

I'm not feeling so simplified at the moment...

We recieved an anonymous comment on the www.ridgeviewchurch.net site this week regarding some of our graphic logo work. Because I am the person resposible for the site, I wold like to talk to you. If you are this person (Justin) , I would prefer to respond to your comments via email, rather than an open forum. Please say hello to me at milo@ridgeviewchurch.net

It is wicked awesome! You can listen to podcasts, keep up with current events and projects, and get a RSS feed when it is updated. You can comment on it like a blog, and you can even import it's contents into your blog or myspace! You gotta check it out! We are still waiting for the internet to catch up with the new url and stuff, so you can visit the old site www.ridgeviewchurch.net and follow the links there, or go directly to the new site. Oh yeah, RidgeStudents and RidgeKidz get their own sites now too! Each with its own RSS feed.

CHECK IT OUT!

I just want to take a minute to recognize some of (and I admit that this list may not be extensive) the coolest volunteers a worship leader / church planter could ever ask for...

 

From left to right from where I am standing

 

1. Don Brown - Camera Guy

      Don, annoys a ton of people when he follows them around with the camera. Mostly because they don't want their picture taken. However, from my end, I love the shots he gets, because it allows me to make the promo videos before and after our big events.

2. Ed Niles - Media shout Guy

      Ed has a tireless work ethic, and is always persistent in attention to detail. This is a huge asset to me, because many PowerPoint guru's do not take the time to listen to the band through rehearsal so that the cues all line up when the service starts.

3. Gary Hogeboom - Also a media shout guy

      Gary is the first to admit that he is unsure of what to do. This is refreshing, because many guys (like myself) will press on unknowingly and make a bigger mess of things than they would have if they just asked a few questions first.

4. Lane Stovall

      Lane is doing a fantastic job running sound. He just got a new Harley to cruise around on, and although I catch him daydreaming about it from time to time, he has always been diligent about learning more and more about the mixing board. And the guy can pack a trailer like no body's business.

5 Trey Thompson

     Trey is passionate about folding chairs. The dude knows exactly where they need to be, and the most efficient way to get them into place. Last Sunday he came up with a new scheme that made the flow of the room work much, much better. Oh yea, he also runs sound, aims the can light, picks out the ushers, counts people, starts the CD recording, and loads the trailer. Trey is a reniassance man... fortunatly he does not sing. I may be out of a job. 

Have you thanked your volunteers?

Anyone I missed that you want to recognize?

Thanks to whoever rolled it up after the last baptism at ridgeview

Hold on, cuz this baby comes at you fast!



Rss readers can see the video here

... let me catch you up quickly to my rat race.

6/28 Hiked out to Turtleback falls before racing back to Greenville to meet up with the team for the Mission trip.

6/29 Arrived in NYC and became the laughing-scapegoat of my mission team when I fell asleep at Crossroads Church.

6/30 Handed out free water at South Beach and prepped an entire floor at IS 72 for painting. Went to Grimaldi's pizza in Brooklyn. They got my order wrong, but I was too intimidated to send it back.

7/1 Started Mega Sports Camp in Staten Island. Only had 15 minutes to set up. Went out for a free afternoon, and Jerry did some breakdancing with the locals in Central Park. We also took the tour bus tour of the city with a hippie at the wheel. Missed the 10:30 Staten Island Ferry, had to wait for the 11:30.

7/2 Day two Mega Sports camp. Actually had sound equipment today, but the water for the water coolers still looks pretty brown. Painted an entire wing at IS 72. Went to a Yankees game in the Bronx, still getting home much later than desired. Woke up at 1:30 by cops shouting outside our hotel. Watched a fugitive apprehended first hand while Rob Smith gave us the play by play, and couldn't sleep for the next 3 hours.

7/3 Final day at Mega Sports camp. Watched our awesome team work through the plan of salvation with every child. Saw 17 children give their lives to Christ. Made a huge impact on Crossroads Church and a Muslim community.Nearly painted an entire second wing at IS 72. Had one of our team members, Tyler, make a profession of faith as well. Returned to NYC for a final night. Stayed up way to late walking through Chinatown and Little Italy, and waiting for a spray paint painting to be completed in Times Square.

7/4 Slept in until 9. Met the Crossroads team on South Beach and began the set-up for their Independence Day celebration. Spent the day playing wiffle ball, Frisbee, and soccer on the beach. Then packed up for the long haul home. 13 hours on the way up became 16 hours on the way home. We were tired.

7/5 Arrive in SC after driving all night. My wife wants to pick up my early birthday present - a Carolina Dog puppy - from the animal shelter. Java Jane is a beautiful dog. Practice music for worship Sunday. My fingers hurt bad after not playing for a week.

7/6 Have a fantastic day at church. Head home to meet up with my Aunt and Uncle who I haven't seen in quite a few years, who are in town. Spend a few hours with them before heading out to RidgeStudents where a pool and pizza are provided. (I love my job!) Get back home and pack up the girls for Tennessee where my sister is packing up before moving to St. Louis. Arrive at 2am.

7/7 Spend the day packing boxes. I crash at about 3 in the afternoon and sleep for two hours. Boy do I feel better afterwards! Eat Japanese for dinner, but don't get to sit at the Hibachi grill. I am bummed and don't keep the best attitude about it.

7/8 Go out to breakfast at Burger King with my 2 year old daughter Daylia. What a sweet memory! Our date was the envy of everyone present. Pack boxes for most of the day, then go to the park to let the girls and our puppy run out some energy. Leave by 8:30pm to meet up with our good friend Austin between Chattanooga and Nashville to get his truck and bring it home. Austin, Eve, and Kylee will be arriving with a Uhaul at our house on Friday and living with us for at least a month while he gets situated at NGU as a youth ministry major in the fall. arrive back in Greer at 2:30am.

7/9 Alarm goes off at 7:15 but I don't get up. It wakes my girls up, so then I have to get up. Get to work by 8:30, an half hour after I wanted to be there and get the next two weeks of music planned. I'm feeling almost caught up again. Are you?

Oh yeah, I didn't get to bike in here at all. Bummer.

They left me to paint all alone

I love mission trips

Joanne got ready in 7 min today for the first time in her life...priceless

NYC from brooklyne at nite

I have gotten things worked out with mobile blogger, so look for a number of new low quality cell phone pics over the next few days... this is an amazing place to be!

If you are trying to follow our mission trip to NYC from home I have been keeping regular updates posted on twitter.Now this also reads along the lefthand column of my blog, so look for it there. The reality is, even though we are in the middle of technology heaven our ineternet connection at the hotel is not very good, and I have not had the time to even post on this thing at all. Twitter posts are quick and easy... follow along everyone!

Oh yes...

So I stole all these pics from Tommy's blog... but now my readers can see them too! This week has been incredible. Tonight we will wrap things up, then have a worship party on Sunday of what God has done!

We fired up Mega Sports Camp last night, and it was incredible. This is not VBS! We have had to tell our people this again and again. This is a honest-to-goodness sports camp. We have coaches who are very very good at what they do. Our huddle coach volunteers are just oozing with energy. You should see these guys!

From a leadership perspective I have learned a ton over the last month from my wife Erin about equipping volunteers and pre-planning an event. She really has built an army of volunteers for this like we have never had before at Ridgeview.

You should consider doing something like this at your church! We had 57 kids last night for the opening night, and we expect to see many more throughout the week.

We will certainly share the gospel with the kids by the end of the week, but really we want to give them what they came for... a high level of training in the sport they want to play (basketball, baseball, soccer, cheer-leading). We are not luring them in with promise of sports, then boring them with Bible studies. We are confident that if they have a great athletic experience that they will return to Ridgeview in the future to experience the rest of what we do.

Come by this week and check us out!