This has been a great journey so far!  Today I'm continuing to write about the things I wouldn't change... if I had to start over again.

1) I pretty much do whatever Nelson Searcy says to do.

Nelson is a freakin' genius when it comes to church systems.  I'll continue to follow his advice until I can prove I'm smarter than him.  Amazon.com has all the books he's written.

2) I read Perry Noble's blog every day.

I've never met Perry, but he consistently has good things to say to pastors and is one of the biggest optimists in the world... when it comes to the local church.

3) We've stayed focused on being a "volunteer driven" church.

It's a lot of work to build a church through volunteers, but the payoff is HUGE!  Everybody involved feels like they are a massive part... and that's because they are.  Our "team page" reflects the people who oversee ministries.  Only two of these (Tony and I) are paid by the church.

4) We've been crazy frugal w/ God's resources.

From day one, we've been overly careful to make sure we've not wasting resources.  We operate out of home offices, use home printers for almost everything, lease a building (instead of pursuing the purchase of one), do almost everything through volunteers, etc.  I have zero regrets in how cautious we've been in this area.

5) We've made kids a big priority.

From giant games to fun video-based curriculum, we've ensured that kids are not "second class".  Each weekend, the volunteer teams continue to grow and the quality of our programming continues to improve.

Next week, I'll blog about the things I would do differently.

Dave

PS - Here is the video of the week: