A Good Weekend!

Well, this weekend was a very good and relaxing one I have to say. On Friday we took Project 109 to the Berea/Pickens game and it was a big hit!! WE gave out tons of free footballs and met a lot of students. Saturday the wife and I slept in, which we don't get to do very often, so that was nice. We basically hung out together all day and went and got some Bruster's ice cream!! Man. their peanut butter crunch is da bomb!!! I recommend it without a doubt. Sunday was awesome at Marathon. Pastor Eddie(www.eddiecox.org) and his wife Lynn did a "Pastor Chat" during the A.M. services and it was really good for our people to hear from both of them and what God is doing in their lives. Sunday night we had a praise night, which was INCREDIBLE!!! It was a time for us to come together as a church family and just focus our attention corporately on Christ through music and prayer time. Well, that pretty much brings you up to speed on my weekend, so now I'm gonna continue getting ready to speak on Sunday morning at Marathon! It should be fun to say the least. I have a few things up my sleeve for everyone, so I'm excited about the opportunity!

Keepin' it Real,
Bholda

Some thoughts and the AMP'd Rewind

We had another great night at AMP'd last night. It is amazing to watch what God is doing at AMP'd. We have seen AMP'd grow by about 66% since August, which just blows my mind. But there is also a flip side to that rate of growth. The flip side is being able to do more than just grow a big group. I don't want us to have a big group just to say we have a big group. My heart is to make disciples, plan and simple. If I were completely honest, it is cool to see growth, and I do get excited ever week when we have more students show up, and that's ok. BUT is that where it should end? NO WAY!! Now it is our calling to make disciples of the students God has entrusted us with. We plan on doing that through plugging them into weekly small groups and giving them opportunities to serve at Marathon and our community. Making disciples isn't easy, it takes work, much more work than just blowing stuff up or having cool lights, funny videos or great music. It takes time and commitment, which me and my volunteers are willing to give. We have close to 50% of our students actively involved in small groups and there are students that serve on Sunday mornings in our children's dept, media dept, greeting and ushering ministry. It is awesome to see students giving back. We have not arrived by any means, but we are committed to the vision and direction God has given us for Marathon Student Ministries!
Here's the set list:
Made to Love-Toby Mac
Everything Glorious-Crowder
Holy is the Lord-Tomlin
American Dream-Switchfoot

Taylor Mills, one of our student ministry interns spoke last night and did a great job. He spoke on the dangers of materialism and how students can still buy stuff and honor God at the same time. I am a firm believer in pouring into people and giving them opportunities to use the gifts God has given them. It's not the Bryan Holder show, THANK GOODNESS, cause that would be LAME for sure!!!! :) Well, that's about it for now, I promise I'm gonna try to be more vigilant in my posting from now on.

Keepin it Real,
Bholda

Fantasy Football Sucks!!

MAN!!!! I can't stand Fantasy Football, it's just that simple. I joined a league this year and I am currently 2-5, that's 2 wins, 5 loses. I guess when you are such a fine tuned athlete like myself, and you aren't used to losing it makes it all the worse. Ok, fine tuned may be pushing it..., ok, athlete may be pushing it, but I still hate losing!!! I was projected to win on Sunday and still had a couple of my players that were going to play on Monday night, which would mean I should add to my point total. Well, apparently not!! I lost by like 8 points and it really stinks. I just don't understand what the deal is. I guess I am going to have to buckle down, make some wise trades, and smart roster adjustments and see if I can't win out the rest of the season. I will let you know how the season goes from here on out.

PS-Sorry for the rough language, maybe I should have said Fantasy Football Inhales Profusely!!

Keepin' it Real (and losing),
Bholda

Lots of stuff...

Going on right now in the life of one Bholda. As many of you may have read on Sammy's blog(www.sammyclary.com) i went over and rode the new karts on Sunday night, and I was so fast I actually wore a hole into the seat of the go-kart!!! Not only the seat of the kart, but the seat of my coveralls, shorts and underwear!!!! I realized something was wrong when my bum started burning and going numb, so I pulled over and checked out what was going on, and sure enough, a perfect hole!!! It was hilarious to say the least!! I can't seem to understand why these types of things always seem to happen to me. If you have any ideas why, please let me know!!
On a different note, my wife and I are still trying to sale our house in Williamston, which is going ok I guess. We have shown it a few times and actually have a showing scheduled for tonight, so hopefully they will make an offer we can't refuse!!!
Things are going GREAT in the student ministry right now, we are still growing and reaching new students which is AWESOME. At this point we have around 50% of our students plugged into small groups which is where they get to dig deeper into the Word and build lasting relationships with each other and their small group leaders. When we kicked off our small groups we had about 80% of our students in groups, but we have continued to grow so we need to focus on getting the new students plugged in. It is a really good "problem" to have.
We have our winter trip, MERGE coming up and I am pumped about that. We are going to Pigeon Forge over MLK weekend and at this point we have 76 students signed up. It is going to be a great trip and I am expecting God to do some cool things in our students lives. The cabins we are staying in are insane!!! Check 'em out at www.sherwoodforestresort.com.
I guess that's about it for now, it's time to focus on finishing things up for AMP'd tomorrow night!!!

Keepin' it real,
Bholda

Just an update

I wanted to take a minute and jot down some things that are happening in my life right now (in case you were interested). Crystal and I have our house on the market, and we have found a house we really like that is closer to church and to Crystal's job. We have had several folks check it out and have had 1 offer, but it was not where we needed it to be, so we are trying to be patient and hold on for another offer. The student ministry is boomin'! we have had record attendance at AMP'd and kids are getting plugged into small groups, and serving all over the church. It is really an exciting time to be a part of what God is doing and i know this is just the beginning. I just finished a book called Simple Church, which opened my eyes and reminded me why we do what we do. If you are in ministry or plan on being in ministry,(including volunteer) I would highly recommend this book. It is an easy read, otherwise I couldn't have finished it!! We are wrapping up our series "Now What" tomorrow night at AMP'd with a message entitled "I lost someone...now what". Our group just experienced the death of one of our students and it really hit hard, so I felt God leading me to face the issue head on and show the students how to handle the death of someone they are close to. Well, I guess that's about it for right now, I will update with an AMP'd rewind on Thursday!!

Until then,

Bryan