This is our continuing journey as to what my new job consists of here in The ATL. Click here for posts 1-4
Tuesdays are beasts. Like Mufasa beasts. Scary to look at but when you get up in their grill you realize that they are not as scary as you thought. They just growl louder because they deep down, really want to be Monday.
I’ll forever call these Tyler Tuesdays because he is the one who got me the hook up with this job. Tuesdays are the days I slip a 20 under the table in our Andy meeting to tell him thanks.
OK.
7:15 am. – Coffee With Tyler
Me, Tyler, Atlanta Bread Company in Alpharetta. This is one of the only times I can schedule time with Tyler because our campuses are 40 miles apart and it is hard to nail each other down any other time during the week. This meeting is not “official”. It is my detox. Tyler is my equal up in Browns Bridge. Well not really equal. I outweigh him by at least 30 lbs. Here are some of the usual suspects heard at our “detox”

Tyler – “Dude. I last night was rough. I thought I was not going to make it”
Carlos – “I’m sorry man.” (texting Heather to schedule my vasectomy)
Carlos – “Man, I can’t believe I work here.”
Tyler – “Yea. I can’t believe they hired you”
Carlos – “So what would you do if…”
Tyler – “Well at Browns Bridge…”
Carlos – “…Yea but we can’t fit a tractor on our stage”

just kidding tyler, elliot, shae, and jamie.

8:30 am. – Andy Meeting
I am not quite sure how this meeting got labeled “The Andy Meeting” besides the fact that it is Andy Stanley, Tyler, Julie, and myself. Why don’t people call it the Carlos Meeting? Or how about the Julie, Tyler, and Carlos Meeting?
Maybe because Andy is our boss and could squash me with his little pinky if he so desired.
OK. Back to the meeting.
This 2 hour slot is slated for us to get organized, plan series, brainstorm, schedule, and pretty much get all on the same page as to each of our respective campuses and the direction our services are headed. I think that was a run on sentence. Julie Arnold has been with Andy since day one of the dream called North Point. I have been with Andy for 6 weeks. So the dynamic in this meeting is awesome. Fresh eyes collide with cultured necessity. What does that mean? I have no idea. But without this meeting I would be lost in my job.

Funny story about last week. During our meeting Diane (Andy’s safe keeper) walked in and whispered that Perry was here with his 2 associates. Me and Tyler looked across the table and thought the same thing. Perry Noble would be standing outside with 2 large men in black suits and sunglasses. Ready to whack anyone that came near Perry. When we walked outside we saw Perry standing there with 2 ladies. They were probably more ferocious than the guys in black suits I had dreamed up but you would not have expected it.
Seriously. Perry and entourage were great. We introduced ourselves and they were great. I told Perry…”Maybe I can get Andy blogging” to which he responded he would quit blogging because people would stop reading his.
Really good guy and I could see in a few short minutes why thousands are connecting with him in Anderson.
Keep blogging Perry. It is inspiring.

10 am.ish – North Point Pre Production
Let me point out the image to the left. That is a cube about 20 feet from Andy’s office. I had to snap a pic because this seems to be the graveyard for all things Mac. Poor machines. May they rest in peace.
We drive down “the hill” to NP main campus.
There are actually 2 sets of buildings housing offices in Alpharetta. One in a “office park” and then the main church building about 200 yards away.
I enter Julie’s world.
This meeting is where North Point plans their upcoming series and I get to sit in and scribble as much down as possible knowing that we (Buckhead) will be doing this series soon. As well they might be doing a series that we did in the past and I will be able to throw in our side of the story. The who, what, when, where, why. We get to imagine the impact of the messages and combine them with creative ideas which is always fun.

After this meeting I drive back to Buckhead. It is actually a breath of fresh air as I drive up the ramp to Lenox Rd. as I am no longer surrounded by trees on all sides. Heather and I are finding this is one of the things that we were not ready for. The trees. They are everywhere. In southern Cali almost every tree was planted by a human being at one time or another. Here they rip those things down to carve out places to live. The city lets be breathe a bit. ahhhhhhh.

12:30 am – Tech Run Through
Planning Center Online.
This is where we go through every facet of the beast called planning center. This is what keeps everyone on Sunday somewhat sane. Since almost all buttons, faders, cameras, shaders, ect. are manned by volunteers on Sundays, planning center must be flawless. So that is what we do here. All the players for Sunday morning sit in and we go through every facet of the tech sheet. This meeting normally is not longer than 30 minutes. But it is crucial. Below is a glimpse of our service flow…

2 pm. – Jeff Henderson – The Boss
OK. I treasure these. I treasure being on the leadership team here at Buckhead Church. I take it with massive respect. And I get to sit under a truly gifted leader. And I don’t get a raise for saying that. Jeff truly is awesome to work for. We talk shop, life, transition, strategy, and fashion. I feel blessed to sit under his leadership and look forward to these moments to detox. His goal is for me to not only think this is the greatest job in the world, but for my staff to feel the same way. And when that happens, people work harder than you ever imagined. Funny how that works. But it is true.

There you have it. The longest post in Ragamuffin history.
My fingers hurt from typing with all 3 of them.
I should have never cheated during typing class.
Los

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