I recorded a little video about the impact this conference and Ed & Lisa Young have had on me and our church.

I’d advise you to get as many people as you can afford on a plane or in a van to attend C3 on February 15-17 – it may make all the difference for you this year.

You and your team can register here.

You can also join the conversation about C3 on twitter @C3_2012.

See you in February.

I’m so excited to be able to share some great news with you on the blog today.

On November 22, Elevation Worship is releasing its next album, For the Honor. I’ve already had a chance to listen to it and it really moved me in a deep way. I believe it’s going to help countless people connect to God through worship in a life-changing way.

This album is special for so many reasons.

• It’s the first live album Elevation Worship has ever created. The presence of God was incredibly tangible the night we recorded and we’re praying that the people who listen to this album will experience that same presence. In their car. Their house. The coffee shop. And anywhere else they may be.
• It’s the first album we’re releasing with a record label. Partnering with the Essential Worship/Provident record label is going to help us tell the story of what God is doing through Elevation Church all over the country. And it means that in addition to being able to buy the album on iTunes, you’ll also be able to buy it on November 22 in retail stores across the country.
• While we’re excited to release our first live album, we also want to capture the opportunity to be generous with this release. So we’re partnering with Compassion’s Child Survival Program to help support the people in Kamwokya, one of the poorest slums in Uganda’s capital city. On the weekend we release For The Honor to our church, we’ll be giving away Elevation’s proceeds to the women and children of Kamwokya. Additionally, on November 22, all of the sales from iTunes will go towards this program as well. You can find more details here.

For the Honor contains 13 songs, but you’ll also be able to buy a digital deluxe version of the album that will contain 3 bonus songs, 5 music videos, a documentary, chord charts for all songs, and more.

So go ahead and plan on buying a copy for yourself on November 22. Then go out on Black Friday and buy 10 copies for friends. I really do believe it’s one of the best investments you could make into your life and their lives this holiday season as we seek to honor the God who is worthy of the highest glory.

In case you want a little taste of the album and what it was like recording it live, I’ve included a video of the title track and the latest album teaser below.

I’m so excited for the launch of my next book. It’s set to come out in September of 2012 and I believe it is really going to help you and countless others. While I can’t share the full details quite yet, including the title, I can give you a little insight into the central concept of the book.

In my experience, most Christians aren’t in imminent danger of ruining their lives. They’re in danger of something far greater: wasting it.

What I mean is that I’m meeting more and more believers who are unsatisfied with the kind of Christian they’re becoming, and the version of the Christian life they’re experiencing. There’s a huge gap between the kinds of things God has said in His Word, and the results we see in our lives.

We know we were meant for more. But we feel confused about what that looks like or where to start. We feel stuck where we’re at and frustrated because we don’t know what steps to take to move forward.

As a result, most of us end up settling for less than what God created and saved us for.  We then get comfortable in our complacency. And years later we find ourselves stuck in the muck of mediocrity. Just getting by. Living a shadow of the life we dreamed and God intended. Wasting our lives.

I’m writing this second book to help you get unstuck. To help you dream big again or for the first time. To begin living the kind of life Jesus Himself dreamed for His followers:
I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. (John 14:12)

In my first book, Sun Stand Still, I dared you to believe God for the impossible. In this book, I’m daring you to believe that God has created you for a greater life than the one you’re living. And I’m going to give it everything I’ve got, with God’s help, to show you how to live it.

So if you are worn out on cul-de-sac Christianity or self-help pseudo solutions, I’m hoping that you will embrace the message of this book and let God’s greater plan for your life be ignited in full force.

I’ll be posting more updates in the coming months, so keep your eyes open. If you’re really anxious to know the title, I can tell you this: it’s somewhere in this post. Happy looking. In the meantime, help me spread the word and get people excited.

Since there are many of you who are new to the blog, I thought it would be good to catch you up on some of the most popular posts of 2011 up to this point. If you haven’t read some of them, I hope they challenge, encourage, and inspire you. Or maybe you’d like to read a few of them again. You never know what fresh insights God might give you this time.

Here are the top ten posts of 2011 so far:

1. Fishers of Men, Not Keepers of the Aquarium
2. Can I Do Anything I Want and Still Be a Christian?
3. My Advice for Single People
4. Stop the Hop
5. Hide and Seek
6. Pastors I’m Listening to in 2011
7. The Real Competition
8. We Are All About the Numbers
9. The Bible Verse That’s Wrong
10. Two Pet Peeves in Worship

My friend Pastor Mark Driscoll just launched his new website, PastorMark.tv, and I think the first thing you should do after reading this is go check it out. Whether you’re a pastor or a business executive, a parent or a student, he’s got a ridiculous amount of great content that I think can benefit you and take your walk with God to a whole new level. Enjoy!

Go to Pastor Mark’s new website

I’d like to challenge and encourage all of the pastors and church leaders who read this blog to consider leading your church through spontaneous baptisms. Obviously we certainly don’t believe that the format is right for everyone. But I truly believe that if it fits your church’s culture, the impact it could have would be incalculable. We’re still receiving stories of life change, and I’d love to see the same thing happen in your church.

I am so inspired by what God did in our church through the process of the Follow series, and so proud of the processes that our staff and volunteers have put together that I’d like to offer all of our baptism resources to you for free on the Sun Stand Still website.

You’ll have access to everything from the sermon I preached during the opening weekend along with a transcript of it, to the logistics of how we baptized over 2000 people in 2 weeks at 4 locations…really, everything you need from a practical standpoint to set the stage and pull this off.

You’ll be surprised how comprehensively our staff has broken it down. If we can help save you the hundreds of hours that this type of detailed planning involves, we’re glad to do it.

All of this is free of charge.

I pray that hundreds of you will take the plunge and do this. It has created more momentum and fervor in our church than you can possibly imagine. And I believe it will do the same for yours.

Visit the baptism resource page on sunstandstill.org.