Dear last decade, please consider this my nostalgiac and heart felt good-bye.  You were good to me in so many ways, offering me new experiences and answered prayers.  I can only hope the next 10 years will be as eventful and fulfilling as you were, oh noble first decade of the new millenium!

10.  All Things Crossroads - This should actually be a category all by itself.  In the past 10 years, God assembled an amazing staff of Matt Orth, Jeremy Berger, Justin Brock, and Micah and Aubree Martin.  We began our Community Discipleship Home and had a family in Florida pay off the house for the program ($160,000).  Our Summer Camps and Winter Conferences have grown and expanded and students gave over $500,000 in missions offering.  Overall, in the last decade we have seen God save over 25,000 people.

9.  4 New Books - In the last decade, I wrote a devotional book with my wife called The Beauty and The Mystery, co-authored a book with Pastor Steven Furtick called Love, Dating, and Other Insanities, and wrote my first book for national release called Surrounded By The Sacred.  I also finished a book for Harvest House called Dying To Live, which releases nationwide in June 2010.

8.  Bear Hunting - I discovered a new favorite hobby that is frightening, exhausting, and exhillerating, and have legally and ethically killed several, including a 400 pounder on my wall, which we ate.  Additionally, I have become close friends with a community of good men in Cashiers, NC and have seen places deep in the Appalachian Mountains that only Cherokee Indians have ever seen.

7.  Visiting Greece and Turkey - Under the leadership of Dr. Todd Still and Dr. Wayne Stacy, I spent 2 weeks visiting Corinth, Ephesus, Thessoloniki, and the cities where Paul the Apostle worked and planted churches during the early days of the church.  My eyes were opened to a whole new world and it changed the way I read the Bible and how I preached.  I also got to go with my lifelong friend, Brian Bugess.

6.  Visiting The Holy Land - Charie and I, along with 50 other seminarians led by Dr. Robert Canoy, spent 2 weeks walking where Jesus walked and tracing the steps of Christ as we studied the gospels where they happened, prayed at the Western Wall, and stood on top of the Temple Mount worshiping the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob.

5.  Being Escorted Off the Mormon Temple Grounds - What an honor to have one of the 70 Elders of the Mormon church take me by the elbow and insist that I stop preaching the gospel and debating their missionaries in front of 100 tourists in downtown Salt Lake City, declaring that Mormonism is a cult and not a part of Orthodox historical Christianity.  At least he was nice about it.  I have not been back since.

4.  Seeing U2 in Concert - After almost 20 years, I finally got to see the greatest rock and roll band ever (sorry Beatles, Zepellin and Nirvana fans), the Elevation Tour came to Charlotte and I cried like a baby when Bono prayed to God as the band began “Where The Streets Have No Name, ” perhaps the greatest song written in the last 100 years.

3.  Western Adventure - In the summer of 2000, my wife and I embarked on a month long adventure that took us to San Diego, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, Mexico, Yosemite, Yellowstonge, Glacier, Seattle, Alcatraz, Vancouver, The Redwood Forest, a hippie Bible college commune, and the highlight of rafting the Colorado River through Grand Canyon.

2.  Meeting Billy Graham - After 18 years of prayer, phone calls, letters, calling in favors, being turned down and ignored, God finally allowed me to spend an entire afternoon in the home of Billy Graham, my hero and the greatest evangelist in history.  It was indeed one of the greatest days of my life as I sat at his feet, asking questions and sharing fellowship and conversation with a holy and humble servant of God.

1.  Becoming a Daddy! Without a doubt, witnessing the birth of my two sons and entering into the challenging and fulfilling world of parenthood has opened my eyes to the character of God, His love for us, and the amazing abilities of my wife, like no other event of the past decade.  Then in 2008, I had the honor of leading my oldest son Jacob to faith in Christ and baptizing him on our property in the Broad River.

Honorable Mention - Peter Jackson makes “The Lord Of The Rings” movie trilogy,  “24″ and Jack Bauer, NeedToBreathe, going backstage at WWE with Perry Noble and having my picture made with Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat, preaching the gospel in Malaysia, going to Alaska with my wife and kids, preaching at Liberty University, preaching at Elevation Church, becoming Teaching Pastor at Newspring Church, preaching at Biltmore Baptist, joining Twitter and Facebook and the world wide web, entering my late 30’s, watching the Boston Celtics beat the LA Lakers for the NBA Championship, seeing UNC win the NCAA Championship again.