Carpet Capitol church plant

I once said that I'd never start a church and never move back to my hometown, the Carpet Capital of the World ... and I've currently done both. I was called into ministry my senior year in high school. I went to the U.S. Naval Academy and served 5 years active duty on 2 great ships: USS Gettysburg (CG-64) and USS Enterprise (CVN-65). I learned a ton about myself, leadership, people, and organization.

During that time I served at a church plant in the N. Charleston -- Goose Creek area of South Carolina. God called my wife, Beth, and I to start Rock Bridge on January 12, 2002. Call it an audible voice that was crystal clear, unmistakeable, and unavoidable. We immediately flew home to discuss our vision and make some plans for the new church. After forming a core group of our family members, dissatisfied church goers, and some unchurched folks ... Rock Bridge began officially on Sept. 8, 2002 with 241 in attendance. We quickly whittled things down below 200 for a couple of weeks but were able to break the 300 barrier in the spring of '03.

We've grown fairly steadily and consistently ever since so that now we run around 750+ during non-holiday times. We meet in a WWII-era theatre called the "Wink" that was designed to be a small town version of the Fox in Atlanta. I think we should be doing a lot better and maybe we would be if it weren't for some stupid mistakes I've made along the way ... but all in all we are blessed and it is a God-thing.

Dalton is a weirdly, awesome sort of town. Big industry (carpet), lots of people with lots of money and lots of people without lots of money. In the past 10-15 years there has been a large increase in the hispanic population of Dalton & Whitfield County. Dalton can be fairly progressive, fairly religous, and yet fairly traditional all at the same time. All this makes figuring out Rock Bridge's version of "Saddleback Sam" hard to do. Our unchurched don't fit any particular mold. Some are unchurched because their wealth & resources have given them the impression they don't need church. Some are religous in the sense that they go to church but have no discernable personal relationship with Christ. Some have been hurt by church, bored by it, or confused by it. Others work on Sundays. Others have little exposure to church/Christianity. All this stuff gives Dalton great potential ... for God and for Satan and I'm excited to be in the battle!!