News & Updates

My AC drain pipe was leaking. I didn’t think much about it until a good friend said it was my emergency AC drain pipe. The water that had been leaking all summer was brown and turning my patio brown. “That’s a problem,” my friend suggested. I thought the drain pipe was leaking more than usual, so I had put a handy-dandy garbage can ‘neath the pesky leak. All seemed well. Nope. Brown water leaking from your upstairs, emergency drain pipe…

I don’t think I would ever want to deliberately lie to God, so perhaps I couch my deception in the songs I sing. What about you? A.W. Tozer once wrote, “Christians don’t tell lies; they just go to church and sing them.” Back in 2002, the church began singing another of Chris Tomlin’s big songs, “Enough.” Do you remember the beautiful lyrics? (Can’t get the tune in your head? Click HERE.) “All of you is more than enough for all…

When was the last time you unleashed your wrath? Not too long ago, I bought the wrong power cord at an Apple store in Ohio. I tried to return said cord at an Apple store in Georgia. Little did I know that, while this store looked, smelled, and advertised as an Apple store, it was not an official Apple store and would not return my unused power cord. I lost it. I unleashed. The wrath of Alan ensued, and my…

I have an audacious goal to write a best-selling book. I’d also like to own a 1959 Chevy truck. I want to be married to the same woman for 70 years. I want to sit in the stands at Centre Court, Wimbledon… just to name a few of my loftier goals. In his book, Good to Great, Jim Collins writes about “BHAGs”: Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals. They’re fun to think about. What’s one of your BHAGs? Make sure it’s big…

Fake news remains in our news. The reeling question is this: Is the news about phony news actually real news? It’s so confusing. Social media and amazing graphics have empowered the ability to crank out fake news. But fake news is only as powerful as our leanings and preconceived ideas want it to be. Fake news plays into what we want to believe or what can empower us to stand out from the crowd. Fake news is only as powerful…

I am excited to bring the Word on this coming Sunday, July 15th out of Joshua chapter 7 at CCC”s Smyrna campus. (Now that we have a Douglasville campus, I had to make that distinction.) Oh, wait–you didn’t know we are launching a new site this fall in D’ville?! Read about it HERE. After several months of prayer and Kingdom conversations, Cumberland Community Church is stepping out in faith to launch its first of many new campuses. This church-planting vision…

My wife is a professional sleeper.  She’s really good at sleeping. She loves her sleep.  There are not many things that can deter Sherry’s drive for good sleep—except maybe my snoring. I’ve never snored until just this year.  When Sherry would mention my sleep-robbing habits, I would deny, deny, deny.  But Sherry doesn’t lie when it comes to sleep. I downloaded a sleep app to help the situation.  It records snoring. Do you recall how horrible it is to listen…

Mrs. “P” was a big-boned woman. She was my second-grade teacher. When Mrs. “P” came roaring down the hallway in her knee-high, white, leather boots — our class would scurry to our seats before her wrath was unleashed on a bunch of squirrely eight-year-olds. On one particular day, Mrs. “P” spanked each person in our class. I believe it was a few noodle heads in the back of the room who garnered punishment for the entire lot. I can remember…

I believe in rugged individualism. I’m not sure it’s great theology, but it’s what I had to learn growing up and what my dad modeled. With that, you’d think I could survive the wild with a plastic Walmart bag filled with only duct tape and popsicle sticks. Nope. I said I BELIEVED in rugged individualism. I’m not sure I practice it. Yesterday my computer freaked out—as did I. I left the office hoping the disk utility would repair the whole…

I love the Hebrew teaching about the ancient rabbi’s wings. A rabbi would regularly wear a prayer shawl—commonly called his wings. On the edges or “kanaf” of his wings were tassels called tzitzits. The tassels would have five knots tied into them. Each knot was a reminder of the books of Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy). Are you following this ancient Hebrew path so far? Then… you find this great verse in Malachi 4:2: “But for you who…