Eddie's Blog

Marathon - Greenville

On Sunday, July 27th, I had a chance to go to our Marathon - Greenville campus and hang out with Reggie (the pastor there) and just see how things are going. I had a great experience when I got there. Everybody was welcoming everyone...It was just like Marathon - Powdersville. It was just a wonderful time. They do have something a little different than we do...they have The Atlanta Bread Company leftovers. I'm talking muffins, cookies and oh man...they've got us beat on all of that stuff -- I'll tell you. It was really good. But just the atmosphere and the friendliness of the people was great: Watching Reggie, to see how far he's come in the way he speaks and the way he relates to people; the atmosphere was light...it was fun; people were laughing and clapping; and the music was great. They had some new video stuff in there -- It was just really good to watch all of that happen and to see all the people coming in. There were some happy people there and it was just exciting! It was so good to see what God can do in the different locations. You know, we're going to try to do more of that. God has really used Reggie to do a great thing there. I would have to say that his 11:30 service has more of a coffee house feel. It's really neat how they have tables sitting around like at Starbucks -- You can go in and just sit down with your coffee just like you're at Starbucks and just watch and listen -- It's a real cool experience. God is doing some great things there. I got to hear testimonies from some people who have been in Life Groups over there; and the salvations that have taken place; and the baptisms. We sometimes forget that God is so big. He works in all locations -- all places. Remember, it's about the lives that are being changed. Marathon - Greenville is doing a great job with that -- Reggie is doing a great job! I'm looking forward to going back and speaking over there!

Thank You, Your Honor. Thank You!

As you know Lynn and I have been "foster parents," specifically "foster-to-adopt parents," which means we have had a foster child in our home for over a year and a half with intentions of adopting. Her name is "Faith". Faith is four years old. We've been waiting for awhile to get a court date to finalize the adoption and make her an official "Cox." All the papers had been signed and everything was done -- All we had left to do was walk in before a judge and have him make it official. So we finally told Faith what was going on and how God brings children to parents in different ways. She asked us why we were going to see the judge and we told her that the judge was going to make it known to the whole world that we are a family. So she was all excited about that. We got all dressed up. We bought Faith a white dress with purple flowers on it. She looked beautiful -- She was all ready to go -- We painted her toenails and her fingernails -- the whole deal -- you know, all the girly things -- and she was excited to the max. So the day finally came on July 17th when we had a court date that morning. We all showed up -- the lawyer showed up -- all the people who had been working with Faith were there. We waited our turn and got in line. We went into the courtroom and were seated in front of the judge, and he asked us to raise our right hand -- just like you see on TV. Faith was really quiet -- but she was smiling the whole time -- She was really patient. The lawyer asked me if there was anything I'd like to say to the court -- and I said, "This is going to be the happiest day of my life." Lynn was crying and we all could hardley speak because we were so excited about what was about to happen.  So finally, the judge said, "It's official -- Faith is a Cox". We decided to get a picture of us with the judge, the lawyer and the case worker. We took the picture. And right before we left -- on the way out of the courtroom -- Faith turned around and raised her hand. When the judge looked at her, this 4-year-old said, "Thank you, your honor. Thank you!" And we left. That will be a day that I'll never forget and a day that Faith will never forget. As soon as she went out of the courtroom, she looked at one of the policemen and she said, "My name is Faith Cox. I'm adopted and I have two birthdays." It was a wonderful day.

Management team

The Management Team went to Camp Marietta to hang out for a whole day. They let us use one of their conference rooms and fed us pizza and lemonade for lunch.  "Thank you Tim Nihart for taking good care of us". We were there to map the yearly vision for Marathon Church. The dominate theme of our meeting was, How do we reach our community? – What do we need to do? – Where are places that need churches? Where can we go in, set up and say, “Here we are – Come find God”. As you know, we have started a lot of churches. We’ve been a part of starting NewSpring with Perry Noble. We’ve also got to be with Greg Oraham – Foothills Community Church - He was with us in the early years when we were in the middle school. There about to go into their new building – which seats over 1000 – with new a children’s area and youth.  And also our Greenville campus - Marathon – Greenville – Reggie has done an amazing job getting things going in Greenville. It’s just incredible – the things that we have gotten to be a part of. That was the dominate theme of the whole meeting – Where do we want to start churches? What do we need to do to do that? It’s a very exciting time, especially when a lot of the churches are starting to come together from this “One Prayer” series we've been doing. I’m getting phone calls from traditional pastors who want to hang out – who want to talk. This is a new thing for us – A new thing for a lot of community churches – That all of the churches are coming together as one – Because it’s about reaching people for Jesus Christ and that’s what we do.

We also talked about going into our new Student building – talking about the junior high, Senior high and college ministries and all of the things that they’re going to get to do – and how that’s going to affect how we do Marathon.  You’ll be hearing more about this in the future.  Besides all of the other stuff that we have to do to just do Sunday mornings that’s kind of what we talked about.  It's going to be a phenomenal thing watching this all unfold. .

Cardboard Testimonies

The last week in June was one of those incredible weekends. I hesitate to say it, but I will say that it is one of the top five services that I’ve ever been in. I told the congregation that morning that it was going to be one of the top five services of the year. We basically just took what we called cardboard testimonies and we just wrote on one side of the card and it said, “This is what I was” and the other side said, “This is what I am now” because of Jesus Christ. I really didn’t know how the audience was going to respond to that, or what was going to happen. But in the 10:00 and 11:30 services, about half way through the testimonies, people began to stand to their feet and began to clap, and we had a standing ovation for all of them. There were a lot of people in there that God had actually done miracles for them. Little 2 year old Ames Reland had cancer and God healed him from that. The response to the video has just been overwhelming from people watching it from all over the country. It was one of those services where you just had to be there. And it’s still being talked about weeks later. People are still asking for it and still watching it. You know, God’s in the business of healing people. God’s in the business of putting people’s lives back together. It was just a great Sunday to be there and to watch that happen. I think sometimes we forget in all that we do, especially being a pastor and working at a church, we worry about trying to get things together for Sunday and you know, God’s working all during the week. He’s working everywhere and that’s what was so great about these testimonies. And there are more – we couldn’t get them all on there. We’re going to have to do it again. We’ll let you know when. It’s going to be good.