Kirk Bowman's blog

Christmas For Kids - our effort to help disadvantaged kids have Christmas - is in full swing for 2009. As of right now, we have sponsorships for well over 300 children. That’s at $75 per child. Do the math. Complete awesomeness.

One of the great things about this year has been the ingenuity of our so very generous church in raising money to help kids out.

One of our ladies, realizing she would not have any “extra” money this year, raised over $400 by selling candy.

Just got a note from one of our members who works in a beauty salon. From friends, family, and clients, they have raised over $1,000 and are asking for as many wish lists as we can give them.

Just love it when people get creative about blessing others.

Suzette and I went to see U2 in Atlanta last Tuesday night. What an amazing and powerful show these guys put on. Sold out Georgia Dome and they completely owned the place.

This was my second time to see them. Amazing both times.

It really is a spiritual experience to go to their concerts. They “do church” in a powerful way.

Great big sound. Songs that matter. Inspiration to make a difference. Pull everyone in to connect. Amazing atmosphere. Lots of great ideas to put into practice to make church great.

I love concerts. The whole experience of live music, all the people, the vibe, the feel, the atmosphere.

Last night – Family Force 5 and Flyleaf at The Orange Peel.

There was an opening band even before FF5. They were good enough but it is tough to be an opener. Anyway….

FF5 is a fun band. That’s all. They are Christians but they are not trying to do “Christian” music. They are just fun.

My big thought from watching them: Confidence is a very cool thing.

They are totally comfortable with who they are and what they do. Confidence exudes something amazing.

I heard someone say once that actors need to get over needing to have the approval of their audience. That “need” puts something in the atmosphere that is counterproductive to their performance.

I think it’s important to be confident – in God, in your calling and in who you are. It helps everyone around you relax. It helps you fulfill your call.

“Don’t throw away your confidence. It has great reward” Hebrews 10:35

Just finished an amazing weekend and I’m toast today.

Incredible Men’s Conference. Stellar Worship. Fantastic Videos. Hilarious Competitions. Lots of Food. Powerful Messages. Incredible God Moments.

All so good!

Thanks to all the volunteers and our staff who put their whole heart into making Men’s Conference a complete success.

Hopefully I’ll have some pics for later in the week.

Church yesterday. Amazing!!

Church is growing like crazy right now. In numbers and in health.

What can I say? Too many great things to elaborate on.

Certainly a highlight for the day was watching everyone write the names of friends and loved ones they want to see get saved on the prayer wall. A powerful moment. I just wanted to hang around in that moment for a long time.

I’m reading the reports of so many churches from this past Easter Sunday:

Church of the Highlands – Birmingham - 8 years old – 19,404 attendance
Elevation Church – Charlotte - 3 years old – 7,800 attendance
Newspring Church – Anderson – 10 years old - 15,000 attendance
7 Hills Church - Kentucky – 4,500 attendance
Oasis Church – Nashville – 1,465 attendance
City of Grace – Scottsdale – 7,000 attendance
The Rock Church – Asheville – 1,017 attendance (I feel puny!)

These are just a handful of reports. And there are so many other circles of ministry I'm not even in touch with.

And people are predicting the demise of the church in America? Come on. I’m just sayin……

The Masters – a tradition like no other …..

I went to the practice round yesterday with my brother in law. Thanks to my great friend, Andy Banfield, who always helps me out with tickets. Always a treat to see Augusta National and all the great players of the game. Looking forward to watching every bit of The Masters I can this weekend.

For golfers – Spring begins at The Masters

Easter Commercial 2009 from Rock Church on Vimeo.


Easter is one of our very best opportunities to reach people for Christ. We are going all out this year to invite people to our Easter Services.

Here’s our plan:
1. Billboards covering our whole city
2. Over 400 commercials on Fox news. MTV, ESPN, ABC family, USA prime time and even the Golf Channel (it is Master’s week!)
3. An 18,000 piece mailer going out to our area
4. And thousands of personal invite cards

All of this is taking place the 2 week period leading up to Easter

We’re reaching and believing for God to do great things in people’s lives this Easter.

Our creative team is hard at work on making Easter absolutely fantastic. Should be an awesome day!

Pray with us!

JER 29:7 'Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf; for in its welfare you will have welfare.'

Our church has always been highly spiritual in approach. Not more spiritual than anyone else, mind you. But, we have really focused on worship, prayer, the word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit in church life.

A few years ago, God started speaking to my heart about making Asheville a better place by serving. More practical, hands on, get out there and help with some stuff.

We have not abandoned our emphasis on prayer and worship – but we have added a dimension of practical serving.

I’m glad we have – our church is loving it and doing it. Some people only seem to talk about it. Our guys do it - and I'm so proud of them.

A few weeks back 135 of us spent a Saturday helping out at a school right down the road from us. It was fun. I think it made God happy. That’s always a good thing.

Crazy week last week – will try to post a few thoughts this week on everything that went on. It was all good!

I had a first 2 Sundays back.

I am about ready to celebrate 35 Years (!) of walking with Jesus. I started in ministry almost immediately after I got saved. So, I’ve got 34 and a half years of experience preaching, teaching, singing, leading worship, etc. I’ve been on the platform doing all that and more for over 34 years.

So we’re having a great service on Sunday. Awesome worship. Presence of God. People giving their heart to Christ. Great day! I just finished preaching my heart out. One of those messages where I felt like I nailed it. They don’t all feel that way, I promise you.

I’m walking off the platform, feeling great about the whole day and one of my guys walks up to me and says “I’m not sure, but I think your zipper is down.”

Sure enough – I had preached my entire message with my zipper down!

Oh well…. Hopefully, I've got another 34 years till that happens again.

Just wanted to give a shout out to our incredibly generous church.

We had Chims Phiri from Zimbabwe in this past weekend. Our church gave almost $10,000 in an offering to help sponsor the education of kids who have been orphaned by AIDS.

Way to go Rock Church!

This Saturday is a Big Serve Saturday and we’re going to bless Sand Hill Venable Elementary school right down the road. As of right now, we have 97 people registered to serve. Anyone else who wants to jump in and get involved, just register online.

Awesome!