History in the Making

New Church Conference

Had an hour-long conversation this morning with Todd Wilson about plans and branding for the National New Church Conference in April. This is going to be - undoubtedly- the end-all, be-all event for planters in pre-launch, post-launch and reproductive stages. The speaker line-up is going to blow last year's event out of the water, which is the whole reason I attended in the first place. New website, blog and marketing will roll out sometime in September...

Visions that move the soul

We resumed our weekly early-morning prayer gathering for guys this past Tuesday. Without a doubt, praying exposes the dreams of our hearts like no conversation can. I loved hearing their visions [in the form of petitions] of what God could do if he only chose to act on our behalf. Prayer does this. Many people "are afraid to even take the risk of going after sinful dreams, let alone visions that move the soul [Dan Allender]."

United Nations

I sat around a table yesterday with an Egyptian, a Phillipino, a Spanish-speaking American, a Russian and an African American... all trying to figure out how to plant a church in downtown DC collaboratively. Wow.

Persons of peace in the publishing world

When we took our special double-edition newsletter to the printing & mailing house this week, they chopped the cost of our newsletter in half... meaning it cost us the same for an 8-page edition as it does for a 4-page. [This has obviously come from 4 years of ongoing business with them.] Good news - big discount! Bad news - now we have to fill 8 pages every edition! =) Our House to Yours may just become a magazine... =)

Babercrombie

Exciting plans for fall...

We've been cranking the pump handle of outreach all summer long [that's where you put in lots of effort for results that don't come until later], but the smell of fall is in the air; vacations are coming to an end; and we've got some terrific outreach activities lined up, including...

- New, large roadside signs to put out over the weekend
- Over 300 step-stake signs to saturate the roadways
- Volunteering at all the booths of our neighborhood's festival
- Handing out 300+ water bottles at the same festival
- The premiere of church's new TV commercial on cable channels
- Our small groups are reproducing which increases our ministry capacity
- Launch of our new preschool ministry environment Genesis
- Exciting message series called 'Catalyst' with video testimonies
- Outreach efforts at George Mason University
- Start of a new, early morning prayer gathering for men

Strategic Focus City for 2009

Every so often the Southern Baptist Convention designates a "strategic focus city" where they pour tons of resources, people and missions into a particular geographic area. It's always a good time to be a church planter in that area... Just learned that Baltimore is the SFC in 2009.

Trends in people's decision making...

If you're a strategy-head nut like me, Iconoculture puts out a weekly e-newsletter on consumer and cultural trends.

Nice...

Camera

History Vision, part 3

I don't believe the core values of a church need to be plucked straight from the Bible. The vision does. But core values are about creating ethos or culture. With that said...

Another one of History Church's core values is Welcoming Environments. In other words, anonymity is our enemy. There are some churches that don't even want greeters. That works for them, but not for us...

For us, welcoming environments is about creating a relational bridge for people far from God. As Mark Driscoll says, fellowship is for believers; hospitality is for welcoming disconnected people into our lives. Hospitality is an incubator for faith. Hospitality tills hard hearts so that a seed of faith can be planted.

Creating welcoming environments is what we do when stop conversations with each other so we can befriend guests walking through the door. It's what we do when we invite people into our small groups right away. It's removing the discomfort of waiting for a delayed service; it's taking away the awkwardness of unfamiliar terminology and spiritual practices; it's meeting people right where they are. It's serving them by relinquishing our own preferences.

Think about Jesus who sat by a well in Samaria waiting for the first shame-filled person to arrive at that ungodly hour... He wasn't anywhere near his comfort zone. In fact, he had to send his disciples away to town in order to reach this lady because they were so focused on themselves and upholding religious principles. But Jesus made a prostitute comfortable at his own expense because he knew the eternal issue at stake. And notice that he didn't reveal himself as the Messiah to her right away. He befriended her. He welcomed her...

I like to think of our Sunday morning gathering as a "well-coming" environment. A place where people will be welcomed just as they are... at the expense of our own comfort, preferences, and cravings for attention.

Sundays are like one big hidden camera event where everyone is "in on it," except the person far from God who is completely unaware that all of this is for them. And then one day, when that person is walking with Christ, we can say, "That was all for you... Come... be "in on it" with us... help us welcome someone else."

Suited up...

I'll be honest, I had a bit of a vision crisis during the month of August. I was trying to decide whether the values of our church, such as outreach, selfless serving, and discipleship, were worth the wounds that come from fighting status quo, complacency and comfort. This, from Dan Allender's new book:

Organizational change is a lot like starting a diet at a wedding. Everyone else is feasting and partying, and the temptation to return to the trough is profound. A leader is not only dieting but also trying to convince the other guests at the party to reconsider their food intake. If he is lucky, he will encounter no greater harm than being ignored, but he is much more likely to be tossed out into the street.

I decided that they indeed are worth the cost...

Living an open book life

The Pew Charitable Trust reports that 12 million American adults have blogs compared to 57 million who read blogs. Via John Smulo.

Great looking website

Talk about a great looking website: together for the gospel. Plus, you get to read interaction between Mark Dever, Ligon Duncan, C.J. Mahaney, and Al Mohler on the blog. via Deanna.

Beefy

"Have you noticed that fast food commercials make men look like animals?" ~ Ainsley

Church plant diagnostics

Back from Richmond to assess church planters at their 6-month and 1-year marks. Doing diagnostics on other planters is incredibly insightful for our own situation. After meeting with planter after planter, it becomes crystal clear what are good decisions vs bad decisions... It's like watching birthing videos to prepare for a delivery.

My illusions shattered

Last night at 10:00 pm, I arrived apparently too early for my hotel room in Richmond. The maid was busily cleaning the room, so I motioned with my hand that I'd be back later... But no. She insisted that I come into the room while she finished cleaning. Big smile on her face. During the next few minutes, I realized that I've always had a false hope that my hotel room had never been used by anyone befor me... that it had never been soiled by someone else.  This illusion was completely shattered as she stripped the beds, scrubbed the bathroom and vacuumed around my feet. All I could think about for the rest of the night was those Dateline NBC specials about the contaminants on hotel bedspreads. ugh.

On being missional...

If it's comfortable for me... it's probably uncomfortable for someone else.

On the road again...

Off to Richmond for two days... to assess church planters and present another speech on the E-Myth applied to church planting.

Summer newsletter almost out

History's summer edition of our newsletter is finished... waiting for the printer & mailing house on Friday. It's a special double edition with 8 pages of pictorial bliss. God has used our newsletters over the past four years to bless our church plant in some powerful ways. During our first two years, it raised over $40,000 a year in contributions to our new church. Of course, this required monthly mailings [without fail] and an ambitious mailing list. You can find all of our newsletters on-line here. I offer the templates for free to any planter interested... but haven't seen anyone follow through with producing them monthly... which is the secret.

Journey through Acts

I never take for granted the seasons of life when God's word speaks to me. Invariably, there are times of silence that draw me closer to him, but leave me deeply unsatisfied on a human level. Some piercing thoughts from my time in Acts...

Acts 7:27 - "Who put you in charge of us?"
We can hold titles, but permission to lead is entirely in the hands of those around us.

Acts 7:39 - "Life-giving words our fathers would have nothing to do with."
At History, we are seeing young adults lap their parents in spiritual commitment.

Acts 7:47 - "David asked God for a permanent place for worship. But Solomon built it."
What if I never see God's vision fulfilled in my lifetime? What if they're for Wyatt?

Acts 7:51 - "Calluses on your hearts, flaps on your hearts."
Following Christ requires constantly making ourselves vulnerable to wounds by others.

Acts 7:58 - "A young man named Saul watched their coats."
What we do in our leisure time establishes the course of our future.

Acts 9:16 - "Now I'm about to show him what he's in for."
Half the struggles we go through in life are preparation for bigger ones.