History in the Making

Gift Drop in Reston Town Center

I was so thrilled to hear Matt describe his venture in handing out gift bags to the dozens of retailers in Reston Town Center yesterday. This was meant to be a completely bless-you, no-expectations-involved gesture to our new neighbors. We didn't even put a web address on the bags. We're scheming several more relationship-building outreaches in the coming weeks.

Design Interrupted

All of our designers got suddenly busy at their jobs on the cusp of preparing for our Town Center launch, which is leaving us limping, so we've had to be creative on executing some projects. Sneak peek at the new towncenterchurch.com site which is basically our current site in black. Still in development.

Vicarious Conference Going

Perry Noble's talks at the Church Planter conference are so worth the read... at Tony Morgan's blog here and here.

Leaders are Readers

Loving Oswald Sanders' book Spiritual Leadership. Especially the chapter on reading.

"A leader's reading is the outward expression of his inner hungers and aspirations." This is why I love doing Amazon searches for people's wish lists. It tells me more about them than their blogs or their conversations.

"[John] Wesley told the younger ministers of the Methodist societies to read or get out of the ministry." I think he was probably talking to former tobacco farmers, but he made his point clear.

"As I have read the biographies of great Christians, time and again, one book has brought their lives to crisis and produced a revolution of ministry. That book is Charles G. Finney's Lectures on Revivals of Religion." I've never heard of this book, but Oswald makes me want to get it.

One Hundred Project Update

Incredibly, we're at just 8 opportunities left in our One Hundred Project. I'm in awe of God's greatness. Of all the people who have given so far...

13% I've never met
25% are pastors at other churches
21% attend our church
5% have attended our church in past, but moved on
29% are from Virginia Beach
7% are from National Community Church
2% are on staff at churches larger than 10,000
4% are related to me

Sneek 'Peep' at Reston Community Church

Matt, his wife Tricia, and our resident marketing guru, Melanie spent the afternoon dropping off gift bags to the 70+ merchants in Reston Town Center. The goal is to build good relationships with our new neighbors, and, in time, make RCC a place they'd like to visit. In thinking about round two in a few weeks, I love the idea of offering them a package of marshmallow peeps with the offer of a "sneak peep" at our preview services on the three weeks leading up to Easter. That is, if we don't eat them all before then.

Talladega Mondays

Two weeks ago on a Friday night, I found myself helping an elderly guy change his tire in a very frigid Reston Town Center. At the time, I remember sensing in my gut that God was doing this for my benefit... for practice. Sure enough, today was game-day. Snow banks all around, fingers icing over, two kids in the car. But I was like an Indy pit crew. Except without the pneumatic wrench. =)

Emboldened by Opposition

I cringe at conversations with practical people... =) people who point out the realities, rather than the possibilities. But I've gotta give them credit for one thing ~ fueling my resolve to see it happen. I was musing with someone last week about the idea of having permanent space in Reston Town Center for our church someday [because the town center is still being developed]. I sat there for 20 minutes listening to them explain why it would be impossible... and then walked away seeing it more clearly than ever before. We must serve a different God because last time I checked...

Road Trip Extravaganza

Matt and I have been praying for someone to accompany us to Detroit in a few weeks to pick-up our Portable Church goods... along with their truck and tow package. =) It was looking bleak last week, but I got an e-mail this morning from one of our finest, Ed Reed, who just happens to be off that week from his job in Homeland Security. Just happens to be off??? I think not... Talk about a God-thing. Now we not only have a friend who can haul with us; we've got security. =)

That incompetent groundhog

Church was almost a wash yesterday due to the sudden snow, but we held on. We had a great time with the faithful few that came. Picked up bagels and cream cheese from Panera; turned worship into an acoustic set and had a great interactive time offering praises and prayers... I think it was a little gift of relaxation from God before we cross the Jordan here in a few weeks.

Umbrellas

The Town Center where our church is going to meet starting March 18 is surrounded by about 5 free parking garages. But guests will have to walk into the downtown area to enter the theater. Our goal is to do everything possible to make this little trek as convenient as possible during inclement weather. First big idea ~ free umbrella service! Custom logo-imprinted umbrellas handed-out to guests as they exit the garage... to be returned at the welcome center. During winter months, open a back door to the theater so that people can simply cross the street to enter. I've got Scott Frigaard, our best greeter, bar-none, heading up this team...

Changing a church's complete identity

Changing a church's complete identity is no easy task. We've been cranking out new branding for almost everything this week... signage, letterhead, brochures, invite cards, website... Josh Wilcox did these amazing biz cards on the train to New York this week.

Podcast with Vince Antonucci and John Burke

The Exponential Conference recorded a podcast interview with Vince Antonucci and John Burke while they were in town with Todd Wilson yesterday. It's a must-hear. When you're in the same room with John, he bleeds cool. If Vince weren't a church planter, he'd be a sitcom star. They start-off by describing their slow starts in church planting... and tell their amazing stories of reaching completely unchurched people.

One Hundred Project Update

On Thursday while attending our denom's church planting fellowship, my friend Daniel Floyd told me his church decided to make four contributions to our One Hundred Project. My jaw hit the floor because Daniel's a church planter just like me. I'm sure he's got needs too. But he's seen God bless his church Lighthouse in some amazing ways this year, and he wanted to steward God's resources. I think they're destined to make a name change as well in the coming months... With Daniel's contribution, we're down to just 14 opportunities left!

John Burke's Emerging Leader Initiative

Great meeting with Craig Whitney, exec director of John Burke's ELI church planting group this morning in Reston Town Center. I love strategic-thinking guys, and Craig was chock-full of great insights. He pointed out the surgency of "new urban" church plants popping up across the country. These are essentially downtown churches that are reaching young professionals and don't have an exclusive focus on inner city compassion-based ministries... although they do have some channels. Our town center, for example, does have a homeless shelter located across the street. I anticipate some terrific ministry to these folks...

The Inside Scoop on Portable Church

Okay, I got the go-ahead to talk about our work with Portable Church Industries. Here's the scoop... For a while, PCI has been offering church-in-a-box solutions that were priced higher than many planters could afford. I blogged about a year and a half ago about our frustrating experience with not being able to afford them. After several conversations with them, I realized the price was justified because of the quality of products they use (insulated, lighted trailers, heavy-duty road cases with high-grade wood, etc.) They weren't just bilking us. =)

Trouble was... we still couldn't afford them. And it's given them quite a reputation as being out-of-reach for many planters. We just needed something functional.

Here's the amazing thing... I've found the people at PCI to have incredible, ministry-focused hearts. They genuinely want to help church planters and come up with economical solutions. They called me last week on their own initiative to ask if we would be a "test case" for a new, affiliate company that would specialize in creating affordable, portable solutions for planters like us.

Their general manager, Brian, and consultant Bob, came out to assess our situation, listen to our needs, and design an affordable solution, even if it meant defying their own standard practices. And believe me, they did! All of this was meant to help them design this new affiliate company... which will probably be announced in the next few months. This is good news for the majority of planters out there... and certainly for us, as we just got the perfect solution for us... for the right price.

Open letter to all conference-goers this weekend

I am not attending the sold-out ChurchPlanter.com Conference this weekend... but if you are... you've got to attend Gary Lamb's breakout session: "Going All Out for the Disconnected." I got a sneak-peek at his talk, and it will be life-altering for any church planter. It will mean the difference between a church plant that flounders along with Christianites... and one that truly reaches lost people for Christ.

Retro-Easter

Just came across this Easter postcard we mailed out to promote our service in 2003. One of our artists at the time, Michael Schafer, created this eye-grabbing image.

Brian Bailey makes Typepad promo

Brian Bailey just made Typepad's featured blogger this week... which means his site is promoted all over the Typepad interface. No one is more deserving...

There are Two Kinds of Pastors

Those who are upset the church isn't going to the lost
Those who are upset the lost aren't coming to church