History in the Making

Family Day off Doesn't Get Much Better Than This

Beautiful, sunny day-off with the fam. National Zoo is free. Giddy-up.

Photographs from the Q Conference

Scott Hodge's flickr shots from Q... the Christian Ted Conference apparently.

Necessity is the mother of invention

Our children's ministry needed volunteers this past Sunday. So to show my commitment to a great children's ministry, I videotaped my message on Friday afternoon to be played during the service. Matt did an incredible job editing it for our widescreen format. This was such a big risk, I understand. Had a blast with our kindergarteners. Turned out to be a great success. Definitely not releasing the video. =) We shot it with borrowed handy-cams.

Whirlwind Weekend

Got home from Florida on Friday afternoon... and then left for a wedding in Pennsylvania on Saturday with the fam. My parents live in PA, so they were able to watch our boys while we attended the ceremony of an incredible guy in our church ~ Ed Reed.

Below: conference location: first baptist church orlando, our good friends at the wedding, melanie and phil sowada with ainsley, and the wedding of ed and jen.

Driscoll vs Hybels Cage Match

Sorry for the blogging break... my wireless card went down, and I haven't had internet access since Wednesday night.

Something intersting for you... The National New Church Conference played a video by Mark Driscoll, which featured his usual but humorous tirade about wimpish guys needing mentoring to make the church great. It was hilarious and convicting. But it was also spoken in very certain language with a strong bias against males born involuntarily without large thighs and a mechanical aptitude for anything other than joysticks.

This would have been fine. But they played it right before Bill Hybels took the stage. The wise sage... the Godfather of Church Planting made one simple statement:

"I just want to remind you that there are women in ministry too. And many of them are pretty valuable in church building."

That's it. Nothing more. The whole crowd laughed and cheered. One of my heroes in ministry ~ Matt Chandler ~ an A29 darling and Driscoll friend ~ was sitting behind me, and he laughed louder than most. It was a good moment. No need for defensiveness by anyone.

Ever Heard of Virb.com?

Multi-tasking in a session with Nancy Beach from Willow Creek... Just stumbled across a very cool blogging application for more media-driven personalities: Virb.com. Discovered by finding New Spring's worship pastor's site.

What my fam is doing without me this week

Ainsley is in Virginia Beach at her mom's house while I'm at the conference this week. (She had to celebrate her birthday without me. =(  But while I'm basking in Florida's beautiful 80-degree weather... Ainsley is suffering in Virginia Beach's... uh... beautiful 80-degree weather... at the beach. Pics of the boys she sent me from her camera phone.

Blogger Roundtable over lunch

We didn't know what to expect with the Bloggers Roundtable here at Exponential, because logistics never got nailed down... but it turned into a great success. I won't even attempt to list all the amazing bloggers in attendance, but it was like a big family reunion of sorts. In fact, we were going to have a panel discussion until I saw how many guys we wouldn't be able to fit behind a table... so we turned it into a big group discussion.

I was shocked to run into the guy who inspired me to blog ~ Andrew Jones, the Tall Skinny Kiwi himself [photo on left], all the way from Australia by way of London. Andrew has been blogging before there were even blog applications. Also loved connecting with Drew Goodmansen, the blogger, planter and entrpreneur extraordinairre [right photo] from San Diego.

Conference Intermission in Thought

Sitting in on Larry Osbourne's discussion about video venue environments. Blogger Roundtable takes place in 10 minutes or so. Thought I'd post an intermission in thought...

• The exclusive Q conference is beginning in Atlanta. Can't be in two places at once, but looking forward to some live blogging from conference-goers.
• Finished reading The Father Factor for our service this coming weekend. Incredible thoughts on the impact of fathers [or the lack thereof] on our lives. Onto Donald Miller's To Own a Dragon
• How do you mow the lawn in Florida without the fear of killing countless chamelions?
• The best wifi at this conference is along the back wall of the auditorium... so there's a blue glow from computer screens all along the back as you look around
• I've been saving $50 a month for a long time to purchase the forthcoming Apple iPhone in June. Just reached my goal this month. Nice.

Morning Session at Exponential: Ed Stetzer

First session of Day 2 at National New Church Conference ~ Ed Stetzer on Being Missional. Love Ed's passion for contextualizing ministry to a local community. Some of the highlights:

• The HOW of church planting is determined by the WHO and WHERE
• Don't plant a church in your head. Plant one in your community
• Many planters have fallen in love with another church's community
• The Gospel is the only element that is essential to every church plant
• Planters have a tendency to hold-up attendance over evangelism as success

Some personal thoughts... I don't think it's possible for church planters to be truly missional out the gate when they're moving to a new location. It's taken me 5 years to get any footholds of knowledge about our community, and I'm still figuring some things out. A guy like Erwin McManus didn't move to LA with a clear vision for Mosaic. It evolved over time through trial and error, sociological observation and personal experience.

Run NNCC

Exponential Conference is kicking off Wednesday morning hip-hop style. A group of rappers, pop-and-lock dancers and a DJ making a bunch of white people come out of their comfort zones a bit. =) I swear, why is the church planting community all caucasion? Looks like the worship is really setting up a discussion by the Reverend Run Ed Stetzer about being missional... to be continued...

National New Church Conference

In Orlando for the first afternoon at Exponential ~ the National New Church Conference. It's been great feeling the beautiful 80-degree Florida weather and seeing friends from the blogging world live and in person.

Wayne Cordiero from New Hope Church in Hawaii did a great in the first plenary session talking about the devotional life of the church planter. I've been a pastor now for 8 years, and messages about my personal time with God always hit me between the eyes.

Wayne continued to press home the idea that "people will come from miles around for fresh bread" [meaning a fresh word from God]. You don't need a band, lights, programming to reach people if you have the genuine mark of the Spirit in your life.

Mark Batterson rocked the house in a break-out session for post-launch planters on the topic of creating culture within the church. Mark has got to be the most quotable guy on the planet, and I can never write fast enough to catch every good think that comes out of his mouth.

One of the big take-aways from Mark's talk: Stay positive. Our service should be the most enjoyable hour of the week. Just like hospitals, people ought to feel better when they walk out the door.

Simple message but cluttered stages

Is it no coincidence that a company which designs such beautifully simple products has such beautifully simple stage design at its MacWorld presentation?

What it looks like to be invested

We've cut our Road Crew team down to just a few people each Sunday for efficiency. Rather than have them do everything, each of our ministry areas now does their own set-up, which makes the whole process work like a dream. What's even better is that now our prayer pow-wow before service is packed to the gills with people! This group huddle is my favorite part about Sundays! Now, everyone's invested, everyone "owns" the morning, and our level of excellence has gone way up.

Love this photo from Corey Mann's blog, which he titled "Winner of the 'Not My Job' Contest" =) Love it...

 

Weekend Notes

This past Sunday was such a God-inspired service... One of our college students, Danielle, was home for the funerals of two of her friends from Westfield High School who were shot last Monday at Virginia Teach. She shared some memories about each of them, which really weighted our prayers in the service.

Not only that, but an incredible display of Kingdom-heartedness by some local megachurches. Nearby Reston Bible Church, a 2,000+ congregation, sent us a check for our One Hundred project... and Mike Hurt, director of multi-site locations for Mclean Bible Church brought his family to worship with us.

When God provides... give or take a dollar

Moving to the Town Center wasn't just a risk because of the change for us... it came with some pretty big financial risks as well. The location is double the cost of our previous one, and the insurance costs are five times as much as before. This is a good place to reiterate... we will go anywhere and do anything it takes to reach people for Christ, no matter the cost. I'll make sure we die before we ever become inwardly-focused as a church.

With some looming financial deadlines approaching May, I sent out an e-mail to the core folks in our church this past week, asking them to pray. We needed an offering 3 times bigger than our usual one... just to avoid getting thrown out on the street.

When our co-treasurer, Scott, gave me the numbers after church on Sunday, the result was mind-blowing. The difference between the amount we needed... and the amount received... was $1.

Two weeks of mind blowing blogging

I've got two incredible weeks of blogging ahead of me... National New Church Conference this next week... and then the church planter version of the "Make a Wish Foundation" ~ spending a day with some amazing pastors in Oklahoma. Stay tuned...

The New Discipleship: Converted to a Cause before Christ

When it comes to the church, I've always believed that many people want to belong before they'll believe. Another way of saying this is "converted to community before coverted to Christ."

Derek Webster, a mass movement specialist to Zurich, Switzerland, recently posted a challenge to this theory on his blog. He wrote:

"I would submit that it is mission that provides the motion from which community is created... In this scenario, community isn't the key for reaching the lost, but CAUSE is the key."

Heather Zempel, small groups pastor at National Community Church, echoed this theory on her blog while describing her involvement in NCC's production of Godspell at their coffeehouse over Easter.

"It takes several months for any sense of community to develop within a small group (unless it's out in the community serving or doing a lot of between-meeting stuff together). There are two unique experiences I've had that catalyze community like nothing else I've ever seen-- going on a mission trip and being in a cast. For some reason, those two experiences throw you into an intense level of community."

Community is not a huge need for our generation because we're already in networks, chat rooms, Second Life experiences, Instant Messenger conversations, hobby groups. With if CAUSE is the most effective means of making disciples... and community is just a good by-product? Hmmm. Just thinking out loud.

Wish list conferences

The Gold Rush conference at Biola looks intriguing. Not bad for a Christian college.

Highlights from an old leadership book

Highlights from "A Leader in the Making" by Joyce Meyer, published sometime in 2002:

• There is one kind of person Satan cannot defeat -- someone who is not a quitter
• We become refined by going through trials, so don't try to avoid them
• We need to be patient with other people because it's not their fault we're not where we should be spiritually
• You can be pitiful or you can be powerful, but you cannot be both
• A lot of people have gifts that take them where their character cannot sustain them
• Wrong heart attitudes keep us from reaching our potential
• If you have a call, then believe it consistently, every day of the week. Don't mix faith on Monday with doubt on Tuesday and so on
• There is nothing more frustrating than striving after things that God has not given us
• Most people we ask for advice don't know what they're doing... let alone what we should be doing
• God tests us before he promotes us
• If God is not telling us something, we need to stay busy doing the last thing he told us
• God tests us because he has to make sure we're not going to take matters into our own hands
• If we want to be leaders, we have to realize there are hundreds, thousands of times, Satan will try to discourage us
• God will help us, but he will not feel sorry for us
• Don't give up. Many people quit just before their big breakthrough
• Jesus spent 30 years preparing for a 3-year ministry