History in the Making

Download our Org Chart and Job Descriptions

Okay, here she blows... You can download our Organization Chart and corresponding Job Descriptions, which we develop for every single volunteer and staff position in our church. We're not done with them... and roles are constantly being redefined. [If you don't evolve, you die.] But here they are in Word so you can manipulate them and make them your own... newchurches

Headed to the "Anti-Conference"

Matt and I are attending a conference today at Mark Dever's Capitol Hill Baptist today called "Gospel Growth vs Church Growth" at the VIP invitation of my good pastor friend Mike McKinley. Mike was sent by CHBC to revitalize a church near us in Sterling [because their motto is "church planting is for wimps"=]. Mike is one of my great friends and I love him because he does ministry so differently than me... and he has more tattoos than anyone I know. But this should be really interesting ~ I'm such a church-growth guy. But I vowed to expand my horizons this year by taking in more of Dever, Piper, Mahaney and Mohler this year.

Five Years Ago This Sunday...

Most of the folks in our church wouldn't suspect it because of our relaunch... but our church is 5 years old this Sunday. We started as a parachute drop church plant [which I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy] in Reston, Virginia without any contacts or any clues about how to plant a church. There is only one person remaining from our very first small group ~ the wonderful Carrie Rinaldi ~ and only two people who actually attended our first Sunday service. I've earned a doctorate in church planting from just life experience since then... I can tell you what not to do! November is a very sentimental month for me because it reminds me so much of God's faithfulness.

Heav'n & Nature Really Do Sing

I don't know much about Mac's new Leopard operating system... but I'm loving the Aurora Borealis design on their promotional materials and desktop backgrounds. For Christmas Eve this year, we're exposing the revelation of Jesus in the stars. The astronomers from Babylon [aka: wise men] knew the time and location of the Messiah's birth... because it was written in the stars. This ChristEve, we're turning our theater into a planetarium... and I'm not even gonna start with the other surprises... =) Mac just gave us some inspiration.

Real RCC-ers of Genius

The greatest moments in the life of our church have happened when ordinary people have done out-of-the-ordinary things. Hear me on this... our volunteer schedule is the essential work of ministry. And I'm so thankful for the people who sacrifice and work hard on a week-to-week basis. But the greatest things we've ever done have come from our people taking initiative and bringing greater excellence to our ministry...

I think of Ally who created a hot chocolate station at last year's Christmas Eve service with tons of confections and assortments to make personalized drinks.

I think of Dave who built a 9-foot wardrobe facade that guests would have to enter to see a private screening of the Chronicles of Narnia movie.

I think of Kitty who took over the kindergarten curriculum to ensure that the crafts matched the theme of the day's lesson.

I think of Ed who volunteered to take-off 3 days from work and his fiance to accompany us to Detroit to pick-up our Portable Church trailer with his F-150.

I think of Dave again, who traded-in his beautiful Jaguar to buy an SUV, just so he could help haul our trailer.

I think of Amy who created a bulletin board collage of baby photos to personalize our nursery check-in area.

I think of Tony who purchased floor lamps for each of our children's areas to lighten up our dark theater corners.

I think of David who postponed his Christmas vacation to play bass in our Christmas Eve service.

I could go on and on...

Walk Across the... Campsite

For Pastor Appreciation month, one of the gals in our church threw a "Matthew's Party" for Matt and me [remember the story where Matthew leaves his tax booth to follow Jesus, but then invites him to a party with his tax collector friends?] In other words, we were invited by this gal to a bonfire with some people in our church... and a ton of her unchurched friends. There was no "Surprise pastors!" In fact, some of the Christians in our church whispered "Happy Pastor Appreciation Month" in hushed tones as they scooted past us. What an incredible gift! I am never happier than when I have opportunities to walk across the... campsite.

The art of the "newcomer's lunch"

We moved our monthly Newcomer's Lunch to Paolo's restaurant, which overlooks the main courtyard in Reston Town Center. Incredible view and amazing food. The restaurant was completely empty and so accommodating for our "presentation" to new guests. Our community concierge, Ally, pulled this one off and I already can't wait til next month. By the way... all of our guests in attendance today were "walk-ins" off the street from throughout the month. Our location in this outdoor urban center is unbeatable. newchurches

Asking hard questions about your own church

A grad student in our church is doing a course-long study about our church... the effectiveness of our vision and process. Part of the project requires him to conduct a survey of our people... both those who've stayed and some who have left. Ouch. This is the thing I've most desired for RCC ~ to know what people really think ~ but I've been too afraid to ask. I can't think of anything more valuable, but also more painful, than knowing the truth about yourself.

I recently came across Willow Creek's new Reveal project, which seeks to answer the same questions we're about to ask. Apparently Willow doesn't think they're turning irreligious people into fully devoted followers of Christ quite as effectively anymore. So they're taking a good, hard look at themselves... and inviting other churches to join them. newchurches

Rethinking Church Websites

What if a church's website wasn't a comprehensive brochure about every aspect of its ministry, but rather an intentional part of the process in leading prospective guests to the first step in the process? What if it wasn't loaded down with all the ministry offerings... but rather simply sought to get unchurched people in the door? Hmmm. Just a thought. We're rethinking ours.

Ed Stetzer's site relaunches with new features

Ed Stetzer's NewChurches.com has been relaunched with a new look and some new features... thanks to the help of those Passion for Planting guys. This site is in the works to become the end-all, be-all of church planting websites. I was asked to be one of their featured bloggers along with guys like Vince Antonucci, Neil Cole, Alan Hirsch and many others. Big, big honor for me...

Enough of the chess playing with Abe Lincoln

I had a dream the other night that pastor Bill Cornelius left Bay Area Fellowship to come and help us with Reston Community Church. Enough with the free-falling... that's the kind of dream I'm talking about. Boo-yah.

The mother-load of sermon podcasts

Every once in a while, someone comes along who is larger than life... and loves Jesus. Great speech by Florida State University football coach Bobby Bowden at Liberty University's convocation. Speaking of... Liberty makes all of their public addresses available, which include some really great speakers, Matt Chandler, Al Mohler, Clayton King, Jim Cymbala, etc.

How people flow through our church...

Our church has a very intentional process for helping people move through discipleship... which ended up looking like a rocket ship. Nice. Everything we do has a purpose in this process... and if it doesn't, we don't do it.

Having a clearly defined process also helps us identify weak ministry areas that need to be strengthened. We can diagnose which part of the church isn't working effectively.

It's all about the flow. Gotta stop the spiritual constipation. Get people in the doors, won to Christ, discipled in faith and equipped for ministry... newchurches

Parade of blog banners

A blog banner sets the tone for every post that comes underneath it. Unfortunately, I can't stay in the same mood for longer than 3 months. Just for fun, here are some of my blog banners from the past few years.

How to Grow a Volunteer Base

Our volunteer percentage has got to be over 90% and we have some of the greatest, most joyful-in-serving volunteers on the planet.  Some possible reasons for it...

• We run our volunteer schedule on semesters so we can invite new guests into ministry roles four times a year.
• We repair "bad theology" whenever our ministry leaders feel guilty about asking others to serve. Feeling guilty says that serving God is not a privilege of the greatest magnitude.
• We provide an opportunity to sign-up for a ministry team at our newcomer's lunch every month.
• We lighten the burden by asking for just one Sunday a month [although many people serve in multiple areas].
• Whenever we've got holes in the schedule, we pray like crazy that God would fill it.
• Our ministry team leaders encourage "switching" within their teams rather than dropping out of missed Sundays.
• We say 'Thank You' over and over. I sound like Elvis walking around after the Sunday service is over: "Thankya, thankya very much."
• We have job descriptions for every single role... and I mean every single role... so that no one is left in the dark about how to do it, what is expected, and what a win is.

One thing we're going to do in the new year.... Encourage our current volunteers to invite their friends to join them in serving. If every volunteer is a recruiter, we won't need to recruit volunteers. newchurches

It's all about the weekend...

Every Sunday is always somebody's first Sunday morning at our church... which is why everything we do is geared toward that first-time guest. If anyone's going to be uncomfortable, we want it to be the Christian... every single time. We make the same three announcements... every single week: 1] fill out a response card, 2] sign up for small groups, and 3] the next newcomer's lunch.

Our website's sole purpose is to get people to come on Sunday. [We'll take it from there.] Our Sunday service is like the guest lodge at the base of a mountain; our small groups are like climbing teams; and our group leaders are like sherpas trying to beckon guests out of the lodge to come live the Christian adventure! I love Sunday mornings...

Men in tights without the tights

We're expanding the leadership pipeline in our church. I've started a gathering called "Men in Training" in my living room every other Sunday night that is, by far, the best thing we've done in a long time to raise up godly leaders in our church.

Several "faithful men" have joined our leadership team for a hard-hitting two hours of studying 1] Theology, 2] Church Governance, and 3] Biblical Leadership. We've all committed to daily devotions, scripture memorization and a regular diet of sermon podcasts, which I provide. We set the bar high, and by God's awesome grace, these bad mamajamas are clearing it... and with gratitude! Crazy. But Godly crazy!

We end the night on our knees for a Heaven-splitting, Holy Spirit-beckoning, thunder-shaking, baby-making [er... scratch that last one], time with God. These guys are hungry for God, and I'm shoveling like crazy to put traction under their feet.

Oh no, say it ain't so, Joe

Remember my unrelenting campaign to get Joe Gibbs to speak at our church last spring? I wrote e-mails, letters and even had coffee with the Redskins' chaplain to get the born-again, championship coach to share his testimony at our church [which is one block away from his Reston home]. It was a lost cause before I even started...

Last night I was perusing sermon podcasts to take on the road with me, when I came across a message by Coach Gibbs at the nearby Mclean Bible Church... in the same month I had requested last spring. Ouch. I just might have to root for the Cowboys... for one game. =)

Out of the mouth of a babe

"They have the community-thing down. They just have trouble inviting people into it."

~My wife Ainsley on a church we were discussing

Cominatcha like a spider monkey

Okay, unplanned blog hiatus is over. I've had the flu; I've taken some time to spiritually refuel; and I've recalibrated some stuff in the church. Now I've got so many things to say, I feel sorry for anyone on the other end of this fire hose that's about to unleash. =)

I was in Richmond all day for church planter assessments through the SBCV. As always, running diagnostics on other church plants is so insightful about my own context. Today's top take-aways from the field...

• You can always tell a new church planter because they have the whole thing figured out. =)
• If you're not building leaders, you're not building a church.
• You can have a great vision but if you can't communicate it effectively to everyone in your church, you might as well have no vision at all.
• One church planter's problems could be another planter's dream come true [some problems are good problems to have if you know what I mean].