History in the Making

Selah

We Can't Say 'Evangelist' Can We?

Excited about having Guy Kawasaki speak at Catalyst west this April. He was an "Evangelist" for Apple during the start-up years and has gone on to become one of the world's biggest bloggers, founder of Alltop and Garage Technology Ventures - a venture capitalist firm.

Notice how Christian terms translate well into the business community. It's okay to say you're an "evangelist" for a product or a company. But in terms of the Gospel... it's become a bad word.

Mistakes of First-Time Authors

Reading Rob Bell's books is such a great lesson in marketing. Got me thinking about mistakes of first-time authors...

• Letting the creativity stop inside the pages, rather than extending it to the concept and the cover. (a la Rob Bell)
• Announcing and promoting the book waaaay too soon. The buzz ends before the book ever gets out.
• Scheduling "blog tours" on different days over time, rather than asking everyone to post on the same day.
• Not getting third-party help to promote the book. Successful books gets promoted by other people besides the author.
• Having an "aw shucks" attitude toward getting published. Settling for any deal, even if it's not beneficial.
• Not presenting thought-provoking, or even controversial, issues that get people talking.
• Not having a great editor take the book to a whole other level.

Consider this part 1. Still thinking on this one...

Headed Home Soon

Finishing up our executive leadership retreat and heading home soon. We're staying in a company-friend's palatial cabin in the mountains in Cashiers, NC. Freezing at these altitudes. But overlooking the #1 rated golf course in 2008. Lovin the luxurious digs, but really hate being away from the fam.

Life Church Offers Free Church Management System

Life Church is taking open source to a whole other level. They just launched ChurchMetrics.com, which plunges a dagger into the church management software systems for which you are paying an arm and a leg...

Live Pic from NKOTB Concert

Ains just sent me a camera pic from the New Kids concert from inside the Gwinnett Arena. I'm sitting in a cabin on the top of a mountain in Cashiers, North Carolina. Now I'm posting to you. Isn't technology crazy?

Fixed vs Variable Creativity

Just as you have fixed versus variable costs in your living expenses (your house payment is fixed; but your cable bill is variable), there are fixed and variable levels of creativity in an organization.

As Catalyst is expanding from one event in Atlanta each October... to two... to three and four events each year, I'm looking at creativity through this lens. We can't spend weeks of sleeplessness nights every quarter or all of us will burn out.

In order for our team to sustain such a rigorous schedule, there are certain aspects of an event that deserve tons of creative outpouring. But then there are others that can remain consistent across the board.

Destination Events

I'm a huge fan of destination events.

For Whiteboard, I set this one-day conference in the middle of Reston Town Center - thought it would make an incredible backdrop with the restaurants, Parisian fountain, movie theater. But I listened carefully, and heard very little about the environment. People didn't care about the town center as much as I thought they would...

Yesterday, our CEO and I had lunch with a guy who hosts leadership events in sports environments: Yankee stadium, the Pittsburgh Steelers locker room, etc. Also loved reading about Mark Batterson's trip to Germany, where he'll meet with other leaders in the very church where Luther posted his 95 theses.

Tell me what you think. Would love to hear your thoughts because I'd love to do more destination events. A few places I'd love to host them...

• The Kilns in Oxford, England, where CS Lewis lived. The residence is now open for private study.
• The Viking Yurt in Park City, Utah, where you snowshoe to your dinner - with room for only 33.
• Quebec, Canada

Back in Black

Steven Furtick appeared in a new black do this past Sunday at Elevation. (Why do I feel like the Christian Perez Hilton for pointing this out?) Love this guy's fashion courage.

Where I'm at Today

Corporate retreat in Cashiers, North Carolina. You know it's a good day at work when you have to create strategy... and watch for bears. =)

Hangin' Tough

So my wife is headed out with her girlfriends tonight to see the New Kids on the Block at the Gwinnett Center. Two words come to mind as I look at these mugs... not worried. =)

Unscrambling Hard-to-Reach Communities

I spent the weekend writing 3,000 words about how church plants are designed to reach specific people groups. Not just ethnicities and geographies, but subcultures and subtle communities.

God intentionally separated the cultures at the tower of Babel to partition corruption. Think of it like a water bed. You can knife one pocket without dumping the entire water-load on your floor.

But these cultural barriers also prevent the Gospel from spreading easily as well. This is why the Great Commission is to make disciples of ta ethne - or people groups.

God calls different kinds of church planters to plant different kinds of church plants to reach different kinds of people. What's imperative is understanding our community so that we can contextualize the Gospel... go Philippians 2 on our towns.

Social incarnation.

What Can I Say?

I Only Twitter on Weekends

Is that bad? I'm a weekend twitterer... a twikender... er.... I just can't make it work during the week...

The Society Pages

My friend and Integrity's marketing chief Stephen Brewster just had beautiful triplets. They named the girls Grace, Hope and Mac... appropriately.

Just kidding. Stephen and Jackie only had twins.

I don't just love Stephen for the free stuff he sends me, but it sure doesn't hurt. =) He just sent me Hillsong London's newest release, which includes the stellar song "You Are Here."

I am STOKED about having Hillsong United at west coast Catalyst and am pretty sure this song will get some good play. =)

Super 8mm Film Screen Test

Vacation footage on a super 8mm film camera....

Church Logo Design Contest

Vince Antonucci just announced the name of his new church on the Las Vegas strip. And this afternoon, he announced a contest to design its logo. This is gonna be fun to watch...

Endoskeleton vs Exoskeleton Preaching

Preaching has changed. It's still organized. Still structured. But the message outline is now hidden from view. Rather than having acronyms and bullet points, sermons are being anchored on metaphors, movements and stories.

Take Andy Stanley's second talk at Catalyst this year - "Recent Random Thoughts on Leadership." A sign of the times. No three points, a poem, and prayer anymore.

Preaching is now moving from exoskeleton to endoskeleton. The outline is still there, but it's underneath the skin. It's hidden from view.

Capturing The 'P' Generation

Read in Fast Company on the plane to California last week that MTV refers to 12-24 year olds as the 'P Generation' (or "programmers") for the way they like to customize their entertainment. I was befuddled by this until we visited Tony Woods' Generate service at Crossroads Church. It was awesome, and Tony is a phenomenal communicator. But even more staggering was the crowd - it looked like a balanced blend of high school students and young twenty-somethings. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it for myself. Tony has captured the P Generation.

You Gotta Read 'Sway'

I don't recommend books very often. But here's a big one. Sway by Ori Brafman (author of the Starfish and the Spider) is the Tipping Point of 2009. Must read. If you read it and loved it too, let's start a club.