Crazy Ideas
I need to create a blog category for crazy ideas :) This is one of those blogs that I second-guess. I probably should sleep on these ideas, but I think some ideas die because we sleep on them. And forget about them. I had a couple of meetings that gave me a couple ideas today. My antenna is up every time I meet with someone. You never know when the Holy Spirit is going to use someone or something to give you direction. The truth is: if our antenna was always up we'd hear the Spirit speaking to us all the time!
I had two people today mention something about doing a conference or gathering for churches or church planters. It's something I've thought about. Just as there are hospitals and teaching hospitals, there are churches and teaching churches. I think we're called to be a teaching church. I think I'm such a "learner" that I'm more inclined to think about "what I can learn" than "what I can teach." I'm also painfully aware of our weaknesses. When I think of church conferences I think of a caliber of churches like Saddleback and Willowcreek and Fellowship Church. But maybe we need to start somewhere. I don't want to reinvent the wheel. The last thing we need is someone trying to do a Willowcreek conference or Catalyst conference. They are already being done. So I ask the question: what is our niche? How could we serve the kingdom-at-large? What needs are not being met? I'm processing those questions. I've always felt like we'd host a church conference in DC, but I've never felt like we're ready. But it's one of those things: will you ever feel ready? If you waited to have kids till you were ready would you ever become a parent? Our two passions are creativity and church planting. We also believe in ministry in the marketplace and we're pretty good at doing church in a theater. I wonder if there is a market for a church planting conference? I think Fellowship Church does a great job with their Creative Conference so I'm not sure we need to bark up that tree. I'm just thinking out loud. I think the key to this kind of thing is identifying our strengths and unmet needs.
Here's a second crazy idea. Someone brought up the idea of NCC broadcasting a Television show today. That is an interesting prospect. I tend to write off anything that has to do with TV, but it got me thinking. We do broadcast our messages on a Spanish station in South America. But I've never really entertained the idea here. But there are some factors that could lend themselves towards a TV show. We're pretty adept at media stuff already. In fact, we already tape our messages and show them on the big screen. It woulnd't be a quantum leap to show them on a smaller screen. And we're building the coffeehouse so it's "studio quality." I'm not sure we need another "church service" or "preacher" on TV. But what about some kind of "talk show" based out of a coffeehouse targeting the twenty-something demographic? I think Xers and Yers feel somewhat neglected and there is a growing realization that the "twixter stage" is so critical. We spent our entire lives managing the decisions we make in our twenties. I think Capitol Hill would be an interesting place to pilot that kind of thing. It'd be cool to do a SNL--Saturday or Sunday Night Live. I've often thought of making the coffeehouse service more interactive with a Q & A. This would be an extension of that.
Another crazy idea, but who knows. I've learned not to dismiss "seeds" that get planted in the soil of my spirit. I think a talk show addressing the issues facing twenty-somethings would have a niche. I think it'd need to have a "raw" or "authentic" edge to it. I think it'd have to be "unscripted" in a sense. In fact, that's not a bad name. It's sort of the equivalent of unplugged. That scares me, but I also love to see the Holy Spirit work in unscripted ways! I can certainly envision a live audience at the coffeehouse. As I blog these thoughts I had to admit that it's sort of an "out of body" or "out of mind" experience because none of these thoughts would have entered my mind just yesterday. And maybe this is an idea for someone else to latch on to and make happen. But I felt like it worth the ink. Although I guess there isn't really any "ink" in cyberspace so it was worth the bandwidth.
I think the fear of "starting small" is what keeps most people from achieving anything great. We want to "start big" and if we have to "start small" we won't start at all. I think our core value--everything is an experiment--empowers us to take small risks and big risks. We can even enjoy our failures that way. We laugh about our botched experiments. Hosting a conference and/or TV show are potential failures. But how much damage can you do on a local access channel :)
Enough crazy ideas for one day!
By the way, can you tell my I'm a possibility thinker? Emily Dickinson said, "I dwell in possibility." Me too.
I had two people today mention something about doing a conference or gathering for churches or church planters. It's something I've thought about. Just as there are hospitals and teaching hospitals, there are churches and teaching churches. I think we're called to be a teaching church. I think I'm such a "learner" that I'm more inclined to think about "what I can learn" than "what I can teach." I'm also painfully aware of our weaknesses. When I think of church conferences I think of a caliber of churches like Saddleback and Willowcreek and Fellowship Church. But maybe we need to start somewhere. I don't want to reinvent the wheel. The last thing we need is someone trying to do a Willowcreek conference or Catalyst conference. They are already being done. So I ask the question: what is our niche? How could we serve the kingdom-at-large? What needs are not being met? I'm processing those questions. I've always felt like we'd host a church conference in DC, but I've never felt like we're ready. But it's one of those things: will you ever feel ready? If you waited to have kids till you were ready would you ever become a parent? Our two passions are creativity and church planting. We also believe in ministry in the marketplace and we're pretty good at doing church in a theater. I wonder if there is a market for a church planting conference? I think Fellowship Church does a great job with their Creative Conference so I'm not sure we need to bark up that tree. I'm just thinking out loud. I think the key to this kind of thing is identifying our strengths and unmet needs.
Here's a second crazy idea. Someone brought up the idea of NCC broadcasting a Television show today. That is an interesting prospect. I tend to write off anything that has to do with TV, but it got me thinking. We do broadcast our messages on a Spanish station in South America. But I've never really entertained the idea here. But there are some factors that could lend themselves towards a TV show. We're pretty adept at media stuff already. In fact, we already tape our messages and show them on the big screen. It woulnd't be a quantum leap to show them on a smaller screen. And we're building the coffeehouse so it's "studio quality." I'm not sure we need another "church service" or "preacher" on TV. But what about some kind of "talk show" based out of a coffeehouse targeting the twenty-something demographic? I think Xers and Yers feel somewhat neglected and there is a growing realization that the "twixter stage" is so critical. We spent our entire lives managing the decisions we make in our twenties. I think Capitol Hill would be an interesting place to pilot that kind of thing. It'd be cool to do a SNL--Saturday or Sunday Night Live. I've often thought of making the coffeehouse service more interactive with a Q & A. This would be an extension of that.
Another crazy idea, but who knows. I've learned not to dismiss "seeds" that get planted in the soil of my spirit. I think a talk show addressing the issues facing twenty-somethings would have a niche. I think it'd need to have a "raw" or "authentic" edge to it. I think it'd have to be "unscripted" in a sense. In fact, that's not a bad name. It's sort of the equivalent of unplugged. That scares me, but I also love to see the Holy Spirit work in unscripted ways! I can certainly envision a live audience at the coffeehouse. As I blog these thoughts I had to admit that it's sort of an "out of body" or "out of mind" experience because none of these thoughts would have entered my mind just yesterday. And maybe this is an idea for someone else to latch on to and make happen. But I felt like it worth the ink. Although I guess there isn't really any "ink" in cyberspace so it was worth the bandwidth.
I think the fear of "starting small" is what keeps most people from achieving anything great. We want to "start big" and if we have to "start small" we won't start at all. I think our core value--everything is an experiment--empowers us to take small risks and big risks. We can even enjoy our failures that way. We laugh about our botched experiments. Hosting a conference and/or TV show are potential failures. But how much damage can you do on a local access channel :)
Enough crazy ideas for one day!
By the way, can you tell my I'm a possibility thinker? Emily Dickinson said, "I dwell in possibility." Me too.
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