Big Idea
Dave Ferguson, Lead Pastor of Community Christian Church in Naperville, Illinois is writing a book for Zondervan titled What's the Big Idea? It's a book about the way they plan and design their worship gatherings. He asked me to write a short "case study" for the book. Here are some of my initial thoughts.
By the way, Dave is one of the nicest guys I know. I love CCC! And they were a huge help as we launched our second location two years ago! We are indebted to them! I also love their mission: helping people find their way back to God.
Big Idea
Two years ago, our team visited Community Christian Church in Naperville, Illinois. We sat in on their Big Idea meeting and walked away with a new paradigm to help us harness our creative energies. We've always been hyper-creative. We have more creative ideas than we know what to do with. But we didn't have a system that allowed us the lead-time necessary to really brand sermon series and supplement them with creative elements.
Since our visit to Community Christian we've implemented a weekly "Big Idea" meeting where we brainstorm upcoming sermon series and put together weekly run sheets. We meet together every Tuesday morning at 10 AM and typically meet for about ninety minutes. We have a "last minute" culture at NCC. But we've tried to counterbalance that by planning weekends about 4-6 weeks out. In fact, we put together an annual preaching strategy each year so we have a "rough idea" of where we're headed each calendar year. Then we make mid-course corrections as necessary.
Every weekend we revolve our services around one big idea. We try to come up with something catchy, something memorable. Our worship and videos and messages all try to come at the big idea from a different angle. We want to hammer the big idea home!
This approach to services really complemented my philosophy of preaching. I've never been a three-point preacher. I've always tried to make one point and reinforce it. The best messages have one organizing metaphor! Too many sermons fail because they try to do too much. The Big Idea concept has forced us to do less. And in doing less we accomplish more! The parables are Exhibit A! Jesus was the master of saying so much by saying so little!
Big Idea meetings have become part of our weekly rhythm. And they help us maintain momentum. We're more conscientious about why we're doing what we're doing and how we're doing what we're doing. Planning the spiritual diet of the church is a huge responsibility. Big Idea meetings are one way of taking that responsibility seriously.
The Big Idea meetings also allow for creative synergy. It's amazing how often we come up with a third option that is really a new combination of ideas contributed by team members.
In the Big Idea meetings, one plus one usually equals three!
The Big Idea meetings not only help us brand sermon series. They help us turn attenders into inviters. NCC is 75% unchurched and dechurched because we've got a buzz culture. NCCers are using word of mouth and word of mouse to tell their friends about the church. We try to empower our attenders by giving them invite cards and send out evites. We try to package our series in ways that are appealing because we believe the greatest message deserves the greatest marketing.
At the end of the day, the goal of Big Idea is to help people find their way back to God. All of the brainstorming and planning and designed to help people take one small step, one giant leap towards God.
By the way, Dave is one of the nicest guys I know. I love CCC! And they were a huge help as we launched our second location two years ago! We are indebted to them! I also love their mission: helping people find their way back to God.
Big Idea
Two years ago, our team visited Community Christian Church in Naperville, Illinois. We sat in on their Big Idea meeting and walked away with a new paradigm to help us harness our creative energies. We've always been hyper-creative. We have more creative ideas than we know what to do with. But we didn't have a system that allowed us the lead-time necessary to really brand sermon series and supplement them with creative elements.
Since our visit to Community Christian we've implemented a weekly "Big Idea" meeting where we brainstorm upcoming sermon series and put together weekly run sheets. We meet together every Tuesday morning at 10 AM and typically meet for about ninety minutes. We have a "last minute" culture at NCC. But we've tried to counterbalance that by planning weekends about 4-6 weeks out. In fact, we put together an annual preaching strategy each year so we have a "rough idea" of where we're headed each calendar year. Then we make mid-course corrections as necessary.
Every weekend we revolve our services around one big idea. We try to come up with something catchy, something memorable. Our worship and videos and messages all try to come at the big idea from a different angle. We want to hammer the big idea home!
This approach to services really complemented my philosophy of preaching. I've never been a three-point preacher. I've always tried to make one point and reinforce it. The best messages have one organizing metaphor! Too many sermons fail because they try to do too much. The Big Idea concept has forced us to do less. And in doing less we accomplish more! The parables are Exhibit A! Jesus was the master of saying so much by saying so little!
Big Idea meetings have become part of our weekly rhythm. And they help us maintain momentum. We're more conscientious about why we're doing what we're doing and how we're doing what we're doing. Planning the spiritual diet of the church is a huge responsibility. Big Idea meetings are one way of taking that responsibility seriously.
The Big Idea meetings also allow for creative synergy. It's amazing how often we come up with a third option that is really a new combination of ideas contributed by team members.
In the Big Idea meetings, one plus one usually equals three!
The Big Idea meetings not only help us brand sermon series. They help us turn attenders into inviters. NCC is 75% unchurched and dechurched because we've got a buzz culture. NCCers are using word of mouth and word of mouse to tell their friends about the church. We try to empower our attenders by giving them invite cards and send out evites. We try to package our series in ways that are appealing because we believe the greatest message deserves the greatest marketing.
At the end of the day, the goal of Big Idea is to help people find their way back to God. All of the brainstorming and planning and designed to help people take one small step, one giant leap towards God.
4 Comments:
dave ferguson is a great guy. i've been trying to the brutha to blog. :)
the big idea concept is awesome.
Mark,
Your post reminded me of our discussion at Steak N' Shake:
"We have more creative ideas than we know what to do with. But we didn't have a system that allowed us the lead-time necessary to really brand sermon series and supplement them with creative elements."
And " We have a "last minute" culture at NCC. But we've tried to counterbalance that by planning weekends about 4-6 weeks out."
I'd just like to encourage you to have Dave Clark help you with this process in your writing for Dave Ferguson. As we talked about, quality media support and enhancement takes time more than it takes equipment and personnel. Creating an environment where the synergy of your culture works with the reality of compelling content's timetable is a huge area of discussion.
Keep up the great posts!
Scott, I was just talking about you with my assistant this morning and told her to set up an appointment with you to get some blogging coaching. So you will be hearing from me. And thanks for the kudos.
And Mark, thanks for the plug!!
Can't wait for the book, Dave! It's going to bless and challenge lots of churches!
Glad to facilitate a meeting in the blogosphere :)
Post a Comment
<< Home