DNA
Since I just blogged about some of our weaknesses let me flip the coin.
We spent some time brainstorming recently and it really turned into a long look in the mirror. We're really trying to figure out our niche as a church.
We feel called to be a teaching church and share our learnings with other churches, but we don't want to reinvent the wheel. So we spent a couple hours talking about our passions and convictions. There are lots of things we don't do very well :) We're definitely a work in progress. But I also think we're coming to terms with who we are and who we're not. And this is huge: if you don't know who you are you'll try to become someone else.
Our reflections came out of a diagnostic question that every church needs to ask itself: what makes us unique?
I'm not talking in "better or worse" terms. I'm talking about originality. I just think every church with a kingdom mindset ought to celebrate it's own uniqueness and the uniqueness of other churches in their community!
The following reflections don't represent our entire genetic code. But this is part of the double helix. Think of them as strands of DNA. Hopefully these reflections help other churches go through the process of identifying their DNA.
There are three core convictions that drive NCC.
C1: The church ought to be the most creative place on the planet.
C2: The greatest message deserves the greatest marketing.
C3: The church is called to compete in the middle of the marketplace.
There are certain phrases that get repeated around NCC all the time.
We're orthodox in belief but unorthodox in practice.
Doing church in the middle of the marketplace is part of our DNA.
There are ways of doing church that no one has thought of yet.
We take fun seriously!
We have rather unique core values. A few of them include:
Irrelevance is irreverence
Playing it safe is risky
Work like it depends on you & pray like it depends on God
Everything is an experiment
Expect the unexpected
Everyone is invaluable and irreplacable
I think where we do church is somewhat unique. We love rented facilities. We sort of feel like we're a "tabernacle church" patterned after the Old Testament tabernacle that functioned as the first mobile church or multi-site church. Our macro vision is to meet in movie theaters @ metro stops throughout the DC area. Now meeting at a theater near you! And I hope we contribute to a coffeehouse church trend. I'm not saying we'll never build a church building but we really thrive in marketplace environments.
I think who we are reaching is somewhat unique. We're 73% single twenty-somethings. We're also 25% unchurched and 50% dechurched. I really feel like we are a church for people who quit going to church. And I continue to be more and more amazed at the racial and political diversity of NCC.
I think how we are doing church is somewhat unique. Our theaterchurch.com podcast is neo-evangelism. Blogging is digital discipleship. We love turning the theater screen into postmodern stained glass via videos. And we're very intentional about branding sermon series and marketing small groups. I also think doing church in multiple locations is part of our DNA. We had the mulit-site vision before we had one viable location. I also think we're pretty good at cultural exegesis. We're intentional about redeeming culture and using it for God's purposes.
In some ways, church development is like child development. We're only ten years old so NCC hasn't even hit puberty yet :) I'm not sure all that we'll become. But I think it's important that we continue coming to terms with who we are and who we aren't.
We spent some time brainstorming recently and it really turned into a long look in the mirror. We're really trying to figure out our niche as a church.
We feel called to be a teaching church and share our learnings with other churches, but we don't want to reinvent the wheel. So we spent a couple hours talking about our passions and convictions. There are lots of things we don't do very well :) We're definitely a work in progress. But I also think we're coming to terms with who we are and who we're not. And this is huge: if you don't know who you are you'll try to become someone else.
Our reflections came out of a diagnostic question that every church needs to ask itself: what makes us unique?
I'm not talking in "better or worse" terms. I'm talking about originality. I just think every church with a kingdom mindset ought to celebrate it's own uniqueness and the uniqueness of other churches in their community!
The following reflections don't represent our entire genetic code. But this is part of the double helix. Think of them as strands of DNA. Hopefully these reflections help other churches go through the process of identifying their DNA.
There are three core convictions that drive NCC.
C1: The church ought to be the most creative place on the planet.
C2: The greatest message deserves the greatest marketing.
C3: The church is called to compete in the middle of the marketplace.
There are certain phrases that get repeated around NCC all the time.
We're orthodox in belief but unorthodox in practice.
Doing church in the middle of the marketplace is part of our DNA.
There are ways of doing church that no one has thought of yet.
We take fun seriously!
We have rather unique core values. A few of them include:
Irrelevance is irreverence
Playing it safe is risky
Work like it depends on you & pray like it depends on God
Everything is an experiment
Expect the unexpected
Everyone is invaluable and irreplacable
I think where we do church is somewhat unique. We love rented facilities. We sort of feel like we're a "tabernacle church" patterned after the Old Testament tabernacle that functioned as the first mobile church or multi-site church. Our macro vision is to meet in movie theaters @ metro stops throughout the DC area. Now meeting at a theater near you! And I hope we contribute to a coffeehouse church trend. I'm not saying we'll never build a church building but we really thrive in marketplace environments.
I think who we are reaching is somewhat unique. We're 73% single twenty-somethings. We're also 25% unchurched and 50% dechurched. I really feel like we are a church for people who quit going to church. And I continue to be more and more amazed at the racial and political diversity of NCC.
I think how we are doing church is somewhat unique. Our theaterchurch.com podcast is neo-evangelism. Blogging is digital discipleship. We love turning the theater screen into postmodern stained glass via videos. And we're very intentional about branding sermon series and marketing small groups. I also think doing church in multiple locations is part of our DNA. We had the mulit-site vision before we had one viable location. I also think we're pretty good at cultural exegesis. We're intentional about redeeming culture and using it for God's purposes.
In some ways, church development is like child development. We're only ten years old so NCC hasn't even hit puberty yet :) I'm not sure all that we'll become. But I think it's important that we continue coming to terms with who we are and who we aren't.
3 Comments:
This is very well-written and helpful. I think it will take NCCers who read this to a new level and a new understanding of our vision and how we can pray for our church. I love the part about celebrating the uniquenesses of other churches. In a world where everyone is out to be the best, celebrating others really appeals. Keep up the great work!
If Pastor Mark were a pull-string doll, this entire blog post would be the script programmed into him. Pull the string and he randomly calls out one sentence from it. My personal favorite: "NCC hasn't even hit puberty yet!"
I'm tellin' ya, these things would sell like hot cakes! I can see it now...
Thanks for the laugh Stephen :) The pull-string doll beats a bobble-head I guess!
PM
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