Just got a note from a college student in South Carolina. He found NCC during an internship in DC and continues to tune into the theaterchurch.com podcast.

Here is an excerpt from his note:

NCC was the first church that helped me feel close to God. I am now back at school in SC but I listen to your sermon every week through the podcast. Your last one on Y Give was excellent and I wanted to pass along a small dedication gift of my own.

I read that to our staff, and I'm not sure where this came from, but I said, "Revival isn't everyone getting the willies." Revival is college students giving $150 dedication gifts! I was so blessed by this gift because I know it was sacrificial.

I think we tend to "measure revival" by emotional fervor. It ought to be measured by spiritual fruit.

By the way, revival isn't everyone getting wet willies either :)

My son Parker is a Star Wars fanatic.

For what it's worth, seeing the first Star Wars movie as a seven year-old is one of my defining moments. It was the most unforgettable movie memory I'll ever have. Nothing can rival it.

So before bed, Parker handed me a two-page quiz on Star Wars that he made up tonight :) Then I tucked him into bed after promising to take the quiz.

About fifteen minutes later he came downstairs and said, "Dad, Star Wars is like the Bible. Darth Sidious is like the Devil. He disguises himself as Lord Palpatine. Yoda is like Jesus. And there are twelve Jedi masters in the Jedi council. And Anakin is like Judas. He goes over to the dark side."

Then he said, "I think about Star Wars too much." He smiled :) And went back to bed.

I might just have Parker preach one of the God @ the Box Office messages this year :)

Footnote.

Here's a little Star Wars trivia of my own. One of my favorite songs is set to the Star Wars anthem. Here are the lyrics:

Star Wars
Nothing But Star Wars
If they Should Bar Wars
Let Star Wars Stay

It's an SNL classic! I sing it all the time!

Just connected with blogger extraordinaire, Perry Noble.

He was in town for the State of the Union address. It's amazing the way the blogosphere brings people together. I've met so many people I'd never know if we didn't blog! Of course, I jokingly say "so you are real" whenever I meet them :)

We only got to spend about 45 minutes together but it felt like 5 minutes! Time flies when you're talking with creative visionaries!

Got two great ideas while we were talking.

Perry talked about a spontaneous baptism they did one Sunday. I love the concept. That is so Acts! They had extra shorts and shirts for people who wanted to get baptized "on the spot." Something like 173 people took the plunge!

I think the coffeehouse will enable us to do "surprise baptisms."

He also said they did a series titled ihatemymarriage.com. Then they put up billboards with the web domain on them. What a great way to promo a sermon series. If the domain had the church name in it I'm betting that most people wouldn't take time to follow the link. But ihatemymarriage.com is a great hook if someone is having marital problems!

We're always trying to brand our sermon series. I think we might start using unique domain names to brand some of our series.

I just added a link to Perry's blog. Check it out.

If you're an NCCer and you'll still trying to figure out what small group to plug into, here is a link to the PDF of our Small Group Guide.

By the way, we'll include the Small Group Guide in our Buzz Box at the Buzz Conference in May. If you haven't registered yet visit www.buzzconference.com.

FYI

According to our legal sources this Small Group Guide fits within the parody clause. Last year we played off of Sports Illustrated and did NCC Illustrated. This year we're playing off another magazine that will remain nameless. We thought it was a good fit with our discipleship theme.

I don't think originality is coming up with new ideas in a vacumn. Nine times out of ten it is coming up with new twists on existing ideas. It involves cross-polination. We get lots of creative ideas from magazines, TV shows, movies, and books. That is a form of incarnation. We redeem ideas that are part of the cultural consciousness and use them for God's purposes.

We're literally days away from the completion of our coffeehouse.

In fact, we're going to do a time lapse video either this Sunday or next Sunday. We started filming when the old building was demolished. It's our longest video project ever. I guess it took more than a year to film! Can't wait to film our Grand Opening and people coming to our first Saturday night service. That'll complete the circle.

I think part of leadership is capturing and communicating the defining moments that make us who we are. That is why we're so intentional about video taping baptisms, special events, etc.

Like every building project, we're several months behind the projected completion date :) But I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

The thing that has helped me endure this building project is the fact that I try to approach everything in life with a learner's permit.

I'm going to make mistakes, but that's ok as long as I learn from them. When I was looking for an office for NCC it was an education in real estate. When I was looking for a publisher for my book it was an education in publishing. When I was speaking to thirteen people in seven pews in a small church during college it was an education in preaching. Building this coffeehouse has been a graduate education in construction.

If you approach everything in life as a learning opportunity then you can't fail. You can only learn! I think that approach to life spins every negative event into a learning experience. The more mistakes the more education!

Everyday is filled with so many coffeehouse decisions that have so many ramifications. I was trying to think of an analogy and the only one I could come up with is batting cages. You stand in the batter's box and a mechanical arm pitches ball after ball after ball. I feel like I'm in a decision cage. The decisions are flying at me like fast balls.

I made a tough decision today. I make very few executive decisions. I like consensus. But I decided on stained concrete instead of carpet downstairs. Tough call but sometimes you have to go with your gut. I just felt like stained concrete was a better fit with the urban vibe of our space. I also felt like it was an easier decision to reverse if necessary. It'd be tough to tear up carpent and stain. It's much easier to stain and carpet over it.

Anybody can make easy decisions. Leaders are called upon to make what I call the 52/48 decisions. Those decisions that are so close they could go either way. Leaders make the tough decisions and accept the consequences for better or for worse!

I keep having this recurring thought and I have to blog it. I wrote it in my prayer journal a few weeks ago. It kept coming to mind during our leadership retreat.

Here's my recurring thought: I'm so grateful for a church where I can be myself.

There is so much pretense in so many churches. There is an image to uphold. It's like a game of charades that never ends! I love the Church, but there is way too much posturing and positioning. Too many churches mistake cultural conformity for spiritual maturity. There is a sense of safety and security because everyone is like everyone else. But we have a core value at NCC: conformity doesn't equal maturity.

I feel like we've created a culture that balances conformity and originality. I've preached this a hundred times. We each have a dual-destiny. One destiny is universal--conformity to Christ. The other destiny is unique--originality. We are destined to become like Christ and destined to become unlike anyone who has ever lived.

Here's a thought from my book ID: The True You:

There never has been and never will be anyone like you! But that isn't a testament to you. It's a testament to the God who created you.

The church ought to be a place where people can most be themselves.

That's how I feel at NCC. And I don't take that for granted.

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We're always trying to think of new ways of framing discipleship. This year we put together a discipleship map. Here is an animated trailer that we're showing during our semester kickoff. It's one way we're trying to get people excited about the spiritual journey we're all on.

Just got back from our 2006 Leadership Retreat. What a weekend! Every year we pay for our leaders to come to the Annual Leadership Retreat. It's one of the best investments we make. We cast vision and do leadership development for about 24 hours.

The band rocked. Loved the NCC remix of Kyrie Elieson!

The teaching sessions were incredible. Our theme was Journey: Expect the Unexpected.

For years we've talked about developing a discipleship map. We finally did it this year. One of the things I love about the map metaphor is that it's not linear and there is no end point. The discipleship journey never ends. There is always terra incognita.



One of the highlights for me was playing volleyball with Parker till 12:30 AM. What a blast playing games with 125 leaders :) We take fun seriously at NCC. I honestly think you can learn more about a person playing games for one night than you can working together for one year!

On Saturday morning I got up and there was an NCC newspaper outside our room. Are you kidding me? I had no idea we were doing that. What a cool touch.

We have a core value at NCC: do it right and do it big. We don't do anything halfway. The retreat followed suit. I can say that because I had nothing to do with planning it and pulling it off. One of my greatest joys as Lead Pastor is seeing NCC outgrow me! Its so cool showing up to an event that someone else planned and be blown away by it. I was so proud of our team this week.

I'm physched about the small groups were offering this semester! Our job as leaders is to provide spiritual growth opportunities. We're offering 61 amazing opportunities this semester. Alot of people are going to get discipled in the next couple months!

We also did a few breakout sessions. I sat in on the ministry breakout and each ministry shared "best practices." I had no idea all the amazing things our ministries are doing! It was so informational and inspirational for our ministries to learn from each other. Great cross-polinization!

Everything from Name that Tune to Personality Dysfunction to Sword Drill was too much fun! I definitely got my laugh quota.

I have this sense that God is preparing us for exponential growth. That is my sixth sense. There are a couple reasons. First, we've got 61 small groups this semester. I feel like God doesn't give the increase until we're prepared to disciple people. I think we're ready to disciple more people. Second, I sense our team coming into their own. They are maturing in their giftings. Third, we're building on all the things we've learned and experienced. I feel like we're building on a platform that has been built over the past ten years. Fourth, I'm hungrier. I think there are moments where God gives us the opportunity to step up. It's scary. It means more sweat and tears. But if we step up we step into our destiny. God releases a greater anointing. I never feel equal to the task, but I'm hungry to see God do something bigger and better at NCC.

We took our kids bowling today with their cousins. Our three year-old, Josiah, actually bowled a 100 game. And it was his first time bowling. The proof is in the picture!

For what it's worth, the computer actually tracked ball speed. I think Josiah's average speed was about 2.14 mph. We could eat a five course meal in between him releasing the ball and the ball hitting the pins!

For the record, it was bumper bowling :) But 100 still ain't bad.

We bumped into Anthony Coppedge at C3 and I introduced him to David Russell, our new Digital Pastor. Anthony said to David, "Welcome to the Freak Show."

That's one of the nicest compliments we've ever been paid as a church.

Freak Show.

I don't think we're changing our name, but I like the moniker.

Here are some thoughts from session V at C3 with TD Jakes:

TD referenced the feeding of the 5000. Too many pastors view their congregation as the 5000. He said, "Don't see your congregation as the 5,000. See them as the 12 disciples who served the 5000." The congregation isn't the end game. They are the disciples who feed the 5000 in the workplace, neighborhoods, and schools.

Here are some commandments from the Life of Moses. I didn't get all ten because we had to cut out early and get to the airport. I'd highly recommend the CD. TD was on fire!

1) Thou Shalt Make Four E's

Education--never stop learning, never stop reading, never stop growing. Moses was educated as an Egyptian Prince and a Hebrew Slave.

Experience--there are some things you can't learn from an education. You need an experience. It is out of your experience with God that will make or break you. You can't lead people where you have not gone!

Exposure--expose yourself to new things, new people, new ideas. It keeps you from being narrow-minded. Don't limit yourself to people who think like, act like, worship like, and pastor like you! God is blessing someother other than you! You can't franchise God. Exposure helps you distinguish between truth and tradition. Be willing to be criticized. Dare to be different. Moses was exposed to the Egyptian and Hebrew worlds.

Effective--Woe be under the leader who says "Make me bigger." Make me better. Get better and you'll get bigger! Effective starts in small places--the womb. 2) Thou Shalt Not Go Without Your StaffMoses did more miracles through his staff than his hand. Develop your staff.

2) Thou Shalt Not Go Without Your Staff

Moses did more miracles through his staff than his hand. Develop your staff.

3) Thou Shalt not despise obscurity

God is geting you ready. Sometimes he hides you to save you like He did with Moses. But he will expose you sooner or later.

"You never finish finding yourself."

Moses didn't find his purpose till he turned 80.

"There are no surefire ways to success." Success is not monolithic.

There aren't five steps to double your impact in 30 days!

What a great night.

Ed and Lisa Young invited a few pastors over to their house for dinner. It's the first time meeting Ed in person, but he's the kind of person who makes you feel like you're old friends. I really enjoyed connecting with some Fellowship staff. I also met some pastors I only knew by name.

Had a great conversation with Erwin McManus. We talked quite a bit about writing. I'm just beginning my writing gig with Multnomah and he's got some amazing books under his belt. He's one of my favorite authors and speakers. If you haven't read any of his books you need to. I'd start with The Barbarian Way.

Great night of food and fellowship. Nothing like southern hospitality!

Here are some thoughts from Session IV at C3 with Erwin McManus:

Every person comes pre-loaded with a neurological feature called Selective Sensory Perception.

A person with Attention Deficit Disorder doesn't filter out enough information. A person with ADD is trying to process too much information. That's why they're constantly distracted.

Everyday we filter out information that our subconscious deems irrelevant.

Most people have selectively filtered out the church. We get no attention. Zero. Zilch. Why? Because we’re perceived as irrelevant.

I Samuel 14.

What is the most spiritual activity you'll engage in today?

Worship? Prayer? Serving? Evangelism?

All of those activities are functions of the most spiritual activity: choosing.

It's all about choices.

Jonathan is the patron saint of risk-takers! He climbed a cliff and single-handedly took on the Philistine army! He said, "Perhaps the Lord will act on our behalf." Jonathan took the initiative. He made a choice to do something, anything.

"Fail boldly. Don't fail at the same thing over and over. Be creative."

"Keep moving and God's steering will get you where you need to go."

"Leadership vision sees risk as the equivalent of faith."
"Leadership vision sees risk as a necessary component of life."

If you want to get healthy go in the direction of your greatest fear.

Too many of us "stay until God says go" when God wants us to "go unless we get a no."

Technorati Tags: C3, C3 2006, Fellowship Church

If he was on his death bed and could only relay four statements to church leaders this is what Bill Hybels would say:

1) Keep the vision clear
2) Get people engaged
3) Make your gatherings memorable
4) Pace yourself for the long haul

Here are some thoughts from Session II @ C3:

This session is taking me back to basics! I Timothy 1:12 is an important reminder for pastors. Man doesn't appoint. God calls.

If we forget that we're "appointed by God" then we start serving the "wrong they." All of us have ministry scars. 9 times out of 10 it's the result of listening to the wrong people!

Ed said, "The majority is usually wrong. God always works through a remnant."

Only 2 out of 6,000,000 made it the Promise Land. Israel didn't fulfill her destiny because she listened to the "wrong they." They paid attention to a bad report from the majority instead of ignoring it. They listened to the 10 naysayers instead of the 2 visionaries who claimed the promises of God.

Here's the bottom line: we've got to move the pronoun from THEY to ME to HE.

It's not about they. It's not about me. It's about He.

Here are two thoughts that really challenged me:

Ed quoted someone who said: "Sometimes I want to resign from the ministry so I can read my Bible and pray for the right reasons."

Ed gave great advice: "You be you under the authority of God."

So last night I told Dave and David that I wanted to kick off the Buzz Conference with Let's Get It Started. So we walk into the opening session and Let's Get it Started is the opening song at C3 :)

I may have to settle for kicking off one of our services with a redeemed version of Get it Started.

Here are some thoughts from Ed Young's opening session.

"Little people with little vision attack big people with big vision."

Here is an observation I've made over the years: a person who is sold out to God convicts everyone around them! But it's a holy conviction. And there are one of two responses. Either people criticize the one who convicts them to justify their complacency. Or they accept the challenge and sell out to God themselves!

That's what is happening in Nehemiah 4:14. Nehemiah has a God-sized vision. But a couple naysayers named Tobiah and Sanballat tried to diss-courage Nehemiah. But Nehemiah tuned them out. If you listen to the "wrong they" it'll result in vision sway.

Here is a discovery I've made over the years. Most of the people who come to your church from another church want your church to conform to the church they come from. You might need to read that twice. Unchurched people don't have an agenda. That's why they never cause problems :) But churched people often want your church to conform to their church. It's natural. It's subconscious.

Don't let anyone keep you from being you! I'm more and more convinced that part of spiritual maturity is resisting conformity and moving toward originality. It's becoming more and more comfortable in your own unique skin. We're called to conform to Christ. But we're all called to become unlike anyone else who has ever lived.

You be you.

"I don't want to rise and fall based on the opinions of people."

For what it's worth, Ed has someone screen his mail and email. And he doesn't read unsigned letters :) We need constructive criticism, but that ought to come from the people who are closest to us! If you listen to the "wrong they" you become like them.

Nehemiah stayed above the fray!

Here's a thought that really challenge me: "Leaders don't take people where they want to go. Leaders take people where they need to go."

Churches naturally become ingrown. I call them centripetal churches.

In the words of Ed Young, "People will lick the lint out of each other's navels." We're not called to sing Kumbaya. If someone isn't 100% on board with the vision of your church, no matter how much they give, you need their seat.

"I don't want people who are for me. I want people who are with me."

Technorati Tags: C3, C3 2006, Fellowship Church

I love the blogosphere.

I've read a bunch of books on six degrees of seperation. I'm fascinated by the fact that only six relationships seperate us from everyone in the world. I think there are only two degrees of separation in the blogosphere.

I just bumped into Terry Crist, pastor of CITICHURCH in Scottsdale, AZ, at C3.

He came up and introduced himself. He's spent some time in the evosphere. It was so cool to hear his story and the way God is blessing CitiChurch. Long story short, I would never know or met people like Terry if it weren't for the blogosphere. The blogosphere has shrunk the world.

There are only two degrees of seperataion in the blogosphere.

I am reading through Deuteronomy in my devotions. Here is a verse that really challenged me today. Deuteronomy 14:19 says, "All flying insects are ceremonially unclean for you and may not be eaten."

I wrong "Dang" in the margin of my Bible next to that verse.

Seriously, I'm feeling so spiritual today. I finally found a commandment I'm not even tempted to break. I'm on top of the world.

I've never broken this command. On occasion, a flying insect has gotten inside my mouth. But I cough religiously. I've never swallowed.

Some commandments are just easier to keep than others :)

If you've never eaten flying insects reach around and give yourself a pat on the back today!

Deep thoughts.

We made it to Dallas. The airport security was so cordial. They asked us to take our shoes off but they had a box of these blue hats :)

Here's a picture of Hummer we didn't rent.
















Technorati Tags: C3, C3 2006, Fellowship Church

Headed to the C3 conference at Fellowship Church in Grapevine, TX today.

One of my greatest fears is becoming a closed system at NCC. That's why we do alot of reconaissance at other churches and go to conferences. It fuels our creativity. I went to C3 two years ago. Excited about heading back.

Joe Dascenzo at Change Design sent me this graphic.

In case you aren't real observant, there is a subliminal message :)

I just sent out the latest evotional--Y Give.

For a free subscription, visit www.theaterchurch.com and click on the evotional link. Every week I send out an email version of my weekend messages.

I recently did an article for preachingtoday.com titled Red Pill Preaching. They posted it on their website yesterday.

Here's a link.

http://www.preachingtoday.com/32811

I'm reading Jump Start Your Business Brain by Doug Hall. If you're a regular in the evosphere you know that I believe that part of being "shrewd as snakes" is beating the world at their own game. We've got the greatest message. It's deserves the greatest marketing.

Hall shares three laws of marketing physics:

1) Overt Benefit
2) Real Reason to Believe
3) Dramatic Difference

The average consumer is drowning in marketing messages. We're exposed to 3,000 advertisements per day via TV, radio, print, and billboards.

Plus we've got a 1,000 options for everything. I just checked the DC phone book. If you've got a problem with your toilet you've got 127 plumbers to choose from. Legal problems? Check pages 543-604. 59 pages of lawyers! Locked out? I counted 500+ locksmiths! And when you die? You've got 85 undertaker options!

We're overwhelmed by options. That includes churches. There were 9 pages of churches in the DC book.

So how do you stand out in a white noise world?

The answer is simple: dramatic difference.

Part of the reason National Community Church gets so much press is because we're different. Not better or worse. Just different. We're a church without a church building. We build coffeehouses instead of churches. We meet in movie theaters @ metro stops. And we're the demographic invese of most churches--73% single twenty-somethings. We're different. And those dramatic differences have gotten us noticed.

According to research studies, a clear dramatic difference increases the probability of success from 15% to 53%.

Don't be afraid of being different. Normality is overrated.

John the Baptist wasn't normal. And that's part of why John the Baptist stood out. I don't know that I've ever thought about this before, but his clothes matched his message. He didn't dress up like the Pharisees. He dressed down. He wore camel's hair.

Go grunge.

The "benefits" of following Christ are literally out of this world but we don't do it justice. Hall says something in the book that really challenged me: "Never let a customer say no because she doesn't understand what you offer." How many people have said "no" because they don't really understand the amazing offer Christ has made?

For what it's worth, Hall says, "The greater the number of benefits promised the lower your chances of success."

Less is more!

Hall says, "The more you focus on doing one thing great the greater your probability of success."

I'm digging my new prayer journal.

I've never kept one before but I feel like it is taking my prayer life to another level. Here is the realization I had today. Writing down my prayers doesn't allow me to pray generic prayers. It forces me to pray specific prayers.

A few years ago I read something Yonggi Cho wrote: "Don't pray vague prayers." That challenged me beyond words. Vague prayers are a cop out. You don't require any faith. And you never know if God answers them because they're so vague.

Here's my challenge: don't pray generic prayers.

Get specific. I'm praying for fospecific things for specific people. It's often a single word that I'll write next to their name. For example, I'm praying for different fruits of the spirit for different people.

Oswald Chambers said, "Let God be as original with others as he was with you." I live by that motto. God works in different ways at different times in different people. That's why I tend to be descriptive instead of prescriptive in my blogging and preaching. But if you want to take your prayer life to the next level I have a prescription: a prayer journal.

We just signed off on our Buzz Ad. We're advertising the Buzz Conference in a couple magazines. Props to Change Design. They are one of our Buzz sponsors.

If you're looking for some creative support, check out www.changedesigngroup.com. By the way, I love their motto: making those who do good look good.

Oh yeah, Joe Dascenzo and Tim Ellens are all-around great guys too!

I like working with people I like :) Deep thoughts by Mark Batterson.

I just signed off on our Annual Ministry Report (AMR) and it's headed to the printer.

Take a deep breath.
Exhale.

The AMR is my baby so it's pretty time-consuming. I'm pretty stoked about the final product.

Four years ago I was at a conference and I happened to spot an annual report from some random ministry at one of the booths. It sparked an idea. At the time we gave guests some written information about NCC. It was nothing more than black text on a white 8 1/2 by 11 piece of paper. I'd had this lingering feeling that we could make a better impression than that. Long story short, we put together our first AMR in 2003.

We do lots of stuff poorly. But I think we do the AMR right :)

We give an AMR to everyone in our congregation at the end of January every year. We'll hand it out the week I preach on Y Church this year. That AMR then doubles as our welcome packet for every guest that comes through our doors that year. It's designed to give guests a sense of who we are, where we've been, and where we're headed.

For what it's worth, we put the AMR, Small Group Guide, Invite Card, and a packet of microwave popcorn into a popcorn box and give it to guests. Seems to fit since our vision is to meet in movie theaters @ metro stops.

FYI--we'll include AMRs in our Buzz Box that we give to attendees @ the Buzz Conference.

We continued the Y series today. Joel Schmidgall, our point pastor @ Ballston, talked about Y Serve. Great message. I think the message really resonated because Joel walks the talk.

Sundays are so relaxing when I'm not preaching :)

I think every pastor needs to find a preaching rhythm. I typically preach about 42 out of 52 weeks. I think I'll preach a little less this year. I think it's healthy for pastors and congregations to mix it up a little bit.

Two years ago I preached 26 weeks in a row without a break and I made an important discovery. I discovered that you can preach because you have to or you can preach because you have to. The first "have to" is because you're on the schedule. The second "have to" is because you've got a word from God.

We handed out our small group guide today and started promoting our Spring Semester. We've got sixty-one groups this semester. The response to the National Community Geographic was pretty overwhelming. We put a lot of time and energy into promoting our groups because that is where discipleship happens at NCC.

We pitched a shut out today :) Our team won 21-0! What made the victory even sweeter is that Lora overheard a kid on the other team before the game say, "We're going to crush this team."

We have the first winning streak in St. Peter's history :)

I'm loving this coaching gig. There is nothing like drawing up a play and seeing the kids execute it to perfection :)

I was extra fired up today because Lora and I went to see Glory Road this week.

By the way, it's amazing how much success in any endeavor comes down to who wants it more. It's all about desire. And that's so tough to teach. All you can do is try to draw it out.

I was asked to write an endorsement for the multi-site church revolution by geoff surratt, greg ligon, and warren bird.

Thrilled to do it. All three of them have been a tremendous personal encouragement and inspiration to me!

Just thought I'd share the endorsement:

Cartographers used to write terra incognita on the edge of medieval maps. A few brave souls sailed off the map into uncharted waters and discovered a new world. Everybody who is part of the multi-site movement is indebted to three church cartographers, Geoff Surratt, Greg Ligon, and Warren Bird, for sailing into terra incognita and charting a map called The Multi-Site Church Revolution.

The Multi-Site Church Revolution is one of those books that comes along once in a generation. It will reshape the churchscape by giving tens of thousands of churches the map they need to become multi-site.

If your church is thinking about going multi-site I'd highly recommend the book. It hasn't been released yet, but here's a link to the multi-site revolution blog.

By the way, I'll let you know when the book is available. It'd be cool if we all buy the book on the same day and try to push it up the Amazon.com charts!

If I had my way, we'd ban three-point sermons.

As far as I can tell, Jesus didn't preach any three-point sermons. So why do we teach that in homilectics again? I'm being somewhat facetious. We shouldn't ban three-point sermons. As long as they don't alliterate :)

We need lots of different kinds of sermons because there are lots of different kinds of learners. That is educational theory 101. But let me zoom out and make an observation: I think linear sermons worked in the modern era with a left-brain orientation. They don't work as well in the postmodern era that is moving toward a right-brain orientation.

I think preachers need to take their cues from Jesus. Jesus preached in parables. There are fifty-three of them in the gospels. Each one is a masterpiece in how to communicate to the right-brain of listeners. You've got to use metaphors and tell stories that capture the imagination. For what it's worth, I think there are three keys to a great sermon: metaphor, metaphor, metaphor.

Ingmar Bergman, the Swedish filmmaker, said, "Facts go straight to the head; stories go straight to the heart."

Sermons need to be both/and. They have to use facts that inform the left-brain and tell stories that inform the right-brain. But Jesus targeted the right-brain. For what it's worth, most of his parables are less than 200 words! He said so much by saying so little! He didn't make "points." He told stories that made the point. Sometimes he connected the dots for his listeners. But sometimes he refused to connect the dots for people! He made them come to their own conclusions.

Maybe we ought to preach some messages that don't have conclusions?

Leonard Sweet says, "Points no longer make points." I love that. Why? Because there is a shift in the way people are relating to God. I think most people during the modern era had a left-brain relationship with God that was intellectual. Nothing wrong with that. The more we know God the more we can worship Him. We ought to be spiritual intellectuals. But we've neglected the right-brain relationship with God that is experiential, mysterious, and imaginative.

Long story short, we need some more right-brain preachers who are serious about right-brain discipleship.

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It's time for the Friday Feature. An NCCer emailed this link to me. I have no idea who did it, but I think it'll provide four minutes of mindless entertainment at the end of a long week.

What is it with raps? They're all the rage these days! The Narnia rap from SNL even made it onto CNN.

I think it's time for me to come out of my rapper closet. I'm a pastor by day, but I'm a hymn rapper by night:

Tis so sweet-n-low to trust in Jesus
Just to take Him at his word up

That's as far as I've gotten :)

DJ Chuang sent me a link to an article about NCC in iconoculture.

Iconoculture.com is a great resource for cultural exegesis. They keep a pulse on cultural trends.

Twelve years ago I was credentialed by the Illinois district of the Assemblies of God. I got a call today from the District Superintendent asking if I would speak at their district council--a gathering of all the ministers in that district. Pretty excited about the opportunity.

The funny thing is that I almost jeopardized my credentials because of a couple pranks a few of us pulled during our week-long credentialing seminar. We tee-peed the Superintendent's house. Not entirely sure what we were thinking :)

But the other prank won the prank prize.

It was sub-zero weather so Illinoisians keep their cars running if they aren't going to leave them for long. We would jump in to these running cars, move them a few parking spaces to play mind games with people, and then park them again.

No harm. No foul.

What I didn't take into account is that if you get into someone's running car they might think you're stealing it :) And they might chase you at speeds topping 100 mph. And it might scare the living daylights out of you.

Not sure if I'm going to confess before I speak at District Council or not :)

Leadership Journal did a feature on NCC a few months ago. Someone sent me a link to the online article that was posted today. Here's a link.

I just finished an article for Ministries Today. Here's a rough draft.

One of our sessions at the Buzz Conference will be on sermon branding. If you haven't registered yet you can visit www.buzzconference.com.

Sermon Branding

John 12:52 has always been my preaching mantra. Jesus said, "I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it."

What is sermon content.
How is sermon branding.

I have a core conviction: the greatest truths ought to be communicated in the most unforgettable ways. And when it comes to communicating things in unforgettable ways, how is just as important as what.

Sermon branding is nothing new. It's as old as the ancient prophets using God-inspired props to make their messages stick. Jesus took the Old Testament art form to a new level. No one was better at branding truth than The Truth. His parables are pure genius. Hear them once and you'll remember them forever!

Sermon branding is hard work, but it isn't optional if we're serious about communicating like Christ.

Seven Steps to Sermon Branding

1) Come up with a series title

There is a fine line between catchy and cheesy. The goal is to reduce an entire series to a single word, phrase or symbol that captures the essence of the series.

Book titles, magazine ads, TV shows, board games, and movies are a great source of creative inspiration.

Here are some recent NCC series titles:

The Physics of Faith
Y: Why We Do What We Do
Soulprint
The Game of Life
The Wild Goose Chase
Creed
God @ the Billboards
Wired for Worship

2)Create a series logo

The old aphorism is wrong. A picture isn't worth a thousand words!

According to neurological research, the brain is able to process print on a page at a rate of approximately one hundred bits per second. But the brain can process a picture at approximately one billion bits per second. Mathematically speaking, a picture is literally worth ten million words!

That's why logos are so important. If you studied Greek in Seminary you may pick up on the double entendre. Logos are words made flesh. Jesus is The Logos.

The most powerful logo in the world isn't the Coca-Cola bottle, Nike swoosh, or McDonald's golden arches. It is the cross of Christ. Jesus redeemed the ancient symbol of death and turned it into the logo of eternal life.

Logos are important because of the way the brain processes information. The brain recognizes and remembers shapes first, colors second and content third. It is the sequence of cognition. If you want people to listen to the content of what you have to say, you better think about shapes and colors. If choosing color schemes seems to be void of spiritual significance read the book of Exodus. A dozen chapters are devoted to design. God gives very specific instructions about colors and scents.

Aesthetics are important.

3)Design a series evite and invite

The key to buzz is word of mouth and word of mouse. One way to generate buzz about a sermon series is to send out an evite to your church email list. Encourage your congregation to forward it to a friend.

You can get 5000 invite cards for approximately $200 at psprint.com. Hand out the invite cards a week or two before you kick off the series. Invite cards are one way of turning attenders into buzzers.

4)Brainstorm Big Ideas

Three-point sermons ought to be banned. People will only remember one point anyway! The more you say the less they will remember. It's the law of scope: more is less and less is more. That's why I try to reduce every message into one big idea. Why? Because people only remember one thing! It's the Rule of One.

If you try to make too many points, your message turns into a bed-of-nails. Lie down on a thousand nails and they won't penetrate the skin. Why? The pressure of each point is diffused by all the others around it. Too many sermons are a bed-of-nails. But a single point will penetrate the heart and soul like a single nail.

During The Game of Life series we played off the board game by the same name and used seven spaces to symbolize seven big ideas:

Graduation Day: Enjoy the Journey
Tour Europe: Take Calculated Risks
Night School: Keep Asking Questions Win Marathon: Set God-sized Goals
Start a Career: Pursue God-ordained Passions Get Married: Fall in Love
Pay Day: Pay it Forward

5)Shoot a Series Trailer

One way to brand a series and generate excitement is to add creative video elements. Show a Series Trailer the week before kicking off the series and put it up on your website. You may even want to design a series poster that looks like a movie poster complete with MPAA rating.

For trailer samples, visit http://www.theaterchurch.com/.

6)Add Sermon Props

Jesus used everything from mustard seeds to Romans coins to make his messages stick. He preached from boats, washed feet, and used little children as sermon props.

The reason sermon props make messages more memorable is because they involve more than one sense. The more multisensory your message is the more memorable it will be.

Over the years we've used everything from nails to pop rocks to silly putty to make our messages more memorable. You may even want to design series clothing and accessories. It's a great way of turning your congregation into walking billboards.

7)Add Sermon Staging

It'll take some time and effort, but I'd recommend redesigning your stage for every sermon series. It's a great way of keeping things fresh! A new look will generate new excitement. Have fun with it.

During our annual God @ the Box Office series we literally roll out the red carpet and treat every NCCer like an Oscar Nominee. It gives us an excuse to give them the red carpet treatment.

For information on the Buzz Conference hosted by National Community Church in Washington, DC, May 4-5, 2006, visit http://www.buzzconference.com/.

We just got our Spring Pass. Last year we went with a Sports Illustrated theme. This year we're playing off of National Geographic. We're going with a pilgrimage motif this year so we came up with a discipleship map. Props to Heather, our Pastor of Discipleship, and Josh, our church planter in residence, for doing a great job on this.

We have two goals for every NCCer--plug into a small group and plug into a ministry. The pass is the way we do internal marketing. We'll hand out the pass this Sunday and begin promoting our Spring Semester that kicks off on February 4.

We'll talk quite about about how to make small groups buzz @ our Buzz Conference. We'll give out copies of the small group pass as part of our Buzz Box. We want the Buzz Conference to be part show-n-tell. If you haven't signed up yet check out www.buzzconference.com.

This is a writing week for me.

I've got three article deadlines. I'm writing an article on Sermon Branding for Ministries Today, and articles on Buzz for Outreach magazine and Relevant Leader.

I feel as called to write as I do to pastor so I really cherish the opportunity to write these articles. It takes a ton of time, but I'm grateful for the doors of opportunity that God has opened up.

Oliver Wendel Holmes said, "A mind stretched by a new idea never returns to its original shape."

I have a singular goal when I write an article: I want the readers to be stretched by one new idea.

I wanted to officially welcome our newest NCC staff member. I actually met David Russell in the blogosphere. He's coming on board as our Digital Pastor. He'll be part of our creative team that brainstorms big ideas; web guru; and all-around IT guy. I'm really excited about redesigning Theaterchurch.com and adding a webcast.

David and his wife, Missy, are moving here from the great state of Alabama in a few weeks but today is his official start date. I honestly believe that how much fun we have doing ministry is determined by who we're doing it with! I know ministry will be even more fun and fruitful with David and Missy on the team.

You can check out David's blog @ www.davidblog.com.

We continued the Y series today. We're talking about why we do what we do.

I'm not sure how other preachers would weigh in on this, but I think two of the toughest and two of the most important issues to preach on are money and sex. I tried to tackle the money topic today with Y Give.

There is always a little fear that visitors will show up and think that all we talk about is money when in fact we don't talk about it as much as we should :)

A few things of note this morning:

We had two baby dedications. Man, I love baby dedications :) Time stops! There is something so sacred about dedicating children to the Lord.

Our video cut out for two minutes! Can't wait till we start capturing messages at our Saturday Night services in February. It'll eliminate those miscues and give us some margin for error :)

I almost lost it during my message. If you weren't there you'll have to listen to the podcast. I talked about the miraculous provision of quail in Numbers 11. I now have this mental image of quail flying into people. And it says they were flying three feet above ground. That's gotta hurt :)

After our team scored the first two baskets in today's 3rd/4th grade game I had a thought: "We could win this thing." My adrenaline started pumping! I only sat down on the bench twice during the game :)

Long story short, we got our first win. We didn't win a single game last year :) We actually scored more points in today's game than all of last season combined! We won the game 24-7. I was so proud of our kids. They played their hearts out.

Parker also scored his first career field goal--a six-foot bank shot :)

Sweet :)

Last night was the most enjoyable prayer meeting I've ever been part of. We ended our week of prayer by praying at Ebenezers.

Here are a few thoughts and observations:

I prayed at the outset that we would pray with a rare confidence last night. We were praying in a place that was the answer to a ridiculous prayer prayed eight years ago. You can't help but pray with confidence when you're praying in a place that was an answer to prayer! I could have prayed all night.

I laid hands on the doors and prayed that everyone who walks through those doors would sense the presence of God no matter how far away from God they are.

Someone said the Lord gave them Exodus 23:20 to share with the group. "See, I am sending my angel before you to lead you safely to the land I have prepared for you."

That's obviously a reference to the Promise Land. 201 F Street, NE is our Promise Land. God led us to this piece of land just like God led Israel to the Promise Land. There is no way we should own that piece of property. We should have been trespassing on someone else's property last night :) But our prayers put a divine contract on that piece of property. It was a fulfillment of the promise in Matthew 18:18: "Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven."

Our prayers have a binding effect that is more powerful than an earthly contract. 201 F Street, NE was under contract the moment we started praying that God would give it to us :)

One prayer got stuck in my spirit last night. When we prayed on the second floor where our offices will be, Heather Zempel, our Pastor of Discipleship, prayed, "Make this place into a dream factory." I love that. A lot. I pray that Ebenezers will be a place where we dream God-sized dreams.

We ended the evening singing Amen. It just seemed so appropriate to sing "Amen" over and over again.

I can't wait to see the way God answers the prayers prayed on 01.13.06 in the years to come!

I just read a fascinating study done by Herrman International. The study involved 311,207 businesspeople. It found that 44.2% are left-brain in orientation. 28.3% are right-brain in orientation. And 27.4% are whole-brain thinkers.

I wonder what the breakdown would be amongst church leaders?

The Great Commandment says, "Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength." We're called to love God with all of our minds. That includes the logical left-brain and creative right-brain.

I'm guessing there is a left-brain orientation among church leaders. That's one reason why I'm a right-brain advocate. We've got to unleash our creative potential if we want to reach emerging generations. We've got to do ministry out of imagination.

Just had a phone conference with Warren Bird who is heading up the theater church study for the Leadership Network and some of the folks with Regal Cinemas.

Long story short, Regal was 100% behind the study and our forum for theater churches on May 4. If you haven't registered, visit www.buzzconference.com.

Our Buzz Coordinator, Juliet Main, is compiling a list of theater churches for the study. We'd love to include as many churches as possible. Email her at Juliet@theaterchurch.com if you'd like to participate.

The end result will be a research paper that will share best practices. I think it'll be a phenomenal resource for theater churches.

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As promised, here is the clip from Fox News that ran this week.

I really thought they did a great job. You can't buy this kind of advertising. I continue to be amazed at the favor God is showing us in the news media. The number of positive stories in major newspapers like the Washington Post and New York Times and network TV stations like Fox and CBS is pretty unprecedented.

Since when does a major TV network do a story on new forms of evangelism?

Praise God.

The good news ought to make the news!

One of the things we'll talk about at the Buzz Conference is developing a buzz strategy. It's part of being "innocent as doves and wise as serpents."

Every year we put a tremendous amount of time and energy into our Annual Ministry Report. It's our "first impression" piece. We give one to our entire congregation during the State of the Church message each year and then it doubles as our welcome packet for the next year. Every guest gets one.

Thought I'd give a sneak peak of the front cover. We're going with a movie theme since our vision is to meet in movie theaters @ metro stops.

For what it's worth, one of my all-time favorite sayings is the headline of an article that was done on NCC a few years ago: praise the Lord and pass the popcorn :)

I sent out this week's evotional, Y Pray, this morning and I thought I'd post an excerpt.

If you'd like a free subscription visit theaterchurch.com and click on the evotional link. It'll take two seconds and we'll send the evotional via email every week.

Spiritual Priming

I learned something about priming last week. We're painting some of our coffeehouse walls an accent red. Our painter told us he'd have to use a dark primer otherwise the wall would take ten gallons of red. Evidently, red is a tough color to paint if the primer isn't right. I'm no painter, but it seems like one key to painting is priming.

Hold that thought.

In his book, Blink, Malcolm Gladwell cites a priming experiment done by a psychologist named John Bargh at New York University.

Bargh and several colleagues chose a group of undergraduates as subjects and gave them two scrambled-sentence tests. The first test was sprinkled with rude words like "disturb," "bother," and "intrude." The second test was sprinkled with polite words like "respect," "considerate," and "yield."

In both cases, the tests were indiscreet. None of the subjects picked up on the word trend consciously. But it primed them subconsciously.

After taking the five-minute test, students were asked to walk down the hall and talk to the person running the experiment about their next assignment. An actor was strategically engaged in conversation with the experimenter when the students would arrive. And the goal was to see how long it would take students to interrupt.

Bargh wanted to know if the subjects who were primed with polite words would take longer to interrupt the conversation than those primed with rude words. They thought the subconscious priming would have a slight affect. But the affect was pretty profound in quantitative terms.

The people primed with rude words interrupted, on average, after only five minutes. But 82% of the people primed with polite words never interrupted at all. Who knows how long they would have patiently and politely waited if the researchers hadn't give the test a ten-minute time limit.

The study dramatically shows the effect of psychological priming. The brain is subconsciously primed by everything that is happening all the time.

Two Dutch researchers did a similar study that involved a group of students answering forty-two questions from the board game Trivial Pursuit. Half of the subjects were told to take five minutes to think about what it would mean to be a University professor and write down everything that came to mind. The other group was told to sit and think about soccer for five minutes.

The "professor" group got 55.6% of the questions right.
The "soccer" group got 42.6% right.

The professor group didn't know more than the soccer group. Gladwell says, "They weren't smarter or more focused or more serious. They were simply in a smart frame of mind."

What does that have to do with prayer?

Prayer puts us in a spiritual frame of mind.

Prayer is spiritual priming. When you live in prayer mode your spiritual radar is on. Your spiritual antenna is up. If you don't pray there will be countless God-given opportunities that come and go without you even knowing it. Why? Because you aren't primed and ready!

Colossians 4:2 says, "Devote yourselves to prayer being watchful and thankful."

The word "watchful" is a throw back to Old Testament "watchmen" whose job it was to sit on the city wall, scan the horizon