Evotional.com - Originality, Authenticity, Creativity

Thou Shalt Hang Out at Wells

Here is Buzz Commandment III:

Thou Shalt Hang Out at Wells [1]

Wells were ancient hang outs. They were the BC version of coffeehouses, chat rooms, and malls. Jesus didn't invite people to the synagogue. He hung out at wells. He was often accussed of hanging out with the wrong people at the wrong places. But Jesus didn't let that keep him from a party with a tax collector or a conversation with a Samaritan woman at the well. He went to where the people were. Maybe the gospel has been quarantined behind the four walls of church buildings long enough? The church is called to compete in the middle of the marketplace.

That's why we've built a first-class, fully-operational coffeehouse on Capitol Hill. It's a place where the church and community can cross paths. That's why the vision of NCC is to meet in movie theaters @ metro stops throughout the DC area. And that's why we do events at the largest nightclub in DC.

Coffeehouses, movie theaters, and nightclubs are postmodern wells.

I went into church planting with the traditional mindset: meet in rented facilities until you can buy or build a church building. But that trend is reversing. In the last few years, a growing number of churches have sold their church buildings and moved into rented theaters or schools or clubs. Others have kept their church buildings while launching multi-site locations in marketplace environments.

I just read that Second Baptist in Houston, TX raised $84 million to launch services in movie theaters across the country. Rock n Roll. Just about every week I'm dialoging with pastors of churches across the country that are thinking about moving into a movie theater.

Nothing gets me jazzed as much as redeeming places like theaters and nightclubs and seeing them used for God's purposes!

For what it's worth, blogs are postmodern wells. I'm psyched about our blog groups that have launched this semester. Digital discipleship!

The early church didn't have church buildings. And they fared pretty well :) It wasn't until the 4th century that churches started building "churches." Don't get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with church buildings. I'm not anti church buildings. But if we were building a church building at 2nd and F Street our neighbors would have opposed us every step of the way. But they love us because we're building a coffeehouse where we'll have church :)

I recently heard about a church that was building a community center for their community and they "rent" from themselves on the weekend for church services. I think that is genius! Crossroads Christian Church in Corona, CA, built a "postmodern piazza." Their church has a restaurant called Third Place Cafe. What great models. I think we need to build our buildings so they serve multiple functions--not just meeting places one day a week.

That's why we built Ebenezers--our coffeehouse on Capitol Hill. It is literally a coffee well. Instead of a few hundred people coming to church services every week we'll have thousands of people hanging out at our well every week! And we're hoping those people eventually get their spiritual thirst quenched as well as their physical thirst.

Bottoms up!

[1] John 4

3 Flights, 2 Foreign Exchange Students & 1 Llama

I made it to Sisters, Oregon.

My first flight took me to Chicago. I had Chicago-style pizza for breakfast at 9 AM :) Couldn't resist.

My second flight took me to Portland. I sat next to two foreign exchange students from the Dominican Republic. It was cool because I told them our church was sending a missions team there this summer. I also gave them copies of my book, ID: The True You. It was funny sitting next to them as they both read my book :) In fact, they would periodically laugh :) And I was thinking to myself, "What did I write that was so funny?" One reason I've wanted to write is for that very reason. It allows me to share my faith. My book is a very long tract :)

And then I got on this little jumper flight to Redmond, Oregon. I thought I was going to have to help it down the runway Flintstone style :) Seriously, the flight attendant got on the PA system and I'm thinking, "Why are you using that?" She actually said something about using the lavratory and then had to correct herself, "Wait, we don't have a lavratory." We all had to hold it. When I got on the airplane I almost felt like I should shake hands and learn the first names of everyone on board.

Anywho. I'm here.

By the way, you know you're no longer in DC when there are Llamas outside your hotel room. Here's a picture of Danny Boy. The one on the right!

Multnomah

A few months ago I signed a four book deal with Multnomah. I'm flying out to meet with them for a couple days. Excited about getting an education in everything from editing to design to marketing. I feel as called to write as I do to pastor so I'm pretty fired up about my first book hitting shelves next September.

It's going to be a long day of flying. I've got to hop three different flights to get to Sisters, Oregon.

Peace Out.

Thou Shalt Not Wash Thy Hands

This blog continues the Buzz Commandments. Here is BC II.

Thou Shalt Not Wash Thy Hands [1]

The Pharisees despised Jesus because he didn't conform to their religious tradition. They got all bent out of shape because his disciples forgot to wash their hands before a meal.

Come on folks. Let's not major in minors! Don't we have more important issues to wrangle over than hand washing!

Maybe it's time to break the mold. Maybe it's time to take risks to reach people. Maybe it's time to offend the religious if that is what it takes to reach the irreligious!

It's so easy to do ministry from memory. We learn how and forget why. We keep on doing what we've always done. And we believe that our way of doing church is the only way of doing church. We think that our church tradition is somehow superior.

Word to my brother: No it's not.

I don't know many pastors who haven't had to repent of ecclesiastical pride at some point in their ministry. I've been humbled more than once :)

We need lots of different kinds of churches because there are lots of different kinds of people. It's not about ranking churches as better or worse, larger or smaller, right or wrong. We simply need some biblical latitude that allows churches to be a unique expression of the kingdom even if it doesn't fit with everyone else's church tradition. The key phrase is Biblical latitude!

We've got to be orthodox in belief. But it's ok to be unorthodox in practice! No one was more unconvential than Jesus! The message is sacred. The method isn't.

I grew up in a church tradition where movie theaters were taboo. The great irony is that I put my faith in Christ after watching a movie. In a church, of course! Now I pastor theaterchurch.com with a vision to meet in movie theaters at metro stops throughout the DC area.

Movie theaters make great sanctuaries! You've got comfortable seats; the scent of popcorn; and a movie screen that doubles as postmodern stained glass.

In order to reach emerging generations we may need to follow in Jesus footsteps and break some religious traditions. Maybe we should worry less about washing our hands and worry more about getting our hands dirty washing feet.

One footnote.

I'm not against hand washing :)

I highly recommend that pastors wash the fellowship off their hands following services. And definitely wash your hands after using the restroom. Or at least do the sink fake :) Come on, we've all done it.

[1] Matthew 15:1-20

Buzz Trailer

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If you haven't registered for the Buzz Conference yet, this would be a great week. Our registrations are filling up fast. Check out the buzz trailer.

You can register @ www.buzzconference.com.

Our featured speaker is Ed Young, Senior Pastor @ Fellowship Church in Grapevine, TX. We've also got Brad Abare, founder of churchmarketingsucks.com. And yours truly :)

Sunday Reflections

I really had fun this morning. That's ok right?

I met a ton of guests--lots of people who had never been to church or hadn't been in a long long time. That is what really drives me. So I was pretty stoked. People who haven't been to church are so surprised to see that people actually enjoy church. Several guests commented about the way everyone was smiling!

I finished up the Ten Commandments of Dating. One of my prayer mantras is "help me help people." I really wanted this series to challenge and encourage NCCers.

Our Ebenezers Inaugural tickets for 6 & 8 PM on March 11 went like hotcakes. We divided them between all of our services at Union and Ballston and all of them sold out. We'll have tickets for the 6 & 8 PM gatherings on March 18 available next week.

Barista Training

Sat in on some of our barista training. Too cool.

Did you know coffee beans grow between the two tropics--the tropic of cancer and the tropic of capricorn? Learned a little bit about flavor, aroma, body, and acidity. FYI: about 25% of taste is aroma. The old olfactory bulb. You taste with your nose!

It was cool to think about the journey of the coffee bean. We drink a cup of coffee without thinking about how it got in our cup. The journey is pretty amazing--coffee farmer picking cherries, imported through customs, then roasting, grinding, and finally sipping.

I think it's cool that our barista's won't just know how to mix drinks. They have a coffee education under their belt.

2nd & F Street, NE

We prayed for "the corner lot at 2nd and F Street, NE" for so long that I wanted to put an actual street sign inside! So we stole these signs and put them up. What's cool is that it mirrors the street sign right across the street. It's another one of those signatures that makes Ebenezers unique.

Footnote. We didn't steal them. We bought replicas :)

Thou Shalt Preach From Boats

This blog begins a blog series on the Buzz Commandments (BC). For what it's worth, I didn't go up Mount Sinai and come down with these on stone tablets :) But I hope they provide food for thought. I'm just passionate about reaching people for Christ. And that means we need to follow the trail Jesus left in the gospels.

I'll go into more depth on all ten at our Buzz Conference.

Let the games begin.

Buzz Commandment I
Thou Shalt Preach From Boats [1]

I'm guessing Jesus was the first rabbi to teach while balancing in a boat. I have images of Daniel-San practicing the crane with Mr. Miyagi.

Jewish rabbi's dressed a certain way. Jewish rabbi's taught a certain way. Then along came the neo-Rabbi, Jesus.

Boat preaching was unprecedented. Boat preaching was unconventional. But what are you going to do when thousands of people show up unexpectantly? You've got to call an audible. So Jesus used a boat as his pulpit.

Who said preachers have to preach from behind a pulpit?

In 1728, John Wesley was ordained into the Anglican priesthood. It was assumed that preaching was to take place behind a pulpit inside the four walls of a church sanctuary. The hierarchy within the Church of England considered preaching outdoors a violation of canon law. John Wesley broke the law and broke the mold.

John Wesley traveled more than 250,000 miles on horseback; preached more than 40,000 sermons; and saw 150,000 people convert to Christ.

The neo church needs to redeem technology and use it to serve God's purposes. That's what LifeChurch.tv and Fellowship Church are doing with their webcasts. That's what Elevation Church in Utah is doing with its video podcast. That's what Community Christian Church is doing with their short films.

Maybe podcasting is digital circuit riding? Maybe short films are postmodern parables?

If we want to reach emerging generations then the church needs to get out from behind the pulpit and experiment with new preaching forms.

At NCC, we're looking to do more on location messages. For example, I'll preach on Isaiah 31:21 in a few weeks. It says, "Put up road signs." I'm thinking about shooting an on location video by the White House at the Zero Milestone. Every distance in on U.S. highways is measured from the zero milestone. Thought it'd make a cool metaphor.

For what it's worth, I heard about a church doing a series on the book of Romans and shooting it on location in Rome. If only there was a book of Hawaii. I'd be on location, baby!

Here's the bottom line. We need to use every medium at our disposal to preach the most important message! I can't imagine a more exciting time to be in ministry. I think there are ways of preaching that no one has thought of yet.

Long story short, why don't you try preaching from a boat some Sunday? It'll generate some buzz!

[1] Matthew 13:2

The Smell of Coffee

Ebenezers smells like coffee for the first time :) We've got Ethan from Larry's Beans in NC doing some barista training for us!

Bottoms up!

For those of you who are coffee addicts, here is your coffee pimp. This is the brain of the espresso machine! The soul of java. The king of caffeine.

Writing

Just finished two magazine articles the last two days. They ate my lunch. But what a relief to have them written, edited, and off my back :) I thoroughly enjoy writing, but I have this writing curse. I measure every word :) It's the perfectionist in me!

At the same time, I'm thrilled about the opportunity to write these articles. I feel like it's part of my calling.

Hopefully my perspiration will provide a little inspiration via rumination to counteract intellectual constipation.

Or something like that :)

Out.

I'm Going to the Inaugural

Just got our Ebenezers Inaugural tickets in the mail. Pretty sweet.

We'll make them avaialble on Sunday.

Occupancy Update

The Zoning Inspector came to our property yesterday, but the piles of dirt didn't work in our favor :) He basically doesn't want people to have to climb over the earth mountains to get in the door! Not exactly A.D.A. compliant yet.

Shooting for next week. We should have the Certificate of Occupancy mid-week next week. So we're still green light for inaugural services on March 11 @ 6 & 8 PM.

DTR Dating

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It's Friday Feature time. We're continuing our DTR: Define the Relationship series this week. So back by popular demand, here's our on the street video.

FYI. I covered five dating commandments last next. I'll cover five more this week.

Don't Try To Prove Yourself To Pilate

Everything I know about pastoring I learned from coaching fourth-grade basketball :) Well, not really. But here is one thing I've learned.

The beginning of each half is typically chaotic. The kids have a hard time figuring out which way they are going. Occasionally the kids will play defense on the offensive side and play offense on the defensive side! It hasn't happened as much this year, but last year we had to yell at the kids, "You're on offense. You've on offense." Because they would be playing defense when they were supposed to be playing offense.

Sometimes I wonder if Jesus is yelling at the church, "You're on offense. You're on Offense."

Jesus commissioned the church in Matthew 16:18: "I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail."

Gates are defensive measures. Storming those gates requires an offensive stategy. The church is a battering ram. We're called to play offense.

Anybody else tired of playing defense?

Why is it that the church is known more for what we're against than what we're for?

I'm just not into boycotting. We've got to present better alternatives. Michelangelo said, "Criticize by creating." Let stop cursing the darkness and start lighting candles!

Ponder this: Jesus didn't defend himself in front of Pilate. He refused to become defensive. He refused to play defense.

One of the lessons I've learned in recent years is that I'm not going to be defensive about my leadership style or teaching style. I am who I am. Take it or leave it :) Too many of us live our lives trying to please everybody. I think we've got to know who we are and who we're not. We've got to be ourselves. The greatest freedom is having nothing to prove! Don't spend your energy trying to prove yourself to Pilate. You'll spend all your time and energy playing defense. Focus on what God has called you to do. And let the urim and thummin fall where they may.

I read Organic Church the other night and one thought resonated. Neil Cole says, "We are so defensive that it has become offensive."

The Best Defense is a Great Offense!

Storm the Gates!

Who is paying attention to whom?

Don't even know how it came up, but Lora said something at dinner tonight that got lodged in my brain like a mind splinter.

She read something recently that said that by the age of 3 children figure out whether your job is to pay attention to them or their job is to pay attention to you.

What a profound distinction!

I think that same distinction applies to our relationship with God.

The Buzz Commandments

The Buzz Commandments

This blog begins a series of blogs I'm calling The Buzz Commandments.

Q: What do an ice cream truck, an edgy billboard, a short film, and a community swimming pool have in common?

A: They are a few of the ways that innovative churches are reaching outside the four walls of their church buildings and creating a buzz in their community.

New Life Christian Church drives around its Northern Virginia neighborhood in a retrofitted Ice Cream truck giving away free popsicles while inviting people to church.

Granger Community Church launched a series on sex by placing mylamesexlife.com billboards all over Granger, Indiana.

Community Christian Church in Naperville, Illinois, shoots and edits a short film every week as part of its creative approach to multi-site ministry.

And after three bond measures failed to secure the funds to build a community pool in Billings, Montana, Harvest Church is forming a separate non-profit and raising funds to build a pool for the entire community.

The Buzz Factor

Luke 14:23 says, "Compel them to come in so that my house may be full."

Compel (v): to urge irresistibly; to demand attention

Buzz isn't a marketing gimmick. Buzz isn't a publicity stunt or photo op. Buzz is an ancient mandate. Buzz is about sharing the love of Christ in practical, creative, and authentic ways.

The church is called to compel. And if that takes an ice cream truck; a creative billboard; a short film downloaded to an iPod; or a community pool, then so be it.

The average American is bombarded with 3000 advertisements per day. We've got more cable channels than we can surf. The average Sunday edition of the Washington Post contains more factual information than the average person living in the 15th century would encounter in a lifetime. And that's before logging onto the Internet.

We're inundated with information. We're overwhelmed with options. We've got so many things vying for our attention that we suffer from cultural ADD.

So how does the church fulfill its ancient Buzz Commission in a white noise world?

The answer is found in the one who commissioned us to compel. Jesus should have lived and died without making a blip on the radar, but two thousand years later, two billion people claim to be Christ followers. No one was better at Buzz than Jesus.

The word crowd is repeated 101 times in the gospels. Jesus drew crowds numbering in the tens of thousands wherever he went. And he did it without public transportation, Instant Messaging, or Evite.com. Entire towns would close up shop and go without food for days on end just to listen to his parables. Tax collectors climbed trees. Prostitutes crashed parties. And wise men followed stars. Even the Pharisees conceded, "The whole world has gone after him."

Jesus buzzed. And he left a trail for us to follow....

Stay tuned and I'll blog the Ten Buzz Commandments over the next couple weeks...

The Millenium Matrix

Just got back from coffee with Rex Miller, author of The Millenium Matrix. We originally met via a Blogging Church podcast. I think Terry Storch and Brian Bailey are somewhere in most of my six degrees of seperation :)

Rex was passing through DC so we connected for a few. His book is a great read if you're looking to educate yourself on the shift from analog to digital and how that effects the church.
Here's an amazon link if you've like to check it out.

Ebenezers Inaugural

Here they are--tickets to the Ebenezers Inaugural.

We're going to kick off our Saturday Night services with four inaugural services. We want every NCCer to be able to be part of history. We'd like every NCCer to try out a Saturday Night service, but not everybody can attend at the same time :) So we'll have four inaugural services:

March 11 @ 6 PM
March 11 @ 8 PM
March 18 @ 6 PM
March 18 @ 6 PM

We'll make free tickets available this Sunday.

We decided to ticket the event so people could hang on to the tickets as a memento. I'm sure they'll be worth thousands on ebay :) Seriously, lots of people keep ticket stubs from special games or concerts. Why not church?

DTR Audible

Just wanted to update everyone. Due to the fact that I only got through 5 dating commandments and we had a fire alarm incident at Ballston, we are extending the DTR series an extra week. We'll talk about DTR Dating again this week and DTR God the next week.

I feel like Peyton Manning these days. It seems like we're calling all kinds of audibles every day!

Marketplace Churches

A few weeks ago a jounalism student at Columbia drove down from NY City to attend our services. She wrote a great article on marketplace churches.

Here's a link.

Permits

Our elevator passed inspection today!

We've got final approvals for the interior of the building so we're headed over to get our Certificate of Occupancy. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Looking Forward to Church

So I was hanging out with Doug and Beth Miller at Bagels & Baguettes this morning. And a girl walked by our table and paused. She said, "I'm twenty-four years old and I just wanted you to know that for the first time in my life I look forward to church."

That'll make your day!

So cool to bump into someone you've never met before and know that NCC is making a difference in their life!

The Wow Factor

One of my goals when people visit one of our theater locations or coffeehouse is to exceed expectations so that people say, "Wow." That is precisely what happened this weekend. I was showing Ebenezers to someone who had never been inside and they literally said "wow" when they walked in. That was a moment. That one wow was worth all of the headaches and ulcers and change orders! I think we've acheived the wow factor on all three levels.

I have a feeling that thousands of people are going to walk into Ebenezers over the next few months and say, "Wow." And I'm going to be the java pastor sitting by the door smiling :) One of the things I've thoroughly enjoyed over the last several months is eavesdropping on people as they walk by our construction project. There is a street level excitment. Wait till they walk inside!

Footnote.

Heaven is going to be the ultimate Wow Factor. What we experience during that first nanosecond will be way beyond our wildest imagination.

Cultural Incompatibility

I'm always saying that creating culture is the most important and most difficult job for pastors.

I just met with an NCCer who shared a fascinating insight from Fast Company. He said that 95% of firings are not due to incompetence. They are due to the fact that the person fired didn't fit the culture. That really resonates with me.

Here are a few "intangibles" I look for in staff to make sure there is a cultural fit.

1) You've got to be able to laugh at yourself!
2) You've got to be passionate about what you do!
3) You've got to be self-motivated.
4) You've got to be willing to go the extra mile.
5) You've got to be committed to excellence.
6) You've got to be teachable.
7) You've got to be a little crazy.
8) You've got to be sold out to God.
9) You've got to be fired up about the vision of NCC.
10) You've got to laugh at my jokes :)

I'm so proud of our staff. They are gifted and passionate. And I realized something the other day. Only one staff member had previous experience working for a church before we hired them. We've hired rookies with tremendous potential. I'm more concerned about attitude than experience. Experience can be an asset or a liability.

I'm a big believer in getting the right people on the fifteen-passenger van and then figuring out where they sit.

Sunday Reflections

We continued our DTR: Define the Relationship series today.

We showed our on the street video. Pretty funny stuff. The band at Union did a fun Avril Lavigne remix of Complicated. I felt good about the message at Union, but I totally ran out of time. I wanted to talk about ten commandments of dating. And I talked about five. It was like a time warp moment when I looked down at it was 10:34. I totally lost track of time. I wrapped things up at 10:44.

It takes about five minutes to get out of Union Station and another ten minutes to drive ten miles to our Ballston location so there is very little room for error! We made great time and I made it to Ballston about 11:02 AM.

The morning ended on an interesting note. At 11:30 I was getting to the fourth commandment of dating. I was starting to talk about sex when the fire alarm went off! At first I thought it was a practical joke because the timing was too perfect. But it wasn't. We all exited the theater and went out to the parking garage. After about five minutes we realized we didn't have time to finish the service so we prayed in the parking garage and dismissed everybody. Weird ending to church! That is part of doing church in the middle of the marketplace.

It was cool to have Doug and Beth Miller hang out with us this weekend. They are planting Plum Creek Community Church in a movie theater in Castlerock, Colorado.

Wet Cement

Anybody else have a hard time just walking by wet cement without putting your initials in it?

We just put our staff initials in the wet cement. The funny thing is that I felt guilty even though it belongs to us! It just felt like we were doing something wrong. Like we were committing a crime against ourselves. Can you vandalize your own property? Hmmm...

W

Racked up another W today.

Parker had a little running jumper on a fast break that was whistled dead because of traveling but Parker doesn't know the ref took away the two points. And I didn't have the heart to tell him :)

Our kids scored twenty points in the second half. It's so cool to see the kids translate the things we work on in practice into the game! I'm loving this coaching gig.

Winning is so much more fun than losing!

Deep thoughts by Mark Batterson.

DJ, Disco Ball, and Riverdancing

Good news and bad news.

The bad news is we're bumping back some of our events at Ebenezers. It is totally out of our hands. We're still targeting March 4 for our Inaugural Service @ Ebenezers.

The good news is that we're making strides everyday! The sound system is being installed as I blog. Let's just say that it thumps! To be perfectly honest, the lower level feels like a club. All we need is a DJ and disco ball and we could kick it on Friday nights! Imagine a hundred NCCers riverdancing :)

We also got seat cushions installed on our benches downstairs. Pretty sweet. We were really inspired by the attic at Northpoint in Atlanta. So we borrowed the booth idea from them.

Vietnamese Rainforests, Machetes, and Dating

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Here is the dating video we're going to show on Sunday. Had fun doing some on the street interviews. Some of them are lame, but one of them is priceless.

What do Vietnamese Rainforests have to do with dating?

Watch and see.

Ten Buzz Commandments

I'm working on an article for Ministry Trends. I'm trying to put together ten buzz commandments. So I skimmed all four gospels and here are ten commandements I came up with from the Buzz Meister himself. No one was better at buzz than Jesus.

I think we tend to spiritualize these miracles and ignore the buzz factor. For example, one of the Buzz Commandements (BC) is Thou Shalt Touch Lepers. Jesus broke the mold and broke the law by touching an untouchable. Mark 1:45 records what happened as a result. "As the man went on his way, he spread the news, telling everyone what had happened to him. As a result, such crowds soon surrounded Jesus that he couldn't enter a town town anywhere publically. He had to stay out in secluded places, and people from everywhere came to him there."

His Buzz Factor was off the charts! The paparazzi or pharirazzi were all over him!

I'll expound on them in a future blog, but here are the Buzz Commandments. I've got to narrow it down to ten commandments. Here are twenty:

Buzz I--Thou Shalt Hang Out at Wells
Buzz II--Thou Shalt turn Water in Wine
Buzz III--Thou Shalt Touch Lepers
Buzz IV--Thou Shalt Not Wash Thy Hands
Buzz V--Thou Shalt Offend Pharisees And Call Them Names
Buzz VI--Thou Shalt Be Shrewd as Snakes
Buzz VII--Thou Shalt Speak in Parables
Buzz VIII--Thou Shalt Wash Feet
Buzz IX--Thou Shalt Not Put New Wine in Old Wineskins
Buzz X--Thou Shalt Seek Lost Sheep
Buzz XI--Thou Shalt Not Wear Extra Long Tassels
Buzz XII--Thou Shalt Heal on the Sabbath
Buzz XIII--Thou Shalt Curse Barren Fig Trees
Buzz XIV--Thou Shalt Climb the Mount of Transfiguration
Buzz XV--Thou Shalt Defend Adulteress Women
Buzz XVI--Thou Shalt Turn Over Tables In The Temple
Buzz XVII--Thou Shalt Be Innocent As Doves
Buzz XVIII--Thou Shalt Ride Donkeys
Buzz XIX--Thou Shalt Withdraw To The Wilderness
Buzz XX--Thou Shalt Walk On Water

Get Buzzed

Just wanted to give blog readers first dibs on the Buzz Conference.

Our Buzz ads will hit newsstands next week. We've got ads in Rev, Outreach, and Ministries Today. If we decide to keep Buzz @ our coffeehouse I think we'll sell out pretty quick.

I also got a phone call from Terry Storch today and it looks like Fellowship Church is going to buzz Buzz via the fellowship connection. Terry and Ed Young have really bent over backwards to help us launch our first conference. We probably wouldn't even be doing it if it weren't for them!

Anywho.

I'd encourage anybody who wants to attend Buzz to register ASAP. We might move the conference to a theater location which would double attendance, but we might keep Buzz I small and limit it to coffeehouse capacity.

Really looking forward to meeting and hanging out with many of you.

Schedule

Someone was asking me about my schedule recently so I thought I'd blog about it. Bacially, I just show up on Sundays and preach :)

Any other pastors get this question: so what do you do the rest of the week? As if we just show up on Sundays and twiddle our thumbs the rest of the week :)

I always seem to have a half-dozen balls that I'm juggling. Right now it's planning and preparing sermon series, launching a coffeehouse, launching a coffeehouse service, writing magazine articles, publishing my first book with Multnomah, planning the Buzz Conference, and normal pastoral duties.

Oh yah, blogging too :)

Monday is a focus day for me. I take my kids to school on Mondays and I work out at Results Gym. I try to write my evotional, the written version of my weekend message, on Mondays. I begin studying for my next message. I do some visioneering. And I try to fit in some reading time on Mondays. For what it's worth, I never go anywhere without a book. I almost always have 5-7 books in my bag.

Tuesdays I usually get up at 5:30 AM and start the day praying and studying. We do a weekly Big Idea Meeting @ 10:00 AM where we brainstorm sermon series and nail down run sheets. We have our Team Meeting @ Noon and we usually order in lunch. Tuesday doubles as one of my meeting days. Right now I'm coaching my son's basketball team so I knock off around 3:30 PM on Tuesdays. Coaching has been a great outlet for me. I think my life was revolving around NCC too much pre-coaching. Every pastor needs some non-church hobby or outlet.

Wednesdays are my day off. Lora and I usually grab coffee and run errands. I typically work out on Wednesdays as well.

Thursdays are a meeting day. I try to schedule all of my meetings on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I typically get going around 5:30 AM. That gives me a couple hours to write articles or do sermon prep. Then I bookend as many meetings as possible. I've also had a standing meeting with our contractors on Thursday mornings.

Fridays are a focus day. I do sermon prep in the AM. And I tie up loose ends from the week in the afternoon.

Saturdays are a study day. No matter how well prepared I am I will work on my message all day. I'm a perfectionist. Saturday used to be a sixteen hour day for me. I now try to study about eight hours on Saturdays. I also try to fit in a work out. I'll have to adjust my schedule when we launch Saturday Night Services on March 4.

Sundays are game day. I get up around 5:30 AM. We do a team meeting at 7:15 AM. Then we're off to the races. It is pretty chaotic with four overlapping services in two locations, but I think that will seem simple a few years from now. I typically take a siesta on Sundays or watch football. I need to decompress physically and spiritually.

A few random thoughts on schedule.

Everybody needs to find a rhythm that works for them. I know my best writing hours and creative hours are early AM. I don't think I've had a creative thought past 3 PM in the afternoon :) My brain is too cluttered.

I think my biggest challenge right now is finding creative time to dream. It seems like I'm always handling a coffeehouse issue, writing an article, brainstorming a series, or managing a variety of projects. The great thing is that I love all of the above! I would get bored if pastoring was one-dimensional or two-dimensional. I love the fact that pastoring is seven-dimensional. But I do need to get out of the office at different times during the day.
I have this formula: change of pace + change of place = change of perspective.

I love going to bookstores and coffeehouses. There is an old saying: where you butt sits affects how your brain thinks. Or something like that. It's true.

One last thought. I'm a big believer in Family First. I don't have more than one ministry commitment per week in the evenings. Most pastors seem shocked by that, but it is a decision I made a few years ago. My kids are at a stage where they need their dad at home so I limit my evening commitments.

The Red Pill

I have this conviction: the most important truths ought to be communicated in the most unforgettable ways!

So I wrote an article about it that got published on sermoncentral.com. It's titled Pop The Red Pill. Here's a link if you want to check it out.

Book Cover

Just got intial cover designs for In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day.

This is hard :) Real hard :)

I take the branding of all of our sermon series so seriously. But the stakes are higher with a book. I want it to be perfect.

This is my first published book so there is a steep learning curve every step of the way. The book won't release till Fall '06 but we're moving full-steam ahead with design and marketing.

It's amazing how much goes into getting a book on a book shelf :)

Buzz Conference

We just launched the redesigned Buzz site. You can check it out at www.buzzconference.com.

We're also adding a cool component. We want the conference to be open-source. In other words, we want to learn from each other. One way we'll do that is with the Buzz Film Festival on Thursday night.

More details are available at www.buzzconference.com.

Dating Commandments

We continue our DTR: Define the Relationship series next weekend. We went out on the street getting dating advice in Georgetown last night. I thought I'd throw it out to the evosphere.

I'm looking for ten dating commandments. Thou shalt and thou shalt not.

So what are some dating lessons you've learned or some dating advice you'd like to pass along?

Final Inspections

Believe it or not, we've got final inspections today!

Not sure if we'll pass. I have no idea what is "normal." I'm sort of assuming we'll have some "issues" since DC is such a tough jurisdiction to build anything. But we're on the home stretch.

We've had a contractor trailer sitting on our sidewalk for nearly 18 months now. They just moved it this morning. Here's a shot of the sidewalk.

DTR Evotional

I just sent out this week's evotional. Every week I email a written version of my weekend message. It's a double dose for NCCers. And I hope it's a resource for other pastors. For a free subsciption, you can visit www.theaterchurch.com.

Here's a short excerpt from this week's evotional:

Scars

I've got physical scars all over my body. I have scars from knee surgeries; a lead pencil that poked through the palm of my hand; a scar on my wrist from a suitcase that closed on my hand. But the most prominent scar is an eighteen-inch scar right down the middle of my abdomen. The doctor's had to cut me open to perform emergency surgery after my intestines ruptured.

I used to be embarrassed by the scar on my stomach. Adults would politely avert their eyes. But kids would stare at me. I felt like a freak show. Kids would actually come up to me and ask me what happened.

And that was embarrassing me at first. But then the scar because a source of healthy pride. My near-death experience was life-changing. God taught me lessons that can't be learned any other way. I wouldn't want to go through anything like that again, but it was one of the best things that ever happened to me.

Some of us are embarrassed by our relational scars. Don't be! Learn from them. Even take pride in them. You can become a stronger person because of them. A bad relationship can translate into a better marriage, stronger friendships, and healthier family. You don't have to make the same mistakes. You can break the cycle!

Jacob walked with a limp after wrestling with God. He was physically scarred. But that physical scar was a reminder that God had healed the relational wound left by a father that didn't love him for who he was.

Every limp was a reminder of God's blessing!

Four Things Meme

Just got tagged by Tony Morgan. I guess there is a blog virus going around called "Four Things Meme." Far be it from me to stop spreading a virus! Cough. Cough.

Four Jobs I've Had

Earth Relocation Engineer (ditch digger)
Gym CEO--got paid $6 an hour to sit in the gym. Tough job but somebody had to do it.
Gas Station Attendant--if only they had let me keep the uniform
Telemarketer--you've probably hung up on me!

Four movies I can watch over and over

Meet the Parents
The Fugitive--I still get all tense and I know how it's going to end!
Tommy Boy--funnier every time!
Rocky IV

Four places I have lived

New Hope, Minnesota
Greendale, Wisconsin
Naperville, Illinois
Washington, DC

Four shows I like to watch

American Idol
Seinfeld
Dancing with the Stars--for my wife of course :)
Sports Center--does that count?

Four foods that I like

Ruth's Chris Filet Mignon, butterfly cut, extra butter!
Lou Malnoti's Pizza
Steak n' Shake
Spicy Cashew Chicken at Cheesecake Factory. Banana Cream with Raspberry puree for dessert.

Four websites I visit daily

Evotional.com
Blogger.com--yes, I'm addicted to blogging
Amazon.com--yes, I'm addicted to books
Lots of blogs

Four things I want to do before I die

Do a baptism via cliff jumping in Negril, Jamaica
Visit a bunch of castles on the Rhine River in Germany
See a Dingo dog in Australia--I love saying, "Is that a Dingo?" with an Australian accent.
Die laughing. Literally. That's how I want to go!

Four people I'm tagging

Not sure who has been tagged :)

Scott Aughtmon
Margaret Feinberg
David Russell
Heather Zempel

On the Street

I took our DTR series to the streets last night. We hung out on M Street in Georgetown interviewing people about dating. Interesting experience. Our camera scared people! Or was that me? But everybody seemed to have dating advice to offer.

I'll post the video once we edit it.

Marketplace Churches

Hung out with Dan McBride and Jeff Sellers from Victory Church in Lakeland, Florida yesterday.

They visited NCC a couple years ago and God planted a "theater seed" in their hearts. They did some multi-site recon at LifeChurch in Oklahoma, Northpoint in Atlanta, and Seacoast in SC. And they came back to NCC this weekend to gear up for their launch in March. They are launching a new location in a brand new theater.

One of our core convictions is: the church belongs in the middle of the marketplace. Most church plants have to start in marketplace environments by default. But I'm so impressed by larger, more traditional churches that aren't content with sitting back in the comfortable confines of their church buildings. I honestly think God is calling His Church back into the marketplace--marketplace churches.

For what it's worth, churches didn't have church buildings until about the 4th century. And I'd say the early church fared pretty well without them :)

Sunday Reflections

The chance of snow tends to cripple the nation's capital. I'm from the midwest so I don't totally get it :) But that is reality in Washington, DC. All you do is roll with the punches. Our worship band did a great job of that. They did an improv of Let it Snow to kick off our services at Union Station. All things considered, I was pleasantly surprised with our attendance yesterday.

We kicked off our DTR: Define the Relationship series. I preached on defining your relationships with yourself. I think most relational problems are actually personal problems. But we're in a relationship! I always know a message hits the target when people come up and say, "I felt like that message was for me." Had a bunch of them yesterday. I used Jacob as a case study and I think lots of people can identify with the dysfunction in that ancient family. Not much has changed!

Different messages feel different. I sort of felt like yesterday's message was "heavy" because I was talking about healing relational wounds. But I felt like it was the right way to kick off this series. Until we're in right relationship with God and right relationship with ourselves we can't be in right relationship with others.

Snowman

Took the kids sledding at the National Arboretum yesterday. Actually, you can't sled inside the Arboretum so we sled on a hill outside.

I wanted to build a huge snowman. And I started out really strong. The base was pretty good size. But I just flat out ran out of gas. The mid-section and head are pretty pathetic. Not much of a noggin :)

Let it Snow

I love snow. Except on Sundays!

For the record, we will NEVER cancel church :) I'm from Chicago. I just have this thing about not canceling church because of the weather. A little NCC trivia. The only Sunday we've ever canceled was actually our first Sunday! It was during the Blizzard of '96 that dumped two feet of snow. We couldn't have services because the DC public school where we were meeting was closed. And I still wanted to do an outdoor service :)

I can't imagine Union Station or Ballston Common Mall closing. As long as the station and the mall are open we're open.

Here's a before and after picture of our Ford Taurus taken at 6 PM last night and 6 AM this morning.

Why I Blog

Just posted my 1000th blog.

When I started blogging in 2003 it was a hobby. Now it's a vital part of my ministry portfolio. I used to think my blog supplemented my weekend messages. Now I wonder if it's vice versa.

Don't you wish blogger or typepad had been around 2,000 years ago. I wonder if Jesus would have blogged? What an RSS feed that would have been!

I thought I would hit the pause button and share the top ten reasons why I blog:

1) I want to be a good steward of God ideas. My blog is one way I "take my thoughts captive"--II Corinthians 10:5.

2) Too often we remember what we should forget and forget what we should remember. My blog helps me remember what God doesn't want me to forget.

3) Blogging is therapeutic. It helps me process thoughts and emotions.

4) Habakkuk 2:2 says, "Write down the revelation." Blogging is one way I write down what God is revealing to me.

5) Blogging is a form of digital discipleship. I can't disciple a thousand people one-on-one or face-to-face. Blogging is asyncronous discipleship. It's e-vangelism.

6) Blogging is marking my trail with breadcrumbs like Hansel and Gretel. Jeremiah 31:21 says, "Set up road signs; put up guideposts. Mark well the path by which you came."

7) I blog for posterity. My grandkids will know what I was doing and thinking on February 11, 2006. They'll be able to know my heart and read my mind.

8) Blogging is a form of autobiography. It helps me understand God's storyline for my life.

9) Blogging makes NCC an open-source church. For better or for worse, my blog is the way I share what we're doing at NCC.

10) I enjoy blogging. I don't think it comes natural to everyone. But I've always journaling. Blogging fits the rhythm of my life and ministry.

Blog on.

No Room in the Inn

So I went to Starbucks at 3rd and Pennsylvania Ave to study this morning. And there was no room in the Inn. There wasn't a single chair available. Not one. Part of it is that a snow storm is going to hit DC tonight. So everybody is out and about before they hunker down.

It's so frustrating going someplace like that and having no place to sit. Someone needs to build another coffeehouse on Capitol Hill :) Preferably someplace in NE DC. About 6500 square feet. Conveniently located near a metro stop. With a comfortable and cool ambiance.

Stained Concrete

The finishing touches are coming together at the coffeehouse. The painters are staining our concrete floors downstairs as I blog.

Here's a picture.

NCC Trailer

Powered by Castpost

We about to create a new trailer for NCC. Thought I'd post our old one for posterity sake. We actually shot this video for the multi-site conference at Willowcreek last summer.

I'll post our new trailer in a few weeks.

Neuromarketing

I just read a fascinating article titled Gray Matters in Entrepreneur.

I'm already researching our March series titled The Neurology of Faith. Neurology is one of my favorite ologies. The series will piggy-back off of last year's series titled The Physics of Faith. I've got The Anatomy of Faith and The Mathematics of Faith up my sleeve for future years. I love juxtaposing science and spirituality.

Anywho.

In his book, Neuromarketing: Is there a Buy Button inside the Brain, authors Patrick Renvoise and Christophe Morin say, "Marketing should be more visual and less verbal."

I couldn't agree more. We live in the image age. The way we communicate has to change in a post-literate society. That's why I think we need new sermon forms like sermon shorts for iPods. I think short films will evolve as postmodern parables.

Neurologically speaking, a picture is worth ten million words!

That's why we work so hard on series graphics. We want to find the right image. That's also why we try to keep it simple. Our last series was titled Y. Our current series is titled DTR. We want to keep it as simple as possible so it is as memorable as possible.

The medieval church was on to something when it used stain glass to communicate the gospel in visual images. Pure genius. The movie theater screen is our postmodern stained glass. It's the way we communicate the message in visuals.

Renvaise says, "It's very hard to convince people using words when their organ of decision is primarily visual."

Food for thought.

Testimony

I'm spoiled rotten. Every week I get emails and notes about the way NCC has impacted someone's life. It's so easy to get immune to the miraculous.

Here's an excerpt from a note I got today.

I am writing to say thank you for the way NCC ministered to me during the most difficult time in my life. Every week I would go to NCC, I left a little stronger in my faith and with a sense of joy and peace. The Lord used NCC to help me heal.

And here is the part that really got me!

It was also one of the only places that I laughed during that time! It felt good to laugh--especially in church!

Praise God and pass the popcorn!

Invitation Mode

The church is in the invitation business. That was the core of my Y Church message last week. We're in the busines

Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Thou Shalt Hang Out at Wells

Monday, February 27, 2006

3 Flights, 2 Foreign Exchange Students & 1 Llama

Multnomah

Thou Shalt Not Wash Thy Hands

Sunday, February 26, 2006

Buzz Trailer

Sunday Reflections

Saturday, February 25, 2006

Barista Training

Friday, February 24, 2006

2nd & F Street, NE

Thou Shalt Preach From Boats

The Smell of Coffee

Writing

I'm Going to the Inaugural

Occupancy Update

DTR Dating

Don't Try To Prove Yourself To Pilate

Thursday, February 23, 2006

Who is paying attention to whom?

The Buzz Commandments

The Millenium Matrix

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Ebenezers Inaugural

DTR Audible

Marketplace Churches

Permits

Monday, February 20, 2006

Looking Forward to Church

The Wow Factor

Sunday, February 19, 2006

Cultural Incompatibility

Sunday Reflections

Saturday, February 18, 2006

Wet Cement

W

Friday, February 17, 2006

DJ, Disco Ball, and Riverdancing

Vietnamese Rainforests, Machetes, and Dating

Ten Buzz Commandments

Thursday, February 16, 2006

Get Buzzed

Schedule

The Red Pill

Book Cover

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Buzz Conference

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Dating Commandments

Final Inspections

DTR Evotional

Four Things Meme

On the Street

Marketplace Churches

Monday, February 13, 2006

Sunday Reflections

Snowman

Sunday, February 12, 2006

Let it Snow

Saturday, February 11, 2006

Why I Blog

No Room in the Inn

Friday, February 10, 2006

Stained Concrete

NCC Trailer

Neuromarketing

Testimony

Invitation Mode