Evotional.com - Originality, Authenticity, Creativity

Dumbledore Batterson

We went in some interesting philosophical and theological directions in the evoshpere this past week. Now to the important stuff :) Parker got a bearded dragon today. For those of you who aren't up-to-speed on your reptilian classifications, that's a lizard. By the way, it has a lifespan of ten years. We were hoping it'd be a little shorter. Is that wrong?

I love the name Parker picked out: Dumbledore.

Man, kids are so good at naming stuff.

Welcome to the Batterson family little scaly friend.

Relevant Leader

I did an interview for Relevant Leader several weeks ago. Here's a link to the interview if you want to check it out.

I share some of the history and philosophy behind evotional.com.

Writing Reflections

It's t-minus 3 days till In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day comes off the press. Just wanted to share a few thoughts on this writing journey.

Looking in the rearview mirror I'm amazed at the supernatural syncronicities. It started with lunch with Brian McLaren in early 2005 and he happened to bump into an agent at a conference and mentioned my name.

Long story short, I landed an agent who really helped open publishing doors. I don't take that kind of thing for granted. You can't manufacture divine appointments. Only God can set them up. And He's set up lots of them.

It took thirteen years for my writing dream to become reality. And I got more and more frustrated as the years passed. But there is such a sense of destiny at this point. I honestly have no idea how many copies my book will sell. And that isn't why I write. I write for intrinsic reasons. And I honestly trust God. Writing a book is a huge exercise in faith! It's sort of like church planting. If you build it they will come. In the same sense, if you write it they will read. I know this for sure: I feel as called to write as I do to pastor. I really feel like October 2, 2006 begins a new chapter.

We take for granted those things that come easy so I'm glad this was an uphill climb! It makes me rely on God. I've really tried to approach writing the same way I approach pastoring: work like it depends on you and pray like it depends on God. Then let the chips fall where they may!

I hope women readers will forgive me for saying this, but it feels like I'm having a baby and the due date is Monday. Pretty exciting to cut the umbilical cord and let this book take on a life of it's own.

Thanks for letting me reflect :)

Ethos, Erwin McManus, and the Carnegie Deli

Just wanted to put an event on the evotional radar.

I'm headed up to New York City to be part of the Ethos event hosted by the Mosaic Alliance. I love New York City. And Erwin McManus rocks. Double whammy! Oh yeah, I almost forgot. I love the corned beef sandwich at the Carnegie Deli. Triple whammy!

While I'm on the subject, a corned beef sandwich at the Carnegie Deli costs $13. I was shocked the first time I got one. But my shock turned to guilt. I felt so bad because the Deli got ripped off. It was worth so much more than $13.

Here's a link if you want to check it out.

The conference not the deli :)

Theaterchurch.com

Our redesigned website just went live.

Serious props to David Russell, our digital pastor. We still have some tweaking and adding to do, but we wanted to get it live before the weekend. One new feature will be a theaterchurch webcast that turns our website into an online location. We're hoping it's a portal for people who are checking out NCC.

Check it out at www.theaterchurch.com.

Aquariums, Creation, and Darwin

I took Parker and Josiah to the Baltimore aquarium yesterday. If you live in the area you need to check it out. A-mazing!

I never cease to marvel at God's creativity. I'm looking at some of these multi-colored fish and frogs and saying, "God, you rock!" You can't help but laugh at some of the fish because they are so funky. And you can't help gasp at some of the fish because of the spectacular coloring.

Can I share something?

I don't want to overstep my intellectual boundaries, but I have no idea how someone can visit a place like the Baltimore aquarium (or my recent trip to the Galapagos) and not believe in an Intelligent Designer or Creative Designer.

I think we falsely assume that Darwin himself was an evolutionist in the godless sense of the word. Not true. He credited God with creation. I find no contradiction in giving God credit for evolution. I don't want to open a can of worms here, but of course things evolve. That is the way God designed the universal software. Do I believe we evolved from apes? Nope. Scripture says that God created Adam from the dust of the earth. But I marvel at evolution as a feature of creation! I think we've created a false dichotomy. Instead of fearing the e-word we ought to celebrate God's creativity in the form of evolution. And I mean that in the most straight-forward way possible. Our adapatibility is an amazing testament to God's ingenuity.

In The Origin of the Species, Darwin says:

Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of higher animals, directly follows. There is granduer in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved.

Didn't mean to go off on a tangent :)

The Office Series

We rarely do a series that plays off a TV show. And there is a fine line between cheesy and catchy. But we're piggy-backing off the popularity of The Office because we are way overdue for a series that helps people live out their faith Monday through Friday in the workplace. A theology of work. And we're going to have some fun with it.

Instead of invite cards we're actually giving every NCCer a stack of 25 post-it notes with the 411 on the series. Really excited about it. Can't wait to see where the post-it notes show up. We don't want to deface or do anything illegal, but I can see pink post-it notes on bathroom stalls all over the city right next to "call me for a good time" graffiti :)

Just thought I'd share the post-it graphic. We'll put it on pink to make it pop.

Half-Formed Imaginations

I think the greatest threat to the future of the church is a failure of our God-given imaginations. The church ought to be the most imaginative place on the planet. Imagination is part of the imago Dei. To have the mind of Christ is to imagine like the one who originally imagined everything that is. No one should be more imaginative than Spirit-filled Christ followers!

C.S. Lewis is the patron saint of whole-brain preachers.

Can you think of anyone in the last century who was more left-brain logical? His theological writings, from Mere Christianity to The Problem of Pain, are as logical as logic can be. But Lewis combined left-brain logic with right-brain creativity. The Chronicles of Narnia series has captured the imagination of children since it was written.

Lewis once referred to himself as the most reluctant convert in all of Christendom. The night before his conversion, Lewis had a long conversation with J.R.R. Tolkien, the novelist who wrote the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Tolkien tried to convince Lewis of the credibility of Christ, but Lewis was full of objections. At one point, Tolkien countered Lewis' objections by saying: Your inability to understand stems from a failure of imagination on your part!

Maybe lack of faith is really a failure of imagination?

In his book, The Celtic Way, Ian Bradley writes about the celebration of the imagination in the Celtic tradition.

Celtic Christianity may offer us a lifeline in the form of an approach to faith which is rooted in imagination. Too many Christians today, brought up on the penny plain prose favoured by Rome and even more by the Reformers, have half-formed imaginations.

God wants to sanctify our imaginations and use them for his purposes!

There are ways of doing church that no one has thought of yet.
There are ways of preaching that no one has thought of yet.

That is some of the inspiration behind the Right-Brain Preaching Seminar.

Fired up about tag-teaming with Nelson Searcy and The Journey Church. We're hosting two seminars on October 19 @ Ebenezers, our coffeehouse on Capitol Hill. Journey is doing a seminar on assimilation. We're doing a seminar on right-brain preaching.

Here's a link if you want to sign-up.

Look forward to doing some kingdom dreaming with you!

Soda Can Sound

Alright folks, get your fix now :) Evotional.com is going mute. I'm turning off the soda can sound. I'm going to miss it. It's like a security blanket. An old sweatshirt. A trusty sidekick.

For some of you, this is a sad day.
For some of you, this is a happy day.

If you'd like to write a eulogy go for it.

Rest in Peace Soda Can Sound!

Bad Press

The Hill Newspaper just ran a story on NCC. Not thrilled about the tone or angle. Which is funny because I thoroughly enjoyed the interview with the reporter. Alas. We get so much positive press so we were probably due for a story that didn't capture who we are.

I knew it wasn't going to go well when I saw the title and first line :)

Mass Appeal: A superstar pastor

Have you ever been sitting in a movie theater, had a jumbo popcorn tub passed to you, and been expected to drop money in it?

For what it's worth, we give a disclaimer every week: if you're a guest please don't feel obligated to give.

Then the article starts contradicting itself.

In his polo-shirt-and-jeans video sermon, Batterson mentioned some things you won't find in any of the church's promotional materials: the scripture, the wrath of God, eternal suffering, and Jesus Christ.

The National Community Church enterprise is reminiscent of the non-denominational mega-ministries run by superstar pastors like Joel Osteen or Rick Warren. There is a clear emphasis on positive thinking and self-esteem, and hardly a hint of hellfire. Batterson says he's not interested in television, but I wouldn't rule out superstar-pastor status for him yet.

A few thoughts.

You can't expect a reporter to really capture who you are or what you're about with one brief visit to one service on one Sunday.

You can't control people's perceptions.

Stories like this help you not take yourself so seriously :)

Don't get defensive.

Be who you are and let the chips fall where they may :)

Now here is the funny thing. God will use this article :) I've seen it before and it'll happen again. It doesn't seem like positive press, but God has a way of redeeming it.

Amp, Rock Star, Monster

Wondering what Amp, Rock Star, and Monster have in common? They are the three "energy" drinks that our digital pastor, David Russell, drank last night trying to get theaterchurch.com relaunched.

Please don't try this at home!

I did have a thought however. What would happen if everybody attending our worship services had a can of each right before the call to worship :)

Raw Rejoicing

Just got done crying.

Just heard that some people crossed the line of faith at our Alpha dinner last night. One of them is a guy I met and I actually woke up praying for him this morning. That rarely happens, but God put him on my heart big time.

I honestly can't stop crying every time I think about it. Raw rejoicing. That is the only way I can describe it. And I think it mirrors the reality in heaven.

There is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.

Luke 15:10

Poster

So the Athletes in Action group from GW made a poster last night. It's the largest poster anyone has ever made for me :) So after the event I decided to bust through the poster like I used to coming out of the locker room before games.

Anybody seen the Power Team? This was a feat of strength. The paper stock must have been at least 80 lb :)

Here's visual proof. Thanks for the picture Dave!

10 College Commandments

I spoke at George Washington University tonight. It's like a personal pilgrimage when I speak there. Half of our core group of twenty-five people back in 1996 were GW students.

I gotta say: I love speaking to students.

As promised, here are the ten college commandments.

Some of them are more like suggestions :) And no, I didn't climb Mount Sinai and descend with these on stone tablets. These are just lessons learned.

#1 Don't base your self-esteem on your GPA
#2 Take some offbeat classes
#3 Study abroad or go on a mission trip!
#4 Pick the tough internship not the easy internship
#5 Good friends are more important than good grades
#6 Don't put God on hold during college
#7 Don't pursue a degree. Pursue a passion.
#8 Make godly pre-decisions
#9 Enjoy the Journey
#10 Take calculated risks

In a Pit With a Lion on a Snowy Day

One week from today! That is when In a Pit With a Lion on a Snowy Day comes off the press!

Here's the $64,000 question for an author: how do you ask someone to buy your book? I honestly don't know how :) So here goes. Would you buy my book :) In fact, would you consider buying two copies of the book on October 2nd? If you like the book you can give the copy to a friend. If you don't like the book you can give it to an enemy. Either way you win :)

Here's an amazon link.

If you can't wait till October 2nd go for it :) But I would love to turn October 2nd into Amazon Day. I'll post a reminder and a link next Monday, October 2nd.

Feel free to share the link :)

Mucho Thanks!

Catacombs

We had our first catacombs of the fall.

Rockin' worship experience. It was one of those "restful" worship experiences where I just felt like my batteries got recharged. And our performance space looked as cool as I've ever seen it. Loved the drapes around the screen and the candles.

Thanks to Joe Portnoy, DJ photographer extraordinaire, for taking some pictures!

Crazy Ideas

Keep those crazy ideas coming :)

I was overdue for a top ten list so I'm posting crazy outreach ideas, crazy sermon series and crazy marketing ideas. What is the craziest thing you've attempted as a church? Share the goods!

I'm still looking for submissions and nominations.

Email them to mark@theaterchurch.com.

Check out this postcard from a church plant in Scotland. Dave and Kate Schmidgall are part of a church plant called eikon in Edinburgh.

A Normal Saturday

How do I say this? I love what I do, but pastors don't get normal weekends like everybody else. I'm not complaining. Just explaining. So today was pretty cool. I had a normal Saturday which is abnormal.

I'm not preaching this weekend so I took Saturday off. I hit two soccer games. Josiah scored his first goal in pee-wee soccer. And it was from midfield. Goooooooooaaaaaaalllllllll.

Then we ate breakfast at The Market Lunch at Eastern Market. The French Toast and Blueberry Pancakes are ridiculous!

For all of you non-DCers, Eastern Market is a major hotspot on Capitol Hill on Saturday mornings. It's a flea market slash meat market slash vegetable market. And a few jewelry stands that seem like black market :)

We topped the day off watching Akeelah and the Bee. I absolutely loved the movie. Five stars. It was like Hoosiers except it was about spelling bees instead of basketball. I was, however, disappointed that it was wasn't based on a true story! It should be a true story :)

I even went to Home Depot with my boys!

Ah, the joy of a normal Saturday :)

Goodbye Granger

I'm out of adjectives.

What a conference! I was inspired beyond words by Granger Community Church. Some of the most creative churches in the history of Christendom are in existence today. And Granger is one of them.

I can't wait to come back to ICC 2007 and bring more of our team! Everybody on our team needs to experience ICC. It was like getting hooked up to an IV and pumping a 1000 miligrams of pure creativity right into my veins.

I've never gotten high. But this must be how it feels :)

Huge props to the team. And they are as nice as they are creative! The Granger team was going a thousand directions during the conference, but they actually took time to take the NCC team to dinner. We were blown away by that.

Thanks Tony, Tim, Kem, and Mark.

Peace Out.

Perry Noble

Just finished my session at the Innovative Church Conference.

Perry Noble is up to bat. Remember, he said it I didn't :) I can't believe how many perrryisms he fit into one session!

"Pastors, I have a word from the Lord. Get rid of the preacher hair."

"I like getting sick so I can drink Nyquil."

"I was pagan of the year eight years running."

"Jesus powerwashed my soul."

"If I met one more church planter who says they can't grow because they aren't in permanent facilities I'm going to knock them out."

"I never graduated from cemetary. I mean seminary."

"Curious George books are boring. You know what would have been interesting: Curious George and the Electric Fence."

"Church ought to be the most engaging place on the planet. If the tomb is really empty we ought to act like it."

"Get out of your box or let God out of His."

"You better believe we're about numbers. Numbers represent souls."

"I think Jesus was getting ready to come back until Tim and Jerry starting writing the Left Behind series. God isn't finished reading them yet."

"We lose steeple people all the time."

"Don't shut the backdoor of the church. The church is a body. You shut the back door and you've got problems. You need a Holy Spirit enema."

"If you target the people nobody else wants you won't be able to stop from growing."

"A church is not effective when a pastor ministers to the people. A church is effective when the body ministers to the body."

"You've got a cell phone, a PDA, an XYZ. You look like flippin' Batman."

"If you're sick in the hospital I'm not coming to visit you. I hate hospitals. If I come to see you in the hospital it's bad. If I show up the dude behind me has a bag for you."

"People will sit on their blessed assurance as long as you let them."

"Your passion is not my burden."

Finally, I love the "New Spring" prayer: "Dear Jesus, Yes. Amen."

Identification Points

During the By Design session, the Granger crew talked about the importance of ambiance. I could beat that drum all day long! Fifteen chapters of Exodus are devoted to the aesthetics of the tabernacle. The colors and scents were important enough for God to give them Scripture space.

Here is the key issue church environmentalists need to ask and answer: how do you want people to feel when they walk through the door? Too much of our planning is intellectual. Too little is emotional. We focus on what we want people to know. And that's important. But we also need to help people feel truth.

Here is my major take away.

We need to create identification points for the unchurched folks who walk through our door. Redeeming a song or using a piece of pop culture gives us cultural capital. People need to feel like we're in it with them. That is half the battle.

One of the greatest compliments I can get after a message is someone saying: that sermon was for me. When we're really anointed by the Holy Spirit and in touch with the times then people will feel like we're reading their mail.

Identification points!

Last Supper Painting

I was talking to John Jackson and he made an interesting observation about Granger. He said Granger is good at helping people identify and take the next step.

Here is one example.

They did a series on the Da Vinci Code and printed out a thirty foot version of Da Vinci's painting The Last Supper. It was staging during the series. At the end of the series, they asked people who wanted to "be at the table" with Jesus to sign the painting.

How cool is that?

What a creative way to cross the line of faith.

Breakout Session

I just did a breakout session for churches that are thinking about going multi-site.

FYI--I believe in giving credit where credit is due. There are some churches that totally inspired us as we began pursuing our multi-site vision. Community Christian Church in Naperville, IL; Northcoast Community Church in San Diego; and Mosaic in LA were helpful in modeling and mentoring us.

I shared a ten-step timeline. I think this is a framework to follow when it comes launching another site. But it is more descriptive than prescriptive.

1) Reconaissance--visit 2-3 churches that are doing multi-site
2) Identify a short-list of potential locations
3) Congregational Survey--get a pulse on where to launch and who is willing to help
4) State of the Church Message--cast the vision to the congregation
5) Recruit Core--multiply leaders and train launch team
6) Prayer Walks--pray on location
7) Ministry Matrix--identify ministry opportunities
8) Identify Key Leaders--if you don't have a qualified campus pastor don't launch
9) Marketing Strategy--make a big splash
10) Preview Services--have a few tune up gatherings before you go public

Pixy Stix

Great Conference + Pixy Stix = Happy Camper :)

Don't know whose idea it was to give conference attendees pixy stixs, but it's absolutely brilliant!

Buzz Worthy

I'm listening to Tim Stevens speak right now. Here are some rough draft notes.

Warning: these have passed through the Mark Batterson filter :)

The church faces two huge challenges in our culture:

1) People can't hear us
2) People don't trust us

So how do we create buzz? How do we speak the truth so boldly and so creatively that we cannot be ignored. How do we become unignorable?

We could learn a lesson from amazon, You Tube, and My Space.

Tim shared about their mylamesexlife.com series. It was off the buzz chart. It created a buzz in the local and national media. And Granger had several thousand guests during that series! What astounds me is that some people were offended because they didn't think the church should be talking about things like that. What? God invented it.

Granger put up billboards that created some serious buzz--four feet sticking out of a bed sheet. One of the billboards was right next to a Hooters. What a great juxtaposition. There is no question that it was very provocative. But that is one way you create buzz.

Tim cited one of my favorite buzz books by Mark Hughes titled Buzzmarketing.

According to Hughes, there are six ways to get buzz:

1) The unusual
2) The outrageous
3) The taboo
4) The hilarious
5) The remarkable
6) The secretive

Listen. We shouldn't be different for difference sake. We shouldn't try to make news to make news. We better do the right things for the right reasons or they will implode and backfire. But we need to buzz.

In the words of Jesus: "Compel them to come in so my house will be full."

Churches that are serious about incarnation need to leverage culture. How do we use the emotional response to music? How do we use redemptive themes in movies?

FYI--that is what we do with our God @ the Billboards & God @ the Box Office.

Tim shared about the way movies like The Matrix were spiritual catalysts in his life. I actually put my faith in Christ after watching a movie called The Hiding Place. Tim's point was we need to use culture to build inroads into people's hearts. We need to leverage culture. Isn't that what Paul did in Athens? In fact, he used an idol to lead people to God. Pure Genius!

Here are some ways to use pop culture:

1) Use pop culture to acquaint people with the stories of the Bible.
2) Use pop culture to illustrate Biblical truth.
3) Use secular images and songs to surface deep life issues.

Using pop culture isn't pop gospel. Let's call it what it is: incarnation. One of our core values is: irrelevance is irreverence! Jesus used agrarian metaphors. We need to use news, songs, movies, TV shows, etc.

We think of langauge in terms of English, Greek, and Hebrew. But the language of today is pop culture. The language of today is felt need.

Maybe we need to be as serious about learning the language of culture as we do Greek and Hebrew? I'm all for studying the original languages of Scripture. They give us greater understanding. But we aren't called to be interpreters. We're translators! Ultimately, it's our job to translate truth into languages people can understand.

Here is my big take away. Ready?

Granger is really really good about talking about the real issues and the real problems and the real questions people have! Incarnation is all about creativity. They use dramas and songs and movies and cultures in some amazingly creative ways! And lots of people are finding Christ because of their incarnational efforts!

ICC Update

Blown away. That's all I can say.

The first session at the Innovative Church Conference was worth the trip. My only regret is that I didn't come sooner or bring more of our team.

By the way, it was 45 degrees in South Bend when we landed last night. And I had shorts on. No one told me it was winter in Indiana :)

I'll share some updates along the way!

Plane Curse

It's official.

I've got some sort of plane hex on me. I can't win for losing. I'm sitting in the Detroit airport waiting for a jumper to South Bend. Delayed. It's not nearly as bad as my recent 3:30 AM arrival, but looks like I'll be post-midnight again. One of these times the plane is going to turn into a pumpkin.

By the way, the less people in an airport the later it feels. If the airport is still packed it doesn't seem so late. But this place is feeling like a ghost plane right now.

Just passing the time via blogging :)

Innovative Church Conference

I'm off to my third conference in three weeks :) Excited about hanging out with the crew from Granger Community Church for a couple days at the Innovative Church Conference.

I'm going a breakout session for multi-site churches on Thursday. Then I tell our story in a main session on Friday. Really looking forward to hearing Mark Beeson, Senior Pastor at Granger and Perry Noble, Senior Pastor at New Spring.

Upcoming Seminar

Just a reminder about the Right-Brain Preaching seminar we're hosting on October 19. We're tag-teaming with Nelson Searcy and the crew from The Journey Church in New York City. We'll host two half-day seminars @ Ebenezers--our coffeehouse on Capitol Hill.

Journey will host the morning seminar on assimilation.

Here is a brief description of our afternoon seminar: right-brain preaching.

Looking forward to a highly interactive experience.

You'll walk away with:

The 7 Steps to Branding Your Sermon Series
How to put together a One-Year Preaching Strategy
How to utilize Emerging Technology to supplement your sermons
How to Shoot, Edit, and Produce Videos to supplement your sermons
How to use word-of-mouth and word-of-mouse to promote series
The 3 Laws of Right-Brain Preaching

Catalyst Podcast

Had a great conversation with Brad Lomenick today for the next Catalyst podcast.

If you don't subscribe you need to :) Here's a link. The next podcast should come out next week. I think it is one of best produced and most practical podcasts out there.

Catalyst doesn't do anything half way!

Confrontation or Frustration

Just thought I'd share a leadership lesson I'm learning right now.

One of the biggest mistakes teams make is verbalizing frustration about someone or something and then failing to do anything about it. That'll kill morale and create a negative culture. It's easy to be a problem person--someone who points out problems. I love solution people--people who take the initiative and find a way to put a man on the moon!

Venting feels good when you're doing it, but it fuels frustration. I know this is so basic, but as we grow larger and I get busier, I find it more and more difficult to circumvent confrontration. I just don't have time not to be straight up and straight forward. I also think there is a way for confrontation to be more affirming than avoidance. You care enough to confront. If you don't believe in someone, you don't waste your time trying to teach them or correct them.

It boils down to this: confrontation or frustration.

One or the other!

Crazy

Just sent the latest evotional--email version of my weekend message.

You can get a free subscription by following the evotional link @ www.theaterchurch.com. This week's evotional continues the God @ the Billboards series with Crazy by Gnarls Barkley.

iPods, Internal Podcasts, and Rick Warren

I opened my inbox this morning and found an email from Rick Warren. That was a surprise to say the least. We've never met in person, but you never know who you'll bump into in the blogosphere.

Rick shared some encouraging words and a really cool idea that got me thinking. Saddleback has always pushed the technological envelope. But I didn't know that they give all of their new employees an iPod--standard issue. How cool is that? Makes you want to apply for a job doesn't it :) And they do their staff training via podcast!

Granted, most of us don't have hundreds of staff members. But I love the way Saddleback continues to push the envelope despite their size!

This summer we launched an internal podcast to supplement our leadership training for small group and ministry leaders. Internal communication has never been our strength at NCC, but we're really trying to find ways to remedy that. I think podcasting is one solution. Certainly blogging is another.

Our www.zonegathering.com blog is worth checking out.

It is an invaluable resource for our leaders!

An Exercise in Self-Revelation

Someone gave me an age-old article titled My War on Gobbledygook. I think it originates from a December 1980 issue of the Notre Dame News. I love the opening quote by Edward Fischer:

Writing is not about split infinitives and dangling participles. It is an exercise in self-revelation, and if the self is dull, then dullness escapes.

Preaching and writing are exercises in self-revelation. That is why experienced truth is so important. I don't want to preach sermons I've studied but haven't lived. At the end of the day--you are the message.

If you live an interesting life your sermons will be interesting. If you have a sense of humor your sermons will be funny. If you care deeply about people your sermons will make people cry. And as Edward Fischer said, if you are dull your messages will be dull :)

It's a Small World After All

I got an email from a podcast listener today.

I continue to marvel at the way God is using technology to eliminate borders and boundaries. The death of distance!

I'm a 21-year old med-school student from Zurich and just wanted to send you a big HELLOU AND JODALEEE from Switzerland and let you know that you're my and my sisters running-buddy. We also introduced theaterchurch.com to our friends and some of them started downloading the sermons as well.

It's a small world after all.

I had a thought after I read this email: I think podcasting and blogging is going to make heaven even more fun. We'll meet all kinds of people from around the world whose voice we've heard or words we've read, but we've never met them face-to-face.

What a reunion to look forward to!

Top Ten Crazy Ideas

I've got an itch that needs scratching :)

Maybe it's the fact that this week's song for God @ The Billboards was Crazy.

I haven't done a top ten list in a while. So here is my idea. Email me a crazy sermon series or crazy outreach or crazy marketing idea. Send it to Mark@theaterchurch.com.

I want to post a top ten crazy idea list with acknowledgements. They can be crazy ideas that were wildly successful or crazy ideas that were wildly unsuccessful.

Don't keep your crazy idea to yourself. Inspire the rest of us or let us have a laugh at your expense! And by the way, crazy is a relative term. They don't have to be "never attempted before in the history of the universe" ideas!

For example, I just saw the roadside signs that Ben Arment did for History Church. Crazy idea. Why do political candidates and diet companies get to have all the fun with roadside signs?

By the way, a little known fact about National Community Church. We once did a fortune cookie outreach. The fortune inside the cookie was our website. I think Scott Aughtmon got the idea when he was our church planter in residence. I wanted to do a fortune inside Boston Creme donuts, but Scott's wisdom prevailed :)

Open Source!

Share the goods.

Weekend Reflections

Great weekend.

We continued our God @ the Billboards series with Crazy by Gnarls Barkley. Steph Modder rocked the song. She added a bluezy feel to it. And she managed to sing it at all five of our services! No easy feat.

This was my first weekend preaching four times. I actually felt great. What was really weird is that I "felt" my message more my fourth time preaching it than I did the first three times. Usually it's the exact opposite. It typically gets harder and harder not to preach from memory.

We've got some serious momentum going right now. And it is the byproduct of praying like it depends on God and working like it depends on us.

Our attendance is booming. Our band is rocking. And our small groups are launching.

Ministry is a ton of fun right now.

I'm just trying to enjoy the journey!

Confessions of a Pastor

Every once in a while I like throwing out a book recommendation. I haven't read it yet, but I just pre-ordered Confessions of a Pastor by Craiq Groeschel, pastor of Lifechurch.tv.

Craig is doing one of the lab sessions at Catalyst. He's also going to speak at Buzz 07.

Can't wait to get my copy!

Movie Theater Churches

Last spring I flew to Denver to shoot a video for Cinemedia. Cinemedia is very intentional about reaching out to churches and helping them turn theaters into sanctuaries.

Here's a link to the video.

If you're interested in planting a church in a theater or using a theater as part of your multi-site strategy, the video is worth checking out.

Packaged Truth

I made a distinction today between two types of truth: packaged truth and experienced truth. I think we're real good at packaging truth in the church. We have our systematic theologies and three-point sermons with alliterations. But maybe what people respond to is truth that is more unplugged and more unpackaged.

People respond to stories and stories are experienced truth. And sometimes that is messy. Sometimes the truth doesn't fit into our nice neat categories. But the church needs to be a place where we allow people to be in process. One of the greatest hinderances to spiritual authenticity is this feeling that we have to have it all figured out.

We don't. We can't.

When I'm preparing for a sermon I want it to be perfectly packaged. But maybe if we did less studying and more living our sermons would be less packaged and more experienced.

The best sermons aren't just the byproduct of study. The best sermons are the byproduct of living. Don't get me wrong: study to show yourself approved. But living the truth is more important than studying the truth.

Less packaging. More experiencing.

Like Yourself

I'm not sure how to say this, but I'm not convinced that successful people like themselves any more than unsuccessful people. I think they like their success. But do they like themselves? There is a difference between liking yourself and liking your success.

I had a wierd thought this week.

I was reading about Roger Federer, the top-ranked tennis player who won the U.S. Open. I read a story that said he was at a swank New York restaurant till the wee hours of the morning after his victory. And I wondered how he felt about himself that night. Did he like himself or like his trophy?

There is a difference between liking what you do and what you have done. Liking what you do is doing what you do for intrinsic reasons. Liking what you've done is doing what you do for extrinsic reasons.

I never want to do what I do because I like doing it once it's done.

Feel free to reread :)

I have a little saying that I repeat to our staff all the time: thanks for who you are and what you do. And I try to remind them that who they are is more important than what they do.

When upstart pastors ask me for one piece of advice I usually default to this: be yourself. Don't try to be who you're not. Have the courage to be yourself.

Conversation

I'm spending the next two days with some culture shapers and culture makers. It is unlike any other gathering I've ever been part of. Hardly any agenda. Lots of conversation.

This gathering has me thinking. Maybe we need a few less conferences and a few more conversations. I feel like I walk away from conferences with information. But I walk away from conversations with relationships. I'd love to see a gathering like this for pastors.

100 + Blog Reviews

Wow.

I just sent off more than a hundred emails saying thank you to those of you who are doing blog reviews of In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day! I'll follow-up with 411.

Pretty blown away by the response. Really appreciate the way so many of you are rallying around the book! Maybe that'll encourage bookstores to stock more than one copy :)

Mucho thanks!

I thank you. My mom and dad thank you. My wife thanks you. My children thank you. And our pet rabbit, popcorn, thanks you!

If you'd like to do a blog review of the book shoot me an email @ Mark@theaterchurch.com.

Top Ten Ways to Redeem Technology

At the end of my session at Ministrycom I shared a top ten list.

Here is it in edited form.

Top Ten Ways to Redeem Technology

1) Start blogging
2) Start podcasting your sermons
3) Communicate with your congregation via e-newsletter
4) Redesign your webpage all the time
5) Shoot, Edit, and Produce video trailers for your sermon series
6) Launch a leaders-only podcast for vision casting and leader training
7) Send out an email version of your messages
8) Do word of mouse marketing via evites
9) Brand all of your sermon series with series graphics
10) If all else fails, hire a Digital Pastor

Innovation at the Edges

Innovation happens at the edges.

I get so many ideas and so much inspiration from church planters. Church plants are the research and development department of the Kingdom of God.

Our fomer church planter in residence, Josh Karrer, is planting a church in the Richmond, VA area. I love their marketing campaign. I just think we've got to utilize creative websites for our sermon series and marketing campaigns!

Check out www.brandspankingnewchurch.com.

Innovative Church Conference

Totally fired up about speaking at the Innovative Church Conference at Granger Community Church next week. I love their creativity and authenticity at Granger. And so many of them have become friends in the last year. Tony Morgan and Tim Stevens are speaking at the Buzz Conference next year. It was good to finally meet Kem Meyer at Ministrycom. And it was really cool to meet Amber Cox, daughter of Mark Beeson, Senior Pastor at Granger. I keep hearing about all the people getting baptized at Granger. Praise the Lord and pass the popcorn.

I've wanted to attend the Innovative Church Conference for years, but the invitation to speak gave me no excuse :) I'm excited about speaking, but more excited about learning from the other speakers.

If you haven't registered here is a link.

One of the things I love about blogging is that when I go to these conferences I feel like I meet old friends because we're always bumping into each other in the blogosphere! Look forward to connecting with many of you at ICC.

Font Matters

I'm in learning mode these days. It feels like every week I'm identifying issues with our structure or communication that need to improve. And I'm really trying to mentor our team so we don't make the same mistakes twice.

Here are a few random observations this week.

The bigger you get the more you have to pay attention to small things. I'm fanatical about bulletins and banners and worship slides. Why? Because the little things communicate a lot.

Let me put it this way: font matters!

And did I mention that unevenly folded bulletins are one of my pet peeves? So are mispelled words on worship slides :) Yes, I mispelled misspelled intentionally :)

By the way, if you aren't convinced that little things are big things you need to read Broken Window, Broken Business.

Unchurchy Church

I'm not sure that unchurchy is an actual word. But NCC has always strived to be an unchurchy church. Let me explain. While we are orthodox in belief we're somewhat unorthodox in practice. We cherish and celebrate the traditions and ordinances of the church like communion. But we try to practice them in ways that don't allow it to become an empty religious ritual. And our target is the unchurched and dechurched so we try to avoid churchianity and christianeze. We want to remove religious barriers that would keep people from Christ. That is one reason why we meet in marketplace environments like movie theaters and coffeehouses. When I say unchurchy church I certainly don't mean church-lite. That doesn't mean we dumb-down or water-down the gospel. It simply means we're trying to do church in relevant ways. Afterall, irrelevance is irreverence! You've got to incarnate before you indoctrinate. And I mean indoctrinate in the healthy sense of the word.

Having said that let me say this. People still want their church to feel like church to one degree of another. People from a high-church background may want more traditional elements than someone from a low-church background. But one way or the other, we need elements that keep us anchored.

Here are two elements that I've found help church feel like church for people from a church background. But they aren't really turnoffs for most unchurched people. They certainly aren't the only elements that meet this criteria, but they are two of them. The elements are benedictions and hymns.

I try to do a benediction at the end of services. While that sounds like high-church, I really think it is a pastoral function with biblical roots dating back to the Old Covenant priests. I take that part of my pastoral role seriously. I'm blessing people before they go. My fall back benediction is: May the Lord bless you, and keep you, and make His face to shine upon you. But I also love Ephesians 3:20. I also pull out the Jude benediction occasionally.

I've also noticed that when we sing a hymn at NCC it feels like church :) And it's a good feeling. We've been a little more intentional lately about mixing some hymns into our worship sets. It is amazing the way the volume and participation goes way up on hymns. It's like our congregation turns into a choir.

I love the our newer worship choruses. And I love redeeming popular songs like we do in God @ the Billboards. But hymns seem to round out our diet--musical protein. We don't use hymnals and we often remix the music, but hymns make church feel like church.

Random thoughts.

God @ the Billboards

Just sent out the latest evotional--an email version of my weekend message. If you'd like to subscribe you can follow the evotional link on the homepage @ www.theaterchurch.com.

This weeks evotional kicks off the God @ the Billboards series. We did Bad Day by Daniel Powter last weekend. This weekend we're doing Crazy by Gnarls Barkley.

Santo Baca

Santo Baca is one of the few phrases in my Spanish arsenal. It means Holy Cow. That is what I said when I saw my inbox at the end of the day :)

Totally blown away by how many bloggers have rallied around In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day. Totally grateful for how many of you are willing to buzz the book.

I'll follow up via email in the next week. If you'd be willing to review the book, shoot me an email @ mark@theaterchurch.com.

Mucho Thanks!

Monday Night Football

Someone gave me tickets to the Redskins game. Thank you someone :) Nothing like a little Monday Night Football. The MNF theme song is one of my all-time favorite hymns :)

The bad news is that the Redskins lost. The good news is that the Vikings won.

Let me take this opportunity to explain my complicated football life. I was born in Minneapolis so the Vikings were my first favorite team. Then we moved to Wisconsin and I became a die hard Packer's fan. I'm a cheesehead. But the Redskins are my adopted team. We've lived in DC for a decade.

I know that football purists are going to have a hard time with this. You're not supposed to have three teams. What can I say? I have three teams. If that causes you to lose respect for me then so be it.

That's my story. I'm sticking with it :)

I thought the clown wig would give me a shot at National TV, but I don't think I made Sports Center. But it sure was fun to wear!

In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day

As a new author, bookstores aren't exactly ordering truck loads of my book so I have to rely on unconventional means. So I'm lining up as many blog reviews of my book as I possibly can for the last week of September. If you'd be willing to review the book, shoot me an email @ Mark@theaterchurch.com. I'll send you a jpeg of the cover, book description, and a free copy of the book once it comes out.

Mucho Thanks!

Jedi Temple

Yesterday I was talking about time travel and I said that God has given us the ability to travel into the past via memory and travel into the future via imagination.

So I did a little mind experiment.

I sent people on a mental trip to an exotic vacation destination they've always wanted to visit. So later that night I ask my son, Parker, where he went. He said, "I went to the Jedi Temple." Of course. Silly me. Where else would he go?

Maybe it's just me, but I think that is stinkin' hilarious :)

Teleportation

I'm not posting my entire session from the Ministrycom Conference, but I thought I would share one of my podcast metaphors.

Podcasting is teleportation.

Do you remember the story in Acts 8? An angel tells Philip to go south. So Philip heads toward Gaza and crosses paths with the Ethiopian Eunuch. He hears him reading Isaiah; hops into his chariot; and ends up baptizing him. The Eunuch becomes the first missionary to Ethiopia

Saturday, September 30, 2006

Dumbledore Batterson

Friday, September 29, 2006

Relevant Leader

Writing Reflections

Ethos, Erwin McManus, and the Carnegie Deli

Theaterchurch.com

Thursday, September 28, 2006

Aquariums, Creation, and Darwin

The Office Series

Half-Formed Imaginations

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Soda Can Sound

Bad Press

Amp, Rock Star, Monster

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Raw Rejoicing

Poster

Monday, September 25, 2006

10 College Commandments

In a Pit With a Lion on a Snowy Day

Sunday, September 24, 2006

Catacombs

Crazy Ideas

Saturday, September 23, 2006

A Normal Saturday

Friday, September 22, 2006

Goodbye Granger

Perry Noble

Identification Points

Last Supper Painting

Thursday, September 21, 2006

Breakout Session

Pixy Stix

Buzz Worthy

ICC Update

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Plane Curse

Innovative Church Conference

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Upcoming Seminar

Catalyst Podcast

Confrontation or Frustration

Monday, September 18, 2006

Crazy

iPods, Internal Podcasts, and Rick Warren

An Exercise in Self-Revelation

It's a Small World After All

Top Ten Crazy Ideas

Sunday, September 17, 2006

Weekend Reflections

Confessions of a Pastor

Movie Theater Churches

Saturday, September 16, 2006

Packaged Truth

Like Yourself

Friday, September 15, 2006

Conversation

Thursday, September 14, 2006

100 + Blog Reviews

Top Ten Ways to Redeem Technology

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Innovation at the Edges

Innovative Church Conference

Font Matters

Unchurchy Church

Monday, September 11, 2006

God @ the Billboards

Santo Baca

Monday Night Football

In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day

Jedi Temple

Teleportation