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Like a Reunion

Yesterday was such a fun day. I really enjoyed speaking, but the highlight of the day was just connecting with lots of pastor friends! It felt like a reunion. The conference was held at Radiant Church in Surprise, AZ. I love Radiant and I love their pastor, Lee McFarland. He is one of those guys that really inspires me. I actually told his story of leaving Microsoft to plant Radiant Church in In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day.

So great to connect with Lee and meet some of the Radiant team. You know a church is rocking when the staff is super gifted and super nice! That's Radiant in a nutshell.

Hanging out at the conference this morning then heading home.

Church Planter in Residence

A few years ago we created a position on our staff called church planter in residence. It is so healthy for our church culture because we're always in the process of raising up a potential church planter. We've also discovered that it is a great farm system for potential campus pastors as well.

As we think about staff strategy for 2008, we're hoping to bring another CPR on board in early '08 and we're taking applications.

The CPR is like a utility player in baseball. They play lots of positions because that is the nature of church planting. We try to get them some experience playing the role of campus pastor and ideally they help with the launch of a location. It is typically a one or two year commitment. And I'll say upfront that it doesn't pay much money! We actually expect the CPR to raise some budget to come on staff as a church planting litmus test. And we fund it out of our missions budget. But then we continue to support the CPR after they leave NCC to plant a church.

We've got quite a few applicants already and only one spot for '08, but if you'd like to apply for the CPR position you can email a resume to Joel Schmidgall at Joel@theaterchurch.com.

Last Trip of 2007

I'm off to Arizona for the Multiplicity Conference. Last speaking trip of the year! Excited about connecting with some friends and some church planters! Also excited about a little travel break after this trip!

The next six weeks will be a little crazy. My deadline for Wild Goose Chase is January 15. And I always go into strategic mode at the end of the year. Excited about retreating with our team for two days team next week. We always do our annual planning retreat in Baltimore's Inner Harbor. Love that place! Especially the Barnes & Noble--it's my favorite bookstore.

One of the things I do love about traveling is that I tend to think 30,000 foot thoughts when I'm flying at 30,000 feet. I actually think airplanes are one of the most productive places on the planet because there are no interruptions! No phone and no email.

Off to Arizona.

First Basketball Practice

I'm coaching Parker's basketball team again this year and we had our first practice today. Gotta say, I love coaching. I love doing the drills with the kids. I love giving them high fives. And I love the competition! Having said that, we definitely have our work cut out for us! Good thing we don't have a game till January!

1% of What You Do

I'm convinced that 1% of what you do makes a 99% difference.

For example, I love staying at the Doubletree hotel and those of you who have stayed at a Doubletree know exactly why: warm cookies. The warm cookies have nothing to do with the hotel business. They don't make the beds softer or the rooms nicer. But those cookies are a 1% intangible that makes a 99% difference. How I feel about Doubletree is dictated by their cookies!

It is the little things that make a big difference. Sometimes I feel like I am micromanaging, but I have this addiction to detail. Nothing bothers me more than the little things we aren't doing well. And I try to celebrate the little things we do right.

I walked into the coffeehouse this morning, and our staff did an amazing job decorating it for Christmas. My favorite touch was the frosted snow on the doors and windows. It gave Ebz such a great look and feel. It's a small thing, but it's a big thing!

In the NCC context, I think our Annual Ministry Report is a 1% intangible that makes a 99% difference! We give an AMR to every guest. Huge bang for the buck!

You don't have to do a lot to make a big difference. You just need to figure out the 1% intangibles that make a 99% difference!

The Budgeting Process

Our budgeting season began yesterday with a meeting of our Stewardship Team. Just thought I'd share a little bit of our process since I get lots of questions about it from pastors. I don't think we have it down to a science, but we've really streamlined the process over the last few years.

First of all, you've got to have the right people serving in that stewardship capacity! So grateful for an amazing team. They have a great financial sense. They love God and believe in our mission. And they are a great combination of frugality and generosity.

We actually start the budget process with our personnel category. Our magic number is about 40% on personnel. We do a yearly review with every staff member and then adjust salaries accordingly. Every staff member has a salary range. And within that salary range, we give a COLA (cost-of-living-adjustment) and Performance adjustment. The Stewardship Team makes all salary decisions and I act as an advocate for and liaison with our staff. I feel like that setup takes a lot of pressure off of me!

This will sound a lot cleaner than it really is! But our next step is figuring our income for the next year. We do that by measuring year-to-year growth. Add in some faith. And come up with an income projection.

Then we have staff members put together and present budgets to our Stewardship Team. Our Stewardship Team reviews and approves. One thing we've done in recent years is create a category in our budget we call the wish list. These are things that don't make the final cut, but if we come in over budget on income then we prioritize those projects.

For what it's worth, we don't set a lot of number goals at NCC. But I'm hoping we give $500,000 to missions in 2008. It is the one expense category where I love coming in over budget! I really believe missions giving is the engine that drives us financially. If we continue to give, God will continue to bless!

Tension

Let me share one of the realizations or revelations I've come to in recent weeks. NCC is getting more and more complicated. As you add more personalities to a staff you better expect more tension. It is normal and natural.

The tectonic plates of our church structure are shifting as we go from individuals working with individuals to departments working with departments. I am committed to keeping us a movement, but you have to add systems and policies and charts to keep things organized. You can't make case-by-case decisions every time. You have to set precedent and create policy so you don't make the same decision over and over and over again! And the danger is depersonalization. So you live with this tension: task-orientation versus people-orientation!

We just added our fourth location. And here is what I'm coming to terms with: more locations = more tension! As a multi-site church, we have a two-dimension organizational chart. We have a horizontal and vertical dimension with our point pastors and ministry coordinators. That is challenging. It is often confusing and frustrating. But it is what it is. And if we continue to launch more locations, we'll experience even more tension.

So here is what I've come to terms with: I need to embrace the tension. It will never go away. In fact, it is actually a sign of health. In musical terms, it is the tension of the string that makes music.

No tension,no music!

Baptism Pictures

Huge thanks to photographer-extraordinaire, Joe Portnoy, for taking pictures at our baptism. Nothing like baptism expressions! I love photos of faces when when they come out of the water! Check it out.

FSM

Parker and I had our weekly Father/Son Meeting (FSM) and I thought I'd recommend a book. We're reading 12 books as part of the intellectual challenge. I want to cultivate a reading habit in my son. And the books make for great discussions. Parker loves fiction so I threw in a book titled Teknon and the Champion Warriors. Lots of great moral lessons and a cool storyline. The book actually outlines a code of conduct and that is part of Parker's spiritual challenge so it'll help us identify his core convictions.

Parker also came up with a cool idea last night. We were talking about the code of conduct and he said he'd like to design a coat of arms to represent the code of conduct. He's got an artistic streak so I think it'll be a cool challenge. By the way, I met a guy a few months ago that had a coat of arms tattooed on his shoulder along with his brother and father. I know some people have issues with tattoos. I actually think it's a unique application of Deuteronomy 6:4-9.

I Love Georgetown

I didn't preach this weekend so I got to go to church with my family! Always a nice treat being able to just be part of the congregation! We decided to head over to our Georgetown Location. It took so much prayer to get a foot in the door that I don't take it for granted when I walk through the theater doors! We're one month into the launch and I'll thrilled about the way that location is taking shape. November was sort of a soft launch for us. We'll do a "grand opening" via marketing efforts in January.

Thanksgiving Reflections

Had an awesome break--four days with the fam!

I spent all of Wednesday installing a new dishwasher. We obviously needed it before the Thanksgiving feast! Here is my lesson learned: pay someone the $119 to get it installed. It'll be the greatest investment you ever make!

Played a ton of corn hole on Thursday and Friday. My right calf and left hamstring are extremely sore. All you do is toss a corn bag about thirty feet, but it's a workout when you play 37 games! Add in our NCC Turkey Bowl and I feel like an old man!

On Saturday we went and got our Christmas tree. It is amazing how many trees we looked at before landing on "the perfect tree." Put up our lights and ornaments. The Batterson house is Christmasized.

Blog Vacation

I'm going to take a little break from blogging over the Thanksgiving holiday. Excited about eating Turkey and watching the Packers play on Thanksgiving day. We've got our annual Turkey Bowl on Friday. And it's a Batterson family tradition to get our Christmas tree the weekend after Thanksgiving. Lots to look forward to!

Have a blessed Thanksgiving!

Stocking Stuffer

The Christmas shopping season begins Friday so I thought I'd throw out a gift idea. We typically only sell In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day by the case. And if you want a case of 24 books, we'll hook you up with a sweet deal.

But we've decided to do a Christmas special and sell a six-pack of books. Basically, it's buy three and get three free. I think they'd make a decent stocking stuffer for friends or family. Of course, I'm a biased author! If you do get them a copy of the book, definitely throw in something else like a '42 flat screen TV or something.

Email resources@theaterchurch.com to order or get more info.

Seven Expectations

I'm really thinking through how we build a healthy staff culture. As we add more personalities and more layers, we have to work harder to keep the unity. I'll post some thoughts over the next few weeks. But here are seven expectations that I have for our staff. And I think lead pastors need to set the example across the board.

1) I expect loyalty. I've got your back and you've got my back.

2) I expect you to be growing spiritually. This is my primary concern. It is so easy for those of us in full-time ministry to seek God for others instead of seeking God for ourselves. We've got to do ministry out of the overflow of what God is doing in our lives!

3) I expect a positive attitude. Attitude really is everything. And I've learned that how much you enjoy ministry depends on who you're doing ministry with. Let me just say it like it is: negativity sucks. Literally. It sucks the life out of a staff.

4) I expect staff to verbalize rather than internalize. I want a staff culture where people can have tough conversations about tough topics. Life is too short to hold a grudge. My philosophy of conflict is John 1:14. Jesus was full of grace and full of truth. Truth means I'm going to be honest no matter what. Grace means I'm going to love you no matter what.

5) I expect staff to have fun. We all have bad days. We all have long days. But if ministry isn't enjoyable you need to get out of the game! The top quality I look for in prospective staff, besides a thriving relationship with Christ, is a sense of humor!

6) I expect you to make mistakes. We have a core value: everything is an experiment. Part of experimenting is failing and learning. I have no problem with mistakes. I just don't want staff to make the same mistake over and over again!

7) I expect excellence! I think a dose of divine discontent is healthy! We need to keep getting better and better at what we do. It is that commitment to excellence that allow staff to morph in greater responsibilities at NCC.

Quirky Habits

Not sure why I'm sharing this, but all of us are a little quirky right? For example, I always set my alarm clock to an even number! Any other "even people" or "odd people" out there?

Just thought I'd share one of my writing habits: I take my shoes off when I write. Somehow, rubbing my feet together makes me think better. But I also view writing as a spiritual discipline. When I'm writing I feel like I'm on holy ground. So I take my shoes off like Moses at the burning bush.

There you have it: a random quirky habit that you didn't need to know about to live a long, happy life!

Staff Evaluations

It's that time of year again--staff evaluations. I really enjoy this annual touch point with my direct reports. It's a great opportunity to review performance and discuss issues.

Honestly, the larger we get the more complicated it gets to manage and motivate! It is the nature of the beast. There are more personalities and more layers so communication and conflict become greater challenges. But I'm so grateful for an amazing team with amazing attitudes! We work hard, but we also laugh a lot. And what a privilege to get paid to serve God full-time. If I ever take that for granted, it's time to quit.

Simple Chuch

I recently read Simple Church by Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger on a cross-country flight. I loved it. Extremely helpful book as we go into our strategic season at NCC. Just thought I'd share a few 30,000 foot reflections over the next few weeks as we gear up for our annual strategy retreat in December.

I'm convinced that the healthiest churches are the most focused on the mission. We have to constantly be reminding ourselves of what we're trying to accomplish. What are our primary objectives? And then we need to invest our time, energy and money trying to accomplish those things.

Every church has the same mission: make disciples. We want to help people cross the line of faith and grow into Christ-likeness. But I think we need to break it down into measurable objectives or practical steps.

Here are few of our primary objectives off the top of my head:

1) Get people plugged into a small group.
2) Get people plugged into a ministry.
3) Send every NCCer on a missions trip.
4) Challenge people to go public with their faith via baptism.
5) Show the love of God in practical ways via outreach.
6) Experiment with new ways of doing church.
7) Equip people to practice personal spiritual disciplines.
8) Turn attenders into inviters.
9) Help people develop a God-honoring giving habit.
10) Help people develop a biblical worldview.

Our planning retreats boils down to this: what are we trying to accomplish as a church and how can we do it better? We need to be evaluating and upgrading all the time!

Here are two strategic questions:

1) What do we need to do better?
2) What do we need to stop doing?

In order to do something better, you generally have to stop doing something so you can rechannel your energy. Sometimes you need to curse a barren fig tree. If something isn't producing fruit, you need to kill it. We killed our second Saturday night service earlier this year. Then we resurrected it a few months later with a few tweaks and it is thriving. If we hadn't killed it, I think it would have died a slow death.

We honestly try to put everything we do on the table at our annual strategy retreat. Too many churches have too many sacred cows. One of the ways you stay simple is by killing what isn't working!

Baptism @ Ebenezers

We topped off the weekend with an incredible Baptism service at Ebenezers. We spent an hour worshiping God. Nothing like being in the presence of God with no agenda but seeking God! And it was so cool to hear stories of transformation. One of the great privileges of pastoring is being part of sacred moments like someone's baptism!

Homeless Banquet

Today we hosted our second annual Thanksgiving Banquet for the homeless community that we minister to week-in and week-out. We've got some amazing leaders that have a huge heart for the homeless. And I heard we had to turn away forty volunteers! So cool to have a place like Ebenezers to host this kind of event. Can't think of a better use!

God @ the Movies

We continued our God @ the Movies series. I love this series. But I'm not going to lie: it takes twice the preparation time. You have to exegete Scripture; exegete the movie; and then figure out how to juxtapose them.

I know at first earshot, it sounds like one of those watered-down or dumbed-down series, but it is honestly one of the most hard-hitting series we do. Somehow, the movies give you permission to talk about tough topics.

I think Spiderman 3 is a movie about waging war on your sin nature. Sin is symbolized by the symbiote that attaches itself to Spiderman and brings out the worst in him. Sin binds itself to us and turns us in the person we don't want to become. So where do you go when you don't like who you have become? It is symbolized so beautifully in the movie: You go the cross. Spiderman hears the church bells and is transformed beneath the cross.

The First Wedding at Ebenezers

I've done weddings all over the DC area. But today was the first wedding in our performance space at Ebenezers! How cool and how convenient! I honestly thought it made for a really cool wedding chapel.

By the way, at the rehearsal the bride told me she had a dream that I showed up late for the wedding and when I finally showed up I was wearing jeans. Those of you who know me know that I like dressing casual--really casual. Honestly, the only time I pull out my suit is for weddings or funerals. I think that scares some couples. I've actually had couples ask me what I'm going to wear with a look of concern.

Yes, I own a suit. Yes, I wear it to weddings!

Way too Fun

I left the house before 5 AM today and I'll get home around 11 PM so I'm a little tired, but today was way too fun! Definitely worth four flights! I walked away with a renewed appreciation for Multnomah. I met with about forty sales people and execs from Waterbrook, Multnomah, and Random House. We actually met at CBA headquarters in Colorado Springs.

I had an hour to introduce myself and it was my first time sharing "the guts" of Wild Goose Chase. Gotta say that I'm as excited about Wild Goose Chase as I am about In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day. I think it'll make a great sequel. We also landed on the cover design and shot some video to promote the book. We got a lot done in three hours!

For what it's worth, Wild Goose Chase will release next August. I'm pushing for an 08.08.08 release date!

It's hard to put into words, but I feel so grateful for a publisher who took a chance on a new author. And I don't take for granted all the work the marketing, sales, design, and editing departments do. Publishing is a team effort! It was nice to be able to express thanks to the team in person. I walked away thanking God for His favor on this partnership!

I also got some great news. Multnomah is going to do an audio version of In a Pit.

Multnomah

I'm hopping a round-trip flight to Colorado today to meet with my publisher. So grateful for the people I work with at Multnomah. I'm going to meet with the sales team to begin talking about my next book, Wild Goose Chase. We'll look at covers, shoot a video, and talk about the direction of the book. I'm entering a pretty intense writing season. Lots of early mornings ahead!

Annual Survey

You asked for it. You got it.

Here is a PDF version of our annual survey, compliments of our digital pastor, David Russell. And if you're an NCCer who was out of town last weekend, here is an online survey. Love to get your feedback!

We have tried to create a survey culture at NCC. It is very different than the psychology of voting. The driving motivation behind the survey is this: help us help you. We collect simple demographic information, as well as key barometers of church health like involvement in small groups, how many people are inviting people, and volunteerism. I also pitch a dozen sermon series to the congregation.

Hope it helps.

The Psychology of a Room

Just thought I'd do a little leadership processing.

My goal this past Sunday was to greet as many people as possible. I love shaking hands or patting people on the back. And I honestly think a personal prayer or hand shake can mean as much to people as a sermon! One of the things I love about Jesus is that he was touchable. I really try to greet as many people coming in and going out of church as possible. And I think we have to be more intentional because four messages are video each Sunday!

Here is the one of the realities we deal with a National Community Church: the spaces we meet in are a huge determining factor in how people act and feel at NCC. Every room has a psychology!

For example, coffeehouses are places where people hang out. They are natural gathering places or third places. And I've noticed that people naturally hang out after our Ebenezers services. But movie theaters are places people go to watch something. It is more of a spectator environment. Don't get me wrong. I love movie theaters! It is our long-term vision: meeting in movie theaters at metro stops around the DC area! But we've noticed a tendency toward spectatorship at our movie theater campuses. So we need to guard against that. I love the fact that people feel comfortable coming to a theater. And in a sense, they can seek anonymously. But we also need to be as intentional as we can possibly be about being as friendly as we can possibly be!

I really want us to up our friendliness factor at all locations! And that means NCCers need to adopt a simple motto: just say hi!

Pitching Sermon Series

One of the things I do with our annual survey is pitch a dozen sermon series to our congregation. We simply ask: which series would be most helpful to your spiritual development? I think a good preacher has one ear tuned to the Holy Spirit and the other ear tuned to the people. This survey question helps me stay tuned!

Before I post the sermon series I pitched, let me say this. There are some series I did not pitch because I know we're going to do them no matter what. I pay particular attention to the series that get the highest and lowest response rate. Just because people don't want to hear it doesn't mean I'm not going to preach it. In fact, a low response is often a red flag that it might be something we need to talk about.

We'll evaluate the survey results at our annual planning retreat and it will help us put together a sermon series strategy for 2008. We'll plan out our entire year of sermons and about 70% of those series will be preached as planned. Other series won't make the cut because we'll feel a change of direction or a particular need so we'll call an audible at the line of scrimmage.

For what it's worth, I'm also researching all of the sermon series preached in the last two years at about half a dozen churches. Coming up with our spiritual diet of sermon series is one the toughest and most important responsibilities of a pastor. You've got to do due diligence via thinking, praying, surveying, and studying.

Here are the series we pitched:

Parental Guidance Required: biblical insights on parenting
The Elephant in the Church: honest talk about tough topics
Be Happy: an expository study on Philippians
How: how to to pray, study the Bible, and grow spiritually
The Dating Game: practical and theological dating tips
Dirty Jobs: how to honor God at work
3: getting to know Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
Kairos: knowing and doing the will of God
Sex Ed: a theology of sexuality
IM: talking to and listening to the Holy Spirit
Origins: series on Old Testament rituals and covenants
Soulprint: discovering your spiritual gifts and temperament

Weekend Reflections

My first reflection is this: we've got an amazing teaching team. One of the great joys I've experienced over this last year is seeing Joel Schmidgall and Heather Zempel come into their own as communicators. It takes so much pressure off me! I know that we aren't going to skip a beat when they speak because they are amazing communicators!

We continued our God @ the Movies series and Joel's message on The Pursuit of Happyness was off the hook. It blessed me and challenged me.

We did our annual survey today. We actually take five minutes during all eight services because the survey is that important to us! It helps us keep a pulse on key demographics and spiritgraphics.

I played point pastor at our three services at Union Station today. The highlight of the day for me was shaking several hundred hands. One of the challenges we face with 8 services in 4 locations is that I can't be everywhere all the time. Sometimes I'm flying around preaching so I miss the personal touch. I used to really struggle with that until I heard something Andy Stanley said. He said, "Everybody needs to know Jesus. Not everybody needs to know Andy Stanley." That helped me get past the guilt and we've got amazing teams at our locations, but it was good to be able to just be a guerrilla greeter today!

Oh yah, very cool to connect with some visiting pastors today. Almost every weekend we have several pastors or churches visiting NCC. Cool to connect with the team from Christ Fellowship in Miami.

Imagine a Church going from 1300 to 45 in 1 week

Had a great time hanging out with Doug McAllister and the team from Journey Fellowship Church in Slidell, LA. Doug told me their church story and its amazing. The week before Katrina hit they had about 1300 people in attendance. The week after they had 45! I was so inspired by the way the staff hung in there and they have rebuilt the church in every sense. They are even launching a new church in Ward 9, one of the poorest and hardest hit areas of New Orleans. Really enjoyed dinner with their staff last night.

I'm speaking to a group of pastors from the area this morning and then I'm headed home.

Can't wait to see the fam!

Sports Announcers and The Odds

So I caught a flight today from San Diego to New Orleans with a stop over in Dallas. I'm hanging out with Doug McAllister and Journey Fellowship Church tonight and tomorrow before heading home.

So I get on the flight and I see famous sports announcer, Dick Enberg, sitting in First Class. By the way, his voice sounds the same in person as it does on TV. Then I'm waiting to get on the second leg of the flight and I see famous sports announcer, Pat Summerall, sitting in First Class.

What are the odds of two consecutive flights with two famous sports announcers? Things that make you go hmmmmm.

10 Things I've Learned in 10 Years

I really enjoyed doing a workshop at the National Outreach Convention today. My session was titled: The Ten Most Important Lessons I've Learned Over the Past Ten Years.

I had a list of about twenty lessons, but here are some of the ones I shared. I tried to mix up the lessons learned. Some are more philosophical and some are more practical. By the way, I don't think I've ever talked faster!

1) Pray ridiculous prayers
2) Be Yourself
3) Put Your Family First
4) Change of Pace + Change of Place = Change of Perspective
5) Leaders are Readers
6) Everything is an Experiment
7) 1% of What You Do Makes 99% of the Difference
8) Church is a tag-team sport
9) The Most Important and Most Difficult Job of a leader is creating culture
10) Market Internally

Leadership Reflections

Had a blast hanging out with Brian Houston yesterday. Tough to put the day into words. I walked away with a few practical ideas in the area of staffing and finances that we'll try to adapt and implement at NCC. I won't share those, but I will share a few key thoughts.

My macro observation after being around Brian and some of his key staff is that healthy churches, like successful teams, have a core group of staff that stay together and grow together for a long time! They do life and do ministry for several decades. I was impressed with the core team from Hillsong. To that end, Brian said:

"Don't worry about the periphery. Focus on the core. Every church has a soul. And the soul of the church will determine its destiny."

"Having an agenda--wrong motivations--will keep you out of the core."

"There are just some things you won't be able to do in a few months or a few years. You need a long-term committed to pastoring."

Brian talked some about the pattern principle in II Timothy 1:13: "Hold on to the pattern of right teaching you learned from me."

Every church has a pattern--a pattern of negativity or positivity, a pattern of responsibility or inconsistency, a pattern of complacency or conviction. What pattern are you perpetuating?

A few more one-liners:

"Your accent won't make you a foreigner here. Your attitude will."

"Meditate. Think concepts through. The best messages come out of meditation."

"My biggest enemy is busyness. I'm trying to unbusy myself."

"Stay normal."

Old and New Friends

Had dinner last night at Fleming's Steakhouse in Newport Beach, CA. Really enjoyed the drive up Pacific Coast Highway to get there. Southern California is one beautiful and cool place.

A group of twenty pastors are hanging out with Brian Houston from Hillsong Church in Australia. So good to see my friends Dino Rizzo and Marc Cleary from Healing Place Church and Rob Ketterling from River Valley Church.

Also great to make a few new friends! Finally met Chris Hodges from Church of the Highlands and Dale O'Shields from Church of the Redeemer in the DC area. We had to go all the way to San Diego to meet!

I've learned that ministry can be awfully lonely! Like every other occupation, it has its unique challenges. But one of them is pastors feeling like they don't have friends. I'm so grateful for a handful of pastor friends. We don't hang out a lot, but we always pick up right where we left off when we get together!

Had a blast laughing and talking and eating last night!

San Diego

Just landed in San Deigo. Check this out. I got an exit row all to myself for a five hour flight. That was a gift from God!

I'm going to do a workshop at the National Outreach Convention. But I'm flying out a day early to hang with with a group of pastors that are meeting with Brian Houston, pastor of Hillsong Church in Australia. Huge thanks to my friend Dino Rizzo and the whole gang from Healing Place Church for setting it up.

Pastors need pastors and leaders need leaders. Excited about learning a thing or two in the next day or two.

Numbers

I rarely refer to or publish numbers like giving or attendance. I think numbers tend to create an unhealthy focus. The longer I lead the more I realize that we plant and water, but God gives the increase. I think we need to focus more on means than ends. We need to worry more about inputs than outcomes. And honestly, I think numbers in church circles tend to produce one of two emotions: pride or jealousy. Besides that, every church is planted in unique soil that yields a different size crop at different rates. So comparing church is like comparing apples and oranges.

So I try not to talk about numbers. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't think about numbers. I think that is part of stewardship and strategy. I know our exact attendance and giving for the past eight years. And that helps me track what God is doing at NCC. They are two very important barometers.

With that as a backdrop, just wanted to share a win. I wasn't sure what to expect on our launch Sunday, but we had our second highest attendance of the year behind Easter. We also had our fifth highest offering. But the thing that surprised me the most and blessed me the most is that our attendance at our other locations was larger than the previous week! In fact, we had a 39% increase in attendance at Union Station over last week.

That tells me this: our Georgetown launch isn't just recycled NCCers. Don't get me wrong. We need a launch team. There is no way we could launch a location without a launch team. But our objective is reaching the unchurched and dechurched. Based on numbers and conversations, I think we did that this past weekend.

Continuing to process the launch and praise God.

Birthday Reflections

Just got a voice mail from my parents leaving me a birthday message. I guess you're never too old for your mom and dad to sing you happy birthday on the phone.

I always get somewhat reflective on my birthday. So here is my reflection.

More than anyone or anything else, we take God for granted. I actually referenced it in my message yesterday. We're on a planet that is spinning at 1000 mph around it axis and traveling 66,600 mph through space. We'll travel 1.3 million miles today in our annual trek around the sun. So when was the last time you thanked God for keeping us in orbit? Probably never! We take it for granted.

Right next to God, I think we take our parents for granted. But I had a moment as I listened to my mom and dad sing "Happy Birthday" to me. When you become a parent your perspective of your parents changes. You realize all the sacrifices they made. You realize how tough it is physically and emotionally and spiritually. And if you had good parents, you want to be like them! That's how I feel about my mom and dad. I want to be like them. And I think that is the greatest gift a parent can give a child.

It's sort of funny that the person celebrating the birthday gets all the gifts. We probably ought to give our parents gifts on our birthday.

What a year this has been. Lots of blessings to count.

Geogetown Launch

What a weekend! I really didn't know what to expect as I drove over to our first public service at Georgetown. We decided not to do any marketing so it was a soft launch. We'll wait till January to market to the Gtown community. We basically relied on invite cards and word of mouth. So I was pleasantly surprised that the theater was pretty packed. We did strategically kick off our God @ the Movies series because historically it is a series where lots of NCCers invite lots of friends!

Serious props to our Gtown launch team, led by Dave Clark. They did an amazing job getting the theater up and running! What an incredible team effort. There is nothing easy about pulling off 8 services in 4 locations, but it's all worth it if we impact one life. Lots of decisions for Christ and lots of divine appointments today.

Kickoff Video

A few years ago we created a kickoff video that acts as a call to worship. We play it right before we start our services. With the launch of our Georgetown location we needed to update it, but props to Jeremy Sexton in our media department because he totally reinvented it. Love the video. And I love the vibe.

You can check it out in evo-media.

FSM

Parker and I had our weekly Father/Son Meeting (FSM) on Saturday night. Part of the spiritual challenge is reading through the New Testament together and discussing it. So I told Parker to underline verses or write in the margins when he came across verses that really spoke to him. It was absolutely fascinating to see which verses he underlined and why! And what was cool about this FSM is that Parker did most of the talking. I really felt like it helped me know how he thinks. And it never ceases to amaze me the way the Bible brings up the issues we need to talk about!

I really want Parker to learn to feed himself spiritually. And the only way that happens is if you learn to study the Bible yourself and put it into practice. I'm hoping this year of discipleship lays that foundation in his life.

Ebenezer Moments

Every quarter we have a leadership summit where we gather all of our small group leaders and ministry leaders. The summit is planned and led by our staff. They do training and teaching. And I try to share an update on what is happening on the church front and personal front. I love our summits because I feel like I'm able to talk at a very transparent level about how I'm feeling and how I'm thinking about NCC and my own life. I also feel like it is important to relate to our leaders on a slightly different level. They need to know first and know more. They ought to have inside information so to speak.

We did a little housekeeping by ratifying our Executive Leadership Team for next year and presented an amendment to our bylaws. Those things are extremely important, but we try to spend as little time on those kinds of things as possible so we can focus all of our energies on accomplishing the mission!

I also shared a devotional thought on I Samuel 7:12 because we experience another Ebenezer moment this weekend with our Georgetown launch. So I looked back and talked about all of the "so far so God" moments in our history. One of the things I love about getting older and leading longer is a greater appreciation for the faithfulness of God. We ought to grow in confidence as we grow older because we experience Ebenezer moments along the way.

All I can say is this: Hitherto the Lord has helped us!

Georgetown Launch

Can't wait for Sunday. We launch our fourth location in Georgetown! It is literally a dream come true. I had a dream last April and God said: Go to Georgetown. That's the short version! At the time, the theater wasn't an option so the dream didn't make sense. But we kept praying and God opened the door! That gives me a tremendous sense of destiny about this launch!

If you'd like to join us for our first public service, the service is at 10 AM in the movie theaters in Georgetown. I'll be speaking live at Gtown this week. And we kick off our God @ the Movies series.

You can get times and directions to all four locations @ theaterchurch.com.

I have no idea what to expect on Sunday, but this location is such a huge answer to prayer that I feel like it's already a success! So grateful for our staff and launch team that is helping this location get off the ground.

The Church Planting Tribe

Really enjoyed hanging out with some church planters in Ohio. When I am with church planters I feel like I am with my tribe.

I honestly think the most innovative churches in America are the churches you've never heard of because they are being planted right now. You have to innovate to survive! Church planters are the ones in the trenches. And by default, they are part of the research and development part of the kingdom of God.

About to hop a flight and head home. By the way, I love airports with free wi-fi!

Off to Ohio

I'm on the home stretch in terms of traveling this year. I've got three more speaking trips in 07, then my schedule slows down for a couple months. I fly to Columbus, Ohio today to speak to some pastors and church planters. I'm in San Diego next week for the National Outreach Convention. And then I speak at Multiplicity in Phoenix, Arizona at the end of this month.

Trick or Treat

Had a blast trick-or-treating with the kids last night. And there is a cool Capitol Hill tradition--thousands of people converge on East Capitol Street between Lincoln Park and the Capitol. In fact, we have friends that live on East Capitol and they said they bought 1500 pieces of candy last year and ran out so they got 2000 pieces this year!

This year we had a football fan, cowboy, and Christine from Phantom of the Opera.

Good times!

6th Printing

Just got word that In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day is going to a sixth printing. That sounds more impressive than it really is because the first few printings were pretty small. But each printing is an answer to prayer!

Friday, November 30, 2007

Like a Reunion

Church Planter in Residence

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Last Trip of 2007

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

First Basketball Practice

1% of What You Do

The Budgeting Process

Tension

Monday, November 26, 2007

Baptism Pictures

Sunday, November 25, 2007

FSM

I Love Georgetown

Thanksgiving Reflections

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Blog Vacation

Stocking Stuffer

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Seven Expectations

Quirky Habits

Monday, November 19, 2007

Staff Evaluations

Simple Chuch

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Baptism @ Ebenezers

Homeless Banquet

God @ the Movies

Saturday, November 17, 2007

The First Wedding at Ebenezers

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Way too Fun

Multnomah

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Annual Survey

The Psychology of a Room

Pitching Sermon Series

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Weekend Reflections

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Imagine a Church going from 1300 to 45 in 1 week

Friday, November 09, 2007

Sports Announcers and The Odds

Thursday, November 08, 2007

10 Things I've Learned in 10 Years

Leadership Reflections

Wednesday, November 07, 2007

Old and New Friends

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

San Diego

Monday, November 05, 2007

Numbers

Birthday Reflections

Sunday, November 04, 2007

Geogetown Launch

Kickoff Video

FSM

Saturday, November 03, 2007

Ebenezer Moments

Friday, November 02, 2007

Georgetown Launch

The Church Planting Tribe

Thursday, November 01, 2007

Off to Ohio

Trick or Treat

6th Printing

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