I just had my executive assistant, Tim Elzea, backup my blog. Did a word count. Any guesses? Drum roll please.

I've blogged 144,820 words this year.

To put that into perspective, ID: The True You (my first book) logged in at 51,974 words. My next book, In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day, weighs in at 42,821 words.

All of that to say this. I've blogged three books and it's not even September :) I'm not sure what that means to be perfectly honest. Maybe I need to check into a BA group--Bloggers Anonymous :)

In all seriousness, blogging is my way of processing everything I'm thinking and experiencing. A blog is a biography of ideas. 144,820 words worth of ideas :)

Blog On.

Fired up about our next series that will kick off on September 11. We try to brand every series. Here's the poster we'll hang in our theaters.

Went to see a movie with the kids yesterday and I saw the trailer for The Chronicles of Narnia movie that will be released December 9. I'm fired up. I put my faith in Christ after watching a movie (The Hiding Place) so I'm passionate about the power of film.

We're beginning to brainstorm about how we can leverage Narnia at our two theater locations. I think we will buy out several theaters and use it as a major outreach opportunity. We'll piggy-back off of the movie with a two-part Christmas series (December 11 & 18) that will play off the biblical undertones in the movie. The timing is perfect because one of the sub-plots in the movie is the spell the White Witch casts on Narnia so that it is "always winter and never Christmas." I love that line!

We'll start showing the trailer in November and encourage NCCers to invite friends. For what it's worth, we believe that church is a tag-team sport. When people come to church they tag me and say "go for it--share what God has put on your heart." When they leave we tag them and say "go for it--share your faith with your friends." We're always trying to find ways to help NCCers invite their friends. I think Narnia is alot like The Passion. It's a unique once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Sometimes I think the church is too quick to criticize. We're known for what we're against. I'd rather be known for what we're for. I think this is a great opportunity to capitalize on a great movie with a great message.

Read an interesting article in the Washington Times yesterday on coffee. Anything having to do with coffee is registering on my reticular activating system because of Ebenezers, the coffeehouse we're opening on Capitol Hill. If you're a coffee drinker this will ease your conscience :) Coffee had some great health benefits (unless you drink it by the gallon). Here's a link to the entire article: No Jive: Java's Good for health.

A recent study of more than 100 food items found that coffee tops the list in antioxidants. The average adult consumes 1,299 miligrams of antioxidants daily from coffee. The next closest competitor was tea at 294 miligrams.

A variety of studies seem to be finding new benefits to coffee. Daily coffee drinkers have half the risk of liver cancer. Coffee cuts the risk of developing the most common form of diabetes.

The moral of the story? Drink coffee. At Ebenezers :)

Ever seen that Seinfeld where Jerry's apartment building has low water pressure? And Jerry's hair is "flat" as a result. And Kramer buys an illegal showerhead on the "black market" that is supercharged.

That's how I feel this morning :)

There's nothing worse than taking a shower with a showerhead that "dribbles." Well, the angels were singing the hallelujah chorus this morning. We broke down and bought a new showerhead yesterday! Who knows how old that showerhead was? At least nine years since that's how long we've lived in this house. The new one even has criss-crossing jetstreams :) Ah, showerhead technology! Gotta love it.

On a serious note. Since our missions trip to Ethiopia I don't take a hot shower for granted. The simple pleasures we enjoy as Americans would be extravagant luxuries for half the world. So today I'm grateful for something as simple as a new showerhead and a hot shower.

The Imagination Age

Let me just come right out and say it.

I think the key to leadership in the 21st C is developing the right-brain capacity for creativity. At the risk of being reductionistic, the left-brain is the linear and logical hemisphere. The right-brain is the creative hemisphere. I know that doesn't do it neurological justice, but I'll save that for another blog.

Here is one of the greatest issues facing the church: there aren't enough right-brain pastors or right-brained churches. The 21st C demands ambidextrous leadership.

Let me back up and zoom out.

If I had to divide history with sweeping generalizations here is how I would do it. The 19th century was the industrial age. It was epitomized by the factory worker. The 20th century was the information age. It was epitomized by the knowledge worker to borrow the term used by Peter Drucker. Forgive me for making such a bold prediction. But I think the 21st century will be known as the imagination age. I think it'll be epitomized by creative architects in every field who set new imagination standards.

Imagination Quotient

Here is one of the greatest dangers seasoned pastors face: doing ministry out of memory. In other words, doing what you did the day before and the day before the day before and the day before the day before the day before. You get the point. We learn how and forget why.

I think God calls us to do ministry out of imagination. I think there are ways of doing church that have yet to be discovered. Like everything else, we've got to be good stewards of our imaginations. Imagine a generation of church planters with sanctified imaginations experimenting with new ways of doing church! New Songs. New wineskins. For what it's worth, we (NCC) feel called to be part of the Research & Development (R & D) Department of the Kingdom of God. One of our core values is: everything is an experiment.

Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence, did a fascinating study on how much IQ accounts for career success. According to Goleman, between 4% to 10%. Maybe IQ should stand for imagination quotient instead of intelligence quotient. Imagination Quotient is the new IQ.

I think Emotional Intelligence (EQ) and Contextual Intelligence (CQ) and Metaphorical Intelligence (MQ) are much more important when it comes to minsitry than IQ. Leadership is a right-brained sport. The right-brain is the locus of dreams and visions. But here's the thing: I think 95% of my Seminary education was aimed at developing my left-brain while my right-brain was left to atrophy! EQ, CQ, and MQ are right-brain capacities. The key to great leadership is developing right-brain capacities.

Three Hats

I won't go into depth, but I think pastors wear three primary hats: we are called to be storysmiths, experineers, and culturetechs.

Storysmiths are the creators, collectors and keepers of the stories. Crafting stories is the art of preaching and vision casting. Stories are lifeblood of every organization. Stories are the key to creating momentum. We're collecting stories right now to put on our webpage in a "story archive." I'd actually like to create a Pastor of Stories position at NCC whose only job is to collect and tell stories! By the way, how is the beast defeated in Revelation 12:11? By the blood of the Lamb and "the word of our testimony." Evidently, Satan hates stories! Stories, stories, stories.

Pastors are environmental engineers. Experineers are called to design everything from physical spaces to spiritual experiences. Our weekly Big Idea meetings revolve around designing weekend gatherings. The goal is I Corinthians 14:25: that people would recognize that "God is really among them." You can't "man-u-facture" spiritual expiriences. But you can facilities them with lots of brainstorming and prayerstorming.

The most difficult and most important task for any pastor is that of cultural architect or culturetech. How do you manage or measure intangibles? The key is identification of values and beliefs--the double-helix of a church's spiritual DNA. And being intentional about keeping them front and center. For example, at NCC we take fun seriously. Call me crazy, but we believe that church should be enjoyable! You ought to walk out feeling better than when you walked in. When we're shooting a video or crafting a sermon or planning a series, we're intentional about incorporating elements that are fun. Like me dressing up in a Mr. Incredible suit and doing on-the-street interviews in downtown DC! That's part of our personality as a church!

Ambidextrous Churches

Ralph Waldo Emerson said that if you designed a better mouse trap the world would beat a path to your door. Maybe they'd do the same thing if we designed a better church? A right-brain church that celebrated mystery and beauty and creativity. A right-brained church with a well-developed sense of humor!

The Great Commandment tells us to love God with "all of our mind." That means left-brain and right-brain. Theology is the way we love God with our left-brain. Creativity is the way we love God with our right-brain! When the two intersect you end up with a church that is orthodox in belief and unorthodox in practice!

Just a right-brained thought.

For what it's worth, I think the next evolution of evotional.com is turning the blog into a vlog. Actually, we'll just add a video blog here and there. We bought one of those $20 disposable camcorders at CVS and we'll try an experiment with it. I'm grateful for a pastor of media, Dave Clark, is always willing to try out my hairbrained ideas!

Video illustrations and series trailers are such a huge component of who we are (theaterchurch.com) that adding a vlog component only makes sense.

Of course, the only downside is my ugly mug :)

Vlog On.

We have a core value: do it big and do it right.

I hate to admit this, but it actually comes from the movie Christmas Vacation. That's what Clark Griswold says to Russ as they are hanging "15,000 twinkling Italian lights." Clark isn't exactly a "do it halfway" kind of guy! Here's our premise for that value: if it's worth doing then it's worth doing right and doing big!

It's Colossians 3:23. "Whatever you do, do it with all of your heart, as unto the Lord." The word "heart" is the Greek word Psuche which can be translated "life." Here's my take on Colossians 3:23: whatever you do, do it like your life depended on it! Pour your heart and your life into it!

We were having lunch yesterday and talking about how I have so many ideas and I want all of them to be done yesterday :)

One of our staff members (who will remain anonymous) said we should change our core value to: do it big, do it right, do it yesterday!

Hey, I can laugh at myself :)

I love following blog links.

Toby Bloomberg, the President of Bloomberg Marketing in Atlanta, posted a comment and I had to follow the link because the name of her blog was so intriguing: diva marketing blog. If you're trying to wrap your mind around the how and why of blogging it's got some great info.

Sometimes I feel like a blogging evangelist. I know it's not for every church and every pastor. But it is such a great way to share what's in your head and in your heart. I think it ought to be part of every church's overall strategic plan.

FYI--we put together an "annual strategic plan" every year that is usually about 25 pages long. It covers everything from sermon stragegy to staffing strategy to marketing strategy to discipleship strategy. I think we're going to add blogging strategy.

For example, we've been concerned about our church website (www.theaterchurch.com) being too static. To make it more dynamic, we're going to go to a blog format for announcements. We got the idea from Terry Storch and Fellowship Church. Like everything else, I want it implemented yesterday :) It seems like we're redesigning our website all the time!!!

Blog On.

Every once in a while I like sharing facts that you don't need to know to live a long healthy life :) For example, African elephants poop eighty pounds per day. Your life probably wouldn't be dimished if you didn't know that. But it makes you appreciate zoo keepers more doesn't it? Here's to all the zoo keepers out there :)

Anywho.

This didn't make it into Sunday's message (like half of my notes), but when we were at the zoo last week I discovered that elephant trunks are made up of a 100,000 muscles. Can't you see elephants flexing their trunks in the wild? They can lift up to 500 pounds! And peanuts.

For what it's worth, I think faith is a collection of 100,000 spiritual muscle. And you strengthen them the same way you strengthen any muscle. You stretch them and exercise them. The more you use your faith muscles the stronger they get.

I never cease to be amazed at cyberspace and the blogosphere. I think it's reduced "six degrees of seperation" down to three or four :) Makes me think of Dorothy clicking her heels in the Wizard of Oz. Except we click mouses. The world is literally a click away!

For what it's worth, I just emailed a guy in India who is designing a website for me. I've never been there. We speak different languages. But it's like he lives next door!

Got an email today from one of my best friends growing up. He saw the NY Times article and touched base via email. Last week one of our neighbors saw the Washington Post article and commented on my blog. It's pretty cool connecting with people this way. It's almost like seeing someone you know while you're on vacation.

A blog is like a brain. A baby's brain goes through a process called synaptogenesis and will end up with a quadrillion synaptic connections! That is what a blog does. It expands your network. You never know who you'll bump into in the blogosphere! You'll bump into old friends and make new friends.

Blog On.

I was interviewed by the New York Times recently on the topic of podcasting. Here's the article in today's Times.

August 29, 2005
Missed Church? No Worries. Download It to Your IPod.
By TANIA RALLI



Kyle Lewis, 25, missed going to church one Sunday last month. But he did not miss the sermon.
Mr. Lewis, who regularly attends services of the National Community Church in Alexandria, Va., listened to the sermon while he was at the gym, through a recording he had downloaded to his iPod. Instead of listening to the rock music his gym usually plays, he heard his pastor's voice. "Having an iPod is a guaranteed way to get the sermon if you're going to be out of town," Mr. Lewis said, adding that he listens to the pastor's podcast at least once more during the week, usually while driving to work, even during weeks he makes it to services.

Mr. Lewis's pastor, the Rev. Mark Batterson, started podcasting, or "godcasting" as he prefers to call it, last month to spread the word about his congregation. The hourlong recordings of his weekly service, available on theaterchurch.com, have already brought new parishioners to his church, he said.

"I can't possibly have a conversation with everyone each Sunday. But this builds toward a digital discipleship," he said. "We're orthodox in belief but unorthodox in practice."

Just as Christian organizations embraced radio and television, podcasting has quickly caught on with religious groups. Since the beginning of July, the number of people or groups offering spiritual and religious podcasts listed on Podcast Alley (podcastalley.com) has grown to 474 from 177.

"Basically every church can have its own radio show," Pastor Batterson said.

Sending spiritual messages over the airwaves is nothing new. The Vatican made its first radio broadcast in 1931 and today offers worldwide programming in 34 languages (and now offers some programs as podcasts, as well). Evangelical Christians in the United States turned first to radio, then to television, to spread their message, and in the process built minibroadcasting empires like the Christian Broadcasting Network of Pat Robertson and the Trinity Broadcast Network.

New technology like podcasting updates the mission, although on a much smaller scale for now. But Pastor Batterson says he believes that podcasting will have an impact on the church as profound as that of the printing press when the first Bibles were printed in the 15th century. "If you really believe in the message you're preaching, you want as many people as possible to listen," he said. He likes the idea of "spiritual multitasking" to keep people connected to their faith throughout the week. Before his podcasts, he also used his blog to connect with the 800 members of National Community Church, who gather for worship each Sunday in two movie theaters, one in Washington and the other in Alexandria, Va.

Odeo (odeo.com), a podcast directory, plans to encourage more churches, synagogues and mosques to use them, said Adam Rugel, the Web site's director of content. Odeo lists a broad range of religious podcasts, including programs from Buddhists, Muslims and Jews.

Despite the variety of religious podcasts, Christian programs make up by far the largest segment of the category. Shows range from recordings made at the kitchen table to slick broadcasts with pulsing music and crisp audio, like that of

"RevTim" (www.godcast.org/categories/revtimPodcast/). The Rev. Tim Hohm, a Protestant minister from El Sobrante, Calif., makes two 15-minute podcasts a week about family and work issues. He said an average of 6,000 people downloaded the program from the United States, Europe, Asia and Africa.

Mainstream religious broadcasting in the United States has long been dominated by conservative evangelicals like James Dobson and Al Mohler. Both men are hosts of daily radio programs and claim audiences of millions, and both now offer some broadcasts as podcasts.

Melissa Rogers, a visiting professor of religion and public policy at the Wake Forest University Divinity School, finds podcasting a good illustration of the entrepreneurial drive behind Christian evangelicals. Nevertheless, Ms. Rogers does not expect podcasts to replace going to church. "Podcasts provide a way for people who are very busy these days to get their religion on the fly, but for most people this will be a supplement, not a substitute," she said.

The Godcast Network (godcast.org), which began last October, offers 16 programs of Biblical readings, sermons and Christian rock. "Rachel's Choice" is a weekly show by 8-year-old Rachel Patchett, daughter of the network's founder, Craig Patchett, in which she plays a favorite Christian rock song, followed by a reading from the Bible.

Most religious podcasts can be subscribed to using R.S.S. (Really Simple Syndication, a tool for condensing information into a feed), which enables automatic downloading of a new show to the listener's computer as soon it becomes available. For godcasters who record prayers or psalms, the function is especially appealing, because it offers their listeners easy access to daily devotional readings. Pastor Batterson, for instance, is aiming to attract 10,000 subscribers in the next two years who are looking for doses of spirituality on demand.

One of the most popular Christian podcasts, Catholic Insider (catholicinsider.com), already exceeds 10,000 listeners for each program. The founder is the Rev. Roderick Vonhögen, 37, a priest from the Netherlands, who heard about podcasting from one of his parishioners and has become an avid fan of Adam Curry, one of podcasting's founders.

Father Vonhögen began podcasting during a trip to Rome in February. When Pope John Paul II fell ill he captured reactions in and around the Vatican. Since then Father Vonhögen has done programs on the spiritual aspects of the "Star Wars" films and has discussed the Christian dimensions of the Harry Potter books.

"I don't force people to take my view," he said, to which he attributes his popularity. Listeners have gone along on walks in Rome, through the airport in Düsseldorf, Germany, and across the city square in his hometown of Amersfoort while Father Vonhögen enthusiastically talks about pop culture and religion, and can sometimes be heard eating French fries or gelato while he is talking.

"Podcasting for us has been a resurrection of radio," Father Vonhögen said. "It's the connection to a new generation."

One of the my hobby-horses is originality. We each have a unique fingerprint, voiceprint, eyeprint, and soulprint. That uniqueness needs to be celebrated. There never has been and never will be anyone like you. That isn't a testament to you. It's a testament to the God who created you. It's not about being different for difference sake. It's about reflecting the originality of the Original One.

I think every church/business/organization needs to celebrate it's uniqueness by finding a unique signature. Off and On I blog about different signatures. Here are a few more examples.

We're considering a radio segment right now so I've been thinking about how to position ourselves in a unique niche. What's our signature? I've only heard it once, but Lon Solomon (pastor of McLean Bible Church) does a short segment on different radio stations. He says, "Not a sermon. Just a thought." I've heard numerous people mention that tagline. It's his audio signature. I love it! I have a few ideas up my sleeve that I'll blog about if we decide to jump into radio.

Ever stayed in a Doubletree hotel? They are the fastest-growing U.S. company in the first-class hotel category. Why? Chocolate Chip Cookies. Every guest is offered a freshly-baked cookie at check-in. What do cookies have to do with clean sheets? Not much. But the cookie has become their signature. By the way, they taste great!

We're thinking long and hard about Ebenezer's signature right now. In I Samuel 7, the prophet Samuel strategically places "a large stone" as an altar to God. He named it Ebenezers which means "hiterto the Lord has helped us." For all I know, we might just plop a large stone on a property as a physical reminder of God's faithfulness. Or find a way to integrate the verse into our stained concrete. Somehow someway I want Ebenezers to be unlike any other coffeehouse in DC.

Here's a little NCC history. For our first few years we sang "Jesus is the Answer" as our closing song each week. It got a little dated and a little stale so we quit :) But it was the way we "signed off."

Isn't a benediction a signature?

One of my favorites is Ephesians 3:20. It's a 1000 mg of hope! Whenever we've had one of those services that is tough to end I usually dismiss with this benediction: when we leave this place we don't leave His presence; we take his presence with us wherever we go.

Peace Out.

I haven't posted what books I'm reading in a while. Thought I'd share a few great titles.

I'm reading a couple Multnomah books:

i am not but i know I AM by Louie Giglio
{God's Blogs] by Lanny Donoho

I'm loving both of these books. They are turning up the BTU's under my soul and bringing it to a boil. Or something like that :)

I love neurology and anything having to do with the right-brain so I'm reading A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink.

I read Podcasting by Todd Cochrane one night this week. I don't recommend it unless you're actually going to podcast and set it up yourself. Too technical.

A few years ago I read Nuts, a business book about Southwest Airlines. I'm now reading the sequel titled Guts.

Happy trails.

Josiah took one small step toward being an official "big boy" a couple weeks ago. He went "poop in the potty." Sorry, there's no "couth" way of saying that. Tell you what. I'll spell poop backwards so it doesn't seem so crude. Poop. Is that better?

Anywho.

I was thinking about it. You should see the way I reveled in this accomplishment. I was on the phone when he told me and I'm sure the people around me thought someone on the other end of the line just shared the greatest news I've ever heard. "He must have won the lottery!"

No more diapers. That's a wonderful thing. But stop and think about it. It's not like it takes great aim :) There is nothing unique about it. Yet our entire family cheers like Josiah has won the Heisman Trophy whenever he goes #1 or #2.

That is human nature! Parents naturally celebrate the accomplishments of their kids. Even in the "waste removal department." We admire their "handiwork."

Why? It's a reflection of our Heavenly Father who revels in His children.

Think about this. God could do everything all by himself and it'd be perfect. He doens't need our "help." But it seems like God revels in our most mundane accomplishments as much as His own perfection. He loves to see His creativity reflected in us. He loves it when we "help" even though it means more work for Him!

He doesn't need us. But He does want us.

It was the kid's "last day of summer vacation" before school starts next week. I had a long "to do" list today, but Lora called and said she was taking the kids to the zoo. I decided, on a whim, to go with them. Sometimes I feel bad about how many vacation days I have left at the end of the year :) I decided to use a half-day.

Saw some amazing creatures. The first animal we spotted was an Oryx. The last time I saw an Oryx was on our Safari at Awash National Park in Ethiopia. Seeing one in the zoo wasn't quite the same as seeing one in the wild :)

I'm certainly not a "coffee expert." I did read a 300+ page history on coffee by Mark Pendergast a few years ago that was absolutely intriguing. I love learning "the story behind the story."

One of the things we want to do at Ebenezers is educate our friends about the history of coffee. We'll collect fascinating factoids about coffee and coffeehouses and share them to enhance appreciation. I think it makes every sip so much more meaningful. Here's one piece of fascinating trivia that Christina Borja (our coffeehouse manager) passed on to me.

Q: According to coffee lore, who is responsible for the spread of coffee's popularity in the early 1600s?

A. Queen Elizabeth I
B. Pope Clement VIII
C. King Louis XII of France

A: B. Coffee afficionados claim that the spread of coffee's popularity in the early 1600's is due to the influence of Pope Clement VIII (1536-1605, pope 1592-1605). Upon being pressured by his advisers to declare coffee to be a drink of the devil because of its popularity among Muslims in the middle east, he instead declared that, "This devil's drink is so good we should cheat the devil by baptizing it."

Baptized coffee.

I love it.

Thought I'd post a picture update on Ebenezers. You can't see them, but the old cinder blocks that have been in the "window sills" and "doorways" for twenty-five years were knocked out today! What a transformation. The brick is being laid at lightning speed. And a few windows were actually installed today. This picture doesn't do it justice, but I wanted to give a sneak peak.

For what it's worth, I try to schedule all of my meetings on Tuesdays and Thursdays so I've got focus days where my hard drive space is totally free and I can think creatively the other days of the week.

Today was a marathon. Seven meetings. It seems like I never came up for a breath.

I met with an NCCer who I think has a great book idea. It's a fiction theme that would target single twenty-something women in an urban context and she wants to include evotionals spliced in. Love the idea.

Met with three local pastors. I always get energized being with pastors. There is something cathartic about sharing how and why you're doing what you're doing.

Had a consturction meeting with the architect of Ebenezers. We're at that place where "final decisions" have to be made. It's exciting and overwhelming at the same time :)

And I had a meeting with a radio rep. We're exploring possibilities.

All of that to say this: I'm tired. I love meeting with people, but I usually feel like I've been through a ten-round bout by the end of the day. I always need a little extra decompression time on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Out.

A few months ago we started thinking about the "greater mission" of Ebenezers, our coffeehouse on Capitol Hill. We want to serve great coffee. But we also want profits to go toward a great cause. Because of our missionary connections with Ethiopia and Colombia and because of their connection with coffee, they'd make for great causes.

Why not use some of the profits to build mud huts? Habitat for Humanity Ethiopia style! Why not use some of the profits to build a school in Colombia and give kids a scholarship. Why not use some of the profits to fund the mercy center in Addis Ababa where they feed and teach hundreds of children?

We really want to establish connections with the countries where we're getting our coffee. Our coffeehouse managers, Dairo and Christina Borja, even visited a coffee farm while they were in Colombia on a missions trip a few weeks ago. Fair Trade coffee is a given, but I'd like to take it even further than that. I'd love to know and bless the people we get our coffee from. I'm not sure exactly how we get from here to there, but we can start by using some of our profits to bless the countries where the coffee comes from.

What's cool about that is this. Then the coffee doesn't just taste good. It feels good because you know:

a cup of coffee = a home
a cup of coffee = an education
a cup of coffee = food on someone else's plate

The end result? Great Coffee. Great Cause.

It's a win/win.

I'm beginning to think of every door into Ebenezers, our coffeehouse on Capitol Hill, as a worm hole or portal. I want people to feel like they're walking into a different time and place when they walk into the main level. Museums do a great job of this with some of their exhibits. The exhibits at The Air and Space Museum make you feel like you're at Kittyhawk with the Wright Brothers or on board an aircraft carrier. They even have flight simulators that put you in the cockpit.

I developed a formula years ago that has proven true in my life: change of pace + change of place = change of perspective. I want Ebenezers to be that kind of place. A third place (in sociological terms) where they can escape the pressures of work or home and take a chill pill.

I just read Beans which is sort of a take-off on the book Fish. It's a great little book. One statement resonated: the first stop of the day pretty much sets the tone for the rest of the day. Ebenezers, along with other coffeehouses, have the opportunity to "set the tone" for customers. Actually, I'm not sure I like the word "customer." I'd rather view it as "serving coffee to old friends or new friends." When people walk through our "worm hole" we treat them as if they were in our family room.

I just finished reading Food for Thought by Philip J. Romano, the creator of 28 restaurants including Fuddruckers and Macaroni Grill. He talks alot about "point of distinction." What makes a restaurant absolutely unique? Romano strives for originality in all of his restaurant concepts.

One of my goals for Ebenezers, the coffeehouse we're building on Capitol Hill, is that it'd be absolutely unique. I want people to walk into the space and think to themselves: "I've never seen a coffeehouse quite like this." I think we'll accomplish that by celebrating the backstory of the property. The original building was built in 1907 as a diner to serve "butter and eggs" to train traverlers before there was food service on the trains. We want to celebrate the history of the property and the connection with Union Station and Trains. I'm not sure we can find one or afford one, but one idea is buying an actual caboose and retrofitting it for the space.

Beyond the physical space, I want to do the "little things" that make Ebenezers unique. I love the little sayings on Nantucket Nectars. When I work out at Results Gym they always have inspirational quotes by the water fountain. I'm thinking it'd be cool to have a "thought of the day" or "evotional thoughts" on coffee sleeves or the chalkboard or coasters that would be like caffeine for the spirit. I think a little inspiration goes a long way. I love to make people think and make people laugh. I'd like to do that via some "spirit espresso" that functions as spirit fuel--16.9 FL Ounces of Inspiration.

I want the atmosphere at Ebenezers to inspire people in subtle ways. One of my favorite phrases these days is "spiritual inuendo." I'm thinking of it in terms of what St. Francis of Assisi said, "Share the gospel everyday, if necessary, use words."

Summer Reflections: Take Off Your Sandals
08.23.05
Pastor Mark Batterson

This evotional is part of my annual Summer Reflections series. You can watch this week's video illustration by following this link: "Cow Pasture."


Over the next two weeks I want to reflect on two passages in the book of Exodus. God tells Moses to do two things: take off his sandals and put down his staff.

That's what I do during my summer sabbatical each year. Here's why: I don't want to get so focused on tending the flock that I lose sight of the Promise Land. That is precisely what happened to Moses!

Habituation

Exodus 3:1 says, "Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian."

Let me say something upfront. I have nothing against shepherds. If you're a shepherd, please don't read this the wrong way. But Moses was the Prince of Egypt. He was voted Most Likely to Succeed by his graduating class at Pyramid High. I don't think staring at the backside of sheep for forty years is what Moses envisioned for his life. I don't think this is the way Moses would have written the script. I don't think shepherding sheep was part of his forty-year plan!

I don't know exactly what was going through Moses' mind as he followed his flock of sheep around. But I have a hunch. I think there was part of him that still believed he was destined for bigger and better things. I think there was another part of him that had settled for his situation.

I have a feeling that Moses got up on this particular morning, put on his sandals and picked up his staff, and figured it would be an ordinary day just like the day before and the day before the day before and the day before the day before the day before.

Hit the pause button.

One of the greatest spiritual dangers we face is something psychologists call habituation. When a new stimulus is introduced into our environment we become intensely aware of it. But we tend to adapt and awareness fades.

Have you ever looked all over for the pencil you put behind your ear? What happened? Awareness faded. A couple months ago I actually spent five minutes looking for my cell phone while I was talking on it. I kid you not.

Nine years ago we bought our first house a few blocks from Union Station. I still remember that first night in our new house. It seemed like there were sirens right outside our window all night. They kept waking me up. Now I can hardly sleep if there aren't sirens! They have that rock-a-bye-baby effect on me. But crickets! That's a whole other story. I can't sleep in the country. Why? Because I'm intensely aware of the new stimulus!

We adapt to our environment. We get used to certain sounds and smells and sights. I still remember the first time I saw the Capitol. We were driving down Pennsylvania Avenue at night. I was in awe. But, to be perfectly honest, I hardly even notice it anymore. Why? Habituation.

Here is the danger we face spiritually. God is introduced into our environment. We become intensely aware of His presence in our lives. But if we aren't careful, that awareness fades. We start taking the grace of God for granted. We stop thinking about the words and we start singing songs from rote memory. Church attendance becomes mechanical. Opportunities feel like obligations. We stop stretching spiritually and we shift into maintenance mode.

I think that is what had happened to Moses. He had a dream of delivering His people from the bondage of slavery. But the dream had faded like an old photograph. It had gathered dust. So forty years later, Moses had adapted to his environment. He was content living out the rest of his days tending sheep for his father-in-law. He had settled for his situation.

How do I know that? Because he says to God, when offered the job of leading the Israelites, Please send someone else.

Habituation.

God is calling Moses to lead the greatest rescue operation in history and Moses would rather stay put. God is calling Moses to deliver Israel out of Egypt and lead them into the Promise Land. And Moses is content tending sheep for his father-in-law. Instead of living in vision mode, Moses is content living in maintenance mode.

A.W. Tozer said, If we feel that we are what we ought to be then we will remain what we are.

That's a dangerous place to be spiritually.

Every summer I take a short sabbatical from preaching. Here's why. I need a season where I'm not standing and preaching. I'm sitting and listening. I need a season where it's not about what God can say through me. It's about what God wants to do in me. I'm not saying that I'm not growing while I'm fully engaged in pastoring and preaching. But my summer sabbatical is a chance for me to disengage from my day-in and day-out duties and reengage with God. In a sense, I take off my sandals and put down my staff.

Here's why. To counteract habituation!

I don't want to do ministry from memory. I think it's so easy to learn how and forget why. You just do what you did the day before. You just go through the motions. And if you aren't careful, you lose sight of the Promise Land and become content tending the flock.

Burning Bushes
Exodus 3:1 says, "Moses led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There an angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, 'I will go over and see this strange sight-why the bush does not burn up.' When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, 'Moses! Moses!' And Moses said, 'Here I am.' 'Do not come any closer,'God said. Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground'."

Let me tell you what God is after: undivided attention.

That's what the burning bush is all about. God tells Moses to take off his sandals. Why? For starters, it's one way to get Moses to stand still.

In his book, Anam Cara, John O' Donohue's tells a story about an African explorer who hired some native Africans to help carry his equipment through the jungle. They didn't stop for three days. At the end of the third day, these hired hands stopped and absolutely refused to move on. The explorer asked why and one of the African natives explained, We have moved too quickly to reach here; now we need to wait to give our spirits a chance to catch up with us.

Most of us have moved too quickly to get to where we are. We need to let our Spirits catch up! We need to take off our sandals long enough to realize that we're standing on holy ground.

Original Calling

Over the past four weeks, God has brought me back to the burning bushes in my life. It started in July with a pilgrimage to Alexandria, Minnesota. It was during a prayer walk through a cow pasture in 1989 that I felt called to full-time ministry. Check out the "Cow Pasture" video.

I went back to where it all began for me. I went back to the place of original calling.

Did Jesus ever go back to Cana where He performed his first miracle? Did Peter ever row out to that spot on the Sea of Galilee where he walked on water? Did Zacchaeus ever go back to the sycamore tree he climbed to catch his first glimpse of Jesus? Did Lazarus ever revisit the tomb where he was buried for four days? Did Paul ever revisit the spot on the road to Damascus where he was knocked off his high horse? Did Abraham ever return to Mount Moriah where God provided a ram in the thicket? Did the paralyzed man ever climb up on the rooftop where his four friends had lowered him down?

I don't know the answer to all of those questions, but I think one key to overcoming habituation is going back to ground zero. It's returning to the burning bushes-those places where you have met God. I know that most of us have never experienced anything as dramatic as a burning bush. But do you remember when you first became conscious of God's presence? Is there a moment where the grace of God overwhelmed you? Are there places and experiences where God has revealed something to you? It may not be a physical place like a cow pasture or a burning bush. But we need to revisit those altars where God has done something of spiritual significance in our lives.

It's so easy to get all wrapped up doing things for God that you forget that it's really all about what God has done for us. During my summer sabbatical last year, I was totally impacted by one simple truth. I felt like the Spirit of God kept reminding me over and over again: it's not about what you can do for me; it's about what I have done for you. That one thought inspired my first book-ID: The True You.

C.S. Lewis said, We need to be reminded more than instructed. That's why we celebrate communion. That's why we build altars.

God is always calling us back to simple truths and original callings.

Dr. Karl Barth was one of the most brilliant intellectuals of the 20th century. He wrote countless volumes on life and faith. Millions of pastors and missionaries have been influenced by his theological writings. A reporter once asked Barth if he could summarize his greatest theological discovery. Karl Barth thought for a moment and said, Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so.

Leverage

Archimedes, the Greek mathematician who discovered the law of levers, once said: Give me but one firm spot on which to stand and I will move the earth.

As far as we know, Moses only saw one burning bush. But that one firm spot gave him spiritual leverage. And God promised to bring him back to that "one firm spot." God said, This will be a sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship me on this mountain.

God is always bringing us back to the simple truths and original callings. In the words of Revelation 2:5, He wants us to Repent and do the things you did at first.

That is what God has done in my life over the past four weeks. He brought me back to the place of original calling and reminded me of why I'm doing what I'm doing.

We've got to be about the Father's business. We've got to redouble our efforts to reach the unchurched and dechurched, help them cross the line of faith, and become fully devoted followers of Christ.

That's what it's all about.

One last thought.

Not everybody has had a "burning bush" experience. But if you are a follower of Christ, the Cross is the "one firm spot" that gives us spiritual leverage. The Cross is the key that gives us access to the throne of grace.

Hebrews 4:16 says, Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

I just read a fascinating article in Fast Company titled "The 3 Ways of Great Leaders." The authors introduce a concept they call "contextual intelligence."

I loved Daniel Goleman's book on emotional intelligence (EQ). For what it's worth, I'd like to do a book on Spiritual Intelligence (SQ) and dissect the different dimensions of the image of God. I loved Howard Gardner's research on different kinds of intelligence in Frames of Mind. Bottom line: I think there are lots of different ways of being smart :)

In their book, In Their Time, authors Anthony Mayo and Nitin Nohria found one common denominator amongst all great leaders regardless of age or industry. "They possessed an acute sensitivity to the social, political, technological, and demographic contexts that came to define their eras." They excelled at "sensing opportunities." Mayo and Nohria call it "contextual intelligence." They studied 1,000 leaders and came to the conclusion that contextual intelligence is "an underappreciated but all-encompassing differentiator between success and failure."

Makes me think of the tribe of Isachaar. Scripture says they "understood the times."

Is "contextual intelligence" another way of saying "be as shrewd as snakes"? Is it another word for "incarnation"?

The church ought to be off the charts on contextual intelligence. We've got the best frame--Scripture. But I'm afraid we barely get a passing grade. Too often we've gotten A's in biblical exegesis and D's in cultural exegesis.

That's not a slam. It's a challenge. We can do better.

I'm not suggesting we conform to culture. I am suggesting we understand it and redeem it and ultimately lead the charge in creating it.

A few months ago I blogged on faux camping. We camped out in the "backyard" of our Capitol Hill home because camp grounds were "sold out" over the July 4th weekend. Long story short, a Washington Post reporter found the blog and we hit the front page of the metro section of the Washington Post today. Pretty funny stuff.

Here's a link to the article and I've posted it below as well:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/22/AR2005082201376.html?nav=hcmodule

A Campout With Sirens And a Rat? Only in D.C.
By Petula Dvorak

Lora Batterson remembers peering down from her bedroom window, past the crisscross of power lines and the white glow of an alley light, to check on her family's backyard adventure. The tent her husband and children had pitched on a hot summer night in their tiny Capitol Hill courtyard was glimmering with yellow lights. It looked like Christmas or a fancy outdoor wedding. "They'd set their jar of fireflies free inside the tent. And it looked just beautiful," she said. Then, a really long ziiiiiip. And Dad came tumbling out, waving both arms madly." It looked nice, but after a while, we realized it wasn't the best idea to let all those bugs loose inside the tent," recalled Mark Batterson, a Capitol Hill pastor, the dad and chief architect of this escapade.

The summertime ritual of backyard camping usually means the musty smell of an old pup tent, the wetness of summer grass and the blue glow of the next-door neighbor's television, replacements for the sting of campfire smoke, the scent of pine trees and the moonlight of real camping. But when the adventure goes urban, campers face a new brand of outdoors that can include the wail of sirens and the scritch-scratch of scurrying rats. Never mind. The kids think it's great."It's kind of like a vacation. But not really," 9-year-old Parker Batterson said as he prepared for an evening in the tent, armed to attack the backyard insects. He wore shin guards, Dad's fingerless biking gloves, blue plastic "X-ray night vision" goggles and the look of a hunter as he emptied two cans of spring-scented spray. "It tastes kind of like bubbles," he said, grimacing as he sampled the clouds he had released over the petunias.

For the Battersons, urban camping began as many great inventions are born: out of parental desperation. They are a busy Washington family, and it was just before Fourth of July weekend that Mom and Dad realized they didn't have a plan. They called every campground their trusty gray tent has seen, from Maryland's Rocky Gap State Park to Delaware's Cape Henlopen State Park. No vacancy, booked, filled, out of luck.So Mom suggested they camp right in Northeast Washington. She fired up the grill and cooked hot dogs. "What about dessert?" she wondered.The answer: "banana boats.""They're reaaaaallly good," said Summer Batterson, 8. "You take a banana and open it up and put all kinds of stuff like chocolate and marshmallows in it," she said, doing a jig that sent her legs and arms bouncing and flailing. "And then you cook it on the barbecue. "Mom's quick thinking gave the Battersons a family activity for the rest of the summer that was both cool and weird. Every couple of weeks, they hauled out the tent and had a quick getaway out back. At first, the courtyard's bricks were a challenge. "It really, really hurt to lay down," Parker said. So they added a futon mattress in the tent, and that worked well.Recently, on one of their last faux camping trips before the start of school, Summer wrestled with how she would tell her classmates what she did on summer vacation."I don't know if any of my friends did this. It's kind of weird. But fun," she said as brother Josiah, 3, helped Dad pitch the tent.Before they had a chance to zip the door shut, a loaf-sized rat zipped through the back yard, narrowly missing the opening of the tent. Mom shuddered a bit. She volunteered to stay inside, where she spread out on a big, empty bed and carefully regulated the air conditioning.

Dad and three little Battersons settled in -- optimistically -- right at the kids' 9 p.m. bedtime. Then Summer did some yoga, and there was jockeying for who got to sleep next to Dad. "Rock, paper, scissors!" Parker yelled.At 10, sirens rang out. Dad let each of the kids listen to his iPod, figuring that his "chill out" playlist might be more soothing than the urban soundtrack. The kids didn't nod off until about 11:30, and Dad proceeded to have his most comfortable night of camping ever. At the brink of dawn, Summer opened her eyes. "It's 6:03 a.m.," she declared. Parker and Josiah woke up right after. Bleary-eyed, Dad realized that one of the best parts of backyard camping was yet to come. "Go inside the house and watch cartoons," he told them, and rolled over and went back to sleep.

My blog is one way I think outloud. It helps me process.

I had a conversation with another publisher yesterday. One comment was really helpful. He recommended coming up with a five-year plan and prioritizing which book projects are most important to me.

I'm absolutely thrilled by the interest in my latest manuscript. It's humbling and exciting. I can't wait to see it in print in bookstores. But here's the challenge I'm facing. I want seven books in print yesterday! Part of that is my personality. I really want to turn Soulprint and The Physics of Faith and The Game of Life into books. But the book we're shopping now is part one of a trilogy. It'll take a year for it to hit the market and then we'll need to space each book. So we're probably looking at three years!

I really want to write for a broad audience. I think every author wants to impact as many people as they possibly can. But I also have two niche passions: twenty-somethings and pastors. I'd like to write a book for twenty-somethings. I already have a rough draft. And I've got invitations from a couple publishers to write a book for pastors. I really want to write those two books in the next two years. But I don't know how that fits with the trilogy.

Anywho.

I'm trying to put the jigsaw pieces of this writing puzzle together. I haven't quite figured out how they fit together yet :)

Thought I'd post the rough draft of an article I'm doing on preaching for a fall issue of Ministries Today.

A few months ago I was invited to speak at a twenty-something conference. I was driving north on interstate 95 listening to a CD when I heard something totally deflating if you're a preacher by trade: "Studies indicate that we forget 95% of what we hear within three days."

I felt like doing an illegal U-turn and driving home! I remember praying this 70 mph prayer (with my eyes open): "God, I don't want to invest my time and energy saying things that people are just going to forget anyway. Help me say things in unforgettable ways!"

Unforgettable.

Isn't that the holy grail of preaching?

To say things in such an anointed way that hearers don't just remember. They can't forget!

I have a simple conviction: the most important truths ought to be communicated in the most unforgettable ways.

There is a riveting scene in the blockbuster movie The Matrix where Neo meets Morpheus for the first time. And Morpheus gives Neo a choice between two pills:

You take the blue pill and the story ends. You wake up in your bed and you believe whatever you want to believe.

Unfortunately, that's what happens with most messages in most churches on most Sundays. People pop the blue pill. They may be inspired or convicted or challenged by a message, but they go to bed Sunday night and get up Monday morning and they can't remember a single word you said.

But Morpheus gives Neo another option:

You take the red pill and you stay in wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.

That's the goal. Get people to pop the red pill and go down the rabbit-hole of faith.

Brand Truth

Here's my philosophy of preaching in six words: say old things in new ways.

Truth is kaleidoscopic. It is multi-layered and multi-dimensional. And sometimes a new angle on an ancient truth can result in metanoia—a paradigm shift.

I recently did a series titled The Physics of Faith. Each message revolved around a law of physics familiar to anyone who has taken Physics 101. I used Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, Bell's Theorem, and The Second Law of Thermodynamics to frame spiritual truth. I believe every ology is a branch of theology. The way we add depth perception to our preaching is by cross-pollinating with different disciplines. If all truth is God's truth, then we need to redeem scientific research and leadership theory and cultural trends and use them to serve God’s purposes.

There is an old real estate adage: location, location, location. In the realm of communication, it's metaphor, metaphor, metaphor. In De Poetica, Aristotle said, "The greatest thing by far is to be the master of metaphor." Jesus set the standard. He used agrarian metaphors to frame truth because he knew that most of his listeners spent most of their day in the fields. He used familiar metaphors to brand truth. We call them parables.

A Picture is Worth...

We try to brand every message series with an organizing metaphor. The organizing metaphor for our last series, On Mission, was a customized Passport that was so authentic it could probably have gotten you through customs! And for our next series, Wired, we’ll use wireless technology to talk about increasing spiritual bandwidth. We'll kick off 2006 with a series called Fuel. We're in the process now of buying gas station relics for staging at our coffeehouse on Capitol Hill.

The key to branding message series is redeeming metaphors that are on the frontal lobe of cultural consciousness. A few years ago, OnStar launched its marketing campaign in the DC market. It seemed like I couldn't turn on my radio without hearing the tag line: "Always There. Always Ready." We decided to call our series on the Holy Spirit OnStar Onboard. I even borrowed a Ford Explorer with OnStar onboard and we shot the series trailer driving around Washington, DC talking to an Onstar operator.

Who said you have to preach from behind a pulpit? Jesus did most of his preaching at the beach or on the mountain! We are currently experimenting with "offsite preaching" that is shot "on location" and pre-produced as a short film. Why not? Especially if your church meets in a movie theater! Our theater screens double as postmodern stained glass. They enable us to communicate truth in moving pictures.

For what it's worth, the brain is able to process print on a page at a rate of about a hundred bits per second. A picture is processed at about a billion bits per second. That means that a picture isn't worth a thousand words. A picture is literally worth ten million words!

Irrelevance is Irreverence

The key to unforgettable preaching is packaging truth in ways that are biblically sound and culturally relevant. Let me borrow from the parable of the wineskins. Think of biblical exegesis as the wine. Think of cultural relevance as the wineskin. If you have one without the other, you're not going to quench anybody's thirst. You need the substance (biblical exegesis) and the container (cultural relevance).

If we divorce Biblical exegesis and cultural exegesis we end up with dysfunctional truth. It doesn’t do anybody any good. Either we answer questions no one is asking. Or we give the wrong answers.

National Community Church has a core value: irrelevance is irreverence. God isn't just omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent. He's omni-relevant. He knows the number of hairs on our head. He knows every need before we verbalize it. And He speaks more than six billion dialects. No one is more relevant than God. So anything less than relevance is irreverence! Relevance = Reverence. Cultural relevance doesn't mean dumbing-down or watering-down the truth. It's about incarnating timeless truth in timely ways.

Two of our hardest hitting series each year are two of the most relevant: God @ the Billboards and God @ the Box Office. The 60% of Americans who don’t attend church get their theology from movies and music. So we redeem popular songs and popular movies by juxtaposing them with Scripture. For what it's worth, we literally roll out the red carpet during God @ the Box Office and treat every NCCer like an Oscar Nominee.

Red carpet treatment doesn't hurt when your goal is getting people to pop the red pill.

I just spent the last hour on the rooftop of Ebenezers. Don't tell our contractors :)

What a view! What a feeling! It's the first time I've been up there. I felt this flood of emotions--gratitude, excitement, nostalgia. The dream is becoming reality. And it's making me hungrier to believe God for even bigger things! Ebenezers is feeding my faith. It's the only way I can describe it. It was a ridiculous idea eight years ago. Not anymore!!!

I love to pray on top of things :) Verticality helps me put everything in perspective. I think there is a biblical precedent. Jesus prayed on mountaintops. And as I was praying, I couldn't help but think of Peter praying on the rooftop of Simon the Tanner's house in the book of Acts.

By the way, one of my ideas (not necessarily a God idea) was to put a hot tub up there :) Be a cool place to do baptisms!

We continue to put together a "palette" for Evotional.com. Here is one of the latest looks. "Spirit fuel" was one of those "eureka" thoughts. I've always thought of the weekly evotionals as "spiritual vitamins." But I like "spirit fuel" as much or more!

There is a fascinating branch of sociology called network theory that explores the way relational networks affect out lives. I am more and more convinced that the old adage is true: it's not what you know but who you know.

As I look back over the last few months I'm grateful for a handful of connectors (Malcom Gladwell label in The Tipping Point) who have opened doors of opportunity by connecting me with the right people. Greg Ligon at Leadership Network is a connector. He facilitated the opportunity to meet Jim Tomberlin and be part of the multi-site forum at Willowcreek. John Eames, my agent, is networking with publishers for me. My mentor, Dick Foth, has used his network of relationships to add value to my life. I'm realizing that one of the greatest gifts we can give another person is our network of relationships that we've spent a lifetime developing.

I guess what I'm trying to blog is this: it really does boil down to relationships in the long run. It's not about manipulating or posturing. John Maxwell said something powerful at the Leadership Summit last week. He has a thirty second rule. Everytime he meets someone he tries to say something affirming within the first thirty seconds. We all know "smoozers" who kiss up. But when we genuinely approach people in a Christlike way we can't help but encourage them.

I've always loved the advice of Benjamin Franklin. He said, "Every man is my superior in some way. In that I learn of him." I try to approach every encounter with everyone as a learning opportunity. I want to learn something. It's a posture of humility.

I have a core conviction: God is in the business of strategically positioning us in the right place at the right time. I also think God is in the business of making sure we meet the right people at the right time. That's my divine network theory.

I haven't started reading Velvet Elvis yet, but Heather Zempel, our pastor of Discipleship, sent me a cool quote. Rob Bell writes, "I am learning that the church has nothing to say to the world until it throws better parties."

A few years ago I saw a T-shirt that said, "Life of the Party." I've always regretted not getting it :) That's a core part of my theology. As Christ-followers, we ought to be the life of the party! We are salt and light which means we add flavor and add color. Without us everything would be bland and monochrome.

I know the word "party" has lots of different connotations depending on your experience. It probably ranges from wild keg parties to pin the tail on the donkey. But in the purest sense, heaven will be the ultimate party. All the high and none of the hangover :)

I was doing a little research today and reading God's Secretaries by Adam Nicolson. One sentence captivated me: "The old church and the new technology were the closest of allies." I know it's a hobby-horse that I ride all the time, but the church has to be in the business of redeeming technology and using it to serve God's purposes. We need to be turning iPods into GodiPods.

Hit the rewind button.

Martin Luther wasn't just a theological genius. He was a technological genius. In fact, without the printing press, Luther's genius would have impacted a few locals. But technology is what fueled the Protestant Reformation.

The Bible was unchained from medieval pulpits. Luther put the Bible in the hands of parishoners. It was the democritization of discipleship. The average Christian could read and study the word of God for themselves. We take it for granted, but the printing press was a Quantum leap in discipleship! It was the transition from oral to analog. What we are now experiencing is the digital revolution. We're experiencing the shift from analog to digital.

Nicolson calls Luther "the first genius of mass communications." His translation of the New Testament sold 3,000 copies immediately. A German printer estimated, forty years later, that he had sold 100,000 Lutheran Bibles.

There was a backlash from resisters. The first burning of a Prosetant Bible book was in 1521. A Protestant printer was burned in 1527. But technology fueled a revolution. The first Swedish Bible was printed in 1541. A Finnish New Testament was completed in 1548. The first Bible in Spanish was publihsed in 1569. A Polish Bible was printed in 1561. And a Hungarian Bible was published in 1590.

That theological revolution was facilitated by a technological development. Johann Gutenberg deserves some credit for the Protestant Revolution.

For what it's worth, my passion for blogging and godcasting have historical roots. The Internet is to my generation what the printing press was to the 15th century.

Theology and technology ought to be the closest of allies.

We got a new cleaning service this week and I came into the office this morning and there was a mint on my keyboard. I'm not a big mint guy, but I love it when people do the little things that give their work a unique signature. It makes them memorable.

It's the little things that make us stand out in a big way!

For what it's worth, we play off the movie theater motif and give guests their "welcome packet" in a popcorn box. Why not? We even throw in a single packet of microwave popcorn. It's our signature.

Why aren't there advertisements in books? Just a thought. I guess there are some "advertisments" at the back of some books, but it just seems like that'd be a great way to do "niche marketing." It'd also help self-published writers. I'm sure there is a good reason why. Maybe that'd turn a book into a magazine :) Maybe that would "pollute" the purity of a book. But I bet some folks wish they had advertised in The Purpose-Driven Life :)

Just thinking out loud again :)

I saw a fascinating article on unique advertisements yesterday. I've heard of people renting out their foreheads, but now their are parents who are offering to name their kids after products. Yikes! That's taking it a little too far. "Hi, I'm Google. Good to meet you, Yahoo. Hey, what'd you call me?" Hope nobody named their kid Enron.

Anywho.

I love this ad below. It's a billboard cow :)

I just read an interesting article on Starbucks branding.

I can hardly believe it, but there were only 200 freestanding coffeehouses in the United States in 1990. There are now more than 14,000 and Starbucks owns 30%. We'll make that 14,001 when we open Ebenezers in a couple of months.

Look out Starbucks, here we come!

Just wanted to publically welcome Tim Elzea, the newest member of our staff. I'm trying to transition the way I work. Tim is coming on board as my full-time personal assistant. I've been keeping my own schedule and organizing my own life for nine years, but I desperately needed HELP :) Tim is going to run down lots of rabbit trails :) He brings a great attitude and work ethic to our team.

When I was at Willowcreek, Craiq Groeshel (pastor of Life Church in Oklahoma) mentioned Incredible Pizza and their themed rooms. I did a little research because I want Ebenezers to be themed. I was so impressed with their story and the way they approach business as their ministry that I thought I'd share part of their story.

The Incredible Pizza Company is a "leading edge" family entertainment concept focused on the entire family. It merges family values with excellent food and tremendous fun, games, and rides for every age. When you drive into the parking lot or drive by, the exterior is designed to take you back to the 50's with a nostalgic diner look. By the time you enter the store, it is apparent that everything about Incredible Pizza Company is about a time when "family was cool." As you enter the store, adults pay one low price of $5.99 and children $4.99 or $3.99 depending upon their ages. This buys them the Incredible "all you can eat" buffet.

A shiny "like-new" '57 Chevy greets all customers as they enter the store as well as a decision--which themed dining area do you want to dine in? From the 50's diner, Star-Lite drive in Movie Theatre, Leave it to Beaver Family Room, to the sock-hop gymnasium… it’s all how you define fun dining at Incredible Pizza Company.

The Bee-Bop background music throughout the store gives you those wonderful warm fuzzies of "days gone by." After the meal, then the real fun begins. As you enter the fairgrounds, the most incredible collection of fun and games surrounds you. The first thing you notice is that you are surrounded by over 100 video and redemption games. Every customer is provided with their own credit card, which can be loaded with cash, credit card, or check to use on all of the rides and games by swiping it through a barcode reader and pressing a button. The cost of the ride or game is automatically deducted form your personal Incredible credit card.

In the center of the "Fairgrounds" are the rides designed for group interaction. Whereas most of the games are designed for testing individual skills, the bumper cars and the indoor electric NasKart go-kart track are designed for interaction. Next is the “Route 66 Miniature Golf Course” is designed to take players down the Historic and Educational Route 66. From Chicago to L.A. the "Mother Road" was the 1950's route to the west, and history abounds on this Miniature Golf course through murals on the walls, waterfalls, Cadillac Ranch cars, dinosaurs, and much, much more. This historic mini-golf course is a great place for the whole family.

This is family fun at its best, in a great clean, smoke free, non-alcohol environment.

Rick and Cheryl Barsness, owners of Incredible Pizza Company, are Christians and choose to operate their business according to God’s principles. We consider this business our ministry, providing families with a wonderful environment in which to forget the stresses of the world and come and just have fun with each other. We have free tracts for everyone as you leave the family entertainment center. Over 200 of these are given out each week. One evening we had a knock on our door and a young lady was holding a baby. She said she just wanted to thank us for having the tracts on a baby’s first 30 days. She was planning to have an abortion the next day and decided not to and kept her precious baby. We all had a good cry and Cheryl and I said, this is what it is all about. We live in the country in Rogersville and absolutely love Missouri. We moved here specifically to start Springfield’s Incredible Pizza Company. Our family attends James River Assembly of God church, where Cheryl and Rick teach the young marriage class.

I think churches need to be more intentional about aesthetics. Aesthetics are important. Fifteen chapters in the book of Exodus are devoted to the interior design of the Tabernacle. Pastors are environmental engineers. We're called to design environments that glorify God and foster spiritual growth. I think our environments ought to celebrate different dimensions of the image of God: curiosity, beauty, imagination, creativity, laughter.

For what it's worth, I love the amazing the way churches are designing unbelievably creative children's areas in their churches. Northpoint Church in Atlanta has a totally cool cityscape. I love the welcome center at Fellowship Church in Grapevine, TX. I think the church is starting to catch on. Our churches ought to reflect the infinite creativity of the God who designed the universe.

I'm finishing my journey through the Epistles. The first verse of Hebrews strikes me. "In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways."

When you really examine the way God communicates in the Old Testament it borders on absurd. Jeremiah hides his belt in Perath. Ezekiel lies on his left side for 390 days. Hosea marries a prostitute.

Wild and wacky stuff, but one thing is for sure. God isn't a broken record. He loves to communicate in "various ways."

One of my driving passions right now is communicating things in ways that people can't forget. How do we help people cross the line of faith so that moment is unforgettable? How do we help people walk out of our gatherings with the big idea seared into their consciousness?

We're actually going to use bracelets for our Wired series. Read Deuteronomy 11. It's all about physical reminders. Can't you envision John the Baptist with an ankle bracelet :)

One of the recurring themes in my reading and listening over the last month is "identifying core competencies." Marcus Buckingham talked about "playing to your strengths" in his latest book.

We've identified our three core convictions that are really core compentencies as well:

The church out to be the most creative place on the planet
The greatest message deserves the greatest marketing
The church is called to compete in the middle of the marketplace

We've got our share of core incompetencies :) But I think our core competency is creativity. We've got no shortage of God ideas. I said to our team today, "My idea switch is broke and it's stuck in the on position." Sometimes I wish I could turn it off because once I have a God idea it becomes a stewardship issue and I can't ignore it. I think our core competency is communicating old things in new ways--packaging truth into new wineskins. We try our level best to brand every series so we get a hearing for the gospel. We started branding our September series, Wired, in our Big Idea meeting today.

Craiq Groeshel, pastor of Life Church, talked about core competencies in his session at the forum. He said they focus their energies on five things. I forget what they are :) But they aren't trying to be all things to all people. He cited In-N-Out Burgers as an example. They only have seven items on their menu! Their success is a byproduct of focusing on what they do well. Too many churches spread themselves too thin trying to do too much.

Keep it Simple.

I just posted on "the favor of God" and an NCCer emailed me and reminded me that back in March we were praying for two things: wisdom and favor. What a cool reminder. God is answering those prayers.

For what it's worth, I think most of us fail to give credit where credit is due when God answers our prayers because we forgot we prayed them :)

That's one reason why I blog. I want to keep track of the dreams and miracles so that I can give credit where credit is do when the dreams become reality and the miracles happen.

We just totalled our faith promises for the On Mission series and they came in a few hundred dollars shy of $100,000. We've historically invested in missions out of our general budget, but we decided to give NCCers an opportunity to invest in missions via a Faith Promise. We felt like we wanted to take our missions giving up a notch!

We've historically given between 15-20% of our general budget to missions. This year we'll give about $250,000 to missions. To put that into perspective, we gave our first $50 check to missions eight year ago before we were even a self-supporting church. We've come a long ways! But I can't wait till we're investing millions in missions. Missions is our lifeblood. As long as we continue to give to missions we'll experience God's continued blessing.

I just read a draft of The Coming Multi-Site Revolution by Geoff Surratt, Greg Ligon, and Warren Bird. Great stuff. Props to Geoff, Greg, and Warren!

We are living through one of the greatest revolutions in "church praxis" in history. The Protestant Reformation was theological in nature. This revolution is practical--the way we do church.

I still remember when God gave me a vision for NCC meeting in movie theaters @ metro stops throughout the DC area. I wasn't aware of any churches who were multi-site. There were a handful, but I didn't know about them. Who would have thought that a few years later there would be 1200 multi-site churches across the country. The multi-site forum I was part of last week with more than 500 attendees. There is a groundswell. According to a recent survey cited in The Coming Multi-Site Revolution, 31% of Protestant churches said they had moved or were going to move to a multi-site model. That's one out of three churches!

The Coming Multi-Site Revolution cites a fascinating trend that I hope inspires you to buy the book when it comes out. I have utmost respect for these three guys. Greg Ligon has been an amazing cheerleader and coach. I'm grateful for his friendship and support. He's go the gift of encouragement big-time! And WarrenBird is writing an article on NCC for Leadership Journal. I love the way he crystallizes things through his writing. He's a gift to the kingdom.

In the 1940's, a hotel owner in Tennessee came up with a novel idea--a network of family-friendly hotels across the country with the same name. A manager had just watched "Holiday Inn" with Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire. The idea clicked. In the 1950s when Holiday Inns began springing up around the country, 98% of hotels were stand-alone, single-entity hotels. At last count, 80% of hotels are now brand names.

The same thing happened with restaurants.
The same thing happened with coffeehouses.
The same thing happened with retail shops.
The same thing is happening with churches.

I have mixed feelings about it. I'm a both/and thinker. So I think we need mom-and-pop shops as well as retail chains. I love chain restaurants, but I like an occasional "greasy spoon" or "hole in the wall."

I think the balance will shift between stand-alone churches and multi-site churches in the next ten years. I'm not suggesting that "stand-alone" churches are better or worse. But I think the multi-site model is all about leverage which is another name for stewardship. It's about best practices and synergy and cost effectiveness. And ultimately, I think it's a God idea. I think its a new wineskin.

For me it boils down to Isaiah 43:18-19: "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it."

I know that people respond to change on a bell curve. There are innovators and adopters and laggards and resisters. I tend to be an innovator. It's exciting being part of a "new thing" in the words of Isaiah 43. We were one of the "first movers." But it's exciting to see so many churches getting a vision for multi-site. Part of the reason I believe this is a God thing is the weekly calls and emails we get from all over the country from churches who are moving to a multi-site model. I'm seeing it first-hand.

Exciting stuff!

For what it's worth, Surratt and Ligon and Bird predict that there will be 30,000 multi-site churches in the next few years!

Pick up the book when it goes to print.

Had a great time of prayer this morning with our men's prayer group. I felt prompted to pray for three things: strength, joy, and wisdom. I'm praying for our staff and leaders that they would have the strength to give God 110%, that they would find supreme joy in serving the Lord, and I'm asking for wisdom to lead on God's wavelength.

Sometimes I catch myself thinking, "I can't believe I get to do this." I live my life in a "pressure-cooker" but I love serving God with every ounce of energy and creativity that I have. It doesn't get any better than that!

I'm trying to hook Nooma up with a grant to help them produce some more of their "videos." If you've never seen a Nooma you've got to check out www.nooma.com. I think their videos have been viewed by more than two million people at this point. They are all the rage. For what it's worth, their first video is their best video in my humble opinion. Rain is a masterpiece.

I know I sound like a broken record sometimes, but I'm a big believer in the power of multi-sensory messages (videos and movies). I put my faith in Christ after watching The Hiding Place.

I think more and more publishers will see short films as a great publishing opportunity. We've been producing trailers and on location videos for a couple years now, but I want us to produce some things that aren't just for NCC consumption. We've shared The Reel NCC DVDs with hundreds of churches. We've even won an Angel Award. I really want evotional productions to take things to the next level next year.

One of my goals over the next twelve months is to begin experimenting with a new genre of preaching. I want us to pre-produce some messages. I'm thinking we select certain series that are metaphorical in nature and open or end the series with a "short film" or "video parable" or "offsite message."

I'm inspired by Nooma. I love their mission and their medium.

For what it's worth, I love their branding too. They have branded the color blue. They even send blue gumballs with their videos. Brilliant branding!

I just had some cheesecake made by Pat Thomas who does hospitality at our Union Station location. Lora's first response was, "Wow." That pretty well sums it up. I'm a huge Cheesecake Factory fan, but the Cheesecake Factory doesn't have anything over Pat's cheesecake. A-mazing.

Actually, if you're reading this blog, Pat, I'm not sure if I liked it or not. You might need to make me three or four more cheesecakes so I can make sure :)

I posted last week and said that opportunities are reproducing like rabbits right now. Last Thursday was a great example. I wrote one article for Relevant magazine and got two article requests that same day.

I can't seem to keep up with the doors God seems to be opening right now. I had a phone conference with a publisher last week. Honestly, I would have been thrilled about one publisher being interested in my manuscript. And I'd put this particular publisher at the top of my wish list. But I've got another publisher who just expressed interest this week.

I guess this is a gratitude blog. I just don't take any of this for granted. I honestly attribute it to the "favor" of God.

My modus operandi is pretty simple: work like it depends on you and pray like it depends on God. I pour myself into everything I do then I pray for the favor of God. That's how I approach pastoring. That's how I approach writing. That's how I approach the God ideas I'm cultivating right now.

I have a simple life philosophy. I get credit for the bad stuff and God gets credit for the good stuff. So God gets the credit for the good stuff that is happening right now.

If my heart was a target, this morning's message hit the bullseye.

It's been so refreshing sitting and listening rather than standing and preaching during my summer sabbatical. Pastor Joel spoke about the miracle in Acts 3. I won't retell the story, but here are a few observations that really struck me:

He talked about "driving on empty." When you're on empty you only do the bare necessities. You turn the AC off to conserve energy. You coast as much as you can because you don't want to run out of gas. The same is true spiritually. If we're driving on empty we're coasting. Maybe the way to say it is this: you can't give what you don't have. Peter and John coulnd't give him any money. But Peter say, "What I do have I give you." And the man was healed.

Pastor Joel said, "Sometimes our assets can hinder us." What if Peter and John had just given the beggar a few alms to soothe their conscious? They prayed for a miracle because they didn't have anything to give him materially! Fascinating. Sometimes the more we have the less we have to give. Think about it.

The message was a powerful way to end our On Mission series.

These images were forwarded to me and I think they are legit. Julian Beever is an English artist who is famous for his art on the pavement of England, France, Germany, USA, Australia and Belgium. I think the technique is called "anamorphose." His images are drawn completely diforms which give a 3D image when viewing on the right angle. Amazing aren't they?

By the way, I've been thinking about doing "pavement art" as a way of advertising. Not sure how legal it is to do pavement art in strategic locations, but I think it'd be fun and have more impact than a billboard. It'd be cool to do pavement art around Ebenezers.

Just thinking out loud.

I wonder what this guy's pricetag is?

I decided to fly stand by today and come home early. I've been gone too much lately! I barely made the first flight. I called Lora on the way home from Reagan National and we talked for a while and then I knocked on the front door. She said, "Someone is at the door." I said, "Just don't answer it" and kept knocking. Then Summer said, "I think I hear dad."

Nothing like coming back to your family after being gone for a few days!

Bill Hybels interviewed best-selling author Ken Blanchard today. What's cool is that Hybels was instrumental in Blanchard coming to faith in Christ. Blanchard said that one thought was instumental in his thinking process. Bill Hybels explained, "Religion is spelled 'do' and Christianity is spelled 'done'." I love that.

Religion is about what you can do for God. Christianity is about what God has done for you. That takes the pressure off.

Another amazing day at the Willowcreek Leadership Summit. After listening for two days I think one common denominator among great leaders is that they get you to dream bigger dreams. Leaders are inflaters. They inflate hope. They inflate dreams.

Here are some thoughts from Bill Hybel's opening session at the Leadership Summit.

Bill said that fifteen years ago he was "doing ministry" but he hadn't really stopped to "think about ministry." When he stopped to reflect he came up with five "I Believes":

1. I believe the local church is the most leadership-intensive enterprise in society.
2. I believe in the spiritual gift of leadership
3. I believe most churches unintentionally undermine the expression of the leadership gift
4. I believe that most people love to be led
5. I believe the local church is the hope of the world.

As I listened I thought to myself: the most successful people have the deepest convictions. They are driven by a few beliefs or a few convictions. I see that happening in my own life right now. I have three core convictions that keep growing deeper roots in my soul.

C1: The church ought to be the most creative place on the planet
C2: The Greatest Message deserves the Greatest Marketing
C3: The church belongs in the middle of the marketplace

Here were my closing thoughts at the end of the session:

Throw yourself into every message. Give God everything you've got everyday. Or to shorten it: everything everyday. The only regret any of us will ever have is this: that we didn't give God more sooner. That's it. That we didn't give God every ounce of energy, every second of time, every penny of resources. That's it.

We're canceling the Buzz Conference. That's what I jokingly told our team when the Summit kicked off today. Willowcreek does what they do so well. Seriously, if you can only go to one conference next year attend the Leadership Summit at Willowcreek. If you attend two conferences then come to the Buzz Conference as well :)

I can only describe the Summit as a leadership IV. That's why 50,000+ people invest the time and money. It's like inserting an IV and infusing your veins with leadership.

By the way, I hope Buzz is an idea IV. I want attendees to experience an idea infusion.

I'm really wrestling with how we take our internship program to the next level. I want us to be mentoring more emerging leaders. Ryan Frost, a film major at Biola University, just finished his internship and we miss him already. We need to add some staff/interns in the media department to assit our Pastor of Media, Dave Clark.

We also have a church planter in residence position on staff (Josh Karrer is our current CPR), but I'd like to turn it into a "church planting school."

All of that is to say this: if you know of anyone interested in church planting or doing a year-long internship at NCC contact my personal assistant Tim Elzea @ Tim@theaterchurch.com. I'm hoping we add some interns/planters to our team at the beginning of 2006.

I got invited to Bill Hybel's house for dinner tonight because of my role on the Willowcreek multi-site panel. Pastor Joel went with me. I told him that I felt like I was going to a Junior High dance. I was sort of nervous because I didn't know how formal or informal it would be. Plus I've admired Bill Hybels (founding pastor of Willowcreek) for so many years that it was somewhat surreal to meet him "in the flesh."

I was talking to someone today and I said, "It seems like opportunities are reproducing like rabbits right now." It's like a domino-effect. I wrote another article for Relevant magazine today and got two requests for other articles from other magazines today.

I'm just sort of standing back right now and marveling at the synchronicities. I don't feel like anything is being forced. In the words of Mihaly Czikzcentmihaly, there is a "flow" right now. Fun stuff.

I think we might try to sponsor a DC film festival next year. The Journey (www.nyjourney.com) up in New York city has been doing one for a few years and we did a little recon there this summer.

But I had another idea for the Buzz conference. It'd be cool to have churches submit their "best videos" and do a "church film festival." We could do an optional evening session where we show the "top ten" and give away a DVD sampler to conference attendees. It'd be a fun way to do idea sharing and make the conference more synergistic.

I love watching what over churches are doing. If we all keep leap-frogging each other who knows where we'll end up.

My all-time favorite pizza in the world is Lou Malnatti's. If you haven't had Lou Malnatti's pizza you've lived a sheltered life. All week I've been anticipating Malnatti's. I started drooling on Monday. I didn't know where the closest one to Willowcreek was going to be, but there was no way we weren't going to "go see Lou."

Long story short, we had a "speaker's lunch" before the forum yesterday and they served Malnatti's. And the owner's wife was there! I got her autograph. She said she's never given anyone an autograph before :) I told her that if she was willing to franchise Malnatti's in DC we'd just throw out the whole coffeehouse idea (just kidding).

It's hard to describe my love for Malnatti's pizza, but while I was eating I kept telling everyone at our table, "I'm so happy. I'm so happy."

By the way, the Malnatti's are believers and they "tithed" their tenth store to a church. How cool is that?

I was part of a multi-site panel at Willowcreek's first multi-site forum yesterday. What a blast to hang out with people who have the same passion! I only shared a few comments on the panel, but we hosted a dinner for about seventy pastors and leaders last night. We did an hour-and-a-half of Q & A. I was exhausted and energized at the end of the day. Speaking to pastors is one of my passions.

It was pretty intense being back at willowcreek. I attended a conference in 1993 when I was in seminary and that conference had a pretty radical impact on me. If I had to summarize what that conference did for me it'd be this: it gave me permission to do church different. I walked away inspired to plant a church that would "do it different."

Probably the highlight of the day was re-connecting with Dave Ferguson from Community Christian Church in Naperville and meeting some pastors I've admired long-distance: Craiq Groeshel from Lifechurch, Larry Osborne from North Coast Community, and Rich Birch from The Meeting House.

I walked away from the forum totally encouraged about the future of the church. There are some pretty amazing people doing some pretty amazing things across the country.

Praise God!

Anybody else love Cracker Barrel? I love their decor. It produces viseral nostalgia! I want Ebenezers to have that feel minus the agricultural motif. I want to do more than celebrate the history of Capitol Hill. I want it to produce nostalgia. I want the main floor to feel like a time warp--like you're walking back into 1907.

I'm not entirely sure how to accomplish that or what the "final feel" will be like, but I came across some cool relics at www.earlstation.com. (Thanks to www.changedesigngroup.com for the links).

Here is one of my favorites. Makes you feel like you're in an English movie doesn't it? It's actually "life-size." I need to get me one of them :)



Anyone know where to find train relics?

I had an hour and a half phone conference with a potential publisher for In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day. I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation. A few things impressed me.

First, I think we're kindred spirits when it comes to marketing and creativity. They aren't just one of the leaders in the publishing industry, but they've got some fresh ideas. I also felt like I could have an interactive relationship with them and have some input on the marketing and design phases. That's pretty important to me.

Second, I was impressed with the quality of their authors. They have published some of my all-time favorite authors and books. I love reading their books so it'd be cool to be on the writing side of the equation. I also like that they're only publishing 15-20 books in each division each year.

The bottom line is: I like them. I like the way they think. I like the books they publish. I feel great about a potential partnership.

This is a terra incognita for me. To be honest, I don't know where I'm going :) But the Holy Spirit does. And it helps having an agent who has been around the block a few times :)

I just turned down an opportunity to speak at a Minister's Retreat in Tennessee with several hundred pastors and church planters. It was a gut-wrenching decision, but I said "no" because I'd be gone on Parker's tenth birthday! I have such a hard time saying "no" :) I love speaking to pastors and church planters. But I've tried to abide by a simple philosophy that I believe is God-ordained and God-honored: if ministry and family are ever in conflict, family always comes first. It's a tough decision, but at the end of the day my son would miss me alot more than a group of pastors :)

I had a conversation with Kurt Beyer, the CEO of Riptopia, this morning. He used to row competitively and he said sometimes the coxswain (have no idea how to spell that) would say "push ten." They were rowing at 100% capacity already, but they would row 110% for ten strokes. That's how I feel right now. I'm pushing ten.

We talked about finding balance. I think there is a time to "push ten" and there is a time for re-creation or sabbath. When we maintain the rhythm established in Genesis between work and play then we're "in sync." God has designed us so that we come with a pre-loaded circadian rhythm. To be at peak performance we've got to find that rhythm.

Work hard. Play hard.

I'm convinced that creating culture is the most important and most difficult job for any pastor. I was thinking about staffing recently. We need to add three or four positions yesterday :)

Here are a few random thoughts:

Do any churches have a pastor of culture or a pastor of stories?

We're very intentional about creating the right culture at NCC and the whole staff is very conscious of it. But Pastor Joel probably comes as close as anyone to being our pastor of culture. Along with missions, outreach and playing the point pastor role at Ballston, Joel spearheads our Club events. I think the club events are an important part of our personality. I love our worship events (Catacombs) and fun events (Variety Show). I also think our videos are a huge part of creating the right culture.

I think the church has forgotten the power of testimony. I think we're under-performing in this area, but we want to be doing more video documentaries and online documentaries on our website (www.theaterchurch.com). I'd love to have a pastor of stories whose only job is to document the stories of what God is doing in the lives of NCCers. Part of what prompts this is the amazing stories I've heard in the last week about NCCers getting saved and being called to missions. Nothing is more inspiring! We've got to be good stewards of those stories!

I almost forgot to blog about it, but I met someone at General Council who said I prayed with them at the altar when they accepted Christ as a Junior Higher. I was tripping out. I played a very "small role" but there's nothing like being used by God in big or small ways. And to know that he's now in minsitry serving God full-time is pretty cool.
I'm not taking any credit for anything :) But it was sort of like a time warp. It's been fifteen years! But it gave me a glimpse of what heaven will be like. I think God will reveal all the lives we've touched in big and small ways.

What happened to the homeless person you helped? How did your kindness impact them? What about the kid you went out of your way to befriend? What kind of touble did your friendship keep them out of? What happened to the colleague you shared your faith with? How did your testimony impact their life? What happened to the person you had on your prayer list for a week in 1987? How did your prayers change the trajectory of their life?

I think God will reveal the way every good act impacted others. And I think it'll be infinitely exhillirating!

Zeb Mengistu referenced two of my favorite Old Testament stories yesterday. He had one insight that was so profound. I've never noticed it before. He said we act one way when trouble is behind us and another way when trouble is in front of us. Jacob is a great case study.

In Genesis 28, Jacob is running away from Esau who is trying to kill him. His trouble is behind him. His back is to Esau. He has an experience with God at Bethel, but he's still in what I'd call "temporal mode." He's focused on "food to eat and clothes to wear" (Genesis 28:20). That is what Jacob asks God for--food and clothes. He wants a material blessing.

But it's a different story in Genesis 32 when Jacob is returning to Esau. Trouble is in front of Him. He's facing Esau. He doesn't know if Esau still wants to kill him. He's no longer in temporal mode. He's no longer seeking a material blessing. He is seeking a spiritual blessing. He wrestles with God and says, "I will not let you go unless you bless me."

That resonates with my experience. When I'm "out of trouble" (back to Esau) I sometimes focus on material blessings. But when I'm "in trouble" (facing Esau) I seek the Lord. The trick is learning to seek God with the same intensity when we're "out of trouble" as when we're "in trouble." That's when God can trust us with the material blessings. Another way of saying it is this: when we seek a material blessing we can't be trusted with a material blessing. But when we seek a spiritual blessing we can be trusted with material blessing.

Isn't that why God blessed Saul? He didn't ask for wealth or power or fame. He asked for wisdom. And because he asked for wisdom (spiritual blessing) he got wealth and power and fame (material blessing) thrown in for free. It was a package deal.

Right after writing the blog on the originality line I came across a fascinating article on e-tailers and customization in the NY Times business section.

The only way online stores can compete with giants like Wal-Mart is customization. There is a growing trend toward personalization or customization. I'd like to invent a word. I'd like to call it originalization (not sure if that word exists or not). The possibilities are endless.

By the way, all of this comes out of one of our core values: everyone is invaluable and irreplacable. I want evotional apparel to celebrate the infinite creativity of God that finds expression in each unique fingerprint, voiceprint, eyeprint, and soulprint.

One more thing. When I hear about other people doing something that I thought I had thought of first, I immediately think of Ecclesiastes 3:15: "Whatever is has already been, and what will be has been before." In other words, there is nothing new under the sun! Originality doesn't mean that no one else has ever thought of your idea. It doesn't mean it's never been done before. Originality is about unique combinations.

One of the things that drives me is doing old things in new ways or saying old things in new ways. Eight times the Psalmist said, "Sing a new song." I think there are ways of doing church that no one has thought of yet! There are new forms of preaching. There are new forms of discipling. There are new forms of singing. Lora and I were actually talking about this one the other days. Have all forms of music been invented? Or will there be new genres that no one has thought of yet? I think there are ways of doing everything that haven't been thought of yet. I'm hoping NCC and evotional.com are the leading edge blazing a trail redeeming new mediums to communicate the message.

If I took the time to document all the synchronicities that have happened in the last month I'd be blogging all day. It's astounding. My only explanation is God ordering my footsteps (Proverbs 16:9).

He also seems to be ordering my thoughts!

I'll be thinking about something and I'll get an email from someone I've never met asking me if I've ever thought about it. I'll be thinking about something and I open a newpaper or magazine with an article on that exact topic. I'll be thinking about something and I'll meet someone who can make it happen. I know I'm being somewhat cyptic, but I'll document some of them at some point in time. I can only describe it this: I'm meeting the right people at the right time at the right place.

My reticular activating system is working overtime right now :)

Every summer I do a "summer sabbatical" where I take a few weeks off from preaching. It's not that I can't be growing while I'm preaching week in and week out. But my sabbatical is a season where I step back and seek God for something fresh. It's not about what God can do through me. It's about what God can do in me. It's my way of recalibrating and making sure I'm keeping in step with the Spirit. For what it's worth, I've quoted Galatians 5:25 incessantly in recent weeks. "It says, "Let us keep in step with the Spirit." The Holy Spirit is taking long srides right now :) but I'm trying to keep in step.

I've noticed a few things during this sabbatical. First, my heart feels super-sensitive right now. It was a little embarrassing but I practically cried my way through the 9:30 service @ Union yesterday. I cried when Parker read Scripture and Summer sang. I cried when I talked about the dream I had where the Lord said, "You have to do more." I cried during worship. My sabbatical is a time where God re-sensitizes me to the things I've become de-sensitized to.

It's also been healthy for me to just sit and listen for a few weeks. I felt full after the message on Sunday. In fact, I likened it to my meal at Maggianos while I was in Denver. After a Maggiano's salad, Chicken Saltimboca, and Tiramasu I was stuffed. That's how I felt after church. I was stuffed :) I felt so full of God.

I could hardly contain the excitement during worship either. I felt like I was being raptured in the Spirit. I felt like jumping or doing the running man :) There is nothing like being in God's presence and worshipping Him.

One of the dangers we face in our walk with Christ is developing tunnel vision so all we can see is what right in front of us. I think this On Missions series is all about developing peripheral vision and seeing what God is doing all around the world. I say it all the time, but what a privilege to be part of what God is doing on planet earth. We'll give $250,000 to missions this year, but when it comes to missions giving enough is never enough :)

Lord, give us peripheral vision!

Seventeen years ago, on 8.8.88, I asked Lora out on our first date. I'm glad she said yes :)

I'm going to continue to blog about Evotional Apparel even though our first generation won't come out till the fall.

Evotional apparel will have three lines of clothing--an originality line, an authenticity line, and a destiny line. I'll give a better explanation at a later date, but one concept behind evotional apparel is to allow people to design their own clothing so it is absolutely unique. Self-designed clothing will cost more, but it will be as unique as the person wearing it. It's a way of celebrating originality.

Evo Apparel will coach customers on how to design clothing that is original. One of the coaching questions is this: what places or dates hold special significance in your life? I bought an Old Navy t-shirt a few years ago that said "The Twin Cities" because that's where I was born. I bought a Gap shirt because it said "Established 1969." And that's the year I was established :) I love wearing stuff that has personal significance. So Evo Apparel will take it a step further.

I think the number 8 is a great example. Lora and I started dating on 8.8.88. It is one of a half dozen dates that hold incredible significance for me. By the way, I also love the fact that if you turn an eight over it's the infinity sign. So I might design a shirt that symbolizes my "till death do us part" vow to my wife. Or I might use the number in some different ways--an infinity sign on the neck or sleeve. The key is this, it's a reminder of something incredibly significant: how much I love my wife! Isn't that why we wear wedding rings? Why not clothes?

By the way, some of the other dates are:

07.23.00--a near-death experience
1969--the year I was born.
1988--the year I graduated from High School
1992--the year I graduated from College

I'll incorporate those dates in a variety of ways into the clothing I wear--especially 07, 23, and 00. That date is a reminder that every day is a gift from God. When you've had a near-death experience you don't take life for granted.

By the way, one of the verses that inspired the Originality line is Acts 17:26: "He marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands." In other words, God detemined exactly when and exactly where we would be born. That ought to give us a sense of destiny chronologically and geographically. Our birthplace and birthdate are anything but accidental. When we were born and where we were born are God-ordained. The originality line is a celebration of the sovereignty of God. We ought to celebrate the times and places of significance in our lives.

I have a growing confidence that is tough to describe, but I think part of it is the fact that my office is now a few feet from Ebenezers and I'm watching that dream become reality right before my eyes! When you experience one miracle you can believe God for anything!

I wouldn't characterize it as self-confidence. I would characterize it as nothing-is-going-to-keep-God-from-accomplishing-His-purposes confidence. It's sort of like one of my faith definitions: faith is God proving himself over and over again until you have faith in His faithfulness!

The key to confidence is discerning on the front end: is this a God idea? If it is, then you never give up until the dream becomes reality. You refuse to let it die. That's what enabled us to hang in there for eight years with Ebenezers. That's what allowed Joseph to hang in there for seventeen years or Abraham to hang in there for more than two decades!

The gap between "promise given" and "promise fulfilled" in Scripture is amazing! We read in a few minutes what took years to accomplish. Because of that we get discouraged when the dream doesn't become reality in weeks or months. And that is accentuating by a society where everything moves at light-speed.

But faith is an unshakable confidence in the God who calls things that are not as though they were :) He is the God who begins the good work. And He's the God who carries it to completion! By the way, in between the "beginning" and "completing" we've got to pray like it depends on God and work like it depends on us.

Pastor Zeb Mengistu (www.bezaministries.org) spoke at NCC yesterday. Rocked my world. It's hard to put into words, but I feel so privileged to be part of what God is going to do through the church plant in Addis Ababa.

Zeb talked about "crossing the line" and "stepping out in faith." I think every good thing in our lives can be traced back to a "one small step/one giant leap" moment. I think of Lora and I packed up all of our earthly belongings in a Uhaul and moving to DC with no place to live and no gauranteed salary. If we hadn't "crossed the line" we would have forfeited all the subsequent blessings we've experienced.

I've always been challenged by Zeb and Yami's leap of faith moving to Ethiopia to plant a church. I love people like that :) Zeb said, "There is no book or strategy for water-walking." Then he said something that every NCCer ought to be encouraged by. He said, "NCC became the water we walked on."

I'm really praying that the Spirit will lead every NCCer to make a faith promise and invest in missions. That's how we become the water missionaries walk on when they step out in faith.

One of my favorite Old Testament concepts is "plundering the Egyptians." The Israelites were slaves in Egypt for four hundred years, but God always has the last laugh! Exodus 12:36 says, "The Lord has made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and they gave them what they asked for; so they plundered the Egyptians."

A few months ago I wrote a note in the margin of my Bible next to that passage: 400 years of slavery or 400 years of Egypt saving up for Israel. Don't miss the significance of this passage. The Israelites experienced 400 years of slavery, but God's people always get the upper-hand eventually. The cream always rises to the top! I don't want to minimize the struggles of slavery for 400 years. But think about it. The Israelites were "working for" the Egyptians, but the Egyptians ended up giving everything back to Israel. So who was enslaved to whom? Israel was losing for 400 years. But when the final buzzer sounded they won!

Permission to speak frankly? I believe that God wants us to plunder the Egyptians. He is using people who don't worship Him to store up intellectual and financial wealth for His purposes. I know that might offend some people. But isn't that exactly what happened? I think the knowledge the Israelites gained while helping in Egptian construction projects served them well when it came time to build cities and synagogues! Intellectual plundering. I engage in intellectual plundering all the time when I get ideas from people who don't worship God. I want to redeem the things I learn from physics and neurology and business and use them to serve God's purposes! It's plundering the Egyptians.

And the Israelites didn't leave Egypt empty-handed. Exodus 12:38 says they had "large droves of livestock." God wants to use the wealth of the world to serve His purposes.

A few thoughts.

Exodus 12:36 says that God caused the Egyptians to be "favorably disposed." I pray for "favor" about as much as I pray for anything. It is a theme that runs through Scripture. Nehemiah prayed for "favor." Daniel found "favor." Jesus' inaugural message quoted the prophet Isaiah. Jesus said he came "to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."
I believe that every good thing that happens in my life can be traced back to the favor of God. I believe that as much as I believe anything. It's the etymology of favor.

The favor of God is the only explanation for the coffeehouse we're building on Capitol Hill. The only explanation! We prayed for favor with the owners of 201 F Street, NE. And we got it. We prayed for favor with the zoning commission and historic preservation. And we got it. Ebenezers is God doing us a favor!

I think the things that are happening in my life right now--the God-ordained opportunities that are presenting themselves right and left--are answers to prayers for favor. What's cool about that is this. The opportunities don't produce pride because you know you had nothing to do with it. In fact, when you recognize that it's the favor of God it has a humbling effect.

It reminds me of David's response to the promises of God in II Samuel 7:18: "Who am I, Sovereign Lord, and what is my family that you have brough me this far? And as if this were not enough in your sight, Sovereign Lord, you have also spoken about the future of the house of your servant--and this decree, Sovereign Lord, is for a human being! What more can David say to you? For you know your servant, Sovereign Lord. For the sake of your word and according to your will, you have done this great thing and made it known to your servant."

I read something Jim Rohn wrote today that really impacted me: "Success is not something you chase or run after. Success is something you attract."

It reminds me of the Psalm 23. "Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life." The word "follow" isn't a strong enough translation. It means "to hunt." God is hunting you down so that He can bless you! So that He can do you a favor! Imagine: the God of the universe is hot on your trail tracking you down so He can do you a favor and show you His goodness.

Mind-boggling!

I had a thought today. As our individual gifts and passions become more developed it becomes even more important that we have people around us to complement our gifts and passions. That is what makes a church a church. That is what makes a staff a staff. If my gifts and passions as the Lead Pastor aren't complemented by our other staff then we'd become lopsided or unbalanced.

As God opens new doors of opportunity, I need to focus more and more on my giftings and passions. And I become more and more dependant upon our staff and leaders. I think that's healthy.

When a church is younger and smaller a pastor can sometimes get by with being all things to all people. As NCC grows I realize that I'm just one small piece and I become more and more grateful for each staff member and each leader. I guess that's why the metaphor of a body is used by Paul to describe the church.

To quote our Pastor of Discipleship, Heather Zempel, we even need "nose hairs." If it weren't for them we'd get sick a lot more because they are the filtration system. Here's the nose hairs :)

Blogging is the way I download what God is doing in my heart. But I also think it's the way I document His faithfulness. Too many times we fail to thank God for answered prayer because we forget what we prayed for :) I blogged the seven miracles I'm believing God for last May because I want to give Him credit when He performs those miracles. I think blogging is a way of documenting what God is up to.

I think downloading and documenting are two good reasons to blog. Of course, you can keep a prayer journal and do it that way. Or write your prayer requests on a napkin for that matter. I just think we need to be careful to give God credit. And one way we do it is by downloading God ideas and documenting the way God answers them.

By the way, sometimes I do that in symbolic form. I didn't write out all of my seven miracles because some of them are too personal. I'm not ready to verbalize them yet. But I symbolized them, CO7, for example. Blogging is one way I step out in faith. There is something powerful about verbalizing faith. God "spoke" the world into existence. I think speaking or verbalizing is an important part of faith. I know that some preachers take that too far, but most of us don't take it far enough :)

I think every church has a unique churchprint just like every person has a unique fingerprint. Churches need to identify what it is that makes them unique. They need to discover their signature. I think we try to play off the theater motif: Now Meeting @ a Theater Near You. That's our signature as www.theaterchurch.com. We also package our welcome packet in a popcorn box. Why not? It's a celebration of where God has strategically positioned us.

I love churches and businesses that have unique signatures that set them apart. I remember a restaurant in Milwaukee that had dolphins. What a fun place to eat. I loved Gino's pizza in Chicago because you could carve your name in the wall. It was their signature. I've seen restaurants with huge fish tanks. Red Lobster has a lobster tank. I remember eating at Ground Round as a kid. Their hors d'oeuvres were popcorn and peanuts.

I really want Ebenezers to have a unique signature so that when people walk in it's like no other place they've been in. I want us to have some signature foods. I've lobbying for fondue :) I want us to have a unique motif. We'll have train tracks in the floor and I'm wondering if we have an "elevated train" running around the ceiling? I've never seen a restaurant do that. It'd be a unique way of celebrating the history of the property. The original diner served travelers before their was food service on the trains.

I also want to make Ebenezer's kid-friendly. Lora and I love to go out for coffee, but it can be tough with small kids :) I'd like to have a coloring station or video station or maybe a train station. I want it to be a place where parents can hang out with kids.

I'd also like to have a unique giveaway. Grotto Pizza in Rehobeth gives away balloons to kids. Kids love it :) One idea is to give away shiny stones (marble-like stones). I know that sounds crazy and it might be a potential health hazard. But Ebenezers was originally a stone altar that meant "Hitherto the Lord has helped us." That's our backstory and kids love stones.

I want Ebenezers to be the kind of place that kid's say "Can we go to Ebenezers? Please. Pleeaassee." One key is signature. There's an old song: "Let's give 'em something to talk about." That's what a signature does. I want people to walk out of Ebenezers and tell their friends about. By the way, a few other signature ideas are to hang the original deed, paint a mural of the Capitol from the vantage point of Union Station/Ebenezers in 1844, and tell the backstory about how Ebenezers evolved. One other idea I had was to use a satellite map of the city as part of the flooring. They have one at the city museum that is sweet. If anybody wants to contribute to the "map fund" let me know :)

All of that to say this. I want Ebenezers to have a signature! We celebrate originality individuality. How many times have I said: There never has been and never will be anyone like you. That's not a testament to you. It's a testament to the God who created you. In the same sense, there never been and never will be a coffeehouse like Ebenezers. And that's a testament to the God of Originality.

By the way, I love Nooma videos signature. Blue gumballs. I love those things :)

While I was in Denver I saw a "bike cab." I don't think I've ever noticed them in DC, but it seems like that'd be an affordable start up business. All you need is a bike and a carriage that seats 2-3 people. It seems like that could be "big business" in DC with the monuments and Mall.

The guy who was riding the bike seemed to be having a blast. Not sure if there is some "fee" or "license" to pick up at Union Station or at the Monuments, but someone ought to start "DC bikes" to compete with "DC Ducks." I think a small flat fee would produce a decent income. Just a thought if anybody is looking for a start-up business.

C.S. Lewis said, "Every life is comprised of a few themes." One of my is "redemption."

I love seeing things redeemed for God's purposes. God is in the redemption business. There isn't anyone, anything or anyplace that God doesn't want to redeem. I think anything and everything is redeemable for God's purposes.

I love redeeming theaters and turning them into churches. I love redeeming ideas like Punk'd and turning them into Praiz'd. I love redeeming Club Nation and turning it into a sanctuary. I love redeeming technology and using it for God's purposes. I love to redeem clothing and use it to share your faith (Evotional Apparel). I love redeeming coffee and making it coffee for a cause (Ebenezers).

I think all things were created to glorify God. Redemption is restoring things to their original intent.

I flew back from Denver last night. Took off at midnight and landed at 5 AM? Everytime I fly a red eye I ask myself the question, "What was I thinking?" I'm exhausted. On Tuesday of this week I got less than two hours of sleep because I had an article deadline. Then last night I got less than an hour of sleep. I think I experience more sleep deprivation this week than any week in recent memory.

Of course, what made the red eye worth it was geting home and seeing my family!

I think I set a blog record today. My blog is the way I download what's happening in my head and my heart. Today felt like I was downloading a 100 megabyte file on a 56K modem :) And I only downloaded 17% of the file!

I'll keep downloading tomorrow!

I just got back from a dinner where National Community Church was honored as one of fourteen "transformational churches" by the Assemblies of God. I have a few reactions:

First, what a privilege it is to serve God and tell people about Jesus. Sometimes I can't believe I get to do this. What a privilege to be part of what God is doing on planet earth. There is nothing like seeing a life transformed by Christ.

Second, a recognition like this is a reminder to give credit where credit is due. NCC is God's church. I think all the good things we've experienced are to God's credit and all the bad things are to our credit :) But I also want to give "props" to our staff. What an amazing team of people that I get to serve with. And what an amazing congregation. I wouldn't want to be anyplace else doing anything else.

Third, days like this make me want to redouble our efforts to reach more people for Christ and disciple them until they are fully devoted followers of Christ.

Lord, make us equal to the task you've called us to.

II Corinthians 3:5 is one of my favorite verses: "our competence comes from God." So God gets the credit for anything He accomplishes through us. At the end of the day, we'll lay all of our crowns at His feet. Plaques too :)

The conversations I had at General Council this week made the trip worth it.

I loved talking to Brad Rosenberg, my college roommate. They're doing awesome stuff at Tri-County Assembly of God in Cinncinati, OH. I loved talking to Trinity Jordan and Mark Miller. I loved talking with Bill McDonald. I loved connecting with the Change Design Group.

I loved the conversations I had with pastors who stopped by our evotional.com booth.

It's hard to describe, but those conversations reved my engine. I feel like I'm leaving council with deeper convictions. I'm also encouraged by a rising tide of creativity in the church. I hope it becomes a flash flood.

I don't even know what this site is, but I heard some people giving it props this week. I love the design. By the way, I love cool packaging. Or to put it into biblical terms, I love new wineskins.

I was looking at some Fossil stuff at a Journey Store recently. Their packaging rocks. I have a core conviction: the greatest message deserves the greatest marketing. But another translation of that is this: the greatest gift deserves the greatest packaging. There's no gift like salvation, but the church isn't packaging up to it's potential. Fossil does a better job packaging watches than the church does packaging eternity.

If I had to put the last two months of my life into biblical context I'd probably land on two passages. I've felt like the spies scoping out the promise land for forty days or Nehemiah scoping out the walls in the middle of the night. Over the next few weeks I'm going to blog about the things I've been dreaming and the things I've been seeing "outside the wall" or "in the Promise Land." Some of these dreams were conceived years ago. Some of them are months old. But I think they are God-ordained. There is a convergence happening in my life right now that defies human explanation. There is no way it could have been manufactured.

One of those "outside the wall" dreams is evotional apparel. I'll frame evotional apparel in another blog, but the concept is simple: a story behind every shirt.

For what it's worth, one of my most embarrassing moments happened in the sixth grade when I wore a pink shirt to school. I was teased mercilessly and as a result I became hyper-conscious about my clothes. But I made a comeback and in the eighth grade I won a cherished honor. Our eighth grade class gave lots of "most" and "best" awards. There was "most likely to become a U.S. Senator." This crazy, but I still remember who won. It was a guy named Chris Burt. I wonder what he's doing now? Anyway, want to know what I won? Not most likely to succeed. Not best athlete. I won best dressed. Ah, the thrill of victory. It was like reconcilaiation. All of my humiliation from the sixth-grade dissipated as I won the coveted "best dressed" award. Redemption.

Anywho.

We need to redeem our clothing and wear our faith. We need to think of clothing in stewardship terms because what we wear, like everything else, is a stewardship issue! I think we ought to be intentional about what we wear. What does our clothing say about us? What does it say about God? I'm a conversational t-shirt fanatic :) Evotional apparel will be great conversation starters. I want us to design some clothes that make people laugh and make people think.

So what's unique about evotional apparel? One of the things that will make evo apparel unique is the fact that there is a story behind every shirt. Almost like a Beanie Baby that comes with some "history" or a restaurant menu that tells the story of how it got started, evotional apparel will frame every shirt with a story. That'll make sense when we unveil the first generation in the fall, but evo wearers will know why they're wearing what they're wearing. And that's half the battle.

To be honest, one of the catalysts for evotional apparel was walking into Abercrombie and Target and Guess and loving the creative conversational t-shirts but hating the fact that I can't wear 90% of their t-shirts because they're all about sexual inuendo. I want evotional apparel to be about spiritual inuendo. I want them to make people laugh and make people think.

All of that to say this :) I was having a conversation with Trinity Jordan about www.plainjoestudios.com and he told me that they really focus on the concept of backstory when they work with branding churches. That is a concept used by imagineers at Disney when they design rides and displays. They want to frame everything with the right backspace. Well, plainjoe has designed a totally cool office space and everything tells a story. I think that is what gives dimensionality to an organization. It's almost like Paul Harvey's The Rest of the Story. Who doens't love hearing the "backstory" of famous people? Evotional apparel is redeeming the backstory concept and applying it to clothing.

By the way, Ebenezers will do the same thing. We're going to celebrate the history of our neighborhood in some fun and creative ways. We might hand the original deed. We'll tell the story of how Ebenezers came into existence. We'll even have train tracks in the flooring! It's the backstory that creates buzz and gets people talking! National Community Church meeting in the movie theaters @ Union Station is a great example. We've always celebrated the backstory of the original bill of Congress saying, "and for other purposes." It's that backstory that has given us such a sense of destiny! And it's the backstory that infuses loyalism whether it's a church, a restaurant, a barber shop or a coffeehouse!

More backstory to come :)

I've got to give props where props are due. It's been awesome meeting some like-minded people who have shared passions. I connected with Tim Ellens and Joe Dascenzo with the Change Design Group (www.changedesigngroup.com) and they are doing an awesome job of helping churches with branding.

I love their motto: Making those who do good look good.

If you're looking for someone to help give your church brand a facelift, they are worth checking out.

One of my deepest desires to begin building win/win partnerships with like-minded organizations. I'm hoping the evotional.com network will facilitate that.

Sorry for the mental picture, but sometimes I think blogging is intellectual vomiting. I mean that in the best sense of course (if there is a best sense). I think blogging is all about "taking our thoughts captive" (II Corinthians 10:5) and that is the way we become good stewards of our right-brains.

Anywho.

I'm thinking about my philosophy of writing or philosophy of preaching as I get ready for my publishing phone conference next week. If I had to reduce it to a sentence I might describe my approach to communication this way: I try to say old things in new ways and I try to say complicated things in simple ways. The way I do is via metaphors. In a sense, my philosophy of communication boils down to three words: metaphors, metaphors, metaphors. It's the real estate equivalent to location, location, location.

Oliver Wendel Holmes said, "I wouldn't give a fig for simplicity on the near-side of complexity." But he said that "simplicity on the far side of complexity" was priceless. Isn't that the genuis of Jesus. He was able to communicate complicated theological truths in simple ways. But it wasn't near-side complexity. It was far-side complexity. That's what I strive for in my writing and preaching. I honestly believe that it's the simplest ideas that have the potential to begin the greatest revolutions. Jesus started a revolution by reducing 600+ Old Testament laws into one Great Commandment.

I hesitate posting this, but I saw a guy walking downtown Denver with a big yellow sign hoisted above his head that said, "Jesus Saves." I saw people looking at him like, "Dude, get a clue." It was a turn-off. Please don't take this the wrong way, but can we have a conversation about this? Sometimes the way we communicate truth can do more harm than good. I'm sure this guy has good motives. But his "in your face" approach pushes people further away from the one who saves! Don't get me wrong. In some ways, it's a kick in the butt for the rest of us who aren't sharing our faith. We could take a lesson in boldness. It takes guts to get out there like that. I admire that. But I found myself thinking, "There's got to be a better way."

Evotional.com has a booth at General Council and our sign says, "The greatest message deserves the greatest marketing." I think a big yellow sign that says "Jesus Saves" is Exhibit A when it comes to how not to do it. It reminds me of those vans with signs and sayings plastered on them in DC. They might be right. But you think they're crazy because of the way the truth is packaged.

If I'm off on this one, feel free to push back. I'm just blogging off the top of my head :)

So I'm walking through downtown Denver and someone yells, "Pastor Mark." It turns out to be an NCCer who spent a summer in DC and attended NCC last summer. What's funny is that I don't think I ever met Julie while she attended NCC. I had to come all the way to Denver to meet her. Pretty funny.

What is it about meeting people in different places that is so cool? You know what I'm talking about? You can meet a casual friend halfway across the country and all of a sudden they are your best friend. Is it just me? If you saw them in your normal routine you would barely say hi. But when you meet halfway across the country it like you're long-lost twins who were seperated at birth. It's just fun bumping into people in different places!

I just had a eureka moment. I'm walking down the street and my brain is flying in all kinds of directions. In fact, my synapses have been firing since I've been in Denver. I've got about twenty voice memos just capturing ideas. It seems like I can't even open my eyes these days without ideas flying at light-speed. My ideas seem to be reproducing like rabbits. Some of them are just good ideas. For example, I saw some coasters today and thought to myself, "Coasters are restaurant billboards. What a great way of advertising." Maybe it's already happening, but restaurants need to sell advertising space on coasters as a stream of revenue. Maybe we'll do that at Ebenezers! I think that's a good idea. But I honestly think most of them are God ideas. It just seems like the Holy Spirit is sparking ideas right and left. And I think that is part of what it means to be Spirit-filled. The Holy Spirit is an idea machine!

Sometimes I feel like I'm cursed because I can't turn my brain off :) I'm waking up with ideas these days. So here is my revelation. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed or stressed but I finally figured out why today. I'm always trying to catch up to my ideas. I'm not sure what the solution is. I think I've got to accept the fact that I'll be playing catch up the rest of my life. I feel like my life could be epitomized by this saying: so many ideas so little time. I think I need to be surrounded my people who can run with ideas and our team is great at that. One of the things I appreciate about our team is the way they tolerate my "off the wall" ideas.

Don't get me wrong. I have as many bad ideas as everyone else! But for me it boils down to this: I want to be a good steward of God ideas.

I'm getting more buzzed about buzz by the day. I'm having a lot of conversations with pastors who are fired up about coming to DC in May. I don't want it to be "the NCC show." I'm really praying right now about speakers and sponsors. I want the Buzz conference to a network of like-minded churches that results in some supernatural synergy. I want idea sharing to be at the heart of the conference. Imagine a conference where hundreds of pastors are sharing their best ideas and best practices.

I never outgrew show-and-tell. I'm thinking it'd be cool to do a good old-fashioned show-and-tell where every church brings an idea to share. I think people are going to walk away from Buzz drowing in a sea of ideas. There is nothing like a God idea. I think Buzz will produce alot of them. By the way, I think it's going to be critical for pastors to bring staff who can implement ideas.

I had a conversation today with a church planter, Trinity Jordan, that got me buzzed today. They are one of the most creative church plants I've encountered (Elevation Church in Utah). He got me thinking. I wonder if we should add a one-day church planting add-on to the Buzz conference. Church planting is a core passion. And I think new churches new more help with branding and marketing.

Maybe we bookend the Buzz Conference with a Theater Church forum on the front end and a Church Planting forum on the back end.

I know there are people who aren't going to like what I'm about to blog. You might want to read the blog below first and then hit page up.

I think the church is in the entertainment business. Before you brand me a heretic, let me explain. The word "entertain" means "to hold someone's attention." Don't get me wrong, I'm against entertaining for entertainment sake! Church gimmicks turn my stomach! Nothing is more of a turn off than trivializing the gospel.

But the word "compel" in Luke 14:23 means "to demand attention." I'd call it extreme entertainment. If you can't entertain--hold someone's attention--you lose the opportunity to share the gospel. It reminds me of the old aphorism: if a tree falls in the forest but no one hears it, does it make a sound? Is the church making a sound if no one is listening. Sure, the choir is a captive audience. But are we really communicating the gospel in creative and authentic enough ways to demand attention? Anything less isn't good stewardship of our imaginations!

Jesus was the quintessential entertainer. Did you know people walked miles into the desolate wilderness to hear him speak? People skipped meals to listen to him. People fought crowds and climbed trees and cut holes in roofs just to be in His presence. No one could demand attention like Jesus. He was entertaining. But here's the clincher. He always shifted people's attention to God. That's the goal. When it comes down to it, aren't we trying to get people to pay attention to God? Isn't that what we're aiming for?

God help us! The gospel deserves nothing less.

No one should be more entertaining than Spirit-filled communicators. Call it holy entertainment. Call it redemptive entertainment. Call it eternal entertainment. Call it what you want. The church is called to demand attention.

Fifty years ago, five missionaries were killed by the Auca Indians they were trying to share the gospel with. Next January, their story is being made into a film that will be in 1200 theaters across the country. The trailer was shown at General Council yesterday.

I love to see Christians venturing into the entertainment industry to tell redemptive stories that people need to hear! It's a little scary because if we can't compete at that level then we lose ground. But if we can produce things that rival what Hollywood is producing then we gain ground. I'm hoping this film helps us gain ground. You can check out the trailer at www.everytribe.com.

I hung out with Bill McDonald, the missionary who spoke at NCC a few weeks ago and heads the Unsion Network in South America that our services are broadcast on, and he said something so profound that I don't think I'll ever forget it: "He who tells the story shapes the culture."

Isn't that precisely what Jesus did? Bill said that Jesus was the premeir sit-com producer of his day. He didn't have Television at his disposal, but his stories are still shaping culture 2,000 years later! He told real stories about real people that didn't really have religious overtones. It was what I'd call theological subtrefuge or subtle truth. I'm not saying there isn't a place for putting all the cards on the table, but Jesus modeled how to creatively communicate one's worldview.

I love the philosophy of the Unsion network. It's not all "overt religious programming" with a pastor preaching from a pulpit. They produce programs that are "covertly shaping values and worldview" of their audience. I know some people have a problem with that, but every Hollywood writer and director is evangelizing for their worldview when they produce things. It's impossible not to.

One way or the other, it happens by default or design. I just think Christians need to be more strategic and intentional in telling stories that will shape culture!

I've got to give props to Bonnie Martin. She is editing my manuscript, In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day. She sent a funny email I thought I'd share:

Ukranian, Urdo, Hindi, Batterson...these are the languages I edit everyday.

Pastor Mark,

I got a job for the summer as an English Editor for the National Foreign Language Center at the University of Md. I edit the English of foreign translators (of not so common languages). What a relief when I get to "In a Pit" at the end of the day. Batterson language is the most enjoyable by far and the subject matter quite refreshing when you consider other subjects like:

"American and Ukrainian diplomats took on the Ukrainian prisoners in Iraq" or
“'Russians on the snow: The fate of a man on the front of a historic snow storm' – a book by Panov, a fighter pilot" or
"Premiere of 'Giaconda' in the National Opera of Ukraine"or
"Ukrainian Scholars Have Resurrected the Way from Varangian to Greek" or
"Bollywood Stars and What do They Do"

I'm beginning to understand why authors give credits at the beginning of their books :) It's definitely a team effort.

I just finished an article for Relevant Magazine that I thought I'd post. It's sort of a ministry manifesto or philsophy of ministry. By the way, one value of writing is that it forces you to think about why you're doing what you're doing. I think this article is a good reminder of why we're doing church in a theater and why we put so much time and energy into communicating the gospel in culturally relevant ways.

A Church on the Periphery

A few years ago I was studying at a Starbucks on Capitol Hill. I usually tune out the mood music, but one line of lyrics caught my attention. I’d never heard the song before and I had no idea who the artist was. But that line of lyrics is forever etched on my cerebral cortex: There’s a church on the periphery, Lady of our Epiphany.

Maybe I had too much caffeine. Maybe it was too late at night. But that juxtaposition of words struck me:

Epiphany (n): a revelation or manifestation of God
Periphery (n): distant or irrelevant

I had a thought as I sipped my chai latte. As long as the church stays on the periphery, our culture won’t experience an epiphany. Periphery = No Epiphany.

The church can sit on the sidelines. We can play dead like a possum or bury our heads in the sand like an ostrich. We can backpedal into our comfortable Christian subculture and never venture outside the ghetto we’ve manufactured. Or we can compete. We can stop conforming and start creating culture. We can stop retreating and start redeeming culture. So which is it? Conform or create? Retreat or redeem?

I’m driven by three core convictions:

C1: The church ought to be the most creative place on the planet
C2: The greatest message deserves the greatest marketing
C3: The church belongs in the middle of the marketplace

Competitive Streak

I have a confession to make: I hate losing Candyland to my kids! To say that I have an over-developed competitive streak is like saying skunks stink or baboons have ugly butts (sorry about the mental picture). I turned everything into a competition as a kid. I turned bike rides into pop-a-wheelie contests. I turned dinner into eating and drinking contests. And I turned cross-country road trips in the station wagon into how-long-can-you-hold-your-breath contests. In high school and college, that competitive streak found expression in the classroom and on the basketball court. It was all about GPA (grade point average) and PPG (points per game).

Then I became a pastor.

My natural instinct was to compete. It was hard not to compare myself with other pastors. It was hard not to compare church statistics. But the problem with competition in the kingdom of God is that it only leads one of two places: pride or jealously. In my case, it was jealousy more than pride because I pastored all of twenty people (and that included the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit who I think attended some of our early services).

Then I had one of those “get knocked off your horse on the road to Damascus” experiences. It’s a little embarrassing that I didn’t get this right out of the gate, but sometimes it takes God a while to penetrate my denseness. One day it dawned on me that all the churches in Washington DC played different roles on the same team. We weren’t in competition with each other. Our competition was the Sunday edition of the Washington Post and all the political talk shows that consume Washingtonians. Our competition was Hollywood, CA and Madison Avenue. Our competition was MTV and CNN.

So I tried crucifying my competitive streak. But the darn thing kept resurrecting! Then I realized that God didn’t want to kill my competitive streak. He wanted to intensify it. He wanted to purify it. He wanted to sanctify my competitive streak just like He wanted to sanctify my imagination and my hormones and my medial ventral prefrontal cortex (the seat of humor in case you care).

I realized that I was involved in the quintessential competition and eternal souls were at stake. I realized that I was called to “contend for the faith” (Jude 3). I realized that we were called to go into the highways and byways to “compel them to come in” (Luke 14:23).

I know the word “marketing” is taboo in some circles, but let’s not squabble over semantics! The word “compel” means “to urge irresistibly” or “to demand attention.” Translation: we’re called to compete for our culture!

Hollywood

Does it bother anyone else that Madison Avenue does a better job advertising bad products than the church does marketing the good news? Does it bother anyone else that Hollywood does a better job portraying fiction than the church does communicating fact?

A few years ago, National Community Church was cited in an online article titled Cinema: The New Cathedral of Hollywood. The article compared churches and theaters. The author said, “What we want from church is actually precisely what we get from film.” It’s a “two-hour reprieve from the burden of self-consciousness.” Movies are “an alternate form of transcendence.” Then the author crossed a line: “Awe in the presence of a great film is something that very few people are even capable of feeling in church these days.” When I read what she wrote it riled something so deep within me that I can’t even put it into words. Unfortunately, it’s true. Fredrick Buechner said, “Hollywood consistently beats the church at its own game.” That shouldn’t be!

So what do we do?

I think we follow the example that Paul set in Acts 17. He walked into the Aeropagus and competed in the marketplace of ideas. He didn’t criticize them for worshipping idols. He didn’t boycott the Aeropagus. He offered them a better alternative!

Maybe we need to stop criticizing our culture and start creating it. Maybe we need to stop retreating from our culture and start redeeming it. Maybe we need to stop cursing the darkness and start lighting candles.

In the words of George McLeod:

The cross must be raised again at the center of the marketplace as well as on the steeple of the church. I am claiming that Jesus was not crucified in a cathedral between two candles, but on a cross between two thieves; on the town garbage heap, at a crossroads so cosmopolitan they had to write His title in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek. At the kind of place where cynics talk smut, and thieves curse, and soldiers gamble, because that is where He died and that is what he died about and that is where churchmen ought to be and what churchmen should be about.

What do the largest nightclub in Washington DC, a coffeehouse on Capitol Hill, and the movie theaters @ Union Station have in common? They make great sanctuaries! All three of those spaces are being redeemed by National Community Church (www.theaterchurch.com). We’re practicing orthodox Christianity in some unorthodox places. In fact, our vision is to meet in movie theaters @ metro stops throughout the DC area. I’m cursed. I can’t walk into a movie theater anymore without instinctually assessing it’s viability as a future church location!

I have nothing against church buildings, but the church isn’t a building. I went into church planting with the traditional mindset: meet in rented facilities until you can buy or build a building. Then I realized that we could never build a church building that would rival Union Station. God strategically positioned us right in the middle of the marketplace. We’ve got our own metro stop, bus stop, train stop and parking garage. Union Station is the most visited destination in the Nation’s capitol. Twenty-five million people pass through the Station every year. We’ve got forty food court restaurants right outside our theater. And, of course, we’ve got comfortable seats and big screens. For what it’s worth, stained glass was the way medieval churches used pictures to tell the gospel story. Movie screens are postmodern stained glass. The screen enables us to tell the story with moving pictures in multi-sensory ways.

Cultural Exegesis

One key to reaching emerging generations (NCC is 80% single and 80% twenty-somethings) is meeting them on their turf. Instead of requiring people to learn our language and our culture, we’ve tried to incarnate the gospel. That’s why we do an annual series called God @ the Billboards and God @ the Box Office. Stop and think about it. Where do the 60% of Americans who don’t go to church get their theology? Most of them get it from movies and music. Movie directors and music producers are cultural prophets. Instead of criticizing or ignoring their voices, we need to exegete our culture the way we exegete Scripture. The tribe of Issachar set the standard in I Chronicles 12:32: “they understood the times.” Exegeting Scripture isn’t enough. If it was, then the incarnation would have been an unnecessary hassle.

Too many churches are answering questions that people aren’t asking. I’m not suggesting that we dumb-down or water-down the gospel. But God isn’t just omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent. He’s also omni-relevant. He knows everything about everyone. The Holy Spirit speaks more than six billion dialects. No one is more relevant than God. I know there are some Christians who get all bent out of shape over a church meeting in a movie theater or showing movie clips or redeeming “secular” music. And I know there are churches that cross the line and go too far. But you know what gets me all bent out of shape? Irrelevance! NCC has a core value: irrelevance is irreverence. In other words, anything less than relevance is irreverence!

Let’s not conform. Let’s create.

Let’s not retreat. Let’s redeem.

If our culture is going to experience an epiphany, the church can’t stay on periphery! Let’s stop boycotting the Aeropagus! Let’s walk into the marketplace of ideas and compete for our culture!

I am such not a suit wearer :) But I was on stage at General Council so I had to put one on today. I wore a suit for ten hours today. I think that's my 2005 record.

Who invented the suit? And why? For that matter. Who invented the tie? And why? One of my all-time favorite quotes is: "How much sense does it make to begin your day by tying a loose noose around your neck?" That's what I'm talking about.

By the way, I did wear a suit every Sunday for about two years when NCC was getting off the ground. I stopped because hardly anybody else was wearing a suit and it felt sort of funny wearing a suit to the theater.

I got a few more pictures from the cow pasture. Not sure which ones I'll turn into framed pictures, but here are a few of my favorites.

I'm in Denver, Colorado right now at the Assemblies of God General Council.

It's pretty cool connecting with old friends. I can hardly go ten feet without stopping and talking to someone. I'm glad they give us name tags :) I'm much better at recognizing faces than remembering names.

Council always brings back good memories for me. My first General Council was in Indianapolis in 1989. It really set the stage for my call to ministry. It was the next week that I went on vacation to Alexandria, MN and took my prayer walk through a cow pasture.

I've corresponded with several church planters in the last couple days. Just thought I'd give a heads up that we'll have a "church plant discount" for the Buzz conference :) for churches that are less than three years-old. I still remember when our monthly income as a church plant was $2000/month and rent was $1600 of that. It made just about everything cost prohibitive including our salary :)

I want to make it possible for church planters to attend the conference "at cost." Just thought I'd share that :)

The Baltimore Sun did a story on theater churches recently and the reporter forwarded it to me. It focuses on Baltimore area churches, but NCC is cited. For the complete story you can click on http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-te.md.church24jul24,1,6536499.story?ctrack=1&cset=true.

By the way, the title is one of my favorite sayings :) A local paper did a story on NCC years ago and titled it Praise the Lord and Pass the Popcorn. Ever since it's been one of my favorite salutations when something good happens. Some people say "Hallelujah." I say, "Well praise the Lord and pass the popcorn."

Here's some quips and comments:

Praise the Lord - and pass the popcorn
Worship: Movie theaters are just the ticket as an alternative to traditional church buildings.
By Laura Cadiz
Sun Staff
Originally published July 24, 2005

...At first glance, it might seem like an odd relationship - Holy Scripture in the morning, R-rated movies in the afternoon. But some church leaders who worship in movie theaters say they were called there by God to serve a greater purpose. The Annapolis Assembly of God went so far as to leave its traditional brick church, change its name to Church at the Mall and move into Crown Theaters at Westfield Shoppingtown Annapolis two years ago."We felt that the Lord wanted us to move from where the property was and be a ministry that met where people typically go ... into the mall, and specifically into the movie theater inside the mall," says Jason Palmer, a church advisory board member. That divine directive has helped build the church membership from about 20 to around 100, Palmer says. The congregation has since sold its 1960s-era church building and plans to stay in the theater indefinitely, attracting "people who may not feel like the white-steeple church is their kind of church."

A group from the Annapolis church visited NCC a few years ago before they made the leap from a church building into a theater and I've always been inspired by their story! It's so counterintuitive and countercultural. Most people go from a rented facility into a church building. They did the exact opposite. I've met with half a dozen pastors and church planters across the country who have done the same exact thing. I think God is calling the church back into the middle of the marketplace. I'm not against church buildings. If they serve the community 24/7 I think they're a great asset. So my comments aren't prescriptive. I just love the way churches are redeeming spaces.

That philosophy is shared by other churches meeting in movie theaters."There's no pretense about it," says Terri Stone, director of outreach at Christ's Church of the Valley in Collegeville, Pa. Her church meets in seven theaters at a Regal cinema, and she says a movie theater is "not that church building, stained glass, omigosh, I have to be this super-holy church person. It's kind of a come-as-you-are atmosphere." It's also a way for churches to connect with a younger crowd. Salva's Discovery Christian Church - whose members are primarily in their 20s or 30s - offers a live band and shows clips of movies, as varied as Saved! and Spiderman 2, to illustrate spiritual overtones. "Two hundred years ago, a preacher would share a story as an illustration," Salva says. "In today's culture, movie clips are the stories of 200 years ago."

I think movie screens are postmodern stained glass. Medieval churches has stained glass to tell the story of the gospel in pictures. We have the added benefit of being able to tell the story in moving pictures! You know the old saying, "A picture is worth a thousand words." Moving pictures are worth more than that!

The theaters are also accessible. National Community Church, for example, meets in movie theaters at Metro stops throughout the Washington, D.C., area. The theater screens are viewed as "21st-century stained glass," says the Rev. Mark Batterson. The church plays on the movie theme, using the slogan, "Now meeting at a theater near you," and running trailers of upcoming sermons on its Web site, www.theaterchurch.com.

However, Carder said he worries that the entertainment environment can be a distraction. "The challenge for worship today is distinguishing it from entertainment or a spectator event," says Carder. "It is made more difficult when surrounded by the symbols and signs of the entertainment world." Carder said he understands the reality of having to rent space or finding alternative ways to attract members. But objectionable movies shown in a theater that just a few hours earlier was the setting for worship takes away from the church as a sacred place, he says." One of the reasons we have built churches is ... the space becomes symbolic," he says. "I think we're compromising that when we meet in theaters. We're compromising the space as a reality of God."

A couple observations. No matter what you do, there will always be someone sitting on the sidelines "worried about the potential downside of what you're doing" :) I'd rather be in the person on the field making mistakes than the person on the sideline pointing them out :)

I appreciate the genuine concern about the church becoming a "spectator event" or "entertainment event" but that certainly isn't unique to theaters. In fact, it's just as dangerous if you're sitting on an uncomfortable pew!

I philosophically disagree with two things Carder is "worried" about.

First, he says that meeting in a movie theater takes away from the sacredness of church. Jesus was a friend of sinners! He hung out in the wrong places with the wrong people! Did that make him any less holy? Absolutely not. It just made him more approachable. Which is the point! I think we're called to redeem things and use them for God's purposes! That certainly includes movie theaters!

Secondly, the "church" didn't have "church buildings" until the fourth century! It didn't allow them to confuse "going to church" with "being the church." In a strictly literal or exegetical sense, you can't "go to church." The church isn't a place. It's people. And it doesn't matter whether you meet in a building with a tall steeple or one with a big white screen and smells like popcorn!

Alright. Let me get off my soap box and back to work :)

Just finished a couple of thoroughly enjoyable interviews.

Warren Bird is doing an article for Leadership Journal on theater churches. It's amazing the way interviews help me clarify my thinking.

One of the things I "threw out there" is my conviction that there needs to be a thousand theater churches (there are less than a 100 currently). I told Warren that I'm "cursed." I can't walk into a movie theater without assessing it's viability as a church location! I also threw out the idea of hosting a one-day gathering the day before our Buzz Conference for theater churches to round table and share best practices. Leadership might piggy-back on the idea and so some surveying of theater churches to identity challenges/issues we could focus on. Pretty excited about the partnership possibilities.

I just hung up with a reporter from the New York Times who is doing a business section story on podcasting and religion. I told her that podcasting is the 21st century equivalent of the gutenberg revolution. Give it ten years and godcasts will become a part of the spiritual diet of most Christians. It's the digitization of discipleship. It won't replace "where two or three gather" or "forsake not the assembling together" but it'll be a great supplement. I know I sound like an iPod evangelist, but I just believe in spiritual multitasking. Why not feed your mind and your spirit while you working, working out, commuting or relaxing.

One of the things I shared with the reporter is that my blog allows NCCers to get into the head and into the heart of their pastor. I think that is increasingly important as NCC grows larger.

Looking forward to seeing the articles!

Got an anonymous post on a blog buried pretty deep in cyberspace so I thought I'd share it. I think part of the value of blogging is that writing forces you to clarify your thoughts and rationale. The anonymous comment said:

God does not exist! Its you who is running the show! It is you who makes the difference. Stop beliving in god and start beliving in yourself....this way you help yourself the most!

If I was "running the show" we'd all be in deep trouble :) Exhibit A. On vacation we drove by the gas station where I filled up and forget to take the nozzle out of my car! I pulled the hose right off and dragged it behind my car while people pointed and stared and laughed (with me not at me I'm sure). That incident epitomizes my ineptitude! I can't even run my own life, let alone the universe.

Here was my response to the comment:

Albert Einstein said there are only two ways to live your life. One is as if nothing is as miracle. The other is as if everything is. I think everything is. To say, "Stop believing in God and start believing in yourself" is sort of like saying "stop believing in your parents, start believing in yourself." If it weren't for my parents there wouldn't be me :) I just don't believe in the god of randomness. It takes too much faith :) I think it takes more faith to believe that God doens't exist than to believe that He does. If your really interested in examining the existence of God I'd recommend reading a book by Michael Guillen titled, Can a Smart Person Believe in God?

Isn't it ironic that Christians are "accused" of misplaced faith when it takes less faith to believe than it does not to believe.

Food for thought.

By the way, I really want this blog to be an open forum where concerns, questions, and criticisms can be handled respectfully on both sides :) I hope that tone comes across :)

I believe in redemption in the fullest sense of the word. The cross is the quintessential redemption that saves our souls, but it also models something. God is in the redemption business. There isn't anyone or anything that God doesn't want to redeem and use for His purposes!

Enter technology.

Thank God for Gutenberg! The printing press was cutting edge technology five hundred years ago. He redeemed technology to print Bibles. What if the church had objected, "It's never been done that way before!" Or "Scribes will lose jobs." Or "We don't trust the technology."

The church needs to redeem technology! I think most pastors ought to be blogging and podcasting. Exhibit A. One of staff met someone on Sunday who heard about NCC via our podcast. I think podcasting and blogging is a way of reaching people who are tech-savvy. Don't get me wrong. We want to reach people who don't know how to turn on a computer too! But the digital revolution is one way we can fulfill the great commission. Blogging and podcasting and two of the best ways to take our ministries outside the four walls of the church!

In the words of Napoleon Dynamite's brother, Kip, "I love technology. Not as much as you you see. But I still love technology."

By the way, I also got a call from a Washington Post reporter yesterday who read my blog about camping out in our backyard and she wants to do a story on it. How funny is that? That was one of the most unexpected and wackiest phone calls I've ever gotten :) Think about. A reporter calls your home and says, "I read your blog about camping out in your backyard with your kids and I'd like to do a story."

I never cease to be amazed at the connections made in cyberspace.