daveferguson.org

Best Blogger? Thanks!

Since Chris Marlow was kind enough to put me on his list of BEST BLOGGERS, I thought I should at least say thanks!

And while I'm saying thanks, I want to give some kudos to Shawn Wood for his kind words and acknowledgement.

Thanks!!

Mark Driscoll Endorses Multi-Site

Mark Driscoll, Lead Pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle has started blogging lately and it looks like his most recent post is an endorsement of the multi-site church.  He has some good stuff in here.  He seems to assume that all multi-site churches use video teaching.  We use it here at CCC (we have two different video teaching products - our videocast and a on-location produced "shortfilm") but many multi-site churches do not use video teaching.  But other than that - he seems to get it right...in my humble opinion.  Welcome to the multi-site revolution, Mark!

How Does CCC Create BUZZ?

I got an e-mail from Mark Batterson earlier this week asking me to contribute to an article he is writing on creating a BUZZ.  He asked me, "I basically want you to share some "buzz ideas" with readers.  Tell me about one or two ways you have created buzz internally or externally."  So, here is what I told him.  What do you think?

When I think about how we create a BUZZ at Community Christian Church my first instincts were to think about INNOVATION and being first.  We were one of the first to be a multi-site church; we were the first to offer a multi-site practicum to other churches. We created this cool way of teaching all age groups and all our locations called the BIG IDEA. Then we created a whole collaborative network around the BIG IDEA that includes churches from Denver, Detroit, New York and Boston. We are the only church I know that produces an on-location “short film” every week as a BIG IDEA teaching product.  We’re also the only church I know that has a weekly phone call from the Lead Pastor to which people can subscribe to get a summary of the BIG IDEA.  Our Yellow Box at our Napervile location was one of the first church facilities designed as a “third place”… I could go on.  I love innovation, creativity and being the first; and it definitely creates a BUZZ!  But I don’t think that creates the biggest BUZZ

Then I started thinking about TECHNOLOGY.  By using the bleeding edge technology you definitely create a BUZZ.  And we are blogging and podcasting and I have a myspace and I’m LinkedIn.  I love all that, and no doubt it creates a BUZZ.  But I don’t think that creates the biggest BUZZ.

I think the biggest BUZZ we created in the last year has been from LOVE.  I know that it sounds like a cheesy ending to a 3-point sermon, but I mean it. I think we got more word-of-mouth enthusiasm from loving people than anything else we did.  There are examples of what we are doing in neighborhood schools or new locations we are starting in Chicago but let me give you the latest example.  In the last couple years we had a family in our church start a ministry in Rwanda.  It began when they took in a Rwandan refugee and then the next year visited Rwanda.  They were so moved by the need in that country since the genocide they came back and set up a ministry called Global Family Rescue.  GFR set up a model for families to survive and start their own business for $59/month.  The cool part was that after three years these families were able to make their businesses self-sustaining.  We got behind what they were doing and people began to BUZZ.  So many people got behind it that it got the attention of Paul Rusesabagina, the real-life hotel manager from the movie Hotel Rwand.  He offered to come to our city and doing a fundraiser for free!  Feel the BUZZ!  Over the next couple weeks I got interviewed by 3 local newspapers and one Chicago paper.  It got some great support from Christian radio stations and large Chicago stations like WGN.  I got a call from our City Manager to say “thank you for your leadership in our community”.  We packed the local college auditorium with more than 1000 people from all over the area.  It felt like literally everyone in our community was talking about it! And we raised another $150,000 in sponsorships for new businesses for families in Rwanda.  And the result of the fundraiser was such a success we got more free press!  People are BUZZing!

What do you think created the biggest BUZZ around CCC in the last year or so?

How God Makes A Leader - Phase 5: Convergence

PHASE 5:  CONVERGENCE

The last phase that all leaders-in-the-making hope to experience I call convergence. This is the phase where everything from your past (good and bad), your gift-mix and the passions that God has placed within you all come together and you realize, “I’m in the right place, at the right time, doing the right work”. A leader knows they are entering this phase when there is a growing awareness that they are doing “the good work God prepared in advance for them to do.” I recently had a CCC leader remark “If ever there were a time I was 100% sure of being right where God wants me, now is it.” That sounds like a leader who is experiencing convergence.

How about you? The Bible promises us, “For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Are you allowing God to accomplish the good work He prepared for you to do? Do you believe God can use your past to set a sovereign foundation for your future? Have you had that spiritual awakening that when God birthed you He birthed you with a dream? Are you willing to take that risk to expand your influence? Are you acknowledging the affirmation from others or the results of your service? Maybe God is making a leader in you?

If you want to read the rest of How God Makes a Leader:  Phase I:  Sovereign Foundations;  Phase 2:  Spiritual Awakening; Phase 3:  The Risk; Phase 4: Affirmation

How God Makes A Leader - Phase 4: Affirmation

PHASE 4:  AFFIRMATION

If you start a group and it grows into a real community of people who do life together, find their way back to God and experience real life change - that is affirmation.  If you serve in an area and you can tell that you are making a difference – that is affirmation. Affirmation might come from the simple observation that what you are leading is growing and accomplishing the mission or it might come as a compliment from someone else.

I remember a conversation I had with Wayne Cordiero a few years ago. I went along with Dave Richa (who is a good friend and pastor of a NewThing Church in the Denver area -Jacobs Well Community Church) to a New Hope Practicum where we got to follow Wayne around for about a week. We just did whatever he did. By the end of the week I felt like I really knew him and his ministry. And I also felt like he knew me. It was a very positive experience. But at the end of the week, Wayne took me aside, placed his hand on shoulder and said, "Dave, I believe that there is a real annointing on your life as Christian leader!" Wow! For me to receive that kind of affirmation from someone who knew all about Christian leadership was big. That affirmation gave me new kind of confidence that God was making me into a leader.

If you want to read the rest of How God Makes a Leader: Phase I: Sovereign Foundations; Phase 2: Spiritual Awakening; Phase 3: The Risk

I Always Thought CCC Was A "Cool" Church!

I always thought that Community Christian Church was a "cool" church but now it has been confirmed!  Tony Morgan (a cool blogger) has CCC listed as one of his top 100 cool churches in a post, Cool Churches On My Radar.

Amazing Response to Rwanda Fundraiser!

I wanted to give you a quick follow-up on the Global Family Rescue fundraiser with Paul Rusesabagina (the real hotel manager portrayed in Hotel Rwanda).  This picture is Paul, me and Sue at a pre-event gathering.  The quick review of the event - it was awesome!! 

Here is the note I got from Ben & Melody Pahlow the founders of GFR:  Dear Master of Ceremonies, Dave, you were absolutely incredible last Saturday night. Hats off to you and Sue for giving up your Saturday night. I believe your role really helped us raise overall awareness about the genocide in Rwanda and spurred many to sponsor families. Here is the 7 day update...GFR has sponsored 69 families since last Saturday night! This is really an incredible accomplishment for GFR. It took us 18 months to get 60 sponsorships, and believe me, it is hard for Melody and I as we think of the original 220 who are left still waiting, but we have gotten within 25 families of our original 220 family goal. I am very excited about this God sized adventure, and to have you travelling to Rwanda to meet your sponsored family is going to be very exciting. Thanks from the bottom of our heart for doing the MC work! Love, Ben & Melody

I did a little math and it looks like we raised about $150,000.00 at this event.  Most of the people present were 3C and that makes me really proud!!

What's With All The Hits On My Blog?

I have a sitemeter on my blog that tells me how many hits I get everyday.  And when I looked today it had jumped through the roof.  Found out, thanks to my friend, Shawn Wood at Seacoast Community Church (who knows all things creative and techie) that I won Typepad random blog exposure on their homepage.  Look closely I'm second on the list behind Second Thoughts.

Carter Takes A Lap Around The World Wide Web!

A couple days ago we let you in on the bet that Carter lost and ended up running around the Yellow Box without his shirt on.  Don't remember?  We called it Your Tithe Dollars At Work.  Just when you think it is only an inside joke, it looks like other people think it is funny too!! So now Carter is running laps around the world wide web in a post titled, Can You Be Annoited And Have Fun?  Go Carter!!  We at CCC are all so proud!

On Writing A Book...

The closer it gets the more pumped I get!  Zondervan gave us a finish line of January 31 to get our first manuscript in for "What's The BIG IDEA?" and I have been hustling the last several weeks to make it happen.   In many ways it is harder to write than I thought, but I also think I can improve on the process and do even better next time!  I'm writing this along with Jon Ferguson and Eric Bramlett; which of course makes it a ton more fun!  I signed the contract today which was not very eventful.  Seems like it ought to be a big deal...but I just signed it and then Pat (my assistant) stuck it in the envelope and it got mailed.  So, this is how I'm celebrating...by blogging about it!  (What  party animal!?!)  We are doing something a little different and creative with all the funds we get from publishing at CCC/NewThing.  We are setting it up so that the author(s) will get 50% of the contract and the remaining 50% will be split between NewThing (church planting) and a Fun Fund that is divided between the staff at the end of the year.  Why?  Couple thoughts...

1. It looks like some of us at CCC and NewThing will get opportunities to write and publish in the future and it doesn't seem fair that a few should benefit from the hard work of us all.  I know that I will be telling the CCC story, championing the cause of the Reproducing Church and encouraging people to "help people find their way back to God".  And all this happened at CCC and is because of the tremendous staff, leadership and people of CCC.  I am not solely responsible for the faithfulness of this amazing community of people so I want us all to benefit in influence and finance.  It probably won't be much, but it still more fun for everyone to have a couple hundred dollars more at the end of the year than just one of us.

2. I love the team we have at CCC and I would like to keep this team together.  The last thing I want is to cause resentment on the part of others.  And I need to be careful about greed on my part. I think by sharing in the successes that we have all created it will allow us to continue to be a great team.

So, today is kind of a big day.  Just thought I'd let you in on it. 

Discussion with Bill Easum on Transitioning an Established Church to become a Reproducing Church

As I noted in previous posts we are doing an online coaching seminar with Easum/Bandy on the Reproducing Church.  The following is a question from Bill Easum.  I thought some might be interested in the question and response, so here you go: 

                                                      

Dave and company,
What are the three of four essentials to developing a reproducing church from scratch. Couch the answer in the context of transitioning an established church. If you've covered this, just point me to the post. Thanks for taking your time to be with us.  Bill

How do you transition an established church to become a reproducing church?  Good question and I don't think we have completely covered this in any other post.  I went to bed thinking about this last night and prayed about it some this morning so here goes.

I'm still naive enough to think that one visionary leader who is ready to trade his/her life for the mission of Jesus can make it happen.  That is the bare minimum.  And if that is true, that means there is tremendous hope!

Now if we want to increase the odds of successfully transitioning the church to become a reproducing church , then the second piece would be to have another gifted leader to go along with the visionary leader.  Community is what God designed the church of Jesus to be and you do not have that with only one visionary leader.  So, if you add a second leader then all the stuff that Ecc. 4:9-12, Matt. 18:20 talks about begins to happen.  And they can begin to apply what Paul talks about in II Timothy 2:2 (He understood how churches reproduce!)

If you want to increase the odds of a successful transition even more then you need a gifted lead artist who is able to attract and develop artists.  (I'm using artist in a broad sense) I believe the two things that Community Christian Church must do to accomplish the mission that Jesus has for us are: 1. We need to reproduce more and better leaders 2. We need to reproduce more and better artists.  We need more and better leaders to reproduce small groups that take care of and mature people in Christ.  And we need more and better artists to create celebration (worship) services that allow people to experience the presence of God.

Now if you want to increase the odds of a successful transition even more than you need to do two more things. 1 Begin removing every obstacle that slows down the missional velocity that you have begun to create.  2. Create parameters that allow the missional velocity of your church to flow in a direction that maximizes its impact.

Finally, the guiding principle for transition in an established church (I got from Lyle Schaller - one of my heroes!) is this:  change by addition is always preferred over change by subtraction.

Comments?  Thoughts?

I'm Done Being a Christian!

I no longer call myself a Christian.  I no longer try to convert people to Christianity.  I’m done with that…it has been ruined.  It’s not so much because the title is wrong, but because as a label it has now come to mean something far different than what it means to follow Jesus.  Being a “Christian” has been reduced to the expectation of nice-ness. How pathetic.  How boring.  How easy. How insignificant. And even that expectation of nice-ness doesn’t have to be fulfilled because the greater expectation is hypocrisy – the practice of professing beliefs, feelings, or virtues that one does not live out.  Who would want to be that!?!

I am a Christ Follower.  I follow Jesus.  And I follow Jesus step for step as His Spirit moves me and His community called the Church.  When Jesus steps, I follow. When Jesus speeds up – I increase my pace.  When Jesus slows down – I slow down.  The direction, the speed and the entire velocity of my life are determined by moving at the speed of Jesus Spirit.  Simple.  Clear.  Not easy!

Speaking of iPod...

Speaking of iPod...  My daughter has an iPod and I have an iPod and I would like to transfer some of the songs from her iTunes to my iTunes.  So, here are my two questions:  First, is that legal?  Second, if it is legal, how do you do it?  Thanks!!

BIG IDEA Podcast

I got an e-mail today that said, "Guys....I saw this article in an online newsletter, Podcasting For Business and I know the last thing you need is a new initiative, but when the author suggested podcasting weekly church messages, it sounded like some hip thing CCC would do. Just a thought...."  

So, I thought maybe we should actually tell the world, YES, WE ARE PODCASTING THE BIG IDEA!  Check out the link on my TypeList and it will take you right to where you can subscribe.  Or better yet, just click here: CCC BIG IDEA Podcast.  The CCC BIG IDEA podcast is the audio of the "short film" that we produce each week.  We decided to go with this instead of the audio of the videocast because it has post-production stuff like underscored music, etc.  I think it is pretty cool. 

According to the latest research, there are more than 22 million US adults who own an iPod or MP3 player. 29% of those people or 6 million adults have downloaded a podcast! I think this is a great way to hpftwbtG! If you are among that 22 million, download the BIG IDEA podcast and let me know what you think.

Your Tithe Dollars At Work!

One more lap Carter!!  Five of the staff (Carter, Brian, Brad, Justin and Nick) made a bet they could make a shot from half court...and whoever was left without making a shot had to run the halls without his shirt on!?!  Well, here you have our winner...uh, loser!  This is Carter, our Montgomery/Oswego Campus Pastor doing laps.  I'm not sure, but as Carter ran by the cafe I think I heard one of our female workers say, "I think we lost this bet!" 

And for even more fun...give me your best caption to this pic!

And what is with CCC guys and no shirts in the middle of winter?

Lies About Reproducing Small Groups

I consistently find that at the core of almost every reproducing church are reproducing small groups.  I bet 75% of the stuff that we have learned about reproducing sites and being a multi-site church we learned first through reproducing small groups.  Over at Easum/Bandy we have been doing some online coaching on the topic of The Reproducing Church and my brother Jon (who knows more about small groups than anyone on the planet) posted some false assumptions we make about reproducing groups. Here they are . . .

LIE #1: SIZE DOES MATTER - While it may matter when it comes to reproducing congregations or campuses, it doesn't when it comes to small groups. We have seen small groups with just a handful of members, reproduce. The key: leader readiness. When a leader is ready to start a new group, it's time to reproduce.

LIE #2 - REPRODUCING IS THE SAME AS DIVIDING - Nope, dividing is too closely related to splitting and churches aren't fond of either term. If you focus on leader readiness the group is not divided or split. The people in the group who want to go with the new leader will go. Others will stay. There's no dividing or splitting involved.

LIE #3 - REPRODUCING MEANS NEVER GOING DEEP - I was part of the same small group for close to five years, yet we were responsible for launching five new groups within that five years. The core of that group stayed together and experienced a deep level of relational and spiritual connectedness, while at the same time developing new leaders and releasing them to start new groups - reproduce!

LIE #4 - REPRODUCING CAN BE DELEGATED - I've talked to lots of pastors who expect their leaders to reproduce small groups, and yet they have yet to walk through the process themselves. If you want to see this happening in the groups your leaders lead, it needs to be happening in your group (whether you lead or not).

Got any others lies about reproducing?

A Good Rant by Tony Campolo

I'm always a sucker for a good rant by Tony Campolo.  How can you not get a little adrenalin rush when you hear someone say things like: 

"What should you buy for someone who has everything? Nothing! But we just came through Christmas, and you didn't have the guts to pull it off, did you?"

"Your Presbyterian denomination is dying - losing its young people - not because we've made Christianity too hard for them, but because we've made it too easy."

"Youth was made for heroism, not pleasure,...Jesus calls people to die to self"

"When did Christianity cease being dangerous?  That's when it ceased being Christianity."

If you want more, check out Todd Rhoades Monday Morning Insights.  Comments?  Critiques?  Reactions?

Did Anyone See Kobe's 81 Point Performance?

Did anyone actually see Kobe score 81 points?  That is absolutely staggering.  Marc Stein in an ESPN article, Sorry Wilt: You're No Kobe says that it is more impressive than Wilt's 100 point performance.  I hate the Lakers , I can't stand Phil Jackson and I'm not a big fan of Kobe either...but 81 points is unbelievable!!  So, if you saw it, tell me about it.  Give me some details.  And if there is a way to still see it, tell me more.   Doesn't ESPN Classic do something called Instant Classics where they show this kind of stuff?

Reproducing Church / Multi-Site Church

This is an article that I used to begin the discussion today during the online coaching seminar at Easum/Bandy on the Reproducing Church.

THE REPRODUCING CHRUCH

When I am traveling, one of the things that my eyes stay open for is a nearby Starbucks.  I know I will NEED a GOOD cup of coffee in the morning.  And when I go to any Starbucks I know I will GET a GREAT cup of coffee from some very friendly people in a relaxing, clean environment with great music filling the place.  I know this because after hundred’s of visits in dozens of cities, I have almost never been disappointed.  Starbucks has proven itself as a trusted brand.  And that is why you now can find them on what seems like every corner of any given neighborhood. 

Whether we like it or not, some similar thought patterns go into how people will or will not choose to attend church in a given community.  And sometimes finding those trusted places where the good things of God can be found are not as easy as one might think.  The mega church phenomenon proved that a great church draws from a whole region rather just one neighborhood if they become one of those kind of trusted places.  The problem is that people will only drive so far and buildings can only grow so big.

That is why the Multi-Site Church revolution and what we are seeing at Community Christian is so exciting.  We now clearly see that we are NOT limited to any particular community or region or building size.  Our influence and vision for ministry truly has limitless potential.  But for us to realize this God-given potential we must reproduce at every level:  small groups, celebration services, sites and churches.

Reproducing Small Groups

When five buddies started Community Christian in 1989, we had no idea that ten years later we would be meeting at more than one location.  What we did know was that we would emphasize the often talked about and less practiced idea of reproducing through apprentice leaders.  This is something that we built into the very first small groups that met well in advance of our first service.  We made sure that every small group knew it was expected that it would reproduce and that they way it was done was through developing an apprentice leader.

Reproducing Celebration Services

Reproducing was something we continued to invest in as we moved from one service to two in 1989 within the six months of starting Community Christian.  Although we were growing, we didn’t reproduce a second service because we ran out of seats or space.  We didn’t wait to react; we took a proactive step believing that if we had the leaders God would send the people.  And it is this very reproductive fuel that ignites the reality of 22 weekly celebration services in 2006

Reproducing Sites

The Multi Site Churc is simply an advanced and sophisticated understanding of that same idea.  The same idea that motivated us to reproduce small groups caused us to reproduce services (congregations) and when God presented the opportunity, reproduce sites.  When we started Community Christian we were just five college kids trying disciple one leader at a time; we didn’t know that in a few short years later we would have 8 locations in Chicagoland. 

Reproducing Churches

But the idea doesn’t end there for a church with a reproducing culture.  In the last three years we have planted four churches and will launch a fifth next year.  This simple idea of reproducing leaders has now evolved into a network of reproducing churches (www.newthing.org).

Benefits of a Reproducing Church

The brand Starbucks is trusted because of its faithful delivery of so many things of value to its customers.  Similarly and over time Community Christian has become a trusted place where the good things of God can be experienced.  We are so grateful for that just that.  What we are discovering is when you take a trusted brand and empower it with the idea of reproducing you have the beginnings of a movement.  Over the last few years have experienced many of the benefits of being a reproducing church:  we have increased our outreach; involved more Christ-followers; and improved the quality of what we do.

Benefit #1 – Increased Outreach

At Community Christian, we want to reach more and more people. We don’t want to increase our outreach just to get bigger.  We believe that each individual person matters to God and when you put all those people together in mass moving at the speed of Gods Spirit you have the makings of a movement.  That is what we long to see.  As we have coached hundreds of churches, we are seeing over and over again the churches that go to multiple locations dramatically increase their outreach.  When Leadership Network surveyed one thousand multi-site churches, the number one reason churches added new sites was “for evangelistic purposes”.  The second most frequent answer was “to get closer to their target group”.  Churches that go multi-site are on mission with God and see an increase in their outreach.

Benefit #2 – Involved more Christ Followers

The church that reproduced sites will also experience the benefit of getting more people involved in ministry.  We saw this benefit in a dramatic way last year when we started our sixth location.  It was our second site that sponsored the start of this new site by sending 150 of it’s very best people.  At the time those people left 54% of the people at the sponsoring location were both connected into a small group and involved in serving.  So when those key people left we were concerned about the effect it would have on the sponsoring site.  One year later we have seen the outreach increase from 800 weekly to over 1300 weekly with 74% of the people at both locations connected in a small group and involved in serving others.  Wow!

Benefit #3 – Improved Quality

One of the great things that will also happen through reproduction and Multi Site Church is that as time goes on certain efficiencies emerge and sites begin to benchmark against one another in a health way.  Every time a new location is launched you re-think how you do children’s ministry, creative arts, small groups and every key part of the ministry.  And as you re-examine each ministry, all aspects of the church get polished and refined resulting in quality improvement.  On top of that, since certain overhead and personnel items are being shared, costs are lower!  We have found that churches can get better as they as they grow bigger and broader.

Geography, demography or building size need no longer be inhibitors.  When your church history and tradition says “here” but growth opportunities say “over there”, you now can do both by employing the Multi Site Church strategy.  Instead of making either/or choices we can choose the genius of the AND!  Churches will find this new way of looking at growth and expansion motivating rather than maddening.  And the benefits are there to prove it!

Ladies & Gentleman...Mr. Eric Bramlett!

Ok, while you are making blog recommendations for me...I have one for you!  Ladies & Gentleman please welcome to the blogging world...Mr. Eric Bramlett! (insert raucous applause)  Eric is the creative genius behind the scenes and often in front of the scenes at Community Christian Church and the NewThing Network.  His blog Eric's Eddyfications already has some cool stuff that mine doesn't have (which I will now be getting asap!).  Don't delay, click there now! 

P.S.  This is just one more step toward Jon Ferguson joining the blogging world! The pressure is mounting.