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Innovate 07: Scott Hodge - Innovation In Leading Change

One of the highlights for me is getting to hear Scott Hodge teach us at Innovate 07.  Scott is a friend of mine (we hang out at the same Starbucks), my blogging mentor and a very gifted leader who has done amazing things at the Orchard Church. The Orchard is an 80 year old church that came close to extinction.  I remember several conversations with Scott where we got together and he wasn't sure that the Orchard was going to survive.  Behind Scott's leadership and through the grace of God the Orchard is now a dynamic, growing missional community that is impacting the world around it.  I'm super proud of Scott. Scott told his story about coming to the Orchard to help his Dad bring about change; how his Dad passed away and how he continued to lead the church.  Scott told us his story and here are some of his thoughts on Leading Change:

• Move forward with an attitude of "I have nothing to lose".
• If you are ready for change ask yourself these questions:
  • "Why are we doing what we are doing?"
  • "What is not working?"
  • "What should we stop doing?"
• Sometimes you know what you don't want to be before you realize what you want to be!
• Change will mean losing people from your church.
• Change will bring criticism.
• Tenacity and belief in the mission will get you through it. (Scott told us about his Dad who was the Senior Pastor telling him, "Scott, I'm willing to die for this cause!")
• There will come a day when you will see all the people that were once far from God finding their way back...and it will be worth it.  On one Sunday they baptized over 100 people.  They are now out of space and adding a third service.  It has all been worth it!
• YOU CAN DO IT!

As Scott reflected on his story he said there were two things that were absolutely essential to make the change happen:

1. We had to listen to God's voice.  There would be one voice above all the others that we would listen to.
2. We had to courageously obey. Once we heard God we committed ourselves to do whatever it takes to accomplish the mission.
   • "New wine must be poured into new wine skins."  Why do we hold onto the old wine skins?  Because they don't cost us anything!  New wine skins are expensive!  It is costly to get something new!

Innovate 07: Mark Waltz - 5 Ways To Drive Guests Away

I am realizing that over the last couple years that I have spoke at so many conferences and stuff that I have not gone to very many events just to take it in and learn myself.  Wow...I missed that. So being here at Granger is good for me and I think will be good for CCC.  One of the people who has impacted CCC before I ever got here is Mark Waltz and his practical guidance about guest services.  The following notes are from Mark's workshop telling us how NOT to do it.  Here are 5 Ways To Drive Guests Away:

#1 Make guest services one more church program.

• Cultivate guest services into the DNA of your church.

#2 Make it all about your church members.

• Make it all about newcomers.
• Check out the services offered by Guest Reflections on their website.
• Put 4-5 things in your weekly program/bulletin and make sure they are target toward newcomers.  At the very least make sure you have more stuff in your program/bulletin that is for guests than for members.

#3 Make sure that everyone follows the rules.

• Remember the golden rule
• RED rules are rules that everyone must follow.  It is a matter of life and death.  There is only one RED rule at Granger - you must have a tag to pick up your child. 
• BLUE rules are rules that are encouraged, but take into consideration the golden rule.

#4 Take any willing person onto your team

• There is a unique wiring that some people have that will create the kind of first impression that you want for your church.  Conversely there are some people who want to be on the first impression teams because it is how they get their needs met instead of meeting the needs of newcomers.

#5 Assume your team members "get it".

• Repeat the vision constantly.

Innovate 07: Rob Wenger - Making the Message Sticky

We are starting day number 2 at Innovate 07.  Had a great time with a great group of people yesterday.  I skipped the film festival to watch the opening episode of The Office.  Funny, funny and funny!  But now I am back at Granger and we are starting the day with Rob Wegner. This is the first time that I have heard Rob speak and he is a passionate world-class communicator.  Great stuff.  They are continually referring to how they are looking to communicate one Big Idea. I'm stunned at how much we have in common.  Eric and I were joking that if anyone wants a big conference on the Big Idea we should send them to Granger.  They totally get it and they do a great job explaining it! 

In this opening session Rob is talking about how to make the message sticky.  Here are four questions that we need to ask to make sure the message sticks:

• Is it simple?
  • Simple means finding the core.    In Made To Stick they talk about the "canceling" effect of having too many messages.  In The Big Idea (thanks Rob!) they challenge you to actually count how many "little ideas" a family of four will be given in a single trip to church on Sunday. Try it and you will discover that one family will receive dozens and maybe hundreds of ideas about what it means to be a Christ-follower.
  • Simple is about choosing. We need to become masters of exclusion.
  • Simple means finding the irreducible minimum.
  • Simple means determining the core of what you will teach.  All scripture is equally inspired, but not all scripture is equally important.

• Is it unexpected?
  • Unexpected means being unexpected in a way that drives the point home.
  • Unexpected means creating a curiosity gap.

• Is it concrete?
  • People want to know if we can help them with real concrete stuff:  Can you help me with me marriage?  Can you help me with this pain?  Can you help me be a better parent? 
  • Deep is functionality.

• Is it story driven?
  • Story driven means shifting from illustration to animation.
  • The story creates the emotional moment for people to get the Big Idea.
  • "Stories are flight simulators for the brain" - Made To Stick
  • Story-driven means layering stories to make one big idea.

• Am I Spirit-dependent?

3 Prerequisites for Creating a Culture of Innovation

Had a great day at Innovate 07 today.  I'm really  impressed with the team from Granger Community Church. Tim, Mark, Rob, Kem (nice meeting you face to face!) and more.  Great group!

And much of the credit for this team has to go to  Mark Beeson, the Senior Pastor of Granger Community Church.  At lunch today I got the chance to talk with Mark.  And since I had a chance to ask him a question or two I decided to ask him about creating a culture that fosters innovation.  I'm not sure how much of the following he said OR maybe he just made me think of this.  Either way he is to be credited.  But here are 3 Prerequisites for Creating a Culture of Innovation

1. Dream A Bigger Dream. 
Innovation is best fostered within a church culture that dreams big and encourages others to dream big.  For your church to be innovative it often starts with a big dream.  Not a dream that has figured out all the details; but a dream that is big enough to allow for lots of people to do big things!  The dream needs to be large enough that it can contain others dreams.  For most churches this means dreaming an even bigger dream!

2. Show-up Trusting People.
Most people show up skeptical and wondering about motives.  The environment of an innovative church has a (almost naive) trust in the potential and motive of the people who make up the church.  The leadership reflex of an innovative church is "you can do it."  Trust is essential for risk-taking and risk-taking is essential for empowerment and empowerment is necessary for innovation to occur. If you want to create a culture that encourage innovation this means replacing doubt with confidence and skepticism with trust. 

3. Lead with a "Yes". 
God has put within every person the potential for great good.  Innovation occurs when people discover what God has for them to do and they receive a "yes" to do it.  Leaders have a choice to make when people bring them their new and creative ways to accomplish the dream.  We can either dismiss it or we can bless it.  Innovation best occurs in a culture where the leadership has a "yes" bias.

Innovate 07: Tim Stevens - Weekend Series Directors Commentary

Tim Stevens did a great job on his session at Innovate 07.  He gave his commentary on what is important about the weekend. He gave some nice props to The Big Idea (thanks Tim!).  He started his talk by telling us that all the notes are available on his blog so if you want to get everything that Tim said, click HERE.

Innovate 07: Guy Kawasaki - The Art of Innovation

I just arrived at Granger Community Church for their Innovate 2007 Conference.  This is the very first time I have been to Granger.  For someone who is a church-junky like me it is almost unforgivable.  Why?  When  you think about a church that has been as creative, innovative and impact-making as Granger and is only a couple hours away should have been here before now!

Anyway, I got here right after the opening session started and Guy Kawasaki had just taken the stage.  I'm really interested in hearing what this innovation guru has to say.  I follow his blog regularly, and it has consistently great stuff . His opening session is about the Art of Innovation and he gave us the following 11 Things to Remember about the Art of Innovation. 

1. Make Meaning.
   • One of the intrinsic needs of all people is to discover meaning (just like we are talking about in our Soul Cravings series). 
2. Make Mantra.  A mission statement often too long and cumbersome.  A mantra is shorter and memorable.  Here are some examples:
   • Wendy's - "Healthy fast food"
   • Nike - "Authentic Athletic performance"
   • eBay - "Democratize commerce
3. Jump to the next curve. 
   
   • Innovators don't try to catch the curve that somebody else is on.  Innovation jumps to the next curve and creates the curve and leads the way up the curve.
4. Roll the Dicee
   • Deep - Create products that have multiple layers of depth.  A great example is a sandal made by Reef that also has a bottle opener.
   • Intelligent - Panasonic makes a flash light that takes three different sizes of batteries.  You always have a battery on hand that will fit.
   • Complete -
   • Elegant - The iPod was not the first mp3 player, but it has a distinctive elegance about it.
   • Emotive - Harley Davidson makes a motorcycle that evokes emotion and passion.
5. Don't worry, be crappy.
   • Create something incredibly innovative with elements of "crappy" in it.  You can tweak it later.
6. Polarize people.
   • Don't be afraid of upsetting some people.  The worst thing is not upsetting people; the worst is when people are indifferent and don't care!
7. Let 100 flowers blossom.
   • Often times the "wrong" people will buy our product or consume our services or show up at our church...don't fix it!!  That is a good thing!!  Kawasaki's recommendation to for profits is: "Take the money".  His recommendation to churches:  "Welcome them".
8. Churn, baby, churn.
   • Continue to crank out new products and new ideas.  Sweat!
9. Niche thyself.
   • Some of us think that marketing is a bad word.  I think marketing is an art.  Find a niche that nobody else has and create a business or church that is unique.  And make sure that unique-ness is valuable to others.
10. Follow the 10/20/30 rule.
    • 10 slides(points) is the max number of points that people can remember.
    • 20 minutes is the max time we should talk.  Use the rest for Q & A.
    • 30 size point font is the smallest.  People can't read smaller.
    • Also:  use dark background, sans serif font and fill or left justify.
11. Don't let the bozos grind you down.
    • There will always be the bozo's who will say that it can't be done or will never work.  Don't let the bozo's grind you down!

If you want even more on this topic by Guy Kawasaki check out his post The Art of Innovation.

Big Idea Road Trips: Granger & Willow!

Eric Bramlett and I hit the road early this morning around 5 am heading to the Innovate 2007 Conference at Granger Community Church.  We are doing a session on The Big Idea.

Meanwhile, Jon Ferguson and Eric Metcalf are headed to the Group Life Conference at Willow Creek and will doing a session on Reproducing Small Groups Using The Big Idea. 

So, if you are at Granger today...come and see Eric and myself!  If you are up at Willow...stop in and see Jon and Metcalf. The Big Idea is multi-site today!

"We Sold Our House And Are Moving To KC!"

As I was leaving Starbucks last week in walked Patrick.  After a real and genuine search of all things spiritual Pat became a Christ Follower a little less than three years ago.  Pat told me his amazing story of finding his way back to God; how grateful he was to Community Christian Church and in the process reminded me of exactly why we do what we do.  (I never get tired of hearing those stories.)  But before Pat could remind me of his journey, he kind of exploded with, "we sold our house and we are moving to Kansas City to help start the new church!"  Pat and his wife Nancy believe God is asking them to quit their well-paying jobs, sell their house and relocate their family to Kansas City where Pat will be an Apprentice Campus Pastor.  As I talked to Pat you could feel the faith that was surrounding him.  This is was a perhaps the most pivotal day in his spiritual journey; the day he decided to risk all  the things that most of us value on Jesus and the Kingdom of God.  In many ways this decision I'm sure was much harder than the day he said "yes" to Jesus or the day he was baptized. 

I am sooo proud of Patrick and Nancy.  Because of their faith and courage others will have the faith and courage to do the same.  I've seen it happen many times before and we will see it happen many times again.  I love that I get to be a part of a church that is "helping people find their way back to God.  I love that I get to be a part of a network where people sell everything they have for the cause and mission of Jesus.  I still believe that we can accomplish the Jesus mission!

www.newchurches.com

Still Buzzing About Last Weekend...

I'm still buzzing from last weekend. The pic above is of people who came into the new addition of the Yellow Box after the ribbon cutting.   If you want to get more from the CCC-Yellow Box then checkout these two links:  Tammy at Multi-site Kids has a ton of pics from last weekends Fun Fest and more!  Bill at Multi-Site Arts has a bunch of pics and videos from the new Icon service that we started.  Good stuff!

And all the good stuff wasn't just at CCC-Yellow Box.  If you are into numbers - all of our sites saw a huge bump in the number of people celebrating with us.  After CCC-Yellow Box, it was CCC-Pilsen with the highest percentage increase of 35% over the previous three weekends.  CCC-Yorkville was just behind with a 34% increase and CCC-Shorewood and CCC-Montgomery each jumped by 28%! CCC-Carillon saw an increase of 18% and CCC-Naperville DownTown also had a 10% increase despite all the hype at the Yellow Box!  (Good job DownTown!) The biggest numerical bounces were at CCC-Yellow Box with an increase of 732 people and then CCC-Romeoville with 218!  We had 1348 people at CCC this past week than we averaged the three weeks before that!  Admittedly, I'm a numbers guy.  And let me remind all you non-numbers people that each of these numbers represents someone's family member, friend, neighbor or co-worker "finding their way back to God."

I also found out that one of the people that I gave a Crave Kit came to CCC for the very first time last weekend. Yes!!  And they loved it and plan to be back! 

As you can see...still buzzing! 

Check Out A New Site: Building Church Leaders

The largest Christian web presence in the world is Christianity Today (I think?) and they have recently overhauled what they are doing with Building Church Leaders site.  This new and improved site now has an Ask The Experts section.  The team at CT was nice enough to ask me to join this panel of "experts" that includes Wayne Cordeiro, Mark Driscoll, Leith Anderson and more. 

They asked me to do the initial Q & A for the Ask The Expert.  The first question was, "How do you motivate your congregation to bring friends and family each week?"  Interested?  Click HERE.

Interview with NewThing Church Planter Troy McMahon

Troy joined the Community Christian Church team more than a decade ago and was a successful leader in every capacity.  This past year Troy, Janet and more than 20 people from CCC relocated to Kansas City to start a new church that will plant a NewThing Network church in the spring of 2008. 

Brad Dupray of the Christian Standard interviewed Troy in thier most recent issue. If you would like to read that article, click HERE. 

If you want to learn more about the new church they are starting, click HERE.

If you want to get the latest from Troy, you can follow his blog by clicking HERE.

Tim Bakker's $50,000 Putt!!

This may look like a leisurely putt by Naperville Campus Pastor Tim Bakker on his day off.  Right?  But NO! 

This is a 100 foot contest putt at the Institute for Community Golf Outing.  And guess what happens? 

Bakker sinks the putt and wins the $50,000!!!  The picture below is Tim's impression of Sergio Garcia winning the Master's!

I decided I was too busy and there was no way I could go to the IFC Golf Outing today.  Yes, I'm having second thoughts. 

A few minutes after this happened I got a call and Tim yells, "You will never believe what just happened!"  He was right!   Congrats to Tim Bakker!!!  Not a bad weekend for Bakker:  his campus opens up a new facility, starts two new services, opens up a theater company, sets a new record attendance...and then wins $50,000!!

1200+ More People This Week Than Last Week!

"Lots of people!!"  That is the best way to describe last week at Community Christian Church!  Or maybe a better way to describe last week is "lots of new people!"  We had 1200 more people this week than last week at CCC! Love it!

Twice a year all of us at Community Christian Church do something we call IGNITE.  This is a season where we all focus our efforts, energy and prayers to help people find their way back to God. I will get you more details, but I just wanted to say, "What a God-thing!" and "Great job Community Christian Church!"

"I haven't been to church since I was 6"

I'm back at my desk after one of the biggest weekends in the life of Community Christian Church. Wow...what an amazing  weekend.   I'm feeling exhausted, but grateful.  It was like one great moment after another:

• We had a great time at the grand opening  festivities to celebrate our new addition at CCC-Yellow Box.
• We started two new services called Icon at our new venue at CCC-Yellow Box (more on that later).
• We opened up our new theater company, Epic Theater Company with the play Our Town (more on that later too!).
• We had a new record attendance!

But my favorite moment was when Joe, a 29 year old first time attender came up to me and said, "I haven't been to church since I was six".  He went on, "It was like this place has been calling me."  I introduced myself and told him that we started Community Christian Church exactly for people like him.  He explained to me, "I didn't expect that I would get it...I thought there would be a bunch of stuff I didn't understand...but I think I get it."  I told him that the best place to get it is in a small group and when he is ready we could talk about that.  Joe said, "I'm ready...tell me about these groups."  And I did.

I love our new facility at CCC-Yellow Box.  I love that we set a record attendance.  I love that we are starting a new theater company.  But what I love most - helping people like Joe find their way back to God!

The Big Idea or 크다 대담한 생각

We just got some excited news: The Big Idea is going to be published in Korean!  Kind a cool, huh?  I'm going to be speaking in November at a leadership conference in Seoul, Korea at the Onnuri Community Church on the Big Idea. 

I really wanted to have the book available in Korean for the conference but when we inquired we found out that Zondervan had sold the rights in Korean to another publisher.  After a long story (that you would not find interesting) I got an e-mail saying that the book will be published in Korean by November in time for the conference.

The Big Idea in Korean looks like this:  크다 대담한 생각.  I think?

Catalyst Church Planting Lab

If you haven't already registered for the Catalyst Conference on October 4th-5th you should have.  And if you haven't already registered for Catalyst, here is one more reason to do it!  Catalyst is hosting it's first ever pre-conference Church Planting Lab. I will be leading this with a couple guys who really get church planting:  Darrin Patrick and Ed Stetzer! If I wasn't speaking I would want to go to hear those guys.

So, stop everything right now and join me at the Catalyst Conference!

Giving Away Crave Cups at the Train Station

Love these guys!  This is just a part of the team that showed up bright and early at the downtown Naperville train station.  They were giving  away coffee in our Crave Cups which included an invite to this weekends brand new series Soul Cravings.  They gave away hundreds of cups of coffee to hundreds of commuters who were thrilled to see them and get some free coffee to go! 

Here were some of the comments that we heard at the train station while giving away the Crave Cups: 

• "The one day I forget my coffee and Community Christian Church is here...perfect!"
• "You guys made my morning."
• "It's good to see a church doing something out in the community."
• "Oh, I've got a bunch of stuff in the mail from you guys lately."
• "I go to AA meetings there every week, but I have not been to a service.  I'll have to check it out."

This is day number 7 of our 10 days of prayer.  Keep asking God to do something amazing through His power at CCC next weekend!

Where Were You Today?

Where were you 6 years ago today?

When I woke up this morning I was reminded of exactly where I was and what I was doing 6 years ago today.  Dave Travis over at Leadership Network Learnings blogs about it since we were at the exact same place at the exact same time.  You can read about that HERE.

"Where were you?"  It's the inevitable question.  But it is also seems inevitable that we start to do what we said we would not do - forget.  My daughter told me that last Friday at school the teacher said, "now everyone knows what Tuesday is, right?"  And one of the students said, "9-11".  And then the teacher said, "no, we have a test next Tuesday."

Is it good that we are not so aware that it is 9-11 as we were last year or the year before or 5 years ago?  Where is the intersection of remembering, forgiving and forgetting?  I know we need to remember so that we don't repeat the mistakes of the past.  But do we need to also forget so that we can forgive those same mistakes.  Don't know.  Just thoughts.  And lots of questions.

Red Paseo - R.I.P.

It looks like my 1994 Red Toyota Paseo is about to pass away. It's been a good car and I have had it for the last six years.  However, it needs about $3500 worth of work, so it is time to say "good-bye". I have always driven a crappy car and never have had a new car.  I think that has been part of the price tag of starting a new church and more than a decade of capital stewardship campaigns.  Actually, I think it's good stewardship and driving a crappy car is good for my soul.  So, tomorrow I start the search for a "new" used car.  I mostly use it to drive around town and for work.  Since I hate the idea of having car payments I'm looking at cars up to 10 years old and less than $7,000.  Any tips or leads?

10 Days of Prayer

Over the last several weeks we have done our very best to get the word out about our upcoming series Soul Cravings.  We have a blog where our new friend Joe Craveman is posting about his search to find soul satisfaction.  Joe has a posted several videos so that people can hear from him.  Joe got some new friends to tell their real stories of how they found their way back to God; they are amazing!  We have sent out e-invites.  We are selling out of Crave Kits for people to give to their friends.  We have sent out 250,000 pieces of direct mail to let people know about the new venue we are opening at our Naperville Yellow-Box location.  But none of that is as important as what we are starting today!  Starting today and for the next 10 days all of Community Christian Church is entering into 10 days of prayer for our communities.  If you are a CCC attender you will be receiving one e-mail a day from your Campus Pastor starting today telling you how to join us in prayer asking God to use us to help hundreds and thousands of people find their way back to Him.  During these 10 days, we are waiting on the Holy Spirit and praying just like the first believers did for those days between the ascension and Pentecost.  We are submitting and surrendering this whole work to God's Spirit.  We want Him to do what He wants to do.  This is the real work of reaching our communities.  Prayer.  Start now.