daveferguson.org

Off To My Favorite City

The whole Ferguson family is off for a couple days during spring break to our very favorite city...Chicago!!

Belonging Before Believing

We baptized 362 people last year at Community. Guess how many of them I baptized? I baptized less than a dozen of the 362 them. Do you know who baptized the most people at our church last year? Small group leaders and small group participants.  The vast majority of the people who made a commitment to follow Christ asked their small group leader or someone in their small group to baptize them. Why? It was within the context and experience of community that these people came to belief. This is indicative of a spiritual shift that has been taking place over the last decade - spiritually searching people need to belong before they believe.

How To Buy Happiness

Forbes Magazine is now reporting on some serious research that shows us How To Buy Happiness.  Check it out.  The research is very clear that those people who are more generous are more happy!  Once again proving that when it comes to generosity, God wants something for you, not from you!

A Victim Treats His Mugger Right

My brother-in-law works for an NPR radio station and sent me the link to this remarkable story, A Victim Treats His Mugger Right.  The best way to enjoy this story is to go to NPR and click on "listen now" so you can hear Julio Diaz for yourself.  Or you can just read it below:

This is Julio Diaz, a 31-year-old social worker who ended his hour-long subway commute to the Bronx one stop early, just so he can eat at his favorite diner.  But one night last month, as Diaz stepped off the No. 6 train and onto a nearly empty platform, his evening took an unexpected turn.  He was walking toward the stairs when a teenage boy approached and pulled out a knife. He wants my money, so I just gave him my wallet and told him, 'Here you go,'" Diaz says.  As the teen began to walk away, Diaz told him, "Hey, wait a minute. You forgot something. If you're going to be robbing people for the rest of the night, you might as well take my coat to keep you warm."  The would-be robber looked at his would-be victim, "like what's going on here?" Diaz says. "He asked me, 'Why are you doing this?'"  Diaz replied: "If you're willing to risk your freedom for a few dollars, then I guess you must really need the money. I mean, all I wanted to do was get dinner and if you really want to join me ... hey, you're more than welcome.  "You know, I just felt maybe he really needs help," Diaz says.  Diaz says he and the teen went into the diner and sat in a booth.  "The manager comes by, the dishwashers come by, the waiters come by to say hi," Diaz says. "The kid was like, 'You know everybody here. Do you own this place?'"  "No, I just eat here a lot," Diaz says he told the teen. "He says, 'But you're even nice to the dishwasher.'"  Diaz replied, "Well, haven't you been taught you should be nice to everybody?"  "Yea, but I didn't think people actually behaved that way," the teen said.  Diaz asked him what he wanted out of life. "He just had almost a sad face," Diaz says.  The teen couldn't answer Diaz — or he didn't want to.  When the bill arrived, Diaz told the teen, "Look, I guess you're going to have to pay for this bill 'cause you have my money and I can't pay for this. So if you give me my wallet back, I'll gladly treat you."  The teen "didn't even think about it" and returned the wallet, Diaz says. "I gave him $20 ... I figure maybe it'll help him. I don't know."  Diaz says he asked for something in return — the teen's knife — "and he gave it to me."  Afterward, when Diaz told his mother what happened, she said, "You're the type of kid that if someone asked you for the time, you gave them your watch."  "I figure, you know, if you treat people right, you can only hope that they treat you right. It's as simple as it gets in this complicated world."

I'm catching up...

This picture cracked me up.  With all that is going on that is how I've been feeling at the end of the day lately.  But with a phenomenal (and hectic) Easter behind me, it feels like this week I'm catching up.  It's almost like I get a little shot of adrenalin when I see the number of tasks getting checked off and the number of e-mails shrinking.  Yep, I'm catching up and feeling good.

What If The Church Took The Night Off?

My high school age daughter Amy is a barista at Starbucks.  A few weeks ago all the Starbucks across North America closed shop for three and half hours in the evening.  Why?  To hear from Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz via video about the companies need to get back to it's original vision.  Next, the store manager talked about several strategic changes that the store would make to give the customer better and more personalized service.  And the evening ended by re-training everyone at that Starbucks store.  When my daughter got home here is what she said to me, "Dad, you would have loved it!...It's really weird, I know that I really work at a fast food chain, but they made me believe that it really matters."

So here is my question: If we were to close all the churches across North America for three and half hours and we had the chance to vision-cast and re-train every Christ Follower, what would need to be said and what would you do?

New Record Attendance - 19 Years In A Row!

It was a little over 19 years ago that we started Community by knocking on the doors of people who didn't go to church in an effort to listen to what they needed and discover how our church could best serve them.  And after last weekend, for 19 years in a row every Easter God has sent us more people than the year before. Wow!  Our attendance this past Easter saw an increase of more than 500 over last year.  A new record.  And our total attendance for the month of March is up by over 1000 over last March.  Thank you God for trusting us with all these people.  We promise to do our best to help them find their way back to you.

90 Minutes with the World's Wealthiest

Rich DeVos is one of the wealthiest men in the world and more importantly he is a follower of Jesus. I had a post last year where I told about a question and answer session with Rich.  As an Editorial Adviser for Building Church Leaders they will re-post stuff from this blog. So if you are new reader or would like to re-read it, just check out the Off The Agenda section of Building Church Leaders Blog.  There is lots of other great stuff there too!

What Are Life's Toughest Questions?

If you could ask God one question and know that He would answer, what would it be?  Got it?  Then send us your question by clicking on Life's Toughest Question. We are designing a whole series that will consist of your questions for God.

I bet every person reading this blog has had the experience at some time of going to church and thinking to yourself, "this just doesn't apply to me."  Well, here is your chance to actually pick the BIG IDEA for our upcoming series Life's Toughest Questions. 

Better Brag While I Can...

Well, after the first two days of March Madness, I'm first in every pool I entered! I picked 26 correct out of the first 32 games and that puts me in the 98.7 percentile nation wide.  I'm first in the CCC staff pool (did the Bramletts really pick Arizona again?); first in the church planting bloggers pool (still no Scott Hodge...did you notice that both Ferguson's are in first!); first in my small group pool (Doug, that's what you get for calling me "Singing Dave") and first at home (Yes, I'm ahead of my daughter Amy this year!). I've been here before, so I know I better brag while I can!

For those of you that are numbers people

For those of you that are numbers people...  I was checking the attendance for the month of March at Community in 2008 versus 2007 and found some very encouraging news!  We are averaging 843 more people this year than we did last year...and we still have Easter to look forward to this weekend!  We will definitely be up by more than 1000 in overall attendance in 2008.

And for those of you who are not numbers people - just remember that everyone of those numbers is a friend, a neighbor, a co-worker or family member who is finding their way back to God!

Church Planting & Basketball!

Like peanut butter & jelly OR Pippen & Jordan…it’s the perfect combo:  basketball & church planting!  My two favorites!!  The genius team that I’m proud to be a part of at the Exponential Conference has put together the ultimate fun in March Madness.  There are over 100 church planting leaders already participating and lots of bloggers (but still no Scott Hodge…c’mon Scott, do you know anything other than java…let’s see if you can pick a final four!?!) that are all trying their skill at bracketology.

And if want to get in on the action…it’s open to everyone….just SIGN UP HERE.  You can also keep up with all of the trash talking and results by going over to the Planting Space blog.

Whose Your Final Four?

OK, I need some help this year.  I'm tired of my daughter (who bases her picks on the team with the best mascot or warmest location) ending up with better NCAA picks then me.  So, leave me a comment an let me know who are your final four? 

What A Woman Needs...

This weekend we finished up our series Crazy Little Thing Called Love and The Big Idea was Crazy Love.  We have spent the last three weeks in Ephesians 5 talking first about the Crazy Cycle; then what a man needs - Crazy Respect and finally today what a woman needs - Crazy Love.  It has been a phenomenal series with a great response.  So far we are averaging about 900 more people this year during the month of March than last year!  Good stuff!!

But the real highlight for me was that this weekend I got to teach with my wife Sue.  She did a phenomenal job and heard from a lot of people, "you finally got the right Ferguson up there!"  We sold out of CD's not only for this weekend, but also the whole series.  I have also had requests for the manuscript of the talk that Sue and I did so if you would like to download it, click HERE.

Tim Keller... on being brilliant!

I've been fortunate enough to get to meet and even know a lot of the people that I really admire who are in the ministry.  But one of the people I have never met and really admire is Tim Keller. I admire the church that he leads - Redeemer; I admire his commitment to church planting and I admire how smart he is!  (And I plan on connecting with him at the Exponential Conference - don't miss it!)  I had a chance to meet him last week for dinner, but it was last minute and I already had stuff planned.  Ugh!  However, here is an interview with Tim in First Things where he talks about his new book (The Reason For God, which I just ordered and it is currently #18 on the New York Times bestseller list), C.S. Lewis, "seeker churches" and being a Presbyterian.  Check it out.

Are You Using The BIG IDEA?

I consistently get e-mails asking questions about how to implement The BIG IDEA. And this week I got an e-mail from my friend Randy Frazee who recently left Willow Creek to go to Oak Hills Church.  Randy told me that he and Max Lucado (yes, I'm name dropping!) are considering the implementation The BIG IDEA at Oak Hills Church in San Antonio, Texas.  He wanted me to point him to a couple places where he could get more information about The BIG IDEA that he could pass along to their leadership.

If you are thinking about implementing The BIG IDEA here a few things that might help you better understand The BIG IDEA.  I wrote an article titled, What's The Big Idea that is featured in the current issue of Willow News. This was to go along with the interview that Jon, Eric and I did for Defining Moments on the topic of The BIG IDEA.  Both of those are great resources for better understanding The BIG IDEA. And here are a couple of interviews with me on Preaching The Big Idea and another article titled The Power of the BIG IDEA.  Those would be good to check out too!

I'M CURIOUS - HOW MANY OF YOU ARE USING THE BIG IDEA?  LEAVE ME A COMMENT AND LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING AND HOW IT IS WORKING.

And in more news about The BIG IDEA...earlier this week Jon Ferguson and Tammy Melchien met with publishers from the Willow Creek Association about a partnership to publish our BIG IDEA creative content.  This would include our BIG IDEA content for kids, students and adults.  Don't know what will happen...but could be very cool!

And if you haven't got your copy of The BIG IDEA...get one now, by clicking HERE!

 

Congrats Amy!

Congrats to my daughter Amy on getting a Leadership Scholarship!! She got a call from Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, Michigan yesterday telling her that of 200 applicants she was 1 of 6 that they choose to give the Leadership Scholarship.  She already was awarded an Academic Scholarship so good job, Amy!!

The XL Church Leader

Group Publishing just came out with a bi-monthly newsletter The XL Church Leader Newsletter specifically to addresses issues of extra large churches.  I just got my copy and it has a terrific cover article titled Multi-Sightings:  Is My Church Ready To Go Multi-Site?  if you want to download a free sample copy, click HERE.

Google's Innovative Edge

While thinking about innovation I ran across an article by Marissa Mayer, Google's Vice-President of Search Products and User Experiences who shares some rules that give one of the most innovative companies anywhere it's edge in a Fast Company post, 9 Principles of Innovation. 

1. INNOVATION, NOT INSTANT PERFECTION.
2. IDEAS COME FROM EVERYWHERE.
3. A LICENSE TO PURSUE YOUR DREAMS.
4. MORPH PROJECTS DON'T KILL THEM.
5. SHARE AS MUCH INFORMATION AS YOU CAN.
6. USERS, USERS, USERS.
7. DATA IS APOLITICAL.
8. CREATIVITY LOVES CONSTRAINTS.
9. YOU'RE BRILLIANT? WE'RE HIRING.

Why Existing Churches Need New Churches

I have been thinking again about innovation.  Ed Bahler was challenging me with the idea from the Innovators Dilemma (which I have just ordered).  The basic concept is that even the most innovative and best-managed companies (or churches), in spite of their attention to customers and continual investment in new technology, are susceptible to failure because these companies (or churches) tend to continue to do business the way they always have done business.

It seems to me that the only way to break out of that innovators dilemma is to continually surround yourself with innovators and people who are inventing the new tomorrow.  And the best way to do that in the church world is to become a reproducing church.  Start new sites with young emerging leaders and listen to their new ideas.  Start new churches and get close enough to them that you can learn from them and break out of your old paradigms.  Begin a church planting network and find yourself immersed in a conversation of new and innovative thinking about reaching people far from God.  I think we need to be reproducing churches not only so that we can start new sites, churches and networks to help people find their way back to God; we also need to be reproducing churches so that our existing churches remain relevant to an ever-changing world!  Agree?  Disagree?