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"Thanks, I'm one of the 67%"

Last week at Community we gave our entire offering away to other parts of the Jesus mission around the world.  It was amazing!  The money is still coming in and it looks like the grand total is going to be almost a quarter of a million dollars from one weekend!! I'm so proud of Community.

Our motivation as always is to help people find their way back to God.  And the people we wanted to reach were the 67 and the 20. 

• The 67 represents the 67% of the world that does not know Jesus.
• The 20 represents the 20% of the world that lives on less than a dollar a day. 

The coolest moment came in a note that someone dropped into the offering bag.  The note simply said: "Thanks.  I'm one of the 67%!"

It's all about helping people find their way back to God.

Great "Behind The Scenes Video" From Exponential

I had a great time at Exponential.  And some of the most fun I had was some of the behind the scenes stuff:  meeting Andy Stanley for the first time; getting to spend an hour or so with Tim Keller at his hotel asking questions or just watching Rick Warren work the room at our NewThing Pizza dinner.  Good stuff! 

But as much fun as I had, no one had more fun at Exponential than Todd Rhoades, Chris Elrod and my blogging hero, Scott Hodge.  They got to interview some amazing people and totally cut up.  In the process they also got some great video of some terrific Exponential leaders:

• Alan Hirsch
• Dave Ferguson (me!)
• Greg Surratt
• John Burke & Vince Antonucci
• Ed Stetzer
• Rick Warren

Each one of these is really worth checking out.

Alan Hirsch at Exponential Conference

One of the highlights of the Exponential Conference was getting to do this session with Alan Hirsch on Organizing for Reproduction. I believe that Alan is a prophet for our generation.  His current book Forgotten Ways has really encouraged us at Community to experiment with new forms of church, like our 3C Communities.  I think every church should be experimenting so that they can better determine where God wants them to go next.  Alan is going to be hanging out with all the NewThing Lead Pastors at our next Gathering in a few weeks.  That will be a blast!  If you would like to hear a podcast interview I did with Alan before the Exponential Conference, click HERE. 

Andy Stanley or Jon Ferguson??

Got a moment to hangout with Andy Stanley, the Lead Pastor of NorthPoint Community Church at Exponential 08.  Andy did the opening main session on Apostolic Vision.  It was the best talk I've heard on how to communicate a clear vision.  If you want the notes check out Vince's site.

Now is it me or do you think Andy looks like my brother Jon?  One time we were at a Willow Conference where Andy was speaking and while Jon and I were in the bathroom someone came up to Jon and told him he did a great job on his talk.  The guy was referring to the talk that Andy had just given.  Andy Stanley and Jon Ferguson - twins separated at birth?  Wow, imagine how awesome Community would be if I had another brother and it turned out to be Andy Stanley?!?

Hundreds & Hundreds Commit to Church Planting

This was the closing moment at Exponential 08.  It was awesome as hundreds and hundreds of leaders came forward committing to start new churches/sites or committing the new church they are starting to God. 

In this pic Rick Warren (seated on the stage) is praying for all these new church planters and reproducing church leaders asking God's blessing on their efforts.  What you see here has the potential to be a catalyst for a movement of reproducing churches!

We Just Gave Away $229,000!

Last Saturday and Sunday was our Celebration Generosity and one of the most amazing weekends ever in the life of Community!  We gave away our entire weekend offering!!  Yep, we gave away nearly a quarter of a million dollars.  The grand total was just over $229,000!

Last winter we felt like God was calling us to be an even more generous church than ever before.  As we prayed about this it became clear that we were to take one whole weekend and give away our entire offering to some other part of the Jesus mission both locally and around the world.  I am so proud of the people of Community for not only getting behind this, but giving so generously.  Our weekly budget for the Jesus mission is $95,000 and you gave way more than double.  Wow!  Thanks.  Let's continue to become a more and more generous church who follows an extraordinarily generous God!

What I've been doing while not blogging...

I have been going literally non-stop for the last four days!  Mostly I have been in Orlando for the Exponential Conference where I've done some speaking and serving as conference President.  I've been going so hard I didn't have enough time to stop and celebrate some absolutely amazing stuff going on at Community and some amazing stuff going on here in Orlando!  So, I am going to play a little catch up in the next several hours.  Check back -- great stuff coming your way!!

Did You Feel It?

Did you feel it last night?

I woke up in the middle of the night  last night (which I never do) and could hear the little television in our bedroom shaking.  Sue whispers to me, "is it raining?"  It turns out we had a 5.4 earthquake centered down in West Salem, Illinois and felt throughout the Midwest.  Just heard it was the perhaps the strongest earthquake ever centered in the Midwest

So,did you feel it?

Developing more and better Artists

There are two things we must continue to do well to reproduce more sites, churches and networks. The first is to develop more and better leaders who are followers of Christ.  And the second is to develop more and better artists who are followers of Christ.

Much of our leader and artist development occurs through informal and relational processes.  But we also have put a great deal of effort into the formal development of leaders and artists.  One of the primary ways that we develop artists is through our School for the Arts. Our School for the Arts has grown to more than 20 instructors and 350 students. If you would like a peek at our 2008 summer School for the Arts brochure then click HERE.

NewThing...new website...new look!

NewThing has a new look and a very cool new website with lots of new stuff you will definitely want to check out!  Kudos to Tom Greever for working overtime to make this happen before the Exponential Conference.  Thanks Tom!

I think the coolest new part of this website is the blog aggregator that constantly updates all the latest posts from blogs within the NewThing Networks. Check it out by clicking HERE.

Other cool stuff that you will definitely want to check out:

• Discover how you can partner with some of the best church planters in the world by becoming a part of NewThing as an Affiliate Church.
• Articles on church planting, multi-site and reproducing churches, such as: What Every Follower Wants In a Leader or Three Challenges For Every New Church or The Reproducing Church.
• Get the latest news on upcoming NewThing events like the Exponential Conference, The Reproducing Church Experience or The Big Idea Practicum or Multi-Site Practicum and more!
• Learn how to get coaching or training in becoming a multi-site church.
• And tons of resources...free!

This is just phase #1.  Take a look and leave me a comment and tell me what you think.  I will pass along the compliments and I'd like to hear your suggestions.

Happy B-Day Sue!

Happy birthday Sue! Thanks for your loyal friendship; your risk-taking partnership and for loving me.  You are the best!  I love you.  Happy B-day!!

Running, Hoops and a Rite of Passage

Yesterday I went to Josh's track meet to watch him run the 1-mile.  He is a freshman and set a new PR by running it in 5:03.  My first reaction was pride as I heard the announcer say, "Josh Ferguson finishes with a new personal record".  My second reaction was, "I will never again be able to keep up with him in a 5k run".   

It's a rite of passage when a son is able to beat his dad in some kind of athletic competition.  I'm sure their must be a name for it, but all I know is it is a weird combination of aging and pride.  I remember the first time I beat my dad in basketball.  We were playing in the driveway at our house and my dad's assortment of hook shots were not falling and somehow I beat him to 21.  He was angry.  My dad almost never gets angry. 

So this week week was some kind of marker event in my relationship with Josh.  He is faster than me.  He is a lot faster than me; and he probably has been for awhile.  Of course, I did beat him and a friend in basketball 21-10 earlier this week in our drive way.  So I'm not completely over the hill!

The Beginning of a Dream...

Sunday night over two hundred of us gathered at the Lincoln Manor in East Aurora for dinner and to dream about how we could better serve this under-resourced community.  This 57,000 square foot facility built by the Masons back in 1922 is one of the dreams that we are exploring.  It has a lot of potential as a community center...but that needs lots of prayer! 

The group that was gathered was mostly people from Community, but also included leaders from Warehouse Church, First Presbyterian and the city of Aurora.  I told the group gathered, "we feel called by God to serve this community and to partner with existing organizations who have been making a difference here for years.  And we need the expertise of business leaders, community leaders and other spiritual leaders to accomplish all that God wants us to accomplish."

The highlight of the evening was hearing from Desiree Guzman (TRAF),  Kirsten Strand (Community 4:12) who have both moved into the neighborhood and then my friend Ed Bahler of the Cornerstone Knowledge Network.  On Monday Ed will be leading us through a visioning session to help us figure out the next steps in making this dream come true.  Pray for us.

Great Night for NewThing Networks

We had a great time on Saturday at our first ever NewThing vision dinner.  It seemed only appropriate that we have it at our new CCC-Plainfield location, which is in a school.  It sounds kind of crazy, but there were lots of people from Community that were just getting introduced to the NewThing Networks. We had people who had become Christ Followers at CCC several years ago coming up to us and saying, "I had no idea about NewThing..."  The pic is Jon telling the people about our affiliate churches and our plans to start a church in San Francisco.

If you want to get more of the detail on the night check out Greg Lee's blog.  Greg is one of our Apostolic Network Leaders and came over and did a great job on his talk in front of our home crowd.  Sherry Gossman is a NewThing employee and fan and she gives her take on the night on her blog.

Bikers, Darts and the Mission of Jesus

We had a great weekend at Community.  And I'm not even talking about the 25 services at our 9 locations.  I got a couple weeks worth of post from this weekend.  But it all started on Saturday morning at Leadership Community when we were able to share some great news with the leaders that our God was entrusting us with record numbers of people - more than ever before!  And as cool as that was, that was not the highlight.  The highlight was getting to interview Donna and Jeremy who are leading 3C Communities. 

These 3C Communities are not facility-dependent and are not staff-dependent.  They are a lot like a small group, except that this 3C Community becomes your church. Rather than starting a new community (new small group, new campus or new church) to help people find their way back to God; they are trying to redeem the communities of which they are a part.  Their hope is that these communities will one day be at a place where all three C's (celebrate, connect and contribute) are experienced and that their friends will become Christ followers.

Donna loves to ride bikes (read Harleys) and loves bikers.  Most of her biker friends are not interested when she invites them to come to one of our CCC sites.  But when she asked them if they would like to schedule regular rides on Sundays they all said yes!  So every Sunday she will be riding with her biker friends asking God to give her a chance to redeem that community and help her friends find their way back to God.  Donna believes that her greatest opportunity is that as a need arises she offers to pray with and for her friends.  She believes that will provide the way to more significant conversations and perhaps one day a community of bikers who are practicing the 3C's.

Jeremy has a bunch of friends that love throwing darts in a local bar.  They like Jeremy and are more than willing to talk about spiritual things.  But they have not shown any interest in walking though the doors of a church.  So Jeremy is asking God to redeem the community that is he already a part of and he hopes to help his friends find their way back to God.  Jeremy doesn't just wait for spiritual topics to come up.  Because he is very interested in spiritual things, it seems appropriate for him to talk about this with his friends - so he brings it up. He believes that through intentional conversations that they will grow and learn together and perhaps his buddies at the bar could become a group that practices the 3C's.

As we fulfill the great commission we can either create brand new communities or we can redeem the communities of which we are a part.

Another Printing of The Big Idea

Got a package in the mail yesterday from Zondervan with a copy of The Big Idea telling me that they are doing another (fourth or maybe fifth?) printing. Anyway, people are checking it out.  If you want to get a quick overview, Planting Partners has a lengthy post from the Willow News archives that will tell you what it is all about.

How Do You Use Twitter?

Ok, I've been playing on Twitter for about four or five months.  I have a bunch of people that are following me, but I haven't started following anyone yet  So, those of you that are using Twitter, how are you using it?  What are the practical benefits of Twitter?  Teach me.

Keeping Score & Dashboards

I just finished up an article for the Christian Standard titled, "Golf Scores & Dashboards: Keeping Track of How the Church is Doing".  It is basically a rant about how most churches only keep score by attendance and offering. While those are important numbers, they certainly don't tell the whole story or all that church leaders need to know about Jesus being formed in the life of the people of their church.  At Community and through our NewThing Network we have developed a dashboard (that we are still working to get right) that goes beyond attendance and offering and keeps track of the following:

• 3C Christ Followers:  We want to know how many people and the percentage of our people who are growing in the spiritual experiences of celebrating (weekly part of our celebration service), connecting (doing life together in a small group) and contributing (giving of their giftedness in service and of their finances)?   If I could only have one indicator on our dashboard this would be the one!  This gauge tells me more about the spiritual health of a person than any other indicator.

• Baptisms – We also want to know how many people are making commitments to become Christ Followers.  This was something that was counted in the book of Acts and it counts today, so we count it.  This will give you the best indicator of your churches evangelistic temperature.

• Leaders – We also want to know how many people are apprentice leaders, leaders and coaches?  This may be unique to the culture of Community but I think it is absolutely critical.  This tells you how many small groups you have (leaders); how many potential small groups you have (apprentice leaders) and what your leadership development pipeline looks like.  The strength and depth of your leadership tells you how soon you can reproduce a new site or church. Why?  Because it’s leaders that facilitate all the small groups for kids, students and adults.

• Artists - We want to know how many artists we have at Community.  When we use the term artist, we are using it in a very broad sense to include worship leaders, vocalists, musicians, actors, dancers, painters, videographers, sound and light technicians, etc.  Just like with leaders, the strength and depth of your artists tells you how soon you can reproduce a new site or church.  Why?  Because it is the artists that create and lead all large group worship and celebration events.

• Services & Sites – I want to know that we are reproducing at all levels.  I want to know how many services we do on a weekly basis.  When we started Community we only had one service at one site.  Today we have over 25 services at nine different sites.  I want to watch that gauge too.

We know what we want to watch - but the hard part is getting good and consistent data.  So we are still working on this both at Community and in our NewThing.  Thoughts?

Back from Cyber Purgatory

The way I understand purgatory: "a condition or place of temporary punishment, suffering, expiation, or the like." 

If that definition is correct, then I just returned from cyber purgatory!  For the last few days my feedburner hasn't been working and they claimed that I copied something out of a word document and that caused all the problems.  OK, so they turned out to be right...but that is not the point!  It was still torture trying to figure out which of hundreds of posts was the problem.  And after spending all my blogging time correcting a few posts and deleting some others I'm back in action. 

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