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YOU 2.0 - Starts This Weekend At COMMUNITY

How To Know If You Should Plant A Church

I will often get e-mails like the one I responded to today:  "I have been following you on Twitter for a while as well as reading your blog. I have the desire to plant churches but am not sure if it is a call from God or just a personal desire. How do you know?"  Here are a few thoughts on how to know if you should plant a church:

Passion:  You really want to and it sounds like fun.  Don't dismiss your desire to plant a church as something only you want.  This passion may very well be there because God put it there within you.  I know that for me that I get a little buzz just thinking about starting something new, particularly a church or a new site.

Giftedness:  You have leadership gifts and a history of starting things from scratch that enroll other leaders and are successful.  Before we started COMMUNITY I had started a couple different ventures that saw some success.

Confirmation:  Other people whom you trust tell you, “you should definitely start a church and if you do, I would be a part of it”.  One of the greatest indicators of your ability to start a new church is others willingness to join you on this mission.  We have seen this over and over again in our NewThing churches.

Assessment:  Lastly, I would suggest that you go to our NewThing website and take the ELI assessment.    There is a small fee, but it is worth it and it will give you some good feedback regarding your potential as a church planter

Bono on the Incarnation

"I remember coming back from a very long tour.... On Christmas Eve I went to St. Patrick’s Cathedral. ...It had dawned on me before, but it really sank in: the Christmas story. The idea that God, if there is a force of Love and Logic in the universe, that it would seek to explain itself is amazing enough. That it would seek to explain itself and describe itself by becoming a child born in straw poverty... a child, I just thought: “Wow!” Just the poetry. Unknowable love, unknowable power, describes itself as the most vulnerable. There it was. I was sitting there, and ...tears came down my face, and I saw the genius of this, utter genius of picking a particular point in time and deciding to turn on this. Because that’s exactly what we were talking about earlier: love needs to find form, intimacy needs to be whispered. To me, it makes sense. It’s actually logical. It’s pure logic. Essence has to manifest itself. It’s inevitable. Love has to become an action or something concrete. It would have to happen. There must be an incarnation. Love must be made flesh." - Bono

The Best (& Coldest) Bears Game Ever!

The record book will tell us that it was the coldest home game ever in Chicago Bears history.  For me it was simply the best Bears game I have ever attended!

When Josh and I arrived it was already double digit sub-zero temperatures with the wind chill factor.  However we had about four layers of clothes and were prepared for the evening.  When we arrived we stopped at the concession stand to get a hot dog and a pop.  By the time I walked from the concession stand and found our seats my diet Coke had already started to freeze!  It was cold and so was the Bears offense almost the whole game.  But our whole section literally stood and cheered for the Bears for all four quarters and then the overtime.  And when Robbie Gould hit that field goal to win it in sudden death overtime to beat the Packers we all went crazy.  We were giving high fives and hugs to every person around us.  It was close to going to church!  It was great game and a great time and a great win.  Go Bears!

I want to also give a shout out and a big thank you very much to Jim Woolums, my facebook friend (and Packer fan!) who gave me the tickets. 

Who Are You Inviting To Christmas Eve?

Don’t forget to invite someone to come with you to a Christmas Eve service.  Christmas Eve is the time when people are more likely to say “yes” to your invite to COMMUNITY than any other time of the year.  So, take a moment right now and think about people who you would like to see find their way back to God. It might be a neighbor, friend, co-worker or family member.  You can invite them right now by sending them this e-invite.  Or maybe you want to take a look at which Christmas Eve service would be at the best time, style or location.  We will have 22 Christmas Eve services at 9 locations on 2 nights and a variety of styles.  So, who are you inviting to Christmas Eve?  You don’t want to miss it and can click HERE for more information.

LET IT BE CHRISTMAS: The Gospel According to Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, George & Ringo.

I just got back from the opening night of a brand new musical put on by COMMUNITY'S Epic Theater.  The musical is Let It Be Christmas:  The Gospel According To Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, George & Ringo  and it was brilliant.  The music was terrific and the way they told the story of Christmas using tunes from Beatles was a piece of creative genius.  Congratulations to Eric and Elic and the whole gang that made this happen.

If you are in the Chicago area you still have three nights to see Let It Be Christmas, December 19th at 7:30 pm; December 20th at 8:30 pm and December 21st at 7:30 pm at the Yellow Box in Naperville.

Undefeated Champs!

If I was not doing what I do, I would be a coach.  I love coaching and seeing kids accomplish something they didn't know they could accomplish.  I guess come to think of it, if I'm doing my job as a pastor it is a lot like coaching. 

This is my YMCA Spirit League boys 5th grade basketball team, the Ballers.  My son, Caleb is the furthest to the right in the first row. 

We had a super season.  The boys went undefeated this season and this is them celebrating after winning the championship in a come from behind victory.  We were down 18-15 going into the fourth quarter and the guys cranked up the defense and finally got their offense working and we outscored the other team 14-2 to win 29-20.  This is the third season I have had some of these guys and the third year in a row we have gone without a loss and won the championship.  They are terrific group of kids with super parents.  Congrats Ballers!

Partnerships Take the Gift Mart to New Level

One of the the factors that took our two Gift Marts this year to a whole new level were partnerships.  We had over 50 partnerships with for profit and not-for profits.  For profits include Starbucks, Caribou, Meijer and Home Depot.  Not for profits included other churches like Orchard Community Church who came through with 75 volunteers and over 800 toys!  Thank you!

Here is part of an e-mail I received from another pastor who participated in this years Gift Mart:  "Dave, My family and I (along with a couple of friends) helped out at the Gift Mart today in East Joliet. It would be an understatement to say we were blessed. It was really incredible to see all the toys that were donated and all the families that were blessed by what CCC did. Bob Lowe did an incredible job organizing everything. I participated in the Crowd Control team. I was stationed outside directing people into the parking lot. Everyone that was on my team was very helpful and friendly. I was freezing but it was the best (and most frigid) time I think I have ever had. The best moments were when people would come in to the parking lot and I would smile at them and they would smile back. Thanks for showing the love of Christ in East Joliet.  I look forward to partnering with CCC in future activities."

This brings to mind the word of Peter Drucker who said, "partner or perish".  If you got a dream, find good partners who share that dream.

Two Gift Marts Bring Christmas to 3500 people!

This is a pic of the line that formed outside of Bardwell Elementary School as parents from that community waited to go shopping at one of two Gift Marts that COMMUNITY sponsored on Saturday.  This was our 6th Gift Mart in the East Aurora community and our first in East Joliet; both led by our non-profit Community 4:12. One of the values we have at COMMUNITY is reproduction; and I love that we are reproducing this Gift Mart to other communities!  We set a goal of 7500 toys which was significantly more than we had ever collected before.  We collected 9500 toys and 1,000 volunteers served approximately 3500 people from the community who shopped at the Gift Mart.  It was awesome! 

I think the smartest part of how we do the Gift Mart is that we sell the donated toys for $2.00/toy.  This allows parents to shop with dignity for their children.  It is truly a "hand-up" and not a "hand-out".  Then we take the money that we make from selling these toys and give it to the school that hosts the Gift Mart.  This year we raised almost $15,000 dollars that we gave two the two public schools that hosted this Gift Mart.

I am so proud of Kirsten Strand and our whole Community 4:12 team that is leading the charge for all of COMMUNITY in transforming under-resourced communities.  I am grateful to be a part of a church that is so generous and passionate about making a difference in the lives of our neighbors.

Give by Getting Coffee at the Ground Level Cafe

Find the Monkey and Win $10 Starbucks Card!

If you can find the monkey on our newly re-modeled COMMUNITY website we will give you a $10 gift card to Starbucks.  We love our new website so much and want everyone to discover all the cool new features we have created a contest.  The contest is to find the monkey on our website and win free coffee!!  Start hunting by clicking HERE.

Good News OR Bad News?

Which do you want: "the good news or the bad news?" It seems like you now have your choice. 

First, according to Rodney Stark a world renown sociologist we have some good news: church membership in the United States has been on the increase for the last 200 years.  Sounds great, until you hear from the Barna group that church attendance has fluctuated and remained stable for the last 20 years or the research from Dave Olson who says only 19% of Americans really attend and most exaggerate their regular attendance.  So which is it "good news or bad news?"

Back to the good news:  in the middle of a tough economic crisis MSNBC is reporting that Americans continue to be generous and give to charitable causes.  And now for some bad news from The Barna Group that is reporting non-profits and churches in particular are in for a really tough time and could stand to lose billions of dollars. 

So, what is it people, good news or bad news?