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Why Start A Campus If You Can Start A Network?

Part of our missional strategy at COMMUNITY is to reproduce new sites so we can reach deep into local communities and neighborhoods to help more and more people find their way back to God.  COMMUNITY currently has eleven locations and a dream of one day having two hundred locations in the Chicagoland area.  That kind of dream forces us into movement thinking. While we have several new sites that we expect to start in the next 18 months, it is movement thinking that has us planning the launch of our first network of three new sites in Chicago.

Jon Ferguson, my brother is leading the way as network leader and will be moving with his family into the city this summer.  Got to love that Jon and Lisa are willing to take the lead on this great new missional endeavor.  We are calling this new initiative CHICAGO IMPACT.  We believe that this strategy of starting a network which ideally will include 3-4 sites will allow us to more easily achieve our dream of being a catalyst for a movement.

The good news is that momentum is already starting to build as more than twenty-five people are making plans to move from the suburbs into the city to help launch this new site.  I anticipate that the number will more than double over the next several months.  One of those people that relocated is our   campus pastor, Tammy Melchien who in her first two weeks started two small groups reaching mostly people who are not going to church.  That is a very good sign!  We are already hearing some amazing stories and I'm sure there are more stories to come.

As I look to the future I know COMMUNITY will continue to start individual campuses, but we will also start more and more networks.  Why?  To help people find their way back to God!

Shane Claiborne: "What If Jesus Meant All That Stuff?"

I'd encourage you to check out an interesting, controversial and compelling article by Shane Claiborne in the most recent issue of Esquire Magazine titled: What If Jesus Meant All That Stuff?

Eagles in Leadership Interview about Big Idea & More!

Dr. Matthew Lee Smith has received numerous acknowledgments for his contributions and podcasts at Eagles in Leadership.  A few weeks ago I did a telephone interview for a podcast with Matt.  We talked a lot about The BIG IDEA, NewThing and more.  If you are interested, you can check it out HERE.

Finding Your Way Back To God

Today was one of those amazing days in the life of COMMUNITY.  I had a hunch that it was going to be a good service when I got an e-mail from Tony, our Arts Director at CCC-Romeoville telling me that we needed to cut a few minutes out of my message so that we could fit in the five baptisms that we had scheduled.  And it was not just a good service...it was an experience to be remembered for a life time.  After we got done baptizing the five planned we asked if anyone else wanted to make a public commitment to following Jesus.  And for the next twenty minutes we saw seven more people get in line to be baptized.  The pic you are looking at above is one of the guys who in the moment decided to get baptized and just jumped in with his clothes on.  It was amazing day!
The catalyst for this amazing day was our Student Community.  The five scheduled baptisms were all students and most of those that decided in the moment to get baptized were also high school students.  It is remarkable what God is doing in the life of our students

If you were one of the dozen people who was baptized at CCC-Romeoville today this is what the crowd looked like from your vantage point.  I love how everyone is on their feet, leaning forward, taking it in and cheering these people on.  I love this church!

Lane Hunter Story...

Far From God to Campus Pastor!

Scott Knollenberg is a guy who found his way back to God at COMMUNITY.  Scott is also our brand new Campus Pastor at our Romeoville Campus.  I asked Scott to share his story with you.  Here it is in Scott’s words:

“In 1998, I was far from God and had just relocated to Romeoville.  I was one of the first residents to move into the HighPoint Community, a new residential development built by 3 partners: HighPoint Apartments, Institute for Community, and Community Christian Church.  Three months after moving in I was playing sand volleyball when I met a guy named Troy McMahon.  After spending 2 weeks trying to figure out who this “Troy guy” was, I discovered he was the Campus Pastor of the Romeoville Campus that was launching in the new Friendship Center.  Despite my past views of church people and being far from God, I made a huge step to attend my first CCC service because I felt HighPoint and its new church was a “cool place with cool leadership”.

Meanwhile, I was finishing up graduate school and advancing my career with Caterpillar.  But God was changing me.  While interviewing for a dream job at Caterpillar world headquarters, I shockingly declined the promotion explaining I could not leave my church in Romeoville and relocate.  On the drive home, I called Troy and asked him to baptize me.  I felt it was finally the right time because this was the first major decision I had ever made that was not about building my own personal kingdom.  Two years later, I left the corporate marketplace and joined CCC staff first as the Kids’ City Director and now I will be the Campus Pastor.  Because of CCC, IFC and HighPoint, I have accepted Jesus and have become a better husband to Michelle and father to my daughter, Chloe Grace.  I’m excited to help make COMMUNITY-Romeoville the world model at reaching and building strong families.  That’s what this place did for my family and there are many more “Scotts” out there in this community who are far from God.”

That is sooo cool!  Scott's story embodies what we want to see happen in the lives of people over and over and over again.  10 years ago Scott was far from God and today he is leading a campus with hundreds of people who are accomplishing the Jesus mission!

She is finding her way back to God...

COMMUNITY has always been about "helping people find their way back to God" so I love it when I hear stories or get e-mails of people telling me of their journey to Jesus.  Here is one from Jami that I just had to share with you:

“The first time entering the CCC Montgomery Campus I could not believe THIS was a church.  The instant energizing vibe hit me as soon as I walked through the glass doors.  The cozy, welcoming foyer area—high tech chalkboard, comforting fireplace, lemonade stand and all!! The bright detailed children’s rooms weren’t anything I ever experienced in a church before.  Even the first service wasn’t comparable to any mass I’d previously attended.  I felt like the guy on the stage was personally speaking to me.  As if he knew my exact lack of faith at that moment…reaching inside to my personal thoughts. That first service I cried more than Cubs fans did when that Steve guy ruined their chance to the World Series!! I actually found myself commuting from my apartment in the city all the way to Aurora a few more times to check this place out.  To this day, just over three months later, the same phenomenon brings me back and the impact is still indescribable.  Now I look forward to weekly services…I actually plan my weekends around them!!  I’ve become so hooked, I am working within Kids City helping out the 1st through 3rd graders with their spiritual path.  Each time a volunteering opportunity presents itself I cannot wait to sign up.  Finding my way back to God has totally allowed me to ditch the despair and loneliness while surrounding me with great people and a greater purpose.  I want to be baptized as an adult to publicly and internally confirm I am one of Jesus’ followers finding my way back to God.”

I Love Baptisms!

I love baptisms!  We had a whole bunch of people that got baptized this past weekend.  It started on Saturday night I got to see my nephew Graham get baptized at the Yellow Box.  He is a great kid who God has blessed with some amazing gifts and it was very cool to see this young man declare his loyalty to Jesus.  Then on Sunday morning I was at Naperville-Downtown and Rachel Olivares got baptized.  We heard her story of finding her way back to God and you could feel the buzz in room.  I quickly drove back over to the Yellow Box to baptize Laura Pruett, someone I got to know through a tragedy 10 years ago; who then moved away and recently moved back.  That was fun!  And the morning was complete as Chris and her 82 year old  Grandfather were baptized.  82 years old and committing himself to becoming a Christ=Follower!!  Later, I was told this was the answer to 30 years of prayer!  Wow.  I love baptisms!

"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.

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.

Suprising Discoveries About Facilities for the Unchurched

What if I told you that the average unchurched person would be more likely to walk into a cathedral than any contemporary facility when looking for a church?  It's true!  When unchurched people were shown four pics that included two contemporary church designs, a church with a steeple and a cathedral the unchurched said they preferred the look of a cathedral by 2:1 over any other option.  So, what is your reaction?

I have agreed to be a thought leader for the Cornerstone Knowledge Network and they are partnering with Community on some key initiatives for the future. So on Monday I was in Indianapolis to do a workshop and a main sessionCKN.  While I was there I spent as much time as I could with Ed Bahler who is a driving force behind CKN and one of the leading thinkers in the country on facilities and the future of the church. for the (Ed also has a good article in Ministry Today titled, Starting From Scratch)  We were discussing some of CKN's latest research regarding what kind of facilities that are most appealing to the unchurched.  The most fascinating discovery is that when they showed unchurched people four photos that included two contemporary church designs, a church with a steeple and a cathedral the unchurched said they preferred the look of a cathedral by 2:1 over any other option.  Joe Myer was also in on this conversation and Joe jumped in and said, "but if you put people in any of those pictures, people would choose the facility with people in it." I have a hunch he is right.  This led into an extended conversation about the 3200 churches that will close in the United States in the coming year.  Most of those churches (although not cathedrals) are more traditional looking.  And if we could "resurrect" and bring back to life those church facilities with new church bodies through multi-site or church planting we might have not only a great combination for reaching the unchurched but also a great use of old facilities.  What do you think? Ed has some more thoughts on this topic in this post Church Planting & Multi-Site.

Here were some more of the questions and top answers that CKN got while surveying unchurched people in regards to facilities.  The answers do not equal 100% because I only listed the top answers and the survey allowed the respondents to give multiple answers:

• In what setting other than a home would you be most likely to interact with a friend?
  • 47% - "Sit-down" restaurant
  • 15% - Bar or night club
  • 13% - Coffee shop
• In what settings do you feel close to God?
  • 41% - "no where"
  • 40% - References to nature
  • 14% - Anywhere, everywhere
  • 10% - Church, cathedral, synagogue
• If you were to design and build a church building, what adjectives would best describe it?
  • 43% - Open
  • 38% - Beautiful
  • 36% - Bright
  • 35% - Simple
  • 24% - Reverent

Great Start for CCC-Plainfield and KC's Restore CC

I spent part of the morning teaching at Community-Romeoville and part of it on my  blackberry getting the latest updates from the launch of our ninth site, Community-Plainfield and the launch of our NewThing Network church in Kansas City.  And the news is great!!!   I don't have all the details, but I got some numbers:  we had 642 people show up for the first service at Community-Plainfield!  Amazing!!   Troy and the gang had 418 at Restore Community Church for their first weekend!  Awesome!!  God is very good and very kind.  More details to come...

The Best Christmas Gift So Far This Year...

As a part of our Christmas offering this year we asked people to finish the statement:  "I’m glorifying and praising God for…" and then send it back to us with their offering.  Here is how one person finished that statement and I had to share it:  "My salvation!  A year ago, I came to CCC after my second divorce, and yet another broken relationship.  I knew that I had to change my life.  I had no friends, and I live far away from my family. CCC woke me up up.  CCC took me in.  CCC became my family.  God worked through several different people at CCC, but he finally broke through the hard, cold shell around my heart.  One year later, what a difference God and CCC has made in my life!  My kids have a new sense of giving and caring for others.  Me?  Who felt the lowest of lows a year ago?  I help lead two small groups and look forward to each day on how I can pass on the gift of love and peace that CCC and God have given me. Thank you to all the teaching pastors at CCC.  God speaks, through all of you, to my heart.  Keep up the great work that you do!  Together, we, along with the Holy Spirit and love, will continue our journey helping people (like me!) find their way back to God!" This is why we do what we do at Community!

Reflections on Onnuri Community Church in Seoul

This is a picture of Seoul that I took from where I sat every morning while having breakfast. Right now I'm sitting in the Incheon International Airport waiting for my flight back to Chicago.  It has been a great trip. I hope I was a positive influence on the thousands of church leaders that gathered here from all over the world.  But I know that being at Onnuri Community Church has been a tremendously positive influence on me. Here are a couple things that I will take away from this trip about this amazing church:

1. They work hard and they pray hard.  After my first trip I kind of dismissed the daily early prayer meetings as a reason for their huge impact.  Why?  Because they work so hard that I came away thinking that the real reason for their remarkable growth is that every staff person literally works over 12 hours a day and never takes a full-day off. And while the work ethic is remarkable (and unhealthy), this time I couldn't help but take note that they started this year with 40 days of prayer.  And prayer is integral to everything they do.  And of course there are the daily early prayer meetings that thousands of people attend.  So, I'm taking back that we need to keep working hard (but still take time off!) and we need to start praying even harder.
2. The vision is big and broad.  It is astounding the breadth of arenas this church is involved:  church planting, community betterment, publishing, broadcasting, crusades, artist development, outreach to influential leaders and personalities, ministry to all ages and multiple languages.  Just when you think you have a lot going on, you run into somebody who has ten times as much going on.  When Pastor Ha was asked about how does he lead and provide vision to so many different causes and organizations he said, "When I'm with the publishing group I turn off all the other switches and turn on only the publishing group switch...which ever ministry I working with, I think only about that one."  Interesting.  I'm not sure how this will play out at CCC / NewThing, but it is inspiring.

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.

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!

Helping People Find Their Way Back To God...Daily!

The misison of Community Christian Church is to "help people find their way back to God".  And we had another amazing week at CCC!  We had somewhere around 35-40 people that were baptized this last week. I did some math and today is the 235^th day of the year (I think?) and we have baptized approximately 250 people!  Wow!  I love being part of a church that is on mission.  We should never take this for granted.  We are getting to experience the stuff the apostles wrote about in the book of Acts when they described the early church and said, "the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved”.  We are "helping people find their way back to God"...daily!

205 baptisms in 204 days!

Over the last several years one of the dreams we have had at Community Christian Church is to see Acts 2:47 become a reality through us.  Acts 2:47 describes the early church as "praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved."   This past weekend we had 43 more people go public with their commitment to Christ in baptism.  For us to be an Acts 2:47 church we would like to see more than 365 people baptized in a year.  At least one person per day being added to the number of Christ Followers.  As of today, we are 204 days into 2007 and so far we have had 205 baptisms!  Good job, CCC!  We are "helping people find their way back to God."

Phenomenal Weekend at CCC!

This weekend was another one of those phenomenal weekends at Community Christian Church!  These weekends were what we dreamed about when we started this church!  This was a weekend of "helping people find thier way back to God."  We had more than 40 people go public with their commitment to become Christ Followers by being baptized.  Some of those were planning on being baptized, but many of those after being challenged made the decision spontaneously to go ahead and get dunked!

One of the people I had the honor of baptizing this weekend was JJ (in the pic).  JJ has been wearing a self-created sticker everyday for the last week that said, "Ask me about __ days from now" as she was counting down the days till her baptism.  Her enthusiasm is contagious and her passion for Jesus is real.  I am really proud of her and the steps that she is taking.  The following is her testimony that she had read to the people of Community Christian Church:

I'm getting baptized today because I'm giving up.  I give up trying to do life my way.  I give up trying to be perfect and trying to please every body.  I give up trying to only please myself.  I give up all the quick fixes and instant gratifications.  I give up my addictions and bad habits.  I give up lying, cheating, stealing and everything in between.  I give up my shame and my guilt due to a broken past.  I give up the relationships that I've wanted, that I've tried to make happen, and that I've never been able to left go of.  I give up not only being the victim in some cases, but playing the victim in most.  I give up living in fear...of failure, rejection, and the unknown.  I give up my lack of trust in myself and in others.  I give up my insecurities, low self-esteem and hopelessness.  I give up my easting disorder and my need to control everything.  I give up my broken heart and the void within.  I give up trying to fill that void with any and everything but the love of Christ.  Today I'm starting over.  Today I get a clean slate.  Today I get my sins washed away!  And I want everyone to know that this time around, with Jesus, I'm not giving up.

Wow!!  Imagine that multiplied by 40!

Philippines Trip: Frontline Crusades

Frontline Ministry has a long history of doing outreach through crusades all over the Philippines. This photo is Josh giving his testimony at one of the crusades with a translator.  Over the last couple decades more than a million people have made first time commitments to Christ.  Amazing! 

Over the last several years Frontline has seen the need to transition their ministry to planting reproducing churches.  Their first church plant, Frontline Worship Center is already one of the largest churches (maybe the largest non-Catholic) in San Pablo.  The vision is for this church to reproduce sites and have 17 sites in each "barangay" (sub-division) in the next ten years. 

In the future rather than doing crusades all over the country and not being sure about the follow-up they will be repositioning these crusades as outreaches in each of these "barangay" as a strategy to help people find their way back to God and get them connected into a new site of Frontline Worship Center.  These crusades are more like CCC's annual "Fallapalooza" than they are like a Billy Graham Crusade.  There is great music and entertainment of all kinds and then a twenty minute felt-need gospel presentation.  I think this is a brilliant strategy for creating a reproducing church.  I love having them in the NewThing Network.