Just Weird

I saw on my stats that someone found my blog with the search term "chris in the shower room". OK, that really freaks me out. That's weird on so many different levels...

Stickiness

I was in Palm Beach, Florida last week for a Leadership Network Community on multi-site churches. There were 8 churches there from around the nation and Canada that are doing multi-site in different and creative ways. It was great to finally meet Mark Batterson and the guys from National Community. You guys rock!

One of the exercises for the week was to read a popular business/church book and relate it to doing ministry. One of the books was Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. If you have read the book, you know that one of the main points is you have to make your product sticky. Does it stick to your "customer" after the initial presentation?

I thought that the group that did the report made an interesting observation: are our churches making Jesus the sticky part of our services? In fact, I have thought about that all week. What part does Jesus really play in cutting-edge church services today? Beyond the moving lights, the gigantic video screens, the smoke, the latest secular song that proves we're cool too; what is really sticking to our "customers" when they leave the building? What impresses them the most - how cool we think we are, or how awesome our Lord Jesus is? Don't get me wrong, I am all for using technology to reach more people for Christ. After all, I pastor a campus of Seacoast Church - 200 miles away! I just think that we may be losing the only important stickiness we should have. Ultimately, it all comes down to the name of Jesus. Without that, we have nothing. Is that what they remember on Monday? Or does it get lost in the fog...

T.H.S.

Our COO at Seacoast, Byron Davis, has a favorite saying when he feels like someone is not setting God-sized goals for their area of ministry. It has become known around Seacoast as simply - T.H.S. - which stands for: Tiny Heart Syndrome.

I hate setting attendance goals. After doing this thing for 18 months, I have discovered that sometimes you just don't know what God is going to do in different seasons. We have gone through stretches where growth in attendance was just not happening. I can sometimes look back and know why - you have to be prepared for growth before it happens. Sometimes, I have no clue.

For the past few months we have been growing quickly. I looked at our 2006 goals today and realized that we passed our attendance goal for the year - last month! I had a sudden attack of T.H.S. God-sized dreams deserve God-sized goals. Why is that so hard to do?

Scary

We gave our oldest daughter Brianna, who is 7, her first real email address yesterday afternoon. She has already sent us 3 emails and started a weekly email trivia contest. I am a little afraid to let her start her own blog. When I was 7, I was starting to figure out how an Etch-a-Sketch works. The times they have a-changed.

Church Sale

I attended a sale today where a church that started 2 weeks after we did, five miles from our current location, was selling all of their equipment after shutting down a few weeks ago. It was a really tough thing to be a part of. As I looked at their children's stuff, I thought about all of the exciting dreams that we had when we were purchasing and making some of the same exact things for our launch. I am sure that they had the same dreams. The people that had put in the time and sweat were now watching it all drive away in trucks and cars. I don't know...my heart hurts for the Kingdom when a net is taken out of the water. That's why we have to keep casting, keep dreaming, keep planting.

New Series Look

If you're interested, I've posted some pictures of our stage set-up for the new series at The Greenville Page. We also post all of our opportunities there as well.