Good Friday Service

We are getting ready for our first ever Good Friday service this week. I am very excited about it because it will be different from anything else we have ever done. The only problem is: I was not raised in a very traditional church. I am having to take a crash course on how you do a traditional service. I have to say - it's pretty cool! I think we probably threw out a lot of things in the thought of being modern that should have been kept. Anyways, it should be a lot of fun!

Service Review

We have a local paper in Greenville, The Metro Beat, that runs a feature called "Houses Of The Holy". What happens is: a reporter from the paper pops in anonymously to local churches (mostly the large ones) and writes a very candid review of his experience. It's a great perspective from a total outsider's eyes. A few of the reviews that I have read have been interesting, but a little brutal. Well, a few weeks ago, he popped into one of ours. We actually found out after the service, because he enjoyed it so much he felt like he could tell us the article was coming. We even provided the photo for the headline. I was really nervous about it and it finally came out this week (right in time for Easter - yeah!!!). I do give this disclaimer: if you decide to check out their website, you are on your own. Let's just say - they don't come at things from a "Christian" perspective. :) Here is the article:

APRIL 4, 2006
Houses Of The Holy
Candid First Impressions of Upstate Church-Shoppers

There are thousands of houses of worship in the Upstate and our Prophets are sampling them. From time to time one of our reviewers (or Prophets) will visit one of these Houses of the Holy and share ten standard observations (The 10 Pronouncements) with our readers. Prophets are anonymous visitors, usually on a first-time visit. They are to be respectful at all times, as any visitor should, but we ask them to be candid in print. Our Prophets’ 10 Pronouncements are not set in stone. They’re just first impressions. But first impressions are usually the eternal, er, lasting ones. Feel free to take what follows with a pillar of salt…

THIS WEEK’S HOLY LAND
Seacoast Church (Greenville)
212 Roper Mountain Road Ext.
Greenville, SC 29615
864-284-0781
www.seacoastchurch.org/greenville

Setting/Environs: Located at the former home of New Life Christian Fellowship, at 18 months old, Seacoast (Greenville) is the newest of nine locations for a Charleston-based church with videotaped sermons from the main campus being replayed at the 8 satellite locations. I didn’t know this going in, but if you think it’s weird, read on.

Name of Head Spiritual Guru: Pastor Chris Surratt (in residence)

Denomination/Affiliation: Independent; preaching an unerring Bible and salvation only for baptized believers

Date and Time: Sunday, February 26 at 11 am with a post-service baptism Top Billed Clergy For Today: Pastor Chris with the video sermon by his older brother, Greg.

“I chose this specific House because….” the name seemed so out of place. Literally. Seacoast? In Greenville? What’s up with that?

Have you visited here before? If so, how often? No.

THE TEN PRONOUNCEMENTS

“Once inside the doors, the first thing I noticed was…” I was in a first-rate music venue with seating spaced generously for the 80 or so at this service. Think Handlebar with a baptismal pool backstage.

“As I sat down, the people around me were…” mingling mostly near the coffee (free) and the soundboard, mindful of the video countdown clock for the start of the service.

”The service opened up with…” two rockin’ songs. Lyric-wise they were Christian songs but musically you’d never know that except that the vocalists were, well, heaven-sent (and American Idol-worthy).

“The one thing that struck me as being positively profound was…” the baptism by immersion at the end of the service; something I’d previously only seen on TV. If not that, then having free coffee and doughnuts in the sanctuary where you can walk up and refill at any point without missing a beat.

“The sermon was exactly 38 minutes long and it was basically about…” the Beatitudes and how we all need to accept God’s help, including a gripping testimonial from a Charleston Seacoast member.

“After the service ended…” most people lingered in the sanctuary, which is not surprising considering the service was comprised of a video sermon sandwiched between two rockin’ songs on either side of it.

“Newcomers and visitors are…” clearly instructed on what to do and they are welcomed by all, without being singled out to the crowd. A newcomer service with meal and childcare (call ahead if possible) follows the 11 am service on first Sundays.

“The most painful part was…” once again being dressed improperly. This time a suit and tie for a decidedly blue jeans crowd.

“I was pleasantly surprised when…” the final song sounded like U2 performing in a small club.

“My most lasting impression will be…” the video feed starting up, to my complete surprise, and then later realizing that it wasn’t all that odd or gimmicky as I had first thought.

THE JUDGMENT (IN 25 WORDS OR LESS):
Seacoast slams its predominantly young (25-40) crowd with top-quality rock and heavy doses of “DirecJC.” Not for anyone nursing a hangover.

THIS WEEK’S PROPHET: D’yer Maker
D’yer Maker is a 40-something male. A former Catholic, He’s currently “blowin’ in the wind.”

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.

Tagged

I have been tagged by Rick, but I am only capable of thinking in fours, so here goes:

Four Jobs I've Had:
Grocery store stocker (a really, really bad one)
Country Club Cart Attendant (free golf - yeah!)
Youth Pastor
Music Director

Four Movies I Can Watch Over and Over:
Top Gun (I have a need, a need for speed!)
Office Space
Monty Python & The Holy Grail
Bull Durham (back when Kevin Costner was cool)

Four Places I Have Lived:
Houston, Texas
St. Louis, Missouri (Cardinals baby!)
Charleston, SC
Greenville, SC

Four Shows I Like To Watch:
24 (I wish I was Jack Baeur)
The Office
My Name Is Earl
Scrubs

Four Foods That I Like:
Fajitas at Pappasitos
Anything at the Cheesecake Factory
The JC at Moe's (John Coctostan for you non-regulars)
Mushroom Cheeseburger at Five Guys

Four Sites That I Visit Every Day:
Bloglines (I'm addicted and I know it)
USAToday
Weather
Google

Four Things I Want To Do Before I Die:
Write a book (doesn't everyone say that?)
Sit in with U2
Take Jenny skiing in Colorado
Give my girls away at their weddings (mushy I know, but it's my blog!)

Four People I'm Tagging:
Dave Ferguson
Geoff Surratt
Andy Stanley (I know he doesn't have a blog, but he can do it on mine!)
Warren Bird

Worship Article

I recently wrote an article for worshipideas.com on how to build a worship band from scratch. You can check it out here (it's a free registration).

Tubin'

We hit the mountains yesterday for some snow tubin' with the girls. We had a blast, but it a felt a little strange to be on snow when it's 60 degrees outside! Ashlyn loved it, because she actually got to go down the hill this year. We lasted a whole 1 1/2 hours out of the 3 we had alloted...man, we're getting old...

The Bitty Browser

Thanks to Robert Scoble, I discovered the Bitty Browser which is now in the sidebar of this blog. It's a fully functioning mini-browser that currently defaults to our website. I have no idea if this is actually helpful to anyone, but a browser inside a browser is too cool to pass up.

Shower For Your Ministry

I thought I would pass along a great idea that one of our Student Ministry volunteers had. We were trying to come up with easy ways for our congregation to be able to donate items for our new youth room. It's always a little dicey to ask for donations, because you never really know what kind of stuff you will get. So the idea was to throw our youth a shower. A few of the guys went to Target and Lowes and registered our church as a wedding. They then put together a dream list of cool stuff for the room - tv's, video games, rugs, lamps, ect. People loved the idea and we now have a room full of mostly brand new stuff! How cool is that?

Online Learning

We are unveiling a really cool spiritual growth tool next weekend at Seacoast, but I thought I would give you guys a sneak peak. For the past year a team of very talented and dedicated Seacoasters have been working on a massive online project to help people grow spiritually. Next weekend (at Greenville) we're unveiling a piece of that project called the Spiritual Health Assessment. They have developed a 56 question diagnosis tool to help you see where you are in your growth based on the five values Seacoast is built on: worship, connect, serve, share and grow. After you take the assessment you are give a customized list of resources to help you grow in each area. The list of resources will be continually updated, so this is a living tool that will just continue to improve over time.

If you'd like to take it for a test drive you can click here. Please let us know what you think and I will pass it on to the team. This is a great tool that is just the beginning of what Seacoast's Online Learning is going to be about.

Small Groups Are Happenin'

After my last couple of posts, it probably seems like I need put down the knife and take a vacation. Actually, I am really stoked about where things are right now. It's just more fun to blog rants! :)

Our small groups have been going for a couple weeks now, and I just got the final reports that 80% of our adults are in groups! I always had the feeling that as we grew, our percentage of attenders in groups would go down. It has actually been the opposite. Our goal by the end of the year is 85%, and now I think we may have to bump that to 90! I don't think I could ever imagine having church without communities of people that live life together. Why would you want to try to do that?