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Once again Tony Morgan has numerically ranked churches in a list here and here. He's just not happy until he pits pastor against pastor for a #1 rating. :-)
There was a rumor that a hippie looking guy that resembled Tony was hanging out at the ChurchPlanters.com Conference on Tuesday. After my main stage sucker punch from Stetzer it was God's favor upon my life that allowed me not to run into Morgan. :-)
Let me apologize for not blogging sooner. The last 24 hours have been a whirlwind!!!
At 4:30 PM yesterday I left the conference heading back to Lakeland. After 3 hours of wall-to-wall Atlanta traffic it took me until about 3:00 AM to get home. Two hours of sleep later I was back up to head to the hospital with my Dad. Several hours in the waiting room and then several more hours getting him back home (HMOs bite arse!!!) made me even more wasted.
Today is my 41st birthday so my wife decorated the house. I was so tired I just kind of stared into space for the last two hours. Denise is so great. She postponed everything until Friday so I could rest up an enjoy it. So I finally got some non-road food in me about an hour ago and that brings me to now.
I haven't really had a chance to decompress and reflect on the whole ChurchPlanters.com Conference. Being ADD I take everything in, but it takes me a few days to process it all. I may drive people crazy, but I'll probably blog off and on about it until the weekend.
There are so many bloggers out there that have done such a great job of listing the top notes for each speaker/track time that I won't rehash that. I will, however blog about some of the things that really moved me emotionally over the last three days.
The entire trip, conference, networking, hanging with friends experience was like riding a rollercoaster of emotions. Lovejoy had me wanting to be mean, Stetzer had me wanting to stay a Southern Baptist, Ferguson had me wanting to risk my life doing something dangerous, Carter had me in tears of humility and Noble just had me jacked up. Gary Lamb? Well, let's just say listening back to Gary's track time on the compact disc while driving down I-75 at 1:00 AM will have you doing 95mph. There's gotta be a Sammy Hagar song in there some where! :-)
I met a lot of cool people and experienced one really great church. As the next few days go on I'll break it down in more detail. All in all, it was a great conference experience and...for me...that's rare.
Thanks to all the folks that emailed or called me today letting me know that you were praying for my Dad. He came through the procedure fine and the prognosis is great. No severe heart blockage and what there is can be treated with new medication. The power of prayer is a mighty force. Thank you once again!
It's 1:45 AM and I just got home from the ChurchPlanters.com Conference in Atlanta. I left right after Perry Noble finished speaking because my father is having some minor heart surgery tomorrow. It was a long trip home...especially with the Atlanta traffic...and I'm beat. It was a phenomenal conference and I made a lot of new friends...but I'm just too tired to blog in great detail right now.
Due to the fact I'll be at the hospital with my mom and dad all day tomorrow, it may be tomorrow night before I have a chance to thoroughly blog about what God showed me through some Godly men and women at the conference. To sum it up, I was sent to Atlanta to hear Matt Carter. While the other main session speakers were incredible and caused me to think, dream, wonder, etc. - it was Matt that brought me to tears.
I also learned a lot about the power of blogging/podcasting...as well as the responsibility that comes with participating in such a powerful medium. More on everything tomorrow night.
Until then...above is a picture of Travis Johnson and I at the conference. It is a rare photo as he's not wearing his "I-just-got-back-from-deer-hunting" baseball cap. :-)
Day #1 is in the books for the ChurchPlanters.com Conference here in Atlanta. It's been a really good day and I was able to hang out with a bunch of fellow bloggers (Gary, Tadd, Travis and Scott). While I'd love to give a blow-by-blow account of everything that each presenter said today...I'm just too freakin' tired to do so. In a nutshell, I will run down the highlights.
Best Quote Of The Day: "Most church planters plant the church in their head, not the church that is needed for their culture." - Ed Stetzer
Best Overall Presentation: Without a doubt, Gary Lamb. I realize I may be a little biased because of our friendship, but the dude flat brough it today!!! He talked about going all out to reach the disconnected...and the brother laid it on the line. He didn't pull any punches about what it looks like when your church reaches primarily unchurched people...it wasn't pretty. So many church plant "wannabes" talk about reaching unchurched folks, but when they actually show up on Sunday it's ugly, uncomfortable and messy. If the audience had the mistake that church planting was glamorous, Gary flat laid a dose of reality on them.
Most Embarassing Moment: When I got called out from the main stage by Ed Stetzer for this post. I deserved it! :-)
Coolest People Met: While I got to meet and hang out with a lot of cool people today, there are two that stuck out. One is Travis Johnson. We met up for dinner along the way up here and it was a real treat. I have read his blog for a few months now, but never actually met him. He and I have been hanging out together for the better part of two days...and the guy is the real deal. He literally would give you the shirt off his back and has a true servant's heart.
The other guy is Landon Reesor and he's a church planter in freakin' Conneticut. Who in their right mind plants a church in the Northeast? This guy...and he's got some pretty great ideas. His church and Compass Point seem to be a lot alike. I look forward to having more conversations with him in the future.
Most Impressed Me: Hands down, it was the volunteer staff of Mountain Lake Church. When I pulled into the parking lot this morning there was this bald-headed dude wearing silver sunglasses with a huge smile on his face directing traffic. It just set the tone for the whole day. The Moutain Lake volunteers always smiled, always displayed professionalism and were a true example of Godly servants. This is...by far...is the most organized...and pleasant...conference I've been to. Thanks in no small part to the volunteer staff. Shawn Lovejoy, your people rock!!!
Tomorrow will be a jam-packed day. My plans are to grab some dinner with Gary after the conference and then head immediately for Lakeland. I won't get home until around 2:00 AM, but my Dad is scheduled for a heart procedure at the hospital on Wednesday and I feel I need to be there for my Mom. Anyways, I'm not sure if I'll get to blog much about Day #2, but I'll catch up on Thursday. I'll also give a more detailed account of each presentation before the week is out.
To all those that are attending the conference, I'll see you in the morning. I'm heading to bed!!!
While I'll go into more details about the speakers and presentations at the conference later tonight, I've already learned a few practical things:
1. When you put your picture on your blog a lot of people at church planters conferences recognize you...and that's not always a good thing!
2. Gary Lamb can flat bring it!!!
3. Blackberry enabled phones are great for short messages, but suck for lengthy blog posts.
4. When you blog something about Ed Stetzer he'll call you out from the podium at a church planter's conference.
5. ADD and modern church worship technolgy practices do not work well together.
6. I love when big, smiling, bald-headed guys wearing silver sunglasses direct me to where I need to park my car.
7. So much of the stuff presented at these conferences are geared exclusively to modern churches intent on reaching the 30+ crowd.
8. I'm inspired by the big dreams of the guys presenting, but can use very little of their techniques at Compass Point.
9. I love hanging out with folks with big vision...even if our methods and goals are different.
10. The tap water in Atlanta tastes just as bad as the tap water in Lakeland.
It's 1:00am and I just made it to Atllanta. I got started late out of Lakeland this afternoon and then met up along I-75 with Travis Johnson (Life Pointe Church in Homestead, FL) for dinner. We had a blast just talkimg and getting to know one another. Travis has really great church and wonderful blog.
Anyway, it's been eight freakin' hours on the road and I'm worn out. I'm excited about the conference tomorrow, but I gotta get some sleep! I'm heading to bed.
Bill Hybels, pastor of Willow Creek Church recently conducted a Q&A with Tim Stevens of Granger Community Church. In the interview Bill said:
"The goal (of the church), is to slowly make believers independent. We (as a church and pastors) should focus our attention on introducing people to Christ, and then helping them grow to a certain point. After that--they should feed themselves and focus on helping the church introduce more people to Christ."
If the measurement of a truly discipled Christian is that they can spiritually feed themselves and others...which I agree with Bill Hybels on...then my question is:
If a pastor looks out from his pulpit to a congregation of thousands...and only half of them can feed themselves spiritually and lead others...is the church truly a success?
At Compass Point the ball has begun to roll, momentum is gaining speed and numeric growth is inevitable. However, the question above is one that plagues me all of the time...
In order to prepare to blog while I'm out of town next week at the ChurchPlanters.com Conference, I'm testing out my new Nokia E62 Blackberry enabled phone to see if it will work with Typepad.
I apologize for a "waste of a post" to those that read this blog from PlanterPlanet.com or an RSS feed service.
At Compass Point, the Sunday morning service is just another part of the overall pie. It is not the "end all be all" of who we are. We do not put all of our eggs in that basket, nor do we spend the entire week trying to figure out how to make it an "event". In fact, Sunday morning services are not even in the top three things we do at Compass Point each week. Why? Because we are trying to reach young 20-somethings. With that in mind, our top three goals are always:
a. Developing relationships.
b. Building community.
c. Serving others.
Don't get me wrong, Sunday is an important piece of the puzzle for Compass Point...it just isn't the biggest piece. That doesn't mean that other churches who put all of their efforts into Sunday mornings are wrong. It just means they have an older (30+) target market than Compass Point. I love what North Point does on Sunday mornings. However, it would never work for Compass Point...and vice-versa.
Young 20-somethings crave community. They love to meet new folks with new ideas and new dreams. They love to get creative in a smaller settings and they describe anything remotely "modern church" as cheesy. While they like to worship, they are moved by building relationships and serving others. Because of that, the staff of Compass Point also works hard to achieve those things.
The Compass Point staff and I knew that...if we put all of our eggs into the Sunday morning basket...that we would constantly be tied up in strategy, planning or creative meetings with...other staff. It would limit our time and ability to develop friendships with unchurched people. For that reason, we declined to make Sunday a top priority. If our people are moved by community and service, then that is where we...as a staff...needed to focus our attention. All week strategy sessions to discuss which video clip would work best with which Bon Jovi song played by the praise band during the Sunday light show would defeat the goals of Compass Point. So we don't do that.
Jonathan - our worship pastor - and I meet for an hour (yeah, we keep it to that time frame on purpose) on Monday evenings at a downtown sports pub to discuss Sundays. Sometimes we include some other Compass Point folks that have the gift of brutal honesty. We sit at the outside tables so we can visit with folks walking by and visually see the people we are trying to reach at Compass Point. We talk about the previous Sunday and honestly critique everything. We then finalize the upcoming week, before discussing future services. Other than the one meeting each week, the Compass Point staff is usually hanging out in public places meeting new folks and developing new relationships.
Please also keep in mind that we are never more than 8 weeks ahead with sermons ideas or series. God is moving at Compass Point at such a break neck pace that we can't possibly see more than a few months out. We tried long range sermon series planning and it just never worked. God would move, our people would need to be led in a different direction than planned and we'd have to scrap all of our sermon series plans. Besides, I never want us to be tied down to some mass production that has to be planned months in advance in order to construct and implement. For Compass Point that is just way too complicated and limiting to God's moving for our vision.
As a simple church, we also keep our Sunday mornings pretty simple. We praise, we pray we preach. Sometimes we'll throw in a special photographic or video montage that one of our artists put together. We also feature different bands that attend Compass Point as special music (bluegrass, blues, techno...anything that is different that our normal praise band). When we do Outside The Box, one of those bands normally plays Compass Point on the following Sunday morning. Other than that, it's pretty stripped down at our church on Sundays.
I know that what I shared here is quite different from what other churches are doing today. Consequently, that is the reason I'm blogging about it. This is probably the area that seems most foreign to folks that ask me about Compass Point. The idea that sound, lighting, video and high-energy rock music is not a top priority to our leaders throws people. That is okay. As I said before, Compass Point is an experiment. Right now it seems to be working, but only God knows what tomorrow brings. Most of what we do at Compass Point won't work at other churches. At the same time, most of what other churches are doing won't work at Compass Point. That is the beauty of the Kingdom of God...He never calls us to be the same!!!
This whole idea is just disturbing to me on so many levels. Surely there has to be a needy family or a charitable organization that could use it. Feel free to email me or post a comment if you feel I'm missing the point or over-reacting. I'm definitely open to discussion on this one.
One of the folks I met at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention on Tuesday, was a literary agent named Charlie Wear. He's also founder of Next Wave, the original (and dare I say best) post-modern, emerging church online magazine.
Anyway...like me...he's never met a steak he didn't like. Consquently, he is pleasantly plump like moi. You should have seen us trying to squeeze into the same side of a booth at Bahama Breeze. It was so cool how we tipped the table so that the skinny folks on the other side went airborne.
While we were having lunch and getting to know each other, he informs me that I'm a fat pastor. I thought he initially called me the name of a character in "Austin Powers" so I asked him to clarify. He told me that I should go on a diet and then blog about it on his new website, Fat Pastors. After some more conversation, he convinced me to really give it a shot. Soooooo...yesterday...I uploaded my first post to FatPastors.com which you can read here.
You need to know that I'm not good at dieting. It is my understanding that people in Hell must diet. The real problem is that I grew up in Louisiana where food is a source of joy. The is no way to describe the euphoria that one gets when you see the word Hostess or Sara Lee on something. There is something about Twinkies...the way that the cream filling looks when you break apart the golden outside is...well...magical. There is a certain level of excitement that I get when I bite into a snack cake that is second only to being naked with my wife.
I guess what I'm saying is...don't to expect much. I know I need to lose weight for health reasons. I know people will stop gagging when I wear a Speedo if I'll lose some weight. I know that Shamu will stop flirting with me at SeaWorld if I lose some weight. Yet, it's dieting...so the good Lord only knows if I'll be successful.
By the way, for those that are going to the conference next week...if you give me a hard time about anything I eat...because of this post...keep in mind that there are plenty of places to hide a body in north Georgia. Besides, my diet doesn't start until next Thursday after I see my doctor. Which reminds me, does anyone know of a good steak place in Alanata?
I've got to go now. There's three donuts and a Coke calling my name from the kitchen.
Wow, what a busy 72-hours! I have been on the go since Sunday morning and am dead tired. Tonight I'm just hanging out at home, listening to some Ray Charles and answering emails.
Obviously, I preached first thing Sunday, then I headed off to Orlando to spend time with a church-planting friend. Drove back, making phone calls all the way home (I hate wasting time) and worked on writing a magazine article that is due this week.
Monday I had to speak at a funeral for a very special friend (more on her in a later post) and then got to hang out with Denise all day. She was off for President's Day so we got to spend some quality time together. Monday night I led our normal "pub club" Connexxion group then joined some friends at Bedrock's Sports Pub for hot wings and NBA watching. I didn't make it back home until around 1:00 AM.
Yesterday it was back to Orlando for a lunch meeting with some guys with BIG vision and then hung out at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention for a while. I made it back to Lakeland in time for dinner with Denise and then hung out with the Compass Point band at their weekly practice.
While In Orlando I got to hang out with an author that also planted a mega-church. It was pretty cool watching him function at the conference and lunch. He has a ton of "irons in the fire" and is always working on some new ideas. It was really inspiring and helped me to see some things I need to improve in my life. I have got to get better at saying "no" to some things, prioritizing other things and getting better connected so I can return contacts in a timely manner.
With the later in mind, I finally broke down and bought the Blackberry-installed Nokia E62 smart phone. AT&T Wireless (formerly Cingular) offered me a really great upgrade (I've been an AT&T Wireless costumer since 1992) in order to close the deal. Thus far I love it, though there is no built-in camera. I really like that I can answer emails and check the Web anytime or anywhere I have cell service. I've already used it to blog on another site I contribute to. It worked great! I can't wait to do some live blogging on it from the ChurchPlanters.com Conference in Atlanta next week.
Speaking of the conference, I'll be arriving in Atlanta around 8:00 PM Sunday night. I'm staying at the Comfort Suites in Cummings until EARLY Wednesday morning. I've already got a few punches on my dance card for Monday night, but would love to make some new friends the rest of the time. Just drop me an email (chris elrod at gmail dot com) and we'll make a date. All in all, I'm looking forward to a wonderful time of learning, dreaming and building relationships. It's going to rock!!!
God once used a donkey to talk. Apparently a jackass can still talk in the 21st Century. Check out the truth about Roger's lack of integrity.
One of the greatest joys of church planting is the search for new answers and new ideas. At Compass Point we learned a long time ago that when you stop searching you stop learning. When you stop learning you stop growing. When you stop growing you die. We check out EVERYTHING...and I do mean everything. We negate nothing until we have thoroughly researched it. We don't care if it's an idea or strategy from another church, denomination or organization...we check it out. It doesn't matter if it's an Emergent church idea or a senior adult ministry at an 200-year-old church...we check it out. We do not care if the idea comes from a Fortune 500 company or a mad-axe murderer...we check it out. Anything that can possibly help us achieve the vision that God planted in our hearts...we check it out.
In my previous post I talked about how we tossed out the whole Purpose-Driven church concept because it didn't make sense to us. We only did that after going to a Purpose-Driven church conference, reading the "ancient text" several times through and sitting down with several Purpose-Driven church pastors. It wasn't that the ideas and concepts of Purpose-Driven were not good, they just weren't very effective in reaching younger, artsy-based 20-somethings. Therefore, we decided to move in another direction. We reached that conclusion only after we did extensive research.
Because of my Crap-O-La posting back in January, some readers of this blog think I have a thing against Tony Morgan or Granger Community Church. Nothing could be further from the truth. I didn't like a list he was a part of, it doesn't mean I negate everything he does, blogs or says. The truth be told, Granger, Tony and the other Strategic Stuff folks have been a HUGE influence on Compass Point.
While not everything from Granger was a home run for us, several of the ideas and concepts in the Strategic books have been put into practice at Compass Point...with some tweaking, of course. While we don't make a fuss over guests (more on this in a later post), the First Impressions book has some really great concepts about hospitality that were helpful to us in the early days. While we found most of their sermon graphics to be complete cheese...some of the tools, hardware and software they used to create them has been utilized by Compass Point from day one.
The biggest influence that Tony and Granger has had on us is in the area of staff leadership. When they first made their office forms available for purchase and download, we jumped on them. They are...by far...the best collection of church business/staffing forms on the market. Better than the free stuff from North Point and WAY BETTER than the crap being sold (for stupid amounts) by Fellowship. They provide great insight into the structure of a very effective staff (Granger's) and establish a starting point for developing your own structure or forms. If Compass Point had just dismissed the Granger resources as being from a modern mega-church with very little in common with us, we would have missed out on some tremendous resources!!!
I guess the point of this post is to say...never just toss out an idea, concept or direction in church planting/leadership until you have thoroughly researched it. There is a nugget of gold in almost everything out there today. It may take some innovation and creativity to make it a reality in your church...but it's out there. Look at everything, test the waters, pray over it, be guided by your individual vision and then utilize what you can. The greatest form of flattery is to take something someone else did and tweak to fit your situation.
I once saw an illustration at a Franklin Covey conference about determining your priorities. They used a large jar, a few big rocks and a bunch of sand. They said that the jar was your time schedule, the large rocks were your top priorities and the sand was all the other mundane...sometimes unimportant...things in your life. When they put the sand in the jar first, only a few of the big rocks could be added. They dumped everything out of the jar and then they put all of the big rocks in first. The sand filtered around them when it was poured in. The point was to know what your priorities are, schedule them first and make them paramount in your planning and life.
At Compass Point we are - what is being termed today - a simple church. We don't try to do everything in ministry or be all things to all people. We just don't have the resources, drive or...most importantly...the calling to do everything everyone wants us to do. In essence, we know our big rocks.
Our big rocks are love, community and action. To bring more clarity it means to love God, build community and take action. Everything we do at Compass Point revolves around one of those three things. If an idea is brought to us that doesn't incorporate one of those things, we drop it immediately...even if it's one of the most innovative and relevant things we've ever heard. Even if we think it will bring 1,000 new people in the door, we don't do it. It's not about relevance, numbers or innovation. It's about maintaining the vision and making our big rocks the top priority. If we do that then we know that it's then...and only then...that Compass Point is truly following God.
We tossed out the whole complicated Purpose-Driven church structure because it didn't make sense or work for us. Our mission statement is love, community and action. Our vision statement is love, community and action. Our core values are love, community and action. Our outreach and discipleship strategies are love, community and action. Our calling by God is love, community and action. Our tag line is love, community and action. We never stray from those bog rocks...no matter what!
I was spammed again last night by the porn freaks in my comments section. I don't really want to disable comments, because I enjoy the conversation. However, I will now moderate all comments before I allow them to be posted. Thanks to all those that legitimately comment on this blog. It's always great to hear you feedback, both positive and negative.
The funny thing about blogs is that anyone can look like an expert and appear to have millions of readers. This blog is no exception. On any given day I post about a myriad of things and topics...church planting, music, other bloggers, football, my life, humorous stories, current events and a bunch of other stuff. The truth is I am an expert at nothing and this blog only gets about 100 hits a day. Compared to folks like Tony Morgan or Mark Batterson...who get thousands of hits a day and speak at major conferences...I am nothing more than a pimple on the butt of church planting leaders.
However, over the last several months a strange thing has happened. People have been emailing or calling me asking for more information about how we do Compass Point. I find it weird and disturbing at times. It makes me wonder what kind of image I have portrayed to folks through my blog postings. Compass Point is not a modern, technology-driven mega-church. We are small, simple and do things completely different than what most church leadership conferences tell you to do. In essence, we are an experiment. Yet...even after explaining this to inquiring folks...they still seem intrigued by some of things we are doing.
Due to some recent conversations with the Compass Point Elders, some other bloggers and a couple of church planters, I've been encouraged to post some things about how we do church. I talked about doing this when I had my other blog, but then chickened out. This time...I must admit...I am willing do it because I'm getting a little tired of answering the same questions. It's really cool that some folks seemed interested in what we do at Compass Point, but trying to respond to each individual email or phone call has been daunting.
In the effort of full disclosure, there are few things that I'd like the readers of this blog to know before I begin posting about Compass Point:
#1 - We are not a large church. Our numbers are still relatively small compared to other bloggers out there. What we do have is pretty amazing percentages. 83% of our folks never had a church home before Compass Point. 61% are involved in one of our small groups (the national average for other churches is around 30%). While we have attenders of every age group, the majority are younger 20-somethings that are very art driven. We do our best to run people off that come over from other churches. The hard-headed ones stay and usually find themselves in leadership at some point. :-)
#2 - The Big Mo has just started to really move for us over the last three months. We started as a Bible study three years ago and have been meeting as an actual church for a little over two years. In that time we have seen steady growth, but we are just now getting to place where the momentum is beginning to really shift into high gear.
#3 - We thrive on being told something can't be done or an idea we have won't work. I guess it's our bullish nature, but when we're told that something has to be done a certain way, we normally head the other direction.
#4 - As I said before, we are an experiment. We are still becoming. We don't have all the answers...in fact, probably very few.
#5 - We are neither a modern church nor an Emergent church. We are not Calvinists or Armenians. We are not conservative or charismatic. We just really despise labels. Compass Point is what it is.
#6 - We have begun to pull away from our denomination. I am a Southern Baptist ordained pastor. The Florida Baptist Convention provided many resources for us when we began. However, the Southern Baptist Convention has been doing some really stupid stuff lately that makes us all look like idiots to the world. While we love...and support...our local association (South Florida Baptist Association), we have very little to do with the state or national Southern Baptist Convention.
#7 - We have nothing against modern church techniques or mega-churches. In talking with 20-somethings, we have begun to realize that Purpose-Driven, modern church principle and techniques will not reach the coming generations. Those techniques and ideas still work for many churches reaching aged 30+ and are needed in church plants today. It's just not for us.
#8 - The Compass Point way is not the way any other church should do things. It is what God led us to after many years of searching Scripture, praying, crying, working, etc. If readers of this blog want to experiment with some of these ideas, that's cool. If you are expecting to take what I write here, apply it to your church situation and expect results...well...it ain't going to happen. God will lead you and your church where it needs to go. I don't know where that is, but copying what God has led Compass Point to do is definitely not it.
#9 - Church planting and leadership is hard work. A normal work week for me is 60+ hours. I'm bi-vocational (I substitute teach in middle school and high school) so I'm in a class room about 20 hours a week. The 60+ hours mentioned above is over and above my teaching job. I guess what I'm saying is that you have to work hard or things just don't happen.
#10 - We screw up a lot. For everything we do right at Compass Point, we screw up ten things. As I said above, we are an experiment that is constantly pushing the edge of what is considered the norm in church planting. The point is that some of what I might blog here over the next several weeks could actually be a mistake. It'll be a few more months down the road before we know for sure.
That's about it, in a nutshell. The first post in this series will be sometime over the weekend or Monday. I'm going to try and blog straight through about Compass Point, with no postings about life, liberty or the pursuit of great music.
Tomorrow night is Compass Point's Outside The Box # 2 and I'm pretty excited about it. It's a concert event that features local and nationally-touring bands geared toward high school and college students. Not all the bands are Christian bands, but they all have a positive message. We also feature several local and global charities each time. It's been a great way to build relationships with local "scene" kids, as well as with the local band members. We've already seen several come to Compass Point as a result of the first Outside The Box back in September.
Last time we had To Write Love On Her Arms, Invisible Children and took up canned food for a local homeless shelter. We featured bands like Edison Glass, Bernard and The Dark Romantics. We drew about 150+ kids (which is great for Lakeland) and took in over 200 cans of soup. It was really an amazing night.
This time we have The Dark Romantics headlining the show (they are using it as their national CD release party), Discover America (Tooth & Nail), Look Mexico and The Vow. We'll be doing the canned food thing again, along with some other charities.
Every time we do an Outside The Box, there is this buzz around town. It's a hushed kind of word-of-mouth buzz that really gets the local "scene" kids into it. I just love the excitement that surrounds it and being a part of the event itself. I won't be able to sleep a wink tonight with anticipation. It's going to rock in a big way!!!
This morning I discovered something about my friend Gary Lamb that now prevents me from supporting his blog. It is not moral failure. It is not heresy. It is not a philosophical difference in church planting ideas. It is this post that he added today. Unless he repents, comes to his senses and listens to this for ten hours straight, I'm afraid I'm going to have to drop his blog from my links section. :-)
Denise and I had a great time at the Orlando Magic game tonight. The stadium was cool, the Magic won and we got to go on the court for a picture (it'll be a few days before that one is posted). All in all, it was a great way to spend Valentine's Day. Thanks Relevant Magazine for the tickets!!!
Up until today Sirius Satellite Radio had a really cool channel called "Revolution" It featured harder-edged Christian music by such artists as Fireflight, Nevertheless, DecembeRadio, etc. This morning it went dark. That sucks!
Sirius sent out an email yesterday saying that they had combined the entire "Revolution" playlist into a daily show on the "Spirit" channel. I went to that channel this morning. It really sucked!!! It's stuff like Avalon, Michael W. Smith and Natalie Grant. If I wanted cheese I'd have found a happy cow in California.
I'm feeling no Christian hard rock love from Sirius right now.
A couple of weeks ago Relevant Magazine offered free tickets to tonight's Orlando Magic game just for emailing them. I guess there was some kind of time frame involved for emailing in. What ever the deal was, Denise and I were one of the couples that received tickets. We're pretty pumped as Denise has never been to a professional basketball game and I haven't been to one since I was in college.
I'm also pretty excited about meeting the folks behind Relevant. I used to hang out at Strang Communications offices "back in the day" because I wrote some stuff for Charisma Magazine. However, I have never met any of the Relevant folks. I must admit, I look forward to receiving my copy of Relevant in the mail each month. It's one of the few magazines out there that I read from cover to cover. It's also one of the few websites I drop by on a daily basis.
All in all, it should be a fun evening for us and a great way to spend Valentine's Day.
As long as I'm posting one music video tonight, I might as well post another one. I've only seen this one time on MTV years ago. The way the art, animation and live shots are connected is just amazing. It is my favorite music video of all time and I think it stands the test of time. It doesn't hurt that it's also by one of my favorite bands led by one of the best vocalists in rock n' roll.
I have always had a thing about pastors plastering pictures
of themselves on every single piece of marketing material produced by their
church (i.e., my picture is definitely displayed in the graphic above, but
you'd be hard pressed to find it any where on the Compass Point website).
I'm talking about pastors putting their photo on the cover of the Sunday
bulletin, all brochures, the email newsletter or the church website. I
really get tickled when the pastor's image is the biggest graphic on the page.
To me, it just says, "Ego run a muck"...or that some graphic designer
is trying to impress his or her pastor.
I thought I seen it all, but this one really had me cracking up yesterday! Little wording, little logo, little church
photo but…big old pastor's photo! I was falling out!!! :-)
I sure hope there is a web designer in South Florida going, "Man, the pastor is really going to love this when I show it to him!" :-)
Andy Stanley and his folks at North Point Community Church in Atlanta has made the majority of their office documents and forms available for free online. There is some pretty cool stuff here to use as an example for creating you own forms or docs. Check it all out by going to the North Point Ministries Administration page.
I've been digging this blog for some time, but have never really posted about it. Don is a 90+ guy from Canada that blogs about life through his eyes. This posting is one of the most honest...and refreshing... pieces of writing I've ever encountered. The man has seen and done much in his life, as his Wikipedia page talks about. I never let a day go by without checking out his blog. It...literally...is one of the highlights of my day!
The Police are back at it again and I'm pumped!!! They just kicked off the Grammys and are right in the middle of "Roxanne". I may be a little biased, but they still sound amazing. They are holding a press conference tomorrow to announce what most people feel will be a full-fledged tour. I'm stoked! Barring $100+ tickets I'll be there. I saw them four times in the 80's and will do everything I can to catch them in the 21st Century also.
I really never thought I see this day come around again. I know The Police did the Amnesty International dates back in 1986 and the Rock N' Roll Hall Of Fame induction ceremonies several years back (along with a pretty drunken set at Sting's private wedding). I just expected a full-on reunion tour.
Well, they just finished the song, so I can change over to another channel. If I were up for a Grammy myself, I might actually watch the whole thing. :-)
You don't have to put on the red light...
My wife is getting completely sick of all my compact discs and ancient cassette tapes laying around the house...not to mention the thousands of songs I've downloaded to my iPod. She keeps threatening to clean them out for me. I keep threatening to hide her body where the cops can't find it if she does. :-)
We have worked out a fairly agreeable living arrangement as far as our individual stuff goes. She doesn't mess with my music albums and I don't mess with...well...pretty much everything else in the house. Her recent threats have upset the balance of that relationship. As a Rich Mullins fan, she doesn't understand...nor see...the value of...say...Metallica's "Ride The Lightning" album or The Clash's "London Calling". What a pity!!!
However, it did get me thinking about something. What if I could only have ten compact discs? What if I couldn't have all the music in my collection? What could I live without and what would kill me to get rid of? After several days of thinking, pondering and agonizing over the decision, I finally came up with ten albums that I just couldn't live a life of quality without.
Not wanting to make the same mistake that Outreach Magazine did with their list, I'd like to make a few disclaimers before I give the "winners":
1. I am the only one on the panel of judges. This was mainly because it's music for my ears...and my ears alone. I'd deem no one else (except maybe Gary Lamb or Justin Todd Herod) qualified to make such an important decision.
2. The musical criteria I used for coming to this conclusion consisted of whether the band rocked, could I listen to the entire album without skipping a song, do I wake up in the morning yearning to hear a song off the album...and finally...can you do some serious air-guitar shredding to the album?
3. There is no particular order to this list. I did not want to create some kind of perceived contest or ranking for these albums. I have no desire to be personally responsible for the guys in Aerosmith beating the crap out of the Cheap Trick guys at a "Innovative Classic Rock Bands Convention" because they didn't make the Top Five.
4. Yes, I realize that GNR's album is the only non-live album on the list. Yes, I know GNR has a live album which could have made the list. The only problem with GNR's live album is that when you put it in your compact disc player you have to wait forty-five minutes to an hour before it actually begins. SIDE NOTE - Only those folks that have tried to see GNR live will get the previous joke.
With all of that said, I now give you "the list". Scroll down the sidebar to the right. You should see "the list" about halfway down the page. Browse, comment, be disgusted...but most of all...enjoy!
The Big Mo wasn't dying at Compass Point a few weeks back, it was just hiding. :-)
The last several weeks have been off-the-chain! The music is pumping, the messages are better (I'm getting in more study time), the excitement level is rising and folks are responding by stepping up to leadership...and bringing friends with them to church. Not just any friends, but unchurched friends. It has been a blast.
Last night real late, we found out that there is a scheduling conflict with our band's rehearsal studio. We had planned to introduce a new version of an old hymn and maybe get in a "Flock Of Seagulls" tune (for the cheesy 80's feel that several of our 20-somethings get a kick out of) while people were leaving after the service. Needless to say, practice was canceled for this week. My worship leader and I aren't sweating it...in fact we love this part of the job. The whole "gotta be flexible because you never know what's going to happen" thing is really exciting. For structured folks, leading a church plant would drive them crazy. However, for me it's like an adrenaline rush!!!
Anyway, we're all going in early Sunday morning to tune the room with our new DBX Drive Rack unit (don't ask me I have no clue, but our drummer is almost giddy with excitement). After that, the band will find out what they can pull off musically and make the necessary changes to accommodate. After that we get to see the magic happen.
You see, what I'm really pumped up about is that when something goes wrong during the week...God shows up in a big on the weekend!!! I can't wait for Sunday!!!
I wouldn't even be mentioning any of this except I've received a ton of emails about it. I really don't want to give the folks responsible the satisfaction of acknowledging their perverted and twisted actions, but I feel a need to explain the situation to my normal blog readers.
Last night some idiots left links to a couple of demented...and potentially illegal...porn sites as comments on several of my blog postings. Unfortunately, I was in meetings all day with no Internet access and didn't see it this morning before I left the house. I had no clue they were even there until I checked my cell phone's voice mail during a break and heard about it from my good friend, Duane DeGravel. I couldn't get them deleted until late this afternoon when I got back home.
To my normal blog readers...I apologize for the filth you had to see here. We (TypePad, my lawyer and I) have taken steps to ensure that it won't happen again.
To those sick scumbags that left the links...I have little interest in trying to evangelize you. I do, however have a great interest in showing you what a size 13 shoe would look like lodged in your colon!!!
I have reported you to the TypePad folks as spammers and contacted the FBI office in Tampa about the sick stuff you are promoting. Also, my lawyer has filed an official "cease and desist" letter with your service provider...America Online. As we speak, they are taking action to track you down so that you will not have access to the Web ever again. Ta-ta, bye-bye, done-done!!! Now...go crawl back into the slime-filled hole from which you came!!!
I rarely attend church planting or leadership conferences. They are always way too Amway pep rally feeling for me. It's always the same speakers, bragging about how great their church is and giving you just a tidbit of information in hopes you'll buy forty copies of their worthless book to get the rest. Other times the speaker just rehashes the same old crap that was in their book so you feel hosed for paying twice for the same information. I'm just too freakin' old, experienced and cynical to go through all of that "rah-rah" cheerleader garbage.
I made a vow after blowing Compass Point's hard-earned money on an extremely large...but useless...church plant conference in Orlando, that I was through doing church plant/leadership conferences. Except for leadership stuff done by Mosaic (which is unlike any church leadership conference I've ever attended), I've only been going to Bible-feeding and theological/doctrinal conferences on occasion. That is all about to change.
I'm pretty pumped up to be going to the ChurchPlanters.com conference in Atlanta later this month. Not only is it an early birthday gift (I hit the big four one on February 28th), but I get to meet some folks in person that I've only talked to online. While most of the speakers at the conference are pretty well known in my circle of blogger friends, they are not in the upper realms of Christian "super pastor" stardom of say...Bill Hybels, Ed Young, Jr., or Rick Warren. I like seeing some of the newer voices in church planting being used.
What I'm most pumped about is the breakout sessions. With guys like Gary Lamb and Perry Noble leading, you know you are going to get truthful stuff in a fairly "let's cut the crap" kind of way. I'm really looking forward to it.
My only concern is the addition of Ed Stetzer to the speaking roster talking about "Relate". I love the guy and totally dig where he is coming from, but...most of us guys attending the conference are already in the missional camp. Ed - if you actually ever read this blog - do us a favor...give us something more than you did in "Breaking The Missional Code". Most of us have read the book, heard the sales pitch, bought into the idea and purchased the t-shirt. Give us something about what the future of the missional church looks like...where it's going...how we can take it to the next level...something beyond what we've already read in the book!
I guess what I'm most excited about however, is hearing how God is working in the lives and flocks of other church planters. That stuff always gets my spiritual and creative juices flowing. I'm also hoping to meet some new people...and avoid the ones I've pissed off with some of my blog postings. :-)
If you are going to be in attendance at the conference, drop me an email. I'd love to hook up. If you can't stand me or my blog and don't want to be around me...send an email anyway. I'll send you my itinerary for the three days...that way you can avoid me with pinpoint accuracy. :-)
Well, LOST is back on and I've got to say, thus far I'm unimpressed. Too much crap going on with "the others" and not enough of the original characters (i.e., Hurley, Charlie, Loch, etc.). I'm hoping that it gets better soon or I may start tuning elsewhere.
On a brighter television note, the new Mac vs. PC commercial about the Vista protection thing is HILARIOUS!!! The way the dude keeps saying "Cancel" or "Allow" had me in the floor!!!
Someone at Mosaic Church has started putting their videos up on YouTube. As of today there is only four videos, but there is some pretty cool and creative stuff there.
As if the world needs another review of this year's Superbowl, I will offer my two cents nevertheless.
The Game - A complete snore-fest! While I'm glad the Colts won the game, it was one of the most uneventful and boring Superbowl's I've seen in a long time. The rain factor really sent the whole affair into the crapper!
The MVP - You have got to be kidding me, Peyton Manning? What exactly did he do? The press says he didn't make any mistakes and held onto the ball. Isn't that what he gets paid millions of dollars to do? He's a great quarterback, but his non-stellar play last night did not warrant him the MVP. Dominic Rhodes or Joseph Addai were much more deserving of the MVP! Actually Rex Grossman was the best player for the Colts last night.
Prince - While I truly missed a good "wardrobe malfunction", I thought Prince rocked the house! To me, it was one of the better "modern-day" halftime shows in recent Superbowl history. You gotta give Prince and his band props for playing in the downpour. They didn't fall, they didn't quit, they gave it their all and I know that had to be getting shocked at some point in the performance.
The Commercials - They all just sucked. Some sucked worse than others (all of the car commercials were bad, including that stupidity with the guys in their underwear). Others we not as bad (E*Trade and Career Builder were okay - the K Fed commercial would have been hilarious if it hadn't been pimped so much before last night). All in all, quite a few companies wasted alot of money last night.
The African American "Thing" - I'm not a racist and I'm not trying to start any crap. However, the whole African American focus was really overblown...and not needed...last night. It was the first Superbowl to have rain. The Colts were the first indoor stadium team that won a Superbowl. It was the first Superbowl to feature an opening kick-off touchdown. Smith and Dungy are two really great coaches and men of integrity...not to mention they are solid Christians. Yet, all the press wanted to focus on was that it was the first Superbowl that an African American coach made it to (Smith) and won (Dungy). C'mon people, this is 2007. Isn't it time to just let people be people and not label them by color? It may just be me, but I think it's pretty racist to focus on people's race...instead of their accomplishments!!!
Compass Point had another great day today. I'm sure hundreds...if not thousands...of churches across America had a great day today. Yet, I dare say that no church set a better example of the power of God's people than this one.
What the news article doesn't tell...that local news covered...is that FEMA and the Red Cross had work crews shut down for the hour that they were meeting. Also, the FAA refused access to news copters during that time, so as not to disturb the service.
Church is not about the building, the technology or the location. It's about the people and the power of God's leading! What a incredible reminder and testimony they displayed today in order to inspire us all!!!
I found this photo (click the thumbnail to enlarge it) online over at the website for the Roto Rooter guys. Is it just me or is like the most perfect toilet? If I had this thing my legs would be forever asleep, but my colon would be really clean! :-)
Thanks for all the emails and phone calls today. I'm sorry I haven't been able to respond more quickly, but the power has been on and off since around 6:00 AM. Denise and I - as well as our family and the folks of Compass Point - are fine.
The tornadoes were about 40 miles to the north and east of us. We have some folks with Compass Point that work for the fire department and insurance companies. They are saying that the devastation could be worse than the hurricanes of 2004 and that the death toll could still climb. Please keep all of the folks in the affected areas in your prayers. Many our without homes or power tonight. Others are dealing with the loss of everything they own or loved ones. All in all, it has been a tragic day for Central Floridians.
