Los Angeles

The Dream Center gave us a whole new view of Los Angeles. Here's some of what we saw.

What I got from reading the Big Idea

I suppose you could call this a bit of a book review. I recently read the Big Idea by Dave and Jon Ferguson and Eric Bramlett. The book was one of those books that as you're reading it the creative juices get flowing. The creativity was contagious and I loved that.

Basic Idea

The basic concept of the Big Idea is that we are overstimulated already, why do churches contribute to this? Our message, the most important message, is getting lost in the fog of the hundreds of ideas that we set forth on any given weekend. We give announcements that are unrelated to the message which is unrelated to the music which is unrelated to the kids learning and so on. We send out a million little ideas. The big question is, what if we gave everyone one big idea each week that they could live out in their life and focus on for growth. Would we actually enhance growth by providing them with less stuff to think about.

I'm pretty interested in the idea of the Big Idea. It makes sense. It seems like it would be tough to take a church from not being a Big Idea church to being a Big Idea church (although the book describes a few different depths of commitment).

Ultimately the thing that I've been most impressed with from the guys at CCC is their heart for the reproducing church. I'll be writing about that more in the future, but for now, the Big Idea = recommended.

New Thing Network

I'm going to be heading out to Chicago for a "multi-site practicum" that's put on by the New Thing network I am very excited to see what kinds of things they have to say about the process of going multi-site. One of the things that has been amazing in the research that I've been doing is that in almost every church that goes multi-site, the addition of new sites causes both the sending site and the home site to grow. I think it has something to do with the momentum that comes when a church is actually doing the mission that God calls it to do. In "The Big Idea" they call this missional velocity. I love that concept! It communicates that as we do the mission of Jesus Christ, it creates a velocity and a momentum to continue on the path of doing the mission of Jesus Christ. It's not that it makes it easier, but it makes each church more focused on doing that one thing that God calls us to do.

I'll be writing shortly to share about 2 things:

1. What I got from reading the Big Idea (which was a ton!@)
2. What I got from going to the multi-site practicum

Stay tuned :)

Unbound photo shoot (updated)

New and improved

Going Multi-Site

We're off on an adventure. We have a leadership team. We have a teaching team. We have a few other key individuals lined up to take on major responsibility. We are developing a vision. We are developing distinctives. All of this is happening and we can't stop thinking about the excitement of what God is doing.

The Leadership team is planning for an April 13 start date.

I will be going to a multi-site practicum in Chicago to work out some details and ask some questions.

The more I look at churches that are going multi-site (one church, many extensions) the more I see this as the future of God's church in a very real and practical way. It costs less, it creates more opportunity for community, leadership development, personal commitment, personal interaction and so much more.

As God does more...