Anthem Church Prayer Update

I know not everyone digs being on a prayer team cause you get the weekly updates and then you feel guilty when you don't actually pray, so here is the update for that person. Just check the blog from time to time and get the update, when you take the time to come look, it means you're probably ready to pray for us :)

Here's what I sent out to our Prayer Team:

Good weekend to you all :)

This week was challenging and encouraging at the same time. We are working on fundraising and location stuff which are always at the mercy of other people, but God open some amazing doors and encouraged me in ways that I didn't expect. Here is the prayer request for this week:

Starting a church involves gathering outside support to help sustain the ministry in its early stages. This is a particularly tough thing to do right now as churches and individuals are struggling financially. Please pray that God would open more doors and create new partnerships to give Anthem a healthy place to start from.

Thanks for your prayers! Give me a call if you have any questions or want to spend time together. If you're going to be a part of Anthem and we haven't hung out yet, I would love to spend some time with you here in the next few weeks. Talk to you all soon.

Reproducing in Action

I love seeing things that reproduce. I think its a natural, healthy approach to church, business, relationships, marriage, leadership, etc. I started to take notice of a company last year because they sold stuff that I liked, snowboard gear. As time went on I started to see a pattern that I'll outline here. Maybe there's something to learn from these guys.

*Disclaimer, I'm not 100% sure about the facts that I have for this story, but the point still gets made.

The story starts with an online business called www.backcountry.com. A few years ago they set out to be the #1 online retailer for outdoor and backcountry gear. They created a business model that sold things cheaper than you could get from a store because of the low overhead of an online business. From backcountry.com came an idea for a new type of website. www.steapandcheap.com became a clearing house for backcountry.com. They sold items one at a time at ridiculous discounts. The website became popular very quickly. People started watching the site so that as one item sold out or time ran out, a new item was immediately posted. They created a forum so backcountry, skiing, snowboarding, biking, surfing and all around outdoor enthusiasts could collectively celebrate great deals.

Steapandcheap.com continued to grow in popularity so out of that was birthed a new website called www.whiskeymilitia.com. Whiskeymilitia.com catered to the younger generation of aggressive skiers, snowboarders, skaters and surfers who loved the occasional deal on steapandcheap.com that fit their genre. A similar thing happened to whiskeymilitia.com. Backcountry.com now had two popular websites that were clearing out items and creating a following around amazing deals specifically catered to these smaller groups of enthusiasts. As time went on (a short amount of time), both websites became so popular that the individual groups on each forum were calling for higher frequencies of their favorite items. So as Whiskeymilitia.com and Steapandcheap.com accelerated in sales and popularity, more websites were born.

www.brociety.com was created to sell snowboard gear pure and simple. www.bonktown.com was created to sell road biking gear. www.chainlove.com was created for mountain biking. Whiskeymiltia.com was able to focus on clothing and skate/surf culture. Steapandcheap.com zeroed in on the backcountry/outdoor worlds of hiking, camping and skiing. Each website operates in nearly the exact same way and as far as I know from the same warehouse in Utah.

This evolution of a company caught my attention because of the unique approach to doing business. They chose to continually reproduce the model to increase in their ability to speak the language of and deliver the product to a specific contingent of people.

That's the story. Not sure why I thought you'd like it, but I hope you did. Let me know if you have any thoughts or corrections on the story.

Peace. Out. 

So You Think You Can Dance

So, the Lakers lost last night. It's hard to go to bed right after the Lakers lose. Kristen and I stayed up and watched the So You Think You Can Dance premier with my mom. I could not believe the way some of those dancers moved. I was blown away! The only downside of the show, dawg, for me, for you tonight was the judges. After a few seasons of American Idol, you kind of learn to love those guys, but then you see another show take a shot at the format and it is kind of obnoxious. Sorry if you love em', but I thought they were annoying.

Yes, I know this is a waste of a blog, but what good are blogs if you can't rant about the show you watched last night :)

Today's Plan

I'm sure that this is of extreme interest to many of you :), but it's helpful for me so here you go:

1. We have two desserts, one tonight and one tomorrow night. They are primarily to thank our supporters who have contributed over the last year to our Leadership Residency and church plant. We are pretty much all set, but I'm going to prepare some notes for saying thank you, sharing what we learned in the Residency and casting vision for where Anthem Church is going.

2. We are going to start two community groups next week. They are primarily designed to take our potential community group leaders through a shortened group to get to know us and let us get to know them. I'm going to be inviting leaders to join us starting next Thursday and Sunday.

3. We are raising funds and have a plant to bust through the economic downturn :) So I'll be working on two different fund raising letters and get those ready to send out asap.

4. We're having a launch team meeting at the end of May so I'll be finalizing the details and informing everyone about where and when that's happening.

5. I'm meeting a church planter from Ventura for lunch at his friend's pub in Santa Paula. He planted Catalyst Ventura recently so I've got a lot of questions for him.

6. I'm meeting up with one of our launch team members to go for a walk this afternoon. He and his wife are going to lead a community group and he may be one of our key leaders. 

7. I'll be coming home and Kristen and I will be getting the house ready for dessert tonight at 7:00.

A day in the life of a new church. Want to help get this thing started? Email me at Matt.j.larson@gmail.com and we'll get you on a team, point you to how you can support us financially or get you signed up for our Anthem Prayer Team.

Check out www.jointheanthem.com for more information on Anthem Church. Thanks for your prayers and support!

Stuff I learned on our drive home

1. Due to the new Obama infrastructure plan, there's road construction EVERYWHERE!!! Nice to see people working.

2. Driving an Expedition while towing a heavy trailer is the perfect solution to my small bladder, we had to stop for gas every 160 miles... ouch.

3. If you have the choice, do a road trip in 2009 rather than 2008 because the gas is half price.

4. When driving with 3 kids 6 and under, it's better to leave at 3:00 am for the driving days because then they get to sleep for 4 hours of drive time. Definitely worth the sacrifice of being a little tired.

5. Loved the iPhone. It changes a road trip completely! Gas, food, lodging, mpg, banking... there's an app for that!

6. Buy a big box of sweet tarts from Wal Mart before you go. It costs $1 and it keeps you from buying candy at every stop. You can eat two Sweet Tarts and it satisfies the sweet tooth.

7. Audiobooks by Clive Cussler, Mark Driscoll and Harlan Coben make the 3:00 am

 departure doable. Riveting stuff.

8. Red Box is amazing. They have them everywhere. You can rent dvd's anywhere, return anywhere and it's only a $1. They are scattered all along the 70 and 80 interstates so you can rent on your roadie!

9. Eastern Colorado is flat and boring.

10. Eastern Nebraska is lush and gorgeous

11. There are parts of Utah that are scary when you're only getting 9mpg. Longest stretch without anything was 110 miles of mountainous, desert terrain.

12. Los Angeles is a bummer of a place to end a road trip. 30 miles from home and the 101 is totally log jammed in traffic.

13. Load your trailer correctly. When loaded incorrectly it sways worse than a certain republican senator.

14. St. George, Utah was an anomaly. Tons of blonde 20 somethings hanging out

 on a

Friday night like it was Hollywood. Also the home of Brigham Young's house and the oldest LDS temple.

Ok, that's all I could think of. Here's a few pictures from the trip :)

Lessons from Reproducing

Here are some notes from three church planters/reproducing church leaders that shared their experience from launching new sites recently. Very helpful stuff from the NewThing Network Gathering.

Dave Dummitt:
1. The Big Brother Syndrome: No matter how much we communicated the blessing of reproduction and prayed that people would have the graciousness of the prodigal father, there were still people, leaders, that were the older brother. They were skeptical and questioning of our decision. That was tough.
2. Launch team around 150 with the goal of breaking the 200 barrier before launch.
3. Start with a campus pastor if at all possible
4. Spiritual warfare is real

Greg Lee:
1. The Big Brother Syndrome--The new campus was getting everything they asked for, but there was a strategic decision to run lean at the original campus so that the new launch could be successful. This created a little bit of a jealous big brother situation.
2. Surprised both positively and negatively about how for some people the reproducing conversation kicked in, but for others it was totally foreign even after two years of talking about it.
3. Excellence. What is it that we are trying to reproduce. Is it the excellence that we have at our originating location or is it self-defined at the new location?
4. Expectations. What do we expect at launch? What are the numbers and the level of impact that we're going to have? It was hard not to communicate the expectations differently to different groups of people (congregation, staff, management team)
5. Campus Freedom. The idea of being one church

We sent 120 from our original campus and that filled back in immediately.


Brian Moll:
1. Motive check: larger church? Newer fad? Fitting in with NewThing? or helping people find their way back to God?
2. Remain confident in the plan. We had a lot of connection events that nobody showed up to. Just because one connection event doesn't succeed doesn't mean the church isn't going to succeed.
3. Buy-in: My wife, the staff, the leaders, the congregation. This is going to mean a lot of effort, energy and time.
4. Location pastor is necessary if they are sold out to making the location successful.
5. Very easy to make the church about Sunday (worship, program, etc.). We found that we need to be thinking about the years ahead and the development of a real church happening.
6. 2nd campus launch team was great because everyone on board was sold out on the vision of reproducing.
7. It tested the depth of our bench.
8. It raised the value of reproducing.
9. It provided an opportunity for new volunteers.
10. Bar was raised for both locations (language, signage, series choices)
11. Echo: Spiritual warfare is real

Check out www.jointheanthem.com for more info on a future reproducing church.

NewThing Gathering

I am so excited about the NewThing Network Gathering that is taking place today and tomorrow in Naperville, Il. I get to hang out for the next 48 hours with a group of guys that are months and years ahead of me in the church planting experience. They care deeply about the things that God has put on my heart. They love Jesus and live accordingly. If you have a few minutes, take some time to read up on the mission of NewThing and check out some of the churches around the NewThing Network.

West to East (cause we read left to right and west is better)

Momentum Christian Church (San Diego)

Anthem Church (Thousand Oaks)

Ikon (San Francisco)

Church! At Bethany (Beaverton, Or)

Jacob's Well (Thornton, Co)

Paseo Christian Church (El Paso, Tx)

Restore Community Church (Kansas City, Mo)

The Ridge Christian Church (New Berlin, Wi)

The Village Christian Church (Minooka, Il)

Community Christian Church (Naperville/Plainfield/Cari-llon/Yorkville/Montgomery/Shorewood/Romeoville/Pilsen/DT Naperville)

Waterfront Christian Church (Schaumburg, Il)

Suncrest Christian Church (St. John, In 2x)

2|42 Community Church (Brighton/Ann Arbor, Mi)

Southpoint Community Christian Church (Trenton, Mi)

Crossings (Knoxville, Tn)

Lifepointe Church (Raleigh, NC)

Reunion Christian Church (Boston, Ms)

Forefront Church (New York City, NY 2x)

Community Christian Church at High Vista (Davenport, Fl)

The Pursuit Christian Church (Miami, Fl 2x)

Bill and Rachel Carroll (Paris, France)

Frontline Ministries (San Pablo City, The Philippines x2)

I know that's a lot of clicks... but if you've got the time, check em' out!

Wait! Don’t Start That Church... yet.

Theoretical church planter checklist = 

Reputable Bible college: Check. 

10 years + of youth ministry experience: Check. 

MDiv from a good seminary: Check. 

Awkward choice of facial hair: Check. 

Smokin’ hot wife and three amazing kids: Check. 

Son of a lead pastor/planter of a large church: Check

According to the standard checklist issued by WCPO (World Church Planting Organization--which I just made up) I seemed to have it all. I was told by a couple people that I had the “pedigree” of a church planter and I was ready to roll. I made it through assessment with flying colors and was even blessed/encouraged by a denomination. What more did we need? I don’t exactly know how to say this because it wasn’t a case of being gun shy, we just weren’t ready to start a church. There was still something missing.

In our ongoing conversation about church planting my wife and I spoke frequently about a church that reproduces. We wanted to be about more than starting one church, but about reproducing leaders at all levels and sending people out to do it again. It made sense to us because we believed that people our age weren’t going to drive from long distances to hear a preacher, so if we want to reach them, we have to go to them. The thing that is causing people to catch the vision of Jesus’ mission is the idea of being Christ followers together, doing life together, seeing the world transformed by truth together. For that to happen, the best strategy was to reproduce and recreate churches or locations throughout the county in southern California that had captured our hearts (Ventura County). The only problem with this is that I had no idea how create a reproducing church culture. If we were going to be successful at accomplishing the vision God had given us, we needed to learn from people who had done what we were called to do.

About 12 months ago I was hanging out at a conference in Naperville, Illinois and through a series of conversations I was introduced to the concept of a Leadership Residency. I had never heard of anything like this in the church world before. I had heard of internships, but I had already done one of those. The leadership residency concept was new to me. The way it was described was simple, a doctor goes through college in pre med, med school and then, when he’s done with the book studies he does a residency at a hospital. This is where a doctor hones his craft and learns the intricacies and style of the particular area of medicine that he wants to practice. I loved the idea, but it just didn’t make sense with a house, kids and a heart for starting something that could barely be contained.

It didn’t take long for God to open us up to the reality that this type of thing needed to happen. If we wanted to see this vision of the reproducing church become a reality we needed to be a part of that life and culture gaining the hands on experience, building our network and learning from people in the world of the reproducing church. God was using this concept to alter our understanding of the ordinary path of a church planter. It’s gotten to the point for me that I would say don’t start that church without doing a residency. Honestly, I can’t tell you if it has “worked” or not because I haven’t started a church yet. Regardless of what “works” there is a healthy way to prepare to start churches. I believe that going through a residency is an extremely healthy way to prepare yourself and your spouse (if applicable... meaning if you’re married... if you’re not then this doesn’t apply... meaning not applicable). If this has sparked your interest, I’ve provided a few links at the bottom of this blog for you to check out. You can also contact me for more questions and yes... if you want to be a resident with me at Anthem Church and witness the launch of a brand new church, give me a call. We will be hosting a NewThing resident with the goal of preparing you to launch a church/campus in the future. 

Some reference points on Leadership Residencies:

www.newthing.org (contact Eric Metcalf: Eric@communitychristian.org)

www.hcbc.com Hill Country Bible Church Residency Program (click “Church planting”)

www.theaterchurch.com/about/protege National Community Church Protege program