After driving 2700 miles this past week my family and I are back in Southern California. It's been an incredible 6 weeks away. We spent two weeks traveling and four weeks living in Alpharetta, GA so I could participate with Damon in an internship at North Point Community Church. We spent 6 days a week preparing to become a strategic partner church plant of North Point. Our whole purpose for this adventure is to lead people into a growing relationships with Jesus Christ. There are many ways a church can do this and N.P.'s model is one of them. I personally think it's a very effective ministry model. Why? Because it's about removing obstacles between people and their Creator by creating a few excellent steps (environments) towards spiritual growth which we define as: 1. Intimacy with God, 2. Community with Insiders, 3. Influence with Outsiders.
So what's our next step? Our strategic calendar is in place and we just have to work it.
I'll keep you posted with how that calendar plays out...
When you think of your local church what are the things you observe that could be an obstacle between you and God? For you regular church goers, you may have to think a little harder. :)
Monday, July 14, 2008
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Where are we planting?
I am excited to plant a new church in a very cool metro area. Our staff has been referring to it as the "Ventura-Oxnard" Metro Area (pop. 500,000 in a 15 min. drive radius) but the White House refers to it as the "Oxnard-Ventura-Thousand Oaks" Metro Area (Pop. 800,000).
133 churches in our metro area above. A similarly populated area in the south would have about 800 churches. There is definetly room for one more church!
The actual city we're planting in is Oxnard, CA. Honestly, I think it's one of the weirdest city names I've ever heard. Combing the words "Ox" and "Nard" really make an enjoyable moment when that rolls off the tongue! Hence the reason we like to say we're planting in the "Ventura-Oxnard" metro Area. :) The specific community in Oxnard we're planting is called River Park. It's brand new with much of it currently still under construction. The community is located 30 minutes north of LA county (Via the 101 freeway) and smack dab in the middle of Malibu and Santa Barbara (another popular alternative way to describe Oxnard without using the name Oxnard!).
If you're iching to move and not sure where... consider River Park. I think it's price point is undervalued and you'd have the opporutnity for some significant equity in the near future, especially when the commercial area begins to come together. Oh and if you do move, I can recomend a great new church family that needs your help.
133 churches in our metro area above. A similarly populated area in the south would have about 800 churches. There is definetly room for one more church!
The actual city we're planting in is Oxnard, CA. Honestly, I think it's one of the weirdest city names I've ever heard. Combing the words "Ox" and "Nard" really make an enjoyable moment when that rolls off the tongue! Hence the reason we like to say we're planting in the "Ventura-Oxnard" metro Area. :) The specific community in Oxnard we're planting is called River Park. It's brand new with much of it currently still under construction. The community is located 30 minutes north of LA county (Via the 101 freeway) and smack dab in the middle of Malibu and Santa Barbara (another popular alternative way to describe Oxnard without using the name Oxnard!).
If you're iching to move and not sure where... consider River Park. I think it's price point is undervalued and you'd have the opporutnity for some significant equity in the near future, especially when the commercial area begins to come together. Oh and if you do move, I can recomend a great new church family that needs your help.
Friday, July 4, 2008
New Favorite Christian Bookstore
At Tangers Outlet mall in Locust Grove, GA south of Atlanta. Bunch of tables set up and most books for $5 each. Recent titles too! I spent $67 and walked out with a lot of bookage!
If you ever find yourself in Locust Grove, GA... check it out!
If you ever find yourself in Locust Grove, GA... check it out!
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Elevation Church
Spent 24 hours in Charlotte, NC. Met with a staffer from elevationchurch.com last night and attended both of their campuses this morning. Few comments:
1. Their church seeks to 'seek and save the lost' and strategize church to that end.
2. Their guest service team: tearing it up! By far the most warm welcome I've ever received walking into a church!
3. Setup team: On location by 5am. 5AM!!! Earliest I've ever heard a church begin setup. And there are about 50 on site at that time! Not one person stood around wasting time. These guys and gals took their volunteer positions serious!
4. The staff is very intentional about casting vision. Every meeting is 50% vision/50% tactical. When a volunteer understands the connection of their role to the vision and you multiply that by 280 you get elevationchurch.org!
5. They keep it SIMPLE. 1. Worship experience. 2. Small Groups. That's all!
6. Two years old and about 4,000 attendees.
7. No youth ministry. 50% of the Sunday morning volunteers were youth. What's that saying?
8. Every volunteer is required to refer to Stephen Furtick as 'Pastor', 'Pastor Stephen' or 'Pastor Stephen Furtick'. Seriously, it's required! You'll hear things like, "Pastor said this..." or "Pastor does that..." That kind of weird's me out. I'm not saying it's wrong... it's just different. Every staff and volunteer I connected with is normal. They don't worship Stephen and I didn't sense any weird (sinful!) stuff like that at all but they want to follow the vision God has put on their leaders heart and follow it well. I respect that. I didn't meet Stephen, he was speaking at another church. ButI met his vision and passion for the unbeliever when I met his staff and volunteers.
Bed time! I'm running on a couple hours of sleep and vertigo is setting in...
1. Their church seeks to 'seek and save the lost' and strategize church to that end.
2. Their guest service team: tearing it up! By far the most warm welcome I've ever received walking into a church!
3. Setup team: On location by 5am. 5AM!!! Earliest I've ever heard a church begin setup. And there are about 50 on site at that time! Not one person stood around wasting time. These guys and gals took their volunteer positions serious!
4. The staff is very intentional about casting vision. Every meeting is 50% vision/50% tactical. When a volunteer understands the connection of their role to the vision and you multiply that by 280 you get elevationchurch.org!
5. They keep it SIMPLE. 1. Worship experience. 2. Small Groups. That's all!
6. Two years old and about 4,000 attendees.
7. No youth ministry. 50% of the Sunday morning volunteers were youth. What's that saying?
8. Every volunteer is required to refer to Stephen Furtick as 'Pastor', 'Pastor Stephen' or 'Pastor Stephen Furtick'. Seriously, it's required! You'll hear things like, "Pastor said this..." or "Pastor does that..." That kind of weird's me out. I'm not saying it's wrong... it's just different. Every staff and volunteer I connected with is normal. They don't worship Stephen and I didn't sense any weird (sinful!) stuff like that at all but they want to follow the vision God has put on their leaders heart and follow it well. I respect that. I didn't meet Stephen, he was speaking at another church. ButI met his vision and passion for the unbeliever when I met his staff and volunteers.
Bed time! I'm running on a couple hours of sleep and vertigo is setting in...
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Atlanta
I'm watching the celtics-lakers game. It's tied at 90 with 4 minutes to go in the fourth quarter. I hope the Celtics win. Yea, even though I'm from California I'm not a very big lakers fan. I'd be surprised if the Lakers win. The Celtics are a stronger and more consistent team.
So I'm currently living in Alpharetta, GA. I've been here over a week and have about three weeks to go until we head back to the left coast. I've got a nice new apartment over looking a great pool. We've been in the pool almost every day cause it's so stinking hot and humid here! I'm enjoying the heat and will miss it when I leave. The one bummer out here is that west coast sports games run soooo late! It's almost midnight here and this game still has three minutes to go!!! (Lakers are up by 2 now :()
Today I went up to Chatanooga, TN to Rock Point Church. Heath and his team did a great job and we learned a lot. I'm looking forward to this week full of meetings at North Point Community Church. I appreciate the intentionality and excellence put forth by the staff at this church. It's truly a breath of fresh air.
Happy Fathers Day!
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)