place of nathan.

I found an interesting post over at Monday Morning Insight, and just wanted to provide a link to you about it.

It ‘defends’ ‘Sex Sermons’ (such as Next Level Church has recently done), and raises some really great points. Check it out.

EDIT: Please note, i have closed comments due to a large number of SPAM comments hits on this. apparently, bots are drawn to spam any post with the word Sex in it. This has been open long enough. Send me an email if you have any further comments, please.

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So i’ve been reading a great book by Mark Driscoll, Confessions of a Reformission Rev.: Hard Lessons from an Emerging Missional Church.

Mark is really cool, and i want to be like Mark, except that i don’t cuss, and don’t particularly want to start. But anyway, he says this in his book:

Over the years, I’ve just accepted that if I do not quickly open the back door when God is trying to run people out of our church, I am working against God by keeping sick people in my church so that they can infect others. Indeed, the church is a body, and one of the most important parts is the colon. Like the human body, any church body without a colon is destined for sickness that leads to death.

What do you think about that statement? Do you agree or disagree?

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A little over a week ago, i posted here about Next Level Church appearing on CNN.
The new time of the spot airing is tonight on Paula Zahn, 8 p.m. EDT.
Check it out.
(There is a 75% chance it will air tonight…so it still may not!)

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[EDIT:] I just received word that this story has been bumped to next Tuesday, March 20. [/ EDIT]
So i’m really not much for CNN, (or really, any news in general), but my friends at Next Level Church in Fort Myers, Fla. are scheduled to be featured on Paula Zahn Now tonight (Tuesday) at 8 p.m. (EDT).
Next Level Church is in the midst of their My Great Sex Life series, talking about God’s take on sex.

This past weekend, CNN flew in a camera crew and were present at their service on Sunday. It seems Fort Myers, mostly a retirement community, is up in arms about a church talking about sex.

I say, talk about it. the church should be talking about the truth in the Bible.
Read Mike Ash’s take on this here.

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So i went to high school with a guy who is now a pastor.

This month, his church in Fort Myers, Fla. got some attention after posting a billboard. the billboard’s copy consisted entirely of: ‘www.MyCrappySexLife.com’

Seriously pretty cool to see a news clip from Fort Myers Channel 2 with my friend being interviewed. Check this out!

check out the church’s new site, too. it’s pretty slick (you’ll be sent to it after you watch the flash animation)

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When you get some time, you should check out this report (kinda long, so you’ll want some time): Spirit and Power

The pentecostal/charismatic movement is the fastest-growing segment of the church in the world today. This is worth a read. some interesting stuff in there.

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So I’ve posted a couple blogs recently about church marketing. I wanted to diverge for a moment to give a relevant example of the marketplace.

The below graph shows the top 10 restaurant chains (ranked on their market share) and the amount of

money (in millions) they spend on advertising each year. If you note the trend, marketshare is roughly 1/100 of the amount spend on advertising. Except starbucks. their marketshare is roughly 1/10. that is ten times larger than their competition. why?

Is their product really that much better? is their advertising really ten times better?

(see: Brand Autopsy image source: adage)

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• The church ought to be the most creative place on the planet.
• The greatest message deserves the greatest marketing.
• The church is called to compete in the middle of the marketplace.

Check out the Buzz Conference here.

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I just wanted to give a shout out to Craig Groeschel of livechurch.tv and welcome him to the blogging world. lifechurch.tv does multi-site better than probably anyone else in the world.

swing on over and check that out!

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Emily and I visited a large church on Sunday. It was the largest church either of us had ever been to. Emily grew up at Grabill Missionary, which runs about 800 each weekend, and I was a young child (2 1/2 years old) when New Hope first began in 1980, and now averages around 550 each weekend.

But our visit to Granger Community Church was something else. Here are a few things we noticed, and are worth mentioning:

• This was their 20th Anniversary Weekend.
• We weren’t even allowed to turn left into the main entrance–we had to drive around the block and turn left into one of the back entrances. (the main entrance is on a 4-lane road, and cops were directing traffic out as we were attempting to arrive.) No problem.
• We arrived for the 11:45 service, so we got a parking spot in the closest parking lot–there were so many crowds of people–hundreds coming as hundreds were going.
• As we walked inside, it was packed. But there was absolutely no question as to where we were supposed to go. there was a steady stream of people heading toward the auditorium.
• We entered through Entrance C, which is the center entrance, and is a small, minor entrance. There was someone with a headset on talking to two other people, blocking the way, so we stood there waiting for about 5 seconds, and she saw us, moved over and kept talking. That is the only negative experience i had–i wish that lady would have said, ‘Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t see you there. Welcome.’ and i would have been ‘Wowed,’ as Mark Waltz calls it…
• the band starts each service with an instrumental. Sunday, the keys played about 30 seconds, and then the whole band came in on a big build, and there it was–BOOM!!! they started dropping literally hundreds and hundreds of balloons from the catwalks. there were probably 15 different people dropping balloons, and they continued to drop for about 3 minutes.
• I think they showed three ‘media’s throughout the sermon.
• the service began by an old man (70s) going on a tirade about ‘when i went to church’ saying things like, church was supposed to hurt, both spiritually and physically, so we put tacks down on the pews. ‘and we liked it!’
• Sr. Pastor Beeson said he would prefer organ music himself! this floored me! But he said he noticed his friends who weren’t Christians were not lining up to buy organ music. So, he decided if they were going to be relevant to those people, they needed to can the organ. and they did.

I left like i belonged. only one person spoke to me–the guy holding the first door open for me, but i didn’t feel out of place at all.

Now–as a mature Christian, would that one service a week be enough to sustain me? No. But they have next steps that would have been enough to sustain my faith and strengthen me–after all, their church mission is ‘Helping people take their next steps to Christ…Together.’ (Better than ‘helping people become spiritual giants…overnight’!)

okay, this was long…so i’ll shut up. if i hear how many people were at the weekend, i will make a new entry to let you know.

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So, I didn’t get to attend the Drive Conference, hosted at North Point by Andy Stanley. But I have been following Tony Morgan’s ’smart things andy said’ blogs the past few days.

But first a little bit of background: I think Andy Stanley is very wise. I started being a ’student’ of Stanley’s philosophy a few years ago after the urging of my friend Matt Keller of Next Level Church in Fort Myers Fla. I really haven’t read much about North Point in the last two years.

So…now here is the eye opener for me…When i’m reading about Stanley’s philosophy and how they do ministry today, it honestly hardly resembles the methods they were using just a few years ago. they have pretty much done a complete overhaul of everything. why would a growing church change everything? what compels a healthy church to reevaluate everything they do?

I have a ton of respect for Stanley. he is a very wise man, and i’m honored to understand just a little tiny part of his philosophy. my hat’s off to Andy. Andy Stanley is very smart.

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