The long, dark, cold winter...

The day after the Angels are eliminated from the playoffs is a dark day for me every year. There are always the questions of what if, and if they only, and wondering if things could have turned out different. This year it could also mean the departure of three long time Angels - John Lackey, Vlad Guerrero, and Chone Figgins. There is still a World Series coming - which I will watch. But more as a removed baseball fan than a fan of any particular team. I'll pretty much be rooting for the Phillies - I'd love to see a back to back champion not named the Yankees. Pretty much anyone taking on the Yankees is going to get my vote.

Next year the All-Star game will be in Anaheim. I hope to be able to go back to CA and go to the game. I was at the 2002 World Series and fortunately had the opportunity to be at game 7 and watch the Angels win it all. It was the highlight of my sports fan life. I think going to an All-Star game would be the next coolest thing - particularly at my team's field.

As the season ends every year I start thinking about where I'll be by the time the season starts again. I guess for me the calendar year is not as telling as the baseball season. But by the time pitchers and catchers report in late February, our church will be six weeks old. That's a crazy thought. And if all goes well, my son should arrive just in time for opening day. You can bet I'll be holding him that day and introducing him to the greatest game on earth.

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Jerel Law

Check out this great post from Jerel Law on Story. There's a conference coming up in Chicago on Story and Jerel is going. I look forward to hearing more from Jerel and from the Story Conference next week.

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Humility

Here's some more from Catalyst. It was great to hear from Malcolm Gladwell, the author of The Tipping Point and Outliers. I enjoyed listening to him for the first time. But for some reason I kept thinking "More cowbell."

What does the financial crisis tell us about leadership?
Miscalibration - thinking you know more than you actually know. Overconfidence.
In times of crisis we think we need daring and bold decision making, but we don’t. What we need is humility.

Andy Stanley's questions:
What are the warning signs of an overconfident leader?
- The potential for it is in all of us. All of us start to think we are better than we are.
- We should be looking for it in everyone who is in authority.
- When they stop listening to the people around them, watch out.
Humility = the ability to listen to others.
Can a leader see this in the mirror?
- In the Iraq war, we went in terribly overconfident. There was a point where we realized we were wrong, and had to start over.
What do you say to the leader who has resisted accountability?
- In business there’s a moment where the entrepreneur can no longer do it on their own.
- Growth requires a change in leadership - it can’t all go through one person anymore.

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Catalyst 09

I had the great privilege of going this year to Catalyst, which was last week in the Atlanta area. It was also the first time my wife has gotten to come with me to a conference in a long time (six years we think!). We left the kids at home and had an amazing couple of days listening to some great wisdom. I took notes during most sessions, so over the next few days I'll post my notes on some of the speakers that were there.

My notes are kind of sporadic, so if you have trouble following them and want some clarification, let me know.

First up, Andy Stanley:

Leaders always leave a mark, the question is what kind of mark will you leave?
You won’t really understand the mark you’ve left until way after you’ve made it.
You don’t know a defining moment is happening until long after it happens

Joshua
- He and the people have crossed the Jordan and are beginning to lose their dependence on God.
- At the end of his life he says “as for me and my house we will serve the Lord” - Joshua 23:8-15
- Joshua 5:13 - Are you for us or are you against us? The angel says “no.”
- “I’m not here to be a part of your story. I’m here to find out if you are willing to play a role in my story.”
- This is a question that very few leaders are willing to wrestle with.
- “What message does my Lord have for his servant?”
- Joshua made a decision in that moment to be part of God’s story, not his own.
- V.15 - “Take off your sandals. This is holy ground.”
- Before you make your mark and become a household name, I just wanted to make sure you were going to be a leader not just with authority but under authority.
- This is why late in his life he is able to say “as for me and my house we will serve the Lord.”
- God takes full responsibility for the life wholly devoted to him - Charles Stanley.
- Why do we do what we do and who do we do it for?
- Once we settle that in our lives, then we can live with a freedom that is unexplainable.
- God will take full responsibility.
- Our mark isn’t worth our life. Living to make my mark is too small a thing to give my life to.

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Second Preview

This last Sunday was the second preview service for Story Church. Here are my thoughts about what went well and what we learned:

1. Setup went much smoother - everyone was assigned a job, and there was a clear priority list in terms of what needed to get done first.
2. Our new screen is approximately 1,000 times better than the original. It is no longer a jumbotron and we were able to project straight ahead to the stage.
3. Tablecloths made a huge difference! Made our hospitality and check-in areas look sharp.
4. The first preview was too bright on stage, so this time we turned out the lights. It was too dark. We need to invest in some lighting.
5. We are still borrowing from a couple of different sound systems. This makes setup a bit confusing and cumbersome. We need to get our own stuff soon.
6. The flow of the service worked out much better this time.
7. We intentionally had a woman on the stage! We are no longer chauvinists.
8. Our media looked good, we just need to work on the timing of changing slides.
9. We need more signage - outside, inside, hallways, registration areas, everywhere.
10. We did a better job with the offering this time - we didn't belabor it, and we had a cool new box for the offering specifically. It is no longer on the food table :).
11. Our team needs to model worship a little bit more. At times there was some awkwardness because it seemed like people didn't know when to stand or sing or whatever.
12. Alastair still has an accent. Haha. We're thinking about using subtitles.
13. The teardown went fast. We were out by 8pm (service ended at 7:15 - right on time!).
14. We forgot to bring our connection cards and kids registration cards. That made for a panicked 15 minutes until my wife drove home and found them. That's probably one of the most important elements to what we're doing - so slight oversight there!
15. My sermon felt rushed and crammed. I'm out of practice with this preaching stuff and I need to relearn how to simplify.
16. We need a second parking lot person.
17. We need a countdown clock or something like it - it didn't seem like people really believed we were starting when we did.
18. We should probably mention the connection cards more than once.
19. Facebook ads really work! I think we need to do them more.
20. I can't wait for November 15. This is too much fun.

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Thoughts on U2

I was mowing my lawn on Saturday when my wife came outside with the phone. While I hated to stop my masterful yard manicuring, she seemed persistent. What I soon found out was that a friend was calling with news of a lifetime. He had an extra ticket to that night's U2 concert in Raleigh and wanted to know if I would please take it. Hmmm.... Let me think. Heck yes!! Oh yeah, and the seats were amazing. $250 worth of amazing. For free. A couple of years ago I got to see Coldplay in CA on the X and Y tour. It was the most amazing show I'd ever seen. For me there was only one other band that I wanted to see in my lifetime - U2.

So Saturday is our normal Launch Team meetings for Story Church. My plan was to go ahead and have our meeting, cut it short, and bail out in time for U2 (though I was bummed that I would be missing Muse). The show started at 7, and my thought was that U2 would probably go on about 9pm. So we finished up with our Launch Team around 7pm, and I left the house around 7:15. The stadium is only about 20 minutes from my house so I figured I had plenty of time. Around 9pm I was still in my car, still trying to get to the stadium and find a parking spot! After a couple hours of frustration I began hearing from police officers and walkers that there was no more parking - period. WHAT??? How can there not be any more parking?? So I found a side street, and took off looking for a place to park and run back. Eventually I found a neighborhood, paid a guy $10 to park in his yard, and ran about a mile back to the stadium. By the time I got to my seats and found my friend U2 was on their 7th song - Elevation. My favorite moment of the night (and there were many) had to be the honest, simple singing of Amazing Grace by Bono, with several thousand people singing along. The pastor in me is amazed at the power of a rock star to get people singing of God's grace. It was a profound moment I felt.

The stage design was incredible, the video screens and lights and everything else made the show an unbelievable experience. This wasn't just a rock concert though. These guys are passionate about justice and have learned that their influence can really change the world. They highlighted the One campaign (join now if you haven't already), the political prisoner Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma, the religious fighting of Protestants and Catholics in Ireland, and there was even a word from Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

This was truly an experience of a lifetime. Don't you just love those moments where God surprises you for no reason at all - where you just get blessed with something amazing that you don't deserve?

Amazing Grace indeed.

Here is the setlist of the show:

Breathe
Get On Your Boots
Mysterious Ways
Beautiful Day / C Moon (snippet)
No Line On The Horizon
Magnificent
Elevation
In A Little While
New Year's Day
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For / Stand By Me (snippet)
Stuck In A Moment
The Unforgettable Fire
Mofo (snippet) / City Of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
Crazy Tonight / Thank You (Falettin Me Be Mice Elf Again) (snippet)
Sunday Bloody Sunday / Rock The Casbah (snippet) / People Get Ready (snippet)
MLK
Walk On / You'll Never Walk Alone (snippet)

Encore(s):
One / Amazing Grace (snippet)
Where The Streets Have No Name
Ultra Violet (Light My Way)
With Or Without You
Moment of Surrender

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100 Days

Today marks the 100 day countdown to the launch of Story Church. Depending on your perspective, that can either seem like a long time, or not much time at all. For me, it's more of the latter. A couple of months ago the plan was to launch on September 13. I had a hard time giving up that date and pushing things back, but I am so glad that we did. I can't even imagine what things would have been like if we had tried to push it. We simply wouldn't have made it.

So what is there to do in the next 100 days? Here are some of the things we are trying to accomplish in no specific order:

1) 3 preview services - Oct. 11, Nov. 15, and Dec. 20. The previews serve two purposes - to allow people to see who we are and maybe get excited enough about our vision to join our team. And secondly, to let us practice and try and figure this thing out.

2) To grow our team to about 35 adults. It just takes a certain amount of people to be able to hold babies, serve people, etc.

3) To raise money. We are trying to be good steward of what we have, but it simply costs money to start a church that meets in a rented facility. There is sound equipment, kids ministry stuff, food, advertising, rent, insurance, graphic design and more to pay for.

4) Serve our community. We are trying to build into the DNA of Story Church that we are going to be a church that not only exists within our community but that we play a vital role in it. Our desire is to be a generous, life-giving church. That doesn't happen on Sunday mornings alone. So we are beginning to find our place in Durham and the ways that we can live out the gospel to all people.

I'm so excited for these next 100 days. They are vitally important days. They are days of faith, of great dependence upon God. Pray for us and for Story Church. And if you are in the Triangle area, let us share our heart and vision with you. Come out and visit us on October 11 for our next preview. All of the details are on our website here.

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