Monday, January 25, 2010

GROW


We're in the middle of a series called GROW at STORYCHURCH. In week one, we talked about a principle that Andy Stanley describes in his recent book "The Principle of the Path." It basically says "Direction, not intentions, determines your destination." In that first week, we set a vision for our church and the direction we want to go. We described what we believe is the abundant life Jesus is offering in the kingdom - available here and now, not just someday when we die.

This week, we tackled what I think is one of the most important things to consider if one wants to grow. That is, where you are planted matters more than anything else. Or, as we said - SOIL MATTERS. We talked about the importance of learning from someone else who is already experiencing the abundant life of Jesus. Our environment, the people around us really have a huge impact on what we become. So we looked at a guy named Lot from the book of Genesis - and his decision to plant himself in a place that ultimately led to him losing everything.

Now that we're going strong every week, it's pretty fun to be able to build from one week to the next. I'm looking forward to jumping in to some super practical stuff this next week.

Overall, our third service went really well. We're beginning to realize that we need more hands on deck - especially early in the morning for setup. We're starting to get a system down but it's still taking way too long. And that could easily be fixed with a few extra hands.

Monday, January 18, 2010

Week 2

Another amazing morning at Story Church. I seriously can't believe I get to do this. We did a pretty bold thing this week. In only our 2nd week as a church, we decided to call an audible this week and divert from our series "GROW" and tackle head on the suffering we are seeing in Haiti. I spent all week preparing for GROW part 2, but by Friday night I became convinced that we couldn't ignore what was happening in the world. I couldn't say "Hey, let's pray about Haiti, let's take a special offering, ok now back to doing our thing." So instead we talked about suffering and how we understand that in a world where God is supposed to be in control.

We acknowledged the question many of us were asking - "Where is God?" In the end, Scripture is so clear that God is with the suffering. He's on the side of the poor, the oppressed, the marginalized, and the have-nots. As a church planter, I think I will look back to this week as a pivotal one for us. It was a week where we took a bit of a risk in order to make a pretty serious statement about our values and our vision as a church. Not many church plants I know have started by changing their plans in week two and addressing an issue like suffering. And no church I know has given away 100% of their offering like we did this week. I'm so proud of our church, the way they stepped up, caught a vision for proclaiming God's heart for the world, and responded with radical generosity. This day will stay with us for a long time.


Monday, January 11, 2010

STORYCHURCH Launch





Yesterday, after four and a half years of dreaming, we finally launched Story Church. It was one of the greatest days of my life - to see a vision become reality. I was so proud of our team and so amazed at our God. There are seriously so many highlights, but I'll try and name some of them here.

- Our team did a tremendous job. I am amazed at the people God has assembled here at Story Church and the gifts they have.
- Final attendance was 96 people. More than double what we had at our preview services.
- We learned a lot about what works in getting our name out around here. We did a smaller (5,000 piece) direct mail campaign, yard signs, and facebook ads. By far the facebook ads were the most successful in getting people to our site, and ultimately to the service. The combination of yard signs and mailer did well (when people got a mailer and saw a sign). However, for other church planters - for the cost, I can't recommend Facebook ads more highly.
- Our band, led by @alastairvance did amazingly well.
- Our setup was different this time. We added a significant amount of pipe and drape, and moved our sound board and media off to the side as opposed to the back center of the room. The pipe and drape really gave the elementary school gym a much better feel and created an intimate space. It's a little more labor intensive than I like in a mobile church environment, but I'm sure we can develop a better system for that.
- We had a new sound board and a new projector - both of which worked out really well.
- Just saying, there can't be a better spread of food anywhere in the kingdom of God.
- Our kids ministry rocked it - I heard nothing but great things from parents.
- When I finally got up to preach, I was pretty amped up but also quite emotional. It took a few deep breaths and a prayer to get me calmed down enough to speak my heart. In the end, I think it went really well.
- We gave away John Eldredge's book Epic to everyone there - a great book for a church named STORYCHURCH!
- Overheard "Is this going to be every week?!"
- Met a girl who recently moved here from AZ. Found out she went to the church of my former youth pastor, mentor and friend Linn Winters at Cornerstone Chandler. We were all amazed at the connection.
- Met several young couples looking for a church home. Lots of PhD students. Not sure I'm smart enough for this crowd.
- Got so many emails, texts, and twitter messages from friends and other pastors that encouraged the heck out of me.
- Jesus was lifted high!
- We get to do it all over again in 6 days!!

You can hear this week's message here, and see more pictures here.

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