2011 Books

This has become sort of an annual thing for me now. I set a goal for how many books I want to read in a year, and then I keep track. In 2010 I had a goal of 24 books - 2 per month. I didn't quite reach that goal. So I kept that goal for 2011, and this year I nailed it. Here's what I read in 2011:From the top down - LukaszewskiThe Next Christians - Gabe LyonsStorylines - Croft & PilavachiThe 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - CoveyChuch Smith, a Memoir of Grace - SmithMomentum - HickeyGetting Things Done - AllenThe Art of Curating Worship - PiersonLove Wins - Bell7 Practices of Effective Ministry - StanleyBlink - GladwellThe Divine Mentor - CordeiroThe Principle of the Path - StanleyThe Attractional Church - HornsbySoulprint - BattersonThe E-Myth Revisited - GerberThe Making of a Leader...

Read More

Why Flashmobs make me cry

There is something beautiful about watching large groups of people do things together. It's absolutely amazing to watch. Think about the organization that goes into something like this, the practice, the hard work, the details. Have you ever felt like you were a part of something much bigger than yourself? Ever seen the results of a project that took tons of time and tons of people to pull off? I dream about stuff like this. Not dancing to Black Eyed Peas for Oprah per se, but being a part of something epic, something world changing with a group of other people that seems literally impossible.Who's with ...

Read More

Let's Change the World

Are you ready STORYCHURCH? Today we kicked off our CHANGE THE WORLD campaign by launching a new page on our website. Through it, you can see each of our three major initiatives, videos, and more. While most of us probably won't be giving until Sunday, you can begin giving TODAY online if that's how you decide to give.For this Sunday, I pray that you come prepared to give generously and sacrificially to help us CHANGE THE WORLD. Here's how this will work: If you are a regular giver to STORYCHURCH, we encourage you to continue to give your REGULAR OFFERINGS in the normal way - through our giving box or online.WE WILL BE DOING A SEPARATE OFFERING DURING THE SERVICE FOR OUR CHANGE THE WORLD OFFERING.There are 3 WAYS TO GIVE this Sunday:GIVE CASH in the envelope we provide.GIVE BY CHECK made out...

Read More

Change the World - KIDS

One of the most amazing things to me about STORYCHURCH is our ministry to kids. On any given week, 35% of our church is under the age of 12! That is a significant number - one that isn't common in church world. We believe that God has uniquely positioned us to reach young families and it is incredibly fun to be a church full of little kids running around. The running joke around our church is that you better be careful about what you eat or drink because people often end up pregnant. In fact, there are currently 7 pregnant women in our church right now (though 1 or 2 could be having babies any day!).Here's what I believe about kids ministry....

Read More

Change the World - WATER

As we enter the Christmas season, we are challenging each other at STORYCHURCH to CHANGE THE WORLD this year. This year our goal is to raise $15,000 in a special offering on December 18 that will go to three different initiatives. This week we focus on clean water.In December of 2010, STORYCHURCH members gave enough money to fund the drilling of a fresh water well somewhere else in the world. In August of 2011, that well was finally drilled in partnership with Living Water International.We literally CHANGED THE WORLD. And we plan to do it again....

Read More

Thoughts for the Superheroes of STORYCHURCH

Hey STORYCHURCH, I'm thinking about you this morning. Yesterday we wrapped up our series AKA and I think it was one of my top 5 favorite days as a church. Here's why:The Fun Factor - seriously we had a lot of fun. From getting a group of people on stage staring at the sky for 10 minutes while I taught, to some staged crowd-sourced announcements, to superhero cutouts and free t-shirts. We had a good time didn't we?Worship - Holy smokes. The band just about rocked my face off and the spirit of worship and celebration among you all was incredible. I love to watch us growing in our expression and participation in worship. The new song we sang at the end is called "Great I Am" and you can buy it HERE or watch the video HERE.Stories - I talked to two people specifically yesterday that told me amazing...

Read More

My most recent favorite moments as a dad

In no particular order, here is why being a dad has been awesome lately.Watching Hannah play soccer - seriously, so much fun. After five or six scoreless seasons in which she wondered if she would EVER score a goal - she now has 17 on the year. This week they beat an undefeated team 4-1 and Hannah scored all four goals. PROUD DAD.Wrestling - my kids new favorite pastime and mine too. A week or so ago I had one of the fullest, busiest, tiring days I've had in a long time. When we got home the kids and I had an epic wrestling match for the ages. Just when I didn't think I had any energy left, they managed to find a few more drops to squeeze out of me. Loved it.Praying for Joy - My daughter Joy had eye surgery last week. It was scary and stressful, but I loved gathering the family around before...

Read More

The Wrestler: Bonus thoughts on Jacob

One of my kids' favorite activities is to wrestle with dad. In fact, yesterday after an incredibly long day (in a good way!), my two youngest and I had one of the most epic wrestling matches we've ever had. As I was thinking about that, I couldn't help but think about Jacob wrestling with God in Genesis 32. It's a weird passage of Scripture. It really is. I mean, who wrestles God? And how in the world does Jacob hang with Him all night long? And then there's verse 25:When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man.Whoever this "man" is - we later learn...

Read More

A few thoughts for STORYCHURCH

It's Monday morning and I'm sitting in Caribou coffee (AKA my office) trying to get my week off to a good start. Here are a few things I wanted to share with you this morning:I'm just blown away every day that I get to pastor you. Seriously, this is my FAVORITE CHURCH IN THE WORLD. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. I hope you can say that too. God is stretching us right now in this AKA series, isn't He? So many of you have talked about what He's teaching you. It may be my favorite thing we've ever done as a church. I would love to share some of the stories that are emerging with our church. If a light has come on for you - consider sharing that with us by emailing hello@storychurch.org. Word is getting out. One of my favorite questions for guests is "how did you hear about us?" I love to...

Read More

For Better or Worse: Foundations

Last week at STORYCHURCH we began a new series called "For Better or Worse." I had so much fun team teaching with my wife as we shared some of what we believe to be the foundations to a healthy marriage. As a recap, here are the five things we shared last week:Be the person you want to be married to - Let's face it, 4s don't get to marry 10s. If you wake up one day and realize you are laying next to a 9 and you are hovering around a 5 - you better get to work before she wakes up and realizes it! Single person - you won't find that faithful, dependable guy at the club picking up girls. He won't suddenly become Mr. Faithful just because you come...

Read More

Principle of the Path by Andy Stanley

I want to have a healthy marriage, so I think I'll flirt with my secretary. I want to be financially secure, so I'm going to rack up some consumer credit buying things I can't really afford. By this time next month I want to lose 5 pounds, so go ahead and supersize that. I want to get into a great college on a scholarship so I think I'll party tonight instead of studying for that test tomorrow. Recently I had the opportunity to read a really great book by pastor and leader Andy Stanley called The Principle of the Path. This book reveals a very simple principle that we all know to be true - Direction, not intentions, determines destination....

Read More

Close your eyes

This morning in my reading through the One Year Bible, this one verse stuck out to me. 2 Corinthians 5:7 says "We live by faith, not by sight." Wow, so much packed into that little sentence. For me this is a constant tension in my life. Really up until a few years ago almost all of my decisions and my actions were based on what I could see. In other words, if I didn't know how it was going to work out, I probably wasn't going to do it. But then there was church planting. Since I began this process I've learned about moving and acting in the midst of uncertainty. From moving to surviving financially to leading down a path I've never been - all of it has been by faith. And God has proven himself so faithful during this time. He has provided for us when we didn't know how it would happen. He...

Read More

A follow up to Sunday

Hey church, can I just say that Sunday was awesome? Seriously, it was an incredible day. I think it was maybe the best start to a new series we've ever had. If you weren't there, make sure you download the podcast and check it out. Here are a couple thoughts I've had since Sunday. If we really believe that 1 > 99, then here are a few things I'm asking you to commit yourself to: Pray for your lost friends - Seriously. Pray.Invite - You do what you can do, and I'll do what I can do. You invite your lost friends, neighbors, co-workers, relatives and baristas, and I'll make sure we communicate the life-giving message of Jesus to them in a non-goofy,...

Read More

Courage Day 2011

Happy Courage Day! Three years ago today my family and I said goodbye to CA and headed east to follow a crazy calling to plant a church. We celebrate the day every year now as a family holiday - Courage Day. Though this year our big celebration will be on Saturday (Kimi is planning something secret, anyone know what it going on?), today is that day and I didn't want it to pass without calling attention to it.The church that now exists is the greatest church on the planet. I'm so proud to be part of this community of people and I'm blown away every day that I get to be part of it. Thank you STORYCHURCH for having the courage to follow Jesus wherever He leads us. This thing is just getting start...

Read More

Clean Water

Scott Harrison is changing the world. His organization Charity:Water provides clean, safe drinking water to some of the most unreached people groups in the world. Great ideas like this one don't just happen. Someone has a wild dream, then decides to do something about it. Most people never get to the second half of that - the doing part. Too many of us stop short because of the cost, the criticism, or the difficulty. I bet the people of this village are glad that Scott was willing to pursue the vision he had to change the world. I bet they are glad that he didn't listen to the naysayers, to the people who said it couldn't be done. I bet they are glad he didn't give up.We promised we'd be back. from charity: water on Vim...

Read More

My dream for STORYCHURCH

This Sunday at STORYCHURCH we talked together about Ezekiel - a sort of unsure prophet who God uses to speak life into a bunch of dry bones. By the time Ezekiel is done speaking to them, they are standing in front of him - not as a bunch of dry bones, but as a vast army with tendons and flesh and the breath of life in their lungs.Imagine the scene! Ezekiel is speaking and the bones start rattling. A leg bone flys across the valley and attaches itself to a hip. A spine stands up and ribs attach themselves. Soon tendons start forming and flesh appears. And then the breath of life enters their lungs and a huge gasp is heard.I believe God wants to...

Read More

Renewal

Sometimes we need renewal. We can't keep our foot on the gas all the time. I'm really thankful for the opportunity to recharge a little bit by stepping back and taking a real vacation. It's been a long time. I'm looking forward to spending some time with friends and family and doing whatever we feel like doing. I hope you build into your life a rhythm that allows you to work really hard, but also to rest, to step back and to breathe deeply. In my family we fight pretty hard to maintain a sabbath - a day of rest every week. For us, it's usually Saturday. It's the day we play, the day we take naps, the day we go to parks and get outside.But beyond that, we all need an extended break. Time away from the normal stuff of life. Time to spend money instead of making it, to build memories instead...

Read More

Secret followers

I was reading a familiar story this morning - the story of the burial of Jesus from John 19. I've probably read it dozens of times in my life, and yet today I saw something I've never seen before. Check it out:Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews. With Pilate's permission, he came and took the body away. He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night.Did you catch that? Look at it again - a secret follower of Jesus who was accompanied by another man who had been so afraid to be seen with Jesus that he went to Him at night - these are the men who end up with the body of Jesus, preparing it for burial. All day long I've been thinking about this. I wonder about...

Read More

Jon and Jenny

Last week Kim and I said goodbye to some dear friends who came to mean so much to us in the short two years that we knew them. Jon and Jenny James (in the picture above, with Andrew in the middle, for reasons only Andrew could probably explain) were part of the launch team of Story Church. (In case you don't know what that is, it's basically the handful of people who commit themselves to helping to get a brand new church off the ground.) We had been meeting in my house with about three other families on a weekly basis when Jon emailed me one day out of the blue. He and his family were looking for a church and he said that they would like to come...

Read More

Dear Church Planter

Church planter, I want to talk to you today about numbers. Every church planter faces the temptation to measure the success of their church by numbers. The number of butts in seats, and the number of dollars given in offering. Those two numbers - butts and bucks, become the dominant numbers above all else. And let's be honest, they are pretty important stats. Without people, you don't have a church. And without finances, you can't continue to have a church. At some level these are important numbers. But while these numbers tell a story, they don't tell the WHOLE story.Two weeks ago we had some of our highest numbers ever. It was close to our highest attendance, and it was by far our highest offering ever. And on Monday, I was feeling pretty good. We had turned a corner, we were on our way...

Read More

Reparando

Not long after I moved to NC I was introduced to Bill Cummings, founder of Lemonade International. Lemonade is a U.S. based non-profit that works in partnership with Guatemalan leaders to help bring restoration to the largest urban slum in Central America - "La Limonada." Bill and his wife Cherie have grown to love this place and have committed their lives to bringing attention and relief to some of the world's poorest people. On the ground in La Limonada is a woman named Tita Evertsz. It was her love and sacrifice for the people of this city that originally captured Bill and Cherie's hearts. Tita's story is incredible. So incredible in fact, that it recently caught the attention of a group of film makers.On Thursday, May 5 the movie "Reparando" will have a special screening in Raleigh, where...

Read More

Parenting moment

You never know when they are coming. Those times when life seems to hand deliver a moment packed full of opportunity to teach, to guide, to parent. Yesterday was one of those moments for me. My oldest daughter is a bit of an entrepreneur. Over the weekend she ran her own yard sale on Saturday, and then a lemonade stand on Sunday. In fact, as the lemonade stand seemed to be stalling she and her friends began to take it door to door. At the end of the day she had actually made quite a bit of money, and she and the next door neighbors would end up splitting the profits. Somewhere toward the end of the day, another boy came over to play. Without replaying all the details, it appears that he was pretty impressed by the amount of money she had made. And he felt like he wanted some of it. So when...

Read More

Easter in West Village

I am so excited about our upcoming Easter service on April 24 in downtown Durham's West Village. We have a unique opportunity to meet in a location that puts us in the heart of our city, and only a mile from Duke's campus. Because this is such a new thing for us, you can imagine that there is lots to do to make sure we have a great celebration together. Below you will find some of the specific ways you can get involved.INVITE - We would love to see more than 200 people in attendance this Easter. Invite your friends, invite your coworkers, invite your neighbors, invite the mailman, the banker, your barista, and anyone else who comes within 10...

Read More

One year stories

I listened to this bit of audio from our one year anniversary service again this week and it occurred to me that I didn't ever share these. So if you have eight minutes and want to get really excited about what God is doing in STORYCHURCH, give it a listen. (It's just audio, but worth the liste...

Read More

Billy Hornsby

Yesterday, on March 23, 2011 the world lost a great man and heaven gained a legend. Billy Hornsby was the president and founder of ARC (the Association of Related Churches). His vision was large and it outlives him today. I first met Billy (pictured on the left) through another friend. I shared a meal with him another time, and got to sit and listen to him share life, vision, and a passion for seeing people fall in love with Jesus through the planting of life-giving churches. Story Church simply wouldn't exist like it does today if it weren't for the support of our friends at the ARC. In a time when I felt like we were drowning, the life-giving...

Read More

7 Myths about Courage

We finished up our Courageous series recently and I have personally been deeply impacted by all the things we've learned as a community. I think for me it was the most important learning we've done together as a church since we started. If you are interested in hearing the message series, make sure you check out our podcast.I've had some big posters (giant sticky notes really) on my wall for the past couple of months as we worked through Courageous and on one of them I had posted 7 myths we believe as it pertains to Courage. I'm getting ready to clean house a bit and switch gears so I wanted to record them and put them out there before they are gone for good. 7 Myths about CourageCourageous people aren't afraid - I think we tell ourselves this in order to excuse ourselves from actually acting...

Read More

A couple more thoughts

For my STORYCHURCH family, here are a couple of bonus thoughts on yesterday's message and Joshua 7:Both courage and fear are HIGHLY CONTAGIOUS. Be careful which one you are projecting.Achan's sin (cowardice really) affected thousands and thousands, but it affected those closest to him the most - his family. THEY PAID THE PRICE for his lack of courage. Contrast Achan with the unspoken hero of Joshua 6 - Rahab the prostitute. Her courage to hide the spies was the primary reason for Israel's success. And her family was saved as a result. THEY REAPED THE BENEFIT of her courage (6:17). Speaking of Rahab - that one act of courage resulted in her rescue, her family's rescue, and an eventual place in the lineage of King David - and oh yeah, some guy named JESUS.And a couple more thoughts:Not everyone...

Read More

Another first for STORYCHURCH

There are only so many things we can do "for the first time". We've had our first service, our first Easter, our first Christmas eve, our first anniversary, and now our first baptisms. Yesterday we had the amazing opportunity to baptize five of our own - five people with stories of life change that will never be the same. Lee, Will, Thy, Jillien, and Connie led the way and took the courageous step of baptism.We weren't sure exactly how it was going to work. We ended up borrowing a portable baptistry from Pine Ridge Church in Burlington, NC where my friend Tadd pastors. It worked out really well. The biggest fear was whether we would get the tank...

Read More

Courage pt.1

This week we launched a brand new series at STORYCHURCH called Courageous. In case you missed it, you can listen to the message here. My plan is to reflect a bit more each week here on the blog to both reinforce what we're learning together and to give opportunity for further learning and discussion together. So jump in to the discussion!I believe that when it comes to Courage, there are several myths we believe about those that seem to have it and those that don't. Let's tackle a couple of those here.Myth #1: Courageous people aren't afraid.It's funny really to think about, but many of us really think this must be true. We see people that take...

Read More

One year

Yesterday we celebrated one year at Story Church. One year. Wow. Someone asked me recently how the vision for the church matches up with the real thing now that we're a year in. It's a great question really. The mission of Story Church is to help people embrace the story they were meant to live.So the question is, how well have we done at doing that? In what ways are people embracing a new story, a different story, and beginning to embrace a larger view of their life and the place and role they play in the bigger story God is telling? Here are some of the ways I think that has been happening in year one:People who were without hope have found...

Read More