A few reminders for STORYCHURCH

This is a big weekend for all of us who follow Jesus. And for STORYCHURCH, it's one of the biggest weekends in our short history. Here are a few things to remember going into the weekend for STORYCHURCH.

• Keep inviting. They say that most people will say yes if you simply invite them. Let's pack out the Carolina Theatre!
• Speaking of the Carolina Theatre - we're meeting there! Don't show up at Spring Valley Elementary or you will be lonely!
• Plan on joining us tomorrow (Saturday) at the Durham Easter event downtown from 2-4pm. Your kids will love it!
• On Sunday, please arrive early. We want to make sure we are ready to receive our guests so help us out by getting there early and getting your kids checked in.
• Parking will be at the YMCA across the street from the Carolina Theatre.
• It's not too late to volunteer to help us out as a greeter! Just show up early (at least 30 minutes) and we'll get you in place.
• Get those last eggs out for EggDurham!!
• Finally, continue being the generous church we have become by giving whatever you can to help the Durham Literacy Center through EggDurham.

I can't wait to celebrate the resurrection with you. Let's celebrate like never before!

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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 feet of you! This Sunday (4/17) we will have 1,000 invitations to give you to pass out all over the city. You can also invite people through Facebook here, or by sending them this link.

PRAY - Pray that God would do something incredible in our church this Easter. Pray that people who are without hope would come into contact with a community celebrating the resurrected Jesus.

GIVE - Doing something this big and this different comes with lots of extra costs for us as a church. If you want to help us reach our city, consider giving above and beyond what you would normally give.

BRING - We are collecting flash drives (1 GB or larger) and scientific calculators (not graphing) for an incredible ministry in Durham known as the Genesis home. We'll be collecting them on 4/17 and Easter 4/24.

TAKE - This Sunday 4/17 we will have Easter baskets for you to take home and fill for kids through the Durham Rescue Mission. We recommend you fill it with fun stuff (candy, toys, stuffed animals) as well as some practical things like socks and a toothbrush. Inside the basket you will find all the details you need to fill it and drop it off at the right place by Friday, April 22. If you'd like to volunteer your time at their event, follow the link to find out more.

SERVE - If you can help us set up on Saturday 4/23, or if you would like to help us welcome guests on Easter, please email us and let us know!

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Up the Middle

I have a friend named Matt. He wrote a book called Up the Middle Church. Though Matt's a diehard baseball fan, for some reason he wrote a book with a football analogy - but we'll forgive him for that. Anyway, here's the deal. Planting a church is hard. I hear stories about churches that just explode in growth, and I learn about leaders who seem to never make mistakes and everything they touch seems to turn to gold. But you know why we hear those stories? Because they are the exception - not the rule. Stories get told about things that stand out, that are different than the norm. The fact is that the norm for church planting is one yard at a time, up the middle. Most of us experience a grueling, tough battle where we gain a little bit of ground, then get sacked for a loss, then we get back up and gain it back and hopefully make some first downs along the way.

Leading up to Easter, we did a huge marketing campaign as a church. We spent a pretty good amount of money to do a huge mailer to our community, we hung door hangers on close to 2,000 homes, we put out yard signs all over the place, and we did Facebook ads like nobody's business. And you know what happened on Easter? We had two less people than the week before Easter. Sack.

I was in a coaching session yesterday with about six or seven other church planters, led by the same friend Matt who wrote the book. Everyone was sharing about the last month's "wins" - the things that went well. Many of the guys had record attendances on Easter - 250, 350, etc. When I shared about our Easter I'll be honest, it felt a little like we had failed. But here's where talking to other people is so important. One guy shared that two years running they went down in attendance on Easter, and this year they finally had a good one. You know what that little admission does for someone like me? It reminds me that this church planting thing is an "Up the Middle" process. The gains we are making in seeing individual lives being changed is amazing. I'm learning to celebrate those one yard gains more and more all the time.

I'm thankful today for community. For guys that are out there on the field with me and struggling with me for one yard, two yards, a first down. Make no mistake, we're winning the game.

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Easter Recap

At the risk of being way behind here, I didn't want to let Easter squeak by without saying a couple things about how things went at STORYCHURCH.

First of all, I couldn't be more proud of our team. Many people worked very hard in order to make it a really special morning. We had a really great celebration of Resurrection. We kicked off a brand new series on Easter, called EPIC. It's basically an exploration of the story of God and our role in it. Easter Sunday proved to be like one of those movies that starts with the pinnacle scene of the story, and then the rest of the movie is spent showing the build up to that moment. Resurrection is the pinnacle scene of the Story. It changes everything, and it's the filter through which we interpret everything else in the Story.

We promoted the heck out of Easter. We did a huge mailer in the community, spent several hours out hanging door hangers, had signs up all over the place, and ran Facebook ads like crazy. Despite our efforts, we didn't see the huge number of visitors that we had anticipated. For me it was just one more reminder that you can't manufacture the movement of God. I'm certainly not anti-marketing. I think it's important to let people know we exist as a church and that they are invited. But the fact is, that God doesn't need a mailer to build the church. And for me it was just a gentle reminder that He is in control, and this thing is in His hands. It's so easy to get caught up in the belief that crowds equal success or God's favor. It just isn't true.

The most exciting thing for me about Easter was the growth we DID see. Not numerical growth, but growth that took us deeper as a community. After the service we did an egg hunt for the kids and one for the adults as well. I know, kind of silly. But this wasn't your average egg hunt. It turned into a giant community building day. Aside from the hunting of eggs, people were laughing, playing, joking, and seriously having a great time. I was really proud of our leaders that put it together and even more excited by the relationships I'm seeing form. Community doesn't happen in the hour on Sunday mornings when we gather for worship. I mean, it's part of it, but sometimes it takes a crazy egg hunt to get people to begin to open up and do life together. And that happened on Easter for us.

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Living Water International

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At Christmas last year, Story Church participated in the Advent Conspiracy. Many of us decided to spend less at Christmas on stuff we didn't need, and instead to give toward clean water wells for people that really needed it most. This week I was notified by Living Water International that the well we helped to build has been built. The well is in Bozoubolo in the Central African Republic (see the map above of the exact location of the well). It serves more than 600 people. I can't tell you how excited that makes me! The fact that as a church, before we even officially launched, we had helped to build a well that provides clean water for 600 people is amazing to me. And I think this news came at a great time. For me, its a reminder that what happened at Christmas matters most because of what happened at Easter. The baby who was proclaimed by angels at Christmas was good news to the world because he would one die and free us from sin and death and usher in a new kingdom. It's a kingdom of life and love and grace and hope. It's why Jesus not only proclaimed truth, but he demonstrated the fruit of the present kingdom through miracles of healing. For us as a church, we celebrate the baby Jesus as well as the risen Lord, and we embrace the role we play in the resurrection story. My desire for us is that while we proclaim good news to the world, we are also demonstrating it through acts of justice and mercy. And today, 600 people are experiencing life giving water as a result.

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