greater things

Had an awesome time at NCC's leadership retreat the past few days. The theme was "greater things". A few months ago, the entire staff went down the the annual Catalyst Conference, and while we were there, Lincoln Brewster played "God of this City" and the chorus really impacted the staff.

"Greater things have yet to come
Greater things are still to be done
In this City..."

There are three specific references in the Gospel of John that was central to the retreat:

John 1:50-51
Jesus asked him,"Do you believe this just because I told you I had seen you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than this." Then he said, "I tell you the truth, you will all see heaven open and the angels of God going up and down on the Son of Man, the one who is the stairway between heaven and earth.

John 5:20
For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, to your amazement he will show him even greater things than these.

John 14:12
I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.

Focused on 6 specific responses from our leaders all weekend:

-In 2009, I believe God will..........
-My prayer for 2009 is................
-I want to see greater.....in Washington DC.
-I want to see greater.....in my life.
-I want to see greater.....in National Community Church.
-I want to see greater.....in people I lead.

The highlight was getting to spend time with my Union Station leaders. A lot of honesty and a lot laughs.

Oil and Wine

Leadership Retreat is this weekend and we've got over 180 leaders participating in the weekend activities. This is one of the year's highlights because it's our opportunity to appreciate, connect and pour into the influencers.

Found out more recently that I'll be tag-teaming a break-out session during the retreat.

My initial thought was a complete and confident "no". Honestly didn't feel prepared for something last minute, particularly something for our leaders.

Spent the last several hours thinking over various rabbit trails and think I've come across a good approach within our given topic.

Here is a blurb for the session: "As disciples we are called to be servants, but with the all of the craziness that is DC, it can be difficult to find the time, inspire, and mobilize our people for service. Come and discover the message, innovation and motivation that Christ used to inspire people to action."

Luke 10 is simply one of the more powerful and memorable parables Christ taught. Yet, one of the things to quickly learn when studying the teachings of Jesus, other than His brilliance, is there's often several things he's doing in any given story. There is a specific sentence I want to touch on in providing the "why" when it comes to mission and service as the body of Christ.

"Going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with OLIVE OIL and WINE and bandaged them." (The Good Samaritan parable (Luke 10:34) Understanding the significance of the oil and wine opens the floodgates for new ideas in His teaching through this seemingly simple story.

Excited to share it. I'll post some thoughts after the retreat.

artist night

Was really challenged tonight because I witnessed a lot of talent and passion in one room, and it represented a tremendous amount of untapped potential in the arts community.

Invited artists (about 30) through the grape-vine to join us and bring something that represented their art: we had authors, actors, filmmakers, photographers, poets, painters, musicians, graphic artists, web designers, directors, and producers all show up and share their passions.

Unreal.

Let me share a personal conviction: a significant reason why the west is lagging in church growth compared to other parts of the world is because of our lack of emphasis on the priesthood.

Let me explain:

Everyone is of equal value in God's economy. While church organizations may have a hierarchy in which members have different callings, everyone has equal access to God. In many U.S. churches, emphasis on the priesthood of the believers has gradually declined. We hire people to do almost all the ministries of the church. Staffs increase in size devaluing the need for volunteerism and participation. Christians risk becoming accustomed to letting the "professionals" do the job. While having paid staff conduct all the ministries of the church has many advantages, in the process we can lose a main ingredient of the Christian ethos - the priesthood of all believers.

Tonight, I saw a whole team of priests who are waiting to take greater ownership in their local church. It's our responsibility as leadership to cultivate this and empower them to step out.

Am continuing to be challenged to mobilize and foster the priesthood of believers.

I have no more further questions

I've been adjusting to a new role here at NCC having started campus pastoring at Union Station a few weeks ago. Union Station is one of five locations that NCCers can choose to get involved at. Union was the first theater and probably the largest location, having three services each Sunday. The demographics are diverse, ranging from our large homeless community that lives around Union, to Hill staffers to members of Congress (that's been in the past at least).

"Use of movie theaters as church sites has gained so much popularity that National CineMedia (http://www.ncm.com/), a venture of AMC, Cinemark and Regal Entertainment Group, offers special packaging and pricing to churches through its CineMeetings & Events division. "Our theaters make an ideal, cost-effective place for churches to grow, and the unique theater environment, with its comfortable seating and high-tech AV equipment, is a big draw for newcomers," says Mike Schonberger, vice president, CineMeetings & Events. "In fact, 84% of our church clients report that attendance has increased since they started holding their services in a movie theater."

Doing church in theaters or coffeehouses is part of the growing trend towards ministry in the marketplace. Eikon, in Scotland, now meets in a theater and prior to we met in an art cafe. There is certainly nothing wrong with traditional church buildings. However, the church is getting out from behind its four walls and meeting people where they are at. It's part of NCC's DNA.

The facility itself, though strategically located at one of the busiest train stations in the US and within view of the Capitol, is aging, and not like a fine wine. So the goal is to continually re-evaluate the space and making it as welcoming and creative as it can be.

A few weeks ago, while cleaning up, Will Johnston (our other campus pastor at Union) found a condom on the floor of the theater.

I told him I had no further questions.

historic day

What an honor to be able to say we stood 100 yards from the swearing in of our new president. Kate and I awoke around 5:30 and ended up getting tickets last minute to be very close to the podium. We joined the hundreds of thousands to line up with what appeared to resemble the march of the penguins more than anything. We'd waddle a few feet every 5-10 minutes. All told, battled over 7 hours in below freezing temperatures to witness this historical event.

It was a phenomenal experience to spend several hours with fellow americans in a very close space. We were strangers, yet we participated in something that brought tremendous optimistic, enthusiastic and emotional unity. The best song we heard was "I, guess, you, say, What can make me feel this way.....O-bama, O-bama, O-bama, talkin' bout Bama!" I witnessed and photographed many tears of joy.

It was worth every minute.

Hey Jessica Alba

Jessica Alba, Cash Warren, Nelly, Ludicrous, Run DMC, Ron Howard were just a few of the celebrities that were present at Jay-Z's afterparty. I got asked by someone at NCC if I wanted to help with catering at the afterparty.

Why not?

I showed up having no idea what to expect. Come to find out, I was given an all access pass, and I mean complete access to be in charge of providing drinks and catered food to the VIP areas. It was probably one of the more surreal experiences of my life. Sarah Silverman (comedian) was the first to arrive and as I walked into the VIP bar, she was standing there and said a quick hello. Kind of cool, Sarah Silverman. But then they started coming, one after the other. By midnight, the VIP rooms were packed with celebrities and with my pass, I could come and go as I pleased. Backstage, I provided drinks (waters and soft drinks....truly) for the performers. Every once in a while, I jumped on stage to watch them perform for a few minutes.

For an evening, I got to passively observe this scene unfold. Gotta admit, never felt star struck. Certainly shocked by what I had casually walked into, but never felt an overwhelming urge to get a picture or have them sign an autograph.

Just another random evening in DC.

One

Star-studded cast both presenting and performing at the Lincoln Memorial "We are One" event. Garth Brooks stole the show though with "Bye, bye miss American Pie". Nothing like several hundred thousand Americans singing that aloud.

The historical pieces really added weight to the event. The Lincoln memorial, WWII, Washington Monument, and Korean/Vietnam to North and South along with the presentation of old speeches from former presidents and activists such as MLK helped for a stunning collage of the past meeting the present.

It's a great time to be in DC. Jimi Allen, who photographed in Thailand years ago traveled here with 5 of his friends (both filmmakers and photographers) to capture the weekend events. Never had anyone sleep in our kitchen before:)

world orphans

Had a great chance to connect with a guy who works for World Orphans. Seems like a great organization with a great concept.

The Problem: There are 143 million orphans in the world.....and climbing. That's 1/3 of the US without a mother and father.

The Solution: Church-based Homes are the best solution. World Orphans partners with indigenous churches, not just to construct buildings, but to create loving family homes that are smaller in scale which provide a high-giver ratio. They are run by compassionate believers. They are fully integrated into the church and community.

He told me, "God loves ALL people, but has consistently shown throughout scripture a particular interest in the least of these: the orphans, the widows and the oppressed."

warm heart of africa

The Malawi team did an awesome job yesterday evening in their presentation of "Welcome to the Warm Heart of Africa: Malawi."

They partnered with James Nyondo and Servants of the Nation. Great organization. Dynamic founder. I had the chance to interview James about a month ago when he was in DC and was impacted by his passion and influence in Malawi. They have over 8,000 "Jesus Chapters" which are various villages subdivided throughout Malawi (each consisting of roughly 500 people). That's over 4 million strong networked through Servants of the Nation. Their philosophy of ministry is based on teaching the greatest commandment of all: love God and love your neighbor as yourself, and the servant leadership model Christ exhibited. Some fantastic stories coming out of what they're doing. Real, raw stuff.

I'll post the interview we got from him.

Who would Jesus smack down?

Interesting article on Mark Driscoll and his mega-church Mars Hill, Seattle in NY times today.

It's lengthy, but worth the read.

READ IT

"God called Driscoll to preach to men — particularly young men — to save them from an American Protestantism that has emasculated Christ and driven men from church pews with praise music that sounds more like boy-band ballads crooned to Jesus than “Onward Christian Soldiers.” What bothers Driscoll — and the growing number of evangelical pastors who agree with him — is not the trope of Jesus-as-lover. After all, St. Paul tells us that the Church is the bride of Christ. What really grates is the portrayal of Jesus as a wimp, or worse. Paintings depict a gentle man embracing children and cuddling lambs. Hymns celebrate his patience and tenderness. The mainstream church, Driscoll has written, has transformed Jesus into “a Richard Simmons, hippie, queer Christ,” a “neutered and limp-wristed popular Sky Fairy of pop culture that . . . would never talk about sin or send anyone to hell.”

love him, hate him

Bono is a lightning rod. Some love him, some hate him.

Perhaps it's his fight for the eradication of extreme poverty, musical abilities and capacity to speak intelligently with world leaders that draws you.

Perhaps it's the rock star swagger and sunglasses he wears at night that annoys you.

I've had my doubts and criticisms at times. But I just gain more and more respect for who he is and what he is doing with his influence.

I read an article he wrote in the op-ed section in the NY times today. His descriptive musings about New Years allow you to appreciate his writing style and creativity.

Have a READ

somethings different in the air

Something is different in the air. Global missions seems to be permeating the hallways and corridors of our offices. People seem to be increasingly attentive to the striking need and shift towards a missional agenda to serve and bear witness to what God is doing throughout this world both in and through us.

This afternoon, met with the media team that will be traveling to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to develop a film. We're asking questions like:
-What does Christ offer the world through the church in bringing hope, justice, love and reconciliation to areas of extreme poverty, disease and oppression?
-What are the common misconceptions of missions in the western world?
-How can we provoke more questions than provide direct answers?
-What can grassroots organizations like Beza international teach us about a holistic approach to serving, from the least of these, to those with political, economic or social influence on an international scale?
-What is the role of faith in pursuing definitions of development and social change?

Problem was, there was no room. The team that had just returned from Malawi was in the offices upstairs preparing for "Welcome to the warm heart of Africa" night this coming friday, celebrating what God is doing in Malawi. There was an informational meeting on a trip to Jordan whose aim is to partner with an organization that is building better inter-faith relationships between Christians and Muslims in Amman. The Northern Ireland team was meeting downstairs in preparation for their trip in February to connect with a high-impact church in Derry, a city best known in the past for its political and religious upheaval. Finally, there was a Kenya informational meeting for a July trip.

This is most importantly the Holy Spirit at work, but the leadership of Pastor Mark and Pastor Joel's years of prayer and culture creating to continue to embed this missions-driven focus into the hearts and minds of people who attend.

I don't know, there's just been something different in the air the last few months.

switchvert

Had coffee with a guy who is the creative director for a production company called Switchvert. Really enjoyed hearing about some of their projects and possible ways for us to collaborate on a project. They just did a short film called "open table" with Donald Miller, author of Blue Like Jazz.

Switchvert has offices in Johannesburg, South Africa and produce films all over Africa. They moved half their staff to DC this past year and are quickly gaining access and influence in the US market. He just got back from Antarctica filming a sitcom that is a cross between "the office and Flight of the Concords". That's both weird and crazy.


Love his ambition. Love his passion.

Poker Night

We put together a non-NCC sponsored fundraiser poker night yesterday evening. We continued our efforts to raise awareness and support for The Well. Had a good time.

Yes, I did make it to the final table dominating my good mate Paul (I'm waiting for a comment on that:)), though I gotta say Joel Schmidgall got outplayed by a girl who's never played poker in her life. She beat him on an all-in hand.

She had pocket aces.

general butt naked

I met with a filmmaker the other day and was told about this new documentary was coming out soon. It looks amazing. Had an exchange with one of the filmmakers and are hoping we could host a showing at Ebenezers when it finally comes out.

This was filmed by freelance filmmakers who have worked for National Geographic.

Watch the TRAILER

Watch the Photo Slideshow

Both are pretty amazing.

perhaps more effective than most

Ran across an article that found me contemplating similar questions I had once spent months toiling over in Scotland as we helped launch a church in Edinburgh, Scotland:

What is the Church supposed to look like? What aspects of the typical sunday service is scriptural and what has evolved and manifested itself through various cultural influences? Are there ways of doing church that we haven't even thought of yet? Have we become too institutionalized?

There is a church in Washington DC that has little more than 70 in attendance, yet many would regard it as the most effective and missional church in the US. This is in part why:

"Since the late 1940s, Cosby (90 years old and founder of Church of the Savior here in DC has preached every Sunday morning at what members call "2025." The gathering has taken on a special significance as Cosby has pressed for the church to break into small faith "communities" with their own social justice goals and worship services, an unorthodox structure the church believes leads to more creativity, intimacy and accountability." Read THE ARTICLE and have your opinion. (a possible counter-argument would be the proclivity to a social gospel approach)

Today's church (including 'emerging church,' 'liquid church,' 'fresh expressions of church,' 'mission-shaped church,' and many others) is grappling with the question of what its mission and life might look like in the days to come, particularly with the pace of social/political/ecological changes where policies in China can now directly effect me (welcome to the global village). But the present mood of frustration with existing patterns of church life melded with postmodern free-for-all experimentation, on the one hand, and residual (mainly protestant) fears about institutional order, on the other, have conspired together to produce cheerful and not-so-cheerful chaos.

Let it be said, I live and breath the local church. As the largest organization in the world, there is little doubt in my mind when Bill Hybels said the local church is the hope of the world. Its institutional capacity is essential, make no mistake. It's biblical. Jesus makes continual reference in the Gospels to Isaiah where it speaks of delighting in the house of God. He didn't come to do away with the Temple or various forms of religious organizational patterns, but to challenge what it had become.

But stories like these always make one want to continually revisit and reimagine they way we organize and celebrate together in the house of God in todays world.

Read the article.

$51,880

We're doing everything from building an orphanage to serving some of the needs of an AIDS colony in Ethiopia. On a whim, we put together a catalog with the hope of coming up with a $25,000 idea.

The updated amount of what we've given is $51,880! Check out some of the purchases that have been made:

305 goats for families in Ethiopia
1517 bricks to build an orphanage in Uganda
4.2 houses for elderly women in Malawi
29 girls sponsored in Thailand to go through a year of classes to finish their high school education.

So pumped about this! Looking specifically at when people made purchases, it appeared that Christmas eve and Christmas day were the highest sold. We surmised that most got the catalog a week or two before, brought it back to their families and purchased items together. What an incredible act of the true spirit of Christmas.

If you want to give or check out the online catalog, Click HERE

1. honesty 2. forward-thinking

An article in Harvard Review reminded me to add something to my new year's resolution list I'm compiling: personal advances; getting away from everyone and everything for 48 hours to both reflect and plan for the future.

In a research project, the article confirms that forward-looking and enlisting others in a shared view of the future is the attribute that distinguishes leaders from nonleaders.

They asked followers the following questions:

“What do you look for and admire in a leader (defined as someone whose direction you would willingly follow)?”

Then they asked,

“What do you look for and admire in a colleague (defined as someone you’d like to have on your team)?”

Numero uno on the list? Honesty, which also happened to be the highest rated attribute of a good colleague. However, and this is where it gets interesting, the second-highest rating for a leader, that he/she be forward-looking, applied only to the leader role. Statistically, 27% of respondents looked for that in a colleague, whereas 72% wanted this in a leader.

What does this suggest? That this raises a tremendous challenge for any rising leader, because the trait that most separates the leaders from individual contributors is something that they haven't had to demonstrate in prior, nonleadership roles. This makes arguable sense given the low percentage of leaders who seem to have made a habit out of looking ahead.

Here's the stat that scares me into putting this on my new year's list if I hadn't before: only 3% of a typical leader's time is spent envisioning and enlisting. Leaders on the front line must anticipate merely what comes after current projects wrap up. People at the next level of leadership should be looking several years into the future.

Team Larson

A newsletter from Jim Larson, director of The Well in Thailand who works with former sex slaves.

"Greetings from Bangkok.

We are now in our fifth year here. We have a big family. with many Thai people calling us "mom" and "dad", and to our chagrin we even get called "grandma" and "grandpa" sometimes.

The students at The Well are also very much like children to us, and we love them dearly. Some live with us, others visit frequently. Some are shining stars in this dark world and others, coming from so much hurt and brokenness, are still trying to walk on the edge of night. In a recent video interview, Dao, one of our first dear daughters that we met 4 years ago, asked people to please pray for the students at The Well, because "we are so fragile and so vulnerable". Indeed they are, yet so precious to us.

We see over and over that only God can do this amazing work and we are quite helpless, just muddling our way in something far too big and complicated for our abilities. But indeed He is working. If it's possible to say He works hard, that would certainly apply.


Thank you for praying for and supporting us.

By His grace,
Jim and Judy for Team Larson"

Follow Jim's Blog

missionaries, not aid money

"As an atheist, I truly believe Africa needs God. Missionaries, not aid money, are the solution to Africa's biggest problem - the crushing passivity of the people's mindset."

Matthew Parris wrote an well-articulated article in London Times a few days ago and thought it was worth a read.

READ IT HERE!

family time

I love this family.