Run with God

Buy Gear? Do I have to?

Alright. I think I'm done. Other than a couple VGA cables and some minor adapters that I've probably forgotten to buy, the buying for the multisite campuses are done.

Thank God.

I used to be the guy that loves gear. I'd flip through the newest B&H or Sweetwater Catalog... drool through the MacZone flyer or the CDW ad...

And now, after buying for four campuses (CFH, CFDT, CFR, and CFWK) and creating multiple venues on each campus (Anchor Harbor, Way Station, Revolution, and the Adult Venue) the CF Crew has bought A LOT of gear over the past year.... 16 venues worth...

Happily, I'm done.

No more specs. No more diagrams. No more charts. No more salesmen. No more descriptions.

It's time to stop. Stop acquiring and start using...

Of course, there is still CFPB's Studio Relo, and a ProTools HD Recording Studio we're currently building... so I guess the buying never stops!

Buying... You can't stop it, you can only hope to control it.

Megachurches across America

NY Times wrote a story last week on Megachurches in America, and how they create and operate their own economy. Huh, ministry through business. Interesting concept.

NY Times defines "MEGA"church being a church over 2,000 members. To the left is a map created by NY Times showing the geographical representation of those churches. I was asked this weekend by a reader what I thought about working for a Megachurch. Honestly, it doesn't feel megachurch. CF has five campuses. All of the campuses are healthy, growing, vibrant. Aside from the Palmetto Bay campus, all the campuses are no where near that 2,000 number.

I guess that's the idea of the multi-site model. You get intimacy in ministry, but the programs and resources of a true "megachurch". That's the beauty of CF. There are five different campuses. Five distinct styles. One church.

Unless I'm really unaware of where Miami is on the map, I don't think we are listed on the NTY map. Oh well.

Thank you, God, for an opportunity to serve you. Allow us to impact Miami, not for our glory, but for Yours.

Housecleaning Top 10

Been a busy couple weeks. I've had some people ask why I'm not blogging much lately. Honestly, I'm so busy "living" my life that I really don't have time to write about it. I actually had some "Me time" today to think, process, and overall defunk what's been going on lately.

Let me catch you up:

1) CF Downtown is going great. The Worship Center conversion will be a monumentous (is that a word?) task. Good news is we're developing a multi-phase plan, and what felt like an insurmountable task is slowly starting to come together.

2) C28's is a Key Sponsor for Wayfest happening Saturday, November 10th at the Sound Advice Ampitheater in West Palm Beach. Also as part of Wayfest, C28 West Palm is hosting an intimate artist signing with Seventh Day Slumber and Storyside B... SSB will also be performing an acoustic set in the store. How cool is that!

3) Pray for C28 in general. Most of the stores reside in Southern California, which is currently being ravaged by fire. I was calling one of my reps earlier this week, who told me "Uh, I gotta go. My backyard's on fire and we gotta get out of the house." Crazy. Absolutely crazy.

4) There are some new CF Bloggers, and I can personally recommend both of these guys. Carlos Lollett is the worship leader for CF West Kendall, and Berchman Paul is the worship leader for CF Homestead. Thanks to E for the reminder.

5) Wanna make God laugh, make plans! The old adage has really rung true in my life over the past month. It seems as if God is content keeping me running. So we'll keep running. God, I trust that you know what You are doing in my life. Keep opening doors and I'll keep running through them.

6) Anyone see Joel Osteen bench 300lbs on TV recently? I've had multiple people tell me they saw him do it. I can't find the video on YouTube, and I'm going to pull a doubting Thomas until I see him do it. The man is a beanpole (albeit an extremely rich beanpole) and I do not see how he could throw that weight up. 300lbs on his chest would break him like a twig.

7) I'm mentally working through a blog redesign for the site. Not like I got time to do the work, but maybe I'll get a day off in December and can have fun with it then.

8) There's a good chance I will be at four different church locations this Sunday. No, not kidding. I'll be sure to blog my day. I think it may be a 200 mile day. WooHoo!

9) Are you celebrating Halloween this year? If the secular world has taken Christ out of Christmas, is it possible that we have commercialized Satan's holiday as well to the point that children getting free candy is no longer glorifying to Satan either? (Don't know the answer, just thinking...)

10) God-sized news this weekend @ CF. Eric's teasing the info again. Come celebrate with us and see how God is moving across Miami.

Church Cowards and the USA Today

USA Today ran an article on Wednesday entitled Some search for church by way of the Web. If you still buy the physical paper, I'm told it's on D8.

Nothing groundbreaking. Let me give you highlights.

"82% of churches with more than 200 worship attendees have a website." That could be an impressive stat. coming from a guy that started a company that built websites exclusively for churches, this is misleading. I cannot tell you how many pastors I talked to over the years who would say something to the extent of "Why should I pay you to do this when my 10 year old (Please, no more 10 year old jokes relating to my iPhone irrelevance.) can do the same thing with Microsoft Frontpage)." So, while 82% of them have websites, what are they broadcasting on them? How/What are they connecting to the culture/their target audience.

To continue quoting the article:

Semblance of a connection

This reality leaves [Steve Clark, Pastor: Evangelical Free Church of Salt Lake City] with mixed feelings. On one hand, he's glad to be communicating with people far and wide. But he also is concerned about offering a tool that creates the semblance of a spiritual connection but doesn't ultimately satisfy a thirst for God.

"It definitely concerns me if it stops there," Clark says. "That's not actually attending church. You miss the benefits of community, of being with other people who will correct and encourage you."

I totally and completely disagree with this. Are you not surprised?

You don't think community can be created online?
Tell that to the 120 people who are my friends on Facebook.

You don't think the Internet can create a venue where people can communicate, correct, and encourage?
Um, ever been on a blog? Discussion Board? Forum? Ever sent an e-mail? Ever talked via IM? All of these are viable communication forms that enable us to communicate, correct, and encourage.

I have friends across this country that I keep up with on a regular basis. We talk, we share, we pray... rarely is communication verbal. More often than not, its text-based communication via the Internet.

What's frustrating to me is that we are NOT doing things differently than the early church did. The Media Small Group I lead is going through II Corinthians. IIC is basically Paul encouraging and correcting the church in Corinth. (More correcting than encouraging, but both play a part). Did Paul do this face to face? No. He tried to, but unforseen jail time prevented him from making the trip.

So what did Paul do. He wrote a letter. Text communication. Paul didn't abandon the church he started. He didn't say "you need to figure out your problems on your own." He didn't say "Find someone else to solve your problems". He communicated with them the best way he knew how. He wrote a letter.

To quote Tom Bandy, EasumBandy & Associates (Church Consulting Company) from the USA Today Article:

"The Web has allowed people to be cowards about profound religion," says Bandy. "It allows us to hide behind our e-mail, jargon names, URLs and stuff like that. But religion is really an act of courage — to submit, to surrender, to be vulnerable to the other, to that which is beyond yourself."

Yes, people will hide behind usernames (what's a jargon name?). But they're probably hiding from judgmental Christians who would criticize them for their mistakes, views, etc. These people are searching, seeking... they oftentimes are being vulnerable. But no, really, thank you for limiting the spiritual depth of thousands of people across America who use the Internet to communicate and invest in people's livevs.

Funny. I never viewed Paul as a coward. I guess he was, though, because what he said he didn't say face to face. Maybe I'm a coward too, for saying what I say via this blog. Maybe being a coward is a great place to be.

I'll wrap this up with a quote from Paul. II Corinthians 1:13-14 "For we do not write you anything you cannot read or understand. And I hope that, as you have understood us in part, you will come to understand fully that you can boast of us just as we will boast of you in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ."

Sitting in Postmodern Pews...

So I got to sit in a pew, er, folding chair today... this time the service was in English.

I'm proud of the Homestead Media Crew. I walked into the Worship Center this morning and told my crew that "I'm going to do an excellent job of not doing anything today. This is your show. Do it."

They did it.

Jeff, welcome to irrelevance. It's a great place to be.

I thoroughly enjoyed sitting back and doing absolutely nothing. As a matter of fact, I went to an entirely different church today (Life Pointe in Homestead) and saw someone else preach today. (I'll get there later...)

I love the fact that after six months I've worked myself out of my job.
I love the fact that they understand the purpose behind what they do.
I love the fact that they are self-reliant.
I love the fact that the service (worship, teachings, and TRANSITIONS) went smoother than I have ever seen at a service in Homestead.

It's not only that they don't need me. They're also doing it better than I would.

Sweet.

BTW, Eric spoke on my favorite person in the Bible... Job. I haven't done an in-depth character study on Job in five years. I think I'm going to revisit that in the coming months. Ironically, last time I studied Job, eBeliever (my first business, graphic and web design) died due to someone elses negligence. Maybe Job wouldn't be a good idea after all... Enter "the Curse of the Job" - duh duh duh duh. "Is God Really Good?" is a question that I've debated with people many times, and Eric did a great job presenting the theological and the practical arguments. Download the Podcast. It's worth a listen.

As I mentioned above, I got to check out Life Pointe, a non-denom theater-based church not far from CF Homestead. (CF West Kendall is coming up, and I'd like to see what theater churches are doing these days.) Travis Johnson (Sr. Pastor) and I have had a borderline stalking relationship. We've talked for months via blogs and e-mail, and never took the time to meet.

Well, I took the first step. Amy and I sat in their pew (er, stadium/theater seating) and enjoyed Travis' message on God's view (and culture's view) of sex. Awesome. We stayed for the message, but I was convicted to go back to CF Homestead so I could be irrelevant over there. So, sorry Trav for not sticking around. We'll have lunch someday.

Be praying for Central Baptist this week as they will be voting this week about merging with Christ Fellowship.

God, guide our steps, our direction. Use us to bring You glory.

Christ Fellowship Downtown?

"How can we reach Miami if we're not in Miami?"

Eric announced last week that we would be launching our third campus in February, 2008. Christ Fellowship West Kendall. (I blogged it several weeks ago). In addition, Eric dropped a little teaser last week that we should be praying about other opportunities, and that a church had approached CF about helping them in their ministry. Well the bomb finally dropped this week.

"How can we reach Miami if we're not in Miami?"

Miami's first Southern Baptist Church, Central Baptist Church, is prayerfully considering asking us to partner with them in ministry.

No, it's okay. Go ahead and gasp. Everyone else at CF is right now.

Let me put it into context. Here's the map of Central Baptist and surrounding:

Bayside Marketplace. American Airlines Arena. Bayfront Park. A lot of what makes Miami great. Aside from that, though, there is a lot of need in Downtown Miami... and a lot of potential Kingdom Impact!

"How can we reach Miami if we're not in Miami?"

The leadership of Christ Fellowship has been meeting with the leadership of Central for several months, and we have finally gotten to the point where Central Baptist leadership is taking the CF proposal to Central Church members for vote. We will find out, within a month, if CF Downtown is becoming a reality. Stay tuned, and pray!

God, align our will to Yours. Curb any selfish ambition we may have and hear our requests as a humble desire to see You glorified in Miami. If it's in Your will, allow us the opportunity to use Central Baptist as a device to impact Miami for Your name.

Christ Fellowship West Kendall

I've totally ignored something huge... my apologies.

Several weeks ago, Eric Geiger announced that Christ Fellowship is starting our next campus in West Kendall. Huge upswing in West Kendall area... CF has some 2,000 people members living in that area already! We're praying for a large startup team to help us seed the location. We will be meeting at the Regal Cinema 16, a brand new location just West of the Turnpike on the North side of Kendall Avenue. This is an INCREDIBLE LOCATION!

I got to do something cool today. Hector, Landon and I got to hang out in an empty movie theater and dream about what the venue is going to look like. I've never done church in a movie theater, but I can say this... I am going to love it! The Room Acoustics are PERFECT! Designed specifically for audio at this level. And visually? We've got a HUGE CANVAS to work with! Mark Batterson speaks of Video Screens becoming "Postmodern Stained Glass" in the modern church... so we've got a virtual canvas almost fifty feet wide, three stories tall to work with...

At one point today Hector and I were discussing lights/projection, and we hear Landon speaking to us, but we can't see him. Evidently, behind the projection screen is a series of scaffolding, and Landon found his way back in there, and was over 20 feet up in the air, behind the movie screen. He's bouncing around on the scaffolding, looking at where we can mount the speakers...

The worship experience, on paper, will be phenominal for the West Kendall Campus. We've already begun praying for the Campus, that God would honor our efforts by making His presence known on in West Kendall. God, use our gifts, talents, and abilities to further Your Kingdom.

CF Homestead: Home Sweet Home

CF Homestead got some God-sized news today! We have a home in Homestead. I haven't blogged on it, so let me catch you up.

After CF had already planted and started CF Homestead, we were told that the Miami Baptist Association owned some property in Homestead that was donated for the purpose of starting a church. And oh, the property is worth almost $6million. (The property is right next to the new BJ Wholesale Club). The MBA is literally looking to give the property to someone to start a church in Homestead.

MBA, meet Christ Fellowship. CF, meet Miami Baptist Association. After a bunch of meetings, prayer, fasting, and three unanimous votes (does that ever happen in Baptist politics?) WE GOT THE PROPERTY! I repeat, we were given 4.8 acres of prime Homestead real estate so that we can build a building.

Really, how awesome is that!

We're speculating that we are looking at a 600 person worship venue, with appropriate children and youth worship venues included. However, we now have to raise funds for the new building project, and I've been told that this project will take 2-3 years.

So, until 2010 comes around, we'll still be setting up and tearing down in a school every week at the Charter School.

God, thank you for entrusting us with this incredible gift. Give us the opportunity to impact Homestead and surrounding areas with the message of Your Saving Grace. We are not worthy to receive this, but may we use this to bring glory to You.

Internet Church

I asked if anyone has had any experience with Internet Campuses... I didn't expect NBC to post a response on Nightly News with Brian Williams. Thank you, NBC, for some insight...

Nightly News ran a story on LifeChurch.tv and their Internet Presence in Second Life. Great stuff. Read the article and view the story at this link.

CF Staff Retreat: Russ Olman (Lake Pointe, Dallas)

I had the pleasure of taking part in the CF church-wide staff retreat. Russ Olman is Director of Community Campuses at Lake Pointe Church in Dallas, TX. Lake Pointe has a "Central Campus" and has six satellite campuses. Russ is also the campus pastor at their Town East Campus (the largest satellite). In addition, Russ started "Ministry Advantage", a non-profit international coaching organization that has served hundreds of pastors and church leaders in the areas of leadership skills and church development.

While Rockwall, TX is a completely different environment than Miami, FL, Russ brought some great insight into the multi-site model.

Below are several nuggets Russ impressed on me:

First Year
* first year, disregard numbers
* focus on quality, systems, procedures (I wanted to yell out "Infrastructure")
* nobody knows how difficult it is to start a church (until you do it)

Volunteering
* get good at helping people identify their passion.
* know the difference between a committed volunteer and a passionate volunteer
* buyers remorse - sometimes volunteers buy into an idea w/o realizing what is involved in serving.

Features on Campus
* site/size appropriate - when starting campuses, don't create all features, all services immediately.
* offer what would be appropriate for your size.
* offer services/features when volunteers are available (satellite campuses will not be a full-service provider)
* "size appropriate ministry" - backed by communication, expectation, alignment
* be conscious of the services you provide

What we do
* 80/20 effect - 20% of your effort creates 80% of the impact (I'll be revisiting this at a later point).
* whatever we do, do it well (I've heard this somewhere before, too).
* Biased towards action
* when you're 80% confident on your action, pull the trigger (I'll revisit this too).

Communication
* what does the satellite campus communicate to the main campus? about the main campus? vice versa?
* Central campuses are "used to" doing things certain ways. It can be difficult for central sites to think multi-site.
* Satellite + Central = marriage relationship (if you're married, you understand)
* Get to the solution side of the problem, don't stay on the problem side.

Miscellaneous
* not sold on thematic worship elements, good worship cuts across cultural demographics
* re: video teaching - it's the message, not the medium
* campus identity is defined by texture, color, layour, standardizing equipment, etc.
* Delegation: "Don't do anything someone else can do for you." - Bill Marriott, Sr.

CF Homestead FOH/Stage Layout (v2)

Oscar has updated our FOH/Control Room diagrams for CF Homestead. Only the techie out there will truly understand. ENJOY!

CF Homestead FOH/Stage Layout

One of our volunteers, Oscar, did a diagram of our FOH (front of house) setup as well as our Stage Setup in Homestead. This is a great example of a volunteer taking ownership of an area, and striving to see it do better things. I've never worked with Oscar until we started the CF Homestead campus, and he's quickly becoming indispensable to our production.

Success in Church Plants, Revisited

A couple days ago I posted what my have been construed as negative statistics towards church plants. Please understand that I am very much pro-plants (the church kind, not so much the botany kind). That's what actually drew me to the multi-site model. It operates like a plant, but with stronger backing.

My point in discussing church plants over the past couple days is that:

1) church planting is hard work
2) church planting fails a lot
3) church planting need help and support from all over to make it happen

The SBC Report (NAMB) has posted a series of reports on Church Planting Survivability and Health Study. Earlier I posted/blogged on Part 2 of the Report: "How Many Church Plants Really Survive"? In due fairness, check out Part 3 of the Report: "10 Factors for Higher Attendance in Church Plants", or better yet, read the full report (all four parts). Farbeit for me to say that the SBC is the expert on church planting, but I think the full report gives an overall feel for the experience...good and bad.

Success of Church Plants

Over the weekend I blogged on the difficult road church plants have to follow to be successful. The Southern Baptist Convention (North American Mission Board) has released some statistics validating that point.

Points of interest:

99% of church plants survive the 1st year
92% survive the 2nd year
81% survive the 3rd year
68% survive the 4th year

Four reasons why are:
Expectations
>> 87% with realistic expectations survived
>> 61% with unmet expectations survived
Leadership Development
>> 79% with leadership training for church members survived
>> 59% with no leadership training for church members survived
Peer Groups
>> 83% with planters who were part of a church planting peer group survived
>> 67% with planters who were not part of a church planting peer group survived
Stewardship Plans
>> 81% with a stewardship development plan survived
>> 67% with no stewardship development plan survived

Thanks for Church Relevance for bringing this to our attention. Check out the full report for more information.

Multi-Site vs. Church Plant

I have the ultimate respect for Church Planters. I've worked with planters in the past. What we're doing at CF is not planting. Multi-site is a completely different bird. Church Planters, now those guys are busting their butt for the kingdom:

Multi-Site: big budget!
Church Plant: how do you spell budget again?

Multi-Site: big pool of volunteers!
Church Plant: volunteers? what's that?

Multi-Site: brand recognition, already established in the community!
Church Plant: new guy on the block

Multi-Site: starting with a large group of attendees
Church Plant: often starting with with no one

Multi-Site has it's burden, but believe me... as hard as multi-site is, planters will be getting a bigger crown in Heaven. Creating everything from SCRATCH certainly is rewarding, but was one of the most frustrating things I've ever had to do.

Which is why I salute, applaud, and continue to pray for the Planters out there. May God give you an extra dose of strength to do what you need to do. May He bless your time with your family, so they do not feel cheated when you're not there. May He open doors that you can create an impact in the cities you are in. May your dreams, your vision, your desires grow into a tool God will use for His Kingdom.

On my blogroll, I keep tabs on a couple guys in Miami who are doing the plant thing. In Homestead there's Travis Johnson @ LifePointe. Coming soon to North Miami is Matt Mehaffey who is blogging the story of his Plant getting built. Lift these guys up in prayer. It's one thing to start from scratch when you got "Big Brother" giving you support from every angle. It's another when the support is not always there.

God, please bless these churches, these ministries. May we impact Miami through the path you have set before us, and may we see your Kingdom in our city.

Fearing the Unknown, Revisited

I think it's 4am. Today is skip forward time thing (aka Daylight Savings Time), and I'm almost positive I already uped my alarm clock. My computer says 4am, but I'm not sure it auto updated. Needless to say, it's late into the wee hours. I can't sleep. It was a late night. I was at CF Palmetto Bay till 11pm working out kinks in our video teaching system.

Needless to say, the kinks didn't get worked out.

4:04am. For the three hours I slept I kept working the scenarios in my head, trying to logically fix the problems in my dreams. Going over schematics, troubleshooting software, checking adapters. Everything should be there. We should be fine. Why am I awake?

4:06am. Here's my dillema. I really don't have a chance to test this. We will be at the Homestead campus in less than 4 hours and we can do testing then. However, if there is any problems (or we need adapters) Radio Shack doesn't open until 10am, and that's when the service is supposed to start.

4:13am. It's the unknown that gets to me. The device that's never been tested, the volunteer that you're not sure will show up, the schematic that "will definitely work" but you've never tried. I have faith in God. He's proven to me that He deserves it. I have NO FAITH in technology. As much as I'm engrossed in it, I've learned never to trust it. Technology will always fail when you need it most.

4:18am. I guess I'm going to go back to sleep - see if I can get my mind off this mess. I'll say this for the record. Any church that is considering multi-site venues, especially temporary venues, consider doing 2-4 weeks of rehearsals. Especially if your services are high technology/media. We did not have that opportunity at CF Homestead (we wanted to get established before Easter) and I think that we'll be chasing that dog for weeks as we slowly bring in untested technology into a live venue.

4:22am. I'm clicking "Save" now. If someone at CF Homestead reads this Sunday AM, I like my coffee black, no sugar, no cream. Just as God intended coffee to be drunk. Pray for this (and all) CF Services this weekend, that God will show up (whether or not the technology does).

4:26am.

CF Homestead Launched

I have sat at the computer trying to figure out what to say. Honestly, I truly am speechless. Eric has posted on his blog, giving the details. (For the record, Eric works very hard, and I humbly apologize for inferring that CF's 2nd greatest workaholic doesn't work...)

I blog to process, and I have a hard time processing this. Today was opening day, and God showed us a taste of what he has in store.

Technically speaking we nailed the 11:30 service. The worship was incredible (Berch and the praise team did a phenominal job leading worship). Rick showed up a couple minutes before he was supposed to go on (we were all a little nervous there). Haydn and Jonathan are doing a phenominal job with audio. (Thanks to Landon for helping with the compressors). Amy, Julia and Denise did a great job with the screens. (Denise gets the most props for sitting in a dark room for both services and no one else around so the center screens could work). Chuck did a great job trying to keep up with Rick on the camera. Oscar is quickly becoming my right-hand-man, serving as a great utility setup and teardown guy. One of the great things about Oscar is he uses serving in media as an opportunity to train his son, Ariel, on servanthood. Carlos and Grace plug in the missing gaps. God has brought a great group together, and I'm honored to serve among them.

We've still got some problems: video teaching computer crashes, intercomm system is a bit buggy, HD cabling is still up in the air. Technically the great thing about today is, for a glimpse, I could picture everything coming together. Instead of it just being lines on a page, or sketches and diagrams, it was real. People were worshipping. We were setting the stage to bring people into the throne of God. And in that instant, the hours paid off. The sweat. The muscle aches. The frustrations. It all paid off because in that one instant we were bringing people closer to God. God, thank you for that opportunity!

Aside from the launch of the service, the greatest thing about today is a simple conversation. Travis Johnson of LifePointe came by CF Homestead to welcome us into the neighborhood. (Travis blogged on it earlier today). It's very refreshing to see churches in a relationship, actually talking to each other! Oftentimes, it feels like churches get threatened by each other, and really have no desire to partner together. I've enjoyed reading Travis' blog (it's already been added into the blogroll) and look forward to seeing both our ministries grow under the guidance of God.

God, keep a watchful eye on LifePointe and CF Homestead. Allow us to be tools to impact the city of Homestead.

CF Homestead Preview

Okay we had our preview service at the Homestead Campus today. The Rev/Dr Eric Geiger already posted his blog on it. (Not to lay on the guilt, but while he was posting that blog, the Media Team was still working unloading all the gear into storage. Okay, laying a little guilt...)

All I gotta say is, WOW! Months of preperation, praying, planning, praying, talking, praying... and I'm happy to say that we nailed it! If you've read my blog in the past you know I was, at best, apprehensive. And with all these other distractions going on lately, it truly is a God thing that the pieces came together.

The screens didn't come in.
We were using a temporary stage.
Computers crashed right before the service.
We didn't have time to wire the mic compressors.
We've never used the in-ear systems before.
There was no sound check for Rick.
We were typing songs in the middle of a time of prayer.
The sermon notes were loaded in the middle of a song.

Logistically, everything didn't come together until one hour before the service.
Yet, it did come together.

There's a lot to fix, but we nailed it.

Okay, time for a story... Today was a rehearsal, which means everyone invited/attending was an active member of Christ Fellowship. There was only one person there at the service today that was not a member. She was one of the cleaning ladies at the school we are setting up services. I spoke with her at length this morning, well, as best I could. She understood english, but couldn't speak it very well. She indicated that she was looking forward to attending our services today. Long story short (too late) she accepted Christ today. Kinda crazy that the one person that wasn't supposed to be there, got saved.

I wasn't even planning on doing the spanish translator packs this week, since it's "rehearsal" there was no need to set it up. Amazing how God schedules divine appointments... May God use us to imapct the community and change lives. As always, we're looking forward to being a part of His plan.

We got the real thing starting next week! Come on by. 11:30 service. Check out CFHomestead.org for more info.

Podcast Anyone?

Occasionally it's good to hear other people making the same observations you're doing. Several months ago I blogged on AppleTV (and how it and podcasting would revoluntionize church broadcasting). I love it when someone else says it too! (Makes me feel like less of an idiot).

The following was posted on Monday Morning Insight by Greg Atkinson of churchvideoideas.com

I believe podcasting is the new radio and video venues, multi-site campuses and video podcasts are the new broadcast. Radio stations are hurting to be quite honest. I’ve spoken face to face with station managers and they see the writing on the wall. Why would Tony Evans, Chuck Swindoll, James Dobson, Jack Graham or Ed Young pay for a half-hour time slot on a local radio station, when for virtually nothing, their message can be heard around the world by millions via iTunes or an MP3 download from their website?

Greg's article does not shed a flattering view of the Religious Broadcasting Industry, since he feels that they have treated the church like the "red headed step child". But, of course, times are changing. And what worked 20 years ago might not work today. What worked last week might not work today.

On a side note, at Christ Fellowship we seem to be on the edge of the technology. We've been audio podcasting for months now and will be doing video podcasting within the next month or so. Our video venue service (Classic Service) is expanding to three screens this week (using Renewed Visions ProVideoSync) and our Homestead Campus is going through our first (and only) rehearsal service this week. I'll have a breakdown of that rehearsal service this coming week.

To Pageant or Not To Pageant

After more years than I can count, Christ Fellowship is cancelling this years "South Florida Easter Pageant". The pageant, which has been a staple in the community, was put on hold this year. The decision was made by our Worship and Media Pastor, Sammy Flores.

Every year through the ministry of the pageant people get saved.
Every year through the pageant people get an opportunity to serve.
Every year through the pageant people are brought closer to God through the experience of the service.

With that being said, why in the world would you want to cancel the pageant?

Fact #1: when we started the pageant, we were producing one service every week. With Homestead, Saturday night, and Classic Service we will produce at least 8 services. On top of that, our age-graded ministries produce heavily-technical services that are just as (if not more) complex than the adult services. Easter will have close to twenty services going on.

Fact #2: lives can be changed, outside of pageant. 31 middle school students were saved this past week during a regular weekend service(s). That's a higher average (per service) than the Pageant last year.

Fact #3: the worship and media team is STRETCHED big-time because of the Homestead campus. Media and IT director Hector Huyo and I have spent more time coordinating Homestead than we ever did for the pageant.

Fact #4: Media alone at Christ Fellowship Palmetto Bay REQUIRES over 50 volunteers to function. And that is probably short-changed still. Our average weekend service is AS COMPLEX IF NOT MORE than the average Pageant. If people are looking to serve, WE NEED HELP EVERY WEEKEND! NOT JUST FOR EASTER!

Honestly, I agree. It doesn't make sense to put our normal weekly services on hold so that we can produce the pageant...especially if our weekend services are effective is reaching the lost. Support the decision and help us reach SoFL with the good news of Christ.

Ironically, Craig Groeschel of LifeChurch.tv wrote on a similar issue a couple days ago. LifeChurch has gone through some changes recently as well. They simplified their ministry. They focused on what they did well, and got better at it. What they didn't do well, they let others focused on.

I blogged on this a while back - comparing Christian Retailing to the Apple Store. Know what you do. Do it well.

Don't focus on change. Don't criticize change. Embrace it. Run with it. Change lives with it.

2007 Survey of Multi-Site Churches

The Leadership Network has put together a survey of 1,000 Multi-Site Churches. The survey offers a great synopsis for anyone that is interested in the multi-site model. How to do teaching? How much budget? How much technology? How far away? All of these questions are answered by 1,000 Multi-Site Churches across the country.

If you are interested in Multi-Site, I strongly encouage you to check this doc out.

(to download the doc, you will need to fill out a brief form on Leadership Network's website).

A Home for CF Homestead

Finally! At long last Christ Fellowship Homestead has a home! I was getting quite nervous, honestly, but thank God He had better in store for us! We are going to be meeting at the Waterstone Charter School @ 855 Waterstone Way, Homestead (off 312th-Campbell east of the Turnpike).

If you want to get some dirt on the schedule and plans of CF Homestead, check out Eric's blog here, here, and here.

The facilities are excellent, and the more I think of the potential of these services, the more excited I get. If you're in Miami/Homestead area, and you're interested in volunteering, let me know. What started as a simple service is quickly growing into a very large production practically as difficult as the ones at CF Palmetto Bay. Don't be afraid to jump on board!

And pray for the core leadership team (pictured) that God will lead us, direct us, guide us, and give us the strength to follow the path He has laid before us.

I'll have more information as it becomes available.

AppleTV=Church Innovation

Apple, Inc. did it again. I have been so hyped by the release of the iPhone that I didn't totally put the other announcement together. Church, meet AppleTV.

This week numerous people have asked me, "what the heck is this appletv thing?" I explain to them that it's the new device that allows people to stream music, photos, tv shows and movies from their computer to their TV in HD quality." They don't seem impressed and I go back to gloating about the iPhone.

Then it hit me (thank you Bobby Gruenewald, LifeChurch.tv). Churches finally have a "free" portal straight into people's homes and onto their TV sets.

Forget Churches broadcasting on Traditional TV. It cost way too much money to rent time on a channel. Same goes with cable. The only time most churches can afford would be 3am in between an infomercial involving a thigh-master and a real-estate get-rich-quick scheme. What's the point? Insomniacs like myself only make up 1% (albeit a sleepy 1%) of the marketplace.

iTunes is going to help spread the gospel, whether Apple likes it or not.

Fact:
1) iTunes has sold 2 billion songs since it started. It's sells 58 songs per second. It's now in the top 5 music sellers in America. People are not going to be happy just listening to music on iPods. They have been clamoring for a way to get music into their home entertainment centers. And face it, the iPod interface isn't that great when you're sitting on your couch. FYI Apple will overtake Target in 2007 in music sales, possible move all the way up to #3, thus proving that demand is growing.

2) Apple has sold 50 million tv shows and 1.3 million movies, and the only way people could feasibly watch these shows is on a 2 inch iPod screen. It's obvious people like the concept of buying with the mouse (2 billion songs-see above), tv shows and movies have not grown as fast because there's no way to easily get the shows to your TV. Until AppleTV.

3) for the first time, 2007 has brought in the era where more people have high speed internet than dialup. Downloads don't scare people anymore.

People want to buy in the comfort of the home and watch immediately. They want immediate satisfaction, so downloading on their DSL will work. They want to watch on their big plasmas in surround sound, so sure, $299 for an AppleTV is a drop in the bucket. And with that, the "church" has a free pipeline into people's homes, all thanks to Apple.

Here are the two words that could revolutionize church in America. Video Podcasting. Thousands of churches across America do podcasting. It's a simple way to get sermons/teachings out there. But it's just audio, and while it has a place in the home - how often are you listening to sermons in your house? Audio alone will obviously own the car, but as teachings get more experiential, sensory... does audio really convey everything?
- does audio-only really convey the message of that 5 minute video the pastor wanted in the sermon?
- does audio-only show the detail to the props/set that your team worked so hard to create?
- does audio-only allow for multi-sensory experience?

Audio Podcasting is a glorified 8-Track. We now live in a HD world. With all the work going into sermons it's time to step up and use the technology available.

What would video podcasting look like? A sermon preached Saturday night could be viewable in people's homes by Sunday morning, literally before the Sunday AM sermon. An e-mail could be sent to people who "subscribe" to our podcast reminding them it's there. A sermon complete with visuals, videos, multi-sensory presentations. What about worship? Well, what about worship? CCLI license covers internet broadcasting (ie podcasting) so legally if you can perform it in church you can podcast it! Think about small group implications. You can broadcast information into your member's homes at any time and then get together and discuss it at a later time. With the popularity of home-based Bible studies, you could literally have an active church member who never steps on your campus! What if your "small groups" were little home-based churches who met in homes, watched/worshiped (separately or with the podcast) with the church service (on your plasma) and then discussed the sermon immediately after? You've now had numerous people part of your service (but not on your campus)?

Is it possible that we can reach people not in our pews, but on their couches? Technology is only pointing to yes. Fortunately, the technology is already in most churches posession (or available at nominal expense). I understand the ethics/dangers of losing "community" by doing this. However, the good thing is it's not my responsibility to worry about the ethics. I am here to worry about the technicality of the situation. And I can say, technically speaking, the church is missing an excellent channel into people's homes if they don't take advantage of this.