"Short Film is the NEW Teaching Pastor"

I will definitely be giving this article to my team, and if you are a multisite Student Ministry, it might be helpful for you as well. It is an article from Shawn Williams blog. He is the Student Ministries director for Community Christian Church, which has eight locations in the Chicago area. I found it super helpful and exciting. Let me know what you think!

Here it is:

Short Film in Student Ministry

Ralph Winter is a top Hollywood producer who has worked on such films as The X-Men, Planet of the Apes, and Star Trek IV: The Undiscovered Country. I heard him speak at a creative conference last week at Daybreak Church in Michigan. At this conference he made a very bold statement, "Short Film is the new teaching pastor." He was suggesting that in our media driven world, a creative short film (much like Rob Bell's Nooma videos) will replace the "in person" teaching pastor as the most effective method for teaching. I really wonder if his statement will hold true and also wonder if it will hold true within the context of student ministry.

There are churches such as Life Church in Edmond, OK that already use a short film product as the primary vehicle for teaching in student ministry. This multi-site church centrally produces a short film product that is used at all 8 locations for their students. I am personally beginning to wrestle with this becoming a possibility for our student minsitry at CCC. Will we be able to continue to hire campus pastors with teaching ability when we go to 10 or 20 or 100 locations? Or should we centralize the teaching compenent and hire leaders for each location?

Here are some of the pros and cons I am wrestling with. I would treasure and thoughts and feedback.
1) We live in a media saturated culture. A short film allows us to use a familiar vehicle to commucate God's truth.
2) Students usually do not remember the theme of a night within a few days or weeks but they can quote movies that they saw years ago.
3) Short film allows you to tell a story with your words and the environment serving as teachers. The visual and the audible learners may connect.
4) Though you have to pour more resources into the short film to make it effective, you potentially take pressure off the campus staff freeing them up to lead more effectively at their location.

On the other hand:
1) If your campus people do have teaching ability, you need to find ways to leverage that gift.
2) Student ministry is TOTALLY relational. If all the teaching is done via short film, the campus must work overtime to make sure the campus is relationally strong.
3) It may be difficult to address specific needs at a location through a short film. It will have to be broad enough to connect to different locations and demographics. This will put more pressure on the small groups to make sure that personal needs are addressed in relation to each topic.

I am not sure where we will land as a ministry, but I am sure that we will experiment with the short film over the next few months. We may come up with some hybrid model where some weeks are short film while others are "in person" teaching.

Whats up with this!??!?

Ok, so Katie and I went shopping today at Valley West Mall, one of the malls in our area, and they had already decorated for CHRISTMAS!!! Now I am an avid celebrator of the birth of Jesus (blessed be his name) and I love the Christmas season, with all the lights, decorations and soon to be snow, but I think part of the specialness (I know I just made up a word, so sue me!) of the season is that it is that, a season, a month to be exact. I usually get decently frusterated when people decorate for Christmas before Thanksgiving, but this is a new one. Halloween hasn't even happened yet!! This is ridonculous! (not mine, it belongs to Set Cohen, but a made-up word none the less)

Speaking of Seth Cohen... SO EXCITED FOR THURSDAY! Now Thursday nights have BOTH the Office and the OC. Back to Back! Can't wait for the Season Premiere on Thursday! Gonna be great... by the way I think Marissa is still alive, but we will have to wait and see.

So the moral of this post is (in the fashion of the Colbert Report): "Tip of the Hat" for the OC on Thursday... "Wag of the Finger" for decorating for Christmas before Halloween. Evil and Jesus just don't mix.

The Future of the Church...

I am a huge fan of Mosaic, in LA. and have had many enjoyable experiences with Erwin McManus, Alex McManus and Eric Bryant, learning from them and dreaming with them, and their hearts and visions and ministries have shaped mine and Katie's heart and ministry very much. Their call for churches to move beyond production to unleashing creativity and moving Christ-followers towards explosive missional growth, ignites my passion. I love listening to what these three leaders are thinking and doing, and recently I read on Alex McManus' blog about the two trajectories of the church in the future.

In his article he exposes the goals of each philosophy of church, the Mega-church and the house church, and writes how the movement of Jesus benefits from both models. It is an extremely interesting reach with huge ramifications for church leaders. As a leader in a "Mega-church" (Point of Grace has over 2000 in weekend attendance) it is important to look at the areas that we are weak and honestly assess them, and try to fix those areas. I think this article is extremely helpful for pastors and leaders in any church, of any size, and the insights from Alex, and his ultimate drive to reach people for Christ, is inspiring and convicting.

As I read this article, I made me smile to think how much life is given to people through home churches, or as we refer to them "small groups", where non-seminary lay leaders are pouring out their lives, hopes, dreams, fears and stories, and God is using them to change the lives of those in their home church. In our student ministry, our "Life groups" are the far and away winner, in terms of life change, enjoyment and transformation, where God moves in a life-on-life context. This is not to say that we should not put must effort into programming and creating environments where people can come and experience God and community, but it is just to emphasize that the power of a life is unmistakable. Billy Calderwood, a great pastor that I have worked with in the past when I lived in Santa Barbara, CA leads a very cool church called Aqueous, which has very cool, experiential and meaningful gatherings, but they have a policy in their church that less than 25% of their time and resources go into their weekend gatherings. I wonder what could happen if the church as a whole got so efficient with our time and resources that we could maintain or even improve the excellence and quality of our worship experiences, and still have 75% of our time left to pour into people and work to connect those that are un-connected from the Body of Christ. Imagine the possibilities... The church could change the world again, like it did in the first century! Anyways, kind of a cool thought...

Check this out...

Tony Morgan is a pastor at Granger Community Church in Indiana, and on his blog he wrote this article on how to know if you ARE NOT a leader. I'm kinda a sarcastic guy, so this kinda reversed advice makes me laugh, and hits my spirit harder... Check it out:

10 Easy Ways to Know You're Not a Leader

I've been watching people a lot recently. Some in person. Some on TV. I've been looking for signs of leadership. You need to know, I'm surrounded by great leaders. Because of that, I know what leadership looks like. You also need to know that I fall in the group that believes God has gifted some to be leaders. Which means some have gifts that don't include leadership. And, that's a good thing. We need a great mix of gifts to have an impact in ministry or in any organization. It would be bad if we only had leaders.

As I've been watching for leaders to emerge these last several weeks, though, I've noticed that there are several types of people. Some are genuine leaders. Some are in leadership positions, but they aren't really leaders. Some aren't in a leadership position but think they should be. All of this has got me thinking about leadership, and, well, signs that indicate you're not really a leader. You may be able to help me add and subtract from this list. Here are the:

10 Easy Ways to Know You're Not a Leader

1. You're waiting on a bigger staff and more money to accomplish your vision.
2. You think you need to be in charge to have influence.
3. You're content.
4. You tend to foster division instead of generating a helpful dialogue.
5. You think you need to say something to be heard.
6. You find it easier to blame others for your circumstances than to take responsibility for solutions.
7. It's been some time since you said, "I messed up."
8. You're driven by the task instead of the relationships and the vision.
9. Your dreams are so small, people think they can be achieved.
10. No one is following you.

Like I said, there are probably others that you can add to the list to improve it. Maybe you can help me do that. Let's be on the lookout for leaders. What sets them apart?

by Tony Morgan

Best Weekend Ever!

WOW!!! I just got home and its hard to believe that it all just happened, but it did! This weekend was absolutely fantastic! We launched our new series, "LIFE 360," and it went off incredibly! We had over 100 students for the first time, this weekend, making it the largest attendance we have ever had, as well as just the impact of the messages, the dramas, the songs and the environment had on the students who were there! It was unbelievable! IT is so cool to see how God moves when you take risks and depend on Him to show up! It was just awesome to see how all the volunteers and student leaders and staff all worked together to pull this weekend off. Many hours of fun, thought, planning and creativity went into making an experience that the students would enjoy and that God could use to connect to His children! Ironically, though not so much, this weekend I taught on how God wants to connect to us, through many different ways, and we gave away three Bibles, and helped multiple students get stoked on spending time with God throughout their week, however that presents itself in their individual lives.

Its amazing how our effort, though fickle as it may be at times, is what God chooses to use to establish His legitimacy in the minds of students. I remember growing up being told by my church that church was not to be fun... well this weekend, it was FUN! The kids had fun, the music was rocking, the games were hilarious, the drama was perfect and through all that fun, God connected to the students and they connected to Him. It was an amazing week. To all the staff and leaders that worked so hard with us, thank you!


Until next time...

The Joys of Discovery...

This weekend we are launching our first Discovery Class for students at Point of Grace. The Discovery class is like a switched up version of the SHAPE class, that includes spiritual gifts, the Myers-Briggs personality test and a Strengths Finder. It is going to be exciting to see students realize that they have gifts and talents that God wants to use to serve others and lead in our Youth Ministry. We want to see not only service, but excellent service in our ministry. We want to unleash students to be the best equipped students in the Des Moines area. It is amazing to see how God can move through people that are not only AWARE, but PASSIONATE about seeing their lives make a difference in their sphere of influence. So yeah... we are so excited! We have 20 students signed up, which if you think about it... if 20 students find their gifts and are unleashed into powerful, God-driven ministry, then our youth group will be rocked, so we are stoked! Pray for many more students to show up and find out how God has uniquely gifted them. Its going to be a sweet weekend!

It is getting cold...

Nothing to special here, but just wanted to update you, especially our good friends out in sunny Southern California, that it was a solid 38 degrees today, plus windchill, so it felt even colder. Winter is coming...

Check your oil!

NEW SERIES!

This next week, we are launching a new series in Student Ministries called "Life 360." It is such an exciting series where we are teaching our students that God wants to get involved in every area of their lives, all 360 degrees of life. This next week I will be talking about "Hearing God in Surround Sound." It will be such an exciting time to talk about how we need to die to self, and open our lives to hearing God's voice in whatever form it takes. There are so many ways that we can hear from God. We are also talking about "Character Creation," "Wireless Connections" and "Life to the eXtreme!" Its going to be a great series.

The most exciting part of this series is how much the students are getting into it. We are giving away an Xbox 360 throughout the series, so that helps too, but its amazing how much the students are getting behind it and inviting their friends. I seem to hear all the time, pastors and other leaders tell me that its so hard to get involved or invite their friends. However, it seems that the Bible rings true (surprise surprise!) that we will do even greater things than Jesus and the disciples did. It just takes recognizing the language and the potential of the people in your ministry, and unleashing them to do what God has called them to do, and they will. People want to get involved, they just need to tools and the motivation, and if we are to lead like Jesus, we MUST, and I mean MUST, take risks in connecting to people that are far from God. Sometimes thats a conversation, other times its a $400 Xbox, and sometimes its getting outside of our selfish and ego-centric selves and being able to endure some uncomfortability to go somewhere that no one else will to reach out to those that God loves the most.

I am so glad that I am not only at a church that allows mine and Katie's passion to reach lost people flourish, but actually pushes us to do it in greater, more creative and excellent ways, reaching for new goals and greater risks. I am so excited for this next series and what God will do in and through it in the lives of our students.

It's Official!

That's right! Point of Grace is now in two locations! We are one church, two locations! It was so exciting to visit the Ankeny campus and help set up for the first weekend services, and just feel the energy of the Spirit of God moving through the people that give there all to make the services work so that people could come into new life with Jesus Christ.

No most people that know me at any deep level, or even a not so deep level, know that I am NOT a morning person... AT ALL!! I seriously think that the last time I was up before the sun, was sophomore year of high school. But for some reason, October 15th, there was no place I would rather be than Springwood 9 Theaters in Ankeny loading in heavy cases of audio equipment, lights, tables, chairs, coffee cups and Xbox consuls for the students. It was an amazing morning as I helped Stephen Ites, our Ankeny Campus youth director set and get all hooked up for the morning. And I was so proud of all the volunteers, including him, in minister and risking and sacrificing their personal comfort to step out and really LEAD the way for new people to experience God and bring the reality of God to this generation. So awesome! If you want to see more pics of Ankeny, check out Jeff Mullen's blog. Ankeny is gonna blow big! :)

Group Life...

We last night we had over 40 students get plugged in to Life Groups at our Kick-off Party! It is so exciting to see students taking good steps to grow up spiritually and relationally. In addition we also had about 20 other students who signed up to get involved, who we will preceed to hunt down like a leopard after a gazelle, but anyways... pretty good percentage. Hopefully all of them will get connected and God will do some awesome things through these groups!

The BIG Idea!

The Big Idea is the new book by Dave Ferguson and available for pre-order on Amazon.com. This will be a great book as this guy's communication style is phenomenal! Dave Ferguson is the pastor of Community Christian Church in 8 locations around the Chicago area. It has been fun to talk to him and his staff about going multi-site and the new tools that we can use to further the Kingdom of God. Check this book out!

The Last Kiss - Movie Review

Katie and I went and saw The Last Kiss with Zach Braff and Rachel Bilson this week, and I walked out of the theatre with a very interesting feeling from the movie. While I really enjoyed it, it perplexed me, in a Garden State sort of way, which is fitting because Zach Braff starred in this one as well. It is an interesting story of love and loss and poor descisions of men to leave or cheat on the women they have pledged their love and lives to.
(BTW... this is where you should stop reading if you have not seen the movie because it will ruin it for you.) It amazed me as I was watching , how many chances that Michael, played by Zach Braff, had to avoid the heartache that ended up haunting him at the end of the film. Throughout the story I counted 8 moments in which he faced a crossroads to choose the path of character and commitment but chose the path of immedite satisfaction and infidelity. Through out the movie I became more and more acutely aware of the darkness within the short sighted mind of men. While it was a dark look, it was a neccessary one because even though I am so committed to my wife, it is a good luck to see how close each and everyone of us are to making a mistake. Yet while we are all so close, we are all given multiple chances to turn back and make the right descision. Whenever you see the big blow up, like Micheals infidelity with Kim (played by Rachel Bilson, which btw... the OC starts on November 2nd!) if you look back there was always a smaller descision that went wrong and started the downward spiral that started the whole mess. Whenever there is a big blow up in a leaders life, or in my life, there is always a smaller choice to sacrifice integrity way back in the distance. This is the neccesary reminider that the Last Kiss gives so dramatically and poinently.

After Micheal is found out by his fiance Jenna, he goes to her parents house to apologize and is stopped by Jenna's father Stephen, who is played by Tom Wilkinson. Now if my daughter's fiance came to me to apologize after doing what Michael did, I know what choice words I would have to say to him... but it's a movie. Anyways, what happens next becomes a dialouge between Stephen and Michael that is the bast 10 minutes of acting I have ever seen from Tom Wilkinson, and he was phenominal in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. After the tradition niceties and the "What were you thinking!!?!" lines, he begins to tell Michael what every guy needs to hear. That there will always be someone else, another brunette or blonde, no matter how old you are, or how long you have been married, and that the issue is not your feelings, but your character and how you treat those that you love. The tag line of the movie is "We all have choices. What's yours?" which I think is encapsulated in this scene. When Micheal asks what he can do to make it up to him, and to Jenna, he simply responds with, "Whatever it takes." Again the simplicity and the gravity of this line just floored me and as the movie concludes, Michael proves himself again by sitting on the porch of Jenna's house for over 4 days, never leaving even when she does, just waiting for her to talk to him. I never want to be in a situation where I need to do that for the reasons that he did, but I want to love my wife like that, being able to battle through, no matter what! It is interesting that often times we never appreciate the things we have until they are gone... The Last Kiss makes us appreciate them while we have them, because we get to watch others battle to save them. Definately Recommended!

Favorite Line: "Your feelings only matter to you. It is what you do to those that you say that you love that matters to everyone else!" - Stephen (Tom Wilkinson)

Disclaimer: There is a lot of objectionable content in this movie, language and nudity amoung the forefront so if you are easily offended, be cautious.