Breathtaking tweets from Soichi Noguchi:
Church Start-Up Update
I've Missed You!
It's true, I've been laid up the last two weeks after
my encounter with a beehive on a ladder (read more about that here).
God is good. In the midst of summer beginning,
He continues putting the pieces in place for our new church start-up.
My prayer right now is Psalm 109:27 --
Let them know that this is your hand; you, O Lord, have done it!
Clearly our God is with us as we work toward launching Life Church Michigan:
- This note came in via email:
"I had been a part of a Lutheran Church/School since I was a child and dreaded going to church every week. I disliked how the sermons never related to me or my life since they never tried to apply them to today's world and I didn't like how the "Christians" at church judged others... I never left my church feeling good.
Then a friend invited me to hear your series "Confessions of a coffee drinking, blue jean wearing pastor" and I was hooked.
So I want to thank you for bringing me back to church and to God. My fiancee and I actually look forward to church and are so happy to hear you again."
WOW! This is why we're doing what we're doing... So that people far from God will experience new life in Christ!!
Our 50in50 campaign continues into June... We have to raise $50k in 50 Days!
Earlier today I posted this on my twitter and facebook:
Clearly God's hand is upon our church start-up!
Whether you can give $20 or $20,000, every single dollar goes directly toward start-up costs for Life and is tax-deductible. Please give online, via mail, or at our Sunday morning launch team gatherings.
Speaking of which, I'm looking forward to seeing you this Sunday, 11am at Arrowhead Golf in Caro, Michigan! We'll have fun activities for your kiddo's while I teach our teens and adults, getting into some of the nuts & bolts of our church start-up. Help us get the word out and invite your Facebook friends!
And thank you for helping us bring Life to Mid-Michigan!
Consumed by the Call,
Jonathan
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Me + Beehive + Ladder =
The goal was to take out the beehive, not take me out.
A week ago Saturday (12 days ago) I had the brilliant idea to climb up a ladder solo so my bee-killer-super-soaker could reach the beehives 27 feet up the outside of our house.
If a video had caught what happened next, I would probably be a YouTube viral sensation right now.
As I carefully aimed my can of Buzz Poison Killer at the hive, I smiled inside: Die, bees, die.
Bees must have ESP or early-spray-detection-radar, because suddenly some bees darted out to greet me. And when I say "greet me," I really mean sting the ever-luvin-tar out of my eyeballs.
The site of bees rapidly deploying toward my face made my stomach drop. I was sweating like Mike Tyson in a spelling bee.
Fortunately my lightning-quick ninja reflexes kicked in.
Unfortunately, I forgot I was on a ladder and dropped like fatty on a seesaw.
Later, in the Emergency Room with family in tow (it was late Saturday night, no sitter in sight):
Josiah to Me in a mocking tone: "Superman" has to get an x-ray.
My reply: Couldn't Superman x-ray himself with his x-ray vision?
Yes, I schooled my five-year-old.
Good News: Nothing is broken. Sprained ankle and sprained foot.
Bad News: Every conversation I have had over the past two weeks includes this exchange:
Person Observing Me On Crutches: So, is it broken?
Me On Crutches: Nope, just two sprains in one spot.
Person: Ouch. I've heard that sprains hurt more than broken bones.
Me Struggling To Maintain Balance On Said Crutches: Yup.
So there you have it. My reality for the past two weeks (and counting).
Kinds looks like the guy's foot in the movie Misery.
Elevated foot and happy-loop-meds.
So looking forward to getting out and about on Sunday.
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The Master Plan of Evangelism
When I was just starting out in student ministry and grasping in the dark for direction, a mentor pointed me to a classic: The Master Plan of Evangelism. Re-reading its pages pours fuel on my flames:
- It all started with Jesus calling a few men to follow Him. His concern was not with programs to reach the multitudes, but with men whom the multitudes would follow.
- They (the disciples) were impulsive, temperamental, easily offended, and had all the prejudices of their environment. In short, these men selected by the Lord to be His assistants represented an average cross-section of society in their day. Not the kind of group one would expect to win the world for Christ.
- We have NOT been called to hold the fort but to STORM THE HEIGHTS!
- In an age when facilities for rapid communication of the gospel are available to the Church as never before, we are actually accomplishing less in winning the world for God than before the invention of the horseless carriage.
- People are looking for a demonstration, not an explanation.
- We must always remember that the GOAL is world conquest.
- Those of us who are seeking to train men must be prepared to have them follow us, even as we follow Christ.
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Bill Murray on Comedy and Leadership: "You've Gotta Be Completely Unafraid to Die"
In the current edition of Esquire, Bill Murray comments on how to create comedy from his training at Second City in Chicago. Notice how this can apply to leadership as well...
(You gotta) commit. Like: "Don't walk out there with one hand in your pocket unless there's somethin' in there you're going to bring out."
You gotta commit. You've gotta go out there and improvise and you've gotta be completely unafraid to die. You've got to be able to take a chance to die. And you have to die lots. You have to die all the time.
You're goin' out there with just a whisper of an idea. The fear will make you clench up. That's the fear of dying. When you start and the first few lines don't grab and people are going like, "What's this? I'm not laughing and I'm not interested," then you just put your arms out like this and open way up and that allows your stuff to go out. Otherwise it's just stuck inside you.
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Two Unlikely Leadership Lessons from Conan O'Brien
Conan O'Brien was interviewed in two different settings in the past week.
I picked up two solid yet unlikely leadership lessons from him.
#1. Don't throw the past under the bus,
even when you have been Leno'd.
This was an awesome-sauce interview.
Here's the thing: Conan didn't throw the past under the bus. Sure, Letterman was publicly sniffing for dirty laundry to air (that's what gossips do), but Conan did not dishonor NBC.
Leaders don't throw the past under the bus, even when they're Leno'd.
There is no honor in tearing down people and organizations... especially in church-world.
Jesus purchased the church with His blood. That's HUGE! God loves the church, created the church, and declares the church to be Christ's bride! Have you ever talked smack about another man's wife? Imagine doing that to Jesus Christ!!
If a church has hurt you in the past, that does not give you the right to muddy its name. If a church leader has disappointed you in the past, they are not your enemy (see Ephesians 6:12!!). Forgive and let go.
Leaders understand that integrity is doing the right thing even when it hurts. Trust me, I've felt hurt a lot over the past year. But I've found that God is honored most when we talk smack the least.
If you're a leader who has walked through the fire, allow Isaac's experience in Genesis 26 to be your model. Isaac was misnderstood, dishonored, and shunned over and over again. But he doesn't fight back. He submits to the Lord's will. And verse 28 is a beautiful display of the gospel.
#2: Amplify, Amplify, Amplify Your Message:
Fascinating Fact: Jay Leno's twitter has 376,000 followers while Conan O'Brien's twitter has 5.7 million.
Lean into Conan's analysis of social media - - crucial learnings for leaders during this tehnological shift in our culture:
- Twitter/blogs/Facebook isn't about self-promotion, it's inviting people into his world.
It's relationship-building.
- "It's all about content. Funny content is funny content."
- "How do you create a symbiotic relationship? How do you get people emotionally-involved?"
- Fascinating back-story on Will Ferril's recent Anchor Man 2 announcement on Conan. Good comedy always starts with a good plan.
- 1993: Obsession was don't give anything away.
2012: No surprises, it goes everywhere, creates a wave of viewership - incredible awareness.
- Audience gets information from multiple sources, making it fractured and distracted - must be willing to deliver your message in multiple ways.
- Conan on leveraging social media post-Tonight Show: "This is not the way that I watch television, but I had to make a choice, and I think this is the way."
- Things happen quickly.
- Walt Disney never met a technology he was afraid of. He constantly adapted: animation to talkies to motion pictures to theme parks to television. He always embraced new things. Adapt or die.
- Beatles on Ed Sullivan had 90 million tv viewers. They were tuning in to see what they looked like. YouTube solves that problem today.
BONUS: Don Miller recently wrote on this important topic for leaders: Some Thoughts on Self Promotion and Why Arrogant People Think It's Wrong.
Best quote: "Self promotion is not unholy. Occasionally I’ll encounter some well-meaning religious person who thinks self promotion works against the fame of God. I whole-heartedly disagree. In his day, Billy Graham spent millions promoting himself and his crusades, all so people could come HEAR HIM TALK ABOUT GOD. Those who know Mr. Graham would never see him as arrogant. He was over himself. But that didn’t mean God didn’t give him a personality and a mouth and later a microphone. Flowers bloom and mountains tower not to take attention from God, but to display His glory."
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The #1 Rule of Improv-Comedy
The first rule of improvisation is AGREE. Always agree and SAY YES. When you're improvising, this means you are required to agree with whatever your partner has created.
So if we're improvising and I say, "Freeze, I have a gun," and you say, "That's not a gun. It's your finger. You're pointing your finger at me," our improvised scene has ground to a halt.
But if I say, "Freeze, I have a gun!" and you say, "The gun I gave you for Christmas! You bastard!" then we have started a scene because we have AGREED that my finger is in fact a Christmas gun.
Now, obviously in real life you're not always going to agree with everything everyone says. But the Rule of Agreement reminds you to "respect what your partner has created" and to at least start from an open-minded place.
Start with a YES and see where it takes you.
As an improviser, I always find it jarring when I meet someone in real life whose first answer is no.
"No, we can't do that."
"No, that's not in the budget."
"No, I will not hold your hand for a dollar."
What kind of way is that to live?
- TINA FEY
More Rules of Improv and How to Use Them in Church Leadership
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Warning: Boring Preachers Can Actually KILL You (see Acts 20)!!
Paul was an amazing Bible teacher:
- the guy studied under the Yoda of his day, Gamaliel
- Paul studied crazy-hours and knew his Bible inside and out
- He wrote a big chunk of the New Testament...
You know you're an amazing Bible teacher when your sermons become Scripture!!
So you'd think with this resume that Paul would be an engaging preacher, right?
Wrong!
Paul was boring. Which is fine... except when it leads to someone's death!
Seriously, did you know that dry preaching can be a health hazard?!
In Acts 20, Paul is waxing eloquently. And he waxes on and on and on.
Apparently he forgot Mr. Miyagi's number one rule: "Wax on AND wax OFF!"
The message was dry and stuffy. A young guy, Eutychus, sat down by a window to get some fresh air. He needed to do something to keep his attention during the sermon!
First a yawn, then some daydreaming. Until finally, it happened: Paul's preaching was so boring, it put this teenager to sleep.
And Eutychus fell out the window.
Three stories.
Straight down.
Splat.
Now don't worry, the young guy came out ok. It helps to have an Apostle of the living God handy to heal you!
But we don't have that luxury in today's world. Listen, boring preachers can kill you! Don't believe me? Look around:
- Are your teens so jacked-up excited about their church that they're texting and Facebooking their friends with massive invites to Sunday mornings?
- Do you see young people knocking each other over at church to fill all the seats and create standing-room-only space?
- Is there a movement of teenagers and young adults swamping the church's facilities, breathing new life and great hope into the future of your church?
No? Then maybe you're experiencing a Eutychus Moment. If the passion and engagement is missing in the message, the next generation will be missing in the pews!
Young people WILL mobilize behind something they believe in (just google things like "Hunger Games" or "American Idol" if you don't believe me!). The problem is that No one will ever follow you down the street if you're carrying a banner that says, 'Onward toward mediocrity.'
The lesson from Paul is simple: you can have more degrees than fahrenheit, but if you're not preaching life, your church will LOSE life!!
I don't know about you, but I'm ringing the three-alarm fire siren over the fact that the Body of Christ is hemorraging out young people! If we aren't fired up and passionately preaching life, we will continue seeing Eutychuses searching for life outside the church (which always leads to death).
Let's take heed, saddle up, and do whatever it takes to engage a generation with the promise and excitement of Jesus Christ!!
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This Sunday: Make Mom Proud!
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Three Milestones for Our Church Plant + How to Make Mom Proud
I continue to be amazed, humbled, and genuinely thankful for what the Lord is doing within our church start-up! After a handful of Informational Meetings this past January and February, we held our very first Launch Team Gathering this past Sunday and, WOW, good times are ahead! We saw 30 grace-addicts gather to dream out-loud and believe again:
You can grab my message to our launch team here.
After nearly a year of zero preaching, I felt a little rusty :)
Our weekly gatherings are wide-open to anyone who feels far from God (lost), moving on from a messed-up church experience (let-down), or anyone genuinely passionate about reaching our region for the Kingdom (looking).
The plan is to gather every Sunday, 11am at the Arrowhead Golf Club (until we outgrow the facilities). We have fun, God-centered kids ministry while the teens and adults gather for teaching, encouragement, and planning for our future public launch.
The 3 big milestones toward officially launching Life Church that I outlined for our launch team:
- LOCATION - Our long-term vision is to launch multiple campuses throughout the Great Lakes Bay Region. Why? Because there are thousands and thousands of people in our generation who don't know Jesus!!
The first site for Life Church has not yet been determined. While we're exploring different opportunities, we're still waiting on God to give the green light. - FORTY-ONE - That's the minimum number of committed, sold-out teens and adults we want on our launch team before we launch public worship services. Church planting statistics show that having 41 or more fully-committed servant-leaders is absolutely key to thriving ministry.
- 50in50 - We are starting from scratch! Right now it's all about individuals and families giving their full tithe to a new venture in great faith. It's been incredible to see donations pouring in from all over: Caro, Saginaw, Pennsylvania, Iowa, South Carolina, Arizona - - wow! I love seeing the Body minister to the Body!!
Building a culture of radical generosity is important to our church start-up. We believe that if we can get at least $50k in the bank, we're in good shape for taking some huge steps of faith! You can watch last week's E.T. video here and give online here.
Very, very excited to be part of a church forming from the ground up - - there is so much freedom and creativity to passionately reach people far from God!
Looking forward to gathering again this coming Sunday! Be sure to check out our Facebook e-vite...
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