First our miniature hero patrolled Arizona. Then he toured Chicago.
And now, the plastic trilogy is complete as Little Plastic Batman again takes on the Windy City.
After a long day of fighting little plastic crime, Batman blows off steam at The Cheesecake Factory:
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Here are 3 things you need to know this week - -
1) This coming Sunday, May 6th, everyone is gathering together at Arrowhead Golf Course's banquet facilities in Caro as we begin weekly launch team meetings! Not quite a full-blown worship service, we will offer fun, Jesus-centered kids' ministry while teens and adults are under Jon's teaching.
These new weekly gatherings are super important as we put the pieces together for launching later in the year. Just bring a Bible, a notebook, and be ready to laugh and learn!! Click here to invite your Facebook friends to this event! Together, let's bring Life to Mid-Michigan!
2) That same day, we'll officially kick-off our 50 in 50 initiative! We have an audacious, God-sized goal to raise 50K in 50 Days! Every single dollar will go toward church start-up equipment, kids' ministry, and outreach. More 50 in 50 info + online giving here.
3) Jon and Amber are in Chicago all this week in the running for a major church planting grant for Life Church - - please keep them and that process in prayer! In the meantime, here's a few links to check out:
Thank you for your prayers, encouragement, and enthusiasm! We truly believe God is putting the pieces together for this new work... we can't wait to go public and do whatever it takes to reach the thousands of people throughout our region so that they might experience new life in Christ!!
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Two things come to mind when I think of Van Halen:
The lyrics to Right Now are great for both comedians and leaders:
Don't wanna wait 'til tomorrow
Why put it off another day?
One more walk through your problems,
Built up and stand in our way.
When you are improvising comedy in front of a live audience, you don't have the luxury of slowing things down, chewing it over, and thinking about what comes next.
There's only Right Now.
Del Close, one of the earliest improvisers at Chicago's Second City, was always pushing young comedians to make a choice. Right Now. One of my favorite quotes from Del is:
"Fall, then figure out what to do on the way down."
This is a fantastic principle for church leaders. No, I'm not talking about using the Right Now principle for firing people up to reach the lost. I'm talking about making a choice as a leader.
Church boards are more notorious than Biggie Smalls (yes, that's a 1990's rapper reference - go Google it!) for putting decisions off: "Let's pray about it and come back to it next month." Listen, you don't have to pray about what God has already declared!!
Time after time I've seen Kingdom-sized opportunities choked out by timidity. The Bible is clear: you don't have tomorrow guaranteed to you. Just Right Now.
So as leaders, pull up your big boy pants, swallow back the fear, and make a decision! Right Now!
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This coming Sunday, we're kicking off our 50K in 50 Days Initiative!
Obviously we're flattered to have the endorsement of E.T.
But you don't have to take his word for it...
here are more ministry leaders who are excited about our church start-up!
Learn more about 50 in 50 & DONATE NOW!
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Today a new venture was announced (cleverly) in Michigan: Start Garden.
A $15 million fund is available to entrepreneurs state-wide.
You pitch your idea, two are chosen every week - - one by Start Garden, one by general public.
Stage 1 Investment: Start Garden gives you $5,000 to run with.
The entrepreneur returns within 90 days to give a public presentation on what they did with that initial investment. If Start Garden thinks they were wise...
Stage 2 Investment: $20,000. Repeat.
Stage 3: $50,000. Repeat.
Stage 4: $100,000... etc.
Fantastic idea that promotes entrepreneurism, creates momentum, AND creative accountability.
My question: Why don't we do this for church start-ups?
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Welcome to another installmant of Ask Jon Anything.
As always, feel free to ask anything in the Comments below.
This week I thought we'd tackle some of the Frequently Asked Questions about our new church start-up.
Q: What's a "church start-up?"
A: It's when a fresh new church is started from scratch. Christians often call it "church planting;"
I prefer "church start-up" because it makes more sense to everybody.
Q: Why start a church?
A: Great question! The Reader's Digest version is:
Q: Why Mid-Michigan?
A: Because for whatever reason, God has blessed and used our flavor of ministry to impact hundreds of lives over the past couple years here. For what it's worth, a lot of people tell us all the time that we somehow "cracked" the ministry code in reaching irreligious people in this region.
Well, God told our family to bloom where He has planted us. There are literally thousands in this region who generally sleep-in on Sunday mornings because they aren't feeling compelled to darken a church door. So we want to start a church for people who don't like going to church.
Q: Wait, your flavor? What's your flavor?
A: I believe that it takes all different flavors of churches to reach all different flavors of people. This isn't a competition between churches; it's a completion of what God's already doing!
Our flavor is summed up on our church website. Basically, I get excited about church environments where people feel like they can belong before they believe. We dream of a life-giving church that will offer fun and engaging kids' environments, loud modern music, laugh-out-loud messages that teach the Bible and point toward life-change, mid-week small groups that develop safe relationships and promote inward growth, and a movement of grace-addicts who try to out-love, out-give, and out-serve each other!
Q: What's your church start-up called?
A: Life Church Michigan. "Life" because of John 10:10, "Church" because of Matthew 16:18, and Michigan because we envision launching multiple campuses throughout Mid-Michigan in the future (and if "Michigan" were in a Bible verse, I'd totally quote it here to make it sound legit!).
Q: Where is your church going to be?
A: In Michigan. Because if we started Life Church Michigan in Canada, everyone would look at us funny and say, "Eh?" Actually, come to think of it, all Canadians already do that.
Q: No, seriously. What city is it going to start in?
A: We don't know. Yet. Our mailing address is in Saginaw, our Informational Meetings have been in Caro, and we have been blessed with church leaders from Lapeer giving us great advice. We've got a strong sense on where we want to launch out from initially, but we're waiting on God to give us the green light.
Q: When will Life Church officially launch?
A: We're hoping this Fall, but again, that's totally up to God. His church; His decision.
As we gear up for weekly worship services, our launch team is meeting to celebrate, connect, and contribute together. You are welcome to come join us.
I'm really excited that weekly Sunday morning launch team gatherings begin Sunday, May 6th at 11am in the banquet facility of Arrowhead Golf Club! The plan is to meet every week through the summer for engaging teaching and planning for our official launch this Fall. And yes, we will have fun, engaging, Jesus-centered stuff for your kiddo's too! There's more info over on Facebook.
Q: Last question. How are you funding a new church start-up?
A: Let's be honest - it costs money to get a new church off the ground and running.
My wife and I believe in the vision for Life Church so deeply that we are both working outside jobs to support our family so that Life won't have to carry that financial burden and is instead freed up to use our church budget for start-up costs, kids ministry needs, and outreach.
That said, this May and June, we have to raise $50k in 50 days. That's right, 50 in 50!
We naturally think that the more we give, the less we'll have. Not true. God can do more with 90% than we can do with 100%! It comes down to the law of measures that Jesus taught: "By the measure you measure, it will be measured back to you."
Whether its a one-time gift or on-going, regular monthly support, your tax-deductible donations will help us bring Life to Mid-Michigan. You can give online here.
Thanks for taking the time to read these FAQ's! More FAQ's can be found on our church website.
Feel free to ask anything in the Comments below!
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When I was studying improv-comedy at The Second City in Chicago during the 90's, I can remember exactly who was on the mainstage: actors like Scott Adsit (30 Rock), Kevin Dorff (writer for Tonight Show), and Tina Fey (SNL, 30 Rock).
I looked up to them - night after night they were consistently working "from the top of their intelligence" as they say in the improv community, not going for the dumb sex jokes.
At the time I was reading Gilda Radner's autobiography, "It's Always Something," hoping to glean some wisdom from her life story. I was reading in the lobby during a mainstage rehearsal for Paradigm Lost. Suddenly it was break time and out poured all the comedians - as a college student, I was in awe.
Tina looked over and saw what I was reading and volunteered, "Wow, that's a great book. It's such a sad story what happened to Gilda." Honestly, I didn't really hear everything she said; I just thought it was cool that one of the actors was talking to me!
Then Kevin piped up from behind his cigarette: "If you want to succeed in improv, buddy, you need to give up reading autobiographies of comedians. Instead read a breadth of history and current events. Be ready for any suggestion the audience throws at ya, 'cause you won't have time to ask someone on stage in the heat of the moment, "What was the War of the Roses?
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It was said in the late 1990's to aspiring comedians across the country, "If you want to see the best improv actor who performs from the top of his intelligence, go to Chicago and watch Scott Adsit."
I had the rare opportunity over the course of 18 months to observe Adsit in action nightly. What made him so funny and quick-witted wasn't a storage of jokes, but instead that he read widely.
Adsit was always devouring a newspaper, magazine, or novel. He worked hard at possessing a breadth of knowledge.
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Going back to the break time in the lobby, Kevin Dorff went on to explain to me from behind his cigarette: "Read history. Always be learning about areas you're not interested in so that you're ready for anything on stage. Grab the book 'An Incomplete Education' and memorize it."
And that's exactly the book this poor college kid asked for as a gift that Christmas.
Too often in Christian leadership we become short-sighted and don't stretch ourselves. We just read stuff that validates our opinions.
Beware Information Cocoons; Read Widely. I always want to maintain a posture of learning outside my scope of ministry.
When we Read Widely, we work from a vast pool of resources - we work from the top of our intelligence.
When we Read Widely, we can make faster decisions on the spot.
And when we Read Widely, we know what the War of the Roses was all about.
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SHAMELESS PLUG: This Fall, we're going to launch
a new church for people who don't like going to church.
To do this, we need to raise 50K in 50 Days this May and June.
Click here for details on making a difference for time and eternity.
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Recently, this little lady became part of our family.
I love her so much - - she is part princess, part diva, and definitely all Herron.
Ainsleigh Grace is part of our family - we even named her purposefully as we did Josiah Nathan;
she shares some of my wife's name (Amber Leigh).
Adoption is a beautiful picture of God's Gospel:
How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He's the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him.
Long before he laid down earth's foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love.
Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ.
(Ephesians 1, The Message).
When Paul wrote these words two thousand years ago, he used rich imagery to explain the Gospel.
When we place saving trust in Jesus Christ, we are adopted into God's family. This idea of adoption was rooted in ancient Greek culture, a way of creating heirs who immediately had access to their new family's wealth and position. Roman government saw the adopted person as the true heir to the family; any past obligations or trespasses were completely and irrovocably erased.
That's the rich beauty of God's Message - through Christ, we are freed from Adam's broken family tree and grafted into the New Adam's perfect family tree. The past is completely erased; we have immediate access to the Father.
Adoption gives us a new identity and total security. It cannot be undone; no one can take it away from you. It doesn't matter what your background was - race, tribe, denomination, nationality - God doesn't see it that way in His family. In Christ, we are united together by Him. Adoption is forever. It is proof that God wants you around!
Which brings me back to little Ainsleigh. She is a Herron and we're thrilled to have her in the family!
Our friends at Adoption Associates saw many little ones become part of forever families in March.
I love their tag-line: Futures Built Through Adoption. That easily sums up the Gospel.
Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans...
- James 1:27, NLT
* top photo: beth eggert photography
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