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IF…

When I came on staff at National Community Church in January 2002, my first responsibility was to plan our first ever Leadership Retreat.  A decade later, I am now heading to my eleventh leadership retreat. I’m pretty sure it’s the only thing we’ve done this consistently for this long at NCC, and it remains the favorite line item on my portfolio.

Our Annual Leadership Retreat is a time when we gather all of our small group leaders and ministry leaders to worship together, pray together, play together, celebrate the previous year together, and look forward to what God might want to do in the upcoming year. I’ve always promoted three goals for the retreat- a time to cast vision, deliver training, and create community with our leaders. While all of those are certainly goals we pursue every year, I discovered one that might be even more important while working on the retreat last year: to maintain and celebrate our culture.

When I think about our core values- everything is an experiment, do it right and do it big, go the extra mile, pray like it depends on God and work like it depends on you, playing it safe is risky, everyone is invaluable and irreplaceable, etc.– I realize that everything we do at the retreat is built on those core values.

This year, the theme is IF.

What if we were so desperate for a move of God that we would be willing to go anywhere or do anything just to be a part of it?

What if we slowed down long enough to wait on the presence of God?

What if we resolved that we would be leaders who would honor others, work with excellence, and walk in humility?

What if we really acted like we believed Jesus when he said that those who would be first must serve others?

When God is in the equation, the possibilities are endless. Dirt becomes the medicine that heals, love becomes the best weapon we can wield, and the voice of God is heard in the cry of an infant.

This is the time of year when we find ourselves absolutely amazed by what God can do if 300 leaders commit themselves to creating community, making disciples, and doing ministry. Church buildings become movie theaters, and movie theaters become gatherings for Church. Coffeehouses become sacred ground. Wells are dug in the Congo, kids are mentored in Anacostia, and women are loved out of the brothels in Thailand. If we pray, miracles become the new normal.

January 26th, 2012 4 Comments

Online Leadership 101

Two years ago, we blew up our small group system in a project called Operation Kaboom. One of the changes we made was in the way we offered initial training to potential small group leaders. Under the old system, potential leaders attended a 3-hour, live, platform-driven content dump of information. It was offered three times a year and allowed me an opportunity to meet new leaders face to face. It served its purpose for a season.

Now, we live in a multi-site reality. Leaders live all over the DC metro area. Because of work schedules and travel demands, even some of our most committed and faithful potential leaders found that more than a few semesters could pass before they had an opportunity to participate in the training. So we started looking at the online option.

Here’s what I love about it:

  • Leaders can complete the training in their own time at their own pace.
  • Because of the interactive questions embedded in the training, participants aren’t just listening to an information dump anymore, they are thoughtfully engaging the material.
  • The answers that participants provide are collected in a document that comes to us in the form of an application, and it gives us added insight into the readiness and character of the potential leader.
  • The face to face interview that follows the training is more meaningful because we have a better idea of how they have wrestled through the material.

And I love it because it gives us greater latitude for creativity and experimentation. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be highlighting and releasing some of our training videos. Here is a sneak peek with one of my favorites. This training module helps leaders decide what to study in their groups.

Huge thanks to Maegan Stout and Will Johnston for leading the charge.

12 What Do We Study? from National Community Church on Vimeo.

January 15th, 2012 [ Tags: , , , ] 3 Comments

Theology of a Teenager, Part 2

Yesterday, I talked about the beginning of my theology adventure with Michelle. Here’s the rest of the story.

Michelle read Theology and Galatians, learned more about Jacob Arminius than she ever thought she wanted to know (and heard me talk more about Calvin than she ever wanted to hear), and met with me more than six times to share what we were learning.

I had decided that I would do something to celebrate the completion of her studies. And what does Heather do to celebrate? She goes to NYC. I kept it a secret as long as I could, doling out clues here and there, but I’m pretty sure Michelle had it figured out before the first clue. She’s been a keen observer of the patterns in my life.

Here’s how we celebrated:

We left DC after school on a Friday, drove to NYC, checked into our hotel, and caught a cab to the Empire State Building. Unbeknownst to Michelle, I had recruited a couple other people to scheme with me. Her student pastor, Jenilee LeFors, and her small group leader, Emily Hendrickson, left DC earlier in the day and were already positioned on the top of the Empire State Building to surprise her when she arrived. It took Michelle a few moments to realize that their presence was not just a coincidental chance meeting but that they were there specifically for her.  Later that night, we checked out the Christmas Tree and the ice skaters at Rockefeller Center.

The whole gang on the top of the Empire State Building

The next day, I dragged everyone out of bed early and led them to Herald Square. It’s not every day that you get to meet the real Santa directly from the North Pole at Macy’s Department Store. I am 37-years old, and I’m not exaggerating when I claim it was one of the most magical moments of my life.

We visited the REAL Santa Claus at Macy's!

Jumping from one extreme to the other, we toured St. Patrick’s Cathedral, reviewed some of our theology lessons, talked about liturgy, and considered the stories of some saints.

Next, lunch. At the best pizza in NYC- John’s Pizzeria. I took a couple moments at lunch to remind Michelle why we were there. Because we were celebrating her accomplishment. I told her that we don’t always get rewarded like this for being obedient to the call of discipleship. The point is not to think that every time we make a good decision to follow Christ that we get to go on a fun trip. The point was to mark this particular moment in her life so that she would not forget what she had learned and experienced.

After lunch, we headed to Broadway for the primary reason we all came- to see Godspell.

We are going to Godspell!

We ended the trip with massive amounts of pie at The Little Pie Company.

Here are a few take-aways from that experience:

  • Mark discipleship moments and celebrate steps forward. Whether you are a small
    group leader, working with kids, a parent, or discipling someone one on on, mark moments and celebrate them.
  • Have fun. I’m convinced that spending time with Jesus was fun. Theology can be fun.
  • Involve others. It was really important to me that Jenilee and Emily also be there because they play a much larger role in Michelle’s day-to-day spiritual life. I wanted them to experience that moment with her and for her to be encouraged by them. And…Jenilee and Emily always make things more fun (obviously, I like to have fun)
  • A road trip always produces more opportunities for discipleship. Some of the hardest hitting conversations I’ve ever had with Michelle happened on the drive to NYC (in between the Pistol Annies and Christmas music singalongs). Proximity, time, and shared experiences are fertile ground for disciple-making opportunities.

January 13th, 2012 [ Tags: , , , , ] 3 Comments