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Suggest BIG IDEAS, Get BIG IDEAS and Win Coffee!

We are in the process of pulling together our team to plan our BIG IDEAS for 2009-2010.  A BIG IDEA is a teaching theme for a series.  It can be topical or exegetical.  We have already had a couple of brainstorming sessions with our whole team and I also solicited the input of our Kids City Champion, Student Community Champion and Adult Ministry Champion.  I want to make sure that we have the very best BIG IDEAS for the coming year. 

That is where I need your help!  Our BIG IDEA yearly planning meeting is coming up in a little over a week and I would love to hear from you the best BIG IDEA series you have ever done or have ever come across. It can be your idea or somebody else's ideas that you really like.

I will make you a deal - if you leave me a comment suggesting a BIG IDEA series I will make sure that we e-mail you our complete list of possible BIG IDEAS.  Deal?  And to sweeten the pot, if we use a BIG IDEA that you suggest I will send you a $25 Starbucks gift certificate as a thank you. Or if you live in the Naperville area I will send you a $25 Ground Level Cafe gift certificate, which is even better than Starbucks!  So suggest BIG IDEAS and get BIG IDEAS back!

If you want to learn more about how to create your own BIG IDEA process, then you should click HERE and get a copy of our book, The BIG IDEA

3-Steps to Implementing the Big Idea at Your Church

By applying the BIG IDEA to your churches teaching ministry you will bring tremendous clarity to what it means to follow Jesus and in so doing you will increase the missional velocity of your church.  Who doesn't want that?  Well, you can begin to apply the BIG IDEA in your church starting today. There are at least three stages you can go through in becoming a BIG IDEA church, and these are best explained in the acrostic B.I.G. 

Eric Bramlett recently wrote an article on Pastors.com for their Ministry Tool Box that explains these three stages to implementing the BIG IDEA.

How To Get A Publisher To Say "Yes" To Your Book

For the last couple weeks I have been working on a book proposal for a book that I plan to finish up before summer.  Then today I spent about an hour on a conference call talking to a couple publishers about a new line of books and what they are looking for before they agree to publish a book.  I learned a few things.

Last year Jon, Eric and I were fortunate enough to be able to publish our first book, The BIG IDEA.  We were able to work with a couple of terrific publishers:  Zondervan and Leadership Network.  Coming out of that rookie experience we learned a few things about publishing, what publishers are looking for, etc.

So if you are interested in getting published or you have some ideas that you would like to share with the rest of the world in a book here are three of the things I believe publishers are looking for before they say "yes" to publishing.

CONTENT - The number one thing that a publisher is looking for is great content.  You have to have a big idea that you want to share and the world wants to hear. When it comes to publishing content is still king.  If you don't have good content you will not get published.

INFLUENCE - Publishers are also looking for people who have influence.  If you have a following this is a signal to a publisher that you have a ready-made market for your content. 

DEMAND - If there is a pent up demand for the book you want to publish that is also a factor.  If the publisher believes that the timing is right for the book you want to publish that will be important in the decision to publish your book.

Free Journal for You 2.0 Series

This weekend we start a critical series in the life of COMMUNITY, it is You 2.0.  For a long time we have challenged people at COMMUNITY to become 3C Christ Followers. The 3C's are Celebrate, Connect and Contribute.  During this series we are asking people to move beyond just the doing of the 3C's to the being of the 3C's.  When you move from doing the 3C's to being the 3C's that is when you move from 1.0 to 2.0 - the next best version of You!

To kick off this series we are giving each person that attends a COMMUNITY campus a You 2.0 journal for FREE!  You see a pic of the journal on this post.  It is our hope that as you use this journal to hear from God everyday you will fall more in love with Jesus and become all that He wants you to be - You 2.0.  (Here you can download: You 2.0 Big Idea Journal Cover and You 2.0 Big Idea Journal )

It's one thing to be able to say, "yeah, I go to church every week" and it is entirely something else to be in love with Jesus.  That is the difference between Celebrate 1.0 and Celebrate 2.0.  A lot of us can say, "oh I'm a part of small group", but that is only Connect 1.0.  If you want to move to Connect 2.0 you have a group of people that you do life with and you will get each other through anything.  It's pretty easy to volunteer and be on a team, that's Contribute 1.0.  Contribute 2.0 is when you become a person who lives to serve and is generous in every area of your life.  When you make each of those moves from 1.0 to 2.0 you are becoming the next best version of you - You 2.0

Art & The Story of Everything

To go along with all six weeks of our current series The Story of Everything, Kathy Jarman is creating calligraphy that illustrates each chapter.

The art you see above illustrates this weekend's chapter, The Story of Jesus. The Story of Jesus has three parts:  incarnation, atonement and restoration.  If you want to check out Kathy's art, see her blog Heart To Heart.

The Story of Everything - Most Important Series Ever?

I think we are going to look back on our current series, Story of Everything and realize that it is one of the most important series ever in the life of COMMUNITY. 

Why?  First, I think perhaps for the first time since we started this church people are actually understanding how everything that has happened since before time until now and then beyond time is a story about relationships.  Yes, there is truth and yes there is doctrine, but all those things are a part of the story.  Most importantly people are coming to grips with the fact that everything that happens within the story is about relationships.  Secondly, I think our use of video curriculum along with our small group discussion guides have done a terrific job of reinforcing and explaining The Story of Everything. It is one of the best examples of how to use the BIG IDEA with adults at COMMUNITY ever.  Thirdly, the experiences that have been created at our weekend services have been outstanding.  Eric Bramlett talks about the power of laughter as it was used in The Story of God.  Eric also shares how we created a memorable experience the second week, The Story of Sin by having every one make a cross.

If you want to check out the Story of Everything, here you go:

• The Story of God Teaching
• Special Report Video
• The Story of God Small Group Video Curriculum
• The Story of God Discussion Guide

• The Story of Sin Teaching
• Run To You Video
• The Story of Sin Small Group Video Curriculum
• The Story of Sin Discussion Guide

Keep checking out the COMMUNITY website for the next four parts of The Story of Everything.

Truthfulness Makes Life Work!

This series from the book of Proverbs, Making Life Work is one of my favorites in a long time!  The feedback we have been getting from the people of CCC has been outstanding.  This weekend we discussed how Truthfulness Makes Life Work and focused on Proverbs 27:6, "faithful are the wounds of a friend".  I had one person who came up to me after a service who told me that he was going tell "the truth in love" to his dad about a destructive behavior pattern that had gone on for forty years.  I had another person tell me that they were going to have a truth-telling conversation with someone involved in an affair and on the verge of divorce.  That was just a couple of the many conversations I had with people this weekend.  I love how the people of CCC are willing to hear the wisdom of God and then take action on it!  Good stuff.  If you want to watch this message, click HERE.
 

Reading Proverbs and Making Life Work

We are starting a brand new series this weekend Making Life Work.  The whole series we will be teaching from the books of Proverbs. One of the cool things about the book of Proverbs is that it has 31 chapters - one for each day of the month. I have a friend that reads through Proverbs every month and he is truly one of the wisest people I know!  So, this month I'm joining my friend and reading and journaling through the book of Proverbs.  Since today is June 12th, I'm reading Proverbs 12...see how that works?!

Get a Text Message of Big Idea

File this under "I think this is cool"; Community will send you a text message letting you know about the upcoming Big Idea at the beginning of each series.  If you want in on this cool technology just text the word 'bigidea' to 313131 and your are ready to go.

The Big Idea works for the Male Brain

Did you know that Big Idea teaching actually is geared for the male brain?  Read all about it in an article by David Murrow titled, Teaching For the Male Brain. The article is based on excerpts from his book How Women Help Men Find God (coming out in May '08) and he writes, “Consider how we teach in church. We send dozens of disparate messages each week. We expect people to make major life changes based on these teaspoons of truth. Here’s an example. Sam goes to adult Sunday school, where he receives a lesson about generosity and giving. Then he reads a devotional story in the bulletin about the power of prayer. Sam sings praise songs that focus on God’s love and forgiveness. The sermon focuses on the importance of sharing your faith with friends and neighbors. The pastor quotes twelve scriptures and makes five main points. Sam walks out of church and . . . forgets everything he heard. In truth, Sam would love to be more generous, have a better prayer life, experience God’s love in a deeper way, and be bolder in sharing his faith. But his brain simply cannot work on all these things at once. So, like a computer that crashes due to a data overload, Sam locks up in spiritual neutral.  Community Christian Church may have found the answer. They’ve adopted a teaching strategy known as The Big Idea. Simply put, CCC and its affiliated churches focus all their weekly teaching on one main theme. Every class, small group, song, sermon, bulletin insert, announcement—everything is focused on one concept of the week. Men, with their highly focused brains, love this approach. They walk out of church with one thing to work on. And this approach is spurring parishioners – both male and female — to action.”