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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.”  

Innovate 07: Rob Wenger - Making the Message Sticky

We are starting day number 2 at Innovate 07.  Had a great time with a great group of people yesterday.  I skipped the film festival to watch the opening episode of The Office.  Funny, funny and funny!  But now I am back at Granger and we are starting the day with Rob Wegner. This is the first time that I have heard Rob speak and he is a passionate world-class communicator.  Great stuff.  They are continually referring to how they are looking to communicate one Big Idea. I'm stunned at how much we have in common.  Eric and I were joking that if anyone wants a big conference on the Big Idea we should send them to Granger.  They totally get it and they do a great job explaining it! 

In this opening session Rob is talking about how to make the message sticky.  Here are four questions that we need to ask to make sure the message sticks:

• Is it simple?
  • Simple means finding the core.    In Made To Stick they talk about the "canceling" effect of having too many messages.  In The Big Idea (thanks Rob!) they challenge you to actually count how many "little ideas" a family of four will be given in a single trip to church on Sunday. Try it and you will discover that one family will receive dozens and maybe hundreds of ideas about what it means to be a Christ-follower.
  • Simple is about choosing. We need to become masters of exclusion.
  • Simple means finding the irreducible minimum.
  • Simple means determining the core of what you will teach.  All scripture is equally inspired, but not all scripture is equally important.

• Is it unexpected?
  • Unexpected means being unexpected in a way that drives the point home.
  • Unexpected means creating a curiosity gap.

• Is it concrete?
  • People want to know if we can help them with real concrete stuff:  Can you help me with me marriage?  Can you help me with this pain?  Can you help me be a better parent? 
  • Deep is functionality.

• Is it story driven?
  • Story driven means shifting from illustration to animation.
  • The story creates the emotional moment for people to get the Big Idea.
  • "Stories are flight simulators for the brain" - Made To Stick
  • Story-driven means layering stories to make one big idea.

• Am I Spirit-dependent?

Innovate 07: Tim Stevens - Weekend Series Directors Commentary

Tim Stevens did a great job on his session at Innovate 07.  He gave his commentary on what is important about the weekend. He gave some nice props to The Big Idea (thanks Tim!).  He started his talk by telling us that all the notes are available on his blog so if you want to get everything that Tim said, click HERE.

Give Away A Crave Kit!

Thousands (I'm not exactly sure how many??) of Crave Kits arrived this week!  These Crave Kits are what everyone at Community Christian Church is going to give to their neighbors, friends, co-workers and family to invite them to CCC for our 3-part series Soul Cravings starting on September 15th & 16th.

We will be making the Crave Kits available on the weekends of September 1st & 2nd and 8th & 9th for purchase.  They cost us about $2.50/Crave Kit and we are asking people to buy them at 3/$5.00.  It will off-set some of the expense and we think we will have more ownership  in getting them to friends, family and co-workers if we chip in a little.   

Let me tell you about the Crave Kit. It is a simple and easy way to invite a friend to Community Christian Church.  You just give the Crave Kit away along with a personal invitation. That easy!  The Crave Kit includes...

• A freshly baked chocolate chip cookie (it's what you crave!?!)
• An invite to a CCC campus nearest you.
• A Soul Craving DVD for people to hear real stories from real people who have found satisfaction for what their soul craves ; plus a link to follow the adventure of Joe Craveman at JoeCraveman.com. 

The series we are using for our IGNITE campaign is Soul Cravings and it is really coming together nicely.  I just reviewed all our services and  we have already finished the first edit of the messages and it's going to be great series! It is already starting to create a buzz around here and on-line with the 24,000+ hits that Joe Craveman is received on YouTube in just a week!  This is going to be great way to invite people to CCC.

Preaching Today & The Big Idea

I mentioned a couple weeks ago in a post It's About Transformation, Not Information that I did an interview with Preaching Today.  They wanted to discuss our book, The Big Idea and how we use it to guide the teaching of Community Christian Church.  The complete interview will be on their website and since we did the interview in-studio they may decide to use it for their monthly Preaching Today CD.  That probably depends whether they thought it was good stuff or not!?

Whenever I do an interview I always will ask for the questions in advance.  I have my assistant type them up and print them out for me while leaving space to write out answers, thoughts and illustrations.  Since I still have that paper I thought I'd give you some of the Q & A that took place in the Preaching Today interview:

QUESTION: So that we are all on the same page in our conversation, would please take a moment to explain your concept of "The Big Idea".

ANSWER:  This morning I got an e-mail from the New York Times with the latest news.  That single e-mail contained more information than the average person in 17th century England would have access to in a life-time.  On February 1st we published The Big Idea; that was one of 1000 books that came to print that day.  We are in the middle of an era of information overload!  Once, more information was a good thing - but now we are being bombarded with more information than we can ever process.  And we are doing the same thing in the church - we are bombarding people with more information than they can process.  From the moment people pull into the parking lot till they finally drive home they get hit with a multitude of little ideas: a different little idea in the program, singing, announcements, teaching, etc.  Why is that a big deal?  Because our teaching is to instruct, motivate and lead people to accomplish the mission that Jesus left for us (Acts 1:8).  And if people can not process and begin to really live out what we are teaching we are all wasting our time.  We believe the solution is not more, but less.  We teach one BIG IDEA every week to our adults, students and children in our larger group worship services (at all locations) and in our small groups.  Why?  Because we want them to not just know it, but live it out.  Our goal is transformation, not information!

QUESTION:  What role does the sermon play  in the BIG IDEA process?  Chief?  "Just one of the crowd"?

ANSWER:  Our goal is not to write great sermons OR to produce great worship services.  Our goal is to transform people into followers of Jesus.  We believe teaching is key to that transformation!   At CCC teaching leads the BIG IDEA process; but it is one of among many arts that make up a variety of experiences that point people toward a BIG IDEA for following Jesus!

QUESTION:  CCC has adopted a team approach to sermon preparation.  Tell us a bit about this process.

ANSWER:  Most teaching teams that I know function like a baseball team's pitching staff.  You have a 4-5 man rotation and everyone knows who is the ace.  Each person takes their turn on the mound and it is up to them all alone to deliver the message.  At CCC our teaching team is more like a basketball team.  All 5 players are on the floor and important to the success of the team. While a play is designed for one player to take the shot all the players will touch the basketball and run the play.  Everyone has a role to play and in order to score and win the game we need each person on the team.  We have multiple teachers from CCC and our NewThing Network that all contribute to the content and the writing of the message.  This process allows us to get a better message in less time and finish a complete manuscript several weeks in advance of teaching.  While everyone does not deliver every message, we all contribute to make it a winner.

QUESTION:  How could someone in a smaller church without a multiple staff adopt this method for sermon planning and preparation?

ANSWER:  Here are 4 steps to implementing the BIG IDEA teaching process:

1. Find 2-3 other pastors to be on your team.  These are probably pastors that you like and look forward to hanging out with when you have the opportunity.
2. Have a meeting to plan your BIG IDEAS in advance.  All you need is a calendar and agreement on what series and themes/topics you will do each week.
3. Agree on a process where you will "procrastinate early".  Determine how far in advance (1 week, 2 weeks or longer) you want to have your sermon/message finished.
4. Pick a time every week that you will meet.  The meeting can be face to face or by phone.  At this meeting you will agree on a sermon outline and then divide up sections to different members of the team to write it.

QUESTION:  You plan your BIG IDEAS 1 year in advance.  Would you advocate that for all preachers? 

ANSWER:  Yes!  We waste soooo much time and mental energy just trying to decide what to teach.  This kind of planning saves you all that time.  This kind of planning also allows you to align an entire worship experience around one BIG IDEA.  The biggest barrier to this happening is the Lead Pastor/Senior Pastor's willingness to plan in advance.

QUESTION:  From your experience what are some of the benefits of the BIG IDEA for the teaching team?

ANSWER:  There are more than a dozen benefits, but let me give you four:

1. Better Theology:  God meant for us to live in community.  Like every other function of the church our teaching is better off working with others within their area of spiritual giftedness.
2. Better Content:   When you have multiple teacher involved and you plan well in advance you will never have a "off'" week.   
3. Better Illustrations:  More people involved in the process results in more stories!
4. Better Use of Time:  What is amazing about the BIG IDEA process is that you will get a better message in about half the time. 

It's About Transfomation, Not Information

I just finished up an interview with Brian Lowery of Preaching Today on The Big Idea.  Whenever I get the opportunity to do an interview like this I always end up learning something or discovering something new on the topic.  I think I am going to tell other people stuff and I end up learning something new myself.  The new insight I had during this conversation:  The Big Idea is not focused on crafting great sermons that people remember.  The Big Idea is not focused on creating memorable worship experiences.  The Big Idea is focused on transforming people into followers of Jesus who don't just know what He says or experience His presence, but are Christ followers who are living out the Jesus mission. 

Brian is a friend of Community Christian Church (KT) and did a great job with the interview.  When I get a minute I will post some of the stuff I remember from our banter.

Want To Plan Your Big Ideas for All of Next Year?

Yesterday we had an all day Big Idea meeting that was the culmination of a process that resulted in getting all our Big Ideas planned for the next year!  Actually we have them planned even farther than that; we are planned through August, 2008.  Awesome! 

Thank you to the following people for all working together to make this happen:  Eric Bramlett and our arts team; Tim Sutherland and Jon Ferguson on our teaching team; Shawn Williams with Stuco; Tammy Melchien from Kids City and many of our NewThing affiliates!  It was a tremendously collaborative experience!

If you want to do this yourself (and everyone really should!) read chapter 6 in The Big Idea on Creating Your Own 1 Year Big Idea Plan.  That and chapter 7 will give you all the details.  If you want to check out the book before you buy it, click HERE and you can download a free chapter from The Big Idea.

For those of you that are interested here are some key things we did along the way this year:

• Several brainstorming meetings led by Tim Sutherland where we invited everyone from the Community Christian Church staff. (We also had a brainstorm on this blog that was very helpful! And for those of you who participated we will be sending you the list of suggested big ideas on this blog via e-mail in the next week or so)
• We had brainstorming meetings with some of our NewThing Network Affiliate churches.
• We found out what Big Ideas and dates were really important to Kids City at CCC.
• We found out what Big Ideas and dates were really important to Student Community at CCC.
• We found out what Big Ideas and dates were really important to our NewThing Affiliates.

Once we had all the brainstorming possibilities, the essential Big Ideas and key dates for the coming year we were ready to meet.  Here is what we did at the meeting today:

1. We began our meeting with a prayer (that God answered!). 
2. We reviewed the key dates we needed to keep in mind from each group represented.
3. We broke up into groups of four and listed Big Ideas and topics that we like best.
4. Each group presented (lobbied!) the Big Ideas that they liked best to the large group. They displayed these on giant post-it notes.
5. We gave each participant 9 stickers and told them they could express their preference by putting a sticker next to the Big Ideas they liked best. It wasn't a vote because we didn't go with all the Big Ideas that got the most votes.  It gave us an idea of which Big Ideas had the most potential.
6. For the remainder of the time we worked through putting Big Idea series and topics onto a year long calendar.

It is a pretty intense meeting...but soooo worth it!  I love the Big Idea process.

Tell Me Your Best Big Ideas!

Part of the Big Idea planning process at Community Christian Church and our NewThing Network is to plan out our our Big Ideas one year in advance.  In chapter 12 of The Big Idea we explain "How To Create Your Own Big Idea Plan".  If you have read our book you know what I'm talking about.  (If you haven't read it, you can order it by clicking HERE.) We will be having our NewThing Gathering in a few weeks where we will bring in affiliate churches from 10 different states and we will brainstorm and create our Big Idea plan for the coming year.

This is where I would love to have the help of everyone who reads this blog.  IF YOU READ THIS BLOG LEAVE ME COMMENT AND TELL ME YOUR BEST BIG IDEAS, I can't get too many comments and I can't get too much detail.  Feel free to leave as much or as little as you like; just leave me a comment.  OK?  Maybe we will write a follow-up book on The Big Idea and we will have to credit you for coming up with our very best Big Idea ever!  Now here is the hook - if you leave me a comment with your best Big Idea I will make sure that you get the complete list of Big Ideas that are suggested here.  Deal?  And I will up the ante - if we use your Big Idea titles in the coming year I will send you a $25 Starbucks gift card.  Feel motivated?  OK, to get you started thinking of Big Ideas, here are some questions to ponder:

• What are some of the best Big Ideas that your church has ever done?
• What is the best Big Idea you have stolen from another church or should've stolen?
• What Big Idea would you like to experience?
• What are some Big Ideas from music, movies or literature that need to be addressed?
• What Big Idea should be done, but has never been done?
• Maybe you are thinking of a series of Big Ideas that are topical?
• Maybe you are thinking of a series of Big Ideas that are expository?
• Got a Big Idea title without much content?  Tell me about it!
• Got the content of a Big Idea with no clue of a title?  I want to hear it.

OK, leave me a comment telling me your Big Idea and for those that play - I will send you the complete list!

Register for C2C Multi-Site Conference & Get FREE The BIG IDEA!

If your church is interested in going multi-site then you don't want to miss this premier event:  Coast-to-Coast Multi-Site Conference.  December 31st is the deadline for the $70 discount off the regular $299 price.  The first two times we held this event it sold out and I'm sure that this one will sell out too! So sign up now! 

And for everyone who registers for the conference you will get a FREE copy of our book coming out February 1st, The BIG IDEA: Focus the Message, Multiply the Impact.

They wanted to create some buzz for the Coast-to-Coast Multi-Site Conference and The BIG IDEA book. So they did a video interview with Jon and myself about CCC, multi-site and using the BIG IDEA.  I enjoyed it.  Check it out HERE.

CCC - #7 America's Most Innovative Churches

About 6 weeks ago I told you we got a call from Outreach Magazine wanting to talk with us about some the innovative ways we are doing church at Community Christian Church. In the process they hinted that we would be on the list of the the top 25 most innovative churches.  Well, I just got an e-mail from Eric Bramlett telling me that Outreach published their list and Community Christian Church is #7.  It's kind of like being the 13th Most Influential Church in America - I'm not sure it really means anything...but I hope it means something.  You know?

Since I just found out I haven't read the article, but I will.  After I get a chance to read it I'll give you my take.  But for now take a look at the list, read the article and let me know what you think.  If you want to read the article, click HERE.  If you want to check out their top 25 list, click HERE.