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Reproducing Church Experience on June 2-4

In just one month (June 2-4) we will be hosting our Reproducing Church Experience here in Chicago.  If you are among the growing number of young emerging leaders that understand that reproducing is the way to accomplish the mission of Jesus join us!  At this event you will get the opportunity to:

• Discover how to help your church become a reproducing church.
• Catch a vision of God’s dream for an apostolic movement.
• Enter into the minds of innovative church planting leaders.
• Interact with like-minded leaders through problem solving projects.

The Reproducing Church Experience is for:

• Church planters and staff of churches one year old or older.
• Church leadership teams who want to be a part of reproducing ministry.
• Anyone who senses God leading them to be a part of a reproducing church.

God is at work creating opportunities for churches to reproduce and become reproducing networks. And these reproducing networks have the potential to become an early church, exponential movement. If you would like more information on the Reproducing Church Experience or to register, click HERE.

Why Existing Churches Need New Churches

I have been thinking again about innovation.  Ed Bahler was challenging me with the idea from the Innovators Dilemma (which I have just ordered).  The basic concept is that even the most innovative and best-managed companies (or churches), in spite of their attention to customers and continual investment in new technology, are susceptible to failure because these companies (or churches) tend to continue to do business the way they always have done business.

It seems to me that the only way to break out of that innovators dilemma is to continually surround yourself with innovators and people who are inventing the new tomorrow.  And the best way to do that in the church world is to become a reproducing church.  Start new sites with young emerging leaders and listen to their new ideas.  Start new churches and get close enough to them that you can learn from them and break out of your old paradigms.  Begin a church planting network and find yourself immersed in a conversation of new and innovative thinking about reaching people far from God.  I think we need to be reproducing churches not only so that we can start new sites, churches and networks to help people find their way back to God; we also need to be reproducing churches so that our existing churches remain relevant to an ever-changing world!  Agree?  Disagree?

Don't Be Afraid Of Reproducing

Some leaders are secretly afraid of reproducing new sites or new churches.  And if you could get inside their brains this is what you would hear them saying, "But if I send a hundred people to go start a new site, I'm not sure the existing church will be able to take that kind of hit" OR "If I encourage some of my best people to leave and go be a part of a church plant, I'm not sure our church could recover from that kind of loss."  We have got to let go of that fear; the church was made to be a reproducing organism and designed to be a missional sending agency.

We had about 25 people move from Chicago along with Troy and Janet McMahon to Kansas City to start Restore Community Church.  This past weekend they had a great start with over 400 people at their launch.  We also sent out about 190 people mostly from our CCC-Naperville and CCC-Romeoville to go and start  CCC-Plainfield.  And if you are a reader of this blog you know that we had a great first weekend with well over 600 people at that new location.  So, what about the existing church that lost some of key leadership?  What about the existing sites that sent 190 of their very best out to start this new site?  How are they doing?  Are they going to make it?  I was looking at the stats that David Girdwood sent me and our attendance this past weekend was up by more than 1000 over the previous four week average.  Our attendance at CCC-Naperville was up by over 200 and CCC-Romeoville was up by almost 100 over the average of the previous month despite sending 190 people out as a part of the launch team at CCC-Plainfield.

I definitely don't mean this as a boast, but only as a grace - it seems that God blesses Community when we reproduce and send people out to accomplish His mission.

Still Buzzing from the Community-Plainfield Launch

I am still buzzing from the launch of the our new Plainfield site  I know Brad and his team have done everything possible to follow-up on all the people who were there last weekend in hopes to see as many of the 642 people come back this weekend as possible.  That is my prayer.  If you didn't get the whole scoop on the start of our ninth campus in Plainfield last Sunday, there was lots of blogging...so check out one of the following posts:

• Bill Carroll has the entire first service in video segments at Multi-Site Arts.  And then some more video from the rest of the morning at Community-Plainfield.  And if you can't get enough, here are some more pics.
• Jon was there the whole morning and he gives his take on the Great Day in Plainfield.
• Tammy, our Kids City Champion was there for the entire day and she has her thoughts from a Kids City perspective with lots of pics of the New Campus!
• Community-Montgomery Campus Pastor Carter Moss sends out his congrats regarding the Launch.
• And finally, any new launch needs some controversy - Jeff is saying that "monkey" should not have been awarded the prize for the closest attendance guess on opening day.

Great Start for CCC-Plainfield and KC's Restore CC

I spent part of the morning teaching at Community-Romeoville and part of it on my  blackberry getting the latest updates from the launch of our ninth site, Community-Plainfield and the launch of our NewThing Network church in Kansas City.  And the news is great!!!   I don't have all the details, but I got some numbers:  we had 642 people show up for the first service at Community-Plainfield!  Amazing!!   Troy and the gang had 418 at Restore Community Church for their first weekend!  Awesome!!  God is very good and very kind.  More details to come...

BIG DAY (2x)!!

Sunday, March 2nd is going to be a big day in the life of Community!

We are starting our ninth location here in Chicago in the southwest suburb of Plainfield, Illinois.  We partnered with the CDEA, CIEA and Stadia for the launch of this new site.  I have already told Brad Prunty, our Campus Pastor to call me as soon as he can with a report on how the first day is going. 

And our NewThing Network is celebrating the start of Restore Community Church in Kansas City.  More than 20 people moved from Community to Kansas City including Troy and Janet McMahon to help start this new church.  Troy promised me that I would be the first person he'd call with details.  Can't wait to hear the good news!

Nothing in the whole world is better than starting a new Community site or a new church...unless it's starting both a new site and new church on the same day!  This is a big day for this reproducing church!!

NewThing Multi-Site Practicum...#14!

We sold out for our fourteenth NewThing Multi-Site Practicum.  We have 26 churches that have brought teams that are with us today and tomorrow.  These teams will leave with a step-by-step plan that they create for how to go multi-site in their context.  Good stuff!

This is a pic of me presenting during the first session on 7 Moves To Multi-Site.

Only 1 Week Until Community-Plainfield Launches!

On my way to speak at Community-Romeoville on Sunday morning I stopped in to take a look at the set-up for our newest campus, Community-Plainfield.  It looks like it is going to be great! Brad and his team are doing a great job.  The support of the staff from the rest of Community has been spectacular.  And the launch team has been awesome.  On Saturday they all went out and canvassed the 3,000 homes closest to the school where they are meeting to collect canned goods to re-stock the local food pantry!  And then on Sunday morning they had 173 people show up for their last preview service.  This is going to be a great launch and difference-making campus.  Can't wait!!

How The West Was Won For Jesus.

I was asked to contribute to the Leadership Network Book Blog by periodically offering reviews of what I am reading.  So, while I was away a couple weeks ago with Sue to Florida I brought  with me a book recommended by Tim Sutherland and Perry Bigelow, The Rise of Christianity by  Rodney Stark. What follows is my review...

Most of my reading consists of new releases that come highly recommended and books that are sent to me as pre-release copies.  I don't think that is necessarily good, but it is true.  But I'm going retro on this review. Rodney Stark's The Rise of Christianity:  How the Obscure, Marginal Jesus Movement Became the Dominant Religious Force in the Western World in a Few Centuries. is an important work from a world-class sociologist that gives us new insight into how the west was won for Jesus.

As the person responsible for the vision of the NewThing Network I have a keen interest in movements and how the early church grew. Stark offers some of the best research I've seen on this topic and dispels the myth that the church of the first few centuries grew at miraculous rates that are not possible today.  He writes, "(Most) Studies of the rise of Christianity all stress the movement's rapid growth, but rarely are any figures offered...(it is assumed) in order for Christianity to have achieved success in the time allowed, it must have grown at rates that seem incredible in light of modern experiences."  Stark goes on to show how the early church grew from about 1.000 in 40 A.D to more than 33 million by 350 A.D.  Because of the extraordinary features of exponential curves Stark explains, "Hence, 40 percent per decade or 3.42 percent per year seems the most plausible estimate of the rate at which Christianity actually grew during the first several centuries."  Stark doesn't just give us those numbers, he goes on to unpack how and why those numbers came to be and the sociological realities that made it possible.

Other highlights from The Rise of Christianity are Starks discussion of networks, the role of women in the growth of the early church and Christianizing the urban empire.  While this book was first published a little more a decade ago, if you are interested in how the west was won for Jesus it is one of those books that if you haven't read by now - you should!

CCC-Plainfield Gets Ready For Grand Opening!

CCC-Plainfield had their first preview service in JFK Middle School in Plainfield yesterday as they prepare for a March 2nd Grand Opening.  The picture you see above is the set-up at the school.  I got the report from Campus Pastor Brad Prunty on Sunday afternoon that the preview service was a very successful!  The new Kids City look (thank you 242 Community!) was a huge hit and probably something you will see in other CCC locations.  Except for one audio cord that was not long enough and fixing one mistake within the Media Shout the celebration service came off without a hitch!  We had 85 people at the preview service and even had a first time family show up!  This new location is already "helping people find their way back to God!" 

Three of the five direct mailings that will show up in 55,000 homes throughout the Plainfield, South Naperville and Bolingbrook area have arrived.  In the next 12 days they will receive two more mailers inviting them to CCC-Plainfield.  In addition, this weekend the launch team will be visiting 3,000 homes doing a canned food drive to help replenish the food pantry in Plainfield.  Campus Pastor Brad Prunty and his team are doing an amazing job!   We believe this could be the biggest launch  we have ever had at CCC.  If you want to get more pics on the preview service, check out Bill Carroll's blog.