ESPN has a great feature article on Indianapolis Colts head coach Tony Dungy. Tony and his family suffered an unbelievable tragedy last December with the death of their 18-year old son, James. Dungy, an outspoken follower of Jesus, summed it up best when he said this:

“The Lord has a plan. We always think the plans are A, B, C and D, and everything is going to be perfect for us and it may not be that way, but it’s still his plan. A lot of tremendous things are going to happen, it just may not be the way you see them.”

Tony Dungy is the real deal. He’s not afraid to talk about, show it to others, and live it out in his daily life. To read the entire story, click here.

I love movies. The only problem is finding the time to watch them. Sometimes my brain needs a chance to unwind…a perfect opportunity for a bowl of popcorn and a good flick.

My family was getting ready to watch “Glory Road,” and being a rabid sports fan, I decided to park my body for a few hours and check it out. While the movie itself had so many cliche moments, I couldn’t help but to get caught up in the plot and likeable characters. If you like sports movies with “feel good” moments, then this one’s for you. I liken it to a “Remember the Titans” for the basketball crowd.

One quote near the end of the movie stood out to me (I may be paraphrasing slightly…my memory isn’t what it used to be!). “No one can take your integrity away from you. It’s always inside of you.” I love that quote. How we choose to live our daily lives stands as a testament to our integrity. It doesn’t guarantee that we won’t make mistakes, but as I always told my students during my career as a teacher, “It’s not how many mistakes you make, but how you choose to deal with them that matters.” Integrity is about owning your mistakes. While I’m still working on that concept, I’m so thankful that God has given us all enough grace…especially when we stray from the “glory road” that He has provided!

I didn’t have a chance to talk about my “Day from Hell” last week. If someone asked me to describe a day that could only come from the depths below, I’m not sure I could have described a day worse than my experiences last week.

First of all, we decided to have a “staff clean up day,” which inherently sounds great, but if you knew how much “stuff” was hanging out in our storage areas (can anybody relate here?), you’d think twice. Needless to say, we cleaned out approximately two dump trucks full of old, used, broken-down, and no-longer-useful stuff from the basement area. TWO DUMP TRUCKS FULL! I have no idea how that much stuff fit into such a small area to begin with, but by the end of the day, we were all worn out, dirt-stained and ready to crash somewhere.

BUT…that’s where my fun began.

Have you ever come home to find your wife digging in all areas of the house, and when you ask what she’s doing, she let’s you know about the “garage sale” you’ll be having. Oh yeah…the garage sale. So upon arriving home after the day at church, I was politely asked to help set up tables, bring out miscellaneous items and finally, help price them. WOW! How could I be so lucky to be able to participate in two outstanding events in one day?

I have to admit, when things were all said and done, the end results were awesome. God really spoke to me about the value of organization and most importantly, to be able to get rid of stuff I’ve been holding on to for years. I’m a pack-rat by nature (can anybody relate HERE?), but during this whole process, I felt great about letting things go. I’m not there yet, but I certainly hope that this is a small “mustard seed” step forward.

So, does anybody know of a good “pack rat” recovery group?

Another solid day for the Multi-Site Revolution!! As was the case yesterday, we had lots of “good” information, but by far the most important parts of the day were the team building times. By the end of the day we had accomplished a major feat: our multi-site plan ON PAPER!! There is something inherently exciting about actually writing your goals down. It brings unity with all involved, it brings “concreteness” to visions and dreams, and finally it provides direction for the future (or the infamous “monkey on the back”).

The staff at CCC were phenomenal and extremely helpful. Afterwards we took a quick tour of their facility fondly known as the “yellow box.” This building is basically a huge box with a gymatorium in the middle where they hold worship gatherings. It also boasts a very fine coffee shop and accompanying atmosphere as well as room for children’s ministry and their School of Arts (very cool by the way!).

Finally, we had opportunity to peek into their offices, which I must say, was quite a shock to me. All their main support staff are all in one long rectangular room with half on one side of the room and half on the other divided by a receptionist’s area. The lead pastor, Dave Ferguson, is right there with everyone else, crammed into a tiny area. Very strange, but also a cool environment. Down the hall was the graphics and media department as well as a conference area. These guys are definitely focused on their mission and not worried about the “internal” factors that often trip others.

At the end, we were asked to talk about one thing we will take with us and one thing we will leave. For most of us, the concensus was that we will take away an unwavering faith that we are on the right path. We may not know all the answers (the practicum plan will help), but we are unified in a vision to reach our community, the parkland, and dare I say even beyond that? I think we’ll all leave behind any fears and doubts about the multi-site strategy in general. Most of all we’ll take away some incredible team time, a LOT of laughs, and the boldness to move forward. As the movie Braveheart states so well:

Aye, fight and you may die, run, and you’ll live… at least for a while. And dying in your beds, many years from now, would you be willin’ to trade ALL the days, from this day to that, for one chance, just one chance, to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they’ll never take… OUR FREEDOM!

May we be boldly used by God to spread this Freedom and the liberating message of Jesus to all that will hear. Let us fight with courage and overcome our Enemy as we proclaim that the Kingdom of God is at hand!!

A beautiful day in Chicago!! And of course, we were inside all day. Today was the first day of the multi-site practicum at Community Christian Church in Naperville. We started the day learning about the 7 “moves” to multi-site. It was very interesting information and presented very well, but there wasn’t a plethora of new or “light bulb popping” stuff. The information did propel us into some great discussions in our breakout sessions.

I think our team would agree that we are past the “affirmation” stage of multi-site. God has lined up too many things for this idea to be a coincidence. The best parts of the day were the brainstorming/strategy sessions. We laid some great foundational groundwork to some issues that have been “swimming” out there in the minds of many of us. It was neat to see it unfold on paper and for all of us to be on the page (literally!) together. The next step will be to flesh out our top 5 (or six in our case) most important or critical objectives.

One thing is for sure…we have a lot of work to do to get ready for a launch. The next 6-9 months will probably be one of those defining moments in the life of a church when you look back on some monumental decisions. The Gospel no longer functions simply as a mouth to ear transaction but is now focused on an experiential movement from God that encompasses all senses. AND, for the first time in decades (dare I say centuries?), we’ll find opportunities to take the Gospel TO the people, but in new and exciting ways.

The business world has long taken biblical principles to help sell their products, but we have had this aversion to using marketing principles to help propel Jesus into the spotlight. I know there will be many people that disagree with me on this issue and it is probably left to a better explanation at a later time, but I don’t understand why it has taken the church so long to adopt simple business practices of marketing. If Starbucks can create an “experience” with coffee, then why can’t we talk about Jesus in a creative and compelling manner?

Day 2 tomorrow!