We're getting it!

You know it's such a joy when you see people beginning to take hold of something that you know they can, but don't know if they will.  

For I would say almost everyone on our team, this is the deepest level of church leadership they've ever been part of.  I don't say that as a criticism.  It's actually rather refreshing.  Even as I'm sitting here I'm just overwhelmed by the thought that we get to model from the very beginning of Catalyst the kind of healthy, honest, open leadership that I think people want to see.  In a world of shady back dealings and covering up of wrongs, both in the corporate and unfortunately sometimes even in the church world, we're saying from the beginning, we're not going down that road.  There is another way and we'll do whatever we can to live out another way, a way that honors Jesus by guiding his church, his bride, toward health and wholeness and toward deep intimacy with Him.  

Now it doesn't mean we won't make mistakes, have slipups, miss the mark sometimes.  We're learning to lead on the fly.  Last year at our Church Planter's Bootcamp, Phil Claycomb talked about this.  He talked about the church he planted with basically no believers (in the beginning).  He talked about helping others lead even as their own faith was rapidly expanding.  I feel what He is saying.  This is my first time being in the Lead Chair.  This is the first time I've had to cast vision for every area of ministry life.  This is the first time I've had to guide the team from what God is doing in me.  Am I out of my comfort zone?  A little bit.  I think that's why up until the last little bit it's been difficult for me to quantify in simple statements what we're about, choosing instead for some over-arching themes that only time and the Spirit could clarify.  I think these clarities are coming to easier voice from me, now they have to make it to language transferrable to our team and then from them into the lives of their friends.  The question has become, we want to invite.  What are we inviting people to?  We want to serve, tell us what you need us to do.  You be increasingly clear on where we're going, we'll do whatever we can to get us there.  Seems simple enough.  So, that's the call right now.  Clarify the mission. And then let's set about making it happen and inviting others to join the journey.

I wish I had time to write more, but clarity doesn't happen talking about it, but by doing it.  So I need to spend the afternoon putting clarity into text.

Friends

Even when it's cliche often times it's still true.  When it comes to church (or relationships in general), people are not looking for friendliness.  They are looking for friends (or at least people with whom there's the prospect of friendship).  The appeal of involvement in a new church really comes in one-two areas.  Either you join the movement because you're passionately excited about the mission, or because you were invited by someone who's already your friend.  Or both.  Sometimes people are interested because they're disillusioned with church or traditional religious expression.  I'm not sure that people line up to be part of a church plant because they're incredibly evangelistic and sense that's the movement of this new faith community.  But when it all boils down to it, whatever draws people in, it's relationships that keep them engaged.

How do you make sure you're always opening yourself (beginning with me as leader) to new relationships, so that you demonstrate to your team that they should also always be open to new relationships?  I guess it's a conversation you have over and over.  You talk about the new relationships you're developing.  The new people you're meeting.  You remind your team that without the next 20 people who join, there is no movement, there is no Catalyst.  And those 2o, then 40, then 80, will come, but they won't just appear out of nowhere.  And even if they did, they won't stay if it seems that no one really cares that they've entered the picture.  

You know friends seems so easy.  It's not.  Friendliness, that's easy.  We have control over that.  But friends?  There's an element of this friends thing that's purely beyond our control.  Sometimes chemistry is not there.  Sometimes worldview is different.  But it doesn't mean there's no room for connection there.  Actually, it's the opposite.  Friendship works when we put ourselves out there just enough to want to know someone and want to be known by them.  It doesn't mean we become best friends with everyone.  But it also doesn't mean we pre-emptively short-circuit what has the potential to be a much deeper relationship down the road.

So what is the key word to friendship.  I think it's openness.  It's a willingness to share one step further in your life than you're completely comfortable.  And what's amazing is how that discomfort dissolves once you've taken a step for the first or second time.  Openness to push yourself toward a conversation with someone rather than avoiding a conversation.  Openness to extend the relationship beyond just a large group gathering into something smaller.  Openness to take steps toward encouraging someone (appropriately) by listening a little closer and sharing your own experience.  

Now Catalyst is not going to be a place where everyone is best friends with everyone else.  I would say unabashedly that we want to grow much, much larger than a scenario where that would even be possible.  But, by the same token, if we want to live by the value that everyone on a spiritual journey toward God can learn from others on that same journey, we will only learn from people we trust.  And we will only trust people that we know.  Knowing has all kinds of meanings and levels, but the bottom line is, I want to lead a church that is open.  Open to knowing one another so we can learn and grow closer to Christ as a result. 

Go Local, Part 2

Welcome to part 2 of our "Go local" Sunday.  I won't leave you waiting, but would encourage you that if you haven't read part one of this story, check that out first.

Three of our team members went to two large churches  (one of them a mega-mega church in Northeast Indy) in the area.  Both were rather interesting experiences.  Both were very much a hands off experiences.  At both places neither of our friends were actually engaged much by people who attend there regularly.  It was very much a self-service kind of scenario; if you want information, if you want to take the next step toward engagement with the church, you have to make the first move.  It's a no pressure, hands off philosophy that many people are looking for, but the complete lack of content left both of our partners kinda wanting more.  In one, the worship gathering displayed talent but little passion.  In the other, the word that best describes the experience was not worship gathering, but rock concert.  Entertaining, but not interactive.

One of our partners checked out a "contemporary" church in the town of Pendleton.  The unique nature of this church was the desire, or maybe expectation that the church should have a contemporary service based on its size.  I think this church does traditional quite well, but there's a sense that this is what we should be doing, but it almost appears like a token gesture in order to engage younger couples, but not to the extent that the traditional worshipers want to flex their own desires for the desires of those outside the walls.  The description that came forward from this experience could be captured in one word...safe!  Now safe is not a bad word, and there are a lot of things in life that I want to be safe.  But I must be honest, safe is not the word that I want to be attached to Catalyst.  

One of the reminders we quickly gained from a couple of local churches is the assumption that things we know well, newcomers must also know well.  These realizations, ironically, came during the celebration of Communion at two different places.  Remember rule number 2 from yesterday's post?  Never assume anything!  Especially when it comes to things so sacred and reverent as the Lord's Supper.  We were reminded of the simple need to just explain things in order to help others feel comfortable.  Leaving things unexplained left a little awkward taste in the mouths of our friends who checked out two of our local churches.

In closing, however, I need to share a more somber tone, because the truth is, the experience we gained in the church that we attended personally could best be described as what happens when an 80 year old (or maybe Joan Rivers) gets plastic surgery.  The outside may be fixed up beautifully and attempt to mask what's going on beneath, but the reality is, the inside is still old and dying a slow, painful death.  And no amount of fix-up can really mask that over completely.  We walked away feeling not angry, not disappointed, but just sad.  Sad that the church that Jesus loves so much just has lost its function, lost its way.  It will hang on.  And this church certainly is no microcosm of the Church at large.  But there are so many churches who are hurting, suffering, wondering how to hang on.  I hope some of them are wondering, "Is there a fountain of youth" where we might revive the hope and passion and evangelistic dna we once had.?  But it seems that, not unlike the verse in the scripture where Jesus says "Suppose a man wants to build a tower, should he not count the cost first..." many of these churches have counted the cost and determined it simply too high.

So here's the inspiring ending.  We've counted the cost, too.  And we've determined that as best we can practice it, the cost of following Christ and providing a different kind of church to reach unreached people in unique and practical ways will never be too high.  We want to pay the price it takes to help people feel safe to explore who God is, free from judgmentalism and criticism, available to experience clarity and transformation through the power of Christ.  And so, we walk away from this experience encouraged, that a new wind of opportunity is blowing through our area.  It seems like we may be putting up the sails just in time!

A few insights from today's "Go Local"

Preface

One of the things that my good friend Nate has been helping me understand is that for the rest of my ministry, assume nothing.  Assume no previous knowledge or experience people might have had, no matter their background, upbringing, education, whatever.  He didn't go exactly that far in his statement, but I'm realizing that it really is that important to just be certain you're communicating (speaking and hearing) clearly.

Point two.  Be much clearer than you think you need to be.  See point one.  I've worked hard this past year to be more clear/less ambiguous in my communication.  Lesson learned?  I've got to work harder this year to keep that clarity even more in focus for me.  Both of these little preface lessons came forward today as our team experienced Go Local Sunday.

Okay.  So today's assignment for Team Catalyst was to check out as many local churches as possible from a predetermined list I'd written a few weeks ago based on hearing stories about them in the community, seeing their websites, or just my own unquenched curiosity.  

So in addition to some of our team at Crosspoint today, others were at 6 other local/area churches.  All but one were in the Pendleton area, and we didn't get to every church I wanted to (we'll catch a few more in a few weeks).  We called it Go Local Sunday.  And after we finished at the services, we got together for lunch and to debrief.  This was great for a couple of reasons.  One, I don't have to take 10 Sunday's to get everywhere.  Two, I get to see with different eyes and hear with different ears the experiences our team shared.  Three, it's a teachable moment because when you go someplace new, you get to see if what people say about themselves actually matches the experience you have with them.  And what we learned is that sometimes those self-descriptions match reality, and other times...not so much.

So, I sent each of our mystery worshippers with a little card that had some questions I wanted them to answer/look for about their experience.  If you're interested, I've posted that card on the downloads page of our website.  Click here to check it out.  To give you an in depth report of everything that was shared would be much longer than you want to read.  I think I'll try to break it into two posts, one tonight and maybe a second tomorrow.

Now, I want to preface this by saying, we did not go into these churches to

a)judge or critique what other churches were doing, merely to observe and allow our observations to help in the formation of our own weekend experience.

b)recruit people from other churches.  While we know we need team members with some spiritual maturity, we're not there to divide established churches or to headhunt (take the best of someone else's flock, if you will)

c)name any of these churches publicly.  Our experience was to go and learn from others, not to publicly embarrass/ridicule anyone's style, staff or philosophy.  

What lessons/thoughts we'd already had were totally affirmed?

1.  People's definition of the word contemporary range across a pretty narrow perspective.  People use the word because they think it's what unchurched people really want in order to make the decision to attend church.  What we're learning?  Unchurched people don't care and most of what is being done is not contemporary, it's just late model traditional.  It's not 1950's traditional.  It's 1980's traditional.  That's not a slam on anyone, and honestly, those experiences may in fact be ultra contemporary for our communities.

2.  Unless we find something radical in our future go Local experience, we will be the most contemporary church in the area right out of the box.  In fact, in my conversation with Brad, our worship leader, I actually said to him, "I want us to be the most _____________ (insert your word meaning modern/postmodern that doesn't have theological undertones but just...well...new, innovative) church in the area, but we're going to have to be careful not to go too far to the other end of the spectrum, because we may lose people just out of fear.  There are some things we can get away with in Fishers without batting an eye that may be a half step further than people are willing to go here."  That will be an ongoing conversation I think, but one that's a good conversation to have.

I'll finish up this post tomorrow in part 2, talking about an indifferent mega-church, a megachurch worship concert, intinction assumption, safety and plastic surgery on an octogenarian.  How's that for a teaser to check out part 2?

Forest for the trees

I never understood what that statement meant for the longest time.  We can't see the forest for the trees.  And especially when you're a big picture person and not a detail person like me, you never think that this mental picture describes you.  But right now I'm in the middle of the forest.  And I'm having a hard time remembering what the aerial view looks like.  Sometimes the trees are just important projects.  Sometimes the issue is I'm comparing myself to others, trying to meet others expectations of what they think the forest should look like instead of staying true to the mission God is calling me to.

Either way, it's wise for me to hear from the people closest to me (friends and family) to keep perspective, be who I am all the while accepting the challenging from those who lead me, and remember this is a journey.  People are not numbers, they are people.  Goals are meant with the intent that we're engaging people, not just building a list.  And I'm praying today that God will help me see clearly both the forest and the trees, both the big picture and the details.  That will definitely be a God thing, because right now I'm definitely one or the other, but rarely both simultaneously, which is a pretty helpful skill if you're going to plant a healthy new church.

Quick Update

It's been a busy and important week at Catalyst already.  Had our first Monday night life together group. 23 people (15 adults, 8 children) were here.  Great food, good conversation.  Looking forward to week 2 already.  Our goal is to meet together for one more week then to divide into two groups beginning April 27th.  It's very possible we could need a third group by mid-May.

Today we had our Catalyst advisory board meeting.  We discussed the big push that's ahead in attempting to basically double our launch team and connect with a lot of new disconnected friends over the next six weeks.  Of everything that's happened to this point, the funds raised, the relationships built, we need God to work among us and to open people to conversations about joining us in this next 6 weeks.  Our team members need to be looking around our circles of friends and be open and excited about inviting them to be part of this life-changing experience called Catalyst.  We need your prayers more now than ever.

Later this week I have meetings with our sound provider and the school custodian, one of our staff team members, and our family health mentors and friends, Jared and Deann.  We're checking out local churches, getting giveaways for our community connection event May 1-3.  And we've got a significant community contact we're trying to get printed to make contact with all the new move-ins in our area.

Pray for us, pray for us, pray for us.  Everytime you think of us.  You can't imagine what it will do to lift our spirits and launch us toward the future God intends for us.

Chris

Blog talk back and life together groups

Let me begin with a little discussion about our life together groups.  What do they look like?  How long do they last?  Is there food involved?  And other questions you may have.

We began our life together groups on Thursday, March 5th.  Life together groups are our term for small groups.  I read in nearly every publication about church planting that you never start small groups before you launch public worship services.  The reason?  Too involvement intensive when you're trying to build a crowd who you are trying to get fully engaged in your worship gatherings.  Why did we throw off conventional wisdom?  Two reasons.  First, we recognized that most people that we're trying to connect with couldn't necessarily give a rip about the weekend gatherings.  If they did, they'd probably already be involved in a church.  But nearly all of these unconnected folks do have a longing for growing friendships.  That's pretty much the focus of these life together groups, a place to cultivate deep, growing friendships, and at the same time, a place to explore spiritual questions all of us have and may not have the answers to.  Already, since we've moved here, I can say without reservation that my very best friends here are the ones that I share my life with.  This began with our being part of our life together group, but those relationships have expanded beyond our gathering to us taking care of each other's kids, eating meals together and looking for each other every weekend.  (when someone from our group is not at weekend gatherings, we notice, and we really miss seeing them)  We know there are other people we've met who could gain from the experience of life together.  We also know that life together groups can be an entry point to church for some people.  That's why we started with groups first.  Oh, and because we watched it be very successful for Crosspoint, too!  So we know it can be done and done well, so we're starting with life together groups.

So here's how it works.  In our group, group begins by eating dinner together.  We potluck it, everyone pitches in and we enjoy time around the table together...every week.

Then, we spend time in some discussion (usually not so brief but enjoyable none the less), right now about the vision/values of Catalyst Church.  We feel like people need to know about the CHurch, but honestly these are values that we would hold whether or not we were beginning a new church.  I think they are questions people are asking.  And we are open to any question that comes about during the context of our discussion.  

Group usually lasts about 2.5 hours including meal time, and often the only thing that pushes us out the door are tired children, because our lives have become so deeply connected, we love those relationships too much to pack it in early unless someone is sick, has an early morning the following day, or a child that has said "Enough."

Actually, it's not group night, but we're going to be with some of our Crosspoint group friends tonight...just because!  We'll eat, play cards, laugh, watch the Masters (the guys at least, vicariously wishing we were there in person but knowing that between the 4-5 of us we couldn't pool the cash for 1 ebay purchased ticket) and just have a great time...together.  Isn't that what it's about?

Now in about two weeks we're anticipating that our life together group will have to split.  We know that as much as we love being together, there's not enough room in one house to make room for more people.  But in two houses, we have open spaces.  And that's also what it's about. Throwing open ourselves relationally to inviting other people to join this little movement we're beginning.  So before long, there'll be three groups, then four, and a year from now?  Well, God only knows what life groups will look like.  And I'm sure I'll be blown away because it'll be far beyond what I could have anticipated.

Okay, now for the blog talk back.  I pretty much write about whatever I want to talk about on these posts.  But I'd be more than willing to write about what you want to hear about.  So to all our faithful readers, if you have questions about the church plant trail, what's going on, how many gray hairs I've gained since October unrelated to Camden, how many Mt. Dews a day it takes to plant a church (more than 6....just kidding!) or anything else you'd like to know about, let me know and we'll try to address it.  You can send your questions to chris@iamcatalyst.org by clicking here and click the mail link in the bottom left corner.  (Hint:  this is also the Catalyst website.)

I've also posted the Catalyst vision message I taught at Crosspoint on Sunday, March 22nd and you can access that by clicking here.  

Grace and peace and may your experience of the resurrection of Christ be real, be very present, very here and now.  Because the resurrection still changes things.  Always.  Every day.

Chris

Other resources are available, too.  If you'd like to get our eburst, our weekly email newsletter, send me your email address and I'll put you on that list.  It usually will come late Thursday night.

If you're a twitter...er, you can follow us at CatalystPndltn.  This is the place where I post random Catalyst stuff, and give real-time updates on anything exciting that happens in the life of Catalyst Church.

 

Lessons from the First Catalyst Backyard BBQ

We had our first Catalyst team get together last night.  Our BBQ had to be moved inside thanks to a driving rainstorm the entire time.  Thankfully we missed out on the snow which is coming today.  We had a great time and everyone got lots of food and fun out of the deal I think.  And we're off to another good start with Catalyst launch team.  25 people at our house last nigh (16 adults and 9 kids).  Missed the friends who couldn't be with us, and hope that this is the first and last time our house is large enough to actually host the group (because we will continue to grow exponentially from here).

Here's some great lessons I learned yesterday, in no particular order.  Hopefully these will be helpful for your life someday.

1.  Mercury Cougars are not a truck model.  As such, you can only fit one 6 foot table and 4 folding chairs in them.

2.  Always buy more folding chairs and tables than you think you need, unless you have situation 1 above.  In that case, simply scramble for a place for everyone to sit.

3.  Match light charcoal....LIES.  THERE IS NO SUCH THING.

4.  It's very difficult to light a charcoal grill in a driving rainstorm, however...

5.  Charcoal grills are also not meant to be operated in a garage, even with the door up.

6.  Charcoal ready in 10 minutes....LIES.  Tell me that when we put the food on the grill 30 minutes later.

7.  Rainy days are great for long driveways, so people can park in your driveway, instead of 1/4 mile up the street!

8.  Supersweet brownies make children do funny things.

9.  I love our friends.  Last night was one of the coolest nights in our time here, as we got to engage with so many of our new friends.  

10.  You know who your true friends are when they will stand with you in a garage full of smoke and endure your grilling when they could be inside breathing clean air and eyes not burning.  Thanks guys...you're the best!

11.  I refuse to run around like crazy at other events like last night became a little bit, but I think everyone had a great time getting to know one another, which was the primary purpose of the evening.

12.  Carlotta is a much better host than I believe she thinks she is.  And honestly, between life together groups and last night, she has held us together and pulled off great food everytime.  Thanks babe!  Glad we're doing this together.

13.  I still slip back into talking too fast sometimes.

14.  If it doesn't make it in picture or video form to the internet, it didn't happen.  I forgot to take any photos last night!  But I promise, this isn't all made up.  It really did happen.  

15.  I'm already looking forward to what we can do for May for our team gathering.

All in all, when I look around that room last night, and thought also about our friends who are on board but were unable to be with us last night, I know that Catalyst is going to be a great place to be part of just because of them.  I also told them, although I'm so thankful for everyone of the people who joined us, we can't launch Catalyst by ourselves, and to be on the lookout for those who might join us on this journey!  We're taking this week off for life groups and then moving to Monday beginning April 13th.  Our journey really begins in earnest now!  So keep on praying for us, and if you're in the area, we'd love to have you join us.