As mentioned before, the One Prayer initative is moving forward! This is going to be an exciting effort by many churches to come together and partner as one.  Led by LifeChurch.tv the reason for this effort is to:

• Promote unity in the body of Christ.
• Expose churches to other great teachers and ministries.
• Empower churches to experiment with video teaching.
• Infuse spiritual passion into a typically challenging month.
• Give the senior pastor a three-week break from teaching.
• Raise money for a mission project.
• Teach our people to fast, pray, and seek God in concert with thousands of other believers.
• Participate in the larger work of God in His church.

 Find out more about the effort here. You can get badges and get resources to share about it here.

What would you pray if God would answer One Prayer for the Church at large?

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Originally uploaded by gregdavispsu.

To conclude my visit to Oklahoma, I had the opportunity to go to the 5:00 pm Saturday night experience at the Edmond campus and then the 6:30pm experience at the Oklahoma City campus. Edmond is a satellite campus and gets a live feed direct from the OKC campus. Both services rocked! The worship was incredible at both, but the thing that surprised me the most was how baptisms where handled at Edmond. During the service the main center screen showed baptism taking place live, but in a different area.

The really cool part was that during this time we did not stop singing or praising, but rather we were encouraged by the worship leader to do so even louder each time a new believe came up out of the water! I really felt like we were joining with the angels in hevean as they rejoiced and celebrated.

LifeChurch.tv OKC CampusAt OKC campus I got to see Craig Groeschel preach in person. I was impressed with how good the first service I saw at the Edmond campus was in comparision to the service where Craig preaches from directly. 

These service were enjoyable on may levels. First, I love the loud, all-out

Stage Area for Warror Series worship style with plenty of guitar and drums. These guys didn’t hold anything back and it showed. They gave everything they have and I believe Christ was honored. Second, these are definately services you could invite an unchurched friend or neighbor to. Nothing to be ashamed of or embarassed about. Third, the Word of God was preached openly.  There is no question that Craig is a man after God’s heart and it shows in his preaching.

I’m glad I got to see LifeChurch.tv in person. They are doing amazing things for Jesus not only in Oklahoma but all across the country and even the world. I had previously only seen them via the Internet Campus, which I must say is also very high quality and very real. If you have never tried it, you might want to take a peek. If you don’t believe the internet is an effective tool for reaching people for Christ, listen to campus pastor Brandon as he talks about the impact it had in the month of March alone. Over 400 people made decisions to commit their lives to Christ!

 
The team at LifeChurch.tv is not afraid to try new things. You may have heard last year about there virtual campus in Second Life.  If not, you can take a free tour here. 

Friday was the 2nd day of MinistryTECH 2008 conference in Oklahoma. It was a day that really messed me up!  It started when Terry Storch gave the morning keynote talk. He said he was lead by God to change the topic of what he originally planned to talk to us about and instead spoke about “Being an Idiot”. Terry used this opportunity to openly share with us his personal story of coming to Christ as an adult and God’s directing him away from the “Zuckerberg Dream” and instead into a life of ministry first at Fellowship Church in Texas and now at LifeChurch.tv.

To have the skills that Terry has and to see how he gave up a potentially very lucrative career to work in and serve the church is quite an inspiration. As Terry puts it, he was an idiot. His family and co-workers knew it was the only explanation for doing what he did. Who else gives up the kind of money that could be made in the secular IT world and the kind of fame that could be had. Who else trades a life of comfort and convenience for one of extreme challenges and anonymity? Only an idiot.

The church today is in the midst of a world undergoing a digital revolution. There are 6.5 billion people in the world and over 1 million of them are connected to the internet (and growing). The church today has an opportunity like never before to fulfill the Great Commission and idiots like Terry (and us) can help be a part of that.

3 characteristics of idiots that Terry discussed:

• Idiots embrace being idiots – following God often doesn’t make sense to the ‘world’ but to the idiot, that doesn’t matter. As a result we can do things that everyone would think are impossible.
• Idiots are comfortably uncomfortable – as technology guys we can easily focus on process and forget about the real goal of why we do what we do. We always need to ask ourselves ‘why’ and make sure we are not doing things just to make our lives easier and more comfortable.
• Idiots expose their weaknesses – Satan knows them and will use them to take you out. Acknowledge them, deal with them before God and do not allow Satan to use them against you. The unexpected reality – your will often find your biggest weaknesses in the areas that are also your strengths.

Some key suggestions Terry gave to help counter attack your weaknesses: setting priorities, making boundaries for yourself, and having accountability to someone.

While being an idiot is really stupid in the eyes of the world,  It can give you the opportunity to demonstrate extreme child-like faith. Some key questions Terry left us with:

1. What have you been holding on to that you need to let go of?
2. What are your weaknesses?
3. What faith jump do you need to make?

Of coarse this post does nothing to justify the impact Terry had in person and the way I felt God speak through him. I cannot describe the feeling I had that morning and the way it totally messed with me. I have been prayerfully considering what God wants next for me in my life. I have been doing SAP consulting for the past 10 years and volunteering as I could in technology and creative areas within the church, but I have felt his calling recently to something more, something different, something that He has in mind. I don’t know if there were others in the room in a similar position as me, but I believe God truly lead Terry to change his topic and it was one that He wanted me to hear.

Thank you Terry for being open to God’s leading with your talk. Thank you for being an idiot for Jesus and the mission of the church. Thank you for the friendship you showed me during these 2 days of the conference.  While the world may look on us as idiots, in the eyes of Jesus I truly believe we are warriors!

I had the privilege of seeing and hearing Tony Morgan give the opening keynote to MinistryTECH conference today which was on the “10 Reasons Why Techies Scare Me”. It was a good way to open the conference – give all of us geeks an understanding of how we are often perceived by ministry leaders (who are usually non-techie by nature). Admittedly, Tony is a “gadget-geek” and he is quite comfortable blogging and twittering, but doing things really technical or even mechanical is not his forte. This is still a man who used duct tape to hold down the hood of sweet Ford Mustang convertible that he was renting on his 15th wedding anniversary!

So it was good to hear first hand from the man who holds the title of “Chief Strategic Officer” of NewSpring Church.  With a title like that, you know the guy is not writing code or installing servers! But he is responsible, among other things, for the IT “department” at NewSpring and making sure that IT is serving the needs of the ministries there. The things that (sometimes) scare Tony about us techies are how we:

1. Assume everyone thinks like us (a techie)
2. Don’t like to bend on standardization.
   (We need to learn how to be more flexible and realize that sometimes God wants to bring about a change)
3. Hire (or recruit) the best geek rather than the best leader.
   (His boss, Perry Noble, has told them they cannot hire any more “doer’s” – they must hire “leaders”)
4. Always want more stuff
5. Always want more money.
   
6. Don’t document processes well.
7. Implement technical solutions without considering the strategic systems.
   (3 areas: Strategy, People, Technology – all 3 must be in balance)
8. Implement technical solutions without communicating with the (leadership) team.
   (good communication skills are often not a strong point for geeks)
9. Focus on implementation without creating systems for training and support.
   (We really need to be prepared to hold their hands and help them)
10. Let technology drive the ministry rather than letting ministry drive the technology.
    (Key questions: “What is the vision of the church?” and “What is the technology to help get us there?”)

Thanks Tony for the insights!  I think it will definitely help us geeks to ultimately be more successful and help ministry leaders to understand us better and ultimately help the church do its mission better.

I’m actually excited to be going to Oklahoma today (I can’t believe I’m actually saying that!)  I’m flying in to OKC later this evening for the MinistryTECH conference on Thursday and Friday (April 2-3). I’m pumped about the keynote speakers, Tony Morgan and Terry Storch as well as the breakout sessions.  The highlighted ones below are the sessions I’m planning to attend. I expect to be blogging about them and sharing my thoughts and impressions over the next several days.

Update: Here is also announcent from Perry Noble about this effort.  Boy is he pumped! 

Wow, this sounds both creative and like it is full of potential for the Kingdom!  Watch the video below (or email readers click here) for an announcement from LifeChurch.tv pastor Craig Groeschel about this initiative to take place in June.

You can also read more about it here. This sounds like a great way for the church as a whole to come together around a common cause and give some local pastors a break from teaching for a few weeks in early summer. Sounds like a great way to expose the church to great speakers as well as the idea of video-based teaching! 

Where do 8 year old boys get all of their energy?

Mary & the kids and I took advantage of the sunny and almost 50 degree weather to go for an afternoon hike at Brandywine Creek State Park yesterday. It was a perfect early Spring  day, the kind just before any real new growth or buds have appeared. While it still had a look of winter, there was a feel of Spring in the air. You could almost  feel the unrealized energy that was building in the ground and in the trees.

I couldn’t help but laugh as my son exhibited much of that same energy himself as he was always running 50 to 75 yards ahead of his mother, myself, and his sister. He probably covered 1.5 to 2 times as much territory as we did as he was taking every opportunity to climb nearby rocks, trees and hills.

At 8, I guess you could say he his nearing the ‘spring time’ of his young life. It won’t be long before the energy and innocence that comes with this age gives way to other seasons of life. I want to enjoy all of them with him, in ways my father, due to age and health, never could. I thank God for days like Sunday.

I am glad for family time together, especially on sunny Sunday afternoons. This week the kids head back to school as Spring Break is over in Delaware. I know they aren’t too happy about that but hopefully they will have some fond memories to look back upon. Friday at the Franklin Institute (complete with Star Wars exhibit) and today were good times together as a family. Thank you to my wife, Mary, who sees to it that our family has these times!

Just got some new personal cards from Overnight Prints. This is the first time I ever created my own personal card, but I wanted to have something to hand out when I’m at MinistryTECH conference next week.  There service was excellent. You get to design your card online and customize it then submit if for printing and then they ship it to you.  I was impressed.  Hope you like it!

In our ever increasing digital world which is rich in content delivered in many forms including the television, mobile devices (not just cell phones), computers, mp3 players, and more, it is easy to become very attached to ‘digital living’. So attached in fact, that we forget how to live without them.

I don’t believe there is anything inherintly wrong with modern technology, but like many things in life, too much of it can be a bad thing. It can become difficult to pull away from these devices and the digital nature of our lives today. We can easily fall into the trap of needing to always be “connected”.  I don’t believe the trend in technology will be changing anytime soon – it will become more and more pervasive in our daily lives.  I also don’t believe we should shun it either. Our culture is going to be faced with the ever changing face of the technology frontier probably until Christ returns. Our challenge will be to learn how to keep technology the servant and not the master of our lives. To be a part of it and understand it so that we can use it to help the Church be effective and relevant.

As part of that “training”, it is important to have regular time where you pull back, unplug and allow yourself to live the ‘analog life’ again.  I really appreciated the “Living Analog” episode that Matt & Rob did on the “Geeks & God Podcast” a few weeks ago.  The irony of it all… we actually need to unplug on a regular basis in order to get more done. It spurs creativity, productivity, relationships, clears our minds and gives us time to spend with God.

Don’t become a ‘Dilbert’.  Stay in touch with your ‘analog-self’ and you’ll be glad you did!  

Have you noticed how Easter has often had a very feminine feel to it? The tone and approach in many churches will have a very nice and beautiful feel to it. They may still deliver the good news about the resurrection, hopefully they do, but the appeal of their style is often geared more to the women and the kids.  They may not do that intentionally, but it happens.

This Easter, I’m encouraged by the efforts of LifeChurch.tv and NewSpring.cc.  I just experienced the first installment of LifeChurch’s “Warrior” seriesvia their internet campus, which seems to have roots in the “Wild at Heart” book by John Eldredge which I read last summer and am continuing to go through the study guide this year.

NewSpring is launching their series called “Sex Money and Power – The Man Series” on Easter Sunday.

Why would they do this? That is where I am encouraged.  Tony Morgan from NewSpring posted about it and said,

Men are MIA in U.S. Churches 

‘Nearly one-in-five men say they have no formal religious affiliation, compared with roughly 13 percent of women.’” With men under 50 being the largest group that doesn’t have a religious affiliation, I’m glad we’re launching a series on Easter that’s specifically targeted to men.

Have you ever thought about the American male as an “un-reached” segment of our population?  Maybe we haven’t done it intentionally, but have we historically driven men away from our churches and our portrayal of Christ because we have made them too effeminate?  Lord is a warrior, the greatest one ever. I’m glad to see these churches starting new series on Easter. If a guy only makes it to 1 or 2 services a year, it is normally Christmas and Easter. Maybe this will help get the attention of a few men who so desperately need to hear the life changing message of Jesus Christ!