Monthly Archive for January, 2009

reflecting on the last 2 weeks

Jen & I just got back from “assessment” for church planting. Still processing the highs and lows of the experience… when I am have it sorted through, I will post more about the whole last 2 weeks here. In the meantime here is an article from Seth Godin that I think is pretty interesting and related to what we are charting out to do next.

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What are you good at?

As you consider marketing yourself for your next gig, consider the difference between process and content.

Content is domain knowledge. People you know or skills you’ve developed. Playing the piano or writing copy about furniture sales. A rolodex of movers in a given industry, or your ability to compute stress ratios in your head.

Domain knowledge is important, but it’s (often) easily learnable.

Process, on the other hand, refers to the emotional intelligence skills you have about managing projects, visualizing success, persuading other people of your point of view, dealing with multiple priorities, etc. This stuff is insanely valuable and hard to learn. Unfortunately, it’s usually overlooked by headhunters and HR folks, partly because it’s hard to accredit or check off in a database.

Venture capitalists like hiring second or third time entrepreneurs because they understand process, not because they can do a spreadsheet.

As the world changes ever faster, as industries shrink and others grow, process ability is priceless. Figure out which sort of process you’re world-class at and get even better at it. Then, learn the domain… that’s what the internet is for.

One of the reasons that super-talented people become entrepreneurs is that they can put their process expertise to work in a world that often undervalues it.

the strip church plan

check it out - get involved - share it with your friends:

strip church plan

http://stripchurch.com/theplan.html

PHX to FL to TN to WA…

The next 9 days are going to fun, interesting and I am sure a little bit draining. Jen & I are first in Florida for a gathering of leaders w/ the Orchard Group. (They are the organization that we have landed with to help facilitate our new church launch.) The purpose of this gathering is to build some new working relationships with their key leaders that will ultimately translate in to better decision making and an incredible resource for us as we head out on this new endeavor.

After Florida we then head off to Johnson, Tennessee for 3 days of “assessment” for fitness to lead and launch a brand new church. Jen has been a bit more worried about this part of our journey than I have, so I am sure that she would appreciate your prayers. The process includes some psychological examination as well as a general interview process that is the last bit of the ‘approval’ process for Orchard Group to be our lead partner in the project.

Once we have these things wrapped up you should starting seeing a lot more details here about our new church plans, the move details, the formation of our ministry team, the leaders that are speaking into the plant and also the other partners that are lining up to be a part of the project.

Vegas + Porn Show + Seattle Church

Vegas + Porn + Seattle Church = 

our first run with having a group join us for a “mission trip” to Vegas. As some of you know we plan on doing ALL types of conventions in Las Vegas for churches to join us on a mission trip BUT the trials run happened to be the AVN porn show. Ryan Meeks (Sr. Pastor) and a great crew from EastLake Church in the Seattle area were the BEST group to have our first time through. Heather (groups leader @ EastLake) & I started working together to bring them down to join us just 2 short months ago. Their church got lit up to do this convention after Craig had been to their church to speak about porn and also about our ministry into this area. Be sure to check out www.xxxchurch.tv this week to watch the episode.

Some cool stuff that came out of the trip:

- 1 porn star has expressed a real desire to get out of the industry and has begun the process thanks to the ladies from Eastlake and the gals on our team

- Craig made a weird but promising new connection with an owner of a brothel that wants us to come there and share Christ and serve the girls

- Jake made an in-road with a porn exec. that wants to talk about faith, his mom being a pastor and have an ongoing conversation.

- the first trip went off with out any major snafoo’s & the team learned to share their faith on the convention floor — watch out EastLake! I have a suspicion that you are going to be doing some cool new things when these people get back and going.

- Stephen did a great job avoiding accidents… barely.  (Heather & Stephen, it will be the year of the Ryan!)

timing

Here is a bit clearer outline of where we are headed over the course of the next year or so with our church planting efforts. We are taking a very deliberate process of planning and execution.

Jan. 2009

retreat with regional leaders of Orchard group
church planters assessment; pray that we pass! 
Spring 09
bring together final pieces & partnerships in the community selection process
assemble a team (most anyway)
reading
packing
praying
thinking HARD through key items with a select group of leaders who are helping me refine this process.
June 09
MOVE into the Seattle area 
Summer & Fall 09
continue to ‘work’ @ what I am doing now (gotta feed the kids)
fill in teaching / preaching for others
get to know people; build relationship in the community
enjoy the few months of good weather you get up there.
start raising CAPITAL for the expenses
do small groups.
Aug. 09 
land on a specific community & neighborhood
enroll the boys in school
Jan. 2010
push “START” on official items related to the church launch
pull back from my other work efforts.
Sept. 2010
1st official church service