Arts Conference - In the Beginning

Well, it's over. Wow. I'm toast. It was amazing.

I'm sitting in the O'Hare Airport waiting to board my plane home. In the previous posts I described events just a bit out of order, so I'll try to fill in the gaps in these next few.....

Spent Tuesday evening hanging with my friend John Carlson, a former Music Director at Willow Creek and at McKinney Fellowship when I was there. We did our ritual Chili's hang and then had the opportunity to walk through Willow's new building (new for me, as I've not been up here since the building was built). The place is amazing. We walked on stage, through the backstage, around the plethora of rehearsal spaces, and across the massive lobby. EVERYTHING here oozes first-rate quality. Nothing is spared in terms of audio quality, visual clarity, and aesthetic beauty throughout the entire building. And it's amazing how seamlessly the new building flows into the old (connected at the lobbies).

Wednesday morning and we're off to registration and the opening session.The first corporate worship experience was stellar, and I was caught up in the worship, the music, the people, the Scripture reading, everything. Great songs, great leadership by Todd Lundgren and his team, including a terrific musical and verbal presentation of Isaiah 40. I really felt that we were taken on a journey to God's heart for us and for the lost. Incredible.

Nancy Beach, was, as always, inspiring and enlightening. Why does she always end up tearing up emotionally during her own talks. (Why do I always follow her?) She seems to have the ability to touch people deeply with the touch of God and His love for all of us. It's an incredibly moving experience. She also took us on a journey, this one through Psalm 40:1-10, which was the key passage printed in the Conference notebook. Lots of time for silence, for reflection, for self-examination, for realizing vision for our own lives and what God can do in and through us. What a great, meaty, substantive, deep way to start the journey through the week together.

She quoted Mark Batterson in a line that has become etched in my brain since hearing it: "If we are not careful, we will do ministry out of memory rather than out of imagination." (Emphasis mine)

How much time an we spend "mailing it in" while creating worship services, or working with our teams, or even planning and creating? How often are we guilty of saying "what we did last year worked great--let's just do that again!"

Wake-up call.

more from the Arts Conference - Tim Stevens (Pop Goes the Church)

Just saw Tim Stevens' session on his new book, Pop Goes the Church. Tim said a lot of great stuff, and he also let video do a lot of talking for him. Grainger Community Church approaches each sermon series with incredible creativity: "Let it Be....Christmas" (the Christmas story answers the questions raised by Beatles songs), "The Enemy Within" (based upon Spiderman 3) and most notably an incredible sequence from Desperate Housewives on the topic of your neighbors' questions about God and our inadequate responses as Christians. Can't wait to read the book!

Willow Creek redux - Mark Batterson - Snakes & Doves

Okay, it's obvious that with input coming at near lightspeed I'm not going to be able to blog about each session as it happens. So, this is out of order...

Mark Batterson. Wow--amazing Session. Mark leads National Community Church in D.C. that has 4 venues, a huge internet presence, and no "building." He thought they would "rent until they built" as is the standard, but they realized that their large venue, in a theater inside Union Station, has (1) great video screens (2) comfortable chairs [1 & 2 not requiring setup!), (3) 40 restaurants in a food court, and (4) a KILLER subway system leading right to their church. Who could ask for anything more!

They also created Ebenezer's, which is now the largest coffee shop on Capitol Hill, wholly owned and operated by the church; it also hosts a service on Saturday evening. Some incredible stats on the church:

66% of attenders are single twenty-somethings
44% have attended less than one year
76% invited someone to church last year
55% involved in small groups

Mark quotes:

"There are ways to do church that no one has even thought of yet."
"We must redeem the techology for good."
"1% of what do will make 99% of the difference."

Mark, hats off to you and your team for such creativity.

Willow Creek

Came up for my 4th or 5th trip to Willow, this week to their amazing Arts Conference. This is just my "wow, I'm drinking from a firehose and can't keep up so I'm not writing about any details at this point" post.

Highlights....worship (as always), Brian McLaren, Ross Parsley, and Nancy Beach, who never ceases to amaze me.

More to come...