I had a great opportunity to participate in a leadership conference call with Pastor Mark Batterson this morning. Batterson is the pastor of National Community Church and the author of In the Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day. The way NCC is “doing church” has really captured my imagination. NCC’s vision is to meet in movie theatres along the Metro lines in our nation’s capital. The only physical structure they use to meet in is a coffee house near Union Station. Ebeneezer’s serve great coffee and allows the church and culture to “intersect” on a daily basis.

Someday I hope to plant a church and I have learned a great deal from NCC and Batterson’s candidness. They are always open for questioning and are just as willing to speak about “missed opportunities” as they are about big wins. Mark’s blog is a daily stop for me on the interwebs. Mark is open and honest about leadership, family life, church direction, and vision casting. I enjoy hearing about what he is up to and I have enjoyed hearing about the victories that his church has been blessed with. Thanks Mark!!!

The conference call was put together by Catalyst Filter, a great leadership resource that I became a part of at this year’s Catalyst Conference. The call lasted about an hour and Mark talked about everything from balancing personal time with work to staff development. I even got to ask a question.

Here are my notes from the call:

Creativity and Innovation

One idea that drives Creativity: “There are ways of doing church that no one has thought of yet.” There is no “order of worship” in scripture.

Creativity is a byproduct of planning. NCC has a weekly “big idea” meeting where the leaders discuss what they want to happen each week in services, small groups, etc.

Creativity and innovation are hard wired into the DNA leaders and churches

Annual Retreat

Leadership attends two retreats a year.

Summer- “Play & Pray Retreat”- name says it all. The team plays and then they pray.
December- Planning Retreat– 48 hrs. spent dreaming, thinking, setting goals

Service Planning Process– What happens on Saturday and Sunday

Batterson plans out his sermon series one year in advance. He admitted that really about 70% of that plan is carried out. Again, goes back to creativity being a byproduct of planning.

Try and speak to what is practical in the lives of people

One goal of ministry is to lead people into becoming self-motivated disciples

20somethings– largest demo of NCC is single 20somethings

Proximity- if the goal is to reach 20somethings, be/go where they are

Meet needs- Students have needs and wants. Offer students pizza, homes to meet in, relationships with members

Speak to them- if the goal is to reach 20somethings, speak to/with them. Sermon series that address their unique phase of life (I believe most churches fail this point)

Engaging Culture

The byproduct of ignorance is irrelevance.

1) Engage culture by creating culture- NCC built a coffeehouse rather than a building. This breaks down walls within culture, allows for relationships to be built within culture

2) Sermon series that engage culture
Use music and movies. Most people today get their theology from music and movies. Movies reach out for truth but miss the mark in pointing to Truth- Jesus. We should step in and connect culture with Ultimate Truth. Movies and music give us permission to speak to tough subjects (Think “Hotel Rwanda.” I was able to use this film in a powerful way to speak on racism and equality in a way that I would have been unable to do through a typical Bible study)

Moving from Traditional to Contemporary

“Someone told me that it takes an oil tanker 14 miles to preform a U-turn in the ocean. Don’t know if that’s accurate but it is a great picture of how slow and difficult change can be.”

1) Make moves toward change that are practical in execution

2) Sometimes the change is too great for an establishment. When that happens, you can always plant and hardwire into the DNA of the church plant a desire for innovation and avoidance of stagnation. Sometimes it takes a step of faith.

Balancing Personal life with Church work– Mark has a wife and three kids

Work

YOU control your calendar

Mark gets up at 5:30am and makes time to write, think, pray, go through spiritual disciplines before the day “officially” starts

Meeting days- schedules 2 days specifically for meetings

Focus days- 2 days to study, focus, read, dream

Family
Make family a priority. Mark is specifically doing 2 things this year to show his family they are the priority of his life

1) Mark intentionally used every single vacation day for he and his family

2) Father/Son Meetings– Mark and his 12 year old son agreed to a covenant that this year (as his son turns 13) that they will complete a spiritual challenge, an intellectual challenge, and a physical challenge. The point is to intentionally grow closer together and intentionally honor God during their time together (I plan on doing something like this if we have kids)

Learning

Leaders are readers

Stay curious

Stay humble- 1Cor 8:2- “The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know.”

When reading, cross-pollinate. Choose books and resources from a wide spectrum of disciplines

Keep learning

So there are the highlights. I hope that you too can benefit from the conversation. The call ended up being the best hour of my work week. So good!

I’ll be out of pocket most of the weekend. This might be my last post until Monday. If so, have a great weekend everyone.