Simple Church

While we've been dreaming and designing Connections Community Church I found myself often going invoking the word "simple." At first I was just used as an encouragement when the thought of launching a church seemed overwhelming, which it still does. Then I realized I was using it more and more as a value. In other words- it wasn't just an empty reassurance in light of a very different reality. No, we really did want to keep the church simple by design in it's mission, vision and process.
I kept trying to break things down to the essential elements, stripping down the fluff and the extraneous, and mapping out very clear course of direction. Even the other design elements came to take on this quality- keep the service simple, strip down the program, keep the website clutter-free.
So when I saw a book called "Simple Church" a few months ago I had to pick it up.
It was one of those reads that was a first very frustrating.
Why?
Because I was literally living and writing the book!
But then it became a tremendous encouragement. I wasn't the only pastor/church planter thinking these thoughts, having these feelings, coming to these convictions. That while planning, launching and being a church is in now way "simplistic," it can be, in a good way, simple.
What has been most helpful from the book was therefore not the stories and principles which I already know, but a common lexicon to speak about church in this way. Here is what they came up with:

Clarity- Movement- Alignment- Focus

Simple churches are abundantly clear on what they do and why they are doing it. This is clarity. They define it as "The ability of the process to communicated and understood by the people."p. 70
Simple churches know where people are going. "Movement is the sequential steps in the process that cause people to move to greater areas of commitment." p. 72
Simple churches are on the same page. "Alignment is the arrangement of all ministries and staff around the same process." p. 74
Simple churches know the target. "Focus is the commitment to abandon everything that falls outside of the simple ministry process."
It's awesome to work with a team that seems to truly get this.

So here's your test- can you remember and state the CCC mission? If so, we've already begun to do our job, and you already understand our vision, our mission and our process for ministry.

Making the Connections

I'm pleased to finally be able to include a new feature in the Connections blog- my sermons!
Just click here and you'll be directed to this week's sermon: "Making the Connections".
In the future all sermons can be accessed through a link on the side of this blog.
PS Maybe someday soon we'll have "podcast" - we'll see!

Sneak Preview #1

This is what I thought the service would like like...


But this is how it turned out...


What can we say except "To God be the glory!"
Thursday morning we had no equipment.
Thursday night we had our first practice with our sound and lighting.
Friday morning we had 2 hours in the theatre to figure things out.
Sunday morning at 8am we started to set up.
By 10a.m. we had (rough count) 194 people!

I said it at the service and I'll write it here- where did these people come from?!
All I can say is thanks to God and thanks to everyone who worked so hard to pull off our first Preview service. Whatever happened between Friday morning and this morning was definitely a God thing!
It was one of those experiences where I can genuinely say it was so much more than I expected. I thought it would be good, but it was great! The set up went smoothly, the Cafe was great, the check-in of kids all came together, the band sounded awesome and a few people said the preacher wasn't half bad. Even the manager at Silver City said he had never seen anything like what we did this morning!
Now we take joy in a job well done, and start the work of faithfully following up. There's so much we can do now in service and in Connections Groups. And between now and September 30th we can do a lot to make the Sunday service even better. We received some great feedback, and some very constructive insights.
But all things considered, the most awesome thing was simply that people invited their friends and family, and they came. It really can be that simple.

Only a few hours away!

Robin found this old picture of me on the web! It think it was supposed to inspire me- it did inspire a laugh! Sitting by the old stained glass at First Presbyterian. Those were the days....

Tomorrow will certainly be a different venue, but we will worship the same God!

So what am I expecting? A few weeks ago I was just expecting to get the first service under our belts. Now I'm starting to think we may actually have a pretty strong preview service. I say that fully aware that setting the bar high can set one up for great disappointment. But with all the work the team has done I think this might not be half bad!

So what about numbers? Everyone asks. That's in God's hands. I've said we are going from "grass roots to glossies." We haven't done any advertising. In fact, we've been pretty low-key about this. But once we pull off a service, once we see we can do this, once we know what "this" is, then we'll pull out all the stops. We'll open the gates and try to get teh word out to the whole city!

So if we only have our fifty people there, We'll have to wonder- did we invite anyone? If we have more than 100, I'll be shocked, and we won't have enough coffee. Then, with each of our 5 following preview services, will try to build the numbers each time- holding a service, evaluating, following up, inviting more. Bu the time December hits we are praying for a pool of one hundred volunteers and the resources to go weekly!
But tomorrow is go time, and now it's time for me to pray and go to bed!

But if anyone interested, this is what I worked out for an introduction tomorrow...


I’d like to welcome you to the first sneak preview service of Connections Community Church. We are a group of people with a fairly simply, but rather grandiose dream- to begin a church here in London that will become a place where people find a connection to God, to other people, and to the world. That’s our mission statement- Connecting with God... with people…with the world. I hope you saw that printed on our materials, our banners, our shirts, and just about everything we do.

We want to provide a worship service that helps create and nurture a direct connection to God that would start Sunday morning and take your throughout the whole week. We are serious about connecting with people too. We believe without apology that people were made not only to connect with God, but also with other people, in meaningful, intentional relationships, to share with one another in good times and bad times. We are creating Connections Groups that meet throughout the week and you are welcome to be a part. But more, we want to connect with the world, in service, in love, in mission. We want to create opportunities to connect with the world here in our own backyard and abroad. We want to share and serve in the world out of the gratitude of our hearts.

We have a team of some 50 people working behind the scenes and up front to make this service, and the ministries of Connections, happen.

My name is George Saylor, my wife Robin is helping our behind the scenes today, and my three children are desperately trying to help out with things this morning, which is really the sweetest thing to see them wanting to help so much. In fact, a few weeks ago my dear Karis, 5 years old, was talking to our neighbor and said - “Please come to our new church- nobody comes to our church.”

(NOTE: THIS NEXT PART IS WRITTEN IN ANTICIPATION OF SOME FOLKS ACTUALLY SHOWING UP) Folks, it’s good to see a few people have come to our new church. If you’re here, chances are you were personally invited. We haven’t had any mass mailings, phone call campaigns, radio ads or anything like that. We’ve meet in homes, we’ve organized as a launch team, and we’ve served the community in a few special events. But we’ve come to the place where we wanted to offer a Sunday morning worship service, for we are, after all, a church. And churches for two millennia have gathered on the first day of the week to worship together as the people of God.

This is our first sneak preview service. The thing about sneak previews is this- while it’s the movie; it’s also a work in progress. They might try some alternate scenes or endings. They’ll fidget with the soundtrack and the way scenes are edited together. They’ll screen these films because they actually want some feedback. And the audience actually gets to impact what might be the final version of the film. A few months ago I had the opportunity to see the sneak preview of Michael Moore’s movie “Sicko.” As much as the movie itself, what I remember from the evening was the energy, the excitement, the feeling that something special was happening.

Well I hope you get that same feeling here. We are here to worship this morning, but this service is a work in progress. We are still playing with the music, with the lighting, with the way we want to edit this thing together and all the parts we want to bring to it. And like those screenings, we definitely want your feedback. We want to know what you think of the service, how you heard about the service, what you loved about the service, what you’d change about the service. We want your input. And to encourage you to share you thoughts, ideas, feelings, we have these connections cards that came in your bulletin.

The point is- we want to hear from you, and we want to connect with you. You have information on our Family Ministry and our Connections Groups. We have a group joining in the Terry Fox run next weekend and we are celebrating with a picnic in Gibbons park and you are welcome to be a part of it. And you are welcome to join us back here in three weeks, Sept. 30, for our next worship service.

Right now, the band is going to continue with a little more worship to set the tone for our service…

This Sunday!

Let me get folks up to speed...
The trip up to Cypress Lake wasn't a half bad idea. In fact, I came back and was amazed at how much was done. Our storage boxes were built. Supplies for the Family Ministry, First Impressions Team, Worship and Media Teams were on site and getting organized. Plans were made for our volunteer training, and even more volunteers had started to show up! We had almost 40 folks out to our training on Tuesday.
Which of course brought on the amazing revelation that this is no longer just my dream, not that it ever was. But still, to see how people are mobilized and motivated to see make this happen. The work being done is just remarkable. Tonight, watching the band play for the first time with our own sound equipment, I was humbled and thrilled to see how helpless I would be to do this by myself. From my perspective it was like things were just magically happening- the equipment was set up, the band started playing, the sound team was adjusting levels, the media team had our worship set projected on screen, live video of the band was being fed in- it was amazing. Not to mention the work of the guys preparing at the equipment needed to store and transport the gear.
(Subsequently, the only thing that amazes me more than how much work it takes to do portable church, is that there are people amazing gifted and happy to do it.)

Tomorrow morning we have our first "dress rehearsal" at the theatre. The signage will all be delivered. We'll finalize our bulletin and promotional materials. And I'll finally sit down to pray and write a sermon.

I've had a million ideas and thoughts running through my head. I'm still amazed we're actually beginning our public services. Amazed, excited, and a little frightened.

Tonight one of our team members said, "Being in the will of God is sometimes the scariest place to be." That was just the encouragement I needed.

Oh yeah, and Robin been just as busy as me, but watching three kids in the midst of it all- she's the best and our kids are awesome.