Greg Atkinson

This demo of what Sports Illustrated will look like and act on the new Apple iPad leaves me speechless. The future is happening right before our eyes. Check it!

Named one of the best science images of 2008 by the National Geographic News, Visualizing the Bible “… brings to light the interconnected nature of one of the world’s most familiar books.” The bar graph that runs along the bottom represents all of the chapters in the Bible. Books alternate in color between white and light gray. The length of each bar denotes the number of verses in the chapter. Each of the 63,779 cross references found in the Bible is depicted by a single arc – the color corresponds to the distance between the two chapters, creating a rainbow-like effect.

This chart was created by Chris Harrison, a Ph.D. student in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, in collaboration with Christoph Römhild, a Lutheran Pastor. Chris won the Honorable Mention in the NSF’s Science & Engineering 2008 Visualization Challenge.

This graphic is a registered trademark of Chris Harrison. All rights reserved.

I’ve been listening to Owl City ever since they splashed with their hit “Fireflies”. After first downloading that song, I went back and downloaded the whole album.

I was on a road trip and driving listening to my iPod and the Owl City album came on. It got to song 07 “Meteor Shower” and I couldn’t believe what I was hearing – it was a song of worship. I replayed the song and was amazed that in the midst of their album they had put in an obvious worship song. (You can hear it at the bottom of this post)

Now I listen to the song and truly worship. I find myself wondering if this is the new sound of worship music. It reminds me of 2 landmarks in music that changed the game – the first time I heard Jars of Clay and the first time I heard SonicFlood. Both changed the worship music landscape and we have never been the same.

When I visit churches now (and I visit a lot) – I find myself looking for a DJ or at least a Mac or laptop on the stage. I look for who is controlling the loops and tracks. When I go see various concerts, I look for laptops on the stage. I’m curious – if I came to your church, would I see a laptop on the stage? Let me know.

So friends, go to iTunes, pay the $0.99 and check out “Meteor Shower” by Owl City. See what you think – I’d love to hear your opinion. I’m not sure, but I think he could be on to something new. Like Jars of Clay and SonicFlood, could Owl City be a game changer?

Owl City – Meteor Shower

I came across this blog post by David Putman and Shawn Lovejoy on Pastors.com. I thought it was worth re-posting:

It happened again! Another one bites the dust! Each year thousands of new churches are planted across the United States, and each year hundreds – if not thousands – close.  When this happens the fallout can be great for the church planter, his family, and those who attend.

It’s hard to know how many church plants don’t make it each year. Some organizations suggest as many as 80 percent fail. One is too many. Avoiding common mistakes can improve the survival rate of new churches. Here are some common mistakes to avoid.

Rushing ahead

Most of us quick-start church-planter types are driven by the urgency of the calendar. We tend to focus on a launch date, and regardless if we are ready or not, we launch. Instead of being driven by the calendar, it would serve us well to be driven by milestones. Milestones focus on the accomplishment of strategic actions.

Here are some to consider:

1. Vision is clear and communicated.
2. The staff team has been recruited.
3. The core group is in place.
4. Worship leader and team have been recruited.
5. The meeting place has been secured.
6. A marketing plan has been implemented.
7. Pre-school and children’s ministry plans have been made.
8. A small group and volunteer system is in place.
9. An assimilation strategy is in place.

This list is not intended to be comprehensive, but to get you thinking. Failure to reach critical milestones prior launch is a key reason churches plateau or decline early in their life cycle.

Underestimating the cost

If you haven’t planted a church, you can count on three things: It’s going to take longer, require more money, and be harder than you imagined! As church planters, we are often guilty of getting “drunk on vision.” We’re so “intoxicated” with the desire to plant that it clouds our good judgment. When we’re intoxicated, we fail to listen to others, think clearly, and make wise decisions. Jesus tells us to count the cost. It always pays to listen to him.

Violating the Sabbath

Planting a church comes with a high price. First of all, let’s dispel the myth that you can plant a church without paying the price. Because of this you have to make taking care of yourself a high priority. A church planter must nurture his vitality. This requires taking regular time to refuel your emotional, relational, physical, and relational vitality. Paying close attention to these gauges can add longevity and impact to your life and ministry.

For the last 10 years, we have been part of a church plant that has grown from a vision to over 2000 in regular attendance. Unfortunately we are just learning to pay attention to our own gauges. Fortunately our wives have been incredibly patient and honest with us. We are yet to find a church planter worth their salt who doesn’t have to work hard at this. As church planters, we’ve got to embrace what the Scriptures teach us about our time. There’s a time to work. Work hard! However, there’s also a set aside time to rest. Rest hard! As a leader, if you don’t nurture your own vitality and monitor your own pace, no one else will.

Hanging on too long

When you give birth to a new church, it’s your baby. The church you planted begins with the vision God put in your heart. When you first plant, everything begins with you. You have to do everything. However, as the church begins to grow, the longer you hold on to everything, the more you become the bottleneck. There simply comes a time when we must let go and empower others.

Church planters who don’t develop the skill of empowering others seldom grow beyond 75 to 125 people. You may launch your church. You may reach people; but you usually end up stuck. The most effective church planters understand the importance of raising up leaders and building teams.

Not having a coach

Church planting is the R&D department of ministry. Planters understand that we learn our way into the future. As we move forward, we assess our failures and successes and we build off of them. Like Churchill, we understand that “success is moving from failure to failure without losing momentum.” Church planters surround themselves with other leaders and learners. I was reminded of this when Will Henderson, our Australian church planter, returned from an ACTS 29 learning experience where they advocated that every church planter needs a minimum of five coaches in their lives. Those who grow in their leadership surround themselves with coaches.

As church planters we’re going to make mistakes. No one gets it right all the time. We can avoid many of these if we’re willing to be teachable and surround ourselves with people who have been where we are going.

To learn more about church planting, join us February 22-23, 2010, for our Velocity Churchplanters.com Conference.

*** I (Greg) will be at the Velocity Churchplanters.com conference. I hope to see you there!

Prophetic Tonight Show assessment made by Artie Lange in 2008 while appearing on Late Night with Conan O’Brien.

Two people that I greatly respect and follow are pastors James MacDonald and Mark Driscoll. Both have recently returned from Haiti after seeing on the ground and up-close and personal what’s going on. They are working on a new project called http://churcheshelpingchurches.com/ and are helping to rebuild the Church in Haiti.

I encourage you to follow them on Twitter (see their names above) and check out THIS website and see how you and your church can get involved. Be sure to watch the videos on their website. You can only see them there.

As you know, God speaks to me through movies (and music). I love movies, especially when there are spiritual themes running all through them. Personally, I think all Church leaders should see Denzel Washington’s new movie The Book of Eli.

I don’t want to spoil anything for you if you haven’t seen it or tell too much. I’ll simply say that I’m going to see it again – because it’s a movie you have to see twice. I’ll also say it struck a chord deep within me and that chord is that the Word of God is precious. Absolutely precious. There is no other book like it. Devour it!

This video from Central Christian Church moved me. Well done! You can get it HERE.

Do you have stories in your congregation that need to be told? Get after it!

Again, thanks to the wonderful world of Twitter, I came across Donald Miller’s response to Pat Robertson’s comments on Haiti. I think Donald captured very well what I was feeling. He’s a true writer and expresses his feelings well. I invite you to go HERE and read his blog and comment.

Since Pat spoke on behalf of Christians, how do you feel about his comments? Is your church doing anything to help our brothers and sisters in Haiti?

In July of 2008 I was speaking to a group of Church leaders in Santa Cruz, California. I held my phone (this was just before I got my iPhone) up in my hand and I said, “This is the future.”

It’s been a year and a half and mobile technology is the “now”, not the future. My friend, Bobby Gruenwald, Innovation Pastor at LifeChurch.tv, constantly encourages his staff to think global and mobile – global and mobile.

I’m currently working with churches and organizations on helping them to create, dream and plan strategies around mobile technology. Your people are constantly becoming one with their phone (for good or bad) and it’s a reality that we need to be intentional about speaking their language. Again, as I’ve said before: we are digital missionaries.

As you know, I work often as a Secret Shopper/Mystery Worshiper. The first thing I check is the church’s website. The second thing I do is pull up their website on my iPhone. I have recommended several times that church’s follow the lead of Seacoast Church and get a mobile version of their website. I applaud and praise Seacoast for blazing a trail in this area. My hat’s off to my friend Shawn Wood and his team. Well done! If you have your phone handy (and I know you do) – pull up Seacoast’s website on it.

My church (and many others) send out text messages to attenders and members that opt in. My church also encourages you to text in questions and decisions that you may make as a response to the message. Many churches are utilizing text and SMS during services as an interactive piece. As I’ve blogged about before, many churches are using the free service from YouVersion Live.

I’ll be talking more in the near future about other mobile strategies and tools. In the meantime, if you and your church would like to strategize and put together a comprehensive plan that includes Web 2.0 tools, mobile technology, social media and social networking – give me a shout. My only goal is to help and equip you to speak the language of the people you’re trying to reach (digital missionaries).